Sunday, November 20, 2016

Must read: top 10 Android stories

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xiaomi-mi-mix-review-aa-24-of-27
This week we reviewed the Xiaomi Mi MIX and Google Home, got our first look at the OnePlus 3T, and talked about Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 835 processor. Here’s the news of the week!

Who wants to win an UMi Plus E?

The UMi Plus E has some killer specs and a low price point, and this week we’re giving away three of them. Here’s how you can win one.

10 Android stories we handpicked for you

Xiaomi Mi MIX review Xiaomi’s new Mi MIX smartphone has some great under-the-hood specs and almost zero bezel. Is this the future of smartphones? Find out in our full Xiaomi Mi MIX review.
OnePlus 3T announced: Snapdragon 821, 3400mAh battery, 16MP rear and front cameras With a premium aluminum design, beefed up specifications and affordable price point, the OnePlus 3T aims to be the best in the affordable flagship arena.
Where to buy the OnePlus 3T If you’re in the market for a new smartphone and are wondering where to buy the OnePlus 3T, we’ve got you covered. Here are all the pricing and availability details we know thus far.
How easy is it to capture data on public free Wi-Fi? You should always exercise caution when connecting to open Wi-Fi hotspots. But the question is, just how easy is it to capture data on public free Wi-Fi?
Google Home review Google Home is Google’s first major foray into your home and comes with Google Assistant in tow. Should you buy it? Find out in our Google Home review!
Qualcomm announces the Snapdragon 835, built on Samsung’s 10nm process Qualcomm has announced the next generation Snapdragon 835 processor which is being built on Samsung’s 10nm manufacturing process.
Cool mobile tech gifts under $50 for the holiday season For those looking for that perfect tech gift but with a budget at or under $50, this gift guide is for you!
Google is cracking down on Pixel resellers Google has blocked access to Google accounts for many people who tried to resell Pixel smartphones for a profit, which is against Google’s terms of service.
Huawei explains why it walked away from the Google Pixel Huawei was in the running to manufacture the Google Pixel before it turned the opportunity down. Now, a Huawei exec has explained the reason behind the decision.
Vivo V5 hands-on and first impressions With a 20MP front camera and a metal body (and the fact that the V5 is available in physical retail stores across the country), Vivo might be onto something with the new V5.

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5 Android apps you shouldn’t miss this week – Android Apps Weekly

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Welcome to the 166th edition of Android Apps Weekly! Here are the headlines from the last week:
  • The developers of Critical Ops announced this week that their game has over ten million downloads and 300,000 active players. For those who don’t know, Critical Ops is a first person shooter that’s been in a perpetual beta since its release. Even so, it’s a solid game with decent graphics and mechanics. It’s a free download in the Play Store if you want to try it out. It’s a worthy competitor to more popular shooters like Modern Combat 5.
  • A new study done this week shows that Android users are more than twice as likely to uninstall apps and games than iOS users. The study indicates that 43% of games and 21% of app downloads eventually get uninstalled on Android. On iOS, those numbers are 13% and 9%, respectively. Whether Android users simply try more things or are more particular about their apps is up for discussion. Either way, it’s interesting.
  • Word around the digital grapevine is that Telltale’s upcoming 2017 Marvel game will be based around Guardians of the Galaxy. The information comes from a supposed leak originally covered by ComicBookMovie.com. Along with that, the leak also allegedly lists The Walking Dead Season 3 as a game that’s happening. We hope all of these leaks are true because that would be awesome.
  • Taiwan is currently trying to have Uber banned from every app store in its country. Here’s what happened. In Taiwan, transportation services pay a different set of taxes from technology platforms. Uber classified itself as a technology platform while the Taiwanese government is well aware that it’s essentially a transportation service. We’ll have to see how this turns out in the long run, but it’s not the first time Uber has been in hot water.
  • Facebook and Google are making some moves to help prevent the circulation of fake news. Facebook will simply stop allowing those stories to trend on its site while Google removes their AdSense money. We don’t know what this will mean for the satire community, but it’s actually kind of sad that we have the culmination of human knowledge at our fingertips via the Internet and this is still somehow a problem.
For even more Android apps and games news, releases, updates, and more, check out this week’s newsletter by clicking here! There you’ll find a ton of information that we didn’t have time for here. You can use the form below to sign up for the newsletter and we’ll send it out every week if you’d like us to. Also don’t forget to check out the Android Authority app!
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snipback Android Apps WeeklySnipBack

[Price: Free]
SnipBack is a voice recorder app that lets you record yourself. It does the standard recording stuff pretty well. You’ll be able to record yourself doing whatever and then export those files to your internal storage, Dropbox, or Google Drive. Another feature is the ability to let SnipBack run as a service that can temporarily record audio all the time and then let you recover it if you want to. We don’t recommend leaving it on all the time, but it’s a nifty little thing to have.
DOWNLOAD NOW ON GOOGLE PLAY!

haunted rooms Android Apps WeeklyHaunted Rooms

[Price: Free]
Haunted Rooms is a VR puzzle game that was released this week. It’s an escape game which means you’ll spent most of your time solving puzzles to get out of wherever you are. It boasts decent graphics, a short story line, and a spooky ambiance. The developers have also stated that they’d like to add more episodes to the adventure over time. It was made for Google Cardboard so it should work with almost any similar VR headset. It’s also a free download.
DOWNLOAD NOW ON GOOGLE PLAY!

fingerprint gestures Android Apps WeeklyFingerprint Gestures

[Price: Free / Varies]
Fingerprint Gestures is an app that allows you to use your fingerprint scanner as a gesture pad. The way it works is you assign actions to an activity. For instance, you can set “Recent Apps” to a single tap of your fingerprint scanner. When you perform the activity, it performs the action. It’s a little rough around the edges and it doesn’t work with every device. You’ll also need a device that’s running Android Marshmallow in order to use it.
DOWNLOAD NOW ON GOOGLE PLAY!

fingerprint gestures Android Apps Weekly

jade empire Android Apps WeeklyJade Empire: Special Edition

[Price: $9.99]
Jade Empire began life as an action RPG on the original Xbox back in the mid 2000s. It was eventually ported to PC and now, Android. The game takes place in a land inspired by ancient China and the characters were as well. It’s a Bioware title so fans of their games know what kind of experience they’ll get with this one. It’s a tad expensive at $9.99, but it comes with full controller support, on-screen controls, and additional content that wasn’t in the original release.
DOWNLOAD NOW ON GOOGLE PLAY!

photoscan Android Apps WeeklyPhotoScan by Google

[Price: Free]
PhotoScan by Google is an app that helps you digitize your photographs. You use it to kind of scan your real life photos which are then added to your gallery. It also has a few tools to help things along. For instance, you can use the crop tool to get rid of any frame or background. It doesn’t take long to learn how to use and it only really does this one thing. Anyone who’s been meaning to get digital copies of their old photographs, you should definitely try this.
DOWNLOAD NOW ON GOOGLE PLAY!

photoscan Android Apps Weekly
Related best app lists:
If we missed any big Android apps or games news, tell us about them in the comments! To see our complete list of best app lists, click here.

Friday, November 4, 2016

Uber to build, succeed on its own as it expands into Southeast Asia

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Ride-hailing service Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] will focus on organic growth as it expands into Southeast Asian markets, a senior vice president told Reuters on Friday.
It will also seek to work with Taiwan's government toward a regulatory environment that will allow ride-sharing to flourish, David Plouffe, Uber's senior vice president of policy and strategy, said in an interview.
Uber faces increasing competition in Southeast Asia, such as from Gojek in Indonesia. Analysts have said such competition could prompt Uber to acquire some of its rivals as it expands.
"I think our view is that we prefer to build and succeed on our own, and that's what our focus is," Plouffe said.
(Reporting by Faith Hung)

Trump gains ground on Clinton: Reuters/Ipsos States of the Nation

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By Maurice Tamman | NEW YORK
The race for the Oval Office tightened significantly in the past week, as several swing states that Republican Donald Trump must win shifted from favoring Democrat Hillary Clinton to toss-ups, according to the Reuters/Ipsos States of the Nation project.
The two presidential candidates are now tied in Florida and North Carolina, and Clinton’s lead in Michigan has narrowed so much that the state is too close to call. Ohio remains a dead heat and Pennsylvania is now tilting to Clinton.
While Clinton remains the odds-on favorite to win Tuesday's election, Trump now has a plausible route to victory, especially if there is a sharp fall in turnout among African-Americans from the levels of the 2012 election.
Still, Trump must win both Florida and North Carolina to have a good chance of winning the White House. Clinton could lose both states and still win.
The States of the Nation project estimates Clinton’s odds of winning the needed 270 Electoral College votes at about 90 percent, down from 95 percent last week. If the election had been held on Wednesday, the project estimates, she would have had 256 solid electoral votes and an estimated final tally of about 302 votes, to 236 for Trump. Last week, she had 278 solid votes and a final tally of 320 votes, to 218 for Trump.
By any measure, however, Trump has had a good run in the past week. He has seen his support grow in 24 states while losing ground in 11. Conversely, Clinton’s support grew in 13 states while shrinking in 22.
Trump’s gains came in a period in which he had few new controversies to fend off, while Clinton faced renewed scrutiny of her email practices.
Most respondents to the latest survey were asked about their support for the candidates after FBI Director James Comey announced last Friday the agency was examining newly discovered emails that might pertain to Clinton's use of a private email server while she was secretary of state.
Comey had concluded in July at the end of a year-long FBI probe of the email issue that there were no grounds to bring any charges against Clinton. His brief letter to Congress last week said the new trove of emails might or might not be significant.
Trump and other Republicans seized on the news to question Clinton's credibility, while Democrats complained it could unfairly influence voters so close to the election.
The States of the Nation project is a survey of about 15,000 people every week in all 50 states plus Washington, D.C. State by state results are available by visiting here
EARLY VOTING INDICATORS
It is unclear if the FBI inquiry upset the balance in the race. But many national polls have found the race tightening in recent days. Polling averages last week showed Clinton with a lead of between 4 and 7 points. Those averages now show her lead at just 2 to 3 points. Last week, the project had her leading 47 percent to 40 percent. This week, it dropped to 45 percent to 42 percent.
In the Reuters/Ipsos daily tracking poll from Oct. 28 to Nov. 1, Clinton led Trump by 6 percentage points among likely voters, the same margin as before the FBI announcement.
There are other reasons for the Clinton campaign to worry. Among voters who have cast early ballots, she leads Trump by about 8 points. At the same point in the 2012 race, President Barack Obama had a lead of 11 points among early voters over Republican rival Mitt Romney. Obama’s gap narrowed, however, to 6 points just before Election Day, according to the States of the Nation project and separate Reuters/Ipsos polling.
In Florida, where the candidates are tied at 47 percent, Clinton leads by 8 points among early voters. In 2012, Obama led by about 15 points.
In Ohio, where the race also is tied, she leads by about 20 points among early voters. At this point in 2012, Obama led by about 30 points.

ALSO IN POLITICS

It is not clear why Clinton’s early voting support has fallen short of Obama’s. The shift could indicate a broader cross-section of voters is casting early ballots than in 2012. But the drop might also foreshadow lower-than-expected turnout among the core Democratic constituencies who propelled Obama to victory in 2008 and 2012.
Clinton’s success is built on holding together those blocs of voters. She does not, for example, enjoy the same support among African-Americans as Obama, the first black U.S. president. Diminished support among blacks, coupled with a large drop in black turnout, would hurt the Democrat.
If black Democratic turnout drops by 15 points nationally, for example, Clinton’s odds of winning drop to about 72 percent, by a projected margin of just 32 Electoral College votes. A drop of 20 points would reduce the odds of a Clinton victory to little more than a coin toss, according to the project.
Even a 10-point drop in black Democratic turnout coupled with a 5-point increase among white Republicans would flip the race to Trump, the project found.
The good news for Clinton is that about 60 percent of likely Hispanic voters are supporting her, similar to the numbers Obama enjoyed in 2012. A 10-point increase in Hispanic turnout would go a long way toward offsetting a 10-point decrease in black turnout, according to the project.
The outlook is not all gloom for Clinton. She has made the race close in Arizona, a longtime Republican stronghold. She has also regained the lead in Pennsylvania and is leading in Nevada.
(Editing by Michael Williams and Peter Cooney)
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