Back in March, NVIDIA officially unveiled the SHIELD set-top box running Android TV. Now, several months later and after launches at other retailers, Google is finally lining its digital storefront with the box.

NVIDIA officially announced today that both versions of the SHIELD set-top box are now available in the Google Store. The base model will run you $199.99 and offers 16GB of built-in storage. The 500GB option is $299.99. For those that buy the box, you’ll find a controller in there along with an HDMI cable, a USB to microUSB cable, and the power adapter to make the whole thing hum along nicely.

If that’s not enough, there are some accessories, too. That includes a SHIELD remote for $49.99, a stand for the set-top box for $29.99, and individual SHIELD controllers for $59.99.

Anyone plan on picking up the SHIELD from the Google Store?

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I feel like we’ve pretty well established at this point that the Amazon Fire phone probably doesn’t belong as your daily driver, but at this new low price of $130, you are basically walking out the door with the phone for free if you are a Prime subscriber anyway.

As a reminder, the device comes with a year of Prime ($99 value), a pair of magnetic earbuds that are actually quite good ($19 value) and a microUSB cable and power adapter that are worth $5-10. Total that all up and you are looking at about $130 worth of stuff, and then there’s the phone itself.

For “free” it is an excellent little device to have around the house for playing games, watching videos, reading, playing music or as a potential device for a child. Again, I’m not going to give you the hard sell on the Fire phone being anyone’s dream phone, but it is perfectly reasonable hardware for general usage and well worth the now near non-existent cost.

If you are particularly adventurous, you can even give the version of CyanogenMod 11 that is floating around for it a shot.

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Yesterday, a report surfaced that pointed to August 26 as the launch date for the long-awaited (by some) YouTube Gaming, Google’s direct answer to the massively popular Twitch streaming service.

And sure enough, YouTube Gaming is now going live. To christen the arrival of the newest streaming service on the ‘net, the Android app is also available for those users that want to get their streaming content on their mobile devices. As Google already announced earlier in the year, YouTube Gaming offers dedicated pages for games, as well as streamers, and even game publishers. There are even categories for Let’s Plays, Machinima, eSports and plenty of others to browse through.

The Android app says that there are more than 25,000 games to watch videos for on the app, and YouTube Gaming users can chat with other viewers as they watch their favorite streams. As you watch more videos, YouTube Gaming will recommend others for you to check out.

YouTube Gaming will be live streaming some major gaming events, too, including PAX, Gamescom, E3 and more, and the app says that the YouTube Gaming community is already over “100 million strong.”

You’ll need to be running Android 4.1 and up to take full advantage of the app. A link to it is down below.

Do you plan on checking out YouTube Gaming, or are you sticking with Twitch?

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Amazon has never been afraid to hand out free apps for Android devices, and now that initiative is getting a huge boost as the company launches “Amazon Underground.”

With this new digital storefront, Amazon is hosting upwards of $10,000 in apps, games, and in-app items as “Actually Free” downloads. What that means, according to Amazon, is that the entire app experience is free, including the app itself and any in-app content. So playing games like Jetpack Joyride no longer means paying a bit more money to unlock something you want.

Amazon Underground includes apps like the aforementioned popular game as well as Cut the Rope 2, Goat Simulator, and OfficeSuite Professional 8, plus many, many more. The company says that Underground is going to be a long-term initiative and that new promotions will be added at a regular pace down the road. Unfortunately, just what might be added next isn’t known.

For Android users, you’ll need to head into Settings and turn on app installs from unknown sources. Once that’s done, you’ll need to head to http://ift.tt/1fGdzjG and install the app from there. If you already have the standard Amazon app installed on your device, the Underground app will replace it, but you’ll still be able to shop Amazon’s main site just fine through the Underground app.

What do you think of Amazon Underground?

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Last month, Samsung introduced the world to the Galaxy Tab S2, which comes in two different size variants of 9.7 inches and 8 inches. The company stated that both tablets would launch globally in late August and today, it’s fulfilling at least part of its promise. Samsung has announced US pricing and availability for the Galaxy Tab S2, so let’s dive in and see what we’re looking at.

Pre-orders for both sizes of the Galaxy Tab S2 begin today for the Wi-Fi only model, with the tablets becoming available on September 3. The Galaxy Tab S2 will be sold online as well as in retailers across the US. Samsung is also offering a limited time trade-in option for other tablets that will give users $100 or more to trade in their old tablet and get a Galaxy Tab S2. Pricing for the Wi-Fi model is set at $499.99 for the 9.7-inch model and $399.99 for the 8-inch model

An LTE model will also be available on Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and US Cellular, with exact pricing and availability set to be confirmed by each individual carrier.

For a reminder, the Galaxy Tab S2 features some of the best specs available in a tablet. It packs in a 2048×1536 Super AMOLED display, 1.9GHz octa-core Exynos processor and more within an ultra-thin body that’s a mere 5.6mm thin, making it Samsung’s thinnest tablet to date.

For more details, follow the source link below.

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If it can go wrong, it will.

I specifically remember my Manufacturing Engineering Professor saying this in class one day. It means that if you don’t specifically design how the product can be used and include safeguards for how the product shouldn’t be used, people are going to figure out how to use it wrong. It doesn’t matter if the wrong use is obvious or if the misuse is flagrant, there are a lot of troubles you can save yourself from if you can protect your end user from using you product wrong.

You’ve probably noticed a lot of public service announcements today from your favorite blogs regarding the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 and issues related to inserting its S Pen in backwards. If you insert an S Pen into the $700+ Note 5 writing side out, the S Pen can get permanently stuck and will probably damage the S Pen sensor so that the device will always think the S Pen is removed. Inserting the S Pen in backwards seems a bit silly. I’m sure it looks silly to have the pointy end of the S Pen poking out of the device, but it doesn’t matter. It if can go wrong, it will. And in this case, it has for Samsung.

Today, the issue was elevated enough that Samsung felt the need to issue a public statement on the S Pen insertion issue. In summary, they said to follow the instructions in the Note 5 user manual. First, how many of you have EVER read a manual for your phone? I’m genuinely curious (feel free to comment below). I’ve owned and reviewed dozens of phones, and have never felt the need to consult the user manual. Think about your audience here, Samsung. You’re the top mobile device manufacturer in the world. Your audience is literally everyone. Grandmas, teenagers, nerds, NBA players, everyone. Your job is to design a phone that is usable and isn’t going to be ruined when someone makes a silly mistake.

Samsung should have done one of two things: Either design the Galaxy Note 5 so that when the S Pen is inserted the wrong way, it won’t get stuck and won’t damage anything or design the Galaxy Note 5 so the S Pen could not physically be inserted the wrong way. With either option, this whole fiasco would have been a non-issue. It feels a little insane to me that the Note 5 made it out of any sort of “real life” testing with this issue not being found. In testing, they should have tried every angle to break the phone. They should have found the Note 5′s weaknesses so they could have designed them out of the product. I’m surprised this wasn’t one of the first things tested. Regardless, Samsung didn’t design the $700+ Note 5 well enough that something simple like inserting the S Pen the wrong way is a non-issue.

Some of you may feel this Note 5 S Pen issue is blown out of proportion, or you may feel people are idiots for putting their S Pen in the wrong way. That’s fine. You’re all entitled to your opinion. But in my opinion, Samsung should replace all the Note 5s out there with stuck S Pens and broken S Pen sensors. Sure, Note 5 users didn’t read and/or follow the manual, but Samsung designed their Galaxy Note 5 poorly. Samsung has the resources to design a phone without silly flaws like this. They should be able to design a phone that’s completely usable without having to read the user manual first. They should be able to use a phone that can’t be used wrong. If it can go wrong, it will.

What are your thoughts on the Galaxy Note 5 S Pen issue? Did Samsung screw up? Or are the backwards S Pen inserters a bunch of dummies? Let us know your thoughts by commenting below.

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If you haven’t heard, there is a bit of controversy surrounding the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 at the moment. Some people have been inserting the S Pen backwards, damaging the internal S Pen detection sensor when trying to remove it again. Some are claiming this is a design flaw, while others think people shouldn’t be putting the S Pen in the wrong way in the first place.

Samsung has responded to the issue, and the statement is exactly what you’d expect.

We highly recommend our Galaxy Note 5 users follow the instructions in the user guide to ensure they do not experience such an unexpected scenario caused by reinserting the S-Pen in the other way around.Samsung

Yes, they tell you you’re inserting it wrong. But unlike Apple, Samsung is absolutely right. The manual clearly states that you shouldn’t insert the S Pen the wrong way and that doing so may cause damage. Most people don’t read the manual, but that’s not Samsung’s fault. However, it can still be argued that Samsung should have designed the S Pen to only go in one way.

For those who own a Note 5, here’s your lesson: Don’t defy the manual, don’t insert the S Pen backwards. What’s your opinion on the issue? Do you think Samsung is to blame for the design, or are people just being ridiculous and expecting a company to protect them from their mistakes? Leave a comment!

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Twitch is extremely popular these days. It’s a livestreaming site where people can stream themselves playing video games while others watch, chat, and interact with the streamer. It has brought a new level of interacting with popular online video game personalities, and people are taking full advantage of it.

YouTube is still the home of gaming videos, though, and so in an effort to compete with Twitch, Google is launching YouTube Gaming tomorrow in the US and the UK. This site, gaming.youtube.com, will go live tomorrow will access to channels for both streamers (like Twitch) and specific games. You will be able to check out the best videos for more than 25,000 games with their own channels.

The site and mobile apps for iOS and Android will be launching tomorrow, so keep your eye on the site and we’ll see where this goes! It might be rough at first, but with YouTube’s money, it might even become better than Twitch.

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The Samsung Gear S2 has been in the news quite a bit, with Samsung doing quite a bit of teasing. It’s definitely going to be an interesting device, with a rotating bezel to perform some actions and what is most likely Tizen OS running the show. Yes, it isn’t Android Wear, but it’s very interesting nonetheless.

Dennis Miloseski has posted a photo of the watch he’s testing on Instagram, showing off what’s likely the final build of the watch. The hardware definitely looks finished. Miloseski is the vice president head of study at Samsung Design America as well as plenty of other roles that he fills for Samsung, so it’s a bit surprising that such an important employee has posted a photo of this product. It could be part of the advertising plan, though.

The watch definitely looks fantastic, and the watch face with the moon phase is pretty awesome as well. What do you think about it so far? Leave a comment!

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Mr. Blurrycam is at it again. This time around it’s the rumored “superphone” from HTC, which the company has hinted at in the past, and is rumored to see the light of day later this year. The phone you see here is supposedly that phone, called the A9 or Aero, depending on who you ask.

The images are pretty low quality, so there aren’t a lot of details to really pick apart here. The front of the handset, viewed on the right, seems to show off 2.5D curved glass edges, which is an interesting addition. On the back, we can see how the A9/Aero compares to Apple’s iPhone 6, and the similarities are pretty obvious. HTC has decided to apparently move the camera above the antenna band, though, unlike the One M9 where it rests below the line.

The camera housing is also round in this model, rather than square, as it was on the One M9.

As far as specifications go, the rumor mill suggests the A9/Aero will feature a 5.2-inch Quad HD display, with 4GB of RAM and a 10-core MediaTek Xelio X20 processor under the hood. The battery is said to measure in at 3500mAh. Unfortunately, it’s unknown just how many of these details are going to be in the final design, or if the final model will ever be released.

What do you think of the A9?

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