Black Friday weekend has come and gone, but we know there are many of you who haven’t even started your holiday shopping yet. If you’re all set on smartphones and accessories (you should seriously check our Give the gift of power article), an Android tablet may be exactly what you or a loved one needs. The list below highlights the tablets that we would actually consider spending our money on.

The best of the best

Nexus 9 – $298.00
The Nexus 9 is already a year old, but it’s still one of the most powerful Android tablets on the market and the only one that’s running a stock Android build. The tablet is powered by a 2.3GHz dual-core 64-bit NVIDIA Tegra K1 processor with 2GB of RAM, 16 or 32GB or internal storage, a 6,700mAh battery, 8-megapixel rear camera, a 1.6-megapixel front-facing camera and stereo front-facing speakers.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 – $399.99 (9.7-inch), $349.99 (8-inch)
If you’re a fan of Samsung’s hardware style and don’t mind TouchWiz, the 9.7-inch and 8-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 may be a good option for you. Both feature 2048×1536 Super AMOLED displays , octa-core processors, 3GB of RAM, 32 or 64GB internal storage, microSD card slot, 8-megapixel rear camera, 2.1-megapixel front-facing camera and a fingerprint scanner. The 8-inch model comes with a 4,000mAh battery, while the larger 9.7-inch model has a 5,870mAh battery.

Amazon Fire HDX 8.9 – $499.99
Amazon’s Fire tablets aren’t usually known for incredible performance, but the Fire HDX 8.9 and its Snapdragon 800 chip can handle pretty much anything you throw at it. It features an 8.9-inch 2560 x 1600 pixel display, 32GB of storage, 2BG of RAM, an 8-megapixel main camera and stereo speakers. But what truly sets the Fire HDX 8.9 apart from other Android tablets is its integration into Amazon Prime services and the new Amazon Underground, which gives you $10,000 worth of paid apps and games for free.

Acer Predator 8 – $299.99
Acer’s Predator 8 comes equipped with an 8-inch 1,920 x 1,200 resolution IPS LCD display, Intel Atom X7 processor, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage, microSD slot support, and a 4420mAh battery that should provide up to eight and a half hours of battery life. The tablet’s gaming-centric experience is also enhanced by four front-facing speakers (one in each corner of the tablet) and dual-haptic vibration motors that allow even vibration across the entire tablet no matter how it is held.

NVIDIA Shield Tablet – $199.99
It may be sitting at the bottom of this list, but the NVIDIA Shield Tablet is our favorite 8-inch tablet. Equipped with a NVIDIA Tegra K1 chip, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage and front-facing stereo speakers. You’d be hard pressed to find a better Android tablet to satisfy your mobile gaming needs.

Budget options

We know that the tablets listed above a bit pricey, so we’ve also included a handful of budget-friendly Android tablet options that are worth considering. You can easily find an Android tablet for $200 or less, but only a few are actually worth buying. Don’t buy these tablets if you want a gaming device, but they are good enough for all your social media and news apps and can easily double as an eReader.

• Amazon Kindle Fire 8 – $149.99
• Nexus 7 (2013) – $129.99
• Asus ZenPad S 8 – $194.99
• Lenovo Tab 2 A8 – $99.99
• ASUS ZenPad 10 – $149.99

If there are any other Android tablets you’d recommend, leave a comment below and let us know which device you think should be added to the list.

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Last year, Google released an infographic that showed some of the most popular apps of 2014. Now Google has something similar by releasing lists of what it thinks were the best Android apps and games of 2015.

Google’s best apps list includes a lot of familiar titles, like HBO NOW, Showtime, Twitter, Twitch, and Google Photos. There are other lists for specific genres that could help you find apps that fit your needs, including ones like Tools & Productivity, Personalization Apps, and Great on Tablets. Those lists include Nova Launcher, Trulia, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, and Kitchen Stories.

Meanwhile, Google has named titles like Agar.io, Fallout Shelter, Candy Crush Soda Saga, and Crossy Road some of the best games of 2015. There are also genres on this page such as Action & Adventure, Arcade Games, Indie Games, and Role Playing Games.

Google has had Editor’s Choice markers in the Play Store for a while now, so the company highlighting apps that it likes is nothing new. These best of lists are a nice way to look back at 2015 and download some titles you may have missed throughout the year, though, and it’s nice to have all of these apps and games grouped together in one place.

Google has also released lists that highlight the Play Store’s best selling albums, books, movies, and so on. You can find all of the Best lists at the link below.

What do you think of Google’s picks? Are there any other apps from 2015 that you think deserve some recognition?

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Google Cardboard has long enabled us to enjoy virtual reality on the cheap, but thanks to a new app, it lets us create VR goodness, too.

Google today released Cardboard Camera, and it’s pretty much what it sounds like. The app will let you turn your Android smartphone into a virtual reality camera and take a VR photo with it. The photos will turn out sort of like a 360 degree panorama, and you can record sound to better immerse yourself in the moment that you’re capturing.

Cardboard Camera is a free download from the Play Store that supports phones running Android 4.4. and up. The app lets folks create their own VR content on the cheap, just like Cardboard lets us enjoy VR content without spending much (if any) cash. Google continues to work to make VR accessible to everyone, and Cardboard Camera is jut the latest example of that effort. Good on ya, Google.

Grab Cardboard Camera using the Play Store link below.

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Welcome back to Android Gaming Weekly, our weekly recap of new game releases. We still plan to cover upcoming releases and games we’re playing, but this column is dedicated to new games that you can start playing right now. Check out our top picks and let us know in the comments section if you have any suggestions for next week’s post.

The Executive

Description: The Executive: a fast-paced, cinematic, martial arts action game designed from the ground up for iPhone and iPad. You are the CEO of a company that has been infiltrated by werewolves, and it’s your job to save your employees, and eventually the entire city, from their dastardly schemes.

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Please, Don’t Touch Anything

Description:  Please, Don’t Touch Anything is a cryptic, brain-racking puzzle game about bathroom breaks, screwdrivers and nuclear explosions.

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Dash till Puff 2

Description: Jump, fly, bounce and dash your way through geometric worlds and music beats! Test your skills on this fast-paced procedural endless jumper/flyer/runner!

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 Snapimals: Discover Animals

Description:  Discover amazing animals from Wilds, Arctic and Dino regions, take pictures, and build the greatest museum on earth! Join The Captain and venture to the ends of the world to photograph the rarest, funniest, and wildest animals ever spotted!

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Planet Diver

Description: Planet Diver is about an adventurous daredevil tackling her newest obsession: Wing suit diving. With her close robotic companion Buddy she’ll travel across space to seek out the most dangerous planets and their respective chasms to dive in.

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Sniper Fury

Description: No time for diplomacy; time for war action. We are calling for the best sniper in the world to join us as we take aim at evil, wherever it hides. This is not a game. There is no room for remorse here, so shoot to kill.

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Rayman Adventures

Description: Embark on amazing adventures through legendary worlds on a quest to rescue the Incrediballs! The enchanted forest is in trouble; the ancient eggs that sustain the sacred tree have been stolen and scattered across the world.

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Aralon: Forge and Flame 

Description:  The iOS classic role-playing series returns with an all-new adventure. Journey across three continents and diverse landscapes seeking a people once thought forever lost.

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 Gopogo

Description: In a grim sci-fi future where pogoing is outlawed, this gang of misfits breaks all the rules. Pogo over the police and their dogs, avoid hazards, and make it to the top! And once you complete the final level, try to reach a highscore in the Endless mode.

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Score! Hero

Description:  BE A HERO! Pass, Shoot & Score your way to legendary status, as you explore the dramatic career of your HERO player over 280 challenging levels!

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If you’ve been waiting for the right time to upgrade your Verizon line or activate a new one and you plan on using the company’s XL or XXL plans, then now might be the time to take advantage of an offer from Verizon that will give you 2GB of free data per month for life.

From Verizon:

New and existing Verizon Wireless customers will receive 2 GB of bonus data every month for every new phone they add or upgrade on XL or XXL Verizon Plans this holiday season. Available for a limited time, the 2 GB of monthly bonus data is shareable and can be combined with other offers.

A family of four on the XL Verizon plan who have been waiting for the right time to upgrade their phones can upgrade now and receive 8 GB of bonus data each month in addition to the 12 GB XL Verizon plan allowance, for a total of 20 GB of monthly data to share.Verizon2 free GB of data for life

The promotion only lasts until January 6, so you don’t have long to decide if Verizon’s offer is right for you. For those who want to take advantage of the offer, stop in to a Verizon store today.

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Google is introducing two new forms of interactive mobile advertisements through AdWords today that will allow developers to provide users with a small taste of their apps before committing to a download.

Trial Run Ads are 60 second game trials that work via streaming, while Interactive Interstitials are small HTML5 ads that can be used however a developer sees fit. Google is promoting both kinds of new, interactive ads as a way to drive more downloads and keep users that install apps, as those that do install will know what to expect and aren’t downloading just to find out.

According to Google, select partners have access to the Trial Run Ads and Interactive Interstitials beta today. If you’re a developer, make sure to check with your account manager to see if you have access now.

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For anyone that has been eyeing a potential purchase of a OnePlus 2 but hasn’t wanted to navigate the invite system, the manufacturer’s latest announcement should be a welcomed one.

On December 3, OnePlus confirmed that the OnePlus 2 will be going invite-free forever beginning at midnight on December 5. That means that anyone that wants to buy the OnePlus 2 can do so without using the invite system, hopefully making the purchase process much easier and faster. With this move, OnePlus is making the OnePlus 2 invite-free just four months after the device’s launch, which is a markedly improved strategy compared to the OnePlus One going invite-free almost a year after it launched.

The OnePlus X is also going invite-free, but only for a limited time. For a potential customer to get that particular handset without an invite, you’ll need to purchase it between December 5 and December 7. OnePlus also states that if you want either one of the handsets by the end of the month, in time for the holiday festivities, orders need to be placed by December 7.

There are a few other noteworthy deals being launched by OnePlus, too:

• OnePlus 2 StyleSwap Covers are 50% off
• Select OnePlus One accessories are 90% off
• All other accessories are 10% off
• As a special holiday gift, a limited number of first orders will receive an exclusive Never Settle mousepad!

With the deals about to start, do you plan on taking advantage of any of them?

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During the holiday shopping season, T-Mobile is all about promotions. In November the magenta carrier began offering unlimited LTE data for 3 months to its Simple Choice subscribers, and also offered a $200 “holiday bonus” for Sprint subscribers that switched over to T-Mobile. And today the trend continues with yet another special.

T-Mobile recently announced a new promotion that sees AT&T switchers net a sweet discount on a whole host of accessories they might want, including smartwatches, Bluetooth speakers, headphones, fitness trackers and more. The special is geared towards special financing agreements, with a price tag as low as $69 and as high as $250. That means switchers can save up to $125 with the promotion.

The half-off accessories deal for AT&T switchers begins Friday, December 4, and runs until Sunday, December 13. It’s available to Cricket Wireless and AT&T’s GoPhone customers as well.

Do you plan on taking advantage of this promotion?

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The rumored HTC smartwatch may finally be release in February of next year – nearly two years after the firs HTC smartwatch rumors started circulating. According to @evleaks, HTC is prepping a “One watch” which will show up in February. While no spec details were revealed in the new rumor, a leak from September claimed that HTC was working on an Android Wear smartwatch with a circular 360 x 360 pixel display. There’s no information which ties these two rumors together, but we doubt that HTC is working on more than one smartwatch. 

If you’ve been waiting patiently for an HTC smartwatch, we’d caution you not to get your hopes up too soon. The company has openly admitted that it killed off its 2014 smartwatch because it didn’t stand out from the competition and the summer launch of the HTC Grip fitness tracker was scrapped so that it could be re-designed. We’re sure that HTC’s engineers and design team will come up with a great Android Wear smartwatch, but we’re going to keep our expectations low until we can actually wrap it around our wrist. 

https://twitter.com/evleaks/status/672252259166720000

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Black Friday weekend is usually a great time to buy new gadgets, as long as you’re not too picky about what you’re buying. While there were a lot of dubious bargains floating around last weekend, HTC managed to pull together a few incredible deals on HTC.com which resulted in a year-over-year sales increase of 731%. The highlight of HTC’s sales bump was the HTC One A9 which essentially gave he phone away for free with qualifying trade-ins. HTC hasn’t released any true sales figures, but the company claims that 10% of those who took advantage of the HTC One A9 promotion traded in an iPhone 6 or a newer Apple phone.

But the HTC One A9 trade-in offer wasn’t the only good deal offered by HTC. The prices of the HTC One M9, Nexus 9 and all accessories were reduced by 40% and HTC also cut the price of the HTC Re by 60%.

In an effort to keep the sale momentum alive, the HTC One A9 trade-in offer has been extended until January 7th of next year. The $500 HTC One A9 is an expensive mid-range phone, but it’s an incredible steal if you can get it for free by simply trading in a used iPhone.

“HTC America increased year-over-year sales on HTC.com by 731% during Black Friday/Cyber Monday. The most notable Holiday Hot Deal offer was an HTC One A9 for as low as $0 with a qualifying trade-in. More than 10% of the customers who purchased were iPhone 6 or newer users. Other HTC Holiday Hot Deals included: 40% off the Nexus 9 tablet, 60% off the RE Camera, 40% off the HTC One M9 and 40% off accessories. As a result of consumer demand, HTC will continue the HTC One A9 trade-in offer until January 7, 2016.”

– HTC

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