Android Marshmallow now available for the LG G4 in Europe

LG G4 owners in Europe can now get of taste of Android Marshmallow. After a limited release to select users in Poland back in October, the latest version of Android is finally making its way out to the general public. LG has not made an official announcement regarding the availability Android 6.0 for the LG G4, but handset owners in Germany, Portugal, Poland, Spain, Romania, Austria, Switzerland, Hungary, the UK, Croatia, and Turkey claim to have downloaded the latest software build for the phone using LG Bridge, LG’s PC-based software management tool. There’s no indication as to when LG will be flipping the switch on its over-the-air update servers, but it shouldn’t be too long.

The update includes all the basic system improvements that Google backed into Android Marshmallow along with a dozen or so LG-specific tweaks to improve the handset’s performance and software experience.

LG G4 Android 6.0 changelog

  • Priority Notifications renamed to “do not disturb”
  • QMemo+ renamed to Capture+
  • Usability improvements through Google Patch
  • LG Bridge renamed to LG AirDrive
  • Manage Google apps and services in new settings menu
  • New Direct Share (recommendations, which app/contact to share content with)
  • Knock Code settings update. Now requires least 6 spaces and at least 3 different patterns
  • New storage menu
  • New silent mode
  • Screen for app settings was simplified and offers different app-management features
  • Battery automatically optimized when device/apps are not used for a certain time.
  • Wipe to delete in Messaging and E-Mail apps can now be undone by wiping in the opposite direction
  • Apps will ask for permissions after installing to ensure better protection of your private data.

If you decide to use LG Bridge to update your LG G4 to Android Marshmallow, be sure to leave us a comment and let us all know what you think of the new software update.

from Android and Me http://ift.tt/1lU3XFH
via IFTTT

Amazon Lightning Deal: $60-off the Amazon Fire 10 HD

The craziness of Cyber Monday continues with a Lightning Deal on the Amazon Fire 10 HD. Usually priced at $229.99, Amazon is slashing the price of the Fire 10 HD to $169.99 for the next 22 hours or until inventory allotted for the Lightning Deal runs out. Two hours in, only 1% of the allotted inventory has been claimed. But that number will start moving a lot quicker as people start waking up and checking the web for great Cyber Monday deals. The Amazon Fire 10 HD, isn’t the best Android tablet on the market, but it does come with a 10.1-inch 1280×800 display, Quad-core MediaTek processor, 5-megapixel rear camera, 720p front-facing camera, 16GB of storage, microSD slot, 1GB of RAM and full integration into Amazon’s media and storage services.

If you do choose to pick up the Amazon Fire HD 10, don’t forget to check out its official case with a built-in stand or the Keyboard Case if you plan to use the tablet as a mini laptop.

from Android and Me http://ift.tt/1YCJByI
via IFTTT

Cyber Monday deals: contract-free Samsung Galaxy S6, HTC One M9 discounted to $400

There are usually thousands of Cyber Monday deals to be had, but it’s hard finding any that are actually any good. Yes, 40-50% off smartphone cases is nice, but we know that you guys are looking for big savings on big ticket items. Amazon is here to save the day with massive discounts on the Samsung Galaxy S6 and HTC One M9. If you simply want a phone and don’t want to sign a new contract to get one, you can get wither phone for just $400 – roughly $250 less than what each phone typically sells for. The $400 Samsung Galaxy S6 is the SIM unlocked US variant, but you can spend about $100 more is you need one with international band support. The HTC One M9 is locked to AT&T’s network, but it can easily be SIM unlocked by using HTC SIM Unlock, Android SIM Unlock or services on the web for $10-$15.

If you do buy a new phone today, will it be for yourself or for a loved one?

from Android and Me http://ift.tt/1PVAec5
via IFTTT

Amazon Fire TV and Tablets still 25-30% off through Monday

Black Friday may have come and gone, but Amazon is still in a festive mood. If you’re a fan of Amazon’s Fire TV and Fire Tablets, you can buy one with discounts ranging from 25-30%. The Amazon Fire TV Stick is our number one recommendation if you’re looking for something a little more robust than Chromecast. The Fire TV Stick acts as a stand-alone media device and does not require you to control your media from your smartphone. If you want even more power and the ability to turn you TV into an Android gaming console, the Amazon Fire TV is a steal at $75. Just don’t forget to pick up the Amazon Fire Game Controller as well.

Android purists will scoff at the idea of using any of Amazon’s tablets since they use a forked version of Android and don’t feature the Google Play store. That being said, Amazon’s Android app store has quite a comprehensive app assortment and the UI on the Fire tablets has gotten a lot better in the past 12 months.

Oh, and if you haven’t picked up the Amazon Echo yet, we highly recommend that you do. The Echo’s price has been reduced to $149 – $30 less than its usual price.

from Android and Me http://ift.tt/21n0FeA
via IFTTT

Instagram bringing multiple account support to Android

While many of us struggle to maintain even a single Instagram account, there are those that, either due to work or a pure love of filtered photos, need to manage several Instagram accounts at once. In the past, that has meant either questionably functional workarounds or constantly signing out and back in under your various accounts. Now Instagram has finally taken pity on diehard Instagram fans of the Android world and is introducing support for multiple accounts in the native app.

You will add the new accounts by taking a look at the Settings screen and scrolling all the way to the bottom, where you will find the appropriately named “Add Account”, and off you go. Once you have multiple accounts running, you can switch between them quickly by just tapping on your username in the upper-left corner of the profile screen.

As is so often the case with these things, it is a staged roll out, and some that were seeing the feature earlier today have indicated that it has already vanished, so it’s possible that Instagram didn’t quite intend for this to slip out yet. Whatever the case the implementation seemed too clean to be a complete whoops on their part so rest assured it will make its way to all soon enough and you can return to building your social media empire more efficiently than ever before.

from Android and Me http://ift.tt/1LDYNT0
via IFTTT

Review: Snapbrite

We all love taking photos of our friends and family, and that’s even truer for those with kids. If you’ve got young ones of your own, you’ll no doubt snap pics of every moment of their development and at every special occasion in an effort to document their life stages.

But rarely do we ever do anything with our digital photos. Most often, they remain in our Gallery app or cloud storage vault of choice and get barely a passing glance or, for some, end up being (over)shared on social networks that include friends, family, colleagues, neighbours, people you no longer wish to be in touch with or even strangers. Neither is ideal.

Snapbrite is an app and service from AntTek that aims to make it easier for you to share special moments of your children’s lives with just the people that care and matter most.

Snapbrite screens 2When you open Snapbrite for the first time, you’ll be greeted with a basic tutorial for the app and its functions. You’ll then be asked to create an account with your email address, or link your Google+ or Facebook account. What’s really great about Snapbrite is that you can forgo creating an account and actually test out the app with a dummy account before adding any personal details.

Once you’re in, the Snapbrite app is split into four main sections that enable you to share your kid’s special moments and choose who can view them.

The first section is the ‘Family’ tab is where you’ll manage the children you share details about and who can view those updates, as well as invite family and friends. The next tab is ‘Moments’ — this is where you’ll spend most of your time. Here, you can share all manner of updates — photos, audio clips, text-based stories or life events. There are a great deal of ideas for event updates — like first smile, sleeping through the night, or saying “mommy” or “daddy” for the first time. You get a free 1GB upload quota, and this can be extended by successfully inviting new users to the service. It would be nice to see some integration with third-party storage providers like Dropbox/Google Drive to add more space, or the option to purchase more storage within Snapbrite.

Snapbrite screens 1Any photo-based media you share will be gathered in the ‘Photos’ tab and will be automatically grouped chronologically, giving you a neat visualization of your child’s development by age. You can also play an automatically generated slideshow of your updates.

The last tab is ‘Growth’. Here’s where you can add height and weight data to compare against global standards from the World Health Organization in order to get a quick view into your child’s development.

The breadth of stuff that is covered by Snapbrite is excellent. The app makes it extremely easy to share you kids’ milestones with family and friends, and the implementation of Material Design in the UI makes it visually appealing and straightforward to use. There’s also a ‘Kids Mode’ that can be activated that enables the young ones to get involved with sharing updates too.

Snapbrite is free, and has no ads. The developer states that this will remain the case forever, and plans to monetize through the sale of custom prints, greetings cards and photo books in the future, which would be a nice addition.

The main difficulty with embracing Snapbrite with something as important as sharing your child’s development is getting your family and friends on board too. For the best experience, you need the rest of your nearest and dearest to get the app too but being Android-only for now that might not be possible. There is a web version for those not using the mobile app, and any update can be shared by a permanent web link which gets around the problem somewhat, but it’s not ideal. Further to that, users will want to know that the service will still be around for years to come in order to invest the time in Snapbrite now, which of course can’t be guaranteed.

If you’re after a mini social network based around your children and made for just your closest family, Snapbrite is worth taking a look at. It’s well made, encourages regular updates and, if you can get your relatives on board, could become the hub for your family sharing!

Check out Snapbrite on Google Play where it is available to download for free or from the Amazon Appstore.

from Android and Me http://ift.tt/1SnWadC
via IFTTT

Black Friday deals: Jaybird BlueBuds X Bluetooth Headphones just $79.99

We are in the process of reviewing the updated version of these headphones, the aptly named BlueBuds X2, but today’s deal is on the originals and after having used them for over 2 years now I can attest that they remain one of my go to pairs of headphones for exercise and on the go use.

If you want to check out my quick review from back in December of 2013 the only thing that has really changed since then is the price, with today’s $79.99 representing one of the all time lows. The deal price is only available on the “Storm White” pair, but they look great and will match nicely with your stormtrooper costume while you wait in line for Episode VII in a few weeks. 😉

If you have any questions about the headphones just ask and I’ll be happy to answer in comments.

from Android and Me http://ift.tt/21jX0y3
via IFTTT

Black Friday deals: Amazon Fire TVs, Tablets and Kindles

For those of us that decided not to venture out into the madness today Amazon is one of the prime spots for nailing down deals from the comfort of the couch.

We already directed you to the discount on the Amazon Echo, but virtually everything that Amazon makes is on sale today and many are at or near all time lows.

Fire TVs

Fire Tablets

Kindle E-Readers

That’s it for Amazon’s lineup, but we’re keeping our eyes peeled and will keep you up to date on the best deals out there.

from Android and Me http://ift.tt/1TaMHqa
via IFTTT

Black Friday deals: OnePlus 2 and OnePlus X available without invites, discounts on accessories

If you’ve really been waiting to get your hands on the OnePlus 2 or OnePlus X but haven’t been able to snatch up one of those elusive invitations yet, this is exactly what you’ve been waiting for. OnePlus is getting into the holiday mood by opening up sales of the OnePlus 2 and the new OnePlus X to everyone, no invitation required. Unfortunately, there’s no real discount on the two phones since OnePlus isn’t really making much of a margin on them. The OnePlus 2 is listed for $389, while the OnePlus X carries its usual $249 sticker price. If all you need is a new case or other accessories for your OnePlus phone, the company is also offering discounts on its cases, screen protectors, cables, power adapters and headphones. Most items are only discounted by 10%, but accessories for the OnePlus One are 90% off.

OnePlus is offering up its phones without invitation and the discounts on its accessories from November 27 through November 30. That being said, we wouldn’t be surprised if OnePlus cuts the sale short if it runs out of supply of its two phones.

from Android and Me http://ift.tt/1PfOP1S
via IFTTT

Google slashes $80 off Nexus 5X price, $200 off Nexus 9

Google has been teasing its Black Friday deals over the past couple of days, and now those sales have finally been revealed.

The Google Store is offering $80 off the Nexus 5X, which means that the 16GB model is $299.99 and the 32GB unit is $349. As of this writing, all models are in stock and ready to ship in 1-2 business days.

We’re used to seeing older Nexus hardware get discounted, but the Nexus 5X is only around a month old. It’s kind of crazy to see a new Nexus device getting such a significant discount, but we’re also not about to argue getting an $80 discount on a shiny new Nexus phone.

In addition to discounting the Nexus 5X, Google is offering sales on several other products. You can get $200 off the Nexus 9, leaving its price at $199 for the 16GB model and $279 for the 32GB unit. Other sales include $30 off a Nest Cam, $80 to $100 off the Huawei Watch, up to $50 off select Chromebooks, and some Chromecast deals, too.

There are some significant savings to be had from Google’s store, so head on over and see if any of the deals pique your interest.

from Android and Me http://ift.tt/1TahIL0
via IFTTT