A specific Apple vs Samsung case to do with some software patents (including slide-to-unlock, if you remember that one) ended up with Samsung having to pay $120 million to Apple. But an appeals court overturned that decision, saying two patents were invalid and one was not infringed upon.

Though this isn’t the main case where Samsung had to pay $548 million to Apple (that’s being appealed, too), it’s still a win for Samsung. The slide-to-unlock and autocorrect patents were invalidated, while the quick links patent is valid but Samsung was shown not to have infringed on it. The court also ruled that Apple infringed on one of Samsung’s patents, and Apple will have to pay the large sum of $158,400 to Samsung. We know, disastrous.

We’ll have to wait and see how the initial ruling turns out, but for now, the court battles rage on.

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Welcome back to our weekly Top 10 Android App Updates column, where we take a look at the most frequently upgraded apps for the week. We’ve found that one of the best ways to discover useful apps is to find the ones that are actually being updated by the developers rather than selecting the apps with the most installs. As in the past, we’re going to filter out minor updates for the super-popular apps that have over 10 million installs, but we’ll make exceptions for apps that have had significant updates. We hope you enjoy this weekly feature and that you discover some apps that end up being useful.

Telegram – Version 3.6.0

What’s new in this version:

• Edit messages in channels and supergroups.
• Share links for posts in channels (in the Quick Share menu).
• Option to add admin signatures to messages in channels.
• Silent messages in channels that will not notify members.
• Quick Share button for bots (works for messages with links, photos or videos).

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Google+ – Version 7.3.0.1150

What’s new in this version:

• Pin posts in your Collections
• New design of Communities
• Performance improvements and bug fixes
• Improved navigation and overall experience for screen reader users

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Player FM – Version 3.1.0

What’s new in this version:

• Light, Dark & Black theme option on Display setting.
• Switch to a ‘downloaded-only’ view from the side menu (As before, you can also make this happen automatically via Playback Settings too.)
• Now you can sort your subscriptions series in grid view by title, oldest, etc.
• Japanese translation.
• Catalogue updates.

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IMDb – Version 6.1.0

What’s new in this version:

• Material Design updates across the app, including the Action Bar, the Navigation Drawer, and consistent and modern text appearance.

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Next Lock Screen – Version 2.6.0

What’s new in this version:

• Fingerprint Unlock (for Android 6 and Samsung devices with fingerprint scanner). While Next is on screen, use your fingerprint scanner to bypass the Next screen lock.
• Smart Contacts. Next learns and displays contacts whom you’ve called or texted.
• Smart Lock. Set rules for whether a passcode is needed when you’re at Home or Work.
• Location-based wallpapers are back. Different wallpapers for Auto/Home/Work.
• Bug fixes.

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YouTube Kids – Version 1.5.0

What’s new in this version:

• YouTube Kids now supports 360° videos! From under the sea to the surface of Mars, explore the world and more in an immersive 360° experience.
• In the middle of a video, but need to do something else? You can now pick up right where you left off with the new Resume Playback feature.

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OneDrive – Version 3.9.0

What’s new in this version:

• Use a variety of apps to create photos and videos on your device? No problem! The OneDrive app can now automatically upload them from the locations you select.
• Have an SD Card with your photos stored on them? Plug it in and OneDrive can upload them up for you.

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Brave Browser – Version 1.9.0

What’s new in this version:

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom – Version 2.0.0

What’s new in this version:

• New: Capture amazing moments with the in-app Adobe camera. Apply Photoshop magic before you capture with one of five new, specially formulated presets. Photos can be captured in DNG raw format on devices that provide DNG capture capabilities.
• Enhanced: Tone Curve – Point Curve Mode.
• New: Split Tone adjustments.
• New: Dehaze adjustment tool.
• New: Full resolution output. Now, export and share photos taken through the in-app Adobe camera at full resolution.

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Deezer Music – Version 5.22.62

What’s new in this version:

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Devices are getting more and more power hungry, so batteries are growing in size. But charging has long remained fairly slow. If your phone is dead midday, you’ll be stuck by a charger for quite a while before it’s ready to go for a few more hours. But Quick Charge changed that, allowing devices to charge much quicker for a big top up in a surprisingly small amount of time.

The Tronsmart Titan desktop charger aims to fix dying batteries not only for your smartphone, but for a family of smart devices. It features five ports, all supporting Quick Charge 2.0 for much faster charging rates. All five ports being capable of quick charging is quite a surprise!

The charger is capable of 18W per port and 90W total, so having five devices charging at once doesn’t mean you give up quick charging. If your device doesn’t support Quick Charge 2.0, the charger steps down to 5V/2A charging, so this isn’t exclusively for modern devices. It also has protection circuits to prevent overheating and overcharging, which is standard for quality chargers.

When I plug my Moto X Pure Edition into this charger, it recognizes it as a Turbo charger and charges at a staggering rate equivalent to the included Motorola Turbo charger. For my specific device, it ends up charging around 60-70% an hour. A 15 minute charge can get you around 20% of your battery filled up, good for a few hours of use and quite a while of standby if you’re going out.

The device is also ready for travel, supporting 110-240V with the right prong adapter or cable. Instead of bringing a bunch of wall warts to take up precious hotel outlets, this one device can do it all.

One complaint I have is that it emits a quiet buzzing. This isn’t nearly as bad as many chargers seem to do (I’ve seen a few that emit a loud shriek from across the room). I could hear it when the charger was on my bedside table, but it’s inaudible moved 5 feet away to my desk. I consider this a very minor problem as a youngster with acute hearing, and it’ll likely be entirely inaudible for anyone over 30.

Another odd little thing is the green light. It’s fairly dim, so it doesn’t really bug me at night (and I unplug most glowing things at night). But it doesn’t turn off when the switch on the rear is flipped off. Odd design choice, but not one that matters.

If you’re interested in picking one up, hit the source link. It’s not particularly cheap (going for $37.99 on Amazon as of writing this review), but it’s a great accessory to keep around the house. Let the entire family charge their devices, or charge your own pile of devices all at once, and bring it abroad for easy and quick charging from a single outlet.

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Falling in line with the other three big carriers, Sprint recently got rid of two-year contracts. It’s been the direction US carriers have been headed in for a while now, with T-Mobile dropping contracts first. Installment plans are the new contract, but it gives people just a bit more freedom to move between carriers.

However, Sprint is officially bringing back two-year contracts. The company claims it wants to give customers more choices. Sprint now offers a phone lease, a monthly installment plan that we’re all used to, a contract, or full retail price for a phone. To be fair, more choices is rarely a bad thing, and this move isn’t really going to hurt Sprint in any obvious way.

Now Sprint can brag about being the only carrier of the big four to offer contracts to all of its customers. What do you guys think of this decision? Do people still want contracts, or is this just a useless move by Sprint? Leave a comment!

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Managing a steady stream of emails can get complicated, and sometimes you just don’t want to deal with a particular correspondence right then and there. Thankfully, Snooze options exist.

The Gmail team has made the Inbox email app even better with two new additions to its Snooze feature that should help with email management. New additions “Later this week” and “This weekend” are joining the ranks which already include “Later today,” “Tomorrow,” “Next week,” and “Someday.” The team hopes this will make it less necessary to use a custom Snooze option, as it adds more options that cover select spans of time.

Inbox by Gmail will let you select the preferred time in the morning when you receive emails, and now that feature is getting extended to being able to select the weekend days that work best for your schedule. After all, not everyone’s weekend is on Saturday and Sunday.

The new features will be rolling out over the next week, so keep an eye out.

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Google recently announced plans to consider rolling out Google Fiber in Louisville, Kentucky. The rollout would have been held up for a few months, had the Louisville Metro Council not passed an ordinance that shortened the time needed for a competitive internet service to access the city’s utility poles. The new ordinance shortened the necessary time from six months to just 30 days, allowing Google Fiber to begin rolling out in a much more timely manner.

The passage of the ordinance, however, has sparked some trouble for the city. AT&T, which owns about 40 percent of Louisville’s utility poles, is filing a lawsuit against the city for the passage of the ordinance. AT&T claims that the city doesn’t have the rights to decide who can use AT&T’s poles. Check out the quote from the company below.

Louisville Metro Council’s recently passed ‘One Touch Make Ready’ Ordinance is invalid, as the city has no jurisdiction under federal or state law to regulate pole attachments. We have filed an action to challenge the ordinance as unlawful. Google can attach to AT&T’s poles once it enters into AT&T’s standard Commercial Licensing Agreement, as it has in other cities. This lawsuit is not about Google. It’s about the Louisville Metro Council exceeding its authority.AT&T

AT&T doesn’t seem to blocking Google Fiber simply to block it. Instead, the company has a legitimate argument about making sure that the correct and legal process is followed. That being said, the suit will likely delay the rollout of Google Fiber, with the possibility that Google may even abort its plans to bring Google Fiber to Louisville. We’ll have to wait and see how it all turns out.

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Facebook Live has been available to iOS users for a bit of time now, and finally the social network is bringing its live video streaming to Google’s operating system.

Through an update in the Facebook Newsroom, the company has announced that Facebook Live is now rolling out to Android users. The rollout is only taking place in the United States for now, but Facebook says it has plans to bring it to more countries in the coming months. It’s pretty simple to share your live video: Just tap on “What’s on your mind” at the top of your News Feed, and then tap on the Live Video button.

Before you start streaming the video, you’ll be able to type in a quick description of what you plan on streaming, and you’ll even get to choose the audience that can see your video as you stream. There will be a real-time stream of comments that you can respond to and you’ll see the names of friends and family that are watching as well as the number of viewers. After ending the stream, the video will be saved to your Timeline.

Do you plan on streaming, or watching, a lot of live video on Facebook?

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Thanks to a leaked slide, it seems that the Samsung Galaxy S7 will have a very unique carrier lock mechanism. Carrier devices that usually would be sold locked (or occasionally unlocked) will now be sold completely unlocked, but will lock themselves to the first carrier SIM that’s inserted.

This is interesting because it’ll technically be an unlocked phone from the factory, both hardware and software wise. Inserting a carrier SIM before first boot will install the carrier software, which will lock the device to that carrier. Maybe this means someone will be able to get around the device installing carrier software?

We probably won’t see this in the US, since our carriers have logos and branding all over the device. Nonetheless, it’s an interesting approach to carrier locks. You’ll still be able to unlock the device using an unlock code as usual, and factory unlocked devices will not be affected. What do you guys think? Is this preferable to regular carrier locks? Leave a comment!

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While we know that Samsung is generously offering a free Gear VR with any pre-order of the Galaxy S7, Verizon has a potentially even more compelling offer for would-be Galaxy S7 and S7 edge buyers.

If you purchase either of the Galaxy S7 variants through vzw.com, you will have the option to receive either a Gear VR or the Tizen-powered Gear S2 for free with your new smartphone. As the Gear S2 goes for around $299 in most places, that is quite the offer.

In-store purchases qualify for a slightly different version of this deal, with the Gear VR still free, but no option to receive the Gear S2 instead. What you are eligible for is a $100 discount on the Gear S2 in addition to the Gear VR.

Both offers include the six-game bundle from Oculus that is valued at around $50.

There are plenty of incentives to make sure the Galaxy S7 gets off to a great start in 2016. Are any of these offers swaying you toward making a purchase?

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Samsung and LG, two of the biggest players in the Android smartphone game, have announced their new flagships for the year at Mobile World Congress. The Samsung Galaxy S7 and LG G5 look to be strong contenders, and both devices place a focus on camera performance

The Samsung Galaxy S7 camera has already been shown off, and it’s absolutely fantastic in low-light. Meanwhile, LG is adding a camera grip and physical camera controls as an accessory to the G5. HTC has two strong acts to follow when the company announces its next flagship, especially after the less-than-stellar camera quality of the One M9.

But HTC Chief Financial Officer Chialin Chang says that things will be different this time around:

We can confidently say that HTC will have a very, very compelling camera experience. We’re making this comment after we’ve seen what’s going on in the market.Chialin ChangHTC

Even after seeing what Samsung and LG are putting on the market, HTC seems confident that it cam provide a competing camera experience. And why shouldn’t they? HTC has a history of amazing cameras with the UltraPixel sensors. They produced fairly low-resolution shots, but the quality was pretty amazing.

Let’s hope that confidence really does result in a great product. We still have hope in HTC.

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