Google has a big event coming up on September 29, and as we draw nearer to the day, more and more rumors have cropped up showing that the Chromecast will have a major role in the announcements. Not only will a new model be announced, but the company will add Spotify support and according to a new leak from 9to5Google, the company will also launch a major update for the Chromecast companion app.

The new update will include a new section titled “What’s On”, which will allow you to see content being offered through various Chromecast-compatible apps. This includes not just movies and TV shows, but also videos, photos, music and any other content that can be cast. You can simply select an offering to begin casting it. The update will also improve the “Discover Apps” tab. The current feature simply links to a page in the Play Store, but the update will reportedly have it stay within the app. It will then show you installed apps with Chromecast support and suggest new apps that support the Chromecast.

The final news is that the app will get a visual redesign. The only images that 9to5Google has are intensely blurry, but you can still tell that things have been changed up. We’ll have to wait for an official announcement to see exactly how it looks.

Keep it locked to the site for continued coverage of rumors and leaks leading up to the big event on September 29.

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If you’re unfamiliar with the program, Android One is Google’s initiative to bring low-cost smartphones with high quality to select markets. Thus far, the company has mainly focused on developing countries such as India, Thailand and a handful of African countries, as well as others. Now, Android One is expanding into Spain and Portugal with the BQ Aquaris A4.5.

For specs, the Aquaris A4.5 packs in a 4.5-inch qHD (960×540) display that can be used with gloves or wet hands, a quad-core 1GHz MediaTek processor, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of storage plus microSD card slot, 8-megapixel rear camera, 5-megapixel front-facing camera, 2470mAh battery, dual-micro SIM card slots, 4G LTE and Android 5.1.1 Lollipop. As with other Android One devices, the BQ Aquaris A4.5 is guaranteed to get software updates from Google for the next 24 months.

Pricing is set at €169.90 (about $193 USD) and the device is available now from BQ’s website, as well as a slew of other retailers. Follow the source link below for more info.

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In a world with Google, where our searches and Google Docs can be transcribed from our speech, the necessity of typing or physically writing things down is diminishing rapidly. But there are countless situations where writing is still absolutely necessary. We can’t vocally take notes on our phones or computers during a lecture. We can’t always be typing our notes down on our phones in the middle of a meeting, it’s distracting and unacceptable. Also, some people just aren’t comfortable or have difficulty being understood by our listening mobile devices. Do these people just get left behind in our ever advancing world of technology? Absolutely not. Smartpens are the real deal and are here to bridge the gap between the pen and paper and digital storage and sharing.

The Pen

The Neo Smartpen N2 is NeoLAB’s smartpen solution for the world. It is the result of a successful Kickstarter campaign and is now available to anyone online. The N2 is simply a pen with a camera that watches and remembers or passes on what you’re writing to a mobile device. The camera watches at 120 frames per second and the pen can sense the pressure you’re using to write. To work, the N2 currently requires special paper with Ncode technology, paper with little tiny character patterns that tell the N2 and the companion app where and what page you’re writing on. It uses Bluetooth to connect with either Android or iOS.

Like any decent smart device, the Neo Smartpen N2 has hardware. Yeah, this pen has specs. Here they are:

CPU : Dual Core ARM9 Application Processor
Connectivity : USB 2.0 (Micro USB) / Bluetooth 4.0
Size : L 156mm / W 11.5 ~ 11.8 / 22g (Without pencap)
OS : Android Jelly Bean 4.1.2 or higher / iOS 7.1 or higher (iPhone 5 or higher)
Battery : Li-Polymer / 3.7V (Full charage : 2 hours)
Memory: 90MB Nand Flash
Display : Dot-LED Indicator (Full color)
Required Bluetooth Connectivity : Android Bluetooth 2.1 or higher / iOS Bluetooth 4.0 LE
Pen tip type : Standard D1 type
Usage time : Constant (5 hours) / Normal usage (3 days) / Standby (125 days)

The Experience

The Neo Smartpen N2 comes with a companion app that can be found in the Google Play Store, Neo Notes. Through the app you can “register”, or connect, your N2 with your device. It requires Android 4.1.2 or higher. When we first got the Smartpen, my wife was super stoked about it and tried to connect it with her Galaxy S6 and had trouble with pairing. After a few tries, she decided it might need to be charged first and we haven’t had any issues with pairing or connection since. My registering experience with the pen with my Nexus 6 went extremely smoothly. Since then, I have looked through the manual and it does suggest charging the pen before pairing.

The N2 has a button on it that allows one to turn the pen on and off as well as pair the pen. It additionally has a full color LED light that tells you when it’s on, in pairing mode, and running low on battery. Once the pen is charged and on, using it is as easy as writing with a pen and paper. The pen has internal memory, so even if you’re not around your phone or not paired at any given time, the pen will store what you are writing so it can be transferred to your device and saved later. Neo states the pen can hold up to 1000 pages on A4 paper of offline writing.

Unfortunately the Neo Smartpen N2 requires special proprietary paper for the pen to work. In short, the N2 uses Ncode technology that is simply “a combination of lines and symbols printed so small they are difficult for the eye to perceive. Each line and symbol constitutes a pattern to express a unique code for each location on the page.” It’s really cool how well this technology works. The camera on the pen takes pictures or what you write and figures out where you wrote it from the Ncode. It even records the pressure of your stroke. If you have the pen connected to your phone, you can watch what you are writing immediately appear in your notebook in the Neo Notes companion app. The Smartpen and app even know when you’re using a different notebook and when you change pages. It just moves to the next page and doesn’t skip a beat.

Other than needing special paper, as a technology device, I haven’t been blown away with battery life or battery management for the N2. On the Neo Smartpen N2 website it states that the pen is able to auto-shutoff and there is a setting for that within the Neo Notes app, but I haven’t found that setting. So, I don’t know if my pen is currently auto-shutting off. And a lot of times when I go to use it if I haven’t been charging it, it’s not charged. Additionally, I just wish it had better battery life. It’s one more thing to have to worry about having charged and it would be nice if I felt like it didn’t need to be charged daily.

Other than battery life, the pen is super easy to use. My 4 and 6-year-old kids have gotten a kick out of the pen and have been drawing me pictures and writing me stories with it. Within the app, you can change the color and thickness of the strokes with what you are writing. A preschooler can do it, so can you.

The feature that I think could be the most useful to me is transcribing. Being able to digitally store my hand written notes and easily share them is one thing. But the ability to transcribe and make my notes searchable sounds like it could have saved me lots of time in college. Heck, it could save me time now. I spend lots of time trying to find that one little thing I wrote down that one time. Searchable notes sound amazing. The transcribing didn’t handle bullet points that well, but I think it wouldn’t take long to get along great with the Neo Smartpen N2 and the transcribing feature in Neo Notes. You can also sync your notes with Evernote and Google Drive.

The Bottom Line

I already told you about the catch of the special paper. What about the price? Well, the Neo Smartpen N2 isn’t cheap. The N2 comes in two colors, Silver White (what we reviewed) and Titan Black, and will set you back $169. It’s available from neosmartpen.com or you can get free shipping in the US via Amazon. In addition to the pen, the special paper comes in several different varieties and the cost isn’t as bad as I imagined it could’ve been. For example, you can get a 5 pack of 100 ruled A4 paper pads for $21.90. It’s obviously more expensive that regular paper, but it’s not terrible. I haven’t personally used smartpen competitors like Equil and Livescribe, but the N2 seems very competitively priced for the smooth online and offline experience and features offered.

Overall, I’ve been impressed with the experience of the N2. The pen and app are super easy to use. After having the N2 for a couple of weeks, I don’t feel like a smartpen is something that I can’t live without. But if you think a smartpen would be amazing and a great fit in your schooling, business, or lifestyle I definitely think the N2 should be considered. It could even be a great gift for your hard working gadget loving college student because they probably can’t afford to buy it themselves.

What are your thoughts on the Neo Smartpen N2? What are you thoughts on smartpens in general? Do you think the N2 is missing any must-have features? Have an N2 and have thoughts you’d like to share on it? Let us know what you think by commenting below.

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Google’s rumored September 29 event could be even bigger than originally anticipated.

In addition to the new Nexus phones, it’s said that Google could show a new Chromecast at its event later this month. Internal documents leaked by 9to5Google show that the new-look Chromecast now has an oval-shaped body with a black stick jutting out of it, looking sort of like a balloon or headphone. The new Chromecast is tipped to feature faster Wi-Fi inside of its new shell.

In terms of new features, we’re told to expect a “feeds” feature that could show social media or images feeds as a backdrop, as well as a “Fast Play” feature that could enable the Chromecast to get a connection must faster than the current model. Finally, a “Chromecast Audio” feature could enable the Chromecast to connect to a speaker or other audio device using an auxiliary jack and enable Chromecast support for those devices. Chrome cast Audio may also include multi-room support, Chrome or Android audio mirroring, and high-quality audio.

The Chromecast is now well over two years old, and while a two-year-old streaming stick may not be the same as a two-year-old smartphone, it’s still probably about time for Google to update the dongle. Thankfully, it looks like that’s finally going to happen later this month, and improvements like better Wi-Fi ought to make this a worthwhile upgrade from the OG Chromecast.

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Sprint is taking T-Mobile head on with Open World, which gives you free or discounted use of your phone when abroad. The service has now added 33 new countries to the list, which give you free texting and discounted phone calls and data.

There are 14 countries with free texting, calling, and 1GB data, including Canada and Mexico. The rest of the countries are free unlimited texting, $0.20 per minute calls, and $30 per GB of data. While the unlimited texting is nice, the data is still very expensive, much like AT&T and Verizon.

For a full list of supported countries, hit the source link. If you’re planning to go abroad with Sprint, head over to the Open World site to get it set up!

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The Moto X Pure Edition isn’t the first Motorola device to feature a hidden LED under the front speaker grill. We’ve seen it on previous Moto X devices, as well as the Nexus 6. It doesn’t do much, since the Moto X has Active Display, but it does serve an important purpose.

When your device is too discharged to even turn the screen on when plugging in a charger, this LED turns on to let you know the device is charging. It’s definitely nice to have, even though you may never see it. Taking advantage of it as a notification LED may be possible in the future, but it won’t come without modifications.

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ASUS’s Zenfone 2 has garnered plenty of attention due to its low price and impressive list of specs. Now, ASUS has quietly begun selling a new model of the device that bridges the gap between the standard model and the upgraded model with extra RAM and storage. This new model is priced at $229 and it comes with 16GB of storage, like the standard model, but it bosts the RAM up to 4GB, just like the upgraded model. The Intel Atom processor is the same one that’s found in the standard model, the slightly slower Z3560 model.

Previously, the Zenfone 2 has been sold in two configurations. The standard model costs $199 and comes with 16GB of storage and 2GB of RAM. The upgraded model comes in at $299 and packs in 64GB of storage, 4GB of RAM and a slightly more powerful processor. This new configuration should please many who want the extra RAM without the extra $100. Even though it comes with less storage, some might disregard that in light of the fact that storage is expandable via microSD.

You can now pick up the new model from several different online retailers, including Amazon.

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The Huawei Watch has made a few appearances already, but today is it’s first day of official availability. You can find it for sale on GetHuawei.com, Best Buy, Amazon and the Google Store. If you want to get it immediately, and I’m going to assume that includes most of you, then you should go with either Amazon or the Google Store, which are shipping it right now.

Amazon has the most comprehensive lineup, but the base level leather strap model at $349 is delayed for 1-2 months. However, the Stainless Steel with Link Band for $399 and the Black Stainless Steel with Link Band for $449 are shipping immediately.

The Google Store has just the Stainless Steel with Mesh Strap model for sale and that will set you back $399.

Best Buy has all but the Rose Gold-plated models up for pre-order, and naturally, GetHuawei.com has every variant available, but they won’t ship until early October.

We will have our full review of the Huawei Watch in due time, but at the outset we felt that it is easily one of the best-looking Android Wear watches to date, and that certainly hasn’t changed.

Has anyone already picked up the Huawei Watch or are you waiting for reviews to come rolling in before plunking down your cash?

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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.

Asciid

Description: Asciid is a challenging game that confronts the player with perilous traps and exciting levels. Use your power to switch between light and dark in each unique level to avoid the various hazards. Along the way you’ll find hazards such as Wrecking Balls, Sawblades, Floaters, Bobbers, Spikes and more.

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Nibblers

Description:  From the creators of ANGRY BIRDS comes a DELICIOUS NEW matching game with CUTE characters and FRESH and FRUITY puzzle gameplay. Meet the NIBBLERS – your fishy friends who only want to eat YUMMY fruit – ALL the yummy fruit!

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Door Kickers

Description: Door Kickers is the unforgiving, award winning SWAT-command quick tactics game from the PC. Includes all updates and a new campaign, as well as full cross-platform saves compatibility and an all-new interface designed specifically for touch based platforms.

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Puzzle Coaster

Description:  With Puzzle Coaster, you’re in charge. Use the correct rails to build a track to amuse the passengers and that allows you to collect coins. To do this, you can use a large number of pieces of madness, like loops, explosive and strong springs

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Deer Hunter 2016

Description: From the creators of Deer Hunter 2014! Return to the wild and hunt across the globe in the world’s greatest hunting experience.

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Order & Chaos 2: Redemption

Description: Travel the road to redemption in a completely new story in the open world of Order & Chaos. Join thousands of player heroes on a fantasy journey to complete exciting multiplayer quests and redeem yourself!

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Moon Tower Attack

Description: Moon Tower Attack is a 2.5D strategic tower defense game set on the moon. Defend your base by making expert use of a number of different weapons and towers. Watch out! Enemies can come from literally anywhere and can take random paths as they rush toward your base.

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MMA Manager

Description: Take on the role of a MMA manager in the modern fight business. Manage your gym and build your fight team from the local scene to the heights of managing world champions in the top promotions.

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Marble Duel

Description: Magic duels are the way to solve any dispute in a kingdom conquered by the cruel witch and her minions. Every monster you encounter will challenge you, but the power of spells will help you destroy the enemy.

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Blast Force

Description:   Blast through 30+ levels of shoot’em up / arcade platforming gameplay! Test your reflexes, avoid obstacles and take aim at the corrupted machines of the Blasttopia INC. factory.

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I don’t usually review earphones, but it’s an Android accessory many of us use daily. Everything from media consumption to phone calls are handled by the earbuds we carry every day, and price/durability is a balance that’s hard to strike.

Overview

Microphone: Yes
Button compatibility: Android/iOS/Windows/Blackberry
Price: $49.99
Where to buy: Zipbuds

The Zipbuds SLIDE are pretty basic earphones with an interesting defining feature; the cables for each individual earbud zip together like a zipper. Most earphones have a little piece that slides up to adjust the length of the separate cables, but the cables under it are usually loose and can get caught on things.

Otherwise, they’re just like any other earphones in their price range. The flat cables are a great touch, the microphone features one button for compatibility with a wide range of devices, and they come with three different sizes of tips.

They also come in four different color combos. You can get purple and orange, black and teal, black and white, or just black.

Build quality

For $50, these earphones are of surprisingly good quality. The flat cable makes them feel premium and resilient to everyday wear and tear. The cables are more substantial and more “springy” than other earphones, which makes me feel confident bunching them up.

The zipping mechanism works well, with no issues zipping every single time. It’s really nice that the cables stay together all the way up until the split, which makes them quite a bit more convenient to use.

In general, these earphones are just really well made, especially for the price. I can even say they feel more sturdy than my Bose earphones.

Audio quality

The audio quality of these earphones is actually pretty good. The audio is clear, the bass is substantial, and the mids are strong. The balance of the sound is not very good, but if you’re not an audiophile, you’ll enjoy the sound.

I have to say, I’m impressed with the bass of these earphones when the tips make a proper seal. It’s a lot stronger than I expected, and thumps pretty good in bassy songs. But it doesn’t dominate the music in most cases. For those who like electronic music, these might be great. The strong bass and clear highs really go well together.

The only issue I’ve found with these earphones is that they’re substantially quieter than my Bose. Thankfully, any phone or computer still gets these things plenty loud.

As a bit of an audiophile, I’m not a huge fan. As a metalhead, the balance of the sound isn’t quite ideal. The bass is a little too intrusive in power metal, and the highs aren’t tuned just right. I’m overly critical and not the average customer. But in most other music, these things sound good. The tuning may not be fantastic, but the actual drivers are nice.

The microphone is good as well, people reported hearing me just fine.

Comfort

Most in-ear buds don’t fit my weird ears very well. They just don’t stay in, and I could never figure out why. I’ve tried quite a few. However, these fit perfectly and stay in my ears with the medium tips. Honestly, I was shocked.

They’re comfortable for in-ear earphones, which in my opinion aren’t very comfortable. They also seal sound out very well, which is a nice bonus depending on how you look at it.

I’m impressed with these earphones. Not only are they some of the few that actually fit my ears well, but they also sound pretty good for the price point. Yes, the audio is tuned in a pretty “cheap” way, but the actual drivers are quite nice.

The zipper functionality is also very nice. It may not be all that useful to a lot of people, but it’s great and gives the earphones a great feel.

For only $50, the average person could really use a set. They’ll sound good and surely last a long time.

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