Google Android discussion - Page 23

On April 24 2014 14:55 GTR wrote:
What's a good external battery pack? I've been playing a lot of Ingress recently and even on my LG G2 it drains the fuck out of the battery. Been looking at ZeroLemon, Anker and Limefuel but I don't know how to discern the quality between companies.

Users of Google’s $35 Chromecast TV adapter now have access to more than 100 channels of free web video — including shows from ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, Comedy Central and Hulu — on their HDTVs, along with a guide-like interface to navigate them through MediaMall Technologies’ PlayOn.

The PlayOn media server software uses Chreomcast to streams online videos to TVs. The PlayOn service is available in annual ($29.99 per year) and lifetime ($59.99) subscriptions. The company also sells PlayLater, DVR-like recording software for storing shows for later playback.

Chromecast doesn’t include an on-screen guide. The PlayOn software provides one for its channels slung to Chromecast, giving users a way to browse channels.

Google’s Chromecast has secured yet another app for its flourishing catalog of supported extensions and services – the Redbox Instant app for Android gained support this week, enabling Google’s army of Chromecasters to beam movies from an Android phone or tablet onto the big screen. The app also received some bug fixes in the process and should run more smoothly as a result.

An $8 monthly subscription to Redbox Instant – which opened to the public in March 2013 – will net you 4 free DVD rentals per month from the traditional Redbox kiosks, in addition to Netflix-style instant streaming online. Users who opt out of paying the monthly fees can still sign up for a simple Redbox Instant account, which will allow them to rent or buy On-Demand movies – $3 gets you unlimited views over a 48-hour period, while $9 lets you buy the movie to watch whenever.

Redbox, along the same vein as Netflix, is currently offering a free-trial subscription for the first month.

If an Amazon smartphone arrives before the end of the year as rumored, we may now have a good idea of what it will look like, courtesy of BGR.

The tech site this week published a photo showing what's purported to be the front and back of the rumored Amazon phone, which will have a 4.7-inch touch-screen display with 720p HD resolution and run a modified version of Android like Amazon's Kindle Fire tablets, BGR said.

Some more specs for the smartphone, per BGR's unnamed sources, are that it will use a Qualcomm Snapdragon application processor, pack 2GB of system memory, and sport "six individual camera modules."

The pictured device will be the "first of several smartphones Amazon is planning to release," according to the site. Amazon will publicly reveal the phone in about a month, BGR claimed its sources were saying.

The rumored Amazon phone will integrate some pretty interesting technologies, according to reports. These include a "3D" display and a natural user interface incorporating gesture control, as well as a mysterious, possible data plan subsidy package supposedly being cooked up with AT&T called "Prime Data."

"Prime Data could be a special plan tied to Amazon's smartphones that gives users a certain amount of free access to streaming movies, TV shows, music, and other Amazon services over cellular data networks," BGR said.