When Motorola announced its Smart Speaker Moto Mod last month, we knew it would arrive sometime in November. Apparently that ‘sometime’ is November 7th. The Amazon Alexa-powered Moto Mod speaker will set you back $149.99 when it hits store shelves. The big question for owners of a Moto Z series device is whether or not you should actually bother. Honestly, we’d lean towards no.
The idea of a quality speaker on your phone that doubles as a full portal to Alexa sounds intriguing, but the execution is more than a little questionable.
The world is slowly getting back to normal, but virtual meetings might be here to stay. While your laptop probably already has a webcam built-in, it can only do so much. If you want to take your image quality to a new level or work with a desktop, it might be time for a solid webcam. There are plenty of options to choose from, so we’re here to help you narrow it down.
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Amazon announced it will discontinue its Mayday service sometime this month. Customers can still use Mayday’s screen-sharing feature for customer support. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos unveiled Mayday in September 2013 alongside the Kindle HDX tablets. According to Amazon, it discontinued Mayday because the service’s video calling feature was offered on legacy devices that the online retailer no longer sells. The service will not completely disappear, however, as the screen-sharing feature will stick around.
Robert Triggs / Android Authority
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Google is developing an automatic equalizer adjustment feature for Pixels. Dubbed Adaptive Sound, the feature tweaks audio settings based on environment acoustics. The Google Pixel 5 will likely receive the feature in an update, but it’s unclear if any other Pixels will join it. The forthcoming Google Pixel feature drop could include a new toy for music lovers. Dubbed Adaptive Sound, the feature was uncovered on a Google Pixel 5 by XDA‘s APK sleuths.
It’s a mostly solid performer with great battery life, build quality, and a robust display – just wait for it to go on sale. The Galaxy Tab 4 7.0 is the smallest and cheapest of Samsung’s latest trio of tablets but it’s packing the same amount of punch in terms of design and specifications. The build quality is very typical Samsung with an all plastic construction and a fake leather back that still feels like plastic.
One of the questions on our mind, when we saw this news, was how it would affect Android emulators. We reached out to one of the most popular emulator companies, BlueStacks, and asked for a comment.
BlueStacks CEO welcomes change, but with tempered expectations The company’s CEO, Rosen Sharma, gave us two responses. The first assured us that the company welcomes Android apps working within Windows, despite its apparent threat to BlueStacks:
If you’re like me, you rely on your phone’s GPS to take you everywhere. The problem is that the navigation tanks your phone’s battery. Why not upgrade your car charger to the Hudly wireless car charger for just $30 with this deal?
The Hudly charger combines the convenience of a phone mount with the power of a fast-charging wireless charger. This means you can keep your eyes on the road while checking directions as easily as checking the radio.
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The Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra was chosen in an ACSI poll as the best smartphone in the US. Samsung claimed the top spot in US smartphone satisfaction last year, too, with a tie between the Galaxy Note 10 Plus, Galaxy S10 Plus, and Galaxy S20 Plus. Apple, however, stole Samsung’s thunder by tying with it for overall customer satisfaction. It’s no secret that, in the United States, there might as well be just two smartphone manufacturers: Samsung and Apple.
Backups can be rather helpful, especially if you work with important data and can’t afford to lose any of it. Windows 11 lets you back up your system and restore it as-is. You’ll need an external drive to do it, and the process takes some patience. However, it’s rather easy to do it yourself. Here’s how to backup Windows 11 and restore it.
Read more: The best external hard drives you can buy
No one would blame you if you were thrown off by Motorola‘s confusing and busy 2017 smartphone lineup. Unfortunately, if Evan Blass’ intel is correct, that feeling will likely get exacerbated in 2018.
According to the famed leaker, Motorola will return to making Play versions of its E and G smartphone lines. That is a strategy the company adopted in 2016, but abandoned for its 2017 smartphones. In other words, you can expect the Moto E5 Play, E5, and E5 Plus, as well as the Moto G6 Play, G6, and G6 Plus in 2018.