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28 temporarily free and 41 on-sale apps to finish November

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... The end of November is here already. December and the end of 2018 are coming too soon for my liking, but that's life, so let's end the month with a final app sales roundup. Free Apps Pocket Bookmark $0.99 -> Free; Sale ends in 6 hours Sound Recorder $0.99 -> Free; Sale ends in 6 hours Learn Spanish with MosaLingua $4.99 -> Free; Sale ends in 2 days Network Manager - Network Tools & Utilities (Pro) $5.99 -> Free; Sale ends in 2 days Beat Blackjack! $1.99 -> Free; Sale ends in 5 days Games Fry Words $0.99 -> Free; Sale ends in 1 day Fry Words 2 $0.99 -> Free; Sale ends in 1 day Noble VIP: Mage's Adventure $2.49 -> Free; Sale ends in 1 day Sight Words $0.99 -> Free; Sale ends in 1 day ABC Memory Match $0.99 -> Free; Sale ends in 3 days BLOCK 1010 - COLORFUL $0.99 -> Free; Sale ends in 3 days Dr. Panda Mailman $3.99 -> Free; Sale ends

Deal: Get a SanDisk 128GB microSD card for $18

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If you're lucky enough to own a smartphone with expandable storage , this SanDisk deal is for you. For a limited time, Amazon is offering the SanDisk 128GB microSD card for only $18 . If you're an Amazon Prime member, you get free Prime shipping, too. Usually, this SanDisk 128GB card would set you back $29, so you're saving over $11 with this deal, or 38 percent off. Not bad! If you want to go bigger, the 256GB microSD card is also on sale for $45 , which is about 34 percent cheaper than usual. However, $45 is still quite a bit to pay for a memory card, and the 128GB card is the real steal. Whichever one you choose, the microSD card comes with a free adapter which allows you to use it in normal SD card slots. This is perfect if you want to transfer files from your smartphone or tablet to your laptop or desktop computer. We're not sure how long this deal will last, so click the button below to grab yours! #Google #Android #Smartphones #OS #News @n

Speed Test G: Pocophone F1 vs OnePlus 6T

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When it comes to competitively priced devices with flagship-like specifications, there are only two devices everyone talks about: the Pocophone F1 and the OnePlus 6T . Both devices sport the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 and both have oodles of RAM. But do the specs on paper translate to real-world performance? Starting with the Pocophone F1 (or the Poco F1, as it is known in some parts),  Xiaomi's new sub-brand outprices every other Snapdragon 845 phone on the market. But, when you consider the full package and what you get, is it actually better value for money? That is a tough question, but you can found out in our Pocophone F1 review . The longtime hero of those seeking flagship-like specs without the high price tag has been OnePlus. Although prices have been increasing year-on-year, the 6T is still cheaper than the majority of flagship devices. The OnePlus 6T is a minor upgrade over its predecessor, the OnePlus 6 , but according to our review , "the overall experi

Amazon’s 12 Days of Deals starts this Sunday, but Dec. 10 is the day to watch

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Amazon There will be an Amazon 12 Days of Deals event starting this Sunday, December 2, 2018. Each day will focus on a particular category, with December 10 being centered on electronics. Amazon will discount hundreds of items in each category each day, but what and by how much is a mystery for now. It might seem unbelievable, but tomorrow is the first day of December. Hopefully, you're ready to get into holiday shopping mode, because the clock officially starts ticking tomorrow! To make things easier for you, there will be an Amazon 12 Days of Deals event happening over at Amazon.com . Starting this Sunday, December 2, 2018, Amazon will heavily discount hundreds of items within a particular category, with a new category launching each day. Best Buy Christmas sale is an advent calendar stacked with tech deals Best Buy Best Buy has announced its festive, 20 Days of Doorbusters sale to celebrate the holidays. Starting tomorrow, the retail giant w

Here’s how Microsoft powers offline neural language translation on Huawei Mate 20 Series

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The recently launched Huawei Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro introduced fully neural on-device language translations via the Microsoft Translator app in partnership with Microsoft. The app comes pre-installed on Huawei Mate 20 devices allowing users to have native access to online quality level translations even when they are not connected to the internet. According to Microsoft, the breakthrough was achieved by customizing its neural machine translation technology for the NPU (Neural Processing Unit) in the Kirin 980 SoC that powers the Mate 20 devices. This allows the smartphones to get better and faster translations compared to existing offline packs available for other devices using the power of neural network translation without an internet connection. Microsoft uses the industry standard BLEU score to measure its translation quality. BLEU rates translation quality by comparing how close machine translations are to human ones. Offline translation quality with Microsoft T

Earn top dollar fighting cyber crime as an ethical hacker

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In 2018,  cybercrime is an epidemic . Businesses and ordinary people are being held to ransom. We even learned last month that some U.S. weapons systems could be hacked within hours. It's scary stuff, but we only know of the Pentagon vulnerabilities due to an ethical hacker finding the flaws. The threat is so high these days that ethical hackers  get paid big money to expose vulnerabilities. Commercial enterprises such as Facebook and Twitter pay out millions of dollars as part of bug bounty programs. It's not too late to learn the techniques, even if you've never hacked before. Training can be extremely expensive, but there's a huge deal running right now on the 2019 Ethical Hacker Master Class Bundle . This package is a collection of learning kits led by industry experts . You'll master penetration testing, advanced persistent threats, threat intelligence research, reverse engineering, and much more. Many of the learning kits are designed t

MediaTek Helio P90 is a big leap in AI power: Here’s what’s new

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The Helio P60 may have been MediaTek 's most impressive chipset in a few years, delivering dedicated AI silicon in a mid-range processor. We've seen the P70 since then, but we've also received a sneak peek at the Helio P90 following a visit to the company's HQ, and it's looking like an exponential leap in terms of AI capabilities. Much like the Helio P70 and P60, we see a dual-core APU returning in the Helio P90 (clocked at 624Mhz compared to the P70's 525Mhz). But the APU is also joined by a separate, in-house AI Accelerator chip for dedicated AI tasks. All in all, the company says this setup should provide 4x better computing power and 2x better efficiency over the P60 and P70. Read: Here's what MediaTek is doing about slow Android updates, lack of source code The chipmaker says the Helio P90 delivers 1,127 GMACS of total AI computing power compared to the P60's 280 GMACS and the Snapdragon 710 's 614 GMACS. The upgraded APU provide

Best Buy Christmas sale is an advent calendar stacked with tech deals

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Best Buy Best Buy has announced its festive, 20 Days of Doorbusters sale to celebrate the holidays. Starting tomorrow, the retail giant will roll out a new deal every day and it's promising its "lowest prices of the season." The deals will include savings on laptops, headphones, tablets, smartphones, 4K TVs, and more. You can select which of these you're interested in at the Best Buy website to receive a text when they're available so you don't miss out on any. The products that will be up for grabs have either been outright revealed — like the MacBook Pro on day one and the Apple Watch arriving on day two — or are pretty firmly hinted at. What isn't clear, however, is how much they will be discounted. Best Buy Here's the full list of the items — I've included a possible product or brand (in brackets) where we've been able to make a guess at what's coming. December 1 – MacBook Pro December 2 – Apple Watch December 3

Here’s how Google made portrait mode on the Pixel 3 even better

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Google has blogged about its recent improvements in AI and photography — specifically regarding portrait mode on the Pixel 3. The post discusses how Google has improved the way its neural networks measure depth. The result is an improved bokeh effect in its portrait mode shots. Google has detailed one of the major photography accomplishments it achieved on the Pixel 3 on its AI blog . In the post published yesterday, Google discussed how it improved portrait mode between the Pixel 2 and the Pixel 3. Portrait mode is a popular smartphone photography mode that blurs the background of a scene while maintaining focus on the foreground subject (what's sometimes called the bokeh effect). The Pixel 3 and the Google Camera app take advantage of advances in neural networks, machine learning, and GPU hardware to help make this effect even better. In Portrait Mode on the Pixel 2, the camera would capture two versions of a scene at slightly different angles. In the

HTC U11 Life: First HTC smartphone to get a slice of Android Pie

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The latest smartphone to get a slice of Android Pie is the HTC U11 Life. The midrange flagship phone from HTC was unveiled in 2017. We've got our hands-on as proof and we told you it's worth your money. It received Android 8.0 Oreo update same day last year and today, it's getting Android 9.0. There is no official advisory from HTC but one avid HTC fan shared the good news over on Twitter. A certain Raul Gabriel (@raulgabriel96) said the HTC U11 Life Android 9.0 Pie Update is rolling out as he received an OTA notification. This update makes the HTC U11 Life the first HTC phone get a taste of the Pie. There is the HTC U12 Life and even that only had Android 8.1 Oreo with HTC Sense. We knew Android 9 would be coming to several HTC phones including the HTC U11, U11+, HTC U11 Life (Android One), and the HTC U12+ . We're not sure though about the schedule of release. The HTC U11 Life is Android One so updates must be regular. It makes sense that it's ge

The Elder Scrolls: Blades delayed into 2019

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Back at E3 2018, Bethesda made something of a surprise announcement by revealing The Elder Scrolls: Blades. The announcement was a surprise, in part, because we weren't exactly expecting an Elder Scrolls announcement, much less one for an Elder Scrolls mobile game. Regardless, Blades is what we got, and Bethesda said at the time that it would be out sometime … Continue reading #Google #Android #Smartphones #OS #News @ndrdnws #ndrdnws #AndroidNews

[Update: Teasers] Niantic bringing PvP to 'Pokémon GO' by year's end

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... In a recent Gram Magazine interview with the European head of product marketing for Niantic, Anne Beuttenmüller  revealed that Pokémon GO is finally going to get a player-versus-player mechanic, and we should expect to see this new content before the year is out. Few details were provided, so it's anyone's guess as to how it will all work. Despite some concerns over the unknown, I'm sure fans will be plenty excited to hear that they'll finally be able to battle their friends in Pokémon GO within the next five months. Two months ago trading was finally added into  Pokémon GO after a two-year long wait. Despite the slow development, new and useful features have been making their way to the game. PvP has always been one of the defining mechanics of the mainline RPG series, and fans have been asking for its addition to  Pokémon GO since its initial release. Now that we know it's coming, one major worry is that the PvP will work

HTC jumps in with its first Android Pie update

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Android Pie has been available for a few months now, but HTC only now jumping in with its first update. The HTC U11 Life is the first device in the company's lineup to receive the Android Pie update, though HTC has promised to deliver the new version of Android to the HTC U11 , HTC U11+, HTC U12+ and the HTC U12 life. While we're excited to see begin its Android Pie rollout to older devices, we don't expect the update for the HTC U11 and the HTC U12+ are right around the corner. The update that's currently rolling out is for the Android One version of the HTC U11 life which runs on stock Android with a few minor tweaks. The HTC Sense variant of the HTC U11 life will likely not receive its Android Pie update for a few more months and the US model sold by T-Mobile will likely get its update even later than that. Project Treble falls short, leaving Android more fragmented than ever HTC hasn't given any indication as to when the HTC U12+ will receive its Androi

Apple Music is coming to Amazon Echo devices in December

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... Music streaming is a popular use for smart speakers, but the particular speaker you have dictates which services you have access to. Amazon's speakers are getting better in that regard in the near future, as the company has announced that Apple Music will be available on Echo devices later this year. Availability of Apple Music is a fairly big deal, as it was previously only streaming on Apple's pricey HomePod speakers. The partnership could be lucrative for both parties, potentially driving both Apple Music subscriptions and Amazon Echo sales during holiday shopping. Amazon didn't give an exact date for Apple Music availability, saying only that it was coming "this holiday season" — and unless you consider New Year's Day part of the season, that only leaves December. There's no word on when or if Apple Music will be available on Google Home. #Google #Android #Smartphones #OS #News @ndrdnw

Spotify app testing local song playback, Library UI changes, and more

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There are also new tools for podcasts. Spotify 's been my go-to music service for years now, but I'll be the first to say that its Android app is always due for improvement. The recent UI overhaul has made things a lot better, and according to some new features that were recently found in an APK teardown , a few cool tricks could be coming in the near future. First and foremost, the teardown reveals the ability to play songs that are locally stored on your Android device within Spotify. This isn't the same as fully uploading your tracks to the service the way you can with Google Play Music, but this is still a big step in the right direction. The "Your Library" tab also appears to be getting tweaked once more with a change to a tabbed layout for accessing your various playlists, songs, artists, etc. As it stands right now, these menu options are just stacked on top of one another above the titles you've recently listened to. If you like

YouTube Music 2.61 reveals more about autoplay, playing on-device files [APK Insight]

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YouTube Music 2.61 is beginning to roll out on Android with follow-up about the upcoming features revealed during the last update. This version better details the autoplay functionality, listening to on-device songs, and more. About APK Insight : In this 'APK Insight' post, we've decompiled the latest version of an application that Google uploaded to the Play Store. When we decompile these files (called APKs, in the case of Android apps), we're able to see various lines of code within that hint at possible future features. Keep in mind that Google may or may not ever ship these features, and our interpretation of what they are may be imperfect. We'll try to enable those that are closer to being finished, however, to show you how they'll look in the case that they do ship. With that in mind, read on. Autoplay countdown Revealed in the last update , YouTube Music 2.61 provides more details about the upcoming "Autoplay on launch" feature. N

NVIDIA SHIELD Android TV re-review: Not the box you bought three years ago

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The device we currently know as the "NVIDIA SHIELD" is not the first one to carry the name. That honor goes to the handheld device launched in 2013, later renamed SHIELD Portable. After that came the SHIELD Tablet, and finally the SHIELD Android TV in 2015. It was not the only way to get Android TV, but NVIDIA's box is the only one that had any staying power. Three years on, this device has gotten 20 updates across three major Android versions. I can't think of another Android device that offers so much value after more than three years of use. That's why we're taking another look at the SHIELD—it's changed quite a lot. NVIDIA has added integrations with services like Plex and SmartThings, and there's the ever-evolving GeForce Now streaming service. While NVIDIA has launched a revamped, smaller SHIELD, the original hardware gets all the same updates and features. The Android TV implementation looks and works much differently tha

Apple Music coming to Amazon Echo devices

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Amazon announced today that Apple Music service is coming to the company's Echo series of devices. Echo customers will be able to use Apple Music starting the week of December 17. Apple Music on Echo will work similarly to other music services, which currently include Spotify, Pandora, Amazon's own Prime Music and other local services depending upon user location. To set up Apple Music, you will have to login through the Amazon Alexa app on your phone and once the process is complete, you can just ask Alexa to play songs on Apple Music. The move is surprising but welcome nonetheless. Apple has its own HomePod system, which only plays Apple Music but it's in a different price class compared to Amazon Echo products. Apple is pushing hard to make Apple Music accessible to as many people as possible. In 2015, the company released an app on Android after a short period of iOS/iTunes exclusivity. In 2016, the service became available on Sonos smart speakers. Last ye

You can try these three amazing titles with Xbox Game Pass for $1

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You can try these three amazing titles with Xbox Game Pass for $1 $1 for 1 month of Xbox Game Pass With must-play new releases coming out almost as often as movies, it can get pretty difficult to buy and play it all. The good news is that Xbox is now offering Xbox Game Pass, a solid alternative to blindly buying new games before you try them. Xbox Game Pass offers you unlimited access to an ever-expanding library of games, so you can try out new titles before you decide to buy or just keep the variety alive by constantly playing new games. Best of all, you can get 1 month of Xbox Game Pass for just $1 . Xbox Game Pass gives you unlimited access to its catalog of over 100 games – all you have to do is download the games you want and play them anytime, online or offline. If you start to really hit a groove with a game in the catalog, you can buy it as it leave the catalog for up to 20% off, and any add-on packs or consumables for up to 10% off. Plus, you'll get lau