Top smartphone reviews of 2017

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Being a mobile tech reviewer definitely has its perks. Shiny new devices are great and all, but still, at the end of the day, the most gratifying thing is to see our work actually help out readers and eager buyers navigate the vast and often confusing smartphone market. 2017 was a really interesting year, with many great announcements and more than one interesting trend set in motion and ready to unfold in 2018. Before CES kicks off and draws our collective attention to the future of mobile, what better time to sift through the top ten reviews of 2017, as rated by your interest....


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17 features and tricks to help you get started with Spotify

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Spotify is one of the world's most popular music streaming services, with 157 million active users ( as of December 2017 ) and over 35 million songs. Originally born in Sweden, it quickly gained popularity as it expanded outside of its home country. Frankly, it's hard to believe that Spotify hit U.S. shores almost seven years ago. For many who were accustomed to mainstays at the time like Pandora and iHeartRadio, Spotify represented something different. And to some of us, its disparity to those other services was off-putting. I was one of those people who was initially excited about it, then quickly became frustrated with it when I tried to use it like Pandora, which was my go-to back then. Fast forward to the very recent past and I decided to give Spotify another try — at the behest of Artem, no less. When I sat down to figure out how to best utilize it, I wanted to learn how to not only get going, but how to use Spotify to the best of its abilities in both the free ...
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Google Pixel 3 Teardown: Adhesive secures battery, different OLED panel

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The Google Pixel 3 XL Teardown by iFixit we featured yesterday revealed the bigger variant offers a whole lot of glue and is a bit challenging to disassemble and repair. We were surprised by the AMOLED screen as it was made by Samsung–one of its biggest rivals. The smartphone isn't exactly our top choice right now but the premium flagship has potential. It has a smaller variant, the standard Pixel 3, that comes without a notch and obviously wide forehead and chin. The Pixel 3 teardown shouldn't be any different from the Google Pixel 3 XL teardown but iFixit was curious if the display is the same. The team opened the new Pixel and discovered the panel is from LG. That's an interesting fact because last year, the Pixel 2 XL had used a display from LG while the vanilla Pixel 2 screen was from Samsung. We're not sure if this is already the latest OLED screen technology from the other South Korean tech giant. Opening the third-gen Pixel 3 is the same as wit...
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Chrome OS Settings and Shortcuts to appear in launcher alongside Android apps

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With Android tablets being... Android tablets, Chromebooks are quickly being adapted to fill the void. On supported devices , they combine the utility of Android apps with the flexibility of an adaptive (and productive) form-factor. The latest tweak, presenting Android-style Settings and Shortcuts apps in the launcher, further affirms the role Google's Chrome OS is set to assume.  It's no secret, we're of the opinion that Chrome OS devices are set to displace Android tablets, and app-centric changes like these seem to imply that Google feels the same way. The changes were announced just earlier today by François Beaufort , Chrome evangelist and Googler. Shortcuts and Settings apps in the launcher on Chrome OS (above), former location for  The Settings app was previously accessible via the 3-dot menu in the corner of most windows, or the avatar and icon-speckled menu to be bottom right. Since Android apps landed for Chromebooks, the Settings menu has had a d...
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Difference Between SSD and HDD

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So you're building your own PC, and you're wondering whether to use the traditional hard drive or this new and improved solution: a solid-state drive (SSD). There's some major differences between the two types of drives, but what you're probably immediately noticing in your search for hardware parts is the price difference. Large mechanical drives (HDDs) are significantly less expensive than large SSDs, and there's a pretty big reason for that. Product Brand Name Price Seagate Seagate BarraCuda Internal Hard Drive 2TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5-Inch (ST2000DM006) Buy on Amazon | $59.99 (Price as of 12/19/2018 04:23 ET) Samsung Samsung 860 EVO 1TB 2.5 Inch SATA III Internal SSD (MZ-76E1T0B/AM) Buy on Amazon | $147 (Price as of 12/19/2018 04:23 ET) * Links in this table contain affiliate links, which means at no additional cost to you, we will earn a commission if you click through the link and make a purc...
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Windguru Lite

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Windguru Lite Windguru Weather VERSION/BUILD: 2.0.7 UPDATED: 9 January 2018 REQUIRES ANDROID: 4.4 and up FILE SIZE: 5.0 M The official "Lite" app to access wind and weather forecasts from windguru.cz. Warning! If you do not know anything about Windguru and you are looking for classic weather app with animated weather pictograms, this is NOT FOR YOU! :-) This app works similiar to the full website at www.windguru.cz but only offers the most important features: forecasts, live stations, maps. Development of this Lite app will go on, now it's just a subset of the web version but soon it should bring some "old good" features of the old app (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cz.windguru.wgappold) and become an alternative for those who wish something between the full site and the old-school app The app now supports adding favourites for quick access even for anonymous users. You can us...
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