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Jumat, 30 Juni 2017

OnePlus is once again misleading customers in India

A phone that went on sale three days ago cannot be the "highest-grossing phone ever."

The OnePlus 5 went on sale in India and other global markets earlier this week, and the brand promptly announced two days after sales kicked off that the device was the highest-grossing phone on Amazon India during a launch week.

As a result, Amazon announced that it was extending its SBI cashback offer — which sees SBI credit and debit card holders receiving a ₹1,500 cashback on the phone — until July 2. OnePlus is now touting the extension of the cashback offer via a text message that's going to everyone who registered an interest in its latest phone, which according to Amazon is over 1 million people. Conveniently, the company removed the "at launch" reference from the message, making it seem like the OnePlus 5 is the highest-grossing phone ever.

The text in its entirety reads, "Thanks for making OnePlus 5 the highest-grossing phone ever! Avail Rs 1500 cashback on SBI cards till 2nd July. Shop now! http://ift.tt/2stdHge." If you're looking to compare, here's the tweet the company sent out a few days ago:

OnePlus removed the Amazon India reference, as well as the bit about the phone being the highest-grossing during the first week of launch. This isn't the first time the company misled customers — earlier this year, it rolled out a huge advertising campaign starring Amitabh Bachchan in which it said that the OnePlus 3T was the "highest-rated smartphone" in the country, pitting it against the S7 edge, Pixel, and the iPhone 7 Plus.

The ad was based on the Kaun Banega Crorepati format (India's version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire), to which Sony owns the rights. Citing copyright infringement and "unfair competition," Sony requested the Delhi High Court to get the ad off the air, and it succeeded:

We put the defendants on notice hoping that they will stop this brazen and illegal act. We were forced to go to court when we failed to get a response. What made the need for legal action even more necessary is that the defendants were actually glorifying the approach towards this type of advertising, even after receipt of the notice.

OnePlus scaled back on dubious marketing tactics in other regions over the course of the last year, but the same cannot be said of its Indian unit.

Best adult apps in VR

Finding adult apps for VR is easy, finding awesome adult apps in VR can be more difficult.

Porn in VR is all over the place these days. In fact, all you have to do is a quick Google search and you'll find plenty of websites and apps that can give you what you're looking for. Not all adults apps are awesome though. So instead of slogging through the internet and hoping you find an awesome app, we've done the work for you. Below you'll find the best apps in VR for adult entertainment.

Read more at VRHeads.com

Best apps for celebrating Canada Day

Happy 150th birthday, Canada!

This weekend is extra special, as Canada celebrates its 150th year of confederation! There's so much to do and explore not only on July 1st but throughout the entire summer!

We've compiled some great apps to help you get the most out of this long weekend and the weekends to follow, along with a couple Canadian-made games that are also worth celebrating. Now get out there and explore our great nation!

Canada Day in the Capital

If you're planning to head down to Ottawa to celebrate Canada 150 in the nation's capital, download Canada Day in the Capital to help you plan out all the celebrations. Whether you're headed to Parliament Hill or other events throughout the weekend the app has all the information you'll need including schedules, maps, and a list of all the participating artists.

There's also an official photo filter for capturing your favorite moments. If you're fortunate enough to be in Ottawa on Canada Day, let this app guide you around town.

Download: Canada Day in the Capital (Free)


Parks Canada — National App

Canada is rich with natural resources, including our network of national parks that span from coast to coast. To celebrate Canada's 150th birthday, every Canadian has been granted free access to those parks — Parks Canada has been handing out vehicle passes like candy at a parade.

Interested in learning more about the National Parks in your province or elsewhere? Check out Parks Canada's app for Android, which not only helps you discover some of Canada's hidden gems but also includes a section for upcoming events related to Canada's 150th.

Download: Parks Canada app (Free)


Parks Canada Learn to Camp

Building off the previous app, if you're interested in taking advantage of the free parks pass this summer but have never gone camping before, Parks Canada has you covered with its Learn to Camp app.

Preparation and planning are key for a successful camping trip, but it's surprisingly easy to forget to pack some essentials. This app features a guide of camping basics, recipes for cooking meals on a camp stove or campfire, as well as a checklist to confirm you've got everything you need before you head out of the city.

Download: Parks Canada Learn to Camp (Free)


CFL Mobile

It's football season in Canada! Yes, the 2017 CFL season is just getting underway, and the CFL Mobile app is the best way to follow your favorite team when you're not able to make it down to the stadium.

The CFL Mobile app is your one-stop for the latest news, scores, stats, and video including highlights, recaps, and interviews with CFL players and coaches. Unable to watch the game? Follow along on your phone with the Live Game Tracker. I know I'll be watching the Canada Day match up between the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Go Bombers!

Download: CFL Mobile (Free)


How Canadian are you, eh?

Canada has a rich, 150 years of history — how knowledgable are you?

Developed by the Department of Citizenship and Immigration, this quiz will test you with 20 questions relating to Canada's history. While it's not really a contest to see who's more Canadian, it's a fun way to quiz your friends and family.

Download: How Canadian are you, eh? (Free)


Alto's Adventure

Fact: Alto's Adventure is one of the best games you'll find on Android.

Also a fact: Alto's Adventure was entirely developed and published by Canadian teams.

While it might see odd to recommend a snowboarding game right as summer is kicking off in earnest (snow is the last thing any of us want to be thinking about right now), it still holds up two years on and is a great option

Download: Alto's Adventure (Free)

Tom Clancy's ShadowBreak

At E3, Ubisoft Montreal unveiled a couple of new games for Android, Tom Clancy's ShadowBreak and South Park: Phone Destroyer. While they haven't been officially released yet, Ubisoft has soft launched the games in Canada!

I've highlighted ShadowBreak in particular because it's really well done and also topical to Canada, with the recent news of a the Canadian sniper who saved lives with a world record shot of over 3km. The game is a mix between first-person shooter and an arena battle game like Clash Royale, and you can play it exclusively with other Canadians for the time being!

Download: Tom Clancy's ShadowBreak (Free w/IAPs)

Put some Canadian pride on your home screen with these Canada Day themes!

"Canada… big, wide, and very, very cold!" "WHAT?!"

That's the beginning of the Canada movie at Epcot, and that's the first thing that pops into my head whenever I think of our northern neighbors. Safe to say, I am not an expert on the country. Until I started to work for Android Central, my Canadian experiences consisted of Epcot and Hetalia. That said, there's a lot to be envious of looking at Canada. You've got good healthcare, you've got Justin Trudeau, you've got all that maple syrup, and the biggest chance of a riot in Canada seems to be a hockey match. If it weren't for those winters and how much more expensive technological gadgetry seems to be up there, I'd be all over it!

No matter where you call your Canadian home, you can display some home screen pride this Canada Day with this pair of themes.

Wallpapers

This landscape wallpaper features one of Canada's most photogenic (and famous) locals: Moraine Lake. This idyllic scene has been a wallpaper many, many times before, as it is one of the original Android wallpapers back during its preview days. This scene was so famous it used to be on the Canadian $20 bill, though I can't for the life of me think of why they'd want to replace it. This wallpaper is relatively simple, but it plays well with a wide variety of layouts, and theming widgets and icons to match that red Maple Leaf heart brings the whole ensemble together nicely.

Canada Heart

Okay, this is gonna feel a little cliché, but this wallpaper really does exemplify a lot of Canadian culture in a flat, monochromatic spread. If you can keep your icons and widgets off the Maple Leaf, this wallpaper can produce a beautifully clean theme thanks to minimal white widgets and icons.

Explore Canada

How to apply your wallpaper

Note: These instructions were written for an Android phone using Nova Launcher, but setting a wallpaper on most devices follows much of the same process.

  1. Long-press an open space on your home screen.
  2. Tap Wallpapers.
  3. Tap Pick image.

  4. Select your downloaded wallpaper.
  5. The wallpaper should be centered automatically, so tap Set wallpaper.
  6. Tap home and lock screen.

Icon Packs

For both themes, arrange your home screen icons around the main emblem of the wallpaper. I used subgrid positioning on Nova Launcher to arrange my home screen icons in a gently slanted grid.

Glim is a wonderfully Material pack with both a free and paid version, and it's a pack with a rainbow of colored variants for most popular apps, from system apps and Google apps to third-party apps like Facebook and Netflix. It also has hundreds upon hundreds of alternate icons. I've employed Glim's color-variant icons for holiday themes, an adorable BB-8 theme, and several others over the years.

For the Canada Heart theme, we'll use the red variant icons in this pack, so you'll also need a home screen launcher that supports individual custom icons, such as our favorite theming launchers.

For Explore Canada, we're coming back to another of my favorite icon packs. There are a lot of white icon packs out there, but few have the style and the sheer number of supported icons as Whicons by Randle. This pack will make your app icons blend into the wallpaper expertly, but if you need some icons that overlap the white in the wallpaper, consider having Zwart, Whicon's dark doppelganger, on hand to set a custom icon or two black for contrast.

How to set an icon pack

  1. Open Whicons (or Glim for Canada Heart).
  2. Tap the three-line menu in the top left corner.
  3. Tap Apply.

  4. Tap your launcher.
  5. Tap OK of Apply, depending on your launcher.

If your launcher isn't listed in step 4, your launcher might not be supported. Check the icon pack settings in your specific launcher, and if your launcher isn't supported, consider using another launcher.

How to apply custom individual icons

  1. Long-press an icon you wish to change.
  2. Tap Edit.
  3. Tap the icon window to change the icon.

  4. Select Glim.
  5. Tap the open app icon in the top right corner of the screen to enter Glim's icon picker.
  6. Search for the app icon you wish to use using the search bar at the top of the screen.

  7. Tap your desired red icon.
  8. Tap Done.
  9. Repeat Steps 1-8 with each of your dock icons.

Widgets

Widgets can add extra functionality to your home screen while keeping things beautiful. We've got a variety of widgets that can work alongside our wallpapers and icons.

Google Search bar widget

Theming the Google search bar to match your wallpaper can add a lovely pop of color to your theme while also giving you another shortcut to Google Search, or a reminder of that spiffy new Google Now page Nova Launcher Beta added recently.

  1. Long-press a blank space on the home screen.
  2. Tap Widgets.
  3. Under Nova Launcher, press and drag Quick Search Bar the desired location on your home screen.

  4. Long-press your new search widget until a menu appears.
  5. Tap Resize.
  6. Drag the left edge of the widget to the left edge of the screen. If you want the date and time displayed, drag the right edge of the widget to the right edge of the screen.

  7. Long-press your new search widget until a menu appears.
  8. Tap Edit.
  9. Under Bar Style, tap pill (the last option).

  10. Tap Bar Color. 11a. For Explore Canada, tap white. 11b. For Canada Heart, tap more colors (the circle with the three dots in it).

  11. For the Canada Heart, type in #cc303b.
  12. Tap OK.
  13. Once you're satisfied with your color choice, tap the check mark in the top left corner of the screen.

If you're using Explore Canada, I'm happy to tell you that Action Launcher's Quicktheme will easily let you set your Quickbar to White for your theme. Quicktheme consistently missed the red in Canada Heart, but you could still set another color to your Quickbar, or use another launcher.

  1. Open Action Settings.
  2. Tap Quicktheme.
  3. Tap Search box.

  4. Tap Material Light.
  5. Tap OK.

1Weather widget

1Weather's is a beautiful, Material, modern weather app with a wonderful layout and the best damn weather widgets in Android. They scale beautifully across a variety of home screens, they can blend in or stand out with practiced ease, and they come in half a dozen formats for your weather-aware priorities. We'll use a Tabbed widget here to give us a look ahead at the forecast without having to open the main app.

  1. Long-press an open space on your home screen.
  2. Tap Widgets.
  3. Press and drag the 1Weather Tabbed Widget to the desired location on your home screen.

  4. In the widget settings window that appears, tap Background color.
  5. Tap Transparent.

  6. Tap Icon Set.
  7. Tap White.
  8. Tap Accent.

    9a. Tap white for Explore Canada. 9b. Tap dark red for Canada Heart.

  9. Tap Done.

  10. Long-press your new weather widget until a menu pops up.
  11. Tap Resize.
  12. Drag the edges of your widget to size the widget to your liking.

Music widgets

For Explore Canada, Ubiquity Music Widget provides a clean transparent widget that's easy to set and easy to enjoy.

  1. Open Ubiquity Music Widget.
  2. Tap Open Notification Access Settings.
  3. Slide the toggle next to Ubiquity Music Widget to On.

  4. In Ubiquity Music Widget, under 4x1 Widget Style, tap Clear.
  5. Long-press an open space on your home screen.
  6. Tap Widgets.

  7. Under Ubiquity Music Widget, press and hold Ubiquity Music Widget 4x1 widget.
  8. Drag Ubiquity Music Widget 4x1 widget widget to the desired location on your home screen.
  9. Release the widget to let it load.

  10. Long-press your new music widget until a menu appears.
  11. Tap Resize.
  12. Drag the edges of the widget to resize to your liking.

For Canada Heart, the Ubiquity widget would work, but we can turn things up to 11 with a custom-hued Material Music Komponent for KWGT. Before we begin, download our Canada Heart Music Widget Preset and copy it into the Kustom/widgets folder.

  1. Long-press an open space on your home screen.
  2. Tap widgets.
  3. Under KWGT, press and drag KWGT 4x2 to the top of your home screen.

  4. Long press your new widget until a menu appears.
  5. Tap Resize.
  6. Drag the edges of the widget to the edges of the screen.

  7. Tap your new widget to configure it.
  8. Tap Exported.
  9. Tap Canada Heart Music Widget.

  10. Tap Layer.
  11. Tap the + and - icons to adjust the scale of the music komponent until the album art is flush with the left edge of the box.
  12. Tap Save, the floppy disc icon on the top right bar of the screen.

That's it! It's Canada's 150th birthday this year, so celebrate it loud and proud with this theme!

🇨🇦

YouTube rolling out fresh interface for Android TV

After over a year, we have a nice big YouTube update.

YouTube's new Android TV interface is now rolling out, hopefully solving some of the issues people have reported that have led to a pretty horrid rating for the app in the Play Store. The new interface makes it a bit easier to browse on a big screen with some larger interface elements and new tabs running across the main home screen. That's all roughly the same, though, with the core of big tiles showing off videos sitting on top of a grey background remaining intact.

The video player interface is probably the biggest change that everyone will experience. Bringing up the UI over the top of a video is far less intrusive, letting you see more of the video when you bring up the scrubber and previous/play+pause/next buttons.

YouTube surely hasn't addressed every complaint, but there are lots of improvements here.

The seek bar is activated with a press up on your remote, where you'll now see a sequence of thumbnails from the video as you scrub through. When you highlight the previous or next buttons instead, you get a lineup of videos below the scrubber that will be coming up next when you press the button — far better than a list of suggestions. At the end of a video, you get a few second buffer to see what's coming up next (if you have auto play turned on) rather than immediately jumping to the next video in the lineup.

The update obviously can't address everything people were asking for with YouTube on Android TV, but getting our first major update in a year shows Google isn't completely forgetting about the platform. Grab the update on your Android TV box and enjoy the latest interface.

Deal: You can still get the HTC U11 for $599 with these codes

Deals are deals, and getting the HTC U!1 for $50 off its $649 price counts as a pretty good one!

If you've been on the fence about picking up an HTC U11, HTC's still trying to make the decision a bit easier. HTC's early bird pre-order codes to knock $50 off the price of an unlocked U11 are still running, even though the phone has been on sale for a few weeks now. With a code applied, the U11 is a smooth $599, which is a completely reasonable price considering what the phone offers.

You don't really have to do much to get this $50 discount. Just head to HTC's website, add an unlocked phone to your cart, then click the "Have a Promotion Code? Enter it here." button and enter AMAZINGU11 to get $50 off your order, no strings attached. There are several other promo codes floating around, and many of them may still work, but the one we can validate for sure is listed here.

The U11 ships for free, or you can use some of that $50 savings for 2-day shipping for $20 if you're impatient (we wouldn't blame you one bit).

So, have you decided on picking up a U11? Let us know in the comments below!

Best Android Phone Under $100

Best overall

Moto E4 (with ads)

See at Amazon

The Amazon-exclusive Moto E4 is a $130 phone reduced to $100. The catch? You'll get ads and offers from the retail giant on your lock screen, which may or may not be a deal-breaker depending on how you like to use your phone. (We've got a good breakdown of what those ads look like).

Otherwise, you're getting a decent entry-level Android phone for not a lot of money at all. The Moto E4 looks a lot like the Moto G5, but tones down some of the specs, offering a quad-core Snapdragon 425, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, and an 8MP camera powering the 5-inch 720p display. It all runs Android 7.1.1 Nougat with some great Moto adds-ons.

Bottom line: Putting up with lock screen ads allows you to get a $130 phone for $100. It's not perfect, but it's a lot better than you'd otherwise get for the cash.

One more thing: It's unlocked, so you can use it on any carrier of your choice. And if you know where to look, there are some places on the Internet that'll help you take care of those pesky ads.

Why the Moto E4 is best

Amazon plugs the price gap with offers on your lock screen.

With ads from Amazon, or without ads from Verizon, the Moto E4 gets you a great core Android experience — fast software, thanks to Motorola's hands-off approach towards customization — and decent specs all-round.

It's not the flashiest or showiest smartphone, with a relatively generic design, but you don't expect pizzaz when you're paying a Benjamin for a full-featured smartphone. The phone also retains the impressive features of its more-expensive Moto G5 counterpart, including a great autofocus camera and a front fingerprint sensor.

Best ad-free

Moto E LTE

See at Amazon

The unlocked Moto E LTE can be used on any supported network, and doesn't come with any of the bloatware you'd expect from the U.S. carriers. And better still, it's only $70. It's powered by an aging but still-capable Snapdragon 410 processor, and you get a 4.5-inch qHD (960x540) display. And there's only 8GB of storage, so an SD card will be an essential purchase.

Bottom line: A great, small phone that may be older than the Moto E4 but doesn't come with any ads for under $100.

One more thing: You'll definitely want to snap up a microSD card.

Best on Verizon

Moto E4

See at Verizon

If you're on Verizon prepaid, you can snag our best overall pick, the Moto E4, for even less than the ad-filled one from Amazon. While this version will be locked to Verizon, it's also just $70.

Bottom line: Trading ads for bloatware gets you Moto's best super-cheap phone for less — if you're on Verizon.

One more thing: Don't expect software updates to be as quick as the unlocked version.

Best on Cricket Wireless (AT&T)

LG Harmony

See at Cricket Wireless

If you want to get a prepaid phone from one of the big four carriers, your choices are limited, but AT&T's Cricket sub-brand has a great selection, including the LG Harmony for $100. It's got a big 5.3-inch HD display, a quad-core processor, 2800mAh battery, and Android 7.0 Nougat.

Bottom line: LG's got a strong prepaid game these days, and the Harmony is no exception.

One more thing: Don't expect many updates with this phone. That's the price of prepaid.

Best on MetroPCS (T-Mobile)

Samsung Galaxy J3 Prime

See at MetroPCS

MetroPCS's Galaxy J3 Prime packs in the essentials for a good deal less than $100. You're dealing with an entry-level quad-core processor, at 1.4GHz, 1.5GB of RAM, and a familiar Samsung-style chassis.

The biggest difference is the network — if you're in a great location for T-Mobile coverage, you'll be able to take advantage of this decent phone at MetroPCS.

Bottom line: You'll get Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box, which is rare for a phone this cheap.

One more thing: The phone is also available on T-Mobile, but it's over double the cost for some reason.

Best on Sprint

Samsung Galaxy J3 Emerge

See at Sprint

Deja vu? Sprint's Samsung Galaxy J3 Emerge is basically the same phone that's sold on T-Mobile, only in a slightly different color, and running older software. You get the same core experience and feature set, only with a less up-to-date operating system and on a network that may be more convenient for you.

Bottom line: Unlike its Tmo-toting counterpart, the Galaxy J3 on Sprint ships with Marshmallow not Nougat.

One more thing: Virgin Mobile stopped selling Android phones, so your only bet is to get this phone on Sprint.

Conclusion

You'll need to put up with the occasional ad, but Amazon's offer of a Moto E4 for under $100 is really hard to beat.

Best overall

Moto E4 (with ads)

See at Amazon

The Amazon-exclusive Moto E4 is a $130 phone reduced to $100. The catch? You'll get ads and offers from the retail giant on your lock screen, which may or may not be a deal-breaker depending on how you like to use your phone. (We've got a good breakdown of what those ads look like).

Otherwise, you're getting a decent entry-level Android phone for not a lot of money at all. The Moto E4 looks a lot like the Moto G5, but tones down some of the specs, offering a quad-core Snapdragon 425, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, and an 8MP camera powering the 5-inch 720p display. It all runs Android 7.1.1 Nougat with some great Moto adds-ons.

Bottom line: Putting up with lock screen ads allows you to get a $130 phone for $100. It's not perfect, but it's a lot better than you'd otherwise get for the cash.

One more thing: It's unlocked, so you can use it on any carrier of your choice. And if you know where to look, there are some places on the Internet that'll help you take care of those pesky ads.

Update June 2017: We've replaced the previous top choice, the Moto G Play, with the newer and better Moto E4, and have revamped some of the carrier choices because they were either no longer available, or no longer the best options.