Lordxdonval

Bluetooth is simultaneously useful and annoying.  It's great when you can get it to work, but the annoyances with Bluetooth audio is why many passed on the jack-less iPhone 7, Moto Z, and HTC U Ultra. Among the many other features of the Samsung Galaxy S8 is Bluetooth 5 support - the first phone to include the new standard. If you're unfamiliar, Bluetooth 5 (officially, there's no version number, like 4.0 had) is a fairly major upgrade from Bluetooth 4.0. It has double the bandwidth speed (2 Mb/s), 4x the range, and support for long-range low energy Bluetooth connections. That extra bandwidth is required for the Galaxy S8's "Dual audio" feature. This allows the phone to stream audio to two Bluetooth headsets or speakers at the same time. You can also adjust the volume for each device independently. It's like sharing an earbud with your friend, except with fewer wires and less bacteria.

Users of the messaging app Telegram may have noticed an update waiting for them today. This new version, 3.18,  adds in five compression options for videos and the much-requested voice calls. But before we get too carried away on that last one, let's look at the changelog. Telegram Calls are here: secure, crystal-clear, constantly improved by artificial intelligence. We are rolling them out in Europe today, the rest of the world will get calls within a few days. Choose between 5 grades of video compression and preview the quality of your video before you send it. Telegram bases itself on user security and privacy, so it's no surprise that voice calls will receive the same treatment. According to the company, the encryption is based on the one used for Secret Chats and builds upon the key exchange system. Each call will take place over a peer-to-peer (P2P) connection whenever possible and use the best audio codecs to save bandwidth. While the app will adapt to the network c...

There was some consternation last year as rumors swirled that Twitter was set to drop its long-standing 140-character limit.  The company ended up keeping the limit, but it's been working to make sure you can actually use all 140-characters. For example, Twitter decreed a while back that photos and videos no longer count against the limit. Now, it's doing the same for usernames. Finally.  To understand why this is a big deal, consider the following scenario: You reply to someone on Twitter, then a different person jumps in with a reply, and another person replies after that. Through no fault of your own, you'd now have to reply to three usernames if you want to continue including everyone in the conversation. That could easily take up half the 140 character limit, but those don't count at all anymore. Twitter will only count the text you add to the tweet in the 140-character limit. The official app will list the @names above the tweet for clarity, and tha...

The Samsung Galaxy Note7 was one of the most disastrous product launches in recent memory. After launching to rave reviews,  reports of the phone catching fire started to appear, eventually causing Samsung to conduct a global recall. Shortly after, Samsung started selling a 'safe' Note7, only for that model to start catching fire as well. Another global recall was initiated. Samsung later brought in two independent companies to help investigate the problem, and uncovered distinct problems with both the original and re-released models. Now, instead of throwing millions of new and old Note7s in landfills, Samsung will start selling a refurbished Note7 soon. This was already rumored, but now it has been confirmed. Details of the refurb model are scarce, but it is rumored to include a smaller battery to prevent overheating. Samsung says it will work with local regulators and carriers to sell the device. Hopefully the company will share more details soon, including availab...

We're back again with some more changes/tests in the Facebook app spotted by you sharp-eyed readers.  The more obvious of the two is a redesign of the Like, Comment, and Share buttons, but we also have some users who are seeing an option in the App Settings to cache some videos for offline viewing. Good stuff. So the "new" buttons keep the same thumb, bubble, and arrow icons we're all familiar with, only hollowed out. At the moment, the lower contrast with the background makes them a bit more difficult to see, but that's what the accompanying text is for, I suppose.       Also, we have a new toggle that has appeared for some users in the App Settings section. It is a safe assumption that this is to cache videos for offline viewing, for those that haven't disabled autoplay on videos (I highly recommend that you do, by the way). Oddly enough, I had this option on my phone a few days ago, but when I checked this morning, it was missing. The app is even on the...

Ever since Google started allowing paid apps and games to temporarily go on sale,  we've seen dozens of great deals. Perhaps in an effort to better highlight these sales, Google has added a 'Free App of the Week' section to the Google Play Store. The section can be found by scrolling down on the 'Apps' page of the Play Store, on either desktop or mobile, or simply by clicking the source link at the bottom of the post. Currently the featured app is 'Card Wars - Adventure Time,' with the sale ending in five days.

Facebook's Messenger is continuing its quest to add as many features as possible.  The latest additions are reactions (which was in testing for a while) and mentions. Both of these will be rolling out across the world "in the coming days". You'll be able to react to any single message in a thread, and choose between seven different reactions to do so. To add a reaction you press and hold any message and then tap to select one of the following emojis that show up: love, smile, wow, sad, angry, yes, and no. Note that those last two ones can also easily be interpreted as "like" and "dislike", respectively, given the fact that they're styled like a thumbs up and thumbs down. While you're in a conversation, you'll see reactions to messages in the lower corner, where you get a summary of how many people reacted. Tapping on that will tell you exactly who reacted how. And when someone reacts to one of your messages, you'll get a small ...