UMi Plus XDA TV Review

As we all know, flagship phones are not cheap. Many people simply do not have the money to spend on a high end flagship device. Today we are going to be looking at a phone that, while not a flagship, has many of the specs and features that you'd expect in one. This is the $200 UMi Plus.

 

Check out the YouTube video review from Miles to see how you can win an UMi Plus for yourself.

Thanks to UMi for sponsoring this video and letting us check out the UMi Plus.
See more info about the UMi Plus here.

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Tiered Fees are Coming to Swappa on November 1st

If you haven't already heard of the service, Swappa is an online marketplace that was launched for people to buy or sell mobile devices. Over the years, the types of products available for listing on the site have expanded to include tablets, laptops, wearables, and even VR headsets. With other reseller marketplaces such as eBay becoming cluttered and expensive for the seller, Swappa quickly caught on among enthusiasts. When we shut down the XDA marketplace back in 2013, partnering with Swappa was a no brainer to fill the gap left behind by our now-defunct marketplace.

Since Swappa launched, the company has only charged a measly $10 fee to the seller when their device was sold. If the device goes unsold, then the seller isn't charged a penny which is more than you can say for some of the competitors out there. But with such growing demand for the service, it seems that this service model was not sustainable for Swappa to continue offering to its customers. Swappa has just announced that they will be introducing a tiered fee system that will be applied to all devices listed on the site starting on November 1st. The result is that some sellers will be charged more than the previous $10 flat fee, but it's still much less than its competitors.

To break things down, if your device is sold on Swappa within the $0 – $100 price range then the fee will only be $5. If the device you just sold on Swappa was priced between $101 and $300, then your fee will be the same $10 like it always has been. Any devices sold at a price over $300 will be subject to an additional $5 per price tier increase, as listed in the chart below.

Be sure to check Swappa's fee page for the full details, but looking at the price difference between the available services it's clear that Swappa's tiered pricing system makes Swappa the preferable choice for enthusiasts looking to buy or sell their device. If this article is the first time you've ever heard of Swappa, then go register an account using the XDA-Developers username integration, and keep on the lookout for great sales on a wide variety of products.

Source: Swappa

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Sony Announces PS Vue for Android TV

Sony just made a big announcement for PS Vue users who also have a smart TV or a standalone box running Android TV. PS Vue on Android isn't new, as the app has been available on mobile devices for a few months now. The big news this week is that PlayStation Vue is finally available for Android TV. Sony says you can download the new PS Vue app on your Android TV device that's running "Android OS 4.4 or higher" (even though we know Android TV launched with 5.0 Lollipop).

If you already have a PS Vue subscription, then you can download their new Android TV application from the Play Store and instantly start watching the content on your TV right now. Those who have yet to try out PS Vue, Sony is offering a free seven-day trial over on the PS Vue website. After you sign up, you can easily connect your Android TV device to your newly-created account.

PS Vue comes with a number of different subscription plans that try to fit your personal usage. The Access plan starts at $30 per month, but could be $40 if you live in a city with "major live local broadcast stations". This plan comes with over 55 channels including live cable TV, movies, and sports. The Core plan is priced at $35/$45 and comes with over 70 channels including live national and regional sports networks.

The Elite PS Vue subscription plan will cost you $45/$55 and it comes with over 100 channels that add in movie and entertainment channels. Lastly we have the Ultra plan that will run you $65/$75, and adds in both Showtime as well as HBO. These plans also come with Sony's cloud-based DVR system that enables you to "record hundreds of shows at once with no scheduling conflicts."

Sony also tells us that PS Vue will be launching on both the PC as well as macOS soon, and that subscribers can stream PlayStation Vue content on up to five devices at the same time.

Source: PlayStation Blog

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Oracle Files for an Appeal in its Case Against Google

Soon after Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems, the company went after Google for allegedly infringing on copyrights and patents that are related to Java. It took two years before the case went to trial and Oracle eventually lost as the courts were unable to find any evidence about what the company had claimed. Oracle then decided to revive part of its case thanks to the appeals process in the United States, with the second trial focusing solely on the APIs for Java.

During this time, we watched as Android 7.0 would not use Oracles proprietary Java APIs, an Oracle attorney revealed Android revenue information that was meant to be for their eyes only, the judge accused both Oracle and Google they were setting up the jury to fail. Oracle felt that Google should pay $9.3 billion for the way they used Java's APIs, but the settlement talks ended up falling through.

The jury agreed that Google's use of the Java APIs were considered fair use, and that they shouldn't be penalized for how it was implemented in Android. Oracle even tried to have their copyright trial loss thrown out because Google hadn't told the courts they were planning to launch Android apps on Chrome OS. This request was denied, but now they have filed for an appeal to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

It's unclear at this time if they will be granted the appeal, but it is highly likely since it is such a high profile case. If granted, Oracle will have an uphill battle as the tests for whether something is fair use or not are pretty subjective. So the case is now going back to the Federal Circuit, which is the same appeals court that originally said APIs could be copyrighted. Still, it will be a long and difficult road for Oracle's lawyers to try and pull off a win.

Source: Ars Technica

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Which Past Phone Did You Like for its Innovation?

The recently released Xiaomi Mi MIX has opened up to a lot of appreciation for its bold approach in imagining what the smartphone future would look like, while still maintaining commercial sense (even if SHARP has done similar things before). With a nearly bezelless display, and all the innovation that went into making the phone possible, the Mi MIX is a breath of fresh air in the world of ordinarily rounded rectangles.

But the Mi MIX is not the first one to have experimented. There have been a lot of phones, both smart and feature phones alike, that stood out of the pack. They chose to redefine what the smartphone experience of the future would be like, albeit not all tasted the same success. So we ask you,

Which phone from the past did you like for its innovation? What did the phone bring to the market that was not considered ordinary at that time? Was it a new set of features, or was it a new software experience? How popular did the phone get, and how did it influence the future that we are living in today?

Let us know in the comments below!

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Alphabet Brings in Over $5 Billion in Profit During Q3 2016

To round off the week, Alphabet has just published their 3rd quarter financial earnings for investors and the media. We can see that June, July, August and September were good for the internet tech giant. Overall revenue for the quarter increased to $22.4 billion when compared to the same quarter last year (which was at $18.6 billion). This quarter's revenue is up from $21.5 billion when you compare it to the second quarter of this year.

Google has reported that they were able to net $5.7 billion in total profit for the quarter, which is up from $4.7 billion compared to the same quarter of last year. This was mostly attributed to the profits that were brought in from the Google division. Google themselves saw their overall revenue go from $18.5 during the third quarter of 2015 up to $22.2 billion this year — with net profit increasing from $5.8 billion during the quarter last year all the way up to $6.7 billion from June through September of this year.

Naturally, Alphabet lost some of its profits thanks to their other bets/moonshot projects that they currently invest in. Alphabet's other bets consist of projects like Nest, Fiber, Verily, and more. They were able to increase overall revenue from $141 million during the third quarter of last year to $197 million this year. However, these other bets also cost Alphabet a total of $865 million and this is actually down from the operating loss of $980 million compared to the same quarter last year.

These types of results have been very typical ever since Alphabet was formed as the parent company of Google. We see the established products and services are bringing in enough profit to keep their moonshot projects funded. Sometimes these other bets don't pan out exactly as they originally planned. Which is what we're currently seeing with the fiber side of Google Access, but we can see that the company is still able to beat expectations.

Source: Alphabet Investor Relations

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Google Assistant Gains IFTTT Support

This year, we're seeing Google take on the likes of Amazon, Siri and Microsoft in the personal assistant category with Google Assistant. The company will begin shipping out Google Home pre-orders within the next week, but the service won't be as powerful as its competition if it doesn't support a wide range of 3rd-party products and services. Many will be happy to use it for asking Google questions and interacting with Google services, but it will need more if it wants to be successful.

We've watched as Amazon has continually supported their Alexa personal assistant ever since the Echo was launched in November of 2014. 3rd-party developers are embedding the service into their own products (which is what Google is hoping for as well), and earlier this year they announced Alexa had over 1,000 skills. Amazon has even announced a year-long Alexa hackathon, and will be putting up a record-breaking $2.5 million purse for it.

So it's clear that Amazon is very dedicated to making Alexa work with as many services and connected devices as possible. This is why it was so surprising when Google announced the only products Google Home had support for was Philips Hue and Samsung SmartThings, as well as "given" ones like Nest. Granted, Google is just getting started in this market so it's fair that they aren't launching with support for hundreds of products and services.

Google just needs to be dedicated to the platform and it will easily be able to compete with the likes of Amazon Alexa. This is why it's such good news to hear that Google Assistant has gained support for IFTTT this week. Before Google Home has even been launched, it is able to connect with 258 different IFTTT channels. So, on the Pixel and Pixel XL, you can already do things like send a tweet by voice, send a note on Slack, add a new Google contact, add a Todoist task and so much more.

Be sure to check out the Google Assistant IFTTT channel to see all of the actions that are available.

Source: IFTTT

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