Runtastic app now has direct integration with Google Play Music

If you happen to be an avid runner, you more than likely use a running app on your smartphone to help keep tabs on all of you runs. These apps are great tools for tracking calories burned, steps taken, average speed per mile, etc. However, with so many different choices out there when it comes to these apps, it can sometimes be a bit difficult to figure out which one will help meet your needs the best. If you’re a user of Google Play Music, the latest update to the Runtastic app for Android adds a pretty sweet feature that we think you’ll be a big fan of.

With the latest update, users will be able to listen to music from Google’s own streaming service directly within the Runtastic application. Simply navigate over to the music section of the app and you’ll then have the option to play a set of free playlists that are made specifically for going on runs. Google’s added a ton of custom playlists to listen to, and many of them like the Today’s Running Hits one feature songs that are all over 130 beats per minute to help you keep a fast and steady pace. It’s a pretty sweet feature to have baked into the Runtastic app itself, and makes it incredibly convenient to start listening to tunes without having to jump into a separate app.

Playlists being offered in the Runtastic app are free for all users – not just subscribers of Google Play Music All Access. However, as a user of Runtastic, Google is offering a a two-month free trial of the service to runners on both Android and iOS. There’s no word as to if or when the actual integration of Google Play Music in the Runtastic app will makes its way over to iOS, so we’re looking at this being an exclusive to Android for the time being.

The update is available now to all users of the Runtastic app on Android.

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AT&T and Sprint will let you swap your replacement Galaxy Note 7 for any other handset

The brown stuff appears to be hitting the proverbial fan once again for Samsung, whose Galaxy Note 7 recall has been thrown into jeopardy by reports of replacements also exploding. As authorities investigate a recent incident involving supposedly ‘safe’ Note 7 on a Southwest flight, many businesses are taking matters into their own hands, and some U.S. carriers have also reacted by allowing worried owners of Samsung’s phablet to swap the device for a different handset. 

Samsung is cooperating with the CPSC to get to the bottom of the highly-publicised plane incident earlier this week. Meanwhile, those on AT&T and Sprint can go ahead and swap their device for any other phone, even the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. Sprint’s offer stands for the duration of the “investigation window,” while AT&T has informed 9to5Google that “customers with replacement Note 7s are able to exchange them for another device.”

There’s no word from Verizon as yet, but T-Mobile is sticking to its ‘Uncarrier’ motif and going against the grain for now. With that said, all phones sold by T-Mo are subject to a 14-day ‘remorse return’ policy, so many should still be able to obtain a new handset. It’s likely that many carriers and retailers across the world will be running similar offers right now so if you’re outside of the United States, you may want to contact the place of your Note 7 purchase. 

We’ll keep you updated on the Verizon situation. If Big Red does join AT&T and Sprint, it’ll be interesting to see if the Google Pixel and Pixel XL are included in the pool of devices on offer.

In the meantime, let us know if you’re planning to replace your Note 7 (again) in the comments. 

Saga: the Galaxy Note 7 may be recalled again

Saga: the Galaxy Note 7 may be recalled again

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Oppo R9s stars in Chinese television commercial

Earlier today, we showed you a promotional poster for the Oppo R9S. The phone is expected to feature a 5.5-inch screen with a 1080 x 1920 resolution. A Snapdragon 625 SoC is under the hood carrying an octa-core CPU and the Adreno 506 GPU. 4GB of RAM is inside along with 64GB of flash storage. A 16MP camera adorns the back of the handset, while a 13MP front-facing camera handles selfies and video chats. A 3010mAh battery keeps the lights on, and Oppo’s Super VOOC technology quickly adds juice to the cell.

Speaking about a 13MP selfie snapper, a 15-second television spot for the Oppo R9S centers on a selfie being snapped by a motorcyclist who takes the picture, and drives away. Later this month, we expect to see both the Oppo R9S and Oppo R9S Plus unveiled. The latter should come with a 6-inch screen carrying a 1080 x 1920 resolution. The Snapdragon 652 SoC powers this model with an octa-core CPU and the Adreno 510 GPU. 4GB of RAM is inside along with 64GB of native storage, and a 4120mAh battery.

You can get a look at the Oppo R9S by viewing the ad which has been leaked from Weibo. All you need to do is click on the video at the top of this article.

via AndroidPure

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LG V20 arrives at Sprint on October 28

Following T-Mobile and AT&T, Sprint today announced that it, too, will be launching the LG V20 this month. The smartphone will be available via all Sprint retail channels starting October 28, though pre-sales should begin one week earlier, on October 21.

For a limited time, Sprint will let you trade in your old smartphone for an LG V20, and receive up to $200 credit, plus a free pair of Bang & Olufsen H3 earphones (valued at $149).

The LG V20 is the world’s first handset to run Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box, and, unsurprisingly, it will also be the first Nougat device on Sprint.

With its 5.7-inch Quad HD main display and its 2.1-inch secondary screen, the LG V20 is quite a large smartphone, so it’s not for everyone. Powered by a high-end Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor, the V20 is made out of metal, further featuring 4 GB of RAM, 64 GB of expandable storage space, fingerprint scanner, dual rear camera (16 MP + 8 MP), and a 3200 mAh battery. For a closer look at the phone, you should check out our LG V20 preview.

Sprint did not say how much the LG V20 will cost. Hopefully, the handset won’t be as expensive as on AT&T, which asks $27.67 per month for 30 months (that’s a total of $830) for its V20.

LG V20

source: Sprint

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Deal: B&H selling the Microsoft Lumia 550 at just $59.99 for a (very) limited time

If you act fast, you can get the Microsoft Lumia 550 from B&H at a price of $59.99.

A few days ago, we told you that Microsoft is selling the entry-level Lumia 550 at $99, down from the handset’s usual price of $139. That was already a good deal on a decent phone, but it turns out that B&H is currently selling the Microsoft Lumia 550 at an even lower price.

AT $59, the handset is offered at an impressive 57% discount compared to the standard pricing. In our eyes, this is a very good deal for one of the best entry-level smartphones around. Just note that the deal expires tonight, meaning that you only have a few more hours to place a purchase. 

The price is good for an unlocked version of the phone, which will work just fine with GSM carriers such as T-Mobile or AT&T. Sprint and Verizon subscribers should look elsewhere! 

If you’re in need of a secondary phone, getting the Lumia 550 at just $59.99 should be tempting. The handset comes with raw specs that include a 4.7-inch display running at 720 by 1280 pixels, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 SoC paired with 1GB of RAM, and 8GB of expandable storage. In the imaging department, the Lumia 550 features a 5MP primary camera on the front as well as a 2MP selfie shooter on the front. Other specs include a 2,100mAh battery and Microsoft’s Windows 10 Mobile.

Here are some more details about the Microsoft Lumia 550:

What do you guys think of this deal? 

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Samsung Ruled to Pay Apple $119.6 Million Over Slide-to-Unlock Lawsuit

Dating back to 2011, Samsung and Apple have been duking it out in courts over a variety of different patent and copyright issues between them.

According to Bloomberg, Apple has won an appeals case against Samsung, which focused on a patent infringement case around the slide-to-unlock feature found on previous-generation iOS devices. This new ruling states that the initial panel was wrong for throwing out the judgment against Samsung, and has reinstated the $119.6 million owed to Apple from the company.

The decision was made in an 8-3 ruling in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, who stated that the panel back in February that threw out the judgement was wrong. On top of that, this new ruling also stated that the trial judge should consider that the judgment should be increased based on any “intentional infringement” made by Samsung.

“In this case, Apple claimed that Samsung infringed patents for the slide-to-unlock feature, autocorrect and a way to detect phone numbers so they can be tapped to make phone calls. The bulk of the award, $98.7 million, was for the detection patent that the earlier panel said wasn’t infringed. The February decision also said the other two patents were invalid.”

On Tuesday, October 11, the same appeals court will also look at the case from 2011 where Apple alleged Samsung infringed on copyrighted patented designs of the iPhone to build its own smartphones.

[via Bloomberg]

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Inside Apple's new audio adapter: X-Rays reveal its hidden components

Apple’s new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus do not feature a 3.5mm headset jack, and yes, that’s annoying many people out there. After all, your home speakers, car stereo, headphones, and so on all seem to rely on it.

However, Apple is not leaving you without a way to connect to those systems: the company provides a handy adapter free in the box with every iPhone that connects to the Lightning port on one end and provides an outlet to a 3.5mm jack on the other. If you lose it, you can buy a new one for $9, the cheapest for an Apple adapter.

All of this suggests that there might not be much to that adapter. However, recently released X-Ray images of it, reveal quite the opposite. A lot of the space right below the actual connecting pins is occupied by an integrated circuit, a chip that obviously is tasked with some important feature.

Officially, there’s no explanation by Apple as to what it does, but the most obvious guess is that it contains a digital-to-analog converter, or a DAC, in addition to an amplifier and an analog-to-digital converter. That is needed because Apple’s Lightning connector is digital, while headphones require an analog signal. It’s the DAC that makes that conversion.

Interestingly, additional testing revealed that while that new DAC inside the adapter delivers a slightly worse audio quality than the built-in solution before, the difference might not even be audible to most people. With this, a lot of the mysterious around the curious adapter are finally unraveled.

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