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Showing posts from August, 2018

Samsung Galaxy Watch review

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The Samsung Galaxy Watch isn't called the Gear S4, but it acts a lot like a sequel to the Gear Sport, judging from our brief hands-on time with the smartwatch. It's designed to look and feel like a real watch, yet help you stay fit and connected. It does that while also adding Bixby Voice, new watch faces, and better battery life. All of this is just enough change for it warrant a new name. Here's what we thought. Samsung Galaxy Watch release date and price Good news, the Samsung Galaxy Watch, depending on the size you want, is actually cheaper than the Gear S3 at launch. There are also both Bluetooth and LTE connected models of the smartwatch. In the US, the Galaxy Watch price starts at $329 for the 42mm version and is back to $349.99 for the 46mm version. When it first came out, the Gear S3 cost $349/£349 (around AU$475), and it only came in one size.  The US release date is August 24 at Amazon, Best Buy and Samsung's own store. The LTE...

Samsung Galaxy Note 9 review

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The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is a little bigger, a little more colorful, and a little more powerful than all prior Note phones, but be warned: it’s also a lot more expensive. It’s the biggest Android phone that will grab your attention in 2018, with a sizeable 6.4-inch Super AMOLED display, a huge 4,000mAh battery for all-day performance, and up to 512GB of storage and 8GB of RAM.   Slot in a 512GB microSD card (which Samsung will gladly sell you), and you can have the first mainstream 1TB phone in your hands. Good news – the Note 9 doesn’t actually feel any bigger than last year’s 6.3-inch Note 8, and it inherits a bunch of this year’s 5.8-inch Galaxy S9 and 6.8-inch Galaxy S9 Plus features.  The camera is better, with a dual 12MP rear setup that has dual-aperture technology, and can record Super Slow Mo videos. AR Emoji is back with some finer avatar customizations, but rest assured, your avi will still look nothing like you. Exclusive to ...

Amazon Echo Dot review

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After the Amazon Echo comes the Echo Dot: you still bark commands at Alexa, and the responses still get beamed back down from the cloud, but with the Echo Dot everything is in a much smaller package. The cut-down Echo Dot is the smallest and most affordable of all the Echo speakers, available alongside the standard Amazon Echo, Amazon Echo Spot, Amazon Echo Show and Amazon Echo Plus. That makes it the perfect way into smart speakers. Admittedly, it compromises on sound quality to meet its small size and price tag, but it's just as smart as its stablemates and, arguably more impressive than its non-Alexa rivals. All of these smart speakers were originally a means for Amazon to take Alexa and turn it from a piece of software made primarily for searching through video catalogs into a much more handy general assistant.  Fast-forward just a few short years and now Alexa has grown from an interesting curiosity into a very capable voice assistant. The app can help...

Madden NFL 19 Review for X-box One

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The Madden series aims to be a true-to-life representation of the popular American sport, and Madden 19 is a refined step forward with advancements across the board. There are some issues hanging over from past games, and the Franchise updates are not as big and exciting as you might expect, but Madden 19, with its capable Frostbite engine and its compelling Longshot story mode, remains the best, most complete Madden game to date. On the field, Madden's gameplay has never looked or handled better, and this is due in part to a new system EA calls Real Player Motion. One of the biggest pieces of this is the new "one-cut" feature for ball-carriers that allows them to change direction quickly and with a burst of speed to get around a defender. An appropriately timed cut, coupled with an acceleration boost, lets you make tight, fast, and precise turns that help you get through the line or to the edge when making runs. You can also perform hesitation moves that...