Amazon Fire 7 (2022) vs Amazon Fire 7 Kids (2022): Which tablet should you buy?
The Fire 7 Kids tablet is the exact same as the Fire 7 tablet, but with a giant bumper, a year of Amazon Kids+, and a 2-year guarantee.
When Amazon sent over their Fire 7 tablet for me to review, they also included a Fire 7 Kids tablet. For those of you wondering what the differences are between the Fire 7 and the Fire 7 Kids from a hardware perspective, there aren't any. The Fire 7 Kids tablet comes with a big, poofy, foam rubber case, but inside, the tablet is exactly the same. What separates it from the standard Fire 7 tablet is the extra warranty and excellent Amazon Kids+ software layer. If you read my review of the Amazon Fire 7 tablet, you'll know that this is a cheap "knockabout" tablet that you should buy but not care about all that much.
Moto G Stylus 5G (2022) Review: More than just a stylus
The Moto G Stylus 5G is a solid midrange phone with a garaged stylus, a surprising amount of power, and a decent camera. Check our review!
The stylus is back, baby! Once thought of as an absolute must-have in the mobile space, the noble stylus faded into the background as an included accessory for smartphones. As multi-touch became more prominent, it seemed as though our love affair with the noble stylus was meant to reach its conclusion. Some brands managed to revive the stylus, with one note-able champion, while others kept the stylus alive, but failed to back up it with a phone that stylus fans wanted to use regularly. Thus came the conundrum. Pay a lot and get a great phone with a stylus, or pay a little and get a frankly bad phone with a stylus. Enter the Moto G Stylus 5G.
Ive had enough - Apple and legendary designer officially part ways
Apple and LoveFrom have parted ways. Sir Jony Ive left Apple in 2019 to form LoveFrom, keeping Apple as its primary client.
Sir Jony Ive and Apple have parted ways…again. This time it looks to be more official, as Apple and Ive's design firm, LoveFrom, have decided not to renew their contract. If all this sounds confusing and silly, here's some background.
These Soundcore Liberty 3 Pro earbuds are a steal at almost 50% off on Prime Day!
The Soundcore Liberty 3 Pro earbuds are almost 50% off during prime day. They're great at their normal price; they're a steal at this price!
A good pair of noise-canceling earbuds can be hard to find, especially ones that don't break the bank. A standout in that field is Soundcore, which is a sub-brand of Anker. For Prime Day, in addition to some other great deals, Anker has a fantastic offering for its flagship earbuds, the Soundcore Liberty 3 Pro earbuds. These earbuds are already a solid recommendation at their list price of $170, but in a deal-of-the-day, Anker is knocking off a little over 47% off to just $90. It's a steal!
Take to the skies with Holy Stone drones on Prime Day
Holy Stone drones are a good inexpensive entry into the drone space. They're on sale today and you can pick one up to get started.
Drones are one of those items that you really need to experience before you "get it." Putting a camera 400 feet into the air literally gives you a new perspective on things. Drones have democratized the skies, making it possible to fly at a super low price point. I've flown over a dozen different brands of drones in my time, and Holy Stone is definitely in the top three manufacturers. Their drones are sturdy, fly well, and have good cameras attached to them. They have great connectivity to the remote and the phone you're using to monitor them, even in the Wi-Fi bath that is my neighborhood.
Don't pass up this Prime Day deal on these awesome Technics earbuds
This Prime Day deal brings the Technics EAH-AZ60 earbuds down to a great price. We espeically love the ANC and pass-through tech!
When it comes to earbuds, there are a ton of options out there. At the same time, there are notable names that jump out. Some examples include Samsung, Google, Apple, etc. Technics is a brand owned by Panasonic and audio is in its DNA. I had the pleasure of trying out the Technics EAH-AZ60 earbuds and while the alphabet soup of a name doesn't do much to make them stand out, their sound quality does. The buds sound great and what's even more notable is that the Active Noise Cancellation is quite good. Even better than the noise cancellation are the Ambient and Attention modes that let in the noises around you. They are remarkable.
Amazon Fire 7 Review: It's your knockabout tablet
The Amazon Fire 7 tablet is Amazon's entry-level Fire tablet that compromises in everything. But it is so cheap, it doesn't matter.
The Amazon Fire line of tablets is among the more popular non-iPad lines of tablets out there. The Fire 7 is the least expensive in Amazon's lineup, and it shows. You could point to just about any feature on this tablet and criticize that it needs to be better. Processor? Definitely. Screen? For sure! Touch sensitivity? Yes! About the only things that this tablet nails right out of the gate are respectable battery life and the fact that it uses USB-C for charging and data. Everything else is a compromise.
The Amazon Appstore is just as bad as I thought it'd be (but there is hope)
The Amazon Appstore is mostly an afterthought, but after an audit, we found some surprising twists that we didn't expect.
I've been testing the Amazon Fire 7 tablet recently and one thing I've always suspected is that the Amazon Appstore is not...to put it politely...good. Yes, that is putting it politely. I had a bit of anecdotal evidence to support that, but nothing concrete. So I decided to look where the rubber meets the road when it comes to the app store. I audited the Amazon Appstore with an admittedly limited sample. That sample was the apps I already had installed on my Android phone. My sample is obviously limited, but I do have some of the best Android apps installed as well as some lesser-known apps.
TCL Stylus 5G Review: A budget phone with a stylus that gets you exactly what you pay for
The TCL Stylus 5G is a budget phone that includes a garaged stylus that's always there when you need it. Check our review to know our thoughts
So let's be clear here. This is not a Samsung Galaxy Note. This is not the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. The TCL Stylus 5G has a garaged stylus built into the body of the phone and that is exactly where the similarities end. But the most important way that these phones differentiate is the TCL Stylus 5G costs almost one-fifth of the others. That is what we need to focus on here.
T-Mobile's App Insights sells your data, but there is a way out
T-Mobile launched App Insights, a new adtertising platform that collects user data including apps installed and app usage.
T-Mobile launched a new advertising platform last week called App Insights that allows advertisers access to groups of potential customers based on the apps they have installed on their phones. This program has been in beta testing for the past year. Users are sorted into different categories based on these apps such as "video streamers" and allows advertisers to target users based on these categories.
Track your sales with Google's Privacy Sandbox Developer Preview 3
Google launched the third iteration of the Privacy Sandbox Developer Preview which adds tools for conversion tracking
Google is trying to replace the browser cookie with new targeted advertising methods in Chrome and beyond. To that end, it built the Android Privacy Sandbox and launched it in April of 2022. Today, Google is rolling out the third iteration of the Privacy Sandbox Developer Preview 3. The new sandbox is related mostly to tracking conversions from ad campaigns.
Google is sunsetting Conversational Actions in favor of App Actions
Google is sunsetting Conversational Actions in favor of App Actions, which allow developers to build voice interactinos in their own apps.
Five years ago, Google introduced us to Conversational Actions which allowed developers to create products centered around the smart screen such as the Nest Home Hub. Now Google is moving away from Conversational Actions in favor of App Actions as a way to move forward in the smart assistant space. Conversational Actions will be sunset in June of 2023.
New collaboration features coming to iPadOS and macOS
Apple introduced a new form of collaboration into iOS, iPadOS, and macOS, that uses Facetime, iMessage, and a number of creation apps.
At WWDC 2022, Apple's Craig Federighi introduced a new form of collaboration that is integrated directly into Messages and Facetime. It lets you easily work with a number of other users in an original document. This integration is built right into the share sheet and works with a number of apps.
Apple Photos updates allows you to share photos with family automatically
Apple launched a new update to the Apple Photos app which makes sharing to family members easier and automatic.
At WWDC 2022, Apple's Craig Federighi introduced new updates to the Photos app that includes a better way to share photos automatically. The problem with family photos is that no one has all the photos. "Not anymore," says Apple with new controls to automatically share photos into a shared library.