PSA: Oreo is causing Google Alarm Clock app to fail for some

PSA: Oreo is causing Google Alarm Clock app to fail for some

Oreo is Androids latest version release, and as with every release, there are always going to be kinks and issues that need to be ironed out in the following maintenance update. A considerable amount of users have been reporting that the Google Clock App is crashing. As a result of this, the moment a pre-set alarm goes off, the App Crashes and goes silent, causing many of these unsuspecting users to run late to work. You can find these over at Reddit. If you are running Android Oreo, you might want to check to make sure that your Alarm app is working as intended. An easy way to do this is say OK, Google, set alarm for 1 minute, and then wait to hear it go off. If your Google App is indeed crashing, you should install another alarm clock app until a fix is figured out or Google acknowledges that its an issue. |

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Professional photographer's take on the iPhone 8 Plus camera

Professional photographer's take on the iPhone 8 Plus camera

As the iPhone 8 reviews come out, we will see a lot of different viewpoints discussing the various aspects of the phone. But there's something to be said about hearing the opinion of a professional photographer talking specifically about the new camera on the iPhone 8. And that's exactly what Austin Mann did after going around the state of Rajasthan in India and taking hundreds of pictures with his pre-production and describing it all in his blog post. The entire blog post in all its glory is linked below, but here are some of the key takeaways from it. Mann unequivocally loved the camera on the iPhone 8 Plus, which he repeatedly found to be better than the one on the 7 Plus. He was especially impressed with the new Portrait Mode feature, especially with the introduction of the Portrait Lighting feature. Portrait Lighting has helped breathe new life into some of the shots, letting him alter the lighting even after taking the shot as the editing is non-destructive and can be changed as many times as possible in post. Mann noted (as did other reviewers) that it does not work with 100% reliability every time, but when it does it does quite well. Portrait Mode now supports HDR, which lets you get additional detail out of images, especially in brightly lit conditions. Portrait Mode effect can be disabled after taking a picture now. If you don't want the background blur, you can just disable it later. The iPhone 8 now supports slow sync flash, which keeps the shutter open for a bit longer, letting in some of the ambient light, making the image look more natural and not as contrasty as with regular flash images. While not mentioned explicitly, the iPhone 8 does have HDR on all the time now, resulting in much wider dynamic range in all the images. iOS 11 now saves all images in HEIF and videos in HEVC format, which takes about half as much space as before. The phone will convert the images to an older format if shared from within iOS but if you copy images over USB, the original files are transferred, which may not be compatible with your computer, even if it is a Mac (that is, until the High Sierra update rolls out next week, which adds support for HEVC/HEIF). I really do urge checking out the link below to see all the images. It's quite cool what smartphone cameras can do these days and the iPhone 8 Plus camera certainly seems to be at the forefront right now. Even seems to .

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'Check for updates' button in Android now actually works

'Check for updates' button in Android now actually works

The infamous 'Check for updates' button has been around on Android for what seems like forever now but in all this time it has been about as useful as the close door button on the elevator, which most of the time doesn't seem to do anything. Google developer Elliott Hughes has taken to Google+(!) to inform everyone that the button isn't actually useless anymore. The previous behavior was to check if an update is available and only when the update was readily available to your device and was somehow missed by the automated background check for update will it pull the update. With the new improved button, the device will now actively request for the update and even if your device isn't in the current rollout group for the update, because you are manually requesting for the update, the update will be delivered to you. This means no more impatient stabbing of the button wondering if you are in the rollout group yet or not. Of course, this is only applicable for the Google branded smartphones as for other OEMs the OEM itself delivers the update to your device and no change has been announced from their side yet.

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iPhone 8 teardown lays out its guts, results in average repairability score

iPhone 8 teardown lays out its guts, results in average repairability score

You've already seen the new , and now it's time for us to get a look at its internals literally. iFixit has created another comprehensive teardown, and its victim was the iPhone 8 this time around. The handset became available today, and this information should help those that are looking to repair it on their own at some point. The iPhone 8 gets a 6 out of 10 repairability score (10 being easiest to repair). That's one point less than what the managed last year. The iPhone 8 provides straightforward access to the two components that are most likely to be repaired, namely the display and battery. You do need proper tools and knowledge, but performing such replacements is definitely possible. Wireless charging, a new feature for an Apple device, means there will be less strain on the Lightning port, which is good because in the past that's been a common point of failure. Water and dust seals do complicate repairs overall. On the other hand, the water and dust resistance of the phone means you aren't likely to ever need to perform difficult liquid damage repairs. The iPhone 8's battery connector has common fasteners, but up to four different driver types will be needed for many repairs. During the official introduction of the iPhone 8, Apple claimed it has the most durable glass ever put on a smartphone, but whether that will prove true in the real world remains to be seen. Either way, replacing the glass back cover is likely to be very difficult. The handset's lower components lie trapped under a fussy combination of brackets and delicately folded flex cables, according to iFixit, which is a definite disadvantage when it comes to repairability. The iPhone 8 has a 1,821 mAh battery, smaller than its predecessor's 1,960 mAh cell. The camera sensor is bigger than the 's, but since it has the same resolution it means its individual pixels are larger. This probably helped it climb straight to the . The iPhone 8 boasts 2GB of RAM, Qualcomm's MDM9655 modem, and an NXP NFC module.

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Samsung Galaxy Note8 availability expands, arrives in Thailand and Malaysia

Samsung Galaxy Note8 availability expands, arrives in Thailand and Malaysia

The has been launched in a couple of more countries today. Asian markets Thailand and Malaysia are the newest regions where the device is now available for purchase. It was last week, when Samsung the global roll out of the flagship smartphone, releasing it in as many as 42 countries. Some of the regions that got the phone first included US, Canada, Singapore, Korea and major European markets. Recently, the Galaxy Note8 shipments began in India as well. Samsung plans to launch the phone in around 150 countries by the end of October.

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Samsung Galaxy A3 (2016) users are reporting battery charging problems

Samsung Galaxy A3 (2016) users are reporting battery charging problems

For quite some time now, users have been reporting issues with battery charging. Specifically, they say their device's battery doesn't charge beyond around 85%. Steps like clearing cache, swapping chargers, charging in safe mode, and even a full factory reset prove to be of no help. Reports say there's a bug in the device's that's causing this issue. While the South Korean company hasn't officially said anything on it, some of those affected say they've been informed that a fix is incoming. A specific time-frame for the arrival, however, isn't currently known.

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