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• Razer Hammerhead USB-C earphones review: Best bang for your buck
  

  With more and more phones dropping the venerable 3.5mm headphone jack, one might have hoped that more USB-C accessories, notably earphones, would have appeared by now. Sadly, the market of reliable, trustworthy options is still quite small and the one…

• PopSockets vs. Spigen Style Ring vs. Ringke Ring: Which grip is best?
  

  Sometimes you just need to get a grip on your phone.

  We can white-knuckle grip our phones all day while we carry them around, but let’s face it: phones get slippery. Hands get sweaty. Sometimes we just need something a little easier to hold on to. Smartphone grips can help with this, as well as giving us an easy-access kickstand, a secure mounting solution, and even a little style. There’s a variety of smartphone grips out there, but a few styles have risen to the top — accordion-style PopSockets and two ring-based styles, the beefier Spigen Style Ring and the flatter Ringke Ring.

  There are many solutions on the market to help us get a grip, but there can only be one on the back of your phone. So which one should you slap on yours?

  Popping plastic or bending metal

  Accordions vs. bearings and hinges

  PopSockets are perhaps the most recognizable smartphone grip on the market in hundreds of styles — including licensed versions featuring Star Wars, Harry Potter, Marve…

• 23 new and notable Android games from the last week including Evoland 2, Westworld, and Gorogoa (6/17/18 – 6/24/18)
  

  Welcome to the roundup of the best new Android games that went live in the Play Store or were spotted by us in the previous week or so. This week we have a bunch of paid upfront games with fair pricing, plus there are quite a few other standouts worth installing too. Most notably Evoland 2, Westworld Mobile, and Gorogoa, but you should also take a look at Toca Mystery House, King and Assassins, Suzy Cube, and The Franz Kafka Videogame.

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  23 new and notable Android games from the last week including Evoland 2, Westworld, and Gorogoa (6/17/18 – 6/24/18) was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

• Don’t buy a USB-C adapter that lets you use headphones and charge at the same time
  

  A 2-in-1 adapter could let you listen while you charge if only your phone was built that way.

  When the Pixel 2 was first introduced there was an uproar about removing the headphone jack. Much of it was centered around a very real dilemma — you can’t listen to music through wired headphones and charge your phone at the same time.

  Those fears were slightly abated when we saw an adapter from Moshi in the Google Store that had both cords and would let you charge and listen, but it never appeared for sale at Google. It did end up for sale at Amazon or other outlets, and it was (is still) socked with a slew of one-star reviews that say it didn’t work. That’s because, for almost everyone, it doesn’t work and never will.

  Unless you have a Moto Z series phone, none of the cheap adapters you see for sale offer a headphone jack and charging port. None of them. They all may not work with every Moto Z model, either. My advice is to just stay away from them.

  This is because of parts of t…

• From the Editor’s Desk: One-handed usability in the 19:9 world
  

  When every phone is big and tall, one-handed mode and other accessibility features should come as standard.

  It’s the age of big, tall. ridiculous phones, and we need to look again at the usability features that makes these devices easier to wrangle with one hand.

  One of the great things about the emergence of 18:9 handsets last year was the ability to cram more inches of screen real estate into a similar device footprint. (Though, sure, direct apples-to-apples comparisons between 16:9 and 18:9 screen sizes can be misleading.) A lot of apps bunch information into rows (think emails in Gmail, or tweets in Twitter), and so a taller phone often gives you better information density. Going tall also lets you expand the screen area without enlarging the part of the phone your hand needs to grip.

  But as we’ve moved towards ever taller aspects like 19:9 and 19.5:9 in phones like the OnePlus 6 and LG G7, we need to demand more from the software. Take the LG G7, for instance. It’s not a part…

• OnePlus 6 vs Huawei P20 Pro: what would you sacrifice?
  

  The OnePlus 6 and Huawei P20 Pro are two of the new popular flagships of 2018. These are two very different devices, primarily in terms of price and software. Which device would you choose?(This is a preview – click here to read the entire entry.)

• Doubling down on what works [#acpodcast]
  

  We’re back to our regular format with Andrew Martonik, Jerry Hildenbrand, and Daniel Bader at the helm for a detailed look at Android Messages, and efficiency of the hardware keyboard on BlackBerry KEY2.

  Next, they tackle blatant “inspiration” the Vivo NEX takes from iOS. But it, along with the OPPO Find X, address customer demand for huge screens and no bezels by incorporating pop-up cameras. In a world of solid-state slabs, this is almost a throwback to the days of slider phones. Pull up an earbud or speaker and join us!

  Listen now

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  Show Notes and Links:

  BlackBerry KEY2 impressions
  Where to buy the BlackBerry KEY2
  Android Messages for desktop is now rolling out
  How to set up Android Messages for the web
  Vivo NEX hands-on
  OPPO Find X is here with a pop-up slider for all three cameras
  Sponsors:

  LightStream LightStream rewards consumers who have good credit with a great interest rate and no fees!
  Thrift…

• Here are the 5 apps you need to try this week
  

  We’ve found five great apps for you to try this week, including the new Google Podcasts app, Sleepo, AfterFocus and more! Check out our top five app recommendations of the week here!(This is a preview – click here to read the entire entry.)

• What you missed this week on CordCutters.com
  

  Amazon Fire TV Cube, WatchTV from AT&T, and new July listings!

  It’s been a big week for us at CordCutters.com. We’ve got new streaming hardware to play with, and we’re taking our time and doing it right.

  OK, we’re also keeping one eye open on the World Cup games each day. And you’re still able to stream all the games on pretty much every streaming platform out there.

  What else have we been up to this week? Quite a lot, actually. Here’s what you might have missed.

  Amazon Fire TV Cube is here: It’s part Fire TV, part Echo Dot. And we’re putting it through its paces. Look for a full review in the next few days.
  Get a great deal on a Fire TV Cube: And a reminder that you can get $35 off a Fire TV Cube if you trade-in a current streaming device.
  Racist Roseanne is out, “The Connors” are in: The reboot is being rebooted and will air this fall.
  AT&T’s new “skinny” WatchTV bundle: Two new wireless plans bring along an inexpensive streaming video deal. And it’ll be available on its …

• What specs does your perfect smartphone have?
  

  In this poll, you can finally have it all. Tell us what specs you want most on a smartphone. Just remember that the higher the specs, the more expensive a device is, which keeps it from being perfect since it wouldn’t be affordable. So, choose wisely!(…

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