Sunday, 1 July 2018

Gboard testing smart replies for Snapchat, WhatsApp, more

Gboard on the Pixel 2.

  • Google is reportedly testing smart replies in the Gboard app, giving you suggested responses for a host of apps.
  • It’s believed that Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, WeChat, and WhatsApp are just a few of the supported apps.
  • The company has previously experimented with suggested responses via the Smart Reply app and Gmail.

Google’s Gboard is one of the better smartphone keyboards at the moment, delivering a host of convenient features. Now, it looks like we can add smart replies to the list, according to XDA-Developers.

Smart replies are activated in Gboard by viewing a notification that has a quick-reply box, the publication reported. From here, you should see a prompt below the notification, asking if you want to enable smart replies. Once you’ve tapped the prompt, you have to give Gboard the required permissions to enable the functionality.

Smart replies in the Gboard app. XDA-Developers

As for compatible apps, the publication reports that Gboard smart replies work with Android Messages, Facebook Messenger, Facebook Messenger Lite, Google Allo, Google Hangouts, Snapchat, WhatsApp, and WeChat.

It looks like Google is still adjusting the machine learning model for smart replies, as the latest update took place in May, according to XDA-Developers.

Nevertheless, it joins a handful of features that have recently been added to Gboard. These features include morse code, over 20 additional languages, unified media search, and the ability to create GIFs.

Smart replies a long time coming

Gboard’s new functionality comes a few months after Google quietly revealed the Smart Reply app. The latter was a standalone solution for smart reply features, so you could use any keyboard app in conjunction with Smart Reply. The keyboard solution also differs by offering smart replies in the word suggestion area (as if they were auto-corrected/auto-completed words), whereas Smart Reply offers suggested responses as dedicated buttons in the notification shade.

Editor's Pick

The Gboard feature also comes over a year after Google first implemented Smart Reply functionality in the Inbox app, followed by the Gmail app. So clearly the Mountain View company has been working on it for quite some time.

Would this feature be enough for you to switch to Gboard if you aren’t already using it? Do you swear by a different keyboard app? Let us know in the comments below!



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How to set a Galaxy S9-style video wallpaper on your Galaxy S8 or Note 8

Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Video Wallpaper

  • Samsung Galaxy S8, S8 Plus, and Note 8 users can now use a video as the wallpaper on their lock screen.
  • The feature was first introduced on the Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus.
  • Users can set their own video, or download one from the Samsung Themes app.

Samsung Samsung Galaxy S8, Galaxy S8 Plus, and Galaxy Note 8 users now have the option to set a video as their lock screen wallpaper. The feature first appeared on the Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus. According to GalaxyClub (via GSMArena), the option arrived on the Galaxy S8 and Note 8 with the June security patch.

How to set a video wallpaper on the Samsung Galaxy S8 or Galaxy Note 8

Setting a video as a wallpaper is exactly the same process as setting a picture as the wallpaper. You simply select the video you want, click on the three-dot settings menu in the top-right corner, and then select “Set as wallpaper.”

If your video is more than 15 seconds long, you will have to trim it down first. Also, if your video isn’t filmed in the same aspect ratio as your display, you may need to crop the video before setting it as the wallpaper to ensure the correct part is shown.

Samsung video wallpaer Samsung themes video wallpaper

If you don’t want to use one of your own videos, you can instead choose one from Samsung via the Samsung Themes app. Just head to the “Wallpapers” section, then click on “Video Lockscreen” to be shown the selection. Unfortunately, right now there aren’t a ton of options available.

Editor's Pick

If you are looking for more ways to customize your Samsung phone, then check out the recently released Good Lock 2018. It has a ton of options for customizing your phone including the lock screen, Always on Display, and task changer menu.

Next up: All the Samsung Good Lock 2018 features and what they do



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How to Kill All Skeleton Types in Sea of Thieves

The main enemy a pirate will encounter in Sea of Thieves is the mighty skeleton. This bony minion comes in various types, all of which will put your skills to the test. If you want to make it as a pirate, you’re going to need to know all the skeleton types and how to kill them.

Skeleton Types and Weaknesses

There are several different skeleton types in Sea of Thieves, each with their own strengths, weaknesses, and their own captain. Typically, you will only encounter one type of skeleton at a time during a regular quest like the Order of Souls voyages. The only time where all skeleton types will appear is during a skeleton fort raid.

  • Bone Skeleton
  • Bandana Skeleton
  • Plant Skeleton
  • Shadow Skeleton
  • Gold Skeleton
  • Captain Skeleton

Bone Skeleton

The bone skeleton is your bog-standard white enemy that can appear just about everywhere. These skeletons are by far the easiest to kill. They have no overt strengths or weaknesses and are susceptible to all forms of attack.

Blue Bandana Skeleton

A skeleton wearing a piece of clothing like the bandana, eyepatch, or arm band, are exactly the same as the regular bone skeletons, but they have more health and are more aggressive. These skeletons are usually found during Order of Souls voyages or during Skeleton Forts. Some of the other skeleton types can wear clothing as well, but they are defined by their main feature.

Plant Skeleton

A plant skeleton might look friendly, all covered in flowers and leafy-greens, but don’t let that fool you, these skeletons are exceptionally tough. Their leafy cover acts as a sort of body armor which is strengthened whenever they touch water. Keep these skeletons away from water at all cost, else their armor will refresh. When out of water, they will dry up and become more brittle. Don’t bother shooting them, as their armor simply absorbs the blast, use the cutlass to hack them down.

Shadow Skeleton

The shadow skeletons (sometimes called ghosts, spectral or ethereal skeletons) are black, misty skeletons that look all foggy and creepy with beedy little blue eyes. These skeletons are invulnerable whenever it is nighttime and the only way to make them vulnerable is to equip the lantern and raise it up. The shadow skeletons will immediately react, recoiling from the light while their bodies become whole.

Gold Skeleton

Gold skeletons are the toughest skeleton types in Sea of Thieves. The gold skeleton is all but invincible when it first spawns. It will take a lot of blunderbuss shots, cannonballs, and explosives to kill them, unless you know their weakness: water. Throw a bucket of water on a gold skeleton or lead them to the ocean and watch them rust. Once the gold skeleton is rusty, use one of the three gun types to kill them.

Captain Skeleton

As mentioned above, each of the skeleton types has a captain variant. This is a bigger version of the skeleton that retains the same attributes as its smaller minions. A gold skeleton captain will be weak to water, a shadowl skeleton captain must have light shined on it, etc. Skeleton captains will only appear after their minions have be slain, so use this to your advantage by keeping one minion alive if you need time to recover and get resources. Also, they’re easily spotted by the unique hat they wear, and the big orange name above their head.

There will likely be more skeleton types to come as Rare continues to support Sea of Thieves. We’ll be sure to update this as more skeletons pull themselves out of the ground to fight us! Check out our Sea of Thieves guide if you want more insights into the various features and items in the game.



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OnePlus officially announces OnePlus 6 in red

A few days ago, OnePlus teased us with a strange commercial that seemed to suggest a new color of the OnePlus 6 was coming. The company has now made this official via a post on their official blog, where they announced the new color will simply be called “Red”.

OnePlus says the Lava Red edition OnePlus 5T was quite popular, but they wanted to take a more restrained approach this year, producing a color that bled passion while maintaining an ounce of restraint. OnePlus says they wanted the new color to have a clear quality similar to amber, but to also have “an enduring appeal that will last for years to come”.

See also:

The company is using a new film coating process that has never been attempted before in the smartphone industry, which is reminiscent of the film coatings the company has applied to the other color variants of the device. This new color required an evaporated layer of brightening film which the company worked to make completely clear, resulting in the glossy look OnePlus has achieved behind the glass.

If you want to get your hands on the new red color yourself, it will be available across all global markets OnePlus phones are sold, exclusively in the 8 GB RAM and 128 GB storage configuration. The new color will maintain the same $579 price-tag as the other colors and will be available from July 10.

What’s your opinion on this new color? We’ll try to get our hands on one in the coming weeks so you can have a better look.

Let us know your thoughts below!



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Bunnyhoppor Wins 2018 Hearthstone Summer Championship

The Hearthstone Summer Championship has come to a close. The Grand Finals came down to two Europeans, Kacper "A83650" Kwiecinski and Raphael "Bunnyhoppor" Peltzer. At the end, it was the German player, Bunnyhoppor, who wrapped up the tournament and won the final series 3-1.

The final game saw A83650's Taunt Druid take on Bunnyhoppor's Even Warlock. Bunnyhoppor was able to get his Mountain Giants online early, forcing A83650 to go on the defensive with Oaken Summons. But with both Giants on the board, flanked by a Stubborn Gastrpod, A83650 had no answers and Bunnyhoppor won the series 3-1.

Bunnyhoppor had a firm grip on the first game, able to pluck all of the necessary pieces to make his Shudderwock Shaman work. As soon as the jabbering monster hit the board, A83650 saw no way out for his Control Priest and conceded.

The second game saw Bunnyhoppor's Big Spell Mage take on A83650's Cube Warlock. A83650 was one of the few players to bring a Cubelock, as the competitive meta has shifted to Even Warlock. He had made the Cubelock work throughout the day, but Bunnyhoppor responded to the Skull of the Man'ari play with a top-deck Gluttonous Ooze to remove the Warlock weapon right away. That left A83650 with no way to play his Doomguards without their Discard drawback. He was undaunted, however, and despite the odds, still managed to pull off a Carnivorous Cube/Doomguard combo by using a clever Lord Godfrey workaround.

The third game was a battle of the two decks that fell short in the first game: the Big Spell Mage versus the Control Priest. This was a deliberately-paced game, with A83650 drawing both of his Mind Blasts before he could Discover copies with his Shadow Visions, while Bunnyhoppor had trouble finding Frost Lich Jaina. Bunnyhoppor's task got much taller when he played Dragoncaller Alanna, but she and all of her accompanying 5/5 Dragons were tossed back into his deck after A83650's Psychic Scream spell. But it didn't matter, as Bunnyhoppor drew Jaina just two turns later and it was all academic from there. Shadowreaper Anduin came too late and Bunnyhoppor went up 2-1.

The top four finishers for this tournament will be returning for the Hearthstone World Championship in early 2019. The following four competitors have advanced to the Hearthstone World Championship:

  • A83650
  • David "Killinallday" Acosta
  • Torben "Viper" Wahl
  • Bunnyhoppor

This also concludes Season 1 of the 2018 Hearthstone Championship Tour season. Season 2 is set to kick off next week, when the HCT travels to Italy for its first Tour Stop.



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15 best free Android apps of 2018!

This is the featured image for the best free Android apps list on Android Authority.
Android’s biggest strength is its app ecosystem. There are a digital ton of Android apps. People downloaded them billions of times. Some of them cost money and some of them don’t. Usually, the best apps will cost you a few bucks. However, there are plenty of amazing options that don’t cost you anything. These services are usually supported by advertising, sponsorship of some sort, or some other kind of financial arrangement. Here’s your chance to stock up on some truly excellent stuff. These are the best free Android apps for Android!


1Weather

Price: Free / $1.99
DOWNLOAD ON GOOGLE PLAY
1Weather is about as complete of a weather app as you can find. It comes with all kinds of stuff including current conditions, forecasts, radar, predictions, fun facts about meteorology, graphs, and evne a sun and moon tracker. The design is gorgeous as well. It even has widgets. It’s free to use and the $1.99 charge is simply to remove advertising. As long as you don’t mind the occasional banner add, this is a perfectly awesome free app.
DOWNLOAD ON GOOGLE PLAY

AppLock

Price: Free with in-app purchases
DOWNLOAD ON GOOGLE PLAY
AppLock is a free Android app that comes with a lot of options. You can pay for it, get premium features, and no advertising. Or you can view advertising, get the premium features, and not pay anything. Finally, you can use it ad-free, but without premium features. The choice is yours. The app itself is a simple, but powerful app that allows you to lock your apps up tight with passwords so that snooping eyes can’t see them. This is great if you have nosy roommates, kids, or if you just want some piece of mind. You can use the app for free with or without ads (your choice). The ad-free version has a few features missing, but the ads will unlock those features as though you paid for it.
DOWNLOAD ON GOOGLE PLAY
AppLock

Blue Mail

Price: Free
DOWNLOAD ON GOOGLE PLAY
Blue Mail is one of the best free Android apps for email. It features a simple design that helps you keep your emails in line. Additionally, it comes with support for a ton of email providers, color coding for organization, app theming, Android Wear support, and widgets. There are also a variety of smart features such as blocking notifications during certain times (per account) to help customize your experience. Really, there aren't many email apps more customizable than this one. It does a lot of things right and very few things wrong. This is about as good as it gets without a price tag. There are some questions about its privacy policy, though. We recommend checking that out if things like that matter to you.
DOWNLOAD ON GOOGLE PLAY
Blue Mail

Credit Karma

Price: Free
DOWNLOAD ON GOOGLE PLAY
Credit Karma is a fun little financial app. What it does is let you check your credit score once per year for free. On top of that, the app will notify you when there are major changes to your credit score. The app offers some other things too, such as potential credit cards that you may qualify for based on your credit score. You don't have to accept those if you don't want to. It's a simple, easy way to check out your credit and start fixing things if needed. It's one of the more underrated free Android apps. Credit Karma is not 100% accurate, but it gives you a good idea.
DOWNLOAD ON GOOGLE PLAY

Feedly

Price: Free
DOWNLOAD ON GOOGLE PLAY
Feedly is one of the best news apps out there and one that you should definitely try out. It’s an RSS reader which means you can subscribe to tons of different websites and get news from all of them at once. It also has support for podcasts, YouTube channels, and more. The major good thing about using an app like Feedly is being able to bring all of your interests into one spot and read about the latest news. It’s completely free and super easy to use once you get it set up. It's definitely one of the best free Android apps.
DOWNLOAD ON GOOGLE PLAY


Gboard

Price: Free
DOWNLOAD ON GOOGLE PLAY
Gboard is Google's official keyboard app. It's a simple keyboard that doesn't have too many frills. It does have gesture typing (swiping), light theming, voice typing, emoji search, GIF support, and more. Its most unique feature is the built-in Google search that lets you search the web without leaving the keyboard or app that you're in. It can also sync between devices so your saved words go with you. It's effective, simple, and 100% free. You'll want to try this one out if your phone keyboard is giving you fits. It's one of the best free Android apps for sure. SwiftKey is also great and it's basically completely free these days too!
DOWNLOAD ON GOOGLE PLAY

Google Drive Suite

Price: Free
DOWNLOAD ON GOOGLE PLAY
The Google Drive suite are a group of applications that are all directly integrated into Google Drive. The apps include Google Docs, Google Slides, Google Sheets, Google Photos, and Google Keep along with the actual Google Drive app itself. These apps focus primarily on office use for documents, spreadsheets, and slideshows but also work for note taking, backing up your photos, and storing whatever file you can think of. The best part is that they’re all free unless you need more than 15GB of storage on Google Drive. Most people don’t. These are all great free Android apps.
DOWNLOAD ON GOOGLE PLAY

Google Opinion Rewards

Price: Free
DOWNLOAD ON GOOGLE PLAY
Google Opinion Rewards is easily one of the best free Android apps in the Google Play Store. To use this app, you simply download and install it, then open it one time. After that, the app will periodically notify you to ask you some questions. You’ll get credit for use in the Google Play Store every time you answer a survey. That credit can go toward buying yourself apps or games in Google Play. It's a great way to expand your collection without spending real money. At worst, everyone should have this app installed.
DOWNLOAD ON GOOGLE PLAY
Google Opinion Rewards

Groupon

Price: Free
DOWNLOAD ON GOOGLE PLAY
Groupon is one of the best and most popular coupon apps available on Android. Using this application is very simple. You browse it for coupons for goods or services you want and then you take those coupons shopping with you in order to get discounts. It doesn’t have coupons for every little thing but any penny saved is a penny earned. You can track which coupons you’ve used, take advantage of deals instantly, and a lot more. The design isn’t half bad either. It's one of those free Android apps that are worth a shot.
DOWNLOAD ON GOOGLE PLAY

Imgur and Giphy

Price: Free
DOWNLOAD ON GOOGLE PLAY
Imgur and Giphy are two image databases. They're great places to find things like funny GIFs, fun images, little facts, and all kinds of other entertainment purposes. Most of those awesome pictures you see on Facebook, Twitter, etc come from here. Imgur also happens to be the image upload service that most people use on Reddit. Both Giphy and Imgur are completely free to download and use. They have your back whether you want to kill a few minutes slacking off or looking for the perfect reaction GIF for that Twitter or Google+ post. They're two free Android apps worth having.
DOWNLOAD ON GOOGLE PLAY


Maps and Waze

Price: Free (each)
DOWNLOAD ON GOOGLE PLAY
Google Maps and Waze are two navigation apps. Google Maps will give you turn-by-turn directions, let you view businesses (and their reviews), and all kinds of other stuff. Waze is another navigation app. It lets you check out the traffic along your route. Google Maps is definitely the more powerful of the two. Waze is a little bit more fun to use, though. That makes it a good option if you're looking for something simple. Both apps get heaps of new updates and features all the time. You can't go wrong either way.
DOWNLOAD ON GOOGLE PLAY
Maps and Waze

KeePassDroid

Price: Free
DOWNLOAD ON GOOGLE PLAY
KeePassDroid is a password manager. It branches from the KeePass open source project. It's a locker app where you can keep all kinds of sensitive information. That includes login details for websites, serial numbers for your expensive items, The app isn't much to look at, but it works really well. Additionally, you can export your stuff to proprietary file types so you can transfer the data to new devices. It's simple, it works, and it's completely free with no in-app purchases. There are other free Android apps based on the KeePass project if this one doesn't suite your preferences. The paid options like LastPass and 1Password are better. However, they aren't free like this one.
DOWNLOAD ON GOOGLE PLAY

Quik

Price: Free
DOWNLOAD ON GOOGLE PLAY
Quik is a video editor app by GoPro. It’s one of only a precious few video editing apps and this one is entirely free. The way it works is the app will take video that you’ve captured and then string it together in a sort of video collage. You’ll have complete control over how long those clips are, where to make cuts, and there are some effects and additional stuff you can add on top to add a little flair. It doesn’t compare to desktop apps like Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere Pro, but it works surprisingly well for most simple, mobile uses.
DOWNLOAD ON GOOGLE PLAY

TickTick

Price: Free / $27.99 per year
DOWNLOAD ON GOOGLE PLAY
TickTick is among the best to do list apps on Android. It works a lot like Wunderlist, actually. You can make lists, share tasks with other people, organize your tasks in various ways, get reminders, set recurring tasks, and more. It's also highly modular. That helps with organization. The widgets aren't half bad either. There is a pro version, but it adds things like calendar support and other additional features. The free version of this is far above what most other to do list apps offer. It's also clean, easy to use, and it's great for small teams or family use.
DOWNLOAD ON GOOGLE PLAY
TickTick

Zedge

Price: Free
DOWNLOAD ON GOOGLE PLAY
Zedge is pretty much a one-stop-shop for things like wallpapers, ringtones, notification tones, and alarms. There is a very large selection of all of those things available in a variety of genres including fantasy, mainstream, funny, and pretty much whatever else you can think of. Zedge's users add most of the content themselves. Thanks to this, there is quite a bit of variety. Finding stuff on there is rather simple. The only bad part is the advertising can get annoying but it’s easy enough to ignore. You can pick it up right now for free and there are no in-app purchases. For wallpapers, we'd recommend WallpapersCraft 4K Backgrounds.
DOWNLOAD ON GOOGLE PLAY
Zedge

10 best music player apps for Android

A lot of folks these days have transferred to some sort of music streaming service like Pandora, Spotify, Google Play Music, or Apple Music. However, there are those of us left that hang on to …

15 best Android launcher apps of 2018!

Android launcher apps have long been an integral part of the Android experience. If you don't like the way your home screens look or act, you can simply download an app to change all of …

If we missed any of the best free Android apps, tell us about them in the comments! To see our complete list of best app lists, click here.



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Question Of The Month: What Historical Era Should Games Explore?

In issue 302, we asked readers what historical moment or era they’d like to see explored in a video game. Now it’s your turn to weigh in.

Video games have explored a number of time periods over the years, from decades-old conflicts in series like Battlefield and Call of Duty, to the time-traveling tourism of Assassin’s Creed. However, history still offers plenty of intriguing eras and important moments that would be fascinating to explore in digital form.

When we posed the question to G.I.’s magazine subscribers, readers offered a number of enticing ideas, from a Mafia-style crime sim based on the Prohibition era, to an open-world take on Oregon Trail that follows the Lewis and Clark Expedition. But enough about them! We want to hear YOUR pitch for a killer game based on a specific historical moment or setting.

Share your idea in the comments below – and if you’re a game developer and happen to be reading this, please steal the Prohibition idea! I totally want to play that game…



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