Another new Pokemon game is coming to Android, but you can't play it yet

Pokéland is out for Android now, as long as you're one of the lucky few to have signed up already.

Nintendo and The Pokémon Company are pulling out all the stops with Pokémon on mobile this year. Immediately following the launch of the simpler Magikarp Jump, a new game called Pokéland has hit the Google Play Store. Before you get too excited, the game is currently in a limited beta, initially available only to the first 10,000 people to sign up. As you can imagine, that number was reached quite quickly, so the rest of us will be waiting a while.

Instead of wandering the real world in search of creatures to catch or swimming around with a single Magikarp, Pokéland is all about combat. The game is very much in the style of the Pokémon Rumble game, only aimed at phones instead of Nintendo products.

For the uninitiated, Pokémon Rumble features more polygonal, toy-shaped versions of Pokémon which break out of quarter vending machine-style capsules for you to collect and fight with. Matches are usually quick, and the "story" mode usually features increasingly complex battle mechanics with larger "boss" versions of the toys later on.

The most interesting thing we know so far about the game is that your Nintendo Account will be a part of the login process. This means your Nintendo Mii will be a part of the game and allow you to interact and fight with other players, but it may also mean some form of connection with previous games in this style.

We'll be keeping a close eye on this one, but if you were one of the 10,000 to get in be sure to sound off in the comments!

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Plex finally brings Live TV to its apps, coming first to Android TV

Plex is an incredible media server, but one thing, in particular, has been missing until now. Live TV.

You've been able to record over the air (OTA) TV for a while now with Plex DVR, but that has required the use of the web app and you haven't actually been able to view things as they broadcast. That's all changing as Plex is flipping the switch on live TV channels inside the Plex client apps, beginning withAndroid TV and iOS.

Plex Live TV and DVR fill a void in the current media consumption landscape by offering both major local and international network programming, with news and sports, at a fraction of the cost of traditional cable or satellite packages, skinny bundles, and other live TV streaming services.

Plex Live TV and DVR are available to Plex Pass holders at no extra cost, with a one-time purchase of an antenna and digital tuner from a wide variety of vendors.

Starting today, June 1, the Plex app on Android TV will be able to hook into OTA TV channels using a compatible tuner. We've looked at things like the HDHomeRun before used with an NVIDIA Shield TV, and it's a similar idea here. Except you're using Plex. This is a staged rollout, and the Android mobile apps won't be far behind with them due to be updated to support the new feature sometime in June.

The feature requires Plex Pass, as much else does inside Plex, but if you already have a subscription there's no extra cost involved. If you already use Plex DVR, it'll feel very familiar. The same approach to organizing content has come across to TV inside the client apps. A 'traditional' guide is left out in lieu of a simpler way to watch TV. You can see what's on now, what's coming up, and break it all down into categories like sports, or movies.

Everything is incredibly visual, with Plex's metadata functionality applied, so you'll get artwork and associated information including IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes.

Of course, the other big thing here is that you can finally interact with Plex DVR without having to resort to the web app. It feels like Plex maybe rolled out these features back to front, but what you have now is a single place to watch and record your favorite shows.

The same options already present in the Plex DVR web app are now in the client apps. You can record just a single show, or set a season link, and Plex will also give you TV recommendations based on what you watch and record.

Eventually, TV recommendations will make it to the home screen, but that's something on a list for a future update. For now it's a fairly steady rollout of the basic features, and it's looking pretty sharp.

One bit of exciting news for Android mobile users that don't have something like a Shield, is that Chromecast support will be coming down the road. The time frame is unclear right now, but eventually you'll be able to send live TV from the Plex app on your phone or tablet to your Chromecast. Which is superb.

For now, it's Android TV owners who get the best, and the graphic above shows which tuners Plex live TV currently supports and which it will support in the future. Initially, it'll just be the HDHomeRun products, but in the future, it'll be possible to use it even with a USB Tuner connected directly to the Shield TV box.

There are no shortages of ways to use your Android TV box like the Shield TV to watch live television, but Plex's killer feature is now being able to handle that alongside all your own media in one place. For 40 bucks a year or $120 lifetime ($4.99 per month) you're getting a ton of functionality from the Plex Pass subscription.

And if you're using a Shield TV running Plex Media Server, you now have a box that can quite literally do it all.

Download Plex from the Google Play Store

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How to set up the Secure Folder on the Samsung DeX

You don't even have to set it up through DeX if you don't want to.

Having people snoop around your stuff when you're not at your desk is seriously infuriating. Unfortunately, your best bet against this kind of personal violation is to take advantage of some of the available measures you can set up beforehand.

If you've got a Samsung DeX in your possession for dressing your regular smartphone as a desktop compute, you can set up the Secure Folder on the Galaxy S8 beforehand with a virtual compartment of sorts where you can store apps and files you hold near and dear to your heart. But if you didn't set it up before docking the Galaxy S8, you can do so later in the main DeX interface. Before you attempt to set up anything, however, make sure you've got an active Samsung account.

How to set up the Secure Folder on the Samsung DeX

1. Open up the Device Settings from the notifications shelf.
2. Scroll until you see the Lock screen and security section.
3. Scroll until you see Secure Folder.

4. Log in with your Samsung account to begin the process.

   

Once you've started the process and you're all signed in and ready to rev it up, you'll have to set up a Pattern, PIN, or Password to unlock the folder from DeX. Afterwards, you'll see the Secure Folder pop up on screen with a few apps already installed. You can add more as you please.

What else can the Secure Folder do?

Everything the Secure Folder can do on Samsung DeX is possible through the Galaxy S8. Here's more information on how to set up the Secure Folder so that you get the most use out of it.

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Protect your LG G6 for just $17 today!

The LG G6 packs super slim bezels and a whole lot of screen, which means you likely will want to keep it protected. Case-Mate's Tough Mag case offers two layers of protection without a whole lot of bulk, and right now you can pick one up for just $17.

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ASUS ZenPad 3s 8.0 hands-on

ASUS hasn't given up on Android tablets — its latest ZenPad looks like a decent metal-clad slate, though you'll need have to contend with the company's typically odd software UI.

Once upon a time it seemed like everyone wanted to release a cheap, small Android tablet. But unspectacular tablet sales — in part fuelled by the rise of larger phones — has cooled enthusiasm for the form factor among device makers. Nevertheless, Taiwanese manufacturer ASUS continues to push out Android tablets; its latest, the ZenPad 8s 8.0, wasn't included in its glitzy Computex press conference, but it was on display on the show floor in Taipei this week.

The physical hardware of ASUS's new ZenPad draws inspiration from the company's Android phones, with a slim (6.9mm) aluminum unibody accented by diamond-cut chamfers. Up top there's a glossy cutout around the camera module — otherwise, it's all-metal, with pleasantly curved side walls.

ASUS knows how to make pretty metal gadgets.

The ZenPad's button setup takes its layout from the ASUS ZenFone line, which is to say it borrows it (vicariously) from Samsung's 2014-2016 Android phones, with capacitive back and recent apps keys flanking a physical home button. The home key was a little stiff on the demo units I played with, perhaps a consequence of the pre-production hardware on show at Computex.

The display itself looks great, though — it's a 2K panel that looks sharp, and provides ample pixel density at a 7.9-inch form factor. The only downside, it seems, is the tablet runs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 chip as opposedo something with a little more oomph, and UI performance wasn't exactly fluid on the units I played with. The 625 is a fine chip, with an Adreno 510 GPU at its disposal, but it feels out of its depth running a 2K panel.

An Android experience more fitting of a device from 2013.

On top of that, you'll have to deal with ASUS's hodgepodge ZenUI, which is feature-rich, but inconsistent. It manages to copy parts of Samsung's older Android UIs, but overall remains a mess of different visual styles. Combined with the ample lag I experienced, it's not a great look — which is a shame considering how nice the physical hardware is.

(A side note on software: The spec sheet on the show floor lists Android 7.1, however the units themselves were running version 7.0. Make of that what you will; obviously everything's still pre-production here.)

ASUS ZenPad 3s 8.0 specs

Category	Specification
Operating System	Android 7.1 (currently 7.0) ZenUI 3.5
Processor	Qualcomm Snapdragon 625
RAM	3GB/4GB
Storage	32GB/64GB
Battery	4,680mAh
Main Camera	13MP f/2.0, 5-part lens, LED flash
Front Camera	5MP ASUS PixelMaster
Audio	DTS headphone: X 7.1 channel surround 5-magnet dual speaker / Smart Amplifier technology
Display	7.9-inch 2K LCD with ASUS VisualMaster
Chassis	6.9mm aluminum unibody

At least battery life should be solid, with a respectable 4,680mAh cell inside the ZenPad's svelte body. Given the Snapdragon 625's reputation for efficiency, you're likely going to be looking at multiple days between charges, particularly if you're mostly using it for streaming and web browsing.

So the hardware is nice, the software is weird, and on the latter point, ASUS is still its own worst enemy with a bewildering loadout of branded custom technologies and features like VisualMaster and PixelMaster. Hopefully future versions of ZenUI will show more polish and restraint.

The ZenPad 3s 8.0 isn't going to be a major release for ASUS — after all, it didn't even get so much as a mention in the company's Computex press releases. What we have here is another commodity Android slate that'll probably sell for a fairly cheap price, before being largely forgotten. That's a shame, because with the right software and perhaps a little more horsepower, this could've been a promising little gadget.

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Samsung updating Gear Fit 2 with new and improved workout features, SOS function

Workout detection and post-workout feedback are getting better on Samsung's fitness wearable.

Samsung has just pushed out an update to the Gear Fit 2 right around a year after launch that makes a few solid upgrades to its tracking — because, after all, that is what it's designed to do. Building on the Gear Fit 2's automatic fitness tracking that auto-starts workouts when it detects certain sustained movement, Samsung says it has improved its ability to detect workouts.

For runners, you can now set custom pace targets for runs or set certain time or distance goals in Samsung Health to let the app build an appropriate workout for you. After your run is done, the Fit 2 will now give you a detailed color-coded graph of how long you spent in each heart rate zone over the duration. You'll also get more accurate information on a map of where you ran, right on the Fit 2's display.

Samsung has also improved its sleep tracking to give more details on how well you slept through the night, and changed activity reminders to give you some options for light activity instead of simply telling you to stand up. Finally, the Gear Fit 2 now has an "SOS" function that can be activated with a triple press of the home button to send your location and a message to specified contacts.

The update is available now through the Gear Manager app on the phone you have paired to the Gear Fit 2. Just visit the "About Gear" section to download the update, which comes in at a 47MB.

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How to create playlists in Kodi

Use Kodi playlists to binge your favorite shows or keep the music going at your party.

Kodi is a great way to organize and enjoy all your favorite media in one convenient place. Better yet, it's available on so many different devices, from PCs and Macs, Amazon Fire TV to Android phones and Android TV boxes.

For the sake of this guide, we'll be focusing on Kodi for Android because we're Android Central and that's what we do, so we'll be using touchscreen terminologies (tap, long press etc.), but the steps should be transferrable across all Kodi-supported platforms. For example, a tap will be a left-click on your computer or a press of the select button on your TV box remote, and a long press will be a right-click or a long press of the select button on your remote.

Without further ado, let's dive in!

How to queue content to autoplay

Looking to binge through a whole season of your favorite show or have Kodi autoplay a series of videos like Netflix does? It's easy and doesn't actually require you to go into the playlist menu — we'll get to that later.

You're able to have separate queue playlists going for music and video content. We'll show you how to set one up using video as our example.

1. Launch Kodi from your home screen or app drawer.
2. Tap Videos

3. Tap Files.

4. Tap the source where you've stored your files. In this example, the media was stored on a microSD card.

5. Tap on the folder containing the files you want to queue up.

6. Long press on a video file to reveal the context menu.

7. Tap Queue item.

This will add that video to your active queue playlist, which lives in the Music section of Kodi. You're able to add entire folders to your queue by following steps 6 and 7 with a folder instead of a file.

How to manage your Queue Playlist

So you've added a whole bunch of awesome stuff to your queue playlist but now you want to remove some repeats and re-order things. Here's how to find and manage your playlist.

1. Tap Music.

2. Tap the settings icon. It's in the bottom-right corner and looks like a gear.

3. Tap Current playlist. This will bring you to your queue playlist and display the order of all the content you've added.

4. To reorder or remove a file, long press to reveal the Context menu.

5. Tap Move up, Move down, or Remove

How to save and/or clear your queue playlist

If you want to start from scratch and clear your playlist without removing each file individually…

1. On the playlist screen, tap the Settings icon, the gear in the bottom-right corner.
2. Tap save to save the playlist for later (you'll be prompted to give it a name), or clear to clear all items from the playlist.

Saved playlists will be found in the Music section even if they contain videos.

How to create a permanent playlist

The queue content playlist is great if you're just wanting to quickly watch some shows back to back or throw on some music quickly, but if you want to build out some playlists to listen to at work or for a party. Here's how to create your own.

1. Tap Music.

2. Tap Playlists.

3. Tap New playlist.

4. Tap Files to browse to where your music (or video) files are stored.

5. Long press on the folder or file you wish to add to the playlist

6. Tap Add.

7. When you've added all the songs you desire and you're ready to save, tap the settings icon. It's the gear in the bottom-right corner.

8. Tap Save playlist. You will then be prompted to give your playlist a name.

You can use that same settings menu to open an existing playlist for editing purposes.

What are "smart playlists"?

Smart playlists use a set of rules to automatically scan your music or video database and create a playlist based on the parameters you set out. To use these you must first use a scraper addon for Kodi to retrieve standardized metadata information for all of your media. This is a great option if you've got a ridiculous amount of music or videos and want to sort them out in different ways, say a music playlist of a specific genre, or a movie playlist of your favorite actor.

Here's some quick info on some reliable scraper addons for movies, music, and tv shows, which include links to their respective repositories:

• Universal Movie Scraper
• Universal Artist Scraper (Music)
• The TVDB

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