Android 5.1 Lollipop finally allows you to mute until your next alarm

One thing that many people have not been happy about in Android Lollipop is the removal of silent mode. The three new notification modes (None, Priority, and All) don’t allow you to mute the device while still letting alarms through. Priority Mode allows alarms to go off, but it also lets other things through. None Mode blocks absolutely everything, including alarms.

Android 5.1 is one step closer to bringing back silent mode. Now when you put the phone into Priority or None Mode you’ll get the option to have it disabled at your next alarm. In order to see this option you’ll need to have an alarm set to go off within the next 12 hours. This is the closest thing we have to silent mode right now, and it works pretty well. You can block notifications without worrying about your alarm being blocked, too.

To learn more about notification modes check out 15 Tips & Tricks for Android Lollipop and Top 10 Android Lollipop Features. Are you happy with this new feature?

HURRY: Get $100 off the Nexus 9, but only until 4PM Eastern

Quick: Best Buy has a deal going on right now that will net you a Nexus 9 for 0 less. The right now isn’t a joke: it will literally only last a couple of more hours as it’s their latest 4-hour flash sale.

You can also get a few bucks off some cases and accessories for it, off a Chromecast, and off a couple of Acer Chromebooks. You have until 4PM Eastern to take advantage. Why are you still here? GO!

The 1st Gen Moto G for Verizon is $25 until 4PM Eastern at Best Buy

You’ll want to act fast for Best Buy’s latest deal: they have the 1st Gen Verizon Moto G for a mere . This isn’t the LTE model, mind you, and it might not be the greatest budget phone by today’s standards, but for less than the cost of a month of service on any decent prepaid carrier you can’t really go wrong here.

The catch is that this is part of Best Buy’s latest 4-hour sale, and there’s less than hour left on that. The window closes promptly at 4PM, so be sure to get that order in as soon as possible.

PS: There are a few other decent options on sale, including the LG Volt 4G for Boost Mobile for .99, the unlocked Blu Dash 5.5 for .99, and the unlocked Sony Xperia T2 Ultra for 7.99. All of it is right here so get on it before it’s too late.

Nexus 6 now available to purchase at Verizon, but won’t ship until March 18th

Verizon yesterday officially announced that the Nexus 6 would be available for purchase online today. That’s true — you can head right here and order one for 0 on a two-year contract or .08 per month on Edge (9.99 outright if you have the dough to spend).

There’s just one problem, though — it won’t actually ship until March 18th, which is one-day shy of its in-store availability. We’re not sure why Verizon failed to mention this “gotcha” when they announced the device, but if you were hoping to throw your money at them today for the biggest Nexus phone in history and get it in time for the weekend then you’ll be quite disappointed.

Whether you should still pre-order the device is up to you. There’s a slight chance it could ship ahead of March 18th, but Verizon’s backorder dates typically don’t change. For what it’s worth the Nexus 6 is one of the few devices worth waiting for. We gave it a glowing review, and although there were some performance issues early on we’re expecting Android 5.1 (which it’s shipping with) to clear most of that up.

Don’t forget that Verizon’s Nexus 6 will also come with support for HD Voice / VoLTE / Advanced Calling 1.0 / whatever else you want to call it out of the box. If that’s important to you then there is almost no better phone to get right now (you can check the full lot of them out here). Let us know if you’ll still be looking to buy one or if Verizon’s being a bit too slow for your taste.

HURRY: $209 for the Motorola DROID Ultra at Amazon until 3PM Central

One of Motorola’s best phones from 2013 is now on sale for a mere 9 at Amazon. It”s the Motorola DROID Ultra, and this bad boy is on a lightning deal that’s set to expire soon. Like, “3PM top of the hour” soon.

We reviewed this bad boy back when it was still the new kid on the block and found that it was an excellent top-line smartphone for its time despite not having the gaudy Snapdragon 600 and a 1080p display. Don’t take too long reading our review, though, because the current price could evaporate before you even realize it.

PS: Note that this smartphone is only intended for use on Verizon Wireless. Don’t purchase it if you don’t plan to use it with Verizon service.

Motorola DROID Turbo for 9 at Amazon

T-Mobile extends availability of their 4 lines for $100 promo until July 14th

T-Mobile has quietly extended the availability of their 4 lines for 0 promo until July 14th. The program was originally scheduled to end at the closing days of this month, but it’s nice to know there’s an extra 2 weeks for folks to take advantage.

T-Mobile’s 4 lines for 0 plan offered up unlimited talk and text + 2.5GB of data per line (pay an extra for another 2GB) for a flat rate, and a recent announcement made it so that the base 2.5GB (which was originally just a temporary uptick in data allowance) would remain permanent for as long as you keep the plan. T-Mobile has a similar offer for 2-line setups offering unlimited talk, text and data for that same 0, and that plan’s availability has also been extended to July 14th.

Be sure to explore your options for ditching your current carrier and switching to T-Mobile if you want to take advantage, but don’t take too long because this particular offer will be long gone in just a couple of short weeks.

[via TmoNews]

‘Powder’ is a relaxing Android game, until you run into a tree [VIDEO]

There is literally a simulator for everything these days. Goat Simulator. Farming Simulator. Forklift Simulator. Street Cleaning Simulator. The list goes on and on. If you had a Windows PC in the 90’s you may remember a game called SkiFree, which could be considered one of the original simulators. Powder -Alpine Simulator brings back some of that classic SkiFree charm for Android.

In Powder your goal is to simply ski down a mountain as long as possible. There are tree and rocks that will get in your way, but no abominable snow monsters (as far as I know). To control the skier you tap or hold on the whichever direction you’d like to go. Your speed will build up and it will get more difficult to avoid the obstacles.

The other aspect of this game is its soothing nature. Instead of a rocking soundtrack there is only soothing white noise. Combine that with the rhythmic swooping back and forth down the hill and you’ll fall into a trance, that is until you run into a tree. At first it may seem a little boring, but after a while you’ll be hooked in.

For .99 you can unlock a bear skier to replace the default pixel skier. Playing the game is great, but once you venture outside of the gameplay it gets a little messy. On my LG G4 the menu is very hard to read and the buttons are difficult to press. The game doesn’t seem to be optimized for 2K displays. Other than that this is a soothing and fun game. Download it for free from the Play Store here.

OnePlus One will not get Android 5.1 until the OnePlus 2 is released

When OnePlus broke up with Cyanogen it made things a little more difficult for them on the software front. They were able to update the OnePlus One to Lollipop with their own OxygenOS, but it looks like the next update may take a while. Many users have been asking about OxygenOS’ Android 5.1 update. OnePlus says it won’t be available until after the upcoming OnePlus 2 is released.

We don’t know a ton about the OnePlus 2, but it must be relatively close if OnePlus is already referencing it by name. The OnePlus One was announced and released in April of 2014, so we’re already past the year anniversary. It’s a bummer for current OnePlus One owners who were promised fast updates to the latest versions of Android. Once again the #neversettle mantra has come back to haunt OnePlus.

Note: If you’re OnePlus has the CyanogenOS ROM you may already have Android 5.1. The 12.1 update (based on 5.1) is currently in testing.

[via OnePlus]

Huawei Watch reportedly delayed until September/October of this year, Android Wear compatibility to blame

We got a good look and our hands-on the Huawei Watch back during Mobile World Congress earlier this year. It was actually one of the breakout hits of the show, with tech blogs raving about the watch’s practical design and premium build quality. Back then, Huawei was aiming for a release date somewhere around the “middle” of this year, but some unforeseen bugs may have pushed that date back towards the end of the year.

According to WantChinaTimes, Huawei’s head of smartphone division He Gang mentioned the team ran into some compatibility issues with Android Wear, forcing them to push back their initial launch estimates to September or October. The problem has to do with Google services which aren’t available in China, forcing the manufacturer to come up with their own in-house solution.

With a launch near the end of the year, it’s entirely possible the Huawei Watch could launch alongside a Huawei-made Nexus, also rumored to launch during Google’s usual late October/early November time frame. Of course that’s just blind speculation at this point.