Samsung’s official Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge Clear View cases scratch your screen more than they protect it

Doesn’t matter if your smartphone’s screen is made of Gorilla Glass 1 or 4 — they’re still prone to scratches. Now, we’re not going to attach a “gate” at the end of this one (we know how much you guys hate it), but it seems Samsung’s own official Clear View case could actually do more damage to your Samsung Galaxy S6 and Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge than if you left your display completely bare.

Some users on XDA are reporting tiny little scratches or pits on their glass screens caused by tiny dirt or dust particles that fall in between the display and the plastic clear case. This isn’t exactly an uncommon issue. Ask anyone that’s used a hard plastic case — the ones that only cover the back — on any previous phone and they’ll give you all kinds of horror stories about how the metal or plastic ended up with the exact same blemishes. How Samsung thought this would be a good idea on a flip case that covers the phone’s display with hard plastic is anyone’s guess. It’s just ironic how the very thing someone bought to protect their device, was its own undoing.

Might wanna think twice before buying one of these, or just double up with a screen protector as well.

Google adds vertical Street View to Maps starting with Yosemite’s El Capitan rock wall [VIDEO]

Google Maps’ Street View feature was once reserved for the simple purpose of helping people find their way through busy city streets, but it’s changed over the years. We’ve gotten views of national landmarks, parks, inside the White House and even coral reefs underwater.

And now there are vertical views of some of the world’s biggest rocks. The team partnered with expert rock climbers Alex Honnold and Lynn Hill to deliver vertical imagery of the entire height (3,000 solid feet) of Yosemite Park’s El Capitan (and no, it has nothing to do with Apple’s latest Mac OSX update).

The views really are breathtaking, and it’s a great way to check out the exhilaration known as rock climbing without having to do it yourself, which is especially great for someone like me who is deathly afraid of extreme heights.

The video above is cool and all, but you should give it a go on Google Maps for a truly neat experience. Nothing will ever come close to climbing up the real deal, of course, but this is as good as it gets otherwise.

[via Google]

View the LG G4 under X-Ray in iFixIt’s latest teardown

The guys at iFixIt got their hands on the LG G4 to do nothing other than tear it down to its bare bits. So what’s inside? Everything is as you’d expect: LG has crafted a neat smartphone with solid internals. It’s not an amazing, revolutionary engineering job, but it doesn’t need to be.

The phone scored an 8/10 on repairability, where 10 is easiest. The only points take off were due to the device’s glass + display fushion, which means you have to replace both the display and the cover glass if either part breaks. Beside that, there are a minimum amount of tools needed to break into this thing, and you’re sure to find an easy fix for any future mishaps.

One bonus thing you might want to jump through the source link for is a look at all of these components in X-Ray. The X-Ray doesn’t reveal any alien technology, of course, but it does look pretty cool.

[via iFixIt]

Official Imgur update kills off grid view for a single card-based one, new uploader too

Big changes have arrived for the Imgur app on Android. On one hand, we love it. It’s super fast and responsive. This is thanks in part to the app finally being coded from the ground up to work natively on Android. That’s a really big deal as the previous app was clunky and suffered from constant gallery refreshes. The new update on the other hand is gorgeous, with a little Material button (FAB) in the bottom corner to quickly take a snapshot or upload images.

But here’s what left us reeling: they’ve completely done away with the previous grid view, replacing it instead with a card-based gallery that only displays only a single, full-screened post at a time. Honestly, I’m completely baffled by the move. As a long time Imgur user, I’ve grown accustomed to scanning over pages of images in a handy grid view. It’s the way you view images on Imgur’s full-fledged website. But this… this is something else.

Thankfully, there are other options for those looking to browse Imgur on their Android device the way they always have, with countless 3rd party apps available on Google Play. Some are better than others, of course, but if you’re not digging the look of the official Imgur app, join us in making the transition on over to Opengur. You’ll find that app linked down below.

Oh, and Imgur also announced they’re cracking down on NSFW content on their site. To be clear, they’ve always had a “no NSFW” policy, it’s just now they have a new team dedicated to addressing content that’s been flagged on their site.

Opengur (Playboard) | Opengur (Play Store)