Top 10 Best New Accessories for Android Smartphones

There’s a huge array of Android smartphones out there, and all that variety means that there are tons of cool accessories to choose from. But sometimes, all that variety is just plain overwhelming. That’s why we’ve curated a list of the very best, very newest accessories for your Android smartphone. Whether you’re into music, photography, or just want the latest gadgets, there’s something on this list that will make your phone even more powerful. Read on to see our favorite new accessories for Android devices.

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1. Fitbit Charge HR Wireless Activity Wristband

(Fitbit)

While the Fitbit line has come under fire a couple of times for wristband-induced rashes, these problems only affect a small number of users. For the majority of users, a Fitbit is a solid choice. This particular model offers continuous heart rate tracking. In addition, the band tracks calories burned, floors climbed, distance traveled, total active minutes, and steps. There is also a silent alarm feature, which is nice if you need to wake up earlier than your partner. Unlike some older Fitbits, this one provides call notifications and time right on the band.
If you’re still not convinced, check out our guide to Fitbit alternatives to see some other options that might work better for your lifestyle.
Another option? Rent instead of buy. Lumoid has a cool program where you can pick 5 devices from their Wearables Store, and try them out at home for seven days. This gives you a chance to check out a whole bunch of Fitbit competitors at once and find one that works for you.
Price: $149.95

2. SoundPEATS Qy7 Wireless Sports/Running Bluetooth Earbuds

(SoundPEATS)

Looking for the perfect pair of earbuds to use while running or hitting the gym? The SoundPEATS Qy7 earbuds offer an easy-to-read battery meter, up to six hours of play time, and specialized features to minimize Bluetooth skipping and a cleaner audio experience. They’re also sweat-proof, which is great for anyone who wants their device to last. These headphones work with select Android devices, as well as iOS devices.
Price: $35.99

3. SolPro Helios 4500mAh Tri-Fold Solar Charging Power Bank

(SolPro)

This cool new charger from SolPro is great for people who love the great outdoors, but want to keep their devices charged. The Helios is its own case, so you just unfold it and place it in the sun to charge. In direct sun, the charging process takes about 4.5 hours. There are two USB charging ports, so you can charge two devices at once. The 4500mAh battery will be sufficient to charge at least one smartphone, with a bit of charge left over. Your mileage with this charger will depend on what type of Android phone you have.
Price: $144.21 (10 percent off)

4. olloclip 4-In-1 Lens for Samsung Galaxy S5

(olloclip)

Originally designed for the iPhone, olloclip recently became available for select phones in the Samsung Galaxy S family. Four versatile lens options are included in this kit: Fisheye, Wide-Angle, 10x Macro, and a 15x Macro lens. A version for the S4 is also available. If you love taking photos with your phone, this will make your vacation photos and selfies look even better.
The olloclip is relatively inexpensive. However, if you’re looking for a more “professional” grade take on this concept, you might want to check out the Sony QX30. This camera lens attaches to smartphones, and gives you the ability to turn your basic smartphone lens into a 30x optical zoom camera.
Price: $62.95 (10 percent off)

5. WoodPuck Bamboo Edition Qi Wireless Charger Pad

(Fonesalesman)

Qi wireless chargers enable you to power up certain Android devices without a charging cable. There are lots of Qi chargers out there, but this one is notable because of its cool bamboo finish. In addition to working with a wide range of Android smartphones, you can also use this charger to power select wearables, such as the Moto 360.
Price: $29.99 (50 percent off)

6. VicTsing Mini Bluetooth Headset

(VicTsing)

Looking for a small Bluetooth headset? This is one of the smallest ones on the market. It has noise-cancelling features, supports music playback, and also supports multipoint connections. If you use your Android phone for work, this is a handy accessory for taking calls on the go. It’s also great for taking calls hands-free while you are driving. The battery is sufficient for about four hours of talk time.
Price: $16.99 (51 percent off)

7. Omaker M4 Portable Bluetooth 4.0 Speaker with 12 Hour Playtime

(Omaker)

This small, waterproof speaker is ideal for anyone who likes to listen to music in the shower, in the bath, or while chilling by the pool. Recharge takes about three hours, but then you get about 12 hours of playtime (assuming you play the speaker at 80 percent volume). The official rating on this speaker is IP54, which means it is protected against dust (though not completely sealed against dust). It also means this speaker can handle being splashed by water, though it should be not submerged in water.
Price: $34.99 (50 percent off)

8. Wilson Electronics AG Pro 70 Indoor Cellular Signal Booster Kit

(WeBoost/Wilson Electronics)

Wilson Electronics, which recently rebranded as WeBoost, specializes in gadgets that boost your cell signal. If you live or work in an area that has terrible cell coverage, this can be a great accessory to get the most out of your Android device. The Wilson Electronics Pro 70 signal booster was named Wireless Product of the Year at CES 2015, but the company has several other signal boosters that cost less. This signal booster increase both voice and 3G data signals for all major North American cell carriers.
Price: $578.32 (11 percent off)

9. Tile

(Amazon)

Tile is, well, a tile. You can attach Tile to any object you want to keep track of, such as your car keys. From your smartphone, you can use the companion app to see where your Tile is located. The Tile is water-resistant, and has a battery that lasts for one year. If you misplace an item with a Tile attached to it, you can mark it as “Lost” and enable other users around the world to help you find it.
Tile has been around for a while, but it started life as an iOS-only accessory. It was only recently that this accessory started working with select Android devices. According to the Tile site, this accessory will work with the following Android devices: Samsung Galaxy S5, HTC One M8, HTC One, LG Nexus 4, LG Nexus 5. Any Android device that doesn’t support Bluetooth 4.0 will not work with Tile.
Price: $70 (for a pack of four), or $25 for a single tag

10. iClever IC-F40 In-Car Universal Wireless FM Transmitter with USB Car Charger

(iClever)

This car accessory works with both iPhones and Android phones. This car charger also lets you listen to music on your device. There’s a handy auto-scan function that lets you find an “empty” radio station to use very quickly. Whether you need a way to charge your device on the go, or just a way to play music on your device in an older car, this is a solid choice. Plus, with more states and cities cracking down on using cell phones while driving, this accessory gives you a way to take calls, hands-free.
Price: $29.99 (50 percent off)

10 Interesting Facts about Earthquake Most People Don’t Know

Spring-pendulum seismometers were used before electronics were able to measure the size of earthquakes. A medium-sized spring-pendulum seismometer, about three stories tall, is located in Mexico City, Mexico and is still in use. But history of earthquakes is older; exists since from the beginning of mankind. Almost every year we hear together how this planet moves, shaking up, shifting and killed thousand of lives on top of it. An earthquake is unpredictable. It comes often with no warning. Some earthquake collaborate with Tsunami and that makes his killing score rise up to hundreds of thousands lives. There are approximately a half million detectable earthquakes each year. Of the 500,000 earthquakes, only about 100,000 can be felt. But, only about 100 of them can cause damage. In order to become more familiar with this deadly act of nature I have put together a list of interesting facts many people wouldn’t know about.

10. Mechanism of an Earthquake

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Tectonic earthquakes occur anywhere in the earth where there is sufficient stored elastic strain energy to drive fracture propagation along a fault plane. In the case of transform or convergent type plate boundaries, which form the largest fault surfaces on earth, they move past each other smoothly and aseismically only if there are no irregularities along the boundary that increase the frictional resistance. Most boundaries do have such asperities and this leads to a form of stick-slip behaviour. Once the boundary has locked, continued relative motion between the plates leads to increasing stress and therefore, stored strain energy in the volume around the fault surface. This continues until the stress has risen sufficiently to break through the irregularity, suddenly allowing sliding over the locked portion of the fault, releasing the stored energy. This energy is released as a combination of radiated elastic strain seismic waves, frictional heating of the fault surface, and cracking of the rock, thus causing an earthquake. This process of gradual build-up of strain and stress punctuated by occasional sudden earthquake failure is referred to as the Elastic-rebound theory . Earthquakes in volcanic regions are caused there, both by tectonic faults and the movement of magma in volcanoes.

9. What we feel is just 10% of what’s going inside

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It is estimated that only 10 percent or less of an earthquake’s total energy is radiated as seismic energy. Most of the earthquake’s energy is used to power the earthquake fracture growth or is converted into heat generated by friction. Therefore, earthquakes lower the Earth’s available elastic potential energy and raise its temperature, though these changes are negligible compared to the conductive and convective flow of heat out from the Earth’s deep interior.

8. Induced seismicity

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While most earthquakes are caused by movement of the Earth’s tectonic plates, human activity can also produce earthquakes. Four main activities contribute to this phenomenon: constructing large dams and buildings, drilling and injecting liquid into wells, and by coal mining and oil drilling. Perhaps the best known example is the 2008 Sichuan earthquake in China’s Sichuan Province in May; this tremor resulted in 69,227 fatalities and is the 19th deadliest earthquake of all time. The Zipingpu Dam is believed to have fluctuated the pressure of the fault 503 meters away; this pressure probably increased the power of the earthquake and accelerated the rate of movement for the fault. The greatest earthquake in Australia’s history is also claimed to be induced by humanity, through coal mining. The city of Newcastle was built over a large sector of coal mining areas. The earthquake has been reported to be spawned from a fault that reactivated due to the millions of tonnes of rock removed in the mining process.

7. Fault Lines

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In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock, across which there has been significant displacement. Large faults within the Earth’s crust result from the action of tectonic forces. Energy release associated with rapid movement on active faults is the cause of most earthquakes. A fault line is the surface trace of a fault, the line of intersection between the fault plane and the Earth’s surface. Geologists can categorize faults into three groups based on the sense of slip: (the picture explains more than enough)
a fault where the relative movement (or slip) on the fault plane is approximately vertical is known as a dip-slip fault
where the slip is approximately horizontal, the fault is known as a transcurrent or strike-slip fault
an oblique-slip fault has non-zero components of both strike and dip slip.

6. Common Wrong Perceptions about Quakes

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There is a common myth (particularly in New Zealand where earthquakes are common) that if you have a lot of small earthquakes, it helps to alleviate the pressures building up that can cause a big one. But this is not true. Seismologists have observed that for every magnitude 6 earthquake there are 10 of magnitude 5, 100 of magnitude 4, 1,000 of magnitude 3, and so forth as the events get smaller and smaller. This sounds like a lot of small earthquakes, but there are never enough small ones to eliminate the occasional large event. It would take 32 magnitude 5′s, 1000 magnitude 4′s, 32,000 magnitude 3′s to equal the energy of one magnitude 6 event. So, even though we always record many more small events than large ones, there are never enough to eliminate the need for the occasional large earthquake.
There is also a perception that “lubricating” faults with water or some other substance will reduce the quakes or the intensity, well injecting high pressure fluids deep into the ground is known to be able to trigger earthquakes to occur sooner than would have been the case without the injection. However this would be a dangerous pursuit in any populated area, as one might trigger a damaging earthquake. And by the way, there is no such thing as earthquake weather . They seem to occur the same number of times in all different types of weather. It is impossible for the weather to affect the forces beneath the earth’s surface.

5. Aftershocks

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An aftershock is an earthquake that occurs after a previous earthquake, the mainshock. An aftershock is in the same region of the main shock but always of a smaller magnitude. If an aftershock is larger than the main shock, the aftershock is redesignated as the main shock and the original main shock is redesignated as a foreshock . Aftershocks are formed as the crust around the displaced fault plane adjusts to the effects of the main shock. Most aftershocks are located over the full area of fault rupture and either occur along the fault plane itself or along other faults within the volume affected by the strain associated with the main shock. Typically, aftershocks are found up to a distance equal to the rupture length away from the fault plane. The pattern of aftershocks helps confirm the size of area that slipped during the main shock. Aftershocks are dangerous because they are usually unpredictable, can be of a large magnitude, and can collapse buildings that are damaged from the main shock. Bigger earthquakes have more and larger aftershocks and the sequences can last for years or even longer especially when a large event occurs in a seismically quiet area.

4. Earthquake Swarms

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Earthquake swarms are sequences of earthquakes striking in a specific area within a short period of time. They are differentiated from earthquakes succeeded by a series of aftershocks by the observation that no single earthquake in the sequence is obviously the main shock. Earthquake swarms are one of the events typically preceding eruptions of volcanoes. An example of an earthquake swarm is the 2004 activity at Yellowstone National Park.

3. Earthquake Storms

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An earthquake storm is a recently proposed theory about earthquakes, where one triggers a series of other large earthquakes—along the same plate boundary—as the stress transfers along the fault system. This is similar to the idea of aftershocks, with the exception that they take place years apart. These series of earthquakes can devastate entire countries or geographical regions. Possible events may have occurred during the end of the Bronze Age, and the latter part of the Roman Empire. It has been suggested that this is what may be occurring in modern day Turkey.

2. Earthquake in Mythology and Religion

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In Norse mythology , earthquakes were explained as the violent struggling of the god Loki. When Loki, god of mischief and strife, murdered Baldr, god of beauty and light, he was punished by being bound in a cave with a poisonous serpent placed above his head dripping venom. Loki’s wife Sigyn stood by him with a bowl to catch the poison, but whenever she had to empty the bowl the poison dripped on Loki’s face, forcing him to jerk his head away and thrash against his bonds, which caused the earth to tremble. In Greek mythology , Poseidon was the cause and god of earthquakes. When he was in a bad mood, he struck the ground with a trident, causing earthquakes and other calamities. He also used earthquakes to punish and inflict fear upon people as revenge. In Japanese mythology , Namazu is a giant catfish who causes earthquakes. Namazu lives in the mud beneath the earth, and is guarded by the god Kashima who restrains the fish with a stone. When Kashima lets his guard fall, Namazu thrashes about, causing violent earthquakes.
Thales of Miletus , who lived from 625-547 (BCE) was the only documented person who believed that earthquakes were caused by tension between the earth and water.

1. Animals can predict Quakes!

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In April 2009, British researchers were studying the common toad at a breeding site in central Italy when they “observed a mass exodus of toads,” Jill Lawless reports for the Associated Press. Just five days later, a 6.3-magnitude earthquake hit, killing some 150 people and causing extensive damage to the town of L’Aquila. Rachel Grant, a researcher at Open University and lead author of one of the first studies to document animal behavior surrounding earthquakes, believes “that toads are able to detect pre-seismic cues such as the release of gases and charged particles, and use these as a form of earthquake early warning system.” According to the study, “Predicting the unpredictable; evidence of pre-seismic anticipatory behaviour in the common toad,” the toad population at the breeding site dropped to zero three days prior to the quake. “A day after the earthquake, they all started coming back,” Grant told the AP. “The numbers were still lower than normal and remained low until after the last aftershock.” The belief that animals can predict earthquakes has been around for centuries,” Maryann Mott wrote for National Geographic News in 2003. In 373 B.C., historians wrote that rats, weasels and snakes made a mass exodus from the Greek city of Helice days before an earthquake destroyed the city. Other examples exist from throughout the centuries. Reports include bees leaving their hive, catfish moving violently and chickens refusing to lay eggs. Pet owners also have examples of their cats and dogs behaving strangely before a quake. To date, seismologists can’t predict when or where the next earthquake will hit, and scientists don’t know what, if anything, animals sense before a quake. Some, like Grant, think they can detect changes in the Earth’s gases. Others wonder if animals’ more sensitive hearing and other senses allow them to feel vibrations that humans can’t, or detect electrical changes. Whatsoever the exact mechanism but the fact is that they feel it and flee.

10 Sites to Track Viral Web Trends

So you want to know what the latest viral trend on the web is and where it’s happening? And you want it quickly, right? Well, look no further. We’ve got the top ten best websitesand social networks to follow that pick up on the latest trends on the web.
Whether it’s a new Internet meme, celebrity gossip, breaking news or a video that got a million views overnight, you can probably get the juiciest and most up to date information on it by checking out the following sites.

1. BuzzFeed

BuzzFeed has experienced incredible growth over the past little while. As of April 2012, it’s ranked as the third most influential blog of all time on Technorati. The site is actually a viral news aggregator that uses technology to detect viral content around the web and then presents the best and most interesting content in list or blog post form. BuzzFeed features some of the most shared articles the web has ever seen. More »

2. Twitter

For real-time news, Twitter is a priceless web resource. Even if you don’t follow any users that tweet viral content, you can take a look at the Trending Topics (TTs) that are displayed on the right side of your stream, which display keywords that are currently being tweeted the most. AfterRebecca Black’s “Friday” music videowent viral in 2011, her name was a Trending Topic on Twitter for over a week.More »

3. What The Trend

To take it a step further, you can use WhatTheTrend.com to find out what and why things are trending on Twitter. This site that acts as a leaderboard for Twitter trends is known as “The front page of the real-time web™.” Real people from around the web contribute to the trending topics and provide explanations as to why they’re trending. More »

4. The Viral Video Chart

If videos are more your thing, then theViral Video Chart is where you need to go to look at the most up to date top charts for trending videos. This websites ranks videos according to statistics of how much they’re shared on places like Facebook and Twitter. It’s a great resource to use if you don’t want to spend all your time shuffling through videos on the front page of YouTube to find the best ones. More »

5. Reddit

Many things that go viral can actually be traced back to initially being shared onReddit. The most popular content gets pushed up to the front page of categories by users that upvote them. A lot of Internet memes originate from Reddit before spreading like wildfire across the web. If you want to be one of the first to get in on the latest thing to go viral before it actually does, Reddit is the community you need to join. More »

6. The Huffington Post

Of course, as the number one news blogon the web, the Huffington Post is always right on top of quickly pushing out the latest news and trends in any topic imaginable. If you’re a fan of reading articles and want to follow several topics, the Huffington Post is a news resource that’s pretty difficult to ignore because of its massive web presence. More »

7. What’s Trending

This is a fun little blog inspired by a web show hosted by Shira Lazar. Check out what’s trending now, stuff that’s trending in real-time, predictions for content that’s on the rise and everything else that’s currently hot on the web. The blog is updated several times a day and Shira’s live show airs on Wednesdays at 10am EST. More »

8. Mashable

If it’s mostly just tech, web culture andsocial media stuff you’re interested, Mashable does a pretty good job at putting out some interesting articles within a relatively timely manner of time. After the Huffington Post and before BuzzFeed, Mashable is the second most influential blog of all time on Technorati. More »

9. TMZ

Maybe it’s just celeb and Hollywoodgossip you’re interested in. For that, TMZ.com is the go-to resource for the fastest, juiciest news. They’ve got everything to keep you entertained for hours, including reporting stories, photos and videos. Need to get the latest on a hot celebrity? TMZ is probably where you should start looking first. More »

10. NewsWhip

Now this is a pretty cool site if you're really into news stories. NewsWhip brings you everything that's trending, right here and right now from major news mediums across web. Similar to BuzzFeed, NewsWhip tracks stories that are spreading fast on social media sites from over 5,000 English-speaking news sites. A great site to use if you want news from all over the web. More »

16 Times Tumblr Went A Bit Odd After Dark

Tumblr is a website that many go to to get away from the daily norm, allowing themselves to indulge in silliness or learn things about the world they wouldn’t know otherwise. That being said, Tumblr after dark can get very odd. And when I say odd, I mean very, very odd. Check out 16 times Tumblr went a bit off after dark.

Eyeballs

Eyeball butts? Really? This Tumblr user is also missing out the fact that there are people in this world who have seen the backs of eyeballs before, so it’s unlikely they’ve not let us in on their butt secret. Maybe there’s a worldwide secret within Medicine, one that is keeping from the public how big the butts on the back of our eyeballs are.

Sad Elephant

I wish, I really wish, that I understood what this post is talking about, I honestly do. I feel as if it might be the greatest insight ever but I’m just unable to unlock the secrets hidden within it. If I can just decipher this Tumblr post, I will finally be able to get my life back on track, but I’m sure that this will never happen.

Pixar’s Next Film

I now want Pixar’s next film to be a look at what dinosaurs could’ve possibly sounded like. That being said, I think there are some who would take fault with this tumblr post, as there has been an extensive look into the kind of noises dinosaurs would’ve made. At the very least, we can make a strong guess with the analysis we have at hand.

Millennials

Some people say that I am wildly pessimistic when it comes to life and people, to which I say they’re dead wrong. However, I don’t know how you can possibly look at this post without absolutely despairing for the future world. I really cannot tell you how much this makes me want to slap everyone under the age of 20 and tell them to sort it out.

Helped By Cats

Have you ever been helped by a cat? Sometimes I will get up to go and get food I shouldn’t be having or grabbing yet another beer I really don’t need, but my cat will cross my path to give me a rub before I get there. When I look into that little face and he looks at me with those eyes, I can tell his meow is just letting me know I should sit back down.

Amazon’s New Delivery Service

I’ve been trying to buy from Amazon less and less so I can pay companies that actually do pay tax instead. There’s some niche items that it’s impossible to get anywhere else, but otherwise it’s pretty easy to stay away from them. That being said, if their delivery methods looked like this, I’d probably never shop online anywhere else.

The Greatest Horror Movie Of All Time

I would help produce this, I honestly would. I’m trying to get into making short films at the moment and I really wish I’d come up with this idea originally. What is it about this mental image that makes me start to laugh uncontrollably? If you had wooden flooring, would the sound of your bare feet slapping against it work the same as claps as well?

ITEM TITLE

I don’t even really know where to start with this one if I’m honest. There’s a lot of people who just really struggle with the possibility that sentience is a curse left to human beings and nothing else in this world, but then again, whose to say this Tumblr user is wrong? Well, me, actually, I’m saying they’re definitely wrong.

This Is Important

I’m not being funny, but this issue is so important. Maybe I’ll be the first writer to publish a completely waterproof book. I mean, I think I could probably fit it into the story somehow, like maybe it’s the diary of someone part of an underwater race who has never been onto land, and we’re just finding out they exist through this book. One second, let me go and write up this idea somewhere.

SAVE THE SPIDERS PEOPLE!

This one interesting thought for all of those out there who are struggling with their intense fear of spiders, or those who are currently living with someone with that fear, meaning they’re the ones who have to kill or dispose of them. Lets just say, you might be getting rid of one of your best mates, especially if you hate flies as well.

One Of The Best

Of all the images in this post, this one has to be my absolute fave. There’s something about this kind of internet humour that really gets to me, making me giggle for hours afterwards. It’s probably the silliness of it all that makes me move from just smirking to full on laughter.

A True Mind Mess

This is so far beyond anything on this list when it comes to being truly mind-boggling. Try and consider this one, and really think about it for a second. It makes my head spiral off into a completely new area I didn’t know existed where I’m unsure whether or not I truly understand the world around me. Do I really know what I know?

KFC Is Pretty Rubbish

I don’t really get the hype that surrounds stuff like KFC. It’s a pretty standard type of takeaway, sort of like McDonalds and Burger King. The best fried chicken you’re ever going to get is at Allen’s Fried Chicken in Manchester. Trust me, you ever find yourself drunk in the middle of Manchester, look that place up. Make sure you get the chicken gravy.

Arrested Development & Fries

Two of the greatest things in the world have been morphed together into this single Tumblr post. If you haven’t seen Arrested Development yet, then you owe it to yourself to get all four seasons into your brain as soon as possible. Also, if you have the ability to get me a beach amount of fries then please get in touch with me.

Tumblr After Dark Makes Everything Better

This is a perfect example of how Tumble after dark can still turn a brilliant story into something a thousand times better. I challenge anyone to see this after seeing the original tweet and not laughing even more than they did in the first place. Seriously, have a look at this and actually try not to laugh at it.

Australia Showing Us How To Do It

Seeing something like this after all of the homosexual hatred that gay adverts get in the USA and the UK, is genuinely brilliant. It’s so lovely to know that there are places such as Australia, a country that is known for its intolerance, that are making adverts which acknowledge homosexuality as something that is no longer a taboo.