Deal: 32GB Nexus 5X available for $229.99

With the new Nexus devices coming this fall, the Nexus 5X's price is dropping fast: a brand new Nexus 5X is currently being sold for $269.99 on Groupon, but with a new customer discount, you can snag yourself one for just $229.99.

• Nexus 5X review
• Nexus 5X comparison with Nexus 6P
• Is Nexus 5X a good deal?

For a very limited time, Groupon is offering the 32GB version of the Nexus 5X for a great value. If this is the first time you are making a purchase through Groupon – whether you already have an account with them or not – you can get up to $40 off with the code FIRST at checkout. That means one of Google's 2015 flagships could be yours for just $229.99.

To briefly mention its specs, the Nexus 5X sports a 5.2 inch display with a 1080p resolution. It's powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 808 processor, the chipset that LG used for the G4 instead of the ultra-hot (quite literally) Snapdragon 810. On the back, it has a fingerprint scanner and a 12-megapixel camera with laser autofocus and on the front, a 5-megapixel selfie shooter.

The phone itself is unlocked to work on both GSM and CDMA, which means you can use it on any major carrier with a working SIM card. It seems as though only the Carbon Black option is available.

If you're looking for an inexpensive phone with decent specs, hurry up because the deal expires very soon.

Buy from Groupon

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AT&T to bring family plans to prepaid users

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AT&T just announced that starting August 19^th, it will offer family plans to its prepaid customers with the all new multiline discount. This means that you could save up to $600 a year if you share your plan with four other people.

America's second largest carrier has been aggressively reforming its GoPhone prepaid service: currently it offers 6GB of LTE data and unlimited talk and text for just $60. If you're willing to settle for 3GB of LTE, it will set you back $45. Now, with the all new multiline discount, there's even more of a reason to use AT&T's prepaid service.

The discount is only available for the $60 and $45 plans, not the $30 plan. For every line you add, AT&T is offering you a $5 discount, so for instance, if you have three lines total, you save $10 every month, and if you have five lines, you save $20 a month. Unfortunately, that's the maximum multiline discount you can get.

Mind you, though, the $5 auto-refill discount still applies, which means if you enable the option to top up your account automatically, you will save an additional $5 every month. Do some math, and you can easily save a few hundred bucks a year.

If you're a regular consumer, five will be the maximum amount of lines you will be able to have per account. If you are using AT&T for business, you can have up to ten lines per account. To sweeten the pot, through September 22^nd, AT&T will be offering a free GoPhone when you purchase one GoPhone from AT&T.

Just to refresh your memory, the $45 plan includes unlimited talk, text, and data with first 3GB in LTE speed. The $60 plan is the same except it offers 6GB of LTE data and includes cell and data coverage in Mexico as well as in Canada. If you travel a lot or don't want to be bound by carrier contracts – or if you simply want to save money – AT&T's prepaid plan might be the answer for you.

See also: Best AT&T prepaid Android phones (July 2016)28

Are you on AT&T's GoPhone plan right now? How is it treating ya? Let us know in the comments below!

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India to get twice as much Xiaomi retail presence in brick and mortar locations

So the Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi has been making increasing headway in the Indian market. Their only problem is that most of this progress has been via online mediums. Now, however, the company is announcing their intent to make their physical presence in the country much more prominent.

Indeed, over the next few months, Xiaomi is planning on doubling their offline presence in India. Currently, 90 percent of their sales in the region are from online sources. With India being both a booming smartphone market, it's no surprise that the Chinese smartphone maker would want to make their mid-range products available in as many physical locations as possible.

See also: 90,000 units of the Xiaomi Redmi 3S Prime sold out in just 8 minutes in India7

"For us, online is the dominant channel and we are trying to build a base for offline in India. We had a partnership with Redington last year (for distribution) and four weeks back, tied up with Innocomm and Just Buy Live," Xiaomi India Head Manu Jain said in Mumbai.

By making these two partnerships, Xiaomi will be selling their products in up to 10,000 shops by late Q4 of 2016. Primary among these retailers will be Mi.com and Flipkart, which will be prominantly selling the Redmi 3S and Redmi 3S Prime.

India is an important market for Xiaomi.

India is an important market for Xiaomi. The company sells over 1 million phones every quarter in the region, so it makes sense that they would want to expand their physical presence.

"For the first sale that we did yesterday, we wanted to bring the highest possible quantity and we brought 90,000 units. Everything was added to cart in a few minutes and it took two-and-a-half hours to ship out everything," Jain said.

What do you think of Xiaomi's increased presence in the Indian market? Will the Chinese company be able to snag the bandwidth they need to become a dominant player in the market? Let us know your take in the comments below!

Next: Xiaomi Redmi 4 and Mi Note 2 specs and release dates rumored20

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Explore infinite dungeons with Raid Master: Epic Relic Chaser

You've heard of endless runners, but now Raid Master: Epic Relic Chaser is bringing the action-packed feel of your favorite sprinters to the endless dungeon crawler genre.

Game developer Bluehole is bringing us this classic-inspired, turn-based mobile game that throws a spotlight on party strategy combat. There are over fifty heroes at your disposal, and the RPG depth is surprisingly rich considering the endless nature of the game.

See also: Best RPGs for Android138

It's up to you to assemble your team. Will you be tank-heavy and rugged or a squad of lithe rogue-like heroes putting their chips on their own agility to evade harm and hit the enemy where it counts? Wizards and warriors all have a place here, and the efficacy of play is determined by how well you deploy and manage your team.

Although the heart of this game is an infinite dungeon crawler, there is indeed a series of story battles that let you into the heart of this fantasy world. Explore ancient caves, uncover loot, then sell what you don't need at local shops to purchase upgrades and better equipment.

It's up to you to assemble your team.

Raid Master is a game that leans heavily on deep gameplay mechanics. With hours of complex engagements to navigate, you'll have to master the battlefield by fine-tuning your characters to overcome all obstacles. The uncomplicated graphics mean the game is a delight for RPG fans running any relatively modern Android device, so click the button below to give the game a spin.

Raid Master is free to download but comes with in-app purchases. If you're interested, try it out for a little while and then let us know what you think of it in the comments!

Get it in the Play Store Next: Best Strategy RPGs and Tactical RPGs on Android18

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Verizon’s new FlexFlow system will reduce transaction times in stores

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The most annoying part in the phone-buying process for many consumers may be the time it takes to actually get through the store. Unlike unlocked smartphones, where you just buy and go, locked devices from carriers involve a bit more dealings with their systems. Fortunately for Verizon customers, you may be looking at less of a headache on your next upgrade. Big Red is said to have developed a new system, dubbed FlexFlow, which will potentially expedite the process.

Historically, when you walk in the store, employees have needed to pull up your account and examine it. But FlexFlow will jump straight to 'What exactly did you come in for?', and get to exactly what needs to be done instead of lollygagging around. The drive for the development of a more efficient system came about when the EVP of Verizon's wireless operations, David Small, and his team interviewed Verizon retail store employees across the country, questioning what gets in the way of providing customers a great experience.

See also: Best Verizon Android phones (July 2016)41

It doesn't appear that FlexFlow is yet fully instated. A Reddit user on the Verizon community page that got to try the new system reported it still needs some work, "Overall it's not bad, but it's still in its buggy phase." However, that comment was from a couple months ago, so FlexFlow is probably closer to working order at the moment. This isn't the only area where Verizon is trying to improve customer service. An effort to shorten call center response time has also been ignited. Small stated that Verizon has been able to drop the average handling call time by 'about 75 seconds year over year'.

We'll have to wait and see if these changes actually bring about better customer service scores. FlexFlow may be rough around the edges in the beginning, but it's refreshing to see Verizon thinking about its customers' well being for a change. Of course, there's still a whole lot of other areas that Verizon critics point to that this small step doesn't address, but baby steps we suppose?

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Forget Pokemon, Disney wants you to catch a dragon in their latest AR endeavor

Disney has remade the classic 1977 film Pete's Dragon, and to get you involved in the action, they've released an AR app that makes dragons a reality in your world. The way that it works is actually pretty impressive.

The app is Google-powered, for starters. The Google dev team employed Cloud Vision to "identify objects in the user's field." In a sense, the app can recognize chairs, lamps, couches, chairs, beds, trees, and other objects in your environment. Once it recognizes them, it generates a CGI dragon that interacts with them.

ar See also: Augmented Reality – Everything you need to know4

"For example, if the user needs to identify 'couch,' the website checks against a list of possible responses: 'chair, futon, couch, sofa,'" the developers wrote. "As soon as the recognized entity matches the desired object, Elliot is revealed."

Perfect for imaginative kids, but also interesting for tech enthusiasts as well. The app uses machine learning to correctly identify objects, and it's the same branch of research that Google is using to detect people's emotions from photographs and automatically moderate comments on the internet.

The app uses machine learning to correctly identify objects.

It's a fitting utilization of modern tech to promote a film that combined real life imagery with animation in a startling and magical way in the days of the 1970's. Although the original film was shot in live action, the dragon was animated in after the fact. This technology may seem commonplace or rudimentary to us now, but it was still pretty novel at the time.

What are your thoughts regarding Dragon Spotting and Pete's Dragon? Let us know in the comments below!

Get the app! Next: Uh oh, Apple is about to 'invent' augmented reality72

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Republic Wireless now lets you bring your own phone

For those not in the know, Republic Wireless is an American mobile virtual network operator that leans heavily on Wi-Fi service, with network support that falls back on the Sprint network when Wi-Fi isn't available. Previously, it was essential to buy a phone directly from Republic Wireless because the Wi-Fi capabilities they offered required substantial firmware integration. Change, however, is in the air.

That's right. Republic Wireless is now launching their Bring Your Own Phone arrangement, which means you can finally bring some higher end devices onto their network. The list of approved devices is still a tad short, but considering the previous options that were available to Republic users, this is a serious upgrade.

See also: Republic Wireless expands lineup with 9 new Android phones5

Although you can now buy any of these devices through the carrier, you can also bring your own aboard as well. The list is as follows:

• Samsung Galaxy S7
• Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge
• Samsung Galaxy S6
• Samsung Galaxy J3
• Nexus 6P by Huawei
• Nexus 5X by LG
• Moto X Pure Edition
• Moto G4
• Moto G4 Plus
• Moto X Pure Edition

Of course, any device you bring to the network will need to be unlocked, and you'll have to install the Republic app to order a SIM. In honor of this change to their network, the company is currently having a brief promotion which means you get your SIM card for free if you order before 9PM (EST) on August 12.

If you've been considering swapping from your current carrier to a less expensive option that relies primarily on Wi-Fi, there's never been a better time. Click the button below to see if such a move would be right for you. If you're a Republic Wireless user, let us know what your experience with the network has been like in the comments! You might help someone make a more educated decision.

Check out Republic Wireless See also: Republic Wireless introduces new phones you will actually care about19

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