The best gamepads for the Samsung Gear VR

If you're getting a Gear VR, you might want to get your hands on a controller.

Gaming on the Gear VR is a fantastic experience, right until you feel like your arm is going to fall off from holding it up to the D-Pad on the side of the headset for an hour. There's only so much Gunjack you can play in that position, and beyond shooting enemies from your space turret there are several games that require a gamepad to start playing. There's no shortage of Bluetooth gamepads for Android, but with your eyes unable to see your fingers you should be a little pickier about what you are gripping when gaming in VR.

Here's a quick look at our top choices for Gear VR gamepads.

Xiaomi Bluetooth Gamepad

This is the best all-around gamepad for the Gear VR. It's compact enough to toss in a bag with your Gear VR but not quite compact enough to slide in a pocket. The buttons are easily identifiable when playing in VR, which is important since you can't look down to see the buttons. It's a great all-around gamepad for the Gear VR, and for $30 you aren't spending a whole lot for the addition to your experience.

See at Amazon

Beboncool mini controller

If portability is the most important thing to you, Beboncool is where you want to look. This controller can be clipped onto your keyring, and when you want the controller for the Gear VR you'll have everything you need. The buttons are etched so you can feel them with your thumb, but the icons aren't uniform so it's less obvious which button is where. You're compromising comfort for portability, but the end result is a controller that is always on you when you want to game.

See at Amazon

GameSir G3s

Portability and easy key location are important, but if you're used to a specific look and feel to a controller that may be the most significant part of the experience for you. The controller design of the GameSir G3s is undeniably similar to the PS4 controller, and that familiarity is significant when you can't just look down at the controller. This controller also includes a bracket to hold your phone when not using the Gear VR, so you can use it for just about everything.

See at Amazon

SteelSeries Stratus XL

The folks at SteelSeries have a long history of quality controllers for mobile platforms, and the Stratus XL kicks that up a notch. It's an Xbox One-style controller for just about everything, supporting Steam Big Picture and the Gear VR at the same time. It's not exactly portable compared to the other controllers SteelSeries makes, but the comfort and capability of this controller makes it an incredible choice for just about anything.

See at Amazon

8BITDO NES30

Forget portability, comfort, battery longevity, or tactile response when in the Gear VR. This controller looks like an amazing hybrid of a classic Nintendo controller and a Wii Pro Controller (not to be confused with the much better Wii U Pro Controller). It looks neat, and is compatible with Android. That's basically the only reason to consider this controller over the others. For some folks that's enough, and that's okay!

See at Amazon

Samsung Gear VR

• Gear VR review
• Five Gear VR games that shouldn't be missed
• Inside Samsung's Gear VR web browser
• Gear VR vs. Google Cardboard
• Where to buy Gear VR

Amazon AT&T Best Buy Samsung

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theScore esports now keeps you up to date with competitive Call of Duty, Starcraft and more

Fans of competitive Call of Duty and Starcraft II will want to check out the latest update to theScore esports. The app now tracks matches from those franchises, along with Blizzard's Hearthstone digital card game. The app also features a new "spoiler mode" to hides match results and alerts until you're ready to see them.

Here's what's new in theScore esports:

• Call of Duty, Starcraft II, and Hearthstone now have results from the biggest and best competitions!
• Use the new spoiler mode to hide results and push alerts until you're ready to see them!
• Fixed a bug where hitting "back" after opening the app via an alert closed the app
• Fixed a bug where Twitch links were not opening in the Twitch app
• Design tweaks and performance enhancements.

You can find theScore esports 2.2 on the Google Play Store now.

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Dropbox is adding several new and improved productivity tools

The cloud file storage service Dropbox announced a large number of new and upcoming productivity features, including creating Microsoft Office documents on mobile devices, a document scanner and more.

The company offered up some details on these new features in a blog post:

• Scan documents in Dropbox: With document scanning, you can now use the Dropbox mobile app to capture and organize scans from whiteboards, receipts, and sketches, so your ideas are right at your fingertips. Dropbox Business users can even search inside the scans.
• Create Microsoft Office docs on mobile: If your idea is better suited to an Office doc than a napkin, you can click the new plus button to create Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel files instantly from your mobile device. They'll be saved to your Dropbox automatically. "The new plus button in the Dropbox iOS app adds a convenient way to create and save Office documents on the go, helping people work better together, wherever they are," said Rob Howard, Director of Office Marketing at Microsoft.
• Manage photos from your computer: For Dropbox Basic users who are using their phones to capture memories alongside ideas, we're also changing the way camera uploads works. You'll need to connect a computer to your Dropbox account so you can better access, organize, or remove your photos and avoid running out of space.
• Share files and folders from the desktop: We're cutting steps from sharing and saving you time with our desktop sharing experience. Now when you right-click on a file or folder in your Mac Finder or Windows Explorer, you can share right from the desktop, without redirecting to the web, or copying a link to email.
• Add comments to a specific part of a file: It can be hard to make sense of all the feedback you get within emails, chat, and text. So we're introducing a feature that's usually only found in design software: adding comments to a specific part of a file. Give precise feedback by highlighting a piece of text or an image anywhere within a file preview.
• Preview earlier versions: Version history is an easy way to recover old files if accidents happen, or if you just want to revisit an idea. Now you can also preview prior file versions before you restore them, so you know you've got the right version.
• Share with more control: Sometimes you just need to work with a select group of collaborators. Our simple, yet powerful new sharing features give you more control. Now you can share a single file with specific people, who will need to log in to see it. And with view-only access for shared folders, now available for all users, you can also let people follow along.

Dropbox adds that this is just the first step in improving its productivity features and "there's lots more to come" in this area.

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Wherein we welcome Mr. Mobile the only way we know how

So we hired Michael Fisher. Maybe you've heard of him. And while hiring is probably the hardest part of running any sort of organization, I can honestly say that without question he's is one of those people I'd sign on without any sort of hesitation. Do it. And so we did.

Turns out, though, that we had something different in mind for our special snowflake. Something that plays not just to Mr. Fisher's strengths, but ticks off some of the boxes that we're still working to fill. It's exciting as hell.

And dude's gonna do it everywhere. Hit up all these links ASAP.

• YouTube
• Le web
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Snapchat
• Instagram

So welcome, Mr. Mobile. While he's not directly working on Android Central, or iMore, or Windows Central, or any of our other sites, our paths most certainly will cross on occasion. Let's just hope he forgets about that little water joke.

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Ally Bank debit cards now work with Android Pay and Samsung Pay

If you're an Ally Bank customer, you can now use your cards with Android Pay and Samsung Pay. Ally added support for both mobile payments platforms, noting that all debit card customers should now be able to add their cards to either platform.

From Ally:

Ally Bank, the direct banking subsidiary of Ally Financial Inc. (NYSE: ALLY), today announced it has enabled Android Pay™ and Samsung Pay® support for its debit card customers, providing fast and secure ways to make purchases with compatible Android™ and Samsung devices.

If you're an Ally Bank customer, let us know how your experience goes with adding your card to the mobile payment platforms. And for the full list of supported banks, be sure to check out the Android Pay and Samsung Pay websites for more.

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