Halloween is a special time of year for many in the US, as it allows them a reason to acquire and scarf down copious amounts of sweets or hand them out to others to do the same, and it’s a reason to dress up in costume and hang spooky decorations, much like Google has recently done with its Android statues around the company campus.

Yes, Google is going all in on spooky season with the Android statues, placing decorations around parts of the campus, and draping ghostly or web-like decorations across statues. One statue now has a sheet over it to disguise the statue as a simple ghost. Meanwhile, another is wrapped in fake spider webs with a few rather sizeable fake spiders crawling all over it. Google has even thrown fake webbing over Stan the dinosaur while placing a few “trick or treat” signs in the ground around it.

Will Android statues get decorations for holidays other than Halloween?

Halloween is the perfect time to spread around some decorations, especially if it’s one of your favorite holidays. Seeing Google decorate its Android statues for Halloween begs the question of whether or not it would do the same for others. We couldn’t find any evidence of this being done before, but there’s no reason to suggest that it wouldn’t be done in the future. Seeing as how other holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas are celebrated widely around the country, it would make sense for Google to decorate the Android statues during those times as well.

The images showing the Halloween decorations originated from a user named rafal_wziatek on Instagram, and were spotted by Search Engine Roundtable’s Barry Schwartz. While there are just these few images that were taken, it’s probably a safe bet that other statue decorations could be found elsewhere.

And if more decorations were abound, then there’s a good chance Google plans on being festive with the statues and around campus during other big holidays. This is just speculation, of course. But it’s fun to think about during these times, imagining statues of the Android mascot being dressed up to match the theme of the holiday.

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For many US citizens at this particular moment in time, smartphones have become a valuable tool in the pushback against ICE, in hopes that surveillance of their actions will result in ICE agents reducing their use of force during raids to detain people. In some cases, video recording and what could almost be viewed as verbally shaming these agents in public has resulted in them leaving the scene of attempt to detain someone. Almost like they know they weren’t supposed to be doing it in the first place.

These sorts of recordings, as well as images related to the same subject taken with smartphones we carry with us every day, are being spread all across social media. Making them more of an important thing to have around these days. The sharing on social media shouldn’t be surprising. It’s become a main form of spreading news on current events. Situations that might otherwise get little media attention from big outlets and networks.

Outside of social media, apps like ICEBlock and similar offerings have made their way onto app platforms this year. These apps have served as a way for citizens to share active locations of ICE agents. All in hopes people could avoid those areas. Like users of Waze do when they crowdsource information on speed traps. But smartphones and social media, however much they’ve been useful to the average user, are double-edged sword admist these problems with ICE.

ICE and the Trump administration are also able to use smartphones and social media for surveillance

As much as both smartphones and social media have been useful for citizens to share what’s happening, they’ve also been a method for ICE and the Trump administration to use surveillance against the populace. This unfortunate two-way street has and never likely will be a closed-off or one-sided beneficial piece of technology. That is to say, now more than ever, people should be careful about what they say or post online.

Whether or not thoughts of political dissent is something that enters your mind on a daily basis or crops up in conversations with friends, it’s one thing to think about that stuff and discuss with people close to you in person or in personal chats. It’s another thing to outwardly share those thoughts with the world at large onine.

Be careful about what you share online

This isn’t to say you shouldn’t talk about or share these things. Just that sharing these current moments require more contemplation. The launch of a new app that shares real-time locations of ICE activity to alert others, an opinion about ICE and what they’re doing, a video of excessive force during a detention. All of these should all be done with forethought and tact. As ICE also have their own tools.

As noted by Kyle Chayka in The New Yorker, ICE has been seen using digital tools created by Palantir to gather information on people it’s detained. These tools scan social media accounts, government records, and bio-metric data of detainees. At the same time, the Trump administration has put pressure on app stores like Google Play and the Apple App Store to remove apps that work against ICE and its goals. ICEBlock and similar offerings have all been pulled down. Other apps, such as Eyes Up, went live on September 1 of this year to archive recordings of excessive abuse and abductions by ICE, only to be pulled down in early October.

So far there haven’t been any widespread (let alone any that are known) instances of people being targeted for what they post about the current situation with ICE raids and the Trump administration’s use of them online. That doesn’t mean that these things won’t happen, however. The further it gets into Trump’s second term, the more that things happen that people probably wouldn’t have believed just a few years ago.

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Really good Android tablets aren’t exactly available in abundance from a lot of different brands, but one that is available and is most certainly a really good tablet is the Galaxy Tab S10 FE, and this deal saves you a little money on it. Normally, the 256GB model of this tablet would cost you $569.99, but Amazon has it on sale, so right now it’s down to $469.99. With this $100 discount, this is the all-time low price for this tablet. The only caveat is that this price is only available for the Blue and Silver colors. The Gray version is on sale, but it’s only down to $499.99. If you don’t care about the color, then you can save an extra $30.

Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S10 FE comes with a decently large 10.9-inch display that is easy to enjoy all of your content on. From movies to games, e-books to browsing, the display’s larger size makes it easy to see everything on screen. Of course, this does make it a little more hefty to hold, but it’s worth it for the improvement to the entertainment.

It also has a battery life of up to 20 hours, which is pretty good considering you probably aren’t going to spend 20 hours straight on this thing. More than likely, the battery will last for days if you use the tablet on a more casual basis. It has an IP68 rating for dust resistance and water resistance, too, so you shouldn’t have to be afraid if you accidentally splash a little bit of water on it. Though we wouldn’t make a habit of that.

Lowest Price

Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 FE 256GB – $469.99

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If you’re looking for a great pair of wireless headphones, then you definitely want to check out the Sennheiser Momentum 4 headphones, because this Amazon deal has slashed the price, and you’re saving quite a lot of money. It is worth noting that this price may not stick around for long, and it’s also the lowest price in the last 30 days. It’s not quite the all-time low price, but it’s only a couple of dollars off from that. Normally, these headphones would cost you $449.95, but Amazon currently has them on sale for just $199.95, saving you a whopping $250. Having said that, this price is only available for the White and the Graphite colors.

What makes Sennheiser’s Momentum 4 headphones so good is the comfort and the sound quality. Putting these on your ears feels like you’re wearing a pair of pillowy clouds that are hugging your head just right. And of course, they’re Sennheiser, so the sound is quite amazing, as well as rich and immersive. Then, there’s the battery life. These will last for up to 60 hours, which is an absolutely astounding amount of time compared to most options out there.

Another really great feature they offer is the active noise cancellation. Sometimes you just want to shut the world out and enjoy whatever you have playing in your ears. That has never been easier with the ANC on these headphones, which can block out nearly all noise you’re probably accustomed to hearing on a regular basis. When you need to hear something, these have a pretty good transparency mode, so you don’t even have to take the headphones off.

Sennheiser Momentum 4 – $199.95

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These days, just about everyone has a need for a power strip for one reason or another, and over at Amazon, there’s an excellent deal on one from Anker that you don’t want to miss, specifically the Anker Prime 8-in-1 power strip. This power strip, as the name suggests, will charge up to 8 different devices at the same time. Normally, this power strip would cost you $149.99. However, Amazon’s limited-time sale brings that price down to just $89.99. Saving you a grand total of $60.

The one thing to keep in mind is that this is a limited-time deal, which means that this price won’t stick around for too long. On top of that, Amazon only has so much stock of this item at this price, and at the time of writing, 34% of that stock has already been claimed.

In terms of features, this power strip has an output of 240W to distribute across all those devices. There are four USB-C ports, two USB-A ports, and two AC outlets. So, there’s a variety of device types you could charge up using this thing. Or keep powered if they don’t have internal batteries to recharge. The power strip itself is fairly flat and it doesn’t actually take up a whole lot of space, making it easy to fit into various spots around your desk or side tables.

It also has a 5-foot extension cord. That’s a pretty long cord and should be long enough to give you some slack with regard to where you want to plug it in.

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Anker Prime Power Strip – $89.99

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