Xiaomi phones run a skinned version of Android known as MIUI, which, over the years, has been a popular custom ROM. One of the standout features Xiaomi has added to the mix is something called Quick Ball, which lets you navigate your phone by swiping inward from a small circle that resides on the edge of your screen.
One of the biggest hurdles for making touchscreen text input easy on the user has been finding a simple way to move the cursor around. With all the advancements in mobile technology, we're still left fumbling around with tiny arrow indicators or magnifying glasses when we need to add a letter to a word we've already typed. But thankfully, developer Ouadban Youssef has found a better way.
Android 7.0 Nougat brought a lot of multitasking improvements along with it, but the most notable addition is a unified multi-window mode (which shines bright in Google's Pixel phones). This means that every Android device can now use the same split-screen interface, and the days of software fragmentation caused by differing multi-window implementations by LG and Samsung are now over.
Rooted users have been able to remap their hardware buttons since the earliest days of Android, allowing them to change the functionality behind one of the most centralized methods of interacting with a phone or tablet. Up until now, however, non-rooted users have been left out in the cold, meaning these buttons could only perform the functions assigned to them by the device manufacturer.
Over the years, YouTube ads have become more and more integrated with the videos themselves, which means traditional Android ad blockers can no longer block the ads without blocking the videos. It's gotten to the point where the only ways to get rid of the ads are to either subscribe to Google Play Music and YouTube Red, or go through the complicated process of installing the Xposed Framework.
Google has been working on its voice recognition technology ever since the days when you had to call a phone number with a Silicon Valley area code to dictate your query. As you can imagine, things have come a long way in the decade or so that has passed, to the point where we talk to our phones as if they were a person nowadays.
If you've ever used a custom ROM on one of your devices, chances are it had a built-in feature that allowed you to kill any app by long-pressing the back button. This function comes in handy quite often, especially in situations where an app is acting up, since it stops all associated processes and clears the app from memory.
For some odd reason, the Netflix app likes to disable the Nexus Player's built-in screensaver. It doesn't use its own, it simply keeps your screen on indefinitely, which of course can lead to screen burn-in. This is not just an Android TV issue, as the Netflix app does the same thing on Roku and smart TVs.
Mac keyboards are great when listening to music or watching a movie, since you can control what's playing without going back into iTunes or QuickTime Player. However, when you're using an app like Photoshop that uses the F7, F8, and F9 as shortcuts, it gets pretty annoying to have to hold down the Fn key. Why can't you just hit the back, play/pause, and skip buttons alone?
Nostalgia sometimes gets the best of us—hence the reason we geek-out when we see emulators for SNES on Apple devices or N64 on Android.
Apple has released the third beta of its iOS 7.1 software to developers, just a few weeks after their second beta introduced us to button shapes, a new calendar list view toggle, a hidden Car Display control and several other tweaks and performance improvements.
One little known feature on Android devices is TalkBack, which provides you with spoken feedback and vibrations in order to help you navigate your device. Obviously, if you're not blind or visually impaired, this isn't a feature you're likely to use.
See what it's like to make music on your Nintendo DS with the KORG DS-10 Synthesizer. KORG, maker of some of the world's finest musical instruments, takes their legendary MS-10 synthesizer, adds tons of modern features, and combines it with the accessibility of the Nintendo DS Touch Screen.
See what it's like to make music on your Nintendo DS with the KORG DS-10 Synthesizer. KORG, maker of some of the world's finest musical instruments, takes their legendary MS-10 synthesizer, adds tons of modern features, and combines it with the accessibility of the Nintendo DS Touch Screen.
Apple has a few exciting surprises for you in its latest iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 software updates. Released on Thursday, May 18, version 16.5 includes new features, bug fixes, and security patches, and there are even hints of some big things coming in future software updates for iPhone and iPad.
Apple's latest big software update includes an entirely new Apple app, a controversial change in the TV app, better Siri control, an improved Shortcuts app, interesting Safari upgrades, Apple Music Sing, and more. Keep reading to see what iOS 16.2 has to offer your iPhone.
Just days after Google released the official Android 11 update, Samsung already had a pre-beta build of One UI 3.0 available for developers to test their apps on. So this year's main OS upgrade is likely hitting Galaxy phones even earlier than we thought.
For all of its many perks — from the best iPhone camera system money can buy, to arguably the best smartphone display on the market — the iPhone 12 Pro Max is undeniably huge. It has the largest iPhone screen to date despite being 0.46 cubic inches smaller than the iPhone 11 Pro Max in overall size. If you're finding it a little too much to handle with one hand, there are ways to make it much easier to use.
It feels like just yesterday Apple unveiled iOS 13 to the world, introducing game-changing features like system-wide dark mode and enhanced editing tools in Photos. But WWDC 2020 is rapidly approaching, which means iOS 14 is as well. As it turns out, we don't need to wait for an official announcement to get an idea of what new features and changes are coming to iPhone this year.
Have you ever heard a sound when you shut down, boot up, or restart your iPhone? Probably not, but it doesn't have to stay that way.
I consider myself a master of emoji, crafting complete sentences and paragraphs using strictly ideograms and smileys. However, everyone seems to have their own interpretation for each little image, so my elaborately clever emoji-only sentences can get lost in translation. But there's an easy way to translate emoji into their exact meaning, as well as decode everyone's mystifying emoji talk.
Back in May 2017, Apple filed a patent application for a way to communicate with Siri by writing her questions and responses using iMessage. While that didn't make it into iOS, thankfully, something even better did — a way to ask Siri things with the keyboard directly in the Siri interface. This works in iOS 11 and later.
While new features in Safari, Camera, Photos, Notes, Weather, Messages, and other Apple apps may steal the show on iOS 17, there are some impressive new features you need to know about when it comes to FaceTime audio and video calls.
Samsung has the Bixby key, Pixels have the Google Assistant squeeze gesture. It's nice having a hardware button just for your assistant so you don't have to say "OK Google" or press an on-screen button. If your phone doesn't have such a shortcut, though, you can remap an existing hardware button to trigger the Google Assistant.
With the iPhone X, Apple introduced a brand new way for iOS users to interact with their iPhones. Gestures took the spotlight, as they very apparently replaced functions you would normally execute on the Home button. But swipes aren't everything for the new iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR. Don't believe us? Just take a look at the Side button.
Thanks to Android Pie's gesture controls, features like split screen mode now take several additional steps to activate. This change is due to the revamped navigation bar which removed the recents apps button. Luckily, we can still change it back.
One of the more exciting features in Android Oreo is the Autofill API. With this tool, third-party password managers can autofill login information into other apps. LastPass added this feature to their beta app a while back, but now, Autofill is finally available in the official stable version of LastPass.
In addition to the standard "Raise to Wake" option that's been around since iOS 10, the iPhone X, XS, XS Max, and XR have a unique capability that lets you "Tap to Wake" the screen. But these features can get annoying real fast when your screen keeps turning on accidentally, which could even lead to some unnecessary battery drain.
Since the iPhone X has no Home button, the Side button has some heavy lifting to do. So not only is the Side button responsible for all of its usual duties, like sleeping and waking the device, it has to do everything the Home button did too. That's a lot of work for one button, but we've got everything figured out for you.
Apple's iOS 11 is finally here, and while they showed off several of the new features it brings to your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch back at WWDC 2017, they've only just touched the surface of what iOS 11 has to offer. There are a lot of cool new (and sometimes secret) features to explore, so we've collected them all here for you.
Not everyone digs Siri. Some of you probably can't live without the personal assistant on your iPhone, and some of you probably never even use it — and likely never will. If you fall into the latter category of iPhone users, you can simply disable the feature altogether, which will prevent accidentally triggering her or him anymore and will keep your iPhone nice and secure overall.
3D Touch is only available on the 6s and 7 series iPhones right now, and likely future models, so those with older devices are missing out on all the cool "Quick Actions" available for app and settings icons. But the new iOS 11 is finally bringing some of those helpful shortcuts to iPhones without 3D Touch built in.
Some manufacturers, like Samsung and LG, have had split-screen multitasking on their custom versions of Android for years. But starting with Android Nougat, Google added this functionality to AOSP, which means that all phones and tablets running Android 7.0 or higher will now have a new multi-window mode.
With Touch ID enabled, your iPhone needs to scan your fingerprint before you can access your home screen or last app used. Before it unlocks, your iPhone might request that you press the Home button, adding an unnecessary step between you and your data. However, you can turn the feature off so that you don't need to click any buttons to unlock your device.
Even today, smartphone text input leaves a lot to be desired. It's difficult to select specific words, the cut/copy/paste menu isn't always accessible in every app, and we're lacking undo and redo options, even though it's as simple as pressing Ctrl + Z on computers.
I often read ebooks on my iPhone while I walk, but being glued to my screen is a good way to get run over or cursed at. To save my physical and social hide, I use this trick to get my iPhone to read ebooks and articles out loud, turning my whole text library into de facto audiobooks.
If you've ever prematurely dismissed all of your push notifications before you got a chance to read each one, you know how annoying it can be to dig through all of your apps to try and find the one with the missed notification.
Make no bones about it—having an "undo" option is a freaking godsend. Whether you accidentally deleted an entire essay, screwed up the shading on a Photoshop job, or sent an email that wasn't quite ready, having the option to undo a click or button-press can definitely be a lifesaver.
Keyboard shortcuts can make using your Mac faster and easier, and leave your mouse feeling archaic. With just a few taps, you can save files, open new tabs, or play a movie—all without using your mouse even once.
The biggest complaint I hear about Android Lollipop is the fact that the new Priority Mode notification system has effectively killed off "Silent Mode." Sure, you can still put your phone on vibrate, but that's not truly silent. Selecting "None" as your notification mode isn't a perfect solution either, since no notification icons will be shown in your status bar and your alarm will not go off in the morning.
