Need to know how to optimize a Google Android smartphone for use with a hearing aid? This brief video tutorial from the folks at Butterscotch will teach you everything you need to know. For more information, including detailed, step-by-step instructions, and to get started using your Android phone in conjunction with your own hearing aid, take a look.
Android cell phones are highly customizable. You can put just about anything on any one of your home screens, but the widgets are an entirely different animal. They can make your home screens more than useful. CNET shows you how to create widgets, use them, and move them about your home screens. You can even put home photos on your Android smartphone's home screens.
In this tutorial, learn how to easily download any music for free onto your Android phone by using the Music Junk app. This clip will walk you through the process of selecting and downloading this app from the Android Market and using it to add all the tunes you need. Rock on!
Some people like their screens to be dim while others like theirs to be bright. Some like brightness to automatically adjust, while others like a constant level. One of the salient advantages of a Google Android smartphone over, say, an Apple iPhone, is the inherent extendibility of the open-source Android mobile OS. There are a seemingly infinite number of settings to tweak and advanced features to discover and use. This free video tutorial will show you how to adjust the brightness of the d...
Take walks for exercise, to roam around your neighborhood, or just to get outside? Want to know how far you walked? Well, it's easy to do with MapMyWalks and Google Maps! One of the salient advantages of a Google Android smartphone over, say, an Apple iPhone, is the inherent extendibility of the open-source Android mobile OS. There are a seemingly infinite number of settings to tweak and advanced features to discover and use. This free video tutorial will show you how to map out your walks us...
Where do you get all of those cool apps for you Android mobile device? There's one place to go to find all of the latest apps for your mobile phone, so what is it? Best Buy has answers. The Best Buy Mobile team explains how simple it is to add a contact to your Android enabled cell phone.
If you just purchased an Android enable mobile device with Bluetooth, then one of the main objectives you'll have on your to-do list is to set it up in your vehicle for hands-free dialing and phone calls. Activating Bluetooth inside your car is easy, and all you need to remember is a little number called zero. Actually, you need to remember it 4 times — Best Buy has answers. The Best Buy Mobile team explains how simple it is to activate Bluetooth settings on an Android cell phone.
Want to give your new Android enable mobile device a personal touch? Well, your phone comes preloaded with wallpapers that you can use, and you just have to find the right one that fits your personality. Adding the wallpaper to your phone is easy. Go to gallery, flip through the stock wallpapers, and select the one you want by clicking "select" — Best Buy has answers. The Best Buy Mobile team explains how simple it is to set the wallpaper on an Android cell phone.
Remember concerts? Those were fun. While gathering in large groups to listen to live music might not be allowed at the moment, the live music part still is. Thanks to the internet, more and more musicians are taking the stage each day to perform for those of us stuck in social isolation due to the new coronavirus. The best part? Many of these concerts are 100% free.
The Alt-Tab keyboard shortcut makes switching between apps and programs a breeze on your Windows PC. Just like your computer, your Android phone has the same feature baked in to make switching between recent apps just as hassle-free.
Android 10 is officially out, but a lot of phones didn't get it in 2019, and others may not get it at all. With this page, you'll at least know when or if.
One of the coolest things about Android is the massive development community behind it. These developers keep on cooking up new things even after official support has stopped for an older device. It breathes new life into somewhat forgotten devices, which is always great news. With Android 10 out, it's time to see what phones will get the custom ROM treatment.
Lots of Google apps are getting dark mode. Google Drive has had it on Android 10 for a few months. But it hasn't been accessible to all Android users until now. With the latest update, there's a manual dark mode switch you can turn on regardless of what OS version you have.
Even three years after its initial release, Niantic's Pokémon GO is still going strong. If you're an Android user still on the hunt for your city's latest Pokémon haul, however, you'll want to listen up — Niantic is cutting support for aging Android devices, meaning soon your dream of catching 'em all may be coming to an end.
With Android Pie beta now available for the Galaxy S9 and S9+, Samsung is well on its way to catching up to major competitors like the Google Pixel 3 in terms of giving its users the latest and greatest software Android has to offer. Of course, Samsung has added its own touches to the software to make Android Pie its own and set it apart from the rest of the crowd.
With every new Android update, hidden features are lurking under the surface. Google hides these options to prevent unnecessary tinkering by average users, leaving them in place for power users to discover. These secrets range from silly to really useful, with the latter opening up new ways to manage your phone.
Starting Nov. 1, 2018, Google got a lot tougher with Android app developers. New apps being uploaded to the Play Store already had to target Android 8.0 Oreo or higher as of August, but now, every update to existing apps has to do the same. It may seem like a simple rule, but it will have some serious repercussions.
Over the past week, we've had a number of important launches take place in the Android community. Samsung is in the middle of their rollout of the Galaxy S9, with preorders in the US shipping this week. Google also rolled out the first Android P developer preview last week. While these may seem unrelated, there are actually a number of Android P features inspired by Samsung software.
One odd change found in the Android Pie update is that the "Battery" menu no longer lets you see apps that are draining your battery, nor gives access to usage details. However, one quick menu tweak will bring the Battery menu back in line with Android Oreo's, only there's a hidden setting you have to unlock first.
The new Android 9.0 Pie update is bringing a feature that stock Android has been lacking — screenshot editing. OEM skins like Samsung's TouchWiz have had this for years, and Apple added it to iOS just recently. But now that it's in stock Android, it'll be included with every phone going forward — trouble is, most people will have to wait for the update. Thankfully, you can get this feature right now on any phone.
When Google first announced Android Oreo (Go edition), many believed these devices would be focused more on developing countries. However, thanks to ZTE, we'll be getting Android Go stateside, so US customers on even the tightest of budgets can still enjoy the convenience of a smartphone.
With beta testing coming to a close, it's quite likely we will see the stable Android Oreo OTA roll out for the Galaxy S8 in late January. Yesterday, a Reddit user posted a link to an official Oreo OTA build for the Galaxy S8. We've already detailed everything that's new in this stable build. Now, let's take a look at how you can install the update on your device.
| Updated February 11, 2019 with new phones. When will my phone get Android Oreo? That's a question still being asked by many, even this late in 2018. Most OEMs have answered this question in one way or another, either releasing a stable OTA or confirming their device won't be receiving the update. We consolidated all these responses, and here's where we stand.
The fourth and final beta version of Android O just made its debut, and the biggest change is what appears to be a new code name. When you access Android 8.0's version number Easter egg, you'll be greeted by ... a cartoon octopus.
Android O doesn't have an official code name yet, but it's certainly got plenty of cool new features. The OS won't officially debut until Q3 2017, but we've gotten our hands on some of the updated stock apps thanks to the Android beta program.
Earlier this year, Google rolled out the first developer preview build of Android O. The new version added tons of cool features, but the downside was the fact that you needed to use Fastboot to manually install the update if you wanted to try it out. Thankfully, things just got a lot easier.
Google loves to play games. That's just what they did when they went ahead and teased us with a few Android O hints after Reddit user Zitroney unlocked an Easter egg in a Google Creative Lab developer's app ShortStories.
Google and eight top Android partners have just signed the Android Networked Cross-License, nicknamed PAX. On the surface, this looks to be a peace treaty of sorts that could end several patent wars.
The first public beta of Android O, (most likely to be called "Android 8.0 Oreo") was released on May 17, bringing tons of new features and goodies for Android enthusiasts with supported devices. However, not all of Android O's features were available to try out right off the bat. Possibly the single biggest feature announced during the developer preview of Android O, Picture-in-Picture mode, is nowhere to be seen.
It's official — the newest version of Google's mobile operating system is called Android 8.0 Oreo, and it's in the process of rolling out to many different devices. Oreo has plenty of changes in store, ranging from revamped looks to under-the-hood improvements, so there's tons of cool new stuff to explore.
If you were a particularly good little girl or boy this year, Santa might have finally brought you that cool new smartphone you've been wanting. Or perhaps you just took advantage of a great sale and treated yourself to a new gadget this holiday season—totally justifiable, and surely a well-deserved gift.
Dutch filmmaker Anthony Van der Meer published his 2015 thesis short from Willem de Kooning Academy in South Holland online in December 2016. It's a brilliant piece of work that managed to be touching, alarming, and informative at the same time. His documentary, which already has over 6 million views on YouTube, covered the journey made by a stolen smartphone and how the theft and ensuing tracking affected all parties involved.
When you're sitting at your desk trying to get some work done, your Android device can be a big distraction. If a text comes in, you have to pick up your phone, unlock it, then respond with the clumsy touch screen keyboard—and by then, you've probably forgotten what you were doing on your computer.
If you've ever wondered why the pictures and videos you share with Snapchat on your Android device seem to look grainy with low resolution, you're not alone. We all know it, and we've come to accept it as a plain fact: Snapchat image quality sucks on Android.
The upcoming version of Android has already been made available to certain devices for beta testing, but we won't see the official release of Android Nougat until sometime later this year, maybe even sooner than expected. The trouble here is that Google has made it really hard to wait patiently, because they've basically just teased us with a massive visual overhaul to the world's biggest mobile operating system.
A lot more people are about to be able to use Android Auto. Google announced at I/O 2016 that you'll soon be able to use the app with only your phone, so you won't need a compatible car or third-party display unit. And if (or more likely, when) Google brings the app to iOS, Apple may lose the precious "infotainment" system battle very early in the game. The update isn't coming until later this year, but once it arrives, you'll be able to mount your phone and use Android Auto the same way that...
Google switched things up this year by releasing a developer version of Android N far ahead of I/O, but that's not the only convention they've done away with this year. For the first time, Google will accept name suggestions from the public.
The Android Nougat preview build for Nexus devices comes packed to the brim with new functionality: multi-window mode, a dark theme, and a data-saver toggle, just to name a few. However, unless you have a Nexus device, it will be a while before you get these exciting new features by default.
Out of nowhere, Google released a preview build of the upcoming Android N release back in March—a full two months early. As if that weren't enough excitement for one day, they topped themselves by following up that announcement with the debut of a new "Android Beta" program that allows users with eligible devices receive preview builds as a regular OTA update, meaning no losing data or manual installation.
We knew it was coming eventually, but this is a bit out of left field—early builds of the next version of Android have been released almost two months ahead of schedule. Android N, as it's being called for now, is already available for the last two generations of Nexus devices, though it's just an early preview build for now.
