Only scumbags hide their call and message history, right? Wrong. While it may seem like a tactic for the unfaithful, it's still a good thing to do for certain contacts on your phone that you don't want to block outright.
The options for customization are virtually endless when you're rooted and have an unlocked bootloader and custom recovery. However, there is always risk involved when flashing new mods or installing new ROMs. I always make backups in case something happens, but when I'm testing certain mods out, I sometimes get a damaged EFS partition.
Reddit is home to tons of fun and unique content. A starting point for the various memes and videos that eventually make it into your Facebook feed, you could seriously spend all day just browsing different subreddits and not get bored.
Google may have decided to back HTML5 for YouTube, but much of the internet still relies heavily on Adobe Flash content. While the Chrome browser for Android is unable to play Flash-based content like Amazon Instant Video streams, some third-party browsers will.
Think of all the times you've ever copied and pasted a string of text on your device. At least once, I bet you've wanted to see your copy history.
Stock Android has come with lock screen widget support for a couple of years now, ever since the days of the first Ice Cream Sandwich build. But for some reason, Samsung decided to remove this feature in the Galaxy S5.
Android has had predictive text for a while now, both with stock and third-party keyboards such as Fleksy, SwiftKey, TouchPal, et al. Apple is even getting on board, with stock predictive text and third-party keyboards for iOS 8, slated for public release later this year.
Resflux is an Xposed mod developed by Julian Paolo Dayag, aka WisdomSky, that provides users with a straightforward and functional way to customize and theme almost every aspect of the packages (apps and system components) installed on their Android device.
Everyone loves cupcakes. And it is so much fun to grab a cupcake bite when watching your favorite FIFA match. After all what is a match without some munchies? So this FIFA, cheer away with your team's cupcakes. They're great to win over a bet or just celebrate your team's win.
T-Mobile continues to make waves in the U.S. wireless market behind CEO John Legere's UnCarrier program. At the latest installment in a series of industry-challenging announcements, Uncarrier 5.0 unveiled Test Drive. The new program is set to allow would-be customers to try out the "latest generation" iPhone for seven days on T-Mobile's network without any financial commitments.
I dabble in video editing, and when working on even the shortest of motion graphics clips, the exported files take up quite a bit of space. For all of you heavy Mac users out there, I'm sure you know my pain.
Sprint and T-Mobile have agreed to a $31.6 billion deal that, if it gets through federal regulators—which is far from a sure bet—would create a formidable carrier to really compete against AT&T and Verizon. The deal comes packaged with a $1 billion "breakup" fee that Sprint would have to pay T-Mobile in the event the deal does not go through. After the deal, Deutsche Telekom, which owns about 67% of T-Mobile, would maintain a 20% ownership stake.
With its growing popularity, it's clear that the Chromecast isn't going away anytime soon, with options for casting games, cloud files, music, and much more. But not all content providers are in a hurry to add support for the device, and SoundCloud is one of them. While My Cloud Player is by no means an official SoundCloud app, it comes pretty darn close.
When looking at weather applications and widgets, one major characteristic I look for is efficiency; something that will separate it from the rest of the herd. The stock weather widget looks great on my home screen, but I have to exit whatever app or game I'm in when someone asks me about the weather.
Your Nexus 5 comes with a pretty cool feature baked in called Android Beam. Using NFC, or Near Field Communication, this functionality allows you to send information to another compatible device by simply touching the two together. Most flagship devices have NFC built into them these days, so there is a broad range of devices that your Nexus 5 is capable of sharing information with wirelessly.
Netflix has received a lot of publicity lately, and not because of its impressive worldwide library. From blog wars with Comcast to streaming deals with Verizon, it's easy to forget that the company exists for our entertainment, but sometimes that entertainment has drawbacks.
Apple has acknowledged a problem with the sleep/wake key, better known as the power button, on a certain number of iPhone 5's manufactured through March 2013. As a result, the company has announced the iPhone 5 Sleep/Wake Button Replacement Program, which will replace the power button mechanism, free of charge, for certain iPhone 5 models.
Incorporating features such as CarPlay, UI enhancements such as the new call screen, and several bug fixes, iOS 7.1 was the first major update to Apple's operating system since iOS 7 was released in June of last year.
It appears that the next iteration of KitKat, Android 4.4.3, is fast approaching. If the past is any indication, today's update to the Nexus 5 software changelog on Sprint's website tells us a new version of Android will begin rolling out within 24 hours. Sprint has broken the news of a forthcoming Android release twice in the past. With 4.4.1 and 4.4.2, a mini-changelog was posted on the Sprint website about a day before Google began pushing updates to its Nexus devices.
If mainstream media has taught us anything, it's that being beautiful can get you ahead in life. The notion isn't necessarily correct, but it's what the general consensus accepts and it seems to hold quite a bit of weight (no pun intended) in the western world.
Amazon just announced its entry into the set-top streaming content marketplace with its new Fire TV box. Competing directly against Apple TV, Google's Chromecast, and Roku, Amazon is betting on big processing power and voice controls to stand out from the competition. Features include the following.
There were some pretty amazing things included in the Android 4.4 KitKat update, but unfortunately, most of them were left inactive on our Nexus 7 tablets. Some, like full-screen immersive mode and the hidden battery percentage status bar icon, could be enabled on rooted devices, but not everyone wants to root.
Google Glass is all about transforming the world around us with little to zero interaction from the wearer. Much of this is done using augmented reality—a live view of physical, real-world environments that are augmented by computer-generated input in the form of graphics, sights, and sounds.
After many beta builds, Apple has finally released iOS 7.1 to the public. It includes bug fixes for the old iOS 7.0.6, along with UI enhancements and even some new features.
When you're scrolling through your iPhone's home screens, you'll inevitably reach the end and have to either swipe backwards or hit the Home button to return to the first page. Why Apple didn't instill an endless scrolling feature, or at the very least an option for it, is anyone's guess, but just because you can't do it out of the box doesn't mean you can't do it.
Facebook makes it easy to show how much you appreciate a funny status, great picture, or cool news article using their iconic "thumbs up" button, but what about those terrible jokes and annoying baby pictures? Where's the "thumbs down" for that crap?
Having instant access to monitoring your battery level is critical, especially when you're traveling or forget your charger at home. You need to know how much juice you have so you can adapt accordingly.
Apple's iOS 7 is riddled with annoying features, and some of them can't be toggled off in Settings. For example, I really don't like having labels directly underneath my app icons, and there's no way to remove them. Sure, it may be nitpicky, but it's my device, and it should behave the way I want it to.
The iPhone 5S may be the most popular Apple phone to date, but I'm still rocking my iPhone 4. No disrespect to the 5S, but I'm not upgrading until I can unlock with a retina scan or get Siri to sound like Scarlett Johansson.
It's been a great week for Chromecast owners. First, Google released the development kit, allowing devs to install the casting code into their apps. Then, CyanogenMod dev Koush updated his AllCast app to support the Chromecast. That means you can shoot personal movies, music, and photos directly from your Android device over to a Chromecast-connected display.
Update January 27, 2014: Samsung has released a statement to address the flip cover issue, claiming it as a bug with a "fix" coming soon:
Apple and Google are not only two of the biggest names in the tech world, but also two of the biggest competitors. So, it's no surprise that you can't watch movies or TV shows purchased from iTunes on an Android device. Likewise, you can't watch any videos purchased on Google Play with your iPad or iPhone—until now.
There are several ways to get around location restrictions on subscription sites like Netflix and Hulu using apps, extensions and proxies, but they tend to only work on laptops and computers. Users who want to access content from mobile devices and gaming consoles are usually out of luck.
The Chromecast may be slowly weaving its way into the smartphone ecosystem, but the amount of supported Android apps that are available for the streaming media player are still severely limited.
In a world where more features are king, sometimes it's a good thing to breathe, take a step backwards and keep it simple. With home launchers, this isn't often the case, as developers add a galore of features to their apps in order to be at the top of the game.
Like insurance, it's always better to have a computer mouse and not need it than to need it and not have it. Honestly, I don't want to carry around a clunky mouse with my laptop, so I don't. I do something else, something more convenient. I use my Nexus 7. If you want to give it a try, I'll show you how it's done right now. All you need to is a Wi-Fi network and a specific Android app to control your computer with your Android tablet.
Sometimes, taking a picture of your friend doing a crazy stunt just doesn't suffice. Getting the progression of the stunt in one image does!
Snapchat was created for the sole purpose of removing evidence from your mobile that a photo or video ever existed. That way, snoopers can't find any of these questionable selfies in your photo gallery. Of course, there are plenty of ways around this safeguard, but it's still more private than the standard social networking app.
The Xbox One is the quintessential jack of all trades. It can be your browser, music player, gaming system, and cable box, but in order to benefit from all of these goodies, you're going to have to set it all up.
I can't say that my handwriting skills are the best, and my cursive is even worse. I mean, I still don't know how to write a capital L in cursive, but who really cares when I do all my everyday writing with a keyboard now. I've gotten pretty fast at typing on my computer, but those tiny buttons on the Samsung Galaxy S3's keyboard is a totally different thing.