There's an adage that says "Every plan, no matter how great, goes out the window as soon as you're punched in the face." While our lives are (hopefully) not violent, that saying can easily translate to our daily living. That punch in the face can come in various forms, mainly stress-related. It could be a bad day in the office, rush hour traffic, drama in the family, the list goes on.
It seems like a new, dangerous Android exploit is uncovered every month or two. The latest headliners are NightMonkey and Chronos from the list of CIA hacks reported by Wikileaks, which have been billed as gaping security holes in the world's biggest mobile operating system.
Google's new Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones have a feature that puts their fingerprint scanners to use after you unlock your phone—just swipe down on the scanner from any screen, then you'll see your notifications. It keeps you from having to do hand gymnastics to reach the status bar at the top of your screen, and it gives you easy access to quick information, so it's a win-win.
Google's new cross-platform video chat app, Duo, is finally making its debut today, following a long waiting period that began in late May. The app was heavily teased during the keynote speech at Google I/O, but was not made available for download until now, so any early hype Google managed to whip up has died down quite a bit.
Many midrange phones are being manufactured without a gyroscope sensor—the Moto X Play, third-generation Moto G, and several of Samsung's Galaxy Grand models, among others. It's not exactly an essential smartphone sensor, and leaving this out keeps the phone's price point down, so it's an understandable omission.
Google's Material Design guidelines have finally brought some consistency to the look and feel of Android apps, bringing most of the user experience on par with what you would see on iOS. However, some developers are still using non-compliant home screen icons, even though Material Design calls for specific padding, size, and layouts.
I was one of the first to install the iOS 10 developer beta, and I remember thinking that everything was working insanely well compared to the first iOS 9 developer beta—but then I got a warning that I used 90% of my data 11 days into my following cycle—one day before I updated to beta 2.
The default screen timeout on most Android devices is 30 seconds. This usually offers a good balance of usability and battery savings, but sometimes, you need the screen to stay on longer. For instance, practically every time I try to show something on my phone to someone else, the screen locks before they get a chance to see it. But increasing the system-wide screen timeout isn't a great solution either, because this can lead to unnecessary battery drain and even screen burn-in.
Considering how much smartphones cost in the first place, we're understandably reluctant to throw them out when we've bought a newer model. And this is probably the best practice, too, as there are many great uses for an old Android device.
When it comes to sharing files between a smartphone and a computer, there are several solutions available for a Windows and Android pairing. But for those of us with Apple devices, the selection of apps in this category isn't quite as great. You can use AirDrop to quickly share files, but searching for files is not so easy.
We recently covered a set of ported apps from the new cloud-based smartphone, the Nextbit Robin. These ported APKs brought two of the Robin's slick new stock apps—Camera and Gallery—to any other device, but the launcher was conspicuously absent.
Apple's Live Photos is a cool feature that lets you turn ordinary pictures into a GIF-like animated photos. However, these images have some pretty big drawbacks: they live only in the iOS universe and can be shaky without a tripod.
There are so many great apps in the Google Play Store that it's become the number one app marketplace in the world.
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...
Lens Launcher was one of the winners of 2106's Android Experiments I/O Challenge a few months ago, and with good reason—it gives us a new way to browse for apps on our Android phones. It's slightly reminiscent of how the Apple Watch does it, but even better.
Google Camera, the default shooting app on Nexus devices, is finally getting a feature we've been anticipating for years. As evidenced by a recent APK teardown done by Android Police, the beginnings of a new RAW capture mode have already been baked into the latest version of the app, which indicates that Google Camera will soon have the ability to store an unprocessed copy of the exact image your camera sensor captures.
These days, there are Android apps for every budget—forgive me if that sounds like a car commercial, but that's just the way things are in the age of the smartphone and tablet. You've got apps that require monthly subscriptions, paid apps that will run you a $30 one-time installation fee, and even games that start at 99 cents, but quickly skyrocket in price with in-app purchases.
I'm an Android user. Over the course of the past seven years, I've owned ten different smartphones—all of them powered by Android. This isn't due to some blind trust in Google or some unfounded hate for Apple, either, because I've always made sure to get my hands on each iPhone iteration along the way to see what it had to offer.
Much like the Chromecast, Android TV devices such as the Nexus Player and Nvidia Shield TV have always had those beautiful background images as their default screensaver. However, unlike the Chromecast, these "Backdrop" images, as they're called, weren't always customizable on Android TV.
Reddit announced this morning, April 7th, that it has finally released an official mobile app. You can get it on Android and iOS.
We've known for a while that Facebook had planned to reintegrate SMS and MMS into its Messenger app for Android. Well, it's finally live, and it's pretty great.
Nintendo rolls out its first smartphone-specific game in the U.S. on March 21st, and the main protagonist is... you. Well, your Mii, and it's not a game, but a social app.
At Apple's highly anticipated special event held today at their headquarters in Cupertino, California, it was announced that their latest software update, iOS 9.3, would be available to the public complete with several new additions. The most notable element of this announcement was two-fold, in the form of new modifications to the Night Shift mode and the Notes app. With regards to Night Shift, the feature is designed to prevent your iPhone from giving you restless nights by adjusting settin...
Modern smartphones are packed to the brim with low-power sensors like accelerometers and gyroscopes, which means they're capable of precisely measuring almost any type of movement. So why is it that when you just want to get walking directions somewhere, your device still uses its battery-sucking GPS connection to track your progress?
Unless you're in law enforcement, you won't usually have a flashlight on hand for those rare moments when you need to sift through the dark. However, it is very likely that you will have your phone on you, so you'll have fast access to a bright light with just a few easy taps.
Fewer and fewer Android phones are being released with SD card slots, so it's always a struggle to make sure you have enough free storage space for your photos, videos, and music. Things like app data and cache slowly build up as you use your device, which means your available storage number gradually decreases over time.
Past video recording apps we've covered made it easy to turn your Android device into a hidden spy camera, even allowing you to inconspicuously record videos using your volume buttons. While both are viable options that can secretly capture video, today we're going over an additional method that will let you both schedule recordings or discretely trigger them without anyone around you noticing a thing.
If you're completely new to Android, you're in for a treat with all of the software tweaks and customization options that your smartphone or tablet offers out of the box. But if you really want to take things to the next level, the ability to mod your device expands exponentially when you're rooted.
Considering that nearly half a million brand new apps were published to the Google Play Store in 2015, you can definitely call it a banner year for Android development. In fact, it's getting to the point where we're a bit spoiled as end users, since we've grown to expect something new and exciting practically every week.
The stock Camera and Photos apps are great for taking basic pictures and doing some quick edits, but if you're serious about making your iPhone photos the best they can be, you can't stop there.
Google Play Music has been my go-to music service ever since its release. The free cloud storage for 50,000 songs and full access to Songza-powered radio stations make it a great music app, even without the $10/month streaming service.
Smartphones are almost always connected to the internet, so it stands to reason that they can be hacked remotely. Or perhaps a jealous boyfriend or girlfriend got hold of your device physically, in which case they could've potentially installed a keystroke logger, a virus, or any other type of tracking app to spy on you.
Not many people use their phone exclusively for making calls or sending messages today. If you're an Android user, the chances are high that you're using your phone or tablet for work-related activities. However, the basic set of apps and services your device was shipped with won't satisfy most users. The good thing is that Google Play Store has a nice selection of productivity apps for every task. Below you'll find a list of apps that will help you gradually optimize and organize your digita...
Want the next level security? Well then take a read here because this is some next level stuff. Heard of It?
If you use Google Chrome as your default desktop/laptop browser, then Chrome OS will be pretty easy to get up and running if transitioning from Windows or macOS. Google has created an operating system that is fast, lightweight, and versatile enough to be adopted by pros and novices alike.
Manufacturers like Samsung and LG have added their own implementation of multi-window features to Android for years now, but with the release of version 6.0 Marshmallow, Google has finally gotten around to working the same feature into stock Android.
I'm lucky enough to have internet access on my laptop practically everywhere I go because of my mobile hotspot plan. All I have to do is enable the personal hotspot feature from my iPhone and I can surf the web on any Wi-Fi enabled device. But of course, there's a catch.
By now, a mobile phone that isn't "smart" is about as hard to come by as a TV that isn't high definition. As a result, members of older generations who were previously reluctant to purchase a newfangled smartphone have no other choice but to cave into the more recent trends when their old device finally breaks down.
If you've been using Windows 10 for a while, you already know that Microsoft incorporated lots of new features into it. So you're probably familiar with Cortana (the new voice assistant), the Edge browser (their replacement for Internet Explorer), the newly resurrected Start menu, and all of the other big changes.
There are over 1.6 million apps on the Google Play Store, which makes it the largest collection of mobile apps on the planet. However, a large portion of this total is occupied by apps with overlapping functions—think social media, news, weather, music players, and various other categories where developers compete against one another to garner the largest user base.
