Oreo, the latest and greatest Android OS, lets you enjoy a ton of new features such as app shortcuts and an improved keyboard. But thanks to a feature that's required of all phones that ship with Android Oreo out of the box, your S9 may be the first Galaxy phone to finally receive timely software updates.
When the Nintendo 3DS XL came out, I traded in my regular sized Nintendo 3DS for one — but I ended up hating it. The XL just felt big and unwieldy, and because the screens were larger (with the same resolution), it ended up looking blurrier than the regular 3DS. This, to a less severe extent, is the argument for the Galaxy S9 against the Note 8.
Attention LG V30 and G6 owners — Android 8.1 is coming to a device near you. While fans of LG's latest smartphones are still stuck on Nougat here in the US, we now have confirmation that Oreo's first major update will find its way here, even if we aren't sure when.
To please those of us who love to mod and root our Androids, OnePlus has made both the OnePlus 5 and 5T relatively easy to customize — so much so that the 5T topped our list for the best phones for rooting. Unfortunately, unlocking the bootloader and using root to modify the firmware on your OnePlus 5 or 5T makes it hard to update to a new firmware such as Oreo when compared to stock.
Google's new AI-powered camera, Google Clips, seems to be targeted at parents of young children in its current form, but the idea itself has unique potential. Just set it up somewhere, then you'll never miss a moment trying to capture the moment — you'll have a robot photographer taking care of that stuff for you.
Samsung's Galaxy S8 and S8+ are two fantastic devices. That's why we're so excited about the upcoming S9 and S9+. With dual cameras, super slo-mo, dual aperture, and even smaller bezels, the S9 looks to be a device worth picking up day-one. Thankfully, we now officially know when that day is.
With all the hype surrounding meteoric rise of Bitcoin (BTC), Litecoin (LTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH), it's easy to overlook the fact that you can send and receive cryptocurrencies as a form of payment. And thanks to Coinbase, sending and receiving digital coins couldn't be any easier.
Back in November, Essential opened the Android Oreo Beta Program for all users of their PH-1 flagship. We even wrote up a full guide on how to install the beta, if you're interested. They followed the Oreo beta with a Reddit AMA, where they mentioned the second beta software would arrive very soon. That update has just gone live, so you can grab it right now in a few easy steps.
Over the past month, we've spent significant time covering Samsung's Oreo Beta program, and the detailed list of features in Oreo is extensive for the Galaxy S8 and S8+. Many of you were upset when the Galaxy Note 8 was left out of the official Oreo beta program entirely, but we found a method to install a beta Oreo build right now on the unlocked and US variants if you'd like to give it a try.
One of the best parts of being an Android user is the countless awesome features. Many of these features are well-known and user-facing, like custom icon packs and launchers, but some get lost in the shuffle. Back at Google I/O 2016, Android Instant Apps were introduced to developers and enthusiasts. Since then, the feature has seen a wider rollout, but few users are aware of it.
The Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL were built by different manufacturers. This is pretty common knowledge among Android fans at this point — Google's smaller Pixel 2 was built by HTC, while the larger Pixel 2 XL was built by LG. What would the Pixel 2 XL look like if HTC had followed through and delivered on the larger phone for Google? Today we have some answers.
After multiple leaked references in Samsung apps, the Oreo Beta Program for the Galaxy S8 and S8+ is official. Yesterday, we posted a full changelog from users that obtained the beta a day early. The update brings many new features from Oreo to the S8, including notification channels and autofill API support. If you're quick, you can enroll your Galaxy S8 in the beta today.
Unlike traditional backlit LCD technology, OLED screens don't use any power to display black pixels. Many manufacturers have taken advantage of this by implementing an always-on display, which only lights up a few pixels here and there to show relevant info when your phone is locked. But this leads to extra battery drain, albeit small, and it increases the risk of screen burn-in.
Google's new Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL have a new camera mode called "Motion Photos." As the name implies, it's quite similar to Apple's Live Photos feature or HTC's Zoe before it. For every picture you take, a few seconds of video footage from before and after the shot was taken will be embedded in the file, which gives you two ways to relive that moment.
With Apple ready to unleash ARKit to millions of iPhones and iPads and ARCore on its way to supporting millions of Android devices, is there room in the world for a cross-platform mobile AR platform?
The world of gaming has never been cooler thanks to Apple's ARKit. From AR arcade games to giant god battles to Pac-Man, we've seen our fair share of awesome and innovative games.
While it's a more secure platform for messages and calls, Signal's job isn't to prevent unknown users from contacting you, so you run into the same issues you would with a regular phone number. People you know that you don't want to talk to may try to strike up a conversation and you'll still get spam messages. Luckily, it's easy to block these suckers.
Our smartphones are full of personally-identifiable information. So much of what we do with these devices is tracked and recorded to make our experience more streamlined and personalized. For many users, that's a fair trade — but for privacy-minded folks, it's a raw deal.
RouterSploit is a powerful exploit framework similar to Metasploit, working to quickly identify and exploit common vulnerabilities in routers. And guess what. It can be run on most Android devices.
More video content is making its way to Facebook as the social network relentlessly tries to get its video platform up to par with YouTube. Now, they seem to be making more of an effort to improve their video tab, as new features have started to appear on some Android phones.
Attention iOS 11 Developer Beta users — Dev Beta 2 is now ready for a software update. If you're running the beta already, you're going to want to download this one because it combines two excellent features: much, much needed bug fixes, as well as Do Not Disturb While Driving.
Virgin Wireless, perhaps best known for Sir Richard Branson and all of his antics, is an affordable cellular option here in the US. Virgin customers can enjoy — if that's the right word for it — Sprint's cellular service, at a discounted rate, however, there are usually some compromises for that. Now, there will be yet another compromise for Virgin customers who don't like iPhones — Virgin will now only carry Apple's phone on their network.
Right off of the unveiling of the Moto Z2 Play, it looks like Lenovo is gearing up to announce the highly anticipated Moto Z2.
Amidst reports of the newspaper industry struggling to survive, it's becoming more and more clear that people are increasingly turning to their smartphones for the news. In fact, a new study by the Pew Research Center has found that 85% of US adults check the news on mobile devices. Surprisingly, seniors constitute a sizable portion of this.
The leaks and rumors surrounding the highly anticipated Galaxy Note 8 just keep coming. But none have suggested that the new Samsung phone might be powered by a different chipset than the Snapdragon 835, until now.
A new leak by frequent tipster Roland Quandt appears to reveal the renders of Motorola's next budget smartphones, the Moto E4 and E4 Plus.
When I crack open a new book, I always make sure I have a pen and a highlighter nearby so I can mark away! Anything particularly witty, inspiring, or engaging gets highlighted, underlined, or circled. When I use the Amazon Kindle app on my phone, I do the same thing by writing notes and highlighting, but I often find it difficult to keep track of my markings.
The iPhone has a feature that lets you see how much juice is left in your Bluetooth headphones, but most Android phones are lacking this ability. Thankfully, there's a simple app that'll close this gap in functionality.
If you're a tech enthusiast, there's no way you're not watching HBO's Silicon Valley. So you surely know the Pied Piper crew's latest shenanigans involve an app that uses a phone's camera to find facts about food items — a sort of Shazaam for food, if you may.
Verizon will be exclusively selling the ASUS ZenFone AR, which supports Tango (Google's mobile AR platform) and Daydream VR.
The Google Pixel was just knocked off its pedestal as DxOMark Mobile's best smartphone camera, courtesy of the HTC U11. Ouch ...
Malware attacks on mobile phones are reaching an all-time high and it looks like companies like Samsung are doing all that they can to prevent any unwanted hackers from accessing its sensitive user data.
All Galaxy S8 models apparently weren't created equal. According to numerous user reports, it appears that Snapdragon-powered Galaxy S8 variants are using an older flash storage standard than what Samsung was originally advertising.
In a series of news about the OnePlus 5, the company posted its first teaser of the upcoming device on its Weibo account. According to GSM Arena, the teaser doesn't show us any sneak peaks of what the phone might look like — co-founder Carl Pei took care of that — though, we are greeted with the caption "Hey Summer! Give me five!"
Everyone loves emojis, but some folks aren't quite happy with the way the little yellow guys look on their particular phone. In order to replace them, however, your device needs to be rooted, and you'll usually need to perform some complicated procedure that ends up making your phone hard to update since it modified a ton of files on your system partition.
The OnePlus 3 and 3T are a pair of phones which allow you to do practically anything you want, because OnePlus is such a developer-friendly company. They almost always release kernel sources, and their phones sport an unlockable bootloader that doesn't void the warranty. But while their software is certainly solid (miles ahead of Samsung's TouchWiz), it still has room for improvement.
With all the hype surrounding the recent Galaxy S8 release, it can be easy to forget Samsung makes other smartphones. But let's be real here; $726 isn't cheap. If you're someone who doesn't want to drop that kind of cash on a smartphone — or who doesn't feel your device needs all the bells and whistles that come with Samsung's premium line — the new J3 Prime might be right for you.
Most music streaming services will either use the stock Android equalizer or their own built-in equalizer. A couple of apps, such as Spotify, bring both to the table. Spotify has a built-in equalizer which kicks into play when a system or third-party equalizer isn't detected. However, other apps such as SoundCloud and Pandora don't use the installed equalizer even if it's a system-wide one.
Perhaps one of CyanogenMod's greatest features was its built-in theme engine. It wasn't perfect, but it got the job done and gave users a unique look. Now that CyangenMod is defunct, and the developers behind its successor, LineageOS, have confirmed they won't be continuing the theme engine, users have to find another way to theme their devices. No need to fear, though, Substratum is here.
The Galaxy S8 has finally touched down, and it's an absolutely gorgeous device. Samsung's brand new flagship comes jam-packed with new features — some refined, and some that aren't. Luckily, we've compiled some major features to help you get started as quickly as possible so you can go about the rest of your day and show off your shiny new S8 to friends and coworkers.
