During the last few months, WhatsApp's Google Play Store ratings have been tanking—all the way down to an average of 3.4 stars from the instant messenger's usual average of 4.1. Within the last week, though, WhatsApp has received thousands of seemingly fake 5-star reviews that have bumped up the company's overall average to a 4.4.
In February, the popular Facebook-owned WhatsApp Messenger service jumped on the "stories" bandwagon and replaced their in-app, text-based "About Me" status (you know, those lovely little messages where you can say "Sleeping" or "Not Sleeping" under the tiny nub of your profile picture). Taking its place was a clone of Snapchat's Stories feature, continuing the social media giant's recent trend of shamelessly copying Snapchat.
Mimesys, whose core focus has always been about creating holographic representations of humans for virtual and augmented reality, has released a video showing off their holographic communication platform in action. This new communication tool uses a combination of virtual reality, with the HTC Vive and a Kinect, and mixed reality, with the HoloLens, to allow the users to have virtual meetings from anywhere in the world as though they are in the same room.
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...
At their annual I/O event, Google introduced their latest app to the public: Allo. The messaging app is the company's latest and most powerful entry into the expanding world of similar apps, with one twist—the inclusion of artificial intelligence.
Smartphone cameras are so good nowadays that there's almost no reason to own a point and shoot. Once the megapixel spec race was finally settled (hint: more isn't always better), manufacturers started focusing on the quality of their camera sensors, which has led to a huge jump in color accuracy, dynamic range, and image clarity.
You need a good microphone on your computer in order to make audio recordings, voice chat, or use speech recognition. However, not every computer comes with a built-in mic, and not every built-in mic works great.
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.
Remember portable MP3 players like the classic iPod? Seems like forever ago that they were all the rage, and I don't think I've seen a real one in the wild for a good 5 years now. These devices died out so quickly as a direct result of the onset of smartphones, which allow us to do everything that an MP3 player could do and then some.
If you want to watch a movie on Netflix with a friend, family member, or significant other, but can't meet up in the same living room, the next best thing is doing it remotely from the comfort of your own homes.
I have a personal rule when it comes to an app's interface: If it doesn't follow Android's design guidelines, it was probably written with Apple's iOS in mind first and foremost.
The world's most commonly-used desktop operating system is getting a huge makeover in the form of Windows 10. While there are many sweeping changes in this new version, some of the smaller tweaks may prove to be the most useful.
Have you ever had one of your Android games post a notification in a lame attempt to remind you to play? This is becoming a common practice these days, and to me, it's about as annoying as a Best Buy blue shirt when I'm just trying to check out the latest TVs.
Snapchat is definitely not known for its stellar privacy or security features, but that hasn't stopped them from gaining millions of users. Now, those millions of users can do more than just share pictures and videos—they can share money.
Your favorite instant messaging service might not be your friend's preferred choice of communicating, and your sibling might prefer yet another. So when they send you messages via different apps, it's like having one address but multiple mailboxes on a single porch.
Now that you've updated your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch to iOS 8, there's a lot of cool new things to explore. If you felt a little overwhelmed from all of the detailed information available in our Coolest Hidden Features of iOS 8 post, then I've got a simple breakdown of all of the new features available with quick links to their walkthroughs and pictures, if available. Watch the short video roundup, or skip below for the list.
Google, like Apple before them, no longer supports mobile Flash, but clearly there's plenty of Flash content still available on the web. From games to videos, it can be frustrating to get the most out of your mobile browsing experience without Flash functionality.
In February of this year, the Higher Court of Berlin ruled that Facebook must follow strict German data protection laws, which Facebook's terms of services and privacy policies circumvent.
Texting just got a whole lot better for your iPhone. In iOS 8, you can send an in-the-moment picture or video without exiting the conversation you're in, and you can also send voice messages! Plus, they'll self-destruct, similar to Snapchat.
If you're a ladies man like me then this next tip could save you from sorely embarrassing yourself. Here's the problem: You think you are texting Kelly M from New Year's when you're actually texting Kelly F from that one bar. Needless to say this could cause a problem with your relationships.
For those of you who have (or had) and iPhone, one of the cooler photo apps for iOS was VSCO Cam, an extremely popular camera with pro-quality filters and effects. Now this app is available for Android on Google Play for your Nexus 7 tablet and any other devices running Android 4.0 and up.
I'm constantly browsing the web, taking pictures, and playing games on my Samsung Galaxy Note 2, but there's one thing that I'm always doing—playing music. No matter what I'm doing on my smartphone, I'm always playing my music in the background at the same time.
Since The Guardian published leaked documents exposing the depth of the NSA's spying powers, many people who've never put much effort into protecting their privacy are finally starting to pay attention. Evidence of public opinion concerning PRISM can be seen from the rise in traffic for pro-privacy sites like DuckDuckGo to the petitions demanding that the program be scaled back or done away with altogether. Some would argue that you waive your right to privacy by signing the terms of agreemen...
You may not notice it when you're intoxicated and banging your head to the music, but when you're at a club or concert, your ears are getting seriously damaged. The noise level is usually above most people's pain threshold for sound, which begins around 120 to 140 decibels. At that level, it only takes a few minutes to damage your hearing. For me, there's something even worse than long-term hearing loss in a loud environment—not being able to hear or talk to your friends.
On Thursday, March 14th, Samsung unveiled their new Galaxy S4. With it came a slew of new features, but what does that mean for us S3 users? Unless we're willing to shell out big bucks for the full retail version, most of us S3 owners (at least in the states) will not be eligible for upgrades until next year.
Inhabiting the microgravity environment on the cusp of the world's atmosphere has to be filled with some of the most unique experiences in the world. Astronauts eat, sleep, and work just as we do, except that their lives are filled with the added dangers of extreme temperatures and possible life-threatening malfunctions, all while being 240 miles up in the sky. Well, now's your chance to ask a handful of astronauts anything you ever wanted to know about life on the International Space Station.
AirPlay is probably one of the most underutilized features in Apple products. It allows users to wirelessly stream photos, music, or video directly from their iPad, iPhone, iPod touch or Mac to their Apple TV or AirPlay-supported speakers. The Apple support page has a complete list of all the supported and needed devices. Mirroring is also available, but only for the iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, and iPad 2, all of which need to be running iOS 5 or later.
New to Ubuntu Linux? This computer operating system could be a bit tricky for beginners, but fret not, help is here. Check out this video tutorial on how to enable USB support in VirtualBox on Ubuntu Linux.
ER showed the world what goes on inside the emergency room, and in every episode, we experienced a common but very important procedure— intubation. But ER never made it seems easy; it showed just how hard it is for medical students to successfully intubate a patient due to fear and naivety. And for real-life doctors and medical practitioners, learning the art of airway management is just as difficult.
Any medical student could benefit from this video lesson, whether you're training to be a doctor or a nurse. The very first step to finding out what's wrong with your patient is examining him/her for their vital signs. You must check the patient's pulse, respirations, blood pressure, and know how to use every kind of sphygmomanometer. To see the entire examination procedure, perfect for nursing students, watch the video to see how to examine a patient for vital signs, and refer to the steps b...
Android smartphones have all sorts of connectivity chips built in, including Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, NFC, and mobile data. But what about AM or FM radio, two of the most common methods of wireless communication?
In this how to video, you will learn how to run Windows programs for free on a Mac using Crossover Chromium. You will need to download Crossover and install it by downloading it and dragging it into the applications folder. You will also need Explorer XP. Go to the applications folder and show the package content of Crossover. Go to shared support as you will need a file here later. Open Chromium, go to support, Chromium, and Drive, and then drop Explorer XP into the folder. Open the info fil...
Earning more money in YoVille doesn't have to be hard and take forever. You can make more cash simply by hacking your way to success with the notorious Cheat Engine program.
Need a hair lift in IMVU? No problem, get some bad hair day advice with this vid. You just need a little Photoshop skills to get your IMVU avatar looking good.
Spotify is a free, ad-supported program that allows you to listen to music online for free. The music is everything from indie labels to the top 100 charts. This guide will help you learn how to listen to music using a Spotify account.
The iPhone supports conference calling capabilities with up to six people. You can even transition from a single-person call to a conference call, or transition from call to call. This tutorial shows you how to make the most of your multi-line call functions in your iPhone.
Looking for freeware alternatives to Photoshop? If you don't need all the bells and whistles of a huge program like Photoshop, this video shows you where to get free photo editing software with good developer support, like Paint.net, FotoFlexer or the GIMP.
While technically the iPad isn't a supported device with Ford Sync, you can get around that by going to the head unit. Add your iPad as a Bluetooth device, then select the 'sync' option. You can now control your iPad's audio features through Bluetooth.
With version 5.0.1, Safari joins the ranks of web browsers that support user extensions. In this home-computing how-to, you'll learn how to install and make use of extensions in your own web browser. For more information, including detailed, step-by-step instructions, and to get started using browser extensions in Safari yourself, take a look.
Most of the guns that people make out of Legos or Knex are pistols. Small, easy to build, low maintenance. Those are all fine qualities. But if you want a powerful, destructive Lego gun that will blow all others out of the water, check this video out. It features step-by-step instructions for building a minigun out of Legos that will hold and shoot 120 rubber bands at a time! The second video is a firing demonstration. Those Legos never knew what hit them!
