Android Lollipop promises tons of new features and functionality when it comes to a device near you, but as we wait, it's almost painful to see the screenshots and demo videos from Nexus devices and how downright pretty the new operating system looks.
Android's biggest selling point over alternatives like iOS or Windows Phone is the level of customization that it offers. If you don't like something about the UI, you can change it, whether it's as small as an icon set or as big as the entire home screen.
I've known eaters who will fearlessly bite into the hottest peppers, but even they have quailed before durian, the fruit that hails from Southeast Asia and whose smell has been compared to garbage, rotting flesh, and the bathroom post-use. However, this hefty globe with its spiny, prickly outer covering isn't called "the king of fruits" for nothing. According to its many fans, its stench does not correlate to its taste, which has been described in extremely flattering terms. Monica Tan of The...
Android's beauty is in its customization; you can have widgets for anything, launchers that look and feel completely different from one another, and fonts you can change at any time. And it doesn't stop at aesthetics—you can go much deeper than looks.
Whether you use a third-party keyboard or the stock offering, your Samsung device keeps a history of the last 20 words you copied on its clipboard. Samsung added this feature to Android to help make multitasking a bit easier, but if you use a password manager like LastPass, this feature quickly becomes a gaping hole in security. While you're copying and pasting your various passwords, the last 20 of them become freely available to anyone that gets their hands on your device.
Before Continuity and Handoff were even announced, Pushbullet was already allowing users to quickly send notes, links, and photos between their devices with a few clicks.
One of the Note 3's best features is Multi Window mode, which allows users to display more than one app on the screen at the same time, taking advantage of the large and high-resolution display.
The Air Command window on Samsung Galaxy Note devices makes it easy to access all of the features that the S Pen has to offer, such as Action Memo, which turns your handwritten notes into actionable links, and Pen Window, where you can draw a square on the screen to open a certain application.
Picture this scenario—you're using your phone in a dimly-lit room, then you move to an area with a lot more ambient light, and Auto Brightness kicks in within a few seconds to ramp up the backlight. That's the way it should be, right? But then you move back to the darker area, and your phone takes 30 seconds before it decides to dim back out. Pretty annoying, isn't it?
Pets are one of the biggest sources of joy in life, but keeping track of their daily activities can easily become a chore. When you have a roommate or spouse that also likes to feed the cat or walk the dog, miscommunication can lead to double-feeding or an under-exercised pet.
Back in March, Samsung partnered with Slacker Radio to create a streaming service called Milk Music. For those of us who don't own a Galaxy device, this news was a non-starter, as it was exclusive to Samsung's flagship line of phones and tablets.
Aside from being able to change the wallpaper and add shortcuts, the Galaxy S4's lock screen doesn't offer much in the department of personalization. The lock screen is efficient and practical, but it's also a little bland.
It's been a long time coming, but Google's Calendar app for Android has finally received a visual makeover. In the spirit of Android Lollipop, Google's new Material Design permeates throughout the update.
The Google Calendar app hasn't really changed much over the years. As a pre-installed staple on most Android devices, the interface is definitely lacking in some areas. Google knows this, and has plans in the pipeline to completely revamp Calendar's UI alongside Android 5.0's official release.
The interwebs is a great source of information, but sometimes said information is not always legit. That can be frustrating when it comes to making fun food, costumes, and arts and crafts for Halloween, like this bowl of "bloody" gummy worms.
I love my MacBook Air, but the fact that it runs on only 128 GB of flash storage causes me to move most of my files to the cloud. I don't mind having to be connected to the internet in order to access my files, but it's definitely a hassle trying to figure out which files I should move in order to save the most space. Usually, I don't even bother even trying until I see the dreaded "Your startup disk if almost full" warning. Currently, the only real way to find your biggest files in Mac OS X ...
With the release of the ARChon Runtime, many Android apps can now be run within the Chrome web browser. Minor changes must be made to existing Android APK files before they can be installed on Chrome, so the process isn't exactly as easy as pasting an Android app into a folder on your computer.
Google has a practice known as dogfooding, where they use their employees to test new and upcoming features for their various services. Back in March, they accidentally released a dogfood version of YouTube on Google Play, and many Android users got their first behind-the-scenes glance at the internal testing features.
Your device has several volume levels that are regularly adjusted: the alarm, media, and ringer. Keeping track of the various volumes on a device can become an easy-to-forget task, potentially resulting in you not hearing an alarm in the morning, as you have to enter the sound options or trigger a volume change, then expand the dialog box that pops up.
Welcome back, my novice hackers! Reconnaissance is one of the most important preparatory steps to hacking. As I have emphasized many times before here on Null Byte, you must know the operating system, the ports, the services, the applications, and sometimes even the language of the target to be effective. If you haven't taken the time to gather this info, then you are likely wasting your time.
I'm always looking for the best apps and services for my Android, and that means sticking strictly to the Google Play Store is a no-go. If you're like me and tend to install a lot of APKs (application files), you're probably tired of seeing the "Install" confirmation that always pops up.
I'm a long-time and loyal Android user, but one iOS feature that I'm truly envious of is their keyboard shortcuts, which lets you assign a short macro that inputs a longer phrase. For example, typing "home" can input your home address.
Some apps have a nasty habit of ignoring your Android's auto-rotation settings and locking the display into either portrait or landscape orientation.
While screenshotting a received Snapchat has never been a hard thing to do, saving one without being noticed is a completely different story. Previously, you would have to have either a rooted Android or jailbroken iOS device to save one of those self-destructing messages undetected, but one particular app has opened this trick up to the masses.
In the past few weeks, the internet has been abuzz with nightmarish horror stories of Comcast's questionable decision-making and downright terrible customer service. The central theme of many of these disputes with the nation's largest cable provider is that without evidence, the conglomerate will refuse to acknowledge its mistake and place the burden of proof on the customer.
Normally, it's good to automatically update your apps to the latest version, but sometimes those updates take away features that you've grown to love.
When it comes to passwords, the longer and more complex they are, the better the security. Even professional hackers say so. But if you've ever tried to type in such a password, you've surely noticed that it can be a bit of a pain. Mistype one character, and you're probably going to have to clear the field and start all over again.
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.
Unlike other Android devices with soft keys, the LG G3 actually comes stocked with a few different styles, as well as the ability to adjust the button layout and combination. But while the customization options are great, the styles you can switch between don't add much flair or personality to your device.
The HTC One has proven to be the industry standard in mobile audio performance. With BoomSound and Harman/Kardon technology backing its front-facing speakers, there is no doubt that every other flagship out there pales in comparison. Despite this, HTC didn't include a decent equalizer on the One. The M7 had Beats but the M8 doesn't have anything.
Samsung's Galaxy devices, for all the grief they get about supposed "bloatware", offer quite a few functional features that are not included in stock Android. From "Air Gestures" to a handy "Smart Alert" notification reminder, many of these features are more than just the latest gimmick to pitch in their ads.
If you're one of the millions of people who use the WhatsApp service for messaging, you've probably noticed a recent propensity that the app has had for adding buttons to its interface. Two such buttons have made their way into the message thread screen, cluttering up the interface with functionality that is a tad bit redundant.
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.
The Galaxy S5's screen is truly a feat of modern technology. It uses what is known as an AMOLED display—an acronym for Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emmitting Diode. In short, this technology means that every individual pixel on your phone's screen emits its own light. This is a break from the traditional LCD technology that requires a backlight for any pixels to be visible.
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.
Biting into a perfectly ripe mango is living proof of nature's goodness. The flesh is at once creamy, smooth, tart, and sweet. Plus they're incredibly good for you.
Arguably Chromecast's biggest feature since its launch, screen mirroring functionality started rolling out to select devices earlier this week, and in a word, it's awesome.
At last month's I/O event, Google demonstrated a set of cool new features that were said to be coming to the Chromecast soon. While we may not be able to set custom backgrounds or cast content without being on the same WiFi network just yet, the biggest feature of them all has started rolling out to devices today: Screen mirroring.
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.
Even as a writer by trade, I'm not intimately familiar with every word in the English language. When you're typing something out on your Nexus, sometimes you think to yourself, "Is that right? Am I using the correct word here?" Then, you have no choice but to bring up Google Now and do a search for that word to make sure you're using it correctly.
