Uploading certain pictures to Instagram can be problematic, especially when the dimensions of your picture exceed the dimensions of the square crop that's forced upon you. Why should I be forced to hack up my awesome fisheye picture inside of a lame square? I get the whole square thing, and I love it, but there's just some times when you can't be bound by the rules.
With millions of options to choose from in Google Play's expansive library of songs and albums, it can most definitely take a toll on the wallet after a while. As (slight) consolation, Google offers one free song a day, available for download straight from Google Play onto your Samsung Galaxy Note 2 or other Android device. Google's daily free song sure beats other services' free selections. Apple only offers one free single each week, and Amazon offers a decent selection of free songs from r...
Although the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 is a speedy device, one feature that feels a bit slow is swiping down from the Status bar to see the Notification tray when I'm using a full-screen app. When a full-screen app is open, I have to swipe down not once, but TWICE, on the upper portion of the screen in order to bring down the Notification tray.
I know I can't be the only person whose socks go missing in a shroud of mystery, but I'm determined to catch the sock-thieving gnomes in the act. While I have my suspicions, I can't quite prove it. Sure, I could drink a load of Red Bulls and never sleep, guarding my socks—but that's just crazy right? Luckily, I've found a way to set up my phone to catch the culprits.
There's absolutely no shortage of flashlight apps on Google Play, so when one comes around that sports uniquely different features than the rest—it should definitely be noted. That's why I bring to you Ambient LED Flashlight, a new app for your Samsung Galaxy Note 2 by Android developer Jie Huang.
I find that little annoyances are always far more irritating than their larger counterparts, especially if there's no obvious way to get rid of them.
There are a lot of apps in Google Play for your Samsung Galaxy Note 2 that let you create, edit, and view Microsoft Office files on the go, but none match up to the power of an app called Polaris Office for Samsung Galaxy devices.
The rumors are flying everywhere about the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 getting updated to Jelly Bean 4.2, but as of now, we have no freakin' idea when. Among all of the features sported in the update, Photo Sphere is one of the more popular, allowing you to snap incredible and immersive 360 degree photographs. So, until that update comes, you're probably still marooned with Jelly Bean 4.1.2 on your Note 2, and that means no Photo Sphere camera.
Previously, if you missed a call or text on your old Samsung Galaxy S3, there was a white LED notification to let you know. It's a nice feature that most smartphones have, but wouldn't it have be nice to know what kind of notification it was before picking up the phone?
Having your phone ring loudly in a quiet environment could be potentially embarrassing for you, but also quite annoying for everyone else that didn't forget to put their smartphone on silent. Whether it's in class, at work during a meeting, at the library, or a movie screening—you can bet that someone's phone is going to ring loudly, pissing some people off. You don't really want to be that douchebag that interrupts a movie or the middle of a lecture with their annoying ringtone just because ...
Who wouldn't want to know if someone was trying to log onto their personal computer without their permission? Be it your annoying co-worker or your girlfriend, there are many cases where people may try to gain access to your desktop or laptop.
There is no such thing as too much space when it comes to our smartphones. Space is the great equalizer of all things. No matter how many awesome features a device has, the amount of storage space available will always be a determining factor. Be it music, apps or photos, it's easy to fill up your phone's memory fast.
Lock screen exploits are becoming increasingly common in the mobile world. Four weeks ago there was the iPhone 5 passcode bug (which just got fixed yesterday...kinda). Then there were a couple lock screen bugs on the Samsung Galaxy S3 two weeks ago.
As most everyone knows, Android and Apple don't get along so well. Even the users don't get along well, with Android and iPhone users constantly berating and insulting each other online—any chance they get. I should know, since I was one of them, but I'm now rare breed who's learned to appreciate both. People just need to realize that they have their own unique strengths—Android with its customization and Apple with its simplicity.
While Siri's integration with the iPhone is becoming increasingly substantial, restrictions with the intelligent personal assistant are apparent when it comes to third-party apps like Google Maps, Netflix, and Spotify (unless your iPhone is jailbroken, of course). As an avid Spotify user, it's distressing that I can't use Siri to navigate through the music streaming service's extensive library. In the car, I use Spotify about 90% of the time and it can become increasingly frustrating to chang...
With the Google Play store on your Android device, it's a relatively easy process to check all of your application updates. All you have to do is launch the Market app, go to the My Apps section, and from there you'll be able to see all of the available updates for your applications, which should be positioned at the top of the list. The problem with this process is that many times, you'll go days or weeks and quite possibly even months without checking the Google Play application market, lea...
While the increasing superiority of smartphone cameras is great, they can be a double-edged sword. Sure, we get great images that are crystal clear, but at what price? Storage space on your devices ends up paying the price for this luxury, filling up quickly due to the high-quality images and their grotesquely large size. Not only that, but most photo editing applications only make it worse. Adding a few filters, changing the hue/saturation, or adding some text across the picture can all incr...
There are tons of different versions of maze games. First, there were paper mazes that you had to draw your way out of. Then, there were computer and video games, and later, smartphone apps.
YouTube is home to some of the most vile commenters on the internet—completely void of literacy, accuracy of facts, respect, and goodness in general. Known to many as the cesspool of the internet, the YouTube comment board can be a tough place for a person who's not accustomed to hostility on the web. "Tracking my cookies? They will never get my recipe!"
One of the coolest things for readers using the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 is the stock Smart Rotation feature. While most smartphones use the accelerometer to adjust the screen orientation, Smart Rotation actually uses the camera to detect your face-to-screen angle and adjusts accordingly. Now, if only there was a way that all Android users can continue reading an article or text without sporadic and unexpected 90-degree turns of their screen. Wait, there is!
Got a Samsung tablet with an S Pen stylus? Then you might be one of the many people irked about having to manually choose a different keyboard layout after pulling the S Pen out of the device. For instance, if you have a Samsung Galaxy Note I or Note II, when you pull the S Pen out, the keyboard layout stays the same. But if you'd like it to switch to a different keyboard, say, from the stock Samsung keyboard to something like SwiftKey, then you're out of luck.
Google Now is an extremely intelligent personal assistant that automatically updates and prepares the most pertinent information for you on your Android device. Traffic updates, alternatives routes, weather conditions, and other important data is constantly being monitored and updated for you.
Early last month, Sony released PlayStation Mobile, bringing PlayStation games to the PS Vita and other certified phones and tablets. The list of certified phones isn't as extensive as it should have been, consisting of only Sony devices (a few tablets and Xperia) and a couple of HTC ones. For anyone with a supported device, you can head over to the PS Store for the download and installation instructions.
Last week, HTC released their new Droid DNA smartphone in hopes of gaining more traction in a smartphone world currently dominated by Apple and Samsung with their popular iPhone and Samsung Galaxy lines. The new Droid DNA boasts a 5-inch 1080p display—the highest resolution for any smartphone on the market. It runs Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean with HTC Sense software, and has may other typical features, such as NFC and wireless charging.
So, you've finally managed to get addicted to one of those free farming games, like Farm Story or Tiny Village. You play the game nonstop now, and the only thing stopping you is that dreaded on-screen notice to come back in 23 hours to finish farming or building. Come back in 23 hours… WHAT?!? Most of these free games will start charging you at this point. Time becomes a luxury. Well, not anymore, thanks to XDA Developer StupidIdea, who made a time-tricking app called GMD Speed Time (that's t...
Facebook has always been notoriously difficult to customize. Personally, I think this is an improvement over MySpace's totally open platform (some people should not use code), but users should still have the option to change a few things if they want. While you'll never be able to choose your own background image or add an obnoxious number of aWeSoMe quiz results to your profile, there are a few browser plugins that let you at least change the color scheme.
At the most recent Apple event, the company announced its new Fusion Drive, a hybrid hard drive designed to increase performance and speed by combining traditional and flash storage. It's composed of a small solid-state disk and a larger spinning hard disk drive, and files and applications are moved back and forth between the two based on how often you use them. A chunk of memory is reserved for whatever task you're currently doing, which means that multitasking doesn't slow down your compute...
Getting the task done as quickly as possible is usually the goal for most things in life. Well, most things. That's why efficiency is the first and main component of the McDonaldization of our society.
Windows users have been getting a lot of bad news about their security lately. First, we found out that passwords in Windows 7 and 8 can easily be exploited if password hints are enabled, and now, Russian password-cracking software developer Elcomsoft has found another huge vulnerability.
Tired of the Instagram wave? If you're sick of having to view the world through low-contrast and sepia-toned filters, there's a way to get them back to how they're supposed to look, and it's called Normalize, which undoes the magic filtering that Instagram and similar photo filter apps provide. The process of un-Instagramming your (or anyone else's) photos with Normalize is perhaps easier than Instagramming them in the first place. All you need to do is copy and paste them into the app and wa...
Motorola launched a new webpage on Friday that tells Android users how to unlock the bootloaders on a limited number of new Motorola smartphones and tablets. This new 'Unlock My Device' page helps demystify the process and make it easier for users to customize their phones.
Apple has a few exciting surprises for you in its latest iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 software updates. Released on Thursday, May 18, version 16.5 includes new features, bug fixes, and security patches, and there are even hints of some big things coming in future software updates for iPhone and iPad.
It hasn't been long since Apple released iOS 16.0 with over 350 new features, but iOS 16.1 just came out with even more cool updates for your iPhone. While some of the recent upgrades were expected, others are somewhat surprising — and there's even one that you may not even think was possible.
Apple just released the first beta for iOS 14.2 to iPhone software testers today, Monday, Sept. 21. This update brings a new Control Center tile for Shazam music recognition, a redesigned Now Playing Control Center tile, and a new "People Detection" feature in Magnifier.
Apple just released the third public beta for iOS 14 today, Thursday, July 23. This update comes one day after the company released iOS 14 developer beta 3, and two weeks after the release of iOS 14 public beta 2.
Snapchat's first foray into augmented reality started with the selfie camera and face-tracking technology, with the app's AR capabilities expanding from there.
Apple released the first beta for iOS 14.6 today, Thursday, April 22. The new beta (build number 18F5046e) comes just two days after Apple's spring event, as well as the iOS 14.5 RC, and features an easy way for beta testers to update to the latest beta software when running an RC.
Progressive Web Apps hope to one day bridge the gap between websites and apps by giving the former more access to your phone's features, but they're not very common yet. In the meantime, you can take matters into your own hands with an app that uses your system WebView to render websites in a full-screen, borderless window with a few extra features — a lot like a native Android app.
There are modded Spofity APKs floating around that essentially give you a Spotify Premium account for free, but the music streaming giant has been aggressively banning users who go this route. So if you're tired of listening to ads, but you don't want to do anything illegal, you'll want to know about this new app.
Google's version of Android is best described as AOSP with extra features. But while the Pixel's UI is rightfully praised for its simplicity, those "extra features" aren't as numerous as they are on other OEM skins like Samsung's One UI. Case in point, there's no real system-wide audio EQ.
