Linux may not be the most popular consumer operating system out there, but what it lacks in consumer app variety, it definitely makes up for in flexibility and security. And if you've ever tinkered with a Linux distro, you know how easy they are to install—most of the time, I skip standard installation and boot directly from a CD.
The new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are supposed to last a lot longer in your pocket with improved battery life, but that doesn't mean that iOS 8 will be that friendly on your older iPhone model. All of those awesome new features could be killing your battery, but with some simple tweaking, your battery life concerns will be a mere afterthought.
Google's Chromecast streaming device is a marvel of functionality and form. Even with powerful features such as screen mirroring and collaborative party playlists, it's the device's idle screen that first catches the eyes of most folks.
There are a ton of great new features in iOS 8, and one of the most interesting (and perplexing) ones is called "Family Sharing."
Greenify is a terrific app that allows you to put battery-hogging apps into "hibernation." Effectively closing the problematic apps and preventing them from running until you explicitly launch one of them, hibernation is a great way to save battery life while you're not using your phone.
Without a comprehensive root method for all Android phones and tablets, a device-specific approach is needed. And since we always cover new rooting methods for all the popular phones here at Gadget Hacks, we've built this always-updated guide to rooting many mainstream Android devices.
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.
An app can request a wakelock to prevent your Android device from entering sleep mode so that it can sync data in the background. This obviously drains your battery, because instead of running in low-power sleep mode, your processor is fully activated while it performs its tasks.
Losing important data is the modern-day equivalent of misplacing your wallet or keys. We have tons of vital information stored in our digital worlds, and losing any of it can be devastating. But if you've accidentally deleted something important from your Android device, there's still hope.
Pushbullet is one of those apps that helps separate Android from its competition. By pushing the boundaries of cross-platform data syncing and file sharing, the service truly demonstrates how flexible and robust the world's leading mobile operating system can be.
As Matias Duarte and the team over at Google's Android Design department ready their wares, they've given us a preview version of the upcoming "L" release of Android to try out.
The debate between physical and virtual navigation buttons and their respective benefits has been going on for a few years now. It looks to finally be settled, with the Samsung Galaxy S5 being the only current-generation flagship Android phone that has yet make the switch to on-screen buttons.
With the release of the M8, HTC decided to begin publishing some of its exclusive apps to the Google Play Store. While most of these apps aren't available for download unless you own an HTC device, this practice made it possible for the Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer to issue updates to its users independently of carrier-modified firmware upgrades.
I don't read all of my emails, and even though it may sound a little bit odd, I don't listen to all of my voicemails either. For me, the problem isn't reading or listening to them, it's how it affects my iPhone's home screen.
Parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and even older siblings have all likely dealt with handing their smartphones over to young children. No matter if they want to play games or watch cartoons or record funny noises, you're handing over a very personal device to those who can mess up what they don't know.
Amongst the trove of high-end features on the Galaxy S5, the display may be the most impressive. Sporting a 5.1-inch Full HD Super AMOLED (Samsung's version of OLED) display with 1920 x 1080 resolution and 432 pixels per inch, Samsung's flagship has one of the best smartphone screens currently on the market.
Since the introduction of LED flash to smartphones, there have been hundreds of flashlight apps flooding Google Play, since most Android phones do not have built-in flashlight apps, including the HTC One.
If you are using the the AT&T variant of the HTC One, you are well aware that the carrier opted not have the HTC Backup app pre-installed on the device. Luckily for us, HTC said "screw it" and put the app on Google Play, allowing anyone with an HTC One, regardless of carrier, to be able to download and use the app—if you're an AT&T customer, grab the app and let's take a quick walkthrough (again, the rest of us on other carriers should have the app already).
Seemingly lost in the fanfare of the numerous features and specs of the Nexus 5 were a few highly innovative and handy add-ons—a low-power step detector and step-counting sensor—useful for tracking fitness data.
The Academy Awards, commonly referred to as The Oscars, are airing this weekend. If you're a movie buff or just want to watch the dimes walking on the red carpet, The Oscars is not to be missed.
The Xperia Z1, Sony's flagship device, has been extremely popular overseas, so much so that it has made its way into the U.S. market as the Xperia Z1S, a modified version of the original. Known more commonly as the "waterproof smartphone," the Xperia Z1 packs one of the most powerful cameras on the market, with an impressive 20.7 megapixels. Since the device is only available for T-Mobile here in the States, unless you currently have that carrier, the chances of you getting your hands on Sony...
Those of you using iOS 7 probably know by now that swiping down on an app's preview screen in the multitasking menu does absolutely nothing. Swiping up force closes the app, but down is useless—unless you're jailbroken.
Mobile gaming, in case you haven't noticed, is huge. From the astronomical popularity of Candy Crush Saga, to the ease of using old school emulators, we love gaming on our mobile devices. The future is also bright, just take a look at the Oculus Rift, an immersive virtual world that just might change the way we view and play games.
Have you ever looked at your iPhone dock and wished you could place an extra, essential, or highly utilized app on there? Currently, with the basic settings you can only place four, but there's always that one that you wish could add to the mix.
Seriously?! That's what a lot of people are saying when they found out that their Xbox One doesn't have a native streaming media player. When a new system is introduced and lacks features that the previous system had, it really pisses people off. The Xbox 360 allowed people to stream music and video files from a flash drive, as long as it was formatted with the Windows FAT32 file system.
When I compare my iPhone 4S to my friend's iPhone 5, I notice that his elongated screen gives him an extra row of applications. Am I jealous? Yes, a little.
Like a beautiful woman, curves can enhance the appeal of certain things, so why not your Nexus 7 tablet? If you're tired of the uniformity of right-angled corners on your screen, add a little character by rounding them out.
Keeping your Samsung Galaxy Note 2 clean and neat can become a hassle, especially if you're an app whore. As the amount of applications on your device goes up, so do your notifications, which will clog up your Status bar with icons alerting of recent news and tasks.
If you didn't already know, Apple is giving away their newest operating system, Mavericks, for most of your computers. While the folks over at Microsoft surely despise this tactic, those of use Mac users still running Snow Leopard surely do appreciate it.
Old people are usually perceived as wise and enduring, whereas an old smartphone, like my iPhone 4, becomes the butt of a joke every time I take it out of my pocket. I mean, come on, it's not like I'm still rocking one of these... And if I was, I guarantee you wouldn't beat my score on Snake.
Adjusting the brightness on your Samsung Galaxy S3 can be a real pain sometimes. Each app you open may need a different amount of light to better optimize its use of the screen, and then you have to worry about it potentially eating up your battery life if it's too bright.
With the release of iOS 7, the entire Internet was abuzz with what's the exact opposite of excitement as Apple's servers were overloaded, causing many download fails of the new operating system. Since then, many other bugs and issues have arisen that are fairly common with new Apple software updates, like iMessage fails and wallpaper complaints (to only name a few).
According to a new study, the majority of smartphone users check their devices 150 times a day. While that number may seem incredibly high at first glance, the influx of notifications and amount of social media apps available reduce the initial shock and make the number seem not so preposterous after all. Yeah, even on a date.
Nine times out of ten, when you pick up your Samsung Galaxy Note 2, you already know what app you're going to be using. If you only have Swipe to unlock enabled, finding that app is as easy as swiping and locating the app on your Home screen or in the app drawer.
"What's the point of having a Nexus 7 for drawing if all of the drawing apps suck?" That's what my girlfriend said after buying her new Nexus 7 tablet. She draws a lot and was hoping to hone her doodling skills on it, but she's right—most of the drawing apps available on Google Play aren't that great.
Privacy has been a heated topic in recent months, with everyone now up in arms over unauthorized leaks and exposures. And guess what—tablet and smartphone users are just as vulnerable.
A few weeks ago, Bluebox Security uncovered a bug that could potentially effect 99% of Android devices. Bug 8219321, dubbed the Master Key bug, works by allowing applications with modified code to pass Android's signature verification system, thereby bypassing security measures that normally wouldn't allow these apps to be installed.
One thing that gets overlooked on Facebook is the amount of videos you can watch, and I'm not just talking about videos uploaded directly by Facebook users—I mean everything ever shared—YouTube, Vine, Instagram, Vimeo, etc.
Cloud storage looks pretty good compared to the heavy restrictions that hard drives and other types of external memory carry. The cloud is not only limitless in what it can hold, but it can also easily be accessed from any device that has Internet—your smartphone, work computer, personal laptop, tablet, and more. While accessing a specific cloud storage system like Dropbox or Google Drive may be easy on your Samsung Galaxy Note 2, managing all of them individually can not only get confusing, ...
There are very few things Android users would want to borrow from Apple's iOS, but let's move beyond the fanboy/girl biases and admit that Apple actually does a few things pretty well. One of those things is looks, and the new iOS 7 looks pretty amazing to me.
