Earlier this year, Apple announced Continuity, a feature for Yosemite and iOS 8 that lets you connect your iOS devices to your Mac in order to access apps, receive phone calls, send text messages, and more while seamlessly switching between the two.
Google has updated its Search application for iOS with their new Material Design aesthetic, taking cues from Android's redesigned look with refreshed colors, depth effects, and new animations. But the update doesn't stop there; there are several new and useful features added to the mix. Download Google Search for iOS for free from the iOS App Store to check out all the new goodness for yourself.
Google+ doesn't have quite the user base of Facebook or Twitter, but for Android enthusiasts, it's definitely the place to be. All of the major developers—such as Chainfire and Koush—make their social media home on Google+, and the Android app sports one of the nicest interfaces of any comparable platform, chock-full of Google's Material Design.
Notifications are an integral part of our day-to-day smartphone usage. They allow us to easily see and act upon all of the latest information that comes our way. Well, most of the time, that is.
One of the few areas where Android lags behind iOS is a comprehensive backup solution for apps. Root tools, such as the popular Titanium Backup, are capable of backing up all of your apps and their data, but not everyone wants to root their device and potentially run into issues with voided warranties.
Coffee shops are great places to unwind and get some free Wi-Fi, but all the bandwidth in the world can be ruined by someone being a noisy jerk. I usually start blasting music through my headphones whenever that happens, but that isn't always the most ideal situation, especially if I'm trying to study or work.
During initial reviews of the Nexus 6, the "double tap to wake" feature was something originally slated to be present on the device, since Motorola built it and it's been a key feature of the Moto X. However, the feature was scrapped for Ambient Display, which wakes up the screen when the device is picked up or a notification arrives. So while having both could be seen as overkill, it doesn't mean we shouldn't have the option.
Unlocking our iPhones with Touch ID isn't something most of us pay any mind to; it's quick, simple, and gets the job done. Today, I'll be slowing things down for a second and showing you how to add the Apple Pay checkmark animation to your Touch ID-enabled lock screen. It looks awesome and doesn't add any additional unlocking time than normal.
Now that Apple has added support for third-party keyboards in iOS 8, the ways we can communicate with our "peeps" has expanded beyond emojis and standard text messages to GIFs and even rap lyrics now. RapKey takes some of the best and most popular rap lyrics, then lets you choose and send them straight from their easy-to-use keyboard.
While we wait for our chance to get our hands on Android Lollipop, Google has already released Material Design updates to most of their apps. I love the new direction of the updated UI, but something just seemed to be lacking in tying everything together.
The Snapdragon 801 processor inside the OnePlus One puts the device on par with other phones like the HTC One M8 and LG G3 in terms of power and speed. While the OPO is just as fast and responsive as many of the flagships currently available, there's no reason why we can't try to squeeze every last bit of speed and performance out of it.
Silencing my phone always gives me mild anxiety; while my Android is muted, my girlfriend or boss may be trying to reach me with some urgent news or task. On the one hand, I want to enjoy some peace and quiet, but on the other, I don't want to come back to a phone with 100 missed calls and countless exclamatory texts.
Apple Pay is ready for use at over 220,000 outlets across the United States. By using your iPhone 6 or 6 Plus, all you have to do is point your device at any NFC-enabled point-of-sale system compatible with Apple Pay, press your fingerprint on the home button, and voilà—you've just paid for something with your card. As a matter of fact, the store doesn't even need to have Apple Pay compatibility to work with your phone. If their machines have NFC-technology, they'll recognize your device (unl...
Keeping a close eye on your device storage can be a 24/7 job, especially if you're space is filling up and your device doesn't have SD card support. No matter how close of an eye you keep on it, there are always going to be apps updating databases, adding to their cache, and deleting old files.
With the Power key located on the back of the device, LG included a convenient "double-tap to sleep" function in their G2 and G3 devices. The function allows users to simply double-tap the display to put their device to sleep instead of picking it up and pressing the Power key.
Automatic brightness adjustments are supposed to make it easier to maintain good visibility on your phone, but it really never works as intended. It usually doesn't adjust properly, leading you to manually pull up the Control Center to adjust brightness via the slider.
The OnePlus One comes with CyanogenMod 11S built in, but there are certainly some traditional CyanogenMod features missing from this version. One of the most obvious missing ingredients is the lack of a native SuperUser app, most likely to prevent inexperienced users from causing unintentional damage to their device's software.
With all of the top-notch specs that the Galaxy S5 sports, the only minor quibble users have had with its hardware is the speaker situation. A front-facing earpiece is used for phone calls, but all other media is restricted to a single rear-firing speaker.
An uncapitalized proper noun in a message or email is a serious no-go for those skilled in the art of grammar. But trying to make a lowercase letter uppercase (and vice versa) is not a fun task if you're using an iPhone. You've got to point the cursor is just the right spot to change a letter, and that's a skilled art in and of itself.
Though many students spend four years of high school learning a foreign language, most of us probably retained very little. Chalk it up to the carelessness of youth, but chances are you've since been in situations or places that left you wishing you paid more attention in class or had continued practicing long after you graduated.
Mac OS X has finally added a way to use two apps side by side in full screen mode, à la Microsoft's Windows Snap. But since it's only available in 10.11 El Capitan right now, those of us with older systems will have to wait until the El Capitan Public Preview or final build is released later this year.
Contrary to what you may think, clearing or swiping away apps in the Recent Apps view on your Android device does not necessarily stop app activity or running tasks—and these running processes can actually be eating away at your battery life. Depending on the app or process, it may only be a small percentage, but every little bit helps these days.
The updates keep coming for iOS 8, and we've got our hands on the developer release of iOS 8.1, currently in beta, which was released shortly after the iOS 8.0.2 update (and 8.0.1 failure) for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch.
When it comes to dictating what happens when the Galaxy Note 3's S Pen is detached, the stock settings that Samsung provides are severely lacking. There are only two measly options: launching Samsung's own Action Memo app, or displaying the Air Command menu.
Your phone's volume panel is one part of the user interface that usually goes unnoticed to themers and developers. With themes capable of changing the look and feel of the fingerprint scanner, keyboard, and other system apps, this central aspect of the UI seems to get lost in the shuffle.
Don't hit that button yet! I know that everyone is eager to update to iOS 8 as soon as humanly possible, but when it comes to enabling iCloud Drive, you need to wait.
Bluetooth has been a staple on every Android smartphone ever since they began taking over our lives. Despite the fact that every device seems to have the ability to share files with one another, there is a limit to the types of files that can be shared between them.
Straight out of the box, the Nexus 5 is an awesome device, but even it can be faster with better battery life. Luckily, one of the things that makes it so awesome is that there are tons of developers creating mods for it, since it runs stock Android by default. When it comes to gaining speed and better battery life, flashing a custom kernel is the way to go.
Chances are that you're living in a city and/or state that's banned using your phone while driving, and because of that, many manufactures have added a "car mode" to their devices. In most instances, this mode is simply an app that simplifies your phone to its basic parts so you can navigate, make calls, and play music, limiting the amount of smartphone distractions.
Your Galaxy S5 is jammed to the brim with all sorts of electronic sensors. These are capable of reading humidity levels, ambient temperature, air pressure, and much more. Yet, while this data is constantly being collected by your phone, there aren't any built-in apps that are capable of displaying much of it.
We've already shown you how to free up internal space on your iPhone, and now it's time to tackle another problematic storage issue—your iCloud account.
Rooting is a great way to unleash your device's full potential, but not everyone's comfortable with it. Rooting can void a warranty, cause issues with certain apps, and the process itself can be tricky for older devices. Alas, most of the great apps or mods out there require root access, like the ability to utilize a built-in KitKat feature known as Immersive Mode.
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.
This past year, Facebook spent $19 billion purchasing the popular messaging app WhatsApp, and for good reason. Mark Zuckerberg isn't going to spend that type of money on just any application. WhatsApp is widely popular and frequently used by more than 500 million users worldwide, which is almost twenty percent of the Earth's population.
Personality is something we're constantly attempting to inject into our lives, whether it be the car we drive or clothing we wear—and our mobile devices are no exception.
The world of root is upon us, folks. While the LG G3 has be available for purchase for a couple of months now, rooting had been a shaky subject. International and T-Mobile variants enjoyed root from day one, while various security patches left the AT&T and Verizon Wireless variants as a mixed bag, and Sprint completely out in the cold.
This year's Google I/O brought the announcement of Android L, as well as the Preview builds of L for the Nexus 5 and Nexus 7 (2013), installed using either ADB on Windows or fastboot on any computer. Unfortunately, those of us without a Nexus device are out of luck—but not entirely.
In previous guides, we showed you how to easily tweak your Google Keyboard by using various colors and shapes, installing an Android L theme, or adding a convenient number row to its main display. And now, you can add another Google Keyboard theme to your arsenal by making it look like your iOS friend's iPad or iPhone keyboard.
There are a gazillion app switchers on the market, and some are really awesome, like Edge, GloveBox, Loopr, and Switchr, to name just a few. However, these can all be a little bit more complicated and cumbersome than necessary when I just want to switch back to the last app I was in.
Sense 6 came with a ton of new features for the HTC One, but for some reason, HTC decided to keep one of them hidden to all non-Harman Kardon editions.
