With the rise of OLED displays, Android users have been begging Google for a true system-wide dark mode for years. While a system-wide solution is still somewhat unlikely, Google has given in by providing a dark mode for certain apps, including Contacts.
Screen pinning is a fairly unknown feature despite the fact that it's been around since 2014. It's a helpful security tool that limits access to your device to only one app — perfect for those times when someone asks to borrow your phone. While previous versions kept this feature exactly the same, Android 9.0 Pie's new multitasking UI changes the way it works.
PUBG is continually getting better and more intuitive with each update, and version 0.4.0 is no exception. Besides a new training map to help you practice and a faster-paced arcade mode for on-the-go gaming, the newest version of PUBG now includes a feature that exclusively caters to iPhones from the 6S on up.
There are few apps or services better than Slack for keeping a team both communicative and productive. But it also makes it difficult to escape your job — after work hours and weekends should be yours, not Slack's. If you want to stop the barrage of notifications and messages on your time off, you should make use of Slack's "Do Not Disturb" and "Away" settings.
One thing that makes Apple great is the connectivity between its products. Many tasks you do on an iPhone can be switched over to a Mac or iPad quickly and easily. The Notes app is no exception to this advantage, but you need to make sure you're set up so that your notes sync properly on each device you have.
Your email is just that — yours. You shouldn't have to worry about other people gaining access to it on your iPhone. Fortunately, Outlook agrees, and has included a way for you to protect your messages with one of two keys no one possesses but you — your face or fingerprint.
Jay-Z's Tidal streaming service provides Hi-Fi music to a mainstream audience. Even better, Tidal can do this without blowing out your eardrums, because it's easy to enable volume normalization so that one track isn't louder than the next.
Android is a highly customizable operating system. Sometimes, we use these capabilities to add core functionality or streamline the user experience, but there are other times when customization is just about having fun and making your smartphone's interface more enjoyable.
If your mechanical home button or capacitive navigation keys are on the fritz, doing something as simple as navigating your phone's interface becomes a tedious chore. In this situation, some users have turned to root mods that enable Android's software navigation bar to solve the problem, but not everyone is willing or able to root their device.
Paranoid Android has always been one of the most popular custom ROMs because of the inventive features its developers add to Android. Two of the biggest draws in particular have to be the "Halo" notification bubble, and the "Pie" navigation buttons, which can both fundamentally change the way you interact with your device.
In case you didn't know, Google has an awesome app that gives you free money to spend on apps, games, movies, books, and virtually anything you can buy on the Google Play Store. The app is called Google Opinion Rewards, and all it asks in exchange for the Play Store credit is that you answer a few questions every now and then.
Google's Pixel phones have a feature that lets you swipe down on the fingerprint scanner to open your notification shade and Quick Settings panel. It's one of those features that make you wonder why it wasn't there in the first place, since it gives you another way to interact with your device, and your fingerprint scanner isn't being used while you're screen is on anyway.
When Google released the first Developer Preview build of Android 7.0 Nougat, users were happy to see that a new "Night Mode" was included among the changes. The feature would cancel out any blue light emitted from your screen to help you get to sleep a bit earlier, quite similar to f.lux for desktop computers, or Apple's Night Shift for iPhones. It could be set to turn on automatically based on time of day, or you could manually enable Night Mode with a Quick Settings toggle.
Samsung's latest flagship devices, the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, as well as the Note7, have a useful feature called "Always On Display." With this one enabled, the clock and some other information will continue to be shown on the screen, even when you lock your phone or turn your screen off.
Over the years, YouTube ads have become more and more integrated with the videos themselves, which means traditional Android ad blockers can no longer block the ads without blocking the videos. It's gotten to the point where the only ways to get rid of the ads are to either subscribe to Google Play Music and YouTube Red, or go through the complicated process of installing the Xposed Framework.
When Google released the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P, they added official support for fingerprint scanning to Android's main code base. On the surface, this was done to ensure that the fingerprint scanner in their own devices could be used to its full extent, but because it was added to AOSP, this meant that the new Fingerprint API could be used by any Android manufacturer.
The Nexus 6 uses an Ambient Display notification system that was heavily inspired by the Active Display feature on the Moto X. Essentially, the device shows a black-and-white version of the lock screen whenever you receive a new notification or pick the phone up. This is all made possible by the N6's AMOLED display that doesn't have to waste any battery to power black pixels on the screen.
Losing your phone is a much bigger ordeal today than it was just 10 years ago. Our smartphones carry with them lots of sensitive data that, in the wrong hands, is capable of being used for identity theft and fraud.
You hand your iPhone to a friend to show them a picture. What happens? They swipe. Left, right, it doesn't matter. You don't remember what lies in either direction of the photo in question, and you don't want anything compromising exposed to the unassuming viewer. Luckily, Apple includes a safety net in iOS to prevent this scenario from ever happening, so long as you set it up ahead of time.
HTC pulled out all the stops when designing the HTC One M8. From it's sleek body, to it's incredible sound quality, this thing just oozes sophistication. While all of these add-ons are great, they can be incredibly taxing on the CPU, in turn causing some serious lag.
When our Nexus 7s upgraded to KitKat, one key piece of functionality was lost in the mix—Flash support. Of course, even before that we never had official support on the Nexus 7, but hacks seemed to do the job just fine. As it stands now, Google remains on the warpath against Flash, opting instead for HTML5 use, specifically in Chrome (where Flash never worked anyway), and of course Adobe stopped supporting Android long ago.
One little known feature on Android devices is TalkBack, which provides you with spoken feedback and vibrations in order to help you navigate your device. Obviously, if you're not blind or visually impaired, this isn't a feature you're likely to use.
The Nokia N900 smartphone suffers from a lack of quality games due to Nokia's restrictive OS, but fortunately you can get WebOS games from the Palm Pre loaded onto it pretty easily by following the steps outlined in this video tutorial.
In a survival situation making cordage out of plants can enable you to construct apparatus you never would have been able to otherwise and save you life. This video will teach you how to make a meter of cordage out of 2 leaves from a Spiked Aloe plant.
In this 41 minute tutorial, learn how to build a spherical glass mesh with softbody physical properties (and filled with round particles) that enable it to bounce without breaking in Cinema 4D. Nick from Greyscale Gorilla shows how.
Removing the engine from a snub-nosed van like the 2000 Chevy Van in this video is supposed to be difficult. If you watch this video though, you'll learn a trick that will enable you to pull the engine from your snub-nosed van in half the time usually required.
Learn how to make your BlackBerry phone visible to other Bluetooth-enabled devices. This clip will show you how it's done. Whether you're the proud owner of a BlackBerry smartphone or are merely considering picking one up, you're sure to be well served by this video guide. For detailed information, including step-by-step instructions, take a look.
If you have an iPhone 3G or iPod Touch 2G, you're probably having problems with iOS 4 of multiple kinds. If you have just jailbroken one of those Apple devices and want to activate some of the sexy new options available to you, watch this video. It will show you how to enable multitasking and homescreen wallpaper on your jailbroken iPhone 3G or iPod Touch 2G with iOS 4 using winterboard.
The moment when your Windows XP PC begins hibernating is one of the most frustrating in many PC users lives, causing hands to be thrown up in frustration and preparations for a hard reset to begin. Do you wish that you computer didn't even have the option of hibernating? This video will show you how to turn off hibernation in Windows XP, allowing you to use your computer's entire battery without risking a sudden faux-shutdown.
Virtual cameras enable you to add all sorts of cool effects to your animations by making it seem like they were filmed with a camera that could move and focus. This video will show you where to acquire and how to use the vcam software plugin for Flash CS4 to create all of the aforementioned effects and more! This can also be useful for video games.
Custom classes are powerful tools in Flash CS4 that enable you to reuse sections of Actionscript 3 code more easily, greatly smoothing the software development process. This video will teach you how to create, integrate, and use custom classes in Flash CS4. Don't waste your coding time repeating yourself, watch this video.
Swyping is no longer limited to English. In this clip, learn how to wave that finger across the keyboard in any language. It is actually quite easy to swap between languages and dialects on your Swype enabled phone. Follow along with this tutorial and you can text at the speed of light in any language you choose!
In this tutorial, learn how to access your phone's data network to enable free tethering on your new HTC EVO 4G. By tethering with your EVO you can connect up to eight other devices to your phone and use it as a wireless modem. This hack works with any EVO and will allow you to connect regardless of whether your city offers 3G or 4G signals.
In this tutorial, learn how to avoid Sprint's expensive 30.00 a month Hot Spot plan and hack your EVO for free tethering. This video will take you step by step through the process of setting up and using tether on your HTC EVO 4G in just a few simple steps.
As with any other Internet-enabled mobile device, the Apple iPad can be used to send, receive and manage email. This official video guide from Apple presents an overview of the Mail app and will teach you everything you'll need to know to use read and compose email messages on your own iPad.
The Twilight Hack is currently the only safe, public way to enable homebrew on an unmodded Nintendo Wii. The Twilight Hack is achieved by playing a hacked game save for The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess which executes a homebrew application from an external SD card
Going up? This video will teach you how to hack an elevator, making it go directly to the desired floor without stopping. If you're ever in a hurry or, heaven forbid, a genuine emergency and need to get to the bottom or top floor quickly, you'll be very happy you watched this how-to video. Learn how to enable the "express mode" in most any modern elevator with this great pushbutton hack!
You can add keywords as metadata to your images to enable you to search images by common characteristics or subject matter and to keep your library organized.
Learn how create a Point Of Interest (POI) database using Google Earth and KML2CSV. You can upload this file to your GPS or GPS-enabled phone to create custom tracking searches.
This how-to video will help you expand your iPod library. Rockbox turns your iPod into a FLAC- and OGG-playing, open-source monster. Learn how to install this custom firmware on your iPod to enable it to play all sorts of audio file types and even games. Watch this video tutorial and learn how to free your iPod with Rockbox.
