My stock alarm clock does exactly what it's supposed to—it wakes me up. But for those really tough mornings when I just need to hit the snooze, getting my head out of the sheets is a no-go. This leads to trying to find my phone with an outstretched arm, which means knocked-over water glasses and my phone falling under my bed—even more out of reach. Ugh!
Included among the many new features in Android L is the new "Heads Up" notification system, showing notifications as interactive floating windows anywhere on your device. Floating windows are nothing new, though, as we've already showed you how to get floating widgets, floating application shortcuts, and even floating notifications.
Utility tool apps provide extremely powerful and useful lightweight replacements for your parents' heavy archaic tools—everything from flashlights to tracking systems and more.
I don't mean to offend anyone, but some phone calls are just plain boring, and being put on hold is shittier than eating three-day old sushi.
Back when 4.1 Jelly Bean came out (boy, how time flies), Android introduced expandable notifications. Depending on the notification, a simple swipe down with your finger could expand it and show extra content, like Delete and Reply buttons for Gmail messages.
Scrolling through Instagram, you're going to come across a lot of photographs and videos that you "like." But sometimes, you're going to want to remember a photo, and naturally want to save it to your device so you can look at it for forever and ever.
Pinch-to-zoom has been a well-known feature in Google Maps, but one-finger zoom has always been a more practical way of navigating, especially for those of us using our phones with one hand.
Long before Windows Phone hit the scene, Windows Mobile was the operating system for Microsoft's older brand of smartphones through the early 2000s. But due to its clunkiness and inability to keep up with modern features, it was scrapped in 2010.
While some Android applications have built-in gestures that allow you to perform certain actions, it's not a feature that's been comprehensively, let alone consistently implemented. If you're on Twitter or Facebook and you want to go back, the only global way is by tapping on the capacitive back button at the bottom of your device. Thanks to XDA dev PeterCxy, you can now enable a global swipe back gesture on your Android smartphone or tablet, making it easier than ever to backtrack within apps.
Living in Los Angeles so long has perhaps spoiled me a bit. The only time I check my weather apps is to send screenshots of my 70 degree Decembers to my friends in Chicago and New York. So for these bragging occasions, I like to have a good looking app.
Like what iMessage is to iOS, Google Hangouts is to Android—allowing users to share messages instantly, as if quickly wasn't good enough. With Google Hangouts, you can share locations and send maps, receive and send SMS, share animated GIFs, make video calls, and chat not only with your phone's contacts, but also your Google+ and Gmail buddies.
There are many impressive features on a Samsung Galaxy Note 2, but just like any other smartphone on the market, the most used one is the camera. How many times did you take a picture today? Or admire all the selfies in your gallery? Or upload a video to Instagram, Vine, or Snapchat?
I grew up on SNES. Super Mario, Final Fight, and Contra were just a few of my favorites, and most of my collection is still intact—all I have to do is reach under my bed and pull out all my old games. As proof, I present my original Donkey Kong Country cartridge: Now that I'm older, I don't have as much time to play my SNES as I used to. Hell, I barely have time to play my Xbox. Most of the games I play these days are on my Note 2, but no mobile game can compare to those classics collecting d...
The Apple ecosystem might be strong, but so is the pull from devices outside Cupertino's walls. If you've ever felt curious about what life could be like with a Samsung Galaxy smartphone, be that an S21 or a Note20, you don't need to make the switch to know. In fact, you can give it a go right on your iPhone.
If you scan the notification panel on your Samsung Galaxy smartphone daily, all those red circles with numbers that litter the apps on your home screen and app drawer can feel like persistent nagging and unnecessary clutter rather than friendly reminders to check your app alerts — but you can do something about it.
With the new Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra release, the first thing you may be wondering is how its battery life compares to the iPhone 13 Pro Max, Apple's biggest model from 2021. We've rounded up some of the most popular Galaxy S22 Ultra and iPhone 13 Pro Max battery tests from across the internet to bring you answers.
Thanks to the Snapdragon X55 modem, the Galaxy S20 and Galaxy Note 20 are among the most compatible 5G phones on the market. There are few bands they don't cover, as the modem supports both Sub-6 GHz and mmWave. But even with such broad support, the Galaxy S20 doesn't get the best 5G reception.
Samsung's stock Galaxy Themes system leaves much to be desired with its restrictive and expensive theme packs. Back in the day, the gold standard for Android theming was CyanogenMod Theme Engine. And while it no longer exists, a successor has emerged to fill the void.
Samsung has finally rolled out the Android Oreo update for the Galaxy S8 and S8+. If you're just now getting the update, you'll be happy to know that your Galaxy just got upgraded with plenty of cool new features. Like previous updates, Samsung has improved upon its software by including a new look and new functionality.
Karen Gillan must have had an absolute blast chewing the scenery as Nebula in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, seeing as how Nebula is a ball of pure, seething fury pretty much 24/7. Combine that larger-than-life personality with her iconic blue and silver cyborg look, and you have a guaranteed hit for cosplay or Halloween.
The software released in the 2015 iterations of the Samsung Galaxy line of devices—the S6, S6 Active, S6 Edge, S6 Edge+, and Note 5—have some pretty neat camera features that give these devices arguably the best smartphone camera on the market today.
My phablet has incredible battery life, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't like it to last even longer. Unlike the Samsung Galaxy S5, the Note 3 does not come equipped with Ultra Power Saving Mode, which can keep the phone running for another 24 hours with only 10% power remaining.
It may not be as large as the Samsung Galaxy Note 2, but the Galaxy S3's screen size is still big enough to make iPhone owners cry themselves to sleep. The 4.8-inch AMOLED display with 720 x 1280 pixels makes the GS3 a great mobile companion—and an even better portable gaming device.
There was a time in my life when I could think of nothing but getting home and playing Super Smash Brothers on my Nintendo 64. It was just something about tossing Mario across the map with Donkey Kong that seriously made me feel like an OG, not to mention that it was the first fighting game to compile a bunch of popular Nintendo characters together.
Whenever a friend borrows my Samsung Galaxy S3 to browse the web or make a quick call, I always pause to make sure there's nothing incriminating on it. I'm no superfreak, but some of my friends are, so I have more than a few photos on my device that I wouldn't wish upon anyone. I like to avoid these kinds of looks.
Facebook just released its new "home on Android" last Friday, appropriately called Facebook Home. Taking a cue from Amazon's Kindle, Home serves as an "operating system" that runs over Android.
The Galaxy Note 20's speakers are so loud and capable that they almost never need to be set to 100%. But by the same sense, it can be hard to find that just-right volume level since one increment represents a bigger change in sound output. Believe it or not, there's actually a first-party tool to fix this problem.
An unfortunate byproduct of Samsung's One UI version of Android is redundancy, where you have the Google/AOSP way of doing things mixed with Samsung's methods at the same time.
You may have noticed your Note 10 came with quite a bit of bloatware. Even the unlocked version of the phone comes with Facebook preinstalled, and if you bought it from a carrier, it's much worse. Luckily, there's a way to remove any apps you don't want, and you don't need root or a paid app to do it.
Shortly after we detailed several indicators that the Galaxy S8 Oreo Beta Program would begin rolling out in the month of November, we now have a full changelog for the update.
Samsung has some competition as LG may be incorporating OLED panels for their new flagship V30 launching later this year.
If your phone has an AMOLED display, it doesn't waste any battery to power black portions of the screen. This is because the individual pixels that make up an AMOLED screen emit their own light, which means the backlight you'd find behind a traditional LCD screen is not present. In other words, showing a full-screen black image on an AMOLED phone is like turning your display completely off.
The Galaxy S7 edge comes with a feature called Edge Apps that lets you quickly launch your favorite apps by swiping in from the edge of your screen. It's a natural and intuitive gesture, and as a result, we've seen a recent influx of apps that look to emulate this feature.
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.
With developments from tech giants Apple and Samsung being shared throughout the interwebs, the term smartwatch has become increasingly popular over the last year. That being said, smartwatches have been around for a while.
Ever use an open hotspot on your Note 3, only to find out that it's severely restricted to what sites you can access? While getting online with free Wi-Fi is great for those who have a limited data plan, when that one site you absolutely need to visit is blocked, you're left frustrated and sent back into the Wi-Fi menu for another access point.
There are over 60-something Android apps cluttering my app drawer. While I'm constantly on the look out for new mods and apps to install, the default way of managing them is cumbersome and just feels unintuitive. I mean, who on Earth would wants to individually manage each app on their device?
Extremely important calls have a way of coming at the most inopportune moments: when you're in class during an important lecture, at a big business meeting for work, or even when you're just enjoying a day at the movies.
CyanogenMod is one of, if not the most popular, third-party operating system for Android devices. It's so popular in fact, that it is the standard, out-of-the-box operating system on the recently released OnePlus One. CM is a lightweight ROM built on top of AOSP (Android Open Source Project), which is the base for all Android builds.
There are spontaneous times in everyday life that just scream to be recorded on video. The crazy guy yelling obscenities on the bus. Your favorite actor at the supermarket check-out register. Maybe even your kids just being super adorable.
