Earlier today, Alphabet announced that the Self-Driving Car Project has officially graduated from their innovation factory (X) and will now operate as an independent company called Waymo.
Everyone's been raving about the Pixel's top-notch camera, and the acclaim is well-deserved. The main difference between Google's new camera software on their Pixel phones and the older software on their Nexus devices is that the Pixel has almost no perceptible lag between tapping the shutter button and the image being captured—even with HDR+ mode enabled.
As pentesters and hackers, we're going to be working with text frequently — wordlists, configuration files, etc. A lot of this we'll be doing on our machine, where we have access to whatever editor we prefer. The rest of it will be on remote machines, where the tools for editing will be limited. If nano is installed, we have an easy-to-use terminal text editor, but it isn't very powerful.
While visiting the Made by Google pop-up shop in New York City this morning, I had a chance to try out the new Daydream View virtual reality headset. First impressions are important, and Google's new mobile VR product makes a good one. The headset is made of a soft fabric that most evokes a beloved old college sweater that's well worn but properly cared for. The demo only featured the Slate (darker gray) model, though customers will ultimately be able to choose from either Slate, Snow, and Cr...
As if you needed another example of Android's open-source awesomeness, before the Pixel phones were even released, a flashable ZIP that will give you almost all of Google's Pixel-exclusive features on other devices appeared.
Gaining access to a system is always exciting, but where do you go from there? Root or bust. Sure, a compromised host is a great way to run a botnet, or do some other boring, nefarious thing—but as hackers, we want root. We also want to take the easiest path possible, search out low-hanging fruit, and exploit them. SUID programs are the lowest of the low-hanging fruit.
Whether you made the switch from iOS, or you came from a different Android device, there's a lot to learn about your new Galaxy device. Samsung does things a bit differently, and thanks to their TouchWiz interface, there are tons of added features to take advantage of—though some folks might find these extras to be a bit too much.
Smartphones have been around for nearly a decade now, so we've had plenty of time to develop preconceptions and bias. People that have never owned an iPhone will tell you that Apple devices are restrictive and bland, while others might say that stock Android is boring compared to manufacturer skins like HTC's Sense, despite never having owned a Nexus or Pixel.
Several major web services—most notably Facebook—have horrendous Android apps that occupy way too much space and drain battery life at an alarming rate. Such issues have led to a new trend where third-party developers create minimalist "lite" apps that are essentially the mobile website bundled into a native Android wrapper, freeing up storage space and saving battery life without sacrificing many features at all.
In the wake of Google Glass' failure, we can expect other companies to fill the void in due time. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Snapchat may be one of the first.
A motion-based lock screen app called GestureLock was among the winner's at 2106's Android Experiments I/O Challenge, and it lets you set a specific motion (gesture) that you use to gain access to your locked phone.
Google Maps does a lot of things well, but one feature it's always been lacking is an on-screen speedometer. Well, now you can add one with Velociraptor, and you can even set it to alert you when you're traveling above the speed limit.
Lenovo is teaming up with Google to debut the first Project Tango smartphone, which uses 3D sensors to map the world around it. The Tango phone will be able to give directions without the need for GPS, and it can augment reality to bring things like dinosaurs and cars into your environment.
Google has an intriguing feature called Nearby that lets users share content without being on the same Wi-Fi network, or without even exchanging contact info first. Instead, the function uses an array of standard smartphone features, as well as subsonic sound, to identify other devices that are in the room, then makes a secure connection to transfer any data.
Amazon has completely changed the way we purchase household items, to the point where many of us haven't visited a big box, brick-and-mortar store like Walmart or Best Buy in years. And when you think about it, all of this success comes down to two main factors—convenience and price.
Android's flexible operating system allows for lots of customization, and one of the most common ways to add personal flair to your smartphone is to set your own ringtones and notification sounds.
If you're looking to customize your Android beyond its stock options, things can get confusing quickly. One of the best places to get into developer mode is the XDA forums.
You gotta love Android—not only can you replace your default home screen entirely, but there are tons of options that provide alternative methods for launching apps with ease. We've covered some of these options in the past, including an app called Bar Launcher that lets you launch apps from your notification tray—but that one's starting to look a little dated these days.
As Android's official app provider, the Google Play Store is packed with thousands of useful programs. But Google's terms of service is extremely restrictive, which means that countless apps simply don't qualify to be hosted on the Google Play Store.
Google is rolling out an update for Google Drive that streamlines the online file storage/sharing app, and finally gives you access to the Trash folder that had only been available on the desktop version.
Fewer and fewer Android phones are being released with SD card slots, so it's always a struggle to make sure you have enough free storage space for your photos, videos, and music. Things like app data and cache slowly build up as you use your device, which means your available storage number gradually decreases over time.
You can do practically anything with a modern smartphone or tablet, so it stands to reason that the apps you have installed may serve vastly different purposes. Picture a game and a video player sitting right next to each other in your app drawer—odds are, you want the sound turned up while you're watching videos, but would prefer that the game was muted or a little lower. As a result, we're constantly tweaking volume levels to get the best experience.
If Android is all about options, then iOS is all about new features. Every year without fail, Apple announces a cool software component that brings something new to the table, and this year was no different.
School internet filters serve a valid purpose—they keep students from wandering off into the deep corners of the web while still allowing at least some internet access. But a lot of these restrictions are completely ridiculous, to the point where some school districts block access to the educational material in National Geographic or forbid searching terms like "China," "Iran," or "Russia"—because, you know, breasts and commies.
For some time now, iPhone owners have been able to use Siri to listen to and reply to text messages, but that functionality has been lacking on Android. That is, until Google silently rolled out a similar feature for Google Now (thanks to Android Police for the tip).
BlackBerry has yet to find a home amongst the iPhone and popular Android phones, with sales plummeting over the last couple years, but this might be a thing of the past thanks to their latest device, the BlackBerry Priv. It has decent numbers so far and was even sold out on Amazon shortly after its initial release.
Android's Quick Settings menu is quite handy—just swipe down with two fingers from the top of your screen and you're ready to toggle several different system settings on or off. It got even better with Android 6.0 Marshmallow, since you can even use the hidden System UI Tuner to rearrange and remove your Quick Settings tiles now.
With a slab-style touchscreen device, butt dialing is always going to be a problem. While you're moving about, your phone can unlock itself and give your most recent contact a ring, leading to an awkward one-sided conversation where the other person gets to eavesdrop on everything you're doing or saying at that moment.
Downloading YouTube videos for offline use to watch later has always been a problematic endeavor. Dedicated third-party apps don't last long in the App Store, web-based converters aren't very functional on mobile, and rogue apps outside the App Store are tricky to sideload and open up the possibility of vulnerabilities. But that doesn't mean you still don't have a few good options.
Cortana, Microsoft's voice-activated personal assistant, originally launch on Windows Phone, but is now built directly into Windows 10 complete with "Hey Cortana" voice search (take that, Apple). It can help you locate files, set up reminders, control music.
Cortana, Microsoft's personal assistant for its Windows Phones and Windows 10, will soon be released for Android. That is, officially released. It's hard to keep a good thing locked away, and to that end, Cortana for Android has been leaked, thanks to APK Mirror.
When the Galaxy S6 hype-train was building momentum ahead of the phone's release, many reports had Samsung cutting back on its much-maligned TouchWiz skin. In the end, these reports were either highly exaggerated or entirely fabricated, because while not as egregious as previous devices, Samsung's signature bloated UI and duplicate apps are definitely present on the Galaxy S6.
Hello there, 'Flashers'! Welcome to my 8th Post. This tutorial will explain how to flash Kali NetHunter on OnePlus (Tested) and Nexus Devices (Not Tested-Should work) as a secondary ROM, so that none of your personnel data/ROM gets affected.
Chromecast is so small and portable that it would seem to be a perfect device for making PowerPoint presentations. But even now that you can mirror your Android device's display, there are still a few issues.
When you think about it, YouTube may actually have one of the largest music collections on the planet. This is why, at $10 per month, Google's new YouTube Music Key subscription is a solid value for many users, especially with its inclusion of Google Play Music.
Google Play Music is an awesome app—even if you don't subscribe to their $9.99/month All Access service, you can still use it to store and stream up to 50,000 of your own songs for free. Add to that the fact that it's a pre-installed app on most Android devices, and there aren't many reasons not to be using Play Music.
Android has a system-wide user dictionary file that any third-party keyboard can utilize, if it so chooses. This file contains all of the words that you've added to your keyboard manually, and of the big-name players, Minuum, TouchPal, and the Google Keyboard call on this file to determine their user dictionaries.
If you were around when the Nintendo Wii first launched, you remember how revolutionary the device was at the time. When I first encountered one, I was amazed at the simplicity of its controls, namely the fact that the Wii Remote (aka Wiimote) just felt like such a natural way to play a game.
The Nexus Player is one of the most robust set-top streaming devices on the market. This is mainly due to the fact that the base software it runs is a direct fork of Android, which is a very powerful operating system itself.
After installing an app from the Google Play Store, its icon will appear on your home screen, creating a shortcut for you to easily access it without needing to look very far. But if you've installed as many apps as I have, these shortcuts begin to add up and eventually make your home screen look like an iPhone, turning it into just another app drawer.
