Now that Google has announced its new Pixel smartphones, folks who rushed to buy an iPhone 7 might be experiencing a bit of buyer's remorse. The new Pixel and Pixel XL are packed to the brim with cutting-edge features and top-notch hardware, and Google seems to be taking direct aim at the iPhone 7 with its Pixel marketing (and their groan-worthy jokes during the keynote).
No matter how far technology advances, battery life continues to be an issue. Powerful new hardware is introduced each year, but smartphone batteries only get a few extra milliamp-hours to compensate.
Out of all the new functionality introduced alongside Android 6.0 Marshmallow, a battery-saving feature called Doze Mode has been the biggest hit. Essentially, Doze waits until your device is laying flat and still, at which point it triggers an aggressive battery-saving mode that drastically increases standby time on your device.
If you're experiencing issues with an app or custom ROM and would like to report your problem to the developer, there's no better way to do it than by capturing a logcat. Android keeps track of all the commands that have been executed by various apps and services, which means that when something goes wrong, the error is clearly shown in this so-called logcat.
Smartphones have been a hot button issue around school campuses for several years now—some schools allow them, others confiscate them on sight. But the fact of the matter is, when used correctly, a smartphone can be just as much of a learning tool as a textbook or school-issued laptop.
It would only make sense that Google is one of the most active app developers on the Android platform, particularly when you consider that they develop the platform itself. From my count, there are an astounding 117 unique apps that the search giant and its subsidiaries have published on the Google Play Store.
In this day and age, maintaining your privacy is a perpetual battle, and doing so with an internet-connected device like your smartphone is even more of a struggle. Every website you visit, every app you install, every message you send, and every call you make is a potential vulnerability that could expose you to prying eyes.
One of the first orders of business after purchasing a new smartphone is to load up your shiny new toy with phone numbers, email addresses, and general contact information for all the important people in your life.
With the amount of time we spend glued to our smartphones, they could be considered a second job (if only we got paid). I spend a large part of my day scrolling through Reddit, Facebook, Instagram, and countless other apps, and burn through hours and hours without even noticing.
Google Play Music is one of the best streaming services out there. It allows users to upload as many as 20,000 of their own songs for free, then stream them all to any device without ever paying a dime. If you upgrade to their All Access subscription, you get these features in addition to an expansive on-demand library of songs (and beta-access to YouTube Music Key).
The internet is forever. When you put something out there, it can easily be re-shared, floating from server to server indefinitely with no way of taking it back. It's a scary thought when you consider that a young adult's grandchildren will one day have access to their drunken party pics.
Welcome back, my hacker novitiates! A short while ago, I introduced you to regular expressions. Regular expressions are a language that is particularly useful for finding complex text patterns in streams of data.
Apple just announced the iPhone 6, and no matter whether you've been with Android for a few months or few years, there's a good chance you're enticed by the idea of switching over to the other side.
It's the biggest day of the year for all things Google. Their developer conference, dubbed Google I/O, gives us a peak at what the guys at Mountain View have been working on over the course of the past year, and this year, Android was center stage.
In a era where cyber security is becoming increasingly important, Comcast has decided to use its customers' routers to provide hotspot access to the public. A new program, outlined by Dwight Silverman over on the Houston Chronicle website, seeks to provide Xfinity customers with city-wide Wi-Fi hotspots by using, well...other customers' wireless routers.
HTC's recent release of a new flagship phone brought tons of fanfare along with it. Dubbed The All New HTC One, the M8 edition of the popular One series phone also marked an update to the HTC Sense UI. Manufacturer skins like Sense can be a bit of a polarizing subject, especially amongst Nexus owners who are used to experiencing Android's interface exactly as Google envisioned it.
The list of streaming services is pretty vast, from HBO GO to Hulu to Netflix, these subscription-based services have never been so popular, and have never been easier to watch now that they have Chromecast support.
When Google introduced their new launcher alongside the Nexus 5, one of the most innovative features was the "always listening" voice search, meaning that at any time you were on your home screen, triggering a Google search was as simple as saying "Okay, Google."
For my money, one of the greatest improvements brought about from the smartphone revolution is the advent of visual voicemail. No longer do we have to slog through dial menus or trudge through every single message to get to the next. We can just look at our messages, right there on our screens, organized neatly like emails or text messages.
If you haven't heard yet, Google made it possible a couple months ago for every Android user running 2.2 or higher to track his or her smartphone or tablet using their Android Device Manager service. It's a super easy way to track, lock, and secure erase your Android device from the web without ever having to download a third-party application, like Droid Finder, since it occurs in the background via Google Services.
Why unlock your Samsung Galaxy S3 to use with a different SIM card? One possible reason is that you love your phone, but not your cellular provider because of the poor service or an unreliable connection. If you purchased a Samsung GS3 with AT&T, T-Mobile, etc. on a contract, it might be locked for a specific amount of time called the contract period.
Now that iOS 7 has rolled out to the general public, with an overwhelming fit of mass hysteria, it's only custom for people to start bitching about battery drain—and I don't blame them. I was experiencing some rapid battery drain after first updating my iPhone 5, as well.
One of the most frustrating things on the Internet are sites that make you register just to view content. I'm not talking about paywalls—I mean the sites that make you give them personal information to look at free articles or forum threads. Most people are uncomfortable with this because a lot of these sites either spam you themselves, or sell your information to someone else who will.
Having all of your stuff in the cloud is super convenient if you want to access it on multiple devices, or if you want a backup in case it gets lost or wiped. The biggest downside with services like Dropbox, though, is security. With everything sitting there in one place, the last thing you want is for someone to break in.
Most of the time, asking to borrow someone's car will elicit a really long string of excuses. But unlike letting your buddy use your car, which usually gets you nothing more than an empty tank, GM has found a way to make car sharing beneficial for everyone involved. If you're one of the 6 million people who have a GM vehicle that's connected to OnStar, you're in luck: according to an OnStar employee, you can make up to $1,000 a month just by letting other people rent out your car when you're ...
Are you considering making a move from Facebook to Google+? If you are, be sure to watch this video to learn a clever trick for importing all of your Facebook contacts to your Google plus account. Don't lose friends just because you are ditching Facebook for Google+ plus.
Check out this video for an introduction to the new Google+ app for iOS. You can use Google plus from any of your iDevices, including iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. Make the most of Google's new social network with this app.
This helpful video will teach you how to recreate the iconic Google logo in Adobe Photoshop. If you've got a great idea for a fun Google doodle, or you just want to work on your Photoshop skills, check out this video to learn how to make the Google logo in Photoshop.
Use all of your favorite Google apps on your T-Mobile G2! This clip will teach you how. Whether you're the proud owner of a a T-Mobile G2 Google Android smartphone or are merely toying with the idea of picking one up in the near future, you're sure to be well served by this official video guide from the folks at T-Mobile.
Google's search engine has been revamped so search results are brought to you instantly. Now, with the new Chrome 9 browser, it is possible to activate Google Instant so that the same search results are brought to you instantly in the browser bar itself.
Learn how to use Google's official Google Maps app on your Motorola Droid Android smartphone with this video demo from the folks at IntoMobile. Get where you're going with GPS-style turn-by-turn directions. This clip will teach you everything you'll need to know.
The first step to make Internet Explorer as fast as Google Chrome is to download Google Chrome Brain. Google Chrome Brain is a software program that allows you to manage and customize settings for higher performance in Google Chrome. After your download is complete for Google Chrome brain you must then install the program. After the program has completed it's installation you can choose from various settings to optimize performance. The narrator in this video explains that the simplest way to...
In this webmaster's guide, you'll learn how to use the Google PageRank tool to track a page's rank in the Google Search index. Whether you're new to the world of search engine optimization (SEO) or are merely looking to pick up a few new tips and tricks, you're unlikely to find a better source than this official video guide from Google. Take a look.
In this clip, you'll learn how to use Google Website Optimizer to discover a losing page. Whether you're new to Google's Website Optimizer tool or are merely looking to pick up a few new tips and tricks, you're sure to be well served by this video tutorial. For the specifics, take a look.
Need some help coming up with keywords to drive traffic to your website or blog? With the Google Keyword tool, it's easy! So easy, in fact, that this home computing how-to from the folks at Easily can present a complete (and somewhat talky) overview of the process in just under five minutes' time. For the specifics, and to get started using Google's Keywords tool yourself, just watch this handy how-to.
Want to know how to install and use Google's browser toolbar? It's easy! So easy, in fact, that this home computing how-to from the folks at Easily can present a complete (and somewhat talky) overview of the process in just under six minutes' time. For the specifics, and to get started setting up and using Google's official browser toolbar yourself, just watch this handy how-to.
Need some help figuring out how to get started with the Google Web Toolkit? It's easy! So easy, in fact, that this home computing how-to from the folks at Easily can present a complete (and somewhat talky) overview of the process in just under six minutes' time. For the specifics, and to get started setting up and using Google's official web development tools yourself, just watch this handy how-to.
Google is the biggest and best search engine on Earth, and if you are a webmaster and want your website to be a big success it would really behoove you to know as much about how it works as possible. The Google Webmasters series of videos and website were created to teach webmasters, SEO professionals, and others how Google works by answering their questions and giving them insights into how they can best integrate and utilize Google's functionality to improve their business. This video will ...
In this tutorial, we learn how to display a custom-designed Google logo on your Mac/PC. First, you will want to download GreaseMonkey as a Firefox add-on. After you have installed this on your Firefox browser, type a search in Google for "how to change Google using greasemonkey". After this, click on the first page that come sup and download Java for Greasemonkey. Next, go to your Google page and you will be able to change what the "Google" logo says to say whatever you would like! This is a ...
Starting up a website can be daunting if you know nothing about web design or setup, but there are some tips to get the right people finding, looking, and returning to your site. A good landing page gives visitors exactly what they are looking for, and converts them from browsers to customers.
