The volume buttons on the side of most Android devices—also known as the volume rocker—make it easy to adjust sound output without having to dig around in any settings menus. But the trouble is, they control notification and ringtone volume by default, and will only adjust media volume after a song or video has started playing.
In response to the success of Apple Pay and an attempt to stave off the appealing Samsung Pay service, Google is completely revamping Android's mobile payments system. Instead of just using Google Wallet as an app to make payments with your phone, a new service called Android Pay, with an extensive underlying framework and API, will soon make its debut—and maybe even sooner than you'd think.
There are many reasons to root Android, but for me, the most important one is to have the Xposed Framework. Xposed gives you access to hundreds of modules, which take away the need to manually modify core system files to add new features and functionality to your Android device.
Sure Samsung toned down TouchWiz on their latest flagship devices, but there was one issue (albeit minor and mostly cosmetic) that really irked me: those damn "S Finder" and "Quick connect" buttons in the notification tray. Only the T-Mobile S6 variants shipped with an option to remove these two buttons, so AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, and other non-T-Mobile users were stuck with them taking up space in the notification panel. If you didn't mind rooting your device, there was a way to remove them b...
Android Debug Bridge (or ADB for short) serves as a remote terminal interface for executing shell commands on any Android device. Put simply, ADB lets you send commands from your computer to your phone or tablet, some of which would require root access if they were performed on the Android side of the connection.
Android Lollipop promises tons of new features and functionality when it comes to a device near you, but as we wait, it's almost painful to see the screenshots and demo videos from Nexus devices and how downright pretty the new operating system looks.
The Nexus 5 and Nexus 7 (2013 edition) boast beautiful 1080p screens that are capable of displaying images and videos in ultra-sharp high definition. But for some strange reason, the YouTube app only allows for streaming of 720p content on these devices. It's not a limitation of YouTube for Android, since other devices support 1080p playback out of the box, and some, like the LG G3, even support higher resolutions.
As the largest wireless service providers in the United States, AT&T and Verizon Wireless carry some serious clout. Sadly, they use some of this power to heavily modify the Android phones that they offer.
Unless you've been living under a rock for the past few weeks, you're probably well aware that the Android world has been buzzing with excitement over the recently debuted Android L preview build that was released for the Nexus 5 and Nexus 7 at Google's I/O conference.
According to a recent survey conducted by Edison Research and Statista, Pandora still has a firm grasp as the most popular music streaming service in the United States. With iHeartRadio, iTunes Radio, and even Spotify trailing behind by a large margin, it doesn't look like Pandora will lose their footing in the near future.
For the most part, Google Play Music makes it extremely easy to upload and organize your music library, as well as access it quickly using the default settings—but there are a few things it could do better.
Like most of you, I find myself scrolling through endless lists of Facebook feeds, Instagram lists, and tweets. Most of the time, it's a pain to scroll all the way back up to the top. Unlike iOS devices, Android has never had a solution to quickly scrolling to the top of a list in an app, but now with a simple Xposed mod, that hole has been filled.
Okay, so you're rooted and need to return your Nexus 5 to its stock firmware. Whether it's because you need to send your phone in to the manufacturer to fix a defect or you just want to use the device's over-the-air updating feature, unrooting and returning your Nexus 5 back to its fresh-out-of-the-box state is a fairly simple process with the right tools.
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.
It seems like most of the really cool and interesting modifications you can make to your Android device always require special root access, so when a fun mod comes along that doesn't require root—I feel it's my duty to alert you.
Customization of our Android devices, outside of what Google and mobile carriers allow us to do, used to mandate that our devices were rooted and running a custom ROM.
These days, everyone's snapping selfies, taking pics of their latest meals, or sharing pet trick videos on Instagram for the whole world to see. It's not only fun to shoot photos and videos for Instagram, it's inspiring to look at everyone else's creativeness in your feed.
Trying to get the look of a Windows7 phone on your Android device? This video will show you three apps that allow you to customize your phone's appearance to mimic Windows7. These apps will help you organize your Android device the way you want it.
The PlayStation 4 has been around since 2013 and has brought with it countless game releases since then. One thing that hasn't changed, though, is the strict device restrictions on the PS4 Remote Play feature for streaming your games. The capability has always been there, but you still had to have an iPhone or Sony smartphone to get the best experience possible — until now.
Although the Essential PH-1 got off to a rocky start, thanks to steady updates, it has slowly become one of the best Android phones to come out in recent years. For $499, the Essential Phone is a cheaper Pixel, receiving updates almost as soon as the Pixel lineup does. What's more, you get a phone with an easily unlockable bootloader, which is the first step to rooting.
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.
Android has a single text file named build.prop that determines tons of various system-wide settings on your device. You need root access to edit this file, since it's stored on the system partition—but the various lines of codes it contains are actually fairly easy to interpret and modify.
For every contact photo you add, Android keeps two copies. The first is stored at a 720p resolution, and this is used for high-definition imagery when you're looking at a full-sized contact card. But the second image is only 96 pixels by 96 pixels, and this is used for all thumbnails throughout the operating system.
Pretty much my only gripe with computer-side messaging clients like Mighty Text is that they don't allow you to send and receive messages shared through WhatsApp, the popular third-party messaging application, which was purchased earlier this year for $19 billion by Facebook.
It happens to everyone: you set a lock screen password in a hurry and cannot remember it the next day. To unlock your device again, you need to reset the password (or PIN, pattern, etc). There are two official methods of doing this.
Samsung devices may dominate the Android market, but that doesn't mean everybody loves TouchWiz, the user interface on all of their smartphones and tablets. It's difficult to modify, comes with lots of bloatware, and isn't much to look at, to say the least.
When Google first introduced Android 4.4, the most glaring user-facing change was a new trend towards transparency. The stock launcher, originally exclusive to the Nexus 5, had transparent status and navigation bars and its app drawer added a touch of transparency.
If you've had the pleasure of owning both an iOS and Android device, you may have noticed one subtle difference on each one's PIN unlock screen. Android's lock screen requires you to press "OK" after entering the PIN, whereas iOS's simply unlocks the screen right after the last digit.
The transition from an iPhone to a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 or other Android device can be a tough one. A vastly different operating system and the ability to customize anything and everything might be too much for some people. Taking in all that new, while having to let go of the old, can be as daunting as climbing Mount Everest.
If you have a Barnes & Noble Nook, you may be surprised to find that your eReader can do a lot more than just display ebooks, which makes it a great alternative to those more expensive all-in-one tablets that do everything (seriously, everything). If you want to get more bang for your buck, here are a few ways you can hack your own Nook.
Some may think it's impossible, but it could be… tethering your Motorola Droid X to your Mac OS X computer without paying for Verizon's expensive Mobile Hotspot, without rooting the Droid X, and without installing any additional Android applications. It does sound impossible, but for some, it may not be.
It's often the smallest details that determine your overall experience with a smartphone. Unlocking your device with a PIN is an example — and iPhones have had a leg up over Android thanks to their automatic unlocking. Thankfully, this era has finally come to an end with the arrival of the Galaxy S9.
Ever since Google CEO Sundar Pichai took the helms of the world's most valuable brand, he has made it his mission to bring smartphones to lower-income communities. Born in India, Mr. Pichai has created several programs to address the needs of the Indian market, particularly the lower income families.
Download a popular, legit app from the Google Play Store. Decompile it. Add malicious code. Repackage the app. Distribute the now trojan-ized app through third-party Android app sites. This is how advertising malware Ewind, what Palo Alto Networks calls "adware in applications' clothing," infects Android users.
Emoji, emojis, smilies, or smileys—whatever you want to call them, those little yellow icons have firmly implanted themselves in the human lexicon. However, just like with localized languages and dialects, emoji can be very different from one another depending on the device or operating system you're using.
If your phone has an unlocked bootloader, you can use Fastboot commands to flash factory images. That may sound like a bunch of technical jargon, but when it comes down to it, this is the best method for updating a rooted device, fixing a bricked phone, reverting to stock, or even getting new Android updates before everyone else.
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.
The Xposed Framework is a very powerful platform on top of which smaller modules can run to make changes to the Android system and various other apps. Installing modules is just as easy as sideloading any Android app, but afterwards, you'll need to activate the module and reboot your device.
They might be a little late to the party, but the Cyanogen team has finally released their newest ROM for the OnePlus One, Cyanogen OS 12. The launch had to be pushed back a few times due to some technical issues, but now we finally get to see what the Cyanogen team has cooked up for Android Lollipop.
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.
