Whether you're hard of hearing, watching a foreign movie, or just like reading along when you're watching a TV show or film on your smartphone, Netflix includes captions and subtitles that you can use. Best of all, if you don't like the way the default captions and subtitles look (color, background, font, or size), Netflix has your back.
Last month, Google introduced the Family Link app. This app, much needed in a world where the average age of kids first getting a smartphone is just over 10 years old, allows parents to set some limits on their children's phone usage. However, the app premiered with one caveat: Both the parent and the child had to have an Android phone. Now, Google has updated the app so it works on iOS devices.
It turns out that the new Galaxy Samsung S8 Active (codenamed Cruiser) will be headed for AT&T in the US later this year, just like previous Active models. SamMobile revealed that the device would be exclusive to the network with a model number SM-G892A.
The first public beta of Android O, (most likely to be called "Android 8.0 Oreo") was released on May 17, bringing tons of new features and goodies for Android enthusiasts with supported devices. However, not all of Android O's features were available to try out right off the bat. Possibly the single biggest feature announced during the developer preview of Android O, Picture-in-Picture mode, is nowhere to be seen.
Chairish, Inc. is the latest furniture retailer to bring augmented reality into its mobile stores, adding features for users to visualize products in their homes.
The Huawei Nexus 6P was released a little over a year ago, but despite doing moderately well in sales, the device has had more than its fair share of issues. When first released, there were numerous reception and memory management difficulties that left users extremely frustrated, though, those problems were solved with updates pushed by Google.
If you have a mobility impairment that affects your hands, arms, or manual dexterity, a smartphone's touch-based interface can almost be a barrier between you and the mobile internet. Eye-tracking software requires too much computing power for today's smartphones to handle, so it might seem as though there's no good way to interact with an Android device.
Google's Pixel and Pixel XL flagship phones are a rousing success, with consumers praising the fluid user experience and overall performance as two of the devices' biggest strengths. But even though Google may have knocked it out of the park with a set of Apple-like smartphones that "just work," there's still room for improvement in a few areas.
Android 7.1.1 stock images for the Nexus 6P were released last week on December 5, 2016. However, Verizon users seem to have been excluded from the update. Google's factory image page states "All carriers except Verizon" next to version number NMF26F. This doesn't seem fair, especially since Verizon Nexus 5X users received the latest Android Nougat update.
As a former repair tech, I've heard the same reasons over and over as to why people opt not to purchase phone insurance. Some cite the cost—why pay extra every month for insurance when you're careful with your phone? Deductibles are expensive, so why not just spend that money on a repair instead of getting a refurbished phone as a replacement?
Kryptowire, a company specializing in mobile security solutions, released a report on Tuesday, November 15 that exposed firmware in a number of Android devices that was collecting personally identifying information (PII) and uploading it to third-party servers without users' knowledge.
Google's new Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones have a feature that puts their fingerprint scanners to use after you unlock your phone—just swipe down on the scanner from any screen, then you'll see your notifications. It keeps you from having to do hand gymnastics to reach the status bar at the top of your screen, and it gives you easy access to quick information, so it's a win-win.
Starting with version 6.0 Marshmallow, Android now supports fingerprint scanners natively. This change has effectively opened the floodgates, and now almost every flagship Android device includes a fingerprint scanner out of the box.
As one of the most powerful Android apps for connecting your phone or tablet to your other devices in various ways, Pushbullet had always been a fan—and Gadget Hacks—favorite.
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.
The EFS partition on modern Android phones houses the unique IMEI for your device, which is essentially an identification number that lets you connect to mobile networks. But sometimes, when you're flashing ROMs or restoring backups in custom recovery, the EFS partition can become corrupted, which will prevent your phone from connecting to any type of mobile network.
Google recently rolled out a new Smart Lock option labeled "On-body detection" for Android Lollipop via an update to Google Play Services. As I'm sure you can gather from the name, this new function keeps your phone or tablet unlocked using the built-in accelerometer to determine whether or not your device is being carried on your body, allowing you to set it down and walk away carefree knowing that's it's locked again.
Sitting at home alone on Friday night, I'm often in the mood to watch something more recent than the offerings on Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime Video. And since the demise of video rental stores, that leaves me with browsing through the Redbox catalogue, then strolling down to the nearest 7-Eleven to pick up my movie.
Many modern Android devices use a display technology called AMOLED. These screens differ from traditional LCD displays in that each pixel emits its own light, so a backlight is not required. Even better, when rendering a black element on the screen, AMOLED displays simply don't light up the associated pixels, meaning virtually no power is used. Since black pixels use little to no power on an AMOLED screen, more black pixels means lower battery consumption.
Android 5.0 has a cool new feature called Priority Mode that allows you to silence your phone's ringer except for when certain people call you. It's something you'd enable right before bedtime, for instance, if you don't want to be disturbed unless it's someone important trying to reach you.
With most of HTC's staff working on getting Sense updated to Android Lollipop, their piecemeal approach to individual app updates now comes to their Gallery app. The new update is available for all HTC devices running KitKat, but if you have the HTC Service Pack installed, it will run on any Android device running 4.4 or above.
At $349 off contract, the Nexus 5 has always been one of the best bang-for-your-buck smartphones on the market. In order to keep the price that low, however, Google had to pass up on some of the minor features that other flagship phones offer.
The attention to detail and build quality that Motorola put into the new Nexus 6 is amazing. Its curved backplate fits the hand like a glove, and fingers slide effortlessly across the rounded edge of its glass front, making the swipe gesture for side navigation menus feel more natural than ever—even for its huge, nearly six inch display.
Pets are one of the biggest sources of joy in life, but keeping track of their daily activities can easily become a chore. When you have a roommate or spouse that also likes to feed the cat or walk the dog, miscommunication can lead to double-feeding or an under-exercised pet.
While the Quick Settings feature on Android is great, manufacturers like HTC, LG, and Samsung took it a step further in their custom skins. For instance, on Samsung devices, you can access the most common toggles at the top of the Notification tray, and you can tap once to access more tiles. This makes toggling cellular data, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi a fast and painless process.
In my quest to find the perfect OS for my HTC One, I try any and every ROM I can get my hands on. This leads to countless repetitions of the wipe, install, and boot routine when I flash a ROM in recovery, especially when the newest ROM I try is a buggy piece of junk.
When the Chromecast first came out about a year ago, developers were quick to find a way to root the streaming device. Google was almost as fast, however, in updating the Chromecast's firmware to close the loophole that this method used.
It's really amazing how much you can do with root access on an Android device. From various themes to porting exclusive funtionality from other devices, the power of Superuser privileges is truly awesome.
Surely you've heard of the wildly-popular custom ROM CyanogenMod, right? As the longest-tenured third-party firmware for Android devices, CM has been able to maintain its popularity by supporting a wide array of devices and offering many customization options.
The level of customization that Android has to offer is insane. You can replace the stock keyboard and home screen with any third-party app of your choosing, allowing core experiences to be tailored to fit your needs.
Just like some of its popular puzzle predecessors, 2048 is an extremely simple yet insanely addicting game that pits you against a slew of blocks, to be configured into increasing sums with fervid, high-paced moves. If you have yet to play it, check out either the iOS (by Ketchapp) or Android (by Estoty) versions of the game. Due to its overwhelming popularity, dev TalkLittle has ported the puzzle game as 2048 for Chromecast (available for Android only), which lets you play the game solo or b...
Restrictions are inconvenient, and for this reason I've sought out softmods that loosen the constraints for many of the features on my smartphone. Things like adding favorite apps to the Pen Window drawer or choosing any app for Multi Window mode are now must-haves on my Samsung Galaxy Note 3—and should be on yours as well.
Live wallpapers are part of what make Android's features so unique and wonderful, making your homescreens come alive and much more interesting. The wallpapers are extremely customizable and interactive, many times sensitive to swipes, finger-tapping, and other multi-touch gestures—Ditalix being one of the frontrunner apps in the field. The only problem with these live wallpapers is the toll it takes on the device's battery. While not all live wallpapers kill the battery, there are many of the...
One of the coolest things for readers using the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 is the stock Smart Rotation feature. While most smartphones use the accelerometer to adjust the screen orientation, Smart Rotation actually uses the camera to detect your face-to-screen angle and adjusts accordingly. Now, if only there was a way that all Android users can continue reading an article or text without sporadic and unexpected 90-degree turns of their screen. Wait, there is!
Google is constantly adding new ways to do things quicker on its devices. Everything from multi-screen capabilities to lock-screen widgets has been added to the new updates of the Android OS, making its devices very powerful and efficient. Something that Android hasn't paid much attention to, though, is the ability to access applications easily from places other than the home screen. So, XDA Developers member Cyansmoker decided to take matters into his own hands creating an application that a...
With Sprint already rolling out their Jelly Bean updates to Samsung Galaxy S III owners here in the United States, international users have already had a chance to check out Android's newest OS on their S3, but all is not gravy.
There are thousands of articles published every day about smartphones, tablets, eReaders, and any other kind of gadgets you can think of. The problem is that most people only really care about news related to the devices they actually own. So how do you filter out all of the stuff you don't care about? That's what Drippler does. It pulls news, tips, and app reviews and recommendations from all over the web and puts them all in one place, but only for the devices you want to read about. You te...
Check out this helpful video to learn how to configure the settings on your Samsung Epic so that you can enjoy Netflix streaming. The Netflix app won't work with just any Android device, unless you follow the instructions in this video.
If you don't like the background image on your Samsung Galaxy Tab homescreen, it's easy to switch it out with another picture. To change the background wallpaper on this Android device, simply go to MENU < WALLPAPER < WALLPAPER GALLERY and find the one you want. Click SET WALLPAPER to save it.
It's easy to pair an HTC Desire Z with a Bluetooth-enabled device like a headset or car kit. See how with this quick, official guide from HTC.
