Apple's latest iPhone and iPad software, iOS 15.5 and iPadOS 15.5, became available on May 16, so you can download and install it right now if you haven't already. While there aren't as many new features as iOS 15.4 and iPadOS 15.4 had, there are a few big ones in the U.S. you'll want to know beyond Apple's minuscule "About this Update" information in the "Software Update" menu.
Even with your iPhone's brightness slider down all the way, your display will probably still be too bright at night with all the lights dimmed or turned off. So if you want to continue scrolling through Instagram in bed or enjoying a late-night TikTok binge without hurting your eyes, there's a quick trick you can use to make your screen even dimmer and prevent strain on those peepers.
Your S20 has a shortcut for Samsung Pay along the bottom of the home screen. But it tends to get in the way sometimes, especially if you're using the new Android 10 gestures in One UI 2. Besides, if you don't use the feature, you probably don't want that little white line at the bottom of your screen anyway.
With group chats, arguments tend to devolve from a dispute between two people to a giant debate amongst all members. But before things get out of control, Telegram has a feature that can help.
Smartphones are inherently bad for privacy. You've basically got a tracking device in your pocket, pinging off cell towers and locking onto GPS satellites. All the while, tracking cookies, advertising IDs, and usage stats follow you around the internet.
With Android 10, there are now three options when an app asks to access your location: Allow, Deny, and Allow While In Use. That last one prevents apps from seeing your location unless you're actively using them, and it's the default now. But when you first update, most of your apps will still be allowed to access your location in the background — at least, until you do something about it.
Is your Instagram feed a bit cluttered? Maybe you're seeing posts from people you don't even recognize. Perhaps the content isn't interesting. Whatever the case, it's common after years of having an account to follow too many users whose posts just aren't doing it anymore. Luckily, Instagram has an easy way for you to purge unwanted accounts from your following list.
Having your iPhone's display orientation go from portrait to landscape while lying down in bed can get pretty annoying, especially while chatting with others within Messages. If you have a jailbroken device, however, you can easily remedy this headache by way of a free tweak.
After drawing attention from nostalgic Gen Xers for its Motorola Razr reboot with a foldable screen, Lenovo has a new augmented reality smartglasses concept that the company hopes will also turn some heads.
Lenovo has done a great job preventing leaks of their new Moto RAZR. We've seen a few images here and there, but for the most part, we knew very little about the long-rumored phone. But with the announcement date just around the corner, an FCC filing has given us a look at the new RAZR from almost every angle.
The home bar first introduced on the iPhone X is a handy visual guide as you get accustomed to using gestures like swiping up to unlock or going back to the home screen. As you master the gestures, however, the home bar becomes less of an aid and more of an obstruction that you can't remove or resize, unless you've jailbroken your iPhone.
Android is moving away from navigation buttons. Even with the transparent navigation bar on the Galaxy Note 10+, it still takes up space on the screen that could otherwise be used to show content. What's great about the Galaxy Note 10+ is that you can remove it, without installing one app.
The Pixel's "Flip to Shhh" feature may not be groundbreaking, but it is useful. Third-party apps are copying it for other phones because it's so convenient. But it's not enabled by default and it's fairly hidden in the settings. So to take full advantage of your Pixel's feature set, you should learn how to use Flip to Shhh.
Beyond spotlight-grabbing features like Dark Mode and computer mice support that iOS 13 contains, Apple has also made its mobile platform more user-friendly for people that exhibit sensitivity to on-screen animations. If you've always found the transitional effects between app pages jarring, your iPhone now has a setting to help with that, preventing possible motion sickness and anxiety.
In general, the internet can be a cruel place, and Instagram is no exception. Most of the time, the platform is a fantastic way to share and view unique and creative content, to reach an audience of both fans and friends. People can step out of line and harass or bully others on posts to the detriment of the entire community. However, this type of commenting won't be sustainable for much longer.
As the premiere app for chatting and video calls, it only makes sense for Skype to provide a dark theme to help prevent eye strain and minimize battery drain. Not only that, it has to also keep pace with popular messaging apps like Facebook Messenger that also have the feature built-in.
Text conversations and group chats can sometimes devolve to random and nonsensical chatter that bombard you with annoying notifications. Naturally, this can get distracting and prevent you from focusing on more pressing matters. Fortunately, Samsung Messages has a feature built in to minimize distractions whenever conversations go out of hand.
So far, the iOS 12.3 public betas have been on the heels of the developer betas by just over a day each time, but not anymore. Apple just pushed out iOS 12.3 public beta 4 today, April 29, just hours after the same dev version came out, meaning it's only been six days since iOS 12.3 public beta 3 was released.
Stories make sharing your day-to-day highlights fun on Instagram. However, other than choosing who to hide stories from, by default, stories don't have much privacy control, especially if your Instagram account happens to be public. Instagram recognizes this flaw, which is what its "Close Friends List" is all about.
There's always an iPhone in our list of top phones for privacy and security, due in large part to advanced security measures like Face ID, consistent iOS updates, and easy ways to prevent unwanted access and excessive data sharing. However, some of those options actually do the opposite and hinder security. It all depends on how you use your iPhone, but you should at least know everything available.
As the go-to browser for millions worldwide, Chrome makes web surfing a breeze with its simple interface and Google integration. But many websites are starting to ask if they can send you notifications, and this can interrupt your browsing. Thankfully, you can completely disable these prompts if you prefer.
Apple released the official iOS 11.2.6 update Monday for iPhones, which comes just under four weeks after Apple pushed iOS 11.2.5 to users. This latest update was released off Apple's normal release schedule to quickly patch the "Telugu" character bug that causes erratic behavior when viewed in apps.
Some of the things that make Waze such a great navigation app are also its biggest downsides. Real-time data shows where individual users are, and the app automatically gathers traffic info that other drivers may encounter. These elements ensure that road conditions are as up-to-date as possible so that everyone gets to their destination safely, but it's certainly not ideal if you're a privacy-minded user.
Our smartphones are full of personally-identifiable information. So much of what we do with these devices is tracked and recorded to make our experience more streamlined and personalized. For many users, that's a fair trade — but for privacy-minded folks, it's a raw deal.
Apple just jumped on the auto-play bandwagon with their revamped App Store in iOS 11. Now, when you visit an app or game page that has a video trailer, it will automatically play. This can not only get pretty annoying, but it can eat up your precious data. Luckily, there's a way to restrict these auto-playing videos to Wi-Fi only — or disable them altogether.
The Galaxy S8's Always On Display is a fantastic feature that gives you a brief overview without having to wake up your phone. But AOD now has a virtual home button, which kinda ruins the sleek look and can even cause screen burn-in.
Chrome version 56 is here to help you stop accidentally clicking ads when you're scrolling or tapping a link in a webpage on your phone. That's right, annoying page jumps while a site's still loading will finally come to an end with this new update.
If there's one thing entertainment companies love, it's rebooting aging franchises. But design firm Globacore Interactive Technologies appears to have taken rebooting to the next level by remaking the classic '90s game Lemmings specifically to work on the HoloLens, Microsoft's mixed reality headset.
Any parent with a rambunctious child who may have at one point racked up a hefty bill on their Kindle or Android device can now breathe a sigh of relief. One, Jack Black has had it happen to him too, and two, Amazon will be refunding up to $70 million of in-app purchases made by children after downloading apps from the Amazon AppStore.
If you have an iPhone with 3D Touch or Haptic Touch, some lock screen notifications will let you respond to a message without even unlocking the screen. This is definitely a handy feature, and it should save a lot of time in some cases, but there are some obvious security concerns.
If you've been to the doctor enough, you know that the medical staff can make a variety of mistakes from time to time. They're human and that's normal, but errors in the medical field can often have significant negative impacts. At Boston's 2016 HoloHacks event, a team of developers created HoloHealth to mitigate human error in common healthcare tasks.
Samsung's Galaxy S7 is an incredible piece of technology, but the Skype app that's preinstalled on some models may have some nasty issues, such as video and audio that freezes. Luckily, the fix for these problems is a simple one, although somewhat buried in the phone's Settings app.
One of the more annoying parts about cooking or baking at home is dealing with sticky ingredients. You scrape the peanut butter out of the jar and into a measuring cup to make sure you have the right amount for your recipe, then scrape the correct amount into the bowl you're cooking with.
At Apple's highly anticipated special event held today at their headquarters in Cupertino, California, it was announced that their latest software update, iOS 9.3, would be available to the public complete with several new additions. The most notable element of this announcement was two-fold, in the form of new modifications to the Night Shift mode and the Notes app. With regards to Night Shift, the feature is designed to prevent your iPhone from giving you restless nights by adjusting settin...
Anyone who paid attention to the Lavabit shutdown had a feeling it was connected to Edward Snowden, the high-profile NSA whistleblower. Ever since the government's case against Lavabit went public in late-2013, people have put two and two together.
Researchers have discovered a "severe vulnerability" that allows attackers to use eBay to distribute malware, and the online auction company has no plans to fix the problem.
To help keep sleepy binge-watchers from sleep-"watching," Netflix asks if you're still watching after a semi-short period of time. This means that it could be anywhere from 1 to 5 episodes that you slept through, which is better than 2 seasons, I guess—but it doesn't make it any easier to find out where you left off.
According to the American Osteopathic Association, "1 in 5 teens has some form of hearing loss," and some experts believe it's because of an increase in headphones use. While I understand that music, movies, and video games help keep children preoccupied, there's no reason why they can't be entertained at a healthy hearing level.
If you're seeing "damaged" apps on your Mac, you're not alone. A huge digital rights management blunder in Apple's Mac App Store on Wednesday, November 11th has rendered some apps unusable. When opening certain apps, the following message could be displayed:
Apple certainly took a page from Google Now with its new "Proactive" search page in iOS 9. Located to the left of the home screen, the page provides quick access to contacts you've recently corresponded with, suggested applications, nearby places, and news articles based off of your Safari activity.
