Of all the new features in Android 6.0 Marshmallow, an automatic battery-saving function called "Doze" might just be the most interesting. What it all boils down to is that if you set your phone down on a flat surface, the device uses internal sensors to detect that it's motionless and not in use, then responds by drastically scaling back battery-sucking services until the next time you pick your phone up.
With new messaging services being pushed out constantly, it can be a pain trying to keep track of them all on your Android device. We had previously shown how to stay on top of them all with a unified "inbox" app, but that still requires you to have each individual app installed. While looking for a true one-stop messenger, I came across Disa.
NANDroid backups are one of the best reasons to root your Android device and install a custom recovery. They're essentially a snapshot of your phone's entire operating system and all installed apps, so if you ever screw something up when installing a flashable ZIP or custom ROM, you can restore your NANDroid backup to get everything back to normal.
There is no greater food to master than steak. If you can make a steak that's only marginally better than your neighborhood Applebee's, you'll still have friends waiting outside your door for steak night. And if you can make steak as good as that expensive gourmet steakhouse you went to for your birthday? Well, your popularity is about to increase dramatically.
Smartphones don't generally play nice with tripods, so videos taken with our handheld devices make terrible source material for time-lapse photography.
bObi has four floor detection sensors on her underside that warn her not to drive over ledges and stop her from falling down stairs.
It's already that time of year again—LG has unveiled its latest high-end smartphone, dubbed the G4. In past iterations, LG released its flagship devices in the fall. But slowly over the course of the past 2 years, the release schedule has been bumped up to be more in line with HTC and Samsung's springtime releases, and further away from the sales-sucking iPhone event each fall.
UPDATE 5/21/15
Sushi aficionados and Simpsons fans alike know all about the joys of fugu. Known also as blowfish, it's reputed for being tasty if sliced from the correct part of the animal and many even say they experience a "fugu high" after eating the fish. Alas, if you have an unskilled chef, fugu is famous for being deadly.
Although this century is still young, with little fanfare we may have just witnessed the "Hack of the Century." AV software developer Kaspersky of Russia recently announced that they found that some hackers have stolen over $1 billion from banks around the world!
Beginning with KitKat, I've been used to customizing every aspect of my Android phone, but with the release of Lollipop, there is quite a bit of catching up that developers need to do. Most customization features, like quick settings rearrangement and theme support have already been ported over, but any type of lock screen customization has been noticeably absent.
When installing flashable ZIPs and custom ROMs, we always hear the same old adage: "Make a full NANDroid backup first." Trouble with this is that you don't always need an entire system backup, since many mods only apply to specific folders on your device. And while custom recovery software like TWRP will let you select from a few individual partitions to back up, every system mounting point is not always included among the options.
Starting with the original HTC One and now present on the new Nexus 6, dual speakers allow for smartphones to pump out true stereo sound. OnePlus, however, kept their speakers on the bottom of the device and use different sound drivers for each to produce great sound quality, although it's still mono. While there are mods out there that can further increase the volume of the OnePlus One, none of them can produce true stereo sound.
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.
I don't know of a pain greater than of the one felt after cracking the screen of your phone. After I managed to crack my screen, rendered unusable, I immediately began to panic as to how I was going to recover all of the photos, videos, and documents stored on my device. After a few hours of searching, I came upon a thread by Mohamad Sabra that showed exactly how to alleviate my problem.
The Galaxy S5 is definitely not lacking when it comes to computing power. With a Snapdragon 801 processor, an Adreno 330 GPU, and 2 gigabytes of RAM, it can take almost anything you throw at it.
These days, most of the hardware components in smartphones evolve at a breakneck pace. Batteries gain capacity while decreasing in size, displays continue to get sharper as graphics rendering steadily improves, and processors clock higher speeds at every generation.
Not too long after getting a new device, you probably start installing any and all apps that seem fun and interesting. But after having used the device for a considerable period of time, those extraneous apps begin to take their toll.
Long-exposure photography gives us the ability the capture some pretty amazing shots by delicately capturing moving elements in an image while keeping the shutter open at a slow speed. While that's great for things like traffic, scenery, and carnival rides, it can come in especially handy for 4th of July fireworks.
Audibly, from iOS developer Nick Frey, allows you create playlists and sync your music across other iOS devices. Like the Samsung-exclusive Group Play or the older Seedio app, you can connect a slew of compatible devices to create a surround-sound stereo of sorts when playing your music.
Last week marked the announcement of LG's new G3 smartphone, and with it came a ton of new features and improvements to their Optimus UI. While most manufacturers put little effort into their keyboards—probably due to the attraction of third-party alternatives—LG has made their latest iteration one of the best OEM keyboards I have ever used.
What's the point of having a 1080p screen if you're not using it to get in some quality gaming time? Google Play is great for downloading games, but you probably already have an extensive library of games for your consoles, so use those!
Samsung's TouchWiz skin gets a lot of flak for its appearance, namely the garish colors on the quick settings toggles. The bright green on dark blue scheme is definitely an eyesore compared to the ones in stock Android, and even other manufacturer skins like HTC's Sense.
At some point, we all need to back up our device. Maybe it's time to take it in for repairs or maybe you're just cautious and paranoid. Maybe you're trying out a new ROM on your Nexus 7—then you definitely need to back up. The most secure way would be to use a custom recovery like ClockworkMod or TWRP, but if you're not rooted or planning to root, then you'll need an easy alternative.
If you've been using Google's hidden App Ops to lock down and prevent some of your Android applications from exposing your privacy, then think twice before updating to the new Android 4.4.2 software.
As far as lock screens go, your Samsung Galaxy S4 and other Android phones offer quite a few options. You can use the classic PIN unlock, the novelty facial recognition, or the reliable pattern lock. But what if you get tired of entering the same old PIN or pattern every day?
One of the best-selling video game consoles of all time is the Nintendo Entertainment System, better known by its acronym, NES. However, cartridge-based gaming consoles are a pain now when compared to the newer download-and-play alternatives.
I remember how fast my Nexus 7 was the first time I turned it on. Boy, do I miss it. Now my tablet is pretty buggy and crashes happen frequently, and I'm sure that goes for many of your Nexus 7s as well. Even if you upgrade to the new Nexus 7 next week, it will eventually develop similar issues.
Ditching Sense (HTC's stock Android Launcher) is a great way to breathe new stock-like life into your HTC One smartphone without rooting, but even that has its limitations. If you really want the full Google experience, albeit with some extras, CyanogenMod has always been the go-to ROM. In effect, this will give you an experience similar to the Google Nexus or the new HTC One Google Edition.
"What is dead may never die." That's easily one of the best lines (and episode title) from HBO's Game of Thrones series. While the saying may ring true for the Ironborn, it's not quite as catchy when it comes to batteries.
If you're always on the go, the Nexus 7 is a godsend for having everything you need at the tip of your fingers—music, videos, text documents, photos, and more. Unfortunately, as good as that is, it also means one hell of a messy tablet.
International, T-Mobile, and Verizon customers all share something in common—their carriers provide unlocked Wi-Fi tethering for free. Of course, you still pay for the data used, but they don't charge you extra simply for using your Samsung Galaxy S4 as a wireless hotspot.
The advantages of rooting have been covered before, and with rooting comes flashing ROMs and mods to your device. The easiest method for flashing anything is to do it through recovery.
Samsung unveiled their new flagship device, the Galaxy S4, at a live event in New York City today. Here's a quick rundown of the specs and all of the new features that you can expect when you finally get your hands on one (whenever that will be). The GS4's Specs
While many of the U.S. carriers have updated their Samsung Galaxy S3 devices to Android 4.1.2 already, one major absence from the upgrade is Samsung's Premium Suite. One of the coolest features from the Premium Suite is Multi-View, a function that lets you truly multitask by running two apps at the very same time—right next to each other. As you can see above in the left image, I have both Pandora and Spotify running. Why? Because why not?!? On the right, I have YouTube on top and Maps on the...
Smartphones are now indispensable when traveling. Domestic and overseas travel alike require food, navigation, translation, and so much more to make work or vacation successful. Gone are the days of lugging multiple tourist books around with you everywhere you go — you need to let your smartphone handle the dirty work.
One of the lowest levels of hell is a room where you have to make the window blinds go all the way down. No matter if you're pulling the cord left or right, forward or backwards, the blinds will drop a foot or two, then catch on some invisible snag and refuse to go down that last little bit.
Whether you're binging "Friends," "Game of Thrones," or Harry Potter movies, if you want to watch HBO Max downloads in the highest quality possible, you can't just use the default settings. Without doing the legwork, the TV shows and films you download onto your iPhone or Android phone will be lower quality than the full HD version you can have.
The built-in Files app on your iPhone has only gotten better since it was introduced in iOS 11, with small improvements after each new iOS version. You can manage files on your internal storage as well as in iCloud Drive, but one of the best features is being able to manage media and documents from all of your cloud storage accounts in one place.
Starting with Android 9 and 10, Google made privacy and security the main priorities for Android updates. Both versions brought numerous changes to help erase the notion that Android isn't safe, but Android 11 might even have them beat.
