As obtrusive as they come, the translucent volume control window that appears in iOS 7 takes up a lot of screen real estate. It's extremely annoying when watching videos, appearing directly in the middle of the movie you're viewing for several seconds any time you adjust the audio levels with the volume rockers.
Back when 4.1 Jelly Bean came out (boy, how time flies), Android introduced expandable notifications. Depending on the notification, a simple swipe down with your finger could expand it and show extra content, like Delete and Reply buttons for Gmail messages.
With the Samsung Galaxy S5 all but assured to be showcased in a just a few weeks, we've got our hands on some fresh details of the upcoming flagship device.
Mobile gaming, in case you haven't noticed, is huge. From the astronomical popularity of Candy Crush Saga, to the ease of using old school emulators, we love gaming on our mobile devices. The future is also bright, just take a look at the Oculus Rift, an immersive virtual world that just might change the way we view and play games.
I listen to Pandora as I slowly drift off to sleep, so why not have the popular music app wake me up as well? Pandora only recently introduced the Alarm Clock feature on iOS, and now they've brought that same feature to Android—only it's better.
Call of Duty may be one of the best video game franchises ever, but I doubt you'll see very many people dressed up as COD characters this Halloween. As awesome as the games are, there just aren't any memorable characters when it comes to looks—besides one.
American Horror Story might just be the craziest TV shows out there, with its absurd plot twists, creepy, over-the-top characters, and wicked storyline. It's gained a cult following ever since the first season, Murder House, and has even earned some Emmys along the way.
Newsstand was the most hated Apple app when it was first introduced, mainly because you could not delete or hide it inside of a junk folder. That's because it acted like a folder itself, with magazine and newspaper apps contained within.
Samsung introduced a wave of seriously unique and innovative features on the Galaxy S4, including air gestures and weather sensors, but a lot of the features are actually just updated ones from the Galaxy S3. Unfortunately, one of those that returned was the dreaded increasing ringtone. In their increasing ringtone system, the ringtone will start off on a low volume and increase until it reaches your set volume. In theory, this is useful for not shocking the user with a sudden, blaring ringto...
The cell phone has come a long way. The very first "mobile devices" were made and used by the military in the late 1930s, with the first commercial mobile telephone service introduced by Bell in 1946. These devices were hardly what we'd call mobile today—some took up the whole trunk of a car, and others had to be carried on your back in a heavy bag.
Remember these? Sadly, I don't, but I'm sure someone out there does. Anyone? This monstrosity, called the Macintosh Plus, was introduced in 1986 for the low-low price of $2,599. Wait...what? Almost three grand for that bulky baby?!? With a whopping 1MB of RAM standard?!? Whoa there...
Apple just released the first beta for iOS 14.2 to iPhone software testers today, Monday, Sept. 21. This update brings a new Control Center tile for Shazam music recognition, a redesigned Now Playing Control Center tile, and a new "People Detection" feature in Magnifier.
Apple released the second developer beta for iOS 13.6 today, Tuesday, June 9. This update comes one week after the release of its first developer and public betas, previously called iOS 13.5.5, as well as the general release of iOS 13.5.1. Apple's first 13.5.5 beta introduced evidence for Apple News+ audio support.
The landscape of the augmented reality space is broad, diverse, and constantly shifting, perhaps more so than any other vertical in technology. At the same time, major players are attempting to standardize various hardware designs and delivery methods, while still others are rushing to claim their piece of virtual property through AR clouds and application stores.
Navigating and editing text is an essential part of any operating system, and with iOS 13, Apple has made some significant changes. Some things remain the same when working with text, but there are many updates to moving the cursor, scrolling, and selecting, cutting, copying, pasting, undoing, and redoing text.
The iPhone XR offers a discounted experience compared to the expensive iPhone XS and XS Max. However, that lower price tag comes with some caveats, such as "Haptic Touch" in lieu of 3D Touch. If you think these two "touch" features are the same, think again. Before you get an iPhone XR, you'll want to know all the excellent features 3D Touch you might miss. Can you go without them?
While there are at least five cool things coming in iOS 11.4, they may not be enough to get you to install the iOS 11.4 beta on your iPhone. Since its initial beta release at the start of April, there have been plenty of known issues and user-reported bugs to deal with. While bugs are to be expected with a beta, you may want to read these before installing this one on your iPhone.
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.
This time it's serious. Really. The largest web security vulnerability of all time went public on Monday, April 7th, 2014, resulting in widespread panic throughout the Internet as system administrators scrambled to secure their websites from the OpenSSL bug known as Heartbleed.
Apple released the first developer beta for iOS 13.5.5 on Monday, June 1. The update comes on the same day Apple released iOS 13.5.1 to the public, which patched the unc0ver jailbreak, and 12 days after iOS 13.5, which introduced COVID-19 exposure notifications, in addition to other new features.
The Home button on an iPhone does a lot. That's not necessarily news for anyone who's ever owned an iPhone with a Home button, but what you might not know is that it's capable of so much beyond the standard everyday functions. So if you have an iPhone 7, 8, or the new SE model running iOS 13 or later, keep reading to learn about 17 secret Home button tricks you're missing out on.
Apple released iOS 13.4.1 to the public on April 7 but also pushed out the update for the new second-generation iPhone SE model on April 23, one day before the device's official release. The update fixes a FaceTime bug and Bluetooth quick action failure that appeared in iOS 13.4.
Beyond Apple-specific services like iMessage, having intuitive navigation gestures is certainly one of the features that makes the iPhone so hard to quit. Thanks to Android 10 and One UI 2, however, devices like the Samsung Galaxy S10 have caught up and now provide you with a less clunkier way of getting around, and one more reason to give the Google-based platform a try.
When Apple removed the Home button from iPhone, it introduced a new way to install apps that caused confusion over what to "double click." Like most iOS changes, it didn't take long to get used to double-clicking the Side button. But for some, performing a double-click on the Side button isn't that easy.
When it comes to cybersecurity, one layer isn't enough. A complex password (or one created with a password manager) does a good job of protecting your data, but it can still be cracked. Two-factor authentication strengthens this by adding a second layer of security, giving you even more protection against online threats.
As helpful as it is, Google Maps isn't the only mapping app with augmented reality walking navigation anymore.
With No Time to Die, the 25th installment in the James Bond saga, arriving in April and Black Widow, the first solo film for the Marvel Cinematic Universe's own secret agent, following a month later, what better way to get in the espionage mood than some augmented reality spy gaming?
The Google Pixel's camera is a status symbol of sorts. When someone sees you with one, you become the photographer of choice for social events. And where do those photos end up? Social media, of course. It's how we share our lives now, and the smartphone camera defines how we approach that.
Boomerangs are perhaps the quintessential story tool on Instagram. Surprisingly, there's never been much to them — point and shoot, and your subject plays forward and backward in a never-ending loop. Perhaps its prolonged simplicity inspired Instagram to give Boomerangs a bit more depth because the company just introduced three new effects to try out.
While "Baby Yoda" from The Mandalorian threatens to overshadow it, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker arrives in theaters next week, which means it's time for Disney and Lucasfilm to ramp up its promotional strategy.
Just two days ago, on Nov. 18, Apple released iOS 13.2.3 to the general public, which included stability updates for bugs affecting iOS 13.2 and earlier. Today's update isn't for the general public, however. Instead, Apple just pushed out iOS 13.3 developer beta 3 for software testers.
In a bold move, Samsung has decided to forgo the Galaxy S11 moniker and jump straight to the S20. Perhaps it's marketing for the new 20:9 aspect ratio and 120 Hz display, or maybe it's just the fact that it's releasing in 2020.
Halloween is barely in the rearview mirror, but Coca-Cola is ready to bypass Thanksgiving altogether to accelerate the arrival of Christmas, and the brand has enlisted augmented reality as an accomplice.
As one of the household brands in creative software, Adobe is now ready to lay its claim to the artistic side of augmented reality.
Higher-fidelity 3D content and next-generation AR experiences take more computing power than most modern AR headsets and mobile devices can handle. But Nvidia is introducing a new cloud-based solution to address that need that will stream AR content to modern devices.
There's nothing quite as exciting in the beta testing world as a new update. Battling overloaded servers to download the latest update as fast as possible, just to scour through the new OS looking for the biggest features to the smallest changes. It was only Thursday that Apple seeded iOS 13.2 developer beta 2, so count us surprised that we get to experience today's release of developer beta 3 so soon.
With Snapchat making the leap into the smartglasses realm, Facebook had to find a way to try and steal its competitor's augmented reality thunder.
For developers and makers getting started with augmented reality, Intel is lowering the barrier to entry for its RealSense line of sensors.
With the latest version of ARKit and a new set augmented reality development tools set to arrive this Fall with iOS 13, Apple has taken an unprecedented step in recruiting Chinese developers to fill the App Store with mobile AR apps now, likely with an eye to the future.
Contrary to popular belief, it takes more than just one artist to create the sound, lyrics, and vocals of a song. With most music being enjoyed digitally nowadays, it's harder to know all of a track's collaborators, as this info used to be in the CD booklet. Well with Tidal, you can now easily find this information and more.
