I recently picked up a Pixel Slate when Google had a deal going on. I'd been in the market for an Android tablet since the Nexus 7, and this was the closest thing to it. Unfortunately, I soon learned Chrome OS and Android aren't as integrated as I had hoped.
At its core, Android TV's software is the same as the OS running on 87% of all smartphones. But it doesn't always feel that way, with its version of the Play Store only having 5,000 apps (or 0.2% of all Android apps). To access the remaining 99.8% of apps, you will need to sideload them.
Smartphones are more like computers than actual telephones. Unfortunately, thieves, hackers, and other bad actors know this and are always looking to make money off your personal data. Thankfully, your Galaxy S20, S20+, or S20 Ultra has tools to combat these threats — as long as you know where to look.
Privilege escalation is one of the essential skills a hacker can have and often separates the newbies from the pros. With a continually changing landscape and a plethora of exploits out there, it can be a problematic aspect of any attack. Luckily, some tools can help expedite the process. Linux Exploit Suggester is just one of many to help you get root.
No one likes in-app advertisements, especially in mobile gaming, but they're necessary because they offer developers a way to make revenue without having to charge you to play. In some games, in-app purchases give you the chance to remove ads, but what can you do about apps that don't offer the option to kill ads?
Web applications are a prime target for hackers, but sometimes it's not just the web apps themselves that are vulnerable. Web management interfaces should be scrutinized just as hard as the apps they manage, especially when they contain some sort of upload functionality. By exploiting a vulnerability in Apache Tomcat, a hacker can upload a backdoor and get a shell.
If you have a cat, trying to get all of the little clumps out of the litter probably feels like an impossible task. It pretty much is, but we've found the best cat litter scoop that gets more of those tiny pieces out than any other scoop. Plus, it's sturdy, degradable, and ethically sourced.
New year, new me. You finally committed to working on the best physical you by going to the gym multiple days a week. Except about an hour in, you start getting really tired of it all. Before you run to the exit, pick up your phone.
Stadia is a lot like an Xbox or PS4, except there's no console — the games just stream from Google's servers to your phone, computer, or TV. But Stadia is limited to Pixel phones for right now, and when Google does expand support, it will still only be for select phones. Thankfully, there's a workaround for that if you're rooted.
The week in AR business news started out with a bang with two bombshell reports that cast a shadow on the AR industry as a whole.
While the long-awaited HoloLens 2 officially arrived this week, details leaked about another, arguably longer-awaited AR headset, the fabled wearable from Apple, and a previously undisclosed partner assisting the Cupertino-based company with the hardware.
Correctly identifying the underlying technologies that run on a website gives pentesters a considerable advantage when preparing an attack. Whether you're testing out the defenses of a large corporation or playing the latest CTF, figuring out what technologies a site uses is a crucial pen-tester skill.
Augmented reality plays a key role in the evolution of adjacent technologies, such as 5G connectivity and brain-control interfaces (BCI), and the business news of the week serves up proof points for both examples.
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.
Apple's latest updates to its operating systems add another security feature to its Find My service, so you have an even better chance at locating your lost iPhone, iPad, or Mac should it ever happen. As long as you have the option enabled, you can leverage other Apple users' devices to find yours on the map.
When it comes to the business of augmented reality, companies that aren't already introducing new products or apps are focused on producing the AR technology of the future. But in the realm of real products and apps, Magic Leap continues to show off what its headset can do, this time via a new app that transports users to the ocean's depths.
Apart from the flashlight, camera, and apps you access via notifications, widgets, location-based alerts, and the Control Center, there's no way to open other apps straight from the lock screen that you use frequently. If you have a jailbroken device, however, you can remedy this and add the home screen's Dock to the lock screen to get into your go-to apps even quicker.
This week, while Apple was the subject of thinly sourced reports that it had canceled development of its oft-rumored smartglasses, the Cupertino was actually laying the foundation for its AR hardware future with a new initiative focused on mentoring Chinese developers in mobile AR development.
While modern browsers are robust and provide a lot of functionality, they can be unlocked to do some pretty spectacular things with browser extensions. For hackers and OSINT researchers, these tools can be used to defeat online tracking, log in to SSH devices, and search the internet for clues during an investigation. These are a list of my top ten favorite browser extensions for hackers — and how to use them.
Music streaming services make it difficult to transfer your favorite songs and artists from one service to another and for a valid reason: they don't want you to leave. But when it comes to switching, playlists are a big concern, because who wants to do it all over again? Luckily, if you're moving from Spotify to Apple Music, you can use a third-party app to take playlists with you.
Metadata contained in images and other files can give away a lot more information than the average user might think. By tricking a target into sending a photo containing GPS coordinates and additional information, a hacker can learn where a mark lives or works simply by extracting the Exif data hidden inside the image file.
EternalBlue was a devastating exploit that targeted Microsoft's implementation of the SMB protocol. Metasploit contains a useful module that will automatically exploit a target, as long as it's vulnerable. But what if we wanted to exploit this vulnerability without Metasploit holding our hand? It can be done using a Python file to exploit EternalBlue manually.
A universal dark theme has long been one of the most sought-after features we've been urging Apple to introduce for iOS. While this wish went unfulfilled with iOS 12, there's renewed hope that it'll finally touch down with iOS 13's arrival. The jailbreak community, however, has had this functionality available for quite some time, and you can too if you're running the right iOS version.
When shooting video on your phone, you have two cameras at your disposal, the rear camera and the selfie camera, and you can switch freely between the two. As for microphones, you may have more than one but, unlike with the cameras, it's not easy to switch between them. Filmic Pro solves this problem by isolating the mics so you can choose the best option for the audio track.
Filmic Pro harnesses the full native power of your iPhone or Android phone — and then some. If your smartphone shoots in 4K resolution, Filmic Pro will let you choose that resolution. However, it's not all about the pixels — bit rate is an essential factor in determining the overall quality of your 720p, 1080p, or 4K video, something Filmic Pro gives you full control over.
If there is a major blind spot in the AR space in 2019, it's the impact that blockchain technology will eventually have on the software distributed in AR clouds.
When it comes to customizing Android, there's nothing quite like Magisk. You can potentially combine dozens of modules to create a one of a kind user experience tailored to you, but not all modules will work well together. You might run into a bootloop by accident once in a while, which could cause some issues on its own.
Whether we like it or not, our personal information and smartphones are tied together at the hip. The former needs the latter to deliver a personalized experience that matches our individual needs. This personal data, however, makes your phone a prime target for thieves of all sorts to turn your privacy into illicit profit.
Websites are often misconfigured in ways that allow an attacker to view directories that are not ordinarily meant to be seen. These directories can contain sensitive information such as private credentials or configuration files that can be used to devise an attack against the server. With a tool called Websploit, hackers can scan targets for these hidden directories without difficulty.
The Apple rumor mill is getting its first real workout of 2019, and this time the whispers are more exciting than usual.
One of the best things about Android is the ability to customize every aspect of your device to make it your own. However, unless you have prior knowledge or experience with every single setting available to you, you might have missed a few critical features without even knowing it. Some settings are easy to find, while others might be tucked away in another menu of their own.
For lack of a better word, a missing iPhone sucks. Not only do you lose a physical device that cost you a small fortune, but there's also the probability you'll never see your precious data again. Hackers and thieves might, just not you. To keep this from ever happening, there are preventative measures you should take, and the sooner you do them the better.
Dark mode support has steadily made its way to mainstream acceptance, with big-name apps like YouTube, Reddit, and Twitter adopting the feature to satisfy user demands. In this regard, Facebook is lagging, yet to offer the sought-after feature for easier viewing in low-light conditions. If your iPhone is jailbroken, however, you don't have to suffer like everyone else.
Augmented reality startup Nreal was a hit at this month's CES event, with some even calling the device a worthy challenger to the Magic Leap One.
When Google finally gave us a dark theme for YouTube, it was a bit disappointing. They didn't use a pure black background, reducing some of the battery savings you'd get with an OLED panel. But with the help of another app, we can fix this, and not only get a real dark mode, but other colors as well.
With more and more phones using OLED displays, the need for dark mode is at the highest it's ever been. Since dark backgrounds reduce battery consumption on these displays, the Android community has been begging Google to include a system-wide dark mode. Instead, Google gave us dark mode for many of their apps, including the Phone app.
Investors continue to bet on augmented reality, both for short-term returns and long-term plays. This week, Niantic reportedly picked up another round of funding from Samsung and others, based on the success of PokémonGO and the prospects for future revenue. Likewise, investors see value in WaveOptics, whose waveguide displays could make consumer smaller AR smartglasses possible within the next year.
The most essential part of a healthy lifestyle is managing your diet — after all, what would be the point of a daily workout regimen if you were eating junk food? Thankfully, Samsung Health makes it easy to record your calorie and nutrient intake to get a clear picture of your dietary habits and how you can make them better.
You might think you need to buy a thousand dollar phone to get a great experience while streaming movies and TV shows from services like Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube, but that's just not true anymore. While phone prices keep rising and the midrange segment now ranges from $300–$500, there are still cost-effective options that come with top-notch displays and media features.
Now that the Magic Leap One is out in the real world, the mystery behind the company lies not in whether it will actually ship a product, but when it will ship a consumer product. Or, does CEO Rony Abovitz steer the company in a different direction first?
