Android is a highly customizable operating system. Sometimes, we use these capabilities to add core functionality or streamline the user experience, but there are other times when customization is just about having fun and making your smartphone's interface more enjoyable.
If your mechanical home button or capacitive navigation keys are on the fritz, doing something as simple as navigating your phone's interface becomes a tedious chore. In this situation, some users have turned to root mods that enable Android's software navigation bar to solve the problem, but not everyone is willing or able to root their device.
Thanks to live-streaming video and social media apps like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat, we're all on camera nowadays. Unfortunately, though, we don't have a script to work with when we're shooting selfie videos, so it's hard to come off as perfectly eloquent when you're just freestyling off the top of your head.
The beauty of Android is that nearly everything can be customized. But sometimes, we get so caught up in tweaking functionality and other minutiae that one of the most important interfaces gets neglected—the home screen wallpaper.
The HoloLens is the world's first untethered holographic head-mounted computer, which Microsoft has been rather proud of—and they have every reason to be. Of course, as soon as we developers get adjusted to the idea of keeping the scope of our projects inside the bounds of the HoloLens' processing power, Microsoft hits us with the Holographic Remoting Player.
If your Android phone was made by Samsung, LG, HTC, or any other manufacturer that likes to apply skins on top of stock Android, then your camera app is tied to the custom gallery app that was preinstalled on your device. In other words, when you tap that little image preview icon after taking a picture, you'll be taken to a camera roll interface that was made by an electronics manufacturer.
YouTube won't let you play videos in the background on Android without paying for YouTube Red, so if it's your primary source for streaming music, and you don't want to shell out $9.99/month, you'll just have to take matters into your own hands. The simplest solution to this problem would be to download MP3s straight from YouTube for offline playback, but in the past, this hasn't exactly been easy on a mobile device.
How do you safely store your augmented, virtual, or mixed reality headset when you're not using it? Cybust hopes you're willing to shell out $89 to display it like a sculpture around your house.
Swipe keyboards such as GBoard, SwiftKey, TouchPal, and Swype are handy for quick one-thumbed typing on an iPhone, but Microsoft upped the game with its experimental Word Flow Keyboard. In short, the keyboard fans out to occupy the natural range of your thumb, where you can type or rely on predictive swiping.
Keyboards and mice work fine for computers, but in a holographic environment you'll want to do more than just point, click, and type. While we can still benefit from these input devices, complex hand-tracking methods are necessary for the evolution of mixed reality user interfaces.
The internet has officially been taken over by GIFs—they're everybody's favorite method of communication these days, and nary a meme would exist without them. But even with the abundance of GIF-sharing websites, and even GIF keyboards, we're still a bit lacking in regard to creating GIFs on a mobile device.
If you have any group chats going, you're surely familiar with this scenario: One person sends a picture, then, within 30 seconds or so, all other participants chime in with one-word responses like "Cute," or "Awesome." It's a social nicety, so you have to expect this behavior, but that doesn't make it any less annoying when your phone randomly beeps and vibrates ten times in a row because of it.
The Moto X and Moto Z have a set of features that let you launch common shortcuts by shaking your phone in one direction or another. For instance, there's a chop gesture that turns on the LED flashlight, and a wrist-twist gesture that instantly opens the camera app.
CyanogenMod, the popular custom ROM available for many Android devices, has a nice little feature that displays a music visualizer beneath your on-screen navigation keys while you're listening to your favorite songs. It's a subtle touch, but it makes for a more immersive experience when you're jamming out while using your phone or tablet.
A few months back, Facebook gave iOS users the option to record or upload a video to use as a live profile picture. It's taken a little longer than we'd like, but the feature is finally now available for Android users as well.
Over the years, YouTube ads have become more and more integrated with the videos themselves, which means traditional Android ad blockers can no longer block the ads without blocking the videos. It's gotten to the point where the only ways to get rid of the ads are to either subscribe to Google Play Music and YouTube Red, or go through the complicated process of installing the Xposed Framework.
Netflix has become the subject of heavy buzz this week, and not due to the latest season of Daredevil (which gets two thumbs up, btw). The online video entertainment provider is drawing fire over its admission that it has been throttling video streams for its AT&T and Verizon customers for years.
If you already have speakers that you love, you don't need to ditch them for an expensive wireless set for convenience's sake. With products like Chromecast Audio, you can turn any set of wired headphones or speakers into wireless versions for much less, and stream music or audio to them from pretty much any device connected to the same Wi-Fi network.
Google dropped its opposition to T-Mobile's Binge On service due to some favorable policy changes at the magenta carrier. From now on, YouTube and Google Play Movies will happily work with the feature. Binge On rolled out late last year, allowing many customers to receive unlimited video streaming at 480p. That's not a great offer if you care about video quality, but it's nice if you want to save money.
I don't know about you, but when I shoot a slow-mo video on my iPhone, I'd also like to have a regular speed copy of it, just in case slow motion doesn't fit the video right.
Just about a year ago, Google launched an update to the Gmail app for Android that let you link accounts from other email services to Gmail, allowing you to read and respond to everything in one place.
Three smart devices shown at CES 2016 are making it easier for you to make stupid decisions. PicoBrew, Somabar, and 10-Vins demonstrated their systems for beer, mixed cocktails, and wine, respectively, and each one is attempting to change the way we enjoy our favorite potent potables at home.
Google Play Music has been my go-to music service ever since its release. The free cloud storage for 50,000 songs and full access to Songza-powered radio stations make it a great music app, even without the $10/month streaming service.
The Fire TV Stick, as well as the Fire TV, may be limited by Amazon's fight on piracy, but after a quick sideloading of Kodi, the floodgates are back open with the freedom to stream just about any video or song you want.
If you exceed your monthly mobile data limit, your cell phone bill can skyrocket pretty quickly. This is why a lot of people vigilantly monitor internet usage and even uninstall apps that use too much background data.
A growing trend for many artists (most recently Kanye West) is to offer exclusive or experimental tracks on music streaming sites like SoundCloud or YouTube before releasing them anywhere else. On rare occasions, some of these great songs never make their way onto an official album, which can be disappointing for die-hard fans who need to download every song available from their favorite artist or band.
Unless you have a newer iPhone 6S or 6S Plus, the front-facing "FaceTime" camera on your iPhone has a pretty weak, low-res sensor, which means unflattering selfies. You could use the rear "iSight" camera to take a high-res selfie, but framing your mug properly and hitting the shutter is difficult, takes many failed attempts, and usually results in a lackluster photo.
With as much creativity and freedom that we have on Android, it feels a little underwhelming that the only gesture we can perform on the status bar is a downward swipe to expose the notification tray or quick settings. Maybe this is a field for Android to expand on in the future, but until that day, third-party developers are exploring this now.
Scanners are much too cumbersome to fit in a pocket, but with the use of just one application, you can replace all that bulky hardware with your Android smartphone and take it with you wherever you go. All you need to do is find the scanning app that fulfills your needs. Here are our five favorites that are good for business pros and average joes alike.
The transition from Android KitKat to Lollipop was pretty drastic in the looks department. Google's new Material Design guidelines changed the way many parts of the UI function, like the notification drawer, status bar, and most notably, the lock screen.
Up until now, if you wanted to record videos of the apps on your screen, you had to rely on a third-party option. However, Windows 10 changes this thanks in part to the new Xbox app. One of the new features of the Xbox app is the Game bar, which allows you to record footage of your gameplay.
The world's most commonly-used desktop operating system is getting a huge makeover in the form of Windows 10. While there are many sweeping changes in this new version, some of the smaller tweaks may prove to be the most useful.
The Samsung Galaxy S6 includes a pretty nifty feature known as "Gesture wake up," which lets users wave their hand over their locked display to wake it, making those periodic notification checks from the lock screen a lot more simple than having to press the power or home key every time.
At first glance, the Big Green Egg looks like it was created by Dr. Seuss or some other whimsy-driven being, like Zooey Deschanel. And while this earthenware cooker may look cute, it produces serious results that can rival the best barbecue or grill. In fact, it's got quite a large cult following. Entrepreneur and former Navy serviceman Ed Fisher fell in love with the taste of food cooked in kamodos (traditional domed, covered earthenware vessels in Japan) and began to import them for sale in...
Since the days of Android Jelly Bean, Samsung has implemented an energy preservation feature known as dynamic voltage and frequency scaling, or DVFS for short. What this essentially does is limit or adjust the frequency of the microprocessor to conserve power and prevent excessive heat from being generated.
AMOLED display panels like the one found in most Samsung Galaxy devices, including the Galaxy S6 models, are known for their deep blacks and vivid colors. The downside here is that the colors tend to be over-saturated and not very realistic.
For every contact photo you add, Android keeps two copies. The first is stored at a 720p resolution, and this is used for high-definition imagery when you're looking at a full-sized contact card. But the second image is only 96 pixels by 96 pixels, and this is used for all thumbnails throughout the operating system.
There are more ways to wear an Apple Watch than just the default one. Out of the box, an Apple Watch is set up to be worn on your left wrist with the Digital Crown on the right side. But what if want the Digital Crown facing the opposite way? Or what if you're left-handed and want the Watch on your right wrist instead?
It's hard to not to like the look of iOS emojis. Sure, Samsung and other Android phones have emojis, but they're all kind of goofy-looking. And since iPhone emojis continue to be viewed as the standard, it comes as no surprise that you can actually get them on Android—and without root!
As a Mac and Sasmsung Galaxy S6 user, I quickly realized that the two devices don't play well with one another out of the box, and using ADB commands to record my Android's screen isn't as simple as it is would be with a Windows PC.
