2019 has been a great year for smartphone batteries. Several phones have topped the 5,000 mAh threshold, and Apple finally went all in on 18 W USB PD charging, which means millions of new users are finally taking advantage of fast charging. All of this gets even better when you have the right charger.
Apple's Reminders app is essential for those of us with a forgetful memory. But a standard Reminders entry isn't foolproof. They aren't great if you need to do something right when you get somewhere, since it can be tricky to set a specific time for that reminder. That's why Apple's location-based reminders are so darn useful.
Most augmented reality experiences are purely visual, with spatial audio gaining in popularity to make visual experiences more realistic. However, leveraging the sense of touch may be the next frontier for AR experiences.
It's no secret that Snapchat has upped its AR game as of late. They're competing neck-and-neck with the likes of Instagram to see who can out-cool the other. Snap Inc's latest endeavor, 3D Paint, aims to steal the AR spotlight once again by giving you the ability to draw over the real world.
With over 200 brand new features, iOS 13 is a worthy update for all compatible devices. That said, not all iPhone models are created equal. There is a new feature only older iPhones will see, one that skips over Apple's Face ID devices entirely. So if you have a traditional Home button iPhone capable of running iOS 13 but haven't updated yet, this is one benefit you're missing out on.
You don't need to delete an entire thread in the Messages app to get rid of a couple of texts on your iPhone. With a few taps, you can remove unwanted iMessages and texts, as well as storage-hungry photos and videos, to de-clutter a conversation. And in iOS 13, the process is even easier.
OneDrive has some really cool features, like being able to lock your files with a fingerprint. If you want to be on the forefront of these new features, you can sign up to the OneDrive beta testing program to get new feature before anyone else.
Sometimes you may need to send a message out at a specific time. Say a thought strikes you late at night, but you don't want to wake anyone up. You could do this by waiting to sending it at your desired time — or, you could schedule your message at a precise time.
The triple camera system on the OnePlus 7 Pro is the best setup they've ever done so far, but it could always be better. The primary sensor packs a whopping 48 megapixels, but as history has taught us, megapixels don't equal better photos by default. In fact, with where we are in terms of hardware right now, it's the software that determines a phone's camera performance.
After winning the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup, the USA Women's National Soccer Team is ready to defend its title in the 2019 tournament.
While the Smart Invert feature was an excellent first step toward a dark mode, it's nowhere near what a true dark mode should be for iPhone. After years of rumors and disappointment, Apple finally has the dark mode everyone's been wanting, and it's one of the most significant new features in iOS 13.
Your Skype contact list might contain a sea of names that make it tough to find a specific person you're trying to reach. The same goes for your loved ones and colleagues, especially if you have a common name like Jennifer or John. Knowing that, you might want to change your Skype display name to set yourself apart.
On Monday, the world watched in horror as the historic Notre Dame Cathedral went up in flames in Paris.
While The New York Times' augmented reality section has largely been dormant in 2019 (so far), USA Today has continued to crank out AR news stories.
If you're a long-time Spark user, you'll know that one of the only drawbacks to the app used to be its lack of rich text-editing tools such as hyperlinking. If you needed to link out to a site in an email, your best bet was to grab a computer to get the job done. Well, close those laptops and shut down those PCs — Spark corrected this issue, implementing support for hyperlinking right into the app.
Smartphones and dark mode go hand in hand. Screens can be bright, causing eye strain and battery drain, and dark mode can take the edge off both. It's perfect for nighttime browsing, but also for general use, especially on OLED displays with inky blacks. Dark mode, aka night mode, is particularly great for tweeting, and Twitter makes it easy to switch.
On Bumble, you only have 24 hours to connect with a match. If no message is sent, your match disappears and your chance of a connection is gone, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the other person isn't interested. If they lose their phone or don't receive notifications, they might miss your message on accident. Life happens, so what can you do if your 24 hours to connect are almost up?
You're minding your business when your Apple Watch taps you. To your surprise, the watch claims your heart rate dipped abnormally low. The news might come as a shock — especially if you have no history of a heart condition — but before you panic, you should take the time to fully understand what this alert is really saying and what you can and should do about it.
Boomerangs are a staple camera feature for Instagram and its users. The idea is to take up to 20 frames of video, which Instagram then processes into a looping movie that plays forward and backward. Since Facebook owns Instagram, it was only a matter of time before the feature hit its namesake apps, so it's not surprising that Messenger now supports the popular camera technique.
Have you ever browsed through Lenses on Snapchat and got bummed out when the app recommends that you "try this with a friend" and you're all alone? Well, now you can take AR snaps with your cat!
One developer has taken the formal name of the Magic Leap One: Creator Edition quite literally with an app that enables users to create a custom universe in their own living room.
While Android does allow apps to use picture-in-picture mode (PiP), only a handful of apps actually support the feature. Most of the apps that do are video apps. The thing is, PiP is useful for more than just watching videos, and the Galaxy Note 9 has included a way to allow any app to offer a similar feature, video or not.
The Super Bowl of bicycle racing, the Tour de France, added augmented reality to its TV broadcast this year.
Less than a week after debuting its AR Cloud platform in public with a multi-user installation of more than 100 participants, Ubiquity6 announced on Tuesday that it has closed a Series B round of funding totaling $27 million.
Is your smartphone taking over your life? Do you need help putting your Pixel down at night? Well, update to Android Pie! Android 9.0 comes with Digital Wellbeing, a new tool to both help you understand your smartphone habits and perhaps step away from the apps, games, and notifications every now and then.
If you have an Apple Watch, you might know that the activity awards you earn can be shared with your friends as iMessage stickers on your iPhone. However, you first have to earn achievements in order to use them as stickers. That changes somewhat with iOS 12, as Apple added animated activity stickers for all Apple Watch users, whether they've earned award badges or not.
When it comes to the sub-$250 price range, the new Nokia 5.1 might be the perfect phone. Of all the new models announced at Nokia's event in Moscow, the Nokia 5.1 offers the most with the least compromises. For a third of the cost of a flagship, you get a phone with a premium build, solid specs, and good battery life.
During an event in Moscow earlier this year, Nokia announced a refresh to their Nokia 2, 3, and 5 series phones. While there is no official confirmation of a US release for the updated Nokia 2 and 5, we do know that as of July 2nd, you'll be able to snag a new Nokia 3.1.
Although some look to golf for some quick off-the-grid time, the scenic hills and blue skies of your local putting green are not immune from the ever-expanding reach of augmented reality. A new update to the Golfshot mobile app brings new AR features to iPhones and iPads designed to help golfers determine shot distances during course play.
Nokia's calling card used to be camera quality, a small bright spot compared to the black hole that was Windows Mobile. Since Microsoft discontinued the rarely-used operating system, Nokia phones began to run Android — and now, they're getting back to their camera-driven roots with their Pro Camera mode. What's more, you can experience their camera app on any Android phone.
If you have yet to receive your invitation to next weekend's royal wedding in the UK, then you can still experience part of the pomp and circumstance in augmented reality courtesy of ABC News.
If you are an active player of Pokémon GO, you may soon be capturing more than just virtual pocket monsters.
On Tuesday, at Google's I/O developer conference, the company announced a huge update to its ARCore augmented reality toolkit that matches the latest features of ARKit, and surpasses Apple's AR platform via support for shared experiences.
The Android version of Google Chrome only shows a home button on some devices. Unfortunately, this feature isn't available to all Android phones due to several factors. But thanks to a simple workaround, you can now enable this button and set a home page regardless of what device you have.
Our phones have evolved past a simple pocket computer. They have become more like Swiss Army Knives, opening up possibilities that were previously considered Sci-Fi material. Thanks to the recent push into augmented reality, a new world of tools is becoming available to mobile users.
Another AR cloud candidate has emerged in YOUAR, a startup that has developed a new system that enables persistent augmented reality experiences on iPhones and Android devices.
While certainly faster than writing by hand, manually typing passages from a book or document can be slow and frustrating. But thanks to Google Assistant, this is no longer the case. Whether you need to quote text for an essay or need to win an online argument, all you need to do is point your phone's camera at the paper and tap a few times.
From veteran modders to casual tinkerers, booting into either recovery mode or download mode is something every Galaxy S9 owner should know about. These two pre-boot menus serve a very important purpose — recovery mode is the go-to solution for soft bricks, while download mode allows you to flash firmware files using utilities like Odin and Smart Switch, which can truly be a lifesaver.
As advanced as the Galaxy S9 is, it can still be susceptible to the occasional hiccup. Several factors can cause your smartphone to behave erratically or become unresponsive, such as buggy apps or updates that didn't properly install. Luckily, most of these issues can be easily resolved with a press of a button — or two, to be exact.
The NCAA College Basketball Tournament, colloquially known as March Madness, is arguably the most exciting postseason format in US sports, and the team behind Thyng want to take advantage of the annual event with AR content.
