After getting confirmation from Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, we now know Fortnite Battle Royale will not be available on the Play Store when it's finally released for Android. Instead, users will have to download the APK directly from Epic Games' website — and quite frankly, this is a bad idea.
When you drive along the deceptively sedate streets of Silicon Valley, there are few hints that all those nondescript office parks and low-rise buildings contain the very future of the planet, but they really do. On a recent trip to tech's epicenter, I found that out firsthand when I got to visit the offices of Meta, the startup that produced the Meta 2 augmented reality headset.
While Sony as a company is well-known in the United States, it smartphones are not. For years, Sony has stuck with a boxy design with sharp edges and large bezels — however, they're finally getting with the trends. As a result, the Xperia XZ2 Premium offers a rare combo: A super powerful phone which is also pretty sexy.
There's a lot more to your iPhone's dialer screen than just entering phone numbers and hitting the green call button. It's not very obvious, but there are secret codes that you can enter on the dialer to find out information about your device, help troubleshoot issues, and mask outgoing calls, to name just a few things.
We've shown you the best augmented reality headsets, and now it's time to show you the rest. These are the AR headsets you've probably never heard of or even seen. The AR headsets that, in some cases, have a shot at the big time, and may one day reach widespread adoption, and, in other cases, are unwieldily contraptions that look like something out of a weird science fiction movie.
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.
For a while, YouTube Red original content was a joke, lagging behind other services like Netflix and Hulu in terms of quality, so breaking down the paywall didn't seem necessary. However, with series like Cobra Kai turning heads, it's a good time to start using Red. Luckily, Android users can get all of this content for free, and without rooting.
After backdooring a MacBook not protected by FileVault or using a fake PDF to gain remote access, an attacker may wish to upgrade their Netcat shell to something more fully featured. While a root shell allows attackers to remotely modify most files on the MacBook, Empire features some useful post-exploitation modules which make hacking Macs very easy.
Spotify is a great music subscription service, but constantly streaming songs can really run up your monthly mobile data. Fortunately, you're able to download music from Spotify on Android and iOS in order to preserve your precious data cap.
This week, we're beginning to see the wide ranging impacts of some of the early iterations of augmented reality hardware and software.
Bookmarks and favorites are handy options for saving interesting websites you come across while surfing the web on Android but are far from ideal when it comes to instant access. Thankfully, Google Chrome gives you the added ability to save webpages and progressive web apps directly to your home screen for added convenience.
Spotify is one of the most popular music streaming services available and allows you a high degree of control over the way you experience your music. Included in that is the album art for your playlists. While not an option ingrained in the mobile app itself, changing a playlist's cover image on your phone can still be done.
PUBG is currently taking the mobile world by storm, and it's easy to see why. The game has breathed much-needed life to the multiplayer shooting genre, primarily by adding an element of sheer terror as you scavenge for weapons in a hostile environment. With new players continually joining in on the fun, many players are looking for ways to gain an edge.
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.
We're all aware that Google collects a notable portion of our data. Thanks to the increasing awareness, Google has added a number of privacy controls to limit data collection. But Google doesn't just collect personal data for no reason — many of your favorite apps will use this info to improve their services and add new features.
Apple first announced Business Chat, a new way for customers to communicate with companies, at WWDC 2017. While Business Chat did not arrive with the initial release of iOS 11, Apple pushed it out in iOS 11.3 so companies can offer customer service in a whole new way, and it works pretty much the same in iOS 12 and higher as it did back then.
Getting new loot can be challenging in Fortnite Battle Royale. Whether you decide to pay for the Battle Pass or stick with the Free Pass, you still need to put in 50+ hours to unlock all the items. For those of us with Amazon Prime subscriptions, there's another way to unlock free items, and it won't cost you an extra dime.
Samsung Internet offers excellent features that enhance the mobile web browsing experience, often through its extensions. A QR code scanner, ad blockers, tracker blockers, and more work directly in the browser, so you can do exactly what you want to do on the web.
Followers are everything. After all, you need someone to listen to your tweets about last night's episode of your favorite TV show. But what about when people unfollow your account? Not only have you lost part of your follower base, you have no idea who left. Luckily, there are tools out there to help you learn just that, even if Twitter itself won't give up the info.
For the past few months, Fortnite has been one of the most-watched games on Twitch, and it's likely to keep a top spot on the live streaming platform once Fortnite Battle Royale becomes available for smartphones. While there are not any live streaming capabilities built directly into Epic's mobile version of the game, you can still live stream Battle Royale gameplay from your iPhone to Twitch.
Last year, OnePlus released not one but two excellent flagship devices with the OnePlus 5 and 5T. While the 5T released sooner than expected, it brought some worthwhile upgrades, such as a near bezel-less display and a much-needed camera enhancement. Now, that the OnePlus 6 has arrived, it's time to see what OnePlus has in store for 2018.
Ever since Google CEO Sundar Pichai took the helms of the world's most valuable brand, he has made it his mission to bring smartphones to lower-income communities. Born in India, Mr. Pichai has created several programs to address the needs of the Indian market, particularly the lower income families.
Samsung's big reveal of the Galaxy S9 and S9+ at Mobile World Congress revolved around its "reimagined" camera and augmented reality capabilities.
Samsung has legions of loyal fans, and for good reason — their Galaxy S lineup ticks so many boxes that it would be a downgrade to switch to any other phone. Though if you're still rocking an older model like the Galaxy S7 Edge, the all-new Galaxy S9 can tick all the same boxes plus a few more. But is it worth the money to upgrade at this point? That's actually a tougher call than you might think.
2017 was a down year for HTC. First, the U11 and U Ultra were widely criticized. Later, Google purchased a large chunk of HTC's manufacturing division, leaving the Taiwanese company running with a skeleton crew after losing 2,000 key employees. But that's not stopping HTC — their flagship U12+ was just announced, and it's quite impressive.
With Mobile World Congress fast approaching, all eyes in the industry are set on Samsung's Galaxy S9 announcement on February 25. While leaks and rumors about the S9 and S9+ have been flooding in for quite some time, we're getting a much clearer picture of these handsets as the announcement draws near.
With only one profitable quarter in the last two years, LG's mobile division is undergoing a shakeup. With a fresh set of executives, LG has delayed the expected launch of the upcoming G7 and instead decided to start the year with yet another variant of the V30.
IFTTT is an application that allows you to automate certain tasks on your iPhone or Android. It can communicate with a myriad of apps and services on your phone by creating applets that perform actions automatically — actions you'd normally have to do manually. Finding those applets, however, can be a little difficult.
On average, an office worker receives 121 emails a day. Many of these emails are trivial and don't require immediate attention. While Gmail's automatic spam filters catch plenty of irrelevant emails, some still make their way into your inbox. Fortunately, Gmail's tools aren't limited to just spam filters.
BlackBerry's focus on secure software and their new partnership with manufacturer TCL are two of the biggest factors in their recent resurgence. Last year, the company announced two new devices — the KEYone and the BlackBerry Motion. The KEYone has been available for a while, but after months of waiting, BlackBerry announced the Motion will hit US shores in a few days.
With beta testing coming to a close, it's quite likely we will see the stable Android Oreo OTA roll out for the Galaxy S8 in late January. Yesterday, a Reddit user posted a link to an official Oreo OTA build for the Galaxy S8. We've already detailed everything that's new in this stable build. Now, let's take a look at how you can install the update on your device.
| Updated February 11, 2019 with new phones. When will my phone get Android Oreo? That's a question still being asked by many, even this late in 2018. Most OEMs have answered this question in one way or another, either releasing a stable OTA or confirming their device won't be receiving the update. We consolidated all these responses, and here's where we stand.
Safari for iPhone is generally a good mobile browsing experience — except when it isn't. Popup ads are a real issue, and they cause both great annoyance as well as concern over iOS security. How do you stop these nuisances and return to a web without fear of popups?
Apple's Mail app for iOS isn't a bad email client by any means. However, it just doesn't cut it for iPhone users that want a more intelligent and advanced email solution. If you're in the market for an app like that, Spark is absolutely your best bet.
As the first Animal Crossing game on mobile devices, it's clear that Nintendo had a more social experience in mind for Pocket Camp, and I'm not talking about all the animal friends you can make. You can add other players to your list of human friends, and they're incredibly useful for a wide array of tasks.
Mozilla's Firefox has always been a highly praised internet browser. Since it's open-source, users know what they're getting without any secrecy. It's got plenty of features that are unmatched by any of its competitors on mobile. However, speed and performance have always been a pain point for Firefox, but Mozilla went back to the drawing board to solve this problem with the release of Firefox Quantum.
For all those times when an app either isn't available or simply won't cut it, your phone's internet browser provides access to your favorite websites and services. But some browsers are flat-out better than others, and chances are, the browser that came pre-installed on your phone isn't the best option out there.
Now that Apple Pay Cash has rolled out to compatible devices in the US, you're likely to give Apple's new person-to-person payment system a try since it's right there in the iMessage app drawer in Messages. However, just like with Venmo, Square Cash, and other mobile payment processors, there are some hidden fees, limits, and other fine print you need to be aware of.
The next frontier for AR hardware is the consumer headset, and tech companies of varying size and tenure are working hard to strike the right mix between comfort, cool factor, and cost. How these companies handle the hype and flow of information vary wildly.
So after being teased last Christmas with an email promising that the Meta 2 was shipping, nearly a year later, we finally have one of the units that we ordered. Without a moment's hesitation, I tore the package open, set the device up, and started working with it.
