Up until Android 5.0 Lollipop, the actual text of incoming notifications would scroll by in your status bar. These ticker style alerts didn't pop on screen or interfere with what you were currently working on, but you could still read the message. They were replaced by the new "heads up" alerts, but you can still bring them back.
The coronavirus pandemic has ushered in an unprecedented time in modern history where terms like "social distancing" and "self-quarantine" have pushed their way into the zeitgeist.
When you dislike or hide a song in Spotify, you'll never hear it again in the playlist or radio station that you blocked it from. If you bury it for the entire app, it won't play anywhere. But that doesn't mean you can't get it back if you change your mind.
Using Apple Pay in stores to make purchases is as easy as holding your iPhone near the NFC reader and authenticating with Face ID or Touch ID. That method uses the primary payment card in Apple Wallet automatically, and your primary card may change from week to week based on your spending, so you'll probably need to change it periodically.
In iOS 13, Apple Maps makes it easier for you to organize essential places on your iPhone, allowing you to save locations as favorites that you can access at a glance.
We might never truly know all of the colors behind old and classic black-and-white photos, but thanks to technology, we can get a pretty accurate colorization. Although Photoshop is a popular way to colorize these images, you can now use your iPhone, along with a nifty shortcut, to transform and give new life to vintage photos.
The Pixel 4 is one of the most talked-about phones of 2019, and it has many things going for it, especially in the world of rooting and modding. Just as with previous Pixel generations, unlocking the bootloader is the gateway to realizing your device's true potential. It can make way for such things as TWRP, Magisk, custom ROMs, and many other device-specific mods just the same.
Finally, Spotify now works with Siri! It's been a long time coming, but as of Spotify Music version 8.5.6 for iOS 13, you can make Siri or Hey Siri on your iPhone play and control music in your Spotify account. But what commands can you use? We've built a list of everything you can tell Siri to do on Spotify right now, and as time goes on, the list may grow even more powerful.
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.
There's no doubt that Microsoft Word is the go-to for businesses worldwide. As such, you might receive Word documents to open on your iPhone, whether or not you actually have Word for iOS installed. If you prefer editing text documents with Pages, Apple's own word processor, you can import and export Word docs easily.
Chances are, your favorite websites run on ads. That means the sites rely on those ads to fund their operations. Without ads, your laughs, news, and guides don't happen. That's why it's helpful to disable content blockers (often called whitelisting) for sites you support. In the past, it wasn't possible directly in Safari, but in-app whitelisting becomes a reality with iOS 13.
Imagine a scenario where you're nowhere near your iPhone, but it's on loud, and you really need to silence it. An alarm may be blaring, notifications could be spitting out sounds left and right, and calls may be ringing. Things can get annoying real quick for whoever's around it. Plus, all that attention makes it easy for someone to find and possibly steal your iPhone. Luckily, you can quiet it down.
The updated Reminders app in iOS 13 makes productivity a little bit more seamless on the iPhone. The overhauled user interface makes it easier to find your reminders, the new Messages integration makes it simpler to remember to-dos regarding your contacts, and the new toolbar provides shortcuts to tasks that were once clunky and confusing.
Though not as flashy as other mobile gaming genres like first-person shooters, puzzle games continue to glue players to their phones. Puzzlers are perfect companions while out and about or on a commute, and they're also a great way to stimulate your brain and hand-eye coordination in a fun, relaxing way.
One of the best ways to dig into a website and look for vulnerabilities is by using a proxy. By routing traffic through a proxy like Burp Suite, you can discover hidden flaws quickly, but sometimes it's a pain to turn it on and off manually. Luckily, there is a browser add-on called FoxyProxy that automates this process with a single click of a button.
The Reader mode in Safari is a great way to view a webpage on your iPhone in a stripped-down manner, removing unnecessary images, videos, and advertisements for a streamlined experience free of distractions. Apple's iOS 13 improves upon Safari Reader when it comes to choosing which sites you want it to run automatically on, so everything is more accessible with more controls to work with.
One of the best parts of Pandora is its personalized stations that auto-generate songs within the specific style or genre you've chosen. Not only does this play your favorite tracks with regularity, but it also opens your ears to previously unknown songs or artists — ones you may fall in love with and want to share with others.
With the third season of Netflix's hit series Stranger Things set to debut July 4, it's time to crank up the hype machine, this time, in augmented reality.
With such a vast selection of music genres available, it's easy to build up a massive list of stations in Pandora that can make your go-to playlists harder to find. Fortunately, the app lets you easily remove unwanted stations to streamline your experience and listen to your favorite tunes in the fewest taps possible.
While you can now apply a dark theme to Samsung Messages thanks to One UI, you may want to further personalize your texting app. A great way to do this is by applying a custom font, which not only enhances the app aesthetically, but can also go a long way towards making your texts more readable and help you process information better.
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.
Samsung's popular Good Lock app has been updated to work on One UI and now lets you take full advantage of its awesome add-ons to customize your S10 in a few simple taps. One add-on in particular lets you get rid of mostly redundant indicators like the NFC "N" for a cleaner status bar.
For those of you who like to frequently change the icon shapes on your home screen, the process has changed in Android 10. The setting is buried and now applies to more than just home screen icons.
If you've ever received an email from a sketchy address purporting to be Uber, asking you to sign in with your credentials, you might be a phishing target. Hackers use a fake login page from real-looking domains to trick you into giving up your account information, and while it's been an issue in the past, Uber is making it more difficult on cyber thieves with the addition of two-step verification.
As I've mentioned in recent days, it was refreshing to discover that Microsoft's HoloLens 2 stage production was every bit as accurate as presented (check out my hands-on test of the device for more on that).
Android 9.0 Pie moved the status bar clock from the right corner to the left to accommodate phones with notches, but there's one major downside for Samsung users: since no Galaxy phones have a notch, all this did was take away space for the notification icons that would otherwise start from the left corner.
Lebron James, or King James to his royal subjects, is extending the reach of his kingdom beyond basketball and into the realm of augmented reality.
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.
If you're familiar with jailbreaking, you're well aware of the fragmented nature of downloading tweaks. Unlike the iOS App Store, which contains about two million apps of varying categories, installing jailbroken packages often requires you to first install a separate repo into either Cydia or its replacement Sileo, as many of these tweaks aren't available outright.
As the stigma of online dating fades and swiping potential suitors on your phone becomes the new norm, one very real issue that you may have to deal with is catfishing: the act of being deceived by a fictional online persona. Although dating apps do their best to weed out fake accounts, a few of them slip through the cracks and take advantage of innocent people just looking for a connection.
As great as passcode and biometric security features like Face ID are for preventing unwanted access, they aren't needed 100% of the time. When you're at home with a locked door between you and anyone you wouldn't trust with your phone, they really only serve to slow you down. Android has long had a solution for this, but a new Cydia tweak has now brought a similar solution to iPhones.
Imagine this: you have your finger poised to take the perfect picture — a once in a lifetime opportunity, like a solar eclipse — and you are suddenly caught off guard by a buzz, then "ding!" You look down at your phone to find your perfect pic ruined by distortion from the vibration, all because of an ill-timed notification. It's enough to make you crazy, especially when you find out it could have been prevented.
One of the headlining features in Samsung's One UI update is a new dark mode that turns stock apps and system menus black. But something you may have missed is what this theme does to the Samsung Internet app and all the websites you visit.
You don't need an obsessive ex stalking you to benefit from the ability to record calls on your iPhone in a pinch. Besides protecting yourself from nefarious intent, recording important conversations like verbal contracts and agreements can help you cover all your bases and ensure you're insulated from any potential liabilities that may appear down the road.
Augmented reality gaming developer Niantic has decided to give its players the opportunity to make their mark on Pokémon GO with a PokéStop nomination system.
Google Photos integrates with Google's ecosystem to bring you awesome features like the ability to identify landmarks, track down products you've photographed, and so much more. Now, if you need to translate foreign words in any of your pictures, the app has you covered as well.
Excessive cell phone use was issue that Apple decided to tackle with iOS 12. Starting with the iPhone's 2018 update, a new "Screen Time" feature give you the ability to set App Limits to encourage more balanced usage, and there's another setting that gives you control over when certain apps can be accessed.
In a surprising twist of expectation management, Magic Leap managed to not only ship but deliver the Magic Leap One I ordered on Wednesday by 4 p.m. PT on the same day.
Regal Cinema's augmented reality magazine Moviebill enjoyed a big debut in April and it has its sights set on an even bigger (virtually) outing with its next edition.
Developers can now publish augmented reality experiences that are viewable through the experimental version of Chrome and ARCore.
