Making a purchase through PayPal is great because you have the option to pay using your account balance, a bank account, debit card, credit card, rewards balance, or even PayPal's own credit product. You need to pick one to be your preferred payment method for each in-stores and online but, unfortunately, changing these preferences can get a bit tricky on your iPhone or Android phone.
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.
Despite being at the helms of the RCS push, Google Fi has yet to support the new messaging protocol. It would've made too much sense if the Google-created MVNO was one of the first to support the feature Google's been pushing on other OEMs and carriers for years, but alas, they haven't. Well, better late than never — Google has finally announced support for RCS Universal Profile on Fi.
In late-2017, Instagram rolled out a feature that automatically saves your ephemeral Stories to a private archive. Before that, Stories disappeared into the ether after 24 hours, but not everyone was comfortable losing these precious photos and videos. If you post to Instagram Stories quite often, you can now easily access your history from your account — and you might not even know it.
To combat their poor coverage in rural areas, T-Mobile spent nearly $8 billion on 600 MHz spectrum in 2017, which was converted to LTE Band 71. With such a low frequency, the signal can travel further, providing LTE speeds to more Americans. But your phone also has to support this frequency, and so far, only a handful do.
Depending on how you use your phone, you may have noticed your status bar is a bit crowded due to various icons being enabled. While some icons make sense to have, such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, the VPN key icon can be redundant, especially if the app uses a notification. Good thing, there is a way to get rid of the icon.
It's that time of year again. No, not Thanksgiving. Black Friday. There are a lot deals available this holiday weekend, many of which include flagship Android devices. Whether you are thinking of buying a phone for yourself or looking for a gift for someone else, you can find a little savings to shop smart during the holidays.
When Google introduced the Pixel 3 on October 9th, one of new additions they briefly mentioned was the Titan M security chip. While they did talk about how it will improve overall security, they didn't expand on the number of changes it brings to the Pixel 3's security. Well, they finally shared more, and it's a pretty big deal.
With all the controversy around the Pixel 3 XL, the regular-sized Pixel 3 might be the phone of choice for most users. Thanks to the huge boost in screen size, the little brother is now an easier pickup for those who like a bigger screen. And once more, the internals are the same, giving you the same experience as the 3 XL without the display notch.
The "controversial" Pixel. No phone in the history of Google's Pixel lineup deserves this title more than the Pixel 3 XL. For some (including myself), the design is a welcome change that embodies the modern design of 2018 flagship phones. For others, it has an ugly huge display notch that destroys symmetry.
Apple often cites its tight integration of hardware and software for its success. Startup Illumix is looking to do the same thing for AR gaming by building an AR platform for its apps.
Despite a very vocal distaste for Bixby, Samsung continues to push their voice assistant on customers. For many, the button is not only a waste, but placed perfectly for accidental presses. While it appears Samsung has no intention of giving up on Bixby, with the help of an excellent app, you can get rid of it yourself.
Until next March, the iPhone XS and Samsung Galaxy S9 will be the only phones considered by many. Whether you're an Apple fan wanting to see how your new phone stacks up against the competition or a buyer on the fence, here's how the latest flagships from the two biggest brands compare.
From its introduction and all the way through iOS 11, FaceTime has been restricted to one-on-one calls. Apple will be changing that in a future iOS 12 update with Group FaceTime, which adds support for up to 32 people total in group audio and video calls. But that's not all we'll be getting in iOS 12 — there are more features that FaceTime has or will be getting soon that you should know about.
If you want the best two-factor authentication app out there, our pick is Authy. A close second is LastPass Authenticator. If neither of those is to your liking, try Duo Mobile or Microsoft Authenticator. But if you're fine with missing out on great features, then and only then should you look at using Google Authenticator.
OnePlus will be releasing a new phone in the second half of 2018, specifically, an upgrade to their T-series. Over the past two years, #T versions have come out about five months after their predecessors and have included small updates that fix any problems from the previous OnePlus device. While we do know a bit about OnePlus 6T, what it could be is much more exciting.
In 2018, Motorola is no longer the same brand that introduced the world to the Motorola Droid. The once iconic company is now part of the "Others" group, scrambling for fifth place. The newly-announced Moto Z3 perfectly embodies their current state with competitive specs ... if it came out last year.
Net neutrality is dead and your internet service providers can collect all the data they want. While VPNs are a great way to protect some of that privacy, they're not perfect. There is another option, though, called Noisy, which was created by Itay Hury. It floods your ISP with so much random HTTP/DNS noise that your data is useless to anyone even if they do get it.
Apple's linear Notification Center has been scattershot at best since iOS 9 when we could group notifications by app. Without any type of grouping ability, the notification history becomes more of a nuisance of random alerts based on time alone, making it a treasure hunt to find the notification wanted. Now, iOS 12 has addressed this issue, bringing back groupings — with improvements.
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.
The "Up Next" feature in Apple Music helps you control which songs you want to listen in the order that you want. However, this list can become messy fast, quickly becoming a collection of songs you never wanted to listen to in the first place. Luckily, Apple has built a way for you to clear Up Next, it's just not very obvious.
Kali Linux is known as being the de facto penetration-testing Linux distribution but can be a pain to use as an everyday OS — even more of a pain if that means carrying around a second laptop or the constant frustration of using the finicky Wi-Fi on virtual machines. But there's another option: installing a Kali subsystem on your Windows computer as a convenient compromise.
The idea of a dock on any smartphone, be it iPhone or Android, is a fantastic invention. It allows you to stay grounded with a core group of apps that you frequently use. However, sometimes that dock can feel like an obstruction in the face of style — but there's a trick to hiding that translucency behind those core apps at the bottom of your iPhone without jailbreaking.
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.
Earlier this year, Nokia released the Nokia 8 Sirrocco overseas. The new device served as an upgrade to the 2017 model with a minor specs bump and a more modern design. However, HMD isn't done with the 8 series. A rumored Pro version is coming later this year that brings innovations the iconic brand is known for.
Since making waves at Mobile World Congress 2018, Android Go devices have slowly trickled their way onto US shores. Only one device was officially announced for the US at MWC, but several OEMs have extended availability to the US in the months since, and it looks like we just received another.
The Galaxy S9 is full of minor improvements and revisions that come together to make it a worthy upgrade over the Galaxy S8. One such improvement is facial recognition, which Samsung has fortified with machine learning and the inclusion of another sensor. The result of these efforts is called Intelligent Scan.
Whether you mean to or not, taking burst photos is super easy on the iPhone. In the Camera app, just compose your photo, tap-and-hold the shutter button, and watch the number of pics go up and up until you take your finger off the screen. However, finding that one special keeper out of all of them in the Photos app isn't as intuitive as taking them in the first place.
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 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.
One unique feature of Firefox Mobile is extensions. Extensions allow users to add in features that didn't originally come with the browser. These add-ons provide an array of features, including improvement to privacy and security.
Accompanying Snapchat's core features, like editing snaps and applying filters to them, is Bitmojis. These are small avatars that you create in your own likeness and use all throughout Snapchat. Formerly, there were two "styles" that you could pick from to make your Bitmoji: Bitstrips style and Bitmoji style. But Snapchat has a third style now that will redefine the way you use Bitmojis.
For the unaware, RED is a company that specializes in high-end cameras and other recording devices. RED's cameras are used to shoot some of Hollywood's biggest films and TV shows. Their modular designs make them ideal for the user who does a lot of mixing and matching — and has a wallet to back their work up (their WEAPON 8K VV starts at $79,500).
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?
IFTTT (short for If This, Then That) is an amazing piece of software that automagically links actions on your phone with online services and real-world objects. For example, an applet could read: "if you come home, then turn on Wi-Fi." IFTTT goes further than just using simple smartphone functions, though — thanks to applets, it's fully configurable with a ton of smartphone apps.
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.
For a company more associated with debugging computer programs, Google's parent company, Alphabet, is making a name for itself by taking on the real thing — mosquitoes.
Malaria is a massive worldwide health problem. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that 212 million cases of malaria occurred worldwide in 2015 and 429,000 of the infected people died.
About a third of the methane released into the environment comes from the production and transport of natural gas. The gas leaks as it moves along the transport chain from gas wellheads to market.
More bad news for patients who have undergone heart surgery in the past five years. A new study suggests about one-third of heater-cooler units used in cardiac procedures remain contaminated with a slow-growing, potentially fatal bacteria.