Mobile gaming still isn't on par with video game consoles or PCs, but we've come a long way from Snake. Modern games running on the latest smartphones boast downright impressive graphics—even more so when you consider how compact the system has to be in order to fit in people's pockets.
Many phones these days are being manufactured without a notification LED—it's a cost-cutting move, and it's really not an essential component. However, the notification light on Android devices has traditionally alerted users to any missed messages, and this is functionality you can't get without the proper hardware.
This week has been quite a successful one for Google, thanks to non-stop news coverage of their developer-focused I/O conference.
With the FBI getting access to iPhones, and apps like Waze being used to track people's locations, you've got to wonder just how safe and secure your smartphone is... or isn't. When you consider everything you do on your phone, from taking and sharing pictures to mobile banking, keeping your information safe is a crucial step that may seem out of your hands.
A handful of retailers have put the newest Nexus smartphones on sale again, so you're in luck if you missed out on picking one up during the discount period last month. Actually, you might be better off since some retailers are giving away freebies with some models, too.
Mobile data is expensive. The internet connection that comes with your cell phone plan is generally limited to a certain amount of gigabytes that can be downloaded before your monthly cap kicks in, at which point you run the risk of incurring costly overage fees.
New technologies in current-generations smartphones allow for much faster charging—Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0, VOOC Flash Charge, and USB Type-C, for instance, can charge a phone up to 4 times faster than traditional methods. However, the majority of phones on the market still don't support these standards. So for the rest of us, I'll go over an easy tip that can charge any smartphone as much as 25% faster.
Unless you're in law enforcement, you won't usually have a flashlight on hand for those rare moments when you need to sift through the dark. However, it is very likely that you will have your phone on you, so you'll have fast access to a bright light with just a few easy taps.
Star Wars season is definitely upon us. No matter where you turn, you can't go a day without being bombarded by merchandising and co-branding advertisements that attempt to draw a parallel between some character from a galaxy far, far away and a galactic cruiser like the Dodge Viper, or a midichlorian-laden power source like Duracell. Yep, it's kind of annoying, but at least we can get some fun out of it here and there.
Of all the new features in Android 6.0 Marshmallow, an automatic battery-saving function called "Doze" might just be the most interesting. What it all boils down to is that if you set your phone down on a flat surface, the device uses internal sensors to detect that it's motionless and not in use, then responds by drastically scaling back battery-sucking services until the next time you pick your phone up.
Samsung's Galaxy series of devices have one common design theme that ties them all together—the physical home button at the bottom of the phone. This button can wake the phone, take you to your home screen, and even scan your fingerprint to securely unlock your device.
In general, the fingerprint scanner in Samsung's 2015 flagship phones is quick and accurate, but when you get that "No Match" message while trying to unlock your phone, it can be incredibly annoying. To help curb these issues, I'll go over three tips for speeding up the unlocking process that should work wonders on your Galaxy S6, S6 Edge, S6 Edge+, or Note 5.
The telecommunications industry has come a long way since Ma Bell opened the first telephone exchange in the late 1800s. With the advent of fiber optics and wireless broadband technology, we no longer have a need for a dedicated phone connection, as today's data networks can carry much more than a simple voice conversation.
Before I start this tutorial, no, this is not that "Effective. Power." text that is going around. With that being said, let's talk about this attack.
The Galaxy S6 might just be the best Android phone on the market right now. From a hardware standpoint, Samsung truly knocked this one out of the park with its finely-crafted build quality and amazing screen.
We all know that opening our work emails at home is a bad habit. Yet reading and responding to emails every time your iPhone dings is worse than you might realize. Not only are you extending the workday, but you are also sacrificing your ability to perform on a daily basis.
Straight out of the box, the Nexus 5 is an awesome device, but even it can be faster with better battery life. Luckily, one of the things that makes it so awesome is that there are tons of developers creating mods for it, since it runs stock Android by default. When it comes to gaining speed and better battery life, flashing a custom kernel is the way to go.
Update: August 1, 2014 Earlier today, President Obama signed into law the Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act, making the act of unlocking your unsubsidized cell phone 100% legal.
Owning an Android device is almost like having a PC in your pocket. Android's ability to easily navigate the file system on your phone is one of many features that separate it from the competition. Just plug your phone into a computer, drag the file over, and you're all set.
Mobile carriers have been the bane of my existence for as long as I've had a phone. First, they take away unlimited data, and then when you try and switch carriers, they hold your phone hostage for a up to a week before unlocking it from their network.
One of the best things about the Nexus line of devices is the ease with which one can achieve root. Plug your phone into your PC, download a couple files, type a few commands, and you can be rooted within 30 minutes. No muss, no fuss, no carrier-locked bootloaders.
Having a dust- and water-resistant phone is truly useful, but it comes with a price. In order to achieve this functionality, Samsung had to literally plug up any holes in the Galaxy S5, and this included the charging port.
If you drop your smartphone in water, take it apart as much as you can and place it in rice. It's been the most recommended method of cell phone rescue since the days of clamshells. In fact, it's usually the only thing recommended when searching for "how to save your wet phone." Turns out, we've been wrong all along.
If you've ever seen one of those Samsung commercials from about a year back, you know that the Galaxy S series of phones come with a feature that allows you to do certain things by making gestures in front of your screen. They call this feature Air Gesture, and it enables you to perform certain functions without even touching your phone.
Did you know that using your Nexus 5 can deprive you of sleep—and not just because you can't seem to quit playing that addicting game or watching Netflix videos?
As fellow softModders, I'm sure you strive to find any and every way to make your phone unique. Wallpapers and icon packs are great to get started, but to really stand out from the rest, try changing your HTC One's boot animation.
With Google's recent release of the Software Developers Kit for Chromecast, Android gurus now have a roadmap of sorts to guide them in adding Chromecast functionality to their apps. The results are beginning to pour in.
Amazon.com has been around for a long time now, but there are still a few things most people don't know about when it comes to buying products from them. Here's a quick roundup of tips to help you get the most out of Amazon and save some money in the process. The holidays are the busiest time of year for online shopping, but these tricks will work all year around.
WhatsApp is one of the most well-known and most utilized cross-platform chat applications available today. It's free for one year, and only $0.99 a year after, which is chump change when you realize there are no hidden costs like international charges. Basically, it creates an easy to use forum for you and your friends to chat, regardless if they're an Android or iPhone user.
Samsung's quick settings toggles are insanely useful for accessing settings that you would normally need to dig into menus for. Definitely a case of function over form, though. TouchWiz's bright green on dark blue has to be one of the fugliest color combinations I have ever seen.
Just because your Samsung Galaxy Note 2 is on silent doesn't mean that the world stops spinning. Emergencies can pop up at any time, even when your phone is put away during a lecture in class, in the library, or at an important business meeting.
The first thing I do when I get a new phone is ditch the USB cable. At least, when it comes to data transfer. My brand new HTC One came with a USB cord that feels sturdy, but like any other cable, it will eventually fall apart from overuse. It will probably still charge just fine, but at that point it will be unreliable for transferring data. Lucky for me, there's a solution. Transfer files over the air. This will let you save that USB cord only for charging and the occasional situation when ...
Sense appears on over forty Android devices, but HTC's notorious GUI was actually designed with a completely different mobile OS in mind—Windows.
A few months ago I was driving around trying to find a store using Apple Maps (a terrible situation in and of itself), when my iPhone decided to shut off in the middle of giving me directions. I had no idea what happened, and when I looked at the screen, I saw this: My phone had never overheated and I really didn't know what to do. Needless to say, I couldn't really get to where I was trying to go without those directions. I pulled over and waited for the phone to cool back down, which took a...
In most states, it's completely legal to record a telephone conversation that you're a part of without the other parties knowing. You can even record a conversation that you're not a part of, as long as you have consent from at least one person involved in the call.
We go to such great lengths to secure our smartphones. We put passwords on our lock screens, encrypt our data, and install anti-theft programs, but it's never enough—someone, somewhere, will find a way around any protective measure you use, no matter how sophisticated.
Since the introduction of the Nexus 4 to the Google Play Store last November, the phone's been in constant demand thanks to the low price and sleek design. Even today, the phone is still listed as sold out. LG's Nexus 4 is also the only smartphone in circulation that can run a naked version of the Android operating system; one that does not come loaded with a manufacturer UI running over top of it.
Inductive charging is already a reality on popular smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S III and Google Nexus 4, and Apple has recently published a patent that would make inductive chargers a reality for the iPhone. There are also several phones that have the capability for wireless charging, such as the Samsung Galaxy Note II.
I don't know how many of you had this experience in your youth, but when I was a kid, I used to actively think about what would happen if I suddenly woke up in a fantasy land, or were to pass through a portal into another space and time. I knew it wouldn't really happen, but when you're a kid, these can be important issues to you. So I slept with my glasses on every night, just in case. Photo from George Pal's The Time Machine.
When the specs for Google's Nexus 4 came out, most critics were more than thrilled. A very fast processor, lots of RAM, a big display with very high resolution, and an 8MP camera made it the media darling of the smartphone world. It climbed the ranks of the best smartphones available, but couldn't quite reach to the top due to one reason—no 4G LTE. Samsung's Galaxy S III and Apple's iPhone 5 both come with 4G LTE, so why couldn't the LG Nexus 4? While there are many reasons, Google was stated...
