Many of us were required to take a foreign language in school, but sadly, many of us are far from fluent in said language. To be a better citizen of the world, learning popular and rare languages would be dope, but in reality, that's probably never going to happen. If you ever do find yourself in a situation where you're messaging people who don't speak your language, there's an app that can help you.
For some strange reason, when the Nexus 5 got its Lollipop update, the new stock system sounds were left out. These include updated versions of all of the ringtones and notifications, which Google revamped with a more mature sound that matches Android 5.0's elegant Material Design.
Navigating through the darkness—literal darkness, not the existential variety—is always a difficult task on its own, and my Android doesn't necessarily make it any easier. Many manufacturers offer quick access to a flashlight or torch feature, but my Galaxy S4 doesn't have an easily accessible toggle or button available to turn it on.
Most people's fascination with social media these days is the instant gratification that can come with it. Whether you post an image on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, or Twitter, a minute or two later your phone will receive a notification informing you of a buddy or two who liked it.
Notifications are an integral part of our day-to-day smartphone usage. They allow us to easily see and act upon all of the latest information that comes our way. Well, most of the time, that is.
If you've ever tried to record a Snapchat video of a song playing in your car, you know that it's impossible to do if the song is playing on the same device that you're Snapchatting with.
Ever wanted to communicate with another driver on the road, but just didn't know how? Sure, you could flag them down by waving or honking at them, but that assumes that they're in close proximity, that you have a unobscured path, and that they're paying attention. And if you're in a fit of road rage, flagging them down probably isn't the best idea for either of you.
Every so often, we come across an app that makes us wonder "Why didn't someone think of this before?" This is definitely the case with developer Dor Sakal's latest offering, FloatNote.
Aside from being able to change the wallpaper and add shortcuts, the Galaxy S4's lock screen doesn't offer much in the department of personalization. The lock screen is efficient and practical, but it's also a little bland.
This past Halloween, 26-year-old Gabrielle Wathen learned the hard way about Uber's ridiculously expensive surge prices. After a night out and an Uber ride home, she learned that the 20-minute drive cost her more than $360.
A shady practice in place by AT&T and Verizon Wireless—and possibly more wireless carriers—was recently uncovered. Outgoing data requests sent from devices on these service providers are being injected with a Unique Identifier Header (UIDH) that allows websites, the carriers, and potentially even government agencies to track your online activity.
Tuesday has long been considered the best day to save money on a plane ticket. Airlines typically announce new deals on Monday, so by Tuesday, all other airlines have matched their competitor's lowest fares. It's a tip that I learned at a young age from my father and was solidified by countless others who swore by it. Well, it turns out that we were all wrong.
Google's new Inbox by Gmail service wants to fundamentally change the way you handle email, so a bit of a learning curve is to be expected when you're first using the utility. As of right now, the service is invite-only, but if you were lucky enough to get in on the ground floor, you're probably wondering, "How the heck do I use this thing?"
Thanks to Apple's implementation of Continuity on Mac OS X Yosemite and iOS 8, communication is truly a seamless thing. Without even looking at my iPhone, I can message or call friends comfortably from my computer or iPad.
When I was young, I wanted nothing more but to be able to freeze things just like one of my favorite X-Men characters, Iceman. Now, Disney's most successful animated film to date, Frozen, brought another icy childhood favorite to the scene—The Snow Queen. And with Halloween right around the corner, all of the princesses out there can get their chance at being ice royalty. While Princess Anna and Olaf the Snowman were the biggest characters in Frozen, Elsa is one of the movie's most memorable ...
Your favorite instant messaging service might not be your friend's preferred choice of communicating, and your sibling might prefer yet another. So when they send you messages via different apps, it's like having one address but multiple mailboxes on a single porch.
Google continues to be the most commonly-used search engine for a reason. While continuing to stay ahead of the pack with advanced semantic search functions, Google even introduced Knowledge Graph results that offer key information without ever having to click a search result.
By now, you've probably already installed 10.10 Yosemite, the newest version of Mac OS X, on your computer. While you most certainly noticed the visual changes, you might have missed some of the really cool additions.
With all of the cool new animations and features in the upcoming Android 5.0 Lollipop release, some pretty awesome system apps may have been overlooked amidst the fanfare. Most noticeably, a new Messenger app was added to the OS, containing many touches of Material Design.
It didn't take long at all for developer Chainfire to sort out a root method for the new Android 5.0 Lollipop. After handling a few issues with changes to the SELinux kernel module, Chainfire pushed out an update to his popular SuperSU root app.
Whether if it's to play games or watch Netflix or YouTube, children love using our smartphones and tablets. As an uncle of many, I don't mind my nieces and nephews using my gear, but I do mind them opening apps they have no business being in, like my photo gallery or messaging app.
Pop princess Ariana Grande has had quite the year. She released her second consecutive number-one album and is on the cusp of her first headlining tour in the U.S. early next year.
It takes a lot of time, effort, and cash to create a unique Halloween costume that will likely never see the light of day after the 31st. Not to worry: you can do it on the cheap and feel savvy and creative while everybody compliments your ingenuity.
Google's Android L developer preview has given Android a more refined look, with developers excited to update their apps with the new Material Design UI. While some apps are slowly getting updated, QKSMS (QK for quick) is a 3rd-party text messaging app that was built with Material Design in mind.
We're living through the technological revolution, and while devices like the iPhone 6 or Galaxy S5 have made life easier and more entertaining, it's possible that sometimes our smartphone usage can become uncomfortably excessive. In your own experience, think about how anxious and off you feel when you leave your phone at home—Cell Phone Separation Anxiety or Phantom Phone Vibrations shouldn't be a real thing that we deal with.
Google has a practice known as dogfooding, where they use their employees to test new and upcoming features for their various services. Back in March, they accidentally released a dogfood version of YouTube on Google Play, and many Android users got their first behind-the-scenes glance at the internal testing features.
Unless you're waiting in line for your iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus, it's a sure bet that you'll be sitting by at home for your new device to get delivered today.
There are a ton of great new features in iOS 8, and one of the most interesting (and perplexing) ones is called "Family Sharing."
Waking up to hundreds of text messages in the morning usually points to one thing—group messages. Whether it's your fantasy football league, your work buddies, or just a bunch of bored friends, group messages can leave your iPhone vibrating off the hook.
If you purchased your Nexus 5 from Google Play in the United States, we've got great news for you. In an unprecedented move, Google has started offering customers the chance to exchange their broken or water-damaged Nexus 5 for a new or refurbished unit—free of charge.
While screenshotting a received Snapchat has never been a hard thing to do, saving one without being noticed is a completely different story. Previously, you would have to have either a rooted Android or jailbroken iOS device to save one of those self-destructing messages undetected, but one particular app has opened this trick up to the masses.
When I stumble upon a new song that I'm really into, I don't just listen to it repeatedly—I share it with family and friends that I think might enjoy it just as much as I do. Now, thanks to a new iOS app called Craaave, sharing those tunes are a cinch, no matter if I'm using Spotify, SoundCloud, or any other music streaming app on my iPhone.
Listen, I'm not disparaging using really good knives—they can literally change your life, or at the very least, the way you work in the kitchen. However, there are many cutting and slicing tasks where you're better off using a sturdy pair of kitchen shears rather than a chef's or even a paring knife.
Cooks both humble and great are constantly trying to figure out how to get the most juice out of lemons and limes. Why? Because they add so much freaking flavor to everything and are endlessly useful in cooking. Sometimes, it's even a matter of squeezing the most out of your money (earlier this year, the price of limes quadrupled, though it only lasted a few months).
With GPS chips and Wi-Fi positioning systems, a modern smartphone is capable of tracking its user's location with pinpoint accuracy. This being the case, it's strange that the most common text message sent today is still "Where are you?"
Google's Android Device Manager makes it extremely easy to track down your phone or tablet, but while it's simple to set up and use, it does require your device to have an active data connection, which can be an issue in some areas.
Most of the time, the LED notification light on the front of your Android device just sits there doing nothing. Other than that brief period of time between when you receive a notification and when you turn your screen on, it's practically useless for anything other than showing when your charger is plugged in.
Emoji icons can vary greatly from manufacturer to manufacturer. Normally, this isn't be a problem, unless all of your friends use iPhones and you're the only one that receives a different icon than the rest of your group. And for the record, they don't all correspond to each other, which only makes using them that much more difficult.
Security is a priority for many when they first set up their mobile devices. Nobody wants to have a stranger or nosey friend go through their phone and discover risqué photos or embarrassing text messages. These days, the closet is gone—everyone keeps their skeletons in their phones.
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.
