Smartphone users often wish for a privacy, where no one is able to poke his/her nose in their personal stuff. Unfortunately, none of the smartphones have been able to guard their privacy in this fashion. Smartphones usually come up with none or almost negligible built-in security to serve your purpose.
As an Android user, there aren't many elements of my friend's iPhone that I find myself envious of, because anything he can do on iOS, I can surely find a way to do on Android...often better.
The king of all Xposed modules is alive and kicking on Android Lollipop. GravityBox received an update over the weekend that will bring its bevy of UI tweaks to folks who have installed the framework on their Android 5.0+ devices.
UPDATE 11/17/15 The Xposed Framework now officially supports Android 5.1 through 5.1.1 Lollipop devices as well. Everything will still work the way it has with Android 5.0 through 5.0.2, but there are a separate set of files for the newer Android version. I'll cover both below, but make sure to download the proper file for your particular version of Android.
Early last year, Google purchased Quest Visual, acquiring the immensely popular augmented reality translator app Word Lens in the process. While Google did put the feature on the Google Glass, they spoke more about implementing Word Lens into their Translate app sometime in the future.
There were over 1.2 million changes made to Android when the OS got updated from KitKat to Lollipop, but a minor front-facing modification has many users in an uproar.
Google+ doesn't have quite the user base of Facebook or Twitter, but for Android enthusiasts, it's definitely the place to be. All of the major developers—such as Chainfire and Koush—make their social media home on Google+, and the Android app sports one of the nicest interfaces of any comparable platform, chock-full of Google's Material Design.
With Nexus devices already enjoying Android 5.0 Lollipop, most other manufacturers are scrambling to get their flagships updated to Google's latest operating system. While HTC has promised Lollipop by the end of 2015, OEMs such as Motorola and Sony have already issued updates to their latest models. Then there's Samsung.
Back in iOS 7, Apple decided that it was actually a good thing to make the volume controls HUD translucent. This, of course, means that whatever you're watching on your screen will be obstructed temporarily whenever you adjust the volume.
Amid rumors of a 6-inch phablet Nexus and the impending release of Android "L", Google posted—then quickly removed—a trio of ads for their industry-leading mobile OS.
With the release of the ARChon Runtime, many Android apps can now be run within the Chrome web browser. Minor changes must be made to existing Android APK files before they can be installed on Chrome, so the process isn't exactly as easy as pasting an Android app into a folder on your computer.
When your iPhone can't be found, Find My iPhone is a true lifesaver. When you use the feature, you can ping your iPhone and even see its current location on a real-time map. But what happens when your iPhone runs out of battery? Find My iPhone can't locate a dead iPhone, can it? You might be surprised to know it can, to a certain degree.
I don't know of a pain greater than of the one felt after cracking the screen of your phone. After I managed to crack my screen, rendered unusable, I immediately began to panic as to how I was going to recover all of the photos, videos, and documents stored on my device. After a few hours of searching, I came upon a thread by Mohamad Sabra that showed exactly how to alleviate my problem.
An app can request a wakelock to prevent your Android device from entering sleep mode so that it can sync data in the background. This obviously drains your battery, because instead of running in low-power sleep mode, your processor is fully activated while it performs its tasks.
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?"
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.
Apple released iOS 7.1.2 just over three weeks ago, mostly to address some big security issues and a few minor bugs. Unfortunately, the update came with a problem of its own regarding missing contacts and iCloud syncing.
Samsung devices may dominate the Android market, but that doesn't mean everybody loves TouchWiz, the user interface on all of their smartphones and tablets. It's difficult to modify, comes with lots of bloatware, and isn't much to look at, to say the least.
This year's I/O was all about bringing Android into the future and onto new devices. On top of announcing the upcoming "L" release of its mobile OS, Google showcased Android Wear, Android Auto, and Android TV.
It's been over three months since iOS 7.1 came out, but your wait for jailbreak is now over. If you're still running iOS 7.0 iterations to maintain your jailbreak, you can now finally update to the latest and greatest thanks to a Chinese team of developers, who recently released their untethered jailbreak for Apple devices running iOS 7.1, 7.1.1, and even 7.1.2.
As it is right now in iOS 7, there is no quick way to delete all of your message threads in the Messages app at the same time. They can only be deleted one by one. If you followed our guide on jailbreaking, you could add a "delete all" option, but this is no longer necessary with the iOS 8 update.
While AT&T and Verizon may not have had a chance to screw Note 2 owners with unrootbale devices—mainly because they've screwed us over by not issuing KitKat updates—it's safe to say that they can in the future. And while Sprint and T-Mobile subscribers have been able to root, the various methods can make the process somewhat confusing, especially for first-timers.
It took many months of cries from all around the internet—and a particularly large groan from an ex-Lifehacker editor-in-chief—but Apple has not only acknowledged the existence of its iMessage problem, it's promising a fix.
With rumors of the Active and Prime versions on the immensely popular Galaxy S5 circling the web for the past few weeks, today, we've got some clear proof of the upcoming Active variant.
Log in to your LinkedIn profile, and you'll immediately be prompted to check out who's peeked at your profile. With one click, you can discover how many recruiters, companies, and random people have viewed your online resume.
While Snapchat's latest update brought messaging and video chatting, it also ruined something for us softModders—KeepChat. With KeepChat, we were able to save pictures and videos sent to us without the other person being notified. It was pretty slick, and I was beginning to miss it.
Recently, Sprint announced a partnership with Harman Kardon to deliver exclusive sound FX technology to their variant of the HTC One M8. The joint effort between the two companies is both to entice customers to switch to Sprint as well as improve the overall audio quality coming from the already extraordinary BoomSound speakers. But while this is great for new and existing Sprint customers, it does leave the rest of us out in the cold.
While you may suck at Instagram, it's likely that you manage multiple Instagram accounts, whether strictly for personal use or for managing blog and business pages.
Imagine that Tinder fornicated with Facebook and had a baby. The product of that union would be the hideous, yet overwhelmingly interesting SocialRadar, an app dedicated to stalkers and stalkees.
Recently, I offered a guide detailing how to run two separate windows on a Nexus 7 tablets for better multitasking. While extremely useful, that mod was limited to only two windows, and you also needed root access to use it.
This last weekend, Apple released the second beta of iOS 7.1 for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, and I've got a firsthand look of what's to come in iOS 7.1—the first major update since iOS 7 was released.
The infamous Red Ring of Death plagued the Xbox 360 for years, leading people like me over to the PlayStation 3 console. Now it looks like Sony and its new PlayStation 4 are running into the same problems as Microsoft did.
If you're not acquainted with 500px, you should be. One of the more preeminent photography communities out there, 500px takes you through a journey of incredible shots—anything from nature and urban explorations to cities and architecture to the abstract. Whatever your preference is, you can be sure to find it on 500px.
For now, the redesigned and fresh-faced Android 4.4 KitKat is exclusive to the new Nexus 5, though it will be rolling out to other Google (Nexus 4, Nexus 7, Nexus 10) and Google Play Editions (Samsung Galaxy S4, HTC One) devices in the next week or two.
Why I split it into two articles: I love images and I'm sure lots of us do. I decided to put in a lot of images as examples rather than have paragraph upon paragraph of boring text. Also, I don't think any of us like overly long articles; but if you think it's better to have it all in one article, let me know
The NSA's massive internet spying efforts will continue. In President Obama's latest press conference, he went public to (in so many words) say that the NSA's spying efforts will continue uninterrupted. This, coming just weeks after the Amash Amendment which would have defunded the program, was narrowly defeated in the House (you can check if your congressmen voted against it here).
The new Moto X is still a couple of weeks from being released here in the United States, but that doesn't mean we can't play around with a few of its cool features.
Android's stock appearance is easy on the eyes, but after a while, it's outright boring to look at. Unlike other tablets from some manufacturers, the Nexus 7 runs stock Android and is free from any special UI tweaks or customizations. Sure, you can download themes for a third-party launcher, but themes are launcher specific. They will not work for launchers they weren't designed for.
If your Samsung Galaxy Note 2 has been feeling sluggish lately, or you've noticed the battery not lasting as long as usual, the problem could be that you have too many applications running in the background.
Running multiple applications at the same time is one of the Samsung Galaxy S3's and S4's biggest advantages over Apple devices, and it's a fact that Samsung certainly harps on constantly in their well-targeted commercials.
