In case you didn't know, Android has an awesome hidden settings menu called "Developer options" that contains a lot of advanced and unique features. If you've ever come across this menu before, chances are you just dipped in for a minute so that you could enable USB debugging and use ADB features.
Smartphones have otherworldly specs these days, so it's relatively uncommon that you hear someone complaining about display resolution, build quality, or general speed and performance. At best, these are secondary concerns, with the number 1 issue almost unilaterally being battery life.
If you're just starting out with Android—or smartphones in general, for that matter—there are a lot of little things to learn. One of the first terms you'll likely encounter is "Wi-Fi," which is a wireless internet connection served up by a router in your home, office, or local coffee shop. This differs from your smartphone's regular "Mobile Data" connection, which is provided by your cellular carrier and included as part of your monthly bill.
Linux and Mac users have long enjoyed the use of multiple virtual desktops to free up clutter on their home screen and keep individual workflow environments separated, but Windows users have always been stuck with one solitary desktop.
The world's most commonly-used desktop operating system is getting a huge makeover in the form of Windows 10. While there are many sweeping changes in this new version, some of the smaller tweaks may prove to be the most useful.
For most of us, the primary reason we capture videos on our iPhones is to post on one of the various social media platforms out there, like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, or Twitter, providing instant gratification by receiving a proverbial nod from our followers.
After rumors and mockups and all sorts of speculated features, Apple has finally brought true multitasking to the iPad in iOS 9, with the long-rumored split screen feature (which is also in El Capitan) that lets you use two apps at once. This feature is actually two different ones called Split View and Slider Over, and they both work differently.
Out of all the new features in iOS 9, the two most important ones specific to iPads are split screen multitasking and floating video windows. The latter is truly great, since you can watch movies or use FaceTime while you use different apps. The feature is called Picture in Picture, and here's what you need to know about it.
As a Mac and Sasmsung Galaxy S6 user, I quickly realized that the two devices don't play well with one another out of the box, and using ADB commands to record my Android's screen isn't as simple as it is would be with a Windows PC.
With the Galaxy S6 Edge, the curved display is mainly an aesthetic feature. Unlike the Galaxy Note Edge, Samsung didn't include many software features to take advantage of its unique design, outside of the scrolling tickers and night clock. For instance, with the Note Edge, you can launch apps from the curved portion of the screen—but this isn't true for the S6 Edge.
As your Galaxy S6 lies on your desk while you're hard at work, it's difficult to resist from periodically pressing the wake/lock button to check the weather or glance over any notifications you may have on your lock screen. While pressing the hard key is easy enough, there's an even easier method where you simply hover your hand over the device to wake the screen.
Android's auto brightness feature was recently updated, and as of version 5.0, a new "Adaptive brightness" feature was added. This allows users to set a preferred overall brightness level, but still have the ambient light sensor adjust the backlight accordingly.
The Nexus 6 has an AMOLED screen that uses virtually no power to display black pixels. To take advantage of this feature, Google included an Ambient Display notification system that shows a black and white version of your lock screen when you get a new message. As a result, the Nexus 6 doesn't use an LED light to notify you of new incoming messages like most phones.
Collaborating with other people can be a pain, especially if you have to share one device between the entire group. Usually when you're creating a new design or trying to edit a mockup, you end up hunched around a single screen or end up emailing revisions back and forth, which can be difficult when you're short on time.
With the release of various new and updated Samsung Galaxy S6 apps and features, like Smart Switch, Smart Remote, and wallpapers, something that's a home screen staple for most Android users was still missing.
You can find a plethora of tennis games on the Google Play Store, but if you're a true tennis fan and gaming enthusiast, you should check out Tennis Racketeering by Core Aplikacije. The game lets you use an additional Android device as a racket, giving you Wii-like abilities without Nintendo. It's simple to set up and extremely fun to play, so follow along below to see how it works.
For all of the flak that it catches, Wikipedia is still a great source of information. Contributors take their work very seriously, so the vast majority of information is cited, and the site serves very well as a starting point to learn about a new topic.
The bulk of my mobile gaming is done in instances of boredom, like sitting in a waiting room or watching bad TV. So when I heard about a new trivia game that pits every user against each other just once a day, I was immediately intrigued; it's a new spin on a very popular platform.
Apple released iOS 8.2 on March 9th for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, which contains bug fixes and stability enhancements for certain stock features. If you've updated your device already, you've probably already noticed that you get the new Apple Watch app, too—no matter if you plan on getting a pricey Apple Watch or not.
Yes, they're called volume keys, but they can do much more than adjust your volume. With minimal effort, you can do some amazing things with these physical buttons, like secretly record videos, toggle on your flashlight, scroll through pages, control your music, and much more. And while using them to wake your screen is useful, let's take it a step further and show you how to use them to completely unlock your device, even if the screen is off.
Contacts on your phone can be messy. Keeping all of those numbers, emails, and addresses organized takes time and, even then, they still may not be be as accessible as you want them to be.
With Android 5.0, Google introduced a new "Heads Up" notification system for incoming calls and messages. While the new incoming call interface seems to be a rousing success, the rest of the Heads Up system has been met with much less enthusiasm from users.
As one of the most frequently used Android browsers, making Chrome work faster and more efficiently is something we can surely all appreciate. And just like its computer-based counterpart, there are experimental flags for the mobile app that can speed browsing up significantly.
Google debuted YouTube Music Key in November, and for $10 a month, this essentially turned YouTube into a music streaming service. With ad-free music videos and background audio playback, YouTube serves as a viable alternative to Spotify or Pandora for Music Key subscribers.
Step 1: Introduction: Hello! Hackers
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.
Many manufacturers add a custom skin on top of their Android builds, but none are more widely praised than HTC's Sense UI. The general consensus among Android users says that HTC's visual tweaks are done in good taste, and the features they add are both functional and warranted.
Widget toggles, or "power toggles" as they're often called, have been around for quite a while. They serve their purpose nicely as an easy way to add switches to your home screen or notification area for functions that don't come with the stock software on your device.
I'm all about customizing my iPhone and making it as different as possible from everyone else's. While it's easy to change the wallpaper, swap keyboards, and hide apps on your home screen, there's not much else you can do aesthetically without jailbreaking, especially when it comes to the status bar and app icons.
Just in time for the holiday festivities, iOS developer Tristan Kennedy has created a snowy HTML widget for your jailbroken iPhone's home screen called SnowScreen. Simply apply the widget and you'll have a falling snow animation layered over whatever wallpaper you already have. Without further adieu, let's show you how to apply this tweak.
The attention to detail and build quality that Motorola put into the new Nexus 6 is amazing. Its curved backplate fits the hand like a glove, and fingers slide effortlessly across the rounded edge of its glass front, making the swipe gesture for side navigation menus feel more natural than ever—even for its huge, nearly six inch display.
When playing a game or using an app, incoming call alerts can be extremely irritating on my Galaxy S4 because they insist on taking over the entire screen. The alert is a little different on other Android phones, depending on the manufacturer's skin, but all are fairly intrusive in one way or another.
Practically every kid in the '80s would rush home after school to put in some time on the first-gen Nintendo before their parents got home. Games like Super Mario Bros. and Super Smash Bros. were synonymous with fun times, and to this day, call up a wave of nostalgia amongst Generation-Xers.
Android 5.0's Material Design is truly a sight to behold. With beautiful transition animations and brand new system menus, Android has never looked better.
With the new version of Android due out very soon, Android 5.0 "Lollipop" has received a ton of press lately. It's all well-deserved, of course, because the new "Material Design" interface is absolutely beautiful.
Multitasking is useful in pretty much all walks of life. Being able to do two things at once is better than just doing one thing... who would've thought. When it come to multitasking on my phone, I am constantly jumping between apps—whether it's browsing Facebook while looking at pictures to post or reading my Twitter timeline while keeping up on sports scores.
It's been a long-awaited feature since being announced at Google I/O in June, but Backdrop for Chromecast has finally started rolling out. With an update to the Chromecast app for Android and iOS, users will be able to personalize the background images that appear when Chromecast is idle.
Living in a densely populated city means that I usually have a strong cell signal, but that isn't always the case when I start driving out to the boonies. When I do get that occasional dropped call, it makes more sense to shoot off a text or email instead of trekking around trying to get more bars.
Among the additions that Apple's included in iOS 8 for iPhones are a couple of new features to the Camera app, including a timer and manual control of the exposure setting. Hit up the video to see how these new features work, of scroll down for the written walkthrough.
App switchers are a great way to conveniently access your favorite applications from any screen, but most limit the number of apps you can use. That means that whenever you want to switch over to another app, you have to leave your current one, and either find the one you want in recents, on your home screen, or in your app drawer.
