Spotlight makes finding apps, contacts, emails, songs, and old messages extremely easy on an iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch. You can even search for Wikipedia articles online, as well as perform general web searches.
As one of the most frequently used and popular applications available, Facebook is now attempting to be a little more considerate for those Android users that don't have a bleeding-edge device or fast data connections.
The prevalence of smartphones has had profound effects on how we communicate, view media, and preserve memories, among other things. But all of these new forms of doing things are snatched away from us as soon as our phones lose power. While work is constantly being done to stretch and extend battery life, it hasn't moved fast enough for the vast majority of us.
Google's original messaging service got a nice version bump today. Hangouts now sports stickers, video chat filters, an updated Material Design interface, and a few new features that should make the service a little more fun and easy to use.
With countless images and messages packed into one small device, security is always a high priority amongst iPhone users. For this reason, we've previously shown you how to make your iPhone's passcode match the current time, which made figuring out your passcode a lot more difficult for wandering eyes.
If there was anything missing from the notorious YO app, it was Aaron Paul's character from Breaking Bad, Jesse Pinkman, calling me by his signature catch phrase—you know the one.
While chatting in Hangouts on Android, inserting an emoji or animated sticker can instantly make the conversation more fun, but they'll eventually lose their charm, as most things do. Even if you add GIFs to your texting arsenal, things could get stale. That is, unless they're personalize GIFs you actually make yourself (the process is really simple).
Scrolling through my Instagram feed, I inevitably come across an image or video that I genuinely like amongst the countless selfies and plates of food porn. Naturally I want to save this image before it's buried under new posts from the heaps of people I follow, but I'm left stranded with only the ability to take a screenshot.
Lending someone your phone to make a call is always an awkward situation, as you closely monitor them to make sure they stick to a phone call rather than wandering off into private applications like your photo or messaging apps. You don't necessarily want to eavesdrop on their conversation, but trusting people with your phone is difficult, especially if you have some risqué or embarrassing pictures stored on it.
Reminding a spouse or roommate to pick up some last-minute groceries is typically done with a quick message that can easily go unnoticed or unseen. Your feeble attempt of a reminder won't work unless it's conveniently sent at the right moment, like when they're on their way home. Chances are, you'll forget to text them and they'll forget the earlier reminder you sent.
Google makes backing up your contacts, messages, and Wi-Fi passwords extremely easy, but leaves you out in the cold when it comes the data on your internal storage. With most Android devices now lacking SD card support, when you unlock your bootloader or do a factory reset, you're stuck having to back up everything to your computer beforehand.
While it can be argued that Google Chrome is generally a better browser, iPhone users tend to remain loyal to Safari. But one feature that gives Chrome the upper hand is its ability to recognize the language on any given page and offer you an option to translate it to your native language.
A warning to all of you iPhone users with parents, significant others, and nosy friends: Private Mode in the Safari browser isn't as private as you think. At least, not as private as it used to be back in iOS 7.
With a new, somewhat buried feature in iOS 8, unintentionally closing a tab in Safari is no longer the burden it used to be. With iOS 7, you had to tap on the bookmarks icon from the main toolbar and go through your history to get that accidentally closed tab back. Now, Apple makes it easy to much easier to remedy the situation.
There's a feature that debuted in iOS 7 that lets you to save your credit or debit card information in Safari so that you can auto-fill text boxes when purchasing something online. Unfortunately, you still had to manually fill in your card info the first time, and if you wanted to disable the feature for security concerns, it was entirely useless.
Skimming through the hundreds of photos you may have on your iPhone for that one selfie of you and your friends in Los Angeles can be a tedious task, especially if you were inebriated and snapping pics indiscriminately. Thankfully, as one of the many cool features available in iOS 8, the Photos app now lets you search your images based on date or location.
HTC is one of the few OEMs that make it easy to unlock the bootloader on their devices. And while they do warn you that doing so voids your warranty, they don't tell you that it also prevents you from collecting promotions that come with their devices.
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.
Quickly jotting down grocery lists, recommended books, phone numbers, and addresses, among other things, has been a pretty straightforward process on an iPad or iPhone. Through the Notes app, you can enter information and have it seamlessly synced across all of your iOS devices, making access to them simple, quick, and universal.
Everyone has that one friend who just can't help but send multiple texts in rapid-fire succession, when they just as easily could have been consolidated into one easy-to-read message. Alert after alert, this becomes extremely annoying as your phone shoots notification sounds and vibrations at you like it was possessed.
The camera on the Amazon Fire Phone is simple and easy-to-use, with a 13-megapixel rear shooter with optical image stabilization, but there are a couple of features that makes this camera stand out from others.
For some reason, when you're typing in landscape mode, Android extends the text input field to cover every bit of the screen that the keyboard's not occupying. This gets pretty annoying sometimes, especially with messaging apps where you might need to reference what the other person just said in order to properly form your response.
If you ever wanted to communicate with friends without having to deal with those pesky essentials like words and phrases, have no fear, Emoj.li is here!
Location-based app shortcuts in iOS 8 work at places like Starbucks, the Apple Store, as well as train stations, banks, hospitals, grocery stores, and more. When you're in the vicinity of these locations, a small notification appears at the bottom left of the lock screen. You you can slide up on these icons (as you would on the camera icon on the lock screen) to access specific apps based on where you're located, making it easy to access your Starbucks account when you're buying coffee or che...
Using Shazam has quite literally spared me hours of searching the internet for the name of a song I briefly heard for a few seconds. At WWDC, it was announced that iOS 8 now has Shazam technology integrated into Siri. What makes it even cooler is that you don't even need the Shazam app on your device.
If you've seen any videos of aurora borealis, star trails, or a solar eclipse, then you're probably well familiar with time-lapse photography. Whether it's a beautiful moving landscape or a deadly natural disaster, time-lapses show us what would otherwise be hour-long recordings as short and sweet videos.
If rapid battery drain is something that's been an issue for you in the past, Apple is now making it easier to monitor what might be the problem. In the new iOS 8, you can now check battery usage for every app on your device.
The new operating system for your Mac is here, and it looks fantastic—OS X Yosemite. At Apple's WWDC presentation, we were shown the new iOS-like aesthetics, as well as other awesome enhancements to the operating system. Improved Aesthetics
Keeping track of your phone's battery life can quickly become a chore. Since no one wants to get stuck without a charge, we constantly find ourselves checking to see exactly what percentage remains.
Adding to the recent recent slew of bugs and issues within iOS 7, it now seems that emails sent with attachments are not encrypted, despite Apple's claims that they are.
There's a 2800mAh battery powering the Samsung Galaxy S5, but even it's no match for the constant day-to-day torture you put it through. Taking photos, watching videos, and playing games can make your fully charged S5 powerless in no time.
If you are using the the AT&T variant of the HTC One, you are well aware that the carrier opted not have the HTC Backup app pre-installed on the device. Luckily for us, HTC said "screw it" and put the app on Google Play, allowing anyone with an HTC One, regardless of carrier, to be able to download and use the app—if you're an AT&T customer, grab the app and let's take a quick walkthrough (again, the rest of us on other carriers should have the app already).
If you watched a YouTube video on your Android device today, you may may noticed something just a little different. If you haven't, go check out the app in your drawer or homepage. Google today pushed out an update to their YouTube app, but by all accounts, it was never meant to hit the public. This is labeled a dogfood build, which is a term used to describe products going through in-house testing, in effect "eating their own dogfood".
While both Rdio and Beats Music look to be developing support for Chromecast, Spotify has kept their distance from the Google dongle, focusing instead on "several prevailing priorities."
There are a lot of cool new features in iOS 8 that weren't available in previous iOS versions, but it's still lacking overall in terms of customization.
The iOS 7 lock screen was made to be just that, a lock screen, so it's pretty limited in terms of functionality. We're able to add wallpapers and easily access the Control Center or Notification Center (unless we disable that access through our settings), but other than that, it's pretty bland.
So, I'm playing Injustice: Gods Among Us and whooping some serious superhero ass when out of nowhere I receive a stupid notification that ruins my game and subsides my thunder!
When iOS 7 was released, there were actually news reports of people getting disoriented and sick due to the motion of the parallax effect, along with the speedy animations when opening and closing apps and folders.
Let me begin this tutorial by reiterating how boring an iOS device can get, like my iPhone. It's extremely popular, yet extremely strict in terms of personalization.
We may all have a Nexus 7 tablet, but we don't all want to have the exact same look and feel, which is why we softMod for a more personalized vibe. There are hundreds of cool mods you can perform on your Nexus 7, whether stock or rooted, but one of my favorites in Android 4.4 KitKat was unlocking the hidden battery percentage icon in the Status bar.