When Google released Android 4.2, a new feature was introduced for tablets that allowed for multiple accounts to be used on a single device. In order to create a unique experience for each user, apps and personal data were kept separate, and switching between users became as simple as tapping your profile photo from the lock screen.
People who know that I am a professional hacker often ask me what they can do to make their computers and personal information safe from people like me. The answer, of course, is that nothing will make you completely safe, but there are a number of measures any computer user can take to reduce the chances of being a victim of a hacker.
The latest software update to the Amazon Fire Phone packed a lot of new and enhanced features, one of which makes the Carousel (a favorite feature of mine) much more useful.
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.
Does it seem like everybody you know is declaring that they're gluten-free? Some wonder if the number of people with celiac disease are on the rise or if it's the latest fad diet. And it even goes beyond food: now there are beauty products that tout themselves as being free of gluten.
Google's upcoming Android release hasn't even received a name or version number yet, but the third-party development community is already having its way with the firmware.
There will always be a time when you're not entirely sure what you're doing with a certain subject. But the days of weighing the pros and cons yourself are coming to an end. Whether it's a common quandary like "Where should we eat?", or a more specific question along the lines of "Should I buy this shirt or not?", you can now simply AskInternets.
With AirPlay for iOS, Chromecast Screen Mirroring, and even third-party PC-pairing apps to play around with, getting your devices to interconnect could not be any easier than it is today.
On a recent trip to Palm Springs, I found myself navigating with Google Maps and virtually exploring my destiniation using its built-in Street View feature. The thing is, using Street View can make keeping track of your exact location difficult as you zoom in, out, and about. It's a little discombobulating.
They say that ignorance is bliss, and that is exactly how I feel about counting calories. They simply don't exist if I don't check them, right? For those of you who are much healthier than I am, General Electric wants to count them for you, via your microwave!
With Google's latest version of their mobile OS, Android L, the most notable aesthetic difference is the newly introduced Material Design concept that will soon be ever-present through the interface. The objective of this bold design is to create "hierarchy, meaning, and focus," as described by Google, and the deliberate choices of color and white space "to create immersion and clarity."
Unless you are or know a developer, you'll have to wait until sometime in September for the official iOS 8 to hit your iPad or iPhone. However, that doesn't mean you can't get some of iOS 8's new features on your iOS 7 device right now. For example, the new Notification Center, which I'll show you how to install below.
Google I/O, the national developer conference for the Mountain View giant, has come and gone. We saw the preview for Android L (which you can get right now on your Nexus 5 or Nexus 7), Android Wear, and Android Car and TV.
You may not have noticed it, but Google snuck a new feature into Glass recently. Called Notification Glance, this feature lets you view new notifications by simply looking up at the screen.
If you want to try out some of the new features in Android L, but can't run the developer preview on your Nexus—or simply don't want to—there's still hope. You don't actually need to be running Android L to try out some of the new improvements.
The Spanish and Portuguese introduced many things (some desirable, some not, depending on your POV) to Mexico in the sixteenth century: Christianity, language, and lots of flora and fauna.
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.
One of the most common complaints that people have about the Nexus 4 would have to be its intermittently poor Wi-Fi performance, a problem that for many, persists through the installation of updates and even custom ROMs.
Chrome and Firefox are the leading third-party web browsers on the desktop platform, so it would make sense that they'd go head-to-head in a fight for living room supremacy.
According to a recent survey conducted by Edison Research and Statista, Pandora still has a firm grasp as the most popular music streaming service in the United States. With iHeartRadio, iTunes Radio, and even Spotify trailing behind by a large margin, it doesn't look like Pandora will lose their footing in the near future.
Welcome back, my greenhorn hackers! Lately, much of the discussion here on Null Byte has revolved around evading detection and not getting caught hacking. Several of you have written me asking for a series on evading detection and forensics, and while I began a series 5 months ago on just that, we have changed hacking platforms from BackTrack to Kali, which has a much more highly developed forensic toolset.
According to T-Mobile's website, an Android version bump is due out today. While details of specific changes are sparse, the support documentation for Nexus devices very clearly notes a release date of June 2nd for the software. Sprint may have jumped the gun with its own outing of a 4.4.3 update about a month ago, but all indications point towards today's date marking the beginning of a staged-rollout from Google.
Facebook is a black hole. The constant stream of baby photos, #hashtags, BuzzFeed quiz results, and unintelligible status updates is mind-numbing. I know too much about too many people I hardly know.
It started in Australia, and now seems to have made its way statewide—hackers are remotely locking iOS and Mac devices, holding them for a $100 ransom. Users awoke to the loud "lost iPhone" ringtone, with a message on their lock screen stating that "Oleg Pliss" has hacked their device, and that "they" will unlock it after being sent $100 through PayPal.
Normally, your sound settings only let you change up a few of the sounds on your device—generally your ringtone and default notification sound. While some developers include the option to choose custom notification sounds within their app's settings, most of the time you are left with an ambiguous ringer for everything—not very helpful for identifying what app that alert just came from.
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.
There's more to earning someone's trust than simply shaking their hand, especially if you're not particularly trustworthy. Your body language doesn't reveal your thoughts, it reveals your intentions, and sometimes intentions are better left unrevealed. Psychopaths, take note...
Samsung and Microsoft do it out of the box, Google does it with a little tweaking, and they all do it well—multitasking. While we can hope for better (or simply any) multitasking integration for the next iteration of the iPad and iPad mini, a new jailbreak tweak eliminates the wait.
I don’t buy socks—I get a pack from my parents on Christmas Day, so I’ve got to make sure they last all year. Other than losing them mysteriously in the dryer, the biggest threat to my limited sock collection is a stretched out cuff. Nothing's more frustrating than a loose sock sliding down into your shoe.
This week, Google sidestepped their usual "Update Wednesday" strategy by dropping a huge update to their Maps app for both Android and iOS. We're accustomed to seeing new features and bug fixes to their stable of apps on Wednesdays, but today's Maps update was presumably big enough to get its own release day (it's Tuesday, folks).
The Galaxy S5 is a flagship-level device with some pretty advanced features, like its 4K video recording capability, water-resistant casing, fingerprint sensor, and KitKat running out of the gate.
One subtle change that Samsung made with the Galaxy S5 is their replacement of the Menu softkey with one for recent applications. Instead of holding down on the Home button, we now have the Recents button, which is used for easy access to multitasking.
Like many of you softModders out there, I'm always on the lookout for the newest ROMs, and that usually requires multiple ROM installs every week. While Google is pretty good about restoring apps, sometimes it misses some and it can be a hassle to get them all installed again.
Out of the box, your Android device can be customized in many different ways, and a ton more with root access, but adjusting the actual interface of the system is a little bit more challenging. Changing the status bar size, icon width/length, and positioning of toast notifications are things that require a little bit more know-how—until now.
A lot of people rely on the date on the packaging to tell them when food has gone bad, even with eggs, but the sell-by dates are often somewhat arbitrary and are not expiration dates. If you've been tossing your eggs based on the dates on your carton—you could be wasting perfectly good food.
With popular remote desktop app LogMeIn recently ending its free service, lots of Android users have begun looking for alternatives. There are some good ones out there like TeamViewer and Microsoft Remote Desktop, but today, Google released an app that makes a pretty good contender.
Numbers are everywhere in life, and some are better at doing the math than others. Unless you're Gert Mittring, it's safe to say you use the calculator app on your tablet just as much as I do, and it's often disrupting your other tasks.
The list of streaming services is pretty vast, from HBO GO to Hulu to Netflix, these subscription-based services have never been so popular, and have never been easier to watch now that they have Chromecast support.
Utility tool apps provide extremely powerful and useful lightweight replacements for your parents' heavy archaic tools—everything from flashlights to tracking systems and more.
As Microsoft unveiled their new Windows Phone 8.1 software update yesterday, undoubtedly the most memorable takeaway was their showcase of Cortana. Competing directly against Apple's Siri and Google's Now, Cortana is Microsoft's entry into the digital voice assistant fray, and the official replacement to their search app.
