News: Starbucks Brews Up Augmented Reality App to Enhance Roastery Experience
To create a destination for coffee connoisseurs, Starbucks has ordered up a venti cup of augmented reality to make the visit more interactive.
Simultaneously Accessed Search Results
Instagram 101: How to Add Animated GIFs to Your Stories
If you've ever made an Instagram story, you probably know you can add stickers to your stories. These stickers are interactive but, like real stickers, they don't move ... until now. In a Jan. 23 update to the app, more action can be added to your stories with animated GIF stickers.
How To: Get Hands Free for Directions & Traffic Info from Waze to Avoid a Crash (Or Ticket)
Drivers the world over are painfully aware of the inherent danger of taking their eyes off the road even for a second. In fact, according to the National Safety Council, 27% of all car crashes result from distracted driving due to attempted cell phone use. Fortunately, Waze comes with a feature that can help keep you from being a part of this grim statistic.
Pocket Camp 101: Everything You Need to Know About Crafting in Animal Crossing
Crafting is an important aspect of Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, as it helps you get animals to come to your campsite. However, it's also one of the best ways to get ahead in the game, and there are a number of reasons for this.
How To: Now Playing History Lets You See All the Songs Your Pixel 2 Has Recognized
The Pixel 2 has a number of new unique features. One of the most interesting is the Now Playing option to identify songs you hear on a daily basis. Now Playing displays the artist and title of songs playing in the background of your day and shows this information on the lock screen. While this functionality is incredibly useful, the song history is not saved anywhere on your phone.
How To: Get Rid of Persistent Wallet Suggestions on Your iPhone's Lock Screen
When it comes to paying with Apple Pay, showing your rewards number or coupon at a store, or paying for your coffee with a digital gift card, Apple Wallet is as convenient as it gets. But one issue you'll probably experience at least once on your iPhone is a persistent notification on your lock screen to view or use one of your passes — even if you're not somewhere you can actually use it.
How To: Add Email Accounts to Mail in iOS 11 on Your iPhone
Using the Mail app to log in and sync to email services such as Gmail and Outlook is incredibly easy to accomplish on the iPhone thanks to the intuitive nature of its operating system. This is still evident with iOS 11, and though the process differs slightly from its predecessors, it can still be accomplished with relative ease.
How To: Use the File Manager on Your iPhone
Apple has finally given us a decent file manager in iOS 11. The new "Files" app replaces the not-very-old iCloud Drive app that appeared in iOS 9, but you can still access your iCloud Drive files in the new Files app, as well as files from third-party cloud services. A nice improvement, right?
Google Maps 101: How to Add a Stop After You've Started Navigation
More often than not, road trips will include unforeseen pit stops that have to be made, no matter how well prepared you are. In the past, making an unscheduled stop may have led to headaches and delays when your navigation app got off track, but thanks to a feature in Google Maps, this is no longer an issue.
How To: Map Networks & Connect to Discovered Devices Using Your Phone
Sharing your Wi-Fi password is like giving an unlimited pass to snoop around your network, allowing direct access even to LAN-connected devices like printers, routers, and security cameras. Most networks allow users to scan and attempt to log in to these connected devices. And if you haven't changed the default password on these devices, an attacker can simply try plugging them in.
How To: Drag & Drop Photos on Your iPhone in iOS 11
One of the more interesting improvements to the Photos app in iOS 11 includes a way to drag and drop a photo from one album into another album. In fact, you could even drag and drop multiple photos at the same time. And this is not an iPad-only feature — it works just as well on an iPhone.
News: AR-Enabled Moon Model Shoots Past Crowdfunding Goal
San Francisco-based startup AstroReality is putting the AR in lunar with a high-detailed model of the moon that comes to life through an accompanying augmented reality mobile app.
News: Dalux Adapts Augmented Reality to Mobile for Construction Industry
HoloLens developers have created some useful solutions for visualizing building models and viewing construction plans overlaid on the job environment.
News: For Virgin Mobile Customers, Twitter Just Became Free-er
How can something get more free than free? Well, in the case of Twitter, Virgin Mobile found a way with its newest promotion. If you have a 4G plan with Virgin Mobile, you can now access Twitter from your smartphone without it counting towards your monthly data allowance.
How To: Build a Pumpkin Pi — The Rogue AP & MITM Framework That Fits in Your Pocket
A man-in-the-middle attack places you between your target and the internet, pretending to be a Wi-Fi network while secretly inspecting every packet that flows through the connection. The WiFi-Pumpkin is a rogue AP framework to easily create these fake networks, all while forwarding legitimate traffic to and from the unsuspecting target.
Instagram 101: How to Take Better Instagram Photos Using HDR
There are so many tips and tricks on how to improve your Instagram photos, but one really easy way is to use the HDR camera setting. HDR is high dynamic range imaging and takes three exposures of a photo — overexposed, underexposed, and one in the middle at the normal exposure. The end result is just one image of the three exposures combined.
News: Magic Leap Founder Says Launch 'Not Far Away'
At the eMerge Americas investors conference in Miami, Florida, Magic Leap founder and CEO Rony Abovitz previewed details of the launch of their highly-anticipated device.
How To: Offload Unused Apps to Free Up Storage Space on Your iPhone
When Apple revamped the storage management system in iOS 11, it built in a feature that lets you free up space on your iPhone in a more efficient manner. The option allows you to remove an app while preserving its data and documents should you choose to reinstall it later — and it can even do so automatically for unused apps when you're running out of space.
Cavs vs. Warriors: How to Watch the 2017 NBA Finals on Your Smartphone for Free — Without a Cable Subscription
Who said sports need parity to be fun? For the third year in a row, the Cleveland Cavaliers are facing off against the Golden State Warriors on the NBA's biggest stage, and basketball fans everywhere couldn't be more excited.
How To: This Linux-Style Launcher Turns Your Home Screen into a Command Prompt
Running commands on Linux seems so complicated for the layman that it may as well be a foreign language. But for the die-hard terminal users, or for those who are just curious about the Linux experience, there's a new Android launcher that gives your home screen a command line makeover.
News: Toyota Puts Blockchain to the Test for Data Security
Toyota is testing blockchain and distributed ledger technology (BC/DL) for data sharing for driverless cars and other applications. This could eventually reassure buyers of its upcoming high-end cars by making sure their sensitive data is secure.
News: Uber's Six-Step Program to Absolve Itself from Waymo's Lawsuit
Uber and Waymo's lawsuit is starting to pan out. Following a ruling on Monday, May 15, Judge Alsup, who called Waymo's patent infringement claims "meritless," ordered Uber to perform a series of actions and duties for Waymo. Without further ado, here's what Uber must do to begin to put this lawsuit behind them (well, maybe):
News: Magic Leap Opens Up Applications for Early-Access Beta Developers
Magic Leap has always been intensely secretive about its work on its augmented reality headset, so it's interesting that they're now publicly recruiting developers to build software for the device before its launch.
News: Sneaky! WhatsApp Adds Encryption to iCloud Backups on the Sly
WhatsApp sneakily made some security changes to iCloud backups without your knowledge, ladies and gents. Not that strengthening security is a bad thing, but still!
News: Shadow Brokers Leak Reveals NSA Compromised SWIFT
The Shadow Brokers, a hacker group known for its dump of NSA hacking tools in 2016, has just leaked their remaining set of data which implies that the NSA compromised SWIFT, the global provider of secure financial services, to spy on banks in the Middle East.
How To: Download & Use YouTube TV Right Now—Even if You're Not in an Official Launch City
As you may have heard by now, YouTube has launched its own live streaming TV bundle available for users in the select markets of New York, Los Angeles, the Bay Area, Chicago, and Philadelphia. A subscription to the new streaming YouTube TV bundle costs $35 a month, but the service is drawing in users by offering a free 30-day trial.
News: Downloads for Encrypted Messaging App Signal Have Almost Doubled Since Trump Took Office
Signal, the encrypted messaging app, has seen 1.4 million downloads in just the first quarter of 2017—roughly twice the downloads it received in the same period last year. Rani Molla at Recode attributes this to Donald Trump's inauguration, as the private messaging service saw a 40% increase in US downloads between Election Day and the end of the first quarter of 2017.
News: Safari Security Breach Fixed in iOS 10.3 Update
Don't ignore the update sitting in your Settings app; you'd be leaving your iPhone's security vulnerable.
News: Google Releases Android O Developer Preview—Here's a Rundown of the New Features
The first sneak peak of Android O is finally here. The developer preview promises more features, stabilization, and better performance, according to the Android Developers Blog. Furthermore, there's speculation that the latest operating system will be code-named "Android Oreo," so it definitely sounds like we're in for a treat.
News: Spotify Considers Restricting Big Album Releases to Paying Users Only
All you paying Spotify users are about to get another exclusive privilege besides getting out of all those annoying "Ever wonder what it would be like to have Spotify premium?" ads. The Sweden-based company is looking to lower the royalty fees they have to pay to major record labels for their music, by compromising on their policy that all their music be free to paying and nonpaying users. Spotify would for a limited time restrict access on major album releases to their paying subscribers.
How To: Unlock the Hidden 'Indie Corner' Category on Google Play to Find Great Indie Games
Mobile gaming is a huge industry that raked in more than $91 billion in revenue in 2016, and of course, all of the major players get most of the glory. But smaller, independent game developers make some of the most fun and unique games out there — it's just harder to find their stuff because they don't have the promotional budget of studios like Rovio and Gameloft.
News: Sony Unveils the Xperia XZ Premium with 4K HDR Display, 19 MP Camera & Snapdragon 835
Sony hit MWC 2017 in full gallop, announcing four different additions to its Xperia lineup on Monday, February 27, 2017: the XZ Premium, XZs, XA1, and XA1 Ultra.
News: Google Assistant Coming to Many More Android Devices
Google just announced that it will be bringing the Google Assistant—previously an exclusive feature on Pixel phones—to many more devices in the coming days. The only requirement they're giving is that the phone must be running either Android Marshmallow or Android Nougat, so according to the most recent Android distribution numbers, that's roughly 32% of all existing phones and tablets.
How To: Enable Always-On Immersive Mode to Auto-Hide Your Pixel's Software Keys
The Pixel and Pixel XL both use AMOLED screens, which are noted for their deeper blacks and sharper contrast ratios when compared to traditional LCD panels. However, AMOLED displays still have one fairly major downside, and that's the fact that they're vulnerable to screen burn-in.
How To: This Widget Lets You Open Wi-Fi Settings Faster, Share Passwords & More on Your iPhone
The widget system on iOS leaves a lot to be desired when compared to Android's offering, but that's not really Apple's fault. The system is there, we just need some good widgets to really get the most out of it, so it's up to developers to create some awesome apps that work with the home screen and lock screen widget panels on iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
Have You Seen This?: HoloTerrain Lets HoloLens Users Explore the Earth in 3D
After what appeared to be an issue with the Windows Store for HoloLens not showing many newer applications, including one that I had released over a month ago, Microsoft finally squashed the bug. So, at first glance, it would seem as if there were lots of new HoloLens projects that just appeared in the store, even though they've likely been hiding out there for a while. HoloTerrain is one of those apps.
How To: Get the iPhone's 'AssistiveTouch' Virtual Home Button on Android
The iPhone has a handy feature called AssistiveTouch that lets you quickly adjust volume, lock your screen, rotate your display, and even navigate through the phone's interface using a virtual home button. In a way, it's a lot like the on-screen navigation bar that you'll find on some Android devices, but with a lot more functionality, and bundled together in a floating bubble interface.
News: VAR Football Gives Coaches Another Tool to Train Sports Teams With—The HoloLens
The HoloLens is a natural medium for 3D data visualization, which offers a far more ideal approach over 2D screens to managing multiple resources simultaneously and grasping the bigger picture. We've already seen how management is using holograms to oversee cities, firefighters, and the military, and now training for sports teams is being addressed with VAR Football.
News: Automatic 3D Model Optimization Solution Simplygon Was Just Acquired by Microsoft
Any developer working with the HoloLens knows that the fight for polygons is a very real conflict. For all of the magic it creates, the HoloLens is a high-powered mobile device that has all the typical processing limitations of a mobile device.
How To: Keep Android's Notification Tray Clean & Clear with a Centralized Hub
Android's notification system is quite robust, especially now that Google added bundled notifications and quick reply features to Android 7.0 Nougat. However, things can still get quite cluttered when you have several unread messages, which fills your status bar with icons and makes your notification tray take up half of the screen by itself.