Microsoft is catching up by adding the revered dark mode feature to its suite of apps. The biggest name to get this treatment is Outlook, and it looks great. Dark mode is slowly rolling out, meaning only some people have it right now. So it's time to check and see if you have dark mode on Outlook.
Google's strategy for updating its apps with dark mode options is apparently "one at a time" and "as slow as possible." Even after the company added a dark theme to many of its apps for Android and iOS, such as Calendar, Chrome, Keep, and Photos, Gmail seemed to remain "light" for the longest time. However, the app now supports dark mode on both mobile OSs. Here's how to enable it.
Remember Photo Booth on Mac and iOS? It still exists, but there was a of time where everyone was using it. And why not? It was so cool to take photos with any background imaginable. Underwater? Check. On the moon? Of course. Now, Instagram wants to bring back the fun by introducing AR backgrounds for stories.
For those about to rock, Live Nation salutes you, now with augmented reality. This week, at the Cannes Lions Advertising Festival of Creativity in France, the live entertainment giant unveiled a suite of AR experiences that music festivals and their sponsors will be able to deploy in their mobile apps to engage attendees.
The augmented reality smartglasses future that Snap founder Evan Spiegel has teased for so long may be closer than many realize.
On Thursday, Snap released three new templates for its Lens Studio that will give creators access to augmented reality capabilities previously only available to Snap's own design team.
If you aren't convinced that mobile augmented reality apps need occlusion (or you don't know what the word even means), you really need to watch the latest video from AR cloud startup 6D.ai.
We've been able to download our Facebook data onto our computers for a while now, but now you can do so right from the comfort of your iPhone or Android phone. With it, you'll be able to integrate your data into other apps that support it or even just download it before you deactivate your account.
Oreo, the latest and greatest Android OS, lets you enjoy a ton of new features such as app shortcuts and an improved keyboard. But thanks to a feature that's required of all phones that ship with Android Oreo out of the box, your S9 may be the first Galaxy phone to finally receive timely software updates.
For every cool new thing Android Oreo brought to the table, Android 8.1 adds a bit of polish. After a brief but successful beta period, Google started rolling out the official 8.1 update to its Pixel and Nexus devices today, and it's everything Android 8.0 should have been.
Heathrow Airport's most recent arrival isn't a flight, but rather an interactive children's game featuring augmented reality technology.
Today, Facebook Messenger is rolling out Discover, a feature that helps you chat with companies and locate nearby businesses of interest to you. First discussed in April at Facebook's developer conference F8, Discover is finally available for public use.
The Stories feature on Instagram has a pretty great editing program, and it's one that I think is extremely undervalued. Instagram Stories goes beyond just its Snapchat-like features, but also allows you to create more creative and original content to post on your actual profile page.
Okay, I have a confession to make. I'm not a real New Yorker. I'm from the land of southern hospitality and steaks bigger than your newborn: Texas. I don't know how to hail a taxi yet, and I still smile at strangers on the street. I'm slowly learning how to fit in, but one thing I still haven't mastered is the New York City subway system. Every day, I struggle to determine where to find my train and how to stand on it without falling over. Fortunately, Google Maps appears to be making some of...
Snapchat hit back at its arch-rival Facebook this week with a number of new Group features, including custom stories. Facebook and Instagram both rolled out clone Story options this year, but Snapchat is obviously trying to up the ante in this arena.
Earlier this year, Google rolled out the first developer preview build of Android O. The new version added tons of cool features, but the downside was the fact that you needed to use Fastboot to manually install the update if you wanted to try it out. Thankfully, things just got a lot easier.
Google's Allo is still a work in progress, but the innovations to the chat and messaging app just keep on coming. The latest update rolling out now includes chat backups and a group incognito feature that we're very excited about.
Here's another workday distraction for all you social media lovers out there: Pasted, launching out of beta today on iOS, is a simple collage and photo editing app mixing iconic '90s imagery with a love of the The Shins.
As a society, we seem to be moving backwards toward communicating by pictures only. Emojis and GIFs are today's cave paintings, and I, for one, am totally okay with that. To make this transition even more amazing, photo-editing app Facetune created a tool that lets us change our very own faces into moving emojis.
Google Maps now allows users to share their location in real time and update their friends and family on their location and estimated time of arrival when making a trip.
Uber has recently been updating their app on a weekly basis to ensure that users have the smoothest travel experience possible. The entire UI was recently redesigned to increase user-friendliness, the total app size was reduced to improve performance, and an intelligent shortcuts feature was added which tries to guess your next destination.
I used to brag that I could make a swan out of an apple, but chicks don't dig swans—they dig roses. So now I'm going to brag about making apple roses, because you would, too, if you could get them to look like this: Now that's an apple tart that will win the ladies over. (And definitely 100% tastier than the usual bouquet of roses, and 100% less greasy than a bouquet of bacon.)
Turning your oven on in the summer is just asking to convert your house into a sauna. No matter how badly you want to bake cookies during a heat wave, having to deal with the boost in temperature is a deterrent at best.
Granola is an excellent anytime food. It's a healthy breakfast, an easy snack, and a delicious dessert. Unfortunately, it can be expensive to buy, and it can take a long time to make. If you're anything like me, you always run out of granola when you need it most.
The beauty of Nexus devices is they receive firmware updates faster than any other Android phone, and keep getting updates for years longer than most of the competition. This means that you can always use the great new features that come along with an Android update, and even more importantly, your phone gets monthly security patches to keep hackers and malware at bay.
Many recipes call for self-rising flour as a staple ingredient. Oftentimes, we find ourselves passing these recipes by because we don't have it on hand, or because we don't use it enough to actually want to buy it.
Aside from changing your wallpaper, there's not much you can do to customize the home screen on your iPhone besides nesting folders, hiding folder names, and hiding apps—and those aren't even actual features. They're simply glitches that Apple never took care of, and now there's another, even cooler one to add to that list.
The following are 10 simple yet effective pranks you can set up around the house, school or the office on April Fools' Day. You'll won't need any special tools or materials to pull these off.
In my opinion, biscuits made from scratch (American biscuits, that is, not the British kind) are just flat out amazing, but I'm typically too lazy to actually make them. That's why I always have a can/tube of refrigerated biscuits on hand. They're not only good for quick biscuits and gravy or as a simple side of bread, they can be used for so much more—sweet or savory!
A simply frosted or glazed cupcake is like a blank canvas for creative decorations. Intricate cupcakes are works of art, but piping frosting or rolling fondant can be tricky. Luckily, even the most craft-challenged person can use pre-made decorations to create party-worthy cupcakes. Use chocolates or candies to make designs or other decorations and you can have endless fun (and very little stress) creating eye-catching treats.
As Android's de facto virtual assistant, Google Now lets us speak directly to our phones in plain English to answer our questions and perform many basic tasks. With the app open, just say "Okay Google," then wait for the beep, and ask almost any question.
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.
If you're one of the many that likes to upload collages to Instagram, the Facebook company has a new tool for you. Instagram released a brand new app in March called Layout to help facilitate the process of creating photo layouts to post onto social media or just share with friends.
I once had a collection of over 300 different wallpapers for my MacBook, set to randomly change every 30 minutes. Needless to say, my desktop never got boring. Wallpapers can facilitate a mood, imply a political stance, or just add aesthetic appeal, so having to manually change them on my iPhone is a bummer because of how many times I want a new home or lock screen look.
Google's music offerings have been on a roll lately. First they announced a new music video streaming service called YouTube Music Key, offering ad-free playback with background listening. Then they stated that the new offering would be rolled in with their Google Play Music service, with members allowed to exclusively test the Music Key beta, which just went live. And if all that wasn't enough, they're also offering free music to boot!
The interwebs is a great source of information, but sometimes said information is not always legit. That can be frustrating when it comes to making fun food, costumes, and arts and crafts for Halloween, like this bowl of "bloody" gummy worms.
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.
It's time to step up your selfie game, especially if all of your selfies tend to have the same vapid look and feel. There are plenty of techniques for better selfie-taking, and I've already shown you a few iPhone tricks, like making yourself look thinner and using hand gestures to get situated better. Now I'll show you how to give your followers something to really "like"—celebrities.
Love making gifts for your loved ones? Here is a tutorial that shows you how to make a play doh rose. It's really easy and fun to make.
Videos are great for catching fleeting moments, and photos are insanely easy to share with anyone, but how can you get the best of both worlds?
