Starbucks is spicing things up ahead of this holiday season with a little augmented reality joy. This week the company launched its first Instagram filter, called Holijoy, delivered like an early Christmas gift and packing four seasonal lenses.
You watched the live stream, pored over the specs, and are now super excited for the Google Pixel 4. But specs don't tell you everything. After using the Pixel 4 XL for over a week now, we've found several things you wouldn't know without getting your hands on the phone.
By default, Slack optimizes the images you upload and send to other users in your workspace. Although optimization lowers the resolution of the image, it does send quicker, which is better if your internet service is poor. However, you may want to send the highest-resolution image possible, so how do you stop Slack from sending only optimized and lower-quality photos?
So you're listening to Spotify on your Note 10+ and you pause it for a second to talk to someone. A minute or so passes, and you press the play button on your wireless headphones ... but nothing happens. That's because Samsung already killed the Spotify app. Here's how you can prevent this.
Every year, Apple releases a new version of iOS. Each iteration promises new features to make using your iPhone that much better. This year, iOS 13 introduces over 200 new features and changes, including system-wide Dark Mode for the first time on iPhone. That said, you might want to pump the brakes before dashing to download and install the new update right away.
Disabling clunky, revealing link previews on Google Keep can serve multiple purposes. You know, those expanded versions of the same URL you pasted into your note, except duplicated, tacked onto the bottom of your note, and showing a preview picture. Removing these can help optimize your productivity formula.
Being organized is a big part of being productive. Keeping your important documents where they need to be is key to an optimized workflow. When using Google Keep, sometimes a note may outgrow its note status and you may want to upgrade it to a full on Google Doc. Thankfully, that's really easy to do.
Listening to your favorite podcast in bed can be a very relaxing way to unwind after a long, busy day. However, there's a good chance you'll fall asleep with the show still playing. That means episode after episode will play, causing you to forget where you left off. Even worse, a loud noise in an episode may jolt you awake during your night's rest. But you can prevent both issues if using Apple Podcasts.
My autistic son loves music. One afternoon, when he was nine, I downloaded GarageBand to his iPhone to help with the boredom of a long wait at a doctor's office. Instead of pacing or escalating into a meltdown, he spent the entire hour and a half practicing, learning, and composing. When we finally left that day, the rest of us exhausted and irritated, he shared his first composition with a big smile.
From XXXTentacion to R. Kelly, many artists have been accused of inappropriate actions, so some of us just don't want to hear their music anymore. However, each time streaming services attempt to ban such artists, they face heavy backlash. Recognizing this, Tidal decided to offer a different solution.
Contrary to popular belief, it takes more than just one artist to create the sound, lyrics, and vocals of a song. With most music being enjoyed digitally nowadays, it's harder to know all of a track's collaborators, as this info used to be in the CD booklet. Well with Tidal, you can now easily find this information and more.
Google Keep now has a dark mode. If your device is running Android 10, it kicks in automatically when you turn on the system-wide dark theme. If your device is not running Android 10, you will have to manually switch on dark mode for each app, including Keep. The benefits of dark mode include increased battery life, reduced eye strain, and improved readability.
Pandora has a simple rating system that works by hitting either the thumbs-up or thumbs-down icon on a track that's playing on your station. If you choose the former, the song you like along with others similar to it will play with more frequency, while selecting the latter will prevent that song and others like it from playing in your station moving forward.
One of the best parts of Pandora is its personalized stations that auto-generate songs within the specific style or genre you've chosen. Not only does this play your favorite tracks with regularity, but it also opens your ears to previously unknown songs or artists — ones you may fall in love with and want to share with others.
Whether you're out for a drive, commuting to work, or just taking a stroll, listening to your favorite tracks on Pandora takes the legwork out of choosing which songs to play next. After a while, however, you go-to playlist can get repetitive, as the same songs from the same artists seem to play over and over. Luckily, Pandora makes it easy to add variety to your stations in just a few taps.
I don't know about you, but I like to listen to music throughout the day. As I am writing articles or doing some cardio at the gym, I go through my playlist, only stopping the music in situations where I have to. And ever since I switched to the Samsung Galaxy S10+, this has gotten even easier to do.
With such a vast selection of music genres available, it's easy to build up a massive list of stations in Pandora that can make your go-to playlists harder to find. Fortunately, the app lets you easily remove unwanted stations to streamline your experience and listen to your favorite tunes in the fewest taps possible.
If your job revolves around prospective clients and customers, you may frequently receive iMessages from unknown numbers. Although this isn't necessarily a bad thing, being bombarded with messages from strangers can create disarray in your inbox if you're not careful. Luckily, Apple makes it easier to organize your conversations by allowing you to filter unknown numbers in the Messages app.
In Telegram — as with all instant-messaging apps — threads and conversations can pile up quickly. But you don't need to stare at all of your open chats on the main screen of the Android and iOS app. Instead, you can archive any conversation you like, keeping your main chats view relevant to your day-to-day communications without needing to delete any for good.
While you can now apply a dark theme to Samsung Messages thanks to One UI, you may want to further personalize your texting app. A great way to do this is by applying a custom font, which not only enhances the app aesthetically, but can also go a long way towards making your texts more readable and help you process information better.
Video calls are not only awesome for socializing, they're also handy for demonstrating a process or showing people what you're currently working on with your phone or computer's screen. Skype lets you do just that on both Android and iPhone in just a few taps.
The Messages app on iOS features contact photos for every one of your conversations — including group chats. Even if you don't have a picture for a specific contact, their initials will appear instead. For non-contacts, a generic profile avatar appears. These give threads a bit of flare, but if you're looking for extra privacy or don't enjoy the look, you can easily hide those images and icons.
A hacker with privileged access to a Windows 10 computer can configure it to act as a web proxy, which allows the attacker to target devices and services on the network through the compromised computer. The probes and attacks appear to originate from the Windows 10 computer, making it difficult to detect the attacker's actual location.
Many native New Yorkers, like myself, get a chance to visit the famed Statue of Liberty during school trips when they're a child in grade school. And if you're not lucky enough to be born in the city, you have to make a special trip to the monument as a tourist.
There are plenty of reasons the Pixel's Google Camera has become a must-have app for Android users. Google Playground AR stickers and Night Sight for low light photography are just the tip of the iceberg. Beyond those, the app comes with other, less-publicized options that add tremendously to its overall usefulness.
In an effort to raise awareness regarding the impact of emissions on the environment, Snap has partnered with the United Nations Environment Programme to use augmented reality to show how much ocean levels will rise over the next 80 years.
As one of the leading 3D engines for augmented reality development, a new release of Unity is a significant event that carries the potential to facilitate huge leaps forward in AR content creation.
Phone displays have gotten taller in the past few years, and it seems the OnePlus 6T might not make use of the entire screen by default for a few games. Most games play nicely with the large display on the 6T and its teardrop camera notch, but Pokémon GO is one that doesn't scale correctly. Until an official fix happens, there's a quick workaround you can use to make things a bit better.
The Game of Thrones premiere is fast approaching, and along with it, Magic Leap has begun to unveil some of the fan-centric swag associated with its immersive experience based on the hit TV series.
Visitors to the Unity booth at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco will get a special augmented reality treat courtesy of Magic Leap and Weta Workshop.
The hype for HBO's Game of Thrones reached proportions as epic as the series itself this week with the latest release of the final season's official trailer, but it's a Snapchat promotion that will truly make fans at SXSW bend the knee.
Mobile augmented reality company Snapchat now has a special option for romantic message exchanging this Valentine's Day, a day which, incidentally, happens to be the first one in 116 years where Sweethearts, the original heart-shaped candy, will be unavailable for purchase.
Many apps, including Facebook, Twitter, and Facebook, do not let you download videos, even if they are living on your own account. Saving these videos usually requires a third-party app or screen recorder, which is inconvenient and can result in loss of quality. However, TikTok, the newish popular short-form video platform, makes it easy to download videos — even if they're not yours.
Unless you want to make your TikTok account totally private, anyone that uses the app — with or without an account — can view your profile and all the videos of you performing new dance moves, singing along to popular songs, and recreating your favorite TV show scenes. Even worse — they can download those videos.
Can you trust every user you come across on TikTok? The answer to that may depend on how use the service, but the real question is — can you trust every user that sees your content? Not everyone on TikTok is someone you want viewing or interacting with your content, and there's a way to prevent them from doing so.
While many of Facebook's tools are well received as they enhance the experience, one which is often complained about is the Marketplace. The Craigslist-like feature which offers a way to facilitate transactions between users can be a little overbearing with its alerts. However, you can change that.
Whether it's an ex you can't stand, that annoyingly political friend of a friend, or good old fashioned trolls, the block feature on Facebook can be a great way to de-stress your feed. It will keep people from contacting you, and it will also prevent them from viewing your profile altogether. It's not just a tool for the full desktop website — in fact, the blocked list is easy to manage right from your phone.
If you're new to MyFitnessPal, it might seem daunting. The app is way more than just a calorie counter, but that's because getting fit is just as much about changing your lifestyle as it is about watching what you eat. So don't let it overwhelm you — there are just a handful of tips you should know to hit the ground running.
The wildfires that spread across Northern California for two weeks in November were among the deadliest and most destructive in the state's history. Ultimately, the incident claimed 85 lives, and hundreds of people are still missing in the wake of the disaster, which impacted over 154,000 acres of land.
MyFitnessPal has become extremely popular thanks to features that help users keep themselves accountable and stay motivated as they eat healthier and lose weight. While the application does a great job of reminding you to log the food you eat in order to keep track of your calories, there is one incredibly useful feature that doesn't get much attention.
