OnePlus pulled out almost all the stops with their latest flagship, but there are a few areas where the phone falls just short of perfect. The single bottom-firing speaker leaves a lot to be desired, for instance, but thanks to the awesome development community for the OnePlus 6, you can already give your phone true stereo speakers with a software mod.
It's not always easy to get to the root of an infection outbreak. Epidemiologists study infected people, contacts, and carefully examine where the infections happened and when. In the case of a 2012 outbreak of pertussis — whooping cough — in Oregon, scientists just published an analysis of how vaccination status affected when a child became infected during the outbreak.
Because of Android's new SafetyNet system, certain apps can now block rooted users or prevent you from accessing them altogether — but at least for now, there are still ways around these restrictions.
Unless you're experienced using the Linux terminal, running ADB and Fastboot commands can get confusing very fast. The problems often stem from having to hunt for various files — usually IMG or ZIP files that you need to mod your Android phone — and then move them to your platform-tools folder, which, depending on how you installed ADB in the first place, could be anywhere.
The first developer preview of Android Oreo 8.0 was only out for a couple of days before Chainfire created a new root method for it. For the time being, only the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P are supported by this first SuperSU ZIP, as the Pixel's dual-partition layout has created some hurdles, though Chainfire is surely working on overcoming those at some point soon.
If you really want to play Gran Turismo or Castlevania on the go, Sony's PlayStation Portable is a great way to do it. But it gets harder and harder to justify carrying around a PSP handheld gaming console when you've got an equally powerful Android phone in your pocket already. The PSP had a good 10 years before being discontinued, and your Android can pick up the slack now.
Google makes Android, but now, Google makes its own phones, too. Until this point, they've always stayed on the software side of things and let Samsung and friends handle the hardware, but their new Pixel phones are changing all of that.
There are a million (okay, slight exaggeration) ways to peel an egg, and countless numbers of tips, tricks, and hacks that are supposed to make that deviled egg appetizer you agreed to make for the party an absolute snap. More often than not, though, experiences vary... and pock-marked, greyish-yolked boiled eggs find their way into your collection whether you like it or not.
Since Android is an open source operating system, that means anyone with a little know-how can download, view, and even alter its underlying code base. Manufacturers do it all the time, which is how we end up with skins like TouchWiz and Sense. But when Android's awesome third-party development community gets their hands on this code, we end up with custom ROMs like LineageOS and MIUI.
OneDrive, formerly known as SkyDrive, is a free online storage solution developed by Microsoft. If you're a fan of using cloud-based storage systems, then OneDrive offers you plenty of benefits. It's also heavily integrated into Windows 10, including the new File Explorer, in an effort to make utilizing OneDrive easier for you.
Google made a huge splash this year in their annual Google I/O with an awesome announcement regarding their Photos app. Although I was primarily interested in the details surrounding Android M, my ears instantly perked up when Google announced that their Photos app will now offer free, unlimited, high-quality storage.
There are several reasons that you might want to restore the factory firmware on your device—maybe you need to send your phone back for warranty purposes, or perhaps you're getting ready to accept an over-the-air update and need to unroot first. In some cases, reverting to the stock firmware can even resurrect a soft-bricked phone.
While its hardware may already be a little outdated compared to newer flagship phones, the OnePlus One is still a great value thanks to the dedicated community that continues to develop ROMs for it. Cyanogen 12 and Oxygen OS are the two most popular ones, but neither offers the type of unique experience you get with Xiaomi's MIUI (pronounced "Me You I").
Despite CyanogenMod actively working on their CM 12S Lollipop-based ROM, OnePlus has opted to develop their own ROM, and after a few setbacks, OxygenOS is finally out. The OS is the result of OnePlus wanting to ship their devices without needing an outside company to create a ROM to power it. Like CyanogenMod's ROMs, Oxygen OS offers a vanilla Android Lollipop experience tailored for the OnePlus One.
UPDATE 11/17/15 The Xposed Framework now officially supports Android 5.1 through 5.1.1 Lollipop devices as well. Everything will still work the way it has with Android 5.0 through 5.0.2, but there are a separate set of files for the newer Android version. I'll cover both below, but make sure to download the proper file for your particular version of Android.
Starting with the original HTC One and now present on the new Nexus 6, dual speakers allow for smartphones to pump out true stereo sound. OnePlus, however, kept their speakers on the bottom of the device and use different sound drivers for each to produce great sound quality, although it's still mono. While there are mods out there that can further increase the volume of the OnePlus One, none of them can produce true stereo sound.
Located at the bottom of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 lies the speaker from which music, notifications, and most other audio comes from, which provides warm and clear sound when needed.
Android is all about customization: "Be together. Not the same," as Google's latest ads for the platform put it. Changing your device's boot animation, for instance, is one of the many great ways you can add a touch of personal flair.
Google's latest Nexus device is big, bold, and beautiful—and now it's got root. Thanks to some quick work by legendary Android developer Chainfire, the Nexus 6 already had a clear-cut root method before most stores even had it in stock.
The vague 90-day release window for CyanogenMod 12 has done nothing to stop my craving for Lollipop on my OnePlus One. Luckily, there are other "unofficial" means of getting my hands on it. Since CyanogenMod still gives users a way of building their own variants of their ROM, we can install user-compiled versions of CM 12 pretty easily.
Samsung's Galaxy Note 4 is a beautiful device worthy of all the critical acclaim it has received thus far. But aside from the S Pen features, most of the Note's user interface has a great deal of overlap with the Galaxy S5 that we all know and love.
The "Smart Keyboard" on the LG G3 has received a lot of praise for its ability to adequately analyze user keystrokes, provide adjustable sizes, and customize key placements, among other things. These features, combined with predictive text, swipe gestures, and autocorrect make the Smart Keyboard one of the most powerful typing tools available for Android. Now, it's easy to get it installed on your Samsung Galaxy Note 3.
If you've ever noticed that the stock launcher on an Android device seems to just feel faster than any third-party home screen replacement app, this is not a placebo effect. Most manufacturers, Samsung included, force their stock launchers to reside permanently in your phone's memory, thus reducing the risk of redraws.
Android's new Material Design language is truly a thing of beauty. Slated to make a full debut alongside the upcoming Android "L" release, the vision and simplicity of this UX design recently won Gold Prize at the annual User Experience Awards.
One of the most feature-packed camera suites out there resides on the Sony Xperia Z2. Along with the regular camera and video modes, it comes with Motiongraph, AR Effect, and Social Live.
Although lacking in megapixels, the HTC One M8's camera can be considered a top-tier, flagship-level shooter. With the Duo Camera and UltraPixel technology behind it, it can make even the most inexperienced photographer snap pictures like a pro. There seems to be little missing for the average user, but for the more seasoned photographers, some of the standard settings may seem a bit too dumbed down.
Google has finally announced the newest flavor of its mobile OS, Android L (Lollipop?), and I couldn't be more excited. While we won't see its official release until the fall, there are still some features we can get our hands on right now.
LG has really made their new G3 handset something to drool over. The hardware and software behind it can be considered as good, or even better than most flagships out there, and it has left me second guessing my decision to stick with the M8.
While the Galaxy Note 3 and Galaxy S4 are enjoying their official KitKat updates, those of us with Note 2s are left to play the waiting game. While we know our devices will eventually see an update to Android 4.4.2 KitKat, it's unclear when an official update for our devices will come.
In the past, we've shown you how to install CyanogenMod 10.1 on your Nexus 7, but that version was based off of the older Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. If you want to stay current, the newer CyanogenMod 10.2 is out in the nightly stage, which is based on Android 4.3, and you can get it right now.
We've gotten pretty close to a Google Experience before, and even played around with the actual Google Play Edition build. However, the devs over at XDA have a much better solution: actually converting your HTC One into a complete factory-fresh Google Play Edition.
Samsung is currently dominating the Android market with their line of Galaxy devices, including the GS3, GS4, Note 2, and Tabs. All of these devices run Samsung's TouchWiz, which is something every softModder should try out eventually. The only thing is that Samsung devices are pretty expensive, and many of you don't actually need (or want) another Android tablet.
Don't always believe the marketing hype. "PlayStation Certified" does not mean anything to a softModder. All this indicates is that a smartphone or tablet labeled as "PlayStation Certified" has met the guidelines and hardware requirements issued by Sony to display PlayStation Mobile (PSM) content from the PlayStation Mobile Store correctly. No Nexus 7 here.
If you have a load of dusty Game Boy Advance games you've been itching to play, load them onto your Samsung Galaxy Note 2 for instant gaming anywhere—anytime!
Ditching Sense (HTC's stock Android Launcher) is a great way to breathe new stock-like life into your HTC One smartphone without rooting, but even that has its limitations. If you really want the full Google experience, albeit with some extras, CyanogenMod has always been the go-to ROM. In effect, this will give you an experience similar to the Google Nexus or the new HTC One Google Edition.
WhatsApp is a very popular messaging app on the Play Store, but unfortunately, tablet users have been left out of all the fun because WhatsApp only works on smartphones—until now.
There are tons of remote controlled cars and boats out there that you can buy or build, and you can add remote control functionality to almost anything. But if you really want to stand out, there are few things more attention-grabbing than this radio-controlled watermelon boat by the folks over at Starting Electronics. The body, obviously, is made from a hollowed out watermelon with a propeller and the parts from a remote controlled airplane mounted on a wooden block. A servo allows the prope...
Sure, "normal" is cozy and safe, like a glass of warm milk before bed. It gets the job done, but there's no pizzazz, no flair. We wake up, slug back some okay coffee (not good, certainly not great, but just okay), and we're shunted off to a gray cubicle in a gray building. Sure, we can't all be stuntmen and rock stars, but there is a way to inject a little zip into your day.
The OnePlus 3 and 3T are a pair of phones which allow you to do practically anything you want, because OnePlus is such a developer-friendly company. They almost always release kernel sources, and their phones sport an unlockable bootloader that doesn't void the warranty. But while their software is certainly solid (miles ahead of Samsung's TouchWiz), it still has room for improvement.
With iOS 8.4 and iTunes 12.2, we got our first look at Apple Music, Apple's new streaming subscription service. While it's a little late to the party, there is definitely an incentive for iOS and Mac OS X users to switch over from competitors due to its heavy integration with the Apple ecosystem.
