Android Recovery Mode

As Google+ hums along, releasing new updates and unveiling new features every few days, Facebook seems to be in panic mode. Every week, they've been revealing new features that seem suspiciously similar to Google+. Facebook Updates Makes Facebook Look a Lot Like Google+ Let' ...more

Everybody has them. You can say you don't, but it's probably a lie. There's at least one person on your mobile phone that you never, ever want to pick up the phone for. When they call, you cringe and immediately hit the silent button. They're annoying. Overbearing. You hate th ...more

"Google+ is dead." How many times have you read that in the past few weeks? It seems like I can't get away from this notion that Google+, as a social network, is a total failure. Don't feel too sorry for them, though. +Bradley Horowitz isn't worried. In an interview with Ventu ...more

Giveaway Tuesdays has officially ended! But don't sweat it, WonderHowTo has another World that's taken its place. Every Tuesday, Phone Snap! invites you to show off your cell phone photography skills. Submit your best shot to our weekly competition for a chance to win an awes ...more

Last week's round up was all about third party services that sprang up to fill any Google+ voids. This week, I'll let you know how to keep up with the latest Google+ updates, and give you some great tips for interacting with your followers. Although Google+ updated its naming ...more

Instagram is one of the hottest mobile apps to date, yet they have no way to upload photos straight from your computer. You can log into the Instagram web app to like and comment on photos in your feed, but that's about it. Fortunately, there are third-party apps that let you ...more

Dropbox continues to make headlines with their recent programming blunder which left the accounts of its 25 million customers wide open during a four-hour time span. During the duration, anyone in the world could access any Dropbox profile by typing in any password. And seeing ...more

Movies like to show hackers breaking passwords with fancy software and ludicrous gadgets. The reality of busting passwords open is much more mundane. Simple as it may sound, most passwords are broken purely by guesswork. Check out this infographic from ZoneAlarm, as well as th ...more

Introduction I will not go into some time-waster of a story about how I came to build this app. It was a prerequisite in a bigger project I am still tinkering with from time to time. What are QR Codes? No doubt you have seen these all over the place in recent years. Origina ...more

I've been unreasonably excited about Dungeon Defenders (NOT DUNGEON DEFENDER!) for almost a year. Playing it at PAX did nothing to damper that enthusiasm. I had a chance this week to speak with co-founder/development director Jeremy Stieglitz and marketing diretor Philip Asher ...more

Word games can expand your vocabulary skills in all sorts of exciting and creative ways. Because of this, both the iOS App Store and the Google Play Store are awash with word games, making it hard to differentiate between good and bad titles. This is especially troublesome if ...more

Some apps have a nasty habit of ignoring your Android's auto-rotation settings and locking the display into either portrait or landscape orientation. When you open one of these apps, the screen goes into landscape view and you're forced to hold your phone differently. Convers ...more

Thanks to ever more powerful smartphones — the iPhone X with its advanced A11 processor and the Galaxy Note 8 powered by Snapdragon's 835 come to mind — the mobile industry is fast closing in on consoles and PCs with regards to gaming. Game developers have been aware of this f ...more

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 missin ...more

If Android is all about options, then iOS is all about new features. Every year without fail, Apple announces a cool software component that brings something new to the table, and this year was no different. The headlining feature to go along with the iPhone 6s is called "Liv ...more

Nothing else quite sums up my childhood like Super Mario, the Italian plumber who constantly had to defeat Bowser to save Princess Peach (aka Princess Toadstool) from danger. While it's easy to relive the classic gameplay on your Android with Nintendo emulators, not everyone h ...more

When you misplace your Android device, finding it with the Android Device Manager, or even better, Whistle Me, can help you find it no problem. But what about when your phone is not just hiding under the couch cushions? Your worst nightmare just came true. It's officially gone ...more

You don't have to be a frequent flyer to know how indispensable navigation apps have become. Many of us rely on these apps for traveling from state to state and getting around in foreign cities, but even more of us count on these apps to beat rush hour traffic and find the qui ...more

The flexibility within Android is pretty amazing. Unlike iOS, you can make a lot of modifications with nothing more than a download from Google Play, but to really step up your softModder game, you'll need to go a little further. Rooting takes things a step deeper, allowing y ...more

For new Android users, rooting an Android phone can often be an intimidating process, especially since there are so many different ways to gain root access, depending on your model and firmware version. I've previously covered a way of doing it for the AT&T version of the Sam ...more

One of the most heated topics in the Android community now (and probably forever) is stock Android, with lots of users requesting the ability to use it rather than the manufacturer's skin. That's why Google has been offering phones like the HTC One, Samsung Galaxy S4, and Mot ...more

The calendar app is one of the unsung heroes found within your iPhone. It's the ultimate personal assistant that you've come to rely on to keep track of your schedule and ensure you never miss a class or meeting, all while reminding you of upcoming birthdays and deadlines to h ...more

Video chatting has become an important factor in the overall smartphone experience. Even just a few years ago, 37% of teens were making video calls on a regular basis, and that number has surely grown. 85% of households with infants have used video chat apps to call relatives ...more

Trying to figure out which music streaming service to subscribe to can be a difficult task when the playing field is so crowded. Each has its benefits, as well as downsides, so finding the right one for your needs and wants can take a lot of overwhelming research. But we've do ...more

After delaying its launch by four months, LG revealed its 2018 entry to the flagship market on Wednesday, May 2. After years of an underperforming mobile division, the LG G7 ThinQ is the first product since a shakeup within the division to get things back on track, and it brin ...more

Trivia games are among the most entertaining ways to learn factoids and interesting info you may have never known about before. They're also the perfect genre to enjoy with friends and family, as they're particularly great at breaking the ice to make for a more memorable time ...more

Trivia games are a great way to test your knowledge and learn about people and things you never knew of before. They're ideal in a group setting because they can serve as the perfect conversation starter when you're enjoying time with friends, family, or even complete stranger ...more

The Samsung Galaxy S8's almost bezel-less display is truly a sight to behold, especially when set to Immersive Mode. While transparent when on the home screen, the navigation and status bars on the S8 will often turn opaque depending on what app you're using at the moment. Thi ...more

If you're tired of Google tracking you, but love how Chrome works, CyanogenMod has you covered. Their browser is called Gello, which is based off Chromium, Chrome's open-source counterpart. It's basically a souped-up version of Chrome—without all of the intrusive Google stuff ...more

With Nexus devices already enjoying Android 5.0 Lollipop, most other manufacturers are scrambling to get their flagships updated to Google's latest operating system. While HTC has promised Lollipop by the end of 2015, OEMs such as Motorola and Sony have already issued updates ...more

While photography usually gets all the love, our phones have gotten really good at capturing video. Think about it — when was the last time you needed a camcorder for a vacation? With mobile cameras getting better each year, we're now at a point where smartphones can be used f ...more

When Android 5.0 rolls out to the Nexus 5, several changes and new features will come along with it. The over-the-air update is already rolling out, and if you don't want to wait, you can get it right now. We've pored through the massive changelog—which includes over 700 Nexu ...more

If you have a PlayStation 5 and an Android phone running Android 12, you can stream and play your PS5 games right from your mobile device using PS Remote Play. While simply pairing your PS5's DualSense wireless controller with your phone will give you the basic controls to pla ...more

Mobile gaming has exploded in recent years, with experts predicting 2.4 billion global mobile players by the end of 2019. It already accounts for 47% of the worldwide gaming market, besting console and PC. No wonder we've seen the rise of gaming smartphones, a class of phones ...more

Crazy Taxi continues to be a favorite among gamers of all ages, from those who played the game in late-'90s arcades to those who discovered the game later on consoles. This weekend, Sega announced their mobile version of Crazy Taxi would now be available for free. What a time ...more

Since we wouldn't have Android without Google, everyone has come to realize that the Pixel smartphones are a prime example of what an Android smartphone should be. With so many unique software related features, no wonder people want that Pixel experience. OnePlus offers its O ...more

The Pixel 3 runs stock Android, so you might think that since you've used an Android device before, you should know your way around the new phone by default. But Google has actually added several great Pixel-exclusive software features to its flagships, and not all of them are ...more

Word games fit perfectly with the on-the-go nature of mobile gaming. They're easy to pick up whenever you feel like exercising your brain, but they're also fairly easy to put down when you need to get back to the real world. The main draw of word games is that they're great f ...more

The biggest hurdle to rooting is that it usually requires a computer. Things get complicated when you're trying to use a desktop operating system to exploit a mobile OS, and the connection isn't always reliable. But with the help of Magisk, you can now use one Android phone to ...more

Recently, iPhone users have been bragging that they can set Live Photos as their lock screen wallpaper. While this is a great way to spice up a boring lock screen, Android users shouldn't feel left out in the cold. The highly customizable and feature-rich OS has a few tricks u ...more

They might be a little late to the party, but the Cyanogen team has finally released their newest ROM for the OnePlus One, Cyanogen OS 12. The launch had to be pushed back a few times due to some technical issues, but now we finally get to see what the Cyanogen team has cooked ...more

Remember the feeling you had the moment you removed your shiny new Nexus device from its packaging and booted it up for the first time? You swiped through the app drawer at lightning speed and thought to yourself, "This is the last Android phone I will ever need, they just are ...more

Dynasty Warriors has finally been unleashed on the world of mobile gaming. The latest installment in the popular series is called Dynasty Warriors: Unleashed, and it sends you rampaging through armies using a variety of devastating attacks, all while collecting and upgrading o ...more

Cases and stickers are always great, but they aren't the only way to customize an iPhone. The software on your device is full of customization options, from a better-looking home screen and cooler lock screen wallpapers to app icon changes and a system-wide dark mode. There's ...more

Move over, Star Wars. You're not the only Disney property that can play in the Lenovo Mirage AR headset anymore. On Thursday, superhero powerhouse Marvel unveiled Dimension of Heroes, a new mobile app for iOS and Android that, when holstered in a Lenovo Mirage AR headset and ...more

One of the biggest downsides to rooting is that it can be a pain to update every month with each new security patch. With other phones, you might have had to fully unroot the device, maybe flash a stock recovery, or potentially even flash all the factory images to get a new up ...more

Razer just released their first flagship Android smartphone, appropriately named the Razer Phone. While mobile gaming fans are sure to enjoy the Razer Phone, the buttery-smooth 120 Hz display makes this an appealing option for anyone in the market for a new phone. If you've ju ...more

LineageOS, the successor to the wildly popular CyanogenMod custom ROM, is adding an interesting new feature that could potentially save lots of juice when your battery is running low. When enabling "Extreme power saver" mode, which can be set to kick in automatically at 15%, y ...more

There are few things more annoying in life than getting interrupted—especially when you're in a groove, jamming out to your favorite song. If we can all agree on that sentiment, then why is it that our phones mute the music we're listening to for a few seconds whenever a notif ...more

No one is perfect, and this goes double for software developers. All of the quality assurance testing in the world does nothing when you put a new OS in the hands of everyday users, since we all use our devices in different places and for different reasons. Recently, Cyanogen ...more

It happens to everyone: you set a lock screen password in a hurry and cannot remember it the next day. To unlock your device again, you need to reset the password (or PIN, pattern, etc). There are two official methods of doing this. #1. Reset Your Lock Screen (Patterns Only) ...more

The newest version of Snapseed features three awesome new tools for you photo-editing enthusiasts. The 2.17 update for the editing app was rolled out on Tuesday, March 21, and its new additions are something to behold. For those unfamiliar few, Snapseed is an award-winning pr ...more

After a successful Kickstarter campaign, a new smartphone manufacturer named Nextbit emerged, then released its first flagship device—the Nextbit Robin. The headlining feature of this colorful gadget is its cloud-based app storage, but the phone itself comes with a very polish ...more

Live wallpapers, like the classic Mario-themed one we previously covered, is a great way to spruce up your device and get some simple amusement. Unfortunately, they also drain more battery than conventional wallpapers. Which brings me to ASUS LiveOcean. With their ocean-theme ...more

With most of HTC's staff working on getting Sense updated to Android Lollipop, their piecemeal approach to individual app updates now comes to their Gallery app. The new update is available for all HTC devices running KitKat, but if you have the HTC Service Pack installed, it ...more

On August 1, Google Play started requiring new app submissions to target at least Android 8.0 Oreo's API. Then, as of November 1, all updates to existing apps were required target the same API. While at first glance, this change may mean little to you, it will have a profound ...more

Considering how much smartphones cost in the first place, we're understandably reluctant to throw them out when we've bought a newer model. And this is probably the best practice, too, as there are many great uses for an old Android device. Don't Miss: Turn Your Old Android i ...more

If you've been keeping up with anything Android these days, you've no doubt heard about a little dandy called Xposed Framework kicking around. Xposed, by XDA developer rovo89, is a framework for Android devices that lets you easily modify your stock or custom ROM. Xposed is r ...more

Most hardcore Android fans loathe carrier or manufacturer additions to the Android operating system. Whether it's bloatware or changes to the user interface, many enthusiasts prefer the clean look of stock Android. However, you have to admit that some of these additions are a ...more

If you've had the pleasure of owning both an iOS and Android device, you may have noticed one subtle difference on each one's PIN unlock screen. Android's lock screen requires you to press "OK" after entering the PIN, whereas iOS's simply unlocks the screen right after the las ...more