Android

Arcades have long faded away from popularity, but their legacy is being kept alive thanks to emulators and the avid fans who grew up loading quarters into all of those coin-op games. Although nothing beats an actual arcade environment, my favorite emulator from the early 2000s ...more

Each generation of smartphones ushers in a new set of top-of-the-line specs, with processing power, battery size, and display resolution growing by the year. These headlining features get the most press, but there's one unsung hero that has the potential to make the biggest di ...more

All phones (yes, iPhones too) slow down over time. As your device gets bogged down by various apps and you begin to run out of storage, it's just an inevitability. That doesn't make it any less frustrating ... I mean, is there anything more annoying than a slow phone? My answe ...more

Back in the '80s, recording live radio was as simple as popping a cassette tape into your boombox and pressing the record button. While we've come along way with regard to accessing radio stations thanks to websites and apps that stream live broadcasts over the internet, it's ...more

Living in this age of smartphones and always being connected can sometimes have us getting carried away with our devices. Whether it's an addiction to our phone or if we just feel like cutting back on some daily screen time, there's a great tool that can help with that — Googl ...more

When you're an audiophile, managing music is a labor of love. Metadata, like artist names, album thumbnails, and genres, is attached to many digital audio files, though some of the songs in your library might not have such tags, and others may have missing or incorrect informa ...more

Put yourself in Google's shoes: You know that business is becoming increasingly mobile, but the mobile operating system you maintain is wide open by design, and it's garnered legions of loyal fans that love to explore and exploit every aspect of it. There's a clear conflict of ...more

While its hardware may already be a little outdated compared to newer flagship phones, the OnePlus One is still a great value thanks to the dedicated community that continues to develop ROMs for it.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 th ...more

There has never been a better time to be a movie enthusiast, with more options now than ever to buy high-quality digital titles to watch on almost any device you own. That said, all those choices can lead to your movie collection scattered across different apps and services. W ...more

As Android bug bounty hunters and penetration testers, we need a properly configured environment to work in when testing exploits and looking for vulnerabilities. This could mean a virtual Android operating system or a dedicated network for capturing requests and performing ma ...more

If your smartphone is running Android 10, iOS 13, or a newer version of each, you have access to a system-wide dark theme. And that dark theme works well with Google Calendar, but it's not the only way to go dark. If you have an older operating system, it's still possible to d ...more

Certain files contain sensitive data that you don't want being shared with just anybody. Even still, it would be nice to be able to send such a file to a certain confidante without fear of it falling into the wrong hands. The Digify development team had all of this in mind wh ...more

If you're just starting out with Android—or smartphones in general, for that matter—there are a lot of little things to learn. One of the first terms you'll likely encounter is "Wi-Fi," which is a wireless internet connection served up by a router in your home, office, or loca ...more

With an Android device, you can replace almost any default app with a third-party offering. Don't like your home screen app? Replace it. Tired of the text messaging interface? Upgrade it. The same can be said for Android's lock screen. But while many third-party lock screen ap ...more

The final preview build of Android Lollipop is out (which you can install right now if you have a Nexus 5 or 7), and it's a great look at what the official release will look like when it's out in early November. But no matter whether you want to hold off on installing it or j ...more

While millions eagerly await the stable Android 8.0 release for the Galaxy S8, the beta is already in the wild and readily available. Notable improvements include notification channels and the revamped Samsung keyboard. One aspect often overlooked are new customization options ...more

While having no internet connection is definitely a bad thing when you need it, you can at least bide your time until you're back online with a hidden Easter egg inside of the Google Chrome browser. This gem unlocks a secret side-scrolling game that can keep you busy during yo ...more

Ever since the GDPR was implemented, it seems every website on the internet needs to inform you of how its privacy policies have changed. If your web browsing experience has been marred by a constant barrage of these cookie pop-ups and privacy dialogs, you should know there's ...more

A lot of people text nonstop, but there are situations where it's either not allowed or considered rude to use your phone. Let's say you're in class or in a meeting at work, band you're expecting an important message or phone call. Rather than trying to check your phone discre ...more

Sitting at home alone on Friday night, I'm often in the mood to watch something more recent than the offerings on Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime Video. And since the demise of video rental stores, that leaves me with browsing through the Redbox catalogue, then strolling down t ...more

Keeping expensive mobile devices safe and secure is a priority for most of us, but the process of repeatedly unlocking a phone or tablet can seem like a pointless task. This leads to disabling the lock screen altogether, especially when in a safe place (e.g., home, office, car ...more

The Galaxy S8 and S8+ are the first Samsung flagships to use virtual buttons, which means this is the first time we're seeing Samsung's design style applied to Android's software navigation bar. Even though the on-screen keys look fairly different from what other OEMs have put ...more

When playing a game or using an app, incoming call alerts can be extremely irritating on my Galaxy S4 because they insist on taking over the entire screen. The alert is a little different on other Android phones, depending on the manufacturer's skin, but all are fairly intrusi ...more

Copying files from a computer to your Android device has always been pretty straightforward—just connect the two devices with a USB cable, open your desktop file explorer, then move the files over. But what if you didn't need any wires at all? A new app from developer AppCube ...more

For those with small hands, smartphones have gotten out of control as of late. Nearly every flagship phone is over six inches in length, so many are forced to use phones that are too big for them and hope they don't fall. Well, thanks to one developer, using these phones can b ...more

One of the best new features in Android Oreo is the new Adaptive Icons system. Starting now, developers can create a single icon for their apps, then your launcher can stylize those icons in a broad range of shapes to match your system theme. Most home screen apps haven't adde ...more

With Android Pie beta now available for the Galaxy S9 and S9+, Samsung is well on its way to catching up to major competitors like the Google Pixel 3 in terms of giving its users the latest and greatest software Android has to offer. Of course, Samsung has added its own touche ...more

With the rise of OLED displays, Android users have been begging Google for a true system-wide dark mode for years. While a system-wide solution is still somewhat unlikely, Google has given in by providing a dark mode for certain apps, including Contacts. With most phones rock ...more

The idea of augmented reality isn't new, but the world of smartphones is looking to push it forward in a big way. As with any platform, both product demand and technological advancements have to catch up to the industry before it can become a viable solution for daily consumer ...more

If you've ever attempted to report a bug to a developer, no doubt you've heard the response, "Get a logcat." This is infinitely important to a developer because of the fact that a logcat captures a full report of every command that was recently executed on your Android device, ...more

If you're like me, things just seem to look better when they're symmetrical. While Android's status bar icons are indeed weighted against the notifications that show up on the left side of this area, the balance still seems skewed to the right. A popular fix for this in the p ...more

Google has finally released the next version of the world's leading operating system—Android 6.0 Marshmallow. This latest iteration isn't as much of a visual overhaul as Lollipop was, but it packs in more new functionality than almost any update before it. Awesome features lik ...more

When Google announced that it would begin supporting Android apps on its own Chrome OS, it was great news for all the folks with Chromebooks. But, as that operating system only makes up about 0.2% of the PC and laptop market share, most of us were out of luck. But that exclus ...more

70 degrees, 8 mph winds, and sunny clear skies. That's the current forecast here in Los Angeles and I can't really complain. However, if you don't live in Southern California, checking the weather may be the difference between getting stuck in a snowstorm or remembering to bri ...more

The Android 4.4.2 KitKat update is available via firmware upgrade for the international GT-N7100 variant of the Samsung Galaxy Note 2, about a month after we saw its first leak. The update is available via Kies in France, with and OTA update soon to follow. Details courtesy of ...more

Being able to customize the look and feel of your device is the main reason a lot of folks choose Android over iOS. And perhaps the single biggest way to visually overhaul your phone or tablet's UI is to apply an icon pack, which can liven up your home screen with bright color ...more

Robert Templeman from the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Crane, Indiana and several of his friends from Indiana University recently developed an Android application that is capable of gathering pictures and videos from mobile devices in order to reconstruct a user's environme ...more

When it comes to your security, you want the best of the best. Why settle for mediocre service with something as valuable as your protection? Malware continues to make its way onto the Play Store, leaving millions of devices vulnerable. You need an app that will shield your de ...more

As much as app developers would like to simplify things with icons and visual cues, text is still a huge part of a smartphone's interface. Much of our media consumption is text-based, and while Google's Roboto font is a beautiful typeface, a little variety here and there certa ...more

Closed captions are great for watching YouTube videos on mute, or simply following along with a video that's hard to understand. It's easy to turn on captions on YouTube's desktop site, but in the YouTube Android app, the closed captions settings are tucked away. About 20% of ...more

Podcasts have been around and popular for close to a decade now. For the uninitiated, podcasts are like radio shows that can be downloaded directly from the web and listened to on any device. Up until now, only paid apps allowed podcasts to be casted via Chromecast, but with t ...more

Smartphones have become such a big part of our lives these days that they're now closely associated with our personal identities. No longer is it Ford versus Chevy, rock versus rap, or PC versus Mac—now, you're either an Android person or an iOS person. Don't Miss: 10 Things ...more

Android Pie is bringing in plenty of changes, but the headlining feature is a set of navigation gestures like the iPhone X uses. With Android 9.0, you can now navigate through your phone using a total of seven new swipe gestures. The gesture controls are not enabled by defaul ...more

Many of Google's stock Android apps are some of the best options out there—especially now that they've all been made over with Material Design. But generally, as these are pre-installed system apps, they cannot be used on non-Nexus devices. As it turns out, the new Clock and ...more

When it comes to theming your Android device, it's the little touches that count the most. That's why developer SArnab created the Android Theme Engine, an Xposed Module to theme those hard-to-reach corners of the Android System that often go untouched with other themes. So, ...more

We're not always near our phone, so Pushbullet made it easy to get your phone's notifications straight to your computer, like calls and text messages. But with their latest update, you can also sync alerts with other Android devices using their new cross-device mirroring featu ...more

Spotify is a great music subscription service, but constantly streaming songs can really run up your monthly mobile data. Fortunately, you're able to download music from Spotify on Android and iOS in order to preserve your precious data cap. Overall, Spotify Premium, which yo ...more

During a contest in 2010 regarding which country Justin Bieber should visit next on his tour, North Korea won by a landslide. Unfortunately, he never went, and that's partly because nobody in the internet-less dictatorship probably voted. Instead, the contest was rigged by 4ch ...more

One of the coolest features in modern smartphones is their Bluetooth connectivity. This is how two digital devices can communicate with one another—sending data like your phone call audio or your favorite song—all while using up minimal battery life. Don't Miss: Android Basic ...more

Thanks to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, video games are constantly evolving to higher degrees of sophistication, with complex graphics, lifelike resemblances and storylines that create exciting experiences that relieve the tediousness of our everyday lives. It's a little di ...more

When the topic of Pokémon Go comes up, the typical response is, "Do people still play it?" The answer is a resounding yes! While the game doesn't command the zeitgeist as it did at launch, it has sustained a community of players who have stuck with it over the years. Pokémon ...more

Mozilla's Firefox has always been a highly praised internet browser. Since it's open-source, users know what they're getting without any secrecy. It's got plenty of features that are unmatched by any of its competitors on mobile. However, speed and performance have always been ...more

The awesome thing about Android is that you rarely need to settle for what comes stock on your device. If your music app sucks, switch it. If you don't like your home launcher, swap it for a better one. Don't Miss: 7 Cool Things You Can Do with the Developer Options That bei ...more

With the release of the ARChon Runtime, many Android apps can now be run within the Chrome web browser. Minor changes must be made to existing Android APK files before they can be installed on Chrome, so the process isn't exactly as easy as pasting an Android app into a folder ...more

Android's stock appearance is easy on the eyes, but after a while, it's outright boring to look at. Unlike other tablets from some manufacturers, the Nexus 7 runs stock Android and is free from any special UI tweaks or customizations. Sure, you can download themes for a third ...more

Emojis, smilies, emoticons—whatever you prefer to call them, these fun little guys can bring a text-based conversation to life. If you're worried that someone's sarcasm meter might be broken, just toss in a wink at the end of your message. Or perhaps you can't quite put your s ...more

Even if you pay for YouTube Premium, you are not exempt from ads. YouTube will stop adding pre-roll and interstitial ads, but content creators still have their own advertisements baked into videos. These product placements can be even worse than ads, and they're not the only a ...more

Theming is one of the many facets of Android that gives it a leg up on its iOS competition. With the right home launcher and icon theme, you can completely change the look and feel of your device in just a few minutes. Don't Miss: How to Make Your Android Unique & Theme Every ...more

We've all received those impersonal mass text messages, whether we're getting invited out to a birthday party, graduation celebration, or just a group dinner or outing. Usually when I see those sort of text messages, I delete them, mostly because they're not personal. If some ...more

Android's lock screen has evolved quite a bit over the years. From the Donut days of two tabs that launched the phone app and unlocked the device, to KitKat's clean and simple approach, shortcuts have come and gone. Lollipop marked the return of a pair of lock screen shortcut ...more