Google Android Gingerbread

I picked up my Galaxy S6 Edge on release day and have loved it ever since. Did I spend an extra hundred bucks for the mostly-aesthetic Edge display? Yup! Did I have buyer's remorse about my frivolous spending? Not even a little. But lo and behold, I found myself at Best Buy t ...more

Need to clear you cache? This guide details how on any web browser (Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Safari, Internet, and Dolphin) for any platform (Windows, Mac OS X, iOS, and Android). What Is the Cache Exactly? The web cache stores certain information (HTML page ...more

Many people think antivirus apps are useless — why pay a subscription fee when most malware can be avoided with common sense? But the thing is, there were an estimated 3.5 million malicious Android apps discovered last year, with many of them making their way onto the Play Sto ...more

If you own multiple Android devices, you're surely familiar with the struggle of keeping apps and games in sync. While games with proper Google Play Games support will indeed sync progress across your phone and tablet, many developers neglect to include this feature in their w ...more

With Sprint already rolling out their Jelly Bean updates to Samsung Galaxy S III owners here in the United States, international users have already had a chance to check out Android's newest OS on their S3, but all is not gravy. It seems that folks have been noticing an incre ...more

With apps and games getting bigger and more memory-hungry every year, storage space is at a premium. High-definition videos and photos of innumerable pixels certainly don't help the matter, either. Sometimes, the things that can soak up our storage the most are things we're n ...more

Android 12 was released to the Google Pixel devices on Oct. 19, 2021, so anyone with a Pixel 3 or newer model can install the new operating system with an over-the-air update. The AOSP version of Android 12 was released a few weeks earlier on Oct. 4, so OEMs could use or modif ...more

Tossing an old Android smartphone with a decent battery into your hacking kit can let you quickly map hundreds of vulnerable networks in your area just by walking or driving by them. The practice of wardriving uses a Wi-Fi network card and GPS receiver to stealthily discover a ...more

Google has recently been pushing to replace the decades-old messaging technology we've been stuck with. SMS was never meant to handle the high-quality multimedia content we consume with our smartphones today, so in comes RCS, which is a universal platform that aims to change o ...more

Because of its ability to place digital content into the real world, augmented reality lends itself well to artists and creatives. Two new mobile apps, one from Google and another from an indie developer with ties to Magic Leap, invert the creative conceit by taking the real ...more

Hangouts is a great cross-platform messaging service from Google that works with almost any device, making it one of the few messengers that can be installed on Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android gadgets alike. With its many useful features, one of the few debatable downsides is i ...more

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. Most ...more

Despite its rocky start, the Essential PH-1 has a lot going for it. Not only does it get consistent security patches and system updates hours after the Pixels, but like the Google-developed lineup, it's also great for rooting. Not only is your warranty not void with rooting, b ...more

If you're entirely new to smartphones, Android's share menu can seem like a foreign concept at first glance. In reality, it's one of Android's most central and unique features, and with a little experience, it can make your smartphone a lot easier to use. Don't Miss: More And ...more

This year in Android has seen a myriad of visual improvements among various apps' user interfaces. From the card swipes of Google Now to the article fade-ins of Circa News, developers have shown that they can strike a beautiful balance between form and function. Check out the ...more

With the V30, LG has really delivered an amazing smartphone that hits all the major features consumers want. Amazing camera, beautiful edge-to-edge display, great battery life, water resistance, and smooth performance — there isn't much not to like about the LG V30. Unfortunat ...more

Apple added a Bedtime Mode to its Screen Time tool for curbing smartphone distractions. Google's version of Screen Time, called Digital Wellbeing, actually predates Apple's, but a recent update is finally bringing in Bedtime Mode. The new Bedtime Mode is mostly a rebranding o ...more

Last December, Google unceremoniously killed off Google Glass Explorer Edition with a final software update, leaving the Glass Enterprise Edition 2 as the only remaining AR wearable from Google. Now, Google is making it easier for enterprise customers and developers to acquir ...more

This week, Google sidestepped their usual "Update Wednesday" strategy by dropping a huge update to their Maps app for both Android and iOS. We're accustomed to seeing new features and bug fixes to their stable of apps on Wednesdays, but today's Maps update was presumably big e ...more

Purchasing an actual book from a brick-and-mortar store is becoming increasingly less common for people to do, but it hasn't completely gone out of style just yet. There's something about entering a bookstore and viewing all the potential great stories and epic tales just sitt ...more

Google's original messaging service got a nice version bump today. Hangouts now sports stickers, video chat filters, an updated Material Design interface, and a few new features that should make the service a little more fun and easy to use. The stickers you can select from.. ...more

For a while, YouTube Red original content was a joke, lagging behind other services like Netflix and Hulu in terms of quality, so breaking down the paywall didn't seem necessary. However, with series like Cobra Kai turning heads, it's a good time to start using Red. Luckily, A ...more

Now that Hangouts is Android's default messaging app, it's given us a lot of cool new features. A bouncing ellipsis lets you see when the other party is typing, and an indicator shows you whether they've read your message or not. You can even answer the age-old question of "Wh ...more

Unsurprisingly, Google wants to be the caretaker for augmented reality on the web, and its latest move in this endeavor is a 3D model viewer prototype called Article that's designed to work across all web browsers. On traditional desktop PCs and mobile browsers, Article can e ...more

If you've taken the time to edit a video on your iPhone or Android phone, you probably have a purpose for it. Maybe you want to share it to YouTube in hopes of making the next viral sensation. Maybe you just want to save the video to your phone to show off to friends and famil ...more

Deep down, Android is a fork of Linux, which is a desktop operating system that started out as entirely command prompt-based. For that reason, many system-level tasks can still be executed within a terminal emulator app. But visually speaking, the terminal apps that have been ...more

Not all smartphone chargers put out the same amount of current. The adapter in your car probably charges your phone a lot slower than the one plugged in at your bedside, and if you use wireless charging, it may be a bit slower still. Even considering the variance in listed am ...more

There are few sounds that actually make me cringe whenever I hear them: silverware scraping on a plate, nails scratching on a chalkboard, and piercing high-frequency tones. While the former two terrors require some physical hardware, sending out high-frequency sounds is as eas ...more

If you own a Google Pixel 4a or newer, there are new live wallpapers for you to explore that other Android devices can't have. Since launching its Pixel Feature Drop in December 2019, Google has gifted Pixel owners with new features once every three months. The new Live Bloom ...more

The next big event Apple is holding is WWDC 2018, its Worldwide Developers Conference, is about to happen. If you want to see the first glimpse of iOS 12 for yourself, as well ARKit improvements, Apple Watch news, and maybe even some macOS announcements, here's how you can tun ...more

Screen pinning is a fairly unknown feature despite the fact that it's been around since 2014. It's a helpful security tool that limits access to your device to only one app — perfect for those times when someone asks to borrow your phone. While previous versions kept this feat ...more

The Nexus 6 is one of the few devices on the market that sports a 1440p "QHD" display. This means that the amount of pixels displayed is higher than almost any other smartphone, which sounds great on the surface, but is not without its drawbacks. For one, most apps and games ...more

There really isn't any custom manufacturer skin, like Sense, that can match the clean look and fluidity that comes with stock Android. HTC knows this, and they, just like Samsung, include a Google Play Edition version in their flagship lineup. In effect, these GPE variants pu ...more

With the emergence of rumors that Amazon, Google, and Samsung are all making their foray into the gaming console market, it's a possibility that our Android-powered mobile devices might become tools that play a central role. As we proceed through 2014, we'll see inklings of w ...more

It's that time again. Snow days, Thanksgiving dinner, holiday presents ... and great Black Friday deals. Starting the Friday after Thanksgiving (or sometimes a few days before), millions of items will go on sale, including your next Android phone. Jump Ahead: Google Phones | ...more

Many apps claim to record phone calls on Android, but very few actually deliver. There's just too many different devices floating around out there for one app to be able to support them all — or so it would seem. The development team at Boldbeast Software may have finally sol ...more

After the success of the Snapdragon 835, Qualcomm now has its eyes set towards the future with the arrival of its next-generation SoC, the Snapdragon 845. Debuting alongside the Samsung Galaxy S9, the 845 is now set to take over the market for flagship Android phones in 2018. ...more

One of the biggest gripes we always hear about is the changes OEMs make to Android's notification shade. Icon styling and home screen layouts can be fixed with custom launchers like Nova and Action, but we're stuck with the tacky Quick Settings theme our phones came with. Toda ...more

Many modern Android devices use a display technology called AMOLED. These screens differ from traditional LCD displays in that each pixel emits its own light, so a backlight is not required. Even better, when rendering a black element on the screen, AMOLED displays simply don' ...more

I think we all like the idea of getting paid games for free with minimal effort. Typically, though, anything claiming to help you do that is either illegal or a scam. But there are actually quite a few no-fuss methods that can get you paid games without going too far out of yo ...more

After building a tech empire on revenues from search advertising, Google is not about to sit back and let Snapchat, Facebook, 8th Wall, and others draw all the AR marketing attention to their platforms. This week, at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity (basi ...more

Portrait mode works with any dual-lens iPhone, as well as the single-lens iPhone XR, and lets you take impressive portraits with blurry, bokeh-filled backgrounds. Portrait selfies, on the other hand, are only available devices with Face ID. But that's only for Apple's Camera a ...more

Due to the overnight success of smartphones, millions of people are connecting with others. Currently, over 15 million text messages are sent every minute worldwide. Most of this communication is happening in the open where any hacker can intercept and share in the discussion ...more

While the world is only recently becoming aware of its existence, augmented reality has been around in some form or another since the '90s. In the last decade, with the advancement and miniaturization of computer technology — specifically smartphones and tablets — AR has becom ...more

Android has plenty of features that provide multitasking support, which are especially useful on smartphones with larger screens. One such feature that I loved on the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 was the popup browser, which brought up a floating window whenever I opened a link insid ...more

When a big company (Google) concentrates on big things (Auto, TV, Wear), some of the smaller aspects of their design can be overlooked. Just as we saw in Android KitKat, battery percentage information is absent from the status bar. While we were able to enable a hidden setting ...more

Your shiny new HTC One M8 is a pretty stellar device. From controlling your entertainment center to lock screen gestures and camera shortcuts to being pretty damn indestructible, this device has a lot going for it. But one feature that Google has requested OEMs hide are "deve ...more

Starting today, you can experience all the unique feature of Samsung's next flagship device, the Samsung Galaxy S5, right on your Galaxy S3 or other Android device. Grab the Galaxy S5 Experience app for free from Google Play, open it up, and let's dive right in. Of course, yo ...more

There's a lot of cool features rumored to be included in next year's HTC One 2 (M8), the follow up to the flagship HTC One smartphone, including a fingerprint scanner, Android 4.4 KitKat, and Sense 6.0, but it's just too far away to get really excited about yet. Besides, that ...more

Those of us who lived our childhood through the '90s remember the rapid advancement of console gaming. From the Nintendo to Game Boy to Dreamcast to PlayStation, we were consistently greeted with newer and better technology on a year to year basis. With new PlayStation and Xb ...more

Depending on what mobile device you own, you'll see something that says "via device name" next to the date of your post on Facebook. If you're device is not recognized, you'll simply see a "via Mobile" note, which is what happens when I post from my phone. If you allowed your ...more

The car is arguably one of the worst places to receive a text message. You know you can't resist looking, and when you do, your attention is no longer on driving, it's on reading the latest gossip or whatever. You take your eyes of the road for just a few seconds and you could ...more

Before you go out to protest, understand what you are facing. Sometimes these demonstrations become infected with looters and rioters, which could mean interaction with law enforcement and potentially arrest. And if your phone is on you, it can be used as a tool against you. ...more

On Tuesday, Unity released the latest version of its 3D engine, which brings improvements to the Scriptable Render Pipeline that the company introduced earlier this year. Introduced in Unity 2018.1 as a preview feature, the Scriptable Render Pipeline (SRP) enables developers ...more

On the one year anniversary of the introduction of ARKit, Apple is planning to reveal major updates its augmented reality toolkit for mobile apps at its Worldwide Developers Conference in San Jose, California next week. Citing sources close to the matter, Bloomberg reports th ...more

We are totally buggin' about Pinterest's update to their Lens. I know, I had to. It's only because this update is promising to bring us one step closer to that coveted closet that Cher had in 'Clueless'. The feature was originally launched in March as a search tool. It reco ...more

Computer vision technology maker uSens, Inc. has unveiled uSens Fingo, a camera module that enables tracking of hand and head movements for PC-based, mobile augmented, and virtual reality platforms. With an embedded dual-lens camera, uSens Fingo attains accurate inside-out 6D ...more

Video game emulation has saved arcade and console classics from obsolescence, and that wonderful hobby has found its way onto the Microsoft HoloLens—with some three dimensional upgrades, of course. If you own a Windows PC, you may have heard about 3DNes, a Nintendo Entertainm ...more

Today we are pleased to announce the end to the Apple vs. Android war. About a year ago, our Gadget Hacks team started working on a top-secret project to dual-boot both Android and iOS on the same phone—and we couldn't be more proud to announce that we've finally succeeded! Y ...more

Google I/O may still be a couple of months away, and although we don't expect anything groundbreaking—no new Android versions, just fixes to KitKat—we could be treated to some new apps. No, not Pokémon inspired Maps, rather new versions of Google's Calendar and Gmail apps. Ge ...more