Google Maps beta version 9.49 now allows users to manually save their parking location, and includes weather forecasts in mass transit, according to Android Police. There's also a notification toggle for mass transit station notifications. Here's a breakdown of the new featur ...more
Android's notification system is quite robust, especially now that Google added bundled notifications and quick reply features to Android 7.0 Nougat. However, things can still get quite cluttered when you have several unread messages, which fills your status bar with icons and ...more
Google just released Android 7.0 Nougat, and as usual, they're doing a staged rollout. This means that most users won't actually get the update on their Nexus devices for a few weeks—that is, unless they take matters into their own hands. Shortly after Nougat made its debut, ...more
Say you're out and about when suddenly you get the urge to write a strongly-worded email. You get the words down, but still feel like you could really hammer home the message with the right point of emphasis. Or maybe you just want to make absolutely sure that your recipient c ...more
When you're sitting at your desk trying to get some work done, your Android device can be a big distraction. If a text comes in, you have to pick up your phone, unlock it, then respond with the clumsy touch screen keyboard—and by then, you've probably forgotten what you were d ...more
Many apps and services that are available for Android can only work if they have access to your Google account. While you're setting up one of these apps, you'll see a popup that says something like "This app would like to access your Google account," and the options are "Acce ...more
Most music streaming services will either use the stock Android equalizer or their own built-in equalizer. A couple of apps, such as Spotify, bring both to the table. Spotify has a built-in equalizer which kicks into play when a system or third-party equalizer isn't detected. ...more
It looks like the dust is finally starting to settle on Google's POLED PR nightmare. The Pixel 2 XL — one of the most hotly-anticipated phones of the year — has been plagued by screen issues and worries. While it is certainly not without its faults, Google has created several ...more
Whether you use Google Calendar, Exchange, iCloud, or any other service, you need a good Android calendar app to keep you organized on the go. For many folks, the obvious answer was always Sunrise Calendar, but Microsoft purchased the company behind this awesome app in a class ...more
Samsung has been on a tear with its flagship devices since the release of the Galaxy S6; The S6 edge, the Note 5, and this year's Galaxy S7 models have all been met with universal acclaim, and even the staunchest of critics have almost nothing negative to say. Almost. Critics ...more
A new feature of Google's Gboard for Android lets users doodle an emoji in order to find it. The change was part of a few updates introduced earlier today. The other updates are also meant to let conversations happen faster and more smoothly. It likely shares a foundation wi ...more
A motion-based lock screen app called GestureLock was among the winner's at 2106's Android Experiments I/O Challenge, and it lets you set a specific motion (gesture) that you use to gain access to your locked phone. Don't Miss: Google's Experimental Launcher for Android Feels ...more
Of the Google services that come bundled in Android devices, none is more useful than Google Now. By combining search with timely cards that hope to guess your next move before you even make it, Google Now is everything a virtual assistant should be. Starting today, the servi ...more
School internet filters serve a valid purpose—they keep students from wandering off into the deep corners of the web while still allowing at least some internet access. But a lot of these restrictions are completely ridiculous, to the point where some school districts block ac ...more
Sense 6 is great, don't get me wrong, but sometimes I start to miss the vanilla Android experience that comes with Nexus devices. You can always convert your M8 to the Google Play Edition, but then you'd have to ditch all the Sense exclusive features, and we wouldn't want that ...more
For anyone using open source information to conduct an investigation, a balance between powerful tools and privacy controls are a must. Buscador is a virtual machine packed full of useful OSINT tools and streamlined for online research. This program can easily be set up in Vir ...more
Rumors have had Google making a foray into the mobile carrier world for quite some time, but today, the Mountain View tech giant finally made things official. The new service, dubbed Project Fi, will be a Mobile Virtual Network Operator, or MVNO, that uses existing Sprint and ...more
One of the main goals of Google Wifi (and Nest Wifi after it) is to make managing your internet connections as simple as possible. A great example of this is how easy it is to prioritize one device and allot it more bandwidth when your network is bogged down with other traffic ...more
With so many Chromecast-powered devices available, chances are, you're near something with casting abilities right now. Whether it's Android TV, Google Home, or any one of the various gadgets with Chromecast built-in, you can use a more powerful speaker to play media from your ...more
I'm a notification minimalist. When I get alerts, I want to deal with them ASAP. If the time is not right and I want to reference the notification later, snoozing was always the best course of action. But in Android 10, Google tucked away snoozing, so here's how to get it back ...more
Metadata contained in images and other files can give away a lot more information than the average user might think. By tricking a target into sending a photo containing GPS coordinates and additional information, a hacker can learn where a mark lives or works simply by extrac ...more
Streaming movies and TV shows on phones is more popular today than ever, but what about when you're on a plane, have a limited data plan, or will be in a no-service area? You'll want to download your movies and TV shows instead. While Netflix is excellent, you can't rent or do ...more
The Android Nougat preview build for Nexus devices comes packed to the brim with new functionality: multi-window mode, a dark theme, and a data-saver toggle, just to name a few. However, unless you have a Nexus device, it will be a while before you get these exciting new featu ...more
A human rights activist from the United Arab Emirates recently stumbled upon three gaping security loopholes in iOS that work by enticing you to tap a link sent to your iPhone. Ahmed Mansoor received a text message from an unknown number roughly two weeks ago, but instead of f ...more
I've been an Android user almost as long as the operating system has existed, so when I received my first iPhone in April, I felt like I was in a foreign land. Sure, it runs most of the apps I'm used to, and the phone itself feels about the same in my hand as any similarly-siz ...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
Have you ever gone to a friend's house and not asked for the Wi-Fi password? Probably not, and the same can likely be said of any friends that come over to your place. But the actual act of sharing Wi-Fi passwords is still incredibly clunky, and it's particularly hard if you h ...more
Earlier this year, Google rolled out the first developer preview build of Android O. The new version added tons of cool features, but the downside was the fact that you needed to use Fastboot to manually install the update if you wanted to try it out. Thankfully, things just g ...more
In older Android versions, you could flood your status bar with a wall of notification icons. But starting with Android 9, Google made it to where you can only see four icons by default, and it was mostly done to accommodate phones with notches. But Google's only notched phone ...more
Just in time for the holiday season, Lenovo has released its Mirage AR head-mounted display with the Star Wars: Jedi Challenges game and accessories. Unfortunately, while its price point is a fraction of most other AR headsets, at the moment, it does have a few issues with the ...more
Chis Lacy's Action Launcher is easily one of the best third-party home screen apps for Android. If you're interested in the basic feature set of this impressive app, check our our overview of the top five launchers on Android. Today, we're taking an in-depth look at the brand ...more
Google announced Android L to the masses at their I/O event, and with it they introduced their new "Heads Up" notification system. These notifications are part of the new Material Design UI and are sure to change the way we interact with notifications on our devices. While Da ...more
Chrome, Firefox, and Safari all provide built-in features that allow you to save your username and password for your favorite sites, making the process for entering your credentials a breeze when you revisit them. While this automation does make your life a little easier, it ...more
The number of passwords I have for different websites and emails is easily in the triple digits. And if I had to actually remember all of those individual passwords, I would be locked out of accounts on a daily basis. That's why I use the "remember my password" feature whenev ...more
The first developer preview build of Android P (Android 9.0) is right around the corner, but less than 1% of Android phones are running Oreo. The fragmentation on Android (the number of devices on different versions of the operating system) is staggering, and a problem that ha ...more
SoundHound's new virtual assistant application, Hound, is gaining a lot of buzz in the tech world—especially after a demo video showed just how awesome it works (it has amassed over 1.6 million views in under a week). Don't Miss: Amazing New Digital Assistant Shames Siri & Go ...more
Any parent with a rambunctious child who may have at one point racked up a hefty bill on their Kindle or Android device can now breathe a sigh of relief. One, Jack Black has had it happen to him too, and two, Amazon will be refunding up to $70 million of in-app purchases made ...more
More often than not, when you find an app that offers a particular functionality, there are ten other apps on the Google Play Store that offer virtually the same features. But the reason we choose one app over the alternatives is mainly due to one thing—a preference for the us ...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
When Google added new security measures to Android Marshmallow, it had a lasting impact on the entire process of rooting. These measures prevent the the Superuser daemon (the process that handles requests for root access) from getting the permissions it needs to do its job at ...more
When Google released the first Developer Preview build of Android 7.0 Nougat, users were happy to see that a new "Night Mode" was included among the changes. The feature would cancel out any blue light emitted from your screen to help you get to sleep a bit earlier, quite simi ...more
Well, get ready to have your battery depleted if you use Google Photos. The backup app has just removed the "Backup While Charging" feature in their app. The feature was found in the settings menu and it was one of the best features that Google Photos had. It allowed you to o ...more
It's fair to say that Google's messaging services are in a bit of a heap at the moment, and to make matters worse, Hangouts is removing its SMS capacities. Hangouts version 18 is now being rolled out, but doesn't appear to incorporate any functional changes. However, the new ...more
Android Lollipop, introduced an array of new features and aesthetics that pleased many loyal users. One of those additions being the new heads-up notifications. Taking subtle inspiration from iOS, these notifications are visually appealing and can be easily dismissed or expand ...more
Google's new Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones are available for pre-order right now, but the general public won't start to get their hands on these devices for another week or two. Tech reporters got some hands-on time at Google's launch event on October 4th, but camera testing ...more
At an event in Mountain View, CA, and watched by fans via live stream on YouTube, Google announced a slew of new products today. Over the last few weeks, there was no shortage of rumors and leaks about what might be unveiled, but now the secrets are out. As expected, Google h ...more
With as much creativity and freedom that we have on Android, it feels a little underwhelming that the only gesture we can perform on the status bar is a downward swipe to expose the notification tray or quick settings. Maybe this is a field for Android to expand on in the futu ...more
Because of the way Google Play works, Android has a "bad app" problem. Google allows any developer to upload an app to the Play Store, regardless of if it works, how it looks, or whether or not it can harm users. Malware scanning happens primarily after apps are uploaded, and ...more
Selecting text on a touchscreen device has always been a major pain point. Those tiny little arrows that let you adjust the selection area are always too hard to actually adjust, making precision all but impossible. Then there's the issue of some apps not even allowing text se ...more
Snapchat made augmented reality selfie effects famous, with Facebook copying the feature across its mobile apps. Of course, others have followed, but their face tracking apps often pale in comparison to the original. Now, Google is giving Android developers the keys to adding ...more
If you're jonesing to play some Super Mario Run on your Android phone, you might not be able to get your fix for some time—at least, until Nintendo figures out the best way to keep piracy down and security high. But if you can't wait for the first official appearance of Mario ...more
Unless you've been hiding under a (moon) rock for the past month, you already know that Saturday, July 20 is the 50th anniversary of NASA's Apollo 11 lunar landing. And while it has been 50 years since man first visited the moon, no human has set foot on its surface since 197 ...more
Amazon is slowly trying to gain as much influence in the tech world as it has in the consumer market, and with the Amazon Fire HD 7, they have their eyes set on taking on the "budget tablet" space. For the amount of money you spend on the Fire HD 7, you get a pretty decent ta ...more
With Android Pie, Google added a genuinely useful feature for Pixels called App Suggestions, which uses AI to predict the apps you might want to use next. These show up at the top of your app drawer and in the new dock in the revamped multitasking UI for quick access. But here ...more
We've heard a bit about Google Daydream—the new smartphone-based virtual reality platform that is supposed to provide a markedly better experience than Cardboard—but don't really know what it'll look like. Engadget claims we could find out in just a couple of weeks, since Andr ...more
Besides having an awesome name, widgets are nice little additions that help make your phone more functional and customized. There are plenty of Android widgets available in the Google Play store and from other third-party sites and developers, but XDA forums member Roymam deci ...more
Google's newest Android system update should be arriving on Tuesday, November 13th, with the release of the Google Nexus 4 smartphone, and Nexus 7 and 10 tablets. All will come preloaded with the new Android 4.2 Jelly Bean OS, but what about the rest of you (especially those w ...more
Snapseed is an app that you should definitely be using not only if you're really serious about photography, but also if you want to ensure that your online work sets the standard for social media. It's a great companion app to Instagram and VSCO, and it will save your day many ...more
Microsoft's "Fall Update" to Windows 10, code named Threshold 2, has a lot of new tricks up its sleeve. It's the biggest update we've seen since Windows 10 was released this summer, and it's rolling out to all users right now. Don't Miss: All of Our Windows 10 Coverage If yo ...more
Apple's new iOS 8 has a ton of new features, and so does their revamped Safari app, only some of the features aren't quite as obvious as others. In this guide, I'll show you my 5 favorite Safari secrets in iOS 8 for your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch. Video: . You Can Access Rec ...more