Samsung devices have two pre-boot menus that every Galaxy owner should know about: recovery mode and download mode. The recovery screen allows users to wipe cache files or perform a factory reset, which can help save the phone from a soft brick. Download mode, on the other han ...more
The Galaxy S8, with all its new features, is shining in the news right now as one of the best phones of the year. However, users in the US may be at a disadvantage to those overseas, as it seems that the Snapdragon 835-powered S8 models underperform variants with Exynos proces ...more
It was nice while it lasted. Samsung users who managed to get their hands on the Galaxy S8 or S8+ early enjoyed the ability to launch any app through the dedicated Bixby button. Unfortunately, Samsung wasn't all that down with us using the Bixby button for purposes other than ...more
Huawei is the third biggest smartphone manufacturer in the world and continues to increase its market presence with each new device. The Mate 9, the company's latest high-end phablet, has been available for four months now and has sold five million units so far. This is 36% mo ...more
Lawsuits among tech giants is a tale as old as time (or at least as old as the tech world). But one lawsuit between two tech giants appears to be heating up; Apple's lawsuit against Qualcomm is being met with a countersuit. The Hill reports Qualcomm filed the countersuit base ...more
Google released its "Android Security: 2016 Year in Review" report last month, and to no one's surprise, included its own flagship phones. However, one surprise on the list was the BlackBerry PRIV, which Google named one of the best Android devices for privacy. The PRIV was B ...more
It appears a privacy lawsuit that began five years ago is about to come to an end, and you might get some money out of it. Eight companies—Foodspotting, Foursquare, Gowalla, Instagram, Kik, Path, Twitter, and Yelp—have agreed to a proposed settlement of $5.3 million in a case ...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
It's happened to all iOS users: You're talking to a friend or watching TV, and all of a sudden, you hear "I'm not quite sure what you've said." Apparently, your phone heard something that resembled "Hey, Siri," and activated the assistant. But now, thanks to a new patent from ...more
While there are many good reasons to update to Apple's newest mobile software, a bug has made it to where you may want to double-check your iCloud settings after doing so. Apple issued a warning to select users today, stating that a bug in the iOS 10.3 update caused some disa ...more
Signal, the encrypted messaging app, has seen 1.4 million downloads in just the first quarter of 2017—roughly twice the downloads it received in the same period last year. Rani Molla at Recode attributes this to Donald Trump's inauguration, as the private messaging service saw ...more
Apple made headlines last month when it announced it would acquire the popular application Workflow. Now, the company should be making waves again with the news that they will reimburse customers who purchased the app. In the weeks since the announcement, Apple has made Workf ...more
In a move that confirms previous speculation, Apple has placed a large OLED display order from Samsung for its next iPhone. At 70 million display units, the order is a large one to be sure, but when stacked against previous iPhone sales, it's no wonder the rumors say there won ...more
Google Assistant is a handy little feature at most of the time, but it's upping the ante in honor of April Fools' Day this year. One eagle-eyed Redditor called tenbre noted that the smartphone assistant had added a new command—"April Foolproof"—which was found under the What ...more
The Galaxy X, Samsung's long-awaited foldable smartphone, may be revealed a lot sooner than we thought. Twitter user mmddj_china, a well-known Chinese tech-leaker, tweeted some obscure messages today surrounding Samsung's future products that said we can expect to see the Sam ...more
Headphone drama has been all the rage in the past year, with Apple killing off the headphone jack and trying to force AirPods upon its users (Apple, stop trying to make tiny, expensive, easy-to-lose earbuds happen. It's not going to work). The news for the Galaxy S8 has been ...more
The HTC U isn't set to be revealed until mid-to-late-April, but that isn't stopping the leaks from creating hype. Weibo user Ann Bunny just leaked a spec sheet for the new HTC phone, which can be seen below. Keep in mind, though, all details are still just rumors at this point ...more
All the news and rumors regarding the Galaxy S8 have finally coalesced and brought us to this moment, and it couldn't come soon enough. Samsung's flagships are making their official debut live on Wednesday, March 29. The stakes are especially high for the South Korean tech gia ...more
Don't ignore the update sitting in your Settings app; you'd be leaving your iPhone's security vulnerable. Apple released iOS 10.3 yesterday, which, among others things, resolves a security issue in the Safari app. Most importantly, Apple has changed a few things with Safari's ...more
The rumor that the iPhone 8 will ship with 3D camera system is not a new one, but a new analysis by Morgan Stanley's Charlie Chan lends credibility to the speculation. Now, it appears more likely than ever that Apple's next iPhone will ship with 3D capabilities, increasing pot ...more
Monday has been a big update day for Apple. Alongside the release of iOS 10.3, iWork has been updated across both iOS and macOS. The biggest change is the ability to unlock password-protected files with Touch ID, either on iPhone and iPad, or on the new MacBook Pro with Touch ...more
WinFuture, a German tech-news site, has leaked a spec sheet for the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus. We previously covered all speculation and leaks in our rumor roundup, but thanks to Roland Quandt, we now have a very clear look at what to expect from Samsung's latest ...more
Dual cameras are increasingly popular right now for smartphones, but so far, Samsung has steered clear of all the hype. However, a new patent application shows that Samsung has been working on a dual camera system of their own, featuring tech potentially more advanced than wha ...more
In case we haven't beaten the '90s revival to death enough, now Nokia is coming back to the US market. The three Android midrange devices that made their debut at Mobile World Congress last month are set for a global release, meaning they will also make their way stateside. T ...more
Cortana, a strong competitor to Apple's Siri and the Google Assistant, has just been updated for beta testers on Android. The update introduces some sleek redesigns of both the look and features of the app, developing anticipation for the official update. MSPoweruser reports ...more
Now you can watch your old copy of Bridget Jones's Diary anywhere, anytime, on your smartphone. It's a dream come true! (Disclaimer: This dream may oddly specific to me.) Vudu, the digital streaming company owned by Walmart, has taken another step to make its disc-to-digital ...more
The rumors have been confirmed by Samsung themselves: Samsung has developed a virtual assistant of their own, named Bixby. Bixby will makes its debut with the Galaxy S8 on March 29, with a "Bixby dedicated button" on the side of the new phone. Samsung senior vice president I ...more
Google Home now helps users to discover new music with an added "Listen" tab in the app. The feature offers suggestions based on the Cast-enabled apps on a phone, while offering other apps to download if you'd like to broaden your musical horizons. The playlists are curated to ...more
2017 has been a good year for Apple thus far. The new Kantar data is out, showing that from November 2016 to January 2017, the iPhone 7 has held steady as the top-selling phone in all the largest markets. The data also shows that during this part-quarter, the iPhone market sh ...more
Android has several features built into the platform that improve user experience but require extra attention to prevent a security breach. By modifying these settings, you can drastically reduce the possibility of someone exploiting your device or intercepting information. B ...more
A 5-year-old girl was injured after the battery in another Samsung phone exploded in China. The Samsung Note 4 was reportedly charging next to the sleeping girl when it blew up in her Guizhou-based home. The Guizhou Metropolitan Daily reports that the child's hands, face, and ...more
Selfies' reign on social media and pop culture has not really lost any steam since it was declared the word of the year back in 2013. We've had the much-mocked selfie stick, and even an ill-fated TV show named after the term. So what's next? Well, if you're phone maker Oppo, y ...more
According to new rumors, Samsung, still stinging after the Note7 recall debacle, is determined to be the first to release a foldable smartphone. According to ET News, the company is going to begin prototype production of their always-rumored but never-seen folding smartphone i ...more
Good news for those of us who are both directionally impaired and like to hold our own concerts while driving: Waze and Spotify are teaming up to make your drive easy to navigate with a sweet soundtrack. The new Waze and Spotify update gives you the option of getting directio ...more
It's the bane of many a tech geek's existence that the customizability of Android software cannot be combined with the sleek design of the iPhone. A new Kickstarter project titled Eye, however, is looking to change that with a new iPhone case that allows you to combine the two ...more
This year's Game Developers Conference, better known as the GDC, is underway at the Moscone Center in San Fransisco, California, and lasts until March 3, 2017. More importantly for us here at NextReality, the Virtual Reality Developers Conference (VRDC)—a new GDC sub-conferenc ...more
If you're tired of fumbling with the Control Center every time you need to turn off your iPhone's LED flashlight, you'll be happy to know there's a faster way. Using a simple trick that was discovered by Redditor 49599066, you can actually toggle your flashlight off in less th ...more
WhatsApp recently updated their emojis (or emoji, depending on your preference), but it wasn't exactly a welcome change. Many users have complained that the new smilies are just way too big, others aren't too fond of the shinier appearance, and countless folks have been ventin ...more
Matteo Pisani, CTO and co-founder of Remoria VR, has managed to do something the folks over at Google said couldn't be done for at least a couple of years. With a little bit of tinkering, Pisani was able get his Google Daydream VR headset and remote to work on an iOS device. V ...more
Ah, the Nokia Lumia series... what can be said about Microsoft's recently-deceased line of smartphones? They might not have been the best, but they certainly weren't the worst, and they did get the job done in terms of what you would expect from a smartphone. The Windows-powe ...more
Chrome's text selection interface is pretty nice, but it could definitely use some improvements. For instance, when you're in Incognito Mode, you can't perform a web search for words you've highlighted. And when you're typing out a forum post or using any text input field, for ...more
Facebook released a new app in November 2016 that aimed to compete directly with Snapchat, but it was only officially available in Brazil—and still is. The app, called "Flash," is so much like Snapchat that it's not even the slightest bit of a stretch to call it a clone. Even ...more
We've all been there... admit it. You sent a couple messages, but your friend had the "Read Receipts" option turned off in WhatsApp, so after a few minutes, you start wondering if they're away from their phone right now or just flat-out ignoring you. Well, there's a way to tr ...more
The Google Assistant that powers search on Pixel devices and Google Home has a lot more personality than regular old Google Search. It gets to know you, it's conversational, and it even has some fun Easter eggs hiding within—including a few magic tricks up its sleeve. To cele ...more
If you've just finally updated to iOS 10, you'll notice that lots of things have changed, and while the vast majority of new features are useful and fun, some can be a bit annoying. One bothersome bit of functionality is how Spotlight Search keeps a running history of everythi ...more
After updating your iPhone to iOS 10, you may have noticed that your screen will wake up whenever you pick up the device to look at it, or even when it's just in your pocket or dangling in your hand. This is because of a new "feature" called Raise to Wake. It doesn't unlock y ...more
People fear virtual reality will isolate us, but the right experience can prove it does the opposite. AltspaceVR is a virtual world you can utilize to chat with others around the world, but that's not all. You can also play card and board games, a game of laser tag, or a song ...more
It feels like forever, but the wait is almost over. In less than a week, everyone will be able to try out all the cool new features in Apple's new iOS 10. This new update will be available on September 13 to most iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch users via the "Software Update" sec ...more
Among the many new changes ushered in by the iPhone 7, only one has the potential to completely change the way you interact with your smartphone—a new 3D Touch-enabled home button. Instead of the mechanical click we've grown accustomed to, your home button will now behave like ...more
Over the years, we've covered many different methods for enabling background playback for YouTube videos on Android, but none have ever been as easy as this: Simply watch the videos with Firefox for Android, and they'll continue playing when you leave the app. Don't Miss: 20 ...more
In a surprising move, Apple just released iOS 10 developer beta 7 and public beta 6, just four days after releasing the last betas. Apple hasn't pushed out this many betas since iOS 5, and they're on pace to break that record. From the update notes, there doesn't seem to be a ...more
Apple has been aggressively smashing bugs with its last few updates to iOS 10, so it seems like all of the major work is done. With the iPhone 7 release date approaching fast, it's a good sign that the only remaining hurdles are relatively minor and cosmetic tweaks (though the ...more
The iPhone 6s models introduced Live Photos in iOS 9, a cool new camera feature that takes a GIF-esque moving image every time you snap a pic, but the cool factor pretty much stopped right there. You couldn't take them on older iOS devices, share them with non-iOS users, or ev ...more
While filters were technically available in Mail for iOS previously, you would have to hit "Edit" on the main Mailboxes view and add them as folders, which made your already crowded main screen even more crowded. Don't Miss: 90+ Cool New iOS 11 Features You Need to Know Abou ...more
iOS 10's Calendar app comes with a new Found Events feature, which scans Mail and Messages on your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch for events and lets you add them to your calendar. This one is easy to set up, because it's automatically enabled and on all the time, so you don't ha ...more
There has been a built-in flashlight on iPhones and iPod touches ever since the release of the Control Center in iOS 7, but it has stayed exactly the same since then. In iOS 10 and higher, you can actually adjust the brightness from the toggle if you have 3D Touch. First, swi ...more
After a relatively short beta-testing period, Pokémon Go is now rolling out to Android and iOS devices right now. If you want to catch 'em all in the real world, your wait is over. Video: . By now most of us know the details of the highly-anticipated, real-world Pokémon advent ...more
One of the coolest features we've come across so far in iOS 10 is a parking spot reminder. Go for a quick drive (making sure to take your iPhone with you), and when you arrive at your destination, you'll get a notification that tells you where you parked. Don't Miss: Better L ...more
So you're finally ready to head out on that big trip you've been planning for months, huh? It's an exciting time, but there are plenty of things you'll need to prepare before you head out. For instance, it's hard to imagine life without a smartphone these days, and with useful ...more
Gmail has been the email standard for quite some time now, and for good reason: it's a free service provided by one of the largest tech companies in the world that offers users an amazing feature set to manage, send, and keep track of all their important emails. However, all ...more