Google Play Edition

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

It seems like a new, dangerous Android exploit is uncovered every month or two. The latest headliners are NightMonkey and Chronos from the list of CIA hacks reported by Wikileaks, which have been billed as gaping security holes in the world's biggest mobile operating system. ...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

Google has a lesser-known Android app called Device Assist that might just be one of the most useful programs the company has ever published. It offers interactive guides and general tech support for Android, plus it can diagnose your device and help you fix any issues it find ...more

It's been rumored for months, but now we've got some official news about Google's newest music offering, YouTube Music Key. The subscription service will allow for an ad-free experience with background listening (i.e., having your screen off) and offline playback. The service ...more

The Nexus 9 is the hybrid update to the Nexus 7 and Nexus 10. It's in the sweet-spot for great size and portability, and it'll be one of the first devices to natively run Android's new Lollipop update. Set to go on pre-order Friday, October 16th, Amazon jumped the gun on the ...more

It's that time of year again, folks. Each fall, Google debuts a new device alongside the latest iteration of its mobile operating system—but this year marked the release of three new Nexus gadgets. In a stark contrast to the circus-like atmosphere surrounding Apple's iPhone E ...more

There is finally a keyboard for smartwatches that would make James Bond proud, thanks to Minuum Keyboard. Video: . Clearly, using this app will take some getting used to, but it's certainly an interesting, and so far the best, option for typing on small screens. Minuum is func ...more

We love Google Now around here (okay, maybe I do more than others), and today Big G snuck in a nice little functionality when searching for an artist. Exclusive to the US for now, when you enter an artist or band into Search, you'll be presented with listening options for apps ...more

Adobe, eBay, and iCloud have been hacked...now add Spotify to that list. The company has stated that on May 27th, they became aware of "some unauthorized access to [their] systems and internal company data" but that "only one Spotify user's data has been accessed and this did ...more

According to a statement on its website, Quest Visual, the company behind the highly-regarded live translation app Word Lens, has been purchased by Google. This news has ripple effects across both the Android and iOS platforms, as it is likely Word Lens will be discontinued in ...more

Your Nexus 5 comes with a pretty cool feature baked in called Android Beam. Using NFC, or Near Field Communication, this functionality allows you to send information to another compatible device by simply touching the two together. Most flagship devices have NFC built into the ...more

Sometimes, stock just doesn't cut it. When you're sick of the limitations in Sense on your HTC One, a new ROM can be a ray of sunshine. By installing a custom ROM, you can add or unlock new features in Sense, or you can get a pure Android experience instead. It's all up to you ...more

Update: May 7, 2014: Google's Camera has seen its first update, with a small yet important addition baked into the app—the ability to take pictures while recording a video. Now, when in video mode, simply tap on the screen to take a picture, while your recording continues as ...more

Rooting is usually the first thing on the to-do list whenever one of us softModders gets a new Android device. Unfortunately our efforts are sometimes hindered by certain obstacles; a common one is a locked bootloader. What Is a Bootloader? A bootloader is the lowest level s ...more

The NSA's massive internet spying efforts will continue. In President Obama's latest press conference, he went public to (in so many words) say that the NSA's spying efforts will continue uninterrupted. This, coming just weeks after the Amash Amendment which would have defund ...more

Minesweeper is one of those games that everyone plays, but hardly anyone actually knows how to play. Most people just click random squares and see how far they can get. If you don't want to take the time to learn how it works, but still hate losing, computer science student B ...more

Love the look of Metro's live tiles, but can't see yourself ever owning a Windows Phone device? Then fear not—you don't have to subject yourself to Windows Phone in order to experience those sweet live tiles. You can simply use Tile Launcher, a new launcher app for Android dev ...more

For a long time, Apple has had Remote—an app that can be used on any iOS device in order to remotely control iTunes. Remote allows users to walk around their home and change the music by simply going through their phone. And now, Android has released its own version of the App ...more

Want to search through your Samsung Galaxy S III or other Android smartphone using only a web browser? Thanks to XDA-Developers member Metal Droid, you can now access and download anything from your phone through any browser on your computer using DroidXPlorer. With DroidXPlo ...more

Mobile game companies Hit Point Studios and Legacy Games have adapted their Color BlastAR augmented reality game for iOS with the ARKit platform. The free game, aimed at children 6-12 years old, places colorless cartoon characters throughout the physical play space. Players, ...more

App updates bring new functionality, but they can also break old features or introduce changes no one wants. Unfortunately, if you're holding onto an older app version because you don't want to accept the update, it becomes a lot harder to keep the rest of your apps updated. ...more

Repetitive use of apps over time will eat up your storage space with by caching data on your device. This can be useful at first, speeding up your apps by not requiring them to re-download frequently used data, but as a cache grows, even the initial performance improvements ca ...more

Let's be honest, nobody enjoys doing cardio — they tolerate it. That dreadful, loathsome feeling you experience when you're doing cardio workouts isn't unique to you, it's almost universal. Sure, it gets easier the more you do it, but there are some ways to make it better now. ...more

Google's "Go" line of apps are lightweight counterparts designed to be limited speedy alternatives to their full-featured sibling apps. There is a Go version of Photos, Search, Maps, and more — but are they the right apps for you? The general idea of Google Maps Go is to give ...more

If your Android phone was made by Samsung, LG, HTC, or any other manufacturer that likes to apply skins on top of stock Android, then your camera app is tied to the custom gallery app that was preinstalled on your device. In other words, when you tap that little image preview ...more

It's rare that a developer listens to the wishes of the masses, but that's exactly what CyanogenMod has done with their new CyanogenMod Installer, which automates the entire ROM installation process on your HTC One or other Android device. Previously, upgrading from the stock ...more

From personal photos and videos to online banking passwords saved in your web browser, your phone has all kinds of sensitive data that needs to be protected. One of the best things you can do for your Samsung Galaxy S4's data is have a lock screen with a hard-to-guess PIN or p ...more

I spend an ungodly amount of time on Reddit, and while I do enjoy scrolling through memes and scandalous confessions, I must admit that I spend the majority of my time watching an endless stream of YouTube videos. Dallas recently showed how to cast GIFs from Reddit to your TV ...more

While Apple's AR wearables development continues clandestinely, its mobile ecosystem is laying the foundation for the software side of its smartglasses, with Apple Arcade serving as the latest example. Google does have its own smartglasses in the wild, but it is squarely focu ...more

Running diagnostics on your Android phone can be a very tedious process. More often than not, you need to key in dialer codes to see if your device's hardware is functioning properly, though you can also download apps — but these are often hard to understand for a layperson. W ...more

The share menu is a vital part of Android that lets you send data between between apps. Many of your favorite apps support the feature, including the new Direct Share sub-menu, which can lead to a messy share menu. However, there are a number of tools to clean up this clutter, ...more

While the legality of recording phone conversations varies from state to state, it's still a sought-after feature for most people. How else are we going to shame all of those bad Comcast customer service reps? Since it's a legal gray area, HTC and other smartphone manufacturer ...more

It just keeps getting harder to enjoy all of the benefits of root without sacrificing features. Thanks to SafetyNet, we've lost the ability to use Android Pay, Pokémon GO, and even Snapchat to an extent. But the most recent news on this front is perhaps worst of all: Netflix h ...more

It just got a whole lot easier to decide whether or not saving $50 on Amazon's new ad- and bloatware-subsidized smartphones is worth the headache of having to see an advertisement on the lock screen every time you wake the device. That's because you can get rid of the lock sc ...more

It always helps to be prepared for the worst. This applies to our phones now more than ever, as we depend on them to be our record keepers for text messages from friends, family, and coworkers. If you ever lose or severely damage your phone, having a backup of your precious te ...more

When I crack open a new book, I always make sure I have a pen and a highlighter nearby so I can mark away! Anything particularly witty, inspiring, or engaging gets highlighted, underlined, or circled. When I use the Amazon Kindle app on my phone, I do the same thing by writing ...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

Get ready to step up your game, explorers! Google Maps is releasing an update for its gamified program to encourage reviewing of businesses and other locations within the Google Maps app. Local Guides was introduced in 2015 as a fun, interactive way for users to contribute to ...more

CyanogenMod has always been on the forefront of ROM customization, and its newest release, CyanogenMod 12, is no exception. In the newest nightlies, they have included an updated version of their Theme Engine, which allows you to effortlessly change the way your entire system ...more

Whether you're a professional mechanic, a hobbyist, or someone who just wants to know why their check engine light came on, your Android device and an OBD-II adapter can provide insight as to what's going on with your car. Most adapters sell for less than $10, and once you plu ...more

Smartphones are almost always connected to the internet, so it stands to reason that they can be hacked remotely. Or perhaps a jealous boyfriend or girlfriend got hold of your device physically, in which case they could've potentially installed a keystroke logger, a virus, or ...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

The release of the Nexus 5 marked the debut of the Google Now Launcher. Even with an integrated Google Now page on your home screen, the most talked-about feature was actually the always-listening functionality. From anywhere on your home screen, this function allowed you to ...more

With all of the new features and third-party apps out there making Android better and faster every day, it's quite frustrating to me that keyboard advancements remain relatively static. As someone who sends text message every day on my Samsung Galaxy Note 2, I get overwhelmin ...more

Your Nexus 7 may be a tablet, but it can also be used as a phone, thanks to the continued upswing of VoIP applications, which send voice and media messages over the Internet—not over a cellular network. There are many VoIP apps on Google Play that let you make free phone call ...more

I'm a little biased — I love HBO. I wouldn't want to cancel my subscription, because there are constantly shows I want to watch. But I understand not everyone is like me. Some people might only subscribe to watch, say, Game of Thrones, then cancel their subscription when the s ...more

After getting confirmation from Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, we now know Fortnite Battle Royale will not be available on the Play Store when it's finally released for Android. Instead, users will have to download the APK directly from Epic Games' website — and quite frankly ...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

Last year, Apple debuted a feature that allows families to share iTunes and App Store purchases across their various accounts. Us Android users, on the other hand, have to buy separate copies of apps for each of our accounts—well, at least from an official standpoint. Truth b ...more

It's hard to believe it's already been a year since I was frantically searching every Best Buy in the Los Angeles metropolitan area to find one with a Chromecast in stock. With its wildly-popular $35 streaming stick turning a year old, Google has since been able to adjust its ...more

Google's has expanded ARCore support to numerous Android flagships like the Galaxy S10, so if you have a compatible device, you get access to all the cool new apps that can augment the world around you. One of ARCore's most sought-after features, AR Stickers, is normally exclu ...more

Using Siri to perform tasks on your Google Home device was never possible until Apple released Siri Shortcuts in iOS 12. Actually, it wasn't possible until Google added support for Siri Shortcuts for Google Assistant in Nov. 2018. No matter the timing, the important thing here ...more

Not that long ago, Google introduced a beta program for their Google Search app on Android. Much like any beta program, testers will get access to new features before they officially debut, but you might have to put up with the occasional bug as new functionality is introduced ...more

If you were eagerly refreshing the Nexus 6 order page this morning for a chance to snag the latest from Google and Motorola, we hope you were quick to purchase. About a minute after the 32GB models went on pre-order, both the Midnight Blue and Cloud White models were sold out. ...more

Starting November 1, 2018, Google will require that all new apps and updates to existing apps target Android 8.0 Oreo or higher. This move means the developers behind many of your favorite apps are now scrambling to get their software modernized, while others are considering a ...more

When we reviewed the best file managers on Android, MiXplorer easily topped our list with its abundance of features, including tabbed browsing, support for up to 19 different cloud services, file and folder encryption, and much more. The only major complaint we had was the fac ...more

Screen mirroring app iDisplay has arrived for Vuzix M300 Smart Glasses. With the app installed on the M300 and the companion software running on a Mac or Windows computer, users can mirror or extend the computer's desktop to the headset's display, which is connected to the co ...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

There are hundreds of sites that host high-res wallpapers for your Android's home screen, but most of us stick with the same old drab stock wallpaper because we're too lazy to go hunt for new ones. If you like the backgrounds that Google Now boasts in the Google Search app, t ...more