Lock Set

The Android 9 Pie update brought a lot of visual changes, some of which are a little too reminiscent of iOS. There's the new gesture controls, which are okay, but then there are things like a left-justified clock and the fact that the recent apps menu now scrolls horizontally ...more

If you're an Apple fan, AirPods are the must-have wireless headphones to own. They know when they're in your ears, will pause music when one is taken out, and when you pair them with your iPhone they'll already work on your Mac, iPad, and iPod touch using the same Apple ID. Ho ...more

Millions depend on Google Maps for directions, and it's easy to see why. The app comes with tons of features like offline navigation, location sharing, and more. Google is far from done, however, and continually improves upon its navigation app to make it even more efficient a ...more

You can mod every aspect of your phone's software with root, but if you want to make changes at the hardware level, you'll need a custom kernel. If you've looked into custom kernels before, one name undoubtedly kept coming up: ElementalX. It's easily the best custom kernel out ...more

Your childhood "social networking" may have been to go outdoors to the neighbor's — and outdoors is a great place for kids to be. But these days, the terms educational, digital media, entertainment, and toddlers don't have to be mutually exclusive. Like most things in life, it ...more

Massive multiplayer shooters like Fortnite have become all the rage, as mobile gamers duke it out in long, protracted battles that can often be as excruciating as they are thrilling. If you're yearning for a more fast-paced shooter on iOS, Nitro Games has you covered, and has ...more

While iOS 11 was famous for its instability, performance issues weren't the only factor holding it back. The OS overhauled the notification system on iPhone, but not necessarily for the better. iOS 12, however, improves upon these changes, bringing critical features that make ...more

Marvel has solidified itself as the dominant superhero franchise with the release of Avengers: Infinity War, and it's now dipping its toes into the world of mobile card-based strategy games with the soft launch of Marvel Battle Lines in select countries ahead of a worldwide re ...more

A revamped Recent Apps overview is one of the most significant changes set to arrive with Android P when it touches down later this year. Incredibly, Samsung has beaten Google to the punch, and has made this feature available for all its Oreo-based Galaxy handsets courtesy of ...more

Android has gotten significantly better at handling intrusive ads over the years. Things have gotten to the point to where these nuisances are largely a non-issue for most of us. However, there are still a few ad-laden apps that fall through the cracks — particularly the kind ...more

Marvel's Future Fight gave gamers the ability to brawl through near-countless levels as their favorite superhero. Not to be outdone, DC has soft launched DC Unchained in select Southeast Asian countries in preparation of a worldwide debut. If you're willing to put in a little ...more

Smartphones are still "phones," which means communicating with others is usually a primary use. Ranging from a simple "hi" to a more personal conversation and even sharing passwords, our messages should remain private so that only the intended recipient sees their content. Whi ...more

Mobile gamers are well aware of this, but zombie shooters have become pretty stagnant and unimaginative in recent years. Too many entries in this genre feature the same cookie-cutter gameplay, but thankfully, Gameloft aims to change this. The company has soft-launched Dead Riv ...more

Update: The new Galaxy phones are now official! Check out all the details on the Galaxy S10 and S10+ or the Galaxy S10e. The Galaxy S9 didn't even hit shelves before fans were already musing about its followup. It's no secret Samsung's newest device, as impressive as it is, i ...more

In addition to the standard "Raise to Wake" option that's been around since iOS 10, the iPhone X, XS, XS Max, and XR have a unique capability that lets you "Tap to Wake" the screen. But these features can get annoying real fast when your screen keeps turning on accidentally, w ...more

If you used Touch ID on an iPhone before, all you had to do to install apps and games from the App Store was rest your fingertip on the Home button. On the iPhone X, there's Face ID instead, and Apple has included on-screen instructions to help everyone adjust to the lack of H ...more

There's a new macOS vulnerability that hackers within physical reach of your computer can use to gain root access to your system and accounts. Just by using "root" as the username and a blank password on a privilege escalation prompt, someone can install malware on your comput ...more

So, your grandmother finally wants to ditch her flip phone for a shiny new smartphone? Congratulations. But helping her get used to her new device, even when it's an iPhone, is no small task. Grandma mastered checking her email in late-2012 and just recently learned there's a ...more

Since the iPhone X has no Home button, the Side button has some heavy lifting to do. So not only is the Side button responsible for all of its usual duties, like sleeping and waking the device, it has to do everything the Home button did too. That's a lot of work for one butto ...more

Many OEMs create skins that run on top of Android to differentiate themselves from their competitors. One example is the LG UX 6.0+ found in the new LG V30, which is Android at its core, but improved upon by the addition of unique features. One such feature is the ability to c ...more

You can bet Thor costumes will be prominent among the superheroes seen this Oct. 31. Since the summer, there has been no shortage of coverage for Thor: Ragnarok, and the timing of its November release couldn't be better as a tie-in with the cosplaying holiday known as Hallowee ...more

All to often, many of us are struck with a brilliant idea out of nowhere, only to forget about it moments later thanks to the distractions of daily life. Sometimes, the actual process of jotting these ideas down in our iPhones can be a holdup, as the idea we want to record fad ...more

While Apple's tech used for Face ID on the iPhone is impressive, it's debatable whether it's more convenient than Touch ID. There are also concerns that your face could be used to track shopping patterns or be seen during mass surveillance by intelligence agencies. More import ...more

If you want to root your phone, it's a huge plus. If you want to install a custom ROM like LineageOS, it's an absolute must-have. Custom kernels like ElementalX, custom recoveries like TWRP — none of this happens unless you buy a phone with an unlockable bootloader. While we ...more

In recent years, Apple has been pushing health and safety as cornerstones of its technology, and iOS 11 is no exception. Apple's latest entry in its mobile operating system brings a new emergency feature called Emergency SOS, which gives you easy access to contact 911 if you p ...more

3D Touch is only available on the 6s and 7 series iPhones right now, and likely future models, so those with older devices are missing out on all the cool "Quick Actions" available for app and settings icons. But the new iOS 11 is finally bringing some of those helpful shortcu ...more

You may have heard of Honor of Kings, the multiplayer online battle arena game so popular that it has the potential to do for mobile what League of Legends has done for the PC in the world of competitive online gaming, but you'll soon hear about its western iteration, Strike o ...more

Fans of Titanfall now have a great alternative to play on their iPhones whenever they're out and about. Titanfall: Assault has arrived as a soft launch for iOS devices. A hybrid between card-based and real-time strategy genres, the game will pit you against other players with ...more

Prison Architect, the BAFTA winner for the Best Persistent Game in 2016, has finally soft launched on iOS. Originally a PC game, Prison Architect lets you build and maintain a maximum security prison. Comparable to running a small city, the game has you manage an ever-expandin ...more

The world of mobile gaming is flush with MMORPGs that entice players with console-quality graphics and gameplay, intense co-op dungeons similar to World of Warcraft, and epic loot that'll give you a leg up over your competition. While there are games like Order & Chaos that ne ...more

Final Fantasy XV, the latest release in the long-running Final Fantasy franchise, has been a massive success, shipping around 6 million copies worldwide in less than two months. Final Fantasy XV: A New Empire is a mobile game based off this popular console iteration, and has s ...more

Fans of rhythm tap games and traditional one-on-one fighters finally have something to bring them closer together. DuelBeats, a fighting game that lets you perform moves by tapping to the beat of a song, has been released as a soft launch for both iOS and Android in New Zealan ...more

Tom Clancy games, like Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon: Wildlands, are famous for their realistic and immersive gameplay that focuses on covert, low-intensity warfare. Ubisoft now appears to be testing the overcrowded waters of mobile gaming with the release of ShadowBreak, and ha ...more

Samsung's new personal assistant, Bixby, is making its debut on the Galaxy S8 and S8+. In addition to taking voice commands and performing visual searches, a new Hello Bixby feature predicts what you might want to do next with an integrated home screen feed. All of these featu ...more

Dirty, malformed, and outright mischievous text strings have long been the enemy of interactive website developers. Strings contain any combination of letters, numbers, spaces, and punctuation, and are entered into text boxes on websites by users. These strings in particular c ...more

The iPhone has a handy feature called AssistiveTouch that lets you quickly adjust volume, lock your screen, rotate your display, and even navigate through the phone's interface using a virtual home button. In a way, it's a lot like the on-screen navigation bar that you'll find ...more

Augmented reality began on smartphones but technical limitations have prevented further development. Google's Tango (formerly Project Tango) aimed to change all that, and with Lenovo's help, they now have their first device. Check out the features in this video from Lenovo: V ...more

When Google released the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P, they added official support for fingerprint scanning to Android's main code base. On the surface, this was done to ensure that the fingerprint scanner in their own devices could be used to its full extent, but because it was adde ...more

A judge just handed down a ruling that will make the U.S. government's quest to unlock the work iPhone of one of the San Bernardino shooters much more difficult. U.S. District Court Judge James Orenstein ruled against the government in another case, which argued that a search ...more

Unless you're in law enforcement, you won't usually have a flashlight on hand for those rare moments when you need to sift through the dark. However, it is very likely that you will have your phone on you, so you'll have fast access to a bright light with just a few easy taps. ...more

As one of only three hardware buttons on an iPhone, the Sleep/Wake button gets a lot of use day in and day out. If you've had your iPhone for a considerable length of time, this button—which is also used to power down the device, as well as turn it on—may begin to malfunction ...more

Upgrading from velcro-only shoes to laced-up sneakers is an important step in life. Days are spent practicing the perfect bow-tying method, and people even argue as adults over tying with the bunny ear method versus the loop-and-wrap trick. Despite the years of shoe tying exp ...more

If you have some photos, videos, and documents that you want to keep completely hidden and encrypted on your Android device, Andrognito is the app you need. We showcased this app in the past, but since then, CODEX has rebuilt it from the ground up with new and improved feature ...more

Carriers like to distinguish their Android phones from the competition by making small changes to the interface here and there. This practice is so common that Android now has a built-in system for managing these small tweaks. A series of XML files known as CSC (customer soft ...more

Samsung has a long-standing reputation for packing their devices with lots of added functionality, and the Galaxy S6 Edge is no exception. It comes with a nifty feature called "Information stream," which allows you to get quick, at-a-glance information by swiping the edge of y ...more

Contacts on your phone can be messy. Keeping all of those numbers, emails, and addresses organized takes time and, even then, they still may not be be as accessible as you want them to be. Drupe, an application currently in beta for Android, drastically improves the native wa ...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

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

Located at the bottom of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 lies the speaker from which music, notifications, and most other audio comes from, which provides warm and clear sound when needed. When you need the audio to be louder, that's where third-party speakers come in handy, which ...more

Google's latest Nexus device is big, bold, and beautiful—and now it's got root. Thanks to some quick work by legendary Android developer Chainfire, the Nexus 6 already had a clear-cut root method before most stores even had it in stock. CF Auto Root is a wonderful tool that h ...more

We live in a time where privacy is rare and our files can be easily accessed by just about anyone. Having your phone protected by a passcode is great, but if someone figures it out, they can easily access anything on your phone. That may not be a big problem for many of us, b ...more

While some mobile sites have built-in text-resizing tools, many do not. A lot of those that don't won't even let you pinch-to-zoom. That makes it difficult for people with low vision to read small fonts on their iPhones. In some cases, like with photo captions, even those with ...more

With Geohot's Towelroot allowing us to root our Nexus devices in under a minute without ever leaving Android, many of you are probably enjoying all of the Gadget Hacks that root access has unlocked. But some tweaks, such as interface themes and Custom ROMs, come in the form o ...more

Text input on a touchscreen device is constantly evolving. From early beginnings of pecking out each individual character to today's predictive text and gesture keyboards, we've already come a long way. But text selection is still lacking. If you've ever tried to quote multip ...more

Autocorrect, a common feature available on most Android keyboards, helps fix fat-finger typos and even predicts the words you want to write. Without this feature, it'd take me about 5 minutes to write a sentence, and even then, it'd probably still be intelligible. Unfortunate ...more

While rooting your Galaxy Note 2 certainly has its advantages—everything from increasing security to relieving the Power button of its duties—it's definitely not for everyone. Whether you're concerned about voiding your warranty or just really like your stock device, rooting ...more

If you've seen ParaNorman or Fantastic Mr. Fox, then you have some kind of idea of what stop-motion animation is. Basically, these artists make objects, or small figures, appear to be moving on their own by manipulating and repositioning them in the smallest increments, then c ...more

The list of streaming services is pretty vast, from HBO GO to Hulu to Netflix, these subscription-based services have never been so popular, and have never been easier to watch now that they have Chromecast support. As great as these services are, there are a few drawbacks. W ...more

LG's new KnockOn feature for the G2 wakes the phone up just by tapping on the screen twice, in lieu of using the power/lock button. This is something that would be equally as helpful on the HTC One, as it's sometimes a pain to use the power button, especially if it's worn out ...more

Windows 8's interface was met with criticism when it was released, mainly directed at the tiled Start screen, a departure from Windows versions of old. Many felt that this new home screen style was better suited for mobile devices like Microsoft's Surface tablets and Windows P ...more