Microsoft Android App

If you're an AirPods owner, you know the sound — that decrescendo of little beeps and boops means imminent "death" for your wireless earbuds. Other than that infamous chime, however, it's not overly clear how to check your AirPods, AirPods Pro, or AirPods Max power levels. Tha ...more

Update: The installation process for Xposed Installer is now dead simple—check out our updated guide! Xposed is a framework created by XDA developer rovo89, which allows the end user to customize their stock or custom ROM without having to modify any system applications or fi ...more

Every mainstream Android home screen app looks and behaves almost exactly like Google's Pixel Launcher. It's the trendsetter, like the Nexus Launcher before it. But when all your options are modeled after the same thing, that really takes the "custom" out of "custom launcher." ...more

OnePlus is known for pushing the boundaries of what we thought was possible for a mid-range price. One of the best things about OnePlus phones is that their battery life is fantastic in general, but to achieve this, Oxygen OS will disable or delay notifications by default once ...more

We recently showed you how to recover your Shazam history from Siri, which is a lot less intuitive than finding the songs you've tagged directly in the Shazam app. But with a subscription to Rdio or Spotify, there's no need to even locate your history. You can Shazam songs and ...more

I'm here at the annual AWE event in Santa Clara, California, and the venue is just as packed, if not more so, than last year. There's still a lot of exploring to be done, but I wanted to take a moment to point out some of the coolest augmented reality-powered swag I've ever s ...more

Google Fi Is a great wireless carrier alternative and can be quite beneficial when used correctly. If you don't require much data, you can easily get away with a $30 or less bill. However, if you wanted to crank out more data during your current billing cycle, there's a settin ...more

In the past, if you stumbled upon a Yelp listing you liked, you could bookmark it and check it out later on your profile. You can still take advantage of this feature in the mobile apps, but it's more refined now than it ever was thanks to Collections, a feature Yelp first add ...more

Safari has a convenient "Find" feature to search for specific words and phrases in a webpage, and Apple Books has a similar feature for e-books and PDFs. But those do nothing for you when searching text in the real world. Hardcover and paperback books are still very much a thi ...more

It wasn't Christmas, but for Amazon Prime members, it was darn close: Amazon Prime Day, one of the biggest shopping days of the year, came and went earlier this week. Unfortunately, there weren't many Prime Day-specific deals to be had for augmented reality fans, but that does ...more

At the moment, it would be safe to say that demand for devices running Tango, Google's augmented reality smartphone platform, is relatively low among consumers. Kaon Interactive, a B2B software company who has built more than 5,000 interactive applications for use at trade sho ...more

When a Houston mom got tired of her kids seemingly refusing to return her calls, she decided that she'd take action. Sharon Standifird's vision was to create an app that would somehow force children to get into contact with their parents. Having no experience with app developm ...more

Sure, your search history can be useful, but more often than not, it's a paper trail of privacy infringement. It's perfectly reasonable not to want to see a complete list of your YouTube queries every single time you search for a new video. Luckily, blocking YouTube from savin ...more

Fan favorite Transformer Bumblebee returns to theaters on Friday in a spin-off of the film franchise, so Paramount Pictures is bringing the car-robot back into the homes of fans via augmented reality. On Thursday evening, Snapchat launched a Sponsored World Lens featuring Bum ...more

If you're playing word association with the terms "augmented reality" and "automobiles," your first thoughts probably center on navigation displays in cars or virtual models of exotic vehicles. Capital One plans to shift its customers' preconceptions of AR in cars to the purc ...more

Google's new AI-powered camera, Google Clips, seems to be targeted at parents of young children in its current form, but the idea itself has unique potential. Just set it up somewhere, then you'll never miss a moment trying to capture the moment — you'll have a robot photograp ...more

Four augmented reality companies made deals this week to grow their businesses. Two companies, TechSee and Car360, completed funding rounds, while DAQRI signed with a production partner and Decalomania landed a prime spot with a top retailer. TechSee Secures $7.5 Million to F ...more

If you really want to play Gran Turismo or Castlevania on the go, Sony's PlayStation Portable is a great way to do it. But it gets harder and harder to justify carrying around a PSP handheld gaming console when you've got an equally powerful Android phone in your pocket alread ...more

When it comes to getting your computer and smartphone to work well together, there's no service more robust and capable than AirDroid. For years, it's been the go-to tool for users looking to transfer files between their devices or access contact lists and call logs from their ...more

An average of 140,000 hard drives crash in the United States each week, according to online backup service Mozy. Additionally, 70 percent of Americans have lost a laptop, smartphone, or tablet, and the average person now loses 1.24 devices each year—less than half of which are ...more

Android Nougat has a new API that lets apps create their own custom Quick Settings tiles. A similar feature was buried in Android Marshmallow, but that required a hacky workaround, and most manufacturers disabled it in their custom versions of Android 6.0. But since this is an ...more

After setting up your phone, there are a number of things you should do immediately before download your favorite apps. Specifically, now that your data is on the device, you need to take steps now to ensure it's both protected and retained. Fortunately, most of these steps ar ...more

Reddit is one of the internet's greatest sources of funny and interesting videos. Its user base is extremely active, and a system of upvotes and downvotes ensures that the best content always rises to the top. With Android TV's casting abilities, you might think that the best ...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

Long-exposure photography gives us the ability the capture some pretty amazing shots by delicately capturing moving elements in an image while keeping the shutter open at a slow speed. While that's great for things like traffic, scenery, and carnival rides, it can come in espe ...more

Pets are one of the biggest sources of joy in life, but keeping track of their daily activities can easily become a chore. When you have a roommate or spouse that also likes to feed the cat or walk the dog, miscommunication can lead to double-feeding or an under-exercised pet. ...more

Augmented reality seems to come into its own in museums, where audiences are ready and willing to try out new immersive tech. Now, that tech-powered palette is about to get a little larger. On Wednesday, the Knight Foundation announced grants that will allow five museums nati ...more

Based on OTW's encouragement in his post on "How to Find the Exact Location of Any IP Address", I decided to make a gui(graphical user interface) which would hopefully make the process easier. However, because turning a python script into a standalone executable is a right pai ...more

Trying to figure out which music streaming service to subscribe to can be a difficult task when the playing field is so crowded. Each has its benefits, as well as downsides, so finding the right one for your needs and wants can take a lot of overwhelming research. But we've do ...more

One of the best things about Android is the ability to customize your phone to your liking. From changing the layout of icons to finding the perfect wallpaper to reflect your current mood, there's a wide range of tools to make your phone yours. One of the easiest ways is to t ...more

If Android is all about options, then iOS is all about new features. Every year without fail, Apple announces a cool software component that brings something new to the table, and this year was no different. The headlining feature to go along with the iPhone 6s is called "Liv ...more

One of the best uses for an old Android device is to turn it into a security webcam that can be accessed over the internet. But most of the time, this is a rather difficult process, because existing apps usually require you to mess around with network settings and configure a ...more

We've all been there. Your phone is on your nightstand, but you're on the couch in the living room browsing the web on your Nexus 7. Then you hear it—a faint sound for a new text message notification from the bedroom. Ugh. Don't you wish you didn't have to get off the couch. ...more

A rather exciting development has recently surfaced in the jailbreaking scene for iPhone. The Checkm8 bootrom exploit was shown off to the public by axi0mX, which made way for the undefeatable Checkra1n jailbreak tool. With it, you can freely jailbreak a variety of older iPhon ...more

Widget toggles, or "power toggles" as they're often called, have been around for quite a while. They serve their purpose nicely as an easy way to add switches to your home screen or notification area for functions that don't come with the stock software on your device. As fun ...more

The PlayStation 4 has been around since 2013 and has brought with it countless game releases since then. One thing that hasn't changed, though, is the strict device restrictions on the PS4 Remote Play feature for streaming your games. The capability has always been there, but ...more

QR codes are like smart little cubes of data. To unlock this data, you will need a QR reader. These are annoying because you typically have to download a third-party app, and some of these apps are shady. Luckily your Samsung Galaxy running One UI has a hidden QR scanner built ...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

One of the only downsides to the Pixel XL is that Google's flagship phone does not have stereo speakers. But if Android's awesome development community has taught us anything over the years, it's that limitations like these can be bypassed with some creative software tinkering ...more

In the tech world, it's all too common to slap a fake label and packaging on a lower quality product, especially SD cards. If you've ever bought an SD card on the cheap from a slightly-less-than-reputable source (or even a reputable source, in some cases), how do you know if i ...more

Overall, Plex is a great service. You just install the server on your computer, then you can stream your media library to wireless devices with the Plex app for iPhone or Android. But it does have one annoying feature that's enabled by default: Theme music plays automatically ...more

Living in Southern California means I don't really have a need to check the weather all that often. But every now and then, I'm caught off guard by a particularly chilly or hot day—no one wants to be the only person walking around with a T-shirt and sandals on a rainy, 50-degr ...more

Now that the NCAA Basketball Tournament is underway, 7-Eleven has decided to launch an augmented reality experience to remind basketball fans where they can quench their thirst throughout March Madness. Available until April 10 in the 7-Eleven app for iOS and Android, the pai ...more

The annual Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is one of those events that everyone talks about, so an augmented reality experience in the festival's mobile app and from one of its headlining acts, Eminem, basically means the technology is officially cool. The iOS versio ...more

Malware attacks on mobile phones are reaching an all-time high and it looks like companies like Samsung are doing all that they can to prevent any unwanted hackers from accessing its sensitive user data. When it comes to Samsung, well, they get enough flack already being all ...more

Another year, another Oscars. This year's red carpet coverage kicks off Sunday, March 4, at 6:30 p.m. EST, while the ceremony itself starts at 8:00 p.m. EST. Finding a stream online isn't always the most straightforward endeavor, especially if you want it to be free. To avoid ...more

The world around us keeps getting smarter. Not only do we have advanced AI services like the Google Assistant, but now we've got the Internet of Things connecting physical objects to the digital world. It's amazing when you think about it, but the real sci-fi stuff starts to h ...more

Two years ago, the 50th anniversary of the moon landing gave flight to a handful of Apollo 11 augmented reality apps and experiences, including one from the Smithsonian Channel. Now, as NASA's latest unmanned mission to Mars is scheduled to land on Thursday, the Smithsonian C ...more

If you can't locate a specific entry in the Notes app on your iPhone, chances are that it's hiding in a different place than you thought, connected to a third-party email service such as Gmail, Yahoo, or Outlook. When one of those notes gets lost or accidentally deleted, you'r ...more

Before Continuity and Handoff were even announced, Pushbullet was already allowing users to quickly send notes, links, and photos between their devices with a few clicks. On smartphones this was all handled via the Pushbullet mobile app for Android and iOS, but on Macs it cou ...more

If you made a resolution for 2020 to get healthier, it's essential to concentrate on your mental health just as much as you do on physical fitness. Running and exercising is great, but a sound mind is integral to a healthy and balanced life, and you can improve your emotional ...more

With Android 10, there are now three options when an app asks to access your location: Allow, Deny, and Allow While In Use. That last one prevents apps from seeing your location unless you're actively using them, and it's the default now. But when you first update, most of you ...more

When it comes to your security, you want the best of the best. Why settle for mediocre service with something as valuable as your protection? Malware continues to make its way onto the Play Store, leaving millions of devices vulnerable. You need an app that will shield your de ...more

YouTube won't let you play videos in the background on Android without paying for YouTube Red, so if it's your primary source for streaming music, and you don't want to shell out $9.99/month, you'll just have to take matters into your own hands. The simplest solution to this p ...more

Google's Chrome browser is evolving into a very powerful platform. Not only can it be used to view your favorite website or mirror tabs to your Chromecast, but now that it has an App Engine, more powerful tools can be run within Chrome. Android developer Koushik Dutta has jus ...more

Whether you use VSCO to take all of your photos or you use it primarily to edit photos you take with others apps on your iOS or Android phone, you're at some point going to want your VSCO pics to end up in your Camera Roll or Gallery. VSCO doesn't add them there by default, bu ...more

It's hard to not to like the look of iOS emojis. Sure, Samsung and other Android phones have emojis, but they're all kind of goofy-looking. And since iPhone emojis continue to be viewed as the standard, it comes as no surprise that you can actually get them on Android—and with ...more

With just a few taps, an Android phone can be weaponized into a covert hacking device capable of running tools such as Nmap, Nikto, and Netcat — all without rooting the device. UserLAnd, created by UserLAnd Technologies, is a completely free Android app that makes installing ...more

You don't need to pay for an app or subscription to have your audio notes transcribed for you on your Android smartphone. There's an easy, free way to do it on almost any Google Pixel, and you can even use it on other Android devices. Google introduced its Recorder app with t ...more

The Google Chrome browser for Android is packed with many great features, but it definitely has a bad rep for being slow and laggy on low-end or midrange devices. Without a top-notch processor, you'll likely notice some stutter with choppy scrolling, and pages can take too lon ...more