Your Instagram feed is jam-packed with interesting and lively photos, videos, and stories that largely offset the iOS app's comparatively bland user interface. If the interface's dull colors have always bothered you, you can splash on some much-needed color to better reflect y ...more
The iPhone's notification system has drastically improved over the years, but it could still use some work. The notifications, while useful, are all monochrome, making it hard to distinguish which app posted each alert, and that's not even mentioning the drab overall look. Thi ...more
By default, there aren't many customization options for the notification badges on iPhones — you can either leave the numbered red bubbles there, or turn them off. But thanks to a new jailbreak tweak, you can now give your badges a unique look with new functionality. Aptly na ...more
On Monday, with just days left before Christmas, Lowe's dropped a surprise augmented reality treat in everyone's lap: a brand new Magic Leap One app. With little fanfare or warning, the Lowe's Showroom app popped up in the Magic Leap World section on the Magic Leap One as a f ...more
When the announcement of the Cheddar app for Magic Leap first went out on Tuesday morning, the app was not available on my updated Magic Leap One (located in New York City). However, after checking throughout the day, I can confirm that the app is now live. The free app downl ...more
One the leading game developers for the PlayStation 4 and Oculus Rift platforms, Insomniac Games, is finally releasing its first major augmented reality title: Seedling for the Magic Leap One. Back in November, we gave our impressions of the game after sampling it at the L.E. ...more
Unlike the realm of virtual reality, augmented reality is less about losing yourself in some fantasy environment, and more about getting things done in the real world. So while we've seen some great games that capture the imagination on devices like the Magic Leap One and the ...more
Though not as popular as Super Mario or Zelda, Konami's Contra nevertheless remains as one of the greatest titles that helped put Nintendo on the map. This retro shooter is set to make a comeback, and has been soft-launched in select Asian countries ahead of a worldwide releas ...more
Ever-shrinking bezels and disappearing hardware buttons make for good looking phones, but they also increase the need for gesture controls. Android Pie comes with seven new swipe gestures, but if you don't have the update yet (or find its default gesture options to be lacking) ...more
Low Power Mode can go a long way in preserving your iPhone's battery life in a pinch. It can be set manually or appear as an option once your battery levels dip to 20 and 10 percent. If you have a jailbroken device, you can take Low Power Mode a step further by having it autom ...more
With the release of Android 9.0 Pie, Google's focusing on digital health. Digital Wellbeing is a new set of features designed to help you curb your own smartphone addiction. Starting now, the beta version is available, and Google's looking for testers. Although Android 9.0 Pi ...more
The current iPhone lineup inarguably features Apple's best displays to date, but the stock wallpapers don't really do the screens justice. There are plenty of third-party wallpapers you can use, as well as ones you create yourself. However, if you want that typical Apple feeli ...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
Using the ARKit 2.0 announcement as its springboard, software maker Adobe is looking leap up to the level of Unity Technologies and Epic Games, the companies making the go-to tools for creating augmented reality experiences. Between with Photoshop, Illustrator, Creative Cloud ...more
I don't need to remind you that Netflix is a holy bastion of both outsourced and original content. I probably also don't need to remind you that Netflix's rating system sucks. It suggests content based on how much you'd like it, as opposed to how highly it's rated. After all, ...more
Whether due to spotty cellular reception or just data that you want to save, popular navigation apps like Google Maps and Waze offer an offline feature that lets you navigate from one location to another in the absence of internet service. Apple Maps also lets you use its serv ...more
Upon Google's release of ARCore in February, the platform wasn't only playing catch-up with Apple and ARKit in terms of downloads, but it also lagged in capabilities, as Apple already had vertical surface recognition and image recognition on the way with ARKit 1.5 for a March ...more
If you've unlocked your iPhone lately and noticed some apps aren't fully installed anymore, you're not alone. After updating my device recently to a newer version of iOS 11, I didn't immediately understand what caused a few of my games to uninstall themselves. It turns out, th ...more
Carrier-branded Galaxy S9 models come with a ton of bloatware that you usually can't get rid of without rooting. With a little digital elbow grease, however, there is a way to disable bloatware on your S9 or S9+, and it's a lot safer that attempting to root and modify you prec ...more
We already showed you the dark side of augmented reality in the form of a virtual girlfriend from Japan, but now the same country has given us something a lot less creepy that could be the future of virtual pop stars everywhere. Produced by Niigata-based studio Gugenka, HoloM ...more
HBO's Westworld has touched down on iOS as a mobile game, giving players the chance to manage their very own futuristic theme park set in the wild west. Unfortunately, the game is currently only available in select countries as a soft launch until its fully developed. But if y ...more
For parents that have an iPhone X, things are about to get a lot easier for you in iOS 11.3, which finally lets you approve app and media downloads on your child's iPhone using Face ID instead of typing in a password. You can ban certain apps and movies, as well as in-app pur ...more
Google's Pixel lineup hangs its hat on smooth software and a polished UI. At the core of this experience is the Pixel Launcher, a home screen app that is often imitated, but never perfectly duplicated. That is, until developer AmirZ released the latest version of his Rootless ...more
Apple has tools built into iOS to help parents monitor the iPhone habits of their children. However, those same tools can be used by everyday iPhone owners to both hide apps they don't care about, as well as restrict features they don't need or that infringe on privacy. Whethe ...more
It took a few months, but several major phones are finally receiving updates to Android Oreo. At this point, we've spent significant time talking about Oreo on the Galaxy S8, Galaxy Note 8, and Essential Phone. While an update to the latest OS is always great, there is one big ...more
Now that the holiday season has officially kicked off, Office Depot has updated its popular Elf Yourself app with a few new augmented reality options. But you'd be excused if you weren't overly thrilled with the implementation. For those who are unfamiliar with the app, Elf ...more
Nova Launcher continues to push the boundary of features available to home screen launchers. While most users are waiting for their OEMs to send out the Android 8.0 update, Nova provides access to many of Android Oreo's features to the 99.8% of devices currently using an older ...more
Update 10/14: Developer paphonb has added rootless Google Now integration to the leaked Pixel 2 launcher, so now, anyone running Android Nougat or Oreo can get the full Pixel 2 home screen experience. For those running Lollipop or Marshmallow, we've left the unaltered leaked v ...more
Over the years, Kodi (formerly XBMC) has become one of the most popular media players. It provides all the essential functionality needed for any home theater setup while remaining open source and free. However, Kodi is not limited to just your living room. With the Kodi app f ...more
Let's face it — our phones are our heart and soul. We do everything on them, from banking to media consumption. However, sometimes we download apps that we don't want others to see. Sometimes, we wish to hide apps so that, in the rare times we lend our phone to someone, we don ...more
When iOS releases in the next few weeks, consumers on both iOS and Android operating systems can expect to see more AR ads in the mobile web browsers thanks to Vertebrae, an advertising platform for immersive media. Next month, Vertebrae will be able to distribute web-based A ...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
At the end of June, Unity 2017.1, the newest version of the popular 3D development engine, went live. And with that release, it brought out some very cool new features like Timeline and Cinemachine, to name a few. Now, for those of us that develop with Unity and follow the bet ...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
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
If you've ever wanted to turn your favorite GIF into a live wallpaper for your iPhone or even just make it a 3D Touch-friendly Live Photo that you can share, there's a super simple way to do so. Using the Giphy app for iOS, you can convert any GIF found on Giphy's website int ...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
Preorders for the LG G6 have all been fulfilled, and the phone has been up for grabs at local cell phone providers for three weeks now. However, not every LG G6 was created and released equally. The T-Mobile variant of the LG G6 features an unlockable bootloader, while most ot ...more
In honor of Earth Day tomorrow (woo!), visual artist Justin Brice Guariglia has released a new augmented reality app that lets you experience climate change from wherever you're standing. The app, named "After Ice," finds your current position through geolocation and then put ...more
The Galaxy S8 and S8+ might not have made it into the hands of the public yet, but we sure have come across a lot of the stock apps from Samsung's latest flagship phones. First, there was the new launcher, then Hello Bixby, and now, the extremely elusive Record Screen feature ...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
Dynasty Warriors has finally been unleashed on the world of mobile gaming. The latest installment in the popular series is called Dynasty Warriors: Unleashed, and it sends you rampaging through armies using a variety of devastating attacks, all while collecting and upgrading o ...more
DayZ is a first-person shooter game for Windows that places you in a vast post-apocalyptic world filled with zombies and other players that are all out to get you. Famous for its realism, DayZ has garnered a cult following and influenced many subsequent games in the genre. But ...more
NetGuard is a well-established app known for its highly secure firewall, which blocks unwanted web activity from individual apps that can take up both precious bandwidth and battery life. Not quite as well known, however, is the fact there's a second official version of NetGua ...more
Nintendo's first ever game for Android has finally touched down (unless you actually count the abomination that is Miitomo). Fire Emblem Heroes, a classic turn-based RPG optimized for mobile gaming, has come out for Android and iOS in Australia, Europe, and Japan, and is due o ...more
Android apps check your system locale settings to determine which language they should display. For the most part, it's a seamless experience—except for those times when an app has not been translated into your language of choice, in which case the app will usually default to ...more
Super Mario Run was released for iOS on December 15, 2016. Even though it debuted as a "free" app, almost all of the playable content was hidden behind a ridiculous $10 unlocking package. Despite coming with such a hefty price tag and receiving a two-star rating on the day of ...more
A few months ago, it was discovered that Verizon was installing an extremely shady app called "DT Ignite" on some of its smartphones—most notably, the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge. The app, created by Digital Turbine, monitors your smartphone usage, then uses the data it collects to ...more
If you need to do some hardcore multitasking on your Windows PC, a second monitor can go a long way towards getting things done. If you opt to "extend" your Windows desktop across a dual monitor setup, it's as if you have two computers side by side, with each display getting i ...more
Most websites prevent you from saving embedded videos, but if you have the Xposed Framework installed on your Android device, a cool module from developer Ashish Bansal will now let you download almost any video. The way it works is simple—just start playing a video in your fa ...more
Metasploit is an extremely popular pentesting tool capable of enumeration, exploitation, and injecting shell code, and is a part of almost every hacking toolkit. So there's no way I could leave this out of our series on getting your Mac set up for hacking. Luckily for those o ...more
Google makes Android, but now, Google makes its own phones, too. Until this point, they've always stayed on the software side of things and let Samsung and friends handle the hardware, but their new Pixel phones are changing all of that. Related: The Pixel Exemplifies Google' ...more
If you enjoy modding your Android device with root utilities, custom ROMs, and Xposed modules, then there's a good chance you've had to factory reset your phone when something went awry. Plus, when you're switching ROMs, it's always recommended that you wipe all data, so us mo ...more
The only way to know which Pokémon are in your area in Pokémon GO is the cryptic "nearby" list, which sometimes doesn't work—and also doesn't tell you which direction to head off to hunt that Pokémon you're looking for. Luckily, there's a new app that makes it a lot easier to ...more
For the most part, when you take a screenshot, it's because you intend on sharing it with someone. And, of course, we all take pride in our smartphones, so we want to show them off as much as possible. But the downside here is that regular screenshots are pretty boring, so the ...more
When it comes to sharing files between a smartphone and a computer, there are several solutions available for a Windows and Android pairing. But for those of us with Apple devices, the selection of apps in this category isn't quite as great. You can use AirDrop to quickly shar ...more
If you're a fan of sleek, powerful computers and highly-customizable smartphones, then you probably own a Mac and an Android device. But the downside to this glorious hardware pairing is that it can be hard to get the software on the two devices to play nice together. Previou ...more
Google Maps does a lot of things well, but one feature it's always been lacking is an on-screen speedometer. Well, now you can add one with Velociraptor, and you can even set it to alert you when you're traveling above the speed limit. While Velociraptor works in other naviga ...more
Out of all the new functionality introduced alongside Android 6.0 Marshmallow, a battery-saving feature called Doze Mode has been the biggest hit. Essentially, Doze waits until your device is laying flat and still, at which point it triggers an aggressive battery-saving mode t ...more