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LineageOS is great and all, but custom ROMs were at their peak when CyanogenMod reigned supreme. It had all sorts of innovative features that have since been copied by Google and Samsung and the like. But one thing that still hasn't been adopted into stock Android or One UI is ...more

Although not quite as common today with the always-connected world we live in, you still might be having bandwidth wars in your home right now. If the internet connection in your area is mediocre, you know the feeling well. Google Stadia recommends having a 25 Mbps connection ...more

Sometimes, you encounter words in a non-native tongue while using your Android device. The Google Translate app has an awesome feature where it will translate any text you highlight. An overlay will appear, and on this overlay, there will be the translation of the foreign word ...more

Learning Chinese is hard, but it can be a lot easier with the help of a few great apps. As a native English speaker who's currently living in China, this is a process I've recently gone through. After playing the field, here are the three apps I personally think will help you ...more

As I've mentioned in recent days, it was refreshing to discover that Microsoft's HoloLens 2 stage production was every bit as accurate as presented (check out my hands-on test of the device for more on that). But beyond watching Microsoft's deft HoloLens 2 stagecraft, and try ...more

Out of the box, Apple's digital assistant could be a godsend or a nuisance, depending on your daily interactions it. No matter which camp you fall into, Siri can always be better suited to your personal needs with a little customization. You can make Siri a powerhouse not to b ...more

Augmented reality gaming company Niantic Labs is now instigating conflicts between Pokémon GO players, but it's not as bad as it sounds. On Wednesday, Niantic began rolling out the new Trainer Battles player versus player fight mode, starting first with players level 40 and a ...more

This year's holiday shopping season is shaping up to be fertile ground for augmented reality to show its worth, as both Walmart and Target have crafted immersive experiences designed to engage shoppers in the coming weeks. But the marketing similarities end there, because the ...more

Influencers of augmented reality demonstrate expertise in their fields and outline a strong vision for the future that they evangelize to others. They help define the direction of the industry and identify others who foster and create innovation in the field. The idea of the ...more

Less than three weeks after Rovio Entertainment announced the game, the augmented reality adaptation of Angry Birds is now available for the Magic Leap One. Released in conjunction with the L.E.A.P. Conference, Angry Birds FPS: First Person Slingshot is now available as a fre ...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

Escape rooms, those real world puzzle games that challenge teams to solve a mystery and gain their freedom from a locked room, are all the rage right now. But augmented reality games such as The Lockdown could make them obsolete. Available now via the App Store and Google Pla ...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

Every dollar that comes your way is a blessing, especially when it comes to trading in the volatile world of bitcoins. Thankfully, Coinbase rewards you for sending much valued customers their way, giving you more money to feed your cryptocurrency trading needs. Coinbase has a ...more

The holidays are stressful. Between traveling, family, and dinner, Thanksgiving weekend can feel like weeks. Many families have traditions that make the days long, but some of us would rather curl up somewhere and watch our favorite shows. But all is not lost — our phones do s ...more

Now that it's been officially released for Android, Monument Valley 2 shot to the top of our best paid puzzle games list, and rightly so. This was no easy feat, as the games we covered ran the gamut of puzzles and all had stellar reviews. But there's just something about Monum ...more

With technology giants like Apple and Google finally entering the fray, the move toward mass adoption of augmented reality is ramping up. Apple's ARKit and Google's ARCore will allow entirely new categories of apps to be made. Unfortunately, in a world of heavy competition, ge ...more

You have a lot of choices when it comes to your next smartphone. iPhone, Galaxy, Pixel, G6, V20, and many more all vie for your wallet. Each of these phones are great for different purposes, but what if your main interest is mobile gaming? Which phone will give you the longest ...more

Directive Games received the enviable honor of unveiling their ARKit game, The Machines, on stage as part of Apple's iPhone launch presentation. The developer gave us a taste of the "moba-inspired AR PVP game" in July. At the time, they were one of the first game makers to pr ...more

Apple's iOS 11 is finally here, and while they showed off several of the new features it brings to your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch back at WWDC 2017, they've only just touched the surface of what iOS 11 has to offer. There are a lot of cool new (and sometimes secret) feature ...more

It has been an interesting few days in developer news. The Microsoft blog has been busy with information relative to the augmented reality space. Meta 2 has also announced an interesting development this week. Here is a collection of various tidbits that have been collecting u ...more

By default, iMovie for iPhone adds a dissolve (also called a crossfade) in between all of the video clips in your movie project's timeline, which is an effect that transitions gradually from the end of one clip to the beginning of another. However, iMovie does not add any begi ...more

If you've ever wanted to scour the basement of a Hollywood hotel looking for evidence of a gruesome murder spree, this new AR experience might be the game for you. Horror games have changed drastically over the years to make you feel like you're in the story. Video horror gam ...more

Developers are really having a field day with Apple's ARKit, announced last month. Since it's release to developers, videos have been appearing all over the Internet of the different ways that developers are getting creative with the ARKit using iPhones and iPads. Here are a ...more

Winter is coming for Amazon. It looks like the company is having another go at the smartphone world with its release of new smartphones branded as "Ice". According to Gadgets360, the release of this new series comes off of a failed attempt at smartphones back in 2014 when Ama ...more

Google Play Services has been near the top of every Android user's list of battery-sucking apps for years now. It's a core system app, so you'd expect some battery drain, but for many folks, it runs rampant. This is partly due to the fact that Google has exempted Play Service ...more

Every now and then, it's refreshing to play a game that doesn't involve much thinking. Sega is set to bring us just that, as a new game called WWE Tap Mania has soft launched for iOS and Android in the Philippines. As its name implies, lots of mindless tapping will be involve ...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

The latest iteration of the gaming classic, The Sims, has arrived as a soft launch for both iOS and Android in Brazil. Aptly named The Sims Mobile, this free-to-play game seems to be very faithful to the PC-based version that won it so much acclaim. There are plenty of things ...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

Augmented reality software developer Edgybees has launched Drone Prix. The new mobile app immerses DJI drones and their pilots in more than 30 augmented reality obstacle courses. Available in the App Store and Play Store, Drone Prix enable pilots to hone their flight skills n ...more

Netmarble's ChronoBlade, a mobile role-playing game, has made its way to iOS and Android by way of a soft launch that will make it exclusive to users in Canada and Singapore for a couple of months. Its console-quality graphics and extra features will surely make it a hit when ...more

NextReality will be giving readers a rundown of the augmented and mixed reality news briefs from the preceding week that we didn't cover already. This way, you'll never miss anything of importance in the NextReality landscape, and will always know what's going on with new augm ...more

Pinterest, a worldwide catalog of ideas shared by over 175 million users every month, is dominated by Android users, who are now the app's fastest growing group. Pinterest has since taken notice, and has started to incorporate handy home screen shortcuts for users with Android ...more

Chrysaor, a zero-day spyware believed to have been created by the Israeli "cyber war" group NSO, is an even greater threat to Android phones than it ever was to iOS. Related to the Pegasus hack that recently affected iPhones, Chrysaor is malware that baits the user into insta ...more

As it turns out, your Android apps are pairing together to share your data without asking for your permission first. Researchers from Virginia Tech developed a tool called DIALDroid to monitor exchanges of data between Android apps over the last three years, and what they've f ...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

What happens when a entrepeneur/theme park creator and special effects artist/magician team up? You get a team crazy enough to create the first true virtual reality theme park (sorry, Six Flags). They only have a single experience so far, but it's already taken a giant leap be ...more

Google's Tilt Brush has proven to be one of the most compelling VR experiences for the HTC Vive, letting you paint with crazy materials like electricity and duct tape. It is clearly an experiment in bringing the joy of imagination to life—or creating some form of virtual LSD—a ...more

Virtual reality, along with its siblings, has the opportunity to profoundly change the way we interact with all things digital. As a visual medium, we often don't think about the impact on audio, but it plays a significant role nevertheless. When it comes to music—and music vi ...more

As one of the most popular home screen apps on Android, the Google Now Launcher is used by millions of people across the world. The two main reasons behind this success are its integrated Google Now home page and an elegant, easy-to-use design. But as simple and straightforwa ...more

Live wallpapers have dipped in popularity lately, with many users favoring a single, static image as their home screen background. But this is generally due to still photos offering a more sophisticated look, while traditional live wallpapers can sometimes seem a little less a ...more

Ever been in an argument, only to have the other person cop out by saying "I never said that," when you know full well they did? Or how about one of those times when you're sitting in the lecture hall, half dozing off to your professor's monotone ramblings, when your ears perk ...more

LG got in on the action at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona by unveiling its new G5 handset on Sunday, February 21st. It will be the first publicly available modular smartphone by a top tech giant. Video: . The Magic Slot The highlight of the G5 is undoubtedly the "Magic Sl ...more

Hearthstone is a collectible card game by world-class developer Blizzard Entertainment. It has taken an entire generation of casual and professional gamers alike by storm. So many people play it, chances are you've already sunk some money into it. So, if you're going to pay a ...more

In the wake of Apple Music making its debut on Android devices, Google has finally released its highly anticipated YouTube Music app. With these two tech heavyweights throwing their hats into the ring, the streaming music world is about to get rocked. This new standalone YouT ...more

Android comprises an entire ecosystem of apps, games, functions, and features, so it would only make sense that it has its own lexicon. Words, phrases, and acronyms that didn't exist ten years ago are now used in an off-the-cuff style by developers and support technicians acro ...more

If you ever need to spice up a party, drinking games can really get things started quickly. The objectives are generally to complete tasks or challenges, but it's really all a thinly-veiled excuse for increasing everyone's alcohol intake in a hurry while testing levels of ineb ...more

The increased sophistication of smartphones and apps have allowed us the luxury to never leave our homes. Everything from coffee to food to dry cleaning can be delivered straight to your door without ever leaving your couch, which can can be a godsend during the winter months ...more

A good chef's knife is a thing of beauty and, with proper care, a joy forever. It can totally change the way you cook and turn even the dullest prep work into a glee-filled task. I once spent a happy, messy afternoon turning beef and beets into a credible Russian borscht with ...more

Ad blocking on Android usually requires root access, but a pair of new browsers based on the open source Chromium and Firefox builds are looking to change this. Today, I'll be going over two options for ad-free web browsing without root access. The first is the Chromium-based ...more

With our internet-connected devices growing in number by the year, it would be nice if they could somehow all be interconnected. This is becoming commonplace for our tablets, smartphones, and laptops, but our media streaming boxes still seem to be isolated in their own little ...more

At any moment, you can open up Meerkat and start live-streaming a video from your smartphone, available for anyone to watch. Thanks to its popularity at SXSW and the backing of several big Hollywood players, the app just announced that it's receiving $14 million in funding. A ...more

Increased battery life is easily one of the most sought after improvements to a device and often drives intrepid users to root their phones, flash new ROMs, and try out experimental kernels. Of these modifications, a new kernel is most likely to yield noticeable battery benef ...more

Believe it or not, but people are actually texting less than they did before, and that's all thanks to Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, WhatsApp, and other split-second communication services. However, one communication method that is still going strong—and dominating—is email. ...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

Every morning I walk out the door with my headphones plugged in and music blaring. While it's not be the most difficult thing in the world, unlocking my phone and starting my music manually every time feels like a hassle. Pressing play on my headphone's remote will auto-start ...more

As Microsoft unveiled their new Windows Phone 8.1 software update yesterday, undoubtedly the most memorable takeaway was their showcase of Cortana. Competing directly against Apple's Siri and Google's Now, Cortana is Microsoft's entry into the digital voice assistant fray, and ...more

With the emergence of rumors that Amazon, Google, and Samsung are all making their foray into the gaming console market, it's a possibility that our Android-powered mobile devices might become tools that play a central role. As we proceed through 2014, we'll see inklings of w ...more