Microsoft has the HoloLens and Google has their money on Magic Leap (as well as their own Tango and Cardboard, among others), but we've heard next to nothing about how Apple plans to enter the virtual/augmented/mixed reality space. A new patent offers some clues. Apple could ...more
Swipe keyboards such as GBoard, SwiftKey, TouchPal, and Swype are handy for quick one-thumbed typing on an iPhone, but Microsoft upped the game with its experimental Word Flow Keyboard. In short, the keyboard fans out to occupy the natural range of your thumb, where you can ty ...more
The internet has officially been taken over by GIFs—they're everybody's favorite method of communication these days, and nary a meme would exist without them. But even with the abundance of GIF-sharing websites, and even GIF keyboards, we're still a bit lacking in regard to cr ...more
Ever since iOS 8, you could add widgets on your iPhone using the "Edit" menu on the Today view page, but there's an easier and faster way to get widgets set up for viewing via a right swipe on the lock screen, a swipe right from the first home screen page, and a swipe down fro ...more
With iOS 9.3.5, as well as all of the versions prior to that, you had two choices when it came to "Read Receipts" for iMessage — either on for everybody or off for everybody. So if you weren't comfortable with one or two of your contacts knowing whether or not you've read thei ...more
The new lock screen in iOS 10 is a lot different than previous versions, but one thing that stuck around is the quick access camera shortcut. The only real difference aside from aesthetics is that now you don't have to swipe up from the camera icon. Instead, you can simply swi ...more
Before iOS 10 existed, you were stuck with every single app Apple shoved down your digital throat. While you could hide a few of them with some trickery, you couldn't remove any of them. Now, you can remove almost any Apple app you want from your home screen — for good — just ...more
iPhone and iPad users are getting a huge update with iOS 10, and one of the biggest (and most sought after) redesigns is to the Music app, as shown at Apple's WWDC '16. The redesign essentially makes the user interface easier to navigate, which was something that was fairly cl ...more
Apple unveiled huge improvements for Messages in iOS 10 at WWDC '16, and my favorite new feature is that searching for emojis will be much, much easier. But there's a lot more to this update besides emojis. Tap to Replace In iOS 10, you'll be able to swap in emojis for alrea ...more
Apple's Live Photos is a cool feature that lets you turn ordinary pictures into a GIF-like animated photos. However, these images have some pretty big drawbacks: they live only in the iOS universe and can be shaky without a tripod. Google's taken Apple's idea one step further ...more
When Hey Siri was first introduced in iOS 8, it was a pretty lackluster feature since you had to be plugged into a power source in order to even use it. Since then, newer devices (iPhone 6s, 6s Plus, SE, 9.7-inch iPad Pro) don't need to plug in to have always-on Siri, which ma ...more
The iPhone's pinch-to-zoom feature lets you easily enlarge photos to focus in on one particular area a little better, but after you've zoomed in to a certain degree, the image quickly snaps back and prevents you from zooming in any further. This is mostly meant to keep you fro ...more
You find and update all of your apps using the iOS App Store, and if you have updates scheduled automatically, it could be working hard on a daily basis. With all of that work, it can lose its footing from time to time and cause things not to work as they should. Sometimes ne ...more
Having your phone on during a movie is a major annoyance to the majority of moviegoers, a fact that some theaters learned the hard way. One major film release is taking a different approach, however, and actively encouraging you to turn on your smartphone—during the end credit ...more
At their annual I/O event, Google introduced their latest app to the public: Allo. The messaging app is the company's latest and most powerful entry into the expanding world of similar apps, with one twist—the inclusion of artificial intelligence. Allo by Google. Pre-register ...more
Google first introduced Google Home, its latest smart product in the works, at the company's I/O conference in May 2016. It will directly compete against Amazon's Echo, which has so far been a success with over 3 million devices sold, and it was even featured as FBI Agent Dom' ...more
Want to actually catch 'em all? Pokémon GO has long-teased the opportunity to hunt for Pokémon in the real world through augmented reality, but few have had the opportunity to actually see it in action. Now anyone in the US can sign up for the field test for the chance to get ...more
A few months back, Facebook gave iOS users the option to record or upload a video to use as a live profile picture. It's taken a little longer than we'd like, but the feature is finally now available for Android users as well. You can record a live profile picture using the F ...more
If you like having Siri available to answer a quick question every now and again but don't want everyone who picks up your iPhone to also have access to your personal assistant, there's an easy way to disable her from working on your iPhone's lock screen. This is also somethin ...more
Aside from changing your wallpaper, there's not much you can do to customize the home screen on your iPhone besides nesting folders, hiding folder names, and hiding apps—and those aren't even actual features. They're simply glitches that Apple never took care of, and now there ...more
If you get a ton of emails each day, your mailbox probably has thousands of unread messages, and that annoying badge icon will keep reminding you of it. Fortunately, iOS comes with some tools to help you bring some sense of order to that chaotic mailbox of yours. One such too ...more
Much like the Chromecast, Android TV devices such as the Nexus Player and Nvidia Shield TV have always had those beautiful background images as their default screensaver. However, unlike the Chromecast, these "Backdrop" images, as they're called, weren't always customizable on ...more
I don't know about you, but when I shoot a slow-mo video on my iPhone, I'd also like to have a regular speed copy of it, just in case slow motion doesn't fit the video right. Traditionally, converting slow-motion video required manually speeding the video back up in editing a ...more
While there are tools online that let you turn photos into interesting emoji art, and mobile apps that let you create emoji mosaics, none do it better than an iPhone app by second verse, which makes it a super easy, highly customizable process. Fotomoji, introduced last Febru ...more
New technologies in current-generations smartphones allow for much faster charging—Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0, VOOC Flash Charge, and USB Type-C, for instance, can charge a phone up to 4 times faster than traditional methods. However, the majority of phones on the market still ...more
If you've just ditched your Android phone for a new iPhone, you're in luck, because Apple has a way to make your transition as simple as possible with their Move to iOS app for Android. To help make things even easier on you, we've outlined the process of using Move to iOS to ...more
Eventually, your voicemail inbox on your iPhone will get full, and you'll have to delete some messages in order to make way for new ones. If all the voicemails you currently have are super important, you're not going to want to delete them before saving them first, of course. ...more
The horizontal dotted icon in your iPhone's status bar serves as an indicator of your device's network strength. And while it does help provide an approximation of how strong your signal is, swapping it out to display an actual numeric value is a lot more precise and can chang ...more
In addition to sharing emojis and GIFs, most of us also probably share various types of links through email or text, whether it be for a Google Maps location, a bar or restaurant on Yelp, or an awesome song on Spotify. The process typically calls for switching applications, s ...more
On an Android device, you can download almost any file type into a neat and tidy "Downloads" folder, and those files can then be accessed with an appropriate app, shared via email, or transferred over to your computer. On an iPhone, there is no such folder, and saving files fr ...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
We all fall sleep in different ways. Some may require absolute silence, others need white noise, and some enjoy listening to a song or two to help bring on the sleep. If you're in the latter group, like I am, there's a problem. Fall asleep before the music stops, and a loud so ...more
Google's music offerings have been on a roll lately. First they announced a new music video streaming service called YouTube Music Key, offering ad-free playback with background listening. Then they stated that the new offering would be rolled in with their Google Play Music s ...more
When your iPhone can't be found, Find My iPhone is a true lifesaver. When you use the feature, you can ping your iPhone and even see its current location on a real-time map. But what happens when your iPhone runs out of battery? Find My iPhone can't locate a dead iPhone, can i ...more
Despite what some in the tech-world would like you to believe, iOS isn't totally locked down, free from user customization. Take your home screen, for example. Not only can you change your app icons and move them wherever you'd like, you can actually choose to hide them all. I ...more
Google I/O may still be a couple of months away, and although we don't expect anything groundbreaking—no new Android versions, just fixes to KitKat—we could be treated to some new apps. No, not Pokémon inspired Maps, rather new versions of Google's Calendar and Gmail apps. Ge ...more
Ever since its introduction back in iOS 6, AirPlay has been helping us iOS and Mac users stream content over to an Apple TV or third-party speaker system. It's an incredibly useful feature. However, it's also severely limiting. The few compatible products out there are extreme ...more
While browsing the internet on your Samsung Galaxy S4, you've probably scrolled to the bottom of a very long webpage, Twitter feed, or down into the abyss of some other app. Depending just how far down you've scrolled, it can be a test of your patience (and fingertips) scrolli ...more
Every time Apple releases a new product or software update, people quickly figure out exploits in order to bypass the lock screen without having to type in the passcode. It happened last year in iOS 6, so it's not surprising that it happened again in iOS 7. This time, users w ...more
In early 2000, at the age of 19, Noah Kalina began taking a photo of himself with the same facial expression—every single day. Six years and over 2,000 photographs later, Kalina turned his project into a time-lapsed montage on YouTube. In just one day, his video received over ...more
Even though iOS 6.1 was only released a couple of weeks ago, hackers released evasi0n a couple days after. Evasi0n, the only iPhone 5 jailbreak currently on the market, is the most popular jailbreak in history—with nearly 7 million iOS devices already hacked in the mere four d ...more
For the first time in a while, the battle between Samsung and Apple is really interesting. Unlike previous years where the choice for smaller hands was limited to the Galaxy S series, this year, there's an option for Galaxy Note users. Both sides of the aisle have their best o ...more
For all its faults, you can't say that Facebook hasn't been instrumental in connecting friends and family together, no matter where in the world everyone is. That's why one of its upcoming features — watching videos together with Facebook friends directly in Messenger — is so ...more
While Apple's smartglasses development reportedly moves forward behind-the-scenes, the company continues to build on its AR software foundation in its mobile ecosystem with further iterations to its ARKit platform and the introduction of new AR development tools. On the other ...more
We've all been there — using Google Maps for navigation and waiting for the app to find our location. As we drive around, we keep hoping it will get a lock in time to make the next turn. Well in the US, we finally have a solution to this problem, and it's the OnePlus 7 Pro. T ...more
As much funding as Magic Leap has secured, another round of funding will still catch headlines. However, the latest funding solidifies the company's strategy for succeeding in the consumer segment of AR. Meanwhile, it looks like Facebook is ramping up its efforts to get its o ...more
Great news if you're looking to upgrade to either the S10e, S10, or S10+. Samsung has a trade-in program that's offering potentially massive discounts of up to $550 if you preorder one of their flagships right now — but only for certain phones. You'll need to act quickly if y ...more
This week, the recurring theme in augmented reality can be summed up fairly succinctly: content is king. For Magic Leap, content comes in the form of the delivery of the Madefire immersive comics app. In the case of Apple, content arrives via a virtual try-on tool from Warby ...more
On Monday, Feb. 4, Apple released the second developer beta for iOS 12.2. The update features bug fixes to users running iOS 12.2 beta 1, as well as four new Animoji for Face ID devices. Developers are strongly encouraged to update their iPhones. It's unclear at this time whet ...more
YouTube has a couple of basic gestures: you can double tap each half of the video to skip forward or back ten seconds, and you can swipe down to minimize the video. But wouldn't it be more useful if there were gestures to control brightness and volume? Well, as with all things ...more
When Google finally gave us a dark theme for YouTube, it was a bit disappointing. They didn't use a pure black background, reducing some of the battery savings you'd get with an OLED panel. But with the help of another app, we can fix this, and not only get a real dark mode, b ...more
The Google Feed is a great source for relevant news articles from your search history, package delivery updates, and much more. Now known as the "Discover" page, many Android users turn to this useful menu on a daily basis. However, as Google recently pointed out, the all-whit ...more
Need a unique gift idea for the techy person in your life? Look no further than that phone they always have in their hand. There are plenty of great accessories, apps, subscriptions, and other smartphone-related goodies that will improve their quality of life, and thoughtful g ...more
Last year, Razer kicked off a new trend by building a smartphone from the ground up with mobile gamers in mind. At the time, many thought the Razer Phone solved a problem that no one really had — but a year later, we're starting to see that gaming phones are perfect for more t ...more
Update February 25: The new Sony Xperia flagship has been announced, and it has a new name: The Sony Xperia 1. You can read all of the official specs and details at our full article on Sony's new model. Though not famous as the iPhone and Galaxy, Sony's Xperia line of devices ...more
If you or someone you're shopping for has a newer iPhone model or an Android smartphone like the Galaxy Note 9 or Pixel 3, they come with wireless charging capabilities. Problem is, they don't come with wireless chargers. But there's no better time to snag one than on Black Fr ...more
Let's face it, iPhones are expensive. With the latest iPhone XS Max reaching as high as $1,449, our wallets could all use a little support. That's where Black Friday comes in, supplying us with deals and discounts on iPhones of all kinds. If you're looking for a new iPhone thi ...more
When OnePlus announced their partnership with T-Mobile and the deal the magenta carrier is set to offer, mouths dropped. But as usual, this deal comes with some caveats. The bulk of these will hurt the folks who love to root, something a large portion of the OnePlus community ...more
The dream of Google Glass lives on via North's stylish and normal-looking smartglasses that bring text messages and navigation prompts into the user's field of view and Amazon Alexa integration for voice-activated assistance. After the company formerly known as Thalmic Labs t ...more
Even with all the success HMD had with reviving the Nokia brand in 2017, it seems their second year is shaping up to be even better. Nokia has been steadily releasing sequels to last year's lineup, most with the new minimal bezel design language. The Nokia 7.1 is just their la ...more