Got a Samsung tablet with an S Pen stylus? Then you might be one of the many people irked about having to manually choose a different keyboard layout after pulling the S Pen out of the device. For instance, if you have a Samsung Galaxy Note I or Note II, when you pull the S Pen out, the keyboard layout stays the same. But if you'd like it to switch to a different keyboard, say, from the stock Samsung keyboard to something like SwiftKey, then you're out of luck.
Want to learn how to build a laser tripwire and alarm out of snap circuits? I'll show you how to build both circuits— the laser tripwire circuit and the alarm circuit.
If you're tired of the so-called "top" tweets appearing first in your Twitter timeline instead of only the latest from the people, companies, and bots you follow, there's a way to get rid of them.
Apple Arcade actually looks like a refreshing change of pace for subscription services. The platform costs just $4.99 a month and includes access to over 100 unique and exclusive games. That's not to mention the one-month free trial each new user can claim. But know this: you shouldn't cancel that free trial until you're ready to give up Apple Arcade.
I don't know about you, but I like to listen to music throughout the day. As I am writing articles or doing some cardio at the gym, I go through my playlist, only stopping the music in situations where I have to. And ever since I switched to the Samsung Galaxy S10+, this has gotten even easier to do.
Throughout the day, I receive countless emails from various e-commerce sites who are trying to get me to spend money I don't have. Normally, I dismiss the notification on my smartphone, but when I open the Gmail app, I find all those unread messages waiting to be dealt with. Fortunately, Gmail has a way to quickly get rid of all those emails with one swipe.
Waymo just received approval on a patent for a push-button console that replaces not only a steering wheel in a car but the brake and gas pedals, too. This reflects Alphabet's driverless arm could remain true to its original mantra of developing cars that pilot themselves without human intervention.
Group chats can get out of control. One minute you're in the middle of a thoughtful debate, the next minute everybody is sending gratuitous stickers and emojis like nobody's business. If you're at work or school, this can obviously get a little frustrating as your notifications fill up, even with your iPhone on silent. Luckily, there's a simple option — leave the group.
As we've said before, Siri has some major competition moving into its own playground, and Google just announced at its I/O event that Google Assistant is available on the iPhone, starting today.
It's no secret Uber has had a pretty rough year, in no small part to being sued by Google. But Google doesn't seem to have intended a full lawsuit against Uber from the get-go, as news today shows Waymo pushed for arbitration against their former employee last fall, months before the news broke that they were suing Uber.
A new Windows Insider Preview, version 15055, was released on Friday, March 10. Along with the normal collection of bug fixes and new features came a secret addition to the Mixed Reality Portal in the update. Windows Mixed Reality, along with Cortana, can now teach you how to use the platform, and, hopefully, usher in with it some understanding of what mixed reality is.
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 change up the look of your iPhone (or at least the status bar). The process is quick, painless, and you don't even need to jailbreak your phone.
When you see a color depicted on your computer, smartphone, or tablet, odds are it was processed as a hex triplet before it was rendered. Most modern websites and operating systems use a hexadecimal coding system to signify certain colors, and these are represented as 6 letters and numbers.
Unless you own a Samsung device, your Android's navigation buttons have probably always been in this order (from left to right): "Back," "Home," "Recent Apps." But depending on which hand you use to hold your phone, this may not be the most ergonomic layout for you.
Even with the highest-tiered data plan available, there are times that your phone or your carrier might downgrade your connection to 3G or even lower. This usually occurs when you've made a phone call, or you've switched cell towers while traveling.
If you lend someone your phone, even if it's just for a second, there's a chance they can enter an app and see something you'd rather they didn't. Whether it's a personal email or a private photo, there are plenty of reasons why you'd want to keep snoops out of certain apps.
You know how sometimes you accidentally send a minecart shooting out down your tracks, and you can only watch helplessly as it fades into the distance? And then you know that you have to go find it and break it, so that it doesn't stop up your cart traffic on your tracks.
One advantage to using Apple's ecosystem is Continuity, which allows you to move files, media, and tasks seamlessly between all your Apple devices. It even lets you use one device to help with actions on another, like unlocking your Mac with your Apple Watch or using your iPad as a second display. Now, things are even better with Continuity with Handoff's new FaceTime functionality.
While the iPhone world's attention might be fixated on Apple's upcoming iOS 14 and all of its new features, it's still in beta. What's not in beta anymore? Apple's latest iOS 13 update — iOS 13.6 — which dropped on July 15.
The "Albums" tab in Photos is great for sorting through the images and videos on your iPhone since you can narrow things down by your recent pics and recordings, apps used, media types, people, places, and so on. If you never look at all of those folders, however, it could feel like an overwhelming cluttered mess. Plus, there may be some collections you don't want others to see.
While iOS has many strengths, in-app settings are not among them. Sure, third-party apps often come with a settings gear, but stock apps? No way. To change settings in Music, Photos, Camera, and other Apple apps, you'll need to leave the app. But there's a hidden trick to quickly access an app's settings — without needing to open the Settings app itself manually.
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. This can help you if you need a translation quick fix or if you are learning a new language.
One of the better additions in the stock Android launcher is the Google Now page. Residing to the left of the home screen, this page presents a host of information based on the user's interests, which Google bases on analyzed data. Recently, the Google Now page design received a makeover which Nova Launcher users can now enjoy.
The S9 and S9+ are both fantastic phones. However, there's no getting around the fact that the S9+ has its advantages. In fact, it's an objectively better smartphone than its smaller counterpart — Samsung has given the S9+ features not found in the S9, meaning you'll be missing out if you choose the 5.8" Galaxy over the 6.2".
When most people first become aware of Kodi (formerly known as XBMC), they hear about its ability to stream illegal content. But the real Kodi community knows that it's much more than just a haven for pirated material — it's an all-in-one media player that addresses the majority of home theater needs, particularly for those that decided to cut the cord.
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 NetGuard that comes with a hidden ad-blocking feature, which can be activated with just a little tinkering in the app's settings menu.
These days, when you're setting up an Android device for the first time, you'll be prompted to add extra email accounts directly to the Gmail app. It's really simple, too—just sign in with your work or exchange account, then emails from those accounts will be mixed in with your personal account in the Gmail app's "All Inboxes" view.
There's a new operating system on the horizon, and this one's so big that it may actually live up to its galactic moniker. Andromeda, a merging of Android and Chrome OS, has the potential to bring Google to the ubiquitous status that Microsoft's Windows enjoyed in the '80s and '90s.
When we talk about augmenting our reality, we often first think about vision instead of our other senses—but there's more to an immersive experience than what you see. One inventor figured out how to utilize sound and touch to create a simple, upgraded version of laser tag that you can play with your smartphone.
In years past, Apple has always waited two years before redesigning the iPhone, but this year they broke the trend. Aside from a few minor changes, the overall design and style of the iPhone 7 models is the same as last year's iPhone 6s models, and the iPhone 6 ones before that, so it's almost as though they've switched to a three-year cycle—just as early reports suggested.
Earlier this week we showed you how to use multiple accounts on Instagram, and now Facebook is rolling out a similar feature for its Messenger app, as well as a few other features.
With new messaging services being pushed out constantly, it can be a pain trying to keep track of them all on your Android device. We had previously shown how to stay on top of them all with a unified "inbox" app, but that still requires you to have each individual app installed. While looking for a true one-stop messenger, I came across Disa.
If you've switched ROMs before or flashed quick mods on your Android device, you've probably used TWRP or another custom recovery to install them. But another great purpose for flashing through a recovery is to install your own custom .zip file filled with everything a fresh ROM needs—namely, all your apps.
On-screen navigation buttons offer many distinct advantages over physical buttons—they can change orientation along with your device, they're capable of visually morphing to indicate secondary functionality, and the user experience is more consistent when buttons and app elements require the same amount of force to press. Add to that the fact that they're far less likely to fail and can be themed or even switched out altogether, and it's hard to come up with an argument in favor of physical b...
BlinkFeed completely changed the way I access new updates from Facebook and Twitter, but when I switched to the Google Play Edition of the HTC One, I lost access to the launcher. BlinkFeed is available in the Google Play Store, but HTC has not opened it up yet for all devices yet. While there are ways to port BlinkFeed over to other devices, it's reliability is dependent on the ROM, sometimes causing bugs and crashes.
Most variants of the Galaxy S5 come with the gesture-based Swype keyboard preinstalled. If you're into gesture typing, you probably already switched to this input method from the default Samsung keyboard (whose gesture service is nice, but it's no Swype).
When you enter the softModder realm by rooting your Nexus 5, you open up an exciting world of possibilities and deep customizations for your device. Among other things, it gives you the ability to flash custom ROMs which, individually, act as entirely different operating systems that can vastly alter your user experience.
Starting on Android 4.2, a new feature called Quick Settings was integrated into the Notification tray, which allows you to quickly turn on and off certain device features such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, etc. These toggles also provides a shortcut to the feature's more advanced settings by long-pressing on the icon.
Why can't all electronic devices be waterproof like my watch? There are watches worth three times as much as my iPhone that I can wear into the hot tub without a worry in the world, but cleaning most of my electronics requires a lot of caution.
In a previous article, I pointed out a few criticisms of the Google Play Store, mostly about how unpolished and inefficient it is. To give you a better idea of what I mean, here are just a few of my complaints with the Play Store:
