Latest Articles
The Baselworld trade show, held each Spring in Basel, Switzerland, is a showcase of the latest and greatest that watch and jewelry brands have to offer. This year, we've seen several new Android Wear smartwatches at the show - from the Movado Connect to the Misfit Vapor. Fossil has announced two new wearables at the event.
Before there was Allo and Duo, before Hangouts was unveiled, there was Google Talk. In some ways, it was better than the Hangouts platform that replaced it. Talk had a real desktop app, and if you didn't like it, you could use any XMPP client to communicate. You could even send messages to users on other XMPP-powered services - a huge difference from today's proprietary messaging services.
We already covered that Amazon will sell Prime-exclusive Moto G5 Plus models with lockscreen ads, but other retailers have begun to take pre-orders for the phone as well. Best Buy, Motorola, B&H, and Ting are now selling the G5 Plus, with a release date set for March 31.If you need a refresher, the Moto G5 Plus is the more-powerful of the two 2017 Moto G phones. It has a 5.2" 1080p display with Gorilla Glass 3, a Snapdragon 625 processor, 12MP back camera, 5MP front camera, and a 3,000 mAh battery. The G5 Plus is available in 'Lunar Gray' and 'Fine Gold, and on top of that, you can pick between 2GB RAM/32GB of storage and 4GB RAM/64GB of storage.Standard pricing for the 2GB RAM/32GB model is $229.99, and the 4GB RAM/64GB is $299.99. For your convenience, we've listed every model from every retailer we can find. If you find more stores selling the G5 Plus, let us know in the comments.
You may recall us covering ML Manager, an incredibly easy to use APK extractor tool, earlier this month. APK extractor tools can be very useful, from simply backing up applications (perhaps ones removed from the Play Store) to uploading them to APKMirror. But for the latter, opening the site in a web browser and navigating to the upload page was still required.
Read update
- Google has confirmed that Project Fi users will not be impacted, and can continue to send and receive SMS and calls through Hangouts.
Once upon a time, I was able to get most of my communication done through Hangouts. Between its support for standard SMS, Google Voice, and normal Hangouts conversations, it was an incredibly useful tool. It could even merge SMS and Hangouts conversations into the same thread, much like iMessage on the iPhone.
Chrome 58 has graduated to beta status, moving one step closer to the stable channel. This time around, Google has been working on new features for Progressive Web Apps (and normal sites), improvements to Chrome Custom Tabs, and more.
Facebook is trying its hardest to break into online video, between adding live streaming to the mobile Facebook app to creating a 360-degree video viewer for the Gear VR. Today the company announced another expansion of its Facebook Live feature, this time for the desktop.
As large phones have become the norm, there's plenty of information for wondering eyes to get a look at. If you sometimes catch family or friends sneaking a peek at your phone, BlackBerry has just the app for you - if you have a BlackBerry device, that is.
Super Mario Run is Nintendo's second smartphone game, the first being Miitomo. The company no doubt annoyed some Android users when it announced Super Mario Run at the iPhone 7 launch event, only promising that the game would be available for Android at some point. Now the game has finally arrived on the Play Store.
You may recall when Google released the first OnHub router, manufactured by TP-LINK, back in 2015. Then a year later, the Google Wifi was introduced, replacing the entire OnHub product line. Perhaps in an effort to clear warehouse space, Google has discounted the ASUS OnHub to $129 ($70 off) and $145 ($54 off).
At today's Google for Brazil event in São Paulo, the company introduced several new features for its products - such as audio calling in Duo. Another announcement involves new backup options for Google Photos, designed to make backing up on poor connections less tedious.
Android has included a built-in file manager since 6.0 Marshmallow called Files, but it hasn't had an app drawer icon. Instead, Android shows a 'Downloads' app, which is technically just a shortcut to the Downloads folder in Files with some functionality removed. Starting with Android O, the Downloads shortcut has been replaced by the full Files application.
With a new release of Android come new included wallpapers, but since today's Android O release is just a Developer Preview, there's only one for now. If you want to download it in the full 2880x2560 resolution, just click the image embedded below, then save it.
If you're not aware, System UI Tuner is a hidden setting in Android that allows some degree of interface customization. It doesn't have as many abilities as custom ROMs, mind you, but still contains some very useful settings. One feature in System UI Tuner allows you to add the battery percentage to the status bar inside the battery icon.
Sometimes updates to Google products are two steps forward, one step back. Ambient display originally showed up in stock Android with the launch of the Nexus 6, which turns on the display for a few seconds when notifications arrive. It has remained a popular feature, but Android O changes it quite a bit.
Several mobile operating systems support some kind of notification indicator for applications on the home screen. iOS has had notification badges for years now, and one of Windows Phone's most recognizable features are live tiles. Starting with today's O Developer Preview, Android will now officially support notification badges on home screen icons.
As you may know, Google often tests new Chrome features in 'flags' - hidden settings that can be enabled or disabled. We first spotted "Chrome Home" in October, which moves Chrome's address bar to the bottom of the screen. This is especially handy for larger screens, but it looks like more changes are coming.
Chrome for Android has been around since 2012, and is installed by default on every Android phone shipped with the Google Play Store. But there are several less-than-obvious features in the browser, either hidden behind flags or simply unadvertised. Here is a collection of 15 tips and tricks to get the most out of Chrome on Android.
Instagram Live is one of several ways to live stream from your phone, but it always had one catch - you couldn't save the broadcast after it was over. Both Periscope and YouTube mobile streaming support this feature. Thankfully, Instagram now allows you to save live video after the broadcast is over.
After Cyanogen Inc. closed up shop rather suddenly last year, many former CM developers and maintainers picked up development under a new name - LineageOS. The project has become immensely popular with former CM users, and has continued to expand support to more and more devices.