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OpenMTP picks up Samsung phone support, dark theme, and faster file transfers
The macOS tool for connecting your phone is much better than Google's sorry Android File Transfer application
Fellow Mac users know what a pain in the bum Google's official Android File Transfer application is on macOS. Luckily, there are tons of alternatives, and the most accessible one just got even better. OpenMTP version 3.0 gives the open-source tool long-awaited improvements like Samsung phone support, a dark theme, and drag-and-drop from Finder.
If you've been having trouble with your Netgear Orbi mesh network, and you have a Pixel or Pixel 2, then your phone might be to blame. Or, at least, the software on it. There are many reports of spontaneous access point reboots, crashes, and intermittent connection issues for those using mesh network access points with devices running Android Oreo.
Reddit user Ponkers posted an interesting find to /r/Android today, pointing out a significant privacy hole in Skype that essentially allows users to force an Android device to answer a call, making eavesdropping nearly effortless.
Google sells a lot of games, but often, the ones downloaded from the Play Store require Internet access even in single-player modes. (Square Enix, Gameloft, we're glaring at you.) So for the latest promotion, they've decided to highlight games that don't require such frivolities. You can play them on a train. You can play them on a plane. You can play them in a box. You can play them with a fox. Because like planes, trains, boxes, and foxes, they work without any data connection at all.
One of the biggest advantages of Motorola's latest phones is that they've been rapidly updated to Android 4.4. But at least some owners of the low-cost Moto G are having serious issues after updating to 4.4.2. Many posters on the official Motorola support forums are saying that their phones are intermittently dropping all cell signals, and in some cases even losing connection with the phone's SIM card. These issues were not reported before the Android 4.4 update. At least one user with the Verizon CDMA version is reporting the problem as well.
One more KitKat feature spotlight for the evening. This time, it's Wi-Fi TDLS. Added in Android 4.4, Wi-Fi TDLS, as Google describes it, is "a seamless way to stream media and other data faster between devices already on the same Wi-Fi network." TDLS, for those that don't know, stands for Tunneled Direct Link Setup.
Open Garden 2.0 Comes With Channel Bonding, Enhanced Reliability, Same User-Friendly Mesh Networking
Everyone's favorite mesh networking startup Open Garden today announced its 2.0 refresh at LAUNCH festival, having allegedly already served 2.1 million installs since version 1.
After months of wondering and looking around for answers, we think we've finally found out why all of Verizon's 4G LTE phones (and modems / USB dongles) are having data connectivity issues, and it's a wee-bit technical even for us, but we'll do our best. This information has been gathered from various comments and forums across the net, so, take us at our word here.
The DROID BIONIC, it's no secret, hasn't been launched bug-free. In fact, there's a number of bugs, particularly the dreaded data connection drop, that make using the BIONIC a major annoyance at times. Verizon has apparently been keeping track, and has a very detailed list of the glitches currently afflicting the phone, given to a customer in a support e-mail (weird, we know). The good folks over at Droid-life have compiled a "Top 10" bug list along with all the reported issues (here), and we've excerpted a few that we've noticed most:
Ok, so it's not that expensive, but $10 (5.99GBP)? Seems a little pricey for a remote viewer client (though LogMeIn will run you , by comparison), especially considering RealVNC's "Personal Edition" desktop software costs 30 bucks. Fear not, because there is a free version of the RealVNC software for Windows, and while it lacks a lot of the nifty features the full Personal Edition has, the Android viewer client doesn't support most of them anyway.
The number 1 Android app for rooted phones out there is undoubtedly Android WiFi Tether, which is a free alternative to all those carrier-bundled WiFi hotspot apps. In fact, it is the primary reason I root every Android phone I own - 2 hours of commute on the train suddenly become extremely productive because of always-on laptop connectivity. I've excitedly written about the app before, especially after it added support for Infrastructure mode and WPA2 on the EVO 4G.