Android News and Tips
Selfies. First, they were dubbed as narcissistic by many, and while that may have been true at the time, selfies have evolved beyond just narcissistic photos of yourself. Now, they’re an excellent way to capture memories with a group of friends and family at events and on trips. The cameras themselves have evolved in quality,
Times are changing, tides are shifting, trends are passing, and drifting, and priorities are rearranging. The thing is the way device manufacturers set their priorities straight doesn’t always align with the wishes of the overwhelming majority of mobile consumers. Take smartphone battery capacity. Literally everyone who’s ever owned a half-decent Android with web access, a
Charging your phone every single night after returning from work, school or a stroll around town in order to be able to start again the next morning without losing track of your Facebook friends, favorite Twitter feeds or Pinterests might well be the most annoying modern-day chore. It’s not only boring as can be, but
Gadget display borders have made for a delicate, controversial, sometimes even uncomfortable topic basically since the inception of the so-called mobile tech industry. Okay, so maybe this wasn’t really a focal point back when the Nokia 1100 was selling in hundreds of millions of copies, but the prospect of a truly “bezel-less” smartphone captured the
Phones with QWERTY keyboards haven’t been super popular in years. These types of phones were more popular when the original Palm Pilots were around, as well as when BlackBerry was in its prime. Today, however, you don’t see them much anymore, except for maybe a few small cases. However, they’re still being made quite often,
The world’s thinnest smartphone title has become a thorny affair in recent years, as new contenders pop up out of nowhere once every few weeks. Most of the time, no-name Chinese manufacturers are behind these designs that defy gravity common sense, and the goal is to score free publicity for future products with the better
The beauty of Android-based hardware variety and manufacturer competition lies mainly in the numerous price points currently covered by phones, tablets and even wearables that can be described as respectable at the very least. Sure, the absolute best handhelds of today will still set you back north of $600, $700, sometimes $800 free of carrier
Power banks, aka portable battery chargers, energy packs capable of doubling as protective cases, phones that juice up from 0 to 60 percent capacity or even more in under an hour, wireless charging pads, they’re all imperfect solutions or workarounds for possibly the greatest weakness of most modern-day high-end phones. What good are breathtaking 4K
Fingerprint scanners. Can’t have a flagship smartphone without one in this day and age, but the Android handhelds that do support the futuristic method of biometric authentication are often accused of shoddy, gimmicky execution. Even when done properly, the technology continues to stir up controversies, although Apple fans were very quick (and proud) to adopt
They say the new iPhones could easily break the mind-blowing sales records posted by their forerunners, both for the first week-end of pre-orders and as far as total shipment numbers go, though of course that latter tally is much harder to forecast. And why shouldn’t they? Because they look identical to last year’s 6 and
Technically, this year’s glamorous-as-always IFA consumer electronics trade show in Berlin wraps up today, just as Apple puts the finishing touches to the San Francisco stage where the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus will break cover in a matter of hours. But back to IFA 2015, all the high-profile product announcements really took place last
We realize you probably don’t want to think about this yet, but the start of the school year is nigh. There’s still time to have some fun, lie under the scorching sun all day and party all night, but sooner or later, you’ll need to deal with the reality of the sweet dream coming to
You can defend plastic handheld construction all you want, but like it or not, “polycarbonate” is a word mobile enthusiasts will soon forget. And thank God for that, since this writer became tired of being fed the most ridiculous excuses from lazy, profit-driven manufacturers years back. Admit it, everybody, metal is better, and the only
Quad HD handheld display resolution is overkill, and everybody knows that. Including the device manufacturers trying so hard to sell the “feature” as something that’s not – useful and groundbreaking. Well, yeah, sure, it’s innovative and all on paper, but the end consumer needs a magnifying glass to tell the difference between 1,920 x 1,080
Typically, we’d wait a little more than nine months to bring an old listicle up to date. But Android device release cycles in general have shortened lately, and when it comes to trendy smartphones endowed with skillful front-facing cameras, a year changes everything. Even six months flip over selfie hierarchies, which is proven by the
Browsing the web, social media activities, taking the occasional selfie, playing mostly rudimentary but highly addictive games, loading up on YouTube cat videos and catching up on one’s favorite TV shows while away from a larger screen. For many of us, those are the essential purposes of a smartphone, and if it can adequately tick
Some say 4 GB RAM is overkill for today’s smartphones. Others feel they don’t even need 3 gigs. After all, Android Lollipop was specifically optimized to work smoothly on 1 GB memory systems, right? Yeah, well, that didn’t quite go as planned, based on rampant recent reports of 5.0-induced memory bleeds, but nonetheless, you’ll hear
According to official Android distribution numbers harvested by Google during the week leading to May 4, a measly 9.7 percent of all devices with the world’s most popular mobile OS inside run 5.0 or 5.1 Lollipop. That’s certainly disappointing, given 5.0 source code was freely disseminated back in early November 2014 and Android M’s “final”
Contracts are so 2010. Nowadays, it’s all about the unlocked and prepaid gear. It’s just far more convenient that way, not to mention oftentimes cheaper, at least over the long haul. T-Mobile is climbing the US carrier (or rather “Uncarrier”) ranks thanks to its lauded no-contract Value Plans, Motorola has reclaimed a lot of its
Quick, can you remember the last time you used a standalone digital camera? It was back when you were still listening to ”new” Rolling Stones hit singles on your dedicated MP3 players, right? Boy, have smartphones changed the game and sent a bunch of once crowd-pleasing gadgets to the pits of oblivion. Multimedia performers, skilled