There is a growing consciousness about the desire to keep one’s messages private. Some are concerned about hackers, or worry about the government spying on them, but most people just agree with the general principle that what you say in your chat conversations ought to stay between you and the people you chat with.It’s not a pleasant idea to think that your messages could be archived for perpetuity on a large company’s server or analyzed by some algorithm. The quest for privacy has birthed a whole generation of apps that promise to give you exactly that. Services like Telegram and Signal have turned the phrase “end-to-end encryption” into a popular discussion. We're here to help you figure out what this is all about and which apps to try.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Those who have yet to return their faulty Galaxy Note 7 are literally playing with fire.
Two incidents this week illustrate just how seriously Note 7 owners ought to take the threat of the phone’s faulty battery. One example comes from a St. Petersburg, Florida man who left his new Note 7 charging inside of his Jeep while unloading furniture. He returned to find the car consumed in flames. The aftermath is pretty devastating. Fox 13
The aftermath of a Jeep that was completely engulfed in flames from what was likely a Note 7 catching fire.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
If you were watching the Apple live stream and shouting at your computer, “hey, Android already has that!” over and over, you weren’t alone.Apple certainly took some "inspiration" from many of the hardware innovations brought about by Android phone makers. Here’s a recap of the features that Apple ballyhooed on stage, but aren’t exactly news to those of us who have been using Android phones for the past few years.Dual rear cameras
No, you don’t have to stop us. We have heard this one before. Phones like the LG G5, Huawei P9, and the HTC One M8 (from 2014!) feature dual rear cameras, which was the major feature of the iPhone 7 Plus. It’ll bring 2X optical zoom and, according to the on-stage demo, produce some pretty impressive portraits and low-light shots.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Minor tweaks and bug fixes aren’t new for Android updates, but Google wants to make the process far less haphazard. A post on the Android Developers Blog details that Google is moving to a regular maintenance schedule “over the coming quarters,” with an eye towards a predictable process and more feedback from developers.Vice president of engineering Dave Burke said Google has already started work on some issues that are on the list and will transition to a new schedule in the coming months. Just as it did with the Android N Preview, updates will come first to a Dev Preview before they’re sent out to everyone else. You’ll be able to download and flash the latest preview to try it out in advance of a final release.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Learning is fun!Image by Derek WalterParents everywhere grapple with the question of how much “screen time” to allow for their children—and part of the challenge to this question stems from how many apps and games are mindless diversions.So to help you out, we’ve pulled together a group of higher-quality choices that are both educational and fun. Any guilt you have about screen time will be vastly diminished when your kid is learning about the solar system, practicing multiplication, or using logic to solve a puzzle. Check out some of our top choices for making learning something that can happen anytime.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
T-Mobile is hoping to make a another splash by ditching traditional smartphone plans in favor of one, unlimited offer.Called T-Mobile One, the new plan charges $70 per month for the first line, $50 per month for a second, and then $20 for additional lines (stopping with eight). The plan includes unlimited talk, text, and 4G LTE data.
Of course, there are caveats buried in the fine print. T-Mobile says video playback is limited to 480p, the same speed as you’d get with Binge On. Tethering is capped at 2G speeds, which makes it essentially worthless for all but emergency connectivity. To get around the video limitation you’ll need to pay $25 per month extra per line. It’ll cost you $15 for any month in which you want to add on 5GB of tethering.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Putting Chromebooks to workImage by Hiroshi LockheimerThe Google Play Store is coming to a Chromebook near you. But for this to really make a major difference in how we use Chrome OS, it’s going to take the right apps.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Putting Chromebooks to workImage by Hiroshi LockheimerThe Google Play Store is coming to a Chromebook near you. But for this to really make a major difference in how we use Chrome OS, it’s going to take the right apps.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Nothing exemplifies the double-edged sword of life with a smartphone like notifications. Staying connected with push notifications is essential, but if you're like me, you probably get pinged way too often. All of those games, apps, and system notices add up.MORE: 10 mobile startups to watch
Android gives you a ton of controls to tweak notifications just to your liking. However, you have to put in a little bit of work in order to get the experience just the way you want. If you just want to give yourself a little breathing room, it’s worth it to put in the time to get things just right.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Nexus phones are typically thought of as the ultimate form of Android greatness. They deliver timely updates straight from Google, are bloatware free, and get special perks like access to beta releases of Android.But there are many good reasons why you may want to go for something other than a Nexus phone. The Nexus 6P is an unwieldy beast unless you have sizable paws. The 5X is too plasticky and underpowered—it's affordable, but you sort of get what you pay for.+ ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD The 14 most influential smartphones ever +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Reading your favorite website may be a whole new experience in the near future. As part of its Chromium project Google is apparently working at bringing virtual reality support to its browser.According to Google’s François Beaufort, the Chrome Beta and Chrome Dev channels have a setting that “allows users to browse the web while using Cardboard or Daydream-ready viewers.”There’s an an experimental flag found at chrome://flags/#enable-vr-shell that enables a browser shell for VR. He offered a peak at how this could look with 360-degree videos.
Virtual reality is likely to gain wider traction with Google’s browser.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
We may soon see a true Google phone. Yes, there’s the Nexus line, which are phones that Google sells in close partnership with a rotating cast of hardware makers. But according to a Telegraph report, Google is going to build its own smartphone from scratch, just as it’s done with the Pixel Chromebooks and tablet. The thinking is that this would allow Google to more directly compete with Apple for the high end of the smartphone market, which is still dominated by the iPhone in many Western markets. The Telegraph claims that “a senior source” tells it to expect the phone by the end of the year.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Your phone is probably one of the biggest stressors in your life. It’s constantly buzzing with email alerts, text messages, news updates, sports scores, and tweets. Sure, you can turn those off, but then that means you probably just check it more often to see if you “missed anything.”A recent study from the University of Illinois found a likely link between smartphone use, stress, and overall life satisfaction. There’s other evidence that meditation and mindfulness have positive benefits, even some physical changes to the brain. The makers of the Headspace app have a clever animation that explains some of this:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A Chromebook is already an ultra-secure computer straight out of the box. Since it doesn’t run a traditional operating system and takes advantage of various Google-powered security measures, Chrome OS is well-guarded against all the miscreants lurking out there on the Web.But you can always do more, particularly if you want to minimize traces of your Internet wanderings, or prevent your every online action from contributing to an advertising profile.You may share a Chromebook with others or desire a setup that’s impervious to the latest security threats. Perhaps it’s time for a little de-Googling in your life, as the Mountain View giant can collect a lot of information about you.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Google has quite the duopoly with Android and Chrome. The latter is the world’s most popular mobile operating system, while Chrome dominates the charts when it comes to browser usage.So it’s long past time to make these two stalwarts play together a little more closely. Yes, we know that the Google Play Store is coming to Chromebooks, but there are still millions of people who either by choice or necessity do their desktop computing in Windows or OS X. Android and Chrome complement each other in a few ways already. Your browsing history and active tabs can sync across devices. Chrome supports rich notifications for most of the Google and third-party services that you probably use across mobile and the desktop.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Google may have finally had enough.According to a Bloomberg report, the company is thinking about turning to public shaming as a way to entice handset manufacturers to step up their Android updates. Google has apparently collected considerable data (something it’s very good at) regarding manufacturers and carriers’ update performance and shared this information with OEMs and carriers. A Sprint executive said he’d seen the details and had been feeling the pressure from Google to push things along.Even without access to this information, we can assure you it isn’t a pretty picture: only 7.5 percent of the current Android devices are running Marshmallow, which is the latest major version. This after about half a year on the market. Some are slower than others, while the wireless providers have also been known to hold things up for “carrier testing.” To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Hangouts may not be a dead app walking after all.It sure seemed like the social app’s days were numbered after Google’s splashy rollout of Allo and Duo, its new fancy, AI-driven messaging and video chat apps. But a Google spokesperson confirmed an earlier report that Hangouts is staying put in the company’s portfolio of mobile and desktop apps.“Hangouts will remain a standalone product,” the spokesperson told Greenbot.+ ALSO: See what has gone on at Google I/O 2016 +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Get ready for new Nokia Android phones. No, Nokia isn’t coming back. Instead a group of former Microsoft executives have formed a company called HMD global, which will use Nokia branding in a new line of Android smartphones and tablets.HMD signed an agreement with Nokia Technologies which allows the brand licensing. This will certainly give the new devices a higher profile than if they were under an unknown label.The Helsinki-based HMD didn’t offer any specifics about when such phones and tablets would launch or what the pricing would be. The move further distances Nokia from Microsoft (whose own future with Lumia devices is rather uncertain). To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Get your pen readyForget about limiting yourself to typing and touchpads alone. Microsoft’s Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book, as well as the legion of touch-enabled Windows laptops now available, are built to do far more than your standard run-of-the-mill notebooks. Whether it’s sketching out illustrations, signing documents on the fly, or jotting down quick notes, embracing the Surface Pen and Windows 10’s deep-rooted inking features truly opens another door to enhanced productivity. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Chromebook productivity tipsImage by Koman90 via WikimediaChromebooks are more than toy computers for running the Chrome Web browser. Google’s rapid development of Chrome OS has given the cloud-based operating system a significant set of power-user tools to help make you more productive and to ensure your data is secured.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Derek Walter