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Smartphone device  Image Source:  EverythingApplePro, YouTube Apple’s hot new iPhone X has it all. From design and display quality to features and performance, the tenth-anniversary iPhone is a class-leading smartphone through and through. The design in particular has been praised to no end. In fact, even some of the iPhone X’s harshest critics ( myself included ) have come around to love the controversial “notch” design with the phone’s display. Of course, the sleek design and gorgeous display are only half of the equation here. The software side of the user experience is even more important, and the iPhone X delivers there as well. Benchmark test scores are off the charts, and we’ve seen time and time again what the iPhone X’s A11 Bionic processor is capable of. But savvy Apple fans know that despite how impressive the iPhone X’s performance is compared to most devices out there, there’s something that has been holding the phone back. Now, that issue has caused the iPhon...

Android device  You thought you were completely disconnected from any location tracking by  Google  and your phone when you went into your phone’s location services and toggled them off, right? You’d be wrong! Hah…ha…haaa…ugh. According to a report from  Quartz , Google has been doing a bit of location tracking on Android phones even if you told them not to by turning off your phone’s location services. And we’re talking about any of the modern Android phones you might own, so yes, you are included in this conversation. Quartz  found that Google has essentially been pinging nearby cellular towers and retrieving that info through the Firebase Cloud Messaging service that manages push notifications and messages. Again, this is all still happening even if you have turned off location services on your phone. This collection of location via cell tower can happen over both WiFi and cellular data connection too, by the way. The data collected is encrypted, but the ...

Google Add Your Comment   After  several weeks  of  rumors ,  Google announced  this evening an “agreement” that will see HTC employees who worked on the Pixel join the Alphabet company’s hardware division. The deal is valued at $1.1 billion, while HTC will continue to run its smartphone business. In a blog post this evening, hardware chief Rick Osterloh announced that Google “signed an agreement with HTC” to “fuel even more product innovation in the years ahead.” This acquihire will see “a team of HTC talent” — pegged at around 100 engineers this morning — join Google’s hardware division. With this agreement, a team of HTC talent will join Google as part of the hardware organization. These future fellow Googlers are amazing folks we’ve already been working with closely on the Pixel smartphone line, and we’re excited to see what we can do together as one team. Osterloh specifically notes that the incoming team has already worked with Google on...

Smartphone s If you always leave Bluetooth on your phone on, you might want to rethink things. A vulnerability known as BlueBorne was  discovered this week by security research firm Armis . With it, researchers were able to infiltrate Samsung Galaxy Phones and the Google Pixel as well as an LG Sports Watch and a car audio system, all by exploiting the Bluetooth connection. Other devices  are also vulnerable . Specifically, iPhones and iPads that haven’t been upgraded to iOS 10, as well as a number of other Android, Microsoft, and Linux products. A BlueBorne attack reportedly only takes 10 seconds to do and can give a hacker control of your Bluetooth-enabled device, even if it isn’t connected to anything when the attack begins. Google and Microsoft put out security patches to get rid of the vulnerability this week. If you haven’t updated your phone in the past few days, you should go ahead and do that right now. No really, do it now. The issue brings up a much bigger prob...

HOW TO: If you somehow forgot the pattern, PIN, or password that locks your Android device, you might think you're out of luck and are destined to be locked out forever. These security methods are hard to crack by design, but in many cases, it's not entirely impossible to break into a locked device. There are several different ways to hack a locked Android smartphone or tablet, but unfortunately, there's not a one-size-fits-all method. So below, I'll go over 7 of the most effective methods, and hopefully one will help you get back into your device. Method 1Use Android Device Manager For newer Android phones and tablets, a service called  Android Device Manager  is probably your best bet. As long as you're logged into your Google account, you can use any device or computer to access the service, which is available at  this link . As counterintuitive as it may sound, start by clicking the "Lock" button once Android Device Manager gets a fix on your devi...

    LG Mobile There are several reasons why a company like LG might finally decide to make the switch to an OLED display on their latest flagship. The move to a plastic OLED screen on the  V30  is, for many, one of the biggest deals about it, but what prompted LG to make the change? Daydream support could be one of those reasons, with Google’s Daydream VR spec requiring an OLED display, among other hardware components, in order to be supported. But that’s not it, even if the  V30 is LG’s first Daydream Ready phone . See also: LG POLED vs Samsung Super AMOLED LG POLED vs Samsung Super AMOLED Customer preference could also be the cause, with Samsung’s AMOLED screens largely  setting the standard  for what is considered a “good” screen on Android phones. But LG didn’t have any internal research or numbers to share with media, as most OEMs typically have when they introduce (or backtrack on) something new. LG Display’s increased P-OLED production ...

Having unveiled the Galaxy Note 8 officially, Samsung can now get down to the business of selling its new flagship smartphone. The company’s carrier and retail partners in several markets across the globe started  taking pre-orders for the handset on August 24 . Samsung is going to release the Galaxy Note 8 in markets like North America and parts of Europe on September 15. Samsung’s regional arms will confirm pricing and availability details for their respective markets. According to a new report, the Galaxy Note 8 launch date in India is likely to be September 11. The report also mentions that the 64GB variant of the handset will be priced at Rs. 74,900 or $1,170. Amazon India is reportedly going to be the exclusive online retailer for the Galaxy Note 8. Customers will also be able to purchase it from Samsung’s retail locations as well as the company’s offline retail partners. Samsung will apparently only start taking pre-orders for the Galaxy Note 8 f...

Welcome to the 206th Android Apps Weekly! Here are the the headlines from the last week: Android Oreo will get non-root theming . A third party app called Substratum will include the feature. There are some caveats. You have to use a computer to make it work. It also breaks a bit of basic functionality. It’s nothing serious, though. It’s a bit unconventional. However, it’s one step closer to native theming on Android. Plus, Substratum is a fairly excellent app on its own. Telltale Games launched a huge summer sale this week . Included are four The Walking Dead games, both Minecraft: Story Mode titles, The Wolf Among Us, Game of Thrones, Guardians of the Galaxy, and others. The sale includes the base game as well as the season pass for those titles. That means you can get the whole game at a discount. It might be worth it for adventure game fans. Google is trying to help depressed people . They’re working with the National Alliance of Mental Illness to get people help. Google Searchin...

TECH Whether you have the smart phone in your hand, you may know the importance of sharing the files and media to your friends. In order to share those files, you will definitely need the app. Luckily, you can explore the vast range of the apps that give you the right ways to share the files. In that manner, Xender apk is the latest and most famous app which is used by a large number of people for sharing the files. This article can help you to explore the functions and features of the xender app in a clear manner. Perks of using the Xender Actually, xender is one of the top most applications that can let you to transfer the files from mobile to mobile. With the help of this app, one can able to transfer the files at the havoc speed. Compared with Bluetooth, it is so ideal to transfer the files within the fraction of seconds. When you have used this  Xender apk  app, you can attain so many features in transferring the files like as follows. This app is lightweight, becaus...

Essential Phone Nearly 90 days ago,  Essential wowed the world  with their smartphone. It was supposed to  ship not long after that , but as everyone probably knows, that didn’t exactly happen. It’s taken a few months to iron the process out, but if you ordered an Essential Phone, you should be getting an email with tracking information very shortly.  That’s great news for Essential, and great news for early adopters and anyone considering buying the phone now that it’s available. It’s not so great that the launch will now be overshadowed by the  Galaxy Note 8  and the impending  iPhone 8 , both of which will likely command serious amounts of attention from reviewers and buyers, but maybe Essential managed to do something that will keep some of the spotlight. We’ll find out over the next month or so.

With each new iPhone 8 leak that we’ve seen so far, it becomes increasingly obvious that the hottest iPhone that Apple will launch this year will also feature a design unlike anything we’ve seen on previous models. The iPhone 8 will not have a physical home button and its bezels will be smaller than ever. CAD drawings, 3D renders, and protective case designs have shown the same purported iPhone 8 design over and over. Well, it looks all the rumors are true, and we have Apple to thank for the biggest iPhone 8 leak to date. DON'T MISS Genius flash drive works with micro-USB, USB-C, and USB-A all at once You know how Apple is big on secrecy and how the company has employed a team of highly skilled former intelligence officers to combat internal leaks? Well, Apple probably didn’t see this one coming. Someone at Apple accidentally — or intentionally — released the first firmware of Apple’s HomePod smart speaker. Intrepid developers took that firmware apart to find various details ab...

Ever since the release of the HTC Dream back in 2008, Android has been growing steadily. Over the weekend, the platform achieved a pretty major milestone when  Google Play Services  crossed 5 billion downloads on the Google Play Store. If you know anything about Android, you know that Play Services isn’t something you go to the Play Store and download yourself. Instead, the app is automatically loaded onto your Android-powered gadget — if it has access to Google’s suite of Play services, that is. Play Services was first launched in 2012, and since then, more than 5 billion people have logged into an Android device with their Google account to enable it. That’s a substantially large amount of people, and it makes sense considering  Google’s claim at I/O  earlier this year that there are currently 2 billion monthly active Android devices. The 5 billion number for Play Services is substantially higher because it includes billions of devices that are out of commissi...

The  Samsung Galaxy Note 8  has just been approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). This is one of the last stops on the road to release and it arrives only a few weeks before the phone’s official unveiling on August 23 in New York. The device bears model number SM-N950 (following SM-N930, 920, 910 and 900 for the Note 7, Note 5, Note 4 and Note 3 respectively), and the FCC filing listing indicates that it will support the GSM and CDMA networks for full compatibility with US carriers, as you might expect. SEE ALSO: Update: Samsung Galaxy S8 Active render gives us a better look at the rugged flagship

Changes big and small are coming to Android and these are our favorites. Android O  will soon be here, though it will take a while for most of us to see it. With it comes more of the tweaks under the hood with each release: changes to make batteries last longer, apps run better, and to keep our information safer. But there is also a lot of other cool stuff there! Things that sound small but will make a big difference like better ways to manage fonts and emojis, as well as bigger changes like new ways to show notifications. Everyone has a favorite feature from the list of changes, and that's what we're going around the table with this week. See what we're most looking forward to when Android O arrives. Jerry Hildenbrand I have two things, but they kind of go together so it's not cheating. The new window controls like picture-in-picture combined with new ways to use the keyboard mean developers can build apps that work even better on  Chromebooks . It's great ...

HMD is set to roll out a new Nokia branded phone. It’s not just another Android smartphone but it’s the brand’s first ever premium flagship smartphone. This new mobile device will be announced officially on August 16 in London. Press invites are now out, following the recent leak about the handset. The upcoming Nokia 8 is expected to feature Carl Zeiss optics. We’re not surprised about this because the two have previously partnered already. We’re just curious how the camera technology will play well with the new Android phone. Nothing has been confirmed yet but here are the Nokia 8 specs and features we know so far: a 5.3-inch display screen, 2560 x 1440 pixel resolution, 13MP rear camera with Carl Zeiss optics, Snapdragon 835 processor as we  noted  earlier, 64GB onboard storage, 4GB or 6GB RAM, and dual SIM support. We’ve seen the  blue version  last week while a  copper colored Nokia 8  appeared yesterday. A silver version is also expected to be intr...

If anyone knew that big phones were a menace, it was Steve Jobs. He vowed never to make a large phablet sized iPhone because he knew the consequences. Difficulty of gripping and use, as phones and their screens grow bigger but hands stay the same, and a nuisance to carry, because they occupy so much space in your pocket. However, that’s the past… because the average phone screen size today stands at roughly 6 inches, while the average human thumb is just 2.74 inches. Phone cases are so commonplace today that you’ll rarely see a phone without one. Their use goes beyond just protecting your phone now, as they act as stands, card-holders, external batteries, wallets, etc. In fact, they’re so commonly bought alongside phones, it makes perfect sense that they solve this rising problem of phones slipping out of your hands (and hitting you in the face when you’re checking Instagram in bed). As opposed to those obscenely ugly PopSockets or those hideous Ring Stands that do nothing but make yo...

Drones? Pfffff, quadcopters are old news. They’re great if you want to spend thousands of dollars on a professional-grade model that you use for high-resolution aerial video recording or something. But if you’re just looking to have some fun, we’ve got a great alternative to your run-of-the-mill drones that you’ll definitely want to check out. The  PowerUp 3.0 Smartphone Controlled Paper Airplane  is exactly what it sounds like, a motor-powered paper airplane that you can actually fly around and control with your phone! It’s a ton of fun, and it can fly for up to 10 minutes per charge, which is comparable to similarly priced quadcopters. Here are some key details from the product page: The world’s first remote controlled paper airplane conversion kit has a 180 feet/ 55 meter range and a crash-resistant designContains Bluetooth Smart Technology controlled by your smartphone (check compatible models below)Special template paper to ensure easy folding and flying spare, micro ...

Ryne Hager It might not matter how high the DPI on a screen gets cranked by each new model if you have trouble seeing it. Thankfully we have Google's TalkBack, Android's accessibility service for the blind and disabled. It reads what's on your screen, but it also provides feedback for actions allowing users to fully interact with their device. Now the latest update has left beta after a few months of testing, bringing with it even more features, like verbosity (an adjustment for how much or little content it reads, based on your preferences), character counts for password fields, and a new Select to Speak service that allows you to tap content to hear it spoken, and more. The recent changes should go some ways towards easing accessible interaction with an Android device. Phones are pretty much a requirement these days to a productive life, and each new accessibility feature makes them easier to use, enabling everyone to have the same advantages in communication. Google f...