Samsung was recently caught cheating on smartphone benchmarks. This was first revealed with the Galaxy S4 and it continued to emerge with the Note 3. Samsung was found to have included an application called BenchmarkBooster on each of these smartphones that effectively overclocked CPU performance when it detected a benchmark application was running. Even more interesting is the fact that Samsung isn’t the only Android manufacturer caught cheating on benchmarks. A whole bunch of smartphone…
SoundCloud is one of the most popular music sharing websites out there today. SoundCloud released an Android app a while ago. That app lets users access all the major SoundCloud functions, including searching for music and discovering new music for free. Users can also create music playlists, share those playlists, and control the app using homescreen widgets. One XDA Developers Forum member, however, decided that the official SoundCloud app just wasn’t good enough. That XDA member is…
Android is the world’s most popular mobile operating system. While Android enjoys a small market share advantage in the United States, it’s far more popular overseas, where market share reaches as high as 80% to 90% in some Asian and European countries. For that reason, it comes as a surprise that Google Now - and a number of other Google apps - only support the English language. Fortunately, Android also encourages modding and app development, which is why one XDA Developers Forum…
The recently released Galaxy Note 3 is a fantastic Android smartphone. On paper, it’s one of the most powerful Android smartphones ever made (if not the most powerful Android smartphone ever made). It features a massive full HD screen and a sleek, thin design. Unfortunately, there’s one thing that the Note 3 does not have: a well-manufactured home button. This issue was pointed out by Artem Russakovskii of AndroidPolice.com. His article features a few different pictures of the crooked…
The Tamagotchi was one of the most entertaining gaming devices ever made - at least to kids born in the 1980s and 1990s. The Tamagotchi was your own personal gaming companion contained in a small handheld device that could attach to your keychain. Enclosed in a colorful plastic case, kids loved Tamagotchis. You had to feed it, take care of it, play with it, heal it with medicine, and perform other maintenance tasks. If you didn’t take care of your Tamagotchi, it would die. If you did, it…
Are you actively stalking a celebrity? Do you want to stay up-to-date on the latest news for your fantasy football team’s star quarterback? Google Now can help. Google Now recently added a feature that makes it easy to stay up-to-date on the latest news from your favorite celebrities. To access this feature, simply search for your favorite celebrity and look at the bottom of the ‘knowledge card’ about that celebrity. You’ll see a button that says Get updates about Lady Gaga or…
Remember when Apple revealed the iPhone 5S’s fingerprint sensors and the Android world laughed at that pitiful “innovation”? Well, those same Android users will have to do some creative backpedaling when Android smartphones start to feature fingerprint sensors in 2014. According to several reports, a number of Android smartphones will be receiving fingerprint sensors in 2014.This news comes courtesy of the FIDO Alliance, a group of tech giants including Lenovo, PayPal, and Google,…
Have you ever taken a picture of yourself with Snapchat and thought, “Gee, I want my friends to see that picture for 24 whole hours?” Probably not. But that didn’t stop Snapchat, Inc. from releasing a new Stories feature that lets users post photos and videos that last for 24 hours. The previous limit was set by users between 3 seconds and 10 seconds. Once the limit is up, the photo and video gets deleted from Snapchat’s servers. Stories works in a similar way, but it’s also a…
One of the biggest reasons why people don’t scan their Android devices for malware is because it’s too time-consuming. Most people don’t want to take time out of their day - or waste battery life - running a malware scan. That’s why electronics accessory manufacturer Belkin created a new Android accessory that simultaneously scans for malware and charges your device. Belkin has teamed up with mobile security firm Kaprica to create a totally new type of USB charger called the…
Android 4.4 KitKat is coming. We don’t know exactly when it’s coming, but it should be released before the end of October for Nexus devices. Android 4.4 will add a number of new and exciting features to the world’s most widely-used mobile operating system. It’s not as big of an update as Android 4.0 or Android 4.1, but it should be bigger than Android 4.2 and 4.3. Here are the most important Android 4.4 KitKat features you need to know about to prepare you for the update: A…
