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How to check battery health on your Android phone
Phone running out of juice too soon? Check your battery health
You might notice that your phone's battery isn't as robust as it was when you purchased it. Frequently seeing the low battery indicator can get annoying, especially if you feel like you fully charged your phone a few hours ago. Whether you use a high-end or budget phone, the battery degrades over time.
As the internet becomes a bigger part of our daily lives, moving our data and computing power to the cloud is common. Few products take advantage of this like a top-of-the-line Chromebook. Few services showcase the potential of cloud computing like cloud gaming platforms such as Amazon Luna, GeForce Now, and Xbox Game Pass, which let you stream games that are otherwise unplayable on your device.
How to quickly set an alarm on your Android phone
Set and customize your alarms with ease and maybe wake up on time
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Alarms are important for staying on top of things, whether jumpstarting your morning routine or monitoring your latest culinary creation. Setting up an alarm is a breeze, and several apps can help you with this task. Android's default app, Clock, is an excellent place to start.
Google passkeys will replace passwords — here's how to set them up
Passkeys are faster, stronger, and more protected than passwords. Here's why they're the future of personal login security
Are you tired of passwords? We're tired of passwords, even when they're made easier with a password manager app. Companies like Google are tired of passwords because they create too many potential vulnerabilities for user security. Everyone knows it's a problem. And now, a solution is on the rise. Welcome to the world of passkeys.
What’s new in Android 14 QPR2 Beta 1
Google’s surprise new release packs a few long-awaited features
Google surprised many with the launch of the Android 14 Quarterly Platform Release 2 (QPR2) beta in mid-November, all while the QPR1 beta is still in full swing. The company usually first releases stable versions before turning to the next beta. Then again, Google did just this before when it launched QPR1 in September, ahead of the stable Android 14 launch. While Android 14 QPR1 will all but certainly go stable as the December Feature Drop at the end of 2023, Android 14 QPR2 should arrive for everyone in March 2024 as the March Feature Drop. Here’s everything you need to know about the upcoming quarterly platform release.
Android 14 QPR2 could let you remove that pesky At a Glance widget on your Pixel
Not everyone wants to use Google’s baked-in widget
Google might soon let you remove the At a Glance widget from your Pixel’s home screen. The widget has been a staple Pixel feature for years now, but not everyone wants or needs it to be visible at all times on their home screen. Android 14 QPR2, released this week, is adding experimental support for removing the widget, allowing you to use the space for apps or other great widgets.
Android 14 QPR2 finally adds single app screen recording
The feature was first spotted in development in Android 13 QPR1 beta
Google has been working on enhancing the built-in screen recording capabilities of the Pixels for a while now. Signs of the company developing a per-app recording feature emerged in Android 13 QPR1 in December 2022. Several months later, the option was spotted in a partially working state on an Android 14 beta by Android guru Mishaal Rahman but was never implemented in the stable release of the OS. The feature is also missing from all the Android 14 QPR1 beta releases so far. It appears that Google will roll out single app screen recording with Android 14's March 2024 Feature Drop.
Android 14 QPR2 takes over for QPR1 in Google's beta program
Testers are advised to opt out if they want the stable December Pixel Feature Drop
Android 14 got off to a late start, but Google quickly moved to get things back on schedule with its beta program for Android 14 QPR1, otherwise known as the December 2023 Pixel Feature Drop. Beta testing on this version has moved along quickly — perhaps faster than any of us were expecting, as Google is already done testing this version and has kicked off the beta program for its next Quarterly Platform Release. Android 14 QPR2 Beta 1 is now here with our first glimpse of the March 2024 Pixel Feature Drop.
Android’s latest optimizations save up to 95 petabytes of storage globally
Over one billion devices benefit from ART code size optimizations, leading to 50 to 100MB saved per device
Google released a new version of the Android Runtime (ART), which is in charge of translating apps’ bytecode into native instructions. According to the company, the new version is more efficient than its predecessor and uses up about 9% less code without any performance penalties. This allows memory and storage savings of about 50 to 100MB per average Android device, resulting in 47 to 95 petabytes saved on all supported devices globally.
The average time a US citizen spends looking at their phone each day is over five hours. That's almost half of our waking hours spent staring at a phone screen. But with our eyes constantly glued to a screen, there might be some concern about how much blue light exposure our eyes get. The same light is the culprit for causing damage to our eyesight and tricks our brains into staying awake (at night). However, most modern-day Android tablets and Android phones have methods to limit your exposure.
How to turn off Android Data Saver mode
An active Data Saver mode may result in streaming glitches and slow web-browsing speeds
The Android operating system has a built-in Data Saver mode to apply breaks on cellular data usage in the background. It's a handy trick to avoid excessive data charges on your carrier plan, but some may not find it useful. Several carriers offer unlimited monthly data plans, and Android's Data Saver mode may not be useful for their subscribers. Use the steps below to deactivate Data Saver mode on your top-budget Android phone if you are among them.
How to drag and drop between apps on your Android tablet
Make your tablet a true multitasking cupid, uniting text, images, and more between your favorite apps
Say you're surfing the web on your top-of-the-line Android tablet and come across a valuable piece of information that you want to save in your notes app. Perhaps you want to spice up a document with images from your gallery. Whichever it is, the drag-and-drop feature lets you seamlessly move items between apps in multi-window mode, and we show you how it works.
How to record a call on FaceTime
It takes some prep, but you can record a call in FaceTime: Here's everything you should know
Some FaceTime calls are more important than others. They are so important that you may want to record them to save for the long term. There isn't an obvious way to do this, given that FaceTime has upfront features like leaving a personalized video as a message. There are ways to get a FaceTime recording of a conversation if you set it up correctly. Here are the ins and outs of recording on FaceTime, if it works on your Android phone, and other important facts you should know.
Android 14 accessibility features: What's new and changed
More options have arrived for low-vision and hard-of-hearing users
Google rolled out Android 14 on its flagship phones in early October. The rest of the Android family, from Samsung's leading phones to Motorola, will receive the most anticipated upgrade in the upcoming days (or months). So, to get ready for what Android 14 has in store, we go over some of the best accessibility features Android 14 has to offer.
Here's one way Android 14 drastically improves battery life
Google patched a loophole that allowed apps to stay active in background infinitely
Many people who upgraded their Google Pixel 7 and Pixel 6 units to Android 14 reported better heat management and battery life. This is thanks to a ton of power-saving optimizations, among them event scheduling and app caching improvements. It turns out the company is also fighting bad actors who try to get around background app limitations with the new operating system.
We all take photos and videos or download PDFs that we want to share with our other devices or those around us. Usually, you'd send an email or a text to share those items, but there's a better way. Google's AirDrop-like Nearby Share feature allows you to send any type of file to other people or your other devices cleanly and seamlessly. This works great for sharing items between phones but is better if you want to share an item with one of our favorite Chromebooks. This guide shows you everything you need to know about Nearby Share and how to use it with your Chromebook.
Android 15: Our wishlist and what to expect
Here's what we know about Android 15 so far and our wishlist of what we would like to see in the release
The first Android phone turned 15 years old. It's time to think about Android 15. With Android 14 available in stable, rumors and leaks are spreading about what next year's Android version has in store. We spotted a few key details over the last few months. While we wait for more information, we have things we would love to see. Dive into everything we know about Android 15 and our wishlist of features in this article.
Android 14: The complete guide to Google's new release
All the details we have on Android 14 in one central place
Google's stable Android 14 release came later than expected, but that doesn't matter now that the new Android version is here. After months of testing, the new Android release is available, making its way to all supported Google Pixel phones and rolling out to all other Android phones. Android 14 is not as feature-packed and doesn't introduce nearly as many changes as Android 12, which introduced a new design language, but it's a bigger update than Android 13.
Android 14 finally lets apps show content on both screens on a foldable
Android 14 gives apps the long-awaited ability to span content across both screens of a foldable, opening up new possibilities
When Google unveiled the Pixel Fold back in May, one of the features it said wouldn’t be available at launch was dual screen interpreter mode, a feature that utilizes the foldable’s inner and outer screens to display live translations. Dual screen interpreter mode rolled out with the Pixel Fold’s Android 14 update, and to date, it remains the only feature to make use of both screens on Google’s foldable. Fortunately, that might not be the case for much longer, since the Android 14 release quietly opened up the ability for third-party apps to make use of both screens on foldable phones.
Here’s what led Android 14 to lock some Pixel users out of their phone
Thankfully, the November 2023 security patch contains a fix for this bug
Some Pixel 6 users got a rude shock after updating their phone to Android 14, as they were locked out of their phone's internal storage. The issue primarily affected Pixel users who had multiple user or guest profiles set up. Following an increasing number of reports, Google acknowledged the bug and confirmed it was working on a fix. Late last week, the company made the patch available for affected users through a test, noting a wider release could commence in the next two weeks. That fix is now rolling out as a part of the November 2023 security patch, with more insight also being available on what exactly went wrong.