how-to | Mobiles365

Nexus Quick Charging explained

Posted on October 15, 2015 by Joe Levi

Just when we thought we had this whole “quick charging” thing all figured out and knew which car- and wall-chargers to get, Google went and confused everyone all over again. Yes, it’s true that the new Nexus 6P and Nexus 5X support quick charging, but no, despite both phones being built around Qualcomm Snapdragon SoCs, neither has “Qualcomm Quick Charge” of any variety (1.0, 2.0, or some other version). What they do have is pretty good, if specifications are to be believed (we’ll reserve final judgement after our full reviews), but there is quite a bit ...

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LG G4 wireless charging is just 10 minutes, $10 away (Video)

Posted on July 17, 2015 by Michael Fisher

If you’ve got an LG G4, you’ve got a pretty solid smartphone. We enjoyed our time with the new flagship, finding it to be a “leather looker with a killer camera” in our full review – and in some ways it even compares favorably with the Galaxy S6 and HTC One M9. But out of the box, it’s lacking one cool feature that OEMs have steadily been adding to their ...

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7 vacation tech tips to make your next adventure better

Posted on June 26, 2015 by Joe Levi

Contrary to some rumors circulating around the Internet, I’m not dead (not yet anyway) – I’ve just been on vacation for the last two-and-a-half weeks. I had a wonderful time with my family, saw some beautiful places, soaked up some sun, and spent way too much money on food. Since I am “Joe the Android Guy™” after all, I had plenty of tech in tow, but before we dive into that, let me give you a little background about how we went about our trip,then share some vacation tech tips to help your next excursion be more enjoyable.Including my mother-in-law, we ...

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Give your Lumia a 30-inch screen with the Microsoft HD-10 (Video)

Posted on February 4, 2015 by Michael Fisher

In the smartphone world, a five-inch display is a pretty sizable canvas … but what if you could add, say, 30 inches to that? That’s the question the Microsoft HD-10 was built to answer, and we’re taking a demo unit for a spin in today’s video!The Microsoft HD-10 is an unassuming hockey puck of a device, a plastic pancake with two cable ports and precious little else to make it stand out. That means it blends right in with the Apple TV, Chromecast, Fire Stick, or whatever else you’ve got tethered to your television … while leaving the real ...

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What is build.prop and my 5 favorite tweaks

Posted on January 15, 2015 by Joe Levi

One of the things we all like about Android is the ability to customize our smartphones and tablets to suit our personalities and the way we each use our devices. Out of the box, stock and unrooted, Android is a very powerful operating system. With just a couple taps you can enable sideloading of apps, and you can even install any of several app stores. However, if you’re brave enough and with a little technical know-how, you can OEM unlock and What is build.prop and my 5 favorite tweaks appeared first on Pocketnow.

Life on two screens: using the YotaPhone 2 (Video)

Posted on January 14, 2015 by Michael Fisher

The YotaPhone 2 packs a lot of features that set it apart from the typical smartphone. It’s got more curves than we usually see these days, a volume rocker that does double-duty as a SIM card tray, and it comes to us from Russia. Oh, and it’s got a second screen around back.The YotaPhone 2’s E-Paper Display (EPD) is a 4.7″ 960×540 E-Ink panel that dominates the rear cover of the device. With no backlight, just 16 levels of greyscale and a pixel density of only 235ppi, it’s not all that impressive on paper – but YotaPhone nonetheless manages to squeeze ...

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How to re-enable tethering in Lollipop on the Nexus 6

Posted on January 1, 2015 by Joe Levi

I’ve been a T-Mobile customer since the company was called Voicestream – yeah, that long. One of the things I always loved about the service was that I could tether a PDA, tablet, or laptop to my phone and be able to get work done anywhere I needed to. I’m not a road warrior, so I don’t use a lot of data when tethered, nor do I tether very often, but I need to be able to tether with only a little notice. Regardless of whether I was using Windows Mobile or Android, tethering was never terribly difficult, I just opened the settings, turned it on, and away I went. When ...

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How to root the Nexus 6

Posted on December 30, 2014 by Joe Levi

Yesterday I talked about why I rooted my Nexus 6. No, it wasn’t to run a custom ROM (though that’s a great reason to root your smartphone). No, it wasn’t so I could run a custom kernel (although that’s another wonderful reason to root as well). My reasons for rooting the Nexus 6 were much more basic: so I can run tools and utilities, and make configuration changes that I wouldn’t otherwise be able to do. Many of you mirrored my sentiment, and even ...

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Tech and Turkey Day: Thanksgiving tips for a better holiday experience

Posted on November 26, 2014 by Joe Levi

Thanksgiving in these United States is historically a time for people of different backgrounds and beliefs to come together to enjoy each other’s company and conversation over a delicious meal of turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce. Or so the greeting card companies would have us believe! In reality, it’s one of the most stressful days of the year as family (who have been avoiding each other all year) are forced into the same room. Diverse opinions and preferences clash. Tempers soar. Words are said. Feelings are bruised. Eventually more than a few go home vowing to write off ...

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How to get a better night’s sleep with your Android

Posted on October 13, 2014 by Joe Levi

My wife kept waking up in the morning exhausted. Instead of being rested and rejuvenated she felt tired and groggy. Being the loving husband that I am, I immediately ran to technology for help! “Google, how can I sleep better using my Android?” The results were quite interesting.The first thing any true geek is going to do is look for ways to gather data. After all, how can you hope to fix a problem if you don’t know the root cause? “Have you tried turning it off and on again?” apparently doesn’t work in every situation.My first thought was to acquire a ...

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How safe is sideloading APKs?

Posted on August 26, 2014 by Joe Levi

As Android users, most of us have the ability to sideload apps directly onto our smartphones and tablets – no app store needed! People who use other operating systems on their mobile devices aren’t always so lucky. To load apps on their devices from sources other than those officially sanctioned by the company that makes their phone, many have to go through a jailbreaking or unlocking process. While not necessarily a “bad” thing, jailbreaking brings with it many other implications that reach significantly deeper than simply installing an app. Most Android-powered ...

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3 things you should do to improve your Android Security right now

Posted on August 21, 2014 by Joe Levi

We’ve spent the last week or so talking about smartphone security and how the privacy-centric Blackphone can help keep your communications as well as your data private. We’ve looked at all the technical stuff that’s going on to keep you secure, as well as given it our full hands-on review treatment.But what if you don’t have a Blackphone? If you’re running ...

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How-to sideload apps on the Amazon Fire Phone (video)

Posted on August 20, 2014 by Joe Levi

The Amazon Fire Phone is a pretty interesting device, but it comes with the Amazon Appstore instead of the Google Play Store. What if you want some other apps? Because the Fire Phone is based on Android, you’re in luck! Just like other Android-powered devices, you can sideload applications right onto the device, but the process looks a little different than you may be used to. Here’s how you can sideload apps on the Amazon Fire Phone.Enable SideloadingHead into the Settings by pulling down ...

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How to enable OK Google everywhere on your phone (video)

Posted on July 9, 2014 by Joe Levi

“OK Google” is a pretty neat tool. It lets you search for virtually anything — as long as you’re on your homescreen. A recent update to Google Search unlocked that limitation and allowed users to enable OK Google everywhere, even on the lock screen!The update requires Android 4.3+ (or 4.4+, depending on who you ask), it also needs the latest version of the Google Search app and the latest update to Play Services. Head out to the Play Store and make sure you’ve got all the latest updates installed before you continue.Next, from your homescreen, simply say ...

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How to root Android L (Video)

Posted on July 2, 2014 by Joe Levi

Android L is still very much a developer preview, but there’s one thing power users have been missing more than anything else: Root. With Chainfire away at Google I/O, development on this front slowed to a crawl. Lucky for all of us, Chainfire is back and has updated SuperSU to version 2.01. If you’d like more information about this version of SuperSU, head over to Chainfire’s post.Some have ...

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