Pocketnow Smarthome: it starts with the hub

Posted on by Joe Levi

When Pocketnow began bringing you news, reviews, and editorials over a decade ago, the industry was pretty limited in its product offerings. PDAs and smartphones, and other gadgets you could fit in your pocket were our primary focus. Since then we’ve covered accessories and the wireless networks that empower them, and have branched out into wearables and even fitness devices.Over the years, the role smartphones play in our everyday lives has changed – significantly. In fact, studies have ...

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WiFi is evolving: What you need to know about 802.11 ad, ah, and HaLow af

Posted on by Joe Levi

It started out way back in the nineties – Internet without wires. No longer did people have to tie up their phone line while their modem dialed away, beeped, booped, squeaked, squawked, and hissed. Those lucky enough to have an always-on Internet connection could put their laptop anywhere they wanted it – finally free from the limitations and inconveniences of a wired Ethernet cable.Two standards emerged in the beginning: 802.11a in the 5GHz spectrum and 802.11b in the 2.4 GHz spectrum. Both had their pros and cons, but it was 2.4GHz that gained in popularity, partly because of ...

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Google Now just got answering machine-like functionality – here’s how to use it

Posted on by Joe Levi

“‘OK Google’ is the magical key-phrase that unlocks all the wondrous potential of your Android-powered device – and drives you nuts when someone on a podcast says it and all your Android’s wake up and wait for your instructions.”Now that my new house is built, my daily commute is over an hour long – each way. That’s okay with me. I love to drive, the scenery is beautiful, Waze helps alert me to upcoming hazards, and thanks to Audible I’m “reading” more now than I ever have before.When a phone call comes in, thanks to the ...

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The future of Bluetooth: what to expect and why you should care

Posted on by Joe Levi

Back in 1994, Ericsson (who would later merge with Sony) “invented” Bluetooth. Back then out devices were connected by one of a few technologies: RS-232 “COM Ports”, Parallel Ports, and SCSI. USB was still being worked on. Ericsson’s vision was to replace the serial RS-232 cables with a new, wireless standard. Bluetooth was born.Uhura knew about Jawbone before Jawbone knew about Jawbone.Bluetooth is a wireless communication standard using the 2.4GHz band (which ...

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What is Factory Reset Protection and why is Android Marshmallow forcing OEMs to include it in their devices

Posted on by Joe Levi

There used to be a time when, if you lost your phone, that was it – it was gone. You’d get in touch with your carrier and report it lost or stolen so any calls or texts wouldn’t be added to your bill, but your options beyond that were pretty limited. A little later on, recovery options were added to help you find out where you phone was (just in case you lost in the couch or at the restaurant). If it was heading down the interstate at 70MPH, you could probably assume that it had been stolen – and you could remotely wipe it.While these tools can be very helpful, all ...

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The Pros and Cons of 5GHz WiFi 802.11ac

Posted on by Joe Levi

Back in 1999 we got our first real taste of our wireless future: WiFi. The first variant was called 802.11a and operated in the 5GHz spectrum (later on, 3.7GHz support was added). Back then, 5GHz radios were more expensive than 2.4GHz equipment, and 802.11b quickly surpassed 802.11a in popularity. For years we happily surfed the web, streamed our music, and watched our videos over the 2.4GHz spectrum. But we weren’t alone.Uhura knew about Jawbone before Jawbone knew about ...

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Android Google Chrome exploit: what to do about it

Posted on by Joe Levi

Chrome is the web browser at the center of Google’s empire – both on desktops as well as mobile devices. In addition to being just a standalone app (which may or may not be preloaded on your smartphone), the Chrome engine also drives the component that displays web content inside apps. As you might expect, a vulnerability in that engine could cause significant problems for the device running it. Such is the case with a particularly troublesome Android Google Chrome exploit.During the recent PacSec conference in Tokyo, Qihoo 360 developer Guang Gong showed off a vulnerability ...

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Android Google Chrome exploit: what to do about it

Posted on by Joe Levi

Chrome is the web browser at the center of Google’s empire – both on desktops as well as mobile devices. In addition to being just a standalone app (which may or may not be preloaded on your smartphone), the Chrome engine also drives the component that displays web content inside apps. As you might expect, a vulnerability in that engine could cause significant problems for the device running it. Such is the case with a particularly troublesome Android Google Chrome exploit.During the recent PacSec conference in Tokyo, Qihoo 360 developer Guang Gong showed off a vulnerability ...

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Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Posted on by Joe Levi

You’ll be hard-pressed to find someone who would turn down a phone with a bigger battery than a smaller one, all things being equal. Unfortunately, phones with bigger capacities generally mean thicker dimensions and heavier devices. Even a few dozen mAh can add significant costs to the bill of materials. The solutions to this conundrum come in four varieties: OS and SoC optimizations to reduce battery use, and wireless and quick charging schemes to help keep the battery full. Targeting the latter, and following up from a successful 2.0 release, Qualcomm’s solution is Quick ...

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Five ways to keep your cellular data usage under control

Posted on by Joe Levi

Today’s smartphones and tablets are significantly more useful than phones and laptops of yesteryear. Most of that centers around the availability of today’s devices to access the Internet from virtually anywhere. These days we use our phones more to text and interact with web-based services than to make phone calls, and our tablets consume media (streaming audio and video), let us play web connected games, and keep us in touch with our friends via social networks. All of these are enabled by a ubiquitous, wireless connection to the Internet. However, not all wireless ...

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What’s the most disappointing smartphone you’ve owned?

Posted on by Joe Levi

Now that IFA is in full-swing and much of the Pocketnow staff is in Berlin busy finding out what the latest and greatest new devices are going to be for the upcoming year, some of us aren’t that optimistic that the new products will be “great”. Sure, many of the devices on the show floor might “look” cool and enticing today, but that might just be the bright lights and the fancy booth decorations speaking. Some of those devices will turn out to be disappointing. That got us thinking: what’s the most disappointing smartphone you’ve owned?Adam ...

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Here’s why I rooted my Nexus 6

Posted on by Joe Levi

There was a time (not that long ago) when Power Users needed to root their Android-powered smartphones to do anything really powerful with them. Primary among those reason was to flash a custom ROM. These days stock Android includes many of the features and functionality that were previously the exclusive realm of custom ROMs. Sure, there are still ample reasons to flash a custom ROM, but for an increasing number of us Power Users, “stock plus root” is good enough. Here’s why I went with a Nexus 6 root, but kept the stock ROM.Tethering

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Seven things you still need root to do, and two things that don’t

Posted on by Joe Levi

When we talk about root or “rooting” your smartphone or tablet, we’re talking about bypassing the built-in securities and permissions that come prepackaged on your device so you can obtain “privileged control” or “root access”. Our Apple-toting friends often call this “jailbreaking”, which, in a manner of speaking, it is. OEMs lock our devices down “for our own good”, to keep us from breaking them or allowing malicious software to get inside and do damage. A secondary objective is to make sure that we can’t do ...

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What are “Android OS” and “Android System” in my battery report?

Posted on by Joe Levi

Regardless of how large the batteries in our portable electronics are, or how efficiently their SoCs power them, we never seem to have “enough” power. Thankfully, Android lets you see what apps and processes are using your battery, so you can take corrective measures and (ideally) get the most out of the limited mAhs in your LiPo cell.Take a look at your own stats. Open Settings and tap on Battery. Depending on which version of Android you’re running and how heavily your OEM has skinned your device, you’ll probably see a chart with a list of apps and processes ...

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Why some phone chargers are faster than others (video)

Posted on by Joe Levi

Whether you’re using Android, iOS, or Windows phone, there’s one thing that unites us all: phone chargers.This week, Natalie and Kristin want to know why some chargers charge phones faster than others. Kristin bought a brand new phone charger that charges her phone about twice as fast as Natalie’s in-wall charger. What gives? To answer that, first we have to talk a little bit about electricity.We’ll dig into that, get into some Ohm’s Law, and talk about rectifiers and inverters on this episode of the

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