When you try to install third-party applications (meaning apps not found in the Google Play Store) you'll be met with a warning that notifies you that your device currently blocks installations not obtained from the Play Store. Enable Unknown Sources
Installing applications that are not on Google Play requires you to enable a certain permission in the settings so that the whole process goes down smoothly. If you're downloading one of these third-party applications (in the form of an APK), you'll need to enable Unknown sources.
When I'm not actively using my Samsung Galaxy S4, I typically crank the volume up all the way so I can hear it in my pocket or if I'm in another room. But when it's in my hands and I'm using it, I don't want the ringer to blast at full volume, or any volume at all. Either I'll see a notification come in, or a quick vibrate will call my attention to any pertinent alerts.
Thanks to HTML5 and dedicated video apps, watching your favorite shows, movies, or video clips on your Samsung Galaxy S4 couldn't be easier. However, there are still times when you'll run into a website that requires Flash to play a video or interact with its content. Although its mobile life has been dead on Android for 2 years, Adobe Flash Player still lives on in the desktop world, fueling millions of websites such as YouTube, Vimeo, ESPN, CNN, and more.
About a year ago, Abode decided to discontinue support for Flash on the Android platform. With its security concerns, it's understandable why some people would want to disable Flash on their devices, but there are still some things you can't do without it. Amazon Instant Videos is one thing you can't do, giving you nothing but a "Flash Player is not installed" warning.
Your Galaxy S5 is jammed to the brim with all sorts of electronic sensors. These are capable of reading humidity levels, ambient temperature, air pressure, and much more. Yet, while this data is constantly being collected by your phone, there aren't any built-in apps that are capable of displaying much of it.
If you have friends like mine, letting them check out one photo on your phone means they're going to check out all of the photos on your phone. Before you realize what they're doing, it's too late, and they're sending out perverted emails to your coworkers, making you look like a newb at Candy Crush Saga, and viewing your Snapchats for you.
While there's still no set date, Jelly Bean 4.3 is rumored to be released on the Samsung Galaxy S4 and other TouchWiz devices within the next couple of weeks (or months), presumably sometime after the upcoming Samsung Unpacked event.
Running multiple applications at the same time is one of the Samsung Galaxy S3's and S4's biggest advantages over Apple devices, and it's a fact that Samsung certainly harps on constantly in their well-targeted commercials.
There are many mods and tweaks you can do on your Samsung Galaxy S4 to make it feel more fresh, like using a more customizable keyboard and a better PIN unlock, but if you want to make your Galaxy S4 feel even fresher, add a little Galaxy S5 touch to it.
Android's deeply customizable platform has long been the attraction for those of us looking to make our smartphones more unique, but that doesn't mean that it's always easy. Flashing mods and installing custom ROMs can be difficult at times, as well as dangerous.
The Play Store is loaded with just about any app you can imagine. While many are free or have a "lite" version of a paid app for download, often enough, these freebies have intrusive ads cluttering up your screen.
Ringing and vibrating alerts on your smartphone can be a bit distracting when you're at work or school, but silent alerts can be a little too subtle if you want to know when you get a notification. Even the tiny LED alerts can be easily missed. So, is there's something in-between loud and almost-not-there alerts? In today's softModder tutorial, I'm going to show you how to get flash alerts on your Samsung Galaxy Note 2 and other Android devices. That way, whenever you receive a call or text m...
Of the sixty or so "must-have" apps that are installed on my Samsung Galaxy Note 3, there's only one that I need to use and hate with a passion. Skype. Whenever using it, I'm consumed by dropped calls, mic issues, poor quality, and random crashes, among other things—and I'm not the only one.
The Xperia Z1, Sony's flagship device, has been extremely popular overseas, so much so that it has made its way into the U.S. market as the Xperia Z1S, a modified version of the original. Known more commonly as the "waterproof smartphone," the Xperia Z1 packs one of the most powerful cameras on the market, with an impressive 20.7 megapixels. Since the device is only available for T-Mobile here in the States, unless you currently have that carrier, the chances of you getting your hands on Sony...
Apple may have unabashedly lifted their upcoming "Control Center" from Android devices, but visually speaking, it's an awesome take on Quick Settings that would look pretty good on a Samsung Galaxy S3.
Give me a paintbrush and easel and you'll be sorely disappointed, but give me a Samsung Galaxy S3 and a new app called Let's 8-Bit Art and you might call me the next Picasso.
Whenever the word "popup" pops up, I immediately cringe because all I can think about are those obnoxious ads that ruin my everyday browsing experience. But, not all popups are evil.
Ideas can be a fleeting thought, just like a shooting star that appears and disappears within a brief moment. So when you're inspired and have an awesome idea, it's important to jot it down as soon as possible, otherwise it may vanish from your memory for good.
An app can request a wakelock to prevent your Android device from entering sleep mode so that it can sync data in the background. This obviously drains your battery, because instead of running in low-power sleep mode, your processor is fully activated while it performs its tasks.
Over the course of the past few years, many websites have begun offering up a mobile-friendly HTML 5 version of their content. Videos that once required Adobe's Flash can now be played on any modern mobile web browser.
The keyboard I use the most on my Galaxy S4 is the Google Keyboard, and that's partly because of the custom themes I can play around with.
Now that all variants of the Galaxy S5 have finally been rooted, we can start exploring all of the tweaks and hacks that Superuser privileges open up to us.
Parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and even older siblings have all likely dealt with handing their smartphones over to young children. No matter if they want to play games or watch cartoons or record funny noises, you're handing over a very personal device to those who can mess up what they don't know.
The Galaxy S5 may be the new kid on the block, with fancy features such as a fingerprint scanner and dust/water protection, but the Galaxy S4 is no slouch by any means. While the S5 may be newer, the S4 remains beast of a device, and few simple mods can make it feel new again.
A certain selection of applications on your Android device (both system and downloaded) start running as soon as your Samsung Galaxy Note 2 turns on, laboriously hammering away at whatever tasks they have to do.
If you use your Samsung Galaxy Note 2 consistently throughout the day, you're more than likely to encounter the low battery warning on occasion—anytime you dip below 15 percent remaining. While the low battery warning may be a convenience for some, it can also be a nuisance for others (like me), as it continues to appear intermittently after dropping from that 15 percent. In this softModder tutorial, I'm going to show you how to get rid of that annoying low battery alert for good.
For now, the redesigned and fresh-faced Android 4.4 KitKat is exclusive to the new Nexus 5, though it will be rolling out to other Google (Nexus 4, Nexus 7, Nexus 10) and Google Play Editions (Samsung Galaxy S4, HTC One) devices in the next week or two.
With over 8 million active users, CyanogenMod is definitely the most popular ROM for Android devices, which explains why venture capitalists invested $7 million last month for future development.
Probably the most favorite custom ROM among softModders is CyanogenMod, a theme-friendly take on stock Android that not only makes it easier to customize your device, but also increases performance using a variety of system tweaks and enhancements.
The new Moto X is still a couple of weeks from being released here in the United States, but that doesn't mean we can't play around with a few of its cool features.
Just like the HTC One Google Play Edition, the recently released Samsung Galaxy S4 Google Play Edition ditches the manufacturer's UI in favor of a pure Google experience, i.e. AOSP, but is also optimized specifically for the device's hardware.
With over a billion videos uploaded to YouTube, passing your time browsing through the immense library can be an emotional roller coaster ride. One second you're bawling your eyes out over this devastatingly sad clip of Oden the dog's last minutes with his owner, and the next you're laughing hysterically at Spider-Man falling on his face.
What is your Samsung Galaxy Note 2 running? More than likely, you're still rocking Jelly Bean 4.1.2, which is already pretty outdated. My grandma uses 4.1.2.
If you've tried watching a video that requires Adobe Flash Player installed on your Samsung Galaxy Note 2, then you're probably well acquainted with the "Flash Player is not installed" message. If you try tapping the deceiving Install Flash Player button it takes you directly to the Adobe website, where you're greeted with a message saying:
Screen timeouts serve mostly as security measures and energy savers, but they can also interrupt you when you're reading a book or editing a document. There is no built-in way to manage screen timeouts on a per-app basis, but if you've got root access, you can do just that using Never Sleep from Android dev Hamzah Malik.
When you were younger, you probably had your parents bugging you not to have your cassette player headphones up too loud. For all you younger readers out there, it was probably a CD player. The even younger readers likely had an iPod or other MP3 player. Either way, your parents didn't want you to mess up your hearing, blasting that Limp Bizkit in your ears (wow, I'm showing my age here).
Ever since the early days of their existence, cell phones have been reducing the common wristwatch to nothing more than a fashion accessory. I'm not exactly a watch aficionado, but I do own a few that I wear on a daily basis. Since I have family in different parts of the world, I love my watches that have a second time zone, allowing me to see what time it is where they are.
Twitter's video-sharing app, Vine, had some very stiff competition once Instagram added video sharing to its repertoire. Recent figures show Instagram at 130 million followers compared to Vine's 40 million. Many think that Vine is on its way out, but on the contrary, I think it's here to stay.
Customization is one of Android's popular selling points, and going hand-in-hand with that is being able to set default apps for different actions. Whether you want to play a song, navigate somewhere, or send a text, you can set a go-to app for each of those tasks.
