Androidifying

Action Launcher Chris Lacy announced on Friday  that Action Launcher version 40 is now available. The update includes a new pillar feature that might rub some people the wrong way — Action Search. As the name suggests, Action Search is a system-wide search option that looks across apps, contacts, the web, and even system settings. For example, you can toggle the  All apps text labels on or off and have results for a movie and contact in the same vertical list of search results. Any apps that match the query show up horizontally between the keyboard and search results. The good news is that Action Search is available to all Action Launcher users, even if they didn’t buy the Plus upgrade. The bad news is that the feature’s Action Web Search component features advertisements. Described as a custom-built, externally-hosted web search solution, Action Web Search is Lacy’s first attempt at adopting a new business model. Even though his app has over five million installs, Lacy s

Although you can already play your own locally-stored music files using YouTube Music , you can’t do so from within the app itself. Instead, you need to use a file browser app to navigate to those files and then play them. That’s going to change soon as Google is going to integrate a file browser right into YouTube Music, which will allow you to play your locally-stored files without having to exit the app. Editor's Pick You can play ad-supported YouTube Music for free on Google Home speakers Google announced today on the YouTube blog that anyone with a Google Home or Google Assistant-powered speaker can now listen to ad-supported music for free from YouTube Music. Google notes that you can't pick and choose … This new feature will bring YouTube Music one step closer to replacing Google Play Music — although it still has a very long way to go before it will achieve feature parity with that other, older product. Check out the screenshot below from  MS Power User

Thirty years before the arrival of folding phones such as the Samsung Galaxy Fold and Huawei Mate X , flip phones broke new ground in the form of the Motorola MicroTAC 9800X. Widely regarded as the first flip phone, the MicroTAC ushered in a new era of mobility with its flip design and portable size. As a new wave of advanced folding phones begin to reach the market, including a potential brand new RAZR from Motorola, it’s worth appreciating how form factors have played a role in shaping progress. Motorola MicroTAC 9800X If you watch any movie from the mid- to late-80s, you’ll note that cellular phones of the time had one common characteristic: they were nearly all wired into cars. This is why they were often called carphones. These analog devices were huge, required massive batteries, and were only portable in the sense that they went where the car went. In April 1989, Motorola debuted the MicroTAC 9800x  (the “TAC” stood for Total Area Coverage). The phone stood out for a nu

Travel with us back in time. It’s September 2014 and U2 is just releasing its latest album filled with anthemic pop songs called  Songs of Innocence . You might not be a fan and don’t remember much about it, but you’ll probably remember that the album upset many people as Apple automatically pre-loaded the record into every library of the service’s more than 500 million users. Eventually, even U2’s Bono had to apologize for the misguided promotional stunt. Editor's Pick OnePlus 7: All the rumors in one place (Updated April 24) OnePlus made a name for itself by creating smartphones with terrific specifications which sell for a fraction of the cost of other major flagships. The upcoming OnePlus 7 should continue that trend, but what will … For some reason, a brand new advertisement from OnePlus in the April 29, 2019, edition of  The New York Times  appears to reference this U2/iTunes debacle. We’re not quite sure why OnePlus is bringing this up nearly five years late

There are loads of brand new games on the Google Play Store  and you can find plenty of retro titles too. But what if your favorite classics aren’t available on Google’s app store? That’s where emulators come in. Emulators let you play console games from past generations on modern hardware, including smartphones. But how do you know what emulators on Android will run well on your phone? You can either go through the painstaking process of downloading the best emulators for Android and trying them out for yourself, or you can save some time and read on as we cover general hardware requirements for all the major gaming generations. Read more: Best emulators for Android In creating this guide we spoke to some of the creators of the most popular emulators and tested them on various Android devices. We’re also only covering consoles from historically the biggest hardware makers in the business — Nintendo, Sega, and Sony. Here’s everything you need to know about emulation on Android.

Struggling to get in the zone after the weekend? It’s probably because distractions are everywhere . It can be very tough to focus on one specific thing at any given moment, which is a major issue when it comes to meeting deadlines. That’s where productivity apps come in. Focus@Will is both a productivity app and music service that’s been shown to improve focus by up to 400 percent. The app curates music channels that are optimized to eliminate distractions and help you concentrate. Basically, it stimulates your brain without distracting it . Improve focus by up to 400 percent. While you may enjoy working with your favorite Spotify station in the background, doing so probably hinders your productivity. The chances are that your music isn’t conducive to focus, and may even impair it.  Focus@Will , on the other hand, is specifically designed to help you focus . There are over 50 curated channels to choose from — from ambient to electro bach — so you can test out which one w

One of the best things about smartphone cameras in 2019 is the fact that you don’t have to do much to get a good photo. Just point, shoot, and your phone’s image processing software will (most of the time) take care of the rest. Also read Nokia 9 PureView camera review: More isn’t always better The Nokia 9 PureView sure looks impressive, and it is bound to turn many heads with its five-camera array. I received many questions about it during my photographic adventures, primarily if it is actually an … For people who aren’t satisfied with their phone doing all of the work, manual mode (sometimes called “pro mode”) is a great way to control just about every factor in the shot. Most cameras with a manual mode allow you to alter white balance, ISO, and sometimes even shutter speed. When I take a photo, I usually want to do so in just a few seconds so I rarely switch over to manual settings. What about you? Do you frequently use it, or is manual mode one of those untouched fe