Error messages are the bane of most of our lives, and when it comes to mobile devices, they're just as prevalent as they've been on our traditional desktop PCs for decades. But if you're on Android and don't feel like Googling specific Play Store error message numbers before trawling through countless forums for a solution, help is at hand thanks to a newly-published list of common errors and fixes.
Social apps often overlap each other. It's the nature of the beast that if one service implements a useful new feature, several others will follow suit. On a day that has already seen Snapchat go all instant-messaging on us, Foursquare has announced Swarm, an app that helps you find close-by friends and discover things to do. The app represents a departure from the company's check-in ways, and also throws down the gauntlet to a neat little feature that Facebook added to Paper only a week or so ago.
The legalities of the service may have been, shall we say, ambiguous, but Popcorn Time, the popular free movie downloading site, is back with a bang. With its original creators seemingly scared off by the threat of the copyright hammer, its source code was picked up last month and work has been progressing ever since. Now, an Android version of Popcorn Time is almost ready for general release, as confirmed by one of the developers behind the rebirth.
In terms of general functionality, there's little argument that Apple's iOS is playing catch-up with Android, which thanks to its open source nature, can be readily tailored to suit the individual user. One of the most popular iOS jailbreak tweaks leading up to iOS 7 was SBSettings, which allowed features like Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to be controlled with a swipe, negating the need to trawl through the Settings app. This issue has since been resolved through Apple's introduction of the Control Center, though, and if you're an Android user partial to the way this particular iOS feature is laid out, a new Play Store entry touts a similar experience.
Google has finally answered the prayers of its legions of Chrome Remote Desktop users by bringing the powerful service to Android mobile devices. The native mobile app has been made available as a free-of-charge download directly from the Google Play Store and will act as a dedicated counterpart to the existing desktop app that has proved so popular with PC and Mac users.
Earlier on this month, we heard that Google would be releasing an imminent update to the Android Camera app, bringing it up to scratch with the offerings of both Samsung and HTC with their respective flagship releases. Today, the day has come, with version 2.1.037 of the native Camera bringing plenty features, including - as promised - a little fake bokeh.
It's been a busy day for Dropbox by all accounts, with the cloud storage company having earlier on released an Android version of the Mailbox app it acquired for $100 million last year. Underlining its intention to mix it with the major players in mobile space, Dropbox has released a new photo and image gallery app called Carousel for both Android and iOS, which makes it very easy for users to share their memories with friends and family.
The fact that Dropbox forked out a cool $100 million to acquire Mailbox last year is a testament to how highly regarded the app is, but while it's now seen as the go-to email solution for those rocking an iOS device, the fact that it's only available on the iTunes App Store is very limiting. But when a company pays such vast sums of money to acquire something, expansion is generally forthcoming, and as such, it shouldn't come as a surprise that Dropbox has released the Mailbox app for Android, as well as announcing a desktop version.
Because of its open-source nature, Facebook has used Google's Android as its main breeding ground for experimental new mobile features and ventures. The introduction of Facebook Home / Chat Heads update, for example, brought a neat, integrated launcher that combined the social company's own IM service with the native Android SMS app. Such improvements appear to have been rolled out at the expense of enhancing the official Facebook app for Android, which has been left looking rather unkempt and in need of a visual makeover. An overhaul is on the way, though, and if you're willing to jump through a couple of hoops, here's how you can enable the new-look UI right now on your device.
Losing your smartphone is never a pleasant experience. In fact, in most cases, it’s the worst kind of experience because you end up missing not just a valuable device, but also your contacts, your email, social networks, gallery, media and pretty much your entire digital footprint. There are, of course, fail-safe solutions available for almost every platform that you can employ to remedy some of the damage that takes place as a result of such a loss, but the device is still gone with little to no hope of recovery.
