News and Updates from Gadget Hacks: Page 103

Taste is certainly relative. When you look at Central American architecture and notice all of the bright pastel colors, then move just a thousand or so miles to the north and see that buildings in the United States are mostly painted in earth tones, this becomes abundantly clear. Imagine if you were to switch hemispheres altogether—what would you see in East Asia?

Yahoo is giving its Mail app for Android a new look with its 5.3 version, giving you eleven color themes you can use to customize its look.

Facebook is finally pushing out the latest version of its Messenger app for Android, complete with a new Material Design user interface.

Now is the time to act if you've been in the market for some must-have Android apps but felt like the price was a little out of your range. The Google Play Store is running a sale so you can pick up some high-quality paid apps—including the popular Nova Launcher Prime and Poweramp Music Player, among many others—for just $0.99 each.

Press renders for HTC's latest phone leaked out this morning, and it turns out that it likely won't be called the One M10 as many had expected. Instead, the company seems to be trying to clean up its naming conventions, and the next phone will simply be called HTC 10.

Google has begun the testing phase for its new Hands Free app that lets you pay at participating locations without having to even take your phone out of your pocket.

Here's some good news if you were hankering for a little early-2000s electronic-scream-rap-metal to get you through the day. Linkin Park's debut release, Hybrid Theory, the 48th best-selling album of all time, is available for free on the Google Play Store.

It looks like a lot of Samsung's Galaxy series of smartphones and tablets will be upgraded to Android Marshmallow 6.0 by the start of this summer.

A judge just handed down a ruling that will make the U.S. government's quest to unlock the work iPhone of one of the San Bernardino shooters much more difficult.

Coverage for the 88th Academy Awards, aka the Oscars, will air live this Sunday, February 28th at 4 p.m. PT (7 p.m. ET). The ceremony itself, hosted by Chris Rock, is set to begin at 5:30 p.m. PT (8:30 p.m. ET).

I'm starting to wonder if the people at Boston Dynamics have ever watched a Terminator movie. Not just because the robotics company with the oxymoronic name develops machines that are able to move around environments with animal- and human-like agility, but because the people testing them seem to take such joy in openly antagonizing their creations.

Google is pushing out an update for its namesake Google app that lets you get a little creative with the way the Google logo appears. You'll be able to add your own color scheme to the Google logo, and include colors beyond the traditional blue, red, yellow, etc.

For years, users have been clamoring for a "dark mode" theme in Android, but it has always seemed like Google is so committed to the white motif from their web services that such an option would never become a reality. But in a stunning turn of events, Google is finally embracing the idea with a night theme that will work in any app, and I'll cover all of the specifics below.

Have you ever run across a Facebook post that you don't necessarily want to "Like," but you're not really passionate enough about to bother stringing together a couple words for a comment? Well, you're in luck, as Facebook added five new "Reactions" that let you do more than just like a post, and they're now live for everyone.

Chinese tech company OPPO has been on the cutting edge of smartphone battery charging since it released its VOOC Flash Charge in 2014. Using VOOC, you can charge your battery from 0-75% in 30 minutes.

Snapchat's Geofilters add a little flair to Snapchat, giving you the option to dress up your Snaps based on where you took them. They're so popular, in fact, that we even showed you how to pull Geofilters from locations outside of where you are.

LG got in on the action at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona by unveiling its new G5 handset on Sunday, February 21st. It will be the first publicly available modular smartphone by a top tech giant.

Gender standards are entirely pervasive. We raise our sons to be masculine and our daughters to be feminine, which perpetuates the gender role formula when they grow up to be parents and raise their own children. Part of this whole equation is that boys are supposed to remain stoic and project an air of strength, and girls are expected to be amiable while being held to unrealistic standards of outward beauty.

Cable TV providers were dealt a pretty significant blow on Thursday, February 18th, 2016, when the Federal Communications Commission decided that customers should have a choice in what type of device they use to watch cable, instead of being forced to rent a set-top box.

LG is set to launch its G5 handset on February 21st at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. This shouldn't be too much of a surprise, but images of the G5 have now been leaked ahead of the event by Evan Blass (@evleaks). This image shows that the handset will indeed have two lenses on its rear-facing camera so that you can shoot wide-angle 135º photos.

The Simpsons has usedlots and lots and lots and lots of references to Stanley Kubrick's films. Seriously. So many. Alright, I'll stop.

Google is rolling out an update for Google Drive that streamlines the online file storage/sharing app, and finally gives you access to the Trash folder that had only been available on the desktop version.

For well over a year, Spotify's most requested feature was to add Chromecast support. While they left the request unanswered, it seemed that Spotify just didn't want anything to do with the $35 streaming stick.

A little-known company in India is making waves after announcing that it will sell an Android 5.1 Lollipop smartphone for less than $4 (or, more precisely, 251 rupees). The Freedom 251, from Ringing Bells, sounds almost too good to be true. Is that because it is?

Apple's once flawless mobile operating system has seen its fair share of bugs recently. From Messages and Wi-Fi settings crashing to having your photos and contacts exposed, iOS has been standing on shaky ground for a while now.

A couple days back we told you about the 30-day free trial for people interested in YouTube Red, and now Google is running a concurrent promotion that really sweetens the deal, especially if you're a first-time subscriber and own or plan to buy a Chromecast.

Samsung will begin preorders for the upcoming Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge on February 21st, the same day the company plans to unveil its handsets ahead of the Mobile World Congress, according to Dutch site Android World (via Droid Life). Customers who preorder a Galaxy S7 or S7 Edge will also receive a free Gear VR.

Earlier this week we showed you how to use multiple accounts on Instagram, and now Facebook is rolling out a similar feature for its Messenger app, as well as a few other features.

We've all been there. You're driving along with Google Maps pointing the way when you get a call from your friend asking you how much longer it'll be until you show up. You try to offer some lame excuse about how something came up last-minute, but you're interrupted, quite rudely, by Maps's voice guidance. The voice butts in again, and again, and again, to the point that you consider having Maps navigate you to the nearest cliff so that you can drive off it.

New filings with the FCC released on Monday show that Samsung's forthcoming Galaxy S7 Edge will feature a 3,600 mAh battery. While this news might not satisfy everyone who is unhappy that Samsung did away with removable batteries, this should mean that the S7 Edge will be able to last longer between charge-ups.

There have been plenty of rumors and lots of speculation about the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, and now we're finally getting our first look at Samsung's newest flagships—in the form of two images.

Yes, "Safer Internet Day" is a real thing, and it's actually been around for 12 years. This year, Google again will be commemorating the event by giving away a 2-gigabyte storage bump for their Google Drive cloud service if you simply run through a security checkup.

Microsoft is working hard to make Bing a good alternative to Google for more than just looking up images of the "human anatomy" that Google and a lot of other search engines filter out of their results.

Whether you're anxious to tune into this Sunday's Super Bowl 50 to see Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers take on Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos, or to see if you win some money on your silly prop bet, or just want to tune in for the commercials, there are a handful of ways to catch the Big Game without an antenna or cable/satellite subscription.

Researchers have discovered a "severe vulnerability" that allows attackers to use eBay to distribute malware, and the online auction company has no plans to fix the problem.

Microsoft announced Wednesday morning that it has entered into an agreement to acquire SwiftKey, makers of the SwiftKey predictive keyboard and its SDK that runs on over 300 million Android and iOS smartphones, for about $250 million.

As one of the most powerful Android apps for connecting your phone or tablet to your other devices in various ways, Pushbullet had always been a fan—and Gadget Hacks—favorite.

While iPhone sales are expected to dip for the first year ever, Apple is reportedly planning to release a souped-up, 4-inch iPhone 5 in hopes of boosting sales for users who prefer a smaller handset.

I think it was 1986 when I first discovered my love for making computers say stupid things out loud. My older brother got a Commodore 64 for his birthday, which came bundled with software that would speak out any term you typed in—and boy, that computer sure made a fool of itself after my five-year-old imagination got a hold of the keyboard.

Whether it's delivery drones or getting the U.S. Postal Service to ship packages on Sundays, Amazon continues to remain innovative and ahead of the game, as further evidenced with their mobile app, Amazon Underground.