作者彙整: Ara Wagoner

Welcome to the wonderful world of Android! We hope you greatly enjoy your new phone and the new ecosystem around it. If this is your first time on our side of the Apple/Google divide, there are a few items out there you’ll probably want to consider picking up for your new phone. From headphones to use for listening to chargers and cables to keep your phone alive on those rotten days that just will not end, you can upgrade your Android experience with these accessories.

Pop culture phone savers

Swappable PopSockets

Staff pick

PopSockets are part fidget toy, part phone grip, and part pop culture phenomena. If your big new phone is harder to use one-handed, you’ll want a PopGrip on the back so you can easily reach the top of the screen. There’s even cool licensed designs like Baby Yoda!

$10 at PopSockets

Tiniest wall charger

Aukey PA-Y18 18W USB-C Wall Charger

18W chargers don’t get much smaller than this, and for topping off my phones, power banks, or headphones in a hurry,… 閱讀全文 →

Overseeing the food, the drinks, the festivities, and the delinquents you invited into your humble abode is enough to drive any party planner mad, but don’t worry about not getting to have any fun playing host! You can make your party look effortless with the help of Google Assistant and the many devices it can interact with before and during your party.

Products used in this guide

Assistant with a screen: Google Nest Hub ($130)
Bring Assistant to any room: Google Nest Mini ($50)
Google Play: Google Home app (Free)

Pre-party prep with Google Assistant

Google Assistant is just as much of an asset when planning or preparing your home for a party as it is during the actual event, and you can command it to do thousands of party prep activities such as:

Step-by-step recipe guides by asking “How do I make [sugar cookies]?”
Set reminders for yourself by saying “Remind me to [take out the trash] [at 4 PM tomorrow].”
Add items to shopping list before heading to the store by saying “Ad… 閱讀全文 →

From live wallpapers to 2020 Supporter wallpapers, v45 is here to make your phone more festive.

What you need to know

Action Launcher v45 is rolling out to users now along with an ActionDash update.
Quicktheme now can pull colors from live wallpapers, but there’s a few caveats to keep in mind.
New ActionDash integrations allow you to see your usage in a widget or pause apps for the rest of the day.
Support 2020 is here with 5 new supporter wallpapers, including a darling winter scene and a trippy rainbow ride.

Christmas came early for Action Launcher users this year, as v45 rolls out today with new enhancements to ActionDash, Quicktheme, search, dual apps support, and the new Supporter badge for the new year. Action Launcher is also touting Android 10 gesture compatibility with v45, but that’s contingent upon our phone being a Pixel that got the most recent batches of “feature drops”, so if you’re on a Samsung Galaxy S10 that just got One UI 2.0, I’m sorry to say you’re still pr… 閱讀全文 →

When watching Disney Plus (Disney+) on your laptop during that long holiday layover or cross-country flight, you don’t have to hassle with the on-screen controls when a crying kid behind you covers up the punchline to your favorite Genie joke. Disney+ has keyboard controls that are available when watching through the Disney+ website or when using the Android app on a Chromebook. Memorize these controls because they’re going to make your life much easier when you’re neglecting your work to watch some Winnie the Pooh.

Disney+ keyboard shortcuts when streaming on DisneyPlus.com

If you’ve used media apps before, a lot of these will look familiar to you.

Spacebar — play/pause
Left arrow — rewind 10 seconds
Right arrow — fast forward 10 seconds
M — mute/unmute
F — Enter fullscreen mode
Esc — Exit fullscreen mode

These controls work on all supported desktop and laptop computers, including Chromebooks, but if you have a Chromebook, you have two ways … 閱讀全文 →

For the Disney nerd and the undercover Disney nerd, this yule log is a refined take of the classic holiday staple.

What you need to know

Tis the season for yule log videos, and Disney+ has a new one that’s Frozen-themed.
The Arendelle Castle Yule Log features Anna and Elsa’s hearth with mementos placed around and over the fireplace.
Some of the decor gives nods to the original Frozen film as well as Olaf’s Frozen Adventure.

We’re deep into December and I don’t know about you, but sometimes I need some Christmas cheer without hearing a 101st rendition of Deck The Halls — Seriously, eight was enough! — so a new arrival yesterday on Disney+ caught my eye immediately: Arendelle Castle Yule Log. If you’ve had your head under a rock for the last six years, Arendelle is the kingdom that Anna and Elsa rule in Frozen, and this is a tasteful take on a franchise yule log video that everyone and their grandma whips out for Christmas.

I’ve watched the first 45 minutes of this th… 閱讀全文 →

Now, where’s my pretty (Not) Pink version?

What you need to know

Pixelbook Go’s most expensive configuration is now available for immediate purchase.
The i7, 16GB/256GB configuration with the 4K screen can be bought at Amazon, Best Buy, and Google Store.
It’s only available in Just Black, as the Not Pink is still listed as Coming Soon.

The Pixelbook Go is without a doubt one of the most powerful — and beautiful, to be honest — Chromebooks of 2019, but the feature that stood out to me the most was the option of a 4K screen, which you could only get on the most expensive, most powerful configuration with the i7 processor, 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. That option wasn’t available at launch, but now nearly two months after the initial launch, it’s available now.

Best of the best

Google Pixelbook Go 4K

$1399 at Amazon
$1399 at Google Store

Watch your movies in gorgeous 4K.

This magnificent clamshell Chromebook is the perfect machine for those who like to wor… 閱讀全文 →

Power banks are wonderful tools that can help keep your lifeline from turning into a portable paperweight while you’re trying to survive just another ridiculously long day, but buying one you can trust shouldn’t cost an arm and a leg. These are some great power banks that won’t break your bank… account.

Portable powerhouse

Aukey 10,000mAh Battery Pack

Staff pick

This pack is phone-sized for charging on the go and in addition to 18W Power Delivery charging, it has a QC 3.0 port and a second USB-A port for charging a third device.

$30 at Amazon

Reliable RAVPower

RAVPower PD Pioneer 18W Power Bank

RAVPower’s bank has 18W charging, same as Aukey’s, and it’s a phone-like size that makes it easy to grab and go for charging during a night on the town.

$27 at Amazon

Pretty pocket power

Xcentz USB-C Power Bank 5000 PD

This bank is affordable, reliable, and frankly adorable with its candy-bar size and cute pastel colors. The 5,000mAh capacity can recharge your phone at leas… 閱讀全文 →

Chromebooks, for the most part, don’t come with an abundance of storage. You won’t be seeing a 2TB Chromebook anytime soon, but unless the Chromebook you buy is from Google’s Pixelbook line, that’s not a problem. Almost every Chromebook ever made has either an SD or microSD card slot that allows you to greatly expand the storage available for your downloads and data. However, your Android apps won’t be able to see or use your SD card until you grant permission for all apps to read and write to external storage.

Products used in this guide:

Really expand your storage: Samsung EVO Select 128GB ($17 at Amazon)

How to enable Android apps to use SD card storage on a Chromebook

Tap the time in the bottom corner of your screen to open the main menu.
Tap the settings gear near the top right corner of the menu.

Scroll down to the Device section to tap Storage management.

Tap **External storage preferences*.

Tap the toggle to the right of SD Card to give Android apps access to rea… 閱讀全文 →

If you want to expand your Chromebook’s storage, you can use an SD card and boom, you’ve got more space. Chrome’s security model treats storage you can remove differently than storage you can’t — and not all Android apps can use SD storage for data — but an SD card slot means extra storage space for photos, video, documents or anything else that you need to keep somewhere. Whether you need micro, full-size, or something in between, these are your best bets for dependable, affordable storage for your Chromebook.

Go micro

Samsung EVO Select microSD card

Staff pick

Most Chromebooks today ship with a microSD slot, and the microSD card we like best is the Samsung EVO Select. It’s available in 32GB to 512GB capacities. This quick little card is a dependable name-brand.

From $6 at Amazon

All the sizes

SanDisk Extreme

SanDisk offers this card in an impressive variety of sizes, all the way up to 1TB, though that card costs more than some Chromebooks! Optimized for Andr… 閱讀全文 →

It took 18 months of slow, gradual improvement, but YouTube has gotten most of its major issues worked out.

You might not know me, but if you do, you know that I refuse to leave home without headphones. Music doesn’t just soothe the savage beast; it makes me and my life better — keeping my energy up while I work, keeping my mind sharp while I drive, and keeping me sane as it blocks out the din of a thousand crying kids leaving the Magic Kingdom at closing time.

I require a lot from the apps that provide my music, and when YouTube Music first launched in 2015, it was a neat idea marred by a complete lack of features. Even when it re-launched in May of last year, things were still pretty rocky, between a lack of library management — and a host of other missing features — and a legion of small but annoying bugs. Offline music was completely unreliable, Casting was a hot mess, and songs and albums would vanish and reappear with no warning. There was promise, to be sur… 閱讀全文 →