Articles by Jeramy Johnson

The existing form factor carries the day — for now.

What you need to know

Over the weekend, we polled AC readers to see if the Galaxy Z Fold 3 or Z Flip 3 announcement (re)ignited their interest in foldables.
The majority of respondents said they would stick with more traditional form factors.
Even though more people said they weren’t interested in foldables than those who were curious about one or the other device, the answers were actually quite close.

The big buzz over the past week has been about the newest upgrades to Samsung’s smartphone lineup — specifically, the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3. Reviews of both devices are still forthcoming, but the tech world is already fawning over the upgrades, iterations, and enhancements that make each the class of the premium Android phone space.

Nearly 39% of poll respondents said they’d prefer to stay with more conventional form factors (even like the Galaxy Note series). However, when you combine the responses of those w…

While I love my Android devices and the Google ecosystem, I also have my feet firmly planted in the Apple world as well. I spend about half of my time working on an iMac, I have an iPhone in addition to my Android phones, and many of my family and friends are on Apple devices as well. I suspect that many of you are in the same boat. So if you have iCloud calendars that you want to access from Google Calendar, what are you to do? It’s actually pretty easy to move that data over. I’ll show you how to add an iCloud calendar over to your Google Calendar.

How to add an iCloud calendar to your Google Calendar on Android

Open calendar.google.com in your web browser.

In a separate tab, open **icloud.com**.
Sign into each account and validate your identity as necessary.
From icloud.com, click on your iCloud calendar.

Find the calendar you want to copy, and click on the curved lines (that look like the Wi-Fi symbol) to the right of the calendar name.
Click on the checkbox for Public Cal…

They say the third time’s the charm, and while that colloquialism isn’t always accurate, it certainly rings true with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3. It is by far and away at the head of the class when it comes to foldables, and it got upgraded in all the right spots over its predecessors, including its screen, water-resistance, and S Pen compatibility. So if you can afford one, the question isn’t if you should get one. Instead, it’s what color Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 should you buy? Although there are only three variants of the new folding phone, we’ll help you choose which color Galaxy Z Fold 3 you should buy.

Green with envy

Galaxy Z Fold 3 — Phantom Green

Staff Pick

It’s difficult to pick a favorite among these foldy phones because they all look so good, but our eyes were immediately drawn to the new coolness of the Phantom Green variant. This phone delivers a pop of unexpected color but in a tone that isn’t offensive and won’t clash with your outfit or accessories. Pair …

Google is hoping this update will help Nest Hub owners to breathe a little more easily.

What you need to know

Google is adding an Air Quality Index (AQI) badge to the weather widget on Nest Hub devices for users in select U.S. markets.
This update is an attempt by Google to provide more useful health and safety information in light of this summer’s perilous wildfire season.
According to the company, the AQI badge will be rolling out to Nest displays over the coming weeks.

This week, Google announced that it is adding a new feature to the weather widget on its Nest Hub displays called the AQI, or Air Quality Index.

The new AQI badge on the weather widget will provide users with helpful information about the air quality in their location at a glance, with a numeric ranking system from 0-500 and a color-coding system from green to maroon indicating the severity of the air quality.

As you might suspect, smaller numbers and lighter colors signify better air quality conditions, wher…

Before I begin this how-to, I want to start by saying that Amber and emergency alerts play a vital role in spreading public safety and security announcements, and these are essential communications. Acting quickly on locating injured or missing children or elderly is also vital. That being said, I am human, and I can acknowledge that there have been occasions where I really couldn’t be interrupted (especially by a blaring horn sound), or I was already aware of the safety issue in question. Here’s how to disable or silence Amber and emergency alerts on your Samsung Galaxy phone for those times when you need just a bit of respite from those blaring klaxons.

How to disable Amber and emergency alerts on your Galaxy from Settings

Open the Settings app.
Tap on Notifications.
Tap on Advanced settings.

Tap on Wireless emergency alerts.
Tap the Allow alerts toggle.
Toggle on/off specific types of alerts below.

You can also get to these settings from the Samsung Messages app.

Open t…

Whether you’re socially distancing or if working from home is the norm for you, a video conferencing tool like Google Meet can be a lifesaver for staying connected and productive. However, sometimes you need a bit more firepower than your smiling face, particularly when you want to show your colleagues what you’re talking about. So we’ll show you the simple steps to share your screen during your next Google Meet session.

How to share your screen on a Google Meet call in a browser

From an active Google Meet call, click on the Present Screen icon at the bottom center of the screen (looks like a box with an upward-facing arrow).

Choose whether you want to share your entire screen, a specific window, or a specific Chrome tab.

When you’re done sharing your screen, click the blue button at the top left of the screen that says Stop.

From there, you’ll need to click back to the active Google Meet tab to see the rest of your team.

Sharing your screen from a computer like one of the…

Six in one, a half-dozen in the other. Well, almost.

We all saw this coming.

There have been rumors about and renders of the Google Pixel 6 for over half a year now, and it turns out that many of those leaks were spot-on, at least regarding the device’s design. Heck, even Google’s custom SOC — one of the worst kept secrets in tech — is finally coming to fruition.

Back in February, one of my colleagues wrote about what he wanted to see in an upcoming Pixel 6, and based on what we’ve learned thus far, it looks like he’s going to be pretty happy. There’s a lot to like about the upcoming Pixel 6 and 6 Pro, from a better screen to improved cameras to an arguably more interesting design.

It seems obvious to me that both versions of the Pixel 6 are going to rank high on just about any roundup of the best Android phones. So, until we receive more information on the devices, here’s my initial scorecard or checklist of the top five things I love and the top five things I don’t love abo…

Have you ever been so engrossed in a text conversation or Candy Crush marathon on some of the best Android Phones that you forgot to look up from the screen and ran into a wall or almost stepped into traffic? Really? Okay, I’m silently judging you right now. Apparently, you’re not alone. Thankfully, Google has added a feature to Android that will remind users to look up when using their phones while walking (but honestly, please stop doing this, it looks ridiculous). While it may be a sad reflection on the state of consumer technology and society in general that Google felt the need to add this “Digital Wellbeing” feature, you should probably know where it lives in your phone’s settings. So with that in mind, here is how to use Heads Up on your Android phone.

How to enable Google’s Heads Up feature on your Android phone

The first thing you’ll need to do is download and install (or update) the Google Digital Wellbeing app from the Google Play Store. Once downloaded, you can find it …

Google continues to add useful, user-friendly features to its popular Chrome browser. One is the ability to quickly and easily check what privacy permissions you’ve granted to the various websites you visit, whether on mobile or desktop. Released with the Chrome 92 update, this feature allows you just to tap or hit a few quick toggles from the URL bar rather than diving into the Chrome flags or settings. We’ll show you how easy it is to control these privacy permissions per website when you’re in Google Chrome.

How to control website permissions in Google Chrome

You can access these Chrome privacy settings per site on mobile or desktop in much the same way. We’ll first show you how to do so on mobile. Once updated to Chrome 92 (or above), this setting will work whether you’re using an older device or one of the best Android phones.

On mobile

This will work ok both Android and iOS.

Tap on the lock icon to the left of the web address in the URL bar.
Tap on Permissions.
Toggle loc…

Have your Android cake and eat it, too.

I think many of us would agree that protecting our data and personal privacy is important, especially in this ever-connected world that we share. However, as much value as our favorite smartphones, apps, and services bring to us each day, it’s clear that we — in the form of our data — are even more valuable to companies that create those experiences for us to enjoy.

To a point, this tradeoff of data for services can work for both those companies and us as consumers, but many people are beginning to feel like they’re giving away way too much of themselves to make it a fair transaction. Sure, there are ways to mitigate privacy and security concerns by using one of the best VPN services or by purchasing one of the most secure Android phones. Still, those steps aren’t always enough to keep our data from being gobbled up by Google and other companies. Because of this, a small but growing movement of privacy-focused operating systems and device…