Articles by Jerry Hildenbrand

Fixing the latest bugs and exploits in Android every month.

Google has detailed the latest Android Security Bulletin and released the fixes for Pixel devices.

These are exploits and other security concerns that affect Android as a whole. Issues with the operating system, kernel patches, and driver updates may not affect any particular device, but these need to be fixed in the Android base by the folks maintaining the operating system code. That means Google, and they’ve detailed the things they have improved for this month.

Updated factory images for Pixel devices that are supported are available, and over-the-air updates are rolling out to users. If you don’t want to wait, you can download and flash the factory image or OTA update file manually, and here are some handy instructions to get you started.

How to manually update your Pixel

The company that made your phone uses these patches to send an update out to you.

These changes have been released to the people making Andr…

Best answer: We don’t see new Chromeboxes as often as we do Chromebooks, with new models likely to release later this year. Still, Chromeboxes available right now make for an awesome desktop experience.

Something for everyone: ASUS Chromebox 3 (From $285 at Amazon)
Powerful and complete: Acer Chromebox CX13 (From $448 at Amazon)

Chromeboxes are safe, secure, and easy desktops

Unlike a laptop, a Chromebox is always plugged in and has a fan to keep things a little cooler. That means they can run a little hotter and a little harder than the same components would inside a laptop. It also means that today’s Chromeboxes are going to handle whatever Chrome can throw at it — including Android apps and Linux apps — just fine for the foreseeable future.

But what about tomorrow’s Chromeboxes? Manufacturers are releasing new Chromeboxes for 2021, but there’s no need to wait for the next-gen unless you’re looking at the very low end or high end when it comes to a specific model.

As som…

Dash cameras are a great tool to have in every car. They sit there, out of the way, silently taking video while you drive in case something happens that you want to capture. Maybe you get into a fender bender, or maybe you see a really cool car on the road. If you have a dash camera, you can save those videos to view anytime.

Keep another eye out

Aukey Mini Dash Cam | 20% off at Amazon

$34 at Amazon

If you just want a good basic dash camera without all the expensive bells and whistles, this Aukey dash cam is for you. Installation is easy, it takes clear 1080p video, and just works while your car is running.

You’ll find a lot of dash cameras out there that can do a lot of different things. This is not one of those dash cameras.

The Aukey Mini Dash Cam doesn’t have GPS and runs from a USB cable connected to a cigarette lighter plug adapter. When you turn on the key, the camera starts rolling, taking 10-minute video clips until the SD card is full. then it erases the old clips…

Are you tired of yelling towards the living room to tell Alexa to turn on your lights, or any of the other cool things Alexa can do for you? If so, you’re going to love this Cyber Monday deal on the Echo Flex, a tiny Alexa that plugs into any outlet and can put your personal assistant in any room.

Alexa Anywhere

Echo Flex | 60% off at Amazon

$10 at Amazon

The Echo Flex is the smallest Amazon Echo device that you simply plug into a wall socket like a phone charger. You get the very same Alexa voice assistant the more expensive models offer at a fraction of the price. They’re perfect for the garage, the laundry room, your mudroom, or anywhere else you can think of.

Smart assistants are pretty awesome, especially if you’ve added other connected gear like smart lights or smart cameras to your house. Amazon makes some of the best of them with its Echo brand, and you’ll find them in millions of homes across the globe.

Another hallmark of the Echo brand is how good the speakers so…

The Raspberry Pi comes with its own SD card slot, but for the thing to actually work you need to keep the card holding the operating system in place. That means you need another solution in order to copy files to and from your tiny computer.

Thankfully, the Pi also comes with a couple of USB 3.0 ports so a card reader is an easy-peasy solution. And this card reader from Anker is a great one, especially now that it’s on sale ahead of Cyber Monday.

Fast and Easy

Anker 2-in-1 USB Card Reader | 23% off at Amazon

$10 at Amazon

This USB 3.0 card reader from Anker has a slot for microSD cards and full-size SD cards, accepts cards of any capacity, and works without any sort of driver software. It’s a great way to copy files or even add extra storage using those SD cards you already have.

I love the little Raspberry Pi and I think it makes for a great small personal computer. And believe it or not, there is some great Linux software for photo editing that’s free and easy to install….

Cyber Monday is a great time to buy big-ticket items like a 4K television or a Chromebook, but there are also plenty of small things that just make life easier. This is one of those small things.

It’s not hard for most people to hold their phones while watching a movie or reading Facebook. Not hard at all. But you can make it even easier with a phone stand, and this gooseneck phone holder from BILLKAQ is a tested winner.

A third arm

BILLKAQ Gooseneck Cell Phone Holder | 20% off at Amazon

$10 at Amazon

This flexible arm exists only to do one thing: Make keeping your phone in front of your eyes easier. It clamps to just about anything and the flexible steel insert inside its arm bends in a gazillion ways to position your phone just where you need it.

I always have a hard time going to sleep. I could take pills or something, but what I do to take me down is watch movies in bed until my eyes find a way to stay shut until morning. I eventually got tired of my phone flopping over…

Keep your monitor(s) at eye level and your body will thank you for it.

We’re a diverse group here at Android Central, but we all have one thing in common that’s a big part of our lives: we work from home, putting in long days in front of a computer screen. We’re always trying new things to be more productive and make work easier, but one very simple thing can have a huge impact on both your productivity and your health — putting your monitors up off of your desk.

Monitor arms have a lot of benefits to anyone who works at a desk as well as people who spend a lot of time doing anything at a computer. Things like gaming or just surfing the web are all better when you’re more organized and not craning your neck to see what’s on your screen. With Black Friday being the best time to buy a computer monitor, it’s also the best time to get a mounting arm to put it in the right place!

The biggest benefit of using a monitor arm is the ability to change the height, depth, and angle of your …

Take your gaming (and working) experience to the next level with this amazing high-refresh 49-inch monitor from Samsung. It’s curved so you can see both edges of this beast and gives you all the screen real estate you could ever want from a single display.

Take command of your battlestation

Samsung 49-inch Odyssey G9 Gaming Monitor

This incredible monitor measures in at 49-inches, which makes it Samsung’s largest 1000R curved monitor. It’s Double QHD resolution means you can use it as dual QHD displays or as a single giant 5120 x 1440 monitor and the high refresh rate means you can say goodbye to choppy gameplay or stuttering spreadsheets. It’s a beauty!

$1,190 at Amazon

There’s no better way to game or work than on a giant slice of screen. You can see more of what you need to see without any scrolling and when you go really big you’ll never have to worry about losing track of the actual content because of controls or other bits of window dressing.

It used to be that you wo…

The right time for cross-platform unified messaging was five years ago, not in late 2020.

The long battle over messaging is finally over now that Google has incorporated RCS across the entire globe and is pushing out encryption features as I type. Not really; the battle for universal messaging was over long ago and Google just now got to the playing field.

Here’s what’s happening in case you didn’t catch it: Google has finished making RCS chat features available in its Messages app in every country that it can be made available (it’s never coming to a few countries like China or Russia) and it’s slowly pushing out end-to-end encryption for users who opt-in for Google’s Chat features.

That means Android users can enjoy rich messaging as long as they use the Messages app and the other party is also using the Messages app. In theory. The fine print reads that it works through Google’s Jibe service unless your carrier supports the RCS Universal profile. Since RCS is a giant jumbo-size…

App store fees are a necessity, but no company should get a 30% cut from everyone. Your move, Google.

Apple has been under fire recently because it charges every developer who uses the App Store 30% on every penny they make through it. The only exceptions were subscriptions — which see a drop to 15% commission after a full year — and companies like Amazon, who Apple was willing to cut a special deal in order to get them on board.

To combat an inevitable ruling by courts looking into this anti-competitive behavior and garner some much-needed praise from the mostly unaffected buying public, Apple cut that 30% fee in half for more than 95% of App Store developers. Companies that make less than $1 million in yearly App Store sales now only have to pay a 15% commission. As expected, some of those companies still aren’t very happy.

This is great news. I happen to think that 15% across the board is still too much, but seeing a concession like this from Apple is a dandy way to start t…