Articles by Jerry Hildenbrand

Features are great but having a way to use them without typing cryptic commands is even better.

Android is, always has been, and always will be jam-packed with software features. Even the most bare-bones software as seen on something like the Pixel phone will have features that you never knew you needed until you did need them. And it will also have features you didn’t even know existed because they are hidden without any sort of user interface to actually use them.

Thankfully, Android 11 brings two of these very useful features to the light with a proper — and easy — way to use them: screen recording and wireless ADB (Android Debug Bridge, a way to communicate with a computer).

Here’s everything new and changed in Android 11 Developer Preview 3

You’ve probably seen something on the internet about these “new” features, but what most people don’t know or remember is that neither is new at all. That’s a failure on Google’s part; when something users or developers (or both) want…

Your phone needs RAM to operate, but why? And how much?

You can buy a Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra with 16 GB of RAM. That’s almost as much as many gaming PCs, and about 8 GB more than most phones. It has a lot of folks scratching their heads and asking why in the world does it need 16GB of RAM, and does that mean my phone with 4GB needs more?

This wouldn’t be the first time we’ve seen phones come with oodles of RAM. Vivo and OnePlus offer phones with plenty under the hood, and seeing 6 or more GB inside is becoming fairly common. Let’s talk about what RAM is, how your phone uses RAM, and why a phone would have so much more of it than what’s “necessary”.

The Galaxy S20 Ultra can have up to 16GB of RAM — but why?

What is RAM

RAM (Random Access Memory) is short-term digital storage. Computers (and yes, your phone is a computer) use RAM mostly to hold data that active applications — along with the CPU and operating system’s kernel — are using because RAM is very fast when it come…

If you have an account with a VPN provider, you can use it on your Chromebook, too! While most VPN companies have something you can download for Windows or Mac that’s a one-click-install set up, you’ll need to enter the information manually on your Chromebook. It’s not difficult; you don’t need to know any network jargon or define any extra parameters, and any VPN setup to work with OpenVPN is compatible.

Products used in this guide

Best all-around: ExpressVPN (See latest pricing at ExpressVPN)
Keep safe from prying eyes: NordVPN (See latest pricing at NordVPN)
Protect passwords and browing: Dashlane (From $5/month at Dashlane)
Bear-y safe: TunnelBear (Try TunnelBear for free today)

Before you start…

If you haven’t already, you should check to see if your VPN company has an app in the Chrome Web Store. There are many VPN providers that do, including the ones we mentioned above, and you can install their apps like you would any other app or extension.

If your VPN company does…

Google already designs microprocessors and has hired some of the industry’s finest to take the extra step.

Rumors of Google designing and manufacturing its own chips for Pixel phones are nothing new. But the latest comes at a time when it makes a lot more sense for it to be done; Google needs its own chips if it wants to carry on making products for everyone, and making them the way it wants them to be built.

This isn’t complete conjecture, either. Google already designs the processors used in many of its server products and machine learning data centers. It also has designed a complete ARM processor for the Pixel phones that started as the Pixel Visual Core for camera features and has since moved into machine learning as the Pixel Neural Core. The company has poached some of the best in the industry from Qualcomm, Intel, and Nvidia to work in its new Bengaluru, India microprocessor design lab. That’s not an accident.

If you build the chip writing the code gets easier.

Goog…

The Unknown Sources setting isn’t the mystery — or the demon — it’s made out to be if you know a little bit about it.

To install apps that you downloaded from somewhere besides the “official” app store from Google or the company that made your phone, you need to allow installation from “unknown sources”. There has always been a bit of confusion about what exactly this is and how things work. We’re going to remedy that and talk through everything you need to know about unknown sources. Don’t worry, it’s gonna be fine.

What are ‘Unknown Sources’?

No, not people who leak government stuff to the press. The Android kind of unknown sources. It’s a scary label for a simple thing: a source for apps you want to install that is not trusted by Google or the company that made your phone.

Unknown = not vetted directly by Google.

When we see the word “trusted” used this way, it means a little more than it usually would. In this case, trust means the same as it does for a web certifica…

If you want your pictures to have that Instagram filter look, then you’ll love the color filter lens on the OnePlus 8 Pro.

A lot of people like to add a photo filter effect to some of the pictures they take with their phones. Whether you want a softened look or a sepia wash, there is a multitude of apps that will add the effect, and chances are your camera and gallery app will do it, too.

OnePlus is doing things a bit differently here. With the OnePlus 8 Pro, there is a dedicated color filter camera system that applies filters the old fashioned way. Using a coated covering over the lens along with some post-processing, the hope is that your work of art will look a lot better than simple filtering software that adds a layer to an already processed and compressed image.

Become a better mobile photographer with the Smartphone Photography eCourse, powered by Android Central

It’s not just a marketing term, either; there is a separate 5MP camera sensor and lens that is coated — and i…

Wireless charging that’s almost as fast as wired is now a real thing, thanks to OnePlus’ Warp Charge Wireless tech.

Everyone wants their phone’s battery to last all day and half of the night. When that can’t be done, the next best thing is fast charging where you can go from almost dead to 50% in less than 30 minutes. The only thing that could make this better is if you could use a wireless charger and just plop your phone down instead of looking for that darn charging cable.

Thanks to OnePlus’ new Warp Charge Wireless that will debut with the OnePlus 8 Pro, now you can.

I know this all sounds too good to be true but OnePlus’s Evan Z. took a few moments to give the crash course about how it works, and it’s really cool. Especially if you’re the type of person who finds new ways to use old ideas interesting like I am. Here’s what Evan had to say about the new charging method at the OnePlus forums:

The highly effective charge pump ensures a charge efficiency of 97% and minimizes …

Tablet keyboards suck, and a fresh way might be the right way.

Happy Saturday-ing at home, peeps! Today we’re going to talk about tablets!

It seems like most people on the Android side of tech aren’t really into tablets, not even the ones who run things at Google. I fall into that category, but a big reason why is that they really aren’t that great when you try to get any work done with one. You need an external keyboard (and maybe even a mouse) to type more than a few words and tablet keyboards have a long history of being giant pieces of crap that you only used because there was no better alternative.

I get it. A tablet is designed to be light and portable and if you attach a substantial keyboard to one like ASUS did with the old Transformer series you end up with a laptop, so you might as well be using a Chromebook or a MacBook Air. Samsung must know this because it tried to address the situation with the Galaxy Tab S6’s first-party keyboard that was stiff and sturdy in some of…