Articles by Jerry Hildenbrand

When you get a new Raspberry Pi 4, you’re going to want to make sure you get one of the best Raspberry Pi 4 cases. This will help keep debris out and away from the keyboard as well as provide protection against static shock. Even if you have a case with one of the best Raspberry Pi 4 kits, there’s nothing wrong with grabbing something else that fits your needs.

Package deal

Miuzei Raspberry Pi 4 Case

Staff Pick

A wonderful acrylic enclosure, a cooling fan, heat sinks, and a 3A power supply make this case deal a steal. You’ll have access to all the ports and pins so this one works with any project, too. If you’re not sure what to buy, buy this.

$16 at Amazon

Supercooling

Vilros Raspberry Pi 4 Clear Case

This acrylic case from Vilros is easy to assemble, has a mount for a camera, and cut out channels underneath for maximum airflow. These case channels, combined with the pre-installed fan, will keep your Pi nice and cool no matter what you’re trying to do with it.

$7 …

When it comes to looking for an alternative laptop to Windows or macOS, you’re going to want one of the best Linux laptops. There may not be as many options running the Linux operating system as the competition since most big-name computer manufacturers aren’t making Linux laptops. There are stillk few that come from those bigger companies, who also make some of the best laptops and best Chromebooks, but there are some great options from smaller players who have great reputations when it comes to standing behind their products.

Pure Power

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 8

Staff Pick

Lenovo is targeting the enterprise power user who wants Linux with this powerhouse. The Windows version is already one of the best laptops overall, so why not get the best but with Linux? With a 10th-gen Intel Core i5, up to 16GB of RAM, up to a 1TB SSD, and Fedora 32, this is a developer’s dream machine. The 1080p display is its only drawback.

From $2,220 at Lenovo

A budget option

Lenovo Chr…

Does your phone support wireless charging?

Wireless charging has been around for a few years now, but sadly it hasn’t become as widely adopted as we’d like. That’s changing and the various groups that build wireless charging standards are working together, and even Apple finally embraced the technology starting with the iPhone 8 and iPhone X.

Many of the best Android phones likely already embrace wireless charging, and if that’s something you’re looking for in your next phone, here’s a list of those lucky devices. Then, once you’ve found the phone to upgrade to, make sure you get the best wireless charging pads to pair with it.

Jump to:

Google
Huawei
LG
Nokia
OnePlus
Samsung
Sony
Ulefone
Xiaomi
ZTE
The Rest

Google

Pixel 5
Pixel 4 / 4 XL
Pixel 3 / 3 XL

Huawei

Mate 40 / Mate 40 Pro / Mate 40 Pro+
P40 / P40 Pro / P40 Pro+
P30 / P30 Pro
P20 Pro
Mate 20 / Mate 20 Pro / Mate 20 RS Porsche Design
Mate 30 / Mate 30 Pro / Mate 30 RS
Honor 30 Pro / Pro+
Honor V30 Pro

LG…

There’s little evidence Samsung was making money by being an ad platform, and the consumer response for ditching them will be worth it.

If you live in the western part of the world and have a Samsung phone running One UI, you know about those pesky ads Samsung likes to drop in its first-party apps. You also probably know that they are going away soon because the company decided to stop doing it. This is great news for everyone, including Samsung.

No, I’m not crazy. Nor am I saying that Samsung should make decisions that cut its profits. I am saying that it seems like the whole mess wasn’t worth it, and Samsung comes out on top for getting rid of them.

First, the part that a lot of folks will disagree with: these ads weren’t really that big of a deal. You saw ads in the Samsung Weather app, Samsung Pay, the Samsung Phone app, and a few other places. Sometimes these apps are for Samsung services or apps built exclusively for Samsung by third parties, but sometimes they were ads fo…

If Samsung can’t fix Wear OS’ sales numbers, nothing can.

We finally got to see everything we wanted to see about the Galaxy Watch 4, and there is plenty of good stuff there if you want an Android wearable. Whatever concessions Google and Samsung had to make to create this partnership seem to have been worth it based on the level of interest in the watches and their reasonable prices. Even I’m thinking about getting one, and I lost all interest in Wear OS a long time ago.

For consumers like you and I, this means we have the chance to buy what looks like a good product for a reasonable price. That’s important because I’m more concerned about how the consumer benefits than I am about how much money a billion-dollar company makes. But for the Wear OS platform, this is important in a much larger way — if Wear OS 3 powered by Samsung can’t drive adoption — nothing can.

Yeah, I know other companies will inevitably make new watches. Google has Fitbit now and those things matter, to…

It’s what’s inside that counts. But you might not like what’s in there.

Most people aren’t looking to buy the best rugged Android phone when they are shopping because they really don’t need one. They tend to be bulky, they usually don’t look very good, they often don’t fit into pockets or phone holders, and taken together these factors are a bit more than anyone is willing to sacrifice. Thankfully, companies like Bullitt and Nokia make them for those who do need them.

For some of us, a rugged phone is a must. Your shiny, thin, glass-backed premium phone wouldn’t be able to take the abuse of day-to-day life on a construction site or on the hip of a first responder. There is a market for rugged phones, but since Samsung seems to have ditched the idea, it’s filled with phones that don’t scream “flagship.” Thankfully, they also aren’t priced the same way something like a Galaxy S21 is — some rugged phones from Chinese brands come in under $200. But it turns out there is a reason som…

So you’ve already picked up the best Raspberry Pi kit, but you want to be able to actually see things, so you’ll need to find the best Raspberry Pi screen. Then, of course, you’ll need to find a display to use, regardless of whether you grabbed the Raspberry Pi 4 or even the Raspberry Pi 400. So we’ve rounded up the best options to give your mini computer a display worth using.

Super low power

GeeekPi 7 Inch 1024×600 Capacitive Touch Screen HDMI Monitor

Staff Pick

This 7-inch capacitive display has a 1024×600 resolution and connects via HDMI. It also only requires 500mAh of power for its backlight. There are two additional USB ports for you to take advantage of and expand and extend. Plus, you won’t have to worry about meddling around with any display drivers and can just plug and play this GeeekPi monitor with your Raspberry Pi.

$70 at Amazon

Ultimate flexibility

ASUS VP28UQG 28″ Monitor 4K/UHD

Flexibility is the name of the game with a Raspberry Pi, so you’ll want…

Only Google could describe a mathematical construct into the name of a phone chip and get away with it.

We now know that the Pixel 6 is real, and it will have Google’s own SoC named “Tensor” onboard powering all the things that make a phone more Pixel-ish. The first part is pretty cool — the Pixel 6 certainly looks like that flagship Pixel phone that so many people are intrigued by, and yeah, I want one, too. But the part about it having Google’s own chip onboard is an even bigger deal.

The Pixel 6 could be a flop, or it could turn out to be one of the best Android phones available. We won’t know much about that until we can get our hands on one. But the Tensor chip has a lot more riding on it because Google has such high hopes for it. If successful at doing all the things a smartphone demands, Tensor will be a huge success that very few companies can imitate.

But enough about the Pixel 6. Let’s talk about the Tensor name because it’s about the most Google-y name for phone hardw…

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 still 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.

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 the best Android phones for at le…

The Pixel is now officially powered by Google.

Google let the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro out of the bag, and one piece of news could turn out to be incredibly important for the company — both phones will be powered by Google’s own in-house SoC called Google Tensor. It could be the puzzle piece that makes the Pixel 6 one of the best Android phones.

Google states that “Tensor was built for how people use their phones today and how people will use them in the future,” but it’s not giving us many details until the Pixel 6 is closer to launch later this fall. That means we don’t know a lot about the new chip, but some clues about it tell us why it was designed and how it might turn out on the spec sheet.

Google Tensor:

Google Tensor: What we know
Google Tensor: What we don’t know
Google Tensor: When is it coming?

Google Tensor: What we know

Right now, it sounds like Google decided to build its own smartphone chip because it wants this generation of Pixel to be even better at…