Articles by Jerry Hildenbrand

Two-factor authentication is a great way to secure all of your online accounts but not all methods are equal.

You should be using two-factor authentication on every account that gives you the option. There is no better way to keep your account secure and no matter who you are you should want all of your accounts to be as secure as possible. It also doesn’t matter which phone you use — 2FA works with a cheap Android phone, the best Android phone, or an iPhone. You’ve heard all of this before.

All two-factor methods are not created equal though. Like every other user-facing security measure you have to trade some convenience for protection and the most secure methods of 2FA are also the least convenient. Conversely, the most convenient methods are also the least secure.

We’re going to take a look at the different ways you can use two-factor authentication and discuss the pros and cons of each.

Avoid at all costs, though it’s still better than nothing

4. SMS-based two-factor auth…

The Google Pixel 5 is the best Android phone when it comes to security. Google builds its phones to be secure from the start, and its monthly security patches guarantee you won’t be left behind on future exploits. Some of the most secure Android phones available to date are on this list to keep your mind at ease while staying safely connected.

Best overall: Google Pixel 5

The Pixel 5 is updated directly from Google with the latest version of Android. Outside of any new features that may come with it, the device security model has been updated and strengthened by a dedicated team that regularly audits and enhances the code used to build Android. On top of this, Google releases updates to the security model at the beginning of every month for the people who build Android phones to apply to its software. These are important, more dire than any other update.

Equally necessary but often overlooked is transparency. You shouldn’t have to trust a company when it says something is secu…

Stalkers have a great new way to track billions of smartphone users and never get caught — it’s called the AirTag.

Thanks to the Epic lawsuit, we know that Apple isn’t keen on including Android users when it comes to its own apps and services. Ecosystem lock-in is a real thing for all tech companies, and usually, it’s just a matter of inconvenience when no cross-platform solution exists. With the AirTag though, it’s more. A lot more.

A network of more than a billion users means you’ll bump into a few of them.

This is because of the AirTag’s biggest feature: it uses the global network of iOS devices to track an AirTag’s location, but only iOS devices. This has lead to a real problem that Wired addressed recently: stalkers can use them to track precise movements better than ever before.

AirTags aren’t the first or the only device of its kind to use a wide network of clients to track location, and many of the best Bluetooth trackers use a form of it. Tile does it, for example,…

This new media browser is only here because tablets saw a resurgence during lockdowns and Google can make a few dollars from that.

A new feature is coming to some Android tablets called Entertainment Space. It looks a lot like the Chromecast with Google TV interface and debuts on Walmart-branded tablets followed by select models from Lenovo and Sharp, though there’s no indication that this will be a required thing for manufacturers to incorporate. Your Galaxy Tab S or any of the other best Android tablets may or may not see this feature.

This new attention to tablets might be good news for any of us that are tablet fans, but I think it’s important to look at the reason it happened. Google still doesn’t care about Android tablets, but it does like quick solutions to capitalize on a once-in-a-lifetime sales jump.

2020 kind of sucked. Most of us were stuck at home for at least a short period, and once all the cracks in the walls were counted, we needed something to help pass the time…

The Raspberry Pi is an absolutely incredible little computing machine. Powered by Linux, if there’s an idea that you can think of, chances are, you’ll be able to use a Raspberry Pi to get it done. But there will be times when you need to find the best Raspberry Pi cases, especially if you don’t want to use the ones included with the best Raspberry Pi kits. We’ve rounded up some of our favorites, but really, there are so many great options at your disposal.

Best Raspberry Pi 4 Cases

The Raspberry Pi 4 is the newest standalone board to be released, making it the obvious first choice for everyone. But once you’ve acquired the board, you might want to start looking at some different cases, and thankfully, there are plenty of options to choose from. Ranging from just having a basic case or using one that provides the ability to add an NVME M.2 SSD to your Pi, there’s something here for everyone.

Best for Pi 4

Flirc Raspberry Pi 4 Case

Staff Pick

If you’re not looking for a bunch o…

The first “powerful” Raspberry Pi is still alive and kicking and might be what you’re looking for.

The Raspberry Pi 3B (and the 3B+) was introduced way back in 2016, and for its time, it was one of the most compelling project boards available. That’s because it turns out that it was a lot more than a project board, and many a game console, home entertainment system, smart home controller, and even a few robots used the inexpensive PC board. It seemed to be able to do anything.

Nothing’s changed in 2021, except our expectations. The Pi 3B is just as powerful as it ever was, and it’s still available for anyone looking for a cheap way to get started with any DIY project. OK, so one thing changed — we now have a much more capable Raspberry Pi in version 4.

You still might find a Raspberry Pi 3B is what you need, though, so we’re taking a look at it today to see how it stacks up.

Raspberry Pi 3 review:

Price and availability
What’s good
What’s not good
The competition
Should yo…

FLoC is a decent solution to the tracking cookies mess, but with Google behind it, competitors and other businesses are leery.

FLoC (Federated Learning of Cohorts) is Google’s answer to “fixing” online advertising. It’s not a bad solution at all if you look into the tech. Instead of tracking you using cookies (something almost every advertiser does now), it uses your machine and an algorithm built into Chrome to place you into anonymous groups that will receive targeted ads.

The idea, which is still in the works but is available as a Chrome Dev demo, has already done a lot of good, just not how Google has hoped. When a behemoth the size of Chrome — which holds about 60% of the web browser market — makes a change like this, it opens a lot of eyes to just how bad third-party tracking cookies are.

Google’s plans for FLoC aren’t going as well as it hoped.

We’ve seen companies like Apple and Mozilla try to tackle third-party cookies, but without the mindshare that Chrome holds…

Had iMessage come to Android in 2013, Google would have less competition in the U.S., but the biggest loser would have been Facebook.

In 2013, Apple’s senior VP of software and services Eddy Cue wanted to bring the iMessage service to Android, but the idea was nixed by other Apple executives, including Apple’s SVO of software engineering Craig Federighi. Ever since, there have been a lot of people who wish it could have happened.

Of course, this would have had an impact. Many people think iMessage is the best messaging app available, and with the iPhone holding a large portion of the market in the U.S. and the U.K., sales numbers might look a little different. But neither Google nor Apple is the winner here. Instead, both lost the battle to Facebook because Apple didn’t make iMessage cross-platform.

Apple’s future would have changed

There are people who won’t use any messaging app except iMessage. In fact, those people sometimes refuse to talk to someone who isn’t sending a blu…

Android 12 on my Pixel just isn’t my style, but manufacturers like Samsung can fix everything.

It’s opinion time, and one that people might not agree with — I hate how Android 12 looks on my Pixel phone. The giant menu list items, the chonky controls, the animations, all of it. It’s definitely the Google Pixel look and style, but everything seems very out of place to me. I think it all ruins the bright (yeah, I am not a dark mode kind of guy) and minimalistic feel to Android that Google gives us on its Pixel phones.

I know Android 12 isn’t nearly finished and by the time it comes out of testing and beta phases it could change, but I doubt it will. And I’m not throwing shade at the Pixel experience team here. It’s their product and they get to do whatever they like with it, but this time it just happens to be, well, goofy. At least I think it’s goofy, YMMV.

If you don’t feel what I’m saying here, that’s cool. Different strokes and all that apply. If you have no idea what I’m talk…

With laptop-grade software and mobile-grade hardware, tablets seem to have evolved in the wrong direction.

There are a lot of people who really love to use a tablet. You might not be one of them — I’ll admit I’m not really a tablet guy — or you may turn to your tablet first when it comes to work or play and always want to have one of the best Android tablets you can buy on hand. Tablets have traditionally had a pretty clear purpose; filling the void between using the small and less powerful phone and the bulkier and more powerful laptop. But today, those lines are blurred more than ever before.

Putting a laptop chip in a mobile device doesn’t make things better by default.

All it takes is one look at Apple’s Spring Loaded event, which featured the big changes to the iPad Pro to see this in action. While these issues affect every premium tablet to some extent, the new iPad Pro is a clear example of the hardware being hamstrung by the software capabilities — or lack thereo…