Hacking your Chromebook is fun and easier than you think

It’s easy to make your Chromebook more than the sum of its parts.

A Chromebook can be a great purchase even if you never step outside of Google’s trusted environment. They are some of the best web machines ever built, require almost no software maintenance, and come in a myriad of different styles and price points. We love the things, and the numbers say we’re not alone.

But like anything electronic, sometimes it’s fun to push the envelope and do things a little outside of the intended use. Sometimes that means hidden features in the software, sometimes it means altering the software, and sometimes it means replacing the software entirely. We’re familiar with people doing just that with Android, but it’s also pretty easy to do with your Chromebook. The best part is that it’s also very easy to go back.

Let’s have a look at what you need to get started, and where to begin.

Create a recovery image

Before you start doing anything it’s always a good idea to have a path back to a time when everything worked. Luckily, that’s fairly easy when we’re talking about a Chromebook.

Google has an official tool that will install the factory-issued software to your Chrome device on a 4GB or larger USB stick or SD card. You can then use this media to restore your Chromebook just like it was fresh out of the box.

Google has full instructions on using their tool here but here’s the process in a nutshell:

Insert the media you’ll be using as a recovery disk into a Windows, OS X or Linux computer that you have admin rights on. Install the correct version of the recovery tool for your platform via the links at Google’s site. Run the recovery tool and tell it which Chrome device you’re building a restore image for. When you’re finished, use the media you created to restore your Chromebook from recovery mode. Full instructions for the various models are right here.

Reboot and enjoy your factory-fresh software!

Change to the beta or dev channel

This is really simple and something I recommend. By default, your Chromebook runs on the stable release channel for your model. This means everything has been tested, things run pretty smoothly, and there usually aren’t any critical bugs to trip you up.

That’s absolutely no fun.

The good news is that we all can be testers by switching the software channel in the settings. Click the Chrome OS wrench icon in the lower right and open the settings. Choose About Chrome OS > More Info. Click the Change Channel button and choose between Stable, Beta and Dev – Unstable channels in the popover window that appears.

Both the beta and the dev channel give you access to upcoming (both default and experimental settings — see below) features that aren’t in the stable channel just yet. I’ve always found the beta channel to work pretty well, but expect issues and glitches on the dev channel along with the latest features.

If you just want everything to work, switching back to the stable channel is just as easy — choose it from the same list!

Tweaking the settings

Chrome — both the operating system and the stand alone browser for Windows Mac and Linux — has an entire page filled with “experimental” settings. Some will absolutely break things, others might improve your experience. Find them is simple.

Fire up the browser and enter chrome://flags into the Omnibox (a fancy name for the URL bar in Chrome) then hit enter.

You’ll be faced with a huge list of features that you can enable or disable at will. All of them are experimental, some are serious security holes, others are potential oh-crap-I-need-to-reload-EVERYTHING bringers of doom. We don’t recommend you just jump in and start enabling things. Instead, talk to people who are using the same model of Chromebook that you are and find out what works and what doesn’t.

It’s also worth remembering that these experimental flags can disappear at any time. Some may be merged into the OS, others will just up and disappear. If you do enable something, lets say for example, GPU compositing, and it breaks everything (yeah, I’ve been there), you have your recovery media you made earlier to save your bacon.

Install Linux

One of those complicated things that has been made simple by the work of great developers, installing Linux on your Chromebook is a great way expand its capabilities. Chrome OS is a flavor of Linux, but it’s been trimmed down and many features have been removed. We’re going to look at the simple (and in my opinion the best) way to build a dual-boot environment so you have both Chrome OS and Ubuntu LTS using David Schneider’s excellent tool called crouton (Chromium OS Universal Chroot Environment).

You’ll need to enable developer mode on your Chromebook, and the method varies from device to device. You may need to flip a hidden switch, or enter a key combination during boot. You can find exactly how to enable developer mode for your Chromebook on Google, and once you’ve done that everything else is the same no matter which model you use.

Once you’re a developer (or at least in dev mode) you’ll need to head to the crouton project page at github and download the script from the top of the page. Save it to your Downloads folder and you’re ready to get started.

Open a terminal (I told you Chrome OS was Linux) by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T and enter the word shell to open a shell.

Next, run crouton to see all the help text and examples like this:

sh -e ~/Downloads/crouton

Read everything you find there, as these are your options and tell crouton what to install. If you don’t understand an option, ask someone. Also, read the help section at the crouton github page for examples and hints.

Once you have crouton set up, you’ll be able to swap between Chrome OS and a full fledged install of Linux (Ubuntu LTS) at will.

While I like the flexibility of having both Chrome OS and Ubuntu on the same machine, you may want to be rid of Chrome OS completely. If you’re interested in replacing Chrome OS with Ubuntu, have a look at the ChrUbuntu project here. If you want to replace Chrome OS on your Pixel with Debian Wheezy, grab a beverage and have a look here.

Building Chromium yourself

If you’re an advanced user, or want to tackle an ambitious project with the ultimate Chromey reward, you can build Chromium yourself for your Chromebook.

This isn’t all that difficult if you’re familiar with building a big software project, but it can be pretty daunting for a first-timer. Everything you need to know is at the Chromium Project pages but it breaks down into a few basic steps:

• Download a local copy of the Chromium source code
• Download and install a local copy of the required build tools
• Build and install the software

Everything is documented and if you can follow directions you should be able to build and install Chromium with any Windows, Linux or Mac computer. Just like building Android yourself, this allows you to customize just about anything you can think of before you build it. And just like building Android, if you don’t make any changes you have the same basic system you would have if someone else did the building and you just installed it. Building Chromium is an excellent way to learn a few things and see how the process works, but don’t expect software made of miracles and unicorns when you’re done.

These are just a few of the neat hackery tricks you can do with your new Chromebook. And like everything else, it may turn out that none of it is for you and you prefer things that just work as intended. That’s cool, and sometimes when I’m staring at the screen of a device that won’t boot, I’m right there with ya.

If you do want to dive in and have a go at Chrome OS, this is how I do it. Tell me how you do it in the comments, I’d love to hear about it!

Researchers made the smallest diode using a DNA molecule

A team of researchers from the University of Georgia and Ben-Gurion University has developed an electronic component so tiny, you can’t even see it under an ordinary microscope. See, the team used a single DNA molecule to create a diode, a component that conducts electricity mostly in one direction. Further, the DNA molecule they designed for the study only has 11 base pairs. That makes it a pretty short helix, considering a human genome has approximately 3 billion pairs.

To allow a current to flow through the DNA, the team inserted a molecule called “coralyne” into the helix. What the team came up with was a diode, because the current was 15 times stronger for negative voltages than for positive. The study’s lead author Bingqian Xu decided to experiment on DNA to create minuscule components, since we can’t exactly use silicon for parts that size.

He said:

“For 50 years, we have been able to place more and more computing power onto smaller and smaller chips, but we are now pushing the physical limits of silicon. If silicon-based chips become much smaller, their performance will become unstable and unpredictable.”

Xu’s and his team’s efforts could eventually lead to more nanoscale electronics. Plus, the project could lead to more advanced devices, since scaling down components means engineers can cram more into regular-sized gadgets.

Via: IEEE

Source: Nature, EurekAlert

What’s on your HDTV: ‘Star Wars’ Blu-ray, ‘Fantastic Contraption’

Now that The Walking Dead has wrapped up its season with an annoying cliffhanger, it’s time for Fear the Walking Dead to step in on AMC. Of course, neither show matches up to the Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which arrives this week on Blu-ray after debuting on-demand last week. We’ve also got an exciting VR release, as Fantastic Contraption rolls out for properly-equipped PC gamers. Sports fans are ready for the final game of the NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament, as well as the beginning of the MLB season. American Crime Story: The People vs. O.J Simpson, Sleepy Hollow, 11.22.63 and Billions all have season finales this week, while American Idol drops in the series finale. Look after the break to check out each day’s highlights, including trailers and let us know what you think (or what we missed).

Blu-ray & Games & Streaming

• Star Wars: The Force Awakens
• Doctor Who (S9)
• The Expanse (S1)
• Banshee (S3)
• Prefontaine
• The Gallant Hours
• Ghost in the Shell: The New Movie
• Parasyte
• Quantum Break (PC, Xbox One)
• A Wizard’s Lizard: Soul Thief (PC – Early Access)
• Fantastic Contraption (PC – Vive VR)
• Amplitude (PS3)
• Dirt Rally (PS4, Xbox One)

Monday

• 11.22.63 (season finale), Hulu, 3AM
• NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship, TBS/TNT/TruTV, 9PM
• Dancing with the Stars, ABC, 8PM
• The Voice, NBC, 8PM
• WWE Raw, USA, 8PM
• American Dad, TBS, 8:30PM
• Only the Dead See the End of War, HBO, 9PM
• Mapplethorpe, HBO, 9PM
• The Magicians, Syfy, 9PM
• Damien, A&E, 10PM
• Blindspot, NBC, 10PM
• Better Call Saul, AMC, 10PM
• Billion Dollar Wreck, History, 10PM
• Bitten, Syfy, 11PM

Tuesday

• American Idol, Fox, 8PM
• Black Girls Rock 2016, BET, 8PM
• Fresh Off the Boat, ABC, 8PM
• The Voice, NBC, 8PM
• Real O’Neals, ABC, 8:30PM
• Deadliest Catch, Discovery, 9PM
• Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., ABC, 9PM
• The Outsiders, WGN, 9PM
• Brooklyn Nine-nine (season finale), Fox, 9PM
• Shadowhunters (season finale), Freeform, 9PM
• Heartbeat, NBC, 9PM
• The Grinder, Fox, 9:30PM
• Stitchers, Freeform, 10PM
• Awkward, MTV, 10PM
• Crowded, NBC, 10PM
• Beyond the Tank, ABC, 10PM
• Tosh.0, Comedy Central, 10PM
• American Crime Story: The People vs. O.J. Simpson (season finale), FX, 10PM
• Not Safe with Nikki Glaser, Comedy Central, 10:30PM
• Faking It, MTV, 10:30PM

Wednesday

• This is Not Happening, Comedy Central, 12:30AM
• The Path, Hulu, 3AM
• The Middle, ABC, 8PM
• Unsung Hollywood, TV One, 8PM
• Survivor, CBS, 8PM
• Rosewood, Fox, 8PM
• Young & Hungry (spring finale), Freeform, 8PM
• The Goldbergs, ABC, 8:30PM
• Baby Daddy (spring finale), Freeform, 8:30PM
• Empire, Fox, 9PM
• Modern Family, ABC, 9PM
• Face Off, Syfy, 9PM
• Black-ish, ABC, 9:30PM
• The Americans, FX, 10PM
• Internet Ruined My Life, Syfy, 10PM
• The Carmichael Show, NBC, 10PM
• Hap & Leonard, Sundance, 10PM
• Catfish, MTV, 10PM
• Broad City, Comedy Central, 10PM
• Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders, CBS, 9 & 10PM
• Nashville, ABC, 10PM
• Underground, WGN, 10PM
• MTV Suspect, 11PM

Thursday

• Grey’s Anatomy, ABC, 8PM
• American Idol (series finale), Fox, 8PM
• WWE SmackDown, USA, 8PM
• DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, CW, 8PM
• The Odd Couple (season premiere), CBS, 8:30PM
• Scandal, ABC, 9PM
• The 100, CW, 9PM
• The Eighties, CNN, 9PM
• Archer, FX, 10PM
• Rush Hour, CBS, 10PM
• The Catch, ABC, 10PM
• The Real World: The Big Leap, MTV, 10PM
• Nightwatch, A&E, 10PM
• Adam Devine’s House Party, Comedy Central, 12:30AM

Friday

• Catastrophe (S2), Amazon, 3AM
• Dead 7, Syfy, 8PM
• Sleepy Hollow (season finale), Fox, 8PM
• The Amazing Race, CBS, 8PM
• The Vampire Diaries, CW, 8PM
• Last Man Standing, ABC, 8PM
• Grimm, NBC, 9PM
• Shark Tank, ABC, 9PM
• Hawaii Five-0, CBS, 9PM
• Motive, USA, 10PM
• Banshee, Cinemax, 10PM
• Vice, HBO, 11PM
• Animals (season finale), HBO, 11:30PM

Saturday

• NASCAR Sprint Cup Series @ Texas, Fox, 7PM
• Outlander (season premiere), Starz, 9PM
• Nothing Left Unsaid: Gloria Vanderbilt & Anderson Cooper, HBO, 9PM
• The Last Alaskans, Discovery, 9PM
• Nikki Glaser: Perfect, Comedy Central, 11PM
• Saturday Night Live: Russell Crowe/Margo Price, NBC, 11:30PM

Sunday

• Bordertown, Fox, 7PM
• Cooper Barrett’s Guide Surviving Life, Fox, 7:30PM
• Once Upon A Time, ABC, 8PM
• The Simpsons, Fox, 8PM
• Little Big Shots, NBC, 8PM
• Call the Midwife, PBS, 8PM
• Madam Secretary, CBS, 8PM
• 2016 MTV Movie Awards, MTV, 8PM
• The Girlfriend Experience, Starz, 8PM
• Bob’s Burgers, Fox, 8:30PM
• House of Lies (Season premiere), Showtime, 9PM
• Fear the Walking Dead (season premiere), AMC, 9PM
• The Family, ABC, 9PM
• Grantchester, PBS, 9PM
• The Carmichael Show, NBC, 9PM
• Vinyl, HBO, 9PM
• Crowded, NBC, 9:30PM
• The Last Man on Earth, Fox, 10PM
• Billions (season finale), Showtime, 10PM
• Mr. Selfridge, PBS, 10PM
• Elementary, CBS, 9 & 10PM
• Girls, HBO, 10PM
• Quantico ABC, 10PM
• Togetherness (season finale), HBO, 10:30PM
• Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, HBO, 11PM

(All times listed are ET)

Android Auto reaches cars in 18 more countries

Android Auto isn’t just available in a handful of countries anymore. Google has expanded its phone-as-infotainment integration to 18 more countries, as well as Puerto Rico. Most of the coverage revolves around Europe and Latin American nations (including Austria, Brazil, Colombia and Switzerland), but there are big exceptions like India and Russia. Your car or head-end unit will need to support Android Auto as well, of course, but this may hit the spot if you’re hoping to stream music while you’re stuck in Mumbai traffic.

Source: Android (Google+)

‘Starbound’ is almost ready for everyone to explore

After years of being in Steam’s Early Access program for in-development games, Starbound is readying to leave those confines. Four years on and the 1.0 patch, what developer Chucklefish refers to as “the story update,” adds a ton to the charming 2D sci-fi title. In terms of narrative, your character is a member of a group called “Protectors” who are trying to guide the universe toward peace, and after your Earth-based graduation from the training program you’ll head off to the stars to explore the galaxy.

What’s more, each of the eight missions take place in mining facilities, ancient temples and sunken libraries among other locations. Chucklefish says that each planet you explore will have a few different biomes rather than just one area per world, too. You’ll meet folks along the way who will expand your outposts and add others to your ship’s crew. If it all sounds an awful lot like a pixel-art hybrid of Mass Effect and, say, Terraria, you aren’t far off the mark.

For the nitty-gritty on the rest of what this release will entail (like multiplayer, the game’s new crafting elements, armor progression and planet generation), hit the source link below. There isn’t a firm release date for any of this yet, but if you have a hankering for farming, Chucklefish has Stardew Valley to hold you over until Starbound hits its first full version. Farming and space exploration are basically the same thing, right?

Via: Polygon

Source: Chucklefish Games

Apple to Phase Out Plastic Bags for Environmentally Friendly Paper Bags Starting April 15

When a customer buys an Apple product in an Apple retail store, it’s packaged in a white plastic drawstring bag emblazoned with an Apple logo, something that’s become an iconic part of the Apple experience. Starting later this month, Apple is introducing changes to its bagging policy, phasing out plastic bags in favor of a more environmentally friendly paper option.

Apple is planning to switch from the plain white plastic bags to paper bags made from 80 percent recycled materials, which Apple says will further its goal of leaving the world “better than we found it.” Apple informed employees of the impending change in a note, which was shared by 9to5Mac.

In addition to handing out paper bags, employees are also being asked to adopt a new policy of querying customers as to whether a bag is needed at all instead of simply providing one.

Image via the Daily Mail

We’re committed to leaving the world better than we found it. One bag at a time. So on April 15, we’ll switch to paper shopping bags made from 80 percent recycled materials. These bags come in medium and large.

When customers are buying a product, ask if they need a bag. They may decide they don’t. And you’ll encourage them to be even more environmentally friendly.

If you still have plastic bags in stock, use them before you switch to the new paper bags.

While Apple will begin offering the new bags on April 15, employees have been instructed to continue to use all of the available stock of plastic bags before switching to paper. Once the supply is exhausted, the new paper bags, the design of which is unknown, will be used exclusively.

Given Apple’s focus on recycling, clean energy, and reducing its carbon footprint, the company’s switch from plastic to paper should come as no surprise. Apple already focuses on minimizing packaging size for its products from iPhones to Macs and two-thirds of the paper used for packaging is from recycled content with the rest sourced from sustainable forests.

Related Roundup: Apple Stores
Tag: Apple retail
Discuss this article in our forums

HTC 10 teaser promises the ‘best BoomSound yet’

HTC hasn’t been shy about teasing what’s in store for the upcoming HTC 10, and the company’s latest teaser continues that tradition by hinting at the phone’s booming audio chops. In a quick, flashy video posted to Twitter, HTC says its obsession with high-quality sound means that the HTC 10 will pack “the best BoomSound yet.”

Not all music is created equal. Hi-res audio so every note is crystal clear. You’ll hear it. 4/12 #powerof10https://t.co/uSFPDg4t6o

— HTC (@htc) April 4, 2016

HTC has already teased the camera, capacitive buttons and more that will appear on the HTC 10, and it won’t be long before we get to see the much-anticipated handset unveiled in the flesh at HTC’s April 12 launch.

Are you excited to get your hands on the HTC 10? Let us know what you’re looking forward to most in the comments!

The best way to set up your fingerprint on the Galaxy S7

It’s super easy to set up, but making it work perfectly can take some time.

For the most part, setting up and using the fingerprint sensor on the Galaxy S7 is exactly as easy as it’s supposed to be. You go through the 13-part process of recording your finger on the sensor, and in exchange you get the ability to unlock your phone quickly and use your fingerprint as your password wherever it is supported.

As long as you’re down with using your fingerprint like this, it’s one of the best setups available today. That is, as long as you set it up correctly.

For those who have never set up a fingerprint sensor, or those who have only ever set up a Nexus fingerprint sensor, there are a few things you need to keep in mind when setting up most fingerprint sensors.

The set up process is effectively an exercise in taking as many photos of your finger as possible in order to create a complete picture. This way you can put that finger on the sensor in just about any way you want, and as long as the picture taken when you’re unlocking the phone lines up with the complete picture in some way, the phone unlocks. For round sensors like the one on the Nexus phones, it’s easy to grab the whole print during setup. Like its predecessors, the Galaxy S7 has an oval sensor, and that means you have to be a little more deliberate during setup.

When setting up a fingerprint on the Galaxy S7, it’s important to remember to grab at least two pictures of your thumb going across the sensor diagonally. If all you do is move your thumb from top to bottom or from left to right, it’s easy to create gaps in that complete picture. Adding a couple of diagonal captures during setup decreases the chances of this happening, which in turn makes your failure rate significantly lower when unlocking the phone every day.

The oval shape of the Galaxy S7 home button is the real key here. As long as you remember during fingerprint setup that the fingerprint being stored is the result of 13 different presses on the sensor, each capturing a long strip of your thumb and not much else, it becomes a lot easier to deal with. You won’t be pressing your finger onto the Galaxy S7’s home button the same exact way every time you unlock it, so don’t put it on there the same way every time when you’re registering it in the first place.

It’s also important to remember that you can delete a fingerprint at any time and re-capture that finger if you aren’t happy with the results — if you rushed through setup when you first got the phone, it may be worth re-entering your fingers now.

Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge

• Galaxy S7 review
• Galaxy S7 edge review
• Galaxy S7 edge with Exynos: A Canadian perspective
• Here are all four Galaxy S7 colors
• Details on the Galaxy S7’s camera
• The SD card is back on the GS7
• Join our Galaxy S7 forums

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Android Auto update removes interaction limit on Google Play Music when your car is parked

Android Auto, since launch, has always limited user interactions with the screen to just six taps. That is, until today, when an Android Auto app update made a big improvement by letting you interact with your Google Play Music as much as you want … so long as your car is parked.

After being alerted to the improvement by Ryan Warner over on Twitter, we’ve confirmed on our end that the latest update does indeed remove the interaction restriction. If your car is parked, you can tap and scroll all you want through Google Play Music without any lockouts.

What we can’t say at this point is how this will be handled on other apps. Seeing this change shows it’s indeed possible to have an app behave differently when the car is parked versus being driven — which makes sense based on how lots of car infotainment systems operate — but seeing this change only for Google Play Music at this point is a bit odd.

If Google is indeed easing this interaction limit when the car is parked across the board, it seems like app developers will have to update things slightly in their own apps to take advantage of the change in restrictions on Google’s end. If that’s the case, we should see the fruits of this change soon.

All About Android Auto

• Getting started with Android Auto
• List of compatible phones and cars
• Android Auto news
• Apps that work with Android Auto
• Join the Android Auto discussion!

How to switch from iPhone to Android

You’ve decided to make the switch.

There could be many reasons behind why a person might ditch their iPhone in favour of an Android device. But, no matter what that reason may be, anyone who has done it or plans to do it primarily cares about one thing: making the switch in a way that allows him or her to successfully transfer all their contacts, photos, music, calendars, and apps from their old phone to the new one.

Unfortunately, you can’t just download an app that’ll do all the hard work for you. Well, technically, a few apps exist that will automatically migrate some aspects of your data, though for the most part, you must manually migrate your stuff bit by bit. There are some streamlined processes for getting this done, however, and Pocket-lint has explained most of them below.

Although longtime iPhone users will likely feel apprehensive about finally going Android, they shouldn’t be, and in this step-by-step guide, we’ll walk them through everything they need to know about effectively making the switch.

Switch to Android: Getting started

In order to get going on Android, you’ll want to bring over your photos and music, transfer your contacts, set up your email and messaging clients, and find the Android versions of your favourite iOS apps. Google has a dedicated support page for those of you’d like to know more about making the switch and which types of data you’ll be able to export from one device to another.

First thing’s first: you’ll want to create a Google account to set up your Android phone. You now own a Google-powered phone, and if you don’t have a Google account, you’ll never be able to leverage the full potential of Android. A Google Account also gives you access to Google products like Gmail, Google+, YouTube, and more with a single username and password.

This Google support page has more information about how to add Google accounts to your device as well as how to create new Google accounts.

Switch to Android: Contacts

On iPhone, your contacts your saved to a default account. You can check this under Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Default Account. You may see other accounts with contacts listed, but your default account should hold the majority of your contacts data, and so you’ll want to pull your contacts from that account before you finally make the switch from iPhone to Android.

Gmail

If you have a Gmail account as the default account on your iPhone, you only need to sign in with your Google Account on your Android device and all your contacts will automatically appear right there. More often that not, however, iCloud will be your default account on the iPhone, and unfortunately, it takes a few more steps to transfer contacts from iCloud to Android.

iCloud

On your iPhone, go to Settings, then iCloud, and enable Contacts to sync your address book to Apple’s iCloud service.
On your computer, go to http://www.icloud.com, then enter your Apple ID and password, and select Contacts from the main page.
Go to the lower left corner, then click on the wheel icon, and choose Select All. Click on the wheel again and select Export vCard.
Go to the website http://www.google.com/contacts in your web browser, then select More from the menu, and choose Import.
Find the VCF file you saved from Step 3 above, and once you do that, Gmail will be able to import all your contacts.
To merge duplicate entries, choose More from the Google Contacts page, and select Find & merge duplicates.

Apps

You can also use a third-party apps to sync your contacts from the iPhone to Android. My Contacts Backup for iOS and Android, for instance, is free and seems to be rated really well. Google also gives tips on this support page about how to transfer your locally-saved contacts (or contacts from an alternative account) to Android through iTunes on your Windows or Mac computer.

Switch to Android: Photos

Pocket-lint

Similar to contacts, there are many ways to move your photos, and we think the most fool-proof way of doing that is in fact the Google way. We mentioned earlier that Android devices are Google-powered phones in that Google apps are of course designed to work beautifully with Android. Google Photos is a prime example. It offers unlimited photo storage for Android and iOS.

Google Photos

Google Photos can be used as a backup service so that your iPhone’s photos and videos will save to your Google Photos library, which you can then access from an Android, iPhone, or a web browser. Everything backed up is private unless you share it. Also, you get unlimited, free storage for photos and videos in high-resolution (and a free, 15GB subscription for original resolution).

On your iPhone, download Google Photos from the App Store. From there, sign into Google Photos using your Google account.
Select Back up and Sync (under menu, select the gear icon, then Camera and Photos, and enable Back up and Sync).

We have a Google Photos review that explains more about how the service works, or you can browse this Google support page.

Cloud services

Most cloud services will allow you to back up and view your old photos. You can install Dropbox on both your iPhone and Android device, for instance, and the free basic subscription will let you store up to 2GB. Using the cloud – whether through Google Photos or a third-party app – is the simplest way to ensure all your iPhone’s photos and videos will be moved to Android.

Switch to Android: Music

Music is another type of data most people will want to move from one device to another. If you have tonnes of songs on in your iTunes library, for instance, you’ll want those in your Google Play Music library so you can access them from an Android device. Luckily for you, there are a couple straightforward methods for getting this done, starting with Google Music Manager.

Google Music Manager

You can use Music Manager to upload your favourite songs from your computer to your Google Play library. You can upload up to 50,000 songs and listen to them from your mobile device or computer. All you have to do is download and install the app on your computer, but you’ll need to enter a credit card number during set-up process. It is free to use the standard service.

Open the app and select Upload songs to Google Play from the pop-up window that appears.
Select iTunes or another folder when asked where you keep your music collection.
Google Music Manager will show you any songs and playlists it found and ask whether you want to upload them all or manually select some.
Let Google Music Manager do it’s thing.

You can learn more about how Google Music Manager works from this support page. Also, don’t forget you can get Apple Music on Android now.

Manual transfer

If you don’t have a credit card, you can always manually transfer your songs from iTunes to your new Android phone.

Just connect your Android phone to your computer using a USB cable, then locate your Android device and your music files, and drag an drop the files from your music folder on the computer to your phone. If you have a Mac, install the free Android File Transfer app, then drag music from your My Music library in iTunes into the Music folder on the Android File Transfer app.

Switch to Android: Calendars

Google

Once again, we recommend using a Google product for migrating calendar data. In this particular situation, we’d suggest using Google Calendar because it’s cloud based and can easily transfer your calendar information. Google Calendar works on a computer, phone, or tablet – and any events you create or edit will sync automatically among all versions of Google Calendar.

Google Calendar

On your iPhone, go to Settings and select Mail, Contacts, Calendars.
Choose your Google account, go to Calendars, and switch the toggle on.
Your iPhone will now sync all your calendars to your Google account.

You can learn more about Google Calendar from this support page.

Third-party apps

There are also third-party apps that will manage all your calendar data for you so you can access it from different devices. One example is called SmoothSync for Cloud Calendar. It’s available from the Google Play Store and costs $2.86. It can even pull calendar data synced to iCloud.

Sync your iPhone Calendar to iCloud by going to Settings, then iCloud, and selecting Calendar on your iPhone.
Install SmoothSync on your Android device and enter your Apple ID credentials.
Pick the calendars you’d like to sync with your new Android. And that’s it.

Switch to Android: Apps

We have no tips or tricks for this section. You have to do the work and find Android versions of all your favourite iOS apps in Google Play Store. There is no app in existence that will easily do this for you. Thankfully, you at least don’t have to worry about not being able to find your apps. The app disparity between Android and iOS is no more.

Android has all of the major apps that you could want, such as:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• Tumblr
• Pinterest
• Snapchat
• WhatsApp
• Facebook Messenger
• Skype
• Outlook
• Pocket
• Wunderlist
• Evernote
• IFTTT
• Dropbox
• MS Office Mobile
• Apple Music

Switch to Android: Turn off iMessage

This last one is more of a tip: iMessage is an Apple messaging service, so you’ll need to turn it off or else SMS/MMS messages may continue to be pushed to your old iPhone rather than your new Android. Turn off iMessage before you remove the SIM by going to Settings, then Messages, and set iMessage to off. You can also ask Apple to deregister your number with iMessage.