How to turn off Facebook Live notifications

We’ve all seen what fireworks look like. This Fourth of July, do yourself a favor and disable Facebook Live notifications.

Good news, everyone! Facebook has made it easier than ever to broadcast what you’re doing, live. Bad news, everyone! Facebook has made it easier than ever to broadcast what you’re doing, live. And the thing about live video is that it’s pointless if nobody’s watching. So Facebook makes sure that you get a notification every damn time one of your friends (or a page that you follow) goes live.

Sometimes that’s great! Especially when it’s the Android Central Facebook page that’s doing the streaming, right?

Other times, it’s downright awful. Holidays such as the Fourth of July here in the U.S. are one of those times. We’ve all seen fireworks before. Many of us will be out watching them, live. (Like, in-person.) So the last thing we need is 200 notifications of other people broadcasting their own fireworks experiences over relatively low resolution.

(Note that this only works from the full Facebook site, not m.facebook.com (which your phone will try to send you to), or from within the Facebook app.)

Here’s how to to turn off Facebook Live notifications:

Go to your Facebook settings. Drill down to Settings>Notifications>On Facebook.
Now choose “Edit.” (Note: This link should take you directly.)
Toggle “Live Videos” to OFF.

Note that this only works from the full Facebook site, not m.facebook.com (which your phone will try to send you to), or from within the Facebook app.

Alternatively, if you just want to kill Facebook Live notifications from a single person or page, you can do so from within the notifications themselves. Just long-press on the person you want to squelch, and then choose whether to dismiss that single notification, or to turn off all notifications of live videos from that person.

Unless you absolutely hate any use of Facebook Live, we might suggest not turning off these notifications permanently. While they might get annoying when you’ve got groups of friends all showing the same thing (and the same thing that you yourself might be doing), you might well miss something interesting other times.

How to back up your Android

Losing your stuff is no fun. Neither is trying to get it all back on a new phone. Here are some tips to make it easier to keep everything important backed up.

We keep a lot of things on our phones. We have pictures and videos, details about the people we know, schedules and important dates and more. Many of us depend on our phones to help keep track of a good part of our daily lives. With all this stuff stored in one portable place, it can be a disaster if we lose it all. Some of us have been there — our phones were lost or stolen or broken. It’s not fun to try and sort it all out on a new phone, Not fun at all. That’s why it’s important to try and copy everything in another place and keep a backup of your important data.

Android is a cloud-based operating system. It was designed to be connected and keep everything synchronized with a computer in a cold building somewhere electricity is cheap. Seriously, data centers are huge banks of machines that mostly exist to store things and have them ready when someone wants to see them. And Google knows all about setting up and maintaining data centers. It makes sense for Google to support and develop a cloud-based system because they are the cloud.

Android was designed from the ground up to be a cloud-based OS.

Google has built-in synchronization for your email, your contacts, your notes and just about every other service they offer. If you move to another phone, just sign in with your Google account and all your stuff is there — except not really.

We don’t just use Google’s app on our phones, and that’s where things get a bit funky. Any app published on Google Play has the ability to store your data (whether its recipes or game progress or anything else) for free inside your Google account. The problem is that many developers don’t bother to use it. I’ve heard from some app devs that it’s a trivial thing to include, while others say it’s a big mess. I’ll assume it depends on just what you;re trying to back up. For whatever reason, one thing to look for when choosing which apps you want to install is if they keep your data safe in case you have to move to another phone — either through Google or their own method. We covered how to set up backup through Google, so be sure to have a look if you have any questions.

How to back up through Android settings

For a lot of us, though, the shift from keeping the second copy of all our stuff on a remote computer instead of the computer in our home isn’t easy. If you’re coming from an iPhone or a BlackBerry you’re used to plugging your phone in and copying stuff to your computer, with a piece of software installed that makes it fairly simple. That makes sense, too, because Apple and BlackBerry aren’t cloud-first companies (though they are moving in that direction.) Some of the companies who make our Androids recognize this and offer a program suite you can install and connect your phone to copy your stuff locally. It’s important to them to try and offer what we want and what we’re used to doing. We’ve covered LG Bridge and Samsung Smart Switch to get you started if this is how you would rather do things.

How to use Samsung Smart Switch to back up your Galaxy phone

How to use LG Bridge with your LG phone

When it comes to our media — the things we like to see and hear, like pictures or video and music — most of us want to keep it safe somewhere in a cloud or on our own storage system as well as be able to enjoy it on all our things with a screen or speakers. It makes sense to have these types of files in multiple places, one where it stays safe and others where we can use them. A lot of companies realize this, and there are plenty of ways to store your media files and share them easily with any connected device.

Two of the easiest solutions are from Google and Dropbox. Google Drive — the free storage you get from Google when you sign up for an account — and Dropbox make it easy to sync across devices and platforms and also have built-in media playing capabilities. With Google Drive, the Google Photos app ties in and offers editing and other fun tools for working with pictures and video. Dropbox is a little less feature-packed, but both ways can automatically back up the memories you create with your camera. We had a look at how easy it is, so check it out if you need help getting started.

How to back up your music files to your computer or online storage

How to back up photos and video to your computer or the cloud

There is no one-click solution

As you can tell, there is no do-it-all program you can install on your computer to make a 1:1 copy of everything on your Android. There never will be because Google is all about the cloud. Their business model depends on users being connected — Google doesn’t make money from selling phones. Android is a cloud ecosystem, and that means it’s not right for everyone. And that’s OK. And app developers not using Google’s way of backing up data for their apps can be frustrating, but with an open system, there’s not much that can be done about it. Google doesn’t force developers to use cloud saves to publish an app. Support developers who make it easy on you by delivering a way to keep your data, and know that Google is working on ways to back things up without developers doing anything differently. It’s getting better and will continue to improve.

But it’s not difficult to keep all of your stuff in place, and get it all back when you move to a new phone. It just requires a bit of know-how and a few settings.

OnePlus 3 tips and tricks: Master your 2016 flagship killer

OnePlus’ latest phone is is comfortably the best phone in its class. And while its hardware is admirable for a £300 phone, the software does its bit to ensure the experience of using it is both smooth and unique. While it looks very much like standard Android OS, it does have a number of customisation options, the kind you don’t normally get unless you download a third party launcher from the Play Store. 

This is our in-depth guide on all the options you can play with, and how to get the most from your OnePlus 3. 

OnePlus 3 home screen tips

Add widgets to Shelf: Shelf is a custom screen that sits the the left of your main home screen. By default it has your weather, most-used apps and contacts, but you can add practically any other widget you want to it by tapping the floating action button in the bottom right corner, then choosing your desired widget.

Customise Shelf widgets: The Shelf screen has its own settings menu which you access by tapping the sidebar menu button in the top left corner. Here you can disable the default weather information card, or choose to have Celsius or Fahrenheit.

Disable Shelf: For whatever reason, you might just decide you don’t want the Shelf. To disable it, head to your regular home screen, then tap and hold the wallpaper. Choose “customise” then switch the “Enable Shelf” toggle to the off position.

Swipe up for search: In the same customise screen – underneath the Enable Shelf option – is a toggle for Quick Search. If enabled, this will let you swipe up from anywhere on the home screen and go straight to the Google search app.

Swipe down for notifications: In the same gesture options list is a toggle which enables quick notifications. When enabled, you can access your drop down notifications by swiping downwards anywhere on the home screen, you don’t have to swipe from the top.

Customise Google search bar: In the same customisation screen, if you swipe from right to left you’ll get to the next customisation card. This screen lets you choose what kind of search bar you want on the top of your home screen. You can have the modern white bar with a colourful Google logo, or have a transparent grey one with white logo, or just have none at all.

Change app icon size: The next customisation card lets you choose between three app icon sizes. Choose between small, standard or large to alter how much space your app icons take up on the home screen.

Change battery icon: With OxygenOS you can choose what battery information you want to see in the status bar. Swipe down from your home screen to reveal the quick settings/notification panel and then tap the battery icon. This takes you to the main battery settings menu.

From here, tap the battery icon in between the refresh and three dots/settings button. The drop down menu allows you to choose between the standard battery bar icon, a circle icon, no icon at all and whether you want the percentage showing or not.

Pocket-lint

OnePlus 3 buttons tips

Capacitive or virtual buttons: As has been the case with every OnePlus phone since the beginning, you can choose whether or not you want to use onscreen software buttons, or use the built-in capacitive buttons. By default, the capacitive buttons are in use, but if you want software buttons simply head to Settings, then Buttons and toggle “on-screen navigation bar”. 

Custom actions: In Oxygen OS you can assign secondary functions to all three of the capacitive keys on the OnePlus 3. Each button can have two secondary functions, launched by either a long-press or quick double-tap. There are seven options in total, which include opening recent apps, launching search assistant, turning off the screen, opening the camera, voice search, opening the last used app and opening Shelf. You’ll find the options in the same settings menu under the Buttons category.

Backlight on/off: Both the capacitive buttons have a backlight, which light up when any of the buttons (including the home key) are touched. You can switch this off if you don’t want it on just by tapping the Backlight toggle in Settings>Buttons.

Swap recent/back order: By default, the left capacitive button is the back button, and the right button is the recent apps button. If you’re more accustomed to having them the other way around, you can switch those. Just toggle the “Swap buttons” option in the same settings Buttons menu.

Alert slider: The one other button on the OnePlus 3 is the three-position alert slider on the left edge. Sliding down is regular, show me all the notifications mode. In the middle is priority mode which restricts most apps from sending you notifications. The top position is total silence, which practically silences everything. 

You can customise these Do Not Disturb options to only allow specific apps to notify you in each mode. In Priority mode, you can chose to enable or disable alarms, media, reminders and events. You can even choose between being alerted of phone calls or SMS messages from only starred contacts, from any contacts, anyone or no alerts at all. There’s also an option to let calls through if the same person tries to call you twice within 15 minutes. 

OnePlus 3 display tips

Adjust colour temperature: How good the colours on screen look to an individual can often be a point of debate. A perfect balance to some is too cool (blue) or too warm (yellow) for others. Thankfully, OnePlus includes the option to manually adjust the colour temperature. Head to Settings>Display and you’ll find a colour balance slider. Sliding right makes the screen warmer, sliding left makes it cooler.

Proximity wake: With the OnePlus 3 you can have the screen wake up just by waving your hand over it. To activate this feature, simply tap the toggle in the display settings.

Ambient display: You can set your OnePlus to wake up whenever you receive a notification. Activating it is very simple. Like the proximity wake option, just switch on the toggle in the settings menu. Rather than have a fully active screen, Ambient display mode is a black screen with white text/notifications.

Night mode: As with most phones with the feature, night mode strips the blue tint from the screen, making it warmer, more yellow and easier on your eyes at night time. Just like the colour balance option, there’s a slider to adjust how deep you want the yellow tint to be.

Change font size: Near the bottom of the main display settings screen is the option to change the font size. Here you can choose between small, medium, large and huge.

OnePlus 3 camera tips

Double tap power button to launch: By default, the OnePlus 3 camera can be launched by quickly double-tapping the power button on the right edge. If yours doesn’t have the feature switched on, or you want to switch it off, head to Settings>Display and then hit the toggle next to “Press power button twice for camera”.

HD Mode: When you launch the camera you’ll notice HD and HDR in the top right corner. HD Mode is a new technology from OnePlus 3 which sharpens details. Switch it on by simply taping the HD. In practice, however, we haven’t found that it makes too much difference to the image quality. Plus, it disables the ability to shoot with HDR, which is a big negative. So maybe leave that one alone.  

Manual controls: In the top left corner is three lines, tapping them gives access to a sidebar menu/list of all the different camera modes. Manual model is in that list and selecting it enables you to manually control a number of important settings. Tapping on ISO will then let you change the brightness/gain, the next one along lets you set the white balance to counteract any artificial (or natural) lighting. You can also manually set the shutter speed to take long exposures up to 30 seconds, and manually focus.

Adjusting each of these settings is pretty easy. Once the manual mode has been selected, you just need to press on whichever setting you’d like to change, then you get a semicircle control on-screen. Adjust the ISO, shutter speed, or focus by rotating this onscreen “wheel” clockwise or anticlockwise.

Save RAW photos: In the same sidebar menu mentioned above, in the right corner is a settings cog. Tap on this and you’ll see a toggle switch which enables RAW format images to be saved. This basically means you’ll get the highest quality image possible, rather than JPEG which isn’t full quality.

OnePlus 3 other tips

Dual SIM options: Just like the OnePlus 2, there’s a dual SIM tray which means you can have two SIM cards in the phone at once. If you have a work and personal line, or have a SIM for two different carriers, it can be an invaluable especially if you know one network in your area is better for data speeds than another.

Heading into Settings then SIM cards, you can choose which SIM is the preferred option for mobile data, calls or text messages. So if one SIM has a higher data allowance, you could set that as your main data SIM.

Reorder quick tiles: In Android N, Google is introducing the ability to move around quick settings tiles in the drop down settings panel, but OnePlus already has that feature in Oxygen OS. Drop down the panel as usual, then tap the little pencil in the top right corner. Then you can reorder the tiles on the screen to suit your preferences.

OnePlus 3 gestures: Like many modern Android phones, you can enable a number of gestures for launching apps or functions from the lock screen. Head to Settings>Gestures and then you can enable each gesture individually.

With each enabled, you can launch the camera by drawing an “O”, switch on the flashlight by drawing a “V”, pause music with a two-finger swipe, skip track backwards or forwards by drawing < or > and – as usual – double tap the screen to wake up the phone.

‘Top Gear’ host Chris Evans bails after poor comeback ratings

After a single season at the helm, Chris Evans is stepping down from Top Gear. The presenter, which took over from Jeremy Clarkson and his fellow partners in crime, James May and Richard Hammond, said on Twitter: “(I) gave it my best show but sometimes that’s not enough. The team are beyond brilliant, I wish them all the best.” The latest series of Top Gear, which wrapped up last night in the UK, has been battered by low audience figures and scathing reviews, both from critics and fans. Replicating the success of the Clarkson era was always going to be difficult, however, when so much of the show’s appeal was attributed to the old presenters.

Still, the BBC has been trying its best. Top Gear is one of its most popular and lucrative shows, with a huge following both domestically and overseas. Simply cancelling the programme was never an option. The team had hoped that Chris Evans’ energy would fill some of the void left behind by his predecessors; as a fail-safe, it brought in Friends actor Matt LeBlanc to give the show some much-needed star power. Then, in a deviation from previous seasons, the BBC hired a large cast of supporting presenters: motorsport pundit Eddie Jordan, professional racing driver Sabine Schmitz, and two younger faces, Chris Harris and Rory Reid, who also present the Top Gear spin-off show Extra Gear on BBC iPlayer.

Some of these presenters have worked better than others. Another problem is, arguably, the format of the show — it’s almost unchanged from the Clarkson years, focusing on short documentaries and celebrity laps. They’re shot and scripted in a similar fashion to previous seasons, which, while visually impressive, often feel like hollow imitations. “I have never worked with a more committed and driven team than the team I have worked with over the last 12 months,” Evans said in a statement. “I feel like my standing aside is the single best thing I can now do to help the cause.”

The BBC is left with a huge role to fill for the next season. In the meantime, Clarkson and co are gearing up to launch their new show, The Grand Tour, on Amazon Prime Video. The exact premiere date is unknown, but it’s due to kick off this fall — fans of the troublesome trio will be hoping their attempt is better than what the BBC has shown over the last six weeks.

Source: BBC

Second Man Behind Phishing of Celebrity iCloud Accounts Pleads Guilty

Edward Majerczyk, a 28-year-old Chicago man who played a role in the phishing of celebrity iCloud accounts in 2014, has signed a plea agreement and agreed to plead guilty to a violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, according to court documents made public on Friday.

Majerczyk was charged in a Los Angeles, California district court, but will enter his guilty plea in the Northern District of Illinois. He faces a statutory maximum sentence of five years in prison. Ryan Collins, a 36-year-old Pennsylvania man who was also involved in the iCloud attack known as “Celebgate,” likewise entered into a plea agreement in March with a recommended sentence of 18 months in prison.

Between November 2013 and September 2014, Majerczyk and Collins engaged in a phishing scheme to obtain the iCloud and Gmail usernames and passwords of over 300 victims, including female celebrities, according to court documents. The perpetrators sent their victims emails that appeared to be from Apple and Google, asking them to provide their usernames and passwords.

Majerczyk and Collins used the credentials to illegally access accounts and extract private information, which included nude photographs and videos. In September 2014, hundreds of nude photos of celebrities were then leaked on online image board 4chan before spreading to multiple internet sites, but investigators have not yet been able to find any evidence that either of the men were directly behind the leak.

Shortly after the breach occurred, Apple conducted an investigation that revealed the accounts were compromised by weak passwords — a Find My iPhone flaw may have also played a role. Apple then strengthened security by adding email alerts when iCloud accounts are accessed on the web, allowing app-specific passwords for third-party apps accessing iCloud, and enabling two-factor authentication on iCloud.com.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Tag: iCloud
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OxygenOS 3.2.0 now available for the OnePlus 3 with RAM management fixes and more

OnePlus has announced that the OxygenOS 3.2.0 update for the OnePlus 3 will begin rolling out now. The update brings a number of big fixes to the phone, like sRGB mode in developer options, enhanced RAM management, camera quality fixes and more. Plans for the update were previously revealed following some drama surrounding how OnePlus was managing the 6GB of RAM inside the phone.

Highlights from the update include:

• Enabled sRGB mode in developer options.
• Improved RAM management.
• Improved GPS performance.
• Enhanced audio playback quality.
• Updated custom icon packs.
• Fixed some issues with notifications.
• Improved camera quality/functionality.
• Fixed some issues in Gallery.
• Implemented latest Google security patches.
• Fixed bugs in Clock/Music apps.

The update will begin rolling out now, and OnePlus anticipates all OnePlus 3 owners will see the update within 48 hours. Have you received the update yet? Let us know how it is working out for you in the comments!

OnePlus 3

• OnePlus 3 review: Finally, all grown up
• OnePlus 3 specs
• OnePlus 3 vs. the flagship competition
• Latest OnePlus 3 news
• Discuss OnePlus 3 in the forums

OnePlus

The best phone to use with Android Auto

An updated list of what works with Android Auto.

A lot of phones cross my path every month. OK, often every week. Occasionally more than one a day. And that means they also at some point end up in my car. And in my car I have a head unit that supports Android Auto, which undeniably has made me a safer driver. (And Android Auto has the added bonus of having a much better user interface than the dumpster fire that came with my deck.)

But here’s the thing: If there’s a weak link for Android Auto, it comes when you actually plug the phone in. Because the various Android manufacturers do all sorts of nonsense to their phones, including what happens when you plug one in. And on occasion, Android Auto might not work at all. So let’s chat about that. These are the phones I absolutely recommend with Android Auto.

Any recent Nexus phone

This should come as no surprise, but Google’s phones work best with Google’s automotive initiative. I have never had an issue with the Nexus 6P. Or the Nexus 5X. Or the Nexus 6, back when I used it. (I can’t remember if I tried the original Nexus 5.) If I had to recommend just one phone to use with Android Auto, it’d be one of those.

The problem comes when a manufacturer does pretty much anything that interferes with the connection process. Some phones (and these are a blessed few) turn into app installers once you plug in. Others just do something … different … and Android Auto isn’t smart enough to compensate. (We’d argue that it shouldn’t have to, but that’s another thing for another day.

So if you want a phone that absolutely will work with Android Auto, get a Nexus. (Double points if you get a gold Nexus.

If not Nexus, look for something ‘stock-ish’

This one’s sort of a crapshoot. But we’ve generally found that phones that keep things as close to “stock” as possible do pretty well. That’s usually meant Motorola’s phones. (There have been exceptions though.) HTC has done pretty well, too. Beyond that it’s been a little hit and miss.

And just because something looks “stock” doesn’t mean there won’t be some wonkiness going on under the hood. But at the same time, we’ve had phones like the Huawei P9 — something you can’t even buy in the United States — work great. Go figure.

If you’re just dying to know whether a phone works with Android Auto, you should check out our AA forums. I post every phone I test in there, and if I haven’t tried it there’s a chance someone else has.

What about Samsung’s Galaxy phones?

Samsung sells more Android phones than anyone. They’re also more customized than just about anything out there. There’s good and bad news here. Take the Galaxy S7, for example. There are folks who have used it without issue. And then there are those of us who have never gotten the GS7 to work. Maybe it’s a software issue. Maybe there’s something inherent about the GS7 that doesn’t like the cable I’m using. I don’t know.

But I do know that there are 31 separate versions of the Galaxy S7 (worldwide). Some work. And some don’t. Again, I’ll point you to the forums.

We’ll update this post if and when something new and exciting comes our way. Stay tuned!

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!

Bloodhound’s land speed record attempt set for October 2017

The team behind the Bloodhound SSC, a supersonic car designed to beat the land speed record, has some good news and some bad news to share. First and foremost, it’s secured new funding, meaning the crew can reform (some engineers were forced to take short-term contracts elsewhere) and start preparing for the action in South Africa. The bad news is that the entire timeline for beating the record — currently 763MPH, set by the Thrust SSC in 1997 — has slipped yet again. A slow-speed test run will now take place in the UK next June, rather than later this year. The actual record attempt will be in October, not the April-May window stated before.

Engadget was able to see the Bloodhound car — or what had been built so far, at least — at London’s Canary Wharf last September. It’s a ferocious machine, measuring 13.4 meters in length and weighing roughly seven and a half tonnes. Most of that weight can be attributed to the car’s three-pronged power system: a Rolls-Royce EJ2000 jet engine, sourced from an RAF Eurofighter Typhoon, a cluster of Nammo hybrid rockets and a supercharged Jaguar V8 engine, which drives the rocket oxidiser pump. Together, they produce a whopping 135,000 brake horsepower.

The Bloodhound will be driven by RAF Wing Commander Andy Green, who set the previous record in the Thrust SSC. He’ll take on the title twice — the first, at 800MPH, will cement the car and its team as the new land speed record holders. A second attempt will be held later — sometime in 2018, according to the BBC — to see if the car can breach 1000MPH.

Before then, however, the team has some work to do. It wants to disassemble the car and create a “user manual” that can be referenced by its mechanics out in the desert. The crew will then rebuild and, where necessary, modify the vehicle before sending it to Cornwall for a 220MPH test run. “We’ve come through this difficult stage wiser, leaner and fitter,” Bloodhound project director Richard Noble said. “This is probably the biggest moment in the project’s history. Before, we could only see financially a few months ahead, but now we can put our foot down.”

Source: Bloodhound