Are you curious about the long history of mobile phones? Here’s your chance to feed that curiosity it in less than a minute, as HTC takes us on a memory trip down the smartphone lane. The descriptions on the “Evolution of the Smartphone” infographic are full of witty remarks and some pop culture reference. You’re bound to learn some interesting facts. For instance, brick phones of the ‘90s were nothing compared to the first mobile phone back in the old day — as in 1922 old — that required the strange combo of a fire hydrant and an umbrella to work.

I’m sure you’re all familiar with the complaint that smartphone batteries just don’t seem to last long enough, offering only a few hours of screen-on time before running out. While quick charge technologies are helping to sidestep the problem, what we really need is extra capacity in our gadget-sized battery cells. Fortunately, Sony is one of a growing list of companies that is working on improving battery capacities. According to a report from Nikkei, Sony plans to introduce a new high capacity battery in 2020 that should last 40 percent longer than lithium ion batteries currently on the market.

Your smartphone is capable of hearing ultrasonic waves, even though humans can’t hear these frequencies. Now, researchers have used this capability to hack Google Assistant and Siri on smartphones. A team at Washington University in St Louis successfully used guided ultrasonic waves to trick the voice assistants into performing various actions (h/t: Vice). These actions include placing calls, taking pictures, retrieving passcodes in text messages, and adjusting volume. Furthermore, the smartphones were simply placed on tables, with the ultrasonic waves being transmitted via this solid surface.

Surely, many of us have spent countless hours solving murders using the classic Clue board game. It was a must-have for Sundays with friends and family. Everything is going digital now, though. Forget about losing all those small pieces, Clue is now available for Android and you can get it straight from the Google Play Store. The concept is the same. Roll the die to move around the mansion and find out who committed the murder, which weapon was used and where the incident happened.

There is no denying that Google Assistant is a fantastic virtual assistant with some useful features and very natural interactions. From checking facts on the web, to setting timers, to launching apps, to sending messages, it can help make life easier in a myriad of ways. But that’s not to say it’s perfect. There are some features that many would like to see come to Google Assistant. Good news! With just a little effort and no real coding chops, you can actually create your own apps and features from scratch with Actions on Google.

One of the culprits that rapidly drain an Android phone’s battery is the Wi-Fi, which, once activated, keeps on draining your precious battery power whether it gets a signal or not. The battery power that gets wasted for that function could have simply been used to give you more minutes to listen to your favorite music or make an important call. You can deal with this problem by adjusting the screen brightness or simply by turning your Wi-Fi off.

Harley Maranan / Android Authority ☕ Good morning! Welcome to March! MWC 2022 hits the second official day, with a few less front-loaded announcements, and a chance to really scour the booths and exhibitions on show here. We’re keeping the live blog updated, here. Honor’s Magic 4 series, Magic V on showHarley Maranan / Android Authority Honor’s big launch yesterday was for its Honor Magic 4 series, with the Magic 4 Pro and the Magic 4 packing some very high-end spec sheets that match the best Android flagships so far in 2022.

What is Frequency? Imagine if YouTube and cable television had a baby. That baby would be Frequency. Frequency is an application that can be described as an RSS feed for video. It compiles sources from around the internet to create a near-constant stream of news video from sources like YouTube, The Wall Street Journal, TED, CNN, Android Authority, and others.Here’s how it works. You open the app, select a video to play, and then watch it.

Not all that long ago Google introduced a beta testing program for its Google App on Android, allowing interested folks to preview new features and tweaks before they rolled out to the general public. The app has seen a few notable improvements over the last few months, and today’s update brings back some familiar functionality that will definitely make some users happy. In an update that’s rolling out now, version 5.

You may recall back when Google unleashed their AI engine on image databases and encouraged it to “fill in the gaps” in pictures by trying to pick out familiar images in the content. After many iterations, Deep Dream conjured up trippy interpretations of images crawling with eyeballs and animal heads. Inspired by witnessing computers undergo their first LSD trip, Google team members like Douglas Eck decided to assemble a new team called Magenta that will attempt to make creative artificial intelligences.