Technology

Android 101: how to tweak your multitasking pane

Published

3 years ago

March 9, 2022

Android 101: how to tweak your multitasking pane

As of Android 10, we’ve been in a position to decide on other ways to entry your multitasking pane — that useful move of thumbnails that lets us view all our energetic apps, select which one you need to use, and swipe off any you need to shut — and to navigate your own home display. Till then, we principally navigated Android screens utilizing buttons on the backside of the display. Since then, we’ve been in a position to both swipe to navigate or decide to proceed utilizing those self same buttons.

For those who’ve obtained Android 10 or 11, you may select from three strategies: gesture navigation, two-button navigation, or three-button navigation. When Android 12 got here round, two-button navigation disappeared, however you may nonetheless swap between gesture and three-button navigation. Right here’s how you alter find out how to navigate by means of your own home display and entry your multitasking pane.

Pull down from the highest of the display to entry your app drawer, and faucet in your setup icon (the cog within the decrease proper nook)

When you have Android 11, choose “Accessibility” > “System navigation”
When you have Android 10 or 12, choose “System” > “Gestures” > “System navigation”
When you have Android 10 or 11, choose both “Gesture navigation,” “2-button navigation,” or “3-button navigation.” When you have Android 12, choose “Gesture navigation” or “3-button navigation.”

Now right here’s an outline of the distinction between the three strategies.

Gesture navigation

That is the “swipe” technique launched in Android 10 and the one which Google appears to be most anxious that individuals use. With gesture navigation, you don’t get the outdated again, residence, and swap apps buttons on the backside of the show. As a substitute, all you’ll see on the backside of the display is a single flat line. Swipe up and maintain, and also you’ll get the multitasking pane with all of your open apps. You may then swipe back and forth to entry them.

When you’ve obtained the multitasking panel up, you may faucet on the icon on the high of every app web page to get a drop-down menu that permits you to entry the app’s information web page and open the app in a split-screen format. Relying on the app, you could possibly entry different options as effectively; for instance, when you’re operating a video, you may pause it from right here.

In Android 11, two hyperlinks had been added under the multitasking pane: Screenshot and Choose. Faucet Screenshot, and also you’ll get a screenshot of no matter app web page you’re at present taking a look at. Faucet Choose, and all of the textual content on that app web page shall be chosen so that you can copy, share, or search by means of.

2-button navigation

For those who nonetheless have Android 10, this provides you two icons on the backside of the display: a brief, thick line that stands in for the Residence button and a again button to the left. Swipe up on the house button, and you may entry the identical multitasking pane with the drop-down menus that may be accessed on the high of every app.

Nevertheless, in Android 11, you don’t get the “Screenshot” / “Choose” buttons beneath the panes. As a substitute, as in Android 10, you get a Google search discipline on the backside of the display together with icons for 5 apps.

As talked about earlier than, Android 12 doesn’t provide 2-button navigation.

3-button navigation

That is the old style method to navigate, with the again, residence, and swap apps buttons on the backside of the show. Use the right-hand “swap apps” icon to carry up the multitasking pane. You continue to have the drop-down menus out there above every app, and in Android 11 and 12, you have got the Screenshot and Choose hyperlinks under.

Replace March ninth, 2022, 5:00PM ET: This text was initially printed on October 1st, 2020, and has been up to date to incorporate Android 12.

Technology

Leak: AMD’s Ryzen 9000X3D chips aren’t looking like a leap forward

Published

24 mins ago

October 11, 2024

Press Room

Leak: AMD’s Ryzen 9000X3D chips aren’t looking like a leap forward

According to slides from an MSI presentation published by HardwareLuxx today (via VideoCardz), the new chips may have respectable multicore performance gen-over-gen, with an eight-core 9000X3D outperforming a Ryzen 7 7900X3D by up to 28 percent in Cinebench R23. But they can offer as little as 2 percent gains in Black Myth: Wukong and Shadow of the Tomb Raider, according to MSI’s preliminary testing.

And against the vanilla Ryzen 9000 series, MSI found that X3D performance was so close as to practically be the same. MSI does note that “Performance is expected to be better on PR samples and retail chips,” though.

At the same CPU frequency, MSI believes Ryzen 9000X3D performance is the same as with non-X3D chips.

Image: HardwareLuxx

It’s not clear whether HardwareLuxx broke an embargo or whether MSI might be responsible for the leak — strangely, it appears that section of the presentation was mostly about Intel’s new Core Ultra 200S chips, and it’s not clear why unreleased AMD chips would be part of that section. The presentation shows that MSI’s discussion of Intel chips was embargoed to October 10th.

Technology

New Social Media Networking Platform Puts The Focus On Authenticity

Published

40 mins ago

October 11, 2024

Press Room

New Social Media Networking Platform Puts The Focus On Authenticity

Has social media run it’s course? Not likely. Apps like TikTok, Facebook, and Linkedin more popular than ever. But with fewer people finding it useful and a flurry of mental health-related lawsuits, some users are complaining those big platforms just aren’t keeping up with the times, especially when it comes to workplace networking platforms, which are being criticized for not adjusting for new post-covid workplace realities. Now social media networking is getting a big makeover, with a new focus on user authenticity.

Krishna Dosapati, the CEO of newly-launched networking site Clockout, says the de-coupling between big tech and young professionals is becoming obvious. “You have an entire generation of people who are joining the workforce at a time where everyone is working from home,” she told Fox News. “Meetings are taking over zoom. And so people are really, really isolated.”

And that’s creating a growing need for authenticity when it comes to online networking. New apps like Clockout are now stressing real-life connections, with users able to create their own industry-based social clubs. More than a thousand have been started so far, with about 40,000 users attending live, in-person events. Dosapati says the key is combining old fashioned social gatherings with high-tech networking, especially with a recent survey showing up to 85 percent of all jobs are filled through personal connections, either virtually or in-person.

“We make the interface so fun and organic and the focus is those connections rather than posts or likes or anything like that, she says, adding that when she sees someone she wants to connect with on Clockout, “it’s very organic for me to say, Hey, like, I see you’re a founder, you’re in New York, do you want to grab a coffee? And that sparks a really authentic and organic conversation. And that allows me to form a real connection with that other person that other platforms just don’t focus on.”

And it appears to be working; Clockout says it has a long waitlist of people waiting to get approved for the platform. It’s just one example of how social media is evolving to help professionals build community through authentic interactions.

Technology

How to lock any app with Face ID on an iPhone using iOS 18

Published

9 hours ago

October 11, 2024

Press Room

How to lock any app with Face ID on an iPhone using iOS 18

Having to hand your iPhone over to someone can be a fairly common occurrence. Maybe your little nephew wants to play a game or your friend wants to check out the photos from your last vacation. Whatever the reason, no matter how much you trust that person, there are probably parts of your phone that you’d rather they didn’t see (even accidentally).

That’s where the new Face ID lock in iOS 18 comes in: you can now get your iPhone to ask for biometric authentication whenever a particular app is launched. (While we refer to Face ID throughout this article, if you’re on an older phone with Touch ID, you can use that instead.) This means your friend or family member can’t dive straight into your private chat conversations or your current dating app of choice.

If you’re thinking, “I’m sure I could lock apps with Face ID before iOS 18,” you’re right — up to a point. The technology was available, but it was up to app developers to implement it. And for the most part, outside of banking and financial apps, we haven’t seen many developers add Face ID logins. (With some exceptions, such as Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp.)

Lock apps in iOS 18

What’s new after the rollout of iOS 18 is that any app can be locked using Face ID, whether or not the developer has built in support for the feature. Games, chat apps, social media — anything can now be protected with a Face ID login.

This comes with another feature: the option to hide apps. This is available for any third-party app but not apps installed with iOS 18. Hidden apps aren’t shown on the homescreens and have their own Hidden folder in the App Library. You also won’t get any notifications from hidden apps, so keep that in mind.

You can lock and unlock apps from the homescreen or from the App Library:

1/5

Long-press on an app icon to bring up the app menu.

Screenshot: Apple

Long-press on an app icon to bring up the app menu.
Tap Require Face ID to lock the app with Face ID.
The following pop-up menu will ask you to confirm by again tapping Require Face ID.
Alternatively, on the second menu, you can tap Hide and Require Face ID to lock the app with Face ID and hide it from your homescreens.
If you select to hide the app, you will be reminded that the app will only be available in the App Library and that you will no longer receive “notifications, calls, or critical alerts” from the app.

Whenever any app locked in this way is launched, Face ID approval will be required to actually open in, which means no one but you will be able to get in.

To remove the Face ID restriction, just repeat the long press on the app to get to its menu. If you chose to hide the app, you’ll need to open the Hidden folder in the App Library to get to the options again. In addition, you’ll have to replace the icon on your homescreen — it won’t automatically reappear on the same page it was on before.

Stay in a single app with Guided Access

Lock your iPhone to a specific app with Guided Access.

Screenshot: Apple

Once you open the app, you can now activate Guided Access.

Screenshot: Apple

There is one more trick you can use if you’re lending someone your phone: set up the iOS accessibility feature Guided Access so the other person is only able to use one app or game on the device.

The feature can be enabled from iOS Settings:

Tap Accessibility and Guided Access.
Turn on the Guided Access toggle switch.
Tap Passcode Settings to set a custom passcode or to enable Face ID.

Head to the app your friend or family member wants to use and launch Guided Access by triple-pressing on the power button and choosing Guided Access and then Start.

The navigation bar disappears, and there’s no way to switch to the homescreens or any other app. The only way out of Guided Access is to triple-press on the power button again — at which point Face ID authentication (or your custom passcode) is required.

Through Face ID lock or Guided Access — or a combination of both — you should be able to lend out your iPhone without worrying what other people are up to on it.