Fossify Brings Free and Open-Source Utilities to Your Android Phone

Cloud storage makes backing up data from a phone a seamless experience for most people. However, from privacy concerns to internet speed requirements, there are reasons to prefer a local backup. The cool thing is you don't even need to connect to a PC to do it—just use a hard drive.

For two of my last three phones, I've gone out of my way to select one that comes with a stylus. The same is true of my last two tablets. Like gaming with a wireless gamepad, there are certain tasks that are just more pleasant with the right kit.

The battery is usually the first component to wear down on smartphones, and as new phones keep getting released, battery repairs are still usually eexpensive. Insurance plans like AppleCare+ and Samsung's own Samsung Care+ can make that more affordable in the long term, and now Samsung's service is adding unlimited battery repairs, in exchange for a slight price bump.

Microsoft and OpenAI are teaming up for a monumental data-center project that is estimated to cost a staggering $100 billion. Central to this initiative is the development of an advanced artificial intelligence supercomputer dubbed "Stargate," as per reports. 

Apple announced yesterday that it will be hosting its highly anticipated WWDC 2024 event on June 10 to announce iOS 18 and a bunch of other updates for its entire product line. We have previously covered that WWDC 2024 will be special this year as it will be the perfect venue for Apple to announce its long-rumored AI features to the world for the iPhone, Mac, iPad, and additional products. However, Apple will not launch its own ChatGPT-like chatbot with the release of iOS 18 later this year.

It's taken much longer than expected but Microsoft is finally bringing keyboard and mouse (KBM) support to certain Xbox Cloud Gaming titles. We first heard that the company planned to do so in March 2022 and it was suggested that the option might be available by that June, but evidently that did not happen. It's only now that Microsoft is starting to let testers on the Alpha Skip-Ahead ring check out KBM functions on web browsers (Edge and Chrome) and the Xbox PC app. The feature should be available more broadly soon.

The next version of Android is closer than we think. Android 14 was just released late last year, but Google is already working on what's next, with Android 15 now being in an early stage of testing. If you don't mind very broken software, you can install the next OS on your Android phone and see how it fares. Now, Google has just released the second developer preview of Android 15, and it'll be a bigger release than we initially thought.

Android has a huge, huge problem with platform segmentation, which is made even worse by some apps. Some app developers don't really care that much about targeting newer Android versions, or at least not immediately, thinking that it's not a priority. The problem is even worse considering there's a lot of apps being used today that still target ancient Android versions, with Google doing little to nothing to prevent it. Now, with Android 15, Google is going to tighten up things for developers.

Stardew Valley's Eric Barone says he's "eager" to get back to working on Haunted Chocolatier, but is focused on the farming game's 1.6 update for now. 

Valve have launched Steam Families on the Steam Beta Client, a suite of new and refreshed family sharing options that replace Steam's existing Family Sharing and Family View features. The idea is that you'll now have a single location where you can manage your family's games from, as well as have more control over what and when other family members can play.

Many of us yearn for the best flagship smartphones that manufacturers can make, but their prices are increasingly hard to justify. This begs the question: what exactly do we lose out on when we opt for a budget phone instead?

AMD has finally made its HIP Ray-Tracing library an open-source asset, allowing developers to incorporate RT capabilities into applications and leverage them.