At times, we all get stuck at our smartphone’s lock screen. It occurs when we forget and input a wrong password, pin or pattern. Thanks to the advancing technology, no one will ever get stuck again at lock screens; even the ones backed up by fingerprint readers. Nonetheless, lock screen security is still the favorite locking mechanism in many smartphones. In this guide, I will show you how to bypass a lock screen of the ever exquisite LG smartphone using different methods. Thanks to its operating system – Android, life is good indeed.

In 2012 at the Google I/O event, Google announced Android Jelly Bean on June 27th, and its release date followed on July 9th, 2012. During the Google I/O 2013, Google announced the release of Android Kitkat via the Google’s Official Blog on October 31, 2013. During the event at Google I/O 2014, the announcement of Android Lollipop occurred on October 15th, 2014. Afterward, its release was later during the year on November 12th, 2014 via the Google’s Official Blog. The yearly trend seems to be similar to Google’s announcement and release of higher versions of Android. It seems like history usually repeats itself. Hence, if we go by the history then there is expectations of Google to release the latest version of Android with the codename M in its upcoming event; Google I/O 2015 conference. The announcement could happen late this month of May since the developer conference begins on May 28th, 2015 and ends on 29th in Moscone Center West in San Francisco, CA. Its release is expected to happen later during the year between the end of October and early November.

Google has always named its previous versions of Androids after their sugary treats during the conference starting from Apple to the latest one Lollipop. Therefore, going by the company’s naming trends in history; individuals have started guessing what the next Codename M could be. Perhaps it could be Marshmallow, Mint, Mentos, Milkshake, M&M, MilkyWay, Macaron, Muffin, etc. Several individuals bet it would mostly be Marshmallow, but there’s no assurance yet; thus time will tell.

People have a lot of expectations about Google Android 6.0 Codenamed M. The first one is improved security; Android M may bring about a significant change in protecting the privacy of users. According to Android Headlines, Google might introduce Smart Lock to its next version of Android to enable users to keep their phones and details safe from unauthorized access. It would save the users from having to create passwords several times to secure their smartphones. Besides, the Smart Lock would ensure that the Android users can connect their phones to Bluetooth and NFC gadgets and remain unlocked, even though; the smartphones are connected to such devices. This would be a great way to save the users who rarely lock their phones. Additionally, there are anticipations that Android M might include a feature that can block apps from seeing the user’s contacts. For instance, users would choose either to let apps like Facebook access their locations, but deny them the access to their contacts. Isn’t this an achievement? Of course, it is and enhances the security of the users.

I switched from an Apple iPhone to Xiaomi Mi4 since past 4 months and I must say it is an excellent smartphone. Apart from power-packed hardware the Google Android 4.4 based MIUI6 ROM on the software front has been a big reason the phone is a huge success and is often compared to the likes of Apple iPhone 6 despite being cheaper almost three times to it. The company offers two versions of their official MIUI ROM - the "Stable Version" which comes pre-installed with Google services like "Google Play Store" and the "Development Version" which gets frequent updates, does not have Google services pre-installed, is tuned towards Chinese app-ecosystem but has the added advantage of being pre-rooted.

While I was enjoying my experience with the developer version of the ROM, last update MIUI6 v 5.2.13 broke Google services and re-installing using the usual "Google Installer" from the MIUI Appstore did not worked. This is when I decided to switch to the Stable version of the ROM and had to manually root my phone as shared below unlike the development version which comes pre-rooted.

A German company has sent out an press-release revealing their upcoming smartphone which is described as "high-end hardware for a mid-ranged price". Linshof i8 Smartphone is not only unconventionally designed as evident from the pictures posted below, but also packs a punch with awesome hardware and software combination coupled with affordable price.

Based on Google Android 5.0 (Lollipop) at core and a topping of hardware accelerated Linshof user-interface, the phone will have no added trialware, or in-phone advertisements for the fastest possible tweaked performance. The smartphone will be featuring a 5inch Full-HD (1920x1080) Super AMOLED touch display, Octa-core 2.1GHz CPU, 3GB RAM, 80GB of built-in flash storage, a 13 MP HD rear camera (28mm Wide-angle, fast low-light F1.8, Sony CMOS sensor) and 8 MP front camera, 3100mAh battery and the standard GPS, Bluetooth v4.0, electronic compass, gyroscope, HDMI 1.4 with 3D support, USB port, NFC and WiFi/ LTE (4G) wireless. The phone is scheduled for Q2 2015 release and will retail for US$380.

Disappointed with not only the design but overall package of the new Apple iPhone 6, I finally gave it a ditch and went for Xiaomi Mi4. The phone is not available in India but importing the device from HongKong costed me roughly $450 (Rs. 28000/-) and I am very satisfied to get such a brilliant phone for almost half the cost of an iPhone6.

Xiaomi phones are also known for their popular MiUI Android interface, and I installed the latest MiUI 6 Beta having Google Android 4.4.4 under the hood. MiUI 6 comes pre-installed with an excellent Security app which features an Anti-malware Scanner, System Cleaner, Data Monitor, Call/SMS Spam Blocker, Battery Manager and an excellent permission manager which lets you take control of which apps have root access and other permissions. Having Android allows you to do a lot more like LastPass Auto Login feature for applications, this however failed to work on MiUI6 and always timed-out as shown below, thankfully the fix was easy as instructed next.

One of the first thing any advanced user should do after installing Android on their mini-pc is to install an SSH Server to enable remote-access from a computer for faster and easier tweaking, one can simply opt for an free SSH Server app from Google Play like SSHelper for a no frill, click-n-install SSH access to your Android box. However, if you prefer a GUI-less access with FULL-ROOT privileges from both WinSCP and Putty follow the tutorial shard ahead.

One of the biggest advantage of Radxa Rock the quad-core mini-pc over Raspberry Pi is that it supports dual-booting with support for both Linux and Google Android. In last tutorial we configured Samba file-sharing on Ubuntu based Linaro Linux image on the Rock, and today I am going to share an excellent custom Google Android 4.4.2 KitKat ROM for Radxa Rock which works well with everything working out of the box.

If you are thinking why Android when we have a full-desktop OS like Linaro (based on Ubuntu) running on some powerful hardware, then the answer is because Linux still lacks Hardware Acceleration support for Mali-400 GPU on RK3188 based devices like Rock. An experimental Ubuntu Desktop release with OpenGL ES acceleration for Radxa Rock is released but it is still experimental and XBMC still does not work with it. Radxa has also released a preview image of Android 4.4 KitKat but once again it is also half-baked and lacks Root support, luckily we do have an alternative custom Android 4.4 ROM for Radxa ROCK with features like - stock 4.4.0 recovery, CWM 6.0.3.1 recovery, system ext4 support, selinux kernel, ethernet support, init.d support, gameloft compatible, USB-Hub enabled, gamepad compatible (PS2, XBox, …), pre-built kernel modules (cifs, tun, lan, serial, audio), latest hosts, su, su-binary and busybox, Reboot Menu, sEFix, FX Sound, File Manager HD 0root), Google Now and Nova Launcher.

Google Android 4.4 KitKat brings some changes which will definitely raise some eyebrows, specially with users who are touchy about their privacy. After amending their TOS which enables Google to use your photos in advertisements all across the web via Google Shared Endorsement, the company is now making your Google+ photo connected to your phone number which will be shown to any user on their Android mobile phone as Caller ID when they dial your phone number. Currently this "Smart Caller ID" feature which is now live on Android 4.4 shows caller ID photos pulled automatically from verified Google Places and Google Apps customer accounts. This feature will however get expended to include personal Google+ accounts in early 2014, after this expansion anyone with an verified phone number and discovery turned on in G+ profile will have their names and profile photos display on each others screen even if they have not exchanged/saved contact information. Thankfully, users can easily opt-out and disable this feature as shown below.

Google has unveiled the next version upgrade of their mobile operating-system "Android 4.4 KitKat" accompanied with new "Google Branded" flagship Android handset "Nexus 5". Powered by Android 4.4, stunning 5” 1080p display, Quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor, 2GB RAM, 4G/LTE and 8 MP camera with image stabilization - the Google Nexus 5 is without a doubt the best smartphone in it's price category.

On the software front Android 4.4 update is designed to run fast, smooth, and responsively on lower hardware specs like older devices with 512MB RAM and offer's a more polished design with many new features. Do watch the Nexus 5 and Android 4.4 First look video below.