Icons in the status bar of your Samsung Galaxy device aren't always intuitive, and seeing a dot flash in the corner of your screen can be worrying if you don't know what it means. While a lot of us have gotten used to the green dot and what it signals, those who have recently upgraded to One UI 9 may have started to notice a blue dot as well.

Google does a good job of walking you through your phone during the initial setup. From choosing your language and region to copying data from your previous phone and signing in to your Google accounts, the setup process is meticulously detailed and easy to follow. What's not explained explicitly or concisely, however, is the meaning of all those little icons nestled in your Android phone's status bar.

I've never been a big fan of physical keyboards on phones, but I decided to give one a try earlier this year. The experiment didn't last long. The phone has been collecting dust on my desk for months — until I turned it into a Game Boy.

Running a capable language model entirely offline used to mean owning a powerful desktop. That assumption no longer holds. On my hardware, a phone app from Google runs the same model noticeably faster than Ollama does on my PC, and the reasons are more interesting than you might expect.

The Android status bar has been largely unchanged since the very beginning. Consistency is great, but so is adapting to modern needs. Some of the icons in the status bar have never been useful to me. Let's clean things up.

Getting to my destination using Google Maps is only half the job. I still need to find parking, track fuel expenses, and decide which stops are worth making on a road trip.

Wireless earbuds are meant to make life easier. You pop them in, connect them to your phone, and get on with your day. The last thing you expect is for a tiny pair of earbuds to become uncomfortably hot while you're wearing them. Yet overheating Galaxy Buds have become a pretty big concern, with many users experiencing the problem, and Samsung even offering some official advice on what you should do.

I use Android Auto almost every day, and a few things about it drive me absolutely nuts. My wireless connection drops out, message notifications interrupt my music, Gemini struggles with commands, and some apps I want aren’t even on the launcher.

I’ve always been a Samsung fangirl, so it’s not like I needed convincing to love its phones. But One UI 9 has given me a few more reasons to appreciate them. I love exploring my Galaxy’s settings, and One UI 9 has a few new features that could save me an extra 10 minutes a day to enjoy my evening walk instead of fiddling with my phone. Here are five One UI 9 features that got me excited about Samsung phones all over again.

Remember when gaming meant blowing into cartridges, mastering tricky platforming levels, and staying up late to finish just one more stage? Some of the greatest games ever made came from the golden age of consoles like the Sega Genesis, original PlayStation, and Xbox.

Pixel phones built their reputation on photos that looked better than their hardware should allow. Five years after the Pixel 6 Pro, that edge feels thinner, so it’s worth asking whether Pixel cameras are actually slipping or the competition simply sprinted ahead.

My smart home has a lot of complicated automations, many of which have their own quirks. When guests visit, they just want to be able to do simple things like turning on the lights, watching TV, or turning up the heating. I decided to turn an old Android phone into a dedicated guest remote that's simple enough for anyone to use.

Google Keep is where I dump everything I need to remember. Grocery items, article ideas, errands, and random thoughts all end up in different notes. Finding anything later is a whole other problem.

Driving is my stress-relief activity. I’m the kind of nerd who actually enjoys checking stats and reports, so naturally, I wanted to see what my driving looks like on paper.

As Apple gears up for its Pro and Tell event tomorrow, the brand has launched the iPad Mini. It’s the biggest overhaul the tablet has received, arriving two years after the previous model debuted in 2024. The timing is interesting—if you’ve been eyeing the new iPhone Duo that can be used as a slab phone and a tablet, the iPad Mini offers another way to get a larger display in a thinner profile without spending nearly as much.

I use Google Assistant when I’m driving, planning my day, or trying to remember something before it slips my mind. I can ask it to message someone, find an answer, or remind me about a task without breaking my flow.

I regularly need to move files between my Linux PC and my Android phone, but there are surprisingly few good options. You can manually attach your phone to the PC, email the files to yourself, or use a cloud storage service, but those options are either clunky or involve more steps than I'd like. KDE Connect is great for transferring a few files now and then, but it isn't designed as a sync program.

I almost switched to another navigation app because Google Maps was starting to feel a little too basic for my daily drives. I use it to get around Ahmedabad, find new places, and dodge traffic when I’m running late.

Linux on phones has spent years as a hobbyist curiosity. One project has quietly matured into something you can actually install and use. Ubuntu Touch isn’t perfect, but it balances polish, hardware support and a steady update path better than any rival.

Google wants Android phones to connect seamlessly to Googlebooks. Meanwhile, Samsung and Motorola both offer apps that pair phones with Windows PCs. What about Linux? The tech giants won’t help you make your phone and Linux PC work together smoothly, but other app developers have stepped in to fill the gap.