Latest news with #CalvinWankhede
Android Authority
4 days ago
- Android Authority
This tiny Gmail change will make it easier to manage your inbox on Android
Calvin Wankhede / Android Authority TL;DR Gmail for Android is testing a new 'mark as read' button directly within its notifications, letting users manage their inbox without opening the app. The feature appears to be undergoing A/B testing with a small number of users, as it's not widely available despite being on the latest app version. This potential addition would bring Gmail's Android app in line with its iOS counterpart and other email clients that already offer this convenient shortcut. If your email inbox gets flooded with messages each day, it can be a chore to go through them all. One way to efficiently deal with this influx is to mark some emails as 'read,' keeping them in your inbox without distracting you from more important matters. After all, you can often tell if an email needs your immediate attention just from the sender, subject line, and the first few lines of the message. Unfortunately, if you use Gmail for Android and want to mark an email as read, you have to open the app, as there's no shortcut in the notification to do it. Thankfully, that could change soon. Earlier today, X user Kurt Gomez notified us that he was seeing a 'mark as read' button in his Gmail notifications. He told us that the button only appeared for one of his accounts, suggesting the feature is rolling out on an account-by-account basis. He also confirmed he's on the latest version of Gmail for Android, version 2025.06.15. I have the same version installed, but I don't see the 'mark as read' button for any of my accounts. Gmail notification without mark as read button Gmail notification with mark as read button Besides our tipster, we've only seen one other person report a 'mark as read' button in Gmail. Another X user, Gilroy, also claimed to have the button but didn't share a screenshot or specify their app version. With so few reports, it's likely Google is A/B testing the feature with a small group of users to gauge engagement. This feature will likely be popular, however, as it's commonly found in other Android email apps and is already available in Gmail for iOS. If you see the new 'mark as read' button in your Gmail notifications, let us know in the comments below! If you don't have the feature yet, you could try an app called AutoNotification. It can replace Gmail's notifications with custom ones that include a 'read' button. Otherwise, you'll have to stick with the old methods for marking an email as read. You can either open the email directly (from either the notification or the inbox) or use a swipe gesture, provided you've configured that action in Gmail's settings. Hopefully Google will continue to add more quality-of-life features like this to the Gmail app for Android. While some of the new AI features in Gmail are nice, I'd much prefer the company work on implementing the basics, like the ability to edit filters and labels. Got a tip? Talk to us! Email our staff at Email our staff at news@ . You can stay anonymous or get credit for the info, it's your choice.
Android Authority
6 days ago
- Automotive
- Android Authority
This $15 Raspberry Pi hack fixed my car's biggest Android Auto annoyance
Calvin Wankhede / Android Authority Android Auto turned ten years old this year, and most automakers have adopted it by now. But unless you drive a car from the past couple of years, chances are that it does not support wireless Android Auto. A good number of vehicles require a wired USB connection to establish a connection with your phone every single time you need to use Android Auto. That's not a big hassle, but I find it a bit annoying to plug in on shorter trips or when I'm running errands. Luckily, a simple USB dongle like the AAWireless TWO dongle is all you need to make that wired connection wireless. That dongle works well enough, and is reasonably priced at $65, but I recently found out that you can make your own for a fraction of the cost. And after driving around with one such DIY wireless Android Auto adapter for two weeks now, I'm left wondering why I didn't try it sooner. The experience is nearly on par with wired and best of all, it only costs $15 and a few minutes of your time. A wireless Android Auto adapter for just $15 Andy Walker / Android Authority The appeal of wireless Android Auto is rather straightforward: you hop in your car, push the ignition, and your phone automatically connects within seconds. You don't have to worry about fumbling in the dark or keeping unsightly cables tidy. My car's USB ports are in a rather conspicuous position, and I don't like how cables run alongside the gear selector. A wireless Android Auto dongle circumvents all of this, allowing you to tuck a device into the USB port and forget about it. The DIY solution I ended up with involves using a Raspberry Pi configured to act as a wireless bridge between my phone and the car's infotainment system. The Pi is a small, low-power computer that connects over Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to my phone. It draws power from the car's USB port and passes Android Auto data to the infotainment system over it. The car thinks the phone is plugged in, and the Raspberry Pi is entirely transparent. All of this is possible thanks to an open-source project — descriptively titled WirelessAndroidAutoDongle. You can find detailed instructions on how to set it up below, but first, how well does it work in the real world? How well does the DIY dongle work? Calvin Wankhede / Android Authority While a DIY solution may sound unreliable, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Pi-based wireless Android Auto dongle worked almost flawlessly. Every single time the car starts up, my phone connects to the dongle automatically. The initial handshake takes place over Bluetooth, but the phone then connects to the Raspberry Pi's Wi-Fi Direct network for a more stable connection. The car doesn't seem to know the difference and over the two weeks that I used it, I faced no unexpected Android Auto disconnections or drop-outs. Music and navigation worked well, even simultaneously with a split-screen view. The interface did not skip a beat either. Users of older dongles like the Moto MA1 have long complained of laggy performance and intermittent audio stutters. No such problems here — navigation worked flawlessly even when I received a phone call, and the music always resumed immediately after the call. Music, navigation, phone calls, and text-to-speech worked flawlessly, even completely wireless. Having said that, I did notice inconsistent performance in one area: Google Assistant voice commands. Basic commands like navigating to a particular location and notification readouts worked fine, but replying to text messages was sometimes a hit and miss experience. It worked fine about half the time but sometimes left me waiting for a long time after I dictated a response. Discussions on the project's Github page suggest that this issue might be linked to the particular Raspberry Pi I used — a more powerful model may not have this problem. Or it could be my car's infotainment display because the issue does not seem to affect everyone. Unlike the AAWireless Two, the DIY dongle does not have a companion smartphone app. This is not a big deal — the AAWireless app has limited settings anyway, but it also means you cannot delete or re-order smartphone connection priorities. After pairing two phones to the Raspberry Pi, both would compete to connect every time I entered the car. This can get annoying quickly if you take turns driving with your partner. Commercial dongles have a push button to quickly switch between paired devices, but the DIY dongle lacks one. The only way to work around this is to disable Bluetooth on the phone that you don't want to connect to the dongle. Aside from occasional slow voice recognition, the DIY dongle lacks a way to quickly switch between paired devices. These two annoyances aside, I had a nearly flawless experience with the DIY dongle. Android Auto does take slightly longer to pop up than the wired method, but it's still a tolerable 30 seconds. This cannot be sped up since the Raspberry Pi needs to boot up a lightweight Linux OS every time it's powered on. But this is also true of commercial dongles like the AAWireless TWO. Setting up the DIY wireless Android Auto dongle Calvin Wankhede / Android Authority If you're sold on the idea of making your own wireless Android Auto dongle, the good news is that you only need a $15 Raspberry Pi and a microSD card. The cheapest model you can get away with is the Pi Zero 2 W, but you could also use the Pi 4 or Pi 3 A+. Older models don't support USB OTG functionality. Next, you'll need to flash the adapter software onto a microSD card using a computer. Here's how: Insert a microSD card into your PC or Mac, either directly or using an adapter. You don't need much storage — I used an old 8GB card. Download an image flashing tool like balenaEtcher and the pre-built SD card image from the Wireless Android Auto Dongle Github page. Open balenaEtcher, click on 'Flash from file' and browse to the image you downloaded in the previous step. Click on 'Select target' and pick the microSD card you inserted earlier. Hit Flash and wait for the process to complete. Once flashed, you can eject the microSD card from your computer and insert it into the Raspberry Pi. With the image loaded onto the Pi, it's ready for the car. But first, make sure that you've connected to your car's Android Auto in wired mode at least once. After that, you can disconnect your phone and connect the Raspberry Pi to the car instead. On the Pi Zero, you'll need to use the microUSB port that's labelled USB — not power. Assuming the car is running and the Pi is powered, head into your phone's Bluetooth settings and search for a device named WirelessAADongle-*. Connect to it and accept the prompt to connect to the Pi's Wi-Fi network. You should now see Android Auto pop up on your car's display. Once paired, your phone will automatically connect to the Pi every time the head unit starts up. And from then on, you never have to plug in your phone for Android Auto again — except maybe to keep the battery topped up on longer drives.
Android Authority
14-06-2025
- Android Authority
I found a simple toggle to get rid of ads in my Gmail inbox, and I can't recommend it enough
Calvin Wankhede / Android Authority I hate nothing more than advertising online that blends into the rest of the content. That's especially true when it shows up in places where I least expect it, like my email inbox. In the Gmail app, the biggest offender is the 'Sponsored' emails pictured above. These ads often show up like a regular message and look almost the same as any other email — sender, subject line, and all. Some ads are even worse and take up significant real estate to show you product images and prices. As you'd expect from a free service like Gmail, there's no way to disable ads directly unless you shell out for a Google Workspace subscription. But what if I told you that there's a workaround built into Gmail that allows you to get rid of those pesky ads once and for all? Better yet, the solution works across both, mobile apps and desktop, and doesn't require installing any third-party extensions. Let me explain. Gmail's ads only show up in one place Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority To get rid of ads within Gmail, it's worth taking a look at where you're most likely to encounter them: the Promotions tab. Google's email service uses a system called Inbox Categories to separate your email into various tabs: Primary, Promotions, Social, Updates, and sometimes Forums. These categories are enabled by default and are pitched as a way to help you deal with inbox clutter. While these categories may look convenient on paper, they hide a secret: the Promotions tab is where you will find the majority of Gmail's advertisements, if not all of them. The top of the Promotions tab typically houses at least three 'Sponsored' emails and you will find even more after scrolling through a few of your actual messages. Disabling one setting is enough to get rid of sneaky ads within Gmail. Surprisingly, turning off these Sponsored emails in Gmail is as easy as disabling Inbox Categories altogether — detailed instructions below. This setting change causes Gmail to revert to a single, unified inbox. Without the Promotions tab, you won't see any more sponsored messages slotted above your emails. As you'd expect, the biggest downside is that Gmail will no longer send your emails into discrete buckets, and everything will show up in your primary inbox. If you rely on Inbox Categories, this may not be an option for you. But since I try to maintain a zero-inbox lifestyle by reading, deleting, or snoozing emails as they arrive, the lack of categories doesn't bother me much. How to disable Inbox Categories Calvin Wankhede / Android Authority Gmail first introduced Inbox Categories in the early 2010s, and the feature is turned on by default on all accounts. To disable it within the Android app, open the Gmail app and find the app's settings at the bottom of the hamburger menu. Next, select the email address you'd like to change the setting for and navigate to the Inbox categories section. Here, you can turn off one or multiple categories. Of course, the one we care about at minimum is Promotions. On the desktop version of Gmail, the process is a bit different. Click on the gear icon at the top-right corner of the screen to open the Settings sidebar. Next, scroll down to the 'Inbox type' section, select the Default view, and click on Customize. Unselect Promotions and any other categories you wish to remove, and hit Save. Once you save this setting, simply return to your inbox and trigger a reload. You should see all of your promotional emails under your primary inbox now, except without any interspersed ads. This setting syncs across all of your devices, so you don't need to repeat it. Admittedly, this tweak isn't for everyone. If you rely on the Promotions tab to batch-delete marketing emails once a week, removing categories might shift all of that clutter into your main inbox. But if you already check all your tabs regularly or prefer full control, it's worth it. The good news is that you can always go back if you end up disliking the change.
Android Authority
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Android Authority
This forgotten Google app let me explore Tokyo like an open world game, and it's surreal
Calvin Wankhede / Android Authority When I'm planning a trip to a new destination, I try to get a feel for the place before I leave — especially if I'm going abroad. Not that I'm trying to mitigate culture shock, but it's helpful to know what the areas I'm visiting actually look like. I prefer knowing how walkable the area around my hotel is and what kind of restaurants are nearby ahead of time. Google Maps is of course my first choice for this task, and I've spent hours mindlessly tapping away. But there's a better way. Nearly a decade ago, Google quietly released an app that lets you roam around the entire world and actually feel like you're standing in it. I'm talking about Google Earth VR, an app designed for the first generation of PC headsets but still works on modern hardware. It may not be the most accessible version of Google Earth, but it's a one-of-a-kind experience that has stuck with me and still offers first-person perspective immersion like nothing else out there. Google Earth, but you're the main character What makes Google Earth VR so special? The app wastes no time to demonstrate — the welcome tour opens with you suspended high above the Arches National Park in Utah at the crack of dawn. Press a button and time accelerates until the sun rises fully and the red rocks beneath are bathed in a warm glow. You get a few seconds to gaze at this endless vista surrounding you, but it's not long before you're dropped in the middle of Tokyo and surrounded by tall buildings instead. Finally, it shuttles you through a series of notable landmarks around the world, each at different times of day. By the end of the tour, you're familiarized with the controls and left to explore. This is where Google Earth VR shines — you can fly yourself up to float above entire countries or shrink down to ground level and strain your neck to see the top of super tall buildings. You have the option to rotate the world around you, change perspectives, or gradually drift through a city like a drone. It's all smooth movement and you always feel like you're in control. Google Earth VR lets you stand in the middle of a dense city or fly through it like a drone. The Earth VR app also really comes into its own when you're in a city where Google has collected detailed 3D imagery like Tokyo, New York, and Paris. Scale yourself down to street level and it feels like you're physically there, just without the crowds or traffic around you. But even the best photogrammetry looks like an AI-generated mess when you're within spitting distance of it. Buildings turn mushy, cars look melted, and fine detail disappears. Luckily then, the folks at Google employed a genius solution — moving a controller up to your head switches you into Street View. There's no better way to explain it than to say it's like standing in a Street View photo. You're at human height, free to look around with your head naturally. Better yet, you can teleport a few feet at a time to the next street view image or cross the street to see a different perspective. You can 'walk' through an entire city this way, ironically emulating an open world game. Street View in VR: A game changer for travel If you're unable to travel due to mobility limitations, Google Earth VR might be the closest alternative out there — and not in a gimmicky way. It offers a level of presence that flat screens simply can't match. From your own home, you can stand at the base of the Eiffel Tower, hover over the Golden Gate Bridge, or drift above the Sydney Opera House. The app includes a built-in list of famous landmarks that you can visit instantly. Even better, you're not stuck with whatever lighting conditions the real world had when the imagery was captured. With a flick of your wrist, you can rotate the sun's position in the sky to change the time of day, casting long shadows from buildings or nailing the desolate look in a desert at midnight. Google Earth VR lets you visit real world addresses, pop into Street View, and move around in human scale. But even as a frequent traveler, Google Earth VR is incredibly handy. This is because it lets you input any address, just like the Maps app on your phone, so you can quickly zero in on a particular location. If I want to see what the walk from my hotel to the subway looks like for my upcoming trip, I can simply fly down to the ground level and enter Street View. I did exactly this before leaving for Malaysia last year and walking around in Street View helped me realize that the city was far more car-centric than its Asian neighbors. It also helped me realize that one route to my hotel was much more accessible than another. With this information, I picked a different mode of transport that required some more walking but didn't force me to cross an eight-lane road. Of course, you can't get a true feel of the neighborhood without live traffic or pedestrian activity — this sadly isn't Microsoft Flight Simulator with its moving cars. But you can still glean a lot about a place just by looking for clues in the environment. Are shops open during the day? Is the sidewalk well maintained? The list goes on. For even the fundamentals of trip planning, Google Earth VR beats passively browsing maps on a phone. And even though the app hasn't received any major updates over the years, it pulls the latest Street View images from Google's servers. Any businesses or storefronts you see in the app, you will likely still encounter in the real world. See the Earth before Google sunsets it forever Calvin Wankhede / Android Authority I first tried Google Earth VR years ago on an original Oculus Rift, back when true virtual reality was still a novelty and required drilling three infrared cameras into my wall. Still, the sense of scale and freedom it offered was impressive. But I more or less forgot about it — until I picked up a Meta Quest 3 last year and decided to revisit my old Oculus game library. Google Earth VR doesn't run natively on the Quest, though. You'll need a VR-capable PC with a decent GPU and either a USB-C cable or decent router for wireless streaming. The idea is that your PC renders the game and streams the output to the headset. It may seem like a janky solution, but it's the only practical way for most people to experience this app in 2025. Google Earth VR hasn't been updated in years, and I fear it's on borrowed time. Setup complexity and hardware cost aside, Google Earth VR has never looked better than on the current crop of headsets. The improved visual fidelity makes it an almost surreal experience that I think everyone should experience. And yet, the app almost sits on the verge of abandonment today. I was a bit surprised that the app still pulls in live 3D and Street View data from Google's servers, but that access could stop at any moment. So if you're even remotely curious and can still get your hands on the hardware, go see the world while it's still online.
Android Authority
11-06-2025
- Android Authority
Samsung is giving away one year of Perplexity Pro
Calvin Wankhede / Android Authority TL;DR The Samsung Galaxy Store is giving away a one-year subscription to Perplexity Pro. A one-year membership ordinarily costs $200. Perplexity Pro gives you XYZ Perplexity is one of the rising stars in the AI space, offering an AI-infused search engine and chatbot. The company also offers a Pro subscription, and it turns out Samsung is giving away a one-year membership. Redditor TheACwarriors (h/t: Android Police) recently discovered that the Galaxy Store is offering a free one-year subscription to Perplexity Pro. The one-year membership ordinarily costs $200, so you're saving a huge chunk of change. Want to take advantage of this offer? You'll need to apparently uninstall Perplexity if you already have it, then download it from the Galaxy Store. You then need to open the app and create a free account or log in to an existing free account. You should automatically get an email after logging in to the app, telling you that you've been upgraded to Perplexity Pro. Unfortunately, it looks like this promotion is only available to Galaxy Store users in the US. It's also worth noting that the promotion has been in effect for roughly a week now, so you might want to act quickly to take advantage. In any event, it's a fantastic freebie if you've been wanting to try out the service. Perplexity Pro offers 300+ Pro searches a day, access to more advanced AI models, image generation capabilities, unlimited file uploads, and the ability to opt out of AI training. Got a tip? Talk to us! Email our staff at Email our staff at news@ . You can stay anonymous or get credit for the info, it's your choice.
