Although TeamViewer QuickSupport doesn't show you what's happening in real-time, it does provide a lot of info about the connected mobile device.

There are plenty of apps that allow you to control a remote PC from your phone or tablet, but what if you want to go the other way? What if you need to help a friend, relative, or employee with his or her mobile device?

TeamViewer QuickSupport lets you remotely control a smartphone or tablet from any computer. It's available for Android and iOS.

The TeamViewer QuickSupport app allows for real-time chat and file transfers.

Well, maybe "control" is the wrong word. Although you can establish a remote connection to, say, an iPhone while sitting at your laptop, you can't actually control the phone or even get live scree... [Read more]

On Tuesday night, Google released an update to Google Maps on Android, featuring a redesigned interface that more closely incorporates a cleaner, card-based look, and a reduction in onscreen menu items and buttons.

Both design changes for Android phones and tablets resemble each other for the most part. Navigation received a noticeable upgrade; so now, when you search for directions, Google Maps will suggest alternate routes during heavy traffic periods and potentially even during inconvenient delays in public transportation.

Whereas much of this is reminiscent of the iOS version a couple months back, Google Maps still retains its signature Android mark--like the pullout menu on the upper-left corner.

The new Google Maps update is only available to users with Android 4.0.3 and up, with gradual rollouts now underway.

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After promising that Maps would receive a face lift and some new features at Google I/O, the app is finally delivering the goods. Google Maps v7.0.0 tidies up the interface and brings some shortcuts for the features you use the most.

The new version is rolling out via Google Play to Android devices running 4.0.3 and higher (with an iOS coming sometime in the future). If you haven't received an update yet, sit tight. You do have the option of downloading it from a third-party file hosting service, but this is not recommended.

Now, let's get into the five things you should know how to do in the new Google Maps on Android:

... [Read more]

As Windows machines follow in Apple's Retina display footsteps, Google is building HiDPI support into its Chrome browser.

The browser developer marked HiDPI support in Windows as fixed on Tuesday night, though it's weeks away from arriving in the stable version of Chrome. It's currently scheduled for release in Chrome 30; the current stable version is Chrome 28, and Google releases new versions about every six weeks.

High-resolution screens have more dots per inch than conventional screens, thus the label HiDPI, which is nice for crisper graphics and text. However, programmers must adapt graphics elements such as icons and browser tabs whose designs are measured by a fixed number of pixels. Otherwise, they can be either unusably small or unpleasantly coarse and pixelated.

HiDPI support isn't yet complete -- some font work remains to be done, for example -- but people keen to investigate the new feature now can. "If you want to try it out, run the current canary build, and add the flag --high-dpi-support=1," a comment in the feature tracker said.

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• ... [Read more]
  
  
  

Samsung surpassed Apple for mobile browsing usage in StatCounter's June 2013 statistics, which include pocket-sized devices, not tablets.

Worldwide, people now use Samsung's smartphones more often than Apple's to surf the Web, according to a study released Wednesday.

In January 2013, Apple iPhones and iPod Touches surpassed Nokia phones to account for the most Web pages viewed on the Internet, according to a report (PDF) from StatCounter, which monitors Web usage across a network of 3 million Web sites. But in June, Samsung devices passed Apple's for the global lead.

But not by much. Samsung's devices accounted for 25.5 percent of page views to 25.1 percent for Apple and 22 percent for Nokia in June. Research in Motion's BlackBerry devices are a distant fourth place at 3.6 percent.

Samsung is closely allied with Google for use of the Net giant's Android operating system, but Samsung also is developing a rival mobile OS called Tizen.

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