Nicole Cozma/CNET If you’re going to be hosting a social gathering, then you’ll love the newest feature to land on your Google Chromecast. Now you can allow guests to stream to your TV without sharing your Wi-Fi password. Setting it up takes just a couple of steps for both owner and guest, and then you …

Nicole Cozma/CNET Gmail’s Web interface allows you to add a signature that appends to your messages. Fortunately, the mobile application also supports this. What’s the importance of adding a signature? For starters you can make those you email a bit more forgiving to your typos, or perils experienced with autocorrect, if you simply add “Sent from my phone” to each …

Nicole Cozma/CNET When experimenting with different applications from the Google Play Store, you might come across a pop-up that asks if you want to set an application as your default choice. If you accidentally choose the wrong one, it may not be obvious how to change it again. For instance, let’s say you’re trying out the Google Chrome beta on …

Nicole Cozma/CNET Whether you enjoy taking photos all year long, or you’re getting ready to take a bunch at festive seasonal gatherings, both the Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy S5 are excellent options with their 16-megapixel cameras. As a bonus, these devices offer camera modes to get just the right shot. Camera modes — such as Animated photo, Sports or …

Nicole Cozma/CNET Some apps will allow you to sign in with a social media account to access their services, or unlock particular features. Such is the case with Evernote, currently giving free users access to the business-card-scanning feature if they connect a LinkedIn account. This connection allows the app to find the corresponding LinkedIn profile for business cards that you …

The provided software for some webcams can be a bit lackluster. While options for adjusting the brightness, contrast, or zoom exist, you may be looking for a way to record the feed. If you’re already using VLC for watching videos or streaming podcasts, did you know you can also use it to record your webcam? Don’t have VLC yet but …

Nicole Cozma/CNET Evernote for Android has been trailing the iOS version when it comes to new features, like the ability to scan business cards. Being able to scan a card is useful because it syncs to your account, you won’t have to keep track of a paper card, and it saves you time by doing the typing for you. Fortunately, …

Google Maps 9.0. Nicole Cozma/CNET In July of this year, Google added voice commands and elevation information to the Maps app, but the design remained the same. This time, the update to version 9.0 — rolling out over the next few days — brings you a Material interface (for Android Lollipop), and a couple of new features. These new Maps …

Nicole Cozma/CNET The latest version of the “recent apps” feature in Android looks and behaves differently from previous ones. In Android 5.0 Lollipop, you’ll find that the recent apps button has been redesigned. Instead of two overlapping rectangles the button is now a single square. This falls in line with the other simplistic navigation buttons, circle (home) and triangle (back). …

Nicole Cozma/CNET Setting up a new Android device can be quite an inconvenience if you have to reinstall apps individually. If you have root access, you can take advantage of an app like Titanium Backup, which will bundle your apps and settings to make the transition easier. However, for those who are not rooted, Google has developed a solution with …