With the newest Google Now update, Google built in a new Voice Action that allows you to scan barcodes with your camera. All you have to say is, “Scan barcode” after hitting the voice search button. But if the voice search button isn’t handy or you don’t want to speak out loud to your phone, you can access it another way.

If you open Google Now, scroll to the bottom and hit the 3-dotted menu button in the right corner. As long as you have updated your Google Now, you should see a new option that says “Search with camera.” Tap that, and find something to search for with your camera.

So far, I’ve had good luck snapping photos of text, but logos or objects, not so much. Give it a shot!

Cheers Nishant!

With Google’s update of Gmail today, everyone running Ice Cream Sandwich and above can take advantage of the new pinch-to-zoom and swipe-to-delete features. The feature does not come automatically enabled and must be turned on manually in order to be used, which seemed to confuse a few people who were trying to pinch on every email in their inbox.

Don’t worry, it’s an easy process and we have detailed it below so even our new Android-using readers can take advantage of this. 

We’re not exactly sure why, but “Blocking Mode” on the Verizon version of the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 is missing. For those not familiar, Blocking Mode allows you to set your phone to block calls, notifications, an alarm or the LED light during a certain period of time. You can also set it to allow certain contacts to ring through, though, in case you are worried about missing an emergency call or something of that nature. It’s a fantastic feature that I believe Samsung started including in TouchWiz with Jelly Bean. Why it’s blocked from showing as an available option on this version of the Note 2 is quite the mystery. Thankfully, it hasn’t been fully removed and is just hidden, which means we can access it through a work-around.

Using the app QuickShortcutMaker, you can search for “blocking mode” and then create a shortcut on your home screen that will give you never-ending access to Blocking Mode. As you can see in the screenshot above, it even works just as you would expect it to. 

Since the HTC DROID DNA doesn’t have an on-screen Home button that can be swiped up to access Google Now, we wanted to make sure that you knew the easiest way to access it. It’s simple, really. All you need to do is long-press on the hardware Home button and, bam! There doesn’t appear to be a way to access it from the lock screen, which is unfortunate, but this trick works from anywhere else on the phone. Enjoy!

We have received a few requests to create a post explaining how to disable a certain application’s notifications. Lately, some apps that are downloaded from Google Play utilize a certain type of advertisement that appears in our notification bar. For some, this is inexcusable and is a complete eye sore. Like them, I feel the same way. Down below we go over just how to get rid of those pesky notifications. 

After the update to Android 4.2, many users of the Nexus 7 have experienced major lag issues, with no real fix or explanation for the occurrence. Neither ASUS or Google have acknowledged any issue, which isn’t a shock, but that hasn’t stopped one member of XDA to dig for a solution. 

I’ve been pretty open and honest about my thoughts on lockscreen widgets in Android 4.2. To be short – they don’t make a lot of sense to me, and I’m not a fan of the way the new lockscreen works. I was satisfied with the one button, sliding mechanism, something that has now been replaced by a separate Google Now shortcut and a camera screen that requires a full swipe. That’s right, you now have to worry about 3 or 4 different actions from your lockscreen rather than one button that does them all. 

Ever wanted to quickly look back at an original photo while you were editing away in the Android 4.2 photo editor? Even with all of those “vintage” filters, snazzy borders, and tweaks splashed atop one, there is trick to allow you to see how bad the interesting job you have done editing. Simply swipe from the top or left side of the image and it will show you the “original”. The video below explains it much better.