Trying to figure out why you aren’t getting the YouTube ‘verify it’s you’ code on your phone? Here’s how to verify your YouTube channel on a mobile phone. Google (YouTube) will tell you “Google sent a notification to your phone. Open the YouTube app, tap Yes on the prompt, then tap (some number) on your phone to verify it’s you.” But the verification code never shows up on your phone!

We’ve all been there, realizing that you are spending way too much time on your iPhone or Android or other mobile phone. That’s probably even more true since the pandemic hit. Here’s how to dial it back.

If you care about RF exposure from your iPhone, did you know that there is an iPhone RF exposure disclosure right on board on your iPhone?

A study out of Virginia Tech, dubbed “The iPhone Effect”, found that even just the very presence of an iPhone or Android phone, or other versions of smartphones, has a substantial negative impact on the quality of in-person conversations and connection. It also introduces us to the concept of ‘polyconsciousness’.

A law that was passed in California last year, and that went into effect on January 1, 2017, makes it illegal for anyone operating a motor vehicle to hold a cellphone in their hand while driving. Assembly Bill 1785 (“AB 1785”) criminalizes “driving a motor vehicle while holding and operating a handheld wireless telephone or a wireless electronic communication device.”

What if you want to check to see which of your friends are having a birthday using the Facebook mobile app? Is it even possible? It is, but it’s not obvious how to do it. Here is how to find a list of your friends who are having birthdays today and upcoming using the Facebook mobile app.

Are you part of the new so-called ‘gig economy’? If you don’t know what the gig economy is, probably not, but even if not, you almost certainly know someone who is. According to recent statistics, 16% of the American workforce is working in the gig economy – that’s nearly 1 in 5 people. And at least one pundit factors smartphones and mobile apps into why the gig economy is growing.

Google announced yesterday that they have started putting sponsored images in their Google image search results. By allowing Adwords advertisers to put image ads in the Google image search results, Google says that it is a new way “to be there and be useful for mobile shoppers.”

If you are reading this article, it’s likely because your Macbook Air or other Apple Mac laptop has started freezing up on you, or has slowed to a crawl and is grinding away, or you may even seem to be out of disk space. If any of these are your issue, a good place to start checking is with your Mac’s ‘mobile backups’, which, despite the name, aren’t backups for your mobile devices onto your Mac, but rather are backups that your portable computer (i.e. laptop) makes to itself when you are away from your Time Capsule or other backup drive.

The newest version of the Starbucks app allows you to order and pay right from the app, and have your drinks and food waiting for you when you arrive! This means that you don’t even have to stand in line, you just go right to the pickup area, and it’s there waiting for you! What’s more, every Starbucks barrista we’ve asked has said that they actually prefer it when customers order with Starbucks Mobile Order & Pay; it’s a win-win! You don’t have to stand in line or sit in your car at the drive-through, and they prefer it!

General Motors (GM) has announced that many 2015 Chevrolet automobiles will have native, on-board 4G LTE wifi next year. The list of cars that will have onboard wireless hotspots includes the Chevrolet Corvette, Chevy Impala, Malibu, Volt, Equinox, Silverado, Silverado HD, Spark and Spark EV, and in Canada the Chevrolet Trax.

It’s time to worry about your phone number reputation and mobile identity. The company that provides two-factor authentication for the users of sites such as Google and Facebook has been quietly amassing the phone numbers of those users, and is now assigning a phone number reputation, which it calls a PhoneID Score – or your Mobile Identity – to all of those phone numbers being used for two-factor authentication and, it seems, any other phone numbers the data for which they have access.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is gearing up to launch a children’s mobile game privacy investigation that is so massive, kids’ game makers, such as Mobbles, are hastily yanking titles before the FTC investigation becomes official. Mobbles was unofficially informed that their software is part of the some 200 titles being investigated in connection with accusations that they are storing the private information of its young users, including their locations.

California Governor Jerry Brown vetoed a bill on Sunday that would have required a search warrant in order to obtain location-based personal information obtained through cell towers from mobile devices such as cell phones and tablets, and also GPS systems. The veto came with the message that Brown felt that information based on a user’s location is important to the processes needed by law enforcement.

Today was the first day that the MyTouch 4G Slide was available to the public from T-Mobile, and so we picked one up so that we could give you our first impressions. The My Touch 4G Slide phone is known primarily for two major features (well, three if you count that it comes with Android Gingerbread 2.3 installed), and those are the incredible 8 megapixel camera, and the blazing fast 1.2 GHz dual-core processors. But it’s the little things that make or break a phone experience, so read on…