Hot Gadget Hacks Posts
News: iOS 8.3 Brings Siri Speakerphone Calling & Easier App Downloads
After receiving the fourth beta for iOS 8.3, we can assume that the official release shouldn't be too far behind. Along with plenty of bug fixes from prior iOS versions, Apple is also ushering in a few minor features that are sure to ease some annoyances.
How To: Android Alternatives for Instagram’s New Collage-Making Layout App
Instagram recently rolled out their new Layout app that helps users build photo collages more easily, and it's quick and easy to use with great results. Unfortunately, only those with an iOS device can enjoy Layout at the moment, with the Android version slated for release "in the coming months." Luckily, there are a trove of alternatives that you can use right now, and here are the three we like best.
How To: Confirm Your Location with Touch ID to Give Yourself an Alibi
One of the biggest hits this past fall wasn't a movie, television show, or book—it was an unassuming podcast called Serial, which centered around an unsolved murder from 1999 of a high school student in Maryland.
How To: Enhance Chrome's Incognito Mode with Search Functions on Android
For some odd reason, the Chrome Browser on Android doesn't allow you to search selected text when you're in Incognito Mode. This must have been an oversight on Google's part, because the feature is definitely present with the browser in its normal viewing mode, allowing you to highlight text and quickly perform a Google search.
How To: Lock Your Photos, Videos, Files, & Passwords in a Digital Safe for iOS
If you are anything like me, you have a knack for taking silly selfies of yourself, i.e., taking scotch tape and wrapping it around your face to make yourself look like the blob, or perhaps you like taking selfies of yourself in weird or unusual situations doing weird and unusual things.
How To: Lollipop's 'On-Body Detection' Smart Lock Keeps Your Android Unlocked While You’re Moving
Google recently rolled out a new Smart Lock option labeled "On-body detection" for Android Lollipop via an update to Google Play Services. As I'm sure you can gather from the name, this new function keeps your phone or tablet unlocked using the built-in accelerometer to determine whether or not your device is being carried on your body, allowing you to set it down and walk away carefree knowing that's it's locked again.
How To: The Best Way to Create Photo Collages for Instagram Pics on Android & iPhone
If you're one of the many that likes to upload collages to Instagram, the Facebook company has a new tool for you. Instagram released a brand new app in March called Layout to help facilitate the process of creating photo layouts to post onto social media or just share with friends.
How To: Mimic the iPhone's Status Bar on Your Android
As an Android user, there aren't many elements of my friend's iPhone that I find myself envious of, because anything he can do on iOS, I can surely find a way to do on Android...often better.
How To: Theme Hangouts for Android with 23 Custom Colors
Hangouts is a great cross-platform messaging service from Google that works with almost any device, making it one of the few messengers that can be installed on Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android gadgets alike. With its many useful features, one of the few debatable downsides is its not-so-attractive color scheme.
How To: Make Your Android's Status Bar Clock Change Colors Throughout the Day
When you see a color depicted on your computer, smartphone, or tablet, odds are it was processed as a hex triplet before it was rendered. Most modern websites and operating systems use a hexadecimal coding system to signify certain colors, and these are represented as 6 letters and numbers.
How To: Unsubscribe from Paper Junk Mail Using Your Phone
The only mail I like getting comes in the form of an Amazon package, but when I go to my mailbox, it always ends up being a pile of credit card offers and catalogs I could never see myself ordering from. Those pieces of junk mail usually end up in the trash, which is horrible when you think about all the trees that had to get cut down in order to produce them.
How To: This Live Wallpaper Uses Ocean Water Levels to Display Your Android's Battery Life
Live wallpapers, like the classic Mario-themed one we previously covered, is a great way to spruce up your device and get some simple amusement. Unfortunately, they also drain more battery than conventional wallpapers. Which brings me to ASUS LiveOcean.
News: Is Magic Leap's Virtual Reality Demo Video Too Good to Be True?
Magic Leap, the virtual-reality software group backed by Google, just released a teaser video on their YouTube channel. In a word, it's amazing.
How To: Use Your Android Device as a Wiimote-Style Controller to Play Tennis on Your Chromecast
If you were around when the Nintendo Wii first launched, you remember how revolutionary the device was at the time. When I first encountered one, I was amazed at the simplicity of its controls, namely the fact that the Wii Remote (aka Wiimote) just felt like such a natural way to play a game.
How To: Get a Taste of the New Galaxy S6 with This Weather Widget for Any Android
With the release of various new and updated Samsung Galaxy S6 apps and features, like Smart Switch, Smart Remote, and wallpapers, something that's a home screen staple for most Android users was still missing.
How To: Get Sony's New Xperia Z3 Keyboard on Almost Any Android Device
Sony has a gorgeous line of smartphones using the moniker "Xperia," and the latest and greatest model is the Z3. The firmware for the Xperia Z3 was just updated to Android Lollipop, and many system apps of course got tweaked and refreshed with this latest version.
How To: Share Your Android's Music Library with All of Your Friends
If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, music lies in the ear. Even within a group of friends who share enough common interests to sit around and socialize over, music tastes can vary dramatically.
How To: This Game Turns a Second Android Device into a Tennis Racket, Wiimote-Style
You can find a plethora of tennis games on the Google Play Store, but if you're a true tennis fan and gaming enthusiast, you should check out Tennis Racketeering by Core Aplikacije. The game lets you use an additional Android device as a racket, giving you Wii-like abilities without Nintendo. It's simple to set up and extremely fun to play, so follow along below to see how it works.
How To: Quickly Add Notes or Drawings to Photos on Your iPhone
Most of us enjoy taking photos with our iPhones and sharing them with friends and family, but it's adding that extra touch or funny caption that turns an ordinary picture into something unforgettable or downright hilarious. With Inkboard, you can use your imagination to draw and scribble over any photo you take or have in your iPhone's camera roll.
How To: Compete Against Your Friends with HTC's Fun Fit Health App
HTC's fitness-tracking application, Fun Fit, has made its way to the Google Play Store for all to enjoy. And while fitness apps are a dime a dozen, Fun Fit offers what its name implies—fun. Like plenty of other fitness apps, Fun Fit is able to track calories burned, steps, distance, active time, walking time, and running time. Where the app differs is in its presentation.
How To: Repurpose Android's Google Now Gesture to Lock Your Device
The Google Now gesture included in the Google Now Launcher and on Nexus devices isn't something I regularly utilize, and you might not either. There is a way to disable it, which is a good idea if you were executing it accidentally, but what's even better than disabling it? Repurposing it!
Google Feud: Family Feud-Style Gameplay with Google Search Suggestions as Answers
Family Feud is one of the longest-running game shows in American TV history. Its viewer base spans generations, and this is mostly due to the fun nature of the show. Contestants have to guess the most popular answers to survey questions that were posed to 100 random strangers, and the responses often range from silly to downright funny.
How To: Stream Beats Music in Safari Using HTML5 Instead of Flash Player
Thanks to its longevity and familiarity among web designers, Flash is still alive and thriving, but HTML5 is catching up since it can render faster in web browsers, can be customized by developers on a per platform basis, doesn't need a plugin to run, and is less vulnerable than Adobe Flash Player to attacks (for the moment).
How To: Share Music Directly from Your iPhone's Keyboard
Apple's iOS 8 ushered in a new way of typing with the addition of third-party keyboard compatibility. We've seen everything from keyboards with swipe gestures, customizable themes, different sizes, and even embedded GIFs. Now we've got one for all of you music lovers called AudioShot, which allows for easy sharing of music directly from the keyboard.
How To: Instantly Get Song Lyrics on Android with QuickLyric
With floating song lyrics displayed over the screen, apps like musiXmatch and Floating Lyrics are perfect for people who want to go beyond just the tunes and delve into a song's message and meaning. And while these floating windows can be convenient, they're not always necessary.
How To: Remove Your Location History from Apple Maps, Google Maps, & Waze
Applications like Apple Maps, Google Maps, and Waze save every location you visit or search for as a way to speed up future searches and to find commonly-frequented places. But what if you go somewhere unsavory and don't want anyone knowing?
How To: Access Your Feedly News Feed Right from Your Android's Lock Screen
Android Lollipop still doesn't have a simple way to add a custom lock screen wallpaper, so when I came across Corgi For Feedly from developer Stan Dmitriev, I had to check it out. What sets Corgi apart from other lock screen replacements is that it connects directly to your Feedly account to display top stories from your favorite RSS feeds as your background.
How To: Trim Down Android Lollipop's Overview Screen
As is the case with most software updates, Android 5.0 brought changes that were viewed by users as somewhat positive and somewhat negative. This generally happens because we're accustomed to the old way of doing things, and changes, no matter how useful, can slow us down.
News: Interactive 360-Degree Videos Are Now Live on YouTube
There's a reason that YouTube continues to be the most popular video sharing site on the planet—ever since its purchase by Google, they've always made sure to load YouTube up with extra features to keep it ahead of the pack.
How To: Get iOS 8.3 Beta on Your iPhone Right Now
Just a few days after unveiling the Apple Watch and pushing iOS 8.2 to their current products, Apple has, for the first time ever, made a beta version of their mobile OS available for the public to test out.
How To: Play Cards Against Humanity with Anyone on Any Computer, Phone, or Tablet
Cards Against Humanity is a popular party game with good old-fashioned raunchy adult themes that go quite well with a few alcoholic beverages. Up until now, though, you had to either print out a set of cards or order the official deck to play—unless, of course, all players happened to have devices that sported the same operating system.
How To: Get Rid of Emoji Suggestions in the New Version of Swype for Android
As the granddaddy of all gesture-based keyboards, Swype has seen quite a few updates in its day. A recent version bump, however, added a feature that has been universally panned by Swype users.
How To: Import, Transfer, & Password-Protect Photos & Videos on Your iPhone
Thanks to a couple of photoshopped images that made rounds across Twitter last year, iPhone users were duped into thinking that iOS 8 included a security feature that would lock individual apps. Of course, none of it ended up being true, but we covered other features and apps that could accomplish roughly the same thing.
How To: Get Instant Wikipedia Articles Without Leaving the Webpage You're Currently Viewing
For all of the flak that it catches, Wikipedia is still a great source of information. Contributors take their work very seriously, so the vast majority of information is cited, and the site serves very well as a starting point to learn about a new topic.
How To: Get Custom Lock Screen Shortcuts on Android Lollipop
Android's lock screen has evolved quite a bit over the years. From the Donut days of two tabs that launched the phone app and unlocked the device, to KitKat's clean and simple approach, shortcuts have come and gone.
Office for Mac 2016: See What's New & Try Out the Public Preview
If you've ever attended school or held a job, you're probably well familiar with Microsoft Office, whether you used it or not. It's the most popular office suite available, and has been for some time. Apple does have its own suite of productivity apps (iWork), but Microsoft Office has always been the industry leader for word documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.
Lollipop Update: What's New in Android 5.1
Google inconspicuously announced an Android update yesterday, and while it's not quite the overhaul that the initial Lollipop release was, version 5.1 brings plenty of bug fixes and new features.
How To: Install HTC's BlinkFeed Launcher on Any Android Device
HTC's Sense UI is generally regarded as one of the best manufacturer-skinned versions of Android. This is mainly due to the subtle and classy styling of the interface, as well as some unique features that are added in here and there.
How To: Remove the New Apple Watch App from Your iPhone's Home Screen
Apple released iOS 8.2 on March 9th for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, which contains bug fixes and stability enhancements for certain stock features. If you've updated your device already, you've probably already noticed that you get the new Apple Watch app, too—no matter if you plan on getting a pricey Apple Watch or not.
News: Here Are the Prices for Every Apple Watch Model (From $349 to $17,000)
The long-awaited Apple Watch is ready for retail, with pricing and availability announced at Apple's Spring Forward event. Each of the three variants—Apple Watch Sport, Apple Watch, and Apple Watch Edition—will be available in two sizes, 32mm and 44mm, with preorders beginning on April 10th and the retail launch on April 24th. The Watches will initially be available nine countries: Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. You'll b...