Hot Gadget Hacks Posts
News: Making Art on Your iOS Device, Part 5: Photography
There are seemingly endless photography apps for the iPhone—it is perhaps one of the most popular arenas for application developers. We've covered a few in Giveaway Tuesdays, but nothing comprehensive.
News: Making Art on Your iOS Device, Part 4: Cool Visual Effects & Tricks
Sometimes an iDevice is best used for idle, pointless fun. Today's segment of Making Art on Your iOS Deviceis a mixed bag of time-wasting cool effects and random, but useful art-making tools. Below, 10 apps for creating anything from erratic hand-shaken digital effects to your very own DIY Andy Warhol prints.
News: Bandito iPhone App Delivers Music News Based on Your iTunes Library
Public Radio Exchange (PRX) has teamed up with music intelligence company The Echo Nest to bring us music lovers Bandito, an easy way to find out what's going on with our favorite artists. Their new mobile app uses the existing iTunes library on your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch to find your most-played bands and singers, serving up the latest news from around the web on them.
News: Making Art on Your iOS Device, Part 3: 3D Modeling
Today's segment of Making Art on Your iOS Device takes us into the third dimension. The below apps are suitable for beginners looking to venture into the world of 3d modeling, as well as pros who simply want the basics of Maya in their pocket.
News: The Perfect Hack for Enabling NFC Credit Card Payments on Your iPhone 4
Remember the good ol' days when you actually had to swipe your credit or debit card to make a payment at the store? Now all it takes is a flick of the wrist to purchase goods with your card, thanks to RFID (radio-frequency identification) technology from Chase (blink), Visa (payWave) and MasterCard (PayPass). But soon "contactless" payments will be made by an entirely different beast—NFC, which stands for near field communication.
News: The Top 6 Apps for Enjoying Instagram Photos Away from Your iPhone (Mac or PC)
Instagram is one of the hottest mobile apps to date, yet they have no way to upload photos straight from your computer. You can log into the Instagram web app to like and comment on photos in your feed, but that's about it. Fortunately, there are third-party apps that let you do more on Instagram from your Mac or Windows computer, so you can enjoy Instagram pics on the big screen instead of your tiny iPhone or Android device.
News: Making Art on Your iOS Device, Part 2: Painting
Whereas yesterday's segment of Making Art on Your iOS Device focused on the technical elements of drawing from life, today we enter the painterly realm of David Hockney and Jorge Colombo.
News: Making Art on Your iOS Device, Part 1: Drawing
From the onset of the popularization of apps for the iDevice, users have experimented with creating original artwork on their iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch. And when famed British artist David Hockney christened the iDevice with his painterly digital drawings, the trend exploded even more.
How To: Get Rid of Promoted Tweets in Your Twitter Timeline
More than a year ago, Twitter rolled out the first phase of its Promoted Tweets ad service, which consisted of selected tweets from advertising partners like Best Buy and Sony Pictures receiving "promoted" exposure in the search results pages on Twitter and in the trends lists. These ads were clearly labeled as such, so it was never any real bother to Twitter users.
News: Trover Opens Up Their iPhone Social Discovery App to the Masses
Remember last month when we introduced you to Trover? Well, now this great little discovery app for iPhone has completed its beta mode and has officially launched in wide release.
News: Outsource Your Dirty Work with the TaskRabbit App for iPhone
Need to pick up some furniture, but can't find any free time in your busy schedule? What if you're just too lazy to go pick up some cat food? How are you going to feed your pet without getting off the couch? Tired of waiting in lines at the post office to mail out some last minute package?
News: New Android Market Update Lets You Rent Movies and Buy eBooks
Google has been slowly rolling out a new update for the Android Market in the United States, which gives mobile users a new interface and some additional content for their Android-powered smartphones and tablets. The update started a couple weeks ago, taking the Android Market to version 3.0.27 on devices running Android 2.2 or higher. The new Android Market has a Honeycomb feel to it with a more visually pleasing layout and new colorful promotional page which showcases top apps and games, as...
News: Mapping Your Music Collection with Mufin Player for Android
These days, there seems to be an endless amount of music player apps accessible on the web, from Pandora to Cantio, and the amount available in the mobile market is constantly growing. If you have an Android device, you're probably well aware of Jukefox, which lets you listen to your music collection on the go and provides you with a new way to interact with your songs, with 2D and 3D mapping of your albums. But as good as Jukefox is, it has problems (mostly technical).
News: What Ad Companies Are Tracking You Online? Find Out with the Collusion Firefox Add-on
The whole world is connected to the Internet, which means bank for advertising companies who track your every move online. Most of the content you see on the web is free, and that's because of advertisements. If there were no ads, none of us would be addicted to the Internet because none of us would be able to afford it.
News: Police Use iPhones to ID Suspects via Face, Iris and Fingerprint Scans
Some cops already have the ability to extract data from your cell phone using handheld forensic devices, but soon police officers will have a new mobile data collection toy to play with—an Apple iPhone. Actually, it's an iPhone-based device that connects directly to the back of an iPhone, which is designed to give law enforcement an accurate and immediate identification of a suspect based on their facial features, fingerprints and even their eyes.
How To: Use Twitter to Optimize Your Personal Information Flow
Outside the realm of politics, where opposing sides are quite passionate and quite disagreeable, there are few areas in our society quite as divisive as Twitter. People who like Twitter love Twitter and are relentless in trying to co-opt the people they know into joining (this is both altruistic and an unsubtle attempt to boost followers).
How To: Fix OS X Lion's Reverse 2-Finger Scroll So You Can Scroll Normally (Not Backwards)
So you just upgraded your Mac to OS X Lion and it greeted you, not with a friendly welcome video as Snow Leopard did, but instead with a tiny clip informing you that the Apple powers that be, have decided to reverse the 2-finger scroll direction, without even asking if you'd like to!
News: Alfred Knows Where You Want to Eat (iPhone App for Instant Restaurant Recommendations)
Exploring a new city is tough if you're all by your lonesome. But if you have your iPhone on you, you're not alone at all... there's tons of great apps available for discovering the city around you. We've previously featured an app that helps you decide on what bar or club to attend, as well as one that shows you the hidden world unbeknown to most tourists (sometimes even the local population). When it comes to dining out, Yelp helps considerably, but it doesn't provide you with personalized ...
News: Cantio Helps You Discover New Music (Using YouTube)
When it comes to finding great new tunes for your music collection, the last place you would think to look is YouTube. But more and more artists are posting music videos on the popular video hosting site as a means to getting noticed and hopefully—building a fan base. And since YouTube is not just a music video site, there's quite a bit of junk to sift through, making it virtually impossible to find new songs to add to your iPod's repertoire... unless you use Cantio.
News: Haptic Hacking Breathes New Life into Old Computer Mice
You've seen the felt mouse, which made computer clicking comfortable and chic, now brace yourself for something a little more interactive—DataBot.
News: Augmented Reality Cinema App Takes You to the Movies—in Real World Locations
The yet-to-be released Augmented Reality Cinema app is sure to make avid movie fans across the world drool. The concept is genius and appears to be quite seamless as well: Simply install the app on your iPhone, take a stroll through your city (supported cities have not yet been released, but the video below shows London), and aim your phone at various locations to view movie scenes that have been previously shot there.
How To: Silence Phone Calls from Annoying Friends and Spammy Callers
Everybody has them. You can say you don't, but it's probably a lie. There's at least one person on your mobile phone that you never, ever want to pick up the phone for. When they call, you cringe and immediately hit the silent button. They're annoying. Overbearing. You hate them, but yet you love them enough to not delete them entirely from your contact list. Maybe if they called just once a week, but once a day is just too much for you to handle. What do you do?
How To: Download map data on your Android from Google Maps for offline use
Here is a helpful tip for the next time you go on a trip. Don't lose your way, or your money, watch this video and learn how to download Google Maps data onto your Android so you can use it offline.
How To: Edit your Google+ profile and privacy settings
Make sure that your Google+ profile only reflects the information that you want it to. Control your online presence and privacy in Google's social network by following the suggestions of this video. Learn how to edit your Google plus profile.
How To: Import contacts from Facebook to Google+
Are you considering making a move from Facebook to Google+? If you are, be sure to watch this video to learn a clever trick for importing all of your Facebook contacts to your Google plus account. Don't lose friends just because you are ditching Facebook for Google+ plus.
How To: Enjoy all the features of Google plus
Curious about Google's new social network, Google+? Get the rundown by watching this video and learn the ins and outs of Google plus, including the circles feature, the chat feature, photos and more. This is your video guide to Google+.
How To: Get the Google+ Mobile Web App for iOS
Check out this video for an introduction to the new Google+ app for iOS. You can use Google plus from any of your iDevices, including iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. Make the most of Google's new social network with this app.
News: Cure Insomnia with the Pzizz Sleep Aid App for Android and iPhone
Dealing with insomnia? Just can't fall asleep at night? Well, there's a few things you can do to escape those restless nights. You can take a hot bath (unless you're a shower person), do some yoga (granted you can do the downward-facing dog), or try a little tapping (if you don't mind smacking yourself in the face). But let's face it—most people who have trouble sleeping use prescription medication or natural remedies like melatonin. If you don't want to be dependent on sleeping pills, then m...
News: Special Film Turns 2D LCD Screens into Glasses-Free 3D Displays
Smartphones have already hit the shelves with glasses-free 3D displays, but now you can enjoy the luxury of a 3D display on your 2D devices, thanks to Japanese company Global Wave. They've developed a special film that allows you to enjoy three-dimensional content on existing two-dimensional products, from laptops to computer monitors, along with iPads and iPhones.
How To: Test Drive Gmail's New Interface
Google's hard at work beefing up their new Google+ social network, and while they continue to improve new features like Circles and Hangouts, they haven't lost track of their other online features already widely in use. If you're already a part of the Google+ project (currently closed to invites right now), you've probably noticed the changes in Picasa Web, but Gmail has been getting some great updates as well—and you don't have to be in the Google+ network to use them.
How To: Use Circle Hack to Organize Your Facebook Friend Lists à la Google+ Circles
There's a lot of talk going around about Google's new social network and how it's heavily influenced by Facebook, but truth be told, how could they build Google+ without taking a note
How To: Transfer Your Facebook Friends to Google+ (And Vice Versa)
On the same day that Google launched their new social network, Google +, a team of Google engineers calling themselves the Data Liberation Front announced their first service on Tuesday—Google Takeout, a product that allows users to easily move their data in and out of Google products, including Buzz, Contacts and Circles, Picasa Web Albums, Profile and Stream (the equivalent of Facebook’s newsfeed).
News: Super Tiny (And Cheap) DSLR Intervalometer for Time-Lapse Photography
If you're lucky, your digital camera has a built-in intervalometer that lets you operate the shutter regularly at set intervals over a period of time. Why would you be lucky? Because you can create some very awesome time-lapse videos, like the horribly beautiful eruption of a volcano or vivid star trails in the night sky. You can capture the stunning display of the northern lights or even document the rotting of your favorite fruit.
How To: Add widgets to your Android Nook Color home screen
Want to add some widgets to the home screen of your Android enabled Nook Color tablet? Watch this video to learn how to do it. If you need one, you can order a pre-configured microSD here. Watch this video and learn.
How To: Install APK files on your Android phone
Looking to game on your Android phone? Watch this video to learn how to get the game APK files onto your Android device. Download and install games on your Android device and spend the rest of your day having fun playing.
How To: Use Astro File Manager and 4Shared.com to get free Android apps
Watch this video to learn how to get any app you want in the Android Market for free. Using Astro File Manager and 4shared.com you can run any app you want for free on your Android device. Get all the apps you've ever wanted.
How To: Use Root explorer to delete a stock app from your Android phone
If you've found alternatives that you prefer to the stock apps on your Android phone, delete the ones you don't use. It's easy, just watch this video and learn how to use root explorer to delete stock apps from your Android device.
How To: Load Gingerbread onto your Sprint HTC Hero
You can run Android 2.3 Gingerbread on your Sprint HTC Hero. Watch this video to learn how to use CyanogenMod to install Android 2.3 Gingerbread on your HTC Hero. Here is the link for the described in the video.
How To: Drag and drop music onto your Android device
Want to be able to move music files onto your Android device simply? Watch this video to learn how to set your Android to Mass Storage mode so that you can easily drag and drop music onto the Android device.
How To: Use Gingerbreak to root Android Froyo 2.2.2
Watch this video to learn how to use the application Gingerbreak to root your Android 2.2.2 phone. This method also works with Android Gingerbread and Honeycomb. Download Gingerbreak and follow along with the instructions in this video to root your Froyo phone.