Hot Gadget Hacks Posts

How To: Share Your Favorite Mobile Apps with Your Friends

There are over 425,000 apps in the iTunes App Store and the Android Market has over 300,000 available, which makes it really hard to tell which ones you want and which ones you don't. One of the best ways to find new mobile apps is from your family, friends and colleagues—those who have similar tastes in games and productivity. And it goes both ways, which means you need to share your favorite picks with those around you. But what's the easiest way to do that?

Camera Plus Pro: The iPhone Camera App That Does it All

Even with Apple's forthcoming iOS 5 updates to its default camera application, those upcoming features can't match what already exists in Global Delight's Camera Plus Pro. For $1.99, Camera Plus Pro provides users with over 100 tools for every part of the picture taking process, including video recording. It works with all versions of the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad 2 with iOS 4.1 or the later update. Let's examine what it can do, and why you will want to replace Apple's default camera with ...

How To: Protect Your Facebook Reputation with Reppler

Do you know how you are perceived by your peers? In real life and online? In the physical world, you could be seen as intelligent, thoughtful and hard-working, but on the Web you could be looked at as irrational, selfish and slothful. There's just something about the Internet that takes away a person's judgement and replaces it with impulsiveness—especially when it comes to Facebook.

How To: Find the Perfect Beer with the BrewGene iPhone App

There are two kinds of beer drinkers—those who just want to drink and those who want to enjoy it. The former usually sticks to the same kind of beer, drinking it habitually, while the latter is always on the lookout for new varieties. They like savoring the taste of a freshly poured dark lager and the roasted aroma of a hearty stout and are always looking for that "Holy Grail" of beer—the perfect combination of hops, malt and yeast. Thankfully, there's a mobile application that gets you once ...

News: Hidden Web Browser Found in New Nook Touch Reader

It's not listed as one of the features on the updated Nook e-reader, but there is a web browser hidden inside Barnes & Noble's newest device, you just need to know how to access it. The eBook Reader shows the clandestine web browser on the Simple Touch Reader in the video below, and it's fairly easy to access. Just open up the Nook's search function, type a URL into the search bar and hit the go button. It's that simple.

News: Temporarily Disable Android Lockscreens with DelayedLock App

For those who need security on their Android devices, the standard swipe lock screen just isn't enough, so it's necessary to install applications like GOTO and WidgetLocker to enable either pattern, password or PIN protection. This protection is great overall, but when you're frequently using your smartphone, having to keep unlocking the lock screen becomes quite an annoyance. You could be in a heated text conversation, following directions on a map or compulsively checking the news feed on F...

How To: Stop Facebook's Facial Recognition Software from Automatically Tagging You in Photos

It seems like nowadays, whenever Facebook rolls out a new feature, it's immediately controversial. Social Ads put your name and face in the spotlight, Instant Personalization shared your information with partner sites, third-party apps were allowed to access your home address and phone number, and now Tag Suggestions implement facial recognition software to automatically identify your friends in uploaded photos. Most are calling it problematic or creepy, some insinuate CIA involvement, and it...

How To: How iTunes Works in the Cloud—Beta Version

This week, Apple announced the beta version of its new wireless, cloud-based service, iCloud. I wrote a summary of it here. The iCloud service includes some new features in the latest version of the iTunes Store, which allows you to access all your iTunes songs, mobile apps, and eBooks purchased in their respective iTunes stores and download that media to up to 10 of your devices—your iTunes supported Macs and PCs and mobile devices. This downloading can all be done wirelessly without you hav...

News: World's Smallest 3D Printer Makes Super Tiny Solid Objects

If you liked the idea of cutting duplicate keys from a personal 3D printer, then you might be interested to know that researchers at the Vienna University of Technology in Austria have successfully designed the smallest 3D printer to date. The prototype device is smaller than a shoebox and weighs only 3.3 pounds. It uses stereolithography compared to the RepRap's extruding molten plastic, and it's not a self-replicating machine and costs a bit more, at nearly $1,800 each. But compare that to ...

Apple's iCloud: What You Should Know

As I was listening to Apple's WWDC conference today, what ran through my mind the most is if there were ever a time to switch to the world of Apple computing now is it. Today's WWDC keynote presentation was chock-full of new and updated iOS mobile software—too much to cover in this one article. But the most "new thing" coming from Apple this Fall is iCloud, a file sharing and streaming service that requires no wired connections.