Gadget Hacks How-Tos
How To: 4 Ways to Make Google's Stock Android Launcher Even Better
As one of the most popular home screen apps on Android, the Google Now Launcher is used by millions of people across the world. The two main reasons behind this success are its integrated Google Now home page and an elegant, easy-to-use design.
How To: 8 Fun (& Annoying) Easter Eggs in Google Hangouts
Google has added some fun Easter eggs to Hangouts that'll give you a few more ways to procrastinate throughout your day. All of them (except for one) work on the web browser version, the Chrome app, and the mobile apps for Android and iOS, and are activated by sending a specific message.
How To: Fit More on Your Galaxy's Screen with This Hidden Samsung Feature
Smartphone displays are getting bigger every year, and Samsung devices are at the forefront of that trend. But, from a software standpoint, the icons, buttons, and other on-screen elements seem to stay at the same scale. So while phones are getting bigger, their interfaces are getting bigger as well.
How To: See All the Newest Features of Your Apps in One Convenient Place
By default, the Play Store app on Android is set to automatically update your apps in the background. This definitely makes it easy to ensure that you're always running the latest versions, but it does come with some downsides.
How To: Turn Your Phone's Notifications Tray into the Ultimate To-Do App
There are plenty of Android apps for creating reminders, to-do lists, and taking notes—but the vast majority of these are all-in-one apps that may actually have too many features. When a thought randomly crosses your mind and you'd like to remember it for later, the most important thing is to be able to jot it down quick, fast, and in a hurry.
How To: Play the Secret Basketball Game in Facebook Messenger
If you're sick of playing chess in Facebook Messenger, there's another little-known game you can play with your friends directly in the app—basketball. This hidden game was originally added to Messenger before March Madness 2016, and still works perfectly to this day.
How To: Delete Files on Android So They Can't Ever Be Recovered
When you delete a file, Android doesn't actually remove it from your storage drive—instead, it simply marks that space as empty and pretends the file doesn't exist anymore. But deep down inside, the file that you originally wrote to that location is still physically there, at least until you randomly happen to save another file on top of that same spot.
Android Basics: How to Add Your Own Ringtones & Notification Sounds
Android's flexible operating system allows for lots of customization, and one of the most common ways to add personal flair to your smartphone is to set your own ringtones and notification sounds.
How To: Save Battery by Navigating Your Walk Without GPS
Modern smartphones are packed to the brim with low-power sensors like accelerometers and gyroscopes, which means they're capable of precisely measuring almost any type of movement. So why is it that when you just want to get walking directions somewhere, your device still uses its battery-sucking GPS connection to track your progress?
How To: Get Android Nougat Features on Your Phone Right Now
The Android Nougat preview build for Nexus devices comes packed to the brim with new functionality: multi-window mode, a dark theme, and a data-saver toggle, just to name a few. However, unless you have a Nexus device, it will be a while before you get these exciting new features by default.
How To: Convert Slo-Mo Videos to Regular Speed Directly on Your iPhone
I don't know about you, but when I shoot a slow-mo video on my iPhone, I'd also like to have a regular speed copy of it, just in case slow motion doesn't fit the video right.
How To: XDA Labs Makes Installing Third-Party Apps & Hacks Easy
If you're looking to customize your Android beyond its stock options, things can get confusing quickly. One of the best places to get into developer mode is the XDA forums.
How To: Create Emoji Art from Your Photos Using This Fun Tool
While there are tools online that let you turn photos into interesting emoji art, and mobile apps that let you create emoji mosaics, none do it better than an iPhone app by second verse, which makes it a super easy, highly customizable process.
How To: 8 Useful Ways to Take Advantage of Your Android Phone's NFC Chip
Near Field Communication, or NFC for short, is a feature that allows our smartphones to wirelessly communicate with other devices over a short distance while using almost no power at all. Think of it like a slimmed-down version of Wi-Fi or Bluetooth that can send a small burst of data two inches away without having any measurable impact on your battery life.
Android Basics: How to Set Up Google Now
Android's personal assistant is more than just a sassy backtalker—it's a full-on suite of all the information you could need at a given time. Google Now, as it's called, uses data from various sources to predict what you'll want to know before you even search for it, and it's an amazing experience once you've got everything set up.
How To: Google Just Slashed Its New Nexus Phones to the Cheapest Price We've Ever Seen
This year's Nexus devices are already two of the best bang-for-your-buck smartphones on the market, but with a new sale price from several retailers across the net, they might just be an unbeatable deal.
How To: This App Makes Finding Material Design Apps on Google Play Super Easy
More often than not, when you find an app that offers a particular functionality, there are ten other apps on the Google Play Store that offer virtually the same features. But the reason we choose one app over the alternatives is mainly due to one thing—a preference for the user interface of the app we ultimately install.
How To: The Easiest Way to Get Android N on Your Nexus Before Anyone Else
Out of nowhere, Google released a preview build of the upcoming Android N release back in March—a full two months early. As if that weren't enough excitement for one day, they topped themselves by following up that announcement with the debut of a new "Android Beta" program that allows users with eligible devices receive preview builds as a regular OTA update, meaning no losing data or manual installation.
How To: Add Life to Wallpapers with Filters & Effects
Live wallpapers have dipped in popularity lately, with many users favoring a single, static image as their home screen background. But this is generally due to still photos offering a more sophisticated look, while traditional live wallpapers can sometimes seem a little less avant-garde.
How To: What to Do if Google Maps Won't Stop Asking You to Calibrate Your Compass
A lot of users with newer Android devices, particularly the Nexus 6P, have been complaining about issues with their device's compass. I've experienced the issue a few times myself—when you open Google Maps and try to get directions somewhere, you're prompted to calibrate your compass before you can proceed.
How To: Get YouTube Red for Free
Google's YouTube Red is an awesome service, particularly in the United States where it comes bundled with a subscription to Google Play Music. You don't have to worry about ever seeing ads again on any videos, you can continue playback after you exit the YouTube app or even when you turn your screen off, you can download videos for offline playback, and you'll have access to YouTube Music.
How To: There's an Easy Way to Make Sure Your Earphones Are Always Tangle-Free
Headphones cables, USB cables, and other cords have a nasty habit of getting tangled up in-between uses. These tangles are almost always a result of us just mashing and twisting the cord up for "storage," which ends up taking several minutes to carefully untangle.
How To: There's One Setting You Need to Turn On to Charge Your Phone's Battery Faster
New technologies in current-generations smartphones allow for much faster charging—Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0, VOOC Flash Charge, and USB Type-C, for instance, can charge a phone up to 4 times faster than traditional methods. However, the majority of phones on the market still don't support these standards. So for the rest of us, I'll go over an easy tip that can charge any smartphone as much as 25% faster.
How To: Hack Skateboard for Virtual Reality
An accelerometer/gyro goes onto an Arduino board and transmits the angular motion of the skateboard via Bluetooth to a virtual reality game I made for Android phones and Google Cardboard.
How To: Access Your Favorite Apps Right from Your Android's Pull-Down Menu
You gotta love Android—not only can you replace your default home screen entirely, but there are tons of options that provide alternative methods for launching apps with ease. We've covered some of these options in the past, including an app called Bar Launcher that lets you launch apps from your notification tray—but that one's starting to look a little dated these days.
How To: Buy a Microsoft HoloLens
Microsoft's HoloLens project is shaping up to be the forerunner of augmented reality. With jaw-dropping features that would allow you to bring entire football games into your living room and control software with your eyes, there's plenty to be excited about with the upcoming AR headset. Up until now, HoloLens has been seen as potential vaporware, considering that the technology it brings to the table is so futuristic that some folks have thought it wouldn't be possible any time soon. But a r...
How To: Never Miss a Moment by Turning Your Android Phone into an Always-on Recorder
Ever been in an argument, only to have the other person cop out by saying "I never said that," when you know full well they did? Or how about one of those times when you're sitting in the lecture hall, half dozing off to your professor's monotone ramblings, when your ears perk up because they somehow know you missed something important that was just said?
How To: Make Donald Drumpf Again
John Oliver sunk his teeth into Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during the long segment on the latest Last Week Tonight. The whole 21-minute video is definitely worth a watch, but the real fun starts around the 18-minute mark.
How To: See Your Lifetime Amazon Tab (& Wallow in Your Painful Consumeristic Guilt)
How much you've actually spent and how much you think you've spent are usually two completely different results, and is especially true on Amazon when it's so easy to click and buy. You might think you've given Amazon a couple thousand over your lifetime, when the fact is that it's three or four times that amount.
How To: 5 Android Apps That'll Make You a Citizen Scientist
Using a technology we like to call "Hive Computing," several Android apps allow you to contribute idle processing power to help further scientific research. This basically means that when you're not using your phone or tablet, it can join forces with other idle devices to form a supercomputer that scientists can use to potentially make a world-changing breakthrough.
Android Basics: How to Disable Doze & App Standby for Individual Apps
Android Marshmallow introduced a pair of new battery-saving features called Doze and App Standby, and according to the general consensus, both features are a rousing success. Average battery life has increased dramatically for virtually every phone or tablet running Android 6.0, so there's nothing to complain about here, right?
How To: Turn an Old Android Device into a Security Camera
One of the best uses for an old Android device is to turn it into a security webcam that can be accessed over the internet. But most of the time, this is a rather difficult process, because existing apps usually require you to mess around with network settings and configure a personal web server.
How To: This Trick Shows You Exactly When You Clicked on That Purple Link
When you click a link from Google search, the link itself turns purple to let you know you've already visited this page. But let's say you're searching for something similar a few weeks from now and you see one of these purple links—you'll probably think to yourself, "What was I reading about on that site?"—and if you don't remember, you'll end up clicking the link again. And if you're a frequent Reddit user, you know this pain all too well.
How To: Create a Gamertag in Google Play Games
Android's Google Play Games app has let you track your feats and accomplishments in the games you play for quite a while now, but for some, the immersion experience might be broken after you finish dominating a game only to see your regular-ass name from your Google account on the leaderboard.
How To: Watch All the 2016 Oscar-Nominated Films Online
Even though the 88th Academy Awards have come and gone, there's a good chance you still haven't seen all the films that were nominated—or even those that won big.
How To: Get Famous People Like Morgan Freeman to Navigate Your Waze Directions
Navigation app Waze occasionally gives you the option to have a celebrity voice provide directions for your trip, like this famous European with a funny voice, or this decidedly less-famous European with a funny voice.
How To: This Google App Makes Sure Your Device Runs Smooth All the Time
Google has a lesser-known Android app called Device Assist that might just be one of the most useful programs the company has ever published. It offers interactive guides and general tech support for Android, plus it can diagnose your device and help you fix any issues it finds.
Android Basics: How to View Your Location History
Your smartphone has a GPS chip inside of it that can pinpoint your location down to the nearest 4 meters, and this little device stays in your pocket or purse all day. Combine those two facts and you start to realize that your phone knows exactly where you've been during every moment that has passed since you've owned it.
How To: 15 Tips to Make You a Google Calendar Pro
Whether scheduling meetings, events, tasks, or even keeping tabs on the weather, a good digital calendar can help you stay on top of your game in ways that a normal calendar could never do. Indeed, there are many calendars to choose from, but Google Calendar is one of the best due to Google's excellent cloud service, feature-rich web-client, and their easy-to-use Android and iOS applications.
How To: Get Apple's Moving Screen Savers on Android TV
Android TV devices have had those beautiful Chromecast background images as their screensaver for quite a while now. Envious of this feature, Apple copied the idea for a similarly-styled screensaver in their newest Apple TV, but with one big twist—they used videos instead of still photos.