Gadget Hacks How-Tos
Get Your Lazy Ass Out of Bed: 3 Ways Your Nexus 7 Can Keep You from Oversleeping
Oversleeping isn't just an epidemic that affects millions of hungover college students every year, we all want that extra minute or two of sleep. Unfortunately, oversleeping and showing up late to work or class isn't something we can generally afford to do.
How To: The Easiest Way to Find Creative Commons Images for Anything You Want
Sometimes I actually search Google Images for things other than GIFs and pictures of athletes' extremely hot wives. Google Images has helped me with school projects, work, and proving my friends wrong on numerous occasions. Unless you're strictly using it for the latter, you're going to have to be aware of copyrights.
How To: Set Up a Pandora Alarm Clock on Your iPhone for a Less Annoying Start to Your Day
Waking up to my Night Owl iOS alarm has grown beyond old. I'd switch it up to one of the other ones, but I pretty much hate all of them. Thankfully, Pandora added an alarm clock feature to their application. Godspeed Pandora, Godspeed.
How To: De-Grumpify Your Mornings by Waking Up to Your Favorite Pandora Stations
I listen to Pandora as I slowly drift off to sleep, so why not have the popular music app wake me up as well? Pandora only recently introduced the Alarm Clock feature on iOS, and now they've brought that same feature to Android—only it's better.
How To: Turn Your Personal Handwriting into a Custom Font for a More Unique Look
There are thousands of fonts you can download online. Some are free, some you have to pay for, but they all have something in common—if you can get them, so can everyone else. If you want a truly unique font that no one else is using, you have to make your own, and what's more unique than your own handwriting?
How To: Watch the First Episode of Black Sails a Week Early
I have been a fan of pirates ever since I downloaded my first movie on LimeWire. Wait, wrong pirates. I guess real pirates are pretty cool too. Johnny Depp brought pirates back into the spotlight with his role as Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean. And a Somali pirate from Captain Phillips got nominated for a Golden Globe.
Pro Tip: How to Text Best Buy & Other Businesses for Quick Information on Gadget Availability
I wonder if Best Buy has any Note 3's for sale?? When trying to figure out when something is in stock, we usually either check online or call the store to talk to someone. If certain products are out of stock the process might be tedious, with having to find phone numbers and calling several stores.
How To: Get Lenovo's Exclusive Super Camera Apps on Your Galaxy Note 3
Lenovo brought out the big guns for CES 2014, with the Vibe Z showcased as the Chinese company's' first foray into the LTE smartphone space. Slated for a February release, the ultra-thin and extremely light smartphone will certainly be in the running for top smartphones of this very new year. Photo via CNET
How To: Fix an Inconsistent Orientation Sensor on Your Samsung Galaxy S3
The sensors in your mobile device are integral for gaming (try to beat my Temple Run 2 score), as well as many of the basic Galaxy S3 features like Smart Stay and other fancy additions. But sometimes those sensors can become overly sensitive or just downright unusable.
How To: Lock Individual Apps to Prevent Friends from Snooping on Your Samsung Galaxy S3
Keeping unwanted clowns off on my Samsung Galaxy S3 is priority number one. I've shown you how to snag a picture of people opening your apps and how to lock your screen for whenever you hand off your phone, allowing them to access only the page you left open.
How To: Get Super Fast Access to Your Favorite App with a Quick Swipe on Your iOS 7 iPhone
In a previous guide, I showed you how to add a 5th app to your icon dock. This is both useful and cool-looking. Unfortunately, cramming a 6th would be make the tapping area too small, so instead I'll show you how to save space by making your most used app easily accessible with a simple swiping gesture.
How To: The Easiest and Fastest Way to Pick the Best Shot Out of Multiple Photos on Your Galaxy Note 3
When we take pictures with our smartphones, it’s safe to assume we’re taking more than one. We're either trying to capture the right light, look, or expression… or maybe a slight nod to the right to show off your good side.
How To: Customize Your iOS 7 Texting App's Message Bubbles to Use Whatever Colors You Want
Conversations can be a little stale sometimes, so a little color help add some life. AOL realized this In the early days of AIM, and let you customize your colors just the way you want. Unfortunately, Apple doesn't let you go into your settings to customize your messaging app's colors, but with this awesome and effective tweak you can. All you need is a jailbroken iOS 7 iPhone or iPad, which is easily achieved.
How To: Easily Close All Safari Tabs at Once in iOS 7 for iPhone & iPad
Closing all of your tabs open in Safari is not an exceptionally quick task—you have the choice of either tapping the X on the left edge of each page or swiping each tab to the left of the screen. If you have a load of tabs open, you'll have to swipe or tap through all of them. Instead of wasting time, I'm going to show you the quick way of closing all of the open tabs in Safari.
Touch, Don't Press: Extend the Lifespan of Your iPhone 5s Home Key
Take a minute and think about how many times a day you press the home key on your iPhone . . . a lot, right? It is quite literally the most important button on your device. If the home key stops working, you won't be able to multitask or back out of apps to go to your home screen, so preserving its life should be priority, otherwise you're stuck using one of these tips for fixing your home button. Luckily, for 5S users, you can add a tweak that will utilize your touch ID sensor, instead of ha...
How To: Customize Your Ringer for More Advanced Contact-by-Contact Control
There are two scenarios that absolutely suck when someone calls you. The first is when you accidentally pick up a call you seriously didn't want to take. Debt collectors (thanks college), crazy exes, or that one guy from work. And the other is when you miss a super important call and can't get a hold of them afterwards.
How To: Running Low on Storage? Safely Clear the Cache of All of Those Hungry Third-Party Apps on Your Galaxy Note 3
Repetitive use of apps over time will eat up your storage space with by caching data on your device. This can be useful at first, speeding up your apps by not requiring them to re-download frequently used data, but as a cache grows, even the initial performance improvements can be outweighed by the unwelcomed loss of storage space. And if a cache grows too large, the time it takes an app to access the cached data can be even slower than the time it would've taken to re-download the data in th...
How To: Enable the Swipe-Back Gesture for All Apps on the Galaxy Note 2 & 3
While some Android applications have built-in gestures that allow you to perform certain actions, it's not a feature that's been comprehensively, let alone consistently implemented. If you're on Twitter or Facebook and you want to go back, the only global way is by tapping on the capacitive back button at the bottom of your device. Thanks to XDA dev PeterCxy, you can now enable a global swipe back gesture on your Android smartphone or tablet, making it easier than ever to backtrack within apps.
How To: Hide Your Nexus 7's Soft Keys to Maximize Usable Screen Space
I know all of you softModders love these little modifications, like enabling the hidden battery percentage on the Nexus 7 or getting the exclusive Google Launcher on your Nexus, so here's an easy one that lets you hide the soft-keys from your tablet, which will actually expand your screen to look a little bit longer.
How To: Unlock the Hidden "Notification History" Feature on Your Nexus 7 Tablet
If you're really popular, like myself, then you're constantly receiving a steady flow of notifications on your Android device. This is either a nuisance, or a reassurance of your popularity. Sometimes you get too many notifications at one time to view, or you accidentally swipe an important alert away, rendering it lost forever.
How To: Fix Auto-Correct When It's Constantly Choosing the Wrong Word on Your Galaxy Note 3
In the midst of furious finger typing on a small non-tactile screen, you're sure to make mistakes—so the majority of keyboards have autocorrect. Generally it works pretty well and is a welcomed feature.
How To: Get KitKat Toast Notifications on Your Samsung Galaxy S4
KitKats? Toast? Sorry if that headline made you hungry, but no I'm not talking about Nestlé's chocolatey wafer treat, nor the crunchy slices of bread you have with your eggs in the morning.
How To: Get Your Chromecast to Stop Lagging
Google Chromecast is only 35 dollars. That's about 2 and a half drinks at a decent bar in Los Angeles. So, my roommates and I looked to make the investment. The small box arrived in the mail and the setup couldn't be easier. Simply, plug the Chromecast into the HDMI port on your TV and pair the two devices. Done and Done. Having the ability to stream anything on our computers or cellphones right to the TV was the main reason for getting Chromecast. Now, for streaming through the Chrome browse...
How To: View All Messages at Once on Facebook, Without Scrolling Up Forever!
You want to find a message that you've sent two years ago, but scrolling is taking too long? I have a solution for this! :)
How To: Get Rid of the Annoying "High Volume" Alert When Using Headphones on Your Samsung Galaxy S4
When you were younger, you probably had your parents bugging you not to have your cassette player headphones up too loud. For all you younger readers out there, it was probably a CD player. The even younger readers likely had an iPod or other MP3 player. Either way, your parents didn't want you to mess up your hearing, blasting that Limp Bizkit in your ears (wow, I'm showing my age here).
How To: Customize Your iPhone with a New Default Font from Disney, the Simpsons, & Many More
Let me begin this tutorial by reiterating how boring an iOS device can get, like my iPhone. It's extremely popular, yet extremely strict in terms of personalization.
How To: Bye Bye, Inbox Zero? Gmail Is Going to Let Anyone on Google+ Email You—Here's How to Block It
As of this week, Gmail is going to start letting Google+ users email each other using a new option called "Email via Google+." There's nothing wrong with making it easier to get in touch with people you want to hear from, but the default setting allows anyone with a Google+ account to send a message to your Gmail inbox. After the feature is in use, Gmail will start to suggest Google+ connections along with your other contacts as recipients. Email addresses will not be displayed for Google+ co...
How To: New Self-Destructing Messaging App "Confide" Promises to Do Privacy Better Than Snapchat—But Do They Deliver?
When you post something online, it pretty much stays there. So it's no surprise that Snapchat, the self-destructive photo-sharing app, became such a huge hit, boasting an estimated 50 million users. Its ephemeral nature has proven popular, especially with teenagers—who are now well aware of the burden that permanence on the internet has.
How To: Get These Badass Circular App Icons to Round Out Your iOS 7 iPhone or iPad's Home Screen
Rounded rectangle icons are so 2007. Sure iOS 7 tweaked them a bit, but with the clean new approach to design that software is taking today, they're starting to look dated. Today I'm going to show you how to go full circle with your iPhone's icons, and the results are actually pretty awesome.
How To: Get Cool Cartoony iOS 7 Icons on Your iPhone or iPad for a Unique & Fun Home Screen
Depending on who you ask, the icons on your iPhone have either improved or taken a serious dive since the iOS 7 update. They're flatter and cleaner, which I really appreciated, but the neon colors are a little too bright, and the grays are a little too dull.
Four Isn't Enough: How to Add an Extra Application to Your iPhone or iPad Dock
Have you ever looked at your iPhone dock and wished you could place an extra, essential, or highly utilized app on there? Currently, with the basic settings you can only place four, but there's always that one that you wish could add to the mix.
How To: Trick Apps That Won't Run if Your Phone Is Rooted into Thinking Its Not on the Galaxy Note 3
As a preventative measure against exploitation, certain Android applications won't work if your device is rooted. Opening one of these apps that detects root will typically end up with a warning and an inability to access its features, like in the picture below. AS IF!
How To: Tell What's in a Text Without Looking by Activating Smart Vibrations on Your Samsung Galaxy S3
The constant stream of beeps and the buzzes coming from your Samsung Galaxy S3 can soon begin to fade into the background and remain forgotten. With smartphones vibrating for email alerts, Candy Crush notifications, phone calls, and text messages it can become difficult to tell which alert is which.
How To: Find Out When One of Your So-Called "Friends" Unfriends You on Facebook
You don't have to be Drake to realize that some friends are better than others. There are friends you know are only there for the party, and friends who actually listen when you whine about your life. There are friends you go out with for a beer, and friends you call when you're drunk and need a lift at 4am.
How To: Customize The "Slide to Unlock" Text on Your iPhone's Lock Screen to Say Whatever You Want
Here we go again, softModders, it's time for another awesome tweak for your iPod, iPhone, or iPod running iOS 7. Have you ever felt like changing your lock screen with a custom text instead of it saying "slide to unlock"? Why shouldn't we be able to edit this? We're not given much freedom as it stands with our Apple devices.
How To: Switch Apps on the HTC One Like a Speed Demon Without a Multitask Button to Press
There's no shortage of reasons to love the One, yet a feature curiously omitted from the device, much to the chagrin of power users, is a multitasking button.
How To: Record the Screen of Your Nexus 5 Directly from the Device
One of the lesser known features brought along by the roll-out of Android 4.4 KitKat is the ability to screen record from within the device. This features isn't overtly obvious, nor is its implementation the most streamlined, but if you were ever looking for a way to capture video of what's happening on your screen, this is now the best way to do it.
How To: Get the New Dark Keyboard on Your iPad or iPhone Without the iOS 7.1 Beta
If you're lucky enough to have an iOS developer account, then you had a brief glimpse of some of the darker options with the 7.1 update, including a darker keyboard. This was exclusive to developers who installed the first iOS 7.1 beta, but is no longer available, unfortunately.
How To: Snapchat Lost Your Trust? Here's How to Completely Delete Your Snapchat Account
Snapchat is like that very attractive girl at the bar that has one too many shots and ends up slobbering on the bouncer as she gets led out. Of course she can still recover since she is hot, but you only get so many chances before you just become a complete failure. And that's where Snapchat has been treading these past few weeks.
How To: Apple's 3rd iOS 7.1 Beta for iPad, iPhone, & iPod Touch Is Out—Here's What's New
Apple has released the third beta of its iOS 7.1 software to developers, just a few weeks after their second beta introduced us to button shapes, a new calendar list view toggle, a hidden Car Display control and several other tweaks and performance improvements.