Gadget Hacks How-Tos
How To: Get Talk-to-Text on Your Jailbroken iPhone with the Siri Clone Sara
My obsession with Siri is well documented, and after I jailbroke my iPhone 4 recently, I thought I would finally be able to rekindle our imaginary love. But, when I downloaded the Siri Port, I found that the app was buggy and super slow.
How To: Root Your Samsung Galaxy S3 (And Flash Stock ROMs) Using Odin for Windows
Need root on your Samsung Galaxy S3? Phone not getting the Jelly Bean update? Stuck on the Samsung screen? Phone bricked? Need to restore back to stock? Odin can help!
How To: It's Now Against the Law to Unlock Your Mobile Phone—Here's How to Help Make It Legal Again! [UPDATED]
UPDATE: The whitehouse petition has received enough signatures to require a response from the government. Your voices have been heard! Now we wait...
How To: Install the WhatsApp Messenger onto Your Nexus 7 and Sync It with Your Phone Number
WhatsApp is a very popular messaging app on the Play Store, but unfortunately, tablet users have been left out of all the fun because WhatsApp only works on smartphones—until now.
How To: Keep the Display Off When Receiving a Notification on Your Samsung Galaxy Note 2
As is the case with most smartphones, the Samsung Galaxy Note 2's screen turns on whenever you receive a text or picture message. While having the screen turn on when you receive a notification is handy to have (especially when the phone is on silent), it isn't always preferable. Having your screen turn on for every notification can be quite the distraction, especially at work or school. I find myself watching the screen turn on from the corner of my eye, then rushing over to it and see who t...
How To: This Predictive Text App Is So Accurate You Don't Even Need to Look at Your Phone to Type
Who doesn't hate Auto Correct? There's nothing worse than hitting 'Send' only to realize that your phone betrayed you by changing a word so that your message doesn't even mean the same thing anymore—especially when it's going to someone like your boss or parents.
How To: Reply to Messages While You're Busy with SMS Replier for Android
At a time when virtually everyone has a cell phone, it's almost inconceivable to think of a time when we're without them. At work, in bed, and even in the bathroom; we're always with our smartphones. I mean, hell, someone even designed a way to bring your smartphone into the freaking shower. It's not THAT serious.
SWEAT: A Better Way to Edit and Replace Your Text in Windows 8
Editing and formatting large amounts of text can be a hassle. From finding and replacing words to creating uniform spacing, text editing can be a real drag. But with this Windows application, you can take your text edit skills to the next level.
Passcode Exploit: How to Bypass the Lock Screen on an iPhone Running iOS 6.1
Even though iOS 6.1 was only released a couple of weeks ago, hackers released evasi0n a couple days after. Evasi0n, the only iPhone 5 jailbreak currently on the market, is the most popular jailbreak in history—with nearly 7 million iOS devices already hacked in the mere four days after its release. Well, now it seems that iOS 6.1 is being taken advantage of again, this time with a simple exploit figured out by YouTube user S1riOS6, which lets you bypass the lock screen on an iPhone running iO...
How To: Increase Battery Life on Your Nokia Lumia 920 and Other Windows Phone 8 Devices
It doesn't really matter what kind of cell phone you have—battery life is one of the most important features for any electronic device. We've written tons of articles on how to get better battery life from your Android, iPhone, Kindle, and more, but we've never really covered Windows Phones before—until now. The Nokia Lumia 920 and other devices running Windows Phone 8 suffer from battery problems just like any other mobile device. So, if you've got one in your hands that can't seem to make i...
How To: Siri Who? Meet Winston—Your Own Personal News and Social Media Butler
Unless you're a business executive or movie star, most of us aren't afforded the luxury of having a personal assistant. Wouldn't it be nice to wake up in the morning and just have everything taken care of?
How To: Does Your iOS 6 or 6.1 Device Have a Tethered Jailbreak? Covert It to Untethered with This Hack
Ever since the release of iOS 6 for the iPhone in late September last year, people had been itching for the subsequent jailbreak. While the untethered jailbreak was released on Super Bowl Sunday this past February 3rd, many others couldn't wait and jailbroke their iPhones with a tethered version from Redsn0w.
How To: Speed Up Downloads and Uploads for Kim Dotcom's New MEGA When Using Firefox
Megaupload was one of the very first file-sharing sites I ever used. But since 2005, the beloved (and pretty gangster) Kim Dotcom, has been in a legal battle with the U.S. Justice Department over copyright infringement.
How To: Completely Back Up Your Samsung Galaxy S3 Using Windows
Forum member Luciano posted a terrific guide on adding hacks to our phone by editing build.prop. The article was great, but one of best things I saw in it was the "What You'll Need" section:
How To: Search the iOS App Store More Efficiently with uQuery
If you have an iOS device, chances are you've spent a decent amount of time in the App Store—without at least a few apps, smartphones are pretty boring. There's an app to do just about anything you could ask for, but the problem is finding them. Searching the App Store sucks.
How To: Make Your First Video
THis video shows you what types of videos you can make, why you should make videos and exactly whant you need to get started.
How To: Tweak Your Samsung Galaxy S3's Performance with These "Build.prop" Android Hacks
One of the best things about the Samsung Galaxy S3 is the ability to modify the device in countless ways, as with any other Android device.
How To: Take Free Online Courses for Real College Credit
The internet is a great place to find information for pretty much anything you can think of. So why shouldn't it be a place for official higher learning? I'm not talking about a course in Wikipedia or SparkNotes, but real colleges offering real college courses completely online. And guess what—it's FREE.
How To: Reduce Battery Drain on Your Samsung Galaxy S3 by Fixing Android System Usage
The Jelly Bean update brought a lot of cool features to the Samsung Galaxy S3, but one nasty bug remained. Something was causing "Android System" usage to be consistently high. Of course, the percentage of this process that is used is dependent on what you're doing at any given time, but it shouldn't be anywhere near this level with "standard" use (calls, texts, emails, light browsing, etc.).
Super Backup: The Fastest Way to Back Up All of the Data on Your Android Device
Advancements to Android's open source OS come in the form of ROMs and mods, available all over the web for anyone to find. Installing any of these modifications tends to wipe your phone clean, causing you to lose all of the precious data on your device.
How To: Earn Achievements on Your Android Device for Charging Your Phone, Installing Apps, and Other Daily Tasks
If I could win a trophy for waking up to go to work or for eating a bowl of Frosted Mini-Wheats without any of the biscuits getting soggy, I think my life would be so much more awesome. The gaming industry has cornered the market when it comes to achievement-based rewards, because they know that we love challenges.
How To: ROOT Samsung Galaxy S3 for AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile
The advantages of rooting are vast. From free wi-fi tethering, being on the latest and greatest software, theming all aspects of the OS, to ditching Touchwiz for a pure Google experience and much much more.
How To: Add On-Screen Buttons to Your TouchWiz ROM (Root Required)
Samsung bucked the trend and threw hard keys onto the Galaxy S3 while most manufacturers are going the soft key route. This hack will add on-screen buttons to your TouchWiz-based ROM. You'll need a root file manager with a system writable text editor—I recommend ES File Explorer for this, but feel free to use whatever you want. If using ES, hit Menu, Settings, go down to Root Settings, and check Root Exploerer, Up to Root, and Mount File System.
How To: 5 Must-Know Tips for Not Getting Scammed on Craigslist When Buying or Selling
Craigslist is probably the greatest site ever created, and I'm just talking about it's classified section, both awesome and amazingly creepy. Seriously, spend 20 minutes scrolling through the personals and you'll never want to take your eyes off the screen. But I digress—Craigslist is also one of the most convenient places to buy and sell pretty much anything you can think of. I've used it to buy my bed, my old bike (which was stolen!), and my couch. And while Craigslist is great in many ways...
How To: Scrub the EXIF Data from Photos on Your Android Phone Before Sharing Them
We've talked before about EXIF data—or metadata—attached to photos and how it can expose information about your location, what type of device you're using, and even the device or camera's unique identification number.
How To: Save Your Place in Lengthy YouTube Videos So You Can Return Where You Left Off
If I'm in a hurry, sometimes I'll just turn my computer off and rush out of the house. Sometimes, I'm in the middle of a long YouTube video when I dash off, only to come back and find that my video position has been tragically lost. Hopefully I don't lose my place in that motorcycle accident compilation video when I get ba... damn it.
How To: Add Captions to a YouTube Video
Captioning your YouTube videos not only makes them more acessable for the hearing impaired, but they also make the contents of your video more accessible to YouTube. Once YouTube knows exactly what is being said it your video you will be more likely to rank when people search for related words or phrases.
How To: Adjust Your Mac's Volume in Quarter Increments (And Silence the Sound Effect)
Sometimes, the volume buttons on a MacBook can be pretty annoying. It's too loud, so you turn it down one notch, and now you can't hear your movie at all. It's too low, so you turn it up one notch, and now you can't even hear yourself think.
How To: Crazy Dad Enters Guinness World Records with Fastest Baby Stroller Ever (50+ MPH!)
Babies are pretty cool. They do whatever they want, have beautiful women drool all over them, and have more one-on-one boob action than any grown man (or woman) I know.
How To: Hide Your Video Watching History on YouTube
There are many reasons for wanting to hide your viewing history. Some are legit, others are not so pure of heart, so here is how to do it.
How To: Load Scripts Faster on Your Webpage
This may be an old trick, but it is still very useful. Head.js proudly proclaims that it is the only script you need in your head. You can use it to parallel load all your scripts. This is much faster than loading them one by one.
How To: Monitor Changes in Your Favorite Website's Terms of Service with Docracy's TOS Tracker
Every so often, a big site will make a change to its terms of service that's not so great for its users—without even informing them—and they (understandably) get really pissed off. Recent examples are Facebook's and Instagram's changes, which resulted in user backlash.
How To: Make a Working Speaker Using Only a Magnet, Wire, and Masking Tape
Duct tape is the king of all household items. You can use duct tape for practically anything, like this sweet wallet. But duct tape isn't the only crafty tape out there; masking tape holds its own, too.
How To: Add IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes Ratings to Your Netflix with 'Netflix Save' for Chrome
I like to call Netflix my quiet, digital friend. She's been there for me on many many occasions—from when I had to move home for a few months, to when the cable was down for days.
How To: Search for Apps Faster on Your Android Device Using the T9 AppDialer
When we think of search it's usually in regards to the internet. But when you are using a smartphone, searching your device itself can be just as important and useful.
How To: Did the Evasi0n Jailbreak Cause Your Weather App to Stop Working? Here's How to Fix It
Yesterday, the much anticipated iOS 6.1 jailbreak was released. With the wide array of Cydia apps that are newly available to jailbroken iPhones came an unpleasant surprise—evasi0n causes the built-in iOS Weather app to crash over and over.
How To: Find Out What's Happening in Your City Right Now with Real-Time Instagrams on Your iPhone
The only thing worse than not having any plans is not even knowing where to begin making them. Sure, you can check Yelp or one of countless other review sites to find a great spot, but there's no way of knowing what the vibe is like before you get there. Is it crowded? Are people having fun, or does it look pretty lame?
How To: Control Your Android Device When It's Lost or Stolen Using a Simple Text Message
The great thing about security apps (other than the obvious) is that there is an abundance of them littered throughout the Google Play store. Cerberus, Got Ya!, Avast! Mobile Security, Norton Security & Antivirus, and Android Lost Free are just a few of the gems you can find in the plentiful sea of security apps for Android. Once in awhile, though, a new security application comes along that stands out from the rest, like AeGis.
How To: Crash Apps in Mountain Lion with 8 Characters (Plus Fix iMessage If Someone Pranks You with Them)
If you have a Mac running Mountain Lion, I'm sorry to tell you that all it takes to crash almost any app on it is eight little characters. This strange bug seems to only affect Mountain Lion and doesn't cause your computer any harm. Apparently, it even crashes the error reporter. On its own, the bug doesn't really pose a threat—just don't type it.