Gadget Hacks How-Tos
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.
How To: Add Interactive Live Wallpapers to Your Nexus 7, Samsung Galaxy S3, or Other Android Device
When it comes to live wallpaper for your Android device, the choices are pretty much limitless. Anything from a planet's elliptical orbit around the sun to a school of fish swimming across your screen are just a click and a download away. With the advancement of smartphones, live wallpapers have greatly improved. What once used to be a bit of snow falling down the screen has now evolved into very complex animations, with some that are even susceptible to your interaction with them.
How To: Jailbreak and Install Cydia on Your iPhone 5 (And Other iOS 6 Devices)
While the majority of America was watching the Super Bowl yesterday, the crew over at the evad3rs was finishing its work on their untethered iOS 6.1 jailbreak called evasi0n. Well, the wait is finally over!
How To: Hack an Old Cassette Tape into a Retro-Style MP3 Player
Cassette tapes, much like the boombox, Walkman, and record player, aren't used much anymore. With the ability to put music on our smartphones, most of us don't carry tapes or CDs around because it now seems inconvenient.
How To: Make the Deadliest Looking Redneck Pen Set Ever
Do you guys remember those things you hold with your fingers to write stuff down? I think they're called pens, or something like that...
How To: This DIY 'Bicycle Barometer' Lets You Know If You Should Bike to Work or Catch the Bus
If you don't have a car, or just prefer to take public transit to work, you know that an unexpected change in the weather can quickly...er, dampen your day. If you're not expecting it, rain or snow can turn your trip into a long, hellish ordeal—especially if you bike.
How To: Watch the 2013 Super Bowl XLVII Commercials Live Online
It's almost here. Another year has come and gone, and it's time to watch the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers battle it out in New Orleans for Super Bowl XLVII. For the truly football-obsessed, this Sunday is a day almost as exciting as Christmas. Personally, I just use it as an excuse to cook food that's way less healthy than usual since I never quite became a football fan (sorry, Dad).
How To: Scare Yourself Out of Bed with This Explosive TNT Alarm Clock
The first alarm clock in recorded history can be traced back to ancient Greek philosopher Plato, known for laying the foundations of Western philosophy and science. Plato was said to possess a very large water clock with an alarm signal similar to that of a water organ.
How To: Listen to YouTube Videos in the Background While Using Another Android App
I love YouTube for listening to music I don't already have on my phone or in my iTunes library, but there is one very simple thing that you think they would've figured out by now—the ability to have your video continue to play outside of the app!
How To: 10 Cool Tricks and Secret Features That Make YouTube Even Better
YouTube is the third most popular website in the world, after Google and Facebook. Millions of subscriptions happen each day on YouTube, with over 800 million unique users visiting each month. In that timespan, roughly 4 billion hours of video are watched, with 72 hours of video uploaded every single minute.
How To: Convert Your 6 Second Vine Videos into Animated GIFs
I recently wrote about Twitter's super now app called Vine, which lets people create 6 second video clips that can be embedded in a tweet. Those videos have their own proprietary extension, but if you want to turn those 6 second videos into an animated GIF, you can now do so thanks to developer Esten Hurtle, who created VineGifR, a seamless way to transform your (or someone else's) Vine movies into GIFs.
How To: Filter Profanity, Bad Grammar, and Other Undesirable Comments on YouTube with Comment Snob
YouTube is home to some of the most vile commenters on the internet—completely void of literacy, accuracy of facts, respect, and goodness in general. Known to many as the cesspool of the internet, the YouTube comment board can be a tough place for a person who's not accustomed to hostility on the web. "Tracking my cookies? They will never get my recipe!"
How To: Play Practically Any Old Game on Almost Any Platform with the RetroArch Emulator
Just about anyone who's been gaming for a long time occasionally feels nostalgic for the simpler consoles of yesteryear. I don't play much anymore, but my grandmother (yes, grandmother) got me started on NES when I was about three years old, and most days I'd still take that over the 360 or PS3.
How To: How Dropbox Could Help You Find Your Lost or Stolen Smartphone
I had my wallet stolen a few months ago, and I knew I would never see it again. My biggest gripe was not the credit cards in there, since they're easily cancelled, but the gift cards. I had some pretty good gift cards in there, and there's no way to get those back.
How To: Tired of Chess? Here's How You Find the Secret Games Hidden on Your Mac
I can definitely say that my MacBook is one of my best friends, but I was still very disappointed when I realized that the only game my laptop came with was chess. For starters, I'm not very good at chess. I haven't even beat the computer once, which really grinds my gears. But, it has come to my attention that chess isn't the only pre-installed game on my Mac—there seems to be some hidden gems that I simply wasn't cool enough to know about. For some of you, this may be old news, but for me, ...
How To: Run a Full Version of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich on Your Windows PC
Being able to run mobile apps on a computer is nothing new. Maybe you don't have a mobile device, or maybe you just like seeing the apps on a larger screen. Whatever the reason, with programs like Bluestacks, you can use your laptop to Instagram, play Angry Birds, and run countless other apps made for smartphones.
How To: Turn Your Bluetooth Keyboard into an Apple TV Remote
If you have an iPhone, you probably already updated to iOS 6.1, which was released earlier this week. The new release came with some very subtle updates, including LTE support for more carriers, the ability to purchase movie tickets from Fandango via Siri, some security patches, and more.
How To: Install an HTC Sense-Style Task Manager on Your Samsung Galaxy S3
As much as I love my Samsung Galaxy S3, I'm always on the lookout for cool features I can borrow from other smartphones. One of the most recent "borrowed" features I've added to my S3 is the Galaxy Note 2's smart rotation feature, which uses the front camera to detect my face-to-screen angle, which then rotates my screen accordingly. But the S3 already comes packed with some awesome features, as well as some less-than-stellar ones. One of these less-than-stellar features is the task manager, ...