Gadget Hacks How-Tos
How To: Stop Your TikTok Account from Being Suggested to Contacts, Facebook Friends & Other Users You May Know
Your TikTok videos might be interesting, creative, fun, and appealing, but that doesn't necessarily mean you want the entire world to see them. While you're fine with strangers watching your videos, you may not want your close friends, family, and coworkers to see the kinds of mischief you're up to.
How To: Automatically Clear Nagging System Notifications on Android
If you're using a VPN-based ad blocker with full HTTPS functionality on a Samsung phone, you'll get a notification informing you there's a third-party security certificate in use. No big deal, except it shows up every time you restart the phone. Samsung isn't alone in this type of annoyance, either.
How To: Download All the Songs from Your Google Play Music Library Before Google Deletes Them on Feb. 24
After a slow phase-out, Google Play Music was shut down in December 2020. The songs you uploaded or purchased are still on Google's servers, but even those will be deleted on Feb. 24, 2021.
How To: Print Reminders Lists from Your iPhone or Save Them as PDFs
Modern life is almost completely digital ... almost. While you can get by in many cases with just your iPhone, sometimes a situation requires a hard copy. In the past, there was really no convenient way for you to get a Reminders list from your iPhone onto paper, but iOS 14.5 changes that.
How To: Go from Total Beginner to Cloud Computing Certified with This Top-Rated Bundle of Courses, Now 98% Off
Do you want to know some quick tricks for improving tech processes at your company? How about equipping yourself with skills that will land you a new job or promotion this year? Becoming a cloud computing expert will make it happen, and right now, The 2021 Cloud Computing Architect Certification Bundle is on sale for just $29.99. That's an amazing 98% off the regular price of $1,800.
How To: Hide Your Liked Videos on TikTok So That Nobody Can See Them but You
Every video you like on TikTok, whether it's a stranger performing a series of choreographed movements or a celebrity showing off their new workout, is saved to your profile. If you want to watch your liked videos at any time in the future, you can easily do so from your profile — but so can everyone else.
How To: Sort Reminders Lists by Title, Due Date, Creation Date, Priority & More on Your iPhone
You use your iPhone's Reminders app to keep track of everything from grocery lists to the day's most important tasks. Over recent iOS updates, Apple has added tools to Reminders to make it even more powerful, like assigning tasks to other people and setting location-based reminders. Now there's another great update, and it gives you the ability to sort your lists.
How To: Learn Everything You Need to Become a Certified Developer & Project Management Pro for Less Than $40
We all know IT development is a valuable skill to have. But being a certified professional in the world's most in-demand project management and development tools? That's enough to get the promotion or new developer career you've been dreaming about.
How To: Create an Archived Backup of Your Current iOS Version So You Can Restore After a Downgrade
If you want to try out one of Apple's beta programs on your iPhone — whether that's by becoming a developer, joining the public beta, or using an IPSW of an available beta update — there's always a possibility that you'll want to go back to the stable iOS version you were using before. Likewise, if you updated to the latest stable release but liked how iOS worked on the previous version.
How To: Safari for iPhone Lets Advertisers Track Your 'Clicks' — Here's How to Disable It
Apple wants to support the advertising economy, but its primary focus of late has been user privacy and security. In Safari, cross-site tracking, which lets content providers track you across websites and apps to show you more targeted ads, is disabled by default. However, content providers can get around that using less privacy-invasive ad measurements, but you can stop that too in iOS 14.5.
How To: The World's Smallest Charger Will Upgrade Your Gadget Setup — Right Now It's on Sale for 14% Off
We don't mean to alarm you, but we may have just found the coolest charger in the world. The Mopoint World's Smallest 65W GaN PD Charger offers fast and simultaneous charging, and it just happens to be on sale right now for 14% off, costing just $42.99 (regular price $49).
How To: Use This Gmail Trick to See When Apps & Sites Sell Your Data
How do spammers get your email? You give it to them. Not directly, no — you sign up for an app or service and happily hand over your email to verify your new account, then that app or service sells your email address to marketers who now know what kinds of apps and services you like.
How To: Keep Your Phone Unlocked When It's Paired with Your Smartwatch
Apple just rolled out the of iOS 14.5 to developers and beta testers, and one of the headlining features is the ability to keep your iPhone unlocked when your Apple Watch is nearby. As these things tend to go, Android has actually had this same feature for years, though it isn't quite as polished.
How To: This Is Absolutely the Fastest, Most Convenient Way to Toggle Your iPhone's Flashlight On & Off (Hint: It's No Button)
It's easier than ever to toggle your iPhone's flashlight (or torch) on and off. From your lock screen, home screen, or from within any app, most iPhone models will let you enable or disable the flashlight from the Control Center, via the Notification Center, or with Siri. But there's an even faster and more convenient way to trigger the flashlight button, and you don't even have to look at your iPhone to use it.
How To: You Can Run Shortcuts Right from Your iPhone's Lock Screen & Here Are 6 Ways to Do It
Shortcuts are meant to make your life easier, and iPhone shortcuts are no exception. They can use different triggers, manual or automated, to perform actions in the background, allowing you to do things like send a prewritten text message during a bad date or change your wallpaper at certain times of the day. However, sometimes it's not only about the shortcut itself but about how fast you can run it.
How To: Set Custom Chat Wallpapers in Signal for All Conversations & Single Threads
Popular chat apps like Facebook Messenger and (these days, sadly) WhatsApp might not cut it when it comes to privacy and security, but they sure do offer some fun ways to customize your chats. If you're worried that moving to Signal Private Messenger means you lose these features, don't — the privacy-focused app also lets you choose custom chat wallpapers for all your threads.
How To: Post Status Updates on Signal for Your Friends & Other Contacts to See
Keeping your friends up to date is one of the reasons chat apps exist in the first place, but sometimes we're not available to respond to every message or to let all of our contacts know what we're up to. That's where status updates come in handy, and the feature has finally found its way to Signal Private Messenger.
How To: Get 90% Off This Software Bundle Which Will Turn You into a PC Power User
There's an easy way to take your PC to the next level — without any need for a hardware upgrade. The secret is in software that unlocks uses and productivity hacks you never knew you needed. Even better, right now, The Power User PC Software Bundle is on sale for just $59.99. That's 90% off the regular price of $614.
How To: Stop Your iPhone from Automatically Sharing Audio to Your HomePod or HomePod Mini
Pushing music from your iPhone to your HomePod or HomePod mini by just moving the devices close to each other is certainly a great party trick. But if Handoff is too easily triggered, you might not think it's worth the wow factor. Thankfully, there's an easy way to stop your iPhone from sharing audio to your HomePod or HomePod mini (and vice versa) if you're finding it happens way too often.
How To: Block Those Annoying Cookie Consent Notices from Appearing on Websites in Safari
As a means to combat annoying and intrusive advertisements in Safari, Apple added native support for content blockers on the iPhone. Instead of being bombarded by notifications, banners, and pop-ups, content blockers prevent them from opening, which can also be said about those annoying cookie consent notices that many websites now have.
How To: Get 52% Off This Game-Changing AI Typing Software That Will Cut Your Typing Time in Half
If you do a lot of typing every day — writing reports, essays, emails, and whatnot — we can guarantee your day would be improved by taking less time to do it. Thankfully, we've found a super-smart AI-powered tool that will do just that, and right now, you can get an amazing 52% off a Lightkey Pro Text Prediction Software: Lifetime Subscription for the sale price of just $79.99 (regular price $169).
How To: Why Some Non-Apple Devices Can't Open Photos & Videos Shared from Your iPhone (& How to Fix It)
You take a photo or video, send it to a friend, and they say, "Hey, I can't open this." More often than not, your friend won't be using an iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Mac. Instead, they're likely trying to open the file with a non-Apple device. But this problem can be avoided if you know what setting to change.
How To: 10 New Features & Changes for Your iPhone in iOS 14.4
Outside of iPhone releases, software updates are arguably the most exciting aspects of iOS life. It's like Christmas morning when your iPhone installs an update, as you dive through your device to find all the new features and changes Apple thought to include. With iOS 14.4, there are at least 10 such new additions just waiting for you to explore.
How To: The Easiest Way to View Exif Metadata for Photos on Your iPhone
Most of the images in your iPhone's Photos app contain exchangeable image file format data known as Exif or EXIF data, which has several helpful uses. You can use countless apps capable of reading Exif data, many of which are paid or limited. But you already have an app on your iPhone that can give you important details about each image — and I'm not talking about the Photos app.
How To: Converting Text to Speech Will Transform Your Productivity
Once you start converting text to speech, you'll never go back. Allowing you to easily listen to large amounts of text while multitasking, the Notevibes Text to Speech Personal Pack: Lifetime Subscription will transform your daily productivity at home, work, school, and anywhere else you may be. Even better: it's on sale now for just $69.99, which is a huge 87% off the regular price of $540.
How To: Free Up Space on Your iPhone Quickly Without Deleting Any Important Data
Even with the convenience of online storage like iCloud and Google Drive, data management can be a constant struggle on your iPhone. If you continuously find yourself having to delete messages, photos, videos, and other files to make room for other things, know that there's an easy way to free up space without erasing anything important or having to dig through documents and data yourself.
How To: Find & Remove Files from Deleted Apps on Your iPhone to Free Up More Storage
Since iOS 11, your iPhone has been capable of offloading hardly used apps to free up storage space for more useful data. But offloading only gets rid of the app's binary, meaning its documents and data are stored on your device in case you reinstall the app. That can take up a lot of space itself, so it's good to periodically review files for offloaded apps and purge the content you no longer need.
How To: The Easiest Way to Get the Stock Wallpapers from Almost Any Phone
These days, the only thing your eyes view more than your phone's home screen is the backside of your eyelids. So it goes without saying that whatever picture you have as your background gets old pretty fast.
How To: Stop Apps Installed on Your iPhone from Downloading Automatically on Your Other iOS Devices (& Vice Versa)
The benefit of going all-in on the Apple ecosystem is that your stuff is connected across all of your Apple products. That said, I really don't need every app I download on my iPhone appearing on my iPad, and vice versa. That's why addressing this setting is crucial for maintaining some level of order across your multiple iOS devices.
How To: Boost Your Sales Skills & Close More Deals with This Ultimate Sales Master Class
Whether you work in sales or want to become more persuasive and better at selling yourself, the art of selling can be transferred to nearly any career path or walk of life. Whether the gains are monetary or interpersonal, being a great salesperson is one of the most invaluable skills you can ever learn.
How To: Stop Incoming Calls from Ignoring Do Not Disturb on Your iPhone
Do Not Disturb is the best way to block out all interruptions on your iPhone without having to power down. All notifications and alerts are silenced, but the same can't be said for phone calls. By default, repeat calls will bypass Do Not Disturb, which can be quite frustrating when you're in a movie, classroom, or board meeting. It's good for emergencies, but not for people who can't take the hint.
How To: 9 Fresh New Android Launchers to Replace Your Boring Home Screen (2021 Edition)
Every mainstream Android home screen app looks and behaves almost exactly like Google's Pixel Launcher. It's the trendsetter, like the Nexus Launcher before it. But when all your options are modeled after the same thing, that really takes the "custom" out of "custom launcher."
How To: This Top-Rated Bundle of Self Improvement Courses Will Make You a Better Version of Yourself
There's no better time to reset, improve yourself, and develop new skills than at the start of a brand new year, where you're stuck at home with nothing better to do. Thankfully, this amazing deal on The 2021 Career & Self Development Master Class has come at a perfect time. Right now, it's on sale for just $39.99 — that's a whopping 98% off the regular price of $2,000.
How To: This Discreet Panic Button for iPhone Will Help You Escape Bad Dates, Uncomfortable Encounters & Annoying People
Strange or uncomfortable encounters can be difficult to get away from sometimes if you're overly polite and don't want to hurt anybody's feelings. Thankfully, your iPhone can help save the day, providing you with a plausible excuse to exit the scene without having to conjure up some last-minute reason on the spot.
How To: Change or Replace Your Android's Home Screen App
One of the easiest ways to change up your Android experience is by swapping out the stock launcher with a new one. The word "launcher" is Android lingo for "home screen app," and it's a common term because of how easy it is to switch to a new one. So if you're looking to revamp your home screen, this guide's for you.
How To: Upgrade Your Audio with This Powerful Bluetooth Speaker, Now on Sale for Less Than $50
Still listening to music and podcasts on your laptop or phone speakers? Mute that right now and switch to a powerful speaker that sounds incredible — which also happens to be on sale for less than fifty bucks. Right now, you can get the Motorola Sonic Sub 530 Wireless Bluetooth Speaker for just $49.95 — that's a 16% discount off the regular price of $59.
How To: Use Any Song on Your iPhone as a Gradually Increasing Alarm for a Gentle Wakeup
If you'd rather be gently relaxed out of bed instead of stressed out at loud alarm sounds, there are a few things you can do on your iPhone. One of your best options is to use carefully selected songs that start out calm and soothing and gradually increase in intensity and volume. But you could also use a more intense track you know will wake you up, only set to ascend in volume to ease you out of slumber.
How To: Use Customizable App Pickers on Your iPhone's Home Screen to Group Apps, Reduce Clutter & Find Apps Faster
If your iPhone's home screen is littered with apps in no discernible order, and you rely on muscle memory to locate one when you need it, it gets harder with each new app icon added. Folders can help organize the mess, but you can also create your very own app picker or group of app pickers. They act similar to folders but show apps in a list and let you add the same app to multiple app pickers.
How To: Disable or Delete Your Location History in Google Maps for More Privacy
Google Maps tracks everywhere you go with your smartphone, even when you're not using the app. Even if it's as mundane as your weekly grocery trip, Google Maps has it saved for you to see in its Android and iOS apps. And while it's mostly used for recommendations and your reference — you may not want Google Maps to keep such a rich location history.
How To: Pin Your Favorite TikTok DMs to the Top of Your Direct Messages Inbox for Quicker Access
Want quick access to message threads with your favorite or important contacts? Just pin them to the top of the conversations list. It's a common feature in many messaging apps, including Apple's Messages in iOS 14. While it's not particularly well-advertised, TikTok also lets you pin chats to the top of your direct messages inbox on Android or iPhone.