Hot Gadget Hacks How-Tos
How To: Get Android M's New App Drawer on Any Device Right Now
Android M, the successor to Lollipop, is almost here. If you have a Nexus, you can install a preview of Android M using either the Fastboot method or Nexus Root Toolkit. For those of you without a Nexus, you can still get a piece of M on your device right now by installing the new app drawer.
How To: The Easiest Way to Transfer Files to Others with Your Web Browser
These days, there is no shortage of ways to exchange files to and from friends and family: text messages, email, Bluetooth transfer, and cloud services are just a tiny sliver of what you can use to share music, photos, videos, and more.
Google Photos: How to Transfer Pictures from Facebook, Dropbox, Instagram, Flickr, & More
Google made a huge splash this year in their annual Google I/O with an awesome announcement regarding their Photos app. Although I was primarily interested in the details surrounding Android M, my ears instantly perked up when Google announced that their Photos app will now offer free, unlimited, high-quality storage.
How To: Pimp Out Your Tweets with Rich Text Formatting on Twitter
Aside from media, there's not a whole lot you can do in 140 characters to make your tweets stand out. You can use emojis, but they aren't exactly ground-breaking. However, now you can use Bedazzle, a Chrome extension from Gordon Zheng that'll allow you to add "rich text" to your tweets.
How To: Remove Camera Restrictions on Your Galaxy S6 for Higher Quality Photos
The Galaxy S6 already has one of the best cameras on the market, but a few minor annoyances still linger. Full-sized photos are stored with heavy compression that can cause artifacting, burst mode shots aren't taken at 100% quality, and the camera flash cannot be used when your battery is below a certain threshold.
How To: Install the Android M Preview on Your Nexus Device (Using Mac or Linux)
Google I/O is like Christmas for Android enthusiasts. Every year, this conference showcases new and upcoming features for the world's leading mobile operating system, and this year's was no different. Shortly after announcing Android M, Google released a preview version of the upcoming firmware for Nexus devices.
How To: Create & Restore Backups, Flash ZIPs, & More Without Tripping KNOX on Your Galaxy S6
KNOX is a major pain for Samsung owners who like to modify their devices. Its combination of hardware and software security measures make things rather difficult when you're trying to modify system-level files and functions without voiding your warranty.
How To: Turn Your OnePlus One into an Android/iOS Hybrid
While its hardware may already be a little outdated compared to newer flagship phones, the OnePlus One is still a great value thanks to the dedicated community that continues to develop ROMs for it. Cyanogen 12 and Oxygen OS are the two most popular ones, but neither offers the type of unique experience you get with Xiaomi's MIUI (pronounced "Me You I").
How To: Download & Save Any File Type onto Your iPhone
On an Android device, you can download almost any file type into a neat and tidy "Downloads" folder, and those files can then be accessed with an appropriate app, shared via email, or transferred over to your computer. On an iPhone, there is no such folder, and saving files from Safari is almost impossible unless you're jailbroken.
How To: Autocorrect Only Fixes Mistakes, but This Android Keyboard Helps Prevent Them
My reliance on autocorrect has made me a horrible speller. I take it for granted that it'll catch all my mistakes, but it only ends up making matters worse (especially when it inadvertently makes correct words wrong). So instead of relying on autocorrect to fix typos, why not try to completely prevent mistakes from happening in the first place?
How To: How Your Apple Watch Can Help You Find Your Parked Car
Everyone's forgotten where they parked their car at least once. Either you forget to take note of the section you parked in, or maybe it's more of a Dude, Where's My Car? type of situation. Either way, you're left to circle the same street or parking structure, over and over, with nothing but exhaustion and frustration to show for it.
How To: Add Custom Widgets to the Lock Screen on Android Lollipop
When Lollipop was released, Android's lock screen got a huge makeover. But most of the changes were made for aesthetic purposes rather than functionality.
How To: Upload Instagram Photos Straight from Your Computer
In an attempt to remain a mobile-exclusive app, Instagram doesn't let users upload photos or videos from their computer. On the Instagram web app, you can pretty much only like and comment on items in your feed, but what about all of those photos on your computer that scream #tbt?
How To: Conserve Data Better with a Detailed Report of Your Data Usage on Android
Amazingly enough, some of us still have to worry about exceeding our monthly mobile data limits. You'd figure carriers would have given the customers what they want by now by offering truly unlimited plans, but with two conglomerates sitting atop the U.S. cellular market with fat pocketbooks that make for limitless lobbying, they can basically do whatever they want.
How To: The Easiest, Fastest Way to Free Up Space on Your Mac’s Hard Drive
It's nice that most apps ship with multi-language support, but if you only need to utilize one, those extra language packs are doing nothing more than taking up space on your computer. And when you're getting close to filling up your hard drive, every little bit counts.
How To: Check Your iPhone's Battery Life from Your Apple Watch
Considering how the Apple Watch works as an extension to your iPhone, it would've seemed like a no-brainer to include the ability to view your iPhone's battery life from the Watch, but in true Apple fashion, they did not.
How To: Customize Spotlight Search in Mac OS X Yosemite
Spotlight, Apple's selection-based search system, received a major facelift on Mac OS X Yosemite. Packed with dozens of new features, such as a central search window and increased app suggestions, the reworked Spotlight was a breath of fresh air.
How To: Get Apple's 3D Touch Feature on Android
Apple's latest round of devices—including the MacBook Pro, Apple Watch, and the iPhone 6S—use a new touch input method that can detect when you've applied a bit more force than usual. Dubbed "Force Touch" ("3D Touch" on the new iPhones), this gesture simulates a long-press or right-click, but it usually requires special hardware to detect the amount of pressure you've applied.
How To: Mute Shutter Sounds, Schedule Texts, Disable Status Bar Icons, & More on Your Galaxy S6
Carriers like to distinguish their Android phones from the competition by making small changes to the interface here and there. This practice is so common that Android now has a built-in system for managing these small tweaks.
Tunedeck: The Best Way to Listen to Spotify Music in Your Car
While the Spotify interface isn't overly complicated or confusing, it's not exactly safe to use when behind the wheel. Thankfully, a new app from Navideck is here to make driving with a Spotify premium membership easier and safer for your daily commutes.
How To: Take Snapchat Photos Using Your Apple Watch
To take group shots and better selfies on your iPhone, you can use your Apple Watch as a remote shutter for the Camera app—but what if you want to take a snapshot or video with a different app?
How To: Boost Headphones Volume on Your Galaxy S6 Edge
The Galaxy S6 Edge comes with a very nice pair of earbuds, which might possibly be the best set I've ever owned. They're quite comfortable, and they provide clear and robust sound, but they could still use just a little boost in volume.
How To: Take Smooth Time-Lapse Videos with Microsoft's Hyperlapse
Smartphones don't generally play nice with tripods, so videos taken with our handheld devices make terrible source material for time-lapse photography.
How To: Fix Deep Sleep Issues Caused by Rooting Your Galaxy S6
As the developer behind the most popular root methods for hundreds of Android devices, Chainfire knows the ins and outs of Android root procedures. But this doesn't mean he's infallible—occasionally, some of his root utilities can cause minor bugs.
How To: Launch Apps, Tasks, & Websites Directly from Your iPhone's Notification Center
An app called Launcher was released for iOS 8 last September that let users open any installed app directly from a widget in the Notification Center pull-down. For some reason, Apple didn't take too kindly to this and banned Launcher from the iOS App Store just a few days after its release.
How To: 4 Ways to Clean Up the Status Bar on Your Galaxy S6 (Without Rooting)
The Galaxy S6 might just be the best Android phone on the market right now. From a hardware standpoint, Samsung truly knocked this one out of the park with its finely-crafted build quality and amazing screen.
How To: See How Long Your Android Has Before Automatically Shutting Down from a Low Battery
Even if my phone has only 1% of battery life left, I'll keep using it until I can get to a power source somewhere. Most times I never make it to a charger, and my device eventually powers down on its own.
How To: Make Contact Photos Look Sharper & Less Pixelated on Android
For every contact photo you add, Android keeps two copies. The first is stored at a 720p resolution, and this is used for high-definition imagery when you're looking at a full-sized contact card. But the second image is only 96 pixels by 96 pixels, and this is used for all thumbnails throughout the operating system.
How To: Apple Flaw Lets Thieves Completely Reset Your Apple Watch & Get Away with It
There's a recently discovered flaw by iDownloadBlog that lets thieves reset a stolen Apple Watch without a hitch, which is the result of Apple not including the Activation Lock feature that iPhones have had since iOS 7.
How To: Apple Watch Vulnerability Lets Thieves Use Apple Pay Without Your PIN
No, your Apple Watch isn't totally hacker-proof, despite what some have claimed.
How To: Find Updates for Non-Play Store Apps on Android More Easily with ApkTrack
The Google Play Store may have fewer restrictions that its iOS counterpart, but that doesn't mean that all apps make the cut. Ad blockers and Xposed modules that bypass paywalls have never had a place on the Google Play Store, which makes tracking their app-updates a painful process.
How To: Add Notification Count Badges to the Status Bar on Android
As it stands, Android's notification system is one of its biggest strengths—but that doesn't mean it couldn't use a few tweaks here and there. For one thing, when you receive multiple notifications from the same app, there is no indication as to exactly how many notifications you've received.
How To: Get Crowd-Sourced Tech Support for Any App on Android
As with any software, Android apps can occasionally suffer from bugs. But finding the root cause of such issues can often be difficult, and reporting bugs is a cumbersome experience.
How To: Get Emoji Suggestions with Any Android Keyboard
Some third-party keyboards, like SwiftKey for example, include a convenient feature that suggests emojis as your type based on the content of what you're saying. Unfortunately, many keyboards, including most stock ones, don't include this function.
How To: Remove the S Finder & Quick Connect Buttons from Your Galaxy S6's Notification Panel
Samsung is known for its added features, but occasionally, these can cross the line between functionality and bloat. For many users, this is the case with the "S Finder" and "Quick connect" buttons that are hard-coded into the notification tray on most Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge variants.
How To: Use Your Chromecast to Make PowerPoint Presentations from Your Android
Chromecast is so small and portable that it would seem to be a perfect device for making PowerPoint presentations. But even now that you can mirror your Android device's display, there are still a few issues.
How To: Keep from Running into Things When Walking & Using Your Phone
We have all seen videos of people walking off of platforms and into street signs because they were too distracted by their phones to pay attention. This has become such a problem that cities have even considered fining pedestrians for texting and walking.
How To: Get in Shape with These Five Fitness Apps for Your Apple Watch
With the high rate of obesity in the United States, it's fantastic to see the massive wave of fitness tools available, even if it's just a trend. And with the companionship of your Apple Watch, keeping track of your progress or fitness goals has never been easier. As my LA Fitness intercom repeatedly announces, "What gets measured gets improved." (Corny, but very true.)
How To: Disable ANY Bloatware App on Your Android Device (No Root Required)
Due to the way Android works, you normally need to be rooted to uninstall the pre-loaded system apps, aka bloatware, that came with your device. This is because the underlying files for these apps are stored on your system partition, which can only be modified with root-level access.
How To: Order Food Directly from Google Search on Android & iOS
Google constantly adds useful little features to stay on top of the search engine heap. Recently, we've seen them add "Find my phone" functionality, as well as the ability to set alarms and send directions to your Android phone or tablet.