Hot Gadget Hacks How-Tos
How To: Downgrade iOS 9 Back to iOS 8
If you couldn't wait to test drive iOS 9 before its official release this fall, you probably have the beta software on your iPhone right now. However, if you're not a fan of all the bugs and glitches that accompanies it, it's not too late—you can still downgrade back to the latest version of iOS 8.
How To: The Must-Have Keyboard Feature You Never Knew You Needed
In addition to sharing emojis and GIFs, most of us also probably share various types of links through email or text, whether it be for a Google Maps location, a bar or restaurant on Yelp, or an awesome song on Spotify.
How To: The 5 Coolest New Siri Features for iPhone in iOS 9
Apple has once again improved functionality of Siri, their personal voice assistant for iPad and iPhone, in iOS 9—and this update is a big one. You can now use Siri to find photos based on location and date, set up contextual reminders, find your friends and family, and more.
NetEase Music: The Free Service That Will Get You to Leave Spotify
We recently lost Grooveshark, the free music streaming service that supplied users with a huge catalog of free music anytime, anywhere. Since its shutdown, I have been scrambling to find a half-decent alternative, and my expectations were more than exceeded when I found NetEase Music.
How To: Run Two Apps Side by Side on Your iPad in iOS 9
After rumors and mockups and all sorts of speculated features, Apple has finally brought true multitasking to the iPad in iOS 9, with the long-rumored split screen feature (which is also in El Capitan) that lets you use two apps at once. This feature is actually two different ones called Split View and Slider Over, and they both work differently.
How To: Get a Floating Video Window While Multitasking on Your iPad in iOS 9
Out of all the new features in iOS 9, the two most important ones specific to iPads are split screen multitasking and floating video windows. The latter is truly great, since you can watch movies or use FaceTime while you use different apps. The feature is called Picture in Picture, and here's what you need to know about it.
How To: Disable Proactive Search on Your iPhone or iPad in iOS 9
Apple certainly took a page from Google Now with its new "Proactive" search page in iOS 9. Located to the left of the home screen, the page provides quick access to contacts you've recently corresponded with, suggested applications, nearby places, and news articles based off of your Safari activity.
How To: Hide Photos & Other Files on Android Natively Using This Easy Trick
Have you ever noticed that some Android gallery apps display every last photo that you have stored on your device? This is particularly annoying when most stock gallery apps don't provide an option for hiding certain folders from your filmstrip view. Then there are music players that load up ringtones and video players that queue every video on your device, regardless of whether you want them there or not.
How To: Identify Real Login Popups from Fake Phishing Attacks in iOS 8's Mail App
A recently discovered bug in iOS 8's Mail app by Jan Soucek can allow the maliciously-minded to quite easily phish your iCloud password without you ever thinking something has gone awry. Using a bug that allows remote HTML content to be loaded in place of the original email content, unsuspecting victims would be prompted for iCloud credentials in a popup that resembles the native one found on iOS.
How To: The 10 Best New Features in iOS 9's Notes App for iPad & iPhone
Notes on iOS has never been a particularly great app due to a lack of overall features compared to other note-taking apps like Evernote or Microsoft OneNote.
How To: Switch Apps with Just One Tap on Your iPhone in iOS 9
While the app switcher in iOS makes it easy to go from one open app to another fairly quickly, it's still not a great option if all you want to do is return to the previous app you were in.
How To: Unlock the Hidden iCloud Drive App on Your iPhone in iOS 9
Previously, the only way to see files in iCloud Drive on an iPad or iPhone in iOS 8 was to view them in Safari, which was pretty messy overall. To make iCloud Drive a little less confusing for the average consumer, Apple has included a dedicated app in iOS 9, allowing you to conveniently view all your stored cloud-based files right from your home screen.
How To: Get the OS X El Capitan & iOS 9 Wallpapers on Your iPad, iPhone, or Mac
Mac OS X 10.11 and iOS 9 won't be officially released until later this year, but that doesn't mean you can't get a taste of it today. And the easiest way to do that is to download the new El Capitan and iOS 9 wallpapers.
How To: Extend Your iPhone's Battery Life by 3 Hours Using Low Power Mode in iOS 9
One thing Apple users universally complain about is battery life, whether it's on an iPad, iPhone, or Apple Watch. Apple did include a Battery Usage feature in iOS 8 to help us monitor which apps suck up the most energy, but it's too big a pain to deal with. Now, in iOS 9, there gave us something that actually matters—Low Power Mode.
How To: Download OS X 10.11 El Capitan on Your Mac
For those unwilling to wait until the Fall for the official release of Apple's latest Mac OS X, El Capitan, you can sign up for the public beta today and get it sometime this summer. If that's still not soon enough for you, there is a way to get it on your Mac right now.
How To: The 55 Coolest New iOS 9 Features You Didn't Know About
Apple's latest mobile operating system, iOS 9, may not be the huge overhaul that iOS 8 was, but that doesn't mean there aren't plenty of new features. In fact, there are a ton of subtle changes that you may not notice right away. Here's a rundown of all the coolest new features you need to know about on the new iOS 9 for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch.
How To: Dual Boot Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan & 10.10 Yosemite
Since the new Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan is brand new, I recommend installing it on a separate partition on your hard drive. This will keep your current Yosemite system safe from harm, and will let you easily switch back to it should El Capitan become unusable for any reason.
How To: Get watchOS 2 Beta on Your Apple Watch Right Now
Not to be outdone by the announcements of Mac OS X El Capitan and iOS 9, the Apple Watch is also getting a much needed software update. Some of the notable new features we can look forward to on watchOS 2 are Nightstand mode, additional screens for friends, email replies, and other improvements we probably should have already had.
How To: Get iOS 9 Beta on Your iPhone or iPad Right Now
Apple just showed off iOS 9 and its new features at WWDC 2015, including multitasking support for iPads (finally!), a new Low Power Mode to save battery, local area search and transit directions in Maps, a highly improved "Proactive" Siri, a better Spotlight search, new apps, and so much more.
How To: Sign Up for the iOS 9 Public Beta Preview for iPad or iPhone
Now that Apple's latest Worldwide Developer's Conference (WWDC) is over, you can sign up for the public beta version of iOS 9 for your iPad or iPhone. For the first time in their history, Apple made a beta version of their mobile OS available to the general public just a few months ago, in the form of iOS 8.3, and they'll continue that trend for the newest build.
How To: Get the Public Beta Preview of Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan
Apple announced the release of their newest Mac OS X version at this year's Worldwide Developer's Conference, and it's called "El Capitan." Like the majestic rock formation it's named after (located within Yosemite National Park), El Capitan promises to emphasize and expand on some of the great features we used on 10.10 Yosemite.
How To: 10 Overlooked Extensions Every Chrome User Should Be Using
I've been a diehard Chrome user since its inception, and even more so since Android was released. The ability to sync bookmarks, passwords, and web history across all of my devices made the switch a no-brainer, but what really made me fall in love was the amount of extensions available for it.
How To: Create Your Own Free Personal Streaming Radio Service Online
The options for finding random or specific music to listen to are vast. Spotify is excellent for streaming popular music and new releases, while SoundCloud provides a healthy dose of user-generated remixes and originals. And then there's YouTube for everything else.
How To: Use Hound on Android Without an Activation Code
SoundHound's new virtual assistant application, Hound, is gaining a lot of buzz in the tech world—especially after a demo video showed just how awesome it works (it has amassed over 1.6 million views in under a week).
How To: Reduce Lag & Boost Performance for Games on a Galaxy S6 or Note 4
Since the days of Android Jelly Bean, Samsung has implemented an energy preservation feature known as dynamic voltage and frequency scaling, or DVFS for short. What this essentially does is limit or adjust the frequency of the microprocessor to conserve power and prevent excessive heat from being generated.
How To: Get Android M's New Clock App on Any Device Right Now
Android M doesn't even have an official name yet, but that doesn't mean you can't test out of some of its new features today.
How To: Get Free Early Access to Unreleased Games for iPad & iPhone
While a mobile game developer may have built something unique, they still have to go through an arduous process of fixing bugs, smoothing out gameplay, making sure it works on different screen sizes, and following Apple's rules before they can submit their game to the iOS App Store.
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.
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: Prevent Bricks by Backing Up the EFS Partition on Your Samsung Galaxy S6
The EFS partition on modern Android phones houses the unique IMEI for your device, which is essentially an identification number that lets you connect to mobile networks. But sometimes, when you're flashing ROMs or restoring backups in custom recovery, the EFS partition can become corrupted, which will prevent your phone from connecting to any type of mobile network.
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: Install the Android M Preview on Your Nexus Device (Using Windows)
On Thursday morning, May 28th, Google announced an upcoming version of Android—and within a few hours, a preview build of this so-called "Android M" release was made available to select Nexus devices.
How To: Any Asshole with Your Phone Number Can Cripple Your iPhone
Thanks to a newly discovered iOS exploit, a text message can now ruin your day. It will literally cripple your iPhone, and the worst thing is that anyone with a phone that supports double-byte unicode can do it to you. While it initially sounded like bullshit, we tried it out several times here, and to our surprise, it worked perfectly each time.
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: 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: Run Your Favorite Android Apps on Your Computer
Google recently announced the beta release of a developer tool called ARC Welder for Chrome, which allows developers to run and test their Android apps on any computer with the Chrome browser installed.
How To: See Which Apps Are Using Your Network Connection Right from Your Mac's Menu Bar
Monitoring your Mac with widgets can be the first step in identifying bandwidth issues, but finding the root of the problem can be a completely different story. Usually you will have to open up Activity Monitor in Mac OS X to look for apps hogging your bandwidth, but with Loading, you can get a detailed data usage report right from your menu bar.
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.