Hot Gadget Hacks How-Tos
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While its hardware may already be a little outdated compared to newer flagship phones, the OnePlus One is still a great value thanks to the dedicated community that continues to develop ROMs for it.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.
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: 5 Chrome Extensions That Make Buying from Amazon Even Better
Amazon makes it exceptionally easy to purchase anything you want in just a few minutes. From textbooks for school to live ladybugs, its more surprising when you can't have something delivered to your doorstep in a few day's time.
How To: Unlock the 'Adapt Display' Screen Mode on Samsung Galaxy Devices for More Accurate Colors
AMOLED display panels like the one found in most Samsung Galaxy devices, including the Galaxy S6 models, are known for their deep blacks and vivid colors. The downside here is that the colors tend to be over-saturated and not very realistic.
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.
How To: Get Real-Time Effects That Describe the Weather Outside on Your Android's Wallpaper
Living in Southern California means I don't really have a need to check the weather all that often. But every now and then, I'm caught off guard by a particularly chilly or hot day—no one wants to be the only person walking around with a T-shirt and sandals on a rainy, 50-degree day.
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: 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.
Xposed 101: How to Activate a Newly-Installed Module
The Xposed Framework is a very powerful platform on top of which smaller modules can run to make changes to the Android system and various other apps. Installing modules is just as easy as sideloading any Android app, but afterwards, you'll need to activate the module and reboot your device.
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: Make Incoming Notifications Automatically Wake Your Android's Display
Unlike the Moto X with its Active Display or the Nexus 6 and its Ambient Display, some devices (especially those now running Lollipop) do not include a function that permits the display to turn on upon getting new notifications while the device remains locked or the display inactive.
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: 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.
How To: Mirror Your Android Notifications Over to Your Nexus Player
With our internet-connected devices growing in number by the year, it would be nice if they could somehow all be interconnected. This is becoming commonplace for our tablets, smartphones, and laptops, but our media streaming boxes still seem to be isolated in their own little worlds.
How To: Disable or Mute Annoying App Notifications on the Apple Watch
With audible alerts and subtle vibrations, the Apple Watch makes it difficult to miss incoming notifications. But soon enough you'll realize that not every notification is worth receiving on your Watch and can ultimately render the experience annoying under particular circumstances—like when your popular Instagram post floods in notification after notification.
How To: Control Music Playback from the Side of Your Galaxy S6 Edge’s Screen
The Galaxy S6 Edge comes with a useful feature called Information stream that allows you to view quick tidbits of info with a quick back-and-forth swipe on the edge of your display while the screen is off. Apparently, Samsung left the door open for third-party plugins to use this feature, and now we're starting to see an influx of useful additions.
How To: Turn Your iPhone into a Spy Camera Using Your Apple Watch
With the purchase of my new Apple Watch, the days of striving to be a James Bond-like spy have never been closer to fruition. Granted, talking to your wrist in public can look pretty pretentious, and I may very rarely do it, but let's get real—you look like 007!
How To: Add a Battery Meter & System Stats to the Information Stream on Your Galaxy S6 Edge
Exclusive to the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, "Information stream" is a screen feature that lets you see quick, at-a-glance information with a simple swipe while the screen is off. It also supports plug-ins, or additional streams of information that can come from third-party sources. So developers are starting to come up with nifty little add-ons for Information stream, and the team at 3C has some cool new system feeds that might come in handy.
How To: Listen to YouTube Videos in the Background on Android (No Root Required)
When you think about it, YouTube may actually have one of the largest music collections on the planet. This is why, at $10 per month, Google's new YouTube Music Key subscription is a solid value for many users, especially with its inclusion of Google Play Music.
Web Prank: Create Your Own Legit-Looking News Stories by Editing Current Ones Online
On the internet, everything is possible, even if it's not grounded in reality (check no further than anything The Onion publishes). Witty headlines combined with clever photo edits make even the most absurd topic seem like a serious news story. Some of these stories are so convincing that they even fool news organizations, such as the New York Times and even the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party. While some of us can tell when something sounds a bit off, others (like our paren...
How To: Use the Secret 'Vulcan Salute' Emoji on Your Apple Watch
While some of the additions to the emoji keyboard in iOS 8.3 have been criticized for actually doing the opposite of their intended purpose, they've been well received overall. But the biggest winner of the new emojis was one that actually wasn't even released—the "Vulcan salute" emoji.