Hot Gadget Hacks How-Tos
How To: Log into Your Favorite Websites Using Your Phone's Camera
With all of the different websites we use in our day-to-day lives, keeping track of our numerous login credentials can start to become a hassle. This has created a market for password managers that aim to centralize these account credentials and generally streamline the process of logging into our favorite sites.
How To: 21 Must-Know Tips & Tricks for Mac OS X Yosemite
By now, you've probably already installed 10.10 Yosemite, the newest version of Mac OS X, on your computer. While you most certainly noticed the visual changes, you might have missed some of the really cool additions.
How To: Speed Up Phone by Uninstalling Unnecessary Apps in Sony Xperia Z2
This video will show you how to remove or uninstall unnecessary apps in your Sony Xperia Z2 phone. The Uninstalling unnecessary app will speed up your phone a little and create space for other apps. This is very easy to employ. So please watch the video and follow all the steps to employ it in your phone.
How To: Yes, Yosemite Is Tracking You, But You Don't Need to Freak Out
One of the biggest improvements in Mac OS X Yosemite came to the Spotlight search feature, allowing users to not only search through their applications, but also their emails, text messages, iCloud, and the web.
How To: Easily Resize Images for the Web with This Drag & Drop Automator Action
Automator takes the work out of common repetitive tasks in Mac OS X. One of my least favorites is resizing images for the web, so I created a drag and drop action to quickly do it for me.
How To: Root the New Android 5.0 Lollipop Preview on Your Nexus 5 or 7
It didn't take long at all for developer Chainfire to sort out a root method for the new Android 5.0 Lollipop. After handling a few issues with changes to the SELinux kernel module, Chainfire pushed out an update to his popular SuperSU root app.
How To: Apple's iOS 8.1 Update Gives iPhones Everything That iOS 8 Promised
While the adoption of Apple's newest mobile operating system, iOS 8, was smoother than its predecessor, there were still a lot of bugs and features that needed ironed out. There were lost cellular signals, missing Camera Rolls, a confusing iCloud Drive, and no functioning Apple Pay yet, among other things. Now it's just over a month later from its first release to the public and things are finally looking pretty good.
How To: Conserve Battery Life by Auto-Switching to 2G Data When Your Screen Is Off
When you're actively using your phone, a certain amount of battery drain is to be expected. But, if your device is just sitting in your pocket draining its battery, that's when you need to take action.
How To: Theme the Quick Settings Icons on Your LG G3
While the Quick Settings feature on Android is great, manufacturers like HTC, LG, and Samsung took it a step further in their custom skins. For instance, on Samsung devices, you can access the most common toggles at the top of the Notification tray, and you can tap once to access more tiles. This makes toggling cellular data, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi a fast and painless process.
How To: Change the Color of Your OnePlus One's Lock Screen
As much as it pained me to lose lock screen widget functionality, I just can't bare changing out the sleek-looking lock screen that's standard on the OnePlus One. The latest OTA introduced a new transparent theme, and while that's a welcomed improvement, I need more options!
How To: Force Google Voice Typing to Use Offline Mode (& Save Data) on Android
As smartphones become increasingly integral parts of our lives, so does data throttling. Personally, I try to save data any way that I can, so to stave off unnecessary usage, I use the GoogleOfflineVoice to limit the amount of data consumed by voice typing.
How To: Download All the New Android Lollipop Wallpapers Right Now
The final preview build of Android Lollipop is out (which you can install right now if you have a Nexus 5 or 7), and it's a great look at what the official release will look like when it's out in early November.
How To: Get an Android "Lollipop" Home Button That Doubles as a Battery Meter
With the new version of Android due out very soon, Android 5.0 "Lollipop" has received a ton of press lately. It's all well-deserved, of course, because the new "Material Design" interface is absolutely beautiful.
How To: Pre-Order the Nexus 9 a Day Before Google Will Let You
The Nexus 9 is the hybrid update to the Nexus 7 and Nexus 10. It's in the sweet-spot for great size and portability, and it'll be one of the first devices to natively run Android's new Lollipop update.
How To: Get the New "Eye Experience" Camera on Your HTC One M8 Right Now
As carriers finalize their variations of the Android 4.4.4 update, we're left with only brief glimpses of what the new "Eye Experience" holds in store for us while we wait. However, thanks to a system dump of an updated European HTC One M8 and some clever hackery by donmarkoni, we can now install the new camera app on any variant of the HTC One M8.
How To: Creep Out Your Workmates on Halloween: Windows Edition
Want to get even this Halloween? Want to scare somebody with nothing but a few lines of code? Here's how it can be done...
How To: Make Your Phone's Dialer Look Like Android Lollipop's
Google's latest mobile operating system, Android 5.0 Lollipop, is coming out very soon for Nexus devices, but it will be some time before any other devices get to experience it. However, there are other ways to get the Lollipop feel on non-Nexus devices right now.
How To: Get Instagram Preview Photos Back on Twitter
In late 2012, Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom made a sudden and controversial change to his social media service when he removed Twitter Card support.
How To: Sunrise Gives Your Android a Hybrid Agenda/Calendar View
If you're anything like me, you rely heavily on your calendar to keep on track throughout the week, month, and year. While Android's built-in Google Calendar provides an excellent cloud-based solution for keeping our schedules properly maintained, it's not perfect.
How To: TouchPal's Update Makes It the Most Themable Android Keyboard to Date
Accumulating approximately one million downloads on the Google Play Store in less than 72 hours from its initial release, TouchPal instantly became a favorite among Android users.
How To: Unlock Hyperlapse's Secret "Labs" Menu for 1080p Recording, Faster Time-Lapses, & More
While your iPhone may have a built-in time-lapse feature, it's nowhere near as smooth as Instagram's newish Hyperlapse app, and it doesn't give you any speed control like the latter does. If you haven't tested out Hyperlapse yet, check out the short promo video to see just how well its stabilization algorithm works.
How To: Get Rid of Facebook Stickers from Your Timeline & News Feed
While stickers have long existed in the messages section of Facebook, they've only just recently rolled out sticker capability in comments for events, groups, and timeline posts. That means you can now reply with a cute sticker of a cat eating a slice of pizza on someone's status instead or writing something more thoughtful. While an animated sticker can show off enthusiasm and excitement that words or a too-simple emoji may not be able to convey, you can bet that your comment section will qu...
How To: Acorns App Makes You a Better Saver Without You Even Noticing
Investing is like exercise—we all know we should be doing more of it, but we often just can't find the time. I mean, really, who's got the hours, inclination, and skill to pour through volumes of data and put together a balanced yet sophisticated portfolio of investment vehicles tailored specifically to optimize their returns while mitigating potential risks. Not me, that's for sure.
How To: Improve Picture Quality for MMS Messages in Hangouts
Whenever a picture is sent via MMS, a certain amount of compression needs to be done in order for a carrier's network to send it. That compression is meant to ease strain on the network, but in the end it leads to heavy downsizing and increased graininess in pictures.
How To: Post to Facebook & Twitter from Your Notification Center
Back in the days of iOS 6, iPhone users were able to send a quick tweet from their notification center, but that has long since been removed. This convenient feature was missed enough on iOS 7 for devs to create a jailbreak tweak in its absence. Thankfully, due to the new widget capabilities of iOS 8, we can have Twitter back in the Notification Center along with Facebook.
How To: Run Multiple ROMs at the Same Time on Your HTC One
In my quest to find the perfect OS for my HTC One, I try any and every ROM I can get my hands on. This leads to countless repetitions of the wipe, install, and boot routine when I flash a ROM in recovery, especially when the newest ROM I try is a buggy piece of junk.
How To: Improve Battery Life on Your Nexus with the Hells-Core Kernel
Increased battery life is easily one of the most sought after improvements to a device and often drives intrepid users to root their phones, flash new ROMs, and try out experimental kernels.
How To: Make Interactive Heat Maps from Your Android Device's Location History
With an Android device left at its default settings, your location history is automatically recorded. You can view and manage this data, but the simple interface of points plotted on a map leaves a lot to be desired.
How To: Take Ultra-Slow Motion Video with Your Galaxy S5
The Galaxy S5's camera is amongst the most capable smartphone shooters on the market. With a 16-megapixel sensor that is capable of recording 1080p video at 120 frames per second, the stat sheet was officially stuffed when Samsung brought this device to market.
IOS8: How to Save iPhone and iPad from Children Excessive Use
This video will show you how to set time limit for your children games in your iPhone or iPad. This will restrict children from excessive use of your iPhone or iPad. When this time limit is over, the game your child is playing will be stopped automatically. They will not be able to continue playing games until you start a new session for them. So please watch the video and employ it in your phone.
How To: Lock Your Android Easier & Faster with Just a Swipe
Unless you're sporting an LG G3 or a mod that allows tap-to-sleep and/or tap-to-wake functionality, you're probably hitting the power button to sleep and wake your device. But that button may be awkward to hit, may be worn down, or may just stop working due to a manufacturer's error or a device drop. In any case, it is possible to end reliance on the power button, opting instead for a simple swipe gesture that will instantly lock your device.
How To: Completely Trick Out Finder on Your Mac with XtraFinder
For the most part, Finder has had the same basic functionality through the various releases of OS X. But Apple's lack of interest in adding new bells and whistles to the backbone of their operating system simply means that 3rd-party developers get to shine, and Tran Ky Nam is one such developer. He created his own extension for Finder that adds tabbed browsing, dual pane mode, cut & paste functionality, and much, much more.
How To: Add Floating, Resizable Widgets for Instant Multitasking on Android
Multitasking is useful in pretty much all walks of life. Being able to do two things at once is better than just doing one thing... who would've thought. When it come to multitasking on my phone, I am constantly jumping between apps—whether it's browsing Facebook while looking at pictures to post or reading my Twitter timeline while keeping up on sports scores.
How To: Enable a Translucent Navigation Bar in All Apps & Screens on Android
By eliminating the need for hard keys on phones, manufacturers are able to use that extra space for a larger display, which is clearly evident on the bezel-minimal LG G3. In order to replace the physical home, back, and app switcher keys, we now have stylish soft keys.
How To: Get a Taste of Android L's Material Design with QKSMS Messaging
Google's Android L developer preview has given Android a more refined look, with developers excited to update their apps with the new Material Design UI. While some apps are slowly getting updated, QKSMS (QK for quick) is a 3rd-party text messaging app that was built with Material Design in mind.
How To: Stop Snoozing with a Personal Wake Up Call—No Concierge Required
I have never been a morning person, and that's a trait that I don't think is going away. Combine my distaste for early hours with being a heavy sleeper, and it adds up to a lot of alarms being dismissed in a haze, with no real intention of ever waking up.
How To: Microsoft's Xim Makes Syncing Everyone's Photos from Group Events Easy
Ah, the age-old problem of sharing pictures with friends and family. Ten years ago, the best method available to us was passing around duplicate photos printed out at the local drug store. As easy as smartphones have made this act, you'd think we'd be satisfied by now.
How To: Create Personalized GIFs Using Faces on Your iPhone or iPad
JibJab may not ring the bell, but you've probably seen one of their personalized videos. Using your own images, JibJab will place you first-hand into silly and usually musically-inspired videos that you can view online. Currently in beta, JibJib has made it's way to iOS in the form of personalized GIF creation. And if you're wondering, "why the hell would I want this", trust me, you'll love creating GIFs starring your and your friend's faces. Check out the guide below to get the app installed...
How To: Swipe to Easily Organize the Heaps of Pictures on Your Android
With hundreds of pictures accumulating on my device, it's a daunting task to devote time to sorting through which are worth keeping and which I should discard. Not all of the images on my device are winners, so the losers not only take up space, they make it difficult to find the good ones as I wade through the crap.
How To: Create Collaborative Reminders on Your iPhone or iPad
Reminding a spouse or roommate to pick up some last-minute groceries is typically done with a quick message that can easily go unnoticed or unseen. Your feeble attempt of a reminder won't work unless it's conveniently sent at the right moment, like when they're on their way home. Chances are, you'll forget to text them and they'll forget the earlier reminder you sent.