Hot Gadget Hacks How-Tos
How To: "Find & Replace" Text Directly in Your Web Browser
I'm sure you've been there—halfway through typing something out, you realize that one word you've been using more than any other has been misspelled. Perhaps it's a single word, acronym, or line of code that you find yourself typing quite often at work, but this one requires complicated hand gymnastics that you'd simply rather not perform over and over again.
How To: Root Your Nexus 5—An Easy Guide for First-Timers
It's time. You've experimented with apps from the Play Store, you've switched your lock screen, and maybe you've taken different launchers out for a spin. If, throughout your tinkering, you've found yourself chanting, "More. More. Give me more!" then now is the time. It's time to root.
How To: 5 Things You Need to Know Before Buying Anything on Amazon.com
Amazon.com has been around for a long time now, but there are still a few things most people don't know about when it comes to buying products from them. Here's a quick roundup of tips to help you get the most out of Amazon and save some money in the process. The holidays are the busiest time of year for online shopping, but these tricks will work all year around.
How To: Root Your Samsung Galaxy S4 (GT-I9500)
Ready to start rooting your Samsung Galaxy S4? For those of you with the GT-i9500 model GS4, this quick video will walk you through the entire rooting process using Odin and CWM.
How To: Restore an iPod Touch Without Using iTunes
The iPod changed the music and electronics industries when it was first introduced way back in 2001. It is credited with ushering in the age of "connected devices," and has held a huge market share of around 70% for years. At the height of its popularity, the iPod made up almost 50% of Apple's revenue. Now that the smartphones and tablets we use every day have the ability to store and play music, the iPod's glory days are over. Nevertheless, there are millions of people who still use them, an...
How To: Hack a 20-Year-Old "Brick" Phone into a Digital Cell You Can Text On
The cell phone has come a long way. The very first "mobile devices" were made and used by the military in the late 1930s, with the first commercial mobile telephone service introduced by Bell in 1946. These devices were hardly what we'd call mobile today—some took up the whole trunk of a car, and others had to be carried on your back in a heavy bag.
How To: Pin Reminders to Your iPhone's Lock Screen (So You Stop Forgetting Things)
On the iPhone, the Reminder app is a great way to keep track of your to-do list. I use it for a bunch of crap I forget, like picking up a must-have item at the store or calling or emailing my friends back.
How To: Sync Your Google Contacts with Your iOS Device Using CardDAV
If you have an iPhone or iPad, but use a Google account for most of your communication, syncing your contacts just got a lot easier. Google recently announced that they added CardDAV support, an open protocol that lets you seamlessly integrate Google Contacts into other services. Google states that "Syncing via CardDAV is only available over SSL for Apple devices on iOS version 5.0 and above." So, if you're running an older iOS version, you'll have to use Google Sync instead.
How To: Restore Netflix's Former "Watch Instantly" Web Layout
Netflix may be killing its competitors, but they're losing fans thanks to their reputation for rolling out interface updates without user knowledge or consent. PlayStation 3 owners were upset at the Netflix interface change earlier this year, and now nearly 5,000 diehard Netflixers are irate at the website's new look for its Watch Instantly section.
How To: Download and play music on an Amazon Kindle
Watch this CNET Quick Tips video to learn how to add your own MP3s for background music on the Amazon Kindle. Some readers just like to listen to music as they read, and the Kindle makes that easy. It's as easy as dragging and dropping your digitla music files onto your Kindle from your computer.
How To: Your iPhone's Action Button Has Way More Actions to Choose From — Here's What's New and Changed with iOS 18
If you have an iPhone 15 Pro or 15 Pro Max, your Action button has even more actions it can perform thanks to the iOS 18 software update. These actions are also available on the iPhone 16 series lineup — the iPhone 16, 16 Plus, 16 Pro, and 16 Pro Max — all of which have the Action button.
How To: Create Still or Animated Live Stickers from Your iPhone Photos to Use in Messages, Notes, and More
Apple just upped its sticker game on iPhone and iPad. We've already had stickers available for Memoji, Fitness activities, and third-party iMessage apps, but only some could be used outside the Messages app. Now we can use stickers practically anywhere from the new stickers drawer, with fun emoji stickers to boot. Even better, we can stickerize the subjects of our own photos and videos, including animations.
How To: If You Wear Headphones with Your iPhone, You Need to Know About This
There's an iOS feature that benefits many users, but it's absolutely vital if you wear AirPods or other headphones models connected to your iPhone. A large number of iPhone users don't even know about it, especially since it's disabled by default and hidden deep in the system settings.
How To: Can You Bring Your Phone to a New Carrier? This Is How You Tell
If your current cellular provider costs too much, has poor reception in your area, or doesn't support features you'd like to use, switching to another carrier is the obvious move. But can you bring your current iPhone or Android phone?
How To: Upgrade Your Screenshots by Framing Them with Your iPhone or iPad's Body — No Third-Party App Needed
Have you ever seen an image on social media, somebody's blog, or a news website that shows an iPhone or iPad screenshot with an actual iPhone or iPad model framed around it? You can do that too, and it's really easy to accomplish with a third-party app — but you can do the same thing with a shortcut that won't bug you to pay or subscribe.
How To: Add Your Favorite Songs and Other Music to Instagram Stories
Music goes well with almost every Instagram story, but adding a particular song or soundtrack isn't the most obvious task if you've never tried before or haven't done so in a long time.
How To: Unlock Android 12's Developer Options on Your Pixel for Powerful Hidden Tools Anyone Can Use
When you start up your new Google Pixel 6 or 6 Pro, one of the first things you should do is unlock the hidden "Developer options" menu. Don't let the word "developer" scare you because there are little-known features in this secret Android 12 menu that every Android user can enjoy.
How To: Third-Party Accessories & Gear That Work with Apple's 'Find My' Network
Apple's Find My app just got way more useful. While it's great for locating a lost or stolen iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Apple Watch, Mac, and AirPods, as well as anything attached to an AirTag tracker, it's even better now that it works with third-party accessories and gear.
How To: Your iPhone's Display Can Get Brighter Than You Think
When you want to brighten up your iPhone's screen, you likely use Control Center's brightness slider to increase your nits (especially if you've disabled auto-brightness). But once you max it out, it doesn't seem like the display can get any brighter. However, depending on your iPhone model, your display may be capable of getting a lot brighter based on how you use it.
How To: Take a Screenshot on Your iPhone Without the Annoying Thumbnail Preview Showing Up
Since iOS 11, a thumbnail preview appears on your iPhone whenever you take a screenshot. It's useful for access to quick sharing options and editing tools, but you can't disable the preview image. You can wait for it to disappear or swipe it off-screen, but that's as good as it gets — until now. In an iOS 14 update, there's an option to disable the screenshot preview — only you won't find it in Settings.
How To: Ditch Google's WebView & Switch Android's System Browser to Bromite
Apps don't need to come bundled with an entire browser just to be able to display web pages — instead, they can call on the system WebView browser to render content for them. Android's default WebView renderer is Google software, which isn't quite as privacy-forward as some other options.
How To: This iOS Shortcut Finds & Downloads Free Songs for You to Listen to Offline on Your iPhone
Music streaming services like Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube Music make it easy to find and play your favorite artists and albums on your iPhone — but they cost upward of $14.99 per month. If you're more into listening to downloaded music, a shortcut can help you find free music online that you can get and playback in almost any media player of your choosing.
How To: Make Your iPhone Tell You When It's Done Charging
Battery management is a never-ending struggle. To be on the safe side, you likely won't want to leave your home with less than 100% battery, but continually checking your charging iPhone is a hassle. Instead of continuously monitoring your battery's power level, have your iPhone tell you when it's reached a full charge.
How To: Scan Laundry Care Symbols with Your iPhone to See How You're Actually Supposed to Wash Clothes
When it comes to washing clothes, the laundry symbols on your tags might as well be hieroglyphics. They're difficult to interpret, easy to forget, and even easier to ignore. But if you don't want to ruin expensive designer clothes, blankets, and other fiber-based materials, you need to figure out the meaning behind those tiny icons. Thankfully, your iPhone can help out.
How To: This TWRP Alternative Lets You Manage Magisk Modules & So Much More on OnePlus Devices
TWRP has been the king of custom recovery on Android for years now, thanks to device compatibility and core features. But there's a new player in town — at least, for OnePlus devices — and it's got a lot of useful features that might finally get you to ditch TWRP.
How To: If Magisk Shows You Pass SafetyNet, but You Still Have Issues, Check This
Google recently started testing a new SafetyNet check that might spell trouble for rooted Android devices. It cross-checks your SafetyNet status with Google remote servers, making it impossible to fool by normal means. If Magisk shows you pass SafetyNet and you're still having issues, you might be affected by this change.
How To: Undo Deleted Text with Your Samsung Galaxy's Keyboard
Undo. Redo. These two actions are forever intertwined, but they're missing from the standard keyboard on Android. Accidentally delete a word, and there is no Ctrl + Z to undo this mistake. But there is finally a solution available on Samsung Galaxy phones.
How To: Hide the Status Bar at the Top of Your Galaxy S20's Screen
In previous Android versions, you lost about an inch of screen real estate to the status bar and navigation bar. But if you enable Android 10's new navigation gestures on your Samsung Galaxy, you can regain the bottom part — and with the help of ADB, you can reclaim the top portion as well.
How To: Watch Out for This Setting the Next Time You Set an Alarm on Your iPhone
When you set an alarm on your iPhone, you assume it'll go off at the set time. However, that's not always the case. There's one quirk in how iOS handles alarms that, if gone unchecked, will silence every alarm you set so that you won't wake up on time.
How To: The 4 Best Phones for Privacy & Security in 2020
Smartphones are inherently bad for privacy. You've basically got a tracking device in your pocket, pinging off cell towers and locking onto GPS satellites. All the while, tracking cookies, advertising IDs, and usage stats follow you around the internet.
How To: Download Your TikTok Data & Activity Report to See What's Been Collected About You
If you're concerned about your privacy, TikTok might not be the app for you. Its shady practices with user data have been the subject of concern, criticism, and even legal action by the US government. Then again, it's just so addicting. If, like me, you're not going to stop using TikTok anytime soon, you should at least know how to view the personal data it has collected on you.
How To: Completely Prevent Apps from Accessing Your Camera & Microphone on Android
We're thinking more and more about our digital privacy these days. When we first started using smartphones, we'd download apps with reckless abandon, allowing permissions lists as long as novels in order to play free games. Now, we know that apps have access to things like our cameras and microphones, even when they shouldn't. Luckily, taking away these permissions is easy.
How To: Fit More Notification Icons in Your Pixel's Status Bar
In older Android versions, you could flood your status bar with a wall of notification icons. But starting with Android 9, Google made it to where you can only see four icons by default, and it was mostly done to accommodate phones with notches. But Google's only notched phone is the Pixel 3 XL, so what if you have literally any other Pixel?
How To: Re-Enable a Semi-Tethered Jailbreak to Restore Access to Sileo
Compared to fully untethered jailbreaks, semi-untethered methods like Chimera for iOS 12 have one major handicap: you need to re-enable the jailbreak every time your iPhone turns off or restarts. As intimidating as it seems, however, kickstarting the mod and restoring your tweaks is still pretty easy.
How To: The Best External Storage Options for iPhone That Work with iOS 13's Files App
The Files app received a big update in iOS 13. Before, it was limited to local and cloud-based files, but now you can access data from external storage devices, including SD cards and USB drives. But before you try to connect your favorite card or drive to your iPhone, there are a few things you need to know.
How To: Type Curse Words with Apple's QuickPath Swipe-Typing Keyboard in iOS 13
The iPhone's autocorrect feature is wonderful and convenient, but it doesn't always work with informal language like profanity. If you've ever used the F-word, there's a good chance you've had your curse words "corrected" to other words that don't ducking make sense. And with the release of iOS 13, swearing in your messages and on social media could get a little harder.
How To: Open & Edit Word Docs in Apple Pages on Your iPhone
There's no doubt that Microsoft Word is the go-to for businesses worldwide. As such, you might receive Word documents to open on your iPhone, whether or not you actually have Word for iOS installed. If you prefer editing text documents with Pages, Apple's own word processor, you can import and export Word docs easily.
How To: iOS 13 Changes the Way You Navigate & Edit Text — Here's How to Place the Cursor, Make Selections, Perform Edits & More
Navigating and editing text is an essential part of any operating system, and with iOS 13, Apple has made some significant changes. Some things remain the same when working with text, but there are many updates to moving the cursor, scrolling, and selecting, cutting, copying, pasting, undoing, and redoing text.
How To: Install Spotify Lite in the US
To make its services more accessible to regions with limited bandwidth, Spotify has rolled out with a leaner, stripped down version of its music streaming app. The aptly named Spotify Lite has been released for Android devices in 36 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, but you can try out the app right now thanks to a simple workaround.
How To: 10 Roblox Settings You Need to Double-Check to Safeguard Your Child's Privacy
Among the younger generation, Roblox rivals major titles like Minecraft as one of the most popular online games out there. In fact, it's common to hear children tell new playmates to "friend me in Roblox!" so they can play together online. There's nothing inherently sinister here, but with all the online interaction, kids' safety becomes a factor.