Hot Gadget Hacks How-Tos
How To: Improve Sound Quality on Android: 5 Audio Mods for Better-Sounding Music & Videos
Whether I'm in my car or making dinner, I always have music playing. And since I don't like to keep my headphones on me at all times, I end up using my Android's built-in speakers a good portion of the time.
How To: Enable or Disable the Wallet from Showing on Your iPhone's Lock Screen in iOS 9
To use Apple Pay in iOS 8, you had hold your iPhone to the card reader first, and then you could either switch to a different card or pay with your default one. Now, in iOS 9, you can access your Wallet (which replaces Passbook) on the lock screen before you get to the reader.
How To: Use Samsung's Hidden Video Editor on Any Galaxy Device
Editing a video by trimming or adding audio is fairly simple on Galaxy devices, but if you want to include other clips or transition animations and really get those creative juices flowing, you might find the standard editing tools limited—unless you know how to unlock Samsung's hidden video editor.
How To: Use Augmented Reality to Try on the Apple Watch with Your iPhone
Starting April 10th, you'll will be able to book 15-minute appointments online to try on an Apple Watch in person at Apple Stores across the world. With the April 24th release date just around the corner, making an appointment is a great idea for those who are unsure about which color and size to purchase—or if they'll even want one.
How To: Make Your Android's Status Bar Clock Change Colors Throughout the Day
When you see a color depicted on your computer, smartphone, or tablet, odds are it was processed as a hex triplet before it was rendered. Most modern websites and operating systems use a hexadecimal coding system to signify certain colors, and these are represented as 6 letters and numbers.
How To: Unlock the Bootloader & Install a Custom Recovery on the LG G3
While LG G3 users have been patiently waiting, developer the cubed and his Codefire team have been diligently working on a successful unlock method for the heavily locked-down bootloader. Now it's finally here, and the unlocking method is extremely easy to do—and it works for all G3 variants.
How To: Root Your Chromecast
When the Chromecast first came out about a year ago, developers were quick to find a way to root the streaming device. Google was almost as fast, however, in updating the Chromecast's firmware to close the loophole that this method used.
How To: Take & Share Photo Spheres on Your iPhone Using the New Google Camera for iOS
I've been using the Photo Sphere Camera from Google on all of my Android devices ever since it came out on Jelly Bean 4.2, which lets me create riveting 360° panoramic images.
How To: Install a Custom Recovery on Your Bootloader-Locked Galaxy S5 (AT&T or Verizon)
As the largest wireless service providers in the United States, AT&T and Verizon Wireless carry some serious clout. Sadly, they use some of this power to heavily modify the Android phones that they offer.
How To: Increase Pattern Lock Screen Security on Your Nexus 5 with Larger Grid Sizes
These days, our smartphones carry some very sensitive data. From banking app passwords to personal photos, there are many things on your Nexus 5 that you might not want other people to have access to.
How To: Get Out of Your AT&T Contract Early Without an Early Termination Fee (ETF)
Earlier this month, AT&T quietly introduced a new "Mobility Administrative Fee" which levies a $0.61 monthly charge to all postpaid contracts. While it's a seemingly small amount on an individual basis adding up to $7.32 per year, with its huge customer base, AT&T stands to make around half a billion from the tight-lipped move. AT&T has stated that the fee will "help cover certain expenses, such as interconnection and cell site rents and maintenance" that's consistent with other phone carrier...
How To: Make Your First Video
THis video shows you what types of videos you can make, why you should make videos and exactly whant you need to get started.
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: Bring the Classic Start Menu Back in Windows 8
Microsoft's most anticipated OS has finally arrived, and there's no doubt that all of you out there who snagged a copy of Windows 8 are excited to see what's new. But while Windows 8 has received plenty of rave reviews, some users are upset about one controversial change—the missing Start menu. The implementation of the new Metro interface has rendered the old Start menu unnecessary, but some folks just want what they're used to. If you're one of those users who wants the classic Start menu i...
How To: Make menu fonts bigger in the Mozilla Firefox browser
Having trouble reading menu fonts in Mozilla Firefox? Make them bigger with Theme Font Size Changer! This clip will show you how it's done. It's simple! So simple, in fact, that this home-computing how-to can present a complete, step-by-step overview of the process in just under two minutes. For more information, including complete, step-by-step instructions, take a look.
How To: Add a contact to your Android cell phone
No matter what Android enabled mobile device you have, if you want to add a contact to it, it's easy and the process of adding contacts (phone numbers, names, email addresses, etc) is practically the same. But how do you do it? Best Buy has answers. The Best Buy Mobile team explains how simple it is to add a contact to your Android enabled cell phone.
How To: Make Gmail Write or Improve Your Emails for You Using Its New Experimental Generative AI Feature
Thanks to rapid advancements in the field, generative AI can do some amazing things already, from generating text, images, and video with just a prompt to automating tasks and developing new products and services. Now, artificial intelligence can even help you craft emails directly in Gmail.
How To: Instantly Turn Gray Skies Blue to Brighten All Your Dull, Gloomy Photos
When you expect to take photos of landmarks, buildings, landscapes, and other outdoor scenery with clear blue skies in the background, you may end up with nothing but overcast weather, resulting in a completely different mood in your pictures. Instead of forgetting about all your images with dreary gray skies, try turning those grays to blues for happier, more shareable photos.
How To: Apple Books Has 10 New Shortcut Actions on iOS 16.2 That Finally Let You Automate E-Book and Audiobook Tasks
When iOS 16.0 was still in early beta testing, Apple teased us with a slew of new Books actions in the Shortcuts app, but none of them materialized in iOS 16.0 or 16.1. That changes with Apple's latest software update for iPhone.
How To: It's Easy to Falsify Photo Geotags on Your iPhone to Keep Real Locations Secret
Without realizing it, you may be giving away the GPS coordinates of your home, workplace, school, and other important or secret locations. Unless you've blocked the feature on your iPhone, location data is stored in almost every photo and video you take, and anyone you share the content with can find out where you are or were. But there are a few things you can do to safeguard the information.
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: Get iOS 16's Live Weather Lock Screen Wallpaper on Your iPhone in iOS 15
Apple's bringing big changes to your iPhone's lock screen in iOS 16, and one of those changes lets you pick an always-updating wallpaper for your local weather conditions. If you don't want to wait until the fall for the stable iOS 16 version and don't want to install any iOS 16 betas, you can still get an always-updating weather wallpaper for your lock screen on iOS 15.
How To: Instantly Share Wi-Fi Passwords from Your iPhone to Other Nearby Apple Devices
Unless you have unlimited cellular data, you probably connect your iPhone to every Wi-Fi network you come across. It could be a local coffee shop, public library, or just a friend's place. Wherever it is, you'll need to ask for the access point's password if it's a secured network, and that can be a hassle if the place is busy or the owner forgets the credentials. Luckily, Apple has a solution for this problem.
How To: Find and Favorite Songs That Now Playing Identified on Your Pixel
Your Pixel's Now Playing song discovery tool received a few updates in Android 12, and the feature is finally comparable to other music recognition services.
How To: Create, Use, and Manage Tab Groups in Safari on Your iPhone
Are your Safari tabs a tangled mess? I know mine are. Whenever I try to find an open website on my iPhone, I face dozens, sometimes hundreds of tabs. Yes, there's Search, but it's not perfect if you don't remember the right keyword to narrow the results. That's where custom tab groups come in.
How To: iOS 15 Makes It Really Easy to Change the Location & Date/Time for Any Photo or Video
Metadata might be a bigger concern than you might realize. In its continuous push to be a privacy-first company, Apple has released several new features with iOS 15 that allow you to adjust and permanently change the metadata stored within the photos and videos you take on your iPhone. But why would you want to do this?
How To: This Trick Makes It So Much Easier to Lower Your Blinds All the Way
One of the lowest levels of hell is a room where you have to make the window blinds go all the way down. No matter if you're pulling the cord left or right, forward or backwards, the blinds will drop a foot or two, then catch on some invisible snag and refuse to go down that last little bit.
How To: Generate Live Captions for Any Streaming Video or Audio File Using Chrome's Desktop App
Captions are great for catching every word and important sound in a movie or TV show, but now there's a way in Google Chrome's desktop browser to enjoy captions for any audio file or source. You could ensure you never mishear a comment during an online meeting, and you could even follow along to a song's lyrics on platforms that don't already have in-sync lyrics, such as SoundCloud.
How To: Get Night Mode on Older iPhone Models to Shoot Low-Light Scenes Like an iPhone 11 or 12
Night mode, which helps you snap great photographs in low-light environments, is a feature available only on the iPhone 11 and iPhone 12 lineups. It's a useful tool to have in your arsenal, especially if you're fond of nightlife photography. Still, you don't have to purchase a newer iPhone to get Night mode shooting capabilities.
How To: Set Custom Ringtones for Individual Chat Threads in Android Messages
Things tend to get noisy when you're in a big group chat, which is why the notification sound for that thread shouldn't be your standard, attention-grabbing ringtone. But you don't want to set the default notification sound to something too subtle, otherwise you'd miss messages that actually matter.
How To: Use This Trick to Quickly Access Spotlight Search from Anywhere on Your iPhone
Spotlight, Apple's system-wide search feature, lets you search for apps, contacts, messages, webpages, music, notes, and other content that's on and off your iPhone. On iOS, it's known as "Search," and you can access it by swiping your home screen down or swiping open the Today View screen. It's not exactly convenient, but an accessibility feature can unlock Search so you could open it from anywhere.
How To: What Are Those Orange & Green Dots for in Your iPhone's Status Bar? To Protect You from Malware & Hackers
After updating to iOS 14 or getting a new iPhone with iOS 14 preinstalled, you'll notice orange and green dots that occasionally appear at the top of your iPhone. These dots appear on all supported iOS 14 devices, from the iPhone 6S to the iPhone 12 Pro Max, and are there to protect you, but how?
How To: Apple Saves Your Siri & Dictation History — Here's the Easy Way to Delete It
Apple has an excellent reputation for its privacy and security policies. That said, it isn't a perfect reputation. Take Siri, for example. The helpful iOS assistant isn't just communicating with you — Apple saves and listens to a history of your Siri interactions. If you don't want Apple storing your Siri history forever, there's something you can do about it.
How To: This Shortcut Lets You Easily Download Twitter Videos & GIFs to Your iPhone's Photos App
There are tons of different ways to download videos and GIFs from Twitter onto your iPhone for offline viewing, but frankly, they all kinda suck. You might have to download a third-party app or copy a link and paste it into a random website — and while they work, there are better options. TVDL, a shortcut on iOS, makes the process of downloading Twitter videos and GIFs fast and easy.
How To: No, Your 18-Watt Power Adapter Won't Get You 15-Watt Fast Charging with the MagSafe Charger
If you ask Apple Support if the 18-watt power adapter that came with the iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone 11 Pro Max, and four different iPad models will work with the MagSafe Charger and your new iPhone 12 or 12 Pro, the answer is "yes." But that's not the whole story.
How To: 18 MagSafe Accessories That Are a Perfect Match for Your New iPhone 12 or 12 Pro
If you're getting or already have a new iPhone 12 or 12 Pro, its big-ticket feature is MagSafe, something you'll definitely want to explore. While the technology is new to iPhone, Apple used the MagSafe name for its magnetic charging connectors on older MacBook models until USB-C replaced it. Apple's reenvisioning of MagSafe for iPhone is completely different and much more useful.
How To: Make Your iPhone Tell You the Secret Meaning of Emoji So They're Easier to Find Later
I consider myself a master of emoji, crafting complete sentences and paragraphs using strictly ideograms and smileys. However, everyone seems to have their own interpretation for each little image, so my elaborately clever emoji-only sentences can get lost in translation. But there's an easy way to translate emoji into their exact meaning, as well as decode everyone's mystifying emoji talk.
How To: Remove the 'Browse' & 'Listen Now' Tabs for Apple Music on Your iPhone to Keep the Focus on Your Library
The Music app for iPhone underwent a significant update back in iOS 8.4 when the Apple Music subscription service was incorporated into the user interface. It then had another transformation in iOS 10 that improved the UI for everyone. But things can still feel a little cluttered in Music, even in iOS 14, especially if you don't or never will subscribe to Apple Music.
How To: The Hidden Way to Delete Numbers on Your iPhone's Calculator
Let's say you're using your iPhone's Calculator app, and you're knee-deep into a complicated calculation with many steps. You type in a large number, for example, "123,466,789," but mess up. You meant to type "5" midway through but accidentally typed "6" instead. The only thing to do now is start over, no matter how far along you are, right? Wrong.
How To: Activate the Hidden Developer Options Menu on Your Pixel 4a
Developer Options is your first step to becoming a power user. If the Pixel 4a feels a bit slow, Developer Options can fix that. You want to root your device for unprecedented controls and powerful apps? You need to enable OEM unlocking in this hidden menu. ADB, secret features — Developer Options is where it all originates.