Hot Gadget Hacks How-Tos
How To: 1-Click Root Many Android Devices with Kingo Android Root
To Android users, especially advanced ones, rooting their phones or tablets is becoming a necessity. Rooting Android could be complicated, if you do it all by yourself, even with a step-by-step tutorial. However, what Kingo Android Root offers you is a true one-click experience when rooting your Android.
How To: Unlock Your iPhone Using the Current Battery Percentage as Your Passcode
With countless images and messages packed into one small device, security is always a high priority amongst iPhone users. For this reason, we've previously shown you how to make your iPhone's passcode match the current time, which made figuring out your passcode a lot more difficult for wandering eyes.
How To: Access Your Calendar & Full Schedule Faster Using Your Mac's Menu Bar
While it's much quicker in Yosemite, the Calendar app for Mac has never been as fast as I'd like. If my schedule is really full, it can sometimes hang when first opening the Calendar.
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: Add, Switch, Reorder & Delete Keyboards on Your iPhone
Back in iOS 8, Apple introduced the option to use third-party keyboards on iPhone, and since then, there have been a ton of third-party keyboards available such as Gboard, AudioShot, SwiftKey, Slated, and many more. However, adding and even using these keyboards can be kind of tricky.
How To: The 6 Best Third-Party Keyboards Available Right Now for iPhone
Third-party keyboards have been available for iPhone ever since iOS 8, but which ones are worth checking out? There have been many options over the years, and if you want keyboard features like swipe-typing and themes, you're going to have to put Apple's stock QuickType keyboard on the backburner and try out these top hits.
Horizon: The Solution to Crappy Vertical Videos on Android
If you hold your phone upright while taking a video, you've surely seen the horrific end results. When you try to play the video back on any other display, roughly 70 percent of the screen is occupied by black bars.
How To: Add Every Volume Slider to Android's Notification Tray
Your device has several volume levels that are regularly adjusted: the alarm, media, and ringer. Keeping track of the various volumes on a device can become an easy-to-forget task, potentially resulting in you not hearing an alarm in the morning, as you have to enter the sound options or trigger a volume change, then expand the dialog box that pops up.
How To: Get Text Messages in Facebook-Style "Chathead" Bubbles
When Android 4.4 was released, the massive changelog led to some awesome new features getting lost in the virtually endless list of new tweaks. One such change was the ability to set a default text messaging app, which streamlined the existing process of installing a third-party SMS client.
How To: Take Control Over Your MacBook's Fans for a Cooler, Smoother-Running Laptop
MacBooks are built for creation and creativity. They're built to withstand our careers, our hobbies, and our everyday use. I use mine every day, and there's nothing I'd recommend more for computing needs.
How To: 10 Speed Hacks That'll Make Google Chrome Blazing Fast on Your Computer
If browsing speed is important to you—and it should be—you'll probably be interested to know that there are ten simple flag modifications you can make in Google Chrome in order to achieve the fastest browsing speed possible.
How To: Install Adobe Flash Player on Your OnePlus One to Play Web Games & Flash Videos
Google may have decided to back HTML5 for YouTube, but much of the internet still relies heavily on Adobe Flash content. While the Chrome browser for Android is unable to play Flash-based content like Amazon Instant Video streams, some third-party browsers will.
How To: Tell if Your Samsung Battery Is Bad in 2 Seconds Flat
When it comes to squeezing as much battery life as possible out of our smartphones, most people aim for software solutions, or ones that can otherwise be easily managed right from the touchscreen.
How To: Make Your Screen Automatically Adjust to Eye-Friendly Color Tones
If you're like me, you spend a lot of time on your computer, which can be damaging to your eyes in the long run. Studies have shown that staring at a computer screen or television up close for extended periods of time can have harmful effects on your vision.
How To: Never Miss Out on App Price Drops on Google Play
Tricking out your phone is nice, but there's nothing better than saving money in the process. Google Play is full of apps that offer great functionality, but some of them are not always cheap, and that's why AppSales was made. AppSales is an app browser that lists apps that are currently on sale, and can also keep track of those you are interested in buying in case the price drops.
How To: Install the New KitKat 4.4.3 Dialer on Your HTC One
Having an open-source platform like Android is great, allowing manufacturers and developers the ability to make their own skins and apps to truly customize the end-user experience. The only downside is that when an update comes to vanilla Android, many of us are left in the cold, unless you have a Google Play Edition HTC One.
How To: Update Your Rooted Nexus to Android 4.4.4 Without Losing Any Data (Update)
Update: June 19, 2014 Android 4.4.4 has been released, fixing a small security bug in 4.4.3. The factory images have already been made available to all current-generation Nexus devices, and I've linked them out below. This does not affect the process depicted, you can still use these same steps to bring your device up to date with this latest release.
How To: Force Any App to Use Translucent Nav & Status Bars on Your Nexus 5
When the Nexus 5 was released, a new version of Android came along with it called KitKat. In the 4.4 update were some fancy new UI elements, one of the most noticeable being the translucent decor. By that, I mean the status and navigation bars being semi-transparent.
How To: Send Shutdown, Sleep, & Other Commands to Your PC Remotely from Your Galaxy Note 2
You probably use your smartphone to mostly surf the web, play games, and communicate with others, but there's so much more it can do. Thanks to integrated features and third-party apps, you can seamlessly control things around your home, including your TV, tablet, Bluetooth speakers, and even lighting fixtures.
How To: Change Your iPhone's App Icons to Any Shape You Want in iOS 7
More and more, our phones are becoming an expression of us. Whether it's the device we choose, the case it dons, or the ringer it bellows, we like to personalize. Unfortunately, there's not much you can do beyond cases and ringers on your iPhone, unless you jailbreak.
How To: Make a Clothespin Pocket Pistol (AKA Mini Matchstick Gun)
Clothespins are pretty innocent-looking, but with a mod here and a hack there, that innocence quickly turns into danger. Well, sort of. In this project, we'll be turning an ordinary spring-action clothespin into powerful matchstick and toothpick shooter that can shoot apples and lob fiery darts over 20 feet.
How To: Lock Individual Apps to Prevent Friends from Snooping on Your Samsung Galaxy S3
Keeping unwanted clowns off on my Samsung Galaxy S3 is priority number one. I've shown you how to snag a picture of people opening your apps and how to lock your screen for whenever you hand off your phone, allowing them to access only the page you left open.
How To: Download & Install the Xposed Framework on Your Samsung Galaxy Note 2
Android's deeply customizable platform has long been the attraction for those of us looking to make our smartphones more unique, but that doesn't mean that it's always easy. Flashing mods and installing custom ROMs can be difficult at times, as well as dangerous.
How To: Unlock the Hidden Battery Percentage Status Bar Icon in KitKat on Your Nexus 7 Tablet
Much like the built-in screen recording tool on Android 4.4 KitKat, hidden features like the new battery Status bar icon must be manually unlocked on your Nexus 7 tablet. This is both exciting and annoying.
How To: Get "A Better Camera" Experience on Your Samsung Galaxy S3
Point-and-shoot cameras are practically extinct these days now that every new phone on the planet has a camera built right in. This makes the smartphone market highly competitive, because the camera specs and features are a big selling point.
How To: Customize Brightness Settings for Apps Individually on Your Samsung Galaxy S3 to Improve Battery Life
Adjusting the brightness on your Samsung Galaxy S3 can be a real pain sometimes. Each app you open may need a different amount of light to better optimize its use of the screen, and then you have to worry about it potentially eating up your battery life if it's too bright.
How To: Install the Xposed Framework on Your Samsung Galaxy S4 for Quick & Easy softModding
Xposed, by XDA developer rovo89, is a framework for your Samsung Galaxy S4 (or other Android device) that lets you add tweaks and customizations to your ROM (either stock or custom) without any real hassle.
How To: The Coolest 18 Features in iOS 7 That You Probably Didn't Know About
Now that iOS 7 is out, what can you do that you couldn't do before? In this softModder guide, I'm going to cover all that's new and noteworthy about iOS 7. I've been playing around with it on my iPhone 5 since the first beta came out, so I'm excited to show you some of the secrets that are lurking within Apple's newest mobile operating system.
How To: Control the Auto-Rotate Settings for Apps Individually on Your Samsung Galaxy Note 2
Controlling the screen rotation on your Samsung Galaxy Note 2 is one of the easiest things you can do. Just slide down the Notification tray and you have instant access to the Screen Rotation toggle in the Quick Settings menu. If you want your screen orientation to automatically rotate when you move from vertical to horizontal positions, just make sure it's turned on. To lock the current orientation, turn it off.
How To: Make a Solar-Powered Fan Hat
It's hot this summer, but it's not that easy to cool down when you're on the go. You can't take an air conditioner with you, and a handheld fan will just tire you out, so you'll need to find more creative ways to cool down when you're on the go. One of these ways is a DIY solar-powered fan baseball cap.
How To: The Easiest Tricks for Bypassing YouTube's Annoying Age Restrictions on NSFW Videos
YouTube is the first place I go to watch funny videos online—me and about a billion other people. But one thing that always annoys me is having to sign in time after time to view age-restricted videos.
How To: Suspect Someone Is Using Your Computer? Catch Them in the Act with Just the Click of Your Mouse
There are many ways you can protect your computer from unwarranted access. For instance, you can use Lockscreen Pro to lock your Windows 8 computer and then have the program snap a photo of the culprit using your webcam.
How To: This Arduino 'Loudness Guard' Caps Your TV's Volume to Banish Annoyingly Loud Commercials
Have you ever fallen asleep watching television only to be rudely awoken by one of those obnoxious commercials that randomly play three times as loud as everything else? While the FCC actually made excessively loud commercials illegal as of last December, it's up to providers to comply, so the problem will probably take a while to go away.
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.
SWEAT: A Better Way to Edit and Replace Your Text in Windows 8
Editing and formatting large amounts of text can be a hassle. From finding and replacing words to creating uniform spacing, text editing can be a real drag. But with this Windows application, you can take your text edit skills to the next level.
How To: Customize Your Wireless Doorbell to Play Any Sounds You Want
Doorbells are useful and all, but most of them are boring as hell. They use the same old generic sounds to let you know when guests have arrived, as demonstrated below.
How To: Hack a Pair of Cheap Active Shutter 3D Specs into Light-Detecting, Auto-Tinting Sunglasses
Wouldn't it be awesome if your glasses could detect when it's bright outside and automatically darken? Well, the technology has been around for a while, but it'll set you back a few hundred bucks.
How To: Turn Your Old NES into an All-In-One Retro Gaming Console
While the PlayStation and Xbox models may rule the current world of gaming, there are still those who love to keep it old school. The grittiness, toughness and nostalgia that is laced throughout old gaming consoles appeals to many people. Every time I play Donkey Kong 64 (with the expansion pack of course!), I revert back to the days of Sunday morning cartoons and only worrying about homework.
How To: See Every Single Bikini Pic from Your Facebook Friends on Your iPhone with Badabing
We all know the real reason why Facebook was created. No matter what Mark Zuckerberg says, or how many commercials about chairs the company makes, it all comes down to one thing—boobies.
How To: Create a Fake Online Identity for Website Registrations in Just One Click
When you really think about it, registering for any website is a little scary. Not only do they now have your name, email address, and a username/password combination you might've used elsewhere, but certain sites and services ask for quite a bit more private information. From phone numbers to addresses to birth dates and more, that company now has all of your information stored.