Hot Gadget Hacks How-Tos
How To: Be More Secretive Using Hide SMS and Call Recorder
Some people are of extremely secretive nature. They do not like sharing their personal events in their lives with anyone. Thus people around that person wont be able to figure out details on their life's personal matters. It is not like they want to hide some mysterious secrets from the world, but it is just their nature that they do not want others to know much about them or are too shy to share their feelings with others. Being secretive is neither good nor bad, it is just how they are.
How To: Watch Reddit Videos on Your Android TV
Reddit is one of the internet's greatest sources of funny and interesting videos. Its user base is extremely active, and a system of upvotes and downvotes ensures that the best content always rises to the top.
How To: Make Music with Floppy Drives & LabVIEW
Video: . Project Overview
How To: Personalize Your Android's Dictionary with Words from Your Emails, Texts, & Social Media
Android has a system-wide user dictionary file that any third-party keyboard can utilize, if it so chooses. This file contains all of the words that you've added to your keyboard manually, and of the big-name players, Minuum, TouchPal, and the Google Keyboard call on this file to determine their user dictionaries.
How To: Play & Record Thousands of Worldwide Radio Stations on Android
Back in the '80s, recording live radio was as simple as popping a cassette tape into your boombox and pressing the record button. While we've come along way with regard to accessing radio stations thanks to websites and apps that stream live broadcasts over the internet, it's no longer quite as easy to record.
How To: Mimic the iPhone's Status Bar on Your Android
As an Android user, there aren't many elements of my friend's iPhone that I find myself envious of, because anything he can do on iOS, I can surely find a way to do on Android...often better.
How To: Personalize Mass Text Messages on Android
We've all received those impersonal mass text messages, whether we're getting invited out to a birthday party, graduation celebration, or just a group dinner or outing.
How To: Instantly Get Song Lyrics on Android with QuickLyric
With floating song lyrics displayed over the screen, apps like musiXmatch and Floating Lyrics are perfect for people who want to go beyond just the tunes and delve into a song's message and meaning. And while these floating windows can be convenient, they're not always necessary.
How To: Connect Your PS4 Controller to Your Android Device for Easier Gameplay
If you're playing the Android version of Game of War, or pretty much any other game (including emulators), it's much easier to play using a controller. While most Android games have gamepad support built-in, others do not and require a root app like Tincore to map touches into buttons.
How To: Get Instant Wikipedia Articles Without Leaving the Webpage You're Currently Viewing
For all of the flak that it catches, Wikipedia is still a great source of information. Contributors take their work very seriously, so the vast majority of information is cited, and the site serves very well as a starting point to learn about a new topic.
How To: Install HTC's BlinkFeed Launcher on Any Android Device
HTC's Sense UI is generally regarded as one of the best manufacturer-skinned versions of Android. This is mainly due to the subtle and classy styling of the interface, as well as some unique features that are added in here and there.
How To: Disable Interactive Pop-Up Ads on Your Samsung Smart TV
Televisions used to be great for just one thing—watching TV. But a more connected world brought with it Smart TVs, devices that can access the web, stream Netflix, and even mirror your smartphone's display. And with this level of connectivity, OEMs like Samsung saw it fit to place targeted and interactive ads on your screen.
How To: TextStats Gives You Detailed Info of Your Text Messaging Habits on Android
With the advent of text messaging, our communication habits have changed drastically. Social niceties are still there, but we budget our words a little more since they have to be typed out rather than spoken. After all, SMS stands for "Short Message Service," so this is the nature of the beast.
How To: Get 'Edge Notifications' Like the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Has on Any Android
Samsung's got a pair of beautiful new flagship devices coming out this spring that will surely top the sales charts. The Galaxy S5's successor is truly worthy of that title, but a second variant with a curved display turned heads at Mobile World Congress this weekend.
How To: Bring Android's Command Prompt into the 21st Century with Material Terminal
Deep down, Android is a fork of Linux, which is a desktop operating system that started out as entirely command prompt-based. For that reason, many system-level tasks can still be executed within a terminal emulator app.
How To: Switch Apps Directly from the Keyboard on Any Android Device
With intelligent grammar check, accurate predictive text, swipe gestures, and plenty of themes, it makes sense that Ginger Keyboard has well over a million downloads on the Google Play Store, making it one of the more popular keyboards available for Android users.
How To: Customize Your Android's “Share via” & “Open with” List for Less App Clutter
When opening a link or sharing a photo, your Android device will bring up a list of possible applications that you can complete the action with. However, some of the apps included you never use or didn't even know existed, and this leads to unnecessary clutter. Fortunately, if you're rooted, there's an easy way to remove apps from the "Open with" and "Share via" lists.
How To: Automatically Add Your Shazam Songs to a Rdio or Spotify Playlist
We recently showed you how to recover your Shazam history from Siri, which is a lot less intuitive than finding the songs you've tagged directly in the Shazam app. But with a subscription to Rdio or Spotify, there's no need to even locate your history. You can Shazam songs and have them automatically added to a newly created playlist titled "My Shazam Tracks."
How To: Color Your Status Bar to Match Any App in Android Lollipop
A new API in Android Lollipop allows apps to color the status bar to match their overall theme. Google billed this as a more immersive user experience that allows app developers to extend their color branding even further. It certainly seems like a win-win on the surface, but unfortunately, not many apps are using this feature yet.
How To: Turn Off Your iPhone's Flashlight Faster in iOS 8 Without Using the Control Center
I've used the flashlight feature on my iPhone more times than I can count. It's an invaluable tool that's super easy to activate; just pull up the Control Center and hit the flashlight icon. However, turning it off isn't always as easy, especially when you're on the lock screen.
How To: Our Top 5 Chrome Extensions for YouTube
Google's Chrome Web Store is packed to the brim with extensions that do everything from letting you customize Facebook to improving your Google+ experience. While there are thousands of extensions for basically anything you can think of, the problem is sifting through them all.
How To: Root the Nexus Player
UPDATE NOVEMBER 2015: The root process has changed for the Nexus Player now that the device is running Android 6.0 Marhsmallow. I've updated this article with detailed instructions on the new root process, but the video below still depicts the old process for Android Lollipop.
How To: Find Out Which Carriers Are Compatible with Your Smartphone
For those who have never traveled abroad, you may not know that different carriers around the world use different bands of frequency to provide service to their customers. This means that a phone bought in the U.S. may be unable to acquire signal from a carrier in Europe.
How To: Facebook Better Using Google Chrome
With over a billion monthly active users, it seems that Facebook is nowhere close to being dethroned as the most popular social media service in the world (sorry, Ello). While their stats may be impressive, it doesn't mean that Facebook is as good as it can be.
How To: Restart an iPhone Without Using the Sleep/Wake Button
Apple's iPhone is one of the most popular, most expensive smartphones in the world, yet with a broken Home or Sleep/Wake button, it might as well be a doorstop. There are many different DIY ways to fixing a busted Home button, but the Sleep/Wake button (aka Power button) is a little more averse to DIY trickery.
How To: Auto-Lower Music Volume Gradually on Android to Drift Off to Sleep More Peacefully
You don't need a study to tell you how beneficial music is to helping you fall asleep. Most of you probably have your soothing playlist and SleepPhones queued up and ready to go before you get into bed and count those Zs.
How To: Replace Android's Voice Dialer with Google Now for Better Bluetooth Dialing
When you press the "Call" button on most Bluetooth headsets, the majority of Android devices will launch a built-in Voice Dialer app. This app has been around since the dawn of Android, and has received very few interface or functionality updates.
How To: Close All Open Tabs at Once in Chrome for Android & iOS
With over 500 million downloads on Android alone, I find it safe to assume that most of us use the Chrome Browser on our mobile devices; it's great for reading articles with Reader mode enabled, syncs open tabs and bookmarks across all your devices (as long as you're signed in to your Google account), and is regularly updated with new features and optimizations.
How To: Return a Lost iPhone to Its Owner Using Siri
I misplaced my iPhone 6 just a few weeks ago, so I know firsthand that losing an iPhone sucks. Luckily, my tale didn't have a bad ending.
How To: Customize “Do Not Disturb” on Your iPhone So Important Calls Always Get Through
At certain times of the day, like when I finally get home after sitting through aggravating traffic, the last thing I need is the sound of my phone irritating me any further. So, I toggle on the "Do Not Disturb" feature (introduced in iOS 6) on my iPhone and get to enjoy a little peace of mind.
How To: Boost Performance & Battery Life on Your Nexus 6 by Lowering the Display Resolution
The Nexus 6 is one of the few devices on the market that sports a 1440p "QHD" display. This means that the amount of pixels displayed is higher than almost any other smartphone, which sounds great on the surface, but is not without its drawbacks.
How To: Save Locations in Google Maps for Offline Use
Before heading out on a hike, or any excursion for that matter, it would be wise to take a map with you just in case you get lost while on your quest.
How To: Control Music Playing on Your Mac Using a Quick-Access Widget on Your iPhone
Using shortcuts to control the playback of your music on your computer makes life just a little bit easier. Instead of needing to open up an app, we've shown you how to use keyboard shortcuts, a Notification Center widget, and even Siri to control music on your Mac. Now we're going to show you how to use your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch as a remote control.
How To: Convert Almost Any File Type Straight to Your Cloud Account
Converting files from one format to another can be a pain. Sometimes you have to download software that you'll only end up using once. Other times you have to use a shady third-party conversion site that's riddled with ads. Not to mention that after a while, unless you're extremely organized, your converted files will be scattered all across your hard drive.
How To: Jump to the Bottom or Middle of a Page on Your iPhone, Not Just the Top
When surfing the web in Safari, you can double-tap the status bar to quickly scroll back up to the top any webpage. In other iOS apps that have the shortcut enabled, you can get the job done even faster by tapping the status bar only once. The only bad thing about this feature is that there's no shortcut for scrolling all of the way back down or to the middle.
How To: When in Distress, Shake Your Android to Send a Quick SOS Alert with Your Location
I've been lucky enough to never be a victim of street crime, but I have read and seen too many articles and videos to completely rule it out as a possibility. You can do some things to prevent it, but if your life suddenly turns into a scene from Friday the 13th, you'll want to be prepared with some sort of way to let others know you need help. This is where Shake2Safety comes in, a free Android app from Phontonapps.
How To: Transfer Your Spotify Playlists to Google Play Music
When Google Play Music launched a few years ago, I ditched iTunes and began using the service as my one and only source for listening to my personal music library. While All Access is great, I still prefer the radio feature on Spotify, so I still use that to discover new music.
How To: Translate Foreign Text Live in Real Time Using Your Smartphone
Early last year, Google purchased Quest Visual, acquiring the immensely popular augmented reality translator app Word Lens in the process. While Google did put the feature on the Google Glass, they spoke more about implementing Word Lens into their Translate app sometime in the future.
How To: Automatically Create Calendar Events from Incoming Text Messages on Android
A highly useful, yet unrecognized and under-appreciated feature in Apple's iOS 8 is the ability to seamlessly convert incoming texts regarding future dates into calendar events. Messages like "Let's chill tomorrow" can be tapped on and quickly added to the calendar. It's convenient and easy, but unfortunately, not available on most Android devices. However, it's pretty easy to get using Inviter (SMS to Calendar) from developer Sergey Beliy.
How To: Get Faster Access to Your Favorite WhatsApp Contacts on Your iPhone
WhatsApp is the go-to application for sending a message (or 100) to friends at home and abroad. And the best thing is, the service has remained true to its roots after Facebook acquired the company for $19 billion.