Hot Gadget Hacks How-Tos
How To: Build a solar powered USB charger
Want to stop wasting energy charging your USB devices? Transform some cheap solar-powered garden lights into your very own solar USB charger. For step-by-step instructions on replicating this hack yourself, watch this video tutorial. Just watch to see how to build your own solar-powered USB charger with a few solar panels from those garden lights and some floppy disk wiring.
How To: Trigger traffic lights to change from red to green
This instructional video shows how change traffic lights from red to green, using science, and without actually having to know anything about magnetic fields or properties! Save gas, time, and frustration in your car and during your commute! Works great! See the test results! Yay for Kipkay! The trick in this video hacking tutorial will teach you how to get green lights on your bike or motorcycle that is too small or light to trigger the traffic light.
How To: Build a laser microphone
Listen to conversations over long distances with a homemade laser listening device. All you'll need is a laser pointer, tripod, old pair of headphones, photocell, a recording device, and the step-by-step instructions in this how-to video. The creator of this video tutorial does not mention the need for sophisticated software. But the principle is quite sound. If you can figure it out, you can eavesdrop and spy on whoever.
How To: The Best MagSafe Wallets You Can Buy for Your iPhone in 2024
Phone in one pocket, wallet in the other? It's the classic combo guaranteed to give you more pocket bulge. But it's 2024. Half that stuff in your wallet is practically antique. It's time to finally ditch all the dead weight and get a MagSafe wallet for iPhone — and we've got the best picks to slim you down to the essentials.
How To: Use Your iPhone's Built-in Image Analyzer to Reveal the Hidden Meaning Behind Symbols, Signs, and More
When you encounter a mysterious laundry care symbol or alarming vehicle indicator light, you might just ignore it rather than ask somebody, search online, or open a user manual for the answer. If you have an iPhone, there's an easier way to decipher the meanings behind perplexing symbols and signs—and it only takes a few seconds.
How To: Focus Profiles Will Change How You Use Your iPhone — Here's How to Set Them Up for Distraction-Free Experiences
There's a powerful tool on your iPhone that can fine-tune your iOS experience based on what you're doing and when, and it's completely customizable. With it, you can control what notifications appear or are silenced, who can call you, which Home Screen pages you want to view, the Lock Screens you can pick from, and more. And you can automate it based on a variety of triggers.
How To: Turn a Viral TikTok Sound Bite or Song into Your iPhone's Next Ringtone
There seems to be no end to all the viral TikTok sound bites and trending TikTok songs, and there's a good reason why they are ingrained in the fabric of our pop culture. TikTok's short audio clips can evoke laughter, tears, and a wide range of other emotions, and many of them just happen to be the perfect length to add to your iPhone's or iPad's arsenal of ringtones.
How To: View Podcast Transcripts on Your iPhone to View, Search, and Navigate the Audio
Apple's Podcasts app just got a big feature: transcripts. Before, you had to rely on third-party services or the off chance that podcast creators posted transcription links to each of their episodes. Now, you can view, read, and search show transcripts directly in Podcasts, whether uploaded from the creators or automatically generated by Apple.
How To: 12 New iOS 17.3 Features for iPhone You Need to Know About
Apple last month released iOS 17.2, its biggest iPhone software update since iOS 17.0, with 60 new features. Now, as of Jan. 22, we have iOS 17.3. Overall, it's not the behemoth software update that iOS 17.2 was, but it has a few exciting new things you'll definitely want to know about.
How To: 16 New Health and Fitness Features on Your iPhone That Can Help Improve Your Life
With iOS 17 on your iPhone, you have access to new health- and fitness-related features that can help you improve your mental well-being, reach your fitness goals, take your medication on time, avoid eye strain, and more.
How To: Never Miss a Dose Again with Your iPhone's Advanced Medication Reminders
Since iOS 16, you've been able to add and track medication in the Health app, learn about potential drug interactions, and receive dose reminders. With iOS 17, Apple improves that last aspect with even more notification options to ensure you take your medicine on time and never miss a dose.
How To: Apple's Music App for iPhone Just Got a Helluva Lot Better for Everybody with These 20+ New Features
In case you missed it, Apple has added a lot of new features and enhancements to the Music app on your iPhone, changes that benefit both Apple Music subscribers and non-subscribers. Chances are, you haven't seen all the changes yet, especially since many of them weren't released when iOS 17 first came out, but we'll go over them all with you.
How To: Your iPhone's Messages App Has 22 New Must-Try Features — And You Probably Didn't Know About Half of Them
Your iPhone's Messages app has some impressive new features and changes with iOS 17, and you've probably already noticed some of them just by using the updated app. But there are less apparent features, even hidden ones, that have likely eluded you that you're going to want to know about. There are even some new Messages features yet to be officially released.
How To: Apple's iOS 17.2 Beta 2 Is Available — Here's Everything That's New for Your iPhone
Apple released the second developer beta of iOS 17.2 for iPhone on November 9, and there are some new features for Camera and Siri and quite a few changes from iOS 17.2 beta 1.
How To: Download Offline Maps in Apple Maps — Everything You Need to Know
Offline maps help you get around an unfamiliar area whenever you anticipate encountering bad cellular reception and no internet connectivity. Google Maps and other map apps have had offline maps for a while now. But Apple Maps only had a little-known caching workaround to produce something even remotely similar to full offline maps — until now.
How To: iOS 17.1 Has 24 New Features and Changes for iPhone You Won't Want to Miss
Apple's first big iOS 17 point update for iPhone just came out, and it includes some of the features initially planned for the iOS 17.0 release last September. But there's much more to iOS 17.1 than that — exciting new features and changes are hiding within Books, Music, StandBy, App Store, Lock Screen wallpapers, Apple Wallet, and more.
How To: Create Safari Profiles to Separate Browsing Activity for Personal, Work, and Other Topics on Your iPhone or iPad
Apple is finally adding profiles to Safari, so you can now keep your personal, work, and other topical browsing totally separate in their own instances, with their own history, cookies, website data, and active extensions.
How To: 6 Valuable iPhone Features That'll Make You Wish You Didn't Live in the US
You may think your iPhone has all the features you could ever need or want, but that may change once you discover the features and services you're missing out on by residing in the United States.
How To: 8 Hidden Ways to Make the Apple TV App on Your iPhone Even Better
Whether you subscribe to Apple TV+ or not, the TV app on your iPhone is a great place to watch movies and TV shows. On the surface, it looks like a pretty straightforward app, but hidden features are lurking in the shadows that can enhance how you use it.
How To: 15 New Features Hiding in Your iPhone's iOS 16.6 Software Update
Apple just released its iOS 16.6 update for iPhone on July 24. When you install the new software, it may look like there's not much to it since Apple doesn't include any features in the release notes beyond "important bug fixes and security updates," but a few new features are hiding within.
How To: Create Custom Emoji or Cinematic Wallpapers on Your Google Pixel for a More Personal Home/Lock Screen
While Google's generative AI wallpapers for Android won't be out until the fall, you can take advantage of emoji backgrounds and cinematic wallpapers on your Pixel smartphone right now.
How To: iPhone Fold or Flip? Here's Everything We Know About Apple's Upcoming Foldable Smartphone
Now that Vision Pro, Apple's mixed reality headset, has been announced, Apple can free up some R&D resources to commit to its upcoming foldable iPhone, which has been rumored for just as long as Vision Pro has. Will it be a flip-style or a larger foldable? Let's see what all the industry experts and Apple leakers have to say.
How To: Get Better Search Results with Google Search's New GenAI Tool for Desktop and Mobile
Generative AI, or GenAI, is the hottest thing in tech at the moment, particularly for its ability to create content,p including essays, images, and videos. After Microsoft added its own GenAI tool to its Bing web search engine, Google is eager to follow suit, and you can be one of the first to try out Google's new GenAI search tool.
How To: 6 Features Android Needs to Steal from iOS 17 ASAP
Apple's upcoming iOS 17 is expected to include many new features first seen on Android, but there are also some exciting, unique features that Android needs to steal pronto.
How To: Everything We Know About the iPhone 15 Series Models Coming This Fall
Apple's iPhone lineup has always been at the forefront of technological innovation, captivating the world with each new iteration. As we eagerly anticipate the iPhone 15 series release, rumors, leaks, and speculations about the highly anticipated 2023 models are at full steam.
How To: Discover Nearby Concerts and Music Venues with Apple Maps and Apple Music on Your iPhone
Whether you're staying in your hometown for the weekend or traveling to a nearby or faraway city, live music is always a great option for entertainment — but finding decent music or a good music venue isn't always easy. With new features added to two of its core apps, your iPhone just made it easier to do both.
How To: 10 Badass AI Features Coming to Your Google Apps, Some of Which You Can Use Right Now
For all intents and purposes, Google could have called its 2023 developer conference A/I instead of I/O. Capitalizing on the artificial intelligence hype, Google devoted most of its keynote address to AI research, experiments, and developments. But there's some substance behind the hype in the form of new features in the Google services you already use on Android, iOS, and desktop.
How To: Never Lose Another Game with Your iPhone or iPad's Hidden Cheat Mode — Here's How It Works
Gaming just got easier, thanks to Apple. A secret feature on your iPhone or iPad makes it so much easier to beat that level or opponent you can't seem to defeat, and it can even help you learn to play a new game faster.
How To: 7 Screenshot Secrets for iPhone You Need to Start Using When Capturing Your Screen
The screenshot tool on your iPhone can come in handy in various ways, but it may be even more helpful than you realize. So if you thought you knew everything there was to know about your iPhone's screenshot tool, it's time to put your knowledge to the test.
How To: This Play Store Trick Lets You Share Android Apps and Updates with Nearby Devices — Even When Offline
Because our smartphones are ever present, frequently used apps become the topic of conversation in social situations. This often leads to sharing app links via messages, either by copying/pasting an app's URL or sending it through the sharing menu. However, there's another way to share an app, and it's most valuable when you need to share multiple apps and app updates without an internet connection.
How To: 5 Wild Things You Can Do with Bard, Google's AI Chatbot
Now that Bard — Google's response to the revolutionary ChatGPT generative AI chatbot — is out in the wild, it's beginning to let its freak flag fly.
How To: Use Google's New AI Chatbot Bard to Generate Text-Based Content on Anything
Generative artificial intelligence has taken the tech world by storm, and Google's AI chatbot will give you a taste of what it offers.
How To: Create Custom WhatsApp Stickers for Your Chats from Almost Any Image on Your iPhone
WhatsApp has a new sticker-making tool in the iPhone app that lets you create custom stickers directly in chats using your own images, eliminating the need to rely on third-party apps to make them.
How To: Unlock iOS 16.4's Hidden Skin Tones for the Pushing Hand Characters in Your Emoji Keyboard
Apple pushed out 31 new emoji with iOS 16.4 and iPadOS 16.4, but it somehow forgot to add ten of those — all skin-tone variations for the new leftward and rightward pushing hand characters — to the iOS keyboard. Here's how to unlock and use them.
How To: Apple Music Subscribers Just Got a Massive New iPhone Feature
A massive new feature just hit Apple Music, and it's the biggest thing to happen to Apple Music since Apple Music was even a thing.
How To: Your iPhone Just Got 31 More Emoji — Here Are All the New Characters and Variations
We haven't seen an emoji update for iPhone since iOS 15.4, which gave us 112 new emoji characters, but that's finally changed with the release of iOS 16.4. Here are all the new emoji you get after installing the latest software update.
How To: Apple Music Is Adding a Huge New Feature Next Week
A massive new feature is about to hit Apple Music next week. Anyone can check it out, but only Apple Music subscribers through an Individual, Student, Family, or Apple One plan can take full advantage of the new perk that's been years in the making.
How To: 14 New Privacy and Security Features You Should Start Using on Your iPhone ASAP
On the latest iOS software, your iPhone comes with significant privacy and security enhancements to protect your data even more than Apple did before. From safeguarding your iPhone to passcode-protecting files to making it easier to browse the web safely, there's a lot you need to know and start using.
How To: Your iPhone's Mail App Has a Valuable Feature You Need to Start Using
Your iPhone's Mail app has a lot of fantastic productivity features, such as unsending emails, follow-up reminders, opening drafts from almost any view, the snooze option, bulk-selecting messages, and the formatting toolbar, but one of the most helpful ones might just be the one you're not using.
How To: Your iPhone's Phone App Has a Hidden Call Feature That's Useful AF
There are a surprising number of hidden features in your iPhone's Phone app, from secret dialer codes that provide info or perform actions to special characters that dial extensions automatically. However, there's one little-known trick every iPhone owner should know when using the Phone app for calls — and it's the simplest and most useful of them all.