Gadget Hacks Features

How To: Wire the CNC router machine electronics

A CNC router machine is probably the most useful tool a hobbyist can own, but the price for a CNC machine on the market is way more than the average hobbyist is willing to spend. You can build your own CNC with very basic tools, little knowledge of machinery, mechanics, or electronics, but be warned, these machines are inherently dangerous, so wear the proper protection and use common sense. At the very least, read the instructions and precautions on every tool you use.

How To: Take Free Online Courses for Real College Credit

The internet is a great place to find information for pretty much anything you can think of. So why shouldn't it be a place for official higher learning? I'm not talking about a course in Wikipedia or SparkNotes, but real colleges offering real college courses completely online. And guess what—it's FREE.

How To: Unlock Turn-by-Turn Directions and 3D Views for Apple Maps on a Jailbroken iPhone 4, 3GS, or iPod touch (4th Gen)

It's no secret that most people who got an iPhone 5 (or upgraded their old iPhone to iOS 6) have been sorely disappointed with Apple Maps. We may all miss Google Maps, but the Google says they aren't even working on an app for iOS 6 yet. Even worse, Google exec Eric Schmidt says they're waiting on an invitation from Apple, and if we know Apple, that could be a while. Users who didn't get an iPhone 5 have had an even worse time of things—Apple disabled 3D maps and turn-by-turn directions on ol...

MANsaver: The Life-Saving App for Lazy and Incompetent Romeos

Are you a conventional male in a conventional relationship with a conventional female? The majority of the population aged 25+ would likely answer "yes". According to stereotype, many males seem to "genetically" struggle with what many females seem to "genetically" value: the acknowledgment and appropriate appreciation of relationship milestones. If you've answered in the affirmative, worry no more, because there's an app-to-the-rescue for the helpless male: If you include yourself among the ...

How To: Tame Out of Control Notifications on Your iPhone in Seconds with This Quick Move

When left unmaintained, lock screen notifications can be an overwhelming, chaotic mess. Alerts coming in at a rapid pace can be hard to see because there are just too many of them, and your iPhone's screen sometimes can't even take it, falling asleep before you can read only a few notifications. If that sounds like you, there's an easy way to take back control of alerts — and your sanity.

How To: Reduce Eye Strain When Using Smartphones

The smartphone has become one of the basic reasons for sore eyes. If you are addicted to your beloved smartphone, there is a fair possibility that your eyes will be paying off its expensive price. If you use your smartphone, tablet, laptop or any other similar gadget consistently, you may experience tired, dried, itchy eyes and also severe headache. Your vision can also become blurred by the time, which it means it is affecting your eyesight. However, you can lower down your eye strain by mak...

How To: Make LED-enhanced anti-paparazzi glasses

This video teaches us how to prevent those pesky paparazzi from invading our privacy. It suggests buying a pair of safety glasses that have lights attached at the sides. Then, remove the lights, and replace the existing resistors with higher-powered ones, and the lights with infrared LEDs. When the press tries to film you while you're wearing these at night, the cameras will see bright, menacing lights where your face should be. This how-to is presented as a joke, but it would be hilarious to...

How To: Wire a light with a 3 way switch

In this video, Mark Donovan teaches us how to wire a light with a 3 way switch. Before starting, make sure the power is turned off from the main circuit panel first, and you test to make sure it's off. You will have two switches for the same light fixture. For a 15 amp circuit, you can use 14-2 and 14-3 wire. These wires will have a black, white, and red wire. The 14-2 wire just has a lack and white wire with a copper ground. The power coming into the base should have all the wires that conne...

How To: Use Verizon Wireless's new Motorola Droid X cell phone

You may be a little confused about all the new functions and features of your new Motorola Droid X cell phone from Verizon Wireless, bud don't worry, help is here. This video will give you a complete walkthrough of the new Droid X mobile device, showing you all the new stuff and how to use it. It's the newest and most sophisticated Verizon Android phone, so don't let it get the best of you — watch and learn what it can do. See a full review at Android Central.

How To: Create forms in iPad Numbers

You can create forms on your iPad by using Numbers. You can use the forms to fill in the rows of a spreadsheet instead of entering data into the spreadsheet grid. This can come in handy if you are looking for a quick way to get your job done.

News: 3D LEGO LikeLight Shows You Facebook Likes in Real Time

Matt Reed, a web developer at Nashville interactive ad agency Redpepper, built a massive, real life Facebook Like "button" out of Legos, which lights up whenever someone clicks Like on his Facebook page. The programmer loves LEGOs, and draws an affinity between the legendary building blocks and engineering: "[Legos] are great for prototyping physical objects. I don’t manufacture things, but I do click blocks together. Plus, most things I deal with on a daily basis are pixelized. Legos are som...

How To: Use Google Earth

Google Earth is a great tool of the web, if you know how to use it the right way. Learn everything you need to know about using Google Earth in this powerful video series set to show you all the basic maneuvers and tricks to using the well known application. Google Earth is a cross-platform program, so the steps shown in this video series will work on Windows operating systems, as well.

News: iOS 13.2 Fixes the Biggest Issue with iPhone's Video Camera

When it comes to shooting video, the iPhone is often considered the best in the biz. That certainly didn't change with the release of the iPhone 11, 11 Pro, and 11 Pro Max, who each sport the best video cameras the smartphone industry has to offer. That said, there's always been something truly irritating about Apple's camera app, something the company finally fixed in iOS 13.2 and later.

News: Samsung's Galaxy S9 Could Arrive in a Burgundy Red Color

Samsung just announced that the Galaxy S8 is getting a fresh coat of paint, launching a burgundy red color of the flagship in their home market of Korea. There is currently little information about whether this color will come to the US for the S8, but this could be a preview of things to come. The Galaxy S9 is set to arrive in January and may also come in a beautiful red variant.

How To: Create Stop Motion Videos with Your iPhone

This week has been awash with iPhone camera tips: Decim8, the digital glitch art generator; Bakari's 10 Uses for the Front-Facing iPhone Camera; and FiLMiC Pro, a professional app for shooting industry standard video. To wrap up our mini survey on iPhone camera apps & tips, one last fun tool: the $0.99 StopMotion Recorder.

News: Magic 8-Ball Booby Trapped with Camera Flash

Take $1.35 of thrift store bric-à-brac, toss in a few spare parts from your electronics drawer and mix it all up with an earnest desire to alienate your loved ones forevermore and what do you get? A booby-trapped Magic 8-Ball, that's what! Hacker arfink explains, "My idea was to make a Magic 8-Ball which would blind an unsuspecting victim with the camera flash. I had an old Honeywell thermostat at home which had a mercury tilt switch inside, and after cutting open the 8 ball and removing the ...

How To: Root a T-Mobile MyTouch 3G or G1 in six minutes

Root your T-Mobile MyTouch 3G or G1 Android smartphone using the flashrec.apk method, which will permit you to replace your recovery image in a single click. For detailed, step-by-step instructions, and to get started rooting your own T-Mobile Android MyTouch 3G or G1 phone, watch this free video tutorial.

How To: The Best Apps to Help You Quit Smoking

There's an adage that says "Every plan, no matter how great, goes out the window as soon as you're punched in the face." While our lives are (hopefully) not violent, that saying can easily translate to our daily living. That punch in the face can come in various forms, mainly stress-related. It could be a bad day in the office, rush hour traffic, drama in the family, the list goes on.

How To: Jailbreak an iPhone with PwnageTool 2.0.1

This video tutorial will show you how to use the Dev Team PwnageTool 2.0.1 to Jailbreak and unlock the orignal iPhone with 2.0 software update. This is also how to jail break the iPhone 3G on Mac and Windows. It can't get any easier than watching this easy to follow video. Jailbreaking is easy... and worth it.