Gadget Hacks Features

How To: Speed up Google Chrome with smart shortcuts

If you're a user of Google Chrome, you likely appreciate the browser for its speed. But were you aware the browser can be made faster still? This tutorial from Tekzilla demonstrates how to use smart shorcuts to speed up your web surfing. For specifics, and to get started using smart shortcuts yourself, watch this helpful how-to.

How To: Change your IP address in five different ways

In this tutorial, we learn how to change your IP address in five different ways. First, go to your security settings and clear all cookies, then start to browse the internet with private browsing from your internet browser. You can change your IP address by going onto your internet browser and changing the LAN settings. Type in your address and port, then bypass the proxy server. Next, go to options and then advanced on your browser. Type in the proxy and port, then click where it says no pro...

How To: Read eBooks on a Google Android smartphone with the Amazon Kindle app

Interested in using your Google Android cell phone to read your eBooks when away from your Amazon Kindle eReader? With the free Amazon Kindle app, it's easy. And this brief video tutorial from the folks at Butterscotch will teach you everything you need to know. For more information, including detailed, step-by-step instructions, and to get started reading books on your own Google Android smartphone, take a look.

How To: Bored with Your Surface Pro? BlueStacks Lets You Run Any Android App on Windows 8

Now that the Surface Pro is out, you can game your heart out and get down with some serious Minecrafting. You're not just limited to downloading apps in the Windows Store anymore, like with the Surface RT. You can install a lot of Windows-compatible programs on the Surface Pro, but still, with this being a mobile device, it'd be nice to have some more mobile-feeling apps. And thanks to BlueStacks, you can. BlueStacks has helped people without Androids and iPhones get popular apps on their dev...

News: Compose DIY Meditiative Music with Otomata, an Online Audio Toy

It's more addictive than Angry Birds, perhaps as relaxing as transcendental meditation, and satisfyingly simpler than GarageBand. It's Otomata, a newly programmed generative sequencer designed by Batuhan Bozkurt, a Turkish sound artist, computer programmer, and performer. But really, it's best described as an audio/visual music toy that anybody can play online—with beautiful results.

YouTube Phreaking: How to Extract a Phone Number from a YouTube Clip

Every key on a telephone keypad has its own sonic signature, a sort of calling card composed of two distinct tones: one high, one low. While it's easy to tell the difference between the individual pitches in a single row—see, for example, this article on using your cell phone as a musical instrument—, it's often difficult to differentiate between notes within the same column. Unless, of course, you outsource the work to a computer! Which is what Uruguayan hacker [Charlie X-Ray] recently set o...

Instagram 101: Turn Off Stories from Brands & Followed Hashtags

Instagram integrated Stories back in 2016, and it flew right by Snapchat as a whole, becoming a bigger success itself than the whole entire Snapchat app. Still, the constant bombardment of information can be tiring in Instagram, so much so that you may want to mediate what Stories are shown to you. Fortunately, there's a way to do just that — without unfollowing accounts or hashtags.

How To: Hold a Building in Your Hand

Aaron Betsky, director of the Cincinnati Art Museum and previous director of the Netherlands Institute of Architecture, reports on the world's first postage stamp to employ augmented reality. Dutch advertising agency Gummo, the NIA and the Dutch postal service teamed up to present five unbuilt models by different Dutch architecture studios in 3D form. When held in front of a webcam, the illusion of a 3D building is projected in your hand. By slowly moving the stamp, you can experience the vir...