Gadget Hacks Features
Squeal: iPad App Plays the Human Face Like a Theremin
Just as Smule's ocarina app yields the gentle sounds of a woodwind instrument by simply blowing into an iPhone, Squeal promises to emit theremin-esque noises from the iPad with easy fingerplay. Developed as a collaboration between Hong Kong musician/producer/composer Gaybird Leung and interactive designer Henry Chu, the musical app is a work-in-progress for Henry's ongoing experimental music project Digital Hug.
How To: Build a DIY steadicam for an Apple iPhone 4
In this video tutorial, you'll learn how to create a $30 steadicam for your Apple iPhone 4. The rig consists of a three-axis gimbal with a weight at the bottom.
News: Apple iOS 11.3 Update Introduces Brand New Set of Animoji Characters
We knew it was coming, it was just a matter of when. Apple has just announced iOS 11.3, a new update for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, and it will include a brand-new set of Animoji for the iPhone X.
News: Microsoft Research Shows Off Mobile Holoportation
In recent years, wave after wave of technological advancement has led us down roads that are beginning to look more and more like science fiction stories. In their efforts to bring us from science fiction to science fact, Microsoft Research showed us a new communication medium called Holoportation earlier this year—and now they have found a way to make this highly complex holographic system far more mobile.
How To: Add an Extra USB Port to Your Wired Computer Mouse
Ever try plugging in two flash drives into your MacBook Pro before? The USB ports on MacBooks are not only directly side by side, they're insanely close to each other, so it can be extremely difficult to plug in a large USB device with another smaller USB device. Sometimes it can fit, but it's a strain on the USB port and the device itself. If one of the items in question is a USB mouse, then your worries are over...
How To: iOS 14.5's Apple Podcasts Update Could Devour Your iPhone's Data & Storage Unless You Do This
Apple's iOS 14.5 overhauled the Podcasts app, combining new aesthetics with smart and efficient features. While you might find the app better at playing your favorite podcasts than past versions, you might also find something negative about the update on your iPhone: it may be eating up your storage.
News: What Google's Upcoming Andromeda OS Means for Android & Chromebooks
Google is working on something so big they had to name it after an entire galaxy: A new operating system that merges Android and Chrome OS into one unified front.
How To: Build the z-axis for a CNC router
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.
News: Augmented Reality in 2017 — The Winners, Losers & Best Bets on 2018
Around this time in 2016, the predictions for the next year had reached something of a consensus: 2017 would be the year of augmented reality. But a funny thing happened on the way to the future — nothing much, really. At least not for the first half of the year.
How To: Automatically Use Speakerphone When You Move Your Face Away During a Call
It can get frustrating to switch from a regular call to speakerphone when you're in a hurry. The speakerphone button tends to be small and surrounded by many others, and it requires attention to press; something that can be difficult while driving or multitasking. For those of us in a hurry, there's an app for that.
How To: Install APK files on your Android phone
Looking to game on your Android phone? Watch this video to learn how to get the game APK files onto your Android device. Download and install games on your Android device and spend the rest of your day having fun playing.
How To: Make an Arduino Shield
Two years ago, driven by a good friend of mine i decided to give it a try on timelapse photography. I had a DSLR camera but didn't had an intervalometer, so i assembled a small electronic circuit on top of an Arduino Uno, made some basic code and did my first timelapse movie. The result was awful, but for some reason I was hooked.
How To: Just Got a New Android Phone? Here's All the Apps & Info You Need to Get Started
If you were a particularly good little girl or boy this year, Santa might have finally brought you that cool new smartphone you've been wanting. Or perhaps you just took advantage of a great sale and treated yourself to a new gadget this holiday season—totally justifiable, and surely a well-deserved gift.
News: Artist Uses 300 Apples to Power 30 LEDs for 1 Electrified Fruit Battery Science Experiment
You've probably seen the classic fruit battery science experiment a thousand times, but I doubt you've ever seen it turned into an art project! Photographer Caleb Charland uses everyday objects like apples, coins and vinegar to create makeshift batteries, then takes these gorgeous long exposure photos. For the apple tree photo, Charland got about 5 volts for every 10 apples, so he had to wire 300 apples to power the lamp for several hours. He used a zinc-coated galvanized nail and copper wire...
News: Everything You Need to Know About the Sony Xperia 1
For 2019, Sony is trying to shake its failures of the past and start fresh. Following the unsuccessful Xperia XZ series, Sony is changing the name of their flagship to a single number: Xperia 1. With the name change comes a few upgrades, one of which is its new look. Secondly, its new display is unmatched in the mobile space.
How To: Easily Resize Images for the Web with This Drag & Drop Automator Action
Automator takes the work out of common repetitive tasks in Mac OS X. One of my least favorites is resizing images for the web, so I created a drag and drop action to quickly do it for me.
How To: Use the camera on the iPhone 3GS
In this video, we learn how to use the camera on the iPhone 3GS. From the home screen, tap the camera icon. From here, the camera will appear on the screen with what you can take a picture of. At the bottom of the screen you will see the camera icon, thumbnail icon, and photo/video switch icon. You can tap the screen to do a focus and you can tilt the camera sideways to take a landscape portrait. To take a photo, tap the camera icon and then the photo will be saved to the thumbnail. Enjoy usi...
How To: Post to Facebook & Twitter from Your Notification Center
Back in the days of iOS 6, iPhone users were able to send a quick tweet from their notification center, but that has long since been removed. This convenient feature was missed enough on iOS 7 for devs to create a jailbreak tweak in its absence. Thankfully, due to the new widget capabilities of iOS 8, we can have Twitter back in the Notification Center along with Facebook.
How To: Use Infinidock for iPhone & iPod Touch
1. This video describes how to use the application Infinidock for the iPhone and iPod Touch. This is used to set how many icons to be placed per page, this Infinidock Cracked is doing full document customization like scrolling, adjustable icon amounts and can add as many icons as you want. We can download and install in the phone 2.For using Infinidock first click the "Settings" and select the Infinidock into that you can see the "icons per page" options now you can add the number of icons yo...
How To: Turn Lens Blur Photos from Google Camera into Stunning Live Wallpapers for Your Galaxy S4
If you have Android KitKat, you're fortunate enough to be able to use the new Google Camera, which has tons of great features, including Photo Sphere, Tiny Planet, Panorama, and Fisheye. With so many photo options and no additional hardware needed, it's hard to not to like this camera.
How To: 9 Ways Your iPhone Can Help You Be More Productive When Working from Home
With stay-at-home orders for most of us in the US because of the new coronavirus, many of you are likely struggling to be productive and efficient when working from home. Unless you've worked from home before, it can be challenging to separate work from personal life throughout the "workday." But your iPhone can help make the transition easier and more successful.
How To: Watch TV online & save money by ditching your cable
If you have a high-speed Internet connection, your cable subscription might be redundant. This consumer's guide from the folks at CNET TV presents an overview of the various options available to you — all of which will save you money over cable in the long run. For specifics, and to start seeing whether you too would benefit by dropping your cable television subscription, give this guide a look.
News: Apple Released iOS 12.1.1 with FaceTime Live Photos, More Haptic Feedback Tricks for iPhone XR & More
Apple released the latest update for iPhones, iOS 12.1.1, on Wednesday, Dec. 5. It introduces a few new features to iOS 12 as a whole. The software has been in beta testing since Halloween of this year, spending just over one month in the hands of beta testers.
News: Taqtile's HoloMaps Gives HoloLens Users Ability to View, Scale & Draw on 3D Maps
HoloMaps, an application by Seattle-based Taqtile, is available for free on the Windows Store. Taqtile, whose Vice President of Product Management was Microsoft's former Director of Business Development, is one of the few partners currently in the Microsoft HoloLens Agency Readiness Program. This interactive 3D map they have created, powered by Bing, offers more than just a top-down view of the world on the HoloLens.
How To: Create Your Own Custom, Polygon-Shaped Wallpapers for Android
While the new Lollipop wallpapers are great, they'll eventually get stale like all of the others. I've covered a bunch of cool Android wallpaper apps previously, including ones that give you psychedelic and shake-to-change options, but this time I was on the hunt for some geometrical-based ones.
How To: Change the carrier name on iPod Touch/iPhone
In this video from iPT2gGeec we learn how to change the carrier name on your iPhone. You can make it say anything you want. You need a jailbroken iPhone. Open up Cydia and select the search tab. Type in MakeItMine. Click on it and install and confirm. Now press the home button and click on the app for it. Now you'll get a very simple dialog box. In that box, type in whatever you'd like to change your carrier name to. You can select it to change the carrier or the banner which would replace th...
News: Magic Leap One Makes a Surprise Appearance During World Cup TV Show
Magic Leap shows up in the weirdest places. Last week, right at the start of World Cup fever, for some reason, the Magic Leap One appeared on a Brazilian television show.
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: Customize Your Mac's Top Keys to Control Either Functions or Built-in Features Without Using “Fn”
Mac keyboards are great when listening to music or watching a movie, since you can control what's playing without going back into iTunes or QuickTime Player. However, when you're using an app like Photoshop that uses the F7, F8, and F9 as shortcuts, it gets pretty annoying to have to hold down the Fn key. Why can't you just hit the back, play/pause, and skip buttons alone?
How To: Reverse a cathode-ray picture tube
Reversing the image on a CRT computer monitor can be a great joke to play on your coworker, if you have the time to play a prank like this. If you have a lot of spare time on your hands, and love to see people miserable, then this is perfect for you. This also works with television sets.
News: Here's What the 2018 LCD iPhone Could Cost
This year will be an interesting one for iPhones. With speculation that the expensive iPhone X is underperforming, rumors have circulated that Apple will release three "bezel-less" devices, one of which will cost less by omitting the OLED panel for a traditional, yet large, 6.1" LCD. Now, thanks to the source of this rumor, we have an idea how much that lower-tier iPhone will cost.
How To: Reply to Messages While You're Busy with SMS Replier for Android
At a time when virtually everyone has a cell phone, it's almost inconceivable to think of a time when we're without them. At work, in bed, and even in the bathroom; we're always with our smartphones. I mean, hell, someone even designed a way to bring your smartphone into the freaking shower. It's not THAT serious.
How To: Share Your Favorite Mobile Apps with Your Friends
There are over 425,000 apps in the iTunes App Store and the Android Market has over 300,000 available, which makes it really hard to tell which ones you want and which ones you don't. One of the best ways to find new mobile apps is from your family, friends and colleagues—those who have similar tastes in games and productivity. And it goes both ways, which means you need to share your favorite picks with those around you. But what's the easiest way to do that?
How To: Set custom text messages ringtones for contacts on the iPhone
It took all the way until firmware version 4.2 for Apple to add a function to the iPhone that's been present on other phones for years: the ability to set custom ringtones / sounds for text messages from different contacts. This video will show you how quick and easy it is to set this up on the new firmware.
How To: Transform an iPhone into a universal remote with FLPR
Your iPhone can do just about anything. It can even be a television remote. And a DVD player remote. Also, a CD player remote. You name it, it can be a remote for it. But it can't do it by itself, you need to use FLPR. It's a nice little piece of software that turns your iPhone into a universal remote. But it can be pricey. So what's the deal with FLPR? Best Buy has answers. The Best Buy Mobile team explains how simple it is to transform your Apple iPhone into a universal remote with FLPR.
How To: Wake Up Faster with a Back-Talking, Snooze-Hating Alarm Clock on Your Nexus 5
I am not a morning person. This is a fact that has been proven with science. I need every bit of help to get me out of bed in the morning—multiple alarms, extremely loud tones, Pandora—I've tried everything.
How To: Track Your Sleep Using a Galaxy Gear Neo
With developments from tech giants Apple and Samsung being shared throughout the interwebs, the term smartwatch has become increasingly popular over the last year. That being said, smartwatches have been around for a while.
How To: Learn about capacitors, diodes, voltage states, and potentiometers
Even basic electronics are pretty damn complicated. This video is near the end of Scotty's amazing series of electronics tutorials, and will teach you about adding a diode and a capacitor to a circuit, choosing a power supply, voltage states, and polarity.
News: Why Apple's New Dual-Lens Camera on the iPhone 7 Plus Is Awesome
For photographers, the "plus" in the iPhone Plus models used to mean optical image stabilization, but now that the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus both have OIS on board, that "plus" has moved onto something else—the dual-lens camera. Actually, the new dual-lens setup on the iPhone 7 Plus is a much bigger deal than OIS ever was. While OIS stabilizes the image before it's converted to digital information from the sensor, creating a much cleaner photo, two lenses working together in unison unleashes...
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.