Gadget Hacks Features
News: Augmented Reality Apps Account for Over Half of the Top 10 Most Downloaded Apps of 2019, Report Says
If there's any lingering uncertainty as to the mainstream viability of augmented reality, a list of the top mobile apps and games of 2019 serves to dispell those doubts.
Apple AR: Get Up Close to Our Solar System Using AR
Our universe has never been closer thanks to Apple's ARKit. YouTube user Jenil Kansara has been playing around with ARKit features and created a solar system in his room.
News: Your iPhone X May Have Shipped (Even if You're Not Expecting It To)
Current shipping estimates for the iPhone X are 5–6 weeks, but is there a chance you'll get yours tomorrow?
News: Apple's Second iOS 14.6 Release Candidate Available for iPhone Devs & Public Beta Testers
Apple released the second Release Candidate for iPhone on Friday, May 21. The new update, build number 18F72, comes four days after the company seeded the first 14.6 RC to developers and public testers, and two days after the first beta for iOS 14.7.
How To: Use private browsing settings in Safari for Windows
Watch this internet video tutorial to learn how to enable Private Browsing in Safari for Windows. This how-to video will help you use private browsing in Safari just in case there's something you want to keep private.
News: Amazon Offering More Than $100K in Prizes for Augmented Reality & VR Apps Built with Sumerian
Amazon Web Services is calling up an age-old tactic of the tech industry — the hackathon — to drum up excitement and encourage the development of apps built on the Amazon Sumerian AR/VR platform.
News: Android Is Coming for Your Car, TV, & Wrist
This year's I/O was all about bringing Android into the future and onto new devices. On top of announcing the upcoming "L" release of its mobile OS, Google showcased Android Wear, Android Auto, and Android TV.
News: China's Vivo Unveils Time-of-Flight 3D Sensor That Rivals iPhone X's TrueDepth Camera
The spirit of Google's Tango augmented reality platform lives on at Vivo, a China-based company that has developed its own 3D sensor for mobile devices.
Hands-On: Angry Birds AR: Isle of Pigs Reinvents the Franchise for Mobile, but Smartglasses Are Its Destiny
Finland-based Rovio, one of the pioneers of mobile gaming, is now ready to break new ground in augmented reality with its Angry Birds franchise.
How To: Apple's CarPlay Finally Revealed: Here's What You Can Expect
Integrated rather secretively into iOS 7.1, CarPlay gives a better hands-on experience when driving, working with the car's built-in display to help you find directions, send and receive calls and text messages, control music, and more—without having to fumble around with your small iPhone.
Market Reality: AR Competition Heats Up as Microsoft, Google, & Samsung Make Money Moves
Some of the big guns developing augmented reality technology fired shots at their competitors with announcements and leaked plans this week.
How To: Recycle an Old Vinyl Record into a Warped 'Salvador Dali' Analog Clock
This recycling project would surely make Salvador Dali proud. Kipkay outlines the process, from old vinyl record to cool analog clock. Just pick out an appropriate record, place on cookie sheet and soften inside the oven. Then take the clock mechanism from an old cheap clock and attach to the record. This may not fit with all of your décor, but who cares?
News: Google, Amazon, & More Invest $28M in Nerve-Tapping Technology from CTRL-Labs
New York-based startup CTRL-Labs has closed a $28 million Series A round of funding from Google parent Alphabet's GV and Amazon's Alexa Fund, among others, for its next-generation neural interface technology for AR/VR and robotics.
News: Samsung's Galaxy Note7 Has Lots of Firsts—But Will It Be a Game-Changer?
Samsung's Note series is directly responsible for some of the biggest innovations in smartphones. As the first "phablet," it sparked the current craze for bigger screens, and the S Pen stylus has been mimicked numerous times. Even the curved display made famous by the Galaxy S6 edge made its debut on the Note 4, so this is the one smartphone line you want to keep track of if you like to stay on the bleeding edge.
How To: Schedule Emails in Spark So You Don't Forget to Send Them Later
So you forgot to send that super important email to your boss, teacher, or another important contact. We've all been there. Spark makes these panic moments a thing of the past. With "Send Later," you can schedule emails to send at any time you want, even when you're not by your phone or computer. You just need to remember to write the email in the first place.
How To: Export or move your bookmarks to a new computer
Did you purchase a new computer and you want to move your Internet bookmarks over to it? This video tutorial will show you how to export, backup or move your bookmarks in Internet Explorer 7.
How To: Send & Receive Disappearing Messages in Your WhatsApp Conversations to Keep Chats Clutter-Free
Sometimes, keeping every message comes in handy. Maybe you want to relive fun conversations from months or years ago, or perhaps you need to recall a piece of data such as an address, name, or link. However, not all chats need to stick around forever. Whether you're concerned about privacy or just keeping your threads clutter-free, WhatsApp's "disappearing messages" may be what you're looking for.
News: The Future of Gaming Is Robots Blasting Through Your Living Room Walls
Developers across the U.S. and Canada have started getting their augmented reality headset packages from Microsoft, and so far, everyone's raving about one gaming experience that shatters all doubts of just what the HoloLens can do... RoboRaid.
News: Why Social Media Is for Women (& the Men Who Want to Date Them)
Gender standards are entirely pervasive. We raise our sons to be masculine and our daughters to be feminine, which perpetuates the gender role formula when they grow up to be parents and raise their own children. Part of this whole equation is that boys are supposed to remain stoic and project an air of strength, and girls are expected to be amiable while being held to unrealistic standards of outward beauty.
How To: Control iCloud storage space in iOS 5
If you want to clear up some extra space in iCloud with iOS 5, take a look at this guide to learn how to manage your data on an iPad or iPhone running the service. You will need to access the iCloud panel under "Settings" to do so.
How To: Solder with a soldering iron
In this tutorial, we learn how to solder with a soldering iron. You will need: tinning pads, desoldering braid, and an adding component. Start off by heating the copper, before you add the wire. You need for the acid to flow from the core onto the copper to create a surface that will accept the solder. A cold solder will break or cause burn. If you use too much solder, use the braid to remove it. Next, place the wires onto the holes and heat them onto the circuits where you want them to be pl...
News: Leap Motion Hit with Patent Infringement Lawsuit from Same Company Suing Meta
Patent holder Genedics, LLC has filed a legal complaint alleging that hand-tracking startup Leap Motion is infringing on its intellectual property.
News: Block Charlie Sheen From Your Browser with F.A.T.'s "Tinted Sheen" Extension
There are currently two camps on the internet. The first camp—those who are slurping up as much Charlie Sheen tiger blood as possible (hence Sheen's newly bagged Guinness Book of World Records status for most Twitter followers)— drastically prevails. The second camp—those who would rather not hear poor Charlie's ravings—is, however, much smaller. If you fall into the latter camp, Greg Leuch of F.A.T. has a solution for you. Leuch—who is also responsible for the Justin Bieber Mention Blocker—h...
How To: Update your profile picture on Facebook
Facebook is always changing, and sometimes when that happens we lose track of the basics. Check out this tutorial, from the makers of Facebook, and learn how to change or update your Facebook profile photo. You will also learn how to tag this photo and send it out into the newfeed via your wall. Update your profile picture on Facebook.
Apple AR: Lowe's Builds Pair of AR Apps with ARKit
Lowe's Home Improvement has been an early adopter of augmented and virtual reality in their business practices, so it was a bit of surprise that their name was absent from the ranks of companies launching ARKit apps last week.
How To: Set up app shortcuts on your Android cell phone
What's the quickest way to get to an application on your Android phone? It's a shortcut icon, much like on your Windows and Mac computers that take you to the application quick without having to dig in your applications folder. So how do you add a shortcut on your phone? Best Buy has answers. The Best Buy Mobile team explains how simple it is to set up shortcuts on your Android enabled cell phone.
News: This App Takes Eyebrows from Bushy to Blessed via Augmented Reality
Among consumer brands, cosmetics companies rival furniture retailers as the quickest to adopt augmented reality as a means to help customers visualize how products will look before they buy them.
News: Brainlab Prescribes Magic Leap as Cure for Visualizing Medical Imaging Data, Lumin Updates Pushed to Devs
While many of the latest content partnerships announced by Magic Leap appear to lean towards entertainment and gaming, a new partnership with medical technology provider Brainlab has Magic Leap getting down to more serious business.
Apple AR: iPhone X Face-Masking App Gives New Meaning to 'Incognito Mode'
Augmented reality developers are rapidly bringing science fiction tropes into the real world, with the latest example leveraging the TrueDepth camera on the iPhone X to emulate the cloaking technology made famous by movies like Predator and Marvel's The Avengers.
News: Microsoft HoloLens Art Project Turns New York into an Undersea Dystopia
The HoloLens team is finally beginning to realize that to truly engage the mainstream, augmented reality needs to make its way out of the lab or factory floor and onto the streets.
News: Bill Gates-Edited Time Magazine AR Cover Works on Apple's iPhone, Skips Microsoft's HoloLens
It seems fitting that Time magazine's first augmented reality cover is an issue guest edited by Bill Gates, since the company he founded is currently leading the AR charge via the HoloLens.
How To: Use advanced features of the Amazon Kindle 2, like bookmarking and annotation
The Amazon Kindle 2 has changed the way millions of people read books, but many of you aren't taking full advantage of your device's many advanced features. This video will show you how to use some advanced features of the Kindle 2, including how to highlight text, annotate text, and add a bookmark.
How To: Scroll the menu on a LG KU990 Viewty cell phone
With the LG KU990 Viewty, you can take and view a crystal clear photo. Packed with high-quality camera features, this camera phone enables you to capture a high-definition image using a 5 MP camera lens certified by Schneider-Kreuznach and edit your photo on a large, clear, 3-inch display just like a professional photographer.
How To: Launch Apps Straight from the Status Bar on Your Nexus 5
Even with display sizes increasing by the year, smartphone screen real estate is still at a premium. We want the content we're viewing to take center stage, and this leaves little room for functionality beyond the focused app.
How To: Crash Apps in Mountain Lion with 8 Characters (Plus Fix iMessage If Someone Pranks You with Them)
If you have a Mac running Mountain Lion, I'm sorry to tell you that all it takes to crash almost any app on it is eight little characters. This strange bug seems to only affect Mountain Lion and doesn't cause your computer any harm. Apparently, it even crashes the error reporter. On its own, the bug doesn't really pose a threat—just don't type it.
How To: Boot a tethered iOS 4.2.1 iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad with Redsn0w 0.9.6b4
Boot your tethered Apple iOS 4.2.1 or 4.2 device with the Redsn0w 0.9.6b4 jailbreak tool! This technique is reported to stop Cydia from crashing. For more information, including detailed, step-by-step instructions, and to learn how to boot a tethered Apple mobile device yourself, take a look.
How To: Improve wireless network performance
This video demonstrates how to improve wireless network performance. From the people who brought you the Dummies instructional book series, brings you the same non-intimidating guides in video form. Watch this video tutorial to learn how to improve wireless network performance, For Dummies.
News: Pinterest Takes Steps to Hack-Proof Your Account
The peaceful, pastel and doily-filled world of Pinterest is my oasis. My account conveys who I want to be and what I want to accomplish, so the idea of someone hacking it and ruining my favorite escape for me is heartbreaking. Fortunately, Pinterest has updated its security, implementing three new features to hack-proof your account.
News: Sony Unveils the Xperia XZ Premium with 4K HDR Display, 19 MP Camera & Snapdragon 835
Sony hit MWC 2017 in full gallop, announcing four different additions to its Xperia lineup on Monday, February 27, 2017: the XZ Premium, XZs, XA1, and XA1 Ultra.
How To: Make a battery that runs off water
Make a homemade battery out of things laying around the house. It may not be the strongest thing around, but hey, that doesn't mean you shouldn't do it.