Gadget Hacks Features
How To: Upgrade to Mountain Lion from Leopard (OS X 10.5 to 10.8)
Mountain Lion (OS X 10.8) is out today, available in the Mac App Store for just $20. Unfortunately, installing Mountain Lion requires that you already have a Mac running Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6) or Lion (OS X 10.7). If you're currently running a Leopard system, you're out of luck, and need to pay $29 to upgrade to Snow Leopard, and then an additional $20 to upgrade again to Mountain Lion. That sounds like way to much trouble to me. But why exactly is Leopard incompatible? Turns out it's not—m...
How To: Add a Custom Background Image to Your Windows 8 Start Screen
Like most new things, the Start Screen in Windows 8 has its adorers and detractors, but either way you slice it—it's here to stay. I'm still getting used to the Start Screen, so I'm not sure if it's a love or hate feeling yet, but I do know one thing—I want my own background!
How To: Use the SOS Feature on Your Samsung Galaxy Phone in Case of an Emergency
Samsung included an "SOS" feature for its phones since the Galaxy S6 that could literally be a lifesaver should you ever find yourself in an emergency situation. It's one of those things that we hope to never have to use but will be very thankful for if a need ever arises.
How To: Set Up WhatsApp on Your Nexus 7 Tablet—Without Rooting
WhatsApp is one of the most well-known and most utilized cross-platform chat applications available today. It's free for one year, and only $0.99 a year after, which is chump change when you realize there are no hidden costs like international charges. Basically, it creates an easy to use forum for you and your friends to chat, regardless if they're an Android or iPhone user.
How To: Apple Flaw Lets Thieves Completely Reset Your Apple Watch & Get Away with It
There's a recently discovered flaw by iDownloadBlog that lets thieves reset a stolen Apple Watch without a hitch, which is the result of Apple not including the Activation Lock feature that iPhones have had since iOS 7.
How To: Control Your Samsung Galaxy Device from a Mac or Windows Computer
With AirPlay for iOS, Chromecast Screen Mirroring, and even third-party PC-pairing apps to play around with, getting your devices to interconnect could not be any easier than it is today.
How To: Fix the Stuck Gray Apple Logo and Blue or Black Screen of Death on Your iPhone
We've all seen the blue screen of death at least one time in our lives. I grew up using a Windows PC about the size of a small refrigerator and that damn screen popped up at least once a day. Thankfully, errors like these happen much less often, but now that our smartphones have basically become pocket PCs, these type of errors can and do happen.
How To: Take Screenshots & Save as JPEG in Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard or Lower
This video demonstrates how easy it is to take a screenshot with shortcuts in Mac OS X. Pressing Command-Shift-3 will take a screenshot of the entire screen, while Command-Shift-4 will let you take a screenshot of just a selected area of the screen instead. For the latter, once you use the shortcut, your mouse pointer will turn into crosshairs, and you would click on one point of the screen, then drag and release your mouse to take a capture of the selected area.
How To: Easily Change Boot Animations on Your Samsung Galaxy S5
Most Android devices allow you to simply replace a ZIP file in your /system/media folder if you want to change your boot animation. Unfortunately, though, this isn't the case for the Galaxy S5, as it's been buried deep in Samsung's TouchWiz skin.
How To: Root the New Android 5.0 Lollipop Preview on Your Nexus 5 or 7
It didn't take long at all for developer Chainfire to sort out a root method for the new Android 5.0 Lollipop. After handling a few issues with changes to the SELinux kernel module, Chainfire pushed out an update to his popular SuperSU root app.
How To: Everything You Need to Disable on Your Galaxy S10 for Privacy & Security
Whether we like it or not, our personal information and smartphones are tied together at the hip. The former needs the latter to deliver a personalized experience that matches our individual needs. This personal data, however, makes your phone a prime target for thieves of all sorts to turn your privacy into illicit profit.
How To: Root Any Galaxy Note 2 Variant in No Time with One Easy Click
While AT&T and Verizon may not have had a chance to screw Note 2 owners with unrootbale devices—mainly because they've screwed us over by not issuing KitKat updates—it's safe to say that they can in the future. And while Sprint and T-Mobile subscribers have been able to root, the various methods can make the process somewhat confusing, especially for first-timers.
HoloLens Dev 101 : How to Build a Basic HoloLens App in Minutes
Now that we've got all of our software installed, we're going to proceed with the next step in our HoloLens Dev 101 series—starting a fresh project and building it into a Holographic application. Then we will output the application to the HoloLens Emulator so we can see it in action.
How To: Disable Those Annoying 'Displaying Over Other Apps' Notifications on Your Galaxy S9
The Galaxy S9 is now available worldwide. We ran through several Android P features already on the Galaxy S9 and even took a look at a few hidden things you might not know about. While you're likely loving your new phone, there are a few concerns with any new device. One possible issue is the new persistent Android System notifications on the Galaxy S9.
How To: TapeACall Lets You Record Phone Conversations on Your iPhone Like a Pro
If you've ever been on the receiving end of a threatening phone call, you'll immediately know the value in being able to record phone conversations on your iPhone. Beyond that extreme example, however, recording calls is still an extremely useful feature to have for important conversations like business meetings and verbal agreements, and it's totally doable with a third-party app.
How To: Install Nova Launcher on Your Samsung Galaxy Gear for a More Standard Android Look
When it comes to the user interface, you're pretty much limited to the stock one that comes on your Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch—a carousel of large black and white icons representing the features and applications on the watch.
Apple Pay Cash 101: How to Verify Your Identity with Apple
With iOS 11.2's introduction of Apple Pay Cash, you can send and receive money to others directly through iMessage, using the convenience and security Apple Pay is known for. However, if you want to make sure your efforts go uninterrupted, you'll want to make sure you verify your identity with Apple.
Gmail 101: How to Delete or Archive Emails with One Swipe
Throughout the day, I receive countless emails from various e-commerce sites who are trying to get me to spend money I don't have. Normally, I dismiss the notification on my smartphone, but when I open the Gmail app, I find all those unread messages waiting to be dealt with. Fortunately, Gmail has a way to quickly get rid of all those emails with one swipe.
How To: See the Notifications You Cleared by Accident
If you've ever prematurely dismissed all of your push notifications before you got a chance to read each one, you know how annoying it can be to dig through all of your apps to try and find the one with the missed notification.
How To: Make the Volume Buttons on Your Galaxy S9 Control Media Volume by Default
Most phones adjust the ringtone and notification volume by default when you press the physical volume buttons. If media is playing, then the volume rocker will adjust media volume — but only after the first few seconds played at the previous volume level. This has been a point of frustration for many years, but thankfully, the Galaxy S9 lets you change the default volume control.
How To: Add a Smart App Drawer to Any Launcher & Get Automatic Sorting Features
One of the biggest things that differentiates Android from iOS is the app drawer. Instead of the operating system just tossing all of your app icons into a cluttered heap on your home screen, most can be tucked away neatly in the app drawer, which, in essence, is very similar to the Windows Start menu.
How To: Boost Internet Speeds & Hide Your Browsing History from Your ISP
If you have friends who aren't privacy-conscious, you've surely heard the old "What do I have to hide?" excuse. Despite the fact that billions of people are using the internet each day, many of them don't know the dangers that can find them. And many don't know the tools to combat them.
How To: Increase Download Speed with Internet Download Manager
What is Internet Download Manager? Internet Download Manager (IDM) is a tool to increase download speeds by up to 10 times, resume and schedule downloads. Have you ever wanted to increase you download speed form 4kps to 80kps? If you answered yes then you need Internet Download Manager. It can and will increase your download speed so you can get the files you want quicker and easier than ever before.
How To: Use Touch ID to Log into Apps & Websites More Easily on Your iPhone
Apple introduced Touch ID on the iPhone 5S back in 2013, which let you unlock the device with your fingerprint. While it was an impressive feature, it could only do that one thing—unlock the device.
How To: Control Your iPhone Using Your Eyes
During the keynote at WWDC earlier this year, Apple introduced the latest iteration of its mobile operating system, iOS 12. Despite a thorough demo on stage, Apple glossed over new eye tracking features that use ARKit 2. Developers can now use the TrueDepth camera on the iPhone X, XS, XS Max, and XR to determine where your eyes are looking, opening up incredible new possibilities for new apps.
How To: Get Squeeze, Twirl, X-Ray, & Other Photo Booth Effects on Your iPhone
If you've got a MacBook, I'm sure you've spent some time messing around with the Photo Booth app. Who would have thought that adding simple effects like Comic Book or Stretch could make a selfie look so hilarious. Photo Booth is available for all Mac OS X computers running 10.4 or higher with an iSight camera, and it's also available on a few of Apple's iOS devices. Actually, it's only for the iPad 2 and all newer iPads since. It is NOT available on the iPhone, don't ask me why.
How To: The Right Way to Clean Your Dirty Phone or Tablet
I record close-cropped videos and take macro still shots with my smartphones on a daily basis, so as you would expect, I spend a lot of time cleaning these devices. Over the course of a couple years, I've fine-tuned my cleaning regimen, and at this point, it's down to a near-science.
How To: Install the Latest Google Clock & Calculator Apps on Your Galaxy S6 (Or Other Android)
Many of Google's stock Android apps are some of the best options out there—especially now that they've all been made over with Material Design. But generally, as these are pre-installed system apps, they cannot be used on non-Nexus devices.
How To: Automatically Send 'Low-Quality' Photos in Messages to Use Up Less Data on Your iPhone
Every model iPhone since the 6s has boasted a 12-megapixel rear camera. You can take some pretty spectacular, professional-looking photos with it, especially on devices that have more than one rear lens. But the file size of each photo can become a problem when sending as an iMessage, which can eat up data.
News: iPhone XR vs. iPhone XS vs. iPhone XS Max — Comparing the Key Specs
With this year's iPhones, Apple built upon the success of the iPhone X in a somewhat iterative manner. All three phones borrow from the 2017 flagship's design, which many praised as being the best in years. They also tried to help those of us who don't have more than a grand to spend on phones, creating a new product with a few compromises.
How To: Add 2-Step Verification to Uber for Stronger Overall Account Security
If you've ever received an email from a sketchy address purporting to be Uber, asking you to sign in with your credentials, you might be a phishing target. Hackers use a fake login page from real-looking domains to trick you into giving up your account information, and while it's been an issue in the past, Uber is making it more difficult on cyber thieves with the addition of two-step verification.
Apple Pay Cash 101: How to Make Person-to-Person Payments via iMessage
With the release of iOS 11, Apple promised to give us person-to-person transactions by way of iMessages. In the iOS 11.2 update, the new Apple Pay Cash system is now ready for you to send money to family and friends right from your iPhone — and there are multiple ways to get it done.
How To: Play & Control Music in Multiple Rooms with AirPlay 2 on Your iPhone
Back in June 2017, Apple promised us AirPlay 2, a simple way to connect and control multiple speakers together via an iPhone or other Apple device. While the feature was included in early iOS betas, by iOS 11's official release, AirPlay 2 was nowhere to be found. After all the numerous subsequent iOS 11 updates, it's finally here in iOS 11.4.
How To: Where's the App Store's 'Updates' Tab? Here's How You Install App Updates Manually Now in iOS 13
Viewing available app updates and recently updated apps on your iPhone is more confusing and less obvious on iOS 13 than it was in iOS 12 and older.
News: Google Finally Made Gboard Available for Android (APK Download)
It took nearly six months, but Google has finally made its wildly popular iOS keyboard available to Android users. Technically, it's just an update to the existing Google Keyboard app for Android, but it renames the app to "Gboard" and includes all of the features from iOS, so Android users can stop feeling like Google's neglected stepchildren.
How To: Find Saved WiFi Passwords in Windows
Once you connect all of your devices to your Wi-Fi router at home, you'll never need that long, complicated Wi-Fi password ever again, right?
How To: Download Facebook videos with Mozilla Firefox
This tutorial describes the procedure to download Facebook videos with Mozilla Firefox. This procedure works only on the web browser "Mozilla Firefox". Firefox can be downloaded from this link and installed.
Instagram 101: How to Add a Link in Your Story
For the longest time, the only clickable link you could throw up on Instagram was in your profile's bio, and that's still true for a lot of users. The only way to add a clickable link aside from the aforementioned one is in an Instagram story, where users checking out your story would swipe up to load the webpage before going back to finish your story.
How To: Miss the Charms Bar? Here's How to Access the Same Features on Windows 10
For all of the flak that Windows 8 received from desktop users, it certainly had some interesting and unique features. For instance, the "Charms" bar allowed you to easily access several key menus by simply hovering your mouse pointer in the top- or bottom-right corner of the screen.
How To: Make Your iPhone's Portrait Orientation Lock Change Automatically Whenever You Open & Close Specific Apps
I always keep my iPhone's Portrait Orientation Lock on so that my screen doesn't randomly rotate while I'm lying down. However, there are certain apps that I do turn it off for. It's kind of a pain since you have to swipe down the Control Center and toggle the orientation lock — but that ends now. Instead of doing it manually, a new iOS update can automate app orientations for you.