Restoring data is not always the easiest thing to do when you flash a new ROM on Android. Google can back up your contacts and Wi-Fi passwords, and various tools can back up your apps and data, but the rest is usually lost in-between ROM flashes. This leads to a lot of wasted time getting everything back into place, and it'll take a long time before your new ROM feels like "home" again.
Ever use an open hotspot on your Note 3, only to find out that it's severely restricted to what sites you can access? While getting online with free Wi-Fi is great for those who have a limited data plan, when that one site you absolutely need to visit is blocked, you're left frustrated and sent back into the Wi-Fi menu for another access point.
With all of the personal data that's stored on our smartphones, it's of vital importance that we have some sort of lock screen security enabled. One of the Galaxy S5's killer features is obviously the fingerprint scanner. It makes the process of dealing with a secure lock screen a bit easier than typing in a password or PIN.
We live, work, and play in drastically different environments, so it only makes sense that we'd want our Nexus 5 smartphones to automatically adapt to our needs when in certain locales at certain times.
Lock screen apps are a dime a dozen, but every now and then one pops up that defies expectations. We've already covered some good ones for the Samsung Galaxy S4, including Picture Password Lockscreen (which gives you secret unlock gestures), SlideLock (which improves notifications), and TimePIN (which gives you a more clever PIN).
Imagine this: You're driving on the freeway in Canada, enjoying the view and sipping Tim Horton's, when all of the sudden you see something out of the corner of your eye. You expect it to be a moose, obviously, but instead you see a robot with his thumb hitched up. So, after insuring that you didn't accidentally take some hallucinogens a few miles back, do you pick it up?
In a era where cyber security is becoming increasingly important, Comcast has decided to use its customers' routers to provide hotspot access to the public. A new program, outlined by Dwight Silverman over on the Houston Chronicle website, seeks to provide Xfinity customers with city-wide Wi-Fi hotspots by using, well...other customers' wireless routers.
I love getting notifications for every email received on my Samsung Galaxy S3 and whenever a download finishes, but there are some alerts I could definitely do without.
In the wake of the NSA controversy and its subsequent fallout, many dashed towards finding means of secure communication—using private internet browsing and encrypted text messaging applications—out of fear of being spied on.
Silence is golden, especially when you're sleeping and about to lock lips with Kate Upton in a dream (or Ryan Gosling, for all you ladies). The last thing you want is your tablet rudely interrupting your passionate kiss with blaring notifications. It's even worse in real-life when you're in an important meeting and you forgot to silence your Android up.
Even if you have the fastest internet connection in the world, it's not going to be fast if your Android device isn't optimized to use all of the bandwidth. I have pretty fast speeds at home, but every now and then my web surfing on my Nexus 7 tablet is halted in its tracks—for seemingly no reason.
This summer's going to be a hot one, so skip the water pistol this year and break out the big guns! In this project, I'll be showing you how to build a water balloon shotgun—a high-powered water balloon launcher that's capable of firing 17 water balloons at the same time!
The first thing I do when I get a new phone is ditch the USB cable. At least, when it comes to data transfer. My brand new HTC One came with a USB cord that feels sturdy, but like any other cable, it will eventually fall apart from overuse. It will probably still charge just fine, but at that point it will be unreliable for transferring data. Lucky for me, there's a solution. Transfer files over the air. This will let you save that USB cord only for charging and the occasional situation when ...
Mixing water and electricity is extremely risky and potentially lethal, yet that's exactly what I did with the Scariac. In its simplest form, the Scariac is just a glorified version of two wires in a bucket of water, but it's actually one of the cheapest power controllers you can make.
While Siri may be the cream of the crop when it comes to smartphone personal assistants, there is always room to grow bigger and better (that's what she said). Siri, although recently expanded, is still lacking in the amount of commands and actions she can currently perform. While looking up directions and restaurants is fairly easy for Siri, asking her to gain access to third-party programs or browsers is a little more difficult.
If you've got old game consoles lying around and aren't sure what to do with them, there's no shortage of projects you can undertake. From turning a Game Boy and Wii Remote into an Android phone gamepad to combining a GameCube and N64 to make a hybrid console, there's something for everyone.
Doorbells are useful and all, but most of them are boring as hell. They use the same old generic sounds to let you know when guests have arrived, as demonstrated below.
It's tough out there on the battlefield, especially when your stuck in the trenches and your comrades are dropping like flies. There's no hope. At least, until the next airsoft battle.
You can do a lot with water guns. Have trouble waking up? Make a water gun alarm clock that (almost) no one could sleep through. Prefer real ammo? Turn your water gun into an airsoft BB gun. And if you don't have one, you can even make your own.
Here's a way you can turn a mousetrap into a fun little handgun that shoots up to 40 feet! This is a great project because it can be made with simple materials, very basic tools, and in just a few minutes!
For this project, I decided to rip apart a microwave I found in my neighbor's garbage can to see what was inside. With permission, of course! True story!
Back in 2008, media artist Kyle McDonald created a 3D interface that could track movement, which he turned into a virtual Tic-tac-toe game.
I've never really liked to type on a flat or low keyboard. Even the small flip-up stands underneath most keyboards were not good enough for me, as those little legs aren't usually more than 2 or 3 centimeters high. I'd like a minimum of 5 cm, so I decided to make this keyboard base for myself. Aside from giving me the right height and angle, this DIY keyboard base also features LEDs that light up my monitor, the table, and gives a nice background to my desktop. It's even got a built-in stand ...
Playing Angry Birds on a computer just got a lot more interesting. Design students Andrew Spitz and Hideaki Matsui made this awesome slingshot controller for one of their classes at the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design.
If your iPhone is a business tool for you, you'll want ways to send out mass e-mails, either to your customers or employees and coworkers. You can use the iEDL, or Email Distribution App, published by MerckTech, to set up a distribution list that will let you send out mass emails as often as you need. This video shows you all the ins and outs of this awesome little app. Expand your productivity and marketing reach for your business and personal projects!
This great video series goes through the entire process, from unboxing the Wii Hori fighting stick, to taking it apart, wiring, adding buttons, and everything else that you'll need to finish the project and have it ready to go for play on your Xbox 360!
In this video, we learn how to build a portable personal heater. This is a great weekend project that is easy to make and will keep you warm during a freezing winter. You will need: two double a batteries, charger, twin double a battery charger, winding wire, and balsa wood. First, cut the wood the size of the battery holder and cut it out. Now, reel off 30 ft of winding wire and hold down with duct tape. Wind the wire around the piece of wood and tape down the other end of the wire. Scrape o...
If you're doing a project with a ham radio and want to mess around with the antenna, this video should help.
In this Computers & Programming video tutorial you will learn how to intersect roofs on Google SketchUp house. This demonstration tutorial opens up a project where the building is already constructed and slanting roof is to be added. The building is in 'L' shape. Hence, the slanting roofs are in different directions and both have to intersect at one point on the center line. First the roof of the longer section of the house is made. Then that of the shorter section is made with a gap between ...
In this Computers & Programming video tutorial you will learn how to update a website with an FTP client (v† la FileZilla). Download FileZilla client from www.filezilla-project.org. Find your server IP address from your web host, which will be found in the hosting control center. In the video, it is GoDaddy.com. Open your filezilla client and put in the IP address of your web host and your username and password for your hosting account. Then click ‚Äòquickconnect‚Äô. This will connect you to ...
Hak5 isn't your ordinary tech show. It's hacking in the old-school sense, covering everything from network security, open source and forensics, to DIY modding and the homebrew scene. Damn the warranties, it's time to Trust your Technolust. In this episode, see how to build a web-enable remote controlled tank.
Importing and exporting are pretty easy in OnTime, but there are always questions that come up regarding the process. This installment from Axosoft's own series of video tutorials on the OnTime Project Management Suite will help new users understand the basics of importing and exporting items across the OnTime 2008 system. Take a look (and be sure to stay tuned for parts two and three).
This installment from Axosoft's own series of OnTime Project Management Suite video tutorials is about the basics of archiving in OnTime 2008. How do you "remove" items from the system so they are out of your way, yet keep from deleting them completely? How do you find items that have been archived? What options do you have when it comes to archiving? How do you perform mass archiving using logical parameters? All these questions are answered in this how-to. Take a look.
Notice: This is probably not new to many people. This *IS* new for some people however, and meant for them! Post interesting cameras you find.
We'll base the project around a digital clock radio and a light gun for gaming; huge selections of both of these are available inexpensively second-hand, with many beautiful and well-designed examples. To enable our FPSI (First Person Shooter Interface), we'll outfit the gun with five tilt sensors, arranged at different angles on a small circuit board. A cable tethers the gun to the clock and carries your tilt and trigger signals to the clock's time and alarm control button contacts.
During the Tuesday launch of Google I/O, the company's CEO, Sundar Pichai, pulled off a Steve Jobsian "one more thing" move near the end of his keynote address that was simply stunning.
One of the most convenient features in the Netflix app is the ability to download movies and TV shows to your device, which lets you avoid potential streaming issues and watch content offline whenever you want. To make downloading even more convenient, you can automatically download new episodes of your favorite TV shows once you've finished the ones already stored on your phone.
We all know IT development is a valuable skill to have. But being a certified professional in the world's most in-demand project management and development tools? That's enough to get the promotion or new developer career you've been dreaming about.
Game streaming has never been better. Not only can you watch your favorite Twitch streamer play, but with the new tools being added to YouTube, you can even play along with them. And now, with a solid internet connection, you can stream your Xbox One games to your phone to enjoy console games on the go.
Long before the HoloLens or the Magic Leap One, a California-based team of independent filmmakers envisioned what the future of augmented reality might look like.
