Notifications are an integral part of our day-to-day smartphone usage. They allow us to easily see and act upon all of the latest information that comes our way. Well, most of the time, that is.
Audiobooks are great because they require little-to-no effort on your behalf. When driving in traffic, why not listen to George R.R. Martin's lengthy A Feast for Crows instead of repetitive, commercial-laden radio? Maybe it harks back to prepubescent bedtime readings, but having things read to me is a very satisfying experience.
Sometimes it's hard to remember that lasagna, pizza, cannoli, and other dishes are actually Italian in origin; they're so much a part of the American culinary landscape at this point. Wherever they come from, Americans of all kinds love to eat 'em. This guy was released from a North Korean prison, and after two years, the first thing he wanted to eat was fast-food pizza.
While it's much quicker in Yosemite, the Calendar app for Mac has never been as fast as I'd like. If my schedule is really full, it can sometimes hang when first opening the Calendar.
While the new Google Inbox is currently invite-only, if you were able to snag one, you'll want to learn the best ways to navigate it. Google Inbox coins itself as "The inbox that works for you," and after a brief run through of it, we think it's definitely living up to that slogan.
Your favorite instant messaging service might not be your friend's preferred choice of communicating, and your sibling might prefer yet another. So when they send you messages via different apps, it's like having one address but multiple mailboxes on a single porch.
Bearded women are typically more freaky than scary—yet when it comes to American Horror Story, nothing is as it seems.
While the Quick Settings feature on Android is great, manufacturers like HTC, LG, and Samsung took it a step further in their custom skins. For instance, on Samsung devices, you can access the most common toggles at the top of the Notification tray, and you can tap once to access more tiles. This makes toggling cellular data, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi a fast and painless process.
With all of the top-notch specs that the Galaxy S5 sports, the only minor quibble users have had with its hardware is the speaker situation. A front-facing earpiece is used for phone calls, but all other media is restricted to a single rear-firing speaker.
As you already know, Hong Hong has been rocked in recent weeks by protests against their Beijing overlords. Promised free and fair elections, Beijing has reneged on this promise and is now telling Hong Kongians (that's what they're called, aren't they?) that they will only be able to vote on Beijing-selected candidates. All that is interesting from a political perspective, but from a technological perspective, the more intriguing story is how the protesters are communicating. Faced with their...
The updates keep coming for iOS 8, and we've got our hands on the developer release of iOS 8.1, currently in beta, which was released shortly after the iOS 8.0.2 update (and 8.0.1 failure) for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch.
Third-party keyboards have become a game changer for iPhone owners since their integration in iOS 8. And while the major players from the Android realm—Fleksy, SwiftKey, Swype—already have their keyboards on the iOS App Store, their products are relatively standard fare.
Waking up to hundreds of text messages in the morning usually points to one thing—group messages. Whether it's your fantasy football league, your work buddies, or just a bunch of bored friends, group messages can leave your iPhone vibrating off the hook.
Broadcasting your gameplay for others to view has recently become a phenomenon with the advent of Twitch.tv. While computer-based gaming is well represented these days, streaming of mobile gameplay has been virtually non-existent.
Without a comprehensive root method for all Android phones and tablets, a device-specific approach is needed. And since we always cover new rooting methods for all the popular phones here at Gadget Hacks, we've built this always-updated guide to rooting many mainstream Android devices.
If you work at a large office or have a multi-story home, you're probably familiar with Wi-Fi range extenders. Since one hotspot isn't always enough to cover an entire area, Wi-Fi repeaters are generally set up in larger areas to capture and rebroadcast the original signal.
How many times have you witnessed a beautiful moment that you would have loved to capture on film, only to watch it slip away as you struggled to unlock your phone and open your camera app?
There are countless lock screens you can apply to your Android device, but very few offer more than just quick access to apps or advanced security functionality. Since you probably unlock your device a gazillion times every day, why not use this to your advantage and let it teach you something new?
It happens to everyone: you set a lock screen password in a hurry and cannot remember it the next day. To unlock your device again, you need to reset the password (or PIN, pattern, etc). There are two official methods of doing this.
Get ready to stop using the stock Contacts app on your Samsung Galaxy S4, because there's something better out there for keeping track of your family and friends—and it looks better too.
Google announced Android L to the masses at their I/O event, and with it they introduced their new "Heads Up" notification system. These notifications are part of the new Material Design UI and are sure to change the way we interact with notifications on our devices.
Over the course of the past few years, many websites have begun offering up a mobile-friendly HTML 5 version of their content. Videos that once required Adobe's Flash can now be played on any modern mobile web browser.
You suck at karaoke. Most of us do, but that doesn't stop any of us from hitting up the karaoke bar. It's not about who sounds best; there's American Idol for that. It's about having a great time without incurring negative judgement; the worse you are the better time I'm having.
The keyboard I use the most on my Galaxy S4 is the Google Keyboard, and that's partly because of the custom themes I can play around with.
Admit it, since childhood you've thought to yourself, "When oh when will they finally make Smell-o-vision?" And while that technology hasn't yet made it to our living rooms, we may soon be a step closer towards that particular American dream with the oPhone.
Fact: we live in a world where social media dictates our behaviors and shapes our perceptions. Maybe some of us are addicted more than others, but most of society uses some type of social media, whether it's Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat , or something new that I've never heard of.
These days, our smartphones carry some very sensitive data. From banking app passwords to personal photos, there are many things on your Nexus 5 that you might not want other people to have access to.
Let's say you're watching a video and everything's going great, but you feel the need to raise the volume a tiny bit. You hit the volume button on your Nexus 5, and all of a sudden, a giant volume slider appears that obscures half of your video for 3 seconds.
There's been a lot of discussion lately about the practical uses of Google Glass. Sure, you can use them for translating text instantly or further engraining yourself in social media, but how about saving someone's life? That's precisely what Dr. Steven Horng of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center has says happened with a recent patient of his. After launching a Google Glass pilot program late last year, the device was seen as a critical factor in saving the life of a patient in January.
Normally, you'd have to jailbreak your iPad or iPhone to play any games that aren't available in the iOS App Store, like the now-extinct Flappy Bird game. But this isn't the case if you want to play some of your favorite old school Nintendo classics.
Having instant access to monitoring your battery level is critical, especially when you're traveling or forget your charger at home. You need to know how much juice you have so you can adapt accordingly.
It was just released a few days, but Facebook Paper has already taken the world by storm. CNET said it was a better way to use Facebook. TIME said it's the future of Facebook. The Verge called it the best Facebook app ever. There's one problem, though...
I'm one of very few Americans that suffer from TMS syndrome, i.e. Too Much Swag. While there are no current cures for the disease, I'm in no rush to rid myself of the problem.
If you're spending hours on your phone playing games like Angry Birds and Candy Crush Saga, or posting online to Google+ and Pinterest, you're probably being spied on. The latest releases from NSA whistle blower Edward Snowden reveal that the National Security Agency, and its UK counterpart, GCHQ, are mining the ad networks utilized in these apps to collect a trove of information on you.
You can easily lock any folder on your Windows computer with a simple Notepad hack. By creating a batch file, you can hide a folder and require a password be entered before it becomes visible and accessible. This is a great tool for locking sensitive information, like pictures, financial statements, and a lot more.
Let's just say it's been a pretty bad year for spies and government agencies and an even worse one for the privacy of U.S. citizens. Edward Snowden blew the lid off the NSA's spy program, and the FBI was recently discovered to have the ability to access your webcam any time they want—without triggering the "camera on" light. Yeah, that means those Justin Bieber lip sync videos you recorded weren't just for your private collection.
Snapchat was created for the sole purpose of removing evidence from your mobile that a photo or video ever existed. That way, snoopers can't find any of these questionable selfies in your photo gallery. Of course, there are plenty of ways around this safeguard, but it's still more private than the standard social networking app.
For now, the redesigned and fresh-faced Android 4.4 KitKat is exclusive to the new Nexus 5, though it will be rolling out to other Google (Nexus 4, Nexus 7, Nexus 10) and Google Play Editions (Samsung Galaxy S4, HTC One) devices in the next week or two.
Rooting your Samsung Galaxy Note 2 grants you access to system files, giving you the ability to change things on the device that you normally wouldn't be able to. Sounds great, right? There's just one problem. How in the hell do you manually change those system files?
When we're dead tired but need to stay awake, we humans can do many things to make the drowsiness go away, from taking a cold shower to downing energy drinks or coffee to acupressure.
