It seems like gesture controls are all the craze these days. From camera-opening gestures to "Air Gestures", it's getting to the point where we hardly need to touch the screens on our phones to control them.
With over a million apps and counting, it's not exactly easy to browse the iOS App Store to find fresh and interesting new apps for your iPad or iPhone. Even rummaging through the featured apps and games isn't easy.
A huge chunk of my life revolves around my computer, and whenever I'm on my laptop and get a text message notification on my phone, I find it extremely distracting to stop whatever I'm doing to hunt it down. That's why I'm a big fan of text messaging via my computer.
You hand your iPhone to a friend to show them a picture. What happens? They swipe. Left, right, it doesn't matter. You don't remember what lies in either direction of the photo in question, and you don't want anything compromising exposed to the unassuming viewer. Luckily, Apple includes a safety net in iOS to prevent this scenario from ever happening, so long as you set it up ahead of time.
Google's text-to-speech engine is getting pretty good these days. In a recent update, the computerized voice that reads on screen text (like Google Now search results) got an audio quality bump that brought its clarity up to its highest level yet. And with each update, that robotic voice becomes a bit more human.
Not too long after getting a new device, you probably start installing any and all apps that seem fun and interesting. But after having used the device for a considerable period of time, those extraneous apps begin to take their toll.
Tab previews—you can do it on an iPhone or an Android device, so why not on your Mac or PC? It's about time you take your browsing game to the next level and learn how to toggle between previews of your tabbed webpages.
The newest version of iOS 8 beta is now out. Almost three weeks ago, in the iOS 8 beta 2 release, we saw podcast integration, full-screen caller ID, new assistive touch toggles, and a "disable all" button for app notifications, among other things.
I regularly use iTunes on my home laptop and my work desktop forty-five traffic minutes away. I'm ashamed to admit it, but until recently, I'd been saving my iTunes library on a USB and transferring it back and forth, over and over again, between the two computers.
Text input on a touchscreen device is constantly evolving. From early beginnings of pecking out each individual character to today's predictive text and gesture keyboards, we've already come a long way.
It is really quite easy to flash a custom recovery to your Nexus, and there are many excellent tutorials on how to do so (see the How-To below): The Easiest Way to Install a Custom Recovery on Your Nexus 7 Tablet « Nexus 7.
Owning an Android device is almost like having a PC in your pocket. Android's ability to easily navigate the file system on your phone is one of many features that separate it from the competition. Just plug your phone into a computer, drag the file over, and you're all set.
Rather than just use the stock Apple keyboard, iOS 8 now lets you use keyboards from TouchPal, Fleksy, SwiftKey, Swype, and more. I'll be showing you how to set up a third-party keyboard on your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch, as well as giving you a firsthand look at TouchPal's keyboard for iOS 8.
If you have a hard time remembering what you've just read on your iPad or Kindle, try changing the font next time. The typeface you use to read books, newspapers, and online articles is either hurting or helping your memory, and you'll be surprised which ones are killing your brain cells.
Think eating food is as easy as putting it in your mouth? It's considerably more complicated than that. Your brain plays a big role in determining what and how you eat. Understanding how your brain interprets food choices is key to managing your eating habits.
As I've said before, slowing down is not an option for me. At one point, I realized that there were plenty of files on my Mac that I didn't need any more, but too many to delete individually. In other cases, your Mac can be experiencing some major malfunctions: constant crashing, locked controls, slow boot times, missing files, etc.
Admit it, you wish Siri was on your Mac, and so do I. She stole my heart on iOS, and now every time I open up my MacBook, I feel something missing. Wouldn't it be great if we could, I dunno, hack Siri onto our Macs? Yeah, it would!
LG has really made their new G3 handset something to drool over. The hardware and software behind it can be considered as good, or even better than most flagships out there, and it has left me second guessing my decision to stick with the M8.
Koushik Dutta, the developer behind the Android app AllCast, has made the leap over to the realm of personal computers with his latest offering.
Multitasking has traditionally been one of Android's strengths. As the first mobile operating system to introduce true multi-process management, it even took things a step further after version 4.0 by dedicating a button to your recently-used apps.
Apple's new iOS 8 has a ton of new features, and so does their revamped Safari app, only some of the features aren't quite as obvious as others. In this guide, I'll show you my 5 favorite Safari secrets in iOS 8 for your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch.
Reading is no longer a leisure activity—it's an on-the-go activity that requires speed and less attention. That's why speed reading apps are growing in popularity. As smartphones and tablets increasingly take over the traditional book market, reading skills need to be adjusted accordingly, so you can cram in 5 pages in-between texts and emails.
Known for its easily recognizable filters—and coining the hashtag #nofilter—Instagram has long been an app that focused more on photo posting rather than photo editing. Yet today, Instagram released an upgrade for both Android and iOS users that edges the app towards becoming a full-fledged photo editor.
Whether you're a celebrity or someone with something to hide, Facebook allows you to keep your "friends list" private so you can protect the identities of your Facebook friends. But it only kind of protects them.
Downgrading your iPhone from iOS 8 beta back to iOS 7.1.1 is a really simple process, and a very necessary one if you're experiencing frozen screens and apps that either unexpectedly quit or don't even work at all.
Prying into people's lives without them putting up their guard can be difficult, unless you can convince them that you already know them very well. Most people don't have many friends they can be honest with, and this can be exploited. Once they're convinced you already know their secrets, they'll start to fill you in on the little details.
Aside from the newer HTC One M8 and Samsung Galaxy S5, the Nexus 5 still has one of the fastest processors on the market today. However, despite its superpowers, some graphically intensive games can still have a bit of lag to them during gameplay.
It started in Australia, and now seems to have made its way statewide—hackers are remotely locking iOS and Mac devices, holding them for a $100 ransom. Users awoke to the loud "lost iPhone" ringtone, with a message on their lock screen stating that "Oleg Pliss" has hacked their device, and that "they" will unlock it after being sent $100 through PayPal.
There are a lot of instances where we find ourselves typing virtually the same phrase that we've typed many times before. Whether it's the standard spousal reply of "I'll be home in a few", or a work-related phrase like "I'll have that to you by the end of the day", typing phrases like these can feel very redundant at times.
There really isn't any custom manufacturer skin, like Sense, that can match the clean look and fluidity that comes with stock Android. HTC knows this, and they, just like Samsung, include a Google Play Edition version in their flagship lineup.
There's more to earning someone's trust than simply shaking their hand, especially if you're not particularly trustworthy. Your body language doesn't reveal your thoughts, it reveals your intentions, and sometimes intentions are better left unrevealed. Psychopaths, take note...
The act of viewing a new notification on your Nexus 5 can feel a bit clunky and cumbersome at times. When a new message comes in, you hear the notification sound, you see the LED blinking, but you can't see what the actual notification says without waking the device and opening the notification tray.
One of the most common complaints about the Nexus line of devices is that they don't have expandable memory.
There's a known issue affecting some Nexus 5 users where the speaker volume is fairly low. This could be attributed to a manufacturing defect, which you could possibly fix with a hot needle, but if your built-in speakers and headphones seem muted, don't take your Nexus apart just yet.
Released last year for iOS devices, Frontback is a simple photo-taking and sharing app that not only snaps a picture of what's directly in front of the camera, but also behind it, which is to say, a selfie.
Google recently updated their TOS to reflect the email scanning practices they use in Gmail, which are used to display more relevant ads, among other things.
Samsung's TouchWiz skin gets a lot of flak for its appearance, namely the garish colors on the quick settings toggles. The bright green on dark blue scheme is definitely an eyesore compared to the ones in stock Android, and even other manufacturer skins like HTC's Sense.
If you've seen ParaNorman or Fantastic Mr. Fox, then you have some kind of idea of what stop-motion animation is. Basically, these artists make objects, or small figures, appear to be moving on their own by manipulating and repositioning them in the smallest increments, then capturing each frame after doing so. When all the frames are compiled together, the final product is something spectacular like The Nightmare Before Christmas, which took roughly 109,440 frames in all.
If you've ever used IFTTT, you know how well it can automate your online world. The premise is simple—If This, Then That—but the results are powerful. From automatically printing images based on hashtags to getting around Twitter bans, the service is quite useful with a wealth of possibilities.
The wait is almost over. The sixth season of Game of Thrones kicks off this Sunday, April 24th at 9 p.m. (PT) on HBO, or at 5:57 p.m. (PT) on HBO GO and HBO NOW, with the first episode "The Red Woman."
