Using different sounds on your iPhone for different notifications can help you determine — just by listening — alerts you may want to look at immediately versus untimely alerts or even ones you typically ignore. But Apple has never given us complete control over notification sound customization on iOS, though the latest iOS update is a step in the right direction.
Android 12L and Android 13 have a taskbar just for tablets that lets you quickly open recent, suggested, or pinned apps and drag and drop apps into split-screen mode. While the taskbar is meant just for tablets and foldable devices, you can unlock this new feature for your Android smartphone with a bit of tinkering.
By default, everyone on WhatsApp can see when you're using the app. If someone recently messaged you and sees you're currently online, they may think you're avoiding them if you don't respond right away — especially if you don't share read receipts. However, you can block them from seeing your online or last seen status and apply it to everyone or just specific contacts.
Everyone should know that assigning complex passwords to sensitive digital accounts is the best practice for protecting yourself against hacking. Those who adhere to password creation best practices also know that keeping up with passwords for every account is nigh impossible, even when using passphrases. This is why using a password manager is highly recommended.
To record an audio message in the Messages app on iOS 15, you would tap and hold the audio messages button in the text entry field of the conversation. Then, you could let go to preview it before sending it or swipe up to send it right away. That's no longer the case on iOS 16 for iPhone.
Apple finally lets us fix sent iMessages, and I can honestly say it's a game-changer. Editing messages after sending them can prevent miscommunication and allow you to fix embarrassing mistakes before the other person notices them. It's one of the Messages app's coolest new features, but there are some important things for you to know about how it works.
There has been drag-and-drop functionality for iPhone since at least iOS 11, but iOS 15 adds a new ability that makes essential emails even easier to find when you need them.
Apple introduces several new privacy settings with iOS 15, including the ability to better manage the metadata in your photos. With just a few taps, you can effectively spoof a photo's geolocation and change its creation date and time, providing a sort of disguise over your personal information. If you constantly take and share photos, it's a welcomed feature, but its results are not permanent and can be reversed.
Numerous potential exploits are found for every operating system each month, and Android is no exception. Trouble is, lots of Android devices don't receive timely updates — but many are now getting regular monthly security patches to at least shore up these vulnerabilities.
Many of us choose to use an iPhone — as well as other devices in the Apple ecosystem — because of the company's dedication to user privacy and security. If you need more proof of that commitment, look no further than iOS 14.5, released April 26, which adds new tools to protect our data while browsing the web and more control over the data installed apps collect on us.
There are modded Spofity APKs floating around that essentially give you a Spotify Premium account for free, but the music streaming giant has been aggressively banning users who go this route. So if you're tired of listening to ads, but you don't want to do anything illegal, you'll want to know about this new app.
Codecs are like ZIP archives for media files. Rather than storing an entire analog sound file, the digital version is compressed to save space. The algorithm used to reduce file size is called a codec, as it encodes to digitize and decodes when it's time to play the file back. So as you can imagine, a better codec can lead to drastically improved sound quality.
With or without the Shazam app, which Apple acquired in 2017, you can use Siri on your iPhone to identify music playing around you that you want to know more about. In the iOS 14.2 update, there's another way to name songs on your iPhone.
From browsing social media to creating films, your smartphone can do it all. But even with all that power, for many, it is primarily used to communicate with others, particularly via text. In One UI 3.0, Samsung and Google drastically changed this core functionality with a new-ish feature called notification bubbles.
In iOS 13 and under, whenever you were in an app or on the home screen, and a Phone or FaceTime call came in, the entire screen would be taken over by the incoming call. Apple changed it to a subtle banner notification in iOS 14 so that it doesn't wholly obfuscate what you're doing when the call happens. However, you can get the old design back if that works better for you.
You may be familiar with image-based or audio-based steganography, the art of hiding messages or code inside of pictures, but that's not the only way to conceal secret communications. With zero-width characters, we can use text-based steganography to stash hidden information inside of plain text, and we can even figure out who's leaking documents online.
With every new Galaxy flagship release comes the age-old dilemma: do I choose great hardware or great software? For years, Samsung has given users the best components available on any smartphone. The problem is the software is an acquired taste. But there is something you can do about it.
So far, iOS 13's major point updates have all been pretty exciting for iPhone. We've seen iOS 13.1, 13.2, and 13.3 come and go, offering more than 60 new features and changes combined to that very first version of iOS 13. While iOS 13.3.1 was a minor update, its successor, iOS 13.4, is a return to form.
Apple released iOS 13.0 on Sept. 19 and announced on the same day the release of iOS 13.1 on Sept. 30. But that deadline was pushed up to Sept. 24, and that's why we have 13.1 just five days after 13.0. But that's good news since we don't have to wait any longer for some of the features promised in iOS 13 that didn't make the first cut.
Phones these days are expensive. The iPhone 11 Pro is presumed to start at $999, following the iPhone XS and iPhone X's leads. One way to bring down that cost is to trade in your old iPhone, but there isn't one clear-cut way to do that. You could trade your iPhone into a participating website or put yourself out there and sell the iPhone on your own. It's all about what's best for you.
Smartphone technology has become as ubiquitous as automobiles. In Austin, Texas, a city that is widely known as the "Live Music Capital of the World," smartphones have been embraced by the music community not just as a way to document and promote, but to create music.
The Windows 10 desktop and microphone can be livestreamed without using Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) software and without opening any ports on the target computer. A hacker with low user privileges can monitor and exfiltrate a target's every move and private conversation in real time no matter where they are. Hackers are watching and listening, and there are few ways to protect yourself.
The music and sound effects that play in the background of any videos you edit helps set the tone, so it's essential to get it right. Enlight Videoleap, an extremely powerful and popular mobile video editing tool for iOS, lets you quickly and easily add audio from your iPhone and the cloud, but things can still get a little confusing when you have a timeline full of clips.
A relay is an electrical component that works like a light switch, where it's turned on or off with an electrical signal. By connecting a relay to a Wi-Fi connected microcontroller like an ESP8266, you can build a connected switch that can be controlled from the web browser of any device connected to the same Wi-Fi network — all for just a couple of dollars.
The tactic of brute-forcing a login, i.e., trying many passwords very quickly until the correct one is discovered, can be easy for services like SSH or Telnet. For something like a website login page, we must identify different elements of the page first. Thanks to a Python tool for brute-forcing websites called Hatch, this process has been simplified to the point that even a beginner can try it.
Out of the box, Apple's digital assistant could be a godsend or a nuisance, depending on your daily interactions it. No matter which camp you fall into, Siri can always be better suited to your personal needs with a little customization. You can make Siri a powerhouse not to be reckoned with, or you can minimize its presence if you only need Siri help sometimes — all without any jailbreaking.
To hack a Wi-Fi network, you need your wireless card to support monitor mode and packet injection. Not all wireless cards can do this, but you can quickly test one you already own for compatibility, and you can verify that the chipset inside an adapter you're thinking of purchasing will work for Wi-Fi hacking.
MoviePass was once the best subscription service on the market for getting cheap movie tickets. For the price and the number of films you could see and save money on, it was unbeatable, but recent changes to the service have made it less enticing. While it still works well for some users, others may have to rely on other options. Personally, I'm leaning toward the latter.
In the battle for best stock Android flagships, there are really only two choices: Google Pixel phones and OnePlus phones. Although the latter isn't true stock Android, it is impressively close and usually paired with more impressive hardware than the Pixel lineup. The latest is the OnePlus 6T, which will be a bit controversial for fans this year.
The "controversial" Pixel. No phone in the history of Google's Pixel lineup deserves this title more than the Pixel 3 XL. For some (including myself), the design is a welcome change that embodies the modern design of 2018 flagship phones. For others, it has an ugly huge display notch that destroys symmetry.
The newest version of macOS has arrived. While everyone's mind is being blown by Mojave's groundbreaking new Dark Mode, we'll be taking advantage of its insecure file permissions to establish a persistent backdoor with a self-destructing payload that leaves little evidence for forensics.
The transcribing app can be an invaluable tool, especially if you're a student or are in a profession that relies on audio journals or interviews. These apps can convert important recordings like lectures and meetings into text for you to carefully read through to better comprehend.
Wi-Fi tools keep getting more and more accessible to beginners, and the LAZY script is a framework of serious penetration tools that can be explored easily from within it. This powerful and simple tool can be used for everything from installing new add-ons to grabbing a WPA handshake in a matter of seconds. Plus, it's easy to install, set up, and utilize.
Ever notice how some augmented reality apps can pin specific 3D objects on the ground? Many AR games and apps can accurately plant various 3D characters and objects on the ground in such a way that, when we look down upon them, the objects appear to be entirely pinned to the ground in the real world. If we move our smartphone around and come back to those spots, they're still there.
There are a number of options and hidden menus within Android that provide users more control over their device. With this control, you can better manage how your phone operates. We came up with a list of tips and shortcuts that, when used, will slowly put you on a path to becoming an Android power user.
A powered-off Windows 10 laptop can be compromised in less than three minutes. With just a few keystrokes, it's possible for a hacker to remove all antivirus software, create a backdoor, and capture webcam images and passwords, among other highly sensitive personal data.
While iOS 11.3 doesn't have as many new features as iOS 11.2, there's still a lot to love about Apple's latest update for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, even if some of the best features we were expecting didn't make the cut.
Millions of travelers pass through airports each day without understanding how powerful and insecure a boarding pass can be. Anyone can scan the boarding pass barcode with a mobile app, allowing access to frequent-flyer accounts and even a passenger's temporary airline account. In this guide, we will explore how hackers scan and decode the information contained in a boarding pass barcode and why.
Being able to write your own hacking tools is what separates the script kiddies from the legendary hackers. While this can take many forms, one of the most coveted skills in hacking is the ability to dig through the binary files of a program and identify vulnerabilities at the lowest level. This is referred to as binary exploitation, and today we're going to check out a tool known as Protostar.
An attacker with shell access to a Linux server can manipulate, or perhaps even ruin, anything they have access to. While many more subtle attacks could provide significant value to a hacker, most attacks also leave traces. These traces, of course, can also be manipulated and avoided through methods such as shell scripting.