If you've ever attended school or held a job, you're probably well familiar with Microsoft Office, whether you used it or not. It's the most popular office suite available, and has been for some time. Apple does have its own suite of productivity apps (iWork), but Microsoft Office has always been the industry leader for word documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.
Reddit is a force to be reckoned with. What started out as link aggregator has become one of the world's most popular websites, with over 170 million unique visitors and 6 billion monthly pageviews. Whether you're into cute animals, crazy conspiracy theories, sports, or Taylor Swift's armpit, Reddit definitely has something for every taste, interest, and morbid curiosity.
Korean electronics giant LG maintained a large presence at CES 2015. While their TVs and home appliances were heavily showcased, my interest was primarily on one device—the new LG G Flex 2 Android phone.
Add-on smartphone lenses are nothing new, but they have definitely gotten better as time goes on. Case in point: the Olloclip series of lenses for iPhones and Samsung Galaxy devices (the S4 and S5 only at the moment).
Polaroid's answer to the masculine-fueled GoPro comes in the form of a tiny family-friendly square, fittingly named the Polaroid CUBE. Starting at a very modest $99.99 , the water-resistant action camera comes in all different colors, shoots HD video at 1080p, allows users to take 6MP pictures, and supports a microSD card of up to 32GB. Attached to the bottom of the cube is a magnet that allows you to stick the camera in many places, including the side of a car (though the Polaroid representa...
No more carrying around heavy laptops and thousands of Linux Live CDs and USBs to always be ready for pentesting on the fly!
Our dog has tons of energy and always wants to play. However, play time can be exhausting to the humans of the house. We found out a few months ago that the dog loves to play ‘chase the red dot.' Boredom leads to creativity, so we attached a laser pointer to her head with a bandana and small piece of tape. This kept her continuously occupied until we removed it after 20 minutes. I assume you could try this with a cat if you were daring enough – good luck with that. Caution: Laser pointers (ev...
Apple's keyboard has a set of media controls to navigate the music playing on iTunes, allowing you to play, pause, skip, and replay songs and videos. Unfortunately, these controls are exclusive to iTunes; if you're playing music from Spotify, Pandora, or the myriad of other online web-based services (Amazon, Rdio, SoundCloud, etc.), you're out of luck.
Android has plenty of features that provide multitasking support, which are especially useful on smartphones with larger screens. One such feature that I loved on the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 was the popup browser, which brought up a floating window whenever I opened a link inside of third-party apps like Facebook and Twitter.
Third-party keyboard support, introduced earlier this year by Apple with iOS 8, was initially pretty awesome. I loved playing around with all of the different options available in the iOS App Store, including SwiftKey, TouchPal, GIF Keyboard, and Swype.
Aside from identifying songs with Shazam and using the "Hey Siri" feature while driving, Apple's personal assistant isn't something I regularly use on my iPhone.
During initial reviews of the Nexus 6, the "double tap to wake" feature was something originally slated to be present on the device, since Motorola built it and it's been a key feature of the Moto X. However, the feature was scrapped for Ambient Display, which wakes up the screen when the device is picked up or a notification arrives. So while having both could be seen as overkill, it doesn't mean we shouldn't have the option.
When playing a game or using an app, incoming call alerts can be extremely irritating on my Galaxy S4 because they insist on taking over the entire screen. The alert is a little different on other Android phones, depending on the manufacturer's skin, but all are fairly intrusive in one way or another.
When it comes to subscription-based music streaming services, the conversation doesn't go much further than Spotify and Google Play Music (previously called "All Access"). Both services are essentially the same aside from slightly different catalogues and social options, and they both run ten bucks a month for unlimited music streaming and offline track saving (although Spotify does have a free, ad-supported service).
Now that Apple has added support for third-party keyboards in iOS 8, the ways we can communicate with our "peeps" has expanded beyond emojis and standard text messages to GIFs and even rap lyrics now. RapKey takes some of the best and most popular rap lyrics, then lets you choose and send them straight from their easy-to-use keyboard.
Keeping a close eye on your device storage can be a 24/7 job, especially if you're space is filling up and your device doesn't have SD card support. No matter how close of an eye you keep on it, there are always going to be apps updating databases, adding to their cache, and deleting old files.
Automator takes the work out of common repetitive tasks. I don't enjoy compressing videos for quick sharing or uploading to the web, so I created an Automator action to handle the process for me.
Apple Pay has been available to use in stores, as well as in select apps and websites, ever since its first appearance in iOS 8.1. Now, with iOS 12, there are currently 13 different iPhone models that support Apple Pay functionality without the use of an Apple Watch, and the list of partnered stores that accept Apple Pay has only grown. Here's our always-up-to-date list to keep you in the know.
Back in the days of iOS 6, iPhone users were able to send a quick tweet from their notification center, but that has long since been removed. This convenient feature was missed enough on iOS 7 for devs to create a jailbreak tweak in its absence. Thankfully, due to the new widget capabilities of iOS 8, we can have Twitter back in the Notification Center along with Facebook.
Shortly after Apple's iOS 8.0.1 update fiasco ruined many iPhone users' cellular reception (which was fixed with iOS 8.0.2), developers were treated to the first beta release of iOS 8.1, which will be the next big update for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch.
There are those who hold their phone or set it down when they're not using it, and others, like myself, who pocket it. If you're like me and are rocking the pants pocket fade, then you'll love the new Android app I found.
Google makes backing up your contacts, messages, and Wi-Fi passwords extremely easy, but leaves you out in the cold when it comes the data on your internal storage. With most Android devices now lacking SD card support, when you unlock your bootloader or do a factory reset, you're stuck having to back up everything to your computer beforehand.
A musical hiccup during a DJ's set can completely ruin the mood, and that same feeling can definitely translate to mobile listening as well.
Spotlight is awesome for finding items in the stock Apple apps, but what if you want to search through the rest of the apps on your iPhone?
Whether you are just starting or returning to college, or have already been out in the real world for some time, it's always a good idea to stay on top of your game by keeping your intellect sharp. While it may be easy to just sit in front of your TV, watching reruns of The Big Bang Theory, why not use that time to brush up on some chemistry, calculus, or general learning strategies?
Unless you're someone who's terrified of social situations, chances are you love to talk. But no matter how much you want to share you life story or take over the conversation, you shouldn't. Your socially awkward coworkers that keep their mouth shut might actually have a leg up on you at work, and here's why.
Emoji are great for conveying your exact emotion or mood in a text message, but GIF animations are even better. They're convenient, hilarious, and they accomplish so much more than a little icon or photo ever could.
Podcasts have been around and popular for close to a decade now. For the uninitiated, podcasts are like radio shows that can be downloaded directly from the web and listened to on any device. Up until now, only paid apps allowed podcasts to be casted via Chromecast, but with the latest update to Xavier Guillemane's Podcast Addict, you can now do the same thing for free!
Remember the good old days of Winamp? It was one of the first mainstream media players to support music visualizations, graphics with intricate designs that react to the tempo and pitch of the audio playing.
On June 12th, Samsung introduced their newest tablet series, the Galaxy Tab S line. These are the thinnest and lightest in Samsung's history, measuring in at only 6.6mm in width and weighing 465g (10.5-inch) and 294g (8.4-inch). Additionally, both have a WQXGA (2560x1600) Super AMOLED display giving these screens both richer and crisper colors.
It looks like Snapchat, it feels like Snapchat, but after using it for a few minutes, you realize there is a huge difference between Facebook's new Slingshot app and the Snapchat we've all grown so accustomed to.
As the world becomes increasingly more connected, there's been a rise in translation solutions. Whether it's Google Translate or Word Lens, there is an ever-growing need to understand and be understood, no matter what your native tongue is. There are plenty of extensions you can add to your computer that can translate text on-the-fly, but what about your phone?
According to T-Mobile's website, an Android version bump is due out today. While details of specific changes are sparse, the support documentation for Nexus devices very clearly notes a release date of June 2nd for the software. Sprint may have jumped the gun with its own outing of a 4.4.3 update about a month ago, but all indications point towards today's date marking the beginning of a staged-rollout from Google.
Often, when you crack open a beer with friends, your buddies are more focused on texting and Snapchatting than what's happening right in front of them. Smartphones have wedged their way into bars around the world—but an innovative new beer glass is encouraging patrons to put down the phone and engage with friends.
One of the world's largest music festivals in kicking off this weekend in southern California, the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. With a diverse lineup ranging from AFI to Empire of the Sun to HAIM to Muse, the music world is on display this weekend and the next.
With Chromecast-capable applications slowly seeping into the market, it's difficult to find useful ones that we might use on a daily basis.
The flurry of Chromecast capable apps is slowly starting to gain steam; we've already shown you how to stream your local content from Android and iOS devices, but today we've got the teaser that many of us have been waiting for—full screen mirroring.
A banner alert for notifications is like the Robin to our iPhone's Batman—they're taken for granted and don't really get the recognition they deserve. Yes, they can be disruptive at times, but just like Robin, they can be necessary for getting things done.
After months of waiting, Google has released the SDK (Software Development Kit) for their Gadget of the Year, the Chromecast. As announced on their blog, the release of the SDK means that any app developer, whether for Android, Chrome, or iOS, can now add Chromecast functionality to their app. And though only a few apps have been released with Chromecast support, that's all about to change.
If you have an older Samsung Galaxy Y smartphone, one thing you should be doing is using an microSD or microSDHC memory card to help improve your Android's processing speed and make it easier to transfer large or small files easily. These cards are also compatible with certain cameras and can be inserted into some computers. While all this is all good and well, you'll still need to know how and where to put your SD card in order to indulge in any of these benefits. Your Samsung Galaxy Y (the ...
