How To: Change Your Navigation Icon in Google Maps
For the most part, new features for Google Maps, such as Live View augmented reality walking navigation, come to Android first.
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How To: Reminders Lets You Assign Tasks to Users You Shared the List with — Here's How It Works in iOS 14
If you have a group of iPhone users to manage, whether for work assignments, planning a trip, or organizing an event, Reminders might just be your new best friend. With iOS 14, the app now lets you assign reminders to contacts, so everyone knows what they're supposed to be working on.
How To: If Magisk Shows You Pass SafetyNet, but You Still Have Issues, Check This
Google recently started testing a new SafetyNet check that might spell trouble for rooted Android devices. It cross-checks your SafetyNet status with Google remote servers, making it impossible to fool by normal means. If Magisk shows you pass SafetyNet and you're still having issues, you might be affected by this change.
How To: 8 Ways Google Lens Can Help You Be More Productive
I've covered augmented reality apps for about three years now and the most useful mobile app I've encountered over that time is Google Lens.
News: 31 New Features for Camera & Photos in iOS 13
While iOS 13 introduces over 200 new features for your iPhone, one of the biggest focuses this year is Photos and Camera. The update completely overhauls the Photos app, creating a more organized and natural way to interact with your pictures and videos. You'll also find a few new tricks in the Camera app. In all, Apple has added over 30 new features to your shooting, editing, and viewing experience.
News: 14 Apple Maps Features & Changes in iOS 13 You Need to Know About
Apple Maps has had a rough lifecycle. After completely dropping the ball during its inception, Apple has been slowly improving its usability and feature set. After six and a half years, users still prefer third-party apps in iOS 12 over Apple Maps, with Google Maps stealing a large 67% market share. But iOS 13 for iPhone may finally close the gap.
How To: Root Your Pixel 3a with Magisk
The Pixel 3a came out of nowhere and flexed its muscles to show the industry that you can have a great phone without a hefty price tag. Since Pixel smartphones are first-party devices straight from Google, you can be sure you'll have root access one way or another. For right now the method used to get your Pixel 3a rooted will take a few steps, but they go by real quick.
News: Turn a Vacation into a Treasure Hunt with Just Your Phone
It feels strange to be walking through an open field in a small village in the English countryside. There's no one else around — just the four of us: me, my husband, my 12-year-old son, and my adult niece. The day is spectacular, particularly for England. The sun is shining, and the temperature is in the low '70s.
News: Comparing the Best International Data Plans from All Major US Carriers
Traveling abroad can be a hassle. Between the flight, hotels, food, and the languages barriers, it can be a lot to manage. There's one tool you have that can help with all of this — your smartphone. Fortunately, nowadays, you don't have to change your carrier to continue using your phone.
How To: Download Movies & TV Shows on Amazon Prime Video for Offline Playback
Back in 2015, Amazon Prime Video was the first subscription-based streaming service to introduce the ability to download movies and TV shows for offline viewing on mobile devices. For travelers and users with limited data plans that like to watch films and episodes on the go, this was a godsend. Amazon has updated its apps many times since then, but the process remains relatively the same.
How To: Make OTA Updates Easy by Rooting Your Pixel 3 with Magisk's Boot Image Patch
Rooting usually means sacrifice. With most root methods, you lose access to apps like Netflix and Android Pay when SafetyNet gets tripped. More importantly, you lose the ability to accept OTA updates, forcing you to manually flash new Android versions. But there's a way around all of this if you root the right way.
How To: Root Your Essential PH-1 with Magisk
Despite its rocky start, the Essential PH-1 has a lot going for it. Not only does it get consistent security patches and system updates hours after the Pixels, but like the Google-developed lineup, it's also great for rooting. Not only is your warranty not void with rooting, but the process is pretty straightforward.
Hacking macOS: How to Steal Signal Conversations from a MacBook with a USB Rubber Ducky
Developed by Open Whisper Systems, Signal is a free, open-source encrypted communications app for both mobile and desktop devices that allows users to make voice calls, send instant messages, and even make video calls securely. However, a vulnerability was recently discovered for the desktop version that can be turned into a USB Rubber Ducky payload to steal signal messages with a single click.
Gaming: The 9 Best Paid Action Games for Android & iPhone
Thanks to ever more powerful smartphones — the iPhone X with its advanced A11 processor and the Galaxy Note 8 powered by Snapdragon's 835 come to mind — the mobile industry is fast closing in on consoles and PCs with regards to gaming. Game developers have been aware of this fact, and have ported many games once dedicated to computers onto our handheld devices.
News: Cruise's Testing Strategy Revealed: Part MIT Brains, Part GM Muscle
Cruise Automation, the driverless car startup General Motors (GM) bought for $1 billion in 2016, is readying a formidable fleet of robo-taxis for rollout in cities throughout the US. But when it comes to details about how the company plans to realize these lofty goals, it's been fairly tight-lipped.
Magisk 101: How to Fix SafetyNet 'CTS Profile Mismatch' Errors
Because of Android's new SafetyNet system, certain apps can now block rooted users or prevent you from accessing them altogether — but at least for now, there are still ways around these restrictions.
NR50: The People to Watch in Mobile Augmented Reality
While the world is only recently becoming aware of its existence, augmented reality has been around in some form or another since the '90s. In the last decade, with the advancement and miniaturization of computer technology — specifically smartphones and tablets — AR has become far more viable as a usable tool and even more so as a form of entertainment. And these are the people behind mobile AR to keep an eye on.
News: We Know You Want To, but You Really Shouldn't Be Kissing Your Pet on the Mouth
If you live with pets, you know where their tongue has been, yet you let them kiss and lick you all they want without even thinking twice about it. I've heard people say that a dog's mouth is very clean, and that their saliva, delivered by licking, can help heal wounds, but is that really true?
How To: 20 Free Games You Can Play on Android Without Any Internet
Whether you're riding the subway on your way home from work, or stuck in the backseat of the car on a long road trip, there are times when you need to entertain yourself without a mobile data connection. A good mobile game would pass the time perfectly, but not every game works without an internet connection.
How To: Root Your Samsung Galaxy S7 or S7 Edge (US Models)
The international, Exynos-powered Galaxy S7 and S7 edge have had a working root method ever since a few days after release. But the North American variants—those using Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 processor—have locked bootloaders, and have proven to be almost unrootable up until now.
Good Veggies Gone Bad: When to Throw Out Those Onions, Mushrooms, & Greens in Your Fridge
Most of us lead busy, work-filled lives, often clocking in a 9-to-5 five days a week. And when that clock signifies the hour to leave, the last thing on anyone's mind is: "Time to go to the grocery store to pick up more fresh produce!" (Well, to be fair... maybe more people are psyched about this, but I know with certainty that I am not one of them.)
News: 21 Free Android Apps Your Kids Will Love
Today's smartphones and tablets offer a great way for children to learn through interactive sight, sound, and touch, but they can also provide hours of genuine fun. If you have a spare tablet laying around—or at least a nice, durable case—the only thing you need to get your child started in this world of fun and learning is a handful of good apps.
How To: Save Your Money—Sparkling Wine Can Be Just as Good as Champagne
My years in the restaurant business have taught me many things. Some of those things are best left unsaid and other things require a PhD in vulgarity, but the one thing I learned that I keep coming back to night after night is that you do not have to spend a lot of money to drink excellent wine. This is especially true of champagne...I'm sorry, sparkling wines.
How To: Make Perfect Poached Eggs, Every Single Time
Two slices of whole-wheat toast with lots of butter. Two eggs, poached to a firm yet custardy texture. The yolks should absolutely not be hard-cooked and the whites should be tender, not rubbery. That's my idea of the perfect breakfast.
How To: An Introduction to Steganography & Its Uses
It has been a long while since I last came here to write an article. Graduate school keeps you busy. After I looked over what I had written previously, I decided that I should introduce another fun topic from cryptography. In this case, steganography.
How To: 20 Simple Solutions to Life's Most Irritating First World Problems
Just because a problem is small or superficial doesn't mean it can't annoy the living crap out of you. Others may think you're overreacting, or even have the audacity to roll their eyes, but you're in your own personal hell.
How To: Apple Finally Lets You Set Early Notifications for Reminders to Get Custom Alerts Before Tasks Are Due
The Reminders app is a simple yet powerful task manager, and it does a great job of reminding you to start an errand, alerting you to a project that's supposed to be done, or prompting you about a recurring chore. But with the latest Reminders update, the dates and times you set for tasks can act more like due dates thanks to the new early reminders feature.
Market Reality: The Matrix vs. The Metaverse, Xiaomi AR Wearable, & Snap Art AR History
This was a busy week in the tech space. After everyone got over the major announcements of Apple's latest, we examined the metaverse through the lens of Hollywood, and then took a closer look at Facebook's first smartglasses.
News: Virgin Galactic App Uses Augmented Reality to Let You Sample Space Tourism with Richard Branson
Billionaire Richard Branson did his part to advance space tourism this weekend by beating Elon Musk (SpaceX) and Jeff Bezos (Blue Origin) to become the first among them to travel into space.
News: You Can Land & Drive NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover in AR with the Smithsonian Channel's New App
Two years ago, the 50th anniversary of the moon landing gave flight to a handful of Apollo 11 augmented reality apps and experiences, including one from the Smithsonian Channel.
How To: iOS 14 Makes Biking City Roads Better & Safer with Cycling Routes in Apple Maps
It's been a long time coming, but Apple Maps finally has cycling directions for your iPhone. Google Maps has had cycling support for ten years now, though, many of its more useful features had been incorporated within the last few years. Well, with iOS 14, Apple has caught up, and it's done a fantastic job.
How To: Averox Business Management Puts Business in Your Browser for $79
The majority of us have been shown, again and again, that we want our own business. Business software is making this a reality by automating and simplifying the complex parts of running any company.
News: This Is Why All Augmented Reality Startups Suck
People fundamentally distrust magicians. And they should. The illusions they proffer are just that, illusions meant to astound rather than tangible interactions and results that have weight and meaning in our real world. Our lizard brains know this, and, no matter what the outstanding feat of "magic" presented, we nevertheless hold fast to our survival-based grip on the truth: we just saw simply "can't be real."
News: The 25 Biggest AR Investments in 2019
It's safe to say that we can call the annual ranking of AR investments a holiday tradition at Next Reality.
How To: Safely Launch Fireworks Over Wi-Fi with an ESP8266 Board & Arduino
Fireworks are the best part about the Fourth of July and other celebrations, but they can easily cause accidental injuries. It's both safer and more fun to set them off remotely, so we'll hack some standard fireworks with nichrome wire, a relay, and an Arduino to ignite remotely over Wi-Fi using any smartphone or computer.
News: Apple Releases iOS 13 Developer Beta 2 with Config Profile OTAs, Plus Controls & New Effect for Portrait Lighting
There's no doubt iOS 13 has dominated the talk around the Apple community this month. Since the announcement and release of the first developer beta, we iPhone users have had a treasure trove of new features and changes to explore and discuss. Now the fun continues with iOS 13 dev beta 2. Who's ready to start up the conversation all over again?
News: iOS 13 Developer Beta 1 Available for iPhone with a Lot of Kinks to Work Out
The first developer beta for iOS 13 is available to install on iPhone models, but the process for doing so may be a bumpy ride. Apple has not included configuration profiles for the developer beta yet, and many developers are having issues installing iOS 13 even with macOS 10.15 Catalina installed. Plus, since this is the first beta, there are a lot of problems with old and new features to work the kinks out of.
How To: Control Anything with a Wi-Fi Relay Switch Using aRest
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.
How To: Make the Most of Your Trip to the Movie Theater with These Apps
With the list of available mobile apps for moviegoers constantly expanding and improving, seeing a film at your local theater has never been better. With the right apps for your iPhone or Android phone, you can research movies, find out if showings are sold out, reserve seats, save money on tickets and concessions, preorder popcorn and soda, and even find dull bathroom-worthy scenes.
How To: Download & Install iOS 12 on Your iPhone
Apple's latest mobile operating system for iPhones, iOS 12, was released to everyone Monday, Sept. 17, and it's the same exact build that developers and public beta testers received as the "golden master" on Sept. 12, the day of Apple's 2018 special event. Install it to start taking advantage of the 100+ features iOS 12 has to offer right now.