News: Fighting Nightmare Bacteria Is Like a Game of Whack-a-Mole—It Keeps Popping Up in Unexpected Places
The pathogen referred to as a "nightmare bacteria" is quietly adapting and spreading faster than anticipated.
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How To: This Widget Lets You Open Wi-Fi Settings Faster, Share Passwords & More on Your iPhone
The widget system on iOS leaves a lot to be desired when compared to Android's offering, but that's not really Apple's fault. The system is there, we just need some good widgets to really get the most out of it, so it's up to developers to create some awesome apps that work with the home screen and lock screen widget panels on iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
How To: Customize YouTube's Default Landing Page & Resolution on Android
The YouTube app for Android doesn't exactly offer the greatest user experience. For one thing, it opens to an arbitrary "Home" tab instead of your subscriptions, so you see a list of what YouTube thinks you want to watch instead of your favorite channels. In addition to that, videos are loading at a mere 144p playback resolution for many users lately, which is downright terrible quality.
How To: Add a Smart App Drawer to Any Launcher & Get Automatic Sorting Features
One of the biggest things that differentiates Android from iOS is the app drawer. Instead of the operating system just tossing all of your app icons into a cluttered heap on your home screen, most can be tucked away neatly in the app drawer, which, in essence, is very similar to the Windows Start menu.
How To: See Who's Using Your Wi-Fi & Boot Them Off with Your Android
Let's say you gave your Wi-Fi password to your neighbor a while back, under the assumption that they'd only use it while they were at your house sharing stuff via Chromecast. But now, your connection is slower than it normally should be, and you have this sneaking suspicion that the dude in apartment 3C is flat-out piggybacking off of your home network.
How To: While We Wait on LineageOS, You Can Still Install CyanogenMod—Here's How
Cyanogen, Inc., the for-profit company that spun off from its CyanogenMod roots several years ago, has announced that they're shutting down all of their services. The company's impending demise shouldn't directly impact many Android users, but the announcement does have one major repercussion: The servers that used to host the popular CyanogenMod custom ROM have now been shut down.
How To: Track Lyft & Uber at the Same Time to Avoid Surge Pricing & Select Faster Rides
With the exception of New York, D.C., and maybe San Francisco, public transportation in the United States is downright abysmal. Like it or not, you need a car to get around. This is why Uber and Lyft have seen so much success in recent years. Both ride-sharing services get you from point A to point B in an efficient manner, and they do it without costing an arm and a leg. Well, in most cases.
How To: Download Videos from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter & More with Just One Tap
Most websites prevent you from saving embedded videos, but if you have the Xposed Framework installed on your Android device, a cool module from developer Ashish Bansal will now let you download almost any video. The way it works is simple—just start playing a video in your favorite web browser, then you'll see a notification that lets you download the source file in one tap.
How To: Copy Text from Any Screen on Android by Long-Pressing the Home Button
Selecting text on a touchscreen device has always been a major pain point. Those tiny little arrows that let you adjust the selection area are always too hard to actually adjust, making precision all but impossible. Then there's the issue of some apps not even allowing text selection in the first place, so the entire experience is basically a big mess.
How To: Use Your Android Phone as a Wireless Flash Drive for Windows or Mac
Copying files from a computer to your Android device has always been pretty straightforward—just connect the two devices with a USB cable, open your desktop file explorer, then move the files over. But what if you didn't need any wires at all?
News: The Pixel Exemplifies Google's New Hardware Philosophy—To Do It Right, Do It Yourself
Android device manufacturers may see the new Pixel "Phone By Google" devices as just another competitor, one that likely won't upset their entry-level margins. But that would be a mistake. Pixel is Google's call to action. With Google now offering as near to perfect an Android experience as we've had so far, OEMs that want to keep selling smartphones in a world flooded with them will need to start working for the privilege.
News: Adam Cosco's Short Film 'KNIVES' Ups the Ante on Virtual Reality Moviemaking
While you can't turn art into a formula, the film industry has managed to come stupidly close. While many storytelling principles still stand across mediums, successfully crafting a compelling, immersive narrative in virtual reality requires a brand new rulebook. Through trial, error, and success, writer/director/editor Adam Cosco figured out the right rules to follow (and break) in "KNIVES"—his latest 360-degree short film. The film tells an old-fashioned tale of a woman, Kelsey Frye, strugg...
How To: Run the Same App Side by Side in Nougat's Multi-Window Mode
Some manufacturers, like Samsung and LG, have had split-screen multitasking on their custom versions of Android for years. But starting with Android Nougat, Google added this functionality to AOSP, which means that all phones and tablets running Android 7.0 or higher will now have a new multi-window mode.
How To: Set Beep Alerts to Warn You of Missed Messages
Many phones these days are being manufactured without a notification LED—it's a cost-cutting move, and it's really not an essential component. However, the notification light on Android devices has traditionally alerted users to any missed messages, and this is functionality you can't get without the proper hardware.
How To: Give Your Status Bar Stock Android's Material Design Icons & Matching Colors
These days, the user experience on stock Android is a lot more refined and polished than manufacturer skins like Samsung's TouchWiz or HTC's Sense. This is mostly due to Material Design, the look and feel that Google implemented back in Android Lollipop, which has finally started to give Android a unified appearance with its sleek icons and abundant use of colors.
How To: Transfer Your Android Contacts to iPhone
When you change smartphone ecosystems, there are a lot of minor hurdles to clear along the way. It's definitely not hard to switch from Android to iOS, but little things like making sure your contacts get transferred over can take a bit of work.
How To: Make Your Android Automatically Switch to the Strongest WiFi Network
Wi-Fi signals have limited range, so if you live in a two-story house or work in a larger office, you may have set up multiple routers or repeaters to ensure full wireless coverage. Sadly, Android handles the transition between networks pretty poorly.
How To: Use Google Cardboard if Your Phone Doesn't Have a Gyroscope
Many midrange phones are being manufactured without a gyroscope sensor—the Moto X Play, third-generation Moto G, and several of Samsung's Galaxy Grand models, among others. It's not exactly an essential smartphone sensor, and leaving this out keeps the phone's price point down, so it's an understandable omission.
How To: Why & When to Evolve Your Pokémon in Pokémon GO
Like previous installments in the Pokémon series, as you progress through Pokémon GO you'll be able to evolve your Pokémon into more-powerful monsters with new and more-damaging attacks. However, unlike older entries in the series, your Pokémon won't simply evolve when they reach a certain level. Instead, you'll have to "feed" them a certain amount of character-specific candy to induce the transformation.
How To: This App Saves Battery Life by Toggling Data Off When You're on Wi-Fi
One of the biggest causes of smartphone battery drain is the mobile data connection—particularly if you live in an area with poor reception. But, chances are, you don't actually need this connection most of the time, because you're probably connected to Wi-Fi for a good chunk of the day, which uses far less battery life.
How To: Finally, There's a Better Alternative to Android File Transfer for Macs
If you're a fan of sleek, powerful computers and highly-customizable smartphones, then you probably own a Mac and an Android device. But the downside to this glorious hardware pairing is that it can be hard to get the software on the two devices to play nice together.
How To: Snooze Notifications for Later with This Android App
These days, there's almost an expectation that you have to deal with messages as soon as you get them. But that's not always the best way to handle things—sometimes, you're preoccupied with something, and it would be better if you could deal with a new message when you have a chance to give it your full attention.
How To: Energize Your Status Bar with a Color-Coded Battery Indicator
Even with today's high-powered devices, battery life is still an issue. We, as users, have to almost habitually check the current battery percentage, because otherwise, we might end up draining too much in the morning, then get stuck with a dead phone at night.
News: The Google Play Store Has a New Way to Discover Great Apps—If You Can Find It
There are so many great apps in the Google Play Store that it's become the number one app marketplace in the world.
How To: Message GIFs from Your iPhone's Keyboard Before iOS 10 Is Released
GIFs are awesome, but GIFing from your keyboard is some next-level stuff, and Apple knows this. That's why they've included a way to find and send GIFs in Messages from the stock iOS 10 keyboard. However, iOS 10 is not out for the public just yet, so if you want to easily send GIFs in your messages, you'll have to settle for a third-party keyboard.
How To: Keep Track of What You Spend on Spotify, Netflix, & Other Online Subscriptions Using Your iPhone
As the internet continues to become a bigger part of our day-to-day lives, we slowly but surely start to rack up a bunch of web-based subscriptions. These internet subscription services—Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime, just to name a few—may seem innocuously cheap individually, but when combined, they actually comprise a significant portion of our monthly bills.
How To: Get Rhymes, Puns, & Synonyms Right from Your iPhone or iPad's Keyboard
You're only as smart as your communication skills allow you to be, as other people will simply never know your inner genius if you can't effectively express yourself. Regardless of the medium—be it a Facebook post or even a simple text message—this fact remains true.
How To: This App Helps You Get the Lowest Price on Anything from Amazon
Amazon has completely changed the way we purchase household items, to the point where many of us haven't visited a big box, brick-and-mortar store like Walmart or Best Buy in years. And when you think about it, all of this success comes down to two main factors—convenience and price.
How To: Microsoft's Keyboard Lets You Share Office 365 Docs & Contacts Easily
It seems like Microsoft has finally come to the realization that their Windows Phone mobile operating system is probably never going to compete in today's smartphone market. Why do I say that, you ask? Because they've recently started to embrace the more popular platforms by releasing some quality iOS and Android apps.
News: Here's Everything We Know About What's Coming in the iPhone 7
If history holds true, we'll see the iPhone 7 arrive this September, and just like many times before, there are already a ton of rumors about its features. As usual, many claims are pure speculation, but there are some trustworthy reports and lots of good information we can use to make some educated guesses regarding Apple's upcoming flagship.
How To: Customize Android's Pull-to-Refresh Feature for Every App on Your Phone
Over the course of the past year, a lot of Android apps have added pull-to-refresh functionality. It's a very useful and intuitive gesture, because all you have to do to refresh the page you're viewing is scroll to the top of the screen, then slide your finger down one more time.
How To: Fit More on Your Galaxy's Screen with This Hidden Samsung Feature
Smartphone displays are getting bigger every year, and Samsung devices are at the forefront of that trend. But, from a software standpoint, the icons, buttons, and other on-screen elements seem to stay at the same scale. So while phones are getting bigger, their interfaces are getting bigger as well.
Android Basics: How to Add Your Own Ringtones & Notification Sounds
Android's flexible operating system allows for lots of customization, and one of the most common ways to add personal flair to your smartphone is to set your own ringtones and notification sounds.
How To: Access Your Favorite Apps Right from Your Android's Pull-Down Menu
You gotta love Android—not only can you replace your default home screen entirely, but there are tons of options that provide alternative methods for launching apps with ease. We've covered some of these options in the past, including an app called Bar Launcher that lets you launch apps from your notification tray—but that one's starting to look a little dated these days.
How To: See the Notifications You Cleared by Accident
If you've ever prematurely dismissed all of your push notifications before you got a chance to read each one, you know how annoying it can be to dig through all of your apps to try and find the one with the missed notification.
iPhone Security: Apple Refuses FBI's Demands to Create iOS Backdoor
In a letter dated February 16th, Apple CEO Tim Cook responded to the FBI's demand that Apple create a "backdoor" to bypass the encryption on an iPhone used by one of the perpetrators of last year's terrorist attack in San Bernardino, CA. Cook began the letter by stating that Apple has "no sympathy for terrorists" and has cooperated in giving the FBI all of the information that it has available.
How To: Perform an Attack Over WAN (Internet)
So, you want to perform an exploit on a victim, but you're not on the same network as their machine. In this tutorial, I'll be showing you how to set up a meterpreter reverse_tcp attack to work over the internet.
Android Basics: How to Manage App Permissions on Marshmallow or Higher
Android 6.0 Marshmallow added a new permissions system that can make your digital life much more secure. Unlike previous versions, apps now have to ask for your consent before they can access certain data, which puts you firmly in the driver's seat.
How To: Quiet Noisy Apps Automatically with This Ingenious App
You can do practically anything with a modern smartphone or tablet, so it stands to reason that the apps you have installed may serve vastly different purposes. Picture a game and a video player sitting right next to each other in your app drawer—odds are, you want the sound turned up while you're watching videos, but would prefer that the game was muted or a little lower. As a result, we're constantly tweaking volume levels to get the best experience.
How To: Add Chrome Custom Tabs to Every App on Android
Android has a built-in browser called WebView that any app can use, which makes it easy for developers to display webpages without actually having to build an internet browser into their apps. But WebView is a stripped-down, bare bones browser with no ties to Android's default browser, Chrome, so none of your synced data like bookmarks, passwords, and history is available when an app is using WebView to display a page.