Since Live Photos are nothing more than a glorified, built-in GIF generator on the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to get this "exclusive" feature on an older iPhone. While taking a Live Photo does eat up a lot of processing power, which the A9 chips can handle perfectly, older iPhones can still manager fairly well—no 3D Touch needed. You just need a jailbroken iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch to do it.
For minor adjustments and color-correction, the Photos app is extremely useful, but its capabilities are limited to just the basics. Now, with Mac OS X El Capitan, Apple is opening the door for third-party extensions, meaning we can utilize additional, unique tools when editing pictures in Photos.
Google Now is great for looking up movie times or finding your parking spot, but if you need to track down a file you downloaded, you're relegated to using a file explorer and, depending on your organizational skills, this can either be extremely easy or a huge pain in the ass. Unfortunately I land in the latter category, which is why I started using Fast Search by developer Mohamad Amin.
Although wear and tear on kitchen knives is unavoidable, it's extremely frustrating when I can't cut through tough, fatty tendons in meat or even make a clean slice through an onion. If you don't have a steel rod or water stone to sharpen your knives, or even a cheap knife sharpener, you can get creative by using a coffee mug and even a newspaper.
I'm a PlayStation 4 owner, but also enjoy gaming on my Mac. Though it may not be as synonymous with computer gaming as a Windows system, it's still a great experience. But what makes it even better is ditching the keyboard and mouse for my PS4's DualShock controller.
Paying for someone to get a small dent out of your car can be expensive, especially when you realize that you can just do it yourself. If you've got a bathroom—and you probably do—then it's a surefire bet that you've also got a plunger.
You know what's in your folders, so it's not always necessary to label them and ruin that clean look you're going for on your iPhone's home screen. I mean, how many folders am I going to have to title "Stuff" or "Junk"?
With the sheer number of pictures stored on my iPhone, using the tap gesture on the status bar is extremely convenient and time-saving when I want to reach the beginning of my Camera Roll album in the Photos app.
Spotlight makes finding apps, contacts, emails, songs, and old messages extremely easy on an iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch. You can even search for Wikipedia articles online, as well as perform general web searches.
During class or while at work, it can take an immense amount of self-control to resist navigating over to Reddit. The link-aggregator and meme-warehouse makes it too easy to kill time... most of which you should be spending on various other tasks.
The Oscars are just around the corner, so it's the perfect time to remind people of your favorite movie moments, even if they're not exactly Oscar-worthy. But don't just settle on sending GIFs that don't include any of the fun audio, or resort to scouring YouTube for that one specific movie clip. Instead, take a look at Qwotes, a new mobile app from developer StudyUp.
Maps is great for getting turn-by-turn directions in unfamiliar territory, but how many times does your favorite song have to be rudely interrupted by that navigation voice telling you to turn left or right? Yes, you need those spoken directions to get to where you're going, but you also need to hear every part of your song, right?
Imgur has just released a brand new feature to make GIFs better than they ever have before. Video to GIF is a tool that allows you to quickly paste any video link, easily select a clip from that video, and turn it into a very high-quality GIF, called a GIFV.
Before heading out on a hike, or any excursion for that matter, it would be wise to take a map with you just in case you get lost while on your quest.
Peeling garlic is one kitchen task that every cook, from the newbie to the experienced, is always trying to make easier. Methods vary, from shaking heads of garlic inside a container to using the microwave to help peels slide right off.
Confirmation numbers, grocery lists, addresses, and phone numbers are all things we need to quickly jot down on our phones, but the thing is, they're never extremely easy to access later. You have to figure out which app you wrote them in, meaning lots of needless searching and scrolling. Even if you use a dedicated note-taking app, those extra steps of actually opening the app to find a UPS tracking number can be an unnecessary pain.
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.
As competition for Spotify and Pandora, Samsung released Milk Music earlier in 2014, a free music streaming service for their Android devices. While Milk was unique to Galaxy owners only, it was popular enough that we showed you ways to get it on non-Galaxy devices as well.
While change is good, it isn't always welcomed. All software updates with radical redesigns and brand-new features bring at least a few complaints from those accustomed to previous versions. iOS 7 got a lot of flak from iOS 6 users, as did iOS 8 from iOS 7 users.
Lending someone your phone to make a call is always an awkward situation, as you closely monitor them to make sure they stick to a phone call rather than wandering off into private applications like your photo or messaging apps. You don't necessarily want to eavesdrop on their conversation, but trusting people with your phone is difficult, especially if you have some risqué or embarrassing pictures stored on it.
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.
As hilarious and fun as group messages can be on your iPad or iPhone, they can also be equally annoying. You may not necessarily want to leave a group message thread, but you don't want to be bothered by notification after notification as participants in the conversation continue to send out rapid-fire texts. Thankfully, one of iOS 8's new features now makes it extremely easy to mute notifications from specified conversation threads, single or group.
Everyone has that one friend who just can't help but send multiple texts in rapid-fire succession, when they just as easily could have been consolidated into one easy-to-read message. Alert after alert, this becomes extremely annoying as your phone shoots notification sounds and vibrations at you like it was possessed.
Personality is something we're constantly attempting to inject into our lives, whether it be the car we drive or clothing we wear—and our mobile devices are no exception.
The first thing we usually do with a new smartphone is download apps, and lots of them. There are your must-have games, utility apps, and of course—the free daily "app of the day" from Amazon. If you're like me, you'll install every single one of these free apps, and whether they get used or not, they'll be waiting in the app drawer.
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.
Google Now is a quick and intuitive way to tailor your device to work for you and, unlike other personal assistants, provide you with up-to-date information based on search habits, emails, and the general all-knowingness of Google.
Sense 6 came with a ton of new features for the HTC One, but for some reason, HTC decided to keep one of them hidden to all non-Harman Kardon editions.
While it can't do anything to alleviate stress, a recent update to S Health will let you monitor your stress levels using nothing but your Samsung Galaxy S5. If you're feeling stressed, just place your fingertip on the heart-rate sensor and S Health will tell you roughly how stressed out you are (or aren't).
Peeling apples is pure grunt work, especially if you have a recipe that calls for a lot of 'em, like apple pie. You can make this task go by much more quickly if you use something from your tool box—your literal tool box, that is.
For the most part, Google Play Music makes it extremely easy to upload and organize your music library, as well as access it quickly using the default settings—but there are a few things it could do better.
Just like some of its popular puzzle predecessors, 2048 is an extremely simple yet insanely addicting game that pits you against a slew of blocks, to be configured into increasing sums with fervid, high-paced moves. If you have yet to play it, check out either the iOS (by Ketchapp) or Android (by Estoty) versions of the game. Due to its overwhelming popularity, dev TalkLittle has ported the puzzle game as 2048 for Chromecast (available for Android only), which lets you play the game solo or b...
I'm a textaholic. One of the problems with being a textaholic is that your device just can't keep up with you.
Now that the Chromecast development kit has been out for over a month, more and more Android apps are being released or updated to work with the Chromecast.
With Chromecast-capable applications slowly seeping into the market, it's difficult to find useful ones that we might use on a daily basis.
As obtrusive as they come, the translucent volume control window that appears in iOS 7 takes up a lot of screen real estate. It's extremely annoying when watching videos, appearing directly in the middle of the movie you're viewing for several seconds any time you adjust the audio levels with the volume rockers.
Much like the Pen Window feature in Air Command, Multi Window is extremely useful in its functionality, but bogged down by serious restrictions. While you can open and use two apps at the same time, you're limited to only a handful of apps that can utilize the feature, leaving all the other ones shit outta luck.
Facial, voice, and hand gestures are the way of the future for controlling our devices, and even gaming consoles like the Xbox One have incorporated them. Unfortunately, our Nexus 7 tablets have not. We're currently limited to using soft keys for most actions, but we can inch closer to the future by replacing one critical action with a simple touch gesture—going back.
Improved S Pen functionality materialized in the form of Air Command controls on the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, allowing users to access shortcuts for their stylus features from anywhere on the screen. While the pie-interface controls are extremely useful, the only way to access them is when the S Pen is removed—making it impossible to use otherwise.
Sometimes I actually search Google Images for things other than GIFs and pictures of athletes' extremely hot wives. Google Images has helped me with school projects, work, and proving my friends wrong on numerous occasions. Unless you're strictly using it for the latter, you're going to have to be aware of copyrights.
