In today's world of ordering food from your PC or hailing a cab with an app, it almost seems archaic when we have to actually use our vocal cords to contact a local business. It sure would be nice if we didn't have to use our smartphones as, well, you know...phones.
Back in iOS 8, Apple introduced the option to use third-party keyboards on iPhone, and since then, there have been a ton of third-party keyboards available such as Gboard, AudioShot, SwiftKey, Slated, and many more. However, adding and even using these keyboards can be kind of tricky.
If you've been testing out the Mac OS X Yosemite preview, you already know that Mac OS X 10.10 has a ton of cool under-the-hood tweaks and optimizations. One of the most noticeable changes for me has to be the new flatter look and "Dark Mode," which changes most UI elements from silver to black, making it easier to use your Mac in low-light conditions.
I don't know of a pain greater than of the one felt after cracking the screen of your phone. After I managed to crack my screen, rendered unusable, I immediately began to panic as to how I was going to recover all of the photos, videos, and documents stored on my device. After a few hours of searching, I came upon a thread by Mohamad Sabra that showed exactly how to alleviate my problem.
In 2012, VideoLan published a beta release of their wildly popular desktop media player, VLC, for the Android platform. However, because the non-profit development team did not have access to popular North American Android devices, they opted to exclude the USA and Canada from their initial release. That is, until now.
If you're anything like me, you started down the Android-modding path for two distinct reasons; to run cutting-edge software and squeeze every bit of performance out of your hardware. Utilizing the new F2FS file system on your rooted Nexus 4 or 5 fulfills both of those desires at the same time.
Back in the day when computers relied on CRT monitors, having a static image displayed for too long actually resulted in the image being burned into the screen. For this reason, screensavers were developed, which display animated images in constant motion to prevent burning in when you stepped away from your computer.
While some mobile sites have built-in text-resizing tools, many do not. A lot of those that don't won't even let you pinch-to-zoom. That makes it difficult for people with low vision to read small fonts on their iPhones. In some cases, like with photo captions, even those with perfect eyesight suffer.
If you've ever used a computer, you're surely familiar with the concept of a Recycle Bin (Windows) or Trash Can (Mac). To sum it up, files that you've deleted are not actually gone from your storage, they've just been moved to a different location. You can then restore the files if need be, or empty them, permanently deleting them forever to free up space.
As this generation continues to evolve, we become more involved with social media. For example, you may have a Facebook, Twitter, and a Google+ account, and be heavily involved in using all three, but the constant switching between sites, logins, and conversations can get very tedious.
It's a modern day nightmare to accidentally reveal too much information on Facebook. I've inadvertently told the world my location more times than I can laugh off, and my friends haven't fared too well either. Just take a look at the requested app permissions next time you're about to click install and you'll quickly realize how much that app can reveal about you.
I have the AT&T version of the Galaxy S5, so every time I start my phone I get the pleasure of hearing AT&T's lovely jingle. Actually, that's sarcasm—I absolutely abhor this sound. I haven't had the chance to play around with a Sprint, T-Mobile, or Verizon variants of this phone, but I imagine they have some sort of equally annoying boot sound.
I regularly use iTunes on my home laptop and my work desktop forty-five traffic minutes away. I'm ashamed to admit it, but until recently, I'd been saving my iTunes library on a USB and transferring it back and forth, over and over again, between the two computers.
Notice anything different about your Google searches lately? Your favorite businesses are becoming even more reachable online. Now, you can simply Google a business and click on its highlighted phone number to give them a call immediately from your computer.
A friend of mine has a crazy amount of Reddit karma and gold, and yesterday he let me in on his secret. This person, who will remain unnamed for obvious reasons, created a Python script called Reddit Karma Crawler that finds rising posts before they get too popular.
The new iOS 8 was just unveiled, and it looks pretty awesome. Apple showed off some of the enhancements and new features we can expect to receive in the fall at WWDC, and while not the huge facelift we saw with iOS 7, it does showcase what Apple does best—refinement. Continuity
Instagram is not only a great platform to easily share some of your favorite moments with friends and family, it's a useful service for peering outside of your physical location. While you share a picture of your dog in Los Angeles, you can almost instantly view and like a picture someone posted of their breakfast in Tokyo.
Normally, when you open applications on your Samsung Galaxy device, you do so from one of three places—your home screen, the app drawer, or from the list of recently used apps—but it never seems fast enough when it comes to opening your favorite and/or most-used apps.
There's a known issue affecting some Nexus 5 users where the speaker volume is fairly low. This could be attributed to a manufacturing defect, which you could possibly fix with a hot needle, but if your built-in speakers and headphones seem muted, don't take your Nexus apart just yet.
As a species, our cells are designed to use sugar for energy. Is it any wonder that as humans evolved, we grew to love the taste of sugar?
Released last year for iOS devices, Frontback is a simple photo-taking and sharing app that not only snaps a picture of what's directly in front of the camera, but also behind it, which is to say, a selfie.
One of the down-sides of international long-haul travel is layovers between flights in unfamiliar places. We have a flight to Europe this year via Guangzhou, China, and I've been putting together my notes on how to make the best use of 7 hours between flights, which I'd like to share.
Yesterday, I wanted to remove BackTrack from my system and install Kali, and at the same time didn't want to damage my Windows 7 or my hard drive. I searched a lot of articles, but almost all of them wanted me to have a backup Windows 7 CD, which I don't possess.
As fellow softModders, I'm sure you strive to find any and every way to make your phone unique. Wallpapers and icon packs are great to get started, but to really stand out from the rest, try changing your HTC One's boot animation.
As Microsoft unveiled their new Windows Phone 8.1 software update yesterday, undoubtedly the most memorable takeaway was their showcase of Cortana. Competing directly against Apple's Siri and Google's Now, Cortana is Microsoft's entry into the digital voice assistant fray, and the official replacement to their search app.
Slide to left, slide to the right, one hop this time. Okay, so maybe those are some of the dance instructions for the "Cha Cha Slide", but sliding and swiping on your Samsung Galaxy S3 can become so much more than just a simple gesture.
While the Galaxy Note 3 and Galaxy S4 are enjoying their official KitKat updates, those of us with Note 2s are left to play the waiting game. While we know our devices will eventually see an update to Android 4.4.2 KitKat, it's unclear when an official update for our devices will come.
Sometimes it's the little things that make our days better, like finding a dollar in our recently washed jeans or a box of donuts in the lunch room. But your Nexus 7 tablet's lock screen isn't typically one of those things—it's just a lock screen after all.
No matter how careful or decent you are, there will always be pictures or videos that you want to keep private. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but if someone were to go through my photo gallery, only one word would be coming out of my mouth—"%@&#!!"
Sending and receiving files between Android devices has no shortage of options—Bluetooth, email, MMS, and Wi-Fi are just a few of the more popular ones that we use.
Lenovo brought out the big guns for CES 2014, with the Vibe Z showcased as the Chinese company's' first foray into the LTE smartphone space. Slated for a February release, the ultra-thin and extremely light smartphone will certainly be in the running for top smartphones of this very new year. Photo via CNET
Welcome back, my tenderfoot hackers! I recently began a new series on digital forensics to help tenderfoot hackers from being detected and ultimately, incarcerated. In this installment of that series, we will look at recovering deleted files. This is important to hackers because you need to know that even when you delete files on your computer or on the victim's computer, a forensic investigator can usually recover them.
I have literally played Madden, watched YouTube videos, and listened to music on my phone all at the same time. Some would call this pathetic, but I call it talent. Life is way too short, so I need to get the most out of it when I can. Thank goodness for multitasking, which should be a key feature when you're looking into a new tablet or phone.
Sometimes, you just don't want to hit the Power button to turn your screen off. In the current age of touchscreens, you've got to wonder why we even have physical keys anymore.
Your smartphone has a ton of ringtone options built in, but ringtones haven't really changed much in the past decade, and it's definitely not cool to hear someone in the supermarket with the same lame ringer. While replacing the stock sounds with a song of your choosing is the best way to keep your phone personalized, why not go a step further using a video?
At some point, we all need to back up our device. Maybe it's time to take it in for repairs or maybe you're just cautious and paranoid. Maybe you're trying out a new ROM on your Nexus 7—then you definitely need to back up. The most secure way would be to use a custom recovery like ClockworkMod or TWRP, but if you're not rooted or planning to root, then you'll need an easy alternative.
The 8-bit NES may have ruled the late-eighties, but the SNES took over the early-nineties with its 16-bit graphics and 3D-like gameplay on titles like Star Fox and Dirt Racer. When 32- and 64-bit consoles came out in the mid-nineties, the Super Nintendo took a hit, but with the rise of the Internet, created a huge emulation community in the aftermath.
The Nexus 7 is a huge jump in screen size when coming from a phone, but obviously this tablet is still smaller than some of the major players such as the Nexus 10, Galaxy Tab, etc. One way to squeeze out a little more space is to eliminate the navigation and status bars.
Apple's line of iPhones, iPads, and iPods are of some of the most advanced devices available on the market. Usually, the biggest complaint is that they are not customizable, but they can be if you exploit a few bugs in the system.
If you're a dedicated Instagrammer, you're probably well aware of the humblebrag hashtag #NoFilter, which expresses to other users that your photo is just so damn awesome that it looks like you added filters to it, even though you really didn't.
