It seems that Apple is taking a page from Google's book with their new "Hey, Siri" voice activation feature in iOS 8. This feature mimics the one found in Google Now, the voice-activated intelligent personal assistant available to just about all Android users. Apple's version allows you to bring up Siri with a simple voice command, but there's a small catch.
If you have Android KitKat, you're fortunate enough to be able to use the new Google Camera, which has tons of great features, including Photo Sphere, Tiny Planet, Panorama, and Fisheye. With so many photo options and no additional hardware needed, it's hard to not to like this camera.
I am a graphic designer, so I have to collect massive pics from webpages to provide me with inspiration. But sometimes I need to use them everywhere, even if I've no access to computers or laptops, so I have to resort to mobile devices.
Every morning I walk out the door with my headphones plugged in and music blaring. While it's not be the most difficult thing in the world, unlocking my phone and starting my music manually every time feels like a hassle. Pressing play on my headphone's remote will auto-start music in the HTC Music app, but I prefer Google Play Music instead.
HTC claims to have improved the One M8's battery life by 40% over its predecessor, but there is always room for improvement.
Sense 6 is great, don't get me wrong, but sometimes I start to miss the vanilla Android experience that comes with Nexus devices. You can always convert your M8 to the Google Play Edition, but then you'd have to ditch all the Sense exclusive features, and we wouldn't want that.
While rooting your Galaxy Note 2 certainly has its advantages—everything from increasing security to relieving the Power button of its duties—it's definitely not for everyone.
There's been a lot of discussion lately about the practical uses of Google Glass. Sure, you can use them for translating text instantly or further engraining yourself in social media, but how about saving someone's life? That's precisely what Dr. Steven Horng of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center has says happened with a recent patient of his. After launching a Google Glass pilot program late last year, the device was seen as a critical factor in saving the life of a patient in January.
By this point, you've definitely come across an app or two that wasn't designed with the HTC One in mind. Either the resolution is too small, the status bar stays active when it shouldn't, or the font isn't the ideal size. There are ways out there to get that changed, but up until now it wouldn't just change one app—it would change all of them.
I don't like a lot of app icons on my home screen. It makes everything on my Nexus 7 feel dense and congested. As a minimalist, I like a simple and well-organized home screen, which is why I regularly utilize my app drawer to launch apps.
Welcome back, my aspiring hackers! Those of you who've been reading my tutorials for some time now know that I am adamant regarding the necessity of learning and using Linux to hack. There is no substitute, period.
One of the hardest tradeoffs when installing a non-Sense-based custom ROM on an HTC One is the loss of Beats Audio. Due to a patent restrictions from Beats and compatibility issues, it's currently impossible to port it to a non-Sense ROM, but with ViPER4Android you can get almost identical results, bringing life back to the BoomSound speakers on your device.
One draw that Samsung's Galaxy S line has had over the Google Nexus 4 and 5 and the HTC One (though the M8 appears to be following suit) is expandable storage. Pop a microSD card into the slot and you have extra storage for music, photos, and even apps themselves in some cases.
Muzei Live Wallpaper is a popular Android app that refreshes your home screen background at set intervals, turning it into blurred pieces of artwork or photography while keeping your icons and widgets in the spotlight.
Welcome back, my novice hackers! I have tried to emphasize throughout this "Hack Like a Pro" series that good reconnaissance is critical to effective hacking. As you have seen in many of these hacks, the techniques that we use are VERY specific to the:
The advent of the Google Nexus 4 seemed too good to be true—high-end hardware, unlocked and contract-free at a low price. As time went on, however, we began to see the compromises. The camera was "meh" at best, and most egregiously, it shipped without LTE functionality.
Welcome back, my rookie hackers! The more we know about a system or network, the better our chances of owning it and not leaving a trace for investigators to follow. One of the often overlooked sources for information is the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). Many rookie hackers are not even aware of it, but it can prove to be a treasure trove of information, if you understand how it works and how to hack it.
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.
Amazon.com has been around for a long time now, but there are still a few things most people don't know about when it comes to buying products from them. Here's a quick roundup of tips to help you get the most out of Amazon and save some money in the process. The holidays are the busiest time of year for online shopping, but these tricks will work all year around.
In spite of the degree of difficulty it is to install, CyanogenMod has steadily climbed the ladder to become one of the most popular third-party firmwares for Android devices.
This year, like every year before it, Black Friday sales are starting earlier than ever. A lot of stores will be opening their doors as early as 5pm on Thanksgiving to get a head start on the madness (and it really is madness). As we've discussed in the past, one of the keys to emerging victorious on Black Friday is to plan, plan, plan. So, we've compiled some of the best deals in tech, gadgets and appliances to help you prepare for battle.
Ever since the FBI took down the Silk Road and Dread Pirate Roberts last month, many questions have been raised about whether Tor still provides anonymity or not, and if it's now broken. I'll try to address that question here today succinctly from multiple angles, keeping it as simple and plain-language as possible. The Closing of Silk Road
This week, Silk Road was shut down for good when the FBI seized the anonymous online marketplace after Ross Ulbricht, aka Dread Pirate Roberts, was arrested. This comes just two weeks after another illegal marketplace called Atlantis shutdown. However, there are plenty of other black markets hiding within the Deep Web, freely and anonymously accessible using the Tor browser.
If you're an iPhone user, iMessage is great for cutting down on SMS costs from your carrier, but it doesn't always work right away.
If you're a Twitter user, it's a safe bet to assume that you've used a hashtag. On all social networking sites that have the capability, such as Instagram, Facebook, and Google+, the pound (#) symbol is used to mark and designate specific keywords or topics in order to make it effortless for users to connect with one another.
Just because you wanted a stable, stock Android version on your HTC One doesn't mean you have to miss out on Sense because you bought or softModded to a Google Play Edition. As long as you have the Android SDK tools and you've unlocked your bootloader, you can turn your HTC One into the Developer Edition, a Sense version free of carrier bloat.
If any gamer knows their gaming history, one name is synonymous with starting the gaming revolution—Atari. Founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell, Bushnell helped kickstart the home video game market with their line of Video Computer Systems, or what we would call video game consoles. Old time favorites like Space Invaders, Pac-Man, and Pitfall made the system a success among the public and cemented itself as a worldwide cultural phenomenon. Despite two updated consoles released (Atari 5200 and 78...
No matter what device you have, Android lag will get you down. It's our little green robot's only major downside, and you've probably noticed it quite a bit on your Nexus 7 tablet. Apps open slowly, actions stutter or pause, and loading files takes forever.
In a previous softModder guide, I detailed how to get the Jelly Bean 4.2 Photo Sphere Camera and Gallery on your HTC One running Sense 5, but that was quickly outdated with the release of the new Google Play Edition HTC One, which has a newer Camera that works great with our hardware.
There are a ton of options available to Android users when it come to messaging, but the problem is that with all of these options, where is the go-to app? The one used by most people? The one that can offer a more unified approach?
While the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 has an integrated LED for notifications, it only works for a few things, like charging and low battery, and it only flashes two main colors (red and blue) when the screen's off. As someone that usually has their phone on silent or vibrate, it's hard to tell when I receive important messages or notifications. Sure, I could set a specific vibration or ringtone for individual apps, but that can quickly get annoying and distracting, especially at work or school.
When you upgrade to a new Android smartphone like the HTC One, you can have browser bookmarks, Wi-Fi passwords, and other settings quickly transferred over from your old device using your Google Account backup. However, you'll still have to download apps individually from your Google Play list, and not all of your saved progress will be transferred over. Fortunately, there is a third-party app that will allow you to backup and restore your apps—with all their data.
Welcome back, my nascent Hackers! In my last blog, we looked at a passive way to gather information necessary for a hack. The advantage of using passive recon is that it's totally undetectable, meaning that the target never knows you're scouting them and you leave no tracks. The disadvantage, of course, is that it's limited to only some websites and not entirely reliable.
Welcome back, my novice hackers! Most of my tutorials up until this point have addressed how to exploit a target assuming that we already know some basic information about their system. These include their IP address, operating system, open ports, services running, and so on.
"We all want to escape our circumstances, don't we?" Benedict Cumberbatch may have been talking about acting, but the sentiment rings true for all of us at some point or another. Whether it's work, school, or just boredom at home—we all wish for an escape sometimes. If only.
In a previous article, I pointed out a few criticisms of the Google Play Store, mostly about how unpolished and inefficient it is. To give you a better idea of what I mean, here are just a few of my complaints with the Play Store:
In most countries, there is one single emergency telephone number that allows you to contact local emergency services when in need of assistance. In the United States, that number is 911, which most of us know by the time we're able to speak, unless you're Buckwheat and Porky.
I'm not lying when I say that my iPhone is at my side at all times, and is really one of the best devices I own. My second favorite gadget would be my PlayStation 3, however, when it comes to browsing apps like YouTube, it's pretty terrible.
If you watched Samsung's Unpacked 2013 live last month, where they announced the new Galaxy S4, you probably sat through this awkward skit: This was Samsung's way of introducing their new translation software, dubbed S Translator. In the skit, the backbacking American traveler in Shanghai typed his question in English, and the phone spoke it aloud in Chinese. The other man replied in Chinese, and the app translated the message back into English. Live conversation translation aside, the app ca...
Search Engine Optimization is important for every successful SEO or blogging campaign. Therefore it is required to be implemented in the correct manner. Google consider many factors while ranking a webpage and it keeps on changing. Some of the common SEO mistakes which you must avoid are as follows:
