For the uninitiated, it can be difficult to buy that special hacker in your life a perfect holiday gift. That's why we've taken out the guesswork and curated a list of the top 20 most popular items our readers are buying. Whether you're buying a gift for a friend or have been dying to share this list with someone shopping for you, we've got you covered with our 2018 selection of hacker holiday gifts.
You can mod every aspect of your phone's software with root, but if you want to make changes at the hardware level, you'll need a custom kernel. If you've looked into custom kernels before, one name undoubtedly kept coming up: ElementalX. It's easily the best custom kernel out there, and the reason for that is its awesome developer, flar2, aka Aaron Segaert.
Your childhood "social networking" may have been to go outdoors to the neighbor's — and outdoors is a great place for kids to be. But these days, the terms educational, digital media, entertainment, and toddlers don't have to be mutually exclusive. Like most things in life, it's about balance, and these apps can aid your child with social-emotional development when not playing with friends.
It is almost indisputable that smartglasses and head-worn displays are the future of augmented reality. However, at this precise moment, they are still a very niche market.
The calendar app is one of the unsung heroes found within your iPhone. It's the ultimate personal assistant that you've come to rely on to keep track of your schedule and ensure you never miss a class or meeting, all while reminding you of upcoming birthdays and deadlines to help maintain good relationships with loved ones and colleagues.
Update: The new Galaxy phones are now official! Check out all the details on the Galaxy S10 and S10+ or the Galaxy S10e.
While music may not technically be a "universe language," it is the one language listened to by all. There are over 1,500 music genres today—rap, classical, rock, jazz, trap, hip-hop, house, new wave, vaperwave, charred death, nintendocore... and the list goes on. And if you're like most people, you now probably listen to the majority of your music on your phone.
Apple designed Find My Friends in 2012 as a means for better-connecting with friends and family. It's pretty useful for scenarios when you need to keep tabs at an amusement park or to get a live ETA when your buddy is coming to pick you up from the airport. You can even share your location with others so they can track your whereabouts as you go about your day.
My first encounter with a phablet was late last year with the AT&T version of the Samsung Galaxy Note 2, having never touched or even seen its highly-acclaimed and pioneering predecessor. Initially, I was a bit overwhelmed by the enormous screen and taken aback by the dated stylus, which brought up ugly memories of my dad using his ten pound PalmPilot.
There's a lot that goes into making a nice crystal radio set, so this is going to have to be broken down into two parts. The first part is the actual making of a functional radio, and the second part is making the whole arrangement look nice. In this part, I'm actually going to tell you more than just how to make a crystal radio, but I'm also going to explain how and why they work. Crystal radios are pretty Steampunk in and of themselves, since they were first developed in the late 19th centu...
Tomorrow's the 1st of April which means it's the one day of the year you can put aside the daily grind, and go at it Dwight Schrute and Jim Halpert style. Yes, there are easy apps to do your dirty work, but if you're old school and you like to do it the old fashioned way, here are 10 simple pranks for torturing your co-workers.
The devices in the new iPhone 16 series lineup have one feature no other iPhone models have: a physical Camera Control button. If you use your iPhone to take photos or record videos, the Camera Control speeds up the process and gives you immediate control over adjusting settings and values using intuitive gestures. But what exactly can you do with it?
Still on the fence about Apple's native Notes app? The latest Notes update for iPhone, iPad, and Mac is about to change your mind. With some fantastic new features and plenty of valuable tools from previous software versions, Notes is becoming a clear winner when it comes to saving important information from your personal and professional life.
Lidar, a technology first used by meteorologists and aerospace engineers and then adopted in self-driving vehicles, has slowly crept into consumer electronics over the last five years. If you have a Pro model iPhone or iPad, there's a good chance it has a lidar sensor, and you're likely using it whether you know it or not.
The Camera app on your iPhone includes new features with the iOS 17 update that will help you take better photos and more impressive videos, but there are a lot of cool new things available that you might not see right away.
There is a whole world of smartphone accessories out there, some of which are more quirky than others and don't get the recognition they deserve. But these sometimes strange, sometimes embarrassing products can really make life easier on your iPhone or Android phone.
Bash scripting is a convenient way to automate things on any Linux system, and we're going to use it here to automate certain tasks we use all the time.
The new iPhone 12 Pro Max is equipped with MagSafe, the iPhone 12 lineup's most talked-about feature. While Apple previously used MagSafe for its magnetic charging connectors on older MacBook models, it's given new life to it on the iPhone, and in a much better way. But can it do for you exactly?
If you're getting or already have a new iPhone 12 or 12 Pro, its big-ticket feature is MagSafe, something you'll definitely want to explore. While the technology is new to iPhone, Apple used the MagSafe name for its magnetic charging connectors on older MacBook models until USB-C replaced it. Apple's reenvisioning of MagSafe for iPhone is completely different and much more useful.
Not everything about iOS 14 is great or even good. Some of its new features and settings are disappointing, inconvenient, bothersome, missing, or just don't belong. While you may think that you're forced to adapt, there might be a way to fix some of the biggest annoyances you're having on Apple's latest mobile operating system.
Microsoft's built-in antimalware solution does its best to prevent common attacks. Unfortunately for Windows 10 users, evading detection requires almost no effort at all. An attacker armed with this knowledge will easily bypass security software using any number of tools.
Social media apps like Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok have plenty of editing tools that go beyond the basics, but there are still a lot of things they can't do. So if you want to apply interesting, unique effects to your photos and videos for social media, you'll need to add some other apps to your iPhone's arsenal of tools.
Advancements in technology have made it perfectly possible to make a short film or even an entire movie with your iPhone or Android — as long as you've got the right gear. Lenses, stabilizers, tripods, lighting, microphones, chargers, and cases can make the difference between a good movie and a great film, all of which can make a great gift for those aspiring (or current) filmmakers in your life.
If we were to assign a theme for the 2019 edition of the Next Reality 30 (NR30), it might be something along the lines of, "What have you done for me lately?"
Your social security number, credit card information, and medical history can fall into the wrong hands if you're not careful about how and where you share your data online. If you really care about your data, there are tools and techniques you can utilize to protect yourself from cyberstalkers, advertisers, and hackers in a time when digital lives are a high commodity.
Stories are everywhere in social media today, but that wasn't always the case. In 2013, Snapchat introduced the world to these temporary windows into our daily lives. Since then, stories have infiltrated other popular apps. However, to stand out, you can't solely rely on the app where the story will be posted. Instead, you need a suite of apps that can turn your story into something special.
Besside-ng is the hidden gem of the Aircrack-ng suite of Wi-Fi hacking tools. When run with a wireless network adapter capable of packet injection, Besside-ng can harvest WPA handshakes from any network with an active user — and crack WEP passwords outright. Unlike many tools, it requires no special dependencies and can be run via SSH, making it easy to deploy remotely.
The private automobile has been an intrinsic part of our lives for around a hundred years. But over the last decade, car sharing has gained a very small but growing part of the mobility market. The more recent rise of companies like Uber and Lyft is witness to a more dramatic shift in mobility and car ownership. Private vehicle ownership to a transportation-as-a-service model has already started, and high capability SAE Level 4 vehicles will complete this trend.
Apple's first big iOS 17 point update for iPhone just came out, and it includes some of the features initially planned for the iOS 17.0 release last September. But there's much more to iOS 17.1 than that — exciting new features and changes are hiding within Books, Music, StandBy, App Store, Lock Screen wallpapers, Apple Wallet, and more.
The year 2020 was a pivotal span of time during which the word "virtual" took on a brand new meaning. Instead of referring to VR or augmented reality, the term was hijacked to describe meeting across long distances through a variety of software tools, most often through video.
The new iOS 14 for iPhone arrived Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2020, alongside iPadOS 14, and there are a lot of features to uncover. Improved widgets. Better home screen customization. Exciting Messages improvements. New abilities in Camera and Photos. There's so much here that it'll take months for you to learn everything by heart.
A new game from the makers of No More Heroes and Resident Evil coming out on 2011 from EA. It looks like something like out of a Quentin Tarantino movie. A third person shooter, it's probably another attempt by creators in Japan to tap into the lucrative shooter market in the US.
3D modeling is a difficult but lucrative trade that can take many years to master. Let this video be your first step along that road. It's aim is to teach the basics of 3D Studio MAX to beginners by demonstrating the modeling of a mace (or morning star). This tutorial is designed for those with no experience in 3D modeling, so if you're just getting started, start here! Model a mace for beginners in 3ds Max - Part 1 of 2.
From our favorite British imports at Videojug comes a unique yet incredibly practical video showing just how you can get out of a car in a skirt or dress without showing the world your underwear. Get out of a car without showing your knickers.
Lux is an After Effects plug-in that simulates the "visible light" phenomenon of light in a dark or foggy environment. Use Lux to create incredibly realistic visible light sources for spotlights, flashlights, headlights, or stage lighting of all kinds within After Effects. This tutorial will show you how to get started with Trapcode Lux in After Effects. Get started with Trapcode Lux After Effects plugin.
Make a very neat lava-like lamp for less than $10 in parts. Uses only soap and water. No chemicals, easy, fun, and the results are incredibly neat! Make a cloud lamp.
9:fish Surfboards are clutch for anyone looking to actually surf LA summer mush. Sunny Trinh and Co. make a line of incredibly versatile fish, starting with the 4'11" Pufferfish and going all the way up to a 12' paddleboard. The thing about 9:fish is that they make boards you can ride!!! Save your performance thrusters for that one day in December and get a 9:fish for the rest of the year.
When you need pastry or pie dough in a hurry, frozen puff pastry is the king of supermarket convenience foods. It's incredibly versatile and can be used to make a huge array of hors d'oeuvre, main courses, and desserts. Frequent Fine Cooking contributor and cooking teacher Jessica Bard demonstrates some tricks for getting the best results when working with frozen puff pastry. Work with frozen puff pastry.
Players have been soaring through the skies in the popular Ace Combat series of games for a long time. The latest title, Ace Combat: Assault Horizon comes complete with several different unlockable trophies and achievements including the incredibly impressive, "Checking In." The achievement will require you to fly through a hotel in order to unlock it.
As previously reported here, CryTek's immensely powerful CryEngine is now free and available for all. CryEngine is, however, incredibly complex and powerful. If you need a little help using it, and if you've tried to you probably do, check out this excellent series of tutorial videos.