I've been told numerous times that I listen to music way too loud, to the point of potential hearing damage, especially when I have my headphones plugged in. Not only do my friends tell me this, but my Samsung Galaxy S4 likes to nag me as well. Once I pass a certain volume threshold (nine steps) with my headphones, I get that annoying high volume alert. Sorry, my hearing isn't as good as it once was, so let me jam in peace!
When the Nexus 5 was released, a new version of Android came along with it called KitKat. In the 4.4 update were some fancy new UI elements, one of the most noticeable being the translucent decor. By that, I mean the status and navigation bars being semi-transparent.
The new HTC One and Nexus series devices have already replaced their physical navigation keys with soft keys, and it's inevitable that we'll see more and more of this on future mobiles. Samsung continues to buck the trend entirely, but no manufacturer as gone as far as to remove the volume rockers.
Doritos Locos Tacos were the brilliant concoction of a man named Todd Mills who never worked for Taco Bell, and never made any money from his creation. He originally pitched the idea to Frito-Lay, and when they said no, he took matters into his own hands by creating a Facebook page.
You've seen the Samsung Fingers and the Emoji Translator, and I know you spent a good part of the day catching Pokémon, but now that April Fool's Day is officially upon us, the flood of gags has reached a tipping point. Here's the best of what we've seen today.
I never want to bump into my ex-girlfriend while out in the city (talk about a buzz kill), so if I could get an alert telling me that she's at Shortstops down the street, I'll avoid that area completely. This is where the new, interesting app Cloak - Incognito Mode for Real Life from dev Brian Moore comes in.
Watch out Samsung (and you too, Pebble, Sony and the still unrealized Apple), your hold on the smartwatch market is about to get a lot less firm. Announced today, Google has released Android Wear, their platform for developing smartwatches, along with a preview of the Moto 360 smartwatch from Motorola.
Imagine that Tinder fornicated with Facebook and had a baby. The product of that union would be the hideous, yet overwhelmingly interesting SocialRadar, an app dedicated to stalkers and stalkees.
Android is all about the fine details. You can make a little tweak here and a little tweak there and completely customize your experience to be exactly how you want it to be. Sure, you don't need to customize LED colors or screen record, but it's nice to know you can.
In direct competition with Pandora, iTunes Radio, and Spotify, Samsung has just launched Milk Music—a strangely named, yet completely free music streaming service for Android.
Efficiency is one integral attribute that I need from my Android device. I want to be able to multitask like a maniac and do things on the fly. While multitasking itself is nothing new, actually being able to watch Netflix while scrolling through IMDB at the same damn time was reserved mainly for newer Samsung-ier devices.
Facebook makes it easy to show how much you appreciate a funny status, great picture, or cool news article using their iconic "thumbs up" button, but what about those terrible jokes and annoying baby pictures? Where's the "thumbs down" for that crap?
The lockout feature in iOS 7, which securely locks your device after a few incorrect passcode entries, can be a real pain in the ass sometimes.
I have Verizon, America's largest 4G LTE network, as my cell service provider, but there are times when I find myself with a pretty shitty signal, rendering my upload and download speeds substantially slower than usual.
Exclusive to only a handful of smartphones, including the Nexus 5, the Google Experience Launcher allows us to open Google Now simply by speaking out a certain phrase, at any time—dubbed a "hotword."
Ever since its introduction back in iOS 6, AirPlay has been helping us iOS and Mac users stream content over to an Apple TV or third-party speaker system. It's an incredibly useful feature. However, it's also severely limiting. The few compatible products out there are extremely expensive, making wireless streaming a not-so-easy task.
Personally, I think Velveeta is pretty gross. Nothing about its texture, flavor, or color resembles real cheese. But your taste in cheese isn't the important part—what matters is having something good to eat while you watch the game.
Silence is golden, especially when you're sleeping and about to lock lips with Kate Upton in a dream (or Ryan Gosling, for all you ladies). The last thing you want is your tablet rudely interrupting your passionate kiss with blaring notifications. It's even worse in real-life when you're in an important meeting and you forgot to silence your Android up.
For a photo- and video-sharing app based around privacy, Snapchat sure has a lot of security holes floating around. At one time, you were able to take screenshots of Snapchats in iOS 7 without the sender knowing, which is something that you can still do on rooted Android devices.
Full screen mode, also called immersive mode, is one of the most popular features on CyanogenMod, but it's almost exclusive to CM and other custom ROMs. What this feature does essentially is remove the Status bar and soft keys from your screen, creating a more mesmeric feel.
Let's just say it's been a pretty bad year for spies and government agencies and an even worse one for the privacy of U.S. citizens. Edward Snowden blew the lid off the NSA's spy program, and the FBI was recently discovered to have the ability to access your webcam any time they want—without triggering the "camera on" light. Yeah, that means those Justin Bieber lip sync videos you recorded weren't just for your private collection.
Here are instructions to make an origami tarantula. Detailed visual instructions are on the video that contains a map and images of the origami.
No matter how much of a gamer you are, typing with your PS4 controller is a bitch. Let's just be real. Having to move left, then right, then down, for every single letter can make writing a message very time consuming; so much so that I usually avoid messaging altogether.
Change is something everyone needs every now and then. President Obama used it as his campaign slogan and adult movie stars use it to hide their real identifies. Change is in itself versatile. You never want to have the same thing day in and day out, and that's why us Android users appreciate the massive amount of customization available.
Many people are bored of the typical square-ish icons arranged in a uniform grid on their Android homescreen. I dislike looking at grids of buttons and sometimes I would like to have some really HUGE buttons for the applications that matter the most at any given time.
Welcome back, my hacker apprentices! Metasploit framework is an incredible hacking and pentesting tool that every hacker worth their salt should be conversant and capable on.
We've all been in a similar situation before—you set your phone's ringer to silent before heading into class, and when you check your phone hours later, you find that your silenced phone didn't alert you to 8 missed calls and 17 text messages.
How to use Teflon tape for plumbing applications. I know it sounds simple but there are a few tricks to applying the Teflon tape. Teflon tape is also known as PTFE Tape.
"Ain't No Sunshine" might just be a classic song to you, but for me and my Samsung Galaxy S3, it means so much more. For the most part, my GS3 does a decent job at automatically adjusting the brightness of the screen when I'm in normal lighting, but when I'm in little or no lighting, or there's just way to much, I usually have to switch over to manual to get the right balance. Luckily, we're not stuck with Samsung's built-in auto brightness feature. There are some really good third-party solu...
Anyone who uses a computer on a regular basis probably knows how to access the task manager to check system resources and usage stats. However, on a Samsung Galaxy S3 or other Android device, it may not be so obvious. There's no equivalent to Control-Alt-Delete, but it's still fairly easy to monitor running processes and battery usage.
Even if you have the fastest internet connection in the world, it's not going to be fast if your Android device isn't optimized to use all of the bandwidth. I have pretty fast speeds at home, but every now and then my web surfing on my Nexus 7 tablet is halted in its tracks—for seemingly no reason.
In a previous softModder tutorial, we installed CyanogenMod on our HTC Ones to approximate the look and feel of the Google Edition HTC One. Unfortunately, this rendered Beats and HTC's ImageChip (among other things) useless.
A free Wi-Fi hotspot can be a lifesaver. Whether it's because you have shitty reception, need faster connectivity, or just don't want to go over your monthly data plan, free Wi-Fi in public areas is greatly appreciated. While connecting to these free hotspots is fairly easy, finding them can become a whole nother issue. I've been in plenty of situations where I wasted my data plan instead of taking a few steps to the right, where free Wi-Fi would have been waiting for me and my Samsung Galaxy...
What happens when you find your ball deflated and there's no pump or needle in sight? You could always cancel your plans of kicking around the soccer ball or starting that pickup football game in the park. Better yet, you could be terribly clever and find another way to get air into the ball. From a pen to a balloon to a gas station, there are ways to inflate it.
Any living creature will die if deprived of sleep for long enough. The longest documented occurrence of a person not fully sleeping and surviving is only 11 days. There is a rare disease where deep sleep is never achieved, affecting roughly 100 people worldwide. Patients usually only survive between 6 to 18 months after the onset of chronic insomnia, and only 3 to 9 months in a parasomnia state without any real REM sleep.
There is no such thing as a pulled pork slider. In fact, there is no such thing as a pork slider. Or a chicken slider. Or turkey or fish. The term "slider" actually means a lot more than just a hot miniature sandwich, and if it's not beef, it automatically missed the first cut. Sorry, but that is not a slider above.
In early 2000, at the age of 19, Noah Kalina began taking a photo of himself with the same facial expression—every single day. Six years and over 2,000 photographs later, Kalina turned his project into a time-lapsed montage on YouTube. In just one day, his video received over a million views.
Tired of your Samsung Galaxy S3 being a square? Make it more well-rounded by ditching those 90-degree corners on your screen for new adjustable round corners instead. It may be a minor tweak to your device, but the psychological effects of a more circular screen may help you feel more connected, safe, and, well…perfect. If you're the type that prefers the logic, order, and security of a sharp-cornered screen, then stick with your standard Android interface. Otherwise, keeping reading.
Most of you probably have a set of blinds at home, the most popular being horizontal or vertical. They're great for keeping the sun out of your eyes and maintaining privacy, but unfortunately, each comes with its own set of problems.
If the Nexus 7 wasn't your first Android tablet, you may have noticed something different with the user interface when compared to other Jelly Bean tablets. You may not know exactly what it is off the top of your head, but it's there.