Apple used to be a great, innovative company. But lately, it's filling its coffers with money raked in from selling folks on "new" and "unique" features that have been blatantly ripped off from Android.
By default, texts and iMessages are stored forever in the Messages app on your iPhone. But do you really need them to be? It's not too often that you'll need to view a text from a year ago, and keeping all those images, video, and other media — not to mention the messages themselves — can take up valuable storage space on your device.
Amazon's Appstore has come a long way since it launched in 2011, with over 250,000 apps to its name. That being said, their app numbers pale in comparison to Google's Play Store, which currently boosts over 1.3 million apps.
In a time when messaging platforms may outnumber the people you'd ever want to message, one of the more popular options—Facebook Messenger—received a big update for both Android (must be part of the free beta program) and iOS, going from version 5.0 to 6.0.
Unbeknownst to you, hundreds of retailers, shopping malls, coffee shops, and airports track and log your movements. Using sensors installed by retail analytics companies, businesses sniff out your smartphone's MAC address, a unique fixed identifier to your device, whenever your device interacts with their Wi-Fi hotspots.
HTC is gearing up for Mother's Day with a one day only, half-off promotion on their new HTC One M8. Starting May 8th at 12:01am CST, AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon customers can pick up the flagship device for $99 (yes, you'll need to sign a contract). You can take advantage of the deal at your local wireless provider's store, big box retailers like Best Buy and Target, or directly through HTC. The promotion will end shortly before midnight, around 11:50pm CST, on May 8th.
Well, that's one way to get a leg up on Samsung! Announced earlier today, Carphone Warehouse has stated that the new HTC One, dubbed the M8, will go on sale around 4pm on Tuesday, March 25th, "minutes" after the official announcement to unveil the product from HTC. According to the press release, the "handsets will be transported directly from the venue of the launch announcement to six Carphone Warehouse stores in London". A first for a smartphone manufacturer, the move will give HTC a coupl...
If you have ice cube trays lying around in your refrigerator and chilling your drinks with ice cubes is not a huge priority for you, you can still make use of these handy kitchen tools in a number of useful ways, both edible and non-edible.
Take a minute and think about how many times a day you press the home key on your iPhone . . . a lot, right? It is quite literally the most important button on your device. If the home key stops working, you won't be able to multitask or back out of apps to go to your home screen, so preserving its life should be priority, otherwise you're stuck using one of these tips for fixing your home button. Luckily, for 5S users, you can add a tweak that will utilize your touch ID sensor, instead of ha...
If getting Christmas presents ready ahead of time has never been your forte, be assured that it has never than easier than before to assemble together a last-minute Christmas gift for all your loved ones and favorite people (and maybe not-so-favorite people you are obligated to buy gifts for) on Christmas eve.
Imagine if Apple sold customized, jailbroken iPhones at their retail stores. Do you know how freaking awesome that would be? Knowing Apple and their extremely tight-assed regime, it's more likely that Tony Romo will actually win a Super Bowl (Cowboys burn).
Every Christmas tree needs a topper, but most of them are boring and generic. If you want something a little more unique, making it yourself is a great way to go, and a DIY Weeping Angel topper is a good twist on a classic, but not everyone is a Dr. Who fan.
If you ever end up with an excess of raw eggs in your refrigerator, but don't know how to use them all up before their expiration date, the solution is simple. Hard-boil and peel them, place them in a sterilized jar, add pickling brine solution, and store in the refrigerator for up to one month—even more.
Throwing a Halloween party this weekend? With some glow-in-the-dark paint, red food coloring, black light bulbs, latex gloves, and other simple and cheap Halloween props, you can transform your non-scary living space into a ghoulish setting for the perfect Halloween-themed bash.
Want to sear the perfect restaurant-quality steak in the comforts of your own kitchen? Use a cast iron skillet.
Enjoy the deliciousness of a peanut butter sandwich without the artificial chemicals that comes in store-bought jars. To make your own peanut butter at home, all you need are pre-roasted peanuts, peanut oil, and a little bit of salt and sugar.
Need to get a painful splinter out of your skin? Apply some bacon grease onto the affected area and place a band-aid on it overnight. The bacon grease will soften the skin tissue and draw out the splinter, making it easier to remove with tweezers the next day.
How can you tell if a coconut is ready to eat? The entire fruit is covered by a rock-hard exterior, so you can't really squeeze them to test their ripeness. Instead, feel the three "eyes" at the bottom of the coconut. If they feel slightly soft and dry, that's a good sign that the fruit is mature.
Getting sunburned sucks, and according to the Environmental Working Group's 2012 survey of over 800 sunscreen brands, 75% of them contained potentially harmful ingredients linked to hormone disruption and even cell damage that may lead you to skin cancer. Yikes.
A ziplock freezer bag full of raw egg yolk and chopped up vegetables in a pot of boiling water may not sound like the most appetizing way to make an omelet, but this technique definitely works when you're camping and don't have a stove.
Raw onions are commonly associated with bad breath, but when it comes to wet paint, instead of creating toxic smells they help remove them. If you just painted inside your home, slice a few raw onions in half and place them alongside the walls to absorb noxious fumes. Just make sure to discard onions afterwards, as they would be poisonous.
Attention folks—the Samsung Galaxy S4 is coming soon to a cellular provider near you. Though the official release date for the GS4 here in the states has been closely guarded, a recent leak from a Staples store training document has revealed some possible days that the GS4 could land in your hands—and it's not that far away! Here's the rundown, but remember, none of these dates have been confirmed by Samsung or any of the providers.
One of the best things about Android phones is that they are much more readily customizable when compared to the iPhone, but for newcomers and recent iOS defectors, Android can be a bit overwhelming.
Embedded videos are increasingly common around the web. Sometimes the video is there to enhance the content of the page, and other times it's the only content on the page. Regardless, if you scroll to read the accompanying article or comments, you lose sight of the video.
Security is always a top priority for our smartphones. Leaving your phone at the bar or even at a friend's house can leave you open to hacks and lead to the loss of sensitive information.
If you love the digital convenience of ebooks but miss the analog tangibility of physical books, then this DIY cover is for you. It will work with pretty much any Kindle, Nook, tablet, or e-reader, and only requires a hardcover book, an elastic band, and some simple craft supplies.
Yesterday, the much anticipated iOS 6.1 jailbreak was released. With the wide array of Cydia apps that are newly available to jailbroken iPhones came an unpleasant surprise—evasi0n causes the built-in iOS Weather app to crash over and over.
The great thing about security apps (other than the obvious) is that there is an abundance of them littered throughout the Google Play store. Cerberus, Got Ya!, Avast! Mobile Security, Norton Security & Antivirus, and Android Lost Free are just a few of the gems you can find in the plentiful sea of security apps for Android. Once in awhile, though, a new security application comes along that stands out from the rest, like AeGis.
If you want to put a fire pit in your backyard, but don't want to spend a lot of time or money on it, this $10 DIY Upcycled Fire Pit designed by Sarah and Joe over on House & Fig is the perfect weekend project. It's simple, looks great, and shouldn't take much more than an hour to put together. You can pick up a washing machine drum from a used appliance store, and you'll also need a few pieces of steel for the legs and a can of high-heat paint.
Google Play continues to grow faster than the iOS App Store and may even hit the million app mark before Apple does. In the Android market, you'll find apps for everything, ranging from augmented reality multiplayer games like Ingress to wireless computer mouse apps like WiFi Mouse.
Good home-cooking does require time, but not every step of the process has to be a time-consuming chore.
Rooting your Android phone offers more features (like overclocking). I am not responsible for anything you do. M'kay? I don't know if this will work for all phones, but hopefully it works for you.
So it is Christmas Eve and you are just getting started on your Christmas gift shopping. Thankfully, even for the last-minute Christmas gift shopper, you have a good variety of options to choose from within driving distance or on the internet without worrying about shipping costs or waiting in ridiculously long lines at the mall.
There's no shortage of DIY smartphone accessories out there. From a stylus for your tablet to a design-your-own iPhone case, there's something for just about everyone. The best part is that you can usually make your own accessories for way less than you'd pay for them in stores, plus you can customize them however you want.
Last year, I wrote a post on "10 Thrifty DIY Christmas Gift Ideas" for people looking to get crafty during the gift-giving season. It seemed only right to do a followup this year with 10 more ideas!
Turning unused items into usable pieces of furniture is a great way to save money and create some really good-looking pieces for your room. And nothing beats repurposing old wooden pallets. Redditor BaconStripsandFishin used old wooden pallets and a month's worth of coffee to create his own unique coffee table. To make this, unscrewed all of the wooden panels (top and bottom), placed them all together, and then screwed them back in reusing those same nails. Once he had all of the board togeth...
The Black Friday shopping battle is just around the corner. At the end of the day, will you emerge empty-handed or victorious with an armful of shopping bags bursting at the seams?
Windows 8 gives you a few different options for the image you want to appear on your lockscreen, whether it's a PC or Surface, but if you're the kind of person who gets bored easily, you may want more to choose from.
There's nothing better than sitting around a fire in your own backyard, but store-bought fire pits can get pretty expensive, and unfortunately (but understandably), most states have pretty strict regulations on outdoor fires.
Planning on carving a pumpkin for Halloween? After you're done scooping and scraping out the inner flesh and pulp from your pumpkin, make the most of your jack-o'-lantern leftovers by using the pumpkin meat and seeds in the kitchen and for your beauty regimen.
