How To: Have Real People with Real Voices Read Top News Stories to You Every Day
Having to read a bunch of articles and tweets everyday can be tiresome, but if you can have a sweet-ass personal assistant read them for you, you're pretty golden.
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How To: Make Your Own Playable Papercraft Version of Angry Birds
Although it's been several years since Angry Birds first came out, it's still going strong in the App Store, currently third place on the Top Free Apps chart. The new Angry Birds Star Wars is sixth place on the Top Paid Apps chart. What does this show us? Those pesky birds can't be shooed away.
How To: Automatically Update All of Your Google Play and Third-Party Android Apps
With the Google Play store on your Android device, it's a relatively easy process to check all of your application updates. All you have to do is launch the Market app, go to the My Apps section, and from there you'll be able to see all of the available updates for your applications, which should be positioned at the top of the list. The problem with this process is that many times, you'll go days or weeks and quite possibly even months without checking the Google Play application market, lea...
How To: Bored with Your Surface Pro? BlueStacks Lets You Run Any Android App on Windows 8
Now that the Surface Pro is out, you can game your heart out and get down with some serious Minecrafting. You're not just limited to downloading apps in the Windows Store anymore, like with the Surface RT. You can install a lot of Windows-compatible programs on the Surface Pro, but still, with this being a mobile device, it'd be nice to have some more mobile-feeling apps. And thanks to BlueStacks, you can. BlueStacks has helped people without Androids and iPhones get popular apps on their dev...
How To: This Mac App Uses Your Webcam to "See" If You're Still There Before Putting It to Sleep
Most of the time, if you're actually using your computer, it won't just go to sleep on you. But when you're reading a long article or watching a video and don't move the mouse or use the keyboard for a while, the screen automatically dims or goes into sleep mode.
How To: Make a Cheap Light Wand for Dark Photo Shoots Using PVC and Glow Sticks
Taking photos in the dark or in low-light settings can be tricky. Just using your normal flash can make your subject look washed out, but not using it can result in a totally dark photo with no subject at all.
How To: Make Your Own Red Bull Energy Drink at Home—Minus All of the Chemicals
Most people need their morning pick-me-up to get the day started right. There's a Starbucks on every corner and caffeine "shots" are sold in convenience stores everywhere. Even Mountain Dew is getting in on the action with its new KickStart "breakfast" drink (whatever that means). With a whopping 5% real fruit juice!
How To: Get Talk-to-Text on Your Jailbroken iPhone with the Siri Clone Sara
My obsession with Siri is well documented, and after I jailbroke my iPhone 4 recently, I thought I would finally be able to rekindle our imaginary love. But, when I downloaded the Siri Port, I found that the app was buggy and super slow.
How To: Make Trader Joe's Must-Have Speculoos Cookie Butter at Home
If you've never heard of cookie butter, it must be because you live in a town where there's no Trader Joe's. It was their most popular item in 2012, and when it started to become popular, the Internet promptly went nuts, posting recipe after recipe using it as an ingredient. For those of you who don't live near a Trader Joe's but still want to see what all the fuss is about, there's good news—you can make it at home—and you don't need spiced Speculoos shortcrust biscuits either!
How To: Siri Who? Meet Winston—Your Own Personal News and Social Media Butler
Unless you're a business executive or movie star, most of us aren't afforded the luxury of having a personal assistant. Wouldn't it be nice to wake up in the morning and just have everything taken care of?
How To: Spend Less on Last-Minute Valentine's Day Flowers for Your Girlfriend
If you haven't walked into a department store or seen one of those millions of jewelry commercials airing over the last month, you might not know that February 14th is Valentine's Day.
How To: Turn a Boring Transparent Window into a Colorful Faux Stained Glass Masterpiece
When most people think of stained glass, the first thing that comes to mind is a church, but it's become more popular in home decor as well. The biggest downside is that high quality stained glass pieces can be insanely expensive—and it's not an easy project to take on yourself.
How To: Spice Up Your Valentine's Day with These DIY Heart-Shaped Whiskey and Hot Sauce Hard Candies
Love sweets, but not big on chocolate? Chocolate pretty much dominates the candy offerings for Valentine's Day, but if you want to go the homemade route, it doesn't get much easier than hard candy.
How To: Make DIY Decorative Shell Dresser Knobs
A quick way to revamp an old dresser is to change out the knobs for some new decorative ones. Here’s an easy and budget-friendly way to make your very own DIY dresser knobs using shells – perfect if you’re looking to add a little bit of the beach to your decor: What you’ll need: shells (I got mine from the Dollar Store), nuts & washers, bolts (about 1 to 1.5 inches longer than the thickness of the shell), scrap rigid cardboard, rubber bands and epoxy glue.
How To: Search for Apps Faster on Your Android Device Using the T9 AppDialer
When we think of search it's usually in regards to the internet. But when you are using a smartphone, searching your device itself can be just as important and useful.
How To: Find Out What's Happening in Your City Right Now with Real-Time Instagrams on Your iPhone
The only thing worse than not having any plans is not even knowing where to begin making them. Sure, you can check Yelp or one of countless other review sites to find a great spot, but there's no way of knowing what the vibe is like before you get there. Is it crowded? Are people having fun, or does it look pretty lame?
How To: Add Interactive Live Wallpapers to Your Nexus 7, Samsung Galaxy S3, or Other Android Device
When it comes to live wallpaper for your Android device, the choices are pretty much limitless. Anything from a planet's elliptical orbit around the sun to a school of fish swimming across your screen are just a click and a download away. With the advancement of smartphones, live wallpapers have greatly improved. What once used to be a bit of snow falling down the screen has now evolved into very complex animations, with some that are even susceptible to your interaction with them.
How To: Make Flavored Envelope Glue (And Make Sending Snail Mail Fun Again)
Not a lot of people send letters anymore. It could be because our laptops, smartphones, and tablets have taken over and we communicate electronically now. Or, it could be because envelope glue tastes terrible. If you were considering sending out nice, handmade Valentine's Day cards this year, but were so disgusted by the thought of licking all those envelopes that you changed your mind, you're in luck.
How To: Spend Money on a Graphing Calculator? Nah—Just Use This Web-Based TI Emulator
For the majority of my math classes in middle and high school, a graphing calculator was a must. While the calculators were very useful to have, they were quite steep in the price column. After losing the TI-83 graphing calculator my parents bought me in high school, I had to save up my own money to buy the next one.
How To: Listen to YouTube Videos in the Background While Using Another Android App
I love YouTube for listening to music I don't already have on my phone or in my iTunes library, but there is one very simple thing that you think they would've figured out by now—the ability to have your video continue to play outside of the app!
How To: This DIY Secret Entrance Door Is So Invisible You'll Probably Even Forget Where It's At
Want to secure your home? There are plenty of ways to go about it. You can make your doorbell send you a text if someone rings it while you're not home, or build a motion-triggered security camera. Even better, you can beat potential crooks at their own game by installing a door they can't even find.
How To: Run a Full Version of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich on Your Windows PC
Being able to run mobile apps on a computer is nothing new. Maybe you don't have a mobile device, or maybe you just like seeing the apps on a larger screen. Whatever the reason, with programs like Bluestacks, you can use your laptop to Instagram, play Angry Birds, and run countless other apps made for smartphones.
How To: Twitter's New Vine App Lets You Embed GIF-Style Videos into Your Tweets
I can't say that I'm a huge Tweeter, but I'm definitely a good follower. Having the ability to follow comedians, brands, and athletes helps me stay up to date on the things I'm interested in, and I appreciate being thrown a good joke every now and then.
How To: Get Daily Astronomy Pics from NASA on Your Android, iPhone, Windows Phone, and More
There's nothing more inherently awesome than looking up into the stars and wondering WTF is really out there. Outer space is one of those rare items that a Google search cannot provide all of the answers for.
How To: 15 Minutes? Right... Tell Your Friends How Late You're Actually Going to Be with Twist
Every group of friends has that one person who's always late. Luckily, I've never had to deal with that issue because all of my friends are always late. Never fashionably, either. I'm talking hours late. Oh, we're having lunch at noon? Nah, it's at 3 p.m. now.
How To: Facebook's Messenger App Now Lets U.S. iPhone Users Make Free Phone Calls
If you use Facebook's Messenger app on your iPhone, your cell phone bill might just get a little cheaper. After recently adding voice chats to Messenger, the company just rolled out its new Free Call feature on the latest version of the iOS app, which allows users to make calls over Wi-Fi or a cellular data connection. The feature only works between two people who are both using the latest version of Messenger and is not yet available on the Android app. Facebook says it "will be rolling out ...
How To: Change Your Android Screen's Orientation Using Your Face Instead of the Device's Angle
One of the coolest things for readers using the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 is the stock Smart Rotation feature. While most smartphones use the accelerometer to adjust the screen orientation, Smart Rotation actually uses the camera to detect your face-to-screen angle and adjusts accordingly. Now, if only there was a way that all Android users can continue reading an article or text without sporadic and unexpected 90-degree turns of their screen. Wait, there is!
How To: Combine a GameCube and N64 into One Awesome Hybrid Gaming Console
The biggest problem with having a lot of gaming systems lying around the house is the clutter. Each device has several cables and adapters that need to be plugged in somewhere and it could leave your gaming area look something like this... Not a pretty sight, huh?
How To: Cycloramic Uses Your iPhone's Vibrate Mode to Take 360-Degree Panoramas All by Itself
We have apps that can silence your smartphone's shutter sound, send self-destructing photos and videos, and even make any innocuous image look like a censored nude photo. But, there's still room to be amazed, like when an app can take a panoramic 360-degree image all by itself!
How To: Instantly Be Notified When a Must-Have Steam Game Drops to a Price You Can Afford
As an avid Steam user, I'm faced daily with high prices for all of the games I want to download and play. It's gotten to the point where I don't even bother going on Steam altogether because I might end up spending a bunch of money I don't have.
News: This Thermal Lance Fueled by Bacon (Yes, Bacon) Can Cut Right Through a Steel Pan
You knew that the food you eat gives you energy, but did you know it can actually power a thermal lance with enough heat to burn through steel? A thermal lance, as in, the tool used to demolish buildings and bridges.
How To: Auto-Change Keyboards on Your Samsung Galaxy Note 2 Based on the S Pen's Position
Got a Samsung tablet with an S Pen stylus? Then you might be one of the many people irked about having to manually choose a different keyboard layout after pulling the S Pen out of the device. For instance, if you have a Samsung Galaxy Note I or Note II, when you pull the S Pen out, the keyboard layout stays the same. But if you'd like it to switch to a different keyboard, say, from the stock Samsung keyboard to something like SwiftKey, then you're out of luck.
How To: Turn a Canvas Messenger Bag into a Water-Resistant Waxed Camera Case
If you take your camera equipment with you on a pretty frequent basis, having a camera bag can help protect it and makes it much easier to keep everything in one place. A good camera bag can be pretty expensive, but with this tutorial by photographer Allen Mowery, you can turn a cheap canvas messenger bag into a nice looking DIY waxed camera bag for half the price. For this project, you'll need a canvas messenger bag, a camera insert, and some paraffin wax, which can be found in the canning a...
How To: Automate Tasks on Your Mac Whenever You Come or Leave Home via Bluetooth
As a multitasker, I've embraced the hustle and bustle that has filled my life. I'm constantly doing several things at a time, while looking for shortcuts to finish all of these things quicker than before. I brush my teeth with my cell phone in hand and drive to work with breakfast in mouth—I spare no time. Well, now there's an application for the Mac users among us that can help take some of the stress out of doing a thousand things at once.
How To: How Much Time Do You Spend Indoors and Outdoors? Find Out with This DIY Arduino Tracking Device!
How much time do you spend outside, as opposed to inside? Whether it's because you're working, studying or just have a bunch of errands to run, it may seem like the majority of your day is spent indoors. Ever wondered exactly how much time you spend indoors and outdoors? Now you can, thanks to this DIY Arduino-powered tracking device by Instructables user Gramsky.
How To: Open Map Links in Google Maps Instead of Apple Maps on Your iPhone (Jailbreak Required)
When I heard that Google finally released a maps app for Apple's iOS 6, I almost cried. After upgrading to iOS 6 from iOS 5.1 on my iPhone 4, I was sad to realize that Apple Maps was the new default map app. I don't even have to explain why having Apple Maps as the native mapping program was a terrible terrible thing.
How To: 'Wake N Shake' iPhone Alarm Helps You Get Out of Bed Faster by Competing with Friends
If the number of apps designed to make getting out of bed easier tells us one thing, it's that people hate waking up. Whether it's because you're dreading going to work or school, or just stayed out a little too late the night before, it's almost never fun.
How To: Troll Your Facebook Friends by Posting Status Updates from Any Device or Even the Playboy Mansion
Depending on what mobile device you own, you'll see something that says "via device name" next to the date of your post on Facebook. If you're device is not recognized, you'll simply see a "via Mobile" note, which is what happens when I post from my phone. If you allowed your iPhone to be called iPhone when you logged into the app, it'll show up as a recognized device on Facebook, and will post "via iPhone." Same thing goes if you have a Samsung Galaxy S3 or Nexus 7 or iPad. It could also jus...
How To: Get the Windows 8 Desktop and Start Screen (Or Taskbar and Start Screen) on the Same Display
I've been using Windows 8 for a few months now, and it's definitely not as terrible as some people say, but it definitely isn't as revolutionary as the big wigs at Microsoft had hoped for.
How To: Forget Hallmark—Save Money by Making These Awesome Popup Pixel Christmas Cards
Greeting cards. Everyone hates buying them, they're way overpriced, and the majority of them go right in the trash after they're opened. So why do we still buy them?