Placing widgets on your device's home screen is a quick way to gain instant access to shortcuts or to specific aspects of an app, like music controls or weather forecasts. As more and more developers create various types of app drawers and shortcuts, many overlook widgets and what they have to offer.
Third-party keyboards have become a game changer for iPhone owners since their integration in iOS 8. And while the major players from the Android realm—Fleksy, SwiftKey, Swype—already have their keyboards on the iOS App Store, their products are relatively standard fare.
Now that you've updated your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch to iOS 8, there's a lot of cool new things to explore. If you felt a little overwhelmed from all of the detailed information available in our Coolest Hidden Features of iOS 8 post, then I've got a simple breakdown of all of the new features available with quick links to their walkthroughs and pictures, if available. Watch the short video roundup, or skip below for the list.
Chances are that you're living in a city and/or state that's banned using your phone while driving, and because of that, many manufactures have added a "car mode" to their devices. In most instances, this mode is simply an app that simplifies your phone to its basic parts so you can navigate, make calls, and play music, limiting the amount of smartphone distractions.
Restoring data is not always the easiest thing to do when you flash a new ROM on Android. Google can back up your contacts and Wi-Fi passwords, and various tools can back up your apps and data, but the rest is usually lost in-between ROM flashes. This leads to a lot of wasted time getting everything back into place, and it'll take a long time before your new ROM feels like "home" again.
Ask a thousand Nexus owners why they chose their device over an iPhone, and after getting an earful of Apple hate, you will likely hear a clear pattern in their responses, namely, the freedom to customize their phones.
When Yahoo! purchased the home screen replacement app Aviate back in January, many were wondering if the internet giant intended to continue development of the launcher or if the transaction was just another acqui-hire.
The Samsung Galaxy S5 display can be replaced by most do-it-yourselfers with some basic mechanical skills and a few inexpensive tools. The good news is that once you replace your display assembly your screen will be good as new with no bubbles or dust on the inside. The replacement part is a bit pricey but that is a good percentage of the cost involved with manufacturing this device. Below is a video showing the entire process from start to finish. It's best to turn on your volume for the nar...
Unlike the Galaxy S4 and other Samsung devices, the Nexus 7 doesn't have a Clear All option in the recent apps menu. It's a highly requested feature, as it cuts down the time required to go one-by-one swiping each individual app (you can't swipe away multiple ones at the same time).
Amazon's Fire TV set-top box has been out for over a month now, and the hacks are starting to come together. Sure you can play your Amazon Instant Video, Hulu, and Netflix content without any issue, but what about your personal media, like movies and music?
With rumors of the Active and Prime versions on the immensely popular Galaxy S5 circling the web for the past few weeks, today, we've got some clear proof of the upcoming Active variant.
You can't always have your media on the same network as your Chromecast. Say you're at a friend's house or even out of town—it sure would be nice to cast your videos when you're out and about, wouldn't it?
Transparent status bars and new lock screens weren't the only new additions that came with the Galaxy S3 KitKat update. Along with better battery life and a smoother user experience, we got a new toggles design and recent apps menu. Of course, Samsung's infinite wisdom left these two aesthetic features hidden away. Luckily, with root, you can easily enable them with just a few quick edits.
Recently, Sprint announced a partnership with Harman Kardon to deliver exclusive sound FX technology to their variant of the HTC One M8. The joint effort between the two companies is both to entice customers to switch to Sprint as well as improve the overall audio quality coming from the already extraordinary BoomSound speakers. But while this is great for new and existing Sprint customers, it does leave the rest of us out in the cold.
Popcorn Time is an app that streams movies directly from torrents on to your computer, and it's seen its fair share of publicity, being lauded as a free Netflix alternative and chastised as an illegal file-sharing network.
Google I/O may still be a couple of months away, and although we don't expect anything groundbreaking—no new Android versions, just fixes to KitKat—we could be treated to some new apps. No, not Pokémon inspired Maps, rather new versions of Google's Calendar and Gmail apps.
If mainstream media has taught us anything, it's that being beautiful can get you ahead in life. The notion isn't necessarily correct, but it's what the general consensus accepts and it seems to hold quite a bit of weight (no pun intended) in the western world.
Amazon just announced its entry into the set-top streaming content marketplace with its new Fire TV box. Competing directly against Apple TV, Google's Chromecast, and Roku, Amazon is betting on big processing power and voice controls to stand out from the competition. Features include the following.
After much hype and even more leaks, the HTC One M8 has finally been unveiled at the company's New York release announcement.
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.
Apple's iOS 7 is riddled with annoying features, and some of them can't be toggled off in Settings. For example, I really don't like having labels directly underneath my app icons, and there's no way to remove them. Sure, it may be nitpicky, but it's my device, and it should behave the way I want it to.
Apple's just released a new beta of iOS 7.1 for developers, Beta 5, which fixes some small bugs and adds some minor feature enhancements. With previous reports stating that the final version of 7.1 was slated for a public release in March, these early leaks are indications that the final will be released in the following weeks, shortly after the Golden Master version hits developers.
Apple has released the third beta of its iOS 7.1 software to developers, just a few weeks after their second beta introduced us to button shapes, a new calendar list view toggle, a hidden Car Display control and several other tweaks and performance improvements.
The Xbox One is the quintessential jack of all trades. It can be your browser, music player, gaming system, and cable box, but in order to benefit from all of these goodies, you're going to have to set it all up.
Normally, "restricted access" is something you despise. No one likes to be told they can't do something, especially when it comes to the Internet. Unfortunately, having web access at all times can not only eat away at your wallet, but make your day less productive overall, so some sort of moderation is needed.
I read, walk, and do lunges all at once. Time is money, and I'm all for multitasking whenever I can. Thankfully, my Samsung Galaxy S3 is extremely good at it, but extremely good could still be extremely better.
I've been playing around with iOS 7 for a while now, and for the most part, I dig it. It's a nice update for a stale OS, and there are a lot of great new features. But like any good piece of tech, there are a few things to be disliked. Some of these are big issues, and some could be considered nitpicking, but given that I'm fairly used to the older iOS 6 version, they feel big to me. Paper cuts always hurt worse than gashes.
Nine times out of ten, when you pick up your Samsung Galaxy Note 2, you already know what app you're going to be using. If you only have Swipe to unlock enabled, finding that app is as easy as swiping and locating the app on your Home screen or in the app drawer.
Running multiple applications at the same time is one of the Samsung Galaxy S3's and S4's biggest advantages over Apple devices, and it's a fact that Samsung certainly harps on constantly in their well-targeted commercials.
With over a billion videos uploaded to YouTube, passing your time browsing through the immense library can be an emotional roller coaster ride. One second you're bawling your eyes out over this devastatingly sad clip of Oden the dog's last minutes with his owner, and the next you're laughing hysterically at Spider-Man falling on his face.
An average of 140,000 hard drives crash in the United States each week, according to online backup service Mozy. Additionally, 70 percent of Americans have lost a laptop, smartphone, or tablet, and the average person now loses 1.24 devices each year—less than half of which are ever recovered.
While Siri may be the cream of the crop when it comes to smartphone personal assistants, there is always room to grow bigger and better (that's what she said). Siri, although recently expanded, is still lacking in the amount of commands and actions she can currently perform. While looking up directions and restaurants is fairly easy for Siri, asking her to gain access to third-party programs or browsers is a little more difficult.
Samsung just concluded their live unveiling of the Samsung Galaxy S4! A more in-depth look can be found here.
Advancements to Android's open source OS come in the form of ROMs and mods, available all over the web for anyone to find. Installing any of these modifications tends to wipe your phone clean, causing you to lose all of the precious data on your device.
Albert Einstein once said, "We know less than one thousandth of one percent of what nature has to reveal to us."
Facebook has been looking to launch a new product for a while now, and it seems they've finally realized what they're best at—being as creepy as possible. If you thought your boss checking out your girlfriend's beach photos was weird, Facebook's new Graph Search has only upped the ante. Now, I don't want to be an alarmist, because I'm sure there are a bunch of great things a Facebook search would find. If you're single, perhaps you could search "Girls that are single that like Goodfellas." Th...
Whether it's because you're too startled from a sudden awakening or you're elbow-deep in cake batter, turning an alarm or timer off on your phone can be annoying. So why not simplify the process by eliminating the need to even touch your phone? With these free apps by Augmented Minds, you can turn off your timer or alarm with just a wave of your hand. That means no more fumbling in the dark for the right button, and more importantly, no more worrying about getting food on your iPhone.
The new 007 film, Skyfall, comes out this Friday, and dreams of becoming a super-spy have taken over my mind. Only I can't afford any of James Bond's awesome gadgetry or amazing cars—and you probably can't either.
Can't play your DVD movies on your brand new Windows 8 system? That's because Microsoft decided to omit Windows Media Center from Windows 8 this time, instead making it available as an extra download—and it's not free anymore. At least, it won't be next year.
When you're a kid, the best part about Halloween is the free candy, but if you're past your trick-or-treating years, there are still plenty of things you can do. With all the costumes, scary stories, and pranks, what's not to love? And now, you can even use your smartphone to celebrate.
