One of the coolest features that Samsung built into the Galaxy S4 is the infrared (IR) blaster and WatchON software to control your television. I've been using my GS4 for the past few weeks to control my DirecTV setup and it works great. Smartphones are truly becoming all-in-one devices these days.
Big bad Apple recently announced its next iterations of iPhones and the world went crazy—as usual. Displaying an array of cool colors and futuristic features, the new iPhone 5S and 5C will both be rocking iOS 7, a sleek, modern operating system that gets rid of the old icons and glossy finish for a more flat and contemporary design.
According to a new study, the majority of smartphone users check their devices 150 times a day. While that number may seem incredibly high at first glance, the influx of notifications and amount of social media apps available reduce the initial shock and make the number seem not so preposterous after all. Yeah, even on a date.
If there's one way to get a visceral response from someone, it's bringing up the DMV. Regardless of the reason, whether it's the long lines, disgruntled employees, or just general inefficiency, I have yet to meet a single person who doesn't mind the trip. Just look at all those happy faces.
There's two things I'm always looking for in my Samsung Galaxy Note 2. Efficiency and quickness. So, like any other softModder, I tend to download a bunch of apps and tweaks that help speed up my device's overall performance. In doing so, I often come across the "Complete action using" popup, which is oddly enough, one of the most inefficient features ever. You'll see this popup whenever you click on something that can be opened with more than one option. If you click on a link in Google sear...
If you still have time left on your warranty, taking your HTC One in for repairs can be a serious pain if you've modified it in any way. To avoid the chance that they'll reject your phone because it's been tampered with, you'll have to return it to stock condition.
While there are many customization options available for the Samsung Galaxy Note 2, they aren't always easy. The large selection of custom ROMs and difficulty implementing certain hacks and mods can be a nightmare for anyone not well versed in all things Android. But the good news is, it doesn't always have to be complicated.
The transition from an iPhone to a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 or other Android device can be a tough one. A vastly different operating system and the ability to customize anything and everything might be too much for some people. Taking in all that new, while having to let go of the old, can be as daunting as climbing Mount Everest.
Dorothy had it right: "There's no place like home." This is especially true when it comes to using your Samsung Galaxy S3, or pretty much any other smartphone, whose most vital button is the Home key.
There are a ton of options available to Android users when it come to messaging, but the problem is that with all of these options, where is the go-to app? The one used by most people? The one that can offer a more unified approach?
Microsoft released a preview version of Windows 8.1 today, notably adding an updated Start screen, the ability to run several Windows 8 apps side by side in a number of configurations, fully integrated search, better HiDPI support for multiple monitors, and for those who miss it, options to bring back the Start button or boot straight to the desktop.
Whether or not you believe that the government is snooping around in our private emails, texts, and phone calls, it wouldn't hurt to protect ourselves a little better in the digital realm.
It starts innocently enough, with a nosy friend hovering over your shoulder to see what you're texting. Somehow, that doesn't satiate their inexplicable thirst for curiosity, so the first chance they get, they're rummaging through all of your super private photos—even though you told them not to.
Arcades, Nintendo, Sega, and 16-bit graphics ushered in a new level of gaming that was leaps and bounds ahead of the early Pong days. I remember loading quarters into the machines and playing 2D fighting games until all my money ran out. When I wasn’t in school, you could usually find me at the arcade playing Street Fighter, The King of Fighters and Marvel vs. Capcom. At home, I had my Super Nintendo and Super Mario World keeping me glued to the television until the next boss stage.
Navigating through row after row of plants, my tiny fingers would reach into the leaves to pluck all the vile little creatures from their homes and deposit them into a can of gasoline. Potato bug duty, my least favorite gardening chore. Growing up, my family had a small garden every year. And every year, I was recruited to help plant, maintain, and eventually harvest the vegetables from it. There were some tasks I didn't mind, but the ones I hated most usually involved bugs (have you ever see...
The iPod changed the music and electronics industries when it was first introduced way back in 2001. It is credited with ushering in the age of "connected devices," and has held a huge market share of around 70% for years. At the height of its popularity, the iPod made up almost 50% of Apple's revenue. Now that the smartphones and tablets we use every day have the ability to store and play music, the iPod's glory days are over. Nevertheless, there are millions of people who still use them, an...
A flat soda tastes awful. It's almost as bad as drinking a room temperature milkshake. Of course, you can always opt to buy single-serving cans or 20 ounce bottles, but that's always going to be more expensive than 2-liters.
If you grew up dying eggs for Easter, you've no doubt used or at least seen those boxed kits that turn your eggs neon colors. Admittedly, they're easy—just plop a dye tablet into some water, dunk the eggs, and wait for them to dry.
We frequently associate plastics with the modern era, starting at around the 1950s with the prevalence of bakelite. However, for all of you "you can't use plastic in Steampunk" purists out there, I have bad news for you:
I used to have nightmares when I watched Terminator 2. I mean, I didn't step on a playground for a least two months after I saw that movie. There was something terrifying about computers having so much intelligence.
If you have a Samsung Galaxy S3 or Galaxy Note 2, you might not have noticed it yet, but there's an annoying little bug that centers around your clipboard. If you tend to do a lot of copy/pasting on your device, you've probably seen it happen—your phone crashes.
Welcome back, my hacker novitiates!
Text adventure games, such as the well-known Zork series, were some of the first computer games ever made, second only to the likes of Spacewar! and the better-known Pong. So let's travel back in time for a moment, to a time that never was.
The long standing popularity of 4chan has been due to the entirely anonymous setup. The site's anonymous community and culture has provoked media attention, in turn inciting larger audiences. On the other side of the spectrum is Facebook—popular for its connectivity and easily identifiable names. With the brush of keyboard stroke, you can be connected with your entire high school class in a matter of seconds.
The number of passwords I have for different websites and emails is easily in the triple digits. And if I had to actually remember all of those individual passwords, I would be locked out of accounts on a daily basis.
I recently ran into a problem connecting my Instagram app on my iPhone 5 to Facebook, and neither Instagram's or Facebook's help pages were as helpful as they claim to be.
Having access to your computer from your cell phone is an extremely useful feature. Whether you need to edit documents or send files that are on your home desktop, or you simply want to watch movies you have saved on your computer, access is key.
The beauty of free apps is that, well, they're free. But as we all know, there is no such thing as a free lunch. Sometimes these "free" applications are only feature-limited mini versions, or they're so littered with ads that opting to pay for it is the only way to actually enjoy it.
Winter is coming... and if you don't get that Game of Thrones reference, it's okay, you're still cool in my book.
There is nothing more irritating than having a nice jam session interrupted by an ad selling B vitamins, and that's exactly what Spotify does to you if you don't pay up.
Microsoft's first venture into the tablet market, the Surface RT, combines many of the capabilities of a normal Windows 8 laptop into a super compact tablet, whose super-thin touch cover and kickstand can transform it into a functional mini-laptop, small and light enough to go anywhere you want. But like most tablets, the Surface comes with a rather limited amount of storage space. The tablet comes in either 32 GB or 64 GB, but we all know that's not the actual amount of storage space you can...
Apple has begun selling their new iPad mini at stores around the world starting today. The mini, a smaller and cheaper alternative to the larger iPad, has a starting price of $329 and is expected to sell around 1 to 1.5 million units in the first weekend, far below the 3 million iPad 3s sold last March (who all probably want their money back). Something that's sure to be brought up in the following days, as with most new devices, is the battery life. As we previously provided you tips on savi...
With Sprint already rolling out their Jelly Bean updates to Samsung Galaxy S III owners here in the United States, international users have already had a chance to check out Android's newest OS on their S3, but all is not gravy.
When the hardware buttons on your smartphone aren't working right, it can be a real pain to do almost anything. Simple tasks like accessing your home screen, opening the menu, and powering your phone on and off—normal functions you use every day—become chores, if you're even able to do them at all.
Apple's iTunes Match service is a great feature for people who have large libraries or want to sync their music across a lot of different devices. It lets you store any song in your library that exists in the iTunes Store on the cloud, even songs you imported from CDs, and even improves the quality of some of them. But, like any new service, it's not without its problems, and the fact that it costs $25 a year makes those problems seem even worse. Among the issues that users reported, unmatche...
Shorts, learning from your audience and the fundamental plausibility of being hustled in the desert Mike Clattenburg, creator of Trailer Park Boys and Afghan Luke, was kind enough to talk to us from Nova Scotia, where he was hard at work in preproduction, about Crackin’ Down Hard, his short that screens Monday and Tuesday as part of TIFF’s Short Cuts Canada Programme. We picked his brain about realism versus surrealism in comedy, the virtue of shorts, and the virtue of turning negative skinny...
Before I really get into this article, it's important to note that you do not need a Steampunk persona (or "steamsona") in order to be a Steampunk, or wear Steampunk clothes. Some people like to pretend to be a different person when dressed up in Steampunk clothing, but that is entirely optional, and only to be done if it appeals to you. That said, even if you aren't actually acting as your character, it may still be helpful to have one in mind when putting together an outfit. Personally, I'v...
BUD (Block Update Detector) switches can essentially take the place of a regular switch like a lever or a button, but instead of having a "usable" function like pressing the button or flipping the lever, BUD switches trigger when a block next to a piston changes states.
When OS X Lion (10.7) debuted last year, a lot of Apple users were dismayed that the "Save As" option had disappeared, replaced by the "Duplicate" function. Most felt that it just wasn't the same, so when Mountain Lion was released, the "Save As" option was brought back… sort of.
Psy's K-Pop hit, Gangnam Style has taken YouTube, and now the world by storm. Love or hate the song, there is just no way you'll watch the music video only once.
