If you have an Apple Watch, it's easier than ever to ask Siri for directions, send a quick text, or locate the nearest Chipotle—because you don't need to pull out your iPhone anymore. Luckily, Apple made it fairly painless to get Siri up and running on the Watch, so let's go over the two quick activation methods.
Aside from the fact that it was the only game available on my cell phone at the time, I was really good at Snake. I still occasionally play it on my smartphone, but I've never been able to duplicate the same level of achievement as I once did.
CyanogenMod has been building upon open-source AOSP apps for many years now. They've made improvements to apps like the stock SMS client, the stock Audio Mixer, and a whole slew of others.
Not too long ago I showcased ReCam, a free app that lets you schedule recordings and use your Android device as a security or spy camera of sorts. While useful, this app required you to schedule when to record in advance, resulting in you possibly missing the footage you intended to record (assuming your scheduling wasn't as on-point as you wished).
After receiving the fourth beta for iOS 8.3, we can assume that the official release shouldn't be too far behind. Along with plenty of bug fixes from prior iOS versions, Apple is also ushering in a few minor features that are sure to ease some annoyances.
Google recently rolled out a new Smart Lock option labeled "On-body detection" for Android Lollipop via an update to Google Play Services. As I'm sure you can gather from the name, this new function keeps your phone or tablet unlocked using the built-in accelerometer to determine whether or not your device is being carried on your body, allowing you to set it down and walk away carefree knowing that's it's locked again.
With the release of various new and updated Samsung Galaxy S6 apps and features, like Smart Switch, Smart Remote, and wallpapers, something that's a home screen staple for most Android users was still missing.
Netflix is an enabler. It creates a joy around binge-watching and couch potato-ness, and the major contributor to this epidemic is its built-in "Post-Play" feature.
With wearable tech becoming the latest trend in electronics, it's a shame that most smartwatches are locked down to one ecosystem. If you purchase a smartwatch, you can expect that it will not work with devices from competing manufacturers. That will be the case for the Apple Watch when the product finally hits shelves, and it has been the case for Android Wear devices like the Moto 360 for quite some time now.
Hard-boiled eggs are such an amazing snack, but there's nothing quite so frustrating as trying to get all the shell off without damaging the egg underneath. I've ended up with many a sadly pitted and pockmarked egg that somehow doesn't taste quite as good as when it emerges all white and smooth.
Peeling garlic is one kitchen task that every cook, from the newbie to the experienced, is always trying to make easier. Methods vary, from shaking heads of garlic inside a container to using the microwave to help peels slide right off.
A highly useful, yet unrecognized and under-appreciated feature in Apple's iOS 8 is the ability to seamlessly convert incoming texts regarding future dates into calendar events. Messages like "Let's chill tomorrow" can be tapped on and quickly added to the calendar. It's convenient and easy, but unfortunately, not available on most Android devices. However, it's pretty easy to get using Inviter (SMS to Calendar) from developer Sergey Beliy.
I'm all about customizing my iPhone and making it as different as possible from everyone else's. While it's easy to change the wallpaper, swap keyboards, and hide apps on your home screen, there's not much else you can do aesthetically without jailbreaking, especially when it comes to the status bar and app icons.
Left-handers only make up about ten percent of the world, which means they typically have to use things made for the majority, i.e., right-handed people. If that wasn't annoying enough, there are studies that show that lefties actually get paid less.
Maybe it was the years of concerts with deafening speakers blasting music into my ears, but I always listen to my tunes as loud as the volume allows me. So, it's pretty annoying when I get a "high volume" warning every time I listen to music on my OnePlus One with my headphones on. We've previously shown you how to remove this same warning by using the NoSafeVolumeWarning, an Xposed module that required root access. Thankfully, the very liberal OnePlus One has a built-in feature that lets you...
Third-party keyboard support, introduced earlier this year by Apple with iOS 8, was initially pretty awesome. I loved playing around with all of the different options available in the iOS App Store, including SwiftKey, TouchPal, GIF Keyboard, and Swype.
Aside from identifying songs with Shazam and using the "Hey Siri" feature while driving, Apple's personal assistant isn't something I regularly use on my iPhone.
While chatting in Hangouts on Android, inserting an emoji or animated sticker can instantly make the conversation more fun, but they'll eventually lose their charm, as most things do. Even if you add GIFs to your texting arsenal, things could get stale. That is, unless they're personalize GIFs you actually make yourself (the process is really simple).
Google Earth is the cheapest way to travel the world, i.e., virtually. Their super satellites give us unbelievable access to images from pretty much any place around the globe, turning us all into would-be world explorers. Plus, these images make for stunning wallpapers.
Call it OCD if you will, but I make it a priority to have a clean Notification panel. Like a chalkboard that isn't wiped spotless, I get an unsettling feeling that something in the universe isn't complete when there's unnecessary clutter in the drop-down. For this reason, I loathe the fact that I can't remove the "Wi-Fi connected" tile from my "Notifications."
One of the best times to get creative during the year is Halloween, and if you're one of those people that like to make your own costumes and decorations, then here's a little something you can do for that scary night... A GHOST!!!
Automator takes the work out of common repetitive tasks. I don't enjoy compressing videos for quick sharing or uploading to the web, so I created an Automator action to handle the process for me.
The Touch ID fingerprint scanner on the iPhone 5S was one of the phone's biggest selling points. Now, the Touch ID system can do more than just unlock your phone, like pay for stuff, and is even present on the new iPads (as well as iPhone 6 models, of course).
One of the easiest ways to adjust brightness on an Android device is to use the slider found in the notification shade. Unfortunately, for some odd reason, the Sprint variant of the LG G3 does not have this feature.
With the release of the iPhone 6 Plus, comparisons to the Samsung Galaxy Note series have been circulating like crazy, and it's only natural. The Note was panned as an oversized gimmick when it was released, but after its enormous success, Apple caved and built their own "phablet," something that Samsung took little time to call them out on.
By now, Samsung's Multi-Window Mode is a pretty well-known feature. With other manufacturers now recreating this functionality in their own flagships, like LG, it's safe to say the feature has been a hit with consumers.
We're a little citrus-obsessed, and with good reason: lemons, limes, oranges, grapefruit: Mother Nature really packed those babies with flavor, from peel (which you can zest without special tools) to juice. Now executive chef Amanda Freitag of Empire Diner has come up with a way to make those lemons and limes give up even more flavor by applying a lot of heat.
Quickly jotting down grocery lists, recommended books, phone numbers, and addresses, among other things, has been a pretty straightforward process on an iPad or iPhone. Through the Notes app, you can enter information and have it seamlessly synced across all of your iOS devices, making access to them simple, quick, and universal.
Welcome back, my budding hackers! People often ask me, "Why are you training hackers? Isn't that illegal?" Although I usually give them a short version of this post, there are MANY reasons why YOU should be studying hacking.
As soon as you plug a set of headphones into a Samsung Galaxy series device, a bar pops up in the notification tray that lets you select from a list of "recommended apps" for earphones. It's a convenient little feature that shows the apps you're most likely to use based on previous activity.
This past year, Facebook spent $19 billion purchasing the popular messaging app WhatsApp, and for good reason. Mark Zuckerberg isn't going to spend that type of money on just any application. WhatsApp is widely popular and frequently used by more than 500 million users worldwide, which is almost twenty percent of the Earth's population.
Personality is something we're constantly attempting to inject into our lives, whether it be the car we drive or clothing we wear—and our mobile devices are no exception.
If you've done any root-level hacking or modding on any of your previous Android devices, you're probably well familiar with Rovo89's famous Xposed Framework.
The first thing we usually do with a new smartphone is download apps, and lots of them. There are your must-have games, utility apps, and of course—the free daily "app of the day" from Amazon. If you're like me, you'll install every single one of these free apps, and whether they get used or not, they'll be waiting in the app drawer.
Screenshots are all the rage. From sharing high game scores with friends to placing conversation threads online for the world to see to secretly capturing Snapchats, this function of smartphones is prevalent through modern society.
The camera on the Amazon Fire Phone is simple and easy-to-use, with a 13-megapixel rear shooter with optical image stabilization, but there are a couple of features that makes this camera stand out from others.
For some reason, when you're typing in landscape mode, Android extends the text input field to cover every bit of the screen that the keyboard's not occupying. This gets pretty annoying sometimes, especially with messaging apps where you might need to reference what the other person just said in order to properly form your response.
Trying to remember if it's "beer before liquor or liquor before beer" can be too much of a hassle, especially if you've already have had a few too many. While it would be great if one rhyme could determine the amount of pain you will feel the next morning, we must accept that we all react differently to alcohol and that's that.
There will always be a time when you're not entirely sure what you're doing with a certain subject. But the days of weighing the pros and cons yourself are coming to an end. Whether it's a common quandary like "Where should we eat?", or a more specific question along the lines of "Should I buy this shirt or not?", you can now simply AskInternets.
Smartphones and TVs aside, most of the electronics industry is focused on making everything smaller. From cars to cameras to computers to memory, we want power and convenience to go hand-in-hand. Professor John Rogers at the University of Illinois is ready for the next wave of medical tech with his smart electronic biosensors.
