In the realm of Android mods, none is more powerful than a custom recovery. This is installed in place of the stock offering, and it lets you back up your entire system, flash mods, and install custom ROMs.
The Apple Watch may be a much simpler device than your iPhone, but that doesn't mean it's free of bugs, glitches, and crashes just like your other devices. A common problem that you'll run into is a frozen screen due to a malfunctioning app. While this can be frustrating, the solution can be as simple as a quick reboot.
No one is perfect, and this goes double for software developers. All of the quality assurance testing in the world does nothing when you put a new OS in the hands of everyday users, since we all use our devices in different places and for different reasons. Recently, Cyanogen released their version of Android Lollipop, Cyanogen OS 12, and with it came a whole lot of great features, but some bugs also slipped in.
The Apple Watch is finally here! We'll have loads of guides and videos for you guys to check out in the following week and beyond, but we thought it'd be best to start off showing you how to set up and pair that brand new beautiful Apple Watch of yours to your iPhone.
For the most part, when you're copying text on your Android device, it's because you intend on pasting it into a different app than the one you're currently using. For instance, you might be looking at a posting on Craigslist. So you copy the seller's phone number, then head to your home screen, switch over to your phone app, paste it into your dialer, and finally make the call.
Upon getting the new Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge here at the office, there are countless things we wanted to do before actually diving in and using the device. One of those things is removing all of the unnecessary pre-installed applications we never asked for.
Like its predecessor—and probably every device in the future—the Samsung Galaxy S6 comes with a fingerprint scanner that allows for a more secure lock screen, web sign-ins, and account verification. But unlike its brethren, the sensor on the S6 has been vastly improved. No longer does it require a clumsy swipe—all you have to do is place your finger on it for less than a second, much like Touch ID on iPhones.
If you're jonesing to play some Super Mario Run on your Android phone, you might not be able to get your fix for some time—at least, until Nintendo figures out the best way to keep piracy down and security high. But if you can't wait for the first official appearance of Mario on Android, we've got the next best thing...
Thanks to the strenuous efforts of our Gadget Hacks development team here at WonderHowTo, the fortified barrier segregating Android from iOS has finally fallen down.
If Detective Alonzo Harris from Training Day taught me anything, it's that "It's not what you know, it's what you can prove." So when items mysteriously go missing from my room or my section of the fridge, it's up to me to figure out and prove which roommate took them.
Apple released iOS 8.2 on March 9th for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, which contains bug fixes and stability enhancements for certain stock features. If you've updated your device already, you've probably already noticed that you get the new Apple Watch app, too—no matter if you plan on getting a pricey Apple Watch or not.
Granting seamless access to your favorite or most utilized apps with just a tap, the Galaxy S5's "Toolbox" feature is one that plenty of other Android users wish they had. Instead of holding your breath for your manufacturer to implement something similar, or hoping that Samsung releases it on Google Play, you can mimic it on your device today with a few simple steps.
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.
The king of all Xposed modules is alive and kicking on Android Lollipop. GravityBox received an update over the weekend that will bring its bevy of UI tweaks to folks who have installed the framework on their Android 5.0+ devices.
The biggest pet peeve of many Google Now users has always been the fact that you can't toggle basic system functions with voice commands. In fact, this was such an annoyance that folks even went so far as to apply root mods to get the functionality.
The more we use our smartphones, the more storage space becomes occupied—it's an inescapable fact. But as the data accumulates and chokes off our storage, it can become difficult to identify exactly which files are occupying the most space.
While shortcuts to your Camera and third-party apps like Snapchat are great for capturing fleeting moments, it still takes a few seconds to open them and snap a photo. That means you could potentially miss a great shot if you're not quick enough. But now there's a super-fast way to capture and send photos without having to waste time unlocking your device.
The Nexus 6 came with a hidden kernel module that allowed for double-tap-to-wake functionality, essentially letting you turn your screen on just by tapping it. A simple root app allowed us to activate this feature, which meant we were always two quick taps away from waking our device.
For $35, there's hardly a better value in the online media player market than the Chromecast. Taking that sentiment a step further, if you factor in the promotions Google likes to offer with it, Chromecast practically pays for itself.
When you press the "Call" button on most Bluetooth headsets, the majority of Android devices will launch a built-in Voice Dialer app. This app has been around since the dawn of Android, and has received very few interface or functionality updates.
With over 500 million downloads on Android alone, I find it safe to assume that most of us use the Chrome Browser on our mobile devices; it's great for reading articles with Reader mode enabled, syncs open tabs and bookmarks across all your devices (as long as you're signed in to your Google account), and is regularly updated with new features and optimizations.
2015 is quickly shaping up to be the year of the cord cutter, with various media companies finally warming up to the concept of offering live streaming content. In the wake of Dish Network announcing a streaming cable service called Sling TV and Sony unveiling a similar platform in PlayStation Vue, NBC has decided to stream the Super Bowl and all of its festivities online. Before we get to all of the many ways you can stream Super Bowl 49 between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks ...
Apple is offering free full episodes of popular TV shows and free songs from artists with its most recent update to the iTunes Store. In the Music section, "Free on iTunes" seems to have replaced "Single of the Week," which used to give lesser-known independent artists a chance to give their music away in hopes that it would increase their popularity.
While you can do a lot of things on your smartphone that were once only done on a computer, having a laptop is still necessary and critical for many tasks. Often times, the two devices work very well together.
Microsoft dropped a couple of huge bombs at their Windows 10 event Wednesday afternoon. Free operating systems and holographic glasses? This must be a Sci-Fi novel or a Hollywood blockbuster, because it reeks of fiction.
Widget toggles, or "power toggles" as they're often called, have been around for quite a while. They serve their purpose nicely as an easy way to add switches to your home screen or notification area for functions that don't come with the stock software on your device.
In a long-awaited move, the popular messaging platform WhatsApp has finally made its official web debut. Desktop and laptop owners will be happy to know that they can now message their favorite contacts directly from their computers, without the need to install additional apps.
Smartphones like the Nexus 6 and those in the Samsung Galaxy Note series border on being called tablets due to the sheer size of their displays. They are essentially "phablets," i.e., devices too large to be a typical smartphone, yet too small to be a tablet.
In an effort to make things simple and more secure, Google decided to slim down the power menu in Android 5.0. What once provided a quick link to shut your device down, turn on Airplane mode, and toggle volume states, has now been relegated to a simple power switch. Lucky for us, developer Gar Ynych has created a flashable ZIP that will revert these changes and restore functionality to the Nexus 5's power menu. In a few simple steps, you can add the volume toggles and Airplane mode switch rig...
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.
Emojis are a huge part of communication these days. In fact, I'm beginning to think that in a thousand years, historians will come across our then-ancient texts and speculate that we used a writing system that evolved from hieroglyphics.
For some strange reason, when the Nexus 5 got its Lollipop update, the new stock system sounds were left out. These include updated versions of all of the ringtones and notifications, which Google revamped with a more mature sound that matches Android 5.0's elegant Material Design.
OnePlus One's CyanogenMod firmware comes packed with personalization options that standard Android devices could only achieve with root-level access. By simply entering the Settings app, OPO owners can make changes to their lock screen, status bar, and notification drawer, as well as apply themes and gestures to make their device a little more customized.
Many modern Android devices use a display technology called AMOLED. These screens differ from traditional LCD displays in that each pixel emits its own light, so a backlight is not required. Even better, when rendering a black element on the screen, AMOLED displays simply don't light up the associated pixels, meaning virtually no power is used. Since black pixels use little to no power on an AMOLED screen, more black pixels means lower battery consumption.
Android has plenty of features that provide multitasking support, which are especially useful on smartphones with larger screens. One such feature that I loved on the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 was the popup browser, which brought up a floating window whenever I opened a link inside of third-party apps like Facebook and Twitter.
By now, everybody knows that overcharging a battery will reduce its overall life span. This is why many smartphone manufacturers recommend that you charge your device to 100%, then unplug it immediately. Some even go so far as to automatically stop charging when the device is fully juiced, although not all devices have this functionality.
If you've ever attempted to report a bug to a developer, no doubt you've heard the response, "Get a logcat." This is infinitely important to a developer because of the fact that a logcat captures a full report of every command that was recently executed on your Android device, and it allows them to see exactly where something went wrong.
Just in time for the holiday festivities, iOS developer Tristan Kennedy has created a snowy HTML widget for your jailbroken iPhone's home screen called SnowScreen. Simply apply the widget and you'll have a falling snow animation layered over whatever wallpaper you already have. Without further adieu, let's show you how to apply this tweak.
The prevalence of smartphones has had profound effects on how we communicate, view media, and preserve memories, among other things. But all of these new forms of doing things are snatched away from us as soon as our phones lose power. While work is constantly being done to stretch and extend battery life, it hasn't moved fast enough for the vast majority of us.
Windows 8 may have introduced a new, intuitive touch-based interface, but plenty of Microsoft loyalists were unhappy with the absence of the classic start menu that they were so accustomed to.
