Welcome back, my greenhorn hackers! My preference for Linux as a hacking platform is well documented, and I have even created a series of tutorials to train new hackers. Without being proficient in Linux, you can't really call yourself a hacker.
Twitter found a sweet spot with its 160-character limit, but Snapchat sports a social media low of 31 characters, forcing us to condense our ideas into a few short words when typing in picture captions because of their ephemeral nature. While this severely limited amount of words is Snapchat etiquette, I've got so much more to say than 31 characters!
For the most part, Google Play Music makes it extremely easy to upload and organize your music library, as well as access it quickly using the default settings—but there are a few things it could do better.
Sony has been hard at work refining its Xperia line of flagship phones. With a 6-month release cycle, they've managed to slim bezels, increase viewing angles, and boost processing power in the 1.5-year span between the original Xperia Z and the Z2.
Sometimes, stock just doesn't cut it. When you're sick of the limitations in Sense on your HTC One, a new ROM can be a ray of sunshine. By installing a custom ROM, you can add or unlock new features in Sense, or you can get a pure Android experience instead. It's all up to you.
If you've ever used the automation app Tasker, then you know exactly how powerful the tool can be. If you haven't, suffice it to say that there's virtually nothing on your Android phone that Tasker can't automatically do for you.
When I first used the Google Now Launcher, I appreciated the transparency that came with it, and how it made the real look larger than it did before. But now that I'm used to it, that transparent navigation bar is beginning to look a little stale.
The act of viewing a new notification on your Nexus 5 can feel a bit clunky and cumbersome at times. When a new message comes in, you hear the notification sound, you see the LED blinking, but you can't see what the actual notification says without waking the device and opening the notification tray.
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.
Once you unlock your bootloader and root, you're left with one more hurdle to overcome, and that's getting S-Off.
Just about every softMod requires some kind of reboot. Whether it's because something in the System UI was changed, or because a ZIP needs to be flashed in custom recovery.
Included in Spotify's new darker, slimmed down redesign is a much needed My Music section, which consolidates all of your starred music, local files, and playlists into a personal collection of songs, albums, and artists, similar to how iTunes organizes your music. This makes me wonder...
If you're as bad at locking your Nexus up as I am, you have the "slide" option set for your screen lock. It may not be the most secure option, but it's definitely the easiest way to unlock your device while being able to utilize lock screen widgets.
What's the point of having a 1080p screen if you're not using it to get in some quality gaming time? Google Play is great for downloading games, but you probably already have an extensive library of games for your consoles, so use those!
Flashing ROMs can be a tricky process, and sometimes you can end up leaving yourself without a ROM at all, often referred to as a soft brick. If you accidentally wiped your internal memory before a flash or forgot to download the ROM before wiping your system partition, don't worry, there is always a way to get your phone back up and running.
As Nexus owners, we love our device's operating system, and it's probably the reason we went for a pure Google experience in the first place. But that doesn't mean there's not room for improvement in Android, especially when the OS has so many freely available softMods to tinker with.
YouTube makes money hand over fist every year selling ad space to companies, but unless you're reaping those benefits, they can be pretty annoying. Luckily, there is a simple way to get rid them on your rooted HTC One with Xposed and YouTube AdAway.
The all new HTC One M8 is the latest Android flagship making the rounds through major carriers hoping to beckon your purchase. Coming in at about $200 for most carriers with a contract, it makes a good case for itself with its advanced features and solid price point—but, there's another way to buy the One, and it's not from your carrier.
Yesterday, I wanted to remove BackTrack from my system and install Kali, and at the same time didn't want to damage my Windows 7 or my hard drive. I searched a lot of articles, but almost all of them wanted me to have a backup Windows 7 CD, which I don't possess.
As fellow softModders, I'm sure you strive to find any and every way to make your phone unique. Wallpapers and icon packs are great to get started, but to really stand out from the rest, try changing your HTC One's boot animation.
Currently in its alpha stage, Facebook has pushed forward a redesigned mobile app for Android users that provides a flat user interface and rearranged navigation tools.
The little black status bar at the top of your screen is great for at-a-glance info, but let's face it—it's pretty ugly. If you want to hide it completely, only showing it when you need it, check out our guide on using Immersive Mode in KitKat. However, if you want to keep the at-a-glance convenience and have it blend in with your apps, try out Tinted Status Bar.
One of the hardest tradeoffs when installing a non-Sense-based custom ROM on an HTC One is the loss of Beats Audio. Due to a patent restrictions from Beats and compatibility issues, it's currently impossible to port it to a non-Sense ROM, but with ViPER4Android you can get almost identical results, bringing life back to the BoomSound speakers on your device.
You've unlocked your bootloader and rooted your HTC One running KitKat, but there's still one lingering aspect of security you've yet to rid yourself of—S-On—the extra security measure HTC implemented into Sense.
Since the introduction of LED flash to smartphones, there have been hundreds of flashlight apps flooding Google Play, since most Android phones do not have built-in flashlight apps, including the HTC One.
As softModders, the first thing we do after updating to the newest version of Android is to root, install a custom recovery, and install a superuser app. By doing this you open up your HTC One to a vast quantity of new apps and tweaks you can use to truly make your phone One of a kind.
Welcome back, my apprentice hackers! As many of you know, I have been hesitant to adopt the new Kali hacking system from Offensive Security. This hesitancy has been based upon a number of bugs in the original release back in March of 2013 and my belief that BackTrack was easier for the novice to work with.
Nokia's recent foray into the world of Android brought a plethora of goodies along with it. The Finnish smartphone manufacturer offers a slightly different take on our favorite mobile operating system, with customizations ranging from ringtones to its very own app store.
Watch the video and animation for to see how it works. The drawing(free PDF download) is included in the description of the videos.
If you're a user of Google Play Music, but not a fan of being relegated to a browser tab, I've got you covered. Developer Sajid Anwar has created a desktop client for Google's music service, but since he made no attempt to hide logos and trademarks, it may not be long before the app vanishes completely. So get it while it's hot...and before Google takes it down.
You probably use your smartphone to mostly surf the web, play games, and communicate with others, but there's so much more it can do. Thanks to integrated features and third-party apps, you can seamlessly control things around your home, including your TV, tablet, Bluetooth speakers, and even lighting fixtures.
Alright, I'll admit it, iOS can be quite nice. Android loyalist that I may be, I'm not so stubborn that I can't recognize a good thing when I see it. Apple's iOS has a lot of strengths, and our Nexus 4s, god bless 'em, are growing a little long in the tooth.
Normally, you'd have to jailbreak your iPad or iPhone to play any games that aren't available in the iOS App Store, like the now-extinct Flappy Bird game. But this isn't the case if you want to play some of your favorite old school Nintendo classics.
The flexibility within Android is pretty amazing. Unlike iOS, you can make a lot of modifications with nothing more than a download from Google Play, but to really step up your softModder game, you'll need to go a little further.
Getting the volume on our phones to be just right can be a pretty annoying task. Some people like to listen to music and videos with max volume while some like it a little lower. With the default volume control on your Samsung Galaxy S3, there are only 15 steps before you reach max volume, making it tough to find that sweet spot.
Midway through 2013, a popular custom ROM called Paranoid Android introduced their multitasking feature "Halo." Bubble-style notifications inspired by Facebook chat heads pop up near the top of the screen, and you simply tap on them to bring up the app in a floating window.
We softModders come from all walks of life, and sooner or later, our devices begin to reflect who we are. Maybe you've followed one of our guides on customizing your Nexus 7, such as getting the exclusive Google Experience Launcher or hiding the navigation buttons for more screen space, or maybe you used one of the various Xposed mods we've covered.
Android 4.4 KitKat has begun rolling out for the Galaxy Note 3 in India, Poland, Russia, Switzerland, and several other countries, and an unofficial build for AT&T customers has been leaked for all of us stateside.
As an avid reader, I come across a plethora of words I don't know, but my iPhone is always right there to help figure out their meanings.
Toast notifications are a type of pop-up alert built into Android, letting us know when an app has performed a certain action. Whether it's Gmail saving a draft or Firefox opening a new tab, toasts are meant to be informational while not being totally intrusive.
