I've seen my fair share of heartbreaks when it comes to used phones. As a repair tech, I often had to try and help out customers who bought used handsets which turned out to be useless, either because it was stolen or not working on their carrier's network. More often than not, there was very little I could do. To help you from being stuck in the same situation, here are some tips to prevent you from getting scammed out of your hard earned money when buying a used handset.
Tonic water, seltzer water, club soda, and mineral water: these 4 types of "bubbly water" are often, erroneously, used interchangeably. But the truth is that each possesses unique qualities and uses that set them apart from each other.
Social engineering is a pretty important item in a hacker's toolkit. In Mr robot there was a time, we saw Elliot using social engineering to gain access to his therapist's boyfriend's email and bank accounts by calling him and pretending to be someone from his bank, then Elliot asked him for some info that were really useful to gain access to his account, the target believed to be someone from the bank and gave him the info Elliot was looking for. But How Is It in the Real World?
Everyone and his mother (and grandmother) has a chocolate chip cookie recipe that he swears is the absolute best recipe, guaranteed to produce a chocolate chip cookie so good it will make you weep with joy. The problem with that is that everyone—relatives included—has a different idea of exactly what constitutes a perfect chocolate chip cookie.
Common knowledge is a funny thing: it represents a majority's opinion on a particular subject and somehow makes that opinion fact. If that 'fact' goes unopposed and unchallenged, then it is passed on and preserved from one generation to the next—regardless of whether it is true or not.
Welcome back, my novice hackers! This new series on Bluetooth hacking was inspired by a recent episode of Mr. Robot (my favorite TV show). In episode 6, Eliot hacked the bluetooth keyboard of the police office in order to hack the prison and release his nemesis, Vera. This is just one of the many hacks we will explore in the series.
All of Apple's products are praised for being extremely easy to use. So much so, that your grandma can pick one up and be a "pro" within a few hours. However, this isn't necessarily a good thing for us real power users who want more granular control of our devices.
Welcome back, my greenhorn hackers! Digital forensics and hacking are complementary disciplines. The better you are at digital forensics, the better hacker you are, and the better hacker you are, the better you are digital forensics. Unfortunately, few people in either profession cross these discipline lines.
Edit: Some of the methods I show you may be difficult, or not work at famous or high quality hotels.
By now, nearly everyone with any type of media access is aware that Sony Pictures Entertainment was hacked on November 24th. Although there can be many interpretations and lessons drawn from this audacious act, there is one indisputable conclusion: it and its ripples across the globe underlines how important hacking has become in our all-digital 21st century. As I have emphasized so many times in this column, hacking is the discipline of the future. From cybercrime to cyber intelligence to cy...
Facebook will let you do pretty much anything via a text message, but unless you still have a flip phone, it's more of a novelty than actually useful.
As with most OEMs, HTC would like you to think that you can do virtually anything with your new HTC One M8, but as a softModder, you know that isn't true. To actually unleash the full potential of that device, you need access to the whole system, not just the parts that HTC deems okay for you to mess with.
Apple is widely known for keeping a tight grip on iOS, disallowing open-source and third-party downloads. While there are many reasons for this, the three most frequently referenced are quality control, malware prevention, and of course—money.
UPDATE (February 26, 2014) Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 1123 with a 295-114 vote decision. The ruling repeals the 2012 Library of Congress (LOC) decision that limited the ability to legally "unlock" your smartphone (see below).
There are lots of people who want to stay anonymous online, and lots of reasons they want to do this. Staying anonymous on the internet isn't easy, and it's probably possible to trace almost anyone with enough time and resources. A lot of people think that they're completely secure with just one method of cover. For example, a lot of people thought anyone using the Tor network was nearly untraceable, but then things like this often cast doubt on just how secure these networks are. Unless you ...
What if I told you that you could read minds? You'd most likely think I was crazy, and you'd be right. But what I really meant is that you could make people think that you could read minds, something that's not the least bit crazy.
It's that time a year when winter storms begin causing havoc across the United States, and when "rotating outages" are common to help sustain the electrical grid during intense cold periods. That means pretty much anybody with snow and ice in their backyard can succumb to power outages. And no electricity means no electric heat.
The iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 15 Pro Max are Apple's most powerful iPhones to date with features like USB-C connectivity, improved camera capabilities, and faster CPUs. But no matter how impressive these phones are, they can still freeze, become unresponsive, or get stuck when powering on — and a force restart is how you get things working again.
The US Department of Treasury isn't generally known for being on the very edge of technology innovations (see the current hubbub around crypto), instead usually waiting until certain tools have been battle-tested in the mainstream or enterprise sector.
The legal battle between Epic Games and augmented reality startup Nreal isn't cooling off anytime soon.
Apple released the fourth beta for iOS 14.7 today, Tuesday, June 29. The update comes 15 days after iOS 14.7 beta 3, and restores battery service messages that may have disappeared after reboot on some iPhone 11 models.
Having found success in video games and a hugely popular Netflix series, The Witcher franchise is now on the hunt for the coin Pokémon GO has earned in location-based augented reality mobile games.
Apple released the fifth iOS 14.5 developer beta on Tuesday, Mar. 23. The update comes eight days after the company released 14.5 beta 4 for public testers and developers.
Apple released iOS 14.3 developer beta 3 today, Wednesday, Dec. 2. The update comes 15 days after Apple released iOS 14.3 beta 2 for developers and public beta testers, which introduced a change that bypasses the Shortcuts app when using a custom icon on the home screen.
Apple just released the fourth developer beta for iOS 14.2 today, Tuesday, Oct. 20. The new update introduces eight new dynamic wallpapers, including four real-life landscapes, and four digital landscapes.
The iOS 14 beta may be picking up steam, but the iOS 13 beta program isn't out for the count. With the release of the iOS 13.7 beta, build 17H33, Apple has included API changes for the COVID-19 Exposure Notifications setting. The update makes it possible for public health authorities to let iPhone users get coronavirus exposure alerts without installing their state's app.
When it comes to cybersecurity, one layer isn't enough. A complex password (or one created with a password manager) does a good job of protecting your data, but it can still be cracked. Two-factor authentication strengthens this by adding a second layer of security, giving you even more protection against online threats.
You watched the live stream, pored over the specs, and are now super excited for the Google Pixel 4. But specs don't tell you everything. After using the Pixel 4 XL for over a week now, we've found several things you wouldn't know without getting your hands on the phone.
Microsoft.com is one of the most extensive domains on the internet with thousands of registered subdomains. Windows 10 will ping these subdomains hundreds of times an hour, making it challenging to firewall and monitor all of the requests made by the operating system. An attacker can use these subdomains to serve payloads to evade network firewalls.
For the first time, you can officially use a computer mouse with your iPhone, thanks to Apple's new Accessibility settings in iOS 13. It works for all types of Bluetooth mice, so if you have one, it'll already work. Plus, those with wireless receivers and even wired mice are supported by using a USB to Lightning adapter.
Whether it's for health reasons or just to look better, many of us want to get in shape. It's a long process that starts with nutrition, and dieting is never easy. Fortunately, there are some great food-tracking apps that will make it a lot easier to become a healthier version of yourself.
Expressing yourself during chats is much easier these days thanks to the steady rise of emoji. Now, products like emoji Minis for Gboard are taking the craft to an interesting yet familiar new level. With emoji Minis, you can automatically create stickers based off your own face. From there, you can further customize the stickers by adding key features such as glasses, earrings, and facial hair.
Everyone from first responders to hotel cleaning staff use radios operating in the sub-megahertz range to communicate, often without even encoding the transmission. While encoding and encryption are increasingly used in radio communication, an RTL-SDR adapter and smartphone are all it takes to start listening in on radio conversations happening around you.
In a previous tutorial, we were able to place the Mona Lisa on vertical surfaces such as walls, books, and monitors using ARKit 1.5. By combining the power of Scene Kit and Sprite Kit (Apple's 2D graphics engine), we can play a video on a flat surface in ARKit.
Your iPhone comes packed with a long list of excellent text tones to choose from. Bamboo anyone? Of course, for some of us, stock sounds from 2013 don't cut it anymore. We want customizability, something that's found more on Android than iOS. However, you can add your very own text tones to your iPhone right now, so long as you have a sound file in mind and a computer running iTunes.
In a previous tutorial, we were able to measure horizontal surfaces such as the ground, tables, etc., all using ARKit. With ARKit 1.5, we're now able to measure vertical surfaces like walls!
The iPhone XR has touched down alongside the XS and XS Max, and it utilizes tried and tested materials found on the iPhone 8, while being molded in the same vein as the iPhone X. The budget-friendlier flagship comes with its own set of design elements to set it apart from its more expensive brethren, but is powered by the same SoC, making it is a solid choice if you're thinking of upgrading.
There are nearly 100,000 unique onion service addresses online with over two million people using Tor every single day. Join me as I explore a small fraction of what the Tor network has to offer.
Have you noticed the many utility ARKit apps on the App Store that allow you to measure the sizes of horizontal planes in the world? Guess what? After this tutorial, you'll be able to do this yourself!
