With the advent of text messaging, our communication habits have changed drastically. Social niceties are still there, but we budget our words a little more since they have to be typed out rather than spoken. After all, SMS stands for "Short Message Service," so this is the nature of the beast.
After I traded in my Samsung Galaxy S5 for an iPhone 5S, the one feature I truly missed was the Smart Remote app. My television remote was broken and the S5 saved me from, you know, actually having to get up and change the channel.
These days, we truly have a world of knowledge at our fingertips. Trouble is, a large portion of that information is not something you'd want your five-year-old learning about quite yet.
Before phones became mobile-gaming, music-playing, app-downloading devices, they were used simply to make convenient, cordless phone calls. There's so much on phones these days that a passcode is needed to keep everything secure, and making calls is now more complicated.
With all of the productivity tweaks and usability enhancements that we cover here at Gadget Hacks, it's nice when we come across a unique and noteworthy app that's simply about having fun.
Yes, "Safer Internet Day" is a real thing, and it's actually been around for 12 years. This year, Google again will be commemorating the event by giving away a 2-gigabyte storage bump for their Google Drive cloud service if you simply run through a security checkup.
In today's world, we're constantly switching back and forth between all of our internet-connected devices. A PC may be great while you're at your desk, but the living room couch is tablet territory, and nothing beats the portability of a pocket-sized smartphone while you're on the go.
Thanks to Verizon Wireless, I pay over $220 a month for my phone bill. It's just me on the plan—no family members, and it's not even unlimited data. So, when I receive that data alert message telling me that I've used up 90% of my plan and that I've still got a few more week until my billing cycle starts over, you know that I'm left scrambling to connect to some Wi-Fi.
Finding the right mix of custom ROM, kernel, and tweaks for my OnePlus One has left me flashing every new release I come across. This has led to many hours going through thread after thread trying to find the latest and best software out there for my phone. While I do enjoy the hunt, I would rather have a centralized location that covers all my bases, so that's why I have started using OnePlus One, an app by Alex Inthiaano.
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These last few months have been a Lollipop lovefest, and I'm not talking about the candy. Android's latest OS has been exalted for its embrace of Material Design, and we've certainly given Lollipop its fair share of coverage as well; check out all its new features and ways to make older devices get some of the new look and feel of Android 5.0.
WhatsApp is the go-to application for sending a message (or 100) to friends at home and abroad. And the best thing is, the service has remained true to its roots after Facebook acquired the company for $19 billion.
Getting caught using your iPhone at school or work (when you're using it for personal reasons) can be a little bit embarrassing. Even worse, it can be detrimental to how you're perceived by your teacher or boss. But sometimes you just have to beat that next level of Candy Crush, view a risqué photo on Snapchat, or send an important WhatsApp message.
By default, any app that requests a certain permission can run automatically as soon as you start your device. Since Android doesn't offer a granular permission control system like iOS, this gets lumped in with all of the other permissions that you have to accept when you're installing an app from the Google Play Store, and you effectively have no choice in the matter.
The switch from Dalvik runtime to ART in Android Lollipop has rendered the Xposed Framework useless until a new version is released, but Xposed isn't the only way to mod a phone.
When I watched the first Cincinnati Bengals edition of the HBO series Hard Knocks back in 2009, among wide receiver Chad Johnson's bravado and attention-grabbing antics was a segment on backup quarterback Jordan Palmer and his newly-developed app, which was still in its infancy. Six years later, I've revisited his creation and have to admit—it's pretty damn useful.
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.
Android 5.0 has a cool new feature called Priority Mode that allows you to silence your phone's ringer except for when certain people call you. It's something you'd enable right before bedtime, for instance, if you don't want to be disturbed unless it's someone important trying to reach you.
We all have apps that we use most frequently, or system preferences that we're regularly adjusting. Whether it's Netflix or a new game that you're hooked on, there are times when you want quick and easy access versus searching for them, even if they're on your home screen.
Chromecasts can make for some fun nights. Whether you're setting up a collaborative YouTube watch list, letting everyone add to a giant party playlist, or playing games like Cardcast and Big Web Quiz, Google's streaming media stick is a hit by all accounts.
A group ironically called the "Guardians of Peace" hacked into Sony Pictures' computer systems and released a mountain of internal information such as medical records, leaked scripts, work complaints, and even celebrity aliases.
The dock has been a staple of Mac OS X since its creation and not much has been needed to improve its functionality, but when you add theming to the mix, you can run into some issues.
Social media is constantly evolving, and as a result, we're now capable of sharing much more than we were even just a few years ago. Television, on the other hand, continues to hold strong as one of America's favorite pastimes.
If you've ever tried to record a Snapchat video of a song playing in your car, you know that it's impossible to do if the song is playing on the same device that you're Snapchatting with.
We recently showed you YouTube's new music streaming service, YouTube Music Key, with it's promise of ad-free music complete with background listening and offline play. Well, if you check your YouTube app, there's a good chance that Google flipped on the service for you. Activate the Service
Nothing else quite sums up my childhood like Super Mario, the Italian plumber who constantly had to defeat Bowser to save Princess Peach (aka Princess Toadstool) from danger. While it's easy to relive the classic gameplay on your Android with Nintendo emulators, not everyone has time for lengthy quests. Instead, you can get your Mario nostalgia fix with a live wallpaper for your home and/or lock screen.
Silencing my phone always gives me mild anxiety; while my Android is muted, my girlfriend or boss may be trying to reach me with some urgent news or task. On the one hand, I want to enjoy some peace and quiet, but on the other, I don't want to come back to a phone with 100 missed calls and countless exclamatory texts.
Since the days of Friendster and MySpace, social media platforms have taken leaps forward, revolutionizing how we live our lives by changing the way we communicate with others. Not only has social media become a catalyst for major uprisings around the world, but on a personal level, it connects people together in ways that were unimaginable even 10 year ago—no one was taking pictures of their brunch to share with the world in 2004.
While it's not too hard to remember to watch your favorite TV show every week, it's almost impossible to remember to watch all of your favorite shows. Add on to that sports games, live music events, and new film releases and you'll find yourself in a disorganized mess with a lot of missing out.
Your favorite instant messaging service might not be your friend's preferred choice of communicating, and your sibling might prefer yet another. So when they send you messages via different apps, it's like having one address but multiple mailboxes on a single porch.
Without much notice, Spotify launched Desktop Open Beta a few weeks ago, a program that allows anyone to download, test out, and provide feedback on the latest beta version of their desktop application for Mac and Windows.
Google's latest mobile operating system, Android 5.0 Lollipop, is coming out very soon for Nexus devices, but it will be some time before any other devices get to experience it. However, there are other ways to get the Lollipop feel on non-Nexus devices right now.
With an Android device left at its default settings, your location history is automatically recorded. You can view and manage this data, but the simple interface of points plotted on a map leaves a lot to be desired.
In-N-Out Burgers on the West Coast is famous for their not-so-secret and secret menus, along with their cheap, no-fuss burgers. Pre-internet, you felt like you were actually part of a small, select club when you knew what secret menu items to order.
The updates keep coming for iOS 8, and we've got our hands on the developer release of iOS 8.1, currently in beta, which was released shortly after the iOS 8.0.2 update (and 8.0.1 failure) for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch.
I love my MacBook Air, but the fact that it runs on only 128 GB of flash storage causes me to move most of my files to the cloud. I don't mind having to be connected to the internet in order to access my files, but it's definitely a hassle trying to figure out which files I should move in order to save the most space. Usually, I don't even bother even trying until I see the dreaded "Your startup disk if almost full" warning. Currently, the only real way to find your biggest files in Mac OS X ...
With the release of the ARChon Runtime, many Android apps can now be run within the Chrome web browser. Minor changes must be made to existing Android APK files before they can be installed on Chrome, so the process isn't exactly as easy as pasting an Android app into a folder on your computer.
The official release of iOS 8 was highly anticipated, but the truth is it may have been a little premature on Apple's part. Since its debut only a week ago, plenty of bugs and issues have been reported across the various compatible iPhone models.
Now that you've updated your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch to iOS 8, there's a lot of cool new things to explore. If you felt a little overwhelmed from all of the detailed information available in our Coolest Hidden Features of iOS 8 post, then I've got a simple breakdown of all of the new features available with quick links to their walkthroughs and pictures, if available. Watch the short video roundup, or skip below for the list.
Anytime you surf the web on your iPad or iPhone, Safari saves which webpages you visit, the information you enter into them, and other types of data. This not only make your internet experience quicker, but it'll also keep track of everything you're doing.