Android Widget

The majority of Android devices have built-in sensors underneath the hood that measure motion, position, and several environmental parameters that provide data needed to monitor your movements and adjust accordingly. When the Samsung Galaxy S4 came out, they included for the ...more

70 degrees, 8 mph winds, and sunny clear skies. That's the current forecast here in Los Angeles and I can't really complain. However, if you don't live in Southern California, checking the weather may be the difference between getting stuck in a snowstorm or remembering to bri ...more

As things begin to clutter on your device, navigating through it can become much more difficult than when you first got it. The sheer number of added apps and mods that build up after time take its toll not only on the quickness and memory of your device, but also on your effi ...more

It's that time of the year again when scores of students are flocking to stores for school supplies. Pens, pencils, books, and for math students, calculators. Graphing calculators like the ubiquitous TI-83 (and 84) series have been a staple of high school and college math cla ...more

Screenshots are great, but sometimes they don't tell the whole story. You can show off that new app you got or that awesome new live wallpaper, but a screenshot isn't going to get the point across. What exactly am I trying to show you in the screenshot above? You probably have ...more

You can't beat Samsung's hardware, but their software still isn't for everyone. That's the thing, though — software can be replaced. So if you're more a fan of Google's vision for Android, but you can't get enough of Samsung's beautiful screens and build quality, you're just 1 ...more

If you're someone who shares a lot of tweets outside of Twitter, you know the struggle. Twitter's share button, like YouTube's, is proprietary, which means you need to wade through Twitter's own sharing options to find your iPhone's regular Share sheet instead. However, there' ...more

The new iOS 14 for iPhone arrived Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2020, alongside iPadOS 14, and there are a lot of features to uncover. Improved widgets. Better home screen customization. Exciting Messages improvements. New abilities in Camera and Photos. There's so much here that it'll ...more

We all know Android updates have been iffy in the past. But Google has implemented several measures recently that have sped up the process substantially, and OnePlus is taking advantage of these. Still, a staged rollout update might keep you waiting for a few days or longer. S ...more

While the notch on Apple's newer iPhones started a wave of notches across the smartphone market, there are still plenty of users who don't like screen-obstructing zone up top, and you may be one of them. While it may soon disappear in future iPhone models, or at least get smal ...more

The battery icon in your iPhone's status bar gives you a visual idea of how much power is left, and there's a battery percentage option you can switch to or view in the Control Center, depending on your model. But what you may not know is that there's a way to view the battery ...more

If you've ever wanted to download YouTube videos directly to your iPhone, there's an easy solution — just update to iOS 12 and install Apple's new Shortcuts app. With the Workflow-replacement app, you can add a shortcut that lets you download any YouTube video you want, withou ...more

Most Android launchers limit you to three choices: Icons, widgets, and folders. It's better than nothing, but it's still pretty hard to find the best look without overcrowding your home screen. You could fill everything up with icons, but then you'd have an iPhone. You could t ...more

Widgets are great ... if you actually use them. A quick swipe right on the lock screen will reveal the Today view and its widgets, and it's very easy to accidentally open. Plus, others can see your widgets without any authentication. You could manually remove every widget, but ...more

Your iPhone's home screen is a tricky thing. You can sort your collection of apps in any order you'd like, but where you place those apps is a totally different story. App and folder placement follows a strict grid on iOS from left to right, top to bottom. No exceptions, and t ...more

Getting a new phone is exciting, but having access to its exclusive apps ahead of its release is what we're all about here on Gadget Hacks. If you have a Galaxy Note 3, you've probably only had it for a year or less, so upgrading to the Note 4 may not be a viable option when ...more

Android developer Roman Nurik, famous for his open-source DashClock widget, recently released his latest creation, Muzei Live Wallpaper. Now, live wallpapers (LWPs) may not seem like a huge deal as far as mods go, but they're a great way to add flair to your device—and Muzei a ...more

The shortest distance between two points is a straight line, but the shortest way to launch an app on an iPhone can be a much more complicated process. While Android users can practically drown themselves in home launchers and widgets for quick-launching apps, iPhone users ar ...more

Apple's Siri is well-versed in the spells of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, but it's not like Android users are Muggles. Google Assistant, Android's virtual concierge, can cast a few spells out of the box, and it can learn the spells it doesn't know quicker than a year o ...more

Google's new Material You theming engine in Android 12 adds a personal touch to your user interface. The main colors of your wallpaper dynamically affect the colors in menus and apps, essentially putting you in control of the overall theme. But there's another new design eleme ...more

Smartphones are now indispensable when traveling. Domestic and overseas travel alike require food, navigation, translation, and so much more to make work or vacation successful. Gone are the days of lugging multiple tourist books around with you everywhere you go — you need to ...more

When you want to install a new tool or game on your iPhone, you go straight to the App Store to do so — but it's not the only place you can get apps from. Some developers use back alleys to get their apps to you, while others can trick you into installing them without giving i ...more

Creating GIFs of your own burst images has been possible for a while with third-party iOS apps, some of which cost money or include in-app purchases to utilize the full potential. Fortunately, with Shortcuts, Apple's automation workflow app, there's finally a native way to ach ...more

If you've ever been on the receiving end of a threatening phone call, you'll immediately know the value in being able to record phone conversations on your iPhone. Beyond that extreme example, however, recording calls is still an extremely useful feature to have for important ...more

In iOS, Apple provides a few live wallpapers that you can use for the background on your iPhone's lock screen, but these animated options are just wavy color shifts and ink-in-water effects. To really customize your lock screen, you can use a Live Photo for your wallpaper. If ...more

The iOS 12.0 beta earned admiration for its superior performance to last year's controversially buggy iOS 11. That doesn't mean it was free from problems before the stable release went live. During the initial iOS 12.0 beta testing phase, there were plenty of bugs and glitches ...more

When you tap on a URL link in a text, email, or wherever, your iPhone's default reaction will be to open it up in Safari, and there's no way to change this in the settings. However, there is a way you can work around this to open up links in Chrome instead. Even if you acciden ...more

Starting your morning right is an essential first step to a productive day. Whether you're running late, rushing to catch up on the day's news, or lagging behind with early emails, little hiccups like these can have a trickle-down effect and ultimately ruin your day. Like with ...more

The big day has finally come—the new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus have been officially unveiled. Apple debuted their new flagship devices at a keynote event in San Francisco on September 7, and as we've grown to expect, there are tons of changes in store for the world's top-sell ...more

Greetings My Fellow Aspiring Hackers, Its been long since I last posted a tutorial. Its vacation and since I won't be coming home, I've decided to use my day for sharing. I was browsing through old posts and found OTW's article - Hack Like A Pro: How to Find the Exact Locatio ...more

Although widgets were finally introduced in iOS 8, they weren't exactly the widgets we were expecting, i.e., the ones seen on Android home screens. Don't get me wrong, they're still very useful in the Notification Center, since they can be accessed with a quick pull-down from ...more

Apple's grand reveal of iOS 8 at WWDC in San Francisco is still a few days away, but that doesn't mean there isn't any speculation as to what features and enhancements might come packed in the new mobile operating system. With iOS 7's complete UI overhaul not even a year old, ...more

The iOS 16 update for iPhone has many new and exciting options, most of which improve the user experience overall. Some of the features and changes fix frustrating issues from iOS 15 and older, and some of those "fixes" can seem annoying if you're used to doing things a certai ...more

Your iPhone's home screen just got a whole lot more exciting thanks to iOS 14, which is finally giving Android a run for its money in terms of home screen customization. What's new? Widgets in three different sizes, a new searchable App Library, and most importantly, the abili ...more

Google has added a flurry of new features to its YouTube Music recently to prepare it to replace Google Play Music, which will be sent to live on a farm with Google Reader, Inbox by Gmail, and other sunsetted Google products by the end of the year. The latest comes in the for ...more

Your iPhone just went missing, and now you're panicking. You need it for work, to get around, to contact your friends and family, and pretty much everything else in your life. So, what are the chances you might get it back? The odds may be stacked against you unless it's just ...more

The iPhone XR offers a discounted experience compared to the expensive iPhone XS and XS Max. However, that lower price tag comes with some caveats, such as "Haptic Touch" in lieu of 3D Touch. If you think these two "touch" features are the same, think again. Before you get an ...more

One of the most exciting additions to iOS 12 for iPhones is called Shortcuts, a tool integrated with Siri to help you get things done faster. While there are a few recommended shortcuts available to you in Siri's settings in iOS 12, the Shortcuts app brings the functionality o ...more

Apple's Always-On display feature for the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max can show important information on the screen even when the device is sleeping. While the dimmed Lock Screen may seem like a WYSIWYG component, there are actually a few ways you can customize it to fit your ...more

Amazon really wants to make itself at home in your home. Like, everywhere in your home, from your doorstep to your kitchen, your kids' rooms, and everywhere in between. During a virtual press event on Tuesday, the company unveiled a veritable cornucopia of new smart home devi ...more

If you're a PC gamer, you know the value of performance metrics. These graphs and charts overlaid on top of a game give you real-time information about how well your system performs. And for the first time, Galaxy users running One UI 3.0 will get access to similar information ...more

Home screen widgets might not be a new concept in the Android world, but for iPhones, they're downright revolutionary. A new iOS 14 feature allows you to place small, medium, and large-sized widgets of your favorite apps on the home screen, to see important information without ...more

The first developer beta for iOS 13 is available to install on iPhone models, but the process for doing so may be a bumpy ride. Apple has not included configuration profiles for the developer beta yet, and many developers are having issues installing iOS 13 even with macOS 10. ...more

Performance and stability improvements, as well as new features, are just some reasons to install iOS 12, but new changes mean new battery health challenges. It can be difficult to boost battery life while taking advantage of everything this update has to offer. Luckily, there ...more

There's always an iPhone in our list of top phones for privacy and security, due in large part to advanced security measures like Face ID, consistent iOS updates, and easy ways to prevent unwanted access and excessive data sharing. However, some of those options actually do th ...more

When it's time to calculate a tip at a restaurant or bar, I usually try some mental math at first, but sometimes I resort to opening the Calculator quickly from the Control Center on my iPhone and doing a quick calculation. But with Apple's Shortcuts app, there's an even easie ...more

The new iOS 11 was just released by Apple, and you can install it right now. Overall, it's got some great features, but how does it fare battery-wise on your iPhone? And how can you increase daily battery life for more juice and less charging every day? No matter the iOS vers ...more

In case you missed it, Apple has added a lot of new features and enhancements to the Music app on your iPhone, changes that benefit both Apple Music subscribers and non-subscribers. Chances are, you haven't seen all the changes yet, especially since many of them weren't releas ...more

While Apple has been making strides in iPhone customization, it's still not up to par with what Android is and always has been. You can hide apps from the home screen now in iOS 14, but for everything that's still there, you can't add gaps between icons on the same page to seg ...more

Possibly the most popular feature in iOS 14, home screen widgets are here to stay. Apple created a ton for its own apps, and third-party developers keep building ones for their own apps. But home screen widgets go beyond that since you can make a widget for practically anythin ...more

Widgets have been available on the iPhone for a while now, but they were tucked away in the Today View or hidden in the quick actions menu for app icons on the home screen. Android had always had a leg up on Apple in the widget department because they were so much more versati ...more

According to Apple, Siri serves 25 billion requests per month — an enormous number for a feature that was only released nine years ago. But when you think about how much work Apple has put into Siri over the years, it makes sense that the virtual assistant is being used more a ...more

Although the Clock app in iOS has undergone some design changes over the years, you still can't set more than one timer on your iPhone. Oddly enough, Apple's own HomePod speaker added this feature, mimicking the timer on Amazon's popular Echo smart speakers. Fortunately, throu ...more

Let's say you want to download an Instagram video to your iPhone. What do you do? While Instagram doesn't offer an official solution, there are backchannel methods that exist to get the job done. However, if you want native support for downloading Instagram videos directly to ...more

The next big iOS version for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch was revealed by Apple at WWDC 2018 and dropped for everyone on Sept. 17, 2018, less than a week after Apple revealed the new iPhone lineup. We've rounded up all the big picture items and secret features and changes we c ...more

Apple's latest iPhone software update — iOS 17.5 — is finally ready for prime time. Released on May 13, it includes at least 32 new features and changes you need to know about, from a new game and offline news access to new wallpapers and anti-stalking capabilities. The iOS 1 ...more

Apple's latest big software update includes an entirely new Apple app, a controversial change in the TV app, better Siri control, an improved Shortcuts app, interesting Safari upgrades, Apple Music Sing, and more. Keep reading to see what iOS 16.2 has to offer your iPhone. Th ...more