The home bar, that tiny sliver of color at the bottom of the screen on Home button-less iPhone models, is helpful when first getting used to an iPhone X or newer's gestures. It helps you learn how to swipe up to unlock, go to the home screen, view the app switcher, and so on. ...more
The Galaxy S6 might just be the best Android phone on the market right now. From a hardware standpoint, Samsung truly knocked this one out of the park with its finely-crafted build quality and amazing screen. But the lone drawback here is that TouchWiz is still as intrusive a ...more
Look through the dessert recipes on any food blog and there's a pretty good chance you'll find something with chocolate and peanut butter. It's one of the most common combinations in candy bars and other sweets (not that I'm complaining). In the past, we've featured delicious ...more
The status bar is where we get all of the important need-to-know information for our phones. At a quick glance, you can see what time it is on your Samsung Galaxy S3, how much battery power you have remaining, your current signal strength, and more. But after a while, things c ...more
Though making hot chocolate out of instant mix is pretty easy, there is no comparison when it comes to making your own homemade hot chocolate out of quality dark chocolate bars, whole milk, brown sugar, and your own favorite fresh spices. Simply chop up a bar or two of your f ...more
Keeping track of your phone's battery life can quickly become a chore. Since no one wants to get stuck without a charge, we constantly find ourselves checking to see exactly what percentage remains. But developer Chris Kröger has an app that will make this task a bit less ted ...more
Working from home has its perks. You don't need to commute, you can work in your pajamas, and you don't even need to clean your house, especially if you're using Zoom for video meetings on your smartphone. Instead of clearing toys from the floor or moving that pile of clothes ...more
One of the biggest features to come out with Android O was the addition of a new System UI Tuner submenu that lets you customize the navigation bar at the bottom of your phone's screen. But as it turns out, this same feature can be enabled on devices running Android Nougat, ev ...more
Google has a habit of starting on new projects for Android, then hiding them away if they didn't quite complete them in time for a major release. We saw this with multi-window mode last year (which is now an official Nougat feature), and this year, there was the hidden night m ...more
In modern versions of Windows, Microsoft made quite a few changes to Windows Explorer, the first of which is a new name—File Explorer. Another huge change that most will notice is that File Explorer now has a new look sporting the Ribbon interface. The Ribbon interface, which ...more
Climbing into bed and shutting your eyes each night is heavenly—but waking up the next morning isn't. We all hate dragging ourselves out of the comfort of sleep and into the groggy, exhausting work day. Yet starting your day doesn't have to be awful if you know how to hack you ...more
When the Nexus 5 was released, a new version of Android came along with it called KitKat. In the 4.4 update were some fancy new UI elements, one of the most noticeable being the translucent decor. By that, I mean the status and navigation bars being semi-transparent. However, ...more
Like a car, your Mac needs to be monitored and cared for to keep it running as smoothly as possible. While your vehicle comes with a ton of gauges to keep track of your oil, temperature, and in some cases, even tire pressure, your Mac has no easy way to watch for low memory or ...more
With the release of the Nexus 5 back in 2013 came the Google Now Launcher, which has become the go-to choice for many Android users, especially those who prefer the Nexus line. With its integration of the Google Now page and the always-listening hotword detection, you'd be har ...more
Samsung's popular Good Lock app has been updated to work on One UI and now lets you take full advantage of its awesome add-ons to customize your S10 in a few simple taps. One add-on in particular lets you get rid of mostly redundant indicators like the NFC "N" for a cleaner st ...more
Unless you're using something like 360 Vault to store photos and videos, people you lend your iPhone to can easily browse through the gallery without you knowing. It makes me anxious just thinking about it. That's why I don't really like anyone using my iPhone, which leads me ...more
Ever since the early days of their existence, cell phones have been reducing the common wristwatch to nothing more than a fashion accessory. I'm not exactly a watch aficionado, but I do own a few that I wear on a daily basis. Since I have family in different parts of the world ...more
As filthy as this looks, I can't help but be utterly awed and amazed. Pull this bar trick at the club and you'll at least woo the Jersey Shore set. You will need: an unfiltered hand-rolled cigarette and a cold glass. From YouTuber noncents: "Don’t inhale the smoke just pull ...more
You can view battery information in the Today View, you already know what carrier services you, and you can quickly figure out with normal use whether your display orientation is locked, so what do you need the status bar at the top of your iPhone? If you don't find much use f ...more
With the Android 4.4 KitKat update slated for release sometime in October (according to Nestle), I'm sure you're excited to get your hands on and test out all of the new features of Google's latest mobile operating system. One such feature is the blended status bar, which inc ...more
Here's a simple bar trick that you can pull off at your next alcohol-fueled gathering. Tap one beer bottle against another to freeze both beer bottles into solid ice in 2 to 3 seconds. So how does this work? All you need to do beforehand is place both beer bottles in the fre ...more
When you look at the top corner of your phone, what do you see? Upon upgrading to Android 11 or iOS 14, you'll see either "5G," "5G+," or "5G E" if you're connected to the right network. But what exactly do these symbols mean? They indicate not only if you're using 5G, but als ...more
If you turned on your HTC One for the first time and wondered what that weird icon that looks like an N is, it indicates that NFC is on. It seems strange to me that HTC wanted to waste Status bar space on an NFC indicator, but sometimes we just have to deal with it. However, i ...more
Google has always experimented with Chrome's UI, but when they make more drastic changes, they start by hiding them in the feature flags menu. One of the latest designs makes Chrome more accessible in a world of big and tall phones. "Duet" is an optional redesign that takes C ...more
The Galaxy S8 and S8+ have enough screen real estate to accommodate almost all use cases, whether that's watching movies, playing games, or browsing through photos. That said, the massive navigation bar is nothing short of ugly and a screen hog — but there is a way to fix that ...more
When the first iPhone with Face ID came out, Apple removed a popular feature — the status bar's battery percentage indicator — because of how much space the TrueDepth camera system's notch took. It's been absent on all Face ID models since. Now, almost five years later, it's f ...more
Apple's Weather app has been around forever, at least for iPhone, and it's gone through many design changes over the years. But we're at a point now where we can actually customize how the Weather app looks and feels in many different ways, some of which you probably haven't e ...more
With the new version of Android due out very soon, Android 5.0 "Lollipop" has received a ton of press lately. It's all well-deserved, of course, because the new "Material Design" interface is absolutely beautiful. While we've covered methods on how to get a little bit of that ...more
By eliminating the need for hard keys on phones, manufacturers are able to use that extra space for a larger display, which is clearly evident on the bezel-minimal LG G3. In order to replace the physical home, back, and app switcher keys, we now have stylish soft keys. While ...more
While browsing the internet on your Samsung Galaxy S4, you've probably scrolled to the bottom of a very long webpage, Twitter feed, or down into the abyss of some other app. Depending just how far down you've scrolled, it can be a test of your patience (and fingertips) scrolli ...more
The battery on your iPhone can go from 10% to completely dead in a matter of minutes, or at least it can feel that way. Apple does prepare you with an alert when you hit the 20% and 10% mark, but it's easy to forget to charge your iPhone before it dies even with those notifica ...more
Figuring out exactly which apps on your phone are eating through resources and battery life can be a difficult task. Though some information can be found in Android's battery menu, the charts and graphs provided here pale in comparison to what's offered by the GSam app. If you ...more
Samsung reintroduced its well regarded Good Lock app, so now you can tweak parts of your Galaxy's interface without the need for root or other labor-intensive mods. Thanks to an awesome add-on, you can even tidy up you phone's status bar — so if you've always wanted to get rid ...more
Normally, when you scroll down a webpage in Safari on your iPhone, it automatically hides the bottom toolbar and minimizes the top Smart Search field. But as soon as you scroll back up, they both reappear, which can be pretty annoying if you don't need them. Apple's iOS 13 upd ...more
With CyanogenMod 10.2 recently released and the Samsung Galaxy S4 still waiting on Android 4.3, it only makes sense that the coveted features from both firmwares are highly desired by Android owners all over. We've already brought you a feature from each firmware—the cLock hom ...more
This video will show you how to do a great bar trick puzzle. Connect the boxes to win some bets and free drinks. Once you know how to do it, it's very easy to accomplish. This involves some drawing, but you'll impress friends with this intersecting lines trick. Fun Party Tric ...more
There are plenty of reasons to upgrade to iOS 14, home screen widgets chief among them. With that in mind, it's ironic that Apple placed so much emphasis on "widgets" this year when the new update removes a fan-favorite widget of the past — the "Favorites" Phone widget, which ...more
Google's own devices have always been the first to get new Android features — but unlike the Nexus series, last year's Pixel phones have a handful of exclusive tweaks that were never intended to trickle down to other devices once the newer Android version rolled out to them. T ...more
Switching phones has never been easier. Google backs up most of your app data on the cloud, which can then be restored onto your new phone. Sadly, Signal doesn't use this feature since it could compromise your security. Instead, Signal stores encrypted backups locally, requiri ...more
After teasing the feature in Android 10, Google finally added proper native screen recording to Android 11. But when you start a capture, you'll see a small red indicator in your status bar as long as recording is ongoing, which can really distract from your video. Thankfully, ...more
Putting your Galaxy S9 in Immersive Mode lets you truly enjoy the gorgeous display that Samsung is so famous for. You can't have it set on at all times, however, so you'll still have to deal with the status and navigation bars that cut the phone's aspect ratio down to that of ...more
While it may not serve much of a purpose here in sunny Los Angeles, it's still a good idea to keep constant tabs on the weather forecast, because you don't want anything to rain on your parade. Apple has its own Weather app that you can access from the home screen, and there' ...more
A new API in Android Lollipop allows apps to color the status bar to match their overall theme. Google billed this as a more immersive user experience that allows app developers to extend their color branding even further. It certainly seems like a win-win on the surface, but ...more
Whether you're pressed against your bedroom window, hidden deep inside your linen closet, or lounging on the rooftop, finding that area of maximum Internet speed around your house is usually just trial and error. And when you finally find the sweet spot, apps like Speedtest.ne ...more
With the new navigation gestures in Android 10, you reclaim a lot of screen real estate that used to be occupied by the back, home, and recent apps buttons. But there's still a small bar on the bottom edge of the screen, and in most apps, it still sits atop a black background. ...more
Breaking off a piece of that Kit Kat bar gets a lot more difficult when the whole thing weighs 13 pounds. Ann Reardon, a food scientist and dietitian with an ironic obsession for unhealthy desserts, started the very successful blog How To Cook That back in 2011 to showcase he ...more
We've showed you how to make Butterfingers and Kit Kats, as well as custom-shaped chocolates, but have you ever thought about making your own gourmet chocolate bars? It's a fairly simple process, once you understand tempering, and there are endless flavor possibilities when y ...more
Android's status bar is ever-present. It sits at the top of almost every screen in every app, making it the most prominent part of your Pixel's theme. So it only makes sense that Google would give you a way to change the icons it uses. Not only can you change the status bar i ...more
When I think about about concrete, I usually picture a bunch of hairy bros whistling at attractive women walking across the street from their worksite. Have I ever actually witnessed this? Not really. That's just what comes to mind. But concrete isn't just material used on si ...more
A rooted Android device means we're on our way to some truly amazing customization options. But there may be a few steps left to completing that journey, and a major one is installing a custom recovery. A recovery is simply a skimmed down operations tool that runs between you ...more
Learn how to make a River Bar bracelet, which is also known as a Paracord bracelet, by following the steps outlined in this video tutorial. To start your bracelet, you will need to tie a reef knot. This is done by taking two loops (in two different color strings) and then plac ...more
The Nexus 7 is a huge jump in screen size when coming from a phone, but obviously this tablet is still smaller than some of the major players such as the Nexus 10, Galaxy Tab, etc. One way to squeeze out a little more space is to eliminate the navigation and status bars. Nels ...more
Tuning into a favorite station on Pandora has become part of a routine for many, and it's easy to see why. The app automatically plays songs tailored to your tastes to ensure a relatively hands-free experience. And if you're a subscriber, Pandora even has you covered in moment ...more
Xiaomi phones run a skinned version of Android known as MIUI, which, over the years, has been a popular custom ROM. One of the standout features Xiaomi has added to the mix is something called Quick Ball, which lets you navigate your phone by swiping inward from a small circle ...more
If you're not using your iPhone's Files app yet to manage images, documents, and other files on iCloud, third-party cloud services, or your local storage, it's time to start. Apple's built-in file manager is finally a powerhouse with many tricks up its sleeve in the latest sof ...more
Apple's MacBook line of laptops is quite famous for their extensive battery life, thanks to various technologies that Apple has utilized. However, all things must pass, and over time your MacBook's battery will degrade. Certain use scenarios can accelerate the degradation of t ...more
If your new 2020 iPhone SE is frozen, unresponsive, or won't load the system, and a standard power down and up procedure didn't work, there are few more things you can try. Force-restarting the device may do the trick, recovery mode is a last-ditch option, and DFU mode is your ...more
These days, the user experience on stock Android is a lot more refined and polished than manufacturer skins like Samsung's TouchWiz or HTC's Sense. This is mostly due to Material Design, the look and feel that Google implemented back in Android Lollipop, which has finally star ...more
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' ...more
Thanks to Android Pie's gesture controls, features like split screen mode now take several additional steps to activate. This change is due to the revamped navigation bar which removed the recents apps button. Luckily, we can still change it back. With some tinkering in Setti ...more