One of the more competitive aspects to chat apps these days is customizability. It seems every messenger wants to offer the largest number of options for users to make the app feel like a truly personal experience. Telegram is no stranger to this customizability, offering tool ...more
Apple just upped its sticker game on iPhone and iPad. We've already had stickers available for Memoji, Fitness activities, and third-party iMessage apps, but only some could be used outside the Messages app. Now we can use stickers practically anywhere from the new stickers dr ...more
Apple's iOS 16 for iPhone includes even more ways to customize your Memoji characters, and it even removes some barriers that were in place in iOS 15. If you're unfamiliar with Memoji, it's a feature that lets you record fun messages using various animated emoji characters th ...more
Using a strong password is critical to the security of your online accounts. However, according to Dashlane, US users hold an average of 130 different accounts. Memorizing strong passwords for that many accounts is impractical. Fortunately, password managers solve the problem. ...more
While the Reminders app has been largely ignored by Apple for years, iOS 13 finally makes it a force to be reckoned with. The app has been completely redesigned with easier navigation and more useful features that can compete with other task managers. After giving the new Remi ...more
Google just released the second developer preview of the Android 8.1 update for Nexus and Pixel devices, and even though it's just a point-one release, there are lots of cool changes. Before you run off to join the Android beta program and try the new version, it's worth readi ...more
For people that like to get things done, Android's home screen widgets are almost indispensable. Rather than packing your launcher with a bunch of icons, you can utilize widgets to get quick information in a beautiful package or provide one-tap access to a particular functiona ...more
One of the most powerful features when editing videos with Enlight Videoleap is the keyframe tool, which allows you to add custom transitions, animate text, granularly adjust audio, move video clips across the frame, supplement effects, and more. If you want your video to chan ...more
On the surface, Instagram is pretty intuitive, so you might think that you already know everything there is to know about using it on your iPhone or Android phone. But this photo and video-sharing app is constantly adding new features, some of which don't make the press releas ...more
There are a bunch of new and interesting features packed inside of Windows 10, but one of the most exciting ones is the Microsoft Edge web browser, the long-awaited replacement of Internet Explorer. While the "e" icon that you know so well will remain the same, albeit with a ...more
An invaluable button on your iPhone can do hundreds, even thousands, of amazing things, but most iPhone users don't even know it exists. You can't push it. You can't click it. You can't press it. But it's the largest button on your iPhone, more powerful than the versatile Side ...more
The latest software update for iPhone has a few new features you should know about, including an enhanced security feature to protect your Apple ID account from phishing and other attacks. Keep reading to see everything new that's included with iOS 16.3 for iPhone. The iOS 16 ...more
As if answering Apple's major iPhone event on Tuesday, Chinese mobile giant Xiaomi held its own product launch event the following day. And while the various smartphone offerings from the tech giant were impressive, it's the smartglasses product that the company revealed that ...more
Apple's exclusive chat services, iMessage and FaceTime, force many of us to stay locked into iOS, iPadOS, and macOS to communicate with other Apple users, so chatting with Android-using friends means SMS texts, third-party messaging apps, and third-party video chat services. H ...more
Popular chat apps like Facebook Messenger and (these days, sadly) WhatsApp might not cut it when it comes to privacy and security, but they sure do offer some fun ways to customize your chats. If you're worried that moving to Signal Private Messenger means you lose these featu ...more
Apple's big iOS 14 update includes Memoji improvements such as new hairstyles and headwear to choose from for your personalized Animoji character. Even better, there are now face coverings, so you no longer have to resort to that one masked emoji to get the point across in the ...more
As protests surge in the wake of George Floyd's murder by a Minneapolis police officer, powerful photographs and videos from the demonstrations have gripped the world, putting our nation's very real and very justifiable widespread civil unrest out into the digital world. Unfor ...more
Every Galaxy S20 sold in the US — even the S20+ and S20 Ultra — simply can't be rooted. With the bootloader permanently locked, you miss out on the world of rooting and the customization it opens up, but modifications are still possible. Thanks to some Samsung-developed apps ...more
Update (Fall 2020): Samsung's version of Android 11 is already in its testing phases! One UI 3.0 is expected to hit recent flagship Galaxy devices towards the end of this year, so check out the new list of features: New Version: All the New Features & Changes in Samsung's One ...more
We've all seen the login pages that allow you to log in to third-party accounts using your credentials from Facebook, Google, or Twitter. It saves you the trouble of creating another account and remembering more passwords — but it can also become a privacy and security issue, ...more
Apple has packed a lot of new features into the iOS 13 update, and practically no core app has gone untouched. The Messages app, in particular, got plenty of love, including new ways to dress and use your Memojis. Beyond the improvements and additions made to Memojis, Message ...more
Apple's iOS 13 has been available for beta testing since June, and the stable release pushed out to everyone on Thursday, Sept. 19. To help you make the most out of iOS 13 for iPhone, we've rounded up everything you'll want to know, whether a colossal feature, small settings c ...more
Remember trying to express yourself over the 160-character limit on SMS texts? We've come a long way since then, and messaging services have nearly taken over with emoji, chat effects, custom interface colors, and other personalizations. Necessities for messages these days inc ...more
You're in constant communication with your friends and family. The only issue? Nobody uses the same app. Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp — you have contacts spanning all three, and the resulting balancing-act to keep in touch can be overwhelming. That's why Facebook — who owns ...more
If you record yourself for a vlog or story post using your selfie camera, it can be challenging to stay on message. You might worry too much about the way you look or sound to focus on what you want to say. Using a script can help, but looking away from the camera to read is u ...more
Android's settings menu is actually pretty daunting. There are options for nearly everything, so in the sea of various menus and submenus, it's easy to overlook important privacy and security settings. On Google's Pixel phones in particular, there are 20 such settings that you ...more
With Apple releasing the iPhone XR, it appears Samsung is looking to challenge this "budget flagship" option head-on. They brought their usual two phone releases this year, but also threw in another three for a total of five phones, including the Samsung Galaxy S10e. And for m ...more
On April 26, 2019, Sinemia posted a note on its website stating it has ceased all operations in the United States. It's not known if it continues to work in other countries or if US users will be getting any refunds, particularly, for annual subscribers. Over the previous mon ...more
Cross-site scripting is one of the most common vulnerabilities found on the web today, with repercussions of this type of flaw ranging from harmless defacement to sensitive data exposure. Probing for XSS can be tedious and time-consuming for an attacker, but luckily there are ...more
You can mod every aspect of your phone's software with root, but if you want to make changes at the hardware level, you'll need a custom kernel. If you've looked into custom kernels before, one name undoubtedly kept coming up: ElementalX. It's easily the best custom kernel out ...more
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! In this tutorial, you'll learn how to make your augmented reality app for iPads and i ...more
For the second time in a row, Apple pushed out a new iOS 12 developer beta on a Monday, and for the first time this round, they've done it only one week after the last one. While the August 6 release of iOS 12 developer beta 6 doesn't contain a wealth of updates, there are sti ...more
Most users don't realize how much valuable data is in their network traffic. With a few simple tools, an attacker can quickly pick out cookies, passwords, and DNS queries from a macOS device as it covertly streams the victim's network traffic to the attacker's system. Here, we ...more
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! In this tutorial, you'll learn how to make your augmented reality app for ...more
It's possible to stream a MacBook's entire computer screen without using Apple's Screen Sharing application and without opening any ports on the target device. A hacker with low user privileges on the backdoored Mac may be able to view a victim's every move in real time no mat ...more
Whether it's for your company, your professional image, or just your personal account, making a poll on Instagram is a great way to reach out to followers, friends, family, and other users to measure their thoughts and opinions about any given topic. Instagram for Android and ...more
After testing a series of Android 8.0 builds, Essential hit the reset button and jumped to Android 8.1 Oreo. The beta program didn't last long, as Essential has now released the official 8.1 update to the masses. The features from the 8.0 betas are all still there, plus a few ...more
There are plenty of third-party apps for scanning documents on your iPhone, but they can all be tossed out the door since iOS 11 includes one by default now. Instead of a dedicated app, it's included as part of the Notes app, and it's fairly easy to use. After scanning, you ca ...more
When OnePlus announced the 5T, many were disappointed that it wasn't shipping with Android Oreo. To curb some of this disappointment, OnePlus quickly introduced an open beta for both the 5 and 5T and promised that each would receive the official version by Q1 2018. Well today, ...more
With the release of iOS 11, Apple promised to give us person-to-person transactions by way of iMessages. In the iOS 11.2 update, the new Apple Pay Cash system is now ready for you to send money to family and friends right from your iPhone — and there are multiple ways to get i ...more
The threat of an evil access point has been around for a long time, and with the rise of open public Wi-Fi, that threat is often overshadowed by how comfortable we are using third-party Wi-Fi hotspots at coffee shops and public spaces. While we've shown an evil twin attack usi ...more
Apple released the iOS 11.2 update for the iPhone to the masses early morning on Dec. 2, and here are all the new features and important bug fixes you need to know about. Of the new features, two of them are ones we thought we'd get when iOS 11 was first released. However, th ...more
Steganography is the art of hiding information in plain sight, and in this tutorial, I'll show you how to use Steghide — a very simple command line tool to do just that. In addition, I'll go over a bit of conceptual background to help you understand what's going on behind the ...more
Tor is an excellent obfuscation network for web traffic, and while instant messaging over the network is very useful, it can be relatively difficult to configure. In this guide, we'll look at two synchronous communications platforms (instant messengers) which can be routed ove ...more
So you spent all day customizing your phone. You tinkered with all the settings, searched the web high and low for the perfect wallpaper, and found an ideal icon pack to complement the color scheme. You go to sleep, proud of the work you accomplished when the unspeakable happe ...more
I don't know about you, but I'm tired of hearing some of the same old jargon from people online who claim that all you need to make it on Instagram is to take good pictures and post consistently. Yes, for sure, but do you really think it's that easy? Instagram, if you're seri ...more
Typing on a mobile device has come a long way since the days of flip phones. Today, there are awesome keyboard apps like Gboard, which integrates Google search features and makes typing a breeze. But the whole experience still stands to improve if you take some time to learn a ...more
Google is on a mission to bring a better messaging experience to Android users. We've seen them try and fail over the years with various messenger apps, but this time, they're taking a different approach by working with industry leaders to create a new messaging standard. The ...more
Google's new Pixel and Pixel XL flagships are some very powerful smartphones, but as with any high-tech gadget, they're only as capable as the user allows them to be. So if you're a proud new Pixel owner, it's time to bone up on a few new features to help get the most out of y ...more
The latest update to iOS 10 brought with it a number of great new features. Of these, the one that will likely have the most impact on people's iOS experience in the long term are the new apps and stickers for iMessage. Stickers make up the vast majority of what you'll find i ...more
With the release of the Mirai source code, botnets are back in a big way. In the early days of botnets, zombies (infected hosts) would report to IRC (Internet Relay Chat) channels for CNC (command and control) instructions. Modern botnets have evolved, but they continue to use ...more
By combining years of web search advancements, natural language processing, and even DeepMind's artificial intelligence, Google Assistant hopes to change the way you interact with your devices. If you're familiar with Google's previous services, Google Assistant is like Google ...more
I've been an iPhone user in the iOS ecosystem for years now after a brief stint in the Android realm. But, I'm also enthusiastic about varying forms of technology in general; I realize that iOS is far from perfect and that healthy market competition is beneficial for all. So, ...more
I've been an Android user almost as long as the operating system has existed, so when I received my first iPhone in April, I felt like I was in a foreign land. Sure, it runs most of the apps I'm used to, and the phone itself feels about the same in my hand as any similarly-siz ...more
Smartphone cameras are so good nowadays that there's almost no reason to own a point and shoot. Once the megapixel spec race was finally settled (hint: more isn't always better), manufacturers started focusing on the quality of their camera sensors, which has led to a huge jum ...more
In the recent hit movie Furious 7, the storyline revolves around the acquisition of a hacking system known as "God's Eye" that is capable of finding and tracking anyone in real time. Both the U.S. spy agencies and an adversarial spy agency (it's not clear who the adversary is, ...more
When there's a crappy stock app you want to hide, the easiest thing to do is just bury it in the back of a miscellaneous folder. But what if there's an app you want to hide on your home screen that you actually use? For instance, what if you don't want everybody in eyeshot to ...more
Yes, screen savers are fun to look at for a few seconds, but those animations actually used to serve a purpose beyond simple entertainment. In older CRT and plasma monitors, and even newer OLED ones, leaving a static image on the screen for an extended period of time could cr ...more
There are over 1.6 million apps on the Google Play Store, which makes it the largest collection of mobile apps on the planet. However, a large portion of this total is occupied by apps with overlapping functions—think social media, news, weather, music players, and various oth ...more
It seems like whenever someone sees my phone, they ask me two questions right off the bat; "What phone is that?" and "How did you get your Android to look like that?" The first one is pretty straight-forward, but the second one not-so-much. I've spent countless hours searchin ...more