A great many S8 and S8+ users have undoubtedly spent quite a bit of time figuring out ways to unlock their new Galaxy in as few steps as possible. One of the most endearing features of previous Galaxy models was the ability to unlock the phone by pressing the home button and m ...more
User interfaces for computers have evolved over the years, from the introduction of the keyboard and mouse on the personal computer, to touchscreens on mobile devices, to natural voice recognition. However, the same cannot be said for robots or drones—until now. There are two ...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 you think of Terminal, you probably imagine some hacker sitting in front of their computer in a dimly lit room trying to break into an FBI database. In reality, it's just a simple tool that can make using your Mac much easier. Now, I'm not saying that learning Terminal c ...more
Alright, I'll admit it, iOS can be quite nice. Android loyalist that I may be, I'm not so stubborn that I can't recognize a good thing when I see it. Apple's iOS has a lot of strengths, and our Nexus 4s, god bless 'em, are growing a little long in the tooth. But the Android p ...more
The Nexus 5 is the current Google flagship packed with the latest and greatest of all things Android, but what if you never made the leap from your Nexus 4 smartphone? Though the N4 is a year old, it's no slouch, and it's still a Nexus. It was among one of the first devices t ...more
Your Nexus 7 may be a tablet, but it can also be used as a phone, thanks to the continued upswing of VoIP applications, which send voice and media messages over the Internet—not over a cellular network. There are many VoIP apps on Google Play that let you make free phone call ...more
While new features in Safari, Camera, Photos, Notes, Weather, Messages, and other Apple apps may steal the show on iOS 17, there are some impressive new features you need to know about when it comes to FaceTime audio and video calls. A step beyond mere upgrades, Apple nudges ...more
Unlike most of Apple's other apps and services, it's not always obvious when Siri gets new features. Even if you're an avid Siri user, there's no way you can catch them all, especially when half of them aren't even mentioned by Apple anywhere. But that's what we're here for, a ...more
Auto-Correction only improves with time, but after 15 years of continuous development by Apple, it's still nowhere near perfect on the iPhone. However, a few hidden features in iOS can help avoid or mitigate future autocorrect failures, one of which warns you every time it's a ...more
Streaming media companies like Netflix and Hulu make deals with Roku to have their apps featured on Roku's remote controls, but there's an inherent flaw with this model: the buttons become useless if the app no longer exists. So, is there anything you can do to change those de ...more
I consider myself a master of emoji, crafting complete sentences and paragraphs using strictly ideograms and smileys. However, everyone seems to have their own interpretation for each little image, so my elaborately clever emoji-only sentences can get lost in translation. But ...more
The future of TikTok in the U.S. is all but certain. Microsoft, Walmart, or Oracle could save the day by buying the company, TikTok may win its lawsuit, or China's new restrictions could halt everything — but all could fail. Just like Vine before it, TikTok could be on its way ...more
Apple just released public beta 2 for iOS 14 today, Thursday, July 9. The good news comes two days after Apple released the second iOS 14 developer beta, and 17 days after the release of the first developer beta. While this is the first public beta for iOS 14, it's called "pub ...more
Apple just released the second developer beta for iOS 14 today, Tuesday, July 7. The update comes 15 days after Apple seeded developers the first iOS 14 beta, which introduced home screen widgets, picture-in-picture, and 4K YouTube support, among more than 200 other features. ...more
PirateBox is a great way to communicate with others nearby when cellular and Wi-Fi networks aren't available. With it, you can anonymously share any kind of media or document and even talk to one another by voice — without being online. However, it needs a Raspberry Pi, which ...more
The COVID-19 pandemic has created a frenzy for news and information that is nearly unprecedented in the smartphone era, with a major side effect of misinformation. Now, major tech companies are making it easier to ask for advice about novel coronavirus from their respective di ...more
When it comes to sniffing Wi-Fi, Wireshark is cross-platform and capable of capturing vast amounts of data. Making sense of that data is another task entirely. That's where Jupyter Notebook comes in. It can help analyze Wi-Fi packets and determine which networks a particular p ...more
After three rounds of beta testing, Apple finally released iOS 13.3.1 today, Jan. 28. It's the latest update to iOS 13, coming exactly seven weeks after the release of iOS 13.3. So, what's new? Apple dropped iOS 13.3.1 at 1 p.m. EST (10 a.m. PST) five days after it seeded bet ...more
It wasn't long ago Apple released iOS 13.2 to the masses. The second major update to iOS 13 included 22 new features and changes that added a significant layer of depth to an already feature-filled experience. Apple isn't ready to stop the fun, however, as iOS 13.3, released D ...more
Apple seeded the official version of iOS 13 to compatible iPhones on Sept. 19. Since then, we've seen two major updates — iOS 13.1, which, by our count, introduced 22 new features, and iOS 13.2, which also added 22 new features. Today, Dec. 10, Apple introduced the third major ...more
So you want to know what that person who is always on their phone is up to? If you're on the same Wi-Fi network, it's as simple as opening Wireshark and configuring a few settings. We'll use the tool to decrypt WPA2 network traffic so we can spy on which applications a phone i ...more
Google's "Go" line of apps are lightweight counterparts designed to be limited speedy alternatives to their full-featured sibling apps. There is a Go version of Photos, Search, Maps, and more — but are they the right apps for you? The general idea of Google Maps Go is to give ...more
While the portability of mobile phones makes gaming convenient, it isn't a perfect playing experience. With touch controls, small screens, and limited specs, smartphones lack the comfortability of dedicated gaming devices. But with a few tips, you can enjoy games as if you wer ...more
You would think that recovering your smartphone or another important item that you leave behind in an Uber ride would be a simple process, but it can actually be a pain in the ass. You have to find out how to report it to the driver, hope the driver is honest, pay a fee, and c ...more
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 ar ...more
Augmented reality content makers often position the technology as a new storytelling medium. And who loves stories more than children? Available now in the App Store as a free download with in-app purchases for additional content, Wonderscope uses ARKit to place content, whic ...more
You know your infant is advanced. Maybe you want to give her or him a head start at learning things like writing code to develop the next big Fortnite game. Or maybe you just want to play Fortnite with your infant. But the American Academy of Pediatrics discourages screen time ...more
While there are over 100 cool features iOS 12 has to offer, there are some things Apple has made more annoying on iPhones or just has not addressed yet. While the main issues below are direct changes to iOS for iPhone in the latest 12 update, some of the lesser issues near th ...more
One of the biggest advancements in the new iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR is the dual SIM functionality that will let you use two cellular networks at once. Like Sinatra, however, Apple is known to do things its own way, so their dual SIM setup is a bit different than you might thi ...more
Project Fi, Google's MVNO, is running a new promotion on the latest and greatest from LG. From July 16 until the 29th, whenever you order and activate the LG G7 ThinQ or LG V35 ThinQ, you will receive a $300 service credit. When you do the numbers, that equals a minimum of thr ...more
During Tuesday's keynote at the I/O developer conference, Google unveiled new capabilities for its Lens visual search engine and expanded the availability of the platform in smartphone camera apps. Introduced at last year's edition of the conference, Google Lens launched as a ...more
I love my iPhone, but it would be a lie to say there aren't some Android features I wish would find their way to iOS. While iOS has plenty of its own advantages, Android has pulled ahead in many other areas. With iOS 12 coming later this year, we're hoping Apple takes a hint f ...more
It would be difficult to discuss the business of augmented reality without acknowledging the annual tech meat market of CES. The biggest stories of CES came courtesy of Vuzix, which debuted its consumer-centric Blade smartglasses, and Meta Company, which struck a deal with De ...more
If CES 2018 is the starting gate for this year's race to release smartglasses, then Vuzix is already racing down the augmented reality track with its Blade smartglasses. After a "surreptitious" preview and a pre-order launch in 2017, Vuzix Blade will make its "official" debut ...more
If preorder delays are any indication, the iPhone X certainly has some buzz. But does the X have the quality to support that buzz in the long run? After all, a $1,000 (or more) iPhone feels more like an investment than a smartphone purchase. The question on any prospective buy ...more
Apple demonstrated their continued interest and investment into the awesome world of augmented reality during their Sept. 12 event, highlighting a few new AR games that will appear on iPhones thanks to ARKit. But that's not all you can expect — as long as you have an iPhone wi ...more
While it's easy enough to take a screenshot of an end-to-end encrypted Telegram chat thread using an iPhone, it's an entirely different story on Android phones. Telegram disables screenshots for Secret Chats by default on Android, and not everyone can turn it on. Sometime in ...more
Microsoft recently released "Seeing AI," an app aimed to help the blind understand their surroundings. As Microsoft puts it, "the app narrates the world around you by turning the visual world into an audible experience." We asked Matthew Chao, the brother of one of our founde ...more
The roll-out of T-Mobile's hotly anticipated 'Digits' service is now underway. For those unfamiliar with what could be the un-carrier's next killer app, 'Digits' is basically a combination of Google Voice and AT&T NumberSync. With it, T-Mobile customers can use their number a ...more
Amazon's first venture into the wireless phone market was a crash and burn moment — and that's us being kind. Their FirePhone went down in flames almost instantly, no pun intended. It was an average-at-best device sold at an artificially high price to arouse consumer interest ...more
In the past, to see a pre-constructed state of the house that you would one day live in, you had to be able to read blueprints or hire an artist to sketch it out. Later came the ability to have a 3D rendering of that house on a screen, but you'd still have to work hard to envi ...more
A development team in Silicon Valley is nearing early access release of a new hardware-independent augmented reality platform called Phantom AR. Compatible with Android and iOS-based headsets, as well as the Microsoft HoloLens and Meta 2, Phantom AR runs the entire augmented ...more
Samsung began offering Android 7.0 Nougat to users in its beta program on November 10, 2016. The beta came to a close last month after the fifth and final version was pushed out to users under the build number ending in 1ZPLN. This update was released a couple of days after Ch ...more
Google makes Android, but now, Google makes its own phones, too. Until this point, they've always stayed on the software side of things and let Samsung and friends handle the hardware, but their new Pixel phones are changing all of that. Related: The Pixel Exemplifies Google' ...more
Forget headphone jacks and "Courage." Look past the shiny Jet Black finish and beyond the minimized antenna lines. Sure, quad-LED flash and dual cameras are nice—but dual-SIM would've been much better. Dual-SIM support in the iPhone 7 had been rumored for months leading up to ...more
New releases of iOS are always pretty exciting. I remember the anticipation buildup of iOS 7 before it was announced at WWDC 2013, as it was expected to be a complete game changer compared to previous versions—and it was. Now, with WWDC 2016 right around the corner—starting o ...more
BlackBerry has yet to find a home amongst the iPhone and popular Android phones, with sales plummeting over the last couple years, but this might be a thing of the past thanks to their latest device, the BlackBerry Priv. It has decent numbers so far and was even sold out on Am ...more
Greetings dear null byters, today we start a new series, we will start to attack users using social networking that are popular such as Facebook, Skype, and much more, and in part 1 of the series will engage users of Skype. What we are going to do today? 1 - get the IP from h ...more
You'll have to forgive me if I sound a little overexcited about this, but in my opinion, Google's "Now on Tap" is one of the most innovative™ smartphone features that I've seen in years. Sure, Microsoft heard about the feature being in the works and rushed out a similar Androi ...more
ADB and Fastboot are probably the most essential tools for any Android aficionado. They can do everything from backing up your device to unlocking your bootloader with a few simple steps. This paves the way for many new tweaks and customizations that weren't possible before. T ...more
Before your carrier got its grubby little hands on your Galaxy S5, there was less bloatware installed and more functionality offered by the Samsung flagship device. Case in point: the GS5 that Samsung designed was capable of recording phone calls, yet the one that you own prob ...more
I am not a morning person. This is a fact that has been proven with science. I need every bit of help to get me out of bed in the morning—multiple alarms, extremely loud tones, Pandora—I've tried everything. So when developer MythosXe released his Alarm Clock Plus module for ...more
Most variants of the Galaxy S5 come with the gesture-based Swype keyboard preinstalled. If you're into gesture typing, you probably already switched to this input method from the default Samsung keyboard (whose gesture service is nice, but it's no Swype). A couple of features ...more
Admit it, you wish Siri was on your Mac, and so do I. She stole my heart on iOS, and now every time I open up my MacBook, I feel something missing. Wouldn't it be great if we could, I dunno, hack Siri onto our Macs? Yeah, it would! This is not an Apple-verified version of Sir ...more
Erudite. Barbiturate. Cacophony. Denouement. Okay, that last word is technically French, but words like these make the average person sweat, and it turns out that the key to learning how to pronounce them once and for all just might be getting them wrong. How We End Up Pronou ...more
After lots of waiting and anticipation, the OnePlus One Android smartphone has been unveiled, and it's ready to take down the Nexus. Video: . This CyanogenMod based device comes in with high-end features and a killer price point, and is set to go on sale in May. The OnePlus O ...more
Your new HTC One M8 has a ton of really cool features, some of which relate to waking the device up. A swipe up to unlock to your last active screen, a swipe down to access the voice dialer, and a double-tap (or knock) to wake the device and bypass the lock screen. But the on ...more
Like the buttons on your computer's mouse and keyboard, the Home key on your Samsung Galaxy S4 serves a vital function in navigating through your device. It can get pressed dozens of times a day, going through hours of use and abuse. If the GS4's Home button is anything like ...more
While most people were worried about having the scariest costume when I was younger, I was always more interested in the candy. While everyone wasted time trying to perfect their costume, I was busy mapping out every detail in my city, finding the most efficient way of getting ...more