Apple's iOS 11 is finally here, and while they showed off several of the new features it brings to your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch back at WWDC 2017, they've only just touched the surface of what iOS 11 has to offer. There are a lot of cool new (and sometimes secret) feature ...more
The LG V20 went on sale on September 29, 2016, and is the second flagship phone in the V series to be released by LG. Both the V20 and its predecessor, the V10, have been audio-oriented phones from the start, but the V20 has a much nicer Hi-Fi Quad 32-Bit DAC, which makes the ...more
Bluetooth 5 was announced and made officially available on December 7, 2016. It comes with a handful of improvements to speed, range, maximum device connectivity, and anti-interference from other nearby devices. While this might be great for those special few who use Bluetooth ...more
Google just announced a new and improved Chromecast at an event in San Francisco this morning, and debuted a new "Chromecast Audio" for streaming music directly to any speaker. I'm sure you rushed off to the Google Store to buy one of these promising and powerful devices, but ...more
One of the coolest features in modern smartphones is their Bluetooth connectivity. This is how two digital devices can communicate with one another—sending data like your phone call audio or your favorite song—all while using up minimal battery life. Don't Miss: Android Basic ...more
Apple's new iOS 16 software update is finally here, and there are over 350 new features and changes for you to enjoy on your iPhone. There are major lock screen and home screen improvements, a pleasant surprise for the Contacts app, and tons of new upgrades to Safari, Mail, Me ...more
The Galaxy Note 20 series has one of the largest screens on any smartphone. Such a massive display not only makes it easy to enjoy videos, but it also makes split-screen mode more viable, as each half of the screen is large enough to enjoy the content — including two different ...more
Christmas is just one week before Jan. 1. That means a lot of New Year's resolutions filled with promises to better ourselves with increased productivity, focus, and work ethics — but getting started can be challenging. Give the people in your life a leg up this holiday season ...more
Apple released the third beta of iOS 12 for developers on Tuesday, July 3. The update comes exactly two weeks after the release of the second developer beta, which introduced a variety of fixes as well as new issues, and just one week after the release of the public beta. Publ ...more
Lost among the latest laptops, smart assistants, VR headsets, and Motorola-branded gadgets that it brought to CES 2018, Lenovo has also introduced a new pair of augmented reality smartglasses. While Lenovo could be credited with the first true consumer AR headset by way of th ...more
In the music world, it's safe to say electric instruments are more versatile, but they lack the portability of their acoustic counterparts. However, with the aid of your smartphone plus an audio interface, you can play your electric instrument anywhere — with all the pedal eff ...more
After months of leaks and rumors, Google has finally unveiled the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL. If there were such a thing, the Pixel would be the one "true" Android flagship — so even if you don't plan on buying a Pixel 2, you'll want you learn more about this milestone device. La ...more
What's better than wireless in-ear headphones with noise-canceling technology? Giving them a microphone to hear you talk from inside your head. And that's exactly what you get with RippleBuds; its inside-facing mic helps keep your voice crystal clear over phone calls, and make ...more
Our first stop at CES this year was at iLuv, a company well known for their long line of smartphone accessories (portable chargers, speakers, headphones, etc). While their products are geared towards everyday use, their Selfy phone case, which is a bit more situational, caught ...more
I don't mean to offend anyone, but some phone calls are just plain boring, and being put on hold is shittier than eating three-day old sushi. If you're on hold or trying not to fall asleep during a talk with grandma, you can multitask by playing a game or texting someone more ...more
Most new stereos come with an auxiliary port built in, but if you drive an older car, you're usually stuck with the radio or CD player, and we all know both of those options suck. So, rather than paying the $95 fee the dealership wanted to charge, or replacing the stereo alto ...more
Ever wonder what your brain looks like while you're singing? No? Neither had I, but as this music video for the song "Better Man Than He" by SiVU (aka James Page) will show you, the answer is "pretty cool." Video: . Directed by Adam Powell, the entire video was shot inside an ...more
Doorbells are useful and all, but most of them are boring as hell. They use the same old generic sounds to let you know when guests have arrived, as demonstrated below. Video: . To liven things up a bit, you could spend money on buying customized doorbells. But why do that whe ...more
It can get frustrating to switch from a regular call to speakerphone when you're in a hurry. The speakerphone button tends to be small and surrounded by many others, and it requires attention to press; something that can be difficult while driving or multitasking. For those of ...more
Jamming out to the newest beats can be a problem if your speakers don't work. I've been having some issues with my iPhone speakers and was looking for some quick fixes when I stumbled upon this quick fix from Saw Tun that uses just a cotton swab. Video: . Now, this fix will no ...more
Old Hard Drive + MP3 player = Music This equation just doesn't make sense. If you're an iPod addict, the HD element is redundant! Well, take a second look at what constitutes a speaker and what a hard drive is made of. They are more alike than you'd think. Rip apart a junked ...more
These days, everything is connected. No, really — we mean everything. Your phone, your smart speaker, and even appliances like stoves and refrigerators can be connected and communicate with one another. Welcome to the Internet of Things, the start of our interconnected future. ...more
Now that Microsoft has squarely focused on the enterprise market with the HoloLens 2, it appears Lenovo is content to play follow-the-leader with its new augmented reality headset. On May 13 at its Accelerate conference in Orlando, Florida, Lenovo unveiled the ThinkReality pl ...more
Having a dust- and water-resistant phone is truly useful, but it comes with a price. In order to achieve this functionality, Samsung had to literally plug up any holes in the Galaxy S5, and this included the charging port. The small cover that keeps dust and water at bay, and ...more
Like many smartphones nowadays, your Samsung Galaxy S4 comes bundled with a headset for you to listen to music, watch videos without disturbing others, and even make phone calls. I personally only use it for music, whether it's Play Music, Pandora, or streaming from YouTube. ...more
Like most Android devices, the Nexus 7 suffers from its fair share of battery gripes. Nobody wants to see that dreaded "connect charger" warning pop up on their screen. NOBODY. Yet it probably happens to you every day nonetheless. What can you do about it besides charge, charg ...more
With or without the Shazam app, which Apple acquired in 2017, you can use Siri on your iPhone to identify music playing around you that you want to know more about. In the iOS 14.2 update, there's another way to name songs on your iPhone. Before, you could only ask Siri or He ...more
Smartphone technology has become as ubiquitous as automobiles. In Austin, Texas, a city that is widely known as the "Live Music Capital of the World," smartphones have been embraced by the music community not just as a way to document and promote, but to create music. A rock ...more
Ever since the announcement of the Razer Phone, a wave of gaming smartphones started to hit the market. With ASUS being such a big name in gaming, it made sense for them to throw their hat in the ring. The result is the ROG Phone. And with this first try, ASUS has topped the r ...more
Right on the heels of the iOS 11.4.1 beta 3 release, Apple pushed out iOS 12 beta 2 to registered developers on Tuesday, June 19. Public beta testers received the same version, labeled as iOS 12 public beta 1, six days later on Monday, June 25. Last year, the iOS 11 public bet ...more
After receiving $100 million in funding in 2018, smartglasses maker Rokid is going the crowdfunding route to finance its latest product. On Tuesday, Rokid launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund Rokid Air, AR smartglasses that serve as a virtual display by tethering not only ...more
Not much about 2020 is what you'd call normal, but if one thing remains the same, it's that Apple will still release new iPhone models. This year, the company is offering four new options: two "Pro" models and two "consumer" devices. If you want to know more about the latter t ...more
The original iPhone SE was, for some, the perfect iPhone. It brought back the popular one-handed form factor of the iPhone 5 but packed in the internals of the then-new iPhone 6S. Now, the second-generation iPhone SE is here for 2020, but can it live up to what made the first- ...more
China-based smartphone maker Oppo is ready to put Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon chips in its latest round of smartphones, but, like Qualcomm, Oppo is also preparing to move on to augmented reality wearables. This month, at Qualcomm's Snapdragon Tech Summit, Oppo revealed that ...more
In the technology space, there are certain brands you grow to depend on. Whether it's due to a long, multi-decade track record of success, or new innovations that blow you away, some tech names accrue a rare kind of brand equity with users that's difficult to earn. That's why ...more
Smartglasses maker Vuzix made a big splash at CES 2018 with the inclusion of Amazon's Alexa voice assistant among the AR superpowers of its consumer-centric Blade smartglasses. Now, it's time to tell Alexa to make room, as Vuzix is bringing Google Assistant support to Blade. ...more
Returning to the spotlight after its debut at last year's CES, augmented reality smartglasses maker Rokid is back with a new update. On Monday, the China-based startup announced Project Aurora at CES in Las Vegas. Rokid describes the new prototype hardware device as functioni ...more
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has cleared a path for Google to move forward with hand-tracking technology that could pose a major threat to Leap Motion. In an order issued on Monday, the FCC granted Google permission to run its Project Soli, a sensor that can de ...more
Realizing there's no voice to guide you while using your iPhone to navigate can be problematic, causing serious headaches from getting lost to unscheduled pit stops or worse. And while this problem can hit Apple Maps like other navigation apps out there, there are a number of ...more
The LG V20 was released in the fourth quarter of 2016 as a flagship phone with audio capabilities far superior to that of anything else on the market—but only if you have your headphones connected. The single bottom-firing speaker, on the other hand, is just unpleasant to list ...more
This week has been quite a successful one for Google, thanks to non-stop news coverage of their developer-focused I/O conference. Now, there's even more reason for the buzz as they've just announced that Project Ara, their modular smartphone that could revolutionize the indus ...more
Google first introduced Google Home, its latest smart product in the works, at the company's I/O conference in May 2016. It will directly compete against Amazon's Echo, which has so far been a success with over 3 million devices sold, and it was even featured as FBI Agent Dom' ...more
So this is my methodology for this project of writing a rootkit. Please leave feedback on what is right/wrong. I tried to simplify concepts the best I could however... One needs an deep understanding of how different types of processors work and how memory protection is imple ...more
Welcome back, my novice hackers! This new series on Bluetooth hacking was inspired by a recent episode of Mr. Robot (my favorite TV show). In episode 6, Eliot hacked the bluetooth keyboard of the police office in order to hack the prison and release his nemesis, Vera. This is ...more
Duct tape is the king of all household items. You can use duct tape for practically anything, like this sweet wallet. But duct tape isn't the only crafty tape out there; masking tape holds its own, too. You may already know that you can make homemade speakers using an inflate ...more
Lightning has struck, but not everyone is excited. Apple's new 8-pin Lightning connector for the iPhone 5 has replaced the aging 30-pin connector. Many users have concerns that their current third-party devices will no longer operate properly with the smaller all-digital desig ...more
The iPhone doesn't stop at last year's excellent iPhone 12 lineup. Apple's been developing its iPhone 13 models for a while now, and there are a lot of rumors already with eight or nine months still to go until a release. This year, we're expecting four new models with similar ...more
Apple has four iPhone models for the remaining months of 2020, but the most impressive ones are the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max. While the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini are great smartphones, the "Pro" models offer more advanced features, especially for photographers an ...more
Some phone lines make it nearly impossible to get past the busy tone, whether it's a viral call-in giveaway, your state's unemployment office, your local post office during the holidays, or the repair office for a broken warrantied product you have. Thankfully, there are apps ...more
While iOS 14.3 is available to everyone right now, Apple is currently working on iOS 14.4 in its beta programs, and the second iOS 14.4 beta just came out for developers. The public beta version of iOS 14.4 beta 2 was released soon after. But what's in these new betas? The fi ...more
When Apple acquired the popular Workflow app in 2017, many were worried that it would either get replaced with something much worse, or just disappear entirely. Thankfully, Apple put these concerns to rest with the launch of Shortcuts. In iOS 13, Shortcuts is becoming more pow ...more
Despite its rocky start, the Essential PH-1 has a lot going for it. Not only does it get consistent security patches and system updates hours after the Pixels, but like the Google-developed lineup, it's also great for rooting. Not only is your warranty not void with rooting, b ...more
You can feel it in your bones. You may die if you don't get this phone. There's just one problem — the price. Suddenly, you come across what seems like manna from heaven. That very device, at a deeply discounted rate, can be yours. The only thing that makes you pause is that ...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
Codecs are like ZIP archives for media files. Rather than storing an entire analog sound file, the digital version is compressed to save space. The algorithm used to reduce file size is called a codec, as it encodes to digitize and decodes when it's time to play the file back. ...more
According to the CDC, one in four U.S. adults has a disability, where limitations can involve vision, cognitive function, hearing, motor skills, and more. That's why the iPhone has accessibility features; so that everyone can use an iPhone, not just those without any impairmen ...more
As a native of Alabama, Apple CEO Tim Cook has a special place in his heart for the state. He also empathizes with the struggles that African-Americans have historically faced in the state, particularly during the 1950s and '60s civil rights era. Now, Cook and his company are ...more
Although not quite as common today with the always-connected world we live in, you still might be having bandwidth wars in your home right now. If the internet connection in your area is mediocre, you know the feeling well. Google Stadia recommends having a 25 Mbps connection ...more
Four months have passed since Mojo Vision emerged from stealth, and we are no closer to seeing exactly what its "invisible computing" technology looks like. But we do know that Google is impressed enough to back the technology from the startup, as the company's AI-centric ven ...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