Custom Recovery Android

Depending on your child's age, their first smartphone may be a little too open for them, or you, to handle. With essentially a world of information—both good and bad—available at their fingertips, it can seem like a huge hurdle to instill parental controls on their device. Th ...more

Researchers at the cyber security firm Zimperium have recently uncovered a vulnerability in roughly 95% of Android devices that has the potential to allow hackers to take total control over your phone with a simple picture message (MMS). The gritty details of this exploit have ...more

I'm often reluctant to use a home screen launcher other than the stock one on my Android. Once you're well acclimated with something, complacency sets in, welcoming change with much resistance. Well, my friends, I have seen the error of my ways... After using various differen ...more

The first few times I posted on some of the Android forums out there, I asked things like "Does anybody how I can make my phone do this or that?" Without fail, the responses to these types of questions were always one word—Tasker. If you're not familiar with it, Tasker is an ...more

Apple definitely wasn't first to the widget game, but any iPhone running iOS 8 or higher can add widgets to their Today View found via a swipe down from the top of the screen when on the home screen or in any app. There's even access to widgets on the lock screen via the same ...more

If you're anything like me, every time you travel you end up in a desperate panic for a decent W-Fi connection. Whether you want to post your photos, research the best beaches, or kill time during an overnight layover, a hotel's Wi-Fi quality is of paramount significance in ma ...more

When it comes to theming your Android device, it's the little touches that count the most. That's why developer SArnab created the Android Theme Engine, an Xposed Module to theme those hard-to-reach corners of the Android System that often go untouched with other themes. So, ...more

Update: May 7, 2014: Google's Camera has seen its first update, with a small yet important addition baked into the app—the ability to take pictures while recording a video. Now, when in video mode, simply tap on the screen to take a picture, while your recording continues as ...more

You probably already know what you want to do when you grab your phone. More than likely, you're either going to make a call, send a text, or open an app. So why can't you just do that right from your Samsung Galaxy S3's lock screen? Instead of entering in your passcode or pa ...more

Last week, I highlighted 5 of my favorite free interactive live wallpapers that you could use on your Android device. But where do you go from there? What's the next step up? While the regular old interactive live wallpapers are amazing, if you can't stop thinking about your ...more

Smartphones are great. They help you keep in touch with your loved ones and stay up to date on what's going on in the world. The problem is that like everything else that's useful, they cost money to use, and between calling, texting, and data plans, it can get really expensiv ...more

For those of you still using a BlackBerry smartphone, this article will show you the tips and tricks to installing emulators and playing some classic Game Boy Advanced games on your device. You can find a few tutorials and videos out there on getting Game Boy Color or NES game ...more

After an update on Sept. 22, 2020, the Checkra1n jailbreaking tool expanded its compatibility to include iOS 12.0 to iOS 12.2, as well as iOS 13.5.1 to iOS 13.7. More importantly, however, it now can jailbreak iOS 14 on select iPhone models, with more support coming soon. The ...more

Fast-food chain Jack in the Box has decided to put an augmented reality twist on the traditional sweepstakes promotion by employing the immersive powers of Snapchat. Now through Aug. 18, the chain will run a Jack in the Box AR experience that gives customers a chance to win p ...more

After applying augmented reality as a solution for the sale and marketing of sneakers, Nike is taking the next step in its adoption of AR to improve the customer experience. On Thursday, Nike unveiled its new Nike Fit tool, which the company is preparing to add to its existin ...more

CarPlay is no doubt the best way to use your iPhone when behind the wheel since you can safely drive without too many distractions. It gets even better with all the music and podcasting apps available, as well as third-party navigation apps such as Google Maps and Waze. With m ...more

The iPhone's notification system has drastically improved over the years, but it could still use some work. The notifications, while useful, are all monochrome, making it hard to distinguish which app posted each alert, and that's not even mentioning the drab overall look. Thi ...more

Two-factor authentication (also known as 2FA) adds a necessary additional layer of security to your username and password in many important apps. On Instagram, 2FA requires you to confirm it's you attempting to log in, with a special code sent to you via text message. Enter th ...more

Overall, iOS is more impressive than ever with its stability enhancements, security tools, suite of apps and services, and intuitive user interface. With each passing update, things just get better and better for iPhone users. But don't think for a second that this is all beca ...more

With the iPhone X, Apple introduced a brand new way for iOS users to interact with their iPhones. Gestures took the spotlight, as they very apparently replaced functions you would normally execute on the Home button. But swipes aren't everything for the new iPhone XS, XS Max, ...more

The mainstreaming of augmented reality won't happen overnight, but it's becoming increasingly clear that traditional media is leading the charge in the effort to introduce the public to immersive computing. A recent example came from none other than USA Today via its 321 Launc ...more

OnePlus pulled out almost all the stops with their latest flagship, but there are a few areas where the phone falls just short of perfect. The single bottom-firing speaker leaves a lot to be desired, for instance, but thanks to the awesome development community for the OnePlus ...more

For a while, Gmail only had one swipe gesture, and it could only perform one of two actions: Archive or Delete. Not that it wasn't useful — you could eliminate most spam emails in a matter of seconds by swiping left or right on any email in your inbox. But now, Google has fina ...more

Apple is putting their Workflow acquisition to use with the new Shortcuts feature, integrated right into Siri. It allows you to connect commonly-used actions to a phrase that you activate with Siri. In addition to some of the other speed improvements in iOS 12, Shortcuts helps ...more

You really can't beat Google Photos. Not only does it give you free unlimited cloud storage and let you search for almost any object in one of your pictures, but it also packs a few powerful editing tools. Among these is a dead-simple way to create your own animated GIFs out o ...more

Thanks to Metaverse, it has never been this easy to create your own AR game. The platform gives users a web-based tool for building interactive AR experiences, with no coding knowledge necessary. Via a link or QR code, users can then share their project with others, who can v ...more

Ever since iOS 11, there's been a little drawer at the bottom of conversation threads in the Messages app. That drawer houses what Apple calls "iMessage apps," even though they also work in regular text messages. These apps are convenient for various reasons, but if you don't ...more

When it comes to differentiating from the competition, brands are continuing to leverage augmented reality to give consumers to the point that there are few "firsts" left to achieve in the marketplace. While L'Oreal jumps on the augmented reality bandwagon for cosmetics, Acura ...more

There's not much you can do to customize the look and feel of your iPhone's home screen, at least when it comes to official options provided by Apple. But thanks to a new bug discovered by YouTuber iDeviceHelp, you can now hide text labels for app icons and folders on your iPh ...more

With the recent news that New York County's District Attorney's office is trying to get into over 400 locked iPhones for use in criminal investigations, you can see why it's important to keep other people away from your personal data. The fact that it can and will be used agai ...more

For the most part, when you take a screenshot, it's because you intend on sharing it with someone. And, of course, we all take pride in our smartphones, so we want to show them off as much as possible. But the downside here is that regular screenshots are pretty boring, so the ...more

As the internet continues to become a bigger part of our day-to-day lives, we slowly but surely start to rack up a bunch of web-based subscriptions. These internet subscription services—Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime, just to name a few—may seem innocuously cheap individually ...more

Now is the time to act if you've been in the market for some must-have Android apps but felt like the price was a little out of your range. The Google Play Store is running a sale so you can pick up some high-quality paid apps—including the popular Nova Launcher Prime and Powe ...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

Video: . Being one of the most popular DIY/maker projects around, Musical Floppy Drives are nothing new. However, myFloppyDriveOrchestra includes a few unique features, which separate it from the crowd. FPGA - by implementing the drive control on an FPGA, I have effectively c ...more

Happy hour is a great way to wind down after a long day at work or school, to relax with friends and enjoy a well-deserved drink. While the experience of this on-the-cheap imbibing promotion is great, the hours usually aren't. Since happy hour is partly intended to bring in c ...more

Whenever a new Android device is realized, the first thing I figure out how to do is to get it root access. Generally speaking, rooting has never been easier, with many one-touch methods like Stump and Towelroot available. But as manufacturers and carriers increase security wi ...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

Aside from the newer HTC One M8 and Samsung Galaxy S5, the Nexus 5 still has one of the fastest processors on the market today. However, despite its superpowers, some graphically intensive games can still have a bit of lag to them during gameplay. This lag is mostly due to in ...more

It's been rumored ever since the 2012 release of the Kindle Fire, and now Amazon's first smartphone is set to debut a little later this year. A few weeks ago, BGR got an exclusive look at a prototype device assumed to be Amazon's first flagship smartphone, albeit in a clunky, ...more

I'm a textaholic, as I've said many times before, but even textaholics forget to respond sometimes. When I'm watching a YouTube clip or devouring delicious snacks in Candy Crush Saga, I'll often ignore incoming texts and forget to respond later. Some of this forgetfulness cou ...more

By this point, you've definitely come across an app or two that wasn't designed with the HTC One in mind. Either the resolution is too small, the status bar stays active when it shouldn't, or the font isn't the ideal size. There are ways out there to get that changed, but up u ...more

If you've ever used IFTTT, you know how well it can automate your online world. The premise is simple—If This, Then That—but the results are powerful. From automatically printing images based on hashtags to getting around Twitter bans, the service is quite useful with a wealth ...more

While the Galaxy Note 3 and Galaxy S4 are enjoying their official KitKat updates, those of us with Note 2s are left to play the waiting game. While we know our devices will eventually see an update to Android 4.4.2 KitKat, it's unclear when an official update for our devices w ...more

Changing your wallpaper and downloading icon packs is nothing new to the HTC One, but some people will go overboard with remapped keys, icon layouts on custom grids, and extensive wallpaper cropping—processes that could take hours to get just right. Now you can go overboard t ...more

Your smartphone has a ton of ringtone options built in, but ringtones haven't really changed much in the past decade, and it's definitely not cool to hear someone in the supermarket with the same lame ringer. While replacing the stock sounds with a song of your choosing is the ...more

Not particularly good looking, TouchWiz's lock screen adequately supplements the clunky and almost cartoonish-look of the infamous user interface on the Samsung Galaxy Note 2. While there are hundreds of lock screen options in the Google Play Store, I've never quite discovered ...more

What can be said about Spotify that most of us don't already know? It's the most popular digital music streaming service out there, giving you access to millions of songs on your computer. However, the mobile service was once an exclusive feature for paid subscribers. Not anym ...more

Are you staying up longer than you want to? Do you fidget with your tablet late at night before bed? Maybe you're using it to read or to watch something to help you knock out. If so, this may actually be keeping you up. Studies have shown that exposure to blue light before sl ...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

My standard text greeting to friends is something along the lines of "Wazzup biznitch?"—but apparently the auto-correct function on my Samsung Galaxy S3 has a problem with that. Time after time I have to retype it or just add all my made-up words to the word list—and I use a l ...more

Over the past several weeks, I’ve had the pleasure of test driving Samsung’s next big thing, the Galaxy S4. After putting the GS4 through its paces, I have a clear picture of what this device is capable of. I’ve covered the features of the device before, and now I’ll tell you ...more

There's an easy way to take your PC to the next level — without any need for a hardware upgrade. The secret is in software that unlocks uses and productivity hacks you never knew you needed. Even better, right now, The Power User PC Software Bundle is on sale for just $59.99. ...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

It's open season on Zoom, the video conferencing platform that has grown in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic but has come under fire due to privacy issues. First, Google has opened up Meet, its video conferencing services for G-Suite subscribers, as a free service for ...more

Penetration-testing frameworks can be incredibly useful since they often streamline certain processes and save time by having a lot of tools available in one place. Of course, the most popular pentesting framework is undoubtedly Metasploit, but there are many others out there ...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

Life is too chaotic to be organized all the time, but little steps in the right direction make things easier overall. File folders keep paperwork from spiraling out of control. Spice jars take the clutter out of cabinets. Storage totes keep basements neat and tidy. But to find ...more

Despite their awkward appearance, Apple's AirPods have become the earbuds of choice for working out, largely thanks to quality audio without any wires to tangle. However, at $159 to start, they aren't exactly for everyone. As with most innovations, when one company makes big ...more

The Pixel 4 is one of the most talked-about phones of 2019, and it has many things going for it, especially in the world of rooting and modding. Just as with previous Pixel generations, unlocking the bootloader is the gateway to realizing your device's true potential. It can m ...more