On July 20, 1969, humans set foot on the moon for the first time. But some say our microbes beat us there. With the Space Age came new questions about microscopic invaders from outer space and concern about where we are leaving our microbial footprints. The questions are even ...more
The gig economy is thriving, and if you aren't already making money with your phone, you could be missing out on easy residual income. Some people just want extra cash, and some even manage to completely ditch the 9–5, enabling them to work at their own pace and set their own ...more
For a long time, Apple has kept the upper hand on Android as far as app revenue is concerned. However, this tradition looks likely to change this year, as Android's app sales are expected to surpass Apple's. CNBC broke the news, citing a report by App Annie, a company coverin ...more
In previous posts here, I have pointed out that hackers are in high demand around the world and in nearly every industry. Every military and espionage unit of every country is trying to hire high-quality, experienced hackers as fast as they can to hack their adversaries' compu ...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
Autonomous vehicles, aka self-driving cars, are not yet available to the public (at least not ones SAE Level 3 and higher). However, this doesn't make the jobs any less in demand. In fact, if you meet the right qualifications, you could make a lot of money in this industry. A ...more
Update (February 2019): The methods below will help on older Android versions, but we've recently revisited this topic. So if you have a newer Android phone and you want to get rid of Google, head here. It seems like every week there is a new exposé revealing all of the backr ...more
I am an English major physically allergic to all algebraic formulas, so you're unlikely to get any help from me when it comes to solving any expressions. But in the glorious technological age we live in, there are plenty of apps that actually make math and problem solving fun, ...more
Screenshots are great, but sometimes they don't tell the whole story. You can show off that new app you got or that awesome new live wallpaper, but a screenshot isn't going to get the point across. What exactly am I trying to show you in the screenshot above? You probably have ...more
If you ever need to make calls and/or send texts to the U.S. or Canada from abroad, or even just receive them from those locations, there's an easy way to do so without breaking the bank. In fact, it's free, and all you need is a smartphone, computer, and some free tools. A l ...more
If you're a Twitter user, it's a safe bet to assume that you've used a hashtag. On all social networking sites that have the capability, such as Instagram, Facebook, and Google+, the pound (#) symbol is used to mark and designate specific keywords or topics in order to make it ...more
This Black Friday, there are a lot of smartphone deals. Whether you're picking up a new phone or already have one, one of the first purchases you'll want to make is a protective case. And just like nearly every other item, there's plenty of money to be saved on some great phon ...more
Software takes time to create, and time is money, so a lot of great apps aren't free. But to generate interest, some developers will make their paid apps free for a limited time. The potential for a long-term increase in daily active users more than offsets the short-term lost ...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
Making a purchase through PayPal is great because you have the option to pay using your account balance, a bank account, debit card, credit card, rewards balance, or even PayPal's own credit product. You need to pick one to be your preferred payment method for each in-stores a ...more
Google's former Self-Driving Car project, now graduated from Alphabet's X division as Waymo, has found a collaborator and potential new partner in Honda. This is an interesting turn of events given traditional automakers' reluctance to work with driverless-car startups over th ...more
There are many ways to send and receive money on PayPal. You can use an email address, a phone number, or a PayPal.Me link, but if you're standing right next to the person you're trying to pay or get digital cash from, the easiest way, by far, is to use QR codes. Everyone who ...more
Trivia games are a great way to test your knowledge and learn about people and things you never knew of before. They're ideal in a group setting because they can serve as the perfect conversation starter when you're enjoying time with friends, family, or even complete stranger ...more
Bubbles serve as extra lives to help you get through both Tour and Toad Rally modes in Super Mario Run. Even better, they let you rewind back to pick up any items that were missed. But unbeknownst to many, you can activate a bubble even if you haven't gotten knocked out yet. ...more
What happens when somebody sends you Apple Pay Cash inside of an iMessage? Do you have to add it to your Apple Pay Cash card on your iPhone manually or does it miraculously appear there automatically? By default, your iPhone will accept incoming payments from your contacts, n ...more
Let's say you receive $10 from a friend through Apple Pay Cash via an iMessage. You could spend that money in the App Store or at any retailer that supports Apple Pay using your Apple Pay Cash card. If you'd rather save it or use it for bills, it's easy to transfer that money ...more
Parents rejoice, Apple Pay is making it much simpler for your kid to use Greenlight, the MasterCard for kids app. The goal of Greenlight is to prepare kids for the world of financial independence while making it as safe as possible for them. Parents are able to monitor and co ...more
The cup of augmented reality options for Winter Olympics fandom runneth over, with Google pouring a pack of AR Stickers into the mix. The AR Stickers: Winter Sports pack is now available for Pixel devices via the Google Play Store. Pixel owners must also have ARCore and AR St ...more
After 6 years of development, the big banks seem to be ready to combat Venmo on the money sending frontier, but now it might be too late. The system being implemented is called Zelle. Created by Early Warning, it is said to include an upgrade to banking apps that will allow u ...more
First showcased back in June at WWDC, Apple Pay Cash is Apple's answer to Venmo. Although iOS 11 has been out in the wild since September, this new iMessage feature has been mysteriously absent. That's finally changed with the second beta of iOS 11.2 — Apple Pay Cash is here. ...more
Virtual reality is all the rage these days, especially with devices like the Oculus Rift, Gear VR, and HTC Vive hitting shelves lately. But before any of those fancy, expensive headsets ever made it to the market, Google came up with a thrifty and inventive substitute in the f ...more
According to a study done by Kaspersky, 7.6% of Android users root their phones. That may not sound like a lot, but with over 2 billion Android devices out there, the math works out to over 150 million rooted phones — more than the total population of Russia, Mexico, or Japan ...more
Smartglasses maker Vuzix rushed out of the gate to be the first company to announce hardware powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR1 for augmented reality wearables, but now the company is buying time until the product is ready to ship. On Thursday, at the Augmented World Expo ...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
Samsung has some competition as LG may be incorporating OLED panels for their new flagship V30 launching later this year. Last month, it emerged that the "other" South Korean company would be preparing to mass produce curved OLED panels, which may be featured on the LG V30. L ...more
The race for the future of the automative world has never been tighter, with reports earlier this week that Tesla is now almost as valuable as Ford. The neck-in-neck companies are focused on the same next big step for automobiles: the driverless car. Earlier today at their Es ...more
China's e-commerce site Alibaba has been making heavy investments in augmented and mixed reality startups. In February of this year, they led a $793 million round of Series C financing of Magic Leap. And now they've just invested in Israeli-based InfinityAR, which acquired $18 ...more
LARPing, or live action role-playing, can look a little silly because it requires a lot of imagination to suspend reality. But mixed reality technology like the Microsoft HoloLens can change all of that with voice commands and special effects. The Medium blog HoloLens Challen ...more
Google dropped its opposition to T-Mobile's Binge On service due to some favorable policy changes at the magenta carrier. From now on, YouTube and Google Play Movies will happily work with the feature. Binge On rolled out late last year, allowing many customers to receive unli ...more
If you were upset about "Friends" leaving Netflix, fret no more. The entire series, all eight Harry Potter movies, as well as HBO's massive catalog, are now available as part of HBO Max. If you're already an HBO Now subscriber, however, it can be a bit confusing to know how to ...more
While the tech industries giants and eager startups chase the dream of widespread consumer augmented reality, enterprise AR is living the dream today. Now, riding on the strength of present-day return on investment over future potential, enterprise AR platform maker Scope AR ...more
While it has been slower to arrive than a walker limping through thick Georgia mud, location-based augmented reality game Walking Dead: Our World finally has a confirmed launch date: July 12. Along with a release date, the game's publisher, Next Games, has provided a few more ...more
A new contender has entered the mixed reality ring. San Fransisco-based Occipital has just released an "Explorer Edition" of Bridge—an iPhone-based mixed and virtual reality headset that uses their popular Structure Sensor. At a fraction of the cost of a HoloLens developers ki ...more
I hate flying for two reasons. Firstly, I'm afraid of heights and turbulence is absolutely hellish. Secondly, I hate overspending on airfare. Flying can be unnecessarily expensive, especially if you don't plan ahead or must deal with inclement weather. Nevertheless, the travel ...more
When your day sucks, all you want is a tall, ice-cold glass of beer at the end of it all. Nothing complicated about having some booze to temporarily drown your sorrows. But sometimes you get stuck with crappy beer (hey-o, Keystone Ice!), and it feels like the world is out to ...more
Amazon just unveiled the Kindle Oasis, the latest model in its popular line of e-readers. There are a couple of nice new features, but it's pretty hard to see how any of them justify the whopping $290 price tag (or $310 if you don't want ads littering your screen). Unlike pre ...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
Sending Christmas cards via snail mail is so passé. Why spend the time and money for a bougie photoshoot, saccharine card design, and postage when you can use augmented reality to instantly dress up photos and videos to send to friends and family instead? Luckily, there is a ...more
Action Launcher has some exclusive features that add real value to your overall experience. One such feature is Shutters, and like with most aspects of Android, there's a workaround that will let you enjoy this functionality on other launchers. Shutters help save home screen ...more
Colorado State University scientists have developed new tech that quickly identifies the presence of Zika virus in mosquito populations — and in human body fluid. For hard-hit nations like Brazil and Nicaragua, a field-ready test that not only identifies Zika, but also the st ...more
We're year-round pesto eaters. We eat pesto outdoors in the summertime on a light pasta with a glass of rosé. We eat pesto in the wintertime by the fire atop a bowl of soup with a warm mug of tea. We eat pesto with scrambled eggs for breakfast, pesto-slathered sandwiches for l ...more
The Oculus Rift is finally shipping to customers in more than 20 countries, and we're getting a good idea of how the device holds up from the initial reviews. You'll see some common threads throughout: along with an impressive virtual reality experience, the device is very com ...more
Whatever you want to call it for now—Android Nutella, Android Nougat, or Android 7.0—the upcoming "N" release of Android will surely bring in tons of new features and functionality. We know it will be named after a dessert, and we know that Google uses an alphabetical naming s ...more
Deciding what to remove from your iPhone in order to free up space isn't the easiest thing in the world. You've got to decide which apps, videos, and photos are worth keeping, even though in a perfect world, you couldn't have to part with any of them. Last year, Justin wrote ...more
You know you've had a long day when you head home with a headache, back pain, and eyes so sore they feel like they might roll out of your head. Turns out your medicine cabinet isn't the only place you can find help—instead of popping painkillers, just open up your wallet for i ...more
Automation applications bring the future a little closer. If you've seen Minority Report or other futuristic sci-fi movies, the intrigue of having your electronics work independently is something we can all appreciate. While smartphones continue to improve and push the limits ...more
If you haven't heard yet, Google made it possible a couple months ago for every Android user running 2.2 or higher to track his or her smartphone or tablet using their Android Device Manager service. It's a super easy way to track, lock, and secure erase your Android device fr ...more
After getting confirmation from Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, we now know Fortnite Battle Royale will not be available on the Play Store when it's finally released for Android. Instead, users will have to download the APK directly from Epic Games' website — and quite frankly ...more
The LG G6 was officially announced by LG at Mobile World Congress 2017 in Barcelona and released in the US on April 7, 2017. The device is almost exactly what we've been expecting from all of the rumors and leaks building up to its release. The modular design we saw in the G5 ...more
Update: Google's new Pixel models have been released! Check out our full guides on the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL to see all the details, but we'll leave the rumor roundup intact below for posterity. Although marked by initial scandals, many regard the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL as s ...more
There's a serious issue with Google Fi's service for iPhone that prevents sending any MMS pictures via the Messages app. The problem doesn't affect all iPhone users on Google Fi, but if you're like me and keep getting that frustrating "Not Delivered" alert, there's a fix. I j ...more
Samsung has a cool security feature built into One UI that has an interesting side effect, one that lets you have two separate copies of any Android app on your Galaxy phone. And that's not the only integrated Samsung tool for cloning apps. Some mobile apps have built-in acco ...more
STANDP'S WINDOWS 7 "ASTON-2" CUSTOMIZED DESKTOP IT ROCKS COMPLETELY!. DEC 07 Computer Backup If you have taken good care of your computer then you know what you have to do to keep it running smoothly. It has to be cleaned regularly so there isn't any dirt and dust on it. It ...more
The iPhone X is almost within reach. In fact, you can preorder right now. We know you've been itching to get your hands on Apple's newest iPhone, but before you give up over $1,000 of your hard-earned money, make sure your iPhone X knowledge is up-to-snuff. Hands On Sometime ...more
Niantic has gotten themselves into a bit of a mess regarding their hit game Pokémon GO recently. The company hosted a fan fest in Chicago earlier this month that ended up being a complete disaster. It was Niantic's first live event which likely had the company shaken after al ...more