Enable Developer Options

A great way to incorporate a healthy exercise routine is by taking lots of steps throughout the day. While most smartphones can track and report your steps via a third-party app, you can check them right from your home screen if you have a OnePlus phone. To get started, swipe ...more

According to a recent survey conducted by Edison Research and Statista, Pandora still has a firm grasp as the most popular music streaming service in the United States. With iHeartRadio, iTunes Radio, and even Spotify trailing behind by a large margin, it doesn't look like Pan ...more

The Pixel 5 is a bit of a departure from previous Pixels. Gone are the Pixel 4's Soli-based Motion Sense gestures, the Pixel 3's dual front-facing speakers, and the glass back panel of previous generations. But perhaps the most notable omission for long-time Pixel users is the ...more

On Monday, toy maker Merge virtually blasted its way into CES 2018 with a new tech-meets-toys innovation in the form of an augmented reality gun controller for use with smartphone-powered first-person shooter apps. The 6DoF Blaster (6DoF refers to "six degrees of freedom"), a ...more

What's the point of having a 1080p screen if you're not using it to get in some quality gaming time? Google Play is great for downloading games, but you probably already have an extensive library of games for your consoles, so use those! Emulators are a dime a dozen, but Retr ...more

Samsung put some of the industry's most advanced camera tech in the Galaxy S20 series. However, their image processing still lags behind the Google Camera app found on Pixel phones, so the end result is good but not great. Luckily, you can install a mod to pair that beastly ha ...more

Electronic warfare tactics work by jamming, disrupting, or disabling the technology a target uses to perform a critical function, and IoT devices are especially vulnerable to attacks. Wireless security cameras like the Nest Cam are frequently used to secure critical locations, ...more

By default, your Samsung Galaxy S III comes equipped with a few app shortcuts that are available from the lock screen. But what if you don't use those apps very much? Wouldn't you rather customize the lock screen icons on your S3 to your favorite and most used apps? Well, it' ...more

Much like the Chromecast, Android TV devices such as the Nexus Player and Nvidia Shield TV have always had those beautiful background images as their default screensaver. However, unlike the Chromecast, these "Backdrop" images, as they're called, weren't always customizable on ...more

Chrome is the browser of choice for millions of iPhone and Android users, largely thanks to its user-friendly interface and native Google support. But with concerns over sharing private information with massive companies growing, many people are starting to want a little less ...more

On iPhones, the share sheet is a powerful yet largely underestimated tool. For the uninitiated, the share sheet is the menu that opens whenever you tap the share button (the box with the up-arrow). This menu features sharing options to first and third-party apps, as well as ex ...more

Having a dropped call can be incredibly frustrating, especially when you look down and see that your iPhone has full reception. While there's any number of issues that can cause this, one common and often overlooked issue is your iPhone failing to switch cell towers as appropr ...more

There's not much to the Messages app for iPhone when it comes to finding the right conversations. It did get some enhanced search capabilities in iOS 13, but beyond that, there's no good way to find the threads you need aside from just scrolling through the main page, which li ...more

The Calculator app is probably one of Apple's most-used iPhone apps, yet I always meet people who don't know all the little tricks there are to using it more efficiently. You may know most of them, but there's a chance you don't or at least forget about some of them. What a " ...more

Aside from its many high-end features, the camera on the LG G3 is up there with other heavy hitters like the Galaxy S5 and HTC One. With an exclusive Laser Auto Focus sensor and 13-megapixels with optical image stabilization, it's hard to ignore what this camera brings to the ...more

Ever since developer bponury created his TouchControl app for the Galaxy Nexus back in 2011, manufacturers and modders alike have been racing to re-implement the "Double-tap-to-wake" functionality it brought to the table. We've seen LG do it with their "Knock On" feature, we'v ...more

After utilizing Spotify's My Year in Music tool, I came to realize that I listened to over 30,000 minutes of music in 2014. Most of that was played while working from my Mac using the desktop version of the service. Although listening to music on Spotify while working helps s ...more

Dorothy had it right: "There's no place like home." This is especially true when it comes to using your Samsung Galaxy S3, or pretty much any other smartphone, whose most vital button is the Home key. But what happens when that button no longer works? Replacements can be pri ...more

Samsung Internet offers excellent features that enhance the mobile web browsing experience, often through its extensions. A QR code scanner, ad blockers, tracker blockers, and more work directly in the browser, so you can do exactly what you want to do on the web. Don't feel ...more

Welcome to the first chapter of Excel is Simple, a place where we will burst all myths around excel and try to make it simpler and fun to use. I would like to share an important tip…if you want to be fast with Excel, try to avoid using the mouse as much as you can. We will so ...more

For some strange reason, Google Now is unavailable in several countries across the globe. Users from Albania, China, Cyprus, Malta, Nepal, Puerto Rico, Tunisia, and many more big countries have reported for years that the service doesn't work in their area, mostly likely becau ...more

TWRP has been the king of custom recovery on Android for years now, thanks to device compatibility and core features. But there's a new player in town — at least, for OnePlus devices — and it's got a lot of useful features that might finally get you to ditch TWRP. Sky Hawk Re ...more

Automating port scanners, directory crawlers, and reconnaissance tools can be complicated for beginners just getting started with Kali Linux. Sparta solves this problem with an easy-to-use graphical interface designed to simplify a penetration tester's tasks. Sparta, authored ...more

When setting up a Raspberry Pi, it's easy to overlook changing the default password. Like many IoT devices, the Raspberry Pi's default Raspbian operating system installs with a widely-known default password, leaving the device vulnerable to remote access. Using a tool called r ...more

New York-based startup CTRL-Labs has closed a $28 million Series A round of funding from Google parent Alphabet's GV and Amazon's Alexa Fund, among others, for its next-generation neural interface technology for AR/VR and robotics. CTRL-labs offers a twist on the brain contro ...more

Snapchat is definitely not known for its stellar privacy or security features, but that hasn't stopped them from gaining millions of users. Now, those millions of users can do more than just share pictures and videos—they can share money. For users familiar with mobile pay se ...more

It's all about widgets. Widgets are one of the most important features on an Android phone—they can provide valuable information at a glance and are easily customizable. You can download widgets for the weather, news, Tweets, and so on, but there are limitations as to what ki ...more

Last night, I was reading a riveting National Geographic article on the green-eyed tree frog, until I was quickly interrupted by an annoying popup asking me to "create a free account" or "sign in." Really, I'd like to do neither. I just want to read about tree frogs. This popu ...more

Until recently, Firefox had the ability to continue playing YouTube videos in the background after minimizing the browser. It worked great as a YouTube Red alternative, but unfortunately, Mozilla removed this feature after some pushback from Google. Thankfully, there's a way t ...more

Before the release of the Galaxy S8, Samsung quietly uploaded one of their core TouchWiz apps to the Google Play Store as a beta. Samsung Internet, as it's called, has been a staple on all Galaxy devices for years now, but you can now try the browser on any Android phone. Aft ...more

One of Android's biggest strengths relative to iOS is how simple it is to sideload apps that aren't on the official app store. Rather than having to sign IPA files or tell your phone you trust a developer every two weeks, you can just enable a setting and be done with it. Jum ...more

The volume is maxed out, but that doesn't stop me from hitting the volume key on my Nexus 7 in hopes that it will magically get louder. This happens to me everyday as I watch videos or play music. The simple fact is that a Nexus 7 tablet just doesn't get very loud. At least, n ...more

As fellow softModders, I'm sure you strive to find any and every way to make your phone unique. Wallpapers and icon packs are great to get started, but to really stand out from the rest, try changing your HTC One's boot animation. A new boot animation for your phone can be in ...more

Google recently changed the way we search online, and from what I can tell, I'm not the only person online just a little bit irritated with the new design. I don't mind that they moved the options from the left column to the top; it's just aesthetics. But I am pretty frustrat ...more

Apple has tools built into iOS to help parents monitor the iPhone habits of their children. However, those same tools can be used by everyday iPhone owners to both hide apps they don't care about, as well as restrict features they don't need or that infringe on privacy. Whethe ...more

When I compare my iPhone 4S to my friend's iPhone 5, I notice that his elongated screen gives him an extra row of applications. Am I jealous? Yes, a little. Unfortunately, we can't alter the physical form of our device, but we can tweak our icon layout to add more apps snugly ...more

The beta firmware for OnePlus devices lets you record calls from the stock Oxygen OS dialer, but this feature is never included in official updates. This is likely due to legal issues with recording calls in some jurisdictions, but thankfully, there's a way to get this feature ...more

Android Debug Bridge, or ADB for short, is a very powerful utility that can remotely execute commands on your Android device. This remote terminal interface, however, is not very "remote" at all. You have to be tied down to your computer to use it, since a USB cable is normall ...more

When it comes to shooting video, the iPhone is often considered the best in the biz. That certainly didn't change with the release of the iPhone 11, 11 Pro, and 11 Pro Max, who each sport the best video cameras the smartphone industry has to offer. That said, there's always be ...more

Android is Google's project, so of course you can see the search giant's fingerprints all over the operating system. Aside from the obvious user-facing apps, there's Google Cloud Messaging, Google Connectivity Services, and the much-maligned Google Play Services running in the ...more

HomePod and HomePod mini are excellent smart speakers if you're entrenched in the Apple ecosystem. They even offer ways to protect your sensitive information from friends and visitors who try to ask Siri to spill your secrets. But there's an extra layer of privacy you can put ...more

Since the introduction of LED flash to smartphones, there have been hundreds of flashlight apps flooding Google Play, since most Android phones do not have built-in flashlight apps, including the HTC One. Third-party flashlights are great for lighting up dark corners, but som ...more

Airgeddon is a multi-Bash network auditor capable of Wi-Fi jamming. This capability lets you target and disconnect devices from a wireless network, all without joining it. It runs on Kali, and we'll cover installing, configuring, and using its jamming functionalities on a smal ...more

Apple's latest updates to its operating systems add another security feature to its Find My service, so you have an even better chance at locating your lost iPhone, iPad, or Mac should it ever happen. As long as you have the option enabled, you can leverage other Apple users' ...more

As an added functionality to the S Pen, the Pen Window enables you to create floating application windows on your Samsung Galaxy Note 3—a tool that's extremely useful when it comes to multitasking. However, there's always room for improvement. In today's softModder guide, I' ...more

Apple has taken great strides to ensure that iPhone users are having an Apple Maps experience on par or even better than Google Maps can provide. One of the factors powering this is extensions, which adds functionality to certain apps by giving them permission to interact. Amo ...more

Welcome back my fellow hackers! In my last few articles, I've concentrated on what is called a listener, which is basically the same thing as backdoor and rootkit, only "listener" sounds much less malevolent than the other two terms. First, I covered embedding a listener in ...more

One of the only downsides to the Pixel XL is that Google's flagship phone does not have stereo speakers. But if Android's awesome development community has taught us anything over the years, it's that limitations like these can be bypassed with some creative software tinkering ...more

Many of us were left scratching our heads when the iOS 7 update removed the Twitter and Facebook options from the Notification Center. Allowing you to quickly tweet and post Facebook updates, these were features used, and missed, by many—including me. Fortunately, if you have ...more

If you've ever used the Find My iPhone and Find My Friends apps in iOS 12 and below, you may be surprised to hear that those apps have joined forces in iOS 13. Now, instead of two separate apps, they're combined into one convenient package. But what does that mean for you and ...more

The Pixel and Pixel XL both use AMOLED screens, which are noted for their deeper blacks and sharper contrast ratios when compared to traditional LCD panels. However, AMOLED displays still have one fairly major downside, and that's the fact that they're vulnerable to screen bur ...more

Texting has become the king of communication—gone are the days where everyone called each other. These days, it's down-right weird when someone calls first. Whether it be on a phone or on a computer, SMS and MMS messages are the most common way people keep in contact, so why n ...more

The Pixel 2 has finally arrived. Google unveiled their newest flagship phones on October 4th, and there's quite a few changes in store. For one thing, most of Google's official renders have already showed us something new: The Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL will have a Google Search b ...more

So, your grandmother finally wants to ditch her flip phone for a shiny new smartphone? Congratulations. But helping her get used to her new device, even when it's an iPhone, is no small task. Grandma mastered checking her email in late-2012 and just recently learned there's a ...more

VPNs add a protective layer between your data and your internet service provider (ISP) or bad actors (hackers), so it makes sense they've become so popular lately. Probably the most common one of these is NordVPN, so we explored its mobile app to find all the options worth che ...more

One feature of Samsung devices that's less useful than I had expected is S Voice, the voice assistant that ships with all new Galaxy devices. The voice is annoying, the features are lacking, and it's an all around subpar product. With Google Now, Siri, and now Microsoft's Cort ...more

The reveal of Apple's new ARKit extensions for iPhones and iPads, while not much of a shock, did bring with it one big surprise. By finding a solution to surface detection without the use of additional external sensors, Apple just took a big step over many — though not all — s ...more

Windows has always had an "Administrator" account that allowed you to install programs and manage system files with elevated privileges. The difference between this account and a regular user account with administrator access was that you never got bothered by annoying User Ac ...more

MoviePass may be popular with filmgoers on a budget, but it might not be with those of you who are concerned about your privacy, since MoviePass may be logging your location data even when you don't expect the app to do so. At a recent business forum on March 2, MoviePass CEO ...more

It just keeps getting harder to enjoy all of the benefits of root without sacrificing features. Thanks to SafetyNet, we've lost the ability to use Android Pay, Pokémon GO, and even Snapchat to an extent. But the most recent news on this front is perhaps worst of all: Netflix h ...more