There are quite a few flaws with Apple's mobile products, and one that drives me crazy is their reliance upon iTunes for all your music syncing needs. If you want a song on your iPhone, you pretty much have to use iTunes to get it on there. Either that or buy it directly from ...more
Now that some of the best-known beauty brands are leveraging augmented reality to market and sell products, the rest of the market is beginning to catch up — fast. The latest competitor to add AR to its arsenal is direct sales makeup company Younique. This month, the company ...more
To bring things up to code with a new FCC standard, Android recently added an "Emergency broadcasts" feature that will make your smartphone notify you whenever a potential safety threat or Amber Alert is posted in your area. Even if you have your phone set to silent, these eme ...more
In 2017, Google introduced a new feature called Fast Pair. This made discovering and pairing Bluetooth devices completely stress-free, as it eliminated the need to fumble through settings. Google has now made it even easier, so Fast Pair is a must-have feature for your next he ...more
Apple released the first major iOS 12 update Tuesday, Oct. 30, just hours after the company's iPad and Mac presentation. While iOS 12.1 is the first official update to hit iPhones since iOS 12.0.1, beta testers had enjoyed an exclusive first-hand look at all the new features t ...more
If you're the de facto tech support person in your family or circle of friends, you know how frustrating it can be to have to hold someone's hand and walk them through every troubleshooting step. Luckily, several options now exist for you to remotely access a Mac or Windows PC ...more
Getting on the phone for customer service can be extremely frustrating. First you've got to find the correct phone number for your region (good luck trying to get customer service from a sales department), then you have to listen to the annoying automated system to navigate yo ...more
Amazingly, a lot of people I know haven't even heard of SOPA or PIPA. Now, every English-reading person with an internet connection will finally have those two four-letter acronyms emblazoned in their minds. For the entire day today, Wikipedia's English-language site will be i ...more
Halloween will be here in just over a week, which means next week these Scrabble Bingo of the Days will become more horrific. This week, there's just a few relevant Halloween seven-letter words for your Scrabble vocabulary, referencing witchcraft and one of the eeriest horror ...more
The 2011 Toronto International Scrabble Open (TOSI) took place last weekend, with former World Champion Adam Logan beating out all of the human competition for the $3,000 grand prize. But when it came time to take on the Quackle program in the Human vs. Computer Showdown, he l ...more
I've seen numerous tutorials on how to create a "strong" password. This makes me laugh. These titles imply "one" password, which is wrong in and of itself. A person should have many passwords, all different, and all extremely long. People may ask how they're supposed to rememb ...more
It’s hard to know where to start talking about a book like 2666. That’s partly because, in some ways, it’s actually five books. Published posthumously, the book begins with “A Note from the Author’s Heirs” explaining that, before his death, Bolano stipulated the book be publis ...more
When you don't have anyone to play with in the flesh, nothing beats a round of competitive online Scrabble. If you're constantly on the move, the Scrabble app developed by Electronic Arts (EA) for Android and iOS mobile devices is probably your favorite way to play. But let's ...more
If you haven't noticed yet, I've started dishing out some "Scrabble Bingo of the Day" articles that showcase interesting and somewhat unusual seven-letter words (or longer) that could give you an extra 50-point bonus on the board, as long as you empty your rack. So, for this w ...more
It's really a shame that it is so hard for people to make money on the internet these days. The dot com bubble has receded and scams are plentiful on the web. There are, however, a couple of legitimate ways to make a few extra bucks online, Amazon Mechanical Turk, or MTurk for ...more
Phone numbers often contain clues to the owner's identity and can bring up a lot of data during an OSINT investigation. Starting with a phone number, we can search through a large number of online databases with only a few clicks to discover information about a phone number. I ...more
It's no secret that devices leak data, but sometimes they do so in ways you may not expect. Your phone, laptop, printer, and IOT devices leak Wi-Fi information that can (and is) used to track you. Today, we'll make a Wi-Fi probe logger with Probemon.py to track nearby devices ...more
Many online users worry about their accounts being breached by some master hacker, but the more likely scenario is falling victim to a bot written to use leaked passwords in data breaches from companies like LinkedIn, MySpace, and Tumblr. For instance, a tool called H8mail can ...more
It's not always easy to get to the root of an infection outbreak. Epidemiologists study infected people, contacts, and carefully examine where the infections happened and when. In the case of a 2012 outbreak of pertussis — whooping cough — in Oregon, scientists just published ...more
If maintaining privacy is an ongoing battle, the front line is your smartphone. Apple included several new security features in iOS 10, but at the same time, some of the best new functionality comes with potential privacy trade-offs that everyone needs to understand. New feat ...more
As a company, Facebook is not shy about talking up its AR smartglasses plans. The latest missive comes from two executives in charge of developing AR software and hardware. As far as we know, Amazon doesn't have plans to make AR smartglasses yet (and audio-only smartglasses d ...more
Just like Instagram, Photoshop Express for Android and iOS has its own set of filters you can quickly apply to any photo. It's simple, fast, and more customizable than using Instagram's pre-made filters. The options in Photoshop Express allow you to edit and change your filter ...more
So much information exists online that it's easy to get lost in data while researching. Understanding the bigger picture can take a lot of time and energy, but narrowing the question to one that's easy to answer is the first step of any investigation. That's why analysts use o ...more
Edit: Some of the methods I show you may be difficult, or not work at famous or high quality hotels. Welcome back, my excited hackers! Right now I am on vacation in the wonderful city of Tulum, Mexico. I thought it would be a great idea to teach you guys yet another social en ...more
Today I am going to teach the various ways that you can use social engineering to hack a system. For those of you that have followed my past tutorials, you know that social engineering can unlock a world of possibilities. This is because no matter how many firewalls, no matter ...more
YouTube is the third most popular website in the world, after Google and Facebook. Millions of subscriptions happen each day on YouTube, with over 800 million unique users visiting each month. In that timespan, roughly 4 billion hours of video are watched, with 72 hours of vid ...more
This week, Next Reality published profiles on the leaders in augmented reality hardware industry, with Magic Leap CEO Rony Abovitz topping the list. So, it should be no surprise that two app makers want to align themselves with Magic Leap's flagship product. One of the bigges ...more
Although the Magic Leap One: Creators Edition is currently officially available in only six US cities, those living outside of Magic Leap's designed US cities now have a roundabout way to order the device. Residents in over 110 countries can now place an order for a Magic Lea ...more
Google's new AI-powered camera, Google Clips, seems to be targeted at parents of young children in its current form, but the idea itself has unique potential. Just set it up somewhere, then you'll never miss a moment trying to capture the moment — you'll have a robot photograp ...more
Bitmojis are not only a good way to personalize your Snapchat account, but also a really fun Snap addition to play around with. A bitmoji is basically like your little avatar, letting you design your mini-self whichever way that you desire. If you want pink hair, there's pink ...more
Phase 2 of a Zika vaccine trial began in the United States this week, along with Central and South America. The vaccine was developed by expert scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which is part of the National Institutes of Health, ...more
Have you ever had the stomach flu, aka the 24-hour flu? Well, chances are high that you never had influenza, but an intestinal infection called gastroenteritis. While sometimes severe cold symptoms can be confused with the flu, the same is not true for the differences between ...more
When the time comes to replace your car, you most likely have a checklist of criteria that you would like on the new one. Your car is possibly the most expensive possession you have—or the second-most expensive, after your home—so you want to make sure that you are not only ge ...more
While you can't turn art into a formula, the film industry has managed to come stupidly close. While many storytelling principles still stand across mediums, successfully crafting a compelling, immersive narrative in virtual reality requires a brand new rulebook. Through trial ...more
Most of us don't get the opportunity to see election coverage first hand, but with virtual reality, we're not as restricted. AltspaceVR has teamed up with NBC News to let you log in on your computer or VR headset and actually take part in the action—just not physically. Video: ...more
To become a tried-and-true Pokémon master in Pokémon GO, there's an incredibly important decision that needs your attention: Team Instinct, Team Mystic, or Team Valor? We know—it's a tough choice to make, especially when you can't change teams without creating an entirely new ...more
If your iPhone is rebooting or your Messages app is constantly crashing, you might be the victim of an iOS exploit or just a buggy software update. While one problem sounds worse than the other, they both can get annoying real quick when you can't send any messages or even rea ...more
Featured on MTV's Catfish TV series, in season 7, episode 8, Grabify is a tracking link generator that makes it easy to catch an online catfish in a lie. With the ability to identify the IP address, location, make, and model of any device that opens on a cleverly disguised tra ...more
If you find yourself emailing the same email over and over again with just a few changes such as new addressees, or if you're constantly replying to messages with the same response, typing it out every time is, well, a waste of time. Spark, a third-party email client for mobil ...more
Many operators use elevators to control access to particular floors, whether it be the penthouse at a hotel or a server room in an office building. However, the law requires them all to have a fire service mode, which gives emergency access to restricted floors, and a hacker c ...more
Influencers of augmented reality demonstrate expertise in their fields and outline a strong vision for the future that they evangelize to others. They help define the direction of the industry and identify others who foster and create innovation in the field. The idea of the ...more
You don't need an obsessive ex stalking you to benefit from the ability to record calls on your iPhone in a pinch. Besides protecting yourself from nefarious intent, recording important conversations like verbal contracts and agreements can help you cover all your bases and en ...more
There are a number of options and hidden menus within Android that provide users more control over their device. With this control, you can better manage how your phone operates. We came up with a list of tips and shortcuts that, when used, will slowly put you on a path to bec ...more
Smartphones are like high tech buckets that collect our personal information through constant use. This has some obvious benefits, like getting a more personalized experience with our devices. On the other hand, this data is a tempting target for bad actors looking to make a b ...more
What happens when a entrepeneur/theme park creator and special effects artist/magician team up? You get a team crazy enough to create the first true virtual reality theme park (sorry, Six Flags). They only have a single experience so far, but it's already taken a giant leap be ...more
Your childhood "social networking" may have been to go outdoors to the neighbor's — and outdoors is a great place for kids to be. But these days, the terms educational, digital media, entertainment, and toddlers don't have to be mutually exclusive. Like most things in life, it ...more
The iPhone XR has touched down alongside the XS and XS Max, and it utilizes tried and tested materials found on the iPhone 8, while being molded in the same vein as the iPhone X. The budget-friendlier flagship comes with its own set of design elements to set it apart from its ...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
As a developer, before you can make augmented-reality robots that move around in the real world, controlled by a user's finger, you first need to learn how to harness the basics of designing AR software for a touchscreen interface. In recent years, the vernacular for referrin ...more
This week, Next Reality published its annual feature on the leaders in the augmented reality industry, the Next Reality 30. So it's no coincidence that the companies represented in the top four spots of the NR30 also made business headlines in AR this week. While Magic Leap i ...more
In the lead up to the Magic Leap One launch, Magic Leap has been coy about what the actual field of view (FoV) is for its first commercial product. Now, a developer noticed that the client-side source code of the FoV documentation (published last month as a placeholder with t ...more
The Galaxy S9 and S9+ have a new camera feature that Samsung is calling "Dual Aperture." On the surface, that may sound like your typical techno-jargon, but it actually has some significant implications for the future of smartphone photography. In a traditional camera like a ...more
On average, an office worker receives 121 emails a day. Many of these emails are trivial and don't require immediate attention. While Gmail's automatic spam filters catch plenty of irrelevant emails, some still make their way into your inbox. Fortunately, Gmail's tools aren't ...more
The year is 2018. You just received your own Magic Leap One: Creator Edition. What now? Rewinding back to today, we know of one specific app that will be available for Magic Leap's device, along with two others that could be tagged as highly likely. Paired with Magic Leap's o ...more
Despite longer live spans, almost half a million people die of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) each year, many of them preventable. The decision to move a loved one into a long-term care facility is difficult. Besides worry about how an elderly loved one will adjust, ...more
Coronaviruses are common viruses, and most of us catch one at some point — they cause about 30% of all common colds. A new accidental discovery could help fight these viruses, even the deadlier, emerging ones. Coronaviruses are the cause of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (M ...more
Social engineering makes headlines because human behavior is often the weakest link of even well-defended targets. Automated social engineering tools can help reclusive hackers touch these techniques, but the study of how to hack human interactions in person is often ignored. ...more
Seeing that wonderful blue verified badge on Twitter really adds something to your public persona, doesn't it? That's why, when I found out that the average person could get verified on Twitter with the right tools, I jumped on the chance to add that little blue check to my ow ...more
An outbreak of anthrax from contaminated meat in Tanzania sickened dozens of people and moves the danger of this deadly bacteria back into focus. Naturally occurring in animals and the soil, Bacillus anthracis is a rugged bacteria that has a protective outer shell, called a s ...more
Valentine's Day is upon us, and it's the perfect time to show those you love (or like) how you feel about them by making them a homemade sweet treat. Sure, you could just buy a red, heart-shaped box of candy or even a bag of seasonal M&M's. But trust me—if you put the time an ...more