If you're an owner of a BlackBerry smartphone, chances are you're going to want to use BBM, which for all of you newbie BlackBerry owners, stands for BlackBerry Messenger. BBM is an instant messaging application developed solely for BlackBerry device owners. Video: Add contact ...more
The first day of Hanukkah is here, the day you start lighting the candles of the menorah. So, why not ditch the wax and light the "lights" this year? (Skip ahead to see the LED menorah) Hanukkah is a Jewish festival that lasts eight days from the 25th day of Kislev, which th ...more
Google G1 users, want to switch your phone network? In this video, learn how to unlock the Google G1 HTC Dream Phone. All you need to complete this tutorial is your phone and a SIM network unlock pin code.
100% functional LEGO ATM by Ronald McCrae. This bonafide brick bank performs the following functions: Bill scanner can be calibrated to accept any type of banknote Machine accepts only the type of bill for which it is calibrated Tolerances for bill acceptability are adjustabl ...more
Today's fancy cars come with all sorts of options, from power mirrors to working seat belts. Some of us condemned to live in the reality of capitalist recession have no car, or perhaps a very modest one. But your modest car can still have some cutting edge technology wedged in ...more
Gone are the days when you had to carry a clunky DynaTAC to make phone calls, pocket phone book for you contact list, Sony Discman for your tunes, and wallet for you cash and credit cards. Today, all you need is your smartphone. To be specific, Google's Nexus S 4G on Sprint. ...more
The days of trundling hoops, hopscotch and painted wooden rocking horses are long since past. The latest trend in toys? Biofeedback. Electroencephalography. A decade into the 21st century, the toy market is awash in products that incorporate functional neural sensors. One suc ...more
Aside from food, oxygen, sunlight and water, there are other necessities that humans arguably need today to survive—clothing, love and shelter among them. Almost everyone wears clothes, needs somebody (or something) to love and a place to call home. And what's the one thing th ...more
Learnasyouwatch shows viewers how to automatically play YouTube videos. First, you need to open your web browser and go to YouTube. Find the video you want to automatically play or upload your own video to YouTube. On the ride bar there is a section that says 'Embed'. Click on ...more
You're never too young to start building your vast swarm of robotic minions. Taking over the world requires a whole lot of robots. The sheer volume of robots needed means your first wave will have to be made of cheap materials. After they take over key resources, you can upgra ...more
We're officially seeking Null Byters on a weekly basis who are willing to take the time to educate the community. Contributors will write tutorials, which will be featured on the Null Byte blog, as well as the front page of WonderHowTo (IF up to par, of course). There is no ne ...more
Whether you're in an airport, restaurant or waiting room, the insidious grip of televisions on human life is omnipresent. Sometimes it's nice to talk to other human beings while looking at them directly—actually hearing what they have to say. Thankfully, there's a DIY device ...more
Ever wonder how all of those tiny chips and components can fit inside your laptop or smartphone? If you tried to squeeze them in there yourself, your laptop would quickly become too heavy for your lap, and your mobile phone would need wheels to stay mobile. The secret to mini ...more
Computer viruses are terrifying. They are undetectable, dangerous, and operate constantly right under your nose. For the average computer user, there are only a few repair options. You could buy expensive antivirus software that causes more problems than it fixes, you can wipe ...more
A flaw in WPS, or WiFi Protected Setup, known about for over a year by TNS, was finally exploited with proof of concept code. Both TNS, the discoverers of the exploit and Stefan at .braindump have created their respective "reaver" and "wpscrack" programs to exploit the WPS vul ...more
Microcontrollers are great. You can do anything from water your garden to catch wildlife trash diggers in the act—and on the cheap. I prefer to use the Arduino microcontroller because of the large and helpful community built around the website. Though it is my favorite, there ...more
If you are a pet owner, going on vacation can be stressful. Usually, you need a friend or neighbor to come over everyday and feed your pets. However, by enslaving robots you can keep your pet happy and enjoy a stress-free holiday. Today, we make an automatic pet feeder from c ...more
This is an easy step by step tutorial how to lock your jewels in a hotel room or in a public safe. Be aware that in a public safe it is more secure to use the second method of locking by a magnetic card, not by a PIN code that can be easily seen by someone nearby. Video: . Ste ...more
As great as the Internet is, it is not without its dangers. Hackers at any time may be breaking into your online accounts and compromising your sensitive information. Last year, hackers broke into Facebook, Gmail, and Twitter and made off with 2 million stolen passwords. It's ...more
I don't know of a pain greater than of the one felt after cracking the screen of your phone. After I managed to crack my screen, rendered unusable, I immediately began to panic as to how I was going to recover all of the photos, videos, and documents stored on my device. After ...more
From personal photos and videos to online banking passwords saved in your web browser, your phone has all kinds of sensitive data that needs to be protected. One of the best things you can do for your Samsung Galaxy S4's data is have a lock screen with a hard-to-guess PIN or p ...more
Signal is one of the best end-to-end encrypted messengers on the market. It offers robust security, keeps minimal information about its users, and is free to use. Switching to it as your main messenger can be a bit daunting, so to help, we created a guide to walk you through t ...more
Sharing screens is a great way to showcase projects, photos, or videos without having to download and upload those files on the other devices. This is made easy with AllSharePlus. You can download the AllSharePlay application for your Samsung Galaxy S III or Tab 2 right here. ...more
Android has a new security feature that every Android smartphone user needs to start using — even you. It won't change how you use your phone, but it will make life harder for nearby thieves. One of the oldest tricks in the book of smartphone thieves is watching someone withi ...more
When it comes to cybersecurity, one layer isn't enough. A complex password (or one created with a password manager) does a good job of protecting your data, but it can still be cracked. Two-factor authentication strengthens this by adding a second layer of security, giving you ...more
Security researcher Samy Kamkar, best known for his MySpace Worm, and most recently for his online calculator that can help you crack any Master Lock combination, is at it again. This time he's figured out how to break into security doors that have a motion-sensing egress syst ...more
You've probably noticed how we like to stress the importance of a strong password. After all, there are still people out there who continue to use passwords like 123456 and even just "password". But passwords aren't the only barriers that protect your information. According t ...more
While hackers know and love the Raspberry Pi, many don't know of its cheaper cousin, the microcontroller. Unlike a Pi, which can be used more or less like a regular computer, microcontrollers like the Wi-Fi connected ESP8266 require some necessary programming skill to master. ...more
When the Steam Link app was first introduced in 2018, I was impressed. As long as you were on the same network as your PC, you could play your Steam games on your phone. But now, it's even more impressive. By enabling a few extra settings, you can play your Steam library on mo ...more
If you want the best two-factor authentication app out there, our pick is Authy. A close second is LastPass Authenticator. If neither of those is to your liking, try Duo Mobile or Microsoft Authenticator. But if you're fine with missing out on great features, then and only the ...more
If you're a parent of a toddler (or have a friend that acts like a toddler), you occasionally need to take a break just to preserve your mental health. The perfect way to buy yourself some "me time" in this scenario would be to pull up an episode of Dora the Explorer on Netfli ...more
Welcome back, my rookie hackers! As most of you know, Mr. Robot is probably the best hacker TV show ever! This is a great show about a cyber security engineer who is being enticed to hack the very corporation he's being paid to protect. This show is so good, I began a series ...more
Do you ever wonder how all these celebrities continue to have their private photos spread all over the internet? While celebrities' phones and computers are forever vulnerable to attacks, the common folk must also be wary. No matter how careful you think you were went you sent ...more
With all of the hype around the new iPhone 13 series and new iPad and iPad mini unveiled this week, it would be easy to overlook a very critical update for the device you already have in your pocket. Apple just released iOS 14.8 and iPadOS 14.8. While the company is proud of ...more
After numerous scandals like the Equifax data breach and the 2016 US election, cybersecurity has become a significant issue for Americans. Unfortunately, anytime we use our devices, we're open to a cyber attack — especially when we browse the web. However, there are ways that ...more
Now that smartphones have ensured that we're connected to the internet 24/7, online privacy has become more important than ever. With data-mining apps hoping to sell your information for targeted ads, and government agencies only one subpoena away from knowing every detail of ...more
Fireworks are the best part about the Fourth of July and other celebrations, but they can easily cause accidental injuries. It's both safer and more fun to set them off remotely, so we'll hack some standard fireworks with nichrome wire, a relay, and an Arduino to ignite remote ...more
Comparing the present-day states of the consumer and enterprise sectors of augmented reality is like evaluating the merits of sports car versus work trucks. Like consumer AR, sports cars are sexy and exciting, but perhaps a bit impractical at times. On the other hand, enterpri ...more
These days, that pocket-sized computer we call a smartphone is home to your entire digital life. But with the onset of mobile payments and online banking, the line between your virtual world and the physical realm is becoming increasingly blurred. We vigilantly remember to lo ...more
Samy Kamkar, the security researcher known for the MySpace Worm and his combination lock cracking skills (using an online calculator), is back—and this time, he's after your credit cards! Well, not really, but his latest project, dubbed MagSpoof, can spoof any magnetic stripe ...more
A burner number isn't just for criminals and cheating spouses. In this digital world, with many of our interactions being conducted online, a throwaway phone number acts as a buffer — it lets you enjoy the web without having to give out your personal information, such as real ...more
Hackers and makers are often grouped under the same label. While hackers draw on computer science skills to write programs and find bugs, makers use electrical engineering to create hardware prototypes from microprocessor boards like the Arduino. We'll exercise both sets of sk ...more
Spoofed phone calls originate from one source that's disguising its phone number as a different one, and you probably get these calls all the time. Maybe they're numbers from your local area code or for prominent businesses, but the callers are just hijacking those digits to f ...more
I obviously do a lot of Steampunk projects, but there are a ton of things out there that I haven't tried yet. So, in an effort to broaden my horizons, I recently taught myself how to use Arduinos, which I plan to incorporate into some of my future Steampunk builds. Since ther ...more
In this episode we're using the Tibbo EM1000 to create our own web-serving-BPM-sensor! Video: . For the code: http://www.mikepieters.com/codes/BPMv1.zip The pin overview: http://docs.tibbo.com/phm/index.html?ic1000.htm Thanks to AudioMicro for the music!
If your phone is running Android 10, you can now share your Wi-Fi network with friends using a handy QR code. The other person doesn't have to be running Android 10 — in fact, you can even share this code with iPhone users. In most situations, this is now the fastest way to sh ...more
Individually addressable LEDs, also commonly called "NeoPixels" after the popular Adafruit product, are a bright and colorful way to get started with basic Python programming. With an inexpensive ESP8266 or ESP32 microcontroller, it's easy to get started programming your own h ...more
On Twitter, you can pin one of your tweets or replies to your profile, so it's the first post people see when they visit your page. However, Twitter prevents you from pinning someone else's tweet. You can't even pin something you retweet. There is a clever workaround, though, ...more
Starting with version 6.0 Marshmallow, Android now supports fingerprint scanners natively. This change has effectively opened the floodgates, and now almost every flagship Android device includes a fingerprint scanner out of the box. But if you passed up on the opportunity to ...more
Apple previewed new cognitive, speech, and vision accessibility tools for the iPhone back in May, and they've finally been realized with the iOS 17 release. But there are more accessibility features than that hiding in Apple's latest software update — and they're not just for ...more
A relay is an electrical component that works like a light switch, where it's turned on or off with an electrical signal. By connecting a relay to a Wi-Fi connected microcontroller like an ESP8266, you can build a connected switch that can be controlled from the web browser of ...more
I love robots. They have the potential to evolve into Asimovian destroyers of the human species, but have only just mastered the art of cleaning my rug. They have an ever increasing cool factor and a growing number of cheap and simple components that let the hobby roboticist r ...more
Two years ago, driven by a good friend of mine i decided to give it a try on timelapse photography. I had a DSLR camera but didn't had an intervalometer, so i assembled a small electronic circuit on top of an Arduino Uno, made some basic code and did my first timelapse movie. ...more
With all of the different websites we use in our day-to-day lives, keeping track of our numerous login credentials can start to become a hassle. This has created a market for password managers that aim to centralize these account credentials and generally streamline the proces ...more
It's safe to say most of us know the dangers of online security. We know there are people trying to steal our most sensitive information, and we try our best to prevent that theft. But new research is showing what we're doing might not be enough, as the sensors in our phones m ...more
Smartphones and other Wi-Fi enabled devices send radio signals called probe frames to locate nearby wireless networks, which makes them easy to track by listening for their unique MAC address. To show how this kind of tracking works, we can program a NodeMCU in Arduino to snif ...more
The most common Wi-Fi jamming attacks leverage deauthentication and disassociation packets to attack networks. This allows a low-cost ESP8266-based device programmed in Arduino to detect and classify Wi-Fi denial-of-service attacks by lighting a different color LED for each ty ...more
Pinning a tweet is a great way to get the point across because it's the first post people see when they visit your Twitter profile. When you pin a tweet, reply, or retweet, it sticks to the top of your profile, whether you create new tweets or not. It's the perfect spot to pla ...more
For anyone interested in using cheap, Wi-Fi-connected microcontrollers like the ESP8266, the Arduino programming language can be a barrier to entry. Based on C++, Arduino requires knowledge of more computer science than languages like Python. Fortunately for beginners, setting ...more
Back in 2010, iOS developer Daniel Amitay developed a camera security app for iPhones that used an unlock screen almost identical to that of the iPhone. The app was removed in mid-2011 (though, it eventually reappeared in early-2013, still available in the iOS App Store today ...more