With all the controversy around the Pixel 3 XL, the regular-sized Pixel 3 might be the phone of choice for most users. Thanks to the huge boost in screen size, the little brother is now an easier pickup for those who like a bigger screen. And once more, the internals are the s ...more
The "controversial" Pixel. No phone in the history of Google's Pixel lineup deserves this title more than the Pixel 3 XL. For some (including myself), the design is a welcome change that embodies the modern design of 2018 flagship phones. For others, it has an ugly huge displa ...more
While Apple Maps didn't receive as huge of an update on iOS 17 as other apps such as Safari, Camera, Photos, Notes, Weather, and Messages, there are still some very important new features and changes you need to know about. The latest software update for Apple Maps adds a muc ...more
It feels strange to be walking through an open field in a small village in the English countryside. There's no one else around — just the four of us: me, my husband, my 12-year-old son, and my adult niece. The day is spectacular, particularly for England. The sun is shining, a ...more
Apple's Dynamic Island is an animated, interactive isle surrounding the front-facing camera on the iPhone 14 Pro series. It's a small capsule when nothing is going on but fluidly stretches across the screen for notifications, alerts, and ongoing activities like music, timers, ...more
The recent announcement that Facebook will begin inserting advertisements into its VR experience on its Oculus Quest headset has set the VR and augmented reality industry into a frenzy. At first glance, the first thing many will point to is the recent history of Facebook and ...more
Third-party apps on your iPhone must ask for your permission to access your library in the Music app. Some will even want to get access to your Apple Music account. If you no longer use the apps, you shouldn't be letting them have access anymore. It's easy to hunt them down, a ...more
I've covered augmented reality apps for about three years now and the most useful mobile app I've encountered over that time is Google Lens. In brief, Google Lens can recognize and interact with text and identify a wide spectrum of objects, turning your smartphone's camera in ...more
It's always a big deal when the company that makes Android releases a new phone. Google's Pixel series has made a name for itself in three short years behind its camera prowess, but now it's time to start competing with the major players. That said, Google should like how thei ...more
Android's settings menu is actually pretty daunting. There are options for nearly everything, so in the sea of various menus and submenus, it's easy to overlook important privacy and security settings. On Google's Pixel phones in particular, there are 20 such settings that you ...more
There's always an iPhone in our list of top phones for privacy and security, due in large part to advanced security measures like Face ID, consistent iOS updates, and easy ways to prevent unwanted access and excessive data sharing. However, some of those options actually do th ...more
One of the best things about Android is the ability to customize your phone to your liking. From changing the layout of icons to finding the perfect wallpaper to reflect your current mood, there's a wide range of tools to make your phone yours. One of the easiest ways is to t ...more
From Farmville to selling a company to Google, Amitt Mahajan has been through the startup ringer. Now, as managing partner with Presence Capital, he's funding the future of augmented and mixed reality. With interest in 3D graphics, Mahajan started his career working on game e ...more
Your iPhone keeps track of every single place you go, especially those you frequent most often, and syncs those locations across all your iCloud-connected devices. People who gain access or already have access to your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Mac may be able to view all of ...more
Apple Maps just received a major upgrade in its latest software update, and some of its new features are perfect for urban explorers, national park adventurers, and everyday travelers alike. Some of these enhancements provide more personalized and precise guidance, making ever ...more
While autonomous vehicles are almost assuredly the future of personal transportation, we are likely many years from seeing self-driving cars become as ubiquitous as manually-driven ones, as the auto industry has a myriad of government regulations and other constraints to conte ...more
Snapchat may trail Facebook and Instagram in terms of daily active users, but a new partnership with Samsung may get those innovative AR Lenses onto the mobile devices of a lot more users. Non-fungible tokens, perhaps the hottest segment of the blockchain tech industry at the ...more
Offline maps help you get around an unfamiliar area whenever you anticipate encountering bad cellular reception and no internet connectivity. Google Maps and other map apps have had offline maps for a while now. But Apple Maps only had a little-known caching workaround to prod ...more
Apple likes hiding things in its software, including secret apps, hidden iMessage effects, status bar customization, nameless icons, and red screen mode, but some of its best Easter eggs are right in front of you on the Home Screen. Some of Apple's app icons on iOS 17, iPadOS ...more
Privacy and security go hand in hand, especially for smartphones. When it comes to privacy, you decide what personal information about yourself is out there to discover. Security, on the other hand, is all about enforcing those privacy decisions. Sometimes privacy and securit ...more
It's that time of year again. No, not the holiday season … the "share your year in music listening" season. And no matter which music streaming service you use, there's a way to find and share (or not share) your activity from 2022. Since Spotify unveiled its Wrapped campaign ...more
There are two types of people in this world: those who recognize Wordle grids of yellow, green, and gray/black blocks and those who do not. No matter which category you fall in, there's a Wordle-inspired game that's perfect for you. The viral success of Wordle, the daily five ...more
The new Material You theme engine with its fancy widgets is a sexy change for Android, but there's another new Android 12 feature that's more than just pretty colors and curves. Android 12 has a powerful on-device search engine that makes it easier to find people and conversa ...more
Over the past few weeks, Google, Snap, and Facebook have all taken their turns to show off their new augmented reality technologies. This week, it was Apple's turn, with new AR features for iOS 15 along with new capabilities for developers. Meanwhile, Facebook's plans to laun ...more
In the tech world, our data is always under attack. When you download and install a new app, it can be difficult to know what information the app is actually accessing. Thankfully, a new emphasis on privacy in iOS 14 changes the game, exposing more of what your apps want acces ...more
Even though most phones don't have Oreo yet, Google has released Android 9.0 Pie. It's available on Google's own Pixel devices, and updates should soon be available to partnered devices from Essential, Nokia, Oppo, Sony, Vivo, and Xiaomi. We're already digging into it to highl ...more
You've probably already used a few Safari Extensions on your Mac, but if you haven't explored Safari's web extensions on your iPhone yet, you're missing out on some fantastic possibilities to increase productivity, make tasks easier, filter out noise, and bring more fun to you ...more
Once the laughing-stock of the navigation app market, Apple Maps is now a powerful, reliable travel companion. Apple rebuilt the platform from the ground up, placing the app in league with Google Maps. That said, there's always room for improvement, as demonstrated by its impr ...more
According to Apple, Siri serves 25 billion requests per month — an enormous number for a feature that was only released nine years ago. But when you think about how much work Apple has put into Siri over the years, it makes sense that the virtual assistant is being used more a ...more
From time to time, you may need to locate the version and build number for a particular app on your iPhone or iPad, but it's not at all obvious where you can find the information. Well, there's more than one place to look on iOS 18 and iPadOS 18, but none are perfect solutions ...more
The Snapdragon version of the Galaxy Note 20 and 20 Ultra — the one sold in the US — can't be rooted. Without root, the level of customization is limited. Such a large group of Android users shouldn't miss out on mods, and they don't have to. A number of third-party and Samsu ...more
If you're ever in a situation where you need to take a peek at the wireless spectrum, whether it's for Bluetooth or Wi-Fi devices, there's a fascinating Python 3-based tool called Sparrow-wifi you should check out. It's cross-platform, easy to use, and has an impressive GUI th ...more
The latest film addition in the American-produced Millennium series, The Girl in the Spider's Web, was just released on Blu-ray a few days ago. As you could expect, the movie has many hacking scenes throughout, just like the previous English and Swedish language movies centere ...more
There are plenty of reasons to upgrade to the iPhone 12 mini. Maybe you want to take advantage of the improved camera system, or you're intrigued by the return to a smaller form factor. But one of its coolest features might be MagSafe, a completely different way to charge and ...more
There's a lot more to your iPhone's dialer screen than just entering phone numbers and hitting the green call button. It's not very obvious, but there are secret codes that you can enter on the dialer to find out information about your device, help troubleshoot issues, and mas ...more
Widgets have been available on the iPhone for a while now, but they were tucked away in the Today View or hidden in the quick actions menu for app icons on the home screen. Android had always had a leg up on Apple in the widget department because they were so much more versati ...more
You've probably connected your Android device to dozens of Wi-Fi networks since you've had it, and your phone or tablet remembers each of them. Whether it's a hotspot at home, school, work, the gym, a coffee shop, a relative's apartment — or even from a friend's phone — each t ...more
Apple's iOS 13 has been available for beta testing since June, and the stable release pushed out to everyone on Thursday, Sept. 19. To help you make the most out of iOS 13 for iPhone, we've rounded up everything you'll want to know, whether a colossal feature, small settings c ...more
Cases and stickers are always great, but they aren't the only way to customize an iPhone. The software on your device is full of customization options, from a better-looking home screen and cooler lock screen wallpapers to app icon changes and a system-wide dark mode. There's ...more
Thanks to online music services like eMusic and iTunes, compact discs are becoming a far distant memory, turning local music shops around the country into desolate wastelands. The once mighty movie rental store Blockbuster is now bankrupt because of online streaming services l ...more
Sprint has their EVO 4G. AT&T has their Inspire 4G. And now HTC has designed Verizon Wireless's first 4G smartphone—the ThunderBolt. It launched last week with high praises amongst Android devotees, despite its hefty weight, mainly because of the blazing fast speeds Verizon us ...more
This video series shows you everything you need to know about completing a model from photographs in SketchUp. It follows Chapter 7 of the book Google SketchUp for Dummies. PART 1 shows you how to add photos to faces. PART 2 explains how to move, scale, rotate, shear and disto ...more
This video represent a bit of a digression for the Google Webmaster series of videos, spotlighting a cool Google-designed Android app and how to use it. The app in question is My Tracks, a free app that allows runner, bikers, and other distance exercisers to keep track of thei ...more
So, you're addicted to that award-winning, science-fiction, first-person shooter, computer game Crysis, are ya? Well, then you probably know a bit about the Sandbox 2 level editor then, don't ya? Well, if you need to figure out how to make 1:1 scaled maps in Sandbox to go int ...more
Enjoying the many benefits of Facebook Places? But what if you want to check in somewhere you're not? Your smartphone can automatically detect your geographical location, preventing you from just checking in just anywhere, but like all technology… it's a long way from perfect, ...more
Check out this easy way to find your polling place for the Election tomorrow November 2nd. http://maps.google.com/maps/mpl?moduleurl=http://maps.google.com/mapfiles/mapplets/elections/voter-info/voter-info.xml
Go here to check out a GoogleMap of local farmers' markets: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=109372181463679167581.000496ccc642c9048b344&ll=34.02421,-118.22937&spn=0.368772,0.837021&z=11
Interested in better integrating Mozilla Firefox with your favorite Google Services (like Gmail, Reader and Maps)? It's easy! So easy, in fact, that this home-computing how-to from the folks at TekZilla can present a complete overview of the process in just over two minutes. F ...more
Learn how to use Google's popular Street View map application on an Apple iPhone. Whether you're the proud owner of an Apple iPhone 4G or perhaps just considering picking one up, you're sure to benefit from this free video tutorial. For more information, including a detailed o ...more
Best Buy shows us how to use the Google Mobile App for location specific searches on your mobile phone. Google Mobile can find you the nearest restaurant in your town, and provides maps and directions. It's pretty easy to use, and you can use it on many phones, including Black ...more
You've probably seen those deep-web images floating around on the Internet. Usually, it goes something like this: There is a towering iceberg and the deeper the underwater portion extends, the more “hidden” and “exotic” the content is described to be. Sometimes these images ar ...more
You never know when the zombie apocalypse may hit your hood, and now, thanks to writer and designer Mike Lacher‘s new Google streetview mashup, you can test run your evacuation plan. Just enter your location and dodge those little red markers (re: zombies) on the map. As you m ...more
You can create some great image effects when you combine Google SketchUp with other graphics software such as Photoshop or Gimp. Take a look at this instructional video and learn how to use the fog setting in SketchUp to create a depth map that you can use in Adobe Photoshop f ...more
There're plenty of great ways to get traffic, especially this off-site optimization technique using classified ads to point website traffic back into your site itself. There are two main sites out there in the classified web world that really speak highly to Google and build ...more
So you've added Google insiders, celebrities, and authors to your circles, but you want to know who you can reach out to for help when it comes to Google overall. Luckily for you, there seems to be a Community Manager for almost every Google product. If you've got an issue wit ...more
In this video from apexcctv we learn how to find your public IP address and then use dynamic DNS to keep it updated in regards to your security needs. If you go to Whatismyip.com you will see your IP address. You can also go to Google and search for "find my IP address." A ser ...more
Make a Spark frame ripper We are going to make a spark frame ripper. A spark frame ripper is an animation engine. Open flash builder. Go to this website to download code: http://code.google.com/p/lv3d/downloads/list. Spark frame ripper lays out images sequentially and then it ...more
This video will show you how to use the map function on your iPhone. Follow these steps to use the map function on your iPhone: From the Home screen, tap 'maps' to open the Map window. Use your finger to navigate and scroll around the map. Pinch your fingers apart and you will ...more
I have to say, the Xbox 360 controller is the best controller ever created. When I first held it back in 2005, I swore that the dudes working at Microsoft came over and took a molding of my hands because of how great it felt. The thing felt like it was born there. What's even ...more
Self-storage may not be a new industry, but it is one that is rapidly reshaping its operations to suit a progressively more modernized customer base. In order to stay competitive with your self-storage facility, you'll need to keep an open mind, embrace current marketing trend ...more