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In the realm of Android mods, none is more powerful than a custom recovery. This is installed in place of the stock offering, and it lets you back up your entire system, flash mods, and install custom ROMs. Recently, the guys over at Team Win Recovery Project released a versi ...more

Thanks to leaks and hard working developers, rooting tools for brand new Android devices are usually available right around the time of the smartphone's release, if not earlier. The Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge are no exception. CF Auto Root, by renowned dev Chainfire, has n ...more

When I was a kid, there was just pizza. You ordered from whatever nationwide chain was near you and they made your pizza in an oven. There certainly weren't these highfalutin pizza subsets that have more choices than a cheese shop. Wood-fired, brick oven, artisanal, make-your- ...more

Deep down at the core of Android lies the system kernel, which serves as a bridge between software and hardware. Custom kernels can be installed in place of the stock offering, and these are generally optimized for better performance or increased battery efficiency. If you've ...more

When a stuffy nose hits, it feels like breathing clearly and easily may never come again. Allergies, colds, and even changes in weather can leave our sinuses blocked, with medicine seeming like the only option. But don't break out the medication just yet — relieving the pressu ...more

If you've ever wiped your computer without having a proper backup of your operating system, or just wanted to cause some havoc online, chances are you've had to rely on Linux to help you out, specifically the Ubuntu distro. Ubuntu doesn't get a lot of love compared to powerho ...more

Whenever you buy a newer iPhone model, you get a set of Apple EarPods with remote and microphone built-in. Aside from their comfortable design and high-quality sound they provide, these headphones offer additional functionality beyond just pausing and playing music. Below is ...more

A landmark bill finally went into action this week that will allow American cellular customers to unlock their smartphones for free. The process of unlocking may vary between mobile service providers, but you can rest assured that you are now entitled, by law, to carrier-unloc ...more

Welcome back, my budding hackers! This is the initial post of a new series on how to hack Facebook. It's important to note here that each hack I'll be covering is very specific. I have said it before, but I feel I need to repeat it again: there is NO SILVER BULLET that works ...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

The internet is forever. When you put something out there, it can easily be re-shared, floating from server to server indefinitely with no way of taking it back. It's a scary thought when you consider that a young adult's grandchildren will one day have access to their drunken ...more

Injustice: Gods Among Us is one of the most popular games to come out over the last couple of years. It was a hit on video game consoles, and it's got a solid 4.5 rating on both Google Play and the iOS App Store, with almost 2 million people rating the game combined. The game ...more

One of the main reasons to buy a Nexus device is the fact that they're always the first to get new Android updates. Another great selling point for the Nexus series is that the devices are amongst the easiest to root and mod. Unfortunately, though, these two features are somew ...more

Fall is my favorite time of year, yet I cringe every time it begins. Why? Because it seems like every business is in a frenzy to start the Christmas shopping season the day after Halloween ends. For those of us who are fans of pumpkins, that's a buzzkill. It used to be that y ...more

It's never too early to start planning for the best holiday of the year, right? We've already shown you how to make chillingly creepy cocktails, shrunken heads out of apples and potatoes, and a slew of DIY costumes, whether you want to go as Groot or an emoji. Now it's time to ...more

Keeping data private is vital in the days of smartphones and the free-floating information they carry. Justin wrote a guide on many of the deeply hidden and sometimes concerning privacy settings in iOS 7. Now we're back to cover some of the new (and old) privacy settings in iO ...more

Arcades have long faded away from popularity, but their legacy is being kept alive thanks to emulators and the avid fans who grew up loading quarters into all of those coin-op games. Although nothing beats an actual arcade environment, my favorite emulator from the early 2000s ...more

If you're anything like me, you started down the Android-modding path for two distinct reasons; to run cutting-edge software and squeeze every bit of performance out of your hardware. Utilizing the new F2FS file system on your rooted Nexus 4 or 5 fulfills both of those desires ...more

Loaded with a gorgeous display and a powerful processor, the Kindle Fire HDX is an impressive all-around tablet, especially when it's used for what Amazon Kindles were built for—reading electronic versions of novels, textbooks, and other printed works. While the Kindle Store ...more

If browsing speed is important to you—and it should be—you'll probably be interested to know that there are ten simple flag modifications you can make in Google Chrome in order to achieve the fastest browsing speed possible. A few months ago, Dallas covered six ways to speed ...more

I'm all about saving time. If there's a quicker way to do something, I'm going to find it. For this reason, whenever I need to search through old emails or compose new ones in Gmail, I do it directly from Chrome's address bar, or as Google likes to call it, the omnibox—and you ...more

The microwave oven is a monumental technological achievement that's saved college students and single people from starvation for decades. Almost 97% of all American households have one, which makes it the most-owned kitchen appliance in US homes right after the refrigerator. ...more

This year's I/O was all about bringing Android into the future and onto new devices. On top of announcing the upcoming "L" release of its mobile OS, Google showcased Android Wear, Android Auto, and Android TV. With a unified design language and notification mirroring, the var ...more

Sometimes, stock just doesn't cut it. When you're sick of the limitations in Sense on your HTC One, a new ROM can be a ray of sunshine. By installing a custom ROM, you can add or unlock new features in Sense, or you can get a pure Android experience instead. It's all up to you ...more

Recently, Sprint announced a partnership with Harman Kardon to deliver exclusive sound FX technology to their variant of the HTC One M8. The joint effort between the two companies is both to entice customers to switch to Sprint as well as improve the overall audio quality comi ...more

You did it! You got your hands on the much coveted all new HTC One (M8). Last year's M7 model, also named the One, was very well received critically, and HTC continues its smashing design here with stereo speakers that kick and curves that don't quit. Simply put, there's a lo ...more

We've all been there. Stranded in a large lot or parking garage, braving the rows upon rows of identical cars in an endless concrete landscape because, for the very life of us, we can't remember where we stashed the very ride that brought us there. Smartphones do almost every ...more

Nokia's recent foray into the world of Android brought a plethora of goodies along with it. The Finnish smartphone manufacturer offers a slightly different take on our favorite mobile operating system, with customizations ranging from ringtones to its very own app store. Much ...more

Apps that have no business accessing the internet can share your location, device ID, and other personal information with potentially malicious data snatchers. If you're connected to the internet on your Nexus 7 tablet, you're a potential target for cyber threats. For instanc ...more

You probably already know by now that a custom Android ROM can change your user experience and give you what feels like a new OS on your device, and there's no shortage of them out there to try out. A great perk of being a Nexus 5 owner is that devs tend to commit resources t ...more

Just because you have a Mac doesn't mean you can't root your Nexus 7 tablet. In fact, rooting Android 4.4 KitKat on both the 2013 and original 2012 N7 models is easy, if not easier than rooting it using a Windows PC. After rooting, you can enjoy many of tomorrow's features to ...more

Android developer Roman Nurik, famous for his open-source DashClock widget, recently released his latest creation, Muzei Live Wallpaper. Now, live wallpapers (LWPs) may not seem like a huge deal as far as mods go, but they're a great way to add flair to your device—and Muzei a ...more

The flexibility within Android is pretty amazing. Unlike iOS, you can make a lot of modifications with nothing more than a download from Google Play, but to really step up your softModder game, you'll need to go a little further. Rooting takes things a step deeper, allowing y ...more

Currently, all Nexus tablets running Jelly Bean or higher can enjoy multiple user accounts. With tablets often migrating between various people in the same household, there’s no reason for Dad’s finances to mingle with little Tammy’s candy crushing. Multiple users, each with s ...more

Like many other smartphones these days, your Samsung Galaxy S4 is built to handle multitasking like a pro. With a 1.9 GHz processor and 2 GB of RAM (specs comparable to laptop computers just a few years ago), this powerhouse of a phone can switch between apps with supreme ease ...more

Autumn is a time of year when everything looks, smells, and tastes good. The scents of cinnamon and spices are everywhere you go, and even the dead leaves that fall off the trees are pretty. In particular, the fruits and vegetables of the season are gorgeous. But let's get se ...more

It seems nowadays the word "easy" has taken on an alternate meaning. When I see "easy," I expect a quick and painless process, but when it comes to flashing or installing a custom ROM, easy means anything but. That's the main reason I've avoided installing CyanogenMod on my S ...more

When life gets boring, you change it up. A little tweak in your schedule goes a long way in making your existence fresh again, and it could be anything from putting on deodorant to seeing a movie with someone you don't know. The more flexible you are in life, the more dynamic ...more

When it comes to the user interface, you're pretty much limited to the stock one that comes on your Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch—a carousel of large black and white icons representing the features and applications on the watch. In the world of Android devices, this doesn't ...more

If you're reading this, chances are you're a softModder, someone who doesn't let anything stand in his or her way from ultimate customization. That means you've probably rooted and unlocked the bootloader on your HTC One to upgrade to the Google Play Edition ROM or CyanogenMo ...more

Unless you like paying exorbitant prices for out-of-contract phones, most of us are stuck with the one we already have for two or more years. The tech industry moves fast, and as new phones are released seemingly every month, your Samsung Galaxy S4 might start looking older by ...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

Nine times out of ten, when you pick up your Samsung Galaxy Note 2, you already know what app you're going to be using. If you only have Swipe to unlock enabled, finding that app is as easy as swiping and locating the app on your Home screen or in the app drawer. You can also ...more

The big fireworks day is almost here, but most of you are limited in what you can do when it comes to celebrating the Fourth of July with a bang. Unless you live in a dry area prone to wildfires, one type of fireworks you can probably still legally buy are sparklers. But why ...more

My favorite color is blue, but if everyone I knew said the same thing, I'd probably switch to red—there's nothing cool about uniformity. One place I'm guaranteed to see plenty of my favorite hue is on Facebook. The social network has gone through many redesigns, but its signat ...more

Why is transferring contacts from an old smartphone to a new one still insanely difficult? I can check my bank account, upload a picture to Instagram, email someone across the globe, and check the weather forecast on my phone—all in under five minutes. So why does transferrin ...more

Smartphones are great. They help you keep in touch with your loved ones and stay up to date on what's going on in the world. The problem is that like everything else that's useful, they cost money to use, and between calling, texting, and data plans, it can get really expensiv ...more

Google Reader is soon to be no more. Yesterday, the company announced that the service will be shutting down as of July 1, 2013, as part of Google's second "Spring Cleaning." Predictably, users are freaking out—the process of backing up and exporting all your feeds can take a ...more

Need to remove wrinkles from your shirt but don't want to bust out the iron and ironing board (or don't even have one)? Well, with a little bit of do-it-yourself ingenuity, you can "iron out" that wrinkly top in no time. For example, if you need to hop into the shower, simply ...more

Prepaid phones are becoming more and more popular, and tons of people can see the benefits of switching now that some companies are offering prepaid services that are on par with the big players. For a lot of folks, the only thing keeping them from switching is the huge early ...more

Not that long ago I wrote an article discussing what it would be like, realistically, if you were to accidentally travel back in time to the Victorian era. At the end of that article, I mentioned that the best thing you could bring with you on a time-traveling adventure is a K ...more

One of the most frustrating things on the Internet are sites that make you register just to view content. I'm not talking about paywalls—I mean the sites that make you give them personal information to look at free articles or forum threads. Most people are uncomfortable with ...more

What can't coconut oil do? This edible oil, extracted from the copra or meat of a coconut, has done what most other food, beauty, and health trends have not: demonstrated real lasting power. Indeed, the "superfood" continues to make headlines, with its many uses the subject of ...more

Let's say that you've got the look down, and you have your Steampunk props all ready to go. Congratulations! You're a Steampunk! But now what do you do with yourself? You can sit there, patting yourself on the back, but that gets lonely after awhile. Your props will look nic ...more

There are lots of people who want to stay anonymous online, and lots of reasons they want to do this. Staying anonymous on the internet isn't easy, and it's probably possible to trace almost anyone with enough time and resources. A lot of people think that they're completely s ...more

First off—Happy Independence Day! Since it's the 4th of July, let's make this week's roundup short and sweet, so you can all get back to your holiday festivities. Things to Do on WonderHowTo WonderHowTo is a how-to website made up of niche communities called Worlds, with top ...more

Other than sticking your crayon drawings onto your refrigerator door, magnets have a variety of unexpected and sometimes surprisingly practical uses, ranging from keeping your chip bags sealed to creating weird patterns on your nail beds using magnetic nail polish. The strong ...more

Apple's Siri is well-versed in the spells of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, but it's not like Android users are Muggles. Google Assistant, Android's virtual concierge, can cast a few spells out of the box, and it can learn the spells it doesn't know quicker than a year o ...more

The iOS 16 update for iPhone has many new and exciting options, most of which improve the user experience overall. Some of the features and changes fix frustrating issues from iOS 15 and older, and some of those "fixes" can seem annoying if you're used to doing things a certai ...more

Thanks to the grandest of puns, May the 4th is Star Wars Day. And what better way to pay tribute to the space opera than with the augmented reality superpowers of Snapchat. While Disney has used AR via Snapchat, Facebook, and Google, among other outlets, to promote Star Wars ...more