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Every time you make a call or send a text, you're giving the recipient your phone number. This can be quite the security vulnerability, opening yourself up to scammers, spammers, and the feds. In this how-to, we'll look at what a burner phone is, why you might want one, and ho ...more

As smartphone users, we live in dangerous times. The value of phones continues to rise, making them prime targets for thieves. In 2015, the FCC estimated that one million phones are stolen each year, and with several devices starting to hit the $1,000 mark now, these numbers a ...more

If you exceed your monthly mobile data limit, your cell phone bill can skyrocket pretty quickly. This is why a lot of people vigilantly monitor internet usage and even uninstall apps that use too much background data. Don't Miss: 10 Tricks for Conserving Data on Android Up u ...more

Smartphones have become such a big part of our lives these days that they're now closely associated with our personal identities. No longer is it Ford versus Chevy, rock versus rap, or PC versus Mac—now, you're either an Android person or an iOS person. Don't Miss: 10 Things ...more

The stock Android app icons that come with your Samsung Galaxy S4 can vary wildly in shape and size, as they will with any out-of-the-box Android device. If you're a neat freak like me, you might want your icons to be a little more consistent and uniform, similar to the sleek ...more

Your dog is doing something charming, and you need to take a quick photo, but you don't have time to search in your app drawer for the camera app. The moment would have long passed by the time you find it. What if instead you could you open the camera or any other app simply b ...more

If you're watching videos over Wi-Fi on your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch, iOS 10 lets you adjust the quality for when you want to save data or need help watching a movie or TV show on a poor connection. To do so, open up the Settings app and scroll down to Videos, then select ...more

Trying to figure out which music streaming service to subscribe to can be a difficult task when the playing field is so crowded. Each has its benefits, as well as downsides, so finding the right one for your needs and wants can take a lot of overwhelming research. But we've do ...more

Restoring data is not always the easiest thing to do when you flash a new ROM on Android. Google can back up your contacts and Wi-Fi passwords, and various tools can back up your apps and data, but the rest is usually lost in-between ROM flashes. This leads to a lot of wasted ...more

When the topic of Pokémon Go comes up, the typical response is, "Do people still play it?" The answer is a resounding yes! While the game doesn't command the zeitgeist as it did at launch, it has sustained a community of players who have stuck with it over the years. Pokémon ...more

Big box stores love to sell gift cards, and as consumers, we snap them up almost as quickly as they can be printed. This industry has become rather profitable, though, because portions of the gift card balances often go unused. When we receive a gift card, we tend to tuck it ...more

Despite concerns with SafetyNet, Google actually cares about root. Every phone they sell has an unlockable bootloader, so you can toggle a setting and send a Fastboot command, then start flashing custom firmware right away. The Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL continue this tradition, a ...more

Motorola changed the way users interact with their devices when they introduced their "always listening" feature on the Moto X. When I first saw it demoed, I couldn't wait to get the same functionality on one of my handsets, and now that has finally come to fruition. OnePlus ...more

The awesome thing about Android is that you rarely need to settle for what comes stock on your device. If your music app sucks, switch it. If you don't like your home launcher, swap it for a better one. Don't Miss: 7 Cool Things You Can Do with the Developer Options That bei ...more

Being able to write your own hacking tools is what separates the script kiddies from the legendary hackers. While this can take many forms, one of the most coveted skills in hacking is the ability to dig through the binary files of a program and identify vulnerabilities at the ...more

The calendar app is one of the unsung heroes found within your iPhone. It's the ultimate personal assistant that you've come to rely on to keep track of your schedule and ensure you never miss a class or meeting, all while reminding you of upcoming birthdays and deadlines to h ...more

The inclusion of the parallax effect caused a shitstorm amongst iPhone users when it was released in iOS 7, especially when it came to creating custom wallpapers. It was hard to control, and even disabling it didn't fully get rid of it, making it one of the most hated new feat ...more

Most Android phones have a Google search bar somewhere on their home screen. But did you know you can replace this with a different widget that actually functions as the address bar in your Chrome browser? To try it out, just long-press any empty space on your home screen and ...more

Theming is one of the many facets of Android that gives it a leg up on its iOS competition. With the right home launcher and icon theme, you can completely change the look and feel of your device in just a few minutes. Don't Miss: How to Make Your Android Unique & Theme Every ...more

While there are a variety of privacy-focused search engines available like StartPage and DuckDuckGo, nothing can offer the complete trust offered by creating one's own search engine. For complete trust and security, Searx can be used as free metasearch engine which can be host ...more

A highly useful, yet unrecognized and under-appreciated feature in Apple's iOS 8 is the ability to seamlessly convert incoming texts regarding future dates into calendar events. Messages like "Let's chill tomorrow" can be tapped on and quickly added to the calendar. It's conve ...more

So, you just updated to Android 10, ready to explore all of the new features Google has to offer. There's just one hiccup — those gesture controls everyone talks about? They don't work. In fact, the option is completely grayed out, taunting you from the get-go. What's going on ...more

LG, like many other OEMs, usually locks down their bootloaders with an airtight seal. There are a few good reasons for this, the big one being that an unlocked bootloader technically compromises some device security measures. LG would also argue that unlocking your bootloader ...more

Google's new Project Fi cellular carrier has been making waves across the mobile industry, so we decided to put it to the test against T-Mobile, one of the more established networks. For the actual testing, we slapped a SIM card from each carrier into two identical Pixel XL ph ...more

While it took Apple a damn-long time to finally include widgets in iOS, I do admire their implementation. Accessible from within any screen by pulling down the Notification Center (or, more correctly, the "Today" view), the home screen remains clean and minimal, which some of ...more

Dirty, malformed, and outright mischievous text strings have long been the enemy of interactive website developers. Strings contain any combination of letters, numbers, spaces, and punctuation, and are entered into text boxes on websites by users. These strings in particular c ...more

Google recently announced the beta release of a developer tool called ARC Welder for Chrome, which allows developers to run and test their Android apps on any computer with the Chrome browser installed. Outside of developers, ARC Welder can be run by everyday users to bring A ...more

If you've ever received an email from a sketchy address purporting to be Uber, asking you to sign in with your credentials, you might be a phishing target. Hackers use a fake login page from real-looking domains to trick you into giving up your account information, and while i ...more

The Pi-hole project is a popular DNS-level ad blocker, but it can be much more than that. Its DNS-level filtering can also be used as a firewall of sorts to prevent malicious websites from resolving, as well as to keep privacy-killing trackers such as Google Analytics from eve ...more

If you've just ditched your Android phone for a new iPhone, you're in luck, because Apple has a way to make your transition as simple as possible with their Move to iOS app for Android. To help make things even easier on you, we've outlined the process of using Move to iOS to ...more

Cloud storage looks pretty good compared to the heavy restrictions that hard drives and other types of external memory carry. The cloud is not only limitless in what it can hold, but it can also easily be accessed from any device that has Internet—your smartphone, work compute ...more

Technology: The Less You Know the Better? I'm sure everyone is now aware of GPS technologies and tracking techniques these days, with the release of numerous documents (even lawsuits) on big name companies like Apple, Microsoft, and Google. Yes, 2011 was a good year for eye-o ...more

Android is moving away from navigation buttons. Even with the transparent navigation bar on the Galaxy Note 10+, it still takes up space on the screen that could otherwise be used to show content. What's great about the Galaxy Note 10+ is that you can remove it, without instal ...more

Early last year, Google purchased Quest Visual, acquiring the immensely popular augmented reality translator app Word Lens in the process. While Google did put the feature on the Google Glass, they spoke more about implementing Word Lens into their Translate app sometime in th ...more

The Google Now Launcher that was introduced with the Nexus 5 seems to have a lot of folks torn. On the one hand, having a home screen page dedicated to Google Now, as well as the always-listening voice search, are killer features. On the other hand, its lack of customization o ...more

Google's Chromecast is quite literally one of my favorite inventions of the past five years, allowing me to kick back, relax, and enjoy the various forms of streaming entertainment it has up for grabs. Don't Miss: How to Use Your Chromecast Without Wi-Fi But as awesome as it ...more

One of the longest-running cat and mouse games in Android has to be that of Google's SafetyNet feature and specific apps that can trip the flag. Many developers have resorted to using Magisk to create their modules since it can systemlessly pass SafetyNet in most cases. Howeve ...more

Several technologies seek to change the way we perceive our reality, whether that involves entering a virtual world, augmenting an existing one in a realistic and interactive way, or somewhere in-between. It's tough to keep track of what we mean with this terminology, so let' ...more

Not trying to gatekeep here, but if you're not customizing things on your Android phone, you're doing it wrong. Still, I won't shame you for not knowing what to do if you take this time to learn how to make one of the biggest changes you can make. Believe it or not, you can g ...more

There are a lot of exciting improvements in store for Siri in iOS 11. Apple showed off some of the highlights at WWDC, but there are five changes in particular that you don't want to miss. From a new voice to a cool on-device learning feature, this Siri update could have a pr ...more

The main draw for Google's Pixel series is the software. It rocks a clean version of stock Android instead of a heavy OEM skin like TouchWiz, it gets frequent prompt OS updates, the camera software is downright amazing, and it has perhaps the most fluid UI of any phone. But an ...more

It took a few months, but several major phones are finally receiving updates to Android Oreo. At this point, we've spent significant time talking about Oreo on the Galaxy S8, Galaxy Note 8, and Essential Phone. While an update to the latest OS is always great, there is one big ...more

Let's say you're flush with Google Opinion Rewards credits, or you just got a Google Play gift card for your birthday. This is a perfect opportunity to remove ads and unlock new features by upgrading some of your free apps to their paid counterparts, or to finally purchase tha ...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

While hackers adore the command line, working with the GUI (graphical user interface) of an operating system has some advantages. This is especially true when it comes to post-exploitation. When we can control the mouse and keyboard of a remote computer, we can truly say we ha ...more

For the most part, when you're copying text on your Android device, it's because you intend on pasting it into a different app than the one you're currently using. For instance, you might be looking at a posting on Craigslist. So you copy the seller's phone number, then head t ...more

If you use Google Chrome on your computer, you've undoubtedly saved a ton of passwords since the browser always prompts you to. But Samsung uses their own password service on their phones by default, so you'll have to change a setting if you want to use your Chrome passwords t ...more

To really personalize your HTC 10, you'll need to be rooted — but that can't happen unless you unlock your bootloader. Thankfully, HTC has made it relatively easy to unlock the bootloader on their 2016 flagship. Unlocking your bootloader will make it a breeze to install TWRP, ...more

Just in time for the holiday season, Lenovo has released its Mirage AR head-mounted display with the Star Wars: Jedi Challenges game and accessories. Unfortunately, while its price point is a fraction of most other AR headsets, at the moment, it does have a few issues with the ...more

Since the release of the Samsung Galaxy Note 2, many of its features have been replicated by Android developers for other devices. The most popular feature, aside from Smart Rotation, on the Note 2 has been the multitasking multi-screen/multi-window feature, which allows you t ...more

With floating song lyrics displayed over the screen, apps like musiXmatch and Floating Lyrics are perfect for people who want to go beyond just the tunes and delve into a song's message and meaning. And while these floating windows can be convenient, they're not always necessa ...more

On the new Moto X smartphone, the only thing you have to do to activate the virtual assistant is say "Okay, Google Now." That's it. You don't have to press a button or tap on the display at all. It's always ready for your voice commands via its "Active Listening" feature, maki ...more

Apple Maps has had a rough lifecycle. After completely dropping the ball during its inception, Apple has been slowly improving its usability and feature set. After six and a half years, users still prefer third-party apps in iOS 12 over Apple Maps, with Google Maps stealing a ...more

Google has already issued a few updates to Android 7.0 Nougat. There aren't many headlining features, as these minor updates are mostly bug fixes and performance improvements. But there's a few security enhancements as well, so staying up-to-date with the latest patches is imp ...more

The past year brought about a number of trends in the smartphone space. More immersive displays, better processors, and portrait mode for cameras come to mind as big steps forward. One of the most polarizing trends that continued in 2017 is the removal of the 3.5 mm headphone ...more

With the recent launch of the OnePlus 6T, the company continues to impress us with some of the best phones when it comes to the rooting and modding. OnePlus has made it easy enough to get up and running with the rooting process as fast as possible. The OnePlus devices follow t ...more

Google has recently been pushing to replace the decades-old messaging technology we've been stuck with. SMS was never meant to handle the high-quality multimedia content we consume with our smartphones today, so in comes RCS, which is a universal platform that aims to change o ...more

Google's Android Device Manager makes it extremely easy to track down your phone or tablet, but while it's simple to set up and use, it does require your device to have an active data connection, which can be an issue in some areas. SMSLocator, by T3KBAU5, works a little diff ...more

As Matias Duarte and the team over at Google's Android Design department ready their wares, they've given us a preview version of the upcoming "L" release of Android to try out. A new design philosophy, dubbed "Material", permeates throughout the new OS. Most apps have yet to ...more

In old-school Konami fashion, there's an Easter egg lurking inside your Samsung Galaxy S3, and I'm not talking about gingerbread men, robots, or jelly beans. In fact, it's actually an achievement, like those you would unlock in Black Ops on your Xbox 360, and it's pretty easy ...more