Hacks for 5

There's a built-in timer feature on the iPhone's Camera app that helps you set up your device, step back, and take a photo before time runs out. This feature is useful when there isn't another person around to take a photo of you, or when you don't want to be missing from a me ...more

Rounded rectangle icons are so 2007. Sure iOS 7 tweaked them a bit, but with the clean new approach to design that software is taking today, they're starting to look dated. Today I'm going to show you how to go full circle with your iPhone's icons, and the results are actually ...more

One of the most annoying things about the PlayStation 3 is its lack of backward compatibility on some models. There are several hacks out there to do this, but most of them involve extra hardware, like the Cobra-USB Dongle, or downgrading, which can cause all sorts of problems ...more

Pixels and other near-stock Android phones have the Google Feed baked into their home screen, but sadly, the default OnePlus Launcher doesn't. Even more disappointing is the fact that the OnePlus Launcher actually has the Google Feed code built into it, but it's not activated. ...more

Low Power Mode (LPM) decreases the amount of battery your iPhone uses by disabling background app refreshing and automatic downloads, locking your screen after 30 seconds, and more. While it's only meant to be used temporarily, if you're struggling with battery life, you may w ...more

GravityBox is a name that many know as the module to rule them all when it comes to customizing your Android device. Ask any of the longtime modding pros, and they'll tell you about the good old days during the Xposed era. The community was booming and full of great ideas, and ...more

If reaching up to access Camera controls like the flash, HDR, and timer wasn't bad enough, it's gotten a lot more tedious on recent iPhones like the X, XS, and 11 series thanks to their tall displays. If you have a jailbroken iPhone, however, you can easily fix this issue usin ...more

Have you ever walked around in public and heard the same handful of default ringtones over and over again? How do these people know who's calling without looking first? It's tough to tell when they all sound the same, but there is something crafty you can do to help with that. ...more

The iPhone's home screen gets its signature aesthetic from a grid of icons that seamlessly blend in to almost any background. It's a somewhat minimalistic look, but that's interrupted by cluttery text labels for apps and folders. Fortunately, there's a way to remove these labe ...more

Back in its infancy, the App Store was filled with text bomb apps that allowed users to send a barrage of text messages to friends, family, and foes. It was a fun way to annoy people, but Apple quickly scrubbed the apps because of technical issues. Although text bombs are stil ...more

An iPhone's display can get seriously bright, whether LCD or OLED. When you're in bed at night or in a dark room where you don't want to disturb others visually, the brightness is even more noticeable. But there are a few built-in ways in iOS to reduce brightness below the def ...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

The Pixel is the phone to beat when it comes to cameras, and it's largely due to software. While its hardware is solid, Google's machine learning prowess and general coding wizardry are the biggest reasons the Pixel is so good with taking photos and recording video. What this ...more

Yelp reviews are great for getting a feel for how a business operates, but they can't always be trusted, and they don't always get to the point fast enough. That's where "Tips" come in, and you can view and make them whether you're on an iPhone or Android phone. No, I'm not t ...more

When you think of companies that represent pillars like "privacy" or "security," Facebook is pretty far from the top of that list. However, the social media empire is making strides — small strides — to win trust with how it handles your user data. One of those efforts involve ...more

When you don't want certain friends viewing your account or just need to take a break from social media, Instagram lets you do so. While you can completely delete your Instagram account, then start over when you're ready again, it makes much more sense to just disable your acc ...more

If you're an Apple fan, AirPods are the must-have wireless headphones to own. They know when they're in your ears, will pause music when one is taken out, and when you pair them with your iPhone they'll already work on your Mac, iPad, and iPod touch using the same Apple ID. Ho ...more

Short for Ask Me Anything, AMA threads are one of Reddit's signature features. They enable you to directly interact with a whole range of interesting personalities, from common folk with amazing life experiences to influential celebrities that help shape politics and culture. ...more

On Instagram, you can write text over any picture or video in your Story, but it may be hard to get your message across with a distracting background. Although there is a "Type" option for Stories, which allows you to write text over colorful gradient backgrounds, the selectio ...more

Instagram is all about the hook. If you want followers to stick around, you need to keep your content interesting and engaging. Rainbow text can really make your Stories pop, but it's not really an Instagram "feature," meaning it's not an easy task to accomplish. There is, how ...more

Spotify integration in Bumble has been around for a few years now, allowing prospective matches to view the artists you listen to the most on the popular music streaming service. It definitely helps people connect, but sadly, it doesn't work as well as it should because it rar ...more

The quality and length of your sleep will almost always dictate how the rest of your day unfolds. Sleeping fewer hours increases your chances of spending the day in a tired and cranky state, while having a restful night's sleep contributes greatly to being alert and productive ...more

MyFitnessPal adjusts your calorie goal for the day according to your activity level. The more active you tell the app you are, the more calories it tells you to consume — simple, right? Unfortunately, MFP doesn't tell you to consume fewer calories when you don't work out. Howe ...more

In 2015, MyFitnessPal launched its premium service, an ad-free subscription for $9.99 a month or $49.99 a year which provides food analysis, deeper nutrient tools, more goal options, and exclusive content. After giving MyFitnessPal Premium a shot on your iPhone or Android phon ...more

You really can't go wrong with Samsung Health when it comes to staying on top of fitness-related data. Its features help you keep track of workouts, track calorie and nutrition intake, and monitor your heart rate, just to name a few. And if you start exhibiting symptoms you've ...more

When you're trying to get fit, friendly competition can go a long way towards keeping you motivated. Samsung Health has a great feature for just that, letting you challenge your friends or even complete strangers to bring some excitement to an otherwise routine workout experie ...more

Keeping track of your physical activities can be difficult, especially if you have a hectic lifestyle with responsibilities to constantly stay on top of. Thankfully, Samsung Health is there to help you log your workout routines, leaving you with one less thing to keep track of ...more

Amazon Prime Video is undoubtedly one of the best services out there for streaming and downloading movies and TV shows to your iPhone. If you try to buy or rent a movie or show in any of Amazon's iOS apps, however, you'll notice that there's no apparent way to do so. No button ...more

Among iOS 11's many criticisms, one of the more surprising complaints came from parents worried that Apple wasn't doing enough to monitor and control their children's iPhone usage. Apple seems to have taken these issues to heart, as iOS 12 introduces new and improved parental ...more

Whether due to spotty cellular reception or just data that you want to save, popular navigation apps like Google Maps and Waze offer an offline feature that lets you navigate from one location to another in the absence of internet service. Apple Maps also lets you use its serv ...more

Even if your default mobile browser is Google Chrome, you may not want Google to also be your search engine. Maybe you're not impressed with Google's search results all the time, maybe you want a more private search experience, or maybe you just don't want Google's hands over ...more

Just as we published our rumor roundup for the HTC U11 Plus, the internet happened: A Facebook video revealed the flagship HTC U11 Plus and the midrange HTC U Life in all their glory. The video was in German and has since been taken down, but according to a translation, it rev ...more

By default, iMovie for iPhone adds a dissolve (also called a crossfade) in between all of the video clips in your movie project's timeline, which is an effect that transitions gradually from the end of one clip to the beginning of another. However, iMovie does not add any begi ...more

Adobe Premiere Clip gives mobile video editors the tools they need to make some great looking projects from their iPhone or Android device. Editors need ways to organize and trim clips, edit the look of those clips, add music, and more. For a smartphone app, Adobe Premiere Cli ...more

If you want to find out the linear distance between your hotel and a landmark or restaurant you want to visit, Google Maps has a great feature that lets you quickly measure the distance between two or more points. It's perfect for getting an idea of how far places are in relat ...more

If you've just started a freeform editing project in Adobe Premiere Clip on Android or iPhone, what's next? The first thing you're going to want to do is trim down the video clips you imported into your draft, that way you can lay them out perfectly in your timeline and create ...more

Life is all about spending time together with loved ones, experiencing new places together to enjoy and create memorable moments. Luckily, Google has made it easier for us to rendezvous with friends and family at specific places by letting us broadcast our locations using Goog ...more

I wanted to post a Live Photo to Instagram of me in front of that donut that got eaten next to the CVS on Houston St. in New York, between Mott and Mulberry. The only problem is that Live Photos aren't supported on Instagram, so I couldn't just tap and post it to my feed witho ...more

Music has always been able to connect us. Spotify is now offering an innovative new way to do just that. The company announced today that they have launched a new feature in collaboration with the Messenger app that allows you to share and make playlists with friends. The fea ...more

Social media is kind of depressing. On one hand, we love knowing what's happening in the lives of others. On the other hand, everyone seems happier, better looking, and more successful than you. We're putting on a facade by posting statuses and writing comments that present th ...more

Despite what you may have heard, sleep is NOT for the weak. It's essential, not to mention it makes us feel a hell of a lot better in general. But for some, getting to sleep is easier said than done. In fact, about 50 million to 70 million people in the US have a sleep or wake ...more

People love sex. They don't love talking about the possible repercussions of sex. And with dating apps such as Tinder, Grindr, and Bumble paving new ways for strangers to talk and have casual hookups, people need to be able to more comfortably have a conversation about sexual ...more

Every now and then, it's refreshing to play a game that doesn't involve much thinking. Sega is set to bring us just that, as a new game called WWE Tap Mania has soft launched for iOS and Android in the Philippines. As its name implies, lots of mindless tapping will be involve ...more

We're all guilty of a little social media stalking now and again. Or ... every day. Who's keeping track? Everyone secretly wants to know what their ex/arch nemesis is doing for the weekend via Snapchat or Instagram Stories. I don't think curiosity killed the proverbial cat; i ...more

Your friends are ditching Snapchat for Instagram. After the social network turned camera company announced it lost $13.30 per user in its first quarter as a publicly traded company, well, it doesn't look too good for the platform's future, y'all. According to a new report by ...more

If you shatter your new Samsung Galaxy S8 display, then be prepared to pay a hefty repair fee for that bezel-less baby. Yeah, you already purchased Samsung's latest flagship for approximately $700. The world's first Infinity Screen stares at you like it would never be anythin ...more

Who pays for live TV anymore? Better question, who watches live TV anymore? With a ton of streaming services available, there's no room in our lives for things like schedules, commercials, or going weeks between episodes. (What is this, 2010?) But streaming services think peo ...more

It's Monday, and what's a Monday at Gadget Hacks without a new leak to ponder over? Thanks to known leaker Benjamin Geskin, we have a dummy iPhone 8 without one of its most-anticipated features. That's right. This dummy ain't got no Touch ID! So ... What does that mean for A ...more

Final Fantasy XV, the latest release in the long-running Final Fantasy franchise, has been a massive success, shipping around 6 million copies worldwide in less than two months. Final Fantasy XV: A New Empire is a mobile game based off this popular console iteration, and has s ...more

Fans of rhythm tap games and traditional one-on-one fighters finally have something to bring them closer together. DuelBeats, a fighting game that lets you perform moves by tapping to the beat of a song, has been released as a soft launch for both iOS and Android in New Zealan ...more

We all know Google's Image Search to be our trusty little companion when it comes to browsing through ideas on the web. Now, Google is adding on "style ideas" to its search feature to help you boost your "style IQ" every time Google catches you snooping through new handbags on ...more

Jam City's Panda Pop was a great success that helped millions of users waste vast amounts of precious time with its bubble-popping panda cuddliness. Not wanting to mess with success, Jam City has now simply re-skinned the game to feature all the beloved characters from Charles ...more

Tom Clancy games, like Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon: Wildlands, are famous for their realistic and immersive gameplay that focuses on covert, low-intensity warfare. Ubisoft now appears to be testing the overcrowded waters of mobile gaming with the release of ShadowBreak, and ha ...more

Netmarble's ChronoBlade, a mobile role-playing game, has made its way to iOS and Android by way of a soft launch that will make it exclusive to users in Canada and Singapore for a couple of months. Its console-quality graphics and extra features will surely make it a hit when ...more

Pinterest, a worldwide catalog of ideas shared by over 175 million users every month, is dominated by Android users, who are now the app's fastest growing group. Pinterest has since taken notice, and has started to incorporate handy home screen shortcuts for users with Android ...more

As you may have heard by now, YouTube has launched its own live streaming TV bundle available for users in the select markets of New York, Los Angeles, the Bay Area, Chicago, and Philadelphia. A subscription to the new streaming YouTube TV bundle costs $35 a month, but the ser ...more

Great news, zombie killers! Zombie Gunship's long overdue sequel, Zombie Gunship Survival, has finally arrived for iOS and Android devices as a soft launch available for download in the Philippines—which means that with a little tinkering, you can play the new game in any coun ...more

Dynasty Warriors has finally been unleashed on the world of mobile gaming. The latest installment in the popular series is called Dynasty Warriors: Unleashed, and it sends you rampaging through armies using a variety of devastating attacks, all while collecting and upgrading o ...more

The Pixel and Pixel XL both use AMOLED screens, which are noted for their deeper blacks and sharper contrast ratios when compared to traditional LCD panels. However, AMOLED displays still have one fairly major downside, and that's the fact that they're vulnerable to screen bur ...more

Sometimes it's the smallest feature in your smartphone that makes the biggest difference in user experience. Take screen timeout, for instance. You can probably think of plenty of times when your handset's display blacked out while you were in the middle of something. You coul ...more