Home Made Plastic

How many times have you thrown out the remaining cardboard tube from an empty roll of toilet paper? Most of the time, they don't even make it to the recycling bin, and with the average American using over 20 rolls each per year, that's over 6.4 trillion tubes being wasted each ...more

Most cooks know they should stir pasta a few times while it's cooking, for obvious reasons: as the noodles cook, they release a glue-like starch that makes them stick to one another. Stirring prevents them from clumping together in an unwieldy, inedible mass. Now Mark Bittman ...more

With the release of various new and updated Samsung Galaxy S6 apps and features, like Smart Switch, Smart Remote, and wallpapers, something that's a home screen staple for most Android users was still missing. While we may have to wait a little longer for an extensive system ...more

Apple's new Watch models go on sale April 24th in Apple Stores everywhere, and can be preordered online starting April 10th. If you're set on preordering one, how do you know which size to choose? Whether you plan on getting an Apple Watch, Apple Watch Sport, or Apple Watch E ...more

With intelligent grammar check, accurate predictive text, swipe gestures, and plenty of themes, it makes sense that Ginger Keyboard has well over a million downloads on the Google Play Store, making it one of the more popular keyboards available for Android users. GingerSoftw ...more

Cheesecake is pretty awesome. It's super versatile, allowing you to change crust bases and toppings quite dramatically and still end up with something that's elegant and delicious. Which is why it's a great dish to add to your dessert repertoire! There are a number of approach ...more

As one of the most frequently used Android browsers, making Chrome work faster and more efficiently is something we can surely all appreciate. And just like its computer-based counterpart, there are experimental flags for the mobile app that can speed browsing up significantly ...more

Essentially, the Anti-Griddle does exactly what its name promises: it turns things almost instantaneously cold when you drop them on its "grilling" surface. Unlike home methods of flash freezing, its staggeringly low temperatures (-30°F/-34.4°C) allows ingredients that normall ...more

Google Earth has long served as a great tool to explore the furthest regions of our beautiful planet from the comfort of our own homes, but for those with more than just a recreational interest, a bundle of pro features had always cost $399... a year. Generally intended for p ...more

I'm all about customizing my iPhone and making it as different as possible from everyone else's. While it's easy to change the wallpaper, swap keyboards, and hide apps on your home screen, there's not much else you can do aesthetically without jailbreaking, especially when it ...more

Korean electronics giant LG maintained a large presence at CES 2015. While their TVs and home appliances were heavily showcased, my interest was primarily on one device—the new LG G Flex 2 Android phone. Video: . Don't miss all of our CES 2015 coverage! The successor to the o ...more

Android has plenty of features that provide multitasking support, which are especially useful on smartphones with larger screens. One such feature that I loved on the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 was the popup browser, which brought up a floating window whenever I opened a link insid ...more

When on-screen buttons were introduced alongside Android 4.0, it didn't take long before Google added a gesture to these virtual navigation keys. Since then, an upward swipe originating from the home button has always been a shortcut to Google Now on Nexus devices. But these ...more

Bow down, peasants: your gingerbread house just got owned. By whom? Martha Stewart, of course. The lifestyle guru has constructed elaborate gingerbread buildings in the past, but this year PBS asked her to build a gingerbread reproduction of Downton Abbey, in honor of the show ...more

Adjusting the brightness on your Android device is a simple but highly utilized action. For the most part, aside from the Sprint LG G3 variant, the brightness slider can be conveniently found nestled in your notification panel. And though it is easy to access, there is a small ...more

Tagine is both the name of a cooking vessel and also the dish that is cooked within it. In fact, some might say tagines are the national dish of Morocco. These slow-cooked stews and braises, often combining meat, vegetables, spices, and dried fruits, have a character unlike an ...more

Spotify is how I listen to almost all of my music; I use it on my way to work, while I workout, and even while I'm in the shower. And more often than not, I use my Spotify account on various devices including my MacBook, iPhone, and LG G3. In order to make listening to music a ...more

A few years ago I went hog-wild trying to achieve a zero-waste lifestyle. I didn't succeed, but the experiment taught me that we throw away things we could—and should—be using more. In ye olde days of our forefathers, people generally used every part of the animal in cooking. ...more

Apple Pay is ready for use at over 220,000 outlets across the United States. By using your iPhone 6 or 6 Plus, all you have to do is point your device at any NFC-enabled point-of-sale system compatible with Apple Pay, press your fingerprint on the home button, and voilà—you've ...more

Reminding a spouse or roommate to pick up some last-minute groceries is typically done with a quick message that can easily go unnoticed or unseen. Your feeble attempt of a reminder won't work unless it's conveniently sent at the right moment, like when they're on their way ho ...more

It seems like every day now that we see a new headline on a cyber security breach. These headlines usually involve millions of records being stolen from some large financial institution or retailer. What doesn't reach the headlines are the many individual breaches that happen ...more

Each day, we read about another security breach somewhere in our digital world. It has become so commonplace that we hardly react anymore. Target, J.P. Morgan, iCloud, Home Depot, and the list goes on and on. Those are just the big ones that get reported in the news. Millions ...more

As soon as you plug a set of headphones into a Samsung Galaxy series device, a bar pops up in the notification tray that lets you select from a list of "recommended apps" for earphones. It's a convenient little feature that shows the apps you're most likely to use based on pre ...more

If you've read any health news in the past year or so, you've probably been bombarded with headlines announcing that frequent sitters face certain death, even when you're just relaxing and watching TV at home. From increased health risks and added laziness, sitting is becomin ...more

The latest software update to the Amazon Fire Phone packed a lot of new and enhanced features, one of which makes the Carousel (a favorite feature of mine) much more useful. The Carousel is the Fire Phone's "home screen," offering you upfront access to your most recent apps. ...more

One of the best things about summertime is that there's lots of outdoor cooking, whether you're on a camping trip or grilling. And what better way to end your meal than with the classic dessert, s'mores? However, as delicious as the original combo of graham cracker, toasted m ...more

Trying to remember if it's "beer before liquor or liquor before beer" can be too much of a hassle, especially if you've already have had a few too many. While it would be great if one rhyme could determine the amount of pain you will feel the next morning, we must accept that ...more

Google Now is a quick and intuitive way to tailor your device to work for you and, unlike other personal assistants, provide you with up-to-date information based on search habits, emails, and the general all-knowingness of Google. On my Nexus 7 tablet, I use the Google Now t ...more

The paper towel is a wondrous invention. It allows cooks to wipe up really gross stuff without having to constantly do laundry and drain fried foods so they're crunchy and crispy instead of oily and heavy. But did you know that your humble paper towel has several other uses be ...more

Any cook knows that juicing lemons inevitably means dealing with seeds. It's a small but real annoyance that can slow things down in the kitchen. We've already shown you several techniques to get lemon juice without the seeds. But what if you only need a very little bit of le ...more

Foodies and big-time chefs like Thomas Keller go crazy for fleur de sel. This finishing salt appears in fancy eateries and cookbooks the world over, and in the early 2000s, it was not uncommon to see diners in a high-end restaurant sprinkle a pinch of fleur de sel on their pla ...more

Update, November 12, 2014: Android 5.0 Lollipop is officially out now. If you haven't gotten the OTA yet, check out our new guide on installing the official Lollipop builds on any Nexus for download links and instructions, for Mac or Windows. Update, October 17, 2014: In adv ...more

Although we are months away from the next generation iPad, a model of what seems to be the iPad Air 2 has just been released on the interwebs for your lovely eyes to view. Video: . Now, this video only talks about the actual dummy-model itself, but apparent are the new speaker ...more

Admit it, since childhood you've thought to yourself, "When oh when will they finally make Smell-o-vision?" And while that technology hasn't yet made it to our living rooms, we may soon be a step closer towards that particular American dream with the oPhone. Video: . The oPhon ...more

Using Shazam has quite literally spared me hours of searching the internet for the name of a song I briefly heard for a few seconds. At WWDC, it was announced that iOS 8 now has Shazam technology integrated into Siri. What makes it even cooler is that you don't even need the S ...more

If you're one of the lucky people who received the gift of terrible eyesight from your parents at a young age, chances are you ate an awful lot of carrots growing up. Though carrots are one of the top vision-boosting foods, they don't offer fast results. Rather than risk turn ...more

Ordering delivery or takeout is an event. Most of the effort is put into actually choosing a joint to order from and figuring out what you want, so when you finally get the food, you don't want to have to worry about anything else—including dishes. You'll usually get chopstic ...more

Cooking spray is super convenient to have around, but it can be expensive compared to regular old oil, and sometimes comes with some nasty sounding additives like dimethylpolysiloxane and dimethyl silicone. Making your own couldn't be simpler, and with a DIY version, you can ...more

A good prank requires decent effort, creativity, and impeccable timing. If you're in the office, there are plenty of hilarious pranks to play on coworkers, and for your family and friends, there's everything from toothpaste-filled Oreos, to solid milk, to impossible-to-solve ...more

Let's be honest, most of us buy the bottom-shelf vodka either because we're broke or because we're going to disguise the gag-inducing taste of it with juice or something fizzy. If you're cooking or baking with vodka (ice-cold vodka works wonders in pie crust), what's the point ...more

Caramelized onions are one of those ingredients you can add that immediately makes any dish feel a little fancier. They have that delicious savory-sweet combination, they're great in almost anything, and they're surprisingly easy to pull off at home. So why don't more people m ...more

There are a lot of cool new features in iOS 8 that weren't available in previous iOS versions, but it's still lacking overall in terms of customization. I'm not asking for Apple to reinvent the wheel, just to give me preferences on the type of wheel I want. Things like the ab ...more

The iOS 7 lock screen was made to be just that, a lock screen, so it's pretty limited in terms of functionality. We're able to add wallpapers and easily access the Control Center or Notification Center (unless we disable that access through our settings), but other than that, ...more

The sensors in your mobile device are integral for gaming (try to beat my Temple Run 2 score), as well as many of the basic Galaxy S3 features like Smart Stay and other fancy additions. But sometimes those sensors can become overly sensitive or just downright unusable. Unless ...more

In a previous guide, I showed you how to add a 5th app to your icon dock. This is both useful and cool-looking. Unfortunately, cramming a 6th would be make the tapping area too small, so instead I'll show you how to save space by making your most used app easily accessible wit ...more

I am writing this to first pregnant moms. I am 25 weeks along and I have some advice as to getting through an uncomfortable pregnancy. Step 1: Sleep I am 25 weeks along with my first baby and the biggest thing that I have learned in order to have an easier pregnancy is to sl ...more

Though making hot chocolate out of instant mix is pretty easy, there is no comparison when it comes to making your own homemade hot chocolate out of quality dark chocolate bars, whole milk, brown sugar, and your own favorite fresh spices. Simply chop up a bar or two of your f ...more

Sugru is some pretty versatile stuff. The company's slogan is "Hack things better," and for good reason. It sticks to aluminum, steel, ceramics, glass and plastics, it's waterproof and heat-resistant, and it can be molded into any shape you can imagine. Anything from your kitc ...more

lubuntu is a is a lightweight Linux/Ubuntu that makes it suitable to virtual environments, that you run with VirtualBox to add a secondary machine to your computer or laptop. With this program you can run a number of operating systems upon the same platform. But as we are all ...more

I've never met a kid who didn't love sidewalk chalk. There's just something about drawing all over public surfaces that seems to appeal to the rule-breakers in us all. And it's not just for kids—artists have done some pretty incredible works with the stuff, too. If you're look ...more

Newsstand was the most hated Apple app when it was first introduced, mainly because you could not delete or hide it inside of a junk folder. That's because it acted like a folder itself, with magazine and newspaper apps contained within. Previously, there were ways to hide th ...more

To decrease the possibility of breaking your glass dinner plates while moving into a new home, stack them vertically inside a box like vinyl records instead of horizontally like a stack of pancakes. If you're an office supplies nerd, here's the perfect excuse to buy different ...more

Back in 1996, the Super Nintendo had pretty much reached its end of life, since everyone in the Mario club began switching from 2D to 3D gaming. The third home console by Nintendo, the Nintendo 64 (N64), ushered in the new 3D gaming generation of Nintendo fanatics, paving way ...more

Prepping fruits and vegetables ahead of time makes putting together the final dish a lot easier, but once you cut them up, they start to turn brown almost instantly. However, thanks to this quick and easy tip from America's Test Kitchen, you can keep them looking fresh for muc ...more

With warm weather comes bugs, and with bugs come bites, and with bites come itches. From ticks and spiders to mosquitoes and bees, insect bites come in sundry shapes and sizes, but they all commonly pull an itchy, red reaction out of our bodies. Once a bite fires up our immun ...more

Whether you've had them for years or bought them used off Craigslist, old appliances can always benefit from a facelift. One of the first things to go is usually the lettering on the knobs, buttons, and other surfaces that are frequently touched, leaving them faded and difficu ...more

We've already covered how to remove the Home button lag on the Samsung Galaxy S4, now let's take a look at how to speed up a few more key areas on your new device. This GS4 is already blazing fast, but let's squeeze every ounce of speed we can from it by making a few basic twe ...more

I learned the hard way that boxed dyes just don't work well for me. A few months ago, I tried one that had a pretty name like "soft violet black." Sounds nice, right? What I ended up with was brown hair and hot pink roots. Trust me, it wasn't cute. Unfortunately, I had to liv ...more

Living in Los Angeles has given me the opportunity to attend a bunch of really cool events. I've been to Dodgers, Lakers, and Clippers games, a few concerts at the Staples Center, and a plethora of smaller joints. In all of these places, I've found a consistent annoyance—I wa ...more

The best part about April Fool's Day is that everyone is fair game. Even big tech companies like Google and Twitter get in on the action every year. It encourages even the most uptight, unfunny party-poopers among us to have a little fun driving each other crazy with pranks — ...more