How to Build a Home

Your iPhone's home screen just got a whole lot more exciting thanks to iOS 14, which is finally giving Android a run for its money in terms of home screen customization. What's new? Widgets in three different sizes, a new searchable App Library, and most importantly, the abili ...more

LG has really made their new G3 handset something to drool over. The hardware and software behind it can be considered as good, or even better than most flagships out there, and it has left me second guessing my decision to stick with the M8. Just kidding, I love this thing, ...more

In recent years, Apple has made it much easier to customize the Home Screen on your iPhone or iPad, and some of the newer tools are perfect for neat freaks. Nonetheless, a tidy Home Screen can still feel cluttered when iOS and iPadOS force widgets, apps, and folders to have na ...more

I'm often reluctant to use a home screen launcher other than the stock one on my Android. Once you're well acclimated with something, complacency sets in, welcoming change with much resistance. Well, my friends, I have seen the error of my ways... After using various differen ...more

The home bar, that tiny sliver of color at the bottom of the screen on Home button-less iPhone models, is helpful when first getting used to an iPhone X or newer's gestures. It helps you learn how to swipe up to unlock, go to the home screen, view the app switcher, and so on. ...more

Samsung's Galaxy series of devices have one common design theme that ties them all together—the physical home button at the bottom of the phone. This button can wake the phone, take you to your home screen, and even scan your fingerprint to securely unlock your device. The on ...more

Your new Samsung Galaxy S4 is fast, but it can definitely be faster. One issue that carried over from the Samsung Galaxy S3 is Home button lag. Instead of it being an instantaneous response, it takes a split second for the action to take place—and a split second is enough to i ...more

Aside from changing your wallpaper, there's not much you can do to customize the home screen on your iPhone besides nesting folders, hiding folder names, and hiding apps—and those aren't even actual features. They're simply glitches that Apple never took care of, and now there ...more

Look through the dessert recipes on any food blog and there's a pretty good chance you'll find something with chocolate and peanut butter. It's one of the most common combinations in candy bars and other sweets (not that I'm complaining). In the past, we've featured delicious ...more

When it comes to making pancakes in the morning, most of us probably follow the instructions on the box. Mix all the ingredients together, pour onto a hot greased pan, and form perfect circular flapjacks one by one. But pancakes are so much more than that. You can turn them i ...more

By default, most Android phones will instantly lock once you turn the screen off with the power button. Doing so is a surefire way to secure your device when you walk away, but what if there was another way to accomplish this even faster? If you're using the OnePlus Launcher o ...more

Apple's iPhone 6 packs a powerful 4.7-inch Retina HD display with 1334-by-750 resolution, and it's so incredible in person that it almost looks fake. However, as awesome at this display is, it can always be better. As long as you're jailbroken, you can get the same 1920-by-10 ...more

At first glance, caviar doesn't seem overly appealing to the masses; not very many people would be willing to spend upwards of $1,000 on a tiny spoonful of salty sturgeon eggs from the Caspian Sea. Caviar truly is the ultimate symbol of luxury and fine dining. However, if you ...more

When I compare my iPhone 4S to my friend's iPhone 5, I notice that his elongated screen gives him an extra row of applications. Am I jealous? Yes, a little. Unfortunately, we can't alter the physical form of our device, but we can tweak our icon layout to add more apps snugly ...more

Probably the most favorite custom ROM among softModders is CyanogenMod, a theme-friendly take on stock Android that not only makes it easier to customize your device, but also increases performance using a variety of system tweaks and enhancements. If you're bogged down by To ...more

Sourdough is a delightful twist on your traditional bread, but creating and maintaining a sourdough starter can be a headache for many home bakers. Heck, I'm a culinary school graduate who spent plenty of time studying how to perfect sourdough starters, and I still don't jump ...more

If you've ever tried to make massive changes to your home screen, you know how tedious it can be. Dragging apps one-by-one, in-and-out of folders, all over your iPhone can drive anyone up the wall. It doesn't have to be like this anymore — iOS has a simple way to move as many ...more

The spice selection at Trader Joe's is both inexpensive and truly top-notch. According to their site, they deal with some of the highest-quality spice manufacturers in the world and, in working with them directly, they eliminate hidden costs spent on promotions, brand-building ...more

"Tempering chocolate" is one of those intimidating-sounding kitchen tasks that keeps novice cooks away from some really fun stuff like making candy, chocolate-dipped biscotti, and fruit. It's really not as hard as it sounds, and although you can skip this step, it really make ...more

Old newspapers come in handy for many different uses around the house, from birdcage liners to shipping cushioning and even a little fish cooking. But for backyard rocket scientists like Markus Bindhammer, they're more suitable as an ingredient for rocket propellant. Video: . ...more

Live wallpapers are part of what make Android's features so unique and wonderful, making your homescreens come alive and much more interesting. The wallpapers are extremely customizable and interactive, many times sensitive to swipes, finger-tapping, and other multi-touch gest ...more

The world around us keeps getting smarter. Not only do we have advanced AI services like the Google Assistant, but now we've got the Internet of Things connecting physical objects to the digital world. It's amazing when you think about it, but the real sci-fi stuff starts to h ...more

One of Apple's key features for iOS was always its "what you see is what you get" philosophy. Sure, there were small tweaks and complicated workarounds to customize an iPhone, but, for the most part, all iPhones felt similar. These days, however, changing up your iPhone's look ...more

If you don't want the large and permission-hungry Facebook app on your phone, the perfect solution is to create an app icon for the Facebook mobile site on your home screen. The website version of Facebook doesn't run background tasks, has no distracting notifications by defau ...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

If you're asking yourself where your newly installed iPhone apps are, you aren't alone. Upgrading to iOS 14 offers many beneficial features, but it also can stop new apps from appearing on your home screen. Sure, they're always in the App Library, but that shouldn't prevent yo ...more

I know Americans love to hate on the French, but from my standpoint, they've given us a lot of things we should all be thankful for, like French kissing, casual sex, Pepé le Pew, and of course, French fries. Well, maybe not... There's actually a few ideas as to how French fri ...more

Accessing your recent contacts just became a hell of a lot quicker with iOS 8. In addition to accessing recent apps, double-pressing your Home button now shows off recent contacts at the top of your screen. Video: . Your most recent contact, whether by call or message, will be ...more

As some of you Mad Science readers will remember, we recently covered the separation of water into hydrogen and oxygen using electrolysis. Passing a current through water can rend it apart, but we can also recombine that oxygen and hydrogen to make electricity! This is the pri ...more

The Galaxy S8's Always On Display is a fantastic feature that gives you a brief overview without having to wake up your phone. But AOD now has a virtual home button, which kinda ruins the sleek look and can even cause screen burn-in. Regardless of your reason, if you're not a ...more

Dorothy had it right: "There's no place like home." This is especially true when it comes to using your Samsung Galaxy S3, or pretty much any other smartphone, whose most vital button is the Home key. But what happens when that button no longer works? Replacements can be pri ...more

If you have more than two home screen pages on your iPhone, jumping back to the main page can seem like a lot of unnecessary swiping. For example, an eight-page home screen would take seven right-swipes to get back from the last page to the main page — but it doesn't have to t ...more

Even if you're a good cook, sometimes home-cooked food just doesn't taste the same as it does in a restaurant. Of course, there are some utensils and appliances in a professional kitchen that the average person doesn't have access to, but it's not just about the tools. There ...more

In the past, if you upgraded to a new Galaxy or if you had to factory reset your existing one to fix an issue, you had to restore your home screen layout manually. Your wallpaper, widgets, icon placement, and launcher settings were all dependent on you to be put back in their ...more

With the release of the Nexus 5 back in 2013 came the Google Now Launcher, which has become the go-to choice for many Android users, especially those who prefer the Nexus line. With its integration of the Google Now page and the always-listening hotword detection, you'd be har ...more

Selecting text on a touchscreen device has always been a major pain point. Those tiny little arrows that let you adjust the selection area are always too hard to actually adjust, making precision all but impossible. Then there's the issue of some apps not even allowing text se ...more

This how-to video is for anybody looking to gain lean muscle right in the convenience of your own home with little to no equipment. The intensity and variety of these exercises makes for an effective muscle-building workout. Standard Pushup With hands extended slightly outsid ...more

Google's "At A Glance" widget gives you the current weather conditions and upcoming events from your Google Calendar in a handy spot right at the top of your home screen. But on Pixel phones, this widget is permanently embedded into the launcher, so you can't just long-press i ...more

Almost every bread recipe will tell you to look for a golden brown crust or to tap on the bottom of your loaf and listen for a hollow sound. That visual and sound technique will work most of the time, but it can still come up short, leaving you with a soft and gooey spot in th ...more

Not having power can make everyday tasks really difficult if you're unprepared. You have to find new ways to do things like cook dinner and charge your devices, and if it happens during the winter, you also have to figure out how to heat your home. If you don't have a battery ...more

The newer HTC One is arguably the best smartphone yet in terms of hardware, but its software moves considerably farther away from the stock Android experience. Even more so from HTC's own Sense. The biggest change from Sense 4+ to the newest Sense 5 is Blinkfeed, a scrollable ...more

This recipe will be a bit time consuming and may seem a bit lengthy—it can take up to an hour to complete depending how big of a batch you are making—but the end result is fantastic. That being said, here are the few things you will need. 3 or more large potatoes (any variety ...more

Are ants invading your living space? Start peeling some raw onions. Or add a sprinkle of black pepper to your floor and countertops. Or make yourself some coffee and sprinkle the leftover coffee grounds in areas where ants have been spotted. Somewhere in your pantry shelf or r ...more

With the new version of Android due out very soon, Android 5.0 "Lollipop" has received a ton of press lately. It's all well-deserved, of course, because the new "Material Design" interface is absolutely beautiful. While we've covered methods on how to get a little bit of that ...more

Not many people use film cameras anymore, so it can be hard to find the materials to develop your own photos at home since most local camera stores are closing. But it's actually relatively easy to make homemade developer, and you can make it with a few relatively common ingre ...more

If there's been one signature design element for Apple's iPhones, it was the circular Home button. It served as the "everything" button for each iPhone model until last year's iPhone X, but now, it's completely absent from the iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR. Should you be worried? ...more

Coffee is a topic that everyone has a strong opinion about, especially when it comes to brewing the perfect cup. Even if you buy the best beans and grind them yourself, chances are you're skipping one necessary step to make sure your coffee tastes the best it can: cleaning you ...more

I've previously shown a few ways to make your iPhone a little more unique by customizing app icons on the home screen, and while those processes did not require a jailbreak, they were a pain in the ass. Thankfully, there's a better way to customize app and shortcut icons that' ...more

With so many Chromecast-powered devices available, chances are, you're near something with casting abilities right now. Whether it's Android TV, Google Home, or any one of the various gadgets with Chromecast built-in, you can use a more powerful speaker to play media from your ...more

When the HTC One was announced, the fact that its IR transmitter was a side note more than a main feature made me dismiss it. When Samsung included one in the GS4, it became even less impressive. However, now that I actually have a One, I find that the "TV" app is way more tha ...more