Make a Wand

Taking photos in the dark or in low-light settings can be tricky. Just using your normal flash can make your subject look washed out, but not using it can result in a totally dark photo with no subject at all. This DIY light by professional photographer Simon Ellingsworth of ...more

Your days as an ordinary Muggle are over — as long as you have an iPhone. With just a word or two, you can use your iPhone and newfound Muggle-born powers to cast spells or utilize charms just like Harry Potter and team. Only your "wand" is from Apple, not Ollivanders in Diago ...more

You can add a timestamp to any YouTube video in just a few clicks from the desktop website on your computer but not from YouTube's iOS or Android app. Until YouTube adds a "start time" when sharing videos from the mobile app, you'll have to use one of these workarounds on your ...more

Once upon a time in America, there was coffee and there was decaf. That's it. No capuccinos. No espressos. And certainly no Starbucks. Coffee was just coffee, something that you bought at a gas station or donut shop. If you made it at home, it was either in a metal pot or inst ...more

There is no iPad version of Apple's Calculator app (at least, not yet), so you won't find it on your Home Screen, in your App Library, or as a shortcut in the Control Center. But that doesn't mean your iPad doesn't have an official calculator. Before the first iPad in 2010, A ...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

Welcome to Minecraft World! Check out our advanced tutorials and come play on our free server. VoxelSniper is one of many very useful world editing plugins available to Minecraft servers. In my opinion, it is one of the best and certainly the most used of all server side plug ...more

With the holidays over, a lot of people with shiny new Google Homes are getting their first chance to explore the new Google Assistant. Before the Google Home's release, the Assistant was only available for the Google Pixel and Pixel XL, or in a text-based form with Google All ...more

The new iOS 14 for iPhone arrived Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2020, alongside iPadOS 14, and there are a lot of features to uncover. Improved widgets. Better home screen customization. Exciting Messages improvements. New abilities in Camera and Photos. There's so much here that it'll ...more

Smartphones have put an end to camcorders. If you want to capture memorable moments in high quality, look no further than that technological marvel in your pocket. Recent Galaxy phones are shining examples of how far we've come — but the more capable a camera gets, the more co ...more

You probably know Lenovo from their low-cost Windows PCs here in the states, but something you may not be aware of is that they also make smartphones. Right now, their biggest market is in China, but a rumored merger with BlackBerry could make Lenovo a contender in North Ameri ...more

Chances are that you've been using your microwave just to nuke leftovers, but they can do so much more than heat up last night's dinner—microwaves can help you peel garlic more quickly, get more juice out of lemons, disinfect your kitchen, dry out herbs, give beauty products n ...more

Do you have an excess of wire clothes hangers from multiple trips to the dry cleaners? Rather than letting them take up space in your closet, you can use them for any number of things, from holding your necklaces and magazines to unclogging your sink and fishing dropped object ...more

Using an iPhone isn't difficult, but it can be if you're using it for the first time, especially if you switched from an Android phone. That's primarily because of the massive difference in the user interface between the two operating systems. And when it comes to taking scree ...more

I'm a pretty nice person, so when someone asks me to take a group picture of their friends or family, I can't easily say "no," even if I have somewhere else to be. Even worse—sometimes I'm the one asking, fully knowing just how annoying it can be. Maybe you've been told "no" b ...more

Lenovo brought out the big guns for CES 2014, with the Vibe Z showcased as the Chinese company's' first foray into the LTE smartphone space. Slated for a February release, the ultra-thin and extremely light smartphone will certainly be in the running for top smartphones of thi ...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

These dog days of summer are the perfect window of time to make giant homemade soap bubbles outdoors. A giant bubble wand can be easily assembled with some butcher's string and two bamboo poles, both easily available at your local hardware store. Making the magical bubble sol ...more

The launch of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean was also the launch of Google Now, a service that was supposed to one-up Siri, the resident personal assistant for iOS devices. Google Now offered enticing features, but its launch went unnoticed by a great many Android users. But that was ...more

It hasn't been long since Apple released iOS 16.0 with over 350 new features, but iOS 16.1 just came out with even more cool updates for your iPhone. While some of the recent upgrades were expected, others are somewhat surprising — and there's even one that you may not even th ...more

Facebook is really good at two things: connecting people all over the world and force-feeding changes to its users (ahem...Facebook Messenger). Now, its most recent "feature" adds the ability to auto-enhance all photos uploaded from its mobile app. So, if you think you are gr ...more

By combining years of web search advancements, natural language processing, and even DeepMind's artificial intelligence, Google Assistant hopes to change the way you interact with your devices. If you're familiar with Google's previous services, Google Assistant is like Google ...more

Sony has a gorgeous line of smartphones using the moniker "Xperia," and the latest and greatest model is the Z3. The firmware for the Xperia Z3 was just updated to Android Lollipop, and many system apps of course got tweaked and refreshed with this latest version. One such ap ...more

Venom, the latest in a long list of comic book characters to headline its own movie, is known by comic book fans by his catchphrase, "We are Venom." Now, via augmented reality, we, too, can be Venom. Sony Pictures, in conjunction with the release of the film Venom, has publi ...more

Learning to make giant bubbles for this video has been the most fun I've had with a project in a long time. It's addicting to try to get them to grow bigger and bigger than the ones before. Since filming this video, my skill has improved tremendously and the bubbles you're abo ...more

Since the invention of the mechanical clock, enclosure of the commons, and proletarianization of labor, the alarm clock has been the bane of our existence. While not actually evil, it does represent the constant and uncompromising glare of our owners shaking a patronizing fing ...more

In 2007, Nintendo introduced the world to motion control video games with the Wii. Microsoft and Sony built on Nintendo's phenomenal success and released their own motion control products for the XBox 360 and Playstation 3 late in 2010: the Kinect and the Move. The Move is bas ...more

If you've spent any time at all recently on social media, then you've probably seen pictures of fairy bread. This magical creation comes to us courtesy of Australia, so we have yet another thing to thank those clever folks Down Under for... along with shrimp on the barbie, Veg ...more

If we were to assign a theme for the 2019 edition of the Next Reality 30 (NR30), it might be something along the lines of, "What have you done for me lately?" Many of the top names in the industry from the 2018 edition remain the same, but their positions have shuffled. The p ...more

In my previous article, I discussed installing and configuring OpenVAS on Kali Linux. Now it's time to start using OpenVAS with the Greenbone Security Assistant to audit networks for security issues. This can be extremely helpful when you are looking for vulnerabilities or mis ...more

The Google Assistant that powers search on Pixel devices and Google Home has a lot more personality than regular old Google Search. It gets to know you, it's conversational, and it even has some fun Easter eggs hiding within—including a few magic tricks up its sleeve. To cele ...more

Kylo Ren, conflicted villain of the new Star Wars trilogy, will surely be a major presence again this Halloween, with The Last Jedi fast approaching. His costume, all black and layered, complete with dark-side helmet and crossguard lightsaber, seems quite perfect for Oct. 31 — ...more

Sponge balls are a very cool magic effect. But you will have to master palming first. You will get very good reactions. The best part is that you can simply keep them in your pocket. Here is how to start. Palming Begin by pretending to put a ball in one hand while secretly k ...more

In the Harry Potter world, there was a character by the name of Beedle the Bard, who told a story about witnessing the three Peverell brothers building a bridge out of magic and successfully crossing a very dangerous river that had claimed many lives. Death was upset that the ...more

Starting in iOS 13, Apple introduced a robust suite of video-editing tools to its Photos app. The majority of editing tools were only available for images in iOS 12 and older, but iOS 13 leveled the playing field to allow even a novice to tweak videos like a pro before sharing ...more

Apple's latest update, iOS 14.2, is finally here. As the name implies, it's the second major update to hit iPhones since Apple released iOS 14 in the fall. The update brings at least 13 new features and changes to all compatible iPhones, including over 100 new emoji and eight ...more

Think atomic theory is only for nerds? Think again. Make magical electrons dance right before your very eyes. This anti-gravity orb will move at your command. All you need is a magic wand (for the Muggles of the world, buy PVC pipe) and some leftover Christmas tinsel. No tins ...more

"Magnetic fields are everywhere- you just can't see them." The science-inspired-art project, Magnetic Movie, by Semiconductor, demonstrates the imaginary "secret lives of invisible magnetic fields". Don't miss it - it's an amazing project. The magnetic fields are beautifully ...more

The hottest word game right now is Wordle, a simple game that gives you six chances to guess the five-letter word of the day. I've already shown how you can add the real Wordle app — not a fake clone — to your iPhone or Android phone's home screen. But there's also a way to sa ...more

You can play background sounds on your iPhone to help you focus, stay calm, or fall asleep, giving you a personal sound machine wherever you go. Even better, there's a way to set each of your apps to play one of Apple's six ambient soundscapes automatically. When you open the ...more

Thanks to the Edge variants, Samsung's Galaxy S phones are just a few millimeters off in body size when compared to the Note series, and just 0.2 inches smaller when it comes to displays. Now that the two flagship models are almost identical in size—with matching curved displa ...more

We all want a faster, more efficient web browsing experience. Some immediately flocked to Google Chrome as soon as it was released, because of its super fast speeds. Others restrained themselves and continued to wait for Microsoft and Mozilla to play catchup. And the time is a ...more