SCRABBLE. To some it's just a game, but to me it's life or death. Well, not really, but it feels that way anyway. On a normal weekend, a game becomes much like Jon Thomas' "friendly game of death Scrabble." Video: . When I'm playing a game of SCRABBLE, my friends are not frien ...more
No time for elaborate practical jokes this April Fool's? Not a problem, it's 2011—meaning, apps can do just about anything these days. Measure beauty, check for STDs, even fix late night drunken social media stupidity. So why not pranks? Below, 10 digital solutions for your Ap ...more
Giving a speech in front of a large crowd doesn't need to be the nightmare everyone imagines it to be. We speak to many people every day and yet it is still very common for a person to be nervous when delivering information in front of several people. This fear can be overcome ...more
One of the coolest aesthetic features of iMessage is its animated message effects. If you're like many users, you might even have discovered them by accident, where wishing your friend a "Happy Birthday!" or congratulating them on a promotion unexpectedly flooded your screen w ...more
The Snapdragon 820 and 821 were met with praise last year, receiving almost no complaints compared to their overheating predecessor, the Snapdragon 810. But now, all eyes are on Qualcomm to see what goodies they have in store for us this year, as their new SoC, the Snapdragon ...more
There are many things Apple doesn't tell you about its products, and that's definitely the case when it comes to its Messages app. Hidden features lurk in your SMS and iMessage conversations just waiting to be found, and we've unearthed some of the most secret ones. Instead o ...more
There are many things your iPhone or iPad can do, and Apple does an excellent job of documenting everything on its website. But there are some features that won't show up in any Apple manuals or help pages. We've rounded up some of the best secret features hiding in iOS 15 an ...more
The HoloToolkit offers a great many, simple ways to add what seems like extremely complex features of the HoloLens, but it can be a bit tricky if you're new to Windows Holographic. So this will be the first in an ongoing series designed to help new developers understand what e ...more
It's happened to all iOS users: You're talking to a friend or watching TV, and all of a sudden, you hear "I'm not quite sure what you've said." Apparently, your phone heard something that resembled "Hey, Siri," and activated the assistant. But now, thanks to a new patent from ...more
When you hear people say that Android is more flexible than iOS, it's because of things like Tasker. You can do virtually anything with the venerable automation tool, from saving battery life to controlling your smart home with your fingerprint. But before you get to that, you ...more
It seems like custom Google Now commands are a dime a dozen these days. With Commandr for Google Now giving non-rooted users their first taste of custom voice commands just a couple weeks ago, you may wonder why we're covering this subject again. Unlike Commandr, the app Auto ...more
Owners of Google Pixel devices now have a plethora of imaginary friends to play with thanks to the Playground augmented reality app. The app, a rebrand of the AR Stickers app, launched as an exclusive app for the Google Pixel 3 and 3XL handsets in October. On Wednesday, Googl ...more
Boozing it up at work might have been okay back in the days of Mad Men, but today, employers prefer that their workers stay sober. What you and your bosses probably don't know is that a little drinking on the job can actually increase your creative capacity and problem-solving ...more
Zabernism. What exactly is it? It's a term that originated in 1912, during an incident involving an overzealous soldier who killed a cobbler for smiling at him is Saverne, a small town in Alsace in north-eastern France. The said event ultimately triggered an intervention from ...more
Oh Data, You so Awesome! We are going to use Node.JS to gather us some data. Given nodes plethora of well abstracted network abilities and it's deep evened nature, it will make quick work of plugging into various data sources and gathering / making good use of said data. Dat ...more
It's the most frustrating thing in the world: You're in the middle of a story and can't think of the word or name you need. Retrieve it fast with these tricks. You Will Need: * Hand gestures * Eye movements * The alphabet * The ability to forget Step 1 Move or wave your hands ...more
Attention all iPhone users. Engadget posts a helpful tip on possibly avoiding that painfully long iPhone 4 upgrade wait: "Apple and AT&T have worked to give folks a little leniency, with existing AT&T users able to upgrade to the iPhone 4 'up to six months early.' In other w ...more
Speech recognition software made it easy to search Google on your smartphone, and Google Goggles made it easy to find answers from camera snapshots on your device. But now Google's bringing similar technology straight to your desktop, and with faster results—faster than Google ...more
Red Dead Redemption does not do a very good job at teaching people how to duel. It is not intuitive and that leaves many people confused because it's not easy to practice. Sample duel. Once you accept a duel: In the duel, once you see the words "DRAW!" Press and hold LT(360) ...more
You're standing right in front of us, but your voice sounds like it's coming from over there! Color your friends impressed by learning the fine art of ventriloquism. Step 1 Make sure you have a quiet, secluded, place to practice with a mirror. Step 2 Don’t move your lips. In ...more
In this article, I'll be covering Triggers and Coils, part two of the series (see part one here). Generally, a simple EMP generator consists of four components; a capacitor, a transformer, a trigger and a coil of copper wire. The transformer component can be varied, but the co ...more
QI and ZA. QI n pl. -S the vital force that in Chinese thought is inherent in all things ZA n pl. -S a pizza For over a decade, these words have been used in SCRABBLE play, but not in the US or Canada. It wasn't until their addition in the Official SCRABBLE Players Dictionar ...more
Getting angry makes you look weak, especially in an argument. Defuse your temper with these helpful tips. Controlling your anger requires a desire to understand its source, and to take action to tamp it down. Step 1: Count to 10 Declare a “time out” when you feel anger risi ...more
Welcome to Minecraft World! Check out our tutorials, post to the community corkboard, and come play on our free server! Functioning bathrooms seem like a stretch in Minecraft, but with redstone, they're not that far out of reach! This past workshop focused on creating a fully ...more
Are you looking to hide your chests in a not-so-conspicuous way, but don't know where to start? Do you want to finally have that safe and sacred place to store your diamonds, cake and beloved treasures? This tutorial incorporates this previous week's challenge on transforming ...more
Amazingly, a lot of people I know haven't even heard of SOPA or PIPA. Now, every English-reading person with an internet connection will finally have those two four-letter acronyms emblazoned in their minds. For the entire day today, Wikipedia's English-language site will be i ...more
For most Americans, the bane of the hangover is typically remedied by lots of water, painkillers, greasy food, and a day wasted on the couch. But if you're tired of potato chips and fried eggs, perhaps it's time you enter unfamiliar territory. Below, a combination of unorthodo ...more
I love my laptop. It goes wherever I go. Unfortunately, that means that it also gets pretty grubby after a while. The screen gets dusty. The frame gets smudgy. The spaces between the keys fill up with crumbs of questionable origins. And my desktop? That thing is a dust bunny m ...more
How is it that we use Firefox tremendously and yet not care for its needs? You might have noticed Firefox sometimes tends to slow and not respond often. You might have installed countless add-on in Firefox to enhance your using experience, to get the most out of your Firefox u ...more
I don't know what I'd do without my computer. I can't do my job without the internet. I communicate with employers, friends, and family through emails, video chat and Twitter. I schedule meetings and plan deadlines. I bank. I shop. I read the news. I play games. I watch my fav ...more
If you're bass fisherman, then you know that the lipless crankbait is the bait you want in your fishing box. It's great for catching roaming fish chasing bait fish. However, there is an alternative you could use— a square-billed shallow running crankbait. They both are used in ...more
You probably know of Apple's Text Replacement feature for iOS, iPadOS, and macOS, but you're probably not using it as much as you should. With it, you can create your own keyboard triggers for almost anything you can think of, whether it's an email address or an entire email. ...more
There are plenty of tools that'll help you type faster and more efficiently on your iPhone or iPad, such as Slide to Type, Dictation, and even a case with a physical keyboard. But one of the best tricks will help you type frequently used words, phrases, sentences, email addres ...more
Apple has revolutionized how we write with the introduction of its new Writing Tools, powered by Apple Intelligence. In beta on iPhone, iPad, and Mac, these tools allow you to select text and use intelligent features to summarize, proofread, or rewrite it until the tone and wo ...more
Sure, emojis are all the rage, but there's not an emoji for every emotion or feeling just yet. That's where emoticons come into play, emoji's older typographical sibling. Unfortunately, emoticons can be hard to type out, easy to forget, and ASCII art, in general, can be pretty ...more
When Google introduced their new launcher alongside the Nexus 5, one of the most innovative features was the "always listening" voice search, meaning that at any time you were on your home screen, triggering a Google search was as simple as saying "Okay, Google." Combined wit ...more
In this chapter, we want to start seeing some real progress in our dynamic user interface. To do that, we will have our newly crafted toolset from the previous chapter appear where we are looking when we are looking at an object. To accomplish this we will be using a very usef ...more
If you use the Google Assistant on your Android device, you can easily send a text message to any one of your contacts. But even though that same Assistant is powering the Google Home, you can't use the smart speaker to accomplish the same task — at least, not without some tin ...more
While it doesn't come with any iPad models out of the box, the Apple Pencil is perhaps the best iPad accessory you can get. It's a powerful writing and drawing tool with an intuitive design and user-friendliness that makes it easy to take notes, draw sketches, mark up document ...more
Hello fellow Nullbytiens, I'm Washu, a long time commenter but first time poster. Today we'll be making an IRC bot, if you haven't seen OTW's post about the new IRC channel I would encourage you to go check it out. He does a good job at explaining what IRC is and how to get se ...more
The next big iOS version for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch was revealed by Apple at WWDC 2018 and dropped for everyone on Sept. 17, 2018, less than a week after Apple revealed the new iPhone lineup. We've rounded up all the big picture items and secret features and changes we c ...more
Whenever your iPhone's ringer is on, you'll hear Apple's iconic "Connect Power" chime every time you connect it to a wired or wireless power source, which lets you know that charging has started. There's no way to disable the sound without turning on Silent mode, but there is ...more
When playing word association with Star Trek, the first thing to come to mind with regards to augmented reality is likely Holodeck, not The Game, an obscure episode from season five of Star Trek: The Next Generation. In this episode (spoiler alert), an addictive augmented rea ...more
The world is a massive place, especially when you consider the field of view of your smartglasses or mobile device. To fulfill the potential promise of augmented reality, we must find a way to fill that view with useful and contextual information. Of course, the job of creatin ...more
Just because your Samsung Galaxy Note 2 is on silent doesn't mean that the world stops spinning. Emergencies can pop up at any time, even when your phone is put away during a lecture in class, in the library, or at an important business meeting. You put your phone on silent t ...more
Last month, Alexander Heit drifted into oncoming traffic after being distracted from the road. His sudden correction forced his vehicle to roll and flip over. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital shortly thereafter. All because of a freaking text message. He was only 22 ...more
Bubbles serve as extra lives to help you get through both Tour and Toad Rally modes in Super Mario Run. Even better, they let you rewind back to pick up any items that were missed. But unbeknownst to many, you can activate a bubble even if you haven't gotten knocked out yet. ...more
The release of the Nexus 5 marked the debut of the Google Now Launcher. Even with an integrated Google Now page on your home screen, the most talked-about feature was actually the always-listening functionality. From anywhere on your home screen, this function allowed you to ...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
Samsung included an "SOS" feature for its phones since the Galaxy S6 that could literally be a lifesaver should you ever find yourself in an emergency situation. It's one of those things that we hope to never have to use but will be very thankful for if a need ever arises. Th ...more
We've all heard the cliches: always look at the glass as half full; a smile can change your entire day; and there's always a silver lining. Whether you're someone who is constantly complimented on their rosy outlook or can't seem to stop frowning at everything around you, you ...more
Apple's stock keyboard for iPhone has gone through many changes over the years. Some have been significant, and others more subtle. Overall, most of these updates have been fairly obvious, so you're probably already using them — but there are more than a few interesting featur ...more
If you're still working your way through the hundreds of features and changes that iOS 13 brings to your iPhone, you might be a bit surprised to learn that your device is now out of date. While Apple only dropped the big update for iPhones on Thursday, Sept. 19, the company ha ...more
Android 10 goes all-in on gesture navigation. Unlike Android 9, all three buttons which made up the navigation bar are replaced with gestures, with the biggest change being the back button. The problem is this same gesture is already used within apps to access the side menu, s ...more
Random vibrations, ghost buzzing — whatever you call it, when your phone goes off for seemingly no reason, it's pretty frustrating. Finding the source of a phantom vibration can be almost impossible if there's no associated notification, especially given the myriad apps and sy ...more
Gestures are a big deal on an iPhone X, XS, XS Max, XR, 11, 11 Pro, and 11 Pro Max. Without a Home button on Apple's super-premium smartphones, several actions had to be mapped to gestures instead, which impacts other areas of the system such as the Control Center. One exampl ...more
As Android's de facto virtual assistant, Google Now lets us speak directly to our phones in plain English to answer our questions and perform many basic tasks. With the app open, just say "Okay Google," then wait for the beep, and ask almost any question. But several Google N ...more
Spotlight, Apple's system-wide search feature, lets you search for apps, contacts, messages, webpages, music, notes, and other content that's on and off your iPhone. On iOS, it's known as "Search," and you can access it by swiping your home screen down or swiping open the Toda ...more
Apple released iOS 13.0 on Sept. 19 and announced on the same day the release of iOS 13.1 on Sept. 30. But that deadline was pushed up to Sept. 24, and that's why we have 13.1 just five days after 13.0. But that's good news since we don't have to wait any longer for some of th ...more
Google updates the Play Store periodically, but the changes are usually subtle. A recent server-side update, however, is shaking things up quite a bit. In past versions, app installation pages have had images or videos at the top of the page to give app developers a chance to ...more