Pick Lock Box

With all of the personal data that's stored on our smartphones, it's of vital importance that we have some sort of lock screen security enabled. One of the Galaxy S5's killer features is obviously the fingerprint scanner. It makes the process of dealing with a secure lock scre ...more

Mac OS X has finally added a way to use two apps side by side in full screen mode, à la Microsoft's Windows Snap. But since it's only available in 10.11 El Capitan right now, those of us with older systems will have to wait until the El Capitan Public Preview or final build is ...more

Android 5.0 has a killer new feature that should make securing your device easier than ever. It's called Smart Lock, and it essentially lets you bypass your secure lock screen when you're in a "trusted environment." This means that if you're connected to a known Bluetooth devi ...more

Widgets can display essential information from an app right on your iPhone's Lock Screen, but there's an even bigger reason you should be using them: fast access to your most-used apps. Thanks to iOS 16, you can add one widget above the time on the Lock Screen and up to four ...more

One of Android 8.0's best features is also one of its most subtle — customizable lock screen shortcuts give you more control over the two functions you care about most. Your Galaxy S9 has the Phone and Camera apps in those spots by default, but you can quickly and easily chang ...more

If there's one gripe I have with Android Lollipop, it's the new volume menu. When Priority mode was introduced, the stock volume panel was revamped to accommodate it, and somewhere along the way a bit of functionality was lost. The way things are now, there are only two metho ...more

I always keep my iPhone's Portrait Orientation Lock on so that my screen doesn't randomly rotate while I'm lying down. However, there are certain apps that I do turn it off for. It's kind of a pain since you have to swipe down the Control Center and toggle the orientation lock ...more

The transition from Android KitKat to Lollipop was pretty drastic in the looks department. Google's new Material Design guidelines changed the way many parts of the UI function, like the notification drawer, status bar, and most notably, the lock screen. Don't Miss: How to Pr ...more

It happens to everyone: you set a lock screen password in a hurry and cannot remember it the next day. To unlock your device again, you need to reset the password (or PIN, pattern, etc). There are two official methods of doing this. #1. Reset Your Lock Screen (Patterns Only) ...more

It seems like whenever someone sees my phone, they ask me two questions right off the bat; "What phone is that?" and "How did you get your Android to look like that?" The first one is pretty straight-forward, but the second one not-so-much. I've spent countless hours searchin ...more

While there are at least five cool things coming in iOS 11.4, they may not be enough to get you to install the iOS 11.4 beta on your iPhone. Since its initial beta release at the start of April, there have been plenty of known issues and user-reported bugs to deal with. While ...more

Aside from being able to change the wallpaper and add shortcuts, the Galaxy S4's lock screen doesn't offer much in the department of personalization. The lock screen is efficient and practical, but it's also a little bland. To add some functionality and visual effects to the ...more

With certain apps and games, it's all about the settings. In order to get your money's worth with one of these, you simply have to take the time to tweak and adjust various options, which is something a lot of users don't necessarily want to do. Take GravityBox for example—th ...more

If you have a specific app you want to lock so that others can't access it, the most secure way of doing so is with biometrics. While there are options to lock apps with either a PIN or pattern, these can easily be figured out with a simple glance over your shoulder. It's much ...more

Keyboard shortcuts can make using your Mac faster and easier, and leave your mouse feeling archaic. With just a few taps, you can save files, open new tabs, or play a movie—all without using your mouse even once. Don't Miss: 30+ Keyboard Shortcuts You Should Be Using on YouTu ...more

Not all 5G is equal. Even if you dropped the cash on a true 5G phone and you see it's connected to 5G in the status bar, that doesn't mean you're surfing the web, streaming Spotify, and binging Netflix faster than your friends with LTE phones. The first thing you have to unde ...more

Recently, iPhone users have been bragging that they can set Live Photos as their lock screen wallpaper. While this is a great way to spice up a boring lock screen, Android users shouldn't feel left out in the cold. The highly customizable and feature-rich OS has a few tricks u ...more

While Google's generative AI wallpapers for Android won't be out until the fall, you can take advantage of emoji backgrounds and cinematic wallpapers on your Pixel smartphone right now. Throughout its history, Android has earned a reputation for giving its users the freedom t ...more

Say what you want about Samsung's TouchWiz UI being cluttered or overbearing, but one thing you can never complain about is a lack of features. In fact, it's been almost 8 months since I first took my Galaxy S6 Edge out of its box, but I'm still discovering features to this da ...more

Replacing your wallpaper is one of the easiest and quickest things you can do to keep your device from going stale, but it goes way beyond just picking an image from your gallery. If you use the Google Camera, you can create some really awesome 3D lens blur backgrounds, but wh ...more

The Google Feed is a great source for relevant news articles from your search history, package delivery updates, and much more. Now known as the "Discover" page, many Android users turn to this useful menu on a daily basis. However, as Google recently pointed out, the all-whit ...more

Apple is putting their Workflow acquisition to use with the new Shortcuts feature, integrated right into Siri. It allows you to connect commonly-used actions to a phrase that you activate with Siri. In addition to some of the other speed improvements in iOS 12, Shortcuts helps ...more

There's a powerful tool on your iPhone that can fine-tune your iOS experience based on what you're doing and when, and it's completely customizable. With it, you can control what notifications appear or are silenced, who can call you, which Home Screen pages you want to view, ...more

This "How-to" is how to survive your first night on Minecraft. This is for new Minecraftians to Minecraft. The first thing you want to do is find wood. This is very essential to survive your first night. Then, you want to make wooden planks. To craft anything, press E or I. Af ...more

When the Nexus 5 debuted, one of its coolest features was the fact that you could say "OK Google" any time you were on the home screen to launch a Google Voice Search. This feature was ultimately made available for other devices by way of the Google Now Launcher. Recently, Go ...more

When it comes to customization, you just can't beat Android. Not only can you replace your home screen, switch your default apps, and apply icon packs, but you can even replace your entire lock screen by installing a simple app. Considering that the lock screen is the first in ...more

Currently, all Nexus tablets running Jelly Bean or higher can enjoy multiple user accounts. With tablets often migrating between various people in the same household, there’s no reason for Dad’s finances to mingle with little Tammy’s candy crushing. Multiple users, each with s ...more

Samsung has a long-standing reputation for packing their devices with lots of added functionality, and the Galaxy S6 Edge is no exception. It comes with a nifty feature called "Information stream," which allows you to get quick, at-a-glance information by swiping the edge of y ...more

Nine times out of ten, when you pick up your Samsung Galaxy Note 2, you already know what app you're going to be using. If you only have Swipe to unlock enabled, finding that app is as easy as swiping and locating the app on your Home screen or in the app drawer. You can also ...more

It's often the smallest details that determine your overall experience with a smartphone. Unlocking your device with a PIN is an example — and iPhones have had a leg up over Android thanks to their automatic unlocking. Thankfully, this era has finally come to an end with the a ...more

Thanks to Samsung Experience 9.0 on the Galaxy S8 (AKA TouchWiz Oreo), we know the upcoming Galaxy S9 is going to enjoy some of the new keyboard changes coming to Samsung's iteration of Android 8.0. Those who preorder the device on March 2 or pick it up on March 16 can expect ...more

Sometimes it's the little things that make our days better, like finding a dollar in our recently washed jeans or a box of donuts in the lunch room. But your Nexus 7 tablet's lock screen isn't typically one of those things—it's just a lock screen after all. Unless you add cus ...more

Every Galaxy S20 sold in the US — even the S20+ and S20 Ultra — simply can't be rooted. With the bootloader permanently locked, you miss out on the world of rooting and the customization it opens up, but modifications are still possible. Thanks to some Samsung-developed apps ...more

The dispensers for aluminum foil and plastic wrap are among the most annoying-to-use kitchen items, but that's because the majority of people apparently don't know how to use them. On the ends of the boxes are two little tabs that make them so much easier to use, and believe i ...more

Some iOS and iPadOS apps give you an option to lock them behind Face ID, Touch ID, or a passcode, but there aren't many. While there's no setting on iOS and iPadOS to lock any app behind Face ID, Touch ID, or a passcode, some third-party developers incorporate the feature the ...more

As I've explained before, black app backgrounds save you a bit of battery life on your Samsung Galaxy S5. This is because the AMOLED display on your S5 does not have to power pixels or a backlight for portions of the screen that are black. Developer Kdio knows this, and that' ...more

Whenever I hand my tablet over to someone, my heart always races for a second at the thought that they may stumble across my private pictures, texts, and videos. I trust them, and they may not be the snooping type, but it can be easy enough to come across private stuff by acci ...more

Android is all about customization: "Be together. Not the same," as Google's latest ads for the platform put it. Changing your device's boot animation, for instance, is one of the many great ways you can add a touch of personal flair. Up until now, though, boot animation mods ...more

The build.prop file in an Android device is home to many system-level values and settings. Everything from screen density to video recording quality is covered in this file, and people have been editing these entries to get new functionality and better performance since Androi ...more

I'll give Samsung credit where it's due—the stock keyboard on the Galaxy S5 is actually pretty nice. There's a dedicated number row that resides at the top (something that the Google Keyboard needs a hack to achieve), and various settings exist to make switching between langua ...more

Over the years, mobile gaming has become a phenomenon, rivaling in magnitude with its console and PC-based counterparts. We even have mobile versions of Fortnite and PUBG now, games that require lots of processing power to run. But when you just want a quick game to play in th ...more

Apple just released iOS 14.1 for iPhone today, Tuesday, Oct. 20. This update first hit iPhones one week ago, but not for long — Apple pulled the release almost immediately, later seeding it to iOS developers only as a GM (golden master) release. Why Apple went about iOS 14.1 ...more

Your iPhone has plenty of already-created Apple wallpapers just waiting for you to set as your Lock Screen and Home Screen backgrounds. But using a photo from your own library can provide a more emotional connection, help you express yourself better, and give your phone a more ...more

With all of the top-notch specs that the Galaxy S5 sports, the only minor quibble users have had with its hardware is the speaker situation. A front-facing earpiece is used for phone calls, but all other media is restricted to a single rear-firing speaker. Developer langeveld ...more

Privacy features have become quite the hot commodity, emerging from the aftermath of the NSA scandals that rocked the United States this past year. While the NSA has the means to gather information on all of us (regardless of any security software we implement), it doesn't mea ...more

Accessing your favorite and most recent contacts on your iPhone is now faster than ever before, thanks to the iOS 8 update. Just double-click your Home button, select your contact above the app switcher menu, then choose how you want to contact them. However, for some iOS use ...more

The Android lock screen interface is an integral part of our everyday use. For those of us who use lock screen security, it functions as a barrier between the sensitive data contained within our smartphones and potential outside access. Even if you don't use a pattern or PIN t ...more

There's a lot of great things to be excited about with iOS 10 on your device. You can remove annoying stock apps, search emails better, remember where you parked, and much, much more. Seriously, there's actually more outstanding features in iOS 10 than in Apple's latest iPhone ...more

Our smartphones are full of personally-identifiable information. So much of what we do with these devices is tracked and recorded to make our experience more streamlined and personalized. For many users, that's a fair trade — but for privacy-minded folks, it's a raw deal. And ...more

For its latest take on augmented reality-infused playsets, Lego is giving the young, and the simply young at heart, its twist on the viral lipsync format made popular by TikTok with Lego Vidiyo. The game remixes TikTok's video creation and curation features with a music busin ...more

Sometimes... no, most of the time, I don't want to do anything, so I was excited to find a developer teaming up with Sir Isaac Newton to create an application that encouraged my slothfulness. Previously, we showed you a way to turn off the Nexus 7 tablet easier, by using an i ...more

Apple's bringing big changes to your iPhone's lock screen in iOS 16, and one of those changes lets you pick an always-updating wallpaper for your local weather conditions. If you don't want to wait until the fall for the stable iOS 16 version and don't want to install any iOS ...more

For minor adjustments and color-correction, the Photos app is extremely useful, but its capabilities are limited to just the basics. Now, with Mac OS X El Capitan, Apple is opening the door for third-party extensions, meaning we can utilize additional, unique tools when editin ...more

One of Android's biggest strengths relative to iOS is how simple it is to sideload apps that aren't on the official app store. Rather than having to sign IPA files or tell your phone you trust a developer every two weeks, you can just enable a setting and be done with it. Jum ...more

The Nexus 5 and Nexus 7 (2013 edition) boast beautiful 1080p screens that are capable of displaying images and videos in ultra-sharp high definition. But for some strange reason, the YouTube app only allows for streaming of 720p content on these devices. It's not a limitation ...more

Android's permissions system is simple, transparent, and straightforward. When installing an app, you get a chance to review all of the permissions that the app has requested. These can range from accessing your location data to holding a "wakelock" in order to prevent your ph ...more

Starting with iOS 7, the iPhone has had a cool feature that lets you see upcoming calendar events right on your lock screen, and it only got better with iOS 10. Android used to have this feature with its lock screen widget system, but that was removed back in the Lollipop days ...more

Starting with version 6.0 Marshmallow, Android now supports fingerprint scanners natively. This change has effectively opened the floodgates, and now almost every flagship Android device includes a fingerprint scanner out of the box. But if you passed up on the opportunity to ...more

Android has a brand new mobile payments system, and it's rolling out to most devices as we speak. Android Pay, as it's called, will replace the existing Google Wallet app as an update, and it brings some awesome new functionality such as tokenization and the ability to tap-and ...more

There's nothing better than gathering up all the cushions, pillows, and blankets in your home and having a good ol' fashion movie night. But if you're still rocking the old 19-inch TV your parents gave you in college, you may want to upgrade to something bigger. If you've got ...more