Ready

Though silica gel packets clearly instruct you to throw them away (and not eat them), you can actually keep them for a variety of unexpectedly practical uses around the home. Silica gel is a desiccant, a substance that absorbs moisture, which makes these packets perfect for ke ...more

Organizing contacts is a bitch, especially on the iPhone. Some contacts will have multiple entries, you can only delete contacts one by one, and certain types of contacts can't be deleted at all. If that isn't enough to make you pull your hair out, then I don't know what will. ...more

Private browsing is all the rage with browsers these days. Once you go into private browsing mode, you can traverse the internet without leaving a trail. Your history? Deleted. Your cookies? Destroyed. Your bookmarks and non-private history? Preserved for when you come back to ...more

Many Samsung Galaxy S4 users, specifically for Sprint, are reporting that the latest KitKat upgrade to Android 4.4.2 is causing some strange behavior. Aside from possible placebo effects such as decreased battery life or sluggish behavior, one very real problem is that S4 own ...more

Most of us lead busy, work-filled lives, often clocking in a 9-to-5 five days a week. And when that clock signifies the hour to leave, the last thing on anyone's mind is: "Time to go to the grocery store to pick up more fresh produce!" (Well, to be fair... maybe more people ar ...more

While still extremely awesome, the Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch is limited as to what you can download on to it, especially apps. It also doesn't have its own internet access (only Bluetooth), so apps like Instagram, Facebook, and Vine have yet to make their way to the Gear ...more

Apple's highly anticipated iOS 11 is ready for the public, and besides the obvious array of new features and improvements, the mobile OS also comes with stunning new wallpapers which would look amazing on any iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch — even on Android devices. You can get ...more

If you've ever tried to record a Snapchat video of a song playing in your car, you know that it's impossible to do if the song is playing on the same device that you're Snapchatting with. I connect my iPhone to my car stereo via Bluetooth to play music, but if I try to record ...more

There are a ton of great mods and tweaks available in Cydia, but occasionally there will be one you want to install that hasn't quite made it into one of the main repositories yet. If you're not patient, it can be still be installed by manually placing the .deb file directly o ...more

There was a huge ban wave recently on Xbox Live. In the unfortunate event that you decided to do something against Microsoft policy, and have consequently gotten yourself banned from Xbox Live, you may have come to the realization that doing whatever got you banned from Xbox L ...more

Even though I am not cool enough to use Instagram on a daily basis, I still try to stay in the loop. I did take photography in high school, so I know a thing or two about picture taking. I just can't seem to find the motivation to take a picture of random crap during my daily ...more

In an attempt to keep things simple, Snapchat has a limited amount of editing features, made up of "smart" photo filters, drawing pens, and special text captions. If you want more editing capabilities, you'll be pleased to know there's a way, no thanks to Snapchat, but you wil ...more

A powered-off Windows 10 laptop can be compromised in less than three minutes. With just a few keystrokes, it's possible for a hacker to remove all antivirus software, create a backdoor, and capture webcam images and passwords, among other highly sensitive personal data. The ...more

If you're using or need to use Zoom, the popular video teleconferencing service, you've almost certainly heard about "Zoombombing" by now. While Zoom has been adding security measures to address the problem, there are other things you can do to prevent or stop Zoombombers in t ...more

Using Siri to perform tasks on your Google Home device was never possible until Apple released Siri Shortcuts in iOS 12. Actually, it wasn't possible until Google added support for Siri Shortcuts for Google Assistant in Nov. 2018. No matter the timing, the important thing here ...more

Balloons are fun, but the helium ones are always more entertaining. So today, we're going to learn how to make hydrogen gas by combining toilet bowl cleaner with aluminum foil. With hydrogen, you get the same lighter-than-air properties of helium, plus it will explode! Histori ...more

When lending our iPhone to our kids, siblings or friends, it's not uncommon to have it returned with what seems like a million apps open in the background. What's worse is being too lazy to close all those open apps, in turn having our battery drain much faster than normal. Y ...more

Like its predecessor—and probably every device in the future—the Samsung Galaxy S6 comes with a fingerprint scanner that allows for a more secure lock screen, web sign-ins, and account verification. But unlike its brethren, the sensor on the S6 has been vastly improved. No lon ...more

A boring work meeting. A conversation with someone you don't like. A date that's going horribly. A run-in with an aggressive and intimidating stranger. These are all situations where you want to flee—and fast. The most common way to make your exit look more legit is with a ph ...more

Navigation app Waze occasionally gives you the option to have a celebrity voice provide directions for your trip, like this famous European with a funny voice, or this decidedly less-famous European with a funny voice. It'll be hard for Waze to top its latest addition to the ...more

While the Twitch app for iOS came out way back in 2011, livestreaming iPhone games was a rarity until Apple recently updated its ReplayKit in iOS 11. However, Twitch hasn't jumped on the bandwagon yet, but that doesn't mean you can't livestream your iPhone games to Twitch righ ...more

Arguably Chromecast's biggest feature since its launch, screen mirroring functionality started rolling out to select devices earlier this week, and in a word, it's awesome. With minimal latency (lag), screen mirroring expanded the functionality of our $35 dongles to a great e ...more

There is no such thing as a pulled pork slider. In fact, there is no such thing as a pork slider. Or a chicken slider. Or turkey or fish. The term "slider" actually means a lot more than just a hot miniature sandwich, and if it's not beef, it automatically missed the first cut ...more

Zooming in and out within Instagram Stories is a good way to take your videos to the next level. Whatever a next level is. Sometimes I just run out of words to describe how fun using Instagram is, so for today, I got "next level," which means whatever you want it to mean. But ...more

The default screen timeout on most Android devices is 30 seconds. This usually offers a good balance of usability and battery savings, but sometimes, you need the screen to stay on longer. For instance, practically every time I try to show something on my phone to someone else ...more

Amongst the many rumors emerging about the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S4, one that seems like a fairly sure bet is the inclusion of Google's Photo Sphere feature. Renamed to Samsung Orb, this amazing camera tool that first surfaced at the release of Android 4.2 will be integrate ...more

Two slices of whole-wheat toast with lots of butter. Two eggs, poached to a firm yet custardy texture. The yolks should absolutely not be hard-cooked and the whites should be tender, not rubbery. That's my idea of the perfect breakfast. A golden, runny-but-not-liquid yolk, cre ...more

Chromecast is so small and portable that it would seem to be a perfect device for making PowerPoint presentations. But even now that you can mirror your Android device's display, there are still a few issues. For instance, auto-rotation kicks in when you're not paying close e ...more

As the largest wireless service providers in the United States, AT&T and Verizon Wireless carry some serious clout. Sadly, they use some of this power to heavily modify the Android phones that they offer. While smaller carriers like Sprint or T-Mobile are happy to just have t ...more

Fresh loaves of bread from the bakery are both delicious and often free of the preservatives that come with buying sliced, bagged bread off the supermarket shelves. However, these same loaves of bread tend to become stale much more quickly when sliced. It's quite the dilemma, ...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

If you installed Android 9.0 Pie, you might have enjoyed trying out some of the new features in the latest version of Google's OS. However, change isn't always a good thing, so you might be wishing you could downgrade back to Oreo right about now. Good news — you can. Unfortu ...more

WhatsApp is a very popular messaging app on the Play Store, but unfortunately, tablet users have been left out of all the fun because WhatsApp only works on smartphones—until now. Tech wiz James Nakata wrote up a short guide over in our forum for porting WhatsApp onto a Nexus ...more

The Galaxy S8 and S8+ come with a set of AKG-tuned earbuds that would cost you $99 by themselves. Unfortunately, the earbuds alone don't automatically translate to superior sound, and they've been met with lukewarm reception. But as it turns out, there's a fairly hidden menu o ...more

Pants are here to stay. Women of all ages love wearing pants. Jeans, trousers, slacks, corduroys… whatever. Everyone wants them to look and fit great, while being comfortable. But when buying commercial patterns or ready-to-wear garnets, fitting problems arise. They will neve ...more

Have you ever felt like you wanted to totally annihilate someone in Minecraft with a machine gun? Yeah, me, too. Thankfully, you can! The redstone machine gun, which I'll demonstrate, is essentially just a rapid pulsar attached to a dispenser full of arrows. This design has b ...more

Normally, if you want to close all of the open apps on your Mac, you'd have to either quit them all one by one or restart, shut down, or log out while making sure to deselect “Reopen windows when logging back in." The latter option is great, but it doesn't always work in Mac O ...more

Much like the Pen Window feature in Air Command, Multi Window is extremely useful in its functionality, but bogged down by serious restrictions. While you can open and use two apps at the same time, you're limited to only a handful of apps that can utilize the feature, leaving ...more

I have had a lot of people ask me, "How does my neighbor keep getting into my wireless?!". Chances are, these people are all using WEP, a deprecated wireless encryption protocol. Either that, or you are using one weak WPA passphrase. If someone can access your wireless networ ...more

In my last hack blog on crashing your roommates Win7 system, we started looking at client- side attacks. As promised, we will be looking at some more client-side attacks. As web server and OS’s have become hardened and living behind significant perimeter defenses, hackers hav ...more

There are three tiers to Android customization: things you can do by default, things you can do with ADB, and things you can do with root. While root is still pretty tricky to get, ADB mods just got a lot easier. Back in Android 9, Google added a feature that allowed you to w ...more

When you think about it, YouTube may actually have one of the largest music collections on the planet. This is why, at $10 per month, Google's new YouTube Music Key subscription is a solid value for many users, especially with its inclusion of Google Play Music. But a new And ...more

If you have stuck volume buttons, it can be a real pain to adjust sound levels since your only other option is to use the volume menu in Settings. But even if your volume rocker is working fine, it's still a little weird to have to click a mechanical button to control one of t ...more

Guacamole is one of those things that tastes far better than it looks. To someone who isn't a huge fan of avocados, guacamole's texture can appear slimy, and on top of that, its chunky green appearance brings up visions of Nickelodeon-style slime. What's even worse is the brow ...more

Whether you are sending your phone in for repairs or finally selling it to upgrade to a new flagship, you are going to need to make sure all of your personal data is removed from your device. Deleting your messages and pictures manually is a good to protect yourself from aver ...more

There once was a time in the Android rooting scene where we couldn't rely on using a custom recovery for all of our modding needs. Manual file flashing was very popular in the early days of Android before custom recoveries started taking over. With the rise of TWRP, it seemed ...more

FV Extender for Chrome This is an extension you can download for your the Chrome browser. At this time the extension only accepts and sends back gifts but may do more in the future. See developer's site for more information, and a quick video showing this feature in action. ...more

YouTube won't let you play videos in the background on Android without paying for YouTube Red, so if it's your primary source for streaming music, and you don't want to shell out $9.99/month, you'll just have to take matters into your own hands. The simplest solution to this p ...more

It feels great to wrap up in a big, fluffy towel after a steamy shower, but it's frustrating when that towel isn't quite up to the job. Over time, towels lose their ability to hold water and dry as needed thanks to daily use and the biggest culprit—laundry detergent. Why Laun ...more

Welcome back, my newbie hackers! We've already saved the world from nuclear annihilation and covered our tracks afterwards, but the world is still threatened by a malicious, megalomaniacal dictator with missiles and nuclear weapons. We need to keep a close eye on him, so in ...more

Google's Pixel phones have a feature that lets you swipe down on the fingerprint scanner to open your notification shade and Quick Settings panel. It's one of those features that make you wonder why it wasn't there in the first place, since it gives you another way to interact ...more

In 2019, the Raspberry Pi 4 was released with specs including either 1 GB, 2 GB, or 4 GB of memory, a Broadcom BCM2711B0 quad-core A72 SoC, a USB Type-C power supply, and dual Micro-HDMI outputs. Performance and hardware changes aside, the Pi 4 Model B runs Kali Linux just as ...more

Aside from identifying songs with Shazam and using the "Hey Siri" feature while driving, Apple's personal assistant isn't something I regularly use on my iPhone. For general searches or queries, I just use a simple Google search. Granted, it isn't as seamless as holding down ...more

If you need to hack an Android device, try a remote administration tool. Known more familiarly as a RAT, there are open-source RATs that are barebones and exorbitantly priced RATs that are more polished. There are also low-cost and polished RATs that aren't intended to be RATs ...more