One thing that makes Signal Private Messenger better on Android over iOS is that you can better secure the app with a password or passphrase. Best of all, you don't need to install an app locker to get this working — you can do it right from inside Signal. Your messages alway ...more
Sometimes it's impossible to concentrate — let alone direct your personal assistant Siri — when someone is blasting music on their phone or talking to thin air. I mean I'm loud, but not that loud. So, it's a relief to hear that this could be changing for the better. According ...more
Verizon launched the $80 unlimited prepaid plan this week and we've found that it actually isn't as limitless as they would have you believe. The gist of the deal is basically that customers get unlimited talk, text, and data for $80 per month, and no contract or credit check ...more
It's official — the newest version of Google's mobile operating system is called Android 8.0 Oreo, and it's in the process of rolling out to many different devices. Oreo has plenty of changes in store, ranging from revamped looks to under-the-hood improvements, so there's tons ...more
The native dictionaries in iOS, which have been around since 2011, let you define words on your iPhone on the fly in Safari, News, Notes, and other apps. But if you read or write in more than just English, you won't be able to see accurate definitions unless you add those othe ...more
If you have a ton of photos and videos on your iPhone, backing up to iCloud is probably a no-go since it only provides 5 GB of free storage. Yes, you can buy more storage, but who wants to do that? And what happens if you run out of storage, stop backing up, and your phone get ...more
If your iPhone is rebooting or your Messages app is constantly crashing, you might be the victim of an iOS exploit or just a buggy software update. While one problem sounds worse than the other, they both can get annoying real quick when you can't send any messages or even rea ...more
The Galaxy S6 might just be the best Android phone on the market right now. From a hardware standpoint, Samsung truly knocked this one out of the park with its finely-crafted build quality and amazing screen. But the lone drawback here is that TouchWiz is still as intrusive a ...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
Your computer has a lot of physical keys. Your iPhone has, at most, four hardware buttons, none of which are used for typing. That means the software has to power the same typing tools you'd find on your Mac or PC, only on a touchscreen. As such, some features, such as the ind ...more
As the premiere app for chatting and video calls, it only makes sense for Skype to provide a dark theme to help prevent eye strain and minimize battery drain. Not only that, it has to also keep pace with popular messaging apps like Facebook Messenger that also have the feature ...more
You're in constant communication with your friends and family. The only issue? Nobody uses the same app. Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp — you have contacts spanning all three, and the resulting balancing-act to keep in touch can be overwhelming. That's why Facebook — who owns ...more
Smartphones are now indispensable when traveling. Domestic and overseas travel alike require food, navigation, translation, and so much more to make work or vacation successful. Gone are the days of lugging multiple tourist books around with you everywhere you go — you need to ...more
Your S10's notification panel can quickly fill up with alerts about incoming messages, emails, weather reports ... the list goes on and on. If that weren't enough, those notifications are accompanied by badges that pop up as tiny numbered circles overlaid on icons within your ...more
Expressing yourself during chats is much easier these days thanks to the steady rise of emoji. Now, products like emoji Minis for Gboard are taking the craft to an interesting yet familiar new level. With emoji Minis, you can automatically create stickers based off your own fa ...more
A powered-off MacBook can be compromised in less than three minutes. With just a few commands, it's possible for a hacker to extract a target's password hash and crack it without their knowledge. The goal in this article is to acquire a target's .plist file which contains the ...more
One of the biggest advancements in the new iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR is the dual SIM functionality that will let you use two cellular networks at once. Like Sinatra, however, Apple is known to do things its own way, so their dual SIM setup is a bit different than you might thi ...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
Sharing Stories via WhatsApp Status grants your friends access to your daily adventures in the form of GIFs, photos, videos, or simple texts. Like Snapchat, stories you share with your contacts disappear after 24 hours, giving you an extra layer of privacy since anything you p ...more
As smartphone users, we live in dangerous times. The value of phones continues to rise, making them prime targets for thieves. In 2015, the FCC estimated that one million phones are stolen each year, and with several devices starting to hit the $1,000 mark now, these numbers a ...more
Some iPhone users who updated to iOS 11 can no longer see the "Message" icon in the share sheet when in apps such as Photos, which means they can only text or iMessage an image from within the Messages app itself now. This is a bug with remote management software which will ho ...more
Apple announced today at WWDC that Apple Maps is about to get a lot more detailed with its inclusion of floor plans of shopping malls and airports. This will be a welcomed feature to Maps as users will be able to quickly see which stores the malls have and how to get to them e ...more
Verizon has long been king in the wireless provider market, but recently it has had to step up its game in the data department. A limited data plan — with supposedly superior service — was no longer cutting it for customers. Many of whom left to take up the sweet, sweet offers ...more
With some of the groundwork out of the way in getting a Mac set up for hacking, it's time to start looking at toolboxes. Our first toolbox is Git, which will be used throughout future tutorials. Git is currently the most widely used version control system (VCS) in the world, ...more
If you have an iPhone with 3D Touch or Haptic Touch, some lock screen notifications will let you respond to a message without even unlocking the screen. This is definitely a handy feature, and it should save a lot of time in some cases, but there are some obvious security conc ...more
Siri will soon be more helpful than ever before. Apple showed off the latest features that its computerized personal assistant will have in iOS 10 at WWDC '16, including context-based predictive suggestions that help to speed up the user experience. Siri will now work with the ...more
A lot more people are about to be able to use Android Auto. Google announced at I/O 2016 that you'll soon be able to use the app with only your phone, so you won't need a compatible car or third-party display unit. And if (or more likely, when) Google brings the app to iOS, Ap ...more
Facebook Messenger is getting ready to roll out a Snapchat-esque feature that will let users send messages that self-destruct after a certain amount of time, so you'll have an extra level of security when you need to send sensitive financial information or, more likely, risqué ...more
I've been an Android user almost as long as the operating system has existed, so when I received my first iPhone in April, I felt like I was in a foreign land. Sure, it runs most of the apps I'm used to, and the phone itself feels about the same in my hand as any similarly-siz ...more
Considering that nearly half a million brand new apps were published to the Google Play Store in 2015, you can definitely call it a banner year for Android development. In fact, it's getting to the point where we're a bit spoiled as end users, since we've grown to expect somet ...more
I have a personal rule when it comes to an app's interface: If it doesn't follow Android's design guidelines, it was probably written with Apple's iOS in mind first and foremost. And if that truly is the case, I almost take this as a personal insult. I'm not a second-class ci ...more
Group chats can get annoying real quick if the people in them are sending rapid-fire texts without hesitation, especially if none of them are any interest to you specifically. Luckily, it's easy to mute notifications for specific message threads. You can even leave a group cha ...more
We all have those moments where we're bored or lonely, and in those times, just having anyone to talk to would be awesome. But maybe your friends are all busy, or everyone you know is at work and nobody's responding to your text messages. That's the perfect situation to chat ...more
Although the new HTC One M8 was only released about two weeks ago, owners of the Sprint variant are receiving their first software update this morning. Rolling out is software version 1.54.651.8, which officially brings "general stability" and "call performance" improvements. ...more
While Siri's integration with the iPhone is becoming increasingly substantial, restrictions with the intelligent personal assistant are apparent when it comes to third-party apps like Google Maps, Netflix, and Spotify (unless your iPhone is jailbroken, of course). As an avid S ...more
The cell phone has come a long way. The very first "mobile devices" were made and used by the military in the late 1930s, with the first commercial mobile telephone service introduced by Bell in 1946. These devices were hardly what we'd call mobile today—some took up the whole ...more
Some of us use our smartphones for almost everything. Manufacturers know this, so they try to make their devices as convenient as possible to use, but sometimes that convenience comes with a cost to security. The very same technology that allows you to easily share music with ...more
When words aren't enough, emojis are there to help. Your iPhone has almost two thousand of them for you to communicate in a more lively manner or to express indifference, excitement, joy, and other emotional states. However, the more emojis that come out, the more difficult it ...more
Your phone's keyboard is one of the most commonly used apps. Whether you're typing out status updates, sending private messages, or just bombarding everyone in sight with as many emoji as you possibly can, you probably couldn't get by without a good keyboard app. Since Androi ...more
The first developer beta for iOS 13 is available to install on iPhone models, but the process for doing so may be a bumpy ride. Apple has not included configuration profiles for the developer beta yet, and many developers are having issues installing iOS 13 even with macOS 10. ...more
It's easier than you might think to hack into Wi-Fi routers using just one unrooted Android phone. This method doesn't require brute-forcing the password, a Windows OS for converting PowerShell scripts into EXE format, a reliable VPS for intercepting hacked Wi-Fi passwords, or ...more
While many of Facebook's tools are well received as they enhance the experience, one which is often complained about is the Marketplace. The Craigslist-like feature which offers a way to facilitate transactions between users can be a little overbearing with its alerts. However ...more
Apple's macOS operating system is just as vulnerable to attacks as any Windows 10 computer or Android smartphone. Hacker's can embed backdoors, evade antivirus with simple commands, and utilize USB flash drives to completely compromise a MacBook. In this always-updated guide, ...more
While certainly faster than writing by hand, manually typing passages from a book or document can be slow and frustrating. But thanks to Google Assistant, this is no longer the case. Whether you need to quote text for an essay or need to win an online argument, all you need to ...more
Samsung's 2016 flagship devices are some of the most beautiful, powerful smartphones ever made. And amazingly enough, thanks to legendary root developer Chainfire, the Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge are about to get even more powerful. Don't Miss: Android Root Explaine ...more
Some third-party keyboards, like SwiftKey for example, include a convenient feature that suggests emojis as your type based on the content of what you're saying. Unfortunately, many keyboards, including most stock ones, don't include this function. It's often not a convincing ...more
With Safestrap bringing custom recovery functionality to the AT&T and Verizon Wireless variants of the Samsung Galaxy S5, it's high time we covered this process for all other versions of the GS5. If you're not familiar with the term "custom recovery", it's a piece of software ...more
Apple has packed a lot of new features into the iOS 13 update, and practically no core app has gone untouched. The Messages app, in particular, got plenty of love, including new ways to dress and use your Memojis. Beyond the improvements and additions made to Memojis, Message ...more
Apple's latest mobile operating system for iPhones, iOS 12, was released to everyone Monday, Sept. 17, and it's the same exact build that developers and public beta testers received as the "golden master" on Sept. 12, the day of Apple's 2018 special event. Install it to start ...more
In a surprise twist, Apple released iOS 12 public beta 8 to software testers on Thursday, Aug. 23, right alongside iOS 12 dev beta 10. The release comes as a bit of a shock, as the company released iOS 12 public beta 7 just three days earlier. The official build of iOS 12 now ...more
Back in July, Google rolled out a new design for the web version of Gmail. The rollout included new features alongside the visual changes, one of which being Confidential Mode. This new privacy-centric feature has now finally arrived on the mobile app version of the service, a ...more
It always helps to be prepared for the worst. This applies to our phones now more than ever, as we depend on them to be our record keepers for text messages from friends, family, and coworkers. If you ever lose or severely damage your phone, having a backup of your precious te ...more
There are currently 27 available Animoji to choose from in iOS 13, but you're not limited to Apple's animated emoji characters — you can make your own. They're called Memoji, an available feature since iOS 12, and they're highly customizable. Think of Memoji avatars as person ...more
FaceTime has been around since iOS 4, and year after year, things stayed pretty much the same aside from a few small changes. In iOS 6, calls over cellular networks were finally possible, and audio-only calls were officially supported starting in iOS 7. But the one feature mos ...more
Apple's next big developer event happened on June 4, and it was the first glimpse of iOS 12 that anyone's seen. While there were lots of rumored features to be unveiled at WWDC 2018, Apple concentrated mostly on squashing bugs and making iOS work as seamless as it did years ag ...more
Earlier this year, we got our first taste of Android Pie in the form of Developer Preview 1. As with all past Android previews, DP1 was limited to Google devices — but at Google I/O 2018, Google announced that Developer Preview 2 would be accessible to other devices, including ...more
With Gboard, Google created a keyboard with more functionality than just inputting words. The app includes features such as GIF search and live text translation, but it gets even better when you let it learn more about you. With this data, Gboard grows from a good keyboard to ...more
After setting up your phone, there are a number of things you should do immediately before download your favorite apps. Specifically, now that your data is on the device, you need to take steps now to ensure it's both protected and retained. Fortunately, most of these steps ar ...more
Identifying vulnerable devices and services on a target router can be difficult without leaving logs and other traces of an active attacker on the network. However, there is a way to covertly decrypt and view Wi-Fi activity without ever connecting to the wireless network. Whe ...more
No matter your reasons, you might need a second phone number that's a little more disposable than your primary number — a "burner" number, so to speak. If you create this burner number using Google Voice, you'll get new functionality like call forwarding and voicemail transcri ...more