The Latest from Gadget Hacks: Page 215

Turn your youtube page to a game while you watch the videoand 3 other tricks about youtube you need to know

Watch out Samsung (and you too, Pebble, Sony and the still unrealized Apple), your hold on the smartwatch market is about to get a lot less firm. Announced today, Google has releasedAndroid Wear, their platform for developing smartwatches, along with a preview of the Moto 360 smartwatch from Motorola.

Update (March 18, 2014):

Well, that's one way to get a leg up on Samsung! Announced earlier today, Carphone Warehouse has stated that the new HTC One, dubbed the M8, will go on sale around 4pm on Tuesday, March 25th, "minutes" after the official announcement to unveil the product from HTC.

The lock screen music player in iOS 7 has all the controls you'd ever need from a lock screen, but it's not as visually appealing as I hoped it would be. Yes, it does show you the album cover art, but the way everything is presented makes it feel cluttered.

You've seen it a million times. You try to do something on your Android device and a box pops up asking you which app you'd like to use. You could try Photos, Gallery, Drive, Picasa Web Albums...the list is fairly extensive sometimes. And what's worse, after that you have to select "Always" or "Just once". Add it all up, and that's three taps to do something you thought would take just one!

Now that the Chromecast development kit has been out for over a month, more and more Android apps are being released or updated to work with the Chromecast.

You probably already know by now that a custom Android ROM can change your user experience and give you what feels like a new OS on your device, and there's no shortage of them out there to try out.

The Google Now Launcher that was introduced with the Nexus 5 seems to have a lot of folks torn. On the one hand, having a home screen page dedicated to Google Now, as well as the always-listening voice search, are killer features. On the other hand, its lack of customization options like home screen gestures and variable grid sizes has some people considering switching to third-party launchers.

When you're wearing EarPods or another set of headphones with built-in remote controls, pausing and playing music is as convenient as it gets. However, some of the better sounding headphones out there do not have remotes built in, so pausing a song when you need to is at least a few steps, which is a few steps more than I want.

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 accidentally opening a gallery or messaging app.

Muzei Live Wallpaper is a popular Android app that refreshes your home screen background at set intervals, turning it into blurred pieces of artwork or photography while keeping your icons and widgets in the spotlight.

Yesterday, the Free Software Foundation published an article written by Paul Kocialkowski. A software developer for the the Android fork system Replicant, Paul stated that his organization discovered, and later patched, a "backdoor" vulnerability that existed in older Samsung Galaxy devices, including our beloved Galaxy S3s. Only problem is, it's kind of bullshit—but we'll get to that later.

Imagine that Tinder fornicated with Facebook and had a baby. The product of that union would be the hideous, yet overwhelmingly interesting SocialRadar, an app dedicated to stalkers and stalkees.

If you've never played Cards Against Humanity, it's time to get initiated. Originally funded through Kickstarter, the free to download card game is basically an obscene version of Apples to Apples.

If you are using the the AT&T variant of the HTC One, you are well aware that the carrier opted not have the HTC Backup app pre-installed on the device.

Android is all about the fine details. You can make a little tweak here and a little tweak there and completely customize your experience to be exactly how you want it to be. Sure, you don't need to customize LED colors or screen record, but it's nice to know you can.

After many beta builds, Apple has finally released iOS 7.1 to the public. It includes bug fixes for the old iOS 7.0.6, along with UI enhancements and even some new features.

It was only a matter of time before the apps from the new Samsung Galaxy S5 leaked for everyone to download and install, and today we've got one that takes advantage of the IR blaster on your Galaxy Note 3.

Accessing notifications and quick settings from the lock screen just makes things move quicker and more efficiently, unless of course we're using a secure lock screen. It makes sense that if we have face, pattern, or pin security enabled, we may not want notifications accessible, but really, that should be something we decide for ourselves—and now we can.

Today, I'm going show you how to back up all of your apps and their data using Android Debug Bridge (ADB)—an essential function for all softModders. These commands will be especially useful when you are updating your version of Android, since they don't require a third-party program to run on your device.

After a lengthy video and a series of leaks got us a good look at what we can expect from the new HTC One, codenamed M8, the guys over at GSMArena have brought it full circle.

I hate typing in my password every time I want to install an application on my iPhone. My fat fingers make it so that I rarely get it correct the first time. If you're like my mom, you might not even remember it. Keyboard shortcuts are not a viable option either, since they are disabled for passwords.

Slide to left, slide to the right, one hop this time. Okay, so maybe those are some of the dance instructions for the "Cha Cha Slide", but sliding and swiping on your Samsung Galaxy S3 can become so much more than just a simple gesture.

On more than one occasion, I've wanted to check out the Google Play page for an app I was currently using, whether it was to get contact information or read recent reviews to see if others were experiencing issues that I was.

I don't mean to offend anyone, but some phone calls are just plain boring, and being put on hold is shittier than eating three-day old sushi.

Apple's just released a new beta of iOS 7.1 for developers, Beta 5, which fixes some small bugs and adds some minor feature enhancements. With previous reports stating that the final version of 7.1 was slated for a public release in March, these early leaks are indications that the final will be released in the following weeks, shortly after the Golden Master version hits developers.

Well, that was quick. A little over a week after releasing the third beta for iOS 7.1, Apple presented a fourth build to developers.

This last weekend, Apple released the second beta of iOS 7.1 for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, and I've got a firsthand look of what's to come in iOS 7.1—the first major update since iOS 7 was released.

The newest update for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch is near, and I've got a firsthand look of what's to come in the new iOS 7.1, the first major update since iOS 7 was released.

As obtrusive as they come, the translucent volume control window that appears in iOS 7 takes up a lot of screen real estate. It's extremely annoying when watching videos, appearing directly in the middle of the movie you're viewing for several seconds any time you adjust the audio levels with the volume rockers.

Apple baked multitasking and quick app switching into iOS back in 2010 with the launch of iOS 4, but the multitasking view changed in iOS 7 to show previews of the apps you have open. Unfortunately, this made swiping through open apps slower than before.

Starting today, T-Mobile has begun rolling out the Android 4.4.2 KitKat update to their Galaxy S4s.

With the introduction of the Control Center in iOS 7, we finally had a way to access common system toggles like Wi-Fi, Airplane Mode, and best of all, Flashlight. Of course, there were plenty of adequate flashlight apps in the iOS App Store, but none that made it available straight from the lock screen.

In direct competition with Pandora, iTunes Radio, and Spotify, Samsung has just launched Milk Music—a strangely named, yet completely free music streaming service for Android.

You can read at 500 words per minutes. Don't believe me? Here, see for yourself. This amazing technology comes from the startup Spritz, and they're ready to unleash it onto the smart device world, starting with the Samsung Galaxy S5 and the Galaxy Gear line of smartwatches.

Notifications, while certainly helpful, can at times be overbearing. There are banners plastered every which way on your smartphone for almost every application. While many of the notifications can simply be swept away or turned off, the same can't be said of persistent notifications.

Recently, I offered a guide detailing how to run two separate windows on a Nexus 7 tablets for better multitasking. While extremely useful, that mod was limited to only two windows, and you also needed root access to use it.

Mobile scanning applications are nothing new in the world of Apple, except that the majority of them usually come with pesky in-app purchases that stifle the entire experience and render some features useless until you pay for them.

If you have a limited or restricted data plan, monitoring your usage can be the difference between escaping the month without overage fees or emptying out your wallet.