The Latest from Gadget Hacks: Page 30

Everything you post on social media lives there forever — even if you delete it. Just ask anyone that's ever posted something stupid. Instagram does not provide built-in tools to save or download images and videos from other users, but there are workarounds. Third-party tools make saving other people's photos and videos easy, and there are always screenshots.

In the US, law enforcement officials can make you unlock your smartphone with a fingerprint, but they can't force you to input a password or PIN, which would violate your Fifth Amendment rights. To help you from ever being in a scenario where you're forced to put your finger on the Touch ID sensor, Apple has a built-in way for you to disable biometrics on your locked or unlocked iPhone in mere seconds.

We are now in the age of 5G. Carriers worldwide are upgrading their networks to the newest standard for mobile, which will dramatically improve your phone experience. How? By giving it download speeds and latency that surpass Wi-Fi. But before you upgrade, there are few things you should know first.

The term "hacker" often has negative associations attached to it, yet the world is in dire need of professionals with hacking skills. White hat hackers are ethical computer hackers that use their hacking skills to pinpoint network vulnerabilities and patch them up before they can be exploited by the bad guys.

With protests springing up across America, there's a chance you may have your first interaction with law enforcement. Many demonstrators will have their phones in-hand to film the action, which, sadly, could prompt an officer to demand the device and any self-incriminating data it may contain. Before this happens, you should know there are tools at your disposal to protect your data in such situations.

Apple just released iOS 13.5.1, the latest update for iPhone, on Monday, June 1. The update comes 12 days after iOS 13.5, which introduced COVID-19 exposure notifications, a Group FaceTime update, and Face ID improvements when wearing a mask.

If you're ever faced with a situation of handing over your iPhone to law enforcement (or getting it taken forcibly), whether by the police, feds, or court system, there are things you can do to prevent them from getting access to all that potentially self-incriminating data. And it takes less than a second.

Apple just released iOS 13.5 for iPhone developers today, Monday, May 18. This GM (golden master) update comes 12 days after the release of iOS 13.5 dev beta 4, which introduced updated COVID-19 exposure notification logging settings and the ability to share your Medical ID with first responders when placing an emergency call.

Mac users know why they love Apple. Of course, there are limitations. An entire universe of shortcuts is unavailable to the average user.

HBO Max's watchlist, dubbed "My List," is a great tool that lets you collect and sort the video content you're interested in. That way, you don't need to sift through HBO Max's enormous catalog every time you open the app — just open your personal list of saved titles and start binging.

Many streaming services offer user profiles for different people in your household, some of which also include profile images. In most cases, you can set a custom profile image to better differentiate and personalize your account from the others, and HBO Max lets you do the same, albeit, with limited options.

Apple makes it simple to share your location with your family and friends using tools built into the "info" page for each conversation thread in Messages. With those tools, you can send your current location or share trackable real-time coordinates. But iOS always has a few hidden tricks to make things easier than they seem, and that's precisely the case if all you need to do is share your current location.

If you were upset about "Friends" leaving Netflix, fret no more. The entire series, all eight Harry Potter movies, as well as HBO's massive catalog, are now available as part of HBO Max. If you're already an HBO Now subscriber, however, it can be a bit confusing to know how to switch over to this brand new service. Here's how.

As of May 27, HBO Max is taking over your HBO Now or HBO Go account. If you have your devices set up to auto-install new app updates, you should pause it right now if your HBO app hasn't been updated yet. There's one thing you'll want to do before you make the leap. However, you're not out of luck if you already upgraded.

Update: HBO discontinued this service. Your best bet for transferring your data from one account to another is to save a record of your watch list. That way, you can add your titles back manually with your new account.

Creativity is one of our most unique features. We can dream up gods and demons and give them form through drawing. We can even take a two-dimensional surface and bring our ideas to life in three dimensions. It only takes a little training for our giant imaginations to blossom on the page.

While Snapchat had a head start in making augmented camera effects popular on smartphones, Facebook has spent the past few years in hot pursuit, with no less than three apps offering mobile AR experiences, plus its Portal hardware lineup of smart home devices.

HBO Max is finally here, all while unlimited cellular data plans have never been more available. The two seem like a perfect pair, but you might find that you can't binge "Friends" or "Westworld" on the go. At least, not without downloading episodes beforehand. Fortunately, there's an easy way to fix that.

There's a lot of talk about 5G these days. You might even think your iPhone is 5G-ready, since, well, it says so right in the status bar. 5G E, right? Sorry to burst your bubble, but no iPhone is capable of connecting to 5G networks yet, no matter how much you pay for that 11 Pro.

5G is undoubtedly the future of mobile networks, and there's a good chance your next phone will have it. But just like with 4G, as carriers race to get the best 5G coverage, the ones running behind are abusing marketing terms to make themselves seem further ahead than they actually are.

Since its introduction in iOS 11, the Screen Recording tool has been a great way to show less tech-savvy users how to use their iPhones better. It's never been easier to show your grandmother how to disable Live Photos or lower screen brightness. However, banner notifications can appear during a recording, forcing you to start over. They can even interrupt a screen share during a Zoom or Skype meeting.

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 is to find the one you want — unless you know your way around your keyboard.

Apple unveiled huge improvements for Messages in iOS 10 at WWDC '16, and my favorite new feature is that searching for emojis will be much, much easier. But there's a lot more to this update besides emojis.

In 2018, Niantic unveiled its in-development augmented reality cloud platform for smartphones, the Niantic Real World Platform. A demo showed Pikachu and Eevee cavorting in a courtyard, darting in front of and behind potted plants and people's legs as they walked through the scene. This would be the future of Pokémon GO.

Buying an unlocked phone is usually the correct move. By doing so, you bypass a lot of bloat that carriers put on your phone, and you can also use that phone with another carrier should you decide to switch to a new one. However, a lot of carriers won't give unlocked devices access to their visual voicemail apps. For that, there's Google Voice.

Apple released the third public beta for iOS 13.5 today, Wednesday, May 6. This latest public beta update comes exactly one week after Apple released iOS 13.5 public beta 2, which, among other things, introduced Apple and Google's joint COVID-19 exposure notification API. Public beta 3 updates that settings page to show a more detailed "Exposure Logging" option instead.

Apple released iOS 13.5 for iPhone on Wednesday, May 20. The update came just two days after the company seeded beta testers iOS 13.5's GM (golden master), the build everyone would get if all went well. While only available to beta testers, the GM is the same software as iOS 13.5's stable release.

So far, iOS 13's major point updates have all been pretty exciting for iPhone. We've seen iOS 13.1, 13.2, and 13.3 come and go, offering more than 60 new features and changes combined to that very first version of iOS 13. While iOS 13.3.1 was a minor update, its successor, iOS 13.4, is a return to form.

Apple released the fifth public beta for iOS 13.4 on March 10. The update comes three hours after the release of developer beta 5, and exactly one week after iOS 13.4 public beta 4.

Apple released iOS 13.4 to registered developers on March 18. The update comes just hours after news broke that iOS 13.4 would hit all compatible devices on March 24. The update is the GM (golden master), which makes it the same build as the official release we expect to see on March 24, although Apple does refer to it as "beta 6" on the dev site.

Look, we like a new beta update as much as the next tester. There's nothing better than downloading and installing a fresh iOS seed, hunting down any and all new changes and features from the last. That said, we're a bit surprised Apple decided to release iOS 13.4 developer beta 5 on March 10 since dev beta 4 was such a minor update.

In 2009, 4G LTE networks rolled out in Stockholm and Oslo, replacing 3G as a better upgrade to the mobile data technology that gives us the broadband speeds we have on our mobile devices. Over a decade later, and we have the latest, next-generation wireless network technology among us, 5G, but can you even use it?

If you use iCloud, you may have experienced alerts such as "Not Enough Storage" and "iCloud Storage Full," especially if you're on the free 5 GB plan. To clear up space on your iCloud account fast, you can delete large files here and there, but trashing one thing, in particular, can clear up gigabytes worth of space instantly.

It's open season on Zoom, the video conferencing platform that has grown in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic but has come under fire due to privacy issues.

Accompanying Snapchat's core features, like editing snaps and applying filters to them, is Bitmojis. These are small avatars that you create in your own likeness and use all throughout Snapchat. Formerly, there were two "styles" that you could pick from to make your Bitmoji: Bitstrips style and Bitmoji style. But Snapchat has a third style now that will redefine the way you use Bitmojis.

Postural problems can lead to all sorts of problems, from back, hip, and neck pain to heartburn and digestive issues. Over time, balance problems, insomnia, fatigue, and even jaw misalignment can emerge. How you carry yourself matters.

With Touch ID enabled, your iPhone needs to scan your fingerprint before you can access your home screen or last app used. Before it unlocks, your iPhone might request that you press the Home button, adding an unnecessary step between you and your data. However, you can turn the feature off so that you don't need to click any buttons to unlock your device.

Getting files from an Android device to a Mac or iOS device is not always easy or convenient, and the same goes for transferring content from a Mac or iOS device to an Android device. But we're here to tell you there is a better way than using USB cables, email, and cloud storage, and it gives you the look and feel of AirDrop.

"Buy low and sell high" is great advice, but how do you accomplish it? While the stock market can be unpredictable, it's not a complete enigma. There are patterns to watch for that can make you a successful trader.

Even with your iPhone's brightness slider down all the way, your display will probably still be too bright at night with all the lights dimmed or turned off. So if you want to continue scrolling through Instagram in bed or enjoying a late-night TikTok binge without hurting your eyes, there's a quick trick you can use to make your screen even dimmer and prevent strain on those peepers.