The Latest from Gadget Hacks: Page 57

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, you can change that.

Instagram is all about the hook. If you want followers to stick around, you need to keep your content interesting and engaging. Rainbow text can really make your Stories pop, but it's not really an Instagram "feature," meaning it's not an easy task to accomplish. There is, however, an easy hack that takes all the work out of rainbow-colored text, making your Stories better overall.

Can you trust every user you come across on TikTok? The answer to that may depend on how use the service, but the real question is — can you trust every user that sees your content? Not everyone on TikTok is someone you want viewing or interacting with your content, and there's a way to prevent them from doing so.

Whether it's an ex you can't stand, that annoyingly political friend of a friend, or good old fashioned trolls, the block feature on Facebook can be a great way to de-stress your feed. It will keep people from contacting you, and it will also prevent them from viewing your profile altogether. It's not just a tool for the full desktop website — in fact, the blocked list is easy to manage right from your phone.

One of the best features on Pixel phones is the new call screening. Any call received on your Pixel device can now be answered by your Google Assistant, allowing you avoid spam calls, wrong numbers, or even exes. But what many don't know is that you can listen to the caller during the screening process.

Call Screen is one of best features on Pixel phones. With one button, you can screen calls using Google Assistant and avoid pesky spam callers. However, after the call, there is seemingly no way to access the transcripts for future review. Fortunately, there is a way, but it is tucked away.

To give you a truly immersive experience on Infinity Display phones like the Galaxy Note 9, S9, and S8, Samsung added the option to hide the navigation bar when not in use, then easily reveal it with a swipe up gesture for quick access. If you've always found this process a little too cumbersome, Samsung has introduced a nifty feature in One UI that'll make it a lot more intuitive.

Android 9.0 Pie has finally arrived for Galaxy devices like the Note 9, S9, and S8, in the form of One UI. Of course, we've had a good idea as to what Samsung had up its sleeve for some time, thanks in large part to beta versions of the firmware that leaked out well before its official debut. Nevertheless, it's still exciting to experience the new features the software has to offer — with all its kinks ironed out.

Just after a month of testing, iOS 12.1.3 has been released for iPhones. Like the previous iOS 12.1.2 update, there's not much to get excited about. There are no new features discovered yet, but there are a few fixes for issues with photos in Messages, imperfect pics when using the share sheet, and disconnecting CarPlay.

Android Pie has finally made its way to signature Galaxy devices like the Note 9, S9 and S8. As you all know, Samsung Experience got a major makeover and has been renamed to One UI, featuring significant aesthetic changes to many of its native apps.

Apple released iOS 12.1.3 beta 4 to software developers on Thursday, Jan. 10, just three days after beta 3 came out. Public beta testers also received the update. In general, iOS 12.1.3 fixes a VoiceOver issue with ECG and Irregular Heart Rate notifications, as well as a fix in audio quality on the latest iPad Pro models.

Almost every phone comes with biometric security of some sort these days, but the same can't be said of Windows computers. While fingerprint scanners are becoming increasingly common with laptops and desktops, they're nowhere near ubiquitous. Thankfully, your phone's scanner can be used as a sort-of remote authentication point for your PC.

Instead of the still image we've been accustomed to since the inception of Facebook, you also have the option to apply a seven-second video as your profile image, which definitely mixes things up a bit with GIF-like animations. Best of all, this can be done straight from your iPhone or Android device.

With the increasing popularity of OLED displays, companies like Apple, Google, and Samsung have all shifted away from traditional LCDs for their flagship devices. An OLED screen provides deeper blacks and is better for battery life since each pixel can be controlled individually while emitting its own light. This, in turn, has made dark themes an important software feature.

Recently, buzz for the Google Pixel 4 has been rising thanks to a patent discovered by 91mobiles. This patent appears to show an almost bezel-less phone with a screen-to-body ratio we have only dreamt of, and no notch in sight. The problem is this isn't the Google Pixel 4. It's actually the Pixel 2 XL.

Out of the box, Apple's digital assistant could be a godsend or a nuisance, depending on your daily interactions it. No matter which camp you fall into, Siri can always be better suited to your personal needs with a little customization. You can make Siri a powerhouse not to be reckoned with, or you can minimize its presence if you only need Siri help sometimes — all without any jailbreaking.

In about 27% of all car crashes, someone was using their cell phone. You may think texting is the big problem here, but many fail to realize that even the smallest smartphone interaction could spell disaster. Thankfully, Google Maps has rolled out an overdue feature that'll help ensure a safer drive.

Despite being at the helms of the RCS push, Google Fi has yet to support the new messaging protocol. It would've made too much sense if the Google-created MVNO was one of the first to support the feature Google's been pushing on other OEMs and carriers for years, but alas, they haven't. Well, better late than never — Google has finally announced support for RCS Universal Profile on Fi.

Until very recently, Apple apps were among the only ones that would play nicely with Siri on iPhones. If you wanted to take advantage of the digital assistant to, say, compose an email, you would need to go with Apple Mail instead of the email client you actually use. As of iOS 12, this is no longer the case.

Apple released the iOS 12.1.3 developer beta on Monday, Jan. 7, and the iOS 12.1.3 public beta followed shortly behind. Apple has been pretty on point with its public beta releases for iPhone, always releasing the same day as the dev version unless it's the very start of a beta build (i.e., iOS 12.1.3 beta 1), in which case they come out a day later.

If you ask Siri to check the weather on your iPhone right now, you'll get information from the stock Weather app in iOS — even if you have and prefer other weather apps installed. But that doesn't have to be the case. Thanks to Siri Shortcuts in iOS 12 and later, you can set specific phrases that Siri will respond to for any compatible weather app you want.

Facebook has grown into one of the central hubs of the internet where ideas are shared with others. But with the rise of brand development, individuals and companies need to get their messages out beyond their group of Facebook friends so it can be seen by more of the world.

Owning digital movies has many advantages over physical discs, such as easy access and a variety of online stores you can turn to for good deals. There's Prime Video, iTunes, Vudu, and the list goes on. However, this leads to fragmented video libraries, unlike DVDs and Blu-rays which can be stored together. Surprisingly, YouTube is one app that can help consolidate your collection online.

Millions depend on Google Maps for directions, and it's easy to see why. The app comes with tons of features like offline navigation, location sharing, and more. Google is far from done, however, and continually improves upon its navigation app to make it even more efficient and safer to use.

Bitmoji are personalized emoji that look like you and can be used to make funny memes or snappy replies. Normally, you have to find one of these reaction emojis in the Bitmoji app, then use Android's share menu to send it to the app where you ultimately want to post it, but there's a much better way.

If you like having Siri available to answer a quick question every now and again but don't want everyone who picks up your iPhone to also have access to your personal assistant, there's an easy way to disable her from working on your iPhone's lock screen. This is also something you can do if you're always activating Siri accidentally in your pocket.

This video demonstrates how easy it is to take a screenshot with shortcuts in Mac OS X. Pressing Command-Shift-3 will take a screenshot of the entire screen, while Command-Shift-4 will let you take a screenshot of just a selected area of the screen instead. For the latter, once you use the shortcut, your mouse pointer will turn into crosshairs, and you would click on one point of the screen, then drag and release your mouse to take a capture of the selected area.

In this video we are going to make Auto Rickshaw with dc motor & cardboard in this video you will get the idea how to make electric Auto Rickshaw and run automatically with the battery power this is easy to make and you can also make this Auto Rickshaw for the kinds they can enjoy with this electric toys .

Despite years of user complaints, OEMs are still preinstalling third-party apps on brand new devices. Even in 2019, you'll still find plenty of phones with Facebook preinstalled. What's worse, it's installed as a system app, so it can't normally be uninstalled without root access. However, there are a few workarounds.

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-white theme is not ideal for battery life, nor is it easy on the eyes at night.

The idea of augmented reality isn't new, but the world of smartphones is looking to push it forward in a big way. As with any platform, both product demand and technological advancements have to catch up to the industry before it can become a viable solution for daily consumer life. Apple and Google are working to introduce the smartphone consumer to AR for the first time with basic features for now.

QR codes have become a staple in our everyday lives. Companies use them for everything from marketing promotions to movie tickets thanks to security they provided for these types of transactions. But for years, Android users had to download an app to scan these codes. Well, not anymore.

While we wait patiently for a system-wide dark theme, Google has provided us with the next best thing. The majority of Google-developed apps now have a dark mode, so you can piecemeal the feature together yourself.

You can now access Google's slick Weather app without having to first open the Google or News & Weather apps. However, you will have to use Google to access the weather the old-fashioned way one more time, but you'll have the option to place a shortcut on your home screen to access the weather directly going forth.

You've had your fun swiping, but now it's time to walk away from all of your online dating apps. Whether it's because you found someone you're interested in or just need some time away, it's important to know how to permanently erase your online dating footprint — and that includes deleting your Bumble account.

As the stigma of online dating fades and swiping potential suitors on your phone becomes the new norm, one very real issue that you may have to deal with is catfishing: the act of being deceived by a fictional online persona. Although dating apps do their best to weed out fake accounts, a few of them slip through the cracks and take advantage of innocent people just looking for a connection.

Despite Tinder's tremendous popularity, Bumble has carved out a billion-dollar business by focusing on women (they message first), simplicity (ice breakers less wordy than OkCupid), and relationships past romance (friends and prospective jobs). Now they're diving into customization, with filters that allow you to pore over prospective matches by height, religion, education, politics, and more.

You can send and receive money from your iPhone using Venmo, Square Cash, Facebook Messenger, and even Snapchat. There's also Zelle, which offers quick-pay solutions in major banking apps such as Bank of America, Chase, and Wells Fargo. However, Apple has a built-in system to transfer money, with person-to-person payments being available in the Messages app ever since iOS 11.2.

Apple released iOS 12.1.3 public beta 2 for iPhones on Wednesday, Dec. 19. Yes, that's confusing, since there was no first beta for iOS 12.1.3, but it indicates that it's the actual successor to iOS 12.1.2 public beta 1. Apple dropped iOS 12.1.2 unexpectedly to fix major issues but did not include everything in the beta, so we're picking up right where we left off.

Apple pushed out iOS 12.1.3 developer beta 2 to all developers on Wednesday, Dec. 19. It's an interesting and mysterious update, as it follows the sudden release of iOS 12.1.2. That software only had one beta version before its stable release, which would explain why the iOS 12.1.3 dev beta skipped version 1 and went straight to version 2 since it's basically a continuation of the first iOS 12.1.2 beta.