Hot Smartphones How-Tos

How To: Tether an iPhone 3G to Windows XP using 3Proxy

This is a nifty tutorial guide on how to tether your hacked iPhone or iPhone 3G to a windows computer for use as a high speed modem. Just Jailbreak your iPhone using one of the many tutorials on WonderHowTo, and install 3proxy. This video explains the rest of the configuration steps required to properly tether an iPhone 3G in Windows XP so that you can use its EDGE or 3G internet connection on your PC, for free.

How To: View Popular Hours, Wait Times, and Live Visit Data for Businesses to Determine When to Go Out, Stay Home, or Move On

Unlike Apple Maps, Google Maps can tell you when a restaurant, bar, club, or other business you're thinking of visiting is busy. It's extremely helpful if you want to avoid peak times or wait for the place to be empty. If you can't pry yourself away from using Apple Maps, there's an easy alternative to see the popular times of most businesses.

How To: Unlock YouTube's New Ambient Mode for a More Immersive Experience (Or Disable It if You Don't Like It)

To celebrate YouTube's 17th birthday, Google has gifted the app with new features, including pinch to zoom, precise seeking, and a darker dark theme. But the highlight is a new cosmetic upgrade called Ambient mode, which makes the viewing experience more immersive. Here's everything we know about the new background effect.

How To: The Simplest Way to Remove the Background from Photos on iOS, iPadOS, and Android

It's super easy to add filters, adjust levels, and crop images using the default photo editor on your smartphone, but there's rarely any built-in tool for removing the background in a photo. A third-party app can help isolate people and objects in your pictures, and we've found a free one that's easy to use, works with high-resolution images, and is available for Android, iOS, iPadOS, and the web.

How To: Download the Real Wordle Game on Your Phone for Years of Free Offline Gameplay

The hottest word game right now is Wordle, a simple game that gives you six chances to guess the five-letter word of the day. I've already shown how you can add the real Wordle app — not a fake clone — to your iPhone or Android phone's home screen. But there's also a way to save Wordle for offline gameplay for years to come.

How To: Digitize Your COVID-19 Vaccination Record Card on Your Phone for Easy Access Anywhere

As the U.S. inches closer to herd immunity and reopening after the pandemic, it may become necessary to keep your COVID-19 vaccination cards on you at all times to gain access to places and events that are prone to spreading the coronavirus. You probably won't want to lose your card, so it may be wise to load a copy onto your smartphone for easy access.

How To: Add Self-Generating Captions to Your Instagram Stories So You Don't Have to Type Them in Manually

When creating video content for social media, such as a story on Instagram, it's common practice to add captions or subtitles to the post so that people can watch it wherever they are on silent. Doing this by hand is time-consuming and frustrating, but Instagram has a solution: a feature to add automatically-generated captions to any story you make from your iPhone or Android phone.

How To: Download a Show's Next Episode Automatically on Netflix After Watching the Previous One

One of the most convenient features in the Netflix app is the ability to download movies and TV shows to your device, which lets you avoid potential streaming issues and watch content offline whenever you want. To make downloading even more convenient, you can automatically download new episodes of your favorite TV shows once you've finished the ones already stored on your phone.

How To: Set Custom Wallpapers for Individual WhatsApp Chats So That Each Thread Has Its Own Look

One of WhatsApp's best features is being able to change the default wallpaper for all chats. There's no reason to stick to the default WhatsApp backgrounds when you can be texting over an image of literally anything. In a newer WhatsApp update, you can go a step beyond that by setting custom wallpapers for individual chats, personalizing every text thread you have.

How To: Pick Different Chat Wallpapers for WhatsApp's Light & Dark Modes for Even More Control Over Your Theme

If you're like me, you enjoy using your phone's dark theme at night and light theme during the day. When switching from dark to light and vice versa, many of the UI elements in supported apps adjust accordingly, but you have no control over what does and doesn't change. WhatsApp, on the other hand, does give you some granular control by letting you pick a chat wallpaper for each theme.

How To: Send & Receive Disappearing Messages in Your WhatsApp Conversations to Keep Chats Clutter-Free

Sometimes, keeping every message comes in handy. Maybe you want to relive fun conversations from months or years ago, or perhaps you need to recall a piece of data such as an address, name, or link. However, not all chats need to stick around forever. Whether you're concerned about privacy or just keeping your threads clutter-free, WhatsApp's "disappearing messages" may be what you're looking for.

How To: Curb Your Daily Instagram Usage with Daily Reminders on iPhone or Android

Instagram is addicting — and that's done on purpose. To stop your Instagram habits, your smartphone likely has a built-in feature to curb the daily usage of a particular app, like Apple's Screen Time for iOS and Google's Digital Wellbeing for Android. But you don't need to mess with those complicated settings when Instagram itself can help you get some of your life back.