So you’ve installed the Google Play Store on Amazon’s Fire HD 8 (2020) tablet. What’s next? While you can’t yet root the tablet or replace the operating system with a custom ROM, you can disable a bunch of Amazon apps and features. Don’t need the Amazon Appstore, want to disable the Weather, Prime Video, or Kindle […]
Category: How to…
How to install Google Play on the Amazon Fire HD 8 (2020)
Amazon’s Fire tablets offer some decent bang for the buck — they’re inexpensive devices with decent displays and reasonably good performance. But while the tablets run an Android-based operating system called Fire OS, they don’t come with the Google Play Store or popular Google apps like Gmail, YouTube, or Google Maps. But it’s pretty easy […]
How to unlock an Android phone with a broken screen
A friend recently dropped his phone and ended up with a cracked display. That isn’t always a death knell for a smartphone, but in this case it meant that he couldn’t unlock the phone because the in-display fingerprint sensor stopped working and the phone wouldn’t recognize his PIN number when he tried typing it. That […]
Amazon Fire tablet hacks: Google Play, Root, Recovery, and ROMs
Amazon’s Fire tablets are arguably some of the best cheap tablets worth buying, thanks to a combination of decent displays, specs, and performance and low starting prices (which are even lower on Prime Day or during other sales). The Amazon Fire 7 has a list price of $50, but you can pick one up for […]
How to reset Windows on a One Mix Yoga (or One Mix 2S)
One Netbook‘s One Mix Yoga line of handheld computers are pocket-sized notebooks with small (and cramped) keyboards, touchscreen displays, 360-degree hinges, and optional support for a pen. After having tested the One Mix Yoga and One Mix 2S Yoga this year, I’m giving away the demo units the folks at GeekBuying sent me to review. But […]
Hacking Amazon’s Fire tablets (Black Friday 2018 edition)
Amazon’s Fire tablets already offer a lot of bang for the buck, with list prices starting as low as $50. But this week Amazon is offering deep discounts on most of its Fire tablet lineup as part of a Black Friday sale. Starting November 22nd you’ll be able to pick up a Fire 7 tablet for […]
Zotac ZBOX CI660 nano mini PC – First look & setup
The Zotac ZBOX CI660 nano is compact desktop computer that measures 8″ x 5.1″ x 2.7″ and features a fanless design: there’s ventilation on every side of the computer and heat sinks to help keep the computer cool during operation. Zotac first unveiled the ZBOX CI660 nano at the Consumer Electronics Show in January and […]
Gameshell modular DIY handheld game console: unboxing, assembly, and first look
The Clockwork GameShell is a modular, hackable handheld game console that runs open source software and comes as a DIY kit, with some assembly required. When fully assembled, you can use it as a handheld gaming device capable of running classic console games or indie titles. But first you need to assemble it. Last year […]
Have you emptied your Google Drive trash lately?
This week Google launched an update to its online storage service. It’s called Google One, and it gives Google users a single bucket of storage that they can use to keep photos, files, and Gmail messages in the cloud. Every user gets 15GB for free. Every now and then Google gives out some bonus storage […]
Switching from Windows 10 S to Windows 10 Pro takes less than a minute, no reboot required
7 Comments on Switching from Windows 10 S to Windows 10 Pro takes less than a minute, no reboot required For the past two weeks I’ve been getting to know Windows 10 S while testing the Asus NovaGo convertible laptop. It’s one of the first Windows 10 computers to ship with an ARM processor, and it also ships with a version of Windows 10 that stops you from installing third-party apps unless they com from […]
