Official fingerprint reader support arrived in Android 6.0, yet many people still think it’s only for unlocking the phone. In fact, if you know your way around Tasker, you can map it to virtually any action.
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Android Performance Optimization: Eliminate App Lag, Jank, and Long Loading…
Performance is one of the most critical aspects of a mobile app. Your app can be as feature-rich, polished, and useful as you like, but if it feels sluggish, failure is almost guaranteed. The good news is…
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How to Install VirtualBox on Tails OS and Route VM…
Tails is the best operating system if your goal is to maximize your anonymity online. But it has a few quirks, and one of them is that you can’t properly install VirtualBox using the standard tools. We’ll…
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Android Code Injection with Frida: Hooking and Instrumenting Third-Party Apps
When we talk about reverse‑engineering and modifying third‑party applications, we usually mean using a decompiler, a disassembler, and a debugger. But there’s a tool that takes a very different approach: Frida—a toolkit that lets you inject into…
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Supercharge Nmap: Advanced Penetration Testing with Firewall Evasion, Dirbusting, DoS…
Nmap is the gold standard among port scanners and one of a pentester’s most important tools. But can you honestly say you’ve mastered all its features and use cases? In this article, you’ll learn how to use…
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Why Smartphone Home Screens Are Broken—and Why I Built AIO…
I don’t know about you, but I’ve always found it odd that a powerful smartphone—connecting people to each other and to the rest of the world—uses an utterly useless, uninformative screen of icons as its primary interface.…
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13 Essential Sysadmin Utilities Every System Administrator Should Know
A well-stocked toolbox is what sets a seasoned pro apart from a newbie. And in Linux administration, that toolbox is about as critical as it gets. In this article, we’re not going to cover things like Nagios,…
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Vim for Beginners: Stop Fearing the Editor You Can’t Exit…
Vim is one of the most polarizing tools ever made. It’s not just an editor—it’s a litmus test that neatly divides programmers, admins, and Unix die-hards into insiders and outsiders. While some ask why we still need…
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Android vs iOS Security: Is Android Actually Safer?
Strange headline, isn’t it? The author must be nuts to compare iOS security—something even the FBI can’t crack—with that leaky bucket called Android. But I’m serious: Android and iOS can, and should, be compared. Not to prove…
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Turning an Old Android Smartphone into a Fully Functional Home…
Imagine this scenario: you have an old Android smartphone. Its primary function is long gone – maybe the screen is shattered, the mobile connectivity module has died, or the device is simply outdated. Selling it for next…
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Unlocking the Secret Features of DuckDuckGo: Unique Tools You Won’t…
If people are familiar with the search engine DuckDuckGo, it's primarily due to its enhanced privacy features. Unlike Google or Yandex, it doesn't collect user data, but its search results aren't as strong. However, if you dig…
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Geek’s Desktop: No Icons, Drag-and-Drop, or Floating Windows
Have you ever wondered what kind of desktop die-hard Linux enthusiasts use, those who spend most of their time in the terminal? You know, the ones who write a shell script for every little task and look…
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10 Compelling Reasons to Choose Arch Linux: Embracing Minimalism with…
We felt that writing about installing and configuring Arch Linux was a bit passé and redundant. So, we decided to take a different approach and discuss why this system exists in the first place and why millions…
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Mastering the Terminal: Essential Tips to Become a Console Guru
Any Unix enthusiast who has spent a couple of hours learning basic commands and bash syntax knows that the command line is an incredibly handy tool. However, not everyone realizes just how powerful the console can actually…
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Exploring Endless OS: A Package-Free Linux Distribution
What does an average Linux distribution look like? Typically, it's a system assembled like a modular kit from thousands of packages, plus various desktop customizations, possibly its own installer and configuration system. In any case, almost all…
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Understanding the Linux Boot Process: From Power-On to Desktop
The best way to understand how an operating system works is to trace its boot process step by step. It is during this boot process that all the mechanisms that get the OS up and running are…
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Running Android Apps on Linux with Anbox: A Guide to…
There are numerous Android emulators for all sorts of operating systems. The worst ones barely function, while the best run quickly and even allow gaming. The latter are typically only available for Windows, and their performance on…
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From the Dead in 80 seconds. Bringing the bricked smartphone…
Most of the articles in the X-Mobile section are devoted to hacks and tweaks that require rooting, modifying the firmware, or replacing it with a custom one. However, not every reader is ready to subject their smartphone to such operations, fearing that they can turn the device into…
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Controlling Android. Dangerous APIs enable hackers to intercept data and…
In addition to traditional permissions, Android has three metapermissions that open access to very dangerous APIs enabling the attacker to seize control over the device. In this article, I will explain how to use them so that you can programmatically press smartphone buttons, intercept…
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Android security: evolution from version 1 to version 11
For a long time, Android was known as a slow and insecure OS for losers unable to afford an iPhone. Is this still true, and was Android really so bad? Leaving aside the interface smoothness and OS capacity, I am going to briefly discuss the evolution of the worst…
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