The BlackBerry Hub holds a lot of information and provides a unique way of managing all of your communication needs from a central place. But, with so much information being presented to you at all times, you're bound to want to tailor it to meet your needs. Below you'll find some great tips aimed to help you make the Hub work for you, instead of you working for the Hub.

View messages as a conversation

Like pre-installed programs on a Windows PC, the Samsung Galaxy S4 is full of "bloatware," unnecessary apps and services from Samsung or your carrier that offer no value and often attempt to duplicate what Google (or third-party) apps have already mastered. (AT&T Navigator, anyone?)

The greatest insult is that you actually can't uninstall these apps without rooting -- they'll stay in your app drawer and task manager even if you don't use them. The best solution is to disable them, which will effectively remove them from your app drawer and prevent these apps … Read more

The original version of Evernote Food (download for Android or iOS) had one menu item: My Meals. As of the latest version, My Meals doesn't have to be lonely anymore; new sections Explore Recipes, My Cookbook, and Restaurants have been added. Let's explore the new features.

Explore Recipes lets you browse through a huge selection (thousands, according to Evernote) of recipes from all over the Web. You'll find recipes from places you'll likely recognize, such as AllRecipes.com or Clean Eating.

My Cookbook will show you any recipes you've saved through the app, along with … Read more

Sometimes only so much explaining can be done with text on the screen. Adding a handwritten drawing or diagram can help pull together and solidify an idea. This is especially true when you're following along on a document that was given to you, like a business plan or notes for a class.

Polaris Office works with Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Adobe PDF files. When using this app on a Galaxy Note series device, you can use the included S Pen to draw directly in your documents. Here's how:

First, open a document or presentation in Polaris … Read more

The notification panel in the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 is a convenient feature that allows you to quickly toggle key settings, like Bluetooth, GPS, Airplane mode, and so on. If your Galaxy Note 2 has been updated to 4.1.2 Jelly Bean, you can now customize the notification panel, except on the AT&T variant. If you have an AT&T Galaxy Note 2, we have third party app suggestions for you at the end of this post.

To customize the notification panel, go to Settings > Display > Notification panel. You'll see one check box … Read more

Instagram today introduced a new photo-tagging feature called Photos of You. With it, you can tag people or brands (that is, any Instagram account) in your Instagrams.

Before you can use the new feature, you'll need to upgrade to version 3.5 of the app on your iPhone or Android device. Once you are running the latest version of Instagram, you will see an Add People line on Instagram's Share screen after you have cropped and filtered your photo.

Tapping on the Add People line opens a screen asking you to tap the photo to add people. When … Read more

My friend is convinced that the slowing of his iPhone 4S is part of a vast Apple conspiracy. I'm not completely persuaded.

I mean, sure Apple has sent out updates to iOS that are arguably a step in the wrong direction, like that whole Apple Maps fiasco. But I believe the main culprit for decreasing smartphone performance (from any phone) is software cruft. Sometimes, you just have to do a little housekeeping.

So here's what I suggest. First, take a minute to get rid of any bulky apps you never use. Dive in to Settings>General>… Read more

The official Twitter app that came pre-installed on your BlackBerry 10 device gets the job done, but it's missing a lot of features. Instead of waiting for Twitter to make improvements and add functionality to the app, do yourself a favor and download Blaq.

BlackBerry fans will recognize the name of the app, as it has been available on legacy BlackBerry devices as well as the PlayBook.

Currently listed at $2.99 in BlackBerry World, Blaq is compatible with both the Z10 and Q10.

You'll find Twitter streaming support, the ability to mute keywords and clients, BBM integration, … Read more

Samsung has been good about providing online simulators for its smartphones, like the Galaxy Nexus and the Note. With the release of its new flagship phone, the Galaxy S4, it has updated the simulator's interface to make the tutorials easier to navigate and much easier to read. The simulator is great if you want to get an idea of what the phone is like or if you want to learn more about it, either for yourself, or for someone that you're helping.

You can get to the Galaxy S4 simulator by pointing your Web browser to http://www.samsungmobileusa.com/simulators/GalaxyS4.… Read more