A deep dive into the Galaxy S5's snappy fingerprint scanner

Samsung didn't shed many details about the fingerprint scanner on its new Galaxy S5 smartphone, but I had a chance to set up and use the security feature here at the show.

Setup took just a few minutes, after swiping my finger eight times along the sensitive portion of the screen to fully read my print. You're able to register only three profiles, for your own fingers or for someone else's.First, the basics. Samsung's sensor is on the bottom portion of the screen, not integrated into the home button as I originally thought. To unlock the phone with your finger, you swipe along the glowing path about half an inch from the bottom of the phone, going down and over the home button.

This app gives your Android background an amazing look

Muzei Live Wallpaper is a free app from developer Roman Nurik. His name may sound familiar, as he is also the developer of the popular DashClock widget.

Taking the same approach that he took with DashClock, Nurik has made Muzei Live Wallpaper free and open to developers to integrate with various services.

After installing Muzei, you'll have the option to select a service from which the app will pull random images. The default option is featured art, updated once a day. You can also select a photo album on your device, and increase the frequency of your wallpaper changing, if you so desire.

Perhaps the best part about the app, beyond its price tag, is the fact that it's API for third-party developers. Meaning, if someone wanted to create a Muzei plug-in to bring Instagram photos into the service, it's possible. In fact, it's already been done.

Searching the Play Store for "Muzei" will reveal a lengthy list of plug-ins. A sample list of the more notable services includes Dropbox, Reddit, Flickr, 500px,and Tumblr.

Once installed, you can select your preferred service as the source for your home screen image and customize any further settings included in the plug-in.

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How to solve four common problems with your new smartphone

For all their smarts, smartphones can be complicated animals. Or at least frustrating ones, especially if you run into some of the problems that tend to crop up among new smartphone owners.

(Note that I'm referring to both new smartphone-owners and new-smartphone owners. Hyphenation matters, people!)

Thankfully, most of these issues are easily resolved -- or if not resolved, easily worked around. Let's dive right in.

Test your network with Chrome Connectivity Diagnostics

When you're having network issues and can't access the Internet, isolating the problem isn't always easy. As Ghacks points out, many computer systems have networking tools available to help you figure out the issue. Tools like ping, traceroute, nslookup, and netstat, are all proven utilities that help identify network problems.

If you're not familiar with using those tools or would like a simpler all-purpose tool, Google has created a Chrome app called Chrome Connectivity Diagnostics. It contains several different networking tests with the results displayed in an easy-to-read format.

After installing Chrome Connectivity Diagnostics from the Chrome Web Store, start the app from the Chrome App Launcher to begin running the tests.

How to install SteamOS on your computer

A beta version of Valve's gaming operating system is now available for download. Here's how you can transform your current computer into a Steam Machine.

Valve, the gaming company behind the hit series Half-Life, Team Fortress, Left 4 Dead, and Portal, is looking to change the industry once again. With more than 75 million users and a market share estimated at around 75 percent, the company's Steam digital distribution platform has already changed the way computer owners purchase and play games.
Unsatisfied with the way the game console market has shifted in recent years, Valve in 2013 announced a new strategy for invading the living room. The company created SteamOS, a Linux-based operating system designed for playing video games.