How to Use Low Power Mode on an iPhone (and What Exactly It Does)

Your iPhone has a “Low Power Mode”, which you’ll be prompted to activate it when your phone reaches 20% battery. However, you can enable it before that point to stretch your battery life further. Starting with iOS 11, you can also activate Low Power Mode right from the Control Center.

How to Set Up, Tweak, and Use Your Android Wear Watch

Android Wear is a rather useful addition to your arsenal of technology, but getting to know a completely new device can be overwhelming. Here’s everything you need to know about setting up, tweaking, and using your new Android Wear watch.

Geek Trivia: The Government Spokesman “I Can Neither Confirm Nor Deny …” Statement Is Known As The?

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Everything You Can Do With the Files App on Your iPhone or iPad

In iOS 11, Apple finally added a file manager to both the iPhone and iPad. Dubbed “Files”, this app is a central place where you can view and manage all your files across services like Apple’s iCloud Drive, Dropbox, Google Drive, and Microsoft OneDrive.

How to Update Your Apple TV to tvOS 11

The latest version of tvOS is out now for the fourth-generation Apple TV (as well as the new Apple TV 4K). Here’s how to update the streaming box and get all the new features.

The Best Android Games Exclusive to the NVIDIA SHIELD

NVIDIA’s line of SHIELD products is a great example of what Android can do when put in the right hands—SHIELD Tablet is still one of the best Android tablets around, and SHIELD Android TV is the top Android TV box you can buy.

How to Make Your iPhone Use JPG and MP4 Files Instead of HEIF and HEVC

In iOS 11, the photos and videos you take will no longer be encoded in the compatible formats you’re used to. Instead of JPG for images and MPEG-4 for video, they’ll use High Efficiency Image Format (HEIF) and High Efficiency Video Format (HEVC), respectively. Files in these newer formats are about half the size of JPG and MP4 files of similar quality.

Cord Cutting Only Sucks If You’re Trying to Replicate Cable

The cord cutting pushback has begun. Wired, The LA Times and even my own colleagues have all argued that cutting the cord is starting to lose its luster, and that as more companies break off into their own streaming services (instead of putting their content up on Netflix), cord cutting will soon be just as expensive as cable.

Access More Settings in iOS 11’s Control Center with 3D Touch

iOS 11 has a completely new Control Center, which squeezes in more settings onto one screen without needing to swipe back and forth. However, on top of what’s currently available in Control Center, there are even more settings that you can access from that screen with a simple 3D Touch or long press.

Geek Trivia: The Soundtrack For The Video Game Quake Was Composed By?

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The Most Wonderfully Stupid Sonic the Hedgehog Fan Games

Sonic is hilarious. Maybe it’s the decades of bad games. Maybe it’s the Extreme Attitude™, a 90s marketing gimmick that feels dated now. Or maybe it’s just that he’s a weird looking dude.

How to Recover a Deleted File: The Ultimate Guide

It’s happened to most of us. You delete a file, and then realize you need it back. This guide explains when you can get that file back and how to go about it.

Can Other People See the Tweets I’ve Liked?

You might think that Retweets are public and Likes are private. This makes sense, in a way: anything you Retweet is instantly pushed to your followers, and Twitter doesn’t make it clear at all what happens when you Like a tweet.

How to Stop the IMDB App from Sending You Notifications

Recently, the IMDB app started sending out notifications for “Featured Trailers”. As near as I can guess, this is where the production company pays IMDB to push a link to the trailer to a load of people in an effort to promote it. If IMDB isn’t being paid, they’re just annoying their fans for no reason. Whatever their reason, here’s how to turn these notifications off.

How to Quickly Transfer Files from a Computer to Your Phone with Portal

We’ve all had that moment where we need a file on our phone that happens to be on the computer. Now, there are a couple of ways you can do this: email it to yourself, put it in cloud storage like Dropbox, or even transfer it with a USB cable. But there’s a faster, easier way. Enter Portal.

Why Do Some Websites Have Pop-Up Warnings About Cookies?

If you spend any time at all on the web, you’ve probably come across a fairly normal site that seems strangely concerned about cookie education. You’ll see a pop-up that warns you that yes, the site uses cookies…just like almost every other page on the web. If the warning seems redundant and ineffectual, you’re not the only one to think so. But some people think it’s necessary, and those very specific people are in the European Union.

Amazon Just Announced Five New Echos, Here’s What They All Do

At a surprise event in Seattle today, Amazon announced multiple new Echo models—some similar to the original Echo, and others very, very different. Here’s every Echo you can buy right now, and what the difference between them all is.

How to Hide the App Icons at the Bottom of iMessage for the iPhone

A new feature in iOS 11 gives you quicker access to iMessage Apps at the bottom of the screen, but if you never use them in the first place, they’re just annoying. Here’s how to hide them.

Geek Trivia: Eccentric Billionaire Howard Hughes Once Bought An Entire Casino In Order To?

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How to Create a Bootable USB Installer for macOS High Sierra

The Mac App Store is the default way to upgrade or install macOS, but it doesn’t work for everyone. Maybe you’ve got multiple Macs and a limited amount of bandwidth, and don’t want to download the entire operating system for every system. Or maybe you’re looking to install the operating system from scratch.

How to Get Twitter’s New 280-Character Limit Now

In case you haven’t heard, Twitter is testing out a longer 280-character message limit, doubling the restriction that’s been in place since the service started back in 2006. Initially, the longer limit is only available to a few select accounts during the testing period, but intrepid users have discovered how to access the new feature.

Disable User Account Control (UAC) the Easy Way on Win 7, 8, or 10

If you’ve been using Windows for a while, you likely remember how annoying the User Account Control (UAC) was when it first popped up in Windows Vista. We showed you back then how to disable it, and you can still disable it in Windows 8 and 10. Here’s how.

How to Overhaul macOS’ Spotlight Search Using Alfred

Spotlight Search on macOS has gotten a lot better over the last few years, but there’s still so much potential that’s missing. Enter Alfred, which is similar to Spotlight Search, but on some major steroids.

How to Take Screenshots on an Android Phone or Tablet

Sometimes it’s necessary to grab a still image of what’s happening on your device’s screen—that’s called a screenshot. While this used to be a hassle on Android (many moons ago), all modern handsets include the capability. Here’s how to do it.

How to Save Original Photos With Instagram

Instagram, as well as being a fun social network, is now a pretty decent editing app. You’re no longer just slapping over-the-top filters on low resolution images; now you can actually make considered edits. Instagram only posts photos with a max resolution of 1080x1080px, though. The photos most smartphones take are much higher quality than that. If you want the original photo resolution with your Instagram edits applied, you need to save them elsewhere. Here’s how.

What’s the Difference Between OLED and Samsung’s QLED TVs?

Organic light-emitting diodes, abbreviated as OLED, are all the rage for high-end HD televisions. The technology has jumped from phones and tablets to larger screens, and its vibrant colors and “perfect” black levels make for amazing picture quality. But it isn’t the only player in town.

How to Stop Uber from Tracking Your iPhone’s Location When You Aren’t Using the App

Most iOS apps that require your location give you a choice: you can “Always” grant it access, or only grant it access “While Using the App”. Uber, however, only gave you an “Always” or “Never” choice, which means it could track you after your ride ends and you stop using the app. And they did just that.

Geek Trivia: Which Cartoon Character Was Recolored At The Urging Of Cartoon Censors?

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How to Upgrade Your Mac to High Sierra

Curious about the new features in High Sierra, but not sure how to actually update your operating system? Don’t worry: it’s easy.

How to Hide the “Creation Club News” Spam in Fallout 4

A long time ago in the far-off year of 2015, Bethesda tried to copy the incredible variety of user mods for its big RPG franchises, and make money off of them. It was a bad idea, so they stopped doing that. In 2017, Bethesda had the exact same idea, and it’s still bad, but this time they don’t seem to be listening to anyone.

How to View Notifications You’ve Dismissed on Android

Android’s notification system is arguably one of its strongest features, but it can also be annoying if you accidentally dismiss those notifications. Fortunately, there’s a simple way to view all the notifications that have hit your phone.

How to Turn Off Comments on Your Instagram Posts

Instagram, for the most part, is a pretty lovely social network. People tend to post the good things that are happening in their lives, rather than rants about everything that’s wrong with the world. It keeps things positive.

Cord-Cutting Is Losing Its Luster

Remember a few years ago, when online services were going to slay the anti-consumer demons of DirecTV, Time Warner, and Comcast? Here in 2017, the market for cord-cutting, streaming TV looks a lot more bleak. And thanks to confusing and expensive channel lineups, weird sports restrictions, and more and more exclusive content, the situation isn’t going to get better any time soon.

How to Update Your iPhone or iPad to iOS 11

Apple released iOS 11 on September 19, 2017. You can upgrade by tapping “Install Now” when an update message appears, but you can also check for the update and install it immediately.

How to Install (and Remove) Application Packages from Your Synology NAS

Packages are the applications that make your Synology NAS more than just a glorified network drive. Let’s look at how to install packages, remove them, and even how to add repositories to gain access to even more functionality.

How to Schedule an Uber Ride for the Future

If you’re planning on being somewhere at a specific time and need to arrange transportation to get there, Uber allows you to schedule rides in advance so that you don’t have to do it when the time actually comes.

What’s New in macOS 10.13 High Sierra, Available Now

The next version of macOS is out now, with improvements to Safari, Mail, Photos, and a lot under the hood. Here are the best features you’ll see in macOS 10.13 “High Sierra”.

Geek Trivia: Which U.S. State Has The Lowest Average Elevation?

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How to Enable Two-Factor Authentication on Your Nintendo Account

Nintendo now allows you to enable two-step verification, a form of two-factor authentication, for your Nintendo Account. Whenever you sign into your account—from a Nintendo Switch, on the web, or via a mobile app—you’ll need to enter a code generated by an app on your smartphone as well as your password.

The Best Bluetooth Mechanical Keyboards

It’s odd that, given their booming popularity among all kinds of computer users, mechanical keyboards still have so few wireless options. Between gamers, computing purists, and pragmatists, there doesn’t seem to be much desire for Bluetooth mechanical boards. But if you’d like a mobile-friendly keyboard, or just a more aesthetically pleasing one for your desktop, there are a handful of options out there.

How to Block Calls from a Certain Number on an iPhone

If you keep getting calls from someone (anyone) you don’t want to talk to, the best thing you can do is block them. There are a few different ways to do this on the iPhone, and we’re going to take a closer look at how to manually keep those people out of your life.

How to Use Multiple Apps at Once on an iPad

iOS 11‘s new multitasking features make the iPad even more powerful. The ability to access the dock in any app allows you to more easily launch apps in split-screen mode. iOS 11 also adds a new drag-and-drop feature that allows you to move content between apps.

What’s the Difference Between the “Program Files (x86)” and “Program Files” Folders in Windows?

There’s a good chance you have both the “C:\Program Files” and “C:\Program Files (x86)” folders on your Windows PC. If you poke around, you’ll see that some of your programs are installed in one folder, and some are installed in the other.

Geek Trivia: The Oligodynamic Effect Is A Phenomenon That Describes?

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Don’t Believe What You Read: Social Media Screenshots Are Easy to Fake

I want to show you a Tweet my coworker Justin Pot send out.

Geek Trivia: Which Action Movie Star Won An Emmy For His Guest Appearance On The TV Show Friends?

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How to Automatically Block Spam Calls on an iPhone

Nothing is quite as annoying as receiving spam calls, especially when you don’t know it’s a spam call in the first place. However, thanks to a free app, here’s how you can detect spam calls before you answer them and just plain block them altogether.

How to Download Files with Your Synology NAS (and Avoid Leaving Your Computer On at Night)

If you have a Synology NAS, you can easily configure it to download large files for you, allowing you to shut down your PC and let the NAS hum away in the background. Let’s look at how to start and schedule those downloads now.

How to Measure Distances in Google Maps for Running, Biking, and Hiking

Getting directions in Google Maps lets you easily see how far away the destination is. However, if you want to know the distance between point A and point B on a hiking or running trail, here’s how to do that in Google Maps.

Geek Trivia: The Medical Term For Sleepwalking Is?

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How to See Twitter Notifications For Mentions, But Not Likes or Retweets

If you’ve ever posted a highly-favorited tweet or been part of a popular thread, you’ve probably known the mild annoyance of having your phone overflow with dozens of notifications for retweets and favorites. If this behavior is affecting your enjoyment of Twitter (you social media wizard, you), you’ll probably want to restrict those notifications.

How to Set Your Preferred Autofill Manager in Android Oreo

One of the best new features in Android Oreo is the system-wide autofill service. Basically, if you store passwords and form data in Chrome, this information now syncs across the system for use in apps and the like.

How to Set Up a Facebook Page

Facebook Pages are a great way to promote your business, a cause, or just your hobby. Unlike Groups, which are more of a community feature, Facebook Pages work mostly like a regular Facebook Profile. You can use them to share posts, photos, videos, and whatever else you want. You can also send and receive messages. It’s basically just a profile but for something that’s not human. The biggest difference is that any number of people can Like and Follow the page.

How to Enable Microsoft’s Precision Touchpad Drivers on Your Laptop

Microsoft has been trying to improve the touchpad experience on Windows 10 laptops. Laptops with “Precision Touchpads” are optimized by Microsoft, support standard gestures, and can be configured from the Settings app. Unfortunately, PC manufacturers can opt out of using Precision Touchpads. Now, there’s a way to install Precision Touchpad drivers even on laptops that don’t ship with them.

How to Automatically Enable Do Not Disturb on Your iPhone While Driving

A new feature in iOS 11, “Do Not Disturb While Driving” figures out if you’re driving or not and toggles Do Not Disturb accordingly. Here’s how to enable the feature.

Geek Trivia: Brief Bright Flashes In The Night Sky Called “Iridium Flares” Are Caused By?

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How to Automatically Open Articles in Safari’s Reader Mode

Every Mac user should ditch Chrome for Safari, and Safari 11 makes one of its best features even better. Reader Mode, which shows you only the article you want to read without any sidebars ads, or other clutter, can now be set to open automatically on specific websites. This is perfect if there’s a site with content you love, but design choices you absolutely despise.

How To Adjust Mouse Settings in Windows

The old Windows properties window has been around for a long time. In Windows 8 and 10, it probably would have been a good idea to move some of those settings into the new Settings app, but of course that didn’t happen. To get anything useful done, you’ll need to dive into the good old-fashioned Control Panel.

How to Fix the “Screen Overlay Detected” Error on Android

Starting with Android Marshmallow, there’s a curious error that sometimes shows its face, but it can be hard to decipher what’s causing it. The “screen overlay detected” error won’t allow certain apps to launch, which makes it a real nuisance.

How to Post Panoramas to Instagram

Now that you can post multiple photos at once to Instagram, people are starting to take advantage of the feature. If you crop a large panorama seamlessly, you can post the different segments as multiple photos and get a swipeable panorama.

How to Use Android’s Built-In Tethering When Your Carrier Blocks It

Tethering your phone’s internet connection, which allows users to share their phone’s data connection with other devices, is really useful if you’re out and about with no Wi-Fi, but some carriers block the feature from your phone. If you get an error message when you try to tether—something like “Account not set up for tethering”—here’s a fix.

iOS 11’s Control Center Doesn’t Truly Disable Wi-Fi or Bluetooth: Here’s What to Do Instead

That shiny new Control Center in iOS 11 doesn’t actually let you disable Wi-Fi and Bluetooth anymore. You can toggle Wi-Fi and Bluetooth off from the Control Center, but the hardware radios will still be running and they’ll turn back on completely at 5 a.m. Yes, this is really weird.

How to Temporarily Disable Touch ID and Require a Passcode in iOS 11

iOS 11 has a new feature that allows you to discreetly disable the Touch ID unlock functionality, requiring the PIN code for access to the device. Here’s why that’s important (and how to use the new locking feature).

How to Free Up Space on Your iPhone or iPad by Offloading Unused Apps

Apps can consume a lot of space on an iPhone or iPad. In iOS 11, a new feature allows you to remove an app from your device without removing the app’s data. In other words, you can remove the app and free up space without losing anything—when you redownload the app in the future, you can immediately  pick up right where you left off.

Geek Trivia: The Best Selling Debut Album In History Belongs To Which Of These Musical Acts?

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Safari Now Disables Auto-Playing Videos. Here’s How to Allow Them for Certain Sites

You’re trying to do some reading when you hear it: a video playing somewhere off-screen. You curse under your breath, scroll down to find the offending media, then try to find back your place in the article.

How to Stop iPhone and iPad Apps From Asking for Ratings

Lots of iPhone and iPad apps ask for ratings, and they often don’t stop. Even if you do leave a review just to stop seeing the review requests, new apps you install will pester you for reviews, too. iOS 11 fixes this problem, limiting how often apps can ask for ratings and allowing you to stop these requests entirely.

How to Revoke Third-Party App Access From Soundcloud

SoundCloud, an alternative platform for posting and selling music and other audio-only content, offers an API that lets other websites and applications access its data for cool connections. But it’s always possible to be too connected, and if you’d rather be a little more secure with your SoundCloud account, you’ll want to restrict and cancel some of those connections. Here’s how.

How to Customize Your iPhone or iPad’s Control Center

Starting with iOS 11, you can now customize the Control Center you see when you swipe up from the bottom of your iPhone or iPad’s screen. You can remove shortcuts you never use, add new shortcuts, and rearrange the shortcuts to make the Control Center your own.

How to Delete Your Instagram Search History

Search histories can be somewhat incriminating, and there’s often very little reason to keep them around. Your Instagram search history is no exception. Here’s how to clear it.

Are My Amazon Echo and Google Home Spying on Everything I Say?

In-home voice assistants like the Amazon Echo and Google Home are convenient, but are they also a secret back door for the government and corporations to spy on everything you say? No. Of course not. Reports of the Echo and Google Home’s ability to spy on you have been greatly exaggerated.

How to Leave the iOS Beta Now that iOS 11 Is Out

Once a major release of iOS comes out, the benefits of being the on the beta release channel diminish significantly–here’s how to get off the beta tester train and get back to regular old public releases.

Geek Trivia: In The American South, Millions Of People In The Early 1900s Suffered From A Crippling Dietary Deficiency Of?

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16 Finder Shortcuts Every Mac User Should Know

The Finder seems pretty basic, but there are all kinds of things hidden just below the surface. Whether you want to cut and paste files or jump to a particular folder, it’s all about knowing the right keyboard shortcuts.

Is MoviePass, the $9.95 Movie Theater Subscription, Worth It?

MoviePass offers an unprecedented deal for moviegoers: $9.99 a month lets you see a movie in theaters every single day. Yes, you read that right. You can watch around thirty movies in theaters every month for ten bucks. Since that’s cheaper than a single ticket in most places, people flocked to it. But before you sign up, there are still a few things to consider.

What Is “Application Frame Host” and Why Is It Running on My PC?

Open the Task Manager on Windows 10 and you’ll see an “Application Frame Host” background process running. This process has the file name “ApplicationFrameHost.exe” and is part of the Windows 10 operating system.

Hosted Telephony: What Are the Benefits? [Sponsored]

Hosted Telephony: What Are the Benefits?

How to Auto-Run Windows Programs When You Plug In a USB Drive

Portable apps—self-contained executables that can be moved onto flash drives and run without installation—are popular tools for anyone who has to work on multiple Windows machines. If you want to make your workflow even faster, you can add an “auto-run” file that automatically opens the program as soon as you plug in the drive.

How to Snooze Notifications in Android Oreo

We get it; you’re busy. You can’t always respond to notifications right when they hit your phone, but you also don’t want to forget about them. Fortunately, in Android Oreo, you can snooze these notifications so they’ll pop up again later.

What Are Creative Commons Licenses?

Any creative work you do is covered by copyright. This means that if you write something, take a photo, record a song, paint a picture, or do anything that creates intellectual property, you get certain legal protections. The biggest protection is that other people aren’t able just to take your work and use it how they please. This is why services like Facebook have such complicated (and scary) Terms of Service.

What Does CCleaner Do, and Should You Use It?

These days, it seems like every Windows user has heard about CCleaner. It’s widely recommended, online and offline—but this week, it acted as a piggyback for malware. The real question we should be asking is: do you really need CCleaner in the first place?

12 Spoiler-Free Stardew Valley Tips and Tricks to Get You Started

One of the big things that makes Stardew Valley such a magical gaming experience is discovering everything for yourself, but that doesn’t mean that aren’t some spoiler-free tips and tricks to help you get started.

How to Reopen Closed Tabs on an iPhone or iPad

Modern mobile browsers allow you to reopen tabs you’ve recently closed, just like desktop browsers do. In Apple’s Safari browser for iPhone and iPad, the feature is a bit hidden—but it’s there. You can also reopen closed tabs in Google Chrome and other third-party browsers on an iPhone or iPad.

Geek Trivia: The Iceland Word For Computer Literally Translates To?

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How to Add Favicons to Safari on macOS

We’ve been clear: Mac users should ditch Chrome for Safari. It offers much better battery life, better performance, and content filters are way better than ad blockers.

How to Start a Fundraiser After An Emergency Using Facebook

Facebook has several useful tools for disasters, including a way to let others know you’re safe, and find out if others are safe, too. You can even connect with people who need or are offering help, or donate to existing fundraisers. If you want to raise money for your own cause, you can set up a fundraiser through Facebook’s Safety Check.

How to Save Google’s WEBP Images As JPEG or PNG

Google’s new WEBP image format is pretty cool: its unique compression systems can display images at approximately two thirds the size of the same image rendered in JPEG or PNG format.

CCleaner Was Hacked: What You Need to Know

CCleaner, the incredibly popular PC maintenance utility, has been hacked to include malware. Here’s how to tell if you were affected, and what you should do.

How to Make Windows 10’s Taskbar Clock Display Seconds

Windows 10’s taskbar clock can display the precise time down to the second. This feature requires a registry hack to enable, and only works on Windows 10. Windows 7 users will instead need a third-party utility like T-Clock Redux to do this instead.

How to Boost Your Mouse Pointing Accuracy in Windows

From Enhance Pointer Precision to DPI and pointer speed, there are a lot of options that affect how your mouse pointer moves in Windows. The below tips will help you move your mouse pointer more accurately—and even allow you to move it pixel by pixel.

Geek Trivia: A Popular African-Derived Rhythm Used In Rock and Pop Music Is Called The?

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The Best Ways to Control All Your Smarthome Devices from One Place

The more smarthome products you pile onto your house, the more complicated it gets to integrate all of them together and seamlessly control them. If you’re in this situation, here are the best ways you can control all of your smarthome devices.

Geek Trivia: The U.S. State With The Greatest Elevation Span Is?

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How to Make Sure a File Is Safe Before Downloading It

If you’re concerned a file might be malicious, you don’t need to download it and rely on your antivirus. You can scan the file for malware with over 60 antivirus engines before you download it—all with one single tool.

How to Manually and Automatically Shut Down and Restart Your Synology NAS

There’s more than one way to shutdown and restart your Synology NAS, including physical interaction with the NAS, software, and scheduled events. Let’s look at all three methods now.

How to Use Your Ecobee Smart Thermostat with Alexa

Controlling your smart thermostat remotely from your phone is cool and all, but don’t forget that you can also make it even easier on yourself and control it with your voice using Alexa. Here’s how to set it up.

Geek Trivia: The First Electric Air Conditioning Unit Was Invented By?

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Stupid Geek Tricks: Convince Your Friends You’re a Hollywood-Style Hacker with These Tools

Hacking in the movies is crazy exciting: fingers fly across the keyboard, and the screen is an ever flashing array of cryptic characters. It’s all so…interesting. Real hacking, sadly, isn’t that intense. However illegal what you’re doing may be, you’re still just someone sitting at a computer. Most the time you’re just trying to get people to use a fake Google sign-in page.

Lease vs Finance vs Buy: How Should You Pay for the iPhone 8 or X?

Another year, another new iPhone, and it’s time to wade through the mess of confusing financing plans, early upgrades, and pay-to-own schemes. All the different prices, plans, and carriers supporting the iPhone are enough to make our heads spin, so we’re here to help you decide whether it’s better to lease or own.

How Much Better Is the iPhone X’s Camera?

While the iPhone X’s design is its biggest talking point, the thing that really caught my eye watching the announcement was the new camera.

How to Revoke Third-Party App Permissions From Spotify

Internet music service Spotify offers an API that lets other websites and applications access your music and customer data. That can be a really cool feature if you’re using it to integrate music with other tools, like Shazam or Sonos. But, when you’re finished with whatever you’re doing, it’s probably a good idea to restrict access to only the most essential apps. Here’s how you do it.

Does Wireless Charging Work with a Case?

With wireless charging making its way into the new iPhones, there are undoubtedly a lot of questions floating around about how this technology works in practical application. The biggest question I’ve heard so far is: will it work with a case?

How To Find Out What Places Are a Specific Distance From You

Sometimes you want to find out what’s within a certain number of miles of a specific location. Maybe you want to know what area a cell tower covers or what would happen if a nuclear bomb got dropped on your in-laws’ house.

How Does Wireless Charging Work?

Wireless charging is set to become more popular with the adoption of Qi wireless charging in Apple’s iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X. It’s also found on some Android phones, like Samsung’s Galaxy Note 8, Galaxy S8, and Galaxy S7.

How to Get the Most Out of Your Ring Doorbell

The Ring Doorbell works like any other doorbell, but has a video camera built in that can alert you to motion and button presses. While it’s a pretty basic device for the most part, there are definitely some features and tricks that you might not have known about.

Geek Trivia: The Largest Free Concert In History, Based On Attendance, Was A Performance By?

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How to Check If a Twitter Account Is a Bot

There are a lot of bots on Twitter. Some are trying to sell things, some are stage one in an elaborate scam, and some are run by international intelligence agencies for any number of reasons.

How to See Who Has Logged Into Your Netflix Account

Netflix knows that you aren’t the only person using your account. The company has turned a mostly blind eye to password sharing, but you may still want to know who’s been logging into your account—especially if you think someone got access without your approval. Here’s how to find out who has logged in using your credentials.

Is Wireless Charging Slower Than Wired Charging?

Look, Apple is making wireless charging cool again with the iPhone 8, 8 Plus, and X. I’m glad! But there are things you should know about this technology—like how fast it’s going to charge your phone. You know, practical stuff.

What’s the Difference Between a Font, a Typeface, and a Font Family?

Since the majority of written words are now produced in one digital form or another, fonts and typefaces have become much more important than they used to be. And to the chagrin of graphic designers and generally nerdy people everywhere, those terms are often used interchangeably.

What Are “Silent” Notifications on Android?

So here’s the scenario: you grab your phone and don’t see anything in the notification bar. But you pull the shade down, and there one is. It’s a mysterious little guy with no icon in the bar.

How to Get Verified On Twitter (or At Least Try)

Oh that sweet blue tick. Only a select few Twitter elite are awarded it—Justin Pot has one. The rest of us digital plebs are left go without, forever unverified. Or are we?

How to Block Calls in Android, Manually and Automatically

It’s dinner time. You’re just sitting down when you get a call. On the other line, a robotic voice says: “We have important information regarding your credit accounts. Please hold to speak to a representative.”

How Much Free Space Should You Leave on Your iPhone?

It’s all too easy to fill your iPhone’s storage to the brim with apps, photos, and video, but just because you can doesn’t mean you should. How full is too full? We put our iOS devices through the paces to get to the bottom of things.

Ecobee4 vs. Ecobee3 Lite: What Are the Differences?

Ecobee sells two different smart thermostats, both of which offer different features at different prices. If you’re in the market for a smart thermostat and have narrowed it down to Ecobee, here are some things you should know about the Ecobee4 and the Ecobee3 Lite before you make an official purchase.

Geek Trivia: People Who Modify Their Bodies With Cybernetic Enhancements Are Known As?

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How to Find a Video’s Bitrate in Windows and macOS

The bitrate of a video governs how much detail a video can display. Even a high resolution video with a low bitrate will look blocky and distorted. Fortunately, it’s easy to find out the bitrate of any video on Windows or macOS.

How to Check a Video’s Bitrate In VLC

A video’s bitrate is a key piece of information in determining the quality of said video. Even if two videos have the same resolution, a lower bitrate is going to result in less detail and clarity. Here’s how to see the bitrate of any video you’re playing in real time with VLC.

The Best Online Retailers for Cheap Imported Gadgets

Unless you regularly peruse the less—ahem—mainstream portions of the web’s personal electronics sites, you might not be very familiar with the booming low-price gadget trade. Manufacturers in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea are more than willing to offer phones, tablets, music players, and even full PCs to buyers whose budgets won’t stretch to the big brand names.

How to Check if Your Extensions Will Stop Working With Firefox 57

With Firefox 57, scheduled for release in November 14, 2017, Mozilla will end support for legacy extensions, and only support newer WebExtensions. Here’s how to check if your extensions will stop working—and how to keep using them after November, if you need to.

How to Take Good Photos of the Moon

The moon is a tricky subject to photograph. When you step outside on the night of a full moon, it looks huge, dominating the sky. But then you take a quick photo and…it’s a small indistinct white blob.

Is It Worth Upgrading to the Apple Watch Series 3?

It only seems like yesterday when Apple first announced the Apple Watch, but we’re now on the third generation (officially named Apple Watch Series 3). The big question, though, is whether or not you should upgrade your current Apple Watch to the latest and greatest.

Is It Worth Upgrading to the Apple TV 4K?

The fourth-generation Apple TV was a big step up from previous generations, but now that 4K is becoming more popular, Apple is joining the party with its new Apple TV 4K. However, should you upgrade your current fourth-gen Apple TV to the new one?

Is It Worth Upgrading to the iPhone 8, or iPhone X?

As summer turns to autumn, the leaves turn brown and the new iPhone is announced. At How-To Geek, we don’t get outside much, so we’re obviously more interested in the new iPhones than whatever trees are doing. Apple introduces the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and the iPhone X. We’re not going to address the profoundly weird start to the keynote, so the big question is: should you upgrade?

What’s New in iOS 11 for iPhone and iPad, Arriving September 19, 2017

iOS 11 is on its way, and Apple announced a number of new features and changes at WWDC 2017 this year. From improvements to Messages and Apple Pay to powerful multitasking and file management on the iPad, here are the best new features. iOS 11 will be released on September 19, 2017, but you can play with it yourself today if you install the iOS 11 public beta.

Nest vs. Ecobee3 vs. Honeywell Lyric: Which Smart Thermostat Should You Buy?

When it comes to smart thermostats, there’s a handful to choose from, but the big three that stand out are the Nest, Ecobee4, and Honeywell Lyric Round. We’ve tried out all three to see which one has the upper edge, and where their features differ.

Geek Trivia: The Majority Of Expired Polaroid Film Cartridges Fail Because Of?

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What Is “coreaudiod,” and Why Is It Running on My Mac?

So you saw something called “coreaudiod” while browsing Activity Monitor. What does that do, and could it be causing problems?

How to Fix Windows and Linux Showing Different Times When Dual Booting

Your computer stores the time in a hardware clock on its motherboard. The clock keeps track of time, even when the computer is off. By default, Windows assumes the time is stored in local time, while Linux assumes the time is stored in UTC time and applies an offset. This leads to one of your operating systems showing the wrong time in a dual boot situation.

8 Reasons to Install LineageOS on Your Android Device

CyanogenMod was formerly the most popular custom ROM for Android devices. Unfortunately, a short-lived effort at making the ROM the basis of a business-to-business software company sank the entire CyanogenMod team and its former assets, including the name and community servers. But all isn’t lost: many of the original developers have jumped into the new LineageOS project—a direct follow-up to CyanogenMod. While the extensive device support isn’t quite what it used to be, Lineage is still the first stop for up-to-date community ROMs for many users.

How to Use Android Oreo’s New Notification Channels for Ultra-Granular Notification Customization

Google has done a lot in the more recent versions of Android to give users a way to customize notifications, but nothing even comes close to Oreo’s new Notification Channels. These new settings let you take notifications to a whole new level.

How to Activate Twitter’s Night Mode

Twitter has a dark mode on the web and in its apps, where the bright whites are replaced with deep blues. Ostensibly, this makes Twitter easier to use in low-light environments since it’s less harsh on your eyes. Personally, I just think it makes Twitter look really cool. Here’s how to activate it.

The Cheapest Way to Stream TV: Rotate Your Subscriptions

Ever since the dawn of cable bundles, all we viewers have ever wanted is to pay for just the shows that we want to watch. Now that everyone and their parent company has a streaming subscription, you can sort of do that…but if you subscribe to Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, HBO Now, and all of the other ones you want, it could end up costing as much as cable. Fortunately, there’s a solution: rotate your subscriptions.

How to Get Premium Hard Drives for Cheap by “Shucking” External Drives

Every now and then, you come across something that sounds way too good to be true, but against the odds, it actually works. Buying cheap external hard drives, cracking them open, and getting more expensive hard drives for your effort is one of those things.

What Is “Spooler SubSystem App” (spoolsv.exe), and Why Is It Running on My PC?

If you poke around in your Task Manager, you’ll likely see an process named “Spooler SubSystem App”, “Print Spooler”, or spoolsv.exe. This process is a normal part of Windows and handles printing. If this process consistently using a high amount of CPU resources on your system, there’s a problem.

Geek Trivia: The Phone Books On Which Of These Islands Include Nicknames For Citizens?

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How to Get the Old Volume Control Back on Windows 10

Windows 10 provides no way to restore Windows 7’s Aero, Windows Media Center, or other much-loved features. But, for some reason, there is a hidden registry setting that will re-enable Windows 7’s old volume control interface on Windows 10.

How to Remove a Device From Your Netflix Downloads Allotment

Netflix lets you download some of its shows to your device so you can keep watching when you’re on a plane, stuck in the subway, or just don’t want to use up your mobile data. However, you can only download shows on up to four devices. If you ever need to add another, you’ll need to deauthorize one first. Here’s how to do that.

How to Connect an Xbox One Controller to Windows with Bluetooth

The latest version of the Xbox controller—the one included with the Xbox One S and the upcoming One X—includes Bluetooth! Microsoft finally included Bluetooth along with the older proprietary Xbox wireless connection, so Windows users can hook it up without an extra dongle. Here’s how to connect it to your Bluetooth-equipped laptop or desktop.

How to Block Text Messages from a Certain Number on an iPhone

Sometimes you get spam messages on your phone. Sometimes people are annoying. Sometimes you just need to block people. The good news is doing that on your iPhone is easy.

How to Find Compatible Lenses for Your Canon or Nikon Camera

Buying lenses for your camera isn’t always simple. The two major manufacturers, Canon and Nikon, both have different options depending on whether you’re getting a lens for a full-frame or crop sensor camera. Even if you’ve got a Canon camera, you can’t be sure that any Canon lens will work.

How Much Free Space Should You Leave on Your Windows PC?

It’s a bad idea to fill a Windows system drive completely full, and this could cause a variety of problems. But just how much empty space do you really need?

Geek Trivia: The English Dialects Found Within Ireland Are Collectively Referred To As?

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How to Stream Every NFL Game Live, Without Cable

Fall is on its way, which can mean only one thing: football is back! Wouldn’t it be nice if you could watch whatever NFL game you want without being subject to the whims of your local cable company, though?

Three Ways Chromebooks Are Better Than PCs or Macs

Look, I’m not trying to start a war here, but hear me out: Chromebooks are awesome. In fact, I prefer mine to my Windows PC for nearly every use. Why? Because I think it’s a better system. Let’s talk about why.

Geek Trivia: The Cinnabar Moth Has Been Actively Introduced To Regions As A Tool For Controlling?

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Four Simple Timers That Remind You to Take Breaks from Your Computer

Whether you work at your computer or just enjoy the occasional long gaming session, it’s important to take breaks regularly. Getting up to take a walk, grab a coffee, or do some stretches helps reduce eye strain, prevent repetitive strain injury (RSI), and is otherwise just plain good for you. And one study from the University of Illionoise at Urbana-Champaign shows that breaks might even enhance productivity by increasing focus.

How to Remove HomeKit Devicesfrom Your Apple HomeKit Home

Whether you no longer have the HomeKit accessory in question or simply need to remove a phantom entry in your HomeKit home, it’s simple to do so—if you know where to look. Let’s remove a HomeKit device now and guide you through the process.

Geek Trivia: The Highway Safety Feature Known As A “Rumble Strip” Was First Introduced In?

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The Best Free Video Channels for Your Roku

If you’ve got a Roku, odds are you’ve already connected your Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon account for streaming. You probably know that you can buy movies and TV episodes on other services too, like Google Play. But there is a lot of free content on the Roku too…if you know where to look.

How to Offer or Ask For Help During An Emergency With Facebook

Facebook’s Safety Check is most well known for letting people know you’re safe during an emergency. However, if you’re in the affected area of a disaster and you need help or want to offer to help others, you can find people using it, too. Here’s how to find help or volunteer.

How to Disable the “Is Displaying Over Other Apps” Notification on Android Oreo

Back in Android Marshmallow, Google introduced a feature that allowed apps to display on top of other apps. Things like Facebook Messenger and Twilight take advantage of this feature to be able to essentially run on-screen at the same time as other foreground applications.

The Best Unofficial Twitter Apps for Android

Services that offer public APIs often get their best tools from third-party developers. Social platform Twitter is no exception: almost anyone who uses Twitter professionally will have TweetDeck on their desktop, which started out as an independent tool before Twitter acquired the project.

What Is the System Reserved Partition and Can You Delete It?

Windows 7, 8, and 10 create a special “System Reserved” partition when you install them on a clean disk. Windows doesn’t normally assign a drive letter to these partitions, so you’ll only see them when you use Disk Management or similar utility.

How to Require Moderator Approval for Posts in Your Facebook Group

By default, any member can post anything they want in your Facebook Groups. This means they could post horribly offensive content, and while you can remove it, it might be a while before you get to it.

How Do Windows Defender’s “Automatic Sample Submission” and “Cloud-Based Protection” Work?

Windows 10’s integrated Windows Defender antivirus has some “cloud” features, like other modern antivirus applications. By default, Windows automatically uploads some suspicious-looking files and reports data about suspicious activity so new threats can be detected and blocked as quickly as possible.

Instantly Search Your Terminal History With a Keyboard Shortcut

Everyone who regularly uses the command line has at least one long string they type regularly. Instead of entering all that again and again, quickly search your history to find the complete command.

Equifax Got Hacked: How to Stop Identity Thieves from Opening Accounts in Your Name

Everybody is getting hacked left and right. Anthem lost 80 million records in 2015. The US government got hacked and lost personal data for millions, all the way down to fingerprint data. Now Equifax, a credit bureau, got hacked. So how can you protect yourself from criminals opening accounts in your name?

How to Disable the “Is Running in the Background” Notification on Android Oreo

If you have a Nexus or Pixel device running Oreo, you’ve likely seen the “[app name] is running in the background” notification. While useful, this is also quite annoying. Fortunately, a new app will remove this notification permanently.

Geek Trivia: The Original Term Used To Describe Microorganisms Was?

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How to Mark Yourself “Safe” On Facebook During an Emergency

Whenever there’s a natural disaster, your friends and family will want to know that you’re safe. Facebook has tried to make this easier with its Safety Check feature. Here’s how to let everyone you know on Facebook that you’re safe with a couple clicks, instead of messaging everyone individually.

How to See If Your Facebook Friends Are Safe During an Emergency

Facebook’s Safety Check feature lets you check in during an emergency to confirm you’re safe. If you have friends or family in an area that you haven’t heard from, though, you may want to ask them directly. Here’s how to ask someone to check in with the Safety Check feature.

The Cheapest Ways to Stream NFL Football (Without Cable)

Football season is almost upon us. That means one thing: expensive cable or satellite TV packages. Okay, it also means beer commercials and overpriced stadium tickets and quarterbacks trying to sell you car insurance. But in terms of immediate costs, premium TV is up there.

How to Play Any Windows Game In Full Screen Borderless Windowed Mode

If you’re a regular PC gamer, you know that playing a game in full screen mode can sometimes be a frustrating experience. Switching to a background program, using a second monitor, or suddenly getting a notification that takes focus can mess up your game. Playing the game in a window fixes these problems, but it’s less immersive and doesn’t use your monitor’s full space effectively.

How to Block Text Messages from a Certain Number on Android

Look, we all get annoying text messages from time to time. Maybe it’s spam, maybe it’s from someone you don’t want to talk to, maybe it’s some other third thing. The point is, you don’t want to get them. So let’s block ’em.

How to Make Someone an Admin or Moderator in Your Facebook Group

If you’ve made a Facebook Group and it’s turned into an active community, you might want to bring someone else in to help you moderate and remove offensive comments. Here’s how.

Should You Get an “Ultra HD” 4K TV?

Walk through any electronics showroom and most TVs you see will be some form of “Ultra HD” 4K. There are plenty of models available, and they’re cheaper than ever. But should you buy one?

How to Watch Live TV On Your Computer, Game Console, and Other Devices with the HDHomeRun

There’s nothing quite like free TV with the help of an antenna. But wouldn’t it be nice if you could get that live TV stream on your computer, or tablet, or Xbox? With a simple piece of hardware, you can.

How to Automatically Mute New Tabs in Chrome and Firefox

Let’s say you’re trying to be quiet, browsing the internet at home, work, or a public space. You’re secretly filled with dread that anything you click will open a new tab with an autoplay video or blare an obnoxious audio ad. End that fear forever by keeping all your new tabs muted by default.

Geek Trivia: Which Of These Caterpillars, Found Throughout The Southeastern U.S., Is Covered In Stinging Hairs?

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tldr Converts man Pages Into Concise, Plain-English Explanations

Command line users know to how read the manual: type “man” followed by the name of a command—you’ll see a detailed explanation. These manuals are useful but verbose, using hundreds of words to explain every detail of a command.

How to Open Word, Excel, or PowerPoint in Safe Mode

Microsoft Office applications have a built-in Safe Mode feature. This helps when you can’t use Office normally. Perhaps Word crashes every time you open it, or maybe Excel crashes when you open a single file. You can start the application in Safe Mode and there’s a good chance it will work normally.

Why Can I Only Burn 80 Minutes of Music to a CD if My MP3s Take Up Less Than 700MB of Space?

When burning a CD, you can either burn it as a data disc or an audio CD. A data CD can hold up to 700 MB, while an audio CD can hold 80 minutes of sound. If you have 200 MB of MP3 files that add up to three hours of music, you can still only burn 80 minutes to the disc. Why is that?

How to Limit Background Activity for Apps in Android Oreo to Save Battery Life

Google has done a lot to better manage Android’s background resource usage over the last few updates, and Oreo brings another enhancement to the table with Background Execution Limits. Simply, this limits what an app can do when running in the background—both in resources used and broadcasts requested.

What Is the Best Lens for Landscape Photography?

Landscapes are one of the most popular subjects to shoot. Look out any window, and there’s something to photograph. It might not be the most majestic landscape, but there’s probably a photo to be made.

How Long Do Solid State Drives Really Last?

When large-scale flash storage first came to the consumer market as an alternative to conventional hard drives, the biggest concern (aside from price) was longevity. Tech fans had a pretty good idea of the general reliability of hard drives, but SSDs were still something of a wild card.

Geek Trivia: The Largest Known Freshwater Flood In All Of History Is Known As The?

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How to Create Custom Trackpad Gestures on Your Mac With BetterTouchTool

One of the best things about MacBooks are the many trackpad gestures you can use. You can quickly look something up, zoom in and out, change desktops, and so much more.

How to Put a Hold On Your Hulu Subscription Without Canceling

Hulu’s library is becoming more worthwhile as it keeps taking beloved shows from Netflix. Unlike most other subscription services, Hulu lets you take a temporary break for up to twelve weeks without canceling your subscription entirely. Here’s how to put a temporary hold on your account.

How to Use (or Disable) Picture-in-Picture Mode in Android Oreo

Back many moons ago—like maybe two years—Google introduced a sort of picture-in-picture mode in the YouTube app. It’s such a cool feature, they company figured why not make this something you can use anywhere in Android? So with Oreo, they did that. It’s neat.

How to Change Your Group’s Privacy on Facebook

Groups are one of Facebook’s best features. They’re really handy for anyone who wants to run a club or interact with people who share the same hobbies.

How to Create a Full-Disk Backup of Your PC with Macrium Reflect

Microsoft announced that System Image Backups will be deprecated in Windows 10’s Fall Creators Update. The feature is still available, but it is no longer actively being developed and may be removed in a future release of Windows 10. Instead, Microsoft recommends you use a third-party tool to create full system images of your PC.

Geek Trivia: The Experience Of Transitioning Between Wakefulness And Sleep Is Called?

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How to Remove Someone From Your Facebook Group

Facebook Groups are meant to be communities for people with something in common to come together. Sadly, they can also draw the attention of trolls.

No Bars? Here’s Everything That Can Affect Your Cellular Signal Strength

Cell signal is weird. One moment you could have five bars, but walk a few feet and it drops to two. In my house, the signal downstairs is awful, but it’s perfect upstairs. There’s a lot going on with cell reception, so let’s look at some of the main factors that affect it.

Geek Trivia: The Iconic Opening Music In 2001: A Space Odyssey Is From Which Of These Classical Compositions?

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Why Does Every PC Game Install Its Own Copy of DirectX?

DirectX is part of the Windows operating system. So why does it seem like every PC game you install from Steam, Origin, or elsewhere installs its own copy of DirectX?

Geek Trivia: Which Of These Scientists, Independently From Charles Darwin, Conceived The Theory Of Evolution?

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Which Files Should You Back Up On Your Windows PC?

Your PC’s hard drive could fail tomorrow, or a software bug could erase your files, so backups are critical. But you don’t need to back up all the files on your PC. That would just waste space and make your backups take longer to complete.

How to Play Music on Multiple Amazon Echo Speakers (like a Sonos)

Amazon is a little late to the whole-house audio party. Ecosystems like AirPlay and Sonos had them beat for a while, but Amazon has finally added the ability to play music on multiple Echos at once. Read on as we show you how to configure a whole-house system using your Echo speakers.

Nest Thermostat E vs. Nest Thermostat: What’s the Difference?

Nest has unveiled it’s latest addition to its smart thermostat lineup, known as the Nest Thermostat E. The original Nest Thermostat is still available and will continue to sell alongside the new model, but what does the Nest Thermostat E bring to the table? Here’s what you need to know.

Geek Trivia: Which State Has The Highest Accuracy In Predicting Presidential Winners?

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How to Change the Appearance of Netflix’s Subtitles

Netflix has decent subtitles, but sometimes they can be hard to read if they appear over a light background, or if your eyesight isn’t what it used to be. Fortunately, you can customize those subtitles to make them look however you want. Here’s how to change their size, font, color, background, and more.

Former Galaxy Note 7 Owners Can Get a Great Deal On a Note 8

The Galaxy Note 7 (no, I’m not going to call it the “Note7” no matter how many times the brand managers email me) was something of a disaster for Samsung. Those fans who put down the better part of a thousand bucks for the flagship phone a year ago were disheartened to learn that their top-of-the-line gadgets had an unusually high chance of melting through their pockets. It was, to put it lightly, a bummer.

How to Take a Screenshot on Almost Any Device

You’re a grownup. You know how to use a computer and a phone. So when it’s time to show off some portion of your screen, don’t try to take a photo of it—that’s kid’s stuff, and it looks like junk anyway. Just about every modern operating system has some method of saving what’s on your screen, and most of them make it pretty easy. Keep this simple guide bookmarked for every method you’ll ever need.

Tips for Horizon Zero Dawn I Learned from My First Playthrough

Horizon Zero Dawn is the best PlayStation game of 2017. I recently finished my first playthrough and have spent a lot of time just thinking about what an incredible game it really is. Let’s talk about it.

How to Remove a Post from a Facebook Group

If someone is posting abusive messages in a Facebook Group you manage, you’ll want to remove it. It’s quick and simple to do, so here’s how.

How to Check Your iPhone’s Battery Health

iOS includes several useful tools for displaying how much battery life your iPhone has left, as well as which apps are consuming the most of your battery. However, none of these tools actually tell you anything about your battery’s long-term health, which is just as important.