Wednesday, February 28, 2018
How to Prevent Accidental Touches on the HomePod
The touchpad on top of the HomePod can be pretty sensitive, making it likely you’ll trigger something accidentally if you haven’t already. There is a way to prevent accidental touches, though.
Geek Trivia: Which Of These Bowling Variants Is Extremely Popular In Eastern Canada And The New England Area?
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Get Rid of the Annoying Microsoft OneDrive Sign In Popup
Every time you reboot your Windows 10 PC, Microsoft OneDrive bugs you to login or create an account. But what if you don’t want to? What if you want it to go away, forever? Microsoft doesn’t give you that option, but we have a way to disable it for good.
How To Adjust Column Size in Microsoft Word
When you create multiple columns in Word, they default to a set width. It’s easy to change that default width for each column. Let’s look at two ways you can do that.
What is the Latest Version of Windows 10?
The latest version of Windows 10 is the Fall Creators Update—version “1709”—and was released in September 2017. Microsoft releases new major updates every six months.
How to Turn Off Smart Punctuation on Your iPhone and iPad
Smart punctuation is an iOS feature that automatically turns certain generic punctuation marks like straight quotes into better ones like curly quotes. The problem is that smart punctuation doesn’t always play nice with the internet.
Easier Bluetooth Pairing is Finally Coming to Android and Windows
Google and Microsoft want pairing a Bluetooth device with an Android or Windows PC to be as easy as pairing AirPods with an iPhone. This feature is already available, but only on a few devices so far.
Tuesday, February 27, 2018
How to Install and Set Up Eufy Lumos Wi-Fi Smart Bulbs
If you want smart lights in your house, but aren’t a fan of adding yet another smarthome hub to the mix, these Eufy Lumos smart bulbs use Wi-Fi and don’t require a hub. Here’s how to set them up.
Geek Trivia: A Substitute For Legal Tender Used For Commerce Is Called?
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6 Best Alarm Clocks for Deep Sleepers
It’s tough to wake up in the mornings sometimes. Your bed is cozy and warm, and who really wants to face the working day every day?
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How to Print or Save a Directory Listing to a File in Windows
Occasionally, you might want to print or save a list of the files in a directory. Windows doesn’t feature a simple way to do this from its interface, but it’s not too hard to accomplish.
The First-Gen Apple TV Will Lose iTunes Access Starting In May
If you were an early adopter of the Apple TV, it’s long past time for an upgrade.
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Google’s Reply App Will Soon Bring Smart Replies to Other Apps
A rather intelligent feature named Smart Replies has made its way to various Google apps, including Gmail, recently. Reply is a standalone app that brings smart replies to many different messaging apps on Android.
What’s Different in Bluetooth 5.0?
Modern smartphones and other devices, from the iPhone 8 and iPhone X to the Samsung Galaxy S8, advertise support for “Bluetooth 5.0” on their specifications list. Here’s what’s new in the latest and greatest version of Bluetooth.
KitSound Voice One Speaker Review: It’s An Open Ended Amazon Echo Alternative
If you’re looking for a whole house audio solution that offers a higher degree of flexibility than you’ll find by sticking strictly…
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How to Move Multiple Apps at Once on iOS
Apple doesn’t really believe in detailed instruction manuals, so some handy tricks slip through the cracks. One such trick we’ve recently discovered is that you can move multiple app icons at once on iOS. Here’s how.
How to Disable Your iPhone’s CPU Throttling in iOS 11.3
Apple has come under fire recently for admitting that they throttle CPU speeds on iPhones with old batteries. After a fair amount of pressure from both the media and customers, the company is including a way to disable this throttling in iOS 11.3, which should be available in the next few weeks.
Monday, February 26, 2018
Samsung Galaxy S8 vs Galaxy S9: Is It Worth Upgrading?
The Galaxy S9 and S9+ are officially official, and there’s a lot to take in. They seem to be mostly incremental updates over their predecessors, so the question on a lot of people’s minds: is it worth upgrading if you already have the S8?
Should You Buy Apple’s HomePod?
The $350 HomePod smart speaker is Apple’s extremely-late answer to Amazon’s Echo and Google’s Home voice assistant speakers, but is it a product that’s worth your hard-earned cash?
Geek Trivia: In 1983, Which One Of These Product Categories Was Gutted By A Market Crash?
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7 Touch Screen Friendly Gloves For Every Occasion
Winter is hanging on for many of us and by now, you’re probably wishing you’d invested in a nice pair of gloves.
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Samsung’s Next Flagships, the Galaxy S9 and 9+, Are All About That Camera
Over the weekend, Samsung announced the next in its line of flagship Android phones, the Galaxy S9 and 9+.
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How to Edit Your Pictures Using macOS’ Photos
Lots of Mac users use Photos for sorting and browsing photo collections. It syncs easily with your iPhone, recognizes faces, and even sorts your photos into Memories. What you might not know is that Photos is also now a decent tool for editing photos.
How to Use a Chromecast as a Quick Information Dashboard
If you’ve got a Google Chromecast, why not make mornings easier by turning your TV into a dashboard that shows you things like local weather and traffic, news, and even your to-do list?
Google Assistant’s Routines Will Soon Automate Multiple Commands
How nice would it be to walk through the front door and say “Hey Google, I’m home” to have the lights turn on, the thermostat set, and the TV turn on and fire up Netflix? With the upcoming “Routines” feature for Google Assistant, that will be a reality.
What is a Color Profile?
Color profiles define the colors we capture with our cameras and see on our displays. They control what colors are used and help provide consistency between devices.
How to Check if Your Password Has Been Stolen
Many websites have leaked passwords. Attackers can download databases of usernames and passwords and use them to “hack” your accounts. This is why you shouldn’t reuse passwords for important websites, because a leak by one site can give attackers everything they need to sign into other accounts.
Sunday, February 25, 2018
Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ Announced: Here’s Everything You Need to Know
Samsung just announced what will undoubtedly be the most popular Android smartphone for the year: the Galaxy S9. Like its predecessor, it’s available in two variants with the S9 and the S9+. Let’s talk about ’em.
Geek Trivia: The Filming Location Of Which Of These 1990s TV Shows Was A Closely Guarded Secret?
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How to See What Packages and Mail You Have Coming Before It Arrives
The United States Postal Service, UPS, and FedEx all offer online dashboards where you can see exactly what packages (and letters, in the case of the US Postal Service) are scheduled to arrive at your address. They’ll even email and send you text message notifications so you can stay on top of things.
Saturday, February 24, 2018
Geek Trivia: Which Of These Things Did Sailors Throw Overboard To Calm Stormy Seas?
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How to Set Up and Optimize the Steam Link for In-Home Game Streaming
Valve’s Steam Link is a sleek, easy way to stream games from your PC to a TV elsewhere in your home. You connect the Steam Link to your PC via HDMI, connect a controller, and play. It uses Steam In-Home Streaming, which you can use with any PC, but the Steam Link offers a cheap, optimized streaming receiver you can connect to your TV.
Friday, February 23, 2018
How to Use Both Outlet Receptacles with a Bulky Smart Plug
Smart plugs are great little devices that can turn ordinary appliances into smart products, letting you control them from your phone or with your voice over Alexa or Google Assistant. But unfortunately, many smart plugs take up the space of two outlets.
Geek Trivia: In 2012 Canadian Thieves Stole Millions Of Dollars Worth Of Product From?
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How To Use Excel-Style Spreadsheets in Microsoft Word
Like peanut butter and chocolate, a word processor with some basic spreadsheet chops makes a fantastic combination. When you want some rather easy number-crunching embedded in an otherwise ordinary text document, Microsoft Word has you covered, thanks to baked-in functionality from its sister program Excel.
Light Dims Are the Perfect Solution to Blindingly Bright Gadget LEDs
Whether you have a few or a few dozen gadgets in your house there’s one thing that’s a practical guarantee: at least one or more o…
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How to Monitor Your Android Device’s Battery Health
Battery health is a big deal—perhaps now more than ever, with the whole iPhone slowdown debacle. While that in itself doesn’t necessarily have any bearing on Android phones, keeping your device’s battery health in mind is never a bad idea.
Why Your Facebook Photos Look So Bad (And What You Can Do About It)
Facebook is a popular platform for sharing photos, even though it’s not a very good one. They prioritize fast loading images over high quality ones. You can’t stop it from happening, but you can minimize the quality loss.
Why Does NVIDIA Store Gigabytes of Installer Files On Your Hard Drive?
If you’re a gamer (or just a PC user) with NVIDIA graphics, NVIDIA’s drivers are probably wasting gigabytes of storage on your hard drive. NVIDIA leaves old installer files buried on your hard drive until you get annoyed and manually delete them…if you even realize you need to.
Thursday, February 22, 2018
How to Send GIFs in iMessage
You’ve always been able to send static images to other people through iMessage, but you might not have known that you can also send animated GIFs as well.
Geek Trivia: The Longest Song To Make It Into The Top 10 Billboard Hits Is?
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Facebook Now Lets You Join Voice and Video Calls Already In Progress
Facebook has quickly become one of the de facto ways to keep up with your family, simply because everyone’s on it.
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How to Sum Numbers Across Different Tables in LibreOffice Writer
LibreOffice Writer can handle some of the very basic tools that are part of Calc (the LibreOffice version of Microsoft Excel) with its Table function. For example, to sum up the contents of multiple cells and place the total in a new cell, you use the exact same formula, “=sum<[cellstart]:[cellfinish]>.
How to Get Free Movie Rentals and Other Rewards from Your Chromecast or Google Home
Google has done a good job making a name for itself in the hardware game, and I’m not talking about the Pixel phones here—I’m talking about Chromecast and Google Home. Both devices are useful, affordable, and among the best at what they do.
8 Fun Games You Can Play Directly In iMessage
The iMessage overhaul in iOS 10 revolutionized how many iOS owners communicated with each other.
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How to Configure Bitmoji and Snapchat
If you’ve used Snapchat, you’ll probably have noticed that some of your friends have a cartoon profile picture that they can also include in different Snaps. This is a “Bitmoji”. Lets look at how to set one up to use with Snapchat.
Why You Shouldn’t Use Firefox Clones Like Waterfox, Pale Moon, or Basilisk
Mozilla Firefox is an open source project, so anyone can take its code, modify it, and release a new browser. That’s what Waterfox, Pale Moon, and Basilisk are—alternative browsers based on the Firefox code. But we recommend against using any of them.
Wednesday, February 21, 2018
Orbit Card Review: The World’s Thinnest Bluetooth Tracker Is Ridiculously Thin
There’s no shortage of Bluetooth trackers on the market, but the vast majority of them are chunky key fob like affairs.
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How to Install and Set Up the Lutron Caseta Dimmer Switch Starter Kit
Smart bulbs aren’t the only way to get remote-controlled lights in your house. You can also install smart light switches and use them with any bulbs. Here’s how to install and set up the Lutron Caseta Dimmer Switch Starter Kit.
Geek Trivia: The First CCTV System Was Installed To Observe?
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AT&T Announces Plan to Bring 5G to Dallas, Waco, and Atlanta
It’s that time of decade again. Time for another network upgrade from your cell provider.
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How to Quickly Create a Text File Using the Command Line in Linux
If you’re a keyboard person, you can accomplish a lot of things just using the Linux command line. For example, there are a few easy-to-use methods for creating text files, should you need to do so.
How to Use Custom Styles in LibreOffice Writer
If you’re using the free and open source LibreOffice suite of programs, your word processor is probably way more powerful than it needs to be. Writer has at least as many standard features as the paid Microsoft Word, and getting more acquainted with some of them can help dramatically streamline your workflow. In other words, spend a little time setting stuff up and you’ll fly through your documents like a 60WPM Superman.
How to Run Linux Apps on a Chromebook Without Opening a Full Linux Window
If you’re looking to get a little more versatility out of your Chromebook, installing Crouton to get a full Linux desktop is a great way to do it. But you don’t have to access the full desktop every time you want to run a Linux app—you can do it right from Chrome OS, too.
How to Personalize Facebook Messenger’s Chats
Facebook Messenger is one of Facebook’s better features. You might not realize that you can customize the nicknames, colors, and the “Like” emoji of any of your Facebook Messenger Chats.
What Are All Those NVIDIA Processes Running in the Background?
If you’ve installed NVIDIA’s GeForce Experience software, you’ll see quite a few NVIDIA processes running in the background on your PC. We counted ten separate processes in our Windows Task Manager. But what do they all do?
Tuesday, February 20, 2018
How to Set Alarms and Timers on the HomePod
The HomePod isn’t just a pretty speaker. You can also perform a few tasks with it, like set alarms and timers. Here’s how.
Geek Trivia: The Oldest Company Logo In Continuous Use Belongs To?
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Those Ugly Racing-Style Gaming Chairs Are So Dang Comfortable
If you’ve ever watched a Twitch stream, walked into a computer store, or have a really die-hard PC gamer friend, you’ve probably se…
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How to Clear or Disable the Recent Documents List in Microsoft Word 2016
When you open Microsoft Word, a list of recently-opened documents appears on the left side of the screen. You can clear documents from this list or, if you’d rather not see recent documents at all, disable the list entirely.
How to Add an AirDrop Icon to Your macOS Dock
You know you can use AirDrop to quickly share files between Macs and iOS devices, but on the Mac, Airdrop is kind of hidden. There’s an icon in the sidebar of the Finder, and that’s it.
How to Control Your Roku with Google Home’s Voice Assistant
If you’re a Google Home user, you probably love the idea of controlling as many things as possible in your house with just your voice. The thing is, if you’re also a Roku user, it can leave a huge disconnect in your “Hey Google, <do the thing with the TV>” experience.
How Does the Internet Work?
Everyone’s talking about the internet and whether, or how, it should be regulated. But not enough people know how the internet actually works—or what exactly the internet is.
Monday, February 19, 2018
Google Android App Adds New Screenshot Editing Tools
When you take a screenshot on your phone, you’re probably doing it to share some information with someone else.
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Geek Trivia: The First Color Screen Handheld Game Console Was The?
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6 Mobile Apps for Creating GIFs On the Go
Keen to use plenty of GIFs in your text conversations, social media interactions, or even your work?
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How to Disable and Customize Facebook’s Notifications, Texts, and Emails
Facebook is really keen on keeping you on their platform. One of the ways they do that is by sending you notifications whenever the tiniest thing happens. And you won’t just see them on the site—Facebook will also notify you by email, with mobile push notifications, and even with text messages.
How to Choose the Best (and Fastest) Alternative DNS Server
Your internet service provider offers its own DNS servers, which help you turn websites like www.howtogeek.com into their respective IP addresses. Your devices use those by default, but you can set your own preferred DNS servers for a bit of improved speed.
Sunday, February 18, 2018
Geek Trivia: Which Of These Technology Terms Is Made Up And Not A Cultural Reference Or Portmanteau?
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How to Get the Most Out of Your Chromebook
Chromebooks are fantastic little devices—they’re simple enough for nearly anyone to use, and often come in at prices a fraction of Windows laptops or MacBooks. Whether you’re a Chromebook veteran or a first-time buyer, here are some tips and tricks to help you get the most out of your machine.
Saturday, February 17, 2018
Geek Trivia: In The Medieval Era, All Beers Had A Strong Taste Of?
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It’s Time to Banish Your Screens From the Bedroom
Can’t get to sleep? You might as well pick up your phone and scroll through Instagram for a bit, then maybe Facebook, and what was that blog with the funny pictures you used to look at back in the day, does it still exist? Oh yeah there’s like five years of updates here, let’s scroll through that for a bit, just one more page of posts, and…it’s morning.
Friday, February 16, 2018
How to Customize or Disable Siri on the HomePod
While it’s not the main selling point of the HomePod, Siri capabilities allow you to control the speaker using your voice without having to pull out your phone every time. Here’s how to customize Siri on the HomePod (or just disable it entirely).
How to Bring Back the “View Image” Button In Google Image Search
Google’s image-based search engine has been a staple of the internet for more than a decade. But this morning it got a little less useful: in addition to making the reverse image search tool harder to find, the “Show Image” button has disappeared.
How to Use and Customize the Windows 10 Action Center
With the Action Center, Windows 10 finally provides a central place for notifications and quick actions to live. Here’s how to use and customize it.
8 Unique Sticker Packs to Customize Your iMessage Experience
Every since the iMessage overhaul in iOS 10 the entire iMessage platform is significantly more fun and flexible.
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How to Move to a Dedicated Camera After Using a Smartphone Camera
Last year, for the first time in five years, the number of cameras sold actually increased. While I’ve got nothing other than personal anecdote to back it up, I suspect that people are loving taking photos on their smartphones so much that some of them are actually deciding to buy a dedicated camera.
What’s the Difference Between the “System32” and “SysWOW64” Folders in Windows?
On 64-bit versions of Windows, you have two separate Program Files folders. But it doesn’t end there. You also have two separate system directories where DLL libraries and executables are stored: System32 and SysWOW64. Despite the names, System32 is full of 64-bit files and SysWOW64 is full of 32-bit files. So what gives?
Thursday, February 15, 2018
Geek Trivia: Before “Ghosting” Was Slang For Ignoring A Dating Partner, It Was Slang For?
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Geek Trivia: The Original Loopholes Weren’t Grey Areas In Laws Or Regulations But?
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How to Set Up Whole-House Parental Controls with OpenDNS
Your kids need internet access to do their homework, but that doesn’t mean you’re comfortable with them accessing everything online. There’s no technological substitute for proper adult supervision, but a free service called OpenDNS Family Shield makes it easy for parents to all block adult content with one simple tweak.
How to Disable Chrome’s New Ad Blocker (On Certain Sites or All Sites)
Google Chrome now has a built-in ad blocker, designed to get rid of the ads that are intrusive or otherwise annoying, but allow ads from sites that follow specific guidelines. If you’re not into the idea of letting your browser control the ads you see, however, you can disable it pretty easily.
Aukey 10W Wireless Fast Charger Review: A Speedy and Stylish Qi Charger for Your Nightstand or Office
If you’re shopping for a wireless charger for your smartphone you’ve likely discovered that your options are almost entirely black…
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How to Build a $35 Media Center with Kodi and the Raspberry Pi
If you’ve been holding off on setting up a Kodi-based media center computer because they’re loud, expensive, don’t fit in your media rack, the Raspberry Pi is your savior. For only $35 (plus a few accessories you may have lying around), you can get a small, efficient computer that can play all your media from one beautiful, couch-friendly interface.
Google Will Block Annoying Ads In Chrome Starting Today
Google makes its living off of ads, so it makes sense the company doesn’t like what people think of ads on the internet (which is to say…
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How to Match Colors on Your Multiple Monitors
If you’re anything like me, you love working on a big, beefy desktop PC with as many monitors as will fit on your big, beefy desk. And if you’re anything like me, it also drives you crazy when the colors and image settings on those monitors don’t match exactly.
How to Prevent Your HomePod from Creating White Rings on Your Wooden Furniture
Apple’s HomePod is an amazing speaker, but it comes at a price. Not just a dollar amount, but also the toll it could take on your finished wooden furniture. If you’ve discovered white rings appearing on your furniture (or have heard about this phenomenon and want to prevent it), here’s what you can do.
Logitech Pop Review: A Smart Switch for Your Smart Home Gadgets
Your smartphone can control a lot of things these days—your smart home lighting system, your thermostat, even your TV.
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How to Stop Facebook from Uploading Low-Quality Photos and Videos from Your Phone
Over the past few years, the quality of mobile cameras has become insane. Unfortunately, Facebook hasn’t quite caught up to this. By default, when you upload a photo to Facebook from your phone, it’s uploaded as a low resolution file. Here’s how to change that.
Hey Microsoft, Stop Installing Apps On My PC Without Asking
I’m getting sick of Windows 10’s auto-installing apps. Apps like Facebook are now showing up out of nowhere, and even displaying notifications begging for me to use them. I didn’t install the Facebook app, I didn’t give it permission to show notifications, and I’ve never even used it. So why is it bugging me?
Wednesday, February 14, 2018
How to Stop the HomePod from Reading Your Text Messages to Other People
While the HomePod is great for music, it can also do some other neat things, like read your text messages to you. Be careful, though, as anyone within earshot can ask Siri to read your text messages from your phone. Here’s how to disable that feature.
What Is a Phone “Port-Out” Scam, and How Can I Protect Myself?
You’d be forgiven if you’ve never heard of a phone “port-out” scam, because up until recently it wasn’t really a widely talked about issue. But it’s gotten serious enough that T-Mobile is sending warnings to many of its customers. Here’s a closer look at what this is and how to protect yourself from it.
Geek Trivia: In The Mid-1960s, There Was A Brief But Intense Fashion Fad Focused On Wearing?
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The Best Tools to Score Awesome Deals on Steam
There’s almost never a good reason to buy a Steam game for full price unless you have to have it the day it comes out.
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Why Ad Companies Love Google’s Ad Blocker, But Hate Apple’s Privacy Features
On February 15, Google Chrome will start blocking ads on intrusive sites, and mainstream ad companies aren’t particularly upset about it. In fact, they helped Google make this happen.
Skype Is Vulnerable to a Nasty Exploit: Switch to the Windows Store Version
If the desktop version of Skype is on your Windows computer, you’re vulnerable to a really nasty exploit. A flaw in Skype’s update tool could give attackers full control over your system, and Microsoft says there isn’t going to be a fix any time soon.
How to Change the Speed of (or Disable) Windows’ Taskbar Thumbnail Previews
When you hover your mouse over a Taskbar button for an app with open windows, a thumbnail preview of those windows pops up. By default, there is a slight delay before the preview appears. With a simple Registry edit, you can eliminate that delay, or even turn off those thumbnail previews entirely.
YouTube TV Is Getting More Channels, More Markets, More Expensive
YouTube TV is Google’s attempt to bring live television into your home, through the YouTube brand you already know and trust…
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How to Keep Track of Cosmetic and Event Items in Overwatch
Overwatch is pretty great. As a multiplayer team shooter, it does almost everything right: plenty of variety, fast-paced gameplay, free hero and map updates, and unlike its spiritual ancestor Team Fortress 2, all players get immediate access to every weapon and technique.
The Best Bargain Switch Games for Under $5
The Nintendo Switch is a great console with a bunch of fantastic games.
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How to Add Live TV to the NVIDIA SHIELD with an HD Antenna
It’s not much of a secret that you can get free TV by using an antenna to pull in nearby signals. But if you have an NVIDIA SHIELD, you can supercharge that experience by adding live TV to the SHIELD itself—and, for a small monthly fee, even add a full guide and DVR capabilities.
If You Live In the EU, You Probably Have a Better Gadget Warranty
The European Union has, in general, taken a far more hands-on approach to consumer rights than the US. If you’re in the EU, you are probably entitled to a lot more recourse than you might think when something goes wrong with your gadgets. It’s not just the one-year warranty the manufacturer gives you.
Perfect Computer Security Is a Myth. But It’s Still Important
Maybe you’ve heard it before: “Security is a myth.” It’s become a common refrain after a never-ending string of high-profile security breaches. If Fortune 500 companies with million dollar security budgets can’t lock things down, how can you?
Tuesday, February 13, 2018
Geek Trivia: The Slang Term “Ameritrash” Is Commonly Used In Which Of These Hobbies?
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How to Get TurboTax or H&R Block for Free with IRS Free File
If you watch television, browse the web, or even listen to the radio, you’ve heard them: tax preparation apps promising to help you file your taxes for free. Try to actually use those apps, however, and it doesn’t take long before they ask you for money.
How to Pair Multiple Android Wear Watches to a Single Phone
When it comes to “regular” wristwatches, a lot of people have different watches for different activities. It makes sense—a sporty watch for the gym, a nicer watch for the office, and a casual watch for everything else. If you want to live this life with Android Wear, hooking up multiple watches to your main phone is a breeze.
How to Autofill From a Password Manager on an iPhone or iPad
Everyone should use a password manager, and third-party password managers like LastPass, 1Password, or Dashlane work better on an iPhone or iPad than you might think. You can directly autofill passwords on websites and apps using a share sheet action. It’s just hidden by default.
Quiet Your PC’s Fans with Cheap In-Line Adapters
Unless you’re constantly playing with one of those fidget cubes, your gaming PC is probably the loudest piece of equipment in your home office that doesn’t actually have a speaker. You could completely rebuild your PC into a efficient, low-power, water-cooled statement of subtlety…or you could buy these in-line adapters for a quick and cheap alternative.
Check the Play Store’s Settings for Freebies You May Have Forgotten About
Google likes to give away free things to people who use its products—free books, free movies, free music, and a lot more. While you can find these offers in the Google Home app, once you’ve accepted a freebie, it’s attached to your Google account and easy to forget about if you don’t use it immediately.
The Best Stargazing Apps For Your Smartphone
Space, as a certain iconic TV franchise sagely observed, is the final frontier—but alas it’s a frontier not many of us will get a c…
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How to Tell If a Facebook Competition Is a Scam
A lot of Facebook Pages run competitions. Some of them are legitimate giveaways, while others are total scams designed to collect your personal information.
Why Is My Internet So Slow?
There are many reasons your Internet connection might appear slow. It could be a problem with your modem or router, Wi-Fi signal, signal strength on your cable line, devices on your network saturating your bandwidth, or even a slow DNS server. These troubleshooting steps will help you pin down the cause.
Don’t Use Facebook’s Onavo VPN: It’s Designed to Spy On You
You may have seen a new button in Facebook’s mobile app lately: under the Settings menu, a “Protect” option leads you to download an app called Onavo Protect. Don’t do it.
Monday, February 12, 2018
Geek Trivia: Which One Of These Common Idioms Was Originally An Advertising Slogan?
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Is AppleCare+ Worth It?
Every time you buy an iPhone (or an iPad, or a Mac, or even a new HomePod), Apple will ask you if you want to add AppleCare+ to your purchase. But is it worth it?
How to Connect to a VPN on a Chromebook
While not necessary for everyone, VPNs can be a crucial tool for online safety—especially if you use public Wi-Fi a lot. There are tons of one-click solutions out there that make it really easy to hit a toggle and activate a VPN, but for the most robust options, manual setup is key. Here’s how to do it on Chrome OS.
How to Easily View Recently Modified Files in Windows
Assuming you have it set up right, Windows Search is pretty powerful. Today, we’ll show you how to find files you’ve recently modified, and how to save those searches for quick access any time.
Why Do Old Game Consoles Look So Bad on Modern TVs?
Old game consoles are great. Not just because there are plenty of old games that are still worth playing, but because the simpler electronic designs of cartridge-based systems tend to be much more resistant to wear and tear than modern disc-based consoles, plenty of them are still around and in great working condition.
How to Sync Your Contacts Between All Your Devices: iPhone, Android, and the Web
How many times have you seen a Facebook post from a friend asking for numbers because they got a new phone and lost their contacts? Here’s how you can completely avoid new phone, who dis?—regardless of whether you use Android or iOS (or both).
How Do IP Addresses Work?
Every device connected to a network—computer, tablet, camera, whatever—needs a unique identifier so that other devices know how to reach it. In the world of TCP/IP networking, that identifier is the Internet Protocol (IP) address.
Sunday, February 11, 2018
Geek Trivia: Learning To Play Which Of These Instruments Helps With Sleep Apnea?
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What Are Progressive Web Apps?
Ever wish web apps behaved more like real apps? Progressive Web Apps are a new technology that’s aiming to make that happen.
Saturday, February 10, 2018
Geek Trivia: A Denier Is A Unit Of Measurement Used In?
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What Is HEVC H.265 Video, and Why Is It So Important for 4K Movies?
It’s taking a while for this new technology to become ubiquitous, but it’s happening—4K UHD Blu-rays use HEVC, VLC 3.0 makes HEVC and 4K videos more watchable on your PC, and the iPhone can even saved recorded video in HEVC to save storage space. But how does it work, and why is it so important for 4K video?
How to Fix a Blank White Screen When Setting Up the HomePod
Setting up the HomePod is pretty easy, and only takes a couple of minutes. However, if you’re coming across a mysterious blank white window during the setup process, here’s how to fix it.
How to Set Up the Apple HomePod
Apple’s HomePod smart speaker is finally here. If you bought one and are eager to get going, here’s how to set it up.
Friday, February 9, 2018
How to Remove a Smarthome Device from Alexa
Whether you’re getting rid of a smarthome device in your house or just don’t want to use Alexa with it anymore, here’s how to remove a smarthome product from your Alexa account.
Geek Trivia: Mixed Idioms With A Resulting Nonsenical Meaning Are Known As?
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Facebook Is Testing a Downvote Button, But Please Don’t Call It Dislike
For the longest time, Facebook has refused to create a Dislike button to counter its trademark Likes. And for good reason!
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How to Shrink Your PC Game Files With CompactGUI and Save Drive Space
Developers of PC games, you’re getting kind of sloppy. Game installations have ballooned into drive-filling behemoths. Maybe 10 gigabytes for Far Cry 3 doesn’t sound like too much…until you add 67 gigabytes for the new DOOM, and 80 freakin’ gigabytes for Shadow of War. Pretty soon, even the most capacious drives start to feel a little snug.
How Does Android Know a Wi-Fi Network Is Fast or Slow Before I Connect?
Google recently introduced a new feature into Android 8.1 Oreo that displays how good a public Wi-Fi network is before you connect to it. Using just simple terms like Slow, OK, Fast, and Very Fast, it will let you quickly gauge whether a network is worth connecting to, or if you’re better off just sticking with mobile data.
iRing Review: A Handy Grip Assistant For Uncomfortably Large Phones
The overwhelming majority of smartphone screens are anywhere from 5″…
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Who Is “Scam Likely,” and Why Are They Calling Your Phone?
If you’ve received a call from someone your caller ID identifies as “Scam Likely,” you’re probably using T-Mobile or MetroPCS. Your cellular carrier is warning you that there’s probably a scammer on the line that will attempt to trick you.
Phones Are Better Without Removable Batteries
You can speed up your iPhone by replacing the battery, but you’ll have to take it to Apple, since the battery is not designed to be user-replaceable. This has left people wondering whether they’d prefer removable batteries. I’m here to say: you wouldn’t.
Thursday, February 8, 2018
You Can Enjoy the Best Egg Cooker Around for Under $25
When it comes to kitchen gadgets, the entire genre gets a lot of flack for being a waste of space and money.
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How to Set Up the Eufy Smart Plug
There are plenty of smart plugs out on the market, but if you want a decently cheap option that’s reliable, Eufy’s Smart Plug and Smart Plug Mini are worth checking out. Here’s how to set them up.
Geek Trivia: Modern Cattle Are Descended From Which Of These Extinct Creatures?
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Amazon Prime Now Will Deliver Whole Foods Groceries To Your House Soon
If you subscribe to Amazon Prime, you can get certain food and items delivered to your home in under two hours.
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Is It Safe to Buy Used GPUs From Cryptocurrency Miners?
Thank God, the cryptocurrency bubble finally seems to be bursting. It had gotten so ridiculous that GPUs were skyrocketing in cost. But now, you’re about to see a bunch of powerful secondhand graphics cards flood the market, as Bitcoin “miners” try to recoup some of that cost.
How to Pair AirPods With a PC, Mac, Android Phone, or Other Device
Apple’s AirPods “just work” with iPhones thanks to their W1 chip, but they’re also standard Bluetooth headphones. That means they work with any device that supports Bluetooth audio—even Android phones.
8 Must Have Apps For Your Apple Watch
The Apple Watch has some really solid stock apps—so much so that it would be easy to stick with them and not spread your wings.
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How to Use Old and Differently-Branded Lenses with Your Mirrorless Camera
Mirrorless cameras are proving more and more popular. As they’ve developed in the last few years, they’ve become really useful in certain circumstances.
What Is Google Play Services, and Why Is It Draining My Battery?
If you’ve ever taken a look into your Android device’s battery settings screen, you’ve probably seen “Google Play Services” listed here. But what exactly is it, and why is it using so much battery?
Wednesday, February 7, 2018
The Best Way to Cast Movies from Android or iPhone to Your TV
Smartphones have become a sort of catch-all for our digital media collections, and it’s not uncommon to have a couple of movies tucked way for those times when you have nothing better to do. If you have a Chromecast, though, you’ll probably need an extra app to get those movies onto the big screen.
Geek Trivia: Which Of These Medieval Cities Had A Modern Looking Skyline With Towering Buildings?
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What Is “parentalcontrolsd”, and Why Is It Running on My Mac?
Something called parentalcontrolsd is running on your Mac—at least, that’s what you found when you checked Activity Monitor. Maybe it’s using up CPU cycles, or maybe it’s just there and you want to know why. To begin: this is part of macOS, so don’t worry about it being malware.
We Want These Privacy Sliders In Any Gadget With a Webcam
If you have a laptop, you have a camera pointed at your face every time you use it. This can understandably make you a little paranoid.
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Eight Simple Party Games for Any Crowd (That Anyone Can Learn)
You’ve got people coming over for a party and you want to play some games.
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Five Ways to Stay Warm in Your Icy Office
Your office is freezing and you’re certainly not imagining it—office temperatures are set, year round, at a temperature that’…
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How to Dock and Undock Toolbars In LibreOffice
Modern office software suites can be unnervingly complicated. Like most of its alternatives, the free and open-source LibreOffice sticks its often-used controls above the content area in various menus. But most of the available tools are actually hidden by default—you’ll have to manually add the ones that aren’t visible out of the box. Here’s how.
How to Spot (and Avoid) Fake Android Apps in the Play Store
Fake Android apps in the Play Store are a problem. People create listings designed to look exactly like popular apps, often using the same icon and name, to trick you into downloading it—then bombarding you with ads (or worse, malware).
What Are Altcoins, and Why Do They Exist?
Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency out there, and it’s still the biggest—for now, at least. But, as we’ve explained before, Bitcoin has a lot of problems as a currency. The term “altcoin” refers to any other cryptocurrency that’s not Bitcoin—in other words, they’re alternatives to Bitcoin.
Tuesday, February 6, 2018
How to Set a Repeating Alarm on Your Amazon Echo
The Amazon Echo can be used as an alarm clock, but you may not have known that you can set up repeating alarms so that you don’t have to keep telling Alexa every night when to wake you up.
Geek Trivia: In The 1980s, It Was Possible To Download Software From Which Of These Unlikely Sources?
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Four Awesome Gadgets for Busy Dog Lovers
What’s better than seeing the look on your pup’s face when you give him a treat and you’re not even there?
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How to Use, Customize, or Disable AutoComplete in LibreOffice Writer
LibreOffice Writer bundles in a free auto-complete system, similar to the one you’re probably familiar with on your smartphone’s keyboard. But LibreOffice’s is a lot more powerful, and a lot more customizable—you can more or less tell it exactly which words you want to auto-complete, and which ones you don’t.
How to Buy and Listen to Google Play’s New Audiobooks
Reading is cool, but we live in busy times and not everyone has time to sit back with a book—and even if you do, you may not have enough time to finish said book in a reasonable amount of time. That’s where audiobooks can be great. And now Google sells them in the Play Store!
7 Gadgets Under $50 to Accessorize Your Coffee Experience
Your coffee habit is a perfect place to splurge a little and accessorize.
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How to Stop Your Facebook Page’s Notifications Blowing Up Your Personal Profile
If you run a Facebook Page with more than a handful of followers, your Facebook notifications can get a little out of hand. By default, any time there’s activity on your Page—likes, comments, new followers—you’ll get a notification on your personal account. Here’s how to fix that.
What to Do When Your Hard Drive Fails
Like every piece of hardware, hard drives can fail. Mechanical hard drives in particular have moving parts that can (and eventually will) stop working. Even solid-state drives, which have no moving parts, can fail. Every drive has a limited lifespan before it kicks the bucket.
Monday, February 5, 2018
The Best Ways to Stream Your Games on Twitch, YouTube, and Elsewhere
There’s never been an easier time to get started with streaming your PC gameplay online. Whether you want to share your gameplay with some friends or start streaming on Twitch, streaming tools are now built into everything. Here’s how to find the best tool for the job.
Four Creative Ways You Can Mount Your Echo Dot
Amazon’s Echo Dot is one of the cheapest ways to get Alexa into your home, but if you have it just sitting on an end table without much fanfare, there are better, creative ways that you can mount it.
Geek Trivia: Which Of These Film Directors Planted 500 Acres Of Corn To Avoid Using CGI?
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How to Prevent Videos from Autoplaying in Firefox
It seems like every news site starts playing video automatically these days. These are incredibly annoying, but thankfully, it’s easy to block in Firefox.
You Can Demo These Switch Games for Free Before Purchasing
Not sure if a Nintendo Switch game you’ve been eyeing is worth the purchase price?
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How to Manually Update Your Samsung Phone with Odin
Odin, all-father, rules the realm of Asgard as the supreme deity of the Norse pantheon. Odin, a piece of Windows software released internally by Samsung, is used to flash firmware images to Android-based phones and tablets. It’s important not to get them confused.
Rocketbook Wave Review: The Most Productive Way to Literally Cook the Books
Sometimes, the best way to take notes is with good old-fashioned pen and paper.
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The Ultimate Guide to Changing Your DNS Server
There are many reasons you might want to use a third-party DNS server, from parental controls and security features to speed and reliability improvements. You can change the DNS server for your entire home network on your router, or set it individually on a PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android device, Chromebook, or many other devices.
Are Location-Tagged Photos Really a Privacy Concern?
When you take a photo with your smartphone (or a modern digital camera), it logs the photo’s GPS coordinates and embeds it in the image metadata, or EXIF. This is how your phone is able to show a map view of your photo library.
How to Opt Out of Targeted Ads Around the Web
You’ve spend some time researching a product on your phone, then you open your laptop and find ads for that product plastered all over the place. This has happened to everyone—it’s called targeted advertising, and there are steps you can take to reduce its effect on you.
Sunday, February 4, 2018
Geek Trivia: In The 1930s, There Was A Craze To Get Which Of These Things Tattooed On Your Body?
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How to Watch or Stream the 2018 Super Bowl (Without Cable)
We’re at T-minus three weeks to Super Bowl, the biggest event in American sports (sorry-not-sorry, “World” Series). What’s that? You don’t have a cable or satellite subscription? Don’t worry, you still have ways to watch.
Saturday, February 3, 2018
Geek Trivia: Sylvester Stallone Once Starred In A Buddy Cop Movie With Which Of The Golden Girls?
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How to Run Windows Software on a Chromebook
Chromebooks don’t normally run Windows software—that’s the best and worst thing about them. You don’t need antivirus or other Windows junk…but you also can’t install Photoshop, the full version of Microsoft Office, or other Windows desktop applications.
Friday, February 2, 2018
How to Send Text Messages Using Your Amazon Echo
The Amazon Echo has had calling and messaging capabilities for a while now, but you can finally send text messages from your phone via your Echo using Alexa.
Geek Trivia: In Computer Programming Slang, A Software Bug That Changes When You Attempt To Observe It Is A?
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How to Recover From a Bad GPU Driver Update
NVIDIA and AMD send out new drivers for their current graphics cards at roughly monthly intervals. These often improve performance, especially on the latest AAA games…except when they don’t.
How to Prevent Videos from Autoplaying in Chrome
Look, autoplaying videos are awful. No one likes them, and I honestly don’t understand why this continues to be a thing that happens on the web. Thankfully, if you’re a Chrome user, you can easily stop this from happening.
10 Laptop Bag Must-Haves for Under $30
You’re always on the go and you practically live out of your laptop bag.
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How to Spot a “Deep Fake” Face-Swapped Video
Recently, Reddit has been making news again with a subreddit in w hich people use a machine learning tool called “Deep Fake” to automatically replace one person’s face with another in a video. Obviously, since this is the internet, people are using it for two things: fake celebrity porn and inserting Nicolas Cage into random movies.
How to Get Rid of “Suggested Apps” (like Candy Crush) in Windows 10
Windows 10 automatically installs apps like Candy Crush Soda Saga and FarmVille 2 when you first sign in. It also displays more “Suggested Apps” from the Store, both at the left side of your Start menu and at the right side as live tiles. You can disable these to clean up your Start menu.
Thursday, February 1, 2018
How to Reduce Your iPhone’s Brightness Lower Than iOS Allows
If you use your iPhone a lot at night, even the Night Shift feature can’t stop your screen from burning your eyes. Luckily, there’s a way to reduce the brightness of the screen even more than the lowest possible setting.
Geek Trivia: The Largest Bottles Of Champagne Are Called?
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All Phones Should Come With a Kickstand, But This Universal Spigen One Will Do
Way back in 2010, HTC released the greatest phone ever made, the Evo…
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Mario Kart Is Coming to Phones In the Next Year, Nintendo Online Launches In September
The words “earnings call” is about as entertaining as a Virtual Boy, but Nintendo managed to make their boring business call interes…
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Thanks to Bitcoin, Buying a PC Is Better Than Building One (for Now)
High-end graphics cards are in super high demand right now. Not because of a sudden bloom of PC gamers, but because they’re the most efficient way of adding number-crunching power to cryptocurrency mining “rigs.” This makes building a PC very, very expensive.
How to Customize Android Text Message Notifications Based on their Contents
The Android notification system is arguably one of the best things about the OS. But what if you could make it better? An app called Converbration can do just that by allowing you to completely customize notifications for your text messages based on a number of factors.
How to Stop iCloud Photo Library From Using Your Cellular Data
iCloud Photo Library is one of those features that just works: take a photo or video on your iPhone, and in a few moments it’s available on all your Apple devices. It’s not, however, great if you have a low data cap.
How to Create the Ultimate USB Key Ring to Solve Any Computer Problem
If you’re “the computer guy” (or girl) to your friends and family, you’re probably asked to diagnose and fix their problems on a regular basis. If you can’t stand to tell them to leave you alone, you might as well embrace your role and come prepared with one key ring full of flash drives to rule them all.
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