Posts

TV antennas and over-the-air broadcasts might conjure up images of “rabbit ears” antennas on top of an old TV and poor video quality, but the modern incarnation in the United States is much more impressive. Most TVs already have the required tuner hardware, so all you need is an inexpensive antenna to plug in, and you get instant access to free OTA television broadcasts. Easy Setup (Mostly) Most TVs sold in the United States have an integrated tuner, which is the hardware that converts airwaves into video and audio, so the only thing standing between you and OTA TV is buying an antenna....

CPU Sockets 101 The throne of which we’re speaking is known as the CPU socket, and it’s where the CPU sits in the motherboard. But not all sockets can accept all processors, and the biggest differentiator starts with the classic rivalry between AMD and Intel, the two major brands for CPUs in Windows PC. Socket types are built into the motherboard and cannot be changed, and every part of the motherboard is tuned to work with particular generations of AMD or Intel processors....

When you type an address into your web browser, a lot of things happen behind the scenes. And most of that is determined by the various parts of the URL you typed. Let’s take a closer look. A URL can consist of a bunch of different parts. There’s a hostname that maps to an IP address of a specific resource on the internet and bunch of additional information that tells your browser and the server how to handle things....

The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is integral to networks and controls what IP addresses devices receive so they can communicate with the internet. Usually, IP assignment is automated, but if you need static IPs, familiarity with DHCP is essential. DHCP Can Handle IP Assignments Every device that connects to a network needs an IP address. In the early days of networking, users manually assigned themselves an IP address, but that’s a cumbersome task, especially for places with many devices, such as a corporate office....

What Happened to SD Express? Announced in February 2019 as part of the SD 7.1 specification by the SD Association, microSD Express follows its larger sibling, SD Express, which landed with a muted thud in mid-2018. SD Express cards didn’t roll out that year despite the standard’s promise of four to five times the performance of current SD cards. Now, however, with microSD Express, it looks like we might finally get blazing fast expansion cards for our laptops, smartphones, and cameras....

Node.js has launched its latest major version. Released in April 2021, v16 is the new “current” release. In October 2021, it will be promoted to the Long Term Support (LTS) release with maintenance continuing into 2024. The Node.js release process sees updates from the “current” branch merged into the next major feature release. Consequently, v16 brings several recently added v15 features into what will eventually become the LTS branch. Although already available in v15, the changes are new to LTS users....

If you paid any attention to the launch of Canon and Nikon’s first full frame mirrorless cameras—the EOS R, Z6, and Z7— you’d have noticed that some people were pretty unhappy that they only came with a single card slot—an SD slot for the Canon and an XQD slot for the Nikons—instead of dual storage card slots. So, let’s find out what the big deal was. Professional and Prosumer Cameras Traditionally Come With Two Card Slots Canon and Nikon have traditionally included dual card slots in their prosumer and professional offerings....

If you use a recent version of Outlook, you’ve probably noticed a Junk Email folder, a Clutter folder, and something called Focused Inbox. All of these seem to affect where your mail ends up, but it might not be obvious why or when this happens. Here’s how they work and how to turn them off if you don’t like them. Note: These features are available in the Outlook web app, Outlook 365, Outlook 2016, and Outlook 2019....

For most people, Microsoft Office 365 is a bunch of applications like Outlook, Word, Excel, etc. But if you have your own domain, you can also manage your users, groups, policies, and more. Let’s take a look. We’ve covered all the apps that come with Office 365, but it’s far more than just a set of discrete productivity applications. It’s also an enterprise management system that contains all sorts of tools like Azure Active Directory, usage reports, and a whole slew of security tools that most people know nothing about....

The Problem With Wi-Fi Wireless networking is both convenient and unreliable. Wireless technologies are susceptible to interference from competing networks and physical objects can severely impact Wi-Fi penetration. Routers don’t last forever, and a wireless network that occasionally disconnects for no obvious reason may point to a problem with your network hardware. These devices are usually left on for 24 hours a day which produces a lot of heat. Many routers only last a few years before issues arise....

Everybody Shares a Netflix Account When we say “account sharing,” we aren’t talking about sharing an account with your family. We’re talking about a practice that violates Netflix’s Terms of Use: the sharing of an account with friends, neighbors, internet strangers, and other grown adults that you don’t live with. This practice is widespread; it’s practically a touchstone of modern culture. With every nasty breakup, awkward move-in, or sudden bout of friendship-drama, somebody’s gaining or losing a free Netflix profile....

In today’s headlines, we learned that Google is making the web a better place by removing horrible ads (2.3 million last year, in fact), the Edge Insider Addons site for Microsoft’s new Edge-Chrome thing showed up, and more. Note: This post is constantly updated throughout the day as we find more interesting news. Microsoft and Windows News Things have been fairly quiet in Microsoft news this morning, but then Game Stack happened....

The Case Against Dark Mode Windows 10 and macOS have already embraced Dark Mode, and it’s coming to iOS 13 and Android Q. Chrome and Firefox have their own dark modes. Even File Explorer on Windows now supports dark mode. Once a niche feature beloved by geeks, dark mode is becoming a built-in option in every big operating system. That’s amazing. But the critics are right—some of the promotion around dark mode is silly....

Downloading DreamScenes First, you’ll need to find some DreamScenes to download. We’ve found some nice ones at both DreamScene.org and DeviantArt. You can find those download links at the end of the article. They’ll come as compressed files, so you’ll need to extract them after downloading. Windows 7 DreamScene Activator If you are running Windows 7 you can use Windows 7 DreamScene Activator. This free portable utility enables DreamScene in both 32 & 64 bit versions of Windows 7....

If your inbox is a desert of minimalist white and you swiftly deal with the occasional email that dares sully the pristine tidiness, this probably isn’t for you. We’ve got lots more things to read that will be of more interest to you. But if you’ve got an inbox with hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of emails in it, you need a way to get things under control....

The new homepage Google is testing looks similar to the current one we’ve known for years, with a search bar, a search button, and the legendary “I’m Feeling Lucky” button. Except that, at the bottom, there are a few changes. We have a handful of widgets that show you things like weather, recent trending topics, and stocks, among other things. These will change based on your past activity and your own interests, which Google will ask you when you get prompted to meet “the new Google....

Google Cloud Print is the next Google service to go away. After a decade in beta, Google announced Cloud Print “will no longer be supported” after 2020. Google says it’s time to migrate away from Cloud Print. Google’s cloud printing service lets you print from anywhere—even over the internet. When you printed to a Cloud Print printer, the print jobs are stored in a queue in your Google account. They’re then sent to a printer connected to your account....

Sounds Are Just Vibrations Before diving into bone conduction, let’s first look at how sound works. Like light, sound travels through the air in waves. But unlike light, sound can also travel through dense objects. This is why sounds are usually referred to as “pressure waves.” They cause objects to vibrate, even if you can’t see it. There are a bunch of tiny organs in your ear designed to react to sound....

If you make regular purchases of apps, games, or any other content via your Apple ID, you’ll be familiar with the process. But did you know you can add funds directly to an Apple ID, ready for use? Here’s how. Making purchases using your Apple ID is super easy, but there might be times where you want to have funds available ahead of time. You might want to set yourself, or someone else, an allowance for apps or games, for example....

Applying shadows to shapes, images, text, or other objects is a great way to add flair to your presentation. However, too many visual effects may draw your audience away from the central message of the slideshow. We’ll show you how to create the perfect balance by adding (or removing) shadows on objects in PowerPoint. Adding and Removing Shadows on Objects Open your PowerPoint presentation and go to the slide that contains the objects with which you’ll be working....