Laptop owners have a critical enemy: a drained battery. Sure, you can plug it in, but only if there’s an outlet nearby. Here are some ways you can improve the battery life of your Windows laptop. Windows 10 has quite a few tricks you can use to combat the power problem. There’s a power troubleshooting tool that can help you identify problems, while various power-saving settings can reduce power usage when your laptop’s in battery mode....
From Reading Your Notes to Stalking Minors Let’s talk about some examples, from Evernote employees talking about reading your private notes to Google and Facebook employees stalking people. Evernote gave its employees permission to read your private notes to “Improve your experience” in a change to its privacy policy made in January 2017. Evernote changed its mind and promised employees would request permission first after many users became upset. But this illustrates the issue—Evernote can easily give its employees access....
Remote desktop software allows you to access your computer from another room or halfway around the world. You can also share your desktop with someone temporarily — ideal for remote tech support. Setting up remote desktop access isn’t hard, but you’ll need to know the right software to use and how it works. The software built into Windows isn’t ideal for home users. Why You Might Want To RELATED: How to Remotely Access Your Computer from Your Phone...
Space heaters are great for warming up rooms in your house, but they can also be dangerous if used improperly, which might have you wondering: Can you plug space heaters into smart outlets? And even if you can, should you? RELATED: The Difference Between Belkin’s WeMo Switch and WeMo Insight Switch Space heaters draw a lot of power, and generally aren’t supposed to plug into surge protectors–they instruct you to plug them directly into the wall....
How Chrome OS Updates Differ from Android I’m going to make some connections between Android and Chrome OS early on here because it only makes sense as a starting point. The biggest difference between the two is that Android is open and available for all manufacturers to modify and redistribute; Chrome OS, by contrast, is fully managed by Google. On Android, device manufacturers are responsible for slowing down updates. For example, when a new Android version is released, the manufacturer has to modify the source code to fit its needs before releasing it....
Best Buy’s Back to School Sale School is back in session, and Best Buy’s hosting a massive sale on some of the best products money can buy. Save hundreds on new MacBooks and Windows laptops. Swap out heavy textbooks for a new iPad or Android tablet. Track your treks across campus with an Apple Watch or Fitbit. There’s something here for everyone, but these special offers are only available through Sunday, September 11, so click the link and browse Best Buy’s back to school deals while you can....
Alexa is always listening but not continually recording. It doesn’t send anything to cloud servers until it hears you say the wake word (Alexa, Echo, or Computer). But listening for wake words is harder than you might think. Fine-Tuned Microphones Pinpoint Your Voice Voice assistant speakers, like Echo and Echo Dot, typically have multiple built-in microphones. The Echo Dot, for instance, has seven. That array gives the devices several abilities, from hearing commands spoken far away, to separating background noise from voices....
Having just one smoke alarm in your home isn’t enough, so if you want to go all-in with the Nest Protect, you’ll need more than one unit. Here’s how multiple Protect units work together. RELATED: What You Need to Know About Smoke Alarms The latest edition of the NFPA 72 National Fire Alarm and Signaling Code says you need to install smoke alarms in every bedroom, outside every sleeping area (like a hallway), and on every level of the home, including the basement....
VPNs and Netflix If you know a little about how VPNs work, you know that when you use one you’re rerouting your connection through a server belonging to your VPN provider. In doing so, you assume the location associated with that server, making you appear like you’re accessing a site from somewhere other than where you live. This is handy for a number of reasons, but it’s particularly great for anybody that wants to make the most out of their Netflix subscription....
The below screenshots were taken on an Android smartphone, but the instructions will work on the iPhone app and the desktop website. RELATED: Google Stadia Review: An Expensive and Limited Beta How to Search for and Add Friends on Stadia Start by opening the Stadia app or visiting the Stadia website. After signing into your account, tap or click on the Friends icon in the top-right corner. Next, select the magnifying glass icon....
While the Contacts app on macOS is good at being your phone book, it’s also useful for keeping track of detailed personal info and connections. Here’s how to add someone new to your list. How to Add Contacts on macOS Open the Contacts app on your Mac from the Dock, your Applications folder, or by searching for it with Command+Space. You’ll see a list of all of your Contacts. Click on any one of them, and press the + button at the bottom to add a new contact....
Set Up Watch Faces First The first thing to do is create the watch faces you want to use throughout the day. The easiest way to do this is via the “Face Gallery” tab in the Watch app on your iPhone. Browse the various faces available, then customize them to your liking based on your desired usage. You can pick colors, styles, and which Complications appear on your Apple Watch. Consider selecting watch faces suitable for work, the gym, or while at home....
PDFs can get pretty big, especially if you’re adding lots of images and objects. If you’ve created a PDF that’s too big—maybe you’re trying to email it or maybe it just takes too long to load—here’s how you compress your PDF to a smaller size. RELATED: What Is a PDF File (and How Do I Open One)? Whatever your reason, reducing the size of a PDF is a straightforward procedure regardless of what program you’re using....
Bored of using “Calibri, 11pt” for every mail you send in Outlook? Default bright, white email background making your eyes hurt? Fear not, you can change the default email theme to be whatever you want, and here’s how. Change the Theme for a Single Message If you want to change the theme for a single message you’re creating, go to Home > New Items > E-mail Message Using > More Stationery....
The Outlook client comes with several different panes that you can show and hide. These include panes that you see by default, like the Navigation pane and others that you might not be familiar with, like the To-Do and People panes. Here’s how to customize the To-Do pane. Enable the To-Do Pane The To-Do pane isn’t visible by default, so first, we need to show it by clicking View > To-Do Bar....
MacOS Mojave brought with it a slew of new features, the most striking of which is a system-wide dark mode that applies to all native Apple apps and compliments Apple’s Night Shift to ease your eyes late at night. How to Turn On Dark Mode The option for Dark mode is in the System Preferences app, which you can open from the Dock, your Applications folder, or by clicking the Apple icon at the top of your screen and selecting “System Preferences....
RELATED: Should I Keep My Tech’s Serial Numbers Private? Use the Phone App to View Your Samsung Phone’s IMEI Number A quick and easy way to check your Samsung phone’s IMEI number is by dialing a specific number using the Phone app. To use this method, launch the Phone app. Then, key in *#06# and press the Call icon. You’ll see your phone’s 15-digit IMEI number. You can now use this number wherever it’s required....
If you want to stay on top of your friend’s Facebook activity with the same kind of alerts you get when someone mentions you in a post or tags you, it’s easy to do so if you know where to look. Why Set Up Alerts? By default Facebook alerts you when you’re mentioned directly. If somebody tags you in a photo, mentions you in a comment, or directly posts on your Facebook wall, then you get an alert....
If you have a PDF document such as a bank statement or financial report, you may want to pull this information into Microsoft Excel. With a built-in feature, you can easily import and automatically convert a PDF to Excel. This convenient feature can save you from hunting down a PDF file converter. Not only that, but it allows you to pick and choose the data from the file you want to import....
Windows 10’s May 2021 Update was released on May 18, 2021. As always, Microsoft is slowly rolling this update out to Windows 10 PCs, bit by bit. Windows Update should automatically install the 21H1 update on your PC, but it may take a few weeks. Here’s how to get it right now. We recommend you wait for Windows Update to automatically install this update on your PC. This is a particularly small update with very few changes, so there’s no reason for most people to rush the process....
