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Starting in iOS 14, Apple brought support for third-party widgets on the home screen. And while Apple won’t let you change app icons as Android does, you can use the Shortcuts app to create, well, shortcuts for apps using custom icons. In fact, this feature works for all iPhones running iOS 12 and higher. RELATED: How to Add and Remove Widgets from the Home Screen on iPhone Combine these two and you get some really impressive results....

Do you have an old project on GitHub that’s no longer active or needed? Deleting old repositories (repo) cleans up your account for any potential future employers looking at your code. Here’s how it’s done. What You Need to Know Before Deleting a GitHub Repository You can delete a repo at any time if you’re the organization owner or have admin rights. When a repo is deleted, you can sometimes restore it under certain conditions....

Like with other music streaming services, you can make a playlist on Spotify and store all your favorite songs in it. We’ll show you how to do this in Spotify’s web, Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Android versions. Create a Playlist in Spotify on Desktop Spotify’s web, Windows, Mac, and Linux versions work pretty much the same, so you can follow the same steps to create a music playlist....

We’re going to write a script that watches a directory and acts on new files that are added. Each file is gzipped and moved to another directory, as soon as it is detected. The script uses the inotify subsystem, through a utility called inotify-tools. But first, let’s install the tool and experiment. Installing inotify-tools and gzip Use apt-get to install this package onto your system if you’re using Ubuntu or another Debian-based distribution....

BitLocker, the encryption technology built into Windows, has taken some hits lately. A recent exploit demonstrated removing a computer’s TPM chip to extract its encryption keys, and many hard drives are breaking BitLocker. Here’s a guide to avoiding BitLocker’s pitfalls. Note that these attacks all require physical access to your computer. That’s the whole point of encryption—to stop a thief who stole your laptop or someone from gaining access to your desktop PC from viewing your files without your permission....

Windows 10’s Sticky Notes app is a powerful note-taking solution, but it doesn’t let you restore deleted notes—or does it? Although this feature isn’t part of the desktop app, there’s a way to get your deleted notes back. How to Recover Deleted Sticky Notes You’ve accidentally deleted a sticky note that had some important information on it, but the desktop app doesn’t have a way to recover—or even see—the items that you deleted....

With offline maps and traffic data, Windows 10 Maps is the perfect companion for mapping out long journeys. To help you get from point A to B, you can save your favorite locations to quickly bring up directions. Here’s how. The Maps app in Windows 10 is pre-installed, ready for you to use. To open it, click on the Start button and search for “Maps,” find and click the Maps icon in your Windows Start menu tiles, or look for “Maps” in your installed programs list....

Windows 10’s May 2019 Update finally adds the ability to search all your PC’s files directly from your Start menu. However, this feature is disabled by default. Here’s how to enable it for quicker, easier file searches. Here’s the problem: By default, when you search your Start menu, Windows will only search your libraries and desktop. Libraries include folders like your Documents, Pictures, Music, and Videos. If you have files elsewhere, the Start menu won’t find them....

The Mac App Store is in the midst of a revival, with Apple focusing on both it and the apps within it much more since the release of macOS Mojave in 2018. Want to use it more? Here’s how to find all your apps. It’s easy to forget that the Mac App Store has been around for a good while now, as few people took advantage of it for a couple of reasons....

Google Domains is a domain registrar and free DNS service from Google. If you’re in the market for a new website domain name, you should definitely be considering Google Domains for its ease of use and enhanced security. Why Use Google Domains? Google Domains is a no-nonsense registrar. They’re not trying to nickel and dime you for “Premium DNS,” or trying to sell you on unnecessary web hosting bundles—you simply pay the registration fee, configure your DNS, and forget about it....

Often, you need to split the content of a cell in your spreadsheet that is separated by a comma or space, such as the first and last names of a contact. Luckily, Google Sheets provides a simple, straightforward approach to dealing with merged datasets. How to Split Text in Google Sheets Fire up your browser, open up a Google Sheets document, and select all the cells you want to split up....

Fancy having critical Linux kernel patches automatically applied to your Ubuntu system—without having to reboot your computer? We describe how to use Canonical’s Livepatch Service to do just that. What Is Livepatch and How Does It Work? As Canonical’s Dustin Kirkland explained several years ago, Canonical Livepatch uses the Kernel Live Patching technology built into the standard Linux kernel. Canonical’s Livepatch website notes that massive corporations like AT&T, Cisco, and Walmart use it....

If you own a Sony PlayStation 4 or PlayStation 5 console and subscribe to PlayStation Plus, you can play games with a friend as if they’re sitting right next to you. It’s called Share Play—here’s how to set it up. What is Share Play and How Does it Work? One of the technological wonders from the last generation of Sony PlayStation gaming is the ability to use Share Play, an option that lets you play couch co-op experiences with someone on the internet....

How Linux’s Ring Buffer Works In Linux and Unix-like computers, booting and startup are two distinct phases of the sequence of events that take place when the computer is powered on. The boot processes (BIOS or UEFI, MBR, and GRUB) take the initialization of the system to the point where the kernel is loaded into memory and connected to the initial ramdisk (initrd or initramfs), and systemd is started. The startup processes then pick up the baton and complete the initialization of the operating system....

Sometimes, you need to log in to a site on a different device or browser, but you’ve forgotten the password. If you’ve previously let Firefox store the password, you can easily retrieve it on Windows 10, Macs, and Linux. Here’s how. First, open Mozilla Firefox and click the “hamburger” button (three horizontal lines) in the upper-right corner of any window. In the menu that pops up, click “Logins And Passwords....

Nintendo initially announced that it was sunsetting all video streaming service on the Wii as of January 31st, 2019, but that date will also see the closure of the Wii Shop Channel. It’s unlikely that many people are still using the Shop Channel, but here’s your reminder: if you have pending Points, it’s time to use them now. As Lifehacker points out in its excellent post on the matter, there are still a few things you may want to do before the Wii loses all touch with the outside world:...

WordPress is a free and open source content management system, usually used for managing a blog, but also used to power large publications (including HowToGeek). While the software itself is free, you’ll still need web hosting so your audience can visit the site. These hosting providers run WordPress on their servers and often manage most (if not all) of the technical work for you. While you can set up a basic site at wordpress....

Aperture, along with shutter speed and ISO, is one of the three most important settings you control when you take a photo. It affects both the amount of light that hits your camera sensor and the depth of field of your images. Let’s look at how to pick the right aperture for a given image. RELATED: What Is Aperture? Wide Apertures: f/1.2-f/2.8 Any aperture wider than f/2.8 is really wide....

A Rose by Any Other Name An array is a collection of data values held in one data structure. To access any of the data values, which are known as array elements, you need to know their position in the array. An array element’s position in the array is known as its index, so these types of arrays are known as indexed arrays. They’re the most commonly used type of arrays....

Adobe’s approach to mobile apps seems to be “The More, The Better”. Right now, there are five Photoshop branded apps available for iOS and Android. They include: Photoshop Express (iOS, Android). Photohop Fix (iOS, Android). Photoshop Mix (iOS, Android). Photoshop Sketch (iOS, Android). Photoshop Lightroom CC (iOS, Android). Each of these apps takes a different part of Photoshop (or Lightroom’s) core functionality and adapts it to mobile devices. You can use them all on your phone or tablet, although you will definitely have a better experience if you’re using something like an iPad Pro rather than a cheap phone with a small screen....