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. RELATED: How to View and Delete Your Google Maps History on Android and iPhone This technique works on the web interface on a computer, as well as on iPhone and Android....
In PowerPoint, when you type, you may notice that if you enter more text than can fit inside a text placeholder, the text is automatically resized to a smaller size. This is called AutoFit. In some cases, that might be helpful; in other cases, it might not. Here’s how to turn that off. The best case for turning off AutoFit is when you know how big you want a box (or any shape) to be on your slide and you know the size you want the text to be....
When you go on vacation, there are probably a handful of things you to do to your house to prepare it for a prolonged vacancy. That list should include taking care of your smarthome devices. RELATED: Forget Voice Control, Automation Is the Real Smarthome Superpower If you rely on a smarthome automation from day to day, it’s important to know how to put all of it into “vacation mode” while you’re away....
The Wall Street Journal reports that Google Maps is overrun with fake business listings created by scammers, and Google says it removed more than 3 million of them in 2018. Here’s how to report any fake businesses you see. We’ve done this before when we noticed a nearby business listing was fake and didn’t match a real business in its location. The fake business listing vanished immediately after we reported it....
To get started, swipe down on the home screen twice to expose the quick settings tiles. Tap on the gear icon to jump into the Settings menu. Alternatively, you can swipe up on the home screen to view the app drawer. From there, scroll down and select the “Settings” app. Next, scroll down and tap on the “Security” option. Before you proceed, make sure you have a screen lock enabled....
Not all browsers handle websites the same, and if they don’t support your operating system or browser, you could be denied access. Luckily, you can spoof the user agent on Chrome OS to make it look like you use a completely different system. Websites identify incoming connections by their user agent—a line of text sent in the HTTPS header with the browser name, version, and operating system. The reason they do this is to determine how to render the page specific to your device....
RELATED: What Is End-to-End Encryption, and Why Does It Matter? What Does Messenger’s “Secret Conversations” Feature Do? When you enable the “Secret Conversations” feature with a user, Messenger encrypts your messages and calls as soon as you send them. Then, these contents are only decrypted on the receiver’s phone. This ensures no one can access your chat contents, not even Meta—at least not without physical access to you or your recipient’s phone....
The best way to sit and thumb through your iCloud Photo Library is with an iPad. If you want to edit those images, Photos on a Mac is advisable. But when those aren’t around, here’s how to view photos online. Many people don’t realize that they can access every photo and video they have stored in iCloud Photo Library from any desktop computer, so long as it has access to iCloud....
Is it time to sell or give away your old Mac? Or do you just want a fresh start to clean up your machine? Here’s how to securely delete all of your files, then install a fresh version of macOS. If you’re selling or giving away your computer, this is the only way to make sure whoever ends up with your Mac can’t access to your files, and won’t have to deal with any modifications you’ve made to macOS over the years....
The “rule of thirds” is a concept that you’ll find in a lot of Intro to Photography books and guides. The idea is that you imagine a grid that divides your composition into thirds, both vertically and horizontally, like this. (Although some cameras will now overlay a grid for you). Supposedly, a strong composition is one where the important elements sit as close to the intersection of the thirds, or the third-lines, as possible because that’s where a viewer’s eyes are naturally drawn....
Microsoft has a major announcement today: Windows 10 will no longer automatically install those big feature updates every six months. Home users can pause smaller updates, too. In fact, Windows will even let you pause updates after checking for them! This is huge. It’s Microsoft’s biggest change in Windows strategy since the company released Windows 10. Microsoft is giving up on “Windows as a service” that is automatically updated outside of your control....
Microsoft’s new Edge browser is now finished and available for download. This new browser is based on Chromium, which forms the basis of Google Chrome. Windows 10 users will also get the new Edge browser automatically delivered via Windows Update in the next few months. Edge is available for Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7, macOS, iPhone, iPad, and Android. Microsoft has even promised Edge for Linux in the future—no surprise, as Chrome already runs on Linux....
According to Microsoft, Windows 10 has “B,” “C,” and “D” updates—but never “A” updates! These updates are released at different times, contain different things, and are offered to different people. Let’s break all this down. What Is a Cumulative Quality Update? Microsoft calls these “quality updates,” and each is released once per month. This distinguishes them from the big “feature updates” like the October 2018 Update and 19H1 that are released once every six months, usually in the Spring and Fall....
The second-gen Nest Mini is a small smart speaker, with Google Assistant to answer questions, start streaming music, control smart home devices, and more with simple voice commands. There are touch controls for changing the volume and snoozing alarms, as well as a physical switch on the back for muting the microphone. It can start music playback from some services through voice commands, and for everything else, it acts as a Chromecast speaker or a Bluetooth speaker....
What Is ProtonMail? While all major email services claim to respect your privacy, ProtonMail goes further than most in a bid to protect you. That’s what makes it different from the big email providers like Google’s Gmail and Microsoft’s Outlook.com. ProtonMail is one of a handful of so-called secure email providers that shun the traditional webmail route of plentiful free storage and integrated services in favor of heightened privacy and security features....
When researching about the speed of SATA 3, the “stated speed” and the “actual result” are noticeably different, so what exactly is going on? Today’s SuperUser Q&A posts helps a curious reader understand more about how SATA 3 works. Today’s Question & Answer session comes to us courtesy of SuperUser—a subdivision of Stack Exchange, a community-driven grouping of Q&A web sites. Photo courtesy of GiocoVisione (Flickr). The Question SuperUser reader Space Ghost wants to know what the actual speed of SATA 3 is:...
Why Passwords Shouldn’t Be Stored in Plain Text designer491/Shutterstock When a company stores passwords in plain text, anyone with the password database—or whatever other file the passwords are stored in—can read them. If a hacker gains access to the file, they can see all the passwords. Storing passwords in plain text is a terrible practice. Companies should be salting and hashing passwords, which is another way of saying “adding extra data to the password and then scrambling in a way that can’t be reversed....
If you’re hanging shelves or mounting anything heavy to the wall, you’ll probably want to mount it directly to the wall studs. However, you should be drilling pilot holes first before driving in any screws. If you’ve ever assembled Ikea furniture, then you’ve probably noticed those little holes where all of the screws are supposed to go in, but they’re not just reference points. Those holes are called pilot holes, and they prevent the wood from splitting and cracking when the screws are driven in, among a few other benefits....
Reinstalling Windows 10 might soon get easier. The leaked version of Windows 10 featuring a new Start menu design has another surprising feature: A “Cloud Download” feature for reinstalling Windows. This is similar to the Internet Recovery feature on a Mac. When you try booting a Mac without an OS, it will connect to the Internet, download macOS, and install it for you. This is part of the recovery environment built into a Mac....
A mixture of tough hardware requirements, some unpopular changes to the user interface, and a general feeling of “Why bother?” have resulted in poor adoption rates for Windows 11. However, Windows 11’s 2022 update goes a long way to alleviating a lot of those gripes. The 2022 Update Makes Windows 11 Less Annoying Windows 11 brought a new visual aesthetic to Windows and with it, a serious overhaul of most of the user interface....
