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Using a laser pointer is a great way to focus the audience on a specific part of your presentation. If you don’t happen to have one on hand at the time of your presentation, then you can use PowerPoint’s neat little setting to turn your mouse into a laser pointer. Here’s how. Turning Your Mouse into a Laser Pointer Microsoft came to the rescue with its PowerPoint 2010 release, getting presenters who forgot their laser pointer out of a pinch by providing a feature that converts the mouse into a laser pointer....

The competition between TV and display manufacturers has been heating up rapidly, and everyone is talking about how many “nits” their displays have. But what even is a nit? And why should you care? Nits Are a Unit of Brightness No, we’re not talking about head lice here, but rather a piece of terminology used in the tech world. Long story short, a nit is the unit of measurement that describes how bright a television, smartphone, computer monitor, laptop screen, or another type of display is....

Out of the Loop and in the Loop OOTL and ITL stand for “out of the loop” and “in the loop,” respectively. In both of these phrases, “the loop” generally refers to being knowledgeable or aware of a topic, such as recent events. Being OOTL means that you’re ignorant about a particular subject, while being ITL means that you’re knowledgeable and a part of the conversation. Someone who isn’t ITL would therefore be OOTL....

I Am Not a Lawyer IANAL is an internet initialism that stands for “I am not a lawyer.” It’s usually used by non-lawyers who want to clarify that their legal opinions aren’t legal advice. This kind of clarification is important online, as you can face lawsuits or prosecution for giving legal advice (or working as a lawyer) without a law license. (That said, it’s rare for non-lawyers to face actual consequences for giving casual legal advice....

Microphone Polar Patterns Explained Supercardioid microphones get their name from their unique “polar pattern” (also known as its “pickup pattern”). A microphone’s polar pattern determines how much sound it will pick up from any direction. There are many variations of these polar patterns, but the most common are omnidirectional, figure-of-8, cardioid, supercardioid, and hypercardioid. As the name hints, an omnidirectional microphone will theoretically pick up sound in all directions. The microphone body can interfere with sounds coming from the rear of the microphone, but these mics essentially pick up sound equally in each direction....

The stable version of Chrome 74 is set to land on April 23rd. It will include a dark mode on Windows, Incognito detection blocking, support for media keys in PiP, various Chrome OS improvements, and a lot more. It’s worth noting that while these are all planned features in Chrome 74, there’s always the chance they don’t end up making it into the final release and get pushed to 75 (or beyond)....

Surge protectors often look just like power strips, but not all power strips are surge protectors. Only surge protections actually help protect your gadgets against power surges. Many power strips are just glorified extension cords without any protection. But you can tell whether a strip provides surge protection with just a few seconds of examination. Not Every Power Strip Provides Surge Protection RELATED: Protect Your Gadgets: Why You Need a Surge Protector...

You expose data about yourself to every website you visit. Cookies, IP addresses, ad preferences—all of this can be collected and exploited. If you want to reduce this, though, you can use the tracking prevention settings in the new Microsoft Edge browser. The new Edge browser is based on the Chromium engine, which is the same browsing engine that powers Google Chrome. To get started, download and install the new Edge browser....

We’ve all been there: the characters on screen are talking and it’s way too quiet so you crank up the volume only to be blasted by a loud explosion two seconds later. Why is the dialogue so quiet and what can you do to fix it? Read on as we show you how to tame wild swings in TV audio output. Why Is There Such Variation In Volume? It’s a situation nearly everyone can relate to....

CI/CD pipelines can be tricky to get right though. Deciding which parts of a process should be automated, optimizing the implementation of individual pipelines, and equipping teams to get the maximum value from the system all require deliberate attention and commitment across your organization. In this article we’ll look at five specific pain points which frequently hinder CI/CD adoption. Intentionally addressing these common pitfalls can make your processes more reliable and easier to control....

Consider Donating Your Old Consoles By far, one of the most impactful things that you can do with your old console is to donate it to a charitable organization. This could be a children’s hospital or a domestic violence shelter in your area, or it could be an established charity like Gamer’s Outreach (U.S.) or Get Well Gamers (U.K.). Giving your old console to a thrift store or selling it online through eBay for Charity can also make a difference since you’ll be raising money for a good cause....

Every Type of Phishing Scam Phishing is a technique used by sellers to deceive victims into giving up their login credentials, usually using a fake web page that might look identical to the real thing. These scams usually take place over email, but scammers may also use text messages and social media since all they need the victim to do is click on the fake link. These scams take many different forms, but the end goal is always the same: to get you to log in using your username and password....

Facebook fixes its most prominent issue with memorialized profiles, Verizon fixes issues with millions of routers, Google’s laptop and tablet team isn’t dead yet, Roku finally bets on itself, and a whole lot more. Exodus Finds a Home on iOS Last week, a story broke about a new type of government malware found in the Google Play Store. The malware, called Exodus, completely hijacks an infected phone. And now it’s also on iOS....

Ever feel like you’re being prompted into going along with something you don’t want because better options aren’t clearly being presented? You probably just found a dark pattern. “Dark patterns” are designs that deliberately trick you into doing what a company wants. This can take all kinds of forms, from MoviePass not canceling people’s accounts to installers putting crapware on your machine by assuming you’ll click “Next” without thinking too much about it....

Find and Delete Duplicates in Photos for iPhone To find duplicate photos and videos, open the Photos app on your iPhone and tap the “Albums” tab at the bottom of the screen. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to the “Utilities” section where you’ll find the “Duplicates” album. Tap on “Duplicates” to see a list of all the duplicate photos and videos found on your iPhone. You’ll see a preview of each image and the relevant file size....

As Microsoft, Sony, NVIDIA, Google, and others start to ramp up their game streaming subscription services, we can already see what the biggest problem for gamers will be: an increasingly fragmented selection. As platforms and consoles fight to get the biggest and best games on their streaming service, and only their streaming service, gamers will find that it’s impossible to play all the titles they want on just one of them....

So, to be clear, the current “delete” option on Facebook Messenger only removes the message for you—the recipient can still see it. That also means it’s still on Facebook’s Messenger servers. The Unsend feature, by contrast, will allow users to completely remove the message as if it never happened. Of course, there’s a catch: it’s limited to a small, 10-minute window. That means you won’t be able to run back through old messages and unsend anything you want, which is both a bummer and a logical move....

What Is Email Bombing? An email bombing is an attack on your inbox that involves sending massive amounts of messages to your address. Sometimes these messages are complete gibberish, but more often they’ll be confirmation emails for newsletters and subscriptions. In the latter case, the attacker uses a script to search the internet for forums and newsletters and then signs up for an account with your email address. Each will send you a confirmation email asking to confirm your address....

Chrome OS, while once thought of as a nigh-useless operating system, is shaping up to be a bold and different OS—one that can handle almost anything you throw at it, especially for tablets. It’s quite possibly the perfect tablet operating system that we’ve been waiting for. Chrome OS: A History Lesson When Chrome OS was released with the first Chromebook—the Google CR-48—back in 2011, it was fairly well received for what it was....

Robocalls are a scourge, leaving many people unwilling or afraid to pick up their phone unless they know the caller. If you’re waiting for a job interview or support callback, this is incredibly stressful—but now phone carriers are helping. New Standards Will Unmask Spoofing If you have T-Mobile service and a Galaxy S9, soon you will start seeing “Caller Verified” when calls arrive, if T-Mobile can verify the caller ID matches the real phone number....