I’ve stressed time and time again here on How-To Geek: the lens is as important, if not more important, than the camera to which it’s attached. If your photos are blurry because there are smudges on your lens, there’s nothing you can do to fix it in post. Even cleaning up dust spots is a pain. With that in mind, let’s look at how to keep your camera lenses clean....
It’s easy enough to superimpose a logo onto something in Photoshop. But what if your base photo isn’t head-on, so a square logo (or any other image) will look skewed? Here’s how to get your top image aligned with the correct perspective. Using The Transform Tool For Perfect Matches Let’s use a gadget screen image as a base: a common need for marketers (or web writers like me). Our source image here is a Nintendo Switch with a regular 16:9 screen, but we need to put on a screenshot of something else—let’s say an image from Zelda instead of Mario....
Tap-to-pay with NFC is still relatively new for gas stations, but this method is already being surpassed. A growing number of locations actually support your ability to pay from an app in the comfort of your car. You simply enter your pump number and you’re ready to start pumping. There are several different apps you can use to do this. The gas station chains that support the feature have their own apps....
Somewhere in your home, there’s a box of old analog photographs you probably want digital copies of. Unless you know how to use your scanner correctly, the image quality can turn out poor. Here’s how to get the best results. If your memories are important to you, then it’s worth taking the time to do them right. Today we’re going to look at the largely overlooked tools and methods that’ll give you the best possible quality out of a scan of a less than perfect photo....
RELATED: How to Fix PS4 Problems by Rebuilding the PS4 Database How to Reboot a PS4 Using a Controller If you’d like to use your controller to turn your PS4 off and back on, use one of these two methods. Use the Quick Menu The Quick Menu hosts various commonly used options, one of which is a restart option. Launch the Quick Menu by pressing and holding the PS button on your controller....
Microsoft Outlook can access any email account—not just Microsoft accounts—as long as you’ve got the right information. Here’s how to hook up your email account to Outlook, using either POP3 or IMAP. What are POP3 and IMAP? POP3 (Post Office Protocol 3) and IMAP (Internet Messaging Access Protocol) are two of the most common protocols for accessing email. Every email client you’ve had on your computer in the last 25 years—Outlook, Apple Mail, Thunderbird, Eudora, Pegasus, or anything else—has supported them....
Sports photographers love telephoto lenses because they let you get close up views of your subject without having to be physically close to them. While they certainly make taking great sports photos easier, they’re not essential. Here’s how to take sports photos without a telephoto lens. Be Realistic While taking sports photos with a normal or even wide angle lens is possible, you have to be realistic. You’re not going to be able to shoot a live football game without a telephoto lens; that, however, doesn’t mean you can’t shoot football photos....
Bluetooth gives you the freedom to move without a tether, but it isn’t always the most reliable way to use wireless devices. If you’re having trouble with Bluetooth on your Windows laptop, you can follow the steps below to troubleshoot it. Basic Bluetooth Troubleshooting Steps While many of these steps might seem obvious, they will fix many of the most common Bluetooth issues on Windows. Check That Bluetooth Is Turned On Start by making sure Bluetooth is actually enabled on your Windows PC....
Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) is a great security tool as it makes it harder for attackers to break into your account. Most apps make it pretty easy to turn on 2FA, and Twitter is no exception. Here’s how to enable it. To begin, you’ll need to be logged in to your Twitter account, either on the Twitter website or in the Twitter app for Android, iPhone, or iPad. The process is almost identical for both, except for the starting point....
It isn’t immediately obvious how to access the developer menu, but we’ve got you covered. You’ll need an Apple TV and Mac, and they need to be on the same Wi-Fi network. How to Unlock the Developer Menu Navigate to “Settings” on your Apple TV. Select “Remotes and Devices” and leave the Apple TV on this screen. You need Xcode installed on your Mac to enable the developer menu. Download Xcode from the Mac App Store and then open it....
Microsoft Outlook’s online app provides free and immediate translation of emails across a large number of languages for Office 365 subscribers. Here’s how to turn the feature on and use it. You can access Outlook’s translation functionality in two ways. If you have an enterprise Office 365 (O365) license—which is for businesses and other organizations—it’s a simple setting switch. If you have a personal O365 license—which is where you pay a subscription to Microsoft every month—this switch isn’t available, but there is a free Microsoft add-in that you can easily install, instead....
VLOOKUP is one of Excel’s most well-known functions. You’ll typically use it to look up exact matches, such as the ID of products or customers, but in this article, we’ll explore how to use VLOOKUP with a range of values. Example One: Using VLOOKUP to Assign Letter Grades to Exam Scores As an example, say we have a list of exam scores, and we want to assign a grade to each score....
Microsoft just released a new Windows Insider build… of version 20H1, scheduled for release in 2020. Four months from its presumptive release, Microsoft still isn’t publicly testing 19H2, which will be Windows 10’s next October Update. What could go wrong? These big Windows updates are generally finalized the month before release, which means Windows 10’s October 2019 Update should be finalized in September 2019. Microsoft has less than four months to go before the latest build is stabilized and we haven’t heard anything about it yet....
A file with the .pptx file extension is a Microsoft PowerPoint Open XML (PPTX) file created by Microsoft PowerPoint. You can also open this type of file with other presentation apps, like OpenOffice Impress, Google Slides, or Apple Keynote. They are stored as a compressed ZIP file, which use a bunch of other files with formatted text, images, videos, and more to open them. What Is a PPTX File? PPTX files are used in Microsoft PowerPoint, a presentation program used to display content in a slideshow format....
How to Shut Down Your Mac Shutting down your Mac is as simple as clicking on the Apple logo on the menu bar at the top of your screen, then choosing “Shut Down…” followed by “Shut Down” in the box that appears. If you’re feeling particularly impatient, you can hold the Option button on your keyboard while clicking the menu option to prevent that confirmation box appearing at all. Once you’ve started the shutdown process, you need to wait....
If you have an Android phone, the Calls feature will let you answer phone calls on your PC, initiate phone calls from your PC, access your call history in the Your Phone app, and seamlessly transfer calls between your PC and Android phone while on a call. You can even decline a call from your PC and send a custom text message in response or just send it to voicemail....
Last week saw the release of Android Q, and a lot of new features to go with it. The week of March 16th through 21st brought even more of that, along with a few Pie updates, Google’s new gaming announcement, and more. More Android Q Features We had a massive list of Android Q features in last week’s Android news roundup, and of course more of that sort of thing continued to trickle out this week....
The Elements of a File System By definition, a file system needs to store files, and they also contain directories. The files are stored within the directories, and these directories can have subdirectories. Something, somewhere, has to record where all the files are located within the file system, what they’re called, which accounts they belong to, which permissions they have, and much more. This information is called metadata because it’s data that describes other data....
The Android home screen is known for being highly customizable. There are third-party launchers, icon packs, and tons of widgets to choose from. But you may not know about one of the handiest home screen features: Shortcuts. What Are Home Screen Shortcuts? There are three things you can add to the Android home screen—app icons, widgets, and shortcuts. App icons simply launch the app, but shortcuts can launch directly to a specific section in the app....
Xbox Series S vs. Xbox Series X While the console siblings do differ, you should keep in mind an important commonality: Series S and X both play the same games. Any game for the Series X is also available for the Series S, and this will always be the case, as they are part of the same console generation and platform. Under the hood, both consoles use the same fundamental technology and have the same features....
