Why a Child’s Smart Bedroom? If you already have a smarthome, your children may already love the voice controls and convenience it affords them. As they grow and want more and more independence, it may be time to trust them with that same control in their bedroom. And convenient access to smarthome controls doesn’t just benefit them; it can help you enforce schedules and keep in contact when you’re traveling....
Having audio flow through your entire house is super cool. If you already have a handful of Google Homes spread throughout the house, it’s easy to do—a couple of toggles, and you’ll be ready to roll. How to Create an Audio Group in Google Home Your first step is to set up audio groups in the Google Home app. You can create multiple groups with the same speakers, which is nice if you have a bunch of Homes and want multiple groups for different occasions....
When you’re caught up in your favorite game—you know, the one that you can play over and over again, and still love every second of it—and something amazing happens, you want to capture it as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, the PlayStation 4’s default screenshot setting is slow. Here’s how to fix it. RELATED: How to Control Your PlayStation 4 with Your Smartphone The default action for taking a screenshot on the PS4 (or PS4 Pro) is to long-press the Share button on the controller—since a regular tap will just open the share menu....
If you’re buying or selling a used iPhone, it’s helpful to know if it’s locked to a carrier or unlocked. Also, you’ll need to make sure it doesn’t have an activation lock. Here’s how to check both. How to Check if an iPhone Is Locked to a Cellular Carrier If you have a carrier lock on your iPhone, it means you can only use the iPhone with a particular mobile phone service provider....
Matching Data Across Files Data is king. Corporations, businesses, and households alike run on it. But data stored in different files and collated by different people is a pain. In addition to knowing which files to open to find the information you want, the layout and format of the files are likely to be different. You also have to deal with the administrative headache of which files need to be updated, which need to be backed up, which are legacy, and which can be archived....
Navigating YouTube’s analytics panel is a pain if you don’t know what you’re looking at, which is a shame since it’s one of the most useful resources a content creator has at their disposal for measuring how well they’re doing on the platform. Luckily, once you break it down, it’s pretty simple. What it All Means Open up the Analytics page and take a look at the main graphs in the center....
How to Stream UFC 279 Live in the United States Play Video UFC 279’s main card streams exclusively on ESPN+ in the United States. Current subscribers to ESPN+ ($9.99 per month or $99.99 per year) or the Disney Bundle (featuring ESPN+, Disney+, and Hulu’s ad-supported tier for $13.99 per month) can order UFC 279 for an additional $74.99. New subscribers can get a year of ESPN+ along with UFC 279 for $124....
Macs ship with a robust built-in compression tool that can help you zip and unzip files and folders. Plus, it’s very easy to use! For added functionality, you can always try a third-party app as well. First, let’s talk about the built-in Archive Utility tool. It’s not an app, but a feature deeply integrated into the Finder app. How to Zip Files and Folders on Mac To get started, open the “Finder” app, and locate the files or folders that you want to compress....
Charging Works in Phases to Protect the Battery Fast charging isn’t inherently dangerous for your phone’s battery. Fast chargers cannot “overload” a battery since the smartphone will only request as much power as the device can handle. This means you can safely use a USB charger that pumps out more wattage your device’s maximum charging rate. A smartphone battery can only utilize fast charging for a limited time. This is because lithium-ion batteries charge in three phases: a slow “trickle charge”, a constant current state where voltage increases over time, and a final constant voltage state where the current is slowly reduced to prevent overcharging and damage to the battery cell....
First we’ll use the du -sm command to give the results in MB: Now we can see that the results aren’t sorted, so we’ll sort them by the sort -nr command, which sorts by numerical value in reverse. Finally, we’ll run the results through head -10 to get the top 10 results: This is the command we are going to run: Here’s an example of the output: Useful stuff....
The Galaxy Watch 4 was Samsung’s first departure from Tizen OS since all the way back in 2014 with the Gear Live. However, it was not a typical Wear OS smartwatch. Samsung has its own One UI skin and features on top. The Galaxy Watch 5 continues this approach. There are two different models this year—the Galaxy Watch 5 and Watch 5 Pro. This review is for the 40mm Galaxy Watch 5....
One decision that a lot of improving photographers face when it’s time to buy or upgrade their DSLR or mirrorless camera is whether they should buy a new crop sensor camera or an older, second-hand full frame camera. There are arguments to both sides so let’s dig in. If you’re reading this article, you’re probably already familiar with the differences between full frame and crop sensor cameras. If you’re not, you should check out our full article on the subject, but, in brief, there are two main formats of DSLR and mirrorless cameras: 35mm or full frame and crop sensor or APS-C....
Your credit score determines the interest rate that lenders charge you for debt (and whether you can secure a loan at all). That means your credit score affects everything major you buy—your car, your house, and even your education. It makes sense not only to track your credit score but also take the necessary steps to improve it. These apps will help you do both. Will Checking My Credit Score Impact My Credit Score?...
On the budget end, they can go places that you might be afraid to risk breaking or losing your phone—and plenty of them are smaller than the standard smartphone to boot. Even if you have one of the increasingly rare phones with a headphone jack, these can’t drive headphones as well as a high-end MP3 player. The headphone amplifier built into a quality MP3 player will have more power to drive more sensitive headphones, plus the sound quality will often be miles better....
The initial appeal of smarthome devices can be one of intrigue. Furthermore, these products can do a lot more than you might think from first glance. RELATED: How to Put Together Your First Smarthome (Without Getting Overwhelmed) When most people think of how you control smarthome devices and what you can do with them, they most likely envision the ability to control things from their smartphones or using their voice with Alexa or Google Assistant....
The Oculus Quest is an impressive piece of hardware, but there’s so much more to come. Virtual reality is just getting started. Here’s what has us most excited. Hand Presence (and Haptic Feedback) Oculus is advertising “hand presence” with the Oculus Quest thanks to the touch controllers. But, in the future, we’d like to see more hand tracking with fewer controllers. I’ve personally tried out systems that avoid the controller and track your hand movements....
Many people might feel a bit wary installing a smart thermostat in their home, considering how often modern technology screws up. But don’t worry, manufacturers have thought of that: here’s what happens if your smart thermostat ever stops working. RELATED: Can a Smart Thermostat Actually Save You Money? Thermostats are one of the most important devices in your house, as they regulate the indoor temperature so that it doesn’t get too cold or too hot....
To get started, launch the “Settings” application. If you can’t find the app, from the homescreen, swipe down on the phone’s display and use Spotlight to search for “Settings.” Next, scroll down and tap on the “General” option. Third, select “About” from the top of the list. Now that you’re on the About screen, you can see the “Model Name” and “Model Number” of your iPhone. The Model Name of your iPhone is all you should need to know when buying cases and other accessories specifically designed for your handset....
Busting Myths About Swapiness Swapping is a technique where data in Random Access Memory (RAM) is written to a special location on your hard disk—either a swap partition or a swap file—to free up RAM. Linux has a setting called the swappiness value. There’s a lot of confusion about what this setting controls. The most common incorrect description of swappiness is that it sets a threshold for RAM usage, and when the amount of used RAM hits that threshold, swapping starts....
What Changes Can You Make to Your Home? Creating a smarthome involves varying levels of installing new tech. Some gadgets, like smart plugs and voice assistant speakers, are as simple as plugging the device into an outlet. Others entail making a physical change to your home, like changing the locks or doorbells. But depending on your home situation, you may not be able to make those changes. If you rent, for instance, you may not be allowed to change the locks without permission....
