Posts

Siri Shortcuts arrived alongside iOS 12 in September 2018, along with the Shortcuts app and all that it entailed. The two features upped the iOS automation game considerably, but not without causing confusion. Here’s what Siri Shortcuts are, and how to use them. If you’re unclear on the differences between Siri Shortcuts and Shortcuts, you’re not alone. Apple hasn’t done the best of jobs explaining the two features and how they differ, nor has the iPhone community as a whole....

Time Machine doesn’t just back up to external drives. Enable Time Machine on your MacBook and it will create “local snapshots,” too — potentially taking up over 100 GB of disk space on its internal storage. These local snapshots appear as “Backups” when you look at the visual overview of storage in the About Your Mac window. Here’s how you can free up that space and get more room on your Mac....

You can hide slides in Microsoft PowerPoint so that they’re hidden during the presentation but are still a part of the file. You can also show hidden slides during a presentation or unhide them for future presentations. Here’s how. Hide and Unhide PowerPoint Slides If you give talks, it’s very likely that you prepare a PowerPoint for that presentation. Depending on your audience, you may want to hide or unhide certain slides to make the presentation more relevant for that particular group....

Windows Timeline extends the Task View mode to show you the history of activities performed on your PC—or even your other devices if you have syncing turned on. Sometimes, Microsoft sticks suggestions on your timeline for you. Here’s how to make them go away. RELATED: What is Windows 10’s Timeline, and How Do I Use It? Suggestions occasionally appear on your Windows 10 Timeline. They can range from innocuous (“Get to know your timeline”) to more annoying things like ads....

Your iPhone’s Voice Memos app records audio in a compressed format by default, saving storage space on your iPhone but reducing the recording quality. You can switch to a lossless mode for maximum fidelity. Your iPhone, by default, records voice memos in a compressed format. However, if that doesn’t cut the mustard for you, there is an option to switch over to a lossless recording instead. It’s not clear what file format your iPhone uses here, but suffice it to say it’s going to take up more space than a compressed AAC file....

During a presentation, a mix of different media types keeps things entertaining, and a well-placed animated GIF is no exception. You can use them to convey a message, demonstrate an activity, capture the audience’s attention, or just add some humor. Insert a GIF in PowerPoint Inserting a GIF in a PowerPoint slide is just as easy as inserting any other image. Go ahead and locate the GIF that you’ll be using....

Handling a PDF file on your mobile device can sometimes be a pain. The good news is simply opening a PDF is pretty easy. Your Android device can probably already do this, but if not, we’ll share some options. First, there’s a good chance you already have an app on your Android device that can open PDFs. Google Drive can do it, but so can e-book readers, like the Kindle app....

Identity Theft Is Serious Identity crimes include scenarios like a hacker who steals your credentials to break into your accounts or assume your financial identity, or someone thousands of miles away from you who runs up charges on your credit card and takes out loans in your name. If you need something else to keep you awake, the FTC describes identity theft scenarios in which a thief gets a credit card in your name, sends the bill to another address, and (of course) never pays....

We’re not talking here about when you’ve actually deleted a file in Windows, though there are ways you might recover from that kind of mishap as well. Also, you’d be well served to put some additional preventative measures in place before you actually run into this problem. Back up your computer regularly and consider turning on the file version feature in Windows. That said, if you do run into a problem with an unsaved Office file, here’s how to recover it....

While Apple users can easily use the iCloud storage service, it comes with only 5 GB of free storage. Rather than paying extra, you could switch to using Google Drive on your Mac, giving you extra space and tools in the process. Once you’ve installed and configured Google Drive, it’ll appear as a folder in the Finder app. You’ll need a Google account set up and configured to be able to use Google Drive....

Stardew Valley for iPhone and iPad lets you import save games from your PC or Mac. You can also transfer save games from your iPhone or iPad back to your PC or Mac, or between iPhones and iPads. If you’ve used mods in Stardew Valley on PC, your save files will probably not work correctly. However, if you haven’t touched mods, they’ll work perfectly. How to Find Your Stardew Valley Saves Folder Your Stardew Valley save games are stored in a folder on your PC or Mac....

YouTube YouTube is a great way to watch the ball drop without having to spend a dime on a TV streaming service. Several news sites stream live content for you to be able to watch the ball fall as it happens. Whether that’s CNN, ABC News, or CBS News, these companies stream it every year so you’ll be able to enjoy it without spending money on a streaming service. YouTube TV YouTube TV is an excellent choice for live TV streaming as it has loads of channels to choose from, especially for New Year’s Eve....

In Windows 11, the ZIP file format compresses data and makes files smaller, which speeds up file transfers and saves disk space. You can also use ZIP compression to combine multiple files into one compact package. Here’s how to zip and unzip files on Windows 11. How to Make a Zip File in Windows 11 First, using File Explorer, locate the file (or files) that you’d like to compress or combine into a ZIP file....

Microsoft PowerPoint lets you zoom in and out on a specific part of your PowerPoint slideshow, which can be handy both while editing and for drawing attention to important objects or ideas during the presentation. Here’s how to do it. Whether you’re in normal view or slideshow view, PowerPoint lets you zoom in and out as the need arises. There are a few ways you can do this, depending on which view you’re in....

There are many ways you can manage and store your writing projects. Some people prefer cloud storage services (like Dropbox) or online editors (like Google Docs), while others use desktop applications (like Microsoft Word). I use something called GitHub. GitHub: It’s for More Than Just Code I use Git and GitHub to store and access all of my writing. Git is an effective tool you can use to track document changes, plus you can upload to GitHub super-fast....

Microsoft just can’t stop updating Notepad. Every Windows 10 Update now includes improvements to Notepad, from support for Unix-style line endings to Bing searches and performance improvements. Now, Microsoft is set to update Notepad much more quickly. This change is part of Windows Insider build 18963. It will arrive with Windows 10’s 20H1 update, expected sometime around April 2020. Until then, Notepad will be updated in the normal way—through Windows Update....

“You should use a password manager!” is advice you’ve likely ignored for years, but with proper integration on every platform, there’s no legitimate reason not to use a password manager now. Why You Should Use a Password Manager The biggest reason to use a password manager is security. Many people reuse the same handful of passwords across the web because they’re easy to remember—but this is also the worst way to handle account security....

There are two dominant display technologies available at the moment—LED-lit LCD TVs and self-emissive OLED displays. These differing approaches to producing an image have their own sets of pros and cons, and you should be sure you understand the difference between them before you buy. Standard LED-lit LCD TVs use a backlight to shine through the display “stack” to produce an image. To produce a black image, the backlight must be “blocked” by the thin-film substrate (TFT) layer, often resulting in washed-out blacks and a poor contrast ratio....

Adjustment Layers are a special kind of Photoshop layer. Rather than having content of their own, they adjust the information on the layers below them. For example, you can use an adjustment layer to increase the brightness or contrast of a photograph without altering the original photo. They’re one of the most important tools to master in Photoshop. If you aren’t familiar with layers and layer masks, be sure to check out our explainer on the subject–and if you’re new to Photoshop, you should also check out our 8-part beginner’s guide before continuing....

Twenty-five years ago Winamp was the future. Now it’s a distant memory. What happened? Winamp (Windows Advanced Multimedia Products) came out on April 21, 1997—back when listening to music on computers was a novel concept, and most people didn’t know what “MP3” meant. Winamp wasn’t the first PC music player, but it did make it easy to create a playlist: drag files over to the playlist window and start listening....