When I first got started with smart home stuff, I shared that same thought. I bought a few light switches and bulbs that worked over Wi-Fi, no additional equipment required. Over time, my smart-ish home evolved into a full-fledged smart home. That’s where hubs really shine. Two Ways to Build a Smart Home Before we go any further, let’s talk about the two sides of this coin. There are two distinct types of smart home devices....
Microsoft Edge started life on Windows 10, but it’s now available on several platforms, including Android. Chrome is the default browser on most Android devices, but I’m here to tell you Edge is just as good—if not better. Edge Is Just Chrome Now I’m about to lay out a few reasons why I use Microsoft Edge on my Android phone, but it’s important to start with the reason why I even considered making the switch....
Your Cellular Carrier Can See Your SMS Messages With SMS, messages you send are not end-to-end encrypted. Your cellular provider can see the contents of messages you send and receive. Those messages are stored on your cellular provider’s systems—so, instead of a tech company like Facebook seeing your messages, your cellular provider can see your messages. Cellular carriers store the contents of those messages for various amounts of time. Messages are often only retained for several days, but they store metadata (which number sent a message to which number, and at what time) for even longer....
Microsoft Could Change This, But… Sure, Microsoft may change this process and make it easier—but Microsoft may not change it, or it may take some serious outcry before Microsoft changes course. So, just in case you haven’t gone hands-on with the Windows 11 Insider Preview yet, we’ll show you how it works. This is current as of Insider Build 22000.100, which was released on July 22, 2021. RELATED: Windows 11: What’s New In Microsoft’s New OS...
Last week, we reported that some AMD Ryzen CPUs were slower on Windows 11. With the release of the new patch, Microsoft did fix some nagging Windows 11 issues, such as the problem with Intel Killer networking, but it appears to have made AMD’s problem worse. The latest patch wasn’t meant to fix the AMD issue yet, as that fix is scheduled to come later this month. However, it seems unlikely that making the problem worse was in the plans for Microsoft or AMD....
There’s a “Right Mac” For You Since you can’t build your own Mac, you’ll need to fit into the existing hardware setup. That means that there has to be a Mac model that fits your requirements, budget, and expectations. This might be a lightweight MacBook Air for college, a higher-end MacBook Pro for your mobile workstation needs, or something spicy like the Mac Studio (the most powerful Mac Apple has released so far)....
The company describes CC Express as “a unified task-based, web and mobile product that makes it easy to create and share beautiful rich multimedia content — from social media posts and stories to invitations to marketing materials like logos, flyers, and banners.” Adobe is known for making some more complicated programs like Photoshop and Premiere Pro, and this is the opposite. You will drag and drop to create images and videos for social media and other places....
Apple doesn’t offer Messages on the web, either. That’s a shame—it could be part of the iCloud website like iCloud Drive, Notes, and Find My iPhone are. Solutions That Don’t Work (Stay Away from iPadian) Search for “iMessage on PC” or something similar on the web, and you’ll discover many websites offering a handful of bad solutions for running iMessage on a Windows PC. Here’s why they don’t work....
According to a report from 9To5Mac, Apple has now published official battery capacities for the devices on the Chemtrec website. For the iPhone 13, Apple packed in a 12.41 watt-hour battery. The iPhone 12, for comparison, included a 10.78 watt-hour battery. That’s an increase of 15% in terms of battery size, which is no small change. RELATED: How to Preorder an iPhone 13 Moving onto the iPhone 13 Mini, Apple bumped the battery to 9....
Microsoft dramatically simplified the Start menu in Windows 11, ditching live tiles and aiming for a sleek, rounded interface. Here’s a quick look at what’s new and different about Start compared to Windows 10. It’s Centered by Default In Windows 11, the Start menu appears in the center of the screen when opened by default. This is because Windows 11 aligns the Start button and taskbar icons to the center of the screen....
LEGOLAND and Google Assistant Come Together Google announced a bunch of ways that it’s bringing Google Assistant LEGOLAND. First, the company announced that it’s putting Nest Hubs into every room at LEGOLAND resorts in New York and California. Instead of having to call the front desk every time you need something, you can ask Google Assistant lots of questions that’ll help make your time at LEGOLAND more fun. For example, you can use the Nest Hub to ask Google Assistant when the park opens, for more information about the park, or for some extra towels....
Have you ever declined an event request only to discover that you need to accept and attend after all? What happens to those declined invitations? We’ll explain where they go and how to accept a previously declined event in Outlook. When you receive an invitation in Outlook, it pops onto your calendar as tentative. This is a handy indicator that you need to respond and either accept or decline it....
Microsoft Word provides built-in tools for creating and arranging different types of flowcharts. You can create your own flowchart by using different shapes and SmartArt. Here’s how to do it. Making a Flowchart in Word When working with shapes in any Office application, it’s always useful to use gridlines to make sure everything is sized and placed correctly. To make the gridlines appears, head over to the “View” tab and tick the “Gridlines” checkbox....
Just like the iPhone and iPad, the Apple Watch supports Dynamic Type. Dynamic Type lets you increase or decrease the text size across the entire operating system, including the default apps. If third-party apps support Dynamic Type (and many popular apps do), the text size will update there as well. You can increase or decrease the text size from the Settings menu. To get there, lift up your wrist to activate the screen on your Apple Watch....
RELATED: What’s the Difference Between Jailbreaking, Rooting, and Unlocking? What Does “Jailbreaking” a Fire TV Stick Mean? In Settings, open “My Fire TV. ” Choose “Developer Options” and enable the “Apps From Unknown Sources” option. From the Appstore, install the Downloader app and use it to download any APK file. So if you want to install an app that’s not available on the Appstore, you’ll sideload it on your Fire TV Stick after “jailbreaking” the device....
A quick and easy way to access Google in your web browsers is to make Google your homepage. You can do this in browsers like Chrome, Firefox, and Edge, and we’ll show you how. Your browser has a box that you can fill in with any site’s URL to make it your homepage. You can set any region-specific Google site (like Google UK) as the homepage if you prefer....
Creating a mapped network drive allows you to quickly access files and folders on a shared network as if they were on your local machine. Fortunately, Windows 10 lets you map network drives in just a few simple steps. Turn On Network Discovery If you want to map a network drive on your Windows 10 PC, you’ll need to enable network discovery first. To do so, open Control Panel and then click “View Network Status and Tasks” under the Network and Internet group....
If you have a large Steam library, then you may be running out of space, or maybe you have it located on an old, slower spinning hard drive. Whatever the case, you can painlessly move your Steam collection to a new location. It’s easy to acquire a large burgeoning game collection via Steam, especially if you participate in the various sales that Valve has every year. We’re all probably guilty to some extent of going a little overboard during the Steam Summer Sale in particular....
What You’ll Need To play PC VR games with your Oculus Quest or Oculus Quest 2, you’ll need a few things: An Oculus Quest (obviously!) A VR-capable PC. A USB 2. 0 cable (USB 3 or better strongly advised) with a USB-C connector for a wired connection. Oculus offers an official Oculus Link cable. If your PC doesn’t have USB-C connectors, Oculus previously recommended this Anker PowerLine USB-A to USB-C cable....
PC gaming isn’t quite as simple as console gaming. If you have a laptop with weak graphics hardware or an older PC, it’s important to check whether your computer can support a game before you spend your hard-earned cash. The good news is that PC gamers don’t have to upgrade their hardware as often as they used to. Even a gaming PC built years ago should be able to handle the newest games just fine....
