Sometimes Off Isn’t Really Off Our smartphones, laptops, smart speakers, and other similar modern devices all offer settings that tell us no one is watching or listening. However, how do you know the software-based “off switch” actually does anything at all? By now, there are many notorious stories of hackers accessing webcams and recording people sitting at their computers. The person in question is none the wiser, even when modern cameras have a light indicating that the camera is filming....

Understanding Apple Silicon The M1, the M1 Pro, and the M1 Max all belong to the Apple Silicon family of chips. These chips use a power-efficient ARM-based architecture (as opposed to the x86-64 architecture used in non-Apple Silicon Macs) placed in a system on a chip package (SoC) with specialized silicon for other tasks such as graphics and machine learning. This makes the M1 chips extremely fast for the amount of power they use....

Yakity Yak, Yik Yak is Back Yik Yak announced its triumphant return to the US App Store with a video feature Brian Baumgartner of The Office fame. Baumgartner isn’t the first name we think of when we imagine the millennial and gen z-targeted app, but any celebrity endorsement is better than none. As far as the app goes, it’s mostly like it was when it left our lives in 2017. You can anonymously post about just about anything, and it’s viewable by any other Yik Yak users within a five-mile radius....

For the time being, you can only get access to live captions in English, but Zoom says it plans to add other languages in the future. In a blog post, Zoom’s Theresa Larkin said, “It’s important to us that everyone can successfully connect, communicate, and participate using Zoom. Without the proper accessibility tools, people with disabilities face tremendous barriers when using video communication solutions.” The goal is to make Zoom more accessible for everyone, and having this key feature available to anyone, regardless of whether they pay for an account, is a big step towards that goal....

According to a Wall Street Journal report, Apple would use the accelerometer sensors in iPhones and Apple Watches to sense that a car accident has occurred and alert 911. According to documents viewed by WSJ, Apple has been working on the feature for several years, so it definitely wouldn’t be something the company is just throwing together. Obviously, the feature needs to be done correctly, because the last thing Apple would want is to be responsible for a bunch of false 911 calls....

Fastmail talks about the value of masking your email address on its website. “You wouldn’t give your name and home address to just anyone. Companies can sell or leak your email address. Using a unique email address as a substitute for your real email adds privacy when you sign up for online services and shops.” As far as checking your email goes, Fastmail will take all of the mail you receive from the masked email addresses and put them in one inbox for you....

Quick Fixes For Your Apple Magic Mouse Before we start looking at more in-depth fixes, there are a few basic things to check that could get your Magic Mouse up and running again. These will be power and connectivity issues. Check Power and Battery First, flip the mouse over and check that the on/off switch is showing green for on, not red for off. Assuming the switch is on, the Magic Mouse might have run out of battery....

Why Change the Quick Access Toolbar’s Position? Here’s the thing, the Quick Access Toolbar sits way on the top left of your Microsoft Office application. It’s above both the ribbon and the tabs. So many times, it’s just quicker and simpler to grab the tool you need from one of those spots. But here, we’ll show you how to fix this situation and get to the Quick Access Toolbar faster....

Why Connect Headphones to Your TV? If you’ve never thought about adding headphones to your TV, you might wonder if it’s worth it. Headphones are a convenient way to adjust the volume to your comfort level while simultaneously containing the noise that comes with using the TV. They’re perfect for any situation where you want to hear what is on the TV (or you want your roommates, partner, or kids to hear without it disrupting your work or sleep)....

Once you assign an action item to a person you’re sharing the document with, they’ll receive an email notification and can mark the item complete when they finish. Here’s how it all works. How to Assign Document Tasks Using Comments The quickest way to add a comment to your document in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides is to select the text you want to refer to. This causes a tiny toolbar to appear on the right....

When you create a Google Form, you can record the responses in Google Sheets. But you can also do the reverse and create a form right from your spreadsheet. This attaches the two together and records the responses automatically. Maybe you’re tracking project updates and want to use Google Forms to gather those updates from your team. Or perhaps you’re logging feedback for a new product and want to send out a product survey....

“Be sure to use a strong password” is advice we all constantly see online. Here’s how to create a strong password—and, more importantly, how to actually remember it. Using a password manager helps here, as it can create strong passwords and remember them for you. But, even if you use a password manager, you’ll at least need to create and a remember a strong password for your password manager....

Google wants you to use Google Assistant, which is why it’s available in so many places. Some Android devices can launch Assistant with a swipe gesture from the bottom corners. If you’re annoyed by this, it can be disabled. Starting in Android 12, Google added the ability to turn off the swipe gesture that launches your default digital assistant app. In the vast majority of cases, this is Google Assistant....

Have you ever downloaded a file only to find it has a strange .rar file extension? RAR is a compressed file format—much like a ZIP file—and in this article, we’ll show you how to open RAR files on Windows or macOS. How to Open a RAR File in Windows There are a variety of applications on Windows that can open RAR files. The default choice is WinRAR, made by the developers of the RAR file format, but it’s not a free app....

When you need to find a value’s exact position in your spreadsheet, you can use the MATCH function in Excel. This saves you from manually searching for the location that you may need for reference or another formula. The MATCH function is often used with the INDEX function as an advanced lookup. But here, we’ll walk through how to use MATCH on its own to find a value’s spot....

Your screenshots are readily accessible from within Steam itself. The only other way to find them is to manually search through your hard drive. Steam sorts your screenshots by game, but it doesn’t name the folder after the game. Instead, it names the folder after the game’s application ID — completely inscrutable, unless you’re in the habit of memorizing the IDs. How to Find Your Steam Screenshot Folder for Any Game The simplest way to find your screenshots is directly through Steam....

Who Can Benefit from Alexa’s Email Alert Feature? Alexa can provide email notifications for each email received, which means Alexa’s Email Alert feature is best reserved for people who get no more than six or seven emails a day, as well as those who need assistance reading emails off of a computer. If you receive dozens of emails a day, the notifications can come in with blistering frequency. However, you can sort through the mess by asking about emails from a specific sender....

Android offers a lot of tools for fine-tuning notifications. However, most of these methods boil down to turning things on or off. “Minimized” notifications aren’t disabled completely, but they appear in a much less prominent way. RELATED: How to Pause Notifications on Android First, swipe down from the top of your device’s screen (once or twice, depending on your phone or tablet’s manufacturer) and tap the gear icon to open the Settings menu....

How to Install Google Chrome on Windows 10 and 11 Open any web browser such as Microsoft Edge, type “google.com/chrome” into the address bar, and then press the Enter key. Click Download Chrome > Accept and Install > Save File. By default, the installer will be placed in your Downloads folder (unless you’ve directed your current web browser to download files elsewhere). Navigate to the appropriate folder in File Explorer, double-click “ChromeSetup” to open the file, and then click the “Run” button....

Twitter collects all sorts of data on you, from when you created your account and places you’ve been, to personally-identifying information such as your name, age, and gender. Here’s how to see what Twitter knows about you. What Does Twitter Know About You? Twitter knows everything you share with it, and it collects and stores the information you agree to let it collect and store. This information can be anything from your Twitter account info like your phone number and email address, your login history, your account activity, and even your interests....