I hate wires. For a long time I’ve wanted to exclusively use wireless earbuds, but they just haven’t been good enough. It was impossible to pair them over Bluetooth, they sounded awful, and the battery life lasted about fifteen minutes. Things, however, have changed. Three weeks ago I bought a pair of BeatsX and I haven’t looked back since. Wireless earphones are finally good enough for the real world. Here’s why....
Microsoft charges $200 for a Windows 10 Professional product key. But, with a quick search online, you can find websites promising Windows 10 Pro keys for $12 or even less. That’s a huge savings—but don’t fall for it. Why Are They So Cheap? The websites selling cheap Windows 10 and Windows 7 keys aren’t getting legitimate retail keys straight from Microsoft. Some of these keys just come from other countries where Windows licenses are cheaper....
A photograph only shows a single moment, so if you want to capture a good image of a moving subject and have it look like it’s actually in motion, you need to put a bit of thought into things. Let’s look at how to capture movement in your photos. There are two main problems you’re likely find when you’re taking photos of moving subjects. The first issue you’ll run into is when your shutter speed is too slow and the subject looks blurry—like in the portrait below that I took of a guy dancing on a steamship in New Orleans....
Until now, there was no way to temporarily remove someone from your News Feed on Facebook. You could Block or Unfollow someone, but this was a permanent solution. If you wanted to see their posts again, you’d need to deliberately go back and unblock or refollow them. RELATED: How to Clean Up Your Facebook News Feed in Just a Few Taps Recently, Facebook introduced Snooze, a feature that lets you hide someone from your News Feed for 30 days....
Philips Hue’s Android widgets are a robust way to control several of your lights at the touch of a button. You can turn lights on and off or apply multiple scenes at once. Here’s how to create an Android widget for Philips Hue and what you can do with them. To get started with a Hue widget, hold down an open space on your Android home screen and tap Widgets....
If you keep getting calls from someone (anyone) you don’t want to talk to, the best thing you can do is block them. There are a few different ways to do this on the iPhone, and we’re going to take a closer look at how to manually keep those people out of your life. There is a small quirk to blocking numbers on an iPhone: The number you want to block must be stored in your Contacts, as there’s no way to block a specific number otherwise....
Hate the stock font on your Samsung phone? You’re in luck, because you can change it up whenever you like. They even have font packs available for download. How to Change the Font If you’re just looking to change the font up a bit, it’s incredibly simple. Pull down the notification shade and tap that cog icon. Tap the “Display” option, and then tap the “Font and Screen Zoom” setting....
Your Instagram display name and username are two separate things. Your display name appears below your profile icon, and it doesn’t have to be unique. You can even add emojis or special characters to spice it up. Your Instagram handle, or username, on the other hand, appears at the top of your Instagram profile. This is your unique identifier. It can’t be longer than 30 characters, and special characters aren’t allowed here....
Changing an online username is something that everyone does at some point. If you’re a Spotify user, you have the option to change your username, too. It’s easy to do and we’ll show you how it’s done. To be specific, Spotify allows you to change your “display name.” This is what appears on your profile and playlists. You technically can’t change your “username,” but for all intents and purposes, changing your display name is enough....
The only way to fully “close” an Android app is to “force close” it. This stops the app from running and closes all background services. You only need to do this if an app is unresponsive or misbehaving in some way. You do not need to close Android apps when you’re done using them. First, we’ll show you how to close an app in a less aggressive way. This method will close the app but not kill all the background services entirely....
Tired of opening the Mac App Store to install macOS updates? Use the Terminal instead. The Mac App Store is slow, especially on older Macs. Even on newer Macs, the store is kind of annoying to use for updates. That’s why we showed you how to update or install Mac App Store software from the Terminal, but sadly that method doesn’t let you update macOS itself. Don’t worry! It turns out there’s a built-in method for downloading macOS updates from the Terminal, and it’s not that hard to use....
On an iPhone or iPad, you can use the “Display Accommodations” accessibility feature to invert the colors on your screen, reduce the brightness of white and bright colors on your screen, and enable color filters designed to aid people with color blindness. RELATED: How to Enable Night Shift On Your iPhone for Easy Nighttime Reading This is different from the Night Shift feature, which blocks blue light for easier reading at night....
Safari 12 is here with a feature we’ve all been waiting for: favicons. Here’s how to enable them on macOS and on your iPhone or iPad. Favicons are little icons that represent websites, seen in the tabs of browsers like Chrome and Firefox. Apple long resisted using these icons in Safari, which made it hard to identify which tab is which, especially when you’ve got a lot of tabs open....
In addition to searching and replacing text, Word lets you search for special characters—tabs, indents, paragraph marks, and so on—and then replace them with other special characters. This can be handy for quick and easy changes which would typically take you a bit more time to do manually. When Is Searching and Replacing Special Characters Useful? To understand when searching and replacing special characters may be useful, let’s look at some examples....
There’s a not-very-well-kept secret in the online book world: reviews are extremely valuable. The good news is that it’s easy to get started reviewing books, especially if you’re willing to do so for the new crop of independently-published authors. The bad news is that you’ll be doing it for free…or more precisely, that you’ll be paid in books. Which isn’t all that bad if you love reading. Step One: Review Everything You can even review books on your own website....
Chromebooks are fantastic little devices—they’re simple enough for nearly anyone to use, and often come in at prices a fraction of Windows laptops or MacBooks. Whether you’re a Chromebook veteran or a first-time buyer, here are some tips and tricks to help you get the most out of your machine. First: Pick the Right Chromebook RELATED: The Best Chromebooks You Can Buy, 2017 Edition If you’re just fooling around with the idea of getting into the Chromebook scene, you’re probably curious which one to buy....
If you want to keep your home safe from the occasional bad guy, but don’t want to pay the premium for a professional system, SimpliSafe is a security system that you can easily install yourself. Here’s how to get it up and running. RELATED: How to Install and Set Up the Nest Secure Security System There are many DIY security systems available on the market—including one from Nest—but you’ve likely heard of SimpliSafe since it’s fairly popular....
Stringify is a crazy powerful tool that lets you automate complex tasks with minimal effort, even if you don’t know any code. One of Stringify’s most powerful tools is called Connect: Flow. This “Thing” lets you use one Flow to activate another, or even create a Flow that loops itself. RELATED: How to Use Stringify For Crazy Powerful Home Automation Connect: Flow is one of Stringify’s built-in Things. Like the previously covered Mode Thing, Connect: Flow isn’t used to directly control the stuff in your house....
Microsoft Excel offers a few features for performing analyses on what-if scenarios. One of these tools is a Data Table. With it, you can experiment with different values to see various outcomes. This is a helpful way to see things like loans, investments, product markups, and the like, with different variables. For instance, you may enter several different interest rates for a loan to see what your payment would be with each rate, all in one spot....
RELATED: What is Miracast and Why Should I Care? In the menu that appears, select “Mirroring.” On Android, open the “Settings” app and select “Bluetooth & Device Connection.” Select “Connection Preferences.” Open the “Cast” option. Tap the three-dot menu icon in the top-right corner and toggle the option for “Enable Wireless display.” The text “Connected” will appear under your Fire TV’s name. Your Android device’s screen will appear in portrait mode if the orientation lock is enabled....
