Do you ever feel like software is just changing back and forth for no good reason? Windows 8 dropped the Start button, then Windows 8.1 brought it back—both decisions being touted as big improvements. Windows 7 brought Aero transparency before Windows 8 dumped the transparency, and both decisions were proclaimed design improvements at the time. Now, Microsoft is bringing transparency back again with Fluent Design. Open-source software isn’t immune to this temptation....

Just like many of the other Internet of Things appliances that have been slowly trickling into our homes over the past several years, smart washers are a new class of device that can hook up to your smartphone or tablet via an app, and transmit vital data about their daily operation to you in realtime. But how do they work, and do you really need to drop all that extra coin for just a few added features?...

If you spend any time at all poking through Activity Monitor, you know that loads of processes run on any macOS system. But what do they do? Is it safe to force them to quit? We’ve got some answers for you. RELATED: How to Troubleshoot Your Mac With Activity Monitor As part of an ongoing series, we’re taking a closer look at the processes spawned by macOS, common third-party apps, and hardware drivers....

Maybe you’re using cloud backups or backups to attached media such as an external hard drive or a NAS. But these days, you also need an offline backup: A copy of your data that is detached from your machine and the Internet. Here’s why. What Is an Offline Backup? An offline backup is a copy of your data that is not stored on the same device (or attached to the same device) as your original data and is not connected to the Internet....

Apple’s HomePod smart speaker is a unique little device that sounds amazing for its size, but there are probably a handful of things you don’t know about it that you should. RELATED: How to Set Up the Apple HomePod Of course, you probably already know about some of the HomePod’s quirks, like how it doesn’t have Bluetooth capabilities and that you can only use Apple Music if you’re wanting to control music with your voice....

Apple’s macOS 10.13 High Sierra brings a new file system named “Apple File System”, which largely replaces the older HFS+ file system. Apple File System, also known as APFS, has been used by default on iPhones and iPads since iOS 10.3, and is also used on the Apple Watch and Apple TV—but now it’s finally on the Mac, too. How to Get the Apple File System RELATED: What’s New in macOS 10....

There are two ways to install iTunes on Windows 10: By downloading it from Apple’s website, or by installing it from the Microsoft Store. You get the same application either way, but the Store app has less bloat. The Store App is the Same iTunes The version of iTunes in the Microsoft Store isn’t some sort of “stripped down” universal app. This is the same iTunes desktop application you know and (probably don’t) love....

Whether you’re a new Linux user or you’ve been using Linux for a while, we’ll help you get started with the terminal. The terminal isn’t something you should be scared of — it’s a powerful tool with lots of uses. You can’t learn everything you need to know about the terminal by reading a single article. It takes experience playing with the terminal firsthand. We hope this introduction helps you get to grips with the basics so you can continue learning more....

Anonymous vs. Pseudonymous The main issue with Bitcoin is with its wallet, where your Bitcoin is stored. Cryptocurrency wallets are generally pseudonymous rather than anonymous. Anonymity is about being “nameless”—it comes from the Greek word for “without name”—but instead, your wallet gives you a fake name, a pseudonym. Instead of “Mark Twain,” you get some scrambled numbers and letters, but the idea is the same. Despite the Bitcoin Project itself disclosing this information on its website, plenty of people have taken the scrambled nature of their wallet addresses to mean that payments can’t be tracked....

How Much Bandwidth Common Activities Require We recently looked at how much download speed you really need, so if you’re curious about that other side of the bandwidth equation, we recommend you check it out. Let’s examine upload speed with a similar approach. Historically, very few people paid attention to upload speeds because the vast majority of people using the internet at home were using it for activities focused on how fast they could get data to their devices (and not how fast they could send data out into the world)....

DigitalOcean droplets possess metadata that reveal information about the compute instance and its environment. You can supply your own arbitrary data to make custom values accessible from inside your droplet. Default Metadata The default metadata available on every droplet lets you query key information such as the DigitalOcean datacentre region, network interface addresses, and tags assigned in the control panel or via the API. A droplet can retrieve its own metadata by calling the special network address, 169....

Why settle for mediocre ratings on your otherwise perfect Plex Media Server? With a simple trick, you can add IMDB or Rotten Tomatoes movie ratings to Plex and enjoy more accurate movie scores. Where Plex Gets Movie Ratings (and Why You Should Tweak Things) If you’ve taken a look at the star ratings of the movies in your Plex library, you may have noticed something a little peculiar: there’s a remarkable number of 3/5 star movies....

If you use multiple calendars on the daily and you also use Google Home, then you know how frustrating it is that Google Home doesn’t list all your calendars when you ask about your day. Fortunately, that’s changing. Google is currently rolling out a feature that lets Google Home see all your imported calendars, including iCal. This way, you can share your Apple calendar with your Google Calendar and get it as part of your daily briefing....

Siri, like Google Assistant, can struggle with pronouncing your friends’ names, especially if there are silent letters or odd combinations. But there’s a way to fix that. It’s especially bad for me; a lot of my friends have Irish names like Sinéad (pronounced Shin-ade), Eabha (Ay-va), Siobhán (Shiv-awn), or Sadhbh (Sive). As you can see, Irish is pretty big on adding extra letters that are pronounced in a totally different way to any other language!...

Just like with any operating system, keeping a Windows PC running well requires some maintenance. The good news is that you can automate most of the important maintenance tasks, and keep Windows humming along like it was freshly installed. Windows 8 and 10 Feature Scheduled Automatic Maintenance First things first. Windows 8 and 10 automatically perform basic system maintenance tasks according to a schedule you can customize. These tasks include things like software updates, security definition updates and scans, disk optimization and defragmentation, and some other diagnostic tasks...

Safari is a solid browser for most Mac users. It’s fast, energy-efficient, plays nicely with the iPhone and iPad, and more. If you’re not happy with the default search engine, though, changing it takes only a few clicks. RELATED: How to Change the Default Search Engine in Safari on iPhone or iPad Changing Search Engine in Safari Preferences To change Safari’s default search engine, launch the Safari app on your Mac and click on “Safari” in the top-left corner of the screen and select “Preferences” from the list that appears:...

If you’re a Google Home user, you probably love the idea of controlling as many things as possible in your house with just your voice. The thing is, if you’re also a Roku user, it can leave a huge disconnect in your “Hey Google, ” experience. But it doesn’t necessarily have to be that way. By using an Android app called Quick Remote on your phone, you can use Google Assistant to do rudimentary things on Roku....

Google Assistant should be available on basically all modern Android phones at this point, but not everyone loves it. If you find yourself disliking Assistant more than you use it, you have some options: you can change how you use Assistant, or you can disable it completely. The biggest complaint many users have is that the home button long-press that used to launch Google Now (or Now on Tap) has been hijacked by Assistant....

Apple has come under fire recently for admitting that they throttle CPU speeds on iPhones with old batteries. After a fair amount of pressure from both the media and customers, the company is including a way to disable this throttling in iOS 11.3, which should be available in the next few weeks. Note: We’re working with the current beta right now, which is why you’ll see that in our images....

Taking screenshots on the desktop is simple enough on Windows and Mac, but if you just want to take a screenshot of your current Chrome tab, why not do it with Chrome? We’ll show you how it works. Google has been working on a screenshot tool for Chrome on the desktop for a while. Version 98 made the tool available through a feature flag. It’s still a bit rough around the edges, but it does work....