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If you’re moving to Android from another platform, the switch can be a little daunting. Some things may work in a familiar way, but there are so many other things that are different. Here’s everything you need to know about making the switch. First Off, What is “Android,” Exactly? Android itself is an OS that’s owned by Google. However, it’s open source and made freely available to all manufacturers. Those manufacturers can then modify it to their liking and redistribute it....

After over three decades of Microsoft Windows success, there have been some clear failures along the way. With that in mind, we’ve picked the six worst versions of Windows. All of these made us want to stick to older, better versions of Windows, or use alternatives like Macs or Linux instead. In developing this list, we considered the following metrics: How much people hated each version (appearances on other worst-of lists), how poorly it sold, how slowly it was adopted, how bad its reviews were, the length of its lifespan on the market, and our own personal experiences with the software....

First, is it a desktop external drive or a portable external drive? Portable drives get all the power they need from the USB connection. There’s no need to look for a power outlet to use them. They also tend to be smaller and pocketable, making them great travel companions. The downside is that they can be slower than full-size desktop external drives. Performance in an external drive depends on several things, such as the rotational speed of the drive, the drive interface (e....

Your phone probably already has Chrome on it, but that’s not the be all, end all when it comes to web browsers for Android. There are, in fact, dozens of alternatives out there. Here’s a look at the best of the bunch. The Best for Speed and Features: Samsung Internet Browser Once upon a time, no one would even consider using a handset manufacturer’s web browser on its own phones, much less install one on another phone....

.com, .net, .org and other website suffixes are known as “top-level domains” (TLDs). While we normally see only a few of these, there are hundreds of them – and there may be thousands more soon. Top-level domains are managed by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), which is run by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Generic Top-Level Domains Perhaps the most common top-level domains are ....

“Greatest of All Time” GOAT stands for “greatest of all time.” If you’ve participated in online sports talk, you may recognize that the term is used to refer to the greatest athlete in the history of a professional sport. Alternatively, some use it to refer to the best currently active athlete in the field. Because of its prominence, it has also become a general term for an all-time great at topics outside of sports....

4K is the next big thing in TVs, and 4K videos are starting to pop up everywhere. But 4K video takes up a ton of space, which makes it hard to download and stream in the best quality possible. Thankfully, one technology is changing that, and it’s known as High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), or H.265. It’s taking a while for this new technology to become ubiquitous, but it’s happening—4K UHD Blu-rays use HEVC, VLC 3....

If you spend any time at all poking through Task Manager, you know that loads of processes run on any Windows system. But what do they do? Is it safe to stop, disable, or re-prioritize them? We’ve got some answers for you. RELATED: How to Use the New Task Manager in Windows 8 or 10 As part of an ongoing series, we’re taking a closer look at the processes spawned by Windows, common third-party apps, and hardware drivers....

Google announced YouTube Premium and Music Premium this morning, but it’s a confusing, convoluted mess. Here’s what we know, what we don’t, and what we think is going to happen. The Facts: What Are YouTube Premium and Music Premium? Right now, Google has one music service: Google Play Music. It also has YouTube Red, which is basically ad-free YouTube with access to original content. YouTube Red is $10 a month on its own, as is Google Play Music—but if you pay for Play Music, you also get YouTube Red....

Why Multiple Processes? Modern websites a quite complex — they have tons of “moving parts” that interact with each other, and with the user. Increased complexity means that the demand placed on your computer has increased too. You may have noticed that Google Chrome will often have more than one process open, even if you only have one tab open. This occurs because Google Chrome deliberately separates the browser, the rendering engine, and the plugins from each other by running them in separate processes....

Your computers, phones, and other devices normally use the Domain Name System (DNS) server with which the router is configured. Unfortunately, this is often the one provided by your Internet Service Provider (ISP). These lack privacy features and also might be slower than some alternatives. DNS Is Not Private (Without DoH) DNS was designed nearly 40 years ago, and it hasn’t evolved much since. It’s entirely unencrypted. This means it offers the same level of protection against nosy third parties as unsecured HTTP traffic, which is not much at all....

Windows 11 has been available for almost a full year, but surprisingly, it hasn’t been officially available to purchase as a digital product key from Microsoft. Now, that has finally changed. PCMag pointed out that Microsoft now sells Windows 11 Home and Windows 11 Pro as product keys on the Microsoft Store. The prices are identical to their Windows 10 equivalents: Home is $139.00, while Pro costs $199.99. Before now, the only official way to purchase a copy of Windows 11 was on a USB drive....

Raise your hand if you summon your smart speaker by saying its wake word and then waiting a second or two for it to light up. You might be surprised to know that you don’t have to wait for a response. How Wake Word Detection Works You probably know that your smart speaker is “always listening.” This is different than “always recording,” but privacy concerns aside, the hardware inside your smart speaker is constantly using local processing in order to listen for its wake word so that it’s ready at a moment’s notice....

9to5Google first noticed that Google updated its Android Auto support articles, which now state the feature now only works on phones running Android 8.0 ‘Oreo’ or later. The change appears to have started with Android Auto version 7.5.6213, released back in April of this year, according to data from app host APKMirror. The Play Store listing says the latest version “varies by device,” indicating old phones might still be able download the older versions, but they won’t receive new features and could break at some point in the future....

Many low-level tweaks can normally only be performed on Android by flashing custom ROMs. The Xposed Framework allows you to modify your existing system without installing a new custom ROM. All it requires is root access. RELATED: How to Flash a New ROM to Your Android Phone Sure, you may want to flash a custom ROM like CyanogenMod to get the latest version of Android or use a wide variety of tweaks, but if you like the version of Android you already have, the Xposed framework is very flexible....

Microsoft offers an “Xbox Insider Program” that works a lot like the Windows Insider Program. Join it to get access to new versions of the Xbox system software and apps before everyone else does. How the Xbox Insider Program Works RELATED: Should You Use the Windows 10 Insider Previews? The Xbox Insider Program is actually a little more complicated than the Windows Insider Program. While anyone can join the Xbox Insider Program, there are different “rings”—or tiers—of membership....

Did you know your Apple Watch can double as a bedside clock while it’s charging? It’s called Nightstand mode, but there are some caveats you should know about before you get rid of your traditional alarm clock. What Is Nightstand Mode? When you put your Apple Watch on its charger and place it upright, it will automatically go into Nightstand Mode, which switches the screen from your usual watch face to a big digital clock that takes up the whole screen....

If you need to find, move, copy, or delete files on your Mac, you’ll need to use Finder, which is similar to File Explorer on Windows. We’ll show you some basics about how to browse for files and manage them. Browse for Files with Finder Finder is a special app on your Mac that lets you manage files. The easiest way to open it is by clicking its icon on your macOS dock....

If you ever wanted to make your web traffic seem like it was coming from a different browser–say, to trick a site that claims it’s incompatible with yours–you can. All popular browsers offer built-in user agent switchers, so you can change your user agent without installing any extensions. RELATED: What Is a Browser’s User Agent? Websites identify browsers by their “user agents“. Change a browser’s user agent and it will report it’s a different browser to websites....

On the “Your Account” page, choose “Login & Security.” On the “Login & Security” page, next to “Mobile Phone Number,” select “Edit.” You’ll land on a “Change Mobile Number” page. Here, beneath “Mobile Number,” click the drop-down menu and choose your phone’s country code. Then, in the given text box, type your new phone number. Continue the process by clicking “Continue.” In the prompt that opens, choose “OK.” At the top of the page, select “Your Account....