You can ask Alexa to play music from a particular artist or genre, but finding the right music for your work out or for falling asleep to is a little more complex than justpicking a genre. Fortunately, you can ask Alexa for music based on what you’re doing. Here’s how it works and what you can use it for. One of Alexa’s newer features lets you ask for music based on a certain activity....
Unlike most other operating systems, Windows still doesn’t include first-class support for printing to PDFs. However, PDF printing is still fairly simple — you can quickly install a free PDF printer or use the support included in various programs. We’ll cover ways you can easily print to PDF, whether you’re on a home computer where you can install a PDF printer or you’re using a locked-down computer you can’t install any software on....
Streaming services are so commonplace that we often give little thought to how much data they use until it’s too late. It can be a lot, but you can reduce data use and prevent overages with a few minor changes here and there. Despite the large number of streaming services and their associated apps, it’s safe to say, one of them might be Pandora, Spotify, Netflix, or especially YouTube. All these have ways to change how much data they consume, which is especially important if you have a data cap and/or share bandwidth....
For the most part, the Plex Media Server experience is pretty flawless. You install the server software, you point your Plex clients at it, and start watching your movies. But sometimes, you’ll go to log into your server only to be mysteriously shut out. Let’s dig into some arcane settings and get you back to media nirvana. RELATED: How to Set Up Plex (and Watch Your Movies on Any Device)...
Cortana may not be as popular as Microsoft was hoping for, but it can be useful. No longer do you need to be next to your computer to perform a task; you can shout it from the other side of the room. However, there are some things Cortana can’t do out of the box. Thanks to Windows 10’s Fall Creators Update, for example, Cortana can now shut down, restart, lock, or sign you out of your PC....
When it comes to Kindle software, the most reliable way to track your location in a book doesn’t involve using page numbers. This is because when you’re reading on an e-book reader with customizable font sizes, page numbers become meaningless. Instead, Kindle breaks down the book content into small chunks and uses that to calculate how far along you are. Once enabled, page numbers will be visible in the bottom-left corner of the reading screen (replacing the location or reading progress)....
The Xbox One now has a “Screen Time” feature that allows you to control how much your children can use the console. For example, you could restrict game time to only between 3 PM and 9 PM, but with a maximum of two hours. Different settings can be applied to different child accounts and for different days of the week. RELATED: How to Add and Monitor a Child’s Account in Windows 10...
If you want others in your household to see who’s at the door and when the doorbell was rung, you can share access through the SkyBell HD app on your phone. Here’s how to do it. RELATED: How to Install and Set Up the SkyBell HD Video Doorbell The SkyBell HD acts like any normal doorbell, hooking up to the existing doorbell wiring. However, it also connects to your Wi-Fi network and gives you a live video feed of whoever is at the door, as well as records video and even notifies you whenever there’s motion or the doorbell button is pressed....
Consider signing out of YouTube if you don’t want to save your watch history or if you’re using a shared device. Here’s how to sign out of YouTube on Windows, Mac, Linux, iPhone, and Android. Sign Out of YouTube on the Web If you’re on YouTube’s website, you can sign out by clicking an option on the site. The procedure remains the same no matter what web browser you’re using....
Facebook’s data transfer tool allows you to transfer your photos and videos to Dropbox and Koofr without manually downloading every album and reuploading them. If you’ve used the tool to move images to Google Photos, you’ll be right at home. From your computer, visit Facebook’s website and log into your account. Click the drop-down arrow found in the top-right corner and then select “Settings & Privacy.” In the Settings & Privacy menu, click the “Settings” button....
Windows 10 includes a variety of universal apps, and there’s no easy way to hide them from the “All Apps” view in the new Start menu. You can uninstall them, but Microsoft doesn’t allow you to easily uninstall them in the usual way. Before we get started, we should say that we don’t really recommend uninstalling the built-in universal apps. These apps take up very little space on your device, so it’s best to just ignore them if you don’t want to use them....
Instagram’s desktop website is starting to more closely mirror the mobile app. Officially, you can’t post photos to your feed or add to an Instagram Story from your computer. There’s a work-around for both of these, but more on that later. How to Browse Instagram on Your Desktop On your computer, if you log in to your Instagram account via your favorite browser, you’ll find the same familiar feed, only broader....
The Fall Creators Update includes a new OneDrive feature called “Files On-Demand”, in which your PC now shows “placeholder” copies of your OneDrive files. When you or a program accesses them, they’re downloaded as needed. That way, even if you have 1 TB of files in your OneDrive, they can take up almost no space on your PC, and you can still browse through them in File Explorer. This is basically the placeholder files feature found in Windows 8....
Android’s notification system is arguably one of its strongest features, but it can also be annoying if you accidentally dismiss those notifications. Fortunately, there’s a simple way to view all the notifications that have hit your phone. How to Find Dismissed Applications on Jelly Bean and Above While the feature we’re going to look at here has been around for a while—since Jelly Bean, in fact—it’s shocking how unknown it still is....
What You Need to Know It’s often possible to recover deleted files from a drive. Whether this is possible depends on a number of factors. If the drive is a traditional magnetic drive with a spinning platter, deleted files are simply “marked” as deleted and will be overwritten in the future, making recovery of deleted data easy. This should not be the case on modern solid-state drives, as they should use TRIM by default, ensuring that deleted files are deleted immediately....
Lenovo just announced a bunch of new tech products ahead of CES 2023 in January. Among them, we have the company’s first 49-inch 32:9 monitor, the ultrawide ThinkVision P49w-30. The ThinkVision P49w-30 follows the trend of ultrawide 32:9 monitors that are increasingly becoming common in the gaming space, giving you a splendidly panoramic view of games and programs on your PC. Contrary to most 32:9 monitors, this one has more of a business focus....
The truth is, AirPods will always deliver a superior user experience to non-Apple branded headphones when paired with an Apple device. The same is true for Beats, which Apple purchased in 2014. These earbuds pair effortlessly with your iPhone or iPad and can be used across devices seamlessly. You can also locate them using Find My if they go missing. Unfortunately, AirPods are also expensive. You’re paying for a user experience that no other earbuds can provide since Apple controls the ecosystem, but it can be a hard sell for those on a budget....
Many cellular carriers offer “microcell” devices — T-Mobile is calling them “CellSpot” devices, but they’re the same thing. These function as small cellular towers, but they use your home Internet connection and anyone can connect to them. We’re not saying everyone should avoid these devices, but many people should. In particular, these are a bad idea in dense urban areas. If your neighbors live miles away, you won’t have as much to worry about....
At the top of the television market, you have two big players: Samsung and LG. Sure, there are other brands making high-end sets, and competition among budget TVs is fierce and varied. But it’s safe to say that the two South Korean giants have the high end of the market locked down, at least in terms of technical prowess for picture quality. RELATED: What’s the Difference Between OLED and Samsung’s QLED TVs?...
Google Sites is a Google application you might not hear much about. But if you want to create an intranet for employees, a website for your family, or a central spot for a project team, Google Sites might be ideal. What Is Google Sites? Google Sites is a website and page creation tool that was released in February 2008. It’s part of the Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) productivity suite and is available as a web-based application....
