Posts

Google Fi is a wireless network operated by Google that originally focused on low data usage, but recently expanded into unlimited plans. Now the carrier has a new “W+” feature to help expand network coverage. As spotted by 9to5Google, Google has quietly published a support article explaining a new W+ network feature. “When you’re in a covered area,” the company says, “you’ll be connected to the W+ network. W+ uses select secure, high quality Wi-Fi networks to improve your mobile data connection....

There’s a dedicated community of browser users who consider a vertical tab bar, or tree-style tabs, to be an essential feature. If you use a large number of browser tabs, this can be a lifesaver. More simply, a vertical tab bar works well on modern wide-screen displays. Why put all the tabs at the top of the window when there’s more space on the side of the screen for them?...

Adding audio to your presentation, whether it’s gentle background music for a wedding slideshow or a voice recording for a remote learning session, can keep your audience interested, engaged, and entertained. Here’s how to do it with Google Slides. How Inserting Audio in Google Slides Works Though a seemingly simple feature, inserting audio in Google Slides hasn’t always been an option. Previously, the only way to insert audio in your Google Slides presentation was by inserting a video or linking to a site like Spotify—just inserting the audio file alone wasn’t possible....

Whether you want to back up all your bookmarks regularly in case something happens or you want to transfer them to another browser, Chrome lets you export bookmarks locally. Here’s how to back up and restore your bookmarks. How to Back Up Your Bookmarks To back up bookmarks in Chrome, click the Chrome menu icon at the top-right corner of your browser window and then go to Bookmarks > Bookmark Manager....

Most people are familiar with the default hyperlink format: it’s a blue, underlined font. But if the design you have in mind for your Microsoft Word document calls for a unique link appearance, we’ll show you how to change it. You can certainly change the font for one hyperlink at a time in Word. However, you can save time by changing the style for all links in your document at once....

There are a lot of bots on Twitter. Some are trying to sell things, some are stage one in an elaborate scam, and some are run by international intelligence agencies for any number of reasons. Spotting these bots isn’t necessarily hard: just scroll through the timeline and see whether their activity resembles that of a human. Do they converse with friends, as humans do, or do they just say things to users who never talk back?...

Cloning a GitHub repository creates a local copy of the remote repo. This allows you to make all of your edits locally rather than directly in the source files of the origin repo. Here’s how to clone a GitHub repository. The first thing you’ll need to do is download and install Git on your computer. The installation process is straightforward and brings you through a lot of boilerplate information. The one thing you want to be careful with is that you allow Git to be used from the command line....

Pair a Controller with a USB Cable The simplest way of pairing a controller is to use a USB cable. Make sure your console is turned on, then plug one end of the cable into your controller and the other into the USB-A port on your console. Turn the controller on by holding the Xbox button on the front and it should pair with the console instantly. If the controller has a AA or rechargeable battery in it (that still has a charge), you can now remove the USB cable and use the controller wirelessly....

Apple first introduced multitasking features called Split View and Slide Over in iOS 9. These multitasking features are powerful if you know how to use them, but they can be confusing. If you’d rather have that classic iPad single-tasking experience, Apple lets you disable multitasking. How to Disable Multitasking on iPadOS 13 or Newer First, launch the “Settings” app. Its icon looks like a set of gears and is located on the first page of your homescreen by default....

Lots of Mac users use Photos for sorting and browsing photo collections. It syncs easily with your iPhone, recognizes faces, and even sorts your photos into Memories. What you might not know is that Photos is also now a decent tool for editing photos. Once upon a time Photos could only do superficial edits, but in the fall of 2017, Apple added enough new editing features to make it useful for the vast majority of users....

You can explain your data graphically, include a necessary visual, or make your document stand out. It’s all easy to do when you embed Google Drawings into Google Docs. Google Docs offers a built-in tool for creating new drawings on the spot. Inserting them from there is simple. But if you use the official Google Drawings website, you can take your time and make magnificent visuals. Then in a few clicks, add that drawing to a document in Google Docs....

After months in beta, Valve has finally released Steam Family Sharing for everyone. Read on as we show you how to share your game library with friends and family (and highlight some of the limitations of the system in the process). What Is Steam Family Sharing? Steam Family Sharing is a new feature in Valve’s Steam game distribution network/client that allows you to share your personal game library (the games you have downloaded/purchased from the Steam service) with friends and family....

One of Facebook’s most annoying features is that any of your Friends can add you to a Facebook Group. I’ve had several acquaintances who are selling Herbalife or similar things add me to Groups promoting their dubious products. If the same thing happens to you or you just want to leave a Facebook Group because it’s no longer relevant to you, here’s how. Head to the Group you want to leave and click or tap on where it says Joined....

Many of these tips are going to be common sense, and won’t be a surprise to the more geeky readers, but now you’ll have an article you can send to your less geek friends and relatives when they ask you how to improve their battery life. And we’ve got a battery life article for Android too. Keep Your iDevice Out of the Sun Whatever you do, don’t leave your iPhone or iPod sitting in a hot car—heat kills batteries faster than any other factor, and your device that used to keep a charge for hours will eventually barely hold a charge, and you’ll have to pay Apple to get it replaced....

By default, iMessage on the iPhone and Mac show the sender when you’ve read a message. That can be handy sometimes, but not always. The good news is that the feature is easy to turn on and off. RELATED: Why Are Some iMessages Green and Some Blue on My iPhone? The Messaging app on iOS and Mac devices is capable of sending and receiving two types of messages: text messages, which use your carrier’s SMS system, and iMessages, which are instant messages sent using your data connection....

Like it or not, QR codes are everywhere. From restaurants to gas stations, they are used for all sorts of contactless transactions. Here’s how to quickly scan QR codes on iPhone using a Control Center shortcut. The iPhone’s Camera app lets you scan QR codes. But every time you actually want to take action (for example, opening the webpage from the QR code), you need to tap a notification....

My co-worker Jason is a jerk. Don’t get me wrong: I’m a big fan of his work and he’s probably the most agreeable person I could even hope to work with. But his trivia questions constantly make me feel like a moron. Even worse, the site keeps track of my failure, constantly reminding me of how many questions I’ve gotten wrong. Being the intrepid computer geek that I am, I figured there must be a way to reset this....

Want to find all the people you’ve blocked in your Facebook account? If so, Facebook keeps a tidy list of all your blocked users, which you can access and use to unblock a user if you want. We’ll show you how. RELATED: How to Unblock Someone on Facebook How to Find Blocked People on Facebook on Desktop To view your blocked people list from your desktop, use the Facebook website....

Mix together one Raspberry Pi and a sprinkle of cheap external hard drives and you have the recipe for an ultra-low-power and always-on network storage device. Read on as we show you how to set up your own Pi-based NAS. Why Do I Want to Do This? The benefit of having an always-on network storage device is that it’s extremely convenient to have your data (or backup destination) always accessible to the computers both inside and outside your network....

March is the biggest month of the year for college basketball. If you’re looking to catch all the March Madness action, but don’t have an active cable subscription, here are the best ways to stream all 67 games. That’s a lotta ball. To make sure you can catch every game, you’ll need four key channels: CBS, TNT, TBS, and truTV. Between those, you won’t miss a single jam, clutch three, or questionable call....