Android Auto recently made its way to phones, eliminating the need for a $1000+ head unit to get its road-friendly features. And while you can set Auto to automatically launch when a specific Bluetooth device (like your car) is connected, what about those who may not have a Bluetooth-enabled car stereo? NFC is the answer. RELATED: What Is Android Auto, and Is It Better Than Just Using a Phone in Your Car?...
If you’re working on a long document in Word, you’ll probably be opening it often until it’s completed. Rather than opening Word to the Start screen, and then opening the file, you can automatically open it to the last document you were working on. There are two methods for doing this, and we’ll show you both. Option One: Create a Special Shortcut Your first option is to create a separate shortcut with a special switch that will open the last document that was open in Word....
Sunrise-simulating alarm clocks are a great way to wake yourself up in the mornings, but commercial sunrise simulators are ridiculously expensive. Read on as we show you how to turn a smart bulb starter kit into a sunrise simulator (and enjoy the benefits of smart bulbs at the same time). Why Would I Want to Do This? Waking up as a result of the sun naturally streaming in the windows and flooding the room with bright light is definitely far more pleasant than waking up to the blaring of an alarm clock....
Most of the time, using a portrait orientation for document pages makes sense. Occasionally, such as when you have a large table that requires that extra bit of horizontal space, you might need to change to a landscape orientation instead. Here’s how to do that in Google Docs. Unfortunately, Google Docs only lets you change the page orientation of an entire document, not just parts of it. If you’re coming from something like Word, which does let you orient different sections in different ways, you’ll have to get used to that limitation....
Many HP laptops released in 2015 and 2016 have a major problem. The audio driver provided by Conexant has debugging code enabled, and it either logs all your keystrokes to a file or prints them to the system debug log, where malware could snoop on them without looking too suspicious. Here’s how to check if your PC is affected. Why Is My HP Laptop Logging My Keystrokes? RELATED: Keyloggers Explained: What You Need to Know...
Geeks love keyboard shortcuts—they’re often faster than clicking everything with your mouse. We’ve previously covered Chrome and other browsers support many keyboard shortcuts, and Chrome lets you assign your own keyboard shortcuts to extensions you’ve installed. A Google employee previously offered a “Shortcut Manager” extension that allowed you to set your own custom keyboard shortcuts for browser actions, but it’s been removed from the Chrome Web Store. It looks like Google removed this feature in Chrome 53....
If you’re trying to download a program, file, or source code from GitHub, finding the right download link can be confusing. We’ll give you some tips so you can locate the right download link on any GitHub project page. Check “Releases” First First, open a web browser and load the GitHub site of the project that contains a program (binaries) or source code you’d like to download. When it opens, look in the column on the right side of the screen for a “Releases” section....
Sometimes it’s tough to find specific information within a web page in Safari for iPhone or iPad. Luckily, Safari allows you to search for text on any currently open web page using either the touch screen or an attached keyboard. Here’s how. How to Search the Current Web Page with Touch If you don’t have a keyboard hooked up to your iPhone or iPad, you can search for text within the current page using the touchscreen, although the feature is tucked away in a non-obvious place....
Have Windows 10 Automatically Fix Blurry Apps Starting with Windows 10 version 1803, you can allow your computer to automatically fix your blurry apps. With version 1903, this option comes enabled by default, so you don’t need to toggle it on. If any of your desktop programs are appearing blurry, it might be because you or someone else has disabled this option. You can verify whether the option is on or off as follows:...
The “Invert Colors” feature can also be helpful for vision-impaired users. The feature flips the screen colors so you have an equally dark background for a previously light color. This works best for black-and-white interface (backgrounds and text), but it can also work for colorful elements. To enable the feature, click on the Apple button from the menu bar and then click on the “System Preferences” option. Here, click on the “Accessibility” button....
If you’re holding an event where you want participants to wear name tags, you can make them easily in Microsoft Word. We’ll show you two ways to create name tags using Word’s label feature and a free template. Whether for a fundraising event, seminar, conference, or something similar, name tags are helpful for everyone to communicate more easily. You can use first names only, include last names, and even add a company name....
As a server owner, it’s important to keep track of your network usage over time. Many hosting providers will charge for bandwidth and transmitted data, so you’ll want to keep tabs on your month-to-month usage. Install vnstat There are plenty of bandwidth monitoring tools out there—most real-time monitoring tools like htop and glances will show Rx (received) and Tx (transmitted) out. However, it’s much more useful to look at daily and monthly averages, and to do that, you’ll need a tool that can keep logs over time....
Windows Defender automatically performs background scans during your PC’s idle moments, but doesn’t include an easy way to schedule a full scan. There is a way to do it, though. Starting with Windows 8, Windows Defender came as a built-in antivirus app, replacing the standalone Microsoft Security Essentials that came before. Security Essentials provided an easy way to schedule a scan through the app’s interface, but that ability went away in Windows Defender....
It’s all too easy to stuff your Android phone or tablet to the gills with data and find yourself without room to install new apps or download new media. Today we’re taking a look at how to quickly assess what’s eating up all your disk space. You’re definitely on the right path with the request for a disk space visualize as they’re quite handy for your needs. Before we dive into that, however, let’s look at the built-in disk space visualizer....
An out-of-office (OOO) reply for your emails is a convenient way to let others know when you’re away. We’ll show you how to set up an out-of-office reply in Microsoft Outlook on Windows and Mac. Whether you’re going to be away for a few hours, a day, or a week, you can create an automatic reply using your own words. This lets others know you’re gone and will reply to their email when you return....
Android is all about choice: like the option to use different apps for different things, or to change apps with one tap. But on the Galaxy S8 (and S7 running Nougat), Samsung changed the option to launch specific apps “just once” and automatically make them the default choice. The thing is, that doesn’t work for most people. For example, if you don’t want to open a certain type of file with the same app every time (like when sharing), you’ll want to see Android’s default app picker every single time....
The Sonos media controller app on Windows is almost perfect, but it does have limitations. For example, it has a pesky 65,000-song limit, and despite an abundance of streaming services, you can’t stream things like YouTube and sporting events. Fortunately, there is a pretty handy app that lets you work around the Sonos controller’s few limitations. Stream What You Hear (SWYH) is a simple open source application that runs in your Windows taskbar, allowing you to hear anything playing through your desktop PC on your Sonos device....
Android Wear is a useful and worthy counterpart to your mobile phone, putting notifications and Google Now right on your wrist. The thing is, sometimes you want to capture something that’s on the screen to show someone, or even document a bug. Taking screenshots on Wear isn’t as straightforward as it could be, however. RELATED: How to Set Up, Tweak, and Use Your Android Wear Watch With your watch paired to your phone, open the the Android Wear app....
When it comes to PC gaming, NVIDIA arguably rules the roost. And in recent years, the company has gone to great lengths to take its gaming presence to the next level with services like GameStream and GeForce Now. The thing is, these services can be kind of confusing for new users, especially when you’re trying to figure out which one best fits your needs. RELATED: How to Stream Games With NVIDIA GameStream to Any Computer, Tablet, or Smartphone...
The Galaxy S8 is Samsung’s newest flagship phone, a triumphant return to the spotlight after the disastrous Note 7. There’s a lot to love about the latest from Android’s largest manufacturer, but there’s also a lot to dislike. Let’s talk about it. The Best Things About the Galaxy S8 I like to start with the good news then work my way back around the bad stuff, so let’s start on the shiny side of the coin: love or hate Samsung, the S8 has a lot of things going for it....
