We’ve looked at the reasons why your Android phone probably isn’t getting updates before, and one of the reasons why is because each carrier must subject each update to a testing process before releasing it — if they ever release it. This causes Android updates trickle out carrier-by-carrier. But updates for Apple’s iPhone are available everywhere when they’re released — so what’s going on? Carriers Control Most Android Phones Android devices actually follow the established cell phone model....

Windows is big, complicated, and misunderstood. You’ll still stumble across bad advice from time to time when browsing the web. These Windows tweaking, performance, and system maintenance tips are mostly just useless, but some are actively harmful. Luckily, most of these myths have been stomped out on mainstream sites and forums. However, if you start searching the web, you’ll still find websites that recommend you do these things. Erase Cache Files Regularly to Speed Things Up RELATED: What Does CCleaner Do, and Should You Use It?...

We warned you at the beginning of the year that many of your browser extensions are spying on you, tracking what you are visiting, and even inserting ads into pages. These aren’t just no-name developers either: even Avast, one of the most trusted antivirus vendors was in on the game. Update 2: We just want to point out that this happened in the past, and Avast has cleaned up their act....

It’s time to compress some files, so what format do you use? Zip, RAR, 7z, or something else? We performed some benchmarks to determine which format gives you maximum compression. Compression ratio isn’t the only factor, of course. Some of these formats are just easier to use because they’re integrated into desktop operating systems, while some require third-party software. File Compression Benchmarks This is more complicated than it seems. How much compression you achieve will depend not only the on the archive type you create, but on the application you use to compress it and the settings you use....

uTorrent recently made headlines for bundling cryptocurrency-mining junkware. Out of all the junkware programs bundled with installers, cryptocurrency-miners like Epic Scale are some of the worst. Modern malware makes money by using this technique to mine Bitcoin, too. Even if you don’t care about most junkware at all, cryptocurrency-mining software is something you really don’t want on your computer. Cryptocurrency 101 RELATED: What Is Bitcoin, and How Does it Work?...

In this edition of Geek School, we are going to look at how IP addressing works. We will also cover some advanced topics like how your PC determines if the device you are communicating with is on the same network as you. We will then finish with a brief look at two name resolution protocols: LLMNR and DNS. Be sure to check out the previous articles in this Geek School series on Windows 7:...

Most of the time, keeping your inbox sorted and clean is a fairly simple task, but what about when things get hectic and suddenly your inbox is out of control? Finding those important e-mails among the clutter can become frustrating and time consuming, so you need an easy way to find what you need fast! With this problem in mind, Google has introduced a new feature for Gmail that will help auto-sort those e-mails into distinct categories, letting you go directly to the mail you want without the hassle....

So you’ve decided to take the plunge and assemble your own desktop PC. Maybe you’re ready to take your PC gaming to the next level, build a tiny entertainment machine, or just save some money by assembling your own budget machine. Whatever your intentions, our five part guide is here to help you. Before you can get to building, you need a plan. The old adage “measure twice, cut once” is in full effect here: you’ll want to carefully select your PC components to make sure they’re all compatible with each other, and with what you want to achieve....

Microsoft Word’s context menu has a menu item that most people have probably seen but don’t use — the ability to search for a selection using Bing. You can make this feature even more useful by changing it to search via Google instead. We’re not saying that Bing is a bad search engine or telling you which search engine to choose. If you really like Bing better than Google, that’s perfectly fine, but you should ask yourself why on earth you are reading this article in that case....

Have you ever noticed that little blinking line at the end of whatever you are typing? Of course you have! But did you know that you can make the line darker if you want to? It also makes a fun prank setting to mess with your friends. Most people won’t want to change the width of the cursor, but it’s not uncommon to lose track of where the cursor is on the page, since the line is so very thin....

Many Chromebooks can install Android apps from the Google Play Store, which is a handy feature. This is possible through a special Android layer on your Chrome OS device. So, which version of Android does it run? Let’s find out. Chromebooks run Android apps in a layer that keeps them separated from the rest of the system. You can actually find a standard Android Settings menu if you know where to look....

Whether you’re a freelancer doing work for multiple companies, or a business that plans on extending a credit line to its customers, you’re going to need an invoice. Creating a custom invoice in Excel isn’t difficult. You’ll be ready to submit your invoice and receive payments in no time. Using an Invoice Template Creating a simple invoice in Excel is relatively straightforward. Create a few tables, set a few rules, add a bit of information, and you’re good to go....

A great cover page draws in readers. If you use Microsoft Word, you’re in luck, because Word has ready to use cover pages. But did you know that Word also lets you create custom cover pages? Here’s how to use both. How to Add a Ready-to-Use Cover Page to Your Word Document Word includes some cover page templates you can insert and then customize a bit if you need a quick cover page for your document....

Windows 8 shows desktop application shortcuts on its Start screen, but these shortcuts look out of place in the new, tile-based interface. However, there is a way to spruce up your Start screen with detailed tile icons for your desktop applications. This trick also works with other types of shortcuts you can pin to your Start screen — folder shortcuts, favorite websites, and direct links to Steam games. Download OblyTile We will be using OblyTile for this, as Microsoft didn’t build this feature into Windows 8....

One of the nice things about Firefox is that it is completely customizable. We recently showed you how to change the look of the orange Firefox menu button. You can also customize the items available on the menu itself by adding, removing, and rearranging the options. The Personal Menu add-on for Firefox allows you to edit the Firefox menu and even add toolbar buttons and your own custom menus....

Add-ins make many of our favorite programs even better to use and allow for a nice customized experience while working, but what do you do when an add-in is causing problems and preventing you from using Outlook to get your work done? Today’s Question & Answer session comes to us courtesy of SuperUser—a subdivision of Stack Exchange, a community-driven grouping of Q&A web sites. Shattered glass effect courtesy of PhotoFunia....

YouTube has that betcha-can’t-watch-just-one appeal to it, which is why YouTube’s annoyances become so pronounced the more you use it. Many of these features, such as annotations can be permanently disabled, making for a more enjoyable viewing experience. You may not even realize that many YouTube videos are annotated, or maybe you didn’t realize that they can be disabled. There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with annotations but they can be overdone sometimes....

The Global menu is a feature in Ubuntu that places the menu bar for each application on the bar at the top of the screen. If you don’t like the Global menu, you can move the menu bars back to the program title bars. Disabling the Global menu in Ubuntu 13.10 involved removing a specific package that provided the Global menu. As of Ubuntu 14.04, there is now a setting that allows you to easily disable the Global menu, if you don’t like it, and enable the local menus on the program title bars....

What does every geek do when their computer starts to run slow or give them trouble? They open the task manager and look at the running processes. This guide will teach you what to look for and how to prioritize running processes to make your computer run more smoothly. The Tools Needed The task manager built into Windows will suffice for most purposes, and can be easily accessed in the familiar Ctrl+Alt+Del menu....

“Windows XP Mode” isn’t included with Windows 8. Microsoft will soon be discontinuing support for Windows XP and doesn’t want anyone using it, even in a virtual machine. However, you can easily set up your own Windows XP mode in Windows 8. You can virtualize Windows XP with almost any virtual machine program, but we’ll cover a solution that gives you Windows XP-mode like desktop and taskbar integration on Windows 8....