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We’ve all seen it in movies: Someone’s in an emergency situation, so they dial 911 on a landline phone and run off. The police then rush to their location. This location tracking doesn’t work as well with cell phones and VoIP services. As we move from landline phone services to mobile phones and VoIP services, it’s important to realize the limitations. In an emergency situation, you should try to stay on the line long enough to give the operator your precise location....

Want to install a custom Android ROM — in other words, a third-party version of the Android operating system — like CyanogenMod? You’ll probably be instructed to install a custom recovery, too. All Android devices ship with a recovery environment preinstalled. This recovery software can be used to restore the device to factory default settings, update its operating system, and perform other diagnostic tasks. Android’s Stock Recovery RELATED: How to Factory Reset Your Android Phone or Tablet When It Won’t Boot...

Emoji are everywhere and there are plenty to choose from. Apple took them to the next level with animated (Animoji) and personalized (Memoji) emoji. Samsung’s version of this called “AR Emoji.” We’ll show you how to use them. Apple introduced Animoji on the iPhone X in 2017. In typical Samsung fashion, the Galaxy S9 series launched with AR Emoji the following year. There are a lot of similarities between the two, but Samsung does have a few unique features....

Proper External Display Support The iPad Pro with M1 chip takes another step toward replacing your MacBook as it now supports resolutions of up to 6K on an external monitor. You can put different apps on an external display for a better multitasking experience, at far greater resolutions. It’s not clear yet whether all displays will be supported, but Apple showed the feature off at WWDC 2022 using its Pro Display XDR....

Apple’s Health app arrived in iOS 8, and it’s now on every up-to-date iPhone. This app appears simple at first glance, but it hides a lot of data and advanced functionality. The Health app is in actually the user-visible face of HealthKit, Apple’s attempt at putting all your health data in one place. The Dashboard (and Step Tracking) RELATED: How to Use App Extensions on an iPhone or iPad With iOS 8...

Many people say they use Hibernate instead of Sleep mode because Hibernate draws no power. Unfortunately, when it comes to desktop PCs, they’re wrong. Desktop PCs still use some power even while they’re shut down. Laptops generally don’t use any power while shut down or hibernating, as that would cause unnecessary battery drain. Desktop computers don’t have to worry about batteries, so they’re generally a bit more power-hungry. Sleep, Hibernate, and Shut Down Defined RELATED: What’s the Difference Between Sleep and Hibernate in Windows?...

PowerToys Run is a classic keyboard-based application launcher—it can switch to running applications, too. It’s a lot like Spotlight on a Mac, and it looks like a more modern replacement for the Win+R keyboard shortcut. Unlike the standard search feature in Windows 10’s Start menu, it’s all about launching apps and files—not searching the web with Bing. And, unlike the standard Run dialog, it has built-in search features so you can search for an application by name....

Microsoft is done supporting Windows XP. If you want security patches, you’ll have to buy an new boxed copy of Windows or a new PC — or you can switch to Linux and get free security updates for years to come. Not only is desktop Linux more powerful and feature-complete than ever, the operating system you use matters less than ever. With more software becoming web-based, Linux is on a more even footing with Windows and Mac OS X....

When you are setting up a long range Wi-Fi connection, you want to make sure that your connection is as solid as possible, but can you use a mixture of antenna types or should you go with high-gain only? Today’s SuperUser Q&A post has the answers to a confused reader’s question. 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....

We like debunking sensationalist stories, but this latest controversy is true. Your phone’s precise location can be tracked in several different ways. How Rogue Bounty Hunters Can Track Your Location The latest controversy was touched off by Joseph Cox over at Motherboard, who gave a bounty hunter $300 and a phone number. That bounty hunter managed to find the precise, current location of the cellular phone associated with that phone number, down to a few hundred meters....

VPN setup can be complex, especially for less experienced users. It may involve installing various certificate files as well as configuring server settings. Create a configuration profile and this will be as easy as downloading and tapping a file. This can help you save yourself some time in the future, guide family members through connecting to your VPN, or provide easy VPN setup for employees of small organizations without a mobile-device management server....

Do you create really long documents in Word? If so, you probably know that Word doesn’t always play well with them. It’s usually smarter to split your long documents into multiple Word files. But, then, how do you make sure the pages are numbered correctly and easily create a table of contents and an index for the whole document? That’s where Word’s master document feature can help. It allows you to combine multiple Word files into a single Word file....

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. The Question SuperUser reader Cipricus poses the question: This is an important consideration; there’s no point in expanding the size of your files by X% if there isn’t an increase in audio quality. Would this result in higher audio quality or just in a bigger file? The Answer SuperUser contributor Linac offers a practical answer to his question....

Choosing an SD Card RELATED: How to Buy an SD Card: Speed Classes, Sizes, and Capacities Explained Fire tablets can use Micro SD cards of up to 128 GB in size, so that’s the maximum size you can buy and use. Getting Files Onto Your SD Card You’ll need a way to put media files on your SD card from your computer. Your computer may have a Micro SD card slot — if it does, you can simply insert the Micro SD card into your computer....

VLC for iPhone has been released back onto the App store and has some nice new features, one of which is a small webserver you can use to send files directly to your iPhone through a web browser. Note: The computer and iPhone must be connected to the same network in order for this to work. How To Add Files To VLC on your iPhone Without iTunes Open the VLC for iPhone app and click on the button in the top left hand corner of the app....

Do you find yourself accessing Facebook, Twitter, or other distracting websites when you really should be doing something else instead? Block that website in Google Chrome. Other solutions will let you block websites for children at home or employees, too. How to Quickly Block a Website for Yourself We recommend Block Site for Chrome for quickly blocking websites. Install it, and you can use the extension’s simple options to define a list of blocked sites....

Windows 11 provides several ways to customize your mouse cursor, including the ability to change its color to anything you want. This can help you see the pointer better or just give your Windows PC a unique sense of style. Here’s how to do it. First, open Windows Settings by pressing Windows+i. Or, you can right-click the Start menu and select “Settings.” In Settings, select the “Accessibility” section in the sidebar, and then click “Mouse Pointer and Touch....

The Oculus Rift and Valve’s HTC Vive require some powerful PC gaming hardware. Not sure if your PC can handle it? Both Oculus and Valve provide tools that will quickly check if your PC is up to snuff. As a general rule, unless you built or purchased a high-end gaming PC recently, there’s a good chance your PC actually isn’t ready for virtual reality. Be sure to buy or build new PCs with these hardware requirements in mind if you plan on getting into VR....

Word 2013 offers a new feature, called PDF Reflow, that allows you to import PDF files into Word and edit the text as a Word document. You can then resave or export the text as a PDF file. NOTE: The PDF Reflow feature in Word 2013 works best with documents that are mostly text. If there are graphics in the PDF file, Word seems to have issues with them, and you may lose your images....

Android includes a built-in way to back up and restore the contents of your phone or tablet. All you need is a computer and a device running Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) or newer. We’ve also covered backing up and restoring your Android phone with Titanium Backup. Titanium Backup is a great app, but it requires rooting your Android. This feature isn’t exposed in Android’s user interface, so you should consider it experimental....