The majority of internet usage now happens on phones and tablets, so you may want to check how a website looks on mobile. Google Chrome has a handy tool that lets you do that right from your desktop computer. Maybe you’re doing web development and you want to test how responsive your website is, or maybe you’re just curious. Either way, you can quickly check from Chrome’s “Inspect” menu. We’ll show you how it works....
The myth goes deeper than just price, too. People say iPhones are better because they’re more expensive. All Android devices are grouped together and looked down on as being “cheap.” Even Android users subscribe to this myth sometimes, refusing to pay for the “overpriced” iPhone. Apple(s) vs Oranges The comparison in price between iPhones and Android phones is fundamentally flawed. It’s very similar to the old Mac vs. PC debate....
Have you thought about expanding your knowledge by taking some courses? There are several colleges and other sites that offer free online courses, certificate programs, some degree programs, and education resources for teachers and professors. MIT OpenCourseWare MIT OpenCourseWare offers free lecture notes, exams, and videos from classes at MIT. OpenCourseWare (OCW) was proposed by the MIT faculty in 2000 and they have been publishing educational materials from their courses freely and openly on the Internet since the first proof-of-concept site in 2002, containing 50 courses....
What Is Audio Distortion? It doesn’t help that the definition of distortion is awfully vague, even if you’re limiting it to just audio distortion. If an audio waveform comes out of a given signal changed or deformed compared to the input signal, that’s technically distortion. There are two types of audio distortion: linear and non-linear. Linear distortion is a change in the amplitude of a signal, while non-linear distortion is a change in the frequency content of a signal....
What Are Shaders? Shaders are computer programs that help determine various aspects of rendered graphics. Pixel shaders, for example, calculate the attributes of a pixel. This includes the color, brightness, reflectivity, or transparency of that pixel. If you want something in your game to look wet, you use a special shader to achieve that look rather than do it painstakingly by hand. Shaders are what make modern GPUs so flexible since these GPUs are designed to run anything that can be expressed in shader programming language....
Windows has quite a few special folders, and if you add cloud storage, then you probably have more. Regardless, all of them make sense except the Contacts folder. What is the Contacts folder? Does it serve a purpose? TL;DR: If you don’t feel like reading the whole article, you want to delete the Contacts folder, and there’s nothing in it, you can feel comfortable that deleting the folder won’t cause any problems for most people....
Wi-Fi Cameras are easier to install and set up compared to Wired Cameras. But they often require subscriptions to get the most out of them, and that can include cloud storage. If you don’t want to pay for a subscription, you will want to choose a camera that supports local storage. Not all Wi-Fi cameras support local storage. Most would prefer you subscribe to their service and to entice you they might offer a free tier that provides a small amount of cloud storage....
Your iPhone or iPad automatically backs up to your iCloud account by default, but you can also create more comprehensive, local backups from iTunes. Apple only offers 5 GB of iCloud space for free, so you may need to manage your iCloud backups. Many apps will automatically “back up” your data to the appropriate service, too. For example, when you use Gmail, your emails are stored on Google’s servers with your Google account — you don’t have to back anything up....
We all want the replicator from Star Trek: a machine that can create any object we desire. 3D printers, which create objects from plastics and other materials, are the closest things we have. And they’re getting cheaper every year. There was a lot of hype about 3D printers just a few years ago. The hype has calmed down now, but 3D printer companies still want to put a 3D printer in every home — including yours....
In reality, these manual scans aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. You can generally ignore your antivirus and it will do its job in the background without any help from you, only alerting you when it finds a problem. Why Manual Antivirus Scans Are Unnecessary Your antivirus is always running in the background. It’s monitoring the processes running on your system, ensuring that no malicious processes are running. Whenever you download a new file or open a program, your antivirus quickly steps in, examining the file and comparing it to viruses before allowing it to run....
Google has created ‘Doodles‘ for many major holidays or events that appear on Google Search and the Google mobile apps, and now Microsoft is adding something similar to Windows 11. Microsoft added ‘Search Highlights’ on Windows 10 back in March, which are animations that appear in the search bar related to a current event or holiday — a globe icon with hearts appeared on Earth Day, for example. It’s a fun idea, but it can be distracting if you have the full search bar visible at all times in the taskbar....
Are you looking for some fresh tricks to amaze your friends with? Then you will definitely want to watch and learn from today’s video featuring ten awesome tricks you can perform with ordinary paper! Special Note: There are template download links available for some of these paper tricks in the ‘About Section’ on the video’s home page. 10 Amazing Paper Tricks! [YouTube]
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS is the latest release of Ubuntu. Like other recent releases, there are no flashy big new features. Canonical has made some important changes, but they’re very easy to miss. Overall, Ubuntu 14.04 has many under-the-hood improvements and new versions of software. It’s a solid upgrade, but nothing ground-breaking. Canonical is putting a lot of development effort into Ubuntu Mobile for smartphones and tablets. You Can Easily Disable the Global Menu Ubuntu now includes a way to toggle off the global menu without removing packages....
Apple services work best with Apple’s apps on Apple devices, but the company also offers web versions for some services on iCloud.com. Now the website has received a partial overhaul. Apple has rolled out a new design for the iCloud.com homepage, which you see immediately after logging in. The old layout was just a grid of icons for each service, such as Mail, Calendar, Contacts, Photos, iCloud Drive, and so on, but the new version has more data visible without opening a specific web app....
Outlook 2013 lets you assign categories to stuff and customize said categories. The thing about categories is that they’re universal across Outlook, and can you assign each category to a keyboard combination. So, you can categorize email, calendar events, and notes with a couple quick key strokes. Over the past few months we’ve talked a great deal about Outlook 2013 and its various parts. We’ve talked about mastering its most important features such as how to compose and send email as well as creating and managing contacts and even importing your Gmail contacts....
Sadly there are only two dynamic wallpapers offered: the desert, and a minimalistic take called Solar Gradients. That’s not enough, so here’s where to find a few more options, how to install them, and even how you can make your own dynamic wallpapers. Download Third Party Dynamic Wallpapers There are a few sites out there offering dynamic wallpapers you can use right now. Here are the best ones I’ve found:...
In this installation of Geek School, we take a look at Folder Virtualization, SIDs and Permission, as well as the Encrypting File System. Be sure to check out the previous articles in this Geek School series on Windows 7: Introducing How-To Geek School Upgrades and Migrations Configuring Devices Managing Disks Managing Applications Managing Internet Explorer IP Addressing Fundamentals Networking Wireless Networking Windows Firewall Remote Administration Remote Access Monitoring, Performance and Keeping Windows Up To Date...
Just because an email shows up in your inbox labeled Bill.Smith@somehost.com, doesn’t mean that Bill actually had anything to do with it. Read on as we explore how to dig in and see where a suspicious email actually came from. Today’s Question & Answer session comes to us courtesy of SuperUser—a subdivision of Stack Exchange, a community-drive grouping of Q&A web sites. The Question SuperUser reader Sirwan wants to know how to figure out where emails actually originate from:...
Many websites offer specific interfaces for smartphones, iPads, and other mobile devices. Whether you need to test mobile websites or you’re just curious to see what they look like, you can access them in your desktop browser. You can do this by changing your browser’s user agent — we’ve previously explained what a browser user agent is. Accessing a website with an iPad user agent may also force it to serve you HTML5 video, which is nice if you’re trying to avoid Flash....
By default, the Google keyboard does not display a row of numbers at the top of the main keyboard. If you spend a lot of time typing numbers, there’s an easy way to add a dedicated row of numbers to the top of the keyboard. Without the dedicated number row, you must use the “?123” button on the keyboard to access the numbers and symbols. We’ll show you how to add a number row at the top of the keyboard....
