Should You Buy a Smart Smoke Alarm?
If your house is already decked out with a ton of smarthome products, your next addition might be some smart smoke alarms, but are they worth buying in the first place? Here are some things to keep in mind.
The Best Universal TV Remotes
A universal remote is the go-to solution if you want to control everything in your entertainment center without juggling pieces of plastic. Here are the best options on the market at the moment.
Best Camera Straps for Every Need
The strap that comes with your camera sucks. It screams tourist, holds your camera awkwardly, and is just generally terrible. Let’s find you a better one.
The Best Cloud Gaming Services for Streaming Video Games
Around 2015, a few companies started to pop up that offer “cloud gaming,” a service promising to turn your cheap laptop into a high powered gaming rig through the power of “the cloud” (and a fast internet connection). A lot has changed in the few years, and cloud gaming is now a fully realized service, with many different options from which to choose.
How Multiple Nest Protect Smoke Alarms Work Together
Having just one smoke alarm in your home isn’t enough, so if you want to go all-in with the Nest Protect, you’ll need more than one unit. Here’s how multiple Protect units work together.
The Best Backpacks For College Students
If you’re off to college in the Fall, there’s a few critical must haves to pick up before you go. A convenient backpack is one of the most important tools in your arsenal, so we’ve round up some of the best.
The Best Alternative Window Managers for macOS
Organizing windows on macOS is a pain—you’ve got to drag and resize everything manually. Happily, there are a bunch of apps that can help.
How to Set Up Whole House Audio Using Google Home
Having audio flow through your entire house is super cool. If you already have a handful of Google Homes spread throughout the house, it’s easy to do—a couple of toggles, and you’ll be ready to roll.
Which Game Console Is Best For The Budget-Conscious?
Buying a console is more expensive than just the basic bundle package. How much does each one cost when you get everything you need for it, though? Let’s find out.
How to Check if a Photo is Stolen
Photos and other images get stolen all the time online. Someone takes a photo from the photographer’s website or social media channels and uses it for their own needs. This is completely illegal and happens to me all the time here at How-To Geek.
How to Install the Same Printer Twice (With Different Settings) on Windows
You can install the same printer more than once in Windows, and each has its own settings. For example, you could have one printer device that prints in color, and one that prints in black and white.
Will the Nest Protect Still Work Without a Wi-Fi Connection?
If the Wi-Fi goes out and your smarthome devices lose connectivity, it’s mostly just an inconvenience. However, what about devices that are potential lifesavers, like the Nest Protect?
The Best Apps For College Roommates
It’s important to be organized when you live with a roommate. These apps will help make sure you and your mates can run the household a little more effectively (and peacefully).
How to Convert MKV Videos to MP4
Video formats can be confusing, and some might not work in your video player of choice, especially more obscure formats like MKV. It’s often easier or even necessary to convert them to something more usable, like MP4. Luckily, that conversion is easy to do.
The Best Bias Lighting For Your TV Or Desktop PC
Bias lighting is a great way to subtly enhance the viewing experience of your living room TV or desktop computer. Here are the best ways to get some sweet LEDs on the back of your display.
How to Use Wildcards When Searching in Word 2016
Word has a powerful search feature that lets you search for text, numbers, formats, paragraphs, page breaks, wildcards, field codes, and more. By using wildcards, you can search for just about everything in your document. Let’s take a look.
How to Set Up Parental Controls on Chromebooks
Once upon a time, Chromebooks had built-in parental controls. Google removed them but added support for Family Link—its parental control software for Android phones and tablets. Here’s how it works on Chromebooks.
The Best Wall Outlets With USB Ports
How many of your devices can you charge with just a USB cable? And how many outlets in your house have USB ports? If the latter is “not enough,” fix that with these outlets that give you USB ports.
What Are the Different Metering Modes on My Camera And When Should I Use Them?
Your camera uses a light meter to figure out the correct exposure settings for any scene. Like most “automatic” camera features, you do have some control over how it works. Let’s look at the different metering modes and when to use them.
How to Protect Your PC From the Intel Foreshadow Flaws
Foreshadow, also known as L1 Terminal Fault, is another problem with speculative execution in Intel’s processors. It lets malicious software break into secure areas that even the Spectre and Meltdown flaws couldn’t crack.
What is a tar.gz File, and How Do I Open It?
A tar file, often called a tarball, is a collection of files wrapped up in one single file for easy storage. Rather than keep track of a whole folder of files, you only need to keep track of one. Tar files are often compressed after being created, giving it the .tar.gz file extension. Technically these are TGZ files, but nearly everyone calls both .tar and .tar.gz files simple “tar files.”
The Best TV Wall Mounts
You could set your TV on a stand in your living room, but if you want a really clean look with minimal clutter, a wall mount will be even better. These are our favorite wall mounts.
How to Contact Gmail Support
Although you may not be able to directly contact Gmail support without subscribing to G Suite for businesses, there are a couple of ways to get the answers you’re looking for online. Let’s look at how you can get help with your Gmail issues.
The Best Mice For Travelling
Laptop trackpads have improved drastically over the years, but they still can’t beat a mouse for precision. If you can’t do without one, these are the best mice to throw in your laptop bag.
How to File a Chargeback on a Credit Card Purchase (to Get Your Money Back)
A chargeback lets you dispute a credit card transaction and reverse it, getting your money back. For example, if you paid a subscription fee to MoviePass and the company just won’t let you cancel your subscription, you can do a chargeback.
The Best Cheap Portrait Photography Gear For Your Camera
Portraiture is a big genre of photography. You don’t need a lot of gear to take good ones, but there are a few bits of kit that can help. Let’s look at some of the best portrait photography gear for your camera.
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Watch Free TV Online Right Now With Xumo.TV
Xumo.TV brings the channel surfing experience to cord cutters, with content from The History Channel, MSNBC, Fox Sports, and more. And it’s free. Read More »
Here’s Why Your Third Party Twitter Client Broke Today
Every major third party Twitter client basically broke today, with key features like realtime updates, push notifications, and stats no longer working. Twitter caused the change themselves by shutting down some key APIs. Read More »
How SNES Games Made Beautiful Music With Only 64kb
The SNES only had 64 kilobytes of audio RAM, yet composers used it to create some of the most memorable soundtracks in history. How is that possible? Read More »
Mozilla Recommend a Privacy Extension That Is Tracking Your Web History
Web Security, a Firefox extension with over 200,000 current users, tracks every website users visit and stores that information on a German web server. Read More »
Facebook Bans Ads for Kodi Boxes Because Pirates Are Ruining Everything
Facebook banned all ads for Kodi boxes this week, the latest in a long run of similar crackdowns. Read More »
You Can Now Talk to Alexa Using Cortana
You can now use Cortana to talk to Alexa, if you live in the US. Other countries are coming later. Read More »
Yell “Enhance!” At Your Computer, Just Like on TV, In This Browser Game
In the movies clearing up fuzzy photos is easy: just yell “Enhance!” and “Zoom in!” Enhance, a browser game by programmer Nicole He, works just like that, and it’s hilarious. Read More »
Watch This Maniac Connect a Floppy Drive to His Android Phone
There’s no good reason to plug a floppy drive into your phone…but you can. Read More »
Instagram Accounts Are Being Hacked, Lock Yours Down Now
Attackers are compromising Instagram accounts and locking out users, so take a moment to lock down your account. Read More »
These Android Phones Support Fortnite Right Now (Not Just Samsung!)
Fornite for Android is here, but for now it only works on certain devices. Here’s the list—is your phone on it? Read More »
Spotify Might Get a “Skip Ad” Button
Spotify’s free version might let you skip ads, the way YouTube sometimes lets you. Read More »
Disabling Location History Doesn’t Stop Google From Tracking Your Location
Disabling Google’s Location History doesn’t stop Google from tracking your location on Android and iOS devices. Read More »
Google Warns Play Users About Potential Fortnite Scams
Search “Google Play” for Fornite and you’ll be told it’s not available, as shown above. This is going to head off so many scammers. Read More »
Facebook Kills Friend List Feeds, The Best Feature Ever Stolen From Google+
Facebook is killing Friend List Feeds, which let you browse custom news feeds from curated lists of friends. Read More »
File Explorer’s Supposedly Complete Dark Skin Doesn’t Really Look Done
Microsoft seems to be struggling with Windows 10’s dark mode, as a supposedly “complete” dark version of File Explorer makes clear. Read More »
