In-home voice assistants like the Amazon Echo and Google Home are convenient, but are they also a secret back door for the government and corporations to spy on everything you say? No. Of course not. Reports of the Echo and Google Home’s ability to spy on you have been greatly exaggerated.
Are My Amazon Echo and Google Home Spying on Everything I Say?
In-home voice assistants like the Amazon Echo and Google Home are convenient, but are they also a secret back door for the government and corporations to spy on everything you say? No. Of course not. Reports of the Echo and Google Home’s ability to spy on you have been greatly exaggerated.
MoviePass offers an unprecedented deal for moviegoers: $9.99 a month lets you see a movie in theaters every single day. Yes, you read that right. You can watch around thirty movies in theaters every month for ten bucks. Since that’s cheaper than a single ticket in most places, people flocked to it. But before you sign up, there are still a few things to consider.
Facebook has several useful tools for disasters, including a way to let others know you’re safe, and find out if others are safe, too. You can even connect with people who need or are offering help, or donate to existing fundraisers. If you want to raise money for your own cause, you can set up a fundraiser through Facebook’s Safety Check.
Netflix knows that you aren’t the only person using your account. The company has turned a mostly blind eye to password sharing, but you may still want to know who’s been logging into your account—especially if you think someone got access without your approval. Here’s how to find out who has logged in using your credentials.
The bitrate of a video governs how much detail a video can display. Even a high resolution video with a low bitrate will look blocky and distorted. Fortunately, it’s easy to find out the bitrate of any video on Windows or macOS.
A video’s bitrate is a key piece of information in determining the quality of said video. Even if two videos have the same resolution, a lower bitrate is going to result in less detail and clarity. Here’s how to see the bitrate of any video you’re playing in real time with VLC.
Ever since the dawn of cable bundles, all we viewers have ever wanted is to pay for just the shows that we want to watch. Now that everyone and their parent company has a streaming subscription, you can sort of do that…but if you subscribe to Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, HBO Now, and all of the other ones you want, it could end up costing as much as cable. Fortunately, there’s a solution: rotate your subscriptions.
Netflix lets you download some of its shows to your device so you can keep watching when you’re on a plane, stuck in the subway, or just don’t want to use up your mobile data. However, you can only download shows on up to four devices. If you ever need to add another, you’ll need to deauthorize one first. Here’s how to do that.
Facebook’s Safety Check is most well known for letting people know you’re safe during an emergency. However, if you’re in the affected area of a disaster and you need help or want to offer to help others, you can find people using it, too. Here’s how to find help or volunteer.
Whenever there’s a natural disaster, your friends and family will want to know that you’re safe. Facebook has tried to make this easier with its Safety Check feature. Here’s how to let everyone you know on Facebook that you’re safe with a couple clicks, instead of messaging everyone individually.
Facebook’s Safety Check feature lets you check in during an emergency to confirm you’re safe. If you have friends or family in an area that you haven’t heard from, though, you may want to ask them directly. Here’s how to ask someone to check in with the Safety Check feature.
Walk through any electronics showroom and most TVs you see will be some form of “Ultra HD” 4K. There are plenty of models available, and they’re cheaper than ever. But should you buy one?
Hulu’s library is becoming more worthwhile as it keeps taking beloved shows from Netflix. Unlike most other subscription services, Hulu lets you take a temporary break for up to twelve weeks without canceling your subscription entirely. Here’s how to put a temporary hold on your account.
Netflix has decent subtitles, but sometimes they can be hard to read if they appear over a light background, or if your eyesight isn’t what it used to be. Fortunately, you can customize those subtitles to make them look however you want. Here’s how to change their size, font, color, background, and more.
Amazon’s lists are helpful for keeping track of all the many ways you need to give Jeff Bezos your money. However, by default, your basic wish list is public, and anyone with your email address can look it up. That seems like something worth fixing. Here’s how to change the privacy settings on your wish list.
You order so much stuff from Amazon, it’s tough to keep track of it all. If you need to go back through your history to find something you’ve ordered before, you can scroll through pages and pages of items you’ve bought, but that’s tedious. Instead, use the order search history.
Netflix is constantly adding new content, and the company doesn’t want you to forget it. You get emails or notifications when Netflix adds new shows, sends you recommendations, or even adds new features to its apps. Here’s how to turn off all those pestergrams.
Google Home is great for taking voice commands, but you can also send music from your phone to its speaker. While most apps let you cast audio to your Google Home, some don’t. For those, you can pair your phone to Google Home via Bluetooth to play music the old-fashioned way. Here’s how to set it up.
You can control your Wi-Fi-connected Roomba from your phone, but if you have an Amazon Echo or Google Home (or a phone with Google Assistant), it can be even easier. Here’s how to control your robotic vacuum with just your voice.
Roombas may make it easier to vacuum your home, but they can be loud and get in the way. Fortunately, you can schedule them to run when you’re out of the house or when you’re asleep. Here’s how to set up a schedule for your Wi-Fi Connected Roomba.
Tile trackers are handy for finding your keys, wallet, or anything else you might lose. Normally, you need to use your phone to find your Tile, but if you have an Amazon Echo or any device that can use Google Assistant, you can find your stuff with a simple voice command.
If you leave your Roomba to do its thing unattended—which is the whole point, after all—every once in a while it can get stuck in a corner or under furniture. If you can’t figure out where it went, and you have a Wi-Fi connected model, you can ring it from the app to help you track it down.
After Alexa gave users the ability to call other Echo owners, Google upped the ante with true phone calls. If you live in the U.S. or Canada, you can now use your Google Home to place a call to anyone’s phone. You don’t need to limit yourself to other people who have a Google Home. Here’s how to get started making phone calls.
If you had a computer in the early 2000s and didn’t have a ton of common sense (or proper antivirus software), you probably ended up with an allegedly helpful purple ape named BonziBuddy crowding your desktop. He could talk, tell jokes, “sing,” and generally annoy you. He promised to help you use the internet, but mostly he just got in the way.
iRobot has a few different models of Roomba vacuums, but the Wi-Fi connected Roombas are definitely some of the most convenient. You can start or schedule cleaning jobs from your phone, ring your Roomba from your phone if you can’t find it, and even start cleaning using Alexa or Google Assistant. If you just got a Wi-Fi capable Roomba, here’s how to set yours up.
