News that Geeks Care About

How to Edit Any Web Page in Chrome (or Any Browser)

Web pages are just documents your web browser displays. But what if you could type directly on any web page to modify it? You can, and you don’t need a browser extension—it’s a feature built into every moder...

Chris Hoffman Oct 2nd, 2019

Google Announces Maps Incognito Mode and More Privacy Controls

Today, Google is announcing a plethora of new privacy and security features: Incognito Mode for Google Maps, auto-deletion of your YouTube history, voice privacy controls in Google Assistant, and Password Checkup built into G...

Chris Hoffman Oct 2nd, 2019

Confirmed: Windows 10 Setup Now Prevents Local Account Creation

Windows 10 Home now forces you to sign in with a Microsoft account—unless you disconnect from the internet first. Microsoft has always wanted you to sign in with a Microsoft account, but now it’s going even furthe...

How to Disable the Apple Watch’s Always-On Display

Early Apple Watch models lacked one significant feature: an always-on display. That changed with the Series 5, which includes a low-temperature polycrystalline oxide (LTPO) display. The option shouldn’t affect the Appl...

Justin Duino Oct 1st, 2019

Is the Mac Pro Overpriced Compared to a PC?

Apple’s Mac Pro will be made in the USA with a starting price of $6,000. You get a pretty sweet machine for that price, but how close could you get to the power of the Mac Pro if you tried to build a Windows version you...

Why You Should Sign In With Google, Facebook, or Apple

Are you still creating user accounts everywhere? Maybe you should stop and sign in with your Google, Facebook, or Apple account instead. It might just be more secure—and it’s definitely more secure if you’re...

Chris Hoffman Sep 30th, 2019

A New Wireless Standard: What Is Amazon Sidewalk?

At Amazon’s annual hardware event, the company revealed a new wireless standard for the Internet of Things and smarthome devices called Sidewalk. Sidewalk promises longer range than Wi-Fi and Bluetooth with lower power ...

How to Use Text Editing Gestures on Your iPhone and iPad

Apple added quite a few new text-editing gestures to the iPhone and iPad with iOS 13. These make it faster to select text, copy and paste, and move the text-entry cursor around. Apple’s keyboard now supports swipe-to-ty...

Windows 10’s BitLocker Encryption No Longer Trusts Your SSD

Many consumer SSDs claim to support encryption and BitLocker believed them. But, as we learned last year, those drives often weren’t securely encrypting files. Microsoft just changed Windows 10 to stop trusting those sk...

How HTTP/3 and QUIC Will Speed Up Your Web Browsing

HTTP/3 is becoming more widespread. Cloudflare is now supporting HTTP/3, which is already part of Chrome Canary and will be added to Firefox Nightly soon. This new standard will make your web browsing faster and more secure....

Chris Hoffman Sep 27th, 2019

How to Make iPhone Apps Always Ask for Location Access

It’s time to take another look at your iPhone location permissions. Now, you don’t have to give apps permanent access to your location: You can grant access only once and require consent every time an app wants yo...

Chris Hoffman Sep 26th, 2019

How to Hide Twitter Replies

Twitter is experimenting with a new tool that allows users to hide replies to their tweets. The feature is specifically made to hide unwanted and spam comments from a post that distract from the conversation. Here’s how...

Justin Duino Sep 25th, 2019

How to Install Apps Directly On Your Apple Watch

With watchOS 6, the Apple Watch is inching ever closer to being a standalone device. While you still can’t set up an Apple Watch without an iPhone, you can now install and delete apps without touching your smartphone....

Khamosh Pathak Sep 25th, 2019

Microsoft Explains How “Cloud Download” Reinstalls Windows 10

Windows 10’s 20H1 update will have a “Cloud Download” that downloads the latest Windows files from Microsoft and uses it to reinstall Windows. Now, Microsoft’s Aaron Lower has explained exactly how Clo...

Chris Hoffman Sep 24th, 2019

How to Change the Language of an App on Your iPhone or iPad

Apple’s iOS 13 makes the iPhone and iPad multilingual. Now, you can change the language of an individual app without changing your primary system language. Each app can have its own separate language setting....

Chris Hoffman Sep 24th, 2019

Why iPhone and iPad Apps Are Asking to Use Bluetooth

If you’ve installed iOS 13 on your iPhone, you’ve probably noticed that many apps are suddenly asking for permission to use your Bluetooth hardware. The same change will arrive on iPads with the iPadOS update. Her...

How to Quickly Create Your Own Chrome Browser Theme

Chrome 77 makes it easy to create your own Chrome browser theme in just a few clicks. Choose your favorite colors for Chrome’s browser toolbar and set a snazzy background image right from the New Tab page....

What Is Apple Arcade? Here’s Everything You Need to Know

Apple Arcade is a new gaming subscription service that will eventually provide access to over 100 games for iPhones, iPads, Macs, and Apple TV devices. It costs $4.99 per month for an entire family, and your first month is fr...

Tim Brookes Sep 20th, 2019

What Is Ultra Wideband, and Why Is It In the iPhone 11?

Apple’s new iPhone 11 devices include a “U1” chip with ultra-wideband (UWB) technology. This isn’t new technology, but it’s the first time it’s been in a modern smartphone. It’s not j...

How to Disable Swipe Typing on the iPhone’s Keyboard

Android has supported swipe keyboards for over half a decade. Now, at long last, Apple is bringing swipe typing to the iPhone’s keyboard with iOS 13. The feature is enabled by default, so if you don’t like it, her...

Justin Duino Sep 13th, 2019

How to Enable Low Data Mode on Your iPhone

Running out of data on your limited mobile plan? Want to stretch out the data for the last couple of days of the month? Try the new Low Data Mode to reduce data usage on your iPhone.

Khamosh Pathak Sep 13th, 2019

What Is TDP for CPUs and GPUs?

You often see TDP measurements on specification sheets, and it’s important info for people with desktop PCs. But TDP definitions are like opinions—everybody’s got one. Let’s cut through the confusion and t...

Slack for Desktop and Web Gets a Dark Mode—Here’s How to Enable It

Months after rolling out to Android, iPhone, and iPad, Slack has brought dark mode to its desktop and web apps on Windows, macOS, and Linux. The theme is a mix of black and gray with white text, making it easy to read through...

Justin Duino Sep 12th, 2019

How to Enable a Play/Pause Button on Chrome’s Toolbar

Which tab is playing sound? With Chrome’s new Play/Pause button, you don’t have to hunt it down. You can control playback from any browser tab using a convenient button on Chrome’s toolbar....