Latest Articles
2 Tools For Converting Movies For Viewing On a Smartphone
Movie files are generally not optimized for the smartphone. They often take up too much space and may be encoded in a format that the smartphone can't play back very easily. If the movie in question is on a physical DVD, it will need to be "ripped" into a standard video file before you can play it. Video conversion isn't as essential as it used to be when playing videos on a modern smartphone.
Amazing Windows 8 Themes You Need To See
Windows has always had an active community of enthusiasts who customize everything about it, including its desktop theme. Although Microsoft tries to prevent this, Windows 8's desktop can be themed just like Windows 7's. We've covered tweaking your Windows 8 PC's appearance before, but you can go much farther than just changing the desktop theme's colors.
What You Need to Know About Removing Android Bloatware
Lots of phones come with annoying pre-installed software, but you can remove it. Here's how.
Wondering Why Windows 8 Doesn't Have A Modern Explorer App? Try These
Windows 8 doesn’t come with a Modern file explorer app, forcing tablet users to peck at the small targets in the File Explorer window on the desktop. But this is Windows 8, not Windows XP Tablet PC Edition – you can install a Modern file explorer app and have a much better touch experience.
Why You Don't Need Third Party Apps To Manage Background Data Use In Android Jelly Bean
If you’re like most people, you don’t have unlimited data and you don’t want to go over your data cap. Phones with Android Jelly Bean contain powerful tools for tracking your mobile data usage, setting phone-wide limits, and identifying the apps that are sucking down the most data. You can prevent these apps from using data entirely to save your precious data allowance and avoid cell phone bill shock.
Miss Gadgets & Widgets On Windows 8? Here's How You Can Get Them Back
Microsoft removed gadgets, the desktop widget feature introduced in Windows Vista, from Windows 8. Microsoft would prefer you use live tiles on the new Start screen to get information – but what if you want to see this information on your desktop? Whether you don’t like the new Start screen and are trying to avoid using it by installing a third-party Start menu or you just miss the gadgets, you can get them back with a third-party program.
What Are The Best Linux Web Browsers?
Linux desktops offer many of the same web browsers you can use Windows and Mac, with Chrome, Firefox, and Opera all available for Linux. We’ll take a look at the best browsers you can use on a Linux system, including some lesser-known browsers that aren't available on Windows or Mac. We've covered the best browsers for Windows before, and much of comparison holds true on Linux, too.
Get More Out Of YouTube Using These URL Hacks
YouTube doesn’t expose some in-demand features on its website – including playing videos on repeat, downloading them, automatically enabling HD mode, and more. You can do all these things, but you’ll need to know these URL hacks. Most of these tricks allow you to easily do extra things on YouTube just by modifying the URL (web address) in your browser while using YouTube.
Printing Has Changed In Windows 8: Here's What You Need To Know
Printing has changed in Windows 8 – there’s now a standard way of printing in every Modern app. However, like many things about Microsoft’s new Modern interface, printing is not immediately intuitive for many users, especially those used to the old way of printing. Printing is still the same on the desktop, so you don’t have to learn anything new for your desktop applications. Windows 8 also has a new printer driver system that attempts to support more printers with less drivers.
Not Just For Paranoids: 4 Reasons To Encrypt Your Digital Life
Encryption isn’t only for paranoid conspiracy theorists, nor is it just for tech geeks. Encryption is something every computer user can benefit from. Tech websites write about how you can encrypt your digital life, but we’ve all done a poor job of explaining why you should actually care. Now we'll get back to basics and explain the many threats encryption can help protect you from.
What Is OpenWrt And Why Should I Use It For My Router?
OpenWrt is a Linux distribution for your router. It can be used for anything an embedded Linux system is used for. But would it suit you? Is your router compatible? Let's take a look.
Make It Your Own: 8 Useful Tools For Customizing Windows 8
Windows 8 isn’t quite as configurable out-of-the-box as previous versions of Windows, lacking such seemingly important features as the ability to boot to the desktop and run "Modern" applications in windows. For all its problems, Windows 8 is still Windows, and Windows is a very configurable operating system. These third-party utilities allow us to do things Microsoft has made impossible by default or easily change settings Microsoft has hidden.
How To Get The Most Free Space On Dropbox, Box, SkyDrive & More - The Complete Guide
Cloud storage services offer a minimum amount of free space to everyone who signs up, but you can often get more. You can upgrade your cloud drive with gigabytes and gigabytes of free space in a few easy steps, often just by referring friends to your service of choice. The free space you can get using these methods doesn’t expire. You’ll have the space forever.
Can You Recover Data Deleted From Your Cloud Drive?
We put our files in the cloud to make things easier – we can access them anywhere and it’s our cloud storage provider’s job to keep them safe, not ours. But it doesn’t matter how reliable a cloud storage service is if you delete a file from your cloud drive and want it back later. Luckily, there are several ways you can restore deleted data. None of these methods are completely foolproof.
How To Install The Ubuntu Touch Preview On Your Nexus Android Device
Ubuntu is developing on a touch-focused interface for smartphones and tablets, with plans to ship Ubuntu smartphones in 2014. If you’re interested in trying it right now, there’s good news: You can install the preview release of Ubuntu Touch on a Nexus device (the Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 4, Nexus 7, or Nexus 10). Be aware though that this is an early version of Ubuntu Touch. It’s been called beta, but it’s actually alpha.
Should I Put My PC To Sleep Or Leave It On & Save The World?
Most people put their PCs to sleep, hibernate them, or turn them off when they’re not in-use. However, you can also choose to run your PC 24/7, contributing your PC’s processing power to distributed computing projects. With these projects, your PC can help fight cancer, test climate change models, or even search for alien life. However, computers use power when they’re on, and they use more power when their CPUs (or GPUs) are going full-throttle.
10 Windows Annoyances You Could Rid Yourself Of Right Now
We make do with Windows, but it isn’t perfect. In fact, Windows computers can be extremely annoying. They’re full of all sorts of annoying features that just get in our way and slow us down, distracting us from getting work done or doing whatever else we want to do. We’ll help you disable some of the most annoying little features in Windows. Many of these features exist for good reason and are useful to some people.
How You Can Make Twitter a Better Place
Whether you’re an organization, blogger, video producer, or just someone with something to say, you probably have a Twitter account. However, there are right ways and wrong ways to use Twitter. The wrong way is sending out tweets to all your latest content on autopilot, ignoring questions from your followers, and spamming them. Twitter is a social media site, and your presence on Twitter should be real, human, and interesting.
Not Just for Porn: Other Uses For Private Browsing
Private-browsing mode has many other names, including "incognito mode" in Chrome and "InPrivate Browsing" in Internet Explorer. Some people refer to private-browsing mode as "porn mode", but it isn't just for porn addicts. It can be used for a variety of other useful things, including determining whether an airfare or shopping website is showing you higher prices.
Fun & Useful Alternatives For Windows Explorer
Windows Explorer – now known as File Explorer in Windows 8 – is a mainstay of the Windows desktop. No matter how many alternative programs Windows tweakers use, most people seem to stick with the familiar Windows Explorer. Windows Explorer is a solid application, no doubt – but what if you want a dual-pane interface, tabs, or any number of other features Windows Explorer doesn’t include?