A key piece to building a smarter home is making sure you have voice-enabled devices that can all speak to each other, stream content, and provide information at a moment’s notice. Now is a great time to give your home the smart upgrade it deserves with this limited-time sale on Google Nest products. You can save up to $40 on smartspeakersanddisplayswhen you shop today. Google’s line of Nest products has come a long way since NestLabs' premier flagship, the Learning Thermostat, was introduced in 2011....

Quick Links Usually, I wouldn’t say I like math, but when you combine it with music, I’ll pay more attention. Spotify Wrapped comes out at the end of every year, giving us an idea of what we have listened to and for how long. Here’s how Spotify Wrapped does its calculations. Spotify Wrapped Is a Snapshot of Your Year’s Listening Over the last decade,Spotify free and premium usershave been looking forward to Wrapped as a year-end treat....

Quick Links A smart ring can track your health and fitness without being as obtrusive as a smartwatch or fitness band. A smart ring is small and amazingly powerful, but before you take the plunge there are some things you should know about wearing one. I was initially skeptical about the smart ring category until I started wearing anOura ring. After wearing one daily for the last six months, however, I’m more sold than ever....

Quick Links We hear it all the time: “Google search is getting worse!” The reasons why are many, but one of them just became fixable: cluttered results pages. Thanks to a new filter option, you can remove the cruft that’s been building up around certain types of searches, and you can even make it your default search mode. Here’s how. What Is Google’s “Web” View? Google’s web-only viewdebuted in May 2024and lets you see a simple list of web links relevant to your search terms along with text previews and information about the site....

Electric vehicles are quickly taking over the automotive world, with many automakers showing their commitment to switching over to electric power in the near future. However, there are some obvious drawbacks to EVs, with heavy batteries taking a long time to charge. Enter hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. When it comes to hydrogen-powered cars, there is a partnership between two massive brands that has been at the forefront of innovation. Toyota and BMW have been working together for a long time with the aim of developing hydrogen power into a genuine alternative to traditional battery-powered electric vehicles....

Quick Links The massive lighting display Clark Griswold puts up in the holiday classicNational Lampoon’s Christmas Vacationis a sight to behold and a key part of the plot. But how much electricity did it use? First, Let’s Establish Some Basic Premises Anytime you’re diving into a bit of movie forensics, you always have to establish the basic premises you’re working with because without that, the combination of suspension of disbelief and movie magic can make conducting any calculations nearly impossible....

Quick Links Summary The power used by your TV depends on how old the TV is and how large it is. A new TV may use 32W to 90W of power, depending on its size. At 60W, running the TV for 12 hours a day would cost you $2.60 month if your electricity costs 12 cents per kWh. If you’re a fan of leaving a TV on for background noise (or trying to convince someone not to), you might be curious about how much an always-on TV contributes to your electric bill....

Quick Links Is your computer taking longer than usual to boot up, or do programs load slowly? This could be caused by hidden applications that launch automatically on system boot and use up significant CPU resources—many are legitimate, but sometimes unnecessary. Here’s how to find these applications and speed up your computer. Disable Startup Programs in Task Manager The Windows Task Manager is a handy toolthat, in addition to showing currently active programs, also reveals applications that are part of your computer’s startup process....

Summary Experiencing an issue with your Chromebook and contemplating a hard reset? Not sure about its purpose or the proper steps to perform it? This guide explains the basics of a hard reset, highlights when it’s advisable to perform it, and how to do it the right way. What Does Hard Resetting a Chromebook Mean? In contrast to afactory reset, hard resetting a Chromebook doesn’t erase apps; instead, it exclusively resets hardware settings....

Quick Links Have you found yourself in a situation where Google Photos is uploading your phone’s screenshots? I was there, too. I fixed that problem with a few taps on my phone, and I’ll show you how I did it. Prevent Google Photos From Uploading Your Phone’s Screenshots Google Photos offers lots of features. One of these features helped me prevent my phone’s screenshots from being uploaded to my cloud storage....

Quick Links Summary One way is to upload your PDF toGoogle Drive, open it with Google Docs (which deletes the watermark), and save the file back as PDF. Another way is to launch your PDF with MS Word, select the watermark and press Backspace (Windows) or Delete (Mac), and save the file back as PDF. You can also use various web-based PDF watermark removal tools. Have a PDF with a pesky watermark getting in your way?...

Social media platforms allow you to connect with people worldwide. However, the downside is that you may encounter profiles posting inappropriate content. In such cases, you can report those accounts to stop seeing content from them, and the platform can take appropriate action against them. 1Report an Account on Instagram If you come across a profile posting inappropriate content that you believe doesn’t belong on Instagram, you can report it by visiting the profile, tapping the three dots in the top-right corner, and selecting the “Report” option....

Quick Links Summary If you’re using a shared PC and don’t want Windows to show the files and folders you’ve recently accessed in File Explorer, you have several options. You can either remove specific items from the list, clear the entire list, or stop Windows from showing this history in File Explorer. Manually Remove Recently Accessed Items To selectively remove recently accessed files and folders,open File Explorerby clicking on the folder icon in the taskbar....