Quick Links You’ve had your Android phone for a while now—and it’s great—but you’re getting a little bored with it. We’ll show you how to bring back that new-phone-feeling without actually dropping cash on a new phone. Try a New Home Screen Launcher The home screen is most likely the screen that you see most often on your phone. There are a number of things we can do to freshen it up, starting with installing a third-party home screen launcher....

Summary No one can argue that faster loading times in video games isn’t a good thing, but I think that the loading screens that were necessary to cover those period when new data was fed into memory were actually cool. Sadly, for the most part, this is one aspect of gaming that’s gone, but that doesn’t mean I can’t reminisce about why loading screens were actually kind of cool. It Gives Me Time to Breathe I don’t know about you, but I have a tendency to get hyper-focused on my games to the exclusion of everything else around me....

Quick Links Since its debut, Valve’s Steam Deck has dominated the handheld PC gaming scene. Many competitors have claimed to be Steam Deck killers, more than capable of usurping the throne, but they’ve all failed. If any device is going to be a true Steam Deck Killer, it’ll need all the following features. 1A Price to Match the Steam Deck Forget about specs. Forget about ergonomics. Forget about software. All of those things are important, but of everything that makes the Steam Deck so popular, it’s affordability....

Quick Links Apple’s MacBook Air M2 (2022)is an all-new entrant to a line of historically well-loved portable computers. This edition brings a goliath of a processor, an updated design, a beautiful 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display, and satisfying keystrokes. With an M2 chip powering this featherweight of a laptop, there’s little you’re able to’t do—even gaming is an option. Just be sure to opt for the right amount ofRAM, or you may run Mac-first into some roadblocks....

Quick Links We’ve reached the point where 1080p webcams are criticized for their “low resolution.” Everybody wants a 4K webcam, despite the fact that Zoom, Twitch, and other platforms don’t support 4K video. It’s an odd and confusing situation, especially for those who need a new webcam! What’s So Special About 4K Webcams? Due to the rise of 4K monitors and TVs, 4K webcams are more popular than ever before. They capture videoat a higher resolutionthan 1080p, offering increased detail and clarity even when downscaled for a lower-resolution screen....

The digital age has been an ongoing war for complete privacy. Many tools have been dispersed hoping to finally cut off data brokers and prevent the sale of personal information to nefarious entities.DeleteMeremains on the front lines as a valuable resource for combating unmitigated privacy risks. One of the biggest threats to personal privacy is data brokers, an entity that collects personal information and sells it to third parties. While much of the data sourced is found via public records, it’s not uncommon for brokers to scour private networks and databases to find information that would otherwise be protected....

Summary AI-generated video has gone from nightmare-fuel, to an imaginary Will Smith creepily eating spaghetti, to “is that AI?” in a very short amount of time. Now, with the release of Google’s Veo 3 video generation system to the public, the technology has experienced a significant jump in both ease of use and accuracy. This is great from a purely technological perspective, but with each leap in any technology, it opens up new opportunities for scams....

Quick Links Summary Apple has been on a macOS gaming offensive for a while. It released the Game Porting Kit, an upscaler in the form of MetalFX, macOS got Game Mode, and the App Store offers triple-A games. Could a dedicated gaming Mac be next, and if so, what would it look like? Perhaps something like this. A Proper VRR Screen Is a Must for a Gaming MacBook Newer MacBook Pro models packing 120Hz screens supportProMotion, but while ProMotion is a handy feature, it isn’t a properVRRsolution....

Summary You may have heard that your music is “compressed” and that if it were less compressed, or even uncompressed, it would sound much better. However, if you know what compression is and how it works, you might not be in such a hurry to “expand” your musical horizons. Meet Mr. Nyquist Before we get into it, it’s important to talk about the Whittaker–Nyquist–Shannon sampling theorem since it’s based on the work of Harry Nyquist, Claude Shannon, and (all the way back in 1915) E....

Craving the analog sound of cassette tapes? So was I, and I managed to get a vintage deck on the cheap that wasn’t working—until I made some simple repairs. The problems I ran into are common, so I’m recording them here so you can be prepared if you get one. For background, I bought this deck as part of a larger audio cabinet that my neighbor was selling in a move-out sale for less than $100....

Summary Depending on where you live in the world, you may almost never have to worry about the power or internet going out. So relying on streaming and internet-based media feels fine. However, that can change for anyone in an instant, and dealing with power and internet outages has made me rethink my media collection. Why I’m Living in the Stone Age Half the Time I live in South Africa, a country that’s been struggling with infrastructure for as long as I can remember, and has been suffering severe rolling blackouts from 2007 to the present....

Quick Links GitHub Releases provide an easy to access method for end users to download versioned software binaries. You can create them manually, but it’s much easier to let GitHub Actions build them automatically using release tags created in your repository. Using Tagged Releases Related:What are Release Tags in Git, and How Do You Use Them? Tags are an existing feature in Git, with extended support offered by GitHub with Releases, which offer a place to host binaries with associated changelogs....

Games can be expensive, but gaming can still be a budget-friendly hobby. Here are some tips for saving money wherever you play, whether you’re a console, PC, or portable gamer. Where Possible, Buy Physical Not Digital This tip mostly concerns console gamers with an optical drive, and it’s the reason we often encourage console gamers toopt for a disc-based system where possible. Despite manufacturing costs,physical copies of games are often cheaperthan their digital counterparts....