Google has improved Android’s security with a set of new protections aimed at stopping phone call scams. These changes are designed to block people from making unsafe security changes during phone calls: a common tactic with scammers. Attackers can gain control of your phone during a call by abusing built-in functions and fooling you into allowing them access. They commonly rely on deceptive persuasion techniques to push you into making fast decisions without careful consideration....

Quick Links Summary When it comes to Black Friday, price inflation happens when a retailer raises prices before the event and drops them on the day to make the “discounted” prices seem better. But don’t worry—there are ways to spot price inflation Does Black Friday Really Have Cheaper Deals? Many of us think that the deals we see on Black Friday are the pinnacle of discounts compared to others throughout the year....

Summary Every other app and service now seems to be tacking on AI functionality to attempt to entice weary users or satisfy shareholders. Sometimes, AI features work well. Often, it just results in junk output (at least for now) and a privacy nightmare. Here’s how Linux can help you escape the AI apocalypse. Everyone Is Adding AI to Their Products and Services I’m no curmudgeon: Generative AI is an awesome new technology, and I think that anyone with the hardware should try hosting their ownAI chat botsandimage generatorsto learn how they work and prepare for the future....

So, it’s tabletop RPG night, and everyone else has their bag of dice, and you bring out—your laptop? Well, it’s a perfect time to show off that dice roll simulator you built in Python. This beginner project should teach you the basics of dice rolls and randomization. Setting Up Our Project This is going to be a pretty simple setup. I’ve already describedhow we set up Visual Studio for coding with Python, so we’ll use that for our basic setup....

Quick Links I’m fed up with seeing meaningless violence, bullying, animal abuse, and toxic opinions on social media, and I’ve noticed it has an adverse effect on my mental state. I want to change that. Indeed, I would pick up my phone a happy person, but by the time I had finished scrolling through X or watching Shorts on YouTube,my mood had changed for the worse. What’s more, the volume of this type of unpleasant content I was seeing had increased, and I felt the algorithms were out to get me....

Microsoft has been rapidly improving itsBing ChatAI search over the past few months. Today the company revealed a slew of new features, and the promise ofChatGPT-like plugins down the road. First, Bing Chat officially doesn’t have a waitlist anymore, after unofficially dropping the waitlistsometime in March. Microsoft is moving it to an “open preview,” but you still need a (free) Microsoft account, and the web version is still locked to Microsoft Edge....

After a long day at work, you might not fancy sweating through a stressfulCounter-Strikematch or juggling a dozen objectives in your favorite MMO. Sometimes, all you want to do is relax before bed. So here are 15 cozy games that run on Linux, natively or via Proton. 1Stardew Valley You just can’t createa list of relaxing gameswithout includingStardew Valley. This is the king of cozy,chill gamesfor a reason. You can grow your farm and embark on quests at your own pace without any sense of urgency, and ultimately create your own little virtual haven where you can escape from everyday worries and just chill out a bit....

Summary Clean Up is an Apple Intelligence feature that’s baked into the Photos app which can help remove distractions from your pictures. So how do you use it, and how well does it work? Let’s find out. Introducing Clean Up for Apple Photos Since Apple’s competition has had an AI-based object eraser for a while, Apple’s Clean Up feature is a bit late to the party. Available as anApple Intelligence feature, Clean Up utilizes on-device machine learning abilities to identify and remove distractions like people, animals, objects, and other elements from a picture....

Summary Ever wanted to return to a simpler time, when your computer was fully housed within your keyboard? Maybe it’s time to give your laptop a haircut and live like it’s 1982 again. What Is a Slabtop? A slabtop is a headless laptop, with MacBooks being popular choices for this type of conversion. A headless computer generally refers to a computer that has been designed for use without a monitor. Normally, this involves remote access software or a text-based interface like SSH....

If you’ve ever thought about getting a new vacuum and mop or simply upgrading your existing setup, then now is the perfect time.Roborock is offering up to 45% offthis Black Friday across their range of robot and smart vacuum and mops, though you’ll only be able to take advantage of them from the 20th through to the 30th of November. Q Revo The Q Revo is an excellent entry point into the world of robot vacuums....

Quick Links The last non-iPad tablet that I was excited about was thesecond-gen Nexus 7, released in 2013. Since then, hardware has gotten better, but tablet-optimized apps haven’t. After a short hands-on with the upcomingGoogle Pixel Tabletat Google I/O 2023, I think this could be theAndroid tabletto beat. Google Pixel Tablet The Google Pixel Tablet is half entertainment device and half smart display. Pick up the tablet to watch Netflix, or leave it on the speaker dock to scroll through recipes while you cook....

Summary If you’ve researched alternative operating systems that arenotLinux-based, you’ve probably come across Haiku OS. If you’re using it, or if you’re considering it, you’ll be glad to know that it has gotten a lot better over the past month. The Haiku OS team just released its latest changelog of all the changes it has rolled out over the past month, and there’s a lot of interesting stuff in here. A lot of these are bug fixes, but we do have a lot of them, and we’re also getting support for some other stuff that wasn’t supported before....

We’ve all been in that situation—whether at a coffee shop, walking through a mall, or watching a show—where a catchy tune grabs your attention, and you may’t get it out of your head. Fortunately, Android makes identifying music easier than ever, with various built-in tools and apps at your disposal. 1Use Google’s Circle to Search for Song Identification If you have aCircle to Search-supported Android phone, you’re in luck. This nifty feature is one of the quickest ways to identify a song without opening any apps....