Don't Trash Your Old Phone, Help the Environment Instead

Quick Links Smartphones have been around long enough that you’re probably holding on to more than one of them. What do we do when it’s time to replace our old ones? Whatever you do, don’t put it in the trash. Rotting in a landfill is one of the worst fates to befall a phone, and you would also miss out on all the ways your phone can still be of service....

July 29, 2025 · 5 min · 933 words · Elizabeth Cordova

Don’t Buy a Laptop if It Doesn’t Have Two USB-C Ports

Summary Shopping for a laptop means making a lot of decisions, so it’s easy to overlook a small detail or two. However, one thing you should never overlook is the number of USB-C ports. Skimping here can come back to bite you sooner than you think. To Be Clear: I’m Talking About USB-C PD You might be aware that many modern laptops can now charge via USB-C in place of old-school AC barrel chargers....

July 29, 2025 · 6 min · 1134 words · Hailey Anderson

Doom Has Been Ported To Quantum Computers, But So What?

Summary It’s a meme thatDOOM, the classic 90s shooter, has been ported to everything from pregnancy tests to McDonalds kiosk screens, but now we haveQuandoom:a version of DOOM designed to run on quantum computer hardware. Except it can’t yet. It’s complicated. What Does Porting to a Quantum Computer Even Mean? Porting DOOM to aquantum computermeans converting the logic of its code to run on “qubits” orquantum bits. The fundamental element of quantum computers, which relies on quantum effects to let each qubit exist in multiple states at once....

July 29, 2025 · 4 min · 648 words · Sheila Jackson

Funniest Spoof Movies Ever Made

With a newNaked Gunmovie hitting theaters, having movie spoofs back in fashion is refreshing. Keeping up with the times, this latest iteration of the franchise seems as though it’ll mock modern action movie conventions. Since actor Liam Neeson has swum in that soup for years, he’s the perfect man for this wacky job. The new film will generate some interest in not just theoldNaked Gunmovies, but spoof movies in general. The good news is that there were plenty of these films from the 20th century to choose from....

July 29, 2025 · 9 min · 1825 words · Gina Arroyo

Getty Images Kicks Off the First Notable AI Art Lawsuit

Last month, we explained that it’sonly a matter of timebefore AI art tools likeStable Diffusionare the subject of copyright or IP lawsuits. Getty Images now says that it’staking Stability AI to court. This is the first meaningful lawsuit against an AI image-generating company.Details of the lawsuit are mostly unknown. Legal proceedings were filed in London’s High Court of Justice, with Getty Images claiming that Stability AI (the maker of Stable Diffusion) unlawfully “copied and processed millions of images protected by copyright and the associated metadata owned or represented by Getty Images....

July 29, 2025 · 3 min · 447 words · Jeffrey Wagner

Google and Bing Are Preparing ChatGPT-Like AI Web Search

ChatGPT,the AI chatbot that can’t stop lying, has exploded in popularity over the past few weeks. Despite many problems with the technology, Google and Microsoft are pushing ahead with plans to turn web searches into conversations. Microsoft has invested heavily into the company behindChatGPT(andDALL-E), known as OpenAI, and has already beentesting an upgraded version of the Bing search enginewith the new technology. Instead of typing in traditional search queries and clicking through the results (or just reading the snippet provided by the search engine), screenshots provided to The Verge indicate Bing’s new mode will accept normal questions and print out conversational replies....

July 29, 2025 · 3 min · 449 words · Mark Tapia

Google Messages vs. Samsung Messages: Which Android Messaging App Is Best?

A Samsung phone comes with two apps that can send text messages: Samsung Messages and Google Messages. It’s strange to see two very similarly named apps that do essentially the same thing. Does it matter which one you use? Here’s what you need to know to make the decision for yourself. ​Google Messages Has Replaced Samsung Messages For many years,Samsung Messageswas Samsung’s go-to texting app. Now, even though Samsung Messages is still around, the company’s phones default toGoogle Messagesinstead....

July 29, 2025 · 6 min · 1130 words · David Escobar

Google Photos is Getting New Organization Features

Google Photosis a tremendously useful resource for managing your photos and videos, both the ones that are stored on your phone and the ones that you want to store on the cloud. Organizing your photos can, however, be a bit of a pain sometimes. For instance, some phones lump screenshots together with your photos in the app, which means that there’s a lot more stuff in there that you probably want to see....

July 29, 2025 · 2 min · 356 words · Chelsea Stark

How I Customized the Microsoft Word Toolbar for Ultimate Productivity

Quick Links Are you tired of digging through Microsoft Word’s cluttered toolbar to find the features you need? I was too—until I customized the toolbar to suit my workflow. Now, every command I need is just a click away. Here’s how to make Word’s interface a perfect match for your productivity style. What Is the Ribbon in Microsoft Word (And Why You Need to Customize It) Theribbon in Microsoft Wordis the long, tabbed bar at the top of your screen, filled with tabs like Home, Insert, and Design....

July 29, 2025 · 6 min · 1254 words · Matthew Howell

How I'm Using Prime Day to Improve My Wi-Fi Network

It’s been three years since I set up an eero 6 mesh Wi-Fi network in my home. And, for the most part, the eero system’s been perfect. But I’ve been spending more time in my basement where the Wi-Fi signal isn’t very strong, so I’m using Prime Day as an opportunity to fix the situation. Mesh Wi-Fi systems arepretty straightforward. Plug a mesh Wi-Fi router into your modem, place a few nodes across your home, and your Wi-Fi signal magically has a lot more range (without the awfulness of an old-fashioned range extender)....

July 29, 2025 · 2 min · 404 words · Timothy Gray

How to Add Terminal Completion to Your Command Line Apps

Auto-completion is a great way to make your own tools more accessible. Find out how to take the first steps by building a simple Bash and zsh auto-complete script. How Tab Completion Works Autocomplete—found everywhere from text messaging apps to IDEs—can seem like a fairly modern innovation, but it’s been present in various forms of Unix since the early 80s, if not earlier. Linux shells like bash and zsh support a completion ecosystem that ismore powerful than you might expect....

July 29, 2025 · 5 min · 1053 words · Terry Gould

How to Evaluate Expressions in Linux With expr

Quick Links Summary Want to do some simple calculations in Linux? Just use the expr command. This command can perform various operations, such as evaluating expressions, extracting substrings, comparing strings, and more. Using expr, you’re able to add, subtract, multiply, or divide two numbers, and get the answer as the output. The expr Command expr is a tool that can perform calculations and manipulate strings based on the expressions you provide....

July 29, 2025 · 7 min · 1387 words · Jonathan Sims

How to Fix a Blurry Screen in Windows 11

Quick Links Summary Change your Windows display resolution and scaling settings if you have a blurry screen in normal desktop conditions. Enable ClearType if text looks blurry, or throw more power at the problem by enabling “High Performance” graphics mode in affected apps. A driver update also can help remedy visual problems. A blurry or fuzzy screen can make using the Windows 11 desktop and your applications a miserable experience. Fortunately, there are a few things you can try to fix the problem, from changing settings to updating your drivers....

July 29, 2025 · 4 min · 643 words · Bill Ferguson