Quick Links Summary Cable modem channels are like additional highway lanes for data to travel to and from your home. At a minimum, you need enough channels to support the maximum speed of your cable internet package. If you’re shopping for a cable modem, you’ll come across the term “channels” paired with number designations like 16x4 or 24x8. What that means isn’t immediately apparent, but it has a big impact on your internet connection speed....

Firefox is a free and open source web browser—the largest one that isn’t tied to a corporation. Yet there was a briefly a time when Firefox was also a smartphone operating system. Firefox OS ultimately didn’t take the world by storm, but why? What Was Firefox OS? It’s almost funny to think about now, but over a decade ago, the Apple and Google smartphone duopoly was already a problem, and various competitors hoped they could compete....

Quick Links Spend enough time on any social platform, and you’ll probably spot shady accounts posting recycled comments, sending suspicious links, or responding with the same canned message again and again. So who’s behind them, and what do they gain? These accounts pop up across YouTube, Instagram, and any other social media platform. In many cases, it’s a bot—an automated account running on scripts,algorithms, or a mix of both. Types of Bots on Social Media The internet thrives on real-time conversation....

Quick Links Summary It’s Friday evening, and you’re struggling to play online games with your friends because your ping is in the three digits. While everyone is focused on the game, you’re stuck trying to figure out how to fix your internet connection. Don’t worry, I got you. Someone or Something on Your Network Is Using Up Bandwidth In terms of your internet connection, the main factor that affects your ping is actuallylatency rather than bandwidth....

Quick Links Summary You wake up and grab your phone off the nightstand, eyes still bleary from sleep. As the pattern lock screen pops up, you mindlessly draw your familiar pattern without thought. It’s quick, easy, and lets you get right to scrolling through notifications. But how secure is that pattern keeping prying eyes out? Most People Use Common Shapes or Letters Let’s face it: we’re creatures of habit. When setting up a pattern lock, we naturally gravitate towards what’s familiar....

A good projector doesn’t need to be an inconvenience. XGIMI is now offering the Aura 2, a UST laser projector that provides a bright 4K image with minimal hassle. Ultra-short throw (UST) projectors don’t shine light across the room. Instead, they sit under your screen or wall, thereby eliminating a lot of the guesswork, math, and physical labor that goes into a typical short-throw or long-throw projector installation. Like the original Aura projector, theXGIMI Aura 2offers a 4K video resolution with HDR10 enhancements....

Summary Compiling a kernel used to be a rite of passage for many Linux users back in the ’90s and early ’00s. These days, it seems that hardly anyone does so anymore. Why is that? What Is a Custom Kernel? TheLinux kernelis the heart of the system, handling almost all of the important functions, similar to other OSes. Microsoft Windows has a kernel, but a key difference from Windows is that you can make changes to the Linux kernel and recompile it, allowing you to redesign your own operating system....

Quick Links Summary Toss out those old disposable battery-powered flashlights and stop using the LED light on your phone. The next time you have a power outage, rechargeable LED lanterns or inflatable solar-powered lights are a much better choice. Preserve Your Phone’s Battery, Don’t Use It for Light You probably haven’t thought about buying a flashlight in a long time. Our phones come with the feature built-in, and they’re pretty good at illuminating a space, whether you’reusing the flashlight on Androidorthe flash on an iPhone....

Quick Links Kodi is a free and open-source media center application that’s available for most major platforms including Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and even the Raspberry Pi. It’s the perfect platform for a home theatre PC since it features some knockout features. Play Just About Any Media Source Kodiis first and foremost a media playback solution, so it’s reassuring that it plays a huge number of formats and sources. This includes local media on internal or external drives; physical media like Blu-Ray discs, CDs, and DVDs; and network protocols including HTTP/HTTPS, SMB (SAMBA), AFP, and WebDAV....

Quick Links Using Apple Keynote to make presentations on your Mac is easy. But you might have been missing out on some features that can elevate your projects from good to great. Here’s what you need to know. 1Create a Custom Toolbar The ideal presentation workspace looks different for everyone. WithKeynote, you’re able to set up a custom toolbar that helps you get work done the way you want. After you open up a new presentation, head to Keynote > View > Customize Toolbar at the top of the screen....

Quick Links Finding new shows to watch on Netflix doesn’t necessarily mean you need to navigate to the “New and Popular” tab on your app. Sometimes, there are underrated shows that you may not find on popularity charts or get buried under the millions of shows available to stream. If you’re looking for short, underrated gems onNetflixthat you’re able to finish streaming within a weekend (in most cases), these ten shows are a good starter pack....

Quick Links Progress bars are a necessary evil. After all, we need some sort of feedback to know how much of a job is left until the computer is done. However, in most cases, the simple progress bar hides many deceptions, but maybe these are actually for our own good. 1Non-linear Progression A progress bar looks like a representation of a straight line. Like someone doing the 100M sprint, but in reality it’s more like someone running through a twisting obstacle course, like an episode ofAmerican Gladiators....

Quick Links It’s all well and good having a complicated Excel spreadsheet full of data and formulas, but if it’s not presented neatly, it can cause more problems than it solves. We’ll show you six tips that you’re able to use to tidy up your spreadsheet and communicate your data more clearly. This unformatted spreadsheet has several readability issues which we’ll address throughout this article. Tip 1: Freeze Your Rows and Columns Our spreadsheet is very large with lots of rows and columns, which means that when we scroll down or across, we can’t see the row or column headers....