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Summary Is your Alexa smart speaker breaking wind in front of friends, or waking you up with thundering fart noises in the middle of the night? There’s a good chance someone is playing tricks on you. Alexa’s Gas Is a Real Problem If you scoffed at the title of this article, I don’t blame you. But this does appear to be an issue that lots of people have run into. There are plenty of Reddit threads (likethis one,this one, andthis one) that describe the problem in glorious detail....

Quick Links I’ve been enjoying amateur photography for years, but there’s one piece of kit I’ve never owned up until this month: a variable ND filter. I can’t believe I waited so long to get one–it’s completely changed my photography capabilities. What Is a VND (Variable ND) Filter? For those unfamiliar, a variable ND filter (VND from now on) is basically like sunglasses for your camera. There are standard ND filters that come in fixed ND values, each equating to an exposure stop value....

Summary Are you looking to celebrate this Earth Day by making a meaningful change in your tech life? Well, one of the simplest things you can do is take the leap to using Linux! Let me show you how changing your computer’s operating system can be a net positive for the environment. While there are plenty of environmentally friendly tech-based changes you can make in your life—like buying newcarbon-aware devices—installing Linux is one of the simplest yet impactful green tech decisions you can make....

Summary The stereotype of PC gaming is a huge desktop tower filled with rainbow lights and spinning fans, while water gurgles through pipes. However, the reality is much more modest, and most people don’t even need a big rig PC to play. Just What Is PC Gaming Anyway? It’s worth clearing up what I mean when I say “PC gaming” since there are different interpretations of the term. First off, a PC isa computer that descends from the original IBM PC....

Summary Copilot is, by now, present in basically every Microsoft product or software out there. Your Windows OS, your browser, your Microsoft 365 suite, and everything in between. So when Microsoft announced it would be adding Copilot to Xbox, it didn’t come across as much of a surprise. Microsoft has announced that it will be rolling out “Copilot for Gaming,” a fresh new take on Copilot that’s meant to help you out in games....

Data control and privacy are legitimate concerns in a world filled with untrustworthy apps. Fortunately, for iPhone users, open-source alternatives provide options that value data security, privacy, and freedom. Built on the principles of transparency, these open-source apps deliver the same ease of use and functionality as their black-box counterparts, often free of cost. So, you don’t have to sacrifice usability for privacy. Here are our favorite open-source apps to take control of your iPhone experience....

Quick Links For decades, shrinking transistors have driven explosive increases in computing power, but those days are coming to an end. The question is: where do we go now? The 3D design is a major part of the answer. How Have Computers Continued to Get Faster? Computer processors are all made up of transistors—they’re what enable computers to perform “logical operations,” which means to compare and manipulate numbers. If you combine enough of them, you eventually get where we are today: computers that can record audio, take and process photos, do math, render video games, and even talk to us....

The netcat tool is quite popular among network administrators. However, it can also serve different purposes for you as a casual Linux user in your day-to-day life. While doing some research, I’ve found some great use cases to play with the nc command. 6Establish Network Connections I’ll start with the simplest and most fundamental thing nc can do. That is to create a directTCP or UDP connectionbetween two machines. This is the building block for many of the more advanced uses....

Quick Links As an Outlook user, you’re likely aware of its robust feature set. But just because an application has tons of features, that doesn’t mean they’re all worth your effort. Here are several of theMicrosoft Outlook featuresyou should be using. Related:7 Roku Features You Should Be Using Email Scheduling for Effective Time Management If you’re someone who uses time blocking for managing tasks throughout the day,scheduling emailscan be beneficial. You can create all the emails you need to during your time block and pick the dates and times to send them....

Quick Links Using your Microsoft 365 subscription goes beyond doing work with Office apps. Whether you need to archive photos, manage finances, enhance online security, and more, you’re able to use it to make your everyday life easier. Let’s look into it. Archive Your Favorite Photos A Microsoft 365 subscription increases your OneDrive cloud storage from 5 GB to 1 TB. You can use this extra space to archive your photos and videos and preserve your precious memories....

Summary I’ve always wanted a nice arcade stick, but I didn’t want to pay those premium prices. Despite being over four years old at this point, it seems the8BitDo Arcade Stickis still the best value for money option around. 8Bitdo Arcade Stick for Switch The 8Bitdo Arcade Stick for Switch is a premium arcade controller designed for Nintendo Switch and PC, perfect for fighting game enthusiasts and retro gamers. It features a classic layout with highly responsive, customizable buttons and joystick....

Summary The idea of SMR (Small Modular Reactors) has been around for a long time, but only recently did the need for this amount of power for a smaller area create increased demand. An AI search takes up to ten times more power than a traditional search engine. Alphabet (Google), Apple, Meta, and Microsoft all have promised to reduce emissions to net-zero by 2030, and now we have a better idea of how they plan to do it....

Quick Links Summary Let’s face it: a high-quality webcam can be pretty expensive. But luckily, with all the innovation and new technology coming out, you don’t even need a webcam. You can connect your Android phone to your PC and use its camera for video calls. How to Turn Your Android Phone Into a Webcam There are two ways to turn your Android phone into a webcam. The best part is that neither method requires you to download any third-party applications....