In context: Marshal Brain created the HowStuffWorks website as a hobby in 1998. To his surprise, the site became a go-to for the layman wanting to understand complex processes and systems in easy-to-read language. The site spawned books, podcasts, and a TV series on the Discovery Channel, which ...

In 2013, I warned about an alarming trend: consumer electronics becoming unrepairable. Back then, ultrabooks and tablets dazzled with their sleek, lightweight designs, but the trade-offs were hard to ignore. RAM and SSDs were soldered to motherboards. Batteries were glued in place. ...

Microsoft released the official Bing Wallpaper application on the Microsoft Store this week. The app was available as a standalone download previously only. It is a basic app that changes the wallpaper of the Windows desktop to a new image each day and helps users find out more about the ...

You probably didn't know it, but if you played or are still playing Pokémon Go (there are more than half a million active players), you were helping train an AI-powered geospatial model that aims to map the world. A blog post from Niantic, the software developer behind the popular game, ...

The Xbox console line has been a constant on the gaming scene since 2001, with the Xbox Series X and Series S currently holding down the fort. While they've always been sold as gaming consoles first and foremost, there's always been more to them than meets the eye. Look no further than the very ...

Meta-owned Instagram has been making significant changes to how the social media site operates and recommends content, especially focusing on original content in Instagram recommendations and creating a safer online environment for teens. Today, in a blog post, Instagram announced another ...

Gaming laptops allow players to take their battle stations with them just about anywhere. These laptops often focus on graphics, capabilities, and features that mimic the full PC experience on a smaller device. For this reason, gaming laptops have largely been focused on recreating that ...

One of the worst realities Chromebook owners may eventually face is a device that won't charge anymore. Often, it's simply that the battery has lived out its lifespan, which can especially be the case if it won't turn on at all, even when plugged in. However, there may be an instance when you ...

Laptops are evolving fast, with some new models harnessing AI-powered features that adapt to your usage and improve performance in real time. These AI PCs can optimize battery life, manage power across tasks and even enhance webcam quality during video calls. While AI integration is still ...

On Monday, Signal announced a host of improvements for video calls, including "call links" that make the encrypted messaging app more competitive with video-conferencing platforms such as Zoom and Google Meet, while retaining Signal's privacy edge for users determined to keep their personal ...

David Gewirtz/ZDNET Over the past few months, we've taken a comprehensive deep dive into the popularity of programming languages. But how do you measure popularity? That's been a big part of the question. Is it the number of GitHub projects? Is it the number of posts on popular ...

Can you go two full work days without charging your laptop? Probably not, but the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 could change that. It might look like any other ThinkPad on the outside, but the ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 is surprisingly powerful. In fact, it broke Laptop Mag's battery life record ...

Kids will soon be able to download the Google Wallet app on their Android phone, allowing them to buy things in store via Google’s tap-to-pay feature, reports 9to5Google. The news comes after Google first added the feature to its kid-focused Fitbit Ace LTE fitness tracker in August. In a ...

Imagine making a phone call to your bank but ending up speaking to a hacker on the other end of the line. That is precisely what the sophisticated Android malware FakeCall is now capable of doing, according to a report from Zimperium’s zLabs research team. As Zimperium explains, FakeCall ...

Apple debuted the M4-powered Mac mini in a special announcement on Tuesday, calling it a "tinier, mightier, and even more versatile Mac mini" and showing off its new Apple Intelligence capabilities. With the arrival of this M4 Mac mini, many are wondering how it compares to the older M2 ...

Today, we are going to discuss how to fix RustDesk not working on macOS. This tutorial will allow you to run the app and access it remotely. If you have never heard of it, RustDesk is a remote desktop software, it is a free and open source tool.  Just a heads-up, there have been some ...

Switching to Linux is like Christopher Columbus discovering America -- but in ways both good and bad. Just as Columbus set sail for uncharted waters in search of something new, users moving from Windows or macOS to Linux are venturing into unfamiliar territory, leaving behind a world they’ve known ...

Forward-looking: Advances in AI are attempting to remove many of the prohibitive financial and technical challenges that can make content creation more challenging outside of big cloud data centers. AI research teams are developing and refining tools allowing even the most novice creators to ...

As the most dominant tablet lineup on the market, the Apple iPad takes advantage of a robust variety of accessories. Chief among them is the Apple Pencil, a stylus that enables deeper and more precise interactions with iPads. Over the years, however, buying an Apple Pencil has become a bit ...

Apple keyboards were in a class of their own when it came to design back in the 80s. One notable example is the Desktop Bus Keyboard for the Apple IIGS, which stood out with its sleek, low-profile keys, slim bezel, and unique features like a power button and a locking caps lock. Over the years, ...

I currently have five external drives attached to my System76 Thelio, each of which serves a different purpose. I have one to house virtual machines, another for music files, another for backups, one for photos and videos, and one for miscellaneous things. Using these ensures the drive ...

Have you ever found yourself excited to download a new game only to fail because there's not enough space on your PlayStation 4 console? Well, you're not alone. Even when it was first released over 10 years ago, the PlayStation 4's internal storage size was always a bit of a challenge for serious ...

In the weeks leading up to the release of OpenAI’s newest “reasoning” model, o1, independent AI safety research firm Apollo found a notable issue. Apollo realized the model produced incorrect outputs in a new way. Or, to put things more colloquially, it lied. Sometimes the deceptions ...

If you've gone shopping for a computer monitor in the past few years, you've almost certainly come across models that advertise FreeSync. This popular display technology is advertised especially heavily on gaming monitors, where the best hardware specifications mean the most advantage in ...

Back in July, references for something called "Ask for Music" were found in the code of a YouTube Music patch. The potential feature was initially believed to be an upgrade for the service's search function where you could use "natural language" to look up songs. But a recent update shows the ...

The Xbox Game Pass Standard plan is starting today. Microsoft announced a revamp to its Game Pass subscription plans , introducing the Standard option alongside a price increase for the Ultimate tier. The Standard plan costs $15 a month, while Ultimate will run you $20 a month. The ...

Apple is adding sleep apnea detection to the Apple Watch. The new feature is coming to the Apple Watch Series 9, the just-announced Series 10, and the Apple Watch Ultra 2, Apple announced at its product event on Monday. Sleep apnea is a disorder that causes you to stop breathing as you ...

Despite being in the market since 2013, the PS4 DualShock Controller still holds up in the sea of newer (and supposedly better) gaming controllers in the market. At the top of our list for best gaming controllers of all time, Sony has enabled plenty of ways for it to be used on devices ...

Google first showed up as a verb in the Oxford English Dictionary back in 2006. It was a milestone moment of sorts for the search giant, which by that point was already so ubiquitous that its very name had become synonymous with the act of searching for anything on the web. Likewise, that ...

OpenAI is considering a significant increase in its premium subscription fees, potentially adding a couple of zeros. ChatGPT subscriptions currently cost $20 per month, but that figure could rise to $2,000. It's yet unclear whether this would apply monthly, annually, or if it represents an ...

Snapchat is the app of choice for criminals targeting kids for sextortion or child sexual abuse material (CSAM), New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez alleges in a new lawsuit filed against the app’s owner, Snap. The suit accuses Snap of violating New Mexico law against unfair ...

Microsoft has announced the release of its latest Surface devices aimed specifically at business customers. The new lineup, which includes the Surface Pro 10 with 5G, Surface Pro 11th Edition, and Surface Laptop 7th Edition, is set to be available later this month. These devices are designed to ...

Macs are known for their reliability, and if you're running one with macOS Catalina, you know that firsthand. For that reason, they can be hard to let go of. However, there comes a time in every Mac owner's life when they realize it's time to move on. Apple no longer updating macOS Catalina ...

Control Panel may finally be removed from Windows 11, soon. Here we go again, Microsoft has been migrating the Control Panel for nearly a decade now. As Neowin reports, an update to a document on Microsoft's support portal, filed under the System Configuration tools states that "The ...

When you invent a device or even a specific concept, you probably want to make sure nobody can steal your ideas and claim it as their own — or at least keep them from profiting off your work without paying for permission. To ensure this legal protection, inventors file patents, which are ...

Zoom just announced that webinar calls can now support up to one million simultaneous participants. This was after various political groups used the video conferencing platform to raise money for Vice President Kamala Harris’ election campaign. The company now offers various tiers for webinar ...

Since the launch of ChatGPT, AI chatbots have been a hot topic because of their ability to do a wide range of tasks that can help you with your personal and work life. AI chatbots can write code, compose emails, draft a report, generate art, write Excel formulas, and much more at your ...

According to mobile game advertising agency Udonis, the mobile game market produced $90 billion in revenue in 2023. However, because most mobile devices are limited to touchscreen interfaces, the smartphone gaming experience is sub-optimal. Fortunately, you can elevate the mobile gaming ...

Chances are you’ve got a couple of old video game consoles gathering dust in your closet right now. Would you be able to hook all of them up to your TV without some kind of adapter? Meet a guy who owns 444 game consoles and has them all hooked up to a single television, according to the ...

With the amount of on-the-ground and satellite data it has amassed along with its ability to give real-time traffic updates, Google Maps is heralded as one of the best navigation apps, especially for people who drive. The app is full of useful travel-related features, such as the ability to ...

Turkey has restored access to Instagram after the social media site agreed to meet the country’s demands around censorship and crime-related content, reports. Transport Minister announced the agreement in a post on X. Instagram was blocked for a little over a week; users in the country , but ...

E-Ink tablets have always been intriguing to me because I’m a longtime lover of pen and paper. I’ve had probably hundreds of notebooks over the years, serving as repositories for my story ideas, to-do lists, meeting notes and everything in between. However, I turned away from physical ...

If you thought the recent GPT-4o and GPT-4o mini releases were enough to keep OpenAI busy, think again. The release of a new LLM codenamed "Strawberry" might be just around the corner. On Wednesday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman posted a photo of a strawberry garden on X, accompanied by the ...

If you experience low audio volume playback on Windows 11, then you may be affected by the same issue that I ran into over this weekend. When I turned on my HP laptop I realized quickly that something was not right. First, I thought that audio pfayback was muted, as I could not hear ...

In 2024, streaming is the new normal. With options for streaming TV, movies, music, books, and more, there are many ways to keep yourself occupied with a few clicks on your device of choice. But streaming services aren't cheap, and are typically offered as recurring monthly fees, which can ...

Installing an SSD is one of the most straightforward upgrades you can do to your PC — the only one with fewer steps is installing new memory. That makes it a great way to try out upgrading your PC by yourself, and we're here to help. Just follow the steps below, and you'll have a new SSD in your PC ...

The AI race is on, and Google Gemini is one of the frontrunners. Gemini was first introduced as Google's newest AI model in December 2023, replaced Bard in February 2024, and has since gone on to become one of the best AI models we have access to today. That's not to say Gemini doesn't ...

  Ranked as the 33rd largest supercomputer in the world at the time, the "Condor Cluster" was built by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) using 1,760 PlayStation 3 consoles. Situated in Rome, New York, the system was constructed for radar enhancement, processing satellite ...

Ever taken what you thought was the perfect picture, only to later notice a random photo bomber or a rogue tree branch ruining the shot? We've all been there. Whether it's a nosy stranger in the background or a trash can stealing the spotlight, these frame crashers can turn a cool picture ...

The Linux Mint team has just released Linux Mint 22, a new major version of the free Linux distribution. With Windows 10's end of support coming up quickly next year, at least some users may consider making the switch to Linux. While there are other options, paying Microsoft for extended ...