Newer 5nm designs, like other manufacturing processes before them, promise better power efficiency and faster performance and just generally pushing CPU technology forward. Before we get into all that, however, let’s talk about what a new manufacturing process and moving to a new process node is all about. What Does a New Process Node Mean? At its heart changing to a new process means changing the way that a processor is manufactured....
Different operating systems support different file systems. Your removable drive should use FAT32 for best compatibility, unless it’s bigger and needs NTFS. Mac-formatted drives use HFS+ and don’t work with Windows. And Linux has its own file systems, too. Unfortunately, even typical computer users need to think about the different file systems and what they’re compatible with. Here’s what you need to know about file systems — and why there are so many different ones....
You are probably reading this article because you’ve noticed a process called Adobe_Updater.exe running in your task manager, or you’ve started getting the popup balloon message in the system tray that there is a new update available, and would like to get rid of it. RELATED: What Is This Process and Why Is It Running on My PC? This article is part of our ongoing series explaining various processes found in Task Manager, like dwm....
More and more banks, credit card companies, and even social media networks and gaming sites are starting to use two-factor authentication. If you’re a little unclear on what it is or on why you’d want to start using it, read on to learn how two-factor authentication can keep your data secure. What Is Exactly Is Two-Factor Authentication? How-To Geek reader Jordan writes in with a straight forward question: In order to understand what two-factor authentication is, let’s first take a look at what one-factor authentication is and compare it to both real and virtual models of security....
With USB 3.0 becoming more prevalent with each passing year now, you may have found yourself wondering why modern computers still have USB 2.0 ports built into them. With that in mind, today’s SuperUser Q&A post has the answers to a curious reader’s question. Today’s Question & Answer session comes to us courtesy of SuperUser—a subdivision of Stack Exchange, a community-driven grouping of Q&A web sites. The Question SuperUser reader Brettetete wants to know why modern computer cases still have USB 2....
If you often download multiple items at the same time, then you have likely noticed that one download connection tends to dominate over the others until it is finished. Why is that? Today’s SuperUser Q&A post has the answer to a curious reader’s question. Today’s Question & Answer session comes to us courtesy of SuperUser—a subdivision of Stack Exchange, a community-driven grouping of Q&A web sites. Photo courtesy of Armando Sotoca (Flickr)....
Nearby Share is the answer to Apple’s AirDrop that Android users have been waiting for: a universal method for sharing links, photos, and files between devices. Here’s how to set it up and start sharing. There are plenty of apps that you can use to share things on Android. The problem is the recipient needs to be using the same app. Nearby Share is like AirDrop on iPhone, iPad, and Mac....
Suppose you’re the type of person who uses Siri as a primary way to interact with your music anyway. In that case, this new subscription is perfect for you, as it offers all of the benefits of the $9.99 per month subscription at half the price. However, you sacrifice the clean Apple Music interface. As you might expect, the plan is limited to only one user, much like the individual Apple Music plan....
If you’re thinking about letting a younger child use an iPhone, you might worry about them accidentally calling 911. Due to federal law, you can’t disable emergency calls completely, but there are ways to reduce your chances of dialing 911 accidentally. Here’s how—and why 911 is required on cell phones to begin with. Why All Cell Phones Are Required to Allow Dialing 911 According to United States federal law (47 CFR § 9....
What Is a High Refresh Rate Monitor? A monitor’s refresh rate is the number of times the display updates per second, and it’s measured in hertz (Hz). Most basic displays stick to 60 Hz, which means the maximum frame rate you can perceive on these displays is 60 frames per second (FPS). If you play a lot of games and have invested in a powerful computer to do so, it might achieve frame rates higher than 60 FPS....
It’s no mystery that smartphones and computers are pretty, well, smart. They’ve got tons of high-tech stuff going on under the surface to improve your experience. One of those things is auto-brightness. How does that work? Auto-brightness is a feature you may be familiar with on iPhones, iPads, and Android devices. It’s primarily been used for mobile devices, but in recent years it’s started to appear in Windows laptops, MacBooks, and Chromebooks, too....
RELATED: How Does an Electric Vehicle Work? How Do Electric Car Batteries Work? EV batteries are actually battery packs full of groups of individual lithium-ion cells, each of which can store a certain amount of power. As you drive around and use the car’s electrical systems, that stored energy is discharged until the battery needs to be topped up again. The life of an EV battery is commonly measured in charge cycles—that is, the number of times the battery is fully charged and discharged....
Taking a screenshot on OS X is easy, and you can even change the destination location for those screenshots. But did you know you can also change the default screenshot format? By default, when you take a screenshot on OS X, it is saved as a PNG. There’s nothing wrong with this, but perhaps you prefer or need to take screenshots in JPEG format. For individual screenshots, you could open the image in Preview and then export it to that format....
There are many ways to convert media files from one format to another on Windows 10, including using the Command Prompt—thanks to ffmpeg. If you prefer commands over graphical user interfaces, here’s how to convert your audio and video files using the Command Prompt. Set up FFmpeg to Convert Audio and Video Using the Command Prompt By default, the Command Prompt doesn’t offer the option to convert your media files....
iOS 10 contains a new feature that gives a faint vibration along with the click sound that plays when you lock the screen. But if you don’t like this haptic feedback, you can disable this feature. For some reason, this screen-locking vibration is part of the “Lock Sounds” feature, so you need to turn off Lock Sounds entirely to disable the vibration. To do so, tap the “Settings” icon on the Home screen....
Start by signing into your Twitch account. After logging in, click on your Twitch username in the top-right corner of the website and then select “Settings” from the drop-down menu.
Smart folders in iOS Mail allow you to view collections of certain types of email messages from all your email accounts. You can view all your unread messages, flagged messages, messages with attachments, or just important messages from certain people. Using smart folders can make it easier to sift through a cluttered inbox. For example, I want to be able to quickly access all the unread messages in all my email accounts in Mail....
The alarm app on the iPhone and iPad doesn’t allow much wiggle room when it comes to making it louder. There are some ways, however, that you can better assure you won’t sleep through your alarm. There’s no denying that the traditional alarm clock has taken a backseat to our mobile phones. Nowadays, it’s safe to say that our phone is our timer, our stopwatch and, most importantly, our alarm clock....
Flashing Google’s Factory Images to a Nexus device is a pretty straightforward process, but it can be a little more daunting on Nexus Player since it doesn’t technically have its own display. The good news is that the process isn’t all that different from other Nexus devices. While Nexus Player will normally update itself over-the-air, there are times when flashing an image may be necessary: if the unit malfunctions (soft bricks), if you just want to start over, or if you’re too impatient to wait for the update to hit your device....
Your Apple Watch can perform all sorts of neat tricks, not the least of which is remotely triggering your iPhone camera–and allowing you to review the photos, too. Why Would I Want To Do This? There are two primary reasons why someone would want to use a remote trigger for a camera (any camera, not just the iPhone camera): to trigger the camera when they are not behind it, or to keep the camera perfectly still and fixed relative to the scene....
