Android devices display animations when they transition between apps, windows, and various menus. Animations oftentimes looks slick, but they do take up time—and sometimes can even cause the phone to lag if it’s low on resources. RELATED: How to Access Developer Options and Enable USB Debugging on Android The good news is that you can actually speed up or disable these animations to make your phone feel faster. That’s the key word here, because it doesn’t actually speed up your phone, it just makes it appear so since menus and whatnot will load faster....

If you’re a Linux user, there’s a good chance you’ve installed Linux alongside an existing Windows 7 or 8.1 system in a dual-boot configuration. You can get the free Windows 10 upgrade without damaging your existing Linux system. Even if you’ve overwritten your original Windows system with Linux, you can still get the free Windows 10 upgrade. You’ll just need to reinstall the original Windows system first. What You’ll Need RELATED: Windows 10 Is Almost Here: Here’s What You Need to Know...

If you use an iPhone or iPad to email important clients, friends, and relatives, then you probably want to try to minimize as much unnecessary typing as possible. Signatures are great for when you need to include your work address and phone number, an inspirational quote, or any other information you think necessary for your recipients to know. Signatures can make short work of adding routine and repetitive information to the end of your messages....

Multiple monitors are awesome. With two screens side by side, you can more easily see all your windows at once, keeping you productive. Got an iPad? You can use it as a second display for your Mac or PC. RELATED: How to Use Multiple Monitors to Be More Productive An iPad can’t compete with a real monitor, of course, in terms of size or price. But if you already have an iPad, it can pull double duty as a second monitor at your desk, or even with your laptop when you’re out and about....

Making movies on your smartphone has always been simple, but more often than not you can expect that the quality will suffer because of shaky images, out-of-focus lenses, and sound that’s better left to the deaf. Now all that can change with the help of some unique hardware and cleverly designed software that makes it easier than ever before to create studio-quality movies with nothing more than the iPhone in your pocket....

Start by opening the Galaxy S20’s Settings menu. The easiest way to do this is by swiping down from the top of the phone’s display and pulling down the notification shade. From here, tap the Gear icon in the top-right corner. Alternatively, you can swipe up from the handset’s home screen to open the app drawer. Here, you can either use the search bar at the top of the screen or swipe between panels to locate the “Settings” app....

The Temptation of the TV Monitor It’s never been easier to connect a computer to a television. HDMI ports are universal on televisions and nearly as common on computers. One cable connection and both picture and sound are ready to go. This is a far cry from when you’d have to hope for a VGA port on a TV or resort to using composite or S-Video output from a specialized graphics card....

The common wisdom is that Macs are more expensive than Windows PCs. This is true, if you compare a $250 Windows laptop to a MacBook that starts at $899. But, given comparable hardware, Macs aren’t necessarily more expensive than PCs. This is similar to phones, really. Sure, an iPhone is more expensive than cheap Android and Windows phones, but an iPhone is comparably priced to high-end Android phones from the likes of Samsung and HTC....

Many home routers offer a “Guest Mode.” This isolates your guests onto a separate Wi-Fi network, and you don’t have to give them your normal Wi-FI passphrase. But Guest Mode is often insecure. Guest Mode isn’t always bad — D-Link, Netgear, and ASUS router seem to do it right. But, if you have the type of Guest Mode we’ve seen on home routers from Linksys and Belkin, you should never use it....

The Professional version of Windows 10 asks you who owns your PC during its first-time setup process. It’s not completely clear what this setting does, though. This option only appears in Professional, Education, and Enterprise editions of Windows 10. Home editions of Windows 10 don’t have access to domain-joining features. “Who Owns This PC” Controls Whether You Connect to a Domain or Not RELATED: What is a Windows Domain and How Does It Affect My PC?...

The Advantages of a Gallium Nitride Charger GaN chargers are physically smaller than current chargers. This is because gallium nitride chargers don’t require as many components as silicon chargers. The material is able to conduct far higher voltages over time than silicon. GaN chargers are not only more efficient at transferring current, but this also means less energy is lost to heat. So, more energy goes to whatever you’re trying to charge....

It seem like everyone is jumping on the streaming live TV train these days, and with Google getting YouTube on board, it’s worth a closer look. While there are things to like about YouTube TV, I feel like Google still has a lot of work to do to make this a legitimate option for everyone. What Is YouTube TV? In a nutshell, YouTube TV is Google’s take on streaming television—much like Sling, PlayStation Vue, DirecTV Now, and the like....

As smartphone cameras get better and better it’s only natural that people would want to enjoy some of the trappings of proper photography with them. Read on as we show a reader how to cheaply add a remote shutter release to their smartphone camera so they can trigger the camera without jarring it, disturbing the composition, and while they’re actually in the photo. Easy and cheap you say? Well do we have a proposition for you, then....

Here’s a dirty secret: Most Android devices never receive security updates. Ninety-five percent of Android devices can now be compromised via an MMS message, and that’s just the most high-profile bug. Google has no way to apply security patches to these devices, and manufacturers and carriers just don’t care. The Android ecosystem is becoming a toxic hellscape of unpatched devices riddled with security holes. For comparison, when Apple’s iOS has a security hole, Apple can just update all supported iPhones with a new version....

Besides the new top-level tabs, there are options under the home screen for switching between movies, TV shows, and sports — a much-needed feature, as Prime Video previously didn’t have a straightforward way to separate shows and movies. The search has also been improved, with new filters for categories, genres, or 4K availability. Source: TechCrunch, The Verge

About Our Ranking If you search the web, you’ll find plenty of lists of the best free email accounts. Of course, the truly best choice is subjective to the reader, except perhaps if you’re ranking by one particular attribute of the service, like ease of use, security, or platform support. Even then, not everyone will agree that one attribute is the most important. One thing that virtually all free email services have in common, though, is a limited set of features compared to their costly upgrades or alternative paid services....

We all worry about keeping our data and files safe and intact, but is it possible for data to become damaged and be accessed by a user without a notification or warning of any kind about the problem? Today’s SuperUser Q&A post has the answer to a worried 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....

While many of us are familiar with the concept of improperly unplugging a portable hard drive causing potential data loss, is it also possible that your computer could be damaged as well? 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 Charles Wiriawan (Flickr)....

After years of use in other countries around the world, chip-enabled credit cards are coming to the USA. Credit cards with only magnetic strips are being phased out ahead of an October 1, 2015 deadline. If you have a credit card, you’ll probably get a replacement with a chip at some point soon. The entire country won’t switch to chip cards by October 1, but retailers and banks that don’t will assume more financial liability....

Microsoft Security Essentials (Windows Defender on Windows 8) was once on top. Over the years, it’s slid in the test results, but Microsoft argued the tests weren’t meaningful. Now, Microsoft is advising Windows users to use a third-party antivirus instead. This revelation comes to us from an interview Microsoft gave. Microsoft’s official website still bills MSE as offering “comprehensive malware protection” without any hint that they no longer recommend using it....