Tips

Included in Apple’s HomePod mini is a new technology called Thread. But what is it? We’ll highlight what it does, and how it’s going to change the way you interact with your smart home. What Is Thread? Thread is a wireless standard, like Zigbee or Z-Wave, that allows your smart home devices to talk to each other.

As scientists continue to perfect artificial intelligence, the technology still finds its way into everyday life to make it easier. This includes the workplace. Different tasks that would normally demand your attention can now become the responsibility of AI software. Here are six areas where artificial intelligence can improve businesses through smart and efficient automation.

For most people, digital media is a part of your everyday life. But we don’t always think about how it is created. If you want to better understand how content moves from the mind to the monitor, continue reading for an introduction to Bitmap images. What Is Bitmap? “Bitmap” images are created by arranging a grid

Whether you’re an outdoorsy type, someone who works around heavy machinery, or just clumsy, you need a phone that can take a beating. To choose one, there’s more than just a good case and screen protector to consider. You should also look out for features of the phone’s hardware that will give it an extra level

Did a startup invent the holy grail of health wearables? Quantum Operation Incorporated, headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, claims their noninvasive (no-prick) glucometer accurately estimates blood glucose. Quantum’s technology should hit markets in late 2021 or early 2022. If it works, the wearable could prevent 1.6-million diabetes deaths, and countless amputations, each year. But the big

Since the dawn of the internet, publishers big and small have wondered about the mysterious virtual visitors to their sites. How many are there? What are they reading? How many pages do Canadians using Firefox view per session? The field of analytics tackles these questions, and the leading practitioner is, unsurprisingly, the company that often

Wi-Fi is a catch-all term. In a sense, it is very precise. It explains a specific method you can use to connect to the internet. There are many different types of Wi-Fi standards. Your router, laptop, tablet, smartphone, and smart home devices all use different wireless standards to connect to the internet. Wireless standards change

When using an iPhone, you’ve probably come across the term “3D Touch” or “Haptic Touch.” These terms, along with “Force Touch,” are easy to confuse; you might not even know what action they refer to on your device. Let’s take a look at the differences between Force Touch, 3D Touch, and Haptic Touch, and what

GUIs are ubiquitous, yet you may not even know what they are, and you almost certainly take them for granted. Still, the term is so integral to computing that it merits some explanation and context. So, what is a GUI? What Does GUI Stand for? Depending on how you define computing, it has been around

A dashcam is an advanced Electronic Logging Device (ELD) that records your front-view through your windshield and sometimes, depending on the brand, the rear view of your car. Outside of the significant road safety regulations by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), there are many reasons to consider installing a dashcam in your vehicle.

One of the largest concerns with electric cars is running out of power before reaching a charging station. This has become known as range anxiety. At CES 2021, HERE Technologies, the company behind the Google Maps alternative HERE WeGo, launched a new EV Routing feature to optimize your journey. Electric Vehicles Need Charging Painter06/Pixabay Most

We have all had that moment when we come home after a long day of work to a freezing or sweltering home. With the Nest Thermostat, those stressful experiences are a thing of the past. The Nest Thermostat helps you save energy without sacrificing comfort. It’s designed to manage your home’s air conditioner and heater

Image quality matters. When you’ve spent hundreds or thousands of dollars on a gaming rig, you expect performance. The more money you spend, the better performance you expect. Unfortunately, everyone can’t afford to spend thousands of dollars on a system. People often go years without upgrading their builds, and over time, your shiny graphics card

Nearly every industry today—from manufacturing to services—relies on technical systems for its functioning. In most cases, multiple aspects of a single business or supply chain are dependent on different types of devices and software. In an ordinary industrial landscape inundated with such systems, keeping track of multiple technical components can be a herculean task. But

A good role-playing game takes a lot of thought and technology to create. The minds behind your favorite titles know that even the simplest design involves coding, automation, and plenty of world-building, to say the least. Whether you’re a curious gamer or an ambitious developer, it’s worth knowing the most important mechanics that makeup RPGs.

Cloud services are one of the best internet innovations. Instead of purchasing expensive software, set up platforms, or hardware along with the never-ending cost of maintenance and updates, cloud computing services allow you to pay a monthly fee to use complex services. Depending on the services you need and the level of control and flexibility

If you’ve been online at all in the past few years, you’ve probably heard about services being forced offline during a DDoS attack. Without warning, your favorite website or video game is no longer online because someone or something is “DDoSing” it. While the term DDoS seems cryptic, it’s now part of the common internet

Though there’s lots of great free software available, people still continue to pirate apps. Perhaps they don’t know about free alternatives or don’t think the app is worth the cost—either way, it’s not right to steal apps you haven’t paid for. Let’s take a look at some of the most commonly pirated apps, along with

Have you ever tried to jump on a video call, only to suffer from a choppy connection because your spouse was streaming 4K videos at the same time? Or maybe you’ve had a gaming session ruined by your brother who wouldn’t pause his torrent downloads? If so, you’ve probably wished there was a way to

Getting your PC online should be straightforward, but without the right hardware a Wi-Fi connection is impossible. While a desktop computer can connect to Wi-Fi, if it doesn’t have a Wi-Fi card installed, you’ll need to add Wi-Fi support to the PC. Here’s everything you need to know about connecting a PC to Wi-Fi and

ASCII and Unicode are both standards that refer to the digital representation of text, specifically characters that make up text. However, the two standards are significantly different, with many properties reflecting their respective order of creation. America Versus the Universe The American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII), unsurprisingly, caters to an American audience, writing

Spotify is arguably the world’s largest music streaming service. You either pay for Spotify with a premium plan, or you don’t. There is the Student Plan where you pay less, a Family Plan where someone else pays, or the free option, where you stream with ad breaks in between your music. If there are so

Replika: My AI Friend is an app unlike any other. While most apps out there with chatbots use them as virtual assistants, Replika markets its chatbot as—you guessed it—a friend. With its promised ability to “perceive” and evaluate abstract quantities such as emotion, Replika’s chatbot might just do justice to its aspirationally human description. From

How do you want to play? That’s the question your purchasing decision revolves around when it comes to gaming. Every platform has benefits, every platform has detriments, every platform has special features that make it unique… but the biggest question is, which is more important: having a higher frame rate or playing at a higher

How do you increase the charge on your smartphone battery? You might think charging it while you’re asleep to regularly hit 100 percent is beneficial, but that actually harms your battery and shortens its life. Here’s the truth about maintaining smartphone batteries—and why you shouldn’t charge it overnight. How Is Battery Life Expectancy Determined? You want your

Thanks to Amazon, Alexa is now a household name. The company’s suite devices, including speakers, light bulbs, and doorbells, has helped many people convert their homes into intelligent spaces that can adapt to different contexts and commands. Amazon is taking its smart home systems a step further with Amazon Sidewalk, a program where your Amazon

Artificial Intelligence (AI) enhances at a rate faster than anyone predicted. These sophisticated programs use complex algorithms to interact with their environment and learn from their experiences. It’s not all about rocket ships and superpowered androids, though. Theoretically, the applications for AIs are endless. These programs are no longer limited to science fiction. Many non-tech

“Dark fiber” sounds like something out of a spooky horror movie, but in reality, it’s a lot tamer than it sounds. So, what is dark fiber, and can you use it to get even faster download speeds? Let’s explore the dark fiber network and how you can put it to use. What Is Dark Fiber? [embedded

Microsoft Editor will receive an upgrade in a coming Microsoft Office update, expanding its capabilities and making the tool easier to find within Office apps. What’s in the Microsoft Editor Update? Although Microsoft Editor sounds like a premium tool, it is actually just the official name given to the collection of squiggly colored lines you

We’re bringing you a shorter Really Useful Podcast this week, taking a look at what tech we’d most like to find in our stockings for Christmas 2020. This week’s Really Useful Podcast is hosted by Christian Cawley, with appearances by Gavin Philips, James Frew, and Ben Stegner. Look out for our other shows—subscribe to the