10 Amazing Halloween Props You Can Make with a Raspberry Pi

It’s all too easy to look at the calendar, spot October 31st, and think “I need to get some decorations in for Halloween.” Everyone does it. Be different. If you have a tiny computer hanging around — say a Raspberry Pi 3, for example — you can put your hardware to good use and create one or more of these superb Halloween props. Scare young children who come trick or treating, or simply impress yourself with the results. Either way, check these videos and their notes for details on how to get started. We’ve even given you some useful indicators...

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After Ted Cruz: The 9 Funniest #Twitterfails (and What They Teach Us)

We all have bad days. We all mess up and do something stupid. We all get angry and rant about someone or something. A joke backfires, or you don’t realize a colleague’s listening in. Twitter has a lot going for it, but on the flipside, your mistakes can land you in some serious hot water. Individuals are often forgiving. Society, as expressed through social media, simply isn’t. Here are some of the best gaffes people have made on Twitter, and how we can learn from their follies. Politicians Is there anything more cringe-inducing than a politician trying to act normal?...

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Researchers find that Twitter bots can be used for good

 According to Emilio Ferrara, a USC Information Sciences Institute researcher, not all Twitter bots are born bad. He should know. Ferrara created a “large-scale experiment designed to analyze the spread of information on social networks” and found that “good” Tweets spread just as quickly as bad Tweets. Further, they confirmed something the we already know: that… Read More
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12 Best Augmented Reality Apps for Android

Augmented reality is set to become one of the next big things in smartphones. Both Google and Apple have plans underway to push it to the next level, and you’re quite possible already using it without realizing. The face filters in Snapchat and Instagram are based on AR, as was the biggest mobile game of last year: Pokemon Go. But what else is there, aside from these big names? Here are 12 of the best augmented reality apps for Android that you can try today. 1. Star Walk 2 There’s no quicker or simpler demonstration of the wonders of augmented...

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Snapchat’s new Filters can transform the sky above your head

 Snapchat’s latest augmented reality feature is another implementation of the tech that applies to the world, rather than the faces found in frame when you take a picture. They’re called ‘Sky Filters,’ and they can automatically detect sky in your images, and repaint them with totally different atmospheric looks. The new filters are rolling out live starting today on… Read More
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Apple switches from Bing to Google for Siri web search results on iOS and Spotlight on Mac

 Apple is switching the default provider of its web searches from Siri, Search inside iOS (formerly called Spotlight) and Spotlight in Safari on the Mac. So, for instance, if Siri falls back to a web search on iOS when you ask it a question, you’re now going to get Google results instead of Bing. Consistency is Apple’s main motivation given for switching the results from… Read More
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How Codea Lets You Create Your Own iPad Apps

Ready to give coding a go? Codea can help. Creating an iPad app isn’t easy, but it’s certainly not impossible. Everyone has to start somewhere, and there are various apps and services that set out to make your first steps as agreeable as possible. Codea is one such option. It’s a $15 purchase from the App Store, but it transforms your iPad into a rather capable app creation suite. If you find the idea of coding daunting but you’re eager to give it a go, this may well be the answer. First Steps When you start a new project in...

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Instagram now has 800 million monthly and 500 million daily active users

 Instagram’s still growing at a rapid pace, having added 100 million new monthly active users in just a month since it last reported a new figure. It now has 800 million users engaging with the service on at least a monthly basis, the company revealed on Monday at an event in NYC, and it has 500 million using the service on a daily basis, too. Instagram announced the 700 million… Read More
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We talk about hoofed spiders with the founder of Outlier clothing

 Outlier’s founder Abe Burmeister is a designer who joined the world of clothing manufacturing over five years ago. His clothing – creating with cutting edge fabrics – is touted as high-tech and very chic but what frustrates Burmeister is how slowly the clothing industry is moving. His latest creation, a rolltop knapsack, uses a unique material to create one of the lightest… Read More

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3 Real Risks When Downloading Leaked Operating Systems

Every once in a while, you may hear about a new version of an operating system being leaked and available to try now. We’ve even highlighted a few of those in the past ourselves. But is it safe to download, install, and run a leaked OS? Maybe, but you’re taking a chance if you do. There’s just too much uncertainty around leaked OSes: Will it work? Has it been tampered with? Why would someone leak this? There are a handful of ways it could go wrong and bite you in the end. The next time you see news of a...

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Google and Levi’s ‘connected’ jacket that lets you answer calls, use maps and more goes on sale

 Over a year after Google showed off its “connected” jean jacket designed for bike commuters at last year’s Google I/O developer conference, the company today is unveiling the final product, which goes on sale on Wednesday for $350. Designed in partnership with Levi’s, the new smart jacket takes advantage of technology from Google’s Advanced Technology and… Read More
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Google and Levi’s ‘connected’ jacket that lets you answer calls, use maps and more goes on sale

 Over a year after Google showed off its “connected” jean jacket designed for bike commuters at last year’s Google I/O developer conference, the company today is unveiling the final product, which goes on sale on Wednesday for $350. Designed in partnership with Levi’s, the new smart jacket takes advantage of technology from Google’s Advanced Technology and… Read More

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Finally Clean Up Your Messy Windows Desktop!

In the same way that you can tell a lot about a person by looking at their physical desktop, you can also deduce a similar amount of information from a person’s virtual Windows desktop. Do you keep your desktop clutter-free, perhaps with just a few floating files for things you’re currently working on? Or do you save everything onto your desktop, only to find you’re unable to locate the file you want in a few months’ time? If you’re living in a world of virtual clutter, it might be sensible to turn to a third-party desktop management app for help....

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5 Great Linux Desktop Environments You Haven’t Heard Of

Which Linux operating system do you use? Chances are it has one of the common desktop environments, like GNOME or MATE, or perhaps LDE Plasma. You might even be holding onto Ubuntu’s abandoned Unity desktop. Although popular, these desktop environments (DE) are just a sample of what’s currently available. Better still, it’s so easy to make the change. Unlike Windows and macOS, you can change the desktop user interface by simply installing a new one. Unhappy with the way your preferred Linux distro looks? You don’t have to switch distros, just switch desktops! The following five desktop environments (and, to...

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6 Reasons a New Monitor Will Reduce Your Eye Strain

If you spend most of your days — or even a few hours — looking at a screen, you could be seriously fatiguing your eyes. And that fatigue causes strain, which eventually causes eye pain, blurred vision, and headaches. If you’re experiencing eye strain, the best solution is to spend less time looking at screens. But if that’s not an option, a new monitor can help. Here are a few of the ways that a new monitor will relieve your eye strain. 1. DC Dimming There are two different ways that LEDs are dimmed: via pulse width modulation (PWM) or...

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A Brief Guide to Android Oreo’s Picture-in-Picture Feature for Videos

Android 8.0 Oreo brings a slew of improvements and new features to the mobile operating system. But unlike the annoying “running in the background” notification, not all of them are obvious when you first start using it. One of these is the new picture-in-picture (PiP) feature that allows you to keep video running in a small window while using other apps on your phone. Unfortunately, this ability is limited to a handful of apps so you should first check which apps on your device support this feature. To do so, head to Settings, then tap the Apps & notifications category....

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Opera Has a Nifty Online Shopping Feature Most Don’t Know About

Have you switched browsers yet? Opera has some great features that make it stand out from the pack. Let’s talk about one more that many people have missed. When using Opera’s VPN or ad-blocker, you might not have realized that Opera is the only browser that comes with its own currency converter. A Better Experience on Foreign Online Shops The different online marketplaces are a pointer to how our shopping habits have changed. At the click of a mouse, we can shop anywhere from Abu Dhabi to Zurich. If you use Chrome, I bet you plug the dollar or pound value...

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Did You Miss It? Apple Just Built the World’s Most Impressive Theater

It was impossible to miss the news. On September 12, Apple hosted its annual iPhone event. The company took the wraps off three new phones — the most attention-grabbing of which was the iPhone X — as well as a new smartwatch, a new Apple TV box, and a new mobile operating system. But forget all that fancy new kit. None of it was even close to being the star of the show. The most impressive technology we saw at the event has hardly made any headlines around the world. I am talking, of course, about the all-new Steve Jobs...

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