9 Privacy-Friendly Android Apps You Should Be Using

These days, you can find an Android app for just about anything. Want to know what the weather will be like next week? No problem. Need to explore your device’s file system? It’s easy. Dying to waste a few hours playing high-quality games? There are thousands to choose from. But the app-for-everything nature of the store does have a notable downside: privacy. Honestly, how many of you research an app’s stance on privacy and security before you install it? The result of our collective laissez-faire approach to software installation is a growing number of apps that are a privacy nightmare....

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That time I got locked out of my Google account for a month

 How much of your digital life would you lose if you lost a single password? Without it, you are locked out and the cold reality of using free cloud services like Google is that you don’t have a human arbiter to help you. If you think back to earlier times where, say you lost your bank book, your local banker probably knew who you were and could help you navigate the process of getting… Read More
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Inside “Fin”, the elite human/AI assistant

 “I have FOMO for the future”, says Sam Lessin. That’s why his startup Fin is working backwards from a far-off tech utopia. One day, computers with some human help will answer our every beck and call. Today, Lessin is teaming them up. Every day, Fin gets smarter. For $1 a minute, 24/7, Fin gets your digital chores done. Message, email, or speak a request and a real person… Read More

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5 Electron Apps for Linux You Should Try Today

Programs written using the Electron framework don’t have the best reputations. A lot of this has to do with the way they seem to use up a lot of resources. They are, after all, based off Google’s Chrome web browser, with all the benefits and trappings of it. That’s not to say that all of them are bad. In fact, there are a few out there which make use of the easy development the framework provides to do things which other previous programs have not. Here are a few such examples. 1. Etcher Naturally, the program which lets you easily...

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CNN is killing its Snapchat news show only four months after its debut

 CNN is giving up on its Snapchat news show, which launch only four months ago. “The Update,” as the program was called, had been designed for Snapchat’s vertical video format, but didn’t feature video produced only for Snapchat, nor did it have dedicated anchors. Instead, the news featured on “The Update” was a curated selection of CNN’s reporting from… Read More
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A look at 42 women in tech who crushed it in 2017

What a challenging, exhilarating year it has been for women everywhere, starting from the women’s March on Washington to former Uber engineer Susan Fowler’s eye-opening and now famous blog post to the #metoo movement that has swept the country, washing dozens of sexual predators out of their powerful roles in the process. All the while, women in tech have been driving their… Read More
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CNN is killing its Snapchat news show only four months after its debut

 CNN is giving up on its Snapchat news show, which launch only four months ago. “The Update,” as the program was called, had been designed for Snapchat’s vertical video format, but didn’t feature video produced only for Snapchat, nor did it have dedicated anchors. Instead, the news featured on “The Update” was a curated selection of CNN’s reporting from… Read More

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The Biggest and Best Tech News Stories of 2017

The end of the year is nigh, and 2017 has been an epic year for technology. We thought it would be a good idea to look back over the past year in tech news to see which stories made the headlines. But remember, we try to cover tech news you can make use of, as that’s our thing… January In January, Netflix launched a new app for DVD rentals, Instagram added ads to Stories, Chrome added support for FLAC files, Samsung explained why the Galaxy Note 7 exploded, Google announced all new Chromebooks would run Android apps, and HP recalled...

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Amazon acquires connected camera and doorbell startup Blink

 Amazon has acquired Blink (via Slashgear), a startup founded in 2014 that builds connected Wi-Fi home security cameras, as well as a new video doorbell introduced earlier this week. The company got its start via a crowdfunding campaign that raised over $1 million for its totally wireless home monitoring system. Amazon has already made forays into connected home video cameras and even home… Read More

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A Short Guide to X299 Motherboards and Intel Core i9s

Intel’s new and fastest line of processors, the new Core i9 series, has drawn significant attention. It puts the company ahead of its chief rival, AMD, in the speed wars and the core wars. But if you want a taste of the action, you need a new motherboard to go with it: the X299 chipset. What is this new motherboard? What are the advantages and disadvantages? And is it really worth it? Let’s dive in and find out. What Is a Chipset? The X299 Chipset Explained The first thing you need to understand is what a chipset does. To put...

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The Best Tech Gifts for the Geeks in Your Life

It is difficult to pick the right gift for people, but it’s even more difficult when you don’t know anything about their interests. If you’re perplexed about what gift to buy for a geeky loved one, try one of these. Keep in mind, these are actual tech gifts. In case your friend already has all of these, you can always look at non-essential geeky gifts for techies. Streaming Sticks or Media Players as Tech Gifts? Geeks love their TV shows, so make it easy for them to watch their favorites on a big screen. A smart TV isn’t the best...

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How to Open AI Files Without Adobe Illustrator

Vector-based images are commonly used by graphic designers. The files are small, yet the images themselves are infinitely resizable. They’re perfect for drawings, and especially for things like logos and icons. Adobe Illustrator is the leading graphic design package, which means its native filetype (AI) is the industry standard. The trouble is, AI is a proprietary format owned by Adobe. So figuring out how to open AI files without Illustrator can be difficult. And support varies quite considerably, depending on what you want to do with it. Put simply, opening an AI file just to view is easy. Opening it...

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How to Use Gmail Offline: The Complete Guide

Anyone who deals with emails knows that processing emails require an active internet connection. A spotty internet connection could leave you with limited or even no access to your emails. What if you could set up Gmail offline and access all your emails without internet? It would be a real boon, especially when you’re traveling or taking a flight. Fortunately, if you use Gmail, you’re in luck. Today, let’s see how you can setup and use Gmail offline. Read This Before You Start As you may have guessed, Gmail Offline can be used only with Google Chrome. You should never...

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7 Things Apple Needs to Improve on iPhone X

The Apple iPhone X is perhaps the most significant new Apple handset to launch since the first iPhone arrived in 2007. Nonetheless, despite mostly great reviews, Cupertino’s latest flagship device does have some annoyances, both on the hardware and software side. In this article, I’ll highlight seven things that bother me about the new handset and what Apple can do to eliminate them, either with a software update or on a future iPhone. Hardware Apple won’t change the hardware on the iPhone X. Instead, it will eventually release a new iPhone in 2018 that builds on what worked (and didn’t...

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Meet Molekule, the sleekest air purifier on the market

 Molekule, a San Francisco-based startup with a sleekly designed molecular air purifier started as an immigrant dream twenty years ago and ended up being named one of Time’s top 25 inventions of 2017. The inventor Yogi Goswami came up with the idea when his baby son Dilip started having a hard time breathing the air around him. Dilip suffered from severe asthma but no air purifier at… Read More

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How to Take Region Screenshots in Windows 10

Whether it’s to share on social media, with IT for troubleshooting, or for yourself to save an image for posterity, taking screenshots should be a vital part of your everyday Windows workflow. Yet while there are plenty of ways to take screenshots, if you’re looking for a fast and simple way to clip only a specific section of your screen, use this little-known Windows keyboard shortcut. How to Take Region Screenshots in Windows 10 While the Windows Snipping Tool makes quick work of screenshots, there’s an even faster way to take screenshots in Windows: Once you have the intended window open and...

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How to Set “Out of Office” Messages in Outlook

Remember how you were greeted with a tsunami of email messages when you came back from vacation? You probably forgot to set an “Out of Office” message in your Microsoft Outlook before you stepped out the door. Yes, it’s not a solution to a flooded inbox, but it does notify your contacts with an orange light that you are away and there’s a reason why you won’t be able to respond in a timely manner. Your contacts can then follow up without crowding your inbox. You should set one up right now, along with canned messages and a professional email signature,...

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How to Play Xbox 360 Games on Xbox One

Want to play your Xbox 360 games on Xbox One? The good news is that many Xbox 360 games are compatible with your Xbox One! This allows you to play several generations of Xbox titles on one system. However, you should know some important tidbits about playing Xbox 360 games on your Xbox One. Here are some instructions and guidelines. How to Play Xbox 360 Games on Xbox One If you have an Xbox 360 disc, just pop it into your Xbox One like you would any other game. Once it installs, you’re good to go. For digital games, browse...

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Laser-equipped shoes help Parkinson’s patients take the next step

 Here’s an unexpected but pleasant little way tech might be able to improve a few lives: laser shoes. Yes, seriously. Shoes equipped with small laser emitters were shown in recent tests to help sufferers of Parkinson’s disease to walk normally. Read More

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Google Home Max review

 The Max sounds good. But is it $399 good? On the whole, it’s a solid offering. It isn’t a flashy speaker from a design perspective, but the audio is loud and clear, and the bass bumps like a mofo. Read More

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Google Home Max review

 The Max sounds good. But is it $399 good? On the whole, it’s a solid offering. It isn’t a flashy speaker from a design perspective, but the audio is loud and clear, and the bass bumps like a mofo. Read More
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You Can Now Install Spotify on Linux as a Snap

Linux users rejoice! As Spotify is now much easier to install on most Linux distributions. This is because the Spotify desktop app is now available as a snap, which makes it really easy to install and use without the need to install any other software first. It seems Christmas has come early. Spotify has been treating Linux users as second class citizens for a while, with no-one officially working on the desktop client, and bugs being squashed intermittently. However, thanks to some Spotify engineers working in the spare time, Spotify is now available in the form of a snap. Spotify...

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Eric Schmidt stepping down as Alphabet’s executive chairman to become a ‘technical advisor’

 A little late in the day news dump for you, ahead of the upcoming holiday. Long time Google executive Eric Schmidt announced today that he’ll be stepping down from his role as the executive chairman of Alphabet’s board of directors. Alphabet has confirmed the move with TechCrunch, offering up a statement from Schmidt. “Larry, Sergey, Sundar and I all believe that the time… Read More
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Instagram now lets you share live videos through direct messages

 Instagram has been steadily beefing up its Direct Messaging feature in recent months, as it has begun to toy with the idea of spinning out messaging into its own, separate app. Among its more recent tweaks was last month’s added option for photo and video message replays, and earlier enhancements like support for web links and different photo orientations. Today, it’s rolling… Read More
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How to Make Your Own Cryptocurrency Dashboard

With all the talks of forking, scams, websites stealing your CPU to mine altcoins, and crazy price volatility, cryptocurrencies (“crypto”) are certainly becoming more mainstream. If you’ve invested or are considering purchasing any cryptocurrencies, then you’ll need a way to monitor their prices in real time. Fortunately, you can easily build yourself a crypto dashboard using nothing more than HTML and CSS. Note: Purchasing cryptocurrencies is a highly speculative investment. Never invest more than you can afford, and be prepared to lose it all overnight. Getting Started This dashboard is powered by a free widget provided by coinmarketcap.com. This excellent...

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Gift Guide: Last minute gifts and stocking stuffers that are actually good

 We’ve only got a few more days until Christmas, and maybe you’re starting get a little nervous about all the folks who are still on your gift-giving list. Sure, they might not be your closest friends or best-loved family members… but you can’t ignore them entirely, can you? Don’t worry, TechCrunch has you covered. Whether you’ve got a lot of last-minute… Read More

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