Let Your Photos Shine With a Custom Background: Here’s How Using GIMP

It’s easy to change the background of a photo in Photoshop, but you don’t have to pay for expensive software if you don’t want to. GIMP is the best free image editing software around, and it’s almost as powerful as its commercial counterpart. Changing the background in GIMP is simple, and there are several different ways to do it. In this guide we’ll take a look at two of the best solutions — one very quick the other more precise (and powerful). Before You Begin If you’re new to GIMP you might be confused by its unusual user interface. By...

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Are Today’s Amazon Deals Any Good? Let’s Find Out [US/CA]

We're in the afterglow of Prime Day, but Amazon still has a lot of deals available. Are they actually worth getting? Let's dig in and find out!

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How Cheap Can You Actually Go on Computer Speakers?

Getting top-of-the-line stuff is great. You can walk around knowing that you have the best thing available. In the case of computer speakers, you’re looking at hundreds of dollars — no small strain on the budget. Yeah, you get incredible sound quality, but do you need it for the way you use a computer? Today, we’re going to ignore all the expensive stuff and examine how cheap you can actually go for speakers that’ll get the job done. Will there be sacrifices? Of course, but we’re going to break down what you’ll lose with the cheap models and give you...

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Take the Perfect Selfie With These Fantastic Android Apps

Whether you love them or hate them, chances are you have taken a selfie at some point in your life. Selfies are insanely popular, and it’s no surprise that developers are continuously creating apps to take that perfect selfie. With so many apps to choose from, how can you know which ones are worth installing? The following selfie apps are some of the most popular options on the Play Store and have some great features. Whether you’re looking for filters or real-time effects, these apps can help you out. 1. Candy Camera Candy Camera is the must-have selfie app on...

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New Music Friday – This Week’s Best Releases [UK]

Friday means the end of a busy week, and the start of the weekend. It also has come to mean that it’s time for new music. Some of this week’s highlights include new releases from The Vamps, Coldplay, and Status Quo, and more. While all the releases are available in digital and physical formats, you could save money and skip the hassle by streaming them instead. Amazon’s Music Unlimited streaming service is just £7.99/month for Prime members and has a collection of over 40 million songs. There is even a 30 day free trial if you want to take Music...

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The Easiest Way to Recover Unsaved Microsoft Excel Files

Have you ever lost an Excel file because you accidentally closed it without saving? Or because your computer crashed? It’s really frustrating — but you don’t have to start over! There are a few ways you can recover unsaved Excel files. You might not get the latest version with all of your most recent changes, but it’s a lot better than starting from scratch. Let’s take a look at those recovery methods to see how it’s done! Recovering Excel Files in Windows There are three main methods of recovering unsaved and overwritten files from Excel. If you close an unsaved...

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How to Buy Safely on AliExpress and Avoid Scams

It’s not always easy to stay safe while you’re shopping online. For every legitimate and reputable site, hundreds want to take your money and run for the hills, never to be seen or heard from again. If you want to stay safe, it’s important to research the site you’re making your purchases on. How does it protect buyers? Is it easy to avoid frauds and scams? How does the site handle disputes and refunds? Today, we’re going to dive into the world of AliExpress and answer some of those questions. What Is AliExpress? AliExpress is part of the Alibaba Group....

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How to Keep Your House Cool Without an AC This Summer

If it’s really hot out and you want to stay luxuriously cool, you need an air conditioner. There’s no getting around that. Ideally you’d use a smart thermostat like Nest or Ecobee3, which keeps your home at optimum temperatures while using the least amount of electricity. But if you don’t have an AC, can’t install one, or want to reduce AC usage as much as possible, then you’ll be happy to know that energy-friendly options do exist. Just remember to temper your expectations. If it’s 100F outside, these methods won’t bring your house down to 75F. But if you’re okay...

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4 Keys Missing From Your Keyboard and How to Add Them

Are there keys on your keyboard that you haven’t pressed for weeks? Even with the most common keyboard shortcuts, you might never have reason to hit keys like Scroll Lock, some of the F1-F12 keys, or Pause. What you’d appreciate more are keys that let you access certain functions that you actually use immediately. Even better, you can add many of these to your existing keyboard. That’s what we’re going to accomplish today. Here’s how to stop wasting keyboard space with functions you don’t use and add some useful new keys under your fingers! 1. Browser/App Shortcut Key Chrome OS...

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Streamline iTunes by Removing Unnecessary Media Libraries

Rightly or wrongly, iTunes has a reputation for being an unwieldy and hard-to-use app. It’s worse on Windows than on macOS, but neither is great. It’s a shame. A decade ago it was the leading music player, but Apple’s insistence on turning it into a one-stop shop for everything media-related has led to it becoming far too bloated. Luckily, there are a few ways users can streamline their iTunes experience, one of which is to remove unnecessary media libraries. If you only want to use the app as a music player and aren’t interested in podcasts, apps, videos, ringtones, and everything...

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How to Keep Track of Disappearing Songs in Spotify Playlists

You may not realize it, but a common problem on Spotify is that your playlists get shorter over time as songs are quietly removed from the platform. Luckily, it’s easy to find out which songs are no longer available so you can find them elsewhere. To find out which songs are no longer available on your playlists, go to Settings > Display Options and make sure that Show unavailable songs in playlists is toggled on. Now head back to your playlists and you’ll see any songs that have been removed from the list will appear (they will be grayed out and unplayable). Now that you...

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How to Default Your iPhone Calls to Speaker Mode

Voice calls are probably far from the most important thing you do on your iPhone, but voice calls themselves are still important, especially if you conduct business from home and deal with multiple clients every day. In cases like these, it’s better to use speaker phone because it frees up your hands — for writing notes, finding files on your computer, or multi-tasking simple chores during longer calls. And instead of switching to speaker mode every time you make or receive a call, you can just set your iPhone to use that mode by default.  You just need to tweak...

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Experience What Work Felt Like in Windows 95

People remember some operating systems more fondly than others. Nobody wants to take Windows Vista out for a spin just for the heck of it, but nostalgia for Windows 95 still exists. But was Windows 95 really that great? A new free browser game, titled It Is As If You Were Doing Work, lets you experience what it felt like working in an office using Windows 95. When you start, you’ll find yourself in a rip-off version of Windows 95. To climb up the corporate ladder, do your job by sending emails, setting slider values, and clicking through dialogue boxes....

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Please Stop Spreading the Jayden K. Smith Hoax!

You are not going to get hacked by someone called Jayden K. Smith. That is an absolute fact. Unfortunately, people will believe anything they read on social media these days. And so the legend of Jayden K. Smith, hacker extraordinaire, has taken hold. And it’s your duty to stop it. While there are undoubtedly people called Jayden K. Smith on Facebook, none of them are extraordinary hackers with the power to hack you if you befriend them. And yet a message warning people not to accept a friend request from Jayden K. Smith has somehow gone viral. Jayden K. Smith...

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8 Cool Smartphone-Controlled Toys You Secretly Desire!

Your smartphone has plenty of games to keep you entertained, but that’s not the only way it doubles as a toy. There are some awesome gizmos that you can control with an app, making them better than any toy you had as a kid. Sure, you can build an RC car with an Arduino, but it’s not as fancy as a toy. If you really want to have some fun, treat yourself to one of these gadgets. Because no matter how old you get, don’t forget about the child within you. Sphero BB-8 Droid ($60) Sphero is obviously the first...

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How to Use a Java ArrayList

A Java ArrayList is a general-purpose resizeable array. It provides most of the facilities generally expected of arrays in other languages. These include: accessing elements using an index, adding, removing and updating elements, dynamic re-sizing, iterating over the elements, etc. Most of these operations have been specially tweaked for general purpose usage. There are a few other types of “arrays” (classes that implement the List interface, to be technical) which are intended for special purposes. These include: LinkedList supports fast insertion and removal at intermediate indices. Vector is similar to an ArrayList but is synchronized and is suitable in place...

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You Can Now Buy HDR Movies From Google Play

Google Play is offering HDR movies for the first time. This means selected titles will take advantage of the technology known for making the blackest blacks look blacker and the whitest whites look whiter. Unfortunately, there are a number of hoops you’ll have to jump through first. HDR, or High Dynamic Range, refers to the range between the dark and the light on your TV. Therefore, HDR-compatible television sets offer a sumptuous picture, with a huge contrast between dark and light, and a massive range of rich colors and tones between the two extremes. And now Google Play is supporting...

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