Google’s Chrome browser will soon flag every site that doesn’t use HTTPS encryption. Starting in July, with the launch of Chrome 68, Chrome will mark all HTTP sites as ‘not secure’ and prominently highlight this in its URL bar. Over the course of the last few years, Google has strongly advocated for the use of HTTPS to help keep your browsing data safe from anybody… Read More
Google Chrome is the world’s most popular browser, but just because it gets a lot right doesn’t mean you can’t improve it. If you know how to use Chrome, you likely understand that some of its best options are hidden. Many of these secret options live in the Flags menu. Let’s discuss some of these Chrome flags that you can tweak for a faster, more useful, or more enjoyable experience. What Is the Flags Menu? Chrome has a list of experimental features that you can toggle by entering this address in your search bar: chrome://flags Doing so will grant you...
Read the full article: 10 Cool Chrome Flags You Should Enable
WhatsApp has begun testing a new payments feature in India that will allow people to send money to other WhatsApp users, excluding merchant accounts. The feature is currently in beta, according to sources familiar with the company’s plans, but hasn’t been publicly announced because it’s not widely available at this time. The company has been working on support for a… Read More
The free version of Stitcher gives you access to over 65,000 shows from almost every genre imaginable. However, if you use the app often you may want to consider subscribing to Stitcher Premium. Like the standard version of Stitcher, Stitcher Premium works on several platforms, making it one of the podcasting options for Android and iOS users. You can also listen via a web browser. How Much Does Stitcher Premium Cost? Stitcher Premium costs $4.99/month or $34.99/year. Bear in mind that the Stitcher website refers to both of those as “launch prices.” They’re promotional rates that could eventually go up...
Read the full article: Stitcher Premium: Everything You Need to Know
By combining augmented reality with your customizable captions, Snapchat hopes you’ll share more from birthdays and weddings while earning it a little money. Today Snapchat launches Custom Lenses, expanding its 2016–launched on-demand geofilter program so you can make temporary, geofenced AR effects that people can add to their Snaps at a special event. The Create-Your-Own-Lens… Read More
Here at TechCrunch, we cover company earnings on a pretty regular basis. And we promise it’s for a good reason: The success and failure of these publicly-traded companies tends to give us at least one more data point when it comes to calibrating which technologies are exciting to investors, as well as the trajectory of those technologies. One of our favorite companies to cover,… Read More
By combining augmented reality with your customizable captions, Snapchat hopes you’ll share more from birthdays and weddings while earning it a little money. Today Snapchat launches Custom Lenses, expanding its 2016–launched on-demand geofilter program so you can make temporary, geofenced AR effects that people can add to their Snaps at a special event. Users choose from 150… Read More
If you use Android, it can be tempting to stick with the Chrome browser since you’re using your Google account to log in to your phone anyways. However, in this Chrome versus Firefox comparison, we’re going to look at whether that preference for Chrome is really justified. Is it possible that you could have a better mobile internet experience if you start using the mobile Firefox browser instead? We’re going to explore all aspects of both browsers in this article — including everything from tab handling, privacy, performance and more. By the end of this article you should be able...
Read the full article: Chrome vs. Firefox: The Ultimate Android Browser Showdown
PAX Labs has a new CEO. The company, which makes loose-leaf vaporizers, has brought on Bharat Vasan as Chief Executive Officer. Vasan has spent the last 15 years in consumer hardware, serving as the President and COO of August Home, which was acquired by Swedish lock maker Assa Abloy in 2017. Before August, Vasan was the cofounder of Basis (a fitness-based wearable company), which was acquired… Read More
Want to host a simple website? You’ll probably be happiest with a good cheap web host. While there are tons of free web hosts to pick from, we don’t recommend that path because free web hosting has lots of downsides. But if your website is simple, static, and just for fun, there’s another option: hosting on a free cloud storage service. Not only are cloud storage services more reliable than most free web hosts, there’s almost no learning curve! This article assumes you already have your web pages ready to go, and only covers the actual process of making those...
Read the full article: Get Free Website Hosting With Dropbox, Google Drive, or OneDrive
Adding to what’s already a Very Weird 2018, Twitter now has a bigger market cap than Snapchat maker Snap after posting a thoroughly interesting earnings beat for its fourth quarter this morning. Shares of Twitter rocketed more than 25% this morning following the report, which showed the service is actually able to generate a profit on a GAAP basis. Twitter already wrapped up 2017 with a… Read More
It’s been more than a year since the well-funded startup Cyanogen announced that it would shut down its mobile OS development, and since pivoted to self-driving technology. Yet we’re still seeing some fallout among the companies that had pinned their hopes on the original plans of that shooting star. Wileyfox, a smartphone maker that was one of the earliest companies to build a… Read More
How do you plan your workday? Do you perform important tasks first or just play it by ear? Do you carefully plan each day or just do things between meetings scheduled by others? If you are struggling with time and task management, the act of time blocking might be the solution. And there is no better way to stick to a schedule you set than printing it and popping it on the wall in front of you. These free printable planners are ideal for time blocking which helps you to take care of your tasks efficiently and effectively. The 80/20...
Read the full article: These Time Blocking Free Printable Planners Will Help You Avoid Overwhelm
“The ultimate loot is the friendships that can grow out of a game like this.” It sounds ridiculous and cheesy, but Bungie’s Community Manager is onto something. For many people, games like Destiny are made better by the social relationships they build and maintain through fighting the evil forces planning on invading our solar system. This is where Destiny‘s clans come in. The first game in the series allowed for Bungie.net groups, but clans are even better in the sequel. If you’re not part of a clan, you’re missing out on a cool part of the game. We’ll take a...
Read the full article: How Destiny Clans Make the Game Even Better
Microsoft Outlook can be turned into a simple but powerful task and project manager, making it useful even if you don’t need it for emails. But how? After all, Outlook always greets you with a “Welcome to Outlook” screen and asks for your email address. You can start Outlook without an email address. This allows you to use the software for its calendar and tasks, or just for contacts management. How to Use Outlook Without an Email Account It’s a simple one-step process. Click the Windows button and in the Search box type and hit Enter: outlook.exe /pim <your profile name> Note the space between...
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Music streaming services aren’t perfect, and Spotify is no exception. Any long-time Spotify user knows the company is famous for stripping popular features out of its app. But that isn’t even the elephant in the room. The biggest problem is offline listening. How do you access your songs when you don’t have an internet connection? Thankfully, Spotify provides a way to download songs onto your device so you can play them at any time, anywhere. How to Download Spotify Songs to Play Offline If you want to download songs from Spotify onto your mobile device, just follow the simple step-by-step...
Read the full article: How to Download Spotify Songs to Play Offline
Google Assistant is Android’s voice companion, and it’s arguably the best around. It lets you change settings on your phone, look up information, and send messages—all with just your voice. And with Google Assistant available to more phones than ever, it’s wise to maximize your efficiency with it. As you probably know, Assistant can play all sorts of music for you. But if you don’t connect the accounts you want to use, this ability is severely limited. Here’s how to connect your preferred music service and set it as the default. How to Change the Default Music Player for Google Assistant Press...
Read the full article: How to Change the Default Music Player for Google Assistant
Microsoft Word comes with built-in spell checker and grammar checker. It also offers robust support for dictionaries. Given we now produce so much content in a digital format, the tools are useful. You’re much more likely to make spelling errors when using a keyboard rather than a pen. The tools work automatically most of the time, but there are many ways to customize them. For example, you can use AutoCorrect to speed up your typing. And the dictionary menus are packed with clever features and hidden options. In this article, we’re going to explain how to use the spelling and...
Read the full article: How to Spell and Grammar Check in Microsoft Word
Netflix may have won Super Bowl LII thanks to The Cloverfield Principle, but Amazon wasn’t far behind. Amazon’s Super Bowl ad showed what would happen were Alexa to lose her voice, with celebrities standing in for her. And one of those celebrities was Gordon Ramsay. Ramsay is a world-renowned chef most famous for shouting and swearing at people on Kitchen Nightmares and Hell’s Kitchen. There’s really no need for him to be so nasty, but it has earned him a fortune. And now you too can have your cooking criticized by the Scottish chef. Beware the Beef Bourguignon This is...
Read the full article: This Alexa Skill Lets Gordon Ramsay Criticize Your Cooking
Bug bounty programs are designed to sic security researchers on software and pay them to find vulnerabilities and report back to the sponsor. In return, the researchers are richly rewarded for their findings. In fact, Google’s bug bounty paid out a hefty $2.9 million in bug bounties in 2017. Rewards can range from $500 to $100,000 or more depending on the type of bug and the amount of… Read More
Want to let friends know you’re trying to party, hit the gym, focus on work, or grab a drink? That’s the idea behind a powerful new feature Facebook Messenger is testing called Your Emoji. Akin to offline meetup app Down To Lunch, it lets you overlay a chosen emoji on your Messenger profile pic for 24 hours as a way to spur conversation and hang outs, or just let people know… Read More
Want to let friends know you’re trying to party, hit the gym, focus on work, or grab a drink? That’s the idea behind a powerful new feature Facebook Messenger is testing called Your Emoji. Akin to offline meetup app Down To Lunch, it lets you overlay a chosen emoji on your Messenger profile pic for 24 hours as a way to spur conversation and hang outs, or just let people know… Read More
Tesla CEO Elon Musk managed to send his Tesla Roadster into space, because why not, earlier this week — and it looks like his week (and Tesla’s) is still looking up for now following the company’s fourth-quarter results. The company slightly beat Wall Street’s expectations on the financial front, and said it’s still targeting producing 2,500 Model 3 vehicles by… Read More
