How to Access Region Blocked Videos Without a VPN

Wherever you are in the world there is always a reason to want to bypass region blocking. For example, internet users outside the US might want to access Netflix or Hulu; those in the US might want the UK version of BBC iPlayer.

To combat this, VPNs are popular—but they’re not the best solution. Here’s how to watch geo-blocked videos without VPN software.

Why VPNs Aren’t Great for Bypassing Region Blocks

When you connect to a VPN (Virtual Private Network) your internet traffic is forwarded through the VPN server. So, if you’re in the UK and you connect to a VPN in the United States, websites will see you as browsing from the United States. The VPN server acts like a middleman.

This allows you to use VPNs to access US streaming services, such as:

• Netflix US
• Hulu
• Pandora

…and many other region-restricted media websites.

While VPNs have many other uses, they’re less than ideal for bypassing region locks.

• While VPNs are faster than ever, they’re slower than connecting directly to a website. You don’t connect directly to Netflix—the data is sent through the VPN server. This slows things down.
• While connected to a VPN, all your network traffic will be sent through the VPN. This slows other internet traffic on your device.
• You’ll want to leave the VPN disconnected because it slows down your connection. When you want to watch a video, you’ll have to connect to the VPN. When you’re done, you’ll want to disconnect.
• Most importantly, Netflix is winning the war against VPNs. It’s time to find a new way to access all the Netflix content you can handle, without relying on a VPN.

Why a Standard DNS Can’t Help

Until relatively recently, you could switch your router’s DNS server to access streamed video without relying on a VPN. While the effect was the same for streaming—you appear to be viewing from elsewhere—there was no encryption.

However, as with VPNs, Netflix and other streaming giants got wise to this tactic. As such, standard DNS providers are no longer suitable.

Fortunately, several new methods are available for you to bypass region blocking.

1. Use browser extensions
2. Employ a specialist DNS
3. Use a third-party downloader
4. Employ VPN-provided DNS

Here’s what you need to know about how to watch region locked videos without DNS or a VPN.

1. Use a Proxy Browser Extension

If you want to access region-restricted websites quickly and easily, a proxy server is a good option.

Proxies can be accessed via a website, but it’s easier to simply use a browser extension.

To access Netflix, consider Weechee, a browser extension for Google Chrome. This is designed to unblock Netflix, Hulu, and BBC iPlayer, wherever in the world you’re based.

Download: Wachee for Google Chrome (Free)

Proxies are a great option for US residents trying to access BBC iPlayer in the UK. See our guide to watching BBC iPlayer with a proxy for more details.

Encountered blocked videos on YouTube? Use this block-checking tool to find out which countries the video is available in, then set your proxy extension accordingly.

Relying on a proxy browser extension is smarter than simply visiting a standard proxy site.

2. Unblock-Us

Want to know how to watch geo blocked videos? Changing your device’s DNS can help. While this isn’t the number one solution and has been largely defeated by streaming services, it remains an option.

You’ll need something a little extraordinary for this to work, which is where Unblock-Us comes in. An all-in-one solution with a $4.99 monthly subscription, Unblock-Us offers a seven-day free trial. It aims to give you enhanced internet security, better speed, and the freedom to avoid region blocking.

Should you rely on this enhanced DNS solution? It’s certainly an option; the free trial is worth it to find out if it works for you. Unblock-Us features detailed setup instructions and works computers, consoles, mobile devices, TVs, and TV streaming boxes.

Check our guide to changing DNS settings to learn more about what is required.

3. Download Blocked YouTube Videos

Region-locked content can be frustrating. If a proxy browser extension won’t work and a specialist DNS service is drawing a blank, consider downloading the video. While this probably won’t work with Netflix, it’s a good solution for YouTube.

To bypass region locks on YouTube videos, a downloader can help. One example is ssyoutube.com. To use this:

1. Copy the URL of the region locked YouTube video
2. Paste it into your browser’s address bar
3. Click or tap so the insertion point is between the “www.” and “youtube”
4. Add “ss” to the URL (e.g. “http://www.ssyoutube.com”)
5. Hit Enter on your keyboard, or tap OK on your device

The video will then be downloaded to your device via the ssyoutube.com site, bypassing region blocking.

Note that downloading YouTube videos is a breach of the platform’s terms of use.

4. Use Smart DNS for Region Blocked Video Streams

While using a VPN to access region blocked streaming services isn’t the fastest option, some VPN services have provided an alternative. Smart DNS can be considered a sort of “VPN lite” solution, which allows access to region blocked content (such as all the Netflix you can watch) without the encryption and IP masking a VPN delivers.

How can you use smart DNS? One option is to find a specialist provider such as www.smartdnsproxy.com. However, if you’re already using a VPN you might have smart DNS access without knowing it.

For example, ExpressVPN (MakeUseOf readers can get 40% off our top-rated VPN) offers the MediaStreamer DNS service as part of the VPN subscription. This is a great way to view region blocked videos from all streaming services. Like other smart DNS solutions, it can be used on almost any platform, including games consoles and smart TVs.

Note that other VPN providers offer smart DNS.

Bypass Region Locks and Access All Netflix Content

Accessing blocked content isn’t as simple as it was. You can’t just visit a proxy and view all your favorite Netflix content anymore.

Solutions like UnoDNS, Tunlr, and MediaHint have fallen by the wayside. These days, you need smarter solutions to region blocking, tools that will give you reliable access to Netflix and other region blocking streaming services.

Trying to access restricted content at work or school? Use these methods to bypass blocked sites.

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11 Basic Encryption Terms Everyone Should Know by Now

Chances are that you’re familiar with the word encryption. You’ve probably heard about how important it is, as well as how vital it is for keeping so much of our hyper-networked lives secure.

Use WhatsApp? You’re using encryption. Log into online banking? Same again. Have to ask the barista for a Wi-Fi code? That’s because you’re connecting to a network using encryption—the password is the key.

But even though we use encryption in our day-to-day lives, most encryption terminology remains mysterious. Here’s a list of 11 essential encryption terms you need to understand.

1. Plaintext

Let’s start with the most basic encryption term, which is simple but just as important as the others: plaintext is an unencrypted, readable, plain message that anyone can read.

2. Ciphertext

Ciphertext is the result of the encryption process. The encrypted plaintext appears as apparently random strings of characters, rendering them useless. A cipher is another way of referring to the encryption algorithm that transforms the plaintext, hence the term ciphertext.

3. Encryption

Encryption is the process of applying a mathematical function to a file that renders its contents unreadable and inaccessible—unless you have the decryption key.

For instance, let’s say you have a Microsoft Word document. You apply a password using Microsoft Office’s inbuilt encryption function. The file is now unreadable and inaccessible to anyone without the password. You can even encrypt your entire hard drive for security.

4. Decryption

If encryption locks the file, then decryption reverses the process, turning ciphertext back to plaintext. Decryption requires two elements: the correct password and the corresponding decryption algorithm.

5. Keys

The encryption process requires a cryptographic key that tells the algorithm how to transform the plaintext into ciphertext. Kerckhoffs’s principle states that “only secrecy of the key provides security,” while Shannon’s maxim continues “the enemy knows the system.”

These two statements influence the role of encryption, and keys within that.

Keeping the details of an entire encryption algorithm secret is extremely difficult; keeping a much smaller key secret is easier. The key locks and unlocks the algorithm, allowing the encryption or decryption process to function.

Is a Key a Password?

No. Well, at least not entirely. Key creation is a result of using an algorithm, whereas a password is usually a user choice. The confusion arises as we rarely specifically interact with a cryptographic key, whereas passwords are part of daily life.

Passwords are at times part of the key creation process. A user enters their super-strong password using all manner of characters and symbols, and the algorithm generates a key using their input.

6. Hash

When a website encrypts your password, it uses an encryption algorithm to convert your plaintext password to a hash. A hash is different from encryption in that once the data is hashed, it cannot be unhashed. Or rather, it is extremely difficult.

Hashing is really useful when you need to verify something’s authenticity, but not have it read back. In this, password hashing offers some protection against brute-force attacks (where the attacker tries every possible password combination).

You might have even heard of some of the common hashing algorithms, such as MD5, SHA, SHA-1, and SHA-2. Some are stronger than others, while some, such as MD5, are outright vulnerable. For instance, if you head to the site MD5 Online, you’ll note they have 123,255,542,234 words in their MD5 hash database. Go ahead, give it a try.

• Select MD5 Encrypt from the top menu.
• Type your password, hit Encrypt, and view the MD5 hash.
• Select the hash, press Ctrl + C to copy the hash, and select MD5 Decrypt from the top menu.
• Select the box and press Ctrl + V to paste the hash.
• Complete the CAPTCHA, and press Decrypt.

As you see, a hashed password doesn’t automatically mean it is secure (depending on the password you chose, of course). But there are additional encryption functions that boost security.

7. Salt

When passwords are part of key creation, the encryption process requires additional security steps. One of those steps is salting the passwords. At a basic level, a salt adds random data to a one-way hash function. Let’s examine what that means using an example.

There are two users with the exact same password: hunter2.

We run hunter2 through an SHA256 hash generator and receive f52fbd32b2b3b86ff88ef6c490628285f482af15ddcb29541f94bcf526a3f6c7.

Someone hacks the password database and they check this hash; each account with the corresponding hash is immediately vulnerable.

This time, we use an individual salt, adding a random data value to each user password:

• Salt example #1: hunter2 + sausage: 3436d420e833d662c480ff64fce63c7d27ddabfb1b6a423f2ea45caa169fb157
• Salt example #2: hunter2 + bacon: 728963c70b8a570e2501fa618c975509215bd0ff5cddaf405abf06234b20602c

Quickly compare the hashes for the same passwords with and without the (extremely basic) salt:

• Without salt: f52fbd32b2b3b86ff88ef6c490628285f482af15ddcb29541f94bcf526a3f6c7
• Salt example #1: 3436d420e833d662c480ff64fce63c7d27ddabfb1b6a423f2ea45caa169fb157
• Salt example #2: 728963c70b8a570e2501fa618c975509215bd0ff5cddaf405abf06234b20602c

You see that the addition of the salt sufficiently randomizes the hash value that your password remains (almost) completely safe during a breach. And better yet, the password still links to your username so there is no database confusion when you sign into the site or service.

8. Symmetric and Asymmetric Algorithms

In modern computing, there are two primary encryption algorithm types: symmetric and asymmetric. They both encrypt data, but function in a slightly different manner.

• Symmetric algorithm: Uses the same key for both encryption and decryption. Both parties must agree on the algorithm key before commencing communication.
• Asymmetric algorithm: Uses two different keys: a public key and a private key. This enables secure encryption while communicating without previously establishing a mutual algorithm. This is also known as public key cryptology (see the following section).

The overwhelming majority of online services we use in our daily lives implement some form of public-key cryptology.

9. Public and Private Keys

Now we understand more about the function of keys in the encryption process, we can look at public and private keys.

An asymmetric algorithm uses two keys: a public key and a private key. The public key can be sent to other people, while the private key is only known by the owner. What’s the purpose of this?

Well, anyone with the intended recipient’s public key can encrypt a private message for them, while the recipient can only read the contents of that message provided they have access to the paired private key. Check out the below image for more clarity.

Public and private keys also play an essential role in digital signatures, whereby a sender can sign their message with their private encryption key. Those with the public key can then verify the message, safe in the knowledge that the original message came from the sender’s private key.

A key pair is the mathematically linked public and private key generated by an encryption algorithm.

10. HTTPS

HTTPS (HTTP Secure) is a now widely implemented security upgrade for the HTTP application protocol that is a foundation of the internet as we know it. When using a HTTPS connection, your data is encrypted using Transport Layer Security (TLS), protecting your data while in transit.

HTTPS generates long-term private and public keys that in turn are used to create a short-term session key. The session key is a single-use symmetric key that the connection destroys once you leave the HTTPS site (closing the connection and ending its encryption). However, when you revisit the site, you will receive another single-use session key to secure your communication.

A site must completely adhere to HTTPS to offer users complete security. Since 2018 the majority of sites online began offering HTTPS connections over standard HTTP.

11. End-to-End Encryption

One of the biggest encryption buzzwords is that of end-to-end encryption. Social messaging platform service WhatsApp began offering its users end-to-end encryption (E2EE) in 2016, making sure their messages are private at all times.

In the context of a messaging service, EE2E means that once you hit the send button, the encryption remains in place until the recipient receives the messages. What is happening here? Well, this means that the private key used for encoding and decoding your messages never leaves your device, in turn ensuring that no one but you can send messages using your moniker.

WhatsApp isn’t the first, or even the only messaging service to offer end to end encryption. It did, however, move the idea of mobile message encryption further into the mainstream—much to the ire of myriad government agencies around the world.

Encryption Until the End

Unfortunately, there are many governments and other organizations that really dislike encryption. They hate it for the very same reasons we think it is fantastic—it keeps your communication private and, in no small part, helps the internet function.

Without it, the internet would become an extremely dangerous place. You certainly wouldn’t complete your online banking, purchase new slippers from Amazon, or tell your doctor what’s wrong with you.

On the surface, encryption and encryption terminology seems daunting. I won’t lie; the mathematical underpinnings of encryption are at times complicated. But you can still appreciate encryption without the numbers, and that alone is really useful.

If you want to start encrypting your digital world, check the easiest ways to encrypt your daily life with minimal effort.

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How to Watch Free Live TV on Android TV

The number of quality programs on cable TV has declined dramatically in recent years. Which is one of the reasons why cord-cutting has become so popular. However, even if you hate modern TV and you’re an experienced cord cutter, there will still be times when you want to indulge in a spot of mindless channel hopping.

If you have bought an Android TV device as part of your cord-cutting strategy, you’re in luck. It’s possible to enjoy free live TV on Android TV, completely legally, and without having to pay a hefty monthly fee to access live programming through streaming services like Hulu.

So, if you want to know how to watch free live TV on Android TV, keep reading. Here are some of the best free live TV apps for Android TV…

1. Pluto TV

Pluto TV provides more than 100 TV channels across several categories. News, sports, movies, viral videos, and cartoons are all well-represented. It even offers some channels dedicated to single shows.

The company itself has been around since 2013. In that time, it’s built up more than 70 content partners, including cable TV staples like CNBC, MSNBC, and Sky News, as well as web-only channels like CNET, The Surf Network, Classic Movies, and IGN. The app does not offer any on-demand content.

In addition to Android TV, the app is also available on Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, and some smart TVs. If you install it on the mobile version of Android, it is Chromecast-compatible.

Download: Pluto TV (Free)

2. Bloomberg TV

If you’re interested in the world of finance and global markets, you’ll already know about Bloomberg. Along with CNBC and FOX Business News, it’s one of the go-to business-focused channels in the United States and beyond.

However, unlike CNBC and FOX Business, Bloomberg’s output is free to watch through the company’s app. You will have access to the network’s live streams, as well as a wide selection of on-demand shows from the last couple of days.

Download: Bloomberg TV (Free)

3. SPB TV World

SPB TV World is similar to Pluto TV in that it offers a wide selection of legal channels rather than just being a one-channel app.

Formerly called MobiWorld Media, SPB TV World is headquartered in Zurich but has offices in Russia, the United States, Brazil, Switzerland, Singapore, and Thailand.

At the time of writing, it boasts more than 100 channels. This includes international channels (both premium and free-to-air) and some exclusive channels. Some of the most well-known channels that are available include France 24, Fashion TV, Deutsche Welle, and Russia Today. All of the channels are available in high-definition.

Download: SPB TV World (Free)

4. NBC

The NBC app offers a mix of live TV and on-demand videos. In order to access the live TV feature, you need to have a TV service provider that includes NBC in your package

NBC’s on-demand content is impressively expansive, making it one of the better Android TV apps around. You can watch the latest episodes of the network’s shows 24 hours after they air on regular TV, but can also view many TV classics such as Miami Vice, Battlestar Galactica, and Knight Rider.

Furthermore, unlike the other apps we’ve covered so far, NBC offers support for closed-caption subtitles. As such, it’s probably the best free cable TV app for Android for people who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Download: NBC (Free)

5. Plex

Plex is a well-known home theater app. It lets you stream content around your home, manage your media libraries, and watch content remotely.

In mid-2017, the developers introduced the live TV feature. This lets you watch local TV channels without cable in your area for free.

If you live in the United States, that means you’ll be able to enjoy all the major US networks, including ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, and The CW. Plex Live TV also includes a DVR; you can pre-program recordings in advance and all the content you record will be integrated with your existing Plex libraries.

The feature is only available to Plex Pass subscribers and you’ll need to purchase a digital tuner and an antenna. We recommend the Mohu Leaf and HDHomeRun.

In mid-2020, Plex further expanded the feature. Today, more than 80 live TV channels are available over the web; you won’t need an aerial to tune in. Some of the most noteworthy free channels are the Fubo Sports Network, Yahoo Finance, and Reuters.

Download: Plex (Free)

6. TVPlayer

If you live in the UK, you can use TVPlayer to watch 25 British channels for free. The available networks include BBC1, BBC2, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, CBBC, and BBC News. You’ll also get free access to less popular networks like TLC, Discovery, History, and Crime & Investigation.

For £7/month, you can watch premium channels such as Comedy Central, MTV, and HGTV.

People who live outside the UK can use a VPN to access the service. We recommend ExpressVPN or CyberGhost.

Download: TVPlayer (Free)

7. BBC iPlayer

Another perennial favorite of cord-cutters, the BBC iPlayer app provides live access to all of the BBC’s TV channels, as well as a vast catalog of on-demand shows, classic BBC shows, and straight-to-TV movies. Like TVPlayer, you’ll need to use a VPN to watch BBC iPlayer if you live outside the UK.

If you cannot find the content you’re looking for on iPlayer, check out Netflix instead. It carries some of the best BBC documentaries and plenty of other BBC shows for Americans to enjoy.

Download: BBC iPlayer (Free)

8. Tivimate

Instead of using proprietary services to get live TV for free, you could use an M3U playlist. The playlists are comprised of links to free-to-air channels from around the world, and you can watch them all in a single app.

Many IPTV players are available, but the current market leader is Tivimate. The interface looks exactly like a cable TV interface, you can import an electronic program guide (EPG), set programs to record, and organize your favorite channels into custom lists.

The app itself does not come with any M3U playlists; it is an empty shell. You will need to find the content for yourself.

Download: Tivimate (Free)

Other Android TV Apps You Need to Install

These apps will help you watch free live TV on Android TV. Remember, if you live outside of an app’s region, a high-quality paid VPN could be your new best friend.

To learn more about other Android TV apps worth downloading, here are the essential Android TV apps you should install.

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How to Control Your Mac’s Fan Speed

Fans inside your Mac provide a necessary airflow to cool critical components. They’re important because overheating can lead to physical damage. By default, the fans automatically start when the system gets hot and stop once it cools down. There’s no way to configure them out of the box.

But sometimes, you might hear the fan too often, or maybe you don’t notice the fan running even when your Mac feels hot. We’ll explain how your Mac’s fan works and show how you can monitor and control its speed with third-party utilities.

Factors Affecting a Mac’s Fans

In day-to-day usage, an app might need some extra processing power to complete its task. In such cases, your fans will run heavily and make noise. But when your system isn’t experiencing heavy usage and the fan is still constantly running, that’s a red flag.

Here are some factors that might affect your Mac’s fans:

• A faulty temperature sensor, or an erroneous System Management Controller (SMC) setting, could cause your Mac to run the fan all the time. Reset your SMC to fix the problem.
• Dust can accumulate on the vents, fan, and on the surface of any parts. When dust blocks the airflow, the fan has to work harder to dissipate the heat.
• An intensive processing task or a bug in an app may cause your fans to run at full throttle, which leads to overheating. You can use some tips and tricks to stop your Mac from overheating if this happens.
• Ambient temperature also plays a role in the fans’ responsiveness. In summer, the fans might turn on sooner and run faster.

Why Use an App to Monitor and Control Fan Speed?

Like most computer manufacturers, Apple does not let you directly control the fan’s workings. A third-party utility for this purpose can be useful in many situations:

1. It enables you to see what different sensors are showing, analyze temperature patterns, and review your fan’s speed.
2. When you replace a component, the log data of fan speed can help you check the integrity of low-level components and temperature sensors.
3. If you use your Mac in a noise-sensitive environment, controlling the fan speed can reduce the noise for a brief period.
4. While there’s no ideal speed range of the fan in any Mac model, seeing consistent readings during normal system usage can be assuring.
5. You can monitor the fan speed to see if your Mac maintains a normal operating temperature of 10-35 degrees Celsius.
6. In case there’s a problem in the hardware, the data from your fan can help build a case for an AppleCare repair.

Some Caveats Before You Start Controlling Fans

When your Mac gets hot, it starts throttling your CPU until the temperature gets under control. Your Mac might run slower, but there’s nothing to worry about. You can artificially increase the fan speed to further reduce the CPU’s heat, but this will also increase fan noise.

If you hate fan noise, you can manually decrease the fan speed. When you do so, your Mac might run hotter, which could lead to system instability. With either option, you should continuously monitor the temperature of components to ensure you don’t cause any irreversible damage.

Apps to Control Your Mac’s Fans

Many third-party utilities in the App Store lets you monitor components, check the hard drive temperature using SMART technology, and review overall system health. We’ll cover only those apps that have specific features to monitor and control the fan speed.

Macs Fan Control

Macs Fan Control is a utility that lets you monitor fan speed and temperature sensors. Right upon launch, you can monitor fan speed. Though a helper utility is necessary for controlling the fan speed, the interface is intuitive and easy to navigate.

The left pane shows the fans and their speed in RPM (revolutions per minute). Meanwhile, the right pane shows the temperature of each thermal sensor. To take control of a fan, click the Custom button next to the fan and select how you want to control it.

The Constant RPM option lets you manually set the RPM value. With this, the fan will spin at the desired speed regardless of temperature and sensor values. In the Sensor-based value option, you get to select a sensor and define the temperature at which the fan speed will increase.

If you notice high CPU temperature (over 80 or 90 degrees Celsius), and the fans aren’t running right, you might have a hardware issue. The basic features of the app are free, but the Pro version lets you set custom fan presets.

Download: Macs Fan Control (Free, $14.95 for Pro version)

TG Pro

TG Pro is another utility that lets you quickly view CPU, GPU, and hard drive temperature, as well as checking battery health and other hardware parameters. You can also keep track of and control the fan speed, run diagnostics, and generate a complete report for the fans.

The left pane shows a hardware list and its corresponding sensors on the right. For each sensor, you’ll see the current temperature and a bar showing temperature anywhere between 0—105 degrees Celsius. The bar changes its color from green to orange to red, depending on the temperature at that particular state.

The Fans area displays the fan speed. From here, you can quickly change the fan control mode with various rules to decide its speed in any conditions. Just like the temperature bar, the color changes with fan speed. If you consistently notice high fan speed, that’s a red flag.

At the bottom is the diagnostics area where you can get valuable data on the last shutdown, health of your fans, and battery health. If there’s an issue, a help button will guide you towards more information on fixing the fan.

Download: TG Pro ($20, free trial available)

Warning Signs That Your Mac Has a Problem

Your Mac’s firmware is capable of controlling fans in response to temperature changes. The apps mentioned here give you more help in analyzing the temperature patterns of your system. Aside from this diagnostic benefit, taking charge of the fans yourself should be the last resort. Only do so if you’re confident and nothing else has worked.

Apart from the fans, other Mac components can start showing warning signs before they run into a major issue. Find out other warning signs your Mac has a problem to spot these issues before they get worse.

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How to Export Emails From Outlook

If you’re resetting your computer, changing your email app, or just playing around with something that could affect your emails, you may want to make a backup of your Microsoft Outlook emails through exporting them.

Outlook allows you to export your messages in various formats. We’ll show you which one to use, depending on how you plan to use the exported emails (including working with them outside of Outlook).

How to Export Emails From Outlook on Windows

If you use Outlook on a Windows computer, you can export your emails to PST format. This format includes not only your emails, but your contacts and calendar as well. You can then use this PST file on another computer to import all your emails into Outlook.

Some of the scenarios where you’d want to use this export method include when you’re moving from one PC to another, switching from Windows to Mac, moving emails from one account to another, or just making a regular backup of your emails.

You can do this from within Outlook; the following steps will walk you through the procedure:

1. Launch Outlook on your PC, click on the File tab, and select Info from the left sidebar.
2. In the main menu, select the Account Settings option, followed by Account Settings again. This will open the settings menu for Outlook.
3. Select the Data Files tab to view your email accounts.
4. Click on the email account that you want to export emails from and select Open File Location at the top.
5. A File Explorer window will open with a PST file highlighted. This is the file that contains all your emails—you can copy it to wherever you want.

What you do with this is up to your needs. You can copy the file to cloud storage for a safe backup, move it to another computer if you will use Outlook there, or copy it to an external drive for archiving.

How to Export Emails From Outlook on a Mac

Outlook works differently on macOS than it does on Windows. On a Mac, you can export your Outlook emails to an OLM file. Like the PST format on Windows, this format also saves all your emails, contacts, and calendar entries.

The only difference here is the actual file format; Outlook uses the preferred one for your operating system. Here’s how to save your Outlook emails to an OLM file on your Mac:

1. Launch Outlook on your Mac and click on the Tools tab at the top. Make sure you click on the tab inside Outlook and not the Tools menu, which is found on your Mac’s top menu bar.
2. Click on Export in the Tools tab to export your Outlook emails.
3. Unlike Windows, Outlook for Mac will ask what items you’d like to export from the app. Select the items that you’d like to include in your backup and click on Continue.
4. Outlook will ask you to select a location for saving the exported email file. Choose a convenient location on your Mac and hit Save.
5. Wait while Outlook exports all your emails to your selected folder.

The OLM file will now be available in your chosen folder. You can move it whenever you want.

How to Export Emails From Outlook to Another Email Account

If you’re not saving them as a backup, you may wish to export your Outlook emails to import them into another email account such as Gmail or Yahoo. As it turns out, Outlook allows you to move your emails between your accounts, as long as they’re all available in the app.

If you’ve added your destination email account to Outlook, you can easily and quickly move all your current Outlook emails to your chosen email account within the app.

Here’s how to perform this account-to-account email transfer process:

1. Add your secondary email account to Outlook if you haven’t already done so. We’ve shown how to add Gmail to Outlook if you need help.
2. Open Outlook and access the account that you want to export emails from.
3. Open your inbox and select all emails inside by pressing Ctrl + A on your keyboard.
4. Right-click on any email, then choose Move, followed by Other Folder.
5. You’ll see a dialog box that you can use to move your emails. Select your destination email account here (such as your Gmail account), choose the folder inside that account where you want to save the emails, and click OK.
6. Your emails will start moving to your chosen folder in your destination email account.

How to Export Emails From Outlook to Excel

If you’re looking to analyze, sort, or perform any bulk tasks on your messages, you might prefer to have them in an Excel spreadsheet. Luckily, Outlook has an option that allows you to export your emails right to an Excel file.

This file will look like any other spreadsheet, with all your emails neatly organized in various columns. This makes analyzing your messages much easier than going through them in Outlook or another mail program.

You can do this with the following steps:

1. Open Outlook, click on the File tab, and select Open & Export from the left sidebar.
2. Click on the Import/Export option in the main panel.
3. Outlook will ask how you’d like to export your data. Select the option that says Export to a file, as you want to export the data to an Excel file.
4. On the following screen, click on the first option that says Comma Separated Values. It will create a CSV file that is fully compatible with Excel.
5. Next, the wizard asks you to select a folder to export data from. Choose your main email folder and click on Next.
6. Click on Browse and choose a destination folder for your exported email file.
7. Select Next followed by Finish to export your emails to an Excel file.

How to Export Individual Emails From Outlook

If you’re only looking to export a handful of emails, it’s convenient to do so using a drag and drop method.

To do that, open Outlook, select the emails you want to export, and drag and drop them onto a folder in File Explorer. For each one, Outlook will create an MSG file containing the message.

Many Ways to Get Your Emails Out of Outlook

Whether you’re moving to a new email app or just want a backup copy of your emails, exporting messages from Outlook is easy to do, as shown above.

If you’re looking to move to another email app, have a look at the best free alternatives to Microsoft Outlook for some other desktop mail options.

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JumpStory’s Lifetime Membership Offers Over 25 Million Visuals

If you’ve worked as a marketer or author of some content form, you’ve likely had times when finding the right image wasn’t easy. You can’t just pick any image from the internet and use it, as you may not have the right to do so.

Pro users, however, know where to look for the images they want. There are certain websites and services that offer you thousands of images to use on your website or blog. These sites often update their image libraries with new content so you always get something new. JumpStory is one of these services where you can get access to millions of visuals.

What Is JumpStory?

JumpStory Authentic Stock Photography is a service that offers unlimited access to over 25 million visuals that you can use on your sites. No matter the type of website you run, you’ll find dozens of appropriate images with this service. This will surely make your content stand out from the crowd.

Not only do you get access to static images, but there’s also a pool of over 500,000 professional videos. That helps enhance your video content.

MakeUseOf Deals is running a promotion for this service: you can subscribe for life at just $99.99. The regular price for this service stands at $2,340, meaning this deal discounts it by 95 percent.

What Do You Get With JumpStory’s Authentic Stock Photography?

With JumpStory, you’ll get more than you can ever consume. With over 20 million professional photos, you’ll never be short of any media content for your written copy or blog posts. You’ll always have a unique image to use in your articles and other content.

There are over 500,000 illustrations and 100,000 vectors, which is likely much more than you’d ever need for your projects. It includes 50,000 icons as well.

With an offering as large as this, it sometimes becomes difficult to drill down to the actual content that you need. That’s where the service’s AI tools come into the picture.

It offers a search helper to find you exactly the images you need. Then it tells how an image will perform using various AI algorithms. Those predictions help you decide what image you should use in your content to have more people see it.

When you like something on the site, you can add it to your favorites list. This gives you quick access to your marked content later when you come back to the service.

JumpStory also includes an image editor so you can refine your images before downloading them to your device. You can quickly and easily remove backgrounds from your images with the AI tools, crop your images, add text to your images, and perform other basic editing.

Get 25+ Million Visuals for Life

Head over to the JumpStory Authentic Stock Photography page at MakeUseOf Deals to take advantage of this offer. The subscription lasts forever, giving you access to both the existing visuals on the site as well as any freshly added content. It’s a fantastic resource for all your multimedia needs.

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Decrypted: The block clock tick-tocks on TikTok

In less than three months and notwithstanding intervention, TikTok will be effectively banned in the U.S. unless an American company steps in to save it, after the Trump administration declared by executive order this week that the Chinese-built video sharing app is a threat to national security.

How much of a threat TikTok poses exactly remains to be seen. U.S. officials are convinced that the app could be compelled by Beijing to vacuum up reams of Westerners’ data for intelligence. Or is the app, beloved by millions of young American voters, simply a pawn in the Trump administration’s long political standoff with China?

Really, the answer is a bit of both — even if on paper TikTok is no worse than the homegrown threat to privacy posed by the Big Tech behemoths: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Google. But the foreign threat from Beijing alone was enough that the Trump administration needed to crack down on the app — and the videos frequently critical of the administration’s actions.

For its part, TikTok says it will fight back against the Trump administration’s action.

This week’s Decrypted looks at TikTok amid its looming ban. We’ll look at why the ban is unlikely, even if privacy and security issues persist.

---

THE BIG PICTURE

Internet watchdog says a TikTok ban is a ‘seed of genuine security concern wrapped in a thick layer of censorship’

The verdict from the Electronic Frontier Foundation is clear: The U.S. can’t ban TikTok without violating the First Amendment. Banning the app would be a huge abridgment of freedom of speech, whether it’s forbidding the app stores from serving it or blocking it at the network level.

But there are still legitimate security and privacy concerns. The big issue for U.S. authorities is that the app’s parent company, ByteDance, has staff in China and is subject to Beijing’s rules.

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Take-Two Interactive acquires Two Dots game developer for $192M

Playdots — developer of the mobile games Dots, Two Dots and Dots & Co. — has reached an agreement to be acquired by publisher Take-Two Interactive.

Take-Two will pay $192 million for the deal, $90 million in cash and the remaining $102 million in stock.

Playdots was founded in 2014 by Paul Murphy and Patrick Moberg, spinning out of startup studio betaworks with $10 million in funding led by Tencent and Greycroft  It’s currently led by CEO Nir Efrat, a former King.com executive who joined Playdots in 2018.

In the acquisition announcement, Take-Two (best known for publishing major franchises like BioShock and NBA 2K, plus — through its Rockstar Games subsidiary — Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption) says that Erfat will continue to lead Playdots’ 70-person team.

Apparently the various Dots games have been downloaded more than 100 million times, with more than 80 million of those downloads coming from the most popular title, Two Dots.

In a statement, Michael Worosz, Take-Two’s executive vice president and head of strategy and independent publishing, said:

Our acquisition of Playdots will diversify and strengthen further Take-Two’s mobile game offerings, particularly within the casual, free-to-play segment. Two Dots continues to grow its audience and under the leadership of Nir, the addition of scavenger hunts, social leader boards and live-ops technology are enhancing the game and driving meaningful, long-term consumer engagement. We are very pleased to welcome Nir and the entire team at Playdots to the Take-Two family and are excited by the potential of their development pipeline and positive, long-term contributions to our business.

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Measure Core Web Vitals of your Websites with Google Sheets

Google’s web.dev virtual conference happened last month and if there’s one key takeaway from the event, it is the “core web vitals” initiative. Website owners can no longer afford to ignore core vitals as these are now a ranking signal in Google Search.

Google has long been stressing on the need to build faster web pages but with core vitals, they provide a set of actionable metrics - Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) - that should be measured by website owners across mobile and desktop computers.

The session on speed tooling by Elizabeth Sweeny of the Chrome team offers a good overview of what Core Web Vitals are and she also discusses the various tools that are available for webmasters and developers to measure web vitals for their pages.

Measure Core Vitals with Google Sheets

While there are quite a few tools available to help you measure core web vitals for a website - from Chrome extensions to web apps - they have to be triggered manually and can only measure core vitals for a single website / webpage at a time.

If you are looking to automatically measure core web vitals for multiple websites, maybe that of your competitor’s websites as well, here’s a Google Sheet that can help. The spreadsheet will not only help you measure vitals for multiple URLs but you can also visualize the change in various metrics over time with the help of sparklines.

Here’s how you can get started:

1. Click here to make a copy of the Web Vitals sheet in your Google Drive.

2. Switch to the first tab and enter a list of URLs that you would like to measure and track. Also provide unique sheet names for each URL and the metrics for that URL will get stored in the corresponding sheet.

3. Click the “Track Core Vitals” button, authorize the sheet and you’re all set.

The button will set up a daily cron job that will automatically connect to Google’s PageSpeed API, fetch the core vitals for each specified URL and write them to the corresponding sheet.

The Apps Script source code is available on Github. As always, you are free to reuse, modify and publish the code based on your own requirements.

Bluetooth SIG works to include wearables in COVID-19 exposure notification systems

Current smartphone-based exposure notification systems (ENS) like the one created jointly by Apple and Google are a clever way of leveraging modern technology to support comprehensive contact tracing efforts by health agencies worldwide. But the COVID-19 pandemic is not what anyone had in mind when the Bluetooth standard was created, so the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) is working to create a new specification that would allow wearable devices to work in tandem with smartphones to expand the reach of ENS tech.

That would mean that devices like wristworn smartwatches and activity/health trackers could also participate in systems that track potential exposure and provide notifications about potential COVID-19 contact events. It may seem like a small tweak if you assume that most smartphone users are seldom without those devices, but Bluetooth SIG points out that expanding to wearables could help include groups of people who aren’t typically smartphone users – including young, school-aged children, and older adults in care facilities – in ENS efforts.

You could easily see how that would be useful, once this new spec is completed and incorporated into deployed Bluetooth standards. Schools could potential mandate use of simple, cheap Bluetooth-enabled wearables to track potential exposure as they return to physical classroom education, for instance.

It’s too early to say exactly how and when this will be deployed – the Bluetooth SIG says that it plans to have an initial draft of the new spec available “in the next few months” for its members to review. But the group has powerful members including Apple, Microsoft, Intel and others, and the technology proposed would allow Apple and Google to incorporate wearables into their existing exposure notification platform, while preserving the privacy-protecting aspects of the tech, as illustrated in the infographic below.

View this document on Scribd

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This Build Of Windows Will Expire Soon

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While using a computer running Windows 10, you might get “This build of Windows will expire soon. Your build of Windows will expire on xx/xx/xx date. You should move to a new build as soon as possible. Go online for more information” message. Why does my Windows 10 build expire? According to Microsoft, all Windows […]

The post This Build Of Windows Will Expire Soon appeared first on Into Windows. Content from IntoWindows website.

This YouTube Video Has n Views - How the Video Title Updates Itself

If I were to pick a YouTube video with the most accurate and most up-to-date title, this video by Tom Scott will probably take the top spot. The title of the video says “This video has n views’ and this title updates automatically as the number of views change over time.

Little wonder, the world of YouTube is fascinated with this “magic” title and the video has garnered over 20 million views so far.

If you are left wondering how this is done, here’s the secret sauce - the YouTube API. We create a background cron job that runs, say, every 5 minutes and gets the current number of views for the specified video. If the number of views has increased since the last run, we update the video title with, you got it right, the YouTube API.

Make your own “This Video has n Views” title

Like to build something similar for a video on your own YouTube channel? Well, there’s always Google Apps Script to the rescue.

1. Make a copy of this Google Script in your Google Drive.

2. Replace <<VIDEO ID>> with the video id of the YouTube video that you would like to use for this experiment. If the video URL is youtube.com/watch?v=abc, the video id is abc.

3. Go to the Run menu inside the Apps Script editor, choose Run and select updateYouTubeVideo. Allow the script to manage your YouTube account and that’s it.

The script will run every five minutes and update the title of your YouTube video auto-magically. Simple!

const updateYouTubeVideo = (e = null) => {
  const id = '<<VIDEO ID>>';
  const template = 'This video has VIEWCOUNT views and COMMENTCOUNT comments';

  // The cron job is created only when the script is run manually
  if (e === null) {
    const triggerName = 'updateYouTubeVideo';
    const triggers = ScriptApp.getProjectTriggers().filter((trigger) => {
      return trigger.getHandlerFunction() === triggerName;
    });

    // If time based trigger doesn't exist, create one that runs every 5 minutes
    if (triggers.length === 0) {
      ScriptApp.newTrigger(triggerName).timeBased().everyMinutes(5).create();
    }
  }

  // Get the watch statistics of the video
  const { items: [video = {}] = [] } = YouTube.Videos.list(
    'snippet,statistics',
    { id }
  );

  // Parse the YouTube API response to get views and comment count
  const {
    snippet: { title: oldTitle, categoryId } = {},
    statistics: { viewCount, commentCount } = {},
  } = video;

  if (viewCount && commentCount) {
    const newTitle = template
      .replace('VIEWCOUNT', viewCount)
      .replace('COMMENTCOUNT', commentCount);

    // If the video title has not changed, skip this step
    if (oldTitle !== newTitle) {
      YouTube.Videos.update(
        { id, snippet: { title: newTitle, categoryId } },
        'snippet'
      );
    }
  }
};

How to Stop the YouTube Google Script

Go to script.google.com and search for the YouTube script in the My Projects dashboard. Go to the triggers menu and remove the trigger. The script will stop updating the video title in the background.

You can also find this Google Script on my Github page.

Daily Crunch: Epic Games escalates legal battle with Apple

The battle between Epic Games and Apple continues, Facebook faces criticism in India and Pinterest appoints its first Black board member. This is your Daily Crunch for August 17, 2020.

The big story: Epic Games files injunction against Apple

Epic’s legal and PR fight with Apple and its App Store policies seems to be escalating. The Fortnite-maker has filed an injunction in U.S. District Court, saying it was notified by Apple that all of its developer accounts and access to developer tools will be cut off at the end of next week.

“[Apple] told Epic that by August 28, Apple will cut off Epic’s access to all development tools necessary to create software for Apple’s platforms — including for the Unreal Engine Epic offers to third-party developers, which Apple has never claimed violated any Apple policy,” Epic’s lawyers said in their court filing.

Fortnite was removed from Apple’s App Store (and the Google Play Store) last week after Epic introduced direct payments. Apple said at the time that it would “make every effort to work with Epic to resolve these violations.”

The tech giants

Facebook faces heat in India after report on hate speech posts — The debate was sparked by a Wall Street Journal report claiming that Facebook’s top public-policy executive in India had opposed applying the company’s hate-speech rules to a member of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party.

Pinterest announces first Black board member — Pinterest has appointed Andrea Wishom, president of real estate company Skywalker Holdings and former Harpo Studios executive, to its board of directors.

Google warns users in Australia free services are at risk if it’s forced to share ad revenue with ‘big media’ — Google has fired a lobbying pot-shot at a looming change to the law in Australia that will force it to share ad revenue with local media businesses.

Startups, funding and venture capital

Deepfake video app Reface is just getting started on shapeshifting selfie culture — Reface (previously Doublicat) is an app that uses AI-powered deepfake technology to let users try on another face/form for size.

DST Global pumps $35 million into Asian e-grocer Weee! — The delightfully named startup delivers groceries, like fresh kimchi and Japanese desserts, to major cities across the U.S.

Amex acquires SoftBank-backed Kabbage after tough 2020 for the SMB lender — Amex’s acquisition will include employees, technology and financial data, but “Kabbage’s pre-existing loan portfolio is not included in the purchase agreement.”

Advice and analysis from Extra Crunch

Founders can raise funding before launching a product — I spoke to Precursor Ventures’ Charles Hudson about how to pitch VCs before you’ve built a real product.

Robinhood raises $200M more at $11.2B valuation as its revenue scales — Robinhood already raised capital multiple times this year, including an initial $280 million round at an $8.3 billion valuation, and a later $320 million addition that brought its valuation to $8.6 billion.

How tech can build more resilient supply chains — Coatue’s Caryn Marooney recently made the jump into venture capital.

(Reminder: Extra Crunch is our subscription membership program, which aims to democratize information about startups. You can sign up here.)

Everything else

SpaceX will attempt to break a rocket reusability record with a launch this week — SpaceX is preparing for yet another launch of Starlink satellites on Tuesday.

US Commerce Department updates rules to further limit Huawei’s chip access — The new restrictions follow a similar decree announced in May.

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 3pm Pacific, you can subscribe here.

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5+ Creative Ways to Learn a New Language for Free

Learning a new language is one of the best skills to acquire. Here are a few creative ways to pick up a new tongue, whether by reading, writing, or watching.

There are two popular ways to learn a language. You can use Duolingo or some of the other best free language learning apps, or you can try the language immersion methodology.

The right path is up to you, depending on your skill level in the new language. These websites and apps will help you learn or practice a language based on the way you prefer to learn.

1. Parallel Text (Web): Read a Book in Two Languages Side-by-Side

Parallel Text believes the best way to get better at a language is to read a favorite book in that language. So it offers a split-view reading experience, where a book is presented in the language you know, alongside the language you want to learn.

Start by choosing a language you already know (like English) and a language you want to learn or practice. Current options include Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Swedish.

Parallel Text will then show a list of book options available in both languages. All the books are classics whose copyrights have expired, so you can legally read it for free.

Make your selection to start reading. You can choose a Compact View to only see the translated language, or a Split View to see both languages side-by-side. It’s an excellent way to practice reading with a full translation readily available when you need it. You can also click any sentence to have it read out loud by the browser so that you aren’t guessing pronunciations.

2. Fluency Pending (Web): How to Set Up a Language Learning Notebook

Productivity experts, memory experts, and teachers all say that writing things down helps you remember them better. You actually need to put pen to paper, and that act ingrains what you learned. To that end, here’s how to set up a language learning notebook.

Writer and language-learner Elzette Wilkinson shares how she set up and organizes her own notebook to learn and practice a new tongue. You can use any type of notebook in this method, and you’ll need a few highlighters and tabs. She says you can also use it in a digital notebook app, but use something with a stylus so that you’re physically writing, not typing.

Broadly, Wilkinson breaks down the notebook into a schedule, habit, and goals to set your patterns, and worksheets for practice. For example, a vocabulary worksheet will have spaces for a new word, its meaning, its memory prompt, synonyms and antonyms, and how to use it in a sentence. Fill everything in diligently to commit it to memory.

The whole article on Fluency Pending will explain how to set up other spaces, like diary entry or journaling, themed pages, resources, etc. You might also want to add in tips from other language notebook guides like Not So Translation’s language hacks and Michael Sunderland’s notebook.

3. Simply Learn Languages (Android, iOS): Learn Common Travel Phrases in Any Language

Simply Learn Languages is a fantastic app to learn the basic words and phrases that a traveler will need in a foreign country. Download the language to use it offline, and start learning it through flashcards and quizzes.

Start with beginner phrases and basic sentences for travelers, across categories like numbers, directions, emergencies, accommodation, etc. You can unlock further phrases (advanced traveler and expat) for a price. At any point, you can review what you learned through quizzes.

Each Simply Learn Language category depicts the phrase in English script as well as the language’s original script. It also pronounces the phrase in a local person’s accent, so you can hear what it’ll sound like. Of course, a smart traveler could also use the app to quickly communicate with a foreigner.

Right now, the iOS version isn’t available, but you can download the Simply Learn app for any specific language for free. This will give you the same features (albeit with ads), and you can unlock more phrases and remove ads by paying.

Download: Simply Learn Languages for Android | iOS (Free)

4. Fluent (Chrome): Learn Languages While Browsing the Web

Fluent is a Chrome extension that changes a few words on each page to help you learn a new language. Most of the page stays in English, but you’ll find a few highlighted words in French. Hover over them to learn the English meaning, and click to hear the pronunciation. You can even save words to your favorites.

At any point, you can toggle Fluent to pause or resume it, including a timed pause. You can also tweak settings so that the extension doesn’t activate on important websites like Google Docs or your online banking account. You can also manually whitelist some websites. Choose a difficulty level to tell Fluent how aggressively it should translate words.

At the moment, Fluent only teaches English users how to read and write French. But the team is looking to add new languages, and you can vote to choose the next language. It’s a fantastic app that teaches you to read through language immersion on the web.

Download: Fluent for Chrome (Free)

If you don’t want to learn French, there are a few other similar apps. Kypsis Language Immersion supports the widest variety of languages. Its settings also let you choose the difficulty level, and how many websites to apply it to. The interface isn’t as nice as Fluent, but it gets the job done.

Download: Kypsis Language Immersion for Chrome (Free)

5. Most Common Words (Web): Learn the 1,000 Most Common Words of Any Language

Most Common Words (MCW) reckons that instead of learning a new language start to finish, you should learn its most common words. It’s actually not a bad idea if you club MCW with other language-learning apps or practices.

In a flashcard format, the site teaches English language speakers the 1,000 most common words from Spanish, German, Italian, French, Japanese, Korean, Russian, and Business Chinese. “Business Chinese” is, as the name suggests, the most common words and terms used in the corporate world. Similarly, for Chinese speakers, it also teaches Business English.

Watch a Movie You Like, in a New Language

One of the best ways to learn or practice a new language is to watch movies in it. But there’s a trick to that. Pick a film or TV series that you’ve already seen, not something you’re watching for the first time. When your brain is trying to learn a new language, don’t task it with other things like following the plot, figuring out the characters, and so on. Reruns help you enjoy something you are familiar with, while also learning something.

To that end, Netflix is the best service to learn a language while you binge-watch TV. There are a bunch of apps and extensions to watch Netflix and learn a language, and it’s not just reading subtitles.

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