10 Must-Have Gadgets to Protect You Against Natural Disasters

Hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, blizzards, floods, wildfires, droughts. The earth can be cruel. If you underestimate the strength of natural disasters, you may find your life forever upended in the blink of an eye. But disaster preparedness can be an inconvenience. No, not as much a pain as surviving a hurricane but enough of one that we may put it off until it’s too late. Don’t fall into that trap! Survival is the one thing you shouldn’t procrastinate on. Not sure where to begin? Here are ten crucial gadgets, tools, and devices that you should always have on hand in case...

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Like a Boss: 5 Tools Every Team Manager and Leader Needs

It’s not easy being the boss. Whether you are in charge of a two-person team or you head a large department or office, it’s a stressful job. Get a little help from technology to ensure you are doing things right. From essential checklists to understanding and executing your duties, these apps and guides have it all. We made sure that the apps in this list have explicit privacy policies that don’t sell your data to anyone. And in case you’re an underling, pay attention. Before you know it, you will be well on your way to becoming a project manager...

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Facebook Launches New Crisis Response Hub to Streamline Help Efforts During Major Disasters

On the back of several major natural disasters, Facebook has created a new Crisis Response hub for all users. This is a drastic upgrade on the former Safety Check feature many people have used over the years in extreme events. Facebook Crisis Response The Crisis Response hub is the evolution of several crisis help features in existence across Facebook. The new hub will centralize support and recovery tools such as: Safety Check: check into your Facebook to let others know you are safe during a crisis event, natural or not Community Help: ask the local and wider community for assistance,...

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5 Things Bixby Voice Can Do (and One Thing It Can’t)

While Samsung’s initial rollout of its virtual assistant left many users underwhelmed, the full launch of Bixby Voice has piqued the interest of consumers once again. The company promises that its artificial intelligence (AI) assistant is a different breed from the others, thanks to contextual awareness and the ability to learn. But is this just marketing hype? We take a look at five surprising things that Bixby Voice can do, as well as one thing it doesn’t quite get right. 1. Understand Context A welcome feature of Bixby Voice is the assistant’s contextual awareness. This means that the AI is...

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10 Mistakes Not to Make as an Arduino Beginner

Arduino boards, and the many affordable microcontrollers that came in their wake, changed hobby electronics forever. What was once the domain of the super geek, armed with extensive knowledge of electronics and computing, is now available to all. The price of the hardware is always dropping, and the online community is always growing. We’ve previously covered getting started with an Arduino, and there are lots of great beginner projects to get you acquainted, so there’s no reason not to jump right in! But today, we will cover a few mistakes frequently made by folks who are new to this world,...

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Chrome Finally Adding Autoplay Video Blocking; Ability to Mute Entire Sites

What is the most annoying thing on the internet today? I’ll answer for you: autoplaying videos, of almost any kind. That is why Google says it is finally going to do something about it. That’s right! The version of Google Chrome will limit the ability for sites to autoplay videos. No More Autoplay Before you take your hat off and throw it jubilantly into the air, there are some caveats. According to the Google blog post that announced the upcoming change, if you have previously shown an interest in the media, it will autoplay. This means if you have interacted...

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All the Ways You Can’t Trust Facebook

Facebook has become a behemoth of social networking. As of June 2017 there were over two billion active users — or a quarter of the world’s total population. From its beginnings as a small project at Harvard College between Mark Zuckerberg and friends, it has grown into one of the world’s largest technology companies. Of course, their major stumbling block has always been user privacy and how they use your data. Even in its early days there were criticisms of how the social networking giant handled your data. Recent revelations have shown that Facebook has been experimenting on you to...

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Today Only: Get a Pair of Bluetooth Earbuds For Super Cheap

If you’re currently in the market for a pair of Bluetooth earbuds, today is your lucky day! You can get 30% off a set from SoundPEATS, which is an all-time low price! SoundPEATS Bluetooth Headphones In Ear SoundPEATS Bluetooth Headphones In Ear Wireless Earbuds 4.1 Magnetic Sweatproof Stereo Bluetooth Earphones for Sports With Mic (Upgraded 8 Hours Play Time, Secure Fit, Noise Cancelling) - Q12 Black SoundPEATS Bluetooth Headphones In Ear Wireless Earbuds 4.1 Magnetic Sweatproof Stereo Bluetooth Earphones for Sports With Mic (Upgraded 8 Hours Play Time, Secure Fit, Noise Cancelling) - Q12 Black [BLUETOOTH 4.1 + APTX] -...

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Lightweight Markup Languages: This Is Why You Should Use AsciiDoc Over Regular Markdown

As you’ve likely seen from past articles, here at MakeUseOf we’re fans of Markdown. By learning this simple and intuitive format, you’re able to easily create nice-looking output. From PDF’s to web pages, your humble, plain text file becomes a sophisticated document. But Markdown isn’t the only game in town. There are a number of other so-called lightweight markup languages similar to Markdown but with different feature sets. One of these is Asciidoc. If you like Markdown but are looking for a little bit more under the hood, it’s worth considering. Here are some reasons why. What Is a “Markup...

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7 Ways to Shut Down Windows 10 Like a Geek

Windows has been able to shut down since its inception. You’ve probably done it thousands of times. But do you know all the different methods and tricks to maximize efficiency and customize it to full potential? We’re going to show you how. From all the different shortcuts to shut down, how to change what your power button does, and editing the shutdown sound, we’ve got a bunch of tips on how to be a shutdown master. If you have your own advice to share, be sure to let us know in the comments section. 1. Use Shutdown Shortcuts We all...

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What’s New in the Apple Watch Series 3 and Should You Upgrade?

Apple didn’t only launch three smartphones this week, it also introduced a refreshed Apple Watch in the form of the Series 3. The addition of a new cellular chip means the Watch can operate independently of your iPhone for the first time ever. The new Series 3 might not be the first example of an LTE smartwatch, but Apple is in a strong position since it currently produces world’s most successful wearable. Earlier this year the company regained the majority market share from FitBit, despite the device’s premium price point and dependence on an iPhone. Should you rush out to...

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The Best Equipment You Need to Create a Podcast

Podcasting is still on the rise, which means it isn’t too late to jump in and start your own. Who knows? You might find that you love it as a hobby, and if you can grow a large enough listenership, you may even be able to earn a respectable income from it. But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves yet. While it’s true that you could probably sit down and record a podcast right now with the devices and accessories you have on hand, the resulting audio would be substandard — and these days, you can’t build an...

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3 Linux Smartphone Operating Systems You Can Install Today

Sick of Android? Don’t want to be part of a proprietary ecosystem? Security and privacy are becoming increasingly important for smartphone users, but what is the answer? For some, abandoning Android and switching to a phone that can run a Linux mobile operating system is the answer. With security improvements and a better attitude towards privacy and open source, Linux smartphone operating systems are available. They’re just not particularly well known. (Although Android is based on the Linux kernel, it cannot really be considered Linux.) Here are three Linux smartphone operating systems that are available to install today. 1. Ubuntu...

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12 Evernote Tables to Keep Your Life Organized

For a while now, you’ve been able to add basic tables to your Evernote notes. These tables have never been powerful, and they’ve always been pretty clunky. But things are starting to change. Very recently, Evernote launched a much-needed update to its tables function, breathing new life into this often overlooked feature. At the time of writing, these updates are available to all Windows users, but only via a beta version of Evernote for Mac users. If you’re a Mac user and want to download the beta version, go to Evernote > Preferences > Software Update > Update to beta...

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Mouse Like It’s 1996: The Logitech MX Ergo Trackball Review (and Giveaway)

Our verdict of the Logitech MX Ergo:There's not a lot of competition out there, so if you're looking for a solid trackball with ergonomic benefits, this is the one to buy. However, the $99 price is a little on the high side for someone looking to dip their toe into the trackball world.810 We're giving away a Logitech MX Ergo. Keep reading to find out how to win!If you took me back to the beginning of 2017 and asked me what kind of device would make a comeback this year, a trackball would be very low on my list of...

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How to Customize the Login Screen on Your Mac

We all customize our computers and devices to reflect our personal preferences. On your Mac, you can even customize the desktop and the login screen. The default login screen setup is pretty basic, but you can add features and functionality to it. Maybe you want to enter both your name and login password when you log in (instead of just your password) for additional security. You can also add a password hint and a message to the login screen. By default, you can switch users on the login screen, but you can’t sleep, restart, or shut down your Mac. Today...

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3 Amazing Excel 2016 Tricks You Overlooked

With every round of major updates to the Microsoft Office suite, there’s a whole slew of new tips and tricks. Sometimes, they come at you so thick and fast it’s hard to keep up. Even people who thought they knew every trick in the book will occasionally stumble across a new feature that they were previously unaware of. Here are three amazing Excel 2016 tricks you definitely (ok, probably) overlooked. 1. Tell Me How to… Excel is a sprawling behemoth of an app. Sometimes you’ll see a shared file at work, at college, or online, and can’t believe it was made...

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How to Remove Personal Info From Photos in Windows 10

Every time you take a photo, whether with a camera or a smartphone, a lot of personal information is stored in the image’s properties. If you would rather delete all that information before sharing the image with others, doing so on a Windows 10 machine couldn’t be easier. What Kind of Info Is Included? While not visible by just looking at the image, if you go into the image’s file properties, you’ll find info on the camera, lens, and even GPS information with longitude and latitude coordinates. Depending on how you took the photo, it could also have extensive settings info including focal...

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3 Tweaks That’ll Improve Windows Search Indexing

Your computer contains a ton of files. But when you search for something, you don’t want it to take forever. That’s why Windows indexes the important ones — mainly the folders you’re likely to search — and ignores the rest to save time. If Windows Search seems to take a long time to find what you want, or includes results you don’t care about, you can tweak it in a few different ways. First, you can add or remove entire folders from indexing. Let’s say you download a lot of files into your Downloads folder but don’t ever search for...

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Snapchat Adds New Animated 3D Bitmoji to World Lenses Feature

Snapchat is adding 3D Bitmoji to its World Lenses feature, allowing you to introduce animated avatars to your locale as you see fit. Snapchat Bitmoji The 3D Bitmoji animations are based directly on models you’ve already created using the Snapchat app. The new 3D Bitmoji option will appear in the rear camera Lens options within Snapchat on both iOS and Android after the app next updates. Interestingly, some of the animations can actually run for longer than the standard 10 second single Snap. However, iOS users can also utilize the new multi-Snap feature to capture multiple Snaps and link them...

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