Technology

Radu Bercan/Shutterstock.com

Apple just released iOS 12.1.4 and a macOS 10.14.3 patch. These updates fix the huge group FaceTime flaw that could let anyone call your iPhone, iPad, or Mac and hear audio or see video—even if you don’t accept the call.

The good news is you don’t have to worry about this flaw right now. Apple says it’s permanently disabled group FaceTime on iOS 12.1.3 and macOS 10.14.2, as well as older versions of the software.

The bad news was you couldn’t use group FaceTime for more than a week while Apple worked on the fix. As Apple’s system status page points out, the group FaceTime servers are now back online and you can once again make group FaceTime calls— but only after you update.

To update an iPhone or iPad, head to Settings > General > Software Update on your iPhone or iPad and install the update. On a Mac, head to Apple menu > System Preferences > Software Update.

After you’ve installed the update, you can feel safe re-enabling FaceTime on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac.

On an iPhone or iPad, head to Settings > FaceTime and toggle FaceTime on. On a Mac, launch FaceTime and select FaceTime > Turn FaceTime On.

You’ll have to repeat this step on each iPhone, iPad, and Mac you own—the option is controlled separately for each device.

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Akamai

You know, the thing with scammers is that they’re always going to find new ways to scam. It’s what they do. And this new Google Translate phishing attempt is simple, yet brilliant. It’s one you’ll have to watch out for.

Most phishing attempts do at least a somewhat good job of creating replica pages for whatever site they’re trying to jack your data from—like an Apple or Google login page, for example. But there’s generally one big red flag that’s fairly easy to spot: a shoddy URL. If you pay attention, the URL will give it away every time.

That’s where this new phishing tactic stands out: it redirects through Google Translate, so the URL starts with “translate.google.com” and appears more legit than some gibberish crap URL. Even trained eyes could be forgiven for seeing “google.com” in the URL and assuming it’s legit. That’s why this one requires extra attention.

Akamai

The phishing attempt works something like this: you get an email stating that something is going on with your Google account—someone is trying to access it, like in the header image of this post. The email looks convincing enough, so you click on the link, which is actually a garbage URL redirected through Google Translate. You put in your info, and the next thing you know some scumbag just gained access to your account.

To avoid falling victim to the crap (but clever) tactic, just pay attention—even more than normal. Check the email address the alert is coming from, for example. Security research company Akamai reported on an instance of this type of scam coming in from “facebook_secur@hotmail.com,” which makes no sense at all. Why is Facebook asking for your Gmail credentials? They’re not. It’s someone trying to steal your stuff.

Otherwise, just watch out for the “translate.google.com” URL. Google isn’t sending official emails through Translate, because again, that’s just stupid.

Be vigilant, be skeptical. Question everything. Pay attention. Oh, and enable two-factor authentication everywhere. You know, just in case.

Akamai via Gizmodo

Silverblackstock/Shutterstock

When you make a video call over Skype, you’re inviting people to look in your home. Letting mom see your disgusting kitchen isn’t a big deal, but what happens when a co-worker or a potential employer sees your surroundings?

Remember a few years ago when a professor’s toddler interrupted his important BBC interview? When the video went viral, people started to ask questions. We can’t always control the environment that we’re Skyping in, especially when a call happens on short notice. Why isn’t there a way for Skype to hide your environment?

Well, Microsoft has taken this as an opportunity to improve Skype. The software now has a background blur feature that can effectively erase your environment from any video call—basically, it’s portrait mode for video calls. A lot of webcam masks and tricks look kind of tacky, but Skype’s new background blur feature genuinely looks great. It uses AI to detect the tiny features of your face and body, including every strand of your hair.

Note: This feature is only available on the desktop version of Skype; it doesn’t work on the mobile versions of the app.

How to Use Background Blur

Using background blur is very easy, it only takes about two clicks. Of course, you’ll want to make sure that you’re using the latest version of Skype, otherwise this won’t work.

First, start a video call with someone. Three icons will show up at the bottom of the video call. The first icon is for “Microphone Settings,” the second is for “Video Settings,” and the third is an “End Call” button. Go ahead and click the “Video Settings” icon.

After you click the “Video” icon, a small “Video Settings” menu will appear. If you’re using the latest version of Skype, a “Blur my background” option should appear toward the bottom of the “Video Settings” menu, and it will look a bit like the below picture.

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Anker

Dash cams are great for proof of fault in an accident or documenting road trips, but they can also be expensive. Right now though you can grab Anker’s Roav dashcam for $40 off with a coupon code.

The Roav ticks the box on all the features you would want in a dash cam. It comes with an internal battery and a built-in G-sensor, so if someone hits your car while it’s parked, the camera will sense the movement and record hopefully letting you know what happened.

Anker also helpfully includes a suction cup mount (with GPS sensor built in), 32GB MicroSD card, and a trim tool so you can hide the wires used for power. Basically, everything you need to get started is in the box. If you want you can swap out the MicroSD card for a larger one, of course.

Getting your video off the camera is easy too, just connect to the camera with the Roav app and you can download videos and even share them online without any need to unplug the camera or remove the MicroSD card.

To get the discount, you’ll need to provide the coupon code ROAVAPC9 at checkout.

Buy on Amazon

Kiwis/Shutterstock

When it comes to pet hair removal, you need a dedicated vacuum cleaner specifically designed with pet hair in mind. We’ve checked out the best vacuum cleaners for the job.

Pet hair, as any pet owner can tell you, gets into everything. Thin hairs, like cat hair, can weave right into many upholstery types. Dog and cat hair alike gets tangled up in carpet fibers. Getting all that hair out with a regular vacuum cleaner is a real chore with a plain old vacuum. Vacuums designed for pet owners feature beater bars and attachments designed to pull fur out of carpets and fabrics. And of course, all of these offer powerful suction too so they’ll suck up anything unpleasant in a speedy fashion.

Whether you want an upright solution, canister vacuum cleaner, or even a handheld option, we’ve got the right tool for the job here. It’s all too easy for your cat or dog to shed their fur around the house, leaving your home looking less pleasant than you’d like it to. Here’s our pick of the vacuum cleaners for pet owners.

Best Overall: Dyson Upright Vacuum Cleaner Ball Animal 2 ($499) Dyson

Dyson vacuum cleaners are never cheap, but they are powerful and a great investment. The Dyson Upright Vacuum Cleaner Ball Animal 2 promises the strongest suction of any vacuum cleaner and, as the people on staff with pets and Dyson can attest, it’s great at tackling pet fur. It has a whole-machine HEPA filtration system that ensures allergens and bacteria are captured and trapped, which is ideal if you need to clean up after a stinky pet once in a while.

Additionally, its self-adjusting cleaner head seals in suction, whether you’re using it across carpet, wood, vinyl or tile floors. There’s a wand and long-reach hose release action too, so you can always sneak it under the sofa or clean corners of the ceiling without too much hassle.

Another pet hair focused feature is its turbine tool which easily removes pet hair from carpets and upholstery without tangling. It’s worth noting though that you can buy this accessory separately and slot it onto your existing Dyson vacuum cleaner. Now, we’re not saying it makes your regular Dyson as great as this specialist one, but it is substantially cheaper than buying a whole new unit. It’s certainly worth considering if there’s nothing wrong with your existing vacuum cleaner.

Buy on Amazon Best Lightweight Option: SharkNinja Rocket DeluxePro Ultra-Light Upright Corded Stick Vacuum ($215) SharkNinja

A fundamental issue with more powerful vacuum cleaners is that typically they’re pretty heavy. If you have any mobility issues, this is a big problem. That’s where the SharkNinja Rocket DeluxePro Ultra-Light Upright Corded Stick Vacuum swoops in to solve things. It only weighs just under 9 lbs and is far less bulky to carry or push around than other vacuum cleaners. Despite its lightweight nature, it still packs a punch when it comes to suction power.

On hard floors, the vacuum cleaner easily picks up surface litter as well as stuck-on debris. It also has a pet multi-tool that works to pick up embedded pet hair on any surface you try it on. Alongside that is powerful LED lights so you can easily spot hidden debris while you’re cleaning up. It’s super easy to move around due to its swivel steering system too.

The only downside? Well, its capacity isn’t the greatest so expect to have to empty it often if you have a large house. Still, it means you don’t have to worry about carrying all that extra weight while you clean.

Buy on Amazon Best Budget Choice: Hoover T-Series WindTunnel Pet Rewind Bagless Corded Upright Vacuum ($90)

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If you’ve been in the market for a security system, now might be the time to jump in, because you can grab a five-piece Ring Alarm system and a 3rd-generation Echo Dot for just $159, which is pretty bonkers.

The five-piece set, which includes the base station, keypad, one door/window sensor, one motion sensor, and a range extender, normally sells for $200 by itself. So not only are you getting $40 off the alarm system, but you’re also getting a free Echo Dot, which is normally priced at $49. With that said, you’re pretty much getting $250 worth of stuff for just $160.

Better yet, the Ring alarm system integrates with the Echo Dot fairly well. So you use your voice and tell Alexa to arm and disarm your alarm system without having to use the keypad.

If the five-piece set isn’t enough to cover your whole house, you can buy add-on sensors and devices to cover all your doors and areas in your home.

It’s worth noting that at the time of writing the Dot is backordered for about a month, but the Ring stuff is ready to roll out the door as soon as you order. Hit the button below to buy.

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If you’re an Android user looking for a decent Wear OS smartwatch, today may be the day to grab one of the better options from Fossil. The company is selling both its Gen 4 and Sport Smartwatches for just $199 apiece.

While the names may not directly suggest it, the 40mm  Gen 4 is the more dressed up version of the two watches—on the outside at least. Under the hood it’s packing a Qualcomm Snapdragon 2100 chip that was designed just for Wear OS, has 4GB of storage, and all the goodies you’d want from a smartwatch: GPS, heart rate sensor, waterproofing, etc.

Fossil Gen 4

The Gen 4 usually retails for $275, but you can knock $75 off that price today and grab one for $199.

The 43mm Sport, on the other hand, is more, um, sporty than its counterpart. That said, it uses the Snapdragon 3100 Wear OS chip, which is a little better than the one in the Gen 4. Otherwise, specs are similar though the Sport also has a “built-in fitness tracker” and a clear emphasis on being active.

Fossil Sport

The Sport’s MSRP is $255, but like the Gen 4, can be had today for just $199. Not a bad deal.

Either way you go, you can score one of the better options in the Wear OS landscape for a couple of bills. Pretty solid.

Shop on Fossil

LG

If you’ve got a new LG TV, you might have noticed that the picture feels eerily smooth. This effect, which LG calls “TruMotion,” tries to make your TV’s picture feel smoother but often ends up looking strange.

What Is “TruMotion” Anyway?

TruMotion is LG’s implementation of motion smoothing. Motion smoothing works by increasing the framerate (the speed at which your TV shows a new picture) of the video by inserting extra “fake” frames between each real frame. Most movies and TV shows are shot at 24 frames-per-second (FPS), and by guessing what the in-between frames would look like, your TV can bump the framerate up to 48 or 60 FPS. This can make certain fast-paced content (like sports) look a lot better, but ruins the cinematic quality of movies and TV shows for some people.

While high refresh rate video is weird looking enough on its own, the other issue with motion smoothing is that it’s a fake effect, and often makes the “fake” frames look very blurry. Because it has to guess, it ends up being slightly off a lot of the time, which can make it look even worse.

RELATED: Why Does My New HDTV’s Picture Look Sped Up and “Smooth”?

How to Turn Off TruMotion LG

You can disable the TruMotion feature in your TV’s settings. LG’s settings are a bit abnormal though. Their TruMotion tech also manages synced backlight scanning, which syncs the refresh rate with the backlight. They say you can’t turn this off on any TVs, but you can adjust the motion interpolation, which is the thing that makes TruMotion look weird.

LG hides the option under Picture Menu > Picture Mode Settings > Picture Options. From there, you can set different levels for TruMotion:

• Off: probably what you want
• Smooth: uses motion blur
• Clear: doesn’t use motion blur
• Clear Plus: uses backlight scanning in addition to interpolation

If you have a problem finding the option, it could be under a different section, so it’s best to consult your TV’s manual, which you can find online. Just enter your TV’s model number and, when the page loads, use Ctrl+F (or Command+F on Mac) to search for “TruMotion.”

It’s possible some older TVs might not even have an option to turn it off, in which case you’ll have to buy a new TV if you want to disable it.

Photo Credits: Shutterstock

Motorola

Motorola’s G series of phones has long been a favorite among bargain hunters looking for flexible Android handsets on the cheap. Today the company updated the series for 2019 with the G7, G7 Play, and G7 Power.

Motorola

The G7, sans adjective, is the most expensive of the line, though it’s still more than reasonable at $300. Three bills gets you a relatively large 6.2-inch 1080p LCD screen over a mid-range Snapdragon 632 processor, 64GB of storage, and 4GB of RAM. The rear camera is a dual setup of 12MP main and 5MP depth sensors, with an 8MP front camera chilling in a “teardrop” notch. The phone features a USB-C port and, thankfully for anyone who doesn’t want to buy more adapters, a headphone jack.

The G7 Power (header image) drops the price down to $250 but bumps the battery up from just 3000mAh to a whopping 5000mAh, which should last for at least two days on moderate use. Like the more expensive G7, it can do fast charging at 15 watts. The bigger battery and fetching clear plastic back make the G7 Power noticeably thicker, and it has just 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, though the processor remains the same. It also drops the second rear camera and has a much longer iPhone-style notch on the front. The screen is still 6.2 inches, but it drops down to 720p resolution.

Motorola

For just $200, the G7 Play gives you a 5.7-inch 720p LCD, 32GB of storage, and a somewhat anemic 2GB of RAM. The rear camera is a different 13MP shooter and the battery drops back down to 3000mAh, this time with 10-watt charging. Oddly, the G7 Play is the only member of the trio to get a front-facing flash in its camera notch. Oddly, all three designs are missing NFC and wireless charging, but they have both fingerprint and face unlock options.

The three new G7 phones go on sale today in Mexico and Brazil, with launches in the US and Europe in the spring. They run Android 9.0 “Pie,” but don’t expect these models to get fast updates when Google’s yearly operating system refresh comes in the third or fourth quarter.

Source: Ars Technica

Charts are great for visualizing data. Adding animation to charts can make that visualization even better, letting you do things like introduce one piece of a pie chart at a time, so you have more room for discussion. Here’s how to do just that in Microsoft PowerPoint.

Animating a Pie Chart in PowerPoint

First, open up your PowerPoint presentation and go to the slide where you want the animated pie chart. To insert a pie chart, switch to the “Insert” tab and click the “Chart” button.

In the Insert Chart window that appears, select “Pie” from the list on the left. On the right, select the pie chart style you’d like to use from the five options that appear. When you’ve made your selection, click “OK” at the bottom right of the window.

You’ll notice the pie chart has now appeared on the slide and, with it, and Excel chart. Change the labels of the pie chart by editing the text in column A, and enter its respective data in column B. Once done, close the spreadsheet.

Next, select the pie chart and head over to the “Animations” tab. Here, select whichever animation you’d like to use from the available options. In this example, we will use “Wipe.”

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Cricket Wireless

Around mid-last year, we published a couple of pieces about the best phone plans for families and single lines. Cricket was close to the top of both lists, and today it’s probably the best unlimited plan you can get.

RELATED: The Best Cell Phone Plans for Families

Cool, so why are we talking about it again if nothing really changed? Because I recently switched to Cricket Unlimited and man let me tell you: I wish I would’ve done this ages ago. Ages.

Here’s the scenario. Back in December, I was away from home for about two weeks visiting family in Virginia, Tennessee, and Georgia. Lots of driving, lots of hotel time. The hotel Wi-Fi was crappy, so I was quickly approaching my 8 GB data limit on Cricket.

Then it hit me: I would also be traveling to Vegas for CES in early January, where I would undoubtedly need a lot more data. At that point I had two choices: add more data as needed, one gigabyte (at $10 a pop) or change my plan.

But here’s the thing: I have four lines on my Cricket plan and was grandfathered into an old pricing scheme. Even one change would’ve killed this pricing and raise my bill by $30 in addition to the increase in the plan itself.

Then I remembered Cricket’s killer pricing for its unlimited plan: just $100 for four lines. That was less than I was paying at the time, but I had concerns because that particular plan caps the speed at 3 Mbps (opposed to Cricket’s usual 8 Mbps cap). Can you really survive with just 3 Mbps?

The fine print, shown with single-line pricing.

I had little choice, so I took the plunge and hoped for the best. I wish I would’ve done it a long time ago.

Is 3 Mbps Really Enough? (Spoiler: Yes)

That’s the question, right? Can you survive with such “slow” speeds? That’s the biggest thing I wanted to know, and it was especially daunting knowing that if I were to try to revert to my old plan later, I’d be paying more money for the same thing (who the hell wants that?).

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Google Assistant voice commands for your smarthome work best if your devices are in groups (Google calls these groups “rooms”). Skipping this step during setup makes using your devices harder. Here’s how to create rooms and add devices to them.

Rooms Make Voice Commands Easier

With your smarthome devices associated with rooms, Google will let you accomplish more in fewer words. Rather than tell it “turn off living room light 1, turn off living room light 2, turn off living room light 3” and so on, you name the room Living Room and then say “turn off the living room lights” to turn everything off at once.

Better yet, if the Google Home you are speaking to is physically in the same location as your smart lights, then you can add it to the same group as the lights. Then all you have to say is “turn off the lights” —Google Assistant will understand the association and turn off the correct lights.

How to Add New Devices to Rooms

To add a device to a room, open Google Assistant and tap the “Add” button.

Tap the “Set Up Device” option.

Tap “New Device” for any Google Home or Chrome Cast device, or tap “Have Something already set up?” for external devices like Philips Hue or Wink hub. For this example, we’re using the latter option.

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Mark Van Scyoc/Shutterstock.com.

Wireless routers have fourteen different channels they can use for 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi, but three of them are off limits. Channels 12 and 13 are allowed in low-power mode, while channel 14 is banned—and only allowed in Japan.

What Are Wi-Fi Channels?

Wi-Fi uses radio waves to communicate over short distances. Wi-Fi networks can operate on several different channels to help reduce interference. Each channel is a range of frequencies. When several Wi-Fi networks are within range of each other, they can operate on different channels, so they aren’t “talking over” and interfering with each other.

2.4 GHz Wi-Fi networks can work on a small number of channels: Just channels one through eleven in the USA. These channels overlap with each other, too. That’s why people often recommend choosing either channels one, six, or eleven.

While the USA restricts 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi to eleven channels, channels 12 through 14 are available elsewhere in the world. You might even be able to activate them by changing your router settings, although you should not do so. Channel 14 is the most tempting to people, as it would have even less interference—but it’s illegal to operate your router on this channel in the USA.

The newer 5 GHz Wi-Fi standard uses a larger number of channels to reduce interference further, but 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi is still in wide use. In fact, 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi offers a better signal over long distances and through solid objects, so it still has its place. The Wi-Fi industry was particularly focused on 5 GHz Wi-Fi for a while, but Wi-Fi 6 now brings many improvements to 2.4 GHz, too.

RELATED: Wi-Fi 6: What’s Different, and Why it Matters

Channels 1 Through 11 Are Fine U.S. Department of Commerce

In the USA, the Federal Communications Commission regulates the wireless spectrum. You can’t just start broadcasting on any radio frequency you like. Different parts of the wireless spectrum are reserved for amateur radio, satellite, aircraft, maritime, military, AM radio, FM radio, and—yes—Wi-Fi. Here’s a chart produced by the US government in 2016, showing just how complicated and detailed this allocation is.

The FCC is pretty serious about this stuff. For example, if you build a transmitter and start transmitting on FM radio frequencies, that will interfere with other people’s receiving FM radio. They could report a problem to the FCC, and the FCC could confiscate your broadcasting equipment and fine you.

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“Do Not Track” had a lofty goal: A simple checkbox in every web browser that would tell websites not to track you. It achieved that goal, but here’s the problem: Websites didn’t care.

As we pointed out back in 2012, the “Do Not Track” option doesn’t stop you from being tracked. It just sends a special piece of information whenever you connect to a website, asking that website not to track you. The vast, vast majority of websites ignored this. That never really changed. There was no penalty for ignoring the request and little reason to actually honor it.

Still, “Do Not Track” has been shuffling along for years. This option is part of Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Microsoft Edge, and Internet Explorer. You can go check the box and that might make you feel a bit better if you’re upset about being tracked online. But it doesn’t really do anything. It’s misleading.

In fact, Do Not Track has been used to track people. If you’ve enabled Do Not Track, it’s an extra piece of information about you that can be tracked. Advertisers could direct privacy-related advertisements your way, for example.

Everyone was content to ignore that useless checkbox for a while, but now it looks like DNT is finally collapsing. As DuckDuckGo noticed, Apple is removing the “Do Not Track” preference from Safari. As Gizmodo spotted, work on the standard quietly ended on January 17, 2019. With the standard abandoned and the first browser dropping it, we expect other browser makers to follow Apple’s lead.

Is this bad? No. “Do Not Track” never went anywhere and was widely ignored. At this point, the Do Not Track option acts a placebo and misleads people just by existing. It’s long past time to get rid of DNT.

Do Not Track’s history is messy. Microsoft only made the problem worse by enabling it by default in Internet Explorer 10, causing more websites to ignore it. That’s particularly funny because Microsoft itself never obeyed the DNT setting, saying that “Because there is not yet a common understanding of how to interpret the DNT signal, Microsoft services do not currently respond to browser DNT signals.”

Modern browsers that include tracking protection don’t wait for a “common understanding” to develop in the industry. Instead, they proactively block trackers. Apple’s own Safari browser includes “Intelligent Tracking Protection” that prevents sites you don’t visit directly from tracking you. Mozilla Firefox includes a content-blocking feature you can enable to block a list of known trackers.

That’s not to say tracking or targeted advertising is necessarily bad. There are arguments for and against it. But, as a society, let’s have that discussion without the distraction of a misleading checkbox that doesn’t actually do anything.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos Funded An Expedition To Find What?

1. Blackbeard's Treasure
2. The Titanic
3. Apollo Rocket Parts
4. The Lost Library of Alexandria

Think you know the answer?

Misplacing an iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch can be infuriating, especially if you’re sure it’s around here somewhere, but just can’t put your hands on it. If you have Find my iPhone/iPad/Apple Watch active, ask Siri to find it for you.

You’re probably already aware that you can find an iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch by using the Find my iPhone app, but there’s an altogether cooler, more friction-free way of doing it. Asking Siri to “find my iPhone” or other device is a quick way to do exactly that, and Siri can even initiate a ping to the missing device, making it easier for you to find it.

Things get even better if you own a HomePod, too, because you can ask it to do everything just as you would any other Siri-toting device. There’s something magical about shouting at a HomePod and having your iPhone ping like crazy from behind the sofa cushion.

How to Find a Lost iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch with Siri

For any of this to work, you’ll need to have enabled Find my iPhone/iPad/Apple Watch during setup. Assuming you did, here’s how to find any of those devices using your voice, thanks to Siri.

To get the ball rolling, invoke Siri the way you normally would and then ask it to “Find my x” and replace x with the device for which you’re looking.

• “Find my iPhone.”
• “Find my iPad.”
• “Find my Apple Watch.”

If you have multiple devices, like two iPads for example, Siri will ask you to confirm which one you want to locate. If you have multiple family members, you can even ask Siri to find their device too. Simply add their name to the request; “Find Rachel’s iPhone” will have Siri do exactly that.

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Microsoft/Philips

PC gamers drop big bucks to feel immersed in their games. But some new smarthome tech is enabling amazingly immersive effects with just a few lights. Take this Philips Hue plugin for Minecraft as an example.

There are plenty of bias lighting setups that can observe data from a monitor or TV screen and match the light color to the average color on the screen. This tool isn’t doing that: it’s actually using Minecraft’s API to gather light source data from the game itself, matching the color of the bias lighting behind the screen to the objects actually emitting light in the in-game environment.

Reddit user deranged_mango

So if you’re traversing a sunny day in Minecraft, your Hue light will shine almost pure white matching the sun. At sunset you get a slowly-darkening orange, and lightning will flash white then fade to a darker blue. Travel to the game’s final environment The End, and your walls will light up with the ethereal purple glow from the horizon. Inside your cabin you’ll get the flickering reds and yellows of the fireplace. In a nod to utility, it will flash red when you take damage.

It’s a super-cool effect to watch in motion. Since it uses the APIs from Minecraft and Hue, it only works with those specific lights and single game. But as smarthome tech becomes cheaper and more prevalent, you can expect to see this sort of thing more often. To implement the plugin you need to download the source code from Github, then compile it and install it on a Minecraft server. HIt the link for full directions.

Source: Reddit /r/Minecraft

If you’re giving a presentation for a company or teaching a lesson in a math class, it’s likely you’ll be using fractions in the presentation. PowerPoint provides several different fraction structures, including skewed, stacked, linear, and small. Here’s how to use them.

Different Fraction Structures in PowerPoint

There are a few ways to write fractions in PowerPoint. If you’re happy with the default fraction structure that you get by simply typing in the fraction, that’s great! If you’re discussing more complex equations, it might be worth looking at the other available structures in PowerPoint.

As mentioned before, the default fraction structure that you get by simply typing the fraction in PowerPoint is called a linear structure. Here’s an example of how that looks. In this case, the fraction maintains the current font style and size settings as the rest of the text in your paragraph.

When you use the tool provided by PowerPoint to insert the linear fraction, it reformats it a bit. Here’s an example of how that looks.

As you can see, it looks a bit different than when you type it in directly. The inserted version italicizes the text and uses the Cambria Math font.

PowerPoint also provides several other fraction structures if linear doesn’t work for you. Here’s a list of the different styles:

• Stacked Fraction
• Skewed Fraction
• Linear Fraction
• Small Fraction
• dy over dx
• cap delta y over cap delta x
• partial y over partial x
• delta y over delta x
• pi Over 2

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Ring

Video doorbells are one of the most useful smarthome gadgets to have for your house, but if you’d rather not deal with the wiring situation, you can buy battery-powered models that you simply just mount to an outside wall and connect to your Wi-Fi.

Why Go the Battery-Powered Route?

So why exactly would you want a battery-powered video doorbell? Perhaps the biggest reason is so that you don’t have to replace your existing wired doorbell, either because you want to keep the traditional doorbell there as a backup, or maybe you just don’t really have the knowledge on how to take your doorbell’s wiring and hook it up to your new video doorbell.

It’s also possible that your existing doorbell just doesn’t work all that great, either because the transformer is crapping out or it just doesn’t work at all. You may not want to hassle with fixing it or calling a handyman to do the same, especially if you’ve been wanting a video doorbell anyway.

RELATED: The Best Video Doorbells with HD Video, Motion Detection, and More

Unfortunately, there’s really only one reputable company that makes a decent video doorbell that can be completely powered off of battery—Ring. The good news is that Ring makes really good products, which have made appearances in several of our roundups.

Keep in mind, though, that if you go the battery-powered route, you’ll need the Ring Chime device in order to get traditional doorbell chime alerts inside your house. If you have an Echo smart speaker or display, you can set up chime announcements whenever someone comes to the door, but if not, the Ring Chime is highly recommended. Otherwise, you’ll just get alerts on your phone whenever someone rings the doorbell, which you may or may not see in time.

Without further adieu, let’s check out the best battery-powered video doorbells

Ring Video Doorbell 2 ($199)

If you want a battery-powered video doorbell, your best bet is the Ring Video Doorbell 2. You have the option of hooking it up to your existing doorbell wiring, but it can also just be powered off of the battery, which will last you a good few months in between necessary recharges.

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Still rocking those old wired headphones? Now might be the time to grab some stylish, wireless Beats by Dre.

Right now, Best Buy is selling the matte gold Beats Solo3 for just 160 dollars. That’s almost a 50 percent discount. These headphones also come with three free months of Apple music, making this a killer deal that’s hard to pass up.

If you aren’t up to speed on these new Beats headphones, then you’ll be excited about them after a quick run-down. The Beats Solo3 headphones are completely wireless, and they use Bluetooth to connect to your phone or computer. You don’t have to worry about charging them too often, because they have a massive 40-hour battery life. They’re built with comfortable, lightweight materials, and they have a built-in microphone that makes hands-free calls easy.

Of course, all of these features are compounded when you consider the well-known sound quality of Beats headphones and their famous flashy branding. A pair of Beats Solo3 headphones for just $160 is a crazy deal, and it won’t last forever. Just don’t forget that Best Buy is only discounting the matte gold color of these headphones. If you want a different color, you’re going to have to fork up more cash.

Buy at BestBuy