Technology

Google is an ad company at heart but has been focusing on its hardware game more and more as of late. Today Fossil announced plans to sell its smartwatch tech to Google for a cool $40 million.

While details of the sale are still very light, the path is pretty clear: Google wants what Fossil has for to bolster Wear OS. Fossil has been one of the only companies to consistently release good Wear OS devices, with the latest being one of the few to currently use the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 3100 chipset that was specifically designed for Wear OS.

The sale is for more than just that, however, as Fossil apparently has some top secret smartwatch junk in development. That was likely enough to push Google over the edge and offer to buy the tech, and Fossil was happy to make a deal.

This could potentially lead to a long-rumored-but-never-seen Pixel Watch, which Wear OD lovers have been longing for since whispers of such a product first started trickling out. That’s no guarantee, of course, but it seems more likely than ever with the acquisition.

So what is to happen to Fossil’s smartwatch releases? That’s not totally clear, but the company says it will “continue to unlock growth in wearables” alongside Google, whatever that means. All in all, Google is not only getting Fossil’s secret tech, but a small group of its employees for that dollars. Hopefully, this will work out as well for the company as well as buying part of HTC has.

via Techcrunch

Fitbit is one of the leading fitness wearable manufacturers on the planet, and now it’s going to let users share their data with the All of Us research program. It will be the first fitness-based company to do so.

For those unfamiliar with All of Us, it’s a crowdsourced program dedicated to gathering information from a variety of users to further medical research for precision medicine (read: personalized treatments) at an accelerated rate. The program wants to gather information from at least one million participants, with data coming from surveys, electronic health records, physical measurements, biosamples, and digital health tech. It’s all opt-in and “strict safeguards” are used to protect privacy.

The big news here is, of course, Fitbit’s partnership with All of Us. This marks the first time a fitness company has opted to contribute to the goal of All of Us. Fitbit users who wish to participate can sign up for All of Us, then choose to sync their Fitbit data to the program. That data includes physical activity, heart rate, and sleep patterns.

The cool thing here is that Fitbit device isn’t even required to participate—just a Fitbit account. If you have a Fitbit account and use it “manually,” you can choose to sync that data with All of Us.

There’s also a second part to this program. Eventually, All of Us hopes to send out up to 10 thousand Fitbit devices of unknown model to random participants. This will help All of Us gather more data from users who already participate in the program.

But on a more personal note, the goal of All of Us (which I hadn’t heard of before today) is exciting to me because I’m the father of a chronically ill child. The research being done here could ultimately mean a longer life for him and many others who live with a chronic illness. More participants and more data are very small things that lead to very big results.

To learn more about All of Us, the data they collect, and what this data aims to help with, head here. You can go here to sign up to participate in the program.

Fitbit via Engadget

If you’re ready to move on from subpar coffee in the morning and want to start making a worthwhile delicious cup of joe, here’s some coffee gear that will help get you started.

Keep in mind that these products are entry-level selections for beginners just starting out making coffee the fancy way. Once you get more experience and learn what you like and dislike, you can upgrade your equipment later to more premium options.

Since you won’t be using a traditional coffee maker to get the water nice and hot, you’ll need to rely on a kettle to do that instead. The Cuisinart Aura is an affordable option.

It can fit half a gallon of water, so whether you’re just making coffee for one or for an entire house full of people, you’ll be able to heat up all the water you need in a single run.

If you prefer to skip the stove top and heat up your water the electrical way, the Hamilton Beach 40880 electric kettle is a simple and affordable option that gets the job done.

There are no bells and whistles on this one—just a simple on/off switch to turn on the kettle’s heating element. Then, once the water is brought to a boil, it automatically shuts off. Wait a minute or two, and you’re left with water that’s perfectly heated to the proper brewing temperature.

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Good morning! A whole slew of usernames and plaintext passwords were leaked for a number of different sites—at 772 million and 21 million respectively, it’s the largest data leak in history. Here’s how to make sure your information is still safe.

This collection of email address and passwords—dubbed “Collection #1”—groups together several smaller breaches into a larger master file of sorts. This huge collection of data comes from several different sites, so your personal info may have been compromised from multiple different sources. That means your information could’ve been compromised multiple times—the same email address with different passwords.

Collection #1 was obtained by Have I Been Pwned owner Troy Hunt, which he then cleaned up, uploaded to the service, and penned a detailed blog post about. For those who may not be familiar with the service, Have I Been Pwned is an excellent resource to find out whether your data has been compromised in any existing breach to date.

So, to find out if your email or passwords have been compromised with the Collection #1 leak—or any other before it—head over to Have I Been Pwned, enter your email address, and brace yourself for the results. You can also subscribe to email alerts so in the future you’ll know if your email address has been compromised as soon as the data is available.

This also serves as a good reminder to use strong, unique passwords on all sites you visit. A good way to do this is by letting a password manager do all the heavy lifting for you—a good one will generate a strong password and remember it for you. The only thing you need to do is remember the master password for the vault.

RELATED: The Best Password Tips to Keep Your Accounts Secure

Troy Hunt via Ars Technica

Google Docs add-ons work similarly to how a browser extension works. They are a third-party app that you install to Google Docs to gain additional features. Some add-ons increase productivity (like proofreading tools) and some add more extensive capabilities (like allowing teachers to integrate grades into students papers). Here’s how to install them and some of our favorites.

To get an add-on, open a new or existing file in Google Docs, click “Add-ons,” and then click “Get add-ons.”

You can browse the list of all add-ons, use the drop-down menu to sort by category or search using the search bar. Once you find an add-on you like, click the “Free” button to install the add-on (if it’s a paid add-on, this button will reflect the purchase price).

Upon installing add-ons, you need to grant them specific permissions. These are fundamental to the operation of the add-on in order to function correctly. Make sure you fully understand the permissions and trust the developer before installing any add-on.

Click “Allow.”

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Buying online is always a risk. Anyone anywhere can list something for sale, and there’s often no recourse should a problem arise. Even big marketplaces like Amazon—with tens of thousands of sellers—aren’t immune to counterfeits and scams. Photographers spend billions every year so they’re an obvious target; let’s look at how to safely buy camera gear online—or at least, buy it as safely as possible.

Counterfeit camera gear is, if not common, definitely out there. What way it’s counterfeit depends on what exactly it is.

Camera accessories are the most likely thing to be counterfeited. It’s estimated that up to a third of SanDisk memory cards sold are fake. That’s a hell of a lot of counterfeit cards. The reason they’re so common is that SanDisk is a soft target: their cards are super popular (we recommend them here on How-To Geek), and people can fake them by simply by slapping a sticker on a cheap generic card. The fakes have even been sold on Amazon.

RELATED: What SD Card Do I Need for My Camera?

Similarly, Canon has had trouble with counterfeiters manufacturing knockoffs of their flash units, and there have been fake Nikon battery grips. These kind of accessories are a gold mine for fakers because the products work and most people won’t be able to tell the difference. If photos write to the memory card in your camera, why would you question its authenticity? It’s only when the cheap chip inside fails that you might realize you’ve been had.

For larger items like cameras and lenses, the problems are a little more subtle. Cameras are expensive and technically difficult to manufacture, so they’re much harder to clone. Instead, scammers will buy a cheaper camera and change the badges, so it looks like the more expensive model. For example, the Nikon D7100 is similar enough to the significantly more expensive D610 that scammers can cheaply change a body panel and flog the 7100 on for a tidy profit.

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Your work desk is big, comfy, and perfect for getting things done. Your laptop is… less so. But with a few extra gadgets, you can cram the essential comforts of a full desktop setup into a bag and take them anywhere.

We’ve chosen some perfect add-on items that will work with any laptop running Windows or macOS, and most Windows-powered tablets, too. Getting the whole kit and caboodle unrolled in an airport isn’t very practical, but for an extended work session in a hotel room (or your in-law’s basement), it’s a great package. Mix and match them as you like, packing things or leaving them as your need demands.

Laptops are much better than they used to be in terms of keyboards and touchpads, but you just can’t beat a real mouse and keyboard combo. That goes double if you’ve made the transition to a tablet: those combination keyboard-cover things leave a lot to be desired. Bluetooth is handy and connects automatically, and it’ll work with any modern portable computer.

For your mouse, we recommend Logitech’s excellent Triathlon M720. This mouse is bigger and much more comfortable than your typical “travel” mouse, but it includes all of the features you’ll want, with five standard buttons and speedy ball bearing scroll wheel. The mouse includes both a typical USB dongle and Bluetooth compatibility, and it can rapidly switch between up to three programmed devices. (Handy if you’re also bringing a tablet along!) Best of all, a single AA battery lasts for months. The street price of this mouse shifts around, but it can often be found for less than thirty dollars.

Logitech makes keyboards with the same quick-switching tech, and they’re fine. But if your budget will stretch, I’ll recommend the Hexgears X-1. It’s a mechanical board that uses low-profile switches and a compact layout, cramming a full-sized mechanical feel into something you can slip into your bag with ease. The switches feel better than any laptop or travel keyboard, and it comes with backlighting and multi-device pairing. The keyboard is available with white (clicky), brown (bump, but no click) and red (smooth linear) switches; pick the last one if you’re concerned about typing noise. Bonus: it comes with its own carrying case.

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Are you sick and tired of how slow your inkjet printer is? Does it seem like the ink constantly runs out? Do yourself a favor and replace that hunk of junk with a quality laser printer.

RELATED: The How-To Geek Guide to Buying the Right Printer

You may think that laser printers are meant for the business world and have no use in a residential setting, but you’d be woefully incorrect. Laser printers are taking homes by storm, and here’s why.

While Inkjet printers use ink, laser printers use toner, which consists of a powder mixture mostly made up of plastics that melt when heated up and then bond to the paper. This is why printed documents come out nice and warm on a laser printer.

Ink cartridges don’t last very long and have some pretty strict expiration dates. Toner cartridges, on the other hand, can last for several years. It’s just plastic dust, after all, so there’s nothing inside that is susceptible to drying out quickly and going bad. This also makes laser printers a great option for those who don’t print very often.

Furthermore, you can get a ton of mileage out of a single toner cartridge. On the high end, an ink cartridge can print about 300 pages, whereas a toner cartridge can print a few thousand pages before it starts to get low. That’s a huge difference.

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Pieter Beens/Shutterstock

Windows 10 can sometimes be a real mess. Between botched updates, treating its users as beta testers, and adding features we never wanted it can be tempting to downgrade. But you shouldn’t go back to Windows 8.1, and we can tell you why.

Seriously: We installed Windows 8.1 and used it for a few hours so you wouldn’t have to.

It’s almost easy to forget, but Windows 8.1 didn’t have a real Start menu. Instead, it had a Start Screen. Windows 8.0 introduced the Start Screen with the hopes of ushering in an era of Windows tablets. It didn’t work well, and Microsoft capitulated, but only slightly. Windows 8.1 re-introduced the Start Button, but all it did was call up the Start Screen, which was a band-aid at best.

You can install a replacement program like Classic Shell or Start Menu 8, but that comes with its own issues. Classic Shell stopped active development, so you are opening yourself up to potential vulnerabilities. And other programs like Start Menu 8 either cost money, push extra add-ons, or both. Just look at this default install of Start Menu 8:

Clicking on any of those top four options will install programs immediately. And this is a 7-day trial, so eventually, you’ll have to pay to use the program.

With Windows 10, Microsoft finally brought back the Start Menu. Granted, it is far too cluttered and filled with ads, but that’s getting better. And more importantly, you can cut out all the tiles and get a look very close to Windows 7 if you prefer.

RELATED: How to Make the Windows 10 Start Menu Look More Like Windows 7

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1. A DCMA Notice
2. Food
3. A Virus
4. Email

Think you know the answer?

In the upcoming release of Windows 10, codenamed 19H1, Cortana and the search bar are breaking up and moving into separate houses. Unfortunately, the search bar won custody of Bing. Windows 10 19H1 is expected for release around April 2019.

The separation was announced by Microsoft in a blog post unveiling Windows Insider build 18317.

All jesting aside, the deep integration of Search and Cortana is one of the biggest complaints about Windows 10. We’ve taken time to show you how to hide and disable Cortana, and how to force Cortana to search Google instead of Bing. But if you liked and wanted the search bar, then you had to put up with Cortana. Thankfully Microsoft is finally taking care of that issue. But unfortunately, you’ll still have to put up with cloud searching.

As shown above, in 19H1, you will have a search box and a Cortana icon. You can turn off either or both. To disable Cortana, right-click the taskbar and uncheck “Show Cortana Button.” To disable the search box, right-click the taskbar and select Search > Hidden. You can also select “Show Search Icon” here if you’d rather just see a magnifying glass icon that takes up less room on your taskbar instead of the full search box.

The change doesn’t quite go far enough in our opinions. The search bar still incorporates Bing, and it’s no longer possible to disable Bing. Integrated web searches in the taskbar have some problems, as shown in the new settings for search.

As you can see, Windows now has adult content filter options for your search bar. And, while that’s a good thing to have if the search bar is going to provide web results, Bing’s SafeSearch is not always a guarantee that the results you get are safe for work. In fact, Bing has been really bad.

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Slack just got a new design with a much more purple sidebar in an update. Here’s how to change Slack’s sidebar colors back to the classic theme you’re familiar with, or pick any other color scheme.

Open Slack’s preferences by clicking the name of your team at the top left corner of the Slack window and clicking “Preferences.”

Select the “Sidebar” option on Slack’s preferences screen.

Slack’s new default theme is Aubergine, and you were automatically switched to it if you were using Slack’s original theme. Select “Aubergine Classic” to go back to the classic colors.

You can also select any of Slack’s other built-in themes here. Any theme you choose will only be seen by you, and everyone else in the Slack workspace can choose their own preferred theme.

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Modern Mac users have multiple ways to connect to a network or the Internet, including Wi-Fi and Ethernet. If you’re not careful, though, you might not be using the connection you think you are. But fear not, we’re here to help.

Apple might be systematically removing ports from its computers, but if you own one of the company’s desktop Macs, or are a resident of Dongle Town, you probably have multiple different network connections available to you at any one time. When maximum throughput is your goal, you’ll be connecting via an Ethernet cable. However, it’s important also to keep Wi-Fi active for some of Apple’s more fancy features, including unlocking your Mac with an Apple Watch and more.

You’ll probably need to keep Wi-Fi turned on, which can lead to a problem—your Mac could be using Wi-Fi, even if you have an Ethernet cable plugged in.

That is less than ideal for obvious reasons. Anyone who makes heavy use of any Network Attached Storage, or even just has a super fast Internet connection, needs to use the fastest connection available to them. Thankfully, macOS makes it easy to change the priority of connections. Here’s how to make sure Ethernet is at the very top of that list.

To start, click on the Apple menu and then select “System Preferences.”

Next, click “Network” to open the network-specific preference pane.

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If you’re going to bring your food and coffee to work, then you’ll need to find a way to keep it as fresh and warm (or cool) as possible. The only way you’ll manage to do that is with the help of a small thermos.

A small thermos is great for taking hot or cold drinks on the go, especially if you want to save something for later or parcel it throughout the day. But not all Thermoses are created equal. Some are easy to use when driving, and some are great for enjoying your lunch. Some are easy to clean, while others are made of a million small parts. That’s why we’ve taken the time to find the best small thermoses for everybody’s needs.

Heads up: thermoses are great for saving money. Why would you buy a $5 coffee during your work break, when you can bring a coffee from home for much cheaper? Since all of the thermoses that we’re suggesting run under $30, the money that you save on coffee or tea could easily pay for your thermos in less than a week.

Zojirushi, the company that’s become famous for their hot pots and rice cookers, has reapplied their vacuum insulation technology to the world of beverages. While it’s common for old-fashioned tumblers to create a vacuum seal (to control temperature and prevent spillage), it’s not very common for tumblers with push-button lids to have reliable vacuum seal technology. It’s nice to know that you can throw this easy-to-open mug in your bag without getting flaming hot coffee all over the place, especially at a $23 price point. It’s also nice to know that this thermos can keep your drink hot for up to 12 hours, which should be more than enough time to get most people through their day.

When a thermos looks a little bit complicated, you can bet your luck that it’s difficult to clean. Tumblers that have mechanical tops, like the Zojirushi, are usually made up of a handful of rubber gaskets, plastic lips, and hinged lids. Although the Zojirushi is made up of 5 separate parts (three of them are small plastic parts) they’re easy to separate, clean, and reassemble. To most people, the convenience of a push-button lid and a tapered lip are worth cleaning a few tiny parts. Especially if you’re always walking or driving around.

If you’re looking for a thermos that feels both classic and contemporary, then you should check out the Thermos brand compact 16 oz tumbler. It has all the earmarks of an old Thermos, including a lid that doubles as a cup. But the mug also looks stylish, and it has a plastic stopper that prevents any kind of spillage, even when you forget to fully tighten the lid. The stopper can also double as a spout if you don’t fully unscrew it. Think of a pitcher of creamer at a coffeeshop.

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Adding pictures to your PowerPoint presentation can make it more visually appealing. However, when you first add a new image, it covers up whatever else is on the slide, including text. Here’s how to move pictures and other objects backward and forward to create the layering you want.

If you haven’t already, go ahead and open the PowerPoint presentation you’ll be working with and hop over to the slide with the text and image.

We’ll go over layering images in a bit, but right now we will just be working with a single image and some text.

As you can see in the image above, The Geek image is covering the “How-To Geek” text. To put the image behind the text, first, click the image to select it and then go to the “Format” tab.

Over at the “Arrange” section, click the “Send Backward” button. A drop-down menu will appear with two options.

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It’s important to keep your car clean but you need the right cleaning tools to achieve the desired effect. Here’s a look at the best car cleaning implements out there, and how they’ll help make your car look better than ever.

We’re all busy and it’s easy to neglect cleaning your car (or to just run it through an auto wash when you remember now and then) but doing the job yourself offers more than just the satisfaction of seeing the car extra shiny.

A good hand wash will get your car cleaner (including all the little spots the auto wash misses), protect your paint, and allow you to give it that perfect dry and polish you just can’t get for $7 at the gas station car wash. Here are our top picks for washing your car or truck at home.

A good pressure washer is a key part of any car cleaning session. You’re going to be using it a lot. First, to rinse off any easy to clean marks before you do more intense cleaning, then to wash off shampoo, tire cleaner, or simply to give it one final spruce up.

The Sun Joe Electric Pressure Washer is a workhorse of a pressure washer. It has a 1800 watt motor that generates up to 2030 PSI of cleaning power with a water inlet temperature maximum of 104 degrees Fahrenheit—for those of you that run a fancy operation at home and use hot water for your wash. The washer includes 5 quick-connect spray tips that are adept at light to heavy duty cleaning tasks. It automatically shuts off the pump when the trigger isn’t engaged, so you save energy in the long run too. It’s a must have for the avid cleaner.

A sponge is far from an exciting addition to your car cleaning collection but it’s certainly useful. The Viking Easy Grip Sponge is made from high-density foam with a bone shape to it that makes it easier for you to grip onto when you’re cleaning. It’s a decent size so you can cover plenty of your car with one steady sweep of the surface. The humble sponge isn’t really designed for more detailed parts of your car cleaning journey, but it’s good for general all-purpose things, and this one is an excellent price.

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Man, you guys remember the Motorola Razr? Thing was hot back in the day—all the cool kids had them. Well, good news: it may be coming back as a modern smartphone. Again.

According to a recent report from The Wall Street Journal, Lenovo (which bought Motorola from Google back in 2014) is planning to partner with Verizon to re-release a phone with the beloved Razr namesake. The downside? It’s going to be a $1500 foldable. Fifteen. Hundred. Dollars. Oof.

Of course, this isn’t the first time the Razr brand has seen a reboot—if you were an Android user back in the day when the Droid branding was Verizon’s hotness, you might remember the Droid Razr. It was a svelte (for the time) handset that did its best to stay true to the Razr brand. It was a cool phone back then.

But anyway, that’s enough of a history lesson—let’s talk about this wild-ass thing Lenovo and Verizon have cooking. Apparently, it could release as early as February (like, next month), though it looks like they’re only going to make about 200,000 units to start. Makes sense, because not many people are going to shell out $1500 for a smartphone in the first place, much less one that’s based purely on nostalgia.

Otherwise, the remaining details—like the hardware—are scant. So right now we know it’ll be pricey, foldable, and niche as hell. I can’t wait to see it.

via The Wall Street Journal

Harry Guinness

If you’re buying a used camera or lens, it’s a good idea to give it a thorough going over to make sure everything works before handing over your cold, hard cash. Here’s what to check for.

For all their technical complexity, there’s not a huge amount that can go wrong with a digital camera: if it works, it works; if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. There’s not much middle ground. With that said, here’s what to do to check a camera out.

The first step is to look the camera over thoroughly. Are there any cracks, dents, breaks, or bad scuffs? You should expect a little wear and tear on a used camera, but nothing too bad.

Open the battery and SD card hatches. Do they open smoothly? Do the battery and memory card go in and out smoothly? What about the pins? Are they clean and undamaged?

Have a look at the lens mount and in particular the contacts that send information to a lens. Are they in good condition? Attach a lens to the camera. Does it go on smoothly? Is there any play between the camera and lens or does it have a nice, tight fit? Does the camera show a warning?

What about the hot shoe or built-in flash? Do they work? Do they look damaged?

Push all the buttons and turn all the dials. Is anything stuck or catching? When you adjust things, does the camera do what it’s supposed to?

Have a look at the tripod plate. Is it damaged?

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The Chromebook Tablet (seriously though, why can’t get rid of the “book” in that title?) education revolution is here. Acer started it, ASUS got in on it, and now CTL is getting in the game. Here’s the skinny.

You’d be forgiven if your first thought was “…who is CTL?,” because honestly, they’re not as well known as some of the other companies that are active in the Chrome OS market. Still, they make some fantastic Chromebooks and Chromeboxes (see, we don’t say “Chromebook Desktop,” so why aren’t they called Chrometabs?) designed to be more robust than the average Chrome OS device.

Today’s announcement of the Chromebook Tab Tx1 is what anyone familiar with CTL has come to expect—a ruggedized tablet with specs on part with the competition. It’s packing a Rockchip OP1 hexacore processor, 4GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, a microSD slot for storage expansion, a headphone jack (a rarity these days), and the appropriate wireless connections. Like the other Chromebook Tablets (ugh) that have been announced so far, it comes with an integrated stylus that garages into the device when not in use.

The Chromebook Tab Tx1 will be available “towards the end of” February 2019 in the US and Europe, but you can pre-order the device now if you’d like.

Microsoft Excel displays negative numbers with a leading minus sign by default. It is good practice to make negative numbers easy to identify, and if you’re not content with this default, Excel provides a few different options for formatting negative numbers.

Excel provides a couple of built-in ways to display negative numbers, and you can also set up custom formatting. Let’s dive in.

One thing to note here is that Excel will display different built-in options depending on the region and language settings in your operating system.

For those in the US, Excel provides the following built-in options for displaying negative numbers:

• In black, with a preceding minus sign
• In red
• In parentheses (you can choose red or black)

In the UK and many other European countries, you’ll typically be able to set negative numbers to show in black or red and with or without a minus sign (in both colors) but have no option for parentheses. You can learn more about these regional settings on Microsoft’s website.

No matter where you are, though, you’ll be able to add in additional options by customizing the number format, which we’ll cover in the next section.

To change to a different built-in format, right-click a cell (or range of selected cells) and then click the “Format Cells” command. You can also press Ctrl+1.

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