Technology

It’s that time of year when the fall directions come down, and the festive Christmas decorations go up. If you’ll be hanging a bunch of Christmas lights around your house, here are several different methods for automating them, so that you never have to worry about turning them on and off manually.

RELATED: Smart Light Switches vs. Smart Light Bulbs: Which One Should You Buy?

Keep in mind that you don’t need to have the fanciest smarthome products to make this happen, but you’ll have a bit more flexibility as far as what you can do if you already have a smarthome hub. With that said, let’s get started.

The Cheapest, Simplest Option: Outlet Timers

If you just want your lights to turn on and off at a certain time every day, you can’t go wrong with some basic outlet timers. They’re cheap, and you can buy them pretty much anywhere. This two-pack is just $11 and is great for low-power, two-pronged appliances like Christmas lights and lamps.

They’re the simplest solution for Christmas light automation, as you just set the times you want the lights to turn on and off, plug it in, and you’re off to the races.

For Advanced Automation: Smart Plugs

If you want to do anything more than what an outlet timer provides, you should get a smart plug instead. You can program your lights to turn on and off at specific times, but unlike some outlet timers, you can also choose certain days to control your lights at different times. For example, on the weekends, you may want your Christmas lights on for longer than during the week.

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Not every tabletop game has to take up a huge amount of room on your game collection shelf. Some are small enough to fit into your Christmas stocking and that’s exactly what we’re looking at – perfect stocking stuffer gifts for your card and board game adoring loved one.

Given the size constraints, it makes sense that almost all of these are card games, but as any self-respecting tabletop fan knows — you can have a ton of fun with a gripping card game. There’s a little room for a couple of entertaining dice games too. In each case, they won’t break the bank, and they’ll fit snugly into your Christmas stocking more often than not.

Here are the best card and dice games for your Christmas stocking stuffer needs.

Love Letter ($12)

Love Letter sounds quite cute but it’s actually incredibly devious. Players compete to deliver a love letter to the Princess before their rivals. Sounds charming, right? It’s actually full of risky behavior and sneaky deduction. Players must deflect the letters coming from their opponents in a bid to get there faster.

It’s a quick game to play through, only taking about 15 minutes, but you and your loved one will be keen to play more than once. It’s quick to pick up, and incredibly fun too. It’s also the perfect size to slip into a stocking.

Buy on Amazon Zombie Dice ($9)

Always a popular choice for game fans and newbies alike, Zombie Dice is super simple and super portable too. Its 13 custom dice represent zombie victims and you have to throw the dice in a bid to work out whose brains you eat. A shotgun blast ends the turn and passes play over to the opposition.

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If you want to send high quality original photos to your friends and family, then there’s really only one good way to do it: with a cloud storage provider. Social networks like Facebook and Instagram don’t store the original files; they reduce the quality, so pages load faster. Even good, dedicated photo services like 500px do it.

This isn’t an issue if you’re just posting photos so people can view them on their smartphones or computers, but if you want them to be able to print the images, you need to give them high-quality files.

RELATED: Why Do Photos Look Different When I Print Them?

What Counts as “High-Quality” Files?

The photos your smartphone camera—or any proper camera—can take are far bigger and of higher quality than social media sites can handle. If every image on your Instagram feed were 2 MBs and 12 megapixels, you’d burn through your data cap in no time. The thing is, these, high-resolution, 2 MB files are exactly what you want if you’re going to print them, set them as your desktop background, or do anything except view them in the correct size box on social media.

Here’s a photo of mine I uploaded to Facebook—it was 2.7 MB and 5166×3444 pixels. When I downloaded it from my Timeline, it was 74 KB and 860×640 pixels. You could barely print that on a postage stamp!

In general, when we talk about high-quality files, what we mean are the original photos straight from your phone or camera or, if you’ve made any edits, a saved copy in full resolution. If you shoot RAW, you can send exported full-resolution JPEGs; full-size RAW files can be a bit unwieldy, especially if the other person doesn’t have the apps to deal with them. These are the kind of files from which they’ll be able to print nice prints.

RELATED: How Big of a Photo Can I Print from My Phone or Camera?

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Microsoft has released an Insider Preview Build that includes the new Windows Sandbox feature. If you’re on the Fast track, you can download and start using it today.

What is Sandbox?

In short, Windows Sandbox is half app, half virtual machine. It lets you quickly spin up a virtual clean OS imaged from your system’s current state so that you can test programs or files in a secure environment that’s isolated from your main system. When you close the sandbox, it destroys that state. Nothing can get from the sandbox to your main installation of Windows, and nothing remains after closing it.

RELATED: Windows 10’s New Sandbox Feature is Everything We’ve Always Wanted

How Do I Get It?

Currently, the only way to use Sandbox is to join the Windows Insider program and put your PC on the fast track for updates. You shouldn’t do this on your main PC. The fast track is potentially unstable and can lead to data loss, crashes, or other nasty surprises. Since Microsoft has trouble releasing stable versions of Windows outside of testing, you should keep the Insider builds to a non-production PC.

Once you have installed Insider build 18305 (or higher), installing and starting Sandbox is a simple process.

Step One: Make Sure Virtualization is Enabled

First, you’ll need to make sure virtualization is enabled in your system’s BIOS. It typically is by default, but there’s an easy way to check. Fire up Task Manager by hitting Ctrl+Shift+Esc and then head to the “Performance” tab. Make sure the “CPU” category is selected on the left and on the right, just make sure it says “Virtualization: Enabled.”

If virtualization is not enabled, you’ll need to enable it in your PC’s BIOS settings before you continue.

Step Two: Turn On Nested Virtualization if You’re Running the Host System in a Virtual Machine (Optional)

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The Glyphs In What Video Game Are Directly Translatable to English?

1. The Legend of Zelda
2. BioShock
3. Final Fantasy
4. LEGO Star Wars

Think you know the answer?

Using a laser pointer is a great way to focus the audience on a specific part of your presentation. If you don’t happen to have one on hand at the time of your presentation, then you can use PowerPoint’s neat little setting to turn your mouse into a laser pointer. Here’s how.

Turning Your Mouse into a Laser Pointer

Microsoft came to the rescue with its PowerPoint 2010 release, getting presenters who forgot their laser pointer out of a pinch by providing a feature that converts the mouse into a laser pointer.

Enabling this feature is quite simple. In fact, you can do it during the actual presentation.

Once you’ve started your presentation and you want to change your cursor into a laser, press and hold the “Ctrl” key while clicking and holding the left mouse button.

As you can see in this GIF, we want to draw attention to “How-To Geek” in the question, then show the correct answer. You can also see that the cursor converts back to a pointer when you let go of the left mouse button, so be careful.

Changing the Color of Your Laser

The default laser color is red, which might not work well depending on the color of your slides. To change the color of your laser, switch to the “Slide Show” tab in your presentation and then click the “Set Up Slide Show” button.

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So you’ve got an eSports fan on your holiday shopping list, but you’re baffled by the inscrutable phenomenon. (“eSports” is the misnomer for high-profile video game competitions with cash prizes, FYI.) No worries: we’ve got you covered.

eSports fans are pretty similar to fans of conventional sports, just, you know, without the sport part. They root for their favorite teams and players, love to show off their enthusiasm with licensed clothing and gear, and most of all, want to see these video game competitions live. That being the case, it’s not hard to figure out what makes a good gift for a fan.

Jerseys, Hoodies, And Other Merch

Officially-licensed clothing is always a surefire way to show fan enthusiasm, and that’s no less true for the eSports crowd. Most of the official competitions and teams will sell at least something, even if it’s only T-shirts, but jerseys are the premium option for those who’re looking for a gift that will last longer and show off specific teams.

General licensed clothing for the big eSports games—DOTA, League of Legends, Counter-Strike, Rocket League, Overwatch, et cetera—can usually be found at the developer’s store, and usually on larger marketplaces like Amazon and specific stores like GameStop, too. These are items aimed at promotion of the game itself, so they won’t be quite as personal, but they make pretty good gifts if you can’t find anything else. 

For organized competitions like The International or the LoL World Championship, look on the specific site for those tournaments. For gear that promotes individual pro teams or players, check the sites for said players—some games like Overwatch also promote team memorabilia on the publisher’s page.

Licensed PC And Console Accessories

eSports players usually have some high-end gear to play on. What better to give the aspiring pro game player than some of the same stuff? The selection of gaming gear for this purpose is generally limited to individual games instead of teams or players, like Razer’s selection of Overwatch-themed keyboards, mice, and headsets.

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Some games, like first-person shooters, are just better with the mouse and keyboards you find on PCs. And now that consoles are basically just PCs with better quality control, why are gamers stuck with analog sticks? Why indeed, Razer asks.

As big games like Fortnite push for more and more cross-platform play, Microsoft has seen the light and elected to let at least some of them use PC-style control schemes. You can just plug a regular USB mouse and keyboard into your console, but if that’s not scratching your consumerism itch, Razer is making the first combo officially designed for this functionality. The Turret is a mouse and keyboard set that uses high-speed RF wireless and a slide-out mousepad to make controlling games on the couch as comfy as possible. It’s up for pre-order on the official Microsoft store right now, shipping in early 2019 for an eye-watering $250.

This is actually the second Razer product to carry the Turret name: the original used a laptop-style chiclet keyboard and a somewhat diminutive mouse, and was only compatible with conventional PCs and things like the NVIDIA SHIELD. That Turret left a lot to be desired, but the reboot uses Razer’s full-sized mechanical key switches, a mouse with buttons and ergonomics copied from its most expensive PC models, and of course, fully-programmable RGB lighting.

A neat trick to help with the somewhat awkward form factor: the mouse and mousepad use gentle magnets to keep the former from slipping off the latter. Since it uses a USB dongle, the set is compatible with PCs, too. Razer says the batteries can last for more than 40 hours of use, with lighting disabled.

Keep in mind that not every game will let you play with mouse and keyboard: Xbox developers have to enable it in Microsoft’s system. But the biggest multiplayer titles are on board, including the aforementioned Fortnite, Minecraft, Warframe, DayZ, and War Thunder. Is a competitive advantage worth an accessory as expensive as your Xbox itself? For a dedicated and free-spending subset of gamers, the answer will certainly be “yes.”

Did someone send you an Excel document, but you don’t have Excel? Giving up on Microsoft Office and making the change to Google Drive? No problem; Google Sheets lets you import your Excel files. And while it might not support some of the same features and effects of an Excel document, it works pretty well.

How to Import an Excel Document into Google Sheets

To view an Excel document on Google Sheets, you must first upload the file to your Google Drive. Open Google Drive, click “New,” and then click “File Upload” to get started.

RELATED: How to Create a Drop-Down List in Google Sheets

Navigate to your file(s) and then click “Open.”

Alternatively, you can drag and drop a file from your computer directly into the web browser for an easy upload.

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A great pair of headphones or earphones make a perfect Christmas present for your loved one. We’ve rounded up the best headphones, earbuds, and earphones for every situation.

In the case of headphones, we’ve focused primarily on comfort and noise cancellation features. Generally, headphones are at their best when you use them on your daily commute or simply when relaxing at home and you want to focus on listening to music. Alternatively, earphones and earbuds are perfect for when you’re active, such as when out walking, running or cycling. Bear in mind though that even the best noise cancelling earphones are rarely as effective as a good pair of noise cancellation headphones.

We’ve also thrown in a great pair of bone conduction headphones because these are a great alternative if you want to buy something a little different. Especially if the recipient of the gift has some hearing issues.

We’ve highlighted all our favorites here but throughout the year, we’ve looked at headphones and earphones in-depth. Don’t forget to check out the best truly wireless earbuds, best in-ear noise cancelling earbuds, best over-ear noise cancelling headphones, and best bone conduction headphones, to find out more.

Here’s our picks for the holiday season.

Best Noise Cancellation Headphones: Bose QuietComfort 35 ($349)

When you need some of the best noise cancellation headphones out there, go for the Bose QuietComfort 35. They offer three levels of noise cancellation so you can tweak them accordingly depending on if you’re sitting on a busy train or just want a bit of peace and quiet in a public place. It also has a noise rejecting dual microphone system to ensure that calls are just as smooth as merely listening. There’s Alexa support too, although you’ll be reasonably happy with the easy to use controls, as well as Bose Connect app functionality.

A battery life of 20 hours when noise cancellation is active, along with consistently great audio quality, ensures that these really are the best of the best at this price point. It’s the gift that will keep on giving for many years to come.

Buy on Amazon Best Lightweight Headphones: Plantronics BackBeat 500 ($63)

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FireWire, also known as IEEE 1394, is not a cable you usually find these days. Popularized in the early 90s, it was the competing standard to USB for a long time, not unlike Thunderbolt is today. Offering much faster speeds, even faster than USB 2.0, FireWire a connection you’ll usually find on older external hard drives and digital cameras.

FireWire 800 vs. 400

FireWire has two versions, and unlike USB 2.0 and 3.0, they’re not backward compatible. They don’t even look remotely alike, which can lead to some confusion. The older standard, FireWire 400, is a flatter connector with one rounded side, and the faster 800 version resembles a fat USB connector.

The naming scheme is accurate though, as it represents the actual speed of the cable: 400 Mbps vs. 800 Mbps. For comparison, USB 2.0 is 480 Mbps, and USB 3.0 completely outdates it with 5 Gbps.

Just Get Yourself a Dongle

Unfortunately for FireWire, nowadays you’ll find yourself needing a FireWire-to-2018 adapter as much as you’ll need the actual cable. You can find some adapters on Amazon, just make sure it’s the right FireWire type, as they’re not compatible with each other.

You’ll also want to avoid a USB 2.0 adapter if you’re looking to connect FireWire 800, as it will be much slower. Though, if it’s the only way you can connect it, running at half speed isn’t too bad.

The way iOS handles notifications has always been less than ideal, but iOS 12 goes some way to improving matters. Part of that is the new ability to change how notifications are handled, right from within the Notification Center.

With the arrival of iOS 12, Apple made it possible for people to receive a notification, decide that they don’t want ever to have to see it again, and then make that happen all without going spelunking into the often confusing world of the Settings app. That’s a great improvement for usability and one that hopefully means developers will think twice before spamming their users with notifications.

Managing notifications from the Notification Center is a great way of making sure you never see that irritating game’s request for your time again. That’s almost worth the upgrade to iOS 12 alone. Once you’ve done that and received one-too-many irritating notifications, instead of dismissing it, swipe left on it.

You’ll see three options, and the one to tap is “Manage.”

Next, you’ll see four options.

• Delivery Quietly: This option will allow the notifications to arrive, but they will not play any sounds, display banners or badge icons, or appear on the Lock screen.
• Turn Off: This option does exactly what it sounds like, turning off all notifications for the app in question.
• Settings: This will take you to the more granular notification options within the Settings app. Here, you can change how notifications are displayed and which sound they make when they arrive.
• Cancel: This button cancels the dialog and returns you to the Notification Center.

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“Retro,” “Mini,” and “Classic” consoles are the bee’s knees this holiday season, with notable offerings from Nintendo, Sony, and (sort of) others. But which one is the best?

There’s a pretty clear standout among the current crop of officially-licensed mini-consoles, and it’s no spoiler to say that it’s the Super NES Classic. But there are a few other options you should consider, especially if you (or your gift recipient) are unimpressed with the limited and non-expandable selection of games in these devices. A premium remade “clone” that plays original cartridges, or a device that runs emulators and nigh-unlimited game ROM files, might make a better choice for some gamers.

Before we dive in, be aware of a recent development: Nintendo recently announced they will be discontinuing the NES and SNES Classic after this holiday season. If you want to pick one up (and you don’t want to pay outrageous scalper-level prices for one a few months from now), now is the time to do so.

The Best Retro Console: Nintendo Super NES Classic Edition ($80)

The NES Classic may have started off this craze, but going all the way back to the 80s might cause a bit of gaming jet lag. The older 8-bit games, with their extremely simple graphics, sounds, and two-button control schemes, haven’t aged as well in reality as they might have in your memory.

The SNES Classic is the way to go. Not only are the Super Nintendo games featured in its collection much more palatable than the older NES games, it’s an overall better group. Timeless Nintendo classics like Super Mario World, Super Metroid, Zelda: A Link to the Past, Mario Kart, and Donkey Kong Country are joined by third-party all stars like Mega Man X, Street Fighter II, and Super Castlevania IV. The SNES’s rich RPG legacy is also honored, with Earthbound, Super Mario RPG, Final Fantasy III, and Secret of Mana, but Chrono Trigger is an unfortunate no-show. Star Fox 2, an SNES sequel that was developed but never released, gets a world premiere on this new hardware. Naturally, the SNES Classic plays all of these games over HDMI, and there are some excellent accessories offered for the hardware, too.

Nintendo’s classic offering is getting the nod over the PlayStation Classic. Sony’s entry has some serious technical issues since some games run slowly due to PAL ROMs. While there are some standout titles in the PS Classic like Final Fantasy VII and Metal Gear Solid, it doesn’t have the wall-to-wall greats that Nintendo’s hardware does.

But the most unfortunate fact is that the early 32-bit 3D era has simply aged poorly: the low-resolution, low-framerate, and low-polygon visuals aren’t as clear or as appealing as the 16-bit sprites on the SNES games. It wasn’t until the PS2 era that 3D graphics on consoles really started to shine, while the Super Nintendo was the pinnacle of 2D console gaming. Plus, many of the PS Classic titles are available to play on the PS3 and PS4, which isn’t true with the SNES Classic and Nintendo Switch.

This is the one you probably shouldn’t get.

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As you get better at photography, you need to start making deliberate choices about the composition of your images. The rule of thirds just won’t cut it anymore. One of the simplest and most powerful composition techniques is leading lines. Let’s look at what they are and how to use them.

RELATED: Is the Rule of Thirds Really a Photography Rule?

Why Composition?

Photography is an art form. Sure, there’s not a tremendous amount of art to snapshots of your dog you took with your iPhone, but there still is the potential there for an image to be more than just a disposable depiction of something that happened.

Good images say something. It’s not always some big, deep point or cultural criticism; often it’s “the world is pretty awesome” or “humans can do cool stuff.” Composition is just one of the tools that serve to deliver the message.

Let’s look at a photo of mine.

In this shot, I wanted to say a few things:

• Humans are small, and nature is big.
• Humans still do pretty epic things in nature.
• SPEEEEEEEED!

It’s not exactly a Pulitzer-Prize-winning photo, but I think I managed to get my point across with my composition. Whenever you’re taking a photo, think about what you want people looking at it to feel. Calm? Angry? Excited? Inspired? Happy? Whatever it is, the composition will either make or break the message.

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Whether it’s a program you found on the Internet or something that came in your email, running executable files has always been risky. Testing software in clean systems requires virtual machine (VM) software and a separate Windows license to run inside the VM. Microsoft is about to solve that problem with Windows Sandbox.

VMs: Great for Safe Testing, But Hard to Use

We’ve all received an email that appears to be from a friend or a family member and has an attachment. Maybe we were even expecting it, but somehow it looks not quite right. Or perhaps you’ve found a great looking app on the Internet, but it’s from a developer you’ve never heard of.

What do you do? Download and run it and just take the risk? With things like ransomware running rampant, it’s almost impossible to be too cautious.

In software development, sometimes the thing a developer needs the most is a clean system—a quick and easy to pull up OS that has no other installed programs, files, scripts, or other baggage. Anything extra could skew testing results.

The best solution to both situations is to spin up a Virtual Machine. This gives you a clean, isolated OS. If that attachment turns out to be malware, then the only thing it affects is the virtual machine. Restore it to an earlier snapshot, and you’re good to go. If you’re a developer, you can do your testing as if you’d just set up a brand new machine.

RELATED: Beginner Geek: How to Create and Use Virtual Machines

There are some problems with VM software, though.

First, it can be expensive. Even if you use a free alternative like VirtualBox, you still need a valid Windows license to run on the virtualized OS. And sure, you can get away with not activating Windows 10, but that limits what you can test.

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The Probability of Death Is Measured In What Units?

1. Termini
2. Micromorts
3. Deathrolls
4. Mortalities

Think you know the answer?

A fascinating new phishing attempt it making the rounds disguising itself as a receipt from the App Store, tricking unsuspecting users into coughing up all of their personal details. Here’s what you need to know and how to stay safe.

First of all, look how skeezy this looks

As reported by Bleeping Computer, the attempt shows up as an email with an attached PDF receipt for somewhere in the range of $30. With that, there’s a highly convenient “Issues with this transaction?” link at the bottom of the page.

More convincing, but still has obvious errors, like “Thanks to Purchasing!”

Uninformed users click the link, of course, expecting to dispute the fraudulent charge. They’re then presented with a convincing-looking page with a less-convincing URL asking them to log in with their Apple ID. It’s also worth noting that this is a secure website, leading to an even bigger reason to assume it’s legit. But just because a site is secure, doesn’t mean it’s safe.

Looks pretty legit.

After attempting to log in, a warning is displayed stating that the ID has been locked for security reasons. A handy Unlock Account button is just below, which is where things get really bad. Clicking this button takes users to a new page asking for every damn detail you can imagine.  Name, address, phone number, social security number, date of birth, payment info, and security questions/answers are all found on the form—this is an identity theft convenience kit.

Oof. Just look at those questions. And that’s not even the half of it.

But this is also where things get really interesting—after submitting the form, it states that the account is automatically logged out then redirects to a legitimate Apple page. Users log in, assuming that all is right with the world again when that couldn’t be further from the truth—the attacker just got everything they wanted. All your information put together in a nice little form. Yuck.

And a few seconds later, users are taken to a legitimate Apple page.

As pointed out by Bleeping Computer, the URL is the main thing that gives the whole thing away is the funky URLs (which were redacted from the original post for obvious reasons), but the point remains: if something looks awry, it probably is.

As stated previously, the weakness of this campaign is their use of very suspicious URLs.  An observant person will easily see that the URLs are not legitimate, look strange, and should be avoided. For this reason, it is very important that users do not open links from strange emails and instead go directly to a company’s web site. If they do open links from emails, it is always important to analyze the URL of the landing page to make sure you are at a legitimate site.

The real Apple page.

As always, the key to staying safe is knowing what you’re up against. So pay attention to the details and stay vigilant.

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The holidays are the perfect time of year to gather around as a family and play some games. We’ve highlighted some of the best tabletop games for all the family to enjoy.

There are thousands of games to choose from so we’ve focused on the most accessible board and card games out there. We’ve looked at games that family members of all age and ability can get to grips with, so that you don’t have to spend hours explaining rules and regulations. None of these games are too huge either, so you won’t need to devote hours to a session. Instead, you can play these games for a little while before moving onto something else.

Here are some of our favorite games for young and old this Christmas.

Kingdomino ($17)

The aim behind Kingdomino is simple — build the best Kingdom by fitting tiles together well, kind of like dominos. It’s a concept that works brilliantly for 2 to 4 players, and only takes about 15 minutes to complete a game.

Strategy comes from planning how you design your Kingdom so it’s simple enough that kids from 8 and up can figure it out, as well as older relatives who have never played this kind of game before. It’s not complex by any means, but there’s a decent amount of depth here as you figure out how to arrange things, and when to take tiles at the key moment during a game. Simply put, it’s ideal if you have a household of mixed abilities.

Buy on Amazon Photosynthesis ($35)

The environment is a big issue for many, and understandably so. Combine that key issue with tabletop gaming and you get Photosynthesis—a board game with an important message behind it.

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A desk job isn’t always the most exciting of roles but it’s what many of us will find ourselves doing each day. How about buying your loved ones a fun toy or trinket to liven up their office desk?

See, you can just stare into space when you want a few minutes peace at work but it’s also fun to mess around with some kind of office toy too. Even better, some of the toys here will help focus your mind or simply encourage you to relax a little and take a breather. We’ve got a bunch of great desk toys and trinkets that will make fantastic stocking stuffers this Christmas.

Infinity Cube Fidget Toy ($11)

Fidget toys are awesome, whatever your age. The Infinity Cube Fidget Toy is a cube based brainteaser that’s playable with one hand. Composed of eight tough ABS plastic blocks lined together with strong stainless steel metal rivets, it’s a reasonably weighty object for you to manipulate with one hand while you concentrate on whatever’s bothering you, or simply let your thoughts drift away.

Like any neat fidget toy, you can use it to build up flexibility in your hands, while you take some time to solve the puzzle and rearrange everything to however you want it to look. It’s a complete time waster but it’s kind of therapeutic and a great way of discouraging you from unhealthy habits like biting your nails or cracking your knuckles.

Buy on Amazon Kingou Wooden Puzzle Magic Ball ($10)

A true brainteaser, the Kingou Wooden Puzzle Magic Ball isn’t a puzzle that most people will solve fast. You have to piece the shapes together to form a wooden ball. Simple, right? Not in reality. It’s actually hard to assemble, as well as take apart. You really have to spend some time figuring it out, which is why it’s perfect to pass the time during a break at work, or even when taking a conference call.

It comes with paper instructions and a video link QR code but that’s hardly the point. This mind puzzle is there to test you, as well as make you feel like you’ve accomplished something. Even when it’s been a rough day.

Buy on Amazon Deluxe Sand Garden ($20)

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If you’ve ever spent time creating an iMovie project on your iPhone or iPad that you wanted to continue working with on your Mac, moving it over is a simple process. Here’s how to do it.

Note: One thing to keep in mind about this process is that you won’t be able to send your projects back to your iPhone or iPad after migrating them to Mac. You’ll have to continue editing on your Mac, so be careful not to send unless you’re committing to editing on Mac.

With that out of the way, here’s how to move iMovie project to your Mac

First, open iMovie on your iPhone or iPad and select the Projects tab at the top. Next, tap on the project icon you’d like to share. You should see a new screen pop up. Tap the “Share” button on the same screen.

 

The easiest way to move your project to your Mac is via AirDrop. When you click Share, you should see the option to AirDrop your file to your Mac, as long as it’s enabled. Tap the AirDrop icon to send the project to your computer. When it arrives, it should automatically pop up on your screen in the Finder window. If you hit any snags, here’s a detailed tutorial on using AirDrop to share items.

 

You will have several other options via your Share menu, such as saving the file to your device, sending it via Messages, and more. Depending on how large your project is, it may take some time to send via AirDrop, but this eliminates much of the muss and fuss that comes along with moving projects from one device to another. Alternatively, you can send your project to your iCloud Drive via the same menu, or send your file to your computer by simply syncing it to your iTunes account.

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