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Why You Can’t Buy a Self-Driving Car in 2019

How-To Geek - Thu, 02/21/2019 - 13:40

BMW Group

Self-driving cars have been on our minds for a while now, and manufacturers seem to be making progress every day. But when will you have a self-driving car in your driveway?

Well, the answer is a bit complicated. To answer it, we need to understand where we are with self-driving cars right now, and what steps we need to take to make fully autonomous cars a reality in the future.

When is a Car Fully Autonomous?

According to SAE International standards, autonomous cars are rated with a “level” on a scale from 0 to 5. Level 0 cars have no autonomy and must be controlled by a human at all times. Level 5 cars are fully autonomous and don’t require any help from a human to operate.

NHTSA/SAE

The car that you’re driving right now is, more than likely, a Level 1 autonomous vehicle. It has cruise control features, and it might even have a backup camera. But there’s a chance that you’re driving a Level 2 or Level 3 semi-autonomous car, like a Tesla, a Cadillac CT6, a Mercedes-Benz E-Class, or a Volvo S90. These cars have features like Auto Pilot or Super Cruise, which allow you to take your hands off the wheel while your car maintains a steady speed and changes lanes.

Okay, glorified cruise control is super cool, but you’re trying to buy a fully self-driving car. Are there any Level 4 or Level 5 autonomous cars on the market? The answer is a resounding “no,” but you could find yourself in a genuine self-driving car very soon.

RELATED: What Are the Different Self-Driving Car “Levels” of Autonomy?

2019 is the Year of Level 4 Autonomous Cars

We haven’t talked about Level 4 autonomous vehicles yet, but they’re an important step in the journey to self driving cars. The dividing line between Level 4 and Level 5 autonomous cars is, essentially, flexibility. While Level 5 autonomous cars can traverse anywhere on a whim and safely maneuver through novel locations, Level 4 cars are stuck in predetermined areas, like a city or a state. Level 4 cars are also fed roadmaps and travel data that make everything super easy and safe. While Level 5 cars are comparable to hyper-aware human drivers, Level 4 cars are comparable to a near-blind person walking the streets of a familiar city.

That’s why Level 4 autonomous cars are being built specifically for driverless ride-sharing and delivery services, not for the retail car market. These cars run on a predetermined track, but they’re capable of maneuvering between lanes and avoiding collisions with cars or pedestrians. They’re reliable, safe, and good for collecting data that will be useful for Level 5 cars in the future. Manufacturers are already using Level 4 autonomous cars in some cities, and there’s a decent chance that you’ve seen (or been inside of) a Level 4 autonomous car.

Waymo

Waymo, the self-driving car company that was founded by Google, is one of the forerunners of Level 4 self-driving cars. The company has been working on autonomous cars for almost a decade, and Waymo vehicles are currently used for ride sharing (by a select group of people) in Chandler, Arizona and San Francisco, California. Residents of the Metro Phoenix area that want free rides in a Waymo autonomous taxi can sign up for an Early Rider program right now, but spaces are limited, so don’t spend too much time thinking.

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Categories: IT General, Technology

Samsung’s Galaxy Fold Has a Massive Folding Screen and a $2000 Price Tag to Match

How-To Geek - Wed, 02/20/2019 - 22:42
Samsung

At today’s Unpacked event, Samsung finally and formally unveiled its long-rumored folding Galaxy phone. The Galaxy Fold (natch) uses a 4.6-inch exterior screen and a folding, seamless 7.3-inch screen that opens book-style thanks to an interior hinge.

Samsung

As impressive as the technology is, Samsung wants a premium price for what it calls a new category of smartphones. When the Galaxy Fold comes out on April 26th, it will start at $1980 USD, just shy of two grand. If you want the 5G version, with few details and no date, you’ll no doubt have to shell out more.

Samsung

Samsung bills this as a “luxury phone,” but what you’re really paying for is novelty. Not that it isn’t impressive. The folding screen works seamlessly with the exterior screen, allowing apps to go from one to the other when the interior hinge is activated, with none of the flickering or choppiness you might expect. Samsung developers are working with Google to make sure the experience is as fast and smooth as possible.

Samsung

Working with the larger interior screen, you can use two or even three apps at once with Samsung’s multi-panel interface. Apps can be moved from the larger window to the smaller easily, allowing for comfy multi-tasking without using the switcher button.

Other hardware features include a “7-nanometer processor” (precise model and capabilities weren’t mentioned), 512 GB of storage capacity, and a side-mounted fingerprint reader—note that the Galaxy Fold is missing the screen-integrated fingerprint reader on the Galaxy S10. No less than six cameras are on the phone: three on the back, one on the front, and two cameras on the inside.

Samsung

The battery is split into two main packs, with 4380 mAh combined. How long will that last switching between screens? Who can guess? There are a lot of hardware, software, and market features of the Galaxy Fold that are a mystery at the moment, and won’t be truly explored until it’s released and we can see how practically it works in the real world.

Samsung

However novel or useful this first major implementation of a folding phone screen is, it seems unlikely that Samsung will sell many of them. Samsung seems to know that, too: the Galaxy Fold was introduced by a marketing executive, while Samsung CEO DJ Koh waited for his moment to reveal the more market-friendly Galaxy S10. The consumer reaction to the Galaxy Fold will be critical to see if there are more folding screen products from Samsung, or its competitors, in the near future.

Categories: IT General, Technology

Samsung Announces Galaxy Watch Active and Galaxy Fit

How-To Geek - Wed, 02/20/2019 - 22:38
Samsung

Samsung announced a host of new products today, and while phones were a focus, it didn’t forget about the products you wear too. Samsung showed off two new devices: the Galaxy Watch Active and the Galaxy Fit.

Wearables are a burgeoning market, and Samsung wants to create an entire ecosystem, so it’s no surprise that they’re all in on smartwatches. While the Gear 2 was well known for its rotating bezel functions for easier navigation, the Watch Active eschews that entirely in favor of touch gestures, along with an overhaul of the design.

Samsung

New to the watch though is support for Samsung’s reverse wireless charging feature, which will let a Galaxy S10 charge this watch. The watch is water resistant and features heart rate and blood pressure tracking. An Exynos CPU powers the Galaxy Watch Active and it includes 4GB of storage, Bluetooth 4.2, and GPS tracking for your marathons

The Galaxy Watch will cost $199, and you can pre-order it starting February 21st. The Watch is available March 8th.

Samsung

Speaking of marathons, Samsung also announced a band designed less like a watch and more as a fitness tracker. The Galaxy Fit has a smaller screen than the Watch Active but benefits from both longer battery life and light weight. Samsung described the Fit as weighing about as much as a strawberry (23 grams) and promised the device would last about a week on a charge.

Like the Galaxy Active, the Fit is water resistant and has heart rate and stress tracking. Both devices also offer sleep tracking, and will automatically track 6 different exercises. You can manually start tracking an exercise session too.

The Fit will cost $99 and you can purchase it on March 31st.

Categories: IT General, Technology

Samsung’s New Galaxy Buds Can Be Wirelessly Charged Using the Galaxy S10

How-To Geek - Wed, 02/20/2019 - 22:17

At Samsung’s annual Unpacked event, the company announced a new set of truly wireless headphones, called the Galaxy Buds, aimed to compete with a heap of other truly wireless headphones that have cropped up recently.

Granted, these aren’t Samsung’s first dive into truly wireless headphones, as the company released the Gear IconX headphones back in 2016 just a couple months before Apple released their AirPods. Today, however, Samsung looks to improve on its past creation.

The Galaxy Buds look like your run-of-the-mill wireless headphones, complete with a nifty little charging case, but the big feature with these is that they can be wirelessly charged using the new Galaxy S10 phone that Samsung also announced today. The feature is called Powershare, and it allows users to simply rest their Galaxy Buds on the back of the S10 to charge them up. They can also be charged using a regular wireless charging mat, and there’s a USB-C port if old-school charging is still your thing.

Obviously, sound quality is the biggest factor we’re curious about, but Samsung has partnered with AKG to handle the audio portion, so they should sound pretty decent.

For battery life, we’re looking at six hours of music listening for the earbuds themselves, and then the case will provide another seven hours (which is a far cry from the extra 24 hours that the AirPods case offers).

You’ll be able to buy yourself a pair of Galaxy Buds for $129 starting on March 8th. However, if you pre-order a Galaxy S10 or S10+ before March 7th, Samsung will throw in a pair of Galaxy Buds for free. You’ll be able to choose between white, black, and yellow.

Categories: IT General, Technology

Meet the Galaxy S10 Family: Galaxy S10, S10 Plus, S10 5G, and S10E

How-To Geek - Wed, 02/20/2019 - 22:13

This year’s first Samsung Unpacked event brings some big changes for Samsung’s flagship handsets—from displays to cameras and fingerprint readers, there’s a lot of new stuff in the S10 lineup. There’s even a new phone.

Before we get into the details of each, let’s take a closer look at the four handsets themselves:

  • Galaxy S10: The smaller of the flagship-level handsets with a 6.1-inch display.
  • Galaxy S10 Plus: The big boy of the bunch, featuring a big ol’ 6.4-inch panel.
  • Galaxy S10 5G: The Galaxy S10 with 5G connectivity…and a bigger screen, more cameras, and other goodies.
  • Galaxy S10E: The newcomer to the S family and the most affordable of the trio. It’s also the smallest, offering a 5.8-inch display.

Oh, and right out of the gate: All four phones have headphone jacks. Headphone jacks!

But now, let’s talk about all the goodies in each.

Galaxy S10 and S10 Plus

The S10, the smaller of the two flagship handsets It features a 6.1-inch display with a 3040×1440 display resolution and Samsung’s “Infinity O” hole-punch display instead of an unsightly notch. The S10 Plus is pretty much identical, but it bumps the screen size up to 6.4-inches. That O cutout is super clean and makes for some of the smallest bezels we’ve seen in a handset like this.

The display is also the first from Samsung to pack an in-display fingerprint reader, moving the reader from the back of the phone to the front. Funny, the evolution of the fingerprint reader in Samsung phones was: in the home button (on the front), to the back, and back to the front (in the display). Everything old is new again!

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Categories: IT General, Technology

How to Build a PowerPoint Organizational Chart With Excel Data

How-To Geek - Wed, 02/20/2019 - 22:00

Building an organizational chart in Excel makes sense because it’s easy to pull data from sources like other Excel documents or Outlook. When it comes time to show off that chart, you’ll probably want to use PowerPoint, though. Fortunately, bringing the Excel chart over to PowerPoint is fairly simple.

Creating the Organizational Chart in Excel

First, open a new Excel sheet. Head over to the “Insert” tab and select the “SmartArt” option.

The “Choose a SmartArt Graphic” window will appear. In the pane on the left-hand side, select “Hierarchy.” You’ll see several different chart styles appear on the right. Choose the one that suits your needs best. In this example, we’ll choose the “Name and Title Organizational Chart” option.

After you select your chart style, a preview of the chart and the chart’s description will appear on the right-hand side of the window. Select “OK” when you’re ready.

Your chart will now appear in the Excel sheet. Fill out the relevant information for your team members in the chart (or pull the data from other sources). Once you’re finished, you should have something that looks like this.

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Categories: IT General, Technology

The Best Subscription Boxes for Cat Owners

How-To Geek - Wed, 02/20/2019 - 21:00

Jimmy Yan/Shutterstock

You’re subscribed to monthly makeup and vinyl record boxes, but aren’t you forgetting a certain feline friend?

There are plenty of subscription boxes that are made just for cat owners, and they offer an easy, affordable way to fulfill your cat’s needs every month. Most of these subscription boxes focus on the essentials, like toys, treats, and litter. But some are made to pamper your cat, or provide a solution for your lousy kitty litter situation.

But how do you wade through all the various boxes to find the perfect one for your cat? You don’t, because we’ve done the wading for you. All of these cat boxes start at a reasonable rate for single-cat households. But if you have more than one cat, then you can always pay a little extra to get more toys, treats, or litter.

For the Generous Cat Owner: Rescue Box ($24+)

If your cat came from a shelter, then you know how important it is to support homeless pets. Shelters rely on food and cash donations to keep animals alive, but donating to a shelter can be difficult when you have to buy food for cats at home.

Luckily, Rescue Box provides a solution. Rescue Box is a subscription service that helps you save money on treats and toys, while also showing your support for shelters. For every month that you’re subscribed to Rescue Box, the company donates 5 pounds of food and 2 vaccines to animal shelters. Not bad.

Subscribe to Rescue Box For the Essentials: KitNipBox ($20+)

Some subscription boxes can be a little quirky or over the top. If you’re just trying to buy traditional cat treats and toys at a discount, then you should take a look at KitNipBox.

Every month, KitNipBox sends you a package full of essential treats, toys and catnip that your feline friend will love. None of these toys are too weird, so you know that your cat will actually get some use out of them.

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Categories: IT General, Technology

The Best Pregnancy Pillows for Every Sleeping Situation

How-To Geek - Wed, 02/20/2019 - 18:00

Africa Studio/Shutterstock

Getting enough rest when pregnant is important. Unfortunately, it’s also often quite tricky to achieve. Finding the right sleeping position for your changing body is rarely easy but a dedicated pregnancy pillow can go some way to helping that. We’ve looked at the best pregnancy pillows currently on the market.

Different bodies and sleeping patterns mean different pillows, so we’ve looked at a few different types. C and U shaped pillows are the key types of pillows, giving you something different to hold on to or snuggle up with. Wedge pillows can also be useful, and there’s even room for one that makes it possible to still sleep on your stomach. Whatever your preferred sleeping position, we’ve got you covered.

Here’s our pick of pregnancy pillows.

Best For General Use: Boppy Slipcovered Pregnancy Body Pillow ($50) Boppy

The best thing about the Boppy Slipcovered Pregnancy Body Pillow is it’s really flexible. You can use it for more than just sleeping with. It’s also good for supporting your back when you’re sitting upright in bed, or just for when you’re leaning back on the sofa and you need some extra support that a regular cushion just can’t achieve.

The pillow is filled with virgin fiber so it’s really flexible, with a unique contoured shape that promises to provide you with comfort throughout your pregnancy. There’s a removable slipcover too so it’s easy to toss into the machine to wash. However many weeks you’re along, it’ll improve your chances of sleep and quality rest.

Buy on Amazon Best C Shaped Pillow: Leahco Snoogle Body Pillow ($60) Leahco

A C shaped pillow is a great way of giving you something that you can wrap around your body in a variety of different ways. The Leahco Snoogle Body Pillow does exactly that. It’s effectively like surrounding yourself with numerous solid pillows or cushions, but without the hassle.

The material used for the Leahco Snoogle Body Pillow ensures that no extra body heat is contained, and it has a removable cover for easy washing. You can easily use the horseshoe-shaped head pillow to get your position just so, before using the long midsection for your back or stomach, and the end for tucking between your knees. It’s well attuned to where your pregnant body needs most support.

Buy on Amazon Best U Shaped Pillow: Queen Rose U-Shaped Pillow ($49) Queen Rose

A U shaped pillow is good if you want consistent support of both sides of your body. The Queen Rose U-Shaped Pillow is the best of the bunch. It follows the shape of the pregnant body, ensuring it’s long enough for you to stretch out amongst it. It’s designed mainly for side sleeping so you don’t have to worry about your back or stomach feeling unsupported as you snooze.

You can also adjust it so that it doubles up nicely as a nursing pillow or simply a way to prop you up as you watch TV or read. The cover is removable and made of 100% cotton so its hypoallergenic materials will never irritate your skin.

Buy on Amazon Best Wedge Pillow: Boppy Pregnancy Wedge Pillow ($15) Boppy

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Categories: IT General, Technology

Logitech is Reviving the Popular MX518 Gaming Mouse

How-To Geek - Wed, 02/20/2019 - 17:52
Logitech

Power users often get quite attached to their input devices and don’t like to move on from a winner. For the considerable number of fans of an older gaming mouse, the MX518, Logitech is bringing it back.

The MX518 was first released back in 2005: a curvy, gaming-focused wired mouse with the now-standard eight buttons. It was fairly primitive by today’s standards, with an optical sensor maxing out at just 1600 DPI (literally one-tenth the resolution of today’s top gaming mice) and a glossy plastic top that looked like a bit of the Terminator T-1000 dropped off. It was a gentle evolution of the MX500 design from 2002.

The 2019 version of the MX518 will feature a more toned-down exterior with Logitech’s current branding, but its ergonomics remain identical to the original, right down to the circular thumb and DPI adjustment buttons. Underneath, Logitech has upgraded its hardware. The new mouse gets the company’s most advanced 16,000 DPI sensor, a nigh-instant response time of one millisecond, and an onboard ARM chip to manage all of it.

The refreshed mouse will cost $60 when it goes on sale, which is fairly typical for a mid-range wired gaming mouse. For the sensor inside, assuming you can actually use that much DPI, it’s a bargain. Logitech hasn’t said when it will be available, but you can pre-order it now.

Source: The Next Web

Categories: IT General, Technology

Deal Alert: Grab a Refurbished Pixel 3 or Pixel 3 XL for $300 off

How-To Geek - Wed, 02/20/2019 - 17:34

You’re going to be hearing a lot of phone news this week. If the excitement’s already forcing you into phone-buying mode, then you should steer yourself toward this Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL deal.

Now, it’s no secret that we love the Pixel 3. It’s one of the best premium Android phones, it has a great battery, a vivid screen, and it works well with Google Assistant. But the retail price of the Pixel 3 (or any new phone, for that matter) can turn things sour very quickly.

That’s why we’re always excited to see a discounted Pixel 3. Right now, Woot is selling the Just Black Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL with 64 GB of storage at a $300 discount. In case you don’t feel like doing the math, that’s $550 for the regular Pixel 3, and $600 for the Pixel 3 XL. But again, it’s only for the black model, so if you were hoping for a different color, you’re out of luck.

Note that these are refurbished phones, but they at least come with Woot’s 90-day limited warranty. If you’re into it, hit the button below to jump on this deal before it’s gone.

Buy From Woot

 

Categories: IT General, Technology

Deal Alert: Get a Refurbished Dyson Ball 2 Animal for $275 ($125 Off)

How-To Geek - Wed, 02/20/2019 - 17:24
Dyson

We think the Dyson Ball 2 Animal is the best overall vacuum you can get for the pet-filled home. And today Amazon is selling a refurbished edition for a steep discount at $275.

Dyson offers some of the best vacuums on the market, and will quickly pick up so much dirt you’re left wondering how you survived in such a sick and filthy home. Unfortunately, the only thing that sucks more than the vacuum itself is the pricing. The Dyson Ball 2 Animal is usually $400 for instance, and no matter how much fur it picks up that can be hard to swallow.

Thankfully, Amazon is offering a refurbished model on steep discount today. Amazon tests and inspects these units for any defects, and makes any repairs as necessary, and so guarantees a “like new in working condition” state.

The vacuum comes with all its accessories (including the animal-specific attachments), but may not arrive in the original box and only includes a six month Dyson warranty instead of the usual five-year warranty. That said, we ordered the previous model refurbished in 2017, and it is still going strong.

If you’ve always wanted a Dyson but couldn’t justify a $400 price tag, today may be your day to treat yourself—to a cleaner house that is.

Buy on Amazon

Categories: IT General, Technology

Where Are the Admin Tools for Office 365?

How-To Geek - Wed, 02/20/2019 - 17:24

For most people, Microsoft Office 365 is a bunch of applications like Outlook, Word, Excel, etc. But if you have your own domain, you can also manage your users, groups, policies, and more. Let’s take a look.

We’ve covered all the apps that come with Office 365, but it’s far more than just a set of discrete productivity applications. It’s also an enterprise management system that contains all sorts of tools like Azure Active Directory, usage reports, and a whole slew of security tools that most people know nothing about. These tools live in the Admin Center, which (for most users) will be available if you have a domain (e.g., AcmeRockets.com) and Microsoft provides the email for that domain (e.g., Rob@AcmeRockets.com).

For personal users, the most common way this happens is if you buy a domain from a registrar/host like GoDaddy or 1&1 and they offer Office 365-hosted email as part of the package.

RELATED: The Best Places to Buy a Domain Name

You’ll need to log into the Office 365 account that contains your hosted email to see the Admin option. The login page can be a bit difficult to find sometimes because it often lives on your domain host’s site, not the main Microsoft site. If you try to sign-in at Office.com, it’s usually smart enough to know where your domain is registered and redirect you to the correct login page, though. But if you can’t find it, contact your domain host, and they’ll help you.

Once you’ve logged in, you’ll be able to see the Admin option in the list of apps on the main Office 365 page, and also in the app launcher available from the nine dots.

Click on the Admin app, and you’ll be taken to the Admin Center, where you can see a menu of options on the left-hand side.

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Categories: IT General, Technology

Here’s Where and When to Watch the Samsung Galaxy S10 Event Today

How-To Geek - Wed, 02/20/2019 - 17:09
Samsung

It’s almost time for Mobile World Congress, and you know what that means…it’s exactly time for Samsung to steal everyone’s thunder with its own event. The first Galaxy Unpacked product reveal of the year will be later today.

As usual, the Unpacked press event will be livestreamed to the internet, so gadget addicts can watch the worldwide reveal in real time. The event will take place in San Francisco at 11 AM local Pacific time, which is 2 PM Eastern and  7:00 PM UTC. The video will be live on this Samsung site.

New flagship phones are an inevitability. The latest iterations on the main line, the Galaxy S10 and S10+, have already been leaked for weeks. In addition to the usual hardware and software bumps, we’re expecting a new “hole punch” front camera design that replaces the common “notch” with a small hole in the upper right corner of the curved screen, and triple rear camera modules on at least the larger phone. The Galaxy S10e is expected to be a cheaper version of this design, with the hole punch camera intact, analogous to the iPhone XR.

Samsung

What might be more interesting is a reveal of Samsung’s upcoming folding phone design, rumored to be called either the Galaxy F or Galaxy Fold. Samsung showed a prototype of this folding screen device (a smaller screen on the outside with a large inner screen that folds open like a book) in November of last year. Samsung’s teaser video means a short appearance, if not a full technical breakdown, is in store.

Since this folding phone hasn’t been seen at the FCC for wireless testing and other press materials haven’t leaked, it seems likely that it isn’t quite ready for a full retail rollout, as the S10 phones are expected to receive within a month of their announcement. Samsung is so ready to get the Galaxy S10 rolling that you can actually reserve a chance to reserve a pre-order of the new phones before they’re even announced.

We’ll be talking about everything Samsung announces later today, so keep it locked here for full details as soon as they drop.

Categories: IT General, Technology

Deal Alert: Get a SanDisk Extreme Pro 128 GB MicroSD Card for Just $50

How-To Geek - Wed, 02/20/2019 - 16:54

Do yourself a favor, stop using the internal storage on your phone or camera. You can buy a massive 128 GB MicroSD card for 50 percent off right now.

Right now, B&H is selling a 128 GB SanDisk MicroSD card for just $50—that’s half of its retail price. And don’t worry, it comes with a USB 3.0 SD card reader, so you’ll be able to transfer files right out of the box.

Most MicroSD cards that get heavy discounts have poor read and write speeds. As a result, they open and transfer files very slowly. Luckily, this SanDisk card is an exception to the rule. It has a read speed of 275 MB/s and a write speed of 100 MB/s, so it’s great for quickly transferring or opening large files, like video games and high-resolution movies. Plus, it has a UHS Speed Class 3 rating, so it’s capable of running video for a 4K monitor.

An inexpensive MicroSD card (like this one) may be perfect for your camera, your Raspberry Pi project, your Nintendo Switch, or even your phone (if it has a MicroSD card slot, of course). But B&H is ending this deal tonight, so don’t sleep on it for too long, or you know, at all.

Buy From B&H

Categories: IT General, Technology

How to Cancel App Subscriptions on iPhone or iPad

How-To Geek - Wed, 02/20/2019 - 16:00

Apple’s App Store is full of apps with in-app subscriptions. That’s great news for developers, and it’s great for users who don’t want apps to go away. But if you don’t use an app, why not cancel your subscription?

Canceling a subscription to an iPhone or iPad app hasn’t always been the easiest thing to do, because Apple hasn’t always made the process obvious. Even if you did know. the chances are good that you do it so infrequently that you have forgotten, and there’s always the chance that Apple changed something in a recent iOS update.

Apple did in fact recently change how iPhone and iPad owners cancel subscriptions via the App Store, and thankfully, it’s now easier than ever. As with all things in life, however, these things are only easy if you know how—and we’re going to make sure you do.

How to Cancel App Subscriptions

To get started, open the App Store and tap on the icon that represents your Apple ID at the top of the screen.

Next, tap “Manage Subscriptions.”

Here you will see a list of all of the in-app subscriptions for which you are currently paying. You’ll also find any that are expired at the bottom of the list should you wish to re-subscribe.

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Categories: IT General, Technology

The Best Instant Pot for You

How-To Geek - Wed, 02/20/2019 - 15:00
Sim79/Shutterstock

Instant Pot, the brand name and increasingly generic term, refers to a combination slow-cook pot (AKA a crock pot) that also uses pressure cooking. This means it’s easy to toss in a few ingredients—meat, vegetables, rice or pasta, sauce and seasonings—and make a huge amount of food very quickly.

Instant Pots are immensely popular thanks to their ease of use and speedy cooking; you can find delicious recipes all over the web. But which one is right for your kitchen? Or for that matter, your dorm room or even your car trunk for road trips? Take a look at our suggestions below.

The Best Overall Instant Pot: Instant Pot LUX60V3 6-Quart ($79) Instant Pot

To get into the Instant Pot craze quickly and easily, for a solid price, you can’t do better than this standard model. The LUX60V3 has enough volume for six quarts of food, which should be plenty to feed four people alone (or more, if you cook side dishes on your stove).

It has all the standard features for easy timer operation and pressure adjustment, plus pre-programmed settings for ten different common meals, like stew and rice. Despite being on the lower end of Instant Pot’s lineup, it includes the stainless steel construction and inner pot that’s helped to make these kitchen gadgets so popular. It’s also available in an eight quart version.

Buy on Amazon The Best Instant Pot for Big Families: Power Pressure Cooker XL ($139) Power Pressure Cooker

If you regularly need to cook big, simple meals for a small army of diners, this model from Power Pressure Cooker will do the trick. It has room for ten quarts of food, which should make enough to keep a dozen people or more full and happy. The big pot isn’t as sophisticated as some others, with fewer pre-set options and pressure levels. But the Teflon-coated inner pot is dishwasher safe for easy cleanup—if your dishwasher can handle the size, of course.

Buy on Amazon The Best Smart Instant Pot: Instant Pot Smart WiFi ($120) Instant Pot

Looking for something a little more modern? This model of the Instant Pot connects to your home’s Wi-Fi network, allowing you to control it via an Android or iPhone app. What’s the point, you ask, when all the buttons on the front are pretty straightforward? The Instant Pot app connects to the company’s database of user-submitted recipes, allowing you to choose a recipe and apply the perfect settings instantly.

This model comes with a six-quart capacity and all the features of our overall pick above. Do note: the Wi-Fi connection in the pot needs a 2.4GHz network, so you’ll need to make sure your home’s router still enables the older standard.

Buy on Amazon The Best Instant Pot For One User: Instant Pot LUX Mini 3 Instant Pot

If you’re cooking for one, six or eight quarts is a lot of food to get through. You can cook with fewer ingredients in a bigger pot, but it’s a hassle to move around and clean if you don’t need the extra space. Instant Pot’s standard LUX model comes in a three-quart “mini” size, perfect for making dinner and maybe enough for another meal’s worth of leftovers. (You can start it at lunch and still have it warming your pasta by dinnertime.) The smaller model still uses a stainless steel pot. At less than one cubic foot in size and 8.5 pounds, this also makes a good pick if you’re looking to use an Instant Pot on a road trip or in an RV.

Buy on Amazon The Best Value Instant Pot: Gourmia GPC625 Multi-Mode SmartPot ($55) Gourmia

If you need a combination pressure cooker and crockpot and you’re on a budget, check out this model from Gourmia. It has a full six-quart capacity, plenty of pre-set options for popular foods, all the usual timer and delay settings, and it slides in at just $55 at the time of writing. The design uses a removable stainless steel inner pot just like the official brand, and the package includes a steam tray.

Buy on Amazon

Categories: IT General, Technology

How to Recover Deleted Windows 10 Sticky Notes

How-To Geek - Wed, 02/20/2019 - 15:00

Windows 10’s Sticky Notes app is a powerful note-taking solution, but it doesn’t let you restore deleted notes—or does it? Although this feature isn’t part of the desktop app, there’s a way to get your deleted notes back.

How to Recover Deleted Sticky Notes

You’ve accidentally deleted a sticky note that had some important information on it, but the desktop app doesn’t have a way to recover—or even see—the items that you deleted. Well, thanks to Sticky Notes syncing everything to the cloud, you can now recover any notes you may have removed, directly from your Microsoft Outlook account.

Note: To access this feature you need to sign in with a Microsoft account on Windows 10. Also, Microsoft only keeps your sticky notes for as long as your deleted items folder holds them—usually 30 days.

Fire up Outlook.live.com and sign in to your Microsoft account you use for Windows 10.

Once you’ve signed in, scroll down the left pane and click on “Deleted Items.”

Scroll through the list until you see the items you want to recover. If you have multiple items, click the bubble next to each item first and then click “Restore.”

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Categories: IT General, Technology

Which is Cheaper: Printing Your Own Photos or Using a Printing Service?

How-To Geek - Wed, 02/20/2019 - 13:40

 

PS_2/Shutterstock

With the rise of inexpensive online photo printing services, inkjet printers have fallen out of favor. But, as with any DIY project, some people claim that it’s cheaper to print photos at home. Is that really true?

A Quick Cost Comparison

Let’s break down the price difference between at-home photo printing and online printing services. We’re going to do this by comparing the price of online printing services and at-home printing. For the sake of convenience, we’re only going to look at the cost of 4×6 prints.

There are a lot of online photo printing services, but we’ll stick with the big four. Some of these services offer the occasional discount, but we’re going to pretend that those don’t exist. Shutterfly, one of the most popular photo printing services, charges $0.12 for every 4×6 print. Not bad, but Amazon, Snapfish, and Walmart will print your 4×6 photos for $0.09 each.

Alright, online printing services charge between $0.09 and $0.12 per 4×6 photo. Now we need to compare those prices to an at-home photo printing setup. So, let’s build a modest at-home printing setup. We need a solid inkjet printer, some 4×6 photo paper, and some ink.

Iryna Tiumentseva_Shutterstock

Let’s start with the printer. The Canon Pixma IP8720 is one of the most popular at-home inkjet photo printers, and for a good reason. It produces pictures with a 9600 color DPI, and only costs $180. That’s a budget price for a pretty decent printer.

The Canon Pixma IP8720 comes with ink, but we’re going to buy a full set of ink carts for the sake of price comparison. That pack of ink will set us back $55. Canon claims that these ink cartridges will yield up to 780 photos (yeah right), which means that, at best, we’re paying $0.07 in ink for every 4×6 print.

Well, $0.07 per print sounds pretty good. But we still need to buy photo paper. Let’s buy a lot of it to get the most bang for our buck. We’ll grab a 400 pack of CanonInk’s of 4×6 glossy photo paper for $20—that’s $0.05 per sheet.

So if we ignore the fact that our printer cost us $180, we’re paying $0.12 for every 4×6 photo that we print at home. That’s the same price as Shutterfly, and a bit more expensive than some of the other online printing services.

If You Don’t Use Your Printer, Things Get More Expensive

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Categories: IT General, Technology
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