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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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Apple

Smart TVs are now integrating Apple’s AirPlay 2 technology. That was one of the big stories of CES 2019, where many TV manufacturers simultaneously announced AirPlay was coming to their TVs. Some are even updating existing TVs with AirPlay.

Apple’s AirPlay 2 standard lets you use Apple devices to control media playback, stream audio, mirror your screen, or do other similar things. It’s built into Apple devices like the iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Think of it a bit like Apple’s version of Chromecast.

Previously, you could use AirPlay with your TV—but only if you purchased an Apple TV and connected it to your TV. There are unofficial AirPlay receiver software programs you can run on a PC or Mac connected to your TV, but nothing official. Now, AirPlay will be integrated into many smart TVs from many manufacturers.

This isn’t a replacement for Google’s Chromecast. We saw TVs that had both Chromecast and AirPlay integrated. You can use whichever your devices work best with. Choice is great!

AirPlay isn’t officially supported on Windows, but VideoLAN has announced plans to integrate AirPlay support into a future version of the popular VLC Media Player. VLC already has built-in support for Chromecasting, too.

Here are some things you can do with AirPlay:

• Browse for something to watch on Netflix, iTunes, or another service on your iPhone and send it to your TV, using your iPhone to control playback. The TV will stream the content from the cloud.
• Show photos and videos from your iPhone on the TV, controlling the presentation on your phone.
• Play music (or any other audio) on your TV and synchronize it to multiple AirPlay 2-compatible speakers elsewhere in your home.
• Mirror your iPhone, iPad, or Mac’s screen to your TV.

RELATED: How to Use Apple’s New Multi-Room Audio Features in AirPlay 2

We saw AirPlay on smart TVs in action at CES 2019, and it will come to consumer TVs soon.

When you have a TV that supports AirPlay integration, that TV will appear as an AirPlay device on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac. You can select your smart TV just like you’d select an Apple TV, HomePod, or other AirPlay-enabled devices.

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At CES 2019, NVIDIA announced that it was finally supporting FreeSync. Well, sort of—what the company actually announced was a “G-SYNC Compatible” program. But the rub is this: NVIDIA’s cards and drivers now work with FreeSync monitors for adaptive sync.

The situation is a little confusing. Let’s fix that, shall we?

Adaptive Sync, often branded as “FreeSync” by AMD and its partners, is a feature that lets a monitor pause its screen refresh until an entire frame of animation is ready to load. This happens multiple times per second, faster or slower depending on how fast your PC and graphics card can render the frame. If the frame is slower than your monitor’s refresh rate, it will wait. This allows the motion in the game to remain smooth without tearing.

G-SYNC is NVIDIA’s branded alternative to adaptive sync/FreeSync. Unlike FreeSync, which doesn’t need any additional hardware, G-SYNC monitors include a tiny computer module inside them to manage the syncing of frames rendered by the GPU and displayed by the screen. This module is manufactured and supplied by NVIDIA to its hardware partners, which is why G-SYNC monitors are almost universally more expensive than FreeSync monitors.

Here’s a more technical breakdown of G-SYNC and FreeSync.

But for several years, PC gamers with NVIDIA cards have lamented their lack of access to the adaptive sync/FreeSync capabilities on cheaper monitors. As of NVIDIA driver version 417.71, released on January 15, 2019, this is no longer a problem.

NVIDIA’s new support for FreeSync monitors is via a program called “G-SYNC Compatible.” NVIDIA GPUs now work with FreeSync monitors with “G-SYNC Compatible” enabled in the configuration tool. Huzzahs and hurrahs all around.

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1. ATB
2. Paul Oakenfold
3. Brian Eno
4. John Digweed

Think you know the answer?

PowerPoint handouts are a great resource to distribute to your audience so that they can follow along during your presentation or use for future reference. If you’d like to customize the handout layout before its distribution, PowerPoint has a way.

Go ahead and open up the PowerPoint presentation you’ll be working with if you haven’t already. Switch over to the “View” tab and click the “Handout Master” button.

This action opens a new “Handout Master” tab on the Ribbon. Here you’ll find several available options for customizing the PowerPoint’s handout, such as Page Setup, Placeholders, Edit Theme, and Background.

Let’s first look at the options available in the “Page Setup” group, starting with “Handout Orientation.” By default, the orientation is set to “Portrait,” but you can change it to “Landscape” from the drop-down menu.

“Slide Size” gives you three options: Standard (4:3), Widescreen (16:9), or Custom Slide Size. Selecting “Custom Slide Size” lets you specify the exact width and height of the slides.

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To keep all your cables, chargers, SD cards, batteries, and assorted extras from getting lost in the bottom of your bag, you need some sort of system to keep them organized. Let’s look at our favorites.

Over the last few years, I’ve noticed a kind of cable creep happen to me. I used to be able to travel with my Nokia charger and that was about it. Now, it’s not surprising to see someone lugging around a plethora of USB cables, three charging bricks, an external battery pack, a computer charger, a Chromecast, a camera charger, and who know what else. I’m one of those people— personally, I need to carry all the tech-extras for my iPhone, Kindle, MacBook, and DSLR; it adds up.

There are lots of different systems out there that claim to keep all your tech stuff better sorted so let’s dig in and look at the best. There’s something that will suit every tech user.

If you bring everything including your HD TV—or just have a clan of gadget-mad kids—the BUBM Double Layer Electronics Organizer is exactly what you’re looking for. This 10.7” x 8” x 1” gadget bag is big enough to fit an iPad and has an extra internal divider so you can store even more stuff.

The BUBM uses a mix of elastic loops, pouches, and zippered compartments so you can carry any combination you want of cables, chargers, flash cards, USB sticks, and other tech gear. The only problem is that, at about an inch thick, larger charging blocks, external batteries, camera chargers, and some international plugs either won’t fit or will be awkward and blocky.

If you just want to tame your unruly knot of cables, a Cocoon Grid-IT! Organizer is the best option. The Grid-IT! uses a crazy web of elastic straps that mean you can secure your cables however you want.

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The first benchmark tests are out for the upcoming Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 chip, and unsurprisingly it’s faster than last year’s 845. At least this gives us some insight into what to expect in the 2019 Android flagship phones.

Of course, we have to give the obligatory benchmarks aren’t indicators of real-world performance talk here, because, well, benchmarks aren’t indicators of real-world performance. They’re a simple way to quantify and compare chipset performance by raw numbers and shouldn’t be used as anything more than that.

All that said, the results for the 855 look pretty good, especially compared to the 845, which is the current chip in the bulk of high-end Android phones out today. In fact, Qualcomm is claiming it’s a 40 percent performance increase. That’s a pretty significant number, especially when you consider how powerful these modern mobile chipsets already are.

Android Police recently spent some time running the 855 through its paces, comparing it to a slew of modern devices like the Pixel 3, OnePlus 6T, Galaxy Note 9, and more. If you’re interested in their findings and how the 855 compares to the 845, I highly recommend giving that post a read.

But really, the long and sort of it is that the 855 is, unsurprisingly, better than the 845. It’s going to be a good year for Android flagships.

via Android Police