Where Are Barcodes Used? Barcodes are used for tracking information across a range of industries, most notably in product sales, travel, and food. Here are some examples of how barcodes are used: Tracking parcels and envelopes sent in the mail.Checking in passengers and luggage on planes, buses, and trains.Keeping stock of store inventory.Registering store or club membership cards.Storing a website address or contact information.Storing bitcoin or another cryptocurrency. How Do Barcodes Work?...

What Is Chromecast? Chromecast is a hardware device developed and manufactured by Google that enables you to stream media to your TV wirelessly. Rather than using a wired connection, you can use the Chromecast device to stream digital music, video, and images over Wi-Fi. If, for example, you have a movie on your phone but want to watch it on your TV, you can use Chromecast rather than a cable to connect it to your TV — and do so without wires....

You can see CPU usage in Activity Monitor on the Mac (image below). The Task Manager on Windows performs the same function. CPU usage is the percentage of the total CPU capacity you’re using at any given time. Older computers used to have one CPU which could only handle processing a single task at a time. However, modern computers have CPUs with multiple “cores.” These are processors with multiple internal processors, each of which can handle multiple tasks simultaneously....

You can think of Flipboard as a smart magazine. Unlike traditional print magazines, Flipboard personalizes your content based on your interests, then displays relevant articles in a magazine-style layout that’s easy to interact with and pleasing to the eye. In addition to articles, you’ll see other types of content, including videos, podcasts, tweets, and more. People can use Flipboard to create digital magazines to share with other users; as you read through the content on Flipboard, you can easily add them to a new or existing magazine under your profile....

Where to Find My Network Places My Network Places in Windows XP can be accessed from the Windows Start menu (or through My Computer). Launching My Network Places opens a new window on the screen. Through this window, you can add, search for, and remotely access these network resources. My Network Places replaced the Network Neighborhood utility found in Windows 98 and older Windows operating systems. My Network Places also offers additional functionality not available through Network Neighborhood....

What OCR Is OCR, also referred to as text recognition, is software technology that transforms characters such as numbers, letters, and punctuation (also called glyphs) from printed or written documents into an electronic form more easily recognized and read by computers and other software programs. Some OCR programs do this as a document is scanned or photographed with a digital camera and others can apply this process to documents that have been previously scanned or photographed without OCR....

Qobuz is available in these countries: AustriaBelgiumIrelandItalyFranceGermanyLuxembourgNetherlandsSpainSwitzerlandUnited KingdomUSA A Qobuz account is linked to the country where it was created. However, you can use your account to listen to music anywhere in the world (based on the offerings of the country account). Because of differences in licensing and distribution agreements, not all music offerings may be available from all country-specific accounts. Qobuz Streaming and Download Plans Qobuz offers a 30-day free trial....

Ray Tracing: The Basics Ray tracing emulates real-world lighting. The light we see is the result of photons emitted from energy sources, like the sun. Photons can bounce and scatter as they collide with objects. A mirror is all you need to see this in action. Light hitting a mirror creates a reflection. Ray tracing simulates this. The number of rays traced is paltry compared to the real world, where millions of photons bounce across our field of view....

Your Full Birthdate While you may love getting loads of birthday wishes posted by your friends on your Facebook Timeline, having your birthdate in your profile may provide scammers and identity thieves with one of the key pieces of information needed to steal your identity and open up accounts in your name. Your Current Location Many people don’t realize when they post a status update or a tweet, they may also be revealing their current location through geotagging....

All HDTV Broadcasting Is DTV, but Not All DTV Broadcasting Is HDTV The same bandwidth allocated for DTV broadcasting can supply multiple standard resolution digital channels (SDTV) and other services or transmit one or two full HDTV signals. The Advanced Standards Television Committee (ATSC) made 18 resolution formats available for digital TV broadcasting. All built-in and external digital TV tuners are required to decode all 18 formats. The practical application of DTV broadcasting, however, has come down to three resolutions: 480p, 720p, and 1080i....

According to research from cybersecurity firm 1Password, nearly half of all Gen Zs and a quarter of Millennials have a password to a parent’s streaming service. But that era may be drawing to a close with giants like Netflix, AT&T (HBO Max), and Disney enforcing limits on password sharing. “It’s not that sharing your password is bad; it’s more that people share in an unsafe way, which leads to leaks,” 1Password co-founder Sara Teare told Lifewire in an email interview....

Though it’s been a couple of years since the introduction of “5G networks,” carriers still seem to offer limited coverage. Additionally, new reports show that the use of mmWave 5G—the most advanced form of 5G available at the moment—is extremely low. While it’s easy to look at the current state of 5G and despair, experts say you shouldn’t get too caught up on how things look right now. Instead, you should look at 5G as a way for carriers to push the network you already have to new levels....

“While AI is improving, mistakes will still be made,” Raymond Ku, director of the Center for Cyberspace Law & Policy at Case Western Reserve University, told Lifewire in an email interview. “As a matter of fairness, I think we all believe that someone being penalized in any way by AI decision making should be made aware of the fact and given an opportunity to challenge the decision.” When the cameras spot possible unsafe driving “events,” these instances factor into workers’ performance scores....

Apple has been gaining a lot of traction thanks to multiple pushes for better user privacy over the past few iterations of iOS. One of the most noteworthy changes that the company has been building toward is the full introduction of its App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework. While the ATT system allows you to opt-out of letting app developers track you across multiple apps, experts say it isn’t a complete end to tracking on iOS....

AT&T recently announced changes to its fiber internet plans, offering faster download and upload speeds to two of its plans. The change brings the company’s cheapest fiber plan up to 300 Mbps, a 200 Mbps increase over its original speeds. That’s no small boost by any means, but it doesn’t address the fact that two-thirds of AT&T’s customer base is still without fiber access. “Fiber is the fastest and most reliable internet you can get, so if you can get a sweet deal like this, then yeah, that’s awesome,” Peter Holsin, an internet expert at HighSpeedInternet, told us in an email....

The Google Glass project went down in flames, but Facebook is reviving the idea with its first pair of smart glasses made in partnership with Ray-Ban, called Ray-Ban Stories. I’m hoping to snag the Stories, and I have high hopes that I won’t even look like a “glasshole.” The new Stories are currently available for $299. The frames have two-front facing cameras for capturing video and photos. There’s a physical button on the glasses for recording, or you can say, “Hey Facebook, take a video” to control them hands-free....

In a recent blog post, Sony announced that when the PS5 drops in November, the vast majority of PS4 games, as well as Playstation VR games, will be available to play. Thanks to the extensive catalogs of PS Now and PS Plus, digital versions of PS4 games will be available for streaming, and physical discs can still be played on the PS5’s Ultra HD Blu-ray disc drive. Playing PS4 games on the new PS5 also promises to be a heightened experience for gamers; Sony has promised faster loading times and better visuals via the Game Boost feature....

Companies are rapidly expanding VR software and gear for passive interactions. Diver-X plans to release a VR headset next month that’s meant to be used lying down. And VR gear is now used for everything from meditation to dental visits. “We are able to adapt to immersive environments much more intuitively than any previous digital, and invariably screen-based format could ever hope to achieve, however passive or active the experience itself is,” Amir Bozorgzadeh, the CEO of VR company Virtuleap, told Lifewire in an email interview....

The adapter goes hand in hand with the iPad’s display mirroring feature. Although many streaming apps such as Netflix and Hulu Plus support 1080p video output through the Digital AV Adapter, the iPad’s display mirroring allows anything on the display to be mirrored on the television. This means you can use it with apps that don’t support video output. But, is the Digital AV Adapter the best option? Why Shouldn’t You Buy the Digital AV Adapter?...

How Does Wireless Charging Work With EVs? EV charging uses the same basic smartphone technology, except there’s no physical contact between the EV and the charging station like there is when you set a phone down on a wireless charger. Wireless EV charging works by parking the EV over a charging mat, often with six or more inches of air between the mat and the bottom of the EV. Power is transferred wirelessly from the charging station to the receiver on the EV, and the EV battery charges slowly over time....