What Is a Browser Hijacker? A browser hijacker is software that installs itself onto your device without your knowledge. It can come in the form of a PUP (potentially unwanted program) that you don’t even realize you are downloading when you install a computer program, or it can sneak into your system as a part of a larger computer virus obtained through an email attachment or some other means. How Does a Browser Hijacker Work?...

I installed the Pixma TR4500 in my home office for five hours of intensive testing and about five days of general use. I tested things like print speed and quality, photo printing quality, scan and copy capabilities, and ease of use. I was pleasantly surprised by the overall performance of such an affordable printer, but not enough to recommend it for anything but light-duty home use. Design: Oldschool interface and controls The Pixma TR4500 doesn’t look dated overall, but the interface and controls do....

What Does the PS Vita Mean for Gamers? Here’s a translation of what all those fancy specs will mean when you’ve actually got a PS Vita in your hands. 5 Ways the PS Vita is What Gamers Wanted in the First Place The PSP was a lovely thing, but there were certain elements lacking, things that gamers really, really wanted. Here’s how the PS Vita is the PSP we wanted in the first place....

If you’re focused on keeping compact tech devices, baby items, and other smaller household objects germ-free and safe to use, phone sanitizers like the Coral UV LED Sanitizer and Dryer (also known as the Coral UV 2) offers a compelling solution. This second-generation model brings UV-C LED technology to the average home in a box-like build that the manufacturer promises is safe, odor-free, and energy-efficient. Designed to eliminate 99.9 percent of bacteria and backed by third-party lab results, the Coral UV 2 could be the ideal solution for quickly sanitizing high-touch items you use every day....

Darkroom feels instantly familiar, because it closely mimics the layout of the built-in Photos app. But when you actually start to use it, you realize that it was designed to be used, and not just to be looked at. Darkroom is so clearly just a better, easier, more powerful version of Photos that it seems like it must have been the plan all along. I asked CEO and founder Majd Taby if that was the case....

How Is the DSi XL Different Than the DSi? The Nintendo DSi XL has features similar to the Nintendo DSi, including two cameras, built-in photo editing software, built-in music editing software, and an SD card slot. However, the DSi XL differs from its predecessor in a few key areas. Larger Screens The screens on the Nintendo DSi XL are 4.2 inches measured diagonally. This makes them 93% larger than the DSi....

What Is a DSK File? A file with the DSK file extension could be a disk image file created by various programs for storing images of disks for backup purposes. Some files that end in .DSK could instead be Borland project desktop files that store project-related files and references used by the Delphi IDE or other programming software. If your DSK file isn’t in either of those formats, it’s most likely a Simple IDs database file that stores ID cards....

What Is a DWF File? A file with the DWF file extension is an Autodesk Design Web Format file created in computer-aided design (CAD) programs. It’s a highly compressed version of a CAD file that’s useful for viewing, printing, and transmitting the design without the need for the recipient to understand how to use the software that created the original drawing. The file can be really simple and include just a single sheet or have multiples and be complex to the point of having fonts, color, and images....

The Earin A-3 Earphones are some of the most unique true wireless earbuds in the space. And that sort of makes sense, because Earin was actually an early adopter of the true wireless market—releasing a pair right around the same time that Apple dropped its AirPods. The A-3 are the latest generation of Earin’s offerings, and the look, feel, and performance of these headphones are very different from the other flagship models in the space....

The service allows for short text messages to be sent from one cell phone to another or from the internet to a cell phone. Some mobile carriers even support sending SMS messages to landline phones, but that uses another service between the two so that the text can be converted to voice in order to be spoken over the phone. SMS began with support just for GSM phones before later supporting other mobile technologies like CDMA and Digital AMPS....

Signal Boosters: The Basics Have you ever encountered the phenomenon of “dead zones” when using your cell phone? You know, the patch of an area where you have no signal and therefore can’t use your network provider’s service to complete actions such as making a call, using an app, searching the web or sending a text. Obviously, this issue can be extremely frustrating, and a good first step to avoiding cell phone dead zones is picking a provider with adequate coverage in your area by checking its coverage map (this is especially important if you live in remote, rural location)....

Design: Sleek and modern With an edge-to-edge glass panel and a super-thin 0.2-inch bezel, the 50H8F has a sleek design practically indistinguishable from the higher end brands. Other than a small red LED and the logo, the whole TV including the legs is a simple black. The stand has thin metal feet with a wide 9-inch footprint that felt perfectly stable in testing. Most of the USB and HDMI connectors on the back of the TV are facing to the left, so they’re easy to get to whether the TV is mounted or not....

When we buy gadgets, we look at the numbers—MHz, megapixels. With cars, it’s cubic inches, brake horsepower, and cup holders. With speakers it’s watts, with bikes it’s pounds and ounces, and so on. But with its M1 chip, Apple has exploded this custom. Not only can you not choose the speed of the chip in a particular computer, but, in fact, Apple now uses the same chip in all its computers....

Earlier this week, Apple introduced a slew of accessibility features across its devices to help a wide variety of people gain more access. The features provide solutions for those with disabilities, whether they are visible disabilities or cognitive ones. “It’s really exciting that people of all abilities and all strengths and needs will be able to use these devices,” Betsy Furler, the founder and CEO of For All Abilities, told Lifewire in a phone interview....

Two changes in macOS 11.3 beta make running iPad apps on your Apple Silicon Mac way less annoying. One is that you can now enjoy much bigger windows for the apps (should your monitor be big enough to display them). The other is an improvement to the way the Mac translates trackpad and keyboard presses to touch actions on the iOS app. These changes might just be there to make using the app more pleasant....

The sequel will arrive in 2022, and may well be a launch title for Nintendo’s OLED Switch upgrade, which is rumored to have improved graphics and a 4K TV output. The original BOTW is widely regarded to be the best game ever, and if you’ve played it you’ll probably agree. The only problem is, how can you possibly top it? “Although the first version of the game was a masterpiece [it can still be] improved by the creators,” gamer and jeweler Hitesh Patel told Lifewire via email....

Just in time for Earth Day, the time-lapse photos give a glimpse into the extreme changes in the environment over almost four decades. Experts hope that the images will impact people by showing them first-hand the real challenges the planet faces if humans collectively continue on this path. “[This project] has the power to shape a public understanding of what’s at stake when we’re talking about climate change,” Dr. Zeke Baker, an assistant professor of Sociology at Sonoma State University, told Lifewire over the phone....

The idea of humming to find a song seems incredibly simple, so why is Google only launching this feature in 2020? Well, it turns out that identifying songs this way is actually pretty complicated, in part because our hummed versions tend to be pretty different from the original track. In a recent post on its AI blog, Google explains how it used machine learning to fix this problem, and ultimately help people find a song by humming, whistling, or singing the melody even when their rendition is less than accurate....

At its core, Google Voice is not a VoIP service like Skype, but it does take advantage of VoIP technology over the internet in order to route some of its calls, to allow international calls at a cheap rate, to allow free local calls, and to offer the numerous features it’s known for. Google Voice provides a phone number. With it, incoming calls forward to any phone of your choosing—your house phone, smartphone, or another phone....

A new machine learning model hallucinates an image of what a sentence looks like in a language. According to a recent research paper, the technique then uses visualization and other clues to aid with translation. It’s part of a growing movement to use AI to understand language. “How people talk and write is unique because we all have slightly different tones and styles,” Beth Cudney, a professor of data analytics at Maryville University, who was not involved in the research, told Lifewire in an email interview....