While for the most part corrected in later patches and updates, several initial system stability issues plagued Vista—this was a major contributing factor to its poor public image. Windows Vista Release Date Windows Vista was released to manufacturing on November 8, 2006, and made available to the public for purchase on January 30, 2007. It’s preceded by Windows XP, and succeeded by Windows 7. The most recent version of Windows is Windows 11, released on October 5, 2021....

Getting a home office setup that helps ensure a comfortable work from home environment can be a tricky beast. From finding the right desk for your needs to grabbing the best ergonomic keyboards, one can almost forget one of the most important features in building a home office: a quality office chair. Admittedly, this was one of my biggest follies as I began to work from home. I naively believed that just grabbing a dining room chair was the most reasonable option....

Fans of Baldurs Gate: Dark Alliance and its sequel still miss clearing dungeons, collecting loot, and defeating massive bosses alongside a co-op partner. While those PlayStation 2-era classics have seen their fair share of imitators over the past 20 years, the upcoming Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance is its first real spiritual successor. Once again, players head into the depths of dangerous, D&D-themed environments, looking for gold, gear, and trouble from any ugly that crosses their path....

It has some other nifty features, too, such as the option to snooze emails for later, schedule emails to be sent later, and read mail offline. You can also send emails that expire and require a unique code to open, store messages in a 15 GB vault, share files from your Drive account, undo sending messages, and set up vacation responses. Now that Google Workspace is available to everyone, Gmail is more tightly integrated with Google’s other products....

While you need an internet connection for multiplayer action, Baldur’s Gate can be enjoyed solo while offline. Baldur’s Gate is available for a variety of platforms at various costs: $9.99 on the Google Play Store or Apple App Store.$19.99 on digital platforms Steam and GOG.com (for Windows, Linux, and Mac).$27.99 on the Mac App Store.$49.99 for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. Download For: Demon’s Rise, from Wave Light Games, is available as an iOS ($7....

Apple Offers an Extended Warranty It may surprise you, but the one place you’re definitely not going to find iPhone insurance — at least not traditional insurance — is from Apple. They just don’t sell it. Instead, Apple offers an AppleCare extended warranty that covers support and some repairs for a flat fee (support calls above a certain limit, and some kinds of repairs, require extra payments). AppleCare only runs two years, so if you keep your phone longer than that you’ll eventually be without coverage, but it’s also a flat fee upfront, rather than a monthly payment....

We’ve compiled a list of only the best free and legal TV show sources currently out there. There are pros and cons to each, but there’s definitely something for everyone no matter what kind of show you might be looking to watch. Since it’s a totally free service with accessibility across multiple major platforms (including mobile with the free Crackle app), there are some commercials rolled into the programming. Regardless, Crackle is a great alternative that you can enjoy viewing on your computer or with one of its apps on your mobile device....

Every object, character, and environment in every computer-animated movie or 3D video game is comprised of 3D models. In this guide, we break down the major components of a 3D model, explaining faces, edges, vertices, and more. What Is a 3D Model? A 3D Model is a mathematical representation of any three-dimensional object (real or imagined) in a 3D software environment. Unlike a 2D image, 3D models can be viewed in specialized software suites from any angle, where they can be scaled, rotated, or freely modified....

Connect a Blu-ray Disc Player to a TV Using HDMI The easiest way to access audio from a Blu-ray Disc player is to connect the player’s HDMI output to an HDMI-equipped TV. Since the HDMI cable carries both the audio and video signal to the TV, you can access audio from a Blu-ray Disc. The downside to this method is that it depends on the TV’s audio capabilities to reproduce the sound, which often doesn’t deliver the greatest results....

Depending on whether you’re trying to tune into your favorite talk show on the AM band, or listen to some music on the FM band, anything from tall buildings to solar flares can adversely affect your listening experience. And unless you have a whole lot of pull with the local zoning board—or you’ve figured out how to control the sun with the power of your mind—most of those problems are going to fall solidly on the “can’t do anything about that” side of the line....

By analyzing great artwork you begin to form an idea of what works and what doesn’t. It’s one of the easiest (and most enjoyable) ways to learn some of the basic rules of composition, lighting, and design. While looking at pretty pictures isn’t going to teach you the technical side of computer graphics (CG), it will help you make the most of your tools and software. Industry Legends Before we get to the guys who are working in CG today, here are some of the leaders that have helped shape entertainment design into what it is today:...

The following location sharing apps are reasonable options for Android devices, although the feature set, pricing, and sharing features vary. You may need to sign in to your Google account. After you sign in, you can share your location with other people temporarily or until you turn location sharing off. The four largest mobile carriers in the U.S. offer a location-sharing service that works across Android and iOS: AT&T FamilyMap: $9....

About Vimeo Memberships Before you upload a video to Vimeo, you’ll need to join the service. Vimeo has several membership tiers that are sure to fit the needs of any creator. Basic Membership Vimeo’s free Basic membership plan gives users 500MB of free upload space weekly with a 5GB video storage cap. It features SD and 720p HD playback. This tier includes basic analytics, embedding features, privacy controls, and more. Upload up to 10 videos per day....

A US company claims it is speeding up the path to fusion power by using machine learning. TAE Technologies has trimmed computing tasks that once took months to just a few hours using AI. It’s one of many companies using AI to help with research. “What we still don’t know about fusion—e.g., how to reach and maintain stable fusion conditions—is hiding in the data,” Diogo Ferreira, a professor of Information Systems at the University of Lisbon in Portugal, who studies the application of AI in fusion research told Lifewire in an email interview....

Notion, the fancy online note-taking database app, just announced Notion AI, designed to automatically write blog posts and reports or brainstorm ideas. You just type in a short prompt, and the AI bot does the rest. It sounds amazing, especially for folks who hate to write but have to generate reports as a part of their job or as a class requirement. But are these tools up to the standard?...

What Can a Database Do? If the database is relational, which most databases are, cross-references records in different tables. This means that you can create relationships between tables. For example, if you linked a Customers table with an Orders table, you could find all purchase orders from the Orders table that a single customer from the Customers table ever processed, or further refine it to return only those orders processed in a particular time period – or almost any type of combination you could imagine....

The iPod car connector situation is a little more complicated today. Basic iPod Car Stereo Connections There are four basic, time-tested methods of connecting an iPod to a car stereo, all of which have been around much longer than iPods, and none of which will give you access to any kind of advanced features: Cassette tape adapters are designed for older head units that have cassette decks but no built-in auxiliary inputs....

How do you share photos with your family members right now? Maybe you all get together after an event and AirDrop your images to each other. Perhaps you share the best pictures via iMessage? Or, if you’re really on the ball, maybe you created a shared album. But whichever method you pick, it’s a lot of manual effort every time, and other family members might not want to bother. The new Shared iCloud Photo Library aims to fix all that, and it seems to be almost perfect....

Avantree isn’t the most mainstream audio brand out there, and it certainly isn’t the most “audiophile” brand either. But the Avantree Aria Me active noise-canceling Bluetooth headphones provide an interesting new take on an otherwise crowded market. Avantree has made its name on providing consumer-friendly headphones meant for home use. Most of the Avantree catalog consists of RF-style wireless headphones that help you watch TV quietly and help to improve sound reception for the hearing impaired....

If you’re an iOS user who buys eBooks from Barnes & Noble, using the Nook app makes sense. The Nook app is a solid app that deserves a place on the iOS device of any book lover. The iOS Nook App at a Glance The iOS Nook app is free to download from iTunes to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch running iOS 9 or later. While you can’t buy eBooks from Barnes & Noble’s online store directly through the app, purchases completed on the Barnes & Noble’s website will automatically appear on your device....