What Is a SIM Card Used For? Some phones need a SIM card to identify the owner and communicate with a mobile network. For example, an iPhone on the Verizon network needs a SIM card so that Verizon knows who the phone belongs to and that they are paying for the subscription, and also so that certain features work. This is important in resale situations, where a used smartphone is missing a SIM card....

The BIOS firmware is non-volatile, meaning that its settings are saved and recoverable even after power has been removed from the device. What Is the BIOS Used For? BIOS instructs the computer on how to perform basic functions such as booting and keyboard control. BIOS is also used to identify and configure the hardware in a computer such as the hard drive, floppy drive, optical drive, CPU, memory, and related equipment....

Portal TV is meant to connect to a primary display, such as your living room TV, and will rest discreetly on an entertainment center or shelf below. It includes Alexa built-in, for smart voice commands, as well as the necessary features to participate in video calls: such as a microphone, webcam and speakers. What Is Portal by Facebook? Before we get deeper into Facebook Portal TV, let’s review Facebook Portal....

How Does Gigabit Ethernet Work? It was once believed that achieving gigabit speeds with Ethernet would require the use of fiber optic cables or other special network cable technology. Fortunately, those are only necessary for long distances. For most purposes, Gigabit Ethernet works well using a regular Ethernet cable (specifically, the CAT5e and CAT6 cabling standards). These cable types follow the 1000BASE-T cabling standard (also called IEEE 802.3ab). How Fast Is Gigabit Ethernet in Practice?...

What Is HD Voice? HD Voice is high-definition voice calling. It’s a wideband audio technology that offers a superior standard for calls. By extending the frequency range of audio signals, HD Voice does two things well: Produces clearer, vibrant, and natural-sounding audio.Reduces background noise in any environment. With HD Voice, calls are clearer and crisper. This provides a better experience for everyone on a call, whether you’re talking to friends or family or teleconferencing with business associates at work....

While Microsoft Access, MySQL, and other databases serve the similar purpose of housing data, their uses are vastly different. What is MySQL? MySQL is a relational database. This means that the data housed within the structure is capable of recognizing relationships among stored items of information. Every database contains tables. Each table (also referred to as a “relation”) contains one or more data categories stored in columns. Each row contains primary and foreign keys for the categories defined within the columns....

What Films Does Kanopy Offer? Kanopy offers a searchable catalog of more than 30,000 films, with an especially strong selection of independent films, documentaries, and thought-provoking entertainment. The offerings include nearly 400 titles from Janus Films (The Criterion Collection), as well as titles from A24, an independent film company known for titles such as “Moonlight”, “The Florida Project”, and “Ex Machina”. Explore the Kanopy catalog at https://www.kanopy.com/catalog/. Kanopy Kids provides a variety of classic stories intended for children, such as “Curious George” and “Where the Wild Things Are”, along with access to many educational shows....

Users can stream music tracks or podcast episodes via the SoundCloud website in any web browser on a computer, smartphone, or tablet or via one of its official apps. Those who pay for the premium monthly SoundCloud Go or SoundCloud Go+ memberships can also download files for offline listening when using the SoundCloud apps. SoundCloud has released an app call SoundCloud Desktop app, however, someone talking about SoundCloud Desktop could be referring to a number of different things on different devices....

The Basics of Online Security In its basic form, online security—the security that takes place between a computer and a website—is performed through a series of questions and responses. You type a web address into a browser, and then the browser asks that site to verify its authenticity. The site responds with the appropriate information, and after both agree, the site opens in the web browser. Among the questions asked and the information exchanged is data about the type of encryption that passes the browser information, computer information, and personal information between the browser and the website....

It differs largely from YouTube because of its “artsy” distinctiveness. That’s not to say that artists shouldn’t promote their work on YouTube, because they should if their audience is there. It’s just that YouTube is so huge that it encompasses everything you could point a camera at. Vimeo, on the other hand, is very much known specifically for creative artistry — not casual vloggers, people who like to create tech tutorials or gamers who like to show off their video gaming skills....

What Is a Streak? A streak or a “snapstreak” is a representation of how many days in a row you’ve managed to send photo or video snaps back and forth with a specific friend. For example, if you sent snaps to a friend every day for five days and they also replied to you with snaps each one of those five days, your snapstreak would be at a count of five....

“What Gurman describes is a frustrating jumble of à la carte offerings,” writes Apple-watching writer John Gruber, “that seems no different than the current situation, where every Apple subscription offering is a standalone service.” What Does Apple One Mean for You? Before we get into the problems with Apple One, let’s take a look at exactly what you’ll be getting. Currently, if you subscribe to Apple’s various TV, news, video, and gaming services, you have to sign up and pay for each one separately....

If you write a note and email it, then you edit that note, shouldn’t the copy update itself? If you save an email or web page as a reference for a project, shouldn’t you be able to click instantly back to that page or mail? That’s the promise of contextual computing. Apps like Notion, Roam Research, Obsidian, Devonthink, and Craft treat everything within them as a linkable item. Instead of maintaining many copies of one piece of information, you can link to the original, or embed it in other apps....

Shutterstock is set to acquire TurboSquid, a marketplace for 3D assets and imagery. It’s paying $75 million, and the deal will make Shutterstock “the world’s largest 3D marketplace,” according to the press release. The goal, presumably, is to completely own the stock imagery market, no matter how that imagery is created. “I believe that photography and 3D can and will co-exist as marketing tools in product photography,” Eugenia Gangi, founder and CEO of NOLA Real Estate Marketing & Photography, told Lifewire via email....

Earlier this year, Microsoft launched a new version of Edge built on Chromium—the same platform Google Chrome and other browsers use. Edge quickly gained popularity among internet users, and now Microsoft is looking to sweeten the deal with a new performance mode. Experts say it could be enticing for users tired of Chrome using so much of their computer’s resources. “Performance mode is simply the cherry on top in helping Edge get the upper hand and streamline their RAM and CPU usage,” Eric Florence, a cybersecurity analyst at SecurityTech, told Lifewire in an email....

The beloved character from the Halo video games that Microsoft borrowed for its voice assistant will be around less than before. The company recently deactivated the Cortana service for Android and iOS devices. I would miss having Cortana around even if she wasn’t as useful for me as Master Chief. I love the idea of voice assistants, and it was a thrill hearing Cortana’s familiar tones rather than the more mechanical intonations of Siri or Alexa....

On paper, the iPhone is way ahead of the Switch. The screen is nicer, the processor is better, and the battery lasts longer. So what’s keeping it from being the ultimate pocket game machine? There are a few reasons. One is that it can’t play the same kinds of games, because it doesn’t have any buttons. Another is that you can’t get games like Zelda: Breath of the Wild on the iPhone....

Apple’s VP of software, Craig Federighi, told Reddit user Mateusz Buda that automatic iOS updates can take up to four weeks to roll out to all users, in part due to Apple’s caution. So, if it can take a month for essential security updates to arrive on your device, why bother with auto updates at all? “Without automatic updates, there’s a risk people might not opt-in for the updates at all—meaning their personal data (like logins, financial info, etc....

Malware, Viruses, and Antivirus Apps Although viruses, adware, Trojans, and spyware have unique elements, they all fall under the malware umbrella. To prevent infection and the resulting slowdown, consider installing an anti-malware app. For Windows and Linux users, an active anti-malware app that scans your laptop both in the background and on demand is a good choice. For Mac users, an on-demand malware scanner is sufficient, and because it doesn’t run continuously in the background, it doesn’t use as much memory....

Sometimes it’s good to have a bit of a signal boost when there are 100 other laptops competing for wireless signal. Having an external USB WiFi adapter with a dedicated antenna can help give you a leg up when trying to download notes or browse Wikipedia in the middle of a giant university lecture hall. That’s where the Wise Tiger WT-AC9006 comes in. This USB WiFi adapter could help give your used hand-me-down laptop a boost in wireless performance....