What Is Network Encryption? When we go online to bank or shop, our transactions must be protected. Encryption is a popular and effective network security process designed to keep our information safe. Encryption effectively hides data and message contents from prying eyes. This information can be retrieved only through a corresponding decryption process. Encryption and decryption are common techniques in cryptography, the scientific discipline behind secure communications. There are various encryption and decryption processes (also called algorithms), but most encryption algorithms achieve a high level of data protection by using keys....

There are a lots of different types of ports when talking about computers. Network ports aren’t physical ports on a computer or any device. Instead, they’re virtual. Network ports are numbered addresses, like port 80, port 443, port 22, and port 465, that computers can use to direct the right kind of network traffic to the right place. What Are Ports For? When you go on a website, your computer reaches out to the server hosting it....

It’s most often used to verify a file has been unaltered. This is done by producing a checksum before the file has been transmitted, and then again once it reaches its destination. The transmitted file can be considered genuine only if both checksums are identical. History and Vulnerabilities of the SHA Hash Function SHA-1 is only one of the four algorithms in the Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA) family. Most were developed by the US National Security Agency (NSA) and published by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)....

The service originally launched as a part of the main Uber app in 2014 as UberFRESH but soon spun-off into its own app and was renamed as UberEATS the following year. UberEATS has since rebranded itself as Uber Eats. How to Make an Order on Uber Eats Food orders can be made via the official Uber Eats smartphone apps on Android and iOS smart devices and on the Uber Eats website....

At first glance, after visiting the site’s home page, you might assume that it’s just a portal for news. While you can absolutely get news from Yahoo, there’s actually a lot more to the site, as we’ll see below. Yahoo’s List of Services The best way to access all of Yahoo’s web services in one place is via their Yahoo Everything page. Here are a few examples of what you can do:...

Limits Imposed by Apple’s FairPlay DRM If you purchased songs from the iTunes Store before 2009, then there’s a good chance they are copy-protected by Apple’s FairPlay DRM system. So what exactly can you do, or more to the point, what can’t you do with iTunes Store copy-protected audio files? Limited portable hardware compatibility: Currently, if you purchase songs and albums from the iTunes Store, the files you download are in the AAC format....

A new rumor says that a 14.1-inch iPad Pro will arrive next year, and it’s about time. In our minds, the iPad is a slim, portable computer that you can carry just about everywhere. The idea of a giant version that would struggle to fit into many laptop sleeves seems absurd, but for many people who already use the 12.9-inch iPad, a bigger version cannot come soon enough. Especially now that iPadOS 16 is bringing multiple-window support to Apple’s tablet....

Paraded as a reprieve for small developers battling with the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, Apple’s move to reduce its commission rate from 30% to 15% for developers with $1 million or less in annual revenue has come under fire from larger developers. These developers see the move as an attempt to stifle competition by saving face as the company continues to take a 30% commission from the largest developers on the App Store....

According to a recent Bloomberg report, the new VR headset could arrive as soon as next year, and include powerful processors and advanced screen technology. It’s going up against a range of current VR headsets like the Oculus Quest 2 that are winning praise from reviewers and cost a tenth the price. But Apple’s technological advantage could be a game-changer for users. “The 8K display and the cameras, especially the pass-through ones, justify such a high price,” Varag Gharibjanian, the chief revenue officer of virtual reality software firm Clay AIR, said in an email interview....

A new report from 9to5Google says Google’s upcoming phones will utilize a new GS101 “Whitechapel” chip made by Google. This is a move similar to what Apple is already doing, making its own custom chipsets, instead of relying on those made by third-parties like Qualcomm. “With their own chip, Google will have more control over their own devices while being able to update devices with the chip for a lot longer than they are able to now,” Heinrich Long, a privacy expert with Restore Privacy, told Lifewire in an email....

Apple’s upcoming replacement to the AirPods Pro is making me drool, even though they are only rumors at the moment. Details are sketchy, but Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has predicted that third-generation AirPods will enter mass production in the third quarter of this year. The AirPods Pro 2 are expected to launch along with a third-generation of AirPods. The lower-end model’s design is reported to be similar to the current AirPods Pro, with shorter stems, but lacking silicone ear tips or active noise cancellation to make up for the lower price....

The AirPods 3 will resemble the AirPods Pro, but without the ear tips, according to recent reports. But the new AirPods may lack some of the higher-end model’s features like active noise canceling. I’m most excited about the possibility of improved battery life and better sound. Apple is expected to tinker with the software and internals of the AirPods 3 to eke out more time per charge. The upcoming buds are rumored to pair well with Dolby Atmos with Spatial Audio for improved audio quality....

A top AI researcher recently claimed that AI is already smarter than we think. Ilya Sutskever, the chief scientist of the OpenAI research group, tweeted that “it may be that today’s large neural networks are slightly conscious.” But other AI experts say that it’s far too soon to determine anything of the sort. “To be conscious, an entity needs to be aware of its existence in its environment and that actions it takes will impact its future,” Charles Simon, the CEO of FutureAI, told Lifewire in an email interview....

Reuters reports that the iPhone 12 mini sales are weak compared to the bigger iPhone 12, and even last year’s iPhone 11, which is still available. It even quotes a J.P. Morgan analyst who thinks Apple might soon stop production. But this speculation ignores three things. One, the iPhone 12 mini may be a sleeper hit. Two, not all iPhones can be the best-selling model. And three, the iPhone mini is just awesome....

The problem with concert tickets is there’s always a service in the middle taking a cut. Whereas pretty much everything else can be sold directly these days, when you want to go to a gig, you end up paying a huge extra fee on top of the ticket price. Will Spotify make up for the minuscule amount paid to musicians for streaming their music by cutting out this ticket commission?...

For years, Apple’s 2018 iPad Pro has been almost too capable. With every passing year, it has remained just as fast as it was at launch and stayed way ahead of Apple’s software updates. Last year, Lifewire published an article hoping that iPadOS 15 would finally challenge the iPad’s hardware and take advantage of all that power. That didn’t happen. Finally, Apple announced Stage Manager, which required the M1, leaving the 2018 A12X model out in the cold....

According to a report from Canalys, Chrome OS-based computers have seen a huge uptick in shipment growth over the past year, with Q1 sales jumping 275% year over year. Experts say the overall cost of Chromebooks and the features they offer are key factors in the growth, and more than enough reason for users to look into Google’s laptop solution when picking out their next laptop. “A Chromebook offers all the functionality that a casual user could want from a laptop—be it surfing the web or working with documents—and at a much lower price point than most Windows 10 laptops,” Anja Lill, the founder of My Laptop Home, told Lifewire in an email....

The current iPhone—the iPhone 12—can be had with a maximum of 512 MB. That’s already a lot of storage for a phone. So what on earth does Apple have in mind? What kinds of uses could require such a bottomless pit of storage? Two things: photos and videos. “The photos and videos we’re taking and sharing on our phones are higher resolution and larger file sizes than ever before,” Naomi Assaraf, co-founder ofcloudHQ, told Lifewire via email....

Fans of cinematic, single-player games were delivered a blow back in 2017, when Electronic Arts suddenly stopped production on a new Star Wars entry that was said to be in the same vein as PlayStation’s Uncharted action-adventure games. The massive success of fan-favorite Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order in 2017—combined with the lackluster reception of online-focused shooter Anthem—could see the solo genre make a resurgence. While no one’s hammering a nail in the coffin of online games, these recent trends could have an impact on what type of games studios favor in the future....

Refurbished phones have been available on third-party resellers for years now, and in more recent generations of smartphones, even wireless carriers and manufacturers have started to sell refurbished versions of their most popular smartphones. There are a lot of benefits to refurbished phones being available, experts say, even though it can be very tempting to get the biggest and best anytime you decide to upgrade. “Price and value are arguably the most influential factors in the rise of refurbished,” Lauren Benton, the general manager at Back Market, a refurbished electronics dealer, told Lifewire in an email....