NetNewsWire (NNW) is a newsreader app that lets you follow any website without Twitter or Facebook in the middle skimming your activity data. All your subscriptions sync privately, via iCloud, or most popular web-based RSS services. But the point here is that it’s your news, your way. NNW is completely anti-algorithm. It’s an antidote to the engagement-via-rage model of social networks. “The algorithms optimize for engagement because engagement is how you maximize ad revenue,” NNW owner Brent Simmons told Lifewire via direct message....

Carnegie Mellon University scientists recently found that redesigning a cell phone display could make photographs better. It’s part of a growing revolution in phone camera technology. “Smartphones are already using computational photography, a digital image-capture method that employs AI-integrated software, digital computation, and powerful hardware—instead of relying solely on optical processes that are limited by the compact form factor of the phone,” Mario Endo, director of computer memory manufacturer Micron’s Mobile Business Unit, told Lifewire in an email interview....

How Rain Affects Satellite Signals During a rainstorm, the raindrops can weaken or absorb the signal on its way to a satellite dish. Rain can also cause signal scattering as the electromagnetic waves refract and diffract around raindrops on the surface of the dish. Mini-dishes are better designed to minimize signal loss due to weather, but large dishes are better in areas with frequent heavy rains as they better compensate for reduced signal strength due to weather....

When the new option is enabled, messages will automatically be deleted after 7 days. It’s an attempt to match similar self-destructing message abilities in apps like Signal or Snapchat. But experts say, don’t think your private notes are necessarily gone forever. “You shouldn’t rely on Disappearing Messages as being private,” Matt Boddy, CTO, and Co-Founder of Traced Mobile Security said in an email interview. “Yes, it can add a degree of privacy to your messages, but they certainly aren’t completely private....

While not the first audio feature Twitter has announced—the platform introduced 140-second audio tweets earlier this year—Spaces promises to engage multiple people in conversations with each other. Experts say they expect more social platforms to hop on the audio trend, since there are many benefits to the spoken word over the written word. “Audio is a unique communication tool in that it is arguably the best way to develop intimacy quickly with an audience,” Kane Carpenter, director of marketing at DaggerFinn Media, wrote to Lifewire in an email....

The Minds Behind Super Mario Brothers Super Mario Bros. was not the first platform video game, but it was by far the most successful, and it established the archetype that all other games in the genre would follow. The brainchild of legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, the concept for Super Mario Bros. evolved from his 1981 arcade hit Donkey Kong, a single-screen platformer that first introduced players to Mario (then called Jump Man)....

Launched in 1991 and based on a design from 1985, the MDR-7506 might as well be the definition of “industry standard.” They sound good, they’re tough, they’re completely repairable, and they have a coiled cable that seems absurdly long until you use them in the studio, where it is perfect. But the same goes for many headphones, so what makes these Sony’s different? “The secret to the popularity of the 7506 is that everyone steals them from their art school or employer,” electronic musician Obscurerobot replied to Lifewire in a forum post....

I’ve always been an analog kind of gal when it comes to staying organized, strongly preferring paper planners to apps—though not for lack of trying to go digital. I’ve tried a gazillion apps, but usually found myself turned off by complicated designs or anxiety-inducing notifications. After a year of having even less structure than ever, though, I decided I needed some extra help. While scrolling through the App Store’s “Hot This Week” list, I noticed an app called Structured sitting near the top of the chart and decided to give another digital planner app a whirl....

Change Your Facebook Cover Photo on a Computer Changing your cover photo is easy and will immediately revamp how your Facebook profile looks. The cover photo is different from your profile image; it’s much larger and sits above and behind your profile picture. Change Your Facebook Cover Photo via the App Follow these steps to change your cover photo from the Facebook app: If it’s a Facebook Page you’re updating, choose Edit....

How Do I Connect My AirPods to My Lenovo Laptop? The steps are a little different depending on which version of Windows your Lenovo laptop is running. Windows 11 Here’s how to connect your AirPods to a Windows 11 laptop: Windows 10 Here’s how to connect your AirPods to a Windows 10 laptop: How to Switch Sound Output on a Lenovo Laptop If you want to use your AirPods to listen to music or videos, you’ll need to switch audio outputs....

Wireless Bluetooth Adapter Bluetooth connectivity continues to mature and can be found in all sorts of tech products. You’d have a hard time finding a smartphone or tablet without Bluetooth as a standard. Some people even turn their old smartphones into portable media players using Bluetooth. As such, Bluetooth adapters (also called receivers) are widely available and easily affordable. Bluetooth adapters come in many shapes, sizes, and features. Most can connect to stereo systems, amplifiers, or receivers through a 3....

How Do I Connect My Personal Hotspot to My Computer? Follow these steps if you want to set up USB tethering on your phone to share internet with just one other device, or skip down to the next section to learn about making a wireless hotspot. Using a USB connection is ideal if security and battery life are concerns. How Can I Connect My Mobile Hotspot to PC Without USB Cable?...

Now, developers can add a special download attribute to their HTML anchor tags to tell browsers to treat a link as a download, rather than opening the target file. There are a few different ways that you can use the Download Attribute to control the way browsers handle your download links. Even better, all modern browsers support the Download Attribute, so you shouldn’t see any issues with compatibility or the need for a fallback....

How this works: The VLOOKUP function might look confusing because it contains four arguments, but it’s straightforward to use. The four arguments for the VLOOKUP function are as follows: lookup_value (required): The value to search for in the first column of the table array. table_array (required) - This is the table of data (a range of cells) that VLOOKUP searches to find the information you need. The table_array must contain at least two columns of dataThe first column must contain the lookup_value...

When it’s all said and done, a brand-new streaming device being used over a high-quality internet connection can still have streaming issues if Hulu is to blame. There’s nothing you can really do if that’s the case. Regardless of where or how you use the service, below are several common Hulu streaming problems you might run into, and our take on what you can do to fix them, or at least minimize the issue as much as possible....

How to Start a Group FaceTime Using the FaceTime App There are two ways to FaceTime with multiple people on an iPad or iPhone: the FaceTime app or the Messages app, both of which are installed with the iOS and available at the App Store if you deleted them. Start a Group FaceTime Using the Messages App You can also use the Messages app to start a group FaceTime in a few steps....

Standard Aftermarket Car Stereo Head Unit Wire Colors The easiest way to wire in an aftermarket car stereo is to identify the OEM wires using diagrams for the specific vehicle and head unit. Still, it’s possible to get the job done without any labels, adapters, or diagrams. Unlike OEM head units, which are all over the place in terms of wire colors, most aftermarket manufacturers stick to a standardized coloring scheme....

How to Lock the Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 You can lock the Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 by pressing the Power button found in the keyboard’s upper right corner (between the PgDn and Del keys). This will turn off the display and lock the laptop. Alternatively, you can use the Windows+L keyboard shortcut. Pressing these keys simultaneously will lock the Surface Laptop 4 but won’t turn off the display. Finally, you can lock the Surface Laptop 4 by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Delete....

To get the most out of the new file system, learn how to format drives with APFS; create, resize, and delete containers; and create APFS volumes that have no size specified using Disk Utility. For additional information on Disk Utility or if you need to work with HFS+ (Hierarchical File System Plus) formatted drives, learn how to use Disk Utility in macOS. It is also a good idea to learn more about APFS and disk types....

What Is an MDT File? A file with the .MDT file extension is a data file used by Microsoft Access and its add-ins for storing relevant data. Although Access uses both file types, an MDT file shouldn’t be confused with an MDB file, which Access uses to store database information. That is, unless your particular MDT file happens to be an old Microsoft Access 97 template file. An MDT file may instead be a GeoMedia Access database template, which is a format used by the GeoMedia geospatial processing software to create an MDB file out of its data....