How to Use a Standard Ring Light for Your Selfies Snapping the perfect selfie is harder than it looks, especially in low light. With the help of a selfie light, you can brighten things up so that your selfies never look dull, shadowy, grainy, or unflattering. These are very basic instructions for how to use a standard ring light; the instructions will vary depending on the type of ring light you have....

What Is the Aperture Setting? Aperture controls the amount of light that enters the camera through the iris in the lens. These amounts are represented by “f-stops,” and a large aperture is represented by a smaller number. So, for instance, f/2 is a large aperture and f/22 is a small aperture. ​Learning about aperture is an important aspect of advanced photography. However, aperture also controls depth of field. Depth of field refers to how much of the image surrounding and behind the subject is in focus....

When to Use Undo, Redo, and Repeat The undo button in Excel reverts your worksheet to the state it was in just before you performed the most recent action. Redo has the opposite effect, redoing what you’ve just undone, such as if you accidentally delete something. Repeat lets you perform the same operation you completed on one cell, such as changing the font color, in additional cells. Specific situations call for using undo, redo, and repeat....

The touchpad can also replace the traditional computer mouse with gestures that can click words or objects with the cursor and mimic the right-click function. Popular Windows 10 Touchpad Gestures The touchpad on Windows 10 laptops and computers is capable of a surprising amount of functionality. Here are some of the useful gestures that could change the way you use Windows 10. Mouse cursor: This is the most basic Windows 10 gesture that allows you to use the touchpad as a computer mouse....

Best Smartphone Mouse Apps Unified Remote, Remote Mouse, and PC Remote apps are excellent options for turning your smartphone into a mouse for your computer. We gave each of them a test run using an Android smartphone and Windows PC. All three apps are intuitive, and the mouse/touchpad function worked without a noticeable delay on each. The keyboard function on Unified Remote and Remote Mouse worked fine, but we found ourselves wishing we could use our smartphone’s keyboard....

Many museums offer virtual tours of their exhibits, and galleries are trying to lure buyers by showing their offerings online. School children, who usually would be touring museums, are getting a close-up look via the web at everything from dinosaurs to classical art. There are even some upsides to looking at art online, experts say. “While the highly personal connection that visitors make with artworks and gallery spaces cannot be replicated online, the museum has discovered that connecting directly to living artists, scholars, and collectors, as well as other visitors online, provides a very rich context for all,” Corey Madden, interim executive director of the Monterey Museum of Art, said in an email interview....

iCloud+ Features and Plans While the basic iCloud service is free, you can get iCloud+ by upgrading to any paid iCloud plan (including Apple One, as we’ll cover later in this article). Here’s how the iCloud+ plans compare to each other: iCloud Private Relay: This is a VPN-style feature that routes all of your web browsing traffic through an Apple server and a third-party server. By adding two additional steps between you and the websites you’re visiting, Apple can partially anonymize your traffic, protect user privacy, and prevent tracking and data gathering....

Overall Findings Both of these iPads were top-of-the-line performers when initially introduced, but time has gone by, and they’ve been left behind by newer models. Both are still serviceable tablets you can use to get work done, read and play games, and access the internet, your email, and your social networks. The fact that the iPad 2 is more than 2 years older than the iPad Mini shows in the quality of its display and the speed with which it operates....

Overall Findings: Better Camera vs. Better Battery Life The iPhone XS and iPhone XR are both very good phones. The screens look fantastic, both have plenty of storage, and come in a variety of fun colors. The iPhone XS has a better camera, while the XR has a better battery life. The XS wins in a few other areas as well, like water protection, and the XR is the clear winner when it comes to price....

A mobile device that’s used regularly can start to show decreased battery life after 18-24 months. If you’ve had your iPhone or iPod for two years or more, you’ve probably noticed that the battery holds less juice and that you need to recharge more often. You don’t need to replace the battery as soon as those signs start to appear. And if you’re still satisfied with everything else about your iPhone or iPod, you prefer to just replace the battery rather than buy a whole new device....

While Nextdoor takes the safety and privacy of its users seriously by incorporating a range of security features, guidelines and policies into the platform, it still isn’t completely unsusceptible to scams, fraud or harassment. To stay as safe and secure as possible while using Nextdoor, make sure to consider the following tips if you’re thinking of joining or are already an existing user. Consider the fact that Nextdoor collects information from your browser and device....

Facebook (now rebranded as Meta) recently said that it’s shutting down its face recognition program. The technology creates face prints of users and automatically recognizes them in uploaded photos. It’s part of a growing unease with facial recognition both within tech companies and in the courts. “Facial recognition in public spaces should be regulated as it calls into question the assumed anonymity we all expect to enjoy in such spaces,” Michael Huth, head of the department of computing at Imperial College London, told Lifewire in an email interview....

Recently, I started working on my family ancestry tree with the help of my grandmother which means lots of phone calls and note-taking. With the Jabra Talk 45 Bluetooth headset, I’ve been able to get through hours-long conversations, thanks to a comfortable ear hook coupled with adjustable sound settings. During testing, I also checked for battery life and general performance. Read on to see what I thought. Design: Easily spotted One of my biggest concerns with Bluetooth headsets is that most of them have a sleek black design that’s hard to spot....

When Bluetooth earbuds were still largely tethered together with a single wire, Jaybird was one of the top names in the game, especially if you wanted sporty headphones. The Jaybird Vista true wireless earbuds are the company’s first foray into the “no wires” space, and they present an interesting argument to go with them over other premium brands. In essence, that argument is that these are rugged and sporty, keeping with the Jaybird name....

I love books, but when I’m packing my suitcases to go on vacation, I’m always looking to maximize space in my carry-on luggage. While it doesn’t come with a lot of fancy extras, the Kobo Nia functions as a basic, compact e-reader I can tuck into my bags on the fly. With a ComfortLight display and 8GB of memory, it’s easy to take a library on the go. I used the e-reader for weeks of testing, and enjoyed the easy OverDrive borrowing and general portability....

The Lenovo ThinkPad X12 Detachable is tough, rugged 2-in-1 laptop that’s skewed entirely towards function. It has an unusual 3:2 display, a black matte magnesium-aluminum body, and even an optional nano SIM slot for cellular connectivity. All this makes the ThinkPad X12 Detachable’s focus on business travel plain, but can a 2-in-1 that’s all function and no fun compete with Apple’s versatile iPad Pro and Microsoft’s attractive Surface Pro 7?...

When I picked up the Gram 17, it felt like an empty file folder because you don’t expect a big laptop to be so graceful in the hands. I recently took the Gram for a test drive and came away impressed with both its gorgeous screen and outstanding ergonomics. But could it work as a viable replacement for my MacBook Pro? Hardly More Than a Gram At just under 3 pounds, the Gram 17 is built for travel and commutes....

How to Recover a Forgotten Gmail Password Can’t get into your Gmail account because none of the passwords you think you remember work? Here’s how to authenticate and set a new Gmail password to get back into your account. How to Contact Gmail Support Is your Gmail broken? Here’s where to report your problem and get help directly from Google via email or through a public forum. How to Access Gmail in iPhone Mail You can open Gmail in your iPhone’s Safari app, but where’s the fun in that compared to the comfort of a dedicated email application?...

Overall Findings Office and iWork are good productivity suites that offer a variety of apps. Both offer fully featured word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation software. iWork is better if you create lots of charts, while Office creates splashier documents and presentations. iWork is free, which makes it an attractive choice for iOS owners. The base version of the unified Office app for iPad (featuring Word, PowetPoint, and Excel) is free, but if you require advanced features, you’ll need an Office 365 subscription....

The Naim Mu-so 2nd Generation is a speaker that aims to offer immersive, smart-connected sound in an elegant package, and the limited-release Wood Edition brings with it a more organic visual look. Naim is a brand that fits alongside higher-end audio manufacturers like Bang & Olufsen or Sonos. And that’s for two key reasons: First, they all focus on a premium design and build to provide an elegant piece of decor, not just a speaker....