Some components that still provide analog audio-only or digital and analog audio connectivity include: CD playersAudio-tape decksVCRsOlder DVD and Blu-ray Disc players As a result, many home theater receivers still provide some analog audio connection options—usually analog stereo inputs and outputs, a subwoofer, and Zone 2 preamp outputs. Multichannel analog inputs and outputs are sometimes provided. What Are Multichannel Analog Connections? Multichannel analog connections consist of a separate audio connection for each channel of audio....

How to View Your Virtual Desktops There are two ways to check out an overview of your current virtual desktops. You can either open Task View for a full overview of your desktops and the active apps on your current desktop or check a quick view of just your active desktops. Task View is similar to the Task Switcher that’s accessed by pressing Alt + Tab, but it shows both your active apps and your desktops....

What Are Portrait Mode and Portrait Lighting, and How Do They Work? Portrait Mode and Portrait Lighting are photo features of the iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X in which the subject of the photo is in focus in the foreground and the background is blurred. While the features are related, they’re not the same thing. Portrait Mode makes the background blurry while the subject of the photo is in focus in the foreground....

How to Place Calls on Your iPad Using FaceTime The easiest way to make phone calls with your iPad is by using the video conferencing software called FaceTime. It comes with your iPad and uses your Apple ID to place phone calls to anyone who also has an Apple ID, which is anyone who owns an iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, or Mac computer. These calls are free, so even if you’re using your iPhone, you won’t be using your minutes....

Twitter recently confirmed that it intends to increase the price of Twitter Blue from $2.99 per month to $4.99 per month starting in October. That’s a notable bump, and no new features are being added. And even those already there are underwhelming according to subscribers and people observing the social space. “The initial introduction of Twitter’s subscription concept Twitter Blue hasn’t been solidified as a success by users, yet the platform announced an upcoming increase in price,” social media consultant Katie McKiever told Lifewire via direct message....

Google recently introduced Gboard, its popular smartphone keyboard for Wear OS, marking the first major app launch the smartwatch operating system had seen in years. On top of that, Google reassured Android fans that the OS is still very much alive, going so far as to tease that new features are in the works. Despite these promises, experts say the biggest thing holding back Wear OS is its fragmented user experience....

Accessibility has long been an important topic of discussion in the tech industry, with many users advocating for better accessibility options every day. Now, Zoom is taking another step forward and will offer automatic closed captioning to all free accounts by the end of the year. Experts say this is a step in the right direction, especially with so many relying on the service for their jobs and online learning....

What Is Apple Private Relay? iCloud Private Relay is a privacy-centric feature of iCloud+ that works similarly to a VPN to hide a device’s IP address and browsing behavior from those who want to access it, such as advertisers. Private Relay works on the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, and Mac. It requires iOS 15, iPadOS 15, or macOS Monterey, or higher. It also requires an iCloud+ account, which is the name for any paid iCloud account....

Import a Movie Into iMovie If you’ve already imported the movie you want to use for your trailer, select it from the Library. If you haven’t, complete the following steps: Select a Template You can choose from 29 iMovie templates (or genres), including Action, Adventure, Blockbuster, Documentary, Friendship, Romance, Romantic Comedy, Sports, Spy, Supernatural, and Travel. There are also some more esoteric choices, such as Bollywood, Coming of Age, Film Noir, Indie, and Retro....

Instagram is said to be working on a separate platform geared toward kids under 13 as a way to better incorporate the generation that has grown up online. With many parents wary about their kids visiting social media sites at such young ages these days, experts say the key to allaying those fears will be kid-centric platforms featuring built-in safeguards. “Like anything online, it’s going to have to be pretty moderated, and parental controls are going to have to be important,” Alley Dezenhouse-Kelner, the clinical director of Magnificent Minds, told Lifewire in a phone interview....

Apple’s super-simple-but-effective Translate app arrived on the iPhone with iOS 14. In iOS 15, it will come to the iPad, along with a radical addition: Conversation mode. This lets two people converse in different languages. You tap the microphone button and say something. That’s it. The app transcribes and translates your words, then Siri reads the result. It’s both simple, and staggeringly useful. “That’s a huge gift to people who are traveling, working with people who speak in a different tongue, or just wanting to learn something new,” cybersecurity analyst Eric Florence told Lifewire via email....

The $2.99 (USD equivalent) subscription adds a reader mode, lets you undo tweets, and adds bookmark folders for organizing saved Tweets. But does anybody want these features? Shouldn’t they be built in? And who will pay? “The first subscribers of Twitter Blue will be social media marketers and agencies that manage accounts of people that are influential,” business and marketing consultant Dr. Juan Izquierdo told Lifewire via email. Who Wants This?...

One of the most interesting releases in the true wireless earphone space in the last year were the Jabra Elite 75t earbuds. As the next iteration in the Elite line, the 75t earbuds improve on the 65t in a number of ways, which is saying a lot because the Elite 65t earbuds were (and possibly still are) considered some of the best on the market. With the 75t earbuds, you get ridiculously good battery life, a solid fit and finish, and the sound and call quality that you’ve likely come to expect from Jabra....

Adobe’s Photoshop Album digital photo organizer brought the tagging concept to the mainstream for digital photography, and the popular online photo-sharing service Flickr also helped to spur the trend. Now many photo organizing software programs use the tag metaphor, including Corel Snapfire, Google’s Picasa, Microsoft Digital Image and Windows Photo Gallery in Windows Vista. For photos, tags represent an evolution in the typical method of organizing image collections. The Old Way: Folders The folder concept was once commonly used as a way of grouping and organizing digital data, but it had its limitations....

Most premium gaming keyboards are big, beastly devices—but not the Logitech G915 Lightspeed Wireless RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard. While it keeps the vibrant rainbow of lighting animations seen on most contemporaries, this high-end option is super-slim and features low-profile keys that hit a sweet spot between traditional keyboards and laptop keys. That makes it an outlier in a field full of very similar-looking gaming accessories, but the stylish look and speedy typing on these clicky keys make the Logitech G915 Lightspeed a great pick—particularly for those who will actually use it for work and everyday use....

What Is an MOV File? A file with the MOV file extension is an Apple QuickTime Movie file that’s stored in a QuickTime File Format (QTFF) container file. An MOV file can store audio, video, and text in the same file through different tracks, or the tracks can point to data stored elsewhere in another file. Apple devices like iPhones and iPads are a common place to see MOV files because that’s the default file format that those devices record video in....

Given its name, the MSI Prestige 15 has been positioned as something special. Sure enough, it’s loaded with powerful tech within a sleek and alluring design, but what makes this laptop more worthwhile than the competition? There are more power-packed, gaming-primed Windows laptops around the same price, and less demanding users can get a premium, ultra-thin notebook for a few hundred bucks less. The MSI Prestige 15 sits somewhere between those well-defined categories, and the company’s emphasis on professional creatives makes sense: it’s a very capable, attractive computer that can handle resource-intensive apps and heavy multitasking, plus it does a pretty good job running games....

OLED displays look amazing, use less power, and have blacker blacks than other screen technologies. But mini-LED, as used on the current 12.9-inch iPad Pro and the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro, has its advantages. Still, it seems like Apple is really into OLED as the future screen tech for its whole lineup, and it will be especially great for MacBook Air users. “First, OLED technology is more energy-efficient than mini-LED....

What Is a UPS for Computers? There are different types of UPS systems. The type used with computers is a Standby UPS. It contains a battery that kicks in when the UPS senses a loss of power. The UPS sits between the power supply and the equipment it protects. It plugs into the wall outlet, and the devices plug into the UPS. A standby UPS for computer equipment provides two primary services:...

The new consoles are in such short supply that scalpers are even using special software to buy them online for resale. The approaching holiday season means the $399 PS5 is a popular gift item, but some thieves are ruining the buzz for would-be gamers. “It is obvious that they plan on selling the consoles for cash—that is what happens when high demand items are stolen,” Lauren R. Shapiro, an associate professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said in an email interview....