There are two ways of making and recording music: hardware and software. Hardware might be as simple as a guitar, but for electronic musicians, it usually ends in an endless rabbit hole of drum machines, samplers, synths, groove boxes, plus the midi controllers and cable that bring it all together. Roland’s Fantom-0 puts all that into one box, so you get the benefits of hardware, without the headaches—or the wallet-stripping addiction....

Chromebooks can be a way to get the performance in day-to-day productivity applications normally associated with more expensive laptops. The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 is one of the upper tiers of such ChromeOS devices, and though it’s hardly cheap, it could potentially offer something of a bargain. The question is, does it offer good value for the money, or is this too much to pay for a Chromebook? Design: Thin but durable Thin and light are the key operating phrases with which to describe the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2....

According to Seekr, it wants its userbase to start making educated decisions on the type of content they consume and will teach this via a scoring system to indicate an article’s quality. There are currently two scoring methods at play: a Seekr Score and Political Lean Indicator, with more to come in the future. Seekr compares its system to a consumer rating system, like Consumer Reports. It’s a way to educate the public on the news by serving as a platform showing what it considers good reporting versus bad....

In the initial release of macOS Monterey, Shortcuts is pretty flaky. The interface is glitchy, and several basic actions don’t even work. But despite this, Shortcuts is a big deal for the Mac. It makes it easy, almost trivial, to automate the apps you already use. Better still, many apps have already added Mac Shortcuts support just days after release. “I still think Shortcuts will get there, and I believe Apple is committed to Shortcuts on the Mac, but the version of Shortcuts that has shipped with Monterey is still more a promise than a workable solution,” writes Apple watcher and podcaster John Vorhees on Mac Stories....

The social media messaging app just announced a new service that inserts advertisements in the middle of stories, with a portion of the revenue going directly to creators, as noted in an official company press release. The program is only available for the most popular Snapchat content creators, also known as ‘Snap Stars.’ If you’re unfamiliar with the machinations of Snapchat, think of a Snap Star as a Twitter blue checkmark....

Google recently unveiled LaMDA, an experimental model that the company claims could boost the ability of its conversational AI assistants and allow for more natural conversations. LaMDA aims to eventually converse normally about almost anything without any kind of prior training. It’s one of a growing number of AI projects that could leave you wondering if you are talking to a human being. “My estimate is that within the next 12 months, users will start being exposed to and getting used to these new, more emotional voices,” James Kaplan, the CEO of MeetKai, a conversational AI virtual voice assistant and search engine, said in an email interview....

The Cash app is what credits cards should be. It combines physical and virtual credit cards and also lets users send and receive money from others. It’s a very convenient way to manage your money, and now kids as young as 13 can get in on the action. Years ago, kids learned about money by running possibly illegal lemonade stands and saving coins in a piggy bank. Now they learn to use the same electronic financial tools as adults, only with plenty of parental control....

Setup: Some tinkering required Star Wars: Squadrons has a fairly hefty download before it’s playable, so be sure your hard drive has at least 26.4 GB of storage space. When the game boots up you can alter basic settings to set language, volume, display settings, and everything else needed to optimize your experience. I struggled a bit to get it to play well with my dual-screen setup, but eventually, I was able to get it to a playable state on my ultra-widescreen Samsung CHG90 display....

When Was the Surface Go 3 Released? The original Surface Go launched in 2018, and Surface Go 2 in 2020. It took nearly two years for Microsoft to offer a new Surface Go, but instead of a 2022 release this time around, the Go 3 became available on October 5, 2021. You can order the Surface Go 3 on Microsoft’s website. Microsoft confirmed the new Surface Go at the September 22, 2021, Surface event, along with the Surface Pro 8 and other products....

Although Fantasound and other early experiments in surround sound technology could not be duplicated in the home environment, that didn’t limit the quest by recording engineers for both music and film to develop processes that would eventually result in the surround sound formats that are enjoyed in home theaters all around the world today. What Is Monophonic Sound? Monophonic (mono) sound is a single-channel, unidirectional type of sound reproduction. All elements of the sound recording are directed using one amplifier and speaker combination....

The company not only offers 5G for your phone when you’re on the move, but also a 5G broadband service called 5G Home Internet, which brings 5G’s ultrafast speeds to your home, too. Metro, the company’s prepaid brand, also offers 5G access. What makes T-Mobile’s 5G deployment different from some telecom companies is their use of low-band and mid-band spectrum (vs mmWave) to provide access to more areas. In particular, T-Mobile says their 5G network will cover 96 percent of rural Americans to offer them better and more choices....

What Is a TEX File? A file with the TEX file extension is most likely a LaTeX source document file created by LaTeX that’s used to define the structure of a book or other document, like whether to make it into an article format, letter format, etc. These are plain text files that might include not only text characters but also symbols and mathematical expressions. Other TEX files are most likely images used by some video games to store the texture of objects so they appear differently than other 2D or 3D objects....

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently put out a note to warn people about a rise in SMS phishing attacks, sharing that text scams rose a staggering 168 percent between 2019-2021, with over 8,500 complaints just this year alone. “Cybercriminals are increasingly using text messages as a method to bypass the security controls typically implemented in email and other communication systems,” Josh Yavor, Chief Information Security Officer at Tessian, told Lifewire....

Parents set controls for each child’s profile, so it’s important to select Preschool to enable the right content settings for little ones. YouTube Kids features unboxing videos, which are videos of a toy being unpacked and played with. These videos are appealing to children and may introduce them to new toys they think they need. The app is kid-safe. It has ads, but ads are limited and enable the service to be free of charge....

“Batman: Arkham City” is a great blend of setting, narrative, and gameplay. “Arkham City” is the rare game that appeals to players who like open-world games as well as those who prefer cinematic games. The creators of “Arkham City” crafted an amazing cinematic adventure, with a script co-written by Batman icon Paul Dini, but the gamer still has tons of freedom within this style of game. You’ll spend hours traversing Arkham City looking for secrets and collectibles while enjoying an amazing narrative....

While Wear is easy to use on a basic level, it has many interesting features and options. To help you get the most out of your smartwatch, we compiled a list of the 10 best tips and tricks for Wear. Basic watch faces only show the time. However, you can get watch faces for Wear that display weather information, the number of steps you took, notes about appointments, and your heart rate....

Facetune’s intuitive interface lets you smooth out your skin, whiten your teeth, reshape your jawline, emphasize your eyes and so much more. It’s really one of the best apps out there if your main priority is to look your absolute best. Since it’s a pretty advanced app, it’s not available for free. You can get it for just about $4.00 though from both the iTunes App Store and Google Play....

USB-C cords are capable of transferring both power and data faster than their older counterparts; if you’ve recently upgraded to a phone with a USB-C connection, you may have noticed that it charges faster (or charges a longer-lasting battery in the same amount of time). As this speedier cable becomes more popular, you may run into issues where you have a USB-C cord and a USB-A port without any way to connect them....

Filezilla includes a live log of your connection to a server and shows your local files in a section next to the remote files on the server, simplifying transfer to and from the server and displaying the status of every action. FileZilla Client supports bookmarking FTP servers for easy access later. You can resume and transfer big files 4 GB and larger, and it supports simple drag-and-drop functionality. It also allows you to search the FTP server....

One of the most annoying things about TVs is the limited number of ports to connect things like streaming boxes and games consoles. An HDMI switcher gets around this, adding more ports by letting several devices share the same cable into your TV. One key thing to make sure of when you buy is that you get a switch that supports the highest resolution you’ll need. The two main options are HD, which is a little cheaper, and 4K, which is also known as ultra HD, and gives a sharper picture....