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How to Protect Yourself Against Spyware Most of the time, spyware works in the background of a device, invisible to the unsuspecting. You have a chance of coming into contact with serious malware each time you use your devices. It’s important to understand how to block spyware as you surf the internet, clear your inbox, and beyond. How Does Spyware Work? Spyware is a type of malware that silently tracks cookies to map your internet usage, tracks your social media activity, tracks the emails you send, and more....

What Does Catalyst Control Center Do? Catalyst Control Center starts up when you turn on your computer because it has to run in the background to manage your AMD video card’s operation. The same software was also used to manage ATI video cards before AMD purchased ATI, so older computers with ATI cards may also have CCC.exe installed. If you don’t play video games on your computer, you probably won’t ever have to touch Catalyst Control Center, but if you do, the software allows you to check for driver updates for your video card and manage the card’s operation....

What Is a File Format? A file format is a file structure that informs a computer how to display its information. If you’ve used a computer, you’ve encountered numerous file formats. Popular formats you may have seen include DOCX files for Microsoft Word, JPG and PNG files for images, MP3 files for music, and many more. USDZ is another file format that holds information for a computer to unpack and display data in augmented reality....

Shortages of Microsoft’s Xbox Series X and Sony’s Playstation 5 means gamers must go to extreme lengths to get their hands on the latest devices. Users are traveling long distances and turning to Twitter feeds, scalpers, and auction sites to find items in stock. “Because scalpers are using bots to buy up all the stock in seconds, regular people are paying double, and sometimes even triple, the cost of a PS5 just to get their hands on one,” Rex Freiberger, CEO of Gadget Review, said in an email interview....

What Is an MHT File? A file with the .MHT file extension is an MHTML Web Archive file that can hold HTML files, images, animation, audio, and other media content. Unlike HTML files, these aren’t restricted to holding just text content. These files are often used as a convenient way to archive a web page because all the content for the page can be gathered into a single file, unlike when you view an HTML web page that only includes links to images and other content stored in other locations....

Audio Source Quality To select the optimum encoding values, consider the nature of the audio source. For example, when a low-quality voice recording is encoded from an analog tape using the highest possible encoding settings, the converted file takes up a lot of storage space. If an MP3 file that has a bitrate of 96 Kbps is converted into one with a 192 Kbps bitrate, there’s no improvement in quality. This is because the original is only 32 Kbps and anything higher than this increases the file size but does not improve sound resolution; that data has already been lost....

How to Know if Your Yahoo Mail Is Hacked It won’t always be obvious that someone has gained access to your email and its information, and that’s by design. The longer it takes you to re-secure your account, the longer the hacker can use it. Here are some things to look out for. How to Secure a Hacked Yahoo Mail Account If you discover strange and suspicious activity in your account or hear about a breach, you’ll want to lock down your data as soon as possible....

You’ve been able to use disappearing messages for a while now, but this is the first time you’ve been able to set the feature as the default for all new conversations. You can also fine-tune how long they stick around before vanishing. Disappearing messages won’t save you from embarrassment, but they can ensure that long-forgotten communications stay forgotten. “Perhaps one of the easiest ways to understand what [this change is], is to think of old spy and cold war movies—‘This message will self-destruct in 10 minutes’ or invisible ink,” cyber defense expert and White Tuque founder and CEO, Robert D Stewart, told Lifewire via email....

Which iPad Models Have Built-In GPS? A built-in GPS chip is found in Apple’s Wi-Fi + Cellular iPad models, which is an option for all available versions of the tablet. These devices cost more than the Wi-Fi-only versions. Apple never stated why it doesn’t include a GPS chip in the Wi-Fi-only models. It might be because many apps that use GPS for navigation and other duties draw on data from the internet, even when you’re out of range of a Wi-Fi signal....

If you get your iPhone 12 repaired outside Apple’s official repair network, and you’re running iOS 14.4, then you can’t go to a third-party repair shop to get a camera replacement. Or rather, you can replace the camera module, but you will see a warning alert. This continues a worrying trend, in which Apple’s devices get less and less repairable. “Apple’s camera warning hints at dire malfunctions and the crude incompetence of independent repairs,” iFixit’s Kevin Purdy told Lifewire via direct message....

What you may not have realized is that just about every digital camera, be it the pocket kind or the professional DSLR variety, uses that same folder. Want to hear something even more surprising? While you probably use apps to view, edit, and share the photos you take with your smartphone or tablet, those photos are also stored in your phone in a DCIM folder. So what’s so special about this ubiquitous abbreviation that every company seems to agree is so important that they must all use it for your photos?...

Why are tech workers striking? Because they are being exploited, and the law isn’t helping. New Industrial Revolution Comparing the plight of workers in modern-day Europe and the U.S. to workers during the Industrial Revolution is stretching things, but there are parallels. Back then, laws made it illegal for workers to come together and protest working conditions or anything else. “For the most parts, trade unions still work on the model of the ‘shop floor’—where people work in an environment with fixed boundaries, with a largely static workforce,” Anindya Raychaudhuri, lecturer in English at the University of St....

Twelve South makes MacBook cases that look like beautifully aged antique leather books. The cases are pricey, but they have kept my MacBook ding-free and might even have prevented a robbery. Unlike most cases, the Twelve South versions actually look better with use. They acquire a unique patina that personalizes the cover and makes it your own. Light scratches in the leather give it character, rather than looking messy. Pricey but Unique I’m using BookBook, which costs $99....

In a study of human-chatbot interaction from ResearchGate, researchers found that participants who interacted with a bot designed to be as “human” as possible reacted negatively, experiencing a sense of discomfort from the interaction. So, some bot designers have concluded that it’s essential to keep their creations from promising too much. “When customers think that a bot is human, or capable of human-level interaction, they will often speak to it in a much more roundabout way,” Pranay Jain, co-founder and CEO of Enterprise Bot, a company that builds bots for companies, said in an email interview....

The video conferencing company said its new service will allow people visiting offices to check-in without physical contact. All you have to do is start a Zoom call to speak to a human receptionist in a remote location. Experts say video services can help prevent the spread of COVID-19 once people return to offices. “Any way we can limit physical contact right now will help stop the spread of COVID-19,” Frank Weishaupt, CEO of Owl Labs, a company that makes video conferencing cameras, said in an email interview....

Windows 11 will be available in its first official release version on October 5. On that date, Microsoft says it will begin a slow rollout process to deliver free upgrades to eligible PCs running Windows 10. It hopes to complete the rollout in phases, which it says should complete by mid-2022. Windows 11 will also become available as a standalone OS purchase or as a pre-loaded OS on eligible PCs on that day....

Google’s latest update for the Chromebook Camera app includes a couple of new features to go along with QR code scanning, camera timers, and so on. Now you can also adjust your Chromebook’s camera angle and crop (to save for later use), as well as use it to scan documents. According to Google, you’ll be able to scan documents and save them as a JPEG or PDF file using either the front or rear-facing camera on your Chromebook....

A new study says that phone manufacturers and developers aren’t doing enough to preserve the anonymity of users. Researchers found people can now be identified with just a few details of how they communicate with apps. The news comes amid growing concern about the diminishing level of privacy on the internet. “Most people don’t know what information can be used against them until it’s already too late,” John Bambenek, a researcher at the cybersecurity company Netenrich, told Lifewire in an email interview....

The announcement was made in a post on the Zoom Blog, where the company details the new features, including a Focus Mode, limited screen sharing, and a redesigned Zoom Chat. As the name suggests, Focus Mode rearranges meetings so people only can see themselves, the host, and whatever content is being shared, to help focus on the lesson at hand. Meanwhile, the host can see all participants in a gallery view....

How to Use Widgets in Windows 11 Open the widgets board to take a glance at widgets for weather, calendar, Microsoft To Do tasks, news, stocks, and photos among others without opening the apps that power the widgets. How to Set up Widgets in Windows 11 Windows displays a few widgets by default. But you can personalize the widgets board by adding new widgets you need and removing the ones you don’t....