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How Do I Use Sky Map? After downloading the app from the Google Play Store or navigating to the Google Sky webpage, Sky Map is a relatively intuitive piece of software. If you follow the steps listed below, you should be able to soar through the cosmos in no time virtually. Using Sky Map on Your Smartphone Sky Map operates like most other Android applications. You must sign in to your Google account and download the Sky Map app from the Google Play Store to get started....

Freedom. Expression. Creativity. Infinite. These aren’t words you’d associate with traditional games you’d find in stores, play for a few weeks, then throw onto a shelf to collect dust. Minecraft is a form of expression that has no true conclusion. As long as your imagination is flowing, the game keeps on going. Many people who play Minecraft understand this, and those who don’t may question why Minecraft is the most important game of this generation....

What Is Nest Aware? Meant to complement Nest security cameras, Nest Aware is a live service that offers cloud storage for videos, 24/7 event or continuous video recording, and access to activity zones to customize motion alerts. For most people, the video recording and cloud storage features are enough to justify the cost of a Nest Aware subscription. Being able to review video footage can be critical in an emergency or other situation, providing evidence or a point of reference....

There are several advantages to this approach, particularly the ability for each and every pixel to make light on their own, producing an infinitely high contrast ratio, meaning blacks can be completely black and whites extremely bright. This is the main reason more and more devices use OLED screens, including smartphones, wearable devices like smartwatches, TVs, tablets, desktop and laptop monitors, and digital cameras. Among those devices and others are two kinds of OLED displays that are controlled in different ways, called active-matrix (AMOLED) and passive-matrix (PMOLED)....

From Interlaced to Progressive Scanning With the advent of desktop computers, it was discovered that using a traditional TV for the display of computer images didn’t yield good results, especially with text. This was due to the effects of interlaced scanning. In order to produce a more precise way of displaying images on a computer monitor, progressive scan technology was developed. What Is Interlaced Scan? Traditional analog TV broadcasts (along with older cable/satellite boxes, VCRs, and DVDs) are displayed on a TV screen using a technology known as interlaced scanning....

In most ways, Safari is like any other popular browser. Users can browse websites, bookmark favorites, and open multiple sites in tabs. Built using the WebKit engine, Safari was one of the first web browsers to support the new HTML 5 standard. It was also one of the first browsers to have support for Adobe Flash turned off by default, with the mobile versions of Safari having never supported Flash....

The term originates from a time when software and video game developers would try to fill an entire disc by plugging in additional programs or games that the user didn’t ask for. The developers were said to care so little about real quality that it appeared as if they simply shovelled lots of programs into one big bundle just to take up space. Shovelware programs might be demos, ad-filled programs, or actual usable software, but in general they’re assumed to be of little real worth....

No Default Windows Password Unfortunately, there is no real default Windows password. There are, however, ways to accomplish the things you wanted to do with a default password without actually having one. For example, there are ways to find your administrator password or any password you might not know, which you can then use in place of that fabled default Windows password. Did You Forget Your Password? There isn’t a magical password you can get that gives you access to an account that you’ve lost the password to....

Choosing the primary key in a database is one of the most important steps in the process. It can be a normal attribute that is guaranteed to be unique such as Social Security number on a table with no more than one record per person or — preferably — it can be generated by the database management system such as a globally unique identifier, or GUID, in Microsoft SQL Server....

What You Need to Know About TweetDeck TweetDeck is a free web-based tool that helps you manage and post to your Twitter accounts. It’s also designed to improve organization and functionality across them. TweetDeck’s dashboard displays separate columns of activity from your Twitter accounts. For example, you might see separate columns for your home feed, your notifications, your direct messages, and your activity—all in one place on the screen. You can also reorder these columns, delete them, and add new ones from other Twitter accounts or for specific things like hashtags, trending topics, scheduled tweets, and more....

Devices that adhere to this USB standard can theoretically transmit data at a maximum rate of 5 Gbps (5,120 Mbps), but the specification considers 3,200 Mbps more reasonable in everyday use. This is in stark contrast to previous USB standards like USB 2.0 that, at best, can transfer at 480 Mbps, or USB 1.1 that tops out at 12 Mbps. USB 3.2 is an updated version of USB 3.1 (SuperSpeed+), though USB4 is the latest standard....

Don’t Post Status Updates While Still on Vacation One of the biggest mistakes you can make is posting anything about your vacation while you are still on it. The wrong person might see your vacation post and decide that while you’re away, your home is prime for plundering. Posting current updates that place you far away gives thieves ample time to plan and execute a robbery of your house. After all, you won’t be back anytime soon....

It’s pretty rare to get physical versions of things that can be delivered digitally these days. Just like more people stream music than buy CDs and more people download software than get it on disc, there aren’t many printed user manuals for consumer electronics. Instead, companies offer downloadable PDFs. That’s the case with Apple’s iPod Touch user guides. The iPod Touch only comes with a few slight pages of documentation....

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2x Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2x plays fine on Xbox 360, but frequent one-to-three-second pauses occur when you navigate menus. You may also encounter a rare brief pause during gameplay for a couple of seconds. The game is fun and worth picking up for your Xbox 360, especially if you aren’t satisfied with Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 THPS 3 requires that your Xbox 360 be set to 480P mode; any other resolution causes the game to freeze on the white Xbox logo....

A report from the seemingly clairvoyant analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says that the new MacBook will be ready for sale late in 2023, will use the same power adapter as the current MacBook Air, and may not even be called a “MacBook Air.” However this pans out, one thing is certain—a big-screen laptop without the guts (and cost) of Apple’s pro models would be very welcome indeed. “MacBook Airs have long been the more affordable options in comparison to MacBook Pros,” technology writer Kristen Bolig told Lifewire via email....

Recently, the European Commission proposed a five-year minimum for the same things, but Germany wants to go longer. That’s no surprise for people living in Germany, which already has a minimum two-year warranty period for new purchases, and a one-year warranty for used goods. But will this seven-year plan actually make repairing our gadgets easier? Will phone and tablet designs have to change to accommodate it? Or will nothing really change?...

In its early years, the iPhone’s back was made from aluminum and plastic. Then came the iPhone 4, with its steel rim and glass back, which set the template for the heavy, breakable iPhones of today. Apple saw sense with the iPhone 5, 6, and 7, which were made of light, thin, tough aluminum, but ever since the iPhone 8, we’ve had to live with this nonsense. What’s Wrong With Glass?...

Elgato just announced the Stream Deck MK.2, a 15-button unit that sells for a very reasonable $150. Like previous units, its flexibility means you need to spend a little time getting set up, or even deciding what to do with it. But once you do—so its fans say—you won’t want to go without it ever again. The MK.2 adds interchangeable faceplates to go with the custom icon packs that are already available, and you can set up a screensaver for those little buttons that match these faceplates....

Film photography is undergoing a serious revival. Part of that is retro-hipster fashion, but today film photography has a solid and growing base. Kodak has unofficially announced two new films for this year, and the price of used film cameras continues to rise. Surprisingly, disposable film cameras also are popular, as are a new wave of non-disposable models, which essentially are the same cheap plastic boxes, only with a door on the back to swap in new films....

Virtual reality and augmented reality could allow players and fans to engage more closely with the game, proponents say. The release of more capable virtual reality headsets like the Oculus Quest 2 is driving more interest in VR. But VR technology isn’t having the impact that was expected in esports. “People were expecting VR to take a more central role in entertainment, but it won’t take a quantum leap until there are more titles and the hardware becomes more accessible,” Yaniv Sherman, senior vice president and head of US at gaming group 888 Holdings, said in an email interview....