What medieval doctors couldn’t do, however, was map out an infected person’s contacts to predict who else would catch the disease. They couldn’t proactively isolate these people to prevent the spread of the infection. That, in a nutshell, is the art of contact tracing. It’s a formidable tool that might help conquer the novel coronavirus pandemic. Apple and Google are adding digital contact-tracing tools to the iPhone and Android to help....

What Is Image Stabilization? Image stabilization (IS) is also sometimes referred to as vibration reduction (VR). It’s a mechanical feature on some lenses and cameras that limits the amount of blur caused by camera shake. Generally, the slowest shutter speed you can use without IS and still get blur-free images is 1/XX, where “XX” is the 35mm-equivalent focal length of the lens. This is called the reciprocal rule. For example, if you’re using a 100mm lens, you can safely use a shutter speed of 1/100 of a second....

HBO Max Is More Content for the Same Price If you don’t currently subscribe to any HBO service, all you need to know is HBO Max gives you the biggest content library for the best price ($14.99 per month). So, by all means, save yourself the headache of figuring out which of the three services is right for you, and just go with the best. If you’re already subscribed to HBO through your cable provider (HBO Go) or HBO’s previous offering (HBO Now), here’s a basic breakdown:...

Same Difference? Linux is a free and open-source operating system. Unix is a commercial product, offered by a variety of vendors each with its own variant, usually dedicated to its own hardware. It’s expensive and closed source. But Linux and Unix do more or less the same thing in the same way, right? More or less, yes. The subtleties are slightly more complicated. There are differences beyond the technical and architectural....

Starting in version 88, Microsoft Edge automatically enables its Sleeping Tabs feature for all users. Wondering why some of your tabs are faded in the Edge toolbar? Here’s how the Sleeping Tabs feature works (and how to turn it off). Why Does the Sleeping Tabs Feature Fade Some Tabs? Sleeping Tabs is Microsoft Edge’s own spin on popular tab suspender extensions. These extensions (starting with the now infamous The Great Suspender extension) would suspend or close tabs after a set period of inactivity....

This feature will be extremely useful for anyone who uses the Windows Subsystem for Linux on Windows 10. It’s a convenient way to run a Bash shell and other Linux utilities in an Ubuntu environment, for example. However, these Linux environments each have their own file systems. Accessing the Linux files from within File Explorer and other Windows applications can be complicated. Microsoft already made it pretty easy to access those Linux files....

Headphones Don’t Need a Headphone Jack Finding a phone with a headphone jack is not easy anymore. There are still a few solid options out there if you’re okay with using Android, but Apple fans are completely out of luck. So what can you do if you want the better audio quality from wired headphones and a high-end smartphone? Some manufacturers included adapters in the early days of smartphones shipping without headphone jacks....

Starting with the Windows 10 October 2020 update, Microsoft has removed the System window from the Control Panel. However, the information isn’t gone forever; it now lives in Settings as an About page. Below are five ways to quickly open the System window on your PC. If you haven’t yet installed the Windows 10 October 2020 update, these shortcuts will open the System page in the Control Panel, instead....

Hard drives are getting larger and larger, but somehow they always seem to fill up. This is even more true if you’re using a solid-state drive (SSD), which offers much less hard drive space than traditional mechanical hard drives. RELATED: How to Free Up Disk Space on a Mac If you’re hurting for hard drive space, these tricks should help you free up space for important files and programs by removing the unimportant junk cluttering up your hard disk....

Newer iPhones Get the Biggest Upgrades One of the biggest improvements you’ll find in the Camera app is its raw performance. Apple claims is up to 90 percent faster, with the ability to capture four shots per second. The time it takes your iPhone 11 to take its first cold shot has improved by 25 percent, and portrait shooting has gained a 15 percent speed improvement. However, Apple has limited many of these improvements to newer devices, like the iPhone 11 (and 11 Pro), XR, and XS....

Sometimes you’re in the middle of a productive session in Windows 10, but you need to log out or restart your machine. Normally, you might need to start your session over again. But with a quick change in Settings, Windows can remember and re-open your non-legacy apps automatically when you log back in. Here’s how to set it up. First, open Windows Settings. To do so, click the Start menu and select the small gear icon, or press Windows+i on your keyboard....

Before we get started, there are a few important things to note. Google allows you to change your location in the Play Store once per year, so don’t waste it. You will also lose your Google Play balance from the previous location. Lastly, you will need a payment method from your new country. RELATED: How to Get a Refund From the Google Play Store Open the Google Play Store on your Android device and tap your profile icon in the search bar....

Most of the world uses the Metric system, whereas the U.S. still uses the Imperial system of measurement. Depending on what you are used to, you may want to change the measurement unit in Microsoft PowerPoint. Here’s how. While there’s a built-in option for changing the measurement unit in Microsoft Word, that’s not the case for PowerPoint. Microsoft PowerPoint actually uses the system of measurement that the computer it’s installed on uses, which means that you need to adjust your computer’s system settings—not PowerPoint’s....

Whether you’re expecting a payment from someone, or you want to see if you have enough funds to buy something, it’s easy to check your PayPal account balance. We’ll show you how to do that on your desktop and mobile phone. Keep your PayPal account logins handy as you’ll need them to log in to your account. RELATED: That Paypal Balance on Social Media Was Faked, Here’s How Check Your PayPal Account Balance on Desktop If you’re on a Windows, Mac, Linux, or Chromebook computer, use the official PayPal website to view your current account balance....

If you’re a fan of Mozilla Firefox and you’d like to clear your browsing history quickly, there’s a simple keyboard shortcut available to help you do the job on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Here’s how to use it. First, open “Firefox.” In any open window, press one of these two keyboard shortcut combinations depending on which type of computer you are using: Windows or Linux: Press Ctrl+Shift+Delete. Mac: Press Command+Shift+Delete....

Templates let you configure all the relevant settings you want pre-applied to documents—page layout, styles, formatting, tabs, boilerplate text, and so on. You can then easily create a new document based on that template. When you save a document as a template, you can then use that template to create new documents. Those new documents contain all the text (and images, and other content) that the template contains. They also have all the same page layout settings, sections, and styles as the template....

You Can’t Disable Messenger Alone To disable Facebook Messenger, you’ll have to disable your Facebook account, too. There’s simply no option to deactivate Messenger without deactivating your Facebook account first. Deactivating your account is different from deleting Facebook. If you deactivate your account, you can reactivate it at a later date by simply logging in. You won’t be able to use Facebook at all while your account is deactivated, including Oculus services....

Starting in iOS 14 and iPadOS 14, Apple made some changes to how iMessage groups work. While you can mute group conversations, the Messages app still sends out notifications when someone mentions you. From the Settings app, you can disable notifications for all mentions. RELATED: How to Mention Someone in iMessage Groups on iPhone and iPad Open the “Settings” app on your iPhone or iPad and then navigate to the “Messages” section....

If you’re a long-time Mac user, you might be familiar with the keyboard shortcut that’s used to enter Recovery Mode on Intel Macs. You just hold the Command+R keys when booting up. But this won’t work if you’re using a Mac with Apple Silicon (M1 Chips or higher). Once you’ve made sure that you’re using a Mac with Apple Silicon (You can click on the Apple icon in your menu bar, then select “About This Mac” to confirm....

Finding the best deals can be a challenge when shopping online. With so many different retailers to choose from, which store has the best prices? Google Shopping makes this easier with its price comparison tool. If you’re unfamiliar with Google Shopping, it’s essentially Google Search with shopping results. Google scours the web for retailers that sell the product you’re looking for. In some cases, you can buy the product straight through Google without having to visit the retailer’s site....