Open Instagram on your smartphone. Swipe inward from the left or tap the Camera icon in the top-left corner to open the Instagram Stories interface. RELATED: What Are Instagram “Stories,” and How Do I Use Them? Here, swipe the bottom row, and then tap “Boomerang.” In the Boomerang interface, tap the Shutter button to record a Boomerang. After you record a Boomerang, you can preview it in the Instagram Stories editing interface....

The Privoxy Proxy Server A web proxy sits between the computers on your network and the internet. The proxy intercepts HTTP and HTTPS traffic, acting as a border control officer. It checks the web address (or URL) someone is trying to access, and, if it’s on the banned list or matches any of the banned criteria, the proxy refuses the connection. If the proxy is happy with the website, it retrieves the web page and forwards it to the computer that requested it....

Parental Controls vs. Child Profiles RELATED: How to Turn an Android or Fire Tablet Into a Kid-Friendly Device with FreeTime You can lock down your device in one of two ways. There are parental controls, and there are child profiles that use Kindle FreeTime. Both are intended for locking down your device and restricting what your kids can do, but they take different approaches. This doesn’t require you to set up any other account....

The ZIP file format reduces the size of files by compressing them, saving disk space, and reducing network transfer times. It also allows you to combine several files into a single one that’s easy to share with others. Here’s how to zip and unzip files on Windows 10. How to Create a Zip File (Compressed Folder) First, open File Explorer and locate the files or folders you’d like to compress and combine into a Zip file....

See If Anything Is Covering the Lens It’s always best to check the basics first. It might sound obvious, but if your webcam isn’t working properly, the lens might just be blocked or covered with something. Many people cover their webcam when it’s not in use to protect their privacy. If you’re not getting any errors, and all you see is a black screen, make sure there isn’t anything covering your webcam....

What’s the Difference Between LED and OLED? OLED is fundamentally different from the LCD technology in most flat-panel TVs and monitors. An OLED display is self-emissive, which means each pixel is capable of generating its own light. This allows OLEDs to “switch off” pixels and achieve perfect blacks. By comparison, all LCD screens require a backlight, from the cheapest models to the high-end quantum dot (QLED) sets. How the backlighting is implemented varies greatly throughout the price range, however....

Crimson Peak Play Video Guillermo del Toro offers a masterful take on vintage gothic horror with Crimson Peak. Del Toro channels the Brontë sisters and Hammer horror productions in equal measure with this ghostly romance set in the late 19th century. Mia Wasikowska plays a young heiress swept off her feet by an English baronet (Tom Hiddleston). He marries her and brings her to his crumbling mansion, which is full of dangerous secrets, most held by his cruel sister (Jessica Chastain)....

High-Refresh-Rate Monitors A monitor’s refresh rate, measured in hertz (Hz), is the number of times the display is updated every second. A 60 Hz monitor refreshes 60 times per second, outputting 60 frames per second (fps). If the computer renders at higher than 60 fps, you won’t get any benefit from this because the monitor can’t keep up. This isn’t to say there aren’t any benefits to playing with higher refresh rates than those supported by your monitor (reduced input lag is a big one)....

A Mislabeled Novelty The Virtual Boy debuted in Japan on July 21, 1995, and came to the U.S. on August 14 of that same year. Retailing for $179.95 at launch (about $303 in today’s dollars), it was far more expensive than either the Game Boy or Super NES. Judging from its name and headset-like appearance, anyone who hasn’t used a Virtual Boy would be forgiven for thinking it was a legitimate attempt at a virtual reality console from Nintendo....

On the Other Hand OTOH is a direct abbreviation of the real-world phrase “on the other hand.” It’s used when someone wants to consider another side of a discussion or argument. While asking friends where to meet for lunch, someone might say, “Hardee’s has the best fries!” You might reply, “I like Hardee’s, but OTOH, it’s 20 minutes away from my house.” Again, OTOH is a direct abbreviation, so you can use it anywhere that you might use “on the other hand....

What Is a Portrait Lens? Portrait lenses (or rather, lenses-that-are-often-used-for-portraits-but-can-be-used-for-lots-of-other-stuff-too) have two key features: They have a normal or short telephoto focal length. They have a wide maximum aperture. This means that most portrait lenses designed for full-frame cameras have a focal length of between about 50mm and 105mm, with a maximum aperture of somewhere between f/1.2 and f/2.8, or so. (The equivalent focal range for crop-sensor cameras is between around 35mm and 70mm, so there’s a lot of overlap....

What Are the Signs of a Virus? Poor performance, application crashes, and computer freezes can sometimes be a sign of a virus or another type of malware wreaking havoc. However, that’s not always the case: There are many other causes of problems that can slow down your PC. Likewise, just because your PC is running fine doesn’t mean it doesn’t have malware. The viruses of a decade ago were often pranks that ran wild and used a lot of system resources....

Internet Explorer 11 was officially retired on June 15, 2022, with Microsoft asking people to use IE Mode in Microsoft Edge if they still need access to older pages. Microsoft has now confirmed when the regular Internet Explorer app will be (almost) completely removed. Microsoft announced a multi-stage plan for Internet Explorer’s removal on Windows 10 earlier this year. Windows 11 never shipped with the browser, and Windows 8.1 isn’t in mainstream support anymore, so it’s only receiving critical security patches....

An iPhone Icon Pack Is a Bunch of PNG Files When you buy an iPhone icon pack—or download a free one—you’ll get a pack of images. These will likely just be standard PNG files, although they could be another format. Icon packs contain a variety of icons created by an artist or a team of artists, and they’re designed to match each other and look good together. Some might all be brightly colored icons on dark backgrounds, designed to better fade into a dark background, for example....

If you don’t like your Apple Watch lighting up when you’re at work or when you’re winding down in bed before you go to sleep, you can enable Theater mode automatically. RELATED: How to Turn Off Your Apple Watch’s Screen with Theater Mode Enabling Theater mode can be done manually from the Control Center on your Apple Watch. Swipe up from your watch’s home screen to reveal the Control Center....

If you aren’t listening to as many audiobooks as you used to, you might be considering ending your Audible membership. You can’t do this using the app, but we’ll show you how to do it quickly on the Audible website. What to Know Before Cancelling Before you cancel Audible, be aware that you won’t lose access to the audiobooks that you’ve purchased once you stop subscribing. You’ll still be able to access all of your audiobooks using the Audible website and app....

What to Know About Cancelling YouTube Premium When you cancel your Premium subscription, YouTube continues to offer you Premium benefits until the end of your billing cycle. If you have subscribed to Premium from the YouTube app on your iPhone or iPad, you will have to use the last section in this guide to cancel your subscription. This is because you’re billed via Apple and not YouTube directly. RELATED: What Is YouTube Premium, and Is It Worth It?...

In this guide, we assume you know your current passcode and you want to change it to something else. In case you’ve forgotten your passcode, then check out our other guide on that topic. RELATED: What to Do If You Forget Your iPhone or iPad’s Passcode Change iPhone’s Passcode To begin the passcode update process, launch Settings on your iPhone. In Settings, select “Touch ID & Passcode” or “Face ID & Passcode” (depending on your iPhone model)....

You might need to change your Microsoft Account name in Office 365 or Windows 11 for whatever reason. Luckily, it’s easy to do with a visit to a special Microsoft Account website. Here’s how. First, open your favorite web browser and navigate to the Microsoft Account Profile website. Next, sign in to your Microsoft account using your password. On the “Your Info” page, you’ll see your account avatar or photo (if you have one), then just below it, your current Microsoft account name....

If you need to copy a Google Drive folder from a web browser, Google doesn’t make it easy for you. But you can use a workaround or download the desktop app for a more streamlined approach. Copy Folders Using Google Drive (Kind of) Google Drive doesn’t offer a way to copy a folder and all of its contents when you use the web-based app. Instead, you have to copy the contents of the folder, create a new folder, and then paste everything into the destination folder....