Posts

How to Pronounce “Bokeh” Pronounced “boh-keh,” this term comes from the Japanese word “boke,” which means something close to blur or haze, although it’s a lot more nuanced than that. In 1997, the “h” was added by Photo Techniques editor, Mike Johnston, so the written form more closely resembled the pronunciation. There’s equal stress on both syllables—it’s not “boke” (rhyming with poke) or “boh-kee.” “Boh-kay” is pretty close as, like every language, Japanese also has regional variations....

What Is LinkedIn Premium? LinkedIn is the largest career-focused social media website on the web. While the site is free to use, there are a lot of features that are only available if you subscribe to LinkedIn Premium. It’s a paid upgrade you can get for your LinkedIn account. Premium is primarily intended for current job-hunters, recruiters, and those looking to get new clients to their business. Annual pricing ranges from $29....

Google Assistant has so many features that it can be a little overwhelming to understand all that it can do. “Snapshot” is a feature that you may have never heard of, but it might be something you’ll want to start using. What Is Google Assistant Snapshot? Play Video Snapshot is not just for Android The history of the Snapshot feature goes all the way back to before Google Assistant’s existence....

The Year of the Linux Desktop? Dirk Hohndel, who was then the chief Linux and open-source technologist at Intel, predicted that in 1999, Linux would penetrate the PC desktop market and displace Windows. He’s credited with coining the phrase “the year of the Linux desktop.” Two decades later, we’re still waiting. Every year or so, an industry pundit will stick their neck out and declare that year the year of the Linux desktop....

The Basics of Buying a Used iPhone Most of the tips below are aimed at buyers who can inspect the iPhone in person, like when buying directly from someone using a resource like Facebook Marketplace. For online sales, this isn’t possible so you’ll have to do your due diligence online instead. Reputable sellers will include plenty of photos detailing any scratches and other damage, including detailed descriptions of the item they are selling....

The Problem: Wrestling with Ports and IRQs In the early 1990s, connecting peripherals to PCs was a mess. To use set up any PC, you had to utilize a handful of different types of incompatible ports and connectors. Most commonly, those included a keyboard port, a 9- or 25-pin RS-232 serial port, and a 25-pin parallel port. In addition, PC game controllers used their own 15-pin standard, and mice often plugged into serial ports or proprietary cards....

Windows 10’s free upgrade offer is over, according to Microsoft. But this isn’t completely true. There are a bunch of ways you can still upgrade to Windows 10 for free and get a legitimate license, or just install Windows 10 and use it for free. There are a few ways you can still get Windows 10 for free, without using a pirated license: you can install Windows 10 with a 7 or 8 key, or install Windows without a key—it will work just fine, save for a small watermark reminding you to purchase a license....

Why Reuse the Same Name and Password? Historically, changing your Wi-Fi network name (SSID) and password wasn’t the absolutely arduous task it is today. Back when Wi-Fi was introduced, most people had a mere handful of wireless items. A laptop here or there with a PCMCIA Wi-Fi card, maybe an early model smartphone with Wi-Fi support, and possibly a wireless bridge for your game console if you were a more advanced user....

Why Intel Code Names Matter These code names inevitably become known (Intel does publish them), and, if you do a little research, you’ll find they have a lot of significance. In fact, Intel’s code names can often provide a better understanding of CPUs than the official marketing names you see on the box. Let’s consider the most recent Intel 10th generation laptop processors. These CPUs are comprised of several CPU microarchitectures....

In the 1990s, Microsoft produced a wide range of multimedia CD-ROM educational and entertainment titles under the brand “Microsoft Home.” These guides covered topics as diverse as dogs, dinosaurs, wine, and gardening. We take a look at some of these forgotten classics. The Origins of Microsoft Home In the 1980s, Microsoft pushed heavily for the future of the CD-ROM format, even organizing the first major industry conference on CD-ROM in 1986....

In this lesson we discuss cell references, how to copy or move a formula, and format cells. To begin, let’s clarify what we mean by cell references, which underpin much of the power and versatility of formulas and functions. A concrete grasp on how cell references work will allow you to get the most out of your Excel spreadsheets! Note: we’re just going to assume that you already know that a cell is one of the squares in the spreadsheet, arranged into columns and rows which are referenced by letters and numbers running horizontally and vertically....

Smarthome is all the rage these days, and being able to control stuff with your voice is even cooler, but when it comes to Alexa fetching your coffee for you, it’s not all that exciting. Every morning, when I’m ready for my dose of caffeine, I yell “Alexa, coffee!” like some hot-shot executive with a corner office in a fancy high rise. A few minutes later, I have a full pot of hot coffee waiting for me....

Blogging can be serious work, and with your easy-to-use Tumblr blog, you might be posting more than ever. You may be writing about your beautiful vacation, sharing the newest wallpaper you designed in Photoshop, or explaining how to get your dog to quit barking at frogs. Either way, your blog takes real time, and it might be nice to make a little money from it. Google AdSense has enabled bloggers around the world to get ad revenue from their content....

Having trouble reading Safari’s tiny fonts on your Mac? It’s easy to make all of the smallest fonts in Safari bigger by default with a quick change in Safari Preferences. Here’s how. In Safari, you may be familiar with increasing or decreasing the font size on a website-to-website basis using the Command+Plus (“+”) and Command+Minus (“-“) keyboard shortcuts. But if you don’t want to fiddle with those settings for every site, Safari allows you to increase the minimum font size and have it apply to all the websites you visit....

A USB Battery Bank It doesn’t get much easier than charging a USB battery bank at home before you go. Then, you can top up your iPhone or Android phone as needed throughout your trip. This is great for short trips, overnight camping, or weekend music festivals. To make sure you have enough charge before you leave, research your device’s total battery capacity (measured in milliamp hours, or mAh). You’ll also need to factor in how often you charge your device, although, it’s best if you use it as little as possible to preserve as much juice as you can....

Ask Siri If you only occasionally check the time in another country, you don’t need to download an app or search it on Google. Just press and hold the Side button on your iPhone or say, “Hey, Siri,” to your iPhone or iPad to bring up Siri. Then ask, “What’s the time in (city).” Siri will instantly tell you the time. RELATED: How to Set Up and Use Siri on an iPhone...

At the time of writing, the Tab Group feature is available on Chrome Beta and Canary. It must be enabled using Chrome Flags. But after months of testing, Google is slowly rolling the feature out to the stable build of Chrome for everyone to use. If the update hasn’t reached your computer yet, you will need to download one of Google’s less-than-stable builds of Chrome and manually enable the Tab Groups feature before you can collapse and hide tabs....

If you want to reduce the file size of a Microsoft Word document to more easily share it or save disk space, compressing the images it contains will do the trick. Before we move forward, note that this feature is only available on desktop versions of Office. RELATED: How Big Is Too Big for a Microsoft Word Document? Compress Images in Word on Windows On a Windows machine, open the Microsoft Word document that contains the images you want to compress, and then select a photo....

Sony’s official PlayStation app, available for both Android phones and iPhones, allows you to remotely control your PS4. Use it as a playback remote or a keyboard for quickly typing without relying on the PS4’s controller and on-TV keyboard. While Nintendo opted to bundle an entire controller with a touchscreen gamepad, both Sony and Microsoft have added a “second screen” environment with a smartphone app. It isn’t integrated directly into as many games, but it’s still a useful feature....

Email can overwhelm you with unimportant messages. Sometimes, though, you really need to know when a certain message hits your Inbox. Fortunately, you can set up custom alerts in Microsoft Outlook to make sure you don’t miss the messages that are most important. To set up custom alerts, we’re going to create a rule in Outlook on a desktop computer. This method, unfortunately, won’t work in the Outlook web app; if you use that, you’ll just have to keep your inbox as clear as possible....