Articles about How To

The research claiming that depression and anxiety among teenagers is higher than other generations fueled by sexting and online bullying clearly indicates the dangers facing young people in today’s digital world.

Yet the true extent of the problem is likely to be even worse as more and more children start engaging online from a younger age.

Continue reading →

Windows 10 Insider Preview has a dark secret… Well the newly released Build 10074 does anyway.

If you open the Windows Store and hit Ctrl-T, the app will switch from a light to a dark theme. Pressing the same key combination will restore the app’s lighter look. As far as we can tell this trick only works for the Store, but you can enable the dark theme on other apps with a spot of registry editing.

Continue reading →

So you’re thinking about getting yourself an Android Wear smartwatch, but you're not sure if it’s too complicated to set up?

The truth is it’s a very simple device and setting up is no different than, say, setting up an app on your smartphone.

Continue reading →

There was a time when phones only contained text messages and contacts that the value of your device had been more important than what it stores. But that period is now long gone. In today’s age of smartphones, information has become more valuable than the device itself, which is why having a PIN on your smartphone has become more important than ever.

Tons of information -- such as your social media accounts, email messages and bank details -- can be accessed from your phone and we all know that security is not something to be ignored in this day and age. Setting up a passcode is an easy task on both Android and iOS smartphones and here’s how it’s done.

Continue reading →

If you want to install Windows from scratch, you have two choices -- you can install the OS from a CD/DVD or from a USB flash drive. The latter is the better option, especially as optical drives are becoming something of a rarity these days.

The process of creating a bootable USB flash drive for Windows 7, 8.1 or 10, is quick and easy. Here’s how to do it.

Continue reading →

The new Start menu included in the latest build of Windows 10 -- available to Windows Insiders on the Fast ring -- is a marked improvement over previous versions. It’s resizable, and customizable. It’s also, like the build itself, rather buggy. It’s a bit like a fair-weather friend -- sometimes it’s there for me, other times it’s nowhere to be seen. Hopefully the issues with the menu will be sorted shortly.

If you’re running the new build, or planning to, then it’s worth customizing the Start menu to suit your tastes. There’s quite a lot you can do.

Continue reading →

The latest Windows 10 release, Build 10049, comes with Microsoft’s new browser, Project Spartan. The software giant describes the new app as being built for the modern web, with a design that’s "streamlined and puts the focus on the page, not the browser". My colleague Mark Wilson, has a different view, describing it as "fat, chunky, and devoid of style and features".

While you can launch Project Spartan directly from the Start menu, Internet Explorer remains the default web browser in the new build. You can easily change this behavior though.

Continue reading →

OnePlus today released the much awaited OxygenOS update for its flagship One smartphone in India. The said Android-based operating system brings a Lollipop update in addition to a set of features from the Chinese smartphone manufacturer. Whether or not this is what you prefer, the OxygenOS bestows “pure Android experience”. The update is meant only for the OnePlus One smartphones sold in India.

OnePlus One global variant runs on Cyanogen’s Android KitKat-based CM 11 software. Days ahead of One’s launch in India, Cyanogen partnered with Micromax to give it an exclusive right to ship Cyanogen’s software in the country. The move spoiled OnePlus’ plan to debut in India with a bang. Cyanogen made it clear that it won’t be providing any software updates to OnePlus’ Indian variant.
Amidst the controversy, OnePlus announced that it will soon release an Android 5.0-based operating system for devices by the end of January. The company missed the deadline, but the software update is finally here. And so are a couple of other confusions.

Continue reading →

In reviewing the daily news stream it is impossible to miss the escalating frequency of incidents coming out of schools all across the country which relate directly to social media, texting, or apps used by kids.

Sexting, cyber-bullying, sextortion, and intimidation seem to be on the rise. Sexting, in particular, seems to be proliferating and is now surpassing cyber-bulling in frequency and intensity. Consequences for online misbehavior of children can range from embarrassment or shame up to criminal prosecution. Depending on which state you live in, consequences can vary widely. It seems schools and parents struggle to grapple with the realities of a general lack of effective policies, rules, or legislation to address these problems head on.

Continue reading →

This week Amazon rolled out its latest update for Fire TV. The package contains all sort of enhancements for the platform, including expandable storage via USB, better Wi-Fi connectivity for those in a hotel or dorm room, music playlists through Prime, and a whole lot more.

So, how do you know what version you're set-top box is currently running and how do you check to see if the update is yet available to you? The process is pretty simple and the steps are listed below, so let's walk through it.

Continue reading →

Microsoft has just released ISO files for latest build of Windows 10 Technical Preview. There aren’t a massive amount of new features in Build 10041, although the Start menu gains transparency, you can drag and drop apps to Start, virtual desktops have been improved, and Cortana is now available in countries outside the US.

As with the previous releases, Build 10041 is still a very early version of the OS, so you wouldn’t be advised to run it as your main operating system, and while you could set it to dual boot, running it in a virtualized environment is probably a more sensible idea.

Continue reading →

One of the technological highlights of 2015 so far has been the official announcement of the much anticipated Apple Watch, almost two years after Samsung’s first Galaxy Gear smartwatch. The iPhone compatible smartwatch is initially priced from $349 for the entry-level Sport model to around $17,000 for an 18-carat gold version. Some of the manufacturers, like Samsung, LG, SONY and Motorola, are already presenting the 3rd generation of their smartwatches.

While opinion is divided about how successful Apple Watch will prove to be, it’s clear that smartwatches and other wearable technologies are a great way to collect and display contextual data quickly and easily. However, because this is a technology boom that is still in its infancy, there are several questions that remain to be answered when it comes to data security and recovery. There are four things you might like to consider when protecting data accessed via a smartwatch.

Continue reading →

Although Microsoft released a new build of the Windows 10 Technical Preview earlier in the week, it only made it available to Windows Insiders on the Fast ring, and through Windows Update. It’s not officially available as an ISO image yet (Microsoft currently only offers downloads for Build 9926).

However, it is possible to grab an ISO of the new build through unofficial channels.

Continue reading →

Recent speeches by UK Prime Minister, David Cameron, and US President Barack Obama demonstrate that cyber security is still a huge concern for national governments. We should be in no doubt that another raft of counter-measures is being considered at national and international levels.

However, those in charge of IT security in the business community are not necessarily taking their cue from world leaders to re-evaluate their own policies and ensure they are still offering protection from the kind of cyber attacks that are likely to occur in 2015.

Continue reading →

With Microsoft we've become used to the idea of publicly available preview builds of Windows 10 for desktop and phone. Now Apple is following suit and making iOS 8.3 available as a public beta. This is the first time a public beta of iOS has been released, although Apple has tried the same tactic with betas of OS X.

The beta is in the process of rolling out at the moment, so you may not be able to grab yourself the bits just yet, but you can get yourself in line. What is there to look forward to? Not much at the moment, apart from wireless CarPlay and new emoji. Here's how to grab the beta.

Continue reading →