How to Control Everything on Your Phone With Your Voice (iOS and Android)
With the arrival of digital assistant apps like Gemini and Siri, most of us have grown used to talking to our phones. But conversing with your Android or iOS device can go way beyond interacting with AI. You can also use your voice to launch apps, fill out text fields, and do just about everything […]
‘Reservation Hijacking’ Scams Target Travelers. Here’s How to Stay Safe
There’s another type of digital scam to be aware of, as per the BBC. It’s called “reservation hijacking.” The name gives you a clue as to how it works. Essentially, scammers use details about a booking you’ve placed (perhaps with a hotel or airline) to trick you into sending money somewhere you shouldn’t. While this […]
Your Phone Notifications Reveal More Than You Realize. Here’s How to Lock Them Down
You may have spotted the recent case of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation pulling Signal messages from a defendant’s iPhone, even though the messages were set to disappear automatically, and the Signal app itself had been deleted from the phone. The trick used by law enforcement? Previews of each incoming Signal message were logged […]
Daylight saving sleep tips: How to reset your body clock after the shift
What happens to our brain and body clock when daylight saving switches over? Daylight saving, O’Keeffe says, causes what’s called “circadian disruption”. “Everyone has a body clock in the brain that needs to be synchronised to the sun in order to stay healthy and function well. And of course, when we move our bodies to […]
How to Get Reliable Wi-Fi in Your Backyard
No one wants the tunes buffering when they have friends round for a barbecue or a stuttering podcast as they try to finish yard work. While the average router might fill your home with Wi-Fi, it doesn’t always extend to the patio or deck, much less the end of your backyard. But you can get […]
Your Photos Are Probably Giving Away Your Location. Here’s How to Stop That
Take a photo on any digital camera or smartphone and it’s not just the pixels that are saved. The image also gets a bunch of metadata appended to it, also known as EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format) data, including details of when it was taken, the device that was used to capture it, and the […]
How to Use Apple’s Live Translation on Your AirPods
At the same time Apple announced the AirPods Pro 3 last year, the company also introduced a new feature called Live Translation. It makes the idea of the Babel fish, so evocatively described in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, a reality: Something sitting in your ear that can instantly translate between languages, on demand. […]
How to Set Up Your Own NAS Server for Backups and Content Streaming
I’ve been toying with the idea of setting up my own network-attached storage (NAS) server for a long while, but I figured it would be a hassle. Lured by the idea of automatic backups and centralized content sharing that are detached from big tech’s increasingly untrustworthy servers, and further motivated by the creep of ads […]
How to Avoid Getting Locked Out of Your Google Account
Many of us have a lot of digital data locked away in our Google accounts: emails, photos, chats, documents, schedules, restaurant reviews. Losing access to that data is likely to be fairly high on the catastrophe scale. There are steps you can take before that happens to minimize the chances of you and your Google […]
How to Survive Daylight Saving Time: Start Early (2026)
Daylight saving time is coming, and it’s my least favorite version of the dreaded time change. Losing an hour ruins the sleep of everyone in my household. It was one thing when it was just a pair of irritated adults, but now we have a 3-year-old who doesn’t understand what daylight saving is or why […]