TrueCrypt is a free open-source disk encryption software for Windows Vista/XP, Mac OS X, and Linux. What it does is to create a virtual encrypted disk within a file and mounts it as a real disk. You can use it to encrypt files with sensitive content encrypt an entire partition or storage device such as USB flash drive or hard drive encrypt a partition or drive where Windows is installed....

If you are an Apple enthusiast (and even we suspect if you’re not) you’ll know that Apple makes high quality electronics for the home. The only time this tech heaven ever becomes less of a perfect world for some users is if those users are not 100% invested in the Apple ecosystem. Apple likes to work in a kind of “closed room” in a sense, with the confines of your world being inside the walls of iPod, iPhone, Mac, and most specifically Apple TV and iTunes....

Of course, this feature is there to save you from the unnecessary shutting down and restarting of your Ubuntu machine. But if you have been using Ubuntu for a long time, then accidentally pressing the Shutdown button is pretty rare. That said, apart from being useful, this feature is kind of annoying, as sometimes we may forget to confirm our action due to things like ignorance or workload which in turn leads to unnecessary power consumption....

I wasn’t even looking for such an app, but now having it, I can’t imagine being without it. Voxer doesn’t just work on iOS devices; it also works on Androids, meaning you aren’t as limited. My son started using it on his Android phone, and with him leaving to go back to college, we started using Voxer as a way to keep in touch. I like it much better than texting him from my iPhone....

Sometimes you want software that demands less resources. As computers become more powerful, software becomes more demanding to take advantage of this fact. With word processing a key asset, what can you do to help yourself? 1. Atlantis Nova This free word processor for Windows computers is a derivative of its paid relative – Atlantis Word Processor. Atlantis Nova is a pared-back version of the former with fewer features and, theoretically, a smaller footprint....

I’ve downloaded countless number of calendar apps, but they never seem to do everything I want, or at the very least do it better than the Calendar app that’s included with iOS. I do a lot of scheduling due to a writing gig I have that details what’s on TV every night. That requires me to keep track of what’s on every night, the series premieres, season finales, etc. I need a system I can reference and change easily and often....

Luckily for anyone moving to a new city or just looking for a good conversation, “Tinder for friendship” does exist. It’s a bit trickier to pull off – it turns out friendship is less quantifiable than romance – and it hasn’t reached anything near the scale of online dating, but if you live in a fairly populated area (a major city is best), you stand a good chance of possibly connecting with someone!...

But it can also feel a little frightening to have a smart device in your house that is always listening. What does it do with the information it collects? Or where does that information go? As with all Internet of Things (IoT) devices, it’s imperative to give security precedence. Most consumers are likely unaware that they’re in possession of an always “eavesdropping” piece of artificial intelligence hardware in their homes....

But if there’s one thing that served to threaten Skype’s dominance in the conferencing market, it was the fact that people had to register for accounts in order to participate in conversations. Alternatives began to appear around 2013 that began to chip away at its foundation, and we don’t see signs of this slowing down at any point in the future. I intend to answer the questions of why startups (and Skype) are shifting away from this model and how security can be guaranteed even without formal authentication....

Setting up text shortcuts on Mac To setup text shortcuts, follow the steps detailed below: Open System Preferences on your Mac, either from Spotlight or by navigating to “Applications -> Utilities” as usual. Click on “Keyboard”, and select the Text tab. Here you’ll see two main columns, “Replace” and “With.” The string of text or phrase you want to use as a shortcut will be entered in the Replace column. For example, if you want to use “brb” as a shortcut for “Be Right Back,” enter in “brb” in the Replace column....

After years of video projectors being uniformly high-end, big-ticket items, in recent years the lower ends of the market (where the likes of you and I shop) are becoming more densely populated with choice. There are many companies selling full HD projectors with high lumen bulbs and crisp, large screen sizes for not too much money. Obviously when a technology becomes affordable, yet not cheap, it gets hard to spot the good stuff among the chaff....

If you are a user that notices or cares, then the disappointing audio on many machines can be a bit of a buzzkill. And while it’s not the first thing you should upgrade to get a better listening experience, adding higher quality elements to your signal chain is generally a good way to improve your listening experience. To that end, you can purchase an external DAC which takes the place of your built-in processor and includes better hardware....

Android Things will bring improvements such as secure software stacks and updates only a week or two after they are available (does not apply to important version updates). Frequent updates are undoubtedly something the Android world needs and at least the first version is out. What Is Android Things? Android Things (formally known as Brillo) is designed to work on gadgets with the Internet of Things such as smart thermostats....

What Is Apple Music Lossless? When you listen to streaming music, there’s a good chance the audio file has been compressed to help make the transmission to you more seamless. By doing so, each streaming service knows that a little bit of audio quality is sacrificed from the original recording value. In the case of lossless compression, all of the original data or the original audio file format is preserved. Said another way, this is Apple’s opportunity to completely embrace high-resolution audio....

But what does DLC mean and why should you care? We’ve assembled this guide to explain what DLC is, and the different forms that it can take. What is DLC? The acronym DLC stands for downloadable content, and is a reference to add-on content for a video game purchase. You’ll need to already own the base game in order to use DLC. DLC can take a variety of forms, from character skins in Fortnite to entire new game levels such as Blood and Wine for The Witcher 3....

Introducing Epoch Time In the English dictionary, “Epoch” is defined as an instant of time considered to be the starting point for a particular period or event. In Computing, “Epoch Time” refers the starting point used to calculate the number of seconds elapsed. Epoch Time in Common Operating Systems Epoch Time in the real world starts at the time of 00:00:00 UTC, where UTC stands for Coordinated Universal Time. Apple macOS considers its Epoch Time as starting from January 1, 1904....

What Is Groove Music? I know everyone loved iPods, but personally, I liked the Zune better. It had more storage and was cheaper, but sadly, Microsoft quit supporting it. As that faded away, so did the Zune music manager. The replacement for that became Groove Music. At first, it functioned much like the Zune app. You could buy music, subscribe for additional listening, and manage your music collection. As Windows 10 was released, Microsoft decided to phase out Windows Media Player and transition to Groove Music....

Why does the “Android unable to format SD card” error happen? Whenever you get the Android unable to format SD card error, it often happens because the SD card is already formatted with a file system it doesn’t recognize, or the SD card can no longer perform write operations. SD cards have a lower density for write operations than other forms of storage which means after a certain amount of usage, all SD cards will eventually be unwriteable, and some time soon after that, unreadable....

What’s the difference between first- and third-party cookies? Each cookie has an “owner.” The owner of a cookie is the domain that’s specified within it. This is known as the cookie’s “party.” A first-party cookie is the kind where the domain of the party coincides with the domain name of the website that sent the cookie to your browser. For example, if you go to “youtube.com” and the site sends a cookie to your system with “youtube....

There’s been a great deal of improvement in AR in recent years. Your phone is now capable of doing what was once only possible using a headset. Pokemon GO stickers were just two-dimensional virtual stickers, but today AR has 3D capability. What is augmented reality? Simply stated, augmented reality creates real-world views with elements added that change the way the viewer perceives the space. Today’s AR uses the camera on your smartphone and combines interactive, digital objects with a real-life environment....