Although you can make the speaker sound better by adjusting EQ settings, getting it to say your name without making it sound weird is a different story. You can go about this two ways. The first one is to use your nickname if you have a more pronounced one. However, if you don’t have one or have one you don’t like, you can also spell your name out. Nickname on Google Home By default, Google Home will use your name....

Take over my computer? But who would do such a thing? In a way, it was people like you and me. But not voluntarily, of course. Rather, some hackers had installed malware on many computers and consumers who have not secured their Internet of Things (IoT) devices like web cameras, DVRs, and thermostats and used them to launch the DDoS attack against a target of their choosing. Editors Note: Unclear what all the buzz about the Internet of Things is?...

What happens when you want to type something more specialized, like a character for a math equation, or a character from a different language? You’ll have trouble finding these special characters on a standard keyboard. Luckily, you can find those characters on Windows 11 if you know where to look. Here’s how to type special characters on Windows 11. Enable the Touch Keyboard in Tablet Mode Provided you have a touchscreen laptop, you can use the touch keyboard to type several special characters on Windows 11....

And now, Google allows you to edit your Google Maps profile directly from the Android app. Here’s how. The Google Maps Public Profile As users contribute more and more to Maps (adding photos, descriptions, and even businesses), they get points for it. In the past, your public profile was only showing these points. You now have much more control over the way others see your profile. For example, compose a short bio that explains why you like to make contributions to Maps....

Using the New Control Center in iOS 11 Control Center has evolved over the years, but the last major update came with the totally redesigned iOS 7 in 2013. Since then, improvements to the Control Center has been mostly fit and finish, but this year’s iOS 11 brings a refreshing design change that’s not only beautiful but intuitive and easy to use. When you use the swipe up gesture, you are greeted by a full-screen interface with control panel-like widgets....

Do Not Disturb You can find the Do Not Disturb tool in the Settings app on your device. Using the Tool You can customize the Do Not Disturb feature to match your needs and make adjustments at any time. To turn the feature on, simply toggle Do Not Disturb. Otherwise, toggle Scheduled. When activating Scheduled, add a From and To time. For most, these will be your sleeping hours. Apple calls this “Quiet Time....

Podcasts on Google Play Music It’s worth noting that when I first went to the Google Play Store and tried to find the podcasts section, it wasn’t showing up. Google does say in its blog post that the feature is currently rolling out to users in the U.S. and Canada, so you might not see it right away either. However, if you click on this link, you should see the new Google Play logo and the site loading up....

This is a good way to keep track of the stocks that interest you or review their open, close, high, or low over time. We’ll show you how to enter the function, use some of the most common attributes, and point you to the complete list of real-time, historical, and mutual fund attributes for those one-off scenarios. Using Google Finance to Track Stocks in Google Sheets The function you’ll use to obtain the stock data is GOOGLEFINANCE....

We have covered using remote desktop among Windows devices, iOS, Chrome OS and Android and also connecting remotely using the command line. This article focuses on connecting to a Windows 10 computer using a Linux computer or an Apple macOS computer. Connect to a Windows 10 Device Using Remote Desktop on macOS or Linux For the purposes of this article, I am using Ubuntu Linux, but the instructions should be just as straightforward in other distros....

Microsoft has added a tabs feature to File Explorer on Windows 11. It’s a helpful feature that allows you to open one instance of File Explorer and use tabs to navigate multiple folders and drive locations. The idea is much like your web browser, with multiple open websites available in a single window. If you’re running Windows 11 22H2 or above, you can use tabs in Windows 11 File Explorer by following the steps below....

Fact: a smartphone’s screen can show a lot of sensitive information. This is why using third-party apps can be quite dangerous. Therefore, it’s quite handy that Google has included a recorder on the Android platform. While the names might sound extremely similar, it is very important to know that this is something completely different from the Google Recorder app. The Screen Recorder feature actually allows you to capture everything that’s happening on your screen, both video and audio....

Because the Google Home app doesn’t show WeMo as a supported brand under Smart Plugs, many people think that you can’t use WeMo plugs with Google Home. This isn’t actually true. There are two ways you can use WeMo plugs with Google Home. The first is to use Google Assistant to set up the connection. The second is to configure WeMo and Google Assistant automations using IFTTT. How To Set Up a New WeMo Plug Before you can get started with controlling your WeMo plug using Google Home, you’ll need to get it connected to your network....

You can see every place you visited, a restaurant you ate at, the theater you enjoyed, and so much more. Take a trip down memory lane with a built-in travel diary in Google Maps. Access Your Google Maps Timeline Head over to the Google Maps website and sign in if necessary. Then, click the Menu icon on the top left of the Search box and select Your Timeline. A new browser tab should open, displaying your Google Maps Timeline....

Note: Internet TV on Windows Media Center is only available in some countries. U.S.A. residents should have no issues, however. How To Watch Your Favorite TV Shows Online Using Windows Media Center In Windows 7 Click the Windows Start Menu Orb, then Type in windows media center and Press Enter. Click the TV > internet tv button within Windows Media Center. Note: If this button doesn’t appear/exist, see our groovy article here for a fix....

Just about every website on the web has trackers that will install a cookie in your browser. One way to prevent this from happening is to disable cookies. The problem with that though, is many websites like Gmail and Facebook, require them to function. To get around this, its possible to replace the cookies with an anonymous generic cookie while also removing long-term cookies. That is where the Do Not Track Plus extension comes in....

Albeit, these aren’t the best offers in the world by a longshot, but pinned-to-taskbar websites might be one of the few features that Microsoft has over competitors like Opera, Chrome, and Firefox. So, if you are looking for an excuse to try out IE9 –even temporarily- this could be it. Here is what each promotional partner site is giving away: Hulu Starting on March 28th 2011, if you sign up for Hulu Plus through a pinned Hulu IE9 window you will receive one your first month free....

With the wave of Twitter and mass mobile messaging, the number of characters in a message has become valuable real estate. So much so that many URL shortening web companies have appeared and taken on the job of saving you precious text characters. Personally, my favorite URL shortener which I’ve been using for a long time is is.gd. First off you might ask: What is a URL shortener? Or more specifically what is is....

While it’s true there is a registry hack that can do the same thing, that also causes some compatibility issues and doesn’t allow for much customization. KatMouse on the other hand, lets you do a lot more. KatMouse can be downloaded for free from the developers official website. Once installed, it will show up in the taskbar system tray as an icon. From there, you can enable it on the fly, or go into the settings menu....

Close All Open Browser Tabs on Kindle Fire Here I have 10 different tabs open. Rather than close each one individually, I want to close them all at once. All you need to do is tap and hold the close button (X) on any of the open tabs. When you release your finger from the X on the tab a message will come up to close all tabs. Press it and all tabs will close....

Microsoft is leaving students no excuse for not learning how to use their products. Free Learning clinics are available for any user type, whether advanced or just beginning. The clinics are online-based courses and lessons (CBT) which simulate being taught by a pro. For people like me, they are a great alternative to opening up a book and reading about the software as the interactive courses keep you interested (to a point) while you learn....