The company just announced it will officially support Matter across its line of connected appliances, calling it “the gold standard of smart home connectivity.” What does that mean exactly? According to the company, it’s developing software updates for its smart appliances to allow for Matter integration, though it stopped short of saying which specific devices would get these improvements. Whirlpool also stated that future smart home appliances will be built from the ground up with Matter in mind, eliminating those all-too-familiar hiccups when trying to connect a houseful of smart appliances and gadgets....

Who Is Siri? Siri is Apple’s voice assistant that works across all Apple devices, including Macs and iOS devices such as iPhones and iPads. It was first introduced in 2010 and integrated into the iPhone 4S. Although reports have emerged about who it might have been in the past, the voice’s identity is a secret. Since iOS 11, Apple has used new voices and recorded several hours of speech, encompassing different personalities and expressions to make it sound more human and natural with its responses....

During an earnings call earlier this week, Twitter revealed it is looking to add a subscription option that would charge users to access specific features, with some potentially including TweetDeck, an “undo send” option, and removing ads. However, many argue social media platforms are not the right kind of services to offer a subscription, because of the many problems that plague them. “I firmly believe that right now, Twitter and others have a real problem with trust and transparency,” Amy Konary, founder and chair of The Subscribed Institute and global vice president of the Subscribed Strategy Group at Zuora, told Lifewire in a phone interview....

16x9 Aspect Ratio Defined The term 16x9, also expressed as 1.78:1, means the TV screen is 16 units wide horizontally, and 9 units high vertically. No matter what the diagonal screen size is in inches or centimeters, the ratio of horizontal width to vertical height (aspect ratio) is constant for HDTVs and 4K Ultra HD TVs. Aspect Ratio and What You See on Your TV Screen The reason that you see black bars on some movie content is that many films use wider aspect ratios than 16x9....

If you’re a ’90s kid, chronologically or by preference, who’s sunk a lot of time into genre classics like Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy III, then Bravely Default II was made for you as a gift by your people. Full disclosure: that’s me. I just described myself. For anyone else, especially if they prefer their modern fantasy with a little more irony, it’d be harder to get into. Bravely Default II is coasting heavily on nostalgia, both as a selling and an entry point....

According to a Risk Based Security report, there were 3,932 publicly reported breach events between 2019 and 2020. The latest company to be affected by a data breach was T-Mobile this week. It’s not the first data breach—and it certainly won’t be the last—therefore, experts say companies need to be better equipped to handle the next big hack. “Continued data breaches raise the question as to who is responsible for protecting corporations and consumers from cybercrime,” Joshua Motta, CEO of Coalition, wrote to Lifewire in an email....

Google is facing a lawsuit accusing the company of recording conversations of people who accidentally trigger its Voice Assistant on their phones. Experts say that smart assistants are a potential privacy nightmare. “Consider voice-activated assistants as members of your household, with one big difference—unlike other living members of your household, these assistants pay constant attention to you—and, they don’t forget,” Pankaj Srivastava, a privacy expert and CEO of the management consultancy PracticalSpeak, said in an email interview....

Federal officials recently announced a $35 million grant to enable the Winnebago tribe of Nebraska to install high-speed internet fiber-optic cable. The money is intended to improve access to jobs, education, and healthcare through the internet. Experts say the grant is a small part of the effort that needs to go into connecting tribal members around the country. “Many Native American communities are located in very rural or remote areas, making the cost of building out and operating Internet infrastructure expensive,” Mark Buell, the director of indigenous programs for the nonprofit Connect Humanity, told Lifewire in an email interview....

However, don’t worry about it being difficult to fix—most of the time there’s one really easy solution. What Does the Red X in Device Manager Mean? A red x next to a device in Device Manager in Windows XP (and back through Windows 95) means the device is disabled. The red x doesn’t necessarily mean there’s a problem with the hardware device, but rather that Windows isn’t allowing the hardware to be used and that it hasn’t assigned any system resources to be used by the hardware....

Shortly after the original reveal for Blair Witch Oculus Quest Edition hit, concerns about lower quality graphics than had been in the original game began to surface. Twitter users like nepharyel, who tweeted, “Only Quest not normal VR?” took to the social media site to share their displeasure. Not everyone shares this sentiment, though. “The overall immersiveness is far more important compared to the visuals,” Soy, an avid virtual reality user, said in an email interview....

Valve has a spotty history with making and releasing its own hardware. I talked about this extensively back in May, when the first rumors of the Steam Deck started to make the rounds. I wasn’t the only one that thought Valve might be biting off more than it could chew, either. Experts shared their thoughts on the rumored handheld, and together we agreed that Valve should probably stick to doing what it does best: running Steam and never releasing the third game in a series....

Xbox 360 Backward Compatibility Issues The Xbox 360 hard drive uses a special partition to run Xbox games. Compatibility issues with the Xbox 360 usually occur when you replace the Xbox 360 hard drive. If you bought your console used or refurbished, the hard drive could have been swapped out before you purchased it. This is a common problem reported by players who buy from eBay. To make more money, some eBay sellers buy consoles with official 20GB Microsoft hard drives for cheap and replace them with larger laptop hard drives....

Overall Findings Wi-Fi is common among PCs, Macs, smartphones, and smart devices. The flexibility of Wi-Fi means you aren’t tethered to an Ethernet cable when you go online, as was the case years ago. But Ethernet connections offer many advantages, including speed and reliability. It’s important to understand when a Wi-Fi connection makes sense and when it’s best to rely on an Ethernet connection. Ethernet and Wi-Fi: What Are the Basics?...

In a recent blog post, Microsoft has confirmed both that Xbox Cloud Gaming is now powered by new Series X hardware and that you can begin streaming games on your iOS device or PC. Game Pass Ultimate subscribers can log on using the browser on their iPhone, iPad, or PC and start playing today. While Xbox Cloud Gaming has been playable on Android devices, this is a first for Apple users....

One benefit that has been shouted to the heavens about EVs is their relative maintenance-free life cycle. Gone are oil changes, spark plugs, valve adjustments, radiator flushes, etc. I’ve spent most of my life working on vehicles, and while I enjoy taking something that’s not working correctly and bringing it back to normal, it’s not exactly great on the wallet. It’s also not for everyone, which means sending your vehicle to the shop or stopping by the local oil change place and waiting in line to get your fluids replaced....

According to the announcement in a Nintendo Direct presentation on Friday, the free content includes fan-favorite NPCs Brewster and Kapp’n, gyroids, new shops, DIY cooking recipes, and more. After the update, Brewster will open a café on the museum’s second floor and serve some java for you and your friends once you do Blathers a certain favor. Kapp’n will take you to remote islands on his boat. Harv’s Island is getting an open market where merchants like Redd, Saharah, and Kicks can set up shop....

Simply select several notes and choose Create Table of Contents Note from the menu that appears. The result is a new note with links to the items you selected. Enter your search term in the search box (in the upper right corner of your screen), but don’t hit Enter. Instead, select Edit > Find > Save Search, and give the search a name when prompted. You’ll find your saved search in the drop-down menu that appears when you click in the search box....

That’s where the virtual touchpad comes into play. Anytime the on-screen keyboard is displayed, you can activate the virtual touchpad by pressing two fingers down on the keyboard. The keys will disappear and the keys will act like a touchpad, allowing you to move the cursor around the screen or select text quickly and more accurately. If you do a lot of writing on the iPad, this feature can be a real timesaver once you get used to it....

All the downloads here are legal. They’re either public domain or, in most cases, the artists have permitted downloads. That means you can feel great about listening to the music and discovering some hidden gems you might have otherwise passed on. You can discover new music by viewing the most popular music and the songs that trending. The Latest music filter lets you see recently added songs, and you can search for artists that you know to see if their music is available for download....

Yes, there really are no-strings-attached, free online storage services out there. Many of them, actually. While nearly all have premium offerings that provide more space, the free options are usually more than enough for most people, especially if you use more than one. Better yet, many of these providers give you even more free space for referring friends or performing other tasks. One interesting feature is the ability to share links in a way where the recipient needs a second part of the URL, basically like a password, before they can decrypt the information....