Here are some tips for buying and setting up speakers outside your home. Get the Lay of the Land Consider where guests would likely be in order to determine the best location for the speakers. Large yards and patios may warrant more than two speakers, but you should be aware of your neighbors. In deciding the right location for the speakers, consider the logistics of running speaker wire to them: Are there any pathways, walls, plants, or trees in the way?...

A trio of new 4K Smart TVs from Toshiba are headed to retail very soon, featuring several built-in features like Fire TV, Dolby Atmos, and more. Three sizes have been revealed—a 55-inch, 65-inch, and 75-inch. According to an email sent to Lifewire, the new flagship series is meant to provide customers with “an immersive viewing experience at an affordable price.” Each model offers Dolby Vision HDR for improved color clarity, an automatic low-latency mode for smoother playback, and Dolby Atmos for immersive sound....

Transcend’s new JetDrive adds storage to the new M1 MacBook Pros just by slipping into the SD card slot. It costs $250 for 1TB, compared to $400 to upgrade from 1TB to 2TB at the time of purchase. These two options are far from equivalent. Both have advantages and disadvantages. And if you’re already running out of space, the JetDrive has one big advantage—you don’t need to buy a whole new computer just to add more storage....

The social network announced the updates on its official Spaces Twitter account on Thursday, according to The Verge. The changes mean a Space can have one host, two co-hosts, and 10 active speakers for a total of 13 participants, whereas previously, you could only have 10 total. With this new update, co-hosts have most of the same privileges and the primary host, including speaking, inviting members to talk, pin Tweets, and remove people from a Space....

The emoji test uses five different emoji: a thinking face emoji, a crying face emoji, a laughing with tears emoji, a clapping emoji, and a heart emoji. In addition, TechCrunch details that you’ll be able to add an emoji with a “long press” of the like button; otherwise, you would still be able to simply “like” a tweet. Twitter said it didn’t add any negative emoji reactions after an initial survey of a Twitter emoji feature in March showed users were worried about getting negative reactions to what they were tweeting....

Safe Boot (a term often used interchangeably with Safe Mode) works by allowing your Mac to start up with the minimal number of system extensions, preferences, and fonts it needs to run. By minimizing the startup process to only the components that are required, Safe Boot can help you troubleshoot problems by isolating the issues. Safe Boot can get your Mac running again when you’re having problems caused by corrupt apps or data, software installation issues, damaged fonts, or preference files....

The author of a new book claims that within 50 years, babies could be born and raised virtually. Catriona Campbell, an artificial intelligence (AI) expert, writes that virtual children could be used to reduce overpopulation. The idea may not be far off from reality and could have benefits. “Some of the straightforward selling points of digital kids are: easy to conceive, no physical pain or medical risk of giving birth, low maintenance, and less taxing,” John Guo, a professor of computing information systems at James Madison University, told Lifewire in an email interview....

I wasn’t expecting much out of Walmart’s onn.-branded streaming device. Sure, other companies have managed to deliver fairly decent streaming systems for a little above that $30 price tag, but Walmart’s previous attempts to break into tech haven’t always turned out for the best. Still, I was intrigued. For the longest time, Roku has been my go-to streaming setup, just because I like the layout and it offers everything I need in one place....

The figures are fun to collect, as they are faithful representations of beloved video game characters. But they are also functional. With embedded tech, amiibo toys can interact with supported video games, allowing data to transfer to and from gaming systems, including Nintendo Switch, Wii U, and the New Nintendo 3DS. How Do Amiibo Work? Each amiibo (plural: “amiibo”) is sculpted to look like a character from a video game and includes a hidden radio frequency identification (RFID) chip....

Default SMTP Settings for Gmail As you set up an email client to synchronize with your Gmail account, a screen asks for your Gmail SMTP information. Use these settings: Gmail SMTP server address: smtp.gmail.com Gmail SMTP username: Your Gmail address (for example, example@gmail.com) Gmail SMTP password: Your Gmail password Gmail SMTP port (TLS): 587 Gmail SMTP port (SSL): 465 Gmail SMTP TLS/SSL required: Yes Gmail’s Default POP3 and IMAP Settings SMTP settings are only for sending emails; you’ll also need to provide the settings for receiving emails....

We explain the difference between what comes bundled with each console. What’s Included With the Nintendo Switch? The original Nintendo Switch is more expensive than the Switch Light and less expensive than the Switch (OLED model). Here’s an overview of what’s in the box. Nintendo Switch console. The most important part! The Nintendo Switch console is a larger device than the Nintendo Switch Lite and has a detachable screen. It’s slightly smaller than the Nintendo Switch (OLED model)....

Let’s take a look at what web browser bookmarks actually are and how to get the most out of them. What Is a Bookmark? Sometimes referred to as “favorites” or “saved links,” a browser bookmark is a feature in which a browser allows you to save a link to a web page so you can access it again later without searching for the website again using a search engine, or having to manually enter the exact web address in your browser’s search bar....

Types of Devices That Use CPUs All sorts of devices use a CPU, including desktop, laptop, and tablet computers, smartphones, even your flat-screen television set. Intel and AMD are the two most popular CPU manufacturers for desktops, laptops, and servers, while Apple, NVIDIA, and Qualcomm are big smartphone and tablet CPU makers. You may see many different names used to describe the CPU, including processor, computer processor, microprocessor, central processor, and “the brains of the computer....

What Is a Crossover Cable? An ordinary patch cable connects different types of devices, for example, a computer and a network switch. A crossover cable connects two devices of the same type. You can wire the ends of a patch cable in any way as long as both ends are identical. Compared to straight-through Ethernet cables, the internal wiring of a crossover cable reverses the transmit and receive signals. You can see the reversed color-coded wires through the RJ-45 connectors at each end of the cable:...

What Is a GBR File? A file with the .GBR file extension is most likely a Gerber file that stores printed circuit board designs. Most PCB design programs can export data to a Gerber file. If it’s not a Gerber file, yours could be a GIMP brush file used by the GIMP image editing software. This kind of file holds an image that the program uses to paint repeated strokes onto the canvas....

Podcasts are different from what you typically hear on the radio, similar to how YouTube videos are different from what you watch on television. How Podcasts Work A podcast is a series of episodes that are stored in the same type of audio files that we use to store music on our laptop or smartphone. Similar to a television or talk radio show, a podcast is generally centered around a theme such as politics, sports, entertainment, horror, or gaming....

Smart washers and dryers are different from merely digital appliances. They can send notifications to your phone when a cycle finishes, download new wash and dry cycles, diagnose problems, and adjust settings with the control of a smartphone or voice command. What Can a Smart Washing Machine Do? A smart washing machine gives you more control over your laundry than a standard washing machine while offering a few convenient extra features....

What Is a Sound Bar? A sound bar is a product that creates a wider sound field from a single speaker cabinet. Minimally, a sound bar will house speakers for left and right channels, or may also include a dedicated center channel. Some also include woofers, side, or vertically firing speakers. Sound bars complement LCD, Plasma, and OLED TVs. You can mount it on a shelf or table just below the TV, although you’ll usually see them placed just in front of the screen....

Sub-Field Drive Rate vs. Screen Refresh Rate Many consumers falsely believe that the sub-field drive rate is comparable to the screen refresh rate, like the screen refresh rates commonly stated for LCD televisions. However, the sub-field drive rate on a plasma TV refers to something different. The screen refresh rate is how many times each frame repeats within a specific time period, such as 1/60th of a second. Although plasma TVs have a 60 Hz screen refresh rate, these TVs do something, in addition, to smooth out the motion response further....

How DHCP Works A DHCP server issues unique IP addresses and automatically configures other network information. In most homes and small businesses, the router acts as the DHCP server. In large networks, a single computer might take on that role. To make this work, a device (the client) requests an IP address from a router (the host). Then, the host assigns an available IP address so that the client can communicate on the network....