Today, you can buy a simple code reader for less than the cost of a movie ticket, and the right accessory can turn your phone into a scan tool. Since you can find most of the information you need to interpret trouble codes online, a check engine light no longer calls for an immediate trip to a mechanic. Before you buy a car diagnostic tool, realize that they aren’t some kind of magic panacea....

The circular polarizer adds dramatic effects to your photographs. It’s one of the tricks that professional photographers rely on to create brilliant images with rich color and dynamic contrast. How a Polarizing Filter Works Put simply, a polarizer reduces the amount of reflected light that goes to your camera’s image sensor. It cuts out the junk light and haze of the atmosphere and allows the camera to capture a clearer, crisper photograph....

What Is Apple’s Cinematic Mode? Apple’s Cinematic Mode is a new video feature available on the iPhone 13. When used, it allows the device user to automatically add rack focus to their videos, which basically lets you create depth of field in videos. This helps the recording appear more professional and cinematic by choosing which target the recording should focus on. While you can decide which point you want to center on when recording the video, you can also edit the focus target after the recording has been completed....

Using an Xbox Controller With Stadia While Xbox controllers work just fine with Stadia, the situation is a little complicated. There are a few main types of Xbox controllers that you’re most likely to own: wired and wireless Xbox 360 controllers, Xbox One Elite controllers, Xbox One controllers, and the revised version of the Xbox One controller that first shipped with the Xbox One S. There are also three main ways to play Stadia: on a computer with the Chrome browser, on a phone with the Stadia app, and on a TV with Chromecast Ultra....

How Do You Do Live Text On iPhone? Live Text lets you pull text from images and paste it just about wherever you want. The feature works with both handwritten and typed text, and it works in the Camera app, the Photos app, and Safari. That means you can use Live Text to grab text from any of those locations and then paste it into a document, message, email, or wherever else you want....

How Do I Access Pixel Buds Settings? When Pixel Buds are paired to an Android phone, the settings can be accessed through the connected devices section of the Android settings app. While you can use Pixel Buds with other devices, like computers and non-Android phones, you can only access and adjust the settings through an Android phone. Here’s how to access Pixel Buds settings: How Do I Change Pixel Buds Settings?...

Mobile Pop-Up Blocker Keep popup ads at bay by enabling Safari’s pop-up blocker. Mobile Reader View Safari’s built-in Reader View option lets you read a web page without the distraction of navigation bars, images, or ads. To enable Reader View: Enable Private Browsing in Safari on iOS Devices The Safari mobile browser also allows Private Browsing mode, which lets you browse the web without being tracked, and no cookies will be added to your browser....

Can You Use Spotify On Chromecast? Not only can you use Spotify with your Chromecast, but you can do so from nearly any device you own. You can cast Spotify to Chromecast using the following devices as your audio remote control: Desktop: Using the Spotify desktop appBrowser or Chromebook: Using the Spotify web playerMobile: Using the mobile Spotify app or Google Home app Each of these Spotify players includes a Devices icon where you’ll find the feature to cast your Spotify music to your Chromecast device....

Specifically, it can show details about individual network connections, overall and protocol-specific networking statistics, and much more, all of which could help troubleshoot certain kinds of networking issues. Netstat Command Availability This command is available from within the Command Prompt in most versions of Windows, including Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server operating systems, and some older versions of Windows, too. Netstat is a cross-platform command, which means it’s also available in other operating systems like macOS and Linux....

How to Record on Sling TV Once you’ve got the Sling DVR, you can record shows from any part of Sling: My TV, On Now, Guide, and more, and fast forward through ads in your recordings. How to Stop Recording Shows with the Sling DVR If you’ve set a show to record and no longer want it recorded, follow these steps to stop recording with the Sling TV DVR: Record All Episodes: Record all episodes of the show, including reruns....

How to Use Your iPad as a Second Monitor With Sidecar Sidecar comes equipped with most modern Macs and iPads. Here’s how to use this feature to run your iPad as a second monitor for your Mac. Is an iPad a Good Monitor? Is the iPad as good a display as an actual monitor? Not really. The 9.7-inch display of the full-sized iPad won’t give you as much real estate as a 22-inch monitor....

There are no two ways about it: the HP Envy 17t is a decidedly large laptop. It’s not particularly shy about this fact, and doesn’t make any attempts to hide it. It’s also heavy. And did we mention how large it is? Snark aside, the HP Envy 17t does put a lot of interesting features into one chassis to make it very compelling offering for a likely small subset of shoppers that have the need for them....

On paper, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles sound like the perfect solution to our climate crisis woes. They fuel up as quickly as a gas-powered car, and their only emission is water. Water you can drink if you’re so inclined, but I wouldn’t recommend it; I’ve actually tasted the water that spewed from the Toyota Mirai. Sadly, fueling stations just haven’t been built in any way that makes these vehicles available outside of Northern and Southern California and parts of New England....

This feature is part of a larger security-focused system update and allows users to quickly report hacks or any suspicious account access issues. The cool thing here is that you don’t actually need to be signed in to access the feature, which is often impossible in the case of a hack. Instead, you go to a dedicated URL and follow the prompts to begin the investigative and restoration process. Part of the investigative process involves confirming your identity with Instagram friends, which the system does automatically....

Real, printed-on-photo-paper photographs used to be the standard way to see photos, but now they’re a rarity. Show someone a great photo on your phone, and they start swiping through your other pictures. But give them a print, and they’ll love it. Fujifilm’s new Instax Mini Evo is a neat hybrid digital camera and printer, with the benefits of both—a bunch of neat color and ’lens’ effects, plus a real photographic print at the end....

Internet speed tests are great for proving that you are, or are not, getting the bandwidth from your ISP that you’re paying for. They can also help determine if bandwidth throttling is something your ISP is engaging in. Test your bandwidth with one or more of these free sites, and then compare that information with the high-speed plan you’ve signed up for. While it’s possible that some of the other more generic speed tests further down our list are technically more accurate, it’ll be a hard case to make to your ISP that your service isn’t as fast as it should be unless you can show the same with the bandwidth tests they provide....

Apple released the software update on Monday with a few minor additions, according to 9to5Mac. These include the option to merge two Apple Cards into one account with a shared credit limit, an updated way to manage your HomePod timers in the Home app, and a new filter option in Podcasts that allows you to customize which podcasts you see. It’s important to note that if you plan to use the new MagSafe battery pack, you’ll still need an iPhone 12 for the accessory, not just iOS 14....

Unless you have specific pro-level needs, then the iPad Air is probably enough iPad for most people. That said, “Pro” means different things for different people, and there’s one significant feature missing from the iPad Air that might be worth the $200 upgrade all by itself. The Specs It’s tricky to compare the iPad Air and Pro like-for-like because even the base configurations of storage are different, and the Air is only available in the 11-inch size....

The company claims in its press release that the j7+ “gets smarter with each use” via a new Genius 3.0 AI system. Genius 3.0 allows the robot to learn what is the best way to navigate a house thanks to the Smart Map Coaching feature. With this feature, the Roomba can record the layout of specific rooms and where the furniture is laid out. Users can configure the j7+ to note a person’s cleaning preferences such as which area often needs cleaning....

Check for large-scale outages across the Paramount+ network.Troubleshoot common internet and television problems on your end. How to Tell if Paramount+ Is Down Before you go checking your devices, you can quickly check to see if the app is having issues or not. Try these methods: What to Do When You Can’t Get Connected to Paramount+ Nothing indicating a problem on the Paramount side of things? Then it’s time to take a look at your side....