Signal Strength When you’re at home, you’re not mobile. This means you’ll likely always have similar signal reception unless you change your cellphone carrier or they significantly enhance their network to improve a dead zone. If your cellphone signal is weak at home either because your carrier provides inadequate service or because the architectural structure of your home weakens your cellphone’s signal, deactivating your landline might seem like a poor decision....

“Tech companies are going to be a lot more conservative with the features they release and maintain,” Zaven Nahapetyan, co-founder of Niche and a former member of Facebook’s Engineering Leadership team, told Lifewire in an email interview. “Many existing products are going to get cut due to personnel decreases and refocus on the bottom line.” Going Down It’s not hard to find gloomy news in the tech world. Meta’s stock price is tanking, and Elon Musk’s recent takeover of Twitter has led to vast numbers of employees leaving....

A bill known as the CHIPS for America Act was introduced last year to provide incentives to enable research in the semiconductor industry and secure supply chains. In February, President Biden signed an executive order that involves assessing potential risks in the semiconductor supply chains. But some observers say that more needs to be done. “There’s nothing the US government can do over the next six months to a year to really alleviate this,” Mike Juran, CEO of Altia, an automotive user interface design company, said in a video interview....

HDR, or High Dynamic Range, is when a TV or computer display shows a bigger range from dark to light, with blacker blacks and whiter whites, and an expanded range of colors. If you watch HDR-enabled movies, then you get to see this extended range. That’s cool and all, but what if you’re viewing a thumbnail of an HDR clip on a non HDR display? That’s where EDR comes in....

What Is Geocaching? Geocaching combines mobile tech with the thrill of a scavenger hunt. It refers to an activity where participants use their phones or handheld Global Positioning System (GPS) devices to locate “caches” containing log books, trinkets, tradable goods, or even money. Caches are typically hidden and listed by other geocachers. There are more than 3 million registered geocaches hidden in more than 190 countries. Even Antarctica has registered geocaches....

Fake meat is so hot right now. Environmentally it’s way, way cleaner than growing cows, pigs, and chickens. It will also end up cheaper. And if you think to yourself, “I’ll never eat a steak grown in a laboratory,” you’re missing the point. Lab meat will probably end up filling hamburger buns and other mystery meat products before it makes its way to your backyard grill. It could up-end the entire food industry, and you’ll be happy about it....

However, the performance of these cellular connections may not meet every user’s needs. The theoretical maximum network data transfer rate supported by a cellphone modem varies depending on the communication standards your phone service supports. Performance Across Generations of Cellular Technology Modern cell network technologies fall under the 4G and 5G classifications. These include LTE, HSPA, EV-DO, and EDGE. 4G has a download speed of around 14 Mbps, while 5G can get between 1 and 10 Gbps....

Cuddled in her at-home office, a large casement window illuminates the room with natural light in the morning as her LEDs take charge at night. Affixed on her desk are a keyboard and a slew of study materials as she prepares herself, and her audience, for a day of properly productive work and a salve from the debilitating power of loneliness. “I’m so glad for the community that grew around StudyTme....

A new beach-cleaning robot called BeachBot rolls along the sand, picking up cigarette butts. It’s one of a growing number of autonomous robots that could help save the planet from trash and other contaminants. “Robots capable of moving along the shoreline, identifying trash, and collecting it could make a big impact on coastal environments by routinely performing this job,” Jeffrey Laut, the CEO of Manifold Robotics, which makes autonomous boats that collect environmental data, told Lifewire in an email interview....

Flores-Martinez is the founder and CEO of CASHDROP, a mobile-first contactless e-commerce platform targeted at small business owners. “The inspiration for CASHDROP is heavily rooted in my childhood,” Flores-Martinez told Lifewire. “I wanted to make it accessible for anybody to make an online business that’s quick and easy for people in the digital world to start selling their products.” CASHDROP’s app doesn’t charge sellers any monthly fees or take a commission....

More than 700 imaging satellites orbit the earth, but only governments and companies with wealth and expertise can access the data they produce. Now, researchers said in a recent paper that they have invented a machine learning system using low-cost, easy-to-use technology that could bring satellite analytical power to researchers and governments worldwide. “To plan infrastructure like roads and bridges or to target food aid, we need to know where people live and what their needs are,” Jonathan Proctor, a co-author of the paper, told Lifewire in an email interview....

In a grand display of growing technological capabilities, the Department of Homeland Security’s Biometric and Identity Technology Center unveiled new data on the efficacy of facial recognition software to identify subjects with masks and other face coverings. These developments are on pace to change the way facial recognition operates in society. “Through careful selection of camera systems and matching systems, it appears possible to verify most people’s identity without requiring them to remove their mask,” Arun Vemury, director of the Biometric and Identity Technology Center, said in a news release....

The new Custom Accessibility Mode—discovered inside the iOS 16.2 beta by 9to5Mac—does away with much of the iPhone’s user interface, removing clutter and making the icons huge. As the name suggests, this is an accessibility feature, and one currently only in testing, hidden inside a beta version of iOS. But it already looks like something many of us might want to use, especially if we sometimes find our phones overwhelming or distracting....

How to Create a Custom Border Creating a custom border around a slide in Google Slides is an excellent way to ensure a presentation looks professional. Here’s how to add a border. How to Change the Border Google Slides makes it easy to change how the border looks. Here’s where to go. How to Add a Border to a Picture in Google Slides If you want to add a border to a picture placed within a slide, rather than the whole slide itself, you need to follow a slightly different method....

Set up the Shared Links Sidebar By default, the Bookmark and Reading List icons appear at the top of the Safari sidebar, giving you one-click access to a selection of useful links. Before you can access the Shared Links sidebar, however, you must configure it in System Preferences. For the Safari sidebar to work with your Twitter feeds, you must add your Twitter account to the Internet Accounts list. To set up the Shared Links sidebar, complete the following steps:...

There’s a simple solution, although the method and nomenclature changes a bit with the different versions of OS X and macOS. The Contacts app lets you export its contents to a single file that you can easily move to another Mac or use as a backup. Here’s how. Restore Contacts in macOS Catalina (10.15) Through Mountain Lion (10.8) To put the contacts from your archive into your Contacts app:...

Go to the Ringtone Section of iTunes Store App The iTunes Store sells ringtones just like it sells music. Buy a ringtone there, and you can start using it as soon as it’s downloaded. To buy ringtones from your iPhone: The main screen of the Ringtones section looks similar to the main screen of the Music section. To find ringtones: Swipe through the featured ringtones at the top of the screen....

How to Take a Screenshot on an iPad Screenshots are handy for saving a cool drawing you made in a drawing app, showing your friends your high score in Candy Crush Saga, or creating a new meme. Screenshots are also useful for sharing information with people who are in a different location. The iPad doesn’t have a Print Screen button, but capturing a screenshot on the iPad requires only a few steps....

Ways to Customize Folder Colors on Mac Folders in macOS are all a pleasant shade of blue, which can lead to a sea of sameness on your desktop that eventually becomes difficult to navigate. If you have a few important ones you want to keep track of, you can change folder color on Mac without too much trouble. Apple gives you a few different ways to change folder colors in macOS, and you can also use custom non-folder icons in place of the traditional folder icon....

How to Set Default Ringtones Depending on the model of Android phone you have, you can choose from several stock ringtones. Here’s how to find and browse through them: How to Set Default Ringtones on Samsung Phones If you own a Samsung device, the process for setting a ringtone is a little different. Here’s how to do it: How to Download New Ringtones From Your Computer The simplest and least expensive way to get new ringtones is to transfer them over from your computer....