The Chromecast—that’s a dongle for getting movies and shows and maybe a bit of music up on your big screen, right? Well, yes, but there’s much more you can do with your Chromecast. All kinds of apps and games can benefit from the extra screen space—not just Plex and Netflix.

Whether you’re sharing photos on Instagram or working on an art project, the quality of the final image matters. Even if you don’t have something like Photoshop installed, you can get your pictures looking their best with the help of some free, simple-to-use web apps—and we’ve picked out seven of the best for your…

Your Dock or Start menu is your way into macOS and Windows, respectively, as well as everything running on top of them. So it makes sense to have these launch systems configured in exactly the way you need them to be. We’ve got a bunch of essential tips on streamlining your Dock or Start menu, and powering through…

You’ve got your smart home tech and other gadgets all set up just so, but if you have a family or steady stream of guests passing through, you might also want to make all these devices easily accessible to other people too. Whether you’re running an Airbnb or just have demanding relatives, here are a few tips to bear…

Taking a trip away from home can be good for the body and soul, but it also means you’re going to be without the safety net of your home and office Wi-Fi, and might even involve piggybacking on a different data network and living through a different time zone. Your smartphone can adapt, if you know the right…

You’re at work, or on the other side of the world, or both, and you need something from your computer at home—in years gone by, you would need an IT degree and an expensive software package to connect up to your home computer remotely, but now a number of apps will do the job, simply and free. Here are three of our…

It’s your all-in-one iPhone settings screen, accessible with a swipe up from the bottom of the display (or a swipe down from the top-right corner on an iPhone X or a double-tap of the Home button on an iPad). But do you know what all the Control Center options and switches actually do? And how you can make the most of…

You’re probably used to bookmarking your favorite sites for easy access, but the web goes much deeper than the top domains you’re familiar with—from your social networks to your email box, having the right URL to hand can enable you to jump right into the page, feature, setting, or search you need. Here are 10 of the…

Our smart speakers continue to get smarter over time, and one of the features recently added to the kit made by Amazon and Google is support for multi-room audio—in other words, the option to play the same tunes in multiple rooms at once. Here’s how to set it up with a group of Amazon Echos, Google Homes, or Sonos…

The web connects us to people on the other side of the globe in an instant, but sometimes you just want to know what’s happening down the street. Here’s how to use your social networks and more to get the local lowdown and stay in the loop with what’s going on nearby, whether that’s snowstorms or street parties.

No one likes getting hacked, and it’s generally true that the quicker you can spot something has gone awry, the better your chances of minimizing the damage. These are the main warning signs to look out for, what they might mean, and some quick pointers about what you should do next.

Passwords are your way into almost all of your online accounts, from social networks to email platforms, but how do you know whether the ones you’re using are strong enough to stand up to repeated hacking attempts? If you want to know how to do a self-audit on password security, and the best combinations to use to…

You’ve chosen a strong password and you’ve set up two-factor authentication, which requires an additional device to authenticate on log in, so your accounts are safe, right? Not so fast—all of your online accounts and apps will have recovery processes in place to help you, should you get locked out of your accounts,…

Few apps are getting as much hype from Google right now as Google Lens, which taps into the machine learning AI that Google is currently so fond of. That AI lets the app recognize all kinds of stuff through your phone’s camera, and take action on it. It’s available now through Google Photos for Android and iOS, so is…

Though they take different approaches, Snapchat and Instagram both have the same aim: to be your go-to place for sharing everyday photos and videos. But in this ongoing sparring match, Snapchat is losing, and losing hard—it has fewer users, a more confusing interface, inferior features, and a worse ad experience. In…

Apple has a definite tendency to get its devices working well with each other before considering such distractions as Android or Windows, and over the years the iPhone and the Mac have built up a strong understanding. You might not appreciate just how many different ways they can seamlessly work together—here’s what…

As you may have realized by now, Facebook can’t be trusted with your data, and has been caught out time and time again letting it leak out to places it shouldn’t. If you can’t quite bring yourself to close down your account—maybe there’s a support group or family connections you’d like to keep active—then here’s how…

Before you throw out that old desktop or laptop, consider upgrading its storage. Whether your computer uses a hard drive or an older solid-state drive (or SSD) it’s probably time to upgrade it. SSDs are getting faster every years and replacing the storage in your old computer with a new SSD won’t cost you too much, it…