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Updated: 5 years 23 weeks ago

Samsung Announces Galaxy Watch Active and Galaxy Fit

Wed, 02/20/2019 - 22:38
Samsung

Samsung announced a host of new products today, and while phones were a focus, it didn’t forget about the products you wear too. Samsung showed off two new devices: the Galaxy Watch Active and the Galaxy Fit.

Wearables are a burgeoning market, and Samsung wants to create an entire ecosystem, so it’s no surprise that they’re all in on smartwatches. While the Gear 2 was well known for its rotating bezel functions for easier navigation, the Watch Active eschews that entirely in favor of touch gestures, along with an overhaul of the design.

Samsung

New to the watch though is support for Samsung’s reverse wireless charging feature, which will let a Galaxy S10 charge this watch. The watch is water resistant and features heart rate and blood pressure tracking. An Exynos CPU powers the Galaxy Watch Active and it includes 4GB of storage, Bluetooth 4.2, and GPS tracking for your marathons

The Galaxy Watch will cost $199, and you can pre-order it starting February 21st. The Watch is available March 8th.

Samsung

Speaking of marathons, Samsung also announced a band designed less like a watch and more as a fitness tracker. The Galaxy Fit has a smaller screen than the Watch Active but benefits from both longer battery life and light weight. Samsung described the Fit as weighing about as much as a strawberry (23 grams) and promised the device would last about a week on a charge.

Like the Galaxy Active, the Fit is water resistant and has heart rate and stress tracking. Both devices also offer sleep tracking, and will automatically track 6 different exercises. You can manually start tracking an exercise session too.

The Fit will cost $99 and you can purchase it on March 31st.

Categories: IT General, Technology

Samsung’s New Galaxy Buds Can Be Wirelessly Charged Using the Galaxy S10

Wed, 02/20/2019 - 22:17

At Samsung’s annual Unpacked event, the company announced a new set of truly wireless headphones, called the Galaxy Buds, aimed to compete with a heap of other truly wireless headphones that have cropped up recently.

Granted, these aren’t Samsung’s first dive into truly wireless headphones, as the company released the Gear IconX headphones back in 2016 just a couple months before Apple released their AirPods. Today, however, Samsung looks to improve on its past creation.

The Galaxy Buds look like your run-of-the-mill wireless headphones, complete with a nifty little charging case, but the big feature with these is that they can be wirelessly charged using the new Galaxy S10 phone that Samsung also announced today. The feature is called Powershare, and it allows users to simply rest their Galaxy Buds on the back of the S10 to charge them up. They can also be charged using a regular wireless charging mat, and there’s a USB-C port if old-school charging is still your thing.

Obviously, sound quality is the biggest factor we’re curious about, but Samsung has partnered with AKG to handle the audio portion, so they should sound pretty decent.

For battery life, we’re looking at six hours of music listening for the earbuds themselves, and then the case will provide another seven hours (which is a far cry from the extra 24 hours that the AirPods case offers).

You’ll be able to buy yourself a pair of Galaxy Buds for $129 starting on March 8th. However, if you pre-order a Galaxy S10 or S10+ before March 7th, Samsung will throw in a pair of Galaxy Buds for free. You’ll be able to choose between white, black, and yellow.

Categories: IT General, Technology

Meet the Galaxy S10 Family: Galaxy S10, S10 Plus, S10 5G, and S10E

Wed, 02/20/2019 - 22:13

This year’s first Samsung Unpacked event brings some big changes for Samsung’s flagship handsets—from displays to cameras and fingerprint readers, there’s a lot of new stuff in the S10 lineup. There’s even a new phone.

Before we get into the details of each, let’s take a closer look at the four handsets themselves:

  • Galaxy S10: The smaller of the flagship-level handsets with a 6.1-inch display.
  • Galaxy S10 Plus: The big boy of the bunch, featuring a big ol’ 6.4-inch panel.
  • Galaxy S10 5G: The Galaxy S10 with 5G connectivity…and a bigger screen, more cameras, and other goodies.
  • Galaxy S10E: The newcomer to the S family and the most affordable of the trio. It’s also the smallest, offering a 5.8-inch display.

Oh, and right out of the gate: All four phones have headphone jacks. Headphone jacks!

But now, let’s talk about all the goodies in each.

Galaxy S10 and S10 Plus

The S10, the smaller of the two flagship handsets It features a 6.1-inch display with a 3040×1440 display resolution and Samsung’s “Infinity O” hole-punch display instead of an unsightly notch. The S10 Plus is pretty much identical, but it bumps the screen size up to 6.4-inches. That O cutout is super clean and makes for some of the smallest bezels we’ve seen in a handset like this.

The display is also the first from Samsung to pack an in-display fingerprint reader, moving the reader from the back of the phone to the front. Funny, the evolution of the fingerprint reader in Samsung phones was: in the home button (on the front), to the back, and back to the front (in the display). Everything old is new again!

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Categories: IT General, Technology

How to Build a PowerPoint Organizational Chart With Excel Data

Wed, 02/20/2019 - 22:00

Building an organizational chart in Excel makes sense because it’s easy to pull data from sources like other Excel documents or Outlook. When it comes time to show off that chart, you’ll probably want to use PowerPoint, though. Fortunately, bringing the Excel chart over to PowerPoint is fairly simple.

Creating the Organizational Chart in Excel

First, open a new Excel sheet. Head over to the “Insert” tab and select the “SmartArt” option.

The “Choose a SmartArt Graphic” window will appear. In the pane on the left-hand side, select “Hierarchy.” You’ll see several different chart styles appear on the right. Choose the one that suits your needs best. In this example, we’ll choose the “Name and Title Organizational Chart” option.

After you select your chart style, a preview of the chart and the chart’s description will appear on the right-hand side of the window. Select “OK” when you’re ready.

Your chart will now appear in the Excel sheet. Fill out the relevant information for your team members in the chart (or pull the data from other sources). Once you’re finished, you should have something that looks like this.

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Categories: IT General, Technology

The Best Subscription Boxes for Cat Owners

Wed, 02/20/2019 - 21:00

Jimmy Yan/Shutterstock

You’re subscribed to monthly makeup and vinyl record boxes, but aren’t you forgetting a certain feline friend?

There are plenty of subscription boxes that are made just for cat owners, and they offer an easy, affordable way to fulfill your cat’s needs every month. Most of these subscription boxes focus on the essentials, like toys, treats, and litter. But some are made to pamper your cat, or provide a solution for your lousy kitty litter situation.

But how do you wade through all the various boxes to find the perfect one for your cat? You don’t, because we’ve done the wading for you. All of these cat boxes start at a reasonable rate for single-cat households. But if you have more than one cat, then you can always pay a little extra to get more toys, treats, or litter.

For the Generous Cat Owner: Rescue Box ($24+)

If your cat came from a shelter, then you know how important it is to support homeless pets. Shelters rely on food and cash donations to keep animals alive, but donating to a shelter can be difficult when you have to buy food for cats at home.

Luckily, Rescue Box provides a solution. Rescue Box is a subscription service that helps you save money on treats and toys, while also showing your support for shelters. For every month that you’re subscribed to Rescue Box, the company donates 5 pounds of food and 2 vaccines to animal shelters. Not bad.

Subscribe to Rescue Box For the Essentials: KitNipBox ($20+)

Some subscription boxes can be a little quirky or over the top. If you’re just trying to buy traditional cat treats and toys at a discount, then you should take a look at KitNipBox.

Every month, KitNipBox sends you a package full of essential treats, toys and catnip that your feline friend will love. None of these toys are too weird, so you know that your cat will actually get some use out of them.

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Categories: IT General, Technology

The Best Pregnancy Pillows for Every Sleeping Situation

Wed, 02/20/2019 - 18:00

Africa Studio/Shutterstock

Getting enough rest when pregnant is important. Unfortunately, it’s also often quite tricky to achieve. Finding the right sleeping position for your changing body is rarely easy but a dedicated pregnancy pillow can go some way to helping that. We’ve looked at the best pregnancy pillows currently on the market.

Different bodies and sleeping patterns mean different pillows, so we’ve looked at a few different types. C and U shaped pillows are the key types of pillows, giving you something different to hold on to or snuggle up with. Wedge pillows can also be useful, and there’s even room for one that makes it possible to still sleep on your stomach. Whatever your preferred sleeping position, we’ve got you covered.

Here’s our pick of pregnancy pillows.

Best For General Use: Boppy Slipcovered Pregnancy Body Pillow ($50) Boppy

The best thing about the Boppy Slipcovered Pregnancy Body Pillow is it’s really flexible. You can use it for more than just sleeping with. It’s also good for supporting your back when you’re sitting upright in bed, or just for when you’re leaning back on the sofa and you need some extra support that a regular cushion just can’t achieve.

The pillow is filled with virgin fiber so it’s really flexible, with a unique contoured shape that promises to provide you with comfort throughout your pregnancy. There’s a removable slipcover too so it’s easy to toss into the machine to wash. However many weeks you’re along, it’ll improve your chances of sleep and quality rest.

Buy on Amazon Best C Shaped Pillow: Leahco Snoogle Body Pillow ($60) Leahco

A C shaped pillow is a great way of giving you something that you can wrap around your body in a variety of different ways. The Leahco Snoogle Body Pillow does exactly that. It’s effectively like surrounding yourself with numerous solid pillows or cushions, but without the hassle.

The material used for the Leahco Snoogle Body Pillow ensures that no extra body heat is contained, and it has a removable cover for easy washing. You can easily use the horseshoe-shaped head pillow to get your position just so, before using the long midsection for your back or stomach, and the end for tucking between your knees. It’s well attuned to where your pregnant body needs most support.

Buy on Amazon Best U Shaped Pillow: Queen Rose U-Shaped Pillow ($49) Queen Rose

A U shaped pillow is good if you want consistent support of both sides of your body. The Queen Rose U-Shaped Pillow is the best of the bunch. It follows the shape of the pregnant body, ensuring it’s long enough for you to stretch out amongst it. It’s designed mainly for side sleeping so you don’t have to worry about your back or stomach feeling unsupported as you snooze.

You can also adjust it so that it doubles up nicely as a nursing pillow or simply a way to prop you up as you watch TV or read. The cover is removable and made of 100% cotton so its hypoallergenic materials will never irritate your skin.

Buy on Amazon Best Wedge Pillow: Boppy Pregnancy Wedge Pillow ($15) Boppy

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Categories: IT General, Technology

Logitech is Reviving the Popular MX518 Gaming Mouse

Wed, 02/20/2019 - 17:52
Logitech

Power users often get quite attached to their input devices and don’t like to move on from a winner. For the considerable number of fans of an older gaming mouse, the MX518, Logitech is bringing it back.

The MX518 was first released back in 2005: a curvy, gaming-focused wired mouse with the now-standard eight buttons. It was fairly primitive by today’s standards, with an optical sensor maxing out at just 1600 DPI (literally one-tenth the resolution of today’s top gaming mice) and a glossy plastic top that looked like a bit of the Terminator T-1000 dropped off. It was a gentle evolution of the MX500 design from 2002.

The 2019 version of the MX518 will feature a more toned-down exterior with Logitech’s current branding, but its ergonomics remain identical to the original, right down to the circular thumb and DPI adjustment buttons. Underneath, Logitech has upgraded its hardware. The new mouse gets the company’s most advanced 16,000 DPI sensor, a nigh-instant response time of one millisecond, and an onboard ARM chip to manage all of it.

The refreshed mouse will cost $60 when it goes on sale, which is fairly typical for a mid-range wired gaming mouse. For the sensor inside, assuming you can actually use that much DPI, it’s a bargain. Logitech hasn’t said when it will be available, but you can pre-order it now.

Source: The Next Web

Categories: IT General, Technology

Deal Alert: Grab a Refurbished Pixel 3 or Pixel 3 XL for $300 off

Wed, 02/20/2019 - 17:34

You’re going to be hearing a lot of phone news this week. If the excitement’s already forcing you into phone-buying mode, then you should steer yourself toward this Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL deal.

Now, it’s no secret that we love the Pixel 3. It’s one of the best premium Android phones, it has a great battery, a vivid screen, and it works well with Google Assistant. But the retail price of the Pixel 3 (or any new phone, for that matter) can turn things sour very quickly.

That’s why we’re always excited to see a discounted Pixel 3. Right now, Woot is selling the Just Black Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL with 64 GB of storage at a $300 discount. In case you don’t feel like doing the math, that’s $550 for the regular Pixel 3, and $600 for the Pixel 3 XL. But again, it’s only for the black model, so if you were hoping for a different color, you’re out of luck.

Note that these are refurbished phones, but they at least come with Woot’s 90-day limited warranty. If you’re into it, hit the button below to jump on this deal before it’s gone.

Buy From Woot

 

Categories: IT General, Technology

Deal Alert: Get a Refurbished Dyson Ball 2 Animal for $275 ($125 Off)

Wed, 02/20/2019 - 17:24
Dyson

We think the Dyson Ball 2 Animal is the best overall vacuum you can get for the pet-filled home. And today Amazon is selling a refurbished edition for a steep discount at $275.

Dyson offers some of the best vacuums on the market, and will quickly pick up so much dirt you’re left wondering how you survived in such a sick and filthy home. Unfortunately, the only thing that sucks more than the vacuum itself is the pricing. The Dyson Ball 2 Animal is usually $400 for instance, and no matter how much fur it picks up that can be hard to swallow.

Thankfully, Amazon is offering a refurbished model on steep discount today. Amazon tests and inspects these units for any defects, and makes any repairs as necessary, and so guarantees a “like new in working condition” state.

The vacuum comes with all its accessories (including the animal-specific attachments), but may not arrive in the original box and only includes a six month Dyson warranty instead of the usual five-year warranty. That said, we ordered the previous model refurbished in 2017, and it is still going strong.

If you’ve always wanted a Dyson but couldn’t justify a $400 price tag, today may be your day to treat yourself—to a cleaner house that is.

Buy on Amazon

Categories: IT General, Technology

Where Are the Admin Tools for Office 365?

Wed, 02/20/2019 - 17:24

For most people, Microsoft Office 365 is a bunch of applications like Outlook, Word, Excel, etc. But if you have your own domain, you can also manage your users, groups, policies, and more. Let’s take a look.

We’ve covered all the apps that come with Office 365, but it’s far more than just a set of discrete productivity applications. It’s also an enterprise management system that contains all sorts of tools like Azure Active Directory, usage reports, and a whole slew of security tools that most people know nothing about. These tools live in the Admin Center, which (for most users) will be available if you have a domain (e.g., AcmeRockets.com) and Microsoft provides the email for that domain (e.g., Rob@AcmeRockets.com).

For personal users, the most common way this happens is if you buy a domain from a registrar/host like GoDaddy or 1&1 and they offer Office 365-hosted email as part of the package.

RELATED: The Best Places to Buy a Domain Name

You’ll need to log into the Office 365 account that contains your hosted email to see the Admin option. The login page can be a bit difficult to find sometimes because it often lives on your domain host’s site, not the main Microsoft site. If you try to sign-in at Office.com, it’s usually smart enough to know where your domain is registered and redirect you to the correct login page, though. But if you can’t find it, contact your domain host, and they’ll help you.

Once you’ve logged in, you’ll be able to see the Admin option in the list of apps on the main Office 365 page, and also in the app launcher available from the nine dots.

Click on the Admin app, and you’ll be taken to the Admin Center, where you can see a menu of options on the left-hand side.

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Categories: IT General, Technology

Here’s Where and When to Watch the Samsung Galaxy S10 Event Today

Wed, 02/20/2019 - 17:09
Samsung

It’s almost time for Mobile World Congress, and you know what that means…it’s exactly time for Samsung to steal everyone’s thunder with its own event. The first Galaxy Unpacked product reveal of the year will be later today.

As usual, the Unpacked press event will be livestreamed to the internet, so gadget addicts can watch the worldwide reveal in real time. The event will take place in San Francisco at 11 AM local Pacific time, which is 2 PM Eastern and  7:00 PM UTC. The video will be live on this Samsung site.

New flagship phones are an inevitability. The latest iterations on the main line, the Galaxy S10 and S10+, have already been leaked for weeks. In addition to the usual hardware and software bumps, we’re expecting a new “hole punch” front camera design that replaces the common “notch” with a small hole in the upper right corner of the curved screen, and triple rear camera modules on at least the larger phone. The Galaxy S10e is expected to be a cheaper version of this design, with the hole punch camera intact, analogous to the iPhone XR.

Samsung

What might be more interesting is a reveal of Samsung’s upcoming folding phone design, rumored to be called either the Galaxy F or Galaxy Fold. Samsung showed a prototype of this folding screen device (a smaller screen on the outside with a large inner screen that folds open like a book) in November of last year. Samsung’s teaser video means a short appearance, if not a full technical breakdown, is in store.

Since this folding phone hasn’t been seen at the FCC for wireless testing and other press materials haven’t leaked, it seems likely that it isn’t quite ready for a full retail rollout, as the S10 phones are expected to receive within a month of their announcement. Samsung is so ready to get the Galaxy S10 rolling that you can actually reserve a chance to reserve a pre-order of the new phones before they’re even announced.

We’ll be talking about everything Samsung announces later today, so keep it locked here for full details as soon as they drop.

Categories: IT General, Technology

Deal Alert: Get a SanDisk Extreme Pro 128 GB MicroSD Card for Just $50

Wed, 02/20/2019 - 16:54

Do yourself a favor, stop using the internal storage on your phone or camera. You can buy a massive 128 GB MicroSD card for 50 percent off right now.

Right now, B&H is selling a 128 GB SanDisk MicroSD card for just $50—that’s half of its retail price. And don’t worry, it comes with a USB 3.0 SD card reader, so you’ll be able to transfer files right out of the box.

Most MicroSD cards that get heavy discounts have poor read and write speeds. As a result, they open and transfer files very slowly. Luckily, this SanDisk card is an exception to the rule. It has a read speed of 275 MB/s and a write speed of 100 MB/s, so it’s great for quickly transferring or opening large files, like video games and high-resolution movies. Plus, it has a UHS Speed Class 3 rating, so it’s capable of running video for a 4K monitor.

An inexpensive MicroSD card (like this one) may be perfect for your camera, your Raspberry Pi project, your Nintendo Switch, or even your phone (if it has a MicroSD card slot, of course). But B&H is ending this deal tonight, so don’t sleep on it for too long, or you know, at all.

Buy From B&H

Categories: IT General, Technology

How to Cancel App Subscriptions on iPhone or iPad

Wed, 02/20/2019 - 16:00

Apple’s App Store is full of apps with in-app subscriptions. That’s great news for developers, and it’s great for users who don’t want apps to go away. But if you don’t use an app, why not cancel your subscription?

Canceling a subscription to an iPhone or iPad app hasn’t always been the easiest thing to do, because Apple hasn’t always made the process obvious. Even if you did know. the chances are good that you do it so infrequently that you have forgotten, and there’s always the chance that Apple changed something in a recent iOS update.

Apple did in fact recently change how iPhone and iPad owners cancel subscriptions via the App Store, and thankfully, it’s now easier than ever. As with all things in life, however, these things are only easy if you know how—and we’re going to make sure you do.

How to Cancel App Subscriptions

To get started, open the App Store and tap on the icon that represents your Apple ID at the top of the screen.

Next, tap “Manage Subscriptions.”

Here you will see a list of all of the in-app subscriptions for which you are currently paying. You’ll also find any that are expired at the bottom of the list should you wish to re-subscribe.

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Categories: IT General, Technology

The Best Instant Pot for You

Wed, 02/20/2019 - 15:00
Sim79/Shutterstock

Instant Pot, the brand name and increasingly generic term, refers to a combination slow-cook pot (AKA a crock pot) that also uses pressure cooking. This means it’s easy to toss in a few ingredients—meat, vegetables, rice or pasta, sauce and seasonings—and make a huge amount of food very quickly.

Instant Pots are immensely popular thanks to their ease of use and speedy cooking; you can find delicious recipes all over the web. But which one is right for your kitchen? Or for that matter, your dorm room or even your car trunk for road trips? Take a look at our suggestions below.

The Best Overall Instant Pot: Instant Pot LUX60V3 6-Quart ($79) Instant Pot

To get into the Instant Pot craze quickly and easily, for a solid price, you can’t do better than this standard model. The LUX60V3 has enough volume for six quarts of food, which should be plenty to feed four people alone (or more, if you cook side dishes on your stove).

It has all the standard features for easy timer operation and pressure adjustment, plus pre-programmed settings for ten different common meals, like stew and rice. Despite being on the lower end of Instant Pot’s lineup, it includes the stainless steel construction and inner pot that’s helped to make these kitchen gadgets so popular. It’s also available in an eight quart version.

Buy on Amazon The Best Instant Pot for Big Families: Power Pressure Cooker XL ($139) Power Pressure Cooker

If you regularly need to cook big, simple meals for a small army of diners, this model from Power Pressure Cooker will do the trick. It has room for ten quarts of food, which should make enough to keep a dozen people or more full and happy. The big pot isn’t as sophisticated as some others, with fewer pre-set options and pressure levels. But the Teflon-coated inner pot is dishwasher safe for easy cleanup—if your dishwasher can handle the size, of course.

Buy on Amazon The Best Smart Instant Pot: Instant Pot Smart WiFi ($120) Instant Pot

Looking for something a little more modern? This model of the Instant Pot connects to your home’s Wi-Fi network, allowing you to control it via an Android or iPhone app. What’s the point, you ask, when all the buttons on the front are pretty straightforward? The Instant Pot app connects to the company’s database of user-submitted recipes, allowing you to choose a recipe and apply the perfect settings instantly.

This model comes with a six-quart capacity and all the features of our overall pick above. Do note: the Wi-Fi connection in the pot needs a 2.4GHz network, so you’ll need to make sure your home’s router still enables the older standard.

Buy on Amazon The Best Instant Pot For One User: Instant Pot LUX Mini 3 Instant Pot

If you’re cooking for one, six or eight quarts is a lot of food to get through. You can cook with fewer ingredients in a bigger pot, but it’s a hassle to move around and clean if you don’t need the extra space. Instant Pot’s standard LUX model comes in a three-quart “mini” size, perfect for making dinner and maybe enough for another meal’s worth of leftovers. (You can start it at lunch and still have it warming your pasta by dinnertime.) The smaller model still uses a stainless steel pot. At less than one cubic foot in size and 8.5 pounds, this also makes a good pick if you’re looking to use an Instant Pot on a road trip or in an RV.

Buy on Amazon The Best Value Instant Pot: Gourmia GPC625 Multi-Mode SmartPot ($55) Gourmia

If you need a combination pressure cooker and crockpot and you’re on a budget, check out this model from Gourmia. It has a full six-quart capacity, plenty of pre-set options for popular foods, all the usual timer and delay settings, and it slides in at just $55 at the time of writing. The design uses a removable stainless steel inner pot just like the official brand, and the package includes a steam tray.

Buy on Amazon

Categories: IT General, Technology

How to Recover Deleted Windows 10 Sticky Notes

Wed, 02/20/2019 - 15:00

Windows 10’s Sticky Notes app is a powerful note-taking solution, but it doesn’t let you restore deleted notes—or does it? Although this feature isn’t part of the desktop app, there’s a way to get your deleted notes back.

How to Recover Deleted Sticky Notes

You’ve accidentally deleted a sticky note that had some important information on it, but the desktop app doesn’t have a way to recover—or even see—the items that you deleted. Well, thanks to Sticky Notes syncing everything to the cloud, you can now recover any notes you may have removed, directly from your Microsoft Outlook account.

Note: To access this feature you need to sign in with a Microsoft account on Windows 10. Also, Microsoft only keeps your sticky notes for as long as your deleted items folder holds them—usually 30 days.

Fire up Outlook.live.com and sign in to your Microsoft account you use for Windows 10.

Once you’ve signed in, scroll down the left pane and click on “Deleted Items.”

Scroll through the list until you see the items you want to recover. If you have multiple items, click the bubble next to each item first and then click “Restore.”

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Categories: IT General, Technology

Which is Cheaper: Printing Your Own Photos or Using a Printing Service?

Wed, 02/20/2019 - 13:40

 

PS_2/Shutterstock

With the rise of inexpensive online photo printing services, inkjet printers have fallen out of favor. But, as with any DIY project, some people claim that it’s cheaper to print photos at home. Is that really true?

A Quick Cost Comparison

Let’s break down the price difference between at-home photo printing and online printing services. We’re going to do this by comparing the price of online printing services and at-home printing. For the sake of convenience, we’re only going to look at the cost of 4×6 prints.

There are a lot of online photo printing services, but we’ll stick with the big four. Some of these services offer the occasional discount, but we’re going to pretend that those don’t exist. Shutterfly, one of the most popular photo printing services, charges $0.12 for every 4×6 print. Not bad, but Amazon, Snapfish, and Walmart will print your 4×6 photos for $0.09 each.

Alright, online printing services charge between $0.09 and $0.12 per 4×6 photo. Now we need to compare those prices to an at-home photo printing setup. So, let’s build a modest at-home printing setup. We need a solid inkjet printer, some 4×6 photo paper, and some ink.

Iryna Tiumentseva_Shutterstock

Let’s start with the printer. The Canon Pixma IP8720 is one of the most popular at-home inkjet photo printers, and for a good reason. It produces pictures with a 9600 color DPI, and only costs $180. That’s a budget price for a pretty decent printer.

The Canon Pixma IP8720 comes with ink, but we’re going to buy a full set of ink carts for the sake of price comparison. That pack of ink will set us back $55. Canon claims that these ink cartridges will yield up to 780 photos (yeah right), which means that, at best, we’re paying $0.07 in ink for every 4×6 print.

Well, $0.07 per print sounds pretty good. But we still need to buy photo paper. Let’s buy a lot of it to get the most bang for our buck. We’ll grab a 400 pack of CanonInk’s of 4×6 glossy photo paper for $20—that’s $0.05 per sheet.

So if we ignore the fact that our printer cost us $180, we’re paying $0.12 for every 4×6 photo that we print at home. That’s the same price as Shutterfly, and a bit more expensive than some of the other online printing services.

If You Don’t Use Your Printer, Things Get More Expensive

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Categories: IT General, Technology

How to Sort Values in Microsoft Excel

Tue, 02/19/2019 - 22:00

Excel has “Sort A to Z” and “Sort Z to A” features that let you sort values alphabetically or numerically, and a “Custom Sort” feature that lets you sort using multiple criteria.  Here’s how to use them.

Let’s Look at an Example

In this example, we have chosen nine chemical elements from the periodic table, and we will sort the data based on the cell contents using the “Sort A to Z” feature and the “Custom Sort” feature.

The “Sort & Filter” drop-down is located on the far right of the “Home” tab.

The drop-down has several features listed, but we are focusing on the first three.

Here is our example data, taken from the periodic table. Each “Element” has information that is unique to it, such as its “Symbol” and “Atomic Number.”  But each element also belongs to other categories, such as its “Phase at STP” (i.e., whether it is a solid, liquid, or gas in a room at standard temperature and pressure) and its “Element Category” on the period table.

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Categories: IT General, Technology

The Best Over-the-Air Antenna Tuners for Multiple Channels, Recording, and More

Tue, 02/19/2019 - 21:00

While you can get away with plugging your HDTV Antenna straight into your TV, a separate tuner opens up so many more possibilities. A tuner adds some upfront cost, but also a huge benefit for cord cutters.

Your TV (most likely) has a tuner built-in, but having an external tuner means you can split the signal from the antenna into a number of different channels. Different models of external tuners have different numbers of individual internal tuners and this indicates the number of concurrent streams it can handle.

For example, if you have a four tuner model, you can watch four different channels on four different screens—or watch three different channels on three different screens while using the fourth tuner to record another program. Or, perhaps more practical to most people, you can watch one channel while other people in your household watch different channels (or you record those channels for later viewing).

Tuners will connect to your home network with Ethernet or Wi-Fi, and the manufacturer of the tuner will offer an application to watch the live stream on most platforms. Some tuners have hard drives built-in to record shows, or you can record straight onto your Plex server.

HDHomeRun Connect Quatro ($150) Silicon Dust

This unit features four tuners inside, just as the “quatro” name implies. It features one coaxial jack to connect to your antenna and an Ethernet jack to connect to your home network. I’ve personally used this tuner to record and stream live TV with Plex, and it set up in an instant. If you don’t have a Plex subscription, HDHomeRun has a live TV app for every platform imaginable, as well as a website. If you want to use their software as a DVR, however, be forewarned that there is a $35 a year subscription cost that includes both their multi-platform software as well as a TV-guide type system—a Plex Pass will run you $40 a year or $120 for a lifetime subscription and many people prefer their live TV interface and recording system.

The Connect Quatro is currently bundled with a 30-mile OTA antenna, but it’ll work with any antenna. Set up is a breeze: connect the coaxial cable from the antenna, connect it to your network, plug it into power, and let it scan your channels. That’s it!

Buy on Amazon Amazon Fire TV Recast ($230-$280) Amazon

If you’re all in on Amazon’s ecosystem (or Echosystem, if you will), the Fire TV Recast will be a natural fit in your home. The Fire TV Recast comes with either two tuners and a 500GB hard drive (good for 75 hours of recording), or four tuners and a 1TB hard drive (good for 150 hours). There’s a $50 difference between the two, which isn’t trivial, but it’s also not an exorbitant amount if you want to give yourself some spare capacity.

RELATED: Should You Buy the Fire TV Recast?

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Categories: IT General, Technology

The Best Skincare Subscription Boxes for Beautiful Skin

Tue, 02/19/2019 - 18:00

July Prokopiv/Shutterstock

It’s important to look after your skin, but oh so easy to forget about it. These skincare subscription boxes help you keep your skin fresh and healthy.

Each of these subscription boxes take all the hard work out of looking after your skin—hunting down the right products. Instead, you can rely on them to deliver great products no matter what your skin type or needs happen to be. There are solutions here for those trying to get into a healthier routine or simply when you want to pamper yourself a bit after a long day or week.

Here’s our pick of the skincare subscription boxes.

Best For Getting Into A Routine: BioClarity ($29.95 per month) BioClarity

The best thing for your skin is to get into a good routine for looking after it. It’s tough to remember though so rely on BioClarity to remind you a little. Each month, you’re sent a selection of products that work together to keep your skin soft, supple, healthy, and calm. There’s a choice of the Clear Skin Routine, Essentials Routine, or Ultra Calming Routine packages. Each focuses on certain issues like Clear Skin tackling blemishes and Essentials hydrating your skin, but whichever you choose, you’re in safe hands.

Each of the products is 100% vegan and cruelty-free which is good peace of mind when looking after your skin. All you need to do is remember to use the facial cleansers, gels, and skin smoothies to get your skin back up to its perfect look.

Subscribe to BioClarity Best For Sheet Mask Fans: FaceTory ($8.90 per month) FaceTory

Sheet masks are a fun but invaluable way of looking after the skin on your face. For $8.90 per month, FaceTory delivers 4 hand-picked and curated sheet masks through your mailbox every month, with the package worth about $17.50. Each is cute and vibrant, and sure to make your face glow with life again.

If 4 doesn’t feel like enough, $19.90 per month gets you 7 masks that are generally worth more than the lower subscription package, weighing in at a retail value of about $40. All the masks are from South Korea and have been expertly tested by K-Beauty fans, so they’re sure to appeal.

Subscribe to FaceTory Best For Monthly Surprises: BeautyFix Beauty Box ($24.95 per month) BeautyFix

For $24.95 per month, BeautyFix offers quite an extensive selection of products. Besides skincare items, there’s also room for makeup and hair care too. All of the products have been hand-picked by experts, so you’re sure of high quality here.

Each box has a retail value of over $100 with a mixture of full and deluxe travel size products. You’re guaranteed at least 6 different items, each keen to make you look great. If you’re unsure if you want to commit to a subscription, you can always buy a one-off box for $34.95 too.

Subscribe to BeautyFix Best For K-Beauty Skincare: PinkSeoul ($39.95 bi-monthly) PinkSeoul

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Categories: IT General, Technology

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