The cat meme began last week when a Texas lawyer appeared before a judge in the form of a cat because he had unknowingly applied a filter. The applause from around the internet was instantaneous. But experts agree that it’s never a good idea to use an animal Zoom filter at work. “We are all human, and the cat incident was hilarious, but that was because it was accidental,” Joe Wilson, senior career advisor at MintResume, said in an email interview....

Microsoft first began its push back against third-party browsers with the release of Windows 10, where it made it more difficult to set up a new default browser by hiding it behind multiple steps. Experts are now concerned a move to block third-party apps from intercepting links that force Microsoft Edge to open could lead to further app restrictions in the future. “You have to ask yourself, ‘when does it stop?...

Facebook announced the new feature, known as Group Effects, on Thursday. You’ll be able to choose from 70 different Group Effects to augment everyone on a video call at the same time so each participant can see the others in a green beard or play an AR game together in real-time. Group Effects work in the Messenger app during video calls or room chats. The option is available under the smiley face icon....

Total Cookie Protection made the jump from Mac and PC systems to Android devices earlier this year when it was added to the Firefox Focus mobile app. Though the option’s availability had been limited to certain regions, Firefox now says it’s rolling these protections out to all users around the world. In essence, the feature sequesters different cookies into their own areas to prevent them from accessing other information. So, while a cookie from one website will be able to keep an eye on your browsing while you’re on that specific site, it won’t be able to track you once you move to another....

These four open source image editors are fit for serious use. Look closely, and you’ll find a robust and comprehensive range of image-editing features in GIMP, including photo adjustment, painting and drawing tools, and built-in plug-ins that include blur, distortions, lens effects, and more options. GIMP can be customized to closely resemble Photoshop in several ways: Photoshop plug-ins can run in GIMP using another plug-in called PSPI. GIMP emulates Photoshop brushes and layer styles....

Designed for the mobile workforce, the Galaxy Tab Active4 Pro is a tablet that Samsung believes can take what the most intense jobs can dish out. The new device boasts “military-grade toughness” while still being versatile enough to handle many different on-the-job situations. Out of the box, Samsung claims it can withstand a drop of up to three feet (close to four feet when using the included protective cover), and the display is made from durable Corning Gorilla Glass 5....

Google has announced that, in the name of safety, devices using the older operating system will no longer be able to sign in to some apps. So it’s advising that, if your device uses Android 2.3.7 or older, you should update to Android 3.0 or higher if you’re able. On and after September 27, you’ll likely receive a user name/password error when you attempt to log in or make new accounts for some Google apps....

When Will the Pixel 5a Be Released? The Pixel 5a looks basically identical to the Pixel 4a 5G, which is nearly a twin to the Pixel 5. In other words, the Pixel 5 and 5a are hard to tell apart by just looking from the outside. This phone has a 6.34" display, 12.2 MP dual-pixel camera, and punch-hole selfie camera. It was officially announced on August 17, 2021, and began shipping on August 26....

To access stored photos, movies, and music—and stream them to compatible playback devices—you must have a storage device that can function as a media server. What Is a Media Server? A media server is a central device on which you store your files. A media server can be a PC or MAC, a Network-attached storage drive, or another compatible device. NAS drives are the most common external media server devices....

Created by accessiBe, the automated web accessibility solution, called accessFind, will only show search results of websites that are certified as accessible for people with disabilities. Those with disabilities say this search engine will take the guesswork out of trying to find a website that’s accessible, therefore providing them more time to actually utilize the internet. “accessFind is going to take the struggle out of being able to access the world, and it’s going to be a game-changer,” Josh Basile, the community relations manager at accessiBe and a C4-5 quadriplegic who’s active in the disability community, told Lifewire in a phone interview....

A rumored upcoming Apple VR headset could be lighter than an iPhone. The Apple iPhone 12 weighs in at 164 grams, compared to 503 grams for the popular Oculus Quest 2 VR rig. A new generation of headsets could bring the weight way down and pave the way for more applications. “You’ll want a VR headset to be light for the same reason you want traditional eyeglasses to be light—comfort,” Jay Wright, the CEO of the virtual reality software company Campfire, said in an email interview....

The company recently launched its ultrafast M1 chip that powers some of its MacBooks and the Mac mini, but reports say it’s already working on a new in-house chip called the M2 that is likely to drive the next generation of Macs. According to experts, the M2 could drastically speed up your computing experience. “Currently, developers are seeing great benefits with their new M1 gear, from being able to reproduce hardware-specific errors in their pipelines to seeing performance improvements,” Keith Pitt, co-founder of software development firm Buildkite, said in an email interview....

The “mega” prefix in megabit (Mb) and megabyte (MB) are often the preferred way to express data transfer rates because it’s dealing mostly with bits and bytes in the thousands. For example, your home network might be able to download data at 1 million bytes every second, which is more appropriately written as 8 megabits per second, or even 8 Mb/s. Some measurements yield bits to massive values like 1,073,741,824, which is how many bits are in a single gigabyte (1,024 megabytes)....

title: “How Does Regenerative Braking Work " ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-21” author: “Ruby Lowe” How Do Brakes Work in Cars and Trucks? Advances in brake technology have been largely iterative rather than innovative over the years, like the transition from drum brakes to disc brakes. There have also been significant advances in the physical materials that brake pads are made of, which has resulted in friction materials that last longer, create less dust, and are less likely to make noise....

I wouldn’t say I am a seasoned meditator—I try to meditate when I can and have a handful of different meditation apps already downloaded onto my phone, so I was skeptical how this app could prove to stand out among them. It turns out, Down Dog’s Meditation app completely stands because it has customizability that no other app I’ve used has. The meditations are generated based on your settings, making each mediation a different experience each time....

Logitech’s new Logi Bolt USB dongle provides an encrypted connection between your mouse and keyboard, and your computer. Regular Bluetooth might be convenient, and mostly reliable, but it’s not secure—as we’re about to find out. “Bluetooth is highly insecure,” Roger Smith, IT expert and industry fellow at the Australian Defence Force Academy, told Lifewire via email. Vulnerable There are two kinds of keyboard and mouse hacks you should worry about....

So now you know your display’s PPI… but what good is it? If you were just curious, you’re done! However, as we alluded to in the introduction above, most of the time a device or display PPI is the first of two steps to ​getting to something much more practical. There Is No One Answer to Pixels per Inch If all pixels were the same size, the pixels in an inch would be a known number, like centimeters in an inch (2....

Here’s a look at how to estimate the amount of data a YouTube video uses, find other factors that affect YouTube data usage on a mobile device or desktop computer and adjust YouTube settings to reduce your data usage. How to Use Video Quality to Estimate the Amount of Data a YouTube Video Will Use Video quality is the main factor affecting YouTube data usage. When the original video uploaded to YouTube is high quality, more data is streamed....

Not anymore. A combination of reasonably priced high-quality VR headsets, great apps, and pandemic lockdowns have made me a convert. Virtual reality has undergone a quiet revolution in the p ast year that has made doing everything from gaming to work a real possibility. I toyed with past VR headsets, but they always left me wanting. Blocky graphics marred earlier generations of headsets. I also hated the idea of being tethered to a desktop the way some VR gear demanded....

Periscope will officially be discontinued in March 2021—exactly six years after its launch—due to unsustainable maintenance and declining usage. But experts say its deactivation does not mean it was a failure. “I began on Periscope right after it launched in March 2015, and it was a complete game-changer,” Kerry Shearer, a live streaming communications expert in Sacramento, told Lifewire over the phone. “Here was a service that allowed you to go live to the entire world from a smartphone....