The Windows 10 Technical Preview, keylogging, and you

 

The Windows 10 Technical Preview, keylogging, and you

In its current Technical Preview edition, the next major version of Windows can send your keystrokes and spoken words to Microsoft. Andy Gorfman asked if it will stay that way. “Apart from taking Microsoft on trust, how do we know that [the spyware will be removed].”
Paranoia seems reasonable these days. We know that big-data companies such as Google, Facebook, and yes, Microsoft, gather information about us for commercial reasons. In addition to that, the NSA spies on us, and the big companies may be collaborating with them.
Meanwhile, the Windows 10 Technical Preview Privacy Statement is indeed a scary document. It informs us that “we may collect voice information” and “typed characters.” That’s not what you want in an operating system.
But before you panic, consider these three facts:

First, this is a technical preview of a work in progress, months away from its commercial release. It’s intended for testing, not day-to-day use. Microsoft has a legitimate reason to track how the Preview behaves in the field, for the benefit of the final product.
Take a look at the Before you install page, which clearly states that you shouldn’t use the Technical Preview if you’ll be “installing it on your everyday computer.”
Second, Microsoft is very up-front about these policies. The Privacy Statement is comparatively short at fewer than 1,800 words—and it’s written in plain, non-legalese English. The scariest part--about collecting voice information, opening files, and logging typed characters--isn't buried, but near the top.
What’s more, the above-mentioned “Before you install” page warns potential users: “If the privacy of your system files is a concern, consider using a different PC.”
Finally, Microsoft has a lot to lose if they do this sort of tracking in the final, commercial version, and the company knows it. Yes, Microsoft will still track more than you'd like, but after the Windows 8 debacle, it can’t afford the bad PR of getting caught recording keystrokes.
If you decide to try the Technical Preview, put it on a separate computer. Don’t put your password manager on that computer, and don’t use it to log on to websites that require passwords. If that PC has a microphone, keep it unplugged or disabled most of the time.
I seriously doubt that the worst spyware features will remain in the finished product.

 

Test your Android phone's performance with these free benchmarking tools

How much do you know about your phone, really? Beyond a name, a price, and vague sense of whether it’s “high end” or not, you’re probably in the dark. Even if you look up the stats, you don’t really know how it performs. The only sure way to know is to run a few benchmarks.
This not only gives you an idea of how fast your phone is, but also lets you see how it fares against marketplace rivals or older phones, and can help you troubleshoot problems by comparing against similar phones. Don’t worry, benchmarking your Android phone is easy and cheap. All these tools are free, fun to use, and a few are gorgeous enough to show off to friends.

Setup and Prep

Before you benchmark your phone or tablet, you’ll want to charge it up completely, then kill all background tasks in the multitasking menu. You don’t want anything to interfere with your tests, so you also might want to put it in Airplane mode to prevent it from fetching mail or receiving calls.

Samsung task manager from KitKat – Kill ’em all.

Make sure the ambient temperature isn’t too hot, as the difference in results can be dramatic. If you’re running a bunch of these tests in a short time and find the device is getting really hot, causing benchmark scores to fall, try removing any heavy cases like Otterbox’s Defender. They act like insulation.

You can record results using the app’s online databases (virtually all benchmarks feature one), or take screenshots of scores for reference later on. Just don’t do it during the benchmark. In fact, don’t touch your device at all during a test run. None of these apps take long to run. Set it down, press start, and wait.

Interpreting Results

Don’t expect test results to tell you everything. Established designs sometimes outperform newer replacements thanks to better cooling or highly-tuned code. Bigger devices like tablets simply have more space to play with, allowing the use of faster, more power-hungry chips.
Also in play are manufacturer and carrier Android add-ons that make a big difference in how fast a device can feel. The HTC One (M8) doesn’t have the fastest Snapdragon processor, yet its slickly tuned interface makes it feel top-shelf. Samsung’s TouchWiz has the opposite effect, introducing the occasional pause or hiccup that can make their hardware designs seem less cutting edge than they really are.
And of course, the fastest phone isn’t necessarily the best. You have to consider size, design, materials, camera quality, sound quality, and much more. 

The HTC One M8 punches above its hardware class due to careful OS tuning and HTC’s light touch with its Sense UI.

Gamers have unique needs when it comes to performance. Super high-density screens are easy on the eyes, but it’s tough for small, low-power mobile graphics processors to run games smoothly at really high resolutions. As displays skyrocket to 4K, selecting a device with a fast graphics processor and a slightly lower display resolution can help keep those demanding 3D games running smoothly.

Samsung’s Galaxy Note 4 packs a pixel-dense screen but provides the GPU horsepower to drive it swiftly. 

Most of the benchmarks here are also available for operating systems other than Android. Cross-platform benchmarks are useful because they provide a satellite view of where your hardware lives in the wider world of tech. Sure, it’s nice to know if your tablet is as fast as an iPad Air 2, but it’s just as interesting to know how it compares to a thin and light laptop.

Benchmark information screens have detailed breakdowns on your device’s innards.

3DMark

3DMark reigns supreme for PC gamers and has made impressive headway on other platforms as the de facto standard for 3D benchmarking. The free Android version includes a flashy demo reel as well as the physics and GPU tests from the “Ice Storm” module of the Windows suite, while adding a few mobile-specific queries like battery life tests. 

Even PC gamers who recognize this pitched battle will be impressed watching it on a super AMOLED screen in 300+ pixels per inch.

Usage is push-button simple. Results are shared online via Futuremark’s cloud database and web comparison system. It’s easy to see where you sit on the ladder, and although this feature isn’t exclusive, Futuremark has been doing it a lot longer than anyone else here, so the tools provided for comparing, recording, and sharing are mature and well-executed.

You can compare your tablet or phone to pretty much any computing device made in the last 5 years, unless it’s a Mac.

CPU test results track with real-world usage but are geared more towards gaming loads than everyday operations. The battery test is handy, but has the same limited scope. It only gives you an idea of how long your device will last while pushing pixels as hard as it can.

GFXBench 3.0

3DMark isn’t the only game in town when it comes to mobile GPU benchmarking. GFXBench arrived early in Android’s history and delivers more detailed results than Futuremark’s flagship. It’s also smaller; a big advantage if space is at a premium and your phone or tablet doesn’t support removable media.
GFXBench is all about the details, and the developers serve them up page after page. You get more than framerates, and the numbers aren’t abstractions. Driver overhead figures, rendering quality tests, precision, and computing performance all get attention, taking GFXBench beyond gaming and deep into graphics geek territory. Like 3DMark, you also get access to a crossplatform database that extends to desktop systems, but GFXBench doesn’t leave Mac users out in the cold.

Unlike 3DMark, GFXBench supports the Mac so you may stoke your Apple envy or release your scorn at will.

Accurate results aside, certain areas of the test look decidedly low-rent these days. Objects, effects, lighting, and other aesthetics are in need of a makeover.

This poor T-Rex never seems to catch a meal. Maybe he needs more polygons. 

Vellamo

The hardware moguls at Qualcomm may have created Vellamo, but they don’t play favorites; the results show no favoritism towards Snapdragon processors. Vellamo doesn’t test everything. It’s mainly focused on testing browser speed, but also includes a mode called Metal that goes low-level for CPU, memory, and bandwidth testing, and a Multicore mode that tests the efficiency of thread latency and handling.
Browser benchmarks may have fallen out of favor as stand-ins for proper mobile CPU tests, but they can still tell you quite a bit about the efficiency of the web browsing engine. On Android, changing up your browser can have a huge impact on performance.
Like most of the packages here, running the main suite takes a single button press, but some of these tests run a few minutes, so bring along some patience. Fortunately, Vellamo happens to be a pleasure to use, with elements of Material Design already incorporated into the user interface ahead of Lollipop’s release, so waiting isn’t a chore.

Vellamo’s slick user interface, colorful imagery and animated results screens make you almost forget this is a browser and CPU benchmark.

Swiping left on the start screen brings up the results table, device comparison list, and information panels, although you won’t find desktop computers or operating systems other than Android represented here. Qualcomm’s benchmarking largess extends only to compatible hardware.

Geekbench 3

Unlike the others, Geekbench sneers at fashion and wears its sparse starting page like a hoodie at a shareholder’s meeting. No starship battles occur onscreen during the tests and no floating transparencies adorn the results window. All you get is a progress bar that slowly makes its way across the screen from zero to 100. When everything’s done, you get in-depth tables of results about the speed of your CPU and memory subsystems.
After spending a lot of time with these apps, I can tell you from personal experience that sometimes just getting the numbers straight up is more appealing than it sounds. GeekBench serves them up quickly, too.

Not many options here, but sometimes a little is enough.

Results are broken down into Integer, Floating Point, and Memory sections with device rankings for single and multi-core results. There’s enough detail here to satisfy most queries about these subsystems, and developer Primate Labs provides an online results browser to manage your scores. When it comes to CPU testing, Geekbench is everything you need and nothing that you don’t. That’s a handy mix.

Just the facts, ma’am.

Basemark OS II and Basemark X

Basemark is one of the most comprehensive benchmarking suites available on Android with sibling apps that cover OS and gaming separately. The code is fresh, but the approach is old-school and will appeal to longtime PC benchmarking veterans.
Basemark OS II is geared towards productivity and general use but unlike most of the other packages here, some useful features (including the battery test) are restricted to a pay version that you’ll need to contact the developer Rightware to obtain. CPU, storage, memory, web browsing, and camera tests are all included in the free version available on Google Play, however.

The free version of Basemark OS II is missing the battery tests but covers the bases otherwise.

Basemark X tests the gaming performance of the GPU using the popular Unity engine. Several quality levels are supported: you can boost the shadow level, texture size, and image effects to pour on the pressure for newer hardware.

Basemark X has the same flaws as its sibling; making users pay for features other packages give away. Useful items such as antialising, resolution settings, and score breakdowns are reserved for paying customers, and just like its counterpart, you can’t buy the full version on the Play Store.
There’s plenty to like here otherwise, and Basemark X’s wide adoption means this one is worth putting alongside 3DMark or GFXBench, even if it means missing a few bells and whistles or shelling out for the full version.

High-resolution textures and advanced image effects make scenes come alive in Basemark X.

Antutu 5

Antutu, the venerable Android benchmarking standby, received a major update to version 5 in October (currently at 5.2) , addressing a few gaps in CPU and GPU testing that had opened up with age. Single-core CPU performance is now included, as core counts have begun to climb faster than developers can write the software that uses them, and diminishing returns are starting to kick in.
The GPU benchmark gets a facelift also, upping complexity and adding in the Havok Vision Engine for real-world gaming results. Full support for Lollipop, ART, and the new 64-bit hardware from Qualcomm and Nvidia means Antutu 5 is ready for the very latest hardware.

Translations here and on the website are rough but serviceable, which describes Antutu 5 in more ways than one.

The results here are accurate but broad rather than deep. As a light, all-in-one benchmark Antutu is hard to beat, which explains why you see it cited everywhere. This lack of depth can find you looking for other benchmarks when you need to dig down, however. The bigger packages aren’t that complex to use or read anymore. That, and the nag to install Clean Master every time you quit can make you wonder why you keep it around. You almost certainly do not need Clean Master.

Ookla (aka Speedtest.net)

Mobile devices aren’t all about hot hardware; they are also highly dependent on carrier performance and phone location for their overall perceived speeds. Even snappy devices can feel dead in the water when you’re stuck with a flaky LTE signal. Ookla is an internet speed meter that runs bandwidth and latency tests to servers in any region you specify, from a nearby city to across the continent.

Ookla’s colorful interface remains intact in the newest version, but advertisements and upsells abound.

Net speed tests have plenty of uses beyond the obvious. With Ookla you can see if your carrier is playing games by throttling your unlimited data rates to dialup speed, or if your blazing new 4G phone is faster on its own cellular network than your home Wi-Fi. The answers might surprise you.

Ookla keeps a history of past test results handy so you can see your system’s broadband performance over time. 

Bench like a Pro

Benchmarks tease out problems quicker than any other type of software, and they’ll turn you into a hardware expert in the blink of an eye. Don’t get too carried away, though. There’s a lot more than numbers to consider when it comes to performance.
Speed freaks will run into the hard reality that high-end desktop and even laptop systems are orders of magnitude more powerful than anything in the mobile space today, despite claims of "desktop-class performance" coming from every manufacturer from Apple to Nvidia. On the other hand, try booting a modest desktop system with the miniscule 5 watts of power most mobiles thrive on.
Impressive performance comes in all kinds of packages, big and small. Just a few minutes with some free apps can help you determine if that hot new phone really is that much faster than the one you're using now.

 

Lock your phone to a single app with Lollipop’s screen pinning

Here’s the scenario: You hand your phone to your three-year-old to keep them amused in the back seat of the car. When you get your phone back 20 minutes later, though, you realize that your kid has deleted half your apps, texted your ex from college, and wrote the Great American Novel.
Not good. Except for that last part. That’s pretty cool. You have a smart kid.
But you could have averted this digital disaster if you used Android 5.0 Lollipop’s screen pinning feature. This new addition makes it more difficult to switch from one app to another—and accidentally wreak havoc on someone’s phone. Here’s how to set it up.
Open the Settings app, tap Security, then tap Screen pinning—it’s located under the “Advanced” heading. Next, toggle the screen pinning toggle to the “on” position.

Turning on screen pinning is just a few taps away.

To use screen pinning, tap the Overview button (the square button in the lower right corner of your screen), and swipe up and down until you find the app you want to pin. Once you find the app you want to pin, tap the Pin button—it’s a blue-green button with a white pushpin on it.

Tap the pushpin icon to pin that app to your screen.

When you’re ready to turn off screen pinning and move on to another app, hold down the Back (triangle) and Overview buttons at the same time for a second or two, until your phone tells you that it has unpinned the screen in question. There's even an option to require your security pin/password if you like. So now you can hand your phone over to your kid with a little less anxiety.

 

Master notifications in Android Lollipop with Notification Priority and Downtime

Android 5.0 Lollipop comes with a cadre of features that let you take better control of the notifications you see on your phone—and set times for when you don’t want to be inundated with notifications at all. We’ll show you how to take advantage of these features, so you never again get woken up at 1am just because someone mentioned you on Twitter.
To start, head on over to your phone’s Settings app, then tap Sound & notification—a one-stop shop of sorts for all things related to notifications and alert sounds.

Priority interruptions

Lollipop introduces the concept of “priority notifications”: These notifications rise to the top of the notifications screen, and you’ll continue to receive auditory or vibrate alerts for these notifications even when you have all other notifications muted.
If you’d like to be alerted only to these sorts of notifications, tap Interruptions. From this screen, you can choose to limit the sorts of notifications you’ll be alerted to, and whether you want to set some quiet hours.
First, set your priority preferences by tapping “When calls and notifications arrive.” A menu pops open with three options:

• Always interrupt allows all notifications through—everything from calls to texts to app updates
• Allow only priority interruptions will only alert you of certain kinds of notifications—calls, messages, events, and reminders. You can pick and choose which of these you want to be alerted to.
• Don’t interrupt turns off all alerts for all notifications.

For the sake of this example, we want to limit alerts to only priority interruptions, so choose “Allow only priority interruptions” from the menu. Once you do that, it’s time to choose which kinds of notifications you want to give priority to. Toggle the Events and reminders, Calls, and Messages sliders accordingly, based on your preferences. For this example, I’m switching all three to the “on” position so all three kinds of notifications receive priority.

Priority interruptions lets you continue to receive audio alerts for certain kinds of notifications while silencing others.

If you decide to allow calls and messages through as priority interruptions, tap Calls/Messages from, and choose whether you want to receive notifications for calls from anyone, from starred contacts only, or from all your contacts but nobody else (“Contacts only”).

Downtime

If you want to allow all notification alerts through most of the time, but want to limit alerts during certain hours (like when you’re sleeping or at the office), Downtime is for you. During Downtime hours, you’ll only be alerted to priority interruptions; your phone will receive all other notifications silently. They'll be there, waiting for you when you wake up, but your phone will not light up the screen, make a noise, or vibrate.

Lollipop lets you set Downtime for specifc days of the week.

If you want to use Downtime, you first need to choose the days of the week and times you want to set as notification quiet hours. Start by tapping Days: Select the days of the week you want to have Downtime do its thing, then tap Done. Next, tap Start time and select what time you’d like to start Downtime. Tap OK, then tap End time and repeat the process.

App notifications

Lollipop also lets you choose to block apps from sending notifications entirely, or to mark notifications from certain apps as priority notifications.

You can designate notifications from specific apps as priority notifications—or block them entirely.

First, head back to the Sound & notification settings screen. Next, scroll to the bottom and tap App notifications, then tap on the app for which you want to adjust notification settings. Toggle the Block slider to the “on” position to stop receiving notifications from that app. Toggle the Priority slider to “on” if you want notifications from that app to be considered Priority notifications.
You can also get to this screen any time an app's notification appears by pressing and holding on the notification until you see the little info button (it looks like a lowercase "i" in a circle) appear. Tap on that, and you'll go straight to the notification settings for that app.
Once you’re done, exit the Settings app and enjoy your newfound mastery of Lollipop’s notification system.

 

How to make the most of Android 5.0 Lollipop’s new lock screen settings

The lock screen in Android 5.0 Lollipop is a strange beast. Google has done away with the lock screen widgets, which never really caught on, and replaced them with notifications.
At the same time, there are multiple new ways of securing the lock screen and keeping your personal data private. The options to do all this are scattered throughout the settings, because Google apparently likes to keep us on our toes. Here’s how to get it all set up.

Tune your notifications

This first step will be familiar to long-time Android users. Go into the main system settings and find the Security menu. From there, change the screen lock type to something other than swipe—PIN, pattern, password, or whatever you want. Remember that if your device is encrypted you’ll need to enter this code when starting up.

Notifications show up on the lock screen just like they would in the notification shade.

Where things take an unexpected turn is after setting the code, you will be asked what sort of notifications you want available on the lock screen. You can choose to have them all shown, only non-sensitive content, and none. Don’t worry—this is not an irrevocable choice. You can go into the Sound and Notification menu at any time to change this global setting.
So what does "sensitive content" mean, anyway? You can pick any app to set its notifications as sensitive, which will prevent any of its notification text from appearing on the lock screen. There are a few ways to reach the right menu. The easiest way to manage multiple apps is to go into Sound and Notifications and scroll to the bottom. This is where you’ll find the option to change the global notification security mentioned above, but we’re looking for the App Notifications line.

Set apps as sensitive to keep private info off the lock screen.

The App Notifications list shows all your installed apps. Simply select the ones you want to set as sensitive, set the Sensitive switch to the on position, and your secrets will be safe. You'll still get notifications, but they'll just say, for example, that you have 2 new emails, rather than listing the subject lines. You can also access an app’s notification settings by long-pressing on one of its notifications and tapping the info button that appears. This gets you to the same menu in a single tap.

Smarter Smart Lock

Maybe you noticed the lack of face unlock in the security options. That’s because Google has completely revamped that feature as part of the new Smart Lock system. There are currently three features in Smart Lock—trusted devices, trusted face, and trusted places. That last one is still rolling out via a Google Play Services update, though. All these options are used to bypass your pin, pattern, or password, temporarily defaulting back to the simple swipe-up unlock gesture.

You don’t have to put in the code every time.

Trusted devices lets you specify a Bluetooth device or NFC tag that will keep the phone unlocked when the phone is connected to it. Trusted face takes the place of face unlock, but the setup process is much the same. You position the viewfinder so it can see your face and wait a moment. When you wake the phone, it can look for your face in the background while you check out the notifications on the lock screen. If it spots you, the lock screen switches on the fly to a simple swipe. You'll see the little padlock icon at the bottom change to show that it's unlocked. It’s very clever.
The last option, trusted places, has toggles for your home and work addresses (if you’ve set them in Google Maps) but you can also add a manual location. If you’re in that area, the phone will remain unlocked. Should the phone leave that geofence, the secure lock screen reasserts itself. This and the other Smart Lock options can be temporarily disabled by pressing the lock icon at the bottom of the lock screen. That will force a secure unlock the next time the phone is used.

Android will remind you about Smart Lock the first time you use it to bypass the lock screen.

Google has vastly expanded your options in Android 5.0, and it can be a little intimidating, Just take a few minutes and set everything up so you can properly enjoy the peace of mind it brings. With the right settings, you can have a more secure phone and make it faster and easier to use.

 

Windows 8 and Windows 7 Safe Modes: How to enter and when to use them

No reader question today. Instead, I want to discuss Safe Mode, Windows’ stripped-down, minimum-driver environment. For years now, there’s been one quick way to enter Safe Mode—pressing F8. But that  trick doesn’t work for all Windows 8 PCs.
And even in older versions, it’s not always the easiest form of entry.
Safe Mode gives you a low-resolution, visually ugly, feature-limited Windows environment useful for diagnostic and repair purposes. You wouldn’t want to create a PowerPoint demonstration there, but if things are misbehaving, it can be a fruitful place to visit. For instance, if a program’s uninstall routine keeps failing, it just might uninstall properly in Safe Mode.

Among the things that standard Safe Mode cannot do is networking. However, because network and Internet access are needed for some diagnostic chores—such as malware scanning and updating drivers—Windows also provides an alternative Safe Mode with Networking environment.
The conventional way of entering Safe Mode still works in Windows 7 and Vista, and in some Windows 8 PCs. Boot the computer and start pressing and releasing F8 repeatedly. Once the Advanced Boot Options menu pops up, you can select Safe Mode or Safe Mode with Networking.

If that doesn’t work, here’s something specific to Windows 8:

1. Hold down Shift while selecting the Restart option on the Shutdown menu. This works with the Settings charm and—in Windows 8.1—right-clicking the Start button.
   

2. On the resulting “Choose an option” screen, select Troubleshoot>Advanced options>Startup Settings>Restart.
3. When the Startup Settings menu appears, type 4 for Safe Mode or 5 for Safe Mode with Networking.

Here’s one more path to Safe Mode, and it works in Windows 7, 8, and Vista:

1. In the Start menu’s Search field or in the Windows 8 Search charm, type msconfig, and launch the resulting program.
2. Click the Boot tab.
3. Check the Safe boot option
   

4. Select an option below that. Safe boot brings you to the standard Safe Mode. With networking does exactly what you think it does.
5. Click OK, then Restart.

One problem with this method: When you’re done and you reboot Windows, it will take you back into Safe mode. So while you’re still in Safe Mode, launch msconfig and uncheck the Safe boot option.

 

Unlock Windows 10's hidden, powerful GodMode tool

GodMode. The mere mention of the omnipotence-granting tweak should bring a smile to the face of veteran Windows tinkerers, and yes, the legendary hidden feature still works in the Windows 10 Preview.
GodMode essentially unlocks a centralized table of contents for all of Windows’ far-flung features and customization options, drawing all your options together into a single interface and sorting them by tweak types. Once you’ve basked in its glory, you’ll be hooked for life.
Activating it is easy: Just create a new folder and rename it to following:

GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

Be sure to include the period after “GodMode”! And while this hack is known as GodMode far and wide, you can actually name this folder whatever you’d like by altering the “GodMode” portion of the string. Hassle-Free PC columnist Ian Paul names his Jedi Mode, as he explained in his longer look at the feature.

The GodMode icon and folder in Windows 10.

Once you’re done and hit Enter, the icon should transform to mimic the Control Panel’s look. Open it to check out your customization options. You can move GodMode around your system the same way you would any other folder, if you don’t want it cluttering up your desktop.
Be sure to check out PCWorld’s guide to Windows 10’s best tips and tricks when you’re done exploring GodMode. What’s that? You haven’t even tried the Windows 10 Preview out yet? Here’s everything you need to know to get started, and a guide to the killer new features you’ll want to check out first.

How to unlock your Android device with your face

Android provides a plethora of ways to unlock your phone—a PIN, a password, a pattern gesture, or a typical, insecure swipe. But did you know that you can unlock your Android phone with your face? Here’s how to set it up.
Before you turn on face-unlocking, you need to set a secure unlocking method for your phone, if you haven't already. Go to Settings, scroll down, and tap Security, then tap Screen lock. Select from either the Pattern, PIN, or Password unlocking methods, then follow the onscreen instructions to set up your unlocking method of choice.
Once you return to the Security settings screen, tap Smart Lock, then enter your PIN, password, or unlock pattern when prompted, then tap Trusted face. Once you so, you’ll be presented with some information about unlocking your phone with your face. Read this information carefully, and when you’re ready to proceed, go ahead and tap Set up.
At this point, Android will suggest you find a well-lit—but not overly bright—indoors spot: Doing so will help Android pick up your facial features. Once you’ve found such a spot, tap Next.

Success!

Your phone will now begin the process of identifying your face. Hold your phone at eye level so that your face is within the ring of dots onscreen: Once you have your phone positioned properly, the dots will begin to turn green. Hold still until all the dots turn green and a checkmark appears onscreen. When it does, tap Next. And you’re pretty much set.

For better results, you may want to show Android how you look under different circumstances—hair up, hair down, clean-shaven, with a beard, with a hat on, whatever. Doing so can help it better recognize you, even if you’ve changed your appearance somewhat.
To do so, navigate back to Settings > Security > Smart Lock > Trusted face and tap Improve face matching. Move to a room with different lighting–or change your appearance in some way—then tap the Next button, and repeat the process of adding a face. You can repeat this process as many times as you want.
Note that using your face to unlock your phone is potentially less secure than a regular password, because anyone who closely resembles you—like your celebrity doppelgänger–may be able to unlock your phone.  Still, you may find it to be convenient—or at the very least, a neat trick to show off to your iPhone-using friends.

9 typing tips every Android and iOS user should know

 

9 typing tips every Android and iOS user should know

Wish it were a little easier to type in ALL CAPS on your Android or iPhone, or ever get stumped while looking for the em dash? What about typing letters with accent marks, or dealing with cumbersome URLs? Or maybe you’re just hankering for an alternative to tapping on a slippery glass screen.
Read on for 9 ways to make typing on your iPhone, iPad, or Android device a little easier, from how to turn on “caps lock” to a simple shortcut to the exclamation mark.

1. “.com” made easy (iOS)

Want to type a URL directly into the address bar in Safari (on iOS) or Chrome (for Android)? Don’t bother with laboriously tapping in “.com” or “.net”.

Never type dot-com or dot-org or dot-lots of things with this iOS trick.

Instead, just tap and hold the “.” key; when you do, a pop-up balloon will reveal a series of shortcuts, from “.com” to “.us”.

2. Accent marks (Android and iOS)

Don’t get caught skipping the accent grave in “voilà” while typing that email on your iPhone or Android phone.

Impress your international friends with your canny use of accents and other marks. 

You can access a generous portion of accent marks—acute, grave, circumflex, and otherwise—by tapping and holding a letter key (like “a”).

3. Swipe to type (Android and iOS)

Sick to death of painstakingly tapping out messages on your Android or iPhone touchscreen? Here’s a nifty trick: swiping to type. 
The concept is simple: Rather than tapping each individual key when typing a word, swipe-to-type keyboards let you slide your fingertip from one key to the next.
As your finger loops around the keys, your phone predicts the work you’re trying to type—er, swipe.
Sound weird? Indeed, swiping to type does take some getting used to, but it’ll become second nature with practice.
The “stock” Android keyboard has its own built-in “swipe to type” feature. Just tap Settings > Language & Input, tap the Settings icon next to Google Keyboard, then tap the checkbox next to Enable gesture typing.
There are also plenty of third-party, swipe to type-ready keyboards in the Google Play store, with Swype being the most notable.
Wondering why there’s no Caps Lock key on the keyboard of your Android or iOS device? Well, there is, actually—it’s just well hidden.

Caps Lock has always been there, just undercover.

The standard iOS keyboard lacked the swipe-to-type capabilities of Android until iOS 8 came along. That update finally brought third-party keypads—particularly Swype—to the iPhone and iPad.

4. Lock the Caps key (Android and iOS)

See the Shift key? Just double-tap it. When you do, a little horizontal line will
appear near the bottom of the Shift key, indicating that you’re in ALL CAPS mode.

5. You’re so money (Android and iOS)

Want to type the currency symbols for the yen (¥), the euro (€), or the pound (£)? Simple.
Just tap and hold the key for the dollar sign. When you do, a pop-up bubble will display a series of additional money-minded options.

6. Em dash & bullets (Android & iOS)

I’ve rarely met an em dash I haven’t liked—and come to think of it, I’m also a sucker for bulleted lists. How does someone like me survive typing on an Android phone or iPhone? Easy.

Tapping and holding symbol keys will yield buried typing treasure.

Tap and hold the dash key to reveal even more dashing buttons, including the em dash, a bullet key, and the indispensable underscore.
Bonus tip: Try tapping and holding other symbol keys. For example, you’ll find “curly” quotes by tapping and holding the quote key.

7. Emoticons galore (Android & iOS)

The world is not running out of emoticons anytime soon.

What’s a text message without a smiley? Good question. Luckily, both the Android and iOS keyboards come with more emoji (a.k.a. emoticons) than you can shake a stick at.
On the stock Android keyboard, tap and hold the “Done” or carriage-return key in the bottom-right corner of the keypad, then slide your finger over the pop-up emoticon button. You’ll see the first of hundreds of available emoticons—just keep swiping to see the dizzying number of variations and categories.

Take a break from typing! Just press the Talk icon on your phone to dictate input.

For iOS, you’ll first need to enable the emoji keyboard. Tap Settings > General > Keyboard, tap Keyboard (again), then check to see if “Emoji” is in the list of installed keyboards. Not there? Then tap “Add New Keyboard” and find Emoji in the list. Now head to the keyboard, tap the key with the globe icon, and feast your eyes on all the emoticons.

8. Talk instead of type (Android & iOS)

It’s easy to forget that both iOS and Android phones will take dictation whenever you’re not in the mood to type.
Just tap the little microphone icon on the keyboard. For iOS, it’s to the left of the space bar, while on Android phones it’s sitting in the top-right corner (assuming you’re using the “stock” Android keyboard).

9. A shortcut for oft-used symbol keys (Android)

On the stock Android keyboard, there’s no need to flip to an alternate set of keys to get to the exclamation mark, the percent sign, or other everyday symbols. (See the lead image at the top of the article.)
Instead, just tap and hold the period key. When you do, a pop-up of more than a dozen common symbols will appear—everything from the ampersand key (&) to the question mark.

 

How to connect your laptop to your HDTV without HDMI

Ramanathan wants to stream video from his laptop to his HDTV. But his laptop doesn't have an HDMI port.
You can have an Internet-ready smart TV with a Roku plugged into it, and at some point you'll want to watch something that neither of them support. (For me, it's password-protected Vimeo streams.) That's when you need to plug your laptop directly into your HDTV.
If your laptop lacks an HDMI port, connecting it to a TV isn't so easy. But it isn't incredibly difficult either. It's all a matter of figuring out which ports you do have and which adapters you need.

If you have a very small laptop, you may have an HDMI port and not know it. Look for a micro HDMI port: It's about the same size as a micro USB port. You can buy an adapter or a cable that will let you connect it to the standard HDMI port on your TV.

If you don't have Micro HDMI, see if your laptop has a DisplayPort, which can handle the same digital video and audio signals as HDMI. You can buy a DisplayPort/HDMI adapter or cable cheaply and easily. (This is actually how I watch those password-protected Vimeo streams.)

Don't have either of those? Maybe your laptop has a DVI port. You can't miss it; it's the silliest-looking port ever designed. And once again, adapters and cables are readily available to connect this port to your HDTV.
But there's a problem: DVI is a video-only format. It doesn't carry audio. So you have to find another way to get the sound out. Your television might have an analog audio input associated with one of the HDMI ports. If it does, you can use a 3.5mm male-to-male audio cable to connect your laptop's sound system to your TV's speakers.  If it doesn't, you'll have to use other speakers. If you have a separate receiver in the room, connect the laptop's audio to that. Otherwise, consider buying some computer speakers.

If your laptop doesn't have any of these ports, it will almost certainly have good old VGA. The same goes for your HDTV. Check your TV's manual to see what resolution the laptop should be set to. And don't expect the same image quality you'd get with HDMI, DisplayPort, or DVI.
VGA, like DVI, is video-only. The solutions I suggested above should work here, as well. And you're far more likely to have an audio input associated with the VGA port.

 

How to turn your old phone into a basic PC for cheap

Your old smartphone has a greater destiny than your junk drawer. Believe it or not, you can turn it into, say, a mini-PC or media streamer. Assuming it packs both USB On The Go support (OTG) and a Mobile High-Definition Link (MHL) compatible port, there’s a ton of additional functionality lurking under that its hood. Heck, you can even use a smartphone with a broken screen for this.
Without further ado, here’s how to transform your old smartphone into the brains of an Android-powered PC.

It starts with MHL ports and USB OTG support

Many smartphones from companies like Google, Samsung, LG, HTC, and Sony—among others—ship with MHL ports and have built-in compatibility for USB OTG as well.
The MHL port essentially adds HDMI output capabilities (with 1080p and 7.1-channel digital multi-channel audio support) and remote control functionality to the phone’s micro-USB port—the port you most likely use to charge the phone. USB OTG support gives mobile devices the ability to connect to and work with many different USB peripherals, like storage devices and input devices. Combine the two, and a mobile device with MHL and USB OTG support is capable of connecting to a discrete external display and peripherals like a keyboard or mouse.
You can see where we’re headed here.

A multi-function cradle with OTG MHL support is the key to turning your phone into a PC. Here's the $25 VicTsing OTG MHL to HDMI multi-function cradle we tested.

A number of companies have released proprietary “docks” for their mobile devices that leverage both MHL and USB OTG, but they tend to be expensive and work only with one particular device. Some third-party manufacturers have also released near-universal multi-function docks, however, that can be had for only a few bucks.
We purchased a VicTsing OTG MHL to HDMI multi-function cradle for only $25. It works with a wide range of devices and offers dual USB ports, a couple of flash card readers, HDMI and audio output, and a charger. By connecting this simple dock to a display and a keyboard and mouse, it can essentially transform a smartphone into a basic Android-powered PC. Throw some Office-style apps on the phone and you’re ready for some actual productivity.

Making the connections

Using a dock with USB OTB and MHL support is very simple and straightforward. Though we only tested it with a couple of Samsung phones (a Galaxy Note 3 and Galaxy S4) and an HTC phone (an HTC One X), the process and behavior should be similar with compatible devices.

The VicTsing cradle's port selection.

The dock has an HDMI output that gets connected to a secondary screen. (A HDMI-to-DVI conversion cable can work if you have a spare monitor laying around). In our tests, both a cheap 1080p monitor and a Toshiba HDTV connected perfectly. The dock also requires power, which comes by way of a standard micro-USB charger; you can connect the included USB cable to a USB port on a TV or monitor, or simply use your phone’s charging cord.

Marco Chiappetta

A keyboard and mouse can simply be plugged into the full-sized USB ports. You could use wireless keyboards and mice as well, as long as they use standard USB HID (human interface device) drivers. Multimedia keys and other custom keys on fancier keyboards won’t work.
Once the physical connections are made, ensure the display is configured to use the correct input and simply slide the phone onto the dock, inserting the dock’s male connecter into the phone’s MHL/micro-USB port. When the smartphone is fully connected to the dock, its screen will go dark and output will be sent to the secondary display. Boom! Your old smartphone is now essentially an Android PC. It really is that simple!
On the Samsung smartphones, everything we tried automatically rotated into landscape mode, which made it ideal for multi-media playback or working on office documents.

Getting around

Navigating through the various menus on Android can be somewhat clunky when using a keyboard and mouse, but it’s fairly intuitive once you start poking around. Right-clicks act as a back button, while left-clicking behaves like a tap of the touchscreen. Many in-application icons and menus—even the mouse cursor itself—appear oversized on a big screen, but they function as expected.

Smartphones with USB OTG and MHL support will typically auto-rotate most content into landscape mode when connected to a secondary display.

We wouldn’t trade an actual PC for a smartphone and USB OTG / MHL dock, but for a relatively small investment (especially if you’ve already got the monitor and input devices on hand) you can easily get some work done on one of these setups. Wondering which apps to stock on your new phone-slash-PC? Check out PCWorld’s guide to highly productive Android apps and Greenbot’s list of killer free apps for students to find some starting suggestions.