Buying Wireless Headphones? Here Are 6 Things You Need to Know

With less clutter and more convenience, wireless products (wireless charging and wireless networking to name a couple) are proving more and more popular in comparison to their older, wired alternatives. Yet when it comes to headphones, cutting the cord is not always so straightforward. Headphones powered by Bluetooth, especially, often get a bad rap. They still offer benefits, however, once you know all the issues involved. In this guide, we’ll take a look at some of the most important things you need to know about wireless headphones. 1. Types of Wireless There are three main types of wireless headphones, which can...

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3 UNIX-Like Operating Systems That Aren’t Linux

Over the past decade or so, people have really started to confuse “UNIX” with “Linux” as if they are basically the same thing — but that’s not true. It’s a murky area to tread, but the distinction basically comes down to how you define the terms. UNIX has roots reaching as far back as the 1960s but the name didn’t manifest until the 1970s with the birth of a project named Unics. Over the next few decades, UNIX ended up splitting into many different branches, each with their unique twists. Linux was not one of those branches. In fact, Linux...

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Should YouTube Music Videos Have Age Ratings?

Rihanna, Robin Thicke, and Miley Cyrus… there’s little doubt that music videos have got more risqué in recent years, but is the British Government right to impose age ratings on music videos on YouTube and Vevo? From now on, music videos produced in the UK and distributed by major brands will be subject to classifications if they’re deemed unsuitable for children. Just like films, the ratings will be 12, 15, and 18. What’s the reasoning behind this move? Should this policy be rolled out internationally? And is it really worth instituting in the first place? Uhm… Why?! This program of...

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7 Security Behaviors You Should Be Using to Stay Safe

Being aware of the importance of online security and privacy is a key aspect of using connected technology. Many people log on and browse; they read spam email, click links to dodgy websites, and shrug when their phone or laptop is stolen. No really, these people exist. You might know them. You might be them (although your presence here suggests otherwise). Awareness is half the battle. Using the right tools and behaviors is the other. We’ve collated the following to help you get to grips with how to keep your personal information out of the hands of hackers, scammers, and...

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7 Disastrous Mouse Click Mistakes You Don’t Want to Make

Put into the wrong hands, the mouse could turn into one of the most dangerous things you can plug into your computer. The mouse has been a part of a basic computer system ever since Microsoft adopted a graphical interface. No longer did you have to type commands at a blanking command prompt. Instead, you could just move that little pointer over the icon of the software you wanted to launch, click, and you’re done. However, with the speed and convenience of the mouse also came certain behaviors you needed to learn in order to use it effectively. Clicking versus double-clicking. Dragging...

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How Quitting Caffeine Made Me More Productive

Giving up coffee is something that, for a lot of people, is simply not done. Coffee isn’t just a drink. It’s a daily essential. A mandatory tool in the endless quest for mindless productivity. But it’s more than that though. Coffee is fundamentally ingrained in the geek identity. Don’t believe me? Just look at nerd emporium ThinkGeek.com, which sells 91 items tagged with “coffee”, compared to only 34 things for “code”, and 21 results for “Apple”. Fledgling tech startups in the digital meccas of Shoreditch and San Francisco proudly offer gourmet coffee as a perk of employment, and there are...

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The 6 Most Dangerous Security Threats of 2015

Cyber-attacks continue to grow in 2015. According to anti-virus testing site AV-TEST, more than 390,000 new malicious programs are now registered every single day, and the total amount of malware attacks in circulation now stands around the 425,000,000 mark. On the positive side, the rate of growth of new malware doesn’t seem to have changed much since last year. By the end of the year it is expected that around 150,000,000 new strains will have been detected, up from 142,000,000 in 2014. To put that in context, between 2013 and 2014 the amount of new malware almost doubled from 81,000,000....

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Chrome Blocks Flash Ads, Minecraft Makes You Sad… [Tech News Digest]

Chrome battles Flash, Notch hates being rich, Netflix becomes less Epix, T-Mobile limits your data, and Star Stuff explores the early life of Carl Sagan. Chrome Pauses Unimportant Flash Content Flash is boned. More or less. And that's because Google's Chrome web browser is about to start automatically pausing any Flash-based advert… — Dean Wentzel (@2_ones) August 31, 2015 The war on Flash is ramping up, with Google now making its Chrome browser pause unimportant Flash content by default. By unimportant, Google means anything that isn’t “central to the webpage”. This means the Flash video you actively want to watch...

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Samsung’s Smart Fridge Just Got Pwned. How About The Rest Of Your Smart Home?

$3599 is a lot of money. It could get you a decent second-hand car, or a relatively tricked out iMac. You could buy 3599 McChicken burgers, or 2589 McDoubles. Or it could get you the Samsung RF28HMELBSR. This (snappily-named) fridge has everything. It’s got four doors, a colossal 28 cubic foot of space, and an integrated, 8” WiFi-enabled LCD touchscreen display that allows you to do anything from read the news, to remotely control your Android smartphone. If it sounds familiar, it’s because it was once featured on my list of the dumbest Smart Home products ever. And did I...

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Where to Download the Best Linux Games Without Any Hassle

Not even a decade ago, native gaming on Linux was barely a conceivable reality save for a few open source cross-platform games. Today, it’s clear that the “no games on Linux” myth is dead. Sure, hardcore gamers will probably still choose Windows over Linux, but there’s more than enough evidence that many high-quality games can be played on Linux, and the number of available games is just going to keep increasing. The hard part is knowing which games work on Linux and finding them for digital download. Fortunately, there are a few services you can use to make the whole...

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