Saturday 30 June 2018

When Is Amazon Prime Day 2018? And 10 More Things to Know About It

amazon-prime-day-whatis

Amazon Prime Day 2018 is almost here. It feels like Christmas, doesn’t it? We just need Jeff Bezos to turn up in a red suit.

2017’s Prime Day saw sales in excess of $1 billion. This year’s event is expected to be even bigger as Amazon is primed to offer more discounts than ever before.

Keeping reading to learn about Amazon Prime Day 2018 and to discover how to get the best deals.

When Is Amazon Prime Day 2018?

Amazon Prime Day Banner

It’s not been officially confirmed, but it’s now widely expected that Amazon Prime Day 2018 will be on Monday, July 16.

The news leaked after TechRadar spotted an errant advertising banner on Amazon’s UK website which showed the date. The banner was quickly removed, and there has been no further word from Amazon itself.

In practice, Amazon Prime Day runs for more than 24 hours. Assuming the dates in Amazon’s banner were correct, it will begin at midday EST on July 16 and run until midnight PST on Tuesday the 17th, giving it a total duration of 39 hours.

We’ll update you as soon as we hear more. But until then, here are 10 more details that’ll help you get acquainted with and prepare for Amazon Prime Day.

1. What Is Amazon Prime Day?

Amazon Prime Day launched in 2015 as part of the company’s 20th birthday celebration. From a shopper’s standpoint, the first edition was beset with issues. Demand outstripped supply, the website slowed to a crawl, and the discounts were often on non-alluring items.

However, from a company standpoint, the 2015 Prime Day was a resounding success. It sold 398 products per second and saw the company make higher revenues than on Black Friday.

By last year’s 2017 event, Amazon has smoothed out the customer issues and the day went off without a hitch. The company saw a 60 percent rise in sales compared to 2016. Amazingly, revenues eclipsed its 2016 Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined.

2. Who Can Take Advantage of Amazon Prime Day?

Amazon Prime Free Trial

Only Amazon Prime members can take advantage of the massive discounts.

However, if you’ve never been a Prime member before, you can cheat the system and sign up for a free 30-day Amazon Prime trial. Of course, you’d need to remember to cancel your trial before Amazon sends you a bill.

A new membership to Amazon Prime costs $12.99/mo or $119/year. In addition to Prime Day deals, you receive access to Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Music, free 2-day shipping, and many more Amazon Prime benefits.

3. What Deals Can You Expect on Amazon Prime Day?

In 2017, Amazon’s own products often enjoyed the most significant discounts. The Echo speaker dropped by 50 percent as Amazon let them go for $89.99, while the smaller Echo Dot was given a $15 discount to bring the price down to $34.99. As a result, the Dot became the most-bought item of the day.

You’ll also find considerable discounts on Amazon Fire sticks, Kindle ereaders, and items in the Amazon Basics range.

But it’s not just Amazon products that see bargain prices. In 2017, the TP-Link Wi-Fi Smart Plug, the Sony PlayStation 4, the Nintendo Switch, and the OnePlus 5 phone were all big sellers.

Away from technology, estimates suggest Amazon sold 3.5 million toys, 200,000 dresses, 52,000 kitchen items, and 37,000 power tools.

4. Watch for Lightning Deals

Amazon Lightning Deals

Lightning Deals are a standard part of the Amazon shopping experience for Prime members. Every day, Amazon offers a limited number of products at a massive discount. The quantity of any item is limited, and deals are only available for a short amount of time.

On Amazon Prime Day, Lightning Deals are more common, with often hundreds of deals running at any moment. If you keep your eyes open, you might find a saving above and beyond standard Prime Day discount.

And if the Lightning Deal you want sells out before you get a chance to buy it, you can join a waiting list. If the people with the item in their cart fail to complete the purchase, it will automatically be offered to you.

5. Use Amazon Alexa for a Head Start on Deals

To beat the crowds to the best deals on Prime Day, you need to shop using your voice with Amazon Alexa.

In 2017, Amazon gave voice shoppers a two-hour head start on new deals. During the last Black Friday, that increased to seven hours.

We’d expect Amazon to offer the same benefits during this year’s Prime Day. You just need to say “Alexa, what are your deals?” to enjoy the advanced notice. If you hear something you want, say “Alexa, add [item] to my cart.”

6. Use Amazon Assistant for Deal Notifications

Unbeknown to many, Amazon offers a browser extension. It’s available on Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Microsoft Edge.

The extension—called Amazon Assistant— offers lots of benefits, including order tracking, product comparisons, and access to your various lists. It’s an extension that every online shopper needs.

However, from an Amazon Prime Day perspective, its best feature is the watch lists. You can receive desktop notifications when any deals you’re watching go live, meaning you’ll never miss out on a purchase you want.

Download: Amazon Assistant (Free)

7. Check CamelCamelCamel for Price Histories

CamelCamelCamel Amazon

How do you know the price you see on Amazon represents a good deal? We all know high street shops artificially bump up prices ahead of a big sale, and some Amazon vendors are no different.

To make sure you’re not being conned, check the item’s price history on CamelCamelCamel. You can enter the Amazon item’s URL or search for keywords and see how the price has changed over time.

If you see a steady rise in the weeks building up to Prime Day, you should probably give it a wide berth.

8. Check Forums for Even More Prime Day Deals

Lastly, it’s worth hanging out in some dedicated Amazon Prime Day forums. The best subreddit will probably be /r/PrimeDay, but don’t expect to see much activity until the day itself. There’s also a dedicated Amazon subreddit which is worth keeping an eye on.

You should also check the threads on SlickDeals. It’s consistently one of the best sites for finding bargains on the web, and on Prime Day it goes into overdrive.

9. Singles’ Day Is Bigger Than Amazon Prime Day

Despite its impressive performances when compared to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Amazon Prime Day is not the web’s biggest day of online shopping.

That award goes to Alibaba’s Singles’ Day sales. In 2017, it saw sales of $17.8 billion. That’s more than 17 times the amount of money spent on Prime Day.

Alibaba is yet to become a giant in Europe and the United States. But if you’re looking for cheap, unbranded electronics, it might be better to wait until Singles’ Day 2018 on November 11th (and don’t worry, Alibaba is a perfectly safe place to do your shopping).

10. You Could Shop Elsewhere

Other stores have been looking enviously at Amazon piling up sales records. In response, an increasing number are running their own concurrent sales in an attempt to get involved in the buzz.

Last year, we saw Macy’s, Kohl’s, Best Buy, Nordstrom, and Dell provide discounts—many of which also offered free shipping.

On Amazon Prime Day 2018, you can expect to see Google, Newegg, Office Depot, and 1-800 Flowers join the list, along with several others.

So before committing to a purchase on Amazon, make sure you can’t find it cheaper on a competitor’s site.

Start Planning Your Amazon Prime Day Budget

Shopping responsibly is important. Events such as Prime Day are filled with temptation. Many people overspend and wake up with a head full of buyer’s remorse.

To make sure you don’t overindulge, you should make a budget before the big day arrives. There are lots of online tools that can help you budget or you could even use Microsoft Excel to create your own budget .

Read the full article: When Is Amazon Prime Day 2018? And 10 More Things to Know About It



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YouTube’s Picture-in-Picture Mode Is Now Free on Android

YouTube has, suddenly, and with little fanfare, made its picture-in-picture mode available on Android for free. YouTube’s PiP mode was previously only available to YouTube Red subscribers, but with the switch to YouTube Premium times have changed.

Picture-in-picture allows you to view content in a small window while continuing to use the device in question. PiP has been common on TV sets and the like for years, and with the release of Android 8.0 (Oreo) it has been an option on your smartphone too.

How to Use YouTube’s PiP Mode

YouTube’s picture-in-picture mode has, until now, only been available for people willing to pay for the privilege of watching YouTube. However, YouTube has now removed that barrier, making its PiP mode available for free on Android. Sorry, iOS users.

Unfortunately, YouTube isn’t making its PiP mode available to everyone. You’ll need to be resident in the U.S., and using the YouTube app on an Android device running Android 8.0 (Oreo) or above. So international users or anyone with an older phone is out of luck.

Even if you do qualify to use picture-in-picture for free, not all videos are available to watch. Any videos that contain music content will not work with PiP, at least for free. Instead, you’ll need to subscribe to YouTube Premium or YouTube Music to unlock them.

As detailed on YouTube’s support pages, using PiP mode is simple. When you’re watching a video, tap the Home button on your device. Instead of closing YouTube, as it would have done previously, the video will continue playing in a small window.

PiP Is Perfect for the Under-30s

This is, admittedly, a small upgrade to the way YouTube operates. However, for those people (anyone under the age of 30) who have short attention spans, picture-in-picture lets you watch YouTube videos without actually watching YouTube videos.

Image Credit: Rego Korosi/Flickr

Read the full article: YouTube’s Picture-in-Picture Mode Is Now Free on Android



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5 Google News Alternatives That’ll Change How You Read News

google-news-alternatives

The news is more broken than ever before. It’s difficult to believe what you read from news sites, and you know you can’t trust social media. The onus is now on the reader to find the right places to read the most factual articles.

For most of us, Google News remains one of the main ways we find out what is happening. But even with the new changes in Google News, it raises many of the old issues. Over the years, publications have gotten only better at gaming Google’s algorithms, and it’s only a matter of time before they trick the new Google News.

What you need are new ways to find out what is happening in the world around you.

Reddit News (iOS, Android): Reddit Launches a News Tab

Reddit News GIF - Find & Share on GIPHY

The internet’s largest community has a new trick up its sleeve. On the official Reddit iOS app, you will now find a new tab at the top next to Home and Popular. Reddit now serves you the News.

The cool part about the News tab is that it breaks you out of your filter bubble. It won’t only show you the news from subreddits you are interested in, it will showcase the most important article links, shared across different subreddits. Sure, you can still add topics you are interested in, like sports or science, but the basic “All Stories” tab will help much more.

Due to how Reddit’s upvoting system works, Reddit News also benefits by showing you the most upvoted article about any event. And instead of that article’s comments thread, you can come back to engage with the Reddit audience after you’re done reading.

Download: Reddit for iOS | Android (Free)

Inside (Web): Newsletters on Various Topics, Curated By Real People

Just because an event takes place, that doesn’t necessarily mean it is news. If what you want is impactful news, then an app like Inside is much better for you than reading Google News.

Instead of relying on algorithms like Google, Inside has a team of human experts that curate the news from a wide variety of sources. Each topic (like the Daily Brief, bitcoin, Donald Trump, streaming media, wine, etc.) has a different expert. That expert’s curation turns into an email newsletter, which is sent daily, weekly, or twice weekly, depending on how regularly there is impactful news on that topic. If you want to see how they look before subscribing, you can sample the recent issues.

I’d recommend Inside for the Daily Brief and the ReadThisThing newsletters wholeheartedly. It’s also great for a lot of other topics, depending on your interests. But if you’re mainly interested in following technology news, you might want to check out some of the other excellent curated tech news digests.

YetiGoGo (Web): Universal Search for 100 Top News Media

A while back, Elon Musk asked for a new system that ranks news organizations by their trustworthiness. While that will take some time, for now, we have YetiGoGo to fill the void.

YetiGoGo indexes the 100 most popular News sites in the USA. Enter a search term and it will show you a chronological list of all the top news around that keyword. So if you want to see what President Trump is doing today, just search for him.

The site stands out for its simplicity since all you get is a big list of headlines. You already know that it’s from a popular and respected news outlet. YetiGoGo also doesn’t mess with the headlines or club them together for a single topic, like Google News does.

When you want to read about any issue, forget about searching for it on Google News. Use YetiGoGo instead.

News For Mom (Web): A Son’s Weekly News Blast for His Mom

News For Mom is everything that is charming and amazing about the Internet. Chris Barr and his mom don’t entirely agree on everything, but they share a common pursuit of intelligence and respectful sharing of ideas. So Chris decided to make a weekly newsletter for his mom to share the different news topics he comes across. And now you can subscribe to that newsletter.

Here’s Chris on what News For Mom is all about: “I created this newsletter to open up new paths of conversations with my mom about issues that have an impact on our lives. In each letter, I try to share articles that fall below the fold on issues that are relevant to her: health, education, arts and local/rural/Appalachian issues. I try to avoid argument-inducing national politics and season the email with a bit of humor, a few personal updates and things that capture my imagination.” Here is a sample of one of the recent issues.

If you’re in the US, News For Mom is one of the coolest ways to read hand-curated news about things that don’t get widely shared on social media or talked about at prime time news shows.

Microsoft News (Android, iOS): AI + Human Curation

Microsoft has long sought to provide alternatives to Google, and Microsoft News is the latest salvo. It’s a repackaged version of MSN News, which has been around for decades now. But what Microsoft does differently from Google is that apart from AI and algorithms, it also uses a team of human editors who curate the news.

You could argue that Google’s AI-only approach is the better way to go since it reduces human bias. However, such AI-only approaches to news are seen as some of the problems with getting news from Facebook. If you prefer to balance AI and human interaction, Microsoft News might be the way to go.

The app itself is simple to use. Add topics you’re interested in, and it will serve the news about any major happenings around it. You can play videos in the app, read articles, choose a light or dark theme, and even get alerts. It’s not the features that set it apart from Google News, it’s the technology behind how it curates news.

Download: Microsoft News for Android | iOS (Free)

News Overload? Smartly Read Important Things

With the news overload that we face in the world today, you can miss some of the important things you should know about. You obviously don’t want that to happen, which is why we have the above list of apps to stay up-to-date, and this other list of smart apps to simplify the news.

Read the full article: 5 Google News Alternatives That’ll Change How You Read News



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How to Repair or Recover Data From a Corrupted PDF File

recover-pdf

If you can’t open a PDF, it might be because it’s corrupted. If you haven’t backed up your data, discovering a broken file can be a nightmare. We’re going to help you fix your PDF through tools and Windows techniques.

It may be possible to fully repair the entire PDF, restoring it to its original state, or you might only be able to extract elements and rebuild the rest. Anything you can get, right?

After checking out these tips, pop into the comment section at the end to let us know if you’ve ever suffered PDF corruption and how you managed to resolve it.

Check Your PDF Reader for Errors

Are you sure that the problem is with the PDF file? Instead, it might just be that the program you’re using to view the PDF is playing up.

Repair Adobe Acrobat Reader

The most common PDF viewer is Adobe Acrobat Reader. That’s not necessarily because Adobe offer the best program, but simply because it’s what most people associate with the format. The PDF file type was created by Adobe in the 1990s and became an open standard in 2008. If you’re using Adobe Acrobat Reader, let’s run some quick troubleshooting.

First, check the program is running the latest version by launching it and going to Help > Check for Updates. You’ll either be told the program is up to date or that there are updates to install. If there are, go ahead and install them. Try opening your PDF now.

If that doesn’t work, keep Adobe Acrobat Reader open and navigate to Help > Repair Installation. It might be that the files the program relies on to run have become corrupted and this method will try to patch them up.

Still no luck? Press Windows key + I and click Apps. Search adobe acrobat reader, click it on the list and click Uninstall. Then head to the Adobe website to download and install the latest version. If your PDF still doesn’t open after this, we can safely dismiss Adobe’s program as being the problem.

Try Using an Alternative Reader

Adobe Acrobat Reader is by no means your only option for viewing PDFs. It’s worth trying out a different program to see if that’s able to open the PDF.

In the past we’ve rounded up alternative lightweight PDF readers that are focused on the reading of a PDF rather than anything extraneous. Two of the best choices, and both free, are Foxit Reader and Sumatra PDF. Download these and give them a shot with your PDF.

You might also find that Okular and Evince are able to read your PDF file when other software cannot. This is because they use a different rendering method to display PDFs.

If you’re still having problems then it’s time to start focussing on repairing the PDF file itself or at least scraping it for what you can save.

Repair or Recover the PDF File

We’ve previously written about corruption with Office files, but some of those techniques can also apply to PDFs, namely looking for previous versions of the file and using third-party applications.

Restore a Previous File Version

If your PDF used to work and has become corrupted, you could try restoring an old version. Windows 10 has a built in back up facility that could help. You can access it by pressing Windows key + I and navigating to Update & Security > Backup.

If you haven’t been using the Backup feature then you can’t retroactively use it to restore your PDF. Nevertheless, it might be wise to enable it now. You can find out about this and more in our ultimate Windows 10 backup guide.

If you have enabled it, you can try using the File History feature to roll back your PDF to a previous version. To do this, open File Explorer and navigate to your PDF. Right click it and click Restore previous versions.

This will bring up a list of all the old versions of the file contained within your backup. You can Open the copies to check them out and then use the Restore button to bring them back to life.

A similar technique would be to use a data recovery program, like Recuva, that will scan your drive and look for old files that have been deleted from your system. If you had an old copy of the PDF file that you’ve removed, this technique might be fruitful.

Try Using PDF Repair Apps and Utilities

There are applications out there that will try to repair your PDF. Some of these don’t require you to download any software and can be run in the browser, like PDFaid, Repair PDF, and PDF Tools Online. Give these all a shot, but if the corruption is severe then they may not be able to help.

You can also try specialist file repair programs like FileRepair1. This will scan the PDF, identify the failure, and fix what it can. It’s not always successful in every case, but you may find it helpful.

Extract the Data From the PDF File

If you’re not able to repair the entire PDF, then you may still be able to extract elements like the text and images.

For the text, you can use programs that will convert your PDF to a Word file and allow you to get the text that way. However, I find one of the best tools is actually the online application PDF to Word Converter offered by Nitro; although some characters may look a bit funky depending on the type of corruption.

If your PDF contains images, try following our guide on how to extract images from a PDF. Again, this may have varying results depending on the level of corruption, but it’s definitely worth seeing what can be pulled out.

Save Your Corrupted PDF Document!

Hopefully these methods have been useful in saving your PDF. You might not have been able to recover everything (such is the bane of corruption), but at least you may have saved elements of the file.

Remember, you should always have a stable Windows backup plan in place to ensure that corrupted data doesn’t cause your world to come crashing down. Always have a secondary copy to restore from.

Read the full article: How to Repair or Recover Data From a Corrupted PDF File



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How to Start Winning eBay Auctions by Sniping With Automatic Bidding

eBay

When it comes to winning auctions on eBay, there are few practices as controversial—or effective—as sniping.

Sniping is simple: You wait until the end of the auction, then swoop in with a low bid that’s just high enough to win before anyone else can raise their maximum bid. Sniping apps usually take care of the bidding, so you don’t even need to be around to win the auction. It’s a viable but irritating strategy.

Why does eBay sniper software work so well? To understand, we have to talk about how eBay bidding works first.

How eBay Bidding Works

When you enter a bid in an eBay auction, you aren’t entering a bid like you would in a regular auction. You’re entering your maximum bid. If you enter your maximum bid as $20, and the current highest maximum bid from any other bidder is $12, eBay might enter a bid for you at $12.50. And you very well may win at $12.50.

Let’s say your maximum bid isn’t the highest bid, though. If someone else bid $21, your bid of $20 would drive their current bid down to $20.50 or so. Then you’d have a chance to outbid them again. This system is known as proxy bidding because the eBay bidder is acting as a proxy for you.

The problem with the eBay autobidder is that you don’t have much control over the timing of your bid. If someone outbids you, your bid goes up. The proxy system ensures that the winner pays the minimum amount required to win. It also helps eBay sellers make money.

That’s where eBay sniping (a different kind of automatic bidding) comes in.

Instead of letting the eBay automatic bidding system bid for you, your eBay auction sniper will place the bid right at the end of the auction, not giving anyone a chance to adjust their maximum bids.

Does Sniping Really Work?

Most of the evidence points to yes. Bidnapper has collected a number of quotes from researchers that support this idea. The research is getting dated, but in general, experts believe that sniping is effective. According to a 2001 Harvard Study:

“Moreover, the data indicates that incremental bidding significantly diminishes with experience (as measured by the bidders’ feedback numbers), while last-minute bidding increases with experience.”

In short, more experienced bidders are sniping. Sniping allows you to conceal information (always a good idea in auctions) and bid without giving anyone else time to react. It’s a win all around.

However, there are some important caveats, especially for eBay beginners.

The Balance notes that eBay’s proxy bidding system and the increasing popularity of fixed-price listings mean you could actually win fewer auctions with sniping. It depends on a lot of factors. Remember that the maximum bid you enter for your snipe can still be beaten, no matter how late your bid is entered. If someone else has a higher maximum bid, your snipe is defeated immediately.

In short, sniping generally works very well, but it won’t always win, and it won’t always result in you paying less. If you really want something that doesn’t show up on eBay very often, sniping probably isn’t the best way to go. But in general, it’s a good strategy.

Why Is eBay Sniping Controversial?

Some people think that sniping goes against the spirit of auction sites. Without sniping, if you want to make sure that you win the auction, you need to either enter a very high bid or rearrange your schedule so you can be there at the end of the auction to make sure you win. Sniping software means you can put in a single bid and then totally forget about the auction.

When a snipe bid wins an auction, whoever was previously in the lead to win can feel like they’ve been cheated. Even if they were willing to enter a higher bid, they didn’t get a chance. It feels like someone has stolen the item out from under you.

Interestingly, eBay doesn’t have a problem with sniping. It’s an allowed and effective practice. In eBay’s own words:

“Bid sniping—including the use of software that places bids for you—is allowed on eBay, but it doesn’t guarantee you’ll win an auction.”

It’s completely legal and allowed. And after you start doing it, you’ll see that it’s a great strategy—eBay’s standard automatic bidding just raises the price of items (which is exactly what eBay wants) and makes people get emotional. When emotion gets in the way of reason, prices go up.

How to Start Sniping Auctions on eBay

eBay sniping couldn’t be easier. There are many websites that help you do it. We’ll take a look at Gixen because it’s totally free.

But there are a lot of other options, including:

Some are paid, and some require software downloads, but Gixen is free and browser-based. Many sniping tools also offer browser extensions that save you a couple of clicks.

Keep in mind that to use any of these services, you’ll need to hand over your eBay login information. It might be a good idea to use an extra email address or an entirely different eBay account if you’re going to be sniping.

Let’s walk through a bidding process using Gixen.

Sign in with your eBay username and password to get started. Then go to eBay and find the item you want and make a note of the item number. You can find the item number in the URL or in the top-right corner of the Description box.

Enter the item number and your maximum bid in Gixen and hit Add. You can also group items so you can place snipe bids on multiple copies of the same item without winning them all. If you win one, the other bids won’t be raised in response to someone else bidding.

That’s all there is to it. The sniper’s automatic bidding software will take care of the rest.

Of course, using paid services gives you more options. But Gixen is a great way to snipe a few times and see if it’s worth investing in.

And it’s worth mentioning that you can always snipe using eBay’s proxy bidding system. Just hang out on an item page until the auction is almost over, and register your bid right before it ends. If you feel like sniping software is cheating, this strategy might appeal to you.

This method can work, but you need to be around when the item is ending.

A Few Things to Remember

Sniping is generally pretty straightforward, but there are a few important things to keep in mind.

Don’t retract your eBay bids. You might be tempted to if you won an item and have placed bids on other copies of it, or if someone drove up the price too quickly. But retracting bids violates eBay’s terms of service except under specific circumstances. So don’t do it.

Be careful about over-bidding. When you get started with sniping, it can be easy to put a ton of items on your list. And if they end close together, you might end up winning more of them than you expect.

Remember that sniping isn’t always going to work. If an item has a huge number of bidders or a single very committed bidder, you’re likely to get outbid by eBay’s automatic bidding system. Sniping is best used on smaller items that aren’t seeing a huge amount of competition. Remember that sniping isn’t a guarantee of anything—it might save you a few bucks here and there, but it’s not likely to get you a $1,000 item for $10.

As long as your expectations are reasonable, sniping can be a great strategy for winning eBay auctions. Just know the limitations, don’t go crazy, and you’ll be fine.

How to Bid on eBay and Win

eBay isn’t always the cheapest shopping site, but using an eBay sniper can help you save some cash. It’s not going to win every auction, and it could actually end up losing you a few, but it remains a viable strategy in many circumstances.

With all of the eBay snipers available online, both as web apps and software downloads, you have plenty of options. Try out a few of the options and start sniping eBay auctions. You’ll get a feel for how effective it is and how to best place your bids to win.

Read the full article: How to Start Winning eBay Auctions by Sniping With Automatic Bidding



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How to Send Completely Anonymous Emails: 5 Effective Methods

Have you ever had the need to send anonymous emails to someone? Maybe you’re discreetly declaring your love to someone. Or maybe you’re a journalist and need to secretly communicate with an informant.

There are plenty of legitimate reasons someone may want to send anonymous email. There are free online services on the web that allow you to do this. Or you can use a VPN and an anonymous burner email account (i.e. throwaway).

These days it’s very easy to send emails without having to reveal your true identity. In this article, you’ll learn how to send an anonymous email using the five most effective methods we’ve found.

1. Burner Email Account + VPN

Using a web-based email account like Gmail is a great option. You can sign up for a Gmail account without providing any actual identifying information, and then use that address as a kind of burner email account.

When you send anonymous emails from Gmail’s web-based email client, the originating IP in the SMTP envelope is Google’s server, not your own computer’s IP. This is a nifty way to hide your IP address from the receiver.

how to send completely anonymous emails

If someone were to trace the IP that show up when you send an email from the online Gmail account, it would only trace to the nearest Google server to you. Which, in my case, is the Wichita, Kansas area.

how to send completely anonymous emails

With that said, your actual IP address is stored on Google’s systems. So, if the government or any other authority ever came knocking and asked for your location, Google could provide it.

If that’s not enough privacy for you, you can add another layer of anonymity by encrypting your connection with a VPN service. We recommend avoiding free VPN services and instead pay for a reputable one like ExpressVPN or CyberGhost.

Once connected, you can then use Gmail through the encrypted VPN.

how to send completely anonymous emails

Now, when you go to your Gmail account and send an email, the originating IP will still show up as one of Google’s servers, but there will be two differences.

First, the Google server won’t likely be located anywhere near your actual location. Second, if Google is ever asked to provide your actual IP, they’ll only be able to provide the erroneous IP address hosted by the VPN service.

Note: An anonymous burner email account isn’t quite the same as a disposable email account!

2. Email Client + VPN

Another solution that avoids the need for any anonymous email service is using an email client like Thunderbird on your own PC.

There are three steps you’ll need to follow to make this approach work:

All you have to do is fire up your preferred VPN service and make sure your computer has a remote IP address.

how to send completely anonymous emails

Then, just send an email via your throwaway email account using your desktop email client, just like you normally would.

The difference is that now, instead of the header providing your actual originating IP address, it’ll show your VPN’s IP address located some place far away. It’s a quick and easy way to send anonymous emails with very little effort.

3. AnonEmail

how to send completely anonymous emails

AnonEmail is a service by AnonyMouse. It allows you to send anonymous emails by resending your email several times through random nodes, thus making it impossible to trace back.

In AnonEmail, you can fill in your recipient, the subject, and a short plain-text message. Contrary to many other services AnonEmail does not (seem to) log your IP. However, we urge you not to use it for anything illegal!

As an extra security measure, AnonEmail will wait for an unknown period of time before sending your email along. Why? So no one will be able to prove your “guilt” based on time/location, or make geographic presumptions based on timezones.

4. Send Anonymous Mail

how to send completely anonymous emails

Like the name implies, this is another web-based, anonymous email tool. Although it lacks the complete anonymity of AnonEmail, it’s the simplest option to use.

You’ll be able to specify a sender’s address and a fake origin email address for your secret message. This one logs your IP address, so you’ll need to use a free VPN service if you want to fully cover your tracks.

Also, neither Send Anonymous Mail nor AnonEmail allow the recipient to reply to your email, so these solutions are only best if you want to send a one-way anonymous email message.

5. ProtonMail

how to send completely anonymous emails

If you absolutely need secure, anonymous, two-way email conversation, ProtonMail is a popular solution. Many say that ProtonMail is better than Gmail.

I’ve personally used ProtonMail when communicating with a journalist living in China. The journalist was using a VPN to access his ProtonMail account, providing several levels of security from prying government eyes. Not only was his originating IP address located outside of China, but all communications using ProtonMail are encrypted.

Some features of ProtonMail include:

  • End-to-End Encryption: Messages are not only encrypted when they’re sent from ProtonMail servers, but all stored messages are encrypted as well. Without access to the appropriate ProtonMail account, no one can access your messages.
  • Private User Data: ProtonMail’s encryption process, which uses an encryption key on your own client computer, mean even the system administrators at ProtonMail can’t access your messages. On the downside, this means they can’t recover your account for you. On the upside, it means they can’t provide messages to any governing authority either.
  • Open Source Cryptography: Since ProtonMail uses open-source cryptographic libraries, you can be sure there are no “back doors” available for anyone to access your emails. That includes both system administrators or hackers.

If you have a need for regular two-way encrypted emails, you may want to consider signing up for a ProtonMail account and just using it as your regular email service.

Start Sending Anonymous Emails Your Way

As you can see, there are a lot of ways to send anonymous email. You can use a local solution with a VPN and either an email client or through a throwaway online email account. You could use a secure, encrypted email service like ProtonMail. Or you could just use one of the free websites that let you send one-way, fully-anonymous messages.

The choice really depends on why you’re sending the message and what level of security and anonymity you need.

Not sure which VPN service is right for you? See our comparison of the best VPN services. If you’re looking for other ways to bolster your personal security, you may also want to take a look at boosting your PC’s security.

Read the full article: How to Send Completely Anonymous Emails: 5 Effective Methods



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Friday 29 June 2018

Apple Watch Fitness: The 10 Best Workout Apps to Get You Healthy

apple-watch-fitness

There are two features the Apple Watch is great at: fitness tracking and notifications. And if you’ve got an iPhone, an Apple Watch can be your best fitness pal. Thanks to the built-in GPS, two-day battery life, you can have your personal fitness trainer right on your wrist.

The Apple Watch can help you lose weight, work out, or just stay healthy. Every day, you’ll be able to see how many calories you burned and how much exercise you got. The more data Apple Watch collects, the more insight you’ll have on your behavior. And you’ll be better off on your journey towards better health.

Here are some must-have apps for any Apple Watch owner interested in fitness, health, and working out.

1. Activity

Apple Watch Fitness Apps Activity Notifications

The Activity app on Apple Watch is the central part of your fitness journey. It’s responsible for your three activity rings, which help you reach your Move, Exercise, and Stand goals. And those rings from Activity will show up everywhere, from helpful notifications during the day to your watch face.

When you open the Activity app, you’ll first see the three rings. Scroll down and you’ll find stats like your steps for the day, how much you’ve walked, your workouts, and calories burned.

Apple Watch Fitness Apps Activity App

The Activity app on the Watch is limited to the day’s activity. Open the Activity app on your iPhone and you can see stats for any day you want. Plus, you’ll get a detailed breakdown of every workout that you’ve done so far.

2. Workouts

Apple Watch Fitness Apps Workouts

There are a plethora of awesome workout apps for the Apple Watch, and we’ll talk about some of them below. But none of them can beat Apple’s default Workouts app when it comes to sheer functionality and ease of use.

Launch the Workouts app and swipe through to see the types of workouts supported. Depending on your Apple Watch and watchOS version, you’ll see activities like walking, running, swimming, high-intensity workouts, cycling, and a lot more.

The Workouts app supports indoor activities too, which makes the Apple Watch the perfect gym companion. You can track your elliptical workouts or rower workouts. Or if you’re sweating it out doing a lot of different activities, just select the Other workout type. Your Apple Watch will then track the calories burned based on your movement and heart rate.

When you’re tracking a workout, you can swipe right for more options and swipe left to control music.

3. Nike+ Run Club

Apple Watch Fitness Apps Nike+ Run Club

Nike+ Run Club calls itself the perfect running partner, and this is one of the few times where a tagline is actually true. The Nike+ Run Club app has everything you need when you’re out on your run. You can start by setting a goal, or try a guided audio workout. The app will track your pace, distance, time, and heartbeat in real time.

The best aspect about NRC is the helpful community. You can take part in weekly and monthly challenges, unlock achievements, compete with leaderboards, and cheer your friends as they’re on the run.

Download: Nike+ Run Club (Free)

4. Workouts++

Apple Watch Fitness Apps Workouts++

After you’ve used the Workouts app a few times, you’ll start seeing its limitations. There’s no way to customize the stats screen and no way to look at performance graphs. Workouts++ is your answer.

The app has an efficiently designed workouts screen, which provides six stats. You can choose to add the metrics that you care about and leave out the rest.

My favorite part of using Workouts++ is the BPM graph. And since it supports Siri, you can say “start indoor cycling workout in Workouts++” to jump directly to the workout screen.

Download: Workouts++ (Free)

5. Strava

Apple Watch Fitness Apps Strava

Strava is the best app for runners and cyclists. The app’s interface is minimal and to the point, while the community helps you achieve your goals and keeps you motivated. Starva has brought the same design philosophy to its Apple Watch app.

The Apple Watch app runs natively and has GPS support. Its real-time display shows you the important stats: split, time, distance, and your heart rate. If you’re using the Apple Watch Series 2 and above, you can record workouts without your iPhone as well. Once you’re back in range, they’ll sync with your Strava profile automatically.

Download: Strava (Free, subscription available)

6. Runkeeper

Apple Watch Fitness Apps Runkeeper

Strava’s stark minimalism might not be for everyone. And perhaps you’re not looking for a community of runners and cyclists. Maybe you just want a feature-rich, dependable app for tracking your runs. That’s what Runkeeper does best.

Download: Runkeeper (Free, subscription available)

7. Streaks Workout

Apple Watch Fitness Apps Streaks Workouts

Streaks Workout is a minimal workout app that lets you work out anywhere. All you need is your Apple Watch on your wrist and you’re ready to go.

You get to choose from 30 equipment-free workouts. Start with Quick, graduate to the Everyday workout, and hopefully make your way towards the Pain workout.

The app will show animations of the exercises, along with a countdown and your heart rate. You’ll also get tips on how to improve your technique and posture. Once you’re done, your stats save to the Health app so you get the sweet exercise points towards your day’s ring.

Download: Streaks Workout ($4)

8. Gymaholic

Apple Watch Fitness Apps Gymaholic

Instead of paying for a personal trainer, let Gymaholic help you out in the gym. Its iPhone app uses AR to show you exercises in real time. Meanwhile, the Apple Watch app will tell you the exercises to do, how to do them, and for how long. It holds a catalog of more than 360 exercises.

From the Apple Watch, you can select a part of the body you want to work on, (say, your chest). The app will then list out the exercises to do, the recommended repetitions, and weight.

Download: Gymaholic (Free, subscription available)

9. Pedometer++

Apple Watch Fitness Apps Pedometer++

Apple’s Activity app focuses on calories burned, not steps. But the Apple Watch does record your steps. If you go all the way down in the Activity app, you’ll find your step count.

What if you want to know your step count all the time? If you’re trying to hit your daily 10,000 steps, Pedometer++ can help.

It’s a simple utility which records your steps and presents it as a watch face complication. Add it to your favorite watch face and then along with your Activity progress, you’ll be able to see your steps as well.

Download: Pedometer++ (Free)

10. MyFitnessPal

Apple Watch Fitness Apps MyFitnessPal

MyFitnessPal is the best food tracking app for iPhone. If you’re trying to lose weight by calorie counting or just want to know how much nutrition you’re getting in a day, MyFitnessPal’s Apple Watch companion app will make it slightly easier for you.

The app will quickly show your nutrition facts for the day. This includes how many calories you’ve consumed, your carbohydrate and protein intake, and similar.

Download: MyFitnessPal (Free, subscription available)

There’s a Lot More to the Apple Watch

Once you’ve started using the Apple Watch, you’ll realize just how much this little computer on your wrist can do. With Siri alone you can control your smart home devices, send messages, or add reminders.

But you can also use your Apple Watch to unlock your Mac, pay with Apple Pay, manage your email inbox, stay updated with your calendar, and a lot more.

Read the full article: Apple Watch Fitness: The 10 Best Workout Apps to Get You Healthy



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What Is Object Oriented Programming? The Basics Explained in Layman’s Terms

intro-object-oriented-programming

If you’ve done some beginner programming, or even started to look at different languages, you’ve probably come across the phrase “object-oriented programming” (or “OOP”).

There are all sorts of technical explanations as to what it is, but today we’re going to take a look at defining object-oriented programming in a simple way.

Before We Start: Procedural Languages

To understand what an object-oriented programming language is, you need to understand what it replaced. Early programming languages were procedural—so-called because the programmer would define a very specific set of procedures that the computer would undertake.

What Is Object Oriented Programming and How to Get Started Learning It

In the earliest days, procedures were written on punch cards. Those steps took in data, performed a sequence of actions on that data, then output new data.

Procedural languages worked well for a time (and some are still in use). But when you want to program something beyond a basic sequence of steps, procedural languages can become difficult to manage. That’s where object-oriented programming comes in.

The Object of Object-Oriented Programming

So then, what is object-oriented programming?

The first object-oriented language (generally agreed to be Simula) introduced the idea of objects. Objects are collections of information that are treated as a singular entity.

We’ll dive deeper into what that actually means in a second with an example, but first we have to talk about classes. Classes are sort of like pre-objects. They contain a list of attributes that, when defined, become an object.

What Is Object Oriented Programming and How to Get Started Learning It

Let’s take the example of programming a chess game. We might have a class called Piece. Within Piece, we have a list of attributes:

  • Color
  • Height
  • Shape
  • Movement allowed

An object simply defines one particular instance of a thing belonging to that class.

So we could have an object called WhiteQueen. That object would have definitions for all four attributes (white, tall, cylindrical with crenellations, any number of spaces in any direction). It might also have methods or functions.

What makes this so much better than the procedural approach?

In short, object-oriented programming languages (like Java) makes it easier to organize data and code in a way that’s more versatile for larger project.

To discuss it in a bit more detail, we’ll talk about the four basics of object-oriented programming.

Object-Oriented Programming: Abstraction

Just because you want to use something doesn’t mean you need to know how it works. An espresso machine, for example, is complex. But you don’t need to know how it works. You just need to know that when you hit “On,” you’re going to get espresso.

What Is Object Oriented Programming and How to Get Started Learning It

The same is true of objects in object-oriented programming. In our chess example, we may have a move() method. That method could require a lot of data and other methods. It might need the initial position and final position variables. It could use another method for determining whether it’s captured a piece.

But you don’t need to know that. All you need to know is that when you tell the piece to move, it moves. That’s abstraction.

Object-Oriented Programming: Encapsulation

Encapsulation is one of the ways that object-oriented programming creates abstraction. Each object is a collection of data that’s treated as a single entity. And within those objects are data—both variables and methods.

The variables within an object are generally kept private, which means other objects and methods can’t access them. Objects can only be affected by using their methods.

A Bishop object might contain several pieces of information. For example, it could have a variable called “position.” That variable is necessary to use the move() method. And, of course, it has a color.

By making the position variable private and the move() method public, a programmer protects the move variable from being affected by anything else. And if the color is a private variable, there’s no way for another object to change it unless there’s a method that allows the change. (Which you probably wouldn’t have, as the color of the piece should remain constant.)

These variables and methods are kept within the Bishop object. Because they’re encapsulated, a programmer could make a change to the structure or contents of the object without worrying about the public interface.

Object-Oriented Programming: Inheritance

In addition to classes, object-oriented programming languages also have sub-classes. These contain all of the attributes from the parent class, but they can also contain other attributes.

In our chess game, the pawn pieces need a method that can turn them into other pieces if they make it to the end of the board. We’ll call it the transformPiece() method.

Not every piece needs the transformPiece() method. So we wouldn’t want to put it in the Piece class. Instead, we can create a sub-class called Pawn. Because it’s a sub-class, it inherits all of the attributes from Piece. So an instance of the sub-class Pawn includes a color, height, shape, and movement allowed.

But it also includes the transformPiece() method. Now we never have to worry about accidentally using that function on a rook. Here’s a technical explanation:

Creating sub-classes also saves a lot of time. Instead of creating new classes for everything, programmers can create a base class and then extend it to new sub-classes when they need to. (However, it’s worth noting that over-reliance on inheritance is bad.)

Object-Oriented Programming: Polymorphism

Polymorphism is a result of inheritance. Fully understanding polymorphism takes some programming knowledge, so we’re just going to stick with the basics here. In short, polymorphism allows programmers to use methods of the same name, but with different objects.

For example, our Piece class might have a move() method that moves a piece one space in any direction. That works for the king piece, but not for anything else. To fix this problem, we can define new move() method in the Rook sub-class that defines movement as an unlimited number of spaces forward, backward, left, or right.

Now, when a programmer invokes the move() method and uses a piece as the argument, the program will know exactly how the piece should move. This saves a ton of time over trying to figure out which of many different methods you should use.

Object-Oriented Programming in a Nutshell

If your head is spinning a bit after those last four definitions, don’t worry too much. Here are the main things you need to remember:

  • Object-oriented programming collects information into single entities called objects.
  • Each object is a single instance of a class.
  • Abstraction hides the inner workings of an object when it’s not necessary to see them.
  • Encapsulation stores related variables and methods within objects and protects them.
  • Inheritance allows sub-classes to use attributes from parent classes.
  • Polymorphism allows objects and methods to deal with multiple different situations with a single interface.

If you can remember those points, you’ll have a good handle on what object-oriented programming is. The four basics of object-oriented programming, as I mentioned, can be a little difficult to get a handle on. But once you start programming, they’ll become more clear.

Remember that we’ve only discussed generalities in this article. Different object-oriented languages will have their own quirks and ways to make things happen. Once you choose the right language for you, you’ll start to learn how it puts OOP principles into practice.

Read the full article: What Is Object Oriented Programming? The Basics Explained in Layman’s Terms



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Learn to Fix Your Own Gadgets With Help From These 5 Sites

repair-your-gadgets

Over time, it’s easy to accumulate a lot of devices. But keeping all of them up-to-date and in working order can get expensive.

If you’re not fond of replacing your hardware, or you don’t want to pay the high cost of having an item repaired or replaced, then you may want to take matters into your own hands.

In general, hardware manufacturers don’t make this easy, but there are a handful of sites that can—and they’ll prove invaluable at some point as long as you keep them bookmarked.

1. iFixit

IFixIt Gadget Repair Website

iFixit is the most well-known site of its type. The US-based company started in 2003 after co-founder Kyle Wiens couldn’t find a repair manual for his Apple iBook. iFixit has since grown into a global community.

The site offers video teardowns, so you can see what goes into a product and how to put it back together. Users from all over submit their own guides to fix consumer electronics of all types. You can also buy the parts you need to finish the job.

2. SOSav

SOSav Gadget Repair Website

SOSav is a similar site based out of the UK. The sheer number of guides isn’t comparable to what you find on iFixit, but what’s here is of a similar quality. The site provides an abundance of photos, and again, you can buy needed parts directly from the site.

Guides are currently available for Apple computers, mobile phones, tablets, digital music players, game consoles, cameras, smartwatches, and virtual reality headsets. If you’re looking to repair a Chromebook or a PC that came with Windows, head back to iFixit.

3. PowerbookMedic

PowerbookMedic Gadget Repair Website

As the name suggests, PowerbookMedic has been around since before Apple called its laptops MacBooks or even iBooks. But that doesn’t mean the site is filled with stagnant, outdated information. It remains a valuable tool for fixing current Apple hardware, including iPhones and iPads.

Don’t have an Apple product? PowerbookMedic isn’t entirely irrelevant to you. The site also has guides for Amazon Kindle devices. So if your Fire tablet or Kindle ereader has fallen on hard times, this resource could help you out.

PowerbookMedic doesn’t only sells parts—it offers to buy your current PC. The company will repair your machine and then sell it refurbished. If the folks at PowerbookMedic can’t make use of a part, they try to recycle what they can.

4. wikiHow

wikiHow Gadget Repair Website

wikiHow provides step-by-step instructions on how to do seemingly anything. But one task it doesn’t do is tell you how to fix exactly the component that’s broken on your model of computer or mobile device. Still, that doesn’t mean its useless for addressing your electronic woes.

Here you can find general guides that may work regardless of your model, such as how to revive a cell phone battery or how to fix an iPod jack. This is general know-how that may serve you well not only with your current headache, but potential future ones as well.

5. YouTube

Many of us have an easier time following along with a video than with text or photos. Fortunately, YouTube is packed with tutorials and clips of people fixing their own PCs. Most of the sites above even upload videos to YouTube.

Lots of the tutorials come from channels that don’t specialize in computer repair. These are often from individuals who at some point need to fix their own devices and decide to share their experience with the internet. Their instructions may be the best you can find when working with less common hardware.

Anyone can upload content to YouTube, so keep that in mind when considering whether to take a video’s advice. You may come across instructions that aren’t reliable, increasing the chance you will break your machine.

Rather Have Someone Else Do the Work?

Fixing a device takes time. You also run the risk of damaging the hardware further, and if anything goes wrong, you’re out of luck. So it makes sense if you don’t want to take that task on yourself.

Many shops exist for precisely this kind of work. Some of the sites listed above will take your gadget and fix it for you, as long as you’re willing to mail it in. PowerbookMedic will repair your Apple device, and it claims an average turnaround time of four business days (though Amazon hardware is not supported). SOSav serves those in the UK via the name Captain Repair.

Other shops offer brick and mortar locations in the US. CPR (Cell Phone Repair) Stores, despite the name, will also fix computers and game consoles at its over 450 locations across the US. uBreakiFix is another larger chain, with nearly 400 locations. iFixandRepair appears in 17 states.

At the rate businesses are appearing, there’s bound to be a smaller, local option somewhere in your nearest metropolitan area. Just make sure you avoid repair and tech support scams!

What If You Hit a Roadblock?

Some companies make their products hard to repair. They may design hardware to require tools that only company employees have. They may also refuse to create or provide instruction manuals to consumers or repair shops.

In some cases, you can get around this issue by buying from a different company. But sometimes there’s no other option, or the competition engages in the same practices. This is why people have come together to demand the right to repair.

If you live in the US and view having the ability to fix hardware as a right, check out repair.org, the website of the Repair Association. You may also want to check out iFixit.org, the activist side of iFixit, which provides plenty of relevant links and other resources.

Read the full article: Learn to Fix Your Own Gadgets With Help From These 5 Sites



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The 12 Best Reference Apps to Look Up Anything While On the Go

How to Securely Delete Cookies, Internet Cache, and More With PrivaZer

delete-cookies-caches

Staying secure online is important, as is maintaining your privacy. One way to do this is to manually delete your cookies and cache after every session, but this can prove hit-or-miss, not to mention time-consuming.

For some, a dedicated solution for PC deep cleaning is a better and more convenient option. Here’s how PrivaZer can help with that.

What Is PrivaZer?

Clean the Windows internet cache with PrivaZer

Developed to help keep your Windows PC clean, PrivaZer is an alternative to tools like CCleaner with a much more focused approach to cleaning and protection.

Whereas tools like CCleaner have a bunch of extra tools like a duplicate files finder and a disk space cleaner—which some users might consider bloatware—PrivaZer concentrates only on enhancing your privacy.

Different degrees of cleaning can be done with PrivaZer, but it is especially good at dealing with internet cache files, downloads, and cookies.

How Cookies Betray Your Online Privacy

Essentially text files storing user-specific data, cookies are useful for browsing the web, but they’re not exactly on your side.

Some sites use cookies to recognize you and perhaps issue a personalized greeting or content, others may keep you signed into a website and memorize some of your site settings. These settings are retained on your computer via cookies. These uses for cookies are benign and reasonable.

Then there’s the type of cookie that tracks your activity online, sharing your browser history with advertisers. Done with the aim of providing targeted advertising, you’ll have noticed this happening without realizing. This is why, when you browse a product on Amazon, all you see for the next week is adverts for the same item.

So, while slightly useful, you really need to kill cookies regularly. This, your internet cache, and more, can be wiped using a tool like PrivaZer.

The Two Versions of PrivaZer

Install PrivaZer on Windows

Available from privazer.com, PrivaZer comes in two versions: Free version and Donor’s version (which offers extra functionality, such as automatically cleaning internet activity after each session).

Each of these can be downloaded as a standard installation or as a portable version. Further, the standard version, when run, gives the option to install, or run without installation. And in case you made a mistake, there’s also the option to create a portable version from the installation wizard.

You may have spotted benefits for each option. A portable version of PrivaZer can sit on a USB flash drive, waiting to be run. It requires no installation, and as such can be used on any Windows system at any time. Need to investigate some slow performance? Installing something new could be time consuming, which is why running a portable version of PrivaZer is a good option. The same is true of the option to run without installation.

However, if you do choose to install PrivaZer rather than simply “run” it, you can guarantee extra features and improved results.

How to Run a Deep Clean With PrivaZer

Get started by heading to the website and downloading the PrivaZer free version. Launch the installer, and when prompted “What kind of computer user are you?”, select Advanced. (This can be changed later, if necessary.)

In the next screen, use the check boxes to select what sort of data you want cleaning. You’re looking for things like invalid shortcuts, office software history, photo software history, thumbnails cache, browser autofills for forms, cookies and web cache, Windows Start menu items, and more. (If you selected Basic user, meanwhile, you’ll be presented with a wizard-based approach to each, with recommended options to help.)

Delete browser autocomplete.

With your preferred items checked, select Ready to perform my first scan, and click OK. Select Start cleaning, then Scan to proceed, and wait while the deep clean completes. A progress box on the right will display how much data has been cleaned; you can speed things up by raising the priority using the link at the bottom of the window.

Once done, PrivaZer will have cleaned up much of the unwanted data on your PC. Even if it fell into the wrong hands, an intruder would have difficulty finding out what files you had used recently. Meanwhile, with deleted tracking cookies, your ad-focused shadow profile will need to be built from scratch. Note that regular deletion of these cookies will prevent the annoyance of targeted ads in perpetuity.

Device-Specific Scanning and Total Deletion

PrivaZer can also scan a particular device, and clean all “internet traces”. This option, and many others, can be found in the drop down menu on the main PrivaZer screen. With each function, the process is largely the same: select the type of clean, choose the data types/location to analyze, then click Scan to commence.

The results are invariably good, and you can even clean traces from your system registry, and USB devices. There’s even the option to run a scheduled cleanup (although this requires the installed version of PrivaZer).

Scan options in PrivaZer

Meanwhile, the Advanced options screen gives you the opportunity to specify the depth of the clean. Flash memory/SSD (learn about how solid-state drives work), hard disk drives (labelled here as “magnetic disks”), and RAM can all be given multiple passes (up to 6 passes on flash and RAM, as many as 35 passes on HDD) to ensure total destruction of the data stored there.

This has multiple benefits, not least when wiping a data storage drive in order to sell it (or when selling the computer itself). Any previous data previously stored therein can be safely considered deleted if one of these options is used.

Secure deletion options in PrivaZer

To do this, open Advanced options > Cleanup, and make the selection, then OK. Select Delete from the dropdown menu, then select between Sensitive files and Sensitive folders. Click OK to browse for the files/directories/drive, then click Clean.

PrivaZer Protects Your Online Privacy

You don’t have to pay so much attention to tracking cookies and your internet cache. But whether you’re trying to maintain some online privacy, or simply want to avoid a loved one or housemate uncovering your online interests, cleaning up when you’re done is a good idea.

PrivaZer is just one way of doing this. There are many other tools for maintaining online privacy. The takeaway is this: if you don’t want to be tracked, cleaning your PC regularly is the best way of dealing with it.

Read the full article: How to Securely Delete Cookies, Internet Cache, and More With PrivaZer



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