New Technology : Microsoft Begs You Not to Switch, Amazon Sues Fake Reviewers… [Tech News Digest]

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Microsoft adds a begging screen, Amazon sues over a Fiverr, Google Books a fair use judgment, Aurous goes offline, the Nintendo Entertainment System turns 30, and Louis C.K. has a rant. Microsoft Pushes Default Apps Upgraded to #Windows10 and this is an initial review of how my PC is doing so far. http://pic.twitter.com/cJMJEn7dau — Killer Kitsch (@killer_kitsch) October 18, 2015 Microsoft desperately wants you to stick to using the default apps within Windows 10, and it’s willing to beg you not to switch to using alternative services. Competitors have already called Microsoft out for making it more difficult to switch,...

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New Technology : What Mac Users Need To Know About El Capitan Security

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Mac users: OS X 10.11 El Capitan is here, and it’s pretty great. Most users will get a noticeable performance boost, and there are some (relatively minor) new features. But what’s the biggest change Apple made this time around? Security. OS X is now so locked down even root users can’t modify the operating system – let’s go over what that means, shall we? System Integrity Protection: Root Has No Power Here Remember this old cartoon? Don’t get it? Well, in many UNIX-like systems – including OS X – the command sudo stands for superuser. Putting “sudo” in front a...

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New Technology : USB Flash Drive Guide: 5 Things to Know When Buying One

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Cloud storage is great, but the humble USB flash drive is tried and true — and it isn’t going anywhere just yet. From backing up your data to installing operating systems, it’s still incredibly useful. But there are some things you should know before you purchase your next flash drive so that you can get the most out of it. 1) Similar Specs Can Be Deceiving If you find yourself with two similar flash drives and asking, “Both of these have USB 3.0, are made by the same brand, and have 64GB of storage. Why does one cost more?”, the answer...

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New Technology : Which Browser Invented Tabs? 3 Common Myths Debunked

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It’s hard to imagine the Internet without tabbed browsing. Despite the fact that tab abuse can slow down your browser, it’s one of those “once you start, you can’t go back” features, and a modern browser without tabs would surely die overnight. So which browser can we thank for pioneering tabs? A lot of people think that Mozilla Firefox (then known as Firebird) was the first to introduce them — and while it’s true that Firefox definitely popularized the concept, it can’t take credit as innovator. Opera also helped to promote tabs in the early 2000s, but it wasn’t the...

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New Technology : The 10-Second Fix for Sluggish Start Menus in Windows 10

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The visual effects in Windows 10 give everything a modern touch, but what you might not realize is that these animation effects can impact system performance. If Windows 10 seems sluggish, the animations in the Start Menu are the first place you should look. Here’s how to turn those animations off: Settings > Ease of Access > Other Options > Play animations in Windows Turning this off speeds up the Start Menu significantly. The bad part is, you can’t turn them off for just the Start Menu, so you’re actually turning them off system-wide. That probably isn’t an issue if...

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New Technology : Phone Suggesting Useless Apps? Put a Stop to It.

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Android Marshmallow is here, and even if your device hasn’t been updated yet, you can get the best features without the upgrade. One new built-in app with some changes is the Google Now Launcher, which adds vertical scrolling and a search bar to your apps list. However, the other new feature isn’t as popular. The new box at the top of the screen is Google’s supposedly intelligent way of bringing apps you use at a certain time of day to the forefront of your app drawer. With no set way to order these, you may find it an annoying waste of...

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New Technology : How to Relocate the OneDrive Folder in 4 Easy Steps

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If you have OneDrive installed on your system, there’s a good chance that it’s stored on the C: drive. Want to move that folder to a more convenient location? Here’s how you do it. 1) Unlink Current Sync Location Right-click on the OneDrive icon in the system tray to bring up the context menu. Select Settings, then in the dialog that pops up, click on Unlink OneDrive. If OneDrive’s Get Started dialog pops up at this stage, ignore it for now but don’t close it. 2) Move the OneDrive Folder Navigate to the OneDrive folder (usually located at C:\Users\your_username) and select it....

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New Technology : How Old Is Your Current PC? [MakeUseOf Poll]

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Sales of PCs have continued to drop through 2015, despite (or perhaps because of) Microsoft launching Windows 10. Which prompted us to ponder how long the average computer user actually keeps hold of their computer before upgrading. There’s only one way to find out… Poll! Mobile Windows Experience To answer this week’s question please scroll down the page until you see the poll staring back at you. But first, we need to look at the results from last week, when we asked, “Will You Be Getting Windows 10 Mobile?” Out of a total of 768 votes, 44.3% chose Yes, on...

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New Technology : Use this Free Photoshop Template to Freak Out Your Facebook Friends

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With Halloween on the way, now is the time to start sharing spooky photos on Facebook. I’ve already shown how to add a ghost to your Facebook profile picture and how to make a creepy profile picture with a free template I provided. In this article, I’m going to mix things up and show you how to make a spooky old photo in a graveyard. The hardest part of making this fake photo is shooting the images you need. The Photoshop work is really simple. Once again, I’m providing all my files for you to use (including the final TIFF...

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New Technology : Play Scary Retro Games On Your Modern PC or Mac This Halloween

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Halloween is almost upon us. Though many of us are too old to go trick or treating, we’re definitely not too old to be scared stiff. There is however a good chance that you’ve exhausted many of the newer horror games released in recent years. So what do you do? Turn to the scariest titles of yesteryear, that’s what. All of these titles can be played on modern hardware using the right tools and tweaks — so turn off the lights and prepare for a (somewhat pixelated) fright. Doom 1, 2 and Final Doom When I was four, my parents brought home our...

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