Summary Home Assistant is a powerful smart home platform that lets you control lights, thermostats, and other smart devices in your home. You can even integrate your Spotify account to stream your favorite music from any connected speaker or TV. Setting Up Home Assistant with Spotify Integrating Spotify with Home Assistant unlocks a world of possibilities, like listening to a Spotify playlist that plays in sync in all rooms of your home....

The Mac mini is one of the best small computers you can buy thanks to its small yet mighty footprint and value for money. Things get even better if you can score yourself a deal on the second-hand market, which is where I found mine. I have all sorts of grand plans for my Mac mini, but the first thing I was keen to discover was how this thing functions as a media center front-end....

Quick Links Summary Whether you buy new smart blinds or retrofit existing ones to be smart, Expect to pay a $150-300 premium per window. If you’re curious about modernizing your window treatments, you might wonder how much smart blinds and shades cost. There’s a premium for new installations and retrofits, but it might not be as steep as you think. New Smart Window Treatments Are Pricey If you haven’t gone shopping for window treatments in a spell, you’ll likely find the cost ofnew smart blindsand shades painfully high....

Quick Links Do you lose focus trying to navigate through a sea of apps open on your KDE Plasma PC? Are app icons on your desktop or taskbar distracting you from the task at hand? KDE Activities solves this problem by allowing you to create distinct spaces for work, study, play, and anything else you want to do. What Is KDE Activities? KDE Activities is a powerful feature available in theKDE Plasma desktop environmentfor Linux....

Quick Links If your PDF is too large to be sent via email, or you simply want to reduce your file’s size, it’s easy to compress PDF files on Windows 11. You have both desktop apps and online tools to do that. Use a Free, No-Frills App to Compress Your PDF The easiest way tocompressa PDF on Windows 11 is to use a free app called Free PDF Compressor. This app offers a no-frills, easy way to reduce your PDF’s size....

Quick Links Summary Whether you’re looking to create a script, make several folders at once, or you simply prefer command-line methods over graphical ones, it’s quick and easy to make folders or files using Command Prompt. We’ll show you how to do it on your Windows 11 or Windows 10 PC. Before You Begin: Copy the Folder Path and Launch Command Prompt To use the following methods, you must first copy the path of the folder where you’ll create new folders or files, and then run the Command Prompt utility....

Summary When you’re using the Workouts app, your Apple Watch will display live metrics as you’re working out like heart rate, elapsed time, and the energy you’ve burned. If the default stats aren’t what you want to see, you can customize the display to show the ones you want. How to Access Workout Customization on Your Apple Watch You may not be aware that you’re able to customize the stats displayed when you’retracking a workout on your Apple Watch....

Quick Links Summary Do you want to use Gmail as a desktop app, much like how you use other email clients like Outlook? Does Google officially offer a Gmail app for computer users? As a Gmail user, you’ve probably asked yourself these questions. Let’s dig in and look at how you can get a desktop Gmail experience. Does Gmail Have an Official Desktop App? No, Gmail doesn’t offer an official app to manage your emails on your Windows, Mac, Linux, or Chromebook computer....

Quick Links Searching your file system can be tricky. For example, do you sometimes find it difficult to bespecificorexact? Or perhaps it’s too noisy? Regex can solve these issues and more. It’s powerful, universal, and flexible, and the basics will carry you averylong way. What is Regex? Regex is a pattern-matching language; it’s a way to expressively describe patterns that match strings (e.g., words or sentences). For example, say you’re searching your hard drive for an image calledfoo, but you cannot remember if it’s a JPEG or a PNG....

Summary Firefox is great for privacy. But if you want the convenience of bookmark sync, you usually have to rely on online services. Given the value and potentially sensitive nature of your bookmarks and browsing history, self-hosting this functionality makes privacy and security sense. Host Your Own Firefox (and Chrome, Safari and a Bunch of Other Browsers) Bookmark and History Sync Firefox has a pretty good reputation for respecting its users, but privacy-conscious folks are always worried about how their data will be used, either now or in the future, or what will happen if a third-party service leaks it....

Summary The biggest problem with the Action Button found on the iPhone 16 and iPhone 15 Pro models is that it can only be set to do one thing. However, by setting it to run a custom shortcut, you may get your Action Button to perform different actions based on your location, Focus mode, iPhone orientation, and more. Changing Your Action Button Based on Orientation, Location, Time, or Focus Mode In previous articles, I’ve looked at how to automatically change the behavior of your Action Button based on one single criterion....

Quick Links Do you have multiple audio files you want to combine into one file? If so, you have multiple ways to do that on your Windows 11 PC. I’ll show you how to do that using both graphical and command-line methods. Merge Multiple Sound Tracks Graphically Using Audacity The easiest graphical way to merge audio files on Windows 11 is by using the free and open-source Audacity app. you may use this app to edit your music tracks in many ways, including combining your files....

Quick Links Securing your Netflix account isn’t complicated and keeps it safe from unauthorized access. You can protect your private Netflix data and payment information with a few simple security measures. Here’s what you need to do. Use a Strong, Unique Password The password is your first line of defense when protecting your Netflix account from unauthorized access. It’s particularly crucial as the streamer doesn’t offertwo-factor authentication support. So, whether you’re making a new Netflix account orupdating it, it’s best to avoid re-using a password from your other products or services andchoose a strong, unique password....