How and Why to Use Actionable Notifications in Home Assistant

Summary I’ve used Home Assistant for years to control my smart home devices and run automations. The software is packed with features, including the ability to send notifications to your phone. I have multiple automations that send me notifications about my smart home devices. It’s also possible to create actionable notifications that you may use to trigger smart home actions, and until recently, I hadn’t used them. Now that I’ve finally set up some actionable notifications, I wish I’d done it sooner....

August 13, 2025 · 7 min · 1416 words · Jeffrey Wright

How I Sync My Minecraft World Between 6 Different Devices

Summary Minecraftis still a great game, all these years later. However, unlike most games in 2025, there’s no native way to sync your saved games or worlds with other computers outside ofRealms, which is only available for theBedrockedition. Here’s how I syncedMinecraftbetween six computers (and how it could easily be even more). Why Sync YourMinecraftWorld? While many games sync your progress to the cloud,Minecraft Java Editiondoes no such thing.Minecraft Bedrockoffers the ability to start up a Realms server, but that costs money every month when you already pay for cloud storage elsewhere....

August 13, 2025 · 6 min · 1126 words · Mr. Stuart Hood

How the Mobile Epic Games Store Could Bring More PC Ports to Android

Quick Links Many of the best games for mobile phones are indie PC ports. With the arrival of the Epic Game Store for Android devices, we’ll hopefully see even more! The Epic Games Store Already Exists for PCs Beforethe Epic Games Store came to phones, it first appeared on PCs as a competitor to Steam. While it has nowhere near the presence that Steam has, it still has a sizable game library....

August 13, 2025 · 4 min · 839 words · Joseph Medina

How to Cancel or Pause Your Netflix Subscription When Needed

Quick Links Looking to cancel your Netflix membership? There are a few ways you can cancel, pause, and resume your Netflix membership, depending on your account. Here’s all you need to know. How to Cancel Your Netflix Subscription You can cancel your Netflix subscription from the desktop or mobile app or through a web browser. After logging into your account, click on your profile picture > Account > Membership Details > Manage Membership....

August 13, 2025 · 4 min · 763 words · Bradley Huffman

How to Create a Timeline Filter in Excel

Quick Links One way to display figures in an Excel table according to certain time periods is by using filter buttons. However, a better way to do this is to use a timeline, a dynamic filter option that allows you to quickly display data from individual days, months, quarters, or years. Step 1: Turn Your Data Into a PivotTable The first step is to turn your raw Excel data into a PivotTable....

August 13, 2025 · 5 min · 1065 words · Stephanie Bennett

How to Customize a Samsung Phone's Notification Sounds

Quick Links Summary To customize the universal notification sound on a Samsung Galaxy phone, head to Settings > Sound and Vibration > Notification Sound. you’re able to change the sound for a specific app from Settings > Apps. To add custom sounds, place sound files in the Notifications folder on your phone’s internal storage. Don’t like the default notification sound on your Samsung Galaxy phone? If so, you may customize the tone for all your notifications on your Samsung phone....

August 13, 2025 · 2 min · 401 words · Natalie Williams

How to Customize the Lock Screen on Your iPhone or iPad

Quick Links Summary Lock Screen customization has been an iOS mainstay since iOS 16, allowing you to tailor your iPhone and iPad Lock Screen with wallpapers, fonts, and widgets. Here’s how to get the most out of this feature. Create a New Lock Screen Your :Lck Screen is the point of first contact between you and your device, so creating one you enjoy using is important. Apple lets you createas many lock screens as you wishso you’re able to switch between them whenever you want....

August 13, 2025 · 6 min · 1231 words · Katherine Maddox

How to Emulate Apple Intelligence Summary Writing Tools on Older iPhones

Summary Only a handful of iPhones have the required amount of RAM to run Apple Intelligence. If your iPhone isn’t supported, you don’t need to miss out on Apple’s AI-powered writing tools. Using the free ChatGPT app alongside the Shortcuts app, you can recreate the summarization tools on any iPhone. What Are the Apple Intelligence Summarization Writing Tools? The Writing Tools feature inApple Intelligencecontains two main types of tools. The first are rewriting tools that are intended to change your text by correcting mistakes, changing the wording, or rewriting it to make it more friendly, more professional, or more concise....

August 13, 2025 · 7 min · 1476 words · Richard Gardner

How to Pause the Move Ring on an Apple Watch or iPhone to Keep Your Streak

Summary I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a bit of a freak about closing my Apple Watch Move ring, but it’s not always possible or desirable. Thankfully, with watchOS 11 and iOS 18, you can now hit pause on all of your Activity Rings and take a well-earned rest. Pause Your Activity Rings on Your Apple Watch For Apple Watch users, you may take a break by opening the Activity app which you can get to quickly by tapping the Activity Rings complication on any watch face....

August 13, 2025 · 3 min · 606 words · Alexander Barber

How to Schedule Your Windows 11 PC to Auto-Restart Once a Week

Quick Links Restarting your PC at least once a week allows Windows 11 to install and apply available updates. If you don’t normally reboot your PC, you can automate the process using a couple of methods. Use Task Scheduler to Automate PC Restart One way to schedule arestart of your Windows 11 PCis to use Task Scheduler. This built-in utility allows you to create a task that turns off and back on your machine at the specified time and date....

August 13, 2025 · 4 min · 708 words · Cameron Rogers

How to Turn Off Google Assistant (and "Hey Google")

Quick Links Summary Open the Google app on your Android device and go to Settings > Google Assistant > General. Toggle off “Google Assistant.” To turn off “Hey Google” detection, open the Google app on your Android device and go to Settings > Google Assistant > Hey Google & Voice Match. Toggle off “Hey Google.” Google Assistant is available on a variety of devices, including smart speakers and Android phones....

August 13, 2025 · 3 min · 617 words · David Tran

How to Use Pictures and Icons as Chart Columns in Excel

Quick Links Excel offers many different chart types—including column and bar graphs—to present your data. However, you don’t have to settle for the preset column and bar layouts. Instead, you can swap these for thematic pictures or icons to make your chart catch everyone’s eye. Beginner: Replacing Columns With Basic Images This Excel sheet lists the heights of three well-known buildings. Tocreate a column chart, I will select the data, click “Insert,” and choose the “2D Clustered Column” option....

August 13, 2025 · 6 min · 1086 words · Chase Miller

How to Use the IF Function in Microsoft Excel

Quick Links Summary The IF function returns different values depending on whether a condition is true or false. Use it in the form =IF(Condition,True,False). For example, =IF(C2>=60,“Pass”,“Fail”) will return “Pass” if the value in C2 is equal to or over 60 and “Fail” if the value is under 60. Whether you’re grading exams or simply trying to make sense of a spreadsheet full of data, Microsoft Excel’sIFfunction can help. you’re able to also use anIFfunction inside of anotherIFfunction to run deeper tests, too....

August 13, 2025 · 3 min · 493 words · Emily Lewis