Sarah Wells, provided by Published 4:01 pm CDT, Thursday, April 18, 2019 Hollis Johnson/Business Insider Google Assistant is a smart assistant designed to help you answer questions and perform numerous tasks. Google Assistant comes pre-installed on most Android phones and Google Homes, but can be installed on other systems as well, such as the iPhone. You can go into your device's settings to customize your Google Assistant, allowing it to automate even more tedious tasks. Visit BusinessInsider.com for more stories. It's safe to say that we're in the midst of a smart assistant revolution. Since Apple first released its smart assistant, Siri, in spring 2011, competitors like Microsoft, Amazon, and Google have followed suit with their own virtual assistants. While there are a set of standard skills that you can safely find in nearly any smart assistant — such as searching the internet or setting a timer — not all smart assistants are the same. And recent … [Read more...] about How to use and customize Google Assistant on your phone or Google Home
How do i get google play on my android
Thousands of Reddit users are trying to delete Google from their lives, but they’re finding it impossible because Google is everywhere
Shona Ghosh, provided by Published 3:30 am CDT, Saturday, March 23, 2019 Samantha Lee/Business Insider Thousands of Reddit users have joined r/deGoogle, a community dedicated to surviving on the internet without Google. The goal is to try and avoid handing any personal information over to Google, and involves avoiding services like Google search, YouTube, Gmail, and Google Docs. The exercise shows how Google has come to dominate almost every aspect of how we use the internet. A privacy expert warned that the more people rely on Google, the more it can lock people into an ecosystem that sucks up data. It's 7.30 a.m., and you've just woken up. How many seconds into your day can you last without using Google? If you used the alarm clock on your phone that runs Google-owned Android, you've failed. If you're an information junkie who checks the news first thing, you've also probably failed. Most news sites — including this one — run Google-owned analytics or ad … [Read more...] about Thousands of Reddit users are trying to delete Google from their lives, but they’re finding it impossible because Google is everywhere
I switched to Android after more than a decade with the iPhone, and retro gaming has all but ensured I’ll never go back
Harrison Jacobs, provided by Published 9:07 am CDT, Sunday, March 10, 2019 8Bitdo I've been a diehard Apple user for as long as I can remember, and, up until recently, I exclusively used iPhones since shortly after the first one came out in 2007. Last November, I decided to retire my iPhone 6S and, after much deliberation, decided to give the well-reviewed OnePlus 6T and Google's Android operating system a try. I wrote about my positive experience switching to Android at the time and received dozens of e-mails from Android users telling me to wait until I realized what having an "open ecosystem" meant. While I've found a lot of benefits to the "open ecosystem," by far the biggest revelation for me has been that I can download apps that never would have been approved by Apple. Four months ago, I did what I previously thought was unthinkable. I gave up my iPhone. I'd been using Apple products since I was eight and had been locked into iOS and the iPhone since a … [Read more...] about I switched to Android after more than a decade with the iPhone, and retro gaming has all but ensured I’ll never go back
Getting MacBook back on track with/without gestures
The first time we used a MacBook Air, moving our finger on the trackpad caused the screen to jump around like mad. So-called "gestures" can whisk you away to a new place, shutting down whatever you were working on. Recently, a friend complained of this too, so we looked up the solution. These gestures are amazingly abundant on the Mac and are supposed to offer you alternate ways to interact with your computer. But if you find them as annoying as we do, here's what to do: First, click on the Apple logo in the upper right of your screen. Then choose "System Preferences." Click "Trackpad." Note the three tabs, including "More Gestures." Click a tab to see what's under that category, and put a checkmark next to anything you don't want. There are 14 of them. Only a programmer would need that many. MAKING MOVIES No matter how you look at it, Corel's $100 program, VideoStudio Ultimate, is for serious video tinkerers. It comes with FastFlick, a separate program. FastFlick makes a … [Read more...] about Getting MacBook back on track with/without gestures
I switch phones at least 6 times a year — here’s how I easily transfer everything from one phone to another
My SIM card finds its way into at least six different smartphones during the course of a year. It’s unusual for a typical smartphone user, but for a tech journalist who reviews smartphones, it’s pretty normal. Phone after phone, I’ve developed some habits that make it easier to switch devices without starting from scratch. I review a ton of different smartphones, as part of my job. I mostly switch between Android devices, and Google makes it incredibly easy to transfer everything from one phone to another. However, if I was only allowed to share one tip, I’d recommend using a password manager. While cloud services and device backups do a great job transferring apps from one phone to another, you still need to sign in to all your apps on a new phone. Check out the habits I’ve developed over the years to make transferring from one phone to another a smooth and seamless process: Instead of re-downloading all my apps on a new phone, I simply restore a … [Read more...] about I switch phones at least 6 times a year — here’s how I easily transfer everything from one phone to another