How to Make a Clean Break With the Clingiest Social Networks
Social networks walk a fine line between being a useful tool and a crippling addiction. Whether you want your free time back or don’t like your information scattered about on the internet, you may be considering deactivating some accounts. Wanting to delete your account is one thing, but actually being able to hit the delete button is another story. Social media outlets make money off of you and your information, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that they don’t want to let you go. Because of this, the biggest networks have made it overly complicated to delete your account. But if you are...
Read MoreHow to get free Kindle books with your library card
Your book club meets next month, but you’re just too busy to run down to Barnes and Noble to pick up Infinite Jest. Sure, you could order it on Amazon, but it’s way too heavy to lug around in your backpack and your bookshelf is looking pretty crammed. That’s OK, though! With a library card, an internet connection, and an e-reader, you can download the book—for free!—without ever leaving your house. First, you’ll need a library card. If you don’t already have one, visit your local branch to get one. Then, use your credentials to access your library’s e-book collection....
Read MoreThe Beginner’s Guide to Podcasts
Podcasts may be the new radio, but listening to these downloadable shows requires more effort than just twisting a dial. The rewards, however, are much richer: the latest in politics and culture, interviews with your favorite celebrities, serial dramas, and comedy aplenty. All of this programming is available for free; just install an app on your phone and download the shows you want to hear. So rich is the abundance of great podcasts and apps, diving in can be overwhelming. So we’ve done the dirty work—here’s a guide to help get you started. First, you’ll need to pick a...
Read MoreHow to Unsend Regrettable Emails in Gmail and Inbox
The ability to pull back sent messages in Gmail used to be an experimental Labs plugin, but now it’s a core feature. A whole lot of people must reconsider their e-missives after they send them. You can “unsend” emails in both Gmail and Inbox by Gmail, but there’s a key difference between the two email experiences. Gmail gives you more options and more time to second-guess that message, but your unsending powers are limited to the desktop version of Gmail. With Inbox, the feature is available on the mobile app and enabled by default, but you’ll generally need to be quicker with that “Undo”...
Read MoreHow to Use Twitter: Critical Tips for New Users
So you wanna Tweet? Cool—you’ll love it. But it may take some getting used to if you’re a new kid on the block. Twitter is where news is broken, links are shared, and memes are born. It’s also a place for chatting with friends. Yet unlike Facebook, Twitter is public. So if you do tweet with friends, it’s all out in the open by default. And that’s not a bad thing. It means your jokes can go viral (if they’re funny) and in addition to your friends, you can interact with your favorite journalists, athletes, artists, or political figures, all in the same space. Tweets show up in the order they...
Read MoreHacker Lexicon: What Is HTTPS?
For all the attention that the iPhone’s encrypted storage and Whatsapp’s new end-to-end messaging encryption have gotten over the last few months—particularly from the US Justice Department—you’d think that encryption is just now hitting the mainstream. But in fact, you and billions of other people been using a less-loudly appreciated form of strong encryption for decades: HTTPS. HTTPS, or Hypertext Transfer Protocol with an S appended for “Secure,” is the form of encryption that keeps your credit card data and passwords safe every time you enter them on a website that has even an ounce of...
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