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While it seemed Apple had been reinvigorated by the release of the HomePod Mini in 2020, the company confirmed in March 2021 that the standard HomePod was set to be discontinued. Does that mean Apple has stopped working on the HomePod 2 behind closed doors? While some assumed so, the rumour mill has kicked back into life in 2022. With the possibility of a HomePod 2 still in the works, here’s all you need to know about the second-gen smart speaker right now....

The Earbuds 3 Pro are headlined by a quirky feature: real-time temperature monitoring. Honor has put this feature in for its ‘health benefits’, as you can use the buds to take your temperature without hunting around the house for a traditional thermometer, in theory. The earbuds come in two colours – grey and white – along with an AI-based equaliser adjustment which accounts for ear shape and fit to alter the sound to suit the user’s body and preferences....

Android N is said to bring enhancements in performance, security and productivity. Here we’re particularly concerned by performance, and in what effect the new Vulkan Graphics API has on speed. Vulkan has a much lower CPU overhead than OpenGL, which will allow developers to squeeze more graphical detail into frames. Google is also introducing the JTI Compiler with Android N, which speeds up app installs by 75 percent and reduces the compiled code size by 50 percent....

There will also be changes to the way that foods are labelled with ‘use by’ and ‘best before’ dates to ensure that people get the most out of the food they buy. But, as a rule of thumb, how long will common items in your kitchen last? When having a kitchen cupboard clear-out, there are always a few items that still look okay but on checking their packaging, you see that the best-before date last long passed....

Here’s how to add filters to Snapchat: Launch SnapchatCompose your shot and tap the big circular capture buttonSwipe from right to left to scroll through the various filtersWhen you’re happy press the Send button to share your Snap to your story or with a friend See our complete guide on how to use Snapchat. Marie is Editor in Chief of Tech Advisor and Macworld. A Journalism graduate from the London College of Printing, she’s worked in tech media for more than 17 years, managing our English language, French and Spanish consumer editorial teams and leading on content strategy through Foundry’s transition from print, to digital, to online - and beyond....

We’re using an iPhone 5 running iOS 7 here, but the same principles apply to an iPhone 3GS, 4, 4S, 5C and iPhone 5S running iOS 6 or 7. You can also use the same steps to add a Gmail account to an iPad. Tap on the Settings app and scroll down until you see Mail, Contacts, Calendars and tap on it. Tap Add Account and you’ll see a list of common email providers....

The Telegraph has reported several times in recent months about fraudsters apparently duping solicitors, house buyers and vendors into transferring deposit money into scam accounts. It’s a terrifying thought: you could lose your hard-earned deposit money to a filthy scammer. The reported scams involve fraudsters hacking into email accounts and monitoring exchanges between buyers, solicitors and estate agents, and then using the detailed information to con participants into transferring money into the wrong bank accounts....

How to back up the Registry using System Restore The fastest and easiest way to back up your Registry is to create a System Restore point before you make any changes that you can use to roll back your machine to a happier time if necessary. How to back up the entire Registry in a reg file The Registry follows the same hierarchal folder system as the rest of your PC, it’s just displayed differently....

We would all like the ability not to be contacted from certain numbers. Perhaps you are receiving nuisance calls from PPI firms, or an ex just won’t leave you alone. You can block each call as it comes in, of course, but how can you block that number forever? Here’s how to block a number on an iPhone. The following ways to block callers work on the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 5, iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C, as well as older iPhones running iOS 6 and iOS 7....

It’s the same principle for the messaging app controls your texts, the ‘launcher’ that Android uses to create the user interface you see, and even which app is used for making and receiving phone calls. Should you decide that you want a different app to handle those duties, then you’ll need to change the default that Android currently has set up. We show you how this is done. How to find the default apps in Android In order to change the default apps, it’s a good idea to first know which ones hold those titles....

How to change the Twitter heart into any emoji: Why did Twitter change from a star to a heart? Recently, Twitter announced that the iconic favourite star icon would be no longer, and instead would be replaced with a much friendlier heart icon. Twitter has explained in a blog post on its site that the decision came as the company wanted to make Twitter “easier and more rewarding to use” and the star icon could “be confusing, especially to newcomers”....

The good news is that macOS has a built-in feature for creating zip files, and here’s how to use it. How to create a zip file in macOS To create your zip file, find the file or folder that you want to compress. Control-click or use the two-finger tap gesture on your trackpad to bring up the contextual menu. From here select the Compress “[File Name]” option, which will create a zip file that uses the same filename except with ....

When a file is classified as “in use” by Windows, it is typically still open by another process, which could be making changes to it. In many cases, Windows even points you directly to the program in question in the error message, allowing you to simply close it and try again. Typically though, this isn’t the case. If the file is displayed as “in use” but there’s no indication of which app is using it, you have two options to proceed: You can either use the handy tool Unlocker, which integrates itself into the Windows UI seamlessly, or delete or rename files over the command prompt without any third party software....

It doesn’t help that the company has confirmed that it can track you even if you delete your account. “When you visit a site or app that uses our services, we receive information even if you’re logged out or don’t have a Facebook account. This is because other apps and sites don’t know who is using Facebook,” said Facebook’s product management director, David Baser. That data includes IP addresses, browser and operating system information, the address of the website or app, cookies and device identifiers, and is used to enhance the company’s service and security....

Have a look at our guide to the best music streaming services. How to download music from Spotify: Download Spotify and get Spotify Premium If you’re looking to get Spotify, you can grab it for free from their website. Alternatively you can grab it for free on the Play Store if you’re on Android or the App Store if you’ve got an iOS device. Once you’ve downloaded the app or installed the program, you can freely use Spotify....

Getting a device on which you do it all – play games, watch videos, browse social media, chat with friends, pick up emails, manage appointments, navigate to destinations and more – on increasingly bigger and higher-resolution screens to last all day probably feels like an impossibility. Charging is improving, faster and more convenient, but phone batteries themselves aren’t lasting any longer. But you can make some adjustments here and there to help you squeeze out every last bit of juice, and together they might just help your phone to keep going as long as you do....

How to recover lost contacts from Android: use Gmail It might seem odd to look for your contacts in Gmail rather than on your phone, but as the services are intertwined there’s a good chance you’ll find what you’re looking for here. When you add contacts into your Android phone using a Google service they are synced up with the online servers to hold a record, something that proves very useful if accidents occur....

You’ve come to this article looking for a way to ditch TouchWiz, and the reality is unless you are prepared to root the phone and flash a custom ROM that isn’t going to happen. But you don’t have to look at TouchWiz every day, and no-one is forcing you to use any Samsung apps. The solution, therefore, is simple: install a custom launcher. The difficulty is finding one you dislike less than you do TouchWiz....

This can be done by highlighting the cells you want before hitting Ctrl+P. But what if you want to print the same area on every page of your spreadsheet? We show you a few ways to make this happen. What is a print area? In Excel, print areas allow you to select cells on a worksheet which can then be printed off separate to the rest of the page. It’s handy if you tend to have a mixture of figures on your sheet, but only need particular ones for certain reports....

If you’ve got a new device, you’ll no doubt be keen to get it up and running, and we’ll guide you through the process. Before you start there are two things make life much easier though. The first is your Google account details, the same one you use for Gmail and YouTube. Strictly speaking you don’t actually need a Google account, as Chromebooks can be used in Guest mode, but to get the most out of one we recommend you sign up....