Data synchronization

As someone with a tech-related job, I’m regularly bombarded with questions about the best smartphones, why emails might have suddenly stopped showing up, and how to back up photos and videos. There’s another common question I hear a lot as well: How do I use Microsoft Office for free?Netflix Passwords, ChatGPT Can’t Detect AI, and No More CoTweets | Editor PicksJudging by the frequency with which people ask me this, I’m assuming there’s still a sizeable chunk of the population that doesn’t know that you can use…

Image: Sam Rutherford / GizmodoUpdate: All the online backlash that Microsoft received finally worked. They got rid of the survey that users were forced to take every time they would quit the OneDrive app. They also remarked that it was just a test. In a statement that they gave to The Verge, it said, “Between Nov. 1 and 8, a small subset of consumer OneDrive users were presented with a dialog box when closing the OneDrive sync client, asking for feedback on the reason they chose to close the application. This type of…

Microsoft is now putting its AI into all of its 365 apps, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and more. What’s more, Microsoft said it will be accessing your data, including anything you might have in your OneDrive, email, and beyond, to personalize all the content this so-called “Copilot” generates.On Thursday, Microsoft showed how much it’s still gunning for big tech AI dominance. In a live press conference held on LinkedIn, Microsoft’s corporate VP Jared Spataro touted the new AI system’s power to remove…

Your digital files, from photos of your family to your financial records, are likely to be very important to you. So it’s essential that they’re well secured... and well secured means going above and beyond just putting a password on your laptop or a passcode on your phone. There are plenty of other security precautions you can put in place, and they’re not difficult to set up.We’d recommend getting at least some of these measures in place to keep your highest priority files safe and secure: it’s only going to take you a…

Photo: Anton_Ivanov (Shutterstock)Apple has officially killed one of its most controversial proposals ever: a plan to scan iCloud images for signs of child sexual abuse material (or, CSAM). Yes, last summer, Apple announced that it would be rolling out on-device scanning—a new feature in iOS that used advanced tech to quietly sift through individual users’ photos for signs of bad material. The new feature was designed so that, should the scanner find evidenceof CSAM, it would alert human technicians, who would then…

Image: hanohiki (Shutterstock)Apple is making new efforts to increase user security. While the company has previously touted its overall privacy prowess, the new features are specifically meant to to safeguard iCloud accounts and iMessage.Apple unveiled three major security features in an announcement published Wednesday. The first, iMessage Contact Key Verification, allows you to ensure that your messages are only visible to you and the given recipient. Security Keys for AppleID, meanwhile, can require the use of an…

You can get to iCloud Photos on Android, via a web browser.Screenshot: AndroidWith its push into services that cover music, video, fitness and more, Apple has been removing some of the bricks around its walled garden, allowing Windows and Android users access to more of its apps and products—including iCloud Photos. There’s now a new level of integration with Windows 11, as well as an improved web app experience.Of course,you’re only likely to choose iCloud Photos for your photo and video management needs if you own an…

We know the problems with passwords: They’re easy for you to forget, and easy for hackers to guess or brute force or download from a public data leak. That’s why tech companies are rushing to replace them with something more secure, which in most cases means the biometric data that you use to unlock your phone.While it’s not technically impossible for a determined third party to get around any security measure, you can’t mistakenly type your fingerprint into a spoof banking website, and you’re unlikely to find your face…

Getting documents signed is easier than you might think.Screenshot: DocuSignThere are some tasks that will never be suitable for a smartphone—serious video editing and serious spreadsheeting, for example—but there’s plenty that you can do on these pocket devices, and that includes scanning, signing and sharing documents without having to go near a computer or printer.Whether you’re on Android or iOS, there are a few built-in options you can try, plus plenty of third-party apps you can turn to for the job. Whatever you…

File management has only recently arrived on smartphones in a serious way, but the default Files apps that now appear on Android and iOS are now steadily growing in terms of the functions and features they offer. In not much time at all, we’ve got from not being able to access the files on a phone at all, to having plenty of control over them.As these apps are still relatively new, it may be that you’ve never opened them up, or at least never explored them fully. Whether your handset is made by an Android manufacturer or…