Category: Tech Made Simple

How To Keep Your “Hey Google” History Off The Record

Home assistants such as Alexa and Google Assistant are becoming ubiquitous, and as that happens, more and more users are discovering how much of their data is actually being collected by these handy items. The Washington Post’s Geoffrey A. Fowler was so taken aback by the amount of audio material that Amazon collected that he […]

Amazon’s Echo Dot for Kids is Not So Worry-Free

Children’s data privacy advocates filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission on Thursday morning, calling for the federal agency to investigate the “Kids Edition” of Amazon’s Echo Dot smart speaker.  The 96 page complaint was co-authored by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) and the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD), and co-signed by […]

New Chrome Extension Promises to “fix” Gmail

The co-creator of Google’s beloved-yet-discontinued Inbox app, and former lead designer for Gmail, has released a new Chrome extension that considerably simplifies Gmail’s web interface.  Michael Leggett, who was Gmail’s design lead between 2008 and 2012, released the Simplify Gmail extension on April 2nd — the day after Gmail’s 15th anniversary which was also the […]

What the Heck is Going On with Samsung’s Galaxy Fold?

What in the world is going on over at Samsung in the wake of the Galaxy Fold delay?  The whole situation keeps refusing to normalize, and instead gets weirder nearly every day. The latest is that iFixit has decided to honor a Samsung request to pull its Galaxy Fold teardown off the internet, even though […]

Caffeine Gives Solar Cells an Energy Boost

What started out as a joke over morning coffee among colleagues has turned into a real breakthrough in solar technology. Scientists from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and Solargiga Energy in China have discovered that caffeine can help make a promising alternative to traditional solar cells more efficient at converting light to electricity. […]

Spoiler Alert! How to Avoid GOT and Endgame Spoilers

The internet is full of spoilers, making it a dangerous place to hang around if you’re trying to steer clear of what happens in Avengers: Endgame, Game of Thrones, or any other TV shows, movies, or video games that you’re still catching up on. Even when you think you’ve got things under control, Google’s autocomplete […]

How To Print from a Chromebook

Even digital cloud-dwellers occasionally need paper.  While Google’s Chromebooks are all about online services, sometimes you need a good old fashioned printout to accompany your digital adventures.  Printing from a Chromebook has gotten a lot easier over the years, but it still isn’t always obvious how to get started or which paths to embrace. Follow […]