Category: Tech Made Simple

Epic’s Annual Holiday Sale has Great Deals and even Freebies!

Epic Games plans to give away 17 free games during its annual holiday sale for the Epic Games Store, the company announced last week. As The Verge reports, the first free game you can snag is Destiny 2: Legacy Collection (2023), which includes three expansions: The Witch Queen, Beyond Light, and Shadowkeep. If you want to catch up on some older Destiny 2 content […]

The once powerful E3 Expo is Dead

The Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3, is done for good, the event’s organizers announced last week. As Apple Insider reports, even for the most grizzled veteran of Apple-centric events like Macworld Expo and WWDC, E3 was on a different scale, entirely. For a week every May (sometimes June), every hotel, restaurant and public space in downtown […]

The FTC warns QR Codes Can be Phishing Scams

QR code with caption SCAN ME! Enter & Win behind a hand holding smartphone showing QR Code with skull and crossbones

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) warned the public against scanning any old QR code in a consumer alerts blog last week. Naturally, the warning comes down to security and privacy — bad actors can put QR codes in inconspicuous places or send them via text or email, then just sit back and wait for a payday in […]

Hubble is Back in Service after Gyro Scare

Hubble Space Telescope

The Hubble Space Telescope resumed science observations on Friday after ground teams spent most of the last three weeks assessing the performance of a finicky gyroscope, NASA said. As ArsTechnica reports, the troublesome gyroscope is a critical part of the observatory’s pointing system. Hubble’s gyros measure how fast the spacecraft is turning, helping the telescope […]

Epic just released a Trilogy of Rockin’ New Games inside of Fortnite

Epic has just released a trilogy of new games inside of Fortnite. As The Verge reports, it started with Lego Fortnite, continued with Rocket Racing, and is wrapping up with Fortnite Festival, developed by Guitar Hero studio Harmonix (which Epic acquired in 2021). It’s all part of an ambitious plan to turn Fortnite from a hit battle royale into a platform filled with all kinds […]

Apple Shut Down Beeper’s iMessage Hack “to Protect Our Users”

A few days after the team at Beeper proudly announced a way for users to send blue-bubble iMessages directly from their Android devices without any weird relay servers, and about 24 hours after it became clear Apple had taken steps to shut that down, Apple has shared its take on the issue. As The Verge reports, the company’s stance […]

Amazon’s redesigned Alexa app makes smart home controls easier to use

It’s been 3 years since Amazon updated its Alexa app and in tech years, it feels like a hundred. But the wait is over. As The Verge reports, the revamp is rolling out fully this week to iOS and Android devices, but it started this summer with some small changes you may have already spotted. […]

Want to Snack on Doritos without Interrupting Your Game Play? Doritos Silent “Crunch Cancelling” software is the Answer.

The noise of someone chomping on chips can be irritating, especially if it’s directly in your ear, on say, a voice chat or a Zoom call. Voices – and crunching – are amplified when people are using headsets, which are often worn by gamers, many of whom spend hours at a time playing multiplayer video […]

Apple and Google name their Top Apps of 2023

Last week, both Apple and Google announced their best apps and games of the year, with the hiking and biking companion AllTrails winning as Apple’s iPhone App of the Year in 2023, while the educational app Imprint: Learn Visually won as Google Play’s best app. Meanwhile, Apple and Google agreed on their Game of the Year, as both picked Honkai: […]

Police Warn Parents About iPhone NameDrop Security Concerns After Apple iOS Update

Police are cautioning iPhone users over security concerns related to a new feature that is part of Apple’s latest operating system software update. Called NameDrop, the feature allows users with iOS 17.1 and watchOS 10.1 “to quickly share contact information with a nearby iPhone or Apple Watch,” according to the tech company. As People magazine reports, […]