Tausi Insider

Photo : DenPhotos ( Shutterstock ) When you’re downloading torrents on your computer, consider using a VPN . Your ISP and advertising companies don’t need to know you’re downloading the latest Linux distros or other totally legal content, and a good VPN can help you improve your privacy. Most people just download a VPN and assume all their data is safe from prying eyes, but it’s not true. Once you’ve selected the right VPN, you should bind it to the torrent client to ensure that your IP address doesn’t leak. Some VPNs have a kill switch that disables your internet connection when it’s not routed through your VPN. Even if you’ve enabled this feature, kill switches can fail and compromise your privacy. The best way to keep your data private while downloading torrents is to bind your client to the VPN directly. Which torrent client should I use? There are plenty of torrent clients out there, but Qbittorrent is among the best. It’s free, works very well, and doesn’t have ads or othe...

Screenshot : Khamosh Pathak Zip files are a useful but cumbersome solution to compressing multiple files together. They come in different ways—an archive of photographs for a project, or the need to compress a file that just won’t fit in Gmail’s archaic 25MB file limit. It’s one thing to deal with zip files on a computer, but when you see them on your phone, you might just give up entirely. Your iPhone is actually really good with zip files, though, and they’re better than ever thanks to some changes in iOS 16 . With Apple’s ever-evolving Files app, you can compress multiple files together, without the need to create a folder first (phew). Unzipping an archive is even easier. And the Files app isn’t just limited to .zip files; it can also uncompress .ar, .bz2, .cpio, .rar, .tar, and .tgz file types. Let’s talk about compressing first. Open the Files app and find all the files you want to group together. Ideally, you should first move all the files to a single folder. After that’...

Photo : Jarretera ( Shutterstock ) One Gmail, one address. That seems right. After all, you have one phone number, and one home address. The same should be true for your email addresses, Gmail included. As it happens, though, your Gmail account has an unlimited number of addresses you can use whenever you want, fooling everyone from Netflix to spammers alike. There are actually a couple of methods here. The first is what allows you to turn your single gmail address into infinite addresses, through a tactic called “plus addressing” (a fitting name). In order to take advantage of plus addressing, you simply type a plus (+) after the local-part (the name before the @), then type whatever you want. For example, if my Gmail address were jake@gmail.com, I could type jake+lifehacker@gmail.com, or jake+gomedia@gmail.com. The service you’re using that email with will think it’s an entirely new address, but any emails to that address will still be sent to your inbox. This works for any Gmai...

Photo : Rawpixel.com ( Shutterstock ) If you’re shocked to learn the internet isn’t a great place when it comes to your privacy , welcome to your first day online. Companies track everything you do when browsing the web, sometimes down to your individual keypresses and mouse clicks, and gobble up as much of your personal information as they can get their hands on. When you shop this Cyber Monday, and throughout the entire 2022 holiday season for that matter, know you aren’t just handing over your hard-earned dollars to retailers, you’re also giving out your data. The problem with shopping online is there are so many points at which you can lose you data . There are the stores themselves, which collect as much as they can while you browse their sites. On top of that, there are third-party trackers that follow you around from site to site, building a profile of your browsing habits. Then there are third-party services like Honey that help improve the shopping experience or...

Photo : rarrarorro ( Shutterstock ) Hive Social recently shut down its servers after security researchers discovered severe security vulnerabilities that put users’ private data at risk . According to German cybersecurity firm Zerforschung, the flaw was serious enough that hackers could access all personal data for all 2 million-plus users, including names, email addresses, and phone numbers, as well as all private messages—even those previously deleted from chats. There’s no evidence of such a hack, but it’s still a massive security issue. In response to Zerforschung’s discovery, Hive Social’s team shut down its servers, thus disabling the app, while the vulnerabilities are patched. On Wednesday, Hive posted an official statement (ironically on Twitter) saying the app will be “offline for a couple of days while we fix this for a better and safer experience.” It remains offline at the time of this writing. To be fair, Hive Social is operated by an extremely small team that likely ...

Photo : Proxima Studio ( Shutterstock ) It’s unfortunate how often we hear about apps containing malware on Google’s platform ( not that they’re alone with a malware problem ). Each time we learn about new trojans, it’s a reminder to stay diligent when downloading new apps. This time, the newly-discovered apps have over two million downloads combined, meaning a lot of devices have been compromised. Cybersecurity Doctor Web discovered a trojan on the Play Store by the name of “Fast Cleaner & Cooling Master.” This app purported to be for OS optimization, claiming to improve the performance of Android on your smartphone. Instead, the app secretly communicates with developers through Firebase Cloud Messaging or AppMetrica Push SDK, display ads on victims’ smartphones, or use those devices as proxy servers. If you had the app installed on your Android, for example, third parties could route their traffic through your device. This app had less than 1,000 downloads, which, while n...

Photo : nikkimeel ( Shutterstock ) Apple prides itself on being a privacy-first company, and when it comes to devices like iPhone and Mac, that’s true. But Apple’s iCloud backups were tangled in a mess of different encryption standards. Some things on iCloud, like your health data and passwords, are end-to-end encrypted. But a lot of stuff, like your notes, your photos, and your iMessages (when backing up to iCloud), aren’t. Apple now is starting to right this wrong, introducing a way to manually enable end-to-end encryption on many new data types. What is Advanced Data Protection, and how does it work? These changes come in the form of a new umbrella feature called Advanced Data Protection. Before Advanced Data Protection, only certain data types were encrypted end-to-end. Others were encrypted in transit to iCloud and when living on the iCloud server, but Apple always had the encryption key on hand should you need it. That’s c onvenient if you lose your password and need Apple t...

Photo : Dontree_M ( Shutterstock ) Nearly six years after its launch and with a sequel just around the corner, Breath of the Wild is still a wildly popular game among Switch players of all kinds. You’d think gamers would have learned everything there is to know about this great adventure by now, but new things pop up all the time. Now, we know about a glitch that gives you both unlimited stamina and invincibility, but it takes a little bit of elbow grease to trigger. YouTube channel Gaming Reinvented highlighted the groundbreaking glitch in this video . It’s a great combination. Imagine being able to soar off a cliff on your glider without ever running out of steam. Imagine walking up to any boss and taking them head-on, without the fear of death raising the stakes (and your blood pressure). The thing is, the steps you need to take to trigger the glitch are rather complex. You need to start yourself off with the upgraded Sheikah Sensor, a save game near any of the Goddess Statues...

Photo : nicklbaert ( Shutterstock ) AirPlay a llows you to stream music from an Apple device to your HomePod, or mirror video content from your iPhone, iPad, or Mac to a bigger screen. As long as all devices are connected to the same wifi network, AirPlay works really well with in the Apple ecosystem. But even if your primary computer is a Windows PC, you can still use AirPlay to stream to other devices— even from Windows. Here’s how . Use iTunes to stream to AirPlay-enabled devices Apple’s iTunes app still works on Windows, and you can download it for free to make your PC work with AirPlay devices. Once you’ve added your media to iTunes, you can click the AirPlay icon in its top bar (next to the media controls), and select the device you want to stream to. With this feature you can use a HomePod as a speaker for your Windows PC. Similarly, you can connect to any other AirPlay-enabled device to your computer. This method can also allow you to stream movies from iTunes to your...

M&M “Sexy and I Know It” Super Bowl Commercial 2012 While windshield pitting was a grassroots, politically neutral event—an honest mistake—the current imbroglio over M&Ms is a more modern incarnation of the moral panic that’s driven more by marketing than mystery. In case you missed this tiresome drama, the Mars Wrigley company recently redesigned their M&M corporate cartoon characters, lowering the high heels on the “female” M&Ms, changing their “flesh” from “generic white person hue” to colors representing their shells, and introducing a new, plus-size M. Apparently bereft of anything else to worry about, right wing commenters, especially Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, were performatively offended. “M&M’s will not be satisfied until every last cartoon character is deeply unappealing and totally androgynous,” Carlson said on his show. “When you’re totally turned off, we’ve achieved equity. They’ve won.” Putting aside how deeply weird it is to be turned on by candy,...

Photo : Yasin Hasan ( Shutterstock ) Is your setup incomplete without multiple monitors? Whether it’s a MacBook connected to a display, or a Mac Studio with two monitors, there are several apps that can enhance your workflow. Some of these apps will help you optimize your display; others let you adjust settings on each individual display. HiDock HiDock is a free app that lets you create custom Dock configurations for every monitor in your setup. You can place the Dock on the left side of a taller display while letting it remain in the bottom of your laptop’s screen. The app also lets you set a custom size for the Dock on each monitor. If you want a larger Dock on a larger screen, and a smaller Dock on a smaller screen, i t’s easy to do. Lunar Lunar is perfect for granular control over each display in your setup. You can use this app to automatically turn off the MacBook’s screen, and only use the external display if you want to. At the same time, you can use the hardware key...

Photo : Yasin Hasan ( Shutterstock ) Is your setup incomplete without multiple monitors? Whether it’s a MacBook connected to a display, or a Mac Studio with two monitors, there are several apps that can enhance your workflow. Some of these apps will help you optimize your display; others let you adjust settings on each individual display. HiDock HiDock is a free app that lets you create custom Dock configurations for every monitor in your setup. You can place the Dock on the left side of a taller display while letting it remain in the bottom of your laptop’s screen. The app also lets you set a custom size for the Dock on each monitor. If you want a larger Dock on a larger screen, and a smaller Dock on a smaller screen, i t’s easy to do. Lunar Lunar is perfect for granular control over each display in your setup. You can use this app to automatically turn off the MacBook’s screen, and only use the external display if you want to. At the same time, you can use the hardware key...