Display and sound tips for Windows 1. Transform the theme Bored of the same old Windows colors and wallpapers? Change the theme: the operating system’s prepackaged look. A single theme can include a wallpaper image, color scheme, cursor icon, and even associated sounds. To make the software work just right for you, you can tweak a variety of visual and audio settings. From transforming the appearance of your operating system to enabling all of your connected speakers, these 12 tricks for PCs and Macs will give you full control over the look and the sound of your computer....

If you get to use your own lock, get a Tapplock One+. The weatherproof smart padlock holds a charge for a year and features a built-in fingerprint scanner, which means you won’t have to remember any combination. Register your fingerprint through the smartphone app and the lock will open in 0.8 seconds. You can also store up to 500 separate fingerprints or share Bluetooth access from far away. This is helpful if you need to let a coworker into your locker on a day you’re working from home....

NOAA predicts with 70 percent confidence that from June 1 to November 30, the eastern US coast will see up to 21 named storms. Six to 10 of those storms could become hurricanes, with three to six of those hurricanes potentially being “major”—category 3, 4, or 5. A hyperactive storm season should not be taken lightly, NOAA officials emphasize. The agency’s administrator, Rick Spinrad, said in a statement that even though forecasting accuracy has greatly improved over the years, major hurricanes can still seriously upend lives and livelihoods....

Filming underwater is hard enough, but doing it in IMAX 3-D is altogether another challenge. “I do it purely for the money,” laughs director Howard Hall. Hall began his underwater filming career in 1970 and has worked on over 100 underwater projects. “Working with a 1300 pound system that runs only three minutes at a time may be impractical, but it’s also really fun,” says Hall. And requires a lot of patience, adds producer and wife Michele Hall....

As with most Apple products, they’re designed to just, well… work. But if you have one of these gadgets, then you’ll surely want to make the most out of it with some advanced tricks. You can tap this message to get the AirTag to make a sound so you can locate it. Your device will also give you options to disable the tracking on the AirTag if it’s attached to one of your possessions rather than simply lost by the owner, for example....

The young girl came to the ER on March 17 with respiratory symptoms, generic enough not to raise any red flags. It took two days for her medical team to suspect measles, at which point they put her into isolation. But the measles virus is highly contagious. So anyone who sat in close enough proximity to her, or even sat in the same area hours later, could have been infected....

As race teams ramp up design and innovation ahead of the inaugural Air Race E all-electric air race series to debut in 2020, Condor Aviation of North Yorkshire, England, unveiled their “White Lightning” race plane, the world’s first air racing airplane powered solely by electricity. The announcement came as the team displayed their entry at the 2019 Dubai Airshow in the United Arab Emirates. The Air Race E series is headed by international air racing promoter Jeff Zaltman and will present a series of head-to-head international air races, showcasing not only the skills of the pilots, but also the “expertise and ingenuity” of aerospace engineers from around the world....

The specimen was discovered on Scotland’s Isle of Skye and is called Bellairsia gracilis. Bellairsia was a tiny lizard ancestor and was only about two inches long. The “exceptional” new fossil is described in a study published this week in Nature. The fossil is only missing its snout and tail and is likely the most complete fossil lizard of this age anywhere in the world. Within Bellairsia‘s skeleton are a mixture of older ancestral features and modern features, which provides evidence of what the ancient ancestor of present-day lizards might have looked like....

There weren’t any injuries, but the accident has kept the Antares rocket—and its makers, Orbital ATK—grounded for a year and a half. A faulty turbopump in one of the main AJ-26 engines was to blame, so the company gave Antares a whole new engine, the RD-181. When the Antares 230 rises from the ashes in May 2016, it’ll be more powerful than ever, capable of carrying an extra 1,300 pounds of cargo....

4:31 p.m.: There you have it from the SpaceX CEO himself. Just like the last landing attempt, the final stage hit its target but just couldn’t slow down enough. Hopefully we’ll learn more about the source of the issue and if it can be resolved for future attempts. 4:25 p.m.: The Dragon capsule is now in orbit, and we’re waiting on word from the final stage. Looks like that will come after the livestream ends....

And bumble forward lazily: The Air Mule has long been in the works. In 2007, Popular Science wrote about an early version of the concept: Autonomous flight adds greater ability to this sky-ambulance. Designed to carry almost 1,000 pounds, the Air Mule is designed for a top speed of 60 mph, and unladen a maximum range of 430 miles. Built around ducted fans, it takes off and lands vertically. Watch it below: [Via Army Recognition]

The ABL uses a chemical reaction to generate a megawatt of infrared laser light. When a missile’s smoke trail from burning propellant sets off the 747’s sensors, a tracking laser locks onto the target’s most vulnerable spot, usually its fuel tank. Then the main laser fires away. It’s no simple feat: Robert McMurry, Jr., the ABL program director for the Missile Defense Agency, compares the challenge to “flying over the Washington Monument while shooting through a basketball hoop in Central Park....

Not really, according to a Pew Research Center survey taken last year. When asked whether computer programs will always reflect the biases of their designers, 58 percent of respondents thought they would. This finding illustrates a serious tension between computing technology, whose influence on people’s lives is only expected to grow, and the people affected by it. The lack of trust in any particular technology impedes its acceptance and use....

Using your inbox to send and receive emails is all well and good—that’s its primary purpose, after all. But its powers go way beyond that, thanks largely to the ubiquity of this form of communication: Because email is such an established technology—almost every adult has an email address—just about every device and platform includes support for your inbox. In fact, developers have created a variety email plug-ins that you can employ for many other purposes....

Many of the most dramatic scenes in English Gothic literature take place on the moors: Heathcliff is haunted by ghosts in Wuthering Heights; Jane Eyre’s titular character runs aimlessly after learning her beloved Mr. Rochester has been keeping his first wife captive in his attic. If the Brontë sisters’ fictional worlds work in a similar way to ours, sphagnum (or peat) moss was cushioning these characters’ wandering feet. And if Jane and Heathcliff had any seedlings on their windowsills, chunks of that same moss may have been padding those pots....

The research builds on a previous study from the same research team outlining the neurological problems experienced by people who lived in Cuba and who reported symptoms. “This is the imaging findings that underlie those clinical symptoms,” says study author Ragini Verma, a professor of radiology and a brain imaging specialist at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. The new study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), used brain scans to look at three different aspects of brain function in 40 people who were clinically evaluated after reported exposure to the as-yet undetermined phenomenon....

Android Auto To use Android Auto, you’ll need a compatible car stereo unit and an Android phone running Android 6.0 Marshmallow or later. If you’re on Android 10 or later, Android Auto comes built in, otherwise you’ll have to download it from the Google Play Store. Start using these platforms over what your car offers and you’ll get much better integration with everything that’s on your phone—including saved map destinations, access to your contacts, messages, and more....

Our partner StackCommerce selects exclusive deals on gadgets and gear, software, hardware, web services and e-learning courses, games, and more. Right now, there’s a great deal on a drone that can do barrel rolls and flips and capture it all in full HD. It’s just $99. Also, if you’re in need of a stocking stuffer, check out the Nanotips. The invisible, paint-on coating will make any pair of gloves touchscreen-friendly, so you can fire off text after text in bitter cold with no consequences (except maybe to your data plan)....

The European Union’s attempts to protect the data of its citizens with the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has created something of a privacy halo—and it’s slowly expanding beyond Europe’s borders. One of the latest companies to comply is Apple. When the law went into effect earlier this year, the tech giant released a tool to increase data and tracking transparency—but it was only available in Europe. That tool crossed the pond on Wednesday, allowing people in the U....