💾 Windows 10’s doomsday date: Microsoft is pulling the plug on Windows 10 support Oct. 14. Europe gets free updates for a year, but here in the U.S.? You’ve got three options: cough up $30, burn 1,000 Microsoft Rewards points, or back up your stuff to OneDrive and pray you don’t run out of storage. Protection ends October 2026.
📧 Split view in Gmail: Tired of bouncing between your inbox and an open email? You can split the screen so your inbox stays on one side while the message you’re reading shows on the other. Go to Settings, scroll down to Reading pane, and choose Right of inbox (side by side) or Below inbox (stacked). Wunderbar!
🤔 Quick fact-check with ChatGPT: No need to spend ages Googling. If you’re unsure about something, paste it into ChatGPT and prompt, “Is this factually correct? Search the web and show recent sources.” Then follow up with “Are you sure?”
🔍 Make Chrome easier to read: If text feels too small, open the three-dot menu > Settings > Appearance. Under Font size, set it to Large, and under Page zoom, bump it up to 125% (or more). You can also use Customize fonts to choose a style that’s friendlier on your eyes.
Fix Windows without wiping everything: PC acting weird? Don’t rush to reinstall. Instead, reset while keeping your personal files. Go to Settings > System > Recovery > Reset PC, then select Keep my files. Apps and settings get removed, but documents stay safe. Bonus: Always back up to the cloud or a portable hard drive first.
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🕒 Customize your Mac lock screen clock: In macOS 26, you can change how the clock looks on your lock screen. Go to System Settings > Wallpaper > Clock Appearance. Choose if the clock shows on the Lock Screen, on both the Screen Saver and Lock Screen, or Never. Then pick from six fonts and adjust the Weight with the slider underneath.
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📞 Paid to spill: A new app called Neon pays you to record your calls: 30¢ a minute, max $30 a day for a little self-spying. It then sells your voice data to AI companies. It’s already No. 2 in Apple’s social charts. Once your voice is out there, it could be cloned, hacked or scammed into oblivion. I think you should pass.
📝 Take note: Looking for a free note-taking app that won’t smack you with ads or sell your data? Try Notesnook. You can jot things down, make to-do lists, attach files and organize with tags or pins. It also works offline, syncs later and runs cross-platform, so you can pick up anywhere. Nice one, right?
🖥️ Customize your Windows 11 Taskbar: Want quick access to an app? Just drag a desktop shortcut down to the Taskbar, or right-click something in the Start menu and hit Pin to taskbar. To remove an app, right-click > Unpin from taskbar. Don’t like Widgets? Go to Settings > Personalization > Taskbar and toggle them off.
🧞♂️ Wish granted, kind of: A Virginia widow asked ChatGPT for lottery numbers. It spat out some digits. She won $150,000. And she’s donating all of it. I won’t be surprised if GPT starts getting thousands of new magic number requests per day. You know, a lottery ticket is a weird gift to give someone. It’s like “Here, this has a 99% chance of being disappointing. I saw it and thought of you.”
🍏 Better iPad multitasking: iPadOS 26 finally gives you proper window controls. Turn it on under Settings > Multitasking & Gestures > Windowed Apps. From there, use the traffic light buttons to resize, minimize or snap apps into layouts. For example, hold the green expand button (or hover with a cursor) to arrange windows into quarters.
Inbox, outsourced: Perplexity just launched an AI “Email Assistant” that moves into your Gmail or Outlook, auto-sorts messages, drafts replies in your tone and books meetings. Cool, but it’s locked behind their $200/month Max plan. For those not trying to drop part of your rent money on your inbox, just smash that “mark all as read” button.
⚡️ 3-second tech genius: Made a typing mistake? Press Ctrl + Z on Windows or Cmd + Z on Mac to undo it. Need to redo? Hit Ctrl + Y on your PC or Cmd + Shift + Z on a Mac.
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📱 Disable Android bloatware: Some preinstalled apps can’t be uninstalled, but they’ll still update and eat resources in the background. If you don’t use them, shut them down. Go to Settings > Apps > [App name] > Disable > Disable app. Handy if your phone’s running low on storage space.
🍏 Stop iPhone from switching audio: Ever had your AirPods cut out because your iPhone jumped to your car’s Bluetooth or a speaker? iOS 26 has a fix. Go to Settings > General > AirPlay & Continuity and toggle on Keep Audio with Headphones. Lovely.
Uber’s new Costco energy: You might want to check out using prepaid passes for routes you take often, so you save money up front. You can buy bundles of five, 10, 15 or 20 rides, and the bigger the bundle, the bigger the discount (5%‑20% off), which means no surge price surprise for your daily commute.
🐢 Speed up old PCs: On Windows 11, flashy animations and effects can slow down an older computer. Go to Settings > Accessibility > Visual effects and toggle off Transparency effects and Animation effects. Apps will open more basic and your desktop will look plainer, but you’ll get a snappier system in return.
💻 Customize the Mac menu bar: One big change in macOS Tahoe 26 is the fully transparent menu bar. Don’t like it? Go to System Settings > Menu Bar and toggle on Show menu bar background. While you’re there, you can also untick items like Bluetooth or Weather, or remove tools like ChatGPTHelper.