Technology

    If there's one thing Reddit users are good at, it's coming up with clever tricks — especially on computers. Recently a Redditor asked fellow users what computer tricks everyone should know. People submitted a wealth of tricks for Macs, PCs, web browsers, specific sites like YouTube, programs like Excel, and more. What they all had in common was that using them makes your computer life a whole lot easier and more fun. We looked through the tricks and found the best 14, which are a mixture of useful and mischievous. Get back that tab you accidentally closed. If you want to get back a tab you closed, just press "Control" (or "Command" on Mac), plus "Shift," plus "T," and it will magically reappear. Only screenshot the part of the screen you want. If you only need to screensho...

    While there may be a few that are still fresh in your mind, you can now see all the people in the history of Facebook who decided they didn’t want to accept your friendship online, and clicked to reject your request. If you’re in the mood to unnecessarily torture yourself, the trick is quick and easy to do, and will reveal a list of all the people that either ignored or rejected your friend requests in a matter of seconds. Here’s how to do it: 1. First, hover over the toolbar at the top of Facebook and click on the Friend Requests icon. 2. Your friend requests box will pop up. At the bottom, click "See all." 3. Click "View Sent Requests" towards the top left of the page. Once the offending list has been revealed, you can either celebrate the fact that no one has ever rejec...

    "You are here to help humanity become a spacefaring species." So said the opening line of a brochure for a workshop that took place in August 2014. It was a meeting of some of the greatest scientists and professionals in the space business and beyond, including gene editing maverick George Church and Peter Diamandis from the XPrize Foundation. The workshop's goal: to explore and develop low-cost options for building a human settlement on the moon. "You are here to make this moonshot a reality," said the brochure. The history-making Apollo missions would have cost $150 billion by today's standards. With new ways of thinking, it might be possible to set up a lunar station for $10 billion (£7bn). NASA astrobiologist Chris McKay helped organize the meeting, and then he edited ...

    Apple engineers are said to be working on beefier security measures for the iPhone. Apple's battle with the FBI is nowhere near an end, but the iPhone maker appears to be girding for its next fight over encryption. Apple engineers are working on new security measures that would prevent an iPhone from being hacked using the methods at the heart of the company's fight with the US government, The New York Times reported Wednesday. It wasn't immediately apparent when such new measures would be made available to consumers. Representatives for the Cupertino, California-based tech giant didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. The development appears to be a salvo in the war of words between the FBI and Apple, which has declined to modify its iOS software so the gover...

    The world's longest and largest aircraft, the Airlander 10 has been given a launch date. In March the airship, which dwarfs the world's largest passenger jet, the Airbus A380, will take to the skies for its maiden test flight over Bedfordshire, UK. At 92m long and 43.5m wide this airship is the size of a football pitch. Its huge size comes from its frameless helium-filled hull, which can carry 10-tonne payloads. The Airland 10 can take off vertically and hit cruising altitudes of 20,000ft. However, during its test flight it will cruise at only 4,000ft and won't stray further than 17.25 miles from its take-off spot. The Airlander 10 is expected to fulfil several roles. As a passenger aircraft it could transport up to 48 people in complete comfort, with passengers able to ro...

    For the last 48 hours Twitter has been… well, all of a Twitter. An article in Buzzfeed suggesting that the social network was about to introduce what is known as an algorithmic timeline - promoting tweets deemed most relevant rather than publishing them in reverse chronological order - sparked a wave of what can only be described as furious panic. Under the hashtag #RIPTwitter, thousands, perhaps millions, told the world that this was the end of civilisation as we know it, that a beautiful thing was being crushed, that the company, whose share price has been tumbling for months, was signing its own death warrant. Finally, the CEO Jack Dorsey was forced to react. "Hello Twitter!" he called out. "Regarding #RIPTwitter: I want you all to know we're always listening. We never ...

    The iPhone 7 could be the thinnest iPhone yet, but at what cost? The removal of the 3.5mm headphone jack, that's what. There's also new rumors that it may come with a bezeless design. Recent rumors also point to a screen with Touch ID baked in, wireless charging and more. With the iPhone 6S Apple delivered its best handset yet, but aside from sporting some fancy new 3D Touch technology it was also very similar to the iPhone 6. That was to be expected – after all, Apple typically only overhauls its handsets once every two years, but that overhaul is due with the iPhone 7, so we're expecting and hoping for big changes: think a whole new design, piles of power and a bunch of new features. There's not much to go on yet, which isn't surprising given that the iPhone 7 probably w...

    As wireless technology has become widespread over the past two decades, researchers have worked to understand whether it could have negative effects on health. A recent report on New.com.au quoted Dr Devra Davis, an American epidemiologist, who said she was concerned by mobile phone use and electromagnetic fields. She also spoke of an incident where a young women allegedly developed a breast cancer tumour in the shape of her phone, after she put the device into her bra. However, other health experts have sought to reassure the public that there is "absolutely no evidence" to show that the rays omitted from phones can cause cancer. Dr Mireille Toledano, an epidemiologist at Imperial College London told The Independent that such cases are merely anecdotal. Citing the case of...

    American teens think Facebook has definitely lost its cool factor, but use it as much as ever. A survey released Monday by Forrester Research found 78 percent of US teenagers use Facebook, a figure unchanged from last year. That’s more than any other “social” site except the video-sharing service YouTube, used by 80 percent of teens. The cool factor isn’t there for the leading social network, Forrester found: 65 percent of online users ages 12 to 17 say Facebook is cool, far less than services such as YouTube (80 percent), Snapchat (79 percent) and Facebook-owned Instagram (78 percent). “Sure, young people don’t think Facebook is cool – but that doesn’t mean they’ve stopped using it,” the report said. Forrester analysts said Facebook “generates more hyper-usage than any ot...

    Supersonics are back. Around the world, aerospace companies and organisations, including Nasa, are developing the technology that will allow passengers once again to fly at faster than the speed of sound. The first of this new breed of aircraft could be flying early in the 2020s. It was way back in 2003 that Concorde was retired. The airliner entered service in 1976 but was hobbled by complaints that it was too loud. As a result, it could only break the sound barrier when flying over the ocean. This restricted its operation and turned it into a niche aircraft operated only by British Airways and Air France on transatlantic flights. The technology simply did not exist to create a new generation of practical and efficient supersonic airliners,” says Doug Nichols, CEO of ...