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I like to keep a clean desk. That’s helped enormously by being paperless, but another key is what I refer to as my OCDesk: a custom-built desk with a rear undershelf to hold all the power-strips, power bricks, external drives and so on. That keeps all the mess out of sight. (I’ve since had a new one created, but I’ll get to that in a future Smart Home Diary.) But if your desire for tidiness doesn’t quite extend to having a custom desk created for you, a rear shelf for an iMac or Apple Thunderbolt Display can be a good way to keep things tidy …...

A week ago we checked out Sylvania’s $60 HomeKit light strip that works without a bridge and costs less than Philips Hue. Sylvania is a known name in lighting, but there’s an even cheaper option available if you’re willing to stray from major brands. Hong Kong-based VOCOlinc offers a $40 smart LED light strip that works with Apple HomeKit, so how does it compare? Like Sylvania, VOCOlinc doesn’t rely on an Ethernet bridge to connect to your Wi-Fi network and talk to HomeKit....

Riverdale has grown to be much more than the average teen drama. Based on the Archie Comics, the series takes the original characters and places them in larger than life storylines in their small town. Archie, Jughead, Betty, and Veronica have a lot more to worry about than the average teenage worries of getting to school on time or remembering to do a homework assignment. In a town filled with gangs, murderers, and drug lords, it is a miracle anyone manages to survive to the next day....

If you have reached this article, you probably have made changes to the Default Domain and/or Default Domain Controller group policy object and know you want to restore them back to their original settings. If you would have followed best practices, rather than modifying these GPOs, you would have created new custom GPOs and linked them to the relevant containers. In any case, if you’ve already modified these GPOs and want to restore the default content, follow these steps:...

Resumonk is an excellent resume creation web service. Using this intuitive web app you are able to create multiple versions of your curriculum vitae (CV) and have them all stored in your account with different titles. The app offers different resume templates – free as well as paid ones – which you can use to make your resume more visually appealing. Your resumes all have numerous informative fields that you can edit to better define all dimensions of yourself....

If you’re an Android user, this great app for when you’re away from your computer. With just an Android device and a WiFi connection, you’ll be able to download legal content from a torrent tracker. First, install it from here in the Google Play Store. After installing it, just go to any torrent tracker site you use, and click the downloaded file. It will open the app directly (just like it would on a computer), and you can choose where you want the files downloaded....

IK Multimedia has released loads of new generation products for portable and mobile musicians over the last 12 months. From the iRig HD 2 condenser mic and the sub-$100 iRig Pre guitar interface, to the new Syntronik for Mac/iOS, IK has something for everyone this holiday season. Back in August, the company debuted its latest MIDI controller product known as iRig Keys I/O. As expected with IK, this appeared to come along with everything you could want in a sub $300 controller, but this time around IK decided to take it one step further with a more all-in-one approach....

We’ll get some slight negatives out the way very quickly. The N1 is a sealed design. And in this Cyanogen-from-the-factory edition, its storage is capped at about 12GB free out of the box (of which 2GB is for apps and 10GB for files, media, game resources, and so on), with no microSD expansion. That’s a pretty big restriction, though the hacker in me wants to point out at this stage that the 16GB Cyanogen version and the 32GB ‘Color UI’ version are very easily switched in terms of operating system, once in user hands....

Apple’s Cards app introduced in 2011 and discontinued two years later remains one of my favorite iPhone apps to date. The service was fantastic: snap photos on your iPhone, then turn them into personalized letterpress cards sent through the mail to friends and family. Stamp and envelope included, you’d pay $2.99 for anywhere in the US or $4.99 for anywhere around the world. You can still send personalized letterpress cards using Photos on the Mac, but the service was perfect for me as an iPhone app....

Rick And Morty made it into a cult phenomenon but it’s not easy to get hold of, so here’s a recipe to make some Szechuan sauce. It was a long wait between season 2 and season 3 of Rick And Morty, with the second season ending on a huge cliffhanger. Season 3 opener “The Rickshank Rickdemption” proved to be worth the wait, with Rick breaking out of Galactic Federation custody and destroying the Citadel of Ricks in typically elaborate - and gory - fashion....

Ring doorbells are mostly recognized for their multiple safety features, quality of operation, and excellent support for many home automation brands. In addition, Ring Doorbells provide an extra security layer for your home and neighborhood alerts as well. Anyway, like any security camera lens, Ring doorbell’s live streams are subjected to overexposure. However, to purchase a security product, we must first consider the video quality of the camera. We need to see everything clearly through the camera without any hitch....

Katy Keene will drop into the world of Riverdale, with Lucy Hale guest starring on the teen drama ahead of the spinoff’s premiere. Based on the Archie Comics character of the same name, Katy Keene was first announced back in January. Described as a dramedy, the series would focus on four characters, all based on Archie Comics, as they follow their dreams in New York City. Hale was tapped to play Keene, an aspiring fashion designer....

Tomorrow, after much excitement, Apple will officially launch OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion for $19.99 to the public on the App Store. A new operating system certainly brings a ton of new features. However, there is always the lingering possibility that your favorite app may not be compatible. Just before the launch of Lion last year, we told you about a website called RoaringApps. As Mountain Lion is unleashed from its cage tomorrow, here is a little reminder on exactly why RoaringApps is so useful....

For fall 2015, Apple is preparing an “S” iPhone upgrade that superficially preserves the exterior designs of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, but includes a collection of major internal changes. In May, we reported that this new “iPhone 6S” line would debut this fall with a Force Touch, pressure-sensitive display as one of its marquee features. Now, a proven source familiar with Apple’s supply chain has provided us with the most extensive look yet at Apple’s next iPhone, sharing the first photos of the iPhone 6S’s external metal casing, plus an in-depth look at the new iPhone’s internals....

Rick And Morty’s parody of Alien: Covenant finds the duo aboard an Engineer ship and accidentally exposing a Facehugger’s weakness. Despite Alien becoming an instant classic following its 1979 release, Ridley Scott wasn’t invited back to helm sequel Aliens. In the years that followed, that was brief talk of him helming Alien 3 from a script by author William Gibson or collaborating with James Cameron on Alien 5, but nothing ever came of those discussions....

The Alien: Isolation digital series reveals xenomorphs can survive the vacuum of space – could that mean the original Star Beast is still floating out there in the cosmos? Alien celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2019 and even after all these years, the xenomorph remains one of the most unique and terrifying monsters in cinema. The franchise has veered off in many different directions during that time, including multiple sequels, comic books, video games, and even plushy toys....

What happens when a TV Network takes one of the best comics ever and turns it into a scripted show? Well, for fans of Archie, Betty, Veronica, and Jughead, Riverdale has not been a disappointment. While some of the storylines are a bit over the top, overall, there’s no denying the longevity this show can have. With such a large cast of main and supporting characters, Riverdale is as diverse as they come....

There are going to some gasps of horror at its Rs 6,999 (USD 99.99) price tag, especially when you consider that Xiaomi offers a 20000 mAh power bank at a much lower price (Rs 1499 at the time of writing). Hold your horses of horror, though. We are not saying that the Anker PowerCore Speed 20000 PD is a super affordable proposition. It isn’t. But it does bring some serious charging muscle for those extra bucks it charges....

According to a report from SamMobile, the Gear 360 is a compact spherical camera that can capture 360-degree images through multiple pairs of fisheye lenses. It would then be able to stream these back to a connected phone, though it’s unclear if this will be tied specifically to the GS7 or will work with other Galaxy flagships. The new gear is said to have the usual settings you’d expect from an everyday camera, like HDR, white balance settings, exposure control, some type of “live” view option....

The Information has published a lengthy report today covering the development of Siri. The article documents Siri’s tumultuous changes in leadership and management over the last few years, indicating that Siri 1.0’s infrastructure was very creaky, which held back the service. The big takeaway from The Information’s reporting is that Siri launched with a poorly scalable infrastructure that caused bottlenecks for years after it launched in 2011. At the initial release, the popularity of Siri ‘exceeded expectations’ and led to a lot of unreliability....