Take full control of your desktop alerts by sending yourself recurring reminders and custom notifications triggered by specific events. While there are plenty of ways to limit notifications on our digital devices and avoid distraction overload, there's nothing inherently wrong with these alerts. They just need to be well managed and kept in their place. Keeping notifications useful and timely can help you get more done in the day, not less, and Windows 11 comes with built-in tools for setting up custom notifications that run on a schedule you specify. You can use these scheduled notifications however you want.

Installing a large language model on your personal computer gives you a handy digital assistant that won't compromise your data privacy. It's no exaggeration to say the large language models that power AI bots like ChatGPT and Gemini are changing the world. Many of us are now relying on them for coding, writing, summarizing, and searching the web. Whatever directions AI goes in over the next few years, LLMs will be part of that future. If you use ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, or any of the other AI platforms, then you're using an LLM.

You can minimize the risk of films and shows being spoiled for you by muting comments, conversations, and keywords on various platforms. With multiple streaming services to choose from and the entire history of cinema and television to dig into, you'd be forgiven for not being quite up-to-date with the latest films and shows. That's where spoilers can hit you. Whether it's a twisty Netflix thriller or the season finale of a show on Apple TV, there will be times when you haven't gotten around to watching something and yet you don't want the plot spoiled for you. When you're in that scenario, going online is fraught with risk.

Go fully hands-free with these tips for Android and iOS. With the arrival of digital assistant apps like Gemini and Siri, most of us have grown used to talking to our phones. But conversing with your Android or iOS device can go way beyond interacting with AI. You can also use your voice to launch apps, fill out text fields, and do just about everything that was previously only possible with your fingers and thumbs. Of course, the traditional touchscreen input will often be the way to go.

Here are our recommendations for apps that help you stay focused on the task at hand. And with attention spans crumbling in the TikTok era, we now have an entire category of apps dedicated to helping you stick to what you're supposed to be doing. These apps all work more or less in the same way, giving you a straightforward method of tracking how long you're spending on a task, and offering some sort of incentive to keep going for the allotted amount of time. Sometimes you get a few extra features as well, like the ability to block access to other apps. In the interest of trying to write this specific article without switching between browser tabs and apps every two minutes, I gave three of the best focus tools a try.

DIY Tech Hacks There's a helpful translation tool hidden in your iPhone Messages More information Adding us as a Preferred Source in Google by using this link indicates that you would like to see more of our content in Google News results. Get translations right inside the Messages app. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. There are all kinds of ways to use your phone to help you learn a language of course, but here's one you might not have come across before: You can enable real-time translations for a host of different languages right inside the Messages app on iOS. It works through the Apple Translate built into your iPhone, and it's a great way to keep reminding yourself of conversational words and phrases.

The app reads your email inbox and your meeting calendar, then gives you a short audio summary. It can help you spend less time scrolling, but of course, there are privacy drawbacks to consider.

The app reads your email inbox and your meeting calendar, then gives you a short audio summary. It can help you spend less time scrolling, but of course, there are privacy drawbacks to consider.

The app reads your email inbox and your meeting calendar, then gives you a short audio summary. It can help you spend less time scrolling, but of course, there are privacy drawbacks to consider.

Current takes a minimal approach to RSS. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. The RSS (Really Simple Syndication) protocol has been giving users a way to keep up with their favorite websites for decades. It essentially presents all the new articles on a specific site in chronological order as they're published, so you can read through or skip over them as you like. It's also, by the way, the main way that podcast feeds are published, but it was originally designed to manage web feeds.