How to Hide or Remove System Preference Panes on Mac |
- How to Hide or Remove System Preference Panes on Mac
- How to Add a Watch Face on Apple Watch
- How to Turn off or Restart Your Playstation 5
- Origin Neuron Gaming Desktop PC Review
- How to Enable a Firefox Extension in Private Browsing Mode
- How to Use Google Photos as the Screen Saver on Google TV
| How to Hide or Remove System Preference Panes on Mac Posted: 30 Dec 2020 09:04 AM PST
If you use a Mac, you've probably configured your machine with System Preferences, which includes individual configuration sections called "preference panes." But few people know that you can easily hide or even remove those panes. Here's how to do it. How to Hide Built-In System Preference PanesYou can't permanently remove macOS's built-in System Preference panes—and that's probably a good thing—but you can hide them, which may come in handy if you'd like to simplify settings for computer novice such as a child or older relative. First, open "System Preferences." In the menu bar at the top of the screen, select View > Customize.
After that, you will notice that the System Preferences window will change to include small check boxes beside each icon. Uncheck the icons you'd like to hide, then click the "Done" button near the top of the window.
When you return to the regular icon display, you will notice that the icons you unchecked are now hidden. Very handy!
To get a hidden icon or icons back, just visit View > Customize again and add a check mark for each icon you would like to unhide. They will reappear as soon as you click "Done." How to Remove a Third-Party Preference Pane in System PreferencesIf you've installed an app that adds a custom preference pane, it will show up near the bottom of the main System Preferences window by default.
It's possible to remove a third-party preference pane easily, but if you remove it, the third-party pane will be deleted from your system permanently. You won't be able to get it back without reinstalling the program that originally put it there. If that's okay and you'd like to proceed, hold down the "Control" key and click the icon you'd like to remove. You will see a small pop-up button that says "Remove [name] Preference Pane." Click it.
After that, you will be prompted for your password. Enter it and click "OK." The third-party preference pane you just removed will instantly disappear. How to Remove a Third-Party Preference Pane in FinderIt's also possible to manually remove a third-party preference pane by locating its actual file in Finder. First, with "Finder" in focus, select Go > Go to Folder in the menu bar at the top of the screen.
In the window that pops up, type in
A Finder window will pop up, and it should include files that correspond with the third-party preference panes you see in System Preferences. (If you don't find any there, you can also check
Locate the file for the preference pane you'd like to remove, and drag its file into the "Trash" icon on your Dock. But be warned: Once you empty your trash, the preference pane will be deleted permanently. The only way to get it back will be to reinstall its associated application. (If you don't want to permanently delete the pane file, you could instead drag it out of the folder and store it in a temporary location. To undo the process, just drag the pane file back into the After that, restart your Mac to make sure your changes take place, and the third-party preference pane or panes you removed should be missing the next time you start System Preferences. Mission accomplished.  |
| How to Add a Watch Face on Apple Watch Posted: 30 Dec 2020 07:30 AM PST  A new Apple Watch comes preloaded with a couple of watch faces. There's also a huge collection of additional watch faces, ranging from stylish to downright fun. Here's how to add a new watch face on Apple Watch. Apple Watch users who are using Series 4 or newer and are running watchOS 7 or higher have access to a lot of different watch faces, all of which can be customized with different styles, colors, and complications. Love complications? Add the Infograph watch face, with support for eight different complications. All about the style? Try the beautiful California or the Typography watch face. If you like to keep things digital, you can't go wrong with the Infograph Modular.
And of course, the most fun of them all is the animating Memoji watch face. RELATED: How to Create and Use Memoji on Apple Watch In this guide, we'll talk about adding a new watch face to Apple Watch directly from the wearable as well as using the "Watch" app on the iPhone. How to Add a New Watch Face to Apple WatchThe process of adding a new watch face (and switching between watch faces) is very simple. If you want, you can have a dozen different watch faces and switch between them by swiping in from the left or right edge of the screen. To get started, go to an existing watch face on the Apple Watch, and press and hold the screen. You'll then see the watch face editing interface. Swipe all the way to the right (You can also use the Digital Crown.) until you get to the "New" page. Here, tap the "+" button.
You'll now see a list of all available watch faces. Swipe up to see more watch faces or scroll using the Digital Crown. Once you find a watch face that you want to try, simply tap the preview.
Instantly, the watch face will be added to the page of your collection.
And that's it. Your new watch face is ready for you to enjoy. How to Add a New Apple Watch Face Using iPhoneIf you don't like using the small screen on your Apple Watch for adding watch faces, don't worry. You can use the dedicated Face Gallery section in the "Watch" app for iPhone.
First, open the "Watch" app on your iPhone and go to the "Face Gallery" tab.
You'll then see new watch faces at the top and a list of all available watch faces. What's cool is that the Face Gallery actually shows variations of the same watch face with different colors and complications. Browse through and select a setup that you like. Tap a watch face to see more details.
Here, you can customize the color, dial, and other design attributes.
Once you're ready, tap the "Add" button. You'll see an animation that takes the watch face and adds it to the "My Watch" tab.
When you go to the "My Watch" tab, you'll find the new watch face at the end of the "My Faces" section.
And when you lift up your wrist, you'll find the new watch face set as your new default option.
While the default complications are great, Apple fails to provide a nice date and time complication, especially for analog watch faces like the Infograph watch face. Here's how you can create your own date and time complications on Apple Watch. RELATED: How to Create Date and Time Complications for Apple Watch  |
| How to Turn off or Restart Your Playstation 5 Posted: 30 Dec 2020 06:08 AM PST The PlayStation 5's (PS5) user interface places the power options within a hidden menu, making them somewhat difficult to find. We'll explain how to find the options, so you can easily turn your console off, put it into Rest Mode, restart it, or turn the system on again as needed. How to Turn Off the PlayStation 5 with the ControllerThe PlayStation 5 user interface is a departure from previous console generations, in that the power options do not have their own separate icon on the home screen. The power options are now hidden within the Control Center, which you can only find with the controller. To open the "Control Center," press the "PlayStation" icon button on the DualSense controller. This is the button directly below the rectangular touchpad that's shaped like the PlayStation icon. Pressing this will make the Control Center appear and disappear on your screen, even if you're in the middle of a game. There are several icons in the Control Center you might recognize, including downloads, your friends list, and microphone settings. The power options in the Control Center can be found at the far right end of the row of icons. Tap "X" on your DualSense controller when you get to the icon that looks like a power button, and you'll see three options. The first is "Rest Mode," which puts your PS5 into low-powered sleep mode. The advantage of Rest Mode is that your PS5 will still download and install game updates, and your games will remain in stasis until you're ready to resume play. The second option is to turn your PS5 off. This is necessary to do before unplugging the console, and ideal if you know you're not going to turn it on again for an extended period of time. While Rest Mode is a power-saving option, turning the console off will save you quite a bit more power. The third option is to restart the PS5. This is useful if you're having problems with your console and want to use the time-honored panacea of turning it off and turning it back on again. Choose the option you want, and your console will either turn off, restart, or go into Rest Mode. How to Turn Off the PlayStation 5 with the Power ButtonIf you don't have access to your controller—if it becomes nonfunctional, for example—you have the ability to turn your console off via the physical power button. But you'll have to look carefully for it. The power button can be difficult to see, as it's a black button on the black center stripe of the console. It's about two inches above what would be the bottom edge of the console when it's stood vertically. If you have the version of the PS5 with a disc drive, it's even with the outside edge of the mouth of the drive. If you have the digital version of the PS5, it's the only button on the front of the console. The power button is next to the disc eject button on the standard PS5. You can tell the difference between them either by the icons next to them (which are admittedly quite small) or by position—the power button is always closer to the bottom of the console. Tapping the power button for a second will put your console into Rest Mode. Holding down the power button for three seconds will turn your console off completely. How to Turn the PlayStation 5 OnWhen you're ready to turn your console on again, you have three options. The first is to tap the same power button on the console. Tapping it once will turn the console on. Holding it down will boot your console into Safe Mode, which is useful if you're having a problem with the console and want to reset it to factory settings. Your second option is to press the "PlayStation" icon on your controller. This will turn your console on, and it will turn your controller on at the same time. The third option is called HDMI link and it will turn your console on when you turn your TV on, or when you switch to the input for which your PS5 is the source. To enable this option, go to your settings, which you can find by clicking the gear icon found in the top-right part of your PS5's user interface. Then scroll down in your settings until you find the "System" option.
In the "HDMI" submenu, you'll find a toggle for "Enable HDMI Device Link" if the option is available. Note that this isn't available with every television.
Keep in mind that having HDMI link enabled will mean your console will go automatically into Rest Mode when you turn the TV off. It's useful, but you might want to disable this option if you use the TV for other things besides gaming on the PS5.  |
| Origin Neuron Gaming Desktop PC Review Posted: 30 Dec 2020 04:21 AM PST If you’ve been following the PC industry for a while, then you’ll know gaming PCs have only become more popular. Likewise, if you know about gaming PCs, then you’ve likely heard about Origin, a boutique pre-built system company specializing in gaming computers. We’ve checked out some of their systems before and today we’re back to look at the latest iteration of the Neuron gaming desktop. The Origin Neuron arrived Indiana Jones-style in a very sturdy wooden shipping crate. Make sure you have a drill or screwdriver handy to get inside. When you’re spending this much on a system, you want to be sure it arrives in one piece. The inside of the case shipped with an expanding foam insert that expands in place to provide a custom fit. It’s another nice touch to minimize damage to your GPU or PCIe slots if shipping gets a bit rough. Besides the system, you’ll also get a box with some accessories and a T-shirt. The box came with some user manuals for the internal components, a USB drive with some recovery stuff in case your system gets corrupted, and a Wi-Fi antenna for the motherboard. Taking a look inside. Our test system was configured with an AMD Ryzen 7 5800X, an RTX 3070, 16GB of 3200MHz RAM, an Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Hero, and a Samsung 980 Pro SSD.
In this review, we won’t be paying as much attention to the specifications of our particular system since each build configuration can be different. Rather, we’ll be checking out the user experience and value proposition of such a system. The Origin Neuron is a mid-tower offering, but if you’re looking for something a bit smaller, they offer the Chronos family as a small form factor line. Moving up, they have the Millennium full-tower line and the Genesis super-tower line. Since everyone knows the more RGB your system has the more frames you’ll get, this system comes with RGB RAM, an RGB CPU cooler, RGB fans, and an RGB strip at the front of the case. Looking at the system as a whole from this view, cable management is about as good as it gets. Origin decided to zip tie the CPU cooler tubes together to keep them from flopping around. I noticed that they went as far as to turn the ends of the ties around so they aren’t visible to the user. I appreciate small details like this that show you Origin really knows what they’re doing.
One thing I didn’t like was the ugly 8-pin to 12-pin GPU power adapter. The heatsink, braiding, and plastic coupling really take away from the visual appeal. It certainly doesn’t affect performance, but if you’re in the market for a system like this, you clearly also care about what your system looks like. I would have much appreciated a custom 12-pin cable that doesn’t need a junction in the middle and is long enough to hide any connections in the back compartment. There aren’t a ton on the market, but I’m sure Origin should be able to work something out. Moving to the back, the cable management is impeccable here as well. Although Origin took the time to hide the zip ties back here also, I would almost prefer velcro cable wraps. With zip ties every few inches, you’ll have a tough time trying to upgrade or troubleshoot a component this without ripping everything out. It’s always a fine line of making the cable management too good that it becomes a hassle to adjust later. You can definitely tell someone did their homework and carefully planned out all the cable runs with a layout like this.
Up top we find more zip ties under the removable magnetic dust filter. The exact front panel and fan configuration will depend on which case option you go with. Our review unit was built in a Corsair 220T case, but the system is also available in the Corsair 110Q, 175R, and 4000D.
There’s not much happening around the back. The back panel in this particular case uses a sliding groove and those traditional thumbscrews. I’m not a huge fan since you need to apply pressure to all four corners of the panel while sliding it in or else the grooves won’t catch. Even with the optimized cable routing that Origin has done, there’s just so many cables that it’s extremely tight back there. It’s not a big issue though since you’ll rarely need to go back there. Although this Crosshair VIII Hero motherboard is around $400, it’s really nice to have an abundance of USB ports and the second 2.5G LAN port.
Gaming performance is great as expected. Since each component configuration will give different performance, it doesn’t make sense running a full system performance analysis. For more performance specifics, you can check out our reviews of the GeForce RTX 3070 and the Ryzen 7 5800X. What you probably want to know in a nutshell is that the Zen 3-based 5800X has better single-thread performance than previous Ryzen generations, which shows in gaming scenarios. The RTX 3070, which is based on Nvidia’s latest Ampere architecture, is currently very hard to get, but an overall excellent value and huge performance boost over first-gen RTX. The RTX 3070 is roughly equivalent in gaming performance to the previous flagship, the RTX 2080 Ti which was more than twice the price. Here are three benchmark samples of the RTX 3070 only for reference (running on a different system, taken from our GeForce review):
The system boots in about 15 seconds and we’ll have an upcoming review of the Samsung 980 Pro series SSD as well. In general, a system like this would be great for 1080p and 1440p gaming as well as light to medium production work. In terms of general user experience, Origin’s website does a great job of helping you pick out components and ensure compatibility. For someone new to PC building, particularly someone in the market for a pre-built, it may be a bit overwhelming though. By default, their store starts you out with the cheapest variant of a system and you can choose to upgrade components along the way. It may not be clear what spending an extra $20 on an SSD will get you, how much cooling a particular CPU needs, or what the benefits of upgrading the motherboard may be. A description with some basic benchmarks may be useful in helping people decide what parts to go with. A benefit of going with a custom system builder like Origin is that they use all name-brand parts. Other vendors like Dell and HP may use OEM motherboards and other off-brand components. While it may be slightly cheaper, it means you will have almost no community support and a more limited upgrade or resale path. Origin uses off-the-shelf parts so if there’s ever an issue, chances are someone else has had the same problem and there’s a solution online.
On to system usability, the Windows 10 installation included on the system was thankfully free from most of the vendor-specific bloatware common on many systems. There are a few pre-installed programs, but I would say they are essential and are programs I would have installed anyway. Things like Corsair iCUE to control the RGB LEDs, CPU-Z to monitor system performance, and TeamViewer to allow Origin’s technicians to troubleshoot your system. We didn’t like the fan speed profile than came on by default. The fans were loud and annoying. We tried to open the Asus motherboard control software to adjust this, but found that it either wasn’t installed properly or had gotten corrupted. We decided to try out Origin’s included recovery USB to see if it would work on a fresh install, but still had no luck. We were able to manually reinstall the program, but when you’re spending this kind of money on a system, you expect things to work out of the box. We’d have also expected Origin to set the fans to be silent at idle and only turn on when the system was under load. Hopefully this was just an isolated incident with my review unit. Some additional documentation on how each fan was connected would also have been useful. Since the cables are managed so tightly and mostly hidden from view, it was basically impossible to figure out where the fan connectors went. Despite trying various profiles and fan settings, I was never able to get the system to be as quiet as it should have been. During this experience, one feature I did enjoy was the system recovery process. The bootable USB stick that comes with the PC contains a custom recovery package that makes it a breeze to factory reset the system. Simply boot from the drive and you’re all done with a fresh Windows install in a few minutes. No need to call tech support or flash any disk images. Their tool does everything. Beyond that, it’s just what you would expect from a high-end, custom gaming computer. Great performance in games, a clean aesthetic, and reliable hardware that will last for years to come. Now let’s talk pricing, and this is where things get interesting. The Origin Neuron system I reviewed has a retail price of $3102. A look at the corresponding system on PCPartPicker gives a total of around $2,400 including the additional RGB controllers (not listed). Exact numbers will change depending on discounts and price fluctuations. That’s using the MSRP for the Ryzen 7 5800X of $449 and the RTX 3070 of $500. Keep in mind that these two components have been sold out for weeks and aren’t available on the market unless you want to pay huge scalping markups.
Comparing Origin’s system price to the standard price for the individual components, we see there is a roughly 30% overhead. When we reviewed the Neuron back in 2017, we found it had a 20% overhead. Origin increasing their markup by an additional 10% isn’t surprising given component shortages. Keep in mind that Origin makes systems ranging in price from $1,500 to nearly $10,000. The markups will change as you move up and down their price tiers, but should stay roughly in the same range. Here’s how I see it… if you’re in the market for a new PC and planned to include an RTX 3000 or Ryzen 5000 series part, a pre-built like this is likely your only option with guaranteed availability for the next few months. Current pricing for a scalped 5800x is around $550-600 and a RTX 3070 is around $800. Adding in these prices, the cost to build such a system on your own goes up to around $2,700. At that price, I think the Neuron isn’t a bad deal assuming you want a computer right now and were going to buy a scalped CPU/GPU anyway. If you have the extra money, the build quality and support you will receive are worth it for someone looking for a pre-built. A more budget oriented Intel build with an i7-10700K and GTX 1660 Ti comes to $1,966 on Origin’s website or $1,550 if you were to build it yourself. These are parts you can actually buy right now and we see a roughly 25% markup. If paying the extra money is worth it to you get guaranteed compatibility and outstanding build quality, you won’t be disappointed in the Origin Neuron. However, you’re essentially paying them hundreds of dollars to do something that you can do yourself in about 1-2 hours. That’s always where the tough decision comes in regards to pre-built gaming PCs. In summary, the Neuron is a great system with solid build quality and good support to back it up. If you’re in the market for a high-end PC but all the parts you want are out of stock, it’s not a bad deal if you were looking into paying inflated prices. If you just want a solid PC and don’t need the newest and greatest gear, the 20-25% markup is pretty standard from pre-builts. However, if you’re looking into a pre-built because you don’t want to worry about building a computer yourself, I’d say you’re probably kidding yourself and should just go for the build. Shopping Shortcuts: |
| How to Enable a Firefox Extension in Private Browsing Mode Posted: 29 Dec 2020 12:13 PM PST
Private mode in Mozilla Firefox keeps your local browsing history private. But, by default, Firefox turns off extensions while browsing privately to prevent them from leaking data. If you'd like to use a trusted extension while browsing privately, it's easy to turn it on. Here's how. First, open "Firefox." In any window, click the "Firefox" menu button (three horizontal lines) and select "Add-ons" from the menu.
In a new tab called "Add-ons Manager," you will see a list of all the Firefox extensions you have installed. Locate the extension you'd like to use in Private mode and click the ellipses button (three dots) beside it. In the menu that pops up, select "Manage."
After clicking "Manage," you'll see more details about the extension on a special page. Scroll down and locate the "Run in Private Windows" option. Click the radio button beside "Allow" to enable the extension in Private browsing mode.
After that, go back to the last page and repeat these steps with any other extensions you might want to use in Private mode. When you're done, close the "Add-ons Manager" tab. The next time you open a Private window in Firefox, the extensions you enabled will be working as you'd expect them. If you ever need to disable an extension in Private mode again, revisit the extension's "Manage" page in the "Add-ons Manager" and select "Don't Allow" beside the "Run in Private Windows" option. Good luck, and happy browsing! RELATED: How to Always Start Any Browser in Private Browsing Mode
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| How to Use Google Photos as the Screen Saver on Google TV Posted: 29 Dec 2020 09:47 AM PST
Devices such as the Chromecast with Google TV can display a Google Photos slideshow as the screen saver. If you'd like to use your TV as a giant photo frame, we'll show you how to set this up. During the Chromecast's initial setup process, you'll be asked to choose an "Ambient Mode." This is what Google TV devices call the screen saver. Google Photos is one of the options during setup, but if you didn't select it then, you can do it now. First, of course, you'll need to be a Google Photos users for this feature to work. The other thing you'll need is the Google Home app for iPhone, iPad, or Android, which is where the setup takes place. Open the Google Home app on your phone or tablet, find your Google TV device, and select it.
Tap the gear icon in the top-right corner of the device page.
Next, select "Ambient Mode" from the Device Settings.
You will now see the different options for the screen saver (Ambient Mode). Select "Google Photos" from the list.
Albums from your Google Photos account, the account associated with the Google Home app, will appear. Select all the albums you want to see in Ambient Mode on your Chromecast with Google TV.
When you're finished selecting albums, tap the back arrow in the top-left to proceed.
Next, there are a number of additional Ambient Mode options. You can choose to show the weather, time, device information, and personal photo data. You can also put portrait photos side-by-side, enable photo curation, and adjust the slideshow speed.
The last thing you might want to adjust is how long the TV screen will stay on a.k.a. how long your slideshow will play. On your Google TV device, select your profile icon in the top-right corner of the home screen.
Next, select "Settings" from the menu.
Scroll down and select "System."
Scroll down again and choose "Energy Saver."
The Energy Saver setting is what determines how long the display will stay on while inactive. Select "Turn Off Display" to change it.
Lastly, select one of the time increments from the list.
That's it! You will now see your Google Photos albums on your Chromecast with Google TV in Ambient Mode!  |
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