How to Install Signal Desktop on Linux

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• How to Install Signal Desktop on Linux
• How to See Which iPhone Apps Can View Your Photos
• How to Always Make Windows Open at the Same Place on Your Screen
• How to Customize the Look of Watch Faces on Apple Watch

How to Install Signal Desktop on Linux Posted: 22 Jan 2021 07:45 AM PST Eliseu Geisler/Shutterstock.com Signal is the privacy-focused smartphone messaging app everyone seems to be using. You can also use Signal on a Windows PC, Mac—or Linux computer. It's easy to install and register it to your Signal account. Privacy by Design Signal is published by the Signal Foundation and Signal Messenger LLC. These two not-for-profit organizations—based in Mountain View, California—were founded by Matthew Rosenfeld (aka 'Moxie Marlinspike') and Brian Acton. Together they continue the work started at Open Whisper Systems, one of Rosenfeld's earlier start-ups. The Signal application is free and open source. Anyone can review the source code. The source code for the Signal Messenging Protocol (SMP) was reviewed by a joint team from the German CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security, the Swiss ETH Zurich University, Cisco, and the Canadian University of Waterloo. They declared the code clean, the motives pure, and the encryption rock-solid. Signal is definitely secure. But there's a difference between security and privacy. RELATED: What Is Signal, and Why Is Everyone Using It? The Difference Between Privacy and Security Privacy is about controlling your information and data, choosing who has access to it, and deciding what they can do with it. Security is one of the techniques that you can use to maintain your privacy. The security provided by the SMP is so strong that other apps, such as WhatsApp, have adopted the Signal protocol to provide end-to-end encryption for their own products. But, although WhatsApp may be secure as far as the transmission of your messages goes, that doesn't address any privacy concerns. The security of the protocol is completely unrelated to WhatsApp's policy of data harvesting and data sharing. It's those activities that affect your privacy, and it's the gotcha that has catapulted WhatsApp into the public eye and the worst PR storm of its 11-year history. WhatsApp harvests and logs data about you and your use of their app. The company stores this data—including your contact list, who you have contacted, the details of purchases you have made through the app, and your location when you use the app—on their servers. So although the delivery of your messages is secure, WhatsApp keeps a lot of private data about you. And WhatsApp is owned by Facebook. By contrast, Signal holds virtually nothing on you. It stores the smartphone number you registered with, when you signed up to use Signal, and when you last used the service. That's it. A phone number and two timestamps. So even if they're hit with a subpoena, that's all they can hand over to the authorities. Nothing about your messages, your location, or anything else. Signal starts to make a lot of sense when you scratch the surface of how your data is often used as a commodity by other companies. Installing Signal on Linux There's only one way to sign up for Signal, and that is through your smartphone. It works on Android phones and iPhones. So if you don't have Signal installed on your smartphone, go and do that first. It must be working on your smartphone before you can use it on your computer. Signal is available in the repositories for some Linux distributions. It is also available as a flatpak and a snap. We'll install the snap on Ubuntu. sudo snap install signal-desktop You can use the snap on Fedora too, but to cover all bases, we'll demonstrate installing the flatpak. sudo flatpak install https://dl.flathub.org/repo/appstream/org.signal.Signal.flatpakref On Manjaro, you can install it directly from pacman. sudo pacman -Sy signal-desktop Starting Signal on the Desktop Press the "Super" key on your keyboard. This is usually between the "Control" and "Alt" keys at the bottom left of the keyboard. Type "signal" into the search bar. You'll see the Signal icon. Click the icon to launch Signal. Before you can use Signal on your computer, you need to link it to the Signal app on your smartphone. The desktop client displays a QR code. You need to scan this code with your smartphone from within the Signal app. (The QR code in the below screenshot isn't a real Signal QR code.) Below the QR code are brief instructions for Android phones and iPhones. On your smartphone, open the Signal app and tap the menu button. Tap the "Settings" entry in the menu. Tap the "Linked Devices" option. You'll see a list of the devices you have already linked to this Signal account. Tap the blue "+" button to add a new device. The Signal QR code scanner appears. Scan the QR code in the desktop client. When the QR code has been read and decoded, you'll be asked whether you're sure you want to link the device to your Signal account. Tap the blue "Link device" text. On the desktop client, you'll be asked to provide a name for the device. Click the "Finish Linking Phone" button when you've typed in the name you want the client to be known as. This is the name that will be listed in the "Linked devices" list on your smartphone. It doesn't have any effect on your identity within Signal. Signal will sync your contacts and message groups from your smartphone. Note that it doesn't pull through existing chats and messages. Only messages that arrive after the desktop client is linked to your Signal account will appear in the client. When it has finished, it will display them in its main client window. If you prefer dark mode, click File > Preferences > Dark. Now, Signal is all ready for you to send private and secure messages straight from your computer. Unlinking the Desktop Client If you want to, you can remove the desktop client from your Signal account. You can do that from your smartphone or from the desktop. On your smartphone, tap the menu button > Settings > Linked Devices, then tap the linked device that you wish to remove. Tap "OK" in the small pop-up box. If you'd rather break the link from the desktop client, click File > Preferences > Clear Data. Security and Privacy From the Desktop Messaging apps are great. But when you're sitting at a computer, it can be more convenient to have the app on your desktop so that you're not switching back and forth between your computer and your smartphone. Now you can enjoy Signal's security and guaranteed privacy and a real keyboard. See details

How to See Which iPhone Apps Can View Your Photos Posted: 22 Jan 2021 06:14 AM PST On an iPhone, photos are a huge potential privacy leak. They include not only visual information but also metadata that might reveal your location or when the photo was taken, among other facts. Luckily, it's easy to see which apps have access to your photos and even revoke access if necessary. Here's how. First, open "Settings" on your iPhone. In "Settings," tap "Privacy." In "Privacy," scroll down the list and tap "Photos." After tapping "Photos," you'll see a list of installed apps that have requested access to your photos. Beside each one is a status that shows one of three options. Here's what they mean. Selected Photos: The app can access only a set of photos that you manually select. All Photos: The app can access all photos on your device. None: The app cannot access any of your photos. To change these settings, tap an app name in the list. On the details screen for the app, you can change whether or not the particular app you selected can access your photos. To disallow access to your photos completely, select "None." Alternately, you can choose "Selected Photos," and a pop-up that browses your photo library will appear. Tap any photos you would like the app to access, then tap "Done." Any photos you don't select will be unavailable to the app. After that, tap "Photos" in the corner to go back one screen, then exit "Settings." The change will take effect immediately. If you ever need to change the setting again, just revisit Settings > Privacy > Photos. If you have free time later, it might be worth exploring other iPhone privacy settings. You might be surprised at how much control is in your hands if you take the time to pay attention to the options. RELATED: How to Check and Tighten All Your iPhone’s Privacy Settings See details

How to Always Make Windows Open at the Same Place on Your Screen Posted: 21 Jan 2021 11:20 AM PST Managing your open windows and apps can be a challenge. Windows 10 includes some built-in features for this, but Microsoft has another tool with even more options. We'll show you how to make windows always open in the same spot. Get Microsoft's PowerToys for This Feature This functionality is sometimes possible with Windows 10's Snap Assist feature. Sometimes, an app will open in the same spot it was snapped, but this isn't always the case. Microsoft's PowerToys utility works better at ensuring apps open where they left off. PowerToys is a feature-packed utility that every Windows power user should explore. In this guide, we'll be using "FancyZones," which is just one of many features. FancyZones lets you divide your display into however many "zones" you want. You're not limited to the 2×2 arrangement of Snap Assist. The zones can be completely customized in size and spacing as well. RELATED: All Microsoft’s PowerToys for Windows 10, Explained Choose Where Windows Open on Your Screen First, set up FancyZones to snap windows to custom screen regions. You'll need to have this set up in order for windows to open in the same place every time. RELATED: How to Snap Windows to Custom Screen Regions on Windows 10 Next, open "PowerToys" and navigate to the "FancyZones" tab. Scroll down to the "Window Behavior" section of the "FancyZones" tab. The option we want to enable here is "Move newly created windows to their last known zone." This means that when you close a window in a certain zone, it will go back to that zone when you open it next time. You're good to go! Not only is this convenient for opening frequent apps, but it can enable some cool start-up automation. If you have certain apps set to open when your computer starts up, they'll automatically go to their respective zones. RELATED: How to Add Programs, Files, and Folders to System Startup in Windows See details

How to Customize the Look of Watch Faces on Apple Watch Posted: 21 Jan 2021 09:57 AM PST Khamosh Pathak There's more to an Apple Watch face than meets the eye, especially when it comes to visually stunning watch faces, like Typography. Here's how to change the color and style by customizing the look of the watch faces on your Apple Watch. Every watch face has a different set of customization parameters. Most allow you to change the color of the dial, complications, or background. Some, like California and Typography, even allow you to change the symbols and style of the watch face, and transform it into something downright gorgeous. If you're in the mood for something fun, you can try out the animated Memoji watch face. You can customize the look of the watch face from your Watch or iPhone. We'll cover both methods below. RELATED: How to Create and Use Memoji on Apple Watch Customize Watch Faces on Apple Watch To customize a watch face on your Apple Watch, switch to that face. You can swipe from the left or right of the Apple Watch screen to change the face. Each watch face has different customization options. In our example, we'll be using the Typography watch face available on watchOS 7 and higher. On the watch face you want to customize, simply press and hold the screen, and then tap "Edit." In the "Dial" section of the watch face customization view, you can switch between the two available modes. The default displays only four large hour markers. You can use the Digital Crown to cycle through the available options. The second option displays all 12 hour markers. You can swipe left at any point to go to the next view. In the "Style" section, you can change the font style of the hour markers. Next, swipe left to access the "Symbols" section. You can choose Roman, Arabic, or Devanagari numerals. Swipe left again to customize the "Color" section. You can use the Digital Crown to cycle through all the available background and hour-marker color options. When you're finished customizing the watch face, press the Digital Crown to save your changes, and then press it again to return to the watch face. You'll now see your customized watch face in all its glory. In the image below, you can see the default Typography watch face and our customized version. The default Typography watch face (left) and our customized version (right). Customize Apple Watch Faces on iPhone Don't like using the small screen on your Apple Watch? You can customize its watch face on your iPhone, as well. Again, the customization options are different for each face. In our example, we'll be using the California watch face available on watchOS 7 and higher. To get started, open the "Watch" app on your iPhone and tap "My Watch." In the "My Faces" section, choose the watch face you want to customize. In the "Color" section, swipe horizontally to explore all the options, and then tap a color to switch to it. Next, swipe through the "Symbols" section to change the style of the numerals. You can choose Pills, Roman, California, Arabic, Arabic Indic, or Devanagari. Finally, in the "Dial" section, you can choose "Rectangle" or "Circle." When you're happy with how your watch face looks, scroll to the bottom and tap "Set as Current Watch Face." Lift your wrist to see your freshly customized watch face on your Apple Watch. Now that you've customized the look of your Watch, it's time to do the same with its complications. RELATED: How to Make the Most of Complications on Your Apple Watch See details

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