See the Apple Watch Drop Test!

Not long ago Techrax uploading videos that shows how wearable device slammedinto its screen shattered.

Sport Apple Watch dropped until the screen is separated from the Apple Watch body. in this video, it showed how Apple Watch when dropped from a height of 42 mm onto a hard surface.At the first time was dropped Apple Watch does not suffer a fracturedscreen, because at the moment Apple Watch is dropped onto the surface of the tow.

At the second test. it strikes the surface of the screen. This time, Apple Watch screen was completely destroyed with cracks all around the screen, though so the smartwatch can still be used.

Here's the video drop test performed by the TechRax.

How to Download, Delete, or Pause Your Google Search History

Google recently unveiled the ability to download – as in save to your device – your entire search history. Now, in addition to being able to pause or purge it completely, you can have a physical copy of everything you’ve searched for over the years.

Of course, there are a couple of catches. First, it’s not an instant download. You have to request an archive, after which Google sends you an email to alert you when it is ready. You can then view the archive on Google Drive or download the zipped file to your computer or device.

Further, the archive you get is broken down into multiple files, which are saved in an unfamiliar format (JSON). Fortunately, JSON files will open with any text editor though it won’t be easily readable.

This article will explain how to not only download your search history, but also read it, purge it, and turn it off (pause).

Downloading Your Search History

The first thing you want to do is make sure you’re logged into your Google account.

Your account settings can be accessed by going to myaccount.google.com or you can click on your picture in the upper-right corner and then click “Account.”

On the “Account settings” page, scroll down to the “Account tools” section and then click on “Account history,” which lets you “manage account history and related settings.”

There’s a lot of stuff here you should peruse at your leisure. It’s a good idea to always know what information Google is collecting on you and how to manage it.

Under “Your searches and browsing activity,” there’s a box that, if checked, will collect your activity from Chrome and and other apps. This means that Google will compile information from your web searches and apps connected to your account and use that information to provide more accurate, personalized search results.

Click “Manage History” to access your search activity history and further settings.

You may be asked to enter your password again.

Here then is how your search history might appear. Google displays your search activity by hours and days. Click on any given day from a month to view your search history for that day.

Click the gear icon and “Download” to get started.

A stern warning will appear strongly urging you to read everything. It explains that your archived data will be available to download from Google Drive, that you shouldn’t download this data on public computers, etc.

Once you’re carefully read this information and you feel you’re ready, click “Create Archive.”

Like we said, the download isn’t instantaneous. You will have to wait until Google has your archive ready, after which they will send you an email. If your search history is longer and more extensive, it might take more time.

Once finished, Google will send you a message that “Your Google search history archive is ready.”

At this point, you can either download the zipped archive to your computer or device, or view it in Google Drive.

The Google Drive method is convenient, though you still have to unzip the archive to view its contents. We found it easier to go ahead and download the archive to our computer and view the files from there.

Viewing Your Search History

When Google archives your search history, it divides it up into multiple JSON files, each about four months of activity, sorted by date.

If you double-click on any of the enclosed files, it should open up with your system’s text editor. From the following screenshot, you can see that searches are shown next to anything with the string “query_text”.

The “timestamp_usec” string is a bit harder to figure out. For this we used a simple website that converts time stamps into plain English. We first paste our timestamp into the box and click “Convert to Date.”

Note the first time we enter our timestamp, it converts the date incorrectly. This is because the timestamp from our search history is too long. The timestamp converter will automatically shorten it so all you need to do is click “Convert to Date” again and it should display the correct date and time.

So on March 27, 2013 at 11:37 PM CST, we performed a search for www.instagram.com, which we can verify by looking at our history from our Google account.

You should be able to view JSON files in any text editor such as Notepad, TextEdit, or Microsoft Word. We searched online for some kind of JSON viewer that makes it even more readable, but none of them seemed worth the effort. If you’re wanting to pore over your search history from the start to finish, then a text editor probably won’t meet your demands ideally, but for simple curiosity, it works well enough.

For everything else however, you can always view your search history from your Google account.

Purging Your Search History

That said, what if after you download your search archive, you want to purge it from Google’s servers? To do this, we first need to make sure we’re in our Google search history management page.

Again, click the gear icon but now instead of “Download”, choose “Remove Items.”

A dialog will appear offering to remove your search history from “the past hour” to “the beginning of time.”

When you’ve made your decision, click “Remove” and that duration of search history will be purged.

Pausing Your Search History

Finally, if you want to “pause” (disable, suspend) you searches and browsing activity, then you need to once again return to your “Account history” page.

Click the switch in the upper-right corner to pause your search history.

You be asked to confirm your action. Google warns that while your web and app activity is paused, it may still use searches made within your active browser session to “improve the quality of your search results.”

Click “Pause” when you’re ready.

Now your search and browsing activity is paused, as evidenced by the fact that the on/off switch is gray.

Obviously, if you ever want to reenable the history activity, you simply click the switch again, which will resume collecting your search history.

So, as you can see, there’s actually quite a bit more to downloading your search history than earlier news reports might have indicated. While it’s a relatively simple process overall, there are still a few details that might trip up folks.

How To Get a Better Wireless Signal and Reduce Wireless Network Interference

Like all sufficiently advanced technologies, Wi-Fi can feel like magic. But Wi-Fi isn’t magic – it’s radio waves. A variety of things can interfere with these radio waves, making your wireless connection weaker and more unreliable.

The main keys to improving your wireless network’s signal are positioning your router properly — taking obstructions into account — and reducing interference from other wireless networks and household appliances.

Wireless Router Positioning

Your wireless router’s positioning can greatly affect your coverage area and the strength of your signal. Follow these quick tips to position your router for the best signal:

• Place the router in the middle of your house. If you place the router in a room off to the side of your house, you won’t get as strong a signal on the other side of your house.
• Position the router’s antenna vertically, so that the antenna is standing straight up. Many antennas can be adjusted and lie horizontally, but standing straight up is generally the ideal position.
• Elevate your router away from floors. You’ll get better reception if the router is on a desk, not on the floor.

You should also pay attention to the kinds of materials the router is near. For example, placing the router on a metal desk or up against a metal wall will cause problems. Signals can travel through a wood desk easily, but metal will obstruct the signals.

Other types of obstructions can also cause problems. For example, if there’s a metal filing cabinet between your computer and the router, you may not receive a wireless signal. The same applies to other types of dense objects.

Interference From Other Wireless Networks

Interference from other wireless networks in the area can cause issues with your wireless signal. To determine whether interference is occurring, you can use an app like Wi-Fi Analyzer for Android. It will show you the wireless channels nearby networks are using and recommend the ideal network for you to use — one that isn’t being used by as many networks. This app will also allow you to walk around the area and see where you get the best signal and where the signal is weakest – you can do this with any other device, too.

If multiple wireless networks are competing for the same channel, this can cause problems. To fix this, you can change the wireless channel in your router’s web interface. You can do this even if you don’t have access to a wireless-analyzing app – change the signal to a different channel and then see if your wireless connection improves.

Interference From Household Appliances

A variety of household appliances can cause wireless interference, including cordless phones, baby monitors, and microwave ovens. Depending on the positioning of your wireless router, your networked device, and the appliance, you may even have the wireless network cut out when the microwave or cordless phone is in use.

Problems with cordless phones can be solved by replacing your phones with phones that operate on a different frequency, such as 900 MHz or 1.9 GHz. Cordless phones using the 2.4 Ghz frequency will interfere with wireless networks.

Problems with microwaves can often by solved by positioning the your devices such that the microwave isn’t between your router and the device. it’s also possible that a new microwave will help, if the new microwave has better shielding.

Other devices can also cause problems. For example, older Bluetooth devices can interfere with nearby Wi-Fi signals, although newer Bluetooth devices don’t.

Repeaters, Antennas, and Reflectors

If you need to cover a large area with a wireless signal and your router just isn’t cutting it, you can buy a wireless repeater or range extender. These devices repeat the wireless signal, extending its area. You don’t even need special devices for this – if you have some old routers around, you can use multiple routers to extend your Wi-Fi network.

How to Access Your Mac's Screen from Windows

Sharing your screen remotely is a convenient way to access another computer as if you’re sitting in front of it. OS X and Windows have this ability built right into them, meaning you can easily share your Mac’s screen with Windows PCs, and vice versa.

If you run a mixed network, it’s most likely a combination of Macs and Windows PCs. You might have a Linux machine tossed in there to serve files, but most people have Windows or Macs, and sometimes both.

These tools allow us to connect to the targets computer via each system’s native method. In other words, Windows uses RDP natively while OS X uses VNC. This means we have to do almost no configuring to the targets, so getting everything working is usually hassle-free.With each method described below, we’re connecting from a client that we installed on our system to a target computer. On our Mac we’re using the Remote Desktop (RDP) application, and on Windows the RealVNC Viewer.

Connecting to Windows PC Clients from a Mac

We’ve previously discussed how to use Remote Desktop to access other Windows computers in the same house. It’s not so much different doing it from OS X, but let’s go through it for the sake of thoroughness.

To connect to a Windows PC, you must first turn on remote connections. Open the System Properties and click the “Remote” tab, then make sure “Allow remote connections to this computer” is enabled.

You also want to make sure you install the Microsoft Remote Desktop client on your Mac. It is available in the App Store.

Remote Desktop will be installed in your Mac’s Application’s folder. In our example, we’ve already set up a user profile, which is ready for action. Let’s take a moment, however, to click “Edit” and show you what’s involved.

Next to “Connection name” we give it a friendly name while the “PC name” is either the name we gave our target PC or its IP address.

We don’t worry about configuring a gateway because we’re connecting to our PC within our local network. Also, if you do not want to enter your user name and password every time you connect, you can add them to the “Credentials.” Not entering any credentials means that when you connect to your Windows machine, you will need to log into an account.

If you want to know what your PC’s name and/or IP address is, you need to check. Use the keyboard shortcut “Windows + R” and then type “cmd” to open a command prompt. In the command prompt, type “ipconfig” and hit “Return.” You want to use the IPv4 address it gives you.

If you can’t remember what you named your computer, you can find that information on the “System” control panel.

The rest of the Remote Desktop connection’s settings concern resolution, colors, and full screen options.

When you connect to a new client, you’ll likely see a Verify Certificate dialog. Click “Continue” to connect.

If you don’t want to see this warning dialog in the future, click “Show Certificate” and then check the “Always trust …”.

To confirm changes to your certificate trust settings, you will need to enter your system password.

Remember, if you didn’t previously enter anything in the connection credentials, you will see the login screen when you first connect. Once you’ve successfully connected to your Windows PC from your Mac, your Windows desktop will appear.

As we mentioned, being able to connect to a Windows machine is a pleasant convenience. For example, your Windows PC may be a super beefy machine you use to do compiling or rendering. You can use remote desktop to check on a job’s progress or start tasks without actually being physically at the machine.

Connecting to a Mac from a Windows PC

Connecting to a Mac from a Windows PC is a little different. You’re not going to be able to use Remote Desktop, but that’s okay because there’s a free client called RealVNC viewer that does the trick nicely.

Just like with Windows, you first have to set up your Mac for screen sharing. Open the “Sharing” preference panel and check the box next to “Screen Sharing.”

Click “Computer Settings…” and make sure “VNC viewers may control screen with password” is checked. Then enter a simple password.

The VNC Viewer comes as a standalone executable. You do not need to install it. Simply double-click to start the application.

Recall from the earlier screenshot that our Mac’s screen can be accessed at 192.168.0.118 or Matt-Air.local. If you’re unsure how to access your Mac, go back to your Sharing preferences and double-check the information on the Screen Sharing settings.

We enter “192.168.0.118” in our VNC client and leave the encryption as it is.

The RealVNC Viewer application has a plethora of options you can peruse at your leisure. You’ll probably be fine leaving them as is, though, if you want your connection to automatically open full screen, you need to tick the box next to “Full screen mode.”

We return to our connection and click the “Connect” button. An authentication box will appear where you will need to enter the simple password you created in the Sharing preferences on your Mac.

When you connect to the target Mac, you will also need to log into a (presumably yours) user account, just like we had to do with Windows (if we didn’t supply our credentials). Once logged in, your Mac desktop will now appear in the VNC Viewer window in the same state as you left it.

If you mouse to the top-middle of the window, you can spawn extra controls, which when you hover will give you a tooltip explaining what each one does.

You’ll find handy shortcuts to close and save the connection, as well as to change options, and a full-screen button so your shared desktop fills the screen.

On the Mac side of things, a Screen Sharing icon will appear in the menu bar. This lets you quickly and easily access the Screen Sharing preferences or disconnect clients.

It’s important to remember that sharing a computer screen is really only suited for short bits of work. If you were trying to remotely repair something or show another user how to do something, it’s ideal, but to get any meaningful work done, not so much. You will always experience a little bit of lag and stutter, and there’s not a whole lot you can do about that.

Like we said, however, it’s not intended for heavy-duty work. Keep in mind also, we’re only sharing our screens locally, which means that if you leave the house, say to go get coffee, and you realize you need to connect to a machine at home, you’ll need to know how to connect to it through your router. There are ways to do this with a Mac as well as Windows machines.

How to Create Encrypted Zip or 7z Archives on Any Oprating System

Zip files can be password-protected, but the standard Zip encryption scheme is extremely weak. If your operating system has a built-in way to encrypt zip files, you probably shouldn’t use it.

To gain the actual benefits of encryption, you should use AES-256 encryption. 7z archives support this natively, but you can also encrypt Zip files with AES-256 encryption.

Zip 2.0 Legacy Encryption vs. AES Encryption

There are actually two types of Zip file encryption. The older Zip 2.0 encryption is extremely insecure, while the newer AES encryption is fairly secure.

Unfortunately, many pieces of software — particularly operating systems with built-in support for Zip files — don’t support the newer AES encryption standard. This means that using the Zip password-protection features found in Windows XP, current versions of Mac OS X, and even typical Linux desktops won’t give you securely encrypted Zip files. Even some third-party utilities are reluctant to switch to AES for their Zip encryption as it means those AES-encrypted zip files will then be incompatible with the built-in Zip features in Windows, Mac OS X, and other software.

It’s still possible to get AES encryption with Zip files — but such files will require third-party software to view, anyway. You may just want to use a different archive format, such as 7z. The 7z archive format requires strong AES-256 encryption. Whenever you create a password-protected 7z file, you know that it’s securely encrypted. Really, 7z is great — it came out on top in our file-compression benchmarks. It’s generally on the top of other file compression benchmarks we’ve seen, too.

Windows – 7-Zip

Windows offers a built-in way to create Zip files. Windows XP even offered a way to password-protect and encrypt these Zip files. However, Windows XP used the extremely insecure “standard” zip file encryption algorithm. Even if you’re still using Windows XP, you shouldn’t use this feature. Later versions of Windows dropped the password-protection option entirely.

Nearly every popular encryption utility offers this features. We like 7-Zip, which is completely free and open-source, so it won’t try to nag you for any money.

With 7-Zip installed, you can select some files in a File Explorer or Windows Explorer window, right-click them, and select 7-Zip > Add to archive. Be sure to select the “Add to archive” option, as it gives you the ability to set a password. If you don’t see the menu option here, you can also open the 7-Zip application directly and use it to create an archive.

7-Zip will create a 7z archive by default, but you can also choose Zip. If you do opt to go with Zip, be sure to select the AES-256 encryption method instead of the weaker ZipCrypto method. Enter your password into the provided boxes and click OK to create your encrypted archive file.

Mac – Keka

Mac OS X also provides an easy way to create Zip files from a Finder window, but there’s no way to encrypt a zip file with the graphical user interface. The zip command included with Mac OS X does offer a way to encrypt zip files without using any third-party software. However, like the password-protection feature built into Windows XP, it uses the old and insecure standard zip encryption scheme. If you really wanted, you could use the “zip -e” command in a Terminal on a Mac. However, we strongly recommend against this.

As on Windows, you’ll once again need a third-party file compression app for secure compression. Keka seems to be one of the most well-loved file compression and decompression apps for Mac, and we can recommend it. However, even Keka doesn’t use AES for encrypting Zip files by default. You can get the currently-in-beta version of Keka and enable a hidden option to do this, or just use the standard version of Keka and create encrypted 7z files instead.

Launch Keka, select 7z, and enter a password for your archive. (If you select Zip, be sure you have the correct version of Keka and that you’ve enabled the hidden option above to get the secure encryption.)

Drag and drop one or more files you want to compress onto the Keka window and they’ll be compressed into a 7z file encrypted with the password you provided. You’ll need the password to access the file’s contents in the future.

Linux – File Roller with p7zip-full

The standard Archive Manager (File Roller) application included with Ubuntu and other GNOME-based desktop environments does have an option to create password-protected zip files. However, the underlying zip command used still uses the old, weak encryption instead of strong AES encryption. Thankfully, File Roller can be used to create encrypted 7z archives.

To enable this option, you’ll first need to install the p7zip-full package. (On some Linux distributions, it may just be called p7zip instead.) For example, on Ubuntu, you can either open the Ubuntu Software Center, search for p7zip-full and install it, or open a Terminal window and run the sudo apt-get install p7zip-full command.

Once you have, you can create encrypted 7z files directly from the File Roller window. Select some files in a file manager window, right-click them, and select Compress — or open the Archive Manager application directly and use it to create a new archive.

In the Compress window, be sure to select the 7z archive format. Click the Other Options header and provide a password. The password will be used to unlock your archive later.

There are many different software programs for creating password-protected archives, but — whatever you use — be sure it’s using secure encryption. The problem with Zip encryption isn’t purely theoretical. The web is full of tools that can “recover” a password-protected zip file that was created using the old encryption scheme. “Recover” is a less-scary word for breaking and removing the encryption.