Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

AfterShokz There’s nothing more motivating than music when working out, but runners and cyclists are in a unique position. Situational awareness is crucial for both, especially when exercising on roads shared with cars or paths with other cyclists and runners. If you have a runner or cyclist on your holiday list, give them a gift…

Originally, Windows 10 would ask if you wanted to switch to Tablet Mode if you disconnected your keyboard or folded your convertible PC. Starting with the October 2020 Update, Windows 10 now automatically switches your machine to tablet mode without asking. If you prefer, it’s easy to turn this off in Settings. Here’s how. First, open…

Moab Republic/Shutterstock.com If you own, or are thinking about owning, an Apple product, you’ve probably wondered if the company’s add-on product protection service, AppleCare+, is worth the price. With how costly iPhones, Macs, and other Apple devices are, is it worth paying yet another chunk of change on top just for peace of mind? Like…

Every computer user in the world sooner or later will modify a text string – either manually or automatically. Be introduced to the sed stream editor, which enables you to make bulk text modifications to strings and files. Regular Expressions At The Command Line The sed stream editor, a tool available by default on many…

Microsoft says the classic “System” properties Control Panel has been removed from Windows 10. As of the October 2020 Update (20H2), there’s no way to access it—or is there? Here’s a hidden command that opens the System Control Panel. To run the command, press Windows+R to open the Run dialog. Copy-paste the following command into…

Need to quickly silence your phone? If you’re running iOS 14 or later on an iPhone 8 or newer, you can mute the volume by tapping the back of your phone two or three times. This is possible thanks to a feature called Back Tap and a custom shortcut that’s easy to create. Let’s set it…

Elena11/Shutterstock NASA has exciting news about the Moon. While we long ago discovered water in the ice form on the Moon, we always thought it only existed in impossible to reach super-cold places. But now, studies suggest water ice exists in sunlit areas that scientists could potentially send astronauts to visit. According to a Nature Astronomy…

Leiden University It’s quite impressive how science has been able to miniaturize certain things over the past decade. But nothing is quite impressive as this: a 3D printed tugboat that is a third smaller than the thickness of a human hair. Physicists at Leiden University in the Netherlands are the ones behind this achievement and…

ASUS Looking to upgrade your gaming rig and save a little money while doing so? Well right now the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 gaming laptop is available for just $1,199.99 at Best Buy, which is $250 off it’s normal price of $1,449.99. Also check out the Lenovo Chromebook Duet, which is on sale for just…

Starting with the October 2020 update, Windows 10 now defaults to a light theme that takes away accent colors from your taskbar and Start menu. If you’d like to select a custom color for your Start menu, there’s an easy way to pick it in Settings. Here’s how. First, launch “Settings” by opening the “Start”…

quangmooo/Shutterstock.com The Apple Watch allows you to customize clock faces to show all kinds of useful information. But did you know you can take those custom designs straight off someone’s wrist? Here’s how to install someone else’s Apple Watch face. What is a .watchface File? Custom Apple Watch faces can be shared using a .watchface…

Facebook Game streaming is the hot ticket in the industry right now, and Facebook wants a piece of it. A very, very small piece, with an explicit stated objective that it’s not competing with established platforms like PC or consoles. Or streaming services like Stadia or Xbox Game Pass. Or…actually, what the hell is Facebook…

Email can overwhelm you with unimportant messages. Sometimes, though, you really need to know when a certain message hits your Inbox. Fortunately, you can set up custom alerts in Microsoft Outlook to make sure you don’t miss the messages that are most important. To set up custom alerts, we’re going to create a rule in…

Avalon Hill Halloween brings lots of great possibilities for laidback celebration. There’s pumpkin carving, scary movie marathons, and candy binges for all ages. But this year, we’d like to add spooky board games to the list of Halloween traditions. The board game renaissance of a few years back is still going strong, with lots of…

Aleksey Khilko/Shutterstock It’s probably no surprise for any iPhone owner that you can use the LED flash on the back of your iPhone as a flashlight. Apple has included the shortcut in Control Center since iOS 7. But did you know you can control the brightness of your iPhone flashlight? Here’s how. First, launch Control…

BaanTaksinStudio/Shutterstock A quality knife is a culinary workhorse for anyone who loves working in the kitchen. This year, surprise your favorite chef with one (or a few) top-notch, reliably sharp knives he or she will love. We’ve provided our two top picks for knife block sets below, along with a variety of dependable knives perfect…

Azure Virtual Network (VNet) Peering enables the connection of two or more virtual networks in Azure. Connectivity-wise the two peered networks appear as one. Peered traffic is routed through Microsoft’s private network and not over the public internet. An Azure virtual network is a software-defined network with a custom address space and segmented subnets. There…

Phoenix 1319/Shutterstock.com Minecraft has maintained its place as one of the most popular games of all time since it’s initial release in 2009, putting it alongside other legendary games like Grand Theft Auto, World of Warcraft, and Call of Duty. Because it’s so awesome, we couldn’t help but round up the best Minecraft gifts for…

InnerSloth If you haven’t been plugged into the ever-shifting trends of multiplayer gaming, you may be wondering what all this Among Us ruckus is about. It’s become one of the most-played online games in the world, seemingly overnight … which is all the more remarkable, since it actually launched more than two years ago. Briefly:…

Harry Guinness It’s impossible to take a photo with a sharp subject and a blurred background (like the one above) with your smartphone—at least without faking it. This is because of the ways in which smartphone cameras differ from larger, dedicated cameras. Let’s look a little deeper. Why Do Photographers Want Blurry Backgrounds, Anyway? Oh,…