If you are waiting for your laptop’s battery to charge fully before heading out for the day, both OS X and Windows 10 will show you the time remaining. Your battery will charge faster, of course, if you leave the lid closed and the screen off. If you are attempting to eek out the last …

Now playing: Watch this: Easy-to-use gadgets and apps upgrade the CNET Smart Home’s… 3:38 If there is one thing the Internet does not lack, it’s recipes. You’ve probably discovered apps and websites like Epicurious, Chowhound (our sister site!), and AllRecipes, but it’ll take more than a good recipe to make you a good cook. So the focus here is instead …

Apple introduced the Continuity feature with OS X Yosemite that lets you field phone calls and text messages from your iOS devices and Mac. I enjoy being able to respond to texts from my MacBook Pro and iPad when my iPhone is charging, but I’m less sold on sharing phone calls between all three devices. I don’t like the cacophony …

Evernote and Google Drive are joining forces, bringing all of your Google Drive files within easy reach of Evernote’s organizational structure. You’ve always been able to add Google Drive files to Evernote manually, but it involved copying a link from Google Drive and pasting it into Evernote, and then, most likely, writing a quick description to give some context to …

I increasingly use Siri on my iPhone and prefer to use voice commands when texting. On a Mac, it is easier and faster to type with the full keyboard, but if you use Siri and voice dictation on iPhone, then you might want to start talking to your Mac, too. Similar to the Hey, Siri command on iOS, you can …

In this golden age of television, it’s difficult to keep up with all of your shows, let alone discover new ones. There are so many TV channels and streaming services producing quality content that I have this constant feeling that I’m missing must-see TV. When a friend tells me about a show I should be watching, I need an app …

If your phone often doubles as your TV and you’ve developed a bit of a Netflix habit, then you’ve got to be careful about when and where you watch Netflix. Netflix doesn’t let you download shows to take with you so when you are watching, you are streaming. And that can run up data charges quickly if you are watching …

Quick, what is the biggest drain on your laptop’s battery? If you answered “the display,” you’re right — for the most part. The single biggest occupier of battery resources, day in and day out, is your laptop’s display. More specifically, it’s the that energy goes into powering the backlight that illuminates the pixels on your laptop’s display. The obvious move …

The OS X menu bar is a great spot to park lightweight apps for easy access. Here are my six favorite menu bar apps that I use each and every day. Itsycal There are more powerful calendar apps than Itsycal, but I prefer Itsycal for its simplicity. It installs an icon in the menu bar that displays the current date. …

Become a better iPhone emailer by discovering some of the many things the stock iOS Mail app can do. Archive vs. trash Everyone could use a little help managing the steady stream of emails flooding their inbox. With Mail, you can swipe to archive or delete emails when viewing your inbox. And you can have both options available if you …