7 Warning Signs That You’re Unhealthy

1. Bad skin

Inspecting your skin | Source: iStock

The quality of your skin is a sure-fire way to get a reading on your overall level of health. Of course, some people struggle with skin issues like acne and are otherwise perfectly fine — but skin quality can clue you in to some bigger problems. A poor diet can really impact your skin quality, and if you’re noticing blemishes like stretch marks? That should tell you that something is wrong.

2. Sleep issues

Struggling to sleep | Source: iStock

Can’t seem to fall asleep at night? That can be an indication that some aspects of your life need adjusting. Whether it be that you’re eating the wrong foods, ingesting too much caffeine late in the day, or not expelling enough energy during the day, not being able to sleep presents an issue — which cascades into further issues.

3. Bathroom problems

Toilet and toilet paper | Source: iStock

Yep, we’re getting down and dirty. Take note of the color of your urine, and even how frequently you’re going No. 2 — those could both provide important insight into the state of your overall health. Since you’re going to ask, your urine should be a pale yellow color — and hopefully odorless. As for your bowel movement frequency, there’s a wide range. But if you’re going regularly, you’re probably fine. And don’t ignore the grimy details during your investigation.

4. Lip balm reliance

Man applying lip balm | Source: iStock

If your lips are constantly chapped, and you find that you can’t live without lip balm, that’s your body’s way of telling you that something’s wrong. Specifically, your lip condition is an indicator of your vitamin levels. If your lips are chapped, you may be vitamin strapped — so diversify your diet, and get the nutrients you need.

5. Bad finger and toe nails

Clipping fingernails | Source: iStock

If the condition of your lips wasn’t a solid enough indicator, your finger and toe nails can also give you a heads-up if you’re unhealthy. You’re going to want to be on the lookout for ridges, discoloration, and bumps — all of which should be red flags. Your nails can tell you a lot about your overall state of health, so if something is strange, don’t ignore it.

6. Body temperature fluctuation

Ice cold hands |Source: iStock

Icy feet and hands aren’t normal. Yes, there could be environmental factors at play, but if you’re consistently finding that your extremities are ice cold, it can be a sign of cardiovascular problems. Specifically, cold hands or feet might mean that you’re having circulation issues, and that your body isn’t getting blood where it needs to go. If this is a chronic issue, have it checked out.

7. A cloudy mind

Dull thinking |Source: iStock

It’s becoming quite clear that our cognitive ability and brain health are closely tied to our physical condition. That means that obesity and elevated levels of body fat can have a significant impact on our ability to think and reason. It’s kind of scary, but also a very promising area of research. So, if you can’t formulate a potent thought, it may be a sign that it’s time to drop some weight.

7 Reasons You Should Quit Facebook

Ten years ago Facebook was just cresting as the cool new social media site that helped you keep in touch with the people you didn’t actually like in high school. We fed it our thoughts and feelings, shared our meals and locations and our top ten movie lists, kept it up-to-date on our relationship status, political views, favorite links, and personal information — all in the name of staying connected, and all without a thought to our security. But with a decade of questions regarding how Facebook makes money now answered, and a general understanding of how sharing information online can be dangerous (while the platform constantly updates its security protocol), we continue to use it anyway, even though many of us are just checking in as ritual and have threatened our exit from Facebook for years.

Of course, screen time in moderation is, for the most part, perfectly acceptable, and social media can offer a few genuinely beneficial uses. But before you log in or tap that app on your smartphone again, here are a few reasons to quit Facebook in 2015.


It Wastes Your TimeIt's estimated that the average casual user (17 minutes per day on Facebook) who has been active on the site for 10 years has wasted upwards of 40 entire days of their lives scrolling and liking and commenting on pictures and posts. And more engaged users, who spend at least an hour a day on the site, have clocked 150 days feeding the Facebook beast during the same time. Think about how long you spend on the site each day, and what else could be a more productive use of your time.

Facebook Uses You to Sell Stuff...In 2012, the site manipulated posts from 689,000 accounts without consent in an experiment that examined whether or not it could affect your emotions by making a few edits on your page. The study was done, according to Facebook, to "improve our services and to make the content people see on Facebook as relevant and engaging as possible." Skeptics think it was really used to discover the monetary benefit of a Like. COO Sheryl Sandberg later apologized, adding that they "never meant to upset you."

And Targets You with AdvertisementsOne time you wanted to buy a thing, and then you searched for that thing, and six months later Facebook is still reminding you that you should think about buying that thing, even if you already bought the thing. Yes, most sites do this thanks to embedded cookies, but only Facebook seamlessly posts these ads in your timeline with enough regularity that you can only assume your friend has an odd obsession with the latest Norelco razor.

It's Bad for Your HealthFacebook isn't just a harmless website dedicated to cataloging your vacations, poor wardrobe choices, and myopic thoughts on sporting events (which can both define or destroy relationships), it can actually do you harm. Studies hint that it can impact your immune system and inhibit the release of growth hormones, impair digestion and vision, limit thinking and kill creativity, and affect sleep patterns and happiness.

"Who Are These People, Anyway?"The average adult has 338 friends on Facebook and probably doesn't know more than 10 percent of them anymore, or at all. Many of them likely have new lives, some have new last names, new passions, new facial hair, and new humans they're now responsible for keeping alive (read: babies). These are not the friends you knew, and semi-casually keeping up with them is a waste of time that could be better spent with new, real friends. Or on Twitter.

"But I Don't Care About Privacy"Fair. That's your right. But the problem is that we're setting precedent for the future without yet understanding how it will affect the free and open Web, and simultaneously creating an internet that relies on you having a Facebook account to access sites that are not Facebook. As one of nearly 1.2 billion users to date, odds are decent that your account won't be hacked by someone with ill-will toward your family. That doesn't mean that permitting easy access to your information goes without consequence, both immediately and decades from now.

Nothing You Post Actually MattersVery few people care what you're doing, whom you're with, where you're eating, or what you just bought, and the people who do were probably right next to you when you did it. We all saw that funny Ice Bucket Challenge video, and if we didn’t see it, it's fine. We're all fine. You'll sleep well without knowing which childhood toys you owned are now worth a fortune, and you will absolutely "believe what happened next" on Upworthy, because someone took time to write about it. These articles only exist because you share them on Facebook, and you only share them because they exist. So, instead, just invite a friend over to talk about how much you both loved Save By the Bell. The internet can only take so much nostalgia.

If you're serious about quitting Facebook today, you can do it right now by clicking here.

New inventions that don't even seem possible

Jetpacks

Believe it or not, there are actually multiple, working jetpacks out there, all using slightly different variations of similar technologies to send their wearers into the sky…and they all look terrifying. You may have seen Yves Rossy's video of him and his pal jumping out of a plane and flying around the Dubai skies with jetpacks that look like miniature jets, or maybe you saw the much smaller JB-9 jetpack, cavorting around the Statue of Liberty from a standing start. No matter which jetpack you've seen in action, it's hard to believe that it's not all just special effects, but these are still far from mass production. And until everyone learns how to use their gosh-darned turn signals, we're just not ready for personal jetpacks anyway.

Quell

Quell is a small, electronic device that uses a proprietary tech called called OptiTherapy, which uses your own natural neural pulses to help your body fight against chronic pain. If the whole thing sounds like something out of Star Trek, it's because you've probably seen stuff like this in Beverly Crusher's sickbay that did a lot of the same stuff, usually anytime Worf got a splinter from going at it too hard in the Holodeck. Quell's pain-relieving stuff is FDA approved, so it's a far cry from those magnetic bracelets that the gossip magazines try to sell you, and it even pairs with your smartphone, all without dangerous drug interactions.

3Doodler

People have imagined drawing in the air for as long as drawing has existed, and finally, it's kinda possible. Using a thin, plastic filament that is rapidly heated and cooled, the 3Doodler pen allows users to draw anywhere, providing that part of their drawing is anchored on a stable surface, since the laws of gravity still apply, even if the material science seems completely unreal. It's a revolution in rapidly communicating ideas in three dimensions, whereas computerized designs, sculpting, and other forms of building are generally very time-consuming and not always intuitive. If you have a brain that can think in three or four dimensions at once, this seems to be a pretty awesome way to start to bring your ideas to life.

The self-inflating tire

Inflating a tire is a noisy, greasy, unpleasant experience, so it's surprising that the simple physics of the self-inflating tire haven't been implemented universally yet. While the technology has been developed by multiple companies simultaneously, CODA Development seems to possess some of the older patent designs, which uses the action of the tire's natural flattening as it meets the road to force air into a chamber using a peristaltic pump, kinda like the tire is constantly swallowing air. It doesn't seem like this technology is widely used just yet, and it won't save you in the case of a catastrophic blowout, but it might help you survive that nail until you get to the dealership.

The bionic eye

A bionic eye is exactly what it sounds like: an electronic ocular implant that allows people to see when they couldn't see before, strikingly similar to the technology used by Geordi LaForge from Star Trek: The Next Generation. The wearer's improved vision has been likened to a blurry, pixelated Xerox, but a little bit of vision and shape detection is a whole lot better than none at all. And given how complex the relationship is between the eye and the brain, even the faintest signal being repaired through technology is a bit miraculous. It can't be too much longer before certain types of blindness are completely eradicated, thanks to revolutionary advances by Second Sight.

XStat

While it kind of sucks that we even need the XStat in a modern world full of intelligent people, it's great that we have it. The XStat is a large syringe that contains a bunch of tiny, expanding sponges that can be injected into a bullet wound to maintain a body's hemostatic pressure and stop bleeding, giving the victim more time to reach proper medical care. Even better, each blood sponge can be detected by x-rays, so doctors won't leave any stray bits behind. While the device can't be used for just any puncture wound, it's kind of miraculous that we can now use funky little sponges to save a life.

Fungus styrofoam

Plastic and rubber foams are some of the grossest things we can do to the environment. Sure, they keep your action figures safe despite the rough treatment of your local angry UPS ogre, but ultimately, styrofoams are just poisons waiting to get into your air and drinking water. It seems impossible to replace these common conveniences, but Myco Foam is giving it a shot. No longer just for making little plumbers into big plumbers, mushrooms are being used to replace dozens of non-renewable, destructive, everyday products, from packing peanuts to particle board. A little 'shroom goes a long way.

Why Did Modi return back to the mic after his speech in Varanasi today?

 Prime Minister Narendra Modi  visited his Lok Sabha constituency today where he  launched a number of ambitious projects including a 1,500-km-long gas pipeline costing Rs. 51,000 crore and doubling of railway tracks on a busy route.

On his eighth visit since becoming the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi  launched "Urja Ganga", the gas pipeline project which promises to provide piped cooking gas to residents of Varanasi within two years and, in another year thereafter, cater to millions of people in states like Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Odisha.

PM Modi also flaged off projects like doubling of railway tracks on the busy Allahabad-Varanasi section and expansion of the Diesel Locomotive Works (DLW) here besides laying foundation stone for a fully air-conditioned perishable cargo centre.

After his speeech in Varanasi today he again went to mic to convey greetings for 

Chhath pooja and Diwali to the local gatherings.

Apple iPod Turns 15

On October 23, 2001, Apple Co-Founder and former Chief Executive Steve Jobs unveiled iPod, a portable music player, that changed the way people buy and listen to music even 15 years from its launch.

The first generation of iPod featured a 5GB hard drive, FireWire port for syncing, a physically-rotating scroll wheel that could save 1,000 songs.

The second generation came with touch control and added Windows support.

Today, there are three versions of iPod-- the ultra-compact iPod Shuffle, iPod Nano and the touchscreen iPod Touch.

In June 2003, Apple sold its millionth iPod, and by the end of 2004, Apple had sold 10 million units. The year end of 2015 marked sales of 42 million and by September 1, 2010, the sales grew to 275 million.

In January 2015, Apple said that it would stop reporting iPod sales as it was pushed back by iPhone, whose design was partly influenced by the iPod.

Apple's iTunes music software is still going strong, and has become a big focus of the company's current strategy as instead of downloading songs to a portable device, people are simply streaming them.

The man behind the iPod, Tony Fadell, left Apple in 2010 and co-founded Nest Labs, which was acquired by Google.

Read : How to get the fastest speed from public Wi-Fi when you travel

Beer healthier than milk, says PETA

While beer aids longevity and strengthens bones, milk causes obesity, diabetes and cancer, PETA says.

Beer is healthier than milk, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has claimed in Madison, Wisconsin, also known as America's Dairyland.

A billboard sponsored by PETA has been put up at Hilldale Mall, which is just a mile away from the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, thus targeting college students and urging them to consume more beer instead of milk.

"It's our responsibility to teach the new generation about the dairy industry. PETA's position is, we're in the role of showing this new generation what's going on behind the scenes in the dairy industry, how that milk comes to get into a glass and all the cruelty that's associated with it," Daniel Carron, senior outreach coordinator at PETA's headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia, said, according to inquisitr.com.

PETA's campaign "Got Beer?", started in the year 2000,  was attacked by various groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). The campaign was pulled down twice, once in 2000 and then in 2002 because of the backlash by MADD.

A donation of $500 was made by PETA to MADD out of goodwill after the "Got Beer?" campaign was stripped off in 2000. The campaign was halted out of respect for MADD, PETA explained.

The organisation has not only said, "It's official: beer is better for you than milk," it also claims that beer aids longevity and strengthens bones, while milk causes obesity, diabetes and cancer.

The ad mentioned various sources, like the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the Harvard School of Public Health, the American Journal of Epidemiology and the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, at the bottom, but didn't point towards specific studies.

After PETA was accused of promoting beer drinking through their campaigns, the organisation stated that other beverages like juices, mineral water and soy milk are also recommended by them, and asked why beer has been over-hyped.

"Had we used soda instead of beer, there would have been no media interest in the campaign, of course. PETA urges everyone, beer-drinkers included, to drink responsibly. Where milk is concerned, there's no such thing!," PETA stated on its website.

Though humans do not have any requirement of cow's milk for keeping healthy, one can anyway get benefited by the nutrients present in it, Canadian newspaper Globe and Mail reported, adding that no dietitian would tag beer as calorie-free, according to inquisitr.com.

(Source YAHOO news)

7 iOS Message apps you should try right now

Don't worry, it's not all Mario stickers. Here's a look at some fun and practical Message apps.

Don't look now, but Messages just became the hub of your iPhone. Thanks to changes in iOS 10, you can now use the app to send money, play games, trade stickers, find and discuss dining and entertainment, manage travel and much more.

Oh, yeah: It still does messaging, too.

Make no mistake, many apps for Messages are kind of pointless. Personally, I don't see any reason to clutter up a conversation with, say, a game of Words with Friends -- not when there's already a perfectly good app you're already using.

But there are some decidedly fun and practical apps you'll definitely want to check out. Here are seven of my favorites so far -- all of them freebies.

1. Chatterbird

Messages now lets you doodle and send animations -- but where are the sound effects? Right here inChatterbird, which lets you choose from a variety of cutesy sounds (farts and all). Just tap one to hear it, or long-tap to add it to your outgoing message.

You can also tap a red "record" button to capture audio of yourself, then apply various filters -- think Instagram for your voice -- such as robot, Darth Vader, background sound effects (jungle noises, anyone?) and so on. If nothing else, it's a great way to annoy your friends.

2. Circle Pay and Venmo

"You owe me $10 for lunch."

You just paid DaveJ $10.

That's about how long it takes to send someone money using Messages and a peer-to-peer payment app such as Circle Pay or Venmo. Like their standalone counterparts, these apps let you swap money with just a few taps -- no fees, no hassles. Circle Pay is particularly nice in that it allows you to add a debit or credit card to your account just by snapping a photo of it. It also supports international payments, allowing you to send money in not just dollars, but also euros and pounds. (It works with Bitcoin, too.)

3. Do With Me

A shared to-do list can be a powerful thing. It might be household chores for your family, a grocery list you share with your spouse, or even a batch of assignments for your employees or coworkers. Whatever the case, Do With Me makes it easy to set up and share those kinds of lists.

I suspect this is something better-suited to short and/or last-minute items, such as "things to grab at the store on the way home from work" or "final party-prep tasks." Lists likely to take days or longer to complete should probably hang in another app. But for the quick-and-dirty stuff, Do With Me does the job.

4. Doodle and I'm In

Do With Me handles the to-do lists; apps such as Doodle and I'm In handle the scheduling. Specifically, they make it much easier to pin down a date with a group of people. You know the kind: "Are you free on the 27th? What about the 29th?" That kind of thing is virtually impossible via group text (or email, for that matter), which is where Doodle and I'm In come in.

All you do is set up an event, select two or more viable dates, then send the message to the participants. Everyone taps to indicate their availability and, presto, consensus is achieved. Use this to plan your next date, group hang, business meeting or whatever. This is arguably the best reason yet to have apps in Messages.

5. iTranslate

Hola, amigo! Now you can converse with anyone anywhere, even if they speak a different language. With iTranslate, you simply choose your preferred language (from Afrikaans to Zulu, with dozens of options in between), type your message as usual, then tap the green arrow.

The translation will appear in a Messages bubble, where you can add a comment or tap the blue arrow to send it. Language barrier: crushed!

Interestingly, this capability already existed in the form of third-party keyboards, such as Translate Keyboard Pro, but this app version not only bypasses the hassle of switching keyboards, it also offers one important advantage: support for voice recognition.

6. JibJab

Put your face on an animated snow angel. A dancing roller-skater. A strawberry jumping atop a stack of pancakes.

Yep, that's JibJab, which has been doing these kinds of face-transplants for as long as I can remember. Except now you can embed these frequently hilarious (and occasionally disturbing) animations in your messages.

7. Truth Truth Lie

Utterly pointless -- and utterly hilarious -- Truth Truth Lie is the Messages version of the classic party game Two Lies and a Truth. Except here the numbers are inverted.

You record three short videos of yourself. The first two are truths; the third is a lie. The app sends that video to your friend, who must guess which one is a lie. It's stupid fun that's especially great with new (or drunk) acquaintances. Just be forewarned that you're sending data-hungry video, so TTL is best played when you're connected to Wi-Fi.

Nearly 6,000 online sellers are hit by malware that steals credit card numbers

The problem underscores the importance of keeping e-commerce software up to date, a security expert says.

Malware that captures credit card numbers as customers enter them online—the internet equivalent of skimming devices used to steal credit card numbers at self-serve gasoline pumps and retail stores­—is a widespread problem, according to Dutch researcher Willem de Groot, co-founder and head of security at Amsterdam-based hosting and e-commerce platform provider byte.

Hackers had, as of earlier this month, gained access to the source code of 5,925 websites and inserted malware that captures newly entered credit card information and sends it to another server, according to an analysis by de Groot. The websites include many e-retailers worldwide, along with government sites and others that accept credit card payments.

In a blog post updated Oct. 17, de Groot writes that 841 of those store sites had been fixed as of that date, though it is possible that other sites continue to be infected. He posted an up-to-date list of compromised online stores here. His analysis of the malware is available here.

“It’s a pretty clever attack,” says Ryan O’Leary, vice president, threat research center and technical support for WhiteHat Security Inc. in Santa Clara, Calif. Unlike a large data breach, he says, the “card-skimming” malware does not create a surge in online traffic that might tip off a website owner; it could exist on a website for a long time without being noticed.

But how does it get there in the first place? O’Leary says there are two probable avenues of attack, each of which could be closed off if website owners were more vigilant.

The easiest way into a website’s source code, he says, is via bad administrative passwords—those that are easily guessable (“password,” for example, is a bad password, as is the street number of a company’s headquarters), or are obtained in some other way. In some cases the passwords that administrators use on unrelated websites—such as those for banks or retailers they do business with as customers—are the same passwords they use at work, O’Leary says. So, if an administrator’s personal passwords are compromised in a breach of another website, the business could have a problem.

Another way hackers get into a retailer’s code, O’Leary says, is by exploiting known vulnerabilities in open-source or other website software platforms—such as Magento—that are widely used by businesses that sell online. With open-source programs, the source code is freely available to anyone to access, modify and improve. After a software provider learns about vulnerabilities, it usually offers patches and updates fairly quickly, he says. Whether businesses s apply those patches and updates is another matter. Hackers look for websites using out-of-date software and then enter via doors left open by the site administrators.

“Patch software, that’s my No. 1 piece of advice,” O’Leary says.

But patches and updates alone won’t keep an e-commerce site safe, even with good administrator passwords, O’Leary says. E-commerce sites also need to use tools designed to look for vulnerabilities, including those that web developers inadvertently program into the sites they build. WhiteHat sells a yearly service to identify such vulnerabilities, but O’Leary says free tools like Burp Suite also can be helpful for e-retailers.

According to a recent study from WhiteHat, 50% of all retail sites have at least one serious vulnerability at all times and the average retail site has 13 serious vulnerabilities and 23 total vulnerabilities at any given time. The average retailer takes 205 days to fix a website vulnerability, according to the report.

This is troubling because the goal of e-retailers should be to keep hackers from getting into a site’s code in the first place, not finding and purging malware once it’s present, O’Leary says. That is a challenge, he says, because web developers tend to focus on making a website work properly and might overlook all the ways a site’s functionality could be misused. For example, O’Leary has encountered online banking software that allowed users to send negative amounts of money to someone else’s account—thus, sending cash the other way, to the malicious user’s account.

O’Leary says he cannot corroborate the number of websites hit by the malware discovered by de Groot, but he has no reason to doubt de Groot’s research or the size of the problem.

“Malware like this can spread very quickly,” O’Leary says.      

Among the websites hit by the credit card capturing software was that of theNational Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), a Republican Party organization dedicated to helping Republicans get elected to the U.S. Senate. The NRSC collects credit card numbers when it receives online donations or sells merchandise, such as T-shirts, stickers and signs. According to de Groot’s blog and a story on the website Krebs on Security, the malware—apparently the work of Russian hackers—infected the NRSC’s website from March 16 until Oct. 5. To show how the malware works, de Groot posted a video on Vimeo, using the NRSC website as an example.

An NRSC spokeswoman would not disclose how long the malware was present on the website or how many credit cards were compromised but said the impact was small.

“The vendor who operates our online store discovered an issue weeks ago that affected an extremely small number of supporters,” the NRSC spokeswoman said. “The problem was fixed immediately and we contacted those who were affected.”

In an Oct. 11 blog post, de Groot writes that the first case of online “skimming” was reported in November 2015 and, at that time, a scan of 255,000 online stores globally and found 3,501 websites were compromised with malware to capture credit card numbers. The problem became worse, growing to 5,925 sites by October, in part because the malicious code is so hard to detect. The online credit card-number capturing can go undetected for months and, in hundreds of cases, it has, according to de Groot. On his blog, he says 754 stores infected by the malware in 2015 were still compromised as of Oct. 11

These 10 widgets belong on your iPhone's lock screen

Get your must-have widgets here.

With iOS 10, Apple redesigned the lock screen and got rid of the slide-to-unlock gesture. Now, instead of unlocking your phone, swiping right takes you to the Today view where you can glance at and interact with widgets. You can also access these same widgets on an unlocked phone by swiping right on your home screen, but they are most useful for performing quick checks and actions without unlocking your phone.

Along with many of Apple's stock apps, third-party apps are allowed widgets on the lock screen. Options abound; I tried many. After roughly a month with iOS 10, here are the 10 widgets that currently occupy a spot on my iPhone.

1. Launcher

The Launcher widget provides the quickest way for me to call home, text my wife, FaceTime David Lee Roth and view Instagram. The free version of Launcher lets you program up to seven actions, from launching apps to calling or texting or FaceTiming specific contacts.

2. Fantastical 2

Fantastical 2 is a superior calendar to Apple's stock calendar app, and its widget is superior to the stock calendar app's widget. The Fantastical 2 widget shows you how many minutes remain until your next calendar appointment, and when you tap to expand the widget, it displays the current month where you can view any day's appointments. It also integrates reminders from the stock Reminders app if you want to combine your calendaring and tasks.

3. Todoist

I like to keep my calendar and reminders separate. The stock Reminders app has a lock-screen widget, but it shows only reminders set to remind you at a certain time; items without alarms set do not show up. The Todoist widget shows you all of your reminders for the current day. You can mark items as complete and add new tasks with the widget.

4. BeWeather

The stock Weather app's widget shows the current conditions along with the expected high and low temperatures for the day, while the expanded view shows the hourly forecast for the next few hours. That's more than the surprisingly lackluster widget for Storm, which had been my go-to weather app. I want more from my weather widget and turned to BeWeather because its widget lets you customize the information it displays, including current conditions, hourly forecast, daily forecast and text forecast.

5. Shazam

Shazam remains my all-time favorite iOS app. If you told me 20 years ago that such a thing existed -- that my cell phone would magically tell me the name and artist of any song I hear -- I would flipped my phone shut and quickly walked away from such an insane-sounding person. With the Shazam widget, I can quickly get it to start listening and tell me what it is I'm listening to before the song ends.

6. Batteries

I use the sadly discontinued Jawbone Jambox Bluetooth speaker to listen to music in my home. My kids use it, too, so the speaker moves around my house and is rarely plugged in. Half the time, I don't know where it is. And I never know how much battery life it has left, which is why I love the stock Batteries widget that shows me how much juice my Jambox has left. It also shows me the battery life remaining on my Apple Watch. And the widget smartly disappears when my Bluetooth devices are off or out of range.

7. ESPN

My wife jokes that I can turn on the TV, turn on any game of any sport and have some sort of vested interest. And I don't bet on sports! The ESPN widget gives me quick access to the scores (or the time and spread of their next game when they aren't playing) of the favorite teams I selected in the ESPN app along with any notable games of the day.

Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET

8. Timeglass

When I'm not blogging or watching sports, I can be found in the kitchen. I like to cook, and theTimeglass widget lets me monitor multiple timers so I can keep track of what's in the oven, what's on the stove and what I have outside on the Weber grill. The free app gives you up to three timers, which is the maximum number of timers I need on any given night.

9. Dropbox 

The Dropbox app received a recent update that improved its widget. Now, in addition to showing the four most recently added files, the widget has three helpful buttons: Scan Document, Upload Photo and Create File. I don't think I've touched the Dropbox app itself since the widget added these buttons, and I use Dropbox daily to shuttle files around.

10. DataMan

I keep DataMan at the bottom of my widgets to keep an eye at the end of my billing cycle where I stand toward my monthly 4GB data limit.

How to get the fastest speed from public Wi-Fi when you travel

There's nothing you can do to make a public Wi-Fi network faster, but here's a way you can make sure to get the best speed out of it.

Don't move when you are on public Wi-Fi.

When you're traveling, chances are you will use public Wi-Fi at the airport. Here's a quick tip to get the fastest speed: Don't move around.

That's right, this might sound irrelevant but it's not. The vast majority of airports have a large Wi-Fi network, called a mesh network, composed of many access ​points. Think of them as little Wi-Fi satellites that carry a portion of the airport's router's signal. When you first connect to Wi-Fi at the airport, you'll likely connect to the access point that gives out the best signal at your current location. If you walk into a new area, farther away from the access point you're connected to, your device won't necessarily switch you to a new, closer access point. This translates to slow speed and even disconnection.

So, when you have to move from one place to another, even just a few feet apart, if you feel your internet experience has clearly slowed down, it's best to re-establish your connection. It's easy: Just turn on airplane mode on your device for a few seconds, then turn it off. Your device will now look for the best access point based on your current location. And then, again, stop moving around when you don't need to.

YouTube is breaking into pay TV, starting with Dish

 Dish is the first US pay-TV company letting customers search and play anything from YouTube on its set-top box, the souped-up DVR Hopper 3.

Dish HopperSarah Tew/CNET

Dish debuted the YouTube app on its Hopper 3 DVR late Thursday, becoming the first pay-TV company to enable videos from the massive site to play through its set-top box alongside traditional TV.

Practically speaking, this means Dish customers can search, browse and play YouTube videos without switching inputs and devices.

But symbolically, the move puts YouTube's content on a level playing field with "real TV." Google's YouTube, by far the most-popular video site on the internet, has helped give rise to new categories of video entertainment, such as gaming, vlogs and digital stars so closely linked to the platform that they're known as YouTubers. The company's foundation as a user-upload site had led some to dismiss its stars and viral clips as low-quality entertainment versus "premium" TV programming. In other words, YouTube is empty-calorie snacking compared with the full-fledged meals of real TV.

With YouTube now at greater parity with regular television programming on Dish's box, pay-TV customers can decide for the first time if YouTube is actually "premium" for them, too.

The YouTube app was included in the satellite TV company's latest software update pushed to Hopper 3 set-top boxes on Thursday night. YouTube joins other apps on Hopper such as Netflix, Pandora and Vevo.