How To Download Videos To Watch Offline

Losing your internet for a few hours? Here's how to keep watching media from the likes of YouTube, Netflix, and Prime to pass the time.

Whether you're going on a trip or suffering from patchy internet, downloading videos to watch offline makes for a smoother experience. All the best streaming services offer some way to download content for offline viewing.

Before you start, you'll need an internet connection to be able to download videos for offline playback. Ideally, you're connected via Wi-Fi (make sure you also have enough free space on your device; you can usually check that in storage settings). Some apps will let you download via cellular data too, which might be fine if you have an unlimited plan, but it will count toward your monthly data allowance, and your speeds could be throttled if you go over the limit.

How to Download YouTube Videos

YouTube Premium subscribers can download videos on a computer, phone, or tablet, provided they sign in to their account. Here’s how:

• Open the YouTube app or visit youtube.com and find a video you want.
• Tap or click Download (the icon is a downward arrow) under the video.
• The icon turns into a blue tick when the video is downloaded.
• You can access downloaded videos by opening the Menu (the icon is three horizontal lines) in your browser or via the Library tab in the app and then choosing Downloads.
• Downloaded videos can be played offline for up to 29 days (in some countries, they are only available for 48 hours).
• To set download video quality, go to Settings (via your profile pic), Downloads, and choose Download quality.

How to Download Netflix Videos

Netflix subscribers can download movies and TV shows using the Netflix app on an Android phone or tablet, iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Amazon Fire tablet, Windows 10 or 11 tablet or computer, and on select Chromebook and Chromebox models. Here’s how:

• Open the Netflix app and select Downloads (you can find it via the Menu on a Windows device).
• You can start looking for videos via See What You Can Download, Find Something to Download, Find More to Download, or Available for Download (depending on your device).
• Choose a movie or TV show you want and tap Download (the icon is a downward arrow). Folks on an Android device will see a Download Season option for shows.
• You can have up to 100 active downloads on as many devices as your Netflix plan allows.
• Most downloads are available for seven days and expire 48 hours after you start watching them.
• The Smart Downloads feature automatically downloads the next episode of a series you have downloaded when you start watching (provided you are connected to Wi-Fi). You can toggle this off if you prefer.
• If you are unsure what to download, go to Smart Downloads and toggle on Downloads for You to get a selection of content chosen by Netflix (based on your previous viewing). You can allocate a storage limit for each profile in your account.
• To set the video quality for downloads, tap on your profile picture and choose App Settings, then Download Video Quality.

How to Download HBO Max Videos

HBO Max subscribers with an ad-free subscription plan can download movies and TV shows using the HBO Max app on an Android phone or tablet, iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, and Amazon Fire tablet. Here’s how:

• Open the HBO Max app and find the content you want to download.
• Tap Download (the icon is a downward arrow) next to the movie or TV show episode you want.
• To find and watch downloaded videos, go to your profile and choose Downloads.
• HBO Max only allows you to have 30 downloads at a time across all of your profiles and devices.
• Downloads are available for 30 days. Once you start watching, you have 48 hours until a downloaded video expires.
• To set the video quality for downloads, tap on your profile picture and choose Settings, Video Options, and Download Quality.

Big Three Want You To Go Passwordless (FIDO)

Here’s what that means:

We live in a world of passwords. From Spotify to Gmail to TikTok to your computer itself, passwords are everywhere. And they’re awful.

They need to have a certain amount of characters, contain numbers and letters and special symbols, and ideally shouldn’t match your passwords for other sites. And if you follow all of the right cybersecurity rules, you’re also changing your password every few months.

Oh, and then there’s multi-factor authentication, you know, those apps that send you an alert or text after you sign into account to make sure you really are who you say you are.

And even if you follow all of these steps to stay safe online, your password can still ultimately be hacked, exposing your personal accounts to hackers and cybercriminals.

But thankfully, a solution to the password problem will soon let you log into your app and browser-based services without a password. Yes, you read that right; you’ll be able to kill off a chunk of your passwords for good.

The technology comes via the FIDO (fast identity online) Alliance, and allows you to use your phone rather than a password to authenticate who you are. Earlier this month, Microsoft, Google and Apple said they’d soon adopt the standard to work across apps and websites, meaning you’ll eventually be able to log into a website in Chrome from your Windows PC using your iPhone.

The idea is for you to register your identity via your smartphone using its facial recognition, fingerprint ID, or your passcode. Once you’ve stored your identity on your phone, it stays there.

From then on you’ll be able to log into websites and apps that use FIDO’s standard by entering your username and then using your phone to tell the app or site that you’re you.

The whole thing might sound a little out there, but some companies already offer passwordless sign-in options. In fact, some now use a similar feature with their Microsoft account, which requires them to enter their username and then authenticate their identity via the company’s own Authenticator app.

The goal with the FIDO Alliance’s technology, though, is to eliminate the need for disparate authenticator apps, and instead let you log into apps and websites using just your phone’s secure lock.

Apple, Google and Microsoft haven’t offered any specifics on when they’ll begin offering the technology, but hopefully we won’t have to wait too long for the feature to land.

Then we might finally be able to start saying “goodbye” to passwords for good.

Credit: finance.yahoo.com

Executive Board Minutes

Computer Technology Club, Inc.
Executive Board Minutes
May 13, 2022

Alan Marcus, President, called the meeting to order at 9:00AM. Members in attendance: Bill Balch, Jim Trimboli, Bob Kenlay, Bob Irish, Linda Irish, Bob Roesener, Bob Leiner, Linda Tingley and Alan Marcus.

The Secretary’s report was read by Bob Kenlay. No corrections or additions necessary.

Jim Trimboli then read the current Treasurer's report. The current balance is $1637.85.

Alan Marcus reviewed the status of our topics for future meetings. He spoke to Forest High School. They might be interested in bringing some Robotics for a fall presentation. He will also contact some car dealers to discuss their new electric cars.

Future meeting topics:

May 18 - “Electric or Hybrid Cars” by Alan Marcus

June 15 - “Computer Questions or Problems & Solutions” by CTC Board members

The meeting adjourned at 9:40AM.

Respectfully submitted,
Bob Kenlay, Secretary

Limit Who Can Contact You On Instagram

It’s your account, you decide who’s allowed to see your vacation photos or slide into your DMs.

Over time, Instagram has grown from a photo-sharing platform to a one-stop social network, complete with Snapchat-style Stories, Tik Tok-style Reels, and of course direct messaging.

Having DMs inside Instagram provides a convenient way to chat with friends and family, but it also means that just about anyone can get in touch with you. If you don't want that to happen, there are ways to control it.

That extends to comments and likes left on your feed too, there are more settings than you might realize when it comes to managing who is allowed to contact you on Instagram and how they can go about it.

Choose: Public or Private

If your Instagram account is public, anyone on the platform can see your posts and your stories (unless the stories are to close friends only), and anyone can message you directly. Anyone can like and comment on the photos and videos in your feed, whether or not they're currently following you.

Switch to a private account and your visibility on Instagram is much more limited. New followers must be specifically approved by you, and only followers are able to see the photos, videos, and stories that you're posting. Only followers can like and comment on the posts you put up.

In terms of direct messaging though, nothing really changes: Private profiles, with their account name and profile pictures, can still be found in search. As long as someone else knows the name of your Instagram account, they're able to send a message to it, whether your account is public or private (and whether or not you're following them).

To switch between a public or private account in the Instagram app, tap your account icon (bottom right), then the menu button (top right). Choose Settings and Privacy, and you'll see there's a Private account toggle switch up at the top of the menu, use this to change the status of your account.

Protect Your DMs

Open up your messages in the Instagram app on mobile, the paper airplane icon in the top right corner, and you'll see messages that have come in from people you're following or whom you've added to your close friends list. Messages from other people on Instagram appear under the Requests tab.

Switch to this tab to see incoming messages from people you're not necessarily connected with. You have three options: Accept the message (future messages from this person will go straight to your main inbox), Delete the message, or Block the user and delete the message too (blocking explained later).

That's the default way that messages sent to your inbox are handled. To change it, open up the Settings screen inside the Instagram app again, then pick Privacy and Messages. You can decide if messages from people you're not following go to the Requests tab or just don't show up at all, and the setting can be different based on whether the user in question follows you or not.

The other setting on the same screen controls whether or not you can be added to group chats on Instagram by users you're not connected with. By default, anyone on Instagram can add you to a group chat, but you can change this to be only the people you're currently following.

Restrict Comments and Mentions

Instagram gives you some control over who can comment on and like the photos and videos you post to your feed. From Settings, pick Privacy and Comments, and you can decide who's allowed to comment on your stuff: Everyone, people you follow, people who follow you, or people you either follow or who follow you. You can also block specific users from leaving comments. Don't miss the latest from WIRED. Sign up for stories you won't find anywhere else.

There's a similar set of options under Mentions on the Privacy menu. Mentions on Instagram (the @ symbol followed by your name) can either be left by Everyone, People you follow, or No one depending on the setting you specify here. Mentions can be left in stories, comments, live videos, and captions.

What you don't get on Instagram is any way of blocking someone from liking your posts, it's something you just have to live with, unless you block the user completely. However you can hide the likes on your posts from other people. When you create a post, tap Advanced settings on the final screen before uploading, then turn on the Hide like and view counts on this post toggle switch.

Finally, you can choose Limits from the Privacy menu to put a temporary block on unwanted comments and messages from certain groups, specifically, people who aren't following you or who have recently started to follow you. Instagram says this is to help users avoid harassment, and the block can be put in place for up to four weeks.

Block and Restrict Users

If there are specific users on Instagram whom you'd rather not hear from, you can block them or restrict them. The easiest way to find these options is to go to the profile of an individual, tap the three dots (top right), then choose Restrict or Block. These same options are available in other parts of the Instagram interface too.

If you restrict another user, they won't be able to see when you're online or whether or not you've read their messages. New comments they leave on your posts will only be visible to you, and must be manually approved before they'll be visible to anyone else. You won't receive any notifications for comments from the user, either.

Blocking takes everything a step further. Blocked users can't mention you, tag you, or leave likes and comments on your posts. (Any existing likes and comments will be removed.) They won't be able to message you, or vice versa, though any previous chats will stay in your inbox unless you delete them. While users won't be notified if you restrict or block them, they might well notice they can't get in touch with you anymore.

There is a mute option too for people you're following. From their profile, tap Following, then Mute: You can stop their posts or stories (or both) from showing up in your various feeds, so it's perfect for someone who shares more content than you can keep up with but whom you don't want to disconnect from.

Credit: wired.com

How To Share Anything From Your Phone

You probably do a lot of sharing from your phone of photos, files, links, which is why both Android and iOS have a sharing button prominently displayed on most parts of their interfaces.

As a refresher, on Android phones, the “share” button looks like a “less-than” sign, with a circle at each point, whereas on iPhones, it’s an arrow pointing out of a square. But no matter which platform you’re using, the purpose of the button is the same: to share whatever you’re looking at with other people.

And even though the sharing button is simple, you can make things more seamless and less time-consuming by choosing what happens when you tap “share” or using other smart ways to send content directly from your photos app of choice.

Customizing sharing on iOS

To customize the sharing panel, you’ll need to get it up on screen. Start by sharing something, a webpage in Safari, for example. You can’t really customize the list of frequently contacted people and frequently used devices at the top of the sharing menu, but you can long-press on someone’s name and tell iOS to suggest them less. Most customization involves the list of apps underneath those suggested names.

Scroll to the far right of the apps list and pick More, then tap Edit to pick and reorder which apps show up first when you share something, use the triple-line handles on the right to change the order. If there’s one app you’re always sharing to, make sure it appears first. Tap Done, then Done again to set your choice.

Finally, scroll down to the actions list, which includes copying or printing items, and tap Edit Actions to choose what appears here. Again, you can add or remove entries from the list, so you could remove the Copy option and add the Save to Dropbox option, for example.

Customizing sharing on Android

By default, when you hit the share button on Android, you’ll see four contacts and four apps. These are determined by the operating system based on who you’re usually in touch with, who you recently chatted with, the tools you usually use to send specific types of files, and what it sees as the apps you use the most.

Unfortunately, these suggestions are not customizable, but swiping up on the sharing menu will open up a whole app drawer with possibilities. Starting with Bluetooth, you’ll see several more apps on top of the four you started with. They will usually be social media, storage services, and communication tools ranging from email platforms to messaging apps.

You’ll notice some will have a downward arrow next to the app’s name, this means you can choose a specific place within that app to share content. For example, tapping the downward arrow next to Instagram will open a new menu where you can choose to send an image or video to someone on the platform as a direct message, post it to your feed, or upload it to your story. Likewise, touch the downward arrow next to Twitter and you’ll be able to choose whether you want to send the file through a direct message or post it as a tweet.

If you’re using a Galaxy phone, Samsung has an extra sharing setting on top of Android’s. This will allow you to pin specific contacts on an app so they’ll always pop up no matter what you’re sharing or where you’re doing it from. Open Settings, tap Advanced features, then hit Direct share. If you disable this option, you will only see your frequently used apps on the Share list.

One trick that affects the sharing menu on any version of Android is clearing the data cache of any app (like Messages) that dominates the direct share links more than you’d like it to. This partly resets Android’s list of the contacts you’re most in touch with. From Settings, tap Apps, then any app, and Storage & cache to find the Clear cache option.

Sharing from phone to phone

If you’re in the same space as the person you want to share something with, phone-to-phone sharing is usually the quickest option. Traditionally, Bluetooth has been the tool for this task, just make sure you and the receiver have your Bluetooth on, then pick Bluetooth from the Share menu on either Android or iOS to connect your devices.

If devices on the sending and receiving ends are both made by Apple, AirDrop is the fastest and most reliable way to share. Make sure the option is enabled on both phones (General, then AirDrop from Settings) and nearby AirDrop devices will show up first on the list when you tap the Share button. Just select the device to connect to and choose the photo, file, link, or whatever you want to transfer.

The Android equivalent to AirDrop was Android Beam, but it was discontinued in Android 10. Its replacement is called Nearby Share, and it’ll be the first option you see any time you open the sharing menu. To use it, tap the Share button, then Nearby. Your phone will automatically search for another Android device in the vicinity, and the name of the recipient should appear under Looking for nearby devices. When you see it, tap the correct entry and your friend will get a notification, if they have Nearby Share on, Android will ask if they accept what you’re sending. If it’s off, it’ll ask them to turn the feature on. Once they accept the content, and the sharing is complete, tap Done.

Sharing photos and videos in Apple Photos

Photos and videos (baby pics, memes, vacation snaps, viral video clips, and more) are some of the items we most commonly share with our friends and family. If you’re using the default photos app on iOS and you tap the Share button, you’ll see a few options specific to that particular app.

If you want to share a whole bunch of photos and videos at once, choose Add to Shared Album. This will let you create a new album in iCloud (or use an existing one) that can be accessed by the specific contacts you select. This option is perfect for vacation photos or sharing photos of your kids with their grandparents. Invited members can add comments and images of their own, too. If you don’t see it, go to Settings > Photos and turn on the toggle switch next to Shared Albums.

If you only want to share a single photo or video, try Copy iCloud Link. This creates a direct link to the file in Apple’s cloud storage service, and you can send the URL through any app to any person. A warning though, files shared this way can be accessed and downloaded by anyone with a link for 30 days, so if you’re sharing sensitive content, you might want to find a more secure alternative.

Another benefit to iCloud links is that unlike shared albums, recipients don’t have to also be using Apple Photos, perfect if some of your family and friends live outside the Apple ecosystem.

Sharing photos and videos in Google Photos

Google Photos (available for both Android and iOS) has a similar set of options to Apple Photos once you hit the Share button. Select Create link for one-off, one-way shares, and you can then distribute that link to anyone who needs to access the file, be it a photo or video.

Contrary to what happens in iOS, the links Google Photos creates do not expire. This means that as long as the file exists in your cloud, anyone with a link will be able to access and download it, whether or not they’ve previously signed up for Google Photos. Keep that in mind if you’ll be sharing pictures of your kids or any other sensitive content.

Shared albums are handy for sending a bunch of photos and videos with a specific group of people, especially if you want them to be able to contribute their own files and add comments. The best part is that you stay in control of the album and can stop sharing it or prevent people from accessing it whenever you like.

In Google Photos for iOS, there’s a Shared Album option right on the Share menu. In Google Photos for Android, you’ll need to create the album first, by tapping Library in the bottom right corner of your screen, then the plus sign under Albums. Once you’ve got the right photos and videos in your album, you can share it with one or more people via the standard Share button.

Credit: popsci.com