Share Dropbox files via iMessage and sign PDFs on your iPhone – CNET

No longer content simply to be a file repository in the cloud, Dropbox updated its iOS app to help business users get more done on their iPhone or iPad. Dropbox for iOS now has its own Messages app, and it lets you sign PDFs without touching Adobe, among a number of other features.

Let’s take a look at the new things the updated Dropbox app can do.

Share files via Messages

With iOS 10, Apple opened the stock Messages app to third-party developers, and Dropbox has added its own app to the iMessage App Store. With it installed, you can grab Dropbox files without leaving your current text conversation and share them with whomever you are texting.

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Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET

Sign PDFs

With the previous version of the Dropbox app, you could sign PDFs, but it was an awkward, two-step process that kicked you out to the Adobe Acrobat Reader app. Now, you can delete that Adobe app and sign PDFs from right within Dropbox itself.

When you open a PDF in Dropbox, tap the pencil button on the bottom of your screen to add text or a signature. You can then drag your entered text or your signature to the appropriate spot on the page. And the app saves your signature to make signing subsequent documents quick and easy.

More actions with the lock-screen widget

Dropbox had a lock screen widget before this update, but all it showed you were your four most recently added files, which you could tap on to open in Dropbox. The updated Dropbox app adds three helpful buttons to the lock-screen widget: Scan Document, Upload Photo and Create File.

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Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET

With these buttons, I can now move the Dropbox app off of my home screen to free up a spot for another app there and simply use the lock-screen widget to start a Dropbox task.

Get notified of changes

If you regularly share files on Dropbox, it can be a challenge to keep track of who is making changes and when. The updated Dropbox app now notifies you when a shared document has been updated and by whom. The notification includes a Refresh button so you can quickly and easily view the current version of the file.

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Dropbox

iPad PIP

The updated Dropbox app for the iPad now lets you go picture-in-picture so you can watch a video you have stored on Dropbox in a PIP window while you go about your business elsewhere on your iPad. And Dropbox stays that in the coming weeks, it’ll add split-screen support.

For more, get 10 tips for getting started with Dropbox Paper and learn how to sync folders between your Mac and Dropbox.

5 privacy settings to change in Windows 10 – CNET

Windows 10 is running on over 400 million devices, but it still has all sorts of privacy issues — including mandatory diagnostic and usage data reporting to Microsoft, and a troubling amount of ads sprinkled throughout the platform.

Not all of Windows 10’s problems can be fixed, but there are some things you can do to reclaim your privacy. Here are five privacy-related settings you can change for a less invasive and more secure Windows 10 experience.

Stop Cortana from getting to know you

In order for Cortana to be the best virtual personal assistant ever, she’ll ask you early on if she can “get to know you” through the way you interact with your device — namely, your speech, handwriting and typing patterns. The “getting to know you” feature also allows Windows 10 to collect other information about you, including your calendar, contacts, location and browsing history, according to Microsoft’s privacy statement.

You can stop Cortana from “getting to know you.” If you do this, you will not be able to use voice dictation to speak to Cortana, and all personal information that Cortana has collected will be cleared.

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Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET

To turn this off, open the Settings menu and go to Speech, inking, & typing. Under Getting to know you, click Stop getting to know me. This will turn off dictation and will clear any collected information from your device. You can also clear your collected information from Cortana’s settings menu, under Change what Cortana knows about me in the cloud.

Turn off your location

If you’re using a mobile device, such as a tablet or a laptop, there are plenty of times when allowing Windows 10 and third-party apps to access your location is convenient. But that doesn’t mean that you should leave your location switched on at all times. When your location is switched on, Windows 10 stores your device’s location history for up to 24 hours and allows apps with location permission to access that data.

If you turn your location off, apps that use your location (such as the Maps app) will not be able to find you. However, you can manually set a default location that apps can use as a stand-in.

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Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET

To turn off your location, open the Settings menu and go to Location . You can either turn off location for all users (under Location for this device is on > Change ), or you can turn off location services for your account (under Location service). In this menu, you can also clear your Location history , and allow certain apps to see (or not see) your exact location. Apps in the location list will have a note if they use location history data.

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Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET

To quickly toggle your location services on and off, open the Action center; the Location switch will be in the quick settings (possibly below the break).

Stop syncing

There’s a lot of syncing going on in Windows 10. If you sign in with a Microsoft account, your settings — including passwords — may be synced across other devices you sign into with the same account. Your notifications may also be synced across devices.

If you turn off syncing, your settings and passwords will not be synced across other devices when you sign in with your Microsoft account (so you’ll need to do things like enter passwords in manually).

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Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET

To turn off settings syncing, open the Settings menu and go to Accounts > Sync your settings. You can either turn off all setting syncing at once, or you can toggle individual sync settings off.

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Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET

To turn off notification syncing, open Cortana and go to Settings > Send notifications between devices. You can turn this off to turn off all notifications syncing, and you can also click Edit sync settings to manage your different signed-in devices.

Lock down your lock screen

The lock screen is the first thing anyone sees when they open up your device, and this screen can have a lot of information that you might not want strangers to access.

Here are three things you need to do to lock down your lock and log-in screens:

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Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET

Make sure your notifications aren’t appearing on the lock screen. Open the Settings menu and go to System > Notifications & actions and turn off Show notifications on the lock screen. The downside to turning this feature off is that you won’t be able to see any notifications until you unlock your device.

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Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET

Turn off Cortana on the lock screen by opening Cortana and going to Settings > Use Cortana even when my device is locked. The downside to turning this feature off is that you won’t be able to use Cortana while your device is locked.

You can also limit her scope on the lock screen (instead of turning her off completely) by unchecking the box next to Let Cortana access my calendar, email, messages and Power BI when my device is locked. This way, you’ll still be able to ask Cortana to answer questions that don’t reveal any personal information while your device is locked.

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Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET

Hide your email address on the log-in screen by opening the Settings menu and going to Accounts > Sign-in options > Privacy. Turn off the toggle under Show account details (e.g. email address) on sign-in screen. There’s pretty much no downside to turning this feature off, unless you really like seeing your email address.

Turn off your advertising ID

Each Microsoft account has a unique advertising ID that lets Microsoft collect information about you and deliver a personalized ad experience across platforms. If you sign into Windows 10 with a Microsoft account, those personalized ads will follow you onto your computer — you’ll see them in apps and possibly in the operating system itself (e.g., in the Start menu).

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Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET

To turn these ads off in Windows 10, open the Settings menu and go to Privacy > General > Let apps use my advertising ID for experiences across apps (turning this off will reset your ID) and turn this off. You’ll still see ads, but they won’t be personalized to your tastes and preferences.

Turning this feature off will prevent personalized ads from popping up in your Windows 10 experience, but won’t necessarily keep you from seeing personalized ads when you’re using your Microsoft account on other platforms. To get rid of ads on other platforms, such as in browsers, head to Microsoft’s advertising opt-out page.

How to use third-party apps (like Uber) in Maps for iOS 10 – CNET

iOS 10: Five hidden features you may have missed

Take control of your iPhone’s inbox and have fun with photos with these less-than-obvious updates.

by Vanessa Hand Orellana

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The next time you search for a restaurant or directions in the Maps app on iOS 10, you may notice an extra button or two to make a reservation or request a ride.

The new buttons are part of a long list of new features in iOS 10. Just as developers can integrate with Siri, Maps is yet another area where company’s like OpenTable or Lyft can stay front and center.

And just as third-party Siri apps require you to enable each app, so do third-party Maps apps.

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Screenshot by Jason Cipriani/CNET

It’s a quick process. Open the Settings app on your iOS device then tap on Maps. Scroll to the bottom of the page, where you’ll find the Extensions section.

Toggle the switch for each app you want to use within Maps, and you’re done.

If Maps shows you, for example, the OpenTable button before it’s turned on in Settings, tapping on the button will prompt you to enable it directly in Maps.

Currently, I know of Yelp, Uber, Lyft and OpenTable as apps that work with Apple Maps in iOS 10.

Is Amazon Music Unlimited a good deal? – CNET

Amazon is coming for you, Apple Music. And Spotify. And Google Play Music.

Yesterday, the e-commerce giant rolled out Amazon Music Unlimited, an ad-free streaming service that aims to compete with those established heavyweights. How? With lower prices. Sort of.

Not to be confused with Prime Music, which affords Prime subscribers a fairly limited catalog, Music Unlimited offers “tens of millions” of songs, according to Amazon. (Its competitors get a little more specific, each claiming at least 30 million.) Let’s just say it’s Amazon’s answer to Spotify.

Beyond that, Music Unlimited offers tight integration with Amazon’s Echo products. In fact, Echo owners can take advantage of special pricing. Let’s take a look at the various subscription options and whether or not they’re really a good deal.

If you already have Amazon Prime

You paid $99 for your Prime subscription, which works out to $8.25 per month. Sure, it affords lots of benefits beyond just Prime Music, but you still have to consider that as part of the equation. Existing Prime subscribers can add Music Unlimited for $7.99 per month — or $79, if you pay annually.

All the competing services charge $9.99 per month for a single-user subscription. So if you’re paying for Prime already, another $7.99/month (or an effective $6.58 from an annual payment) is a decent deal — though hardly a great one.

If you already have an Amazon Echo

Here’s where it gets interesting. Echo owners can get Music Unlimited for just $3.99 per month. But — and this is a big “but” — that subscription will play your music only via Echo — and only a single Echo at that. You don’t get to listen on the web, and you don’t get to use the mobile apps.

Verdict: no, thanks. This might be a bigger deal if you had no other options for unlimited music via Echo. But you do: Spotify. And obviously that service doesn’t limit you to a single device.

Admittedly, $3.99 per month is the single cheapest streaming-music option out there, but remember, you still need Prime. And an Echo. Neither one is free.

If you don’t have Amazon anything

“Civilians” can get Amazon Music Unlimited for $9.99 per month — the same price you’d pay for Apple Music, Spotify or the like. So then the question is, how is Music Unlimited better than the competition? At first blush, it appears to be very similar: big catalog, curated playlists, personalized stations and so on. Perhaps the best argument for choosing it is if you think you’ll purchase Prime and/or an Echo at some point down the road. But if you go with, say, Spotify from the start, you’ll still enjoy Echo integration.

If you have a family

That $9.99 per month is for a single user. If you want a family plan — even if you already subscribe to Prime — will cost you $14.99 per month. That allows up to six users to share the service, on par with what you get from Apple, Google and Spotify family plans.

However, Amazon also offers an annual payment option for Music Unlimited: $149, which works out to $12.42 per month. That would make it the least-expensive of the major music services. (I didn’t find a discounted annual-payment option for any of the others.)

But, as with the individual plan, the savings are pretty slim — just a couple of bucks every month. I definitely don’t see the value in Amazon’s Echo-only plan, which is way too limiting, and unless you already have a subscription to Prime that you like for reasons other than music, the standard $9.99 rate is unexciting.

If you do have that subscription, though, $7.99 per month is a solid single-user deal. And for families of six willing to prepay by the year, the $149 rate is definitely worth considering.

What are your thoughts on Amazon Music Unlimited? A good deal, or not quite good enough? While you’re weighing those questions, be sure to check out CNET’s music download and streaming directory.

How to make a to-do list with Alexa – CNET

Tyler Lizenby/CNET

Among Alexa’s growing list of features is one that lets you make and manage to-do and shopping lists.

Adding tasks or items is very straightforward. Tell her what you need to do or buy and she’ll add it the correct list. But that’s not all there is to Alexa’s to-do list capabilities. Here’s everything you need to know about task management with Alexa.

Adding to-dos and shopping list items

There are a few of ways to add items to your to-do and shopping lists.

You can say, “Alexa, create a new to-do.” She will then ask you what the to-do is. Whatever you say after that will be added as a line item to the list. You can also be more direct and say, “Alexa, I need to make an appointment with the dentist” or “Alexa, add ‘go to the gym’ to my to-do list.”

Screenshot by Taylor Martin/CNET

For the shopping list, you can say something like, “Alexa, add bread to my shopping list” or “Alexa, I need to buy deodorant.”

Alexa is fairly clever about to-do and shopping list commands. You can be far more general with your requests and she will try to fill in the blanks. For instance, when you say “add [noun],” Alexa understands you want that item added to your shopping list. If you say “Alexa, go to the gym,” Alexa will add “go to the gym” to your to-do list.

The problem with letting Alexa manage your to-do list is the lack of features, organization and accessibility of the list itself.

The only way to access your to-do list is within the Amazon Alexa app on Android or iOS or by going to alexa.amazon.com in your web browser. Click on Shopping & To-do Lists to view the lists. From there, you can add an item manually, check off, edit and delete items or move them between the two lists. You can also view completed tasks or print out the existing to-do or shopping list. That’s it.

Any.do and Todoist

Fortunately, official integration with both Any.do and Todoist was announced earlier today, bringing two-way sync and extended to-do list functionality to Alexa. You can expect other popular task managers to be added to the mix in the future, as well.

Screenshot by Taylor Martin/CNET

To connect an Any.do or Todoist account to your Alexa account:

• Open the Alexa mobile app or alexa.amazon.com in a web browser and click Settings.
• Scroll down and click Lists under the Account section.
• Click Link to the right of either Any.do or Todoist.
• Click Continue to be taken to the log-in page.
• Enter your Amazon account log-in credentials and click Sign in.
• Click Okay to be taken to another log-in page.
• Enter your Todoist or Any.do account credentials and click Log in.

After doing this, your to-do and shopping lists will be synced between your Alexa account and your connected Any.do or Todoist account. To-dos created via Alexa will be visible in Any.do or Todoist and vice versa.

You can also ask, “Alexa, what’s on my to-do list?” and all pending tasks for that day will be read to you.

The Todoist integration will also make use of its natural language task input, so you can add due dates and recurring tasks via voice. For instance, you can say, “Alexa, add ‘Car payment’ every 4th of the month to my to-do list.” The task “Car payment” will be added to your Todoist account, but will not show up in the Alexa to-do list until the day it’s due — the 4th of every month.

Here’s everything the Amazon Echo can do

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More to-dos with IFTTT

If you use a service other than Any.do or Todoist, you can enable one-way sync using IFTTT.

All you need is a recipe that uses the Amazon Alexa channel and Item added to your To Do List as the trigger and your task manager of choice as the action channel. You can also have items added to your shopping list added to an external to-do list using a similar recipe.

The Publish Alexa ToDo to Trellorecipe is a perfect example, but there are several supported to-do list and task manager services on IFTTT.

• Beeminder
• Evernote
• FollowUp.cc
• Google Calendar
• iOS Reminders
• Kyber
• MeisterTask
• Office 365 Calendar
• OneNote
• Todoist
• Toodledo
• Trello

Once the recipe is added to your account, tasks added via Alexa will also be added to your separate task manager account. However, items added to your to-do list elsewhere will not be synced with your Alexa to-do or shopping lists.

Disclosure: Taylor Martin (a CNET freelance contributor) writes and produces videos for the Todoist blog.