How to Find Any Device’s IP Address, MAC Address, and Other Network Connection Details | Dramel Notes

Each network-connected device — laptops, desktops, smartphones, tablets, and everything else — has an IP address on the network and a unique MAC address. There are many reasons you might need to find this information, so here’s how to find it on all the laptops, smartphones, and tablets you might have lying around.

This will just show you an individual device’s IP address. You’re probably behind a router on your network, so your public IP address — your IP address on the Internet — is different and must be found elsewhere.

Windows 10

On Windows 10, you can find this information more quickly than you could on previous versions of Windows. Click the Wi-Fi icon in the notification area, or system tray, and then click the “Network settings” link.

If it’s not a Wi-FI connection, you can open the Settings app, select “Network & Internet, select the type of connection it is, and look for more information.

Click “Advanced options” in the window that appears. (You can also reach this window by opening the Settings app and navigating to Network & Internet > Wi-Fi.) Scroll down and you’ll see this information under the Properties heading.

Windows 7, 8, 8.1, and 10

You can find this information in other ways on previous versions of Windows. Of course, these methods still work on Windows 10, too.

Just open the Control Panel, click “View network status and tasks” under Network and Internet, click “Change adapter settings”, right-click the connection you’re using, and select “Status”. Click the “Details” button under Connection and you’ll see all the information you need to know in a list.

You can also find this information by opening a Command Prompt window and running the following command:

ipconfig

Mac OS X

The easiest, quickest way to find this information on Mac OS X is to hold down the “Option” key on your keyboard and click the Wi-Fi icon on the menu bar at the top of your screen. The Option key enables quick access to status information elsewhere in Mac OS X, too.

You’ll see your Mac’s IP address next to “IP address.” Other details here will show you information about your wireless network and your router’s IP address.

You can also find this information by clicking the Apple menu on the menu bar at the top of your screen, selecting “System Preferences”, clicking the “Network” icon, selecting the network connection, clicking “Advanced”, and clicking the “TCP/IP” tab. You’ll find the MAC address under the “Hardware” tab.

iPhone and iPad

To find this information on an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch running Apple’s iOS, first open the Settings app. In the Settings app, tap “Wi-Fi” and then tap the “i” icon to the right of the Wi-Fi connection you’re currently connected to. You’ll see the IP address and other network details here.

To instead find the MAC address, navigate to General > About in the Settings app. Scroll down and look at the “Wi-Fi Address”.

Android

On Android, you can find this information in the Settings app. Pull down from the top of the screen and tap the gear icon or open your app drawer and tap the “Settings” app icon to open it.

Tap the “Wi-Fi” option under Wireless & networks, tap the menu button, and tap “Advanced” to open the Advanced Wi-Fi screen. You’ll find the IP address and MAC address displayed at the bottom of this page.

As always on Android, these options may be in a slightly different place depending on how your manufacturer customized your device. The above process was performed on a Nexus 7 running Android 6.0 Marshmallow.

Chrome OS

On a Chromebook, Chromebox, or any other device running Chrome OS, you can find this in the Settings screen.

The quickest way to access this information is to click the status area at the bottom-right corner of your screen, click the “Connected to [Wi-Fi Network Name]” option in the list, and click the name of the network you’re connected to. A connection information page will open.

You could also open the Settings page by clicking the menu button in Chrome and selecting “Settings”. Click the name of the Wi-Fi network you’re connected to at the top of the Settings page, and then click it again. You’ll see the same page.

The MAC address is under the “Connection” tab, while the IP address is under the “Connection” Tab.

Linux

On a modern Linux system, this information should be easily accessible from the status or notification area. Look for a network icon, click it, and select “Connection Information”. You’ll see the IP address and other information here — the “hardware address” is the MAC address.

This is how NetworkManager does it, and most Linux distributions now use NetworkManager.

If you just have access to a terminal, run the following command. Ignore the “lo” interface, which is a local loopback interface. In the screenshot below, “eth0” is the network connection to look at.

ifconfig

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The process is similar on other devices, from game consoles to set top boxes. YOu should be able to open the Settings screen and look for a “Status” screen that displays this information, a “Network” screen that might show network connection details somewhere, or a list of information on an “About” screen. If you can’t find these details, perform a web search for your specific device.

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4 Reasons to Avoid Buying an E-Reader This Christmas | Dramel Notes

Between e-readers and tablets, e-readers provide a much better reading experience. In fact, depending on your preferences, you may even like e-readers more than physical books. Simply put, e-readers are pretty awesome.

But that doesn’t mean they make good gifts. Here are four reasons why you shouldn’t buy one in 2015.

1. Big Updates Are Coming in 2016

Two important pieces of technology go into an e-reader: the electronic ink screen and the system-on-a-chip, which provides the device’s screen clarity, refresh rate, processing power, wireless capabilities, battery endurance, and more.

Neither of these technologies have been improved at all since 2013, and they haven’t received any major improvements since 2011. However, both might get a major update in 2016!

System-on-a-Chip Technologies

The i.MX5, released in 2010, was the world’s first processor and chipset purpose-designed for electronic ink display management. The package allowed e-readers to have month-long battery lives, faster page turns, and fewer jarring page refreshes. Freescale followed up with the marginally improved i.MX6 design in 2011, but since then, nothing.

But all of that changes in 2016 when Freescale’s newly announced i.MX7 begins entering products. I don’t want to overhype the importance of Freescale’s new design, but it’s orders of magnitude more power efficient than the previous generation of e-reader processors. For one thing, it’s built on the 28nm production process (almost half of the 40nm used in the older i.MX6), and smaller is better.

The i.MX7 also introduces a new kind of design called Heterogeneous Multicore Processing Architecture (HMPA), which allows two processor architectures to operate simultaneously. Unlike older processors, the i.MX7 uses two processing cores: one core has a Cortex A7 architecture while the other has a more power-efficient Cortex M4 architecture.

In the world of ARM processors, there are fast and slow cores. The faster cores tend to offer performance at the expense of power efficiency while the slower cores do the opposite.

HMPA enables each core to handle tasks suited to its processing needs. In the i.MX7, the Cortex A7 handles tasks requiring performance while the Cortex M4 handles slower tasks, such as turning pages. This is nice because the Cortex M4 offers the best pound-for-pound power consumption around.

Judging from the processor specs alone, the i.MX7 represents the single biggest leap in performance and battery life in e-reader history. But because it won’t enter products until 2016, there’s a huge technology gap between current and upcoming devices.

Display Technologies

Similar to e-reader processors, e-paper displays haven’t changed much since 2013. One of the first displays was E Ink’s Vizplex, which arrived in 2007 and became the de facto standard for e-paper devices. Three years later, E Ink released the Pearl, which similarly came to dominate digital readers.

As the technology matured, E Ink further diversified its product portfolio with the flexible Mobius, followed by the faster and higher-contrast Carta in 2013 (which is found in the awesome Kindle Paperwhite). As of late 2015, Pearl and Carta displays control the market.

It’s worth noting that E Ink incrementally updates each of its three lines, with each subsequent production receiving higher pixels-per-inch — but in the two years since its last major release, E Ink has yet to announce a new product line.

It appears that E Ink introduces a new line of screens approximately every three years. Vizplex was announced in 2007, Pearl released in 2010, and Mobius and Carta arrived in 2013. If their product release cycle is based on a three-year production schedule, something new is coming in 2016.

2. E-Readers Are Pretty Much the Same

There are lots of good e-readers out there, but they’re mostly clones of one another. E-readers all employ a formulaic design, and as such, they all use identical internal components and screens.

The Kindle Voyage, Kobo Glo HD (a good alternative to the Kindle), Nook Glowlight Plus, and Kindle Paperwhite 3 all use the same components: a Carta screen and an i.MX6 processor. The value proposition just isn’t there. Why pay hundreds of dollars for a black-and-white display that can only read books?

However, some emergent technologies would enable full color e-readers. One of these technologies is called Electrowetting, a technology invented by Liquavista, a subsidiary of Amazon.

As you can see, Electrowetting combines the power efficiency of electronic ink with the performance of an LCD screen.

It’s not the only innovation, though. Other technologies include Qualcomm’s Mirasol and the open-license Pixel Qi transflective display. Unfortunately, none of these technologies will appear this holiday season. The earliest you might see any of these is 2017.

Another technology that hobbles the current generation of e-readers is its touchscreen. Right now the industry is split between capacitive touchscreens and infrared touchscreens.

Capacitive touchscreens lay a thin layer of conductive material over the screen to gray out text. Infrared screens overcome this limitation by positioning light emitting components around the reader’s bezel, which increases a device’s thickness.

But a new technology called Cambrios ClearOhm solves this by using a transparent touchscreen layer:

If ClearOhm proves viable, future models of e-reader could combine the clarity of infrared screens with the thinness of capacitive technology — but no e-reader will use this technology in 2015.

3. The Holiday Season Is Most Expensive

E-readers – even more than other devices – cost a premium during the holidays. During most of the year, up until Black Friday, there are constant price-drops and promotions. For example, in February 2015, the normally $199 Kindle Voyage sold for a bargain-basement price of $59.

Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and Kobo all heavily discount their e-readers during the summer (and sometimes the fall) to make room for new products. If you purchase during the holidays, the price will almost always be at full retail value.

4. Modern E-Readers Are All Closed

At present, no major manufacturer offers unrestricted access to the Android operating system.

A few small companies do offer Android e-readers with half-baked firmware, such as the Onyx Boox series. Users can also hack a Nook Simple Touch to get full access to Android, meaning users can install any app they want. (They can even play games.) But nothing like this is available for big name products.

An open operating system would allow users to read any of their files regardless of format, whether ePUB, MOBI, PDF, or whatever else, provided that they also have an appropriate reading app available in the Google Play Store.

When Should You Buy an E-Reader?

Even though e-readers offer a fantastic means of reading books, 2015 is the worst year to buy one due to the gap in technology. There also isn’t a lot of variety in today’s market because all e-readers use similar — if not identical — components. On top of that, buying during the holiday season means getting gouged.

We recommend that you wait a few more months to see what kinds of new products are released by major manufacturers in 2016. However, if you absolutely need one right now, then check out our guide to picking the perfect e-reader.

Are you going to buy one or are you going to wait until next year? What kind of features are you looking for in an e-reader? Drop a comment below and share with us!

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How to Print to PDF on Any Computer, Smartphone, or Tablet | Dramel Notes

All modern computers, smartphones, and tablets can now easily print web pages and other documents to PDF files without any extra software. Microsoft added this to Windows 10, and Apple added it to iOS 9.

PDF is a standard, portable document format that works across all devices. It’s ideal for archiving and sharing web pages and other documents. It’s just more compatible than other types of documents, like Microsoft’s XPS document format.

Windows 10

Windows 10 finally adds a built-in PDF printer to Windows. In any application — from Windows desktop apps to those new Windows Store apps — just select the “Print” option in the menu. You’ll see “Microsoft Print to PDF” appear in the list of installed printers. Select that printer and click the “Print” button. You’ll then be asked to provide a name and location for your new PDF file.

Windows 7, 8, and 8.1

On previous versions of Windows, this can be a bit more of a headache. It’s not integrated into the operating system, so you may have to install a third-party PDF printer application. Unfortunately, many of these are packed with installer crapware.

Some applications do have integrated PDF-printing support, however. For example, in Chrome you can select the “Print” option and select “Save to PDF” to print to PDF. LibreOffice can also export documents to PDF. Check the application you’re using to see if it can do this without any additional software.

Mac OS X

This is integrated into Mac OS X, too. But, if you’re familiar with the way it works on Windows and other operating systems, you might miss it.

To print to PDF, select the “Print” option in any application. Ignore the list of printers at the top of the print dialog that appears. Instead, click the “PDF” menu at the bottom of the dialog and select “Save as PDF”. Mac OS X will allow you to save the document to a PDF file instead of printing it to an actual printer, and will prompt you for a file name and location.

iPhone and iPad (iOS)

With iOS 9, Apple built this feature into every iPhone and iPad. To print a web page or other document to a PDF file, first open it in an application. Tap the “Share” button — it looks like a square with an up arrow coming out of it. Scroll through the list of icons in the top row and tap the “Save PDF to iBooks” option.

You can now open iBooks to access that PDF file. From iBooks, you can email the PDF file or share it to somewhere else. These PDF files can also be synced with iTunes so you can get them on your computer in the unlikely event that you regularly sync your iPhone or iPad with iTunes. They’ll be in your iTunes Book Library after they sync.

Android

This is part of Android too. It’s integrated as part of Android’s built-in support for printers — both physical printers and PDF printers.

In an Android app that supports printing — Chrome, for example — open the menu and tap the “Print” option. Tap the “Save to” menu and select “Save as PDF” to save a PDF file to your Android phone or tablet’s local storage, or tap “Save to Google Drive” to save a PDF file directly to your Google Drive account.

If you’re using an app that doesn’t have built-in printing support, you can always use Android’s Share menu. Install an app that can convert documents to PDF and you can then tap Share anywhere in Android and select that app to make a PDF.

Chrome OS

Chrome can always print files directly to PDF, and it works just the same on a Chromebook. Just click the menu button in Chrome and select Print. You’ll see a preview of the current web page. Click the “Change” button under “Destination” and select “Print to PDF” under “Local Destinations”. Select any options you want to change here and then click “Save” to save the file to PDF. You’ll be asked for a file name and location.

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Other operating systems may offer this, too. It should be included by default on most desktop Linux systems, but different desktops will have different interfaces. Look in the “print” dialog and see if you can find an option for printing to PDF.

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How to Increase Text Size and Brightness on the Apple Watch | Dramel Notes

We’re all well acquainted with tiny text on our phones, tablets, and smart watches; if your eyesight is poor, then we feel your pain. With the Apple Watch, you can easily increase the text size and brightness to make it more readable.

Using the Apple Watch already presents some unique challenges. The screen is very tiny so everything is miniaturized, which means text must be small enough to fit onto it. It’s not necessarily hard to see the text on the Watch’s screen, but it can be made larger and bolded for easier viewing. Additionally, the brightness can be adjusted to better suit your ambient lighting conditions.

This isn’t the first time we’ve explained how to make text larger on various devices. We’ve talked about how to make text larger and more readable on your Android device, as well as how to do the same on your iPad or iPhone. Today, we want to turn our attention to the Apple Watch.

In order to adjust text size and brightness on your Watch, you need to open the Watch app on your iPhone and tap the “Brightness & Text Size” option.

Very simply, if you want to adjust the brightness of your Watch screen, move the slider left or right. Adjusting the brightness to make it brighter will make it easier to see the Watch screen in direct sunlight while dimming it will make it easier on your eyes in darkened environments.

If you want to increase or decrease text size, then you obviously need to move the slider left or right depending upon your preference. On the other hand, if you want to make everything bold, then you will want to tap on “Bold Text”, which will require your Watch to restart.

How does this all look when applied in real life? In the following example, we see how text looks at the default size setting with the bold option turned on.

Here is how text looks bolded at the largest size. Note, you may have to scroll down to see everything but that’s to be expected with larger text.

Finally, here is what text looks like at the smallest size (again, bolded). Compared to the previous two screenshots, the text fits neatly on the screen.

While none of these are terribly hard to read, particularly when text is set to its largest size, it could make the difference between being able to read your Watch easily without the aid of corrective lenses. You will want to play around and adjust it so it is comfortable enough to read without straining or squinting.

We hope you found this article useful. If you would like to add a comment or question, we encourage you to leave your feedback in our discussion forum

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