Rumors of an Xbox gaming handheld have been heating up ever since the beginning of the year, but what if you already had one without realizing it?

The Asus ROG Ally X launch on Monday resulted in the best Windows gaming handheld I've ever tested, and things get even better from a software side when you realize you can control your Xbox remotely.

This isn't necessarily exclusive to the Asus ROG Ally X. Any device with the Xbox App can manage this task, meaning even the original Ally, MSI Claw, or Lenovo Legion Go can accomplish the same feat.

It means you can play all of your Xbox games from the comfort of your Windows gaming handheld console through an internet connection. Of course, it may not seem super necessary, considering many games that launch on Xbox also come to PC and, by extension, the Asus ROG Ally X.

But if you're sporting an Xbox Series X and a strong internet connection, having that level of power behind your Windows gaming handheld is intoxicating.

I once did the same but for PlayStation, where I turned my ROG Ally into a PlayStation Portal, and I can thankfully say that Xbox has made it far easier than PlayStation did.

How to use your Xbox through Asus ROG Ally X

Turning your Asus ROG Ally X into a portable Xbox console isn't super complex, and it doesn't require a third-party application, functioning perfectly through the Xbox App and nothing more. With that said, there are quite a few steps, so pay attention carefully.

1. Open your Xbox Console

2. Go to Settings

3. Go to Devices & connections.

4. Select Remote features.

5. Toggle Enable remote features on.

6. The Xbox console will test its Remote Play capabilities and let you know what can be improved for an ideal experience. Decide which of these queries you want to address and then click Next.

7. It will then say This console is ready for remote play. Select Close.

8. Go to Power Options. While you can typically find these settings underneath Settings -> General, they're also available on the same screen where you enabled remote play. Look at the bottom right and select Power Options.


9. Select Sleep. Keep in mind that this will consume a lot more power than Shutdown (energy-saving). This means your console won't turn off when it actually powers down and will instead be in sleep mode. You might not want to do this if you're concerned about power consumption, but it is necessary for remote play on Xbox to work.

And just like that, the Xbox portion of this is complete. We can now move on to the Asus ROG Ally or whichever device you're planning to connect to your Xbox.

10. Open up the Asus ROG Ally, or any Windows device that can run the Xbox App.

11. Open the Xbox App.


12. Select your Avatar icon on the top left.

13. Click View profile.

14. Underneath the Where I Play section will be a widget for your Xbox console. Your console might already appear; if not, click Add a Console and follow the prompts on-screen. Remember, this will NOT appear until you have completed the previous steps. In particular, you must set your Xbox console to sleep mode for this to show up at all.


15. Once your Xbox console shows up in this part of the tutorial, click on the three dots to the right of your Xbox's console name (mine is just called Xbox One, in this case) and select Remote Play.

Thankfully, this method is the same across the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Apple Vision Pro.

Step 1. Get yourself down to Settings and then click on your name > Sign-In & Security.

Step 2. Select Change Password. This is where it'll prompt you to enter your current Apple ID password or device password. Then you'll enter your new password twice.

Step 3. If you forgot your password, you can go to Apple's iForgot website.

Step 4. Once you're done, you can confirm the change.

Since Mac uses macOS as opposed to the many iOS variants (iPadOS, watchOS, etc.), this method is only slightly different.

Step 1. Click that big ol' Apple menu button and then go to System Settings > Your name.

Step 2. Select Sign-In & Security > Change Password. Then you'll be prompted to enter your current Mac password (not Apple ID password).

Step 3. Then you'll enter your Apple ID password and now you can change your password and confirm said change.

This is the simplest method since you can access the web pretty much anywhere and it likely won't be different depending on the software you have.

Step 1. You'll need to hop over to appleid.apple.com and sign in. (Forgot your password? Go to Apple's iForgot website.)

Step 2. The Sign-In and Security section is the first tab under your name and that's where you need to be.

Step 3. Click Password then enter your current password and your new password twice. Finally, hit Change Password.

You should be able to do this on the iPhone, iPad, or Apple Vision Pro.

Step 1. Run over to Settings > Family > your child's name.

Step 2. Click Apple ID & Password.

Step 3. Now you can select the option to change your child's password. You'll need to enter your device password to access it.

Step 4. Follow the instructions that prompt on-screen to change your child's password. It's as simple as that.

Make sure your drive is receiving enough power

If your hard drive isn't even powering on, a lack of power could very well be the culprit.

Sometimes, simply connecting your external hard drive to your computer via a single USB port delivers enough power, especially if it's a smaller drive. But if you have a larger drive, it may need to be plugged in with an AC power adapter or two USB ports instead of one.

Take a look at your external hard drive's enclosure and check its available ports. If you see a circular power supply port, you likely need an AC power adapter — preferably the one your drive came with — to fully power on your external drive.

You can always look through your external hard drive's paperwork or, if purchased recently, its listing online to see what cables it came with and what specific power requirements it may have.

Try the classic ‘turn it off and back on’ solution


The cliché advice of restarting your computer is an oldie but a goodie. Computers are finicky, and sometimes a simple restart can be the zap it needs to finally display your external hard drive when you connect it.

Before you restart your computer, make sure your drive is unplugged. Then, wait for your computer to fully boot before trying to plug in the external drive again.

Try a different cable, USB port, or computer

If you know your external drive is receiving enough power, and you've tried restarting your computer, it's time to start troubleshooting your port, cable, and computer. It's important to test only one variable at a time, so you know exactly what's causing the issue.

Start by unplugging the drive, and trying it in a different USB port. If you're using a USB hub or docking station, it's worth unplugging that and trying to connect the external drive to your computer directly.

If your external drive still isn't showing up, test a different cable. It's always best to use the cables that came with your drive, but it's entirely possible that even these included cables could be malfunctioning.

Finally, if you've tried a different port and a different cable, it's time to switch up your machine. Plug your external drive into a different computer using the first cable you tried.

If it's possible to plug it into a computer running a different operating system (OS) than your computer, even better. External drives sometimes aren't formatted for cross-compatibility between operating systems, so a drive may work with macOS and not with Windows, or vice versa.

If you see the drive pop up on a different OS, it's likely a formatting issue. You can easily format the hard drive to be cross-compatible with your computer's OS if you're okay with wiping its data, and then connect the drive to your own computer again to see if it hopefully appears.

For the more technically advanced with desktop PCs, you can also remove the drive from its enclosure, and then test the bare drive by plugging it directly into your PC's motherboard. If your drive finally appears in File Explorer, you'll know there's an issue with your enclosure.

Check and update your drivers

Windows is pretty good about automatically updating drivers, but it's possible something could've malfunctioned or corrupted and caused an issue with the OS recognizing your external drive, so it's definitely worth a shot.

On your keyboard, press the Windows key and X, and select Device Manager from the pop-up menu. Find Disk drives in the Device Manager menu, and click the arrow to its left to expand the Disk drives menu.

Right-click your external drive and select Uninstall device from the pop-up menu. You can also select Update driver here, but fully uninstalling the drive, unplugging it, and reinstalling drivers automatically when you plug it back in is often a better bet.

Similarly, macOS automatically updates drivers along with operating system updates, but it's still worth quickly checking for software updates to see if that's the issue. To do this, you'd click the Apple logo in the top left corner of your screen, select About This Mac, and then Software Update to see if there are any outstanding updates.

Enable or format drive in Disk Management or Disk Utility

If you know your external drive still isn't showing up in File Explorer, check Disk Management in Windows 11 or Disk Utility in macOS to see if it appears there.

On Windows 11, type "create and format..." into the Search box at the bottom of your screen and click Create and Format Hard Disk Partitions when it pops up in the menu. This will open Disk Management, where you should be able to see or scroll to your external drive.

If your external drive appears both online and formatted, you can try resetting communication between it and your computer by changing the letter assigned to the drive. Right-click the drive's name in the Volume column, and select Change Drive Letter and Paths to switch the letter associated with your drive.

If your drive is offline, right-click the drive's name towards the bottom of the Disk Management window (typically Disk 1, Disk 2, etc.), and select Online from the pop-up menu.

If you see an 'Unallocated' label under a black bar, that means your drive hasn't been formatted. Right-click it using the same process above, and only if you're okay with erasing any data on the drive, select New Simple Volume.

The macOS version of Disk Management is Disk Utility, which you can access by typing "disk utility" into Spotlight. If your device appears grayed out on the left side of the Disk Utility window, you'll need to mount the drive, which is the equivalent of allocating it on Windows 11.

To do this, select Mount in the top right corner of Disk Utility. If this doesn't work, you can instead select First Aid from the top menu and click Run to see if macOS can troubleshoot and fix your drive for you.

If your drive doesn't mount and the First Aid process finds no issues, it might be time to erase and format the drive, which would unfortunately delete any data on the drive. Select Erase at the top of Disk Utility, name the drive, select a format from the dropdown menu, and select Erase again to complete the process.

Your last resort is to contact the manufacturer

If you've tried all these fixes and your external drive still isn't powering on, showing up in File Explorer, or letting you access its data, there's a very high possibility it's a dead drive that's no longer salvageable.

From there, the only tool left in your toolbox is to contact your drive's manufacturer. Sometimes, they may have more specific advice for you to try based on your unique situation, or they might be able to start the process of replacing your drive if it's still under warranty.

If your drive isn't under warranty and can't be replaced by the manufacturer, it's time to start looking for another external drive.

 

(Why should iPhone users have all the fun with AirDrop?)

With the Quick Share app, you can even share content to and from select Windows devices as well. Whether you're sharing a funny meme with a friend via two Android phones or sharing content for work between your phone and laptop, here's how to use Quick Share on Android.

How to use Android Quick Share (previously Nearby Share)

Using Quick Share on your Android device, you can share photos, files, links, or videos with yourself or someone else in seconds.

1. Find the content you want to share — a website link, a photo, or any other file on your phone — and select the Share option in whatever app you use.

2. Tap the blue Quick Share icon among the sharing options.


3. After your phone has scanned the nearby area for discoverable devices via Quick Share, tap the name of the device with which you'd like to share the content.

4. If you're sending content to your device where you're already signed in, there's no need to approve the transfer. But if you send content to another person's device, they'll need to follow on-screen prompts to accept your transferred content.

And that's it! With the Quick Share app, you can quickly share files, photos, and videos with other Android phones and Chromebooks and select Windows laptops.

How to check AirPods battery life

Method 1: You can check the AirPods battery life by opening your Charging Case (while the AirPods are inside) and holding the case close to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. The battery life should appear on your device after a few seconds.

Method 2: Check the AirPods battery life by adding the Batteries widget to your home screen. You'll be able to see the battery life percentage of your AirPods and AirPods case as well as your device.

Step 1. Open your AirPods Charging Case or take the AirPods out of the case.

Step 2. In the top right corner, select the Control Center (looks like two toggle sliders).

Step 3. Scroll to your AirPods and if you hover or select, you should see the battery life percentage.


There is no built-in function on Android to check AirPods battery life. However, that doesn't mean you can't still do it.

To check the battery life of your Apple AirPods on an Android device, you need to install a third-party app like AirBattery. Give the app permission to display over other apps, then select your AirPods model.


Similar to Android, Windows does not have a built-in function to check AirPods' battery life. Third-party apps to the rescue once more!

You can download Bluetooth Battery Monitor, which you can use to see the battery life percentage on your Apple AirPods and any Bluetooth device. Once the app is installed, open it and start adding your devices.


You can technically check your AirPods battery life via the Charging Case, but it's not helpful.

The status light will turn on when your AirPods Charging Case is open. If it's green, that means you have more than one full charge remaining. It will turn amber if it's less than one full charge.

We also have a few tips to optimize your battery charging for AirPods. The Optimized Battery Charging feature is available for the AirPods Pro and the third-generation AirPods.

The iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch adjust how your AirPods Pro or third-generation AirPods charge based on your routines. So, they'll keep your AirPods at 80% until shortly before you need to use them.

This is mostly helpful for those who have scheduled charging routines, but if you can work one in, it might be a good idea for your AirPods' battery health.

Optimized Battery Charging is enabled by default, but you can disable it by opening the Charging Case, going to Settings > Bluetooth > More Info, and turning off Optimized Battery Charging.
AirPods battery life: Checked

It's as easy as that. Now, you know every way you can check your AirPods battery life and optimize your battery life charging.

One of the worst modern tech experiences is dealing with deleted data that may not have even been your fault in the first place, so we get the need to recover permanently deleted text messages.

We'll be focusing on the Android side of things in this guide, but because Android can never be simple, we'll be showing you how to recover texts on both the Google Messages app and the Samsung Messages app.

Here's how to recover permanently deleted text messages on Android.