Staying aware of your surroundings matters. That includes hearing smoke alarms, appliance beeps or a knock at the door. Still, real life gets busy. You wear headphones. You get focused. Sounds slip by ...

You can change notification sounds for emails and calendar events directly within the new Outlook app for Windows. In classic Outlook, you can choose whether to play a sound when a new email arrives.

With iOS 17, Apple changed the default iPhone notification sound – and many users didn’t like it. Some said it was too quiet; others simply preferred the old sound. But there wasn’t much you could do ...