The PlayStation 5 has only been out for four years and still has a lot of life in it, but Sony may be eyeing a mid-cycle refresh of the console in the form of a more powerful PS5 Pro. In fact, some rumors suggest we could see the new console as soon as this year, and that it will include some pretty hefty upgrades.
Of course, Sony has yet to officially confirm anything, or even admit it is working on a successor to the PS5. But based on the timing of the release of the PS4 Pro in November 2016, three years into the life of that machine, it seems likely Sony is also looking to iterate on its newest console.
Until we get official news, of course, at's all rumor and speculation, but that can be fun too. Here’s everything there is to know (assuming there's anything at all to know) about the PS5 Pro so far.
There isn't much to go on when it comes to the PS5 Pro's potential price and specs. However, recent rumors and possible leaks suggest the PS5 Pro will offer 33.5 teraflops of power. Yes, that is actually the name of the measurement, and that's nearly three times the power as the PS5 today.
Additionally, the scuttlebutt is that the GPU in the PS5 Pro will offer 45% higher rasterization performance, and that it could utilize AI upscaling in a method similar to Nvidia’s DLSS, which would result in smoother gameplay and optimization across even the most demanding titles (DLSS absolutely saved Star Citizen’s performance on PC, and it would be great to see similar functionality on the PS5 Pro).
The source of this newest leak, Inside Gaming, suggests that the PS5 Pro will also offer system memory speeds up to 28% faster than the base PS5 (an increase to 576 GB/s from the current 448 GB/s). The new system is also said to feature a “high CPU frequency mode” that will offer a 10% increase in performance over the existing console.
Further rumors hint that the PS5 Pro will be future-proofed to handle 8K gaming after a firmware update, and will be equipped with a custom machine-learning architecture
With the PS5 already in the latter half of its lifecycle, at least according to Sony’s financial results call in February, it makes sense for the PS5 Pro to release sooner rather than later. Speculation suggests that we could see a release of the beefier PlayStation 5 as early as fall of 2024. Like the PS4, which was superseded by a Pro model three years in, the base PS5 was released in the fall, so it seems sensible to assume Sony will likewise try to position the PS5 Pro as a must-have holiday gift. Analyst Colin Moriarty has revealed that publishers from third-party studios have already been briefed on the specs for a PS5 Pro, offering more support for an imminent release.
Of course, all of this is subject to change, as Sony has yet to offer up any official confirmation of or information about the PS5 Pro, though the rumors are definitely widespread enough to suggest it's not entirely wishful thinking. Of course, there have also been rumors about a followup to the Nintendo Switch since before the Switch OLED dropped, so rumors and speculation don’t always play out like you might assume.
You know that song. You know the chorus, the beat, that solo, even that cool drum fill. You know that song, but you have no idea what it’s called. It happens all the time: Whether it’s a track you heard on the radio, or one a friend introduced you to years ago, there is music stuck in your head that you cannot identify. Modern tech has solutions—but usually only if you have the actual song on hand.
As it turns out, Google is your new musical best friend. The company has a song identifier built into the Google app, YouTube for Android, and soon YouTube Music. Sure, you can use this feature as you do with Shazam or the like: You can hold your phone up to a song in your area, and the app will analyze and identify it. But Google's apps goes one step further—when you activate the song search, it’ll listen for any type of music, including your own voice. That means, whether you know all the words, or just a vague melody, you can sing or hum to the app to try and identify that song.
It works surprisingly well when I tested it on the Google app for iOS. For some reason, the first tune that came to my mind to test was “Seven Nation Army” by Jack White. So, I gave it a hum. Lo and behold, Google turned around with the correct answer with a 63% match (I felt my humming was more accurate than that). It was also able to identify Taylor Swift’s “You Need to Calm Down,” The Beatles’ “Can’t Buy Me Love” (although MonaLisa Twins’ version was apparently a closer match to my singing), and Weezer’s “Buddy Holly.”
I was introduced to this feature by TikTok creator Fentydrone, whose video showed success identifying “Hand In My Pocket” by Alanis Morissette, and “Fast Car” by Tracy Chapman. It really works, and it’s really cool.
In the Google app, each result is assigned a percentage match based on your sample, and it seems to vary without much reason (singing with the correct words versus humming a tune didn’t seem to have a distinct impact on the match). You also see other possible matches: While these additional matches are often covers of different versions of the same song, occasionally they’re completely different tracks. It’s fun to tap on one of these options to see how similar or different they are from the song you were thinking of. It might be a good resource for finding the inspiration for your favorite melodies, or newer songs that were clearly inspired by your music.
Things work a little differently in YouTube for Android: Rather than return a list of results with varying percentages, YouTube will just guess what song you're humming or singing and perform a search for it right away. I tried humming "Step" by Vampire Weekend, and it simply searched "Step Vampire Weekend." I imagine this is how the feature will work on YouTube Music as well, when it rolls out. For now, the Google app has the best version of the feature, in my opinion.
To try it out for yourself, make sure you have the Google app on your iPhone or Android. Open the app, then tap the mic icon in the search field. From here, tap Search a song, then get singing. You can also try it out on the YouTube app on Android: Tap the search icon, then the microphone, then switch to the "Song" tab.
While there’s no foolproof method for keeping everything on a wireless network completely secure, there are some things you can do to make it safer. In addition to setting up devices that don’t depend on a wireless network, you can use a few other tools to discourage hacking and keep your wireless network more private. Taking a few practical steps can give you some peace of mind when using your home security system or your wifi network.
Wireless cameras for home security are convenient and cost-effective, but it’s a good idea to include some devices that don’t depend on a wireless network—just in case. Because any wireless network is vulnerable to jammers, using devices that don't use a wireless signal is a good backup measure to take. These can be as simple as window alarms, or can be as extensive as a wired security camera system that records to a DVR. For most people, one or two wired cameras at key entry points like the front and back doors or focused on a garage entrance is sufficient.
In addition to hardwired security devices, you can also choose to use an ethernet internet connection with a firewall to prevent sensitive information on your home computer from being accessed without physically connecting to your network. Ethernet is a wired internet option that is often faster and less glitchy than a wireless connection, and it has the added benefit of being resistant to jamming and hacking as well.
Wifi jammers work by interrupting a particular signal frequency. Changing the frequency that your network operates at can help to prevent jammers from latching onto your signal. Frequency-hopping spread spectrum devices are an option that will automatically change the frequency of your wifi signal, making it more difficult to use an RF jammer to disrupt the wifi connection to your home security devices. While FHSS is considered an older, outdated technology for many wifi devices because more modern wifi protections are geared to data protection, it's useful for preventing jamming attacks. Consumer Reports tested several home security systems for jamming resistance, and there are a few devices that tested well for resistance to frequency jamming including the Honeywell Smart Home Security System. If you're considering a home security upgrade, you should look for devices that use FHSS technology or a similar frequency changing feature to deter jamming attempts.
When you set up your home wireless network, your router likely comes with a password for initial access. Additionally, the administrative password is also generated by the manufacturer as a way to access the settings on your router. These passwords are notoriously easy to discover and are not intended to be a long term solution for network security. Create a password that’s different from the one that came with your device and that also doesn’t contain things like birthdays, addresses, or important dates that could be easily discoverable to strangers.
When you install a new wireless networking device, it likely has a name it was given by the manufacturer. This is a placeholder so that you can set up your network, but you should come up with your own name that isn’t associated with your name or address once you activate it. This will help make it more difficult to find and break into your wireless network.
Most routers have the option to change settings remotely, allowing you to manage device permissions and settings from a computer not hardwired to the device. In addition, many routers also offer universal plug and play, letting any device that’s plugged into the router access its settings without using a password and WPS (wifi protected setup), allowing you to press a button on your modem for instant connection without entering a password. While all of these features can be convenient, they’re also great ways for someone looking for valuable data or access to security devices to access your network without your knowledge. Disabling these features can help make your wireless network more secure.
Encrypting your network is as simple on newer routers as selecting WPA 3 personal or WPA 2 personal on your network settings. Older routers don’t have these options and are much less secure than newer ones as a result. Using an outdated router makes your network less secure because they aren’t capable of higher level encryption.
While it’s convenient to stay logged in to your wifi administrator account, you should log out once you’re done setting it up. That’s because anyone who has access to your device—even remotely—can use the administrator account to change your wifi settings and access connected devices including your home security system. If you’re logged out, a would-be hacker needs your password to get into your wifi settings.
One default setting that your router usually comes with is actually good to leave the way it is, and that’s the firewall. Most routers come with a firewall that’s already switched on to help protect your wi-fi network and connected devices. You should check to make sure it’s on to improve the security of your wireless network.
The PlayStation 5 is one of the best gaming consoles you can buy right now, but it just doesn’t come with enough storage space if you plan to keep a lot of games installed. Thankfully, you can upgrade the amount of storage that your PS5 offers by adding in your own SSD. Choosing from the myriad of great SSD options out there isn’t easy, but if you’re looking for some of the best PS5-compatible M.2 SSDs, these four will help narrow things down.
Those looking for a great SSD that won’t break the bank will find a lot to love with the Acer Predator GM7000. This M.2. SSD is available in 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB storage options, giving you a lot of room to work with. It offers read and write speeds up to 7400 MB/s and 6400 MB/s, respectively, and comes with great heat dissipation to help ensure your PS5’s internals keep running smoothly no matter how hard you push it.
Acer also backs the GM7000 with a 5-year limited warranty. This SSD typically retails for $78 for the 1TB model, though you can often find it on sale for as low as $49.99 on Amazon.
Samsung remains one of the most trusted electronics brands, and for good reason. The company continues to deliver solid products, often at affordable prices, and the Samsung 980 Pro PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD is no different.
Typically priced at $154.99 for 1TB, the 980 Pro can be purchased in 250GB, 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB variations. It’s a great SSD with read and write speeds up to 7,000 MB/s and 5,100 MB/s, respectively. It also features a reliable heat spreader label, which helps provide great thermal control within your PS5, ensuring great temperatures even during long gaming sessions.
Another trusted name in the SSD game, Crucial remains one of my personal go-to options for new SSDs. These SSDs offer great speed and reliability while also remaining relatively affordable, depending on the model. The Crucial T500 Gen 4 NVMe M.2. SSD typically retails for around $143.99, though it is often found on sale for as low as $80.99.
With read and write speeds up to 7,300 MB/s and 6,800 MB/s, respectively, the Crucial T500 Gen4 is one of the absolute best SSDs you can buy for your PS5. The T500 is available in a 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB options, and if you want a no-frills, easy-to-install SSD that you can count on, this is the place to look. Our friends at PCMag also love the Crucial T500, calling it an outstanding SSD that “shines at both general storage and gaming tasks.” There’s also an option to buy it with the heatsink already installed, making it even easier to upgrade your PS5.
Those who want to ensure they’re getting the absolute best temperatures while gaming intensively will find that the Samsung 980 Pro with a Heatsink is a great go-to option. It’s slightly more expensive than the base 980 Pro I’ve already spotlighted on the list here, but the added price gets you a fantastic heatsink that helps distribute heat even better than the 980 Pro’s base thermal system.
It still sports the same 7,000 MB/s read and 5,100 MB/s write speeds found on the base 980 Pro, but that more efficient heat system will ensure you can keep it performing at optimal levels even when you’ve pushed your PS5 to the max. It’s only available in 1TB and 2TB options, and it typically retails for $164.99 for the smallest storage option. Sony also requires a heatsink for your SSD when you’re putting it into your PS5, so this option saves you the trouble of having to attach one later on.
It’s currently on sale at the time of this article’s posting, making it one of the best options available right now.
If you’re planning to install a new SSD into your PS5, you’ll need two things. First, you’ll need the new SSD. All of the options we’ve included above are great. You’ll also need a heatsink to help with heat dissipation, though sometimes these are included with the SSD itself. These usually attach with some kind of adhesive to the M.2 SSD that you’re installing, so you’ll want to make sure you have one in hand to use if you don’t buy an SSD with a heatsink. Luckily, you can add a heatsink like the Sabrent M.2. NVMe PS5 heatsink to any SSD you install into the PS5, giving you that much-needed extra heat dissipation.
Shark is well known for its stick vacuums, but it also makes robot vacuums that rival those from Roomba. One in particular, the Shark IQ 2-in-1 Robot Vacuum and Mop, is currently at an all-time-low price of $188 (originally $449.99) after a 58% discount.
At this price point, the Shark IQ doesn't really have other competitors. Most robot vacuums from reputable brands with mopping, smart LIDAR mapping, voice control, and other features tend to run upwards of $350. The closest Roomba to this price point is the Roomba 692 Robot Vacuum, which you can get for $169.99 at the time of this writing. However, this Roomba has no mopping, smart mapping, and other features that you can get with the Shark IQ.
On bare floors, the Shark IQ can mop spills with about 100 swipes per minute. My experience with the Roombas that "mop" has been underwhelming, passing a moist rag once across the floor, thus unable to handle stains. Other features of the Shark IQ include no-go zones, so you can choose where you don't want the Shark to clean; pin-and-go navigation for cleaning a specific spot; a sonic mopping system; three-hour battery life; and LIDAR sensors so it can avoid obstacles.
The Shark IQ isn't perfect, though. It's prone to getting stuck under low-lying furniture. It also doesn't have a self-emptying home base, so you will have to empty the debris manually. It's also not the best at picking up pet hair from carpeting. But for $188, you won't find another robot vacuum that excels at those things anyway, much less one that has the features this Shark IQ has.
We’ve already learned that Apple may tap Google’s Gemini to power some of iOS 18’s new AI features, but that hasn’t stopped the tech giant from working on its own AI models. In a new paper, Apple has revealed more details about how it is approaching the development of its new MM1 AI model.
Apple says it plans to use a diverse dataset that includes interleaved image-text documents, image-caption pairs, and text-only data to help train and develop MM1. This, Apple claims, should allow the MM1 model to set a new standard in AI’s ability to create image captions, answer visual questions, and even how it responds with natural language inference. The hope, it seems, is to provide as high a level of accuracy as possible.
This method of research allows Apple to focus on several types of training data and even architectures for the model, which should provide greater room for the AI to understand and even generate language based on both linguistic and visual cues.
Apple clearly hopes that by combining training methods from other AI with its own methods, it will be able to provide better pre-training metrics and achieve a competitive performance that will help it catch up with other companies that are already deep into AI development, like Google and OpenAI.
Apple has never been a stranger to paving its own way. The company continues to find new ways to approach the same situations that other companies have, including in the way it designs its hardware and software. Whether you think that’s a good thing or not is up to you, but the matter stands that Apple’s ongoing attempts to create a reliable and competitive AI was always going to approach things in a different way, and based on the information showcased in this paper, the company has found a very unique way to do that.
This paper, of course, is just our first real look into the things Apple is doing to build out its AI capabilities. It will be interesting to see where things go from here.
Amazon's "Big Spring Sale" was announced over the weekend, and although it's not supposed to start until March 20, many items are already on sale including Eufy security cameras and Amazon devices. If you're looking to replace your earbuds with some active noise canceling (ANC) ones, consider Amazon's Echo Buds, which are seeing good discounts right now. The Echo Buds with wired charging are $54.99 (originally $119.99), and the Echo Buds with wireless charging are going for $74.99 (originally $139.99). Personally, I don't think being able to charge your earbuds wirelessly is worth $20 more. Everything about the earbuds is the same otherwise.
The best and most distinguishing feature of these ANC earbuds is the hands-free voice-assistant control. With Alexa, Siri, or Google Assistant on your phone, you'll be able to stream music, podcasts, or audiobooks hands-free by just asking your virtual assistant. You can also make calls, set reminders, skip songs, and do basically everything else you can do with a voice assistant.
These Echo Buds also have a multipoint pairing feature that can connect to two devices at the same time and seamlessly transition to whichever is playing media. You'll get up to five hours of battery and an additional 15 hours from the case (whether it's wireless or not). They're also rated IPX4 for water resistance. You can read the full PCMag "excellent" review here to learn more about its specs and features.
These earphones were eclipsed by the third-generation Echo Buds in 2023, which are a more budget-friendly version without ANC. If you don't care about hands-free voice assistance and just want the best ANC earbuds you can get right now, I recommend the Anker Space A40 for $49 (originally $99.99). I used price comparison tools to confirm that they're at their lowest price at the moment.
Making a big batch of Sunday sauce, curry, or a giant pot of chili is taxing. Recipes require large quantities of ingredients, the process can be a multi-hour or all-day endeavor—and for what? Oh, right, you get 10-20 servings of richly flavored sauce that has been made with love and patience. It’s worth it to ensure every drop gets used, so put technology to use and freeze the majority of it. Here’s how to freeze large quantities of sauce for easy dinners later.
The biggest hurdle with freezing anything—sauce, broth, or even meat—in large blocks is that thawing a small part of it is a true pain in the ass. You either have to thaw the entire thing and refreeze it, which can negatively impact the quality, or hack it apart, which can be dangerous.
Instead, address the portion size before you freeze the sauce the first time. You may have heard of using ice cube trays for portioning sauce in an adorable way. While it’s important for everyone to discover what works for them (and this might work for you), for me, the ice cube tray is a garbage idea. For one thing, it's way too small. My ice cube divots hold one tablespoon of water each. I’d need at least half the tray for one small bowl of pasta. I’m also relatively sure those trays will be imbued with tomato, garlic, or basil smell afterward, which means I can’t use them for ice ever again, and I’m not the type of person who wants to keep sauce-specific ice cube trays in my home. Instead of ice cube trays, use something more realistic to a real serving size.
Ice cube trays can work for freezing potent, powerful liquids—like lemon juice, or olive brine—where you’re likely to just use a bit. For large batches of sauce, portion the servings in plastic reusable containers or bags. The size should match the “single” serving you will likely need. If you have a family of five, you’ll freeze larger portions than a two-person household. Use appropriately sized freezer bags or reusable containers accordingly.
Sheet trays are indispensable tools for flat freezing:
Arranging my freezer is like a terrifying puzzle sometimes. I know there’s a way to fit it all, but there are so many irregular shapes in there. Freezing liquid flat instead of in a block shape can help make storage easier. More importantly, you can break the sauce into pieces easily when it’s frozen thin and flat to adjust the portion size later. This is perfect if you’re not really sure how much you’ll need for dinner on any given night. Not only is freezing sauce quicker this way, but thawing and cooking will be faster too.
There are two ways to do this: Pre-portion sauce into bags, or use the sheet tray method.
Pre-portioning with freezer bags: Simply dump your “single serving” into the freezer bag, around one to four cups. Lay it flat on a sheet tray and put it in the freezer until frozen solid. You can probably fit a few bags on one tray if you need to. Then neatly stack the frozen sauce bags.
The sheet tray method. To consolidate even more slabs, you’ll use the sheet tray slightly differently. Line a sheet tray with parchment paper or plastic wrap, with some overhang over the sides. Spread the sauce directly onto the tray, about a half-inch deep. Carefully put the sheet tray in the freezer so it doesn’t spill. Allow the sauce to freeze, probably 30 minutes to an hour depending on the type of sauce and its thickness. Take it out of the freezer and use the liner to lift and help break the sauce into smaller slabs. Slide the slabs into freezer bags or other containers.
Even if you’re an ice cube tray portioner for life, you can still consolidate your cubes into a bag or container if that helps with your freezer tetris. When you’re ready for a zero-effort slow-simmered sauce on a time-crunched weeknight, simply drop a slab or two of sauce into a pot along with some frozen rice and a tablespoon of water (to prevent burning). Cover it with a lid and put it on low heat. Let it heat up on its own for 20 minutes while you take some time to yourself to unwind.
A home that’s warm and cozy in the winter and cool in the summer is a place you can relax—a refuge. A home that’s too hot or too cold all the time will never be comfortable, and can be a drain on your pocketbook: Up to 70% of the energy you pay for in your home is used to heat or cool it, and heating your house likely accounts for about 30% of your utility bills.
How well your home is insulated has a huge impact on its energy efficiency, and on your monthly bills. Adding more insulation to your home can cut heating and cooling costs by an average of 15%, making it a no-brainer home improvement project. Typically homeowners focus on adding insulation inside the house (in the attic or inside the walls), but there’s another strategy to make your home even more energy efficient and comfortable: adding insulation to the exterior of your home.
Considering exterior insulation makes sense if you’re going to be removing or adding siding or cladding to the house; the exterior of the home will be exposed anyway, making it the ideal opportunity to improve your home’s overall insulation economically.
Exterior insulation is like putting a sweater on your house, creating an additional barrier to heat loss or gain. It’s a straightforward concept: Once your home’s exterior walls are exposed, you can affix a material like rigid foam insulation or mineral wool batts to the walls, seal it, then cover it with the siding or cladding of your choice. If your home is always chilly in winter or too warm in summer, adding this extra layer of insulation can potentially offer a dramatic improvement.
The benefits depend on the R-value you’re adding, and the climate zone you live in. If you live in Nebraska, for example, you’re in Climate Zone 5, and if your home has 2x6 exterior walls, you’re shooting for an R-value of 19-21. R-values are additive, so any insulation you add to the outside of your house will improve its overall R-value—and a single inch of foam insulation can increase the R-value of your home by 5. If your home already has an R-value of 20, that would represent a 20% increase.
One huge benefit to adding insulation to the outside of your home is that you can avoid disruption inside the house. You won’t need to drill holes in your walls or remove the drywall entirely. All the mess and trouble stays outside while the interior of your home remains clean and undisturbed. If you are replacing your siding or cladding anyway, the project shouldn't add to the disruption at all.
There are a few things to consider before you jump into adding exterior insulation, however:
Cost. The cost of adding insulation to a siding project will depend on how much wall you need to insulate. For example, a 4x8 polyisocyanurate board from Johns Manville costs about $26, so you can measure the square footage of your exterior walls to get an idea of how much the materials will cost. But you also have to factor in complexities like windows, soffits, and other quirks that can add or subtract materials. And then there are the labor costs of installing it, which will vary greatly; you can expect to add a few thousand bucks to a siding project by including exterior insulation.
Thickness. Adding insulation means everything else gets bumped out by a few inches, which can have an impact on things like trim pieces around window wells or exterior outlet boxes. There are plenty of products that can compensate for these complications, but you’ll want to be sure that your contractor is aware of potential issues and has a plan to address them.
Moisture. Adding insulation between your siding and the framing of your home can improve the moisture infiltration, because it adds an extra gap between the surface and the interior. However, if you use a rigid foam board that has a vapor barrier of some kind on the outside, this can cause problems because you’ll be sandwiching the insulation between two vapor barriers, trapping moisture below the siding. That’s why it’s vital that you consult with an expert when choosing insulation materials for a project like this.
If you’re already going to be removing the siding or other cladding from your home, taking the opportunity to add some exterior insulation can make a big difference in the comfort level of your house—and the size of your utility bills, all without a lot of mess inside.
If you're looking for your next garden project and want something low maintenance that's also beneficial for the entire ecosystem, consider building a tiny wildlife pond.
Backyard ponds have a handful of ecological benefits, but even if you don't have space for a full-sized water feature, you can still increase the diversity of beneficial insects, amphibians, and native wildlife in your garden. Tiny ponds can attract and support dragonflies, damselflies, bees, frogs, birds, and more. They also don't require a pump, a filtration system, or complicated upkeep—the plants and wildlife just do their natural thing over time, ideally keeping everything in check on their own.
A mini wildlife pond requires only a few materials and very little maintenance. Here's what you'll need:
A watertight container, such as plastic liner, bin, or bucket, though you can also use a wash bin, barrel, or old sink
Gravel to line the bottom of the container
Bricks, pebbles, and stones to create surfaces at varying depths
Native pond plants
Aquatic pots
Rainwater
Note that when selecting plants for your pond, you'll need several types to keep your pond's ecosystem healthy and balanced. Submerged plants live at the bottom of the pond, emergent plants have their roots submerged in shallow water, and floating plants, well, float. Search for native pond or water plants specific to your area (do not just pick things from your yard or garden). Some emergent plants will do best in aquatic baskets, and loose submerged plants can be bundled, tied, and weighted to the bottom of your pond container.
Select a spot in your yard or garden that gets good light—it should not be full sun or full shade. You can either dig a hole and place your container in the ground or let it sit on the surface. Add gravel or small rocks to the bottom of the container, then place bricks and rocks of varying heights around the edges to create surfaces for plants to sit and birds and insects to land. If your container isn't in the ground, add a ramp on the outside so frogs and other wildlife can easily climb in and out. Next, fill your pond with rainwater and start planting. If you have to use tap water, wait several days before adding any plants so chemicals can dissipate.
For a visual demonstration, and some inspiration, Instagram user Martha @marfskitchengarden demonstrates how to build and maintain a tiny wildlife pond.
Once your pond has been planted, all you have to do is wait. The tiny ecosystem will develop on its own—you don't need to introduce frogs, fish, or other wildlife. Simply check on it regularly to top off the water (again, use collected rainwater), especially if you live in a dry climate, and remove excess debris. If winter brings freezing temperatures, you may need to bring the pond inside, but otherwise it can survive year-round.
Amazon announced their "Big Spring Sale" over the weekend. Although it's not supposed to start until March 20, many items are already on sale, like these Eufy security cameras, currently selling for up to 46% off.
I love my Eufy security cameras because I don't need to pay any monthly fees. Eufy does offer a subscription (four different plans), but that's just for its cloud storage service. Some of their devices aren't even compatible with cloud storage since they can only use local storage microSD cards to save their footage. All of their features, like live streaming, push notifications and two-way audio, are subscription-free. Here are my favorite Eufy deals from Amazon's sale.
This outdoor two-camera bundle for $129.99 (originally $239.99) comes with the HomeBase S280, which saves up to 16 GB of footage in local storage with no fees (about three months of footage). The EufyCam 2C cameras are waterproof, with an IP67 rating. They provide up to six months of monitoring before they need to be recharges. The cameras also have 1080p HD resolution, motion sensing with push notifications, night vision, and other features. This is the lowest price this bundle has been, according to price comparison tools.
Eufy outdoor two-camera bundle: $129.99 (originally $239.99)
Another bundle at its lowest price (according to price comparison tools) is the EufyCam S220 with the 4-Cam Kit bundle, going for $309.98 (originally $519.99) after a 40% discount. This bundle includes four EufyCam S220s, which have 2K resolution, a 135-degree field of view, up to six months of battery life, two-way audio, an IP67 waterproof rating, human face detection, a spotlight, and 16GB of video storage (which is about three months worth). It also comes with the same HomeBase 2 as the last bundle. Read more about the features on the official Eufy website.
EufyCam S220 with the 4-Cam Kit bundle: $309.98 (originally $519.99)
If a bundle seems excessive, individual outdoor cameras are also for sale. The Outdoor Cam E210, for $44.99 (originally $79.99), is a wired camera that is easy to install, waterproof, has night vision, an automatic spotlight, and no monthly fee. This matches the lowest price I've seen for this camera. It's easy to install with a magnetic mount—but you do need to make sure you're within 20 feet of a power outlet so the cable reaches it. You can choose whether to use local storage with an SD card or use the cloud-based feature for a fee. The cloud can also be used to back up your local storage. Read all about the features and specs on Eufy's website.
Outdoor Cam E210: $44.99 (originally $79.99)
If you're looking for security doorbells, the wired Wi-Fi Doorbell Camera with a wireless chime is $59.99 (originally $99.99) and the Wireless Battery-Powered Doorbell Camera is $139.99 (originally $179.99). I've been using the wireless camera for a year now and have enjoyed not paying any monthly fees.
Wired Wi-Fi Doorbell Camera: $59.99 (originally $99.99)
Wireless Battery-Powered Doorbell Camera: $139.99 (originally $179.99)
It's no secret Apple is quite late to the AI party. Ever since the generative AI boon of late 2022 and early 2023, in which every corner of the tech world was doing something with artificial intelligence, the world has wondered what Apple would do with the technology. So far, not much.
However, all rumors point to Apple's big software updates, like iOS 18, to introduce the company's first major forays into artificial intelligence. It wouldn't be a surprise to update your iPhone this year and find a version of Siri that resembles ChatGPT, or to see a helpful AI assistant when using an Apple app like Pages or Keynote. It's nothing particularly groundbreaking, but it would put Apple in line with other companies that are integrating AI into their platforms.
Of course, we all expected Apple to power these features with its own proprietary, large language models (LLMs). But apparently, Apple might be calling in reinforcements.
According to Bloomberg, Apple is currently in talks with Google to use Gemini to power the iPhone's upcoming AI features. While the idea of Apple using another company's AI tech is certainly a surprise—let alone a competitor as big as Google—Gemini wouldn't be Apple's only AI engine. Apple would reportedly still use its own LLMs for on-device generative AI: Anything your iPhone could process on its own, that'd be Apple's doing. However, any AI tasks that require outsourcing to the cloud would be handed over to Gemini.
This is not necessarily a great look for Apple. Look, they wouldn't be the first company to do this: Samsung partnered with Google to power its Galaxy AI features, and Google could strike similar partnerships with other companies. But this is Apple, after all. Sure, they partner with companies like Google for certain features and advancements (Google has paid big bucks to be the default search engine on Safari for years) but I can't imagine they'd want to use competitor AI tech unless they absolutely had to. I can see the advertisements touting Apple's proprietary AI as not just the "most advanced" on the market, but also the most secure. It's a tougher sell when half your features are being sent to Google's servers and processed with Google's AI.
That said, if Apple really is as far behind in the generative AI space as some think they are, they may need to commit to a partnership like this. Investors seem to like it: Apple shares were up 2.5% after the news, while Alphabet stock jumped 6%. Apple gets the AI tech it needs to implement features other companies already have, while Google makes a bunch of money in the process. Not to mention, the move would be increased competition against OpenAI and Microsoft: Apple and Google would run on Gemini, while Microsoft's Copilot runs on ChatGPT.
Of course, nothing is set in stone, and this is only based on reports. Apple has yet to really announce anything definitive at all in the AI space as far as features go. Apple researchers have continued to publish their work on AI, such as the company's MM1 AI model, open-source image editor, and image animator. And while some or all of these developments may make their way into actual iOS or macOS features, we have yet to see them.
You can get the Poputar T2 Smart Acoustic Guitar on sale for $323.99 right now (reg. $430). The guitar comes with an app with a large library of songs your instrument can show you how to play using LED guides built into the fretboard. From the app, you can also access video guitar lessons and other learning materials to help you play. The guitar itself is made with a solid spruce top panel and mahogany on the back and sides, and its compact 36-inch design is lightweight and can be stored in the included guitar bag. Fully charged, the Poputar's battery can last up to 10 hours, but you can also use it as a standard acoustic guitar after the battery dies.
You can get the Poputar T2 Smart Acoustic Guitar on sale for $323.99 right now (reg. $430), though prices can change at any time.
When it comes to managing your finances and taxes, you'd be wise to take advice from TikTok with a hefty grain of salt. Certain tax "loopholes" may go viral, but that doesn't mean they're good for your specific tax situation.
The bite-sized video format of TikTok lends itself to oversimplification and embellishment on complex topics like tax planning. Many videos distill nuanced tax strategies down to just a few misleading sentences. Let's take a look at some of the TikTok tax advice that have gained traction, but could potentially lead people astray.
Some videos claim you can form a limited liability company (LLC) to deduct personal expenses like your mortgage, car payments, and even grocery bills as business expenses to reduce your taxes.
While LLCs can provide some tax benefits, simply forming one doesn't magically allow you to write off all your personal costs. There are strict rules about what qualifies as a legitimate business expense. Deducting personal expenses improperly could land you in hot water with the IRS.
Other videos suggest that business owners should hire and pay their children as employees. The claim is that this allows the child to contribute to a Roth IRA using their "earned income."
While it's true that only earned income can be contributed to a Roth IRA, hiring your kids has very specific requirements. The work they do must be legitimate and age-appropriate, and the pay must be reasonable for the job performed. Simply putting your children on payroll as a tax workaround could be considered fraud.
As I explained last week, another viral claim about a legal "tax loophole" advises people to write off the cost of a luxury vehicle like a Range Rover or Mercedes-Benz G-Wagon on their taxes.
The truth is, according to the IRS Section 179 tax code, businesses may be able to write off a G-Wagon if it’s used for business purposes at least half of the time. Section 179 does allow businesses to deduct the full cost of certain assets like vehicles in the year they are placed into service, rather than depreciating the expense over several years. But there are very strict requirements. Additionally, there are limits on the deductible amount for luxury vehicles that exceed $19,800 for cars and $20,500 for trucks and vans in 2023.
When it comes to complex topics like these (and really all things tax-related), don't rely on brief videos from non-professionals. Improper tax strategies could inadvertently cost you much more in penalties, interest, and fees down the road.
Unless a TikTok video is from a credentialed tax expert giving a general overview of tax concepts, take it with a hefty scoop of skepticism. It's best to consult a qualified tax professional who can look at your specific situation and give you legitimate, tailored advice. What makes for a good viral video rarely translates to good tax planning.
I never thought I was someone who'd have security cameras outside my home. I didn’t have the electrical wiring, so that just left battery-powered cameras; I was skeptical at how good could they be, and whether they would be worth having to regularly change the batteries. Then there are the subscription fees that most security camera brands charge, which add up over time.
Having tested outdoor security cameras for a number of brands, I have become a real fan of the Eufy Solocam line, which manages to dodge the subscription and battery problems. (Unlike a lot of its competitors, Eufy cameras don't require a subscription to view and save clips.) Eufy's latest release, the Eufy 4G LTE Cam S330 ($249.99) is an addition with some notable new features, including the ability to switch between a 4G LTE card and wifi.
A few months ago, I reviewed two other cameras in this line, the hardwired Floodlight Cam E340 ($219.99) and the wireless Solocam S340 ($199.99). What I really liked about this line above other outdoor cameras I’d tested were the dual lenses: A macro lens and micro lens survey your space in conjunction with each other, and you can easily flip between them. While even the macro lens offers great detail, the micro lens allows you to really home in on specific areas. While I tested the wired and wireless versions, the wireless impressed me most, and with a diminutive solar panel above it, it hasn’t lost power once—not through weeks of cloudy PNW weather, not through the week-long ice and snowstorm. It continued to produce exceptional 360 degree views of the yard. The solar panel allows you to place the camera almost anywhere—the only limitation is that you need wifi.
This new 4G LTE Cam takes the same wireless camera base and adds 4G capability to it, meaning you can quite literally place it anywhere so long as it gets a minimal amount of sunshine and has 4G coverage. Since Eufy doesn't provide LTE coverage, the unit ships with a promotional card from EIOT and 100gb of free data so you can test out the 4G capability, and separately, a micro SD card for storage. I imagine most people will simply get a SIM from their wireless provider on an unlimited plan to use in their S330—the EIOT card is just so you can try the 4G LTE functionality out. Topping off the card at their rates made no sense given how much data you'll go through, though you certainly could.
It's worth noting that Eufy has, in the past, experienced a security breach. Realistically, any camera system, hardwired or wireless, is susceptible to hacking, but wireless models seem much easier to breach. Using any security camera in the modern era is to accept a certain amount of risk, but to Eufy's credit, it has responded to vulnerabilities when they've appeared, and there hasn’t yet been a repeat.
The S330 looks exactly the same as the S340: it has a modern lens set mounted on a white plastic swiveling base that can tilt up, down, and around. The back of the camera has an input for USB-C power for charging in the home, for a direct wire (if you have it), or to connect to the solar panel. The solar panel can attach to the top of the camera or be mounted as much as 10 feet away, and can be adjusted to tilt in any direction needed. As mounts go, the Eufy wireless cams are some of the easiest to mount, but I do worry about their security since they’d be just as easy to remove. This is generally true of wireless cameras. In either case, the mount can be used in a few different orientations, secures with a few screws, and then you just slide the camera on until it clicks.
The Eufy app is great at guiding you through setup. It’s easy to set up your EIOT account and install the LTE card in the device, and the same is true for the SD card. You’ll be guided to set up zones that the camera should pay attention to, zones it should ignore, and you can even set up four points that the camera should default to. There are a wealth of notification options, and you can tell the app if you have pets, and whether it should try to identify people in your yard using AI.
All told, installation took me less than 15 minutes. Eufy does not require subscriptions to save clips, which is a huge bonus, and I connected this unit to my HomeBase, which allows me to store saved clips locally.
While solar performs just as well on the S330 as the S340, the LTE model has one improvement: The app tells you how well the solar is charging at any time, a feature I appreciated. Like its predecessor, I’ve had no issues keeping the camera fully charged, despite getting quite a bit more activity in my front yard than my other Eufy wireless camera.
While all wireless cameras suffer from lag time (notably, I've experienced the least lag time with Ring cameras) it was noticeably worse when I was on LTE. It was bad enough that it timed out once or twice while I was away from home while trying to summon the live view. It didn’t matter much since I burned through those 100gb in fewer than four days, despite settings to minimize my recording. Unwilling to pay the price to add on more data at the rates offered, I switched the camera to wifi. I wish I could say that was a painless process, but after timing out many times over a few days, I finally had to take the camera off the mount, bring it inside and reinstall it entirely to switch to wifi. Once I did, connection times improved dramatically.
The video for the S330 is just as great as previous models. This is the only camera line I’ve tested with the dual lenses. I took advantage of the LTE and solar to place the camera on the edge of my wifi range in the front yard, aimed right at the spot where a neighbor has not been cleaning up after their dog. Within a day, I’d nabbed the offender, but the dual lenses took it from a video with a quick glimpse of the offender's face to being able to provide a screenshot with enough clarity to be above reproach. I mean, the detail on the micro lens is so flawless I caught the dog giving his owner the side eye as they walked away.
If you’re within wifi range, it seems a no-brainer to use the wifi here, even if you have unlimited LTE through your carrier. But the LTE aspect gives you tremendous freedom, if you need it—I imagine this allowing you to place a camera on a trail on your property, or at the front of a long drive. Still, if you are planning to use wifi, I'd just go with the S340 and save yourself $50.
I like podcasts. The problem is, I like podcasts too much. There are so many quality shows out there, and on every topic imaginable, that my queue of podcasts episodes I want to listen to can stack up quickly . Before I know it, I've got enough to fill several weeks, even if I did nothing but listen to them back to back.
This is not a rare scenario for me, but I've learned a few tricks for reducing the backlog and catching up (at least partially). What you might not realize, if you've never changed from your default podcast player or messed around with its features, is that these apps come with a bunch of tools to help you power through your podcasts more quickly.
More than that, I've also got some ideas for how to fit more podcast listening into your day. While sometimes you will have to declare podcast bankruptcy, clear the queue, and start again, these tips can help you avoid that method of last resort for as long as possible.
There is no shortage of podcast players out there, and most of them offer features to help you get through your podcasts more quickly. I'll highlight a few different tricks you can use in a variety of apps, so have a look through what your podcast player of choice offers—if it doesn't have a particular time-saving feature you think would be useful, you can always switch to something else.
If you've got an iPhone, you may well be making use of Apple Podcasts, as it comes built into iOS. It's not the most feature-packed of players, but it does let you adjust the playback speed (up to 2x) by tapping the 1x button on the left of the playback screen. It's a quick and easy way of cramming more podcasts into the same amount of time.
Upping the speed won't change the pitch of voices or music, but it will take some getting used to every talking at a rapid-fire clip. Try starting with 1.25x speed and increasing from there as your ears adjust.
Spotify has been busy adding podcast and audiobook support to its app in recent years, and one feature you'll find on the playback screen inside the apps for Android and iOS is a sleep timer—it's the small stopwatch icon over on the right-hand side. This can help you add a few minutes of podcast listening to the end of every day without worrying about missing huge chunks of episodes as you drift off to sleep.
The excellent Overcast app for iOS shows an impressive level of commitment to helping you get through everything you want to listen to. One of the best features it offers is Smart Speed, which you can get to by tapping the button showing three sliders, down in the lower left corner of the playback screen: It intelligently shortens silences in episodes, so you'll listen to more talking and less dead air.
Another hugely popular podcasting app is Pocket Casts for Android and iOS. This app can automatically elide a custom amount of time at the start and end of your podcasts. This is useful if a particular show includes intros and outros you know you don't have to listen to every time. From a podcast's individual page in the app, tap the gear icon, then Skip first or Skip last. (Pocket Casts can also let you adjust playback speed, trim silences, and fall asleep to podcasts too, which is why it's one of my favorites.)
These apps (and others like them) come with various combinations of these features, so choose the one with the most options you find useful. In addition, in just about any app you should be able to automatically download new episodes to your phone (so you don't have to pause your podcast listening when you're not connected to the internet) and set up a queue of episodes to listen to in order, so when an episode ends you don't have to fumble through picking a new one.
Besides the features you'll find inside your podcast app, there are other ways to fit more podcasts into the time you have available. Maybe there are more moments you could be piping podcasts into your ears but aren't: While you're doing chores, working out at the gym, or making breakfast, perhaps. You don't have to spend every waking hour listening to podcasts...but it certainly helps with your backlog.
If you don't use a podcast player that works with Android Auto or Apple CarPlay, and one (or both) of those systems is available in your car, consider switching to an app that does. You can listen to podcasts during road trips, your daily commute, and even quick trips to the store (podcast players are smart enough to carry on right where they left off).
Something that I've had to learn is to be less precious about listening to every single episode of every single podcast. Even with the podcasts you love, if there are episodes on a topic you're not too interested in, or that feature a guest you're not that keen on, don't be afraid to skip them: You're most likely not really going to miss out on much, and it gives you more time for the episodes you're really into.
Along the same lines, sometimes you have to be ruthless about the podcasts you're subscribed to: If you find yourself deleting episodes un-listened to more often than not, just unsubscribe from them to keep your queue free of clutter. If you're not quite ready to make that step, try a reset: Archive all the existing episodes of a podcast, and start again with new ones being published going forward.
Each time I write about a new smart home product, I can count on a few commenters to question the need to add smart functionality to a product they’ve used for years. “What’s wrong with a washing machine that doesn’t talk to me,” “I can do a better job than any robot vacuum,” or “Hope you enjoy being spied on through your smart air purifier!” There’s nothing inherently wrong with the “dumb” products we learned to use—they’re not dumb at all, they just require more work on our part. The promise of smart products is vast. Sure, they save time, because they work without your input. And they save money because you can program them using intelligence—both yours (experience) and theirs (AI). And they’re fun. I’ll never get over the joy of voicing a request into the air and having lights turn on, doors lock, the dryer spin, or a robot mop. But the best reason—the reason you really can’t refute—is that smart home products make the world accessible. We will all be using them in a few short years; but for now, there are important considerations to make before leaping in.
Smart home devices need internet. You can eventually run them on local signals like Bluetooth, Z-wave, and Zigbee, but that’s not standard. Setup is almost always going to require wifi, and usage is often also dependent on the internet. It’s not just that you want strong wifi, you want consistent wifi throughout the areas you’ll use smart products. That’s not always easy to achieve if the space is large or you have barriers like metal in your walls or large appliances in the way. The solution is often engaging mesh routers, which do a better job distributing your wifi signal across a space.
Some smart products are easier to hit the road with than others. You can pick up Tiles and go anywhere, and I’ve found it pretty easy to relocate floor bots and smart plugs. But if you want to move your voice assistant speakers or your hub, that’s a big pain. The same goes for lightbulbs and smart appliances. As people begin to choose smart switches over smart hubs, you have to consider whether you’re investing in products you’re not likely to uninstall and bring to the next home. Your robot pool cleaner might come with you, but the smart garage opener won’t; consider the longevity of your choices.
We should be able to have smart products and expect privacy at the same time. But we know that companies are fallible, networks are hackable, and security breaches happen. I’m not saying we should just accept the privacy breaches that now seem standard, but I stand by the unpopular opinion you need to be aware it’s likely to happen and not let it make you anxious. The reality is that many people struggled with the security of entering your credit card online or using your social security number as identification. Ultimately, younger generations accepted that online transactions were simply how things were done now, and the occasional risk was the price of doing business, and fraud protections evolved from the banks to deal with it.
There are now many multiple system hubs out there, and the ecosystem is always growing. While you can run multiple systems in your home (HomeKit and Alexa, Alexa and Google Home, SmartThings and Home Assistant, etc.) the reality is that you want to choose one voice assistant (Siri, Google, or Alexa) and really try to stick with one hub. Consolidation will make it easier to manage your products through automation and the hub's app, and it’ll help you choose between smart speakers and displays. The best way to choose is to consider the most important products to you, and also what kind of tinkerer you are. If you are an Apple fan, HomeKit makes sense—but a lot of products don’t work with HomeKit. Alexa has the strongest ecosystem, in my opinion, but if you like absolute control, Home Assistant might be for you. New hubs like Hubitat and Brilliant offer varying levels of control and product integration.
Don’t go hog wild on smart products. Choose a hub, and then choose one layer of utilities: Lights, HVAC, or cleaning. If you choose lights, choose between smart switches, fixtures, or lightbulbs (or all three), but try to stick with as few brands as possible, and go slowly. Experiment with automations along the way, voice control, and what to do when you lose connection. Slowly add on more layers as you get more comfortable with the technology.
A byproduct of smart home life that no one loves is the additional apps and physical hubs you end up with. Locate the hubs in one spot and label them so its clear from the front what they control. Keep a doc or spreadsheet somewhere with all the apps on your phone and what they control. This is my favorite hack, because so many of these apps don’t have the name of the company in them, and all look and sound very familiar (My SmartLife, Smart Home, Homelife, etc.).
From magazine articles to peer-reviewed papers and case laws, Google Scholar can provide cutting-edge research for free. It's one of Google's lesser-known search tools—but it's invaluable if you need to cite data from trusted sources.
Google Scholar isn't perfect as an academic search engine—you'll need to know a few tips to help you get the most out of it.
With some practice, Google Scholar's Advanced Search filters will become your go-to search tool.
Click the hamburger menu; Advanced Search is the second-to-last option.
The Advanced Search box gives you nine filters to search with—their functions are self-explanatory.
You can search for specific terms, find exact phrases, and also search with synonyms.
For more targeted results, combine these options with filters like publication date, time range, or author.
Note: Search results are usually sorted by relevance, not by date. Use the date filters on the results page or select Sort by date, if that's what you're looking for. Scholar supports all the regular and advanced Boolean search operators, just like Google's regular search.
You can go to the Google Scholar Metrics page, search through the top 100 publications, and then drill down to the ones cited most. Then, instead of conducting a random search, you can take a bird's-eye view of the developments in your area of specialization.
Open the sidebar via the hamburger menu and click on Metrics.
Select the dropdown next to Categories and then the dropdown for Subcategories if you want to drill down deeper.
When we use Google Search, we are interested in the latest. In Google Scholar, we can go back in time with the date filters (or use a custom date range) to search for foundational research in any field.
Tip: Try searching with Chrome's incognito mode and see if it gives you slightly different, non-personalized results that aren't based on your search history.
It helps to know who the more influential voices are in your field. You can enter a search term in Google Scholar and find the most cited papers. But first, open the sidebar (select the hamburger icon next to the Google Scholar logo) and select Profiles.
The search page updates with the authors' public profiles while retaining what you had initially searched for. Use this information to learn more about their work in your field.
Tip: Search for the authors you want more of on YouTube, other academic journals, or social profiles to follow their latest work and lectures.
If you are a heavy Google Scholar user, set up alerts to stay on top of the latest developments. You'll receive emails whenever a new academic topic is published.
Log into your Google account.
Click the hamburger menu to open the sidebar.
Select Alerts to open a new page.
Click the red Create alert button and insert the keywords for which Google Scholar should look.
Select Update results to get a preview of the results for the query you used.
Select Create Alert to set up the alert. You can set as many alerts as you want.
Tip: You can also set up an alert for a particular query from the search results page by clicking on Create alert.
The Google Scholar button is a Chrome extension that gives you ready access to Google Scholar search results without copying and pasting. You can look up academic articles from any webpage you are on without leaving it.
For instance, highlight any keyword, topic heading, or citation on any webpage. Click the Google Scholar button, and the relevant results appear in a window.
You can also use the search field in the Google Scholar window to directly type in a search query.
Performing basic research is a fundamental soft skill that can help you develop critical thinking skills. Google Scholar gives you an idea of the broader research in any field. With the right keywords, you can then dive deeper into the results.
Explore the Top publications page and the most cited papers to see emerging trends in any field. Use the language filter on the right to read or translate papers in other languages.
Click on the Cited by link in the search results to see if fresher research has built upon the material you are reading about.
Click on All versions under the search result and see if the alternative sources have the entire paper instead of an abstract.
Check out Related articles and Related searches to cross-pollinate your learning with similar ideas from adjacent fields.
Use Google Scholar's My library feature to curate articles for later. For instance, click Save to read a paper later and use the Reading list label.
Google recommends that if you're new to a subject, picking up the terminology from secondary sources may be helpful. For example, a Wikipedia article on "intravenous feeding" might suggest a Scholar search for "hyperalimentation."
Google Scholar offers Library links and Library Search to access any electronic and print resources in a library connected to Google Scholar results.
Yes, Google Scholar is a serious search engine. But you can still use it to search for quirky topics and see the results it throws up. As a Star Trek fan, I often go there to search for stuff a fellow fan or academic might have written. And 148,000 results suggest that the iconic show is a scholarly subject for many. Try it with your favorite show or movie.
Rice has been a part of Italian fare for roughly as long as pasta has, and riso’s spread was estimated to have begun around the 15th century after being imported from Asia. Risotto, the creamy rice dish we all love to stir (or order) up, comes from the northern regions of Italy, like the ones around Milan, where it is served with the distinctive yellow hue of saffron and delicious, savory undertones.
There are many versions to be had, from truffled to tomato-y, and when Italian food came to America, the menu depended greatly on the region its owners or workers immigrated from. Though northern cuisines, which include risotto, saw a boom in the fine dining scene of the ‘70s and ‘80s, "red sauce joints" and their prevalence reflect the more heavy southern Italian and Sicilian influence in America, both then and today.
The dominance of southern Italian food in America is perhaps why so many home cooks view risotto as a finicky, luxury dish—or maybe it's simply the high price tag it tends to have at restaurants. In fact, risotto is a highly accessible, flexible dish that's in my core at-home meal rotation—and it should be in yours, too.
Risotto tends to be an expensive dish when ordered in a restaurant because it needs to be made to order. You can’t really half-ass it, or it will come across in the texture, and making huge volumes of plates you can’t prep at least partially ahead of time doesn’t always translate to profit.
The steps to actually make risotto are straightforward: oily, sautéed shallot coats grains of rice that are toasted in a large, wide, pan before deglazing with white wine. Then, slowly simmer the rice in small amounts of heated broth until each batch absorbs, adding any additional protein or veggies to heat through, and finishing with cheese and butter before serving. Even though there is one "right way” to make the real thing, the basic concept of risotto-type cooking can be applied to many other dishes (like savory oatmeal), and we’ve got tips to make it your own at home, where it doesn’t cost $28-42 per serving.
All the stirring is precisely why we see risotto as notoriously hard to make, but there are other, less official methods. The truth is, it's only tricky until you get it down; after that, making risotto comes easily. And while labor-intensive foods can sometimes be stressful to make, the stirring, should you choose a traditional method, is actually a great way to get your mind off a long day at work and into your family time. In fact, I find making risotto to be a stress reliever.
Besides finding the stirring itself therapeutic, a huge reason I find risotto relaxing to make is because it's actually an incredibly flexible dish that can be made with just about anything I have on hand. For that reason, risotto is a great at-home option if you're looking to make a hearty, filling meal that costs very little.
Shallots tend to be more expensive than regular onions, so that is an easy place to pinch some pennies. If you are trying to buy fewer items to begin with, using a different allium altogether works fine, too. Sweet onion, red onion, and even pearl onions could sub in a pinch, all delicious when paired with the right accompaniments. Even ramps, garlic greens, and scallions (or spring onion) are very tasty here, albeit much quicker to cook; keep that in mind so as not to overly brown the wispy varieties when cooking the rice.
Wine, the deglazing step, can also be a deterrent for a home cook—if you don’t have any to cook with or even to drink, don’t fret. The key to deglazing is acid, so it's easy to swap the wine for something else. A bit of watered down vinegar, lemon juice, or even pickle or olive brine can join the team for you here, adding interest and seasoning in one shot.
Same goes for the fats—while using olive oil and butter are the OGs, I have successfully used bacon grease, coconut oil, and even sesame oil in different risotto mashups. This means you should get weird, schmaltz it up for chicken-y goodness, try toasted hazelnut as a finisher, whatever you fancy.
Don’t be surprised that this advice also extends to the broth you use to cook the rice and even the rice itself. Try a cheese rind brodo for a truly excellent take, or even watered-down cream of celery soup for a uniquely savory twist.
Rice is just one grain; people use pastas like orzo and couscous for one-pot, brothed-up grain dishes all the time. Bulgur, other short-grain rice, and quinoa can be imbued with the creamy cooked texture of risotto if you prepare with the same technique and don’t over or undercook them.
As for the accessories, use what you love. If that’s broccoli and cheddar, Cacio e Pepe, or seafood stew, more power to you. Fresh, frozen, dried, whatever—truly. We’ve even prepared risotto with Thanksgiving leftovers, stirring in a spoonful of gravy to make a rich, rice-y delight. Dried fancy mushrooms are easy to keep on hand for an impressive meal, and if you have frozen broth, cooking wine, and typical basics like grating cheese and onion, you can make a risotto.
There are incredible recipes out there to suit every single style. You can now make a risotto in a slow cooker, an instant pot, or even with Kenji Lopez-Alt’s (almost) no stir method. Recipe Tin Eats, one of my favorite recipe publications, makes a baked version with lemony aromas and uses a 1.25 to 4 ratio for broth to rice for a hands-off preparation.
The really important things to nail are the texture of the rice, which should have some bite, and the saucy, luscious texture of the liquid, which shouldn’t be too sticky. Many mistakes, outside of fatal overcooking, can be quickly remedied with either a quicker boil at the end to get the rice over the finish line, or a huge knob of butter and cheese melted in to bind everything together.
If you don’t want to cook the add-ins, fresh garnishes like herbs can elevate the dish with little added effort, as can the odd piece of crumbled bacon, which you can add right at the end. Get weird by frying up last night’s broccoli minced up with breadcrumbs as a green and crunchy topping, or give salted egg yolk (a must-try) a sprinkle.
Let’s be real, reheated and cold risotto are both pretty mid: the rice gets too mushy, and all of your hard work just doesn’t hold up. What can make it worth it is creating a second labor of love with the leftovers, like arancini, also known as fried rice balls. These, like any breaded and fried treat, take time and energy, but are extremely satisfying.
For the delicious crunch of arancini without the breading-coated fingers, pan fry a single layer of leftover risotto into a pancake, which is a traditional Italian snack called risotto al salto. Patiently frying in a nonstick pan or a well-seasoned cast iron and flipping lends a crunchy bite that’s like tahdig, socarrat, and risotto all in one delicious bite. If you must go minimal, add a small amount of broth and gently heat in a saucepan, or bake until warmed through; a microwave could easily overcook the already perilous rice.
In my home, so far, a combination of bacon fat, yellow onion, leftover rosé, chicken broth, frozen peas, with pecorino and butter to finish is my family favorite. Provenance is important if you’re trying to make a treasured recipe for one reason or another—in that case, sure, follow the exact instructions with regional Italian rice. Follow a recipe closely to build familiarity with making risotto, but once you are confident in your skills, do whatever you want.
Arm day can be one of the most fun days at the gym, but don't limit yourself to just bicep exercises. Your triceps, on the back of your arm, are an even larger arm muscle, and they're what give you the strength to lift things overhead or bust out a set of pushups. Here I'll share some of my favorite tricep exercises, along with a crash course on what the triceps are and what they do.
The triceps brachii (“three-headed muscle of the arm”) is the muscle on the back of your upper arm. Its main function is straightening your elbow.
Each head has a different origin point near the top of your upper arm: The lateral and medial heads both originate on the upper humerus (upper arm) bone. The long head actually starts on your shoulder blade.
The three heads of the tricep merge together into a big flat tendon on the lower part of your arm, above the elbow. This is what creates the “horseshoe” shape you can sometimes see when somebody flexes their tricep. That tendon continues downward and attaches to the olecranon process of the ulna, or to put it in clearer terms, the pointy part of your elbow.
Unlike the deltoids, where the three heads perform different motions, the three heads of the tricep will all get worked reasonably well with any exercise that has you straighten your arm.
Since the long head of the triceps originates on the shoulder blade, rather than the upper arm bone, you can stretch the long head a bit by putting your arms overhead. As I discussed in my article on the best bicep exercises, you arguably get the best stimulus for growth when training a muscle in its stretched position. So, overhead tricep exercises are sometimes said to “hit the long head” better.
The same logic that has people doing crunches to get rid of belly fat (which doesn’t work) also has people doing tricep exercises to get rid of “chicken wings” or “bingo arms.” It doesn’t actually work that way, in either case.
The only thing that will reduce fat in a specific body part, like the upper arm, is reducing fat all over your body. You can’t meaningfully control where your body stores fat; you do have a small amount of control over how much total fat.
Strengthening a muscle can make it larger and can make it easier to see definition (like that horseshoe where the muscle bellies meet the tendon). It doesn’t change the wobbly appearance of your arm when it’s relaxed, but it does mean you can flex the muscle and show off a little.
I’m going to award the crown here to dips. I’ll give some barbell, dumbbell, and cable options below, but if I could only pick one tricep exercise? It would be dips.
Dips are the exercise where your hands are down at your sides, on handles, and you bend and straighten your elbows to move your body up and down.
Dips are a compound exercise traditionally done with just your body weight, but you can make it easier by using a band or an assisted dip machine. Once you get strong enough that bodyweight dips are easy, start adding weight. Grab a dip belt (your gym probably has one in a bucket of accessories somewhere) and thread as many weight plates as you like onto the chain. Weighted dips are a seriously underrated exercise, and they tend to improve your bench press as a side effect.
Dips are sometimes divided into two categories: “chest dips” when you lean your torso forward and flare your elbows out, and “tricep dips” when you keep your body as upright as possible, with elbows close to your body. Both are great. Here’s a video on how to do tricep dips:
If you don’t have access to dip handles (or gymnastics rings, which also work), the next best bodyweight exercise would be tricep pushups. These are pushups with the hands placed close together, and the elbows tucked in close to your waist.
Since the long head attaches to the shoulderblade (on the underside, near the shoulder joint), arguably the best way to train it is while your arms are reaching overhead. A 2023 study found that overhead tricep extensions produce greater hypertrophy (size changes) in the triceps than pushdowns. Interestingly, the increase wasn’t just in the long head, but in all three heads of the triceps.
Whatever the reason, I’d recommend overhead extensions if you like the idea of doing the most “scientific” or “optimal” tricep exercise. (Although to be honest, people have gotten great results doing a variety of tricep exercises, so you don’t have to stick to this one if you don’t like it.)
This video shows a version of the exercise you can do on a cable machine, but a dumbbell tricep extension would also fit the bill.
The triceps are used in all pushing exercises, including bench press and overhead press. I like barbell exercises, and I like overhead press, so personally I’d gravitate toward overhead strict press if I were just picking something for myself.
But I’m going to be a little more fair to the gym community at large, and put in a good word for a classic tricep developer, the close grip bench press.
Bench press uses a lot of different muscles, but the main movers are your pecs (chest), which bring your arms together and in front of you; and, of course, the triceps, to straighten your elbows. The wider your grip, the more you need to use your pecs, and the narrower your grip, the more you need to use your triceps.
That means that most people take a medium grip width on the bar (hands near or just inside of the rings, usually) to get the best of both worlds. But as an accessory, you can do close grip bench, with your hands just barely shoulder width apart.
Allergy season is right around the corner, and if you’re someone who’s affected by that, you likely don’t need to be told. There are some effective tools out there that can help you through it, though, so maybe this is the year you stock up and show pollen what you’re made of (or at least what you’re willing to buy to take it on).
First, you need to get your home in order so you’re not suffering when you’re in your place of solitude. These should help.
Humidifiers moisten the air and improve the health of your airways, which makes them a valuable source of comfort when your nose and throat are scratchy. The one I use is the Hey Dewy Wellness Humidifier ($99.95), which is prettier than others on the market (my preference) but also has a radius of 500 square feet and a 1.54-liter capacity, meaning it’ll moisten up a big room.
You’ll also need an air purifier. PC Mag recommends the Dyson Cool TP07 ($605). It’s pricey, but it’s also a Dyson, which signifies quality, and PC Mag highlights its air quality measurements, voice control support, and fully sealed HEPA 13 enclosure. I use a cheaper one, the GermGuardian ($79.99), and can confirm it’s quiet and, as far as I can tell, effective in its goal of yanking 99.97% of germs, dust, and pollen from the air.
Grab some AllerEase pillow protectors ($13.28 for two), which are made of tightly woven fabric designed to stop household particles from collecting in your pillow—and making you sneeze and cough. Reviewers say it actually works.
Finally, you need a vacuum that can actually handle the kinds of particles that are affecting you. According to Health, the best vacuum for allergy sufferers is the Kenmore Pop-N-Go ($350) because of how effectively it sucks up debris and dog hair.
Getting your home under control is one thing, but managing yourself is another. These tools will give some personal relief.
Try a Vicks personal steam inhaler ($42.98) for fast, direct sinus relief when you’re stuffy. Hold it to your nose for a blast of warm mist designed to combat allergies. You can also use it with Vicks VapoPads for extra sinus-clearing power.
Allergy sufferers and pros regularly compare tips on forums, and one thing that always crops up is nasal sprays. Flonase is a well-respected brand, and you can get a 60-spray device for $14.51. Looking for a non-medicated option? Amazon Basic Care has saline nasal moisturizing spray ($3.19) that can also help you clear out some gunk.
Itchy, watery eyes are also a major pain, but you can try a gel eye mask to relieve some orbital pressure and depuff those bad boys. Consider the Consgiji set ($11.99), which has one mask with eye holes and one without, so you can choose your coverage.
As someone who makes a lot of Apple Music playlists, both the handcrafted and "smart" varieties, accidental deletion is my biggest fear. About a year ago, that fear came true when I accidentally wiped out a playlist I had made for a half marathon. I had to make the whole playlist again, but it wasn't the same. The songs weren't in the same order as before and I couldn't quite remember all the songs I had added previously. That's why I was quite excited when I came across Hezel, an app that backs up your Apple Music library.
Hezel is easy to use. You open the app, allow it access to your Apple Music library, and tap the backup button. It takes a short while to back up everything. I have about 10,000 songs in my library and it took Hezel about 2-3 minutes to back it up. Once you've done this, you can be sure that all the songs, playlists, and music videos are safely stored in the app.
If you accidentally delete a song from a playlist, or even if you delete entire playlists, Hezel allows you to recover them easily. For testing, I deleted a couple of my playlists and opened Hezel to see if it could recover them. The app had my backup from a few days ago. I opened this backup and it took a couple minutes to compare it against my current Apple Music library, after which it showed the deleted playlists. I hit the Recover button and the playlists were pretty much instantly restored to Apple Music.
I now have a sense of security that I haven't had before. The only downside is that once you recover a playlist, the name of the playlist creator changes to Hezel. It's a small annoyance, but not a dealbreaker for me. The developer says that all of these backups are stored on-device and syncing is encrypted via iCloud.
Hezel is a free download on the App Store and you can make as many backups as you like without paying. On the free tier, you can only restore from the three most recent backups. If you want automatic backups and the ability to restore from any of your old backups, you can get the in-app purchase for $5.
Even if you’ve never heard of the planning fallacy, you’ve likely experienced it. It’s a phenomenon in which a person or team underestimates how long a task will take and what it will cost in money or resources, plus overestimates the actual benefits it will yield. If you’ve ever waited until the last minute to respond to an email only to find you don’t have the data you need to send a decent response, you’ve fallen victim to the fallacy. Hell, you've fallen victim to it if you've ever been late to something because you were just sure traffic wouldn't interfere with you getting there, despite there always being traffic along that route at that time—but there are ways to beat it.
As mentioned, the planning fallacy is just a pattern of faulty thinking that results in people not budgeting their time or expectations correctly. You don’t realize how much time a task will really take, how much you’ll need to spend on it, or how little you may get out of it. The fallacy itself was first introduced by economist Daniel Kahneman and cognitive psychologist Amos Tversky in 1979, but was expanded on in 2003 to include the overestimation of beneficial results.
Over the years, it’s been studied and proven by other big brains, who’ve concluded it’s all part of an optimism bias that makes people look ahead through rose-colored glasses instead of thinking realistically about their plans and anticipated results.
All of that is to say, in general, when you’re planning out your day or your projects, you’re probably strategizing around the best-case scenario—low time and resource investment with high yield—instead of the worst-case one. This means if (maybe when) things don’t shake out right, you’re unprepared.
First, you need to set a realistic goal. You can do this using a SMART goal or a FAST goal, both of which require you to write down a specific objective and indicate exactly how you’ll measure your progress toward it. A SMART goal is preferable to a FAST one here because with that structure, you’ll also be incorporating a time-based element; the “T” in SMART stands for time-bound, and that’s going to be crucial in defeating the planning fallacy. You need to determine, in advance, what your deadline is. But to do that, you have to be realistic, not optimistic.
Consider projects you’ve worked on that are similar in demand or scope to the one at hand. How long did they take you? No, really, how long did they actually take you? To be realistic about how long the new project will take, you need to take lessons from the past, and it might not go perfectly this time around if you don’t have solid data. Start tracking your time when you get to work on the project and its associated tasks. Use the 168-hour method to diligently monitor your time over the course of a week, paying attention to how long each step in your project process actually takes. When you do complete the project, conduct a personal after-action review, going over what you wanted to achieve, what you actually achieved, and what stopped you from achieving it, then making notes of that and filing them away with the project itself.
By tracking your time and assessing what went wrong that prevented you from accomplishing a task in a timely or productive manner in the past, you can better structure your future to-do lists and schedules. You may not defeat the planning fallacy on your first try, but after a few attempts during which you collect and review data, you’ll have a better understanding of how long things take you and you can eventually conquer it.
Another key to defeating the fallacy is to avoid anchoring, or the cognitive bias that prevents people from changing their original course of action. If, halfway through your project, you realize the planning fallacy caused you to be a little too optimistic, consciously make the decision to consider altering your goal, timeline, or approach. Seek outside opinions from colleagues or peers, weigh their inputs fairly, and adjust as necessary. In addition to being wired for optimism, people are also wired to be stubborn, but neither of those is helpful when you’re trying to accomplish a goal. Being aware of these cognitive biases and fallacies is a solid first step to overcoming them, but you do ultimately have to do the work to do that.
When you track an activity on your Apple Watch, and then go to the Fitness app to see your data, it often gives two different answers to the question “How many calories did I burn?” Those are active calories and total calories, and you may notice that sometimes both fields show the same number, and other times they are two different numbers.
You’re probably familiar with the idea that exercise burns calories. We might say, for example, that a half hour jog burns 300 calories. (The exact number will depend on factors like how big you are and how fast you ran, but let’s use this as an example.)
So jogging burns calories, but you still would have burned some calories if you had stayed home watching TV—just not as many. Remember, it takes quite a few calories just to keep your body alive and functioning.
For example, if you weigh 200 pounds, you’ll burn around 46 calories in half an hour of watching TV. (Yes, there is data on this.) Meanwhile, half an hour of easy pace running burns 363 calories. That means you burned 363 total calories, but only 317 of those are on top of what you would have burned staying home.
This is what Apple is trying to communicate with the “active” and “total” calorie labels. To give a real-life example, I went for an easy three-mile jog one day, taking about 38 minutes. Apple reports that I burned 351 total calories, of which 294 were active calories. (That means it thinks I would have burned 57 calories if I hadn’t been running during that time.)
It takes a lot of energy to keep a human body alive! You need to keep your heart beating, your lungs breathing, and your brain thinking. Each cell of your body has to do lots of microscopic maintenance work to stay alive.
This may be a gruesome visual, but think about how a dead body is different from one that’s alive. It stops defending itself against germs and fungi, and begins to fall apart. The reason that doesn’t happen while you’re alive is that your body is constantly working hard to repair damage, attack invaders, and more. And all of that takes energy, which we measure in the form of calories.
I discussed this a bit more in this article on how many calories we burn each day. To give a few examples, a 200-pound, 6’ man would be expected to burn 1,930 calories a day as their basal metabolic rate; a 150-pound, 5’5” woman would burn 1,426. That is before counting any exercise activities or even daily activities like walking around the house and brushing your teeth.
This number, that represents the bare minimum to stay alive, is called your basal metabolic rate, or BMR. Closely related is the resting metabolic rate, or RMR, which includes the energy we use to digest our food. RMR plus the activities we do—such as exercise—equals our total calorie burn for the day.
If you’re curious about your RMR, the Apple Health app includes a number for Resting Energy, which estimates your RMR. Take that number with a grain of salt, though. It’s calculated from your age, sex, and weight, so it’s just an estimate for what a person your size would be expected to burn.
I see different numbers for active and total calories for activities that I logged with the Apple Watch fitness app directly. You know the one—it’s the greenish-yellow icon with the little running person.
But my active and total calories are the same for workouts logged through other apps. Strength training from Whoop? 58 calories active, 58 total. A five-mile run with Strava? 695 active, 695 total. My morning walk, picked up by Oura? 68 active, 68 total.
That’s not because my basal metabolism ceased to activate, it’s just because these apps only communicate a single number to Apple as calorie burn. Since the Apple Fitness app doesn’t know the split, it just reports the same number in both spots.
Trick question! Calorie burn, as measured by wearables (any wearables, not just the Apple Watch) isn’t always reliable. So the most correct answer is: neither.
But if you find it helpful to track calorie burn from your wearable, maybe to keep an eye on how much more you should eat if it’s been a high-activity day, the active calories are most useful. To return to the example of my three-mile jog, that jog burned 294 calories over what I would have burned if I hadn’t gone on that jog. So if I want to eat enough to make up for the extra burn, I’d eat the active number of 294 calories, not the total number of 351.
If you thought that Microsoft’s bad history of pushing its own products onto Windows users with bad attempts at advertising was a thing of the past, then I’ve got news for you. Multiple users around the world have started to notice new Microsoft Bing pop-up ads that look a lot like malware. In fact, someone I know actually asked me if the pop-up was malware, and after some research into the matter, I had to tell them that no, it most likely wasn’t. It’s just Microsoft doing a bad job of trying to get you to switch to its products.
The new popups have begun to appear after almost six months of reprieve, which was only granted to us thanks to an “issue” that the pop-ups were experiencing. Microsoft claimed the issue led to “unintended behavior” when it began appearing on top of other apps in the past. But now it seems the Windows parent company is doubling down on its strange advertising practices.
This latest batch of pop-ups is so bad that users have even posted to Reddit to question whether or not the advertisements are real or if they are an attempt to infiltrate and infect their computers with malware. Users with both Windows 10 and Windows 11 have reported the new ads popping up, and some have reported that they look very low quality and extremely pixelated.
Microsoft has had a really long and terrible history of going about advertising its products the wrong way. From the past Windows experience in which it was difficult to change your default web browser, to a change in its Edge browser that had it automatically importing Google Chrome history and information without user consent, something The Verge writer Tom Warren says he experienced for himself.
While it isn’t unusual for bad actors to try to copy advertisements put out by big companies like Microsoft, the ad in question only points back to official Microsoft links. The move is just the longest in a bumbling line of advertisements that have seen the company putting ads for Edge on top of other windows in the past. Microsoft has even put the pop-up on desktops as a “tip” that users struggled to disable several months ago.
The worst part of all this is that Microsoft’s products might not be the best, but they’ve come a long way since their inception. Sure, Bing isn’t my favorite search engine ever, but there are some cool features available, including free access to GPT-4, and while the search isn’t as robust as Google, it does return some good results that are worth checking out. The Edge browser has gotten better, too, as our friends at PCMag are quick to point out in their review from 2017. However, none of this is worth turning to the invasive methods that Microsoft has leaned on for advertising its products.
These kinds of advertisements aren’t going to draw new users in. Sure, you might get some new users in the form of folks who accidentally clicked the confirm button, but for the most part, people are happy with what they’re using already, and there isn’t really any reason for them to change up what they’re doing.
If Microsoft really wants to increase the number of users turning to Bing for its search results, it needs to prove that there’s a real reason to switch. And these malware-like ads aren’t the solution. They just make the service look worse.
When it comes to cancelling the noise around you, no other headphone does it better than the Bose's QuietComfort Ultra lineup. They top the list of the best active noise cancelling (ANC) earbuds as well as headphones. While the QuietComfort Ultra earbuds are discounted to their lowest price of $249 (originally $299), it's the QuietComfort Ultra headphones that are seeing an impressive new record low price of $249.99 (originally $429.99) from Verizon. After looking at price-checking tools, I can say these headphones have never been under $300 before.
QuietComfort Ultra headphones $249.99 (originally $429.99)
QuietComfort Ultra earbuds $249 (originally $299)
The Bose QuietComfort Ultra headphones came out in the fall of 2023 with a lot of praise for their quality but some grievances over their steep price. When it comes to ANC, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra headphones have been comfortably sitting at the top, but then again, not many ANC headphones go for $429. For their current price, there is no more excuse as to which ANC headphone gives you better value for your money.
As PCMag's "outstanding" review explains, the headphones do the best job at dialing back low-frequency rumbles as well as lows and mids. Although they're the best, they're not perfect. You will still hear high-frequency sounds pierce through the ANC. But they did better than their other two main competitors, Apple AirPods Max and the Sony WH-1000XM5.
Like most ANC headphones and earbuds, you will feel a noticeable amount of ear pressure when you activate them. The pressure can shift depending where the noise is coming from, which can be distracting if you're not used to it, but it's normal. The headphones also have a transparency mode, which is good for hearing your surroundings when outdoors, like cars and people around you, mainly for safety reasons. The headphones give you up to 24 hours per charge or 18 if you have ANC on.
Google has finally revealed a date for its biggest conference of the year, Google I/O 2024. The tech giant revealed the news this week, sharing that Google I/O will kick off on May 14, 2024.
I'm expecting quite a bit from Google during this year's I/O presentation. This is usually when Google touts its newest achievements, and the past couple of years have focused heavily on showing off the company’s various AI developments, as well as touting the much acclaimed Pixel 8 Pro. This year, though, I'm hoping that the rumors are correct and we learn more about Google’s next budget device, the Pixel 8a, which will hopefully open the door for more users to pick up a Pixel device that can run Google’s latest hardware. I'm particularly intrigued to see what Google does with the 8a, especially after revealing its latest AI features won’t even be coming to the cheaper flagship Pixel 8.
Google I/O is also when the company shares new features coming to its various applications, including Google Maps. Android 15, the next iteration of Google’s smartphone and tablet operating system, will also likely be on display. The OS is already in developer beta, meaning some features of the update are already known, but Google I/O is usually when the company releases the complete details, so it's an exciting time for Android stans too.
As usual, Google will host a livestream of the development conference, so anyone unable to attend in person will still be able to see all of the new demos and reveals.
If you like TikTok, you are not alone. There are a billion of you using the app right now, 170 million of which alone are Americans. Many of those millions are, of course, concerned and angry about the bill the House passed this week that could ban the app in the United States. While the bill's fate in the Senate is uncertain, were it to pass, President Biden says he'll sign. And unless parent company ByteDance manages to sell the app within six months of that signing, we'll be saying goodbye to TikTok in the U.S.
I am sympathetic to anyone upset at the prospect of losing their favorite app. But we need to take a step back here: Whether it's lawmakers cracking down on the app, or TikTok fighting for its life, the situation is getting out of control and weird. And whatever happens here, I'm not convinced it's going to be good.
Let's not beat around the bush here: Congress is not handling this situation well at all.
Yes, lawmakers are concerned about the security implications of a massively popular app driven by a powerful algorithm that is controlled by a Chinese-based company. They're worried about how the app is addicting to American children, and what influence it may have on them. But good lord: Can we act like adults here?
The first example that comes to mind is, of course, Sen. Tom Cotton. Even if you don't know who Sen. Cotton is, you've seen his infamous questioning of TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew. Sen. Cotton was adamantly questioning Shou Zi Chew's ties to China, drilling him about whether or not he was ever a member of the Chinese Communist Party—despite Chew's repeated confirmation that he was, indeed, a citizen of Singapore, not China. Shou Zi Chew's response, "Senator, I'm Singaporean. No," is now a meme:
Last year's Congressional grilling of Chew went about as well, too: Many lawmakers took the opportunity to spout their own beliefs about the app, rather than allow Chew to answer questions or provide context. As CNN highlights, when Chew asked if he could respond to a critical speech from Rep. Kat Cammack, the chair of the committee said, "No. We’re going to move on."
It really doesn't help that Congress is so focused on TikTok, when so many of the big names in tech have very similar privacy policies. We don't have something like Europe's GDPR here, and while we passively benefit from some of those protections, the lack of true American laws in this field means that U.S. tech companies scrape and abuse our data, too. It's no secret, either: We all know these companies gather as much of our data as possible and track our habits. We just know our lawmakers have no interest in regulating this activity, and that it's on us to configure every privacy setting we're given, or download specific privacy-focused apps. When it's Meta or Google, it's fine. When it's an app like TikTok, it must be stopped at all costs.
It's these types of theatrics and contradictions that have totally undermined Congress's arguments here in the eyes of so many TikTok users. People see the xenophobia and the hypocrisy: They're not going to take Sen. Cotton's concerns seriously when he stupidly accuses their favorite app's CEO of being a citizen of another country, all the while turning a blind eye to every American-based company that wants their data.
Look, Congress is messing this up bad. But that doesn't mean TikTok is on the winning side here, either. Unfortunately, Congress has some points here when it comes to the app's security concerns. Yes, American companies do it, too: But TikTok isn't owned by an American company. ByteDance has to answer to the Chinese government, and there are laws in China that require companies like ByteDance to hand over user data, including the data from American users. I don't blame the American government not wanting their citizen's data siphoned off to any foreign government.
While many of the privacy and security concerns are hypothetical, not all of them are. In 2022, ByteDance employees obtained the IP addresses of American journalists from their TikTok accounts in an effort to root out someone leaking company secrets. Last year, TikTok confirmed some U.S. user data is stored in China, despite the company's previous assurances that wasn't the case.
And then there's that famous algorithm. What makes TikTok so fun and addicting is that the algorithm is very good at showing you content it thinks you will want to see. That's all fine and well when you're interested in comedy, cooking, and even different points of view. But it's not unreasonable for lawmakers to be concerned that an app with a massive American user base and an extremely persuasive algorithm operated by a company based in a geopolitical rival's nation could potentially have some compromising sway over the content those users see.
Users critical of lawmakers see these TikTok concerns as more about the U.S. government's lack of control over the information TikTok offers than issues about manipulation, and in some respects, they might be right. But to assert that TikTok and its parent company are a neutral party only interested in delivering raw, impartial truths, is absurd. TikTok and ByteDance are not the free press: They're businesses, and just like other businesses, they have a key interest in both your data and keeping you in the app for as long as possible. And while there's no evidence that the Chinese government has pushed TikTok to promote certain content to American users, I can appreciate the concern here.
TikTok is already using its sway to influence its users. Yesterday, the company posted a video of Chew, CEO of TikTok, using TikTok to advocate for TikTok. I get it: The company does not want this bill to pass. But the app is advertising its plight to users, on the app, asking them to flood Congress with phone calls voicing their disapproval. I can imagine a concerned member of Congress, debating whether to pass this bill, reading through the comments on this video with dread. TikTok clearly has a huge influence over a massive portion of the country, and the company isn't doing much to actually assure lawmakers that situation isn't something to worry about.
Congress and TikTok both have their points and their massive missteps, but at the end of the day, it's the users that are really caught in the crossfire here—and it sucks. Not only do so many of those millions enjoy using the app for mindless fun, so many rely on the app for their livelihoods. There are an estimated seven million small businesses that use TikTok, and while there are plenty of other social media apps out there to build an audience on, banning the app would undoubtedly have a negative impact on all who currently rely on it.
If I could wave a wand and force Congress to pass actual privacy laws that protect all Americans—so that whether you were TikTok or Facebook, you needed to play by the same rules—I would. It's what we desperately need, not one-off legislation targeting a singular app. TikTok has a lot of problems. The U.S. government has a lot of problems. This whole situation is a mess, and I'm struggling to see a good outcome from any of it.
You can get this MagPRO smartwatch on sale for $39.97 right now (reg. $150) through March 17. It's a cheaper alternative to the Apple Watch and Fitbit that connects to your smartphone and delivers message notifications, track steps, and offers real-time wellness data. The full-touch OLED screen is 42mm square and has customizable watch faces, and the magnetic band is sweatproof and waterproof. Fully charged, the battery lasts for two days of constant use.
You can get this MagPRO Smartwatch on sale for $39.97 right now (reg $150) through March 17 at 11:59 p.m. PT, though prices can change at any time.
If you aren't careful, the list of recurring payments you sign up for over time can really creep up. It's a good idea to periodically do an audit of every recurring payment you have to weed out the ones you no longer need or want. However, some recurring payments are worth the investment—in this thread, Redditors recommend memberships that are worth every penny of their cost. From an airport pre-check membership to a cooking magazine, here are some of the best.
People who enjoy studying or developing new skills might want to consider a subscription to The Great Courses. Reddit users recommended their courses, a list that includes everything from physics to learning the piano. Plans are priced at $20 per month or $150 per year. There's also a 14-day free trial.
If you enjoy hiking and nature, you should consider getting a U.S. national parks pass. This pass is a value for those who visit national parks or other national recreational lands more than twice a year—and if you time it right, your National Parks pass can actually be valid for 13 months. If you buy this pass on the first of the month, it's valid through the year and until the end of the same month next year. For example, if you buy it on April 1, 2024, your pass will be valid till April 30, 2025. Bear in mind that you may need to reserve an entry slot at some of the more popular parks, and the pass doesn't cover state parks.
The fee for most people is $80 per year, but senior citizens can get one for $20 per year (or $80 for a lifetime membership). Some of the biggest national parks in the U.S. charge an entry fee of $20 per person or $35 per vehicle. This pass also covers the day-use fee for sites managed by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, and the U.S. Army of Corps of Engineers. As a pass-holder, you're also likely to encounter shorter lines at entry points for some of the more popular parks. Your pass covers entry for one private vehicle or four people to the park at a time.
Those who enjoy comedy should consider a subscription to Dropout.tv. It emerged from the ashes of CollegeHumor's online presence as the parent company decided to pivot to a premium online subscription service. The streaming service has many high-quality shows that Reddit users recommended, and you can try it for free before you decide to pay. You can either get a free trial with Dropout, or check out to its YouTube channel to get a feel for its content. Several Redditors said they subscribed to Dropout initially for one specific show, and then found many more they enjoyed. The annual plan costs $60, but you can get the first year for $48.
Signing up for an airport security pre-check membership can save you a lot of time in the form of shorter lines, a faster security screening process, and reduced scrutiny at airports. These memberships are only available to people who are considered low-risk travelers, and there is an application and interview process involved in getting a pre-check subscription. To know more, check out our in-depth guide to the best airport security pre-check memberships.
Some of the most common problems with HVAC systems can be prevented simply by replacing the air filter at regular intervals. If you find yourself forgetting to buy air filters, or if you forget the right size for your air filter, you should consider getting an air filter subscription. This way, air filters of the right size arrive at your doorstep just as you need them. Reddit users recommended FilterEasy and praised its hassle-free service.
There are a whole bunch of recipe websites on the internet, but the Cook's Illustrated magazine still holds its own. Published bimonthly by America's Test Kitchen (ATK), the magazine includes great recipes, explores food science to help you understand the "why" behind cooking methods, and has tips to help you become a better chef. Redditors said it's better than most free recipe sites because Cook's Illustrated tries making the recipe a few different ways and runs it by a test group before publishing it in the magazine. If that appeals to you, you can get the magazine subscription at $25/year or digital access to all ATK content at $50/year. You could also check whether your local library gets the magazine, which is a good way to read it for free.
Almost anytime I notice a camera in a friend’s place, it is a Blink Mini. I myself have found them super useful—inside, that is. That was the headline on the Mini, a small, affordable, easy-to-install indoor cam from Amazon. You could mount them on a pan and tilt base, free stand them, or hang them on a wall. They just worked without a lot of frills or fanfare. What they didn’t do was go outside, which wasn’t a real problem, since Blink has a wealth of outdoor cameras for that purpose—and they worked well, too. But yesterday, Amazon announced the new Blink Mini 2, and unlike its predecessor, it can go anywhere, indoors or out.
According to Amazon, the team rebuilt the Mini from the ground up, but promises it kept everything customers love. The price certainly remains stable: the Mini 2 is an affordable $39.99, although the price jumps to $49.99 if you add on the weather-resistant adapter. This is comparable to the original Blink, which has dipped to $29.99 and is still, in my opinion, a great buy, particularly when paired with the pan-tilt mount.
The new Mini 2 includes a computing overhaul and now uses a custom-built chip. Using on-device computer vision, new functions are now possible, like smart notifications and person detection. This allows the user to know, via notifications, whether the camera detects a person, pet, or package, so long as you have a Blink subscription plan.
On previous Blink models, you could avoid the subscription plan by using the Blink Sync Module ($49.99) with a USB stick for local storage, and the same is true with the Mini 2, making it a lot more appealing. I generally prefer cameras without cloud storage or subscription fees, but you do get AI features with the Blink subscription, so you might find it worthwhile. Plans start at $3 per month for one device and go up to $10 per month for multiple devices.
The video quality has also gotten an upgrade, which is nice, and that includes low-light performance. The new Blink model also has a wider range of view than the original and a built-in LED spotlight for color video at night, even in the dark. I’m excited to see this in practice, as I’ve found seeing color instead of black-and-white in nighttime video to be very pleasing.
The ability to have a reliable camera under $50 that is weather resistant appeals to me. It can go in places larger cameras can’t, and since it’s a plug in, you just need access to electrical, rather than a hardwire. To me, this feels like it will serve specific situations really well, but most people’s outdoor camera needs might be served better by other cameras on the market.
Whether you're hoping to ride out the next blackout in style and comfort, play video games in the middle of the woods, or live an off-the-grid lifestyle, a solar generator is becoming a modern must-have. They’re lighter and more mobile than gas generators, and you don’t need to keep a supply of degrading gasoline on hand to power them.
You have a lot of options for solar generators, and choosing the best one for you involves considering factors like capacity, weight, output and input options, and charging time and efficiency. But above all of those factors, your choice will come down to how you intend to use it. Whatever you buy, the solar generators on the market right now are generally better options than what was available just a few years ago—and the following are some of the best, based on different use cases.
Great for: Flexible use
With a capacity of 1002 watt-hours and the potential to charge at 200 watts for relatively fast recharges, the Jackery Explorer 1000 has enough juice to be a great short-term backup generator for the house. It has three AC outlets, a DC outlet, two USB A and two USB C outlets, so it’s capable of powering up to eight things at once. That 1000-watt output means it could run your fridge for a day or so without needing to be re-charged (longer if it’s hooked up to solar panels simultaneously), so it’s a workable solution for getting through a blackout without spoiled food.
At the same time, the Explorer 1000 weighs just 25 pounds—which isn’t exactly light, but makes it portable enough that it’s also a good solution for outdoor uses like camping or just powering your patio. It’s got a durable (and fireproof) casing designed to take a little punishment, too, so this is a solar generator that can sit at home in case of emergencies or come with you on your next road trip. The interface isn’t exactly rich, however, providing just the bare minimum of information, and the lack of a DC input isn’t ideal.
Great for: Off-grid use
The Goal Zero Yeti 1500X can charge at a 600-watt clip, and has a 1,500+ watt capacity, making it an ideal choice if you’re going to be far away from a wall outlet for a while. It can put out enough juice to run a camper, and if you invest in the panels to get that full input, it can recharge in just a few hours.
The 1500X is also equipped to integrate into your house so it can be a true home backup unit, and it can even charge off your car’s alternator, so you can top it off while you’re traveling without having to ziptie your solar panels to the roof. It’s also built with an incredibly tough exterior, making it a perfect choice if you’re going to be living in relatively rough conditions but want to be able to run a small army of gadgets and appliances while you’re out there.
It’s a little confusing to navigate the interface, but the availability of a smartphone app helps a little in that department. If you’re routinely off the grid, this is your best choice.
Great for: Blackouts
If your main concern in this life is what happens when the power goes off, the EcoFow Delta is a great choice. With 1000 watt-hours of output (the Delta 2 Max model offers 2000), you’ll never need to break out the candles again, because you’ll have enough power to light up the house and run many of your appliances for the duration. And if the blackout lasts longer than expected, it can charge up in a few hours in full sun.
It’s heavy (about 50 pounds), so you’re not lugging this one around on your camping trips, but its power, fast charging time, and ease of hooking into your home’s electrical panel (if you have a transfer switch installed) make it ideal for those occasional emergencies. Plus, it’s easily expandable with batteries chained together, which can increase your power output to 3000 watt-hours if you need it.
Great for: House backup
If you’re thinking beyond blackouts and want a whole-house solution that can keep everything humming any time you lose the grid, the Bluetti AC200Max is an ideal choice. It can punch into a transfer switch, making it easy to jump over to battery power in a pinch without having to run extension cords all over the place, and it starts with 2200 watt-hours of power—but it’s expandable to a whopping 8000 watt-hours by chaining in some batteries. It’s pricey with all those batteries, but that kind of power means you can run your whole house off of the AC200Max for a couple of days.
The whole system is controllable via an app, and it offers 16 outlets so you won’t have to agonize over what gets powered during a storm. It can take a long time to charge up if you go for the full capacity, but you can use solar panels simultaneously with an outlet to get up to 1400 watt-hours of charge and cut the charging time down considerably.
Great for: Small spaces
Maybe you want a solar generator for emergencies, but you live in a shoebox-sized apartment, and many solar generators are big enough to be problematic for storage. The Anker SOLIX C1000 provides solid power (1000 watt-hours or so) in a very small footprint, which means it’s easy to store when not in use.
A great feature that makes it a good choice for a home generator is the LED light bar, which provides quick emergency lighting. If you’ve ever been surprised by a blackout and found yourself stumbling around in the dark, you know that having an easy source of light is a very good thing. It also charges up exceptionally quickly—the SOLIX C1000 can reach full capacity in an hour in strong sunlight or when plugged in. That means if your blackout situation lasts more than a day you should be able to charge the battery back up during the daylight hours without much trouble, making it a great choice for a small place.
Solar generators are getting more powerful, more sophisticated, and more necessary every day. Buy one of the best solar generators available and sleep easy tonight.
The new lineup of M3 MacBook Airs was released on March 4, and unsurprisingly, the M2 and M1 are already seeing big discounts. What is surprising, though, is that the M3 MacBook Air is already discounted (just a little). Walmart has the M1 MacBook Air 13.3-inch laptop for $699 (originally $999.99), which is the lowest price I've seen after checking price comparison tools. If you're looking for an extra $50 discount, Best Buy has the same MacBook for $649.99 as "open-box," which are products that customers returned.
This M1 is the basic model from 2020. It has 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage. You can expect about 18 hours of battery life from this MacBook. Although it pales in comparison to the new M3 chip and all of its new features, the M1 is still enough for most of us. As Lifehacker's Senior Technology Editor Jake Peterson pointed out, the M1 is still a fantastic computer over three years after its release. The main reason behind this is that Apple is able to optimize macOS to the M1, embracing new macOS versions gracefully and enjoying their new features while Intel Macs struggled. That's why the M1 today will outperform an i9 Intel Mac.
If you're worried about software support from Apple, Jake says the M1 doesn't seem to be going anywhere anytime soon and might even keep supporting it for a record time. The only thing you'd be missing from the new macOS Sonoma is the ability to connect hearing devices to your Mac.
Keep in mind that Apple did discontinue the M1 MacBook Air after the release of the M3 and no longer sells them on their website. If you're looking for a reliable MacBook that has withstood the test of time and is still a great buy in 2024, get the M1 for $649.99.
A CPU that can hit 6.2 GHz max turbo frequency right out of the box might seem like a dream come true, but Intel’s newest CPU is a far cry from the best option on the market right now.
Intel officially revealed the Core i9-14900KS this week, boasting an impressive and milestone-setting 6.2 GHz turbo frequency. Sure, the CPU is impressive with its 24 CPU cores and 32 threads, but there’s a reason you’re probably not going to see this CPU in many high-end systems: it just isn’t a feasible option in terms of heat and power consumption.
There are, of course, a number of reasons why this CPU might seem enticing. For starters, it’s the most top-of-the-line Intel product on the market. And, of course, that max turbo frequency is a huge accomplishment. However, benchmarks from TechPowerUp paint a sobering picture of what you can expect with this CPU if you were to add it to your build.
First, you’re looking at some wild power consumption. According to TechPowerUp’s benchmarks, the new Intel i9-14900KS draws more than three times as much power based on a 13-game average power consumption test. Considering these high-end CPUs are often acclaimed by gamers, that probably isn’t something that any gamer is going to want to put anywhere near their PC.
Whether you care about how much energy your PC uses or not, though, that much of a power draw means that this CPU is going to create tons of heat that you’ll need to pull out of your PC somehow. Sure, a water cooler might do the trick, but you’re going to be running that bad boy at the highest possible settings to keep things cool. And, if you pair this with one of the newer Nvidia 4090s, you’re looking at even more power consumption and heat output.
There’s also the fact that even with these high-powered specs, the Intel i9-14900KS isn’t likely to provide any huge performance boost compared to other processors on the market right now. In fact, the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D often saw slightly higher scores for relative gaming performance in TechPowerUp’s benchmarks, and it's priced at roughly half of the I9-14900KS’ recommended $699.99 price tag—though some listings on Amazon already have it at over $1,000 at the time of this article’s writing.
There’s no doubt that what Intel has accomplished with this new CPU is exciting. A CPU hitting 6.2 GHz out of the box is impressive. Unfortunately, Intel has a long way to go with how it handles heat and power consumption before this kind of CPU is actually feasible for gamers and high-end PC users.
Samsung has officially confirmed that a slew of Galaxy devices from 2023 should get Galaxy AI, the company’s new suite of AI tools, by the end of the month.
Samsung previously announced eventual plans to release One UI 6.1, which includes all the new AI features, to the Galaxy S23 and other Galaxy devices last month. However, the company followed up with a post on its Korean website that confirms it should be on track to be released by the end of March.
The news that Samsung is bringing Galaxy AI to some of its older Galaxy devices is exciting, especially for those who didn’t upgrade to the new Galaxy S24 Ultra or any of the other S24 lineup. Alongside Galaxy AI, One UI 6.1 will also bring other updates to last year’s Galaxy devices, though the AI features are certainly going to be the highlight for many users.
Here’s a look at all the phones that Samsung previously confirmed will get One UI 6.1:
Galaxy S23, S23 Plus, S23 Ultra
Galaxy S23 FE
Galaxy Z Fold 5
Galaxy Z Flip 5
Galaxy Tab S9, S9 Plus, and S9 Ultra
Samsung has not mentioned any plans to hold back any AI features from any of these older devices, which sets it apart from some of its competitors. Google has played hardball with its AI features on the Pixel 8 lineup, even revealing that the regular Pixel 8 won’t get Gemini Nano and most of the upcoming AI features due to “hardware limitations.”
What those limitations are is unclear, as both the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro run the same chipset. On the other side of things, though, Samsung appears to have no issues making the newer AI features work on older tech, as all of the phones and tablets on the list above are running different hardware than the Galaxy S24, where Galaxy AI debuted.
The features coming with Galaxy AI include things like translation tools, new photo-editing tools, and Google’s Circle to Search feature. It is disappointing that we don’t have a firm release date just yet, but at least owners of older Galaxy devices can expect to see those AI features coming to their devices sooner rather than later.
Dyeing hard-boiled eggs for Easter looks great (and it’s fun!), but I have a better decoration for your eggs this year: sausage. The Scotch egg is quite possibly the most scrumptious of boiled egg preparations. While normally deep fried to keep its plump shape, now you can do it with less oil and less mess in the air fryer. Here’s my recipe for crispy, juicy air fryer Scotch eggs.
Scotch eggs are conceptually simple: It’s a hard-boiled egg wrapped in sausage. Then the hefty orb gets a bread crumb coating, and it’s fried to cook the sausage through. The lucky eater gets to crack into the salty, meaty exterior and uncover a beautiful egg surprise. It’s a whole breakfast ball.
Outside of the basics, you can modify it to make it your own. Season the sausage with spices and fresh herbs you enjoy. Add bacon, onions, or chopped ham to the mix. Season the bread-crumb coating with cayenne pepper or sesame seeds. You can have fun with it, or keep it simple to let the sausage and eggs shine.
In this recipe, I ditch the deep fry in a pan altogether and go for a simple air frying method. The preparation is largely the same, but whenever I can make something work well in the petite countertop convection machine, I do. It’s a hands-off cooking process, leads to less used oil, leaves me with a quicker cleanup, and keeps my one bedroom apartment from smelling like a diner.
However you like to boil your eggs will be the best way to do it. I usually steam my eggs for 12 minutes which leads to a soft-boiled, jammy yolk. The eggs will cook further in the air fryer so undercooking the yolk slightly means you’ll have a perfectly hard-cooked egg at the end. Cool the eggs and peel them.
I like to add hydrated bread chunks to my mixture so the sausage shell doesn’t become tough. I added two tablespoons of seasoned stuffing mix (Stove Top stuffing, in my case) to a large bowl and mixed in two tablespoons of hot water to hydrate it. Add ground sausage, sweet or hot is up to you. Add salt and seasonings and mix it until well combined.
Add some flour to a bowl, about a half cup. Roll each egg in the flour to get a light coating. This helps the sausage cling to the egg. (I like to keep a wire cooling rack on a sheet tray nearby for this whole process, so the eggs have a home base while they wait for the next step.) I split the sausage mixture into four, but you could probably get five eggs covered with thinner sausage layers.
Lay out a sheet of plastic cling wrap. Put one of the sausage portions on the wrap and place another sheet on top. Smash the sausage out into a six-inch patty. It doesn’t have to be perfect; eggs are oblong anyway. Peel off the top layer and place a floured egg in the center. Lift up the edges of the plastic wrap to help encase the egg in sausage. Use your fingers (outside the plastic wrap) to work the sausage over any uncovered areas and pinch the seam shut with the cling wrap.
Unwrap the egg and roll it onto the wire rack to hang out while you repeat this method to cover the other eggs.
You should have excess flour in one bowl already from initially coating the eggs. Beat a raw egg in another bowl. Add breadcrumbs to a third bowl. Season the breadcrumbs with salt and any other herbs or spices you like. Working one egg at a time, coat it completely in flour, then egg, and finally in bread crumbs. Return the egg to the wire rack and repeat the breading with the remaining eggs. (You can do this entire process up to this point a day ahead of time and leave them covered in the fridge until you’re ready to cook the eggs.) Preheat the air fryer on the “air fry” setting to 350°F, and let the breading dry slightly during this time, about five minutes.
Using an oil sprayer, coat the eggs with a layer of cooking oil, flipping them gently as needed to coat the bottom. If you don’t have an oil spritzer, you can gently daub oil on with a pastry brush. Put the eggs in the air fryer for 20 to 25 minutes, flipping them over in the last five minutes.
You can use a thermometer to test the sausage layer for doneness. Mine were up to temperature, 160°F for pork, after 20 minutes. (Check here for the temperature depending on the sausage meat.) Cool the Scotch eggs on a clean wire cooling rack for a few minutes before cracking in.
This recipe makes a fierce Scotch egg. I particularly enjoy pork sausage mixtures that include fennel seeds, but you should use whichever speaks to you. Enjoy as-is, with toast, or even with a squeeze of ketchup. Finally—an Easter egg to get stoked about. Maybe don’t hide these in the lawn though.
Ingredients:
5 eggs, 4 are boiled and peeled
2 tablespoons stuffing mix (I used Stove Top stuffing)
1 strip raw bacon, minced
1 pound ground sausage
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried herbs (like parsley, sage, or crushed rosemary)
1/2 cup flour
¼ cup fine bread crumbs, canned or fresh
½ teaspoon salt
Neutral cooking oil for spraying the eggs
1. Hydrate the stuffing with 2 tablespoons of hot water in a large bowl. Add the minced bacon, sausage, salt, and dried herbs. Mix until well combined.
2. Add the flour to a bowl. Roll each egg in the flour to get a light coating. Place the eggs on a wire cooling rack on top of a sheet tray nearby. Keep the bowl of extra flour.
3. Split the sausage mixture into four. Lay out a sheet of plastic wrap. Put one of the sausage portions on the wrap and place another sheet on top. Smash the sausage out into a six-inch patty. Peel off the top layer and place a floured egg in the center. Use the plastic wrap to help encase the egg in sausage. Make sure to pinch the sausage seam shut. Return the egg to the wire rack. Repeat with all of the eggs.
4. Flour is already in one bowl from earlier. Beat a raw egg in another bowl. Add breadcrumbs and the second half-teaspoon of salt to a third bowl. One egg at a time, coat it completely in flour, then egg, and finally in bread crumbs. Return the egg to the wire rack. Repeat the with the remaining eggs. Preheat the air fryer to 350°F on the “air fry” setting, and let the breading dry during this time, about five minutes.
5. Using an oil sprayer, coat the eggs completely with a layer of cooking oil. Put the eggs in the air fryer for 20 to 25 minutes, flipping them over in the last five minutes. Cool on a clean wire rack for a few minutes before serving.
Microsoft is now offering a free one-month trial of their Copilot Pro subscription, so if you want to try it, here's your chance. This announcement comes on the heels of the expansion of their Copilot Pro subscription, which is now available in all 222 countries and regions where Copilot is available.
With a Copilot Pro subscription, you get priority access to GPT-4 and GPT-4 Turbo, even during peak times for faster performance. Also included is access to Copilot in Microsoft web apps ,such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook; however, you'll need a Microsoft email address for this to work. Microsoft will also be bringing Copilot Pro to their free mobile apps, such as the Microsoft 365 app, and Outlook for iOS and Android in the coming months.
You also get the ability to build your own Copilot GPTs, so, for example, you could make one act like a travel agent or a personal chef. The Pro subscription also lets you generate images, which can be enhanced with 100 daily boosts in Microsoft Designer.
To start your one-month free trial of Copilot Pro, you'll need to install the Copilot app on iOS or Android. The Copilot Pro subscription costs $20 per month after the free trial ends.
In 2024, researching something online can down two paths: You can start a Google Search, or you can ask a verbose question to an AI chatbot like ChatGPT or Gemini. Ideally, you'll do both, and jump back and forth between webpages served up by Google and answers from ChatGPT, checking for AI hallucinations and finding the most reliable sources.
What if there was one tool that could do both? That’s the niche Perplexity AI aims to fill.
Perplexity AI merges online search with popular existing AI models in a way that’s potentially really useful. A key limitation of certain AI models, including ChatGPT, is they are trained on data that’s a year or two old. (At least, the ones that can't connect to the internet.) They can’t give you the latest insights from new scientific papers, or even chatter on Reddit.
Perplexity has its own search engine that delves into the web and scrapes the latest information. Then it does something even better: When it provides you with that information, it cites the sources, like a reliable search engine would. That way you can determine whether they are likely to be trustworthy without doing the extra legwork of directly verifying every fact and figure.
Perplexity still works like a chatbot: You create a new thread, input a prompt, and refine it with followup questions. You are free to rename or delete threads along the way as well.
The search results populate directly inside the UI of the chatbot. You will see a section for sources at the top, so you can quickly open a website to check whether it's what you're looking for. Perplexity also shows you images and YouTube videos when relevant, so you can rely on those visual cue as well. This is especially helpful when you’re trying to find a solution to a technical issue, or are, say, looking up ingredients for a recipe.
When you start a search, you can use one of the "Focus" features to only search particular parts of the internet. For example, you can search academic papers online to discover scientific answers, or you can only search on Reddit to see a condensed report on the prevailing opinions on a subject.
Combine all this, and you get an experience that’s better than using just Google Search or ChatGPT alone. I’ve been testing Perplexity AI for a couple of weeks now, and it has now become a habit to start researching a new topic from within Perplexity rather than heading down one of those separate avenues.
If you choose to pay $20/month for Perplexity Pro, the app will offer you a buffet of popular AI models to choose from. You can pick your default option for all queries, and switch between them on the fly. Let’s say you got a response in GPT-4 that you don’t like; you can ask Perplexity to rewrite it using Claude’s Opus model, or try Perplexity’s own Experimental model to get faster answers to simpler queries.
By default, Perplexity uses an enhanced version of GPT 3.5 for things like language processing and generative text. The Pro plan provides you with access to Open AI’s GPT-4 Turbo, Claude’s latest Opus models (limited to 5 searches a day, at which point you'll drop down to Claude 3 Sonnet), Mistral’s Large models, and Perplexity’s Experimental model.
Perplexity has a small toggle in the prompt box labeled Pro. Turn it on, and it kicks everything into high gear by using GPT-4 by default. Before giving you an answer, it might even ask you to clarify using a follow-up question. Then, Perplexity sifts through the interwebs to find what it judges to be the best resources. Free users can get additional Pro queries every four hours, while subscribers get 600 Pro searches a day. If you’re paying for the Pro model, you can just keep the Pro feature turned on all the time, since you're unlikely to surpass 600 queries in a single day.
Perplexity isn't the only AI search game in town. While Google Search's Generative AI feature is still slow, Gemini is starting to catch up, as it also lets you double-check results by running a Google search. Microsoft Copilot, on the other hand, works in the same way as Perplexity AI, giving you sources along with the generated text. Copilot uses ChatGPT-4 Turbo in the free tier as well, whereas Turbo is limited to Perplexity Pro searches.
That said, Microsoft Copilot is dependent on Bing search, while Perplexity uses its own search engine. Copilot works best in Edge, though it's also accessible on the web and via mobile apps. Microsoft Copilot is also quite fast in giving you answers.
Ultimaitely, which tool to choose comes down to the experience. If you like using Microsoft Edge and are all-in on Microsoft products, using Copilot as a research tool might be the best bet. But if you want a minimal, fast experience that's customizable that works well on any platform, give Perplexity AI a shot.
Overall, Perplexity AI provides a good jumping off point for anything you’re researching. Its answers are generally direct and to the point, and they make excellent use of formatting—you’ll find responses split by headings, bullet points, and organized paragraphs.
But it’s important to note that Perplexity is best as a research tool to find answers, facts, and information, rather than to generate text. While it has a generative text Focus, it is not great at outputting creative text. In my testing, I found its copy to be a bit bland and uninteresting to read compared to what you'll get from tools like Copilot, ChatGPT, or Gemini, or even dedicated writing tools built on GPT-4.
On the plus side, Perplexity’s free plan will actually be enough for most users. Even on the free plan, GPT-3.5 does a decent job of bringing together the best results from the web in a reader-friendly interface. But if you want to use the AI tool for research and work, the $20 upgrade is a great deal. You essentially get a super powered web search and access to GPT-4 and other LLMs for the same price as ChatGPT Plus.
Perplexity AI is available on the web, and can be accessed using mobile apps and a Chrome extension. It's also a default search engine option in the Arc browser.
Microsoft's AI companion, Copilot, is going Turbo. Copilot is graduating from using OpenAI's GPT-4 model to its GPT-4 Turbo option, the company's latest and greatest AI tech.
This isn't a perk reserved for Copilot Pro users either: The free version of Copilot is switching to GPT-4 Turbo. It won't be turned on by default, however. If you use Copilot in "Balanced" mode, it will still rely on GPT-4. However, switch to "Precise" or "Creative" mode, and you'll switch into Turbo mode as well.
In practice, using Turbo you may notice a slight improvement in Copilot's responses to your queries, but GPT-4 Turbo isn't a substantial update over GPT-4. However OpenAI does say it's "more capable," and designed to reduce "laziness" evident with the model.(Recently, users have complained that GPT-4 doesn't always finish tasks, and refer to the model as "lazy" in those cases.)
In addition, GPT-4 Turbo has an extended context window of up to 128,000 tokens, which means you can send longer prompts the bot will understand. (OpenAI says one token is worth about four words, so in theory, you could prompt GPT-4 Turbo with up to 512,000 words.) Plus, GPT-4 Turbo is trained on a data set that extends up to April 2023, versus GPT-4's dataset ending September 2021, so it should know more current information when used in offline mode. (Of course, when connected to the internet, GPT-4 Turbo can always scrape the latest information.)
If you pay $20 per month for Copilot Pro, you will now have the option to drop down to GPT-4 whenever you like. For free users, the only way to continue accessing GPT-4 is by using Balanced mode.
This free upgrade makes Copilot an even stronger candidate for your generative AI needs. Microsoft is well positioned here: The company has integrated Copilot into Windows, Microsoft 365, and Edge, in addition to offering a standalone app on Android and iOS. For many people who just want a solid AI companion without having to pay for the privilege, Copilot's free tier is quite enticing, and matches many of the benefits you'd get by paying $20 per month for OpenAI's ChatGPT Plus. But I guess when Microsoft is one of your biggest financiers, it all comes out in the wash.
With April 15 quickly approaching, the clock is ticking for millions of Americans who have yet to file their 2023 tax returns. If you're among the procrastinators this year, don't panic—but do start taking action to get your taxes filed on time and choose the best online tax filing service to meet your needs. While you're probably eligible to file your taxes for free, with so many options available, it can be overwhelming to choose the right service. Here are some of the most popular tax filing services, their pros and cons, and who they might be best suited for.
TurboTax is one of the most well-known and widely used tax filing services. It offers a range of options, from free filing for simple returns to more comprehensive packages for those with more complex tax situations.
Pros:
User-friendly interface and step-by-step guidance
Extensive help resources, including live support
Ability to import data from previous years or employers
Guaranteed maximum refund or reimbursement of fees
Cons:
Can be expensive for more complex returns
Upselling of additional services or products
Best for: Those with relatively straightforward tax situations who value convenience and a user-friendly experience.
H&R Block is another major player in the tax filing game, offering both online and in-person services.
Pros:
Robust online platform with solid support resources
Option for in-person assistance at local offices
Free filing for simple returns
Cons:
Online product can be more expensive than competitors
In-person service fees can add up quickly
Best for: Those who prefer the option of in-person assistance or have more complex tax situations that may require professional guidance.
TaxAct is a more affordable online option that still offers a range of features and support.
Pros:
Lower prices compared to some competitors
Good support resources, including live chat and video tutorials
Free filing for simple returns
Cons:
Interface may not be as user-friendly as some others
Fewer hand-holding features for complex situations
Best for: Budget-conscious filers with relatively straightforward tax situations who are comfortable with a more DIY approach.
As the name implies, FreeTaxUSA offers free federal tax filing for all filers, with paid state filing options.
Pros:
Truly free federal filing with no income limits
Clean, straightforward interface
Good support resources
Cons:
Limited hand-holding for complex situations
State filing fees, though relatively low
Best for: Those looking for a solid, no-frills free option for federal filing, especially those with simple tax situations.
Cash App Taxes (fka, Credit Karma Tax) is the go-to example of truly free tax filing. If you're determined to file your taxes for free, Cash App Taxes is the way to go.
Pros:
Really, truly free
Supports major IRS forms and schedules
Simple, understandable website and mobile app
Cons:
Missing some forms and situations
No expert tax help
Requires a Cash App account to use
Best for: People who have only W-2 income and a few deductions and credits.
The closer it gets to the deadline, the harder it will be to get support from tax filing services if you run into issues or have questions. Their customer service lines and live chat queues will be overloaded. Start now and beat the last-minute rush. And if you run into trouble, here's how to finally reach a real human on the phone at the IRS.
Discord makes it easy to chat with your friends, but with the app's Screen Share feature, you can also host your own Netflix watch parties—it just takes a few steps to get one up and running.
Before you start, make sure you have the Discord app on your PC or Mac. Open the app and log in to your Discord account, then go to your web browser (any browser will work) and sign in to your Netflix account. Go back to Discord and select the server you want to stream Netflix (it might be a good idea to create a new server with just your watch-party friends). Next, go to the bottom right of the Discord app, where your username is shown and click on the gear icon to get to User Settings. Under settings, scroll down until you see a tab for Activity Settings; underneath that should be Registered Games. Under Registered Games, you should see the message, "Not seeing your game? Add It!" Click on Add It and choose the web browser you have Netflix open in, then click Add Game.
Next, exit out of Discord Settings and go back to the main screen. Just above your Discord name, it should list your web browser's name and the Screen Share icon that looks like a monitor with an arrow pointing right. Click on that icon to start sharing your screen. You should then be given a pop-up with Screen Share settings, such as voice channel, resolution, and frame rate. If you want to Screen Share in 1080p at 60fps, you'll need to subscribe to Discord Nitro, which is $9.99 per month. After you've adjusted your settings, click the Go Live to start sharing your screen.
You may come across an issue in which you get a black screen instead of the Netflix content you want to watch. To fix this, you'll need to disable hardware acceleration in Discord and your web browser. To disable hardware acceleration in the Discord app, open the app and click the gear icon near your username in the bottom left. Then go to Advanced and you should see a toggle for Hardware Acceleration. Click the toggle so it appears grey with an X mark. A pop-up will ask you to restart the Discord app; click Okay to do so.
To turn off hardware acceleration, open Chrome, and go to Settings by clicking the three dots in the top right. Next, go to System and hit the toggle for hardware acceleration so it turns grey. You'll also see a Relaunch button to restart Google Chrome. To disable hardware acceleration in Firefox, open up the app, hit the hamburger menu in the top right and select Settings. Under General, scroll down until you see Performance; there should be two checkboxes, one for Use Recommended Performance Settings and Use Hardware Acceleration When Available. Then restart Firefox, and that's it.
To stream Netflix to Discord on mobile, open the Discord and Netflix apps and sign into your accounts. Next, go to the Discord app and choose the service and voice channel you want to stream to. Eenter the voice channel and tap the green button that says Join Voice. Once you've done that, you should see more options, including Screen Share. Tap that, open the Netflix app, and start playing a movie or show.
I have a simple dream: I awaken in the morning, and somewhere in the kitchen a coffeemaker begins brewing a solid espresso or latte. By the time I arrive in the kitchen a few minutes later, this cup awaits me, so my feet barely stop moving as I grab it and move to the couch to start the day. A smart espresso maker feels like it could make this dream a reality, right? After testing the brands that make smart espresso makers, I can say it isn't always the perfect realization of my dream, but all of these machines are exceptionally well made. (And expensive. And not without their own eccentricities.)
Price: $2715.99
Water Capacity: 60oz
Milk Steamer: Glass container with lid and metal and silicone piping, additional metal pipe for milk container
What drinks it produces: ristretto, espresso, coffee, long coffee, cappuchino, latte machhiato, hot milk, milk froth, espresso macchiato, cappuccino italiano, flat white, cafe au lait, cafe latte, hot water
Works with: Alexa, Google Home
The Miele name is synonymous with high-end quality appliances. I tested their most expensive standalone machine with wifi capability. In my review of the Miele Milk Perfection, I noted how much I enjoyed the coffee itself. While the list of drink possibilities wasn’t endless, it covered all the basics you’d expect or need to build your own drink off of, and it did so flawlessly and quickly—probably quicker than any other machine I've tested. Although all the machines produce hot water for tea, only the Miele has four specialty settings for different teas. I really liked the quality of the milk container, and how easy it was to store it in the fridge between uses. The grinder had five different settings and you could affect how rich your coffee was not only by grind, but by adjusting the amount of coffee in any drink. Of all machines I tried, this produced the best milk of the bunch, creating spectacular foam, but also the option for hot milk separately, which meant a wealth of drinks like hot chocolate.
I did not love the UX of the machine itself. Despite the machine itself being beautiful, the unlabeled buttons were cumbersome. The screen wasn’t touch-sensitive and was hard to use, with very small buttons. Changing the size of drinks or canceling a drink midway was entirely too complicated—another side effect of bad UX design.
The Miele app is not as useful as I’d like it to be, but it does allow you to turn the machine on, get status reports, and set up coffee profiles you can send to your machine. But ultimately, you had to be at the machine to execute any of the drinks, regardless of the app. I also did not like that once you changed settings for a single drink, it was changed universally. If you and your partner both like a ristretto, but with different settings, good luck.
While I was generally annoyed by how often the Miele insisted on cleaning every part of itself, that ended up being true on most machines I tested. The Miele did have the best cleaning apparatus for the milk piping—you could attach the piping to the drip tray and the machine would clean it for you. Of all the drip trays I emptied, this was maybe the least annoying.
Price: $1699
Water Capacity: 37oz
Milk Steamer: Plastic container and lid, silicone and metal piping, but you can put the pipe into any open container.
What drinks it produces: ristretto, espresso, espresso doppio, coffee, macchiato, latte macchiato, cappuccino, flat white, milk foam, and hot water.
Works with: none
Jura, a long trusted brand in the coffee space, actually has a lot of smart espresso makers. It’s important to note that this is the lowest-priced model with wifi capabilities, and Jura has many coffee makers with wifi that are likely to have more capacity, capabilities and features than the ENA8. In my review, the most concerning part of the coffee experience was the temperature, which seemed to be unchangeable and too cool for my personal taste—cool enough that drinks with milk foam were downright chilly. I also found the drink menu limiting, and spent the month trying to create a café latte out of the possibilities offered to me. Larger drinks don’t have the ability to adjust the richness of the coffee, so they ended up watery. Smaller drinks like the ristretto and espresso were ultimately the best bets, with a delicate head of foam, and the coffee wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t the best that I tried of the bunch, either. It was, however, easy to change the size of the drink—probably easier than any other machine—and I liked that you configured the drink on screen while making it.
While the Jura machine is beautiful and solidly made, the touchscreen experience was disappointing. Instead of swiping, you advanced screens through three tiny dots in the corner of the screen. This machine boasted the smallest water capacity of all, at 37 ounces—I consistently needed to refill it.
Like most of the machines, the ENA8 cleans itself constantly, and as such, you need to empty the drip tray once a day, at least—and of course, refill the water tank, too. It did include a function to clean the milk piping, but it wasn’t “push a button and walk away”; you had to monitor it and push more buttons halfway through.
The Jura app often had trouble connecting, and once it did, it had almost no capability. It only worked when the machine was on, and while you could theoretically push drink orders from the app to the machine, I was never successful doing so. The wifi module on this machine is actually an add-on, and the J.O.E. app felt like it was bolted on, as well.
While the Jura wasn’t my favorite machine, it’s worth noting that you’re stacking the least expensive model they had against every other brand’s flagship machine, and overall Jura has a great reputation in this space. I’ve used other Jura machines I really enjoyed, and a number of commenters defended the machine as being loved in their home.
Price: $849.99
Water Capacity: 40oz (can purchase larger 80oz tank or direct connect to water line)
Milk Steamer: Separate metal machine with removable frother that you place on heating puck
What drinks it produces: ristretto, espresso, lungo, doppio, americano, coffee, nitro, pour over, hot water, affogato, cafe romano, guillermo, barraquito, iced cappuccino, pumpkin spice, espresso martini, vanilla latte, macchiato, cortado, latte, flat white, cappuccino, mocha, moonlight fomo. (ability to create new drinks)
Works with: Alexa, Google Home, Apple Homekit
Spinn only has one model—and it only needs one, if you ask me. They nailed it. Spinn has done the best job of marrying technology to the coffee experience in a way that makes the whole thing more enjoyable and usable. The Spinn produced delicious espressos, ristrettos, and any kind of coffee drink you can imagine. In fact, it is the expansiveness of the drink menu that most impresses. Absolutely any drink is possible, and the app for the machine takes you through making each drink, step by step, allowing you to adjust the drink in the moment. This is the only machine where the milk is produced in an entirely separate apparatus, which had upsides and downsides. You have to choose, at the get-go, whether you’ll be making hot milk or foam by taking the small coil out of the milk frother. This doesn’t seem like a big deal, but if you leave milk in the frother between uses (to store in the fridge) it’s messy to go in and get the coil out, and you worry about losing it. The frother is lightning fast. But it also overflowed on multiple occasions, despite being only one-quarter full. Being separate also meant that you were responsible for adding it to the coffee, rather than the machine dosing for you.
The Spinn has a less intimidating design than the other machines, looking more like your standard coffeemaker. It also features unlabeled buttons, of which I am not a fan, but unlike the Miele, you’ll never need to use them. The Spinn, unlike the other machines, really requires the app to produce coffee. You could program the buttons for your personal favs, but anything else would require your phone at your side. While I loved the water capacity and that you can buy a gigantic 80-ounce tank, the tank is on the back of the machine, with an awkward filter that just kind of bobs in the water tank. It made it harder to refill, but that’s really not a bother if you pipe the machine to your water line, which is possible out of the box.
The Spinn app is fun, easy to use and essential to the process. Without a doubt the most fully cooked of the bunch, the app allows you to make any drink you can imagine, and fine tune them easily. I also loved that you could scan the bag of coffee beans, and it would store that info in the app. The Spinn is my personal choice, since it is the only machine of the bunch that you can order a coffee from bed, and so long as there’s a cup in place to receive it, it will be ready when you arrive in the kitchen.
This is possible because the Spinn doesn’t self clean at the pace of the other machines, meaning that its first action on turning on isn’t to steam clean (which makes it impossible to order a coffee from afar). In fact, the Spinn takes care of cleaning without your input or participation, entirely. I found this quite enjoyable, and the time spent emptying the drip tray was dramatically reduced. On the downside, it also did not clean the milk frother, since it’s separate. This container was harder to store in the fridge due to size, too. But a quick hand wash was all that was needed, and there isn’t any milk piping to clean, which may be a bonus.
Price: $1495
Water Capacity: 75oz |
Milk Steamer: Plastic container with lid and silicone piping
What drinks it produces: latte macchiato, cortado, macchiato, flat white, latte, cappuccino, americano, expresso, drip, steamed milk, hot water (ability to create new drinks)
Works with: Alexa
The TK-02 is the newest of the machines that I tested. If you’re looking for exceptional coffee drinks, with a nice pop of technology assist, this is the machine I’d go with. The coffee itself was my favorite, and this was likely the result of the amount of fine tuning you can do to the grind size, the amount of coffee you can use for any individual drink, and the size of the finished drink. The drink menu isn’t the most extensive, but you can create new drinks from what it offers, and the building blocks are certainly flexible enough to make almost any drink you could imagine. The milk frother makes great foam, and while not as heady as other machines, the quality was high. The pour over coffee feature produced my favorite cup of straight coffee of all the machines—however, the TK-02 is slow. It's thoughtfully taking its time while brewing drinks, and you will be waiting while it does.
Of all the machines, the TK-02 is the most attractive. It has the perfect blend of modern and stateliness, and looks like a quality build. The shiny black exterior has the right blend of curves and lines, with a huge digital touchscreen. The tasteful display uses a lot of white space and is easy to manipulate via touch. There are no random buttons to wonder about. While the app offers a number of controls that the machine interface doesn’t, you don’t need your phone at your side to use the machine, either. You can simply choose from the drinks offered, using the settings you’ve previously input in the app. I do not like how the milk frother attaches to the machine, using a plug at the end that is hard to place visually. Each and every time I’d have to feel for the location, which isn’t sanitary. The plug was hard to remove after you were done, too, but the foam and milk it produced was excellent.
The Terra Kaffe app is second only to the Spinn app, and I really liked how easy it was to adjust drinks, but more importantly, the drink menu that appears on the screen. You can edit it, add your own drinks, change the name of drinks, etc. It’s a huge benefit that no other machine offered. The app also offers some fun stats about money saved while brewing at home. While you can’t turn the machine on and off, you can put it into sleep mode and set an on/off schedule. One of my major complaints was that it only integrates with Alexa, which is a miss, I think. Hopefully Homekit and Google integration are coming soon.
The TK-02 cleans itself when it comes online and right before it goes to sleep. The noise will freak you out a bit if you aren’t planning for it—the first few days I thought something had blown up. However, it offers no function to clean the milk piping for the milk container, so that’s on you to do manually. While the capacity of the water tank meant I didn’t have to refill it everyday, I did have to dump the tray every other day, at least.
You can get a lifetime subscription to Plantum on sale for $14.97 right now (reg. $60) until March 17. Plantum is an AI-powered plant identification and care app available for iOS devices with iOS 13 or higher. It helps identify, diagnose, and care for over 33,000 different plant species, and it's both an identification tool and a garden management app. It offers guidance on soil selection, watering schedules, fertilizing, and temperature conditions, as well as reminders for when to water a plant, rotate it, and run triage. Plantum also helps diagnose what's wrong with plants and recommends treatments.
You can get a lifetime subscription to Plantum on sale for $14.97 right now (reg. $60) until March 17 at 11:59 p.m. PT, though prices can change at any time.
If you’re planning on doing some camping, a beachside bonfire, or even traveling to a backyard fire pit, bringing some wood you already have lying around might seem like a great idea. Finding a source of wood close to your event might be tricky, after all, and you might want to be extra prepared. But you shouldn’t travel more than a few miles with firewood: You could inadvertently spread tree-eating pests.
Firewood might seem like it’s totally lifeless by the time it’s been cut and cured, but it’s actually a lively ecosystem that can host a variety of relatively harmless species as well as wood boring beetles, insect eggs and larvae, and mold spores. Although you can’t see them, these tiny hitchhikers can cause big trouble for trees in the surrounding area. Bugs and mold can both infest trees, in some cases killing them, so you don't want to give them a free ride.
Using firewood that comes from within 10 miles of your intended destination will help ensure that your wood isn’t carrying invasive species into the area you’re planning to use it. Checking in with your camp ground or local branch of the National Parks Service for acceptable places to find firewood is a good way to find some that’s locally sourced. Don’t forget that the same rule applies on your return trip: If you’ve traveled more than 10 miles from home, don’t bring any firewood home with you.
If you buy wood that’s certified by USDA APHIS (US Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service) as having been heat-treated and inspected, you can be relatively sure you’re not bringing along any pests with your wood. Wood that has a USDA APHIS certification is usually packaged and shows a seal to show it’s been inspected. If you’re not sure, you can ask the seller for clarification. If you plan to travel with wood, certified heat=treated wood is the safest option.
The biggest threats to forests in the US from invasive species are the Emerald Ash Borer Beetle, the Asian Longhorned Beetle, and the Spongy Moth. In addition to insects, mold spores that can cause beech leaf disease, Dutch Elm disease, and oak wilt can all be spread on or in firewood. There are dozens of other, lesser-known species of pests that can be spread through carrying eggs or live borer beetles within untreated wood. To help curb the spread of these non-native and hazardous insects, follow the 10-mile radius rule.
In some states, stricter quarantines limiting the traveling distance for firewood are in place, as well as other restrictions that can help stop the spread of plant diseases and invasive species. Before you travel, it’s a good idea to check with your local state government concerning firewood rules. Be sure to note where you are and are not allowed to gather your own wood as well as any other restrictions. You can also check the Don’t Move Firewood website for local updates and news about how to help control the spread of invasive species.
Signal is one of the best messaging apps for people who value privacy, but its biggest criticism was that it used your phone number to register and message other people. The company has now addressed that flaw and your phone number is now hidden by default in Signal. You should still take a moment to change a couple of preferences and completely hide your phone number, though.
Open the Signal app on iPhone or Android and tap the profile icon in the top-left corner. Now go to Settings > Privacy > Phone Number. Under Who Can See My Number, select Nobody (this option is enabled by default). Next, you should select Nobody under Who Can Find Me By Number. This option is set to Everybody by default, a move to make it easier for people to find you on Signal. If you disable this, new contacts won't be able to ping your phone number for Signal messages or calls.
Signal won't be of much use if no one can find you at all. That's why the app now allows you to create a username. Instead of using your phone number, your contacts can ping you on your Signal username, which will complete the process of hiding your phone number on the service. To set up your Signal username, open the app on your phone and tap the profile icon in the top-left corner. Go to Settings > YOUR NAME > Username > Set up your username.
You can now create your Signal username. In order to protect your privacy and reduce unwanted messages, Signal insists on adding two digits at the end of your handle. If your preferred username is Lifehacker, your Signal handle will have to be something like @Lifehacker.76. If you change your username, you'll get a new set of numbers at the end. Once the username is created, you'll be back to the profile page. You can tap QR Code or Link to see your personal profile link and a QR code. Share this with people you trust and they'll be able to use it to message you on Signal.
There’s a “new" star coming to the sky in the next few months, and it should be visible to the naked eye. Between now and September, the normally so-dim-you-can't-see-it star T Coronae Borealis will explode into view, making it look as if a new star has suddenly appeared in the Corona Borealis, or Northern Crown, constellation. Scientists predict T Coronae Borealis will be as bright as the North Star, so you shouldn’t need binoculars or a telescope to see it, and it will remain in the sky for as long as a week before fading once again into cosmic obscurity.
What you’ll actually be seeing, should you gaze skyward at the right time, is a nova outburst from T Coronae Borealis, a recurrent nova located about 2,560 light years away from Earth. T Coronae Borealis, (“T-Cor” to his friends) is a binary star system made up of a white dwarf star and a red giant star with a codependent relationship—the white dwarf constantly steals matter from its red giant pal, and about every 80 years, enough matter is gathered to sustain nuclear fusion reactions, resulting in a significant increase in brightness that makes the white dwarf visible from our distant planet.
Even though the events that caused/will cause (it’s relative) T-Cor to become visible on earth happened 2,560 years ago, we don’t know the exact moment the shit went down, so the date of T-Cor’s expected appearance can’t be accurately predicted, beyond "probably somewhere between tonight and September." When it does appear, T-Cor is expected to be visible for up to a week, brightest on the first day and gradually dimming. When not in nova form, T Coronae Borealis is a dismal magnitude 10 star, but it should brighten up to magnitude 2 in only a few hours, making it easily visible to the naked eye.
If you’re in the northern hemisphere, between latitudes of +90° and -50, look north, and locate the small semi-circle of stars that make up the Northern Crown constellation. (You can save yourself a ton of trouble by using an astronomy app or a star-gazing map, like Night Sky for iOS.) T Coronae Borealis will appear somewhere within the constellation, but its exact position depends on the timing of its appearance. It shouldn’t be a problem to spot once you’re looking at the constellation though—it will be much brighter than the stars that surround it.
Hybrid work is all the rage these days, but the adjustment to working from the office some days and home (or wherever) on others is tricky. Some mornings you have to commute, others you just kind of walk to the kitchen or something. Wherever you're working from, a few gadgets here and there can make the workday a little more bearable, and make you a little more comfortable and efficient.
A telescopic laptop stand is a godsend for when you want to stand up to work, but a portable one is even better, because it means you can stand or sit in your home office or work office with no problem. Try this one from Nulaxy ($56.89), which swivels and folds up for easy carrying.
If you have to haul your computer or other work materials back and forth when you commute, the Matein backpack ($21.98) is a good choice for a commuter bag. It has multiple large compartments and small pockets, plus a built-in USB port and charger for your tech. Don't let the price fool you, either: CNN says this cheap backpack offers enough features to compete with others that retail for nine times as much, so before you consider one of the pricier options, try this one on for size.
The Pinch Provisions “Work From Anywhere Kit” ($36.99) is a small pouch with a big assortment of tools, including a notebook and pen, a tablet stand, cord organizer, and charging cables, so you can stash it in your bag and use it wherever you’re working on a given day.
Pick up the Rocketbook reusable sticky notes starter kit ($23.99) to make sure that whatever you jot down at home is accessible at work and vice versa. With regular sticky notes, wherever you stick them is, well, where they’re stuck, so if you need that information while you’re working in another location, too bad. These, though, are scannable and whatever you write on the reusable notes appears in your Rocketbook app and in your cloud, so even those of us who still rely on handwriting our to-dos aren’t left adrift on out-of-office days. I use these every day and have found they stay sticky and erase easily, plus having my notes on my phone is just super convenient.
When you’re home, you get used to having all your tech charged up, but when you have to commute back and forth to work, it’s easy to forget all your cords and wires. The Rorry portable Apple Watch charger with built-in cables ($27.98) can charge your watch, phone, AirPods, or iPad on the go, so you’re never trekking home from the office without access to your devices. Plus, it’s little and the cords tuck into the sides, so you can just toss it in your bag without worrying about a jumbled mess. Check out this video review to see some praise for its surprisingly fast charging abilities.
One of the best things about working from home is getting to eat your own food whenever you want. Replicate that experience by bringing some to the office in the Umami Bento Box ($26.72), which has space for everything you’d eat at the comfort of your own table: Four utensils, two sauce jars, and two dividers. Plus, it’s leak-proof. I've had mine for about a year and it still seals as well as it did on the first day, which the interior of my bag is grateful for.
Hear me out: You don’t have to sacrifice your comfort on in-office days as long as you pick lounge pants that look like work pants. Men, these G Gradual sweatpants ($33.99) have the pleats, waistband, and fly of their business-casual peers, but they’re secretly soft. Ladies, try the Yogipace yoga pants ($37.99), which have belt loops and a chic cut that sure make them look like their itchier counterparts.
A portable dual monitor lets you replicate the in-office experience at home or amplify the work you can get done in the office as it is. Teamgee sells one for $214.99 that gives you two extra monitors on the side of your laptop, letting you, theoretically, do three times as much work (or just your normal amount, but easier). If you don't need it to attach to your laptop, PC Mag recommends the ViewSonic VA1655 ($104.49) for its "sophisticated on-screen display."
You can get this 9-inch wireless car display screen on sale for $99.97 right now (reg. $180). It's compatible with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and it's designed to be easy to install with two different kinds of brackets—one being a suction mount, and the other being a self-adhesive to help the monitor stand on your dashboard or hang from your windshield. It also supports collaboration with a 1080p backup camera, but that's not included. The display supports a 1024x600 image, syncs with GPS navigation, and has built-in speakers, FM wireless transmission, and its own AUX output. You can also mirror your phone screen to play things like YouTube videos.
You can get this 9" wireless car display on sale for $99.97 right now (reg. $180), though prices can change at any time.
With so many bad actors out there, staying safe on the internet has become its own struggle. For a while, Google has used its Safe Browsing features to help make Chrome a safer browser for users. Now, though, it’s taking that protection one step further.
Google shared the news that it would be bringing real-time protection to Safe Browsing today. According to Google, over five billion devices worldwide already rely on Safe Browsing to protect their online activity. The company says that previously, the list of potentially dangerous sites or files it checks for was updated every 30 to 60 minutes. However, Google says that most malicious sites only exist for 10 minutes or less.
To combat this, Google has upgraded how quickly the list of potentially dangerous files and sites updates when using the standard settings in Safe Browsing. This real-time protection is made possible thanks to a Google-side server that contains a constantly updating list of potentially dangerous sites and files. Previously, Safe Browsing used a list stored on your device.
Google hopes to block 25 percent more phishing attempts now that it is using real-time protection for URLs and files in Safe Browsing. The feature is also set to roll out to Android later this month. If you’re worried about Google seeing what sites you’re visiting, the tech giant says that it will utilize encryption and other privacy-enhancing techniques to ensure that nobody, including Google itself, can see what websites you are visiting. The change will require some additional resources for your browser, but Google promises it should remain “smooth and speedy.”
Alongside the new real-time protection option, Google is also bringing a new feature to its password manager. You’ll now be able to complete a “password checkup” in Google’s password manager. This will tell you if you’re reusing passwords or if the password is too weak to protect your account. It will also warn you about compromised passwords that you should change right away. It will check for password issues often, but Google will also give you the option to perform a manual check if you want to complete a checkup on your own.
Both of these features are solid additions to Google’s online tools. Considering how important cybersecurity has become, using a browser with functionality like this can provide some additional protection you might not have otherwise.
YouTube is rolling out some small but interesting improvements to its TV app, with an emphasis on making it easier for viewers to multitask while they watch videos.
The company announced the changes in a blog post, running through the reasoning behind the new updates: The player will now shrink and stay fully on-screen whenever you pull up the comments or video description. (You access these by clicking on the title of the video during playback.) It's a welcome change for anyone who finds themselves casually browsing the discussion attached to a video, or perusing the description, without needing to obscure the content itself while you do. Honestly, this is something I'd like to see rolled out on YouTube's other apps, as well: I find myself scrolling through comments while watching videos, but wishing I wouldn't have to rewind when I scrolled back up.
YouTube has bigger plans for this feature, too. The company wants to incorporate live scores for those keeping tabs on sports, which could be interesting, while also bringing in a shopping window to buy products from creators. Who doesn't want another way to spend money on the internet?
The blog post discussed YouTube's decision making when it came to developing this feature, specifically how to go about addressing issues like playback controls when messing with the size of the player window. YouTube ran with three different prototypes to test with users: The first removed all playback options and relied on the user turning the feature on and off to access them; the second introduced lightweight playback controls to the middle of the display; while the third overlayed all controls over this smaller window.
It seems the company opted for the first prototype for this initial rollout, based on user feedback in testing, but it's tough to tell by the language in the blog post. We'll see how it works when the company rolls out the feature to us over the new few weeks, although YouTube TV subscribers will get it in the coming days.