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In my home growing up, “spring cleaning” was kind of a misnomer. We didn’t clean so much as we decluttered—my hometown even had a day every spring where people were invited to put all their junk on the curb and the city would remove it by the next day (of course, the true self-starters used this as an excuse to go around in big trucks at night scooping up anything of value).
Maybe it's my upbringing talking, but I think spring decluttering is better than spring cleaning, because it sets you up to have a neater home all year. And decluttering isn’t even that hard if you have a good system to follow. The 12-12-12 method is a good system.
This idea comes from Joshua Becker of Becoming Minimalist. He has rounded up 14 achievable methods you can use to declutter, and 12-12-12 tops the list. It's simple: Every day, you find 12 things to throw away, 12 things to donate, and 12 things to be put away where they actually go.
Twelve is a good number to work with. It’s small enough to feel achievable, but big enough to present a bit of a challenge. The first five or so things you throw away will be easy: Find some trash and some broken stuff and toss it. But then keep going, being a little more judicious (or ambitious) so you can hit 12.
Pre-determining how many items you want to get rid of helps you stay on task and gives you a more concrete goal, which is key if you tend to back off a cleaning project when you start feeling overwhelmed. If you surpass 12 in any category, good for you! But keeping that as the benchmark can give you a little push when you're struggling.
Here’s the thing: Becker’s explanation of this method is just three sentences and one of those sentences is simply, “That’s it.” There’s a lot of wiggle room for you to adapt it to your specific needs.
I suggest going room by room, tackling a different room every day. I live in a studio apartment, so I don’t have “rooms” to take on, but I have “areas.” In my spring decluttering this year, I’ve chosen one a day, from my sitting area, to my eating area, to my kitchen, my bathroom, my bed loft, and, most dauntingly, my closets. Don’t overwhelm yourself by trying to do two rooms in a day—for bigger rooms (say, the garage) you can even break it down so you’re attacking the same one for two or three days or more. (In the spirit of transparency, I have been battling my closets for a week and a half.) It's a good idea to take it slow rather than rush through, as that's a surefire way to get rid of things you might regret later, or get fatigued and start holding onto things you should really part with.
Choosing what to throw or donate can present a challenge, so I recommend starting with two categories: One will be the 12 things you need to put back in their proper place, and the other will be the 24 things you want to get rid of in some way—whether by throwing them away or donating them. If you’re having a hard time parting with things early on, call in reinforcements: An objective person, like a friend, is more likely to harshly (but lovingly) talk you out of holding onto something useless.
I’ve used this method in various ways for a few weeks now, setting goals for how many items I want to get rid of every day. I’ve also added in a bonus category: Items to sell. If you want something gone immediately, throw out or donate it. But if you could stand to hold onto it a while and it has a little value, list it or designate it to a pile bound for the consignment shop. I sell a lot of bags and shoes on Poshmark, for instance, but only list things I know I’ll keep wearing in the time it takes for someone else to find and buy them. If I truly don’t see myself wearing it again (and the resale value is low), into the donation box it goes.
If you aren't sure if something is worth selling, google it with "used" or "resale" to see how much others are selling it for, and decide if that amount is worth keeping around until it sells. A lot of resale sites, like Poshmark and Vestiaire Collective, will even show you how long someone's item has been listed, so you can get a sense of the demand for it. If someone else has had that item listed for six months and you don't want to keep yours around for six months, it's donation time.
Make the whole process easier by picking up a set of storage bins so you can do a sweep through each room or area, tentatively putting items into the “toss,” “donate,” “organize,” or “sell” box instead of dealing with everything one by one. Even two boxes—"get rid" and "keep"—will streamline things. As a bonus, you can use those bins for seasonal storage once you're done with your big decluttering.
If you own a house with some trees on the property, you probably don’t think about them much unless they require maintenance—and in those moments you think of them as expenses. Sure, those trees have value due to their natural beauty and shade (or possibly the fruit they grow), but few people think about the trees in their yards in terms of having a monetary value.
But you should, because trees on your property actually do have value—and that value is often substantial. First of all, maintained trees in good condition add property value in general—as much as 15%. But some species of tree can be worth a lot of cash if they’ve been allowed to grow to enormous proportions in your yard—a nondescript elm tree with a 20-inch trunk, for example, might be worth as much as $30,000. And some trees have been appraised for more than six figures. Some trees are so valuable poachers actually invade people’s property to steal them.
If you’re currently peering out your window at the trees in your yard and wondering if you’re sitting on some sort of woody goldmine, here’s how to find out the tree value on your property.
The simplest way to get an idea of how much your trees might be worth is to use an online calculator like this one, which uses the USDA Forest Service’s i-Tree software, or the slightly simpler ones here. These calculators rely on you to input accurate information, so you might need to sleuth out the species of your tree and do some measurements and observations in order to get a truly accurate valuation.
It’s important to note that these tools offer a sense of the value your trees are adding to your property—by providing shade, cleaning the air, removing carbon, and cooling your home. If the calculator says your tree is worth $15,000, you probably can’t just sell it for $15,000, or add that amount to your home’s listing price when you sell your house. But these tools do offer a starting point for valuing your tree.
If you want to get a more accurate value for your tree, you’ll need to hire an arborist to conduct an appraisal, which is a real, actual thing with a lot of science behind it. You can find a consulting arborist at the American Society of Consulting Arborists (ASCA) website.
Tree appraisals are mostly used to determine insurance values in case your trees are damaged, destroyed, or improperly removed from your property and you need to make a claim. But you can sell a tree from your yard if the tree is valuable enough, and if you can find a nursery or other entity interested in buying it. And if you have a lot of hardwood trees on your property, you can find companies like Sell Your Trees that will pay you for them, then come and remove them at their own expense (making an appraisal even more important so you know you’re getting fair value for your trees). If your trees are valuable and mature (meaning they’re fully grown and not a sapling, like the trees you buy at a nursery), you can also sell them on an online marketplace like Re-Tree, which can also give you an idea of how much that specific tree is worth.
The most valuable and easiest to sell trees (based on Re-Tree’s catalog) include:
Japanese Maple. These majestic and colorful trees can sell for $400 to more than $8,000 depending on health, maturity, and specific type.
Flowering dogwood. Whether pink or white, these beautiful trees can be worth as much as $4,500.
Tricolor beech. This ornamental tree changes colors with the seasons, making it a beautiful addition to any landscaping project, and can sell for as much as $8,000.
Gingko. These slow-growing trees are terrific shade trees, and can sell for $5,000 to $6,000 each.
Black Walnut. The wood of the Black Walnut is valuable for furniture makers, and can sell for as much as $2,500.
Even if the trees in your yard aren’t super unique and rare, you can still often sell them for a few hundred bucks if they’re healthy and mature. If you’re looking to monetize your trees, it’s worth having them appraised and seeing what the market will bear.
There’s a lot of controversy around the role of citrus in the garden: Can it be composted? Will it deter pests? It turns out that while citrus is probably not altogether harmful to your garden, and can—in limited circumstances—be helpful, it's very likely not worth bothering with.
Worms don’t love citrus, and if you are vermicomposting, you don’t want to work against the proletariat. However, the idea that citrus doesn’t compost well is a myth—everything on Earth will eventually break down, and citrus will do so at roughly the same rate as other kitchen scraps, although it’s advised to separate the seeds, fruit, and pith from the peel before you do. Not only is this more work than I’m willing to do for my compost, but it points to one of the problems with composting citrus: The good stuff is largely in the fruit, which will be gone by the time you compost. The seeds will ferment and sprout, and the peels deter your composting worms, so there's no real upside.
While it is also true that citrus fruit is a good source of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, the building blocks of your soil, it won’t be a shock that it is highly acidic. That can shift your soil pH, and that’s not a good idea, unless you are using it in limited ways, and under plants that want that acidity, like blueberries or azaleas. Even in those cases, you want to monitor the pH, because while those plants will enjoy a higher pH, it’s only a slightly higher range. After that, the pH works against your plants' objectives.
There was a summer when a neighbor's cat had taken up residence in my yard and started using the vegetable garden as a litter box, and as a preventative measure, she spread citrus peels all across my garden. This, too, is an old wives' tale. Citrus, it’s true, can deter some pests, like rats and mice. They don’t enjoy citrus oil, which is in the peels. However, the concentration of oil needed to be effective is higher than you will achieve by just throwing peels around, even indoors. Moreover, those peels dry out quickly, and then the oil is non-existent. Also, the fact that the compound in citrus peels, d-limonene, can be toxic if ingested by animals was concerning in this case. For what it’s worth, the cat was undeterred, and I had a rotten garden year.
I've also seen citrus mentioned as a slug deterrent, but this is also largely a myth. Slugs are attracted to citrus (slugs are attracted to most edibles), so you can use it as a makeshift trap and then dispose of the peel and the slugs. If trapping is the goal, though, beer traps work more effectively without negatively affecting the garden bed. Ultimately though, as someone who lives in a place where slugs are prolific, your best defense against slugs is Sluggo, which is, thankfully, organic.
While d-limonene is part of many mosquito and tick repellents and can be effective, the concentration you'd need to be effective would require a commercial juice production in your home.
For two weeks, I polled gardeners near and far, including many master gardeners, published authors of respected gardening books, and owners of nurseries, and not a single one had ever used citrus in the garden. I couldn’t find a single person with hands-on experience, good or bad. This is likely because whatever benefit you might derive from citrus is easily had with other modern garden materials.
Insurance costs are rising due to inflation just like the price of everything else, and people look to reduce those costs through savings programs and discounts that insurance companies often offer. At the same time, homeowner enthusiasm for smart tech is rising every year. Since smart tech can work to prevent the kind of costly events that result in insurance claims, it makes sense that there’s an emerging trend of insurance companies offering discounts for specific smart tech in the house. A study done last year found that a third of homeowners would switch homeowners or renters insurance companies to get discounts for smart home discounts, and another done by Nationwide showed two thirds of American households already have smart tech in their home.
Smart tech can do a lot for the resident of the house in terms of convenience, but when when done right, they can also dramatically reduce risk. Twenty percent of insurance claims are for water damage, and that’s not all attributable to Mother Nature—plenty of homeowners experience internal leaks from plumbing, and smart tech can do a lot to prevent extensive damage. Whether you use a water leak monitor with a shutoff valve like the Moen Flo, or actual sensors on the floor that detect water, an early alert to a problem can prevent a major disaster. Smart security systems can help to prevent break-ins just like traditional security systems, but have two additional benefits. First, you get earlier alerts, since instead of waiting on a neighbor to hear your alarm, you’ll get alerts to your phone. Smart security systems also come with a lot of sensors to prevent your own family members from creating vulnerabilities, like open windows and doors. And while smart tech can’t prevent events like wind and hail, it can alert you to a problem early so you can work to protect your home in time.
Most insurance companies provide small discounts from 5-13% to use a security system or smart device they’re associated with. Allstate offers a 5% discount if you use their Canary home monitoring. Hippo offers 10-13% off if you invest in Simplisafe, Kangaroo or Notion smart security systems. Other companies offer the discount on the devices themselves. Amica offers 20% off a Moen Flo and other leak-detection devices. One of the best offerings may be from State Farm, who gives subscribers a Ting smart plug and three years of monitoring, plus a discount on the insurance itself. The device specifically monitors your electrical system, looking for causes of fire including faulty wires. Ting’s subscription includes $1000 of coverage in itself. Since this all comes at no additional cost to the State Farm subscriber, it’s a good deal.
Your current insurer may offer a discount for devices you already have, like leak monitors, energy monitors, security devices and fire alarms. The first step should be contacting your current agent to find out if you qualify or what programs exist. If you’re not happy with what they offer, it’s time to shop around. These discount programs and partnerships are going to only grow in the future as insurance agencies recognize how smart tech can hedge against claims.
The introduction of Shortcuts in iOS 13 opened the door for a lot of new little iPhone tricks—but less attention has been given to the Shortcuts and Automations that can be applied to AirPods. I use my AirPods Pro almost every single day, and they're already quite convenient to connect and tweak via the iPhone's settings, but I have set up a couple Shortcuts and Automations to make using them even easier.
Perhaps one of the handiest and most convenient things you can do with Shortcuts is to set up an Automation whenever you connect your AirPods. This can be great for those who like to have their media volume set to the same level all the time, or if you have a certain playlist that you always listen to first.
To set up an Automation that is triggered anytime you connect your AirPods, navigate to Shortcuts > Automation > New Automation and then scroll down until you see the Bluetooth option. Tap it, select Is Connected, then you can choose between Run After Confirmation and Run Immediately. Run After Confirmation will require you to physically press the Run button, but if you do Run Immediately, it will run the Automation without any user input. Finally, make sure to choose your AirPods from the Choose Devices category.
Once you’ve got the basics filled in, select Next, and then you’re free to choose from any of the Shortcuts that it offers here. You can also build a custom Automation using the New Blank Automation option. This particular functionality can be great if, say, you want your iPhone’s media volume to lower to a certain amount when connecting your AirPods or if you want to start a specific playlist from Apple Music.
I’d recommend playing around with some different options here to find what works best for you, as Automations can make things a lot more convenient in the long run, but here are a few really good examples of ways to use Automations that trigger whenever you connect your AirPods to your iPhone.
This Automation can be really handy if you prefer to have a set media volume whenever you're using your AirPods. Some folks may prefer to run theirs at max volume, but others may find that 51 percent or some other setting works best for them. This can be done really easily by setting an Automation that triggers the media volume to a certain level anytime your AirPods connect. To set this up, navigate to the Shortcuts app then select Automation > New Automation (select the + sign in the top right-hand corner if you already have an Automation saved), and then select Bluetooth. Change the trigger time to Is Connected, then set your AirPods in the Device section. If you want to confirm before each run, then select Run After Confirmation, or choose Run Immediately for the most convenience.
Tap Next, then select New Blank Automation. From here, look for Set Volume in the search bar and select it. Tap the percentage showed in blue text to change it to a specific level, and then tap Done to save the Automation. Now, whenever you connect your AirPods to your iPhone, the media volume will automatically be set to whatever percentage you choose.
By default, your AirPods tend to remember which ANC mode you had set when you last used them. That's why having an Automation that sets them to your preferred ANC mode can be really handy. Setting this one up is exceptionally easy, too, as you'll just need to follow these quick steps to do it.
Open Shortcuts and navigate to Automation > New Automation (or use the + icon at the top right if you already have other Automations saved). Tap Bluetooth, then select your AirPods from the Device dropdown and select Is Connected and then choose when you want to run it (after confirmation or immediately). Select New Blank Automation, then search for Set Noise Control Mode. Now make sure you have your AirPods connected to your iPhone and then tap Route and select your AirPods again. Now tap Noise Control mode. Depending on which AirPods you have, you'll have a few different options to choose from here. If you want ANC to be on, select Noise Cancellation. If you want Transparency, then select that. If you have AirPods with the new Adaptive mode, the you can select that, too. Alternatively, if you would like to change the mode you're using a lot, you can have Automation ask you each time.
Another really handy option you can take advantage of with Shortcuts and Automations is to start a playlist or podcast automatically when you connect your AirPods to your iPhone. Unfortunately, Apple Shortcuts and Automations only currently support some apps. As such, I couldn't find a way to get Spotify to work with the playlist command, as it doesn't appear in the Shortcuts app without utilizing an exploit. If you use Apple Music or Apple Podcasts, though, you'll be able to take advantage of both of these Automations without any issue. The following examples assume that you're using Apple Music and Apple Podcasts, as they are the only apps available in Shortcuts for these purposes by default.
Start the Automation just like before, by selecting opening the Shortcuts app, then select Automation > New Automation > Bluetooth. Now, choose your device, select Is Connected, and then choose between Run After Confirmation or Run Immediately. The next few steps can differ depending on whether you want to play a playlist or a podcast.
Setting up a playlist: select Music > Play > Library > Playlists and then tap on the playlist that you want to use. While viewing the playlist, find the + icon at the top and tap it to add it to the Automation.
To start a podcast on connection: select Podcasts > Play and then search for the podcast that you want to start. If you want to just play the next podcast in your queue whenever you connect, you can select Up Next instead of Play after choosing Podcasts.
If you exercise regularly, you can also set up specific Automations that will automatically change the noise transparency settings, which is helpful if you want to be more aware of your surroundings. This is especially helpful if you typically listen to your AirPods in Noise Canceling but want to turn on Transparency or Adaptive modes while running outside.
There are technically two ways you can go about this, with the easiest method requiring the use of Apple Watch workouts to trigger the Automation. I’ll also show you how to do this without an Apple Watch.
To set up this Automation, start by going to Shortcuts > Automation > New Automation and select Apple Watch Workout as the Trigger. From here, you can select the Set Noise Control Mode action to have it turn off noise cancellation (or turn it on) whenever you start a workout on Apple Watch. You can also toy around with the other actions available to change the media volume or even start a specific workout playlist. To do that, select Play Music from the actions, select the blue text, find the playlist you want to use, and tap the + icon to add it to the Action.
To set up an Automation for exercising at a specific time without using an Apple Watch, go to Shortcuts > Automation > New Automation > Bluetooth, then select your AirPods, Is Connected and select Run After Confirmation or Run Immediately. Tap Next, then select New Blank Automation. This one is a bit more complicated to set up, but bear with me. Next, set a few actions into the Automation in this order:
Date
Format Date: select Custom and then change the Format String to HH:mm:ss.
Get time between: select the two times that you want this Automation to check for.
If: this scripting basically lets you set up a branching scenario for your Automation, allowing it to check if you’re doing something and if you are to set the AirPods to the specific mode that you want.
Set Noise Control Mode: You’ll actually need to do two of this Action. One is to turn off Noise Cancellation, and one is to turn it back on.
As I said, it's a bit more complicated than just using the previous Workout Automation that I mentioned, but it’s still a great option if you prefer to use something other than the Apple Watch to trigger your workouts.
Ultimately, there are a lot of things you can do with Shortcuts and your Apple AirPods (or even any other Bluetooth headphones). Toy around with Shortcuts and Automations to find options that work for you, and be sure to give the ones outlined above a try if you want to make things a little bit more convenient for yourself.
You can also download third-party apps to increase the amount of Actions available in the Shortcuts app, so be sure to check those out if you need more options to choose from.
If you go to the gym for your workouts, you can also set your AirPods to automatically start playing music whenever your iPhone detects you are at the gym. You'll need to have the address of the gym for this Automation, but a quick Google search should bring that up. To set this up, follow these steps:
Open Shortcuts and select Automation > New Automation > Arrive. Input the address of your gym into the Location dropdown, then select Any Time or input a specific Time Range if you have a certain time you usually go to the gym. I recommend setting this one to Run After Confirmation, just because you might not want to start your music right away.
After tapping Next, you'll want to set the playlist that you want to start listening to. This can be done using the same steps that I outlined above: Music > Play > Library > Playlists and then tap on the playlist that you want to use.
If you want to do more, like set the volume and the noise mode, then you can set up multiple actions in the Automation by selecting New Blank Automation instead and then adding Play Music, selecting the playlist, then adding in additional actions for Set Volume and Set Noise Control Mode. Here's how that whole setup would look:
Automation > New Automation > Arrive > input gym location and select Any Time or Time Range. Now select New Blank Automation > Play Music (choose the playlist you want), then add Set Volume and select the volume percentage that you prefer. Finally, add Set Noise Control Mode and change it to Noise Cancellation, Transparency, or Adaptive, depending on your preference. Once saved, any time your phone detects you are at your gym, it will offer to start playing your preferred playlist. Unfortunately, there's no way to make this Automation check if your AirPods are connected, which is why I recommend requiring confirmation for this one.
Getting your spring garden into shape, doing some pruning, or planting might call for some new tools. If your tools have been stored outdoors, they might have some rust, or your tools might be worn out after years of service. Even with meticulous maintenance, shears, mowers, and other equipment will wear out over time. Gardening equipment generally need replacing after about six years, although with good maintenance can last as long as 10 to 12 years. If you're running into trouble with some of your gardening tools, Fiskars—known for their high-quality scissors—makes tools with a good reputation for durability and sharpness. Here are some of the best sales on offer this week from Amazon.
For cuts up to ⅝ inches thick, a pair of Fiskars bypass pruning shears will do the job. The pruners are on sale for $9.98 right now, 52% off their regular price. You can also get a set of pruning shears that comes with the bypass pruning shears as well as a pair of micro tip pruning shears on sale right now for $24.40, 40% off their usual price. These are good quality all-steel shears and they come with a lifetime warranty from Fiskars.
For precision trimming your grass around landscaping features, outbuildings, or hedges where a string trimmer won’t work, a pair of Fiskars grass shears is a good solution. These grass shears are on sale right now for $17.99, 44% off their regular price. This set of grass shears has a rotating head to allow both vertical and horizontal cuts to save your wrists when you’re getting into tight spaces or odd angles.
The Fiskars lopper for trimming tree branches up to 1 ½ inches thick is on sale right now for $17.99, 42% off their regular price. The handles of these loppers are extendable from 24 ½ inches up to 37 inches to give you added reach as well as leverage.
If you’re looking for a quieter, zero-emission mower, you can go with a walk-behind push mower. The Fiskars 17” push mower is on sale right now for $171.58, 24% off its normal price. In addition to being quieter and having no emissions, this mower uses no power source besides you, so it’s also the cheapest to run.
If you’re doing some spring planting and find that you need a new garden trowel, the Fiskars ergo trowel is a good buy. It’s a heavy duty trowel that’s designed to be comfortable to hold while you’re digging and it’s on sale right now for $8.79, 32% off its regular price. It has an aluminum head, so rust won’t be a problem, and it’s lightweight as well.
Cutting overgrown weeds and vines can be a challenge—plus, machetes are fun. Fiskars has an 18-inch curved blade machete ax that’s on sale for $39.58, 52% off its normal price. A machete is good for cutting back dense brush and thick, overgrown areas, and the sharp, curved tip can also be used for trimming small branches and cutting through roots.
If you’re anticipating having some bounty from a vegetable garden, a container for harvesting will come in handy. The Fiskars harvest basket is on sale for $21.59, 42% off its usual price. The basket has three compartments, one large one that can double a colander for rinsing produce, one small compartment with smaller drainage holes, and one compartment with no drainage for collecting flowers or other plants you want to keep fresh in water.
If you have some garden beds to dig out, or some dirt to move, you’ll need a good quality shovel. The Fiskars digging shovel is on sale for $28.99, 37% off its regular price. The shovel blade is about 8 ½ inches wide, with a foothold on the top side of it to make it easier to push into the soil with your foot.
Apple is finally loosening its strict stance towards video game emulation, meaning iPhone users can now play retro video games right on their phones, even if those games don’t have official mobile apps yet. All it takes is a simple download from the App Store and some setup within the emulator, and your iPhone will be one step closer to being the best gaming phone around. And one of the first emulators to get the official Apple sanction, Delta, makes the whole process surprisingly easy.
First: What is a game emulator, and how could it possibly be legal to play Super Mario World or Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on your phone? Well, as devices like the Super Nintendo or Sega Genesis age, it becomes easier for programmers to reverse engineer them and make apps that can mimic all of their hardware and software interactions, but this time entirely through software.
Basically, an emulator can run a virtual Super Nintendo inside your iPhone, which can then run Super Nintendo games as usual. It can be a taxing and sometimes glitchy process, since your device doesn’t just have to run the game, but also a whole console at the same time. Modern computers are powerful enough, though, that plenty of emulators still eclipse original hardware in some respects, being able to play games at higher-than-usual resolutions or speeds and even save them at a moment’s notice—perfect for portable play.
Thanks to an old U.S. Court case, emulators are also legal, so long as the emulator just mimics the consoles themselves rather than distributing any games or operating systems.
Which brings us to how to actually use Delta to play retro games on your phone. Delta is actually a fairly mature app, and using it is pretty intuitive. It’s been available to sideload for almost half a decade now, with today simply being its first day Apple has allowed it on the App Store.
Delta can run games from the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Super Nintendo, the Nintendo 64, all Game Boy systems, the Nintendo DS, and even the Sega Genesis. The catch is that you’ll need to provide the game files yourselves.
Delta’s site tells you which file formats it supports, but as for where to get your games, you’re on your own. Emulation enthusiasts assure players that U.S. law allows them to make digital backups of games they own, and there are plenty of devices and techniques for doing just that, although the practice has yet to face much legal scrutiny.
Once you have a compatible game file on your phone, you simply need to tap the “+” button in the top right corner of the app, select the file, and you’re good to start playing. Delta will automatically find box art and sort your systems for you.
Note that for Nintendo DS games, you’ll also need to add a bios file to Delta, which you’ll also need to get on your own. Once you have one, just tap on the gear icon in the app’s top left corner, scroll down until you see “Nintendo DS” under “Core Settings,” then add your files under “DS BIOS FILES.”
This is where things get fun. Because of its age, Delta is a robust app with support for touch controls, Bluetooth controllers, haptic feedback, fast forward, cheats, save states, and even cloud backups. You can connect anything from a PS5 controller to Nintendo Switch Joy-Cons to play games on Delta.
When you first load up a game, things will probably look pretty normal. You’ll see the gameplay either up top or in the middle of your screen (depending on whether you’re holding your phone vertically or horizontally). Below or to the sides of your game will be your controls, done up in a snazzy pre-made skin (which you can also swap for custom imported skins later). But hidden among the standard controls should be the menu button. Here, you can enable cheat codes, alter the game speed, set a certain button to be held down, and manage your save states.
Save states are maybe the most convenient feature an emulator can have. They allow you to save a game at absolutely any point, separate from the game’s own save system. It’s a neat trick enabled by the virtual nature of the setup—the program just remembers how it was operating at any point in time, and can recall it later.
Now you don’t need to worry about finishing a level before your bus arrives, and if you’re feeling nefarious, you can save right before a tough boss fight so you can retry right away if you lose without having to replay the whole level again. Your call.
To adjust more settings than the in-game menu button will allow, just navigate back to the Delta main menu (your game will pause) and click the gear icon in the top left corner, where you’ll be able to set up controls for all your players, home screen shortcuts, and optionally link your files and saves to a Dropbox or Google Drive account.
More emulators are likely going to hit the App Store soon, but Delta is the first to stay, as well as the most robust and likely to stick around. Previously, a Game Boy Advance emulator called iGBA was pulled by Apple for violating its spam and copyright rules, which might have something to do with the code’s alleged connection to Delta’s predecessor, according to a statement Delta developer Riley Testut gave to The Verge. A Nintendo Entertainment System emulator called Bimmy was also pulled by its developer “out of fear.”
While emulators are legal, having to fight large companies like Nintendo in court can still be a daunting task, as evidenced by the recent shutdown of Switch emulator Yuzu. Delta's team, however, has been at this for a while, and doesn't show any signs of stopping soon.
Allowing Delta to hit the App Store is also smart on Apple's part, since Google already allows emulators on the Android Play Store. The app's presence will help Apple's ecosystem shore up its retro coverage while the iPhone maker works with larger developers like Capcom to continue to bring recent big budget releases like Resident Evil 4 to its devices.
Touch controls work well, but a Bluetooth controller makes retro gaming on iPhone even better. Here are some great options:
Backbone One (USB-C): $99
8BitDoPro 2: $49.99
8BitDo SN30 Pro: $44.99
Google Maps is rolling out a couple updates that should make sustainable transportation options a little more convenient to access. The first pertains to locating EV chargers, and the second may gently nudge drivers toward public transit.
One of the biggest problems electronic car owners face is locating convenient chargers along their route, especially when they're on a long journey. A new Google Maps feature will show EV owners AI-generated summaries of real people’s experiences with chargers to help them gauge how reliable and busy they are.
Google says the AI summaries will be based on customer reviews, which users may be prompted to complete when they use an EV charger while using Google Maps. The app will encourage users to submit their feedback after using an EV charger so that others can see if the charger is reliable or if they should look for a better option somewhere nearby. Google has offered limited EV charger information, including directions, for quite a few years now, but this is the first time that info will be accompanied by in-depth reliability summaries.
When public transit offers a lower carbon footprint option and a similar travel time to car travel, Google may display that public transit route as an option alongside the car route.
The tech giant says that this functionality is currently rolling out to different cities around the world, though it will start with just 15 at the moment, including Amsterdam, Barcelona, London, Montreal, Paris, Rome, and Sydney. A full list of the cities that will offer lower-carbon travel routes can be found in Google’s announcement.
Google is also making searching for public transit information much easier by providing more information, such as schedules and ticket prices, when searching for something like “train from Boston to Philadelphia.” The company says this should provide more accurate and helpful information so you can better plan your next trip.
Train information is only available in certain countries, though, including Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, and the United States. Google hasn’t yet said if it plans to expand beyond those countries.
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You can get a lifetime subscription to Matt’s Flights Premium Plan on sale for $79.97 right now (reg. $1,800) through April 21 at 11:59 p.m. PT, though prices can change at any time.
Amazon’s TV adaptation of Fallout is among the best game-to-screen adaptations ever made; it's so good, even people who’ve never played a Fallout game, or any game, are hungry for more of the franchise's unique vibe. If that’s you, and you want to dive into the Fallout game universe but don’t know where to start, read on for a list of which games to play first, and what to know about Fallout before you begin.
There are a lot of games in the Fallout universe, between six and nine, depending on how you count them, but Amazon’s Fallout isn’t a direct adaptation of any of them. The series is an original, standalone story set within the larger Fallout universe, as is each of the individual Fallout games, so you could play any title and not miss important information. That said, all Fallout games aren't created equally, especially if you're a fan of the series, so choose wisely.
While the first two games birthed much of the franchise's unique style, Fallout 3, the first “modern” Fallout game, crafted the raw material of alternative history, atomic-core design, and over-the-top black humor into a masterpiece. Unlike the first two Fallout games, Fallout 3 features action-rich first-person shooter gameplay that has the same whacked-out, so-violent-it-feels-like-a-cartoon style as the series. In other words: It's fun.
Fallout 3's story shares broad strokes with show's as well. Like Lucy in the series, Fallout 3's central character, The Lone Wanderer, was born in a Vault-Tech vault generations after the bombs destroyed earth. The game’s introductory section lets you experience peaceful underground life, like episode one of the series, then thrusts you into the unforgiving wasteland of Washington, D.C. in 2277, like episode 2 in Los Angeles circa 2296. Also like Lucy, The Lone Wanderer is on a quest to find their father and will meet ghouls, the Brotherhood of Steel, mutated creatures, and other familiar delights and horrors in the above-world. You’ll also learn more than you want to know about “The Enclave,” a faction shown briefly in the series during Dr. Siggi Wilzig's escape, and be introduced to Deathclaws and Super-Mutants, both of which, I'm sure, will play prominent roles in Season 2 of the series.
Fallout 4 is also a great starting point for new players. Released in 2015, during the Xbox One and PS 4 era, Fallout 4 took advantage of the extra power of those new-at-the-time consoles to expand and refine the Fallout universe. Fallout 4’s New England is a bigger, more varied world than the settings of previous Fallout games. It's a more colorful, detailed game too, that looks uncannily like the series. Fallout 4’s opening chapter takes place in a shiny pre-apocalypse suburb in 2077 reminiscent of Cooper Howard's flashback adventures in pre-bomb Hollywood. When you end up in 2287, the contrast is a lot like the series flashing forward to 2296. I won't spoil anything, but Fallout 4's starting vault makes a lot more sense when you know what happened in the show's Vault 31. On the negative side, in contrast to the fast-as-charging-Yao Guai pace of Fallout: The Show, Fallout 4 puts a heavy focus on exploration, discovery, side-quests, and colony building, so the story can feel a little slack at times and it’s easy to get side-tracked. A free Fallout 4 next-gen update for Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 is scheduled to come out on April 25, so it's a great time to give it spin.
Set in the American west in 2281, Fallout: New Vegas is a great choice if you are a fan of the dusty cowboy vibe of The Ghoul, you want to learn more about the New California Republic, the faction lead by mysterious revolutionary Moldaver in the Fallout series, or you want to dig into the likely setting of Season 2 of the Amazon show.
New Vegas is widely regarded as the overall best Fallout game by hardcore fans of the franchise. It’s heavier on role-playing than the other modern Fallout games, so it’s a more open-ended experience and it allows players to create more varied characters and overcome challenges in different ways than either Fallout 3 or 4.
While New Vegas is definitely a great game, I didn’t connect with the characters and the extra-gritty setting as strongly as I did with the other games. Story-wise, it feels the least like the series of the modern games to me. But that's probably just a taste thing; it's still a solid introduction to the franchise.
If you want a super-casual Fallout experience, check out Fallout Shelter. This free game can be played on consoles, but it’s really designed for wasting a few minutes on your iPhone or Android. Shelter casts you as the overseer of a Vault-Tech vault. You’re in charge of expanding your home/prison, attracting new residents, and keeping everyone inside safe, sane, and radiation-free until it’s safe to return to the surface (like that will ever happen).
It may be a silly mobile game, but Fallout: Shelter is the only Fallout title that features the characters from the show. A recent update added Lucy MacLean, Maximus, The Ghoul, and (for some reason) Ma June as “legendary dwellers,” who might show up to live in your vault if you’re lucky enough to open the right lunchboxes. You can't play as them, but you can see them, and that's something I guess.
"The beginning" might seem like the most logical place to start a series, but 1997’s Fallout and its sequel Fallout 2 are bad jumping off points for most people, particularly non-gamers. Both are punishingly difficult, hardcore role-playing games with turn-based combat and confusing, antique controls—fun for some, but torturous for most. They're groundbreaking, fascinating titles to be sure, but even if you manage to suffer through the deadly beginning of each game, they don't provide the same feel as the series; the run-and-gun gameplay of Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, and Fallout 4 is way closer to the series than the slow-but-deadly vibe of the early games. Also 3, 4, and New Vegas have a “Very Easy” difficulty setting, so your rip-roaring Fallout adventure won't end in frustration.
While it won't be as deadly as the first two games, Fallout 76 is not a great place to jump into Fallout world either. Released in 2018 and set in Appalachia in 2102, Fallout 76 is an online multiplayer game with a steep learning curve, MMO-style grinding and crafting, and a different overall vibe than the TV show and the other games. It tries to provide a Fallout-like experience, but the addition of other players means you’re not really the main character, and MMO-specific mechanics don't translate well to Fallout. All that plus second-tier writing and voice-acting make Fallout 76 the least Fallout-y modern Fallout game.
I’m a completist, so I’m including these two obscure, non-canonical Fallout games at the bottom of the list. I haven’t played them, but that's OK; according to Todd Howard, director and executive producer at Bethesda Game Studios and executive producer of the Fallout series, “neither Fallout Tactics nor Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel happened." Howard is the God of all things Fallout, so if he says they don't count, they don't count. Skip 'em.
Movies can reaffirm or further our faith. For decades, they've been used to spread the Almighty's message, whether through epic productions like The Ten Commandments or Ben-Hur or low-budget indie dramas targeted toward church-goers, like Fireproof or Left Behind.
There are other films that, while not overtly Christian, have a subtle, positive message that can be equally inspiring. Here are 12 (one for each apostle) for you to choose from.
One could argue that the writer of Taxi Driver has been making Christian-themed movies all of his life, but Paul Schrader's faith (he is a graduate of Calvin College) is most apparent in this A24 film. It stars Ethan Hawke as a reverend looking for hope as the religious world becomes increasingly corrupt, but his existential journey leads him down a violent path.
Where to stream: Digital rental, Kanopy, Cinemax
Not quite as cynical as First Reformed, M. Night Shyamalan's horror film about an alien invasion has a faithless former priest as its protagonist. The movie's central theme—does the Almighty have a grand plan?—becomes fairly obvious as the plot's secrets become known.
Where to stream: Digital rental
Made at the height of Al Pacino's "shouting" period of his career, this legal thriller/horror hybrid revolves around a young lawyer (Keanu Reeves) whose spotless legal record takes him to a prestigious New York law firm where he is slowly corrupted by his boss (Pacino). The film's excessive nudity and crude language make it inappropriate for family film night, but it does touch on Christian themes such as the seven deadly sins and Lucifer's fall from heaven.
Where to stream: Digital rental, Tubi
When this big-budget adaptation of Madeline L'Engle's novel hit the screens, there were concerns about omitting its Christian elements. However, the film stays true to the book's core themes: There is meaning in our chaotic universe, and our weaknesses can be our greatest strengths.
Where to stream: Digital rental, Disney+
Speaking of young adult fantasy adaptations, this blockbuster about "two sons of Adam and two daughters of Eve" who find a magical land inside a closet delves deep into Christian themes. They become undeniable when Aslan, the wise titular lion, returns to life after sacrificing himself for one of the children at the story's center, much like a certain Christian did for the world.
Where to stream: Digital rental, Disney+
Just like C.S. Lewis, the author of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, writer and devout Catholic J.R.R. Tolkien (also a friend of Lewis) did not shy away from the fact that his novels, upon which these award-winning films are based, are founded on religious themes. A simple Google search will reveal any number of interpretations, from the ring representing temptation to the wizard Gandalf's resurrection after his death.
Where to stream: Digital rental, Max
Between the epic car crash scenes, musical cameos, and classic soundtrack, the plot of this hilarious film, which revolves around a pair of brothers (Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi) who get their band back together to put on a fundraiser for the orphanage they grew up in, has religious undertones. Much like Joan of Arc, the titular characters see a heavenly vision that sets them out on "a mission from God," though it's doubtful He asked them to drive through a shopping mall to escape the police.
Where to stream: Digital rental
Ryan Gosling is having a moment right now, so it wouldn't be prudent not to include one of his films on this list. At first blush, this dramedy about a shy soul who becomes (chaste) friends with a sex doll doesn't seem like a movie that reflects Christian values. However, quite unexpectedly, its themes of tolerance, faith, and love have prompted churches to use the film as an instructional tool.
Where to stream: Fubo, MGM+, Hoople, Tubi, Pluto TV, Kanopy, Digital rental
One runs to overcome intolerance; the other runs to bring God glory. The true story of British sprinters Harold Abrahams, an English Jew, and Eric Liddell, a Christian missionary, at the 1924 Olympics was awarded the Oscar for Best Picture in 1982. What sets this inspirational film apart from other sports dramas is that both men firmly believe their athletic abilities are part of a higher purpose. They each find strength in remaining true to their beliefs.
Where to stream: Digital rental
Frank Capra's film about redemption and life is everyone's favorite holiday film for a reason. It also touches on faith, purpose, and family—many of the touchstones of Christianity.
Where to stream: The Roku Channel, Freevee, Plex, Hoopla, Digital rental
The recent drama between the real-life Michael Oher and his adoptive family aside, this inspirational sports drama wears its themes of charity and faith on its metaphorical sleeve. The Tuohy family openly talks about their Christian beliefs and believes that their faith in God makes everything possible.
Where to stream: Digital rental
This dramedy looks like a typical Steve Martin movie, with the comedian exchanging quips with the likes of Liam Neeson and Debra Winger. The film is about a traveling preacher/con man who performs “miracles” every night at his revivals, but when actual divine events occur, he doesn’t understand why. While the film begins by framing Christianity as a get-rich-quick scheme, it becomes a profound meditation on faith and God's plan.
Where to stream: Max, Digital rental
In this column I try not to cover topics that any normal person already knows are fake. I don’t bother writing about people who think Elvis is alive or that the Earth is flat, because anyone with two brain cells to rub together already knows those are bullshit, and believers are a tiny minority on the fringes of society.
I had considered “chemtrails” in the “no one takes this seriously” column, but I was wrong. This week, legislators in Tennessee passed a state law that bans “the intentional injection, release, or dispersion, by any means, of chemicals … substances, or apparatus … with the express purpose of affecting temperature, weather, or the intensity of the sunlight." In other words, they banned chemtrails.
While the legislation was drafted partly in response to a Federal government report released last year on solar geoengineering—basically the idea of cooling the planet by reflecting sunlight back into space—some lawmakers didn't get the memo. Here’s what Tennessee Sen. Frank Niceley said in support of the law: “This will be my wife’s favorite bill of the year. She has worried about this, I bet, 10 years … If you look up—one day, it’ll be clear. The next day they will look like some angels have been playing tic-tac-toe. They’re everywhere. I’ve got pictures on my phone with Xs right over my house. For years they denied they were doing anything.”
The report that riled up Tennessee legislators explicitly says the research "does not signify any change in policy or activity by the Biden-Harris Administration." We don't even know how or if it would work, so solar geoengineering is a non-starter. Chemtrail conspiracy theories are fake and dumb. But Tennessee's decision to outlaw both could be a great and/or hilarious thing—if they follow the letter of the law they wrote.
Believers call the long, white trails sometimes left in the sky by jet airplanes "chemtrails." They believe chemtrails are the result of the government intentionally spraying biological or chemical agents into the sky in order to change the weather, control the population, and/or make people sick (the specifics depend on who you ask).
But the trails Sen. Nicely has pictures of on his phone are really called "contrails," short for condensation trails, and no one is denying anything. Contrails are the result of water vapor released from aircraft engines’ exhaust. They are mostly ice crystals, basically jet-made clouds, and there is no evidence they can control people’s behavior. But they might actually change the weather. (More on that below.)
Contrails are an interesting conspiracy theory element because you can walk outside and see them for yourself; but sometimes you don’t see them, just like the Senator said. So are some aircraft spraying chemicals and others not? According to the authorities, no one is spraying anything. Contrails only form under certain atmospheric conditions, even if it looks like angels have been playing tic-tac-toe.
Chemtrail conspiracy theorists are partly right, but, as is usual with conspiracy theorists, not in the way they think they are. The U.S. government really is trying to control the weather by releasing a chemical into the air from planes. It’s called cloud-seeding, and the chemical, silver iodide, is harmless to humans. The idea is to prevent droughts by making clouds more productive. Cloud-seeding has been around since the 1940s. It's difficult to say for sure whether it works (it’s hard to get a control group of clouds), but it’s not secret. There are ongoing, relatively small, government funded cloud-seeding programs in several states, including Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado. But not in Tennessee, obviously.
The second part of the chemtrails theory is a little right too. You don’t need to be a conspiracy theorist to accept that the U.S. government has a long, troubling history of secretly dispersing chemical and biological agents in the air over the U.S.; They admit it themselves. But the government (officially) halted biological and chemical weapons programs in the 1960s, and in 2023, the U.S.’s last chemical weapon, a sarin nerve agent-filled M55 rocket rocket, was destroyed, according to the international oversight group The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
So weather control programs and secret dispersal of chemicals exist, and the U.S. is looking into solar geoengineering, but nothing connects jet engine vapor-trails to any of these things. That doesn't mean contrails are benign though; they might even be worse than conspiracy theorists fear.
In another “a broken clock is right twice a day” victory for conspiracy theorists, legitimate research indicates that contrails are harmful, maybe extremely harmful, but not because they contain population-control nanobots.
It's hard to pin down the specific causes of temperature changes in a system as complex as the climate of a planet, but research has long supported the theory that jets creating tiny clouds in the sky prevents heat from escaping the planet, leading many climate scientists to regard contrails as a major contributor to global warming.
Contrails may be worse than the effect of burning all that jet fuel in the first place. According to the Yale School of the Environment, the constant injection of jet-made clouds has a “daily impact on atmospheric temperatures that is greater than that from the accumulated carbon emissions from all aircraft since the Wright Brothers first took to the skies more than a century ago.” To make matters worse, efforts to cut the CO2 emissions by making jet engines more efficient tends to produce more contrails that last longer.
So yes, conspiracy theorists, those streaks in the sky are a serious problem that could be contributing to a lot of people dying in the future. (Don’t worry, we’re using AI to stop it, which should work out great.)
Tennessee law-makers may have crafted this legislation to thwart a federal program that doesn’t exist and fight a made-up phenomenon, but depending on how it's interpreted and enforced, this law could be the most consequential piece of environmental protection legislation in U.S. history—or it could be a clear enough lesson in what happens when you let conspiracy theorists pass laws that Tennessee won't vote for dumb people anymore. (I can dream, right?)
To really ban "chemtrails" you'd have to ban all jet travel over Tennessee, which would lower the total amount of contrail-based warming on earth. But that's just the beginning. Tennessee outlawed releasing anything that “affects temperature, weather, or the intensity of the sunlight" without defining any of the terms, so it could be read to ban all pollution—from cars, airplanes, factories, or anywhere else—because it contributes to global warming (ie: affects temperature.)
To be fair, the law says the chemicals must be released with “the express purpose of affecting temperature, weather, or the intensity of the sunlight," so it probably wouldn't apply to factories, since raising the temperature of the earth is a secondary effect of industry. But sunglass manufacturers could be in the crosshairs. What is a pair of sunglasses if not an apparatus that affects the intensity of sunlight? Maybe sunglasses only affect sunlight's intensity on a personal level, but the law doesn't define what "affects the intensity of sunlight" means, so it could be read to cover Ray-Bans and beach umbrellas. You could make a case that the letter of Tennessee's law bans heaters, air conditioners, stoves, and ovens too, since they are all apparatuses with the express purpose of changing temperature. Water is a chemical, and spraying it onto people at an amusement park is an attempt to change temperature, so goodbye, cooling misters.
I could go on, but it's all ridiculous. We know that Tennessee is not going to shut down its airports and turn into a post-industrial, sunglass-free state where cooking is outlawed. The law isn't likely to be enforced in any way, and its only real-world effect will be to make people like Senator Niceley's wife happy that someone is finally doing something about those pesky angels playing tic-tac-toe in the sky.
Right now, there are two main ways to charge our devices: plug it into power, or charge it wirelessly using a Qi-enabled device. A lesser-known wireless charging standard, WLC, actually enables devices to charge over NFC—the same tech used for mobile transactions like Apple Pay and Google Pay. As it happens, Google appears to be working on bringing NFC charging to smartphones with its upcoming Android 15 update, but it's not clear why.
Android Authority's Mishaal Rahman discovered the feature in Android 15's first beta, which Google released last week. Rahman noticed Google added a new class to the system app that deals with NFC: NfcCharging. If that wasn't clear enough, Rahman found NfcCharging can start and stop charging via NFC, analyzes NFC charging info payloads, among other functions.
We don't know what the timeline would be for adding NFC charging to Android, but there's no real reason to rush the tech at this time. Charing a device over NFC would be considerably slower than Qi wireless charging (or wired charging, of course), as the standard only supports charging up to 1W. Qi, on the other hand, has a maximum output of 15W, depending on the device and charger. It would take a long time to charge a modern smartphone via NFC. When you can fully charge a phone like the OnePlus 12 in just over a half hour, NFC charging doesn't seem particularly practical.
However, this standard could be more useful for smaller devices that use tiny batteries—think Bluetooth trackers or styluses. While NFC charging will still be slow, it could allow companies to put rechargeable batteries in products that currently use disposable ones. Imagine your Pixel passively charging an AirTag or a Tile tracker whenever they're next to each other, rather than throwing away the battery when it dies. If Google follows through with this tech and adds it to Android 15, it'll be up to the marketplace to take advantage of the standard in new products.
This isn't the first time we've seen a software update add a new wireless charging standard to smartphones. With iOS 17.2, Apple added Qi2 charging to iPhones, an improved version of Qi that allows for a magnetic connection with wireless chargers. That said, this Android update could enable NFC wireless charging from smartphones themselves, rather than allow smartphones to access a new way to charge.
Artificial intelligence is already so integrated into kids' lives, they may not even think of it as a distinct concept from “internet” or “computer.” It is their digital minion, their planning partner, an encyclopedia, a creative tool, and a homework assistant. Since we know kids of all ages are using AI, it falls upon parents to ensure they are aware of both the benefits and the risks.
Little kids are typically introduced to AI through age-appropriate educational games, interactive apps, and learning platforms that use AI to personalize content. These games and platforms may use a chatbot or virtual tutor to adaptively guide students through lessons. And when they take standardized tests at school, those tests are likely adaptive, meaning they use AI to tailor students’ test questions to the most suitable difficulty level based on prior responses.
As Leticia Barr, a middle school computer science teacher and technology, education, and parenting blogger said, AI image generators (used with supervision) can help children visualize things that only exist in their imaginations.
“AI tech can foster creativity and imagination. Image generators, for example, can translate text-based ideas into fantastical and increasingly realistic images and bridge artistic vision with any level of creative talent,” Barr said.
You can help kids get used to the ubiquity of AI technology by pointing out when an advanced computer process is creating something personalized for them, even on something like YouTube or TikTok, which uses algorithms to tailor the videos they're shown. Explain that these processes would typically have been performed by humans before AI programming developed. Help them understand the difference between human thinking and the programmed process of aggregating input and reproducing information or actions in a way that is human-like.
As homework and independent study become a bigger deal, tweens are more likely to use AI for on-demand homework help, Barr said. In the middle grade years, their research becomes more complex, and they may use AI to synthesize ideas or explain concepts.
“The most effective way students can use AI as a tool for their school work is as an explanation machine, as opposed to an answer machine,” Barr said.
This reminds me of the early days of Wikipedia. We were warning students from middle school to college to never trust it as a reliable source. In the last 20 years, we’ve come to accept Wikipedia as a way to get a quick understanding of a topic (with the caveat that serious fact checking is required before any of that understanding is incorporated into your dissertation).
Kids this age may also be learning to code on their own; they are not just using AI as a tool to teach or entertain them, they are wielding AI in their own contributions to technology.
Tweens are starting to get a sense of themselves as digital citizens, making this a good time to emphasize privacy, security, and the impact of AI on society. Reiterate that they should never share personal, identifying information online, even with friendly chatbots. Pay attention to what platforms or apps they are using to access AI, and help them distinguish between age-appropriate resources and unsafe resources.
Teens may be the group most vulnerable to misusing or facing negative consequences of AI. Teachers and parents are both worried about AI-driven cheating with artificially generated reports and essays or access to chatbots during testing.
“I’d be cautious of trying to use any GenAI tools, such as ChatGPT, for everything since it’s simply a chatbot that mimics an actual conversation with a human,” Barr said. “It can be wrong or deceitful. It’s better to teach kids how to find and use AI tools designed for specific purposes, such as image or voice generators, learning apps, etc.”
Teens are also vulnerable to bullying based on AI-generated images, which can be difficult to detect. The more teens use social media, the more likely they are to encounter AI-generated content.
Focus your conversations about AI on ethics and skepticism. Emphasize that it is unethical to use AI to misrepresent either their understanding of an academic concept or to misrepresent reality. Remind teens to assume that anything generated by AI—whether it’s funny photos on social media or an explanation of the Cold War—must be fact-checked.
“With any technology comes risks and rewards," Barr said. "A risk students must be aware of is that AI chatbots can often provide incorrect information, and not all AI is meant for educational purposes. If kids want to use AI for their schoolwork, they need to use AI platforms that are specifically designed for education and provide high quality learning experiences elevated by purpose-built AI."
Demonizing AI entirely because of the risks will cut teens off from its many benefits. Remind teens of all the ethical and constructive ways AI can make life easier for them if used responsibly:
To aggregate study materials and create flashcards and quizzes.
To generate a study plan based on their course load and available time.
To help them work toward a goal like completing college applications or learning a new language.
To learn in more depth about their interests and hobbies.
To enrich their creativity by creating images, music, or videos.
“Since students don’t always know how to start studying for a test or exam, AI can help guide them and get better organized,” Barr said.
At any age, using AI should be a collaborative effort between kids, parents, and (human) educators.
“By working together, children can learn how to find the right AI tools that can help them gather information, seek deeper understanding, or organize their learning,” Barr said. “For example, there are AI apps that can help students organize their thoughts before writing an essay. AI tools can help students understand the writing prompt, then brainstorm, and create an outline. AI can also help students plan a test prep study session to better organize the learning process."
To learn more about how to support your child as they navigate the world of AI, check out these resources:
Common Sense Media reviews tools for teaching about artificial intelligence and classroom tools that use AI.
An open-source curriculum on the ethics of AI for middle school from an MIT researcher
Science Friday explores AI for kids with chatbots
A developmental-behavioral pediatrician writes about the risks and benefits of AI for kids at healthychildren.org.
When it comes to the best Android tablets, Samsung's Galaxy Tab series has some of the best in class for many categories. The S9, S8, and S6 Lite series have great options for budget, midrange, and high-end tablets. But if there is one Android tablet that is best value for your money and considered "budget," it's the Samsung Galaxy Tab A9+ tablet. Right now, the Galaxy Tab A9+ starts at $159.99 (originally $219.99) after a $60 discount from Amazon, bringing it down to its lowest price yet per price checking tools, and is $10 cheaper than the recent "Big Spring Sale."
The Samsung Galaxy Tab A9+ is considered one of the best-value Android tablets by PCMag, who gave it an "excellent" review. They named it their Editor's Choice for the best affordable Android tablet for its low price, large 11-inch screen, expandable storage, good performance, and ability to handle productivity tasks smoothly with Samsung's software aids. This Samsung tablet came out in 2023 and starts with 4 GB of RAM, 64 GB of storage, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 processor, and an 11-inch LCD screen with 1920 x 1200 resolution. You can get the 128 GB storage version for $209.99 (originally $269.99). Both versions have a 5MP front-facing camera and an 8MP on the back.
Most people will probably want more than the 64 GB of storage that the base model offers. If you already have storage at home, keep in mind that the tablet has a microSD slot for expandable storage. The battery will last for around seven hours of use, which isn't impressive, but for a budget tablet, it's expected.
May on Hulu feels like déjà vu: A big title coming early in the month is the season three premiere of Emmy Award-winning docuseries Welcome to Wrexham (May 3), originally set to launch in April. The show goes behind the scenes of the Welsh pro football club owned by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, which recently received a second promotion after a run of wins.
Other documentary highlights include The Contestant (May 2), which tells the story of a man trapped in a small room whose life was broadcast on national TV in Japan over 15 months, and Black Twitter: A People's History (May 9), a three-part series based on Jason Parham's WIRED article about the influence of Black Twitter in American politics and culture.
For literature-inspired drama, catch season one of Shardlake (May 1), a Hulu original based on C.J. Sansom's Tudor mystery series and set in 16th century England, or The Killing Kind (May 14), a thriller series based on Jane Casey's book of the same name.
Finally, for those who like game shows and/or reality TV, there's the season five premiere of The Kardashians (May 23), the season two premiere of Jeopardy! Masters (May 2), and the series premiere of The Quiz with Balls (May 29), a high-stakes quiz show hosted by actor and comedian Jay Pharoah.
Here’s everything else coming to (and leaving) Hulu in May.
Life Below Zero: First Alaskans: Complete Season 3
Jujutsu Kaisen 0, 2021
Naruto Shippuden: Complete Season 8 (Dubbed)
Shardlake: Complete Season 1
Pokemon Sun & Moon: Complete Season 20
Pokemon Ultra Adventures: Complete Season 21
Pokemon Ultra Legends: Complete Season 22
The Beach, 2000
Big, 1988
Big Daddy, 1999
Black Hawk Down, 2001
The Bounty Hunter, 2010
Cast Away, 2000
The Chronicles of Riddick, 2004
Come See The Paradise, 1990
The Darjeeling Limited, 2007
The Divergent Series: Insurgent, 2015
The Divergent Series: Allegiant, 2016
Elvis, 2022
Fantastic Mr. Fox, 2009
Free State of Jones, 2016
Good Boys, 2019
The Joy Luck Club, 1993
The King's Man, 2021
The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, 2004
Love, Gilda, 2018
The Mask, 1994
Meet the Spartans, 2008
Mr. Turner, 2014
Money Monster, 2016
My Name Is Khan, 2010
The Negotiator, 1998
Night School, 2018
Ocean's 8, 2018
Once, 2007
Once Upon a Time in America, 1984
Rushmore, 1999
The Royal Tenenbaums, 2001
The Rundown, 2003
School For Scoundrels, 2006
Sideways, 2004
Tyler Perry's Madea's Family Reunion, 2006
That Thing You Do!, 1996
Those Who Wish Me Dead, 2021
Walk The Line, 2005
The Wedding Ringer, 2015
White Chicks, 2004
White House Down, 2013
13 Going On 30, 2004
300, 2007
The Contestant: Documentary Premiere
Jeopardy! Masters: Season 2 Premiere
Customer Wars: Complete Season 2
The Proof Is Out There: Complete Season 3
Bad Reputation, 2018
Mad Money, 2008
Prom Dates, 2024
Welcome to Wrexham: Season 3 Premiere
The Flood, 2023
3 Days in Malay, 2023
Die Hard, 1988
Die Hard 2, 1990
Die Hard With A Vengeance, 1995
A Good Day To Die Hard, 2013
Live Free Or Die Hard, 2007
12 Hour Shift, 2020
Bad Boys for Life, 2020
Reminiscence, 2021
Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story: Special Premiere
In Limbo: Complete Season 1
Bloodshot, 2020
Black Twitter: A People's History: Complete Docuseries
Kings of BBQ: Complete Season 1
The Mother/Daughter Experiment: Celebrity Edition: Complete Season 1
Stove Tots: Complete Season 1
Witness to Murder: Digital Evidence: Complete Season 1
Past Lies: Complete Season 1 (Subbed)
Biosphere, 2022
Wanted Man, 2024
Eileen, 2023
Where the Crawdads Sing, 2022
The Killing Kind: Complete Season 1
Uncle Samsik: Complete Season 1
Cutthroat Kitchen: Complete Season 5, 12 and 13
Extreme Homes: Complete Season 4
Flea Market Flip: Complete Season 1
Man vs. Wild: Complete Season 5
My 600-lb Life: Complete Season 6
My 600-lb Life: Complete Season 7
My Strange Addiction: Complete Season 6
Naked and Afraid : Complete Season 12, 14 and 15
NASA's Unexplained Files: Complete Season 4
Say Yes to the Dress: Atlanta: Complete Season 8
Say Yes to the Nest: Complete Season 1
Unusual Suspects: Complete Seasons 6 and 8
Worst Cooks in America: Complete Season 16 and 24
Tanked: Complete Season 1
Torn from the Headlines: New York Post Reports: Complete Season 1
1000-lb Sisters: Complete Season 4
I Am Not Your Negro, 2016
My Scientology Movie, 2015
Royal Rules of Ohio: Season 1 Premiere
Living Smaller: Complete Season 1
Women on Death Row: Complete Season 1
Paddington, 2015
Birth/Rebirth, 2023
He Went That Way, 2023
The Sweet East, 2023
Chief Detective 1958: Complete Season 1
The Kardashians: Season 5 Premiere
Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars Season 2 Premiere
The Ape Star, 2021
The Seeding, 2023
Ferrari, 2023
Sentinel, 2024
Fantasy Island, 2020
Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted: Complete Season 4
Camden: Complete Season 1
Lainey Wilson: Bell Bottom Country: Doc-Style Special Premiere
Beat Shazam: Season 7 Premiere
The Quiz With Balls: Complete Season 1
MasterChef: Season 14 Premiere
The Promised Land, 2023
Sympathy for the Devil, 2023
T.I.M., 2023
Apollo 18, 2011
The Libertine, 2004
War Dogs, 2016
The Last Unicorn, 1982
Empire of Light, 2022
The Brass Teapot, 2012
The Cleaner, 2021
Dior and I, 2014
Dramarama, 2020
Elena Undone, 2010
Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room, 2005
The Etruscan Smile, 2018
Hurricane Bianca, 2016
One Last Thing ..., 2005
Pit Stop, 2013
Sordid Lives, 2000
We The Animals, 2018
The Fabulous Filipino Brothers, 2021
Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, 2016
The Tiger Rising, 2021
Under the Eiffel Tower, 2018
Sophie's Choice, 1982
How to Please a Woman, 2022
Elvis, 2022
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, 2007
Ali, 2001
Bad Teacher, 2011
Beasts of the Southern Wild, 2012
Bend It Like Beckham, 2003
The Big Lebowski, 1998
Blockers, 2018
Dangerous Beauty, 1998
The Descendants, 2011
Divergent, 2014
The Divergent Series: Insurgent, 2015
The Divergent Series: Allegiant, 2016
Don't Worry Darling, 2022
Dune, 2021
Drive Angry 3D, 2011
Epic, 2011
Ever After, 1998
Firehouse Dog, 2007
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, 2005
The Huntsman: Winter's War, 2016
Ice Age: Continental Drift, 2012
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, 2018
Kingdom Come, 2001
L.A. Confidential, 1997
The Little Hours, 2017
Life of Pi, 2012
Masterminds, 2016
Melancholia, 2011
Night School, 2018
No Good Deed, 2014
Ocean's Eleven, 2001
Ocean's Twelve, 2004
Ocean's Thirteen, 2007
Pokemon Detective Pikachu, 2019
Salt, 2010
Scarface, 1983
Sexy Beast, 2001
Shark Tale, 2004
Street Kings, 2008
Taken, 2009
Takers, 2010
Thank You for Smoking, 2006
Thirteen, 2003
The Tree of Life, 2011
Tyler Perry's Madea's Big Happy Family, 2011
Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail, 2009
A Walk in the Woods, 2015
The Upside, 2017
Win Win, 2011
The Wrestler, 2008
21 & Over, 2013
You may have seen the buzz around Samsung's Galaxy AI suite of software features, which were introduced with the Galaxy S24 in January 2024, and are now appearing on older devices too—some of these features are reaching as far back as the Galaxy S21, though not all the older phones are getting all of the tricks.
If you're wondering what's included, and how all these features can help you on your phone, the guides below should help. There's everything from advanced photo editing to live translation tools, all accessible through the software built into your Galaxy phone—just make sure you're running OneUI 6.1 or later before looking for these features.
Circle to Search is a visual search tool powered by Google Lens: Being able to search with an image prompt isn't new, but this feature makes it easier and more straightforward than ever. Just circle something on the screen, and the search launches—that's it.
First, make sure Circle to Search is enabled, via Display > Navigation bar in Settings. Then, in any app you like, press and hold on the home button at the bottom of the screen to launch Circle to Search. If you navigate Android with gestures rather than buttons, press and hold on the thin navigation handle (which is a bit harder to hit accurately).
The screen will get a slight color tinge, and you can then draw around whatever you want to search—whether it's a line of text or a graphic. The results pop up at the bottom of the screen, and you can modify the search if needed.
Generative Edit is the name of the generative photo editing tools you'll find if you open up the Gallery app on your Samsung phone: To make sure it's enabled and to see an explanation of how it works, head to Settings and then choose Advanced features > Advanced intelligence > Photo Editor.
In the Gallery app, tap on an image, then on the edit icon (the pen symbol), and you may see some AI edit suggestions overlaid on top of the picture—just tap to apply. You can also tap on the blue and white generative AI button that has a couple of stars on it (on the left): Circle or tap on the object you want to manipulate, which could be anything from a person to a flower pot. The AI will attempt to select it, so this works best for objects that are distinct against a background. Then tap on the selection to work with it.
You can use the eraser button just above the selection to remove it completely from the image, or you can drag the object to another spot in the photo. Using some AI magic, the app will then attempt to fill in the space left by the object, using clues from the rest of the image as to how the background should look.
Chat Assist works in several apps when the Samsung keyboard appears, giving you AI-enabled help with the tone of your messages, and even translating them into other languages if needed. From Settings, go to Advanced features > Advanced intelligence > Samsung Keyboard to enable the feature.
Then, open up an app where Chat Assist works, such as Messages or Gmail. Once you've typed some text, tap the AI button—the one with a couple of star shapes on it, on the far left of the toolbar above the keyboard. You'll see options for Writing style, Spelling and grammar, and (if relevant) Chat translation.
These options are fairly self-explanatory. Choose Writing style, for example, and you'll get some AI-generated variations on the text you've entered: Tap the Show all button (top right) to choose the tone you want from your writing (the available options include Professional, Casual, and Polite).
Another way that Samsung Galaxy AI can help is with translating between languages, either on a phone call or through an app. From Settings, go to Advanced features > Advanced intelligence, and then tap either Phone or Interpreter to get the features enabled and configured as required.
You can launch Live Translate on a phone call by tapping Call assist then Live translate on the call screen—the app will use the languages configured in settings. As you talk, you'll see a text translation on screen, and hear a spoken translation too, so you're going to have to slow down the pace of your conversation for it to work.
Interpreter is similar, but it's for when you're face-to-face with someone else. Swipe down with two fingers from the top of the screen to get to Quick Settings, then tap Interpreter (you may have to swipe left or right to see the icon). Use the mic icons on screen when you or the other person want to talk, and the drop-down menus to select the correct languages.
Those are the most prominent Galaxy AI features, but there are others—again, they can all be configured via Advanced features > Advanced intelligence in Settings. In Samsung Notes, for example, there's a Note Assist button just above the keyboard that'll instantly summarize or format a note for you.
Meanwhile, in the Voice Recorder app, a Transcript Assist feature appears when you select a recording, which lets you turn speech into text in multiple languages. In the Samsung Internet browser, look for the little Browsing Assist button (the stars icon on the bottom toolbar), which summarizes webpages for you.
Finally, there's AI-generated wallpaper, which you can make use of if you're in need of a home screen backdrop change and don't want to hunt for an image. Long press on a blank area of the home screen, then choose Wallpaper and style > Change wallpapers > Generative and follow the prompts on screen.
I’m someone who knows a thing or two about robot vacuums. I set up a new one for testing a few times a month, and although each bot is a little different, they all share some common traits. While it’s true that some bots are better and some are not, a big factor in performance is actually you. How you set yourself and your bot up for success can make or break how clean your floor gets and thus, your continued affection for your robot vacuum.
Newer robots will map out your space using LiDAR and then double-check with you to make sure they got the rooms right. They are surprisingly accurate in nailing the division of spaces, and then you can ask the bot to care for one space or a combination of them, or set a schedule for them. But consider the living room, for instance: Do you need to vacuum and mop under the couches every day? Probably not. But how often do you need to sweep and mop the high-traffic area people walk along or under your feet where you drop things? At least once a day, am I right? So divide the space based on how often you want to clean. You can do this by editing the map, which usually allows you to divide or merge spaces. My living room now has two “rooms,” one for the high traffic area and one for the “yeah, let’s get the dust bunnies once a week to be a responsible adult.” You get to assign names to each room, so you can use your voice assistant to send your robot there to clean. At least three times a day, I send my bot to “Blueberry’s path of destruction” to get rid of the paw prints between the doggie door and the kitchen.
These floorbots require maintenance. Their rollers get shredded, the sweeps need to be replaced, and the vacuum bags need to be changed out. The branded ones are expensive; Amazon is chock full of third party options that are always cheaper. While mileage will vary, I’ve found that these aftermarket options are incredibly disappointing. On every bot I’ve bought third-party bags for, the robot has trouble recognizing that a new bag is in, and will tell me to change it every week. The rollers are never as high quality and get ruined faster. While I’m not actually convinced there’s anything special in the branded cleaning fluid, I would not make my own or replace it with anything but cleaner specifically made for robot mops.
All bots now have various levels of intensity for mopping and vacuuming. I have played with all the intensity levels, and the only benefit to them is lower noise output. Since it’s never low enough for me to watch a movie or have a business call while the bot is going, it’s not much of a benefit. Of course, there’s less wear and tear on the bot, too. But generally, when the bot is on a lower intensity level, I find myself needing to return it to spots at a higher intensity. My life got easier when I left it on max intensity all the time. Particularly with mopping, I can see no benefit for anything but the highest intensity setting.
The days of bump and go bots are largely in the past. The upside is fewer scuff marks and knocked over tower fans. The downside is that LiDAR often is more cautious about avoiding obstacles than I’d like it to be. For instance, most robots now have a pet setting, so your bot will avoid possible piles of poop, as well as your pet. I live in a poop-free zone, and I’ve yet to find a find a pet that would allow itself to be consumed by a slow moving robot, so the benefit was lost on me. I noticed the setting meant a lot more floor was left unswept, so I turned it off. Then I went a little mad and turned off obstacle avoidance altogether, and my floor went from 80% clean to 95% clean overnight. My robot doesn’t bump into things, but it has become more aggressive on getting corners and tight spots, and that is highly appreciated.
The original MagSafe technology (a converted deep fryer mechanism that Apple brought to the MacBook Pro in 2006) made a much-needed improvement to how we charge our devices, drastically lowering the chances of launching a laptop across the room upon tripping over the charging cable. Apple later dumped MagSafe technology for a while in favor of USB-C charging, but it has recently made a more widespread return, popping up not just in MacBook chargers, but all sorts of iPhone accessories. Here are a few of my favorites.
Anker 3-in-1 Cube with MagSafe: Charging with a tangle of cords is overdue for a phase out. Between twisted, shredded ends and the constant staining of Apple’s white cables, it just feels inefficient to carry multiple items for one purpose. This efficient charger has space to magnetically juice all of your small electronics at once, which is great for travel, decluttering your bedside, or safely powering three devices in a standard outlet by only taking up one port.
Anker Magnetic Power Bank 10,000mAh: You don’t have to settle for one of Apple's overpriced MagSafe batteries, and you also don’t have to settle for a cheap knockoff that roasts your phone. Anker is known for quality electronic chargers and batteries (they even make one for your entire household) that get the job done, and this one comes in a few fun colors.
Case-Mate Magnetic Phone Grip: This is a nice accessory that makes it easier to hold your phone with one hand, while still giving you the option to take it off and put your phone in your pants or purse pocket. One con: The little slot only fits one finger, which is a little inconvenient, but this is one of the few truly minimalist phone grips.
Hula+ MagSafe Portable Mount: Dare to scroll in the shower? Hula+ has a tile- and glass-compatible MagSafe mount that uses suction on one side and magnets on the other, which can help your phone stay put in some dicey places. If you like to film, game, or watch content while doing other activities, this is a versatile option.
Magnetic Gooseneck Phone Holder Mount: Clamping phone and tablet stands are really not it. They slip, they slide, they squish, and devices can flop right out. A magnet is more secure for these flexible mounts that require a bit more anti-gravity action. Hands-free phone use is crucial for work and for fun, so get more options for chip dipping, controller smashing, or even a little Netflix and knit.
Anker Magnetic Phone Grip: Working out with your phone can be a huge pain. Armbands like to slip down, and stuffed pockets can stretch or feel bulky against the leg. This is a multi-functional mount with dual-sided magnets, a closure to make a loop that both doubles as a stand and allows for rotation. You can stick it on anything, loop it around your stroller for safekeeping, or hook your fingers through it to make it easier to text with one hand.
ESR Magnetic Wallet: Magnetic wallets have proved to be quite useful, but this is one that does more than hold your cards. An improvement on the much-loved original, this wallet also kicks out to be a phone stand.
Pelican Magnetic Wallet: Because it's waterproof, you can use this wallet even without your phone to keep your cards and cash safe from the elements. While this is a bit more pricey than your average phone wallet, it's a hard case design with a bit more room than others.
ESR HaloLock Magnetic Ring Universal Conversion Kit: A lot of phone cases work with MagSafe right out of the box, but not all of them. If you like your non-magnetic phone case, use a stick-on thingy to convert it and make it MagSafe-compatible.
Soil accounts for almost 10% of the Earth’s surface, and yet for most people, when it comes to gardening and plant care, it remains a mystery. We vaguely know we should improve its health and avoid putting chemicals into it, but from there it becomes murky. Do we till it or not till it? Do we cover it? Do we add stuff like sand to it?
For now, let's focus on that last part. While there is a lot of casual advice on how to use sand in your yard, it should only be done sparingly, and only when you’re using the right kind of sand. Sand isn’t necessarily bad, but it is only one part of what makes soil effective, and using it can have some side effects that you should watch out for.
Golf courses are the platonic ideal of lawns (although we don't recommend you actually grow a lawn), and golf courses do use sand as part of their maintenance programs. This is likely why casual lawn connoisseurs picked up the idea that they should do the same, without the context or specifics of how golf courses utilize the resource, so let’s clear up those misconceptions.
Sand should only be used on a residential lawn to level out a dip or protect an exposed tree root. Even under those circumstances, the kind of sand you use and how you use it are important. To level out your yard, you’d use the sand only where needed, and then as sparingly as possible. Using a lawn leveling rake will help you find those low spots to fill and will ensure a final product that is mostly even. Also, you could just use fine compost instead, which will still level out the lawn, and also provide actual nutrients back to the soil, while providing a good substrate for lawn seed you put down.
To protect tree roots that are above ground, combine sand and soil in a one-to-one ratio, creating a mud, and then compact it around the root in layers, building up the ground around the root over time. The goal is to simply protect the root from being damaged by lawnmowers, yard tools, people, pets, etc. You can also just use compost.
The kind of sand you use is really important, too. On golf courses, they use special round sand, and it’s often dyed to match the lawn. You don’t need to do that (and I don’t recommend using dyes since it just adds chemicals to the water table), but you do want to get the right kind of sand.
Sand is mostly made of silica. Construction sand, or brown sand that you buy, has aggregate in it, and may only be 20% silica. It’s used to provide structure and support in construction, but those ragged edges on the particles that are good for construction are bad for the lawn. Even “play sand,” which has been filtered and washed, is not primarily silica. Store-bought sand can also have high sodium levels and you wouldn’t pour salt on your lawn, so you shouldn’t put salty sand on it either. Sand, even when it’s appropriate, can acidify your soil, so you’ll want to monitor the pH to ensure you can counteract the acidity if necessary. Golf courses might use local beach sand, which you and I don’t have access to.
What you need is “lawn sand,” which is likely going to be obtained through a local stone and soil yard. You can find it locally by Googling “lawn sand" plus the name of your city.
Golf courses do occasionally top dress with sand, but they do so for reasons that likely don’t apply at home.
Sand can be useful for treating fungal infections in lawns, but home lawns don’t generally suffer from the same problems. The greens on a course are subject to a lot of scarring through walking, putting, and driving, and as a result, the soil is naturally scarified—this just means the soil is scratched up. Golf courses also routinely dethatch the lawn, and that process aerates the soil and scarifies it. At that point, a light top dressing of sand is likely to penetrate into the actual soil, not just sit on the lawn.
Your home lawn doesn’t suffer from the same problems, so sand isn’t the most effective way to deliver nutrients to your soil—lawn treatments are, and your local garden center can help you with the right amendment (like fertilizers or other top dressing mineral treatments that are designed to augment your soil) for your specific lawn.
There’s a use for sandy soil in your garden that people don’t talk about enough, and that’s carrots. Some vegetables, like carrots, benefit from a sandier soil, which is looser and more aerated. Carrots even enjoy a little acidity, so while you do need to watch for pH levels due to the sodium, you might benefit from a deep, sandy bed for your carrots to grow in. This will reduce the twisty appearance and stunted growth some carrots have in compacted soil. Sand has a nice side benefit of getting hot, since it’s silica, so as long as the pH is in check, it can be a positive addition to parts of your garden soil.
Another practical use for sand in the garden is for added traction on sidewalks. While sand might have sodium in it, it contains far less than the salt frequently used to keep sidewalks from getting icy. That sidewalk salt is bad for pets' feet, it’s bad for the water table, and it's bad for your garden, because as the snow melts, it makes its way into the beds that line your sidewalk. Sand can work as a reasonable alternative to help provide a little traction.
Xbox Game Pass is hands-down one of the best services that PC and Xbox gamers can subscribe to, and Microsoft just revealed a new batch of games that Game Pass holders will be able access with their subscriptions this month.
Starting April 16, Microsoft says the newly released Harold Halibut will be available as a day-one release for PC, Xbox, and Xbox Cloud gaming. It will be followed by Orcs Must Die! 3 on April 17, which will be available to subscribers on PC, Xbox, and the cloud, as well as EA Sports NHL 24 for console subscribers on April 18.
A few days later, on April 23, Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes will debut on Game Pass as a day-one launch for cloud, console, and PC subscribers. Two days later, on April 25, Aggro Crab Games’ soulslike Another Crab’s Treasure will debut as a day-one release on Xbox Game Pass for cloud, console, and PC subscribers.
April 26 will also see the release-day arrival of the current top wishlisted game on Steam, Manor Lords, which will be released on Xbox Game Preview for PC. This city-building game is easily one of the most anticipated of the year, and it currently ranks above other highly anticipated PC releases like Hades 2 and Hollow Knight: Silksong on Valve’s PC gaming platform.
On April 30, Microsoft will round out the April Game Pass releases with Have a Nice Death, which will be available for cloud, console, and PC Game Pass subscribers.
The unfortunate thing about Game Pass, though, is that sometimes games also leave the subscription service, and this month, six games will depart, including 7 Days to Die, Besiege, EA Sports NHL 22, Loot River, Pikuniku, and Ravenlok. You’ll be able to get 20 percent off your purchase of these games to keep them in your library, though. You can subscribe to Xbox Game Pass to take advantage of these free titles, plus hundreds more.
I’m a pretty big fan of what Google is doing with its Pixel Watch and Pixel phone lineup. These devices are some of the best ways to experience Android on a smartwatch or a smartphone, and Google is continually making things even better. One particularly useful feature that Pixel Watch owners can take advantage of is the Watch Unlock functionality, which Google introduced in late 2023.
It’s a pretty well-hidden feature in that Google hasn’t really actively advertised, and unlike the Apple Watch, which has watch unlock turned on by default, you have to manually activate the feature on the Pixel Watch.
Watch Unlock is a really handy feature that allows your smartwatch to effectively bypass your other lock screen security functionality. It's great for those times when you need to access your phone but don't want to go through the hassle of dealing with face unlock or putting in your passcode or fingerprint. In other words, you can maintain your phone's security in the event that it's stolen or misplaced, but when it's just you at the office or at home, you don't have to jump through those same hoops as long as your watch is nearby.
When enabled, Watch Unlock lets you bring your watch close to your phone, and then it unlocks it, and based on some of the other settings you have selected (which we'll touch on more in a moment), you'll be given instant access to your last-used screen, or you'll be able to swipe up to access your device without needing to put in an unlock code.
Now that you know a bit more about Watch Unlock, let's talk about how to actually use it. The first thing you’ll need is a Pixel Watch or Pixel Watch 2 and a Pixel phone running Android 13 or higher, like the Pixel 8 Pro. Unfortunately, Watch Unlock on the Pixel Watch doesn’t seem to work with any other Android devices, so if you’re not sporting the complete pair, you’re out of luck on using this handy little feature.
It should also be noted that Watch Unlock on the Pixel Watch doesn’t offer quite the same functionality as it does on the Apple Watch, which is the place that I have the most experience with this feature. On the Apple Watch, you can use Watch Unlock to unlock both your phone and other Apple devices, but you can also use it to unlock your phone. The Pixel doesn’t offer this same capability, but maybe Google will add it in the future, as it is really nice not always having to put in a code on a tiny screen like those found on smartwatches.
If you have the needed devices—a Pixel Watch and Pixel phone—then you can take advantage of Watch Unlock by activating it through the following steps:
First, navigate to the Google Pixel Watch app on your Pixel phone. Tap Watch preferences > Security > Watch Unlock and toggle it on.
You can also turn it on in Android settings by navigating to Settings > Security & privacy > Device Unlock> Face & Fingerprint Unlock > Watch Unlock. Either method will send you through a set of on-screen instructions that end with Watch Unlock activated.
Now that Watch Unlock is activated, you can use it in a few different ways. Like I mentioned before, how quickly you access your phone after using Watch Unlock will depend on some specific settings. If you have Skip lock screen turned on in your phone’s settings, having your Pixel Watch on your wrist, unlocked, and near your phone will take you directly to your last used screen. If you don’t have Skip lock screen turned on, then it will unlock your phone, but still display the lock screen, requiring you to swipe up to access the rest of your device.
The biggest title coming to Disney+ in May is the premiere of the next installment of Dr. Who—three episodes will be available on May 10, with new episodes dropping every Friday after that. This is the first season of the BBC show to launch on Disney+, and features the adventures of the Fifteenth Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and companion Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson).
In the Star Wars universe, you can catch the final episode of season three of Star Wars: The Bad Batch (May 1) and the premiere of Star Wars: Tales of the Empire (May 4), a six-episode Disney original series following Morgan Elsbeth and former Jedi Barriss Offee on their journey into the empire.
Weekly episodes of X-Men '97 will continue on Wednesdays along with the premiere of Marvel Studios' Assembled: The Making of X-Men '97 (May 22).
On the documentary side, there's also The Beach Boys (May 24), which goes behind the scenes with the history of the legendary pop band, and Jim Henson Idea Man (May 31), a Ron Howard film about the creator of classics Sesame Street and The Muppet Show.
Here’s everything coming to Disney+ in May 2024.
X-Men '97—Wednesdays
Doctor Who—Fridays starting May 10
Life Below Zero: First Alaskans (S3, 20 episodes)
Marvel’s Daredevil (2003)
Star Wars: The Bad Batch (Season 3, episode 315)
Fantastic Mr. Fox
How Not to Draw Shorts (Special R2D2 Episode) (S2, 4 Episodes)
Star Wars: Tales of the Empire—Disney+ Originals premiere
Monsters at Work (Season 2)
Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story
Me & Winnie the Pooh (S1, 7 episodes)
Playdate with Winnie the Pooh
Let It Be
Big City Greens (S4, 4 episodes)
Dino Ranch (S3, 5 episodes)
Mickey Mouse Funhouse (S3, 5 episodes)
Chip 'n' Dale: Park Life (Season 2)—Disney+ Originals premiere
Marvel Studios' Assembled: The Making of X-Men '97—Disney+ Originals premiere
The Beach Boys—Disney+ Originals premiere
Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted (S4, 6 episodes)
Jim Henson Idea Man—Disney+ Originals premiere
Large swaths of the United States were built with the assumption that everyone who lived there would own a car, but that can be an expensive prospect—the average labor rate for auto repairs is hovering around $60 an hour, and can rise into the triple digits, depending on the make and model of your car.
At the same time, the skyrocketing cost of new and used cars means lots of people are hanging onto their vehicles for longer—the average car on the road today is now 12.5 years old, and older cars mean more repair bills.
If you’ve got a beater that needs work done but you can’t afford to bring it into the shop, there’s another option that can save you a lot of cash. All you need is some mechanical skills (or a friend with some skills) and the location of a DIY garage near you.
A DIY garage is a full-service car repair shop where you can rent a bay, a lift, diagnostic equipment (including computers), and tools, all for an hourly or daily fee. Some will also provide the guidance of certified mechanics—although many people rely on Youtube, manuals, and the free advice of their fellow DIY mechanics. But you do all the actual work on your vehicle, saving yourself a huge amount of money in labor costs.
It’s a fairly straightforward process:
Determine your needs. Depending on the repairs you’ll be doing, you should make a list of all the equipment you might need. People use DIY garages for more than mechanical repairs—some folks repaint their cars, repair rusted roofs, or do other body work.
Locate a DIY garage near you. There’s no national listing of DIY garages, so you’ll have to rely on a Google Search—this page has a preset search box that allows you to enter your zip code and see a list of DIY garages near you. (Here’s a list of DIY repair shops in the New York City area, for example.)
Book your time and tools. Now you just book what you need and show up. DIY garages will supply everything you need in terms of tools, but you’ll need to supply parts and, of course, labor.
The fact that DIY garages can save you money doesn’t mean they won't still cost you some. Here’s what you can expect to pay in order to repair your vehicle at one:
Base cost. If you just need a bay to work in, most DIY garages will charge about $20 to $50 an hour. For example, My Mechanics Place in Michigan charges $20 an hour for a basic bay, U Wrench It in New Jersey charges $24.99, while Your Dream Garage in Los Angeles charges $50 an hour. A lift bay will run you $30 to $35 an hour, and a paint booth is typically about $100 an hour. These prices sometimes include access to tools, but sometimes there’s an extra fee of $10 to $25 for that. Most DIY garages also have daily and even monthly rates, which can be a better bargain if you need that kind of time.
Expert assistance. Many DIY garages offer the option of having a professional mechanic advise you through the repair for an extra fee. For example, U Wrench It will provide a professional to assist you for $55 an hour on top of the bay rental. This can be a great middle option if you’ve never done serious car repair before and you’re nervous about relying on videos and friendly advice.
Considering the costs of labor, a DIY repair done in one of these shops can save you a few hundred or even a few thousand dollars, depending on how much time it takes.
A DIY garage isn’t the right solution for everyone, of course. A few things to consider:
Insurance. If your repair stems from an accident and insurance is involved, your insurer may not approve DIY repairs and might require that the work be done in an approved shop. On the other hand, you might be able to keep some of the insurance money if they simply cut you a check for repairs and you do them yourself.
Liability. Most DIY garages will require you to sign a waiver releasing them of liability if you are injured unless the shop is negligent in some way. State laws vary, but if a DIY shop is operating the law most likely places liability on the consumer. Make sure you know what happens if you’re injured, or if you somehow destroy your car while trying to repair it.
Cost. If you rent a professional to help with your repair, your hourly costs may exceed what you’d pay in labor costs. If the average hourly cost for a mechanic is $60 and you’re spending $75 for a bay and professional help, you’re not actually saving any money at all.
Quality. Saving money is great, but if your DIY car repair doesn’t hold up because you don’t know what you’re doing you’ll wind up in an even worse situation.
Education. A DIY garage can also be a great way to teach yourself about car maintenance and repair. If you have a non-essential vehicle that you can tinker with, spending some time at a self-service garage is a hands-on way of learning.
If you’re reasonably mechanically inclined or have some experience fixing cars—or if you know someone who does and who is willing to help you out—renting a bay at a DIY garage can save you a ton of money while keeping your wheels on the road.
The Shortcuts app for Mac is missing one of the iPhone's best features: Automations. The Mac app Shortery bridges the gap.
Shortcuts on the iPhone offers an "Automations" tab, which allows you to launch shortcuts automatically when certain things happen. You can, for example, disable your alarms when you leave the house (a feature I use to turn my cat's food alarms off when I'm away from the house). The automations tab is missing from the Mac, however, which is odd because Automator, the precursor to Shortcuts, did offer some of this functionality—you could, for example, use Folder Actions to trigger an automation whenever a file is added to a folder. That solution still works because Automator still exists, but it's understandable to prefer Shortcuts at this point—it's clearly the automation tool Apple is putting resources into at the moment.
That's where Shortery comes in. This application is free but offers extremely limited features—the full version costs $10. With this application you can set up custom rules to trigger shortcuts. There are 17 different categories of triggers, like when the contents of a folder change or when it's a certain time of day.
You can set up rules and choose a shortcut to launch when these triggers occur. For example, say you wanted documents to print when they are added to a particular folder. First, you'd make a simple shortcut that prints a document using your default printer. Next, you'd set up an automation in Shortery that will run that automation whenever a new PDF is added to that folder.
Click Save when you've set up everything the way you like it and you're done: every PDF you add to that folder will print.
This is just one example. I set up an automation that starts a Time Machine backup instantly whenever I connect my back-up drive. Lars Gerckens, part of the two-person team who built Shortery, told me that users have set up automations to do things like control their lights depending on the time of day and turning on Do Not Disturb mode automatically when they're physically at the office.
I’m not someone who really loves to camp or appreciates nature, per se—but I'm willing to tolerate the great outdoors. (In finite amounts. From my teardrop trailer. Complete with TV and AC.)
When I started camping, I picked up a dainty Jackery 240 watt power unit and was absolutely befuddled that first morning when it wouldn’t power on a heater or coffee pot. (The answer, it turns out, was a lack of sufficient watts and volts.) To power anything of consequence, a camper like me needs a power unit of decent size and a way to recharge off grid.
Now that I know better, I’ve been testing portable units in the range of 1,000-3,000 watts, along with their matching solar panels, from brands like Jackery, EcoFlow, Anker, and Goal Zero to see if there's much difference in quality and value. The Anker SOLIX C800 PLUS Portable Power Station is the one I've been testing most recently, and it offers a good value, with 1,200 watt output/768 KwH, for $649.
In the desire to get as much power as we can for our buck, we sometimes forget a truly fundamental quality of a portable power unit: it must remain portable. As the capacity of units scales up, so does their heft.
My measly 240-watt unit is light enough that it can be tucked in anywhere and easily carried in one hand. The C800 (and units like it) are like carrying around a loaded cooler. You can do it, but it’s a two-hander and it requires some oomph. The C800 clocks in at a solid 22 pounds, and at 15 inches by 8 inches by 10 inches, it requires a decent amount of space. (It fits well in the foot well of a car, so you can keep it plugged into the car charger.)
In terms of setup, the C800 comes ready to use right out of the box; all you need to do is plug it in, though there are some benefits to pairing it with the Anker app. Power units don’t need to be flashy or beautiful, and I liked that the C800 was a little more nondescript than brighter units like those from Jackery. While the unit is hefty, it’s still very stealable, so I like that it looks subtle. Anker claims the unit can take a hit or two in case you drop it, and I believe them. The build on the C800 felt solid.
A neat feature of the C800 that I didn't see on the other units I tested was an extendible light. If you’re camping, the light, which extends from the top of the unit, works like a lantern on a pole with three modes: flashlight, flood light, and candlelight. On a recent camping trip, I parked the unit on the picnic table and extended the light. As we all charged our phones, the light illuminated our dinners, which was surprisingly useful and a very welcome addition. It's is also supposed to work as a tripod and selfie stick, which none of us were compelled to try out, but a multi-use stand isn't a bad thing to have around, just in case.
The C800's 768 watt hours may sound like a lot, but it's still relatively modest, especially when it's hooked up to a power-hungry device. For example, you'd only get 45 minutes or so out of your 1,000-watt electric heater. You’ll want to reserve use of the C800 for short blasts of power, or for the charging of low-need devices, like tablets, phones, and small speakers.
Power stations like these also work well as a UPS, or uninterrupted power supply. If your power goes out, even just a blip, the UPS keeps the power going to whatever is plugged in, for as long as the UPS itself has power. If you experience occasional brown outs, this is an exceptional way to keep your modem and router from rebooting. For my first test, I kept the C800 going as a UPS for my modem, router, and various home hubs, then killed the power and sat by the phone, waiting for notifications of rebooting or outages. Everything remained powered. SOLIX says there’s a 20ms delay, but for my devices, it wasn’t noticeable.
Anker heavily promoted a technology in their SOLIX units called Surgepad, which claims that the unit can exceed the max watt output (1,200 watts) up to 1,600 watts, based on demand. On higher wattage devices, there’s often an initial surge of power needed, but to remain on, the device might need less. The difference is notable, since 1,600 watts buys you a heater, electric kettle, or hairdryer.
To test this, I tried three devices under 1,200 watts and then three over 1,200 watts. The C800 powered on my lower watt devices without any issue, as expected. A 1,500 watt heater came on and stayed on. My rice cooker (1,800 watts) surprisingly came on without a problem, but a few minutes later, the unit conked out. A third device, a hair dryer, experienced the same thing—it powered on fine, but couldn’t sustain the wattage needed—but items that stayed under that 1,600 watt threshold were fine. Of course, to power these higher wattage devices, the unit will also burn through its energy reserves faster, but I could see it being useful in a pinch.
To charge it back up, I had two 100 watt solar panels, but I only brought out one to test how well they charged individually. On a semi-clear day, the C800 charged in eight hours from a single panel. (It can handle up to 300 watts from solar, which works out to three panels.) This charge time will vary based heavily on placement of the panels and weather conditions. You can, of course, just plug the unit into a wall outlet or your car charger and get to an 80% charge within hours.
Given the expense of these units, I was happy to see a five-year warranty on the product, which Anker claims will give you 3,000 cycles over 10 years. That’s a decent amount of mileage from the initial cost, in my opinion, even if you never use it for more than a UPS in your home. Even with the Surgepad tech, given the number of watt hours, this is still best used for small devices that you can power for a full day, rather than a mini fridge for a short time.
I suspect in the coming years, we'll see more and more homes with these power units in them for emergency backup and as a way to move electricity where you need it. For those purposes, the C800 feels worth the price.
Other power stations to consider:
Watching movies and smoking weed go hand in hand, so much so that there is an entire sub-genre of film known as the stoner comedy—usually movies about potheads under the influence or on the hunt for their next high, and getting caught up in surreal adventures along the way. (My favorite entry: Gregg Araki's Smiley Face, in which Anna Faris gives an Oscar-worthy stoner turn.)
Those films are totally fine—nothing at all wrong with watching Half Baked while fully baked—but sometimes you want to feed your cannabis-inebriated brain something a little more challenging. In the spirit of the 1960s hippies who turned Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey into a head-tripping classic, here are 50 unconventional choices of movies to watch when you’re stoned (and not in the mood for video games).
Danish director Carl Theodore Dryer’s first sound film plays out almost without dialogue, a disorienting dark fable that was produced contemporaneously with Tod Browning’s Dracula but offers a far creepier, chillingly atmospheric take on the gothic fable. Shrouded in mist and dreamlike imagery, its pull is hypnotic.
Where to stream: Max, The Criterion Channel, ScreamBox
The best film of the classic Disney era is heartwarming and harrowing in equal measure; it’s wild that every frame was hand-drawn. It’s also way more messed up than you remember.
Where to stream: Disney+
The screwball comedy sub-genre’s frantic energy and rat-a-tat dialogue make it perfect fare for giggling stoners, and this frenetic romance about warring newspaper editors/ex-lovers played by Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell may be one of the quickest, wittiest movies ever made.
Where to stream: Prime Video, The Roku Channel, Tubi, basically all the places
Hmm, basically everything I said about Vampyr, but transposed onto Beauty and the Beast. This 1946 treasure from French poet and filmmaker Jean Cocteau follows the same basic story beats as the Disney cartoon, but weirder, with impressionistic sets (a hall lined with candelabras made of real, reaching human arms), lavish costumes, and dreamlike imagery.
Where to stream: Max, The Criterion Channel,Tubi
Co-directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, collectively known as the Archers, are generally regarded to have made some of the most ravishingly beautiful technicolor films ever, and this behind-the-scenes ballet drama about a ballerina prodigy and the obsessive, power-mad impresario whose push for perfection drives her mad is their crowning achievement—particularly their impressionistic, 17-minute staging of a ballet based on the titular fairytale.
Where to stream: Max, The Criterion Channel, The Roku Channel, Tubi, Shout TV, Freevee
Speaking of dreamlike imagery, this story of two children on the run from the fearsome, self-ordained “preacher” on the hunt for their criminal father’s ill-gotten loot is a nightmare come to life: A trip down a river that grows more surreal and dangerous (and their pursuer, more relentless) with every twist and bend. Audiences in 1955 didn’t know what to make of it, but today, it is rightly regarded as an expressionistic masterpiece.
Where to stream: Tubi
A lot of stoners will tell you that Tarkovsky is the way to go when you’re baked, but films like Solaris and Stalker aren’t really trippy so much as they are...boring. Hypnotically boring, but still. Instead, I’ll take the Shakespeare-meets-Star Trek earnestness of Forbidden Planet, a reimagining of The Tempest set on Altair IV.
Where to stream: Vudu Free, Tubi
This anachronistically artful aquatic adventure was filmed in Czechoslovakia in 1958 with all the hottest techniques on display in 1902's A Trip to the Moon.
Where to stream: The Criterion Channel
This Palm d’Or-winning adaptation of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, set in a Brazilian favela during Carnival, is loaded with arresting imagery and set to a thrumming bossa nova beat.
Where to stream: Max, The Criterion Channel, Kanopy
Nobody fucks with Angela Lansbury in this trippy, hypnotic Cold War espionage thriller.
Where to stream: Tubi, MGM+
Jacques Tati’s third and most celebrated film to feature Monsieur Hulot, a sort of affable everyman in an omnipresent overcoat, PlayTime is nothing less than a kaleidoscopic vision of “modern” Paris circa 1967, a city growing ever more impersonal as the technological innovations meant to make life easier instead push people apart. Filmed in long, expertly choreographed takes and with action unfolding in every corner of the screen and in-between, it’s kind of like sorting through a Where’s Waldo? drawing come alive. If you love to get high and hyper-focus, it’ll definitely keep you busy.
Where to stream: The Criterion Channel, Kanopy
“I am examining ancient Rome as if this were a documentary about the customs and habits of the Martians,” director Federico Fellini said of this phantasmagoric, hedonistic portrait of the past—a nightmarish tour of a decadent republic, based on a play penned during the reign of Emperor Nero, unfolding in episodic, dream-logic narratives. (Not recommended if you are prone to bad trips.)
Where to stream: Nowhere officially, but you can find the whole movie (with subtitles) on YouTube
French director Jacques Demy made any number of rainbow hued musical delights that you'll love to drink in while under the influence, but my bid goes to this lurid adaptation of the Charles Perrault fairy tale about a king who wants to marry his own daughter (probably because she's played by Catherine Deneuve). The visual design is worth your strongest gummies all on its own—check out the dress made of the same material as a movie screen onto which a sky filled with clouds is projected.
Where to stream: The Criterion Channel
This experimental animated art film, a French/Czech co-production, is set on an alien world inhabited by giants who treat humans like mindless animals. The plot is sort of an afterthought, but the animation is spare, eerie, surreal, and unforgettable—especially if you experience it with your brain marinating in THC.
Where to stream: Max, The Criterion Channel, The Roku Channel
I’m not one for watching horror while high, but this garish, blood-soaked farce, produced by pop artist Andy Warhol, edges closer to comedy in telling the story of an aging succubus (Udo Kier) seeking virgin blood to preserve his immortality and coming up short on virgins in early 20th century Italy. The stilted acting and low-budget charms are doubly endearing when baked.
Where to stream: The Criterion Channel, Vudu Free, Night Flight Plus, Tubi
This legendary misfire is a post-apocalyptic, Wizard of Oz-inspired sci-fi allegory in which an orange diaper-clad Sean Connery is in thrall to a giant floating stone head that eats people. Or something. Director John Boorman cashed in his Deliverance blank check to make this thing, and it's hard to figure out why, but you'll never be bored watching it (or trying to parse its muddled message).
Where to stream: Digital rental
Before Brian De Palma dived deep into modern Hitchcock thrillers like Sisters and Body Double, he made this super weird rock opera pastiche, based on The Phantom of the Opera, but subbing in '70s glam rock and adding a hearty dose of The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Where to stream: Digital rental
The Who and Ken Russell’s Tommy is the rock opera ne plus cannabis...
Where to stream: Digital rental
...but if you don't like The Who's music, go ahead and watch Rocky Horror. It's best with a crowd, but if you don't have a crowd, some THC will do.
Where to stream: Digital rental
I'd say I don't want to say anything that would spoil the inexplicable surprises on offer in this Japanese cult classic, but I have no idea how to describe this movie anyway. Aside from saying that “legendarily weird Japanese haunted house movie” only scratches the surface.
Where to stream: Max, The Criterion Channel
Look it was really hard to choose just one Kubrick OK? This is where I landed.
Where to stream: Digital rental
There’s no story to follow here, just slow-motion and time-lapse footage of American cities and natural landscapes set against a driving score from Philip Glass. Probably should come with a warning about not watching it while operating heavy machinery.
Where to stream: The Roku Channel, Kanopy, Hoopla
Listening to music while high is great. Watching movies while high is great. So it only follows that watching what is generally agreed upon to be the best concert film ever made—Oscar-winning director Jonathan Demme’s recording of a Speaking in Tongues-era Talking Heads tour—is doubly great. That’s just math. (If you can’t catch it this year, you’ll at least be primed for A24's upcoming 4K rerelease.)
Where to stream: Digital purchase
Griffin Dunne is having a very strange night in this mid-career Martin Scorsese romp, which was originally going to be directed by Tim Burton, if that tells you anything. Dunne plays an office drone who encounters the weirdest nightlife Manhattan had on offer in 1985 as he attempts to make his way home from SoHo. New York used to be cool.
Where to stream: The Roku Channel, The Criterion Channel, Tubi
Juzo Itami’s “ramen western” translates familiar tropes of bandits and heroes into the story of a woman who doesn’t know how to cook but seeks the perfect noodle recipe that will keep her struggling restaurant afloat. It’s a giddy, episodic, fourth-wall-breaking satire that caters to the stoner’s attention span, and nary a scene goes by without a delicious-looking meal onscreen, so keep munchies on hand. (But watch out for the part with the raw egg.)
Where to stream: Max, The Criterion Channel
A preference for heightened, melodramatic plotting and candy-colored visuals makes pretty much any Pedro Almodovar film a delightful experience while stoned, so I chose this one, his most frantic and funniest: a screwball romantic farce filled with broad characters making one very bad decision after another.
Where to stream: Digital rental
In his plotless, endearing, aimlessly philosophical debut, Richard Linklater follows a bunch of one-of-a-kind esoterics doing their best to Keep Austin Weird in 1991. (Or, if you prefer, cartoon Slacker.)
Where to stream: Max, The Criterion Channel
Like Almodovar, Wong Kar-wai is a director whose filmography is a stoner’s paradise, and my pick from his accomplished oeuvre is this oddball romantic comedy about two cops looking for love, set in an around an all-night diner in Hong Kong. You’ll laugh; you’ll cry; you’ll swoon; you’ll have this Cantonese version of The Cranberries’ “Dreams” stuck in your head for days.
Where to stream: Max, The Criterion Channel
Warren Beatty’s garish ode to a comic strip no one cared about anymore even 33 years ago, Dick Tracy is ludicrously over-the-top in every way, from the film noir-meets-Hollywood musical tone (with tunes by Stephen Fucking Sondheim), to the performances (Al Pacino earned an Oscar nod for Doing All the Things as villain Big Boy Caprice), to the absurd prosthetics, to cinematographer Vittorio Storaro’s four-color visuals, to the presence of onetime Beatty beau Madonna in full-on Jessica Rabbit mode. It’s definitely the weirdest movie to ever get a McDonald’s tie-in.
Where to stream: Digital rental
The Coen brothers’ most underrated film is a parody of screwball comedies (no mean feat) about a good-natured inventor who brings about his own downfall in his quixotic quest to invent the hula-hoop (you know, for kids!). I’ve chosen this one instead of the more obvious The Big Lebowski because I’m just that cool.
Where to stream: The Roku Channel, Kanopy
There’s nothing like getting stoned to make you begin to pick at the seams of reality, and also, video games are great, so what better choice than this Matrix-era David Cronenberg thriller about characters who may or may not be trapped within the narrative of a goopy, fleshy video game?
Where to stream: Kanopy, Pluto TV
Lots of people would put Sofia Coppola’s award-magnet followup Lost in Translation on this list. Not me though. I favor this sun-drenched, slow-burn nostalgia thriller about a group of doomed sisters and the boys who grow up haunted by their memory. The summery haze of the score (by dream pop duo Air) will hypnotize you.
Where to stream: The Criterion Channel, Pluto TV
I had to have a David Lynch film on here. I chose this one because it’s my favorite: A L.A. noir in which nothing makes sense and nothing can be trusted, because that’s Hollywood, baby.
Where to stream: The Criterion Channel
Everyone has a favorite Ghibli and this one is mine.
Where to stream: Max
Awash in the anachronistic tricks of silent cinema, the films of Canadian director Guy Maddin are as visually trippy as they are narratively weird. Take, for instance, this morose comedy about an international competition to determine which country has the most depressing music—a sort of suicide hotline version of Eurovision. Judging the contest is widowed beer baroness Helen Port-Huntley, who lost her legs in an erotic car accident (go with me on this) and now walks around on glass prosthetics filled with beer.
Where to stream: AMC+
I love twisty stories of fractured psyches even when I’m not stoned, but this Hungarian comedy-thriller, about a group of ticket officers who patrol Budapest’s labyrinthine subway system after dark and must contend with a shadowy killer pushing victims onto the tracks, definitely plays better with all of your senses heightened.
Where to stream: Tubi, Pluto TV, Shout TV, Fandor
I’ve seen this movie four times but never sober, which probably explains why I can never quite remember the plot. Which is somehow appropriate, considering it takes place inside the mind of a man who is having his memories of a bad relationship erased via questionably scientific means.
Where to stream: Digital rental
I almost choose the South Korean cult classic Oldboy, but I decided to spotlight another film in director Park Chan-wook’s so-called Vengeance trilogy. Lady Vengeance (also released as Sympathy for Lady Vengeance) follows Lee Geum-ja, a wrongly accused ex-convict who gets out of prison and proceeds to act as a sort of Archangel Amélie to a group of grieving parents, bringing them all together to arrange the kidnapping and murder of the man who did terrible things to their children (things for which Lee Geum-ja took the blame). It’s a knife-edged, contemplative revenge thriller filmed with the exacting precision of tiered wedding cake constructed by a master baker.
Where to stream: Tubi, Kanopy, Pluto TV
Director Darren Aronofsky’s sci-fi mind-bender concerns a man (Hugh Jackman) seeking the source of immortality across lifetimes, centuries, and spacetime, and its lush cinematography and metaphysical narrative flourishes are enough to give you a buzz even when experienced sober.
Where to stream: Digital rental
This romantic ode to sex positivity and New York City from John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig and the Angry Inch) includes real fucking; it’s like watching porn and a Miranda July movie at the same time.
Where to stream: Mubi, Pluto TV, Night Flight
Is it a dream? A nightmare? Or a fantasy? This story of a girl fighting to escape her abusive father in Fascist-era Spain unfolds like a surreal fairytale, populated by monsters both horrifying and enchanting. It may be writer/director Guillermo del Toro’s most bewitching, beautiful film, and it plays all the better when you slow down time to drink in the details.
Where to stream: Digital rental
Danny Boyle's Trainspotting is always fun, but if you're in a more meditative, existential mood, try this neglected sci-fi flop featuring a pre-Oppenheimer Cillian Murphy as a crew member on a ship that's making a last-ditch effort to drop a bomp into our dying sun, thereby reigniting it and saving the human race. The plot is a mix of rigorous pseudo-science and space thriller, but the vibes—the elegiac score by the electronica band Underworld and composer John Murphy, the trippy sun-bleached visuals—will melt your brain.
Where to stream: Digital rental
Detractors like to say Wes Anderson treats his actors like puppets, but what about the movie in which they’re actually puppets? You’ll be mesmerized watching George Clooney’s stop motion fur undulating through every scene.
Where to stream: Max
This stop motion marvel is kind of like what you’d get if you fed your 9-year-old nephew a pound of Pixy Stix, set him loose with the contents of a vintage toy box, and filmed the results. A cowboy and an “Indian” (named Cowboy and Indian) realize they have forgotten their friend Horse’s (name: Horse) birthday and set off on a series of slapstick adventures as they attempt to build him the perfect present.
Where to stream: Kanopy, OVID.tv
Terrance Malick is known for making movies that eschew plot in favor of imagery; he never met a drop of dew collecting on a blade of sunlit grass that he didn’t find more enthralling than a standard dialogue scene. It’s this quality that makes his films especially choice when you’re lit, because you don’t have to pay attention to what is happening too closely when basically nothing is happening (but also, everything is happening—there’s a long sequence that depicts the dawn of creation through the downfall of the dinosaurs, like someone slipped in a reel of Fantasia).
Where to stream: Hulu
I kind of don’t want to say anything about this one. You know what, don’t even watch the trailer. Just down an edible, and light it up.
Where to stream: Roku, Vudu, Tubi, Kanopy, basically everywhere
Paul Thomas Anderson is the only person ever foolish enough to attempt to translate a Thomas Pynchon novel to the screen (twice?), and you can kind of see why. Joaquin Phoenix plays a stoner private investigator attempting to locate his missing ex-girlfriend in the L.A. underworld. He spends most of the movie wandering around in an inebriated haze with no idea what is going on, so you might as well join him—it’s not like you’d be able to follow the plot any better sober.
Where to stream: Paramount+
I almost put Black Swan on here, but I already had a Darren Aronofsky movie on the list, and this Luca Guadagnino remake of the (also weed-worthy) 1977 Dario Argento original will fuck you up way harder. Dakota Johnson plays an America dancer who enrolls at an exclusive Berlin dance academy that happens to be run by a coven of murderous witches looking for the next human vessel for their ancient queen. That description actually makes it sound much more normal than it plays out!
Where to stream: Prime Video, Freevee
This visual marvel from director David Lowry is the most obtuse, low-key fantasy epic ever, a meandering, shambolic quest across a medieval landscape populated by immortal warriors, wandering giants, and talking foxes. The ambling pace will allow you plenty of time to drink in the visuals.
Where to stream: Max
I can genuinely say that catching this improbable Best Picture winner in the theater while lightly toasted was an all-timer experience. Who doesn't want to watch Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan hop through infinite, increasingly bizarre universe while too inebriated to keep pace?
Where to stream: Netflix
When you have a reliable internet connection, you don't think about how you watch YouTube on your iPhone. It just works. But there are plenty of times when you either need to go offline, or give your data plan a break. For these situations, it's pretty easy to download YouTube videos on your iPhone to watch them offline or without using data—but not all the methods are exactly equal.
This one’s a bit complicated. If you download videos to your iPhone using YouTube’s service (more on that below), it’s 100% on the up-and-up. However, the platform does not approve of downloading videos from its servers outside of that capacity. It’s actually against YouTube’s terms of service for app developers to make YouTube downloaders and put them on app stores.
That said, the company won’t do a thing about it if you do download videos from third-party solutions. Where they will take action is if you upload those videos, especially copyrighted videos, back online. So, play it safe: Download these videos only for your own personal use.
YouTube’s preferred method for downloading videos on your iPhone is, of course, by paying for the service. With YouTube Premium, you’ll find a convenient “Download” button next to most videos on the platform, so you can quickly save your favorite videos for offline viewing anytime.
There are other perks to YouTube Premium, including avoiding ads before videos and the high-quality “1080p Premium” bitrate, for $13.99 per month. It’s an expensive way to download your YouTube videos, but it is the way YouTube approves of.
If you don't have YouTube Premium, you can turn to your iPhone's Shortcuts app. Shortcuts is a treasure-trove of powerful programs. Some of those just happen to be YouTube downloaders.
The problem is, these shortcuts tend to break fast. It's not clear exactly why, but it's possible YouTube frequently changes things on its end and stops these shortcuts from working. That wouldn't be so bad if developers stuck around and patched the issues are they pop up, but, unfortunately, these shortcuts are often abandoned. So, when something goes wrong, the shortcut is useless.
One shortcut that I have found works is Sur. Sur is pretty straightforward: Once installed and run, you need to give it permission to connect to its host sites, then choose whether to paste a YouTube URL, or pull from your clipboard. Sur treats your URL as a "contact" to send to the site it uses to download the video, so you'll need to give permission to send this "contact" to the site. Allow it to run, then allow Sur to connect to the Google Video URL. How long you wait from here depends on the size of the video in question, but once it's done, tap "OK" on the pop-up to choose what you want to do with the video. Since this pulls up the share sheet, you can kind of do anything you want with it: You can save it to your iPhone or your Files app, send it through Messages or a third-party app, AirDrop it, save it to a Note, whatever you want to do.
A previous version of this article recommended JAYD (Just Another YouTube Downloader), and if you searching around the internet, you'll find older posts about the shortcut as well. Unfortunately, it seems to have met the same fate as other YouTube downloaders, so we can't recommend it anymore.
Mobile browsing on iPhone has come a long way. In many respects, it’s just as capable as browsing on a Mac or PC. For example, you can actually use a YouTube downloader in Safari and download a YouTube video just as you would on desktop.
This method isn’t recommended, however. The YouTube downloaders online can be spammy, blasting you with sketchy ads and giving off an overall malicious vibe. Still, it does work, so it’s a notable option. But I'd stick with Sur, or another reputable YouTube downloader shortcut if you can.
Upgrading your outdoor space with a TV can be a fun way to blend indoor and outdoor living, especially when entertaining. The process might seem daunting, but with the right hardware and placement, it’s actually a pretty simple DIY job.
The first thing to consider when choosing an outdoor TV is where you'll be putting it and what kind of sun exposure the area gets. TV companies sell full shade, partial sun, and full sun models, so make sure you take that into account. You can also consider the time of day you generally plan to use your outdoor TV. If it’s after dark, a screen that’s less bright will likely work, while one you plan to use under full daylight conditions will need to be significantly brighter. If you only plan to use your TV at night, you can also choose to use a projector and screen for a larger image at a lower cost. However, you will need to bring the projector indoors overnight or cover it well to keep it from getting damaged by moisture or dirt.
Mounting your outdoor TV can be as simple as mounting one for indoor use, but you should make sure that the hardware you choose is as water resistant as your TV to avoid damage from a broken hanging bracket, for example. A good outdoor bracket will be waterproof and weatherproof, and it should be able to tilt so that you can get the best view. To attach your mounting bracket, you should also make sure to use good quality screws that are intended for outdoor use as well.
Even though an outdoor television is designed to withstand some of the outdoor elements, a cover will extend its life and better protect it from moisture, dust, and debris when you’re not using it. Cutting down on rain and dirt will keep all the inputs for power and networking safe and sound for longer than an uncovered TV.
Protecting your cords can prevent electrical shorts from moisture making its way in between the ends of your cords and causing damage to your electronics as well as reducing the risk of fire. For networking, you should make sure you’re using a weatherproof cable that’s intended for outdoor use. Even if you have a TV that uses only a wireless input, you should still make sure that your power cable is protected. Where cords are plugged in to each other should be in as dry a spot as possible, and you should use a cord that’s meant for outdoor use. You can use individual covers for extension cord plugs, or you can use a larger weatherproofing connector box for multiple cords and power strips.
While you can use an outdoor TV anywhere that you can get power and a signal to it, you can greatly improve your viewing experience by placing your TV in the right spot. Keep your eyes out for the sun when picking your spot, and think about how glare will affect your picture quality at different times of day. Also, while outdoor TVs are listed as “weatherproof,” cutting down on direct sunlight, rainfall, and wind will prolong the life of your appliance. Consider placing your TV on a porch, under an awning, or beneath an overhang to keep it protected. You can install a standard door or window awning for around $100 that can give your outdoor TV some extra protection from the elements.
There's new old social media network on the block. This one is the brainchild of venture capitalist Naval Ravikant and former Tinder product chief Brian Norgard. And yes, there is an AI hook. Airchat is another take on an audio-based social app, but unlike Clubhouse, it might have the potential to stick around for more than a few months.
Airchat is built on the idea of talking. Just talking. Users share updates in form of audio and video messages on their feeds. But feeds themselves are made up of only text. Airchat uses AI transcription to turn those audio and video clips into text on the feed.
At first glance, an Airchat feed looks like Twitter or Threads, filled with text updates and options to reply or repost. But as you scroll through it, something novel happens: The feed talks to you, as Airchat plays the audio or video from the update aloud while you’re reading it. Scroll down to another message and you'll hear that user speaking to you. And you can reply with your own voice just as quickly.
Another peculiar element: The feed scrolls for you. After Airchat is done playing one update, it automatically scrolls on, playing the audio for the next update a highlighted reply. Call it hands-free social media—imagine loading up your feed while in your car, and listen to updates in the background like a podcast. (Yes, Airchat will keep talking to you if turn off the screen.)
Airchat also has DMs, where you can talk using the same methods, but privately. Unfortunately, if you're not big on hearing messages being read aloud, there’s not much else to do on the app. You can sign up using your number or an Apple account, but you will have to provide access to your contacts to find other users, and to send out invites. The app also requires access to Apple’s dictation feature.
Like all new social networks, Airchat is currently filled with enthusiast Silicon Valley bros. As of this writing, it is also invite-only, and the company is still figuring out how to expand the invite system, or to make the app public. They are limiting your invites to just two people right now, which is a shame if you're hoping to get your friends onboard quickly.
The current version of Airchat is a reboot of sorts. The previous iteration was more akin to Clubhouse, as it was focused only on audio messages and interactions. Now, thanks to the text transcription, the feed is a lot more alive, and interactive.
One thing that Airchat has nailed is creating a seamless experience. Recording and posting audio and seeing it show up as text almost instantly is quite impressive. And it’s that instant gratification loop that could keep people coming back.
But questions about its future viability, not to mention its basic functionality, still remain. Right now, Airchat has no major moderation system to speak of, and in my testing, I found the app froze on occasion.
Moreover, the future of a social network depends on much more than just a cool hook. It needs to develop a core user base and grow from there. And that’s hard to see happening right now. As the invites are limited, there aren’t many people on Airchat yet (a problem that nascent platforms like Bluesky have also struggled with). We'll only be able to realize the utility (if any) of a talking social network once there are more people talking, and about interesting and varied things.
Is it worth tracking down an Airchat invite right now? Honestly, you can wait it out. Social networks are all about people, and without your people, this one will feel just like yet another channel you forget to update. Wait for the public release. Once that happens, you can dip your toes in to see if this kind of audio interaction with strangers even appeals to you.
Because one thing is clear: Airchat really wants its users to be active. It's not a built on the consumption model. Like Reddit, the fun in Airchat is that you can quickly hop into a random conversation. Unlike Reddit, you'll do it via your voice, and not text. The question remains whether enough people will want to do that, and whether Airchat can escape the fate of so many other would-be social networks that have come (and gone) before.
This week, I dig around in the cesspit of online "alpha male" influencers to find out what "soft guy era" means. I also look into the wholesome "Utah Fit Check" trend, find out what happens when AI starts making memes, and investigate the Humane AI pin, a new tech gadget I decidedly do not want.
Man-space influencers on TikTok and elsewhere have been hyping the phrase "soft guy era" for the last week or so, working hard to get the hashtag trending and plant the idea in people's minds. And it seems to be working—at least on young men. So I looked into it, and I wish I hadn't.
According to Scarfacemark, the person at the center of the soft guy trend, a man in his “soft guy era” wants to find a woman who will “take care of him in ridiculous ways.” Seems straightforward enough, but Scarface isn't expressing a desire to be what used to be called a “kept man.” Like most everything from red pill and red pill-adjacent people, the "soft guy era" is a reactionary and dishonest concept, a troll driven by misogyny and money.
"Soft guy era” is a reaction to the “soft girl era” trend that became popular, particularly with young African-American women, in 2023. “Soft girl” seems to mostly be about self-care and living a life that isn’t about struggle. For some women, that means expensive vacations and lavishness, or it means looking for a more gender-traditional relationship, where the man makes the money and the woman keeps house. And that’s the inflection point for man-fluencers.
In the world of online woman-hating-for-cash, the “soft girl” thing is an affront to men—an injustice, even though a man supporting a woman is rooted in patriarchal ideas that online dude-guys usually support. It's another gender-war double-bind: Women who want careers are hated, and women who don’t want careers are hated too. The hatred is the real point. Influencers come up with slightly unique wrinkles on time-tested misogynistic ideas and use them to rile up weirdos and increase their view-counts and sell ugly t-shirts and cryptocurrency, or whatever they do to scrounge up the rent for their condos.
I dug around on both the #softgirlera and the #softguyera hashtags. The most-trafficked videos on the former are sappy odes to successful relationships, yearnings for romance, and pleas for peace and gentleness. The top “soft guy” posts are not like this. They are nearly uniformly unfunny "comedy videos" made by a cadre of weird, greasy cranks acting like they’re making jokes when really they’re being assholes. All these dudes pretend they’re rich “alpha males" turning away super-models, and it's a transparent act to everyone but the children and teenagers they prey upon. Maybe the soft girls are working an online hustle of their own, but at least they don't make me feel like I need a shower and a nap.
Remember when it was funny to gross out your friends by making up sexual practices like the “Mississippi Mudslide” or “The Angry Algonquin?” The “Utah Fit Check” is nothing like that. It’s an innocent TikTok challenge where you wear some baggy jeans, give a thumbs-up to the camera, then jump in the air and try to spin twice before landing. Or just spin once—no one is keeping score.
The trend was started by Utah TikToker Michaelmal568. He posted the first video with the hashtag. It seems like he just wanted to show off his outfit, but he went a little too far, and people found it amusing/endearing, and thus a trend was born. It's now spreading across TikTok, Instagram, and everywhere else. Everyone is trying it, and some are failing. Some are pushing the envelope. (Apparently cleanly landing even one spin is not easy, so props to Michaelmal for the semi-clean 720.)
There’s an interesting cross-generational wrinkle to the story: The song you play for a proper Utah Fit Check video is “Harness your Hopes,” an obscure B-side from 1990s alternative band Pavement. I’m always happy when something I liked a million years ago finds a new audience, although more annoying TikTokers have started using Billy Joel’s sappy “Vienna Waits for You” instead of Pavement. They should be ashamed of themselves.
Online people have started outsourcing meme creation to artificial intelligence, and it’s going as well as you’d expect. In this subreddit devoted to the subject, the memes are either incomprehensible or just not funny. They’re not even “so bad they’re good,” they’re just boring. One redditor asked AI to make memes only AI would understand. AI didn’t make anything particularly interesting with that prompt either.
As artificial intelligence gets “better,” it’s losing the one interesting thing it has going on—that surrealist edge that gives everyone a queasy feeling—and replacing it with absolute averageness, complete mediocrity. The future is going to be computer-generated boredom on a level we are only starting to see. But at least we'll all be unemployed.
When a trusted, respected, even-handed tech reviewer like Marques Brownlee posts a video where he calls a heavily hyped, this-will-change-everything tech device, “The Worst Product I've Ever Reviewed,” a lot of people take notice—especially when the product, the Humane AI Pin, is backed by hundreds of millions of investor dollars, and was invented by two ex-Apple higher-ups who worked on the iPhone and iOS.
The Humane AI Pin is a wearable AI assistant that promises to take users beyond the cell phone by packing a camera, light, laser projector, a phone, and more into a tiny, slickly designed device you can stick on your lapel. You can ask it questions in plain English, dictate to it, take pictures, make calls, send texts, and other basic assistant functions. It will even project information onto your hand with a laser if you can't talk to it.
So what’s the problem? According to Brownlee, everything. The Humane AI’s artificial intelligence is slow to respond and often factually wrong (like AI always is). The battery life is terrible. It overheats easily. It’s heavy. The projector function is hard to read, and it often doesn't understand what you're saying. But the worst thing about it is that it doesn’t connect to your phone or anything else. The Humane AI pin is like paying $700 and a monthly, mandatory $24 subscription fee for a second phone that’s markedly worse in every way than the one you already own. It turns out, a touch-screen interface is way better than a voice-only interface. Who could have guessed?
Similar to the way Apple Wallet can make it easier to go out without physical credit cards, Apple Car Key can theoretically make it possible to leave the house without your car keys, too. The feature was first introduced back in 2020, but adoption has been slow going, to say the least. Here's a quick overview of how it works and how to set it up.
Apple Car Key works on both the iPhone and the Apple Watch. To set it up, you’ll need to first make sure that your car supports the feature (there's a list at the bottom of this post). Unfortunately, even in 2024, only a few select manufacturers have started supporting Apple Car Key, so the list is limited. You’ll also need to have an iPhone XS or later, an iPhone SE (2nd gen or later), or an Apple Watch Series 5 or later with the most up-to-date operating system.
The exact instructions you need to follow will vary based on the car that you have, but you’ll essentially need to contact the manufacturer and ensure your account is associated with your car. Then, you can use the car’s display or the manufacturer’s app to set up a key and add it to the Apple Wallet app. From there, you’ll simply need to hold your iPhone or Apple Watch close to the reader, just like you would if you were using Apple Pay.
By default, your Apple Car Key should be added to whatever Apple Watch you have synced to your iPhone. If it isn’t, you can add it by navigating to Wallet & Apple Pay > Add in the Apple Watch app on your phone.
Once you have added your key to your Apple Wallet, you can take advantage of both passive entry and proximity entry. Passive entry is the more automated option: It allows your device to unlock or lock your car when you cross a certain distance threshold, and as long as you have the iPhone in the car with you, you'll be able to start the engine. Proximity mode works similarly to keyless entry in that it detects your iPhone when you hold it close to the door, and then unlocks the car. You’ll then need to hold the iPhone or Apple Watch close to the car’s reader to allow you to actually start the car. With Apple Car Key, you can also easily share car keys with others, which can be useful for large families that share a vehicle or for giving temporary access to someone who's housesitting, for example.
Another handy feature that Apple's Car Key offers is that your iPhone will still work as a car key, even if it needs to be charged. This functionality requires you to be using Express Mode, which doesn't require TouchID or other biometric/safety measures to unlock access to your keys. It's a bit insecure, considering anybody could grab your phone and have access to your keys, but Apple says it could work as long as you've had it enabled for up to five hours beforehand. You can see what cards and keys are available when your iPhone needs to be charged by pressing the power button.
What happens when all of the power reserve is gone, though? Well, according to an interview with The Verge, your phone should always work as a key for your car. It might not be as reliable, meaning you may have to hold it up to the handle a couple of times, but it should always work. That's because when the reserve gets low enough, it swaps to NFC to make those connections. NFC chips don't require a power source of any kind, so they should technically work even when the phone is dead. If you turn your phone off, though, Apple says that Car Key won't work at all.
As I noted above, there are still a few cars that actually support the Apple Car Key. You'll need to contact your manufacturer to verify if your car supports the functionality. However, some users have managed to put together lists of all the cars that are currently known to support Apple Car Key:
2021 – 2023 BMW 1 Series
2021 – 2023 BMW 2 Series
2021 – 2023 BMW 3 Series
2021 – 2023 BMW 4 Series
2021 – 2023 BMW 5 Series
2021 – 2023 BMW 6 Series
2021 – 2023 BMW 8 Series
2021 – 2023 BMW X5
2021 – 2023 BMW X6
2021 – 2023 BMW X7
2021 – 2023 BMW X5 M
2021 – 2023 BMW X6 M
2021 – 2023 BMW Z4
2022 – 2023 BMW i4
2022 – 2023 BMW iX
2022 – 2023 BMW iX1
2022 – 2023 BMW iX3
2023 BMW i3
2023 BMW i7
2024 BMW i5
2022 – 2023 BYD HAN
2023 Genesis GV60
2023 Genesis G90
2023 Hyundai Palisade
2023 Hyundai IONIQ 6
2024 Hyundai Kona EV
2023 Kia Telluride
2023 Kia Niro
2024 Kia Seltos
2024 Kia EV9
Lotus Emeya EV
2024 Mercedes-Benz E‑Class
It may seem strange that we're four years into the lifespan of this Apple Car Key tech and yet there are still less than 150 car models that support it. Well, there's a good reason for that. While having your car key on your iPhone might sound good on paper, there are a lot of factors that have to be taken into consideration, like digital safety.
The concern here is that hackers can theoretically access anything that is digital. Sure, we have various levels of encryption, and Apple offers some of the strongest encryption you'll find on a smartphone, but at the end of the day, none of our cybersecurity systems are completely foolproof, and bad actors are always looking for new ways to get in. As such, even if a system is designed to be secure, hackers may find a way inside, thus giving them access to your car key. Even some of the most notorious car manufacturers who have pushed digital keys, like Tesla, have opted to offer physical fobs as well, just because they are less susceptible to hacking—and sometimes the apps that power the phone-as-a-key systems just don't always work correctly. Sure, someone can still steal the physical fob off of you, but that requires physical interaction, rather than remotely hacking your phone and getting access to your keys.
There's also the fact that Apple and others trying to push these digital keys have yet to come up with any standardization. Cars use different tech inside of them depending on the manufacturer, and that means that you have to create a system that is both secure and able to run off a multitude of different types of hardware and software configurations, or get every manufacturer in the world to agree on a singular tech setup. It's a massive undertaking, and considering how much trouble we've had in just getting the smartphone manufacturers around the world to agree on standard baselines, it isn't likely to happen anytime soon with car manufacturers (of which there are a vastly higher number of). That isn't to say it is impossible, it's just going to take a lot longer before it happens, the same way it is taking a long time for EV manufacturers to all agree on a standard charging setup.
Ultimately, the world just isn't ready to overcome all of the hurdles that Apple Car Key and digital keys pose, from both a technical and consumer standpoint, and that's why we're not seeing them fully embraced across all car manufacturers yet. Concerns over cybersecurity, as well as technical hurdles are still very much at the forefront of this technology. It's possible that another four years could bring more cars under the Apple Car Key umbrella, or it's possible we'll see manufacturers give up on digital keys altogether and look for other methods (this is unlikely, but it's always something that could happen if the tech stagnates enough, which isn't likely as Apple and others see the tech as "growing"). For now, though, Apple's Car Key system will have to settle with its much smaller pool of supported vehicles. At least for a little while longer.
You can get a two-pack of this Apple AirPod Deep Cleaner on sale for $11.99 right now (reg. $29) using the promo code ENJOY20 through April 16. It's a specialized cleaning tool made to fit in the unique spots where dirt and grime accumulates in AirPods and AirPods cases. The metal tip is used to scoop out dirt from AirPod speakers, while the soft brush fits into the charger itself and can be used to rub away marks. The cleaning set can also be used with other bluetooth earbuds, cameras, smartphones, laptops, and electronic devices.
You can get a two-pack of Apple AirPod Deep Cleaners on sale for $11.99 right now (reg. $29) using the promo code ENJOY20 through April 16 at 11:59 p.m. PT, though prices can change at any time.
Finder, the default file manager for the Mac, is extremely mouse driven. Yes, there are a few keyboard shortcuts, but it's an application primarily built for clicking and dragging files around. That works for most people, but some of us prefer doing everything with the keyboard whenever possible.
If you also prefer a keyboard shortcut over a drag-and-drop, check out Marta, a free alternative file manager built for quickly managing files without moving your hands from the keys. The interface is built around two panes, which you can switch between quickly by pressing the tab key. You navigate to folders using the arrow keys, then press enter open a file. You can press backspace at any time to go up a level. You can press Space to preview a file, just like in Finder, and enter to open it. For an even sleeker option, you can press Command-Enter to choose which application to open a file with, all without using the mouse.
You can still use the mouse if you want, but everything is faster if you use keyboard shortcuts, which you can customize. The real answer, though, is the Actions panel, which you can open using the default keyboard shortcut of Command-Shift-P. This opens an overlay in which you can type to search for a command and then hit enter to run it.
This is great, especially when you're getting started, because it lets you do all the super-fancy commands without the need to memorize all the keyboard shortcuts. Even better, you'll see the keyboard shortcuts as you go, giving you a way to learn them over time.
If you want more commands, obviously, you're going to want to open the Terminal. You can activate a Terminal right in the application using the keyboard shortcut Command-O.
This opens a Terminal in the folder of your current panel. Even better, the folder of the terminal changes when the folder of your panel changes, and vice versa. Note that the Terminal is tied to the active panel—you can have a separate Terminal for each window, if you like.
There's a lot more you can dig into here, but it's honestly best explored first hand. Dive in and see if you like it. I'm not sure if I'll use this to replace the Finder for all uses, but every once in a while it's nice to have a power user tool for complex jobs.
You expect to see ads everywhere online, but ads in your operating system are a rarer beast—though not as rare as they used to be. Recently, Windows 11 Pro and Home users have reported seeing ads in the operating system's Start menu, with ads for “recommended” apps and websites appearing beneath the list of installed apps.
It’s not a hugely surprising move, given the company has been pushing ads to the Windows 11 lock screen too, and opening the Settings app will hit you with a huge advertisement for Office 365 if you aren’t a subscriber. Microsoft has even been pushing ads for Bing in Google Chrome.
Thus far, the Start Menu change only appears to be showing in the latest preview builds available to Windows 11 Insiders. As such, it’s possible it might not graduate into the consumer build of Windows 11 if the reaction to it is negative (and loud) enough.
Based on images shared in reports from Windows Central and others, there have been ads and accompanying descriptions for apps like 1Password. They appear alongside the other recommended apps and documents Microsoft feeds to your Start menu.
Luckily, it does look like you’ll have the option to turn it off these ads if Microsoft does end up keeping them around, as Windows Insiders have also spotted a new option under Settings > Personalization > Start, which allows you to toggle off “Show recommendations for tips, app promotions, and more.”
This is but one of recent attempts by Microsoft to roll advertisements into its operating system, a change that many have argued against for years. Windows isn’t a cheap OS, and having to deal with ads in an operating system you paid a good chunk of change for isn’t a great look. And just because you can turn them off now doesn't mean you'll always be able to.
About this time every year, I undertake the task of opening up the patio for spring. I bring out the chair cushions, dust and open the umbrella, and plant all the hanging baskets. Of course, there’s the outdoor grill to clean, and getting the lawn looking tidy. This year, all my new additions are going to be smart ones, because the market is flooding with smart tech specifically for the outdoors.
I’ve been dreaming of a pergola for years, to create shade during the heat domes and keep rain and snow off during the winter. While patio covers with louvers that open and close aren’t new, automating them though an app is. Smart pergolas and cabanas are now a reality, and are only getting smarter. An app can control the louvers, and can even do so in response to rain sensors or wind sensors. Shades on the sides of the pergola can be automated as well, and Struxure, the company that produces these pergolas, says that by late summer, they’re introducing a new app experience that will allow you to control the lights, fan, heater, misters—anything on the pergola (right now, it’s just the louvers). These pergolas don’t come cheap—according to a distributor in Indiana, a 10x10 pergola starts at $20,000 and quickly goes up from there. A more discreet version is available as the Cabana X, which has a 10 by 10 footprint and can be configured online, and extended into as large a footprint as you’d like. Cabana X starts at $7,497, and both Pergola X and Cabana X can be sourced through Struxture’s website, which will connect you with a local dealer.
A more down-to-earth option is the Above Height Series Smart Umbrella. While there isn’t an app experience, a remote control will open and close this patio umbrella, and a wind sensor will automatically do so for you when the breeze is a bit much.
Above Height Smart Umbrella, $599-$699
Lighting up the space isn’t just about a vibe—it’s a safety issue, too. Keeping the patio well-lit at night means no stumbling around, and a fall can bring a party to its knees. Beyond that, lighting is another architectural detail that can be used to highlight the space and transform it at night. Being able to discreetly turn on those lights or change them at the touch of a button on your cell phone is essential for a host. There are three ways to achieve outdoor smart lighting: through a smart outdoor plug, smart plug-in lighting or smart solar lighting.
Ring introduced smart solar path lights and to be frank, I expected very little from them. Solar stake lights tend to be flimsy and rarely last a whole year. But the Ring lights are beefy, substantial lights that even my doberman has not been able to take out yet. They can be automated to a schedule or simply come on when they detect activity and I’ve been incredibly impressed at how they light up in order as my dog trots past them at night. Even in partial shade, they get enough sun to charge for the day.
Smart plug-in lights are having a moment: Last week, I gave the new Nanoleaf outdoor string lights a generally positive review. Over the past few years I’ve tried a number of smart outdoor plugs, and I’m happy to say that they’re getting more reliable. I’ve been using the GE Cync Outdoor Plug for the last few months and it’s delivered dependably. I’m also excited for the upcoming release of the Eve Outdoor Outlet, which eliminates the need for an outdoor smart plug altogether.
Nanoleaf Outdoor String Lights, $129.99
Ring Smart Solar Pathway Lights, set of four, $139.99
GE Cync Outdoor Plug, $16.80
I continue to be impressed by the small portable speakers that have been produced in the last five years, from Wonderboom to the JBL Flip. They do an exceptional job of bringing big sound in a small package, including impressive bass. But there just isn’t any denying the hold that Sonos has on the market—I just prefer my music over wifi instead of Bluetooth, where the beats aren't interrupted by notifications and phone calls. While many people, including myself, found workarounds to bring regular Sonos speakers outside, they now offer outdoor speakers as well as portables. This means you can have consistent sound when people walk inside from the outdoors.
Wonderboom Bluetooth Speaker, $99.99
JBL Flip 5 Bluetooth Speaker, $89.99
Every major grill brand now has a way to offer smart tech as part of the experience, whether it’s baked into the grill like Masterbuilt or a bolt-on device like Weber. Even if you don’t have a smart grill, smart thermometers like the Combustion can allow you to monitor your meat while you chill around the fire pit.
Masterbuilt smart grill, $697
Weber Connect Smart Grilling Hub, $89.99
Buying plants and flowers for your patio is rarely a problem. Keeping them alive and looking good all summer— that’s the trick. Smart watering systems can help alleviate one care point. Of all the units I’ve tested, I thought Rachio was the best for a smart hose valve, if you purchase it through Amazon and not through Rachio (my attempt to return a defective unit was painful); connecting it to some basic tubing and emitters will let you keep everything watered all summer.
Rachio Smart Hose Valve, $77.72
If you’re a tall person and find yourself struggling to live in a home that isn’t designed for someone of your stature, you might dream of a gut renovation to fix the problems vexing you most, or even a custom-built tall person house, with everything sized and scaled for you.
While those options aren't likely possible (nor practical), there are a few products you can buy that can have a huge impact on your comfort level at home, without a major renovation.
If you find yourself peering easily over the shower curtain and you’re forced to contort yourself into odd shapes in order to fit under the shower, an adjustable shower head like this one from Waterpik will change your life. Its flexible design means it can be adjusted to accommodate just about any height, so if you’re sharing your bathroom with a shorter person you can both be comfortable while taking a shower. Alternatively, any detachable shower head (like this one) will improve your situation by allowing you to at least get under the water without doing impromptu yoga poses.
The standard height for kitchen countertops is 36 inches. This works for most people, but if you’re very tall, you probably have an aching back after a short time hunched over your counter to make dinner. If raising your cabinets or renovating your whole kitchen isn’t an option, a raised cutting board can at least make food prep more comfortable for you.
If you’re living in a home designed for a much shorter person, a kneeling chair (or two, or three) will make everything a lot easier. Instead of standing, hunched, over a low counter or having to sit down on the floor to deal with your fridge or dishwasher, a kneeling chair will get you to a comfortable height, er, comfortably. Use one in any situation where you would normally crouch or kneel for long periods of time and be happier for it.
It might be obvious, but if you’re a tall person a bigger mattress will absolutely change your life. A California King is 84 inches long, which should be big enough for most taller folks—but there are several even larger choices if you can fit them into your home and need even more legroom. The Texas King is 98 inches long, and the Alaskan King is a whopping 108 inches square, which should be big enough for even the tallest people.
Standard toilets are 14-15 inches high. If you’re a tall person, using one can be a very unfortunate experience. A few extra inches will make using the toilet a lot easier, and replacing a toilet isn’t a difficult job—it’s actually something most people can do DIY. And if DIY isn’t your bag, it’s not terribly expensive, averaging less than $400 (t counting the cost of the toilet itself).
Tall folks have big clothes, and big clothes have a tendency to fall off (or be deformed by) standard hangers—but if you’re reading this, you probably know that. Adjustable hangers that can expand to fit your shirts and other clothing items prevent both of these scenarios, keeping your wardrobe looking good—and off the floor.
Finally, a small renovation can pay huge dividends. If you’re constantly dodging light fixtures and ceiling fans that seem to have been placed directly in your airspace, recessing the lighting in your home and switching out standard, head-chopping ceiling fans for flush-mounted, low-profile versions will eliminate a real danger and make your house a lot easier to navigate—especially in the dark.
Over the last decade, it seems most people are favoring laptops over desktops. And that makes sense since some laptops are actually overpowering desktops now. But desktops still have their place for people who don't plan to move their computers around. An all-in-one desktop means you can leave your computer plugged in without worrying about killing your battery; they also come with a monitor, keyboard, and mouse and usually have better ports and other accessories you can add to it. The All-In-One iMac 24-inch desktop for $799.99 (originally $1,249.99) does all that, and it's currently seeing its best price yet, according to price-comparison tools.
The Apple iMac 24-inch came out in 2021 with an "excellent" review from PCMag for its sleek, minimalistic design and color-matching accessories, its fingerprint reader for safe, quick logging in, excellent camera quality, and the then-latest M1 processor. While we're already at the M3 chips, the M1 chip is still a fantastic processor even years after its release, as Lifehacker's Senior Technology Editor Jake Peterson will tell you. So yes, the M1 is still relevant in 2024 if all you do is light work, internet browsing, and content consumption.
As the name implies, this is an all-in-one iMac desktop, so you'll get a color-matching keyboard and mouse. The desktop comes with 8GB of RAM, which gives you decent power to handle some heavy applications, an incredible 23.5-inch iMac’s Retina non-touch display with a 4,480 by 2,520-pixel resolution (which is higher than 4K; "4.5K" as Apple calls it), and 256GB of storage capacity.
If you're curious about the camera, it is a built-in webcam that captures 1080p video. The touch ID-equipped keyboard lets you use your fingerprint to authenticate purchases, approve app permission requests, and log in instead of having to input your password. The mouse is the same Magic Mouse you're probably used to seeing on other Mac desktops.
If you want to create a garden retreat and have a convenient spot for hosting, or just a quiet spot to enjoy your morning coffee, a garden room is just the thing. With more insulation than most sheds, a garden room allows you to enjoy your outdoor space while having some cover from the rain—and some shade, too. Here’s what you need to know to build a garden room on a budget.
A garden room can be a retreat if you want some peace and quiet, a place for entertaining, or an alternative to your home office. You can really use it for anything you want, and you can customize it to your own purposes. Adding furniture and decor to suit the needs of your space will help to make your garden room functional, and having plenty of windows to bring the outdoors in will help to keep your outdoor space open. Since a garden room is insulated, it can be comfortable year-round, but unlike a tiny home, you don’t necessarily need to worry about plumbing or running power.
If you plan to add a garden room, you’ll need to measure your space first to make sure you can fit the size and type you want. Make sure to check zoning regulations before deciding on placement of your garden room to determine if you have enough clearance from your property line and that you’re in keeping with any other rules or ordinances—and choose a flat spot with good drainage.
There are a few options for constructing an outbuilding that are worth considering as a basis for a garden room: You’ll need to either build a deck structure or pour a concrete slab for your structure to sit on. Here are a few good options for how to build a structure on a budget.
A metal shed is one possible option for building a low cost garden room. The pros of going with a metal shed to structure your garden room are that it is an inexpensive option at between $299 and $400, and you can usually get the size you’re looking for. The downside of a metal shed is that you’ll need to cut through the metal to add windows and it doesn’t come insulated, so you’ll need to add that yourself.
Using a wooden shed kit as the basis for your garden room is a good way to build a decent quality structure while saving some money. You can get an all-wood, cedar shed kit for less than $500 plus the cost of delivery, and you’ll be able to customize it easily with some basic woodworking tools. A shed kit doesn’t come with insulation, so you’ll need to add your own, and it’s a little more expensive than a metal shed, but it’s easier to customize and can be purchased with windows already installed.
You can choose to build your own frame for your shed if you have a chop saw and some basic carpentry knowledge. Framing your own allows you to customize everything, but it requires more skill because you’ll be cutting and assembling all your own parts. A simple structure isn’t too difficult to build, and you can also choose to use a framing kit that costs around $60 to make assembly easier.
Since most sheds don’t come pre-insulated, you can use radiant barriers like the type used for garage doors, neoprene insulation, or reflective heat barrier insulation, all for around $15 dollars a roll. These insulation types can be installed on interior walls and then covered with your desired finishing material to make the inside of your shed more comfortable. Once the insulation is installed, you can use paneling or drywall to finish your interior.
I got a slow cooker a few weeks ago and it was a rollercoaster of emotions. The high was eating some of the best chicken I’ve ever had after having to wait hours to consume it. The low was realizing after I was done that, all the sauce I cooked it in had hardened and become stuck to the interior of the device. It did not want to come off. Here’s what I’ve learned about cleaning these things since (because obviously I’ve used it every day).
First, there are things you should not do to clean a slow cooker: Never use anything that is abrasive, like a scouring pad or an abrasive cleaner, and never use cold water on your stoneware when it’s still hot. Of course, never immerse the bottom, electrical part in liquid at any point, either.
To really clean the device, fill it with water until the water goes over the line of leftover food around the walls. If your slow cooker holds three quarts, add a half-cup of distilled white vinegar. If it holds six quarters, add one cup. Next comes some baking soda, in the same amount you used for the vinegar. (You can get 128 ounces of vinegar for $3.99 and three pounds of baking soda for $3.39 at Target.)
Cover the cooker and turn your knob to the low heat setting, then let it heat up the mixture for an hour or so. After that, remove the lid and use a soft sponge to scrub at the residue around the inside. Once it’s all been cleared from the walls and bottom of the cooker, let it cool a bit before washing it in the sink with warm water and soap. Air dry it on the counter and you’re good to go.
There are two steps you can take to avoid the mess of caked-on leftovers, or at least mitigate it. First, you can use specially designed slow cooker liners when you’re cooking. These disposable liners go inside the cooker and stop the food from ever actually touching the stoneware. You just throw them out when you’re done. They can be a little pricey, though: In my research, I’ve found you usually end up paying around a dollar per liner. For instance, a four-pack of four-count liner boxes (so, 16 liners) from Reynolds is $16.24 right now on Amazon.
If you don’t want to do that or don’t have a liner handy, don’t turn your heat off when you’re done cooking. When you’re serving the food, keep the cooker on a low heat setting so the remnants in there don’t have a chance to cool down and stick to the stoneware as much. You can even transfer what you made to a different pot, add some water to the leftover mess, and keep it going on a low setting for a few hours, basically cleaning itself.
These days, extreme weather events are both more extreme and more frequent. After an unusual ice storm knocked out power at my house for days this year, I found myself feeling weirdly vulnerable without a way to heat my home, so I decided to look into power backup options.
While a whole-home solution was not within budget, I knew I wanted at least enough power to keep myself warm and to power my phone, laptop, and modem (on the off chance internet wasn’t out, too). While portable power stations and solar generators are an option, they’re somewhat limited in how many volts/watts they can sustain and for how long. To really achieve something that could carry me for a few days, I needed to go bigger—to a power station. Luckily, Anker was willing to let me try out its new F3800 unit, and it might just be exactly what I was looking for, but it comes with a hefty price tag.
The first thing to know about the F3800 is that it is only portable in the loosest of definitions. UPS struggled to get the box to my door, I struggled getting it out of the box, and I really struggled moving it from my front door to my energy panel. Sure, there are wheels and a handle, but it’s still 130+ pounds. If you dream of hauling something like this camping, forget about it.
However, the unit is tall and has a compact footprint, so it tucks away neatly and looks at home in a closet, for example. It also required zero installation. Out of the box, you can just plug it into the wall and let it charge. It also comes with cables to daisy chain with additional batteries. Really, the only thing you need to do is bring up the Anker app and pair the unit, although the device will work fine without that. The app just adds some convenient features, like fine tuning how the unit works and monitoring it from afar.
And at $4,000, the F3800 is no small investment, but it’s something that will grow with me. While it's possible to just plug the F3800 into the wall and wait for the power to go out, it can also tie into a home’s solar panels, which made it more appealing as a long-term option. The real benefit is that I can, now or in the future, install a subpanel on my electrical panel and wire the F3800 to it. That way, if the power goes out, my home will immediately start using the power in the backup unit.
Along with the F3800, I received two PS400 portable solar panels ($899 each), and while these did not weigh as much as the station, they were substantial in size and weight. I waited for a sunny day and hauled the station close enough to the patio so that I could charge it off the solar panels. We had a run of 70-degree, cloudless days here unusually early, and the F3800 achieved an 80% charge after seven hours of sunlight. The rate at which the sun can charge something like this is highly variable, changing with factors like placement and weather conditions. According to Anker, if you maxed out the number of solar panels this unit can accommodate (2,400 watts total), it could charge in 1.5 hours.
The F3800 is 6,000 watts, which is pretty beefy, but you may need more. Anker says the system is expandable up to 53.8 Kwh, which is impressive, if you’ve got the room—and the funds.
In order to use a backup unit, you need enough outlets to power all the stuff you want to use. Luckily, the F3800 is well-equipped, with six 120v outlets. Of those 120v outlets, three are UPS outlets, meaning they have uninterrupted power. I’ve mentioned in the past that I love UPS as a way to keep my internet stable during unstable power conditions, and I’ll go a step further here to say that the F3800 could be a way to keep your entire smart home up and running through a short outage.
Then, there is a 240v NEMA 14-50 AC Port and a L14-30R AC Port, which would allow you to run something larger like a clothes dryer, but it also brings up the second use for a power station like this: delivering power where you don’t have it. That might include something like a work site, or just a garage workshop with terrible power servicing, for example. Again, I don’t recommend hauling this unit around town, but I kept coming up with scenarios in which the F3800 would be useful, like powering an EV or a garage freezer. There’s also a number of USB ports for fast phone and accessory charging.
There isn’t a lot to compare the F3800 to because there aren’t many power stations of this capacity available to everyday buyers—but so far, I'm impressed. (EcoFlow does have a new station, the Pro Ultra, with slightly higher capacity than the F3800 at 7,200 watts. It's also more expensive, at $5,199. I have not tested it, but it appears to be the same kind of expandable system.)
As I was thinking about how to really test the F3800 in the conditions it was meant for (an actual outage), a windstorm swept through that knocked out my power. As soon as it was clear the outage wasn’t momentary, I moved the F3800 into place. I connected it to my modem, TV, router, laptop, cell phone, fridge, a heater, and—with one absurdly long power cord snaked through the doggy door—the garage freezer. For the next two hours, my dog and I were happy, warm and entertained.
The power came back on by nightfall and I checked in with my power station. I’d only consumed 18% of the energy. If I had been a little more conservative in what I was powering up, I could have kept this party going for eight hours or more. The biggest obstacle, really, was extension cords.
Earlier this month, Apple quietly adjusted its Apple Store review guidelines, adding new language specifically states, "retro game console emulator apps can offer to download games," marking the first time the company has allowed emulators on iOS. Hooray!
It didn't take long for someone to take advantage of this new allowance: iGBA, a Game Boy emulator, made its debut on the App Store over the weekend, quickly topping the free apps charts. The introductory emulator seemed to play by Apple's new rules: As piracy is, obviously, illegal, the app would only run ROMs you downloaded yourself to the Files app on your iPhone. iPhone gamers rejoiced. Then Apple removed the emulator from its marketplace, just days after it launched. iPhone gamers mourned.
While we still don't know exactly why Apple took away iGBA, there seems to be a likely explanation—and it has nothing to do with pirated games. Developer Riley Testut took to Threads on Sunday to highlight the fact that iGBA appears to be a knock-off of their own emulator, GBA4iOS. Despite Testut not giving permission to use his code, somehow iGBA managed to pass through Apple's strict App Review process to land on the App Store itself.
Tetsut has been trying to launch their alternative app store, AltStore, in the European Union for over a month, and plans on publishing Delta, a revised version of GBA4iOS, once that happens. With all this up in the air, Testsut says he's particularly frustrated Apple was so quick to approve a rip-off of his app.
That said, it seems Apple took Testut's claims seriously. I assume the company launched an investigation, and once Apple confirmed iGBA was indeed made from stolen code, it promptly removed it from the App Store.
The process seems to have followed wha tis outlined in the company's App Review Guidelines:
Make sure your app only includes content that you created or that you have a license to use. Your app may be removed if you've stepped over the line and used content without permission. Of course, this also means someone else's app may be removed if they've "borrowed" from your work.
There's a lot to be learned from this experience. First, don't steal. It's wrong, and Apple will boot you from the App Store for doing it, no matter how successful you are. Second, and more pertinent to most of us, is to not download the first emulator to hit the iOS App Store. Tetsut says iGBA was rife with ads and tracking, which means those happy retro gamers playing Pokémon on their iPhones this weekend likely had their privacy breached. There's no evidence iGBA was malicious, but it's easy to imagine another emulator app sneaking onto the App Store with bad intentions.
While you can't download iGBA going forward, it won't disappear from your iPhone if you already installed it. While you can continue using it, given the situation, I'd recommend you just delete it. While this change in Apple's policy is positive, it's important to take a breath: I'm sure Apple is going to be even more stringent with its emulation reviews going forward, but it might be best to wait until an emulator has been further vetted before diving into your favorite retro game.
If you miss this week’s tax filing deadline, you might be feeling anxious about getting hit with late-filing penalties by the IRS. However, if you don’t have a recent history of filing your taxes late, it’s possible to apply for something called a first-time penalty abatement, which will waive some of your penalties. Here’s a look at how you can apply.
First, if you are expecting a refund, there’s no penalty for filing late; however, if you owe taxes and miss the April 15 deadline without requesting an extension, you should file quickly to limit penalties and interest.
Typically, late tax filers owe a failure-to-file penalty—5% of your unpaid tax balance per month (though the total penalty won't exceed 25% of you tax due). But if you file more than 60 days after the tax filing deadline, your penalty becomes the lesser of $435 or 100% of your unpaid tax balance. If you filed on time but couldn’t afford to pay your taxes, the penalty is much smaller, at 0.5% of your unpaid balance per month.
Note that some taxpayers may have extra time to file their tax returns and pay any taxes due, including disaster victims, taxpayers living overseas, military service members, and eligible support personnel in combat zones.
Now for the good news: If you have a history of filing and paying your taxes on time, the IRS may be willing to waive those penalties through a first-time penalty abatement, along with the interest accruing on your penalty. The agency may also offer penalty relief for a reasonable cause—which includes things like natural disasters, no access to your records, or a family member’s death or illness.
To qualify for the first-time penalty abatement, you’ll need to meet the following criteria:
Three years of on-time filing and tax payments
You filed all currently required returns or filed for an extension of time to file
That you have paid—or have arranged to pay—any money you owe
If you have received a failure-to-file notice from the IRS, look for the toll-free number in the top right-hand corner and call the agency to see if you qualify for relief through abatement or another waiver. (The lines are often busy, so check out this Lifehacker post for some tips to get routed to an agent).
Alternatively, if you prefer to put the request in writing, you may also contact the IRS by mail—but it may take up to 30 days to get a response. Also, another tip: You might improve your chances of relief by making the request after paying your tax balance. If you received a notice or letter stating that the IRS didn’t grant your request for penalty relief, you try the Penalty Appeal Online Self-help Tool.
Mason bees are pretty incredible: They’re docile, they are easy to raise, and they are amazing pollinators of spring flowering fruit and nut trees. These bees don’t use hives the way honey bees do, instead preferring to place their eggs in narrow holes, plugged up with mud (hence the name “mason”).
Their gentle nature and solitary habitat preferences make mason bees a great species to “keep” in your yard. That is, if you do it right. If you don’t do it right, you might be harming them more than you’re helping them.
Former evolutionary biology professor Colin Purrington took to X (then Twitter) a few years back to tell us all the ways our good intentions have gone awry, and it's worth a reminder if you want to set up a mason bee house in your yard or garden this spring.
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If you’re going to make your own mason bee house, Purrington offers his own tutorial here, along with a slew of additional reading you can take advantage of. If you’re leaning toward a store-bought variety, don’t simply grab the first cute structure labeled “mason bees” that you see. It’s important to educate yourself about the species first to understand how to most effectively help them—and not accidentally harm them instead.
The biggest problem Purrington points out with some store-bought mason bee houses is that the blocks and reeds are glued to the back of the house. That means you can’t add new nesting material each spring, greatly increasing the risk of parasites and fungus.
You’ll find some great info here on the year-round care of mason bees, including storing the nesting tubes and blocks and harvesting the cocoons.
Mason bee houses should be placed against a flat surface in an area protected from high winds, approximately six feet off the ground and south-facing, if possible. Do not hang mason houses by a string from a tree limb; allowing the eggs to be knocked around in every passing breeze isn’t helpful. They’ll also need to be close enough to pollen-producing plants (they won’t travel farther than 300 feet), as well as a good supply of claylike mud to cover up their nesting holes.
The roof of a good mason bee house will have a bit of an overhang to protect the holes from rain and lower the risk of the larvae and pupae rotting inside the nest.
If you’re now questioning the quality of your mason bee house, you can always ask Purrington directly for his opinion (hey, he offered).
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Your 3D printer can be used for all sorts of hobbies and projects around the house. While a 3D printer is great to create fun stuff, it can also be practical. Designing and printing your own components for home-improvement projects is a fantastic way to develop your skills and make your home customized for your needs and style.
Making a cable reel to store charging and other power cords to keep them from getting tangled is a simple and practical project to try with your 3D printer. Depending on the size of your 3D printer, you can scale your cable reel to fit a variety of cable types all the way up to big extension cords for use in your home workshop.
You can use your 3D printer to create custom outlet covers and light-switch plates. Printing your own allows you to match the style to the rest of your home or create something unique that’s perfect for you. To make a switch plate or outlet cover, you’ll need to take into account the screw placement as well as holes for the outlet and light switch.
If you want to hang a shelf on the wall, you can print brackets with your 3D printer. You’ll need to create a shape that has a right angle and has holes for using screws to attach it. Adding an angled support to make the bracket more sturdy is a good idea to make sure your shelf is structural.
You can 3D-print coat hooks, plant hooks, and hooks for hanging up Christmas lights and other holiday decorations. Make sure to use the appropriate filament if you plan to use the hooks outdoors so that they will stand up to the weather. You can also create custom designs to fit with your decor as well as making multiple hook brackets for use in a bathroom for towels, or a mud room for coats.
If you’re updating cabinets or furniture, you can print some drawer pulls with your 3D printer to customize your new look. Make sure to take note of sizing if you choose to use a pre-made file instead of one you customize yourself. You can use your imagination to create a drawer pull that will look the best with your decor and function well with your furniture.
Keeping leaves from clogging up your downspout can be a challenge. But luckily you can print your own downspout filter with your 3D printer to keep leaves and other debris from ending up inside your downspout. While you can likely find a file that’s designed for your type of gutter, you might need to modify one for an exact fit.
To level furniture on an uneven surface and protect your floor from scratching, 3D-print some adjustable feet. Note that you’ll need to also get hardware in the right size. Once the feet are placed on the ends of your furniture legs, they can be screwed in and out for leveling.
If you’re a gardener, or if you just have an expanding collection of climbing house plants, getting the right support for growing plants or training them into the shape you want is important. You can 3D-print your own plant clips. There are a few different designs available if you don’t want to make your own file, so you can get the size and shape you’re after.
The FDA has approved the first app for treating major depressive disorder, a condition estimated to impact 21% of U.S. adults at some point in their lifetime. The app, Rejoyn, is intended to supplement treatment for major depressive disorder: In a clinical trial of 386 adults with major depressive disorder (who were also being treated with antidepressant medication), participants who used the app saw improved depression symptoms after 6 weeks of treatment.
Using digital tools to improve mental health is not new, of course. There are tons of apps available for meditation, journaling, and even connecting to a therapist—and there have been apps approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat ADHD, substance use disorder, and insomnia.
Rejoyn is expected to be available by prescription for iOS and Android devices in summer 2024, but there’s no information yet on how much the app will cost or whether insurance companies will cover it. Here’s what we know so far about how Rejoyn works and whether you should look into it when it’s available.
Rejoyn uses a six-week program of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) lessons, exercises, and personalized reminders and messages. During the program, you will complete three lessons and three exercises each week. For four weeks following the program, you can still access the lessons for review. Lessons (a short video followed by an off-app or interactive activity) take 3-4 minutes and exercises take 11-26 minutes each.
According to Otsuka, the company that made Rejoyn, lessons focus on cognitive restructuring (observing and re-framing maladaptive cognitions such as cognitive distortions), behavioral activation (deliberately increasing goal-directed behavior, physical activity, and interpersonal interaction), and emotional regulation (an individual’s ability to modulate or control the influence an emotion has on them, or to modulate the degree to which an emotion is experienced).
Rejoyn is intended for people who are 22 or older and are diagnosed with depression. It will be most suited to people who are tech savvy and want to use digital resources to accompany talk therapy and medication for depression.
“It's essential to note that while Rejoyn represents a significant milestone as the first prescription digital treatment for major depressive disorder, its efficacy and suitability for individuals may vary,” said Dr. Sanam Hafeez, neuropsychologist and director of Comprehend the Mind. “As with any treatment, consulting with a therapist is crucial to determine whether Rejoyn is an appropriate option and to develop a comprehensive treatment plan tailored to the individual's needs.”
Rejoyn requires a prescription, so you will have to talk to your primary care doctor, psychiatrist, or psychologist about your depression symptoms and treatment.
“During this consultation, the healthcare provider will conduct an evaluation to assess the individual's symptoms, medical history, and current treatments. Based on this evaluation, the provider will discuss various treatment options, including Rejoyn, alongside traditional therapies like medication and psychotherapy,” Hafeez said. “If Rejoyn is deemed suitable for the individual, the healthcare provider will issue a prescription for the app.”
“While it may provide tools and resources for managing symptoms, it may not address the underlying causes of depression in the same way that therapy and medication can,” Hafeez said. However, it could be a source of support between therapy sessions.
Hafeez said there are non-prescription apps that show promise in improving symptoms of depression. She shared these examples:
Headspace offers guided mindfulness and meditation exercises aimed at reducing stress and promoting emotional well-being. "Research has suggested that mindfulness-based interventions can be effective in reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety," Hafeez said.
Woebot is a chatbot-based app that delivers CBT techniques through conversational interactions. "Research has found that Woebot can be effective in reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety, particularly among younger users," Hafeez said.
Happify offers activities and games designed to promote happiness and well-being by targeting negative thoughts and behaviors. "While research on Happify specifically is limited, interventions focused on positive psychology principles have shown promise in improving mood and psychological well-being," Hafeez said.
While the number of digital tools available for tending your mental health are growing, don’t ditch therapy and meds yet.
“It's important to note that while these apps have shown effectiveness in research studies, they are not intended to replace professional treatment for depression,” Hafeez said. “Individuals experiencing depression should consult with a healthcare provider to determine the most appropriate treatment options for their needs. Additionally, ongoing research is needed to further evaluate the efficacy and long-term effects of digital interventions for depression.”
Every home should have an herb garden. Access to fresh herbs, all the time, will fundamentally change the way you cook and eat at home. While you can buy fresh herbs, they’re expensive, and you have to buy them by the bunch, when you might only need a little. But if there’s fresh dill outside, you might grab a little for an impromptu potato salad. You’ll chop crisp parsley to toss on some pasta, and every single chicken I’ve roasted has been made better by stuffing it with a fistful of mixed herbs from the yard. Herbs generally grow easily, too, but there are tons of them, and they like different growing conditions. Some are tender, and some are perennial, some enjoy shade while others love the sun. For all those reasons, an herb spiral—a unique architectural element for your garden—is a great idea.
Shaped like a seashell or snail, the raised bed curls inwards and upwards, the outer wall forming a spiral. The inside of the bed is taller than the outside due to the spiral, so you create a long curving row to plant in. Larger perennial herbs are planted in the spiral to provide shade and protection to more tender herbs, allowing them to co-exist and thrive. This design also makes it easier to harvest the herbs, as you can walk around the spiral, and lean over the spiral to harvest. You can elevate the entire spiral, so you don’t even have to crouch.
You can make the bed out of anything you’d like, but bricks or large landscaping rocks are common. You could just as easily use wood for a faceted spiral, or landscaping edging for a low-profile spiral. The bed can be as large or small as you’d like, from a simple six foot by six foot imprint, to a sprawling curving wall around the entire garden. The idea is to make it large enough to accommodate the herbs you want to grow, but it should also make sense in your garden from a design perspective.
Start by making a list of what you’d like to grow, and remember that some herbs are seasonal, like basil and cilantro, and some are perennial, like sage and rosemary. You don’t have to play it safe, either: You can grow teas and edible flowers and medicinal herbs. Some herb seed houses to look for inspiration are Strictly Medicinal and True Leaf Market.
You should always look at growing zones, and how large plants will actually get. With this list, start surveying where your spiral can go, keeping in mind you want a level space, in the full sun. Take some measurements. Head to your sketchpad, using those measurements, and start laying in plants from your list into the spiral, with a pencil. Drought-tolerant herbs will go at the top, and less drought-tolerant plants go near the bottom. Plants that need full sun should go on the north or south side so they sun all day. Plants that need some shade should go on the east or west side so they only get morning or afternoon sun, and you should plant them between more shrubby herbs, so they’re protected.
Consider what will go around the spiral, remembering you’ll be walking on it. Mulch like wood chips or gravel will keep the spiral accessible even in wet weather. When planning for the size of the bed, consider that you’ll need to be able to reach the middle of the bed to access the herbs. Also consider how this spiral will get watered, planning for drip irrigation to be integrated into the bed itself, or planning for the bed to be near a hose spigot.
Start by using the materials you’ve chosen to build the base of the bed, which will be a circle. Remember you want enough height on the wall so the bed is deep enough to plant in, so at least eight inches, but 12 or more would be better. While you don’t necessarily need to, cementing in the walls means they’ll last longer and are more stable. Once the circle is built, you remove enough bricks or stones for the width of the row at the northernmost point of the circle, and use them to start the spiral inward. Continue laying at least one course or layer of building material in the spiral pattern, until you reach the middle of the spiral. Remember, the “middle" is actually a smaller circle at the top. Now, start filling the circle in with your planting soil, up to the first level of bricks or rocks. You can fill the center of the spiral with pea gravel or other rocks, remember that you’ll be planting the middle well above where you are now, and this gravel will help with drainage and stability.
With the base bed filled, you can start building up the inner spiral walls. Add more bricks or rocks to the walls as they move towards the center, filling the inner spiral in with more soil to support the wall. When you arrive at the top of the spiral, fill in the middle circle, and then tamp down the soil for the whole spiral and backfill as you need to.
Planting time is the most exciting part, because now you can lay out the plants and start putting them in the soil. Consider adding decorative plant labels. You can add edible flowers or plants that attract pollinators. Also consider how some plants spill over the side and hug the wall, like creeping thyme, nasturtiums, and chamomile. Think really hard about plants that spread wildly—like mint, oregano, and lemon balm—and consider omitting them from the spiral. They’re best planted in planters that will contain them from spreading. Make sure you give each plant enough space to grow, and don’t overcrowd them. They’ll fill in the space in time if you let them.
Some herbs are seasonal, and will need to be replaced each spring. If you let the plants go to seed, you may find the herbs perennialize, meaning they come back on their own each year. You might add herbs as time goes on, and keeping shrubbier herbs in check through pruning is important. Over time, you’ll learn which herbs you may want more of, instead of those you use less. Mostly, what will keep the spiral happy is using the herbs— so get in there and chop the cilantro, parsley, dill and basil back heartily and use it.
WD-40 is designed to prevent rusting by displacing the water in cracks and crevices in metal (that's what the "WD" stands for). It is also a versatile lubricant, and can even be used as a solvent—but there are some places you should never spray it.
WD-40 doesn’t have the same viscosity as traditional grease or oil, and it can erode certain finishes, and it can cause problems when used as a substitute. Though it's tempting to think it is a good idea everywhere you need to cut down on friction, here are some places you should definitely never use WD-40.
If you’re trying to lubricate a hinge on a pair of sunglasses or remove a price tag from the surface of a plastic container, you might be tempted to reach for the can of WD-40...but you should never use it on a clear plastic surface or on polystyrene or polycarbonate plastic.
Commonly labeled #6, products that contain styrene include things like toys, disposable cups and cutlery, and appliances like smoke detectors. Polycarbonate, known as #7, can be found in kitchen appliances like refrigerators, clear packaging, plastic lenses, and safety gear. Because of the chemical makeup of WD-40, it can cause damage to these plastics and ruin things like sunglasses with plastic lenses. If you’re in doubt, it’s better to avoid using WD-40 on plastic.
WD-40 can dissolve wax finishes. If you’re using WD-40 to clean, you should keep it clear of wood floors and furniture. Since wax creates a water resistant barrier that protects woodwork from water damage, it’s better to leave the wax where it is. Also, because WD-40 can seep into the grain of unfinished wood, it’s generally not a good idea to use it on any wood surface, not just waxed ones.
Because WD-40 is good for lots of cleaning tasks, you might be tempted to try it on stone tile or countertops. But natural stone is porous, and you shouldn’t use WD-40 to clean it—WD-40 can soak into the surface of the stone and stain it. Also, many stone surfaces are treated with wax polish, and WD-40 can dissolve wax finishes.
Some appliance companies recommend using WD-40 to clean stainless steel, but you should never use WD-40 on surfaces that will be in contact with food. While a streak-free shine is a powerful motivator, WD-40 obviously shouldn’t be consumed. and while incidental contact with food isn’t a big deal, surfaces where food is in frequent or prolonged contact should never have WD-40 on them.
You should never use WD-40 on electronics, which can react with some plastics as well as attract dust and other particles. Getting WD-40 on your smart phone or laptop can not only damage the screen, it can ruin the buttons or make its way into the internal components. It’s best to use a cleaner specially formulated for electronics.
Although WD-40 is sometimes used as a stand-in lubricant, it's not a good substitute for bike-specific lubricant. It doesn't have the right viscosity to be used as a chain lubricant and it can allow dirt and fibers to stick to it over time. While you can use WD-40 to clean your bike chain, it's not a good idea to use it as a lubricant, and if you do decide to use it to clean your chain, you should reapply your regular chain grease afterwards.
This should be obvious, but unfortunately requires saying: In spite of persistent claims to the contrary, WD-40 will not help relieve arthritis pain or creaky, stiff joints. While there are plenty of ways that WD-40 can help lubricate things, your joints will not respond to it the same way as a stuck bolt. Human bodies definitely don’t use the same lubricant as engine parts, and medical professionals recommend against using WD-40 to treat any type of medical condition.
During a recent attempt to purchase tickets to see a comedian at a local arena, I was shocked that the fees tacked on were nearly as much as the cost of the ticket itself. The fees Ticketmaster charges have become a well-known frustration, but as someone who once covered the culture beat, I had gotten used to getting tickets for free. Paying out of my own pocket reinforced the higher cost of enjoying live events these days, and I was newly motivated to find a way to avoid giving Ticketmaster a considerable chunk of my money.
Here are a few ways to lower the ticket fees you pay or, in some cases, avoid them altogether. They all have pros and cons, but in this economy, doing a little more to save a few bucks can go a long way to keep more of your money in your pocket.
One of the conveniences Ticketmaster provided was avoiding the hassle of going to a venue's box office. You could just stop by your local record shop or department store or, eventually, go online and get a ticket to the big concerts coming to town. Of course, the fees weren't that high back then. Now, it's a different story.
While driving to the venue might be a hassle, at least you won't have to pay some of the excessively high fees Ticketmaster adds on. However, instead of being open daily, many venue box offices are only open a few hours before an event, making things more inconvenient, especially if you want to see a high-profile concert.
If you're willing to pay for a membership, many artists offer pre-sale tickets that are sometimes cheaper than those available to the general public. For instance, Canadian rock band Nickelback offers yearly memberships to its fan club for $33, giving you the opportunity to purchase exclusive merch, a membership card, and early entrance to shows, but also access to an allotment of seats before they go on sale to the general public. Sure, fan clubs can be a risky investment, but if you're a true devotee of Nickelback, the benefits could outweigh the costs.
If you use a Chase, Capital One, American Express, or Citi credit card, you might have access to tickets before they go on sale to the general public. In some cases, tickets might be cheaper because they're being offered at a discount, or you're avoiding dynamic pricing, which can boost ticket prices as demand for events increases, according to Forbes. However, be aware that this could also translate to higher annual fees on your credit card.
Tickets to select events are available in limited numbers on the same website where your parents got the discount on that hot air balloon ride they took last year. For example, lawn seats for The Queens of R&B Tour in Phoenix are 52% off the listed price with no fees. (The only drawback is being outdoors in Arizona in July.)
Websites like theXchange and CashOrTrade.org offer a way to bid on tickets like a hotel room on Priceline.com or trade them for a small fee or, in the latter's case, no fee. The former provides a buyer guarantee to avoid scams, and its sellers must go through a vetting process. If fraud does happen, the site will penalize the seller monetarily. If these websites don't work for you, there's always Facebook Marketplace, right?
When TickPick started, you could bid for event tickets. Nowadays, it promotes that it sells to fans with "no hidden fees" and guarantees that if you find seats cheaper elsewhere, it will refund you 110% of the difference (in credit, of course). It's a good way to find affordable tickets to sporting events at the last minute. However, according to TechCrunch, TickPick still makes its money from fees. They're just being upfront about it instead of surprising you at checkout.
Venues often release more seats to events on the day of the show. If you snag these tickets online, you will have to pay Ticketmaster their fees. However, in many cases, the value of the ticket drops to a more reasonable amount to fill seats, which can offset the costs the seller tacks on.
If you’re one of the millions of Americans who looked at the eclipse this week and wondered what other cool things you might be able see in the sky, this guide is for you. Whether you want to spy on distant planets, supernovas, constellations, galaxies, or check out the International Space Station, astronomy can be a lifelong source of fascination, and it doesn’t take much more than a little knowledge and a little gear to get started.
The thing that separates astronomy from just craning your neck upwards is understanding what you’re seeing, so learning is a big part of getting started. Here are the first steps to gaining a working knowledge of the observable cosmos.
Books: There are libraries full of text books and popular titles about astronomy, but a good starting point is Terence Dickinson and Alan Dyer’s The Backyard Astronomer's Guide. An essential guide for generations of amateur astronomers, this book is useful for a beginner, but will stay useful for probably your entire life.
Planisphere: There’s something really cool about using a tool that has essentially been the same since 1624, so if you want to bring an analog style to your stargazing operation, a planisphere is the right choice. A planisphere is just two discs of cardboard or plastic held together with a pin, but it can locate any visible star. You can buy one for very little, or make your own by printing out the discs you need.
Apps: I confess, I like the idea of using a planisphere, but I’m hopeless with charts and maps in practice, so I actually use an app. There are many apps for astronomy, each with a slightly different focus or features, but for beginners, Star Walk 2 is great choice. Available on iPhone and Android, Star Walk 2 is free with ads, $5.99 for the full version, and its database contains over 200,000 stars, eight planets, 27 asteroids and comets, and 10,000 satellites—basically everything in the sky. Using it could not possibly be easier: you point your phone at the sky and it will tell you what you’re seeing.
Terence Dickinson and Alan Dyer’s The Backyard Astronomer's Guide
A simple planisphere
Celestron TrailSeeker binoculars
Celestron – EclipSmart Safe solar eclipse binoculars
Finding a good spot to crane your neck upwards is step one in the astronomy game. Here’s what to look for in a stargazing location:
Distance from cities: Unless you’re doing daytime astronomy (more on that below) or looking at the moon (ditto) the best location to practice astronomy is somewhere as dark as possible, so find as lightless an environment as you can. To locate the darkest areas near your house, check out this interactive light pollution map. Enter your zip code and check out the Bortle Number of nearby locations. The lower it is, the better. Don’t be discouraged if there’s nowhere dark near you, though. There are plenty of interesting things you can see in the sky from any location.
Mind the moon: The reflected light from the moon can blot out many stars and planets, so be aware of the phase of the moon and plan for sometime around the new moon for best results. Unless you want to look at the moon, of course.
Terrain: Higher elevations tend to be better because they're often above atmospheric interference. Open areas are good too, for their unobstructed views. I like beaches, because beaches at night are the best.
Safety: Light pollution is cumulative, so you don’t need to find a place with no lights around, just far from a city as possible. That means lighted parking lots, maybe with restrooms, can provide a safe, more comfortable “home base” for a stargazing expedition.
For more in-depth information on finding a perfect star-gazing spot, check out this article.
There’s a lot you can see in the sky with just your naked eyes, so binoculars are not required to get started, but just about any pair of binoculars will improve things somewhat, so if there’s an old set in your basement, blow the dust off them and give them a shot.
If you want, you can buy binoculars relatively cheaply too. For astronomy, look for large front lenses and high optical quality. Binocular prices vary from tens of thousands of dollars to under ten dollars, but a reasonably high-performing pair of binoculars for a beginner can cost between $200 and $300. This Celestron TrailSeeker is a good example. It’s recommended by both space.com and Amazon’s customers who rate it at 4.5 stars.
You might associate the entire hobby of astronomy with telescopes, but you really don’t need one to get into it. Telescopes are a specialized tool, with many disadvantages for a beginner. Unlike your eyes and binoculars, they have a very narrow field of view, so it’s difficult to hone in on what you want to see if you don’t know what you’re doing. Telescopes are large and cumbersome too—not the kind of thing you can sling around your neck and hit the park with easily. Most of all, though, buying a telescope as a beginner will likely result in later finding out you bought the wrong one, so I wouldn’t recommend purchasing a telescope until you know why you want one and what you want it for.
Avoiding moonlight is good idea if you’re interested in peeping stars and planets, but the moon itself is a fascinating subject for astronomy. Looking at the moon with a half-decent pair of binoculars, with a magnification of 10 or so, reveals a whole world up there. You’ll see craters, mountains, and large lunar planes. If you look at the moon when it’s in any phase but full, check out the long shadows near where light turns to dark to see dramatic contrasts on the lunar topography. It's very cool.
Like drinking, stargazing is generally done at night, but both daytime drinking and daytime astronomy offer unique pleasures. Here are some cool space things you can see while it’s light out:
The sun: There are interesting things to see on the sun, but safety is most important here. You can’t look directly at the sun or you’ll damage your eyes, and you can’t safely look at the sun with an unfiltered pair of binoculars or telescope either. But if you kept your solar eclipse glasses, you can look at the sun without a problem. (But don’t look inside binoculars or a telescope pointed at the sun even if you are wearing eclipse glasses.) You could also consider a pair of “sunoculars,” binoculars designed for looking at the sun, like these Celestron – EclipSmart Safe Solar Eclipse Binoculars with permanently filtered lenses. If you’re in a DIY mood, you could construct a sun projector. With the right kinds of filters, you can gaze at the sun and see sunspots, Venus and Mercury passing before the sun (although this doesn't happen often), the photosphere, and the chromosphere.
The Moon: The moon isn’t visible all the time—it’s below the horizon half the time—but the moon is visible during the day about 25 days per month, for about six hours a day. Find it and check it out during the day.
Venus: It’s hard to spot, but under the right conditions, you can see Venus during daylight, especially near sunset and sunrise. Conditions will be good for seeing Venus in the evening sky in 2024 from Oct. 5 through Dec. 31. You can also get daytime glimpses of Mars and Jupiter, but they’re considerably dimmer and probably will require a telescope.
The International Space Station: Check out NASA’s tool for ISS spotting and see when it’s making an appearance near you. It's better seen at night with a pair of binoculars, but daytime sightings are possible.
Comets and meteors: Both comets and meteors can be bright enough to see during daytime.
Once you've dipped your toes into the celestial heavens, you might want to meet others with similar interests. There is probably a group of stargazing fans not far from you, and they’re mostly friendly people who welcome newcomers. They might invite you to a star party or an informal sidewalk viewing event, which will give you a chance to learn a ton and look at celestial objects with telescopes you could never afford. Check out Sky and Telescopes listings and search Facebook to learn where local star-peepers hang out.
The big ticket astronomy event in 2024 was obviously the eclipse, but that’s not all that’s there is to see in the heavens. There are meteor showers, lunar eclipses, rocket launches, and more. Check out Lifehacker’s schedule of 2024’s big sky shows.
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