One of the most under-appreciated Mac features is the services menu, which you can find by right-clicking just about anything—highlighted text, say, or any image. Hover over the "Services" section and you'll see a bunch of quick actions. You can find this same collection in the menu bar: just click the name of the application that's currently open and hover over Services.
Credit: Justin Pot
There are all kinds of useful options here. You can, for example, look up a word in the dictionary, or add a bit of text to your to-do list. You can open a URL using IINA, a great video player for Mac. You get the idea: you can automate whatever it is that is selected. You can take control of which things do, and do not, show up by open System Settings and heading to Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > Services. From here you can check or uncheck items. You can also set custom keyboard shortcuts for these services.
Credit: Justin Pot
Where things get really fun, though, is when you look into the custom services you can download. Here are a few of the best apps I could find that add cool features to the services menu on your Mac.
Dictater reads text to you out loud
Credit: Justin Pot
The Mac comes with a built-in service for reading text, but I don't really like it very much. Dictater, in my experience, works a lot better. With this application you can highlight any text, in any app, and have it read out loud. There's a pop-up window with buttons to play and jump forward and backward, and an optional window you can open to see the text on screen as it is read. You can change the voice used in System Settings > Accessibility > Spoken Content, if you like—I prefer to use one of the high-quality Siri voices.
CalcService does math
CalcService is a free download that lets you do math in any text field. With the app installed you can highlight any mathematical formula in any app—for example, (62*7)/4, and get an answer right in place, like this: (62*7)/4 = 108.5. It's magic, and even better once you create a keyboard shortcut for the feature.
WordService
Credit: Justin Pot
WordService comes as a free download from Devon Technologies, the same company that made CalcService. This one offers all kinds of tools for working with text, the most obviously useful of which allows you to get a word count and character count for any text you highlight. This is useful for all kinds of things, from composing social media posts to long-form writing. But there's so much more here to dig into. There are actions for converting text that's in all caps to lowercase, and vice versa. There are actions for inserting the current time, or the current date. And there are actions for adding or removing smart quotes from a block of text. If you publish things online regularly, this is a good collection of tools to have around.
SearchLink quickly looks for a link and adds it
SearchLink is a little harder to explain but I love it. Basically, you can highlight any text, trigger the service, and the tool will automatically search the web for the term and add a markdown-formatted link. So, for example, here's a text document with my name in it:
Credit: Justin Pot
If I run SearchLink on the highlighted text, which is my name, the document looks like this:
Credit: Justin Pot
The link has been added, without me having to open a browser. This can save you a lot of time while writing, assuming that you do that writing in markdown. And there are more advanced features you can dig into, including one that will fill in all the links in a document. It's a great tool to have around.
Shortcuts can work this way too
Credit: Justin Pot
Didn't quite find the app you want? You could try building one yourself. Any shortcut you build in Apple Shortcuts can function as a service. Just make sure Use as Quick Action and Services Menu are highlighted in the Shortcut details pane. Check out our list of the most helpful Shortcuts on macOS if you need a few ideas of how to put this to work.
Your IP address is something you usually don't need to think about—in fact you might never have heard of it before—but it's an important little piece of information attached to every device on your home network. Knowing the ins and outs of IP addresses can be useful in configuring the wifi network in your home, troubleshooting connection problems, and keeping your devices safe while they're online. Here's where you can find them, and what they do.
What is an IP address?
Every connected device has at least one IP address.Credit: Lifehacker
An IP address is an Internet Protocol address: It works a bit like a postal address does for the place where you live, enabling websites and web servers to find you and maintain a working connection. It's an essential bit of code in making the internet work, and it looks like a series of numbers and letters with a bit of punctuation thrown in.
Every device connected to your router at home will have a local (or private) IP address, which helps the router figure out which gadget is which and keep everything running smoothly. In addition, your router has an external (or public) IP address it broadcasts to the world, which helps everything else on the internet find you.
You'll come across both the older, simpler IPv4 addresses and the newer, more complex IPv6 addresses for your devices. Most current hardware makes use of both, but eventually it's expected that IPv4 will be phased out, albeit very slowly—IPv6 was introduced all the way back in 1995 because the internet was quite simply running out of addresses to use.
All of this is handled behind the scenes by your wifi router and your internet provider, fortunately. In fact, most routers and internet providers give dynamic IP addresses for local and external use, which are changing all the time (it's a bit easier and more cost-effective that way)—but your connection to the internet at large isn't affected.
You'll only really need to know your IP address for specific scenarios, usually involving some change in network configuration: Maybe you're connecting up a network drive to the web that you need to access remotely, for example, or you're trying to get online multiplayer features working on a games console. Here's how to find out what your IP addresses currently are.
How to find your external IP address
There's no shortage of websites around to tell you your IP address.Credit: Lifehacker
A host of different websites will tell you your IP address: It's a piece of information you give to every site you visit in exchange for connecting to them, though you can switch to a different external IP address by setting up a VPN. Remember, too, that as we've said, most internet providers give you a dynamic IP address that regularly changes.
VPNs will broadcast the IP address of one of their servers somewhere in the world, which means your external IP address stays hidden from the sites you load up. If you want to get at your external IP address, make sure you're not currently using a VPN.
With that check completed, all you need to do is visit a website such as the aptly named WhatIsMyIPAddress and you'll get both your IPv6 and IPv4 addresses on screen. (Depending on how the network you're using has been set up, across both hardware and software, you may only see an IPv4 or an IPv6 address.) You can also just type "what is my IP?" into Google and the search engine should tell you (though it might not be the top result).
How to find your internal IP address
Getting your IP address on Windows.Credit: Lifehacker
On a Windows computer, go to Settings from the Start menu, open up the Network & internet page and click either wifi and then the network name, or Ethernet, depending on how you're connected. Your local IPv6 and IPv4 addresses are then included in the information on screen, with a handy Copy button next to the details.
Over in macOS land, you need to open the Apple menu, then choose System Settings and Network. Pick wifi or Ethernet, depending on how you're currently connected to the internet, then select Details next to the network you're on. The Mac's local IP address is listed on the next screen, together with your router's IP address.
Next, the iPhone. From the main iOS Settings screen, tap wifi, then the small blue information bubble next to your current network to see your IP addresses. Note that phones will often have several listed—sometimes for extra privacy protection, and also to account for both wifi and cellular connections.
As usual for Android, the exact menu names and structure vary depending on your phone: On Pixels, open Settings and tap Network and Internet and Internet. Next to the network you're currently on there will be a gear icon: Tap this, then scroll down to see the IP address of your device.
With Samsung Galaxy phones, open Settings and select Connections, wifi, and then the gear icon next to the network you're currently hooked up to. Choose View more to see the relevant IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. If you're not using a Pixel or Galaxy phone, you should be able to find something along these lines through the internet options in Settings.
Even as we move into gardening seasoning outside, I am keeping all of my indoor gardens going through the summer months. I've been surprised by how handy it is to have these gardens nearby and how it leads to me using crops like fresh herbs more often. The side effect I didn't expect was how much I enjoy having the actual plants and greenery around in my bedroom and living room: The gardens produce a calming tickling-water sound, like a creek, and I love the smell of the plants. If gardening outside isn't for you, you might find one of these indoor gardening sets that require almost no skill to be just the trick.
These commercial sets include everything you might need, from the seed cups and growing medium, to the lights, and the use a pump to recirculate the water at regular intervals. Small sets like the Aerogarden Harvest or Letpotcan sit on a countertop and large ones like Rise need their own space on the floor. Here are the tips I’ve developed to use these gardens more effectively.
Buy a level
Hydroponic gardens work by keeping the roots of the plant constantly hydrated either in a pool of recirculating water or by routinely “watering” them via a pump. For this to work effectively, the entire system has to be level. Usually, bigger kits like Rise will have leveling feet to help with this, but a system like LettuceGrow doesn’t, so you’ll need shims. You still need to ensure your countertop garden is level. When they’re not, the water will list to one side of the garden, and some roots might not get hydrated. If only one side of your garden is germinating, this might be the cause.
Grow the right crops
Hydro gardens grow crops in a tight space, with a finite amount of “sunlight” and no soil for roots to steady themselves in. While almost anything will still grow, crops that are going to require a lot of support like squash can’t flourish. Crops with a really long grow period, like pumpkins, also are not ideal for the system, since you’ll need to turn the garden system over before the pumpkin is done and it will grow out of the “sunlight.” Moreover, while smaller and smaller vegetable plants are always being bred (I recently grew actual tomatoes on eight-inch tall plants from Aerogarden), it doesn’t mean they’ll taste good. I’ve been really disappointed by fruit and vegetables grown in hydroponic environments; while they still receive nutrition, sunlight and water, they usually just don’t taste great. So while you can grow almost anything, I’ve found that simply growing herbs or simpler, short crops like peas is the best way to go.
Learn how to self-pollinate
Since your hydroponic garden won’t be visited by bees to do the work of carrying pollen from plant to plant, you’ll need to do that if you grow any type of fruit or vegetable. I’ve seen many of these gardens advise casually shaking the plants from time to time, but this is disingenuous. To achieve good pollination rates, you need to really vibrate the plants and do it often while there are flowers. The best way I’ve found to do this is with a real vibrator or massage wand and to use a smart automation to have it run for a minute every few hours. I specifically looked for one that plugged in and used a manual switch, rather than a button to be powered on each time. This way, I could leave the want plugged in and on, and just set an automation for the outlet it was plugged into. I just left it set on top of the garden, but you could also tape it to the back. As long as it’s attached in some way to the garden, it will vibrate it enough that the pollen will be freed and form a cloud of yellow dust that will settle onto the blossoms and pollinate them.
Grow any seed you’d like
Most companies that make hydroponic gardens sell seed packs or starts for those gardens, and they’re quite expensive. But the gardens provide everything a plant needs to grow: sunlight, nutrition, and water. You can always purchase aftermarket pods and growing medium and plant your own seeds. There’s nothing particularly special about the lettuce or herb seeds they’re using, and you likely have seeds or can purchase a packet of them, cheaply. While small “patio” vegetables are bred specifically for these purposes, you can usually purchase similar varieties online (although, again, growing them is mostly for sport as they don’t taste great).
Be vigilant about pest prevention
Plants will attract pests like aphids and gnats on their own with little work. Hydro gardens seem to worsen the problem, so you have to be proactive. Always ensure there is no standing water around, from a leaking unit or when you add water to the unit. Using traps nearby is a good idea—I like the Zevo flying insect traps that use UV light to attract the insects. You can consider adding nasturtium flowers to your garden—not in abundance, but in one of the growing pods since they work to “trap” aphids. The aphids are attracted to the nasturtium, and just hang out on it, avoiding your other plants; you just leave the nasturtium to do it’s work.
The secret sauce, for me, has been using smaller gardens for growing herbs, which I use consistently, making sure I am hacking the plants back on a regular basis to keep them from bolting. For larger gardens, I grow greens like lettuce, celery, celery, chard, and spinach. Using small, compact plants like these means that nothing is crowded out, there’s no fruit to be disappointed by or that will take too much time, and you ultimately end up pretty satisfied with the experience.
With some products, like phones, you have a myriad of options to sort through. But if you want to buy one of Peloton's spin bikes, you only have two choices: the Bike or the Bike+ (pronounced “bike plus”). That little “+” costs an extra thousand dollars, so is it really worth it? Let’s dive in.
Overview of the important features
I’ll go over the details below, but here’s the short answer: if you just want “a Peloton,” the regular Bike is the original. It’s the one most people have, it’s cheaper, and it does the job just fine. I have a regular Bike and I’ve never felt like I’m missing out. The regular price for a Bike is $1,445, but with a good sale you can find it closer to $1,000. If you're willing to look at used models, they can often be had in the mid to high triple digits.
The Bike+ costs significantly more, so what are you paying for? The tech components are nicer, so the on-screen experience will feel a bit faster and smoother. Other than that, the big features are auto-resistance (the bike will follow along with classes without you having to turn the knob) and a swiveling screen so you can turn it to the side for things like strength workouts and guided yoga sessions. List price on the Bike+ is $2,495, with deals sometimes bringing it as low as $1,995. Refurbished and used models will, of course, cost a bit less.
Most of the differences between the two bikes are tech-related, and we’ll get into those in a minute. But first, you should know what’s the same between the two bikes.
First, they’re the same size. Both have the same footprint, 4 feet by 2 feet—Peloton recommends that you allow 24 inches on each side of the bike, and that you put it in an area with at least 8-foot-high ceilings. This allows even tall riders to be able to stand up and pedal. (If you don’t care about standing, or if you’re shorter, you might be able to squeeze into a tighter space. I’m 5’6” and never had an issue with my attic’s 7-foot ceilings.)
The controls and the frame are the same, with the exception that the original Bike had a seat post recall, and the Bike+ did not. (If you’re buying used, make sure that the seat post was replaced.) Both have a hard wired 3.5mm headphone jack, although it’s probably more common to use the onboard speakers or a bluetooth headset rather than plugging in a pair of headphones.
Both flavors of bike can accommodate a rider who is anywhere between 4’11” and 6’4” and weighs up to 297 pounds. The Bike itself weighs 135 pounds, and the Bike+ weighs 140, due mainly to the hefty flywheel (with spin bikes, the heavier the flywheel, the better).
Both the Bike and Bike+ have access to the same subscription options. For the $44/month All-Access subscription, you get:
Classes on the bike—these are the classic offering, with a charismatic instructor leading you through a structured workout (and often peppering it with motivational speeches).
Scenic rides on the bike, with “Peloton radio” for music (I usually mute it and just play my own music from my phone).
Lanebreak (a sort of ride-along video game) on the bike.
Access to classes through the Peloton app on your phone.
The ability to create multiple profiles for family members, so you can all share the bike without additional subscriptions.
Besides cycling classes, the bikes and the app can also provide follow-along classes for strength, stretching, yoga, and more. You can take bike classes on the phone app as well, a handy feature when you have access to a spin bike but it’s not a Peloton (for example, at a gym).
Now that we know what’s the same, let’s dig into the differences.
The Bike+ has a swiveling screen, but don’t buy it just for that
The first thing you’ll notice about the Bike+ (and arguably its only visually distinctive feature) is the fact that its screen is on a swivel. This lets you set up a space next to the bike, perhaps with a mat and dumbbells, to do other types of workouts. Hop off the Bike+, point the screen toward your mat, and you can do a yoga class without having to crane your neck to see over the seat.
The screen on the regular Bike doesn’t swivel, but it does tilt. This lets you adjust it for the most comfortable angle or to avoid glare while you’re riding. If you want that swiveling feature, though, you don’t have to pony up an extra grand for a whole new bike—an aftermarket swivel mount is only about 50 smackers.
The Bike+ has auto-resistance and a real power meter
If the Bike+ has a killer feature, it’s this. When an instructor tells you to set your resistance to 30, you don’t need to touch the knob—the Bike+ will adjust the resistance for you.
You can turn this feature on or off during a ride by tapping the lock icon next to the resistance numbers. On regular rides, the Bike+ will adjust the resistance whenever the instructor announces that the resistance is changing; on power zone rides, it will adjust as needed to keep you in your power zone.
The catch is that auto-resistance only works for rides where “target metrics” are programmed. This includes most rides from Peloton’s back catalog, but it does not include rides where you’re following along with an instructor in real time. After those live rides, Peloton will add the target metrics, but they say it can take up to 24 hours for that feature to become available for a given ride.
The Bike+ also has a power meter built in, so that it can tell exactly how many watts your output is. (The regular Bike will show you an estimated wattage, but Bikes can become miscalibrated and the wattage may be off.) While you can calibrate a regular Bike, the Bike+ always knows how hard you are actually pedaling, and you may appreciate this extra accuracy.
The Bike+ has better quality tech in its tablet
The screen on the front of your Bike or Bike+ isn’t just a screen; it’s a whole tablet computer with its own processor, RAM, and other electronic components. An under-appreciated part of the Bike+ upgrade is just that everything in the tablet is nicer, better, and faster. The screen itself is larger: a 23.8” diagonal instead of 21.5”. The Bike+ also has:
4 gigabytes of RAM instead of just two
A 2.5 gigahertz Qualcomm processor instead of a 2.0 GHz Mediatek
A 26-watt sound system with front- and rear-facing speakers instead of a 16-watt system with just rear-facing speakers
Bluetooth 5.0 instead of 4.0
A USB-C port so you can charge your devices while you ride (the regular Bike has a charging port, but it’s micro-USB, so most of us would need to get an adapter).
A smudge-proof, reduced-reflection coating on that big ol' screen.
There are also two features that are better on paper but that won’t matter to most of us. First, the Bike+ supports GymKit, a protocol for connecting your Apple Watch to the Bike+ for heart rate data. (They briefly stopped supporting GymKit, since there’s a Peloton Apple Watch app that does most of what GymKit does, but got enough complaints that they brought it back.)
Second, the Bike+ has a nicer selfie camera, 8 MP versus 5 MP (and a privacy cover for said camera). Wait, the Peloton has a camera?? I hear you say. Yep, and according to Peloton its only use is for taking a selfie to use as your profile picture. (You can also just take a photo on your phone and add it to your profile through the app.) That said, Peloton users have said they’ve used the camera for video chat—but nobody seems to actually like that feature.
Ultimately, these features mean that your experience will be just a little bit faster and smoother. Some Peloton riders say that the nicer tech means that Lanebreak is less likely to have that occasional lag when you change “lanes” during the ride, and that the interface is just generally a bit more responsive.
The bottom line: Peloton Bike vs. Bike+
The Bike is a solid choice that will fulfill pretty much all your Peloton dreams. The Bike+ has some features that are nice-to-haves.
Buy the Bike if:
You just want a dang Peloton.
You don’t want to pay an extra $1,050 for minor upgrades.
Buy the Bike+ if:
You want the fastest and smoothest tech experience.
You’d like the Bike to adjust itself during (most) classes.
You’re a numbers nerd and want to know your exact wattage and know that the bike is perfectly calibrated.
Ultimately, both are good choices. The exact price differential between the two models will depend on whether you can find your chosen bike on sale, used, or as a rental (I crunch the numbers for those scenarios here).
Credit card points and airline miles are strange aspects of the modern economy. On the one hand, they’re not really worth all that much—airline miles, hotel points, and credit card reward points max out at about 1.5 cents per point, with most valued significantly less than a penny. On the other hand, they’re basically free money—you get them whenever you use the card, so as long as you’re traveling places you need to go to and buying stuff you need anyway (and not paying interest on those purchases), those points will eventually add up to something of value you wouldn’t otherwise have.
If you’ve got an airline-affiliated credit card like the United MileagePlus card or something similar, you’ve probably used the points you accrue mainly to offset the costs of travel. Points can be pretty easily used to pay for flights, hotels, and rental cars, and if the exchange rate is awful it’s still essentially free. But hotels and flights aren’t the only ways to cash in those points.
Donations
The points and miles you earn via credit card purchases or airline loyalty programs may not have much cash value, but they have some cash value. If you want to make the world a slightly better place without actually taking a hit in your bank account, you can probably donate your miles or points to charity. Most loyalty programs already have built-in relationships with charities that make this pretty easy. Keep in mind that these donations are probably not tax-deductible; the IRS views points and miles as discounts, not income.
Magazines
Your loyalty program or credit card website might have a built-in option to subscribe to magazines or newspapers, or you can check out MagsForMiles to see if you can trade those points for reading material. If you’ve got nothing else to do with your miles and you will actually get something out of the periodical, this could make sense—especially because points and miles are often high-value when used this way, for some reason. For example, with MileagePlus miles you can get a 15-issue subscription to Wine Spectator for 1,000 miles; that sub costs about $72 annually if you bought it directly, which values your point at about 7 cents each, which is not bad at all.
Gift cards
If you want to convert your miles or points into something a little more flexible, a solution most people overlook is a gift card. Most of these programs will happily sell you a gift card (you can also sometimes exchange your unwanted gift cards for points—United’s MileagePlus program does this—creating a weird kind of circular economy of craptastic gift cards). As with all points/miles transactions, you have to dig in to see if you’re getting any sort of value. A $5.00 Starbucks card through MileagePlus will cost you 1,666 points, making those points worth about 3 cents each. On the other hand, a gift card makes it a lot easier to actually buy things at Starbucks, so it might make sense. Plus, it’s a way to give someone a gift without spending any real money, you cheap weirdo.
Experiences
Yeah, the word “experiences” is kind of silly, but if you’ve got a stash of miles or points sitting in an account somewhere, you should look into the “experiences” you can either buy or bid on. MileagePlus offers a bunch of sporting experiences you can bid on with your miles, and Hilton Honors members can bid on a wide range of special events, like concerts, sporting events, or special dinners. Since these are usually auctions of some kind, you might get tempted into using more points or miles than you want—but since those miles and points are more or less free, it might be fun to just yeet them into an adventure you might otherwise never pay for.
Cash
While it’s generally legal to sell your points or miles to a third party like MilesBuyer, it’s not a great idea because most airlines and credit cards prohibit the practice. If you’re caught, you could lose your account and all your accrued points or miles.
But there are some options. Many rewards programs have options to cash out your points—Citi, for example, makes it pretty easy to convert your ThankYou points into a direct deposit into your bank account, a credit to your credit card balance, or even a check in the mail. That transforms your difficult-to-redeem points into actual cash, so it’s worth checking into the details of your program to see what your options are. But do the math before you jump on it—generally speaking, you want to get at least a penny a point before you convert to cash; otherwise waiting to redeem them for other goods or services might make more sense. For example, Citi’s ThankYou points are worth exactly one penny each when you turn them into cash, so 5,000 points becomes a $50 deposit in your account.
Once you decide on a decluttering method to clean out your home, the real work begins. Almost every popular technique out there requires you to group your items into three or four categories: Keep, throw, donate, and possibly, sell. Putting each item in its correct pile is not as easy as the step-by-step rules make it seem, but there’s a trick called the five-second rule that you can use to keep the process efficient.
What is the five-second rule?
The five-second rule is a widely-adaptable technique from organizational coach Mel Robbins, who advocates for it in her books. According to Robbins, you should make major decisions in under five seconds, actually counting down five, four, three, two, one. Your brain will know that at the end of that countdown, it has to make a choice; there’s a sense of urgency to it. This will push you to make quick, efficient decisions. I do this all the time, like when I have to rip off a bandage or open one of those popping cans of biscuits (which really freaks me out). There’s just something about the countdown that amps you up to do the thing you don’t want to do or are deliberating about.
How does the five-second rule apply in decluttering?
Adapting the five-second rule for decluttering is a big tip that floats around minimalist spaces online. You can use it to spur yourself to start cleaning if you’re feeling overwhelmed, but most often, it’s applied to the moments you spend debating internally about whether or not something should be kept or tossed out.
The less time you give yourself to make the choice, the better off you’ll be. You can rationalize keeping anything if you give yourself long enough to do it, but the goal of decluttering is to minimize the amount of stuff you have and organize the stuff that’s leftover, not make a bunch of excuses for why you can’t downsize. When you pick something up in the process of decluttering, you usually know instinctively if you really need it. Holding it and considering it for too long doesn’t take away from what you already know to be true so much as it gives you time to come up with reasons the thing should be kept. Commit to sorting everything you touch into a keep or get-rid-of pile as soon as you pick it up and in no more than five seconds, employing the countdown if you have to in a tough moment.
For anything that really makes you struggle and can’t be so easily sorted in five seconds, follow the Minimalists’ 20/20 rule, asking yourself whether the thing you’re debating keeping could be replaced for under $20 and in under 20 minutes in the unlikely event you ever need it again. If you answer those questions with a yes, throw it out.
Training yourself to be quick and decisive in these instances will help you build the habit of parting with things easily and not assigning false sentimentality or need to items that simply have no business sticking around.
Sometimes it feels like privacy, as a concept, has vanished from the world. Advertisers certainly seem to know everything about you, serving up frighteningly accurate ads that make you think your phone’s microphone has been turned on and marketers are actively listening to your every mumble.
They’re not—yet. But they are engaged in something called “data mining,” which is the process of collecting enormous amounts of anonymous data from your every connected activity and then analyzing that data to infiltrate your life with advertisements and other influences. And it’s not just corporate America—criminals can mine your data in order to rip you off.
If that bugs you—and it should—you can take some steps to minimize data mining in your life. You can’t completely escape it unless you plan to live off-grid with zero Internet connection, but you can reduce your exposure. After all, it’s your data, you’re not being compensated for it, and it’s creepy that some anonymous marketing team knows you’re really into RPGs and craft beer.
Read those EULAs
One of the biggest vectors for mining your data is your smartphone, especially the apps you’ve installed on it. Every time you install an app you agree to its terms—the end user license agreement (EULA) and other requirements.
A first line of defense against data mining is to take the time to review those EULAs. You can’t negotiate, but if you see you’re being asked for blanket permission to send data back to the mothership, you might at least look for an alternative. The key warning signs that the app is just a data-mining vessel are granting permission to monitor your Internet activity, to explicitly collect personal information, or to use your computer or device for their own purposes. If you see anything that gives you pause, think twice before agreeing.
Check settings
When you install an app on your device, you probably click through a series of permissions that grant that app access to everything it needs to gather data about you. This is a data-mining goldmine.
A few years ago, for example, an investigation found that about 5,400 apps were siphoning data from just one person’s smartphone—1.5 gigs of data in all. And back in 2017, an app maker called Alphonso was caught tracking what people were watching on TV by activating the microphone on their smartphones.
If an app requires a lot of unnecessary permissions—does a game really need access to your microphone, location, and camera?—you should assume it’s more of a data-mining app than anything else. Your next line of defense: Stop installing garbage free apps and spend that dollar. Every app wants to make money from you, and if you’re not paying up front, you’re paying in some other way, most likely by having your data stripmined.
Be boring on social
Social media is very obviously a dumpster fire when it comes to privacy. You’re literally posting a photo of you at the store with the hashtag #LiveToShop, so you shouldn’t be surprised when that store’s ads start popping up all over your life.
If you’re concerned about data mining, you can take a few simple steps to reduce the access that data miners have to your social media:
Set your profile to private. If your main goal on social media is to connect with friends or colleagues, restrict the reach of your posts to just those folks.
Be a snob. Don’t accept every request you receive to connect—if you don’t know that person, they don’t need to be let in to your inner circle.
Discretion. Don’t blast your travel plans, spending habits, or product reviews out into the universe.
Using social media compromises your privacy, but if you’re mindful of the information data miners want, you can at least refuse to make it easy.
Log out
When you log into platforms like Google or Facebook, that platform can pretty easily track what you’re doing. And as long as you’re signed in, that ability persists—even if you leave the site. These companies are really data mining companies, and they have perfected the art of following you around.
It’s a pain in the butt, but logging out of those services when you’re not actively using them (and clearing cookies and browsing history regularly) can slow down the vacuuming of data. It’s inconvenient to do so by design, but it has a real impact on how much information is being mined from your online activities.
Avoid memes
Data mining isn’t just about advertisers selling your stuff. It can also be weaponized by scammers to get personal info they can use to rob you blind, steal your identity, or steal your identity and then rob you blind.
One easy way they can do this is to just wait for you to respond to a phishing meme. These memes look like innocent fun quizzes where you supply some seemingly innocuous bits of personal information and receive a chuckle in response. Common examples include posting your “porn name” (a combination of common security question answers like your middle name or the model of your first car or something similar) or using the last digits of your phone number to do some math magic.
Luckily, there’s an easy way to avoid data mining via phishing memes: Ignore the memes. Your life will actually be incrementally better anyway.
Tech solutions
One of the most effective ways to cut down your exposure to data mining requires a bit more effort. Various privacy tools exist that can really stem the flow of your data to the unappeasable black hole of marketing:
VPNs. Virtual Private Networks are useful for privacy because they obscure your location and IP address, which makes it a lot harder for data miners to collate the data they get. Since your data appears to come from a wide range of random locations, it’s impossible to build a coherent profile of your preferences and habits. Installing a VPN on your computer, phone, and devices will go a long way towards cutting off the flow of private information.
Tor. The Tor Browser routes your web surfing traffic through many encrypted nodes, making it basically impossible to track your travels on the Internet. If you really want to go dark, combine Tor with a VPN and you’ll be practically invisible. If you’re not ready to use Tor as your everyday browser, use a privacy-focused browser like DuckDuckGo or Brave, or at least adjust the privacy settings in your browser to make it as secure as possible.
Ad blockers. Almost every single website you visit tracks your activities and gathers data about you. While using a privacy browser is an effective way to stifle that, ad-blocking plugins can go the extra mile by denying intrusive access to your browsing experience altogether.
Take a French pastry that’s been painstakingly shaped; flawless in its simplicity—and then stuff it with an American sugar-and -utter bomb. The TikTok viral cookie croissant feels slightly blasphemous at first glance, but that’s part of the fun of it. What’s even more fun is that it’s a great way to use past-prime store bought croissants. Here’s my favorite way to make them (and then make them even better).
This instance of pastry profanity is actually credited to have started at a French bakery, Maison Louvard. It’s not even too off-brand for French croissant treatment in general—take the almond croissant, for example, which is stuffed with a flavorful almond batter and baked to sweet, caramelized perfection. Stuffing sweet dough or batter into the center of a second-rate packaged croissant and baking it again creates a marriage of crisp, toasted pastry and soft—or even gooey—cookie. It only requires two ingredients and about 12 minutes in the oven.
How to make a "Crookie” at home
I choose the path of least resistance. Instead of making my own cookie dough, I bought one of those sausages of Toll House chocolate chip cookie dough.
Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann
1. Split a store bought, packaged croissant (those need improving anyway), and stuff it with about a tablespoon of cookie dough, flattened. I used mini croissants, so if you have full-sized ones you may want to use more cookie dough.
Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann
2. Put the “lid” back on and secure another flattened spoonful of dough on top. Bake the whole monstrosity in a 350°F oven for about 12 minutes. Alternatively, you can use an air fryer set to “air fry” at 325°F for about eight minutes.
My biggest problem with this preparation is that it’s hard to bake the cookie center all the way through. Any cookie dough that doesn’t bloom out to the surface stays gooey. It’s so gooey, actually, it’s basically liquid. Most packaged cookie dough is safe to consume raw (it’ll say so on the wrapper if it is), so safety isn’t an issue, but personally, I like cooked cookies.
Actually cook the cookie dough
If you’re in the same cooked-cookie-boat with me, it’s a simple fix: Proceed to press cookie dough onto the cut-side of the split croissant’s bottom half, and onto the exterior of the top half, just like before. This time, don’t stack the layers. Instead, place the two halves onto a sheet tray, cookie-side up, and bake them. Use the same temperature, and the same amount of time. Since the cookie dough is exposed, they’ll bake through completely. Stack the halves once the croissant comes out of the oven, and enjoy.
Why stop with the basics?
Cookie dough alone is good, but I’m in the business of great, dammit. Croissants are a versatile buttery dough, so anything pairs well with them. Cookies are also, oddly, rather flexible. Anything you’d stir into your cookie dough can be tucked it into your crookie. Anything. You can switch up the cookie dough flavor too. Chocolate chip cookie dough pairs well with crispy bacon crumbles, pretzels, potato chips, or corn flakes. Sugar cookie dough is a friend to granola, cashews, or rosemary. My favorite pairing today was adding a long slice of banana along with Reese’s Pieces cookie dough. With just a little experimentation, you’ll have your next favorite snack ready in less than 15 minutes.
If you own a home, you’ve probably at least contemplated making major, dramatic changes to it; having control over your shelter is important psychologically, and one way we exert that control is by changing it to better meet our needs. And we increasingly treat our homes as reflections of our emotional and mental state, often turning to renovation projects when we feel stuck or unhappy in other areas of our lives (for better or for worse).
We usually discuss home renovation projects in terms of return on investment (ROI) or the practical impact the change will have on our daily lives and our families. But there’s a crucial aspect of home remodeling that we should prioritize more: happiness. How happy will that home renovation project make you? The National Association of Realtors (NAR) has quantified this to some extent with their “Joy Score,” which asks homeowners to rate how happy a home renovation has made them. Combined with some other factors, it’s possible to come up with a list of the home renovation projects that will make you the happiest—and they’re not always the most expensive or ambitious.
Happiness-inducing indoor projects
Unsurprisingly, one of the key factors in any home renovation project is how well the end result meets the need that inspired it. If your kitchen is barely functional before the renovation and does everything you need after, you’re probably going to be pretty happy with the project (assuming no soul-killing problems like massive cost overruns or your contractor dropping an uber-expensive countertop just inches away from installation).
But the renovation projects that will make you happiest in the house are often the simplest. All of these renovations received a perfect Joy Score of 10, for example:
Painting. Painting the whole interior of your home or even just one room can be very, very satisfying. There’s some evidence that color has an explicit impact on your mental state, and many people subjectively experience a boost in mood with the right paint colors. Plus, painting is like literally erasing mistakes. Throw in the relatively low cost, speed, and ease of this project and the happiness factor is obvious.
Home office addition. This is all about solving problems. If you’re working from home and find yourself balancing your laptop on your knees in the bathroom, creating a dedicated office space can make you feel like you’re a professional.
New or refinished wood floors. Like paint on the walls, that new floor shine feels like shedding the mistakes of the past (like the time you dragged the couch to a new spot and left deep gouges in your floor). Plus the durability of the final result—an improvement that will last years—is very satisfying.
Closet renovation. Our closets are like a personal Portrait of Dorian Gray—the public-facing parts of our home might be neat and tidy while our closets are overflowing nightmares. Organizing always feels good, so it’s little wonder that creating order out of chaos in our closets makes us happy.
Attic conversion. Conquering an area of your house currently ruled by spiders is always going to make you feel better. Not only do you turn a dark and slightly dangerous place (where you can easily misstep and fall through the ceiling) into a functional and useful space, you gain square footage and increase your home’s value.
New insulation. This might be a surprising one, but not if you think about it: Not only does new or upgraded insulation improve your home’s energy efficiency, which feels good, it also makes your home more comfortable—which makes people want to spend more time there.
Happiness-inducing outdoor projects
Home renovations outside the house hit a little different, but access to outdoor spaces can have a huge positive impact on your overall happiness, so it’s not surprising that some of these projects score really high on the joy scale:
In-ground pool. A pool makes people want to spend more time in their homes, and gives them a higher sense of enjoyment of the property. Not only can you cool off and get some good exercise in a pool, you can also throw some pretty epic parties around one.
Landscape lighting. Another perfect Joy Score involves adding light to your outdoor spaces. Solid lighting design outside can turn a dark, foreboding yard into a beautiful spot you want to spend time in. It also increases a sense of security, since you can actually see what’s going on. Plus, it doesn’t have to be a complicated project—some solar lights, used thoughtfully, is all you need.
New patio or deck. Like the pool, a new patio area or deck makes people want to use their outdoor spaces more, because they provide comfortable areas to relax. A new patio or deck turns a blank canvas into an entertaining space or a spot for decompression, cocktails, and enjoying the fresh air.
Fire feature. Fire can have a positive psychological impact—it can be relaxing and meditative. It manages a Joy Score of 9.7 because it makes our outdoor spaces more inviting, gives them more “personality,” and increases the amount of time you can enjoy your yard, patio, or deck because it allows us to use those spaces even when it’s a little colder than we’d like.
Most of us are likely to accept most computer settings as they are without varying too much from the default configuration that comes out of the box—but sometimes, a little digging can help you get more out of your hardware. That's certainly true when it comes to monitor settings: This depends on the monitor you've got, of course, but you may have more options to play around with than you thought. If you're going to be spending a lot of time staring at your screen, it's important to get it set up in the best way for you.
Whether you're looking to make the most of the display you've got, or you're simply baffled by some of the options you've come across, we'll guide you through the key monitor settings you need to know about—both those you'll find in Windows and macOS, and those available on your actual monitor.
Windows and macOS
You can find your monitor settings in Windows by going to Settings from the Start menu, then choosing System and Display. You get the fundamentals here: first and foremost, the Display resolution, which is simply the number of pixels on show. Look for the option marked Recommended in the drop down list, as this will be the native resolution for your monitor—the one where text and graphics look the sharpest.
If you're using a high-end, high-resolution monitor, using the native resolution can make Windows text and menus seem tiny, which is where Scale comes in. Use this to scale up on-screen elements without affecting the resolution. If your monitor supports the feature, you can also choose between Landscape and Portrait for the Display orientation, enabling you to use your monitor vertically if needed.
Display settings on Windows.Credit: Lifehacker
Most monitors now support a High Dynamic Range or HDR mode, which you can enable by clicking Use HDR. HDR can work wonders in terms of contrast and color range—it essentially means details in very dark and very light areas of the screen are kept visible and not lost. Imagine a person standing with strong sunlight behind them: HDR would mean that person wouldn't just be a black shadow.
Head to the Advanced display screen and you're able to set the refresh rate, if your monitor supports multiple refresh rates: This is a key monitor spec, measured in Hertz (Hz), that tells you how often per second the display is refreshing itself. A higher refresh rate typically means smoother playback for games and movies, because you're seeing more frames per second.
Over on macOS, you're able to get to your monitor settings by going to the Apple menu and choosing System Settings and then Displays. As on Windows, you'll see a choice of resolutions, represented in pixels—the native resolution for the monitor will be labeled as Default, and that should give you the best experience.
Display settings on macOS.Credit: Lifehacker
Then there's Color profile, which essentially manages how colors and contrast are handled by the monitor (there are more ways to do this thank you might think). This setting is of most use for creative professionals who need full color accuracy in their work—most of the rest of us won't need to change this setting, but you can certainly experiment with what's available.
The other settings here match those that we've previously covered for Windows. You're able to specify a refresh rate (how quickly the screen refreshes each second), and enable HDR (for better management of color and contrast extremes). Finally, Rotation lets you turn your monitor into a portrait or landscape orientation, if your monitor supports it.
On-board settings
That's the Windows and macOS settings, but you may also find a bunch of options available on your monitor. Obviously this will vary from monitor to monitor, so you might need to check on the web to see what exactly your model is capable of and how you get to the settings (it's usually done via buttons on the monitor itself).
Besides the basics of brightness and contrast, something you'll often see are presets, which will have a variety of names like Movie or Gaming: These presets will adjust settings like contrast, color saturation, and sharpness all together to work best for certain scenarios. The scenario should be made clear by the preset name, but you can always look it up if you need to.
On-board presets on a BenQ monitor.Credit: Lifehacker
There's nothing wrong with the standard preset that's enabled by default, by the way—this will work well for most use cases. However, if you're doing something specific, you may get better results with a preset. You can always tweak presets further by adjusting the individual settings for color and contrast yourself, if needed.
One of the individual settings you'll see on some monitors is Gamma, which controls how smoothly black transitions into white, and affects the balance between the lightest and the darkest areas of the frame. There might also be a Color temperature setting, which affects how 'warm' or 'cold' colors look on screen.
Gaming monitors will often have something called an Overdrive feature (though it might have a different name). This boosts the monitor's ability to transition between colors, and it can reduce 'ghosting' (or color trails) in fast-paced games with a lot of motion. It can also cause other noticeable artifacts though, so it's something that's best set on a game-by-game basis, depending on your personal preference.
In-game settings for Red Dead Redemption 2.Credit: Lifehacker
You might also see a mention of Nvidia G-Sync or AMD FreeSync, features that sync the monitor refresh rate to the number of frames being outputted every second by your graphics card: With this enabled, you should see less stuttering and screen tearing (where two halves of a frame don't match up). It has a variety of other names depending on the monitor, so look out for something mentioning "sync" or "variable refresh rate."
Finally, don't neglect the settings inside your apps and especially your games. Most games will come with a stack of options you can adjust to control the monitor resolution, refresh rate, latency (the delay between your input and the screen response), and frame sync settings—these will vary between games and between monitors, but they should be labeled in a way that makes them easy to understand.
There are plenty of reasons to buy shoes at your local running store instead of online or at a big box store, including a more knowledgeable staff and the fact that you’re supporting your local running community. But another biggie is the fact that many will take returns even after you’ve gone for a few runs in your shoes.
In case you don’t have a local store with this policy, it’s good to know that some larger brands and online stores will also take returns of lightly-worn shoes. Fleet Feet and Running Warehouse are among the bigger stores that offer this perk; some online running shoe stores will include it as part of a membership (like Roadrunner). But several running shoe brands offer a no-questions-asked return policy themselves, so if you know that you love (say) Nikes, you can buy from the brand directly.
Do not feel bad about taking advantage of this policy. The whole idea is that you can trust your body to tell you whether the shoes are working, rather than stressing during a brief try-on about whether you think these shoes will work for you. If you can't help but feel guilty, you can make it up by buying your next new pair of shoes from the same place. They do it because they're trying to win you as a loyal customer.
Adidas asks for shoes to be unworn for most returns, but it has a separate policy for its "performance" running shoes, which include all its popular running shoes, from the $65 Runfalcon on up.
Altra prominently advertises "30 day trial runs, guaranteed." It ships a return label with your shoes and allows returns "for any reason" during those 30 days.
Brookswill accept returns within 90 days, even if you’ve run in the shoes: "Run in it, sweat in it, inside, outside, in the rain - if it doesn’t perform the way it should, send it back."
Hoka has a 30-day return policy (60 days for members), even if you've worn the shoes. "Try them out, that's what our 30-day Guarantee is all about."
Newtonaccepts returns within 30 days "for any reason with as much or as little wear and tear on them" as they happen to have.
Nike will let you return shoes, even if they’ve been worn, within 60 days of purchase. It specifically says you can return shoes, including custom sneakers, "for any reason" within that time period. There are exceptions, including items purchased at Nike Clearance stores.
Please note that policies can change, and that they often vary by country. Customer service staff can sometimes help you out even if you fall outside the official policy, but don't count on it. Still, if you’ve bought shoes, run in them, and weren’t happy, it can’t hurt to ask.
You’ve probably heard the advice that running shoes are only good for about 300 to 500 miles, and after that, the cushioning is so broken down that they’re an injury waiting to happen. But that’s not always true, and there are more ways to figure out when to throw out your shoes than just counting the miles.
How do running shoes break down?
When you put in the miles, your shoes undergo wear and tear. The first thing you’ll notice is that the tread on the bottom wears down, but that’s okay; there should be more than enough rubber under your feet to last the lifetime of the shoe.
Another place you’ll see visible wear is on the upper. Maybe you tend to get a hole in the toe box where your big toenail rubs; maybe you run on trails and tend to scuff up the sides. But these scrapes are usually a cosmetic issue, not a functional one. You can patch them up or just run in them despite the holes.
What really matters is the cushioning on the inside. It gets compressed with every step, and the more it gets squished, the less it bounces back. There will come a time in the life of every running shoe when it provides substantially less cushioning than it did when it was new. That’s when it’s arguably time to replace them.
How fast do running shoes break down?
The “300 to 500 miles” rule benefits running companies, since it requires you to replace your shoes while they still might look like new. But it’s true: 300 to 500 miles really is the range where cushioning tends to reach the end of its useful life.
That said, a lot of different factors are at work here besides just mileage—the runner's weight, for instance. If you’re a heavier runner, your shoes will wear out faster. And if you’re a lighter one, you may get more mileage out of your shoes than you’d otherwise expect.
Another factor is how the shoes are made. Some shoes are more durable and will last well beyond 500 miles. Others are light and flimsy to start with, and you might be lucky to break 300. I sometimes buy kids’ running shoes if I can find them in a size that fits me, but they tend to be less sturdy and their cushioning doesn’t last as long.
How long can you wear your old running shoes?
I remember running in the same pair of Nikes for literal years without issue. I bought them around the time that barefoot running and minimalist shoes were all the rage, and in fact I bought them because they had less cushioning than other models—so I figured that if I wanted the least cushioning possible, why would I worry about replacing shoes just because the cushioning was wearing down?
I did eventually get a new pair for other reasons, but the logic is sound: If you don’t need the extra cushioning, and your beat-up shoes are still comfortable, you can keep running in them for as long as they feel good.
On the other hand, not all shoes break down uniformly. I’ve had shoes where one sole starts to feel a bit lumpy or weird, and that can definitely lead to discomfort (or potentially even injury) over time. The most recent models of my favorite Nikes (the Free Run) seem to break down quickly. I've since switched to the Downshifter, a model that fits similarly but has more durable cushioning.
All of this is to say: just because you can keep running in old shoes doesn’t mean you should. Your experience will vary with the brand of shoe, the age of the shoe, and other factors like how heavy you are and what kind of surfaces you run on.
When do you really need to replace your running shoes?
Runners debate this issue amongst themselves, and they don't always come to the same conclusion as the running shoe companies. For example, see this discussion in a running forum on Reddit. Some people do track their miles, but they learn from experience instead of trusting a number just because they read it on the internet somewhere. One runner says, “Yep, my running shoes become lawn mowing shoes somewhere between 700 and 800 miles.” Another uses a range of 600 to 800 kilometers (roughly 400 to 500 miles). Another gives a more detailed explanation:
Theaveragemaryjanie says: "In fact, I started going off of mileage on some brands because [a gradual pain in the knee] went from it’s fine it’s fine it’s fine to oh-my-god-my-knee-how-long-am-I-out-is-this-serious. After about three scares at near the same mileage I figured it out and now replace 50 miles sooner. I would rather buy one extra pair per year than injure myself."
Others go by feel. "I retire shoes not at a mileage but when they either don’t feel comfy to run in any more or if they fall apart," says Layric. I generally get 1,000 miles at least out of pairs. At this mileage the soles are going to be nowhere near as cushioned as when they were new but I don’t suffer any injuries keeping them going this long. I own about half a dozen pairs and rotate through them."
Rotating through a shoe collection reportedly helps to extend the life of shoes. (Pro tip: if you do this, make sure to track shoe mileage in your running app, because otherwise it will be difficult to remember how much you’ve run in each shoe.)
One redditor, MakeYourMarks, has the receipts: "The fact that you rotate them is certainly a boon to their longevity," they say. "The foam/insulation/support gets compressed from the constant banging and pressure of running. Giving them time to “rest” (fully dry out and re-expand) adds a not-insubstantial amount of life to them. I have found that I get around 500 miles of amazing cushioning out of Hokas when rotating every other day as opposed to only about 350-400 when using every day. That’s at least a 25% increase, and at $100+ for a pair of shoes, the savings add up quickly over time."
You can also combine these approaches, and rotate between an older and a newer pair of shoes. The nice thing about this approach is that you’ll be able to feel the difference between good cushioning and worn-down cushioning just by comparing the two, without having to make a trip to the shoe store. Comparing new and old shoes is my own preferred method.
When it comes to high-end robot vacuums, there are a few brands that stand out from the rest. Yeedi and Ecovacs, for example: These companies are consistently innovating new features, increasing battery life and suction power, and improving their companion apps. Here are the best high-end robot vacuum deals available right now.
Like all the devices here, the Deebot T10 Omni is a vacuum and mop robot vacuum with a self-emptying home base that also charges the robot. It has a decent suction power of 5,000 Pa and mops with cold water. There is no auto-mop lifting feature, so you'll have to designate no-mop zones on your app if you don't want your carpet getting wet. The T10 has a camera with AI technology that it uses to avoid and recognize obstacles. You can also use the camera to monitor where the vacuum goes on a live video stream that also has two-way audio. You can get the Deebot T10 Omni for $599.99 (originally $1,199.99), the lowest price yet according to price-checking tools.
When the Ecovacs Deebot X2 Omni Robot Vacuum came out, the 8,000 Pa suction power was top of the line. This one works with carpets since the mop has a clearance of 15mm. The long rubber brushes for mopping leave my floors looking fresh, and it has yet to run out of battery mid-job with a long 200 minutes of run time. I've yet to take the debris out of the 90-day self-emptying home base (I don't use it every day). The mopping is done with two powerful brushes and hot water. The X2 will also dry your floors with hot air. You can get this cleaning machine for $999.99 (originally $1,499.99) after a 33% discount.
The newest high-end robot vacuum from Yeedi is impressive on paper, and it is already $300 off. The Yeedi M12 PRO+ has a powerful 11,000 Pa suction power, which is the highest suction I've seen in a robot vacuum. It also has a self-emptying dustbin, hot water mopping, self-washing extending mop pads, a tangle-free V-shaped roller brush, and a spot-cleaning feature in case you make a mess in one specific spot of the house. The M12 PRO+ has obstacle avoidance, but it may still try to clean objects it should probably avoid, like food wrappers or napkins. The auto-lift of 9mm means if you have a thicker carpet, you might want to tell your vacuum to work around it, or it will likely get wet. The fact that you can get a robot vacuum of this quality for $799.99 (originally $1,099) after using the $100 on-page coupon is impressive.
Vitamin D is hugely important to your health, and I don’t just mean bone health. Humans need vitamin D for immune function, cell growth and repair, and many other things. We get vitamin D from sunlight and from food, so let’s take a look at which foods have the most vitamin D.
You don’t have to get all of your vitamin D from food
Before I discuss food sources, I do want to address the issue of where vitamin D comes from in the first place. The primary sources are sunlight and food (and supplements), so if you get plenty of sun, you don’t need to worry about meeting your needs through food, and vice versa.
How much sun do you need to get enough vitamin D? That depends on your latitude on the Earth and how dark or light your skin is. For a benchmark, consider this study that compared sun exposure in Miami and Boston. In Miami in the summer, it only takes a few minutes for a person with a medium skin tone (the kind that tans easily but is still capable of sunburn) to get their vitamin D for the day. In Boston in the winter, bundled up, that same person might take two hours to get the same amount of vitamin D.
Health professionals generally agree that if you aren’t sure if you’re getting enough vitamin D from food and the sun, to just take a supplement. That’s going to be safer than trying to meet all your needs through sunlight, since the vitamin-converting rays of the sun are the same rays that can potentially contribute to skin cancer.
Getting more vitamin D through food is also an option—so let’s dig in.
The daily value on nutrition labels is based on a target of 800 IU (the recommendation for elderly folks) so most of us can actually get away with just 75% of the daily value, instead of making sure we hit 100%.
Those international units exist because there are different forms of vitamin D found in food, and some have a stronger effect on the body than others. In general, 600 IU is equivalent to 15 micrograms of vitamin D, but using IU means you don’t have to keep track of which type of the vitamin is present in food.
Oh, and the recommendations of 600 or 800 IU assume that you are getting minimal sun exposure—they’re for the bundled-up person in Boston, not the sunbather in Miami.
Easy ways to add vitamin D to your diet
Eat more fatty fish
Fish carry tons of vitamin D in their fat, so fatty fish like trout and salmon tend to be great sources of the vitamin.
If you'll allow me a small rant: Cod liver oil always tops lists of vitamin D sources, as if people are buying cod liver oil and taking spoonfuls of it like in old cartoons. (Maybe people do. If this is you, you can stop reading now.) I am going to proceed with my list as if cod liver oil did not exist. That said, if you really want to get your vitamin D this way, by all means, buy some one Amazon.
If you'd rather enjoy eating the fish you're consuming, here’s how much vitamin D is in different types of fish. All of these listings are from the USDA, and indicate the levels in a three-ounce portion of cooked fish.
Trout (rainbow, farmed): 645 IU
Salmon (sockeye): 570 IU
Tuna (light, canned): 229 IU (or 460 IU for a small can)
Tilapia: 128 IU
Fish sticks: sadly, only 1 IU
Other animal products that are good sources of vitamin D
Several land animals also make enough vitamin D to be worth considering as a good source of vitamin D.
Chicken eggs: 37 IU each (the vitamin D is in the yolk)
Beef liver: 48 IU in a three-ounce cooked portion
Milk is famously a good source of vitamin D (the carton often says “vitamin D milk”). There is some vitamin D naturally present in the milkfat, so skim milk doesn’t usually have much vitamin D, but whole milk does—and it’s often fortified to bring those levels up even more.
Whole milk: 124 IU per cup
Heavy cream: 19 IU per ounce
Eat more fortified foods
A food is “fortified” with vitamins if those vitamins have been added to the food. A lot of people don’t drink milk, so several similar beverages are sold with vitamin D added.
Fortified plant milks: Check the label, but it’s often similar to whole milk. here’s a Silk brand soy milk with 120 IU per cup.
Fortified orange juice: Check the label, but here’s Simply Orange with 200 IU per cup.
Fortified cereals: Check the label, but even a sugary cereal like Cinnamon Toast Crunch has 240 IU per serving.
You get the idea. Plant-based foods don’t naturally have much vitamin D, but many common items like these are fortified. Between food, sunlight, and the “I don’t want to think about it” approach of just taking a vitamin D supplement, it shouldn’t be too hard to meet your needs.
Microsoft is investigating reports of the latest April Windows 11 update breaking some VPN apps for users. The update, titled KB5036893, introduced several improvements to Windows 11—unfortunately it also seems to have broken VPN apps that run off a TPM-backed certificate.
The exact issue users are running into seems to be with the VPN being unable to find the certificate that it needs to be used with the Extensible Authentication Protocol, Reddit User Flo-TPG explains. Now that Microsoft has confirmed it knows about the issue and is investigating it, we’ll hopefully have a fix before too long.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t help those who might be trying to use a VPN with Windows 11 currently. If you have installed update KB5036893, then the only real option you have is to uninstall it and downgrade to the previous Windows 11 version.
How to uninstall a Windows 11 update
If you ever have any issues with a new Windows 11 update, you can always roll back to the previous version thanks to a handy built-in system Microsoft has included in the operating system.
First, open the Settings menu on your Windows 11 PC.
Navigate to Windows Update.
Now click Update History.
Scroll all the way to the bottom and select Uninstall Updates.
Find the update that you need to uninstall—in this case, you’ll want to look for update KB5036893—and click Uninstall, then complete the process.
Once the update finishes uninstalling, your system will restart, and you’ll launch back on the older version of Windows 11. Keep in mind that downgrading from some of the larger updates for Windows 11 may remove some features from your operating system.
The iPad is a product equally beloved and criticized: It has its devoted fans, who love it as it is, and use it for everything from work, passion projects, and entertainment. But it also has detractors, mostly those who see it as a limited experience thanks to an underpowered OS.
While Apple rarely seems to cater to the whims of its critics, it has made some iterative changes to the iPad over the years: iPadOS used to be an undeniably "tablet" experience, before Apple revamped its multitasking features, not once, but twice. Throw in mouse and trackpad support, and the iPad can be used as a computer replacement.
Apple hasn't made many fundamental changes to the overall design of the iPad in some time: The design of the Pro models remains almost identical to the ones released back in 2018, minus the 12.9-inch Pro's mini-LED display. This year, however, could mark some massive changes in the iPad lineup, across both hardware to software.
Case in point, a new Bloomberg report from noted Apple reporter Mark Gurman presents the highlights of Apple's iPad presentation: The star of the show is the iPad Pro. Apple is moving on from the mini-LED display on the 12.9-inch Pro (as well as the standard LCD on the 11-inch Pro) in favor of OLED. It's the first time Apple has used this display tech in an iPad before, but better late than never: On OLED displays, each pixel can be lit up individually, which means they can be completely shut off for dark scenes. The contrast is incomparable to LCD, which is lit by one solid backlight, and improved over mini-LED: The latter uses many dimming zones to boost contrast, but comes with the side effect of light bloom, or white zones in the dark areas around an image.
In addition to the display upgrades, the rumors suggest these iPads could be the first to get Apple's upcoming M4 chip, which may power many of Apple's upcoming AI features. (At least, the ones not outsourced to OpenAI or Google.) Perhaps the 2024 iPad Pro will usher in Apple's long-awaited AI strategy. We'll just have to see.
While OLED iPads will certainly make headlines, the iPad Air is also getting an upgrade: Gurman expects Apple to unveil a new 12.9-inch version of the Air, for those who want a larger iPad without paying Pro prices. The standard 10.9-inch will also be available for anyone who likes the traditional form factor of the Air, and both are expected to come with Apple's M2 chip. So, not the tablets to get for AI or the best contrast, but probably the best tablets for most people to consider.
Some new accessories for your new iPad
Of course, what's an iPad without some additional (expensive) accessories? Gurman expects Apple to unveil new versions of both the Apple Pencil and Magic Keyboard. The new Pencil will come with haptic feedback, which I'm all for: Those are the tiny vibrations you feel in certain pieces of tech, which offers some physical feedback whenever completing an action. It's not clear how Apple plans to implement that into the new Pencil, but it'd be cool if they came into play when drawing, erasing, or selecting items on-screen.
The new Magic Keyboard also sounds like a step up: It will reportedly use more durable materials, like aluminum, and will make the iPad "look more laptop-like." While I'm a fan of the current Magic Keyboard, it does feel quite fragile compared to other Apple products. There are other areas I'd like to see improvements as well: The main keyboard is nice, but I hope Apple increases the size of the trackpad and adds a row of function keys. Honestly, if all they did was add brightness and volume controls to the keyboard, I'd be set.
The iPad is becoming a bit more like a computer
People have wanted to replace their Macs and PCs with iPads since the tablet's launch in 2010. And although we've come a long way since that initial design, there's no denying an iPad simply can't do everything a traditional computer can. Sure, you can now have up to four windows on your iPhone running at once, and the Magic Keyboard lets you interact with your tablet much like a laptop, but you will continue to run into roadblocks and jump through painful workarounds to accomplish tasks that would be simple on a Mac.
There are many such differences Apple still needs to iron out, but one big one comes down to apps. Yes, the App Store is full of apps you can discover and download, but it isn't the same experience as a computer: On a Mac or PC, you can find a fun app or utility on the web, install it, and be on your way. On iPadOS, if Apple didn't approve the app on the App Store, you're not running it.
That's changing this year, at least in Europe: Apple confirmed Thursday it will allow app developers to sell their apps through third-party app stores and through websites, following the same rules the company rolled out for iPhones as of iOS 17.5. While app developers will still need to play by Apple's rules and give a percentage of their revenue to the company (this isn't a way to skirt Apple's fees, after all), it gives users more options for where they can download their apps. It means iPhones feel more like Androids, and iPads feels more like computers: If you see an app online, and you want to install it directly on your iPad, you can.
Of course, the only reason Apple is doing this is because the European Commission is forcing them to. The E.U. sees the iPhone and the iPad as "gatekeeping technologies," and, as such, must open up their platforms to allow for more competition. Unless we see similar legislation passed in the U.S., it's unlikely we'll get sideloading on iPads anytime soon.
That said, this is a reality for European iPad owners: While there are still plenty of small advantages computers still have over iPads, this change is another small step towards a future where Apple's tablet can be most people's all-in-one device.
New iPads are always fun, but arguably the best part of a product release is watching prices on older devices shrink. If you want a new iPad, but don't want to pay new iPad prices, keep an eye on the prices for these iPads post-Apple event:
When it comes to OLED TVs, LG's C series has been near the top of the pack for years. The 2023 model was no different, with PCMag giving it an "outstanding" review. And right now, the LG C3 65-Inch Evo OLED TV is on sale for $1,446.99 (originally $2,499.99) after a 42% discount.
The TV is new, not refurbished, and only available in the 65-inch size. The deal runs until May 10 or until the TVs run out. Remember, Woot only ships to the 48 contiguous states in the U.S. If you have Amazon Prime, you get free shipping; otherwise, it’ll be $6 to ship.
What makes the C3 Evo different from other OLEDs and its predecessors is how much brighter it gets than the competition, up to 651 nits. Its color performance is also better than its predecessor. Gamers should appreciate the under 1 ms input lag once the TV’s Game Optimizer feature is on, and with a 120 Hz refresh rate, games will look smooth. The TV has 4K 3,840 by 2,160 resolution, four HDMI ports, and hands-free Amazon Alexa voice assistant compatibility through the TV's microphones.
According to price-checking tools, the 65-inch LG C3 Evo OLED TV didn't drop in price until February of this year. Although this isn't the lowest price this TV has it, it is only a few dollars away from it. At the time of this writing, the next cheapest place to get the C3 Evo is Amazon, which sells it for $1,596.99.
Advertisements—sometimes prompts to do something that would financially benefit Microsoft and sometimes actual paid advertisements—are showing up all over Windows 11. Start menu ads are rolling out to all users this month, taking the shape of "Recommended" applications you haven't installed. Ads also briefly showed up in File Explorer, though this was apparently unintentional. And there have long been calls to action on the lock screen and in the settings app. It's a mess.
We've told you how to manually turn off all of Microsoft's ads in Windows 11, but it's a lot of digging around in the settings. If you'd rather not do that, an app called OFGB can do it for you. This free and open source application can quickly change various registry settings to disable those ads—all you have to do is click a few checkboxes.
To get started, simply download the latest release from Github. There are two versions—one tiny one that will only work if you've already installed .NET 8.0 and another massive one that has .NET bundled. Use whichever sounds easier to you.
Open the application and you'll see a bunch of checkboxes allowing you to disable different features. This includes the infamous ads in the File Explorer, the ads on the lock screen, the "Suggested content" in the Settings app, the general tips and tricks that pop up while you're using Windows, the Windows "Welcome Experience," the optional tracking tool that enables "more personal" ads, the "Tailored Experience" feature that tracks your website browsing to show product recommendations, and the "recommended" ads that show up in the start menu.
It's honestly a lot of stuff to have to disable just to get a clean operating system, but with this application, at least it's all in one place. And hey: It's easier than wiping your computer just to install an actually clean version of Windows 11, so that's a plus.
Woot has a liquidation sale for tech products happening right now, and their television and projectors section has some good discounts on last year's Samsung OLED and QLED 4K TV models. You can find them going up to 48% off at Woot right now.
The deal runs until May 9, 2024, or until the TVs sell out. Woot only ships to the 48 contiguous states in the U.S. If you have Amazon Prime, you get free shipping; otherwise, it’ll be $6 to ship. Here are the best TVs on sale.
The 65-inch Samsung S95C OLED TV was released about a year ago, when Samsung released what was then its latest OLED 4K TV. PCMag gave it an "outstanding" review because of its bright display despite being an OLED, great colors, low input lag, and support for AirPlay 2 and voice assistants Alexa and Bixby (Samsung's equivalent). Right now, you can get the 65-inch Samsung OLED 4K S95C for $1,777.99 (originally $3,297.99) or the 77-inch for 39% off. This TV was a bit cheaper when Woot had a Samsung TV sale last month, but it is the cheapest you can find from a reputable store at the moment, with Walmart being the runner-up.
If you're looking for a good deal on an 85-inch QLED TV, you'll be hard-pressed to find a better deal than the Samsung QLED 4K Q80C Series for $1,727.99 (originally $3,297.99). You won't find the same mini-LED backlighting screen technology that you'll find in other high-end Samsung TVs, giving you some limitations on your viewing angles—however, you also won't find those TVs 48% off. At its current price, the QLED technology and 85-inch size give you great value for your money for those looking for bright and colorful 4K images.
The Samsung QN90C Neo QLED TV is a premium 4K mini LED TV on paper without the price tag. It offers one of the best HDR brightness of 2023, great off-angle viewing, strong picture performance, 4 HDMI 2.1 ports, and a rechargeable remote. It was one of the best QLED TV's last year, according to Tom's Guide. You can get it starting at $1,887.99 (originally $3,297.99) for the 75-inch size.
A well-constructed meatball is an inherently perfect food. Tender, flavorful meat gently compacted into a burly sphere—big or small—always feels like a special reward. Improving upon it isn’t necessary, so I consider the following embellishment as a way to honor the meatball’s innate perfection: You should try deep frying your meatballs.
The idea of breading and deep frying the illustrious meatball didn’t come to me the usual way (a stroke of inspiration bestowed upon me by the angel of food). Instead, I caught news that this season, Yankee Stadium is serving up fried meatballs. Meatball makers everywhere know that technically all the best meatballs get a quick pan-fry before being finished off with a sauce (unless you’re baking them so there's less mess, which I respect), and the stadium’s preparation method remains a bit unclear.
Whether or not Yankee Stadium’s fried meatballs are just regular meatballs dunked in a fryer, the idea certainly inspired me to step it up and create my own vision for the perfect fried meat orb.
How to make deep-fried meatballs
The whole point of deep-frying anything is to get a crunchy crust on the outside and a tender interior. While something like a falafel doesn’t need extra starch on the outside to develop a crispy shell, meatballs do. I breaded the outside of my meatballs with a panko and fine bread crumb mixture, and the results were incredible. The meatballs had a crackling crust yet retained plenty of moisture. It was, frankly, one of the juiciest meatballs I’ve ever had.
Here's how to recreate it:
1. Make your meatball mix
Deep-fried meatballs can be made with any recipe, so I suggest you use your favorite. That said, it’s helpful for the breading step if the mixture has an egg in it, so if you can add an egg to your recipe, great, but it isn't essential. Raw meat is usually sticky enough anyway. Once you've made the mix, roll the meatballs and place them on a foil-lined sheet tray.
Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann
2. Coat them in crumbs
In a bowl, add an equal-parts mixture of panko and fine breadcrumbs. I used store bought Kikkoman panko and Progresso breadcrumbs. If you’re feeling inspired, add a spoonful of grated parmesan to the mix. (I only had shredded, but I managed.) Thoroughly roll each meatball in the breading mixture and return it to the sheet tray.
Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann
3. Fry ‘em up
Depending on how big your meatballs are, add enough neutral oil to a pot to cover them. Bring the oil up to 350°F. Use a deep frying thermometer or candy thermometer to monitor the temperature. Ideally, you’ll keep it around 335°F to 350°F. This frying range will ensure the meatballs cook through to the center without over-browning. Fry the meatballs for three to five minutes, depending on the size of the meatballs. Use a probe thermometer to test the internal temperature if you’re unsure about doneness.
If you’ve ever experienced the sadness of dry meatballs, deep frying is the remedy. I’ve never had a juicier meatball, and the initial crunch creates a swoon-worthy textural juxtaposition. My meatballs were two inches in diameter—perhaps a tad large. If you want them any bigger than that, I’d recommend breading and baking them on a wire rack over a sheet tray for 15 minutes at 400°F before frying to ensure they cook through. That way when you get to deep frying them you can focus on forming a nice crust and trust they’ll be safe to eat.
(Also, because I know you’re wondering, air frying them is just okay. They'll develop a subtle crust—and again, meatballs are always flawless—but a deep fry just hits different.)
Take the guess-work out of deep frying with these tools:
1. Crumble the slice of toast into a medium mixing bowl. You want small pieces; about the size of a pea or smaller. Add the grated onion and juice, and the milk. Stir to moisten the bread. Feel free to add a splash more milk if there are any remaining dry hunks of bread. Add the beef, pork, salt, seasonings, sauces, and the egg. Mix until combined.
2. Divide and roll the mixture into balls (the size is up to you). Place them on a foil-lined sheet tray.
3. Combine the panko, breadcrumbs, and cheese in a small bowl. Roll each meatball in the breading until well-coated. Replace them on the sheet tray.
4. Add enough oil to a pot to cover a meatball, about two inches of oil. Heat the oil to 350°F and deep fry a couple meatballs at a time for 3 to 5 minutes, or until well browned and the center registers a safe temperature (usually 160°F) for your mixture. Cool the meatballs for about five minutes on a wire rack before serving with your favorite sauce and a dusting of grated parm.
There are a lot of reasons people take on roommates, but one of the most common is simple economics: Rent keeps rising, half of all tenants in the U.S. are paying more rent than they can actually afford, and they can defray those costs significantly by splitting the rent and other bills with someone else.
All of those benefits are predicated on one assumption, however: That your roommate will keep up their end of the bargain and, you know, actually pay their share of everything. When considering a roommate, you have to consider how it will impact you both personally and financially—and be prepared for the possibility that your roommate turns deadbeat and stops paying their rent or share of the bills. Whether it’s due to their own personal financial hardship or because you accidentally let a sociopath into your home, a deadbeat roommate can be a disaster. If your roommate stops paying their share, here’s what you can do about it.
Gather data showing they aren't paying rent
Your first step when dealing with this situation is to get the facts. If your roommate is on the lease as a cotenant, has a separate rental agreement, or if you at least have a roommate agreement of some sort in writing, review the document to see what their financial responsibilities are and what consequences, if any, are spelled out.
Next, establish evidence. Gather records of missed payments and your attempts to collect the overdue rent. If you haven’t sent your roommate any requests for overdue payments, start doing so in a way that leaves a trail—emails or written requests.
Keep paying the rent. If your roommate is a cotenant or otherwise officially on the lease you might assume they are responsible for their share of the rent, but most lease and rental agreements specify that all tenants are “jointly and severally” liable, which means the landlord can seek the full rent amount from any tenant. If you only pay your share of the rent, you can get into serious financial difficulties if the landlord goes after you for the balance.
If you don’t have any sort of written agreement (if your roommate isn’t officially listed anywhere on the lease), you can’t just kick them out. You can ask them to leave, sure, but most states grant homestead rights to anyone who has occupied a home for a period of time, meaning they often have a specific grace period before you can legally make them leave. Check the laws in your state so you know how you have to proceed.
Try a (mediated) negotiation with your roommate
Once you know where you stand in terms of a written agreement, your next step is to open a dialogue. Note the financial burden they’re putting on you, and see if you can’t come up with a way for them to contribute at least some of what they owe. Calling in a professional mediator can keep things civil and offer a neutral way to discuss your issues; many cities offer mediation services for landlords and tenants to resolve conflicts—for example, in New York, the New York Peace Institute offers mediation services. If your city doesn’t, you can contact the American Arbitration Association for mediator referrals in your area. You can also try to negotiate a portion of the back rent—sometimes half of what you’re owed is better than zero.
If talks go nowhere, you can warn your roommate that your next step is legal action. At this point you could decide to cut your losses and try to negotiate a timeline for them to leave the apartment, using the possibility of a lawsuit as motivation. You might never get your money back this way, but at least you can stem the bleeding and remove this source of stress from your life.
If necessary, exercise your legal options
If all else fails, you might need to sue your roommate to try and collect the money. This isn’t actually all that difficult, but you will need to prepare:
Agreements. Have copies of all written agreements with your roommate—a lease, sublease, or roommate contract are best, but any sort of written agreement that spells out their financial responsibilities should be acquired. If your roommate is on a separate sublease or rental agreement, ask your landlord for a copy.
Demand letter. Next, send your roommate a letter detailing what they owe, called a demand letter. This should lay out in detail all the payments they’ve missed and your attempts to collect, including dates when you asked for the rent or other bills to be paid. It should also include a formal request for the money by a certain date. Send the letter registered mail or through any service that provides proof of delivery.
Sue. You can usually bring a suit like this in small claims court, which means you won’t necessarily need a lawyer. As long as you can prove that a) you had an agreement with the roommate wherein they paid rent and/or a share of the bills, b) they broke the agreement by not paying, and c) you suffered a financial loss as a result (because you had to pay all the rent), you have a very good chance of winning. This is where all the data you gathered comes in handy: If you can show a written agreement, prove that your roommate didn’t pay as agreed and that you tried to collect, prove that you gave them notice, and show that you paid the rent on their behalf, you’ll have a solid case.
Eviction is tough, but possible
If you go through all of these steps and your roommate still won’t pay—or move out—you can consider trying to evict them. This can be a much more difficult process, and you’ll likely need to hire a lawyer to navigate your state’s laws around tenancy and homestead rights. It’s not a fast process (it can take up to a year), so going this route can cost you a lot of money while your roommate remains in your home, still not paying rent.
If you have a good relationship with your landlord and the roommate is on the lease, you can enlist their help in an eviction process. Keep in mind that if you’ve violated your lease by having an off-book roommate, you might find yourself being evicted right alongside them, so proceed with caution.
And, no, you can’t engage in what’s known as a “self-help eviction,” doing things like changing the locks, throwing their stuff into the street, or making their room unlivable in some way. Even if their tenancy is off the books, these tactics are illegal and will just put you in a worse position.
In the end, if your roommate turns deadbeat, your best bet is to negotiate with them, then try to recover your money through small claims court. Whatever you decide to do, be patient, keep records, and think about how you’ll avoid this situation next time.
Now that so many of us are signed up to cloud storage services, USB drives aren't as ubiquitous as they once were, but they still have their uses. One of those uses is running an entire computer system entirely on the USB stick, which you can then bring anywhere. Your files and apps are always with you rather than being left at home or at the office, and if you're at a new desk you don't have to spend time getting everything set up the way you want—just plug in the drive, and you're up and running.
How it works
Of course you can't take an entire PC around with you on a USB stick—you need a monitor, a keyboard, a motherboard, and everything else. That said, all of the software and storage can be handled on a portable USB drive: As long as you have access to a computer with a spare USB slot, you can run your portable PC.
There's no interference with the existing setup on the computer you're using either, so you can borrow one from a colleague or a friend without causing them any hassle. You reboot the PC, tell it to load up your USB stick rather than what's on the internal drive, and your operating system appears. When you're done, shut down the computer, unplug your USB drive, and you've left no trace behind.
All you need to set this up is a USB drive.Credit: Lifehacker
It's great if you're always moving between locations, and want to have access to the same desktop interface wherever you go. It can also be useful if you're trying to troubleshoot problems with your hardware setup, or if you want to try out different operating systems without installing anything permanently on your computer.
You do need to bear in mind some caveats, though. A USB drive isn't as fast or as capable as a full desktop or laptop system, so you're limited to basic computing tasks. This doesn't really work on Macs either, because of their different architecture—if you need to run a separate system on macOS, the best approach is setting up a virtual machine.
Choosing an OS
When it comes to picking an operating system for your USB PC, you can use Windows if you'd like to—via a third-party tool such as WinToUSB—though you will need a paid license for it, and the user experience isn't the best. A better idea is to go for a flavor of Linux: Not only is the software free to use, it's also more lightweight, which means you're not putting as much stress on the USB drive and everything should run more smoothly.
If you're new to Linux, it's an open source desktop OS that comes in a wide variety of flavors known as distros. It doesn't offer the same kind of broad software selection or hardware support as Windows or macOS, but all the core computing apps are covered: You can browse the web, check your email, do some work, edit images, and plenty more on Linux.
Puppy Linux is one of your options here.Credit: Puppy Linux
When it comes to choosing the distro you want to use, it's really up to you: Just about any version of Linux can be run fairly easily from a USB stick. Make sure you look for a feature called "persistence" in the distro documentation, though—this means you're going to be able to save settings and files to the USB drive, rather than starting up fresh with a clean slate every time you boot it up.
Ideally, you want to choose a distro that's lightweight and basic, to give you the smoothest operation possible. Puppy Linux and Linux Lite are often recommended for this particular purpose, while Tails is great if security is a priority—it automatically connects to the Tor network when you go online. Ubuntu is an excellent choice too, offering a polished interface and plenty of help documentation.
Getting started
Head to the official website for your Linux distro of choice, then look for an ISO download—this is essentially the operating system in its entirety. Downloads like this can often run to several gigabytes in size, so you might have to wait a while. It's also worth checking in the distro's documentation to see if there are any notes or recommendations regarding USB installation.
Next, you need a program to put the ISO on the USB drive for you—not just to copy over the file, but to make the drive bootable. There are a few options here, including Rufus, but we've gone for Etcher for this guide: It's really simple to use, and you can run it on both Windows and macOS (and, indeed, Linux).
Etcher can flash a drive for you in minutes.Credit: Lifehacker
Fire up Etcher, and you'll see there are three stages: Pick Flash from file to pick the ISO from disk, then Select target to choose a USB drive connected to your computer, and then click Flash to complete the operation. As far as USB drives go, a capacity of at least 8GB is recommended, plus the fastest read/write speeds you can find—you might find more requirements listed on the pages of the distro you've chosen.
With all that taken care of, you can use your USB drive by putting it in a spare USB port on any computer, then restarting the computer and choosing to boot from the USB stick. How this is done varies, but it usually involves pressing a key to choose a boot device while the computer's starting up—look for a message on screen or check the documentation that came with the computer, if you're not sure.
Other streamers, especially those with close corporate ties to major movie studios, might reel in a few more major theatrical releases than Netflix. Where Netflix outshines them, however, is in its slate of original movies produced specifically for the streaming service. At a glance, it might seem as though the streamer emphasizes quantity over quality, but they've released nine Best Picture Academy Award nominees since 2019. Oscars aren't everything, of course—but they're not nothing, either.
Here, then, are some of the best recent movies streaming on Netflix, whether wide theatrical releases you might have missed, or originals.
Society of the Snow (2023)
The true story of the 1972 Uruguayan rugby team lost in the Andes following a place crash has been the subject of multiple documentaries and two previous dramas. For all that, this would seem to be the best of all of them: a thoughtful and tasteful take on what's sometimes been presented as a salacious drama, with director J. A. Bayona emphasizing both the physical perils faced by the team, but also the spiritual toll of survival.
Thanksgiving (2023)
Patrick Dempsey stars in this funny but bleak satire from Eli Roth, his first horror film since 2013. When an unruly mob storms a Walmart (sorry: RightMart) on Black Friday, violence and bloodshed ensue, leaving one of the victims of the incident to seek revenge. It's wild and gory holiday fun.
Anyone but You (2023)
A loose spin on Much Ado About Nothing, Anyone But You stars Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell as a couple who meet, hit it off—and then immediately piss each other off such that neither really wants to see each other again. Until, of course, they need wedding dates and find themselves surrounded by scheming friends. It's not wildly out there as rom-com premises go, but this one's briskly directed and boasts strong chemistry between the leads.
Orion in the Dark (2024)
Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) wrote this DreamWorks animated adaptation of the Emma Yarlett novel. When Orion is visited by the literal incarnation of his fear of the dark, he's taken on a whirlwind journey around the world to explore the world of night and help him to face his fears.
The Perfect Find (2023)
Numa Perrier’s film hits plenty of the traditional rom-com beats, but no matter: Lead Gabrielle Union provides the spark that ignites the whole film (based on the Tia Williams novel). She’s never been better than she is here, playing Jenna, a woman in her 40s making a clean break of a long-term relationship and taking on a high-profile, high-stakes career in beauty journalism—only to wind up in a one-night stand with Eric (Keith Powers), 15 years younger and the son of her boss.
Damsel (2024)
Netflix's favorite action lead, Millie Bobby Brown, is back in this dark fantasy from director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later). Brown plays Elodie, the damsel of the title, offered into an arranged marriage by her family, only to discover that she's marked as the sacrifice to a dragon. Which turns out to be bad news for her new in-laws.
Rebel Moon, Parts One and Two (2023/2024)
Zack Snyder, late of the entire DC cinematic universe, isn't to everyone's taste—but his Army of the Dead, also for Netflix, was a fun spin on the zombie formula, done as a heist movie. His followup is pure science fiction: a multi-part (it's unclear how many parts that will be) space opera that blends Snyder's distinctive visual style with Star Wars-style action. Sofia Boutella stars as a former soldier who rallies warriors from across the galaxy to join in a revolt against the imperial Motherworld on the title's out-of-the-way farming moon.
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (2023)
This short adaptation of the Roald Dahl story finally earned Wes Anderson his first Oscar. Benedict Cumberbatch stars as the titular Henry Sugar, a man who uses his inherited fortune to fund his gambling habit. When he learns of a secret means of winning by seeing through the eyes of others, he comes to perceive more than he, perhaps, bargained for. It's cute and sweet, and among one of Anderson's most visually inventive works (which is saying quite a bit). At 39 minutes, it never has time to wear out its welcome—even if you're not a huge fan of Anderson''s twee sensibilities. Ralph Fiennes, Dev Patel, Ben Kingsley, and Richard Ayoade also star.
American Symphony (2023)
Director Matthew Heineman's film follows a year in the lives of writer Suleika Jaouad and her husband, musician Jon Batiste, during which she confronts a recurrence of a rare form of leukemia while he constructs his first symphony. It's a moving film that goes beyond the obvious tropes to make the case that there are things that only music can say. It had a lot of Oscar buzz, while receiving just a single nomination for Best Song.
Scoop (2024)
The great Gillian Anderson plays real-life British journalist Emily Maitlis, who lead the BBC2 team that secured the disastrous (for the Prince) interview with Prince Andrew (Rufus Sewell) that laid bare his associations with sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Keeley Hawes and Billie Piper also star.
We Have a Ghost (2023)
Christopher Landon, writer/director behind innovative comedy-horror movies like Happy Death Day and Freaky (and, briefly, of the next Scream movie), helms this similarly fun but more family-friendly entry. Anthony Mackie is in the lead as Frank Presley, who, with his family, buys a cheap fixer-upper, only for his son Kevin (Jahi Winston) to discover a ghost (played by David Harbour) unliving in the attic. So far, familiar territory, but Kevin wants to help their new ghost while dad only wants to make money—and so, their ghost goes viral.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)
He may be America's least favorite Chris, but Mr. Pratt still leads the voice cast for the year's second highest-grossing movie: a colorful, goofy animated adventure pitting proudly Italian-American brothers Mario and Luigi against Bowser (Jack Black), King of the Koopas.
May December (2023)
Todd Haynes directs this insightful and moving, but also deliberately campy, story of an actress visiting the woman whom she'll be playing in a film. The movie's deft, and unexpected, blending of tones makes it pretty consistently fascinating, and the lead performances from Natalie Portman, Julianne Moore, and Charles Melton are all top-tier.
Nyad (2023)
Annette Benning stars as the real-life Diana Nyad, who swam from Florida to Cuba in her 60s. The movie succeeds in large part because of the performances from and chemistry between lead Annette Bening and Jodie Foster, both of whom received Oscar nominations for their work here.
The Killer (2023)
David Fincher's latest didn't seem to generate his typical buzz, perhaps because it's so thoroughly action-oriented (a far cry from his last Netflix original, the screenplay-writing drama Mank). Michael Fassbender plays the movie's nameless hitman protagonist, a fastidious and ruthless killer who makes the first mistake of his career—accidentally shooting the wrong person—and then finds his carefully managed life crumbling faster than he can keep up.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)
The sequel to one of the very best superhero movies pretty much ever is also excellent, and even more visually innovative than the first. Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) is back, joined by Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld), herself on a secret mission that puts them both at odds with pretty much every Spider in the multiverse.
Rustin (2023)
Colman Domingo gives a stellar performance (earning a Best Actor Oscar nomination) as the title's Bayard Rustin, the gay Civil Rights leader who planned the March on Washington. Not only is it a corrective to our very straight-centered vision of the Civil Rights Movement, it's a stylish and moving biopic in its own right.
Nimona (2023)
Long in the making, and based on the similarly delightful graphic novel by ND Stevenson, Nimona is a heartfelt, joyful, and funny fantasy set in a futuristic world that's also thoroughly medieval in its look and feel. Ballister Boldheart, alongside his boyfriend, Ambrosius Goldenloin, is about to be knighted by the queen, and he’ll be the first commoner ever to receive the honor. All good, until he’s framed for the queen’s murder and forced to flee, becoming the criminal that the snobs already took him for. Luckily (or not) he’s joined by Nimona, a teenager who’s an outcast because of her shapeshifting powers.
Wedding Season (2023)
Asha (Pallavi Sharda) just broke off her engagement and left her Wall Street investment firm in favor of a Jersey City startup. Her concerned mother sets her daughter up on a dating app, and Asha acquiesces to a single date with the first match: Ravi (Suraj Sharma). It doesn’t go particularly well, but they’re both under a lot of parental pressure to get married, and Asha has about a dozen weddings to go to over the course of the summer, most of them filled with busybodies who want to see her in a relationship. So, naturally (for a movie), Ahsa and Ravi decide to play at being a couple to get people off their backs—which works out fine, until it doesn’t.
They Cloned Tyrone (2023)
This smart, funny genre mashup spins plenty of plates, and mostly manages to keep them from crashing down. John Boyega stars as Fontaine, a drug dealer in a world just off to the side of our own (there’s definitely some Blaxsploitation influence in the dress styles). Following a showdown with one-time Pimp of the Year(!) Slick Charles (Jamie Foxx), Fontaine is shot dead before waking up in his own bed with nothing, seemingly, having changed. Teaming up with Slick Charles and sex worker Yo Yo (Teyonah Parris), he leads the three of them into an unlikely web of scientific conspiracy.
Leave the World Behind (2023)
Look at this cast: Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali, Ethan Hawke, Myha'la Herrold (Industry), and Kevin Bacon are all on hand for this apocalyptic thriller that has that Bird Box vibe without the alien implications—the monsters here are all human. As technology begins to inexplicably fail, our protagonists find themselves in a last-days-of-America scenario, including a scene of self-driving Teslas run amok. It's occasionally a little on the nose, but still a pretty compelling thriller.
City Hunter (2024)
The City Hunter manga, about the titular detective agency, has been adapted several times in the past, with very mixed results. This latest looks like it might be the best: a candy-colored, high-action, appropriately goofy take starring Ryohei Suzuki as lead detective Ryo Saeba and Misato Morita as the daughter of his murdered partner, with whom he teams up to avenge that death and to find a missing teenage runaway with deadly superpowers.
Spaceman (2024)
Adam Sandler stars here in one of his occasional dramatic roles, here as a Czech astronaut coming to terms with the potential dissolution of his marriage. At the edge of the solar system. With some help from a spider-like alien creature trying to understand humanity. Carey Mulligan and Isabella Rossellini co-star.
Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (2023)
If it's not entirely on the same level as the Aardman-animated original from way back in 2000, it's still a delightful and cheeky return from the escapees from Mr. and Mrs. Tweedy's Farm. Thandiwe Newton leads the impressive voice cast.
Down the Rabbit Hole (2024)
The House of Flowers creator Manolo Caro directs this quirky and thoughtful drama about meticulous, fussy kid Tochtli (Miguel Valverde), living in a palatial estate somewhere in rural Mexico. He's old enough to start questioning his wildly privileged and sheltered life, slowly discovering that his father Yolcaut (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) is a major, well-connected drug lord. It's a quietly stylish drama that avoids taking any obvious routes.
People think of mulch as something that provides a unifying look to their garden beds, but that’s not the reason you need it. Mulch, when done right, provides an insulating layer that protects your plants from extreme weather, keeps the soil from drying out, and provides nutrition back to your beds as it decomposes. It’s a lot of work to get mulch into place, so it can be frustrating to view it as temporary. But mulch breaks down—it's supposed to. A lot of people complain about their mulch blowing away, but fortunately this is a solvable problem.
The right way to mulch
The surface of your soil is vulnerable. It is exposed to the sun and can easily dry out. It’s exposed to the wind, which can blow it away if you don’t have plant roots anchoring it. We are now experiencing extreme weather conditions all the time, including heat domes in summer and extreme ice in the winter, all of which wreak havoc on your plants. A healthy layer of three to six inches of mulch can really make a difference.
You want to ensure that this organic material you choose is pulled away from the stems of your plants. (Mulch shouldn’t be up against tree trunks, either.) You want your plants to be planted into the soil, not the mulch, and each plant has a natural place it should be buried up to in the soil, as it comes from the nursery or grows naturally, and the mulch would smother the plants. Pulling the mulch away creates a well around the base of plants, which is perfect for watering.
Heftier mulch won’t blow away
Big box stores tend to sell bagged, dyed mulch. This mulch has three issues that make it a poor choice: the dye itself, which fades and adds a chemical to your beds; the lack of nutrition in it; and finally, people don't put enough of it down, and a light layer isn’t going to do much. This dyed mulch can look great at first, but again, that’s not the purpose of mulch, and the dye quickly gets bleached out anyway.Sometimes, people put down plastic before the mulch or landscape fabric, and this, too, is unadvised. The plastic will break down; it does not usually suppress weeds as well as you’d think; and it introduces microplastics to your beds. Getting rid of that plastic by taking it back up is a miserable process, too.
Instead, you want natural material to sit on top of your soil, and you want a hefty amount of it—ideally, three to six inches deep. I like to use wood chips because they have weight to them, create a uniform look, decompose slowly and are spectacular for the soil as they compost. They’re also free—I use ChipDrop to get them yearly and have been using them for 10 years without much issue. You can also use straw (not hay—there’s an important distinction), or leaves. In the fall, rake or blow your leaves into your beds instead of bagging them. Leaf mulch becomes amazing compost while supporting local beneficial insects as a place to nest over winter. Using a heftier amount of mulch, and heftier mulch, means it is less likely to blow away. Even if some of it does, you still have a substantial amount of it.
You may only think your mulch is blowing away
Mulch, when done right, decomposes in place, enriching the soil. It may be simply that what looks like disappearing mulch is really this process taking place. It can also be that it’s your dyed mulch losing color. You could also be washing the mulch away, if you water overhead instead of watering your plants at the soil line via drip irrigation.
Even if your mulch migrates, while your plant beds are now more exposed, it’s not really a problem for the places the mulch migrates to. It should just break down there, as well. The bigger issue is that your beds are left exposed to the elements and you lose the benefit.
How to keep your beds tidier
Curbing or edging your beds can help mulch stay in place and keep your beds looking uniform, whether you use plastic or metal or bricks. If you have a well-planted garden, the wind should be screened by your landscaping, as you want a healthy mix of understory, shrubs and then a canopy layer of trees. If you experience enough wind to be a problem for your mulch, you might consider that your landscaping has left your plants too exposed and introduce more of these layers. You can also consider ground cover, which is, hands down, the best way to reduce erosion, since it introduces roots to anchor the soil. I am reluctant to mention mulch glue, because I think it’s unnecessary, but there usually isn’t anything problematic in the glue itself. It’s a mix of bark dust and other wood products that are heated into a sticky adhesive you can spray onto your mulch to keep it in place. However, I fear it prevents the mulch from doing the thing we ask of it, which is to break down into compost.
Mulch isn't permanent
Mulch is a to-do item you should address yearly. Choose the right kind of mulch, and make sure you are applying enough of it in the right places, and replace it when you see it disappearing. Occasionally, take a peek at the soil below your composting mulch. It’s likely to be a healthy layer of humus full of happy worms and mycorrhizae.
If you’ve ever noticed that the edge of your board gets splintered while you’re cutting, you’re dealing with one of the most common problems for woodworkers: tearout. Tearout can be caused by using the wrong type of saw blade, a dull blade, or from improperly positioned lumber. But sometimes, you can do all these things correctly and still have a splinter problem. Sanding can help if your splintering is minimal, but here are some other methods to help prevent splintering from happening.
How to prevent tearout with a backer board
One of the most common ways to prevent splintering when using a chop saw or miter saw is to use a backer board. This is a simple way to support the grain of your lumber from the back side while cutting. Since the blade on a saw used for cross-cutting spins 90 degrees to the direction of the grain, the blade can tend to pull splinters out on the back side of your board. Place a scrap of wood against the fence of the saw—the part that you push your lumber up against to make your cut—before you position your board. Then, place your board against the scrap and make your cut through both the board and your scrap. The backer board will support the lumber you’re cutting, reducing tearout.
You can also use a backer board on a table saw, but you’ll need a board that’s at least as wide as the cut you’re making for it to work, making this method impractical in some circumstances. To use this method, place the board you’re cutting on top of another piece of lumber before cutting on the table saw. This can help some with tearout on the bottom side of your piece.
Preventing tearout with tape
Tape is another good fix for preventing tearout. If you’re cutting on a table saw, using a strip of masking tape or blue tape on the top side of your board above where the blade is positioned and cutting with the good side down can help prevent tearout. On a circular saw, you can use tape on the bottom side of your board, cutting with the good side up. Be aware that cutting through tape will likely dull your saw blade more quickly, but it might be worth it, depending on how precise you need the edges of your cut to be.
Preventing tearout with scoring
To keep tearout from happening, one helpful method is to score the board along your cut line before cutting. You can do this with a utility knife, a scoring tool, or any blade you have handy by making a groove with your tool using a straight edge along your cut line before making your cut. Essentially what this method does is pre-cut the surface of your board without teeth, making it less likely for the saw blade to catch on splinters as it spins and the teeth exit the board.
Reducing tearout using a router
If tearout prevention methods don’t work or are impractical, you can make a cut that’s an eighth to a quarter inch outside your cut line and then attach a straight board along your cut line and trim the remaining material with a flush trim bit in a router. Since the router blade usually spins perpendicular to your board, a sharp flush trim bit should produce very little tearout. For curved or irregular cuts, you can make a template that’s the exact size and shape of your cut, then use the router to trim your piece to the shape you want using the same method. This is also a good way to make multiple pieces the same size and shape.
Preventing tearout when drilling holes
If you’re using a drill press, clamping a scrap piece of wood onto the foot of your press before drilling can give the bottom of your board’s grain support as the drill bit exits the board. You can reduce splintering using this method with a hand-held drill, too, by clamping a scrap to the back side of your mark, making sure the clamp is clear of the hole, and drilling with the scrap in place. You can also drill a shallow hole on the opposite side of your board and then drill through from the top, reducing the exposed surface grain that needs to be drilled through.
Combining tearout prevention methods
There’s no rule that says you can’t use tape and a backer board and scoring at the same time. Combining methods, especially if you’re trying to make a very clean, precise cut, will decrease tearout even more. You should also make sure your blade is sharp and that you're using the appropriate one for the job you’re doing. If you’re making a cross cut, make sure you have a cross-cut blade on your saw, and if you’re making a rip cut, going with the grain, make sure you have a blade that’s designed for that cut on your saw.
When you're in a financial bind and need to borrow money quickly, two common options are payday loans and installment loans. Both provide fast access to cash, but they work very differently in terms of how you repay the borrowed amount. Here's a look at the key distinctions and some guidance on which type of loan may be preferable depending on your circumstances.
What is a payday loan?
A payday loan is a short-term, high-cost loan that typically needs to be repaid in full by your next payday, usually within two to four weeks. The maximum loan amounts are relatively small, usually $500 or less.
To get a payday loan, you provide the lender with a post-dated check for the full loan amount plus fees and interest. On your next payday, the lender cashes that check to recover what you owe. If you can't repay, you may be able to roll the loan over by paying only the fees and interest, but this will result in additional high charges being added.
Payday loans have extremely high annual percentage rates (APRs) that can exceed 400%. The combination of short repayment periods and exorbitant interest rates makes these loans very difficult to pay off, which is why many borrowers end up trapped in cycles of debt.
What is an installment loan?
Installment loans, as their name suggests, allow you to repay what you borrowed in a series of scheduled payments or installments over a period of months or years. Typical repayment terms range anywhere from a few months to a few decades.
The funds from an installment loan can often be used for a variety of purposes like debt consolidation, major purchases, home improvements, and more. You'll usually repay the loan on a fixed monthly schedule, making equal payments that go toward both principal and interest.
Installment loans can be secured by collateral like a home or car title, or they can be unsecured. Interest rates tend to be lower than payday loans, but will vary based on factors like your credit score, income, and whether the loan is secured or not.
Which should you choose?
In almost every situation, an installment loan is the better choice compared to a high-risk payday loan. Installment loans:
Are far less expensive overall due to lower fees and interest rates
Give you longer to repay in reasonably affordable installments
Are available in higher amounts suitable for bigger expenses
Are less likely to trap you in never-ending cycles of debt
The only instance when a payday loan could potentially make sense is if you need a very small amount of money to cover an emergency and you're certain you can repay it quickly to avoid interest charges piling up. But in general, the high costs and short repayment terms of payday loans make them exceedingly risky.
Whenever possible, explore installment loan options from personal loan providers, credit unions, banks, or online lenders. With better terms and more affordable repayment plans, they are almost always the smarter choice over predatory payday loans. For more, here are some tips for paying off loans early.
Microsoft first released support for passkeys in Windows 11 last year, introducing users to a passwordless way to sign into their Microsoft accounts. Now, all consumer accounts can finally generate passkeys for use across Windows, Android, and iOS.
Microsoft announced the full rollout on its security blog this week. The company notes that attacks on passwords have surged more than 3,378 percent since it first introduced Windows Hello, its biometric-based login method for Windows 10, fueling its efforts to replace passwords with passkeys. Starting this week, Microsoft will now let you add and use passkeys that let you access your account with your face, fingerprint, or a device PIN on Windows, Google, and Apple platforms.
Passkeys have been increasing in availability across a number of sites and platforms, with Google even going the “passwordless” route by adding its own passkey systems. In short, they offer more security than a traditional password, as they're device-based: Your device holds one part of the key, while the app or site—in this case, Microsoft—holds the other. There's no "password" to hack: Without the trusted device, bad actors can't break into your accounts.
Microsoft has slowly been working towards adding passkey support across its ecosystem, starting with a passkey manager in Windows 11, which lets you save passkeys for other sites and apps directly on your device. Creating a passkey with Windows will also hopefully help make signing into other apps easier, as it sounds like Microsoft wants to expand where its Windows passkeys are accepted.
With password crackers becoming so prevalent, and passwords requirements becoming increasingly complex, passkeys offer both a convenient and more secure way to log into your account that won’t require you to write down some long and overwhelming password—thus removing some of the additional security of the password right off the bat—to remember it.
You can manage your passkeys on Windows 11 by navigating to Settings > Accounts > Passkey Settings and pressing the three dots next to any passkey to manage it.
When it comes to foldable e-bikes, there is one thing that most of them have in common: a straight handlebar with a high and narrow grip. The RadExpand 5 Plus breaks away from that status quo with a low BMX-style handlebar that sets the tone for how comfortable and fun it feels to ride it. The RadExpand 5 Plus is an upgraded version of the previous RadExpand 5, and it brings many great improvements and features that make this e-bike a tough one to compete against. The battery and motor are impressive, but being only able to go up to Class 2 means the RadExpand 5 Plus is limited in its abilities.
I received the RadExpand 5 Plus as a review unit. The e-bike came pre-assembled, and I only needed to install the handlebar and some other minor parts, which was fast and easy to do. Rad Power says all of their RadExpand 5 Plus come pre-assembled, so it should be an easy set-up. You can see a full breakdown of how to install the e-bike from RadPower here.
Handling: The low BMX-style handlebar and a well-thought-out design make the handling top-tier.
Accessible: The user-friendly controls make it easy to pick up and get to the fun parts.
Comfortable: The 4-inch tires, a padded saddle, and front suspension make this a comfortable ride.
Versatile: There are many ways to customize the e-bike and add any accessory you can imagine.
Cons
Class: Although the motor is strong and capable, the bike only goes up to Class 2, topping at 20mph.
Portability: The BMX-style bars mean it might not be as compact in tight spaces, and the 72.5 lb weight doesn't help.
Not for tall people: The bike only works for people between 4'10"-5'10", leaving tall people out of the equation.
Specs:
Classification: Class 1 or 2 (up to 20 moh)
Brakes: Gemma Hydraulic disc brakes with 180 mm rotors
Tires: Beefy 20" by 4" tires with some off-roading treads
Frame geometry: Step-through frame
Lights: LED brake light, tail light, and LED front headlights.
Battery: 48V 15 Ah 720 Wh with Safe Shield Technology
Display: Full-Color LCD Display
Motor: 750W with 64 Nm of Torque
Pedal Assist: 5 Levels (magnet-sensing cadence assist with pedals)
Claimed Range: 60 mi on average, but can get up to 80 mi
Throttle: Grip twist
Weight of e-bike: 73.8 lb with battery
Rider height range: One frame fits 4’10” to 5’10”
Maximum rider weight: 315 lbs
Maximum load on the rear rack: 59 lbs
The RadExpand 5 Plus is a big improvement on its predecessor, and it should be to justify the $300 price tag increase. It now comes with 50 mm travel front suspensions with preload adjustments and lockouts so you can choose your preferred level of bumpiness; hydraulic disc brakes over the mechanic disc brakes; a much-improved LCD display over the LED one; turn signals; a battery with "Safe Shield Technology," which improves battery fire safety; and an improved torque sensor, which is supposed to feel more natural and improve the mileage. You can see more about the specs and other details from the Rad Power website.
How does the RadExpand 5 Plus e-bike ride on the street?
Credit: Daniel Oropeza
The RadExpand 5 Plus did not feel like a foldable e-bike when I rode it, in a good way. Yes, the step-through design is the same, but the choice to go for a BMX-style handlebar was bold, and it paid off. Your run-of-the-mill folding bike usually has an elongated handlebar stem, putting your grip in a higher and more narrow place than normal. This can make handling feel less in control, especially at high speeds. The RadExpand 5 Plus' lower grip and wider-stance handlebar gave me more control on my ride. It felt much better than other folding bikes I have ridden before. The e-bike handles like a mix between a cruiser and a mountain bike, and the four-inch-wide beefy tires have some off-roading treads, which made me feel comfortable riding it on some dirt paths. Even when going downhill and hitting around 28 mph, the handling felt so secure that I was always in control.
Credit: Daniel Oropeza
When it comes to pedal assist, the RadExpand 5 Plus has a 64 Nm torque sensor that matches your level of effort, so if you pedal harder, it gives you more pedal assistance and vice versa. I can change the level of pedal assist from one to five (or zero for no pedal assist and just leg power alone). Adjusting the pedal assist and finding the right level while going up a hill was smooth and practical with the controls placed on the left side of the handlebar. Hitting the maximum speed of 20 mph in class 2 with a pedal assist of 5 was very easy and quick, but I did have to move my legs very fast, and I wish there were an eighth gear to make it easier. With torque alone and no throttle, I was able to reach 20mph smoothly as I moved up through the five levels. My terrain was flat, and it took less than 15 seconds to get there. On the left side of the handlebar, there are also the controls to turn on the turning signals and a bell to alert those around you.
Credit: Daniel Oropeza
I was pleased with the LCD display. It shows all the information you need to know, and it is easy to navigate. I just wish it showed a percentage on the battery bar. The half-twist throttle on the right side of the handlebar is powerful for a foldable e-bike. On just throttle alone, it was able to go up the meanest hill in my area with ease, which is about nine degrees. That same hill on pedal assist level five felt like I was cruising on flat ground. I am confident that if you use the throttle and pedal assist level five, the bike can go up most hills without issues. With such a responsive pedal assist and powerful motor, it is a shame that Rad Power didn't give the rider the option to go up to class 3. It leaves a lot of untapped potential that the RadExpand 5 Plus could have on the table.
Credit: Daniel Oropeza
Rad Power says you will get an average of 20 to 60 miles on a single charge, but of course, it will depend on your use of pedal assist, throttle, weight, terrain, and other factors. Judging from my time riding it and the distance I covered, I feel like you can easily push past the 60-mile range if you're conservative. My estimation is you can get more than 80 miles of riding on a single charge.
How does the RadExpand 5 Plus fold?
Credit: Daniel Oropeza
A foldable e-bike's main purpose is to be portable and compact. And that's where the RadExpand 5 Plus fell a bit short. The e-bike weighs 73.8 pounds, and it was not easy to fold or maneuver by myself. It also has a detached Velcro wrap that I'm not exactly sure where is meant to hold the e-bike together once folded. I did end up finding a place that made sense, but I think a permanent place with an easier snap-on device like Ride1Up's Portola would've been an easy and smarter design choice.
Credit: Daniel Oropeza
The decision to give the e-bike a BMX-style handlebar means it isn't as compact as a flat and narrow one. On my usual test to fit it in my 2011 Toyota Corolla's trunk, I struggled to make it fit, almost giving up at one point. (I did eventually manage to make it fit, thanks to some smart maneuvering on my part.) If you don't plan to take the RadExpand 5 Plus on your car, this is probably not a big issue. The e-bike does compact well otherwise.
Credit: Daniel Oropeza
The RadExpand 5 Plus is versatile and customizable
Credit: Daniel Oropeza
One of my favorite parts of an e-bike experience is sharing it with loved ones. The RadExpand 5 Plus has access to many accessories from the Rad Power store. I used the Rad Trailer with the Pet Insert to take Gambino on a ride. The pedal assist and throttle make even carrying the trailer a breeze. Even going up some hills, I was able to easily find the right combination to make it through easily. You can carry a maximum weight of 100 pounds on the trailer and 84 pounds on the Pet Insert. You can get a rear and/or front rack to be able to use many of their accessories. Some are easier to install than others, but the Rad Trailer and Pet Insert were easy and quick to assemble as well as take on and off the bike (they just need a single bolt to put on the e-bike). Unfortunately, the rear can only hold a maximum of 59 pounds, so you can't have another adult in as a passenger on the back.
Credit: Daniel Oropeza
Closing thoughts
The RadExpand 5 Plus was a joy to ride. It felt like a comfortable BMX/mountain hybrid e-bike that also happens to fold in half. The inclusion of small details like rear light turning signals, a bell, a nice LED screen, and compatibility with many accessories makes the RadExpand 5 Plus a well-rounded e-bike that can be a good fit for most people looking to save some space at home or take their e-bike on their trunk. The five-level pedal assist with the torque sensor is very responsive and easy to use. The throttle is powerful yet smooth and easy to control thanks to the top-tier handling from the BMX-style handlebars and beefy tires. If Rad Power had made the RadExpand 5 Plus able to fit people taller than 5'10" and get up to class 3, I could see this being one of the best foldable e-bikes for comfort and versatility.
If you’re a Gen Xer or a millennial, you remember a time when college was pitched to you as a value-add, rather than a necessary expense. We all know how that turned out. And while many of us graduated and hopefully put our degrees to work, as many as 40 million Americans were classifiable as college dropouts in July 2021, according to according to EducationData.org—folks who previously enrolled in higher ed but left before completing a degree.
Plenty of people from all generations leave school before finishing a degree, for reasons that vary from financial to personal. But even after you've already entered the working world without a degree, going back to finish yours can be a smart move. If you've already earned a good number of general ed credits, for example—say a year’s worth—in theory you should be able to apply them to a degree in a new field that reflects your current ambitions, not those of your teenage self.
For many adults, going back to school seems daunting, but finishing your degree could lead to higher salaries and more opportunities, or put you on the path to a different career altogether. I talked to an expert to get some tips on how you can apply your life experience to picking up where you left off, and share proactive strategies for finally finish your degree.
Take stock of your (scholarly) assets
Whether it’s been one year or 20 since you left school, it’s hard to remember exactly what's on your transcript. Record gathering is an important part of the back-to-school process, so start there. Even if you plan on attending the same school you left, it’s essential to know where you stand.
Doing this will help you avoid disappointment or surprises by giving you a better idea of what’s under your belt. As a kid, the college application process seemed complex and difficult, but when you’re in your 30s and have been laid off a few times, it’s really no more complicated than a job application.
College transcripts are an important way to take stock of your credits and their subject matter, but you might also need your high school transcripts if you’re going to be attending a different school or if it’s been so long that your previous school no longer has those records. Calling, emailing, and filling out forms is your first tstep, but paid services like Parchment can help with some of the legwork.
I asked Dr. Bri Newland, assistant dean of the New York University School of Professional Studies Division of Applied Undergraduate Studies (NYU SPS DAUS), where o begin when determining your credit status.
“Most program policies on transfer credit typically have a maximum limit of 10 years," she said. "However, it is crucial to schedule a meeting with an experienced academic advisor who will thoroughly assess your transcripts alongside you, regardless of whether you acquired these credits beyond the specified timeframe.”
There’s more factors at play than when you stopped attending. If you have any other type of technical schooling or certifications, gather this paperwork in case there are professional equivalencies that could make your credits go farther.
“The [NYU SPS DAUS] also assesses prior learning through other experiences beyond college credit," Dr. Newland noted. "For example, military experience can be reviewed for college credit, as well as prior work experience and apprenticeships.“
While colleges and universities are places of higher education, they are also businesses, and want you to keep going (and graduate) to keep their reputation for excellence intact, so they are usually willing to work with you. Save money and time by knocking out as many equivalent credits as possible.
Dr. Newland gave an example of how this works at NYU. “For associate's degrees, students can transfer up to 30 credits, while for bachelor's degrees, 80 credits can be transferred," she said. "This flexibility allows students to build upon their prior learning and accelerate their path to graduation.”
Reach out to your alma mater
Give the admissions folks at your former school a call. Spring is a great time for adult students to ring, as most graduating high schoolers have already made their enrollment decisions. At many colleges, adult applicants can complete their application whenever they want, especially if it’s a school they already attended.
Admissions counselors can do everything from getting you set up with an application, to checking your records to make sure that you have what you need to reapply, and even directing you to other school services that could make the process easier. Alumni services serve as post-attendance marketing, enticing you to return and maybe even helping you meet that goal by connecting you to financial resources.
If you’re a working professional, counselors can also help you decide if your previous school can accommodate your schedule. If you’re one of the hundreds of thousands of people laid off right now, you should apply for financial aid now while you’re between jobs.
How to pay for it
If you’re in a stable job and your company doesn’t already provide educational resources as a matter of course, it can’t hurt to ask. Continuing education is often a part of competitive compensation packages, and you should to use that to your advantage. Education focused workplaces, especially in tech and healthcare, will sometimes even allow you time off of work to focus on these pursuits.
NYU in particular devotes an entire segment of their school to lifelong learners. Dr.Newland said. Adult and continuing education programs at many schools take a different approach to schoolwork too. “For example, through hands-on projects, real-world case studies, and industry collaborations, NYU SPS DAUS students gain practical experience and develop the tools and strategies needed to tackle complex problems and drive innovation in their fields, she noted.”
For the unemployed or underemployed, you can follow the same route you did as a high schooler: Apply for financial aid, in all its many forms. It’s easier than ever to find loans and scholarships, and you can enter into the process with your eyes open and the financial literacy of an adult. Grants, repayment programs, and even low-cost loans could offer just enough to cover the handful of credits you need to complete if you're close to finishing, while a scholarship could cover a year or more.
Use all the tools at your disposal
I'm not saying you should use AI to write an entrance letter or complete your research papers after work, but imagine if you had ChatGPT to check your grammar and spelling 15 years ago. Digital calendars, digital note-taking, and other educational tools have come a long way in recent years, and you should use them help you across the educational finish line, wherever that may be. For example, software like Otter.ai can take notes for you, and you can summarize them with OpenAI and track your projects on Monday.com.
Remote learning is no longer considered a fringe or lesser higher education experience. Online classes can be your sole method of schooling, and you don’t have choose an online-only schools to get a remote degree.
If you require more accommodations that you did (or that were available) back when you were in college, look into those too: These days, every college has an office deevoted to helping people with disabilities do their best in academia. Neurodivergence, mental illness, or physical ability need not be an impediment in today's educational environment. School services can help you create a plan for success, and social attitudes have shifted to make receiving this assistance more commonplace and easier to access.
Apply everything you learned as a professional to your back-to-school experience, and you’ll finally be able to get that (very expensive, hopefully equally valuable piece of paper..
The Meta Quest 2 is one of the best and cheapest options for trying what virtual reality has to offer. The headset has been on a steep decline in price ever since the new Meta Quest 3 came out in October, settling at $199.99 right now (originally $249.99). Given the Meta Quest 3 starts at $499.99 and the Apple Vision Pro starts at $3,499, the Meta Quest 2 is the only VR headset that lets you dip your feet in VR without breaking the bank—especially if you get it in one of the bundles available right now.
If you value comfort, the Meta Quest 2 with the Elite Strap Bundle for $223.76 (originally $299.98) is a great choice for only $23 more. The Elite Strap is made to relieve fatigue and offer more choices in terms of fit. It has straps, bracing, and a weight-balancing design that lifts the headset's weight away from your face for more comfort.
If you value practicality and portability instead, the Carrying Case Bundle might be a better option. For $18.76 more than the price of the headset alone, you can fit your Meta Quest 2 and accessories in a lightweight case that can protect the headset from bumps.
For those who can't decide between the two, the Meta Quest 2 Power Bundle for $243.52 (originally $344.97) includes both the Elite Strap and the carrying case for $43.52 more than the price of the headset alone. Of course, there's also the option to just save your money if you don't like any of the bundle options. Walmart has the Meta Quest 2 with a $50 gift card option as well.
As a gig worker, you are essentially a self-employed business owner providing services on a freelance or contract basis. While the gig economy offers great flexibility, it also means you don't have the same protections as a traditional employee. That's why it's crucial for gig workers to have proper business insurance coverage.
Without the right insurance, you could be personally liable for things like injuries, damage to property, or professional mistakes that occur while working a gig. The costs of a liability claim can quickly wipe out your savings if you aren't properly insured. Here are the main types of insurance gig workers should consider.
General liability insurance
This provides protection if someone is injured or their property is damaged due to your business operations. For example, if you spill coffee and stain a client's expensive carpet as a housecleaner, general liability would cover the repair/replacement costs.
Most gig workers should have at least a $1 million general liability policy, with costs typically ranging from $300-$900 per year depending on your profession and location.
Professional liability insurance
Also called errors & omissions (E&O) insurance, this covers you if a client claims your work was mishandled or negligent and caused them a financial loss. It's essential for any gig workers providing professional services, such as consulting, IT support, and accounting.
A typical policy runs $500-$1,000 per year for freelancers and can be increased for higher coverage needs.
Workers' compensation insurance
If you get injured on a job, workers' comp provides medical coverage and replaces lost wages during your recovery. It's legally required for many contractor roles like construction, delivery driving, moving/hauling services and more.
Costs vary widely by state, profession, and payroll amount but are typically under $1,000 annually for solo entrepreneurs.
Where to buy insurance
Luckily, there are insurance companies and brokers that specialize in affordable policies designed specifically for self-employed individuals, freelancers, and gig economy businesses. A few top options with consistently high customer satisfaction rating include:
Shop around and compare quotes, coverage, and support to find the right policies for your gig work and budget. Having the proper insurance gives you essential protection and allows you to confidently grow your freelance business.
With remote work now more normalized than ever, speakerphones like the AnkerWork S600 can be a solid way to improve the quality of audio calls no matter your environment. The S600, however, takes things a step further by adding AI to the mix, which picks up individual voices and blocks out unneeded noise.
The S600 is currently available as part of a Kickstarter, where you can back the device for a limited early bird price of $113. The regular price will eventually be around $180 when sold through retailers and Anker's website, based on the discount percentage AnkerWork has listed on its Kickstarter. That’s a nice deal if you’re in need of a speakerphone with these capabilities, but is the AI actually worth it? I think so.
AI that isn’t just a gimmick
While there are certainly other Bluetooth speakers and speakerphones out there, some of which can block out background noise like barking dogs, the S600 stands out as one of the first speakerphones to ship with AI-powered voiceprint recognition. This tech uses built-in algorithms and neural networks to hone in on a specific person's voice, cutting off the noise from everything else.
It’s an ambitious pitch, but actually works surprisingly well. I tested it out across a number of calls in different environments, including outside, in the kitchen, in a smaller echoey room, and in an office where background noise was pretty constant.
The voiceprint technology was able to quickly pick up on my voice and the voices of those around me. There were two ways it worked to cut down background noise: First, it muted microphones that I wasn't speaking into. Second, it applied noise cancellation to audio sources that weren't me. The end result didn't mask everything, but did make everything sound cleaner.
While noise cancellation isn't new, the ability to quickly identify audio sources is. AnkerWork claims that the VoiceRadar 3.5 technology in the S600 can identify more than 300 different types of background noises, and it definitely seemed to do a solid job in the environments where I tested, although it was impossible for me to test every possible scenario. There's also echo cancellation, which helped me out when testing in a small room, and should be nice for cramped home offices.
Design and portability
Credit: Joshua Hawkins
The S600 is very portable, thanks to a minimalist design. While my unit was a pre-release model, I was told it should be identical to the real thing. Essentially, the S600 almost looks like someone turned a coffee shop cup on its head, then added speakers and a few buttons to it. It’s a simple enough design that doesn’t distract too much from the functionality that it offers. There are only two physical buttons—one for power and one for pairing to your devices with Bluetooth. It also has a few touch controls that let you pause or play music, accept and reject calls, change volume levels, and even mute the sound or sample someone’s voiceprint.
The S600 also features two USB-C ports, one for charging the internal battery, which Ankerwork claims offers up to 16 hours of life, and a port that lets you connect it to a device directly, such as a computer or smartphone. The device is topped with a hinged MagSafe Qi2 wireless charger that can charge your phone with up to 15W while you’re taking calls. The charger can move up to 70 degrees, so you can position your phone in a comfortable spot for video calls or whatever else you need it for.
The S600's speakers encircle the device, with four microphones at the base to capture noise and voices in 360 degrees around it. Music playback is okay, but the lack of any real bass will likely have you reaching for a more music-oriented speaker.
A speakerphone that delivers
Credit: Joshua Hawkins
Overall, I was very impressed with the S600. Having received the device early, I did have to jump through a few hoops to install a beta version of the software to fully utilize the voiceprint technology, but after that was done, the initial setup was actually very easy to follow. Final units shouldn't have to jump through these hoops.
By the way, don't worry about security with this device. Everything it records, including your voiceprint, is stored entirely on the speakerphone and never goes to the cloud.
Pairing my smartphone with the speakerphone was easy, and changing the volume and other settings through touch controls was a breeze, too. I didn’t experience any connection issues while using the speakerphone, and the quality is more than clear enough for any important business calls you might need to take.
The device itself is fairly attractive, if not a bit simplistic, so you don’t have to worry about it being an eyesore on your desk, either. Plus, the ability to charge your phone directly while using the device is handy. If you take a lot of calls on your phone, then the AnkerWork S600 will make a great addition to your everyday work gear. Units will start shipping after the Kickstarter campaign ends on May 20.
Mosquito season is coming up—and maybe it's already here if you live in a warmer place. We've already explained how to keep mosquitoes from biting you (DEET or other effective spray for your skin and a box fan for your porch or deck) but let's talk about preventing them from buzzing around in the first place. You need mosquito dunks.
Mosquitoes need stagnant water to breed. Their babies start out as little worm-like creatures that breathe through their butts and eat algae and bacteria until they are ready to become the biting, flying nemeses we all know so well. This is why you’re supposed to cover or dump out any containers that collect water weekly. But what about puddles, potholes, and containers like rain barrels that can’t easily be covered or dumped? That’s what mosquito dunks are for.
Mosquito dunks are doughnut-shaped pellets that you can float in standing water. (You can also run a string or stake through the hole, if you need a way to keep it in place.) As the dunk dissolves, it releases bacteria that mosquito larvae will eat. So far, that sounds great for the mosquitoes.
But the bacteria in the dunks are Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (Bti), which are harmless to people and most animals, but poisonous to baby mosquitoes. You can safely use them in fish ponds or birdbaths, and the EPA notes that while Bti will also kill the larvae of black flies and gnats, it does not affect honeybees or most other insect species.
Here are some mosquito dunks to consider:
These dunks last 30 days and treat 100 square feet of water surface. (You can break a dunk into pieces to treat smaller areas.)
Mosquito bits are the same idea as dunks, but in smaller pellet form.
Unlike a lot of mosquito-repelling yard hacks, mosquito dunks are legit. Both the CDC and EPA recommend them for standing water you’re unable to cover or drain. This could include ornamental features of your yard like koi ponds and bird baths, or places that collect water by accident, like gutters or ditches that fill up with water, or unused swimming pools. (For swimming pools that are actually in use, the chlorine is enough to keep mosquitoes out.)
Note that dunks prevent mosquitoes from breeding, but they don’t kill existing mosquitoes. This means you shouldn’t expect an immediate reduction in their numbers from using a dunk. But their life cycle is short, running from a few days to a few weeks, depending on the species and the climate. That means if you eliminate the places that larvae can thrive, you’ll likely notice reduced numbers of mosquitoes later on this summer.
If you’d like to speed up the process, you can try using a dunk to create a “Bucket of Doom.” This is a trap for mosquito mothers to lay their eggs in a nice, swampy bucket—which you happen to have treated with a dunk.
I may have cooled off on my Pop-Tart coverage lately, but that doesn’t mean the jam-filled breakfast pastry has been sleeping. With the new Pop-Tart comedy, Unfrosted, releasing, you can expect to see more of the eye-catching blue box in your life soon. Normally I have inventive ideas for how you can eat Pop-Tarts, like this Pop-Tart pie crust or a perverted Pop-Tart trifle, but I seem to have forgotten the importance of hydrating. Luckily, with this quick Pop-Tart milkshake, you can easily drink your Pop-Tarts too.
Milkshakes are the answer to wanting ice cream without having to pay attention to it at all. Just smash it all in a cup so I don’t have to catch any drips, and give me a straw while you’re at it so I can chug as much as possible in one breath. As if it couldn’t get any better, milkshakes give you the special opportunity to drink normally solid foods. All you need is a regular blender, an immersion blender, or one of those fancy milkshake beater machines.
Pre-softening the Pop-Tarts makes for easier blending, in my experience—specially if you’re using a milkshake maker, which doesn’t use a blade to mix up the shake. To do this, break up two tarts of any flavor into the container of the machine and add the milk. I’m a sucker for the frosted strawberry flavor so I added that and some almond milk to a measuring cup (I used my immersion blender later). Let it sit together for about five minutes.
2. Add the ice cream
When your tarts have softened, add the ice cream. I added strawberry ice cream to boost the berry flavor, but if you really want the nuanced Pop-Tart flavors to shine, I recommend using vanilla bean. It can help with blending to soften your ice cream for 10 minutes before scooping, but it depends on how thick and cold you want the mixture to be.
3. Blend
Turn on your appliance of choice and blend the milkshake until the ice cream is soft and smooth and the tarts are obliterated. Pour it into a glass and enjoy immediately.
My strawberry Pop-Tart milkshake came out creamy, sweet, and with plenty of strawberry flavor. My favorite part was that the jammy center broke up into tiny, semi-frozen, jam crumbs that made for some added textural interest. If you don't like strawberry, don't worry. The beauty of making milkshakes with this nostalgic breakfast pastry is that your flavor choices are only limited by your neighborhood grocery aisle. With over 20 flavors (even "Frosted Strawberry Milkshake flavor!"), you’ve got a lot of experimenting ahead of you.
Pop-Tart Milkshake Recipe
Ingredients:
2 Pop-Tarts
½ pint ice cream
½ cup milk
Sprinkles for garnish
1. Break up the tarts and add them to the blender's container. Add the milk and let it all sit together to soften for about five minutes.
2. Add the ice cream to the container and blend until smooth. Pour the milkshake into a glass and serve with sprinkles on top.
I still listen to radio at my desk, like an absolute freak. Yes, I know that streaming apps exist—I also use Spotify every day. Spotify is great for listening to entire albums, and even the occasional playlist. Where the service loses me, though, is when it tries to use my listening history to recommend more music. And the worst version of this is Spotify's auto-play feature, which automatically plays something else at the end of whatever you're listening to.
This might be my fault. Plenty of people seem to like the algorithm just fine. Maybe I'm using Spotify "wrong," or at least differently than the average user. But it's clear, every time I finish listening to an entire album, that Spotify's algorithms suddenly decide I'm obsessed with that artist and what to hear them all the time—even if I only listen to the album once. In other words, more often than not, it sends me right down a rabbit hole.
Rabbit holes can be fun, but I don't want to be in one of them all the time. Sometimes when I listen to music, I prefer to hear a blend of what's trending in the culture right alongside a bunch of old songs I already love and haven't heard in ages. Sometimes I want to hear weird music I'd never seek out and that the algorithm would never recommend to me. And yes, I like it when my music is occasionally interrupted by an actual human being who tells a corny joke or comments on the news.
Sometimes, it turns out, I want the radio.
The algorithm is a trap
The theory behind using an algorithm to recommend music makes sense in the abstract: You like Artist A,Artist B is similar, ergo you might also like Artist B. In practice, though, the result is that I end up listening to a lot of music in the same key, so to speak.
Last fall I listened to Boygenius' The Record at least once a day. Spotify seized on this and recommended me similar low key indie rock, which I passively listened to. Evidently the algorithm concluded that I'm a female 20-something art school dropout. If that sounds specific, well, it is:
Credit: Justin Pot
Some people—those obsessed with things like "facts" and "reality"—would classify me a man in his late 30s. Even so, I'm not necessarily objecting. Some small part of me clearly vibes with sad girl indie. But sad girl indie was all Spotify recommended me for months, and it made up the bulk of what it autoplayed on my behalf. Any playlist that says it's "Created for" me tends to have the same three songs or so at the top, and the DJ mode tends to dip into to the same well.
But I'm more than just a sad girl. I'm someone with diverse musical taste, and I want to keep exploring and expanding my horizons. I'm not listening to music because I want to be lulled into complacency by always listening to the same things. I want to be surprised, to be exposed to weird and wonderful things that I'd never have gone looking for—and an algorithm trained on my listening habits probably won't push to me in that way.
For me, the best way to find that is with the help of other humans. A good disk jockey can serve me up a much more eclectic—perhaps even challenging—playlist, instead of several hours of the same vibes.
How to find a radio station for you
Now, the simplest thing you could do to find a radio station is to dig out an honest-to-god physical FM radio and see what's on the dial. Now, depending on where you live, the outlets not monopolized by the same corporate owners could be limited, and I willing to bet most people don't have an FM radio handy in their house, so you can start online if that's easier. I've spent some time seeking out online radio stations I like, with human curated playlists. I even wrote a guide for finding them a few years ago.
I like to recommend finding a few stations that are based locally—ideally community-run ones that don't interrupt the music with ads. Where I live in Oregon, I enjoy the Portland Radio Project and Shady Pines Radio, both of which are pretty eclectic, but there are great stations still broadcasting all over the world. NTS Radio is intentionally all over the map, and Radio Paradise goes some unusual places will still playing some songs you're probably familiar with. There's also SomaFM, which offers a bunch of different stations under one umbrella.
And those are just the stations I personally like. Part of the fun of escaping the algorithm is the thrill of finding your own favorites, tuning in, and discovering what you do and don't enjoy.
The best apps for online radio
There's nothing wrong with listening to radio in your web browser—in some ways, it's easier. But I prefer having an app for the job, if only because it makes it easier to pause or change the station on the fly.
Credit: Justin Pot
I use Eter for listening to the radio on my Mac. You can use it to search for specific stations or discover new ones. You can also add stations yourself, assuming they don't come up in search, and there's a matching iPhone app that will syncs your preferred station list.
On Android, I like RadioDroid. It has a comprehensive database of stations and a decent user interface. It's also open source and free of ads.
Apple Music works really well for radio, especially if you have a subscription. There are even a few Apple-exclusive runs programmed by actual DJs, and you can also search for pretty much any station on earth and find it there, thanks to a TuneIn integration. I have no idea why Spotify hasn't copied this feature. Until then, I'll be avoiding the algorithm by heading elsewhere.
So where should you begin if you’re starting (or re-starting) a cardio habit? The simple answer is that you can do anything that you enjoy, so if your favorite exercise isn’t on my list below, but it meets the definition of cardio, you don’t need my approval—just go do it. But if you want some more information about your best options, read on.
What counts as cardio?
Cardio exercise is generally understood to be exercise that:
Uses most of your body, or at least several large muscle groups (cycling “only” uses your legs, but it absolutely counts).
Is rhythmic and repetitive—think of the footsteps in jogging, or the arm strokes in swimming.
Can last for 10 minutes or more. It’s fine to do cardio in shorter bursts, but we want to draw a distinction between things like jogging (which people often do for 30 minutes or more) and strength exercises like squats (which might be done for a set of 8 or 12 reps, and then you need to rest before you do more).
Is intense enough you feel like you’re working. A leisurely stroll isn’t cardio, but a brisk walk could be.
Cardio machines you might see in a typical gym include the treadmill, elliptical, exercise bike (all kinds), rower, and stair climber. Those all count as cardio. Strength training work doesn't count--it's still good for you, but it's a separate thing.
How much cardio should I do?
The American Heart Association, the World Health Organization, the CDC, and many other organizations have settled on a guideline that says your baseline should be 150 minutes or more of moderate cardio per week. (They often say “exercise” but if you read the fine print, they are referring specifically to cardio. Strength training is separate.) Specifically, they say you should do:
150 minutes of moderate cardio per week, or
75 minutes of vigorous cardio per week, or
Any combination of the above (adding up to 150, with each minute of vigorous cardio counting double), or
If you’re already meeting that baseline easily, you should aim for 300 minutes of moderate/150 minutes vigorous.
What does 150 minutes per week look like? Here are some examples:
A 30-minute jog every weekday at lunch, or
A 50-minute session on a spin bike three times a week, or
22 minutes of brisk walking every morning (even weekends)
How hard should a cardio workout feel?
If you’re out of breath, feel like you’re dying, and can’t wait until it’s time to stop, you’re going harder than you need to. Moderate cardio is basically the same as “zone 2” cardio. It should feel like work, but not torture. You’ll be breathing a little heavier than at rest, but you could still easily speak in full sentences. These workouts are easy to recover from (you don’t need rest days in between them) and you’ll generally feel better at the end than you did at the beginning.
Vigorous cardio includes everything harder than that, from sprints that have you pooped in five seconds, all the way down to tempo runs where you’re pushing the pace but you’re able to keep going for the length of a whole workout. You may feel exhausted at the end. You may not be able to do this kind of workout every day. Vigorous cardio is good for you, but it’s often best in small doses. Endurance athletes (like runners) often aim to keep this stuff to 20% or less of their weekly workouts.
While heart rate tracking is popular, I don’t recommend using heart rate to tell the difference between your moderate and vigorous workouts. The heart rate zones that are built into your watch are inconsistent from device to device and they use a formula that is often wrong. Judge the difference from your breathing and your perceived effort. Moderate cardio is about a 3, maybe 4 on a scale of 1 to 10.
Does it matter what kind of cardio I do?
Honestly: not that much. Sometimes people seek out cardio that uses their full body, or that targets specific body parts, but that’s not actually very important when it comes to the health and fitness benefits. A rowing machine uses your arms more than a spin bike, but both can provide a great cardio workout. If you want to build muscle in your arms, you’re better off doing some strength exercises for your arms rather than worrying about whether your cardio workouts include your arms.
The best cardio workout is whatever you’ll do, so the most important factors are how available the workout is to you (is there a rower at your gym?) and preference (do you like rowing?).
With that huge caveat out of the way, I’ll give you guys my favorite cardio workouts, and some tips for working each into your routine.
The cheapest cardio workout: running (or run/walk)
Let’s start with what is, for many, the most accessible cardio workout of them all: stepping out of your front door and putting one foot in front of the other. (Nothing is perfect for everybody, of course, so if outdoor workouts don’t fit your life, skip to the next section.)
You’ll need a pair of shoes that feel reasonably comfortable when you run (they do not have to be expensive running shoes) and many of us will need a sports bra. Then, just add some athletic clothes, and you have the essentials. You’ll need the same basic gear for most other exercise, anyway.
You do not need a running watch or a heart rate monitor. You don’t need to track your mileage or pace at all, although you may find it useful to be vaguely aware of how long your workouts are taking and to track how often you do them. That can be a note in your phone (“30 minutes jog Monday”) rather than buying into an app or device ecosystem.
Here’s a sample workout, if you don’t know where to get started:
Walk for the first 5 minutes, as a warmup. Start slow, and by the end, try to be at a brisk pace.
Speed up a bit; try a jog or a fast walk.
If you start to feel tired, slow down just a little bit. Don’t return to a slow walk unless you truly have to.
Speed up again when you feel ready, and repeat.
Over time, work toward keeping up a steady pace. A slow, steady jog is better (for most of your training) than sprint-and-walk intervals. That said, interval training is a fun thing to sprinkle in. If you’re worried that running is boring, try these tips to keep it fun.
Easiest on your body: indoor cycling
If I had to crown a best all-around cardio workout, it would probably be spinning. There’s a smoother transition between speeds, rather than the distinct categories of “walking” and “running,” so it’s easier to find the right intensity for a given workout. There’s not much bouncing or impact, so you may not need a sports bra and you may find it easier on your knees and shins at the start. And you can do it with a water bottle and a fan within reach, which makes logistics a bit easier—no need to carry everything with you.
(Outdoor cycling is great, by the way. But that requires a helmet, a bit of mechanical know-how, and street smarts to safely mesh with, or avoid, traffic. I’m sticking with indoor cycling for my recommendation here, but if you love taking your bike to the streets, by all means enjoy!)
There are also tons of options for indoor cycling workouts. You can aim for a straight steady-state workout, perhaps watching a favorite show while you do it on the gym’s TV or even your phone. Or you can follow along with a video or audio workout that guides you through intervals while distracting you with music and chatter. Use an app like Peloton or Aaptiv, or find videos on YouTube. Here’s one to start you off:
Best for no equipment at home: put on some music and dance
I really debated this one. There’s a lot to be said for jumping rope (even though technically that is “equipment”) but the pros and cons are similar to jogging. There’s a lot of bouncing and impact, and it can be pretty exhausting at first, until you learn how to pace yourself.
Then we have the staples of bodyweight “HIIT” videos, like air squats and jumping jacks. These are fine! But they lend themselves better to intervals, and when we’re doing cardio it’s good to have options that let us move continuously. That said, I’m going to put in a quick plug for the most underrated no-equipment cardio move out there: the old school four-count burpee. (I describe it in more detail here.) No jump and no pushup. You’re welcome.
But ultimately, if you want to get a good cardio workout in your home without having to buy equipment or clear a big space, just put on some music and dance. And don’t tell me you “can’t dance,” because you don’t need to impress an audience here. Put on something that makes you happy, and shift your weight from one foot to the other. Swing your arms a little. Look! You’re dancing! It may not look stylish, but you’re getting a workout and you’re probably enjoying it a lot more than burpees or squat jumps.
Obviously, there are so many directions you can go from here. You can simply bop along to whatever is on the radio or shuffle your Spotify. You can work on building your skill as a dancer, learning new moves and stringing them together—don’t these goofballs look like they’re having fun dancing the Charleston? You can look up dance cardio videos where an instructor leads you through a workout. Or you can just pick any style you like and have fun with it.
ChatGPT Plugins were a great addition to the ChatGPT Plus plan: They acted like browser extensions for ChatGPT, adding third-party functionality to the chatbot that OpenAI didn't build in itself.
Unfortunately for fans of these plugins, they're now no longer available. OpenAI discontinued them back in April, informing users that existing conversations with plugins couldn't be continued. (They are, however, still viewable.) OpenAI didn't take away a great function for the hell of it, though: The company made the decision because it saw its new tool, GPTs, as an improved successor.
What are GPTs?
This can get a bit confusing, since OpenAI has two different uses for the name "GPT." The one you might be more familiar with is the GPT LLMs: This includes GPT-3.5, GPT-4, GPT-4 Turbo, etc. These GPT LLMs are what power ChatGPT, as well as programs that outsource their AI processing to OpenAI. Microsoft's Copilot, for example, uses GPT-4 Turbo.
Best of all, it's a no-code application: You'd assume to build one of these programs, you'd need to know how to write the code to make it work. But OpenAI's GPT builder works as a conversation. You tell the builder what you want your GPT to do, upload additional knowledge to help the bot work, as well as choose its capabilities (web browsing, image generation, and code interpreting), and it generates you a GPT. And since GPTs are trained on OpenAI's latest GPT models (again, confusing, I know), there's less dependency on third-party processes or APIs to achieve the same tasks.
You still need a ChatGPT Plus or Enterprise account to use GPTs, but if you're a paying customer, you can get started building from here. The builder walks you through the entire process, including suggesting names and generating logos. You're free to adjust anything as you see fit along the way.
How do GPTs replace plugins?
While it's great that OpenAI made a GPT builder that literally anyone can use, it doesn't seem to fill the exact void that plugins left. After all, you don't necessary want to build your own browser extensions: You want to download the best ones off your browser's web store and be done with it.
But GPTs aren't just about self-creation: Anyone, including companies, can make GPTs and put them on the GPT Store for others to use. Part of the reason OpenAI killed plugins is that many of the same companies that worked on these apps also have GPTs that do the same thing. Kayak had a ChatGPT plugin for checking prices on travel, but it now has a GPT for it instead. If you liked Wolfram's ChatGPT plugin, you'll probably like its GPT as well. OpenAI says while the plugins beta had just over 1,000 plugins to choose from, the GPT Store has hundreds of thousands of GPTs to use. While there is no doubt plenty of junk on the GPT Store to sift through, chances are you'll find GPTs you want to use.
If there was a particular plugin you loved, try searching on the GPT Store for it. (Kayak and Wolfram came right up.) Of course, the sheer number of GPTs on the store means the situation has changed considerably: Like other app stores, the GPT Store has "Featured" and "Trending" tabs for finding GPTs OpenAI and other ChatGPT users like. OpenAI is currently selling me on a wine sommelier GPT, as well as a language teacher.
Scroll through the GPT Store and see if any of the promoted options appeal to you. Then, make a search for applications you're looking for and see if any have already been made. You can get an idea of how well-liked the GPT is by the reviews and number of conversations it has been used for, similar to checking ratings on an app store. However, if you don't find what you're looking for in a search, you might want to try building the GPT yourself.
Of course, like all AI products, GPTs can hallucinate. In other words, they sometimes just make things up. Don't take everything your GPT responds with as certified fact, even if it does have access to the web. If you're using the GPT for anything important, always fact check before using the information it provides.
Busy airports and flight delays are expected parts of traveling, and both can cause major headaches. Apps can help you work around some of these issues, but if you use iMessage, you actually don’t need an airline app, a flight tracking app, or even the ability to Google to figure out if your flight is running behind schedule. Your iPhone's Messages app has a built-in flight status tool that offers real-time information about departures, arrivals, gate changes, and baggage claim numbers.
Here’s how to find your flight status without leaving the Messages app.
How to track flights in iMessage
First, you’ll need to have texted yourself or someone else your flight number via iMessage—not SMS—as the feature only works on and across Apple devices. That message must follow one of these formats:
Airline + flight number: Delta Airlines 405
Airline abbreviation + flight number: DL 405
Airline abbreviation + flight number (no space): DL405
(DeltaAirlines405 and DeltaAirlines 405 with no space or only on space may also work.)
The first option—with “Airlines” added to the company name—is your best bet across all airlines. Simply typing “Delta 405" or “JetBlue 101" is not enough to trigger the flight tracker. You’ll know your format is correct if the text is underlined (indicating a hyperlink) once the message has been sent.
To track the flight, tap the underlined text to pull up a menu with two options. You can copy the flight code to your iPhone clipboard or select “Preview Flight” to view flight details. If the flight is active, you’ll also see a real-time tracking map.
Credit: Emily Long
Tapping “Preview Flight” pulls up another window with more flight data, such as on-time status, departure and arrival times, duration, and gate and baggage claim information. Depending on the flight, you can also swipe to see stats for the same flight number on upcoming days.
Credit: Emily Long
Obviously, this is most useful for active or same-day itineraries, as flight numbers that are used infrequently may not have data available for your flight. If you don’t see the underlined text in Messages when you send your airline name and flight number, check that the format is correct.
All three Google Pixel phones are at their lowest price ever, according to price comparison tools. For reference, the 7 Pro hit $512 on March 28, which was then the record-low price. Woot only ships to the 48 contiguous states in the U.S. If you have Amazon Prime, you get free shipping; otherwise, it’ll be $6 to ship.
The main difference between the 7 and the Pro is that with the 7 Pro, you get a better camera, a superior Super Res Zoom, and a larger display with a slightly better refresh rate. Both phones give you a 50MP wide camera and one 12MP ultrawide, but the Pro has a better field of view and a 48MP telephoto camera. You can read more about the difference in our breakdown here.
The Google Pixel 7 is still an “outstanding phone," according to PCMag’s review. It was deemed the best Android phone for its price and the most affordable flagship phone. If you prioritize long battery life, the Pixel 7 has a slight advantage with two more hours than the Pixel 7 Pro, with up to 12 hours and 10 minutes. The Pixel 7 Pro got an "excellent" review from PCMag.
The Pixel 7a has a similar metal-framed design to the Pixel 7, but it is slightly smaller and lighter, with a 6.1-inch screen over the Pixel 7's 6.3. The back is also made out of a glossy plastic back instead of the more premium feel from the Pixel 7's Gorilla Glass Victus material. The cameras are different, but there isn't a clear "better" one.
Users shopping for a high-end Android phone for an affordable price should take a serious look at either of these Pixel phones. All three will be covered by Google's ongoing security updates and Pixel feature updates for years to come.
Apple Notes is a great app for jotting your thoughts down. It ships with your iPhone, reliably syncs across Apple devices, has great features like sharing, and best of all—it's free. Even so, there are a number of easy ways to improve the app you might not know about.
Not every note needs a title
Credit: Pranay Parab
By default, the first line in each of your notes is automatically in title formatting, which means it'll be bold and use a large font size. Some people love this, but if you'd rather use a different font size, go to Settings > Notes > New Notes Start With. Instead of a title, you can choose to start your notes off with a Heading, Subheading, or Body text. For normal sized words, Body is the right option. The other two settings let you retain a title at the start of each note, but with a smaller font size when compared to the default.
Change how checklists are sorted
Credit: Pranay Parab
You can use Apple Notes to make checklists, which are great if you use the app to create shared to-do lists or shopping lists. By default, when you check an item off in these lists, Notes will keep it in place. Some people like it when completed items are moved to the bottom of lists, which you can set by going to Settings > Notes > Sort Ticked Items, and selecting Automatically.
Use a different background color
Credit: Pranay Parab
Apple doesn't allow you to choose a custom background color for Notes, but you still have a couple of options. If your phone is in dark mode, you can still force notes to use a white background. This is great for people who prefer dark mode in general, but find it easier to read text against a white background. Make this adjustment by going to Settings > Notes > Note Backgrounds and selecting Light. This option doesn't appear at all if you use light mode on your phone—it's only for people who've enabled dark mode.
Pick lines or grids for handwriting
Credit: Pranay Parab
Apple Notes lets you use a stylus to handwrite your notes, but the default setting shows you a blank page when you start writing. If you're the kind of person who prefers a ruled notebook, go to Settings > Notes > Lines & Grids and take your pick.
Make sorting work for you
Credit: Pranay Parab
Apple Notes' default sorting options are good, but you can still make changes if you'd prefer something else. Go to Settings > Notes and scroll down to the Viewing section. If you don't like your notes grouped by date, you can disable that option, although I don't recommend it. You can also select Sort Notes By and choose Date Created or Title. The former will stop reordering notes every time you make a change to an older note, while the latter will sort your notes alphabetically.
View your notes as a gallery
Credit: Pranay Parab
If you're tired of viewing notes as a text-based list, you can switch to a gallery view. Some people find the gallery view easier to skim through and others like it because it's aesthetically pleasing. Make the switch by opening the Notes app on your iPhone and tapping the three-dots icon in the top-right corner. Select View as Gallery to switch.
Keep some notes on your iPhone
Credit: Pranay Parab
You likely keep all your notes tied to your accounts in the cloud, which is convenient when jumping between devices. But if you'd rather keep some notes on one device specifically—say, your iPhone—you can do that. Go to Settings > Notes and enable "On My iPhone" Account. This will show a new folder in Apple Notes: Notes in this folder won't appear on other devices. However, if you have Notes enabled for iCloud, this folder will be included in an iCloud backup of your iPhone.
Embrace notes wherever you are
Credit: Pranay Parab
Your iPhone lets you access notes from wherever you happen to be on your iPhone, including the Lock Screen, if you add the app toI Control Center. Just go to Settings > Control Center and add Notes. Now, when you open the app from the Control Center, it'll automatically open a new note. You can also make the app open your most recent note instead. To do this, go to Settings > Notes > Access Notes from Lock Screen and select Resume Last Note.
In the market for a new iPhone? Check out these latest options:
Hotels can be stingy about what guests are allowed to do with their TVs. If you try to plug your own device into your room’s TV to watch your own content, odds are good that nothing will happen. Hotel TVs are usually plugged into external boxes that track the TVs' activity and control which channels, apps, and TV features can be used by guests. These boxes are what prevent you from using the HDMI ports, but they can be easily circumvented.
A while back, social media user Deviant Ollam shared some steps on how to disable “hotel mode” on some TVs. We’ll go over those steps below, as well as some additional steps you can take if that solution doesn’t work out.
How to bypass hotel restrictions on some TVs
Most modern hotels run a combination of different restrictions on their TVs, most of which are usually controlled by a coaxial or ethernet cable. There are various reasons for this, but it mostly comes down to controlling bandwidth and trying to make a little more money off you by tracking what you do on the TV. You can bypass all of that, though, by unplugging the cable controlling the restrictions.
Before doing this, keep in mind that the hotel may have an alarm connected to this cable, which will alert them that you’ve removed it. If that happens, you could be warned not to mess with the TV and its cables, or you could be fined, depending on the hotel. Knowing that, if you want to continue, follow these steps:
Look for a data cable plugged into the back or side of your room’s TV. The port resembles a phone or small ethernet cable plug, and the cable should be connected to a breakout box nearby. The cable may also be a standard coaxial cable, which you'll need to unscrew.
(Gently) pull out or unscrew the cable. If it's an ethernet cable, look for a small—and very fragile—plastic tab you'll need to hold down to take it out. Make sure you don’t damage it, as you’ll need to plug the cable back in before you check out.
Turn the TV off and on again, and you should be able to use the HDMI input.
Ollam notes this little trick may disable the TV’s remote in some instances. You should still be able to use the buttons on the TV to swap the inputs and adjust the volume. If this solution doesn’t work, then there might be another issue at play here.
How to turn off ‘hotel mode'
Some hotels will also use a special functionality on their TVs called “hotel mode.” When activated, it essentially blocks input changes, forcing you to use whatever services the hotel offers. Depending on the brand the hotel uses, disabling “hotel mode” can be simple. Here are a few methods for popular brands that we’ve seen in most hotels:
HiSense
To turn off hotel mode on a Hisense TV:
Press Menu on the remote and select the Lock tab.
You’ll be asked to put in a PIN code. The default is usually 0000. If it doesn’t work, then the hotel changed the PIN, and there isn’t any way to continue. If you do get through, tap the HotelMode option to turn it off.
LG
If your hotel has an LG TV:
Hold down Settings on the remote until the Input banner pops up. This should show options like HDMI 1, HDMI 2, etc. You do not need the All Settings menu, so you’ll need to hold the button until the inputs appear.
Now, type in the code 1105 and hit OK. Depending on the exact model, you may need to use different codes. Some recommended codes include 0000, 7777, 0413, 8741, 8743, and 8878, according to Pointer Clicker. Inputting the correct code should put you in the Hotel Mode menu.
Switch HotelMode to off to disable it.
Samsung
Depending on the type of remote a Samsung TV has, unlocking it and disabling hotel mode may be more difficult. If your remote does not have number buttons, download a third-party remote app from your phone's app store (Samsung's official SmartThings app is the most reliable), connect it to the TV, and follow the steps below:
Press Mute on the remote, enter 119, and press OK. This should bring up the service menu.
Find HospitalityMode and disable it to unlock the TV.
How to unlock inputs on hotel TVs
Another popular way that hotels control how you use their TVs is by locking the inputs and making it impossible for you to plug in your own devices. When this happens, you can plug in your device, but you might not be able to swap to its input, or it might not show up. Depending on the model of the TV, you can actually bypass these settings by following a few steps.
TCL
On TCL TVs, first access the Settings menu by pressing Settings on the remote.
From here, select System and then ParentalControls.
You’ll likely be asked for a PIN code. The default on TCL TVs is 1234. If it doesn’t work, then the hotel has set a customized PIN, and there isn’t much you can do beyond trying to reset the code, which might get you in trouble with the hotel.
If the PIN does work, though, you can select Inputs Lock and then unlock the input you want to use.
LG
To unlock inputs on an LG TV, start by accessing Settings by pressing Settings on the remote:
Choose AllSettings, then navigate to General and System.
Select Safety from the list and then choose InputLocks.
You’ll be asked for a PIN code: The default on LG TVs is usually 0000.
Now, toggle the locks for the input that you plan to use.
Sony
Unlock the inputs on Sony TVs by first opening the Settings menu through the remote:
Now, select System and then ParentalControls.
Enter in the PIN when asked. The default is usually 0000.
Select External InputBlock after entering the PIN and unlock the input you plan to use.
If the TV your hotel uses isn’t listed here, try googling the specific brand and model to see if there are detailed instructions available for resetting the PIN or unlocking the inputs. However, the steps listed above should cover most major hotels.
As a final note, remember that tinkering with the hotel’s TV could get you into trouble with the hotel, and you should only do so at your own risk. It’s unfortunate, but hotels can be rather picky about what you do with their TVs and may charge you for messing around with their settings. If you do unplug anything, be sure to plug it back in before leaving, so that the next guest is able to use the TV.
Notetaking Jedis know the power of organization. Creating a system for your Google Keep notes isn't any different, even if the sticky notes app doesn't have an obvious tier of folders and sub-folders. Google Keep is deliberately minimal, but there are enough tips and tricks you can combine to stop yourself from drowning in a sea of digital sticky notes.
Seven tips for organizing Google Keep
It's important to set up a system before the sea of notes starts overwhelming you, but you can do this retroactively, too. Start by discarding notes you no longer need and shifting the relatively vital notes to more permanent places. For instance, a shopping list isn't a permanent note, but a list of contact numbers might be. Next, begin by creating a scheme or rules (that works for you) with these features in Keep.
Color code your notes with colors and backgrounds
Since Google Keep doesn't have folders, use colors and background options instead. I suggest you reserve the darker peach color for urgent tasks or notes. There are specific background patterns for groceries, recipes, places, travel, etc. You can drag the notes around and arrange them by color.
If you use Google Keep for tracking projects, specific colors can help you design a Kanban board too.
You can think of labels as "folder names," so give your Google Keep labeling system a lot of thought. Tag related notes with labels. Any note can have more than one label, so you can connect related notes. The "/" or "|" could be a clever way of visualizing related notes with different labels.
For instance, notes can have a primary label like "Personal Development." Then, you can create separate related notes with labels like "Personal Development/Health,"; "Personal Development/Nutrition,"; "Personal Development/Projects," etc. You can also add labels with a "#" (hashtag).
You can use a similar labeling system to keep a note private while sharing a related one with a collaborator.
Credit: Saikat Basu
Think about your labels with care, as Google Keep allows a maximum of 50 labels.
Number your labels
The heart of Google Keep's organization lies in the labeling system. Though you cannot organize labels by dragging and dropping them, you can use numbers to force them in the order you want.
Add a number to the label names in the order you use them. So, if it's "Work," then "1 - Work" will push this label to the top, followed by any label you number with a "2"... and so on.
Credit: Saikat Basu
Make notes (and labels) more visual with emojis
Don't let the lack of formatting options deter you from creating visual notes. You can insert all sorts of emojis and symbols in Google Keep. Inserting the right emoji in a note is easy on the desktop too, with the Windows + keyboard shortcut that opens the emoji keyboard.
Credit: Saikat Basu
Tip: Insert emojis in your labels and make your Google Keep sidebar look fun.
Pin only the important notes on the top
Pin the notes that are absolutely necessary—ideally, limit the pinned notes to a number that doesn't make you scroll. My iOS screen lets me see four to five notes at a glance in the Tile view. I usually pin notes that are reminders or timely, like a shopping list.
Use reminders to clean up
Reminders are a great way to ensure that you don't forget important tasks or deadlines. You can also set reminders for recurring daily or weekly tasks. But why not also use reminders to clean up the notes you no longer need?
Choose a time in the future to review a specific note. If it's no longer useful, trash it.
Credit: Saikat Basu
Archive notes for a cleaner home view
One of the problems with Google Keep is that all your notes show up on the home screen, even if you've labeled them. This clutter can be overwhelming when you have a lot of notes.
A nice tip from the Simpletivity YouTube channel suggests using the archive feature to clean things up. You can archive all your notes as long as they are labeled properly. They will still be searchable and editable, but they won't clutter up your home screen anymore. You can unarchive any note at any time.
You can then display only the critical pinned notes on the home view.
Credit: Saikat Basu
Tip: Google Keep has a powerful search with several filters too. It can look through your pile and find notes by Types, Labels, Things, and Colors.
If you want to get a movie or TV show up on a big screen, or beam music wirelessly to a speaker, then the Chromecast standard is one of the best ways to go about it: It couldn't be much simpler to use, it works across a host of devices and apps, and you can even use it to mirror browser tabs and Android screens.
Here's everything you need to know about the Chromecast technology developed by Google, and the Google Cast protocol that underpins it—from the steps needed to set it up, to the TV models that support it natively, and everything in between.
What is Chromecast?
Technically speaking, a Chromecast is a physical piece of hardware that you can beam video and audio to wirelessly—something like the Chromecast with Google TV, for example. However, the term is also commonly used to refer to the wireless streaming process itself, in part because a lot of devices now have Chromecast capabilities built in, with no dongle required (smart TVs from Sony, for instance, and the Google Nest Hubs).
The technology underpinning Chromecast devices is Google Cast, a protocol or set of standards developed by Google that tells devices how to communicate with each other and with the web. As long as the device you're sending content from supports Google Cast, and the device you're sending content to supports Google Cast, you've got yourself a working Chromecast setup.
Any TV running Google TV will also work as a Chromecast.Credit: Google
Both the sending and receiving device have to be on the same wifi network, and once you tap the cast button, here's what happens: The sending device (your phone, for example) speaks to the receiving device (your TV, for example), and tells it where on the internet it can find the video you're watching, or the audio you're listening to. That file is then streamed to the receiving device from the web, though you can still control playback from the original device you started with.
So if you're using a phone and Chromecast-enabled TV together to watch a movie, the movie isn't being streamed from the phone to the television—the phone is just telling the TV which particular movie stream it needs to connect to, and where you're up to in it. That means there's no heavy lifting for your phone to do in terms of processing or transmitting, and it keeps congestion down on your network, too.
Devices with Chromecast support
When it comes to Android phones and tablets, you can mirror whatever's on the display to any Chromecast device, as well as sending content from specific apps. Just about every media app, from Pocket Casts to Prime Video to Tidal, will have a cast button somewhere in the interface you can use.
On iPhones and iPads, there's no Chromecast support for screen mirroring as there is on Android, but you will find the cast button in most media apps like Netflix and Spotify. The only exceptions are Apple's own apps, like Apple TV and Apple Music (though you can cast from Apple Music on Android).
Spotify can connect to Chromecast devices via Google Cast.Credit: Lifehacker
Chromecast functionality is built right into Google Chrome as well: That means you can get the Lifehacker website, a Google Slides presentation, or anything else you've got open in a browser tab up on a bigger screen—though in this scenario, the sending and receiving devices communicate directly, so it's not really fast enough to handle video and audio streams. It works on every platform you can run Chrome on.
A lot of web apps can stream to Chromecast devices in the usual way—by sharing the specific content link for a seamless switchover—as long as you open them in Chrome. The likes of YouTube, Disney Plus, Plex, Spotify, and many others will all show a Chromecast button somewhere on the interface if they're running in the Chrome browser.
Casting from Plex running in the Chrome browser.Credit: Lifehacker
When it comes to devices that can receive Chromecast links, then obviously you've got the Chromecast dongles to start with. What's more, any TV running Android TV or Google TV will work as a Chromecast, no extra hardware required: Television sets from companies including Sony, Philips, Sharp, and Vizio are included, and Google has more information on compatible sets here.
Chromecast works with Google's range of Nest smart speakers, and if you've got a Nest smart display, then you can beam over video and Chrome browser tabs as well as audio. If you really want to, you can edit a Google Doc on your Nest Home Hub—which is impractical, but shows you how versatile the Chromecast standard can be.
How to Chromecast
If you're starting with a phone or tablet that you want to send content from, find the cast button in the app—it looks like a rectangle with three concentric arcs in the lower left corner (though Spotify goes its own way with an icon that looks like a speaker in front of a screen). It'll usually be somewhere on the "now playing" screen. You'll see the same button on a lot of video and audio web apps as well, if they're opened in Chrome.
If you're casting from the Chrome web browser, it's always best to use the cast button on the website itself, if it's showing. If not, click the three dots (top right), then choose Save and share then Cast to send whatever's in the current tab over to a Chromecast device. You can carry on using Chrome as normal, but the tab will be mirrored on the other screen.
Google Cast is built right into Android Pixel phones.Credit: Lifehacker
To mirror the screen of an Android Pixel device, open Settings and choose Connected devices, Connection preferences, and Cast. On any other Android device, you can use the Google Home app to do the same job: Tap the relevant Chromecast device on the Devices tab, then choose Cast my screen.
Once Google Cast has been initiated, a list of Chromecast-compatible devices on the same wifi network appears: Just tap on the one you want to use. After a few moments, the connection is established. You can carry on using the original device, whether it's a phone app or a browser tab, to control what's happening on the other screen (so your phone can become a remote for your TV, for example).
It may not come as a surprise that there’s yet another scrumptious morsel you can easily whip up with the help of boxed pancake mix. This malty, self-rising baking mix makes an excellent frying batter for veggies and a perfect dough for apple fritters (among other tempting carb-laden snacks). With both sweet and savory applications, complete pancake mix can do no wrong. Let’s add another one to the list of Boxed Mix Greatest Hits: quick and easy blueberry muffins.
Most cakes and quick breads contain similar ingredients—flour, leavening agent, sugar, salt, fat, and eggs—just in different proportions. Baking from scratch comes easy to some, and they’re the folks who might find boxed pancake mix a veritable baking scam. It’s premixed dry ingredients (and sometimes even dry egg powder), so why not do it yourself? To that I say: Precisely!
Complete pancake mix is already pre-measured and combined, so all you have to do is mess with the proportions a bit and add some liquid to make the type of quick bread you want. Less time spent pulling six different containers out of the pantry, fewer measuring utensils, and an easier cleanup. Plus, sometimes you're just plum outta eggs.
Even boxed-mix baking can be easier with the right tools:
Muffins have a slightly higher sugar and fat content than pancakes, so besides liquid (which needs to be added regardless) that’s all that needs to be added. Oh, and the blueberries of course. I don’t like my muffins to be as sweet as cake, but if that speaks to you then add another tablespoon of sugar to the mix. Muffin batter is also much thicker than pancake batter, so keep in mind that the mixture should be rather thick.
Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann
How to make blueberry muffins from pancake mix
1. Whisk the boxed pancake mix, sugar, oil, and milk together in a mixing bowl. The mixture should be well combined, but a few lumps are okay. Add the blueberries and stir gently. You can use frozen blueberries, though they’ll tint the batter blue-gray.
2. Spoon the batter into a buttered or paper lined cupcake pan. I usually fill them just shy of the top because I like the muffin to crown. For a crunchy crust, generously sprinkle granulated sugar over the tops of each muffin.
3. Bake the muffins in a preheated 400°F oven for about 12 minutes, or until browned and springy in the center.
Feel free to zhuzh up your pancake mix muffins with a pinch of ground cinnamon, a splash of vanilla extract, orange zest, or even different fruit. This recipe makes about five muffins and can certainly be doubled.
Easy Blueberry Muffin Recipe (from pancake mix)
Ingredients:
1 cup complete pancake mix
2 tablespoons sugar + more for topping
2 tablespoons canola oil
4 tablespoons milk (subsitute alternative milk, or water)
½ - ⅔ cup blueberries
1. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a 6-cup cupcake pan with paper liners, or generously butter the cups and the top edge around each cup.
2. Whisk the pancake mix, sugar, oil, and milk together in a bowl until combined. The mixture should be well combined but a few lumps are okay. Stir the blueberries into the mixture gently with a spoon.
3. Divide the batter into each muffin cup. Generously sprinkle the tops with more granulated sugar.
4. Bake the muffins for 12 to 15 minutes, or until the tops are lightly browned and they’re springy in the center.
Between shows like Finding Your Roots on PBS and the proliferation of companies like 23andMe, conversations about genealogy and family history have become mainstream—trendy, even. While not everyone wants to spit in a tube and potentially sign their physical data away, tracing one's ancestors is hardly a new tech trend—genealogy has been a major field of study for a very long time. Rest assured, you can learn plenty about your own ancestry without sacrificing any saliva.
I’m no genealogist, but with some research I’ve been able to find some amazing family stories and artifacts via the internet and the U.S. National Archives. I've found my photojournalist dad’s old work, including prescient courtroom pics of Trump and nightlife snaps of Andy Warhol. Newspaper reviews found mentions of my step-grandmother’s aunt, a "famous nun in Italy," and a transatlantic plot twist—that our family immigrated from post-war Italy via ship travel through Ellis Island. They were among the last waves of people who did, when it was long assumed Nonna and Nonno came via modern air travel.
There are many reasons to trace one's ancestry, whether purely out of curiosity, a quest for truth, or even for practical reasons like citizenship or legal affairs. Here are some tips for tracing your ancestry, along with valuable insights from experts.
Start with the obvious stuff first
It was happenstance that brought me to my dad‘s archive of Getty images, but it could've just been Google. You’d be surprised at how many people don’t run a basic internet search on their family members, myself included. Of course, you may not glean any Earth-shattering insights just by searching for that family member’s name, but it's always worth a try. The newspaper was the internet of the past, and before the late ‘90s, people were published for doing all kinds of stuff—good, bad, ugly, and otherwise.
To maximize your chances of finding something, think of some additional phrases or keywords you can use to boost your search terms. If your dad worked at the same company for 30 years, try searching for his name and that company. Was your mom nurse of the year in 1993? Look that up, too. A lot of things—especially old, historical things—can pop up on page 10 of a search. The internet doesn't just include wedding, birth, and funeral records that have been digitized, but shop openings, political opinions, and other newsworthy events that have been scanned into the web by blessed archivists.
Genealogical resources to take advantage of, both in person and online
Of course, there are plenty of other non-Google resources you can use, too.
Popular DNA companies do more than analyze your DNA—they’ve been collecting volumes of identity data, too. Ancestry.com and MyHeritage.com maintain digital records from around the world, huge volumes of info that include records and cultural relics. While both their DNA services and long-term memberships cost money, you can often try the databases for free with a trial. Still, if you're looking for information but don't want to (eventually) shell out money, there are plenty of options.
"Some naturalization records can be found on popular genealogy websites that are either free to everyone (such as FamilySearch.org), free at most public libraries (such as AncestryInstitution.com and others), or by paid subscription," a representative for the National Archives told me. NARA also pointed me toward the Resources for Genealogists page on archives.gov and the Genealogy Community on History Hub as additional sources of information.
For folks looking to engage with the Archives, they have research rooms open to the public, with on-site access to computers—and some days, an archivist on duty that may be able to assist you directly. Speaking of archivists, that brings me to my next resource: libraries.
Working in journalism, I have nothing but love for librarians. I've often learned cool facts or historical tales via the help of library staff—especially those in New York City. If you want to work with a librarian in the locations where your family has lived, they may be able to help you find mentions of your family or their businesses, properties, accolades, or tragedies.
If your family has been all over the globe, you don't have to travel to start your library research. Email a library politely and reach out and see if they have the time (or energy) to help you with your search. If you’re not local to a particular library, institutional librarians, like those that work for universities and governments, might be able to lend a hand.
Dig a little deeper
This is the fun part: being your own detective. Once you have a few documents to work from, it's time to start making connections to find even more.
“Finding a name mentioned is not enough," a representative for NARA said. "Many people may have the same name. Whether the name is mentioned in a newspaper article or some other record, identifying the person is a combination of factors in addition to their name, such as geographic location, date of the event, age, occupation, religion, relationship to other persons named in the record, and so forth. Locating as many records as possible about the person is key."
Use the clues from photos—maybe a name on the sign outside a restaurant, for example—stories your grandmother told you, fragments of memories, or anything that can provide material information. All of it will help lead you to even more stuff, and you'll likely find answers to questions you had never thought to ask in the first place.
Anthropic is freeing its AI chatbot, Claude, from your desktop. The highly successful ChatGPT competitor has now made the jump to iOS, launching its first-ever official chatbot app for the iPhone.
The new iOS app is available to download right now, and can do everything that Claude on the web can do, including analyzing images and helping you brainstorm. It can also use images straight from your mobile library and even take new photos for immediate upload. Pro users still get full access to premium features, including the model selector and a greatly increased message limit. With such a fully-featured mobile experience, Claude is one step closer to closing any gaps between itself and ChatGPT.
To try out the Claude app for yourself, download it directly from the App Store. Just be careful not to install any imposters. One of the first options that shows up when searching for Claude is an app called "Chat AI with Claude," which tracks quite a lot of your personal information, including purchases, device ID, user ID, app usage, and more. Either be careful when searching, or just click this link to go directly to Claude's App Store listing.
Anthropic says that Claude’s iOS app will allow for seamless syncing between the web and mobile app, so you can move from your laptop to your iPhone and pick up where you left off. You can also take photos and import them directly into the app to analyze them. The mobile app is available for all Claude users, including free users, although there's no word on an Android version yet.
On top of launching its iOS app, Anthropic also recently debuted a new Teams subscription for the AI chatbot, which offers the premium version of the chatbot for just $30 a user per month, with a minimum of five users.
You can get a lifetime subscription to Rosetta Stone on sale for $179.97 right now (reg. $399) using the promo code ROSETTA through May 5. Winner of the PC Magazine Editors’ Choice Award, the app has lessons in 25 languages like Spanish (Latin American and Spain), French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese (Mandarin), and Russian, and each lesson is designed to only take 10 to 15 minutes. The learning method mimics how you learned your native language as a child, starting with matching words with images, moving to conversational skills like shopping, and finishing with advanced subjects like pop culture. You’ll learn to read, write, understand, and speak with speech-recognition technology that gives you real-time feedback on your pronunciation and accent.
You can get a lifetime subscription to Rosetta Stone on sale for $179.97 right now (reg. $399) using the promo code ROSETTA through May 5 at 11:59 p.m. PT, though prices can change at any time.
If you have limited space in your garden, you have to make hard decisions each year about what you’ll grow. The most important factor in choosing what to grow is what you like to eat. If you like pizza, summer is a spectacular time—throw some stretched pizza dough on the grill and top it with fresh veggies from the garden, cheese, and sauce (or fresh tomatoes you grew). The level of satisfaction you’ll draw will be tremendous, so I humbly suggest that this year, you grow a pizza garden.
Choose vegetables for the toppings
A pizza usually starts with tomatoes, and if you like sauce, you'll want sauce or paste tomatoes. If you prefer to just have slices of juicy tomatoes on your pizza, you'll want larger heirloom slicing tomatoes. You can, of course, grow both. While tomatoes are obvious, consider what other vegetables you’d enjoy on the pizza, and remember that you don’t need to think traditionally. In my twenties, I had a pizza somewhere with grilled eggplant on it, and I’ve made that pizza every summer since. Classic choices like peppers, onions, and basil are a good place to start. But consider summer squash or zucchini, too. Once sliced and grilled, they’re delicious on pizzas. Spinach, oregano, arugula, or rosemary will all help produce a delicious pie.
While some vegetables do better together than others, there also isn’t great harm in planting most vegetables together, even if they’re not beneficial—with a few exceptions. You don’t want to plant fennel in your pizza garden, since it will negatively affect all other vegetables planted with it. You can keep fennel in a separate planter nearby. Also, if you love broccoli and cauliflower on your pizza, you’ll want to keep them on one side of your vegetable bed, and keep your tomatoes, peppers and eggplants on the other side. Your greens like basil, arugula, and spinach can live in between them. The major issue is considering the space each plant needs, which will vary. Zucchini will become quite large horizontally, so I like to have it hang off the edge of the bed. Tomatoes, particularly indeterminate ones, grow quite tall, so you need support for them. Basil prefers to be hidden between plants to grow prolifically. Onions can be interplanted with tomatoes, for instance, since they occupy different space—tomatoes are above ground, and onions below it.
A pizza garden is a late summer treat
A number of the items in your pizza garden need most of the season to grow. You’ll see tomatoes by the middle of summer, but peppers and eggplants take a bit longer to incubate. In the meanwhile, you’ll be able to enjoy your squash, arugula, and spinach in other dishes. Onions can be picked in their scallion stage, even though they’re not fully bulbed out. Just make sure you leave enough in the ground to reach a more mature state for later in summer.
Growing all these vegetables together will make for a really colorful bed with lots of height and texture variance, but it will also ensure that you don’t have one giant target for specific pests, as you would with a whole tomato bed or a big bed of basil. Those monocultures are like a glaring “open for business” sign for the pests that love that particular crop. Each summer, you’ll learn a little more about your bed, and where to arrange the vegetables in the pizza garden for the best space, access to the sun and ease of harvesting.
Gardeners always know their planting zone, and the local lore around the date it’s safe to plant outside. Around my parts, that’s Mothers Day. In more northern parts of the U.S., it’s Memorial Day. We use those dates to backtrack and decide when to start seeds inside. But these dates, while not arbitrary, are also not written in stone. The weather changes every year, and we’ve been seeing huge weather changes the last few years due to climate change. That's why I’m suggesting you watch the weather, not the calendar, for your summer planting.
Last frost dates are an estimate
Each spring is a gamble for gardeners: when you start seeds and when you risk planting them outside. Start seeds too early, and your plants become large, leggy and rootbound inside. Start seeds too late, and your plants won’t be large enough to produce crops over the short summer season. You’d think if your plants are big enough, you could just plunk them outside in your garden, but that’s where the biggest risk lies. These tender summer plants have temperature requirements, and spring is notorious for surprise frosts. Your plants won’t survive, or at best, will be stunted, if they go through a frost without some serious protection. To hedge against this risk, each planting zone in the U.S. has a last frost date, which is an average date that should be safe to plant outside. But that’s all it is—an average. Some years the frost date is well into weeks of warm weather, and some years, there’s a surprise May snowstorm.
Soil temperature is the most important indicator
The frost date was never meant to be more than a guide. The real indicators we should be paying attention to are soil temperatures, overnight temperatures and sunshine. The soil, at a depth of eight or so inches, does not rapidly shift temperature based on one day’s weather. Instead, that temperature represents the shift of seasons, and it slowly warms as the ambient temperature does. To sustain summer plantings, the soil needs to be at least 60 degrees Fahrenheit. While plants may survive in temperatures below that, they won’t thrive. You can gauge your temperature with a probe specifically for that, and while there are fancy ones, I prefer a simple, analog long stem thermometer for the task.
While daytime conditions are important, the temperature is always going to dip once the sun goes down. Your summer plants can’t tolerate frosty temps, so you want to wait until the overnight temperature remains steadily above 50 degrees Fahrenheit (although 55 is better). Of course, this will happen in tandem with the soil temperature, but not precisely, and even one night of frost or cold temperatures can be harmful for your plants, so it’s a delicate balance. Any weather reporting site like Wunderground or Weather.com will report on these overnight temperatures.
Look for the sunshine
Lastly, you want to look for the sunshine—this is less objective and more observational. Spring is still the rainy season, and plants benefit from all that free water. But they will still need sunshine to thrive, and so we’re looking for a mix of quality days of sunshine mixed with rain before you plant. Long stretches of overcast days will not produce happy plants, and instead, create conditions for virus and fungus. As rain splashes on the soil, microbes in the soil splash up onto the plants, where those wet conditions are perfect for fungal and viral growth and spread. If you’re really skilled, you’ll choose the last stretch of overcast days to plant everything, so it gets a gentle stretch of time away from the sun to settle into the new digs, and then gets a drink of sunshine so it can start to grow.
Extend the season
There are ways to start the season early by offering your plants protection outside, even if you plant them before conditions are met. There are greenhouses, both permanent and temporary. If you don’t have a greenhouse, you can buy a temporary popup to put over your bed. You can consider coldframes, which are outdoor beds with removable covers. There are insulating products like waterwalls for tomatoes, and there is always Agribond, which you can use to build low tunnels over your beds.
Whenever gardeners talk about seeding and planting and harvesting online, they’re usually talking about a median growing zone for the U.S. There are zones with completely different timetables, like the southeast or really northern states. When considering the advice, it’s smart to remember the local lore around planting and seeding dates, but it’s more important to just look outside. Our planting seasons are becoming more volatile due to climate change, and so we want to get the maximum amount of growing season possible. Rely on the indicators.
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