Nintendo has brought the summer’s season of game announcements to a close in a big way, making good on promises that many worried had been forgotten. The Nintendo Switch 2might be on the way, but meanwhile, in 2024 and 2025, owners of the original Nintendo Switch have a packed schedule to look forward to. Here’s just a few of today’s biggest announcements.
Metroid Prime 4
Seven years after it was first announced and five years after Nintendo said it had restarted development on the title, Metroid Prime 4 finally has a release window, plus a new subtitle.
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond will release for Nintendo Switch in 2025 and see Samus once again go up against Space Pirates and Metroids, as well as a new foe in an all-black power suit similar to her own. The graphics seem to be using a similar art style to the original Metroid Prime’s Switch remaster, and environments appear to be large with many enemies on screen. Could this be a cross-gen title, with a version also being prepared for the Switch successor?
Mario & Luigi: Brothership
Mario’s other other RPG series is coming back for an all-new entry, titled Mario & Luigi: Brothership. The first entry for home consoles, it features a total graphical overhaul and seems to focus on Mario and Luigi being lost at sea. There, it looks like the brothers will encounter a group of characters that resemble electrical appliances. The game will keep its traditional turn-based-with-timed-button-presses combat, and despite the premise separating Mario and Luigi from the Mushroom Kingdom, Peach and Bowser make appearances in the trailer.
Mario & Luigi: Brothership launches on November 7, 2024 for Nintendo Switch.
Two big games are finally leaving Apple Arcade jail
Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi’s Fantasian earned rave reviews when it released exclusively on Apple Arcade in 2021, with critics praising its diorama visuals and unique approach to turn-based encounters. Now, RPG enthusiasts on other platforms will be able to enjoy the game, too, with Fantasian: Neo Dimension.
The port will keep the same story and mechanics, but will feature enhanced visuals, and will come to Switch, PS5/PS4, Xbox consoles, and Steam in Holiday 2024.
Joining Fantasian in leaving Apple Arcade exclusivity is Hello Kitty Island Adventure, an Animal Crossing style life-sim that earned praise for its continual updates and its deep exploration elements. The game will now be coming to Switch and PC in 2025, with a port for PS5 and PS4 planned for some time after.
Dragon Quest III is back
Originally revealed in 2021, the Dragon Quest III HD-2D remake, which reimagines the classic Super Nintendo RPG in a style similar to Octopath Traveler, finally got a solid release date today, plus some company. The game, featuring designs from late Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama, will launch on Switch, PS5, Xbox consoles, and PC on November 14, 2024. But as a surprise, the trailer also announced that it will be joined by remakes of its two predecessorssometime in 2025, bringing the whole Erdrick trilogy into HD-2D.
It’s clobberin' time
After years of stagnating in rights limbo, Marvel vs. Capcom is finally seeing some love again. Capcom’s classic Marvel arcade games from the (mostly) ‘90s are all coming together in one collection, which will give superhero fans access to six classic fighting games starring the X-Men, Spider-Man, the cast of Street Fighter, and more. Yes, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is here, but oddly enough, also a beat-em-up starring The Punisher.
Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection Arcade Classics will release for Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Steam sometime in 2024.
Ace Attorney gets a hand-drawn revamp
Capcom’s Ace Attorney series normally sees players defending innocent clients in court, but in these spin-offs starring Phoenix Wright rival Miles Edgeworth, you’ll instead be playing the prosecution. Ace Attorney Investigations Collection brings two Nintendo DS games to home console, including one previously only released in Japan. Players can choose between the original pixel art or new hand-drawn art from the original series character designer when the game launches on Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One, and PC on September 6, 2024.
A Zelda Game Actually Starring Zelda
Fans have long joked about how The Legend of Zelda doesn’t actually star the titular princess (we don't talk about the CD-I), but that changes today. What first looked like a remake of the Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages games in the same style as the Link’s Awakening remake instead turned out to be a brand-new adventure starring Zelda herself.
Titled The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, the game sees Link, several villagers, and even parts of Hyrule sucked into various strange vortexes, leaving Zelda to save the day.
Her gameplay is a little different than her green-hatted companion’s, instead focusing on her role as a princess. Early into the game, players will encounter the fairy Tri and earn the Tri rod, which they’ll then be able to use to summon “echoes” of various objects and even monsters. It’s a more analytical play style befitting of a wise leader, and will see you building structures and commanding armies to save your kingdom.
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom launches for Nintendo Switch on September 26, 2024, alongside a new Zelda themed Nintendo Switch Lite console.
Other announcements
That’s just a taste of today's direct, but there’s plenty else to see in the whole stream, including a Switch port of Stray and a new Mario Party. Click below to watch the whole event.
With a record-breaking heat dome roasting the eastern half of the United States this week, it’s important to not only stay cool for comfort but to actively avoid experiencing heat exhaustion and its more serious cousin, heat stroke. Knowing the signs of both can help keep you and your friends and family safe.
Heat stroke is a serious condition that can result in seizures, organ failure, and more. And before you get heat stroke, you’ll experience a milder condition called heat exhaustion. Both conditions occur when the body overheats. Normally, our bodies try to cool us down by bringing hot blood from our core to the surface of the skin, where we radiate that heat into our environment. The evaporation that results from sweating also helps to cool our skin. We get into trouble when the environment is too hot or too humid for these mechanisms to cool us down.
Who is at risk for heat exhaustion and heat stroke?
Heat stroke in healthy people is often associated with exercise, since working out raises your core temperature. This is especially the case if you’re not very fit, or if you’re used to working out in cooler weather. As you get used to exercising in the heat, your body learns how to cool itself more efficiently.
Things that increase the risk of heat exhaustion and heat stroke include:
Exercising in high temperatures and humidity
Poor fitness
Being large (regardless of your body type—having a lot of fat or a lot of muscle both affect your ability to cool down)
Dehydration
Wearing or carrying gear, like football pads or a hiking pack
Drinking alcohol
Using certain medications or supplements, including beta blockers and diuretics
Any disability or illness that makes it harder for you to get out of the heat or to cool yourself
Heat exhaustion occurs when your core body temperature is elevated, but not enough to involve your brain. If you or an overheated friend shows any sign of being confused, for example, assume it’s heat stroke and get medical help right away.
If you begin to feel these symptoms, start cooling yourself down right away: move to the shade or air conditioning, loosen your clothing, have a cold drink, and keep watch for any signs that you’re feeling worse or not getting better. If you haven’t recovered within an hour, seek medical help.
Signs and symptoms of heat stroke
Heat stroke occurs when the body’s temperature is extremely high (over 104, taken rectally) and can affect the brain as well as the body. The person with heat stroke may be too confused to realize that they are in danger, so watch out for the signs in other people.
Heat stroke is a serious condition, so if you suspect it, get medical help right away. If you’re at an event with medical staff (like if you’re running a marathon or playing in a football game), alert them. Otherwise, call 911 or the emergency number for your area. Signs of heat stroke can include some of the symptoms above, like headache, dizziness, and nausea, plus:
Confusion, irritability, or hallucination
Passing out or collapsing
Trouble walking
Seizures
Reddened skin, with or without sweating
You can help the person cool down while you wait for help. Medical staff may decide it’s best to cool the person down before transporting them to a hospital, but that depends on whether the person needs other medical treatment. The ideal way of cooling down a person with heat stroke is to put them in a tub of cold water with ice, and stir the water constantly.
If that’s not possible, a cold shower or a cold hose can work, or apply icy wet towels to the person’s body and swap them out every three minutes or whenever they stop being icy cold.
Notifications are an inescapable part of modern life at this point, but they can vary from the important to the irrelevant. Striking the right balance is key, so that you're not going to miss the alerts you need to see, but aren't bombarded and distracted by the ones you don't.
Phones, tablets, laptops, smartwatches, smart speakers, and more can all ping us with notifications, so it's worth taking some time to configure these interruptions in a way that works for you—whether it's on Android, on an iPhone, or whatever gadgets you have.
Here I'm going to dive into notification management on Chromebooks. While ChromeOS is essentially just a browser, any website you've visited can trigger a notification, as can any Android app you've installed, as well as ChromeOS itself. Here's how to stay on top of it all and keep Chromebook notifications under control.
Website notifications
Notifications can be on or off for specific sites.Credit: Lifehacker
Many websites will want to ping you with alerts about new articles, special offers, and more besides, and you'll sometimes see a request to allow notifications when you visit a site for the first time in ChromeOS, just below the address bar—choose Block or Allow on the dialog as you prefer.
To change permissions for a site, click the three dots inside a browser tab (top right), then Settings. Open the Privacy and security page, then select Site settings and Notifications. You'll see sites allowed to send notifications, and sites blocked from sending notifications—click Add at the top of either list to enter a new URL, if there's a site you specifically do or don't want to hear from.
For existing sites in the list, click the three dots next to the site name, then choose either Allow, Block, Edit, or Remove—so, for example, if you need to tweak the URL for the site you're stopping notifications from, you can do this here. If you remove a site from either of the lists, then you might get prompted to allow notifications again from that site.
At the top of the list you can set the default behavior when it comes to sites asking for notifications. You can choose to have these requests hidden if you want to, which means you'll specifically need to seek them out: If a site is asking for permission to send alerts, you should see a small bell icon in the address bar you can click.
You can also get to a site's notification settings via the icon on the far left of the address bar (it looks like two toggle switches)—click this to find a Notifications toggle switch (if alerts have been enabled or disabled). Follow the Site settings link for more options for the website—as well as notification settings, you're also able to set permissions such as location and camera access, as well as manage how pop-ups and ads are handled.
App notifications
App notifications are handled separately to websites.Credit: Lifehacker
When it comes to any web apps or Android apps you've decided to install on your Chromebook, the notifications for these are handled separately: Click the time widget down in the lower right corner, then the gear icon to bring up the main Settings panel. From there, select Security and privacy on the left.
Select Notifications to see a list of all the apps installed on your Chromebook, whether they're web apps you've pinned to the ChromeOS app drawer, or Android apps installed through the Play Store. Next to each app you can see a toggle switch—use this to control whether or not the app can send notifications.
At the top of the list you've got a Do not disturb toggle switch, which can be used to turn all notifications on or off—that covers websites, apps, and system messages sent by ChromeOS. You can still view notifications at any time by clicking on the small notification button to the left of the time and date on the ChromeOS shelf—it'll either be labeled with the number of unread notifications, or show the do not disturb circle icon, or not be there at all (if you've got no notifications).
Bear in mind that individual apps may have their own notification settings too, which can be managed inside the apps themselves. Instagram, for instance, gives you a wealth of options when it comes to which events trigger an alert: From your profile page, click the three horizontal lines (top right), then Notifications to make changes.
It's also worth noting you can find a Do not disturb tile on the panel that pops up when you click on the time (in the lower right corner). Once you've worked through notification settings for both websites and apps, you should be in a more manageable position in terms of only seeing what you want to see on your Chromebook.
If you're only looking to do the occasional outdoor cooking session this summer, you'll probably only need a simple charcoal grill. If you've got bigger plans—say, grilling every Sunday—or prefer less mess and hassle, you can choose a smokeless electric grill, or a gas grill.
But maybe you fancy yourself a real pitmaster: one who makes a point of discerning the difference between grilling and barbecuing, who strives for smoke rings and bark on every piece of meat. If this is a world you’d like to be a part of, it’s time to consider a smoker.
Compared to grilling cooking with a smoker is in a different league. It’s often done with indirect heat at a low temperature, usually anywhere between 225°F and 275°F. While there are a few types of smokers, most of them involve the fuel (be it wood chips, wood pellets, charcoal, or a combination) burning at a low heat in the firebox. Smoke fills the cook chamber, slowly heating the food and imbuing it with smoky flavor. The smoke passes through the chamber and out the smokestack or a vent.
Depending on what you’re cooking, smoking can take anywhere from 45 minutes for delicate items like fish, to over 12 hours for hefty cuts of meat. Based on your personality and what type of apparatus you opt for, you might be carefully monitoring the process and adjusting the dampers to control the temperature, or chilling by the pool and checking your smart smoker’s app to make adjustments.
Smokers work for all different types of outdoor cooking enthusiasts, which leads me to the benefits of getting yourself a smoker:
Flavor. Few grilling methods can compete with the flavorful bark and smoky aroma on barbecued meats. The slow cooking time ensures thorough and robust flavoring.
Flexibility. There are a wide range of smokers, from completely automated and wifi enabled pellet smokers, to traditional offset barrel smokers. Plus, you can use many smokers as regular charcoal grills too, if you’re ever in the mood to do a quick grilling session.
A mostly hands-off process. Unlike the speedy cooking of a gas grill or cooking over direct heat from charcoal, smoking requires a lot of time and patience, but allows you to be less glues to your grill. You’ll want to keep the cook chamber shut as much as possible when smoking, which naturally eliminates some of the desire to mess with the food within. Besides periodically keeping an eye on the temperature and adjusting the dampers and fuel if necessary, you can carry on with your day.
Safety first
Anytime you have charcoal, fires, or embers kicking around, spare a thought for safety. Always follow the directions of the apparatus you choose, especially if you’re a beginner. Keep the smoker at least 10 feet from buildings, if not for the fire risk then to keep your living room couch from smelling like hickory and charcoal.
Don’t forget to close up the vents to choke out the embers of your fuel after you’ve finished using your smoker. And if I’ve said it once—it’s a good idea to keep a fire extinguisher nearby, just in case.
For ease, consider the Traeger electric wood pellet grill and smoker
This Traeger smoker uses electricity to control how quickly the pellets are released into the firebox, so the temperature doesn’t fluctuate without your intervention. It's also wifi enabled, which allows you to check on the time and temperature from anywhere. It’s great for a range of barbecue enthusiasts, from beginners, to multitaskers, and seasoned experts alike.
For smaller spaces, try the Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker
Not every pitmaster needs a piece of equipment as big as a cow. For a more manageable size, the Smokey Mountain will be equally at home on a spacious patio or the sidewalk outside of your apartment building (adhering to your local laws, of course). This smoker uses coals for fuel and a water pan to help catch grease and keep the heating gentle. Although best for smaller batches, this Weber comes in a few sizes, ranging from 14 inches to 22 inches.
If you prefer a hulking offset design, take a look at the Royal Gourmet Offset Smoker
This highly-rated behemoth boasts 443 square inches of main cooking surface and offers the multi-barreled design you might be looking for. As many heavy duty offset smokers can come with a price tag in the thousands, the Royal Gourmet smoker is a surprising bargain. The materials may not be as durable as more expensive smokers, but this model could be appealing for a first-timer on a budget, and looking to enter the world of barbecue.
The year is still young, but the shape of the year's movie landscape is already apparent. Comic book movies are in a bit of a holding pattern, opening up space for non-superhero movies; as a result, we're seeing some more unique movies move to the forefront.
Unlike last year, though, when Barbie and Oppenheimer dominated the zeitgeist, there's no consistent theme—unless it's the fact that would-be big-budget blockbusters, even good ones like Furiosa and The Fall Guy, have struggled. It's not entirely clear why (Dune: Part Two still cleaned up), but mid-year, the movies are looking a little peaked on a macro level, even as there is a lot to celebrate on a micro level—as evidenced by these 23 releases that have already made it to streaming or digital rental.
(Note that a few entries on this list are technically 2023 movies that either played internationally or only in limited release in the U.S. I'm defining a 2024 film as one that had the bulk of its North American run this calendar year.)
Dune: Part Two
Release date: March 1 U.S. box office gross: $282 million
Did Denis Villeneuve stick the landing on his adaptation of the latter part of Frank Herbert's epic novel? Yes, and so much so that Dune zealots are already looking ahead to a third film, adapting the second book in the series. The chilly (metaphorically) and cerebral film was a critical as well as a box office success—surprising on both counts, especially considering that the beloved book had come to be seen as more-or-less unadaptable.
Release date: Feb. 7 U.S. box office gross: $10 million
This neon-lit horror comedy from director Zelda Williams and writer Diablo Cody got short shrift at the box office but remains a genre-hopping good time. Kathryn Newton plays teen outcast Lisa, who accidentally revives and then develops romantic feelings for a decaying Victorian-era young man (Cole Sprouse). The blend of sweet romance, horror, and dark comedy is not for every taste, but if any of that sounds at appealing, you're in for a grisly treat.
Release date: March 22 U.S. box office gross: $11 million
David Dastmalchian stars as Jack Delroy, the host of a late-night talk show in 1977—not quite Johnny Carson, but in that ballpark. A Halloween night broadcast about demonic possession brings Jack's dark secrets to the foreground and soon spirals out of control, with grisly consequences. The conceit is that we're watching a live recording of actual events, and the filmmakers have a lot of fun laying out the period vibe trappings things start to go south for the host, guests, and studio audience.
Release date: May 3 U.S. box office gross: $4 million
What if your favorite TV show was more than just a show, but, instead, a view of a different world? As a couple of kids in 1989 get caught up in their favorite TV show, their senses of identity begin to fracture, for better or worse. Writer/director Jane Schoenbrun's second effort (after the extremely online experimental horror flick We're All Going to the World's Fair) is on one level a stylish and trippy consideration of the dangers of nostalgia, and on another, a beautiful, emotionally wrenching vision of the trans experience.
Release date: April 6 on streaming U.S. box office gross: N/A
What, you don't like spiders? This 2023 French import, released in the U.S. in April, sees a giant housing project overrun by a rare species of arachnid that never should have been imported. It's not exactly rigorously science-based, just the story of scrappy young people trying to survive an onslaught of rapidly breeding, rapidly growing spiders, even as the authorities are more interested in containing the problem then in actually helping the low-income Parisians trapped inside the building. Good fun for fans of creepy crawlies.
Release date: May 24 on streaming U.S. box office gross: N/A
Not sure why we're still going direct to streaming for films from major directors, but such is the case with Richard Linklater's Hit Man. Glen Powell stars as a sullen New Orleans professor who discovers he's surprisingly good at his new side gig: impersonating a hired assassin for the police in order to catch people willing to pay to kill. Things get rather complicated (in a darkly comedic way) when he's approached by Madison (Adria Arjona) to bump off her abusive husband, and he's suddenly not so clear about who is a hero and who is a villain.
Where to stream: Netflix
Challengers
Release date: April 26 U.S. box office gross: $50 million
Luca Guadagnino (Call Me By Your Name) brings us the horny bisexual romantic tennis drama we didn't know we needed. Zendaya stars as a former tennis pro turned coach who falls into a love triangle with her champion husband (Mike Faist) and her low-circuit boyfriend (Josh O'Connor). The chemistry between the three is a smash.
Release date: Early 2024 on streaming U.S. box office gross: N/A
A delightful import from Japanese director Junta Yamaguchi, River is set at a bucolic health spa where nothing much ever happens...until staffer Mikoto finds herself sent back in time exactly two minutes. Every two minutes, actually, and she's not the only one affected. The sci-fi comedy is appropriately frantic, as staff and guests try to figure out how to live their lives two minutes at a time, but there's a winning sweetness that balances nicely with the genre elements. It's really fun.
Release date: April 15 on streaming Box office gross: $420,000 in limited release
This one's been a hit on the festival circuit, delighting roadshow audiences with its Looney Tunes-esque charms and, naturally, an abundance of beavers. A 19th century applejack (that's a kind of booze) salesman Jean Kayak kicks off a war with said beavers (played by humans is giant, absurd costumes) when one eats through a support beam and destroys his home. What ensues is absolute comic anarchy, with one legitimately hilarious silent film-style gag after another. You wanted something unique? This is it.
Release date: March 8 Box office gross: $8.3 million
Writer/director Rose Glass (Saint Maud) returns with a darkly comic, neo-noir crime thriller involving a reclusive gym manager (Kristen Stewart) and a bodybuilder (Katy O'Brian) who get involved with the mob after conspiring to cover up a murder. It's a wonderful bit of modern queer pulp with a couple of great lead performances.
Release date: April 5 Box office gross: $20 million
If you had told me that a prequel to the long-defunct Omen franchise would be one of the year's more effective horror movies (so far), I'd have looked at you the way everybody looks at Gregory Peck when he tried to kill his satanic kid way back in the 1976 original. But here we are! First-time feature director Arkasha Stevenson brings a ton of '70s period style and an appropriately paranoid vibe to the story of future antichrist Damien's birth, blending themes of bodily autonomy with genuine horror and one of the freakiest birth scenes in movie history.
Based on a memoir from Quawntay “Bosco” Adams (played here by Aubrey Joseph), who was sentenced in 2004 to 35 years in a maximum security prison for the heinous, unforgivable crime of—well, the movie keeps that under wraps for quite a while. Suffice it to say that, once the truth is revealed, it’s not hard to root for him as he plans an ingenious and fairly spectacular escape with the help of a prison pen pal (Nikki Blonsky). Tyrese Gibson, Theo Rossi, Thomas Jane, and Vivica A. Fox round out the cast.
Release date: Feb. 2 on streaming Box office gross: N/A
Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) wrote the early drafts of this DreamWorks animated adaptation of the Emma Yarlett novel. When young Orion is visited by the literal incarnation of his fear of the dark, he's taken on a whirlwind journey to explore the world of night, with the hope it will help him face his fears. Without ever feeling age-inappropriate, this Netflix animated film tackles some bigger themes than we're used to seeing in modern kids' movies (existential dread, anyone?).
Where to stream: Netflix
The Fall Guy
Release date: May 3 Box office gross: $88 million
While theatrical audiences didn't go wild for this action-comedy take on the 1980s TV show, this Ryan Gosling/Emily Blunt vehicle, from John Wick director David Leitch, is an impressively enjoyable bit of summer fun. The stunts are, perhaps unsurprisingly, continuously impressive, as are the special effects, but the real star is the chemistry between Gosling and Blunt. It's the kind of satisfying, enjoyable, standalone entertainment we don't get to see tht often these days (and given it's on track to lose buckets of money, perhaps ever again).
Release date: Feb. 23 Box office gross: $5 million
Ethan Coen goes it solo as director (co-writing with his wife Tricia Cooke) for this gloriously unhinged tribute to '70s exploitation romances. Marian and Jamie are a couple of friends who, setting off on a road trip to Tallahassee, Florida, discover that they've taken the wrong rental car. The tipoff: A briefcase full of sex toys and a human head in the trunk. Of such circumstances are great lesbian adventures born. If it's not quite a match for the Coen brothers' best work (a tall order), it's still an awfully good time.
Release date: March 22 on streaming U.S. box office gross: N/A
John Ridley (screenwriter of 12 Years a Slave) directs this rather necessary biopic of Shirley Chisholm. The first Black woman elected to Congress (in 1969), she ran a forcefully progressive campaign for president just three years later. While the film doesn't stray too far stylistically from the biopic formula, Regina King gives a moving, powerhouse performance in the title role.
Where to stream: Netflix
Scoop
Release date: April 5 on streaming U.S. box office gross: N/A
Gillian Anderson plays real-life British journalist Emily Maitlis, who lead the BBC2 team that secured a disastrous (for the prince) interview with Prince Andrew (Rufus Sewell) that laid bare his associations with sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Anderson is phenomenal in a movie that manages to make the hunt for an interview suitably dramatic.
Where to stream: Netflix
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
Release date: March 22 U.S. box office gross: $113 million
Look, there's no question the whole Ghostbusters thing has grown a little perfunctory. Still, there's fun to be had in this Avengers-esque mash-up that brings together generations of Ghostbusters more formally than did the previous film, Afterlife. It also returns to New York City, which just feels right, and Ernie Hudson remains the unsung franchise MVP.
Release date: Feb. 14 U.S. box office gross: $97 million
In many ways standard issue as biopics go, this one's entirely saved by the brilliant lead performance from Kingsley Ben-Adir and, of course, a killer soundtrack. An underdog box office success story.
Release date: April 5 U.S. box office gross: $25 million
Dev Patel writes, directs, and stars in this bloody action thriller that winds up giving John Wick a run for its money. Loosely inspired by the Hindu deity Hanuman, the film casts Patel as a nameless fighter in a sleazy bare-knuckle establishment who is wronged, and sets his mind on revenge. The actor is incredibly compelling onscreen, and appears to have a clear eye behind the camera; Monkey Man stands out from the action-movie pack by eschewing highly stylized fight choreography in favor of a more brutal, gritty style.
Release date: May 31 on streaming U.S. box office gross: N/A
Ron Howard directs this moving, funny, and generally essential biography of the man behind The Muppets, Sesame Street, and The Dark Crystal . It's por anyone who's ever laughed along with Gonzo, or cried their way through a frog singing "Rainbow Connection" (so, all humans, essentially).
Release date: Feb. 2 U.S. box office gross: $300,000
In 18th-century Denmark, down-on-his-luck war hero Capt. Ludvig Kahlen (Mads Mikkelsen) hopes to turn his meager retirement pension into some kind of life for himself by cultivating a portion of a vast wilderness that no one else has been able to make anything of. A covetous local magistrate quickly finds himself threatened by Kahlen's reputation, with the intent of spoiling all his plans. The beautifully forbidding Nordic drama plays out with some of the style of westerns.
Release date: Jan. 4 (U.S. wide release) U.S. box office gross: $4 million
This is another that was technically released in 2023, though it didn't go into wide release in the U.S. until January 2024. A ghost story on the surface, All of Us Strangers follows lonely screenwriter Adam (Andrew Scott) as he starts a romantic relationship with his very mysterious neighbor Harry (Paul Mescal), the two of them the only residents of an imposing new apartment building. The relationship draws Adam to return to his family home, where he finds his (long dead) parents acting very much alive and well. The movie goes to very dark places from there, providing a strong reminder that loss is an inevitable part of life, yes, but also that the only real comfort is in forgetting and moving on. Emotionally raw, but beautiful.
Amazon has seemingly figured out that part of our obsession with security cameras is being able to share the moments we capture, whether funny, scary, or just plain weird. As a way to sweeten the deal for subscribers of the Blink Plus plan, Blink will now give you a daily summary of your events, stitched together in a single “moment” made for sharing.
Jonathan Cohn, head of product at Blink, seems to acknowledge that most of the videos on security cams aren’t dangerous or threatening, but rather another format for capturing our daily lives. Per a press release from Blink, “Whether it’s their family playing outside, packages being delivered, or pets exploring the yard, Blink Moments combines the moments that matter into one video.”
While Blink Moments is starting to roll out today, it’ll take a few weeks for all subscribers to see the feature. Blink offers two tiers of plans: Blink Basic ($3/month) for one camera, or Plus ($10/month) for more than one. Moments is only available on the higher tier, but according to Amazon, most customers have at least three Blink cameras anyways. The Plus plan already offers person detection, live view recording, up to 60 days of video cloud storage, and motion-detection video recording.
Sharing aside, if your camera grabs a lot of footage, it can be painful to scroll through all the saved clips. I suspect most people, like me, simply don’t. A similar feature is available to me via my Eufy Pet Camera, which gives me an end-of-day collection of my dog’s hilarity all ready to share, and I admit has made me more likely to actually see what the camera is recording (and share it).
Blink, which is owned by Amazon, offers a range of indoor and outdoor cameras. I’ve reviewed a number of them and found them generally to be affordable and easy to install cameras with a neat, easy app for viewing.
Nobody likes to feel sluggish and sweaty, so when the sun is set to “broil,” I understand that you’d rather take your workout to an air-conditioned gym. But the human body really can acclimate to exercising in the heat! After a few weeks, these temperatures will be your new normal—and research suggests you may enjoy a small performance boost when the weather cools down again.
Hot workouts can be dangerous, so I trust that you know common sense advice about running in the heat. Among the most important: Drink to thirst (or a little bit more), and stop and get help if you start feeling symptoms of heat illness like nausea, dizziness, or weakness. And while it’s great to work on your ability to run in the heat, don’t be stupid about it—stay inside if the temperature is hotter than you can handle, and stay aware of smog and ozone levels (which get worse on hot days) if you live in an urban area.
Running is miserable and heat is miserable, therefore running in the heat is miserable. But there’s more to it than that, and exercising in the heat feels even worse than you'd expect from stacking those two factors together.
Your brain perceives effort differently in the heat, so even before you overheat, you feel sluggish. In a study published in the European Journal of Physiology, cyclists who worked out in a lab with a temperature of 95 degrees were slower than when they did the same time trial at 59 degrees. That makes sense, but here’s the weird part: They didn’t overheat and then slow down. They were slower from the start. It seems our brains slow our bodies down proactively on hot days in order to conserve energy.
As a workout continues, our bodies heat up. In another study, published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, when asked to cycle to exhaustion, participants pooped out when their core temperatures reached 104 degrees, no matter what temperature they started at. The athletes that took the longest to reach that temperature were the ones who wore a fancy water-cooling jacket. You can mimic this effect in your own workouts by drinking ice-cold beverages and pouring water over your head. The longer you can keep your body cool, the longer you can keep up a hard effort.
It's the heat and the humidity
But cooling your body isn’t a complete solution. Dumping a cup of ice water over your head or putting one into your belly only provides momentary relief, and water-cooling jackets aren’t practical outside of physiology labs. So let’s look at what happens in real world conditions.
Your body tries to cool off, in part, by sweating. When moisture evaporates from your skin, it takes some body heat with it. In humid weather, though, sweat doesn’t evaporate as easily because the air is already full of water vapor. So when we’re talking about “heat,” we really mean something more like “perceived heat,” which is a combination of heat and humidity. This heat index chart shows the relationship:
Credit: NOAA
You’ll run slower in the heat (and humidity). While you can find charts like this one that predict how much slower you will run a race, the truth is that heat's effect on your running depends on whether you’re used to the heat, and on your body size.
That’s right—not your fitness level, but your actual physical size. People who are larger have more muscle, fat, or both. Muscle generates heat, and fat acts as an insulator. On the other hand, smaller folks generate less heat, but have more skin through which to dissipate that heat—the ol’ surface area to volume ratio. This is why petite runners place better in races on hot days.
Some people think being more fit makes you better at dealing with heat, but that's only partially true: The fitter you are, the more body heat you produce, just because you’re so good at working hard. Short of changing your body shape (which is possible, but hardly a short-term fix), what can you do to tolerate exercising in the heat better? The answer is simple: Spend more time exercising in the heat.
Running in the heat makes you better at running in the heat—and it makes you better, period.
Say you do all your workouts outdoors this summer, while your equally fit twin does identical workouts on a treadmill in an air-conditioned gym. Who do you think will finish first in a 5K on a hot weekend in August? That’s right, you will.
But even if the weather is unseasonably cool on that August day, your heat training will still help you beat your twin. Part of the magic of heat training is that it increases the amount of blood in your veins (the better to put it towards your skin for cooling, while still having enough to fuel your muscles). The effect has been compared to a mild, totally legal version of blood doping. Scientists are still debating exactly how this effect works, and whether it always happens when people attempt to adapt to heat adaptation, but overall the evidence is strong enough that I believe we should all try to get some of those adaptations if we can do so safely.
Here’s the bad news: Heat adaptation takes work. It’s not enough to sit around in the air conditioning all summer, only venturing outside for occasional workouts. A study published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology found that people who made no particular effort to exercise in the heat didn’t have any better heat tolerance in the fall than in the spring. If you want the advantages of heat training, you have to work for them.
Option 1: Train normally, but without avoiding the heat, for two weeks
In scientific research, heat acclimation protocols for athletes generally involve 7 to 10 consecutive days of exercising in the heat, for 60 to 90 minutes each day. A simpler method that can be done by entire teams, or by individuals, is to simply do your normal training in the heat for about two weeks.
Take it easy at first. Remember that your body is still trying to convince you that you are super tired and need to slow down. Safety guidelines for workers provide a reality check here. On their first day in the heat, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recommends giving workers just 20% of their usual workload. Within a week, they should slowly ramp up to 100%.
Option 2: Spend two hours in the heat every day, whether you're exercising or not
This US Army training protocol provides a good road map for adapting yourself to the heat: Spend at least two hours in the heat each day, it says, and include cardiovascular exercise (like running, cycling, or anything that gets your heart rate up) as part of that. If you can’t handle two hours without feeling symptoms like nausea or dizziness, do what you can and view the two-hour benchmark as a goal to work toward.
You can expect to be better adapted to the heat after about two weeks of spending two hours per day in the heat, although you may be able to start seeing results in just a few days.
Option 3: Visit the sauna after each workout
A way to combine the protocols above, without relying on the weather, is to step into a sauna or hot bath after your workout. If your gym has a sauna, this is a great way to use it. The post-workout sauna time will help your heat adaptation, and you can do it even if your workout was done in less-than-sweltering temperatures. The time spent in the sauna can be 15 to 30 minutes, starting with a shorter time and working up to longer.
How to keep your heat adaptations even when the weather cools off
To stay adapted to the heat, you have to keep spending time in it. You can take a few days off, but if you slack off for a week, you’ll start to lose your hot weather superpowers. This snowballs quickly: you'll lose about 75% of your adaptations after three weeks, according to the Army’s estimates.
To keep up your heat training in cool weather, you can try wearing long sleeves and tights, like elite runner Kara Goucher did when training for a world championship race in muggy Osaka. (She won a bronze medal, the first American ever to do so). She also spent a few weeks in Osaka before the race began; traveling to experience the heat might be an option worth considering if you’re a dedicated athlete with vacation time to burn.
You can also try the opposite of this keep-cool advice, and choose to run at the hottest time of day on asphalt roads with no shade. Or return to the sauna protocol after your cooler-weather workouts. Whatever you do, stay safe, and enjoy your new superpowers.
It's summertime, and you gotta fill the empty hours somehow, so young people are clicking bananas, creating imaginary shows on Netflix, and developing very strong opinions about Star Wars.
Why gamers are spending all day clicking bananas
Video game companies typically spend between $60 and $80 million producing a single AAA video game, but a free-to-play game that probably cost about six bucks to develop is currently sitting at the number two position on Steam’s online chart and threatening to take over Counter-Strike's top spot. There are around 800,000 people currently “playing” Banana, up from about 400,000 last week, so it’s going a little bananas. As for what it actually is, here’s the official description: “Banana is a clicker Game, in which you click a Banana!” That’s really all you do.
Many users seem to be into it because it’s dumb and ridiculous, but there’s another driver for Banana’s popularity. If you leave the program running for three hours, you “own” a digital banana skin. Leave it running for 18 hours and you own a rare digital banana skin. These assets can then be sold on Steam’s marketplace. Common bananas sell for pennies. Rare ones can sell for over $100. So gamers are making a little money by playing it too.
While there’s something unseemly about how Banana strips the “game” part away from selling gaming assets, it doesn’t seem like a scam or an NFT-style pyramid scheme. The developers aren’t making any untrue claims about their game. People are willing shell out the price of digital bananas (for some reason), so everyone makes a few cents—Steam gets its cut, Banana’s developers get their cut, and the banana-clicking user gets their cut.
As Banana’s popularity continues to increase, it seems possible that Steam will decide its doesn’t want to be the internet’s home of clicking bananas and pull the game, but for now, you can still click bananas all day, if you’re that kind of person.
What is Smiling Friends?
Smiling Friends is this year's must-watch program for the younger set. The first season of the animated series premiered on Adult Swim, the Cartoon Network’s nighttime programming block, in 2022, but it started really catching on this May, when season two began. Like Adventure Time before, it’s one of those shows everyone likes, to the tune of a 95% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Smiling Friends combines traditional animation with stop-motion, live action, rotoscoping, and really any other technique, to tell the story of The Smiling Friends Corporation, a small business dedicated to making people happy. From that simple concept, Smiling Friends spins unexpected, innovative, and bizarre tales that are funnier, smarter, and more cutting than just about anything else on TV. Creators Michael Cusack and Zach Hadel started on YouTube before collaborating on Smiling Friends, and they bring the online sensibility to every episode. Definitely check it out if you like watching things that are good.New episodes of Smiling Friends air on Adult Swim on Sundays at midnight, and are available to stream on Max the following day.
Is there a Netflix show called My Best Day?
If you’ve been seeing promos on Instagram, X, or TikTok for a Netflix series called My Best Day and thought, “I’d like to see that show,” you can’t. It’s not a real show; it’s a meme. Last week, Instagrammers, Snapchatters, Xers, and others started inserting pictures of themselves, artwork, and videos into a fake Netflix homepage preview screen for a series called “My Best Day.” Here’s the Snapchat filter if you want to make your own. And here are a fewexamples for inspiration.
New meme stock alert: internet bullish on Grindr?
In the middle of Pride Month, the financial wizards at Reddit’s r/wallstreetbets are hyping a new meme stock: Grindr. Late last week, a ton of posts started appearing on the subreddit, with users promising to put “everything I own + my mothers chemotherapy fund into this stock.” Grindr’s price jumped from $9.23 a share to $10.37 in a single day on Friday, but I don’t know how anything works, so who knows whether that was due to Reddit or not. Today the stock is sinking back to earth, for what that’s worth. Whether Grindr will go the way of GameStop and become a financial saga that goes on for years and inspire a feature film, or is just a flash-in-the-pan online joke that will not be remembered eight minutes from now remains to be seen. Note: please do not take any investing advice from Reddit.
Viral video of the week: The Acolyte Episode 3: Absolute Garbage
This week’s viral video comes from YouTube channel Star Wars Theory. In “The Acolyte Episode 3: Absolute Garbage,” Star Wars Theory gives their unvarnished opinion about the latest episode of Disney+’s new series Star Wars: The Acolyte. The verdict: It's really bad.
A negative review from a fan isn’t that interesting on its own—no one hates Star Wars as much as Star Wars fans after all—but the review is part of a larger trend within Star Wars fandom. The Acolyte is a critical hit. It’s got an 83% “fresh” rating among Rotten Tomatoes critics. But the fans are seemingly rejecting it: the audience score is only 15%, and there's a lot going on here.
Part of The Acolyte's bad audience score seems to come from that depressing "white dude" faction of the fandom that doesn't like "wokeness" in "their" Star Wars—the series' diverse cast and its "space witch" coven proclaiming that the galaxy doesn't welcome “women like us" is the kind of thing that rubs cretins the wrong way (as if science fiction hasn't always commented on current culture). Star Wars Theory raised some controversy recently by saying that women don't like Star Wars, but his gripe here (if we take him at face value) is about the show's lore not fitting in with the established Star Wars universe.
"This isn't what Star Wars is supposed to be" has been a common criticism of the franchise since the prequels were released in the 1990s. A lot of fans don't like The Acolyte for the same reason I thought the prequels were dogshit: The movie/show/cartoon that defines the series for each fan is the one they happened to have seen when they were 11.
It's not a dumb criticism like "this is too woke," but the sheer volume of canonical Star Wars product, new audience expectations, and changing mores, make lore consistency impossible. Since Star Wars: A New Hope premiered in the late 1970s, twelve Star Wars feature films, six Star Wars live-action TV shows, nine animated series, and around 100 video game adaptations have been released, all at different times and aimed at different people. This isn’t generally a problem for critics or casual viewers, because it’s a just a show, so who cares, but if you’ve made your love of Star Wars part of your identity, and you have a lot of time to think about how it all fits together because you don’t have a job or family yet, it’s serious.
Lore creep isn't the whole problem, though. On the meta level, a critical mass seems to have been reached that is forcing Star Wars fas to confront the sausage-making behind the thing they love. Star Wars is special to the people who love it. It's personal. But whatever specialness is left in the series is being rapidly smothered under a mountain of mediocrity slapped with the Star Wars name. Along with the shows, books, movies, and video game tie-ins, there’s more official Star Wars merchandise—t-shirts, figurines, coffins, etc.—than anyone could collect in a lifetime. It's exhausting, and it's becoming impossible to ignore that whole thing is a money-grab, where fans are seen as walking wallets. See also, the backlash over the Star Wars Hotel.
The original films became merchandising opportunities after they became successful, but at least you could argue that the action figures and t-shirts were in response to people wanting them, not the other way around. Now the Star Wars cart is permanently before the Star Wars horse and selling dolls and shit is the entire point. The ruthless efficiency with which the intellectual property is managed is revealing an emptiness beneath the surface that's impossible to ignore.
Microsoft's AI chatbot, Copilot, has been steadily growing and adding new features since its introduction last year. (At that time, Microsoft called it Bing Chat.) As with all things AI, it can be difficult to keep up with the updates, changes, and new features, but Microsoft is adding them to Copilot at a steady clip. Here are some of the best features and changes Microsoft has made to Copilot this year.
Copilot has an app now
If you're still using the Copilot web app, feel free to keep doing so. However, since the beginning of this year, Microsoft has offered Copilot as a dedicated mobile app as well. You can choose to use the experience signed in or signed out, but signing into your Microsoft account gives you access to more features (including bypassing the very strict prompt limit).
Everyone can use Copilot in Microsoft 365 (if you pay)
One of Copilot's flagship features is its integration with Microsoft 365. Microsoft turned the bot into an AI Clippy, adding AI assistant options to apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. However, Copilot in 365 was only available to business users—the rest of us that use these apps outside of work were out of luck.
Previously, if you wanted to use Copilot in Outlook, you needed to head to the web app or go the long way through Microsoft Teams. Since last month, however, Microsoft has offered Copilot support in the Outlook app itself. That makes it easier to use some of the new Copilot features in Outlook, like email draft coaching, choosing the tone of a draft (e.g. neutral, casual, formal).
Reference files when prompting Copilot
Since last month, you've been able to pull in files from your device, SharePoint, and OneDrive when prompting Copilot. If you want the bot to summarize a Word doc, or to have the context of a Powerpoint presentation when responding to your prompt, just type a / when prompting to pull up the file locator.
New options in Word with Copilot
Personally, if there's one app that could benefit most from Copilot, I feel it's Word. Generative AI's main strength in my opinion is text-based, so having an assistant to help you manage your word processing could be a big help.
This year, Microsoft has given Copilot in Word a boost. Here are some of the highlights:
Use Rewrite on specific sections of a document.
Highlight a portion of text to summarize and share.
Create tables from your text.
Make new tables based on the format of previous tables in your doc.
Confidential docs are labeled as confidential when referencing them in new docs.
New features for Copilot in Excel
Microsoft has been adding new Copilot features to Excel, as well. Since the beginning of this year, here's what you've been able to do:
Request a chart of your data.
Ask Copilot follow-up questions, including requesting clarifications to previous responses.
Generate formula column options with one prompt.
Use Copilot to figure out why you're running into issues with a task.
Copilot in OneNote
OneNote actually has had quite a few new Copilot features since January. If you have access to Copilot in OneNote and frequently use the app, here's what you can expect:
Create notes from audio recordings and transcriptions, then ask Copilot to summarize the notes and arrange them in different ways.
Create to-do lists with Copilot.
Copilot can search through information within your organization for added context to your requests.
Ask Copilot to organize your notes for you.
Copilot for Teams got an upgrade
If you use Copilot in Teams, you may notice now that the bot can now automatically take notes during meetings. If you head to Recap the meeting, you can get a summary of what your team or the call just talked about.
You may also see a new Copilot option attached to the top of your Teams chats. This lets you quickly prompt Copilot inside chats, pulling in documents with the / key. You'll also see that Teams will alert you when AI is being used in a meeting, such as when Copilot is in use without transcriptions.
Let the AI do the prompting for you
Soon, Copilot will start autocompleting your prompts for you. When you start typing, the bot will offer suggestions for what it thinks you might want to do. If you say "Summarize," before you can say what you want summarized, Copilot will guess what you want to round up, including things like your "last 10 emails."
The more accessories I add to my tablets, the more I feel like I’m missing the point. Should I really buy a brand new M4 iPad complete with a $350 Magic Keyboard, or should I just get a MacBook at that point? That’s why I like portable but separate keyboards like Logitech’s new Keys-To-Go 2, which takes what I like about my home keyboard and makes it far more travel friendly.
Logitech’s current small keyboards
I’m a big fan of Logitech keyboards. At home, I use the MX Mechanical Mini, a tenkeyless low-profile keyboard with tactile mechanical switches. While away, I usually swap that out for the MX Keys Mini, which is roughly the same but with membrane switches—not as satisfying to type on, but quieter to those around me.
This usually works out for me, but I do have a few gripes. First is durability: the MX Keys Mini is entirely exposed when it’s in my bag, so I worry about keys getting damaged in transit. Second is size: It’s a small keyboard, but it’s still a little wide at 11.65 inches, and the angled riser it uses for greater comfort when typing makes it harder to store away.
This is partially my fault, since the MX Keys Mini isn’t meant for travel. That's why Logitech released the original Keys-To-Go, a completely flat keyboard that’s so thin its keys don’t have much opportunity to get damaged.
This comes with its own problems, though, mostly in the form of comfort. There’s a reason my MX Keys Mini has that angle, even if its riser likes to get caught on notebooks and flaps when packed away.
Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt
How the Keys-To-Go 2 improves on what came before
With the Keys-To-Go 2, Logitech is trying for the best of both worlds, completely redesigning its portable keyboard for both greater durability and greater comfort.
The change mostly comes down to one new design feature: The keyboard comes with an attached cover now. This allows the Keys-To-Go 2 to protect its keys while packed away, plus provide a greater angle while typing.
That steeper angle is thanks to a magnetic bottom, which allows the cover to fold underneath the keyboard to act like a riser. When fully deployed like this, the Keys-To-Go 2 has an 18mm pitch, slightly up from the original Keys-To-Go. It’s also got 1mm of key travel, which is equivalent to the Magic Keyboard's.
The entire Keys-To-Go 2 is smaller than the original Keys-To-Go, too, since the cover replaces what was a large rectangle of empty space at the top of the original. Plus, the shortcut keys are now a full function row when used on non-mobile operating systems.
Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt
Still room to grow
There’s still compromises (I scored 86 wpm on the Keys-To-Go 2 vs. 92 on the MX Keys Mechanical), but the overall experience is now much more similar to a Magic Keyboard or an MX Keys Mini at a fraction of the cost.
Whereas my previous Logitech keyboards needed me to plan my packing around them, I could easily see myself just making the Keys-To-Go 2 part of my everyday carry routine. It’s just under 10 inches long and only 0.18 inches tall (with the cover closed), so I certainly have room for it.
That said, this is still a tablet or phone keyboard through-and-through. There’s no touchpad, so it expects you to control your device via its own touch screen. Or you could pair a mouse, although that sort of defeats the purpose of this being a neat and tidy all-in-one package.
There’s also a sacrifice that comes with having a neat and tidy package: the batteries. To get this keyboard so thin, there’s no room for rechargeable batteries, so instead you need to supply replaceable ones. Some people actually prefer these, since they don’t limit your device’s lifespan, but they’re a bit hard to swap out in the Keys-To-Go 2. You’ll need both a nonstandard screw bit (T5) and nonstandard batteries (CR2032 coin batteries) for this. The keyboard comes with batteries already installed, but not a compatible screwdriver, so you might be in for a bit of frustration when your battery first runs dry.
Logitech does promise up to 36 months of battery life with up to two hours of continuous typing per day, a metric I didn’t have time to test in the couple weeks of early access Logitech gave me with the Keys-To-Go.
One more minor complaint: I was sometimes able to press keys even with the cover closed. While I don’t expect this would damage the keyboard, it could turn on your connected devices while it jostles around in your bag.
Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt
It’s a bit pricey
The Keys-To-Go 2 is purposefully designed for one specific task, and at that task, it succeeds just about as well as it could. While I would personally like to see a touchpad on the device, the extra space or thickness needed for that would just turn this into an entirely different product.
For non-attachable tablet keyboards, this implements a lot of smart upgrades over its predecessor and is among the best options you have right now.
Unfortunately, that also means there’s a bit of a premium for it. The price here starts at $80, which while far under what an attachable keyboard can run you, is still lot to pay for a one-purpose device. It's also $10 more than its predecessor.
Whether that’s worth it to you depends on how much you appreciate Logitech’s build quality, as well as convenience features like its shortcut keys for easily mapping across three different devices. For me, these are well worth the price of entry, especially with the smart changes Logitech has made to durability here, meaning the keyboard is likely to last a long time.
This post is part of Lifehacker’s “Living With AI” series: We investigate the current state of AI, walk through how it can be useful (and how it can’t), and evaluate where this revolutionary tech is heading next. Read more here.
AI-generated art isn’t a concept: It’s here. Thanks to numerous tools with simple and approachable interfaces, anyone can hop on their computer can start generating whatever image ideas pop into their minds. However, as more people have started experimenting with these tools, serious ethical and legal issues have cropped up, and just about everyone online seems to have an opinion on this divisive technology.
As part of our series on living with AI, we put together this guide to demystify how AI art tools work, explain the controversies around them, and show how they impact everyone, from professional artists to curious casuals.
Where and how to make AI art
Before we get too far in the weeds on the tech and ethics of AI art, let’s quickly overview the tools themselves.
There are many AI art generators out there, but the major players would be Midjourney, Stable Diffusion,Copilot, DALL-E 3, and Craiyon. All of these tools are accessible via the web or desktop, and some also have mobile apps.
Midjourney is one of the most powerful options, but it requires a subscription starting at $10 per month. Midjourney also requires a Discord account, since it operates entirely through a dedicate Discord chat server. (Although this is changing.) That means you’re working alongside other users, and all your images are posted publicly on Midjourney’s web gallery, unless you pay $60 per month for the “stealth mode” feature included with the Pro plan.
DALL-E 3 is another powerful option, and is easy to use, since OpenAI now bundles it with ChatGPT Plus. However, you don't need to pay $20 per month to use it: Copilot has free access to DALL-E 3, so as long as you have a Microsoft account, you have DALL-E.
Stable Diffusion is also free and let you make as many images as you want, but image generation takes longer, especially if the servers are busy. Craiyon is also free, but subject to longer generation times, and image quality is lower.
In terms of approachability, DALL-E 3 via Copilot by far the best option if you’re just curious about these tools. It’s free and you can access it from Copilot's web app, Microsoft Edge, or from the Copilot mobile app.
That said, despite the differences in quality and and interface, these tools all work the same way: You type a prompt into a text box describing the image you want to see, press enter, then wait a few moments for the AI to generate the picture based on your description.
The quality of the final product will depend on which tool you’re using and how detailed your prompt is. Some tools, like Midjourney and Stable Diffusion, have guides on coming up with better prompts, and even extra features that can help the AI get closer to your intended result. But even with these extra steps, the process only takes a few moments, and every tool is simple to start using.
How do these tools learn how to draw? And why are there too many fingers?
The images you get from these tools can be impressive, but it’s not because the software actually knows how to draw.
As I pointed out earlier this year, calling these products “AI” is a misnomer. Unlike the common conception of artificial intelligence as seen in science fiction media, these tools are not alive, sentient, or aware in any way, and they do not reason or learn. This is true of both text-based chatbots and generative art tools. In the simplest terms, they work like your phone’s predictive text, pulling from a list of possible solutions to your prompt. When it comes to generative art tools specifically, the tool simply searches for images that match the keywords or descriptions in your prompt, then mashes the elements together.
This is entirely different from the actual process of drawing—in fact, the AI never “draws” anything at all, which is why these tools are notorious for “not knowing how to draw hands.”
As video game designer Doc Burford explains, “If I tell a machine ‘show me Nic Cage dressed as Superman,’ the machine may have images tagged with ‘Nic Cage,’ and it may have images tagged ‘Superman,’ but where the thinking mind of an actual intelligence will put those ideas together and fill in the blank spots with things it knows—like an artist who has also memorized human anatomy—the AI is still gonna give me an imperfect S-Shield on Superman’s chest, it’s gonna mess up the fingers.”
Ethical and legal concerns of AI art
These tools are easy to use and can often spit back compelling results—discounting the occasional extra digits and wonky faces—but there are major ethical concerns around making and distributing AI-generated art that go beyond quality and accuracy.
The main issue with generative AI art tools is they’re built on the backs of uncredited, unpaid artists whose art is used without consent. Every image you generate only exists because of the artists it’s copying from, even if those works aren’t copyrighted. Some AI evangelists like to claim these tools work “just like the human brain” and that “human artists are inspired by or reference other artists the same way,” but this is untrue for multiple reasons.
First, there is no being or mind in an AI, and therefore no memory, no intention, and no skill. Stable Diffusion isn’t “learning” how to draw or taking inspiration from another piece of art: It’s just an algorithm that searches and auto-fills data in the ways it’s programmed to. Humans, on the other hand, think, feel, and act with intention. Their works come from their memorized skill and lived experience. Even using another person’s art as a reference or inspiration is a deliberate choice informed by the artist’s goals.
To help explain the distinction, I reached out to Nicholas Kole, an illustrator and character designer who works with major film and video game studios like Disney, Activision, and DreamWorks. “The work I do, as a concept artist and illustrator, begins with digging deeply into the context of each project,” he says. “I ask pointed questions, tease out ideas about worldbuilding, story, gameplay [and] the process from start to finish is extremely specific, bespoke, and tailored to the precise needs of my colleagues and clients. Every single cufflink, belt buckle, prop, and motif—the art we make is the careful work of thoughtful design, done lovingly and with attention to detail.”
“The intrusion of an algorithm into that process that doesn’t care for context, that doesn’t know whether people have five or 17 fingers, that mashes up visual guesswork based on stolen data, and functions essentially like a million monkeys at a million typewriters is anathema to me.”
Kole says AI art “flies in the face of everything I stand for creatively, and everything I’ve wanted to do with my life’s work. It’s an insult to the reason I make and engage with art—I want to see thoughtful human craft that is expressive, and express myself with thoughtful human craft.” A quick glance through portfolio sites like Art Station shows Kole is not alone in those sentiments, with many professional artists taking a hard stand against AI art.
This hardline stance isn’t just for ideological or aesthetic reasons, either. AI automatization poses a threat to job security for many industries. The threat to working artists is just as real.
AI art also poses a risk to the companies that employ these artists. There have already been major legal battles over AI art infringing on copyrighted materials, and the system is starting to favor original artists. As such, some companies outright ban the use of AI art and reject any applications from artists with AI-generated works in their portfolios to avoid any copyright issues.
Are there ethical uses of AI art?
Despite the ethical and legal issues, some argue there is a place for these tools, and that they can even be helpful to professional artists. In an interview with Kotaku, visual artist RJ Palmers says artists could use AI to “come up with loose compositions, color patterns, lighting, etc.,” for example, and that the tools “can all be very cool for getting inspiration.”
Similarly, author and animator Scott Sullivan argues in his blog that AI is helpful for ideation and iteration while brainstorming, and that “it’s all about the artist’s intention and how they use the tool.”
AI art generators also aren't strictly a "prompt to image" creator, either. Some options, like Microsoft Designer, have multiple other purposes as well. You can use the AI photo editing tools to remove a subject from a photo, or swap out the background entirely; you can create messaging stickers from AI to plop relevant images into conversations; you can even create social media posts from prompts, in case you don't know how to use designer tools yourself. So these tools can have a purpose above simply "generating art."
But while AI art is contentious among professional artists, casual users may wonder whether any of this matters for the layperson or hobbyist that just wants to play with them once in a while. And, sure, AI tools could be used as toys, but it’s important to note that’s not how the creators of these products treat them.
Almost all AI art generators are commercial products in some way. Some are paid products, while free services may earn money through ad revenue. Some are also used as “proof of concept” examples to entice commercial clients to pay for the more powerful version of the tool.
In all cases, the people that make these tools earn money off the work of the artists whose work is used to create the image you’re generating, even if it’s just for fun. As Kole explains, “The generative system can’t function without the stolen life's work of countless passionate people just like me. They each brought their lived experiences, opinions, fixations, and points of view to their bodies of work, only now to have them smashed together inexpertly and touted as original art.” Even if you don’t share or sell images you make, many of these tools keep a public record of all generated content that other users can download and distribute.
Given all these concerns, it’s hard to recommend AI art generators, even if the intent to use them is innocent. Nevertheless, these tools are here, and unless some future regulations force them to change, we can’t stop folks from giving them a try. But, if you do, please keep in mind the legal and ethical issues associated with making and sharing AI art, think twice about sharing it, and never claim an AI-generated image as your own work.
This post is part of Lifehacker’s “Living With AI” series: We investigate the current state of AI, walk through how it can be useful (and how it can’t), and evaluate where this revolutionary tech is heading next. Read more here.
Almost as soon as ChatGPT launched in late 2022, the world started talking about how and when to use it. Is it ethical to use generative AI at work? Is that “cheating?” Or are we simply witnessing the next big technological innovation, one that everyone will either have to embrace, or fall behind dragging their feet?
AI is now a part of work, whether you like it or not
AI, like anything else, is a tool first and foremost, and tools help us get more done than we can on our own. (My job would literally not be possible without my computer.) In that regard, there’s nothing wrong, in theory, with using AI to be more productive. In fact, some work apps have fully embraced the AI bandwagon. Just look at Microsoft: The company basically conquered the meaning of “computing at work,” and it's adding AI functionality directly into its products.
Since last year, the entire Microsoft 365 suite—including Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Teams, and more—has adopted “Copilot,” the company’s AI assist tool. Think of it like Clippy from back in the day, only now way more useful. In Teams, you can ask the bot to summarize your meeting notes; in Word, you can ask the AI to draft a work proposal based on your bullet list, then request it tighten up specific paragraphs you aren’t thrilled with; in Excel, you can ask Copilot to analyze and model your data; in PowerPoint, you can ask for an entire slideshow to be created for you based on a prompt.
These tools don’t just exist: They’re being actively created by the companies that make our work products, and their use is encouraged. It reminds me of how Microsoft advertised Excel itself back in 1990: The ad presents spreadsheets as time consuming, rigid, and featureless, but with Excel, you can create a working presentation in an elevator ride. We don’t see that as “cheating” work: This is work.
Intelligently relying on AI is the same thing: Just as 1990's Excel extrapolates data into cells you didn’t create yourself, 2023's Excel will answer questions you have about your data, and will execute commands you give it in normal language, rather than formulas and functions. It’s a tool.
What work shouldn’t you use AI for?
Of course, there’s still an ethical line you can cross here. Tools can be used to make work better, but they can also be used to cheat. If you use the internet to hire someone else to do your job, then pass that work off as your own, that’s not using the tool to do your work better. That’s wrong. If you simply ask Copilot or ChatGPT to do your job for you in its entirety, same deal.
You also have to consider your own company’s guidelines when it comes to AI and the use of outside technology. It’s possible your organization has already established these rules, given AI’s prominence over the past year and a half or so: Maybe your company is giving you the green light to use AI tools within reason. If so, great! But if your company decides you can’t use AI for any purpose as far as work in concerned, you might want to log out of ChatGPT during business hours.
But, let’s be real: Your company probably isn’t going to know whether or not you use AI tools if you’re using them responsibly. The bigger issue here is privacy and confidentiality, and it’s something not enough people think about when using AI in general.
In brief, generative AI tools work because they are trained on huge sets of data. But AI is far from perfect, and the more data the system has to work with, the more it can improve. You train AI systems with every prompt you give them, unless the service allows you to specifically opt out of this training. When you ask Copilot for help writing an email, it takes in the entire exchange, from how you reacted to its responses, to the contents of the email itself.
As such, it’s a good rule of thumb to never give confidential or sensitive information to AI. An easy way to avoid trouble is to treat AI like you would you work email: Only share information with something like ChatGPT you’d be comfortable emailing a colleague. After all, your emails could very well be made public someday: Would you be OK with the world seeing what you said? If so, you should be fine sharing with AI. If not, keep it away from the robots.
If the service offers you the choice, opt out of this training. By doing so, your interactions with the AI will not be used to improve the service, and your previous chats will likely be deleted from the servers after a set period of time. Even so, always refrain from sharing private or corporate data with an AI chatbot: If the developer keeps more data than we realize, and they're ever hacked, you could put your work data in a precarious place.
This post is part of Lifehacker’s “Living With AI” series: We investigate the current state of AI, walk through how it can be useful (and how it can’t), and evaluate where this revolutionary tech is heading next. Read more here.
There’s a lot of talk about how AI is going to change your life. But unless you know how to code and are deeply aware of the latest advancements in AI tech, you likely assume you have no part to play here. (I know I did.) But as it turns out, there are companies out there designing programs to help you build AI tools without needing a lick of code.
What is the no-code movement?
The idea behind “no-code” is simple: Everyone should have the accessibility to build programs, tools, and other digital services regardless of their level of coding experience. While some take a “low-code” approach, which still requires some coding knowledge, the services on this list are strictly “no-code.” Specifically, they’re no-code solutions to building AI tools.
That being said, keep your expectations in check here: The best AI tools are going to require extensive knowledge of both computer science and coding. But it’s good to know there are utilities out there ready to help you build practical AI tools from scratch, without needing to know much about coding (or tech) in the first place.
Train simple machine-learning models for free with Lobe
If training a machine learning model sounds like something reserved for the AI experts, think again. While it’s true that machine learning is a complicated practice, there’s a way to build you own model for free with as few tools as a laptop and a webcam.
That’s thanks to a program called Lobe: The free app, owned by Microsoft, makes it easy to build your own machine learning model to recognize whatever you want. Need your app to differentiate between colors? You can train it to do that. Want to make a program that can identify different types of plants? Train away.
You can see from the example video that you can train a model to identify when someone is drinking from a cup in only a few minutes. While you can include any images you may have previously taken, you can also simply snap some photos of you drinking from a cup from your webcam. Once you take enough sample photos of you drinking and not drinking, you can use those photos to train the model.
You can then test the model to see how well (or not) it can predict if you’re drinking from a cup. In this example, it does a great job whenever it sees the cup in hand, but it incorrectly identifies holding a hand to your face as drinking as well. You can use feedback buttons to tell the model when it gets something wrong, so it can quickly retrain itself based on this information and hopefully make more accurate predictions going forward.
Google also has a similar tool for training simple machine-learning models called Teachable Machine, if you’d like to compare its offering to Microsoft’s.
Build your own AI chatbot with Juji Studio
AI chatbots are all the rage lately. ChatGPT, of course, kicked off the modern AI craze because of its accessible yet powerful chat features, but everything from Facebook Messenger to healthcare sites have used chatbots for years. While OpenAI built ChatGPT with years of expertise, you can make your own chatbot without typing a single line of code.
Juji Studio wants to make building a light version of ChatGPT, in the company’s words, as easy as making PowerPoint slides. The program gives you the tools to build a working chatbot you can implement into your site or Facebook Messenger. That includes controlling the flow of the chatbot, adjusting its personality, and feeding it a Q&A list so it can accurately answer specific questions users might have.
Juji lets you start with a blank canvas, or base your chatbot on one of its existing templates. Templates include customer service bots, job interview bots, teaching assistant bots, and bots that can issue user experience surveys. No matter what you choose, you’ll see the “brains” of your bot in a column on the left side of the screen.
It really does resemble PowerPoint slides: Each “slide” corresponds to a different task for the chatbot to follow. For example, with the customer service chatbot, you have an “invite user questions until done” slide, which is pre-programmed to listen to user questions until the user gives a “done” signal. You can go in and customize the prompts the chatbot will ask the user, such as asking for an account number or email address, or even more personal questions, like asking about a bad experience the user had, or the best part of their day.
You can, of course, customize the entire experience to your needs. You can build a bot that changes its approach based on whether or not the user responds positively or negatively to an opinion-based question:
Build custom versions of Copilot or ChatGPT
Chatbots like Copilot and ChatGPT can be useful for a variety of tasks, but when you want to use AI for a specific function, you'll want to turn to GPTs. GPTs, not to be confused with OpenAI's GPT AI models, are custom chatbots that can be built to serve virtually any purpose. Best of all, there's no coding necessary. Instead, you simply tell the bot what you want, and the service walks you through the process to set up your GPT.
You can build a GPT that helps the user learn a language, plans a meal and teaches you how to make it, or generates logos for different purposes. Really, whatever you want your chatbot to do, you can build a GPT to accomplish it. (Or, at least create a chatbot that's more focused on your task than ChatGPT or Copilot in general.)
You can access Copilot GPTs if you subscribe to Copilot Pro. OpenAI used to lock its GPTs behind a subscription, but the company is making them free for all users. Plus, OpenAI lets users put their custom-built GPTs on the GPT Store. If you don't want to make your own, you can browse other users' creations and try them out for yourself.
Create anything you want with Bubble
For the ultimate no-code experience, you’ll want to use a tool like Bubble. You use an interface similar to something like Photoshop to build your app or service, dragging and dropping new UI elements and functions as necessary.
But while Bubble is a no-brainer for us code-illiterates to build things, it’s also integrated with AI. There are tons of AI applications you can include in your programs using Bubble: You can connect your builds to OpenAI products like GPT and DALL-E, while at the same time taking advantage of plugins make by other Bubble members. All of these tools allow you to build a useful AI program by yourself—something that uses the power of GPT without needing to know how it works in the first place.
One of the best ways to get started here is by taking advantage of OpenAI Playground. Playground is similar to ChatGPT, in that it’s based on OpenAI’s large language models, but it isn’t a chatbot. As such, you can use Playground to create different kinds of products and functions that you can then easily move to a Bubble project using the “View Code” button.
This post is part of Lifehacker’s “Living With AI” series: We investigate the current state of AI, walk through how it can be useful (and how it can’t), and evaluate where this revolutionary tech is heading next. Read more here.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the latest tech revolution. Just as the cryptocurrency boom introduced the world to a whole bunch of new jargon, the AI hype train has brought with it a set of terms that are frequently used, but not always explained. If you’re wondering about the difference between a chatbot and a LLM, or between deep learning and machine learning, you’re in the right place: Here is a glossary of 20 AI-related terms, along with newbie-friendly explanations of what it all means.
Artificial intelligence (AI)
In simple terms, AI is intelligence in computers or machines, especially that which mimics human intelligence. AI is a broad term that covers many different types of machine intelligence, but the discourse around AI right now mostly centers around tools that create art, content, and summarize or transcribe content. To call these tools “intelligent” is up for debate, but AI is the term that has stuck.
Algorithm
An algorithm is a set of instructions that a program follows to give you a result. Common examples of algorithms include search engines, which show you a set of results based on your queries, or social media apps, which show content based on your interests. Algorithms allow AI tools to create predictive models, or create content or art based on your inputs.
Bias
In the context of AI, bias refers to erroneous results produced because the algorithm makes incorrect assumptions or lacks sufficient data. For example, speech recognition tools may not be able to understand certain English accents correctly because the tools were trained only with an American accent.
Conversational AI
AI tools that you can talk to, such as chatbots or voice assistants, are called conversational AI. If you're asking the assistant something yourself, it's conversational AI.
Data mining
The process of combing through large sets of data to find patterns or trends. Some AI tools use data mining to help you understand what makes people buy more items in a store or on a website, or how to optimize a business to cater to increased demand during peak hours.
Deep learning
Deep learning attempts to recreate the way the human brain learns, by utilizing three or more neural network “layers” to process large volumes of data and learn by example. These layers each process their own view of the given data and come together to reach a final conclusion.
Software for self-driving cars uses deep learning to identify stop signs, lane markers, and traffic lights, through object recognition: This is achieved by showing the AI tool many examples of what a certain object looks like (e.g., a stop sign), and through repeated training, the AI tool will eventually be able to identify that object with as close to 100% accuracy as possible.
Large language model (LLM)
A large language model (LLM) is a deep-learning algorithm that is trained on a massive data set to generate, translate, and process text. LLMs (like OpenAI’s GPT-4) allow AI tools to understand your queries and to generate text inputs based on them. LLMs also power AI tools that can identify the important parts of text or videos and summarize them for you.
Generative AI
Generative AI can generate art, images, text, or other results from your inputs, which are often powered by an LLM. It has become the catch-all term for the current AI tech many companies are now adding to their products. For example, a generative AI model can generate an image with a few text prompts, or turn a vertical photo into a wide-screen wallpaper.
Hallucination
When AI presents fiction as fact, we call that hallucinating. Hallucinations can happen when an AI’s data set isn’t accurate or its training is flawed, so it outputs an answer it’s confident on based on its available knowledge. That said, because AI is based on a complex web of networks, we don’t necessarily understand each example of hallucination. Lifehacker writer Stephen Johnson has great advice for spotting AI hallucinations.
Image recognition
The ability to identify specific subjects in an image. Computer programs can use image recognition to spot flowers in an image and name them, or to identify different species of birds in a photo.
Machine learning
When algorithms can improve themselves by learning from experience or data, it’s referred to as machine learning. Machine learning is the general practice that other AI terms we’ve discuss stem from: Deep learning is a form of machine learning, and large language models are trained through machine learning.
Natural language processing
When a program can understand inputs written in human languages, it falls under natural language processing. It’s how your calendar app understands what to do when you write, “I have a meeting at 8 p.m. at the coffee shop on Fifth Avenue tomorrow,” or when you ask Siri, “What’s the weather like today?”
Neural networks
The human brain has layers upon layers of neurons constantly processing information and learning from it. An AI neural network mimics this structure of neurons to learn from data sets. A neural network is the system that allows for machine learning and deep learning, and, at the end, allows machines to perform complex tasks such as image recognition and text generation.
Optical character recognition (OCR)
The process of extracting text from images is done via OCR. Programs that support OCR can identify handwritten or typed text, and let you copy and paste it as well.
Prompt engineering
A prompt is any series of words that you use to get a response from a program, such as generative AI. In the context of AI, prompt engineering is the art of writing prompts to get chatbots to give you the most useful responses. It’s also a field where people are hired to come up with creative prompts to test AI tools and identify its limits and weaknesses.
Reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF)
RLHF is the process of training AI with feedback from people. When the AI delivers incorrect results, a human shows it what the correct response should be. This allows the AI to deliver accurate and useful results a lot faster than it would otherwise.
Speech recognition
A program’s ability to understand human speech. Speech recognition can be used for conversational AI to understand your queries and deliver responses, or for speech-to-text tools to understand spoken words and convert them to text.
Token
When you feed a text query into an AI tool, it breaks down this text into tokens, common sequences of characters in text, which are then processed by the AI program. If you use a GPT model, for example, the pricing is based on the number of tokens it processes: You can calculate this number using the company’s tokenizer tool, which also shows you how words are broken down into tokens. OpenAI says one token is roughly four characters of text.
Training data
A training set or training data is the information that an algorithm or machine learning tool uses to learn and execute its function. For example, large language models may use training data by scraping some of the world’s most popular websites to pick up text, queries, and human expressions.
Turing Test
Alan Turing was the British mathematician known as the “father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence.” His Turing Test (or “The Imitation Game”) is designed to identify if a computer’s intelligence is identical to that of a human. A computer is said to have passed the Turing Test when a human is tricked into thinking the machine’s responses were written by a human.
This post is part of Lifehacker’s “Living With AI” series: We investigate the current state of AI, walk through how it can be useful (and how it can’t), and evaluate where this revolutionary tech is heading next. Read more here.
You wouldn’t be blamed for thinking AI really kicked off in the past couple years. But AI has been a long time in the making, including most of the 20th century. It's difficult to pick up a phone or laptop today without seeing some type of AI feature, but that's only because of working going back nearly one hundred years.
AI’s conceptual beginnings
Of course, people have been wondering if we could make machines that think for as long as we’ve had machines. The modern concept came from Alan Turing, a renowned mathematician well known for his work in deciphering Nazi Germany’s “unbreakable” code produced by their Enigma machine during World War II. As the New York Times highlights, Turing essentially predicted what the computer could—and would—become, imagining it as “one machine for all possible tasks.”
But it was what Turing wrote in “Computing Machinery and Intelligence” that changed things forever: The computer scientist posed the question, “Can machines think?” but also argued this framing was the wrong approach to take. Instead, he proposed a thought-experiment called “The Imitation Game.” Imagine you have three people: a man (A), a woman (B), and an interrogator, separated into three rooms. The interrogator’s goal is to determine which player is the man and which is the woman using only text-based communication. If both players were truthful in their answers, it’s not such a difficult task. But if one or both decides to lie, it becomes much more challenging.
But the point of the Imitation Game isn’t to test a human’s deduction ability. Rather, Turing asks you to imagine a machine taking the place of player A or B. Could the machine effectively trick the interrogator into thinking it was human?
Kick-starting the idea of neural networks
Turing was the most influential spark for the concept of AI, but it was Frank Rosenblatt who actually kick-started the technology’s practice, even if he never saw it come to fruition. Rosenblatt created the “Perceptron,” a computer modeled after how neurons work in the brain, with the ability to teach itself new skills. The computer has a single layer neural network, and it works like this: You have the machine make a prediction about something—say, whether a punch card is marked on the left or the right. If the computer is wrong, it adjusts to be more accurate. Over thousands or even millions of attempts, it “learns” the right answers instead of having to predict them.
That design is based on neurons: You have an input, such as a piece of information you want the computer to recognize. The neuron takes the data and, based on its previous knowledge, produces a corresponding output. If that output is wrong, you tell the computer, and adjust the “weight” of the neuron to produce an outcome you hope is closer to the desired output. Over time, you find the right weight, and the computer will have successfully “learned.”
Unfortunately, despite some promising attempts, the Perceptron simply couldn’t follow through on Rosenblatt’s theories and claims, and interest in both it and the practice of artificial intelligence dried up. As we know today, however, Rosenblatt wasn’t wrong: His machine was just too simple. The perceptron’s neural network had only one layer, which isn’t enough to enable machine learning on any meaningful level.
Many layers makes machine learning work
That’s what Geoffrey Hinton discovered in the 1980s: Where Turing posited the idea, and Rosenblatt created the first machines, Hinton pushed AI into its current iteration by theorizing that nature had cracked neural network-based AI already in the human brain. He and other researchers, like Yann LeCun and Yoshua Bengio, proved that neural networks built upon multiple layers and a huge number of connections can enable machine learning.
Through the 1990s and 2000s, researchers would slowly prove neural networks’ potential. LeCun, for example, created a neural net that could recognize handwritten characters. But it was still slow going: While the theories were right on the money, computers weren’t powerful enough to handle the amount of data necessary to see AI’s full potential. Moore’s Law finds a way, of course, and around 2012, both hardware and data sets had advanced to the point that machine learning took off: Suddenly, researchers could train neural nets to do things they never could before, and we started to see AI in action in everything from smart assistants to self-driving cars.
And then, in late 2022, ChatGPT blew up, showing both professionals, enthusiasts, and the general public what AI could really do, and we’ve been on a wild ride ever since. We don’t know what the future of AI actually has in store: All we can do is look at how far the tech has come, what we can do with it now, and imagine where we go from here.
The most anticipated international European tournament kicked off Friday, June 14, in Germany. Euro 2024 will run until July 14, and if you know where to look, you can catch all of the 51 matches (not "games") right here in the U.S.
How to watch Euro 2024 matches
Most of the games will be played on the FOX networks and Fox Sport 1 (FS1), and five matches will be played on Fubo. You have only one option if you want to catch all of the games with a single subscription: Fubo Pro. The subscription is $79.99 per month and gets you access to all of the relevant Fox channels. If you only want to watch some games, you can get a seven-day free trial.
DirecTV Stream is $79.99 per month. The YouTube TV Base Plan is $57.99 per month for the first three months. Sling Blue will run you $40 per month, and you can stream on three screens simultaneously. Vix Premium with ads starts at $4.99 per month and can also stream on three screens simultaneously; just be aware the matches will be narrated in Spanish.
If you're considering getting one of these subscriptions, remember that Copa America will be starting June 20 and running until July 14. Copa America will also be streamed on FOX and FS1 so you'll get to enjoy both tournaments.
The Euro 2024 match schedule
Here is the full list of who plays who during the group stages, what time in Eastern Time (ET) and what channel you can watch the matches.
June 14
Germany vs Scotland, 3 p.m. (FOX)
June 15
Hungary vs Switzerland, 9 a.m.
Spain vs Croatia, 12 p.m. (FOX)
Italy vs Albania, 3 p.m. (FOX)
June 16
Poland vs Netherlands, 9 a.m. (FS1)
Slovenia vs Denmark, 12 p.m. (FS1)
Serbia vs England, 3 p.m. (FOX)
June 17
Romania vs Ukraine, 9 a.m.
Belgium vs Slovakia, 12 p.m. (FS1)
Austria vs France, 3 p.m. (FOX)
June 18
Turkey vs Georgia, 12 p.m.
Portugal vs Czechia, 3 p.m. (FOX)
June 19
Croatia vs Albania, 9 a.m. (FS1)
Germany vs Hungary, 12 p.m. (FS1)
Scotland vs Switzerland, 3 p.m. (FOX)
June 20
Slovenia vs Serbia, 9 a.m. (FS1)
Denmark vs England, 12 p.m. (FS1)
Spain vs Italy, 3 p.m. (FOX)
June 21
Slovakia vs Ukraine, 9 a.m.
Poland vs Austria, 12 p.m. (FS1)
Netherlands vs France, 3 p.m. (FOX)
June 22
Georgia vs Czechia, 9 a.m.
Turkey vs Portugal, 12 p.m. (FOX)
Belgium vs Romania, 3 p.m. (FOX)
June 23
Switzerland vs Germany, 3 p.m. (FS1)
Scotland vs Hungary, 3 p.m. (FOX)
June 24
Croatia vs Italy, 3 p.m. (FOX)
Albania vs Spain, 3 p.m. (FS1)
June 25
Netherlands vs Austria, 12 p.m. (FS1)
France vs Poland, 12 p.m. (FOX)
England vs Slovenia, 3 p.m. (FOX)
Denmark vs Serbia, 3 p.m. (FS1)
June 26
Slovakia vs Romania, 12 p.m. (FS1)
Ukraine vs Belgium, 12 p.m. (FOX)
Czechia vs Turkey, 3 p.m. (FS1)
Georgia vs Portugal, 3 p.m. (FOX)
After the group stages, the tournament will go into the round of 16 from June 29 to July 2.Then, the quarterfinals will be on July 5 and 6. The semifinal matches will be on July 9 and 10, and the Euro 2024 final will be played on July 14.
Google has been working to update how it handles text-to-speech (TTS) in Chrome on Android for a few months now. The feature was first noticed in beta in January, but now appears to be rolling out to more users with Chrome 125. Though it is still not fully ready just yet, 9to5Google reports, you can already enable it if you don't already have it.
Previously, to have your smartphone read webpages to you, you’d normally have to rely on Google Assistant on Android and Siri (plus Safari) on iPhone. While the new Listen to Page feature doesn’t appear to be coming to iOS anytime soon, it’s still nice to see Google baking this accessibility feature into Chrome itself.
9to5Google says that the new function appears to work on most text-heavy websites. However, you’ll need to wait for the page to fully load and then access the option from the three dot menu at the top of Chrome. If you don’t see the feature listed, just activate it through the Chrome flag chrome://flags/#read-aloud. Enter the bold text into the URL bar, press enter to access the settings, and turn it on.
On top of reading webpages to you, the feature also comes with various controls, including options for playback speed as well as the ability to highlight text and turn on auto-scroll. Google has also included several voice options, including selections for U.S., U.K., Indian, and Australian English voices. There are also several different pitches available to provide a more warm, calm, bright, or peaceful tone.
The control bar for the TTS feature will remain docked even if you open additional tabs, and playback will continue if you lock your device. However, if you close the browser—or even push it to the background for any reason—the reading will end. The feature also appears to be available in Chrome Custom Tabs, and it can be set as a toolbar shortcut to help avoid scrolling through the menu looking for it.
As it hasn’t officially rolled out (any access you might have right now is a preview), the feature is likely still being worked on in some fashion. As such, Google may make more changes—or even add new features—before fully releasing it. If you'd rather wait for the full release, Google’s Reading mode app remains a great alternative.
I come from a family that collects old photographs, which means my mom's basement is full of huge plastic containers of pictures—and that collection is only increasing with time. Some pictures are a century old and feature people we've never even met before. Most are a few decades old and show distant relatives eating cake or accidentally blinking when the flash went off.
We almost never look at any of these, but they take up so much space—and that's why my mom decided last year she'd had enough. She wanted them out of the house and enlisted me to help her. We decided to go through them once, looking for anything genuinely important, throw out the vast majority, and digitize anything decent. Here is what we learned along the way.
Decide what photographs to keep
Whether you decide to ship your pics off to a digitizing company or upload them all yourself, it helps to work with the smallest volume possible. The same way I recommend holding a remembrance night to go through old stuff before you chuck it out, I recommend going through your physical pictures before you digitize them. From a practical standpoint, this will help you pare down duplicates, toss out anything useless, and only keep what actually deserves to be kept. From a nicer perspective, you can have a lot of fun and make some nice memories by reliving the past for a night—which was the point of holding onto these to begin with.
When I sort through photos, I categorize them into two piles: Throw away and digitize. Here and there, though, I snap a quick pic of one on my phone, just so I have it right away if I need it. It's easy to get sentimental and start making excuses about how every photo should be kept for some reason or another, but do your best to be pragmatic. You're not going to look at these often in the future. There's no reason to have five photos of your grandpa watching a football game or your toddler self visiting an aquarium you don't even remember. Select only the most important things to keep, reminisce a little about the stuff you're tossing, and keep going. My personal rule is that I pick one picture from each event—birthday parties, vacations, ceremonies, whatever—and make sure it's the best one. The rest have to go.
My best advice is to do this on a totally random night. Don't do it on a day you're feeling sentimental or nostalgic and especially don't do it around the date of something important that happened in the past, like the birth or death date of someone who's going to come up in the pictures a lot.
Digitizing photos on your own
If you want to tackle this on your own, you have two options: A photo scanner or an app on your phone. If you opt to get a scanner, get something that gets through the stacks quickly. PC Mag recommends the Epson FastFoto FF-680W, but keep in mind this thing is $599.99.
It's also a solid document scanner that can create searchable PDFs, so if you're looking to upgrade your scanner and you're in the market for something to digitize your pics, this could be the one for you. Others on the market are cheaper, like the Plustek Photo Scanner ePhoto Z300 ($199), but you'll have to manually feed the photos in one by one, which might not work if you have a whole family history's worth of memories to upload.
No matter what kind of scanner you're using, I recommend setting up a Google Photos account to keep all the pictures in one place. If you want to make the pics accessible to a wide group of people, setting up a separate account, like [yourlastname]familyphotos@gmail.com might be the way to go. I love Google Photos because it's searchable and easy to customize. It recognizes faces (making it easy to highlight or hide certain people), you can make folders and add details, and it's free and easy to access across multiple devices.
Naturally, then, the app I recommend for digitizing pics with your phone is Google PhotoScan, since it uploads your scans straight into your Google Photos library. However, this one is time-consuming: You may have to take a few pictures, which will then be put together to create the best digitization, so you have to go through every photo one by one. If you want an app that will scan multiple photos at once, your best bet is Photomyne, but you'll have to pay $199.99 upfront for a 10-year plan. You can then save all the photos individually and upload them to whatever cloud service or device you want.
Photo digitizing services
I didn't say this was a cheap endeavor; I only said it was an important step in decluttering your home and modernizing your record-keeping. Scanners and apps cost money and so does shipping your photos to a service that will digitize them for you—but the lack of hassle might be worth it.
iMemories is a service that charges $.99 per photo (but is frequently running specials, so you could pay as little as $.49). You can then pay $7.99 per month or $49.99 per year to access the iMemories Cloud full of your media, $39.99 for an 8GB USB drive, or $19.99 for a DVD or Blu-ray disk of the pics. Downloading them after the scan is free.
You could also try ScanMyPhotos, which also frequently offers specials but usually charges $229.98 per box of pics you send in. They estimate each box holds about 1,800 photos. Higher quality results will run you another $150 and you'll pay more the longer you want your download link to work before it expires.
Obviously, none of that is cheap either, which is why it's important to sort through your photo stack before you send it all in. But it's better than having stacks of pictures collecting dust and being far from useful in your attic.
With a market flooded with vacuums and mops and models changing so rapidly, it’s almost impossible to feel confident about what you’re buying in the moment. For the last month, I have been testing the Ecovacs Deebot T30S Combo ($1199.99)—a robot vacuum and mop, in a self-emptying tower, combined with a stick vacuum. It’s a machine trying to do a lot; I’m going to discuss the parts as they compare to other vacuums and mops already out.
The T30S comes in two variations: The first has a handheld vacuum with a few attachments, but without the extension for the vacuum, it’s merely a nice Dustbuster. (For about 30 dollars more, you can get a fully extendable stick vacuum.)
The first thing you’ll notice about the T30S is that the base is monstrous—it eclipsed in size any other robot I've tested in the last year, particularly in height. Water tanks and vacuum accessories can all be stowed in the tower itself, which is handy—but even so, its size and width makes it harder to place in your home. There’s almost no assembly except for clicking together the ramp to the tower and stowing the accessories in a drawer designed for them. Pairing the robot to the Ecovacs app was also fast and streamlined.
Advanced features in app, but lots of advertising
Open the Ecovacs app, and without fail you’ll be hit with offers and banners. They’re easy to click off, but still, it’s an annoying distraction. Otherwise, the interface for the vacuum works very similarly to other advanced robots out there including Roborock, Switchbot, and Dreame. Like Roborock, it has a voice assistant named Yiko and it works about as well as Roborock’s (which isn’t very well, but shows promise). Unlike other robots in this price range, the T30S lacks onboard video. The T30S is missing two of my must-have features on robot vacuums these days: remote control and pin and go, which you now see in almost all high-end models, including those mentioned above. Remote control allows you to control the robot using your phone, meaning you never have to go fishing for a bot under the couch again. You can simply drive it over to you. "Pin and go" allows you to mark a spot on the map and have the robot proceed to that pin and clean in that specific area. It’s a great way to quickly deal with a spill.
In its favor, the T30S had a feature I’m beginning to see more of: the ability to designate room cleaning priorities. In other words, if it's cleaning my bathroom and any other space, I can have it always clean the bathroom last. If it's cleaning the kitchen and any other space, I can direct it to always get the kitchen first. Another newer feature I like is the maintenance log for all the working parts, which gives you a status report of every single replaceable part. Other standard features like child lock, schedules, and intensity settings for your mop and vacuum are present on the T30S.
A better mop than vacuum
Every household produces different kinds of detritus. A floor that only has some dust could use almost any robot vacuum with success, and might want to focus on models like Dyson, which are specifically designed to capture microparticles. Some vacuums are specially designed to grab pet hair. I, on the other hand, have "macroparticles": large stuff that is tracked in by the dog, or dropped during various crafting or cooking activities. If you have kids who drop Cheerios, for instance, you have a macroparticle problem, and it’s one that robot vacuums struggle with. The T30S struggled with macroparticles, getting stuck on almost anything larger than a popcorn kernel, which meant I had to come clear out the roller brush. But it didn’t really capture smaller debris that well, either. This could be due to a singular roller design, but I think it’s also due to the small size of the debris container. The T30S did not seem to return to the base once full to empty itself, instead stubbornly continuing its run, unable to pick up anything else. If you, like me, suffer from larger detritus, then this is not the vacuum for you. But I believe this could be capable of picking up pet hair and dust, etc. without a problem.
More successful was the mop, which is handled by two spinning mop pads, much like the Roborock Qrevo line. While I still believe that mop pads, like the Roborock S8 are better for mopping than spinning pads, I thought the T30s did an admirable job, better than the Dreame L10 I recently reviewed, and on par with the Qrevo. Because the pads extend out from the robot, they’re able to get into corners and room edges admirably. I generally found that this was all more successful when I ran a complete vacuum run and then a separate mop run.
The T30S did something that surprised me: It moved through a curtained-off area. When robots used bump-and-go technology to map an area, they would go anywhere a little battery-powered motor could take them. New robots including the T30S use LiDAR (lasers that use light and distance to determine where to go), which means most robots these days don’t bump into things at all, and actively avoid them—they perceive obstacles they could get through or under as walls. So I was shocked to watch the T30S slip under a floor-length velvet curtain between my hallway and living room as if the curtain didn’t exist. While this is probably a bug (Ecovacs is still looking into it), I think it's a bug that could work in your favor if you have a space that previous LiDAR robots haven't "seen," whether that's a space blocked by a pet gate a robot could still slip under, someplace you're using a room divider, or a curtain, like me. While a bug could always get corrected, I think it's unlikely to happen, given that most companies just make a new robot altogether. In fact, this "bug" didn't exist on the Ecovacs Deebot X2 Omni, which I tried (and liked) just a few months ago.
On the downside, the T30S also stranded itself more than a few times once the job was completed. It struggled to return to the base, abandoning itself in hallways and other random spots, and although this only represents 15% of all the times I used it, it's still a consideration.
A near-miss on what could have been a killer feature
The hand vac included in the T30S makes you question how badly you want to use it. On one hand, it’s such a good idea to have a self-emptying hand vac; you never have to deal with a messy canister over a trash can. This one feature is what makes me prefer the Samsung Bespoke Jet AI vacuum over any Dyson I’ve tried, because you simply grab the vacuum all ready to go, clean, and then place it back on the dock, where it empties itself. Unlike Samsung, though, there are extra steps to use the T30S. You have to assemble it each time you want to use it, and then disassemble it to put it back in the dock, where it self empties. All the time and energy saved by the self-emptying feature is canceled out by the work to put the vacuum together and take it apart each time you want to use it.
At least when you get the T30S with the extended stick vacuum, you just remove the handheld portion to place it in the tower, and the stick and whatever accessory you’re using get docked on the exterior of the tower, so it's not as labor-intensive. However, this also means the tower now takes up even more space vertically and horizontally.
Not a bad buy, but not the best buy
Despite all that, the truth is that if you were to buy a mid-range stick vac and robot vacuum, you’d still end up spending more than the list price for this combo tower. While I think if you want a better robot vacuum/mop you’d buy a Roborock or Switchbot, and if you wanted a better stick vacuum you’d get the Samsung Bespoke Jet AI, the Deebot T30S is going to work well for someone without major floor detritus who just wants a reliable bot to keep up with the daily dust, and wants a handheld vac nearby for things above ground level.
Apple made a splash during last week's WWDC keynote when it announced Apple Intelligence. It's the company's official foray into the trendy AI features most tech companies have adopted already. While Apple Intelligence might have generated the most headlines over the past week, many of its main features will not be present when you update your iPhone, iPad, or Mac this fall.
According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple is staggering the rollout of these highly-anticipated AI features. A key reason is, simply, these features just aren't ready yet. Apple has been scrambling for over a year to implement generative AI features in its products, after the tech exploded in late 2022. (Thanks, ChatGPT.) Many of these features are quite involved, and will take more time to get right.
That said, Apple probably could release these features sooner and in larger batches if it wanted to, but there's a strategy here: By rolling out big AI features in limited numbers, Apple can root out any major issues before adding more AI to the mix (AI hallucinates, after all), and can continue to build up its cloud network without putting too much pressure on the system. It helps that the company is keeping these features to a specific, small pool of Apple devices: iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max (and likely the iPhone 16 line), as well as M-Series Macs and iPads.
Apple Intelligence in 2024
If you installed the iOS 18 or macOS 15 beta right now, you might think no Apple Intelligence features were going to be ready in the fall. That's because Apple is delaying these AI features for beta testers until sometime this summer. As the public beta is scheduled to drop in July, it seems like a safe assumption that Apple is planning on dropping Apple Intelligence next month. Again, we don't know for sure.
There are some AI features currently in this first beta, even if they aren't strictly "Apple Intelligence" features: iOS 18 supports transcriptions for voice memos as well as enhanced voicemail transcriptions, and supports automatically calculating equations you type out. It's a limited experience, but seeing as it's only the first beta, we'll see more features soon.
In fact, Apple currently plans to roll out some flagship features with the first release of Apple Intelligence. That includes summaries for webpages, voice memos, notes, and emails; AI writing tools (such as rewriting and proofreading); and image generation, including the AI-generated emojis Apple is branding "Genmoji." You'll also receive AI summaries of notifications and see certain alerts first based on what the AI thinks is most important.
In addition, some of Siri's new updates will be out with iOS 18's initial release. This fall, you should notice the assistant's new UI, as well as the convenient new option for typing to Siri. But most of Siri's advertised features won't be ready for a while. (More on that below.)
The timeline for ChatGPT integration is also a bit up in the air: It may not arrive with the first release of iOS 18 in the fall, but Gurman believes it'll be here before the end of the year. For developers, Xcode's AI assistant, Swift Assist, is likely not out until later this year.
Apple Intelligence's new Siri won't be here until 2025
The largest delay appears to be to Siri's standout upgrades, many of which won't hit iOS and macOS until 2025. That includes contextual understanding and actions: The big example from the keynote was when a demonstrator asks Siri when her mom's flight is getting in, and the digital assistant is able to answer the question by pulling data from multiple apps. This "understanding" that would power many convenient actions without needing to explicitly tell Siri what you want it to do, needs more time to bake.
In addition, Apple is taking until next year for Siri's ability to act within apps from user commands. When available, you'll be able to ask Siri to edit a photo then add it to a message before sending it off. Siri will actually feel like a smart assistant that can do things on your iPhone, iPad, and Mac for you, but that takes time.
Siri also won't be able to analyze and understand what's happening on your screen until 2025. Next year, you should be able to ask Siri a simple question based on what you're doing on your device, and the assistant should understand. If you're trying to make movie plans with someone to see Inside Out 2, you could ask Siri "when is it playing?" and Siri should analyze the conversation and return results for movie times in your area.
Finally, Apple Intelligence remains English-only until at least next year. Apple needs more time to train the AI on other languages. As with other AI features, however, this is one that makes a lot of sense to delay until it's 100% ready.
AI might be the focus of the tech industry, but big AI features often roll out to disastrous ends. (Just look at Google's AI Overviews or Microsoft's Recall feature.) The more time Apple gives itself to get the tech right, the better. In the meantime, we can use the new features that are already available.
Adobe just can’t catch a break. After raising eyebrows earlier this month with new terms of service that had users worried the company would be poking through their files and potentially training AI on their work, the Photoshop maker is now coming under fire by the FTC, this time over alleged dishonest pricing. The government organization is suing Adobe over its hidden fees and hard to cancel subscriptions.
In a complaint filed on Monday, the FTC said, “Adobe has harmed consumers by enrolling them in its default, most lucrative subscription plan without clearly disclosing important plan terms.” In a related blog post, the regulator dinged Adobe for not making it clear that the subscription is a one-year commitment that charges 50% of any remaining payments when canceled, which can amount to “hundreds of dollars.”
The FTC also complained about Adobe’s poor treatment of customers who are trying to cancel. “Subscribers have had their calls or chats either dropped or disconnected and have had to re-explain their reason for calling when they re-connect,” reads the complaint.
In a statement, FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection director Samuel Levine said “Americans are tired of companies hiding the ball during subscription signup and then putting up roadblocks when they try to cancel.”
The lawsuit targets Adobe executives Maninder Sawhney and David Wadhwani directly, implicating them for their control and authority in implementing such practices.
The complaint follows an investigation that began in 2022. Despite being aware of the increased scrutiny, “Adobe has nevertheless persisted in its violative practices to the present day,” the FTC says.
Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt
Currently, there are 20 different plans for individual subscribers listed on Adobe’s website, with more options available as you click through the listed cards. The Creative Cloud All Apps plan, which is highlighted with a “Best Value” banner, does say that a “fee applies if you cancel after 14 days” for its “Annual, paid monthly” tier, although it does not provide specifics on the amount, even when you hover over an info button. Customers can go as far as entering payment information without seeing the final figure.
In a statement posted to the company's newsroom, Adobe General Counsel and Chief Trust Officer Dana Rao said, "We are transparent with the terms and conditions of our subscription agreements and have a simple cancellation process. We will refute the FTC's claims in court."
Everyone can be scammed. Even if you think you’re pretty savvy about things, you can be scammed—maybe especially because you think you’re pretty savvy about things. Between our desire to have goods and services and our determination to get a good deal on those goods and services, we can all be vulnerable to a good scam.
Owning a house, as you may have noticed, is expensive, and thus homeowners can be extra vulnerable to scammers. And hiring contractors can be a fraught, stressful process. You might think that would make it harder to fall for contractor scams, since we usually enter into these relationships with our bullshit antennae already up, but people fall for contractor scams all the time—about 10% of Americans have been hit by a contractor scam, losing an average of $2,426 in the process. While you might think scammers are obvious and easy to avoid, that’s probably only because you haven’t been scammed yet.
Driveway destruction
The scam: You hire someone to repave your driveway—maybe they showed up at your door offering a great quote, or maybe you found them through internet research. Either way, they get to work and tear up your existing driveway. Then, once your driveway resembles the surface of the Moon, they announce the cost will be twice as much as the original quote—or more. If they’re being polite they’ll offer some excuse as to why the price increased, but either way, you’re in the same spot: You either pay up or you have no driveway.
Why it’s easy to fall for: It’s just so ... brazen. Holding your house for ransom is often totally unexpected, but they know that once your driveway is ruined your only alternative is to hire a second contractor for even more money.
More materials, more problems
The scam:A contractor shows up at your door and tells you they’re working in your area, and they have materials left over. To get rid of them and make their time in your neighborhood more profitable, they’d be happy to do some work at your house for a big discount (since they already have the necessary materials). They negotiate a perfectly reasonable deposit and disappear—or spend a day doing some really low-quality work and leave you with a mess.
Why it’s easy to fall for: Like all great scams, it combines a perfectly reasonable scenario with your own desire to save a buck. Plus, having a friendly person at your door puts you at ease because you feel like you’ve made a connection.
The "urgent" deal
The scam: A contractor offers you a terrific deal on a project, but only if you sign a contract and put down a deposit immediately. Once you do, they walk away and never return.
Why it’s easy to fall for: Time pressure is a common psychological trick used by scammers. And it’s common because it works—it triggers a primitive reaction in our brain that drives us to make decisions we normally wouldn’t make. This is one reason why people often have a sense of disbelief that they fell for a scam like this—once the time pressure is removed, we think rationally again.
Straight-up insurance fraud
The scam: You tell a contractor you can’t afford a project, but they have a helpful idea: insurance. They tell you that they will get your insurer to cover the project; just let them handle it. One of two things happens next: Your contractor literally commits insurance fraud in your name by inventing a covered event, or they file a claim and take payment from the insurance company—but never actually do the work.
Why it’s easy to fall for: Contractor scammers always approach as friends who are just trying to help us out, and it’s not uncommon for legitimate contractors to deal with insurance companies on behalf of homeowners. It’s always a good idea to be in on any communications between your contractor and your insurer and to double-check any claims a contractor makes about what’s covered.
My friend the lender
The scam: We’ve all had that moment when a contractor gives us a quote and our souls briefly leave our body in shock—but this contractor has a solution. They have a lender they work with frequently who will offer a great rate to finance the project, and the contractor will offer a discount if you use them. The contract you sign with the “lender” actually takes out a home equity loanon the house—and the contractor vanishes.
Why it’s easy to fall for: Financing home repair and improvement projects is pretty common—but everyone dreads the trouble and paperwork. When a contractor makes it easy for us, we’re grateful, and might not do the due diligence we should.
Free inspection!
The scam: A contractor knocks on your door and offers to inspect some aspect of your home for free. They might claim they can see from the street that your roof, windows, air conditioning, or other part of the home is old and showing some wear and tear. The contractor then magically finds an emergency situation—and may even damage your home purposefully to force you to hire them to do the work. Once you pay a deposit, they go to “get materials” and never come back.
Why it’s easy to fall for: You figure if the inspection is free, there’s no risk—and you’re getting over on them because you’ll get the information and then you can go looking for the best deal to fix it. You’re not expecting the sudden pressure of having to make a decision right there because they’ve discovered a very bad, no good situation that threatens your home or family—and you’re certainly not expecting a roofer, for example, to come down from your roof holding a bunch of shingles they literally tore off on purpose.
How to protect yourself from contractor scams
Because we’re all human and our brains are hackable, anyone can fall for a scam—but you can take steps that will protect you from most contractor scams:
Always do research. Never hire a contractor without researching them first. No matter how good an impression they make while standing in your doorway or when working up a quote, do your due diligence every time. Ask them for the license and insurance information and then use your state’s license verification website to make sure they’re legit.
You should also ask for and check their references to make sure they’ve completed projects and have satisfied clients. If they can’t provide these or you can’t actually get in touch with them, think twice.
Never sign right away. If you’re being pressured to sign a contract and/or drop a deposit to get a deal or secure an appointment for the work, walk away. Even if it’s not a scam, it’s a contractor you probably don’t want to work with.
Watch the deposit. Many contractors want a deposit before scheduling or beginning a job, and typically an amount between 10% and 33% isn’t crazy, depending on the total cost of the project. But more than that should give you pause, because you want to have some leverage if things go south. And some states limit how much a contractor can ask for, so check your local regulations before agreeing to anything.
Never pay cash. If a contractor insists on a cash deposit, politely show them the door. A credit card offers you a lot more fraud protection, although some contractors won’t accept them because of the associated fees. But even a check is a better option than cash, as it at least establishes a paper trail.
Always get your own financing. Just as shopping around for car loans is always a good idea, you can almost always get a better financing deal for home repair or improvement projects on your own. And by not using a contractor’s “recommended” financing you remove any risk of getting suckered.
Trust your gut. Legit contractors will outline the project, give you clear costs, and then give you time to consider and ask questions. If you feel pressured, confused, or frightened when speaking with a contractor walk away, even if it seems like they’re making sense.
If you got scammed by a contractor
So what happens if a fast-talking scammer caught you at a bad moment and scammed some cash out of you for a repair or project they’re obviously never going to do? There are a few basic steps to take:
Contact law enforcement.File a report with your local police. Even if they never identify and catch the scammer, having a record of the scam may be useful for you if you need to make an insurance claim. You should also contact your state’s Attorney General’s office and file a report.
Consult a lawyer. It’s possible you can pursue legal action against the scammer if you can locate them and prove they scammed you. Speaking with a lawyer can give you some idea of your chances and outline a way forward.
Contact your insurer. Your homeowners insurance may cover at least some of the financial loss, and if the scammer damaged your home as part of their scheme, you may have coverage for that as well. A conversation with your local insurance agent is a must.
Consult a (legit) contractor. Just because you got scammed doesn’t mean your home doesn’t need work, and sometimes scammers damage homes accidentally or purposefully while doing their “work” (or they do some of the work, and not particularly well). Don’t assume your financial loss is the end of the trouble—get a real contractor in there to ascertain if you actually do need work done.
Invite-Only deals started last year during Prime Day in an effort to give more people an equal chance to take advantage of the best deals Amazon has to offer. The program must've worked well for Amazon because they repeated it during Prime Big Deal Days later in October. While we don't have the official dates for Prime Day yet, we know it'll be sometime in mid-July. Knowing how to sign up for the Invite-Only deals will give you a fighting chance at taking advantage of these deals.
How to sign up for Prime Day Invite-Only deals
As Amazon explains, you must be a Prime Member to sign up for the Invite-Only deals. What you're doing is essentially requesting an invitation to the deal, which will come by email. Here are the steps from Amazon:
Find an "Invite-Only Prime Deal" that you want to purchase. You can find the deals on the Deals page.
Navigate to the product detail page.
Select "Request Invite." If you are not a Prime member, sign up for Prime to be able to request an invite.
You will receive an email notification confirming you requested an invite. The confirmation will be sent to the email that is on your Amazon account. If you don't have an email on your account, add one by navigating to Your Account > Login > Security.
Keep in mind that just because you requested an invitation doesn't mean you'll receive one. If you are selected, you'll receive a push notification and email during the sale. If you're not selected, Amazon will also let you know you didn't get one. You can only buy one of the products that you were invited for, but you can request as many different product invitations as you want. The invitation will last as long as Prime Day lasts (two days).
Apple's Reminders app is great, but I've always wanted to add its entries to my iPhone's Calendar app, too. I am at my most productive when I have a to-do list with deadlines clearly listed, but I find it overwhelming to look at that list at the start of the day. I used to dread adding too many entries to Reminders until I discovered ReminderCal ($5). This app does one job and does it well—sync reminders with the Calendar app.
Why I like seeing my tasks in Calendar
The Calendar app has a neat week view that adds a bit of space between every entry. If I have a run at 5am, meditation at 7, and work at 9:30, these entries seem overwhelming in Reminders. In the Calendar, the same three entries appear vertically with long gaps in between, which tells me that I have lots of free time in between my tasks. It's almost like a trick that reduces the urgency of tasks and makes my brain think: "I can do this!"
How to sync Reminders with Calendar
Credit: Pranay Parab
Once you download and install ReminderCal on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac (a single purchase unlocks the app on all three platforms), you'll need to give it access to your calendars and to the Reminders app. From here, the app will do its job with minimal input.
Now, when you add timed reminders in Apple's Reminders app, they'll start appearing in the Calendar automatically. If there are reminders that you don't want to sync, you can start those entries with $nocal or $nocalendar and ReminderCal will ignore them.
On Mac, as long as you let ReminderCal run in the background, it'll automatically sync all your tasks. You don't need to keep opening it and hitting the sync button.
On iPhone and iPad, background syncing is less reliable due to battery saving measures in the operating system. That's why I suggest using Apple's Shortcuts app to set up an automation to force a sync at a fixed interval. Just open the Shortcuts app, click the "+" in the top-right corner, select a time of day for the Shortcut to activate, tell the shortcut to activate daily, and choose the ReminderCal option. If you want ReminderCal to run multiple times a day, you'll have to set up a few different automations to force it to run every few hours.
Personally, I like to plan my day in advance, so I've set ReminderCal up to automatically sync at sunrise. When I add tasks for the same day, I can always open ReminderCal on my iPhone and sync it manually. It takes a second for the entries to appear in the calendar.
Configuring ReminderCal to your liking
Credit: Pranay Parab
I like ReminderCal's simplicity, and that shows in its settings menus as well. The default options are great for almost everyone, but you can change a few things if you like. The app allows you to choose if you want repeating reminders to appear in your calendars, for example. It's enabled by default but you can disable it if you want to. You can also force the app to sync completed reminders that were due in the past, but this is disabled by default to avoid cluttering your calendar.
There are two tweaks I suggest. I changed the default event duration to one hour from 30 minutes. The second tweak lets you invert the $nocal exception phrase. If you enable it, ReminderCal will only sync those reminder entries that have the $nocal phrase in the body. This is a good option for those who want to be very selective with syncing reminders with the calendar.
A limitation that you should be aware of
Unfortunately, third-party apps often have to deal with restrictions. ReminderCal cannot sync your reminders to calendars other than Outlook and iCloud. That's going to be a dealbreaker for lots of people, especially those who rely on Google Calendar, but there's nothing the app's developer can do about this as of yet.
Beef Wellington is a dish of opulence—not the average thing for the likes of me to order off of a menu—if I wanted to eat it, I’d have to try making it. So I did. And while beef Wellington is a scrumptious and impressive centerpiece, frankly, it's murder on my wallet. That's because the tenderloin that runs through the center carries a hefty price tag. When you think about it, what makes the dish great is as much the treatment of the tenderloin, as it is the meat itself. In that spirit, I’d like to encourage you to Wellington anything you damn well please.
What is beef Wellington?
The classic beef Wellington uses about a two-pound center cut of beef tenderloin—a cut prized for its mild beef flavor and supreme tenderness. That piece will run you $60 to over $100 depending on where you buy it and the treatment and processing of the meat. That prime cut of meat is seared and given the full welly treatment: It’s wrapped in a savory mushroom duxelles followed by a thin layer of prosciutto, and finally sealed into a sheet of buttery puff pastry. It’s baked until gloriously crisp and browned.
When you slice into it, you’re rewarded with many concentric layers of rich, umami-laden treats. It’s a gorgeous presentation in which every component plays a role in this gratifying experience. Meaning, truly, you can swap out the protein for another one and get similar (if not greater) satisfaction.
Salmon Wellington. Chicken thigh Wellington. Turkey meatloaf Wellington. Hard-boiled egg Wellington. Each one of those would be showstoppers at your dinner party and at a fraction of the price of the traditional. All you have to do is prepare that protein exactly how you would normally cook it, or depending on the protein and your preference, take it off the heat a bit early because it’ll continue to bake in the oven later.
How to give any protein the Wellington treatment
I decided to make a meatloaf Wellington the other day, and it was a stunner. I often impress myself so my praise is expected, but my partner devoured his and told me he’d be happy ordering that at any chop house. All things considered, it certainly rivaled the classic. Meatloaf is cheaper to make, the seasoning penetrates throughout the protein, the pastry bakes crisper because less juice is released, and overall it’s more approachable. I’d say on average more folks slap together meatloaf than sear up a chateaubriand on a regular basis. Not only does that make it less stressful to assemble this dish with a protein you’re comfortable with, but if you mess it up, at least you didn’t overcook a $70 roast.
1. Cook your protein
Whatever it is you’re using, cook it to about 80% to 90% doneness. This will build some color, develop flavor, and retain some of the protein’s natural juices while allowing it to be firm enough to handle. Let it cool to room temperature.
2. Make the duxelles
Duxelles is the French term for a rough chopped mushroom paste. Mushrooms lose a lot of moisture and reduce down to about half their bulk, so use 10 to 16 ounces of mushrooms. Chop them with a knife first to about quarter-inch bits, then use a food processor to bring them down to a mince. Sauté them in butter with a minced shallot and some fresh herbs, like thyme, until most of the moisture is gone; this takes about 15 minutes of stirring until the mushrooms are almost sticking to the bottom of the pan. There should be no mushroom juice pooling up in the pan when you’re done. Set it aside to cool.
Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann
3. Shape the Wellington
When you’re ready to shape the massive roast, unwrap the thawed puff pastry on a lightly floured surface. Use a rolling pin to flatten out the pastry and make it a bit bigger. Lay a piece of plastic wrap over the pastry and slightly shingle prosciutto in a rectangle slightly smaller than the pastry. Spread the cooled duxelles onto the prosciutto to make a thin but complete layer.
Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann
Using a pastry brush, spread a thin layer of dijon mustard all over the protein. This tastes great but also helps the bits of mushroom adhere to the meat. Place the protein along the long side of the prosciutto and duxelles plank. If you’re using several small hunks of chicken or eggs, just line them up. Then use the plastic wrap to help you start rolling the prosciutto up and over the protein until it meets the other side. Use the plastic wrap to move the meat off to the side.
Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann
4. Bake the Wellington
Egg wash the puff pastry. Place the prosciutto tube onto the same side of the puff pastry and roll it up so the puff pastry meets the other side. Let it rest seam-side down. Pinch the edges shut securely. Place the Wellington on a parchment-lined baking sheet and egg-wash the outside. If you want to be fancy, use the back of a knife’s blade to make score marks in the puff pastry. Bake it at 425°F for about 25 to 35 minutes, or until the pastry is well-browned and risen.
Considering the Wellington as more of a treatment rather than a specific dish opens the door to using it as a delightful way to rework leftovers too. Maybe you have two or three slices of meatloaf leftover from the weekend—just line up those slices on the duxelles and proceed as usual. Leftover pork roast makes an easy substitute, and I wouldn’t sneeze at a leftover roasted sweet potato Wellington either.
Nintendo is back with some news: The company just announced a new Nintendo Direct in a post on X (formerly Twitter). According to the post, this event will focus on Nintendo Switch games slated for release in the second half of 2024, but beyond that, we don't know much else.
Before you get your hopes up, no, this event will not reveal any information about the Nintendo Switch 2. That's not speculation, either: Nintendo said as much in their announcement post, directly stating, "There will be no mention of the Nintendo Switch successor during this presentation."
It's a smart move on the company's part: Nintendo undoubtedly knows the gaming community's collective focus is on the Nintendo Switch 2, and following Nintendo's president's confirmation of the console's existence last month, it would make some sense for Nintendo to acknowledge it in a new Direct. Squashing those expectations early means fans can go into this event without being disappointed by the lack of Switch 2 updates.
But what is Nintendo actually going to announce, here? The Switch subreddit is full of guesses: Some hope Nintendo will finally announce Switch ports for Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD, the two remastered Zelda games from the Wii U still not on the company's latest console. Others hope for Metroid Prime news, whether that's remastered versions of the second and third Prime games, or the long-awaited fourth game in the series. Maybe there will be more retro games added to Nintendo Switch Online, or a brand-new top-down Zelda game, which would be the first in the series since 2013's A Link Between Worlds on 3DS.
Of course, this is all purely speculation: Now that we're heading into the last year of the OG Switch, there's really no telling what Nintendo will do here. We'll just have to wait and see.
How to watch the latest Nintendo Direct
Nintendo is holding its latest Direct event on Tuesday, June 18 at 7 a.m. PT (10 a.m. ET). The event will last for about 40 minutes, so block off your schedule until 7:40/10:40.
While being surrounded by clutter in your home can feel chaotic and overwhelming, much of it can probably simply be discarded. How much of your kid’s old artwork really needs to be kept forever? There’s nothing of value in that stack of junk mail. And what do all the cords in that drawer even do? I’m not saying it’s easy to part with all of it, but you can make it easier. All of that junk is overwhelming in volume, but when you break it down, it can be totally manageable. You didn't accumulate it all at once, so don't try to get rid of it that way. Just use a calendar.
How the "calendar method" of decluttering works
The calendar method is pretty simple, when you get down to it: On the first day of the month, set out to declutter your house—but with the intention of it taking the full month. You start slow: On the first day, you find one item to throw away (or donate). On the second day, you throw away or donate two. Add another item each day, so you’re slowly building your decluttering muscle over the course of the month.
On a day with 31 months, you’ll end up parting with nearly 500 pieces of junk—and yet, you'll still be pacing yourself. On the first few days, don’t throw away anything too hard to part with. You’ll have plenty of time to get rid of every receipt, every unused appliance, and every expired container of food. Try to focus on one room at a time and make sure you stay on track with the numbering system. In fact, consider dedicating a month to one room, the next month to another, and so on, so you wind your way through the whole house at a pace that doesn't feel burdensome.
The best way to do this is by getting a big day planner and using that as your calendar, since it will tell you not only the numerical day of the month, but give you some space to write. At the end of each day, jot down everything you tossed out or donated. Try one like this, with big pages for each day:
If there is a day when you feel like tossing more pieces of junk than the date's number dictates, go for it, but use some caution. You know that toward the end of the month, you'll be getting rid of a bunch, so don't burn out. That's exactly what this technique is trying to avoid. In the event you work through this method for a while and find it's a little too slow, there are other decluttering techniques that take a stricter and more intense approach, so once you've gotten used to the feeling of getting rid of what you don't need, consider switching to one of those.
Why the calendar method is so effective
This method helps you get in the habit of tossing out a predetermined number of things, so that by the time you’re up to the teens and 20s, it’s much easier to part with stuff. (That's why I suggest saving more sentimental items until later in the month, when you've built up the mental muscle and are more used to tossing things out.) You see the progress and gain momentum along the way, especially if you take time to write down what you parted with every day. Getting rid of hundreds of pieces of clutter at once is an overwhelming task but chunking it up so you get a little thrill of accomplishment every day is much more sustainable. Plus, you'll see the progress through the month. By the third week or so, the space will look different—and that's motivating, too.
And at the end of the month, if you still have a bunch of clutter around, start back over at one.
You can get a stackable 3-month Xbox Game Pass Ultimate membership on sale for $39.99 (reg. $50). Game Pass Ultimate gives members access to over 500 games for console, PC, phones, and tablets and lets users access games on their release day, including titles from major publishers. This membership allows gamers to access online play for compatible titles, and it gives users access to a free EA Play Membership. EA Play members get premium discounts, rewards, and the ability to download games directly to their consoles or PCs. These codes are stackable and up to five can be applied to one account for a 15-month membership.
You can get a 3-month Xbox Game Pass Ultimate membership on sale for $39.99 right now, though prices can change at any time.
When it comes to projectors, you can spend anywhere from the low hundreds to the high thousands, depending on portability, battery life, resolution, brightness, and overall use experience. A "budget" projector will usually run you about $600, and right now, one such projector—the Yaber K2S—is $369.95 (originally $599.95) after a $230 on-page coupon. It has some higher-tier features, though, and is well below its listing price, making it my favorite Amazon deal of the day.
I've had the Yaber K2S projector for some months now, and I've been surprised by how easy it is to set up and use. It has an auto-focus feature that finds the best focus depending on the distance to the screen. The operating system is Android TV, which feels like using a Roku TV. You have access to the Android app store with over 9,000 apps, including Netflix, Prime Video, YouTube, Disney+, HBO Max, and others. You can also easily tap any NFC device, like your phone, to stream media into the projector.
The K2S has a 1,920 by 1,080 resolution with 4K output support for eligible media. The brightness is not the best, with 800 ANSI, so it's better suited for nighttime or low-light rooms. Unless you plan on using it for a big crowd outdoors, the two 10W JBL speakers are sufficient for most activities. The image contrast of 2000:1 is impressive—I can see the shadows and dark images in scenes without trouble—but the image does lean a bit bluer than normal, so if you're a stickler for accurate color, beware.
For $369.95, this is a powerful projector with great features. You won't find other projectors at this price with its resolution and extra features.
While people don’t eat houseplants and rarely munch on shrubs or ground cover, your pets probably do. That's why you need to be really, really sure your pet won’t try to snack on your plants before installing a plant that might be toxic—and it turns out that a lot of plants are.
Use apps to identify plants
Most people don’t know the name of every plant in their yard, but a plant ID app will help you close the loop. Snap a pic, and have the app identify it. Some of these apps will also tell you if plants are toxic to pets. If they don’t, you need to use a database to do a little digging. Rover has a new searchable database that will tell you if plants are toxic, and what symptoms to look for in a pet if ingested. Dogs and cats have different sensitivities, so what is toxic to dogs might be fine for cats and vice versa.
Toxic vs. poisonous
Not all plants are toxic to pets; some are merely poisonous—and yes, there's a difference. Toxic plants can do harm in all kinds of ways—through surface contact or inhalation. Just being around them can be bad for your pet, even if they’re not likely to chew. Poisonous plants, on the other hand, have to be ingested to be dangerous, so they are mildly less problematic. That said, some plants are poisonous enough that they only need to be consumed once to have dire consequences, so you’d need to really trust that your pet is isolated from the plant or would never look at, for example, a hydrangea branch as a chew toy. Dan Teich, DVM, who runs District Veterinary Hospitals in Washington, DC, notes, "The good news is most plants will not cause permanent damage to your pet. Many are irritants, can cause excessive salivation, and upset stomach, but usually these signs will pass. This is common with philodendrons, poinsettias, pothos, and many common houseplants."
Avoid these common plants
Teich notes that the most common plant-related incidents they see involve a commonly gifted flower. "True lilies are the most dangerous of all plants for cats; even the pollen can be deadly. Lilies can lead to irreversible kidney failure in a cat within days. Calla lilies and peace lilies are not true lilies and may cause intestinal upset in your pet." He warns that if you suspect lily ingestion, you should seek immediate care for your cat.
Other plants present similar risks, according to Teich. Consuming large amounts of azalea leaves can lead to cardiac collapse, and even death. Ingesting sago palms—a popular outdoor and indoor plant—can be fatal, and any consumption by a pet should be treated as an emergency.
Foxglove, an easily spread outdoor flower, is also dangerous. Like lily of the valley and oleander, it can have a grave effect on your pet's heart.
If you are uncertain if a plant is dangerous to your pet, you may contact the ASPCA 24/7 Poison Control Hotline at 888-426-4435 or the Pet Poison Helpline at 855-764-7661.
Learn to recognize symptoms
The list of symptoms that pets can exhibit as a result of toxic exposure to plants is long and varied. There are extreme, easy-to-note symptoms like vomiting, diarrhea, trouble breathing, seizures, and excessive drooling. There are also symptoms that are harder to appreciate, like lack of appetite, lethargy, muscle tremors or uncoordinated movement, unusual bruising or bleeding and yellowing skin or eyes. Cats tend to exhibit more neurological symptoms, while dogs might experience more gastrointestinal symptoms. Since many of these symptoms can look like everyday living to a pet owner (pets routinely eat grass and vomit without there being any toxicity), it’s important to pay attention when the symptoms begin and take action if they continue. Your pet throwing up once might not be cause for alarm—continued vomiting is, regardless of the underlying reason. If you're not sure or want advice, call either of the above hotlines. You'll pay a fee (which some pet insurance plans may cover), but as Teich points out, "compared to the potential consequences, it might be worth the investment."
Take action
While the cost of emergency veterinary care is daunting, you should not try to induce vomiting in your pet unless under consultation with your veterinarian—doing so can lead to esophageal problems. If you can identify the plant in question, or take a photo and/or sample of it with you to the vet, that will be helpful. Whether it should require emergency veterinary care versus waiting for your veterinarian to open is dependent on what was ingested, but the faster the care, the better.
When a pet with potential plant toxicity presents at the vet, Teich says the course of action depends on how fast the pet owner was able to act. "We first try to identify the plant to assess which treatment plan is best. If within an hour or two of ingestion, making the pet vomit up any remaining plant material is the first course of action. For certain plants, an activated charcoal slurry is then fed to the dog or cat, which absorbs remaining toxins in the stomach and intestines. Depending upon the plant and clinical signs noted, hospitalization in fluids with other supportive care may be necessary."
While not all plants are toxic enough to cause death, many can cause long-term effects, and that will carry with it costs for treatment, as well as pain for the animal. Your vet might have a community care program to help with emergency costs, and almost all animal treatment centers can help you obtain emergency credit specifically for care of your pet.
Prepare, just in case
If you want to be prepared ahead of the game, always have your vet’s information, as well as the name, location and number of your closest 24-hour veterinary emergency care location printed out somewhere easy to access, and on your phone. Having pet insurance in place can help soften the financial blow of events like this. Whether or not you have insurance, you may need to pay out of pocket before getting reimbursed, so having money set aside, or a credit card for this purpose, might be smart. When you view it all through this lens, spending a little time and money now to ensure you have pet-safe plants, or appropriate barriers to keep your pets away from toxic plants, makes a lot of financial sense.
The use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in the workplace nearly doubled between September 2023 and May 2024—when 75% of knowledge workers around the world indicated that they utilized it—according to a survey of 31,000 people in 31 countries conducted by LinkedIn and Microsoft. But they're not without their doubts: 53% of those who have integrated AI into their workday said are concerned that using it on important work tasks could make them look replaceable.
At the same time, if you've ever encountered Google's AI wildly inaccurate search results, you know that while AI might be the future, but it still has a long way to go. In the meantime, you might want to take advantage of some of the available courses on the basics of AI—especially those that are free. If you're not sure where to start, LinkedIn Learning is now offering more than 50 free AI-upskilling courses from now through July 8.
How to take free AI courses through LinkedIn Learning
The LinkedIn Learning site can be a bit overwhelming if you don't know what, exactly, you're looking for, and where to find it. Plus, there are plenty of AI-related courses that haven't been unlocked and require a subscription.
Basically, from now through July 8, these five learning pathways, featuring more than 50 AI-upskilling courses, have been unlocked and are free to access.
There are a total of 55 free courses—none of which require you to sign up for a free trial of the LinkedIn Learning subscription. Unless you want to subscribe, just ignore the blue box on the right side of the page that says "Start my free month," then scroll down and click directly on the course you'd like to take. It should begin right away without you having to enroll in a trial.
Credit: LinkedIn Learning
You can learn more about these courses and other offerings in this blog post from LinkedIn Learning's Head of Global Content Dan Brodnitz.
Target-date funds have become an increasingly popular investment choice, especially for retirement accounts like 401(k)s and IRAs. Their main appeal lies in their simplicity and hands-off approach to managing your retirement portfolio. These funds are not a perfect solution, however—and it's essential to understand their pros and cons before deciding if they align with your investment goals and risk tolerance.
How target-date funds work
Target-date funds are designed to provide a diversified and professionally managed portfolio that automatically adjusts its asset allocation over time. The "target date" in the fund's name refers to the approximate year when an investor plans to retire. The fund starts with a more aggressive asset allocation, heavily weighted towards stocks, and gradually becomes more conservative by increasing its bond allocation as the target date approaches.
The pros: convenience and automatic rebalancing
One of the primary advantages of target-date funds is their convenience. These funds essentially put your retirement portfolio on autopilot, eliminating the need for constant monitoring and rebalancing. As you get closer to retirement, the fund automatically shifts its asset allocation to become more conservative, reducing your overall risk exposure.
Additionally, target-date funds offer diversification across various asset classes, such as stocks, bonds, and sometimes alternative investments like real estate or commodities. This built-in diversification can help mitigate risk and volatility.
The cons: lack of customization and potential misalignment
While the convenience of target-date funds is appealing, it comes at the cost of flexibility and customization. These funds follow a predetermined asset allocation glide path, which may not align perfectly with your individual risk tolerance, investment objectives, or retirement timeline.
Furthermore, target-date funds often have higher fees compared to individual index funds or ETFs, as you're paying for the professional management and automatic rebalancing.
Another potential drawback is the lack of transparency regarding the fund's underlying holdings. Some target-date funds may invest in actively managed funds or employ complex strategies, which can make it challenging to understand and evaluate the fund's true risk exposure.
Are target-date funds right for you?
Target-date funds can be an excellent choice for investors who value simplicity and prefer a hands-off approach to managing their retirement portfolio. They can also be a good starting point for those new to investing or those who lack the time or expertise to actively manage their investments.
However, investors with more complex financial situations, specific investment preferences, or a desire for greater control over their portfolio may find target-date funds too restrictive. In such cases, building a diversified portfolio using individual index funds or ETFs and periodically rebalancing it may be a better option.
Ultimately, the decision to invest in a target-date fund should be based on a thorough understanding of your financial goals, risk tolerance, and investment knowledge. It's essential to carefully review the fund's prospectus, underlying holdings, and fees before making a decision.
Remember, target-date funds are not a one-size-fits-all solution, and their suitability depends on your individual circumstances. If you're unsure, consulting a qualified financial advisor can help you determine the best investment strategy for your retirement planning.
Raw milk is natural and brings you closer to the earth. It is also a great way to get sick. And best of all, it’s now a faux health hack/political football, thrown into the limelight by recent reports on bird flu. That’s right, the TikTokers are drinking raw milk out of spite—or maybe just for the affiliate marketing deals. I’ll explain.
What is raw milk?
Raw milk is milk that has not been pasteurized. The regular milk you buy in the grocery store is pasteurized as a basic safety measure. The milk is heated to kill bacteria; there are different ways of doing it, but the most common is to hold the milk at 161 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 seconds, then rapidly cool it.
Before pasteurization was widespread, milk was frequently a carrier of disease-causing organisms, including tuberculosis, Salmonella, diphtheria, and diarrheal disease. Pasteurization is required by federal law if milk is sold across state lines, and state law requires pasteurization of most or all milk in a given state.
Raw milk is legal in some states, although laws vary. In some, it can be sold at stores; in others, only as direct sales from farms, or only if it is labeled as pet milk, or only if you buy into a cow-share, because then you technically “own” the cow. In many states all of these are illegal.
So raw milk is a niche product, favored by some cheesemakers and some people who believe that “natural” everything is better. The FDA has counted 143 disease outbreaks linked to raw milk since 1987. Besides the illnesses mentioned above, raw milk can also carry Listeria (which can result in stillbirth if a pregnant person contracts it), and E. coli in a form that can pass from person to person after someone contracts it from drinking raw milk.
Why is everybody talking about raw milk?
Two things happened recently to put raw milk on the public radar. One is that there is a bird flu virus that has been going around, and it’s infecting cows as well as birds. RNA from the virus has been found in samples of grocery store milk. It’s not yet 100% clear whether pasteurization kills the virus, but people don’t seem to be getting bird flu from milk—so it’s likely that pasteurization is providing some protection.
This news about bird flu has led to the FDA and CDC emphasizing their already-existing messaging about why it’s a bad idea to drink (or sell) raw milk, especially to vulnerable populations like children and people who may be pregnant (since raw milk can carry Listeria, among other things).
And whenever there is a simple, clear public health message, there will always be people who object to it on principle. The government is trying to take away your natural pure, (bacteria-laden) raw milk! It’s time to fight back! At least one conservative group has been selling “got raw milk?” shirts.
The second news item feeding into this trend is that Louisiana’s state legislature has been debating a bill, recently passed, that would legalize sales of raw milk so long as it is labeled “not for human consumption.” People want their raw milk, germs and all.
What are the TikTokers saying about raw milk?
As you might expect: anything that gets engagement. Often the talking points are that it is more “digestible,” contains beneficial bacteria, or that pasteurization kills the “vitamins and nutrients” in milk.
None of this is supported by scientific consensus. Pasteurized milk has the same nutritional content as raw milk; everything is still in there, it’s just been heated. No nutrients have been removed, and you can’t “kill” vitamins or minerals.
Beneficial bacteria can be killed by pasteurization, but killing bacteria is kind of the whole point, remember? There’s no procedure that only kills “bad” bacteria while leaving the good ones; it’s all-or-nothing. If you want probiotics in your diet, you’re best off drinking pasteurized milk and taking probiotic pills, yogurt, or other probiotic-containing foods separately. (Probiotic yogurt is made by adding known “good” bacteria to pasteurized milk.)
They’re selling something, of course
The TikTokers are also, of course, affiliate marketing up a storm. One of the top #rawmilk videos recommended to me was of a man repeating the above claims, telling you that government and Big Pharma don’t want you to know about raw milk, and endorsing a specific farm.
He said that he’s sure milk from this farm is safe, because they test it. So I visited the farm’s website. They mention in several places that their milk is tested for “pathogens,” but I couldn’t find any explanation of which pathogens they test for, or how. I did find the page where influencers can sign up for their affiliate program, which pays cash to a select few. Gwyneth Paltrow has publicly name-dropped the same farm, so she might be on the list. (California, where this farm is based, is one of the states that allows retail sales of raw milk.)
So I should drink raw milk, right?
Please do not. As the FDA points out, all the major TikTok talking points are wrong. To name a few: the enzymes in raw milk do not aid in digestibility, the bacteria found in raw milk are not the kind that is good for our digestive system, raw milk is not more nutritious, and testing programs “might help to reduce the probability of raw milk contamination but they will not ensure that raw milk is pathogen-free.”
It's ridiculous that Apple still doesn't offer a way to hide menu bar icons in macOS. Windows has had this options since the launch of Windows Vista 17 years ago, but Mac users who don't want to see every icon cluttering up the top of their screen need to either hide the menu bar entirely or install a third party app that can handle the job.
Until recently, the application of choice for menu bar maintenance was Bartender, a $22 paid application that was generally well regarded. But last week, a change of ownership raised questions about the app's privacy. Those concerns are not entirely unwarranted: The handover happened quietly and the application in question requires accessibility access to the operating system in order to function. Only time will tell if the problem is legitimate—but I am grateful that the questions from users have brought Ice some more attention.
Ice is a free and open source alternative to Bartender that works perfectly well at hiding icons—just like Bartender, you can drag icons while holding CMD to hide them. Any icon dragged to the left of the arrow icon will be hidden (most of the time).
Credit: Justin Pot
In a few moments, you can get your menu bar looking much tidier.
Credit: Justin Pot
Ice works really well. There's even a second arrow you can drag icons past, at which point you won't even see them n the expanded view, allowing you to keep that tidy, too. It's great.
Ice also offers a few aesthetic tweaks worth mentioning. You can bring back drop shadows, for example, or add a border to your menu bar. You can also optionally "split" the bar, which I find gimmicky, but it does allow you to see more of your wallpaper.
I'm a longtime Bartender user, but after a week with Ice, I barely notice the difference. Yes, there are a few missing features—you can't choose to show certain icons only under certain conditions, which is an option with Bartender. (I used that feature to only see the Time Machine icon while backups were actively running and only show the battery when I wasn't connected to power—nice options, but not essential. And it's worth noting that a similar feature is listed as a goal for Ice, which is an open-source project, so maybe we'll have it soon.
Overall, Ice is a great little app, especially considering it's free. Check it out if you are seeking a Bartender alternative, or if you've never used Bartender and just want to neaten up your menu bar icons.
In a capitalist society, the answer to any problem is usually “more money,” so a lot of people have been wondering how they can level up their earning power, especially if they don’t have a college degree or experience in a well-paying field. While there are a lot of professions that only require a certificate or license, paying for that when you’re already broke can be a challenge.
But not every professional certificate costs an arm and/or a leg. Here are eight professional certificates that are relatively cheap but can lead to robust careers.
Drone pilot
Cost: $225
Potential salary: $98,249
Drone pilot careers seem like a glitch in the matrix. Chances are, if you’re somewhat good at video games you could probably be a good drone pilot, and yet this career path averages close to six figures in terms of income. Even more amazing, to become a certified drone pilot you just need your Part 107 certificate, which costs just $175. If you need some help to pass the exam, a drone pilot course will run you about $50, making your total cost $225 (although you’ll probably need a drone to practice with, which might run you a bit more). Even if you find a job for a lot less than six figures, that’s a pretty great deal.
You might wonder who hires drone pilots—the main industries looking for these skills include photography businesses (including real estate photographers), film and television production companies, and surveying companies.
Home inspector
Cost: $500 - $800
Potential salary: $48,000 to $78,000
Home inspectors are always in demand, because people are still buying houses and still worried about buying a money pit. While a background in construction or home maintenance might give you a leg up, it’s not required—if you can meet your state’s requirements (and some states don’t even require a high school diploma to certify you as a home inspector), you're good to go. All you generally need to do is take a Home Inspector Education Course that costs anywhere from $500 to $800, pass your state’s exam, and start up your business. How much you make depends entirely on you; while the range is generally between $48,000 and $78,000 per year, it depends on how many inspections you can schedule every day.
Real estate agent
Cost: $1,325
Potential salary: $139,286
Real estate often seems like everyone’s fallback career. Lose a job? Retire? Get into real estate! Well, there’s a reason for that: It’s not hard to get licensed, and there’s potential for a lot of money. The operative word there is potential, because real estate is not a magical journey where money rains out of the sky—most newbie real estate agents work for brokers who sponsor them, and they often start off working the lowest-paying listings and paying part of their commissions up to their broker.
But getting licensed as a real estate agent isn’t too expensive—about $1,325, including fees—and the average income is just under $140,000 if you stick with it. The only catch is that it takes a lot of knowledge to pass that exam, so be prepared to study your butt off.
EMT
Cost: $1,000 to $2,000
Potential salary: $98,000
Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) are an essential part of our emergency medical system—these are the folks who show up in an ambulance and offer emergency stabilizing treatment while getting you to a hospital. It’s a high-pressure, high-stress job, but it can pay close to six figures. Getting certified as an EMT isn’t a high barrier, either, as long as you can master the skills and knowledge required. Most courses cost between $1,000 and $2,000 (equipment and exam fees might be extra). If you have a passion for serving your community and saving lives, this certificate offers an excellent ROI.
Funeral director
Cost: $4,000 to $21,000
Potential salary: $64,617
Being a funeral director isn’t for everyone, obviously, and getting licensed can cost a bit more than some of the other certifications on this list (up to $21,000 depending on the program). And it won’t get you into six figures easily, averaging just under $65,000 a year. But if you find a program under $5,000, it’s a career that offers something invaluable: Job security.
Medical coder
Cost: $3,564
Potential salary: $48,780
Medical billing involves knowing how to appropriately code medical services so insurers and healthcare systems can bill properly for them. It’s precise work, but it’s work that anyone can do if they apply themselves and complete the appropriate training. While the average salary is just under $50,000, it’s a growing industry, and getting a two-year certification to work in it usually costs under $4,000 (although you can spend much more), making it a solid investment.
Massage therapist
Cost: $10,000+
Potential salary: $57,060
Just because your friends tell you that you have “magic hands” doesn’t mean you’re ready to just open up a massage therapy business. To get certified as a massage therapist in most states, you’ll need to complete 500 hours (or more) of training. And that training isn’t as cheap as some of the other programs listed here, costing about $10,000 or more. But that’s still a lot less than the average cost of a four-year degree (about $38,270). If you complete that training, you can look forward to a career earning an average of about $57,600.
Air traffic controller
Cost: $10,000 to $35,000
Potential salary: $129,750
You might assume you need all kinds of arcane experience to become an air traffic controller, responsible for preventing air disasters and keeping your flights from ramming into each other. You’d be wrong: It’s relatively easy to become an air traffic controller (ATC). You don’t need a degree, although getting one is often helpful. All you absolutely need is to complete a training course offered by the Federal Aviation Administration and passing an exam.
Technically, you can become an air traffic controller without any degree as long as you pass the exam, but it’s usually necessary to either have training (from military service, for example) or to complete at least a two-year Collegiate Training Initiative (CTI) school. The FAA has a list of approved CTI schools on its website. Total costs can go as high as $35,000, but can be as low as $10,000—and ATCs enjoy a median salary of $129,750.
Most of us stream the vast majority of our music, but sometimes that's not an option. That's where downloading songs or music videos for offline listening comes in. If YouTube is your music platform of choice, there are plenty of methods to download music for when you have spotty or no internet connectivity.
Downloading music from YouTube is legal if you pay for YouTube Premium. All other methods to download songs from YouTube are free, but they may not always be legal. Remember that it's okay to download your own music or copyright-free songs from YouTube, but if you're trying to rip popular music that you didn't create, you're probably going against the site's terms of service.
Download music from YouTube by subscribing to YouTube Premium
The most reliable method for downloading music from YouTube is by paying for the service—which, I know, is probably not what you want to hear.
You can either get YouTube Premium for $13.99 per month, or you can subscribe to just YouTube Music Premium for $10.99 per month. These are two separate services: YouTube Premium comes with YouTube Music Premium, but not the other way around.
Both services allow you to download music from YouTube, plus come with other features such as removing ads. YouTube Premium comes with a host of extra features focused on the video side of the platform, so if you only want music, you can save a little money by just subscribing to YouTube Music Premium.
All other methods for downloading music from YouTube are unofficial and may violate the site’s terms of service, but YouTube probably won't do much to stop you. (Just don't upload any copyright-protected material). In addition, know that using unofficial YouTube downloaders could compromise your security if the app gets bought by malicious developers down the line. I've done my best to recommend safe programs, but I can't predict what the future holds. Always do research before downloading an unofficial app from the internet.
How to download music from YouTube on Android
Credit: NewPipe
If you have an Android phone, try using NewPipe to download music from YouTube. This app is not available on the Google Play store because it essentially gives you all of YouTube Premium's features for free, including the ability to download music from YouTube. Here's how to install it:
Open the downloaded file on your Android phone. You may see a warning and a request for your permission to install NewPipe. Grant this request and go back to the installer.
Once the installation is complete, open NewPipe and search for the music you want to download.
Tap Download, followed by Audio, and NewPipe will save the song for you.
How to download music from YouTube on iPhone
Credit: @gluebyte/Routine Hub
On your iPhone, the best (unofficial) way to download music from YouTube is via Apple’s Shortcuts app. Follow these steps to download music from YouTube to your iPhone:
Download the YouTube Download shortcut from RoutineHub, a third-party gallery for shortcuts for your iPhone.
Open the YouTube video in Safari or in the YouTube app. Tap the Share button, which will reveal the share sheet.
Scroll down and select YouTube Download from the list of shortcuts towards the bottom.
YouTube Download will ask for a bunch of permissions. Unfortunately, you'll need to grant all of these for the shortcut to do its job. When it asks whether you want to download audio or video, select Download Audio. You can also choose the audio format you prefer. (I chose mp3.)
Finally, the shortcut will ask where you want to save the downloaded file. You can pick iCloud Drive or the On My iPhone folder in the Files app.
The downloaded audio file will then be saved on your iPhone. You can repeat this process for pretty much any video on YouTube.
Download music from YouTube on Windows or Mac
Credit: 4K YouTube to MP3
On your laptop or desktop, use the 4K YouTube to MP3 app to get music from YouTube.
Install 4K YouTube to MP3.
Paste the YouTube URL in the app and let the app handle the rest.
The app downloads music in mp3 by default, but you can also get m4a or ogg audio files.
The free version of the app allows 15 downloads per day, which is good enough for most people, but it may be a problem if you’re trying to download large playlists in one go. The app allows you to remove the download restriction at a starting price of $15 for a permanent license.
If you're comfortable with using command-line tools to download YouTube songs, then the excellent yt-dlp is another great choice that doesn't come with limits. Personally, I find the initial setup a bit cumbersome. Since I mostly only download one or two things from YouTube once every few months, 4K YouTube to MP3 does the job faster for me.
Renovating or remodeling your house can be a disorienting experience. Between the mess, the strangers crawling all over the place, and the constant discovery of disasters hidden inside your walls, stress levels can skyrocket. And when the bills come in, it gets worse.
One reason the average home renovation can cost more than $40,000 is our tendency to assume you have to do it all in one marathon instead of in phases—and to spend top dollar on everything along the way. All that flooring, hardware, and construction materials (not to mention appliances and new furniture) really add up fast, especially if you assume that higher prices equal better quality. While some renovation materials cost what they cost (you won’t be comparison shopping drywall any time soon) the fact is that not all your renovation or remodeling choices matter the same amount. There are aspects of any renovation where paying extra money makes a difference—and aspects where you can get away with cheaper, less flashy materials and no one will ever notice. If you’ve got limited funds for your project, here are the renovations that are worth extra money—or not.
Home renovations that are worth it
There are certain aspects of a home renovation where you should spend extra money:
Kitchen floors. You have a lot of flooring choices, and in other rooms you can likely get away with a cheaper carpet or an engineered wood of some sort. But your kitchen floor is going to see a lot of traffic—not to mention a lot of spills, temperature extremes, and scrubbing. The kitchen floor also pulls together the whole design, and you can’t easily cover it with an area rug as you can in other rooms. Spend that extra money here.
Furniture. In general, it’s worth spending money on furniture like sofas, chairs, and beds. If you’re remodeling or renovating your living room, buy a really good sofa. After all, you will spend a lot of time using these pieces, and the minor problems that come with cheap stuff will quickly become major irritants.
Appliances. Higher-end appliances are generally going to be worth any extra margin you have in your budget. They look nicer, actually do last longer, and tend to perform better.
Windows. If you’re replacing your windows, spend the extra money for high-quality ones. They will look better, last longer, and offer energy efficiency benefits that will actually reduce their overall cost over time.
Home renovations that might not be worth it
If you have all the money in the world, sure, go to town and spend on every little thing. If you’re trying to fit your renovation project into a modest budget, there are some areas you can get away with basic, no-frills stuff:
Kitchen cabinets. In the end, your kitchen cabinets are just boxes of wood. You want quality construction, but beyond that you can buy basic cabinets and easily make them look more expensive with new hardware, paint, or adding a soft-close feature.
Moving plumbing and wiring. Your ideal kitchen or bathroom renovation might include shifting the sink or toilet and changing the location of every single power outlet—but you can almost certainly get away without doing that. Moving plumbing can add close to $1,000 to your job, and rewiring a kitchen can run you nearly $2,300. Unless you need to do this to get the place up to code, it’s an easy place to not spend your money.
Lighting fixtures. Recessed lighting costs an average of $300 per fixture. Just by going with wall- and ceiling-mounted lights you can save a fortune and still have style to spare. And there are plenty of inexpensive light fixtures that look pricey and provide the same light that more expensive stuff does.
Cabinet/drawer hardware. Trust us: No one will know if your drawer and cabinet pulls cost $300 each or $10.
Backsplash. While you don’t need to spend a fortune on tile to get a luxe look, generally speaking, cheap tile will look cheap. But a backsplash is typically a very small area, and is usually obscured by appliances, cabinets, and all the stuff on your countertops. You might not want to put the cheapest tile or other materials on your backsplash, but you can definitely get away with cheaper.
With Amazon Prime Day on the horizon (the date hasn't been announced, but we know the sale will take place sometime in July), now is a smart time to make an Amazon wishlist to keep track of all the things you plan to buy using your Prime account. You can also share your list with friends or family (hint, hint) in case they need gift ideas in the future. Here’s how to do it.
How to create and add to an Amazon wishlist
To create an Amazon wishlist in your browser, hover over Accounts & Lists in the upper-right corner of the navigation bar and select Create a list from the left column. (You can also access this by clicking Accounts & Lists > Your Lists > Create a List). Enter the name of your list in the pop-up and click Create List.
To create a new list on the Amazon Shopping app, select the profile icon on the bottom navigation bar and click Your Lists. Hit the plus icon next to Your lists and registries, enter the list name, and click Create List.
To add an item to a wishlist, go to the product’s page you’re interested in and look for the Add to List drop-down (simply text on mobile) underneath the Add to Cart/Buy Now box. You can either select an existing list or hit Create a List to make a new wishlist.
How to share an Amazon wishlist
All Amazon wishlists are private by default, but you can share specific lists with friends and family. Open the list you want to send and hit Invite or Send list to others (if using Amazon via browser). In either case, you have the option to allow others to view and edit your wishlist, or view-only, and to copy the link to your list or invite other users via email.
If you decide you want to change your privacy settings, update the name of your list, or enable Alexa to add items to your list, simply hover over the three horizontal “More” dots and select Manage list. You can also toggle on Don’t spoil my surprises if you want others to be able to gift you items from your wishlist without you knowing about it.
While keeping many household items—like detergents, cleaners, and cosmetics—past their expiration dates isn't necessarily as risky as eating expired food, it can decrease their effectiveness and potentially cause more problems than they solve. For the sake of your home's cleanliness and safety, here are the products you should inspect and potentially toss.
Laundry detergent and bleach
If you aren't doing multiple loads of laundry per week, you probably don't need to buy detergent in bulk. It doesn't go bad, per se, but it does lose its cleaning power over time. Liquid detergent can sit unopened for up to 18 months at normal temperatures but should be used within six once the seal is broken. Laundry pods should also be used within six months and stored in a dry, airtight container. Powdered detergents are good for a long time unless exposed to moisture, which can result in soap deposits on your clothes.
Bleach also begins to break down after about a year, decreasing its disinfecting and sanitizing power. Look for the production date stamped on the bottle.
Cleaning products
Like detergent, the chemicals in household cleaning products degrade over time, making them less effective at keeping your home clean and sanitized. If you deep clean often and go through products in a year or two, you'll probably get your money's worth. However, if you find bottles tucked away that haven't been touched in recent memory, test them out: anything clumpy, discolored, smelly, or that fails to foam up is probably expired.
Cleaning supplies
Again, cleaning supplies don't come with an expiration date, but you're likely holding onto them way past their suggested use. Your toilet brush should be tossed and replaced every few months—otherwise, bacteria can build up in the bristles and on the handle. Kitchen sponges should be tossed out every few weeks (or swapped for an alternative that can be washed and sanitized, like a dish cloth or a silicone scrubber).
Sunscreen
If there was ever a product you want to be at maximum effectiveness, it's sunscreen. The FDA requires sunscreen manufacturers to make formulas that last for three years, so if you go through bottles quickly, you probably don't need to worry too much about expiration. But it's good practice to check bottles you haven't used in a while—like at the start of the summer—for expiration dates. You should also check the date upon purchase, and if there's no expiration listed, write one on the container.
Cosmetics and medications
Your bathroom cabinet is full of items that expire, like cosmetics, toothpaste, and pharmaceuticals. Keeping these items past their expiration can decrease their effectiveness (like toothpaste, which is good for about two years from the manufacture date) or increase the risk that the product will degrade or be exposed to bacteria and fungi. While cosmetics aren't regulated, most have a recommended shelf life listed on their labels. Mascara in particular should be tossed every few months.
Toothbrushes
Your toothbrush or electric toothbrush head should be replaced about every three months, according to the American Dental Association—more often if you are sick, or for kids who tend to chew on the bristles. An old and degraded toothbrush won't clean as thoroughly, leaving plaque behind and allowing germs to hang out around your teeth.
Filters
There are nearly a dozen appliances in your home—furnace, dryer, HVAC, range hood, etc.—that require filters, all of which need to be replaced on a regular basis to keep everything running at maximum effectiveness (which keeps your indoor air, water, and clothes clean). Depending on the type, you should be replacing filters every one to six months.
Smoke detectors and fire extinguishers
Fire safety isn't a set-and-forget situation. Smoke detectors should be tested every few months and replaced after 10 years from the date of manufacture. Carbon monoxide detectors should be swapped out every five to seven years. Disposable fire extinguishers have a shelf life of 10 to 12 years, while rechargeable extinguishers should be inspected and refilled every six years.
I somehow missed Girl Scout Cookie season this year. I usually keep an eye out for the colorful boxes on tables outside supermarkets, but before I knew it, April was gone and so were the cookies. So I’m dedicating some time to Girl Scout Cookies, and how to impersonate them, until next year. You could probably buy a box of GSCs from Ebay or Mercari for a premium price, or you could dust off your rolling pins instead and make knock-offs with me for a lot cheaper.
Today, we're going to turn our attention to Caramel deLites, which are some of my favorites from the Girl Scout Cookie lineup. They feature a plain, crunchy cookie that’s draped in a caramel and coconut mixture, and dressed in a bit of chocolate. You might know them as Samoas. (They’re the same type of cookie, just produced by different bakeries.)
As is the case with most knock-off recipes of mass produced cookies, the homemade ones are usually more flavorful and bulkier. Despite my best efforts to make a more convincing copycat with less flavor and a more diminutive shape, the recipe I settled on is more buttery, coconut-y, and larger than the celebrity version. I even did a test batch with vegetable shortening like the ingredient list from ABC Bakers suggests, but I didn’t like them as much as I liked the butter-based recipe I made later. However, if you're looking to cut down on the butter notes (they are strong) you can try substituting half of the butter fat for shortening.
I decided to impersonate Caramel deLites with a modified shortbread dough. From what I remember, the cookie is plain, crumbly, but firm, so a simple dough sounded like a reasonable match. As much as I wanted the cookie to be closer to the ABC Bakers cookie, few people (including myself) will make an overly complicated recipe. These cookies are fantastic, but understand that they won’t give you the same straight-from-the-package flavor. Instead you’ll be met with aromas of browned butter, toasted coconut, and a whiff of dulce de leche. I know. How disappointing.
How to make knock-off Caramel deLites (or Samoas)
1. Make the base cookie dough
Mix room temperature butter, sugar, vanilla extract, flour, salt, and baking powder together in a mixing bowl. The dough should ball up together and be stiff but pliable. Press it into a disc and leave it in the bowl. Let it rest in the fridge for about 10 minutes.
Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann
2. Make the topping
While the dough rests, make the topping. Once again, taking guidance from the ABC Baker’s ingredients, I used sweetened condensed milk and unsweetened shredded coconut to make the chewy topping. I used Let’s Do Organic brand because the pieces are smaller than something like Baker’s. Mix the sweetened condensed milk with the coconut shreds to make a thick goo.
Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann
3. Shape the cookies
Roll out the cookie dough on a lightly floured surface until it’s about a quarter-inch thick. Scoop the coconut goo onto the cookie dough and spread it out across the surface. Now you have a two layer cookie sheet. Using a cookie cutter (I used a fluted two-inch cutter), cut through both layers. Place the cookies on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Use a small circular cookie cutter (or a piping tip, like I did) to cut out the center hole. Put the cookies in the freezer for about 15 minutes while you preheat the oven.
Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann
4. Bake ‘em
Bake the cookies straight out of the freezer for eight to 10 minutes. Keep an eye on them in the last two minutes as they’ll be pale one second and brown in a flash. Cool them on a wire cooling rack while you make the chocolate glaze.
5. Decorate with a chocolate stripes
I went all-in and swiped chocolate on the bottoms as well as striping the tops, but if you don’t have the patience for both, I completely understand. Just do the stripes for the classic Samoa cookie look.
Otherwise, flip all of the cookies over and have a new piece of parchment on a dish or cutting board. I used this chocolate glaze from food.com and it worked well. Mix the oil, cocoa powder, powdered sugar, and hot water together with a whisk. Working quickly, swipe chocolate onto the bottoms of all of the cookies with a rubber spatula, pastry brush, or small offset spatula. Keep the layer thin to prevent puddling. Put them chocolate-side down on the parchment. Using a spoon or a small pastry bag if you have it, drizzle the remaining chocolate topping over the cookies in a stripe pattern. (If your chocolate begins to thicken and harden, just pop it in the microwave for about 10 or 15 seconds to liquify it again.) Cool the cookies at room temperature for 20 minutes, or in the fridge for five.
These knock-off cookies become more “convincing” if they cool completely, but their buttery flavor is more enjoyable when they’re freshly finished. It’s up to you. If you have the patience, give them plenty of time to cool. If not, you’ll still be a winner in the end.
Copycat Samoa or Caramel deLite Cookie Recipe
Ingredients:
For the cookie dough:
¼ cup sugar
½ cup butter, room temperature
1 cup + 2 tablespoons flour
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
For the coconut topping:
¾ cup + 2 tablespoons unsweetened shredded coconut
½ cup sweetened condensed milk
For the chocolate drizzle:
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 tablespoons neutral oil
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons hot water
1. Mix room temperature butter, sugar, vanilla extract, flour, and salt, and baking powder together in a mixing bowl. Press it into a disc and pop it in the fridge for 10 minutes.
2. While the dough rests, mix the sweetened condensed milk and shredded coconut in a small bowl to make a thick goo.
3. Roll out the cookie dough on a lightly floured surface to a quarter-inch thickness. Spread the coconut goo onto the cookie dough to make a double layer. Using a round cookie cutter, cut through both layers. Place the cookies on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Use a smaller circular cookie cutter, cut out the center hole. Put the cookies in the freezer for about 15 minutes.
4. Preheat the oven to 375 F. After the cookies have chilled, bake the cookies straight out of the freezer for 8-10 minutes, or until lightly browned. Cool them on a wire cooling rack while you make the chocolate glaze.
5. Mix the oil, cocoa powder, powdered sugar, and hot water together with a whisk. Working quickly, swipe chocolate onto the bottoms of all of the cookies. Put them chocolate-side down on a piece of parchment. Use a spoon or a small pastry bag to drizzle the remaining chocolate topping over the cookies in a stripe pattern. Cool the cookies completely. Peel them off the parchment and enjoy.
You can get the iRobot Roomba 980 WiFi Vacuum right now on sale for $174.99 (reg. $249). The Roomba 980 is a wifi-enabled vacuum with a three-stage cleaning system and dual multi-surface rubber brushes. You can use the iRobot Home app, Alexa, or Google Assistant to control the Roomba 980, and it can run wirelessly for up to 120 minutes before it needs to automatically return to its charger. Once the Roomba is fully charged, it'll continue cleaning where it left off. This product is marked as "New Open Box," meaning its box had been opened but it's been verified to be in new condition.
You can get the iRobot Roomba 980 on sale for $174.99 right now (reg. $249), though prices can change at any time.
In a blog post on the Windows website on Thursday, Windows+ Devices corporate vice president Pavan Davuliri wrote that Recall will no longer launch with Copilot+ AI laptops on June 18th, and is instead being relegated to a Windows Insider preview “in the coming weeks.”
“We are adjusting the release model for Recall to leverage the expertise of the Windows Insider Community to ensure the experience meets our high standards for quality and security,” Davuluri explained.
The AI feature was plagued by security concerns
That’s a big blow for Microsoft, as Recall was supposed to be the star feature for its big push into AI laptops. The idea was for it to act like a sort of rewind button for your PC, taking constant screenshots and allowing you to search through previous activity to get caught up on anything you did in the past, from reviewing your browsing habits to tracking down old school notes. But the feature also raised concerns over who has access to that data.
Davuliri explains in his post that screenshots are stored locally and that Recall does not send snapshots to Microsoft. He also says that snapshots have “per-user encryption” that keeps administrators and others logged into the same device from viewing them.
At the same time, security researchers have been able to uncover and extract the text file that a pre-release version of Recall uses for storage, which they claimed was unencrypted. This puts things like passwords and financial information at risk of being stolen by hackers, or even just a nosy roommate.
Davuliri wasn’t clear about when exactly Windows Insiders would get their hands on Recall, but thanked the community for giving a “clear signal” that Microsoft needed to do more. Specifically, he attributed the choice to disable Recall by default and to enforce Windows Hello (which requires either biometric identification or a PIN) for Recall before users can access it.
Generously, limiting access to the Windows Insider program, which anyone can join for free, gives Microsoft more time to collect and weigh this kind of feedback. But it also takes the wind out of Copilot+’s sails just a week before launch, leaving the base experience nearly identical to current versions of Windows (outside of a few creative apps).
It also puts Qualcomm, which will be providing the chips for Microsoft’s first Copilot+ PCs, on a more even playing field with AMD and Intel, which won’t get Copilot+ features until later this year.
You don't have to wait until Prime Day to get great deals on Amazon products. Today is Woot's 20th birthday, and as a subsidiary of Amazon, they get access to many Amazon products that Amazon wants to liquidate. Right now, Woot has a big sale on many of these Amazon products, including security cameras, tablets, smart speakers, smart TVs, and other devices that run until June 30.
To sweeten the deal, most of these products are eligible for an extra 20% off ($20 maximum discount) if they’re purchased during Woot's 20th birthday (before midnight Friday, June 14). If you're looking for smart TVs, the Fire TVs are particularly cheap. You can get a basic 32-inch starting at $59.99 up to a 4K UHD 55-inch for $269.99.
Keep in mind that refurbished products might come with signs of wear, but they were all serviced and given the thumbs-up to work properly. 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 Amazon Fire TV 2-Series is the most basic TV and only goes up to 720p resolution, but it is still a smart TV with essentially a Fire Stick in it. And like any Fire TV, you can install Kodi to stream anything you can imagine for free. The 32-inch version is $59.99, and the 40-inch is $109.99.
The Amazon Fire TV 4-Series is a big improvement with 4K UHD resolution for not much more money than the 40-inch 2-Series. The 50-inch 4-Series is $189.99 and the 55-inch is $224.99. You'll get 3 HDMI inputs and an HDMI eARC input to connect a soundbar to it.
If you're looking for the best TV in the bunch, the Amazon Fire TV Omni Series is $269.99 for the 55-inch version. It has a more modern design than the 4-Series, with a thinner bezel, a more metallic design over plastic, and a better contrast ratio, which makes games and movies look better. It also has better brightness and a faster response time. For $45 more than the 4-Series, it's worth the upgrade. But if you won't be playing games and don't think you'll notice these differences, you might as well save yourself the money.
We eat a lot of ultra-processed food. It's everywhere, and the cheapest grocery options are often ultra-processed ones. That's why it's concerning that ultra-processed foods have been linked to a variety of health problems, including heart disease, diabetes, mental health disorders, and everyone's favorite, all-cause mortality. So what counts as ultra-processed food? Let's dig in, and maybe question a few assumptions along the way.
Here's a big caveat worth remembering: When studies look at the health of people who do and don't eat ultra-processed foods, they're not necessarily studying the fact that the food is ultra-processed. We can say that a diet high in candy bars is bad for us, but is that because the candy bars are ultra-processed, or because they're full of sugar? That's not a question that the current research can really untangle, but it's important to ask ourselves as we learn more. Are ultra-processed foods always bad, or are they just a category that includes a lot of food we should eat less of?
Unprocessed or “minimally processed” foods (group 1) include fruits, vegetables, and meats. Perhaps you’ve pulled a carrot out of the ground and washed it, or killed a cow and sliced off a steak. Foods in this category can be processed in ways that don’t add extra ingredients. They can be cooked, ground, dried, or frozen.
Processed culinary ingredients (group 2) include sugar, salt, and oils. If you combine ingredients in this group, for example to make salted butter, they stay in this group.
Processed foods (group 3) are what you get when you combine groups 1 and 2. Bread, wine, and canned veggies are included. Additives are allowed if they “preserve [a food’s] original properties” like ascorbic acid added to canned fruit to keep it from browning.
Ultra-processed foods (group 4) don’t have a strict definition, but NOVA hints at some properties. They “typically” have five or more ingredients. They may be aggressively marketed and highly profitable. A food is automatically in group 4 if it includes “substances not commonly used in culinary preparations, and additives whose purpose is to imitate sensory qualities of group 1 foods or of culinary preparations of these foods, or to disguise undesirable sensory qualities of the final product.”
That last group feels a little disingenuous. I’ve definitely seen things in my kitchen that are supposedly only used to make “ultra-processed” foods: food coloring, flavor extracts, artificial sweeteners, anti-caking agents (cornstarch, anyone?) and tools for extrusion and molding, to name a few.
Are ultra-processed foods always bad?
So we've learned that packaged snack cakes are ultra-processed, and so is a factory-baked loaf of bread that has 20 ingredients. Orange juice whose flavor has been manipulated would count, too. Coke and Diet Coke are both solidly in this category. It seems logical that we should eat less of these things.
But you could argue that the real problem with these foods is that they’re often sugary and high calorie, and many of the less-healthy members of the category are what stock the vending machines and convenience stores that beckon to us when we’re hungry and haven’t packed a lunch. The problem with these foods is that a diet full of them is unbalanced, due to the nutrition they do or don’t contain. The processing itself isn’t the problem.
So when we talk about ultra-processed foods, we have to remember that it’s a vague category that only loosely communicates the nutrition of its foods. Just like BMI combines muscley athletes with obese people because it makes for convenient math, NOVA categories combine things of drastically different nutritional quality.
Why the level of processing isn't always the most important thing
Illustrating the point above, the USDA published their own study showing how you can create a healthy diet out of ultra-processed foods. A homemade breakfast burrito, for example, might contain canned beans, liquid egg whites, shredded cheese, and a store-bought tortilla. Those ingredients might be ultra-processed, but they're nutritionally nothing like grabbing a Cinnabon on your way to work.
A pet peeve of mine is that the NOVA classification sometimes draws distinctions between things that aren’t really nutritionally different. Wine is in group 3 next to cheese and fresh bread, but cocktails are in group 4 with the Twinkies. Hard liquor has been distilled, you see, so it’s ultra-processed.
Canned vegetables are in group 3 (processed) while their fresh counterparts are in group 1. But canned veggies aren’t any less nutritious. Meanwhile, dried fruit is in group 1 (so wholesome!) even though it can be more sugary than cakes or cookies.
There's a lot of overlap between unhealthy(?) foods and ultra-processed foods, so I understand why scientists are studying ultra-processed foods as a group. But demonizing UPF, as they're sometimes called, often ends up putting the cheapest, most widely available food in the most shameful category. Is that fair, or does it just make you feel better when you’re eating fresh green beans and scoffing at people who buy canned?
The NOVA scale isn’t totally useless: It helps researchers keep an eye on how much of our food is coming from large-scale manufacturers. But it’s not a great way to evaluate what’s in our grocery bags, or on our plates.
At a time when much of daily existence is consumed by stressing out over the way the people in power are screwing up our lives and the planet, there’s a certain pleasure in sinking into a narrative in which all of the characters are incredibly good at what they do—whether that’s exploring space, playing chess, carrying out skillful assassinations, or getting their asses to (or off) of Mars.
If you too seek to be inspired by watching a bunch of smart people manage not to absolutely fuck everything up, members of the Lifehacker staff suggest these 30 films (and a few TV shows), all of which are basically explicit competence porn. (That’s hot.)
Ocean’s Eleven (2001)
Individually, you’d be hard-pressed to call the near-dozen members of Danny Ocean’s crew of thieves, forgers, and con artists highly competent; they are all one brand of fuckup or another, which is probably why they say yes when asked to participate in an impossible scheme to rob three Las Vegas casinos at the same time. The fact that they pull it off without a hitch (more or less) is evidence enough that sometimes, 11 heads are better than one. —Joel Cunningham
Moneyball is based on a true story about Oakland A’s manager Billy Beane, who attempts to build a competitive baseball team on a bare-bones budget. He cobbles together a group of undervalued talent using some extra-brainy data analysis served up by a Yale economics graduate, and the results are dramatic, funny, and endearing. It’s a classic sports team underdog story, with a nerdy twist. —Meghan Walbert
You might wonder how this endless parade of meatheads, dudebros, and thirst traps could be filed anywhere near competence, but I urge you to expand your mind: Within the Fast universe, these petty thieves-turned-international-action-heroes are the best at what they do. They remind you every movie—11 and counting, including Hobbs and Shaw—that they can do anything, which qualifies as extreme competence...even if what they’re doing includes anything from petty heists (Fast and Furious), to bounty hunting (2 Fast 2 Furious), to international destruction under the guise of crime fighting (basically Fasts 5 through 8). The best part, though, is that you don’t have to be competent at all to enjoy their ridiculous antics and to feel like, just maybe, you too could powerslide your Mitsubishi around the corner, if you really wanted to. —Jordan Calhoun
Ron Howard's best movie dramatizes one of the dodgier moments in the history of the United States space program, the 1970 mission during which the (sadly) aptly numbered Apollo 13 lunar craft experienced an electrical short that threatened not just the moon mission, but also the lives of everyone onboard. The disaster itself is harrowingly portrayed, but the movie's most effectively thrilling moments involve ground control working with the Apollo crew to jury-rig solutions to an escalating series of problems. Just a bunch of smart, very motivated people being very clever. —Ross Johnson
You could slot in nearly any Star Trek series here, but TNG takes the franchise's celebration of science-backed competence further than just about any of them. Lead by stalwart diplomat Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), this crew warps into trouble spots and solves problems with minimal personal drama. Whether it's an outer-space archaeological mystery, yet another transporter malfunction, or a time travel dilemma on the sex planet, the Enterprise crew works together seamlessly, each bringing their own particular talents to bear (or stepping back and letting Wesley save the day). —Ross Johnson
Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige pulls off some kind of magic trick in making you sympathize equally with the two men on opposite sides of the ultimate magicians’ duel. Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman play a pair of masters of deception, each aiming to continually trump the other with increasingly ingenious (and dangerous) feats of misdirection...until we discover, in the end, that one of them is willing to go so far to prove his genius that he has even figured out how to cheat death. Now that’s competence. —Joel Cunningham
Mr. Blue, Mr. Green, Mr. Grey, and Mr. Brown board the same NYC 6 train at different stations, taking hostages and demanding $1 million (which was real money in 1974). It's a motley crew, but lead with military precision by Blue (Robert Shaw), a former British Army colonel. On the other side is transit cop Lt. Garber (Walter Matthau), an unlikely hero who knows the subways system inside and out. Watching the equally matched opponents square off against one another—mostly over the radio—is deeply satisfying. —Ross Johnson
Behind the first men in space were the “human computers” who calculated how to get them there. And among these people—these hidden figures—were three women of color who were brilliant mathematicians and engineers employed at NASA during the “Space Race.” The movie is based on the true story of the women who were the brains behind the launch of astronaut John Glenn into orbit. —Meghan Walbert
On the lighter side of Steven Spielberg's filmography, but no less entertaining for it, Catch Me If You Can dramatizes the story of con man Frank Abagnale Jr., who, in his early life, claimed to have posed as a doctor and, more memorably, a Pan-Am pilot to carry out schemes he profited from to the tune of millions of dollars (again, allegedly—the real-life details are less certain, but we're here to enjoy a movie). Leonardo DiCaprio plays Frank with a sly charm—you can imaging people being taken in—while Tom Hanks is an effective foil as the FBI agent on his tail. —Ross Johnson
If you’re skeptical that a shonen anime volleyball drama belongs on this list, I understand: I, too, didn’t care about volleyball and couldn’t imagine how an anime could possible change that. But that’s the wonder of the show (and many other shonen anime, to be honest): the ability to take an otherwise negligible thing and use its characters’ passion to turn it into the most important thing in the world. And in the case of Haikyuu!! they do it by compensating for their individual weaknesses by becoming remarkably skilled when working together. Each player is the best at one single thing, and if you go on a limb to give this anime an honest chance, I promise you won’t regret it. —Jordan Calhoun
Where to stream: Netflix, Crunchyroll
The Incredibles (2004)
The entire Incredible family, lead by Holly Hunter's Elastigirl and Craig T. Nelson's Mr. Incredible, are very good at what they do: she can stretch her body, he's got superhuman strength. Daughter Violet can turn invisible and create force fields, son Dash can move at amazing speeds, etc. But they're all at their absolute best when working together. They're skilled superheroes, yes, and also serviceable detectives...but it all comes together because of their true talent for being a generally loving, supportive family. —Ross Johnson
It goes without saying that Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is incredibly competent at his job(s)—astronaut/botanist—considering he’s able to survive on freaking Mars for more than a year after being stranded there due to a random spaceship accident. To do so, he must figure out everything from how to retrofit his meager shelter to how to grow potatoes in his own shit. But The Martian truly belongs on this list because basically every other character in it, from Watney’s former crew mates to the NASA engineers back on Earth, is similarly chock full of the right stuff. —Joel Cunningham
Steven Soderbergh's medical disaster film plays rather differently in the wake of the COVID pandemic, especially given that the source and genetic origin of film's outbreak is surprisingly similar to our real-world contagion—or maybe not so surprising to scientists who were very aware of the risk for years prior. But I digress! Here we see previews of the misinformation and political interference that would plague us later, but we also see scientists and health officials doing what needs to be done to stop the virus in its tracks, and largely being listened to. It's oddly satisfying as a result, even if it all now feels a little pie-in-the-sky. —Ross Johnson
It’s been a full 15 years since Duff Goldman and his team of baker-artist-engineers taught us that a cake doesn’t exist just to be eaten. No, a cake can be a piece of art, and it can be a feat of engineering. It would be impressive enough if Duff’s team at Charm City Cakes was making volcano cakes on the regular, but what makes these cakes particularly awe-inspiring is that each one is uniquely designed and created per the customer’s request—and they get bigger (and maybe more ridiculous) with each of the show’s 10 seasons. Come for the cakes, stay for the quirky personalities of those who create them. —Meghan Walbert
There's no escaping the high heat, literally and figuratively, in the scenario of 12 jurors hashing out the facts of a murder case involving a 19-year-old boy accused of killing his abusive father. This isn't competence of the slick and smooth variety, but instead a story of cooler heads prevailing during a scenario of heightened emotions. That measured passion in the face of such an important decision represents its own kind of proficiency. —Ross Johnson
Akira Kurosowa’s 1954 Japanese blockbuster concerns the plight of a small village under siege by bandits, and the crew of unassailable swordsman the villagers manage to recruit to save their skins. Watching the seven title characters being incredibly good at what they do—sometimes despite themselves—proved so winning a formula that it not only inspired disparate remakes (as a western, The Magnificent Seven; as a kids’ flick, A Bug’s Life), but forms the spine of Helen DeWitt’s celebrated 2000 novel The Last Samurai, in which a single mother, in lieu of a father figure for her young son, chooses to impart lessons of manhood by making him watch the movie over, and over, and over again. —Joel Cunningham
During an era (well, a generation, at least) of increasing political chaos, there's a tremendous sense of satisfaction in watching Aaron Sorkin's fast-walking, fast-talking cast of White House staffers go about their jobs with passion and integrity (usually). It might be a fantasy, but it suggests the possibility of a world where imperfect people can work within an imperfect system to make things just a little bit better. —Ross Johnson
To be clear, I think Now You See Me is one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen. In its desperation to be clever it shifts from overcomplicated, to overly contrived, and then to insulting, as you realize the biggest con this band of con artist magicians ever pulled was tricking you into watching their movie. But where the 2013 film succeeds—aside from baiting you with its all-star cast, including Woody Harrelson, Mark Ruffalo, Jesse Eisenberg, and Morgan Freeman—is making you feel that you too can be the smartest person in the room. —Jordan Calhoun
Nobuko Miyamoto plays the title's Tampopo, a single mom struggling to keep her ramen shop, Lai Lai, afloat. With some help from a couple of surprisingly knowledgable truck drivers, she determines to turn the shop into a high-end ramen destination. It's not an easy road, but it's a lot of fun watching Tampopo and her quirky band of helpers turn things around by focusing less on the commerce of food and more on the love of making and serving it. (In the best scene, a wise ramen master teaches a younger man how to truly appreciate a good bowl of noodles.) —Ross Johnson
One of Netflix’s countless flash-in-the-pan series, Away was a runaway hit... for about 48 hours. It stars Hilary Swank as the leader of a mission to Mars, and while it wasn’t as memorable as you might expect from its cast or production values—there’s a reason most of us forgot about it and it wasn’t renewed for a second season—it is full of the type of competence porn that makes you hopeful that humanity can conquer anything. It’s a typical space-survival drama, with the added twist of being the United Nations of the subgenre, featuring disabled characters and a diverse set of personalities, including astronauts from China, Russia, India, and a Black, Jewish British-Ghanian. If you like to think the power of science and teamwork can conquer our greatest challenges, Away will make you believe, even if your binge peters out partway through. —Jordan Calhoun
Where to stream: Netflix
Drive (2011)
There's (a bit more) to this extremely fun Nicolas Winding Refn action drama than driving, but it's called Drive for a reason. Ryan Gosling plays an unnamed Hollywood stunt driver who moonlights as getaway guy for various criminal enterprises. Before long, he's putting his not at all inconsiderable skills to use in helping out his neighbor Irene and her son. —Ross Johnson
Whether you play chess or not is fairly irrelevant to enjoying Queen's Gambit. Although, if you have even the most basic understanding of the game (the viewer category to which I belong), it does make the talents of this young chess prodigy—and the mentors and competitors around her—all the more exciting and impressive. But either way, the story is riveting. —Meghan Walbert
Where to stream: Netflix
John Wick (2014)
Is there any more effective beat in action cinema than the moment when we realize that the low-level criminals who pissed off quiet, unassuming John have, in fact, messed with exactly the wrong person? They messed with his dog (sad), but didn't know that they were invoking the multi-film-long wrath of (possibly) the most effective hitman in American cinema. No pet has ever been more thoroughly avenged. —Ross Johnson
I already talked about another movie featuring a crew of hyper-competent astronauts on a desperate life-or-death mission, so I won’t repeat myself too much. But Danny Boyle’s Sunshine deserves a callout too, because the stakes in this movie are a hell of a lot higher than the fate of one man. Like, “reignite the dying sun” higher. And these folks manage to pull it off (uh, spoiler) despite heading out entirely aware that there is a good chance they won’t be coming back—and that’s even before the murderer shows up. (The other reason it should be on this list is that it is criminally underrated, gorgeously filmed, and the ending made me cry.) —Joel Cunningham
Think a more grizzled John Wick, but in Finland near the end of World War II. Prospector Aatami Korpi (Jorma Tommila) is just trying to haul his gold find into town when he's harassed by Nazis storming through the countryside. Big mistake: Earlier in the war, Korpi had earned a reputation as a "one-man death squad" nicknamed The Immortal. After escalating and increasingly over-the-top violence, the Waffen-SS platoon will find that bringing the one-time Finnish Army commando out of retirement was not a smart move. —Ross Johnson
Competence porn is at its best when the competent people in question are pitted against an equally competent adversary, which is exactly what happens in Avengers: Infinity War. Not only is Thanos strong enough to beat the Hulk into a sweater and some glasses, but his soft-spoken confidence is a worthy rival to even the smartest denizens of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He’s a testament to the fact that competence can work for the bad guys just as much as the good ones, and when he’s at his best, it’s almost hard not to cheer for him. As he sits to watch the sun rise on a grateful universe, you have to admit, he earned it. —Jordan Calhoun
The Sting was not the first heist movie, but it is definitely one of the most entertaining. This 1973 Best Picture Oscar winner follows two con men (played by Paul Newman and Robert Redford, impossibly young) as they attempt to rip off a ruthless mob boss (Jaws’ Robert Shaw). The title refers to the moment in a caper where the thieves make off with the mark’s money; if they sting him just right, they’ll be long gone before he even realizes he’s been had. Newman and Redford’s con is so elaborate—it’s more like a series of nested operations—that it takes a whole crew of super-competent conmen to pull it off, and Shaw never feels a thing. —Joel Cunningham
This classic dramatization of the events surrounding the public reveal of Watergate somehow makes thrilling a naturalistic portrait of journalists doing their jobs. Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman are impeccable as Woodward and Bernstein, a couple of reporters on what starts out seeming like a very minor political piece that blows up into a story that brings down a president. Back when such things were possible. —Ross Johnson
Another one based on a true story, Pride follows a group of queer British activists who raised funds for striking miners during a strike in 1984. During the Thatcher-era strike, gay activist Mark Ashton (Ben Schnetzer) noticed that police were no longer harassing queers, as they were too busy going after strikers. During a local Pride parade, he starts a fundraising campaign, finding common cause with the miners. Over the course of the campaign depicted in the film, money is raised and bonds are formed such that rights for blue-collar workers and LGBTQ+ people are advanced in the U.K. —Ross Johnson
Sidney Poitier came in for criticism, often from Black audiences, for his portrayals of perfect characters—the suggestion being that Americans might only accept people of color if they could be presented as flawless. He's a damn good cop here, but I think it works, as there's no other way that he'd survive Sparta, Mississippi of the 1960s. After an opening that plays like a horror movie that finds him trapped in the town after dark, he's ultimately asked to help the police solve a murder: it's not that the locals are willing to treat him quite like a human being, but he's so good that they have no choice but to ask for his help. His extraordinary competence here is a blessing and a curse. It's one part gripping police procedural, and several parts a portrait of American racism. —Ross Johnson
With the iPhone 14, Apple introduced a new way to communicate: Emergency SOS via Satellite. With it, you can reach out to emergency services even when you have no signal. The feature guides you on how to connect your iPhone to the nearest satellite overhead, and once connected, allows you to contact help (albeit, much more limited and slowly than usual).
It's a fantastic safety feature, both for those who frequent areas of low cellular coverage, as well as in emergencies when cell service is unavailable. But that latter point is really the main downside of the feature: It's only available for emergencies. If you don't have any service and you're perfectly safe, you can't use the feature to simply send a message to a friend or family member to check in. Unless you want to get the police involved in your update, you'll just have to wait until you're back within range of a cell signal or wifi.
Messages via satellite
That changes with iOS 18: Apple's upcoming OS (currently in beta testing) includes an update to its satellite communications feature. When it drops, you'll be able to send, via satellite, any message, not just emergency ones. So, when you happen to be totally without service, not only can you send an update letting people you're okay, you can keep up with your chats as you normally would.
When it comes to iMessage, almost nothing about the experience is compromised. You'll be able to send and receive messages, emojis, and Tapbacks (the reactions such as "thumbs up" or "Ha Ha"). Plus, all of your messages are still end-to-end encrypted, so there's no security breach using satellites for relaying your messages vs. cell towers or the internet. You don't need to do anything special to trigger the feature, either: Once your iPhone loses a network connection, and switches to "SOS only," you'll see a notification on the Lock Screen inviting you to message via satellite. You don't even need to tap this alert, though. Just start typing a message, and if there's no service, your iPhone will send it via satellite automatically.
You'll know this is happening, because there will be a "Satellite" tag next to the "iMessage" tag in the text field in your thread. You might also be clued in because some messages may take quite a while to send and receive, as they're beaming up to a satellite first before being routed to their destination. As with Emergency SOS via Satellite, iOS will guide you on angling your iPhone towards the nearest satellite overhead. You'll need a clear view of the sky, with few (if any) tall obstructions, including trees and buildings. Assuming conditions are correct, however, you'll be able to message away.
iMessages will come in automatically, even over satellite, so while you might not keep up with the messages as quickly as you normally would, they'll all eventually arrive. However, SMS texts will only work if you initiate the conversation: If an Android friend texts you while you're out of service, for example, you won't receive it. But if you send a message, you'll receive their direct response.
Unfortunately, the feature doesn't support RCS, the texting protocol iOS 18 is finally adopting. While mildly disappointing, the feature itself is so cool I can completely overlook RCS' omission. Lack of service is no longer a hindrance to missing out on communications. You won't drive through a remote road and receive a barrage of missed iMessages once you reconnect to service: Those messages will still appear on your iPhone as they were sent. You can take a trip somewhere without internet and still be able to give updates to people about your experience.
Of course, if you're the kind of person that enjoys these little breaks from society, there's always the foolproof solution: turning off your iPhone altogether.
I'm always trying to find new ways to make my home (and everything else) smell great, with varying levels of success. TikTok and other platforms are full of hacks that are supposed to give you long-lasting scents, but they usually fall apart for me. Here's one, however, that works.
Use household cleaner to enhance your home's smell
I came across this TikTok that showed a woman simply filling her sink with hot water and adding a cup of household cleaner, insisting it makes the whole place smell great.
I've been burned before by household cleaner-related scent hacks, but this one didn't have any of the red flags from those. It seemed almost too easy. I decided to give it a shot. I grabbed my trusty Fabuloso and ran to my sink—only to remember I lost the plug after switching to a pink debris catcher that matches my decor and prevents crumbs from entering my plumbing, but is totally ineffective at stopping up the drain entirely. I decided to fill a big bowl with hot water and half a cup of Fabuloso to really test the hack. Could a smaller vessel produce a permeating smell?
The answer was yes. It was like an instant yes. After I filled my bowl, I left the kitchen. I went back five minutes later and noticed the whole area smelled great. I returned to my living room and 10 minutes later, the smell hit me there, too. Her advice is to leave the cleaner-infused hot water alone for an hour, then dump it for all-day scent. It works. It really works. I can't wait to try it with other scents and kinds of cleaners.
Credit: Lindsey Ellefson
The scent is much stronger than when I simply mop with Fabuloso and I think that's because it's more concentrated, plus the very-hot water gives it a boost into the air.
Smell hacks that don't work
There are other hacks out there that suggest boiling old air freshener wicks or household cleaners to get this result, but you really shouldn't because that can be dangerous. What I like about this plain hot water method is that it doesn't involve boiling at all, so you're not at risk of accidentally heating anything to a dangerous point or putting something potentially poisonous in the tools you use to cook your food.
That said, I never had any luck with the more natural methods, either. Another popular social media tip revolves around boiling lemons to make your place smell citrusy. I've tried it and it simply doesn't work. It just wastes your lemons. Best to avoid.
The old tried-and-true
Although my home still smells of Fabuloso and I am confident it will for a very long time, I do have to add that I recently conceded that the best residential scent trick is probably the most boring. I've tried all kinds of air fresheners in my day and they all basically worked, although the smells dissipated quickly. Last month I tried a new one that is so powerful that the smell lingers for days even after I unplug the beast. It's called a Wallflower and I was so impressed that I got one for my mom and boyfriend, too, and they both reported the same thing: The scent sticks around long after it's been unplugged. To me, that's glorious, but if that's a little too much for you, I get it. Stick to the hack above. Here's the freshener I got, which I will never go without again:
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You can get a lifetime subscription to Babbel Language Learning on sale for $149.97 right now (reg. $599) through June 17 at 11:59 p.m. PT, though prices can change at any time.
I’m always looking for new ways to motivate myself to do things I don’t want to do. Sometimes I try to trick myself by just getting up and jumping into a task for a few minutes to get it over with—and it works! I find myself getting into the work, getting carried away, and doing more than I intended to. But I didn’t really have a name for it. Then I saw this blog post from the Everyday Organiser that gives a name to the practice: the Five-Minute Snowball. If you have a hard time getting yourself to do tedious tasks—especially cleaning and organizing—I recommend you try it.
What is the five-minute snowball?
This is a simple twist on other time-management and motivational techniques: You can start a timer or just glance at your phone, but decide right then and there that you’re going to get to work for five minutes. That’s all you need to vow to do. It’s just five minutes. Then, when the timer goes off or you check your phone, you’ll likely realize time flew by.
Personally, I recommend not setting a timer at all. Strict time limits can feel harsh and if you’re stressed out already, that might not be helpful for you. I’ve found that if I just get to work, I’m always shocked by how much time has actually gone by when I check the time again, so a timer letting me know that my five minutes is up wouldn’t be too beneficial.
The goal here is to commit yourself to a manageable time goal. Five minutes really isn’t that bad, but you’re liable to discover you blow past that because it’s such a small amount of time, especially once you get into your groove. If, however, you don’t, it’s not demoralizing; you only set out to do five minutes and as long as you meet that goal, you accomplished what you set out to do.
Why this works
I like this less-structured approach compared to, say, the Pomodoro technique, which asks you to work in longer, more defined chunks, adding small breaks in between. The nice thing about launching a five-minute snowball is that it’s completely manageable and doable, so instead of feeling bad if you don’t grind for 15 or 20 minutes straight, you feel satisfied when you meet your goal. Setting attainable goals is important, especially when you’re working on a task you don’t like, because you have to prioritize those positive feelings and avoid the negative ones that can keep you from moving forward.
The general lack of structure here is great because you won’t be counting down minutes while you’re working. You know it’s a small amount of time and it’ll pass quickly, so you can focus on the task instead of the time. Overall, when you operate this way, you're spending less time plotting out what you need to do (or making excuses for why you can't or won't do it) and jumping straight into doing, which is much more engaging.
Cleaning techniques that can work with a five-minute snowball
A little structure isn’t so bad, though, so try incorporating a decluttering or cleaning method into your snowballing. There are a bunch out there, but these work well in small bursts:
You can do the ski-slope method, or the practice of organizing small sections of a room in a random order, in five-minute bursts, dedicating each snowball to one little area.
The 12-12-12 method involves finding 12 things to throw away, 12 to donate, and 12 to put away every day. You can break that down into three unique, five-minute bouts to make it less overwhelming.
Using the Decluttering at the Speed of Life method, you work through five steps—starting with tossing trash and ending with organizing everything you keep—but you don’t have to do it all at once and can instead move through the steps in bursts using the snowball technique.
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