Buckle up: Your Fourth of July road trip may be a long ride—at least according to AAA, which expects 70.9 million people to travel 50 miles or more from home over the Independence Day holiday travel period.
This year, AAA's traffic forecast is a little different, because the organization is defining the "Independence Day holiday travel period" as Saturday, June 29 to Sunday, July 7—making it the first year to include two weekends.
“With summer vacations in full swing and the flexibility of remote work, more Americans are taking extended trips around Independence Day,” Paula Twidale, senior vice president of AAA Travel, said in a news release. “We anticipate this July 4th week will be the busiest ever with an additional 5.7 million people traveling compared to 2019.”
To avoid getting stuck in all that traffic, plan your trip around the best and worst times to drive during the Fourth of July travel period. Here's what to know.
The best and worst times to drive Fourth of July weekend
Using data from INRIX, a firm providing transportation insights, experts at AAA have determined that these are thebest and worst times to hit the road this Fourth of July weekend:
Monday, July 1
Minimal traffic impact expected
Tuesday, July 2
Worst time: 2—6 p.m.
Best time: After 7 p.m.
Wednesday, July 3
Worst time: 2—7 p.m.
Best time: Before noon
Thursday, July 4
Worst time: 2—7 p.m.
Best time: Before noon
Friday, July 5
Worst time: 11 a.m.—4 p.m.
Best time: Before 10 a.m.
Saturday, July 6
Worst time: 10 a.m.—2:30 p.m.
Best time: Before 10 a.m.
Sunday, July 7
Worst time: 2—8 p.m.
Best time: Before 11 a.m.
Monday, July 8
Worst time: 1—5 p.m.
Best time: After 7 p.m.
“Drivers in large metro areas can expect the worst traffic delays on Wednesday, July 3rd, as they leave town, and Sunday, July 7th, as they return,” Bob Pishue, transportation analyst at INRIX said in a news release. “Road trips over the holiday week could take up to 67% longer than normal. Travelers should monitor 511 services, local news stations, and traffic apps for up-to-the-minute road conditions.”
How to format external drives using your iPhone or iPad
Credit: Kaleb Cadle/Substack
First, you need an iPhone or iPad running iOS 18 or iPadOS 18. Follow these instructions to update your device, but be careful if you're using your main device, as installing a beta could introduce instability to it.
Next, connect your external drive to the device. This may require an adapter in some cases. Once you've plugged in the drive, open the Files app, long press the name of the external drive in the sidebar, and tap the red Erase button.
You'll now see the new options, which will allow you to choose the filesystem for your external drive. You have three choices: APFS, ExFAT, and FAT. Click through here for a breakdown on each format. Pick an option to format the external drive accordingly.
The feature works with hard disks, pen drives, and even SD cards so long as you have the right adapters.
Why format a drive on iPad or iPhone?
Plenty of people use their iPhones and iPads for professional purposes, like creating photos and videos. Often, these files need to be moved to external drives. Having formatting options baked into the OS helps all those who want to use their iOS devices as productivity tools, since it'll keep them from needing to reach for their Mac or PC.
Having said that, your Mac's Disk Utility is a much more powerful tool than what you'll find in the iOS 18 or iPadOS 18 Files app. In addition to formatting, Disk Utility allows you to partition drives, restore them with content from another drive, and can attempt to repair drives that are giving you trouble. Another thing worth noting is that Disk Utility allows you to choose the Mac OS Extended file system, which is exclusive to Macs. You can't choose that option on your iPhone or iPad, but on the flip side, the APFS format is exclusive to iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 devices.
The option to format drives is a positive development for iOS devices, but there's a long way to go before your iPad can totally replace your Mac.
Having a small bathroom can be a frustrating experience. On the one hand, not having to walk down stairs in the middle of the night is a great luxury. On the other hand, if the space is difficult to maneuver and offers no storage it can feel like a disorganized mess on the best of days.
While there are some “standard” bathroom sizes, in older homes people will squeeze bathrooms in where they can, leading to some tiny, tiny spaces. If your bathroom is tiny, you might dream of expanding it and turning it into the primary bathroom of your dream—but if that’s not in your budget, there are some more modest approaches you can take that will make your tiny space a lot more comfortable—and a lot more usable.
Rethink the door
If you have a door that opens into the tiny bathroom, you’re losing a lot of space to the door swing. It’s not just that you can’t install anything there or use it for storage (or any purpose, really), you also have to wrestle with the door to get in and out, especially if there’s more than one person in the bathroom at a time.
Changing the door’s swing direction so that it swings out of the bathroom gives you back that space to some extent. You probably still can’t plop a storage cabinet in the middle of the floor, but the space will feel bigger, it will be easier to get in and out of, and you’ll have more space for a vanity or other furniture.
Another option is to remove your traditional swinging door and install a pocket door instead. This is a little more complicated (and expensive), but if you can do it, you get back the space inside the bathroom without sacrificing the space outside the bathroom for a win-win.
Creative storage
One of the most challenging problems with a small bathroom is where to put all the stuff a modern human requires to be considered acceptably groomed. This is especially difficult if you’re shopping in bulk for your family—24 rolls of toilet paper might be necessary for your household, but where in the world will you put it?
To avoid making your tiny bathroom feel like a storage closet with a toilet, you can get a little creative:
In-floor storage. If you’re handy or can hire someone who is, creating some in-floor storage cubbies can hide away a ton of stuff and maximize what we’ll generously call the “space” in your closet-like lavatory.
Window shelves. If you have a window in your bathroom, sacrifice some of that natural light and stick some shelves in there.
Over door shelves. Over-the-door organizers can hold a lot of stuff, but they also require the door to be shut in order to access them, and can look a little janky. If you have some space over your bathroom door, installing a simple shelf can give you a place for extra storage that looks nice and is always accessible (assuming you can reach it, of course).
Medicine cabinet. A medicine cabinet hides away a lot of stuff. You can either install an over-the-wall version with a bracket, or make use of the void between your studs with a recessed version that will look a bit sleeker.
Corner shelves in the shower. Installing a few corner shelves in a small shower can give you plenty of places to store all your products, sponges, and implements. This is especially useful if your shower lacks a wall niche.
Bath tray counter.Bath trays are useful in any bathroom with a tub, but if you’re short on counter space they can also be used as storage for anything you would normally keep on a larger vanity.
Folding shower doors
If your small bathroom is blessed with a small shower or shower-tub combo, traditional glass doors can offer the same problems as the bathroom door itself: The swing. You can switch that with a bifold shower door with the fold aimed into your shower to maximize the space a bit.
If that’s not your jam or is too much project for you, replacing shower doors with a traditional shower curtain or simple glass panels will also free up that space outside your shower.
Wall-mounted everything
Floating your sink and vanity, toilet, and other fixtures is a bit of a project, because you’ll often need to run plumbing in the wall. But if you’ve got the budget and patience to do it, the result is a cleaner look. Keeping the floor clear can make a small space feel a bit larger, and it also means you’ll have some extra storage options if you need them.
Go airplane size
Finally, if you’ve got a small bathroom, you can make it more workable by installing downsized fixtures. Choosing a compact toilet can give you back some crucial inches, and choosing a sink that takes up a tiny slice of space (and skipping the vanity altogether) can turn a crowded bathroom into a more open space. You can even choose a small freestanding tub for the space to avoid the feeling that your bathroom is really just a tub room with some shelves.
A small bathroom is usually better than no bathroom at all, but that doesn’t mean you have to suffer claustrophobia every time you step into it. Some clever storage, some thoughtful fixtures, and you’ll have that tiny bathroom feeling larger in no time.
At first glance, OpenAI's Mac app offers the usual ChatGPT experience you're used to. When you log in, you'll find all your previous conversations saved to the sidebar, just as they are in the web and mobile apps. You can type your prompts in the text field, use the mic button to ask questions with your voice, and click the headphones icon to enter Voice mode. (Not the "Her" Voice mode, mind you: That feature has been delayed.) You can also use features like Temporary Chats (conversations that don't pull from your chat history), change your GPT model, generate images with DALL-E, and access GPTs.
A better experience than the web app
But there are some Mac-specific features that make this particular app worth using over the web option. First, in addition to uploading files and photos to ChatGPT, you can take a screenshot of any open window on your Mac directly from the app. If you click on the paperclip icon, and select Take Screenshot, you can select an active window from the pop-up list to share with ChatGPT. (The first time you do this, you'll need to grant the ChatGPT app access to screen recording.)
Alternatively, you can take a screenshot of the window manually, then share it to ChatGPT as an image, but this skips a step and makes the bot feel a bit more integrated with macOS.
Credit: Jake Peterson
But what's even more convenient, in my opinion, is the ChatGPT "launcher." This launcher is essentially Spotlight search, but for ChatGPT. Using a keyboard shortcut, you can bring up a ChatGPT text field directly over any window you're currently using on macOS to start a conversation with the bot. You'll then be taken to the app to continue chatting. This basically saves you the step of switching out of the current app you're in and starting a new thread in ChatGPT; if you see something on your Mac you want to know more about, you can hit Option + Spacebar, type your query, and get started.
Credit: Jake Peterson
This launcher also has the same paperclip icon as the app itself, which means you can upload files and take screenshots directly from the shortcut. If you're a ChatGPT power user, this launcher should be a welcome feature. (I don't even use ChatGPT that much, and I really like it.)
Unfortunately, OpenAI is only making the ChatGPT app available on M-series Macs—the machines running Apple silicon. If you have an older Intel-based Mac, you'll still have to head to the web app in order to use ChatGPT on your computer.
If you have a Mac with an M1 chip or newer, you can download the app from OpenAI's download site.
The CDC issued a health advisory Tuesday, warning healthcare providers and the general public that the United States is at an increased risk of dengue infections. Dengue is a mosquito-borne disease that can be pretty brutal—severe cases are sometimes known as “breakbone fever”—but some of us can relax a little: the mosquitoes that transmit it only live in some parts of the U.S.
What is dengue?
Dengue is a viral illness, and the virus is transmitted by mosquitoes—specifically Aedes species. (Yes, there are different species of mosquitoes.) It is mainly found in tropical and subtropical regions.
There are four types of dengue, numbered simply 1, 2, 3, and 4. If you contract and recover from one of them, you’ll be immune to that type, but remain susceptible to the others. Getting a second dengue infection, of a different type than the first, increases the risk that your illness will be more severe.
The symptoms of a mild case of dengue include high fever, body aches, and often a rash. You may also experience nausea and vomiting, and a headache and/or pain behind the eyes. Most people recover in 1 to 2 weeks, the World Health Organization says.
In severe cases of dengue, more symptoms may appear after the fever has gone away. The WHO lists these as including severe abdominal pain, bleeding gums or nose, blood in the vomit or stool, and feelings of extreme fatigue, thirst, and weakness. Dengue is the world’s most common insect-transmitted disease.
There is no antiviral treatment for dengue, only supportive care. There was a vaccine for it, available for children in areas where dengue is endemic, but the manufacturer discontinued it due to lack of demand, the CDC said in its health advisory. Puerto Rico declared a dengue epidemic earlier this year, and they are using their remaining available doses before they expire.
Most cases of dengue in the continental U.S. are from travelers, but we do have some local transmission
With the CDC’s advisory making headlines, it’s important to keep in mind where dengue is being transmitted right now. Most of the continental U.S. does not have local transmission of dengue; you can’t walk outside and catch it right now.
So why the advisory? Well, many of the places you can catch dengue are popular vacation destinations. There are also several U.S. territories and freely associated states that have “frequent or continuous” dengue transmission, according to the CDC:
Puerto Rico
American Samoa
U.S. Virgin Islands
Federated States of Micronesia
Marshall islands
Palau
In the continental U.S., it is possible to contract dengue locally, but so far there aren’t many of these cases. Florida, Hawaii, Texas, Arizona, and California have all had locally transmitted dengue cases.
So far this year, there have been 1,498 cases in Puerto Rico, and 745 travel-related cases in the U.S. (meaning that somebody traveled to an area with dengue, then brought the virus back with them). A travel case can turn into a local outbreak, although this isn't common. Say your neighbor just got back from a vacation in Puerto Rico, and you both live in Florida. It's possible for a mosquito to bite that person, and then to bite you. Therefore, the CDC is asking healthcare providers to keep in mind that a person who hasn't traveled might still have contracted dengue locally, if they live in an area with the right kind of mosquitoes.
Where do dengue-carrying mosquitoes live?
Dengue is transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes, especially Aedes aegypti, but sometimes Aedes albopictus. These mosquitoes are small and have black and white patterns (if you look closely), and they bite during the day, not just dusk and dawn. They can also breed in very small containers of standing water, like the saucers underneath flowerpots.
These differences separate them from Culex mosquitoes, which are the more common type in much of the U.S. Culex mosquitoes aren’t considered “competent” vectors of dengue, so if your area only has Culex, you only have to worry about travel cases, not (likely) local ones.
So where are Aedes mosquitoes? The CDC’s most recent maps are from 2017, but here they are. A. aegypti is “very likely” to thrive in most of the south, from Florida to Texas and up into Kentucky and parts of Oklahoma and Missouri. There are also “very likely” areas in Texas, Arizona, and California.
Credit: CDC
Aedes albopictus can live and reproduce in many of the same areas, but are less likely to thrive in Arizona and California. On the other hand, the northernmost part of their range extends a bit further, up into Ohio, New Jersey, and parts of Pennsylvania.
In the seven years since these maps were published, it’s possible that the mosquitoes’ range has grown. Aedes mosquitoes like warm temperatures, and climate change has given us more of those. Dengue is also transmitted more readily in warmer and wetter parts of the year, and we’ve been getting more of those as well.
How can I protect myself from dengue?
The CDC recommends that we all take steps to protect ourselves from mosquito bites. This includes using EPA-registered repellents on your skin. I like Cutter Skinsations (7% DEET, good enough for my backyard) but there’s also Repel 100 if you want very strong protection.
Air conditioning, window screens, and loose-fitting, long-sleeved clothing also make the CDC’s top mosquito bite prevention tips. If you’re traveling to a warm or tropical area, the CDC wants you to make sure to prevent bites while you’re there, too. Large bottles of insect repellent, since it’s a liquid, will have to go in your checked baggage, but I like prepackaged repellent wipes like these for your carry-on.
The CDC also wants you to seek medical care if you get symptoms that may be dengue and if you are in an area that is known to have dengue transmission. The incubation period is seven to 10 days, so it’s possible you may not start to show symptoms until after you get home. The CDC has a list and map here of locations outside the U.S. where dengue risk is high.
You can get a MythForce Steam key for PC on sale for $19 right now (reg. $29.99), cheaper than on Steam. It's inspired by 80s cartoons like He-Man and Thundercats, and offers a nostalgic world and first-person combat where you can play solo or with friends and brave an ever-changing castle of evil. To play, you just need a free Steam account and the game key provided when you buy it.
You can get a MythForce Steam key for PC on sale for $19 right now (reg. $29.99), though prices can change at any time.
The other day, I spotted a woman wearing the most beautiful Kendra Scott necklace. It sat right in the hollow under her neck—not quite a choker, but not exactly dangly either. I ordered one later that night, but when the necklace arrived, it didn't fit me the way it had fit her, even when I put the clasp on the smallest setting. It was slightly too long, and infuriatingly sat just below the hollow of my neck.
I subsequently spent a few days searching for ways to shorten a necklace, and found three methods that will work in most cases. Please, allow my misfortune to be your benefit.
Use an earring
First, I sought counsel on TikTok, where I saw a hack that seemed too good to be true: You shorten a necklace by folding the chain in the back, then jamming the post of a small stud earring through the fold, thereby shortening the chain. Alternately, you can shove the earring through both sides of the chain without folding it, skipping the clasp mechanism altogether, like this.
Obviously, this hack only works if you don't care how your necklace looks from the back (say, you have long hair that can cover it) but it seems an effective solution...provided it works for your chain. In my case, the chain links were too tiny to pass the post through. (What can I say, I love a dainty necklace.) Still, if your chain is big enough, this is a clear winner, since the earring back keeps the whole thing secure.
I tried this and it worked, but I'm hesitant to use it while out in public, as I'd be left hanging if the little rubber band broke. I also found my hair kept getting tangled in it, creating a mini disaster at the nape of my neck. (If your hair ever gets tangled in your jewelry, by the way, try using Nair to remove it.)
I also don't love using something so unreliable to twist up a chain. I work hard to keep my jewelry organized, tangle-free, and well maintained, so the idea of jumbling it up with elastic isn't really enticing. Still, if you have a cheap necklace or aren't offended by a low-rent solution, this one can work in a pinch.
Just buy a necklace shortener
Sometimes, a clever hack can take care of one of the little problems I encounter throughout the day. Other times, I just need to buy a specialty product to fix it. After striking out twice with the DIY methods—both of which worked, but not exactly how I wanted them to—I gave it and shopped for a necklace shortener.
I found one that is actually really pretty and effective, and looks good from the front and the back:
Effectively, a necklace shortener does the same thing as the earring and the rubber band, but in a prettier way. You run both sides of the back of the chain through the holes and clasp the necklace as usual. The shortener sits between the clasp and your neck, reducing the length of chain that actually wraps around. This particular shortener came in a set of two, so you can use them to layer a couple of chains, and comes in gold, silver, and rose gold, so you can choose the least obtrusive color.
If your chain's gauge is big enough to support the earring solution or you don't mind keeping a bunched-up rubber band behind your head, the inexpensive hacks work well, but if you want something effective for all sizes of chains and that looks a bit more elegant, a necklace shortener is the way to go.
Apple has added a whole bunch of new text effects, or animations, to the Messages app in iOS 18. Not only are these effects fun to use, but they can also be applied to individual words, as opposed to the entire message. Apart from this, the Messages app also got additional formatting options for your texts including bold, italics, underline, and strikethrough. Some of these options are pretty basic, but the end result is a more robust system that will be able to better compete with alternatives like WhatsApp and Telegram.
All the new text effects in iOS 18's Messages app
Credit: Pranay Parab
Here's a quick list of all the new iOS 18 text effects and what they do:
Big: Makes the selected words or emoji bigger for a second before returning them to their normal size.
Small: Makes words smaller for a bit.
Shake: Gives selected text a quick jiggle.
Nod: Moves text up and down, imitating a head nod.
Explode: Makes text or emoji explode. All the letters in your words will temporarily scatter in different directions, while emoji just become bigger and disappear for a second.
Ripple: Makes text jump up and down.
Bloom: Make letters pop up on the screen one after another.
Jitter: Gives the selected text a little shiver.
If you're worried about losing messages, all of these effects are temporary. They appear on screen for a second or two, and then your text returns to normal. iOS 18 also has new, more permanent formatting options, but they don't need much of an introduction. They're identical to the bold, italics, underline, and strikethrough formatting other apps have been using for years.
How to use iOS 18's new text effects
Credit: Pranay Parab
To use these shiny new text effects, first install the iOS 18 beta on a compatible phone using these instructions. To keep your main device stable, I suggest using a backup device if possible.
Next, open the Messages app. Type something in the text box and hit the A button in the top-right corner of the keyboard. This will show your text formatting options. Now, select the words you want to add effects to and choose the effect you want. For formatting options, tap the B, I, U, or S buttons up top. All eight text effects are listed below these, so to use one, simply select it here.
Remember that you can add multiple text effects in a single message. You can choose one effect per word, apply different effects to different emoji, and make all your words dance around, if you wish. You can also apply text formatting to emoji as well, which means that you can underline your emoji or use strikethrough, for example. If you apply the bold formatting, the underline and strikethrough lines become thicker.
Sometimes, determining which projects you should devote your time and energy to first takes energy you don’t have to spare (which is why we have tips for how to do it). But even when you know what tasks need to be done, you still need to figure out how to prioritize them. Try the 3-3-3 method.
What is the 3-3-3 method?
This technique comes from Oliver Burkeman, author of Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals($13.99). He advocates planning each workday around a 3-3-3 model, first devoting three hours to deep work on your most important project. Next, complete three other urgent tasks that don’t require three hours of focus. Finally, do three “maintenance” tasks, like cleaning, answering emails, or scheduling other work.
To figure out which tasks are which, I recommend using a prioritization method like the Eisenhower matrix, which involves using a quadrant system to divvy up your responsibilities by urgency and importance. You'll want to consider not only how timely the things you need to do are, as well as how many resources they'll consume.
Why the 3-3-3 method works
What distinguishes this method from other productivity hacks are those first three hours of deep work. Jumping into them first means you’ll be fresh, focused, and more likely to be able to jump into a task without getting distracted. Keep those three hours free of emails, texts, chit-chat, or other menial duties, to the best of your ability. (Check out a full guide to engaging in deep work here.)
Deep work yields major productivity, so you’ll get a lot accomplished if you commit to it, but you can’t stay in that mindset forever. You’ll top out after about three hours, so it’s best to have those three other, smaller tasks lined up and ready to go so you can stay productive even while downshifting into less demanding responsibilities.
Finally, your maintenance tasks give you a chance to get things done while giving your brain a rest. This technique is similar to “eating the frog”—or doing your hardest task first thing—as you’ll feel the same sense of relief when moving onto lesser tasks. Use your maintenance time to prepare for the following day’s work or put finishing touches on whatever you were working on during those three hours of intense focus.
Although most people idealistically would like to use less water at home, it’s difficult to measure how successful you are on a day-to-day basis. Sure, your water bill each month reports your overall use and compares it to previous periods, but the bill won’t tell you what uses that water went toward. How much water is used on showers, irrigation, or possible leaks? If we really want to get better at conservation, the key is more specific reporting, and now there are tools to help you.
There are two ways water leaves your pipes: on purpose and because of a leak. Smart valves and sensors will look for those leaks and stop them when they happen by turning the water off, and will report, down 1/10 of a gallon, where you used your water. A number of options exist for this technology: A few of the most well-known are the Moen Flo, Phyn, Kohler H2Wise, and Flume 2. These devices are professionally installed along your water line near the turn-off valve (Phyn can be DIY installed), and then synced via wifi to an app on your phone. They report, in real time, where the water is going using algorithms to identify the water destination: toilet, shower, kitchen, pool, irrigation, etc. Every night, it performs a pressure test to ensure there isn’t a leak. When there’s a sudden unexpected water use, the app will contact you, and you can approve it, or it will shut the water off to prevent leaks or water damage.
First, Flo spends a week learning your water use, and setting a baseline of how much water you use and what is typical for your size household. I was using between 500-700 gallons a week during peak irrigation season. What I realized on hearing that was that I had no idea if this was a good amount or not, which tells you how out of touch I was with my own water consumption. Once Flo is done with the training period, the app will set a goal for you, and it gives you updates on how you’re hitting those water usage goals.
For the first few days, I was fascinated by the reporting tools on Flo. When the app misidentifies a water use, you can correct it, and over time, I found Flo got better at identifying where my water was going. Once a week, Flo would send me a report telling me how I was doing, and I was able to identify a few places I could cut down water usage (such as turning the water off while I was hand-scrubbing dishes). Actually seeing how much water an outdoor waterpad for my dog used was helpful. Because irrigation was going off at odd times, I also got to experience what it’s like when Flo thinks there’s a water leak. Not only did I get an email and a text message, but an actual phone call, too. If I hadn’t responded to any of the outreach, Flo would have just turned the water off and then I could turn it back on using the button on the physical unit or my app, but I appreciated how hard they worked to alert me. Even though we’re headed into the hottest part of summer, I’ve cut down my water use by about 15% by just being more aware of where it’s going.
Smart weather watering stations
During the summer, one of the main places your water is going is your yard or pool. There’s an enormous amount of water consumption in gardens and grass, and most people use timers that turn the water on and off at set times, regardless of the moisture levels in the ground or air and whether the plants actually need all that water. Smart watering stations will fix that by syncing to local weather stations and changing the watering based on the temperature, humidity, and rain. My Hydrawise watering station reports daily on how much water was saved by using local weather conditions, and it’s impressive at the end of the season. There are a number of companies making these devices, including:
Water leak detectors aren’t new, but smart water leak detectors are. These sit on a flat surface and act as sensors. When they sense water, they can trigger an alarm, or shut off, or flash lights—any automation your other smart devices are capable of. Since water leaks are a leading cause of home damage, getting to the leaks early is helpful. Placing water sensors under your water heater or sinks are a good idea, but also consider near your toilets, bathtubs, or automated planters.
One of the newest features in iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia is iPhone Mirroring, which allows you to connect your iPhone directly to your Mac, giving you complete control of it right from your desktop. Apple debuted the feature at this June's WWDC, but now it's finally here via the second iOS 18 dev beta. Here’s how to try it out.
How to use iPhone Mirroring in iOS 18
Before you can begin using iPhone Mirroring, you need to install at least iOS 18 dev beta 2. Newer versions of the beta will also include the feature, but you’ll need to be running at least beta 2 to get a first look at it. Additionally, you’ll also need to have a Mac running macOS Sequoia dev beta 2 or newer. I recommend installing these betas on backup machines if possible, as using them risks instability and crashes.
Once fall rolls around and both of these operating systems are fully released, everyone will be able to access them without needing a beta.
Follow the instructions here to install the iOS 18 beta. To install the MacOS Sequoia beta, open System Settings on your Mac, then navigate to General > Software Update and click Beta updates. Select the latest macOS Sequoia developer beta. Make sure you back up your Mac first, as betas are known to be buggy, and you may need to revert later on if you find yourself dealing with especially annoying issues.
With the beta installed, you can finally start using iPhone Mirroring. First, find the appropriately named iPhone Mirroring application in the Launchpad menu on your Mac.
Credit: Joshua Hawkins
Alternatively, use the search bar at the top to find it directly. Your Mac may also have it on the dock when you first update to the latest version of macOS Sequoia.
The first time you launch iPhone Mirroring, you’ll need to go through an initial setup process. This process will tell you what you can do when your iPhone is mirrored on your Mac. To connect your iPhone to your Mac, ensure that both your iPhone and your Mac are close to each other, connected to the same Wi-Fi signal, have Bluetooth turned on, and are signed in with the same Apple ID.
You should see a screen that tells you to unlock your iPhone to continue. Type in your iPhone’s passcode on the device, and then click the GetStarted button when the screen displays iPhone Mirroring is Ready to Use.
Credit: Joshua Hawkins
If everything is set up correctly, your iPhone should appear in a small window on your Mac’s display. You’ll also get a pop-up asking if you want to authenticate the connection every time you connect or if you want it to authenticate automatically. For the easiest access, choose the latter, but for more security, go ahead and require authentication.
And that’s it. Your iPhone is now connected to your Mac via iPhone Mirroring. Now you can interact directly with your iPhone on your Mac display.
What can you do with iPhone Mirroring?
When you have your iPhone connected via the iPhone Mirroring app, you’ll be able to receive notifications from your iPhone directly on your Mac. You’ll also be able to drag and drop files and other content directly from your iPhone right to your Mac’s desktop and vice versa—although this feature isn’t currently available at the time of this article’s writing.
You can also watch videos from your iPhone directly on your Mac—which might sound silly, but the video and audio quality was actually very impressive when I tested it out.
Overall, iPhone Mirroring gives you a way to control your iPhone without having to physically pick it up—which can be great for quickly responding to messages and other things while typing away on your Mac. It might also be helpful for temporarily getting more precise control over specific apps, like video editors.
There are some limitations, though. You can’t control your iPhone on your Mac with it unlocked. You’ll have to lock it and leave it alone to control it. Additionally, you can’t access your iPhone's camera or microphone when it is connected to your Mac, and there’s currently no way to resize the iPhone Mirroring window, either. You also can’t enter edit mode on the home screen, so you won't be able to customize what your screen looks like from your Mac. Additionally, landscape mode only works with some apps—like YouTube, which automatically switches to landscape when you enter fullscreen mode.
Credit: Joshua Hawkins
But, considering this is our first real world look at iPhone Mirroring, it’s still impressive how well it works. Things were a little laggy for me at times, but that could also come down to the overall connection between my Wi-Fi and Bluetooth—it could also just be beta issues that will be sorted out further down the line.
I’m going to be first in line to see Fly Me to the Moon when it opens on July 12. Judging from the trailer, the movie tells a lighthearted, but believable tale of how and why NASA might have faked the moon landing. The clip even offers a tongue-in-cheek nod to the conspiracy theorists who are going to eat this movie up like buttered popcorn.
By creating fictional characters based on real people and mixing actual details of the governments’ attempts to “sell” the moon landing to the public with fanciful elements and a “they faked the whole thing” conclusion, Fly Me to the Moon will keep soft-headed people saying “That’s exactly how it happened!” for years, even if the movie is clearly intended as a joke. (Conspiracy theorists are not famous for their senses of humor.)
Five movies that have shaped conspiracy theories
Conspiracy theorists usually aren’t very creative either, so they’ve always borrowed heavily from movies when it comes time to build out their paranoid worldviews. Where you and I see entertainment, they see veiled revelations and covert agendas—confirmation that their weirdest ideas are the truth. To get ready for next month's disinformation campaign, let's delve into five science fiction films that have significantly influenced conspiracy theorists and explore the connections between these cinematic tales and real world beliefs .
Metropolis (1927)
Fritz Lang’s vision of a world where the careless elite live in glittering skyscrapers while the lowly proles toil in misery below has been influencing conspiracy theorist for nearly 100 years. While I don’t imagine most modern conspiracy theorists are actively checking out silent German cinema from the 1920s, Metropolis influenced every science fiction film that followed, and the whole conspiracy theory blueprint is laid out in the movie: There's the way robot-Maria controls the citizenry’s minds, the simplified portrayal of the class system meant as illustration but taken as literal truth, the use of esoteric imagery of the Tower of Babel and the Whore of Babylon—fringe thinkers love connecting things to misunderstood antiquity. It's all there.
Where to stream: The Roku Channel, Tubi, Pluto TV, Plex, Kino Film, digital rental
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
This 1962 film heavily shaped the public’s idea of “brainwashing." Shadowy actors covertly influencing the minds of innocent people through nefarious mechanisms is present in just about every conspiracy theory, usually because it’s the only explanation for why the SHEEPLE don’t see the TRUTH that’s right in FRONT OF THEM. (All-caps is another dead giveaway.) But The Manchurian Candidate’s portrayal of brainwashing and mind control isn’t especially accurate or useful. How people’s thoughts can and can’t be manipulated is way more complex and nuanced than the film portrays. It’s a shame that the CIA destroyed (or HID) most of the results of its (very real) research on mind control, because if you do a deep dive on “Project Paperclip” and other covert influence programs, it starts to feel like the research actually came to the depressing conclusion that esoteric methods like hypnosis, “truth serums,” secret LSD dosing, and similarly gross human rights violations don’t work as well as just beating confessions out of people.
Where to stream: MGM+, The Criterion Channel, Tubi, digital rental
Capricorn One (1978)
Moon landing conspiracy theories began with the publication of Rockedyne employee Bill Kaysing's pamphlet “We Never Went to the Moon." It was popular enough to inspire the release of 1978 O.J. Simpson vehicle Capricorn One, a movie in which the government fakes a mission to Mars to ensure the space program will continue to be funded. (A quaint idea; why would they even care what the public thought?) The film went on to inspire further moon landing conspiracy theories in an unholy feedback loop, including one that posited the film The Shining was Stanley Kubrick's covert admission that he'd helped NASA create the footage of the astronauts bouncing across the lunar surface. Capricorn One is cheesy treat for fans of 1970s science fiction, but seen through modern eyes, it disproves moon landing conspiracy theories by demonstrating how impossible it would have been to convincingly fake footage of a space mission—this was a big budget production where they really tried for realism, but Capricorn One’s Mars mission looks fake as hell.
British pseudo-documentary Alternative 3 is another conspiracy theory blueprint movie. Not many people saw the original broadcast—it was only aired in the U.K. and Australia— but its ideas are still resonating in conspiracy circles. The film begins with an investigation of the mysterious disappearance of 24 British scientists and ends with a shadowy secret government program that sees the elites running off to colonies on the moon and Mars to escape global warming. In Alternative 3, the moon landings are legitimate, but are only undertaken as a smoke screen to cover up the real space program. So Alternative 3 has secret space programs, a shadowy cabal of rich people pulling the strings, slave colonies on the moon, and even aliens, all of which became gospel to a certain variety of fringe thinkers. It’s easy to see why it's been so influential. It’s a really well done film (check out how this movie brilliantly faked a Mars landing.) Here in the U.S., the “novelization” of the film was released in the form of (fictional) secret documents and quickly became a bestseller. Due to an error involving the publication date that affected some bookstore chains, it was put on store shelves early, then quickly removed, leading to hysteria among the fringe newsletters and reactionary radio shows that made up the pre-internet conspiracy theory community. It sure looked like the government censored the book’s release.
Unlike Alternative 3, few people believe 1999’s The Matrix is literally a documentary, but if you accept the premise of the film—that reality itself is suspect so you can’t trust even your own senses—that doesn’t matter. The idea of alternative realities wasn’t invented by The Matrix, but the movie packaged it so attractively that it spread even among people who normally wouldn’t be considering such esoteric ideas. The idea that you have “taken the red pill” and can see the real reality where the rest of us are stuck in our pods being fed a stream of fake sensory information is intoxicating to some, both because it removes the cognitive dissonance that comes from having your beliefs challenged, and it helps explains why everyone backs away from you when you start telling them about how they faked the moon landing.
The whole point of cloud-based devices like Chromebooks is to give you a window on to the web that's as uncluttered and straightforward to use as possible. That means ChromeOS doesn't come with the masses of software and settings options that you'll find packed into Windows or macOS. However, it still offers a number of settings you can adjust to make it work better for you.
These customizations cover everything from making ChromeOS a little easier on the eyes with themes, to boosting your productivity by putting your most-used apps within easy reach. Spend a little while working on these tweaks, and you'll end up with a Chromebook that feel much more your own.
How to change wallpapers and themes on Chromebook
Wallpaper and screensaver settings.Credit: Lifehacker
Desktop wallpaper is perhaps the most obvious way to customize your computer, and it's not difficult to switch up your backdrop on ChromeOS: Click with two fingers on the touchpad while the cursor is on a blank area of the desktop, then choose Set wallpaper and style from the menu that pops up.
The next screen lets you customize the ChromeOS wallpaper and screensaver in a variety of ways. For the wallpaper, for example, you can pick a new image from your Google Drive or opt for a solid color—and if you're using a Chromebook Plus laptop, you can also use generative AI to create something completely new.
Next, adjust the theme of the Chrome browser in ChromeOS (you can do this in Chrome on Windows and macOS too). Click the three dots in the top right corner of any browser window, then navigate to Settings > Appearance > Themes. These themes change the colors of the Chrome menus, toolbars, tab header bar and more, and you can cycle between them as often as you like.
How to pin your most used apps in ChromeOS
Pinning apps to the shelf.Credit: Lifehacker
Gathering your most-used apps front and center can be hugely useful, saving you a little bit of time every time you access one of them. ChromeOS allows you to accomplish thin using the Pin setting. When you've got an app open on the ChromeOS shelf, click on it using a two-finger press on the touchpad, then choose Pin—that app will henceforth remain available on the shelf, even when it's not open.
You can do something similar with the apps in the app drawer that opens up when you click the circular Launcher button on the far left of the shelf: Click and drag the icons around to change their positions, putting your most-used ones up at the top, perhaps (the apps you've recently used are at the very top by default). You can also create folders by dragging app icons on top of one another.
One other taskbar tweak you might consider is changing where it appears on your screen. Place your cursor over the taskbar and click it with two fingers, then choose Shelf position. This allows you to move the taskbar to the left or right of the screen, rather than having it at the bottom. The Autohide shelf option on the same menu will hide the taskbar, Windows style, when it's not in use.
How to change your touchpad and keyboard settings in ChromeOS
Changing touchpad settings.Credit: Lifehacker
You're spend a lot of time using the touchpad and keyboard while you're operating your Chromebook, so you should customize them to your tastes. Click the time widget down in the bottom right corner, then the gear icon to access Settings and the Device menu, which has entries for the Touchpad and Keyboard.
Under Touchpad you can reverse the scrolling direction—absolutely essential for some, depending on what you're used to—and change the speed of movement registered by the touchpad too. There are also options for changing how a right-click is registered if you find two-finger clicking awkward
Head to the Keyboard menu to find more customization options: You're able to treat the top row of keys as function keys if you'd like, and change the actions that special keys such as Ctrl and Alt help to trigger. The keyboard repeat rate can also be configured from the same screen.
More ChromeOS settings you can adjust
Changing cursor size settings.Credit: Lifehacker
There are various other ways to customize ChromeOS. Click the time widget (bottom right), then the gear icon, then choose Search and Assistant; here it's possible to change your default search engine. Under Security and privacy, meanwhile, you can modify how the lock screen works (your can set Chromebook to automatically lock when the lid is shut, for example).
From the Apps screen, further down in settings, you can opt to have the apps that are open when you close down your Chromebook reappear when you boot it up again. Click Notifications to tailor the alerts that apps and ChromeOS itself are able to show you (and find a full guide to managing notifications on your Chromebook here).
The Accessibility menu has some useful customization options as well. It's possible to change the colors and zoom level used by ChromeOS, bring up an on-screen keyboard, change the size and color of the cursor, and more.
And one final customization worth mentioning: Click Advanced and Date and time from Settings, and you can switch between a 12-hour and 24-hour clock.
Max has an extensive lineup of new documentary content coming to the platform in July, starting with a new season of Hard Knocks (July 2), the unscripted sports series that goes behind the scenes of the NFL. This five-episode season, narrated by Liev Schreiber, follows the New York Giants during the 2024 offseason.
There are three HBO Original documentary films premiering on Max this month. First up is Quad Gods (July 10) about the world's first-ever fully quadriplegic e-sports team followed by Faye (July 13), a biographical film about the life and work of Oscar-winning actress Faye Dunaway featuring interviews with Dunaway and her family and friends. Finally, there's Wild Wild Space (July 17), which chronicles the race between the founders of Rocket Lab and Astra to send rockets into low-earth orbit.
On the Max side, catch the original three-episode docuseries Teen Torture Inc. (July 11), which gives voice to more survivors of the troubled teen industry, including rapper Bhad Bhabie.
Aside from documentaries, there's animated comic series Kite Man: Hell Yeah! (July 18), a Harley Quinn spinoff (with Cheers vibes) featuring the Batman villain and his girlfriend Golden Glider. The show is executive produced by Harley Quinn star Kaley Cuoco. On the film side, catch Love Lies Bleeding (July 19), a romantic dark comedy from A24 starring Kristen Stewart as a reclusive gym manager—and member of a crime family—who falls in love with a bodybuilder played by Katy O'Brian.
Here’s everything else coming to Max in July, including an extensive Shark Week 2024 lineup beginning on July 7 (and hosted by John Cena).
What’s coming to Max in July 2024
Arriving July 1
!Three Amigos! (1986)
17 Again (2009)
90 Day Fiance: The Other Way, Season 6 (TLC)
America’s Best Towns to Visit
As Good as It Gets (1997)
Babe (1995)
Batman and Harley Quinn (2017)
Batman: The Long Halloween, Part One (2021)
Batman: The Long Halloween, Part Two (2021)
Beowulf (2007)
Blended (2014)
Black Adam (2022)
Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Butterfield 8 (1960)
Candyman 3: Day of the Dead (1999)
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)
Chinatown (1974)
Cleopatra (1963)
The Company You Keep (2013)
The Craft (1996)
Cyrus (2010)
Deep Blue Sea (1999)
The Express (2008)
The Eyes of My Mother (2016)
Firestarter (1984)
Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)
Frank (2014)
Garden State (2004)
Gattaca (1997)
Giant (1956)
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)
Girl, Interrupted (1999)
The Glass Castle (2017)
Gods of Egypt (2016)
Good Luck Chuck (2007)
Grand Piano (2014)
Inside Job (2010)
Lady Bird (2017)
Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love (2019)
The Meg (2018)
Melancholia (2011)
Mortal Kombat (1995)
A Most Wanted Man (2014)
National Velvet (1944)
Network (1976)
Out of the Furnace (2013)
Panic Room (2002)
Parenthood (1989)
Please Stand By (2018)
Posse: The Revenge of Jessie Lee (1993)
Raging Bull (1980)
Rescue Dawn (2007)
The Rider (2018)
Saw (2004)
Saw 3D: The Final Chapter (2010)
Saw II (2005)
Saw III (2006)
Saw IV (2007)
Saw V (2008)
Saw VI (2009)
Signs (2002)
Single White Female (1992)
The Sixth Sense (1999)
The Smurfs (Movie) (2011)
Spy Kids (2001)
Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams (2002)
Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over (2003)
Spy Kids: All the Time in the World (2011)
The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)
To Sir, with Love (1967)
To the Wonder (2012)
Twister (1996)
Unbreakable (2000)
West Side Story (1961)
Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
Woodshock (2017)
Arriving July 2
Contraband: Seized at the Border, Season 4 (Discovery)
Hard Knocks: Offseason with the New York Giants (HBO Original)
Mecum Full Throttle: Indianapolis IN 2024 (Motor Trend)
Arriving July 3
Barnwood Builders, Season 18 (Magnolia Network)
Arriving July 5
Beachfront Bargain Hunt Renovation, Season 9 (Magnolia Network)
Care Bears: Unlock the Magic (Specials): The Star of a Thousand Wishes (2024)
Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, Season 48 (Food Network)
King of Zanzibar (Max Original)
Arriving July 7
Belly of the Beast: Bigger and Bloodier (Discovery)
Jaws vs. Leviathan (Discovery)
Makozilla (Discovery)
Sydney Harbor Shark Invasion (Discovery)
Arriving July 8
BBQ Brawl, Season 5 (Food Network)
Big Shark Energy (Discovery)
Bodies in the Water (ID)
Great White Serial Killer: Sea of Blood (Discovery)
Shark Frenzy: Mating Games (Discovery)
Signs of a Psychopath, Season 7 (ID)
Two Guys Garage, Season 23 (Motor Trend)
Arriving July 9
6000-Lb Shark (Discovery)
Bobby’s Triple Threat, Season 3 (Food Network)
Deadliest Bite (Discovery)
Monster Hammerheads: Species X (Discovery)
My Big Fat Fabulous Life, Season 12 (TLC)
Mecum Main Attractions: Indianapolis IN (Motor Trend)
Arriving July 10
Alien Sharks: Ghosts of Japan (Discovery)
Expedition Unknown: Shark Wrecks of WWII (Discovery)
Great White North (Discovery)
Quad Gods (HBO Original)
Arriving July 11
Caught! When Sharks Attack (Discovery)
Christina on the Coast, Season 5 (HGTV)
Great White Danger Zone (Discovery)
MILF of Norway, Season 1 (Max Original)
Monster of Oz (Discovery)
Teen Torture Inc. (Max Original)
Arriving July 12
Shark Attack Island (Discovery)
Sharks of the Dead Zone (Discovery)
The Real Sharkano (Discovery)
Arriving July 13
Faye (HBO Original)
Mothersharker: Hammertime (Discovery)
Sharktopia (Discovery)
Arriving July 14
Alex vs. America, Season 4 (Food Network)
In the Eye of the Storm, Season 1 (Discovery)
Mary Makes It Easy, Season 4 (Food Network)
Arriving July 15
Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths Part Two (2024)
Arriving July 16
The Black Widower: The Six Wives of Thomas Randolph, Season 1 (ID)
Welcome to Plathville, Season 6 (TLC)
Arriving July 17
Wild Wild Space (HBO Original)
Arriving July 18
Kite Man: Hell Yeah! Season 1 (Max Original)
The Commandant's Shadow
Arriving July 19
Love Lies Bleeding (A24)
Arriving July 21
Forbidden Love, Season 1 (TLC)
Arriving July 22
Fatal Affairs, Season 1 (ID)
Arriving July 23
Chopped, Season 58 (Food Network)
Secrets & Spies: A Nuclear Game (CNN Originals)
Arriving July 24
Charlie Hustle & The Matter of Pete Rose (HBO Original)
Guy’s Grocery Games, Season 36 (Food Network)
Arriving July 25
Full Custom Garage, Season 4 (Motor Trend)
Mecum Full Throttle: Kissimmee Summer Special 2024 (Motor Trend)
Hulu's original content in July is rich for true crime lovers, beginning with Mastermind: To Think Like a Killer (July 11), which goes behind the scenes of the work of psychiatric nurse, professor, and expert serial killer profiler Dr. Ann Burgess. The series is executive produced by Dakota and Elle Fanning.
Then, watch How I Caught My Killer (July 18), a docuseries highlighting unique homicide cases ultimately solved by the victims—and the systems that failed them. Finally, there's Betrayal: A Father's Secret (July 30), the second season based on the podcast of the same name. The docuseries follows Ashley Lytton as she uncovers the truth about her husband Jason.
Game show fans may enjoy the series premiere of Lucky 13 (July 19), a high-stakes trivia contest hosted by Shaquille O’Neal and Gina Rodriguez on ABC. For animated content at the beginning of the month, catch the three-episode series premiere of Land of Tanabata (July 4), adapted from the Hitoshi Iwasaki manga. At the end, there's the season 12 premiere of Futurama (July 29), which was revived in 2023 and is returning for an additional ten episodes.
Here’s everything else coming to (and leaving) Hulu in July, including the premiere of season 21 of The Bachelorette (July 9).
What’s coming to Hulu in July 2024
Arriving July 1
Attack of the Red Sea Sharks: Special Premiere
Baby Sharks in the City: Special Premiere
Shark Attack 360: Special Premiere
Shark Beach with Anthony Mackie: Special Premiere
Shark vs. Ross Edgley: Special Premiere
Sharks Gone Viral: Special Premiere
Supersized Sharks: Special Premiere
Blippi Anniversary Compilations
Blippi NASA Episodes
Blippi Wonderful World Tour
Oshi no Ko: Complete Season 1
(500) Days Of Summer, 2009
2012, 2009
Alien: Covenant, 2017
Aliens, 1986
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, 2007
Alita: Battle Angel, 2019
Angels & Demons, 2009
Aniara, 2018
Behind Enemy Lines, 2001
The Big Wedding, 2013
Bohemian Rhapsody, 2018
The Cable Guy, 1996
Couples Retreat, 2009
Courage Under Fire, 1996
Cry Macho, 2021
The Da Vinci Code, 2006
Ford v Ferrari, 2019
Funny People, 2009
Garden State, 2004
Get Out, 2017
The Guilty, 2018
Hail Satan?, 2019
Just Go With It, 2011
The Man Who Knew Too Little, 1997
Margaret, 2011
The Monuments Men, 2014
Mortal Engines, 2018
The Namesake, 2007
Predators, 2010
The Predator, 2018
Rough Night, 2017
The Salt Of The Earth, 2015
Sex Tape, 2014
Shanghai Knights, 2003
Shanghai Noon, 2000
Sonic the Hedgehog 2, 2022
Source Code, 2011
Step Brothers, 2008
Super Troopers, 2002
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, 2006
Tangerine, 2015
Tragedy Girls, 2017
Wrath Of The Titans, 2012
Arriving July 2
The Tunnel to Summer, The Exit of Goodbyes, 2022
Arriving July 3
Red Swan: Two-Episode Series Premiere
After The First 48: Season 8B
Dark Gathering: Complete Season 1 (Subbed & Dubbed)
The Eminence in Shadow: Complete Season 2 (Subbed & Dubbed)
Kennedy: Complete Season 1
Kocktails with Khloé: Complete Season 1
Neighborhood Wars: Complete Season 5
Reincarnated as a Sword: Complete Season 1 (Subbed & Dubbed)
The Toys That Built America: Complete Season 3
Arriving July 4
Land of Tanabata: Three-Episode Series Premiere
Arriving July 5
20/20 True Crime Collection: Betrayed: Special Premiere
Cellphone, 2024
The Monk and the Gun, 2023
Muzzle
Arriving July 7
Ip Man: Kung Fu Master, 2019
Arriving July 8
13 Assassins, 2010
Jesus Camp, 2006
The Queen Of Versailles, 2012
Arriving July 9
The Bachelorette: Season 21 Premiere
Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar, 2021
Arriving July 10
Celebrity Family Feud: Season 10 Premiere
Family Feud: Decades of Laughs: Special Premiere
Sasha Reid and the Midnight Order: Series Premiere
Arriving July 11
Mastermind: To Think Like a Killer: Complete Docuseries
Claim to Fame: Season 3 Premiere
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire: Season 23 Premiere
The Animal Kingdom, 2023
Tyrel, 2018
Arriving July 12
Casey Anthony's Parents: The Lie Detector Test: Special Premiere
HIP - High Intellectual Potential: Complete Season 1-3
Inmate to Roommate: Complete Season 1
The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard: Complete Season 1
Road Wars: Complete Season 2
Fast Charlie, 2023
Fern Brady: Power & Chaos, 2021
Iliza's Locals (Ep. 1), 2023
Iliza's Locals (Ep. 2), 2023
Iliza's Locals (Ep. 3), 2023
Mark Normand: Out To Lunch, 2020
Scrambled
Arriving July 15
Hit-Monkey: Complete Season 2
Bloom Into You: Complete Season 1 (Subbed & Dubbed)
I'm Quitting Heroing: Complete Season 1 (Subbed & Dubbed)
Ya Boy Kongming!: Complete Season 1 (Subbed & Dubbed)
Arriving July 17
Unprisoned: Complete Season 2
Arriving July 18
How I Caught My Killer: Complete Season 2
Girl in the Video
I Killed My BFF: Complete Season 4
MeetMarryMurder: Season 1B
Mountain Men: Complete Season 12
The Quake, 2018
Arriving July 19
Epcot Becoming: Inside the Transformation: Special Premiere
Lucky 13: Series Premiere
Press Your Luck: Season 6 Premiere
The American, 2023
Bring Him to Me
Cult Killer, 2024
Arriving July 23
Dress My Tour: Complete Season 1
Femme, 2023
Arriving July 25
Wayne Brady: The Family Remix: Series Premiere
Court Cam: Complete Season 6
The Return of Shelby the Swamp Man: Complete Seaason 1
The UnXplained Special Presentation: Special Premiere
Lousy Carter, 2023
Arriving July 26
Playground: Complete Season 1
Ben Roy: Hyena, 2023
Brittany Schmitt: From Ho To Housewife, 2022
Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song, 2021
Kyle Kinane: Shocks & Struts, 2023
The Origin of Evil
Sleeping Dogs, 2024
Tim Heidecker: An Evening With Tim Heidecker, 2020
In iOS 15.1, Apple introduced the SharePlay feature, which added a slew of content sharing options to FaceTime, allowing users to watch movies and television together. Now, in iOS 18, Apple is expanding those options to include screen sharing and even the option to pass off control of the screen to others within your call. Here’s how to use it.
How to use SharePlay’s Screen Share feature
First and foremost, SharePlay’s latest features are currently only available as part of the iOS 18 (or iPadOS 18) developer beta. More specifically, you’ll need to have at least beta 2 or newer installed to take advantage of the new features, as Apple only made them available recently.
I recommend only installing these betas on backup devices, as they could introduce instability to your main device. Once you have a device you're comfortable putting a beta on, follow these instructions to install it.
With the beta installed, you can now share your screen in Facetime, but with some caveats:
The screen sharing functionality does not appear to allow you to share you screen with Macs just yet. This will likely change in future betas.
Other users within the call must also be on iOS 18 (or iPadOS 18) dev beta 2 or newer.
Once you've met these requirements, you can start sharing your screen by beginning a FaceTime call with someone using a supported device.
Next, tap the Share icon, which is at the top of the screen, next to the End button.
Tap Share My Screen and then swipe out of Facetime. Your iPhone’s display should now appear on the other person’s device.
Once you're sharing your screen, there are two main functions at your disposal. First, you can annotate parts of the screen by drawing on the display using your finger or the Apple Pencil. This allows you to point specifically to areas you might want the person you're calling to tap on, and could be helpful in tech support.
Second, you can try the new Remote Control option.
How to use SharePlay’s Remote Control feature
To use SharePlay’s Remote Control feature, the user not sharing their screen will need to request control from the sharer. Just tap on the small hand-shaped icon located in the top-right corner of the shared screen (it’s right next to the magnifying glass icon). The sharer will receive a notification, where they will be able to approve or deny the control request.
From there, both users can share control of the device. This means you can now directly walk your aunt through the steps to solve her iPhone problems anytime she has them. However, be aware that there is a slight pause when handing control over to someone else. This should hopefully help avoid unintended swipes from the user who isn't in control. It could also just be a limitation of the beta at its current moment. Future updates will hopefully provide a bit more clarity there.
There are quite a few use cases for SharePlay’s Remote Control functionality—most notable being walking people through tech issues on their devices, as I mentioned above. As someone who has become the default “tech support guy” in my family, I’m very happy to see Apple making it so easy to interact with friends and family’s devices through Facetime.
During college when the weather would warm up for three whole seconds in upstate New York, my friends and I would journey out to get garbage plates. Yes, this dish looks a lot like the name suggests—opening the trash can after a backyard party—but for a certain type of person, this dish is a menagerie of summer delights. I am that person, and maybe you are too. I’d like to invite you into a world where all of your favorite BBQ foods can live together on one plate. Join me, won’t you?
The Rochester garbage plate, also called a trash plate, is a point of pride for upstate New York. It’s said to have originated at Nick Tahou Hots, though I don’t know if anyone else is competing for the title. My friends and I would get it at a random roadside drive-in-esque situation.
A garbage plate consists of all the classic yard party favorites: a grilled cheeseburger, hot dog, or sausage nested upon some home fries (or French fries), sharing space with a mound of macaroni salad, and a scoop of baked beans. Beef chili is ladled over the top along with chopped raw onions, and a streak of yellow mustard. This combination may be horrifying for some, but others have been eating barbecue sides in this manner their whole lives.
While you might not subscribe to the original version of the garbage plate (I get it, baked beans, mustard, and macaroni salad might be a tad offensive), I do believe that a garbage plate is completely open to interpretation. Even Nick Tahou Hots’ order form shows a wide variety of options, including a grilled cheese or fried ham. No matter the person, there is some glorious combination of side dishes out there for everyone. Which means that hosting a build-your-own-garbage-plate station at your next cookout is a good and smart idea.
To make a great garbage plate consider the formula: a grilled protein + a salad of sorts (preferably mayonnaise-coated)+ fried or roasted potatoes + sauce. Serve up some barbecued chicken thighs, fried fish, tofu planks, or soy sauce glazed pork belly. I love macaroni salad, but you could offer a German-style potato salad instead or even coleslaw. I don’t know who’s going to argue with fries or roasted potatoes—they’re gluten-free and vegan—so those can stay, and the sauce is up to you. The classic “hot sauce” is like a spicy ground beef chili, but you could offer a vegetarian chili, or for a lighter take, I’d recommend pico de gallo or salsa verde.
If you decide to have the classic garbage plate offerings available, there’s no need to stress it—you can buy almost all of the components pre-made from the deli section of your grocery store. However, if you’re doing parts of it homemade, the best tip I ever took was from A.A. Newton on macaroni salad: Make sure to overcook your pasta.
If you’re looking for the Wordle answer for June 26, 2024 read on. We’ll share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solution. Today’s puzzle is harder; I got it in five. Beware, there are spoilers below for June 26, Wordle #1,103! Keep scrolling if you want some hints (and then the answer) to today’s Wordle game.
Start by guessing a five-letter word. The letters of the word will turn green if they’re correct, yellow if you have the right letter in the wrong place, or gray if the letter isn’t in the day’s secret word at all. For more, check out our guide to playing Wordle here, and my strategy guide here for more advanced tips. (We also have more information at the bottom of this post, after the hints and answers.)
Ready for the hints? Let’s go!
Does today’s Wordle have any unusual letters?
We’ll define common letters as those that appear in the old typesetters’ phrase ETAOIN SHRDLU. (Memorize this! Pronounce it “Edwin Shirdloo,” like a name, and pretend he’s a friend of yours.)
Four of today's letters are from our mnemonic! The other one is less common.
Can you give me a hint for today’s Wordle?
A step in baking bread.
Does today’s Wordle have any double or repeated letters?
There are no repeated letters today.
How many vowels are in today’s Wordle?
There are two vowels.
What letter does today’s Wordle start with?
Today’s word starts with K.
What letter does today’s Wordle end with?
Today’s word ends with D.
What is the solution to today’s Wordle?
Ready? Today’s word is KNEAD.
How I solved today’s Wordle
I started with RAISE, followed by NOTCH and PLUGS to eliminate likely consonants (and the remaining vowels, by extension). Next I tried MIKED based on letters remaining in possible solutions, which left KNEAD as the answer.
Wordle 1,103 5/6
⬛🟨⬛⬛🟨
🟨⬛⬛⬛⬛
⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
⬛⬛🟨🟨🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Yesterday’s Wordle answer
Yesterday’s Wordle was easier. The hint was “something you might do with an incredible meal” and the answer contained four common letters and one uncommon letter.
The answer to yesterday’s Wordle was SAVOR.
A primer on Wordle basics
The idea of Wordle is to guess the day’s secret word. When you first open the Wordle game, you’ll see an empty grid of letters. It’s up to you to make the first move: type in any five-letter word.
Now, you can use the colors that are revealed to get clues about the word: Green means you correctly guessed a letter, and it’s in the correct position. (For example, if you guess PARTY, and the word is actually PURSE, the P and R will be green.)
Yellow means the letter is somewhere in the word, but not in the position you guessed it. (For example, if you guessed PARTY, but the word is actually ROAST, the R, A and T will all be yellow.)
Gray means the letter is not in the solution word at all. (If you guessed PARTY and everything is gray, then the solution cannot be PURSE or ROAST.)
With all that in mind, guess another word, and then another, trying to land on the correct word before you run out of chances. You get six guesses, and then it’s game over.
The best starter words for Wordle
What should you play for that first guess? The best starters tend to contain common letters, to increase the chances of getting yellow and green squares to guide your guessing. (And if you get all grays when guessing common letters, that’s still excellent information to help you rule out possibilities.) There isn’t a single “best” starting word, but the New York Times’s Wordle analysis bot has suggested starting with one of these:
CRANE
TRACE
SLANT
CRATE
CARTE
Meanwhile, an MIT analysis found that you’ll eliminate the most possibilities in the first round by starting with one of these:
SALET
REAST
TRACE
CRATE
SLATE
Other good picks might be ARISE or ROUND. Words like ADIEU and AUDIO get more vowels in play, but you could argue that it’s better to start with an emphasis on consonants, using a starter like RENTS or CLAMP. Choose your strategy, and see how it plays out.
How to win at Wordle
We have a few guides to Wordle strategy, which you might like to read over if you’re a serious student of the game. This one covers how to use consonants to your advantage, while this one focuses on a strategy that uses the most common letters. In this advanced guide, we detail a three-pronged approach for fishing for hints while maximizing your chances of winning quickly.
The biggest thing that separates Wordle winners from Wordle losers is that winners use their guesses to gather information about what letters are in the word. If you know that the word must end in -OUND, don’t waste four guesses on MOUND, ROUND, SOUND, and HOUND; combine those consonants and guess MARSH. If the H lights up in yellow, you know the solution.
One more note on strategy: the original Wordle used a list of about 2,300 solution words, but after the game was bought by the NYT, the game now has an editor who hand-picks the solutions. Sometimes they are slightly tricky words that wouldn’t have made the original list, and sometimes they are topical. For example, FEAST was the solution one Thanksgiving. So keep in mind that there may be a theme.
Wordle alternatives
If you can’t get enough of five-letter guessing games and their kin, the best Wordle alternatives, ranked by difficulty, include:
Dordle and Quordle, which ask you to play two (Dordle) or four (Quordle) puzzles at the same time, with the same guesses. There is also Octordle, with eight puzzles, and Sedecordle, with 16.
Absurdle, which changes the solution after each guess, but needs to stay consistent with its previous feedback. You have to strategically back it into a corner until there is only one possible word left; then you guess it, and win.
Disney+ is relatively light on new content in July compared to recent months, though new episodes of Lucasfilm's The Acolyte will continue weekly on Tuesdays (episodes drop at 6 p.m. PT) through July 16.
Also a highlight is Descendants: The Rise of Red (July 12), a fantasy musical and fourth film in The Descendants franchise (the other three of which are arriving on the platform on the same day). Descendants: The Rise of Red features Kylie Cantrall as the daughter of Alice in Wonderland's Queen of Hearts and Malia Baker as the daughter of Cinderella and Prince Charming.
Finally, Disney+ will be live streaming the NFL Flag Football Championship (featuring 15U boys and 18U girls) from 3-5 p.m. PT on July 21.
Here’s everything coming to Disney+ in July 2024, including Bluey Minisodes (July 3), a collection of seven one-to-three minute shorts featuring Bluey and Bingo.
Disney Plus series with new episodes weekly in July 2024
The Acolyte—Tuesdays
Movies and complete series/seasons coming to Disney Plus in July 2024
Arriving July 1
SHARKFEST
Attack of the Red Sea Sharks
Baby Sharks in the City
Shark Attack 360 (S1, 8 episodes)
Shark Beach with Anthony Mackie: Gulf Coast
Shark vs. Ross Edgley
Sharks Gone Viral
Supersized Sharks
Arriving July 3
Bluey Minisodes
Arriving July 12
Disney Descendants (Sing-Along Version)
Disney Descendants 2 (Sing-Along Version)
Descendants 3 (Sing-Along Version)
Descendants: The Rise of Red
Arriving July 15
Angels in the Outfield
Arriving July 17
America’s Funniest Home Videos (S27-29, 66 episodes)
Runners often swear by the 80/20 rule for organizing their training—but this is no relation to the Pareto principle of the same name. Let’s talk about where the 80/20 idea comes from, how to implement it, and when it is and isn’t a good idea to train this way.
What is the 80/20 rule for running?
Briefly, it’s the idea that 80% of your running should be low intensity, and only 20% at medium or high intensity. Recreational runners (like you and me) often run closer to a 50/50 split. The 80/20 rule suggests that we should take some of those faster runs and slow them the heck down to reach a better training balance.
The 80/20 rule was popularized in a 2014 book, 80/20 Running, by Matt Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald, in turn, based his recommendations off research by Stephen Seiler, who found that elite athletes in a variety of endurance sports, including running, cycling, and cross-country skiing, did about 80% of their training sessions at intensities much lower than they would ever use in racing. In other words: To train your body to go fast, you have to log a lot of miles going slow. This is similar to the idea of “polarized training,” which means that you stick to the extremes—either working very easy, or very hard, rather than spending much time in the in-between.
Note that 80/20 here only refers to how you split up your training: 80% easy versus 20% hard. This is not the Pareto principle, which states that 80% of your results come from 20% of your…whatever. (80% of sales coming from 20% of customers, 80% of your needs met by 20% of the stuff you own, etc.) In running, there is only really one result—your race time—so the question is just how to split up your training time. 80% easy and 20% hard is the balance that, Fitzgerald and Seidler would argue, will get you the best race times.
What counts as low intensity for the 80%?
If you’ve been paying attention to the “zone 2” trend, you’re probably thinking you should be in zone 2 (arguably 60-70% of your max heart rate) for 80% of your training. And you know what? That will get you close enough. Go with it.
But the definitions more often used in the scientific research aren’t based on heart rate alone. Some of them use metrics we can’t easily measure on our own—go ahead, try to keep your blood lactate below 2 millimoles per liter.
What’s more useful—and still borne out by research—is to use VT1, the “first ventilatory threshold.” That’s a fancy word for what old heads will know as the “talk test.” If you can carry on a conversation without taking extra breaths mid-sentence, you’re below VT1. That’s what 80% of your training should feel like.
I know that’s not enough information for the more data-minded among you, so I’ll note that Fitzgerald reported in his book that this level is often found around 77% to 79% of elites’ max heart rate. The exact number might vary from person to person, and heart rate numbers are never totally objective, since they can be affected by heat and stress among other things. But as a gut check, 77% of my own known, tested max puts me around 153, which matches shockingly well to what I consider my easy pace—I try to stay in the low 150’s for my easy runs.
Taking this information together, it turns out we can go a bit higher than “zone 2” and still be at the right intensity for the 80% part of our 80/20 running—as long as it truly feels easy. If you’d like, you could customize your zones on your running watch so that you have a zone that tops out at 77% or so. (It might even make more sense for that to be zone 3 rather than zone 2.)
How to train with the 80/20 rule
Before we can divvy up our training, we need to decide how we’re measuring our training. Are we aiming for easy runs to be 80% of our training sessions? 80% of our miles? 80% of our total training time?
Fitzgerald, in his book, counted up minutes in easy, moderate, and hard intensity levels. But if you’re doing an interval run, he counted the intervals and the recovery between them as part of your harder intensity work. (A cooldown after those intervals would count as low intensity, though.)
So you can do the same. It would also get you in the right ballpark to think in terms of miles or sessions. If you do one hard run for every four easy runs, you’re still doing 80/20 (as long as those runs are roughly similar in mileage).
How important is it to stick to the 80/20 rule?
Even though it’s called a “rule,” this isn’t a thing you have to follow. It’s just one way of training that matches what a lot of elite athletes do. There has also been research showing that recreational runners can benefit—but that doesn’t mean it’s the only way to train.
Seidler, the researcher, even told Fitzgerald, the author, that if he could only train twice a week, he’d do a mix of harder and easier work in both sessions. Research on competitive recreational runners found that a 77/23 split and a 46/54 split both resulted in small improvements to 10K time, and the difference between groups was not statistically significant. That said, these folks had 10K times (that’s a 6.2-mile race) under 40 minutes to start, so they were pretty fast to start with, compared to a lot of beginner runners.
Meanwhile, there’s plenty of other research showing that casual runners can improve with almost any type of training, and that increasing your total mileage (measured in miles per week) is helpful for improving your fitness and your race times.
The bottom line
If you’re a runner with lots of room for improvement—which covers many of us beginner, intermediate, and casual runners—you don’t necessarily have to slow down 80% of your runs to a crawl. You can use any conversational pace that works for you, even if your watch says that’s zone 3. And since increasing mileage is usually part of improving as a runner, it may make more sense to think about adding easy miles, rather than turning your hard miles into easy ones.
It's been roughly a year since Reddit's API changes killed off all the good clients, and the company hasn't backed down yet. The problem: Reddit's mobile app and website can both be pretty annoying to use, thanks to a combination of bugs and intrusive engagement gimmicks.
Third party Reddit clients capable of posting and voting aren't coming back, but if you're more of a lurker, you should still check out RDX. This open source interface, available online or as an iOS app, lets you browse Reddit without having to actually open Reddit. This tool works around the recent API limitations by not actually using the API at all—it scrapes the actual JSON pages that constitute Reddit in order to present you with posts, comments, and media in a super clean format—a streamlined version of Reddit that loads instantly, even if you can't post (or interact with posts) while using it.
Credit: Justin Pot
By default, the service serves up r/all, which is just the most popular posts on the site at the moment. You can browse any subreddit directly—from within the app or using the web version, just tap or click the word "rdx" by the arrow in the top bar of the site and type the name of the community you want to browse. You will see suggestions as you type—pick the community you want or hit "Enter" to open the top match.
Credit: Justin Pot
There is also support for subscribing to subreddits, meaning you can customize the home page to show only posts from communities you care about. The application can even import your existing subscriptions from Reddit—the process takes about 30 seconds. Beyond that, you can choose custom color themes, fonts, and an infinite scroll mode. That's about it in terms of options, but the experience is still better than Reddit's first-party options.
But to reiterate, there's a big downside to RDX, at least for active Reddit users: You can't use the client to post, leave comments, or upvote/downvote. That won't change unless Reddit walks back the changes to its API. But if you're more of a lurker than a poster, RDX is near perfect—a lightweight, speedy alternative to the clutter of the standard Reddit user interface.
This week, I'm starting things off with a look at Brawl Stars. I know the game has been out for ages, but if you're like I was as of a few days ago, you have no idea what it is. Seems that without our knowledge, this mobile game has become so widely played among young people that an obsession with it is nearly universal.
Meanwhile, putting green onions in coffee and "raw-dogging" plane flights remain much more niche pursuits. Read on to learn all about all of it.
Everyone is playing Brawl Stars, but what is Brawl Stars?
I was talking with my kid the other day about the lack of communal experiences in current culture. I thought I was being wise in pointing out there are no longer as many of those unifying pop culture things like Star Wars or Nirvana that everyone either likes, or is at least is familiar with. He said, “Not true. I can walk up to any kid, anywhere, and say, ‘wanna play Brawl Stars?’ And their phone is coming out.”
So here’s the deal with Brawl Stars: It’s a cartoonish, multiplayer online battle arena game featuring 3-player teams fighting each other while operating under a bunch of different rule sets. It’s available on both Android and iPhone, and it’s free to play, but you can buy cosmetics upgrades with real money. There are reportedly 376 million registered users (For reference, Nirvana’s Nevermind sold 30 million copies.) Brawl Stars was created by a Finnish company called Supercell and published in 2018. To sum up: It’s Angry Birds, but for now.
What is Man the Game?
Unlike Brawl Stars, Man the Game is not actually a game. Or it wasn’t, until someone made it in into one. The name and concept comes from a “brain rot” meme created by TikToker @alexlussy that explores the nostalgia a person living in 2027 might have for 2025. One of the things they are nostalgic for is a PS5 game called Man the Game. The original poster included box art for both the original game and eventually for the sequels, but offered no details.
Naturally, TikTokers started running with the idea, and people started posting reviews and editorials about the controversy surrounding Man the Game 9, basically creating a fictional mini-universe in which the game exists. It also inspired the creation of an actual point-and-click Man the Game that you can play online. (Spoiler: It’s really stupid.)
So what does it all mean? Nothing really—school’s out, so young people have a lot of time on their hands. But if you want to take a deeper dive, here's more info.
People are putting onions in coffee and they must be stopped
There’s a new TikTok trend in which people are flavoring iced lattes with green onions. The basic recipe: mix up milk, espresso, ice, and a generous helping of green onions, then drink it all down! (Shudder.)
While scallions add nutritional content to the beverage, taste wise it sounds uniquely unappetizing—but that may be the point. The drink supposedly originated in China, where it’s part of the larger “dark cuisine” trend of combining foods in unusual ways, like blue soda chicken wings. According to this TikToker, dark cuisine is often employed as a way to curb people’s appetites to help them lose weight. Mission accomplished—I’m sure I’d take one sip of onion-coffee and throw the rest in the bin—but if you left the milk and the onions out of the iced coffee to begin with, it would taste great and contain no calories, so I’m not sure the logic works. Either way, I’m not going to try it, but some people on TikTok have given it a shot, and the reviews are mixed. Some people "don't hate it", others are like: “I can’t even fake any redeeming qualities. This is horrific.”
Travel trend: Raw-dogging plane flights
It’s hard to say how widespread this TikTok trendlet actually is, but some people are bragging online about “raw-dogging” long plane flights—that is, sitting there with no headphones, no movies, no book, no nothing. They just stare at the flight map and wait. Some even book the middle seat on purpose.
The aggressive music choices on most of these TikTok videos, coupled with their braggadocios tones, serve up “ain’t I hardcore?” vibes that indicate it might all be a joke, but even so, it’s also an interesting look at the cultural reaction to the ready availability of things meant to distract and entertain us. My first reaction to hearing about this was a blanket “that’s dumb,” but I thought about it a little more, and I’m not sure. Boasting about sitting on a plane and not at least reading a book may seem like a pathetic flex, but there’s been a lot of consideration lately, both online and off, about what we’re actually doing when we’re doing nothing. How do the supposed hits of dopamine we get from video games or social media affect us, and what are we missing when we reach for them at every opportunity?
It might seem like we’re not missing much on an airplane, but the chance to do literally nothing is rare. Before the adoption of seatback entertainment centers, smartphones, and tablets, airplanes used to enforce that on us. You’re alone with just your thoughts, which used to be the default state for almost everyone, almost all the time, but is now something to brag about, give a name to, and, I guess, post about on social media so others don';t have to be alone with their thoughts.
Viral video of the week: "I made the worlds most powerful soccer shoe"
This week’s viral video comes to us from YouTuber I Did a Thing, and it’s part of one of my favorite genres of online video: mad engineering. In these videos, people make the kinds of ridiculous inventions you might have daydreamed about in homeroom, like a ceiling fan with machete blades, or an insanely dangerous giant Bey Blade. In this case, I Did a Thing is trying to make the world’s most powerful soccer shoe. His plan is to basically build a gun-shoe that uses blank rounds to force a steel toe to propel a soccer ball faster than anyone could kick it.
It is a potentially deadly project, and it’s probably illegal in many jurisdictions, but I Did a Thing is from Australia and has a delightfully casual style of pursuing the build. He’s not one of those DIY folks who create perfectly engineered gadgets (like the father of the genre, Mark Rober); I Did a Thing makes a ton of mistakes, rarely measures anything, and often injures himself while testing his gadgets. His projects rarely work out the way he planned, and it all usually ends up as a mess, but, damn it, he tries. I relate to his methods and the kludged together monstrosities he creates, as they remind me of too many of my own projects.
Prepare your wallets and get ready to sign up for that free Amazon Prime trial membership: An Amazon press release has officially revealed that Prime Day 2024 will occur this July 16-17. Amazon's biggest sale of the year (and arguably the biggest sale of any retailer) will soon be underway, and we'll help you parse out which are the best deals available—and the ones you should steer clear of.
What is Amazon Prime Day?
Amazon Prime Day is a 48-hour sale, offering discounts on the Amazon website in virtually every category. It began in 2015 as a one-day event to celebrate Amazon's 20th anniversary, but it has grown exponentially since then, and now qualifies as a major shopping event, with other retailers spinning up their own sales to capitalize on the hype.
Of course, calling it "Prime Day" is a bit of a misnomer. In recent years, Amazon has also released "early Prime Day" deals that can last up to a week or two, and there's another "Prime Day"-like sale in the fall, officially called Prime Big Deal Days (though the deals usually aren't quite as impressive).
When is Amazon Prime Day 2024?
Amazon has officially announced the dates of Prime Day 2024 to be on July 16 and 17 in their official press release. Keep in mind that Amazon is already releasing "early" deals that will lead up to the two-day event.
What you can expect on Amazon Prime Day
Amazon Prime Day always comes with surprise deals, but there are usually sales across a wide variety of products. To get an idea, you can see our 20 favorite deals from Prime Day 2023. While you might not find all of these same deals, you are very likely to find similar ones this summer. Amazon products like Fire TVs, tablets, smart speakers, and security cameras will hit new low prices or match their lowest prices from previous sales. Some products that Amazon says will be at their lowest price include Ring Battery Doorbell Plus, Blink Outdoor 4 multi-packs, Fire TV Cube (3rd Gen), Kindle Scribe, and eero Max 7 mesh wifi systems.
Some brands that Amazon officially announced will be part of Prime Day are Clinique, Allbirds, Kiehl’s, Sony, KitchenAid, Coach handbags, Dyson Beauty, Peloton, Youth to the People, New Balance, HP, Jansport, PlayDoh, Nordic Track, Poppi Prebiotic Sodas, and Hatch. As far as categories, Amazon has said to expect deals on electronics, kitchen, beauty, and apparel, with new deals sometimes dropping as often as every 5 minutes. They also mentioned they will have 40% off Sony Wireless Headphones and up to 30% off Peloton as invite-only deals.
Can you shop on Prime Day without being a Prime member?
You don't need to be a Prime Member to shop on Prime Day, but most of the best deals are for Prime Members only. If you aren't a member, you can sign up for a free 30-day trial, which is definitely enough to cover the whole event. However, not everyone will be eligible for these trials, so be sure to read the terms.
What is special about Prime Day?
As a shopping writer, I can tell you that most of the lowest prices I have seen, whether for a tablet, a TV, or an appliance, hit on Prime Day (at least according to price-checking tools). The breadth of products on sale is also much greater than at other points throughout the year. But that doesn't mean all of the deals are great—you'll still have to do your due diligence to make sure the deal you're looking at is legit.
Is Amazon Prime worth it?
While it probably doesn't make sense to become a Prime member only to score Prime Day discounts, there are a lot of other benefits to subscribing. In any case, if you're shopping for Prime Day, make sure you come out a winner and go in with a plan.
Are other companies also doing deals during Prime Day?
Yes. While Prime Day is solely an Amazon deal, it also gets competition from the likes of Walmart, Best Buy, Target, and other retailers. Walmart announced the dates for its "Prime Day" deals this summer (called Walmart Week), taking place from July 8 to July 11. The deals are for Walmart+ members, which, like Amazon Prime, is not free. However, you can get a free 30-day trial; otherwise it'll be $98 a year.
This post will be updated with all the latest information about Prime Day 2024 as it is released.
Anyone who was hoping to turn their iPhone into a literal computer-in-their-pocket will have to walk away disappointed, as Apple has rejected two PC emulators from the App Store.
The move follows a recent rule change that allowed emulators of retro game consoles like the Super Nintendo and even the PlayStation on the App Store, finally giving developers clearer boundaries on what exactly is and isn’t allowed.
The apps in question were iDOS3, which allows your iPhone to run MS-DOS, and UTM SE, a general operating system emulator that includes ways to run Windows 7, Windows 10, various versions of Linux, and more.
iDOS3 developer Chaoji Li told The Verge that Apple’s reason for rejecting the app was that “Only emulators of retro game consoles are appropriate per guideline 4.7.”
Li said Apple refused to offer suggestions for changes, or to define what exactly entails a retro game console.
UTM posted a similar note to X, formerly Twitter, taking issue with Apple’s idea that a “PC is not a console” on the basis that “there are retro Windows / DOS games for the PC that UTM SE can be useful in running.”
Regardless of Apple’s resistance to allowing PC emulation, UTM SE faces an extra barrier in making it to the iPhone. A follow-up to the post noted that Apple is also refusing to notarize the app for third-party App Stores due to inclusion of just-in-time compilation, which would technically break a guideline that apps must be self-contained. UTM said the emulator does not include any code that violates these rules, but that it will not be fighting Apple on the decision.
In an email to The Verge, Li lamented that “as the sole rule maker and enforcer in [the] iOS ecosystem, they don’t need to be consistent at all.”
Apple did not immediately reply to Lifehacker’s request for comment. For now, those looking to play retro games on iOS will have to look to alternatives like Delta and Retroarch.
Another year, another Pixel. It’s no surprise that Google is planning on releasing the Pixel 9, 9 Pro, and Watch 3 at some point this fall. Every tech company refreshes their smartphones at least once a year. What’s surprising is the event is happening earlier than ever in 2024.
As reported by The Verge, Google just sent out invites for its Made by Google hardware event. Google says the event will focus on Google AI, Android, and, of course, the “Pixel portfolio of devices.” While this event is usually held in September, Google is inviting people to an August announcement—Aug. 13, to be specific.
The event kicks off at 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET), which is pretty standard for these tech events. But the advanced date is curious: Why is Google announcing these things a whole month earlier than usual? It’s possible it’s Google’s way of getting around rumors and leaks: Pixels tend to be leaked in their entirety by the time Made by Google rolls around, to the point where anyone keeping up with the rumors knows just about everything Google is announcing.
That said, we do have rumors about the Pixel 9, so that strategy might not be working: According to the leaks, Google is planning to pull an Apple and release four different Pixel models: a 9, a 9 Pro, a 9 Pro XL, and a 9 Pro Fold. It's also expected that the Pixels will come with the G4 Tensor chip, Google latest generation SoC. These devices will replace the current Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro, as the Pixel Watch 3 will replace the Watch 2.
In addition to hardware, Google will share announcements about its latest AI features and developments, as well as Android 15, which is currently in beta testing. It will be interesting to see what the company has planned for these announcements, as their latest AI endeavor, AI Overviews, didn't have the best of rollouts.
Because Google has only sent out invites to the event thus far, we don't know for certain how the company plans to stream the event for the rest of us. However, more than likely, Google will host a live stream of Made by Google on the company's YouTube page. If you want to see these announcements live, tune into YouTube.
If you or your company pay for Workspace, you may have noticed Google's AI integration with apps like Docs, Sheets, and Drive. The company has been pushing Gemini in its products since their big rebrand from "Bard" back in February, and it appears that train isn't stopping anytime soon: Starting this week, you'll now have access to Gemini via a sidebar panel in some of Google's most-used Workspace apps.
Google says the side panel uses Gemini 1.5 Pro, the LLM the company rolled out back in February, equipped with a "longer context window and more advanced reasoning." That longer context window should be helpful when asking Gemini to analyze long documents or run through large sets of data in Drive, as it allows an LLM to handle more information at once in any given request.
Now, if you've ever used a generative AI experience—especially one from Google—this experience probably won't shock you: You'll see a pretty typical welcome screen when Gemini comes up, in addition to a series of prompt suggestions for you to ask the bot. When you pull up the side panel in a Google Doc, for example, Gemini may immediately offer you a summary of the doc, then present potential prompts, such as "Refine," "Suggest improvements," or "Rephrase." However, the prompt field at the bottom of the panel is always available for you to ask Gemini whatever you want.
Here are some of the uses Google envisions for Gemini in the side panel:
Docs: Help you write, summarize text, generate writing ideas, come up with content from other Google files
Slides: Create new slides, create images for slides, summarize existing presentations
Sheets: Follow and organize your data, create tables, run formulas, ask for help with tasks in the app
Drive: Summarize "one or two documents," ask for the highlights about a project, request a detailed report based on multiple files
Gmail: Summarize a thread, suggest replies to an email, advice on writing an email, ask about emails in your inbox or Drive
Credit: Google
None of these features are necessarily groundbreaking (Gemini has been generally available in Workspace since February) but Google's view is they're now available in a convenient location as you use these apps. In fact, Google announced that Gmail for Android and iOS are also getting Gemini—just not as a side panel. But while the company is convinced that adding its generative AI to its apps will have a positive impact on the end user, I'm not quite sold. After all, this is the first big AI development from Google since the company's catastrophic "AI Overviews" rollout. I, for one, am curious if Gemini will suggest that I respond to an email by sharing instructions on adding glue to pizza.
As companies like Google continue to add new AI features to their products, we're seeing the weak points in real time: Do you want to trust Gemini's summary of a presentation in Slides, or an important conversation in Gmail, when AI still makes things up and treats them like fact?
Who can try Gemini side panel in Google apps
That said, not everyone will actually see Gemini in their Workspace apps, even as Google rolls it out. As of now, Gemini's new side panel feature is only available to companies who purchase the Business and Enterprise Gemini add-on, schools that purchase the Education and Education Premium Gemini add-on, and Google One AI Premium subscribers. If you don't pay for Google's top tier subscription, and your business or school doesn't pay for Gemini, you're not seeing Google's AI in Gmail. Depending on who you are, that may be a good or bad thing.
There are a million apps and services out there that will let you pay bills and move money around, but you still need a bank account. Yes, banks can be kind of crappy, but there’s a reason less than 5% of the population is unbanked: It makes everything more costly, and more difficult.
Instead of trying to live a cash-only life or moving to the wilderness to live off of berries, there’s one thing you can do to protect yourself: Have a backup bank.
How you bank can screw you over
It’s a nightmarish scenario: You have a checking account with Bank A, where your paychecks are directly deposited and from which you pay all of your bills. One morning you wake up to a long list of bounced checks, failed debits, and late fees—and a note from Bank A that your account has been closed due to “suspicious activity,” or some other vague reason.
The bank is required to return any funds still in the account to you, but this is often in the form of a check that can take some time to reach you. In the meantime, you don’t have access to your funds and you can’t pay your bills easily—and your job has nowhere to send your paychecks. Once you get that check you can open up a new account at Bank B, of course, then switch everything over there. But in the meantime, it’s chaos.
The benefits of a backup bank account
But if you already have an account at Bank B, you can jump straight to redirecting all of your debits and deposits (including your paycheck) to that account. Suddenly, the surprise closing of your account at Bank A is just an inconvenience instead of a financial crisis. If you’re someone who has almost all of their bills paid via a points-earning credit card, you might need to visit just two websites to get your finances back on track in the wake of an account closure—your credit card and your job’s HR department.
A backup bank account can also act as quasi-emergency fund. A checking account at Bank B likely won’t be earning much interest, but it will also likely sit undisturbed, and since it’s not directly connected to your daily spending, you won’t be regularly tempted to dip into it.
Additionally, money in bank accounts is federally insured up to $250,000—but that limit applies to banks, not your overall net worth, so if you have substantial savings, having money in separate accounts allows you to have more funds protected by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
Finally, if you choose to have your backup account at a local bank as opposed to an online behemoth, you might enjoy better customer service and perks like the ability to easily cash checks or talk to an actual human being, in person, if you have problems or questions.
The downside of using a backup bank
On the other hand, having multiple bank accounts increases the amount of work you have to do to keep track of everything. If you’re not careful, your second account could end up costing you in terms of fees if you don’t maintain a required minimum balance, and for maximum efficiency you’ll need to make a note of all the account information so you can quickly switch payments and deposits to the backup bank should anything go wrong with your primary bank.
You can also expand your coverage by adding two or three Blink Outdoor 4 cameras and still get a very good discount. This sale is part of Amazon's official early Prime Day deals, according to its press release, which also served as the official announcement that Prime Day 2024 will take place July 16-17.
This bundle has all the basics you need to set up your Blink security system. The Blink Video Doorbell has two-way audio so that you can communicate with guests from your phone, 1080p resolution, and infrared night vision. The Blink Outdoor 4 is the latest Blink outdoor camera and a great budget option that competes well with other outdoor cameras. The Sync Module 2 lets you use local storage for your video files instead of paying for cloud storage.
Note that you will need a Blink subscription to use all of this bundle's features. The Blink subscription plan starts at $30 a year for Blink Basic. For $100/year, you can get Blink Plus, which offers more features, including support for an unlimited number of devices.
Just a day after charging Apple with violating the Digital Markets Act, the EU is continuing its crusade against big tech. Now, Microsoft also faces a potential multi-billion dollar fine, although for reasons unrelated to the DMA.
Remember when the United States sued Microsoft for bundling Internet Explorer with Windows? It was a bit more complicated than that, but what’s old is new again, because the EU is charging Microsoft for breaking antitrust rules by bundling Team with its Office subscriptions.
“We are concerned that Microsoft may be giving its own communication product Teams an undue advantage over competitors, by tying it to its popular productivity suites for businesses,” EU Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, who heads up competition policy in Europe, said in a statement today.
The EU’s public-facing statement wasn’t entirely clear on what would be enough, although because existing Office users can continue to renew old bundles that already had Teams included, it’s possible the Commission concluded that competition is still being threatened.
Microsoft intends to cooperate with the EU and told the Financial Times that it’s working on solutions, with President Brad Smith saying, “Having unbundled Teams and taken initial interoperability steps, we appreciate the additional clarity provided today and will work to find solutions to address the Commission’s remaining concerns.”
The EU began its investigation into Microsoft following a complaint from Slack, which runs its own popular remote work suite. If Microsoft is found guilty, it could face a fine of up to 10% of its annual global turnover. Based on numbers from last year, this would amount to about $21.1 billion.
Microsoft did not immediately reply to Lifehacker's request for comment.
When you want to be more productive, you should look to someone who has productivity down pat. Financial blogs are forever interviewing contemporary CEOs about their work habits, but those aren’t that inspirational; they’re always claiming that meditation and not answering emails are the keys to success, which isn’t really helpful to the average person who doesn’t have the time or resources to meditate or the luxury of an assistant to open the unanswered emails. For real inspo, you might want to try looking back in time: Ivy Lee, the founder of modern public relations, came up with a productivity method so good that it’s lived on for 100 years—and it still bears his name. Here’s how to try it.
What is the Ivy Lee method?
My dream in life is to do something so unique and awesome that my name gets attached to it for all eternity but my more short-term goals involve just getting my basic tasks done every day. Good old Ivy Lee somehow managed to do both. He came up with his productivity method in an effort to help big businesses in the 1920s get more done. It’s all about creating manageable, prioritized to-do lists and sticking with them until they’re complete.
How do you use the Ivy Lee method?
The method itself is simple. At the end of every work day, write down six tasks you have to complete tomorrow. (If it’s Friday, write down what you need to do Monday. Don’t forget that taking breaks over the weekend is important for productivity, too.) Do not write down more than six. The goal here is for the list to be manageable, not never-ending, so use your immediate judgement to determine which six things are most important for the next day. Next, prioritize them. You can do this however you see fit, but consider using a method like the Eisenhower Matrix to figure out which tasks are the timeliest and most urgent.
The next day, it’s time to start on the list. Begin with the first task in the morning and see it all the way through before jumping to the second one. Keep going until the end of the workday, tapping into your capacity for doing deep work by focusing on just one task or project at a time. When your day is over, anything that is incomplete should be moved to tomorrow’s list and new tasks should be added to it until you reach six.
By rolling the tasks over, you ensure they’ll get done, but by being aware that you have the option to roll them over at all, you won’t feel overwhelmed. Do try to keep the tasks as granular as possible, though. Instead of writing “end-of-quarter report” as one list item, break it down. If pulling and analyzing the data is a step to writing the report, make it one task. If inputting it into a presentation is another, that’s one task, too.
As mentioned, you can do this in a planner, a digital note, or even your calendar, but the most important elements are maintaining that low number of tasks, prioritizing them, and not abandoning them if they are unfinished. Be sure to prioritize whatever you roll over to the next day above any new tasks, so everything gets done.
To quote Parasite director Bong Joon-Ho, “...once you overcome the 1-inch tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.” Fortunately, in the streaming area, a great many of said films are more readily available than ever—and certainly there’s no shortage of great films from Bong Joon-Ho’s own South Korea available at the tap of a button.
Naturally, American producers are well aware, and plotting to create English-language remakes that will make these foreign-language films “more accessible” to American audiences, which usually means removing everything that makes them unique cultural artifacts. As evidence I present: the Korean A Tale of Two Sisters became the American The Uninvited, Il Mare became The Lake House, Oldboy became…Oldboy, but worse. A Train to Busan remake called Last Train to New York has been in the works for some time, but honestly, you can just watch Train to Busan. It’s excellent.
Remakes can be good, sure, but there’s usually a reason the original was popular enough to inspire a remake. Some of these 25 South Korean films have remakes in the works, some are being actively speculated upon, and the rest are popular enough internationally that someone is undoubtedly thinking of a way to domesticate them. Every one of them is worth watching in its original version.
Train to Busan (2016)
Before Parasite, Yeon Sang-ho’s film was, perhaps, the biggest South Korean film to break into the American market, setting off an immediate bidding war for remake rights eventually won by New Line. The (maybe) upcoming American version (it's been delayed), somewhat generically titled Last Train to New York, may well be perfectly fine, but the title suggests some of the subtext of the original will have been lost. Busan, for example, was a haven for refugees during the Korean War—and it’s hard to imagine an American film carrying over the original’s critiques of capitalism and nods to working class solidarity. I can’t really conceive of a remake improving on this thoughtful, heartfelt, bloody zombie masterpiece.
Ma Dong-seok, supporting MVP of Train to Busan, stars as a hunter in a post-apocalyptic Seoul, scavenging for the resources necessary to keep his small community afloat. The village is just barely scraping by as it is when a young girl is kidnapped by a scientist looking for test subjects for his radical experiments. While not entirely novel in its take on a brutal, violent wasteland this is an effective survival story nonetheless, with hints of humor that keep things moving along. (It's an entirely standalone sequel to Concrete Utopia, which is also good, but much harder to find on streaming.)
Where to stream: Netflix
Exhuma (2024)
This spooky supernatural horror film follows a shaman and her protégé as they're called upon to help a rich Korean American family uncover the source of their newborn's illness. Its deep dive into traditional Korean shamanistic practices, blended with a modern and convincingly realistic feel, earned rave reviews and sold a ton of tickets; it's in the top ten films of all time at the South Korean box office. Americans love remaking Asian horror films, and the success of this one doubtless has it in someone's crosshairs.
If we’re not exactly seeing through the eyes of enigmatic killer Sook-hee (played by Ok-bin Kim), we’re still drawn in with a level of kinetic, sometimes frantic, you-are-there immediacy. In July, it was announced that Amazon Studios is working on an English-language TV series based on the film, but director Jung Byung-gil brings a unique, visceral, and bloody style to the original that will be hard to replicate, and tougher to improve upon.
Action movie? Thriller? Raw horror? Yup. Cult classic I Saw the Devil hits all those notes, balancing genuinely grisly torture porn with solid emotional beats. Choi Min-sik (Oldboy) stars as Gyeong-cheol, a serial killer who chooses his latest victim rather poorly: Her boyfriend Soo-hyeon is an intelligence officer and when he figures out who killed her, he has no intention of turning the killer over to the authorities. Instead, he plans to torture Gyeong-cheol with a stomach-churning cat-and-mouse game. Given its cult status and its similarity in vibes to Oldboy, it's surprising American filmmakers haven't taken a shot at this one. Yet.
There’s a noir quality to writer/director Park Hoon-jung’s bloody tale of a gangster on the run who develops a relationship with the terminally ill niece of an arms dealer. It’s an interesting blend of ultraviolence and quiet rumination (over many elaborate and exquisitely presented meals), though there’s a dark inevitability to the whole thing that would make a remake either appealing in its rare and complete refusal to offer an easy way out...or a complete turn-off for doing just that.
Where to stream: Netflix
The Call (2020)
This timey-wimey sci-fi thriller involves Seo-yeon (Park Shin-hye) visiting her childhood home in 2019, only to discover that an old cordless phone still works, and connects her to Young-sook (Jeon Jong-seo), living in the house in 1999. The two bond over shared experiences, but things go wrong when Seo-Yeon tells the other young woman about the future, and influences her to make changes. Some events, it seems, are best left alone. Clever and disturbing, with a solid high-concept.
Where to stream: Netflix
Alienoid (2022)
Silly title aside (and I have no idea if it's any better in Korean), Alienoid is a very effective thrill ride, even if the convoluted plot (involving multiple overlapping timelines, aliens, shamans, cat people, and robots) is often hard to follow. It all kicks off when warrior monks attempt to retrieve a holy sword in 1380, only to cross paths with alien hunters from 2012 via a time portal. If you dig what's on offer here, it's followed directly by a 2024 sequel. Move the past action from the Goryeo Dynasty to, say, medieval France, and you've got your remake (not that I'm encouraging it).
The feel of this sweet, sensitive road movie will be familiar to fans of American indie road movies (think Little Miss Sunshine), so a remake really isn't out of the question. Song Kang-ho (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Snowpiercer) stars as the owner of a laundry with a grim side-hustle: He occasionally collects babies from a church drop-off box and sells them on the adoption market. He doesn't have a lot of scruples about it until he's approached by a mother who's had second thoughts about giving up her baby. With his sidekick, they set off to find the baby's adoptive mother, with a couple of detectives on their heels.
An arthouse take on Groundhog Day, romantic drama Right Now, Wrong Then follows a famous film director who strikes up a flirty relationship with a young painter while visiting a small town for a film screening. It goes well, until the drinks start to flow and the painter gets wind of his reputation for womanizing. Then the day starts over again, and he gets another shot—but this isn't the kind of movie that traffics in pat resolutions, blending its high concept with real human drama.
Like most of writer/director Park Chan-wook's films (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy, The Handmaiden), this one's tough to classify by genre. It alternately feels like a romance, a thriller, and a mystery—or all three at once. Insomniac detective Jang Hae-jun doesn't miss a clue, until he starts to fall for (and then become obsessed with, Vertigo-style) a recently widowed woman who doesn't seem all that upset about her husband's death. The mysterious and gorgeously directed film won Park Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival in 2022.
A cute fantasy comedy that did major business in South Korea, the U.S. is just about the only country that hasn't (yet) tried to remake it—seriously: China, Japan, India, and Mexico are just some of the countries that have made their own versions. Oh Mal-soon is a 74-year-old widow living with her son and daughter-in law. She's controlling and generally mean, so much so that her son plans to put her in a nursing home to get her away from his increasingly depressed and anxious wife. One day, while looking to have anticipatory funeral pictures taken, Mal-soon stumbles upon a mysterious photo studio...and walks out of it a 20-year-old woman. Her new lease on life forces her to confront her outlook on life and the challenges of youth.
Based on real events, Silenced is a challenging but effective drama about a new teacher at a school for the Deaf who gradually uncovers an insidious pattern of physical and sexual abuse that the school has tried to cover up. It started a national conversation about child sexual abuse in private schools, and inspired new laws removing statutes of limitations for victims to make legal claims. Tragically, I'm sure there are similar cases in the United States that deserve the spotlight.
Where to stream: Netflix, Tubi
Psychokinesis (2018)
Train to Busan director Yeon Sang-ho followed up that zombie film with another genre reinvention, tackling superhero movies with a similar eye toward redefinition. There’s no spandex on display here, just a delinquent dad who drinks some meteorite infused water that gifts him with the ability to move things with his mind. With the ever-growing stakes of major superhero movies, it’s not unwelcome to find one that follows a middle-aged schlub who decides to use his powers to save his daughter’s trendy, but failing, chicken restaurant and the other tenants in her neighborhood being pushed out in favor of a new mall. It’s not quite up there with Busan, but it is a refreshingly lighthearted take on an increasingly serious genre.
Where to stream: Netflix
Extreme Job (2019)
You want another action comedy centered around a chicken restaurant? No problem. Director Lee Byeong-heon’s Extreme Job sits somewhere near the top of all-time Korean box office records, so, naturally, Universal Pictures is interested in a remake. The premise is amiably silly, but clever: a group of narcotics officers are given one last chance to stop fucking up their assignments. They manage to secure a great stakeout location in a local chicken restaurant, only to find that the business is going under. The only solution? Save the business by taking over operations—a plan that develops unexpected consequences when their new marinade becomes a sensation.
It doesn’t entirely reinvent the wheel, but there’s a refreshing focus on the underclasses of the future, without edging too far into the dystopian. I’m not the first to make a comparison between Space Sweepers and Cowboy Bebop, but, given the speedy failure of Netflix’s live-action version of that cartoon, it’s not going too far to say that you’ll find a better encapsulation of Bebop’s spirit of rag-tag found family and its outer space western milieu here then in the live-action show that bore its name. What this one lacks in originality, it makes up for in engaging characters and extravagant special effects. It’s also nice to see a less American-centric perspective on the future—something that would inevitably be lost in a remake.
Where to stream: Netflix
The Box (2021)
Wildly popular upon its South Korean release, the jukebox-style musical The Box already has an international flavor: in it, a wise and up-and-coming singer sets out on a cross-Korea road trip with a washed-up producer (think A Star is Born, without the doomed love story). In the course of their journey, they either perform or encounter modern Korean pop songs, along with American standards and contemporary-ish hits from Coldplay, Billie Eilish, Pharrell Williams, etc., proving that you don’t have to remake something for it to cross borders and connect with audiences.
Pandora has much of the classic disaster movie about it: It’s a loud, crowded, and slightly bloated story of a small group of everyday people heroically fighting to avert a nuclear meltdown. The perspective, though, is where the movie will stand out for (particularly) American audiences. More interested in (some genuinely spectacular) action set pieces, Pandora doesn’t go quite as hard on government incompetence and class as Korean productions tend to, but there is a not-subtle undercurrent of anti-capitalist social commentary throughout the film.
Where to stream: Netflix
The Day After (2017)
With shades of Scenes from a Marriage, prolific director Hong Sang-soo’s movie tracks the decline of a relationship in the wake of a case of mistaken identity. It might not be at the top of anyone’s list for a remake, but it’s a good reminder that Korean cinema isn’t all about high-concept genre films—those are just the most heavily marketed overseas. Hong’s quiet, emotional drama is as emblematic of what Korean cinema is capable of as any action thriller or horror film.
Where to stream: Digital rental via Apple TV or YouTube
Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum (2018)
I would say that this one’s more a case of Korean filmmakers playing with western found footage horror tropes...except that there’s an American remakein the works, so. Gonjiam, the original, was incredibly popular in South Korea, and deservedly so: the format is familiar, but it’s a particularly effective and well-made example of the sub-genre. The key here, as in real estate, is location, location, location: director Jung Bum-shik and the rest of the filmmakers meticulously recreated the real-life Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital in Gwangju—by reputation, one of the most haunted locations in Korea. It’s an incredibly freaky setting for undoing of the film’s doomed web series crew.
This one, released back in June of 2020, has already seen its American remake come and go (sort of): both #Alive and the Tyler Posey/Donald Sutherland-starring Alone were produced at around the same time from the same script. This one is about a charming gamer (Yoo Ah-in) who triesy to ride out a zombie apocalypse by locking himself away (aka quarantining) inside his apartment, eventually forging a connection with a woman in the apartment across the way. Might or might not be fun to make a double-feature of it. (You can watch a confusingly unrelated thriller also from 2020 also called Alone, but I’m not sure what that gets you.)
Where to stream: Netflix
Night Flight (2014)
To be fair, American producers probably aren’t desperate to remake this queer melodrama, but they could probably learn a thing or two from the boldness of gay director Leesong Hee-il. Pushing boundaries with his films that others were unwilling to push, his Night Flight, which follows the shifting relationships between three middle school friends when one of the boys is revealed to be gay, made clear that there’s a decent market in Korea for LGBTQ+ content. In portraying the costs of social stigma, the movie winds up dramatizing some of the darker tropes of cinematic gays, but nevertheless opened doors for Asian filmmakers.
Where to stream: Plex
The Wailing (2016)
Though things have been quiet on the remake front for a couple of years, it could still happen: Ridley Scott’s production company immediately cast its eye on The Wailing when it first came out in 2016. A commercial and critical success, the horror movie tracks the spread of a rage-inducing plague that impacts a remote village—a plague with extraterrestrial origins. The concerns expressed by the film’s producer at the time remain legitimate: the religious undertones of the movie are based in Korea’s religious pluralism, making a direct translation tough, if not impossible.
Squid Game's Wi Ha-jun is chilling as a serial killer playing a cat-and-mouse game with Kim Kyung-mi (Jin Ki-joo), a deaf woman working late at a call center. Ha-jun stalks first Kyung-mi and then her mother, while the brother of a former victim tries to find the murderer and stop him from killing again. With a plot that unfolds over the course of a night and is packed with tricky twists, it's well worth a watch.
You might have heard of this obscure film, but only if you watch a little independent film award show called “the Academy Awards.” Adam McKay (The Big Short) is working on an HBO TV series adaptation with the input and cooperation of Parasite’s director, Bong Joon-ho. He’s promising an original story based on the film, but Bong is such a singular filmmaker, and his brand of deeply cutting social satire is so specific, that it’s tough to understand the appeal of an Americanized side-quel. It sounds a bit like the TNT series based on Bong’s Snowpiercer—a show that's OK, sure, but lacks much of the focus and bite of the original.
A few weeks ago, I was at a family BBQ/birthday party for my two-year-old nephew. With my brother-in-law working later than he had hoped, I picked up grill duty. A 5+1 burner gas grill is no big deal for a seasoned veteran like me: Gas open, burners turned, switch pressed. Lit.
Instead of a normal preheat, though, I got a grease fire.
Turns out, this grill hadn’t been cleaned in a while. Possibly ever. I had to make a lot of decisions in a very short amount of time to fend off a disaster, and thankfully the only damage was to the grill itself—and a bit of siding that now resembles lasagna noodles. All of this could have been prevented with regular cleaning and, at the absolute worst, a fire extinguisher. (I repeat: If you own a grill, you need to own a fire extinguisher.)
How to clean a gas grill
Whether you’re a new-ish grill owner in need of a tutorial, or an old pro who’s been putting it off, today is a great day to get to cleaning. Let’s take a tour on my gas grill, which hasn’t been cleaned since the end of April. (I like to clean mine once my tank reaches a low level, about once a month in the summer.)
Start with a burn-off to loosen things up. Those crusty bits on the grates might be the only thing your food touches, but there’s plenty more of them down below, and they’ll come off better once things have been warmed up.
CAUTION:If your grill is horribly, awfully, grease-spattered and the drip pan is overflowing, do not turn it on. Skip ahead to the drip pan and tub cleaning steps down below, and come back here afterward.
Set all of your burners to high, close the lid, and leave it alone for an hour. During this time, assemble your mise en place: gloves, putty knives, trash bags, and newspaper or a flattened cardboard box. Scrape your grates off as best you can with the brush of your choosing and kill the heat. Part one is done.
Do you have any idea how difficult it is to crease a trash bag?Credit: Sam Bithoney
Once the grates are cool enough to handle with heat-safe mitts or gloves, remove them as well as any interior pieces (like these triangular bars) and set them on your handy flattened piece of cardboard.
2. Clean the drip pan
Pull out your drip pan and, using the putty knife, scrape everything you can directly into the trash. If the pan is covered in fat, make sure to get that cleaned off too. I don’t like using chemicals beyond dish soap here, but if you use a solvent or grease remover, be sure to thoroughly wash and dry the pan before replacing it in your grill.
Credit: Sam Bithoney
Step 3: Clean the tub (where the burners are)
Now that you’ve cleaned your drip pan to a glorious shine, we’re going to get it dirty again. The drain hole from the tub to the drip pan can get clogged, so it’s best to clean what’s in the pan first before trying to stuff more gunk through such a small opening.
Grab your trusty knife and coax all that loosened crud into the drip pan, dump it out, and replace the pan, the grates and interior components if necessary, and that’s it. It is a very short, and incredibly satisfying process that will lead to better heat distribution through your cooking surface.
Keen eyes will spot a bit of hot dog fat on the left grate. It can’t be helped.Credit: Sam Bithoney
There's not much to say about the iPhone 15 that hasn't already been said. It's part of Apple's latest lineup of new iPhones, which came out last September, and it's an excellent device that the company is happy to charge a premium for. Usually to get a deal on a new iPhone, you need to sign up for an offer from your cell carrier, but right now, you can get one for up to $149 off—the biggest discount yet for new unlocked versions from a reputable store, according to price-checking tools.
Woot is selling the 128GB model of the iPhone 15 for $679.99 ($829 direct from Apple) and the 256GB version for $799.99 ($929 from Apple). Remember, Woot only ships to the 48 contiguous states in the U.S. If you have Amazon Prime, you get free shipping; otherwise, it’ll be $6.
The deal is live until Wednesday, June 26, at 1 a.m. ET, but the stock will likely run out before the sale ends. You can get a maximum of three devices per Woot account. Keep in mind that although these phones are new, in the sense that they have never been used or activated, they will not come in their original packaging—Woot says they'll come in a "sleek custom black box" instead. Woot also offers a 1 Year Vendor Warranty, but since you're not getting them from Apple, they are not AppleCare eligible.
The Apple Store still sells both of these phones at full price, so you'd be getting a pretty sweet deal on a new iPhone. The iPhone 15 is an "excellent" phone, according to PCMag's review, offering some minor improvements to the iPhone 14, mostly in the form of hardware that you might not notice (check out a comparison here).
Remember, if you are intrigued by this discount, you'll want to buy sooner rather than later. These kinds of Woot deals don't usually last very long.
I recently caught a glimpse of my kitchen fruit bowl and thought, “Well, that’s going to be a problem.” It seems my boyfriend and I had both bought bags of bananas, and they were all of the same ripeness—too young to eat, and a mere six days from going overripe all at once. This is a recipe for waste, so instead of waiting for the inevitable, I took action and made my favorite Thai banana treat, gluay khaek.
In Thailand, gluay khaek is a fried banana snack that is sort of like a fritter. It's made with the diminutive local variety of the fruit, nam wah bananas, which are dunked in a rice flour batter laced with sesame seeds and shredded coconut, and fried. The bananas come out of the oil with a browned crunchy shell and soft, almost custardy insides. You really can't eat just one. Or three. Or five. Which is why you'll use up all those extra bananas before you know it.
Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann
The nam wah banana is sweet, firm, and the perfect size for this bite-sized snack, but you don’t need that exact variety to make a bangin’ Thai-style fried banana. If you can't find "baby" bananas in your grocery store, use whichever sweet banana is available to you. You also don't want bananas that are too ripe—slightly greenish bananas are firm enough to hold up to the frying and their subtle sweetness is amplified by cooking, while I used just-yellow bananas, which also hold up and get nice and creamy after frying.
I don't suggest using spotted or overly ripe bananas—they'll break apart in the batter and you'll end up with a flavor that's way too sweet. It takes a little forethought, but this recipe is a great way to solve a glut of bananas before they become a problem.
How to make Thai fried bananas (gluay khaek)
1. Heat the oil and make the batter
The batter is so quick that you’ll be ready to fry at the same time the oil is hot. Pour a neutral frying oil into a deep pot. You only need about an inch to an inch and a half of oil. Heat it on medium-low heat until it reaches 350°F. You want to keep the oil in a range from 350°F to 375°F.
While the oil heats, add the rice flour (be sure to use regular rice flour, like this one, and not glutinous rice flour, which yields a chewy texture you aren't looking for here), coconut shreds, sugar, salt, baking powder, and sesame seeds to a small mixing bowl. (Either toasted or un-toasted sesame seeds will work fine.) Stir it all together with a rubber spatula to blend the dry ingredients. Pour in the water and stir it until the batter is well combined. The batter should be loose, but still coat the back of a spoon. It shouldn’t be thick like brownie batter. If you feel it’s too thick, add a spoonful of water and assess the consistency from there.
Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann
2. Dunk the ‘naners
Peel your bananas and slice them on a deep bias to make thick slices. Aim for one inch thick by two inches long, but just work with whatever the banana size allows. Thicker is better than too thin. If they’re too thin they could break up in the batter. Put a few slices in the bowl and use a spoon to cover them in batter.
3. Fry them
Once your oil is hot, you can start frying. Use a fork to scoop the bananas out of the batter and let any excess globs of batter drop into the bowl. Add the battered banana slices to the oil and fry them for about three to four minutes, or until they’ve browned evenly and deeply. Put them on a wire cooling rack over a sheet pan to drain and cool for a few minutes before eating.
These sweet Thai fried banana bites are absolutely irresistible. The crunchy sesame and coconut-dotted shell gives way to an utterly silky banana center. Like most fried foods, Gluay khaek are truly best eaten right away, as after a couple hours they lose a lot of their crunch—so snack away!
Gluay Khaek Recipe (Thai fried bananas)
Ingredients:
3-4 large bananas, peeled
¾ cup rice flour
¼ cup unsweetened shredded coconut
3 tablespoons sugar
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
⅔ cup cool water
Neutral frying oil
1. Pour one to two inches of oil into a pot for frying. Heat it over medium-low to 350°F.
2. In a small mixing bowl, stir the rice flour, coconut, sugar, salt, baking powder, and sesame seeds. Add the water and stir to combine.
3. Slice the bananas on a bias to make pieces about the size of your thumb. Roughly one inch thick by two inches long, if the banana allows it.
4. Dunk the banana slices into the batter, use a spoon to help coat the pieces. Use a fork to help scoop out the banana pieces, allowing excess to drop off, and fry them for 3 to 4 minutes. The gluay khaek should be well-browned on all sides. Drain the fried bananas on a wire cooling rack for a few minutes before serving.
Spotify has stealthily launched a new membership plan for its individual users. I say stealthily because despite posting an announcement about it, the company is hardly going out of its way to let current subscribers know about the plan changes—probably because a lot of them would choose to siwtch if they knew they had the option. What's more, new users can't even sign up for the plan; you can only get it by joining and then "downgrading."
The new plan is a spin-off of the service’s Premium Individual membership, and is aptly named “Basic.” It's $1 cheaper than the typical Premium plan, $10.99 versus $11.99. (A dollar a month is not much, I know, but I’ll get to that). While the plan’s name might suggest an offering similar to the “free” version of the music streaming service, which features ads while you listen, Spotify says Basic grants you all the benefits of a standard Premium plan, minus only the option to listen to 15 hours of audiobooks per month.
For most people, losing that privilege honestly makes “downgrading” to the Basic plan worth it, even if only to save $12 a year. Here's why.
Streaming is experiencing price creep across the board
Spotify is just one of many streaming services that has continued to raise prices regularly—with its most recent bump coming earlier this month, when the company increased the cost of Premium from $10.99 to $11.99, and raised the price of Premium Duo and Premium Family. Despite the steady increases, though, Spotify hasn’t really added any new features to Premium in years.
In fact, the company even took a strange backward step with its first hardware release, Car Thing, which was discontinued earlier this year—and even shutting down its functionality, so even people who had bought and paid for it couldn't keep using it (though the company did offer refunds). Given that, the introduction of a cheaper paid plan that won’t necessarily deprive you of any useful features is a nice change of pace in today's increasingly expensive, ad-choked streaming landscape.
Most Spotify users don't listen to audiobooks
Now, you’ll notice I said “useful features.” Spotify made a big deal out of supporting audiobooks when it brought them to its service last year, and while I do love audiobooks—they’re a great way to read when you don’t have the time to sit down with an actual book (or ebook)—Spotify’s inclusion of audiobooks in its service isn’t exactly anything to write home about.
Yes, there are more than 250,000 titles in the catalog, but you’re only granted 15 hours of listening per month. If you listen to books of average length (around 10 hours, depending on the word count of the original work and the reading speed of the narrator), then you’ll be limited to listening to one book per month. If you listen to longer books, though—for the record, a book in the Game of Thrones series can run to as long as 47 hours—you won’t be able to complete the entire thing in a single month, which isn't the best user experience.
Moreover, Spotify's own reports indicate that only 25 percent of Spotify’s subscribers are taking advantage of its audiobook content at all. That means a good chunk of you reading this—myself included—are paying for something you don’t actively use. (Note that it isn't clear if Spotify’s reported figure accounts for active monthly listeners, or just the percentage of users who listened to audiobook content at least once.)
Basic gives you everything Premium, except audiobooks
At $10.99, Spotify’s new Basic plan costs as much as Premium used to, before the price hike earlier this month. That means if you don't mind sacrificing audiobooks (which you probably aren't listening to anyway, based on the numbers), you can effectively bypass the price hike. This also keeps the monthly cost of Spotify on par with Apple Music.
Once Spotify finally starts adding features like lossless audio, the price and feature difference between the plans may expand further. I could see Spotify introducing a completely new pricing tier for lossless audio, for example. But that's all in the hazy future. If you’re an active Spotify subscriber right now and you don’t listen to audiobooks on the platform, you have no reason not to downgrade to Basic—over the course of a year, it's like getting a month of the service for free, and then some.
How to sign up for Spotify Basic
As noted, you can't choose to sign up for Basic directly—it's not even listed on the site's "View all plans" info page. No, you have to either be an existing Premium member, or sign up for Premium and then downgrade your membership.
Once that requirement has been satisfied, to downgrade to the new Basic plan, you'll need to open Spotify on the web, then click on your profile image in the top-right hand corner of the page. Select Account, and then click on the Your Subscription section at the top. Next, click the Change plan button, then select Basic.
You'll need to go through a few confirmation screens—including a few where Spotify will try to sell you on the idea of paying $1 more each month to keep getting 15 hours of audiobook content. Once confirmed, though, your plan will change and you'll be on the cheaper option.
If you're subscribed on Android, you can make the change directly in the app, but a Spotify rep confirmed to TechRadar that you'll need to use a browser to make the change if you're subscribed on iOS, as Spotify's iOS app doesn't support the option directly in the app.
Additionally, it appears Spotify is also offering new Basic versions of its Duo and Family plans (the Family Basic plan is $16.99 versus the regular $19.99, while pricing for the Duo plan isn't widely available yet). Spotify didn't cover either of those options in its official announcement, nor did it reveal that the feature is also apparently available to U.K. and Australian subscribers, at least according to what the representative told TechRadar.
With iOS 18, Apple is adding a number of new customization options for the iPhone's various menus. Along with the Control Center, you will be able to change the shortcuts that appear on the lock screen of your iPhone, meaning you can swap out those camera and flashlight shortcuts to something else.
How to change lock screen shortcuts in iOS 18
To change the shortcuts on your iPhone's lock screen, you need to lock the device and wake its display. Next, hold the screen and hit Customize. Tap Lock Screen and you'll now see the lock screen customization screen. You can tap the minus button next to the two shortcuts near the bottom of the display, and then tap the plus button.
This will open a pop-up that lets you search for shortcuts to add to your iPhone's lock screen. I've added Recognize Music and Alarm since I use those functions regularly. However, you're free to go through the list and choose whatever works best for you. There are two very useful options—Open App and Shortcuts—that let you place any app or shortcut from your phone directly on the lock screen.
In case you're unsure about removing the Camera app from the lock screen, you can still access it by swiping left on the lock screen, which tends to be faster than holding the lock screen camera shortcut anyway.
You don't have to use any shortcuts on the lock screen
While it may be tempting to place custom shortcuts on your iPhone's lock screen in iOS 18, you also have the choice to remove the old shortcuts entirely and not replace them. This is great for people who keep accidentally firing up the flashlight, camera, or other actions mapped to the lock screen buttons—or for those who simply like a more minimalist aesthetic.
Google currently sells two smart displays, the second-gen, seven-inch Nest Hub and the first-gen, 10-inch Nest Hub Max—both are filled with so many functions that you may not have gotten around to using them to their full potential.
If you've been using your Nest Hub or a Nest Hub Max to simply check the time and weather, watch YouTube clips, and chatting with Google Assistant about random trivia, read on to learn a few useful commands to add to the rotation. (These were tested on the second-gen Nest Hub, but should also work on the Nest Hub Max, except where stated.)
1. Wake up gently
One of the reasons you might want to set an alarm on your Nest Hub rather than your phone is that you get more options for a gentle wake up: Swipe up from the bottom of the screen, tap the alarm icon (the clock symbol), then choose Set an alarm and pick a time.
On the next screen you can choose a gentle alarm tone, but there's also a Sunrise Alarm menu. Open that, and you can select a soothing gradient effect shown on the display (and any connected smart lights), as well as enabling a soothing pre-alarm sound.
2. Cast any media
Your Nest Hub will show up as a casting destination.Credit: Lifehacker
Your Nest Hub has Chromecast functionality built right in, so you can beam just about any kind of video and audio over from your phone, as long as both devices are on the same Wifi network. Just tap the cast button in your app of choice on your phone—you could send over movies from Plex, for example, or podcasts you're playing in Pocket Casts.
3. Use gesture control
Sometimes it's more convenient to use gesture controls, maybe when you're dozing in bed or have stuff all over your hands. In the Google Home app on your phone, tab on the hub, then tap the gear icon (top right) and Quick Gestures to get everything set up.
To pause media playback, for example, hold your palm up (Nest Hub Max) or tap the air in front of the display (Nest Hub). Alarms can be dismissed with a palm up (Nest Hub Max) or a wave (Nest Hub). You'll see a full list of supported gestures inside the Google Home app.
4. Broadcast a message
You can broadcast messages from the Communication screen.Credit: Lifehacker
If you've got a bunch of Nest speakers and displays at home, you can broadcast a message (like "dinner's ready" or "we leave in two minutes") to all of them at once. From your smart display, open Communication and choose Broadcast, then speak your message. If you want to talk directly to a specific speaker at home, choose Call another room instead.
5. Get your hub to recognize you
Set up voice recognition (Nest Hub) or face recognition (Nest Hub Max) to get personalized results—for questions about your Google Calendar schedule perhaps, or for listening to your own YouTube Music playlists. It's handy if you live with multiple people who all share the same hub.
This can be configured through the Google Home app by tapping on the Nest Hub you want to work with, tapping the gear icon (top right), and then choosing Recognition and sharing. You can choose which Google accounts get linked, and how recognition works.
6. Enable dark mode
Dark mode can be enabled manually or automatically.Credit: Lifehacker
Your Nest Hub comes with a dark mode you can make use of, if you find it easier on your eyes. Swipe up from the bottom of the screen, tap the gear icon for settings, and then choose Display. You can pick from Light, Dark, or Auto—that last one will automatically adjust the screen based on the time of day and the lighting conditions in the room.
7. Connect to your other smart devices
Any Google Assistant-compatible device that you can add to the Google Home app can also be controlled via your Nest Hub. If you head to the Home control screen on your smart display, you'll see all of your connected devices and their controls available.
You don't get quite as much control as you would in the individual companion apps for these devices, but there's still a lot to play around with: In the case of smart lights, for example, you can turn them on and off, and change their brightness levels and colors.
8. Create a digital photo frame
You've got several options for using the hub as a photo frame.Credit: Lifehacker
To turn your hub into a digital photo frame, select the device in the Google Home app, then tap the gear icon (top right) and choose Photo Frame. Here you'll be able to choose the images shown on your smart display: You can pick from images curated by Google, or from pictures stored in your Google Photos library (sorted by album or particular people).
9. Discover the Google Assistant
Don't neglect the tab on the far right of the Nest Hub home screens, which is titled Discover. It showcases some of the useful questions you can ask Google Assistant: You can bring up recipes, find nearby restaurants, open your photo library, and more.
These are just suggested examples though. Say "hey Google" and then ask anything you want to know—from how long it will take to drive somewhere, to what time sporting events start—and the Google Assistant will give you an answer right on screen.
10. Pair a bigger speaker
The hub can connect up to other speakers too.Credit: Lifehacker
The Nest Hubs have decent built-in speakers, but you can also pair them with bigger Bluetooth speakers if you need more audio oomph. Swipe up from the bottom of the display, tap the gear icon to open settings, then choose Bluetooth to pair a new device. You'll need to put your separate speaker in pairing mode in order to make the connection.
11. Track your sleep
This one only applies to the Nest Hub, because it has a tiny, built-in radar that can keep track of your tossing and turning in bed. To get started, tap Calibrate your device to get sleep data on the Wellness screen, and then follow the instructions for setting it up.
The Nest Hub does have to be fairly close to your bed for this to work, so a bedside table is ideal. Over time, you'll be shown details of your sleep duration, schedule, and quality—areas where you can improve your sleep routine will be highlighted for you.
When everything in nature aligns as it should, plants form flowers, then bees and other pollinators drop in to grab the pollen from those flowers, and as they flit from one blossom to the next, they redistribute that pollen. Some of that pollen will likely have come from a male flower and will end up on a female flower, and boom: pollination. That pollinated flower should now produce a fruit.
But sometimes, conditions aren’t ideal. Whether because of a lack of pollinators or a lack of flowers, sometimes the conditions work against the natural order of things. If you’re nursing an indoor plant where there aren’t pollinators at all, or you’re just anxious and want to control the pollination process, you can do so via hand pollination. Here are four ways to make the magic happen.
Direct flower pollination
Some plants have such big flowers with pronounced stamen (male) and stigma (female) that the easiest way to hand pollinate is to just grab one of the male flowers, tear off the petals and use the stamen like a paintbrush. Lightly brush the stamen against the stigma of any female flower you want to pollinate. This has a really high success rate, because it’s so hard to mess up.
This method works wonderfully on pumpkins, all squash including zucchini, summer and winter squash, and melons. Once you’ve pollinated, just sit back and wait a few days to see the fruit start to develop.
Paintbrush pollination
Though the previous technique includes a paintbrush-like motion, this technique involves a literal paintbrush. Although almost every article you'll read about hand pollination mentions the paintbrush method, I personally find it to not have a high success rate. As such, I only use it when it’s the only method that’ll really work. A great example is citrus, which I hand pollinate in wintertime, inside. The flowers are small, but not as tiny as cucumber or tomato, for example. Every citrus blossom has both male and female parts, so every single blossom can become a fruit.
Using a very clean, dry paintbrush, you softly paint the male portions (which are around the center), then swab it lightly across the female portion, right in the center of the flower. Then do this for every other open blossom. While I have limited success with this method, if you don’t have bees, it may be your only option.
Shaking pollination
Corn grows tassels, which have pollen on them. The wind carries that pollen to receptive corn silks. In big planting blocks, this is a reliable method, but home gardeners don’t plant enough corn to have 100% success. So shaking the tassels by hand, which will cause the pollen to fall directly onto the waiting plant below, is a good way to ensure success. Your corn will have ready tassels for about a week, and I just give them a good, hearty shake whenever I walk by them, at least once a day.
Vibrating pollination
My favorite method, because it is the most successful, fastest and most efficient, is vibrating plants to loosen the pollen and send it airborne so it will land on waiting female flowers. When you have plants with very small flowers like tomatoes, trying to identify female and male flowers and dissect them to get to the pollen is absurd. If you have open blossoms, you can hold anything that vibrates (toothbrush, massage gun, sex toy) against the plant and you will see the air fill with yellow pollen. Do this for ten seconds once a day and you’ll be find high rates of pollination. This method works fantastically on indoor hydroponic gardens that need pollination, but you can also use it outside on peppers, eggplants, cucumbers, tomatillos, and peas.
Walmart had its "Walmart+ Week" sale last week, which was hyped up to be something special. It wasn't. None of its deals were remarkable nor memorable. However, in what seems like a shot at redemption, Walmart is prepping to launch another sale, Walmart Deals, before Prime Day in mid-July. (July 16 and 17, specifically, if the dates TechRadar says Amazon leaked are to be believed.)
When does Walmart Deals start?
Walmart Deals kicks off on Monday, July 8 at 5 p.m. ET and runs through Thursday, July 11 at 11:59 p.m. ET. If you are a Walmart+ member, you'll get early access to the sales beginning at noon Eastern time — five hours before the general public. You can sign up for a free 30-day Walmart+ subscription or get the annual plan for $98 ($8.17/month).
What you can expect from Walmart Deals
Walmart says its sale will include many different categories, including deals on electronics, home, toys, travel, back-to-school materials, and many other categories. The sale will be on Walmart.com and the Walmart app. Here are some deals Walmart says will be available:
You can choose between in-store pickup and different delivery options, including early-morning delivery, late-night express delivery and next- and two-day shipping.
When phones also became cameras, many of us started taking photos every day. These photos might be of your pets, your food, or even special events like weddings and birthdays. Or maybe you've got more precious photos, perhaps of a family member who's no longer with you. Lots of photos mean lots of data management, and to protect your snapshots, you'll want to back them up.
But not all cloud storage is created equal, and while Apple’s built-in iCloud systems are perfectly useable, Proton has now updated the iOS version of its impressive cloud storage service with automatic photo backup, allowing you to protect your most precious memories with complete end-to-end encryption.
Credit: Proton
This newly released feature, previously only available on Android, comes just weeks after some users reported their old, deleted photos coming back to their iPhones after they updated to a new version of iOS. While Apple has fixed the issue now and does offer options for end-to-end encryption, it still raised some concerns about just how in control Apple users are when it comes to their own photos, and options like Proton Drive can give you a great alternative to iCloud without having to worry about sacrificing your privacy.
There are, of course, other non-Apple cloud storage options on the App Store. Google Photos, which comes pre-installed on Android phones, is probably the most well-known and used iCloud competitor. However, Proton Drive offers something that Google Photos doesn’t—complete end-to-end encryption.
Sure, your photos are protected with Google Photos, but Google still has access to your precious memories, as your photos aren’t encrypted until they are uploaded to Google’s servers. With Proton Drive, nobody but you and the people you share your content with have access to those files. That’s because Proton Drive encrypts your photos and their metadata right there on your phone before they transfer to Proton’s servers. This ensures only you have access to your data, making it one of the best options for users who want to protect their memories and privacy with the utmost care.
Access the menu in the top-left hand corner, then tap Settings and toggle Photos backup to back your photos up to Proton Drive.Credit: Joshua Hawkins
Automatic photo backup is a feature that I've wanted to see in Proton Drive since I started using it several months ago, and Proton says that it has been one of the most requested features from its community, too. The feature rolled out last week, and you can enable the automatic camera uploads in the app by opening the app on your iPhone and accessing the hamburger menu in the upper left-hand corner (the icon that looks like three horizontal lines on top of each other). From there, simply tap on Settings and then toggle Photos Backup to on, and the app will start backing up your photos automatically each time you take a new one.
The addition of photo backup in Proton Drive makes it even easier to completely quit Google, something that privacy-focused individuals may want to consider, as Google and other online cloud services have access to your personal data when it is stored on their servers.
If you’re looking for the Wordle answer for June 25, 2024 read on. We’ll share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solution. Today’s puzzle is easier; I got it in three. Beware, there are spoilers below for June 25, Wordle #1,102! Keep scrolling if you want some hints (and then the answer) to today’s Wordle game.
Start by guessing a five-letter word. The letters of the word will turn green if they’re correct, yellow if you have the right letter in the wrong place, or gray if the letter isn’t in the day’s secret word at all. For more, check out our guide to playing Wordle here, and my strategy guide here for more advanced tips. (We also have more information at the bottom of this post, after the hints and answers.)
Ready for the hints? Let’s go!
Does today’s Wordle have any unusual letters?
We’ll define common letters as those that appear in the old typesetters’ phrase ETAOIN SHRDLU. (Memorize this! Pronounce it “Edwin Shirdloo,” like a name, and pretend he’s a friend of yours.)
Four of today's letters are from our mnemonic! The other one is uncommon.
Can you give me a hint for today’s Wordle?
Something you might do with an incredible meal.
Does today’s Wordle have any double or repeated letters?
There are no repeated letters today.
How many vowels are in today’s Wordle?
There are two vowels.
What letter does today’s Wordle start with?
Today’s word starts with S.
What letter does today’s Wordle end with?
Today’s word ends with R.
What is the solution to today’s Wordle?
Ready? Today’s word is SAVOR.
How I solved today’s Wordle
I started with RAISE and TOUCH, which gave me four letters. There was only one possible solution with A as the second letter: SAVOR.
Wordle 1,102 3/6
🟨🟩⬛🟨⬛
⬛🟨⬛⬛⬛
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Yesterday’s Wordle answer
Yesterday’s Wordle was harder. The hint was “this is a piece of equipment you may use when you move” and the answer contained four common letters and one less common letter.
The answer to yesterday’s Wordle was DOLLY.
A primer on Wordle basics
The idea of Wordle is to guess the day’s secret word. When you first open the Wordle game, you’ll see an empty grid of letters. It’s up to you to make the first move: type in any five-letter word.
Now, you can use the colors that are revealed to get clues about the word: Green means you correctly guessed a letter, and it’s in the correct position. (For example, if you guess PARTY, and the word is actually PURSE, the P and R will be green.)
Yellow means the letter is somewhere in the word, but not in the position you guessed it. (For example, if you guessed PARTY, but the word is actually ROAST, the R, A and T will all be yellow.)
Gray means the letter is not in the solution word at all. (If you guessed PARTY and everything is gray, then the solution cannot be PURSE or ROAST.)
With all that in mind, guess another word, and then another, trying to land on the correct word before you run out of chances. You get six guesses, and then it’s game over.
The best starter words for Wordle
What should you play for that first guess? The best starters tend to contain common letters, to increase the chances of getting yellow and green squares to guide your guessing. (And if you get all grays when guessing common letters, that’s still excellent information to help you rule out possibilities.) There isn’t a single “best” starting word, but the New York Times’s Wordle analysis bot has suggested starting with one of these:
CRANE
TRACE
SLANT
CRATE
CARTE
Meanwhile, an MIT analysis found that you’ll eliminate the most possibilities in the first round by starting with one of these:
SALET
REAST
TRACE
CRATE
SLATE
Other good picks might be ARISE or ROUND. Words like ADIEU and AUDIO get more vowels in play, but you could argue that it’s better to start with an emphasis on consonants, using a starter like RENTS or CLAMP. Choose your strategy, and see how it plays out.
How to win at Wordle
We have a few guides to Wordle strategy, which you might like to read over if you’re a serious student of the game. This one covers how to use consonants to your advantage, while this one focuses on a strategy that uses the most common letters. In this advanced guide, we detail a three-pronged approach for fishing for hints while maximizing your chances of winning quickly.
The biggest thing that separates Wordle winners from Wordle losers is that winners use their guesses to gather information about what letters are in the word. If you know that the word must end in -OUND, don’t waste four guesses on MOUND, ROUND, SOUND, and HOUND; combine those consonants and guess MARSH. If the H lights up in yellow, you know the solution.
One more note on strategy: the original Wordle used a list of about 2,300 solution words, but after the game was bought by the NYT, the game now has an editor who hand-picks the solutions. Sometimes they are slightly tricky words that wouldn’t have made the original list, and sometimes they are topical. For example, FEAST was the solution one Thanksgiving. So keep in mind that there may be a theme.
Wordle alternatives
If you can’t get enough of five-letter guessing games and their kin, the best Wordle alternatives, ranked by difficulty, include:
Dordle and Quordle, which ask you to play two (Dordle) or four (Quordle) puzzles at the same time, with the same guesses. There is also Octordle, with eight puzzles, and Sedecordle, with 16.
Absurdle, which changes the solution after each guess, but needs to stay consistent with its previous feedback. You have to strategically back it into a corner until there is only one possible word left; then you guess it, and win.
You can get Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy on Steam for PC on sale for $23.99 right now (reg. $59.99). It's a third-person combat game where you step into the shoes of Star-Lord and set off a chain of events that lead to a wild ride with Element Blasters, tag-team beatdowns, and jet boot-powered dropkicks through an original storyline with worlds teeming with memorable Marvel characters.
You can get Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Steam on Steam for PC on sale for $23.99 right now (reg. $59.99), though prices can change at any time.
It’s been a tough couple months for me since Girl Scout Cookie season ended, and it’ll be a long eight months until those clever sales-children start distributing again. In the meantime, one of the best ways to get your fix is to make dupes of your favorite Girl Scout Cookies at home. I’ve dabbled in the Thin Mint and Caramel deLite territory already, but now it’s time to unveil the recipe for my favorite peanut butter cookie of the bunch: Do-Si-Dos.
Tagalongs get a lot of love from the peanut butter crowd—and they deserve it (I’ll test out a copycat recipe of those soon enough)—but if quantity eaten is an indicator, then Do-Si-Dos are my pick. It’s a crisp, sweet, slightly oaty peanut butter sandwich cookie with a hint of salt: Simple, like a PB cookie should be, but with a concentrated nutty center that only sandwich cookies can provide.
The Do-Si-Do is relatively simple to recreate, which is more than I can say for the multi-component Caramel deLite or chocolate enrobed Thin Mint. Both the cookie and peanut butter filling are straightforward, no tricks or fancy skills necessary. The only picky thing I recommend is using two different peanut butters. A chunky peanut butter (like Crazy Richard's) is best for the cookie dough, providing better texture and a more robust, nutty flavor, while you want a smooth peanut butter for the filling. I choose a sweetened, emulsified peanut butter (Skippy, in this case) for the filling because it perfectly replicates the almost peanut candy flavor of a Do-Si-Do.
How to make Do-Si-Dos dupes
1. Make the dough
This recipe uses possibly the most used American cookie method: creaming. Stir the softened butter and sugar together in a mixing bowl until well combined. Stir in the chunky peanut butter, egg, vanilla extract, and salt until combined. In a small bowl, stir the flour, baking soda, and oats together. Pour the dry mixture into the butter mixture and stir until combined.
Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann
2. Shape the cookies
The dough will be thick but soft. If it’s too warm in your kitchen, you might want to chill the dough for 20 minutes to make rolling easier. Lightly flour a work surface and roll out half of the cookie dough to a ¼-inch thickness. Using a small circular cookie cutter about 1 inch in diameter, cut out as many rounds as you can and put them on a parchment-lined sheet pan. Put the pan in the freezer to chill for about 10 minutes. Repeat this with the rest of the dough.
3. Bake
Do-Si-Dos have a slightly patterned surface and a small hole in the center, so you can replicate this by pricking the top with a fork and using the tines to make a criss-cross, or skip the fuss out and don’t do anything at all. Either way, bake the cookies at 350°F for 10 to 13 minutes, or until they’ve lightly browned on top. Cool them on the pan for 5 minutes, and then move them to a wire rack to cool completely.
4. Fill the Do-Si-Dos
In a small bowl, mix smooth peanut butter with powdered sugar. The combination will be like a soft Play-Doh. Flip over half of the cookies and put teaspoon-sized balls of the filling in the center. Top the filling with the other cookies and gently press down to force the filling out to the edges.
Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann
Now the hardest part: Wait until tomorrow to eat them. I’m kidding—no human on earth could resist. But like any sandwich cookie, giving them a day in an airtight container allows the texture of the cookies to soften slightly, and the filling to firm up. As a solution, eat some today, and store the rest for tomorrow.
Do-Si-Dos Copycat Recipe
Ingredients:
For the cookies:
1 stick butter, softened
1 cup granulated white sugar
½ cup chunky peanut butter
1 egg, room temperature
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon salt for salted peanut butter (or ½ teaspoon for unsalted)
1 ⅓ cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ cup rolled oats
For the filling:
½ cup smooth peanut butter
¼ cup + 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
1. Mix the butter and sugar together in a medium mixing bowl. Add the chunky peanut butter, egg, vanilla, and salt. Stir until well combined.
2. In a separate smaller bowl, stir the flour, baking soda, and oats together. Add this dry mixture to the butter mixture and stir until combined.
3. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface until it’s a ¼-inch thick. Cut 1-inch circles out of the dough and put them on a parchment lined sheet tray. Press a pattern into the cookies now, if you choose to. Chill the rounds in the freezer for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350°F.
4. Bake the cookies for 10-13 minutes or until evenly browned. Cool the cookies on the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack. Cool completely.
5. To make the filling, stir the smooth peanut butter with the powdered sugar, it will be a thick paste. Flip over half of the cookies and add a teaspoon-sized ball of the filling to each of them. Top the filling with the other cookies and gently press until the filling reaches the edges of the cookie sandwich.
Retirement planning can be a scary subject, with good reason: More than a fourth of non-retired people have absolutely nothing saved for retirement, and even many folks who have some retirement savings don’t havenearly enough. For some folks that means tightening their belts and figuring out how to survive on Social Security. But for a lot of aging parents, having nothing saved for retirement means they’re relying on their adult children to be their retirement plan.
About one-third of middle-aged adults are already supporting their parents financially, and most expect that to continue indefinitely. While most people love their parents and probably don’t want them to slide into poverty and sadness, there’s one obvious problem with serving as your parents’ retirement plan: You might go broke doing it. If you know that your parents will be looking to you for support when they can’t work anymore, there are steps you can take to protect yourself.
Start with the numbers
First, you need to know what you’re dealing with, and that means digging into your parents’ financial situation and overall net worth. Consider all of these possible sources of income and potential financial needs.
Do a Social Security audit. If your parents worked, they’re likely entitled to Social Security benefits. If they haven’t already, have them create Social Security accounts and check into their benefit situation. Keep in mind that the longer they can wait to take their Social Security benefit, the larger the payouts. Social Security won’t be an enormous amount of money, but depending on your parents’ work history, it can be a significant amount that will definitely help defray the costs of supporting them.
Track down their retirement savings. Even if your parents have long assumed you’ll be their retirement plan, they may have accrued some retirement savings automatically through their jobs. They may have even forgotten about small 401(k) plans they left behind at old jobs. Do a deep dive to uncover every single retirement account they have or once had, and make sure you know how to access them and what the balances are.
Plan what to do with their property. If your parents own a home, find out what the situation is there. Do they still owe on a mortgage? Are there any open home equity lines of credit or loans? What’s the home's value? Selling can unlock a lot of cash that could be used to support your parents (while eliminating the associated costs of home ownership), while a reverse mortgage might be a way to let your parents age in place with an enhanced income.
Make a budget. Once you know how much money your parents actually have, you can make a budget for them that will stretch that money as far as possible. Getting them used to living on a budget now will pay dividends later if you have to take a more active role in the day-to-day management of their lives. It’s important that this budgeting process includes how much you can reasonably contribute without harming your own finances—or your own future retirement. Knowing what your “number” is in the context of supporting your parents will be essential in every decision made, so you'll have to plan out your own budget as well, with your parents as a factor.
Consolidate your resources
Now that you have an idea of how much your parents (and you) can contribute to their own upkeep when they retire, you can start to think about how to lower those costs. A few scenarios to consider:
Move them in with you. If selling their home is part of funding their retirement, or they don’t own a property, one of the easiest ways to lower their retirement costs is to have your parents live with you. There are obviously a lot of emotional and psychological factors at play here, but from a financial standpoint, it makes a lot of sense. Instead of trying to pay their living expenses on top of your own, a lot of those expenses would be shared—and you’ll also have control over those expenditures.
This can especially make sense if you have space in your own home and your parents don’t need the support of an assisted-living facility or other resources (such as a nurse). But it’s important to formalize how they’re going to contribute to the household budget, whether that means paying rent or covering specific bills.
Give them tax-free "gifts." You can give a certain amount of money to your parents every year without any tax concerns. The current limit is $18,000, so you can give that amount to your parents to help support them without having to file any tax paperwork. That can help cover their bills without any extra penalties for your income or assets.
Create a money pool with your siblings. If you have siblings, you may each have a different capacity to help out. Instead of richer siblings paying for everything and lower-income siblings paying nothing, create a “pool” of money that everyone pays into according to their situation, and pay our parents’ bills out of that. It’s important to consider not just a siblings’ income, but also their direct costs—if your parents are living with you, for example, you might be paying more to cover higher utility bills and other costs, and thus you might contribute less to the pool to reflect that.
Find support
One of the most crucial things you can do to protect your own retirement once it becomes clear that your parents will need your assistance in theirs is to identify public programs that your parents can use to supplement their retirement. There’s often a stigma surrounding utilizing these sorts of government- and community-run programs, but this is why they exist in the first place—so take advantage.
There are the obvious programs like Medicaid and Medicare, or food assistance through the SNAP program, but there are more other options than you might think, so do your research. A good place to start is this site, maintained by the National Council on Aging, which lets you search in your area for specific support programs, including health care, transportation needs, or simple senior discounts that might be available. There are often a lot of valuable benefits out there that can save your parents—and thus, you—a lot of money.
Outside your local area, there are several programs run by the federal government that can help too:
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). If you can’t afford to have your parents move in with you, and they can’t afford where they’re currently living, HUD offers programs to help senior citizens find affordable housing.
Utility assistance. Heating and cooling can be a significant expense, and attempting to keep costs down by not heating or cooling the home can be dangerous. Many local utilities have low-cost programs in place for seniors in need, so it’s worth a call to investigate this. There’s also the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), which can provide assistance.
Tax credits. If your parents have a very small income (currently between $12,500 and $25,000, depending on their filing status), they may be eligible for a federal tax credit, which can be as much as $7,500.
Supplemental Security Income (SSI). If your parents are 65 or older and earn less than $1,971 per month, they may be eligible for SSI benefits. This won’t be a huge amount of money (it depends on actual income and other factors, but tops out at about $914 per month for individuals and $1,371 for couples), but it can help defray costs.
Additionally, many areas offer free transportation for seniors (sometimes specifically to and from medical appointments, but some municipalities also run free bus services around town) which might allow you to cut the expense of a vehicle from your parents’ budget.
Being your parents’ retirement plan is a lot of responsibility—and a lot of stress. But if you plan ahead and look into all the resources available, you can at least avoid going broke yourself in the process.
Peloton bikes are best known for their video classes, which feature a social leaderboard, chatty instructors, and handpicked music. But from a fitness perspective, my favorite feature is “power zone” training, which you can do with specific classes or enable the power zone bar for any workout. Let me tell you why I love it, and how you can get started with it, too.
What is power zone training?
Cyclists measure their effort in terms of power: how much energy you transmit through the pedals in a given length of time. It’s often measured in watts. On an outdoor bike, you need a power meter to measure this; on Peloton, this measurement is built in. (The Bike estimates your power; the Bike+ has a true power meter. Both work just fine for everything I’m discussing today.)
Power zones are personalized to you—in a minute we’ll talk about how—and there are seven zones. If you’re familiar with the output metric (the number in the middle of your screen), your output is what determines your zone. Higher output numbers fall into higher zones.
A power zone workout (or “ride,” as Peloton calls them) will tell you when to go into each zone. Unlike other Peloton classes, instructors leading power zone rides won’t tell you what resistance to use, and they may recommend a cadence, but you’re never required to hit it. So if you’re in zone 1 and the instructor tells you to pedal in zone 3, you can choose to increase your resistance, your cadence, or both—whatever gets you there.
To be totally clear, power zones are nothing to do with heart rate zones. We’ll talk about the difference a little bit later.
Why are power zone rides special?
Since power zones are calibrated to your personal abilities, you always have a scale that tells you how hard you’re working, relative to what you are capable of. I like power zone rides because I know what kind of training effect to expect from them.
Where a “classic rock ride” could be hard, easy, or anywhere in between, I know that a “power zone endurance” ride is going to keep me in zones 2 and 3 for most of the workout, training my stamina without making me too fatigued. On the other hand, a “power zone max” ride will have me working hard, like a HIIT workout. The difference is that I know from the power zone bar on my screen exactly when I’m hitting the ideal output for the workout that I’m doing—not too hard and not too easy.
In short, other rides are great for having fun or for letting yourself be surprised. Power zone rides are for training. If you want to get faster and better on the bike, these are structured workouts that will make that happen, and give you ways to measure your improvement.
What is a power zone ride like?
When you want to do a power zone ride, your first job is to decide which kind. You can filter classes by “power zone” as a type, but within that you’ll see three types of classes:
Power zone (PZ): With these you’ll spend most of your working time in zones 3, 4, and 5, with recoveries in zone 1 or 2 in between efforts. These tend to be pretty hard workouts, but they’re usually not too intense.
Power zone max (PZM): These rides will take you into the higher zones (6 and 7) with easy recoveries, usually in zone 1.
Power zone endurance (PZE): These rides almost always keep you in zones 2 and 3 the whole time. Your effort will be moderate but steady.
The shortest power zone rides are usually 30 minutes (there may be a few 20-minute rides in the catalog). The 45-minute rides are probably the most popular, but there are plenty of 60-minute rides and a few 75- and 90-minute PZE rides.
Credit: Peloton
All power zone rides start with a warmup that is usually between 10 and 13 minutes. A typical one goes like this:
A few minutes (usually one song’s worth) of pedaling in zone 1 to let your legs start to warm up.
Spin-ups, where you move your legs as fast as you comfortably can, for maybe 30 seconds at a time. Your exact zone doesn’t matter here. In between the spin-ups, you’ll pedal in zone 1 to recover. After three to five spin-ups, with maybe 30 seconds or a minute in between, it will be time for the next phase.
A “build” with 30 to 90 seconds in each of the zones you’ll be using in the workout. For a PZE that might be 90 seconds in zone 2 and 90 seconds in zone 3. For a PZM, you might get 30 seconds each in zones 3, 4, 5, and 6.
A short recovery (usually 1 minute) of zone 1 pedaling before the main workout begins.
Instructors will get creative with the details, but will always keep the structure of a zone 1 segment, a few spin-ups, and a build. During the warmup, they will usually explain the structure of the workout to come.
To see the structure of the workout before you start the class, you can tap “class plan” in the ride description, then “view details,” and you’ll be able to see the full breakdown. (Some older classes don’t have this information, but ones from the last year or two will always have it.) The plan will show you what zone each interval is in, and how many minutes you’ll spend there. In the example here, you’ll spend 3, 5, 7, and then 5 minutes in zone 3, with shorter recoveries in zone 2. This is pretty typical for a PZE class.
Why you’ll love the power zone bar
Credit: Beth Skwarecki/Peloton
Anybody can take a power zone class at any time, but if you haven’t set up your power zone bar, you won’t know exactly when you’re in the right zone. (Go ahead and take the class anyway, though. During the build, the instructor will explain what each zone should feel like. You can do your first ride or two by feel.)
The power zone bar is a color-coded line at the bottom of your screen underneath your output. The zones will fill in with color according to your output, so that when you’re in zone 1, you’ll just see the leftmost blue chunk lit up, and when you’re in zone 7, you’ll see the whole rainbow, with zone 7 in red to let you know that’s where you are. Power zone classes released after November of 2022 have an indicator outline around the zone you’re supposed to be in, so even if you missed the instructor calling out the zone, you’ll see on your screen what zone you should be in.
When you set up your power zone bar—more on that in a sec—you’ll get the option to show it all the time, instead of just in power zone classes. I highly recommend doing this. With the power zone bar, you can use the idea of power zone training when you’re doing a scenic ride, and you can see how traditional style classes compare to your own zones. If I want to take a music ride for fun, but stick to easy training, I’ll just make sure my output stays in zone 2 or 3. With the power zone bar enabled, it’s easy to do that.
How to set up your power zones on Peloton
Credit: Beth Skwarecki/Peloton
If you know what the term “FTP” means (hello, cyclists), you can go into your settings right now and turn on the power zone bar. It’s in your profile, under Preferences. At the bottom of the screen, find the FTP section, and tap “calculate custom value.” You can enter your FTP number there.
For the rest of us, though, you’ll want to take an FTP test. Well, you might not want to, but you kind of need to, to calibrate everything properly.
How to take an FTP test
Credit: Beth Skwarecki/Peloton
FTP stands for Functional Threshold Power, and it’s a measure of how high an output you can sustain over time. There are specific Peloton rides that are designed to measure your FTP. After you do one, you’ll get a prompt asking if you’d like to update your FTP in settings. (Say yes.)
The FTP test takes 20 minutes, but I like to budget an hour. That gives you 10 to 20 minutes for a warmup, 20 minutes for the test, 5 to 15 minutes for a cooldown, and then plenty of time to lie on the floor afterward. (Pro tip: Have someone bring you a fresh, cold bottle of water when you finish.)
People get nervous about the FTP, but it’s really just a benchmark of where your fitness stands at the moment. If you do it right, you’ll be exhausted at the end, but then you’ll know your FTP—which means you can take easy rides and know they will be easy, because they’ll be calibrated to you.
I’ve taken a few FTP tests. Here are my tips:
Schedule a time, and when the time comes, hop on the bike and do it. If you are the type of person to get nervous when a test is on your calendar for a future date, just do it now. I’m serious, turn on your bike right this second and get it over with. You can read the rest of this article when you’re done.
Do an FTP warmup ride. Some are 10 minutes, some are 15. I find that longer is better; sometimes I’ll do a 10 minute warmup twice. Pick your favorite, most encouraging instructor for the warmup.
After the warmup, take a quick minute for a water break if you need it, and then go right into the FTP test. It does not matter who the instructor is; you’ll barely notice them. Mute the screen and play your own music if the music matters to you.
Start at a strong, steady pace, something you’re confident you could keep up for 20+ minutes. Every five minutes, ask yourself if you could kick up the intensity a notch and still be able to hang on. If you have a 20-minute PR already in the system (whether a previous FTP test or another ride), filter the leaderboard to “just me” and try to beat yourself.
Anytime you feel like you can’t possibly continue, slow down a little but do not stop. Use this as your new steady pace, and get back to asking yourself every few minutes whether you could increase your output or if you need to stay where you are. Better to go out too fast, slow down, and then continue to the finish, than to quit halfway through and…then what? Do it all over again? No way.
No matter your fitness level, there is some amount of power that you can log in a 20-minute test. If you don’t like the number you get, you can retest in a couple weeks. But you won’t know what number that is until the end. So don’t quit. Keep pedaling. You can absolutely do this.
Whatever minute you’re in, don’t focus on how many minutes there are left. Just focus on making it through this minute.
Before you know it, you’ll be in your final sprint to the finish. The ride will end, and at this point I usually snap a photo with my phone of my output on the leaderboard. When you leave the ride to do a cooldown (please do a cooldown, your body will thank you), Peloton will ask if you’d like to update your FTP. Say yes. By the way: It’s recommended to take a new FTP test every 4 to 6 weeks.
Heart rate zones vs. power zones
I need to make something very clear: When you’re training with power zones, those are to be used instead of heart rate zones. Not in addition.
Now, you can still wear a heart rate monitor. That’s fine. You’re just not using it to guide your workout. You’ll see the power zone bar at the bottom of your screen, and a heart rate zone indicator at the top left. Either ignore or hide the heart rate zone indicator. You can tap the little sideways arrow and it will disappear, but keep logging your heart rate data so you can look at it later.
Note the heart rate zones in the top left, and power zones at the bottom. At the moment, both are in zone 1.Credit: Beth Skwarecki/Peloton
People often wonder how heart rate zones match up with power zones, but there is no consistent way to convert them. In general, heart rate zone 2 matches power zones 2-3. But your heart rate drifts upward the longer you work out, and your heart rate also takes longer to change when you shift gears. If you’re moving into power zone 5, your bike will be at zone 5 immediately. Your heart might take 30 seconds to catch up. Don’t ever worry if your heart rate zones and power zones aren’t matched, OK? You can only train with one at a time, and we’re here to train with power zones.
What kind of power zone workouts should I do?
When you first start, the easiest way to learn your way around power zone workouts is to do the Discover Your Power Zones program (available from the “Programs” section on the Bike/Bike+). It will guide you through doing an FTP test at the beginning and at the end of the four-week program, and in between you’ll get a sampler of all the different power zone workout types. The instructors know they’re talking to power zone beginners, so they’ll spend plenty of time explaining how everything works and giving you tips on making the most of it.
When you’re done with that program, you may want to take Build Your Power Zones to continue working in that same vein, but it’s also fine to just start taking whichever power zone classes you think you’ll enjoy. Eventually you may want to take Peak Your Power Zones, a more advanced program that is geared toward improving your FTP. (Your FTP will improve no matter which program you take, but the “Peaking” program is laser-focused on making that number go up rather than delivering a well-rounded fitness program.)
Besides those three built-in programs, you can also find program suggestions on Reddit (there is a #RedditPZ group that runs nine-week programs) and a Facebook-based Power Zone Pack that runs challenges for subscribers.
But if you’re on your own, you can build your own routine just by knowing what to expect from each type of power zone workout. For most people, it would work to do:
0 or 1 Power Zone Max ride(s) per week
1 or 2 Power Zone ride(s) per week
Power Zone Endurance rides for the rest of your available time (or do other rides while staying in zone 2-3 on the power zone bar)
So if you ride three times each week, you might do one PZ and two PZE. If you’re a monster who rides every day, you might do one PZM, two PZ’s, and four PZEs, with one or two of those PZE rides being all zone 2 (instead of following the callouts to switch between zones 2 and 3). Adjust as needed to your own fitness level, and choose the lengths of workouts that work for your schedule.
When choosing your own workouts, the Power Zone Tool from homefitnessbuddy.com is incredibly useful. You can filter and sort by instructor, length of workout, and a cool metric called TSS (training stress score). The higher the TSS, the harder the workout will be to recover from. (For example, you can search for “Christine PZE” and sort by TSS, lowest first. You’ll immediately see that she has several rides that are 30 minutes long and that are entirely in zone 2—great for a recovery ride.)
You can also get a preview of the zones as a visual chart, which I find easier to read than the way Peloton presents them in the class plan. Be aware that the very newest rides won’t be on this tool yet, but also that some older rides will be on there as well that may not have the power zone indicator. But fortunately all the statistics are right there in each entry, so you can choose exactly which rides you’d like to take.
Like probably many people reading this, my first robot vacuum was a Roomba. It was great for its time, but if you've been paying attention, other companies have been improving their technology while iRobot seems to be stagnant. Shark, Yeedi, and Roborock are some of the better robot vacuum brands out there, and they're currently very well priced. If you're looking to improve your current robot vacuum, consider one of these.
The Shark AI has some good features for its $299.99 sale price (originally $599), like smart mapping and a self-emptying base that can hold 60 days worth of debris. It is bagless, so there's no need to spend on bags every time you empty the debris, and it avoids obstacles with LiDAR technology. The main concern is that Shark doesn’t disclose the device's suction power, which could be a tactic to hide underwhelming specs.
The Roborock Q7 Max+ Robot Vacuum and Mop combo is 47% off
If you're looking for a vacuum and mop combo, the Roborock Q7 Max+ for $459.99 (originally $869.99) is a great option. The mopping is not high-tier, though, since it only uses a single brush—if that's important to you, the higher-tier Roborock S8will. However, it will clean surface-level stains without a problem.
Like the Shark, the Q7 Max+ also has a LiDAR system that it uses to map out your home. You can designate no-mop areasto avoid getting rugs wet, for example. If there are objects in the way, it will remember them and can maneuver around them to avoid accidents. The dock station can hold up to seven weeks of debris with its 2.5-liter bags. The suction power is decent for its current price, at 4,200 pascals. Just keep in mind you will be making purchases on the mop pads as you use them up, as well as the bags on the self-emptying dock.
The Yeedi C12 PRO Plus Robot Vacuum and Mop is $230 off
The Yeedi C12 PRO Plus Robot Vacuum and Mop combo might not have the impressive discounts the other two vacuums have, but it's still arguably a better value for your money. After using the $130 on-page coupon, you can get the Yeedi C12 PRO Plus for $369.99 (originally $599). This vacuum has a self-emptying dust bin that can last up to seven weeks before needing to empty it; the most suction power with 8,000 pascals; a mop pad that scrubs the floor 480 times per minute; smart mapping of your home; the ability to set schedules; boosted suction on carpet; anti-tangle technology on the roller; and up to five-hour battery capacity. You won't be spending money on dust bags or mop pads, since these ones are reusable.
Once you feel comfortable caring for domestic pets like cats and dogs, taking the leap to farm animals usually starts with poultry. And for good reason: they’re relatively easy to keep in suburban areas, and with a little flexibility, they can thrive in urban areas, too.
The most obvious benefit to caring for poultry comes in the form of those tasty eggs, but poultry can also can become an integral part of your garden as both a way to recycle yard and kitchen waste (food for the poultry) and fertilizer (composted bird poop). While most people immediately think of chickens as their first choice, ducks (not to mention turkey, geese, quail, and pigeons) are also a great choice.
While you could, of course, have both, people generally start with one or the other. I spoke with Jordan Barnes, founder of the The Smart Coop, which sells coops with smart features for both chickens and ducks, about how to choose between the two.
Startup costs (for both) may surprise you
You might think that chickens and ducks are cheap to own (with chicks costing $3 to $5 and ducklings at $5 to $10) but there are ongoing costs, especially when they're babies, that can rack up quickly.
For the first six weeks of their lives, you’ll need to shell out money for a brooder, which is like a mini coop with a more controlled temperature setup. I was sure a simple plastic tote or box would do the trick, but the birds grow fantastically fast, and within a week or two, my flock of four needed bigger digs. You can get fancy brooders for about $100, but you can also source a scrappier one for under $40. The brooder will also need bedding (most people use pine shavings) which will cost about $20 for approximately four cubic feet. For my four chickens, this amount only lasted a few weeks.
Your baby birds will also need a heat source. While many people use heat lamps, a more modern method is a heat plate that the birds can nest under, and that will cost another $30 or so. You will also need a device so the birds can access water ($20) and food ($10). Then, add on the actual food and grit, both of which ducklings and chicks need.
With both chickens and ducks, you’ll spend a lot of time trying to minimize the mess the birds make with their water, but it’s easier with chickens. Ducks actually need to be able to submerge their beaks in the water, which requires a different kind of water device that makes it easier to splash around. Otherwise, there isn’t much cost difference between having ducks or chickens at this stage; both require (sometimes surprisingly) expensive stuff for the first six weeks of their lives that they won't really need moving forward.
When it comes to food and housing, ducks cost more
Between six and eight weeks, your baby birds will be ready to move to their coop. Pinterest loves a fancy coop, but your birds won’t care how the coop looks, which can help you save some money. You can buy commercially made coops for anywhere from $150 to thousands of dollars, or build one yourself for a few hundred dollars. You might make some extra considerations for ducks, in that they like to have access to water; there are fanciful plans for duck coops with moats or ponds and sunpads, for example.
“Chickens need secure housing with roosting bars and nesting boxes," Barnes said, describing each animal's needs. "Ducks, being ground dwellers, need secure, ground-level housing and access to water for swimming and drinking.”
In either case, you’ll still need to account for bedding and feed. “On average, a laying hen eats about a quarter pound of feed per day or 1.5 pounds of feed per week," Barnes said. Ducks at this age require twice as much food, about a half pound per day, and benefit from food that includes Niacin, which chickens don’t require. Niacin (vitamin B3) ensures ducks get the bone growth they need to support their body—but since this water soluble vitamin is eliminated daily and not stored in the body, it needs to be replenished.
In short, chickens may run $30 to $50 per month for food and bedding, but for ducks it will be closer to $70 to $100.
Ducks are a longer commitment, but lay larger eggs
Chickens generally live five to 10 years, but they lay consistently until they're about five years old. Domesticated ducks can live to their twenties. They, too, will lay eggs consistently for about five years, but all egg production will taper off by the time they turn nine.
The eggs that chickens and ducks produce are markedly different in volume and substance, Barnes noted. “Chickens are prolific layers, with high-production breeds giving you around 250 to 300 eggs per year," he said. While some duck breeds, like khaki runners, can produce as many as 300 eggs a year, most duck breeds produce slightly less. Ducks, while laying fewer eggs, offer larger eggs. And while taste is subjective, duck eggs are often considered more luxurious, with a richer taste.
Both are social animals, but ducks are "social butterflies"
Though I was determined not to attach myself to my own small flock, it’s hard to ignore how charming backyard birds are. My chickens have distinct personalities that are easily observed, and though cautious and easily startled, they're are also curious and friendly. They also have a pecking order, Barnes pointed out. My small flock is being managed by a Machiavellian silkie named Cacciatore.
“Ducks are the social butterflies of the backyard," Barnes said. "They’re more sentient and form stronger bonds, especially if you hand-raise them. Ducks are known for their quirky, playful personalities and are often less skittish than chickens. They enjoy being in flocks and can be quite affectionate with their human caregivers.”
How your birds will interact with your yard
Backyard birds are a double-edged sword when it comes to the impact they'll have on your yard. On the one hand, they can provide fertilizer, bug control, and an ideal composting system for your kitchen scraps. On the other, both birds can be rough on landscaping. Chickens scratch up the ground to uncover edible bugs and create dirt baths, and ducks just consume whatever they can reach. However, these problems only exist if you free range your birds.
The benefits to free ranging extends beyond the happiness of the birds themselves, though, so I think it's likely worth it. Free ranging your birds has an immense benefit to the birds, obviously, as they can forage and explore their surroundings, but it also means free pest control. Chickens eat bugs, and ducks love snails and slugs. You just have to balance that with the possible damage to the landscaping they can cause. You also have to remember that wherever birds go, they poop, which is a lot of cleanup.
The good news is that this abundance of poop is fantastic for your garden. A notable difference is that chicken poop needs to go through a composting period before it can be applied to your garden so it won't burn your plants, but duck poop does not. It’s considered “cold” compost and can be applied directly. Since your ducks are going to produce a lot of wet waste if you have a pool for them, a plan for how you’ll use that water in your garden is necessary.
The EU is charging Apple with violating the Digital Markets Act, a move that could cost the company $38 billion if found guilty. The action follows complaints that the company isn’t doing enough to satisfy the region’s DMA regulations.
The DMA’s rules, which came into effect for Apple in March, are intended to encourage fair competition and more open markets. The law was supposed to require Apple to allow steering—a developer practice for directing users to payment methods outside the App Store—as well as third-party app stores. Apple has technically complied with these requirements, but developers have called out the company for violating the spirit of the law.
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has called Apple’s implementation of DMA policies “malicious compliance,” continuing a feud that began when a pre-DMA Apple pulled Fortnite from the App Store for steering users to Epic’s own payment methods. The developer called out the company’s “junk fees” for outside payments and third-party stores, and now it seems the EU agrees.
In a press release, the European Commission said it is formally charging Apple for violating its steering rules. The company currently only allows developers to link users to an outside website, which the EU says limits their ability to effectively market to or charge consumers. Further, it charges developers fees on digital purchases consumers make “within seven days after a link-out.”
EU Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, who leads Europe’s competition policy, said that “Our preliminary position is that Apple does not fully allow steering.” In addition to the anti-steering charge, Vestager said the Commission has also opened proceedings to investigate compliance for third-party app store rules, with a focus on the company’s Core Technology Fee and the difficult process users must follow to install third-party app stores.
“For too long Apple has been squeezing out innovative companies—denying consumers new opportunities & choices,” EU Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton posted on X, formerly Twitter.
Apple is just the first company to enter the Commission's sights, as the DMA’s rules also apply to Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, and ByteDance (TikTok). The Commission said it is also currently investigating Alphabet and Meta for non-compliance, as well as gathering “facts and information” on Amazon.
If Apple is found guilty of infringement, the EU could charge the company up to 10% of its annual global revenue, or around $38 billion based on last year’s earnings. The charge could jump to 20% for repeated offenses.
Apple did not immediately reply to Lifehacker’s request for comment, however Apple spokesperson Peter Ajemian told The Verge, “Throughout the past several months, Apple has made a number of changes to comply with the DMA in response to feedback from developers and the European Commission…we will continue to listen and engage with the European Commission.”
Sometimes, it's not the tasks on your to-do list that overwhelm you, but simply the act of sorting them out and figuring out where to start. Before you can prioritize your responsibilities and setting out a schedule for getting everything done (using strategies like "eating the frog" or creating a 1-3-5 to-do list), you have to identify what those big tasks are and what capacity you have to take them on. If you are the type of person that finds it helpful to visualize these things, I like to refer to a pair of strategies that both involve imagining tasks as rocks: The "pickle jar theory" and the "big rocks theory."
What is the pickle jar theory?
The pickle jar theory is an excellent mental exercise for anyone who thinks or processes things visually. It was conceptualized by Jeremy Wright in 2002, based on the idea that a pickle jar holds a finite amount of content. So, too, does your day. There is only so much you can do in a day, as there is only so much you can stuff into a pickle jar.
When thinking of your day as a pickle jar, imagine it full of three things: Rocks, pebbles, and sand. These represent your daily responsibilities, but as you can see, they’re different sizes. You can fit more of the smaller stuff, like sand and pebbles, than you can rocks, but rocks can still take up half the jar.
How does the pickle jar theory work?
To use this kind of thinking, you need to categorize your day’s tasks. Start by writing them all down, then prioritizing them using the Eisenhower Matrix, which is useful for figuring out which tasks are urgent and important, urgent and not important, not urgent but important, and not urgent and not important.
Then, assign each task to a rock, pebble, or sand, like this:
Rocks are the big tasks that are important, necessary to get on right away, and/or will take up a major chunk of time. Studying for a test, finalizing a major project at work, or cleaning the house can be rock-sized tasks, for instance.
Pebbles are the things that are important to do, but not immediately necessary or massively time-consuming. You can fit quite a few of them in the jar, depending on how many rocks you have in there.
Sand represents the small things that you need to do to keep your day moving along or just want to do. It enters the jar last and fills up the gaps between the bigger items. Sand can be anything from answering emails, going to meetings, calling your mom, or relaxing. These aren’t necessarily urgent or time-consuming, but they’re still important to your work or mental wellbeing.
Visualize yourself putting one to three rocks in the jar, three to five pebbles, and as much sand as can fit. Understanding that not every single thing you need to do can always fit in there, you can make decisions about which rocks, pebbles, and sand pieces to hold over for the next day’s jar.
This works because it gives you a tangible example of your own capacity, but also reminds you that even when your day is full of “rocks” and “pebbles,” you still have room for “sand.” Don’t forget to let some of the sand be enjoyable, because breaks are integral to productivity. Don’t over-stuff your jar with rocks and pebbles to the point that you have no room for sand at all, and don’t forget that other people have their own jars that might not be as full. Consider delegating some “pebble” tasks to a teammate, whether it’s a coworker or your spouse, or eliminating the unnecessary tasks altogether. (On your Eisenhower Matrix, these will be the ones that are neither urgent nor important.)
What is the big rocks theory?
There is a simplified version of the idea above that can work for you, too, if you don't want to categorize your tasks into rocks, pebbles, and sand, but want something a little more streamlined.
You might be familiar with the concept of "big rocks" if you've read Stephen Covey's popular book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Essentially, as with the pickle-jar mindset, you should think of your time, energy, and resources like a big container and the things you need to do as rocks or gravel. You can't fit very many big rocks in there, but you can fit a few and still have room for the smaller tasks. The big ones take away from the space—your resources and time—so you have to be intentional about how many you really try to fit in.
Visualizing is important, but you still have to use that to make a plan and get things done. First, write down everything you need to do on one page, whether in a digital word processor or a physical notebook. Then, consider how much time, energy, and other resources each thing will take and mark it as either a rock or gravel. Unlike other task prioritization methods, like the Eisenhower matrix mentioned above, this can be pretty loose. Just put down your best guess about how much each task will drain you. (When you're short on time, opt for this big rocks approach over the pickle jar approach because of its relative simplicity.)
Once you have everything designated as a rock or gravel, schedule the rocks first. Here's where you can use timeboxing to clearly carve out dedicated time for each thing you have to do. Keep in mind that if you schedule and work on gravel activities—emails, phone calls, doing the dishes, whatever—without taking on the big rocks first, you'll never get around to the big rocks; the smaller tasks are usually pretty endless, so you need to prioritize the big ones. Go back to your visualization: If you put all the gravel into your vessel before the big rocks, you'd fill it up and leave no room, but if you put in the big rocks first, then add the gravel, the gravel will fall between the rocks and settle in where it can.
Identifying the resource-heavy, demanding tasks and prioritizing those ahead of the more menial stuff will allow you to actually make time to tackle it so you can fit the rest in where you can. But be a little judicious with that scheduling: Don't load a full day of big rocks into your schedule. You'll burn yourself out. Instead, choose only one or two per day, then allocate the rest of your time to those maintenance tasks.
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