Air travel has entered an especially fraught place in the public consciousness lately, mostly due to a recent spate of incidents in which Boeing planes have caught fire, lost a wheel during takeoff, or sprung a hole mid-flight. These high-profile mishaps have given flying a bad name and made countless …
Read More »How to Clean Your Coffee Grinder (and How Often You Should Do It)
A burr grinder is the automatic, electronic version of the manual coffee mills people have been using to grind coffee for centuries. Whether it’s a flat or conical burr grinder (I explain the differences in my Best Coffee Grinders guide), those heavy-duty burrs are going to break coffee beans down …
Read More »Protect Your Home Wi-Fi Network by Setting Up a VPN on Your Router
Setting up a virtual private network on your phone or laptop means a much better level of privacy and security for you and your data. VPNs help to hide your browsing activity and protect your sensitive data from other people, including the company supplying your broadband service. Using a VPN …
Read More »14 Last-Minute Deals From Home Depot and Lowe’s Spring Sale Events
Spring isn't just the time for cleaning your home. It's also the time for renovating, refurbishing, and restoring. That yard work project you put off last fall? Those garage projects you wanted to do all winter when it was too cold to work out there? Now's the time to stock …
Read More »There's a Rare $25 Discount on the Nintendo Switch OLED Right Now
There's a strong chance we will see Nintendo's next-generation console in 2025, but if you just have been itching to play some Nintendo games, the Switch remains an excellent buy. You're in luck because Amazon is offering $25 off when you clip the on-page coupon, dropping the price to $324. …
Read More »Test Your Knowledge of Internet Acronyms
Do you know what TCP/IP means? (Hint: You’re using it right now.) What about CDMA? Or GPT? While the concepts and execution of these technologies are clear to most of us who have been on the internet nearly our whole lives, the acronyms we use to define them are often …
Read More »How to Handle Online Harassment When It Happens to You
In 2022 I wrote an op-ed for NBC News Think about leg hair, of all things. The piece detailed a monthlong experiment during which I stopped shaving. Aside from one paragraph about bodily autonomy and Roe v. Wade, I thought it was a mild article. Boring, even. The internet disagreed. …
Read More »Rabbit’s AI Assistant Is Here. And Soon a Camera Wearable Will Be Too
The pathway leading into Rabbit's venue for the launch event of the R1, an artificial-intelligence-powered device announced at CES 2024, was paved with gadgets from the past. First was the orange JVC Videosphere, then the Sony Walkman, a Tamagotchi, a transparent Game Boy Color—heck, even the original Pokédex toy from …
Read More »This Furry, Robotic Puppet Comforts Your Crying Baby While You Drive
About two years ago, I was in a car with my best friend and her toddler. She was driving, and I was sitting in the back next to her 10-month-old, who was tucked into his car seat. For a while, the ride was smooth—then the baby burst into tears. We …
Read More »Somehow This $10,000 Flame-Thrower Robot Dog Is Completely Legal in 48 States
If you've been wondering when you’ll be able to order the flame-throwing robot that Ohio-based Throwflame first announced last summer, that day has finally arrived. The Thermonator, what Throwflame bills as “the first-ever flamethrower-wielding robot dog” is now available for purchase. The price? $9,420. Thermonator is a quadruped robot with …
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