Tag Archives: gear

Spotify Will Brick Every ‘Car Thing’ It Ever Sold

Owners of Spotify's soon-to-be-bricked Car Thing device are begging the company to open source the gadgets to save some the landfill. Spotify hasn't responded to pleas to salvage the hardware, which was originally intended to connect to car dashboards and auxiliary outlets to enable drivers to listen to and navigate …

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Everything You Can Do to Keep an Old Computer Running

There's no avoiding it: Your desktop or laptop computer isn't going to last forever. Eventually the time will come when you need to abandon it—responsibly disposing of it along the way, of course—and upgrade to a new machine. But maybe you're not quite at that stage yet. Maybe you need …

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Biden’s New Import Rules Will Hit Ebike Batteries Too

Last week, the Biden administration announced it would levy dramatic new tariffs on electric vehicles, electric vehicle batteries, and battery components imported into the United States from China. The move kicked off another round of global debate on how best to push the transportation industry toward an emissions-free future, and …

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The Best Barbecue and Hot Sauce Subscription Boxes

It’s the season of seasonings! What better way to experiment with your food than by getting the most exciting bottles of sauce sent to your doorstep? Subscriptions are a good way to immerse yourself in the hypercompetitive world of craft barbecue. There are a wider array of practitioners and experimental …

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Everyone's Pumped About Heat Pumps

People everywhere are hot for heat pumps. These electric appliances—which perform the same heating and cooling tasks as traditional HVAC systems, just much more efficiently—have been outselling gas furnaces for the past couple of years. Their proliferation seems to be pointing toward a more energy-conscious electric future in people’s homes. …

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How to Clear Your Browser’s Cache, and Why You Should

Every web browser has what's called a cache: a temporary storage space for web pages that syncs online content to your computer or mobile device. This syncing is designed to help websites load up faster and put less strain on your internet bandwidth. It's a good idea, and it works …

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/e/OS Is Better Than Android. You Should Try It

Google's Android mobile operating system is open source, which means anyone can, in theory, build their own mobile operating system based on the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). Why, then, are there not many different versions of Android to choose from? Well, the good news is that there are a …

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Sonos Finally Has Headphones and We’re Excited

It’s true that “before the pandemic” is a hazy time, an era in which it’s difficult to pin down chronology with any certainty. So while the rumors of Sonos headphones definitely began before the pandemic, who knows exactly how long we’ve been waiting for them? Four years? Ten? That’s all …

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