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We’ve all been there: You’ve loaded your dishwasher to the brim with just about every useful dish you own and then realize you’re completely out of dishwasher detergent. If a last-minute dash to grab some isn’t in the cards, it might be easier to whip up a DIY dishwasher detergent that’ll get the job done until you can make it to the store.
We’ve seen a lot of DIY dishwasher detergent recipes that include items you may not already have in your home (like washing soda, which — yes — is different from baking soda!). To simplify, below are three DIY dishwasher detergent “recipes” that you can make with things you’re much more likely to actually have on hand.
Method 1: Baking soda & vinegar
The combo might be famous for “volcano” concoctions, but both baking soda and vinegar are excellent natural cleaners. To use this DIY method, Scott Schrader, a cleaning expert at CottageCare, suggests the following:
“This cleaning duo will cut grease, deodorize, and freshen your dishes,” he says. And if you have a septic system, Schrader advises you to steer clear of recipes that are heavy in borax. Instead, he recommends using vinegar or baking soda solutions like this one instead.
Method 2: Salt, lemon & baking soda
Need something more abrasive for tough stains or super dirty dishes? Try this natural dishwasher detergent that uses the scrubbing power of salt for an amped-up clean.
“The salt gets rid of greasy residue and the lemon oils cut right through it, which leaves your dishes sparkling clean,” Schrader says.
Method 3: Castile soap & baking soda
I’ll preface this recipe with the warning that it’s generally not recommended to use dish soap in your dishwasher. That’s because it can create suds that can cause potential damage to the machine (not to mention a soapy mess on your floor when it overflows). But if you’re really in a pinch and don’t have anything else in your home, Schrader recommends using a tiny amount of Castile soap.
“This is mild enough for most machines but is effective,” Schrader says. “Of the three options, the Castile soap combination is the best option for glassware because most harsher DIY powders will leave a cloudy film,” he advises.
Method #4: Castile soap, baking soda, salt & vinegar
Though it requires a few more steps, this is a gentle but effective option to use instead of store-bought dishwasher detergent, says Marilee Nelson, cofounder of Branch Basics.
Other Tricks if You’re Out of Dishwasher Detergent
When in doubt, hand-wash.
Of course, handwashing dishes is always an easy option, Nelson says. Dish soap is preferable, but experts say hand soap can work in a pinch — with some caution. Because many hand soaps include mild additives that aren’t food-safe, be diligent about rinsing to prevent buildup. To sanitize and kill any lingering germs when handwashing, public health experts suggest dishes need contact with water that is 170 degrees or hotter for at least 30 seconds.
Use bleach (with caution).
Alternatively, you can soak dishes in a mixture of 1 tablespoon of unscented chlorine bleach and 1 gallon of cool water for at least 1 minute. But make sure you read this guide to cleaning with bleach before you do!
Bookmark this guide to DIY dishwasher detergents so you’ll know exactly what to do if you ever run out when you’re cleaning your dishes. These common household items can totally save the day if you happen to run out of store-bought detergent — and some even work better!
What do you do when you run out of dishwasher detergent? Let us know in the comments below!
Regina is an architect who lives with her husband and children in Lawrence, KS. As a LEED Accredited Professional and longtime contributor to Apartment Therapy and The Kitchn, her focus is on healthy, sustainable living through design.
It’s not fun to talk about, but there’s only one thing certain in life. You need to have a plan for your digital legacy, just like you make a plan for your physical assets; otherwise, your accounts, services, and logins will rot away in a data center before they’re inevitably erased by a data retention policy.
Some services recognize how important digital legacy is. Apple and Facebook have legacy contacts that can gain access to your accounts, and the American Bar Association is still grappling with the legalities of accessing online accounts when someone passes away. Most online services don’t.
Recognition of digital legacy is still spotty, and without dedicated legacy contacts, accessing the deceased’s online accounts often involves court orders or legal documentation (and plenty of time). Digital legacy doesn’t need to have so many hurdles, though. Password managers have digital legacy features built in that can unlock your digital life in the event of an emergency.
Table of Contents
Defining a Digital Legacy
There’s a lot that goes into your digital legacy, from your online banking login to any digital assets you own, but even a seemingly straightforward online life can quickly snowball into a mess. Does the Netflix account just keep draining the checking account until you can break in and change the payment option? Are photos that have been uploaded to the cloud now lost in a data center, never to be recovered? Add some passkeys, maybe some social sign-on features, and you have a complex web of data that’s almost impossible to untangle.
So-called digital executors exist, operating in the same way as the executor of the will, just for digital assets. It’s a good idea to set up a digital executor to ensure your digital assets are handled properly, but that doesn’t help in the immediate aftermath of someone passing away. The probate process can take at least a few months, and sometimes several years.
Password managers like Bitwarden offer a shortcut. You can transfer access to a trusted relative, spouse, or even your closest friend, along with a rundown of what to do with your accounts.
The legality of this is a little murky, with the American Bar Association noting that accessing someone else’s account, even with their username and password, isn’t legal if it violates the platform’s terms of service. The law regarding digital assets varies from state to state, so it’s still a good idea to consult an attorney for long-term access.
Here’s the advice NordPass gave: “For anyone thinking about digital legacy, the best step is to set up Emergency Access in advance, clearly communicate the use cases of the credentials with your trusted contacts, and follow the terms of service of respective platforms.”
Immediate access is still important, not only in the event of death but also in the event of incapacitation. If you, for whatever reason, can’t access your online accounts, you can transfer those accounts easily using an emergency contact feature available in a password manager.
Password Managers With Digital Legacy Features
There are some excellent password managers, and most of them have some way to unlock your account in the event of an emergency. They go about it in different ways, however. Here are the three I recommend for most people. (Read more in our Best Password Managers guide.)
Proton Pass
Courtesy of Proton
Proton recently added an emergency access feature, and it’s not just restricted to Proton Pass. Unlike most password managers, Proton Pass is just one app available in the Proton suite. Proton also makes our favorite VPN, and it offers an encrypted crypto wallet, cloud storage, and even a calendar.
Emergency access isn’t restricted to one app with Proton. Rather, it’s access to your entire account, so if you have multiple Proton apps, you can pass them along. It’s not hard to see where this could be useful, especially if you have a lot of data stored in Proton Drive or money in your crypto wallet.
Coffee is a fast-ticking clock. And the end of this stopwatch is nothing you want. Fresh coffee is all about aroma and intensity—the delicate notes of toffee or nectarine that make each bean distinct. Old coffee loses all of this. It tastes instead acrid and flabby, like a cup of wet cardboard.
But freshness is a difficult target. I drink coffee about like a horse takes to water, but I buy it just as impulsively. I am also constantly testing out coffee to find the Best Coffee Subscriptions, and to give each brand a fair shake, I always drink those fresh in the optimal tasting window. Which means the rando special bag I bought for myself last Thursday often has to wait. And sometimes I can’t manage to brew all my coffee within a few weeks of its roast date.
That’s where freezing comes in.
So, should you freeze coffee beans? Or is freezing just a new way to mess up coffee beans—by introducing frosty moisture, or tainting it with the smell of the frozen chicken and peas in your icebox? The answer, according to coffee experts and chemists alike, is that you’re probably better off freezing coffee than letting warm air do its slow work. But this is only true if you do it correctly.
What’s more, frozen beans can in fact lead to better flavor on light-roast coffee in particular, according to at least one study—because it helps you get more consistent coffee grounds and therefore better flavor. More on that later.
Here’s a quick rundown on how to keep your coffee fresh without also ruining it, and why frozen coffee sometimes trumps fresh.
When Does Coffee Start Going Stale?
Believe it or not, there’s such a thing as coffee that’s too fresh. You probably don’t want to brew coffee the day after it’s roasted. For light roasts in particular, most roasters tend to recommend you wait five to seven days after the roast date before brewing, in order to allow your coffee to off-gas a bit and become a little easier to extract. This is especially important when it comes to espresso, where extraction is a volatile and finicky process.
But, alas, if you just leave the coffee in its bag, on the counter, it may start to go stale beginning a couple weeks later. You know that nice smell of fresh coffee beans? Those lovely aromatic compounds are exiting the beans, and dispersing into the air: That’s why you can smell them. Eventually, they’ll diminish. At the same time, oxygen is sneaking in to do its grim work, turning your beans to stale rust.
Depending how it’s stored, coffee can begin to degrade anywhere from two weeks to a month after roast date (i.e., the optimal window may just be a week or two for each bag).
You can delay this a bit by storing the coffee in an airtight container. One that I particularly like (and that we recommend in our Gifts for Coffee Lovers guide) is the vacuum-sealed Fellow Atmos. This can keep your beans fresher for longer on your counter and also keep them from taking on bad aromas in your freezer.
Photograph: Fellow
Fellow
Atmos Vacuum Canister
When to Freeze Coffee Beans
If you know you’re not going to get through a bag of beans, the best time to freeze is not when your beans are already starting to go stale. Rather, do so just before the optimal flavor window.
The science on the staying power of frozen coffee is somewhat thin, notes Christopher Hendon, a materials chemist at University of Oregon, whose research into coffee extraction and flavor has earned him the nickname “Dr. Coffee.” But there’s reason to believe freezing slows the staling process but doesn’t halt it.
ROG Strix is Asus’s performance-focused subbrand. This is where the company’s thicker, more conventional gaming laptops are found. Pricing can range widely, as it includes affordable options like the ROG Strix G16 with the RTX 5050, which starts at just $1,300.
TUF Gaming is the company’s entry-level gaming laptop subbrand. These TUF gaming laptops used to be some of the most affordable gaming laptops you could buy, but they’ve gone up in price over the past few years. There aren’t any Asus gaming laptops under $1,000 that feature the latest RTX 50-series GPUs, though you can find plenty of older models for less on Amazon or Best Buy.
Dell’s gaming laptop lineup is fairly sparse these days. All of Dell’s gaming laptops fall under the Alienware brand, which the company acquired back in 2006. Alienware has been through many cycles of reinvention with its gaming laptops, but in 2025, there’s really only four laptops in the stack right now: the Alienware 16 Aurora, Alienware 16X Aurora, Alienware 18 Area-51, and Alienware 16 Area-51. I like the simplicity of the new lineup, which focuses on what Alienware has always been known for: its brash, gamer style and higher-end performance.
The Alienware 16 Aurora is the company’s attempt to reach a cheaper demographic, starting the laptop at just $1,100 right now for an RTX 5050 configuration.
HP’s Omen gaming brand has been around for over a decade, but it really feels like the company has started to build some momentum around it over the past few years. Interestingly, HP breaks down its options into three categories of thickness and performance. Omen Max is the chunkiest at almost an inch thick, and supports up to an RTX 5080. Omen 16 is the middle ground, capping out at an RTX 5070. Omen Transcend, which offers a 14-inch model, still supports up to an RTX 5070, but brings the thickness down to 0.7 inches. There are 16-inch size options available across all three subbrands; however, none of the laptops are as thin as some of the competition. There’s also an Omen 16 Slim, which blurs the lines a bit.
Apart from Omen, HP also launched its “Victus” subbrand in 2021, which represents its budget-oriented options. HP only has a few configurations of the HP Victus 15 and Victus 16 available right now.
Razer, MSI, Acer, and Others
Photograph: Luke Larsen
Razer is solely committed to PC gaming, unlike many of the laptop brands on this list. Its Blade gaming laptops have become iconic in the industry for their minimalist aesthetic. Like many companies, Razer has a Blade 14, Blade 16, and Blade 18, which all have an identical design, but scale up in terms of size and performance.
MSI has made quite a name for itself in the gaming space, especially with its high-end, performance-focused, monster gaming laptops like the MSI Titan HX. Beyond Titan, MSI has a mind-boggling amount of other options, though, including the Raider, Stealth, Vector, Katana, Sword, and its budget-oriented Cyborg series. There’s a lot to dig into.
Acer’s Predator line has its own fanfare about it. Predator Helios is its high-end, performance-driven line with tons of options across 14-inch, 16-inch, and 18-inch sizes. Triton is its thin-and-light sub-brand, but it hasn’t been updated in 2025 so far. The company also has its Nitro budget brand, which comes in 14-, 15-, and 16-inch options and with support up to an RTX 5070.
Beyond these mainstay brands, you also have PC gaming companies that have dipped into gaming laptops, such as Gigabyte, Origin, and Maingear. Just stay away from the no-name brands that have popular listings on Amazon despite lacking discrete graphics cards—like this.
Gaming on Non-Gaming Laptops
Photograph: Luke Larsen
Photograph: Luke Larsen
Photograph: Luke Larsen
Photograph: Luke Larsen
While there’s an entire ecosystem of laptops marketed toward gamers, that doesn’t mean you can’t play games on other devices. Laptops with dedicated graphics cards can often play games just as well as gaming laptops, but they’re often targeted more at creatives who need better graphics to run creative applications. These include laptops like the Dell 14 Premium, Acer Swift X 14, and the Asus ProArt P16.
If you’re buying a laptop primarily to play games, though, I wouldn’t recommend one of these. They usually don’t support the higher-tier GPUs like the RTX 5080 or 5090, and you won’t get super-fast refresh rates beyond 120 Hz. If you’re more of a casual gamer and just want a high-end laptop that can do it all, these are good options. They’re especially good if you despise the “gamer” aesthetic and want something a bit more subtle.
You’ll then be prompted to insert your USB drive and choose it from the drop-down list onscreen. Do make sure you select the correct USB drive and not an external disk that has information on it that you need. Eventually, you’ll be told your USB installer drive is ready: The necessary downloading and installing took 30 minutes or so for me but will depend on the computer you’re using and your internet connection.
Use ChromeOS Flex on an Older Laptop
You can try ChromeOS Flex before installing it.Courtesy of David Nield
You then need to boot your aging PC or Mac—the one we’re giving a second life—from the USB drive you just created. This will usually involve pressing a specific key as your laptop starts up: If you’re not sure what it is, run a web search, check in your laptop’s documentation, or see Google’s list here. For Macs, start up the system either by pressing the power key and then the Option key (Intel chips) or by holding down the power key (Apple chips) until the boot options appear.
You’ll see the ChromeOS Flex welcome screen appear, so click Get started to do just that. You’re then faced with two choices: Install ChromeOS Flex, which will overwrite Windows or macOS, and Try it first, which lets you run Google’s operating system from the USB drive without affecting anything on your laptop.
If you’re looking to revitalize an old laptop, you’ll want to choose the first option, but Try it first lets you see what ChromeOS Flex is all about before you commit. Either way, click Next and you’ll be taken through the usual set-up process for ChromeOS, which will ask you to log in with a Google user account and start syncing your data.
If you’re never used a Chromebook, it’s essentially a Chrome web browser with some extras, such as a taskbar along the bottom. Use the launcher button down in the bottom left corner to show all the installed apps, which will include links to web apps as well as the Files app for local files and Settings for configuring ChromeOS Flex.
Open up the Settings and you get the usual personalization options you find in Google Chrome for Windows or macOS, plus some extras to cover input devices, Bluetooth connectivity, and network options. You should find ChromeOS Flex automatically picks up your Wi-Fi connection, trackpad, and mouse, especially if your computer is listed as certified for ChromeOS Flex.
On an iPhone or iPad, the process is only slightly different. Open System Settings, go to the Accessibility section, then the Display & Text Size section. From here you can tap the Reduce Transparency toggle. Do so and all the various glassy bits of the user interface will become solid.
I recommend changing this setting and seeing how you like it. It’s not a perfect fix, but it disables the most distracting part of Liquid Glass: the constant distorted transparency. I also tested this tweak on an old iPad that was feeling slow after the iPadOS 26 update, and it’s downright snappy now.
A Few Other Suggestions
Reducing transparency really undoes the worst part of Liquid Glass, but you can go a little further. Here are a few more tips.
The Increase Contrast option is in the same menu as Reduce Transparency. Toggling it will put an outline around all the arguably too-subtle edges and outlines throughout the operating system. It makes the interface elements on the screen look outright retro, which some people may not love, but give it a shot if you find it hard to see the edges of things while using your devices.
If you’re finding your older device runs slowly, even with reduced transparency, I recommend also toggling the Reduce Motion setting, which you can find in Accessibility > Motion. Toggle this setting and the various animations used by the operating system will be simplified. This should result in a device that feels faster and more responsive.
Before and after: On the right, you can see the elements on the iPhone’s screen are less transparent, the text is easier to read, and the background is free of visual clutter.
Courtesy of Justin Pot
Finally, on your iPhone, the toolbar in Safari, the default web browser, has been condensed in the latest update. Doing things like seeing all of your tabs now requires multiple taps. You can get the old toolbar back in System Settings by heading to Applications > Safari and scrolling down to the Tab Style section. Tap Bottom or Top, depending on your preferences, and you’ll find the old toolbar back.
Like I said: None of this will give you back the old, pre-Glass operating system you preferred. These tweaks do roll back the worst parts of the changes, though, so give them a shot if you’re annoyed.
After testing dozens of automatic litter boxes, I can say it’s been difficult to determine which is the best cat litter (or rather, if there is one). Most people will want to look for a low-tracking, clumping cat litter that’s compatible with their litter box. But there are other factors to consider, like allergens, material, the litter box itself, and how you’ll deal with the waste.
In recent years, there have been leaps and bounds in the pet tech sphere as a whole—including where our cats go potty and what litter they go potty in. In the past, the choices were an absorbent clay whose main compound was calcium bentonite, sawdust, or sand. Now, we have high-tech crystal litter, which aims to show health issues through changing color; eco-friendly tofu litter; and all types of clumping clay litter between. After a year of testing litter boxes and scooping tons of cat litter, let me sift through (get it?) the options so you can determine the best type of cat litter for you and your furry friend.
Table of Contents
Should You Change Up Your Litter?
There are many reasons why you may want to change your litter. Your cat may be like mine, with sensitivities to strong odors or smells that can cause allergies or allergy-like symptoms like red eyes or itching. Or maybe your cat is long-haired, like mine, and you’re tired of litter sticking to their fur.
If you want to be more eco- (and budget-) friendly, a biodegradable tofu or wood pellet litter may be better, but for these, you’ll need to introduce the change slowly and oftentimes, you’ll have to change the box you’re using. (More on that below.)
As a helicopter pet parent who brushes their cats’ teeth and shaves their butts, I honestly just want to make sure I have a litter that keeps my cat (and me) comfortable, giving them a safe space to potty and an easier time to clean it for me.
I look for, and recommend folks do trial-and-error to find, a litter that has all of these elements:
Clumping: Many brands claim to clump effectively, but you’ll need to monitor while scooping to see if they actually are, or if they’re leaving smaller bits that sneak through grates while cleaning.
Scent-free or low scent: Cats can smell 14 times better than humans, and strong odors can irritate their respiratory system and lead to itching, watery eyes, and other symptoms, including not wanting to use the litter box at all because the scent is too overwhelming.
Low–tracking: Same as clumping litters above, many litters claim to be low tracking, but I’ve found that the best way to lessen litter tracking around the house is to have a great clumping litter and add as much space between the box and the floor. This means that in addition to clumping litter, add accessories like stairs (if your cat is mobile enough), a ramp, or a litter-trapping mat to increase the distance between the box and your floor, to reduce litter tracking. Litters that aim to be low-tracking are generally better at dust control, which also help with general cleanliness and lower irritants.
Boxiecat
Extra Strength Multi-Cat Clumping Clay Litter
Boxiecat
Air Probiotic Cat Litter
I’ve tested several types of cat litter from Boxiecat, and although pricey, they have all managed odor well, had low dust/tracking, and scooped easily in clumps (and worked well with my automatic litter box).
Compare the Most Popular Types of Litter
As said before, there used to be super-limited litter options, now there’s tofu, wood, silica crystals, recycled paper, and even nut shells. While something like wood pellets is more-eco friendly and cheaper, you’ll have to factor in your litter box and whether your cat takes to the new litter. (Although slow introduction is key.)
Clay cat litter: This is by far the most popular litter type, and most closely resembles what cats would be using in the wild. Clumping clay cat litter is what I recommend for most people, as it primarily uses a naturally absorbent bentonite clay. It expands when wet/soiled, making it “clump,” which is easier to scoop and generally more hygienic. However, it’s not as environmentally friendly because it’s not biodegradable and can contain carcinogenic silica dust.
Tofu cat litter: This relatively new litter is great because it’s environmentally friendly. It’s made out of soybean fiber, making it naturally biodegradable, nontoxic, and way less dusty than traditional choices. If bought in pellet form (the most popular option), they clump well and can even be flushed in the toilet, although it can be pricey and can grow mold if in humid conditions.
Crystal cat litter: This type of litter is made from silica mined from quartz sand and mixed with oxygen and water to make super absorbent pellets (akin to the absorbing powers of little silica gel packets found in many newly bought items). It’s lightweight and has great odor control. Crystal litter is pricey, not biodegradable or clumping (requires daily sifting), easily tracks, can be an uncomfortable texture for paws, and is difficult for some cats to get used to using. Popular brands like PrettyLitter actually use a special silica formula that aims to track health changes through changing colors based on urinary PH. Although I’m slightly cautious to use it because of reviews of the silica litter being ingested and harming cats and causing respiratory issues because of the particle dust.
Paper or Wood pellets: Paper and wood pellets are cheap, have low dust and tracking, and are eco-friendly because they’re biodegradable. (Paper pellets are also great for injured or post-operation pets because the litter is low-dust and there’s less chance for litter to get stuck in wounds.) However, this doesn’t control odor well, is non-clumping, and needs to be changed frequently (you’ll probably need a sifting litter box). Wood pellets are also often made of pine and can have an overwhelming scent.
Walnut shell cat litter: Made from crushed walnut shells, this is often used as a much lighter, more natural alternative to clay litter. It’s lightweight and has a similar texture to clay, and is biodegradable. Although it can track, spoil if in moist conditions, and requires frequent emptying/cleaning.
We don’t recommend corn cat litter, as corn is prone to a toxic mold called aflatoxin. This can cause health issues for cats and in humans who have asthma or COPD and are immunocompromised or elderly.
Grading problems are one of the most urgent bugaboos of good teaching.
Grading can take an extraordinary amount of time. It can also demoralize students, get them in trouble at home, or keep them from getting into a certain college.
It can demoralize teachers, too. If half the class is failing, any teacher worth their salt will take a long, hard look at themselves and their craft.
So over the years as a teacher, I cobbled together a kind of system that was, most crucially, student-centered. It was student-centered in the sense that it was designed for them to promote understanding, grow confidence, take ownership, and protect themselves from themselves when they needed it.
Some of this approach was covered in Why Did That Student Fail? A Diagnostic Approach To Teaching. See below for the system–really, just a few rules I created that, while not perfect, went a long way towards eliminating the grading problems in my classroom.
Which meant students weren’t paralyzed with fear when I asked them to complete increasingly complex tasks they were worried were beyond their reach. It also meant that parents weren’t breathing down my neck ‘about that C-‘ they saw on Infinite Campus, and if both students and parents are happy, the teacher can be happy, too.
How I Eliminated (Almost) All Grading Problems In My Classroom
1. I chose what to grade carefully.
When I first started teaching, I thought in terms of ‘assignments’ and ‘tests.’ Quizzes were also a thing.
But eventually I started thinking instead in terms of ‘practice’ and ‘measurement.’ All assessment should be formative, and the idea of ‘summative assessment’ makes as much sense as ‘one last teeth cleaning.’
The big idea is what I often call a ‘climate of assessment,’ where snapshots of student understanding and progress are taken in organic, seamless, and non-threatening ways. Assessment is ubiquitous and always-on.
A ‘measurement’ is only one kind of assessment, and even the word implies ‘checking in on your growth’ in the same way you measure a child’s vertical growth (height) by marking the threshold in the kitchen. This type of assessment provides both the student and teacher a marker–data, if you insist–of where the student ‘is’ at that moment with the clear understanding that another such measurement will be taken soon, and dozens and dozens of opportunities to practice in-between.
Be very careful with what you grade, because it takes time and mental energy–both finite resources crucial to the success of any teacher. If you don’t have a plan for the data before you give the assessment, don’t give it, and certainly don’t call it a quiz or a test.
2. I designed work to be ‘published’
I tried to make student products–writing, graphic organizers, podcasts, videos, projects, and more–at the very least visible to the parents of students. Ideally, this work would also be published to peers for feedback and collaboration, and then to the public at large to provide some authentic function in a community the student cares about.
By making student work public (insofar as it promoted student learning while protecting any privacy concerns), the assessment is done in large part by the people the work is intended for. It’s authentic, which makes the feedback loop quicker and more diverse than one teacher could ever hope to make it.
What this system loses in expert feedback that teacher might be able to give (though nothing says it can’t both be made public and benefit from teacher feedback), it makes up for in giving students substantive reasons to do their best work, correct themselves, and create higher stands for quality than your rubric outlined.
3. I made a rule: No Fs and no zeroes. A, B, C, or ‘Incomplete’
First, I created a kind of no-zero policy. Easier said than done depending on who you are and what you teach and what the school ‘policy’ is and so on. The idea here, though, is to keep zeroes from mathematically ruining a student’s ‘final grade.’
I try to explain to students that a grade should reflect understanding, not their ability to successfully navigate the rules and bits of gamification stuffed into most courses and classrooms. If a student receives a D letter grade, it should be because they have demonstrated an almost universal inability to master any content, not because they got As and Bs on most work they cared about but Cs or lower on the work they didn’t, and with a handful of zeroes thrown in for work they didn’t complete ended up with a D or an F.
Another factor at work here is marking work with an A, B, C, or ‘Incomplete.’ Put another way, if the student didn’t at least achieve the average mark of C, which should reflect average understanding of a given standard or topic, I would mark it ‘Incomplete,’ give them clear feedback on how it could be improved, and then require them to do so.
4. I went over missing assignments frequently.
Simple enough. I had a twitter feed of all ‘measurements’ (work they knew that counted towards their grade), so they didn’t have to ask ‘what they were missing’ (though they did anyway). I also wrote it on the board (I had a huge whiteboard that stretched across the front of the classroom).
5. I created alternative assessments.
Early on in teaching, I noticed students saying, in different ways, that they ‘got it but don’t all the way get it.’ Or that they believed that they did, in fact, ‘get it’ but not the way the assessment required (reminder: English Lit/ELA is a highly conceptual content area aside of the skills of literacy itself).
So I’d create an alternative assessment to check and see. Was the assessment getting in the way–obscuring more than it revealed? Why beat my head against the wall explaining the logistics of an assignment or intricacies of a question when they assignment and the question weren’t at all the points? These were just ‘things’ I used the way a carpenter uses tools.
Sometimes it’s easier to just grab a different tool.
I’d also ask students to create their own assessments at times. Show me you understand. It didn’t always work the way you’d expect, but I got some of the most insightful and creative expression I’ve ever seen from students using this approach. As with most things, it just depended on the student.
6. I taught through micro-assignments.
Exit slips were one of the the greatest things that ever happened to my teaching. I rarely used them as ‘exit tickets’ to be able to leave the classroom, but I did use them almost daily. Why?
They gave me a constant stream of data for said ‘climate of assessment,’ and it was daily and fresh and disarming to students because they knew it was quick and if they failed, another one would be coming soon.
It was a ‘student-centered’ practice because it protected them. They had so many opportunities and, math-wise, so many scores that unless they failed everything every day, they wouldn’t ‘fail’ at all. And if they were,
I could approach a single standard or topic from a variety of angles and complexities and Bloom’s levels and so on, which often showed that the student that ‘didn’t get it’ last week more likely just ‘didn’t get’ my question.
In other words, they hadn’t failed my assessment; my assessment had failed them because it had failed to uncover what they, in fact, knew.
7. I used diagnostic teaching
You can read more about diagnostic teaching but the general idea is that I had a clear sequence I used that I communicated very clearly to the students and their families. It usually took the first month or two for everyone to become comfortable with it all, but once I did, grading problems were *almost* completely eliminated. Problems still surfaced but with a system in place, it was much easier to identify exactly what went wrong and why and communicate it all to the stakeholders involved in helping support children.
Apple’s software design strives to be intuitive, but each iteration of iOS contains so many additions and tweaks that it’s easy to miss some useful iPhone settings. Apple focused on artificial intelligence when it unveiled iOS 18 in 2024, but there’s a lot under the hood that adds to the steady stream of intriguing customizations and lesser-known features from the last few years. Several helpful settings are turned off by default, and it’s not immediately obvious how to switch off some annoying features. We’re here to help you get the most out of your Apple phone.
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Customize the Control Center
Apple via Simon Hill
Swipe down from the top right of the screen to open the Control Center, and you’ll see it’s more customizable than ever. You can tap the plus icon at the top left or tap and hold on an empty space to open the customization menu. Here you can move icons and widgets around, remove anything you don’t want, or tap Add a Control at the bottom for a searchable list of shortcut icons and widgets you can organize across multiple Control Center screens. You can also customize your home screen with iOS 18 to change the color and size of app icons, rearrange them, and more.
Change Your Lock Screen Buttons
Apple via Simon Hill
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You know those lock screen controls that default to flashlight on the bottom left and camera on the bottom right? You can change them. Press and hold on an empty space on the lock screen and tap Customize, then Lock Screen. Tap the minus icon to remove an existing shortcut, and tap the plus icon to add a new one. You can also change the weather and date widgets, the font and color for the time, and pick a wallpaper.
Extend Screen Time-Out
Apple via Simon Hill
While it’s good to have your screen time out for battery saving and security purposes, I find it maddening when the screen goes off while I’m doing something. The default screen time-out is too short in my opinion, but thankfully, you can adjust it. Head into Settings, Display & Brightness, and select Auto-Lock to extend it. You have several options, including Never, which means you will have to manually push the power button to turn the screen off.
Turn Off Keyboard Sounds
Apple via Simon Hill
The iPhone’s keyboard clicking sound when you type is extremely aggravating. Trust me, even if you don’t hate it, everyone in your vicinity when you type sure does. You can turn it off in Settings, Sound & Haptics by tapping Keyboard Feedback and toggling Sound off. I also advise toggling off the Lock Sound while you’re in Sound & Haptics.
Go Dark
Apple via Simon Hill
Protect yourself from eye-searing glare with dark mode. Go to Settings, pick Display & Brightness, and tap Dark. You may prefer to toggle on Automatic and have it change with the sun setting, but I prefer to be in Dark mode all the time.
Change Your Battery Charge Level
Apple via Simon Hill
If you’re determined to squeeze as many years out of your iPhone battery as possible, consider changing the charging limit. You can maximize your smartphone’s battery health if you avoid charging it beyond 80 percent. The iPhone’s default is now Optimized Battery Charging, which waits at 80 percent and then aims to hit 100 percent when you are ready to go in the morning. But there’s a slider you can set to a hard 80 percent limit in Settings, under Battery, and Charging.
Set Up the Action Button
Screenshot courtesy of Simon Hill
20-Setting_Action Button 1_Photo SOURCE Simon Hill
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Folks with an iPhone 15 Pro model or any device in the iPhone 16 range have an Action Button instead of the old mute switch. By default, it will silence your iPhone when you press and hold it, but you can change what it does by going to Settings, then Action Button. You can swipe through various basic options from Camera and Flashlight to Visual Intelligence, but select Shortcuts if you want it to do something more interesting. If you’re unfamiliar, check out our guide on How to Use the Apple Shortcuts App.
Whether you are embarrassed by your Candy Crush addiction or risque photos, or perhaps you’ve been using the Notes app to plan your partner’s birthday party, you can hide them from prying eyes. I’m not here to judge. To protect an app, you have two options: tap and hold on the icon and select Require Face ID, then Require Face ID or Hide and Require Face ID. The first option leaves the app in place, but no one can access it without a Face ID check. If you prefer to hide the app, choose the second option and then Hide App, and it will be obscured inside a Hidden folder at the bottom of your App Library that requires a Face ID check to open.
Stop Videos Autoplaying or Looping
Apple via Simon Hill
If you find it irritating that videos automatically play as you scroll through the Photos app, or it bugs you that they loop and repeat instead of stopping at the end, you can change that behavior. Tap Settings, Apps, then Photos, and scroll down to toggle Auto-Play Motion and Loop Videos off.
Enhance Speech in Movies and TV Shows
Apple via Simon Hill
It can be tough to make out the dialog in some TV shows and movies, but Apple has a fix for muffled speech on your iPhone. When you’re playing a video, tap the screen to bring up the menu and select the audio icon. You can select Enhance Dialogue and choose Enhance or Enhance More to make the voices louder and clearer.
Set Up Do Not Disturb
Screenshot courtesy of Simon Hill
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At an absolute minimum, you should shut up your iPhone at night so it doesn’t disturb your sleep, but Apple offers a wide range of tools to automate or schedule downtime to help you focus. Go to Settings, Focus, and choose Do Not Disturb to get started. You can turn off notifications but set up exceptions so that specific contacts or apps will get through. You can also go to Screen Time and Downtime to set a specific schedule for each day.
Change Your Default Apps
Screenshot courtesy of Simon Hill
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You don’t have to use Safari as your browser or Apple’s Mail app for emails. You can change the default apps on your iPhone by going to Settings, Apps, and Default Apps. If you have valid alternative apps installed for Email, Messaging, Browser, and a few other categories, you can select them instead of Apple’s apps.
Keep iCloud Files Local
Apple via Simon Hill
You can choose to keep certain files that you have synced with iCloud stored locally on your iPhone, which is handy if you want to access them when there’s no internet available. Open the Files app, go to the Browse tab, and choose iCloud Drive. You can tap and hold on any folder or file and select Keep Downloaded to keep a copy on your iPhone.
Limit App Permissions
Apple via Simon Hill
It’s worth reviewing your app permissions and limiting them. There are a few routes to do this, but Settings, then Privacy & Security, might be the easiest. There’s a lot here, but I advise looking at Location Services and removing or reducing permissions for apps you don’t think need them. You can toggle off Precise Location for many, since an approximate location is often enough for them to function the way you want. Other apps to keep an eye on are Contacts and Photos, as both now give you the option to allow limited access.
By the way, if you want to turn off Background App Refresh to stop apps sucking down data and draining the battery when you aren’t using them, go to Settings, Apps, and choose any you don’t need to refresh unless you open them to toggle it off.
Change Siri’s Voice
Apple via Simon Hill
Apple offers a whole range of voices for Siri now. Go to Settings, choose Apple Intelligence & Siri, and tap Voice to see a list of variations (American, Australian, British, Indian, Irish, South African) and voices (Irish Voice 2 is my pick). Just be aware that if you choose a new one, it may take a while to download.
Set a Shortcut for Your Email Address
Screenshot courtesy of Simon Hill
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Forget about typing out your whole email address every time. Go to Settings, General, and choose Keyboard. Tap Text Replacement and then the plus icon at the top right to set up text shortcuts, such as “eml” for your full email address, or “addy” for your mailing address. This can also work for any other text you type out frequently.
Show Notifications on Lock Screen
Apple via Simon Hill
Apple is all about privacy, but having to unlock your iPhone to see the content of an incoming message can be annoying. You can change how this works by going to Settings, Notifications, and selecting Show Previews. It is set to When Unlocked by default, but you can choose Always or Never.
Make Some AI Art
Apple via Simon Hill
If you decide to give AI a chance and fancy generating some art with AI assistance, open up the Playground app. You can pick photos, themes, costumes, accessories, places, or type prompts. Here’s a full guide on how to use Apple’s Image Playground. It’s available on Apple devices running iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, or macOS Sequoia 15.2.
Reduce Car Sickness
Screenshot courtesy of Simon Hill
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Do you get nauseous when you use your iPhone as a car passenger? Go to Settings, Accessibility, choose Motion, then Show Vehicle Motion Cues. You can turn it on or off to display dots that help reduce motion sickness, but if you tap Automatic, it will turn on when it detects you are in the car.
Car seats are there for a lot: every traffic-induced meltdown, every spilled juice box, every road trip nap. Most importantly, they save lives. But while it’s tempting to treat them like any other piece of kid gear when messes strike, they’re not just another item you can toss in the wash. They’re precision-built safety devices, and one misstep can compromise the parts designed to protect your child.
This guide walks you through how to properly clean a car seat, what not to do, and when to call a professional so your child stays protected, no matter how messy the ride gets.
A quick toss in the washing machine may seem harmless, but it can ruin a car seat: “It could degrade the harness webbing itself, so it could weaken it,” says Kyndra Webb, a child passenger safety technician instructor and member of the National Child Passenger Safety Board. A harness is the only thing between your child and physics in a car crash.
Aggressive cleaning or machine washing can also shrink or distort covers, or strip away protective coatings. “A lot of them have fire retardants,” Webb says. “The more you wash it, the more you degrade some of that safety quality.”
Even perfect cleaning techniques can be undermined by one deceptively difficult step—putting everything back together. “The biggest thing that I have seen when families come for a car seat check after they’ve washed it, especially if they bought their car seat used, is they’re not assembling it correctly again,” Webb says. A car seat may look pristine and even be properly installed, but if the harness is routed wrong or the clips aren’t in place, it’s not doing its job.
That said, the stakes are too high to wing it. By sticking to the script of proper cleaning guidelines and manufacturer instructions, your seat can be both sanitary and road-trip ready.
How to Find a Car Seat Manual
Before you even think about reaching for those cleaning supplies, break out your car seat’s manual. If you can’t find the booklet that came with the seat, you can likely find it online: Visit your car seat manufacturer’s website, search for your specific model, and look out for links labeled “Manual,” “Instructions,” or “Support.”
The cleaning guidelines are then usually found in a dedicated section of the manual. “Some car seats even have QR codes now, so you can scan the code to bring you right to their website’s FAQs and their help,” Webb says. “Sometimes it’ll even bring you to their YouTube channel.”
If all else fails, contact customer service. “A lot of the manufacturers have child passenger safety technicians on staff,” Webb says. “They know their car seats, they know their products.” They’re the experts who can provide specific guidance for your model.
Apple has supported eSIM technology since the iPhone XS. It’s basically an electronic SIM card instead of the tiny, physical chip you insert into your phone for cellular connectivity. The iPhone 14 series was the first to completely get rid of the physical SIM card slot (in the US). That means the only way to set up a cellular connection in the US is with an eSIM.
If you’re unfamiliar with the process, don’t worry, it’s very easy. During setup, you’ll be asked if you want to transfer your number from your old iPhone. Once you agree, it will take a minute or two to activate cellular data on your new iPhone, and you’re good to go. Keep in mind that your old physical SIM card will effectively stop working once you do this.
If you’re coming from an Android phone (with or without eSIM support), you will need to scan a QR code provided by your carrier. This might even be the case with an iPhone if you’re having trouble—just contact your carrier, and they should be able to sort things out quickly. Some Android phones may support the easier eSIM transfer process, like Google’s Pixel 10 series.
Photograph: Simon Hill
Adding Other Accounts and Setting Preferences
Otherwise, it’s just a matter of personalizing your preferences. Want to add an email account? Go to Settings, Apps, Mail, Mail Accounts, and choose Add Account. Want to fine-tune which apps refresh in the background (and drain your battery in the process)? Head to Settings, General, Background App Refresh, and toggle your little heart out. Want to save time on web forms? Go to Settings, Apps, Safari, Autofill, and prefill your contact info. You can also turn on the battery percentage view by going to Settings, Battery, and toggling on Battery Percentage.
One last recommendation: Get rid of the clutter. You can delete any of Apple’s many, many stock apps you don’t want (including, of course, Stocks). Do it! It feels great, I promise. We even have tips on the key iPhone settings to change. Oh, and while you’re digging around in Apple’s software, go to Settings and then Focus to take advantage of the Do Not Disturb mode that lets you cut down on the constant stream of alerts.
Hitting these basics should get you started on the right path. When you’re settled, maybe look into Apple Shortcuts. And if you’re done with your old iPhone, read our instructions on how to factory-reset it.
Phones are undeniably useful when you’re out and about in the world. Directions, photos, music, messaging the people you’re meeting up with, or even just scrolling while you’re waiting for the bus—it’s all great.
The problem with phones, in my opinion, is when you’re at home. Home is the place where you might rather spend your time reading a book, practicing an instrument, or messing around in the garden. But everything is hard, almost impossible, when your phone is so freaking interesting.
That’s why it’s important to make your phone boring on purpose. Whenever we talk about how to break your smartphone addiction, a trick that’s commonly cited is to set your phone to gray scale. The problem: making your phone black and white and gray all the time makes it less useful during the times you actually need it.
That’s why I set up an automation that sets my phone to gray scale when I arrive at home and turns it back to color when I leave my house. This gives me the best of both worlds: a fully functional phone on the road and a less distracting one at home. Even better, because I’m using Apple Shortcuts to do this, I don’t need to buy or install any apps. I don’t even need to tap a button to make it work.
Here’s how you can set this up. And yes, because these tools are specific to iOS, you’ll need an iPhone.
Step 1: Make 2 Shortcuts
To get started, open the Shortcuts app on your iPhone. We’re going to make two shortcuts, one for when you get home and one for when you leave home. Name both appropriately.
Courtesy of Justin Pot
For the first shortcut, which will trigger when you get home, search for the action Set Color Filters. Add it and make sure that the shortcut is set to turn color filters On. This will filter out onscreen colors and turn your display gray scale. For the other shortcut make sure it will turn color filters Off. You should now have two shortcuts.
Step 2: Set Up the Automation
From the main screen of the Shortcuts app, tap Automations in the bottom toolbar. We are going to set up two automations: one for when you leave home and another for when you get home.
Many of ourfavorite TVs and monitors feature displays with high refresh rates, promising smoother on-screen action and a sharper picture. The same is true for the best Android phones and all of Apple’s iPhone Pro models (since the 13 Pro and onward). Today, every iPhone 17 model can reach a 120-Hz refresh rate. It has become standard across the board.
High refresh rates are frequently discussed in gaming, where fast reactions and instant on-screen updates can mean the difference between victory and defeat. That includes gaming monitors and even gaming phones, which can usually hit 144 Hz, 165 Hz, or higher. But what exactly does screen refresh rate mean? We break it down.
Updated September 2025: We’ve added mention of the latest iPhones, updates to screen technology, new links, and refreshed copy.
Table of Contents
What Is a Refresh Rate?
All content on your display, whether it’s a phone or computer monitor, is made up of individual still frames (photos) shown in sequence at a very high speed. The refresh rate is measured in hertz (Hz), and it dictates how often the frame can change. A refresh rate of 120 Hz allows a new frame to be displayed up to 120 times every second. A 60-Hz display can only refresh the screen 60 times per second. And you can guess how many times a 90-Hz screen can refresh.
What About Frame Rate?
The potential benefit of a high screen-refresh rate is limited by the frame rate of what’s playing on the screen. With videos or video game graphics, this is expressed as frames per second (fps). Movies typically run at 24 frames per second because it’s a theatrical standard, while many games can run at 120 fps.
And Touch-Response Rate?
To confuse you more, manufacturers sometimes list the touch-response rate (or touch sample rate) for touchscreen displays, which is also measured in hertz. This number relates to how often the touchscreen scans for a touch from your finger. The higher the touch-response rate, the faster it responds to your touch.
How Refresh Rates Impact Your Phone
Google via Simon Hill
A higher refresh rate allows a phone’s display to keep up with gaming action and reduces motion blur on video, but it can also make navigating around the interface feel more responsive than it would on a display with a lower refresh rate. Games look less choppy during frenetic action, video footage of fast-paced sports action appears smoother, and any jerkiness when scrolling a long web page is reduced. To get the full benefit of a high refresh rate, you also need a high frame rate, and ideally, the two match.
The cost is often your battery life. Refreshing the image on a display more times per second requires more battery power. Processing power is also needed to run graphics at a higher frame rate. Processors have improved enormously, but battery life is still limited on smartphones. For that reason, most phones with high refresh rates do not run at the highest rate all the time.
Higher refresh rates first came to smartphones with the gaming-focused Razer Phone in 2017, then manufacturers like Apple, Samsung, OnePlus, and Google adopted them in flagship devices like the iPhone range, Galaxy series, and the Pixel range. Apple calls its version “ProMotion.”
If your old device doesn’t support Quick Start, or you don’t want to use it, then follow the steps on the Hello screen until you reach a screen asking whether you want to join a Wi-Fi network. Choose the network you wish to join. You will be prompted to set up eSIM (choose TransferFrom Another iPhone) and then set up Face ID or Touch ID.
… or Restore Your Backup
Alternatively, you can restore the backup you made. Here’s how:
Restore From iCloud Backup
If you used iCloud to back up your iPad or iPhone, continue through the setup process until you reach the Apps & Data screen and tap the Restore from iCloud Backup option. Sign in to your Apple ID (if you’re forgetful, consider using a password manager to find and store old login information), and choose the backup you want to use. The backups are time-stamped, so if you’ve been regularly backing up your phone, there will be several listed; be sure to look at the date and size of the backup to make sure you pick the correct one.
Restore From Mac or PC
If you used your computer to back up your data, plug your phone or tablet into it. If you’re using a Mac running Catalina 10.15, open Finder and select your device. If your Mac is running an older operating system or you have a PC, open iTunes. Select your iPhone/iPad when it appears in the window. Click Restore Backup under the General tab and choose the correct date.
Make Sure Your Wi-Fi Connection Is Stable
Don’t disrupt the Wi-Fi connection until the transfer is complete. Disconnecting early will cause your backup to pause until you reconnect. The same goes if you are restoring by tethering your device to a Windows PC or Mac—leave your phone or tablet plugged in until it’s finished.
That’s It!
Photograph: Simon Hill
There isn’t anything else to it. If you went ahead and fired up your new iPhone or iPad without transferring anything, you’ll have to either erase it and start over or transfer your content manually—but that’s going to be a lot more work than doing a full transfer. We recommend starting over from scratch and following the above steps to get all your data over at once.
Looking to learn a new language? Reading is a great way to start, and you don’t need a physical book to do it: Here’s how to change your Kindle’s language (and download books in other languages!) to learn right from your favorite e-reader.
Reading a different language helps you expand your vocabulary and nail down nuances like sentence structure, and for visual learners like myself it can be the ideal way to start really learning information. Lucky for all of us e-reader lovers, Kindle’s ebook store has books in all kinds of languages that you can purchase or download through Kindle’s subscription services like Kindle Unlimited and Kids+. You can always send an ebook from your library that’s in your learning language of choice to your e-reader, too.
But it’s not just with books: You can change your Kindle’s settings to switch the device itself to speak in one of 10 languages: German, English, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, and Chinese. Here’s how to do it and how to find books in other languages.
How to Change Your Kindle’s Language Settings
Photograph: Nena Farrell
Changing the settings is pretty easy. You’ll head to the Settings menu on your Kindle and select Device options, and then one of the options will be Languages and Dictionaries. You’ll choose that option, and there will be four items to choose from: Language, Dictionaries, Keyboards, and Chinese Characters Sort Order.
The Language menu will do what you expect, letting you choose from among the device’s 10 languages to set your device to. Changing the language will prompt the Kindle to restart and load itself in your chosen language, though the books in your library will remain in their original language. Dictionaries will give you options based on your language of choice. (English has two different Oxford dictionaries, for example.)
Keyboards lets you add keyboards in different languages without actually changing your Kindle’s overall language. There are more keyboard options—27 total—than language options on the Kindle. This is because some languages have more than one keyboard option: English, Spanish, and Japanese each have two keyboards to choose from, while Chinese has three. But you’ll also see keyboards for other languages you can’t change the entire device to, like Arabic and Swedish.
The final setting in the Languages menu will sort Chinese characters, if Chinese is a language you choose. There are three sort orders (Hanyu Pinyin, Stroke Order, and Zhuyin Fuhao) to choose from.
How to Download Books in Other Languages
Photograph: Nena Farrell
In the same way you can obtain books in your preferred language through various methods, you can also access books in different languages on your Kindle.
Ask Alexa’s Echo Dot for the time and weather, and to play music. Also, a pro tip: You can use it in the kitchen as a timer while cooking.
How Do I Know Whether a Deal Is Good?
ABC: Always be checking (prices, that is). Researching an item’s price is the most important aspect of determining the quality of a discount. Don’t fall prey to deceptive marketing language and inflated MSRP prices—our tips only take a few moments. The easiest step is to take a second to Google the items you’re considering so you can see the price across multiple stores.
One tool we like to use is Camelcamelcamel, which tracks Amazon’s prices over time. Paste the Amazon link or ASIN (found in the Product Information section on the Amazon product page) into Camelcamelcamel’s search bar and you’ll be able to see an item’s lowest recorded price, its average price, and how frequently the price fluctuates. Some deals, such as Lightning Deals, are excluded from the pricing history, but it works for most items. It’s useful to see what an item has sold for in the past. And while Amazon’s Rufus chatbot has price history information, it isn’t always reliable and often misses context (as evinced by our personal testing). We also like Keepa, which has an extension (available for multiple browsers) that shows the recent price history for products directly on the Amazon page so you don’t have to open a new tab.
Keep in mind that these services may not work all the time. But being able to see how much a product costs right before the sale starts (and whether the MSRP happened to increase) can be helpful. Putting these tools together can help you deduce whether a deal is worth your money.
WIRED always fact-checks deals to determine their quality. Of course, I’m biased, but you can check out our ongoing deals coverage to find roundups of the best discounts available—during Prime Day and year-round.
Amazon’s Kindles are the best e-readers around. Also, waterproof!
What’s a Lightning Deal?
Lightning Deals are limited-time deals that Amazon runs for only a few hours. They’re not restricted to Prime Big Deal Days, but they’re especially prevalent during major sales events. Once an item sells out, you may be able to join a waiting list, but not always.
Put bluntly, the Lightning Deals selection is often full of impulse buys, like makeup and skin-care products or toys. Prime members can browse upcoming deals on Amazon’s website and in the mobile app. The app can also alert you before a Lightning Deal begins. We’ll share some of our favorite Lightning Deals in a live blog during the event this year.
How Does the Invite-Only Deals System Work?
The best deals sometimes sell out quickly. To get around this, Amazon launched an invite-only deals program during Prime Day. Prime members can request an invitation to purchase items that are expected to go out of stock. This feature is only available on select products, but it’s spread across a wide range of price points and categories—including kitchen, electronics, fashion, and beauty.
On the deal page, you’ll see a Request Invite button on the right-hand side. Click it to get a chance to buy it at the sale price, but just keep in mind that there’s no guarantee you’ll be invited. According to an Amazon spokesperson, the company removes “botlike submissions” from the list of requests and selects from the remaining customers. However, it’s not clear how Amazon chooses from the remaining list of interested buyers.
All of the prices above are for a single line paid monthly. Google periodically offers half off and other specials, usually only if you bring your own phone.
Activate Your Chip
Once you’ve picked your plan and signed up, Google will mail out a SIM card. It took a couple of days for my physical SIM to arrive, but I’ll gladly take the slight delay if it saves me from setting foot in a physical carrier store. If you’re using an iPhone, Google Pixel, Samsung phone, or other device that supports eSIM, you can set up Fi with an eSIM instantly.
Once your chip arrives, you’ll need to use a SIM tool to pull out the SIM tray and insert the SIM card into your phone. Then, download the Google Fi app (you’ll need to be on Wi-Fi to do this since your chip won’t connect to the network yet), and follow the steps there. If you’re porting in your old phone number, it may take a little longer. For me, after setting up a new number, Fi was up and running after about 5 minutes. That’s it, you’re done.
I have traveled and lived in rural areas for the past 7 years, and I’ve tried just about every phone and hotspot plan around—none of them are anywhere near this simple. The only one that comes close is Red Pocket Mobile, which I still use in addition to Google Fi. There are cheaper plans out there, but in terms of ease of use and reliability, Fi is hard to beat.
Using Google Fi as a Hotspot
You can use Google Fi as a simple way to add cellular connectivity to any device that accepts a SIM card, like a mobile hotspot. You’ll need to activate your Google Fi SIM card with a phone using the Google Fi app, but once the activation is done, you can put that chip in any device your plan allows. If you go with the Unlimited Plus plan, that means you can put your chip in an iPad, Android tablet, or a 4G/5G mobile hotspot. You are still bound by the 50-gigabyte data limit, though, so make sure you don’t go too crazy with Netflix.
Alternatively, consider ordering a data-only SIM. Google allows you to have up to four if you’re on the Unlimited Premium or Flexible plans, meaning you can keep four gadgets—a spare phone or tablet—connected to the internet. The caveat is that they can’t place phone calls or receive texts. You don’t have to use your phone to activate the SIM first. You can order a data-only SIM in the Plan section of your account, under Devices & subscriptions. If you have an eSIM-only device you want to connect, you can tap Connect your tablet and Fi will offer a QR code you can scan to activate the SIM.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need a Google account? Yes, you do need a Google account to sign up for Google Fi, but you don’t need to be all-in on Google to use Fi. I have an Android phone, and I use Google apps since that’s what we use here at WIRED, but outside of work I do not use any Google services other than Fi, and it still works great.
Is Google Fi tracking my every move?Yes, but so is your current provider. Google Fi’s terms of service say Google doesn’t sell what’s known as customer proprietary network information—things like call location, details, and features you use—to anyone else.
I’m traveling and want to use Google Fi abroad. Will that work? Fi’s terms of service require you to activate your service in the US, but after that, in theory, it should work anywhere Fi has partnered with an in-country network. WIRED editor Julian Chokkattu has used Fi in multiple countries while traveling. However, based on feedback from WIRED readers, and reading through travel forums, it seems that most people are being cut off if they’re out of the US for more than a few weeks. I would say don’t plan on using Google Fi to fulfill your digital nomad dreams.
Tips and Tricks
There are several features available through the Google Fi app you might not discover at first. One of my favorites is an old Google Voice feature that allows you to forward calls to any phone you like. This is also possible in Google Fi. All you need to do is add a number to Fi’s forwarding list, and any time you get a call, it will ring both your cell phone and that secondary number—whether it’s a home phone, second cell, or the phone at the Airbnb you’re at. This is very handy in places where your signal strength is iffy—just route the call to a landline. Similarly, it can be worth enabling the Wi-Fi calling feature for times when you have access to Wi-Fi but not a cell signal.
Another feature that’s becoming more and more useful as the number of spam calls I get goes ever upward is call blocking. Android and iOS calling apps can block calls, but that sends the caller directly to voicemail, and you still end up getting the voicemail. Block a call through the Google Fi app, and the callers get a message saying your number has been disconnected or is no longer in service. As far as they know, you’ve changed numbers. To set this up, open the Fi app and look under Privacy & security > Manage contact settings > Manage blocked numbers, and then you can add any number you like to the list. If you change your mind, just delete the listing.
One final thing worth mentioning: I have not canceled my Google Fi service despite switching to Starlink for most of my hotspot needs. Instead, I just suspended my Fi service using the app. That way, should I need it for some reason, I can reactivate it very quickly.
“If leaf edges turn brown or curl, that’s usually a humidity cry for help,” per Mutalik. “We keep humidity-loving plants like calatheas, ferns, and marantas grouped together on pebble trays and run a humidifier nearby.” (Our WIRED-tested favorite is above.) He says that a windowed bathroom is also great for tropical plants that love high humidity. “It doesn’t have to be fancy,” adds Anderson.
Heat
We already covered that you should monitor the warmth near your windows to ensure it doesn’t drop below 55 degrees Fahrenheit. But ambient air temperatures can affect your houseplants as well. “If you’re feeling chilly, your plants probably are, too,” says Hancock. “And they can’t put on a sweater.”
You’ll also want to watch out for drafts. “If you have a houseplant near a heating vent where it’s getting exposed to air that’s noticeably warmer or cooler than the ambient air temperature, it can stress your plant, causing leaves to yellow prematurely,” says Hancock.
Drafts can be caused by exterior doors and windows. Connolly points out that heating vents and space heaters can be detrimental, too. Plants “like the temperature to stay consistent and not be swinging back and forth between hot and cold.”
Awareness is key when it comes to heat and airflow. “We keep anything leafy or tropical at least 2 feet away from heaters and ensure windows are well-insulated,” says Mutalik.
Pests
Photograph: Kat Merck
Garden Safe
Insecticidal Soap Insect Killer
If you’re bringing your plants indoors from outside, experts recommend quarantining them for a period of time to ensure they aren’t hosting any pests that could affect your other houseplants. (Because let’s be real—nobody has just one houseplant.) “Catching them early saves a lot of heartache,” says Anderson.
Mutalik and the rest of the Houseplant Nook quarantine their plants for two weeks. Check under every leaf for mites, mealybugs, or gnats. If you encounter pests, there are a few ways of addressing them that can vary based on preference and plant species. Wheat removes them manually if possible, and wipes them down with a cloth or a light vinegar solution before moving on to other, more aggressive measures like horticultural oils or soaps if needed. (Editor Kat Merck uses the insecticidal soap above on her houseplants and hydroponic gardens.)
Connolly wipes plants down with a cloth and then rinses them in the sink. And Mutalik says that Neem oil or castile soap can work wonders if you catch the pests early; wipe the leaves, especially broader leaves, every two weeks to prevent infection.
While many winter pests hitch a ride indoors, Hancock points out that dry, warm conditions (like those found in heated homes in winter) are the ideal environment for spider mites.
“Regularly washing plant leaves can help dislodge spider mites and help keep the population low. If you’re just seeing spider mites and don’t want to spray, consider investing in beneficial mites. Beneficial mites will eat the spider mites and don’t harm your plant,” he says.
Fertilizer
Photograph: Kat Merck
Fertilizer is always a little confusing, and it can be even more puzzling in the wintertime. “I would say, don’t even bother to fertilize your house plant if you’re using an over-the-counter potting soil. Most of these soils have slow-release fertilizer in them that is sufficient for plant growth,” says Wheat.
If you have an older plant with tired soil, or a particularly “heavy feeder,” you can opt for a slow or controlled-release fertilizer—or just repot it with fresh soil. (But be aware that winter isn’t usually the best time to repot a plant, and you may want to wait until the growing season arrives.)
As foreboding as it sounds, nothing lasts forever—not even your mattress, sheets, and pillows. It’s essential to know how often to replace your mattress and bedding, not just for hygiene reasons, but for ensuring you’re getting optimal support and comfort to aid in sleep. I have seen some severe cases of people using wildly outdated or damaged mattresses (think 20 years or more, or covered in duct tape), and pillows so shredded into tatters that it makes you wonder how they even resembled pillows in the first place.
Please don’t do this. I beg of you! Not only because I’m a professional mattress tester and certified sleep science coach, but also because I can tell you confidently that this is not helping your sleep.
Let’s break down the lifespan of key items in your bedroom, so that when they break down, you’re expecting it. In terms of replacements, not to worry, as we have got you covered there too. From pillows and cooling sheets to the best mattresses, we’ve tested it all.
Table of Contents
When to Replace Your Mattress
Photograph: Julia Forbes
Photograph: Julia Forbes
Photograph: Julia Forbes
Photograph: Julia Forbes
Tiami
Luxury Hybrid Mattress
You’ve probably heard this statistic before: You spend a third of your life asleep on your bed. That alone justifies the cost of a quality bed built to support you and your needs. But with nightly use inevitably comes the breakdown of materials. Think of car mileage stacking up with every drive—sleeping on a mattress isn’t too far off. The rate of deterioration will depend on factors like how many sleepers are using the bed, their respective body types, the mattress materials themselves, the surrounding bedroom temperature, and the bed frame you’re using.
Your mattress has to hold up sleepers with consistent support, and the frame needs to hold up the mattress so it can do its job. Over time, sagging can happen along the edges of the mattress or even in the middle of the bed if there’s not enough support.
This is also where the type of mattress you have comes into play. All-foam mattresses will deteriorate a lot faster than hybrid mattresses, as the interior coils of a hybrid maintain structural integrity. So when you see reinforced coils for edge support, it’s not just about keeping you supported while you sit and lie at the edge; it’s also a means of preventing edges from sagging over time.
You can expect that a new mattress will last you anywhere from eight to 10 years. If you see any premature sagging, cracking, or issues with materials before then, that is a sign of a defective product, and it would be a good idea to check your warranty.
What About Mattress Toppers?
Photograph: Kat Merck
Saatva
Graphite Memory Foam Mattress Topper
Mattress toppers are great because they give your mattress some extra support and can extend its life. They’re not infallible, though—if you’re using a topper to beef up an already past-its-prime mattress and the topper starts to lose steam, the jig is up. Since toppers are usually just a slab of foam (sometimes, microcoils), they’re going to compress rather quickly. Again, depending on your build and usage of the topper, you’re looking at anywhere from three to five years—maybe a smidge more depending on the thickness and density of the foam used. And, depending on the setting you were using your topper in (like, in a college dorm), you may want to consider retiring it immediately afterward.
When to Replace Your Pillows
Photograph: Nena Farrell
Coop Sleep Goods
Original Adjustable Cutout Pillow
Finding a comfy pillow is tricky business—one could argue even more so than a mattress. Unfortunately, they have a much shorter lifespan than mattresses. Depending once again on a pillow’s fill, two years is usually the max. Some pillow life spans may even be shorter than that, so you’ll just have to keep an eye on its appearance when you regularly wash it (that wasn’t a suggestion by the way, more like an order). Your pillow soaks up body fluids like drool and sweat, which can easily turn into yellow stains (not to mention smells) without proper cleaning and maintenance. The fill can also easily bunch up over time, especially with fillings like shredded latex and foam. The easiest telltale sign that it’s time for your pillow to go, though, is neck pain. As soon as you sense your pillow is becoming your cervical alignment’s downfall, it’s time for it to go.
When to Replace Your Sheets
Courtesy of Cozy Earth
Photograph: Nena Farrell
Cozy Earth
Bamboo Sheet Set
Sheets can be a little more slippery (and not just because of the material) when it comes to gauging how long they’ll last. And by sheets, I mean a fitted sheet, top sheet, and pillowcases—your standard sheet set. If you have a go-to set that you use and wash weekly, two to three years of use is a reasonable estimate based on how well the material holds up. The life of your sheet set can be even longer with certain weaves and materials, and by following washing and care instructions precisely as directed.
For example, my bamboo sateen Cozy Earth sheets have held up well past the three-year mark. I credit the strength of the bamboo viscose and sateen weave, and following the washing instructions with care, for this long-lasting result. Plus, if you’re spending a mint on some nice sheets, I strongly encourage you to treat them like they’re made of butterfly wings and unicorn hair anyway.
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