Beneath their surfaces, word processors like Google Docs have a treasure trove of hidden features that make it easier to draft large documents and collaborate on them with coworkers. I have covered a few Google Docs tips before, but now I have a few more to share. 1. Write in Markdown in Google Docs Credit: Saikat Basu Google Docs supports some of the Markdown syntax. This offers a simple way to format documents using plain text symbols, making them easy to read and write while allowing for conversion into richer formats. If you are proficient with Markdown, it can help you draft documents ..read more

When the Samsung Galaxy S24 lineup was released earlier this year, they came with Amazon gift cards of up to $200 if you preordered from Amazon. Now, you can get those same gift card amounts directly discounted from the list prices. The Galaxy S24, Galaxy S24+, and Galaxy S24 Ultra are all at their lowest price since their January release, according to price checking tools. The Galaxy S24 lineup has a big emphasis on AI. Some features include "Live Translate," which translates both text and voice during phone calls, and "Interpreter," which splits your Galaxy's screen in half and translates a ..read more

Like so much else, decluttering requires you to consider both the theoretical and the practical. Yes, you have to get in there at some point and physically start throwing things away and organizing what you keep, but you also have to do a little work on and with yourself. Not to sound all woo-woo, but there is an element of visualization and self-knowledge that comes into play. For instance, some of the most popular decluttering methods call on you to visualize your ideal space so when you start actually decluttering, you’re always building toward the creation of that vision. The deep thinking ..read more

If you own a home these days you’re increasingly lucky in a lot of ways. If you bought before the recent interest rate hikes, you’re probably sitting on a nice, low rate that makes current buyers seethe with jealousy. And considering that there’s a lack of available homes to buy (the housing deficit in the U.S. is estimated to remain between 1-2 million for the foreseeable future), your property is worth more and more every day. This explains a common experience among homeowners: The unsolicited call, text, or piece of mail offering to buy your house even though it isn’t listed for sale. A lot ..read more

If you have subscriptions to services like Netflix and Uber Eats—or you simply love to sign up for free trials that require you to enter a credit card—you should consider using virtual cards as your go-to payment method. Unlike your physical credit cards, virtual cards generate unique account numbers that can be used for transactions, meaning that your actual card number is protected. You can have different card numbers for each online store or subscription service, and you can set spending limits and expiration dates as well as lock or delete virtual cards without impacting your actual paymen ..read more

Whether or not you use the app, you've probably heard a thing or two about the "TikTok ban." It's true: President Biden signed the legislation into law on Wednesday, following an unusual bipartisan effort in both chambers of Congress. How did we get here, and is TikTok really going away for good? A very brief history of TikTok TikTok hasn't always been TikTok. The app so many Americans know and love started out life as Musical.ly, an app designed for sharing 15-second lip-syncing videos. Musical.ly survived in this form from 2014 until 2018, when its new owner, ByteDance, rebranded the app to ..read more

If you're already using Windows 11, that means you likely set it up using a Microsoft account, unless you already checked out our guide on how to use a local account when setting up Windows 11. If you've already set up a Microsoft account, don't despair: You still aren't locked into using a cloud-based account on your PC. Instead, you can actually disconnect your Microsoft account from the cloud and turn it into a local account instead. You won't lose any of your information or data if you follow this method, allowing you to cut the ties with Microsoft's various cloud services and still make t ..read more

Microsoft keeps adding more and more stuff to Windows and it often seems to get in the way more than it helps. A "clean" installation of Windows, at this point, forces you to sign up for a Microsoft account, tries to sell you cloud storage space, and is very pushy about getting you to use Microsoft Edge and Copilot. I could go on. Tiny11Builder is a third-party script that can take a Windows installation ISO, which you can get from Microsoft, and strip it of all of these features. Install Windows using this tool and you'll have a truly clean installation: no News, no OfficeHub, no annoying Get ..read more

You can get this outdoor flashlight and power bank on sale for $39.99 right now (reg. $62.99). It has 1,000 lumens of brightness, a 24-hour battery life, and four speed lighting modes. It's also rechargeable by sunlight with the built-in solar panel or with a USB-C cable, and has a fireplace simulator with adjustable flame settings. You can also use it as a 2,400mAh power bank for your devices with up to 15W of power. It's a great 3-in-1 gadget, and it only measures nine inches long and weighs just over a pound. You can get this outdoor flashlight and power bank on sale for $39.99 right now (r ..read more

Movies date themselves for all kinds of reasons. Sometimes what seemed great when we were kids looks silly to adult eyes. Other times the whys are more complicated—think Rambo III and The Living Daylights making heroes of mujahideen jihadists because, at the time, they were fighting the Soviets. Standards change, too, often for the better—we don’t look on the obvious racism of Gone with the Wind with the tolerance we once did, and we don’t celebrate the rape culture that snuck its way into 1980s comedies in the same way (at least, we say we don’t). Or maybe it’s that the language of moviemakin ..read more