Friday, December 19

Life Style

A Look Inside ChatGPT’s New ‘App Store’
Life Style

A Look Inside ChatGPT’s New ‘App Store’

Earlier this year, OpenAI announced ChatGPT apps. Not the ChatGPT app, mind you: That's been out for more than a couple years now. ChatGPT apps, on the other hand, are programs that work within ChatGPT. You can access them in any given conversation with ChatGPT—in fact, they may appear based on the context of the conversation. These aren't necessarily apps that OpenAI builds itself, either; rather, you'll find options here based on apps you may use yourself. The initial batch of apps included with the feature's rollout included Booking.com, Canva, Coursera, Figma, Expedia, Spotify, and Zillow—big apps you've likely used before. While in a conversation with ChatGPT, you could ask the bot to help you book a flight to Paris via Expedia, find a particular listing through Zillow, or create a sl...
The Best Books to Read If You’re Trying to Manage Your Time Better
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The Best Books to Read If You’re Trying to Manage Your Time Better

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Efficient time management takes, well, time to perfect. There are a variety of hacks out there to help you schedule, focus, and complete your work, but it’s still hard to actually do all of that without the right guidance and mindset. If you’re struggling with time management, it might be worth spending some time digging deep on the topic and reading what experts have to say. Here are some of the best books I recommend to help you improve your time management skills. For a whole-day overhaulThe 5AM Club: Own Your Morning. Elevate Your Life by Robin SharmaIf your goal is to wake up every day and kick things off with maximum productivity and overall put-together-ness, try Robin Sharma’s best-selling manifesto on embracin...
Gemini 3 Flash Outperforms Gemini 3 Pro and GPT 5.2 In These Key Benchmarks
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Gemini 3 Flash Outperforms Gemini 3 Pro and GPT 5.2 In These Key Benchmarks

The AI wars continue to heat up. Just weeks after OpenAI declared a "code red" in its race against Google, the latter released its latest lightweight model: Gemini 3 Flash. This particular Flash is the latest in Google's Gemini 3 family, which started with Gemini 3 Pro, and Gemini 3 Deep Think. But while this latest model is meant to be a lighter, less expensive variant of the existing Gemini 3 models, Gemini 3 Flash is actually quite powerful in its own right. In fact, it beats out both Gemini 3 Pro and OpenAI's GPT-5.2 models in some benchmarks.Lightweight models are typically meant for more basic queries, for lower-budget requests, or to be run on lower-powered hardware. That means they're often faster than more powerful models that take longer to process, but can do more. According to ...
The Apps That Every DIY Remodeler Needs
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The Apps That Every DIY Remodeler Needs

Remodeling your house can be an exciting experience. It can also be an expensive one, which is why a lot of homeowners opt to go the DIY route. But any DIY remodel can also be daunting, even if you’re relatively comfortable with home maintenance and repair tasks.Whether you’re contemplating a DIY remodel for the cost savings or because it’s a fun challenge, there are a lot of online tools that can make the planning and execution of your project a lot easier. The 10 apps below can help you find inspiration, identify furniture and other items that will support your vision, and even show you how to tackle the entire project, step-by-step.Best apps for DIY inspirationEvery home remodel starts with a need for change: you're bored with your current look or you feel a sense of dissatisfaction wit...
The Samsung Q990F Soundbar Is More Than 50% Off Right Now
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The Samsung Q990F Soundbar Is More Than 50% Off Right Now

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Whether you’re looking for a more immersive sound experience (and clearer dialogue) to elevate movie nights and TV shows, or to upgrade your music listening experience, Samsung is widely known for its highly rated soundbars that combine a sleek aesthetic with a space-saving design that avoids the clutter of a full home theater system. Right now, a new Samsung Q990F soundbar is more than 50% off at $967.99 (originally $1,997.99) on Woot, making this an especially good time to invest.  PCMag gives this soundbar glowing reviews and an Editors’ Choice Award, calling it the “best-sounding soundbar you can buy.” The Q990F is a premium four...
These Two New iPhone Features Are Coming to iOS 26.3
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These Two New iPhone Features Are Coming to iOS 26.3

Just three days after Apple released iOS 26.2 to iPhones everywhere, the company is back at it with a new update. iOS 26.3 is official, though only for beta testers. Those brave enough to install Apple's unfinished software on their devices won't find an update packed to the brim with new features and changes, but they will stumble upon two key new features. The thing is, we already knew both of them were on the way. This isn't the end all be all for the update, however: Since iOS 26.3 is so new, it's possible testers will discover additional features hidden within the update. In addition, Apple may add new changes in subsequent beta versions. I'll continue to update this article to reflect any new features that reveal themselves, but, until then, here are the two new features we know abou...
How to Spot a Browser-in-the-Browser Phishing Attack
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How to Spot a Browser-in-the-Browser Phishing Attack

Between the sheer number and the increasing sophistication of phishing campaigns, seeing should not automatically be believing when browsing online. One particularly sneaky scam is a browser-in-the-browser (BitB) attack, in which threat actors create a fake browser window that looks like a trusted single sign-on (SSO) login page within a real browser session. Because we use SSO to access many of our online accounts, we may not think twice before entering usernames and passwords on these spoofed pages. Cybercriminals are counting on this to steal user credentials.How a browser-in-the-browser attack worksRather than redirecting users to a spoofed website, threat actors running a BitB attack create a fake pop-up within the page you're already on (which may either be set up for the attack or c...
How to Make a Wood Floor Less Slippery
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How to Make a Wood Floor Less Slippery

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Recently, a few spots on the hardwood floors in my house have become mysteriously slippery—so slippery that they're kind of dangerous. I really feel like my feet might go out from under me when I walk there, and there were a few close calls before I started avoiding them (or at least bracing myself to walk over them more carefully).This is no way to live, so I started looking into solutions, starting with the root cause. Why your wood floors are suddenly slipperyTurns out it’s not uncommon for hardwood floors to become spontaneously slippery, and it can happen for a variety of reasons. Wax or polish: If you apply any kind of coating to give your floor extra shine, it can build up over time and turn the floor into an ic...
These Kid-Friendly Websites Put a Modern-Day Twist on ‘the Quiet Game’
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These Kid-Friendly Websites Put a Modern-Day Twist on ‘the Quiet Game’

Whether you're a teacher, a parent, or just someone with a big family, you know how difficult it can be to keep a room full of kids quiet for any amount of time.One trick I've used is offering to time how long kids can stay quiet. For reasons I don't understand, kids love it when something is being timed. But that only work a few times at the most, so it's good to have as many other tricks on hand as possible. That's why I was fascinated to learn there are multiple websites that use the microphone on your laptop to motivate kids to be quiet. Some put children's curiosity to work, having animated characters show up if the group is quiet for long enough. Others combine animation with good old-fashioned timers.Here are a few you can check out—all of them are completely free and don't require ...
How I Use the NotebookLM Slide Deck Generator to Study More Easily
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How I Use the NotebookLM Slide Deck Generator to Study More Easily

Once again, there is a new feature available on Google's NotebookLM, the AI tool that functions like a personal assistant and only references material you provide for it. This one is a slide deck generator, which can be useful if you need to make a presentation in a hurry, but I've been using it a little differently to help myself retain new information. Generating a slide deck in NotebookLMFirst, you should know how to generate a deck. In case you're unfamiliar with NotebookLM, it's basically just like ChatGPT, but instead of pulling answers from the big, wide Internet, it only relies on PDFs, links, videos, and text you input as resources. This makes it the perfect tool for working on a specific project or studying for a class, since you don't run the risk of inadvertently getting misled...