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Trump's tariffs mean the days of ultra-cheap online shopping from international retailers are coming to an end. Starting today, the long-standing exemption on import tariffs for packages valued under $800—known as the "de minimis" exemption—has been eliminated for shipments from China, a move that will dramatically impact consumers who have grown accustomed to suspiciously cheap e-commerce goods from sites like Shein and Temu. While the exemption remains in place for countries other than China, the Trump administration has indicated it plans to eventually eliminate those carve-outs as well. Here's how the end of this tariff loophole will impact you, and what you can do to make the most of it.What's is the de minimis exemption, and why is it ending?Previously, packages valued under $800 ent...

Gaming laptops are a great blend of portability and power, but you can usually only get one or the other at a time. Plug your laptop in and you can have top-notch graphics, but as soon as you unplug, all those polygons will drain your battery faster than you can say "Play of the game." Fortunately, there are some ways to mitigate this downside.The good news is that gaming laptop manufacturers have invested a good deal of effort into tools that will try to balance GPU performance with battery savings. Your laptop may have even come out of the box configured with some of my suggestions, but this varies widely by manufacturer, so be sure to check yours anyway.It's also important to note that battery life savings will vary widely by what type of game you play. A laptop that can last all day pl...

May's sky watching calendar includes planetary viewing, prime stargazing, and a meteor shower peak, so you have plenty of reasons to head outside and look up this month. Here's what's coming to the night sky. May 3: Mars and MoonThe first quarter moon this month will appear right next to Mars on the evening of May 3. Look toward the western sky in the first half of the night. You may also be able to see the Beehive Cluster (Messier 44), a cluster of 1,000 stars that's around 600 light years away, lit up by the glow of the Red Planet. May 5: Eta Aquarid peakThe Eta Aquarid meteor shower has been active since mid-April, but it will peak on the night of May 5–6. This event results from the Earth passing through debris left behind by Halley's Comet (which is also responsible for the Orionids i...

Rideshare services are convenient, but accessing them can prove a challenge to less tech-savvy potential passengers, particularly older adults. But companies are introducing changes that make their services easier for these groups to access. Lyft Silver is a new account type that, like Women+ Connect (aimed at women and nonbinary passengers), makes it simpler and safer to hail a ride and get support when needed. Lyft Silver has several features to make rideshare services more accessible to older adults. With a Lyft Silver account, users will see a redesigned version of the app with larger fonts and simpler navigation. The app will prioritize matching Lyft Silver users with vehicles that are easy to get into and out of, and allow them to share real-time ride details with trusted contacts. L...

Google is bringing AI image editing to Gemini, which means that you can use text-based prompts in the Gemini app or website to tweak existing images. This feature has been available in Google AI Studio for some time, and Google is now rolling it out to all Gemini users, with support for 45 languages. Google says you will be able to use conversational prompts to edit both AI-generated images and photos uploaded from your phone or computer.What you can do with Gemini's AI image editingThe most appealing part of this feature is that it lowers the entry barrier for editing photos. You can have a conversation with the Gemini AI chatbot to have it generate an image, or upload any of your photos into the chat window, and then ask the AI to edit the photo. It's similar to the Google Pixel's Reimag...

Scams are a dime a dozen these days—so much so, you're pretty safe ignoring most of the messages you receive from unknown senders. But every now and then, an uncommon message isn't a scam, spam, or malicious in intent; in fact, sometimes, it's an official message from none other than Apple, warning you that you're being spied on. As much as this situation sounds like classic spam, it's very much not: Apple actually did send alerts to users on Wednesday warning them they might be targeted by "mercenary spyware attacks." Two of the users Apple alerted were Ciro Pellegrino, an Italian journalist for Fanpage, and Eva Vlaardingerbroek, a Dutch right-wing activist. You can see an excerpt of the alert below: “ “Apple detected that you are being targeted by a mercen...

Thanks to some smart (and aggressive) marketing, Duolingo has cemented itself as one of the most popular language learning apps in the world. That said, it isn't without competition: There are plenty of alternatives to consider, and if you're peeved about Duolingo's plans to phase out its contract workers in favor of using AI, you might be looking into them. There's now a new competitor for Duo's crown, but it certainly isn't a replacement for the AI-averse. It's also far from an underdog, considering the service comes from none other than Google. Yesterday, the company announced a new AI-powered language learning experience it calls Little Language Lessons. It isn't an app, rather an experiment in Google Labs that offers small doses of lessons and immersion for a handful of different lang...

Duolingo is now phasing out contract workers as it switches to using artificial intelligence for some tasks, a move that's part of the company going "AI-first"."AI isn't just a productivity boost," said Duolingo co-founder and CEO Luis von Ahn in a press release. "It helps us get closer to our mission." From what von Ahn says, it sounds as though AI will be used to scale up content, build out the Duolingo codebase, and power features such as video calls with AI avatars.If that reliance on AI leaves you a little cold—perhaps over concerns around ethics, energy use, copyright infringement, or accuracy—then one of the alternatives worth checking out is Mango Languages. You can usually access it for free through your local public library and other institutions such as schools, but if you can't...

When it comes to note-taking apps on the Mac, it's hard to look past Apple Notes, as it has a lot of features and has proven itself to be quite reliable. But in my workflow, I sometimes miss having a scratchpad on my Mac, something akin to Notepad on Windows. I like using tools like this for outlining my articles, jotting down notes that can turn into story ideas, or simply creating quick to-do lists for routine tasks. macOS has a built-in app called Stickies that does some of these things, but it's desperately in need of an update, as the design looks outdated and it's not ideal for handling multiple notes. I recently discovered Antinote, a beautifully designed app that does everything I need from a sticky notes app, and has many more features including creating Pomodoro timers and conver...

Android at Google I/O 2024. Credit: Google/YouTube Google I/O, the company's annual developer conference, is nearly here. The show kicks off May 20, and will likely center around Google's plans for its services and products for the coming year.Android, of course, is a huge Google service that is usually highlighted at each I/O. This year, however, it appears the company is taking a different approach; rather than feature Android as part of the general I/O presentation, Google is giving Android its own event, called, appropriately, "The Android Show: I/O Edition.""The Android Show" itself isn't something new for this year's I/O. It's actually an existing Google podcast that covers new features...