Life Style

Search ain't what it used to be. In the not-so-distant past, your query would return a simple list of links, which you could peruse at your convenience. Now, a search can yield a myriad of result types, from AI summaries to obnoxious or even malicious ads, with the links buried in between. There are ways to make search more useful, but they aren't always obvious.That's why I'm curious about Google's latest search addition. On Tuesday, Google announced that its feature, Preferred Sources, is rolling out to all English users in the U.S. and India. If you frequently test features with Google Labs, you might remember trying this one out: Preferred Sources, as the name implies, lets you tell Google which websites you prefer to read news from. The goal, then, is to see pages from those sites in ...

With more and more AI showing up in Google searches as of late, I've been leaning extra hard on that one magic word that makes the internet work: Reddit. It's got its problems, but appending "Reddit" to a search is still the surest bet I have of getting an honest opinion from a real person, which is more than I can say for some other platforms. Unfortunately, it seems like the "Reddit" trick is about to get a lot less useful, and once again, you can blame AI for it.The problem with any live forum is that information comes and goes as people delete old posts and new updates break older parts of the site. There used to be a way to get around this, but going forward, that loophole's getting closed.Yes, Reddit is about to start blocking the Internet Archive. The site, run by a nonprofit dedica...

This week, Instagram rolled out its new "map" feature, which lets users share their last active location with followers. About five minutes later, all hell broke loose. Many on the internet quickly criticized the feature for its lack of concern for user safety, while others posted warnings that they seemingly had the feature turned on automatically. "Why did a fan DM me warning me that they could see my precise location as [I] was asleep at the house" is not the kind of buzz you want if you're Instagram.The good news is this feature very likely isn't not set to turn on automatically. The bad news is you've probably already shared your location to the map without realizing it—just not in the way you're thinking. Instagram says it is not turning on your live location automaticallyDespite po...

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Every day, we have the opportunity to learn new things. A few days ago, I learned more about primal movement, an exercise style I've seen around in my years of gym-going and YouTube browsing, but never interrogated further. Like cycling and Pilates, you can take in-person classes in this technique, but you can also just log into the video-sharing behemoth and find some free, guided workouts.What is primal movement?Primal movement feels more like play than punishment, which is a helpful way to reframe things if you struggle to enjoy exercise. Essentially, it's a bodyweight exercise that emphasizes movements like crawling, squatting, lunging, rolling, and balancing, which can make you feel a bit like a toddler or a littl...

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Though relatively new on the Hollywood scene (its first original film was released in 2019), Apple TV+'s slate of original films has included not just charming indies, but award-winning prestige pictures. CODA was Oscar's best picture just a couple of years ago (the first film from a streaming service to claim the honor), and the streamer's movies earned it 13 nominations for 2023, even if it got nothing for 2024. (We all have off years.) It's not all prestige, though! Apple also has some delightfully disposable films, such as the globe-trotting new Guy Ritchie movie.Given the complexities of film financing today, you might be excused for believing that many of these movies were typical theatrical releases—but, strictl...

On Thursday, OpenAI officially revealed GPT-5 to the world. The much-hyped presentation was sparse on many specific benchmarks comparing GPT-5 to its past models, but OpenAI's staff was adamant: this model is the best, most knowledgeable, and most powerful one to date.GPT-5 has its hatersMany of the users who have been test driving GPT-5 in the 24 hours since, however, disagree. A visit to r/ChatGPT is enough to see the scope of the situation: The front page is full of posts complaining about the current state of the model, including: "GPT-5 is the biggest [piece] of garbage even as a paid user," "OpenAI just pulled the biggest bait-and-switch in AI history and I'm done," and "ChatGPT-5 rollout is an unmitigated disaster."One of the most prominent complaints concerns OpenAI's decision to d...

All AI eyes might be on GPT-5 this week, OpenAI's latest large language model. But looking past the hype (and the disappointment), there was another big OpenAI announcement this week: gpt-oss, a new AI model you can run locally on your own device. I got it working on my laptop and my iMac, though I'm not so sure I'd recommend you do the same.What's the big deal with gpt-oss?gpt-oss is, like GPT-5, an AI model. However, unlike OpenAI's latest and greatest LLM, gpt-oss is "open-weight." That allows developers to customize and fine-tune the model to their specific use cases. It's different from open source, however: OpenAI would have had to include both the underlying code for the model as well as the data the model is trained on. Instead, the company is simply giving developers access to the...

Imagine an incredibly embarrassing text popping up on your screen while you're giving an online presentation. Now imagine you never have to worry about this ever happening again. On Air Mode is a free Mac application that does one thing: It sets your Mac to Do Not Disturb mode whenever your microphone is active.The idea is that your microphone being active means that you're either talking to someone or recording something—two situations during which you'd rather not see notifications and get distracted. If you're sharing your screen during a meeting, there's no chance of anything unprofessional showing up on the screen. Sure, you could remember to enable Do Not Disturb mode on your Mac before starting a call, but let's be honest: Sometimes, you're going to forget. To get started, simply in...

In November, Warner Bros. Discovery Chief Financial Officer Gunnar Wiedenfels confirmed that HBO Max (which was known as "Max" for a few years but is now HBO Max again) would soon start cracking down on password sharing. The news, while disappointing, was far from shocking, seeing as rival platforms like Netflix and Disney+ had already rolled out similar policies.Wiedenfels said HBO Max would begin shutting down password sharing over time, starting with "very soft messaging" over "the next few months," then clamping down harder moving into 2025 and through 2026. You might have noticed this, if yours is among the accounts HBO Max has targeted with a warning. But if you're used to being able to easily dismiss messages about not sharing passwords, things are about to change. HBO Max's anti-pa...

A few years ago, if you knew somebody who was into being strong and fast, who called themselves a “hybrid” athlete, or if they spent a lot of time on the rower and doing wall balls, they were probably into Crossfit, or one of the Crossfit-adjacent functional fitness gyms. But these days they’re more likely to be into Hyrox. Hyrox is a new sport—not just a workout style—that has taken off in a big way. Perhaps your gym (or workout app, like Peloton) has started offering Hyrox classes, or you noticed that the new Amazfit fitness tracker was first teased through a Hyrox partnership. To help you understand the trend, here’s an explainer of what exactly Hyrox involves, why people like it, and where you can learn more if you’re intrigued. Hyrox’s originsHyrox is a young sport, and was started by...