Life Style

If you use an ESR power bank to charge your phone, you may need to stop doing so right now. Several models of the company's HaloLock wireless power bank are being recalled by the Consumer Product Safety Commission due to the risk of the lithium-ion battery overheating and catching fire. Nine incidents have been reported so far causing $20,000 in property damage. Here's what you need to know about the affected models—and how to get a refund if yours is one of them. Which ESR power banks are being recalled? The recall includes ESR HaloLock wireless power banks with model numbers 2G520, 2G505B and 2G512B, which you can find printed on the right side of the bank. The two former models have kickstands. All were sold in dark blue, light blue, gray, black, and white and have five circular LED dis...

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Credit: Illustration by Zain bin Awais. Logo images courtesy of Max, Amazon, Apple, Disney, Hulu, and Netflix. Streaming services have basically come full circle: What started as a cheap alternative to cable TV has become an expensive monthly cost in its own right, as price hikes and crackdowns on password sharing have made subscribing to multiple streaming services just as expensive, if not more so, than some conventional cable plans. Luckily, there are often discounts, deals, and loopholes to exploit that can make streaming more affordable—and sometime...

If you have a Meta Account, you have Meta AI. Meta's proprietary chatbot is built into its most famous products, including Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp, not to mention its own app. While you aren't forced to interact with it, the AI is always there, and always available to chat. That goes for teen accounts, as well. That's why it's quite concerning to learn what Meta found acceptable for its AI technology to say to kids and teens. Reuters was able to obtain an internal Meta document titled "GenAI: Content Risk Standards," a list of standards that developers should refer to for "acceptable chatbot behaviors" when working with Meta's generative AI technology. The document, which exceeds 200 pages, acknowledges that not all of the standards listed here are "ideal or even preferable," but...

If you've backed up your iPhone photos to iCloud, you're already doing better than most people. Keeping an online backup of your photos means it's easy to retrieve them if something happens to your phone. But even then, it shouldn't be your only solution. Photos stored in the cloud can come and go more easily than you think—for example, if you delete a synced photo on any one Apple device, it's also deleted from your iCloud account.For this reason, it's always a good idea to back up your photos to a second location, preferably offline. Apple doesn't make it very easy to do that, as I learned the hard way last year, when a close family member passed away. My family and I were trying to save a copy of their photos, and before we could even properly register our grief, we found ourselves jugg...

We are constantly being bombarded by scam texts—often impersonating trusted organizations—containing phishing links that aim to collect personal information, from account credentials to credit card numbers. The majority of Americans receive such texts at least once a week, and 20% of Americans are spammed on a daily basis. It's best practice to ignore unsolicited communication in any form and never, ever click included links—so it's confusing when a company you do business with actually does text you about your account security. T-Mobile users have received text messages with a link to update their PIN and other account details. As reported by Android Authority, this text, though suspicious, is actually legit, but you don't need to click the link. What the T-Mobile account security text sa...

Netflix isn't all that complicated to use (unless something breaks, that is). You log in, scroll through the selections, and pick something to watch. Of course, like all services, there's more than meets the eye here. Netflix has a handful of hidden features and settings under its sleeve, including a rather iconic secret code system—at least, it's iconic for those in the know.Netflix’s secret codesOne of Netflix's best secret features is its hidden codes, and that's really just because they're fun. Unbeknownst to many subscribers, the company uses a system of codes to denote different categories of content. Each broad category has its own code, but within each of those categories exists a number of hyper-specific categories with their own codes. For example, Netflix’s “Action & Adventu...

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...