Life Style

Google Assistant is about to get one heck of a headstone in the Google Graveyard. The voice assistant has been a handy tool for years, but the company has finally decided to replace it with Gemini entirely. If you’re not exactly thrilled about the AI-ification of every app you use, there are a few ways to make Gemini behave a bit more like the Assistant of yore.The switch from Assistant has been coming for a while; it’s a seismic shift for a lot of devices. On top of deprecating Assistant on Android phones and tablets, it’s also disappearing for Wear OS devices and some Android Auto cars. Some smart home devices and TVs will still support Assistant, but you can switch to Gemini (and you might want to since the choice is likely to be made for you eventually).Regardless of how you feel about...

It's a weird time to be shopping for new tech. On the one hand, "RAMageddon" is making devices more expensive and harder to find; on the other, companies are trying new tactics to get you to buy new stuff more frequently. Take Apple: While it might be more difficult than ever to buy a MacBook Air from the company, Apple will now let you "lease" new products for one-, two-, or three-year agreements. Sure, Macs and iPads might cost more than ever, but you might find it easier to pay those prices over 24 or 36 months, interest-free.Each device's payment plan is presented without a trade-in in mind, but you can apply a trade-in if you choose to lease. Apple will lower your payments based on the value of the device you hand over at the time of signing. The better the value of your device, the l...

While third-party screenshot apps are excellent on the Mac, Apple has steadily improved its default tools. Today, the Mac's built-in screenshot utility is good enough for most people. You can, of course, use it to take screenshots, but you can do so much more, such as record a video of your screen, or even create professional screencasts. If you find yourself taking screenshots on your Mac, these are the 10 best hacks you need to know.Clean up the clutter by saving screenshots to the clipboardI find I only need to save around 10% of the screenshots I take. Left to its default settings, my Mac would save the other 90%, adding to an endless clutter I'd never take care of. As such, I always save screenshots to my Mac's clipboard, so I can paste it in the app of my choice without saving the im...

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The LG 39GX950B-B UltraGear Evo is down to $1,599 from $1,799.99 on Amazon, saving you $200, or about 11%. It's still an expensive gaming monitor, but this is also a fairly unusual display—its 39-inch OLED has a 5K2K resolution, a 21:9 aspect ratio, and a 1500R curve. LG says it is the first 39-inch 5K2K OLED gaming monitor, and its 143 pixels per inch give it noticeably higher pixel density than LG's larger 45-inch 45GX950A-B. That should make text and smaller interface elements look sharper, so the screen makes more sense for someone splitting time between gaming and desktop work. You also get some flexibility depending on what you...

We may earn a commission from links on this page. If you want to start tracking how many calories you eat—whether for weight loss, weight gain, or just out of curiosity—here’s a primer. Tracking your calories or macros (or both) is pretty easy once you’ve gotten the hang of it, but getting started can be confusing. With the right tools and the right habits, however, you’ll be on top of your own personal calorie numbers in no time.Why do people count calories? Calories are a measure of energy. The more exercise you do, for example, the more calories you need to fuel that activity. Everything you eat has a calorie number attached to it (whether it’s on a label or not). In general, we eat about the same number of calories we burn. Amazingly, our bodies can keep us at a r...

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The Series 11 is Apple's middle-of-the-pack smartwatch, sandwiched between the budget-friendly Apple Watch SE 3 and the flagship Apple Watch Ultra 3. Right now, both versions of the Series 11 (GPS-only and GPS + cellular model) are on sale. The GPS version starts at $299 (originally $399), and the GPS + Cellular version starts at $349.97 (originally $499), reaching a record low price after a 30% discount, according to price-tracking tools. If you're looking for the bigger 46mm size, they're both also at least $100 off in the GPS and cellular versions. During WWDC 26 earlier this summer, Apple announced it's offering new Siri AI upgra...

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Just in time for back-to-school shopping, this 15.6-inch Dell laptop is $130 off at $649.99. With an Intel Core Ultra 5 processor, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB SSD, it delivers on both speed and storage. It’s NPU-powered, meaning it’s designed to perform AI tasks, and its large anti-glare screen provides up to 300 nits of brightness, with a setting to reduce blue light emissions, limiting eye discomfort for those long nights in front of the computer. The battery life is around nine hours with light work, and "ExpressCharge" allows you to bring it to 80% power with an hour’s worth of charging. It's sleek design measures around 19 millimeter...

Apple is no stranger to class action lawsuits. The company had to pay customers $50 million over its infamous "butterfly keyboards," and $250 million over the AI features it promised to ship with certain iPhones but didn't. (Many of those features, by the way, are now coming out this year.) But in all my time covering Apple lawsuits, I'm not sure I've ever seen a potential payout this huge. As reported by The Times, Apple is facing a $32.5 billion class action lawsuit, though the actual suit might be even more notable than the sum. Why is Apple being sued?As The Times reports, the basis for the lawsuit surrounds Apple's collection of biometric data, specifically the data it collected from Illinois citizens. The suit claims Apple violated Illinois law by collecting these users' biometric da...

On Tuesday, WhatsApp announced a handful of new features and changes for its app. But unlike the usual feature updates, these changes are specifically for group chats. In total, WhatsApp has five new updates for your groups, one of which will make it much easier to get the entire chat's attention. Here's what's new: WhatsApp finally gets an "@all" function Credit: WhatsApp If you've ever used Slack, Google Chat, or any messaging platform with an "@all" function, you know how useful (and potentially disruptive) it can be. By typing "@all" as part of your message, you can force everyone in the group chat to receive a notification for your text. I...

While Fitbits are a favorite option for go-to fitness trackers—they're thin, unobtrusive, and cheap—its app, Google Health, has always had its problems. However, things might be turning around. The Google Health app has finally received an update that lets it send data to Apple Health. Google Health (formerly known as the Fitbit app) could always pull in fitness, sleep, and wellness stats directly from devices like Fitbit trackers. However, Fitbit devices have historically lacked any built-in way t...