Gardening at home is not limited to people with large gardens — or even to people with sunny windowsills. With the right tools, anyone who wants to grow their own vegetables or fresh herbs indoors can find a way to do it.
Indoor gardening kits range from high tech to very simple. Your needs will vary based on your budget, the plants you want to grow, and the space you have available, but you'll likely be able to pull something off, even if you have to hang your garden on the wall. We believe in you.
What should I grow?
If you just want to start your plants indoors, then move them to an outdoor garden, your crop options are pretty much endless. If you must grow your garden entirely indoors, though, there are a few plants that have the best chance of thriving. Read more...
If the Senate and House reach agreement on another economic stimulus payment -- and that's not a promise -- this is what we're hearing about how much money you might actually receive.
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In this time of ubiquitous internet and abundance of content, downloading videos to your hard drive is rarely necessary. But sometimes, an important video can be hard to find, or can even be permanently removed from a platform, in which case it's not a bad idea to have a personal copy.
Say you've encountered a cool YouTube video and want to download it for your archive to make sure you still have it in case it disappears. YouTube has no easy "download" button, so how do you download a video off the platform?
Fortunately, there are a few ways to grab a YouTube video fairly easily, and in good quality. However, before we continue, note that downloading videos from the regular, free version of YouTube is against the site's terms of service. And this brings another problem: Because of this, many of the ways to download YouTube videos that you'll find online are fairly dangerous as they're riddled with spamware and shady ads. Read more...
It's been said that attention to detail is the determining factor in whether something is great or just good. That's certainly true when you're dealing with search engine optimisation or SEO.
Things like HTML tag structure and lead images might seem minor and irrelevant to an untrained user, but with a little training, one will come to realise that they're often the determining factors in whether your site ranks on the first page of Google search results or in No Man's Land. Read more...
TL;DR: The Mophie Powerstation XL is a 15,000mAh portable charger, and you can get one for just $29.95 on Amazon as of June 30 (saving you $30 off the usual price).
Running out of battery on your smartphone when you're out and about has got to be one of the most frustrating things that can happen to you. Whether it interrupted your favorite Spotify playlist or left you without a navigation system, realizing you're out of juice is something none of us wants to go through.
That's why it's always a good idea to have a power bank on you — Mophie makes some of the best ones you can get, and their 15,000mAh XL Powerstation is currently $30 off on Amazon. Read more...
Ever since Apple announced the A12Z and its shift away from x86, there’ve been questions about exactly how these ARM chips will perform and what we can expect from them. The first benchmark results are starting to appear from Apple dev kits, and as long as you take them with a mountain of salt, they’re pretty interesting.
What we have to work with here is Geekbench. Geekbench tends to be a very strong test for Apple CPUs, but in this case, we’re talking about Apple CPUs running the x86 version via emulation. Even if Geekbench does favor Apple CPUs more than x86, running the application through an emulator is going to hit performance.
Also, note that the application only reports four cores. The A12Z is nominally an eight-core chip, with four big, four little. It isn’t clear if these dev systems only use the “big” cores, or if the application simply doesn’t detect them properly, or if this is an emulator limitation. Regardless, it’s very early days and these are early results.
Here’s the data as it has come in to Geekbench 5.
We see single-threaded scores of 844 and a multi-threaded score of 2958, which yields a scaling factor of 3.5x. On the x86 side of the equation, there’s the 13-inch MacBook Pro, with scores of 1218 and 4233. This also works out to a scaling factor of approximately 3.5x. Similarly, the Macbook Pro 13-inch is roughly 1.44x faster than the A12Z in both single-threaded and multi-threaded mode.
One thing to keep in mind is that emulation performance can vary drastically depending on the application. Some programs might run with relatively small penalties, while others crater and die. Rosetta 2 is specifically designed to avoid those outcomes, but historically, there’s a nasty corner case or two lurking somewhere in any emulator. Some applications are harder to emulate than others. But the upshot of this effect is that we don’t really know if that 1.44x lead the 13-inch MacBook has is the product of emulator handicapping or if it’s a pretty good look at the CPU’s performance. Data from the iPad Pro suggests it might be the former.
If we assume that the A12X in the iPad Pro is a pretty good stand-in for the A12Z, we can check ARM-native Geekbench performance, albeit in iOS, not macOS. Here, we’re looking at 1120 single-core, 4650 multi-core, with a scaling factor of 4.16x. The MacBook Pro 13-inch is only about 8 percent faster than the iPad Pro in single-thread, and 10 percent slower in multi-thread.
Frankly, that should send a frisson of fear through Intel and AMD. The implication of these results is that the gap between the 13-inch Mac and the A12Z is largely the result of emulation. That’s not a guarantee, because OS differences matter in situations like this, but it certainly looks as though most of the penalty the A12Z is carrying is related to emulating x86 code.
That fact should send a frisson of fear down AMD and Intel’s collective spines. Apple’s year-on-year record of delivering new performance improvements is considerably better than Intel’s right now. AMD can make a much stronger argument for its own recent improvement, thanks to Ryzen, but the enormous 1.52x IPC improvement from Excavator to Ryzen tilts the comparison a bit. To put it bluntly, AMD’s improvements the last three years would be a little less impressive if Bulldozer hadn’t been such an awful chip to start with.
We’re in a weird situation at the moment. Intel has always been Apple’s chief supplier, but AMD is selling more performant mobile CPUs today, making them the more obvious point of comparison. The 4900HS appears to score a 1116 single-core and a 7013 multi-threaded score. x86 MT is, at least, in no immediate danger, in absolute terms. Keep in mind that the 4900HS also draws far more power than either the Intel or Apple chips.
What we see here isn’t proof that Apple will launch a MacBook ARM chip that rivals the best Intel and AMD can offer — but it certainly puts a floor under expected performance, barring unusual emulator quirks that Apple will spend the next few months quashing. The x86 companies may want to ask their mobile CPU designers to put an extra pot of coffee on.
Final note: These kits are not the CPUs Apple will ship to customers and do not represent final performance.
Menten AI has an impressive founding team and a pitch that combines some of the hottest trends in tech to pursue one of the biggest problems in healthcare -- new drug discovery. The company is also $4 million richer with a seed investment from firms including Uncork Capital and Khosla Ventures to build out its business. Menten AI's pitch to investors was the combination of quantum computing and machine learning to discover new drugs that sit between small molecules and large biologics, according to the company's co-founder Hans Melo.
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Scribd is expanding its magazine offering in a big way.
On Tuesday, the company announced that it's adding hundreds of new magazine titles to its reading subscription service, including Harper’s Magazine, AFAR, OUT, The Knot Weddings Magazine, Food & Travel, and Wine Enthusiast.
Previously available titles include TIME, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, Entrepreneur, Fast Company, Newsweek, People, Men’s Health, and Women’s Health.
In total, Scribd's subscription service now offers more than 1,000 magazine titles with content from over 25 countries.
The $9.99 subscription grants users full access to all magazine articles, as well as the most recent issues. The same subscription is also valid for unlimited access to ebooks and audiobooks in Scribd's catalog. Read more...
You probably have an emergency or first aid kit in your home, and your job (we hope) provides emergency essentials at your workplace, so why wouldn't you carry some form of aid in your car? It only makes sense considering it's probably the third place you spend most of your time (especially if you have to endure traffic).
No matter how often you use your car, you need an emergency kit now. This is not the product you want to keep on your shopping list for weeks. Checking it off as soon as possible can save you some serious trouble. Read more...
Cody Block is a toy designed to get children acquainted with the basics of coding. The objective is to create a path using directional building blocks that guide Cody back to his home.
Cody Block is one of the nominees for the 2021 Index Award – a prize for innovative design solutions that address genuine needs and hold the potential to improve life. Read more...
When it comes to wearables, people are often divided between two categories: smartwatches and fitness trackers.
And while it's true that fitness trackers are certainly becoming more like smartwatches with their ability to receive smartphone notifications, they're still fairly basic in design. Smartwatches, on the other hand, have a host of advantages: They're equipped with bigger touchscreen displays, support a wider ecosystem of apps, and, crucially, have a larger body to fit a few more sensors than a tracker can.
Smartwatches aren't centered strictly around health and fitness use cases, either. They can be a handy companion for your day-to-day tasks, allowing you to view and interact with emails, calendar reminders, calls, texts, and more. Read more...
Google will soon have some smart home-related news, both for developers and users.
The company is hosting the "Hey Google" Smart Home Virtual Summit on July 8, according to a post on Google's Developer blog.
During the event's introductory keynote on July 8, Google's Smart Home Product Management director Michele Turner will talk about smart home product initiatives as well as introduce new tools that should make it easier for devs to work with Google Assistant. The agenda also includes a partner panel, with Vizio, Ikea, LG and Tuya joining in.
The summit runs on a triple schedule, with individual events held during Europe, Asia-Pacific, and America-friendly times. Read more...
TL;DR: The Nespresso Vertuo Plus coffee machine is on sale for £79.99 on Amazon, saving you 56% on list price.
There are many coffee machines out there that can make all your favourite drinks, but not every option uses barcode technology to automatically adjust the brewing parameters to make each blend exactly how the coffee is meant to be enjoyed.
For this sort of technology you'll need to purchase the Nespresso Vertuo Plus coffee machine.
The Nespresso Vertuo Plus is really simple to use, and all you need to do is insert a capsule and close the lever. The Centrifusion Technology then spins the capsule, producing the perfect crema to compliment your favourite coffee or espresso. Read more...
TL;DR: Work towards becoming more self aware and in control with a bundle of online coursed that's aptly titled Master the Science of Memory, Leadership, and Focus. Altogether it's $34.99, a 98% savings as of June 30.
There are lots of things your brain needs to work at its fullest potential: high-quality sleep, fuel, and a little exercise. But did you know you can exercise your brain just like any other part of your body? It just requires some different equipment. Instead of weights and resistance bands, you need some brain training courses, like this Master the Science of Memory, Leadership, and Focus Bundle, to improve your intellectual fitness. Read more...
By now, you've probably figured out some sort of work-from-home routine that works for you. Or you've at least figured out what doesn't. But considering we're likely in it for the long haul, no matter where you live, you may want to invest some time and money into your slapdash workspace. At the very least, you could get yourself a keyboard to pair with your laptop, so you can work in a more ergonomic fashion.
This certified-refurbished Apple Magic Keyboard is a solid option and pairs perfectly with your MacBook Pro. Just prop your computer on a stand and connect the keyboard via Bluetooth. The extended layout of the Magic Keyboard features a numeric keyboard, document navigation controls, and full-size arrow keys that make any task a breeze. The built-in rechargeable battery keeps it kicking for roughly a month before it needs to be plugged in. And optimized key travel allows you to work faster and more efficiently. Oh, and you can also pair it with your iPhone or iPad, which is a total game-changer. Read more...
Third-party chargers (the ones that don't come with your phone) often get a bad rap. People are extra wary of them because they break easily, sometimes even after only a few days of use. (Like the ones at the local gas station checkout.)
While it's tempting to pick up a random charger at the store to save money, keep in mind that you're going to want a cable that is strong, sturdy, and lasts a long time. So instead, snag something like this pack of 10-Foot Nylon Braided USB-C Cables, and place one everywhere you need to charge up. Read more...
TL;DR: Make any pair of headphones Bluetooth-compatible with the TUNAI square Bluetooth amp for $45.99, a 16% savings as of June 30.
Just because everyone's got AirPods or Galaxy Buds practically glued to their ears doesn't mean you should feel pressured to go wireless. Your wired headphones work perfectly fine. Maybe even better. And if it's the Bluetooth experience you're after, you don't have to buy an entirely new pair to get that.
All you need is something like the TUNAI Square, a device designed to bridge the gap and let your wired headphones connect with phones, stereos, PMPs, and more, all via Bluetooth. And for a limited time, you can snag one on sale for over $10 off, dropping the price to just $45.99. That's a lot less than a new pair of AirPods. Read more...
Kids have the kind of energy adults could only dream of having, and they spend their days being active just for the fun of it. You might not think that a kid needs to track and monitor their health and activity, but fitness trackers for kids are made specifically with children in mind. That means they're not focused on weight loss, but rather forming good habits and leading an active lifestyle.
What makes a fitness tracker kid-friendly?
Fitness trackers for kids are simplified versions of those for adults — they trade out smartwatch features for motivational games and rewards systems. Your kid doesn't really need an Apple Watch to count their steps and monitor their heart rate. Read more...
Mac users will likely be able to stream Netflix in 4K, with HDR, once the new version of macOS Big Sur becomes widely available.
The evidence for this was discovered by tech enthusiast Ishan Agarwal and picked up by 9to5Mac. Agarwal noticed that Safari in macOS Big Sur displayed a 4K Netflix stream with Dolby Vision on his MacBook Pro.
And 9to5Mac recently noted that the new version of Safari supports HDR videos. This means Mac users will finally be able to watch Netflix in their browsers with the best possible image quality. There's one caveat, though — only Macs introduced in 2018 or later support 4K HDR. Read more...
Immersing yourself in virtual reality can feel like a sci-fi fantasy come true, but bulky, cumbersome VR headsets almost make it more trouble than it's worth. There have been various attempts to slim down VR headsets, such as Dlodlo's lightweight V One headset and Panasonic's prototype goggles shown at CES 2020. Now Facebook has revealed its own glasses-like prototype headset with a display measuring 8.9 mm thick — about the same thickness as a smartphone.
In a new research paper entitled "Holographic Optics for Thin and Lightweight Virtual Reality," Facebook Reality Labs researchers Andrew Maimone and Junren Wang have proposed a VR headset design that replaces the refractive lens with holographic optics and polarization-based optical folding. This allows the headset to be much lighter and more compact, like a strangely thick pair of retro sunglasses. Read more...
Remember back in the day when you had to spend years in school and/or your life savings to learn to code? Those days are long gone. Getting into coding is easier — and more affordable — than ever before.
Since there are approximately a billion coding languages out there, choosing one to start with is no easy feat. But since C# is among the most popular and one of the easiest to learn, and since there's a huge price drop on this Complete C# Master Class Course as of June 30, might we suggest it as a starting point? Read more...
TL;DR: The Brain Booster bundle is on sale for £16.23 as of June 30, saving you 97% on list price.
Your brain, like any other part of your body, needs exercise in order to operate at peak capacity.
Yes, it also needs fuel and plenty of sleep, but exercise is essential. If you're not quite sure how to mentally exercise, no worries. We've got you covered with this Brain Booster bundle.
As the name suggests, this four-course collection is designed to boost your brainpower. Each course introduces you to different aspects of your brain function and how it impacts your life. You'll start by learning new strategies to improve your memory, so maybe next time you forget your shopping list, you'll remember what you wrote on it. Read more...
The United States government began measures today to end its special status with Hong Kong, one month after Secretary of State Michael Pompeo told Congress that Hong Kong should no longer be considered autonomous from China. Both the Commerce and State Departments also said further restrictions are being evaluated. The U.S. government’s announcements were made a few hours before news broke that China had passed a new national security law that will give it greater control over Hong Kong.
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A slew of major far-right video personalities just lost their online home.
On Monday, YouTube banned a half dozen white nationalist channels from its platform for continually violating its policies. The accounts belonged to a range of far-right groups and personalities.
"We have strict policies prohibiting hate speech on YouTube, and terminate any channel that repeatedly or egregiously violates those policies,” said a YouTube spokesperson. “After updating our guidelines to better address supremacist content, we saw a 5x spike in video removals and have terminated over 25,000 channels for violating our hate speech policies.” Read more...
The Indian government banned TikTok, which is extremely popular in the country, for alleged privacy violations and threatening its "sovereignty."
On Monday, the government of India announced the banning of 59 apps — including TikTok — for "[engaging] in activities which is prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order." TikTok, notably, is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, and over the past year has faced accusations of violating its users' privacy.
While there are privacy-related reasons to be concerned about TikTok, and many other apps for that matter, this latest ban follows on the heels of a deadly border clash between Indian and Chinese military forces earlier this month that left 20 Indian soldiers dead. Read more...
Over the past few days, Twitch has banned Dr. Disrespect and other popular streamers amid a social media campaign that outed users for sexual harassment and abuse.
On Monday, Twitch continued its crackdown, banning President Donald Trump from the popular livestreaming platform. But, the suspension wasn’t due to accusations of sexual assault, and the ban isn’t permanent — it’s a temporary suspension.
When reached for comment, a Twitch spokesperson said the company suspended Trump for breaking its rules on “hateful conduct.”
"Hateful conduct is not allowed on Twitch,” a company spokesperson said in an email. “In line with our policies, President Trump’s channel has been issued a temporary suspension from Twitch for comments made on stream, and the offending content has been removed." Read more...
The United States is currently experiencing a surge in COVID-19 cases as states begin dropping restrictions and allowing businesses to open once again. With people venturing outside and returning to offices, it’s more important than ever to neutralize coronavirus particles on surfaces before they can add to the infection rate. MIT has developed a robot that navigates around spaces to blast the virus with UV light. The team has even tested the system at a Boston-area food bank with encouraging results.
The most significant source of coronavirus particles is an infected person, but such people can leave behind viruses on surfaces and drifting through the air that can be infectious for several days. The UV robot comes from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) as a way to clear these unwanted visitors from public spaces using the power of ultraviolet radiation.
You’ve probably heard about the dangers of UV-A and UV-B light from doctors and the occasional sunscreen bottle. UV-C is a higher energy form of ultraviolet radiation with a wavelength between 280 and 100 nanometers. UV-A is as high as 400nm, and X-rays start around 10nm. So, UV-C is much more damaging to living organisms than UV-A and UV-B. Luckily, UV-C from the sun is absorbed by the atmosphere before reaching us. You can, however, use artificial UV-C radiation to effectively sterilize objects.
The robotic base of the CSAIL project comes from Ava Robotics, which makes telepresence machines. The team replaced the screen that usually sits on top of the robot with a custom ultraviolet lighting rig. MIT decided to test the system in the Greater Boston Food Bank (GBFB). Since UV-C is dangerous for all living organisms, it can only run when there’s no one around. Being a telepresence robot, it’s simple for a remote operator to guide it around the GBFB facility by placing waypoints. Later, the robot can simply follow those waypoints autonomously.
As the robot makes its way down the aisles at 0.22 miles per hour, the UV-C sweeps over every surface. It takes just half an hour to cover a 4,000 square foot area, delivering enough UV-C energy to neutralize about 90 percent of coronaviruses (and other organisms) on surfaces. Currently, the team’s focus is on improving the algorithms running the GBFB system, but that may lead to more robotic UV scrubbers. CSAIL hopes to use the data gathered at GBFB to design automated UV cleaning systems for dorms, schools, airplanes, and grocery stores.
Disney+ nixed its free trial right before Hamilton's highly-awaited streaming debut. But at $6.99, there's a lot of content you can get through in a month — plus, many Verizon customers can still take advantage of the "free Disney+ for a year" deal that's been around since November.
Aside from a Disney+ subscription, there's one thing you'll need to ensure the most magical Hamilton experience possible: a 4K TV. Everyone knows that the best way to see Lin-Manuel Miranda's masterpiece is IRL, but the 4K level of pixel detail, color accuracy, and lag prevention will create a way more immersive, theatre-like experience than a regular HD screen. Trust us. Read more...
TL;DR: As of June 29 (until midnight), the all-new Fire HD 8 and Fire HD 8 Plus tablets are both on sale for $30 off — grab one for $59.99 or $79.99, respectively.
Milestone alert: The new tablets in town just got their very first discounts.
Released in early June, the Fire 8 HD and Fire HD 8 Plus tablets are now on sale for $59.99 and $79.99, respectively — that's $30 off apiece — as part of one of Amazon's Deals of the Day. (Mind you, that last part means you definitely shouldn't dawdle if you're thinking of getting one — these savings won't be available after midnight tonight.)
The standard Fire HD 8 tablet is an 8-inch device that gets you 2GB of RAM; your choice of either 32GB or 64GB of storage (which is expandable up to 1TB with a microSD card — that's huge); and a 2.0GHz quad-core processor that's 30% faster than previous-generation Fire tablets, or so Amazon claimed in a press release. Its all-day battery life offers up to 12 hours of mixed-use battery life on a single charge, and it sports a USB-C port that can juice it up in five hours or less. (For comparison's sake, the 2018 Fire HD 8 tablet offered up to 10 hours of use per charge.) Read more...
"How's your summer?" is a loaded question this year. The answer is always some rendition of "Good, given the circumstances," obviously alluding to the fact that most fun summer plans have been postponed indefinitely.
But 2020 is still a year that will go down in history, and its weirdness still deserves to be documented. Don't you want to show your grandkids a photo of yourself posted up in your apartment for the fourth week in a row after bidding $50 for toilet paper on ebay?
Snap instant memories of your socially-distanced beach trip or your makeshift happy hour in the backyard with an instant camera on sale. Best Buy is offering savings up to $70 on instant film cameras from Polaroid, Fujifilm, and Canon. All camera purchases also come with a free $25 credit at Shutterfly. Read more...
TL;DR: Leave oil behind and take $85 off this Cuisinart air fry toaster oven — dropping the price to just $99.95 as of June 29.
If you're looking for any kitchen tool or accessory, odds are you can find it at Sur La Table. If you're looking for any small kitchen appliance — and would prefer to catch it at a sale price — odds are you can find it in Sur La Table's Cuisinart section which happens to be having some major deals going on right now as an early Fourth of July celebration.
Have some fun with their ice cream maker ($144 off), get your caffeine fix with their 12-cup coffee maker ($105 off) or grab something that every kitchen should have — an air fryer. Read more...
As promised, we are back with yet another list of the best budget laptop deals you can get this week. A lot are still discounted from over the weekend, but a couple of new ones are featured below as well.
2-in-1 laptops are always a good bet because, well, it's a laptop and a tablet at the same time. Talk about versatility. The Lenovo Flex 15 is a great option, and at only $484.95 (was $618.95), it's a steal. Read more...
Consumer Reports has released a study estimating that road deaths could be halved if automatic braking and other safety features were standard on every car.
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