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Can a label maker bring you joy? Kind of. It can certainly help you organize your life a little better and make it easier to find things—we’ve got a selection of great label makers for aiding everything from everyday items to crafting or outdoor use.

There comes a time in every life where you suddenly realize just how useful having your own custom labels are—or would be if you had a label maker. Whether it’s because you need to label some power adaptors so they’re easier to identify, or you want to set up an intricate Tupperware storage system to organize hobby supplies, there’s a label maker for you. Our list encompasses label makers of varying abilities and prices, but all are high quality and sure to improve your organizational skills in some way. Even if the idea of them sparking joy might sound unlikely.

Here’s the pick of the best label makers.

Best Overall: Brother P-touch PTD210 ($25) Brother

If you need a label maker for mostly everything in your life then you can’t go wrong with the Brother P-touch PTD210. It’s suitably versatile for many different situations. With one touch keys, you can easily gain quick access to fonts, frames, symbols, as well as templates. It also has an easy access memory system so you can store up to 30 labels for quick reprinting.

14 fonts are available with 10 unique styles, 97 frames, and more than 600 symbols. Because of all that, it works just great for boringly responsible tasks like organizing tax records, as well as more fun projects like arranging your herb garden pots nicely.

Buy on Amazon Best For Rugged Or Outdoors Use: Brady BMP21-PLUS Handheld Label Printer ($88) Brady

A rugged label maker is necessary if you plan on heading outside a lot with it or to more industrial locations. That could be if you’re in the server room labeling up cables, or if you’re simply delving into the attic to tidy up some wires. Even if you just need a tough label maker to survive clumsy drops in a warehouse then the Brady BMP21-PLUS Handheld Label Printer is for you.

This handheld label maker is sturdy and will fit alongside your toolbox nicely. It skimps on an extensive array of ‘pretty’ features for the text but there are still over 100 symbols to choose from. It’s suited well for working on irregular or rough surfaces thanks to the labels’ aggressive adhesive. Each of them has superior chemical resistance too.

Buy on Amazon Best For Postage Labels: DYMO LabelWriter 450 Turbo ($86) DYMO

For small business owners, the DYMO LabelWriter 450 Turbo is well worth checking out. That’s because, through the DYMO Stamps software, you can print USPS-approved postage directly without any extra hassle. It’s also possible to print up to 71 address, shipping, file folder, barcode, and name badge labels per minute.

Additional options also mean you can create customized labels directly from your PC or Mac, which is great if you want to show off your business name and reputation. It’s a neat touch particularly if you’re still establishing yourself.

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Have you been telling yourself to buy a Raspberry Pi for the past few years? Well, today might be the day that you actually do it.

Building a Raspberry Pi media center or retro gaming console can be difficult if you don’t know what you’re doing. You need to find the right parts, and often you can end up spending more than $100 for a project that should’ve been relatively cheap.

That’s why starter kits are a great starting point for new Raspberry Pi builders. Starter kits tend to be inexpensive, and they can be a good way to source all of the parts that you need without too much work.

Right now, Woot is selling a Raspberry Pi 3 B+ Ultimate Starter Kit and a Super Retro Gaming Kit for $70 each. That’s $20 off of an already inexpensive kit. Both kits come with a Raspberry Pi 3 B+, a power supply, heat sinks, a 32GB Samsung SD card, an HDMI cable, and building instructions.

The Ultimate Starter Kit is geared toward novice programmers or people who want to build a tiny media center for their TV. It’s packaged with a clear case, jumper wires, LEDs, ribbon cables, an ethernet port, and a dual-band 2.4GHz and 5GHz wireless LAN connector. Not to mention, it comes preloaded with NOOBS, an easy OS installer, so you can hit the ground running.

The Super Retro Gaming Kit is, obviously, targeted toward retro gamers. While it doesn’t come preloaded with any games, it does come with two SNES style gamepads, a SNES style case with a built-in fan, a RetroPie download wizard, a Bluetooth connector, and a Wi-Fi connector.

Buy on Woot

Roku TVs sometimes use a technology they call “Action Smoothing” to artificially speed up the framerate of video, but it often ends up looking fake and ruins the cinematic look of movies.

What Is “Action Smoothing” Anyway?

Action Smoothing is Roku’s implementation of motion smoothing, a common feature on high-end TVs. Motion smoothing works by increasing the framerate of the video on the TV. More frames make motion feel smoother, but there’s a problem: since there’s no way to create new frames out of nowhere, it has to take two frames and attempt to figure out what the “in between frame” is. This leads to a lot of motion-blurred frames and a fair number of artifacts.

Roku says “Action Smoothing” reduces “motion blur,” which is true as far as it goes. It can help you to see fast moving objects easier, but it adds a bit of motion blur to the in between images to make them smoother. That can be good for fast-action live events like sports, but it can make movies and TV shows look weird

This feature isn’t included on all Roku TVs. We couldn’t find it on any of our TCL Roku TVs, but some manufacturers do include it.

RELATED: Why Does My New HDTV’s Picture Look Sped Up and “Smooth”?

How to Turn Off Action Smoothing

Luckily, you can disable this feature on your Roku TV. Roku hides the option under “Advanced Picture Settings” in the menu, which you can open by pressing the “*” button below the direction pad on the remote. Note that how this button press works changes depending on what’s on your screen. It doesn’t work on the Roku home page or on the home pages of streaming video apps, which all use the “*” button for other things. You must be playing a video in a streaming app to access the menu. You can also access the menu by simply pressing “*” when you’ve selected a specific HDMI or other input on your TV—no need for a video to be playing then.

If your Roku has motion smoothing, you’ll see “Action Smoothing” options under Advanced Picture Settings. There are four different levels of Action Smoothing you can select: High, Medium, Low, and Off. If you just want to get rid of the motion smoothing effect, select “Off”. The other levels will use less motion smoothing, but will still interpolate the content. (If you don’t see the Action Smoothing options, your Roku TV doesn’t have motion smoothing.)

Your Roku TV will save your settings, but it has different settings for different types of content. Here’s what Roku says:

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If your Google Home or Amazon Echo has trouble controlling multiple lights or devices in a room, you probably haven’t set up groups correctly. Giving each item a unique name and then grouping those items makes your Voice Assistant work better.

Naming Devices Quickly Becomes Complicated

A smart bulb is one of the most natural things to add to a growing smarthome. You need light bulbs, and these are incredibly easy to install, requiring no wiring on your part. But you’ll quickly run into an issue with voice assistants like Google Home and Alexa: everything needs a name. As you add on other types of devices like smart switches or smart outlets, those names multiply, and it becomes harder to remember what to say when.

Unfortunately, Voice Assistants don’t truly understand you; they only listen for expected commands. So if you stumble over “turn on the study… I mean office window light” there’s a better than decent chance it will mishear you and do nothing at all, or do the wrong thing. If your device names aren’t memorable, then you’ll run into this issue frequently. But coming up with lots of different easy to remember names is hard, so you’re better off grouping your devices instead.

Naming Groups Reduces Device Name Complications

Voice assistants still aren’t as smart as they should be. The less “thinking” you make your voice assistant do, the better. Groups provide a convenient shortcut for both you and the voice assistant.

When you group your devices, the names of the individual devices matters less. You can name them Study1, Study2, and Study3—or you could call them Window Light, Wall Light, and Ceiling Light if you prefer—but you’ll seldom actually use these names. Instead, you will be using the group’s name when you speak to Alexa and Google Home by saying something like “Alexa, turn off the study lights.” If your three lights are all in a group named study, that will turn off all lights in that group. This will also help avoid confusion if you’ve named a smart light study and a smart outlet study (but you should avoid doing that).

Better yet, if you associate a voice assistant device in the room to that group, then you can say “turn off lights,” and it will know which lights to turn off based on that association. That is if you name a group. You may still want to choose unique names for the devices based on their location in the room, so if you ever do want to control just a single device remembering the name will come easier.

We recommend creating groups even if you have only one device you want to put into that group. The reason for this is that you might add more devices to the group in the future and changing your own habit of what you say can be difficult.

How to Set Up Groups for Amazon Alexa

We’ve covered setting up groups in Alexa before, but it’s a pretty straight forward process. Just tap the devices button at the bottom of the Alexa app, and then either tap your existing group or tap the plus sign in the upper right corner followed by “Add group” to create a new group. Then tap on the devices you want to add to the group.

RELATED: How to Control Your Smarthome Products with the Amazon Echo

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In our interconnected world a power outage is particularly frustrating. But if you have an electric power station on hand, then you never have to worry about dead cellphones or gadgets again.

Large capacity batteries are becoming more affordable and more efficient. It’s gotten to the point that a shoe-box sized electric power station can, in the right contexts that is, give you more mileage than a loud, gas powered generator.  And you could use a power station to go off the grid for awhile, you’d just have to pair it with some solar panels.

It’ll be a long while before you can toss out the gas generator at your cabin and replace it a backpack friendly power station, of course, but the current generation of power stations are pretty amazing and you can easily stay juiced up at a remote campsite for days and weather minor power outages with your cellphone and laptop still going strong.

But there’s a lot to take into account before buying a power station. If you want a power station for outdoor or auto work, then you should find one that has a large capacity and a lot of AC or DC ports. But if you’re just looking for something to charge a couple of phones on a camping trip, then you’ll want to focus on portability and USB ports.

Luckily, we’ve done the research for you. Here’s our favorite power stations to keep the juice flowing whether you’re in the deep woods, deep under the snow in a power outage, or deep into a serious job at the worksite.

EcoFlow River 412Wh Power Station ($550)

If you’re looking for a large capacity power station that can charge multiple devices during a camping trip or power outage, then you should take a look at the EcoFlow River. We’ve raved about the EcoFlow River before—it has a capacity of 412Wh, which means that you should be able to power TV or lights for a couple of days. Or, if you want to blow through those 412Wh a little bit faster, then you can use the EcoFlow River to power up to 11 devices at a time. The River has 2 USB Quickcharge inputs, 2 regular USB inputs, 2 USB-C inputs, 2 AC outlets, 2 DC outlets, and a 12V car port input. That’s quite a few ports and significantly more than you’ll find on most power stations.

If you need some extra juice, then you can extend the life of this power station by pairing it with an EcoFlow solar panel. But really, 412Wh is more than enough power. The only real downside to this device is that it’s pretty expensive. And if you’re just trying to charge a couple of phones on a camping trip, this power station may be a little overkill.

Buy on Amazon Suaoki 150Wh Portable Power Station ($126)

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TechCrunch claims many iPhone apps “secretly record your screen.” Is that true? Well, yes, kind of—but their recording abilities are limited. Apple is now cracking down on these apps and requiring more transparency, too.

An App Can Only Record Your Activity In the App

First, let’s make this clear: iPhone and iPad apps can’t record everything you do on your phone’s screen. An app can only record what happens within the app itself.

In other words, even if an app is trying to record everything it can, it can only record the swipes, taps, and data you enter within that app. The Expedia app was one of the few singled out here. So, if you’re using Expedia, the app can record everything you swipe, tap, and type into the Expedia app. But, after you leave the app, it can’t see anything you do on your home screen or anything you type into another app. Apple’s iOS operating system would prevent apps from recording your screen all the time, even if they wanted to.

The only person who can record everything on your screen is you—with the screen recording tool built into iPhones. Apps can’t access that.

App Developers Are Monitoring Their Own Apps

With that scary headline taken away, we can see what’s going on: Apps from many major companies are monitoring what you do in the app itself.

It shouldn’t be a huge surprise that this is possible. When you’re using an app like Air Canada, Hollister, or Expedia, that app can monitor everything you tap and swipe in the app itself. It can monitor how many seconds you spend looking at a particular screen. It can even record text you type into that app. For example, if you type a credit card number into the app before changing your mind, deleting it, and typing a new credit card number, the app can capture that first credit card number. After all, you typed it in the app, and the app can monitor everything that happens in the app itself.

None of this is excusing the larger issue: That companies are doing this without clearly disclosing it to their customers. But you should be aware that, even if a company says it isn’t doing this in its app, any app can monitor anything that happens inside itself and you have no way of knowing. Apple is now trying to stop this from happening without your knowledge, which should at least give some app developers pause.

Websites Do This, Too

This behavior isn’t just restricted to iPhone apps. While you’re visiting a website, anything you do on that website can be monitored. It often is, too.

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HP

Printer ink is expensive. HP promises to help with a subscription service for ink, complete with cartridges that stop working when you cancel your subscription. But HP makes you count pages, and I’d rather print as much as I want.

HP’s Ink Subscription Service Sounded Like a Good Deal

In mid-2016 I was running into a recurring issue. I was always out of printer ink, and new cartridges were expensive. Laser printers can be cheaper for many people, but my household does print as many color photos as it does text documents, which means they’re not a good choice for me. So I purchased a new inkjet printer on the promise of HP’s easy-to-use ink subscription service. For a low cost, I would always have all the ink I needed—as long as I kept to a page limit, that is.

Now, years later, I’ve realized there was one other price of admission. The ink they’ve sent me isn’t mine; it’s theirs. And if I cancel the subscription when the billing cycle ends, the printer won’t use the ink anymore, and HP requires I send it back to them. I have to buy new ink to replace the ink that is already in my house.

HP Instant Ink is Easy to Use, and Inexpensive Up Front HP

As long as your HP internet-connected printer supports it, HP Instant Ink is very easy to set up. You go to their enrollment site, sign up for an account, and connect your printer. Once you finish signing up, HP will send you ink cartridges; billing begins when you install them in your printer. HP requires you to choose a plan that limits the pages you can print each month. HP doesn’t care what you print, just the pages needed for the job. A page with a single word on it and a full-color photo page are both the same as far as the plan is concerned. If you don’t use all your allotted pages in the month, the extra pages roll-over and you can use them next month.

How much you pay depends on the number of pages you can print and roll-over. HP offers a free plan with 15 pages per month, but no roll-over. If you go over the limit, you pay $1 for each set of 10 pages you print (meaning if you print five pages, you still pay $1). The first paid tier is $2.99 a month for 50 pages, and the ability to roll-over 100 pages from previous months. Additional pages are still $1 for a set of 10 pages. The next step up is $3.99 a month, with 100 pages per month and 200 roll-over pages. You’ll pay $1 for sets of 15 pages if you go over at this level. The top tier is $9.99 a month at 300 pages, and 600 roll-over pages. You’ll pay $1 per 20-page set if you go over this tier limit.

The Ink Stops Working if You Cancel

Here’s the kicker: if you cancel, your ink stops working. You read that right; as soon as your billing cycle ends the printer will not accept the ink anymore, and you’re required to send it back to HP. At least they provide the postage and packaging for that purpose.

HP doesn’t spell out any consequences in their terms of service for failure to send the ink back, so we checked with a support agent. They helpfully explained that nothing happens if you fail to send them back, but the cartridges would stop working. You’ll have to buy more ink on your own if you want to keep printing. HP ships specially marked ink as part of this process, and your printer recognizes that it is intended for Instant Ink subscribers only. It’s essentially DRM, but instead of locking down a digital movie or book, this locks down a physical product: the ink in your printer.

Instant Ink requires an internet connection for your printer. HP explains that they monitor your ink levels, so they know when to send you more, but as described in their Terms of Service the other reason for this is to remotely disable your ink cartridges if you cancel, or if there are any issues with your payment.

Those terms also give HP permission to “remotely change, patch, update, or otherwise modify your printer’s software, firmware or programming, without notice to you” to provide the Instant Ink service. HP also says it will remotely monitor your printer’s page count and ink status, as well as the “types of documents printed (e.g., Word, PowerPoint, pdf, jpeg, etc.).”

You’ll Save Money if You Print Mostly Color

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Which Book Was Released In An Asbestos Lined Hardcover Edition?

1. Fahrenheit 451
2. The Fire Raiser
3. Backdraft
4. Fire Eaters

Think you know the answer?

Google

Low-resource Android phones and IoT devices don’t have the processing power to use modern encryption services, which makes them vulnerable to hacking. That’s why Google is introducing Adiantum, a super-fast encryption standard for low-resource Android devices.

Popular Android phones, like the Google Pixel or anything from the Samsung Galaxy line, are built around the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). With the AES, all of the information on your phone is encrypted and only verified users can access the data. But a lot of Android phones and smart devices can’t use the AES because they don’t have enough processing power to quickly encrypt and decrypt information. Plus, they usually don’t have built-in security features, like fingerprint scanners or iris scanners. This leaves low-resource Android devices, including smart watches and IOT products, very easy to compromise.

As you may know, Android is the leading OS in developing countries. It’s free to use, it already has a lot of apps, and it’s supported on lower end devices. Google has even made a point to create the Android Go OS, which is optimized for low-resource smartphones. This is genuinely a great thing, as cheap phones have brought the internet to a lot of developing counties. But in some ways, this has accelerated a security problem.

Manufacturers are capable of putting Android OS on low-resource devices, like cheap phones, cheap tablets, smart watches, smart TV’s, and smart home products. Here’s the issue: most of these devices aren’t powerful enough to work with the Advanced Encryption Standard. This leaves low-resource devices vulnerable to hacking.

Meet Adiantum

Obviously, Google has two choices in this situation: ignore the problem or find a way to encrypt cheap devices. Thankfully, the company has chosen the latter option.

Adiantum is the low-resource response to AES. It can encrypt and decrypt information five times faster than AES, and requires hardly any processing power from the phone or smart device. This new encryption standard should increase the security of cheap phones in developing counties and also make your smart home products less vulnerable to hacking.

Google

Google has spent a long time developing Adiantum, and even though it hasn’t spent a lot of time in the real world, developers are confident that Adiantum is the future of low-resource phones and IoT devices.

The Google Security Team is smart for focusing so much on IoT devices. Right now, the public is very concerned about the security of smart home products, and while all phones will eventually be powerful enough to use AES, we can’t say the same about IoT devices. Smart home products are becoming smaller and smarter, so we’re going to need security solutions like Adiantum to keep all of our information encrypted without using up too much processing power. To learn more about Adiantum, including all the technical details, hit the link below.

Source: Google Security Blog

No matter whether your Apple device is in its initial AppleCare warranty period or covered by AppleCare+, checking its current coverage can be the first step in getting a repair. Here’s how to check what’s covered, and what isn’t.

As many people have learned over the years, having Apple devices repaired outside of AppleCare can be a costly endeavor, especially given the current state of notebook repairability. Nothing is cheap when it’s all bonded or soldered to a logic board, so you’ll probably be hoping that your repair tab is going to be picked up by Apple. If it isn’t, things can get costly, quick.

Thankfully, checking AppleCare coverage is fairly simple, and you can check all of your devices in one place.

How to Check AppleCare Status for a Single Device

There are a couple of different routes you can take if you want to check AppleCare coverage for a single device. One requires that you have the device’s serial number at hand, but can be done from any computer with a web browser and Internet connection. The other involves downloading an iPhone or iPad app.

If you know the serial number of the device in question, head over to checkcoverage.apple.com and type the serial number into the relevant box. You’ll also need to fill in a security code to prove that you’re human.

Once complete, tap the “Continue” button, and you’ll be shown information about your device, including whether it is covered by AppleCare or AppleCare+.

How to Check the AppleCare Status for All Your Devices

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Spotify is beta testing a feature that will you block music from an artist you don’t like. The option will likely come to everyone eventually but remains in testing for now. The good news is that it’s pretty easy to use.

Sometimes you really can’t stand a particular artist’s music. It’s not that you don’t like the person, but the music they put out doesn’t sync with you. And while Spotify is great for discovering new music and artists, it can be aggressive to suggest well-known musicians whether or not you want to hear from them. Users have long requests an option to block tracks or musicians they don’t like, and Spotify acknowledged the request in late 2017 and stated it had decided against implementing the feature.

Apparently, it’s changed course because now beta testers are seeing an option to not play a particular artist. When you block an artist, they won’t appear in radio stations, chart lists, or even your library. The only exception seems to be in they’re featured in somebody else’s song, which makes sense.

Best of all, it’s incredibly easy to block an artist. Just do the following:

First, search for the artist you want to block by tapping on the search icon at the bottom of the app, then typing the name in the search bar that appears.

Next, tap on the artist profile when it appears.

Tap on the overflow menu (three vertical dots) in the upper right corner.

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Apple just released iOS 12.1.4 and a macOS 10.14.3 patch. These updates fix the huge group FaceTime flaw that could let anyone call your iPhone, iPad, or Mac and hear audio or see video—even if you don’t accept the call.

The good news is you don’t have to worry about this flaw right now. Apple says it’s permanently disabled group FaceTime on iOS 12.1.3 and macOS 10.14.2, as well as older versions of the software.

The bad news was you couldn’t use group FaceTime for more than a week while Apple worked on the fix. As Apple’s system status page points out, the group FaceTime servers are now back online and you can once again make group FaceTime calls— but only after you update.

To update an iPhone or iPad, head to Settings > General > Software Update on your iPhone or iPad and install the update. On a Mac, head to Apple menu > System Preferences > Software Update.

After you’ve installed the update, you can feel safe re-enabling FaceTime on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac.

On an iPhone or iPad, head to Settings > FaceTime and toggle FaceTime on. On a Mac, launch FaceTime and select FaceTime > Turn FaceTime On.

You’ll have to repeat this step on each iPhone, iPad, and Mac you own—the option is controlled separately for each device.

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Akamai

You know, the thing with scammers is that they’re always going to find new ways to scam. It’s what they do. And this new Google Translate phishing attempt is simple, yet brilliant. It’s one you’ll have to watch out for.

Most phishing attempts do at least a somewhat good job of creating replica pages for whatever site they’re trying to jack your data from—like an Apple or Google login page, for example. But there’s generally one big red flag that’s fairly easy to spot: a shoddy URL. If you pay attention, the URL will give it away every time.

That’s where this new phishing tactic stands out: it redirects through Google Translate, so the URL starts with “translate.google.com” and appears more legit than some gibberish crap URL. Even trained eyes could be forgiven for seeing “google.com” in the URL and assuming it’s legit. That’s why this one requires extra attention.

Akamai

The phishing attempt works something like this: you get an email stating that something is going on with your Google account—someone is trying to access it, like in the header image of this post. The email looks convincing enough, so you click on the link, which is actually a garbage URL redirected through Google Translate. You put in your info, and the next thing you know some scumbag just gained access to your account.

To avoid falling victim to the crap (but clever) tactic, just pay attention—even more than normal. Check the email address the alert is coming from, for example. Security research company Akamai reported on an instance of this type of scam coming in from “facebook_secur@hotmail.com,” which makes no sense at all. Why is Facebook asking for your Gmail credentials? They’re not. It’s someone trying to steal your stuff.

Otherwise, just watch out for the “translate.google.com” URL. Google isn’t sending official emails through Translate, because again, that’s just stupid.

Be vigilant, be skeptical. Question everything. Pay attention. Oh, and enable two-factor authentication everywhere. You know, just in case.

Akamai via Gizmodo

Silverblackstock/Shutterstock

When you make a video call over Skype, you’re inviting people to look in your home. Letting mom see your disgusting kitchen isn’t a big deal, but what happens when a co-worker or a potential employer sees your surroundings?

Remember a few years ago when a professor’s toddler interrupted his important BBC interview? When the video went viral, people started to ask questions. We can’t always control the environment that we’re Skyping in, especially when a call happens on short notice. Why isn’t there a way for Skype to hide your environment?

Well, Microsoft has taken this as an opportunity to improve Skype. The software now has a background blur feature that can effectively erase your environment from any video call—basically, it’s portrait mode for video calls. A lot of webcam masks and tricks look kind of tacky, but Skype’s new background blur feature genuinely looks great. It uses AI to detect the tiny features of your face and body, including every strand of your hair.

Note: This feature is only available on the desktop version of Skype; it doesn’t work on the mobile versions of the app.

How to Use Background Blur

Using background blur is very easy, it only takes about two clicks. Of course, you’ll want to make sure that you’re using the latest version of Skype, otherwise this won’t work.

First, start a video call with someone. Three icons will show up at the bottom of the video call. The first icon is for “Microphone Settings,” the second is for “Video Settings,” and the third is an “End Call” button. Go ahead and click the “Video Settings” icon.

After you click the “Video” icon, a small “Video Settings” menu will appear. If you’re using the latest version of Skype, a “Blur my background” option should appear toward the bottom of the “Video Settings” menu, and it will look a bit like the below picture.

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Anker

Dash cams are great for proof of fault in an accident or documenting road trips, but they can also be expensive. Right now though you can grab Anker’s Roav dashcam for $40 off with a coupon code.

The Roav ticks the box on all the features you would want in a dash cam. It comes with an internal battery and a built-in G-sensor, so if someone hits your car while it’s parked, the camera will sense the movement and record hopefully letting you know what happened.

Anker also helpfully includes a suction cup mount (with GPS sensor built in), 32GB MicroSD card, and a trim tool so you can hide the wires used for power. Basically, everything you need to get started is in the box. If you want you can swap out the MicroSD card for a larger one, of course.

Getting your video off the camera is easy too, just connect to the camera with the Roav app and you can download videos and even share them online without any need to unplug the camera or remove the MicroSD card.

To get the discount, you’ll need to provide the coupon code ROAVAPC9 at checkout.

Buy on Amazon

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When it comes to pet hair removal, you need a dedicated vacuum cleaner specifically designed with pet hair in mind. We’ve checked out the best vacuum cleaners for the job.

Pet hair, as any pet owner can tell you, gets into everything. Thin hairs, like cat hair, can weave right into many upholstery types. Dog and cat hair alike gets tangled up in carpet fibers. Getting all that hair out with a regular vacuum cleaner is a real chore with a plain old vacuum. Vacuums designed for pet owners feature beater bars and attachments designed to pull fur out of carpets and fabrics. And of course, all of these offer powerful suction too so they’ll suck up anything unpleasant in a speedy fashion.

Whether you want an upright solution, canister vacuum cleaner, or even a handheld option, we’ve got the right tool for the job here. It’s all too easy for your cat or dog to shed their fur around the house, leaving your home looking less pleasant than you’d like it to. Here’s our pick of the vacuum cleaners for pet owners.

Best Overall: Dyson Upright Vacuum Cleaner Ball Animal 2 ($499) Dyson

Dyson vacuum cleaners are never cheap, but they are powerful and a great investment. The Dyson Upright Vacuum Cleaner Ball Animal 2 promises the strongest suction of any vacuum cleaner and, as the people on staff with pets and Dyson can attest, it’s great at tackling pet fur. It has a whole-machine HEPA filtration system that ensures allergens and bacteria are captured and trapped, which is ideal if you need to clean up after a stinky pet once in a while.

Additionally, its self-adjusting cleaner head seals in suction, whether you’re using it across carpet, wood, vinyl or tile floors. There’s a wand and long-reach hose release action too, so you can always sneak it under the sofa or clean corners of the ceiling without too much hassle.

Another pet hair focused feature is its turbine tool which easily removes pet hair from carpets and upholstery without tangling. It’s worth noting though that you can buy this accessory separately and slot it onto your existing Dyson vacuum cleaner. Now, we’re not saying it makes your regular Dyson as great as this specialist one, but it is substantially cheaper than buying a whole new unit. It’s certainly worth considering if there’s nothing wrong with your existing vacuum cleaner.

Buy on Amazon Best Lightweight Option: SharkNinja Rocket DeluxePro Ultra-Light Upright Corded Stick Vacuum ($215) SharkNinja

A fundamental issue with more powerful vacuum cleaners is that typically they’re pretty heavy. If you have any mobility issues, this is a big problem. That’s where the SharkNinja Rocket DeluxePro Ultra-Light Upright Corded Stick Vacuum swoops in to solve things. It only weighs just under 9 lbs and is far less bulky to carry or push around than other vacuum cleaners. Despite its lightweight nature, it still packs a punch when it comes to suction power.

On hard floors, the vacuum cleaner easily picks up surface litter as well as stuck-on debris. It also has a pet multi-tool that works to pick up embedded pet hair on any surface you try it on. Alongside that is powerful LED lights so you can easily spot hidden debris while you’re cleaning up. It’s super easy to move around due to its swivel steering system too.

The only downside? Well, its capacity isn’t the greatest so expect to have to empty it often if you have a large house. Still, it means you don’t have to worry about carrying all that extra weight while you clean.

Buy on Amazon Best Budget Choice: Hoover T-Series WindTunnel Pet Rewind Bagless Corded Upright Vacuum ($90)

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If you’ve been in the market for a security system, now might be the time to jump in, because you can grab a five-piece Ring Alarm system and a 3rd-generation Echo Dot for just $159, which is pretty bonkers.

The five-piece set, which includes the base station, keypad, one door/window sensor, one motion sensor, and a range extender, normally sells for $200 by itself. So not only are you getting $40 off the alarm system, but you’re also getting a free Echo Dot, which is normally priced at $49. With that said, you’re pretty much getting $250 worth of stuff for just $160.

Better yet, the Ring alarm system integrates with the Echo Dot fairly well. So you use your voice and tell Alexa to arm and disarm your alarm system without having to use the keypad.

If the five-piece set isn’t enough to cover your whole house, you can buy add-on sensors and devices to cover all your doors and areas in your home.

It’s worth noting that at the time of writing the Dot is backordered for about a month, but the Ring stuff is ready to roll out the door as soon as you order. Hit the button below to buy.

Buy on Amazon

If you’re an Android user looking for a decent Wear OS smartwatch, today may be the day to grab one of the better options from Fossil. The company is selling both its Gen 4 and Sport Smartwatches for just $199 apiece.

While the names may not directly suggest it, the 40mm  Gen 4 is the more dressed up version of the two watches—on the outside at least. Under the hood it’s packing a Qualcomm Snapdragon 2100 chip that was designed just for Wear OS, has 4GB of storage, and all the goodies you’d want from a smartwatch: GPS, heart rate sensor, waterproofing, etc.

Fossil Gen 4

The Gen 4 usually retails for $275, but you can knock $75 off that price today and grab one for $199.

The 43mm Sport, on the other hand, is more, um, sporty than its counterpart. That said, it uses the Snapdragon 3100 Wear OS chip, which is a little better than the one in the Gen 4. Otherwise, specs are similar though the Sport also has a “built-in fitness tracker” and a clear emphasis on being active.

Fossil Sport

The Sport’s MSRP is $255, but like the Gen 4, can be had today for just $199. Not a bad deal.

Either way you go, you can score one of the better options in the Wear OS landscape for a couple of bills. Pretty solid.

Shop on Fossil

LG

If you’ve got a new LG TV, you might have noticed that the picture feels eerily smooth. This effect, which LG calls “TruMotion,” tries to make your TV’s picture feel smoother but often ends up looking strange.

What Is “TruMotion” Anyway?

TruMotion is LG’s implementation of motion smoothing. Motion smoothing works by increasing the framerate (the speed at which your TV shows a new picture) of the video by inserting extra “fake” frames between each real frame. Most movies and TV shows are shot at 24 frames-per-second (FPS), and by guessing what the in-between frames would look like, your TV can bump the framerate up to 48 or 60 FPS. This can make certain fast-paced content (like sports) look a lot better, but ruins the cinematic quality of movies and TV shows for some people.

While high refresh rate video is weird looking enough on its own, the other issue with motion smoothing is that it’s a fake effect, and often makes the “fake” frames look very blurry. Because it has to guess, it ends up being slightly off a lot of the time, which can make it look even worse.

RELATED: Why Does My New HDTV’s Picture Look Sped Up and “Smooth”?

How to Turn Off TruMotion LG

You can disable the TruMotion feature in your TV’s settings. LG’s settings are a bit abnormal though. Their TruMotion tech also manages synced backlight scanning, which syncs the refresh rate with the backlight. They say you can’t turn this off on any TVs, but you can adjust the motion interpolation, which is the thing that makes TruMotion look weird.

LG hides the option under Picture Menu > Picture Mode Settings > Picture Options. From there, you can set different levels for TruMotion:

• Off: probably what you want
• Smooth: uses motion blur
• Clear: doesn’t use motion blur
• Clear Plus: uses backlight scanning in addition to interpolation

If you have a problem finding the option, it could be under a different section, so it’s best to consult your TV’s manual, which you can find online. Just enter your TV’s model number and, when the page loads, use Ctrl+F (or Command+F on Mac) to search for “TruMotion.”

It’s possible some older TVs might not even have an option to turn it off, in which case you’ll have to buy a new TV if you want to disable it.

Photo Credits: Shutterstock

Motorola

Motorola’s G series of phones has long been a favorite among bargain hunters looking for flexible Android handsets on the cheap. Today the company updated the series for 2019 with the G7, G7 Play, and G7 Power.

Motorola

The G7, sans adjective, is the most expensive of the line, though it’s still more than reasonable at $300. Three bills gets you a relatively large 6.2-inch 1080p LCD screen over a mid-range Snapdragon 632 processor, 64GB of storage, and 4GB of RAM. The rear camera is a dual setup of 12MP main and 5MP depth sensors, with an 8MP front camera chilling in a “teardrop” notch. The phone features a USB-C port and, thankfully for anyone who doesn’t want to buy more adapters, a headphone jack.

The G7 Power (header image) drops the price down to $250 but bumps the battery up from just 3000mAh to a whopping 5000mAh, which should last for at least two days on moderate use. Like the more expensive G7, it can do fast charging at 15 watts. The bigger battery and fetching clear plastic back make the G7 Power noticeably thicker, and it has just 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, though the processor remains the same. It also drops the second rear camera and has a much longer iPhone-style notch on the front. The screen is still 6.2 inches, but it drops down to 720p resolution.

Motorola

For just $200, the G7 Play gives you a 5.7-inch 720p LCD, 32GB of storage, and a somewhat anemic 2GB of RAM. The rear camera is a different 13MP shooter and the battery drops back down to 3000mAh, this time with 10-watt charging. Oddly, the G7 Play is the only member of the trio to get a front-facing flash in its camera notch. Oddly, all three designs are missing NFC and wireless charging, but they have both fingerprint and face unlock options.

The three new G7 phones go on sale today in Mexico and Brazil, with launches in the US and Europe in the spring. They run Android 9.0 “Pie,” but don’t expect these models to get fast updates when Google’s yearly operating system refresh comes in the third or fourth quarter.

Source: Ars Technica