3 Things You Should Never Vacuum

One common vacuuming mistake people make is trying to vacuum up liquids such as water or essential oils, says Theo Jones, a design engineer at Dyson. By doing so, he warns, you run the risk of damaging the vacuum’s motor. Speaking of essential oils, that and other flammable or combustible liquids, including gasoline, cleaning fluid,…

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The Complicated Case of Passing On Your Digital Estate

When a loved one dies, who downloads their important files from their cloud storage account? Who monitors their email inbox? Who decides what happens to the photos and videos on their social media accounts? And what if those tasks fall to you? Everyone will die, but not everyone has planned what they want to happen…

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How to Disable Music Videos in Spotify

Spotify, it’s fair to say, has made some weird user-experience choices. There are a number of panels in the app, and the layout is confusing. The service constantly tracks your activity. The app also seems to have an odd hostility to playing actual albums. This all works to create a general feeling that Spotify’s designers…

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Building a Better World, Together

Every day, the average adult in the U.S. uses 12 personal care products—such as moisturizers, sunscreens, and cosmetics—containing 112 unique ingredients, some of which are linked to cancer, reproductive harm, and other health risks. Under current law, companies that make these products can use almost any ingredient without premarket testing or review. In fact, the…

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Donald Trump Orders Crackdown on Politically-Motivated ‘Debanking’

Carter termed this alleged discrimination campaign Operation Chokepoint 2.0, in reference to an Obama-era antifraud program under which US officials reportedly discouraged banks from dealing with pornography, payday lending, and other disfavored industries. On the campaign trail ahead of the 2024 presidential election, Trump adopted the terminology himself. “I’m glad the Trump administration is taking…

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Shop Smarter With the Consumer Reports Price Tracker

Nice Price, No Availability We noticed a few weeks back that our Panasonic microwave and DeWalt portable generator both dipped in price at certain retailers right around the time they went out of stock. Even now, the microwave remains priced at $339.95 at Walmart—$60 below the offer at Abt Electronics—yet it’s unavailable for purchase. The…

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15 Best Laptops (2025), WIRED-Tested and Approved

How Much Should You Spend on a Laptop? AccordionItemContainerButton LargeChevron If you’re shopping for a laptop, you probably have an idea of how much you want to spend. But some context might help put things in perspective. The cheapest laptops cost around $200, but they can range up to $5,000. Meanwhile, the average amount people…

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The Nintendo Switch 2’s Biggest Problem Is Already Storage

Beyond original Switch games and upgrades gobbling up precious storage, the Switch 2 also sees the addition of GameCube titles to the retro library available to Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscribers. Like the classic games available for earlier consoles such as the NES, SNES, or Game Boy, these are all packaged in one…

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Your Delivery Robot Is Here

Aarian Marshall: Hello. Michael Calore: Given today’s topic, I’m curious to know what is the most unexpected thing you’ve both ordered through a delivery app? Louise Matsakis: So I was on a press trip to China recently, and I was taking notes during an interview, and I got pen all over my white pants. So…

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