With certain gift cards that are widely accepted—think Visa, American Express, or Amazon—this might not be an issue because it’s easier to deplete balances. On the other hand, brand-specific gift cards, which limit consumers to a single establishment, can be a slippery slope to overspending. An annoyance to shoppers, it’s a beneficial outcome for merchants…
Remote start: Like a remote control for your car, these devices let you start your car’s engine from inside your home or office to warm up the cabin in advance. Many newer vehicles can remote start via the key fob or smartphone. Some states have enacted legislation to minimize vehicle idling, including Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware,…
Ostensibly, plant lovers should be the easiest to shop for. Just get them a plant, right? Wrong. (Well, most of the time.) I review indoor hydroponic gardens for WIRED and have been a proud plant parent for almost 30 years, so I can say that even if you have a running mental catalog of all…
“I think there’s been a large misconception in the Republican Party, thinking that the constituents don’t really care about these issues,” Kelly Ryerson, one of the organizers of the petition, told Grist. “A key part” of the MAHA agenda, Ryerson continued, “is removing corporate interests from our regulators.” “If anything, the EPA is significantly worse…
Brian Barrett: I just this week was looking back at some of our earliest DOGE reporting and reminded of what a crazy couple of months that was. So just as a reminder for folks who were slumbering through the first half of the year, A, I’m jealous. I respect that. Zoë Schiffer: I was just…
Lauren Goode: I love that. Is it on Spotify? Michael Calore: Yeah, we’re everywhere. Lauren Goode: All right. Michael Calore: Yeah. We’re Trans Lunar on this one. Lauren Goode: That’s amazing. Michael Calore: Thanks, Brian. Brian Barrett: Yeah. Michael Calore: What do you like about it? What’s your favorite song? Name three songs. Lauren Goode:…
The wrong product or application however, can manifest a hot mess—you’ve seen it: dried-up, flaky edge control lingering on the hairline. If you can find a product that can leave your edges smooth, moisturized, and flake-free, you have struck gold. We tested nine popular edge control products to determine which ones effectively achieved their claims:…
I saw the warning signs firsthand. I recently set out to build a small gaming PC for my living room, to play on my TV with surround sound. The project required a standard 32GB kit of RAM. On Sept. 11, that kit was selling for a reasonable $90. By the time I placed my order…
The better choices and under-the-radar alternatives are vehicles recommended by Consumer Reports, meaning they’ve scored well in our road tests, have good reliability ratings, and performed well in crash tests. Each one also comes standard with automatic emergency braking (AEB) with pedestrian detection, AEB that works at highway speeds, blind spot warning (BSW), and rear…
CR’s testers assess rowing machines to evaluate their construction quality, their ability to accommodate a range of body sizes and shapes, ease of use, and potential safety risks to users. To evaluate a machine’s ergonomics, we had five men and five women row on each machine, to see how it fit various users and to…