Prepare electronic devices. Having your phone fully charged is only one step in preparing for an emergency. Here are things you need to do with your electronics. Don’t forget your pets. It’s always a good idea to take your pets with you when you evacuate. But how do you prepare for that? Here’s how to…
But should you choose a battery snow blower instead of a gas snow blower? “Battery snow blowers are really nipping at the heels of comparably sized gas models in terms of performance, and they offer advantages that gas snow blowers can’t match,” says Dave Trezza, who oversees CR’s snow blower tests. Battery-powered machines start instantly with…
This story originally appeared on Vox and is part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Air conditioners have been working overtime this hot summer, from those tiny window units to the massive AC towers that serve the tightly packed apartment buildings in major cities. And while they bring the relief of cool air, these contraptions also…
While Dolby imposes no hard limit on the number or type of speakers (or subwoofers) you can use in a single FlexConnect system, each manufacturer’s choice of processor determines what’s feasible. What you can’t do is use any other company’s wireless speakers—whether they’re FlexConnect-compatible or not. Naturally, this raises the question of compatibility. When other…
Sometimes we’ll place pots and pans of food back on the stove to reheat because dishes have cooled while we’re chatting. If we’re hosting for the holidays, we’ll set up wire racks with trays of food and gel chafing fuel to keep things warm instead, but we’ve never placed those at the center of the…
Adding more fuel after the gas pump clicks off can damage the charcoal canister by saturating it with fuel and cause the check-engine light to illuminate. If the ORVR is damaged, it won’t adequately capture those harmful vapors. The system typically lasts the lifetime of a car, but topping off could lead to an avoidable…
That brings us to QLED TVs. Those sets are LCD TVs, with one defining difference: They use quantum dots to produce colors. QLED TVs from companies such as Amazon, Hisense, LG, Panasonic, Roku, Samsung, Sony, and TCL use a blue LED light source plus a film embedded with tiny quantum dots, which are nano-sized crystals….
Usually, I’d buy the first brand I see, but after testing some popular glues in our lab, I know better. To test 11 multipurpose glues, we glued 88 blocks of wood together. We tested the strength with a force gauge after curing for 24 hours, submerging the glued blocks in water, and exposing them to…
In theory, this is where you’d want to use one of those sticky-backed lint rollers that operate very much like a fat spool of masking tape, with precut segments. Remove its reusable cover, roll over the surface of whatever you’re trying to de-lint, remove that spent sheet, then continue. However, there are other, reusable designs…
The REI Fourth of July sale is a great time to get a deal on hiking, camping, and backpacking essentials. This year, there are also great competing July Fourth sale deals from Backcountry and Public Lands. We test camping and hiking gear all year round here at WIRED, and these REI deals are on gear…