3 Best Smart Displays (2025): Tested By a Smart Home Addict

Comparing Our Favorite Smart Displays More Smart Displays We Like Echo Hub for $180: The Echo Hub isn’t exactly a smart display. It lacks powerful speaker capabilities and doesn’t have a camera for calls or Amazon’s Drop-In video call feature. Instead, it focuses entirely on being a smart home dashboard with built-in Alexa, plus features…

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What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Teen Drivers

Despite the perception that our teenagers and young drivers profess to know everything, they’re still watching and learning from how their parents behave. The example you set for them behind the wheel may be the most important in terms of actually keeping them safe, more so than any other safety message you’ve given them in…

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Most Fuel-Efficient Hybrid Cars, Minivans, and SUVs

We evaluate fuel economy under standardized conditions, using a specific procedure on our test track to calculate stop-and-go city-driving numbers and a 5-mile stretch of a nearby high-speed road for highway mileage. (Learn more about how Consumer Reports tests cars.) Below, you’ll find the recommended vehicles that get the best fuel economy overall: Each gets…

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Federal Workers Are Being Told to Blame Democrats for the Shutdown

At the Department of Housing and Urban Development, employees were instructed to set an out-of-office message that reads, “The federal government’s spending authority expired at 11:59 on Tuesday, September 30, 2025, therefore, most HUD programs have been temporarily interrupted, and most HUD employees have been told they cannot work…We regret any inconvenience the government lapse…

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OpenAI Loses 4 Key Researchers to Meta

Four OpenAI researchers are leaving the company to go to Meta, two sources confirm to WIRED. Shengjia Zhao, Shuchao Bi, Jiahui Yu, and Hongyu Ren have joined Meta’s superintelligence team. Their OpenAI Slack profiles have been deactivated. The Information first reported on the departures. It’s the latest in a series of aggressive moves by Mark…

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5 Things to Know About Combo Vacuum-Mops

They’re Only for Hard FloorsDon’t mistake a combo vacuum-mop with a dedicated carpet cleaner. In fact, they can’t be used on carpet at all. While vacuum mops do suck up some of the liquid they dispense, the suction power isn’t sufficient to remove all the liquid from the carpet, often leaving it wet. And because…

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How to Bake in a Toaster Oven

Consider a foil shield. One of the more confounding issues I’ve had is that the generous layer of mozzarella cheese on top of a mini baked pasta dish browns prematurely, especially at the edges. “In general, the best thing you can do if you see that something is starting to get on the dark side…

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7 Best Password Managers (2025), Tested and Reviewed

Setting up and migrating to Dashlane from another password manager is simple, and you’ll use a secret key to encrypt your passwords, much like BitWarden’s setup process. In practice, Dashlane is very similar to the others on this list. Dashlane offers a 30-day free trial, so you can test it out before committing. After signing…

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