Should You Repair or Replace Your Broken Clothes Dryer?

In our 2022 survey, 69 percent of CR members sought to repair their dryer when it broke down. Of those who turned to professionals for repairs, 60 percent paid out of pocket, 27 percent were at least partly covered by an original manufacturer’s warranty, and 13 percent were at least partly covered by an extended…

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What to Do If Your Car Catches Fire

Although they are not all that common in the grand scheme of things and have decreased by 60 percent since 1980, vehicle fires are still a very real possibility. According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), 16 percent of fire deaths in 2022 (the most recent year for which data was available) were caused…

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Best Smartwatch for Your Kid

“It really was an ‘in case of emergency, break glass’ thing,” Brookman says, relishing the lack of features. It didn’t present nearly as many distractions as a phone. Many experts today applaud such efforts to delay that first smartphone purchase.  Brooke Shannon, founder of the non-profit advocacy group Wait Until 8th, advises parents to hold…

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Best Blenders for Every Price Range

“Currently, all full-sized blenders go through rigorous testing in our lab regardless of wattage,” says Alex Minkin, who oversees CR’s kitchen appliance testing. But as blenders continue to evolve, more high-powered models are entering the market, performing well in our tests and subsequently burying conventional, budget-friendly blenders farther down in our ratings. “Those middle-of-the-pack blenders…

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Should You Wash Produce With Baking Soda?

By Pang-Chieh Ho We posted a TikTok video that talked about the best way to wash produce. Our recommendation was to wash your fruits and vegetables under running water and never use soap and bleach.  A few viewers had questions for us: What about soaking produce in distilled white vinegar? Or does dousing it in…

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Apple iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus Review: Why Go Pro?

In recent years, Apple started giving the iPhone Pro models a significant chip upgrade to increase the performance gap between the phones, but this year they’re all on the same starting point: the A18 chipset. The iPhone 16 Pro devices have the A18 Pro, which features larger CPU cache sizes and an extra graphics core…

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YubiKeys Are a Security Gold Standard—but They Can Be Cloned

The YubiKey 5, the most widely used hardware token for two-factor authentication based on the FIDO standard, contains a cryptographic flaw that makes the finger-sized device vulnerable to cloning when an attacker gains temporary physical access to it, researchers said Tuesday. The cryptographic flaw, known as a side channel, resides in a small microcontroller used…

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How to Save Money on Car Repairs

Use a shop approved by AAA. Members of AAA can choose from a list of approved repair facilities, which are required to have certified technicians. Furthermore, AAA offers a 10 percent discount on labor (capped at $75 in some areas). Use CR’s Car Repair Assistant. Whether you’re getting your car repaired or just keeping up…

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What It Will Take for Airchat to Take Flight

Silicon Valley tech types love their edgy new social media startups. The latest is Airchat, an audio-first social app that lets its users express their every thought by posting short snippets of audio. All of these snippets are served in a never-ending feed, a la Twitter. There are replies, there are DMs, but there’s no…

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