There are many good reasons to get a VPN (Virtual Private Network) app installed on your phone or laptop: They make it harder for anyone else to track your browsing, they keep your data safe when you're on public wifi networks, and they even let you spoof your location so you can access geolocation-locked content.

You'll also find plenty of choice when it comes to VPNs. Our own guides to the best paid VPNs and the best free VPNs show the wealth of impressive apps out there, and even when you narrow down the criteria, you've still got lots of options to pick from—see our recommendations for the best free VPNs for Android.

So what exactly should you be looking for when it comes to choosing the right VPN for you? These are the features and selling points that you'll see mentioned when you're browsing VPN comparisons, and what they mean (and once you've built up a shortlist from these criteria, then you can look at the prices and extras).

Browsing speed

One of the downsides of loading up a VPN is that your browsing speed can suffer, while your data gets pinged around multiple servers across the globe. Ideally, you want all the protection that a VPN offers, without too much of a hit on download and upload rates (no matter how many other people are using the same VPN).

Unfortunately, this isn't really something you can gauge just by looking at VPN listings and ads, as most VPNs will claim to be the fastest. Either read benchmark tests put together by publications and authors you trust (watch out for sponsored content), or make use of as many free trials as you can and do some testing yourself.

Server locations

Even VPN service will tell you how many servers it has, and where they are. Credit: ExpressVPN

Your VPN of choice needs to reroute your internet traffic somewhere, and how many servers a particular VPN has around the world can make a substantial difference to speed and availability. It's also going to determine where in the world you can pretend to be of course, if you want to jump to another country virtually.

Broadly speaking, the more servers the better, though as with VPN speeds you may have to do some testing of your own to check reliability and transfer rates. Look for server locations close to you (for speed), and outside of heavily censored or surveilled countries (for privacy), and check any technical specs that are given for them.

Split tunneling and kill switches

Something else to look out for is split tunneling, or the ability to send only some of your internet traffic through a VPN. This means you get better speeds (and less security and privacy) on data that's not so important, if you're just reading the news or learning a language. It's a feature that many of the best VPNs now offer.

Another feature worth checking for is a kill switch. It sounds rather dramatic, but it's simply a feature that shuts down your internet connection if the data encryption somehow fails—cutting you off from the internet, but preventing your connection and data from being exposed. Again, this is now fairly common, but not every VPN offers it.

No logs or zero logs

Mullvad VPN lets you pay by cash, if you don't want to enter payment info. Credit: Mullvad VPN

You should only consider VPNs that have clear no-logs policies (no browsing data is permanently retained) or zero-logs policies (supposedly even stricter, covering more data). Don't take the VPN's word for it. though: Look for third-party audits from independent security companies, carried out regularly, to verify these claims.

If these logs are retained, they might be sold to data brokers, or pulled by law enforcement agencies—so check the individual privacy policies for details of what happens when you're connected to your VPN. Some VPNs go above and beyond when it comes to letting you stay anonymous: Mullvad VPN lets you pay by cash through the post, for example.

VPN protocol

A VPN protocol is the way that the VPN connects to the internet at large: It makes a major difference to speed and security, and you'll often see it mentioned in VPN listings. However, as important as it is, it's not something that's easy to compare across different VPN services—most VPNs will simply say their protocol of choice is the best.

Once you've got a shortlist of VPNs together, do some background reading on the protocols they use: Look for independent assessments of their security and transparency, technical benchmarks, and protocols that have been open sourced so they can be analyzed. OpenVPN and WireGuard are two well-regarded protocols, for example.

Location and reputation

Where a VPN is based is important, as well as where it connects to. Credit: Lifehacker

VPN companies are bound by the laws and regulations of the country that they're based in—so it's a good idea to look for ones based in places where surveillance regulation and government monitoring is less strict. If necessary, check the VPN's policies on how it deals with data requests from the authorities and law enforcement in its local region.

It's also worth weighinga VPN company's reputation: How does it make money? What other services does it offer? What's its record with data breaches? This is much more important with a VPN than it is with your streaming music provider, for example, because you're trusting it with all of your online data while you're connected.

Trials and money back

Generally speaking, it's worth paying for a VPN, as you're giving it so much responsibility in terms of your online access and security. The paid options are almost always going to give you a faster and more reliable service, and if you regularly make use of a VPN then the monthly fee is well worth the investment.

It is, however, worth looking for services that offer free trials and your money back if you're not satisfied (usually after 30 days). Not only does it reflect well on the VPN company, it means you can see if the VPN suits your needs—and check how fast its servers are—before signing up for any kind of payment plan.

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The USB-C charging port is likely to remain ubiquitous on phones for the foreseeable future—at least until the engineers at Apple figure out how to make the long-rumored portless iPhone—but this little socket is more versatile than you may have realized.

Here are four other ways to put your USB-C port to use, no matter what your make and model of phone—from freeing up space on your handset to boosting your on-the-go productivity. It's almost like adding extra superpowers to your handset.

Attach external storage

Both iOS and Android have integrated file management apps. Credit: Lifehacker

You can plug external USB storage devices of almost every description into your phone, just as you can with your laptop or desktop computer. Lifehacker has written before about how this works on an iPhone, and many Android phones offer the same functionality, with the default file browser app also able to see the external drive.

You may need an adapter of some description, and you may need to make sure the USB drive is formatted in a particular way (a quick web search for the details for your particular phone model will tell you if this is the case). but often, you can just plug in your drive and the phone will figure out what's what.

This is a helpful for backing up photos and videos without paying a monthly fee for cloud storage, or simply to free up some storage space on your device. It's also a quick and easy way of getting files onto your phone, whether that's audio or video files you want to play without having to stream them, or books or documents you need to review during a long trip when you won't be able to rely on getting a good signal.

Put videos on a bigger screen

Many handsets—the latest iPhones and Pixel phones included—can output video over a USB-C connection. One scenario where this is useful is if you're in a hotel room and you want to get a movie up on the room television without having to mess with wifi or streaming protocols.

This can be quite fiddly in terms of the cables you need and how they attach to the TV, but if you do some research around your particular phone model and the inputs you want to connect to, you should be able to get it working without too much trouble. Here's Apple's guide for the cables and adapters you need for the iPhone, for example.

If you have a Samsung Galaxy device, then it will probably support Samsung DeX. This is a desktop environment (like Windows or macOS) that you can run on an external monitor or TV from your phone, enabling you to not only play videos on the larger display, but also use social media, web browsing, and productivity apps too.

Connect a gaming controller

The Backbone One is an example of a gaming controller you can attach. Credit: Backbone

There are some great mobile games around for iOS and Android, but using touchscreen controls can be awkward: You're just about to blast an alien spaceship out of existence when you tap the wrong part of the display and turn down the brightness instead. It's not ideal, but a dedicated gaming controller can help.

Lifehacker has covered some of these controllers in the past, and many can hook up via your phone's USB-C port—giving you a solid and stable connection to the gaming action without any lag. You won't need to charge the controller either if it's hooked up via USB-C, as it'll use the power coming from your phone's battery.

One of the best examples of this is the $99.99 Backbone One controller. It works with Android phones and iPhones, and gives you a gaming boost in titles such as Fortnite and Call of Duty. It can also work really well if you're streaming games from your Microsoft or Sony console to your phone over wifi.

Attach a mouse and keyboard

There are yet more peripherals you can plug into your smartphone, including two that can harness its versatility as a productivity device: a mouse and a keyboard. This works on a broad range of iPhone and Android handsets—here are the instructions for plugging a wired mouse into a Samsung Galaxy phones, for instance. (You can also connect these peripherals via Bluetooth.)

Admittedly you're probably not going to dig out a full size keyboard every time you send a text message, but if you've got a lot of emails or a long report to write while you're on the go, a travel keyboard can be very helpful. If you've got a foldable phone with a larger screen, then you've got yourself a decent portable workstation.

It's even possible to connect up a mouse and a keyboard together via a USB-C hub, with maybe a memory card slot as an added bonus. Just keep an eye on power usage: If you're connecting multiple accessories, look for a hub that you can also connect your charger to, so your phone battery isn't constantly running down.

Need some help writing your emails? Through the wonders of AI and Large Language Models (LLMs), you can now get messages composed on your behalf in Gmail, in Apple Mail, in Outlook, and in many other email clients. Most of the time, the AI option pops up straight away, ready to give you however much assistance you need.

The pitch is that you can offload the drudgery of dealing with email to AI, and move on to other tasks that may be more interesting and important. Anecdotally, I've spoken to quite a few people who now use AI chatbots in this way. But it's not something I'm ready to embrace, and I don't think I ever will.

These are my reasons, which may or may not resonate with you, though I haven't mentioned the issues of energy use and copyright violations that hang over the use of AI more generally. You can keep asking if I want some help in Gmail, Gemini, but I'd rather switch you off altogether.

I don't want to forget how to write

The daunting blank email. Credit: Lifehacker

Writing's pretty easy, really—most of us can do it from an early age without too much trouble. Writing well is harder, but you don't have to be a best-selling author to fire off a few emails. So is there any harm in using AI for some low-level email composing? It may be quicker and more convenient, but I'm not sure it's actually beneficial.

As author David McCullough once said: "Writing is thinking." The skill of being able to choose the right word to put in front of the previous one gets the cogs of the brain moving, and forces some thought about what's being said. Word choice and sentence structure matters, even on the shortest and most banal of emails.

I don't want to sit down at a laptop one day and find myself struggling to compose a few lines of text. Is that far-fetched? Perhaps not, based on reports from those who've already tried farming out emails to AI. "Is it difficult trying to get that thought in your head translated to an email?" asks Google. Well, yes, it is, and that's sort of the point.

People deserve a human response

It's fair to say a lot of us get an excessive amount of email (if you don't, consider yourself lucky). Chances are that plenty of your incoming email will be from people you don't know personally, but no matter the sender and the recipient in an email conversation, I think human responses are worth the effort.

If all of our emails—arranging work drinks, applying for jobs, discussing a project—are written by AI, then we're heading for piles and piles of machine-written missives that lack any kind of nuance or personal touch. Imagine a group email chain where every response sounds the same, irrespective of who sent it.

Even if I'm writing a simple "no thanks" email, if I'm communicating with another human being, I'm of the opinion that they deserve a response that has come straight from me. This is more of a principled stance than anything else, but I'm sticking with it.

AI writes a lot of generic slop

An AI email that sounds like a lot of other AI emails. Credit: Lifehacker

Get AI to write a thank you note to someone who hosted an event you recently attended, for example, and you're going to get a rather generic spiel that's the averaging out of countless other thank you notes. It's going to be bland, impersonal, and forgettable.

I can see the temptation to use AI to compose an important email—applying for a job, maybe, or appealing against a company decision—but your message is likely to end up reading like the algorithm-processed, mass-produced text that it is. You're going to sound like everyone else, basically (see the previous point).

You could get AI to do a draft and then edit it, but if I started down this path, I could see myself making fewer and fewer edits to my messages, out of laziness or habit.

I don't trust AI to get the details right

AI still makes lots of mistakes, though the chatbot developers don't tend to mention them much. If you're drafting an email about a new project pitch, a family get-together, a customer inquiry or whatever it is, there's no guarantee that an AI will get all the details right.

The more important the content of the email, the more important this becomes. The companies pushing AI-driven emails seem to be of the opinion that we can all be chasing business leads, organizing colleagues, and expressing heartfelt feelings over email with the help of AI, but I'm not convinced.

People make mistakes as well, but I'd rather trust myself than a black box of algorithms that aren't even fully understood by the developers who code them. Does AI know the people I'm emailing, and the specific details they need? Of course not.

AI talking to AI is not a future I want

We may not even need to click "send" in the future. Credit: Lifehacker

To paraphrase George Orwell, if you want a picture of the future, imagine your AI sending thousands of emails a minute to everyone else's AIs, forever. At what point do we abdicate responsibility completely to chatbots, and just let them get on with it? I don't even want to take a single step towards that.

Right now, not even the most enthusiastic AI fans are suggesting that we start sending AI-written emails out into the ether without checking and editing them first, but isn't that the obvious next step? I can almost see the Google I/O on-stage presentation now—get Gemini to handle everything, for the ultimate productivity boost.

Preliminary studies already show that we forget almost everything we write using AI, which has worrying implications if we're sending out important information that needs to be recalled later. It's not a future I'm going to be signing up for, no matter how insistent the AI prompts get.

You can customize more on your Mac than you might have realized, and that extends to the file management software you use to browse around your system. Take, for example, Finder: There are a good number of alternatives around that bring with them extra features and different layouts.

I've been testing out three of the most well-known and highly rated alternatives to Finder to see what I might be missing. Each one has its own appeal, but the third in the list here is so good that I might switch to it permanently for all my file and folder needs on macOS.

Commander One

Credit: Lifehacker

As soon as you load up Commander One, you'll notice it has a busier interface than Finder, which may or may not suit you, depending on your attitude toward minimalism. Its layout is based around a dual-pane interface, and you can customize it in a variety of ways—even down to the fonts and colors used, if you want something bespoke.

The software starts to show its potential when you move from just looking at your files and folders to actually doing something with them. You're able to rename files when copying and moving them; you get a dedicated file operations queue; and you can run complex searches through your system using regular expressions, too.

I like the quick toggle switches for seeing hidden files and for previewing files without any additional apps, and connecting up to network locations and cloud storage is straightforward. There's even an integrated Terminal for you to make use of. It's handy having shortcut keys on show in the interface as well, and you can customize these as needed if you don't like the defaults.

There's certainly a lot going on, and while the interface takes a little bit of getting used to, that's to be expected—and it doesn't take long to learn what's what. The Pro version of the software comes with extra features, including layout themes, and integrations for FTP, Google Drive, and Dropbox: That's yours for a one-off fee of $29.99.

QSpace Pro

Credit: Lifehacker

QSpace Pro is the best Finder alternative I tested in terms of the interface customizations you get access to: You can tailor to a fine level of detail, though the default look isn't all that different from Finder. You can have up to four different system locations on view at once, with the panels arranged in a variety of different ways, and jumping between these layouts is easily done.

After a short while using QSpace Pro I definitely felt I was better able to get around my Mac more efficiently, and when you've got a lot to do on your system, that really helps. Copying, moving, searching, deleting, tagging, and previewing is all intuitively and simply done, and you can easily hide parts of the interface if you know you won't need them.

The wealth of settings available in QSpace Pro is a testament to how much you can do with this: Keyboard shortcuts, the context menu, new file creation, batch operations, folder syncing, iCloud links, and app launching can all be customized, and those are just some of the options available. It's like Finder, but with a lot more going on.

QSpace Pro isn't free, however: Its features cost a one-off fee of $27.99 via the Mac App Store (or $29.99 via a direct download), though at the time of writing, those prices are down to $12.99 and $13.99, respectively. If you go through the QSpace Pro website, you can test the software out for 30 days for free before buying.

Path Finder

Credit: Lifehacker

Path Finder is one of the Finder alternatives that's been around the longest, and I think it's the one I'm actually going to switch to permanently. It's absolutely packed with features and options to play around with, and if you spend a little time getting it set up the way you want it, it should seriously speed up all your file operations.

There are a choice of different layouts to pick from, including a dual-pane layout that makes moving and copying more straightforward, and I very much appreciate the "stacking" approach that lets you pile up several files and folders in a temporary holding pane first, before you do anything with them.

Batch file operations are supported, as are synced folders, so you can merge and compare two folders on your system as required. There's also extensive use of bookmarks and tab presets, so that you can quickly jump to the places on your Mac system that you need to visit the most—something that isn't always simple to do in Finder.

The visual representations of how much space files and folders are taking up on disk is very handy, and so is the Dropbox integration (with Dropbox being my go-to cloud storage option). Admittedly it's not the most visually appealing of the software packages listed here, but that's not necessarily the most important thing in a file manager, and it adds all the features I didn't know I'd been missing from Finder.

Path Finder is $29.99 for the year, but there's a 30-day trial available.

Following the major image editing upgrades added to Google Gemini back in August—under the whimsical codename Nano Banana—it's OpenAI's turn to supercharge the tools you get for image manipulations inside ChatGPT. The new update is called GPT Image 1.5, and is rolling out now for all users.

One of the key improvements here, as was the case with Nano Banana, is the way that ChatGPT can now edit a specific part of an image while keeping everything else consistent. You can add or remove something, or change the color or style of something, without ending up with an entirely different looking picture.

Another feature ChatGPT has now borrowed from Gemini: the ability to combine multiple images together in one scene. Want you and your best friend in front of Sydney Harbour Bridge? No problem—just supply the source pictures and the AI will do the rest. You can also change visual styles while maintaining consistent details.

OpenAI says the new image editor and generator is able to follow instructions "more reliably," and render pictures up to four times faster than before. Text can be more varied in style and size, and images should be more realistic and error-free in general—though OpenAI also admits there's still room for improvement.

It's the best image generator tool we've ever seen in ChatGPT, and it all looks impressive at first glance—but how does it stack up in practice against Gemini and Nano Banana? I put the two models to the test via the $20-per-month plan on both platforms (that's ChatGPT Plus and Google AI Pro, respectively) to see how they compared.

Rendering and editing images

Open up ChatGPT on the web or on mobile and you'll see there's a new Images tab on the left-hand navigation pane. This takes you to a library of your existing pictures, together with some new prompts for creating images. You get some suggestions for prompts, plus an assortment of preset portrait image styles you can apply.

A journalist, lamp, and countryside scene courtesy of Gemini. Credit: Gemini

A journalist, lamp, and countryside scene courtesy of ChatGPT. Credit: ChatGPT

I tested out the new GPT Image 1.5 model by getting ChatGPT to generate a busy tech journalist, a lamp in the middle of an empty warehouse, and a cartoon-style rolling landscape of hills in the fog. I then got Gemini to create the same pictures with the same prompts. While the results were pretty varied, in terms of quality and realism they were pretty equal—the occasional issue with weird physics and repetition, but nothing too bad.

Both ChatGPT and Gemini are now quite competent at clean image edits, too: Both AI bots seamlessly switched the journalist's clothing to a shirt and tie without touching any other part of the picture. This would have taken a significant amount of time to do manually, even by a Photoshop expert, and shows just how transformative AI imaging is becoming.

Color changes were all handled with aplomb, but the AIs struggled a bit with perspective changes, where I asked to see the same shot from another angle. In these cases, instructions were less well-followed and the images were less consistent (as new areas needed to be rendered), though ChatGPT did a little better than Gemini at getting good results.

Clothing can now be swapped out in seconds (Gemini edition). Credit: Gemini

Clothing can now be swapped out in seconds (ChatGPT edition). Credit: ChatGPT

The classic "remove an object from this picture" challenge was handled with aplomb: Both Gemini and ChatGPT were able to remove a cottage from the countryside scene with surgical precision, leaving everything else intact. Again, these are the kind of time-intensive image edits that would previously have needed a lot of careful effort, and that can now be done in seconds.

Gemini's attempt at removing a cottage. Credit: Gemini

ChatGPT's attempt at removing a cottage. Credit: ChatGPT

Combining and remixing images

Another talent ChatGPT and Gemini now have is being able to combine images together. So you can have separate photos of you and your parents, put them together in the same shot, and then add in a background of wherever you like. You can get perfect family photos without actually gathering together your relatives together or going anywhere.

This was an area where Gemini and ChatGPT did struggle a bit more: The editing dexterity was still impressive, but the results didn't always look like a single, coherent scene. Lighting is sometimes off, or elements from different images appear at different scales, and you'll have to do a bit more tweaking and editing and reprompting to get everything right.

ChatGPT did fare slightly better at blending different images and elements together, and changing the overall look of a picture. When I tried to get the AIs to mix all my images together in a moody film noir shot, ChatGPT produced something pretty consistent—the Gemini effort looked a lot more like a cut-and-paste job.

It can be fun remixing photos again and again—adding new people, changing the weather, moving the location—and both these bots are now capable of some rather incredible results. Remixing photos of family and friends will be popular, but it's not all that easy: With people you know, any generative AI that gets added tends to look wrong, because neither ChatGPT nor Gemini knows exactly what these people look like, how they smile, how they're built, or how they tend to stand or sit.

Gemini can combine images—but they look like different images. Credit: Gemini

ChatGPT did a better job at creating a new image that looked correct. Credit: ChatGPT

In terms of ChatGPT vs. Gemini, they're both at a high level now—a level that puts advanced Photoshop-style editing capabilities at everyone's fingertips. If either AI model has the edge right now, it's ChatGPT's, but there's not much in it. It's also going to be fascinating to see where these image editing capabilities go next.

Chromecasts were one of the most useful little gadgets that Google ever made, so of course it decided to ditch the product line. The Google Cast functionality lives on in the Google TV Streamer and Google TV devices and televisions, but sadly we won't see another Chromecast go on sale.

If you've got an older Chromecast hanging around, it'll still work fine for now. However, you might soon be moving on to a newer streaming device—or perhaps you already have—and that's left you wondering what to do with your older hardware. In fact, these small dongles are more versatile than you might have realized.

While streaming content from the likes of Netflix and Apple TV is going to be the primary use for these devices for most people, you can do plenty more with them—thanks to the casting support that Google and other developers have built into their apps.

Keep an eye on your property

If you've got a Chromecast-compatible security camera (including Google's Nest Cams), you can see a live feed on your Chromecast, making it easy to set up a mini security monitoring center if you have a smaller monitor or television somewhere to spare.

Getting the feed up on screen is as easy as saying "hey Google, show my..." followed by the camera name (as listed in the Google Home app). On the Chromecast with Google TV, you can also open the Google Home widget that appears on the main Settings pane.

Set up a second screen wirelessly

You can cast anything from a Chrome tab. Credit: Lifehacker

Something else you can throw to a Chromecast in seconds: any tab you happen to have open in Google Chrome on your laptop or desktop. Just click the three dots in the top right corner of the tab, then choose Cast, Save and Share > Cast.

This means you can use the monitor or TV that your Chromecast is hooked up to as a second screen, with no cables required—just a wifi network.

Stream music, podcasts, and audiobooks

When it comes to slinging content to your TV screen, you're going to think about movies and shows first and foremost, but the Google Cast standard works with audio apps as well—including the likes of Spotify, Pocket Casts, and Audible.

This is especially worth looking into if you've got a soundbar or a high-end speaker system connected to your television, because it means you can enjoy your audio streams at a much higher volume and a much higher level of quality, compared to your phone.

Play some simple games

This one needs a Chromecast with local storage installed, so I'm primarily talking about the Chromecast with Google TV. That device supports local apps, which means it also lets you set up games to play with the remote or a connected Bluetooth controller.

See what you can find by browsing the Google Play Store, but Super Macro 64 showcases 25 different titles you can play easily, while the folks at XDA Developers have put together a full guide to creating a retro game emulator with the help of RetroArch.

Display photos and wallpapers

Your Chromecast can display photos and even artwork. Credit: Lifehacker

Chromecasts work great as a way to add some ambience to a room when you're not actually watching something on a TV or monitor. You can show your own personal pictures, or a selection of nature shots, or pretty much anything you want.

Either cast via Google Photos (open an album, tap the three dots in the top right corner, then Cast), or set up a screensaver through the Google Home app. Select your Chromecast, tap the gear icon (top right), then choose Ambient mode.

Keep in touch

Trying to hold video calls—whether with family over the holidays or colleagues during a meeting—isn't always easy on a phone screen or even a laptop screen, so why not take advantage of a larger monitor or TV with a Chromecast plugged into it?

For this to work you need to be using Google Meet in a web browser on a computer. You can either choose the "cast this meeting" option before it starts, or click the three dots during the meeting (Google has full instructions online).

Generative AI has advanced to the stage where you can ask bots such as ChatGPT or Gemini questions about almost anything, and get reasonable-sounding responses—and now renowned gadget repair site iFixit has joined the party with an AI assistant of its own, ready and willing to solve any of your hardware problems.

While you can already ask general-purpose chatbots for advice on how to repair a phone screen or diagnose a problem with a car engine, there's always the question of how accurate the AI replies will be. With FixBot, iFixit is trying to minimize mistakes by drawing on its vast library of verified repair guides, written by experts and users.

That's certainly reassuring: I don't want to waste time and money replacing a broken phone screen with a new display that's the wrong size or shape. And using a conversational AI bot to fix gadget problems is often going to feel like a more natural and intuitive experience than a Google search. As iFixit puts it, the bot "does what a good expert does" in guiding you to the right solutions.

How FixBot improves accuracy

The iFixit website has been around since 2003—practically ancient times, considering the rapid evolution of modern technology. The iFixit team has always prided itself on detailed, thorough, tested guides to repairing devices, and all of that information can now be tapped into by the FixBot tool.

iFixit says the bot is trained on more than 125,000 repair guides written by humans who have worked through the steps involved, as well as the question and answer forums attached to the site, and the "huge cache" of PDF manuals that iFixit has accumulated over the years that it's been business.

FixBot uses an intuitive chatbot interface. Credit: Lifehacker

That gives me a lot more confidence that FixBot will get its answers right, compared to whatever ChatGPT or Gemini might tell me. iFixit hasn't said what AI models are powering the bot—only that they've been "hand-picked"—and there's also a custom-built search engine included to select data sources from the repair archives on the site.

"Every answer starts with a search for guides, parts, and repairs that worked," according to the iFixit team, and that conversational approach you'll recognize from other AI bots is here too: If you need clarification on something, then you can ask a follow-up question. In the same way, if the AI bot needs more information or specifics, it will ask you.

It's designed to be fast—responses should be returned in seconds—and the iFixit team also talks about an "evaluation harness" that tests the FixBot responses against thousands of real repair questions posed and answered by humans. That extra level of fact-checking should reduce the number of false answers you get.

However, it's not perfect, as iFixit admits: "FixBot is an AI, and AI sometimes gets things wrong." Whether or not those mistakes will be easy to spot remains to be seen, but users of the chatbot are being encouraged to upload their own documents and repair solutions to fix gaps in the knowledge that FixBot is drawing on.

Using FixBot to diagnose problems

iFixit says the FixBot is going to be free for everyone to use, for a limited time. At some point, there will be a free version with limitations, and paid tiers with the full set of features—including support for voice input and document uploads. You can give it a try for yourself now on the iFixit website.

I was reluctant to deliberately break one of my devices just so FixBot could help me repair it, but I did test it with a few issues I've had (and sorted out) in the past. One was a completely dead SSD drive stopping my Windows PC from booting: I started off with a vague description about the computer not starting up properly, and the bot did a good job at narrowing down what the problem was, and suggesting fixes.

FixBot will refer back to articles and forum posts. Credit: Lifehacker

It went through everything I had already tried when the problem happened, including trying System Repair and troubleshooting the issue via the Command Prompt. Eventually, via a few links to repair guides on the iFixit website, it did conclude that my SSD drive had been corrupted by a power cut—which I knew was what had indeed happened.

I also tested the bot with a more general question about a phone restarting at random times—something one of my old handsets used to do. Again, the responses were accurate, and the troubleshooting steps I was asked to try made a lot of sense. I was also directed to the iFixit guide for the phone model.

FixBot's answers are generally accurate and intelligent. Credit: Lifehacker

The bot is as enthusiastic as a lot of the others available now (I was regularly praised for the "excellent information" I was providing), and does appear to know what it's talking about. This is one of the scenarios where generative AI shows its worth, in distilling a large amount of information based on natural language prompts.

There's definitely potential here: Compare this approach to having to sift through dozens of forum posts, web articles, and documents manually. However, there's always that nagging sense that AI makes mistakes, as the on-screen FixBot disclaimer says. I'd recommend checking other sources before doing anything drastic with your hardware troubleshooting.

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Philips Hue is one of the most well-respected and popular brands in smart lights—but what about its smart security cameras? Parent company Signify has been developing Hue cameras for a couple of years now, with a video doorbell and 2K camera upgrades recently added to the portfolio of devices. (Note: This 2K version hasn't yet landed in the U.S., but the existing 1080p versions are quite similar.)

I got a chance to test out the new 2K Hue Secure camera, and alongside all the basics of a camera like this, it came with an extra bonus that worked better than I expected: seamless integration with Philips Hue lights. These two product categories actually work better together than you might think.

While you can certainly connect cameras and lights across a variety of smart home platforms, Philips Hue is one of very few manufacturers making both types of device (TP-Link is another). That gives you a simplicity and interoperability you don't really get elsewhere.

Setting up a Hue camera

All the basic security camera features are covered. Credit: Lifehacker

Hue cameras are controlled inside the same Hue app for Android or iOS as the Hue lights. You don't necessarily need a Hue Bridge to connect the camera, too, as it can link to your wifi directly, but the Bridge is required if you want it to be able to sync with your lights—which is one of the key features here. (If you already have the lights, you'll already have the Bridge anyway.)

The 2K Hue Secure wired camera I've been testing comes with a 2K video resolution (as the name suggests). two-way audio, a built-in siren, infrared night vision, and weatherproofing (so you can use it indoors or out). As well as the wired version I've got here, there's also a battery-powered option, and a model that comes with a desktop stand.

Once configured, the camera lives in the same Home tab inside the mobile app as any Philips Hue lights you've got. The main panel doesn't show the camera feed—instead, it shows the armed status of the camera, which can be configured separately depending on whether you're at home or not. The idea is that you don't get disturbed with a flurry of unnecessary notifications when you're moving around.

The basic functionality is the same as every other security camera: Motion is detected and you get a ping to your phone with details, with a saved clip of the event that stays available for 24 hours. You can also tap into the live feed from the camera at any time, should you want to check in on the pets or the backyard.

As is often the case with security cameras, there is an optional subscription plan that gives you long-term video clip storage, activity zone settings, and AI-powered identification of people, animals, vehicles, and packages. That will set you back from $4 a month, with a discount if you pay for a year at a time.

Syncing a camera with smart lights

Your cameras can be used as customized triggers for your lights. Credit: Lifehacker

I started off a little unsure about just how useful it would be to connect up the Hue cameras and Hue lights—it's not a combination that gets talked about much—but it's surprisingly useful. If you delve into the camera settings inside the Hue app, there's a Trigger lights section especially for this.

You get to choose which of your lights are affected—they don't all have to go on and off together—and there are customizations for color and brightness across certain time schedules. You could have your bulbs glowing red during the night, for example, or turning bright blue during the daytime. The duration the lights stay on for can also be set.

It's not the most sophisticated system, but it works: If someone is loitering around your property, you can have a selected number of lights turn on to put them off, or to suggest that someone is in fact at home. This is in addition to everything else you can do, including sounding a siren through the camera, and because it works through the Hue Bridge it all happens pretty much instantaneously.

You can also set specific cameras as basic motion sensors for you and your family—lighting up the way to the bathroom late at night, for example. This can work even when the system is disarmed, so there's no wifi video streaming happening, but the cameras are still watching out for movement and responding accordingly.

There's one more option worth mentioning in the security settings in the Hue app: "mimic presence." This can randomly turn your lights on and off at certain points in the day, and the schedule you choose can be controlled by whether or not your Hue security is armed or disarmed (so nothing happens when everyone is at home).

Generative AI tools continue to improve in terms of their photo editing capabilities, and OpenAI's latest upgrade brings Adobe Photoshop right inside your ChatGPT app window (alongside Adobe Acrobat for handling PDFs, and Adobe Express for graphic design). It's available to everyone, for free—you just need a ChatGPT account and an Adobe account.

As per Adobe, the idea is to make "creativity accessible for everyone" by plugging Photoshop tools directly into ChatGPT. The desktop version of Photoshop already comes with plenty of generative AI features of its own, so this is AI layered on top of more AI—but is it actually useful?

How to get started with Photoshop inside ChatGPT

Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Express and Adobe Acrobat are available now inside ChatGPT on the desktop, on the web, and on iOS. At the time of writing, you can also get Adobe Express inside ChatGPT for Android, with Photoshop and Acrobat "coming soon." To weigh the capabilities of the new integration, I tested it in a desktop web browser.

To get started, all you need to do is type "Photoshop" at the start of your prompt: ChatGPT should recognize what you're trying to do, and select Adobe Photoshop as the tool to use for the next prompt. You'll also need to click through a couple of confirmation dialog boxes, and connect an Adobe account (if you don't have one, you can make one for free).

You'll need to connect ChatGPT to your Adobe account. Credit: Lifehacker

With all the connections and logins completed, Photoshop is then added to the overflow menu in the prompt box, so just click on the + (plus) to select it. You can start describing what you want to happen using the same natural, conversational language you'd use for any other ChatGPT prompt. You do need to also upload an image or provide a public link to one—if you don't do this before you submit your prompt, you'll be asked to do it after.

You don't need to know the names of all the Photoshop tools: Just describe what you want to happen and the relevant tools will be selected for you. One example Adobe gives is using the prompt "make my image pop," which brings up the Bloom, Grain, and Lens Distortion effects—and each one can be adjusted via sliders on screen. It's actually quite simple to use.

Simple adjustments can be made with on-screen sliders. Credit: Lifehacker

If you do know the name of the tools you want, you can call them up by name, and the classic brightness and contrast sliders are a good place to start. You can either say something like "make the picture brighter" or "adjust the image brightness"—both will bring up an overlay you can use to make brightness adjustments, but if you use the former prompt, the image will already have been made a little brighter.

ChatGPT and Photoshop let you add edit upon edit as needed, and you can save the image at any stage. There's also the option to open your processed file in the Photoshop web app whenever you like: This web app uses a freemium model, with advanced features requiring a subscription, and seems to be what the ChatGPT integration is largely based on.

What you can do with Adobe in ChatGPT

Adobe offers a handy ChatGPT prompts cheat sheet you can browse through, which gives you a good idea of what's possible, and what you're still going to need Photoshop proper for. Note that you can specify certain parts of the image to focus on (like "the face" or "the car") but this depends on Photoshop-in-ChatGPT being able to correctly figure out where you want your selection to be. It needs to be pretty obvious and well delineated.

When I tried cutting out objects and removing backgrounds, this worked well—but then I had to turn to Photoshop on the web to actually drop in a different background. There's no way to work with layers or masks here, and you can't remove people or objects from photos, either. Sometimes, however, you do get a spool of "thinking" from ChatGPT about how it can't do what the user is asking for.

Cut-outs are one of the tricks you can do. Credit: Lifehacker

I was able to apply some nice colorizations here, via prompts like "turn all the hues in this image to blue," and I like the way ChatGPT will give you further instructions on how to get the effect you want. You can even say "show some examples" and it gives you a few presets to choose from—all of which can be adjusted via the sliders again.

The ability to run prompts like "turn this into an oil painting" or "turn this into a cartoon" are useful too, though the plug-in is limited by the effects available in Photoshop for the web: You'll be directed to the closest effect and advised how to tweak it to get the look you want.

Actually, some of these effects work better in ChatGPT's native image editor, which maybe explains why Adobe wanted to get involved here.

ChatGPT removed someone from this picture, no Photoshop required. Credit: Lifehacker

If ChatGPT's image manipulation gets good enough, then Photoshop is no longer going to be needed by a substantial number of users: ChatGPT can already remove people and objects from photos, for example, quite effectively. What it's not quite as good at is some of the basic adjustments (like colors and contrast) that Adobe software has been managing for years.

For quick, basic edits you want to type out in natural language—especially where you want to adjust the edits manually and need advice on what to do next—Photoshop inside ChatGPT is a handy tool to be able to turn to, especially as it's free. For serious edits, though, you're still going to want to fire up the main Photoshop app, or maybe even shun Adobe altogether and make use of ChatGPT's steadily improving editing tools.

If you've chosen a Chromebook as a laptop, then you know the main benefits that it brings: namely, speed, ease of use, and affordability. Despite the simplicity of ChromeOS, however, there's more that you can do with it than you might realize. You can use it offline, and you can sync files to and from local storage, for example. The operating system is a lot more powerful and versatile than it often gets credit for.

These hacks are for power users who want to level up their Chromebook capabilities, and get extra value out of their laptop, beyond the standard use cases that everyone knows about. No matter how you use ChromeOS, there should be something here to help.

Use your Chromebook offline

Google Drive can work offline. Credit: Lifehacker

Chromebooks are often criticized for being useless without wifi, but that's not actually the case: All of the Docs, Sheets, and Slides tools can be used offline, with changes syncing back when your internet connection is restored: From Google Drive, click the gear icon (top right), then choose Settings > General and check the option under the Offline heading.

You can use Gmail offline, too. You can't send or receive emails, obviously, but you can read through and organize your inbox, and draft emails ready to go once you get your internet back. From Gmail, click on the gear icon (top right), then pick See all settings > Offline. Check the Enable offline mail box and choose how much of your email you want to sync.

Sync media offline

This offline functionality extends to third-party streaming apps too, as ChromeOS supports Android apps. With apps such as Netflix and Spotify, you can sync content to your Chromebook to watch when you don't have a reliable internet connection—when you're on a long flight, for example, or traveling between countries.

Talk to your Chromebook

Enable dictation through the Accessibility settings. Credit: Lifehacker

Typing is all well and good, but sometimes talking is faster. Launch Settings, then choose Accessibility > Keyboard and text input > Dictation to enable the feature. You can then press the Launcher (G) button and D to start dictating in any app—whether you're composing emails or writing essays.

Move local files to Google Drive

One of the pros of using a Chromebook is that everything is synced online pretty much instantly, if you're using one of Google's own online apps or something similar. However, there may be local files that accumulate on the laptop, including screenshots and downloads, and sometimes you'll want to get those synced to the cloud as well.

You can see these files via the Files app that comes built into ChromeOS, and upload them manually via the Google Drive web interface. There's an easier way to get them into Google Drive, though: From the Files app, select all the local files you want to upload in the pane on the right, then drag them into My Drive under Google Drive in the left-hand menu bar.

Set up virtual desktops

Chromebooks don't always have the biggest or highest-resolution screens, but you can give yourself more room by managing multiple virtual desktops (which ChromeOS calls "desks"). Press the "show windows" key (it's the one with little rectangles on it, usually also labeled F3) to view open desks, switch between them, and create new ones.

Enable guest access

As ChromeOS is so tightly tied to your Google account, you don't necessarily want other people borrowing your laptop and being able to get into your Google apps. The solution is guest mode: Restart your Chromebook or sign out of your current user account, then click Browse as Guest to launch a Chrome window without any Google account attached.

Make full use of the clipboard

ChromeOS can sometimes feel limiting in that you can't quickly drag files to the desktop or to a temporary folder in the same way that you can on Windows or macOS. You might also see that as a benefit—it means less junk will be cluttering your system—but there could well be times that you just need to store something temporarily for transfer.

That's where the ChromeOS clipboard comes in: It actually stores five items rather than one, so it's a useful (if rather hidden) way of moving images, text, and links between websites and apps. Use the usual Ctrl+C, Ctrl+X, and Ctrl+V shortcuts to copy, cut, and paste, then hold down the Launcher (G) button and V to see all the clipboard items.

Open the ChromeOS Task Manager

ChromeOS comes with its own Task Manager. Credit: Lifehacker

The ChromeOS Task Manager is useful for everything from shutting down crashed apps to seeing exactly where all your RAM is going, and it can be a key tool in the power user's belt. Open it by pressing the Launcher (G) key and Esc: You'll see you can browse between individual tabs and system processes, or search for something specific on ChromeOS.

Save an older laptop

ChromeOS isn't just for Chromebooks: You can give an older, struggling laptop a new lease of life by installing ChromeOS Flex on it (even old laptops can usually handle Chrome). Google has full instructions for what you need to do to get this working, and will guide you through the process of creating a bootable USB drive with the ChromeOS software on.

Explore beta and dev channels

Switching up the channel on ChromeOS. Credit: Lifehacker

As with a lot of software, there are beta and dev channels of ChromeOS available as well as the stable one. If you want to get the newest Chromebook features before everyone else, and don't mind a few bugs along the way, then you can make the switch. It doesn't take long, and you can always switch back again, though a system reset is sometimes required.

To change between ChromeOS channels, click on the time panel (bottom right), then click the gear icon to get to the main Settings page. Choose About ChromeOS > Additional details > Change channel, then choose whichever one you want to use. You'll keep getting over-the-air updates for your selected channel until you switch to a different one.

At this late stage in the streaming era, we're all overwhelmed by more digital subscriptions than we can keep track of, from fitness apps to cloud storage. Still, it certainly feels as though Netflix is one of the subscriptions that people are least likely to ditch—and that's backed up by the numbers.

Perhaps it's because Netflix was the first company to really make streaming work, or perhaps it's the vast catalog of content it's amassed, or perhaps it's just because of Stranger Things and Squid Game. Whatever the reason, Netflix's churn rate is impressively low. Subscribers stick with it.

Certainly it's always something I've long considered a mainstay on my streaming device. But recently, in the midst of reevaluating all of my monthly subs, I decided to save myself some money and actually cancel Netflix. It has gone so well, I'd suggest you do the same.

Here's what I've noticed since my life became Netflix-free—and I have a strong suspicion this might be your experience too. (Full disclosure: I will eventually subscribe again, if only to finish Stranger Things, but there are benefits to quitting, even if only temporarily.)

I didn't miss it as much as I thought I would

Netflix content: There's a lot of it. Credit: Lifehacker

I was quite a heavy Netflix user before I gave it up, and would often cycle through the recommended list of shows and movies in the evening and especially on weekends. I've recently binged my way through shows like The Diplomat, Dept Q., Departure, and The Glass Dome. I could always find something to watch on Netflix.

But when I stopped being able to access Netflix, I realized didn't really miss it all that much. My viewing switched to other streaming services, and free, ad-supported channels in particular. There's actually more free content out there than you might have realized. I even did some fun rewatches of movies and shows I'd previously purchased on various platforms (because I don't always want to rent something for the evening).

I've also been spending less time streaming video in general—more of my time has been put towards gaming and reading since I ditched my Netflix subscription. I've even been to an actual movie theater once or twice (not that you can see anything developed by Netflix on the big screen for the most part).

The prices keep going up

Need an extra member? That's an extra cost. Credit: Lifehacker

Before I quit Netflix, I was on the most expensive plan: It's £18.99 a month here in the U.K., and $24.99 a month in the U.S. This gets you the best audio and 4K HDR video quality, spatial audio, four simultaneous streams, and six devices for downloading content. It's actually one of the most expensive streaming packages there is, and prices keep going up.

After the great password crackdown of 2023, you can't even share the account with anyone who doesn't live with you either—at least not unless you pay an extra fee (£4.99 here in the UK, $8.99 in the US). By any measure, that's a significant chunk of money. If you're paying for the best plan plus an extra member and decide to take six months off Netflix, you'll saving yourself more than $200.

There are cheaper plans available of course, if you want to sit through ads and put up with lower-resolution video—but I thought the whole point of paying for streaming was to avoid ads? It's hard to imagine Netflix ever dropping its prices, so this is a problem that's likely to get worse over time.

Your account will be preserved for two years

Netflix will hang on to all your viewing history for a while. Credit: Lifehacker

One of the reasons you might be reluctant to cancel Netflix is because you think you'll lose years' worth of your viewing history and your personalized recommendations, and have to start again with a blank slate if you decide to sign back up. But in fact, Netflix stores your account information for 24 months—including ratings, game saves, and other account details.

As long as you resubscribe again within a couple of years, you'll find everything as you left it (though you may need to scan some plot recaps for shows you were halfway through binge watching). This suggests Netflix is keen to leave the option to resubscribe open as long as possible. In my experience, it'll definitely send you lots of emails about rejoining in the meantime.

I'm going to go back to Netflix someday—there's just too much stuff on there that I want to watch—but after years and years as a customer, it's been an interesting experiment to see what life is like without it. Certainly after this, I wouldn't be worried about taking another Netflix break in the future. When I decide I want to resubscribe, it'll only take a couple of clicks or taps.

As it does every year, Google has picked its favorite apps, games, and books of 2025 from the Play Store catalog—and the annual selection is always useful as a pointer towards some high-quality titles for your Android devices that you may have missed so far.

Topping the pile is Focus Friend from YouTuber Hank Green, which aims to keep you on task and undistracted via a series of cutesy animations and cartoon living spaces. The less you check your phone, the better the experience for your 'bean' inside the app.

It's an app we've written about before, and I've given it a go myself while trying to focus on writing this article with as few distractions as possible. I've also cast an eye over the other picks from Google, which you may want to add to your phone or tablet.

Focus Friend really does help you focus

I'd previously heard a bit of buzz around Focus Friend, but it being picked as Google's favorite Play Store app of the year gave me the nudge I needed to actually install it and give it a go. It's been earning some rave reviews, but it's not actually all that different to the many other focus apps available on mobile.

This one does ramp up the cartoon cuteness, giving you your own personal bean character who will get busy knitting as long as you're not checking other apps on your phone. You can trade the socks that get knitted for a variety of furnishings and decorations for the bean's living space, which starts off very bare indeed.

Focus Friend is built around a timer system. Credit: Lifehacker

It's a well-implemented app that's straightforward and fun to use, and I found it did encourage me to pick up my phone less. There's a pro version—yours for $2 a month—which unlocks access to more items for your bean to knit and more decorations for the surrounding room.

I like that you don't even have to sign up for an account to use the app (a constant bind if you write about tech and apps all day), and there's a decent amount of customization here—you've got sound effects and music you can turn on and off, the option to actually block other apps, and a lock screen mode to make use of.

The app offers a variety of customization options. Credit: Lifehacker

Your mileage may vary depending on how taken you are with the bean character and the various items you can get to kit out its room. This is essentially just a stopwatch with a lot of nice dressing around it, and you can get much the same effect by starting a timer on your phone—without worrying about hurting the feelings of an imaginary bean.

It's a good pick by Google, but it's also fair to say there are lots of similar apps out there. I actually prefer Forest (for Android or iOS), which grows a little forest for you rather than having a bean knit socks, but my favorite app of this type is Focus Traveller (only available on iOS, sadly for Android users) that turns your focus sessions into cross-country hikes.

More apps, games, and ebooks

There's plenty more in Google's list besides Focus Friend—and I'll confess I haven't used many of these apps or games. The best multi-device app award goes to Luminar, a comprehensive photo editing tool that's packed with tools (and AI, as you would expect). The interface adapts really well across devices, including foldables and Chromebooks.

The other apps that made the list are Instagram app Edits (best for fun), audiobook summarizer Wiser (best everyday essential), language tutor Pingo AI (best hidden gem), kids learning game ABCmouse 2 (best for families), sleep alarm SleepisolBio (best for watches), note taker Goodnotes (best for large screens), audio app SoundCloud (best for cars), and meditation app Calm (best for XR headsets).

Luminar is the best multi-device app of the year. Credit: Google

When it comes to games, the outright winner was Pokémon TCG Pocket, a digital take on the physical Pokémon card game that lets you collect cards on your Android device and battle with other players across the globe. It's going to have limited appeal outside Pokémon fans, but it's certainly well-designed.

Google's other game picks are combat racer Disney Speedstorm (best multi-device game), streetball game Dunk City Dynasty (best multi-player), card game Candy Crush Solitaire (best pick up and play), puzzle adventure Chants of Sennaar (best indie), interactive detective story Disco Elysium (best story), open-world RPG Wuthering Waves (best ongoing), dark fishing adventure Dredge (best on Play Pass), and Norse mythology MMORPG Odin: Valhalla Rising (best for Google Play Games on PC).

Disney Speedstorm is the best multi-device game. Credit: Google

There's a lot to choose from when it comes to ebooks and audiobooks, too, with 17 titles across fiction, non-fiction, and reads for younger people: from fantasy tale "The Raven Scholar" by Antonia Hodgson, to historical fiction title "Herod the Great" by Zora Neal Hurson. You can find the full list here.

As for iOS, at the time I'm writing this article Apple has announced a shortlist for the 2025 App Store Awards, but we don't have the final winners yet.

There are plenty of distractions to deal with in our modern digital age—see if you can manage to get all the way through this article without turning your attention elsewhere at least once, for example. All that surrounding noise can make it difficult to stick to the task at hand, and actually get some solid work done.

I enjoy browsing social media and exploring the web as much as the next person, but I've also got plenty of writing to get through every day, and distractions can seriously slow me down. Studies have shown that we do much better when we focus on one task at a time, which for me is writing guides and articles.

While distraction-free devices such as the Freewrite Smart Typewriter have always appealed, I wanted to be more focused while using my MacBook Air. To that end, I've come up with a strategy for minimizing distractions as much as possible, and it's something you might find helpful for your own work.

These steps apply specifically to macOS and Google Docs, which is what I use for most of my writing, but you can adapt them for Windows and other word processors too.

Turn off notifications

Focus modes are an easy way to manage notifications. Credit: Lifehacker

Notifications is a good place to start—if your laptop is continually pinging and alerting you to other things, it's hard to get anything done. On macOS, notification settings can be handled by clicking the Apple icon (top left), then System Settings > Notifications. Here you can set alerts on an app-by-app basis.

For me, the Focus entry in System Settings is even more useful. Here I've set up a dedicated Work focus mode that blocks all notifications from all apps, and leaves me in peace. To create your own mode, click Add Focus on the main list—you can either set them to run on a schedule, or enable them manually via Focus in the Control Center (click the toggle switches on the menu bar, top right, to access them).

For the best results, you need to silence your phone as well, which is likely to be interrupting you even more than your laptop. If you're using an iPhone, you can sync Focus modes across both macOS and iOS, by enabling the Share across devices toggle switch on the main Focus options screen.

Tweak your writing software

Google Docs has a few tricks for distraction-free writing. Credit: Lifehacker

Even without notifications enabled, it's easy to catch sight of something else you could be doing on your laptop, rather than concentrating on a single task. Explore the various options available within your word processor of choice to make the interface as minimal as possible—which in my case involves tweaking the look of Google Docs.

To get the same effect on your own Google Docs documents, first head to the View menu and make sure the ruler, equation toolbar, and spelling and grammar suggestions are all hidden (for me, they just add to the on-screen clutter). Then, open the Format menu and choose Switch to pageless format to get one long, flowing page.

Next, select View and pick Full screen, and then maximize the browser window in macOS using the green button up in the top left corner. Hey presto—all you've got on screen now are your words, with nothing else to distract you. To bring back the Google Docs menus and toolbars, press Esc to exit maximized mode, move the cursor to the top of the screen and click the green button again.

Turn off the internet

Turn off wifi to reduce distractions further. Credit: Lifehacker

For the most extreme version of a distraction-free writing device—heading back to the days of the typewriter—I block internet access on my laptop too (on macOS, you can just click the wifi symbol on the menu bar, top right, then toggle off Wi-Fi). Sure, it's not the most comprehensive way of blocking the internet, but it works for me, and makes me think twice about going online (yes, Google Docs can work offline).

I find it makes me less likely to check the news, social media, or email when I should be writing. The obvious problem is that I can't look up anything online either, so it's a bit of a soft rule I have—I try to at least write certain chunks of articles while offline, then do all my online research at once, and without opening dozens of browser tabs.

You can tailor this to suit yourself, but I've found switching off the internet makes me more likely to rely on my own thoughts and word choices—without recourse to a dictionary or thesaurus. Sometimes it's good to give your brain a bit of exercise, and get it to slow down and focus for a while.

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Amazon Big Deal Days is coming October 7-8, and Lifehacker is sharing the best sales based on product reviews, comparisons, and price-tracking tools before it's over.

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• New to Prime Day? We have a primer on everything you need to know. Sales are accurate at the time of publication, but prices and inventory are always subject to change.

I've spent more than a decade reviewing laptops—which has involved a lot of battery and performance benchmarking—and I've been digging deep into the Amazon Prime Day sales to find you the best deals on laptops. If you're thinking of investing in an upgrade, these are the discounts I'd recommend taking advantage of.

Dell 15

Dell is always a good bet for a solid, no-nonsense laptop that can cover the basics for most users, and that's a perfect description of the Dell 15. It's now available for $449.99 from Amazon rather than the original list price of $599.99, which is a notable reduction of $150 or 25 percent, making this laptop well worth snapping up.

Dell 15 Laptop

$559.00 at Amazon

$599.99 Save $40.99

Get Deal

Get Deal

$559.00 at Amazon

$599.99 Save $40.99

You get a spacious 15.6-inch screen, a capable Intel Core i5 processor, 16GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD storage for your money. Those specs aren't going to break any benchmarking records, but aside from high-end gaming and demanding tasks like video editing, you're going to be well-covered.

Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge

Who says Windows users can't have MacBook-level quality laptops? The Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge begs to differ, with its polished and elegant exterior, and powerful innards—you get a Snapdragon X Plus CPU, 16GB of RAM, 512GB of storage and a stylish 15.6-inch screen with this model, plus Galaxy AI on board.

Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge

$684.99 at Amazon

$899.99 Save $215.00

Get Deal

Get Deal

$684.99 at Amazon

$899.99 Save $215.00

If you're not already convinced, Amazon Prime Day has lowered this laptop down to $684.99 from $899.99. It's a versatile and capable laptop—with HDMI and microSD slots included—and it also meets the criteria for Microsoft's Copilot+ program.

M4 MacBook Air

You don't have to wander far on the internet to find someone singing the praises of the 13-inch M4 MacBook Air: It's fast, it's quiet, it's cool, it's lightweight, and it has all the build quality and software expertise you'd expect from Apple. It's so good that it's probably the best laptop for most people right now.

M4 MacBook Air

$799.00 at Amazon

$999.00 Save $200.00

Get Deal

Get Deal

$799.00 at Amazon

$999.00 Save $200.00

On top of all that, it's also $200 off at Amazon, for the entry-level configuration—a drop of 20%. It combines that M4 processor with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. If you work your way up through the specs there are deals on the more expensive models as well—all available in four colors.

Microsoft Surface Pro 2024

The Microsoft Surface Pro is the best two-in-one laptop and tablet combination you can get right now, and the 2024 Snapdragon X Elite configuration with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage is down by a huge 36 percent in the Prime Day sales: It now costs $899.99 rather than the original $1,399.99.

Microsoft Surface Pro 2024

$899.99 at Amazon

$1,399.99 Save $500.00

Get Deal

Get Deal

$899.99 at Amazon

$1,399.99 Save $500.00

After several false starts, Windows 11 is now equally at home in tablet or laptop mode, and the 13-inch touchscreen OLED is superb. Do bear in mind that you'll need to attach a keyboard cover to get the most out of this device as a laptop—which you should be able to afford from the savings you're making on the main device.

Alienware 16 Area-51

If you're after a gaming laptop deal, you can't do much better than the Alienware 16 Area-51: Its original price of $2,999.99 is a testament to how powerful this beast of a machine is, but you can now get $600 (or 20%) knocked off.

Alienware 16 Area-51

$2,399.99 at Amazon

$2,999.99 Save $600.00

Get Deal

Get Deal

$2,399.99 at Amazon

$2,999.99 Save $600.00

That's still a significant chunk of money, but it's a huge savings, and this is one of the most highly rated gaming laptops on the market—from a brand you can trust. You get an Intel Core Ultra 9 processor, 32GB of RAM, 1TB of storage, and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070Ti GPU on the inside, so it's packed with power.

When does October Prime Day end?

Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days end tonight, Oct. 8, but we expect some deals will still be live in the coming days. Check our Prime Day live blog for ongoing coverage of the best sales still available throughout the week.

Looking for something else? Retailers like Walmart and Best Buy have Prime Day competition sales that are especially useful if you don't have Amazon Prime.

• Walmart's Prime Day competition sale runs from Oct. 6 at 7 p.m. ET through Oct. 12 and includes deals up to 50% off. It's an especially good option if you have Walmart+.

• Best Buy's Prime Day competition sale runs from Sept. 27 through Oct. 12, and has some of the best tech sales online. It's an especially good option if you're a My Best Buy “Plus” or “Total” member.

• Target's Prime Day competition sale runs from Oct. 5 through Oct. 11, and it has deals going up to 50% off. You can become a Circle member for free.

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

Amazon Big Deal Days is ending tonight, October 8, and Lifehacker is sharing the best sales based on product reviews, comparisons, and price-tracking tools before it's over.

• Follow our live blog to stay up to date on the best sales we find.

• Subscribe to our shopping newsletter, Add to Cart, for the best sales sent to your inbox.

• New to Prime Day? We have a primer on everything you need to know. Sales are accurate at the time of publication, but prices and inventory are always subject to change.

After 20 years in the tech journalism business, I've honestly lost count of the number of tablets (and tablet/laptop hybrids) I've reviewed through the years. When it comes to these devices, I know something about what separates the duds from the diamonds. As the second day of the Prime Day sale rolls on, these are my picks for the best tablet deals.

11-inch Google Pixel Tablet

If you're fully invested in the Google ecosystem, then the Google Pixel Tablet makes a lot of sense—especially as it's now available with a discount of more than a third for Prime Day. The price currently stands at $309 rather than the original $499, and it'll cater to all your key tablet needs—from videos to web browsing.

11-inch Google Pixel Tablet

$309.00 at Amazon

$499.00 Save $190.00

Get Deal

Get Deal

$309.00 at Amazon

$499.00 Save $190.00

Along with the 11-inch screen (with 2,560 x 1,600 pixel resolution), this model gives you 256GB of storage space, a Tensor G2 processor, and the latest Android 16 software. Add in the official dock (sold separately) and you can turn it into a smart home hub, and get extra volume for your videos and audio, while the tablet is charging.

11-inch A16 Apple iPad

Apple updated its entry-level tablet for 2025 with this 11-inch iPad model, powered by the A16 processor, and even at the original price of $349, the 128GB model represents excellent value for money. You can now knock $70 off that price: Amazon is now selling it for $279 in honor of Prime Day.

11-inch A16 Apple iPad

$279.00 at Amazon

$349.00 Save $70.00

Get Deal

Get Deal

$279.00 at Amazon

$349.00 Save $70.00

There are more expensive iPads out there, but the cheapest one is perfectly good at doing all the tasks you would commonly use a tablet for: checking emails, posting to social media, browsing the web, watching movies, etc. With four colors to choose from, many people aren't going to need to pay more.

12.4-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab S10+

If you're a fan of tablets, Samsung, or Android (or all three), the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10+ is worthy of your attention. It's like an iPad Pro for those who prefer Android, with a superb 12.4-inch OLED screen, a Mediatek Dimensity 9300+ processor, 12GB of RAM, a dual-lens rear camera, lots of Galaxy AI features, and an included S Pen stylus.

12.4-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab S10+

$824.99 at Amazon

$999.99 Save $175.00

Get Deal

Get Deal

$824.99 at Amazon

$999.99 Save $175.00

It's an impressive device all around, and you can now get the 256GB version of this tablet for $824.99 rather than $999.99.

13-inch M4 Apple iPad Pro

The entry-level iPad gets a mention further up on this page, but if you want the most powerful Apple tablet on the planet, then you want the 13-inch M4 iPad Pro. The 256GB model is currently available for $200 less—so you can pick it up for $1,099 rather than $1,299.

13-inch M4 Apple iPad Pro

$1,099.00 at Amazon

$1,299.00 Save $200.00

Get Deal

Get Deal

$1,099.00 at Amazon

$1,299.00 Save $200.00

It's difficult to find anything new to say about the iPad Pros: As you no doubt already know, they're super-powerful, incredibly elegant devices that can replace your laptop and then some. They have great cameras and speakers, they're very versatile, and they work with a range of accessories (including keyboard covers and the Apple Pencil).

11-inch Amazon Fire Max 11

This deal on the Amazon Fire Max 11 is my favorite of the Amazon-brand offers available on the site. The price on the 64GB model has been discounted from $229.99 to $139.99, which means you save $90—and the device was already pretty cheap to begin with.

11-inch Amazon Fire Max 11

$139.99 at Amazon

$229.99 Save $90.00

Get Deal

Get Deal

$139.99 at Amazon

$229.99 Save $90.00

Don't let the low price fool you into thinking this is a sub-standard tablet. It's perfectly fine for browsing websites and your email, for watching movies and shows, and for some lightweight mobile gaming. With an 11-inch screen size it's also nice and compact, and easy to carry around anywhere.

Looking for something else? Retailers like Walmart and Best Buy have Prime Day competition sales that are especially useful if you don't have Amazon Prime.

• Walmart's Prime Day competition sale runs from Oct. 6 at 7 p.m. ET through Oct. 12 and includes deals up to 50% off. It's an especially good option if you have Walmart+.

• Best Buy's Prime Day competition sale runs from Sept. 27 through Oct. 12, and has some of the best tech sales online. It's an especially good option if you're a My Best Buy “Plus” or “Total” member.

• Target's Prime Day competition sale runs from Oct. 5 through Oct. 11, and it has deals going up to 50% off. You can become a Circle member for free.

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

Amazon Big Deal Days is October 7-8, and Lifehacker is sharing the best sales based on product reviews, comparisons, and price-tracking tools before it's over.

• Follow our live blog to stay up to date on the best sales we find.

• Subscribe to our shopping newsletter, Add to Cart, for the best sales sent to your inbox.

• New to Prime Day? We have a primer on everything you need to know. Sales are accurate at the time of publication, but prices and inventory are always subject to change.

We're right in the heart of October Prime Day again, and together with the rest of the Lifehacker team I'm hunting through Amazon to find the best details for you—and the $315 reduction on the Netgear Orbi 970 Wi-Fi 7 mesh series has definitely grabbed my attention. This is a system I've tested in the past for review purposes, alongside many others, and it's the most powerful Wi-Fi 7 system I've used yet.

The price drop here is 16 percent, so you're going to be paying $1,684.99 instead of $1,999.99. I know that's a lot of money for a mesh system, but this three-pack is wifi networking for power users—and if you weigh just how important home wifi is, and how much use you get out of it, then it's a worthwhile investment if you've got the budget. According to price trackers, it's also the lowest this system has ever been.

Netgear Orbi 970

$1,684.99

$1,999.99 Save $315.00

Get Deal

Get Deal

$1,684.99

$1,999.99 Save $315.00

This beast of a Wi-Fi 7 system will completely eliminate dead spots across 10,000 square feet of space, and you can connect up to 200 devices to it without issue—enough to handle even the busiest of households. You've got blazing fast wired Gigabit ports here too, and quad-band support to ensure a rock solid connection every time.

Though the theoretical maximum wifi speed is an astonishing 27 Gbps, this won't actually upgrade the broadband speed coming into your home—but it will make sure that wifi speeds are maximized in every corner of your property. In the time I spent testing out the Orbi 970 I was seriously impressed with the upload and download rates, and the connection stability across dozens of phones, tablets, laptops, and other devices.

Looking for something else? Retailers like Walmart and Best Buy have Prime Day competition sales that are especially useful if you don't have Amazon Prime.

• Walmart's Prime Day competition sale runs from Oct. 6 at 7 p.m. ET through Oct. 12 and includes deals up to 50% off. It's an especially good option if you have Walmart+.

• Best Buy's Prime Day competition sale runs from Sept. 27 through Oct. 12, and has some of the best tech sales online. It's an especially good option if you're a My Best Buy “Plus” or “Total” member.

• Target's Prime Day competition sale runs from Oct. 5 through Oct. 11, and it has deals going up to 50% off. You can become a Circle member for free.

Amazon Big Deal Days is October 7-8, and Lifehacker is sharing the best sales based on product reviews, comparisons, and price-tracking tools before it’s over.

• Follow our live blog to stay up to date on the best sales we find.

• Subscribe to our shopping newsletter, Add to Cart, for the best sales sent to your inbox.

• New to Prime Day? We have a primer on everything you need to know. Sales are accurate at the time of publication, but prices and inventory are always subject to change.

It's October Prime Day again, and the deals are flowing—so the Lifehacker team is scouting for the best discounts on Amazon. I've come across a substantial discount on a gadget that I actually own myself, and that I'm actually very happy with: The GoPro Hero 13 Black, the flagship action camera that launched last year.

This deal is actually for the Ultra Wide Lens Edition, which is reduced to its lowest ever price. It's now $329.99 rather than $479.99, which is a drop of almost a third. This camera is now actually cheaper than the regular GoPro Hero 13 Black, but you get the Ultra Wide lens mod included, so act fast before Amazon notices.

GoPro Hero 13 Black Ultra Wide Edition

$329.99

$479.99 Save $150.00

Get Deal

Get Deal

$329.99

$479.99 Save $150.00

I don't use the camera as much as I should, but when I finally get myself sorted enough to undertake some fun film projects, I'm always hugely impressed by the 5.3K resolution video (up to 30 frames per second) or 4K resolution (up to 60 frames per second), plus of course the excellent video stabilization that GoPro is known for.

The Ultra Wide lens attachment gives you even more versatility and flexibility when it comes to capturing the perfect video clips and still images, and something else I love about this GoPro camera is that you can mount it just about anywhere on just about anything—for truly impressive results.

Looking for something else? Retailers like Walmart and Best Buy have Prime Day competition sales that are especially useful if you don’t have Amazon Prime.

• Walmart’s Prime Day competition sale runs from Oct. 6 at 7 p.m. ET through Oct. 12 and includes deals up to 50% off. It’s an especially good option if you have Walmart+.

• Best Buy’s Prime Day competition sale runs from Sept. 27 through Oct. 12, and has some of the best tech sales online. It’s an especially good option if you’re a My Best Buy “Plus” or “Total” member.

• Target’s Prime Day competition sale runs from Oct. 5 through Oct. 11, and it has deals going up to 50% off. You can become a Circle member for free.

Amazon Big Deal Days is October 7-8, and Lifehacker is sharing the best sales based on product reviews, comparisons, and price-tracking tools before it’s over.

• Follow our live blog to stay up to date on the best sales we find.

• Subscribe to our shopping newsletter, Add to Cart, for the best sales sent to your inbox.

• New to Prime Day? We have a primer on everything you need to know. Sales are accurate at the time of publication, but prices and inventory are always subject to change.

The October Amazon Prime Day is a great time to consider swapping your current phone for a shiny new model. I'm seeing discounts across a lot of the big names in smartphones—and having spent over a decade reviewing handsets, these are my current picks.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7

Samsung's latest and greatest flip foldable only came out in July, but that hasn't stopped Amazon from discounting the 256GB model by 23%—it's now $849.99 rather than $1,099.99, in a choice of three colors. Go up to 512GB and you'll pay more ($919.99) but the discount is greater (25%).

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7

$849.99 at Amazon

$1,099.99 Save $250.00

Get Deal

Get Deal

$849.99 at Amazon

$1,099.99 Save $250.00

As per price trackers, it's the lowest this phone has ever been, and you can't get a flip foldable from the likes of Google or Apple. The handset boasts a 6.9-inch main display and a 4.1-inch cover screen and a dual-lens rear camera, and is powered by the Samsung Exynos 2500 processor.

Google Pixel 10

Speaking of recently launched Android handsets now being sold for their lowest price yet, here's the Google Pixel 10. The 128GB version is down to $649 from $799. The 256GB model is now $749 rather than $899, a drop of 17%, so make your choice based on your budget and storage needs.

Google has brought a lot to the table with the new Pixel 10. There's an upgraded triple-lens rear camera system which includes 5x telephoto capabilities, a brighter screen (though the 6.3-inch size stays the same from the Pixel 9), and a larger capacity battery. There's also a stack of Gemini AI on board as well.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra

If you prefer the Samsung flavor of Android, then the 512GB version of the Galaxy S25 Ultra is down a substantial 27% from its original price. This flagship will now cost you $1,029.98 rather than $1,419.99, as long as you pick the Whitesilver or Silverblue colors, and it's the lowest price we've seen to date.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra

$1,029.98 at Amazon

$1,419.99 Save $390.01

Get Deal

Get Deal

$1,029.98 at Amazon

$1,419.99 Save $390.01

As our Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra review will tell you, this is a seriously powerful smartphone, leading the way for Samsung's flagships this year. You get a quad-lens rear camera, a super-fast Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset from Qualcomm, and of course the integrated S Pen stylus for even more functionality.

Google Pixel 9a

Maybe you don't need the power bump of the Pixel 10, or don't have a budget big enough for it—in which case the Google Pixel 9a might fit you perfectly instead. This perfectly capable mid-ranger is now down to $349 from $499 for the 128GB version.

Google Pixel 9a

$349.00 at Amazon

$499.00 Save $150.00

Get Deal

Get Deal

$349.00 at Amazon

$499.00 Save $150.00

The Pixel 9a is powered by the same Google Tensor G4 as the flagship Pixel 9 is, so it's no slouch, and you also get 8GB of RAM, a dual-lens rear camera, and all the latest Gemini AI bells and whistles. If you prefer the 256GB model of the Pixel 9a, it's now $449 instead of $599, which is a drop of 25%.

OnePlus 13

We're expecting the OnePlus 15 in the not-too-distant future, but that doesn't mean you should discount this hefty discount on the OnePlus 13. Despite the numbering, it only launched last year, and remains one of the most polished and powerful Android handsets around, powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite on the inside.

OnePlus 13

$849.99 at Amazon

$999.99 Save $150.00

Get Deal

Get Deal

$849.99 at Amazon

$999.99 Save $150.00

You can currently get the 512GB OnePlus 13 for $150 less than normal, which is a significant savings: It's $849.99 as part of the Prime Day sale, rather than $999.99. If you don't need as much storage, the 256GB version is down to $749.99 from $899.99, a reduction of 17%.

Looking for something else? Retailers like Walmart and Best Buy have Prime Day competition sales that are especially useful if you don’t have Amazon Prime.

• Walmart’s Prime Day competition sale runs from Oct. 6 at 7 p.m. ET through Oct. 12 and includes deals up to 50% off. It’s an especially good option if you have Walmart+.

• Best Buy’s Prime Day competition sale runs from Sept. 27 through Oct. 12, and has some of the best tech sales online. It’s an especially good option if you’re a My Best Buy “Plus” or “Total” member.

• Target’s Prime Day competition sale runs from Oct. 5 through Oct. 11, and it has deals going up to 50% off. You can become a Circle member for free.

We may earn a commission from links on this page.

Temperature is crucial to your comfort at home, and smart tech can help you find that perfect balance—starting with smart thermostats, but extending to other devices and apps to help through the summer and winter months.

Not only does a smart tech overhaul like this mean more precise temperature control, it also helps cut down on energy bills, because you're only heating and cooling when you need to. These systems can be operated remotely via apps, set to work on a schedule, and can sometimes even automatically adapt to the local weather conditions.

Smart thermostats

A smart thermostat is a good starting point for most people. They're simple to set up in most cases, replacing the thermostat on your wall and connecting to the same internal wiring: Google, for example, has a complete guide to installing a Nest thermostat. Once you've disconnected the power, it's typically a 20- to 30-minute job, although on older properties some more work and extra connections might be required.

You can then control the temperature in your home through the physical smart thermostat itself, and through the companion app on your phone. Many smart devices will hook up to a smart home platform (or two) as well, which gives you extras like voice control (through an AI assistant such as Alexa), and tighter integration with everything else in your smart home.

If you already have a home full of devices that work with Apple Home, Samsung SmartThings, or Google Home, then it makes sense to buy a smart thermostat to match. It means you'll have more options for controlling your gadgets (through an Apple TV 4K box, for example, if you're deep in the Apple ecosystem).

Once you've mastered the basics, you can move on to more advanced features. Smart thermostat features can vary depending on the model and manufacturer, but most offer a broadly similar set of functions: The ability to set up heating and cooling routines to work on a schedule, remote access when you're away from home, and smart adjustments based on weather, time, or sensor readings from around your home.

You could, for example, have the smart thermostat automatically adjust to your current location (reported by your phone), so putting your HVAC system into a power-saving mode when you're out at the office, then starting to heat up rooms again when you're on the way back. Or maybe you can have the temperature automatically adjusted while you sleep, maintaining a consistent coolness based on sensor readings overnight.

As well as the Google Nest Thermostat mentioned above, you've also got devices like the Ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium. Its capabilities include being able to adjust temperature in relation to humidity—via the bundled smart sensor—and timing its heating and cooling for periods when electricity is going to cost the least amount, as much as possible.

Ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium

$259.99 at Amazon

Learn More

Learn More

$259.99 at Amazon

The Honeywell T5 Smart Thermostat is one of the most customizable devices of its type around, which extends to the information shown on its clear touchscreen panel, and you can schedule heating and cooling timings for up to a week in advance. The accompanying Resideo app means easy access to all the controls from a phone or tablet.

Smart thermostat accessories

Smart vents give you a little bit more control over how and when specific rooms are heated and cooled, whether this control is automated or handled manually. A Flair Smart Vent, for example, can be operated through a dedicated app or through a wider smart home system.

Then you've got smart ceiling fans—rather than having you switch these fans on or off manually, you can set them to operate on a schedule, or have them enabled or disabled depending on the temperature. They start up when needed, and you might not have to lift a finger.

With ceiling fans and some other devices (such as smart lights), you can opt to make the connected switch smart rather than the device itself. So, invest in a Lutron Caseta Smart Switch, and you can control a connected ceiling fan from your phone or tablet, or through the Amazon Alexa app and devices. It can be automated based on timings, temperature, and your location, like the other smart devices in your home.

Air purity is something else that you might consider looking at, with devices like the Levoit Air Purifier available. It's another device that plugs into the Alexa ecosystem, enabling control via apps and smart speakers, and it can scrub dust and pollen from the air across an area of up to 1,073 square feet.

Levoit Air Purifier

$182.99 at Amazon

$219.99 Save $37.00

Learn More

Learn More

$182.99 at Amazon

$219.99 Save $37.00

There are also spot heating and cooling fans that work separately to a smart thermostat, giving you on-demand temperature control across a smaller space—you can move these from room to room as needed, and they often come with support for app control and at least some level of integration with your other smart home devices.

Another example here is the Dyson Purifier Hot+Cool HP1, which throws in air purification features as well. While the cooling isn't active (it's just blowing air around), the heating is, and it can come in useful all the year round—and again, it can be operated via an app in addition to a physical remote control and the buttons on the device itself.

One final option: Smart blinds. These are handy to have at night, but they also help you manage the temperatures in specific rooms. If there's a room that's a real sun trap, you can set a smart blind to block out the sunshine during the hottest part of the day, so it's relatively cool whenever you decide to go into it.

Something like the Zstarr Motorized Smart Blind works well here. Via the remote control, you can set up timings for raising and lowering the blinds, and it can be plugged into Amazon Alexa and Google Home smart ecosystems as well if you need it to work with your other smart devices.

There are plenty of ways to approach this, and you can add devices as you need once you've got the essentials in place. Eventually, it's possible to get the temperature of every room carefully calibrated using the right gadgets and apps—with the devices all working on a schedule of your choosing, and in combination with each other.