If you use WhatsApp, you may be targeted by scammers looking to take over your account by pairing their browser to your number. This scheme, dubbed GhostPairing by researchers, uses WhatsApp's device linking process to allow fraudsters to access all of your messages, impersonate you in chats, and perpetuate the scam to your contacts. Here's how threat actors are hijacking WhatsApp accounts—and how to defend yours.

GhostPairing manipulates WhatsApp device linking

WhatsApp allows users to link their desktop or browser to their account without needing to enter login credentials in one of two ways: scanning a QR code and approving the session or confirming a numeric pairing code in the mobile app. While the GhostPairing scam could theoretically manipulate users in either approach, researchers found that the latter is much more common.

The fraud begins with a short message sent from a contact with a link that purportedly goes to a Facebook photo or some type of Facebook content. If you click through, you'll be directed to a spoofed Facebook login page to enter your phone number—a familiar confirmation flow for Meta platforms. The next screen will likely show a numeric code with instructions to enter said code into WhatsApp to confirm the login (again, this may feel like a familiar two-step verification). If you're not paying attention, you may not realize that this didn't do anything on your end but instead registered the attacker's browser as a linked device to your account.

The danger in this scam is that everything will seem normal on your device and in your account, as attackers haven't hijacked your credentials to lock you out. However, they can do anything and everything in WhatsApp that you can, such as reading chats, receiving messages, viewing and downloading media, collecting information from your contacts, and forwarding the same phishing link. As they learn more about you and the people you know, they can potentially use that for ongoing scams.

How to protect your WhatsApp account

As always, be wary of links received via messaging platforms, even if they seem harmless or you think you know and can trust the sender. Threat actors frequently use social media and direct messaging to spread phishing lures. If you do click a link in WhatsApp (or any other communication), read all prompts carefully before providing or verifying any information to identify scams.

To protect your WhatsApp account specifically, you can set up two-step verification, which will also prevent attackers from adding or changing a connected email address. Go to Settings > Account > Two-step verification > Turn on or Set up PIN and add an email address when prompted. You can also check to see if there are any suspicious devices paired with your account under Settings > Linked devices and remove any you don't recognize or regularly use.

Finally, if you have been targeted by this scam, let your WhatsApp contacts know, as threat actors may spread the malicious link by making it look like it came from you.

Spotify playlists are a surprisingly big part of my life. I make a handful of new, curated, choreographed ones for the spin classes I teach every week and otherwise meticulously maintain quarterly playlists designed to represent the overall vibe of specific, three-month periods in my life. I only edit those during the 12 weeks of the quarter, then leave them alone so I can revisit them and relive the era. This means I am constantly fiddling with the present playlist to make it just right, searching for songs that feel precisely aligned with however I'm feeling. It's actually a time-consuming hobby—but I stumbled across a feature the other day that has made creating spin playlists and soundtracking Q1 of 2026 easier than ever.

The new Spotify feature

The best way I can describe the feature I stumbled upon is that it's like Tinder for songs. If you're listening to a song within the app, scroll down. Go past the buttons for Play and Next, past the About the artist section, past the lyrics, and stop when you see Explore [artist name]. Then, you'll have three options like Similar to [artist name] and Similar to [song name], but these can differ slightly.

Tapping one of those opens up the new feature. Say you choose Similar to [song name]. You'll be given 30 seconds of a song that Spotify's algorithm considers "similar" to the one you were just listening to, plus the artist's name, how many Spotify followers they have, and a three-dot menu that will let you add the song to your likes, add it to a playlist, go to the artist's page, and more. If you like the 30-second clip, you can add the song to your playlists. If not, you can keep swiping downward to hear a new one.

See how it's like Tinder? You make fairly snap decisions based on the quick preview and few details you get, then swipe away if you don't like it. I found a community forum post on Spotify's website about it, but otherwise, not much chatter. All I can tell is that it's been out since about May.

Why I like the feature

I prefer this to the other music-discovery options on Spotify because it gives you a quick preview of the song and makes the finding process simple. I am, of course, a big fan of the pre-generated Discover Weekly playlist or New Releases playlist Spotify makes for me every week, but it's time-consuming to listen to all the songs in them and it's not intuitive to find other new songs based on the finite playlists themselves. The 30-second quick hits and easy, swipeable dismissal of the new feature help me figure out if a song is worth my time, either for spin class or personal use, add it to the appropriate playlist if so, and keep moving.

What I especially like is the three hashtags under the artist's name. They are genre descriptions that match up with whatever song you're previewing and I've found them helpful because I have a hard time describing what kind of music I even like. Apparently, per the new feature, I like something called "speed garage." Tapping the #speedgarage hashtag that appears in the song previews brings me to another scrollable preview pane full of, exclusively, more speed garage—whatever that actually is. I still can't define it, but I learned I like it, and that alone is more beneficial than a year's worth of Discover Weekly playlists.

I used this feature during my Uber ride to the airport the other day and, by the time I was through TSA, I had 29 new songs in my Q1 playlist. I listened to them on the plane, weeded out ones that didn't match the quarterly vibe well enough, then sent it to my friends, who all gave the collection rave reviews like, and I quote, "this slaps."

I get really carsick if I try to read in a moving vehicle. And there's a reason for that: my eyes and my sense of movement are out of sync.

At least, that's according to the CDC, which states that motion sickness, "happens when the movement you see is different from what your inner ear senses." Your inner ear is a sack of fluid that moves when you do, giving you an innate sense of movement. If you're in a car and watching the horizon, your senses are aligned. But if you're looking at your phone, your senses are confusing each other. It's similar to the reason VR games make some people feel sick.

The free Android app KineStop aims to help. The application overlays a transparent horizon, and a number of transparent dots, across your entire screen. The accelerometer on your phone is used to move these reference points as your phone moves, helping to reduce the conflict between your eyes and your inner ear. You can turn the feature on manually in the application or, if you prefer, you can set it up to turn on automatically when you're in a moving car.

I tried it out, wondering if it would help with my carsickness, and it did—surprisingly well. Normally I can't read for more than a few minutes without feeling sick, but the KineStop app helped me do so for longer, without discomfort. I'm still not going to be able to read novels during a long road trip, mind you, but I can look up the next restaurant on a road trip without vomiting, and I call that a win.

Credit: Justin Pot

KineStop is totally free, though there's a $3.50 pro version that adds themed overlays, including one that makes it look like your phone is a half-empty beer. It's great to support a developer, but I also think the free version will work fine for most everyone.

If you've spent years curating playlists in Apple Music or another streaming service, you can now easily transfer your playlist to your Spotify library without needing to start from scratch or pay for a third-party service. Playlist transfers are now built into Spotify thanks to a new integration with TuneMyMusic, which facilitates music syncing, sharing, transfers, and backups across platforms.

To initiate a playlist transfer from Apple Music or another streaming service (YouTube Music, Amazon Music, SoundCloud, etc.), open the Spotify mobile app and tap Your Library. Scroll to the bottom of the page, tap Import your music > Get Started, and follow the on-screen prompts to connect with TuneMyMusic. You can choose which platform to transfer music from, and your playlists will populate in Spotify. Your playlists will remain on the original platform, as they are simply being copied into Spotify. (This feature is currently rolling out to users, so you may need to update your Spotify app.)

Data portability across music streamers has been very limited, but it's getting better: TuneMyMusic was already compatible with Spotify, but users had to sign up for a free trial with the service and were capped at just 500 songs before needing to upgrade to a paid plan. (Other third-party playlist transfer tools include FreeYourMusic and Soundiiz.)

Apple Music has a music transfer feature built into its iOS and iPadOS (under Settings > Apps > Music) as well as the Apple Music app for Android and via the web. YouTube Music supports playlist imports and exports but requires a third-party service for platforms that don't permit direct transfers.

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Making your own flashcards can be tedious, but they’re such a great study tool that it would be a shame to let that stop you from using them. Although there are major retention benefits to writing information down by hand, busy learners don’t always have time—so here are some solid online options for making and using flashcards.

The benefits of flashcards for studying

First, it's important to understand why you want to use flashcards to study, let alone why some apps and services are better suited to this task than others. Repeatedly quizzing yourself can entrench the content of the flashcards into your brain, since you have to use the process of active recall to retrieve the information from your short- or long-term memory when you see a prompt. You can mix up your active recall strategies by blurting, which means saying or writing down everything you can remember from your materials before checking your notes, or using the Feynman technique, which involves "teaching" the content to someone else—even if it's just ChatGPT. But for now, let's focus on flashcards.

The best way to make your material stick in your brain is to use the Leitner method, a kind of spaced repetition, and flashcards are what make that possible. With this technique, you sort your flashcards into about five piles (though you can have more or less depending on how much time stands between you and your test) as you review them, moving them up a pile or down a pile depending on if you get an answer right or wrong. Over time, you'll be able to review the cards in the higher-up piles less frequently, since you grasp their contents, and you'll review cards in the lower-down piles more often, since you're struggling with them.

Not only will you waste less time drilling material you know, you'll force your brain to etch it into your long-term memory so you can retrieve it on the rare instances you do go over those cards. A lot of the apps below actually use the Leitner method or a version of spaced repetition to automatically show you cards you're struggling with more often, which is what makes them so useful. That said, you still need to study those less-frequent cards; that's a process called overlearning and it will help you retain the information for a lot longer.

The apps below were chosen for a few reasons. First, I picked ones that make flashcard generation easy. Second, I selected ones that, to some extent or another, rely on the Leitner method and give you the option to indicate whether you got a card right or wrong.

The best flashcard apps

There are some great, easy-to-use sites that allow you to create flashcard decks online, then use those virtual decks to study.

For finding pre-made flashcards: Brainscape

Credit: Lindsey Ellefson

In my full review of Brainscape, I gave it five stars. I truly like this one. I'm actually using it actively right now to study for a certification exam I have coming up.

Brainscape gives you the option to make your own flashcards, but also to search for decks made by other learners—and even the option to access decks that have been approved by credentialing bodies for things like standardized tests, entry exams, and certification tests. It's ideal for everyone from SAT preppers to lifelong learners like me and the variety of material on there is endless. I've even used it to study random things just because I have an interest in learning something new. Best of all, I've never had to create a deck. Whatever I want is already in there.

The free-account option allows you to use text, while the paid version lets you add images and sounds, do more advanced editing, study an unlimited amount, import materials, copy other users’ flashcards into your files, and see learning stats. One month of Brainscape is $19.99, six months cost $59.94, a year is $95.88, and a lifetime membership is $199.99. For what it's worth, I've been using the free version for months and am doing just fine.

Using your phone? Here’s the iOS version and the Android version.

For simplicity: Cram

Credit: Lindsey Ellefson

Sometimes, all you need or want is the simplest flashcard deck, with cards that have a front and back and can be used for quizzing. Cram is so easy to use and it works great in its free version (although $29.99 per month gets you access to a few extra features, like customization of your card formatting).

Read my full review here, but the basics are these: You get plain, white cards that the site displays either as traditional flashcards, a matching game with drop-down menus, or classic computer games (a jewel-matching game and a space shooting game) that pull your flashcard information into them. Besides the flashy games, there are no unnecessary frills here. Enter the information onto the cards and study. It’s that easy.

Download the apps: iOS is here and Android is here.

To add pictures: Quizlet

Credit: Lindsey Ellefson

There are a number of flashcard generators that let you use pictures, but the pricing on many of them is weirdly opaque. Quizlet, a popular studying platform you're probably already familiar with if you've ever taken an online class and tried to Google your homework questions, allows you to create flashcards (with pictures!), browse other people’s flashcards, and take practice quizzes—and the pricing for getting rid of ads and studying an unlimited amount is straightforward: You pay $35.99 per year or $7.99 per month. You can import existing data, from Word or Excel, too, to create the flashcards even faster. In my review of this one, I did give it five stars because you can also use your account to access practice quizzes and games, plus it's been around for so long it's basically the gold standard for students. Like others on this list, it functions fine in the free version, which is why it made my list of best free studying apps, too.

Download for your iPhone here and your Android here.

For quick flashcard generation: Flashcard lab

Credit: Lindsey Ellefson

If you want to make fast flashcards and you use Google's free suite of productivity apps (namely Google Sheets), you should use Flashcard Lab. As I explain in my full review, it's not flashy. All it is, at its core, is a simple way to quickly turn content from Google Sheets into flashcards. Column A is the front of the card, Column B produces the back, and that's about it—but it's great if all you need is some fast cards. If you're truly in a rush, you can upload class materials to ChatGPT and ask the AI to create a downloadable .xls file with questions and answers, then open it in Sheets and go from there. Truly, using this one couldn't be easier or less labor intensive.

Available on iOS and Android, as well as through a Chrome extension, you can use it for free to study 600 GRE vocab words, review or print up to 20 flashcards per deck, add up to five images per deck, and manually add cards to a "forgotten" set for re-review. A one-time payment of $10.99 bumps you up to the "Elite" tier, which gives you access to some extra features, like the ability to toggle on spaced repetition or randomized review.

For learning a foreign language: DuoCards

Credit: Lindsey Ellefson

There are two apps I recommend for learning a foreign language and they are Repeet and DuoCards. In a head-to-head comparison, I did pick DuoCards because its extra features edged out Repeet ever so slightly, but the long and short of it is that both of them have automatic translation features that allow you to quickly generate cards in-app or via Chrome extension.

Repeet works on iOS, Android, or Chrome extension. Same for DuoCards: iOS, Android, or Chrome extension. DuoCards has a mini game and an AI chatbot designed to help you immerse yourself in the language more than just using the cards will, whereas Repeet is just flashcard-based, but the features will cost you. Where Repeet is absolutely usable and excellent in its free version, DuoCards' free version only allows 20 cards in your "to learn" category and just 10 opportunities to ask your chatbot a question. If you pay $33 for three months or $64.90 for the year, you get rid of the ads, access unlimited flashcards, and can chat nonstop with the AI bot. If mini games and immersion are important to you, pick DuoCards. If you just want flashcards or don't want to spend money, Repeet works well.

Bonus: Google's NotebookLM

Credit: Google

If you read a lot of my studying content, you know I'm a fiend for NotebookLM. If you don't read a lot of my studying content, I'll tell you why: This free resource is an AI chatbot that pulls only from materials you provide. That means you upload your slide decks, notes, links, videos, and PDFs from class and the answers it gives you will only come from those. I've seen ChatGPT make wild mistakes with homework, largely because it can and will pull from all over the Internet, so there's some safety baked in here.

NotebookLM can do a few things that help you study. It can summarize your materials or outline a paper, like any chatbot, but it can also produce a fake podcast of people discussing your materials, generate flashcards, and prepare you a practice quiz. In everything it provides, NotebookLM hyperlinks back to the exact section in your materials where it got that content, so if you get a flashcard or quiz question wrong, you can quickly find where the question came from and reread it. It's free to use, but the drawback is that it doesn't Leitner-ify the flashcards.

Access it in a browser through the website or via app on iOS and Android.

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Maybe you tend to study the old-school way: sit down, break out a highlighter and pen combo, memorize your notes, and pray you retain it all until test time. There are certainly benefits to handwriting and highlighting your notes, but there are also some great apps out there that can help you study more effectively. Yes, your tech devices can certainly be a distraction, but why not let them help you instead?

If you need to schedule your studying: My Study Life

Credit: My Study Life

My Study Life promises you’ll “never forget a class or assignment again” and offers schedulers, task to-do lists, and reminders to that end, plus a number of other features, like a focus timer that lets you tap into the productivity-enhancing power of the Pomodoro method. The app is available on iOS, Android, and your desktop browser so you can use it no matter where you are. The scheduler even works if you have your classes on alternating weeks.

The free version of My Study Life works perfectly fine if all you need is the scheduling, but for $4.99 per month or $29.99 per year (after a free one-week trial), you can access additional features like grade tracking, widgets, and dark mode. Read my full review here.

If you study best with flashcards: Quizlet

Credit: Quizlet

If you’re only using Quizlet for low-key cheating on your homework (and yes, your teacher probably already knows), you’re not maximizing its potential. Quizlet is a study tool that has been around a long time and works on iOS, Android, and your desktop browser. It helps you make flashcards and practice tests, plus offers games and various ways to study and review your materials. You can make your materials public to help other people in similar classes and, in turn, can search their public materials for ones that will help you, too—which is how most people come to be familiar with it, as students have uploaded thousands of quizzes over the years. Your flashcard sets and quizzes are customizable, so you can add notes, images, or audio if you need to. Flashcards are, indisputably, one of the best ways to learn, so let this app make it easier for you.

It’s free to use, but if you upgrade ($7.99/month), you also get access to different question types and practice tests. Read my full review here.

If you need to take notes on lectures: Otter

Credit: Otter

Otter, which has a pretty extensive free version, is a dictation program that takes notes for you. Commonly used by journalists or people who need to transcribe interviews, it’s also great for students whose professors give long lectures full of important info. I've used it in both scenarios for years.

Once you assign a name to a certain speaker, the software will always recognize their voice going forward. You can highlight passages, edit the text in the event the software gets something wrong, and share transcripts with anyone, even if they don’t use Otter. With the free version, you can link it up with Zoom or Google Meet, too, so it’s helpful for online classes, and you can get 300 monthly transcription minutes (with 30 minutes per session) before having to upgrade to Pro for $8.33 per month. A recent update has added a "summary" feature that gives you a brief overview of main topics, which can help you more easily focus on what to study when you're reviewing the lecture later.

If you take lots of notes: Notion

Credit: Notion

In an older version of this post, I declared Evernote the best note-taking and -organizing app, but then I tested and reviewed Notion, which I ultimately concluded is better in a head-to-head battle. Available on iOS, Android, and your web browser, Notion is an all-in-one app that can give you an assist wherever you are. It keeps notes, ideas, schedules, and more all in one place—and it's free.

Its most useful feature is its pre-made templates, which can help you in school and beyond. You can choose between templates for life, work, or school, then browse ones called things like, "project roadmap," "finance tracker," and "assignment tracker with automations." On top of that, it organizes notes into notebooks and folders, making it ideal for jotting down key information in class.

To create mind maps: Xmind

Credit: Xmind

A mind map is a hierarchical diagram that connects related concepts and makes it clear how they all tie into one another. You can use them for productivity, but they're also useful as study tools, especially if you like to visualize how materials and ideas fit together or are outlining a study plan using the chunking method.

You can make them by hand on paper, but that's tedious. I recommend an app, instead. Specifically, I recommend Xmind, which speeds up the process of creating visual notes by giving you the tools to input arrows to branch off your main idea into related tasks and concepts. It comes pre-loaded with plenty of templates, so if graphic design isn't your passion, that's not a problem. A lot of its basic features are free, but you'll pay between $10 or $15 a month if you want more colors or the ability to add equations, links, tasks, and attachments to maps. Finally, I appreciate that it can be used via browser or app, making it easy to type into and rearrange your map. Read my full review here.

My favorite: NotebookLM

Credit: Google

Finally, I can't review digital studying tools without mentioning Google's NotebookLM, a free AI resource that only pulls from materials you provide. I use it all the time. You create notebooks by uploading PDFs, URLs, or blocks of text, then use it like you would any chatbot, asking questions which the AI answers by reviewing the content you provided. Its answers contain links to the exact sections it found them in, so you can ask things like, "What does the author say about the history of the region?" Then, you'll get a summary, plus the link to where that information came from, so you can read it yourself. It makes sorting through a hefty amount of readings a cakewalk.

It can also create a fake "podcast" for you to listen to. In those, two voices discuss the content of your notebook conversationally, just like real podcast hosts would. If you are an auditory learner, this is a game changer. Recent updates have enabled features that create quizzes and flashcards, too. It's available on iOS and Android, as well as your web browser. Read my full review here.

I love finding new ways to use apps to make my life easier, but sometimes, I find that I'm using so much tech in my real life that I get a little bogged down. That's been true with my workouts and health for a while: I weigh myself in the morning on a smart scale, which distributes the data to a nutrition app, Apple Health, and Peloton. I go to the gym and use my Apple Watch's Workouts feature to track my cardio, then open up Strong to track my lifting. At home, I use Peloton to track my cycling workouts, stretching, yoga, and much more. It all gets to be a little much!

That's why I was pumped when I found an overlooked feature on my Peloton app recently: I can track my non-Peloton workouts with it, meaning I don't have to fiddle as much with some of my other apps. I can keep more of what I'm doing in one place, easy to reference, and streamlined.

How to track independent workouts with Peloton

When you open your Peloton app, you'll see a bottom menu with five options: Home, Classes, Track, Community, and You. Most of these are pretty obvious and I'm guessing that the majority of the time, you're hitting Classes to follow along with one of the thousands of guided workouts the app offers for up to $44 per month. But a few weeks ago, I decided to hit Track just to see what it was all about.

Credit: Lindsey Ellefson/Peloton

Tapping Track brings up a screen that says Track an activity. You have options and those will depend on what types of classes or workouts you use the app for most often. For me at this very moment, the app suggests Outdoor Walking, Cycling, and Strength, but you can hit More options to see a whole slate of choices that include running, yoga, cardio, meditation, and more. When you select one of these, they'll be filed as "Just" classes in your Peloton history, like Just Ride or Just Walk.

If that reminds you of the Apple Watch's built-in Workouts app, that's because it's basically the same thing. If you select one of those choices on Peloton, a screen pops up with a timer, start and pause buttons, a prompt to share your location "for accurate metrics," a calorie counter, and a heart rate tracker. Basically, the same stuff the Workouts app monitors, too.

This is most useful if you've paired a heart rate tracker or wearable to your Peloton app, which is something I think everyone should do, since that will help the app better estimate your calorie burn and heart rate.

Why I love this

First and foremost, I like to keep data in one place. I ride my Peloton bike frequently, for instance, but I also teach in-person spin classes, and I want to know how those two instances of cycling match up in terms of output, not only for my fitness goals, but for my continued success and employment as a teacher. Tracking my in-person classes with the Peloton app makes these two categories of cardio much easier to compare.

Plus, I get better data this way. I tracked a lift the other day using the Peloton app, trusting it to monitor my heart rate and effort. I got a detailed graphic showing my heart rate over the two-hour span of my workout, a "strive score" (a Peloton-specific metric that measures your output), and a breakdown of how long I spent in each heart rate zone. You get different kinds of data depending on what you do, too. If you do a Just Walk, for instance, you get a little map of your route and can even see what your pace and elevation were at every point along it. Moreover, the strength workout was automatically added to my Workouts and Apple Health data, helping me satisfy the (admittedly arbitrary) goals I set within those apps for daily active minutes and daily burned calories.

Credit: Lindsey Ellefson/Peloton

That leads to another reason I like this setup: I use apps not just because it's important to track what I'm doing and monitor my progress, but because they force me into some accountability. As I mentioned, I try to meet my pre-set Apple Health goals every day by "closing my rings," but I also am dedicated to continuing my Peloton "streak" of active days. Do these things really matter? No, but doing them motivates me—and the threat of failing to do them on a given day forces me to action when I might otherwise choose to remain sedentary.

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For the first time since the Focus Friend app overtook ChatGPT on the App Store, there’s a major addition that lets you unlock a new set of rewards. Previously, setting your phone down gave your bean time to knit socks, and you could trade those socks for decorations for the bean’s room. Now, there’s a whole new room to unlock. 

Focus Friend is a focus timer app in the same tradition as Forest and Flora. When you start a timer in Focus Friend, the little bean guy begins knitting, and the idea is that you put your phone down and don't use any other apps until he's done. When time is up, he'll happily show you that he knitted some socks! The socks let you buy decorations for his room, so the more you use the app, the cozier you can make his little home.

The timing of the new room is perfect. Like many regular users of the app, I’ve maxed out the little room my bean was initially given. My little guy (his name is Beanie) has a desk and chair, a window, a potted plant, even a garland on the wall. But now, with this update, he can walk (or…teleport via beanstalk, apparently?) into a living room!

Credit: Beth Skwarecki/Focus Friend

How to unlock the living room in Focus Friend

You won’t see the new room right away, but here’s how you can access it: 

1. Update the Focus Friend app in the App Store or Google Play store.

2. In Focus Friend, tap the paintbrush icon. 

3. See it? In the upper right corner? Pinch to zoom out and you’ll reveal a whole ’nother room.

4. Unlock the room with 1,000 socks.

Yep, it costs socks. Socks are the in-game currency that your bean earns when you leave them alone. (The bean knits socks for free users. Premium subscribers get more socks, plus the bean also knits scarves, which you can exchange for premium versions of the decorations.) 

Once you’ve unlocked it, you can then start decorating the addition the same way you decorated the initial room. The new items are more expensive than what was available in the first room, some of which only cost 50 socks. The new items include: 

• A window with curtains, starting at 500 socks

• Three places to hang pictures on the walls, starting at 150-200 socks each

• A TV (I almost thought it was a big painting) on the right wall, starting at 300 socks

• A lamp in the corner between the two walls, starting at 600 socks

• A couch on the left wall, starting at 600 socks

• A TV side table on the right wall below the big painting, starting at 300 socks

• A “figure box” shelf on the right wall, starting at 200 socks

• A set of little bookshelves on the right wall, starting at 500 socks

• A coffee table in the middle of the room, starting at 300 socks

• A little “entry rug,” starting at 300 socks

• An armchair, starting at 500 socks

• An end table, starting at 300 socks

Earning all those socks will keep your bean busy for a while! Now, if only the app would give me a way to remove items from Beanie’s room. He’s feeling a bit cluttered.

I've been an Apple Music user since the day the service launched a decade ago. However, I still like to try Spotify from time to time to see if it's worth switching. Now that Spotify has lossless audio as well, I gave it another shot and discovered some fun new features that are worth trying out. Note that some of these are Spotify Premium exclusive features, so you won't be able to use them without a paid subscription. I'm not sure if they're enough to sway me yet, but you might be different—try these newer Spotify features to make the most of the service.

Hide songs you don't want to hear

Credit: Pranay Parab

Sometimes, Spotify likes to play songs I've heard way too many times already, or a song that I'm just not in the mood for. Luckily, when this happens, I can now quickly hide the song from the playlist. This is easy enough. In the Now Playing view, tap the three-dots button up top, and select the Hide in this playlist button. This will stop the song from playing when you listen to that playlist again, and you'll see a red minus icon next to its name. You can tap the three-dots button again and hit Show in this playlist to undo this, if you no longer want to hide the song.

Snooze a song for 30 days

Credit: Pranay Parab

While it is a bit of a shame that Spotify doesn't allow you to block certain songs entirely, you do get the chance to snooze them for a month at a time. I found this feature when Spotify played Iris by The Goo Goo Dolls way too many times over the same weekend for me. I like that song, but not so much that I can listen to it on repeat. Fortunately, I was able to hide it quickly. 

When you're playing a song, expand the mini player and tap the X button next to the song's name. On the pop-up that shows up, tap Don't suggest this song anywhere for 30 days. It'll still take Spotify some time to fully purge it from your algorithmic playlists and feed, but once that's done, you won't see the song for the rest of the month.

Premium users get better player controls

Credit: Pranay Parab

If you use Spotify Premium, you have access to better playback controls. The song queue now show buttons to quickly shuffle, repeat, or add a sleep timer to your listening. I love having big buttons for these features, as it makes it easy to access them.

Separately, if you're on Spotify's free plan, there's a good chance that the service automatically enables Smart Shuffle and Autoplay for you. Smart Shuffle looks at the songs in your queue and adds recommended songs to your list, which I'm not a big fan of because it makes the queue twice as long by adding random music. Autoplay is the feature that adds recommended songs to the end of the queue, so that music keeps playing even after the queue ends.

On the free plan, you can't get rid of Smart Shuffle, but you can disable Autoplay if you dislike it. Premium users can disable Smart Shuffle, too. Tap the profile icon in the top-left in Spotify and go to Settings and privacy > Playback, and scroll to the bottom. You can disable both Autoplay and Smart Shuffle here.

Tweak playlists to your liking

Credit: Pranay Parab

On Apple Music, I have lots of long playlists that I've painstakingly curated. Spotify has made managing its playlists a little easier now. You can use the Add, Edit, and Sort buttons to quickly build your own playlists. I enjoy the Add feature because it shows suggested songs, and as you add them, it updates the list to suggest similar music. This has made creating initial drafts of my playlists a lot faster.

In some regions, Spotify also now supports creating new playlists from your Liked Songs playlist. It lets you filter these new playlists by genre or mood, so you can match the mood of a specific track in your Liked Songs, and generate a whole new playlist for it. It goes without saying that you can also rename your playlists easily and add custom cover art, too. For cover art, you can try Spotify's free playlist art maker, but I like using the excellent Denim app to get the job done.

Try smart filters for your song library

Credit: Spotify

Spotify Premium users also get to use smart filters to listen to certain types of music. I haven't tried this feature yet because it's still rolling out, but it sounds quite interesting. If you're using Spotify Premium on mobile or tablet in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, the UK, or the US, you'll get this feature soon.

Spotify says you can try it by tapping the filter icon in the top-left corner of the Your Library tab. Here, you'll see a Smart Filters menu. Select a filter, and the Your Library tab will update to show only those types of music. You can filter music by a specific mood, genre, or activity. The good news is that Smart Filters includes options for music, podcasts, and audiobooks, so you can try it with all types of content.

Talk to your Spotify DJ

Credit: Spotify

Spotify has a built-in "AI DJ" that can find and play songs for you. This year, Spotify has begun rolling out the ability to talk to your DJ to request specific songs. I'm still waiting for this to be rolled to my region, but it's available in 60 countries at time of writing, so you should try it out. In Spotify's search tab, look for "DJ," press play, and the AI DJ will play a mix of music and commentary. You can then press and hold the DJ button on the right, and talk to the DJ to send in your music requests. 

Fix your Discover Weekly playlist

Credit: Pranay Parab

If you are unhappy with what Spotify's been serving up in your Discover Weekly playlist, you can easily refresh it. At the top of Discover Weekly, Premium users will see genre buttons, and tapping any button will create a new 30-song playlist of music from that genre. 

Oh, did you forget about the Tea app since I brought you my last dispatch a few days ago? Lucky you, but I'm about to burst your bubble: The drama surrounding the security breach of the woman-only app, which operates like Yelp and allows women to anonymously rate and review real men, is ongoing.

If you check the Apple App Store right now, you'll see that a men's version of the app, TeaOnHer, is occupying the second-highest spot on the Lifestyle charts, just under the original Tea itself. It seems we, as a society, have learned nothing from the backlash against Tea, but we've also learned nothing from the data breaches the women who signed up for it experienced. You guessed it: TeaOnHer can be breached, too.

An into to TeaOnHer and its possible breach

First, what is TeaOnHer? It's simply a men's version of Tea—made by a different company—the app that allows women to rate and review men, upload men's photos, and brand them "red flag men" or "green flag men," all without the men being able to access the platform, let alone respond. TOH is similar, but with some key feature differences (more on that below).

Two weeks ago, Tea shot to the top of the Apple App Store charts when it experienced a moment of viral fame after operating quietly for two years. That was followed swiftly by backlash, which included a coordinated data breach that resulted in a leak of thousands of verification photos of female users, primarily government IDs. A second breach, potentially involving even more sensitive information in the form of private DMs, came a few days later. Then, at the end of July, the Tea was truly served, by which I mean it now faces a class action lawsuit over the whole ordeal.

None of that stopped Tea's momentum; like I said, it's still topping the app charts. It also didn't deter competitors from entering the market, which is how we ended up with TeaOnHer, which went as far as to steal Tea's tagline, to say nothing of its entire premise. Where Tea says it's "helping women date safe," TeaOnHer says it's "helping men date safe." Men can anonymously rate and review women on there—but, according to TechCrunch, that's not the only Tea experience TeaOnHer is trying to let its users replicate. The men who downloaded TOH are also able to have their data breached.

I tried to reach out to the seller listed in the App Store, Newville Media Corporation, for a comment and will update if I hear back, but the gist of the TechCrunch report is that there is "at least one security flaw that allows anyone access to data belonging to TeaOnHer app users, including their usernames and associated email addresses, as well as driver’s licenses and selfies that users uploaded to TeaOnHer." The identification images are publicly accessible web addresses, no less, so anyone who wants to see them simply needs to find the link.

Tea on TeaOnHer

One notable difference between Tea and TOH is that TeaOnHer advertises its use as a "safety" tool, but it's not as comprehensive as Tea. Yes, Tea allows women to say whatever they want about men whether it's true or not, but it also has features that help users run background checks, cross-reference sex offender lists, reverse-image search, search records by phone number, and find criminal and court records. The idea is not just to identify catfish, fraudsters, and two-timers, but real-deal abusers, to the extent possible. TeaOnHer, meanwhile, advertises that its "community helps you identify concerning behaviors patterns, safety red flags, and positive dating experiences from verified sources." Basically, it borrows Tea's anonymous gossip feature, but not the sturdier safety resources.

It has just a two-star rating on the App Store after 184 ratings, which I assumed would be from a bunch of reviews denouncing the basic "Yelp for people" premise, but my assumption was wrong. Users are actually annoyed about the app's functionality, saying they can't create accounts or stay logged in. Multiple people report a time-out issue that has precluded them from access despite uploading their verification images. I didn't see any reviews decrying how unsavory people-rating apps are, nor any mentioning the reports of insecure data storage.

So, it seems no one has learned that providing a platform for people to make anonymous accusations against individuals who have no access to any type of due process is dangerous and no one has learned that uploading a verification image to such a platform is also dangerous. We continue to go around and around. Perhaps next week there will be a new development in this saga, but for now, enjoy your weekend.

Instagram is copying major features from three other social networks in one sweeping update. It’s adding a Snapchat-like Snap map, a Repost option clearly inspired by X (but implemented in style of TikTok), and for good measure, it’s also rolling out its TikTok-like "Friends" Reels feed globally. That’s a lot to take in, so let’s break this down.

Reels and reposts

Credit: Instagram

Reposts are finally coming to your Instagram profile. The new Repost feature will let anyone repost public reels or posts onto their own page, without having to bother with the previous Instagram Story workaround. These will show up in your friends' feeds, but unlike on other sites, reposts won't be mixed in with your regular posts on your own profile, and will instead be housed in a new Reposts tab. Like a quote post over on X, you can also add your own comments to reposts, which will show up on top of them in a small bubble. To control whether your posts can be reposted, navigate to Settings and activity > Sharing and reuse.

Welcome to Instagram Map

Credit: Instagram

Instagram’s new Map feature will let users share their most recent active location with their fiends on an interactive map, which the site can use to promote more location based content. It's reminiscent of Snapchat's Snap Map feature, but with one major difference. Snapchat lets you share your location even when you’re not using the app, but Instagram limits location updates to when the app is actively open. It’s also important to note that location sharing is disabled by default, so you'll need to turn it on manually (under Messages > Map > Settings) to post your location to Instagram Map.

Instagram hopes that users will use the Map feature to plan hangouts, but I’m personally looking forward to using it to make sure I’m nowhere near my Instagram followers. Instagram will also display Stories with location-sharing enabled on the Map page, so if your friend or favorite local influencer posts about a new cafe, it will show up there as well, and you won't even need to have location sharing on to see it. Similarly, users can also share Notes, or short messages, directly to the Map.

“Friends” tab in Reels goes global

Credit: Instagram

Meta has already trialed a dedicated Friends feed for the Reels tab in the U.S., but now it’s rolling out globally. If you ever wanted one place that shows you all the weird reels your friends are liking and commenting on, this is it. This will only show Reels that your friends have created, liked, commented on, or reposted, but if you do want some extra privacy, Meta says it's working on rolling out ways to hide your own likes and comments from showing up in this feed, as well as mute activity from specific friends. The Friends tab is found right on top of the Reels screen, although I have yet to locate the new privacy controls—they'll likely need some time to reach everyone.

I was poking around on Poshmark last night like I always do, looking to see if I could make offers to interested buyers or find other ways to promote my listings, when I saw a button on my profile I had never tapped before. That isn't the first time I've run across an unknown button, and the last time it happened I found a bunch of useful features that have helped me boost sales, so I hit this one right away. Simply called My sales report, the menu gave me the option to download all of my sales data into a spreadsheet. I've been analyzing the resulting export all morning, and I'm thrilled with how helpful it is. Here's what you need to know.

How to download your Poshmark sales data

Exporting my sales data was simple (and reminiscent of when I did the same thing for my Peloton data). I tapped my Profile button on the bottom right of the Poshmark app, then scrolled down to My seller tools and found My sales report within. From there, you'll have three options: Last full year, Year to date, and Custom range. After selecting one (and, if you choose to use a custom range, inputting it), all that's left to do is hit Email report. For me, the reports I've generated all came in under three minutes.

Credit: Lindsey Ellefson

You can also request these using a browser. Tap your Profile picture on the top right, then Order activity. Find My sales report in the left-side menu and follow the same steps as before.

The link to download each report came to my email inbox. After downloading the CSV file, I stuck it in my Google Drive so I could open it in Google Sheets.

What the data includes

The spreadsheet this generates includes a lot of information, including:

• Listing date

• Order date

• Order ID

• Listing title

• Department (Women, Men, etc.)

• Category (Accessories, shirts, bags, shoes, etc.)

• Subcategory (Phone cases, tees, polos, heels, crossbody bags, etc.)

• Brand

• Color

• Size

• Whether the order was made in a bundle with other listings from your storefront

• Whether the order was purchased after a discount offer was made, either by you or the buyer

• Whether the item was NWT, or "new with tags"

• The order price

• The lowest price you ever had the item listed for

• Any shipping you paid (if you offered a shipping discount to the buyer, which the seller covers with their own earnings)

• Your total earnings

• The state the buyer lives in

• Their zip code

• Their username

• The sales tax paid by the buyer

Why this data is valuable

I am a dedicated Poshmark user, but I'm not a full-time seller or anything resembling a professional. All I do is sell my own stuff so I can get new stuff, relying on my own version of the "one in, one out" decluttering method. I don't go thrifting to find clothes to sell, take high-quality photos, or really do much of anything serious or special, but I still sell enough that I'm making two to four trips to the post office in an average week. This isn't my actual job or a real money-making endeavor for me, but it is generating payment consistently, so it's good for me to pay attention to any trends in my selling that I might not be noticing in real time. I might as well optimize my approach to the extent possible, even though I'm pretty casual as far as sellers go. Still, I've been on Posh for over a decade and only really got serious with my sales in 2023, so I created a custom range for two and a half years when I downloaded my data.

Right away, I identified some valuable categories in the data. The listing date and order date are pretty key because they can give you insight into how long things are sitting in your storefront without being sold. By using the spreadsheet to figure out how many days were between listing and sale for each sold product, then sorting them by lowest to highest, you can get an idea of which brands or categories you're selling are more popular. Then, you can list more of those kinds of things.

I was also interested in the discrepancy between the final price that was paid and the lowest price the listing ever was. The majority of my sales have been made after I sent the buyer a discount offer or they sent me one and I accepted it, so seeing how big the difference really is between what I want to earn on a sale and what I actually end up earning is valuable. I do wish, however, there was a column dedicated to highest listed price to accompany the data Poshmark provides on lowest listed price. I'd be interested in knowing how big the differences between what I originally valued an item at, how low I discounted it after it didn't sell, and what I ultimately accepted for it are.

Credit: Lindsey Ellefson

I was also interested in the details of which states my shipped sales go to most often. I made a quick bar chart to show me which states have the most buyers for me and found that I've sent a ton to California. I don't really know where my sales go most of the time because I use the QR code Poshmark generates when I make a sale and just show it to the post office cashier; I never print labels myself, let alone actually look at them. Other popular destinations for my goods, unsurprisingly, included other states with high populations, like Pennsylvania, New York, and Texas—but I've also made eight sales to Wisconsin, which was fun to learn. There isn't much I can do with this data, considering I have no way to target buyers in certain regions, but I did find it interesting.

I repeated that process on the column containing my most-sold brands. I knew SHEIN and other fast fashion would be well-represented because I have seen such an uptick in interest in those since tariffs went into place, and other results weren't surprising either: Higher-end goods from Gucci and Louis Vuitton have sold more than, say, Gymshark or Salt Life, but there's probably some selection bias in there, since I'm more likely to list the products I know will bring in higher amounts of money. Still, it was validating to see all the random and unexpected brands that have sold. It reminded me that there's value in listing any and everything since somewhere out there, a potential buyer does want it.

I'll spend some time making detailed graphs over the next few days so I can really pinpoint what I should be listing and promoting, but even from a high level, the data here is useful. I did notice that though I set my end point on the date range to yesterday, the last listed sale in the data set I received is from two weeks ago, so there's a delay in reflection. I've made a significant number of sales since then, partly thanks to my decision to spend a little money promoting my listings, so I'm eager to see the breakdown of those sales factor into my overall stats. I'm thinking, then, I'll need to download this every month or so to make sure I have the best and most up-to-date information on trends as they relate to my sales. Honestly, I'm kind of excited to do it.

I'm a big fan of apps that give you the information you want at a glance while staying out of your way. Transit is a great example of this.

This free app is perfect if you ever find yourself waiting for a bus, train, or any other form of transportation. Just open the app and you'll see the next departure times for all lines near where you're standing. You can tap any line to see a more detailed schedule. You can usually also see where the next train or bus is, right now, thanks to real-time data.

All of this removes the anxiety from using public transit. Instead of wondering when the next bus will get there—or if the next bus is coming—I can glance at my phone and know exactly how long I need to wait. I live near Portland, Oregon and use this feature basically any time I go into the city—it's just nice to know when the next train is coming.

But the application has also saved me while traveling. Once, while biking north of Victoria, British Columbia, one of my tires went flat. Walking back to the city would have taken hours and I didn't have any cell signal. The Transit app, miraculously, had a cached version of the bus schedule and pointed me to a nearby stop. I caught a bus 15 minutes later and made it back downtown quickly.

Credit: Justin Pot

Even outside emergencies, Transit makes navigating new cities via public transit a lot less intimidating. In addition to real-time departures, there's also a way to ask for directions, the same way you can Google or Apple Maps. And while those applications both offer transit directions, the Transit app does a better job at offering multiple routes.

This app also makes it easy to tweak for the way you ride. I, for example, am happy to walk a couple miles if it means avoiding a long connection spent sitting at a bus stop. Transit lets you configure how long you're willing to walk and how fast you walk. There's also really great support for combining bike and transit, something that Google and Apple Maps don't really offer. The result is that you can generally get around faster using Transit's directions once you configure it to match your preferences.

Transit works in 951 cities around the world, mostly in North America and Europe. There's a paid version, called Royale, that provides access to things like more complete schedules and customization options. These features are offered free of charge in certain cities, a fact I learned during a recent visit to Grand Rapids, Michigan. If you're a regular user of public transit, or even just someone who likes to use public transit when you're visiting a new city, I highly recommend you give this application a try.

Threads users will soon have more control over what shows up (or doesn't) in their feeds. According to a Threads post from Instagram head Adam Mosseri, an update to the platform's Hidden Words feature will allow users to customize which content is filtered out separate from their preferences on Instagram.

Hidden Words itself isn't new: Threads users can already mute words, phrases, and emojis from their feeds and automatically filter out comments containing offensive language. However, this was a global setting that applied to both Threads and Instagram, so you weren't able to have separate lists of content to hide or customize those filters on Threads.

Threads is also testing a "mark spoiler" content label to hide spoilers in posts—unless a user taps to reveal the text or image—as well as DMs. It also isn't the only platform to increase user control over what content they see: TikTok recently expanded its settings that allow users to better personalize their For You feeds, including AI-powered keyword filtering.

How to customize Hidden Words on Threads

To edit Hidden Words, open the Threads app, tap your profile icon in the bottom navigation bar, then open the Settings menu from the top-right corner. Go to Content preferences > Hidden Words. You can toggle Hide common offensive words in replies off or on, which will move replies to a hidden section under your posts (anyone can still tap to show them).

Under that, you can tap + New filter to hide posts with certain words, phrases, or emojis from your feed as well as replies containing filtered content. Threads has new options to customize filters, such as hiding posts shared by anyone or only profiles you don't follow as well a 30-day "snooze" for filtered content you don't want to permanently hide. Related words can be batched under a single custom filter (spider and spiders, for example).

Note that the new feature may not be available on your device just yet, so keep an eye out for app updates.

Meta, the company that owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, has been adding more and more AI features into its apps as of late, whether you asked for them or not. WhatsApp in particular has received a lot of Meta's AI attention in recent times, with the addition of a dedicated Meta AI button in the app and the search bar doubling as a place to ask Meta AI to generate text, advice, or jokes. The company continues to push AI into the heart of WhatsApp, as it's now added an optional feature that lets you summarize your conversations in the app. 

WhatsApp calls this feature Message Summaries, and it's currently rolling out in the U.S. in English. Once it rolls out to you, you'll be able to access it via a Summarize privately button at the top of your chat. The company says it's designed to help you catch up with tons of messages without reading every single one of them.

In theory, this is a good idea. If you're a part of group chats, you'll know that some of them can absolutely spiral out of control. I'm a part of a few such groups, where people post non-stop during Apple events, sports games, or when we want to discuss a fun topic. There have been times when I've woken up to hundreds of unread texts, and I don't always have the time or energy to go through each of these messages myself. For times like these, WhatsApp's AI summaries could help.

In practice though, there are some legitimate accuracy and privacy concerns here. First, as with all AI, there's always the risk of hallucination, so you might have to double check your summaries anyway. On the privacy front, while WhatsApp is famously end-to-end encrypted, Meta's AI features so far haven't had the same level of security. Given the company's long history of collecting user data, as well as surprises like the recent move to bring ads to WhatsApp, it's natural to be skeptical.

For what it's worth, though, Meta says that the Message Summaries feature does not allow it or WhatsApp to see your messages or the summaries Meta AI generates. "Message Summaries uses Private Processing technology, which allows Meta AI to generate a response without Meta or WhatsApp ever seeing your messages or the private summaries. No one else in the chat can see that you summarized unread messages either," the company says in its blog post announcing this feature. You can read more about how Private Processing works in Meta's engineering blog and technical whitepaper. 

It's also worth noting that the feature is not enabled by default. Unfortunately, it also doesn't seem to be processed on-device, which would have been even better for your privacy since it would mean that no information leaves your phone, but also would have limited the feature to devices powerful enough to run it.

Still, I'll be skeptical until I can actually try this myself. If you're like me, you do have options. You can stop anyone from using Meta AI in your WhatsApp chats with them by tapping the name of the contact or group, selecting Advanced Chat Privacy, and enabling Advanced Chat Privacy. Unfortunately, though, you have to manually do this for every single chat—there's no easy way to disable Meta AI entirely.

While Message Summaries for WhatsApp is already rolling out in English to the U.S., Meta says it'll be made available to users in other countries starting later this year. 

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It's not hard to get me to download an app. If I see an ad for one, it's going right on my phone. I don't care at all if it's all a scheme to get my data—my data is out there, baby, and it's too late to care, so I might as well reap all the benefits these flash-in-the-pan, VC-bolstering programs can give me.

Most of the time, I don't get much. But sometimes, I get free stuff! I love trading my data and my finite time on this earth for meager rewards. If you do too, here are eight apps I use all the time to get free stuff, from food to more tangible goods.

The best apps to get free food or drinks

Dunkin'

My beloved app greets my by name each morning. Credit: Lindsey Ellefson

As I've noted before, but the Dunkin' app is elite when it comes to rewarding customers for spending money on donuts and coffee. If you play it right, you can get all kinds of treats for free. Yes, you have to spend money to earn money, but if you're already going to Dunkin', that doesn't really matter. For every dollar you spend, you get 10 rewards points, but if you visit 12 times in a month and hit "boosted" status, each dollar you spend until the end of the month earns you 12 points. Points add up quickly, and you don't need all that many to score something free: You can get an espresso shot for 150, a donut for 250, a hot or iced coffee of any size for 500, and so on.

There are also point-enhancing promotions going on all the time. Sometimes, you get bonus points for ordering a certain snack or visiting at a certain time. On Mondays, you get 100 points just for placing a mobile order. Soon enough, you'll rolling in free munchkins.

McDonald's

In the food and drink sphere, I have a membership and associated app at pretty much every restaurant chain. McDonald's is among the best. The app is fabulous because it's constantly running promotions where you can get a free something-or-other, usually for doing nothing but using the app to place your order. On days when I'm feeling frugal but not particularly health-conscious, you'll catch me mobile-ordering my way to a medium fry and a big Diet Coke—and the fries are free as long as I spend a minimum of $1, which is about what the drink costs.

Right now, the app is offering up a free double cheeseburger or six-piece McNuggets when you buy one. I also have enough points for two McChickens or a large iced coffee. Every dollar you spend earns you 100 points, but as with the Dunkin' app, you also get bonus points for fulfilling certain stipulations, like double points on breakfast orders. The first time you pay through the app with your linked card, you'll also get 1,500 points, which is enough for a cheeseburger.

7-Eleven

Look at all my options. Credit: Lindsey Ellefson

7-Eleven has a severely underrated rewards app. I usually get a dollar or so off my purchases every other visit, and since most of the goods available at this convenience store are themselves just a few dollars, that basically means I'm getting free Doritos or Vitamin Waters every week. Every dollar you spend gets you 10 points (unless you're spending on age-restricted items or gas), plus you can earn extra points for daily promotions like buying two of a certain item. Once you get 1,000 points, you have $1 to spend. A dollar off for every $100 spent isn't great, but if you take advantage of those random weekly specials, you can score a lot of bonus points.

Seated

For a slightly different spin on getting free stuff from a food app, try Seated, which I've also evangelized for before. What sets it apart from other restaurant-affiliated apps is that the free things you get for using it don't come from the restaurants themselves. Instead, you get a percentage of your money back every time you use the app to make a reservation and eat a meal, which you can then spend on gift cards for businesses like Uber, Amazon, and TJMaxx—or just have it deposited back into your checking account as cash. Again, you're spending money to make money, but it's better than getting nothing if you're spending anyway. I have gotten hundreds of dollars back from Seated and turned that into hundreds of dollars worth of free stuff.

Seated has an involved, useful interface. Credit: Lindsey Ellefson

Claim

This week, I was served up an ad for Claim, an app with the tagline "get paid to eat and shop." Buddy, you do not have to tell me twice. After linking a debit card and my Venmo account, I got to work figuring out how to earn my free stuff. The gist is that once per week, you can choose a restaurant or retail establishment from a pre-selected list and stake a "claim" on it. This means that if and when you spend money at that spot during that week using your linked card, you get $10 sent to your Venmo account. To test it out, I got a claim for Wingstop, which happens to be across the street from the post office where I ship out my Poshmark sales. I took a walk, dropped off my sales for the day, then ordered a six-piece wing box. By the time I got home and tucked into the chicken, $10 had appeared in my Venmo account. I would have had to stop and eat that day anyway, so this was free money.

While you can only select and use one claim per week, you can earn additional claims by inviting friends to the app. You pick the establishment you want a claim for—right now, choices include Starbucks, Chipotle, Blue Bottle Coffee, Dunkin', and more—and the place you want your friend to get their free claim for. Once they use your referral and link a card to the app, you both get a bonus claim.

BBHMM. Credit: Lindsey Ellefson

The best apps to get free stuff

Influenster

The original app that helped me when I was too broke for good makeup a decade ago. Credit: Lindsey Ellefson

I'm way into makeup and personal care items and I'm always looking for ways to get my hands on more. Years ago, I downloaded Influenster, an app that promised free samples in exchange for a little effort on my part in the form of reviewing products within the app. After earning up some cred within the app, I started getting free stuff sent to me, with the caveat that I would thoughtfully review it. There were other tasks I could complete, like creating public Instagram posts about products, but I declined—that's not my style. Even without completing those challenges, I have gotten a ton of free stuff. I even secured a few lipsticks from Revlon that I ended up liking so much I've consistently repurchased them in the years since 2017. Great app.

Iris

I am earning gems at a rate you wouldn't believe. Credit: Lindsey Ellefson

Lately, I've gotten very into Iris, which is basically a new spin on Influenster. You earn "gems" by reviewing products, posting in discussions, and generally interacting with the community, which is comprised of people interested in beauty and skincare. These gems can be used on "drops," or limited-time offers of products you can get sent to you free, but which you must then review. The drops you're eligible for depend on your level within the app, with the quality scaling up as you climb the latter.

Drops are quite limited: One may only have a few pieces available, so you have to order it the second it hits your phone, unless you're saving your gems for something major. Right now, I'm entertaining the delusion that I'll earn 45,000 gems fast enough to snag the final remaining Dyson Airstraight, a hair tool that costs $500 in the real world. The nice thing about Iris is that you can't use real money to buy gems or expedite your progress. You really do have to do it all on your own, and you'll pay nothing out of pocket.

A few months ago, I used my gems on a travel-sized bottle of Glossier perfume, which saved me about $40. I didn't have to wait long, the package came straight from Glossier as if I'd ordered from the company directly, and all I had to do was write a review the next week.

Goss

Goss is similar in terms to Iris in terms of possible rewards, but your earn them very differently. The best way I can describe it is like sports betting, but for pop culture. By using in-game currency to place bets on things like how many likes a celebrity's Instagram post will have within 24 hours or who will be voted off a reality show during its next episode, you'll acquire a different in-game currency that can be traded for real-life products. After a few (very fun) weeks of betting a while back, I earned enough to get a Summer Fridays lip balm. Could I go to Sephora right now and buy one for $24? Absolutely I could. Is it more fun to answer questions, place bets, and gamify the whole ordeal? Absolutely it is.

You can buy in-game currency with real-world money, which sets this one apart from Influenster and Iris, but you don't have to. By completing arbitrary challenges like logging in every day or placing certain types of bets, you can quickly rack up enough credits to paste bets consistently, without spending a dime. You also get rewards by inviting friends with your referral code.

Now the bad news: The app is down for scheduled maintenance as of this writing, and won't be back until August. I've been missing it since it disappeared a few weeks ago, and am eagerly awaiting its return so I can use my accured in-game currency to buy some self-tanner and a tote bag.

Yes, I know nothing is really free

What's that phrase?"If it's free, you're the product?" Well, yes. All of these apps require me to give companies access to my data, from my interests to my shopping habits. I'm also racking up time playing games, writing reviews, or even spending money to earn some of it back. I understand that, but in these instances, it's a trade I'm willing to make.

By choosing apps that line up with the things you'd already be doing or spending money on—in my case: buying makeup, walking to Dunkin' twice a day, and wasting time on my phone—you can earn free rewards, and make the most of your routines and idle time. Life can be a downer, so I might as well find ways to turn a mundane task into free perfume.

Welcome to "Best Summer Ever," your guide to getting the most out of the sunny season. Whether your idea of a perfect summer is embarking on epic adventures or blissfully doing as little as possible, we've got you covered. Because the best summer doesn't just happen—you have to make it happen.

Summer is here, and this year is going to be different. This year you're going to get outside. You're going to camp, hike, swim, and explore the area you live in. If that's you, but you don't know where to get started, you've come to the right place. Here are a few of the best websites and apps for getting outside and finding new places to explore this summer.

Best apps and sites for finding campgrounds

Camping is a classic summer activity—assuming you can find a good spot. I personally recommend finding out about campsites from friends, family, and anyone else with local experience, but that's hard if you're new to a place or are just visiting. Fortunately, there are plenty of online tools for finding a place to camp.

Credit: Justin Pot

If you just want somewhere to put down a tent—and are willing to rough it a little—the website FreeCampsites.net is always worth checking. In the United States, it is perfectly legal to camp on certain public lands, including most National Forests, and there's no cost. FreeCampsites points out some of the best campsites you can find in such public lands. It also highlights other free campsites offered by municipal governments. Now, this isn't for everyone: Free campsites usually won't have bathrooms, and almost certainly won't have running water or electricity. I've personally had a lot of success using this site to find free places to stay during road trips, though.

If you'd prefer a little more in the way of amenities—and are willing to pay for your campsite—there are options. Recreation.gov is a service of the U.S. government that makes it easy to browse and reserve camping options available in federally owned wilderness areas. Most states offer a similar service for state parks, as do most countries where camping is common.

If you don't have any luck on government sites, though, there are other options. HipCamp is essentially an Airbnb type service for campsites. The advantage here is that you get access to campsites on private property, meaning you'll have more options and (potentially) amenities. Another similar tool to check out is The Dyrt. As with Airbnb, it's a good idea to pay close attention to the listing and the customer reviews before booking. It's also worth using a search engine to see if a given campsite has its own website or even just a phone number—sometimes booking directly can save you money.

Before you head out, check out this guide for all the essential camping gear you need (and some things you'll just want).

Best apps and sites for finding hiking trails

Credit: Justin Pot

Summer is the best time to lose yourself in a hike. As with campsites, it's a good idea to ask people you know for recommendations before checking online, but there are also plenty of tools you can use to find good hikes wherever you are.

All Trails is mentioned a lot in this space, and it does indeed offer a lot of trails. Hikes generally have thorough descriptions with photos, length, and other information. The problem: This website tends to inundate visitors with a lot of pop-ups and upsells. Wikiloc is an alternative service full of user-submitted hikes that's better on that front. Another thing worth remembering is that, in many places, there is a local database of trails. For example, I live in Oregon and generally find the best hikes using Oregon Hikers—I recommend doing some research and finding out if there's anything similar in your state or region.

Finally, it's a good idea to have an offline map handy during the hike itself. When I'm out on the trail, I like to use Organic Maps, a free and open-source application that works entirely offline. I've used it on three continents and it am yet to walk on a trail it doesn't have. I like being able to use turn-by-turn directions, or check how far I am from the next junction. Just make sure to download the region you're going to hike while you still have data.

Best apps and sites for finding pools

Nothing says summer quite like jumping into a pool, but most people don't have one of their own. The free website Places 2 Swim is the simplest way I've found to local public pools nearby. The site asks for your location and shows you public facilities that are open year round. The site, which is actively curated, includes information about each pool including size, diving options, and price. There's also a phone number for every pool, making it easy to call someone with questions.

Credit: Justin Pot

That works for public pools, but what if you want something a bit more private, or to throw a pool party? In that case, you should check out Swimply, a website where pool owners make a little bit of extra money by letting others rent their pool for a few hours. The prices, and the quality of the pools, varies a lot, but it's invariably cheaper than putting a pool into your own backyard. Just make sure you review the listing details and reviews carefully before booking.

Best apps and sites for wandering the city

Credit: Justin Pot

Not everyone wants to leave civilization during the summer—that doesn't mean you can't spend some time outside. I love a good urban wandering with friends, but what if you're not sure what's worth checking out? There are a few apps that can give you some bearings. The website Whats-Near.me points out all buildings, parks, and other landmarks near you that have their own Wikipedia page. I've learned a lot about my neighborhood this way.

You could also check out services usually intended for travelers, like Trip Advisor or Atlas Obscura, to find nearby attractions you might otherwise ignore. The idea is to find some excuse to walk around. If you're more of a game-motivated kind of person, there's always Pokemon Go. Sure, the app's heyday is long behind it, but it can still be a fun way to force yourself to do a little bit of exploring. Whatever it takes to get you out there, enjoying your summer.

Unless you've messed with your smartphone's camera settings, it's very likely you snap photos in 3:4 (or 4:3 if you're holding the phone in landscape). This aspect ratio is the default for most smartphone cameras, which means our photo libraries are full of images that all fit this frame.

The issue is, despite the smartphone's place as the world's most popular camera, not all social media platforms respect the 3:4 aspect ratio. Instagram, for example, supports its classic square 1:1 images, as well as a 4:5 aspect ratio, but not 3:4. At first glance, 4:5 looks like 3:4—so much so, you might not have ever noticed a difference when uploading your photos. But rest assured, a 3:4 photo uploaded to Instagram's 4:5 aspect ratio gets cropped to match that frame, which means you lose a little of the top and bottom of each photo you post this way.

If you pinch on the preview of your post to zoom out, you'll reveal the parts of your image that aren't making the final cut. You can move the image up or down to reveal more of the top or bottom, but you'll only cut off more of the opposite end either way.

Instagram now supports 3:4 images

Luckily, that's now changing. In a post on Threads, Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, announced that the app now supports 3:4 uploads. The reception seems largely positive, though some users clearly want more from Instagram—namely, 2:3 support, a popular aspect ratio with photographers.

Instagram also announced the news on its Creator's Broadcast Channel. The post confirms the change applies to both single-photo posts as well as carousel collections, and that you can still share 1:1 and 4:5 images as you wish. The company attached an example, comparing two different Instagram posts—one that posts an image in 4:5, and another that posts the same image in 3:4, with dotted lines demonstrating where the image would be cropped in 4:5.

Credit: Instagram

The change is rolling out now for all Instagram users, but you might not see it right away. My Instagram app still appears to default to 4:5, even after I updated to the latest version on iOS.

It's important to note that 4:3 images, as well as other landscape or horizontal aspect ratios, have been supported on Instagram. In theory, you could've flipped your 3:4 images to post the full picture, but you would have forced your friends to turn their phones (or heads) sideways to see it.

As long as there have been smartphones, there have been issues with battery life. Sometimes, battery drain is inevitable. Many modern apps are powerful, and, as such, power-intensive; taking high-quality photos or videos can waste a battery like no one's business; and constantly searching for cell service can put a strain on your phone. However, problematic apps can also be to blame: If an app's developer pushes an update with a bug that, say, runs too many resources for too long, your battery will suffer—as will your sanity. ("How is my phone at 50% already?")

It's frustrating when you don't know what's causing the unusual battery drain on your phone, especially the culprit is a rogue app. But every now and then, a company will confirm your suspicions. If you've been experiencing unexplained battery drain on Android, for example, there's now an explanation. Spoiler alert: It was Instagram.

Instagram rolled out a battery drain fix for Android this week

As spotted by The Verge, Google recently posted on its Android Help Community blog. The Wednesday post addresses the Android community, and notes that Instagram is now rolling out an updated version of the app that fixes a battery drain issue on Android devices. The post notes the latest update version is 382.0.0.49.84, and urges users to install the update.

Google didn't share any other details, and Instagram did not publish release notes for this version, so it's unclear exactly what the issue was. Still, the problem must have been substantial enough to compel Google to make a public statement about it. If your Android device has been struggling lately, updating Instagram just may help.

How to update Instagram to fix potential battery drain issues

To check if you're running the latest version of Instagram on Android, head to Instagram's Play Store page. If you see an option to Update, go ahead and do so. If you don't, the update likely already installed. To check your app's version number, long-press the icon, tap App info, then scroll to the bottom of the page.