Summary If you don’t like Siri on your iPhone, too bad—you’re stuck with it. Even as Apple wants to sprinkle it up with Apple Intelligence, it’s still very lacking compared to other assistants. Perplexity’s Assistant is finally on iOS, and if you’re willing to do some workarounds, it’s pretty good. Perplexity has rolled out a significant update to its iOS app, introducing a new Voice Assistant feature designed to bring advanced conversational AI capabilities to iPhone and iPad users....

Quick Links Summary Electric vehicles continue to flood the market, giving consumers who are interested in a cleaner drive more options. The most compelling choices aren’t from incumbent manufacturers, however.Rivian’s R1T(and R1S) blends familiar utility with advanced technology for an incredibly exciting drive. The Nuts and Bolts of the Rivian R1T I’ve driven aTesla Model 3andModel Ysince 2018. My household has been EV-only since 2019. While I haven’t driven all the electric vehicles on the market, I am intimately familiar with the most popular models on the road today....

Summary Sometimes, you don’t need a full-on service plan for your device, and a temporary data plan is perfect. That’s whereSailycomes in, NordVPN’s eSIM provider. I’ve been using it for the past week, and I’ve been pleasantly impressed. Use the coupon code “htg5” at checkout to receive a 5% discount on your Saily order. Saily eSIM Saily is a MVNO eSIM provider that is owned by NordVPN. Offering both short- and long-term data-only plans in over 100 countries, Saily is designed for travelers to get the most out of their phone while visiting another country....

Do you know what self-hosting is? If not, it’s when you take an online service and host yourself on your own computers. Not everyone knows about it, and I want to change that. Self-hosting is something all should be aware of, because, in this digital age, it’s one of the few ways we can reclaim some of our digital sovereignty. Here’s why you should care about self-hosting. Self-Hosting Is Something Anyone Can Do In the past, self-hosting services at home required quite a bit of know-how and equipment....

Quick Links If you’re worried about your child having access to your Apple Account, it’s possible to set them up with an Apple Account of their own. I recently did this myself. Here’s how I came to the conclusion that it’s the right thing to do. 6You Have Remote Access to Parental Controls Honestly, being a parent these days is terrifying. Every day, I see articles about how social media is destroying children’s mental health, about the horrors of cyberbullying and online harassment, and shocking statistics about when children are first exposed to violent or explicit content....

Summary TheseSoundcore C40iopen-ear earbuds are simple, effective, and comparatively affordable. And what a breath of fresh air that is. Soundcore C40i The Soundcore C40i over ear earbuds keep things simple with no audio noise cancelation or other frills, but does provide easy setup, good sound, and respectable battery life. Price and Availability you’re able to purchase a pair of Soundcore C40i earbuds directly from the official Soundcore website or off Amazon for $100....

Switch games are getting more expensive than ever, but you don’t need to spend any money to fill your Switch with a library of fun, varied games to play. There are tons of free-to-play options available on the eShop, so be sure to check out the best of them. Of course, despite being “free-to-play,” all of these games offer in-game purchases in one form or another. Many of them only charge real money for cosmetic upgrades, some of them lock characters behind a paywall, and others make you wait longer amounts of time if you don’t want to pay anything....

Apple used to sell super-compact MacBook laptops, but they were limited by the hardware of the time. Now, Apple should bring them back. The Last Tiny Air It has been almost a decade since Apple released laptops with screens smaller than a diagonal 13 inches. The company’s last 11-inch laptop was theearly 2015 MacBook Air, complete with a dual-core Intel Core i5 processor, up to 512GB flash storage and 8GB RAM, and a low-resolution 1366x768 display....

Quick Links The landscape of free movie streaming sites has massively expanded in recent years, with more sites popping up all the time. If you’re looking to watch free movies online, here are our picks for the best options. Tubi It’s hard to argue with the vastness of Tubi’s library of free movies online, which includes everything from well-known classics and box-office hits to cult movies that sometimes are unavailable to stream anywhere else....

Quick Links The ChatGPT mobile app is arguably one of the most popular AI chatbots on the market, but there are a bunch of alternatives you may try that offer an array of unique features to improve and customize your chatbot experience. Nova: For the Best Prompt Suggestions Let’s dive right in with Nova (AndroidoriPhone), a user-friendly AI chatbot powered by ChatGPT and GPT-4. The cool thing about Nova is that it’s easier thanlearning to use ChatGPTbecause you don’t need to be a pro at crafting prompts....

Framework has branched out. The company made some of the most interesting laptops we’ve seen, but it has now also announced the release of a desktop computer. We had our doubts about how upgradeable this computer might actually be, but an early teardown suggests there’s more than what Framework let us on initially. iFixit got its hands on an early pre-production Framework Desktop, ahead of the computer’s expected release later this year....

I’ve been using a phone homescreen filled with widgets since the release of Samsung One UI 7, and it’s the longest stint with widgets I’ve ever done. But whenever I go all-in on widgets, their downsides inevitably start to surface. Some Widgets Take Too Long to Load Whenever you return back to your homescreen, you typically see the same set of app icons and folders, along with your wallpaper. These typically stay the same and are easy to load up....

Microsoft’s Surface lineup has suffered another setback with the quiet discontinuation of the Surface Laptop Studio 2. While Microsoft has not officially declared the device dead, the company has told resellers that production has stopped. One likely reason for the Surface Laptop Studio 2’s discontinuation is weak sales. Although the device has a creative design and features, it may not have sold well enough to keep production going. It targeted content creators and creative professionals directly, but that only limits it to a smaller audience, which would alienate everyone else....