The nightly fee Hawaii’s tacking onto a $300 hotel stay, for climate karma points. It’s barely the price of a sad airport coffee, but multiplied by millions of tourists, it adds up, with some estimates as high as $100 million annually. Hawaii just became the first U.S. state to hit tourists with a climate tax: a 0.75% hike. Mahalo.
From crayon to canvas: Bring your child’s sketch to life with a little AI magic. Just upload a pic to ChatGPT (or your favorite bot), and say, “This is a photo of my child’s drawing of a [describe it]. Turn it into a digital illustration in a [watercolor, cartoon, etc.] style.” Boom, instant keepsake.
🔊 Customize Windows audio: You can control the volume of individual apps right from your task bar. Just right-click the volume icon and select Open Volume mixer. Slide it down for something like System Sounds, and bump it up for Spotify. FYI: The Device slider changes overall volume, but app levels stay put.
⚡️ 3-second tech genius: Use the app Google Lens to identify plants, products or landmarks from your phone camera.
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🍟 Want fries with that? Different McDonald’s locations set their own prices. McCheapest maps the U.S. so you can see how expensive your local Mickey D’s is.
Quick Android refresh: Hold the power and volume-up buttons simultaneously to do a soft reboot. Think of it as a fast way to end processes and speed up your phone.
🔦 Light it up: Your iPhone’s flashlight has more brightness levels than the default sun mode. Hold down the flashlight button and drag the slider up or down. Sweet. Btw, you can also say, “Siri, turn on the flashlight” when you need it (and tell her to turn it off, too).
Using Windows at night? That blue screen glow can hurt your eyes and mess with your sleep. Night Light adds a warm tint that feels gentler as you wind down. Go to Settings > System > Display > Night Light to turn it on. You can also adjust the Strength, and Schedule it to switch on automatically.
✈️ A canceled or delayed flight is the worst: Before I leave for the airport, I look up my trip on FlightAware. If your plane is stuck in another city, you’ll see it there before your airline updates its app.
⚡️ 3-second tech genius: Chrome user? Type chrome://restart in the address bar to refresh the browser with all tabs intact. Lovely.
Chromebook lagging? Press Search + Escape to open the Task Manager. You’ll see a list of apps, browser tabs and extensions. Look for anything using a lot of memory or CPU (processing power). If something stands out, click it and select End Process to force it to close.
🖥️ Clear taskbar clutter on Windows 11: You can remove most apps by right-clicking them and choosing Unpin from taskbar. But some, like Widgets and Chat, need extra steps. Go to Settings > Personalization > Taskbar and toggle them off under Taskbar items. Finally, room for the stuff you actually use.
Fix cramped handwriting on iPad: Used your Apple Pencil and wrote your words too close together? No need to erase. Just tap and hold between the words with your Pencil. When the vertical line appears, drag to space them out as much as you want. Quick, easy and no do-overs needed.
1.2 million
Extra fast-food visits happen in LA County each year. Why? Sitting in traffic makes people way more likely to hit the drive-thru than the grocery store. Makes sense when the average American spends 37 minutes prepping food, and fast food takes under five. So much for that salad plan.
🥦 Struggling with meal planning? You don’t have to keep guessing what to buy every week. Try prompting ChatGPT with something like, “Plan a week of simple, healthy meals I can actually cook, and make a grocery list with the exact ingredients.” You can take it a step further by also asking it to stay within your budget or avoid foods you don’t like. Amazing.
Mach 3.5
The speed of the world’s first supersonic artillery shell, the Sceptre TRBM 155HG. It can hit targets up to 100 miles away with 5-meter accuracy. That puts it well outside the reach of most jamming systems. How? AI, sensors and GPS help it correct its path mid-flight. It’s like Call of Duty, but real.
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Leavin’ on a jet plane? Don’t wait in line for a bad passport pic. Head to Passport Photo Online and follow a few steps to take the perfect shot at home. This site shows you exactly what to do, so your photo won’t get rejected. I used a publicity photo for my passport. I’m always relieved when a customs officer holds up the photo to my face and passes me through after a long flight.
2 bags
That’s how many you used to check for free on Southwest. Now? That’ll be $80, unless you’ve got status or a branded credit card (paywall link). The “bags fly free” era has been unceremoniously grounded. I’ll never forget when I was on a Southwest Airlines flight. A hard landing was quite jarring. As we pulled up to the gate, our flight attendant announced, “Well, folks, that wasn’t my fault, and it wasn’t the captain’s fault, but it was definitely the asphalt.”