A NEW GOOGLE

I just tried the latest version of Google. You can try it too. It’s great. This is not Google Bard, the artificially intelligent chatbot I wrote about recently. It’s a brand-new Google, a mix of Bard and traditional searching. To find it, go to labs.withgoogle.com and click “join the waitlist.” You should be on in a week. Once in, go to labs.withgoogle.com in Chrome or a Chrome-based browser. Then click on an example and type a follow-up question. I went from a conversation about “why dogs like tennis balls” to an explanation of the affection they feel for their owners. Here’s what’s great: You get the info without having to click links or leave the page, but the links are […]

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PRINTING IN CHOCOLATE

My late husband had a great idea for a candy: little chocolate sailboats with sails made of some white confection such as divinity. Now you can use a 3D chocolate printer to make them for you. The “Cocoa Press” is $1,500 for the basic model, but you’d have to have a 3D printer to print some of the parts. If you want it fully assembled, it’s $4000. But think of all the creations you could make and sell on Etsy, the crafters’ site. CocoaPress.com shows off some amazing ones, including the iconic “LOVE” sign, based on the famous LOVE sculpture in Philadelphia. It also prints hollow models, which you can fill with jams, ganache or other goodies. Reserve one now […]

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THE RISE OF E-BIKES

The first thing I noticed on my recent trip to California was the explosion of e-bikes. They zipped past me on a boardwalk along the ocean. The number of e-bike sales are about double the number of electric car sales, despite a price in the thousands. But for $450, you can get a conversion kit, such as the “Clip,” which will turn any old bike into an e-bike. You can even remove the “e” part of your e-bike when you go inside, to prevent theft. Here’s how it works: When you engage the clip, a small roller transmits torque directly to your front tire, driving you forward without any need for complex sprockets or gears. This so-called “friction drive” is […]

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THE FUTURE OF CRYPTOCURRENCY

After the FTX bankruptcy debacle, people lost faith in cryptocurrency. Even I did, though I bought a sweater with bitcoin in 2017. It might be different if I lived in another country. Take Lebanon, for example. According to a report last month, people who try to get their cash out of a bank have to give up 85 percent of it.  CNBC quoted an architect who said he now gets 90 percent of his payments in bitcoin there, which he swaps for a “stablecoin” called tether, which he exchanges for US dollars. “One of the big attractions of cryptocurrency is its independence from governments and traditional financial institutions,” said Joel Ewing, the president of the Bella Vista computer club in […]

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GETTING A BETTER DEAL FROM TRACFONE

My quest for the perfect cell phone service started at a square dance. I was trying to make a phone call but couldn’t connect. Everyone else could. A friend suggested I get a cheap Tracfone plan as a backup. So I added it to an old iPhone I had lying around. It seemed like a good idea at first, but I didn’t really need two phone services. So I took the Tracfone SIM card out of the iPhone and put it in my larger and newer Android, after canceling its service. Now I’m saving hundreds of dollars a year, with no connection issues so far. Tracfone is owned by Verizon. My previous carrier, Google Fi, cost me between $20 and […]

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CONVERSATION VIEW

We finally turned off a feature in Gmail that’s been there since the beginning and has been driving us crazy. It’s called “Conversation View.” We didn’t know you could turn it off. In conversation view, new messages show up at the bottom of the thread. If you have a ton of them, you scroll forever. For example, Joy’s friend Mary Lynn Funk went back and forth in one conversation for six months, all with the same heading. Half the time, Joy would lose the thread, unable to find the latest email, as she scrolled past long emails from three months before. Now those emails have been automatically separated into 49 separate chunks. It’s much more manageable. To turn it off […]

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A 3D PRINTER FOR CHRISTMAS?

Should you get a 3D printer for Christmas? The answer, unless you’re really tech-savvy, is a resounding “no.” The dirty little secret of 3D printing is that the best stuff you can make, at least in the beginning, is the stuff that comes preloaded on the printer, which isn’t very creative.  We saw Star Wars “Yoda” heads and oddly shaped vases. When you start trying to create stuff on your own, good luck. The user forums are filled with exasperated customers. We like Tony Hoffman’s comment in PC Magazine. For gifts, he gave his children the stuff he printed in 3D. “Can we have a real present?” they asked.

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THE WORLD’S TINIEST DRILL

world’s tiniest drillOne of the world’s tiniest 3D printers has printed the world’s tiniest cordless drill. It’s less than half the size of your thumb and you can see it in action at Gizmag.com.

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PRINT THE DINNER, NOT THE MENU

If you wondered what 3D printing is really good for, get “Fabricated,” a new book by Hod Lipson and Melba Kurman.

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FREEBIES FROM GOOGLE

MadeWithCode.com, a Google-operated site, let anyone design a small custom bracelet that they made and mailed out for free. Honest! – We got one. Ours is green and says “Bob and Joy.” It took a couple of months to arrive. Now they have other projects, such as animated “Yeti” figures. Click “Projects” to choose. Many are free, like the animated greeting cards.

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