After helping a friend start a Spanish Club, I became addicted to Duolingo, the free language app. Then I discovered the power of free, artificially intelligent assistants.

I started with Microsoft Copilot, then tried ChatGPT and Google Gemini. I asked each of them if they would chat with me in Spanish on a beginner level. It was great fun, though I kept going back and forth between them and Google Translate to find out what they were saying and what I should say back. Later, I discovered that they would translate each question for me. All I had to do was ask.

All three talked to me like I was a friend. Copilot kindly pointed out exactly where I made an error. ChatGPT explained why in Spanish, you can often leave out the word “Yo,” (meaning “I.”) Gemini got excited when I shared my weekend plans.

My best results came from starting over and trying to do the same chat again, but with less help. Eventually I learned many new words. But I still like the characters on Duolingo and recently signed up for the ad-free version, Super Duolingo, for $84 a year or $7 a month.

Bloggers say that Duolingo Max, the AI powered version of Super Duolingo, is now available for Android and iPhone, but it isn’t listed in my subscription options. Its most exciting feature is “Video Call.” A cartoon character named Lily calls you, or you call her. She sounds like a live tutor but doesn’t embarrass you when you make mistakes.

Dropping Cable

After I dropped cable TV four years ago, I switched to streaming services, saving around $160 a month.

I get Amazon Prime videos free with my Prime membership. I use Netflix a couple months a year, at the $7-a-month level. With the $5-a-month PBS Passport, I get great science shows and British dramas, including the new Downton Abbey movie coming out on September 12.  I’m also paying $14 a month for the ad-free version of YouTube. Finally, the free Tubi TV offers live TV, sports, classic TV shows, comedy, and tons of movies, such as Despicable Me 3. So the most I’ve spent in one month is $29.

For more of a cable TV experience, there’s YouTube TV. It has over 100 channels, including ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and MSNBC, plus movies, sports and on-demand entertainment. Fubo is great for sports. Hulu + Live TV gives you regular channels plus movies and TV series. With DirectTV Stream, you can get over 125 channels for $80 a month, the first 24 months.

Massive Delete

“I have 129,567 emails. How do I get 129,550 of them out of my iPhone?” a reader wrote. A web search told him he would have to spend weeks deleting them individually. But recently I discovered that you could delete the whole slew, or any subset of that, instantly.

On an iPhone or Android, go to the “search mail” box at the top of Gmail. Once you’re there, type:  ‘older_than:1d’. This stands for “all mail older than one day.” (Be sure to leave out the period at the end and any spaces but include the single apostrophes.) When your list of emails comes up, select one, then tap “Select all” when it appears. This will allow you to scroll past the highlighted emails until you get to the bottom. Next, to clear the selection of fewer than all messages, tap “Deselect all,” then tap “Select all” again. Now, all your messages will be sent to the trash when you hit the trash icon.

On a computer, put the command in the search box to start. After your list comes up, look for the blue words that say: “Select all conversations that match this search.” Once you’ve clicked on those words, click the trash icon. Voilà!  All those emails are now in the trash. Of course, you can change the command to “10y” which stands for 10 years, or “5m” or whatever you want. Or do a keyword search.

It’s similar in AOL. When you check off the “select all” button, it won’t select all. Just keep scrolling until all the emails are highlighted, then re-check the select all box. In Yahoo mail, you have to select one message from the list to make the “select all” option appear.  From there, you can keep scrolling until all are highlighted. Then click delete.

Large Screen Laptop

Lenovo’s new “ThinkBook Plus Gen 6” has 50 percent more vertical space. Its screen rolls up and down like window blinds. It can roll 20,000 times before needing a replacement. If you roll it twice a day every day, it will last 27 years. Cost: $3,499 when available later this year.

On the con side, who needs vertical space? That would make you crane your neck upwards. Most people use screens to the side of their keyboard, for a super horizontal look.

Internut

Thanks to the Haber-Bosch process invented over 100 years ago, cheap fertilizer became possible by extracting ammonia from nitrogen and hydrogen, saving humanity from mass starvation. But recently, Stanford scientists discovered how to extract ammonia from air and water, a much more environmentally friendly method. Search on the phrase “this new catalyst can produce ammonia from air and water at room temperature,” for more info.

Filed under: apps, computers, education, email, Internuts, TV, video