After I put soapy water in the blender, which I placed on the stove to get it out of the way, I turned it on to clean it. Foam poured out all over, which I quickly mopped up. Moments later, while sitting at my desk, I smelled something funny. Then I saw smoke.

When pressing down to mop up, I’d accidentally turned on the burners. The base of my blender melted while a dish towel smoldered and threw out sparks. The whole place stunk. What ever happened to knobs on stoves?

The air was so bad I had to open the doors to my balcony and front door. Thankfully, I’d just bought the AirDoctor 4000 to clean my condo. In the haze, it turned red, signalling a filthy atmosphere. Then it kept filtering out the bad stuff until it turned blue. 

Compared to other models, the AirDoctor covers larger rooms, removing smoke and volatile organic compounds for up to 868 square feet. But what about its competitors? Most are upwards of $800 compared to $399 for the AirDoctor, and the AirDoctor filters out more particles, down to .003 microns. It’s also easier to use. No app. Just turn it on. A top rival is the $839 Blueair HealthProtect 7770i, which offers virus and bacteria removal. But those germ filters cost $200 a year to replace, compared to $153 for the AirDoctor’s filters.

Shocked at the filter replacement cost, I considered only turning the AirDoctor on when there’s a wildfire or another burning appliance. But in that case, micropollutants– caused by cleaning products, cooking, and off-gassing from the furniture– would start to build up. In an emergency, it would take longer to clean the air.

Buy Now or Wait Till Black Friday?

A reader asked whether he should look for Black Friday deals before November 28. “Sure,” I said.

Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart already offer pre-Black Friday discounts, especially on popular laptops such as the MacBook Air M1 and Dell XPS 13. Though official sales begin on Thanksgiving week, many top picks will sell out by then.

If you’re considering a new laptop, there’s the SGIN, which I saw on Amazon for $240. It has a huge 17.3-inch screen, a roomy keyboard and enough power for everyday tasks. Walmart has the Lenovo IdeaPad 1i for $170 if you don’t mind just 64 gigabytes of storage space on what’s called an “EMMC” or Embedded MultiMediaCard. But many people store everything in the cloud and don’t use many apps, so they don’t need any more storage than that.

Robot News

Search on “AheadForm” to see a robot face that looks human. On YouTube, I saw it move its eyes, synchronize its speech and express itself without smiling. It comes in male and female versions, with either Eastern or Western features. Besides looking cute, it offers AI assistance.

Fabulous Freebie

A friend was in a panic. Windows security updates had ended for her Windows 10 computer and it wasn’t upgradable to Windows 11. She couldn’t afford to buy a new computer. OPatch to the rescue.

OPatch, a free program from OPatch.com provides five years worth of patches for major security issues for your Windows 10 computer. For most people, it beats paying Microsoft $35 for a one-year extension, or trying to earn enough Microsoft points to get that for free.

Though it’s highly recommended by ZDnet, OPatch’s website baffled me at first. I only saw the business version. So I turned to Copilot AI. It gave me the link to the free download and walked me through installation, a piece of cake. 

Even without OPatch, or a security update extension for Windows 10, or an upgrade to Windows 11 however, Windows 10 users should be OK, if they’re careful. The last Windows 10 security update will keep them safe until November 11, and Windows Defender, which is built into Windows, will protect against most threats. Defender for Windows 10 will continue to get security updates until October of 2028. 

Numbers Report

Artificially intelligent bots are providing 55 percent of what you read on the web, according to a new report from Graphite, a search optimization firm. AI platforms summarize data, generate drafts, verify facts and write corporate blogs. Content is nearly free.

United Airlines Tip

If you use United Airlines, and have upgraded your iPhone to iOS 26, you can now add your boarding pass to your Apple Wallet and a flight tracker to your lock screen, with an option to share it with others. It also gives you an airport map, with the location of any luggage that has an AirTag tracker. For more info, see the article in TechRadar.

History Radio

“And the Rest is History Podcast.” Search on that phrase to find a free ten-minute show about history’s most brutal rulers, deadly battles and world-changing events. I listened to the great Mary Beard talking about Alexander the Great. Did you know he was mentioned in the Koran?  

For access to the full episodes, it’s $6 a month or $60 a year, although many of them are free on YouTube.

Internut

“A Concrete Plan for Sustainable Cement.” Search on that phrase to find a six-minute video about transforming waste from the cement-making process back into limestone by doing what coral reefs do. They turn CO2 into something useful rather than let it go to waste.

 

Filed under: AI, environment, Internuts, podcasts, radio, robots, shopping, Windows