FREE 55-INCH TV

I can hardly wait to get my free 55-inch 4K “Telly” TV. You can get one too. In the first 36 seconds, 100,000 people signed up, mostly Millennials and Gen Zs in the higher income and education brackets. The first half a million TVs will be shipped next month, and millions more will be shipped in 2024 and 2025. Unfortunately, the Telly is getting a bum rap because of the data it collects. That’s ironic. Today’s TVs already spy on you, then sell your data to third parties. The main difference between the Telly and other TVs is that the Telly is up front about it and gives you a TV for free. Sign up at FreeTelly.com to get a […]

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PHONES CATCHING UP WITH CAMERAS

Most people rely on their phones to take pictures. But professional cameras, such as DSLRs, do a much better job.  Professional cameras have sensors about the size of 12 Lego bricks. Your phone’s sensor is probably about half of one, according to CNET.  But phones are catching up. Some have sensors the size of two Lego bricks. Meanwhile,  Xiaomi, the world’s third largest phone maker after Apple and Samsung, is developing one that lets you mount a Leica M lens. It’s been dubbed the “12S Ultra Concept Phone.” In other news, LG Innotek is introducing a new telephoto zoom camera module at this month’s Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas. The module’s moving lenses will be similar to professional camera […]

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E-INK LICENSE PLATES FOR CARS

California just approved a new kind of license plate. It uses e-ink to display messages, like: “This car has been stolen.”  It could be the beginning of a trend. With the “RPlate,” by Reviver, you control your license plate’s messages from an app on your phone. Compared to a personalized license plate, the RPlate can display much more info, such as your business’s website and phone number. The new plate uses a monochrome e-ink screen protected by a cover six times stronger than glass. Its battery lasts five years, and it works with Bluetooth, allowing the plate to join the “Internet of Things.” The cost is $20 a month or around $215 for four years. A wired version for fleets […]

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GOWD COMPETES WITH NETFLIX

Netflix is trying to crack down on the 100 million customers worldwide who get free movies by signing in with a friend’s username and password. But a new service called Gowd lets you buy your Netflix sign-in credentials from strangers. Gowd is like eBay for TV. Sellers choose their own prices, starting at 50 cents a month. When I looked, Apple TV Plus was 50 cents but there was a waitlist. A Disney/Hulu/ESPN bundle was $5, Netflix was $5, and Amazon Prime was $2. The site has every service you’ve ever heard of and then some. To start, register at Gowd.com and put a dollar or two into you account. I signed up for PeacockTV for $1, and enjoyed the […]

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STORAGE TRICK FOR IPHONES AND IPADS

I have friends who buy new iPads when theirs run out of storage space. But here’s an easy way to free up space: Offload apps you’re not using. It’s nearly automatic. Tap “Settings,” then “General,” then “Storage.” You’ll see a list of apps. Choose one and tap “offload.” You won’t lose any data associated with it. Besides, you can always tap it again to bring it back. I just saved more than half a gigabyte by offloading iMovie, which I’d only used once. Another way to go is to send photos to your computer. In Windows, when I plugged my iPhone SE into a USB port on my computer, Windows popped up with a message asking me what I wanted […]

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PARTY PRINTER

I remember when my sister used a stand-alone photo printer to print photos at her son’s birthday party so the guests could take them home immediately. Now you can get one that’s as small as your cell phone. The Canon “Ivy Mini Photo Printer for Smartphones” is the best pocket-sized printer for parties, according to an extensive review by TheVerge.com. Kids love the photo stickers it prints, and adults may appreciate having new faces to stick on their refrigerator. On Amazon, the printer is $99, but I saw the same ones on eBay, brand new, for $55. The prints are about the size of credit cards, two-by-three inches. You don’t have to use their peel-and-stick backing; just peel it off […]

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PLANT APP PUTS HOUSEHOLD PLANTS ON A SCHEDULE

Thank goodness for plant apps: I tend to under-water, except when I over-water. I don’t fertilize. I only re-pot when the roots are so big and gnarly there’s no dirt left. “Planta,” for iPhone and Android, rescued me. It puts every task on a schedule without being a Nazi about it. On watering day, for example, it will ask me if the soil is still damp. If so, I can snooze the alert. Different plants are on different schedules. For example, my ZZ plant is over three feet high but almost never needs watering. Unfortunately, the free version of Planta only gives watering reminders – no plant identification or care advice. The paid version, for $36 a year, gives you […]

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NEW PORTABLE POWER BANK SAVES THE DAY

On a recent plane trip, I watched in dismay as the power drained from my phone. By the time I got from Chicago to New Hampshire with a stop in Philly, it was circling the drain.  A portable power bank is the answer. Here are two questions: How fast can it restore a phone to full charge? Does it lose power when not in use? In the past, on the rare occasions when I’ve thought to bring a power bank with me, it turned out it wasn’t charged and I didn’t have time to mess with it. Power banks with lithium ion batteries should retain their power months after they’ve been charged. But some products that claim to have lithium […]

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A CAMERA FOR KIDS

We recently babysat our neighbors’ kids, ages 9 and 6, and had as much fun as they did with a camera that prints black and white photos. It’s called “My First Camera Insta 2” and is $100 on Shop.Oaxis.com. We were impressed by how quickly the girls got the hang of this thing. We only had to show the oldest how to do it once, and she taught the youngest, who got it just as quickly. Take a photo, press the gallery mode button, then the print button. If the paper jams, just give it a little tug. This only happened once in our tests. This is not a Polaroid-type camera. The prints you get come out on a roll […]

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CASTING CALL

A reader sent us a link to “24 hidden Android features” from PopularScience.com. Here are a few. They apply to Android 8 and up. Get Shortcuts. When you swipe down from the top of your screen, you see icons for stuff like “Do Not Disturb,” “Bluetooth,” and “Mobile Data.” Swipe down again to expand the list. If you tap the icon for a pen in the lower left, then swipe up, you’ll see a list of other shortcuts to add. For example, “Screen Cast,” makes it easy to cast whatever you’re looking at on your phone to your TV screen. Otherwise, you’ll only be able to cast from select websites where you see the casting icon. This lets you cast […]

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