Tips and Tricks for Getting the Most Out of Your New AirPods

AirPods were a hot ticket item this holiday season, selling out from Apple and other retailers.

We’re guessing quite a few MacRumors readers got new AirPods during the holidays, so we thought we’d share some super handy tips and tricks that’ll help you get the most out of your new earphones.

AirPods Requirements

To use all of the below features, you’re going to need to install iOS 10.2 or later, and for some features, iOS 11 or later is required. On the Apple Watch, watchOS 3 or later is required, and on Mac, macOS 10.12 Sierra or later is required.

Devices that support iOS 10.2 or later include the iPhone 5 and later, the iPad mini 2 and later, the iPad Air and later, the 6th-generation iPod touch, and all iPad Pro models. All Apple Watch models work with AirPods, as do Macs that support Handoff functionality.

To take full advantage of AirPods, an iCloud account is required, but if you have an Apple device, you likely use iCloud regularly.

Customize Tap Functionality

Your AirPods are equipped with accelerometers and other hardware that allow them to respond to a double tap, and though it isn’t obvious, these gestures can be customized to your liking. Here’s how:

Make sure your AirPods are connected to your iPhone or iPad, either when you’re wearing them or with the case open and nearby your device.
Open up the Settings app.
Choose “Bluetooth.”
Next to the AirPods in the Bluetooth menu, tap the little “i” button.
Select “Left” and “Right” to customize what your AirPods do when you double tap them. Each one can be set to a separate action.Choices include “Siri,” which activates Siri, “Play/Pause,” which starts or stops a song, “Next Track,” which moves to the next track of whatever’s being played, and “Previous Track,” which goes back to the track that was previously being played. “Off” turns off whatever’s playing.

Once you have your settings in place, whenever you double tap on an AirPod, it will activate whatever action you chose. With Siri, for example, you can double tap to bring up Siri.

You can also use this AirPods setting menu to change the name of your AirPods, deactivate Automatic Ear Detection and set either the left or right AirPod to serve as a fixed microphone.

Note: “Next Track” and “Previous Track” are both options that were introduced with iOS 11, so you will need to have iOS 11 installed to see these two AirPods options. Without iOS 11, you can only choose “Siri,” “Play/Pause,” and “Off.”

Tap Your Ear

You don’t necessarily have to tap right on your AirPod to use the double tap gestures. Many people prefer to tap softly on the back of an ear instead. It’s a little less audibly jarring and it works just as well.

Switching Devices

There’s an Apple-designed chip called a “W1” inside of your AirPods, and this chip connects your AirPods to your iCloud account. What this means is that every device you have where you’re signed into iCloud knows your AirPods exist and can connect to them without having to go through a pairing process every time.

Switching between devices is as simple as opening up the Bluetooth settings on a given device and then choosing your AirPods to connect seamlessly. On the device you used to set up your AirPods, they’ll connect automatically whenever you open up the case.

Quickly Pair to Apple TV

There’s a little trick to make it easier to pair your AirPods to your Apple TV. With the AirPods in your ears or in the case with the lid open, turn on your Apple TV.

At the main Apple TV screen, hold down on the Play/Pause button on the Siri Remote to bring up an interface that lets you select an audio source. Swipe down to your AirPods, click the main button on the remote, and a connection is established.

If you’re using the Apple Remote app or the Control Center Apple TV Remote, you can long press on the Play/Pause button to bring up the audio menu.

Quickly Pair to an iOS device

To pair your AirPods on an iOS device running iOS 11, you don’t need to open up the Settings app. Instead, you can use the Now Playing widget in Control Center. Here’s how:

On your iOS device, swipe up from the bottom of the display to bring up Control Center.
On the main music widget, tap the two lines located in the upper right corner.
From the list, choose your AirPods.
Once selected from the Control Center list, your AirPods will connect to your iOS device automatically. It takes a few swipes and taps, but it’s ultimately quicker than opening up the Settings app.

Pair AirPods to Your Apple Watch

You can pair the AirPods directly to Your Apple Watch to listen to music. Here’s how:

With the AirPods in your ears, swipe up from the bottom of the Apple Watch display to bring up Control Center.
Tap on the AirPlay icon at the bottom of control Center.
Choose AirPods.

Take Advantage of Siri

If one of your AirPod double-tap gestures is set to “Siri,” you can tap on an AirPod to activate Siri. Siri can play songs and albums from your Apple Music Library, or if you’re in the mood for something like 80’s music, just ask Siri. Siri will play music from different genres, Apple Music playlists, and radio stations if you have an Apple Music subscription.

Using Siri is a simple, hands-free way to listen to whatever you want on your AirPods, and Siri’s also, unfortunately, the only way to adjust the volume on the AirPods without having to use your connected device.

In addition to asking Siri to play music, all of the standard Siri commands are supported, since it’s just routing through your phone. Siri can make phone calls, send texts, set reminders, control HomeKit devices, open apps, answer simple questions, and more.

Siri requires an internet connection to function, so the device connected to your AirPods will need to be connected to WiFi or Cellular for Siri on AirPods to work.

Using Just One AirPod

You don’t need to use both AirPods at once. If you want to make a call or better hear your ambient surroundings, you can choose to use just one AirPod.

If you have Automatic Ear Detection turned on and take an AirPod out, you may need to press play again, but once you do, it works just like having two AirPods in your ears. Music won’t play out of the AirPod not in use, and if you do put it back in, your music resumes in both AirPods.

Pairing AirPods with a non-Apple Device

Your AirPods are designed to work with Apple products, but they use Bluetooth and can pair with your Android device, your Nintendo Switch, your PC, or any other device that works with Bluetooth headphones. Here’s how to pair with a non-Apple device:

Put the AirPods in the AirPods case.
Open up the lid.
Press and hold the button on the back of the case until a white light flashes.
Open up Bluetooth settings on the device you’re connecting to and choose the AirPods.

Get Your Calls Announced

If you get an incoming call while your AirPods are in your ears and want to know who it is without having to look at your iPhone, there’s an “Announce Calls” feature for that. Here’s how to use it:

Open the Settings app.
Scroll down to “Phone.”
Select “Announce Calls.”
Toggle on “Headphones & Car” to have calls announced when either headphones are connected or you’re in the car. “Headphones Only” will announce calls only when your headphones are in, and not when you’re in the car, and “Always” means your iPhone will audibly tell you who’s calling even when headphones aren’t in.

Locate a Lost AirPod

As of iOS 10.3, there’s a dedicated “Find My AirPods” feature for keeping track of your AirPods. Find My AirPods is limited to the AirPods themselves — it can’t locate a lost case, nor does it work when the AirPods are disconnected from an iOS device and stored in a case.

Find My AirPods basically lets you know the last known location of your AirPods. You can access it from the Find My iPhone app or from iCloud, but for detailed instructions on the feature, check out our dedicated how to.

Check Your AirPods Battery

To check the battery of your AirPods while you’re using them, swipe on the right of the iPhone or iPad display to bring up your widgets. Find the “Batteries” widget to get a readout on the battery life of your iOS device, your AirPods, and any other connected Bluetooth devices that support the feature.

If your AirPods aren’t in your ears, just open up the case when it’s near your iPhone to get a popup that shows you the battery life. This is also the only way to see the battery of the AirPods case.

If you have an Apple Watch, you can open up the Control Center while you’re using the AirPods and tap the battery icon to see the battery life of both the Apple Watch and the AirPods. On Mac, use the Bluetooth menu to check battery on paired AirPods.

You can also ask Siri to tell you what your remaining battery life is.

Interpreting the Light on the AirPods Case

If you open up the case for your AirPods, you’ll see a little light located inside.

Here’s what each color means:

Green: Fully charged
Orange: Not a full charge
Amber: Less than one full charge remains
Flashing white: Ready to pair

Charging

AirPods charge with a Lightning cable, so it’s super simple to charge them up when the battery is low. Given the design of the AirPods, they’re compatible with many iPhone docks on the market, so if you have a dock for your iPhone, you can also use it to charge the AirPods.

Get Your AirPods Serial Number and Check Firmware

If you need the serial number for your AirPods or want to make sure you’re running the most up-to-date version of the AirPods firmware, here’s how:

Open up the Settings app on your iOS device while your AirPods are in your ears.
Choose “General.”
Choose “About.”
Scroll down to “AirPods” and tap it.This menu lists model number, serial number, hardware version, and firmware version.

Wrap Up

The AirPods are one of Apple’s most popular accessories in recent history, and they’ve been largely well-received by Apple customers thanks to the ease of use, simple pairing, long range Bluetooth connectivity, universal fit, easy device switching, and decent battery life.

If you’re new to AirPods, you’ll likely fall in love with them after just a few uses, and even more so when you’ve read through our tips and figured out everything they’re capable of.

Are there must-know AirPods tips and tricks we’ve left out? Let us know in the comments!

Tag: AirPods
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UEFA secures UK court order to block illegal soccer streams

Tearing a leaf out of the English Premier League’s playbook, the Union of European Football Associations — better known as UEFA — has been granted the power to block illegal match streams by the UK’s highest court. UEFA won’t actually be doing any of the dirty work, of course. Rather, the injunction allows UEFA to instruct the UK’s biggest ISPs (BT, Virgin Media, Sky, TalkTalk, EE and Plusnet) to do the blocking on its behalf. Instead of targeting random websites hosting illegal football (yes, we mean soccer) streams, this particular anti-piracy measure stops the signal at the server level, effectively killing the weed at its root.

The Premier League won an identical court order in early March, at the tail end of the 2016/17 season. ISPs are no strangers to requests to restrict torrent sites and such, but what’s unique about their arrangement with the Premier League is that they block illegal streams in real-time, as matches are being played. The technology that’s used to find streams and track down the servers hosting them is something of a trade secret. Naturally, the League would rather pirate captains didn’t know the whole process, thereby giving them the opportunity to come up with a workaround. Brits can still circumvent the blocks with VPNs, but in that sense only a few enterprising fish are wriggling through the net.

The reason the Premier League sought the injunction in the first place is because it’s so easy (or at least it was) to watch matches for free. You don’t need to be at all tech-savvy to hook a Kodi box up to your TV, download the right plugins and press play. And if people stop paying for sports channel packages, broadcast rights start losing their value. By blocking streams at the server level, in real-time, you cut the feeds the user-friendly, pirate IPTV services rely on. Kodi particularly, you may’ve seen, is being hunted by rights holders with escalating intensity, even if it’s third-party plugins responsible for the witchcraft.

The Premier League, which flexed its court order by blocking over 5,000 server IP addresses during the last two months of the 2016/17 season, renewed its license to block in July to cover the whole 2017/18 season. And like that injunction, UEFA seeking permission from the UK’s High Court for one of its own was little more than a formality. After all, UEFA’s application is backed by the Premier League and the Formula One World Championship, and supported by all major ISPs barring TalkTalk, which communicated neither approval nor complaint to the courts (the provider reacted the same way to previous applications). What’s more, UEFA is using the same classified technology to identify illegal streams, so judge Justice Arnold was hardly going to deny the football association blocking powers having overseen the Premier League’s applications.

The only difference this time around is the injunction contains “an additional safeguard” against over-blocking — a scenario whereby UEFA might be throwing so many IP addresses at ISPs that servers get blocked or remain blocked erroneously. Justice Arnold noted, however, that there’s no evidence injunctions issued to date have resulted in this to any great extent. As with previous court orders, UEFA’s has an expiry date. The association’s kicks in on February 13th next year and ends on May 26th, which just so happens to cover the entirety of the Europe-wide UEFA Champions League tournament. BT is doubly invested this year, since it’s both the exclusive pay-TV broadcaster of the matches — it pays UEFA hundreds of millions of pounds a year for this privilege — and it’s responsible for blocking illegal streams as and when they pop up.

Source: TorrentFreak

Uber is offloading its money-losing car lease business

Uber has been eager to ditch its car leasing business for months, and it appears to have found a buyer. Wall Street Journal sources claim that the ridesharing company is selling its Xchange Leasing unit to the car marketplace Fair.com. While it’s not clear how much Fair is paying, it reportedly won’t be a clean break. Uber will both take a stake in Fair and point would-be drivers to the site through its app. Fair, in return, will offer jobs to roughly 150 workers affected by the switch.

Other companies in the running had included Avis Budget Group (yes, the car rental agency), activist investor Carl Icahn’s self-titled Icahn Enterprises, Innovate Auto Finance and two capital investment firms.

The sale comes hot on the heels of Uber merging its Russian business and reflects the company’s increasing determination to improve its bottom line. Simply speaking, Uber is bleeding cash — it can’t keep running money-losing operations forever. Even though the leasing business helped prospective drivers who might not otherwise have a car, it wasn’t going to be worthwhile if it ultimately dragged down the entire business.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Analysts Predict High Price of iPhone X Will Lead to ‘Weakened Demand’ in Q1 2018

Apple will reduce its shipment forecast for the iPhone X in the first quarter of 2018 from 50 million units down to 30 million units, according to a report this week by Economic Daily News (via Reuters). A handful of similar downgraded shipment predictions were shared by Apple analysts recently, most believing that the price of the iPhone X will lead to a decline in user demand early next year. The reports have caused shares in both Apple and some of its suppliers to fall.

JL Warren Capital predicted shipments of 25 million iPhone X units for Q1 2018, citing a “high price point and a lack of interesting innovations,” while Sinolink Securities said the device’s $1,000 price would “dampen consumer enthusiasm.” Now that early adopters have gotten their hands on the iPhone X and the first wave of demand has been fulfilled, the high price of the device is again causing market watchers to predict “weakened demand” in early 2018 (via Bloomberg).

Analysts have lowered iPhone X shipment projections for the first quarter of next year, citing signs of lackluster demand at the end of the holiday shopping season.

“After the first wave of demand has been fulfilled, the market now worries that the high price of the iPhone X may weaken demand in the first quarter,” Zhang wrote.

Lowered shipment and demand expectations are typical around this time of year. In 2016, a Nikkei report said that Apple would reduce iPhone 7 production by 10 percent in Q1 2017 because of “sluggish” demand and accumulated inventory building up throughout the holiday season.

In terms of availability, iPhone X has been pretty easy to obtain for those looking to purchase the smartphone. Shipping times improved consistently in the lead-up to Christmas and availability at U.S. Apple Stores increased to an average of 75 percent, up from 44 percent the week before Christmas, according to Gene Munster.

Although downgraded shipping estimates have begun to proliferate, other analysts are looking at higher shipment forecasts for the iPhone X. Loop Capital increased iPhone X shipment numbers to between 40 and 45 million units in Q1 2018, while analysts at Jefferies forecast about 40 million iPhone X sales for the quarter.

Related Roundup: iPhone XBuyer’s Guide: iPhone X (Buy Now)
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Does eggnog actually get safer to drink the longer it ages?

Nothing divides a holiday party quite like the serving of eggnog. Some love it, others hate it. Let’s say you make a batch for Christmas, but you inadvertently find yourself in a group of nog loathers. How long can you keep the dairy-laden brew around? It depends on how much booze you added, essentially.

In 2009, we heard a story on Science Friday about Rockefeller University microbiologists Vince Fischetti and Raymond Schuch testing the salmonella levels in eggnog from Dr. Rebecca Lancefield’s recipe, which had been chilling in the fridge since before Thanksgiving. They’d added a bunch of salmonella and tested it at one, two, and three weeks. The longer the eggnog sat, the fewer bacteria there were, until it was completely sterile by week three.

But the aging process does more than kill bacteria: It makes the nog less boozy-tasting. The year after we heard the SciFri episode, we made our own — though we didn’t have the lab equipment to test the bacteria count. We admit we may have tasted a glass or two before the three weeks were up (living dangerously), and we found it to be quite the potent potable. Some of the liquor taste seemed to evaporate by the time Christmas rolled around, but we never made it again. We prefer Mary Meade’s eggnog recipe, which one of our dads has been making since before we were born.

But is Mary’s mellower concoction high-octane enough to kill bacteria that may have been lurking in the eggs? First, our dad only lets his eggnog sit a day or two before serving — which wouldn’t be enough time to do any real damage to the salmonella, the Rockefeller experiment found. No matter what, we’re playing with delicious, delicious fire. But if you want to age your nog and don’t want to use Lancefield’s recipe, Cook’s Illustrated figured out a formula you can adapt to your family’s favorite: Use 1.5 ounces of 80-proof liquor for each egg, and don’t add your dairy until you’re ready to serve. The alcohol by volume is amped up initially to ensure sterilization and then sinks down to around 14 percent once you add the cream.

Meade’s recipe uses one cup of rum, one cup of Grand Marnier, and a half-cup of brandy. That’s 20 ounces of alcohol to six eggs. That means even if your brandy isn’t 80 proof, the recipe more than meets Cook’s Illustrated’s requirements (as long as your Grand Marnier and rum are 80 proof, of course).

The FDA cautions that relying on alcohol is risky and wants you to use pasteurized eggs or cook them beforehand. Safety first of course (salmonella isn’t something you want to mess with), but we will leave you with a link to Michael Ruhlman, who lived to tell the tale after drinking two-year-old eggnog.

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Ticwatch S and E review: Affordable Android Wear

Smartwatches are still a bit of a tough category; there are so many in the market now, but it’s hard to say that they have really penetrated the lives of the masses. Android Wear opened the market to a wide range of wearables, from the useful to the overly simplistic to the gaudy and expensive. It’s been tough to really love any of them. Android Wear still feels a little sterile, even boring, especially considering how little it actually adds to the experience of using a smartphone.

Pretty much any smartwatch can fill the role of a notification center and alternate way of sending messages and taking calls. Sport-oriented Wear devices also track your steps, as well as your location during various forms of exercise, and some even have features like NFC-driven payments via Android Pay. Aside from that, the core of Android Wear is pretty much the same from device to device, which makes the overall experience a love-it-or-hate-it kind of thing.

See the Ticwatch S at Amazon
See the Ticwatch E at Amazon

Editor’s Pick

Ticwatch 2 review – Will this be your first smartwatch?

In the world of smartwatches, Android Wear and the Apple Watch tend to be king. Despite the efforts of Samsung and their Tizen powered wearables, we have few other third parties that actually make a …

That’s where the Ticwatch came in. Powered by a custom version of Android, creator Mobvoi wanted to give smartwatch beginners a different avenue into the space. With a simple but effective quirk — a touch sensitive side which could be ‘tickled’ for scrolling and selection — the Ticwatch carved out a niche, keeping its price low enough so users would feel comfortable giving it a try.

In Ticwatch’s new entry, that feature has been jettisoned to offer a more affordable product. In doing so, Mobvoi has put itself in a strange middle ground between the people who actually might like Android Wear and those who are just trying to save a buck. The result is the Ticwatch S and the Ticwatch E.

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Fitness trackers have come an extremely long way over the years. No longer are they glorified pedometers; they’re much more than that. Most standard fitness trackers nowadays can track your steps taken, distance traveled, how …

The Ticwatch S is the sportier of the two. The one we used was more eye-catching than most. David even  wore it in a number recent videos and a lot of people asked what he was wearing. It comes in a highlighter green-yellow that, as David puts it, screams “I WORK OUT.” There are expected pitfalls to the design; the straps are proprietary and the color makes it difficult to wear outside of casual and workout environments. It certainly won’t work with a suit. During our recent trip to Hawaii, it didn’t take long for the rubberized band to get dirty. For a supposedly sporty watch, it’s a bit troubling how quickly sweat and general wear and tear can soil it.

These problems disappeared with the Ticwatch E, which showed up in matte black that would blend in a little better. Other versions of the Ticwatch E look even better, but we appreciated the black on black nonetheless. The E is compatible with any 22 mm band, and has a GPS nested within the watch itself, rather than hiding it in the band. We don’t have the screen on in shots of the Ticwatch E because our unit had a problem. Without any drops or bumps, the screen got stuck showing a context card and now flickers like crazy. We have only seen this happen to our unit, but felt the need to mention it. Consider our cautionary tale when you think about the E version’s lower price tag. Your mileage may vary with a watch in this price range.

Both watches sport just one button on the left, which feels too squishy for good tactile response. The watches’ plastic bodies frame it so we didn’t know if we actually pressed it until something happened on the screen. Putting the button on the left side makes these watches a bit different, but it also feels a bit unnatural.

The rest of the specifications are the same. The 1.4-inch OLED screen looks great on both devices handles the “always on” functions well. Both use Mediatek processors, which have held up so far. The watches feature 4 GB of internal storage, which can be used for localized music playback through Mobvoi’s included application.

The S and E feature 350 mAh batteries which, boosted by the omission of cellular radios, have lasted up to 2 days, but definitely closer to 1.5 during average usage. Expect to charge these watches nightly to ensure they don’t go dead in the middle of the day. The included charger has a strong magnet which snaps right into place. The cable is flat and minimal, so we didn’t have any trouble bringing it on recent trips.

See also: Best GPS running watches

What else makes the S different from E? Aside from the cosmetic changes and location of the GPS antenna, the S also comes with a Mobvoi-developed health suite, which works quite well. The app shows Apple Watch-esque circles illustrating your calories burned, your steps, and even your nutritional intake likely derived from a baseline total daily energy expenditure (TDEE). The interface on both the watch and the connected smartphone app are appealing and work well enough for casual fitness tracking. I used the watch for Sleep as Android tracking and it worked alright,  but forced me to shift the charging time of the watch to midday so it would have enough juice for nightly tracking.

See also

10 best sleep tracker apps for Android

A good night’s rest is very important to one’s health. Those who don’t get enough may not feel great during the day. Smartphones can’t do all the work. They can be helpful, though. There are …

The heart rate monitor and GPS work as well as expected. A wrist-mounted heart rate monitor is never as accurate as other methods, but it is nice to have when the desire to check our vitals strikes. The Ticwatch E is not afforded these features, making it more for those who just want a wrist-bound notification center compatible, with a few other apps to suit their needs.

Mobvoi ticks a lot of the right boxes with their devices, but we miss the touch sensitive strip. It’s absence only makes the Ticwatch S and E blend in to the already-crowded Android Wear market. For the money, you are also paying for completely plastic bodies, which do not instill a high level of confidence.

So who needs this kind of device? Fans of the Ticwatch are kind of left in the cold without the features that separated their beloved smartwatch from the droves of Android Wear devices, so they would just stick to the Ticwatches they already wear. Android Wear enthusiasts have a massive library of watches from which to choose. Some of them are somewhat competitive to the price of Mobvoi’s latest attempt. It seems the user who may only cautiously try a smartwatch for the first time could use the Ticwatch as that starting line. At $159 for the Ticwatch E and $199 for the Ticwatch S, at least they can rest assured their wallets won’t shrink too much in giving a smartwatch a try.

Could this be your first smartwatch? At this price, why not consider it? The latest that the Android Wear OS can offer is here for you to try in the Ticwatch E and S, even if the experience is proportionate to the price point.

See the Ticwatch S at Amazon
See the Ticwatch E at Amazon

Year in review: The best crowdfunding projects of 2017

2017 is almost in the history books, and with it another great year for crowdfunding campaigns. Whether you’re interested in e-bikes, 3D printers, D.I.Y. engineering projects or, erm, toilets for cats; you could find whatever you were searching for on the pages at Indiegogo and Kickstarter.

What were some of our favorite projects of the year? We’re glad you asked!

Ink made out of pollution

When you think about the year’s most innovative crowdfunding campaigns, chances are that you picture robots or futuristic vehicles long before you imagine a project involving ink. However, the folks behind Graviky Labs managed to win us over with their unique method for recycling air pollution by turning it into something you can actually write with.

The Air-Ink Kickstarter campaign promised five different types of ink — covering applications ranging from fabric and outdoor paints to screen printing, oil painting, and markers.

Lid helmet

Okay, we’ll admit it: referring to a cycling helmet as “collapsible” doesn’t fill you with a whole lot of confidence. But the Lid helmet is kind of awesome. While it offers the requisite amount of protection when it’s on your noggin, once you take it off, its unique design allows it to collapse down to easily fit into a backpack.

“Our research told us that ‘helmet hassle’ is the No. 1 reason why cyclists opt not to wear a helmet, and also that safety concerns prevent many commuters from cycling altogether,” creator Sam Terry told Digital Trends. The fact that it looks pretty nice too is just a bonus!

Catolet toilet for cats and small dogs

The idea of a flushable toilet for cats might sound ridiculous, but any feline owners who have spent far too long cleaning out litter boxes may well appreciate its subtle genius.

Called the Catolet (because of course it is), the device involves a smart porous conveyor belt system on which your beloved Fido sits. Urine passes through the belt, while solid waste are conveyed into the main basin after built-in motion sensors determine that business has been concluded. Solids are then run through a shredder, and launched into the sewer.

The only awkward thing you’ll have to do is explain it to visitors.

Rubbee X

Its name may sound faintly inappropriate, but Rubbee X promises to be among the year’s best Kickstarter campaigns for cyclists. It’s a lightweight conversion device which will give any regular bike an electric makeover.

“Rubbee X works by providing electric assist directly to the rear tire via an electric friction roller,” Gediminas Nemanis, CEO of Rubbee, told Digital Trends. “It has modular batteries to extend the rides, regenerative braking, and not a single wire. We track the pedaling pattern by attaching a small wireless sensor to the pedal crank. This way, we know when and how much additional support to provide to the rider in real time. There are no buttons to push; just pedal and your power will be multiplied 2 to 3 times. It’s a pure electric assist system.”

Suddenly your commute to work in the new year just got a whole lot easier.

Moai aquarium robot

Moai – Aquarium robot

Cleaning your fish tank is one of the less enjoyable parts of aquarium ownership. One possible solution to that problem may be Moai, a glass-cleaning robot which autonomously propels itself around your tank, scrubbing algae as it goes. It can also monitor tank pH levels, salinity, ORP, temperature, and more, as well as livestream 1080p videos of your fish doing… well, whatever it is that fish do when you’re not home.

Makerbuino

Why buy a handheld video game device when you can build your own? That’s the philosophy behind Makerbuino, an open-source handheld eight-bit game device that you (or your kids) can make for themselves. Shipping in kit form, Makerbuino comes with all the electronic components and instructions you need to piece together and program a finished unit.

While it won’t be playing the latest Call of Duty game any time soon, it does come with an archive of vintage games — plus the ability to make your own games if you’re so inclined.

Atari Pong coffee table

No self-respecting gaming nerd should be able to resist a mechanical, coffee table-sized tribute to one of the world’s first video games. Recreating Atari’s classic Pong by way of magnets and metal bars for controlling the physical game pieces, this geeky masterpiece would be the center of attention in any games room it graced with its presence.

Heck, there was even a $5,000 Collector’s Edition, signed by none other than Atari legend Nolan Bushnell.

Vaquform smart vacuum former

We’re massive fans of 3D printing, but it’s not ideal for every scenario. One common pain point is how slow the process is. That’s one way vacuum forming can speed up your workflow — which is exactly what digital desktop vacuum former Vaquform set out to do.

The concept of the machine is to add digital smarts to regular vacuum forming, with an infrared probe that monitors the temperature of your plastic sheet down to 0.1-degree Celcius precision, various presets designed to make your job easier, and some extra smart features thrown in for good measure.

BioLite FirePit

It’s a fair question to ask just how smart a fire pit needs to be. BioLite’s FirePit answers that with a built-in fan, which funnels air through 51 individual jets, resulting in a fire that burns more efficiently, with reduced smoke, more warmth, and less fuel. You can even control the fan remotely, via an iOS or Android BioLite Energy app, which connects via Bluetooth.

Bean 3D printer

An entry level SLA 3D printer from the makers of the Titan 1 and Titan 2 DLP 3D printers, the Bean offers an affordable printer with an impressive accuracy of 0.05mm. For those keeping track at home, that’s an impressive ratio of price to performance. It’s not shipped yet, but provided that it does everything claimed, this could well be one of our recommended 3D printers of 2018.

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Want to download audiobooks for free? Here are the sites to visit

Audiobooks bring together the best of both worlds: The joys of a good story and the convenience of easy listening. They also often serve as a great way to pass time, whether you’re cooking up your favorite dish or out for a long drive. While audiobooks may lack the feel and sweet smell of a traditional book, a well-done voiceover can do more than make up for the loss of aesthetics. It can be an engaging ride that is both worthwhile and convenient on-the-go. Unfortunately, beaming books into your ears can be pricier than you might expect.

For instance, an audio copy of Paula Hawkins’ best-selling novel The Girl on the Train will cost you a whopping $24 on iTunes. For reference, the ebook equivalent is $10. Even literary classics like The Great Gatsby, Huckleberry Finn, and The Hobbit can be rather expensive when not on sale. Luckily, the internet has opened the door to a veritable trove of audiobooks if you don’t mind forgoing top-notch narrations and sticking mainly with the classics. That said, here are our picks for the best websites to get audiobooks for free; you can also find apps that provide the same service.

If you’d rather read than listen, check out our roundup of the best free books for Kindle. For a different listening experience, try podcasts.

Open Culture

Open Culture is one of the better gateway websites for educational and cultural media. The site compiles content from around the web and has an admirable collection of audiobooks — primarily classics — that you can stream over the internet or download in a variety of audio formats for later consumption. The audiobooks are organized by genre (fiction and literature, nonfiction and poetry) and alphabetically listed by the author’s last name.

Project Gutenberg

Project Gutenberg houses one of the largest and oldest collections of audiobooks on the Web. The site’s audiobooks project — a collaboration with fellow pioneers LibriVox and AudioBooksForFree — breaks down its extensive collection of books by human and computer-generated narration. From there you can browse books lists by author’s last name, title, and language. However, we suggest avoiding computer-generated narrations if possible. No one should have to listen to Jack London’s Call of the Wild read by an incompetent Siri knockoff.

LibriVox

LibriVox leverages the power of its volunteers to provide free recordings of public domain works. Volunteers record and submit their own readings of works, and as a result the quality varies; you won’t always hear a professional voice actor, to put it generously. Still, LibriVox’s library is vast, its selections varied. If you like the classics (and the low price of nothing), you ought to give LibriVox a try.

Lit2Go

Lit2Go offers one of the finer looking free sources for audiobooks. The throwback site, run by Florida’s Educational Technology Clearinghouse, contains a comprehensive collection of downloadable short stories and poems that you can browse by author, title, genre, collection, and even reading level (grades K through 12). The bulk of the audiobooks can be downloaded as a single MP3 or as short, segmented passages of specific chapters. The homepage search option is also a nice touch, as is the black-and-white artwork that accompanies each title and book collection. Our personal favorites? We’re going to have to go with Proto-feminist Literature or Autumn in Verse — after all, nothing does inspire classic poetry quite like the turning of the seasons.

Scribl

Scribl (formerly Podiobooks) showcases some of the best, off-the-beaten-path audiobooks the Internet has to offer, many of which are even recent publishings. The site distributes serialized audiobooks via RSS; just click on any of the audiobook links to begin streaming or downloading the narration. Although the collection is rather limited,  you can browse the book selection by contributing author, genre, award status, release date, and title. The site also allows you to donate to your favorite author directly if you feel so inclined, whether his or her book falls under the “Hard-Boiled” or “Urban Fantasy” selection.

Free Classic AudioBooks

Free Classic AudioBooks is pretty self explanatory. The basic site offers free recordings of Treasure Island, Huckleberry Finn, and the King James Bible, among others. The site itself is a bit difficult to browse, but as long as you don’t mind sticking with the most popular titles (or you know exactly what you’re looking for), you can navigate it rather quickly. Everything available on the site is absolutely free, too, and can be downloaded as either an MP3 or M4B for listening on a variety of devices. As the name might imply, though, it’s not the best site for listening to anything newer than Huckleberry Finn.

Google Maps: Everything you need to know!

Make the most out of Google Maps.

Google Maps is a powerful tool that’s used by over 1 billion people, and over the years the app has become more efficient at suggesting routes, offering detailed options for public transit, nearby points of interest, and so much more.

Google serves up directions for driving, walking, biking, or public transit. When you select the driving option, you can ask Google to suggest a route that avoids tolls, highways, or ferries. Similarly for public transit, you can choose your preferred mode of transportation.

Its sheer scale means that there are tons of features that aren’t immediately visible, and that’s where this guide comes in handy. If you’re just getting started with Google Maps or are looking to discover new features the service has to offer, read on.

• Save your home and work addresses
• Get driving and walking directions
• See public transit schedules
• Take maps offline
• Add multiple stops to your route
• Share your current location
• Book an Uber
• Use indoor maps
• Create and share lists
• View your location history
• Use two-wheeler mode to find shortcuts

Save your home and work addresses

Setting an address for your home and work should be the first thing you do in Google Maps, as it gives you the ability to quickly navigate to your home or office from your current location. Choosing a custom address also lets you use voice commands for navigation such as “Take me home”.

How to save your home and work addresses in Google Maps

Get driving and walking directions

If you’re driving a car, exploring a new locale by walking around, cycling to work, or using public transit, Google Maps has you covered. You’ll be able to set your preferred mode of transport and select a route from all the available options with ease, with Google showing real-time travel info along with suggested shortcuts to avoid traffic.

How to get driving and walking directions in Google Maps

See public transit schedules

Google Maps is a valuable resource if you rely on public transit for your daily commute. The service gives you a detailed list of transit options for your journey —whether it’s by bus, train, or ferry — and it offers the ability to set a departure time and see what facilities are available at that time.

How to use Google Maps for public transit

Take maps offline

If you’re traveling abroad or heading to a location with limited internet connectivity, a good option is to save that particular area offline so you can get driving directions and view points of interest. Saved areas expire in 30 days, after which you’ll have to update them to continue navigating them offline.

How to use Google Maps offline

Add multiple stops to your route

The ability to add multiple stops to your route is easily one of the best features to come to Google Maps. You can set up to nine stops along your route, and Google gives you the overall trip time as well as any delays along your selected course.

How to add multiple stops in Google Maps

Share your current location

Google removed location sharing from Google+ and reintroduced it to Maps back in March, giving you an easy way to share your location with friends and family. You can broadcast your whereabouts for a set amount of time, select approved contacts to share your location with, or just create and share a link with your real-time location information.

How to share your location in Google Maps

Book an Uber

Google Maps lets you book an Uber — along with Lyft or Ola, based on your location — without ever leaving the app. You’ll be able to see tariff breakdowns for various tiers, as well as estimated wait times and payment options. You don’t even need to have Uber installed on your phone to use the service — you have the option to sign in to the service from Maps.

How to book an Uber in Google Maps

Use indoor maps

Indoor maps take the guesswork out of finding your favorite retail store inside a mall or the exhibit you’re looking for in a museum. The service is available in over 25 countries and lets you easily navigate within malls, museums, libraries, or sports venues.

How to use indoor maps in Google Maps

Create and share lists

The ability to create lists is the newest feature addition to Google Maps, and it brings a social element to the navigation service. With lists, you can easily create and share lists of your favorite restaurants, make easy-to-follow lists of places to visit when traveling to a new city, or follow a curated list of places. You can set up lists that are public (viewable by all), private, or those that can be accessed by a unique URL.

How to create and share lists in Google Maps

View your location history

Google Maps has a Timeline feature that lets you browse the places you’ve visited, categorized by date. The location data is augmented by any photos you’ve taken at a particular place, as well as travel time and mode of transport. It’s a nifty feature if you’re interested in looking at your previous travel data, but if you’re worried about your privacy (Google tracks everything), you can easily turn it off.

How to view your location history in Google Maps

Use two-wheeler mode to find the fastest routes

Motorcycle mode is a feature designed specifically for the Indian market. The country is the world’s largest two-wheeler market, and as such Google is looking to provide a better experience to those on bikes and scooters by offering more optimized directions.

The goal is to suggest routes that are traditionally inaccessible by cars, which will not only cut down on congestion but also provide a shorter commute time for those on motorcycles. To this effect, Google is actively soliciting recommendations from the Indian community in addition to mapping out back alleys.

Two-wheeler mode offers voice prompts and turn-by-turn directions — just like the regular driving mode — and for now the feature is limited to the Indian market.

How do you use Maps?

What Maps feature do you use the most? Is there a particular feature you’d like added to the service? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Updated December 2017 with details on two-wheeler mode.

Do you still use a tablet?

Tablets might have lost some of their glimmer over the years, but there are still quite a few folks that use them.

A few years back, it seemed like everyone and their kid was using a tablet. Whether it be an iPad, Amazon Fire Tablet, or any random Android-based one, tablets were everywhere. The tablet hype train drove ahead at full steam for quite a while, but as time’s passed and phones have gotten bigger, the need for them has started to phase out.

Some of our forum users recently got into a discussion about whether or not they still use tablets here in late 2017, and interestingly enough, it looks like a lot of them are still using one.

mumfoau
12-24-2017 03:15 PM

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I use an iPad Mini 4 and am buying a used iPad Pro today.

Reply

Soundman72
12-24-2017 03:38 PM

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tab s3 I use in fact I’ve completely done away with my laptop

Reply

toenail_flicker
12-24-2017 04:01 PM

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I have a Tab S2 and an iPad mini (hand me down)

Reply

donm527
12-24-2017 06:38 PM

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iPad Air 2 and iPad Air 2s and iPad Pro in the household and have had iPads since the original and still useful as hand-me-downs. Solid devices and I think for tablets, Apple continually to keep providing iOS updates for at least the next 3 years helps from them getting outdated and useful.

Reply

kj11
12-24-2017 08:26 PM

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I have a Galaxy tab A 10.1 with SPen…. Because I can’t live without a SPen apparently.

I got it a couple months before the Note 8, I had been using a Nexus 7 for a while (“stock” Android is overrated, PS) and I wanted a larger screen tablet. I hadn’t been in the market for one for a while and was surprised that they even had one with a SPen and at a reasonable price

Reply

How about you – Are you still using a tablet?

Join the conversation in the forums!