How to Identify and Remove Unnecessary Apps on Your iPhone and iPad

With so many paid-for and free apps available on the App Store these days, it’s easy to reach a point where you have so many of them on your iPhone or iPad that a sizable proportion are simply forgotten about, and soon storage space starts to become an issue.

Fortunately, there’s an easy way that you can keep tabs on which apps you use the most and which ones have basically become redundant to you, and are just adding needless clutter to your home screen and eating up storage. Follow the steps below to learn how it’s done.

How to Identify and Delete Redundant iOS Apps

Launch the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad.

Tap General.

Tap iPhone Storage.

A list of all the apps (including stock apps) on your iOS device will load in order of size, with the largest apps listed first. Scroll down the list and look at the Last Used: date underneath the title of each app. If it’s been several weeks or months since you opened an app, or it says Never Used, then consider uninstalling it – tap the app in the list.

Two uninstall options are presented on this screen. Tap Offload App to unload the app but preserve any documents and data (these are reinstated if you later reinstall the app) or tap Delete App to remove the app and all related data from your device.

If you tend to download a lot of apps that often get left unused, consider enabling the iPhone Storage menu recommendation to automatically Offload Unused Apps when you’re low on storage. If you uninstall a purchased app but later decide that you want to use it (and it’s still available in the App Store) simply follow the steps below.

How to Reinstall Deleted Apps

Launch the App Store app on your iPhone or iPad.
Tap the Today tab if it isn’t selected already.
Tap your circular profile photo at the top-right of the Today screen to access the account settings screen.
Tap Purchased.

In the Purchased screen, tap the Not on this iPhone/iPad tab.
Scroll through the list of purchased apps to find the one that you want to reinstate, and tap the cloud download icon next to it to re-download and install.

Related Roundup: iOS 11
Discuss this article in our forums

Ohio wants to use camera drones to monitor highway traffic

Drone technology is continuing to find multiple uses beyond snapping fancy photographs from up high and shooting gorgeous tracking shots for filmmakers.

The latest initiative to hit our radar is taking place in Ohio, which will look into the idea of using the remotely controlled flying machines to monitor traffic conditions along a stretch of highway.

Such work is usually carried out by fixed ground-based cameras, but their viewing range is limited. Helicopters, too, can be called upon, but with pilot and fuel costs to consider, such aircraft can be hugely expensive compared to a diminutive, battery-powered drone.

The Ohio Department of Transportation’s DriveOhio Division, which coordinates “smart mobility” initiatives, is working with Ohio State University’s College of Engineering on a three-year, $6-million project to learn more about how drones can be used to effectively monitor traffic conditions.

The research will take place along the Smart Mobility Corridor, a 35-mile stretch of U.S. Route 33 that already hosts a range of initiatives for connected roadway infrastructure.

The planned system would see data from drones sent to the Ohio Department of Transportation’s Traffic Management Center, where it can be assessed and, if necessary, acted upon to keep traffic flowing. The ground-based cameras would continue to operate, and also be used to help build a broad picture of what’s happening on the road.

The team, however, has plenty of prep work to be getting on with before it can launch its first drone over the highway. This includes building a safe and reliable platform that would allow the drones to be flown beyond the line of sight, which, in most cases, current regulations forbid.

Ohio State professor and Aerospace Research Center director Jim Gregory promised the platform will be able to achieve its safety goals, saying, “Our collaborative work will pave the way for the ultimate vision of safe flight of unmanned aircraft systems throughout Ohio and beyond.”

Although not part of the Ohio trial, drones could also be placed at multiple points along a highway, with each one hooked up to a power cord. This would enable them to fly around the clock, albeit from a fixed position. Such technology is already available and being used in a number of settings.

Quadcopters can also be seen flying over the busy roads of Bordeaux, France, where police are using them to catch dodgy drivers. In the space of just a few months, the trial operation led to the handing out of hundreds of fines for traffic violations. Ohio’s research, on the other hand, appears to be aimed more toward spotting traffic jams, accidents, and other hazards rather than going after speedsters.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Drone services edge closer with 10 new projects from major tech firms
• 7 ambitious DARPA projects that will help out the military of the future
• There is a good reason why this drone flies near aircraft
• Uber’s flying cars get a boost from government assistance
• World’s first highway test facility for autonomous vehicles opens in Michigan

Germany plans to put Airbus and Audi’s cool flying taxi concept into the sky

Remember that awesome mobility concept called Pop.up that showed up at the Geneva Auto Show in 2017 and returned again this year, redesigned as Pop.up Next?

Part car and part quadcopter, the electric-powered Pop.up Next is a collaboration between Airbus, Audi, and design house Italdesign.

The exciting news is that the Pop.up Next has been greenlit for tests, taking it a step toward becoming part of a flying taxi service for city dwellers.

As per Bloomberg, the German government this week signed a letter of intent with Airbus and Volkswagen’s Audi unit to test the flying machine in and around Audi’s home city of Ingolstadt.

A specific date hasn’t yet been set for the trial to begin, but with a slew of other companies already testing working prototypes, those behind the project will be keen to get Pop-Up Next off the ground at the earliest opportunity.

Commenting on plans for the unique design, German transport minister Andreas Scheuer said in a statement,“Flying taxis aren’t a vision any longer, they can take us off into a new dimension of mobility.”

He added, “They’re a huge opportunity for companies and young startups that already develop this technology very concretely and successfully.”

So what exactly will the first Pop.Up Next testers be stepping into? Well, if the upcoming prototype is anything like the current design, they’ll find a machine that’s made up of two main parts — the ground module, essentially a futuristic-looking two-seat car; and the drone module, which connects to the top of the car before flying it off to its destination.

Both modules operate using autonomous technology so the occupants can simply program where they want to go and let the machine do the rest.

In the words of those building the system, Pop.Up Next “aims to give time back to commuters, freeing them from the need to drive, through a flexible, shared, and adaptable new way of moving within cities.”

Bernd Martens, Audi’s board member for procurement and the president of Italdesign, has described Pop.Up Next as “an ambitious vision that could permanently change our urban life in the future.”

The complexity of the system presents many big challenges for engineers working on the project, and means it’ll be some time before we know for sure if it has any chance of becoming a common sight in our towns and cities. But it’s definitely great to see the project moving toward the next stage of development.

Other designs for compact, vertical take-off and landing aircraft — ones comprising a single unit rather than two parts like Pop.Up Next —include the 184 from Chinese company EHang, Uber’s Elevate machine, and the German-made Volocopter. Besides Pop-up Next, Airbus is also backing the self-piloting Vahana air taxi.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Kitty Hawk’s personal flying vehicle takes to the skies
• Check out these wacky designs from Boeing’s $2 million passenger drone contest
• Awesome Tech You Can’t Buy Yet: Smart Rubik’s Cubes, diving drones, robot artists
• Audi e-tron Vision Gran Turismo concept drives off the screen and onto the track
• Workhorse Group’s drones are now delivering packages in Ohio

Amazon Prime Exclusive Phones: Everything you need to know

Prime Exclusive Phones consist of quality handsets at discounted prices — exclusively for Amazon Prime subscribers.

It’s hard to keep track of all the perks that come with an Amazon Prime membership, but if you’re an Android fan, one of the best ones is easily Amazon’s Prime Exclusive Phones.

Prime Exclusive Phones are sold exclusively to Amazon Prime members, and this program allows you to purchase quality phones from LG, Motorola, and others at discounted rates. Here’s everything you need to know!

June 21, 2018 — Moto Z3 Play and Moto G6 Play are now in the Prime Exclusive lineup

The Moto Z3 Play is a solid upgrade to last year’s Z2 Play, but the $499 retail price doesn’t really make it stand out in this segment. Thankfully, Amazon is now making the Z3 Play available via its Prime Exclusive lineup, knocking $50 off the price of the device. The Prime variant of the Z3 Play retails for $449, and is now up for sale for Prime subscribers.

The Z3 Play offers a 6.0-inch FHD+ Super AMOLED screen, Snapdragon 636, dual 12MP + 5MP cameras at the back, 8MP front shooter, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of internal memory, microSD slot, and a 3000mAh battery. Motorola is bundling a Moto Power Pack with every unit for free, with the Moto Mod offering a 2200mAh battery capacity.

And for a limited time, Amazon will throw in a Moto Smart Speaker with Amazon Alexa for free with every purchase of the Moto Z3 Play. The Moto Mod by itself retails for $149, so combine that with the $50 discount and the Prime variant of the Moto Z3 Play is a pretty great deal.

Prime members can now pick up the Moto Z3 Play from Amazon, with the phone set for an official release on June 29.

See at Amazon

As for the Moto G6 Play, it is the more affordable variant of the Moto G6, and Prime members can get their hands on the device for $189, $10 off its retail price.

As a refresher, the Moto G6 Play features a 5.7-inch HD+ 18:9 panel, and is powered by the Snapdragon 427. You also get 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, a microSD slot, 13MP rear camera, 5MP front camera, and a massive 4000mAh battery.

Both phones come with a host of Amazon apps pre-installed, including the Amazon Widget, Amazon Shopping, and Amazon Alexa. You’ll also be able to set Alexa as the default voice assistant on either device should you wish to do so.

See at Amazon

May 30, 2018 — Motorola’s Moto G6 joins the mix!

The Moto G line is one of the most popular in the budget smartphone market, and the Moto G6 is one of the best entries yet.

Motorola’s retail price for the G6 is $250, but being a part of Amazon’s Prime Exclusive program, that price is lowered to just $235.

For that price, you’re getting a 5.7-inch Full HD+ display with an 18:9 aspect ratio, Snapdragon 450 processor, 3GB RAM, 32GB of expandable storage (up to 128GB), 3,000 mAh battery, 12MP + 5MP dual rear cameras, and Android 8.0 Oreo.

Something that is unique to the Prime Exclusive Moto G6 is built-in Alexa. To get its attention, just double press the power button and start asking away.

See at Amazon

May 22, 2018 — The LG K30 joins the lineup with a price of $140

The latest phone entering the Prime Exclusive program is LG’s K30. It’s got a 5.3-inch 1280 x 720 screen on the front in addition to on-screen navigation buttons and a 5MP selfie camera. Plastic is the material of choice for the K30’s design, and on the back, you’ll find an 8MP shooter along with a fingerprint sensor.

Other specs include the Snapdragon 425, 2GB RAM, 16GB of internal storage (expandable up to 2TB), and Android 7.1 Nougat.

You’ll pay $139.99 for the K30.

See at Amazon

What phones are available?

Amazon’s list of Prime Exclusive Phones is always changing, and as it does, we’ll be updating this list to reflect the most current lineup. As it stands right now, these are the phones you can get through the Prime Exclusive program —

• LG G6+ ($519.99)
• LG G6 ($419.99)
• LG Q6 ($189.99)
• LG K30 ($139.99)
• LG X Charge ($169.99)
• Moto E4 ($119.99)
• Moto X4 ($279.99)
• Moto G5 Plus ($204.99)
• Moto G6 ($234.99)
• Moto G6 Play ($189)
• Moto Z3 Play ($449)

Can anyone buy the phones?

Nope.

In order to purchase Prime Exclusive Phones, you’ll need to have an active subscription to Amazon Prime.

Amazon Prime costs $119 for 12 months or $39 for 3 months, and along with access to these phones, you also get free two-day shipping, access to shows/movies on Prime Video, free Kindle e-books, and much, much more.

How are they so much cheaper?

Prime Exclusive Phones are considerably cheaper than their non-Prime counterparts, but how can this be?

No matter which one you choose, all Prime Exclusive Phones come with pre-installed Amazon apps, including Amazon Shopping, Prime Video, Amazon Kindle, Amazon Music, etc.

There used to be advertisements on the lock screen of every Prime Exclusive phone, too, but Amazon changed this is February by simply kicking the price up of all its phones by $20 and removed the ads.

Amazon Echo vs. Dot vs. Tap vs. Spot vs. Show: Which should you buy?

Updated 5/30/2018 — Add the Moto G6 to the list!

Easily transform your boring bike into an ebike with the GeoOrbital Wheel

As many popular transportation options make the switch to electric, bicycles are definitely not getting left behind. But if you aren’t interested in splurging on a fully electric bike, a company called GeoOrbital may just have the perfect solution for you. The GeoOrbital wheel is a fully contained electric update that snaps on to virtually any bike in place of the front wheel. In less than 60 seconds, it lets you go from sweaty morning commuter to electric-powered ease.

Powered by a 500W Brushless DC motor and Panasonic 36V Lithium-Ion battery, the wheel lasts for roughly 30 miles on a single charge, or up to 50 miles when using pedal-assistance. It won’t exactly achieve racing speeds but it does offer the ability to go from zero to 20 miles per hour in just six seconds — an impressive feat for any bicycle. All that power is tucked away within the triangular gear house that replaces a normal bike wheel’s spokes. Additional batteries help power longer rides but even without electric support, a dead GeoOrbital just leaves you with a normal bike.

The wheel’s orbital design is admittedly modeled after the hubless wheel made popular recently by the light cycles 2010’s TRON: Legacy. The only part of the GeoOrbital system that isn’t housed within the snap-on front wheel is a throttle piece which clips onto your handlebars and features a power button and a discreet string of lights to indicate remaining battery life.

The company also says it solved the problem of flat tires, and constant tire pressure checks that cyclists frequently face, thanks to constructing its tires out of high-density foam. GeoOrbital promises that it will feel and act like a regular bike tire, except that it’s also flat-proof. A USB outlet built into the GeoOrbital wheel allows you to charge your phone (or bike lights for night rides) while you’re on the move.

After launching via Kickstarter, GeoOrbital was a massive success, amassing more than $1.2 million in funding — which easily surpassed its modest goal of $75,000. Now available for purchase, the GeoOrbital wheel retails for $995 via the brand’s website, which also offers a riding jacket, a mini bike frame, replacement clip-on throttles, extra batteries, and a host of other accessories. Judging by the high volume of glowing reviews, it appears as though GeoOrbital remains one of the few Kickstarter campaigns that offered a game-changing product, met a high demand, and continues to flourish.

Editors’ Recommendations

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• Ford GoBike ebikes come to San Francisco to conquer those steep hills
• Acton BLINK QU4TRO review
• Scoot your commute! Here are the 9 best electric scooters on the market
• The best bicycle lights

Here’s how to convert your vinyl into a digital format

Getty Images/HEX

Analog music is awesome, but it sure isn’t convenient. Because though putting on your favorite album on a turntable at home is great, you can’t take it with you on the go. Plus, if you have a rare or inherited copy of a record that you love, it will only offer a limited number of plays before you need to find another. The playing life of your vinyl can be improved by properly setting up your turntable and using the best methods to clean your records, but if you truly want to hold onto those sounds forever, you should consider digitizing that analog sound.

Doing so will not only preserve the record for future listeners and allow you to take entire albums with you on the go, but it will also give you a convenient means for cleaning up noisy records using a bevy of simple software applications.

The only question: How do you do it without running out of patience and money?

The hardware

Sadly, there is no catch-all method for digitizing your vinyl collection. The exact process depends on what kind of equipment you have. Some turntables come with built-in phono pre-amps; others don’t and rely on a receiver with a built-in phono pre-amp or a stand-alone phono pre-amp. Many modern turntables feature both a built-in pre-amp and USB output, allowing you to quickly and efficiently convert that musty copy of Steely Dan’s Can’t Buy a Thrill with little effort.

That’s not to say you can’t convert your vinyl to a digital format without an integrated USB output, but opting for a turntable built with said output makes the process far easier. Below are two such offerings we recommend; if these don’t work for you, check out our rundown of the best turntables.

Sony PS-HX500 ($330 to $400)

If you’re deeply invested into a large collection of vinyl records, a high-quality player like the Sony PS-HX500 might be worth your money. The player is outfitted with a high-quality Texas Instruments digital audio converter (DAC) that transfers at a minimum of 16-bit resolution (that’s CD quality). That’s just the minimum, though — this bad boy can transfer files up to 5.6MHz DSD, which no other record player can do. If you’re an audiophile, this is simply the best choice.

Available at: 

Amazon

Audio Technica AT-LP120 USB ($249)

Audio Technica’s AT-LP120 USB isn’t stylish, but it’s a mainstay as far as budget turntables go. It comes equipped with selectable integrated pre-amp (so outboard phono pre-amps are unnecessary) and a USB output that’s compatible with both PC and Mac systems, not to mention three speeds (33 1/3, 45, and 78 rpm) and the ability to rip at 16-bit/44.1kHz and 16-bit/48kHz sample rates. Best of all, it offers admirable sound for the price.

Available at:

Amazon

Aside from your turntable, you will also need a few cables in order to make the necessary connections. If your turntable lacks a USB output, for instance, you will need a stereo RCA cable and an RCA-to-3.5mm cord. Both cables are relatively affordable — typically under $10 — at your local electronics store or online sites like Amazon. You also need a computer with a “Line-in” port and enough space to save the resulting files, as well as a little patience, given you must play an album in real-time in order to properly record and convert it.

Further, you can always purchase a dedicated phono pre-amp if neither your A/V receiver nor your turntable has one. There is a wealth of pre-amps on the market, ranging anywhere from $20 to upward of $1,500, but opting for a nicer device will nearly always result in heightened clarity and a more natural soundscape. In the unlikely case that you’ve gotten this far but don’t actually have a record collection, we can help there too.

The best personal finance software

Tracking your finances is almost mandatory in this day and age, and though you may already use a slew of methods for monitoring your expenses, there’s certainly no shortage of quality software designed for staying in the black and providing you with a detailed report from month to month, or even day to day. Most freemium software excels when it comes to barebones budget planning, and provides simple, yet valuable analysis of your spending habits.

Here are our picks for the best personal finance software on the market.

If you’d rather focus on budgeting, there are specialized apps for that too. We also have a guide to the best apps for moving your money around.

The best

Mint (Android/iOS) — Free

Intuit’s stalwart personal finance service has been around since 2006, quickly becoming one of the go-to apps for those who prefer checking their finances from a phone. The company is known for offering both TurboTax and the like-minded Quicken. That being the case, Mint also excels in terms of customer satisfaction and feedback.

The service takes mere seconds to sync with your bank account(s), allowing you view a quick snapshot of your personal finances and providing insightful analytics regarding your spending habits when it comes to food, entertainment, utilities, and other facets of your monthly budget. You can even tailor the app’s underlying budget restrictions to adhere to your own unique lifestyle, or set bill and low-balance alerts in case you often forget the due date for your gas bill.

Mint even tracks your aforementioned subcategories to give you an up-to-date picture regarding how much you can afford to spend on gas, fast food, or any other category you specify.

The rest

Quicken (Windows/MacOS/iOS/Android)  $35+

Of all the financial management tools out there, Quicken is one of the most established. It’s been around since the early ’80s in one guise or another and is its most fully featured today. It offers budget creation tools, bill management, debt tracking, savings goals, Excel exporting, and investment coaching.

Although it isn’t free like some of the solutions on this list, it is available for just about every platform under the sun. You can use it on Windows or MacOS desktop systems, or on iOS or Android for finance management on the go. Where the standard options give you basic financial tracking functionality, the more expensive options can net you some great features, like paying bills right from within Quicken itself, as well as tracking the market value of major assets like your home.

If you want to manage your business and personal finances through the application you can do that, too, with powerful tools like managing leases and deposits, tracking business expenses and incomes, and track outstanding bills and rental payments from your customers.

There’s a reason Quicken has been around for so long. It’s comprehensive and is well integrated with companion tools used for keeping track of more than just personal finances.

YNAB (Online/Android/iOS) — $7 per-month

YNAB, or You Need a Budget, is specifically designed to help you become financially literate. As the name implies, the software provides tutorials on a variety of different financial topics designed to help better understand your spending and budging habits. For instance, you can view tutorials specifically designed to help you live off of last month’s paycheck or “save money for a rainy day.” It’s valuable advice, especially when paired with laudable mobile apps that provide updated snapshots of your finances like the aforementioned Mint.

Though the software doesn’t really go into depth about investments, given its primary task is to help users break the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle, it does automatically link to your bank account so you’ll never have to manually enter expense reports. It also categorizes your expenses — meaning you’ll always know before you go over budget.

If you don’t like the look of the latest version, you can always make use of YNAB Classic instead.

Personal Capital (Online/iOS/Android) Free

Personal Capital offers resources for both online users through its web tools and mobile users through its applications. Better yet, most of its features are entirely free. With just a quick sign up you can manage all of your accounts in one place including your mortgage and checking accounts, without having to jump around to different sites and services.

Where Personal Capital really stands out is in financial advice If you have a portfolio of at least $100,000, it’ll manage it for as little as 0.89 percent. Its financial advisors will offer you suggestions for how to manage your money the best and as a fiduciary, it’s bound to act in your best interests. That advice covers your entire financial planning, from how to fund college courses, to building a stock portfolio, maximizing your interest through savings, and equity opportunities.

For everyone else, Personal Capital offers solid personal finance tracking and investment plans, with rons of handy graphs and stats to help you stay on top of your money.

Empower (iOS/Android) Free

Empower is a truly modern form of financial management that is entirely app based. With a combination of budgeting tools, tips on how to save, build credit, and cut down on your debt, it brings together all of your banking accounts in one location to make tracking everything that bit easier.

One of the more intriguing aspects of Empower’s apps is that they can be integrated with cryptocurrency wallets. That way, you can trade and manage your cryptocurrency portfolio right alongside your fiat currency.

With solid 256-bit encryption and multifactor authentication, Empower takes serious steps to protect your financial information whilst looking to build and manage your money as best you can. It even has financial coaching if you want a little bit more hands-on help.

The only downside to it is that it’s U.S. only for now.

With all of that serious financial talk out of the way, it’s time to celebrate. How about listening to some of the best songs about money?

Editors’ Recommendations

• The best budget apps for Android and iOS
• The best iPhone apps available right now (June 2018)
• Everyone hates the new look of Google Finance
• The 100 best Android apps of 2018 (May)
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Skip the trip to REI. You can 3D print this camping and backpacking gear at home

It’s inevitable — somewhere along your journey, a piece of your outdoor gear is going to break. Sometimes its a buckle, sometimes it’s a zipper pull, and it always happens at the wrong time. Before you toss you out your backpack, tent, or camping chair, you should look to see if your broken part can be replaced using a 3D printer. If you’re looking to upgrade your backpacking or camping kit, there’s no shortage of 3D goodies for your GoPro, trekking poles, and more. Read on for some of our favorite 3D printable pieces of camping and backpacking gear.

Carabiners

Don’t waste money buying overpriced carabiners at your local outdoors store — use this scalable 3D printing file to print your carabiner at the size that you need. Just don’t try to go rock climbing with these ones.

Folding Camping Stove Gas Tripods

Positioning a gas canister on an uneven surface can try your patience. Use one of these handy tripods to help stabilize your backcountry cook set. The one pictured is designed European D2 EN417 gas canisters. Alternatively, there’s also this one that fits two other sizes (90mm or 110mm)

Replacement Zipper Pulls

Using a paper clip and few M2x6 screws, you can have a fully functional zipper pull for your tent, sleeping bag or clothing. If you don’t have a paperclip handy, there’s also plenty of fully-3D-printable zipper pull designs out there, like the one pictured above.

Clip Buckles

The number one thing that breaks on most gear is the buckle. This 3D printable file will replace a standard side-release buckle and is compatible with 3/4 inch straps.

Folding Camp Chair Parts

Plop down too hard into a camp chair, and you’ll know it. The base mounts that hold the legs and the front mounts that secure the seat are notoriously easy to snap. Thankfully, fabricating these parts is a cakewalk for even the cheapest 3D printers on the market.

Figure 9 Style Rope Tightener

Every tech-savvy camper should have this 3D printed figure 9 style rope tightener for their tarps or awnings. Seriously. These might seem dumb and unnecessary, but they’re super handy to have in your pack, and weigh practically nothing.

Sliding String Tensioner

These handy tensioners help you adjust the guy lines for your tent, tarp, or even your badminton net.

The Infamous Sporknife

Need to bring along a spoon, fork, and knife on your next camping or backpacking trip? Then here is your ultimate 3D printed all-in-one utensil: The sporkinfe! Just make sure you print with a food-safe plastic filament if you intend on eating hot food with this sucker. We highly recommend Colorfabb’s awesome nGen filament.

Tent Stakes

Ever lose or break a tent stake while camping? Of course, you have. It happens to everyone! Next time you are short a stake, don’t run out to Walmart for replacements — download these files and print your own.

Trekking Pole Clips

Want to keep your trekking poles tidy and neat while storing them? Then print up a pair or two of these handy trekking pole clips.

Survival Bracelet

Paracord can be a lifesaver when backpacking — it can replace a broken shoelace, be used to lash sticks for a shelter, and more. This printable clip set makes it easy to carry around some extra cordage.

Utility Survival Containers

Keep your matches, medicine, and other small items safe and dry with these survival containers. Each lid is threaded to fit the various sizes of bottles that you can print.

Trekking Pole Tips

The rubber tips are the first thing to go on a pair of trekking poles. You take them off and lose them, or they fall off when hiking. Replacements are hard to find — you usually have to visit a sporting goods retailer like REI, or contact the manufacturer directly. Though they’re designed specifically for Leki poles, these tips can be modified to fit a variety of trekking poles.

GoPro Backpack and Trekking Pole Mounts

Do you GoPro your hikes and share them on YouTube? Then you should check out these instructions to print a backpack strap mount and a trekking pole selfie mount.

Tape Winder

Duct tape is the go-to staple when you need to make an unexpected repair to your tarp, tent, or boots. Use this handy tape winder to store an emergency stash in your car or backpack, without the bulky roll.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Tent buying guide: How to find the best tent for your trip
• The best backpacking tents of 2018
• The beginner’s guide to backpacking gear
• The best camping hacks
• The best 4-season tents

Scientists think a form of bacteria could help make Mars hospitable to humans

From how we’re going to get there to what we’re going to eat once we arrive, there are plenty of angles to consider when it comes to potentially colonizing Mars. Perhaps the biggest one of all, however, is how exactly are we going to breathe there? After all, oxygen tanks transported from Earth may be a viable solution when you’re talking about a few astronauts on a short trip, but it’s not exactly a long-term solution.

An international team of researchers may have just prompted a major breakthrough in this department — and it involves a type of bacteria most commonly found in water. This cyanobacteria is able to use photosynthesis to generate oxygen from carbon dioxide using far less sunlight than is commonly required. This is because it replaces the normal photosynthetic machinery with a form that uses near-infrared light.

“This was highly unexpected because it means that it is possible for the demanding chemistry of water oxidation to be done with less energy,” Bill Rutherford, professor of biochemistry of solar energy at Imperial College London, told Digital Trends. “A wide range of cyanobacteria are capable of doing this whenever they get shaded from visible light but remain exposed to near-infrared light.”

One of the other fortuitous aspects of the project is that this species of bacteria, containing the set of genes of interest, can survive in a very wide range of circumstances — including hot and cold dry deserts, hot springs, in rock, in irradiated areas, and more. As a result, it could potentially be a good candidate for growing on the rugged landscape of Mars.

“We are [now] working on figuring out how evolution has allowed this new system to get over the problem of doing water splitting with less energy,” Rutherford said. “This work will provide ideas for the design features of future engineering projects for long-wavelength crops, as well as a judgment on the feasibility of such projects. Perhaps more importantly, these studies will also provide a new angle on understanding normal photosynthesis, which is universally present, which provides all of our food — in fact, it provides all the energy to the biosphere and which maintains the atmosphere.”

A paper describing the research was recently published in the journal Science.

Editors’ Recommendations

• From robotic bees to bacteria, the tech that is making for a greener tomorrow
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• A new laser eye surgery fixes your vision without any gnarly eyeball slicing
• Get your Sagan on with 60 awe-inspiring photos of the final frontier
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Wetsuit filled with heavy gas could increase divers’ survival time by hours

Less than 15 minutes. That’s how long the average person can remain conscious in freezing cold water. Death occurs around the 45-minute mark. Even when protected by a wetsuit, survival time for divers in the Arctic is measured in minutes, not hours, meaning researchers, rescue workers, and Navy SEALs — among the only people with reason to face the frigid depths — have to get in and out of the water as quickly as possible. There’s no room for lallygagging.

One simple way to boost the insulation of a wetsuit is to make it thicker (seals aren’t loaded with blubber for no reason). But increasing thickness comes at the cost of mobility — and for divers submerged under ice, mobility is key.

An innovative new technique could help make wetsuits more insulated. Developed by engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and described in a paper published this week in the journal RSC Advances, the method entails stuffing a standard wetsuit into a pressure tank that pumps it full of heavy inert gas. Once treatment is complete, this gas provides extra insulation and considerably increases the wetsuit’s protective capabilities and the length of time divers can survive in frigid waters.

“We have demonstrated a nearly twofold enhancement in the thermal insulation capabilities of a commercial wetsuit through a straightforward processing technique,” Anton Cottrill, an MIT graduate student who worked on the research, told Digital Trends.

To understand how the process works, it helps to know that neoprene — the standard material used to make today’s wetsuits — is riddled with air pockets. Some two-thirds of a wetsuit’s volume is actually air. By leaving a neoprene wetsuit in a pressure tank that’s filled with a gas like xenon or krypton, the gas is forced into the pockets of air, creating an extra bit of insulation and increasing the survivability of 14ºF water from less than an hour to up to three hours.

“A wetsuit is essentially a foam with bubbles of air trapped inside,” Cottrill said. “The air bubbles dispersed throughout the suit are the primary means of thermal insulation. So, the treatment works by placing the wetsuit into a container … that is pressurized with a gas … that is more thermally insulating than air. Through this high-pressure exposure, the gas infuses within the wetsuit and displaces the air. After removal from the chamber, the wetsuit is essentially filled with the highly thermally insulating gas.”

A wetsuit treated in this way for about a day can last for around 20 hours, according to the researchers. Moving forward, they want to decrease the rate at which the insulating gas leaks from the neoprene and hope to develop a technique that can “charge” a wetsuit indefinitely.

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