Life Hacks – Spoken Edition

Daily weblog on software and personal productivity recommends downloads, web sites and shortcuts that help you work smarter and save time. A SpokenEdition transforms written content into human-read audio you can listen to anywhere. It's perfect for times when you can't read - while driving, at the gym, doing chores, etc. Find more at www.spokenedition.com

Daily weblog on software and personal productivity recommends downloads, web sites and shortcuts that help you work smarter and save time. A SpokenEdition transforms written content into human-read audio you can listen to anywhere. It's perfect for times when you can't read - while driving, at the gym, doing chores, etc. Find more at www.spokenedition.com

Daily weblog on software and personal productivity recommends downloads, web sites and shortcuts that help you work smarter and save time. A SpokenEdition transforms written content into human-read audio you can listen to anywhere. It's perfect for times when you can't read - while driving, at the gym, doing chores, etc. Find more at www.spokenedition.com

Daily weblog on software and personal productivity recommends downloads, web sites and shortcuts that help you work smarter and save time. A SpokenEdition transforms written content into human-read audio you can listen to anywhere. It's perfect for times when you can't read - while driving, at the gym, doing chores, etc. Find more at www.spokenedition.com

Daily weblog on software and personal productivity recommends downloads, web sites and shortcuts that help you work smarter and save time. A SpokenEdition transforms written content into human-read audio you can listen to anywhere. It's perfect for times when you can't read - while driving, at the gym, doing chores, etc. Find more at www.spokenedition.com

If you've used a menorah for even a few years, it's probably gunked up with wax (unless you have an oil-based one). The problem gets worse over time, so let this year be the year your menorah stays clean and fresh. Before Lighting: Prevent Wax Drippings If you want to spend the cash, beeswax and other dripless candles are obvious choices for a cleaner menorah. However, if you use traditional candles, you can also: Freeze the candles to make them last longer (but not 8 nights) and prevent dripping.

Fans of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Angel,” and “Firefly” can now stream every episode of all three shows for free using Facebook. Facebook has acquired the rights for this collection of Joss Whedon shows for its Facebook Watch product. With Facebook Watch, you can simultaneously watch a video with friends (or anyone else you’d like) on Facebook, and hold a “Watch Party.

Android: There are a lot of apps out there that can send text messages using your voice, including Google's own in-built Voice Actions. However, not many read your incoming messages out loud when they arrive. That's where Sonalight's new app, Text By Voice, comes in. Once the app is running, Text by Voice is completely hands-free.

Smart locks can be great when you need to give someone temporary access to your home and don’t want to hand over a copyable key, or you just want to be able to use your smartphone for access to your pad rather than digging through your purse or bag for your keys. One way you might not be using your smart lock but should is through a smart assistant like Google Home.

In the latest (or, really, most recently unearthed) instance of the internet being creepier than most users realized, it has come to our attention that the text box you use to communicate with customer service reps at most websites doesn’t work the way you expect it to. In short: it would seem that a lot of companies that let you live chat with customer service reps all utilize a service that allows said reps to see everything you type into the text box, whether or not you press send.

Not to be overly presumptuous, but if you’re a person who’s alive in the world at 2018, there’s a good chance that sometimes, you need help calming down. But barring a total geo-political overhaul—or various forms of self-medication—what can you do? In this week’s episode of The Upgrade, Alice and Melissa explore music that instantly calms them down; we interview ASMR expert Dr.

Our Windows App of the Week isn’t something you’ll probably have to use very often—we hope—but it’s a great tool if you’re upgrading your system and need to move everything from an old hard drive to a new drive. In fact, that’s exactly what I did this weekend when I swapped out one of my secondary hard drives for a new (larger) drive.

No one likes sharing small talk with strangers. It’s awkward, boring, and it seems like you’re just rattling off the same sentences every time. Blogger Emilie Wapnick shows us that it doesn’t have to be that bad: all you need to do is share a small detail of your life to take the conversation from kill-me-now boring to interesting. . . .

It might be the most “Monday” (Mondayiest?) Monday of the year. After a long, turkey-fueled holiday weekend, you now find yourself back at work, dreaming of your pajamas and a bowl of mashed potatoes, rather than your Black Friday-discounted suit and stale coffee. So, start small today.

Mac OS X: Learning keyboard shortcuts is one of the best ways to enhance your productivity, but there are tons to learn—especially when you count individual applications' own special shortcuts. CheatSheet is your Mac shortcuts friend: The free utility quickly summons a list of all keyboard shortcuts for the app you're using. Once you launch CheatSheet (copy the unzipped file to your Applications folder), the tiny app will wait in the background.