This is just one step in a series created to help people improve their online security regardless of their technical knowledge. For more information, see our complete Simple Online Security series.
When you search for information online, it tends to leave breadcrumbs that can lead back to you. This can include everything from your computer’s IP address to the history in your web browser, which can lead to annoying advertisements or someone happening upon your browser history.
When the sky starts to turn colors at 4 p.m. and darkens by 5 p.m., my mood plummets with the sun. My eyes feel heavy, I can’t stop yawning, and all I want to do is crawl under my weighted blanket and hibernate through the winter. For the first few weeks after the end of daylight saving time (DST), falling back one hour feels like I’m being punched in the face with sadness then body slammed straight into bed every night. I’m not alone—it’s a tough time for a lot of people.
Ask Wirecutter, an advice column written by Annemarie Conte, explores the best approaches to buying, using, and maintaining stuff. Email your biggest product-related problems to askwirecutter@wirecutter.com.
Advent calendars are an end-of-year tradition that provide a daily delight in the weeks leading up to Christmas. They have definitely become more specific in recent years, catering to almost every interest. Love cheese? Aldi has you covered, along with a multitude of other options. And Trader Joe’s 99-cent chocolate-a-day calendar definitely wins for best price. Since Advent Calendars are a seasonal item, they often sell out quickly, which is why our crew of calendar lovers recommends shopping early or making your own. This list is mostly based on first-hand experience with previous years’ versions, but we’re confident this new crop of calendars will deliver a sweet and special surprise each day.
It’s likely going to cost more to heat your home this winter, and with the prices of oil, natural gas, and electricity all expected to rise in the coming months, millions of Americans will surely be looking for ways to save.
Sometimes you want to snap a photo that’s just for you. Maybe it’s a particularly, uh, personal selfie, or perhaps it’s the directions to a top-secret party in the woods. Tucked away among the fancier new features in iOS 16 is a small but welcome addition: biometric locks on the hidden and deleted albums. It’s a tiny thing, but it makes the hidden folder feel far safer to store photos in, and it comes closer to Android’s (still superior) Locked Folder feature. Now is a good time to get to know how both of those features work, alongside a few of the other privacy tools that Apple and Google have built into their respective photo apps.
Whether you’re on a day hike with friends or tackling an ambitious backpacking route, you need a good pair of hiking boots to protect your feet and stabilize your ankles. After trekking over 1,200 miles and taking more than 2 million steps across all types of terrain in 43 pairs of hiking boots over the course of three years, we’ve chosen the Salomon Quest 4 Gore-Tex Hiking Boots (men’s and women’s) as the best hiking boots because of their solid traction and support, breathable and waterproof materials, and a mix of features that let us hike comfortably for miles, including a wide toe box, sturdy heel protection, and a gusseted tongue.
