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Sorry MAGA, Turns Out People Still Like ‘Woke’ Art

Sorry MAGA, Turns Out People Still Like ‘Woke’ Art

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As this year’s Oscar nominations rolled out this morning, I told my boyfriend that Sinners, with 16 noms in total, had made history. “Woke is back,” he replied.

He was joking (don’t come for him!), but his quip highlights a pretty stark dichotomy. Last year, as everyone from President Donald Trump down harped on about the perils of DEI, the biggest cultural breakthroughs—Sinners, KPop Demon Hunters, Heated Rivalry, One Battle After Another—all showcased diversity in fresh ways. And it succeeded. These works weren’t just popular among leftists or critics, they were bona fide cultural phenomena.

Sinners, a horror movie set in the Jim Crow South, used vampires as a metaphorical device to explore systemic racism and cultural theft—and director Ryan Coogler scored a feat in his deal with Warner Bros. that gives him the rights to the film in 25 years. KPop Demon Hunters, a story by a female Korean-Canadian director who’d been waiting over a decade for her chance to direct a feature, placed a huge emphasis on authenticity and brought the already-massive subculture around K-pop even more into the mainstream. Heated Rivalry, a small Canadian television production picked up by HBO, had an extremely subversive take on hockey by chronicling the horny-yet-poignant love story between two closeted pro players. And One Battle After Another—decried by conservative commentators who felt it lionized left-wing violence—offered complicated views on motherhood and activism while skewering ICE-like agent Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw and his desperate attempts to fit in with other racists.

In a year when the White House issued multiple executive orders doing away with DEI programs in the federal government, the successes of those projects felt like a form of resistance. Corporate media followed Trump’s suit, with Warner Bros. Discovery, Amazon, Paramount Global, and Disney all reportedly scaling back on their diversity efforts. Skydance, founded by David Ellison, son of billionaire Trump supporter Larry Ellison, acquired Paramount, which briefly removed Jimmy Kimmel from the air due to his joke about Charlie Kirk supporters and gave CBS News a seemingly conservative makeover. Meanwhile, shows that offered red meat in the form of farmers, grumpy MAGA adherents, cowboys, and Christian values were greenlit and promoted.

“There is a feeling from … this administration that the only stories that matter are stories of straight white men, and that is just simply not the case,” says Jenni Werner, executive artistic director of the New Harmony Project, which develops theater, film, and TV projects and says it is committed to anti-oppressive and anti-racist values.

“Audiences want to feel transformed. You want to be able to sit down and watch something, whether it’s in your home or in a theater, that takes you into a new place and maybe gives you a new understanding of something.” She adds that she has faith that artists will keep making “boundary-pushing work,” even if it keeps getting harder.

Even before Trump’s second term, trying to get out-of-the-box stories made in Hollywood has been a slog. According to UCLA’s Hollywood Diversity Report, released in December, nearly 80 percent of directors of theatrical movies in 2024 were white, along with about 75 percent of leading actors.

The report also suggests this discrepancy is leaving money on the table, noting that BIPOC moviegoers “were overrepresented as ticket buyers for films that had casts of more than 20 percent BIPOC.” Sinners grossed $368 million at the box office, a feat that puts it in the “horror hall of fame,” per The New York Times.

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It seemed like this might have been a rare week without a “robot doing dumb shit” story—but never fear, because Jeff Bezos’s squadron of airborne delivery drones is here to save the day. Prime Air, Amazon’s drone delivery service, has been rolling out in a number of US cities over the last few months and—surprise!—it looks like they kinda suck compared to their human equivalents. (And that’s really saying something considering those human equivalents’ propensity for running up to your front door, whacking a “Sorry we missed you!” sticker right below the note you left saying “BUZZER DOESN’T WORK—PLEASE CALL THIS NUMBER”, and then driving away.)*

Still, whatever else your local Amazon driver might do, one thing they won’t do is casually drop your precious package onto concrete from 10 feet in the air. Amazon’s drones, however…

Several stories videos have surfaced of late, apparently showing Amazon-branded drones hovering above customers’ driveways/stoops/etc and then just dropping their cargo onto the ground below. In one video, YouTuber Tamara Hancock orders a plastic bottle of blue raspberry syrup—which is apparently a substance one can order—and watches as the drone dumps it unceremoniously on her driveway. She opens the package and, sure enough, the video depicts a smashed and leaking screw top.

Given the unholy racket these things make, you can probably hear them approaching a mile off, so perhaps the best course of action is to just run outside and try to catch your package before it smashes into the ground. This isn’t the seamless service Amazon promised, but then again, it’s not all that different from waiting to hear the delivery driver approaching and then booking it outside to grab your package before he gets a chance to whack the dreaded “Sorry we missed you!” sticker on your door. Plus ça change, etc.

Anyway, it’s not easy to see how this issue might be mitigated. The obvious answer is “hover closer to the ground”, but given delivery robots’ record in failing to detect obstacles in their path, it feels like that strategy would eventually result in a headline like “Florida Grandmother Beheaded by Drone As She Tries to Collect Her Order of Trump Memorabilia.”

All jokes aside, the question of how drones actually avoid doing things like beheading grandmothers is, unsurprisingly, controversial. Last week Chad Butler, a former head of information security at Amazon’s commercial drone program, posted a video about the regulatory regime surrounding drones like the ones Amazon use, which are referred to as “beyond visual line of sight”, or BVLOS, drones. As the name suggests, these are drones that are able to fly autonomously beyond the line of sight of a human operator. Without a human directing them, drones need to be able to ensure they don’t fly into a wall.

Butler explains that there are two competing schools of thought about how to do this. The first requires the use of a system called ADS-B, which maintains a consistent broadcast of the drone’s altitude, heading and air speed, creating a sort of virtual environment that lets every drone know where every other drone is. The second, championed by Amazon, is more like the technology used on ground-based robots—it uses onboard “detect and avoid” systems like camera and radar, which allow drones to “see” what’s around them and navigate themselves around obstacles.

Amazon recently left the Commercial Drone Alliance, which advocates for the first system, and Butler actually endorses his former employer’s stance. He argues that if drones are constantly broadcasting an unencrypted record of their position, and they have no independent on-board methods to verify that position, then it becomes pretty easy for hackers to hijack them by simply spoofing a GPS signal. This scenario certainly sounds credible—and, frankly, kinda frightening. (Reassuringly, Butler says, “This is not a drone problem—it’s a design pattern problem, and I see it everywhere in AI and autonomous system design.” So that’s great.)

Having said that, we’ve seen with ground-based robots that the use of on-board sensors alone is also, um, less than perfect—and if navigating a drone in two dimensions is hard, adding a whole other dimension seems to just increase the difficulty and the chance of things going wrong. And on that note, there does seem to be one straightforward way of avoiding the possibility of a hacked delivery drone delivering a bomb to the White House or something, which is just getting rid of the bloody things. However, capitalism will not abide such good sense, so I guess we’ll just see how this whole thing pans out.

*To be clear, we don’t necessarily blame drivers working to insane schedules for doing this; it is frustrating, though.

#Amazon #Delivery #Drones #Involve #Perilous #10Foot #Drop #Users #Posting #Apparent #ResultsAmazon,Prime Air">Amazon Delivery Drones Involve a Perilous 10-Foot Drop. Users Are Posting the Apparent Results It seemed like this might have been a rare week without a “robot doing dumb shit” story—but never fear, because Jeff Bezos’s squadron of airborne delivery drones is here to save the day. Prime Air, Amazon’s drone delivery service, has been rolling out in a number of US cities over the last few months and—surprise!—it looks like they kinda suck compared to their human equivalents. (And that’s really saying something considering those human equivalents’ propensity for running up to your front door, whacking a “Sorry we missed you!” sticker right below the note you left saying “BUZZER DOESN’T WORK—PLEASE CALL THIS NUMBER”, and then driving away.)* Still, whatever else your local Amazon driver might do, one thing they won’t do is casually drop your precious package onto concrete from 10 feet in the air. Amazon’s drones, however… Several stories videos have surfaced of late, apparently showing Amazon-branded drones hovering above customers’ driveways/stoops/etc and then just dropping their cargo onto the ground below. In one video, YouTuber Tamara Hancock orders a plastic bottle of blue raspberry syrup—which is apparently a substance one can order—and watches as the drone dumps it unceremoniously on her driveway. She opens the package and, sure enough, the video depicts a smashed and leaking screw top. Given the unholy racket these things make, you can probably hear them approaching a mile off, so perhaps the best course of action is to just run outside and try to catch your package before it smashes into the ground. This isn’t the seamless service Amazon promised, but then again, it’s not all that different from waiting to hear the delivery driver approaching and then booking it outside to grab your package before he gets a chance to whack the dreaded “Sorry we missed you!” sticker on your door. Plus ça change, etc. Anyway, it’s not easy to see how this issue might be mitigated. The obvious answer is “hover closer to the ground”, but given delivery robots’ record in failing to detect obstacles in their path, it feels like that strategy would eventually result in a headline like “Florida Grandmother Beheaded by Drone As She Tries to Collect Her Order of Trump Memorabilia.” All jokes aside, the question of how drones actually avoid doing things like beheading grandmothers is, unsurprisingly, controversial. Last week Chad Butler, a former head of information security at Amazon’s commercial drone program, posted a video about the regulatory regime surrounding drones like the ones Amazon use, which are referred to as “beyond visual line of sight”, or BVLOS, drones. As the name suggests, these are drones that are able to fly autonomously beyond the line of sight of a human operator. Without a human directing them, drones need to be able to ensure they don’t fly into a wall. Butler explains that there are two competing schools of thought about how to do this. The first requires the use of a system called ADS-B, which maintains a consistent broadcast of the drone’s altitude, heading and air speed, creating a sort of virtual environment that lets every drone know where every other drone is. The second, championed by Amazon, is more like the technology used on ground-based robots—it uses onboard “detect and avoid” systems like camera and radar, which allow drones to “see” what’s around them and navigate themselves around obstacles. Amazon recently left the Commercial Drone Alliance, which advocates for the first system, and Butler actually endorses his former employer’s stance. He argues that if drones are constantly broadcasting an unencrypted record of their position, and they have no independent on-board methods to verify that position, then it becomes pretty easy for hackers to hijack them by simply spoofing a GPS signal. This scenario certainly sounds credible—and, frankly, kinda frightening. (Reassuringly, Butler says, “This is not a drone problem—it’s a design pattern problem, and I see it everywhere in AI and autonomous system design.” So that’s great.) Having said that, we’ve seen with ground-based robots that the use of on-board sensors alone is also, um, less than perfect—and if navigating a drone in two dimensions is hard, adding a whole other dimension seems to just increase the difficulty and the chance of things going wrong. And on that note, there does seem to be one straightforward way of avoiding the possibility of a hacked delivery drone delivering a bomb to the White House or something, which is just getting rid of the bloody things. However, capitalism will not abide such good sense, so I guess we’ll just see how this whole thing pans out. *To be clear, we don’t necessarily blame drivers working to insane schedules for doing this; it is frustrating, though. #Amazon #Delivery #Drones #Involve #Perilous #10Foot #Drop #Users #Posting #Apparent #ResultsAmazon,Prime Air

stories videos have surfaced of late, apparently showing Amazon-branded drones hovering above customers’ driveways/stoops/etc and then just dropping their cargo onto the ground below. In one video, YouTuber Tamara Hancock orders a plastic bottle of blue raspberry syrup—which is apparently a substance one can order—and watches as the drone dumps it unceremoniously on her driveway. She opens the package and, sure enough, the video depicts a smashed and leaking screw top.

Given the unholy racket these things make, you can probably hear them approaching a mile off, so perhaps the best course of action is to just run outside and try to catch your package before it smashes into the ground. This isn’t the seamless service Amazon promised, but then again, it’s not all that different from waiting to hear the delivery driver approaching and then booking it outside to grab your package before he gets a chance to whack the dreaded “Sorry we missed you!” sticker on your door. Plus ça change, etc.

Anyway, it’s not easy to see how this issue might be mitigated. The obvious answer is “hover closer to the ground”, but given delivery robots’ record in failing to detect obstacles in their path, it feels like that strategy would eventually result in a headline like “Florida Grandmother Beheaded by Drone As She Tries to Collect Her Order of Trump Memorabilia.”

All jokes aside, the question of how drones actually avoid doing things like beheading grandmothers is, unsurprisingly, controversial. Last week Chad Butler, a former head of information security at Amazon’s commercial drone program, posted a video about the regulatory regime surrounding drones like the ones Amazon use, which are referred to as “beyond visual line of sight”, or BVLOS, drones. As the name suggests, these are drones that are able to fly autonomously beyond the line of sight of a human operator. Without a human directing them, drones need to be able to ensure they don’t fly into a wall.

Butler explains that there are two competing schools of thought about how to do this. The first requires the use of a system called ADS-B, which maintains a consistent broadcast of the drone’s altitude, heading and air speed, creating a sort of virtual environment that lets every drone know where every other drone is. The second, championed by Amazon, is more like the technology used on ground-based robots—it uses onboard “detect and avoid” systems like camera and radar, which allow drones to “see” what’s around them and navigate themselves around obstacles.

Amazon recently left the Commercial Drone Alliance, which advocates for the first system, and Butler actually endorses his former employer’s stance. He argues that if drones are constantly broadcasting an unencrypted record of their position, and they have no independent on-board methods to verify that position, then it becomes pretty easy for hackers to hijack them by simply spoofing a GPS signal. This scenario certainly sounds credible—and, frankly, kinda frightening. (Reassuringly, Butler says, “This is not a drone problem—it’s a design pattern problem, and I see it everywhere in AI and autonomous system design.” So that’s great.)

Having said that, we’ve seen with ground-based robots that the use of on-board sensors alone is also, um, less than perfect—and if navigating a drone in two dimensions is hard, adding a whole other dimension seems to just increase the difficulty and the chance of things going wrong. And on that note, there does seem to be one straightforward way of avoiding the possibility of a hacked delivery drone delivering a bomb to the White House or something, which is just getting rid of the bloody things. However, capitalism will not abide such good sense, so I guess we’ll just see how this whole thing pans out.

*To be clear, we don’t necessarily blame drivers working to insane schedules for doing this; it is frustrating, though.

#Amazon #Delivery #Drones #Involve #Perilous #10Foot #Drop #Users #Posting #Apparent #ResultsAmazon,Prime Air">Amazon Delivery Drones Involve a Perilous 10-Foot Drop. Users Are Posting the Apparent ResultsAmazon Delivery Drones Involve a Perilous 10-Foot Drop. Users Are Posting the Apparent Results It seemed like this might have been a rare week without a “robot doing dumb shit” story—but never fear, because Jeff Bezos’s squadron of airborne delivery drones is here to save the day. Prime Air, Amazon’s drone delivery service, has been rolling out in a number of US cities over the last few months and—surprise!—it looks like they kinda suck compared to their human equivalents. (And that’s really saying something considering those human equivalents’ propensity for running up to your front door, whacking a “Sorry we missed you!” sticker right below the note you left saying “BUZZER DOESN’T WORK—PLEASE CALL THIS NUMBER”, and then driving away.)* Still, whatever else your local Amazon driver might do, one thing they won’t do is casually drop your precious package onto concrete from 10 feet in the air. Amazon’s drones, however… Several stories videos have surfaced of late, apparently showing Amazon-branded drones hovering above customers’ driveways/stoops/etc and then just dropping their cargo onto the ground below. In one video, YouTuber Tamara Hancock orders a plastic bottle of blue raspberry syrup—which is apparently a substance one can order—and watches as the drone dumps it unceremoniously on her driveway. She opens the package and, sure enough, the video depicts a smashed and leaking screw top. Given the unholy racket these things make, you can probably hear them approaching a mile off, so perhaps the best course of action is to just run outside and try to catch your package before it smashes into the ground. This isn’t the seamless service Amazon promised, but then again, it’s not all that different from waiting to hear the delivery driver approaching and then booking it outside to grab your package before he gets a chance to whack the dreaded “Sorry we missed you!” sticker on your door. Plus ça change, etc. Anyway, it’s not easy to see how this issue might be mitigated. The obvious answer is “hover closer to the ground”, but given delivery robots’ record in failing to detect obstacles in their path, it feels like that strategy would eventually result in a headline like “Florida Grandmother Beheaded by Drone As She Tries to Collect Her Order of Trump Memorabilia.” All jokes aside, the question of how drones actually avoid doing things like beheading grandmothers is, unsurprisingly, controversial. Last week Chad Butler, a former head of information security at Amazon’s commercial drone program, posted a video about the regulatory regime surrounding drones like the ones Amazon use, which are referred to as “beyond visual line of sight”, or BVLOS, drones. As the name suggests, these are drones that are able to fly autonomously beyond the line of sight of a human operator. Without a human directing them, drones need to be able to ensure they don’t fly into a wall. Butler explains that there are two competing schools of thought about how to do this. The first requires the use of a system called ADS-B, which maintains a consistent broadcast of the drone’s altitude, heading and air speed, creating a sort of virtual environment that lets every drone know where every other drone is. The second, championed by Amazon, is more like the technology used on ground-based robots—it uses onboard “detect and avoid” systems like camera and radar, which allow drones to “see” what’s around them and navigate themselves around obstacles. Amazon recently left the Commercial Drone Alliance, which advocates for the first system, and Butler actually endorses his former employer’s stance. He argues that if drones are constantly broadcasting an unencrypted record of their position, and they have no independent on-board methods to verify that position, then it becomes pretty easy for hackers to hijack them by simply spoofing a GPS signal. This scenario certainly sounds credible—and, frankly, kinda frightening. (Reassuringly, Butler says, “This is not a drone problem—it’s a design pattern problem, and I see it everywhere in AI and autonomous system design.” So that’s great.) Having said that, we’ve seen with ground-based robots that the use of on-board sensors alone is also, um, less than perfect—and if navigating a drone in two dimensions is hard, adding a whole other dimension seems to just increase the difficulty and the chance of things going wrong. And on that note, there does seem to be one straightforward way of avoiding the possibility of a hacked delivery drone delivering a bomb to the White House or something, which is just getting rid of the bloody things. However, capitalism will not abide such good sense, so I guess we’ll just see how this whole thing pans out. *To be clear, we don’t necessarily blame drivers working to insane schedules for doing this; it is frustrating, though. #Amazon #Delivery #Drones #Involve #Perilous #10Foot #Drop #Users #Posting #Apparent #ResultsAmazon,Prime Air

It seemed like this might have been a rare week without a “robot doing dumb shit” story—but never fear, because Jeff Bezos’s squadron of airborne delivery drones is here to save the day. Prime Air, Amazon’s drone delivery service, has been rolling out in a number of US cities over the last few months and—surprise!—it looks like they kinda suck compared to their human equivalents. (And that’s really saying something considering those human equivalents’ propensity for running up to your front door, whacking a “Sorry we missed you!” sticker right below the note you left saying “BUZZER DOESN’T WORK—PLEASE CALL THIS NUMBER”, and then driving away.)*

Still, whatever else your local Amazon driver might do, one thing they won’t do is casually drop your precious package onto concrete from 10 feet in the air. Amazon’s drones, however…

Several stories videos have surfaced of late, apparently showing Amazon-branded drones hovering above customers’ driveways/stoops/etc and then just dropping their cargo onto the ground below. In one video, YouTuber Tamara Hancock orders a plastic bottle of blue raspberry syrup—which is apparently a substance one can order—and watches as the drone dumps it unceremoniously on her driveway. She opens the package and, sure enough, the video depicts a smashed and leaking screw top.

Given the unholy racket these things make, you can probably hear them approaching a mile off, so perhaps the best course of action is to just run outside and try to catch your package before it smashes into the ground. This isn’t the seamless service Amazon promised, but then again, it’s not all that different from waiting to hear the delivery driver approaching and then booking it outside to grab your package before he gets a chance to whack the dreaded “Sorry we missed you!” sticker on your door. Plus ça change, etc.

Anyway, it’s not easy to see how this issue might be mitigated. The obvious answer is “hover closer to the ground”, but given delivery robots’ record in failing to detect obstacles in their path, it feels like that strategy would eventually result in a headline like “Florida Grandmother Beheaded by Drone As She Tries to Collect Her Order of Trump Memorabilia.”

All jokes aside, the question of how drones actually avoid doing things like beheading grandmothers is, unsurprisingly, controversial. Last week Chad Butler, a former head of information security at Amazon’s commercial drone program, posted a video about the regulatory regime surrounding drones like the ones Amazon use, which are referred to as “beyond visual line of sight”, or BVLOS, drones. As the name suggests, these are drones that are able to fly autonomously beyond the line of sight of a human operator. Without a human directing them, drones need to be able to ensure they don’t fly into a wall.

Butler explains that there are two competing schools of thought about how to do this. The first requires the use of a system called ADS-B, which maintains a consistent broadcast of the drone’s altitude, heading and air speed, creating a sort of virtual environment that lets every drone know where every other drone is. The second, championed by Amazon, is more like the technology used on ground-based robots—it uses onboard “detect and avoid” systems like camera and radar, which allow drones to “see” what’s around them and navigate themselves around obstacles.

Amazon recently left the Commercial Drone Alliance, which advocates for the first system, and Butler actually endorses his former employer’s stance. He argues that if drones are constantly broadcasting an unencrypted record of their position, and they have no independent on-board methods to verify that position, then it becomes pretty easy for hackers to hijack them by simply spoofing a GPS signal. This scenario certainly sounds credible—and, frankly, kinda frightening. (Reassuringly, Butler says, “This is not a drone problem—it’s a design pattern problem, and I see it everywhere in AI and autonomous system design.” So that’s great.)

Having said that, we’ve seen with ground-based robots that the use of on-board sensors alone is also, um, less than perfect—and if navigating a drone in two dimensions is hard, adding a whole other dimension seems to just increase the difficulty and the chance of things going wrong. And on that note, there does seem to be one straightforward way of avoiding the possibility of a hacked delivery drone delivering a bomb to the White House or something, which is just getting rid of the bloody things. However, capitalism will not abide such good sense, so I guess we’ll just see how this whole thing pans out.

*To be clear, we don’t necessarily blame drivers working to insane schedules for doing this; it is frustrating, though.

#Amazon #Delivery #Drones #Involve #Perilous #10Foot #Drop #Users #Posting #Apparent #ResultsAmazon,Prime Air

I tried the battery version, which does require you recharge it every couple of weeks, but the wired-in version is the top recommendation on our guide to the Best Video Doorbells.

A Better Birdhouse

I had a new-to-me problem this spring: bird invasion. A little bird made a nest in my front-door wreath without us noticing. One evening, my sister opened the door, and the bird flew out of the nest and straight into our house. After a 30-minute battle to get it outside again (and keep my cat from eating it), it wasn’t until we saw the bird fly off the door again the next day that we realized it was calling our home its home, too.

If this is a common problem at your house, our resident bird-gear tester Kat Merck has a solution: a smart nesting box. Birdfy makes a few different smart bird feeders we like for bird-watching, and the Nest Duo is a birdhouse that lets you watch the birds while they nest inside of it. It’s a slim, attractive box that will add to your front yard’s style while also packing two solar-powered cameras (one facing the entrance, one focused inside) so you can bird-watch from multiple angles. It comes with different hole sizes to appeal to different species, metal predator guards to prevent chewing around the hole, and a remote control to reset or recharge the camera without disturbing your feathered neighbors.

Stylish Smart Lights

Image may contain: Electronics, Mobile Phone, Phone, Light, Computer Hardware, Hardware, Mouse, Appliance, and Blow Dryer

Govee

Outdoor Clear Bulb String Lights

I’ve liked Govee’s smart outdoor string lights before, usually for my holiday decor, and have previously recommended something similar with a bistro-light-like look that happened to be smart. These clear bulb string lights are part of Govee’s current lineup and have a contemporary twist with a triangle in the center instead of the wire filament. These are a fun option for outdoor lights you can enjoy on warm nights, and they can do every color and shade of white without looking as bulky as permanent outdoor lights. (Added bonus, these lights are also Matter compatible!)

Fresh Bulbs

Image may contain: Lighting, Electronics, LED, Light, Appliance, Blow Dryer, Device, and Electrical Device

Cync

Smart LED Light Bulb, PAR38

If you have light fixtures you want to remote-control, add an outdoor smart bulb. There are tons to choose from, and you can usually find one from any brand you already have at home. The only downside is that outdoor-rated smart bulbs are usually 4.75-inch-diameter PAR38-style bulbs, so they’re best for downward-facing floodlights on your porch or balcony. They’ll likely be too big to fit in a wall fixture as a replacement for a normal-sized bulb. Don’t just grab any smart bulb—not all are outdoor-rated. Check for mentions of outdoor use and waterproof ratings to make sure they’re safe to use. I’m a big fan of Cync bulbs, and the brand has an outdoor version of the Cync Full Color bulbs I like to use indoors. You’ll be able to add fun colors as well as shades of white, so you can turn the porch a spooky orange or red for Halloween, pink for Valentine’s Day, or the colors of your favorite sports team on game day.

Remote-Controlled Garage

Chamberlain

MyQ Smart Garage Controller

Chamberlain

MyQ Smart Garage Door Opener with Integrated Camera

If your garage is the centerpiece of your home’s curb appeal, you can control it as easily as a smart door by adding a smart controller. You can do two different styles: I have the Chamberlain MyQ professionally installed smart garage opener, which means the device that controls my garage has these smarts built into it (plus a camera, but I find it doesn’t work great with how far the device is from my Wi-Fi router), or you can get a smart garage controller that can add smart features onto an existing garage door. Both let you check whether the garage is open or closed and operate it remotely, and you can add a video keypad that doubles as a video doorbell and can let you open or close the garage without your phone.

Smart Shades

SmartWings

Motorized Roller Shades

Lutron

Caseta Smart Shades

The front of my home faces west, so it’s absolutely baking at the end of the day. What I need to add are some of our favorite smart shades to automate closing the shades on that side of the house at the right time of day. These also give your home a nice, cohesive look and immediate, controllable privacy from the outside world. WIRED reviewer Simon Hill recommends the SmartWings shades as his top picks, and Lutron’s Caseta shades if you’re looking for a more upgraded look.

Invisible Swaps

Looking to add some smarts without touching your existing setup? These switch-ups can make your front door and yard smart without being visible.

Yale

Approach Lock

This smart lock just swaps out the inner half of your front-door lock to make it smart without requiring a new key or changing your exterior hardware. You can also add on a keypad—or not, if you’d rather keep the smarts a complete secret.

Cync

Outdoor Smart Plug

This outdoor plug is visible at the outlet itself, but if the outlet is covered by something or is around the corner from your front door, no one will know that your lights or other electrical devices are connected to this smart plug.

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#Smart #Home #Gadgets #Amp #Curb #Appealsmart home,shopping,household,buying guides,how-to,yardware upgrade">The Smart Home Gadgets to Amp Up Your Curb AppealI tried the battery version, which does require you recharge it every couple of weeks, but the wired-in version is the top recommendation on our guide to the Best Video Doorbells.A Better BirdhouseI had a new-to-me problem this spring: bird invasion. A little bird made a nest in my front-door wreath without us noticing. One evening, my sister opened the door, and the bird flew out of the nest and straight into our house. After a 30-minute battle to get it outside again (and keep my cat from eating it), it wasn’t until we saw the bird fly off the door again the next day that we realized it was calling our home its home, too.If this is a common problem at your house, our resident bird-gear tester Kat Merck has a solution: a smart nesting box. Birdfy makes a few different smart bird feeders we like for bird-watching, and the Nest Duo is a birdhouse that lets you watch the birds while they nest inside of it. It’s a slim, attractive box that will add to your front yard’s style while also packing two solar-powered cameras (one facing the entrance, one focused inside) so you can bird-watch from multiple angles. It comes with different hole sizes to appeal to different species, metal predator guards to prevent chewing around the hole, and a remote control to reset or recharge the camera without disturbing your feathered neighbors.Stylish Smart LightsGoveeOutdoor Clear Bulb String LightsI’ve liked Govee’s smart outdoor string lights before, usually for my holiday decor, and have previously recommended something similar with a bistro-light-like look that happened to be smart. These clear bulb string lights are part of Govee’s current lineup and have a contemporary twist with a triangle in the center instead of the wire filament. These are a fun option for outdoor lights you can enjoy on warm nights, and they can do every color and shade of white without looking as bulky as permanent outdoor lights. (Added bonus, these lights are also Matter compatible!)Fresh BulbsCyncSmart LED Light Bulb, PAR38If you have light fixtures you want to remote-control, add an outdoor smart bulb. There are tons to choose from, and you can usually find one from any brand you already have at home. The only downside is that outdoor-rated smart bulbs are usually 4.75-inch-diameter PAR38-style bulbs, so they’re best for downward-facing floodlights on your porch or balcony. They’ll likely be too big to fit in a wall fixture as a replacement for a normal-sized bulb. Don’t just grab any smart bulb—not all are outdoor-rated. Check for mentions of outdoor use and waterproof ratings to make sure they’re safe to use. I’m a big fan of Cync bulbs, and the brand has an outdoor version of the Cync Full Color bulbs I like to use indoors. You’ll be able to add fun colors as well as shades of white, so you can turn the porch a spooky orange or red for Halloween, pink for Valentine’s Day, or the colors of your favorite sports team on game day.Remote-Controlled GarageChamberlainMyQ Smart Garage ControllerChamberlainMyQ Smart Garage Door Opener with Integrated CameraIf your garage is the centerpiece of your home’s curb appeal, you can control it as easily as a smart door by adding a smart controller. You can do two different styles: I have the Chamberlain MyQ professionally installed smart garage opener, which means the device that controls my garage has these smarts built into it (plus a camera, but I find it doesn’t work great with how far the device is from my Wi-Fi router), or you can get a smart garage controller that can add smart features onto an existing garage door. Both let you check whether the garage is open or closed and operate it remotely, and you can add a video keypad that doubles as a video doorbell and can let you open or close the garage without your phone.Smart ShadesSmartWingsMotorized Roller ShadesLutronCaseta Smart ShadesThe front of my home faces west, so it’s absolutely baking at the end of the day. What I need to add are some of our favorite smart shades to automate closing the shades on that side of the house at the right time of day. These also give your home a nice, cohesive look and immediate, controllable privacy from the outside world. WIRED reviewer Simon Hill recommends the SmartWings shades as his top picks, and Lutron’s Caseta shades if you’re looking for a more upgraded look.Invisible SwapsLooking to add some smarts without touching your existing setup? These switch-ups can make your front door and yard smart without being visible.YaleApproach LockThis smart lock just swaps out the inner half of your front-door lock to make it smart without requiring a new key or changing your exterior hardware. You can also add on a keypad—or not, if you’d rather keep the smarts a complete secret. CyncOutdoor Smart PlugThis outdoor plug is visible at the outlet itself, but if the outlet is covered by something or is around the corner from your front door, no one will know that your lights or other electrical devices are connected to this smart plug. Power up with unlimited access to WIRED. Get best-in-class reporting and exclusive subscriber content that’s too important to ignore. Subscribe Today.#Smart #Home #Gadgets #Amp #Curb #Appealsmart home,shopping,household,buying guides,how-to,yardware upgrade

Best Video Doorbells.

A Better Birdhouse

I had a new-to-me problem this spring: bird invasion. A little bird made a nest in my front-door wreath without us noticing. One evening, my sister opened the door, and the bird flew out of the nest and straight into our house. After a 30-minute battle to get it outside again (and keep my cat from eating it), it wasn’t until we saw the bird fly off the door again the next day that we realized it was calling our home its home, too.

If this is a common problem at your house, our resident bird-gear tester Kat Merck has a solution: a smart nesting box. Birdfy makes a few different smart bird feeders we like for bird-watching, and the Nest Duo is a birdhouse that lets you watch the birds while they nest inside of it. It’s a slim, attractive box that will add to your front yard’s style while also packing two solar-powered cameras (one facing the entrance, one focused inside) so you can bird-watch from multiple angles. It comes with different hole sizes to appeal to different species, metal predator guards to prevent chewing around the hole, and a remote control to reset or recharge the camera without disturbing your feathered neighbors.

Stylish Smart Lights

Image may contain: Electronics, Mobile Phone, Phone, Light, Computer Hardware, Hardware, Mouse, Appliance, and Blow Dryer

Govee

Outdoor Clear Bulb String Lights

I’ve liked Govee’s smart outdoor string lights before, usually for my holiday decor, and have previously recommended something similar with a bistro-light-like look that happened to be smart. These clear bulb string lights are part of Govee’s current lineup and have a contemporary twist with a triangle in the center instead of the wire filament. These are a fun option for outdoor lights you can enjoy on warm nights, and they can do every color and shade of white without looking as bulky as permanent outdoor lights. (Added bonus, these lights are also Matter compatible!)

Fresh Bulbs

Image may contain: Lighting, Electronics, LED, Light, Appliance, Blow Dryer, Device, and Electrical Device

Cync

Smart LED Light Bulb, PAR38

If you have light fixtures you want to remote-control, add an outdoor smart bulb. There are tons to choose from, and you can usually find one from any brand you already have at home. The only downside is that outdoor-rated smart bulbs are usually 4.75-inch-diameter PAR38-style bulbs, so they’re best for downward-facing floodlights on your porch or balcony. They’ll likely be too big to fit in a wall fixture as a replacement for a normal-sized bulb. Don’t just grab any smart bulb—not all are outdoor-rated. Check for mentions of outdoor use and waterproof ratings to make sure they’re safe to use. I’m a big fan of Cync bulbs, and the brand has an outdoor version of the Cync Full Color bulbs I like to use indoors. You’ll be able to add fun colors as well as shades of white, so you can turn the porch a spooky orange or red for Halloween, pink for Valentine’s Day, or the colors of your favorite sports team on game day.

Remote-Controlled Garage

Chamberlain

MyQ Smart Garage Controller

Chamberlain

MyQ Smart Garage Door Opener with Integrated Camera

If your garage is the centerpiece of your home’s curb appeal, you can control it as easily as a smart door by adding a smart controller. You can do two different styles: I have the Chamberlain MyQ professionally installed smart garage opener, which means the device that controls my garage has these smarts built into it (plus a camera, but I find it doesn’t work great with how far the device is from my Wi-Fi router), or you can get a smart garage controller that can add smart features onto an existing garage door. Both let you check whether the garage is open or closed and operate it remotely, and you can add a video keypad that doubles as a video doorbell and can let you open or close the garage without your phone.

Smart Shades

SmartWings

Motorized Roller Shades

Lutron

Caseta Smart Shades

The front of my home faces west, so it’s absolutely baking at the end of the day. What I need to add are some of our favorite smart shades to automate closing the shades on that side of the house at the right time of day. These also give your home a nice, cohesive look and immediate, controllable privacy from the outside world. WIRED reviewer Simon Hill recommends the SmartWings shades as his top picks, and Lutron’s Caseta shades if you’re looking for a more upgraded look.

Invisible Swaps

Looking to add some smarts without touching your existing setup? These switch-ups can make your front door and yard smart without being visible.

Yale

Approach Lock

This smart lock just swaps out the inner half of your front-door lock to make it smart without requiring a new key or changing your exterior hardware. You can also add on a keypad—or not, if you’d rather keep the smarts a complete secret.

Cync

Outdoor Smart Plug

This outdoor plug is visible at the outlet itself, but if the outlet is covered by something or is around the corner from your front door, no one will know that your lights or other electrical devices are connected to this smart plug.

Power up with unlimited access to WIRED. Get best-in-class reporting and exclusive subscriber content that’s too important to ignore. Subscribe Today.

#Smart #Home #Gadgets #Amp #Curb #Appealsmart home,shopping,household,buying guides,how-to,yardware upgrade">The Smart Home Gadgets to Amp Up Your Curb Appeal

I tried the battery version, which does require you recharge it every couple of weeks, but the wired-in version is the top recommendation on our guide to the Best Video Doorbells.

A Better Birdhouse

I had a new-to-me problem this spring: bird invasion. A little bird made a nest in my front-door wreath without us noticing. One evening, my sister opened the door, and the bird flew out of the nest and straight into our house. After a 30-minute battle to get it outside again (and keep my cat from eating it), it wasn’t until we saw the bird fly off the door again the next day that we realized it was calling our home its home, too.

If this is a common problem at your house, our resident bird-gear tester Kat Merck has a solution: a smart nesting box. Birdfy makes a few different smart bird feeders we like for bird-watching, and the Nest Duo is a birdhouse that lets you watch the birds while they nest inside of it. It’s a slim, attractive box that will add to your front yard’s style while also packing two solar-powered cameras (one facing the entrance, one focused inside) so you can bird-watch from multiple angles. It comes with different hole sizes to appeal to different species, metal predator guards to prevent chewing around the hole, and a remote control to reset or recharge the camera without disturbing your feathered neighbors.

Stylish Smart Lights

Image may contain: Electronics, Mobile Phone, Phone, Light, Computer Hardware, Hardware, Mouse, Appliance, and Blow Dryer

Govee

Outdoor Clear Bulb String Lights

I’ve liked Govee’s smart outdoor string lights before, usually for my holiday decor, and have previously recommended something similar with a bistro-light-like look that happened to be smart. These clear bulb string lights are part of Govee’s current lineup and have a contemporary twist with a triangle in the center instead of the wire filament. These are a fun option for outdoor lights you can enjoy on warm nights, and they can do every color and shade of white without looking as bulky as permanent outdoor lights. (Added bonus, these lights are also Matter compatible!)

Fresh Bulbs

Image may contain: Lighting, Electronics, LED, Light, Appliance, Blow Dryer, Device, and Electrical Device

Cync

Smart LED Light Bulb, PAR38

If you have light fixtures you want to remote-control, add an outdoor smart bulb. There are tons to choose from, and you can usually find one from any brand you already have at home. The only downside is that outdoor-rated smart bulbs are usually 4.75-inch-diameter PAR38-style bulbs, so they’re best for downward-facing floodlights on your porch or balcony. They’ll likely be too big to fit in a wall fixture as a replacement for a normal-sized bulb. Don’t just grab any smart bulb—not all are outdoor-rated. Check for mentions of outdoor use and waterproof ratings to make sure they’re safe to use. I’m a big fan of Cync bulbs, and the brand has an outdoor version of the Cync Full Color bulbs I like to use indoors. You’ll be able to add fun colors as well as shades of white, so you can turn the porch a spooky orange or red for Halloween, pink for Valentine’s Day, or the colors of your favorite sports team on game day.

Remote-Controlled Garage

Chamberlain

MyQ Smart Garage Controller

Chamberlain

MyQ Smart Garage Door Opener with Integrated Camera

If your garage is the centerpiece of your home’s curb appeal, you can control it as easily as a smart door by adding a smart controller. You can do two different styles: I have the Chamberlain MyQ professionally installed smart garage opener, which means the device that controls my garage has these smarts built into it (plus a camera, but I find it doesn’t work great with how far the device is from my Wi-Fi router), or you can get a smart garage controller that can add smart features onto an existing garage door. Both let you check whether the garage is open or closed and operate it remotely, and you can add a video keypad that doubles as a video doorbell and can let you open or close the garage without your phone.

Smart Shades

SmartWings

Motorized Roller Shades

Lutron

Caseta Smart Shades

The front of my home faces west, so it’s absolutely baking at the end of the day. What I need to add are some of our favorite smart shades to automate closing the shades on that side of the house at the right time of day. These also give your home a nice, cohesive look and immediate, controllable privacy from the outside world. WIRED reviewer Simon Hill recommends the SmartWings shades as his top picks, and Lutron’s Caseta shades if you’re looking for a more upgraded look.

Invisible Swaps

Looking to add some smarts without touching your existing setup? These switch-ups can make your front door and yard smart without being visible.

Yale

Approach Lock

This smart lock just swaps out the inner half of your front-door lock to make it smart without requiring a new key or changing your exterior hardware. You can also add on a keypad—or not, if you’d rather keep the smarts a complete secret.

Cync

Outdoor Smart Plug

This outdoor plug is visible at the outlet itself, but if the outlet is covered by something or is around the corner from your front door, no one will know that your lights or other electrical devices are connected to this smart plug.

Power up with unlimited access to WIRED. Get best-in-class reporting and exclusive subscriber content that’s too important to ignore. Subscribe Today.

#Smart #Home #Gadgets #Amp #Curb #Appealsmart home,shopping,household,buying guides,how-to,yardware upgrade

The New Moon has now passed, which means each night the Moon will appear bigger and brighter in the sky. This happens as more of its sunlit side comes into view from Earth. From now, it will become more illuminated each night until the next full Moon.

What is today’s Moon phase?

As of Saturday, April 18, the Moon phase is Waxing Crescent. Tonight, 1% of the moon will be lit up, according to NASA’s Daily Moon Guide.

The Moon is starting to brighten again, but for now, there’s still to little of its surface lit up to see anything.

When is the next Full Moon?

The next Full Moon is predicted to take place on May 1, the first of two in May.

What are Moon phases?

NASA states that the Moon takes about 29.5 days to orbit Earth, during which it passes through eight distinct phases. We always see the same side of the Moon, but the amount of sunlight reflecting off it changes as it moves along its orbit, creating the familiar pattern of full, partial, and crescent shapes. These shifting appearances are called lunar phases, and there are eight in total:

New Moon – The Moon is between Earth and the sun, so the side we see is dark (in other words, it’s invisible to the eye).

Waxing Crescent – A small sliver of light appears on the right side (Northern Hemisphere).

First Quarter – Half of the Moon is lit on the right side. It looks like a half-Moon.

Waxing Gibbous – More than half is lit up, but it’s not quite full yet.

Full Moon – The whole face of the Moon is illuminated and fully visible.

Waning Gibbous – The Moon starts losing light on the right side. (Northern Hemisphere)

Third Quarter (or Last Quarter) – Another half-Moon, but now the left side is lit.

Waning Crescent – A thin sliver of light remains on the left side before going dark again.

#Moon #phase #today #explained #Moon #April">Moon phase today explained: What the Moon will look like on April 18, 2026 The New Moon has now passed, which means each night the Moon will appear bigger and brighter in the sky. This happens as more of its sunlit side comes into view from Earth. From now, it will become more illuminated each night until the next full Moon.What is today’s Moon phase?As of Saturday, April 18, the Moon phase is Waxing Crescent. Tonight, 1% of the moon will be lit up, according to NASA’s Daily Moon Guide.The Moon is starting to brighten again, but for now, there’s still to little of its surface lit up to see anything. When is the next Full Moon?The next Full Moon is predicted to take place on May 1, the first of two in May.What are Moon phases?NASA states that the Moon takes about 29.5 days to orbit Earth, during which it passes through eight distinct phases. We always see the same side of the Moon, but the amount of sunlight reflecting off it changes as it moves along its orbit, creating the familiar pattern of full, partial, and crescent shapes. These shifting appearances are called lunar phases, and there are eight in total:New Moon – The Moon is between Earth and the sun, so the side we see is dark (in other words, it’s invisible to the eye). Mashable Light Speed Waxing Crescent – A small sliver of light appears on the right side (Northern Hemisphere).First Quarter – Half of the Moon is lit on the right side. It looks like a half-Moon.Waxing Gibbous – More than half is lit up, but it’s not quite full yet.Full Moon – The whole face of the Moon is illuminated and fully visible.Waning Gibbous – The Moon starts losing light on the right side. (Northern Hemisphere)Third Quarter (or Last Quarter) – Another half-Moon, but now the left side is lit.Waning Crescent – A thin sliver of light remains on the left side before going dark again. #Moon #phase #today #explained #Moon #April

Moon phase is Waxing Crescent. Tonight, 1% of the moon will be lit up, according to NASA’s Daily Moon Guide.

The Moon is starting to brighten again, but for now, there’s still to little of its surface lit up to see anything.

When is the next Full Moon?

The next Full Moon is predicted to take place on May 1, the first of two in May.

What are Moon phases?

NASA states that the Moon takes about 29.5 days to orbit Earth, during which it passes through eight distinct phases. We always see the same side of the Moon, but the amount of sunlight reflecting off it changes as it moves along its orbit, creating the familiar pattern of full, partial, and crescent shapes. These shifting appearances are called lunar phases, and there are eight in total:

New Moon – The Moon is between Earth and the sun, so the side we see is dark (in other words, it’s invisible to the eye).

Waxing Crescent – A small sliver of light appears on the right side (Northern Hemisphere).

First Quarter – Half of the Moon is lit on the right side. It looks like a half-Moon.

Waxing Gibbous – More than half is lit up, but it’s not quite full yet.

Full Moon – The whole face of the Moon is illuminated and fully visible.

Waning Gibbous – The Moon starts losing light on the right side. (Northern Hemisphere)

Third Quarter (or Last Quarter) – Another half-Moon, but now the left side is lit.

Waning Crescent – A thin sliver of light remains on the left side before going dark again.

#Moon #phase #today #explained #Moon #April">Moon phase today explained: What the Moon will look like on April 18, 2026

The New Moon has now passed, which means each night the Moon will appear bigger and brighter in the sky. This happens as more of its sunlit side comes into view from Earth. From now, it will become more illuminated each night until the next full Moon.

What is today’s Moon phase?

As of Saturday, April 18, the Moon phase is Waxing Crescent. Tonight, 1% of the moon will be lit up, according to NASA’s Daily Moon Guide.

The Moon is starting to brighten again, but for now, there’s still to little of its surface lit up to see anything.

When is the next Full Moon?

The next Full Moon is predicted to take place on May 1, the first of two in May.

What are Moon phases?

NASA states that the Moon takes about 29.5 days to orbit Earth, during which it passes through eight distinct phases. We always see the same side of the Moon, but the amount of sunlight reflecting off it changes as it moves along its orbit, creating the familiar pattern of full, partial, and crescent shapes. These shifting appearances are called lunar phases, and there are eight in total:

New Moon – The Moon is between Earth and the sun, so the side we see is dark (in other words, it’s invisible to the eye).

Waxing Crescent – A small sliver of light appears on the right side (Northern Hemisphere).

First Quarter – Half of the Moon is lit on the right side. It looks like a half-Moon.

Waxing Gibbous – More than half is lit up, but it’s not quite full yet.

Full Moon – The whole face of the Moon is illuminated and fully visible.

Waning Gibbous – The Moon starts losing light on the right side. (Northern Hemisphere)

Third Quarter (or Last Quarter) – Another half-Moon, but now the left side is lit.

Waning Crescent – A thin sliver of light remains on the left side before going dark again.

#Moon #phase #today #explained #Moon #April

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