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29 Best Sleep Week Deals: Mattresses, Sheets, and Sleep Accessories

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How you’re sleeping affects how you feel the rest of the day. If your sleep is suffering, and you’ve already tried putting your smartphone in another room to keep the distractions at bay, well you’re in luck. National Sleep Awareness Week runs from March 10 to March 16, and that means some of our favorite sleep accessories are on sale right now. You can get a whole new mattress or maybe a fresh pair of sheets to keep you cool. All the prices listed are for queen sizes wherever relevant.

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Table of Contents

See our Best Mattresses, Best Organic Mattresses, and Best Mattresses for Side Sleepers guides for more details. Only want to shop on Amazon? We have a guide for mattresses sold there too.

Helix Sleep Midnight Luxe Hybrid Mattress

Photograph: Helix Sleep

Use code MADNESS20 at checkout to get 20 percent off our favorite mattress. It was slightly cheaper during President’s Day, but it’s a great mattress if you can splurge, and it works well for all sleeping positions. We tried the medium-firm Midnight Luxe model, but there are a few other versions to choose from.

Leesa’s Sapira hybrid is our runner-up pick. This bed is firm but still feels soft, and we kept coming back to it during our testing. It was also cheaper during its President’s Day sale, but it doesn’t usually have great discounts. The $1,699 price it usually is just went up on Amazon to $1,719. We’ll keep checking to see if it stays there.

Use code MADNESS20 to get this discount. The Elite is even more expensive than the other Helix we like, but it is very luxurious with nine layers of foam packed into its 16-inch thick body. Like the Luxe, there are various options depending on what firmness level and sleep position you prefer.

My Green Mattress Kiwi Children’s (Twin) Mattress

Photograph: My Green Mattress

The twin size of this mattress is reasonably priced, so we recommend it as an organic option for kids. We saw it drop to $679 during the President’s Day sale, but this is the usual sale price. It’s made using certified organic cotton, wool, and latex.

WIRED readers can use code WIRED100 to get an additional $100 off the sale price. Technically this deal is $975 off, but we’ve only rarely seen it hit its $2,499 MSRP. When it was available on Amazon, it hovered between $1,625 and $1,700 most of the time. Still, it did occasionally reach peak price, and it is a discount on a great mattress for side sleepers. It needed a full two weeks to break in, though, so give it time. There’s a 120-night sleep trial, but it’s an extra $100.

This DreamCloud bed is the runner-up in our Best Mattresses You Can Buy on Amazon guide. Its eight layers of foam, coiled springs, and cashmere-blend quilted pillow top make it feel luxurious. The medium-firm feel is great for side and back sleepers, but it does lack edge support. We’ve seen it drop lower than this, but it’s steadily $1,399.

Awara Natural Hybrid Mattress

Photograph: Awara

The Awara is a more affordable organic choice, and it is both supportive and bouncy, with little motion transfer. But we could feel the springs a bit more. As a nice plus, it has less off-gassing odors than other beds in boxes we’ve tried.

This is our favorite organic latex mattress. Latex beds are usually very heavy and hard to ship nationally. Turmerry solves this by shipping its bed in four boxes—the three or four separate layers zip into an organic cotton cover.

Enter code DEALS at checkout to get this discount on our favorite side-sleeping mattress. It’s 14 inches thick and firmer than most options geared toward side sleepers. But the layer of springs of varied rigidity allows your hips to sink in comfortably. The Elite occasionally reaches its $2,305 price, but we usually see it around this sale price.

Saatva Classic Innerspring Mattress

Photograph: Saatva

The base price for this bed has risen from $1,995 to $2,095. We haven’t tracked it reaching $1,995 until the end of February, so $400 off is a generous estimate. Still, this innerspring mattress is great if you’re dealing with back pain. The luxury firm option has a quilted organic cotton pillow top that’s zoned to promote lumbar support. A layer of high-density foam helps achy lower backs.

Most cheap mattresses are not going to be great options, but this one is fine if you absolutely need the cheapest bed right now or just want to outfit a guest room. Just know that the edge support is uneven, and the springs are a little creaky.

We liked the Linenspa better, but this is another super-cheap bed that typically costs $252. We’re impressed that its foam is CertiPUR-US certified, which means it doesn’t use formaldehyde or problematic flame retardants. We wouldn’t want to sleep on it every night, but younger people who have yet to face back problems might not mind it. It’s perfect for a guest room.

Sheets, Pillows, and Weighted Blankets Deals

See more info about fabrics and all our favorite picks in our Best Bedsheets guide.

Brooklinen Washed Linen Core Sheet Set

Photograph: Brooklinen

Brooklinen topped our Best Sheets list a few times. Discounts are frequent enough that you should wait to purchase sheets until they’re on sale. These sheets changed how I thought about linen. I didn’t itch all night, instead I was cool and comfortable. We also like Brooklinen’s Heathered Cashmere Sheets for $280 ($70 off) and the Luxe Sateen Core Sheet Set for $151 ($38 off).

If you have an organic mattress, you should pair it with organic sheets. And if you don’t have one, organic bedding is a more affordable step toward relinquishing chemicals. These Brooklinen sheets are the best organic sheets we’ve tried. They’re soft but not overly silky; crisp but not too tight. They’re made of Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS)-certified organic cotton. They’re also Oeko-Tex certified, which means they’re tested for and do not contain any known toxic chemicals.

Buffy’s sheets feel warm and cozy to snuggle into, but they are still light and airy, so you’re not sweating through the night. They’ve held up through many washes, too, with no dreaded pilling. The fabric is eucalyptus Tencel lyocell, which is sustainable and biodegradable.

The Company Store Legends Hotel Velvet Flannel Sheet Set

Use code FAMILY24 to get this discount. These were the softest flannel sheets we tested, though it did take a few washes to get there. If you want warm flannels to cuddle under in the winter, these are a good bet.

Coyuchi’s flannels are another set we liked. They’re still warm and cozy, but a little lighter than the Company Store sheets. If you sleep hot, you may want to splurge on these.

This price is not for the faint of heart, but these were the softest sheets WIRED reviewer Nena Farrell has slept on. They’re silky and cooling, and Farrell says it was nice to slip into a cool bed that warmed up a little once you’re settled.

We haven’t tried these yet, so we can’t say for sure that they’ll be great. However, this 50 percent off deal was too good not to share, and you can return them within 30 days if you end up not liking them. We’ve heard great things and will be testing this bamboo set and the sateen organic set for a future update to our sheets guide.

Buffy Wiggle Pillow

Photograph: Buffy

I love sleeping with this gigantic pillow or curling up with it on the couch. It’s meant to be floppy so you can curl it or tie it, but you can still comfortably lay your head on it. It’s also made using 55 plastic bottles. It’s perfect on its own, but you can get a cover for $81 ($14 off), and there are now more color and fabric options than when we tried it.

Most colors are already sold out, but if you can grab one, Brooklinen’s weighted blanket is one of my favorites. It looks nice, with one satisfyingly textured side and one of washed cotton. It’s a good size too. It’s not too small to snuggle under on the couch, but I could still sleep under it without it covering my husband, who doesn’t like weighted blankets.

Read about all our favorite slippers in our full guide.

Manitobah Mukluks Slippers

Photograph: Zappos

This price is for the black and oak colors. WIRED reviewer Jaina Grey says these slippers are like clouds for your feet with a nice beaded design. Manitobah is Indigenous-owned and staffed with Indigenous designers.

This sale price is also only for select colors. L.L.Bean’s Wicked Good slippers are a classic beloved by most who try them. I’ve gifted them to family members, and WIRED reviews editor Julian Chokkattu bought these for his wife. He says they’ve held up over the three years she’s used them. The brand has a few other Wicked Good styles to choose from too.

Brooklinen Super-Plush Robe

Photograph: Brooklinen

This is a classic robe for lounging in while drinking coffee or throwing on after a shower. It feels a bit like a towel, but not scratchy, and it’s held up in the wash. There are great new colors as well as a nice rotating list of limited-edition colors and prints.

We tried the adult version of this robe, and this one is made for 7- to 11-year-olds. It’s 8 pounds, which is just enough to feel like a nice hug but not so heavy that your little one can’t get off the couch. However, it’s pricey even on sale.

For more sleep accessories, see our Best Sound Machines and Best Sleep Gadgets guides.

Hatch Rest (2nd Gen) Sound Machine

Photograph: Hatch

Hatch makes great sound machine/night light combos, and the Rest is one of the cheaper models in its lineup. Adults and kids will like it as a bedside companion, but there are time-to-rest and time-to-rise beacons designed specifically for kids. You’ll get a few nice sleep sounds as is, but if you subscribe to the Hatch membership, it unlocks a ton of bedtime stories, lullabies, and mediations.

This isn’t a mask you’d wear to sleep, but Gravity’s eye massager (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is a great addition to a wind-down routine. Using air pressure, heat, and vibration, this mask gently massages your temples, helping to soothe sore eyes and headaches. I’ve tried a lot of fun things as a WIRED gear writer, but eye massages are among the top five.

Enter code REST25 at checkout to apply this discount. Breathing exercises can help fight insomnia or ward off panic attacks. You don’t need a device to do them, but if you’re having trouble controlling your breathing, this little thing works. Hold it in your hand with your thumb on the heart rate sensor, and match your breath to the device as it expands and contracts. It connects to an app, but if you set your default breathing exercise, you can just grab the device and use it without opening your phone.

These earbuds are half headphones, half sleep tracker. They’re not for everyone, and our tester found it tricky to get comfortable while wearing them, but he loved that you could layer a meditation or sleep story over a nice soundscape like rain. If it’s in your budget and you’ve exhausted other sleep headphone options, these may be worth a shot.

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How Apple’s Advanced Data Protection Works, and How to Enable It on Your iPhone

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ADP extends that protection pretty considerably to also cover your iCloud backups, iCloud Drive, and the information in Photos, Notes, and Reminders. Without ADP enabled, this data is still encrypted, which adds a strong layer of protection from third parties or bad actors. But Apple can still access this data and turn it over to the cops.

End-to-end encryption closes that loophole. If an Apple employee decides to go rogue, or Apple gets hacked and your files get leaked—and neither of those scenarios have happened, to our knowledge—ADP will ensure your data is still safe. It also means Apple can’t get your files back if you lose access to them: The passcodes and passwords on your Apple devices are the only route through which end-to-end encrypted data can be unlocked. Apple has a full and comprehensive explanation of iCloud’s security and privacy features.

ADP does make iCloud on the web harder to get into.

Apple via David Nield

So, do you need ADP? If you want the most complete level of security and privacy possible, then yes. Just make sure you have backup methods for recovering your account (more on this in a moment), as Apple won’t be able to help you unlock your encrypted files if your account becomes inaccessible. While the default, standard encryption Apple puts in place is already very strong, ADP covers more of your data, which is reassuring in the slim chance Apple’s data centers suffer a breach or the FBI wants to take a look at your iCloud files.

It’s also worth bearing in mind that all this extra encryption restricts iCloud access in your web browser (the web portal where you can get at your emails, photos, and so on). You can still log in to iCloud on the web, but you’ll need to confirm the connection on a trusted device (like an iPhone or Mac) every single time you log in—and you’ll need to reauthorize the link every hour while you browse your files. If you use iCloud on the web a lot, you might find life more convenient without ADP enabled.

How to Enable Advanced Data Protection

If you’re ready to enable ADP, you can do it right from your iPhone—as long as all the devices associated with your Apple ID are running the latest software, and your Apple ID has two-factor authentication switched on. (If you haven’t yet done this, you’ll find instructions on the Apple website.)

If you’re using an iPhone or an iPad, open Settings, then tap your name at the top. Choose iCloud, then Advanced Data Protection: You’ll see a screen briefly explaining how the feature works, and you can tap Turn On Advanced Data Protection to do just that. At this point you’ll be told if there are any devices connected to your Apple ID that aren’t compatible with ADP, and you’ll be given the option to “remove” them. If you do remove a device, it will no longer be linked to your Apple ID, and it won’t sync to your iCloud account, so it’s not recommended you “remove” any devices you’re still using. A better option would be to update the software on these devices to make them compatible with ADP, or replace the devices with newer versions.

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11 Best Mario Day Deals on Nintendo Switch Games and Accessories

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March 10 is Mario Day, owing to the resemblance of “Mar 10” to the name of the world’s jumpiest plumber. It’s an occasion when Nintendo typically discounts games from the Mario universe, plus consoles and accessories. We’ve gathered up a list of the best deals below. Most of them will end by March 17, though some might sell out or expire a little earlier.

Check out our many buying guides, including the Best Nintendo Switch Games, the Best Cozy Games, and the Best Nintendo Switch Accessories for additional picks and recommendations.

Special offer for Gear readers: Get WIRED for just $5 ($25 off). This includes unlimited access to WIRED.com, full Gear coverage, and subscriber-only newsletters. Subscriptions help fund the work we do every day.

If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. This helps support our journalism. Learn more.

Console Deals

Nintendo has said that console deals will begin on March 10. Retailers will be offering a $25 gift card with the purchase of a Nintendo Switch console. While specific details have not yet been shared, we anticipate that participating retailers will include Amazon, Best Buy, Target, and Walmart.

Photograph: Nintendo

It’s rare to see an outright cash discount on the Nintendo Switch OLED (8/10, WIRED Recommends). This model features a 7-inch display, an improved kickstand, and 64 gigabytes of internal storage. Our list of the Best Nintendo Switch Accessories has suggestions to help you trick out your new console.

Game Deals

Courtesy of Nintendo

This game is a WIRED favorite. It’s fun for players of all ages, no matter how much Mario Kart they’ve played before. You can whip red shells and banana peels at up to seven opponents.

What could be more fun than beating your friends in minigames as you race to get the most stars? Doing it on new levels with fresh RNG elements. Up to four people can play at once locally. Online play is offered, too, for folks with a Nintendo Switch Online membership. Read more about the service here.

This fun multiplayer game can double as a home workout. If you’ve ever wanted to obliterate Toad in a game of tennis, it’s your time to shine.

Courtesy of Nintendo

Another WIRED favorite, Luigi’s Mansion is arguably the most fun you can have with a vacuum cleaner. There’s a fun couch co-op mode where a second player controls a spectral, gooey version of Luigi to help solve puzzles. And looting is fun! One or two players can game locally, and there’s an online version that supports up to eight.

This cozy platformer is like a puzzle-solving treasure hunt. You can beat stages alone or hand the controller to your couchmate for two-player co-op. We especially like Mellow mode, which makes gameplay just a bit easier and more relaxing.

This golf game supports up to four players. It features stylized courses and oodles of characters to play as—or against. Each character has their own special shot and special movement, plus a fun Battle Golf mode where the stakes are even higher.

Deals on Accessories, Toys, and More

Photograph: Walmart

Typically, free trials of Nintendo Switch Online are a week long, so this gets you an extra week. It’s not limited to new users either, so if you’ve had a trial membership before, this offer still applies. Like the name suggests, this service allows you to play games online. Read more about Nintendo Switch Online in our Gaming Subscriptions guide.

This deal is part of a larger Samsung sale. If you don’t have a microSD card in your Switch, this is a solid deal on a large-capacity card. It’ll add a ton of space to your console, and for less money than usual.

This basic controller doesn’t have rumble functions or some of the features that Pro controllers have, but the price is right, and it works just fine. It has a headphone jack and two programmable shortcut buttons on the back. Check out our Best Nintendo Switch Accessories guide for additional recommendations.

This Lego set includes a buildable course, plus Princess Peach, Lemmy, and Yellow Toad figurines. The Peach figure even has an LCD screen and a built-in speaker. You can pair the set with Lego Luigi and Mario to make a two-player game. Both sets are on sale for $48 as well, though they are discounted more frequently than the Peach set.

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How to Open Spotify Links If You Aren’t a Spotify User

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Spotify dominates the music industry. This becomes really obvious if you don’t use Spotify: You end up being sent, and inevitably clicking on, Spotify links all the time. It happens on social media, yes, but also in text exchanges with friends, in emails, and in DMs. The thought is a good one; someone enjoyed a piece of music and wanted to share it with you. The problem, though, is that the Spotify link is mostly useless if you don’t use Spotify.

What if you use other streaming apps, such as those offered by Apple, Amazon, and YouTube, to listen to music? Are you doomed to search for the track, album, or artist on those services manually? Is that forever your fate? Absolutely not. Here are a few tools that can help you turn Spotify links into links for your preferred music service. (Just note, these tools will work to locate songs, artists, and albums across platforms, but since playlists are usually unique to each platform, these methods won’t work with custom playlists.)

Google Chrome: An Extension to Automatically Redirect Links

If you use Google Chrome or a compatible browser like Microsoft Edge, the browser extension Music Link can automatically open all Spotify links in whatever music app you like. Just install the extension and click its icon to configure it. Choose which music service you prefer and you’re done: Any Spotify link you get from now on will redirect to your app of choice.

You can optionally uncheck whatever services you’re fine with getting links to. SoundCloud, for example, tends to let you play music regardless of whether you have an account, and a lot of its offerings aren’t on other platforms, so you might as well not redirect those links. For the most part, though, this is the kind of extension you can install and never think about ever again.

iPhone and iPad: Song.link for Apple Shortcuts

Chrome extensions may not always work on iPhones or iPads, but thankfully there’s an Apple shortcut for redirecting Spotify links. Just copy any Spotify URL to the clipboard then launch the shortcut Song.Link. This will find the URL in your clipboard and offer you links to the song on other platforms. There’s even a YouTube link, which is helpful if you don’t subscribe to any streaming service.

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Omega 2024 White Speedmaster Moonwatch: Specs, Price, Availability

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The first titanium Project Alaska Omega watch had a shielding case of anodized aluminum in bright red.

Photograph: Swatch Group

Omega followed the first Alaska prototype with a second design the following year, cased in the conventional 42-mm Moonwatch case. It retained the oversize red aluminum outer case and white dial, while on this model the steel cases were bead-blasted rather than polished to reduce dazzling reflections. The “capsule” hands also remained, but in black, and the classic Speedmaster’s tachymeter bezel (most useful for tracking speed over a known distance; relatively impossible in space) was replaced by a 60-minute scale.

Despite its more conventional styling and cheaper production costs, NASA decided not to order the watch, preferring to stick with what it knew. The Alaska Project watches did eventually make it into space, however, worn by Soyuz 25 mission cosmonauts between 1977 and 1981.

A white dial would not grace another Speedmaster Moonwatch until 1997, when a commemorative limited edition was produced to mark the 40th anniversary of the Speedmaster, and it was only sold in Italy.

In 2008, a limited-edition Alaska Project homage was released, and others have since followed, including the Silver Snoopy of 2015. In 2021, a white-dial Speedy was released in Omega’s proprietary Canopus white gold.

But this new model in stainless steel (reference 310.30.42.50.04.001) is the most attainable white version so far. Today, Omega says the color scheme is a nod to astronauts’ space suits, which it may be—but for fans of the brand it will always relate back to those Cold War creations.

So important were the Alaska Project watches, they were also immortalized in MoonSwatch form in 2022, as the red-bioceramic-cased Mission to Mars.

There are a number of other touches that cement this new Speedmaster’s place as the spiritual successor to the Alaska Project watches: The red Speedmaster dial text is a subtle nod to the design of both Alaska models; and the glossy lacquer used for the dial (another small first for Omega-kind) is in its own way harking back to the highly reflective capabilities of those top-secret prototypes.

Equipped with a sapphire crystal, water-resistant to 50 meters, and machined to tolerances that engineers of the 1960s could only dream of, this is a thoroughly modern Speedmaster—but like all the best Speedmasters, it has a powerful connection to the past.

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Top Features in Apple’s iOS 17 and iPadOS 17: Compatible Devices, Updates

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You can now check in with a friend or family member when you arrive at a destination. If you dillydally for some reason on the way to this destination, the system will try to check in with you. If you don’t respond, it will share location data, battery level, and cell service status with your loved one. Apple says this data is end-to-end encrypted. You can press the “+” sign to find this feature in an iMessage conversation, then tap More until you see Check In.

When someone shares their location with you in iMessage, you’ll now be able to see this directly in the conversation without having to leave the app. If they send an audio message, you’ll see the transcription immediately under it, which is handy if you can’t listen to it immediately.

As for FaceTime, you can now leave a video or audio message for anyone who doesn’t answer your call (about time!). FaceTime is also making its way to Apple TV, and you can use your iPhone as a camera. During the call, you can create augmented reality reactions, like confetti, hearts, or fireworks, with certain hand gestures. You know, in case the person is bored with your normal reactions.

Batch Edit Photos

If you want all your vacation photos to have the same look, you can now batch-edit a whole bunch of photos and videos in one fell swoop. To do this, open a photo in your Photos app and press Edit. Make the changes you want, then save the photo. Press the triple-dot icon on the top right and tap Copy Edits, then go to the next photo, tap the triple-dot icon, and press Paste Edits. Once you have copied edits, you can select any number of photos and paste them, giving a collection of photos a cohesive look immediately.

Sticker Mania

Apple is placing a big emphasis on Stickers in iOS 17, so much so that they’re now built into the emoji keyboard, making them more accessible in third-party apps. Last year’s iOS 16 brought the ability to cut out a subject from any image you capture by just tapping and holding it, and now you can turn these into your own stickers for big meme potential. You can add effects to these stickers and even create Live Stickers with Live Photos. Make embarrassing stickers of friends on demand. Truly, we’re on the best timeline. With iOS 17.2, you can also react to individual message bubbles with a sticker.

iPhone on StandBy

Google Pixel phones have a feature that turns them into a smart display when placed on one of Google’s wireless chargers. Apple is going even further with StandBy. This enables any iPhone to turn into a more useful display while charging in landscape mode. You can have it show the clock (with different clock designs available), photos from your library, or interactive widgets. If you specifically place it on a MagSafe charger, your iPhone will remember your preferred view. Be sure to check out our Best Apple 3-in-1 Chargers guide if you want to take advantage of this feature.

Before iOS 17.1, anyone using an iPhone with an Always-On Display (iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 14 Pro Max, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 15 Pro Max) would have to tap the screen whenever they want to turn the feature off. The latest update adds a bit more customization. When you head to Settings > StandBy > Display, you can choose between Automatically, which will turn the display off when the iPhone isn’t in use and the room is dark, After 20 Seconds, or Never.

Better Autocorrect

Do you late hate Apple’s autocorrect? You’re not alone. The company is finally making it better. Autocorrect now uses a “transformer language mode” for better word prediction. It corrects more types of grammatical mistakes than ever before, and you can see predictive text recommendations as you type (you can disable this feature with iOS 17.2), just like what you’ll find using Gmail’s Smart Compose. These improvements also extend to voice dictation, which uses a new speech recognition model that purportedly makes it more accurate.

New Communication Safety Features

Photograph: Apple

Apple’s Communication Safety feature, which helps prevent kids from seeing nude images in iMessage, has expanded its reach in iOS 17. Now, it brings these protections to other services and apps in iOS, from AirDrop and Contact Posters to FaceTime messages and Live Stickers. It works with video content too. Adults can also take advantage of the feature, as it can blur sensitive videos and photos and let you choose whether to view them. Apple maintains that all image and video processing for these protective features happens on your device, and nothing is sent back to Apple.

AirDrop Transfers

If someone is sharing high-res media with you and it’s going to take some time to transfer, you don’t need to stand next to them and wait for the transfer to complete. You can step away and the files will be sent over the internet.

Catch-Up Arrow

When you join a chat with dozens of new messages, you’re now able to tap on a new “catch-up arrow” to jump to the first new message. That way, you don’t have to spend time scrolling to find it.

iMessage Contact Key Verification

Apple originally announced this feature last year, and it’s finally here. With Contact Key Verification you have the option to verify who you’re messaging to avoid communicating with someone impersonating a friend or family member. Users will receive a Contact Verification Code they can then cross-reference with the person they’re texting to make sure the codes match.

A New Journal App

Photograph: Apple

There’s a new app as of iOS 17.2 called Journal, and as the name suggests, the idea is to write down your thoughts and memories. You can add photos, audio recordings, and music to your journal entries and even make goals. Apple says Journal uses on-device machine learning to suggest moments to write about during your day. You can read more about it here.

Enhanced AutoFill for PDFs

If you’re frequently working in PDFs, you’ll be excited to use this feature. The software uses machine learning to identify the fields in a PDF so you can quickly add details, and the Notes app now lets you organize, read, annotate, and collaborate in PDFs too.

Health App

Apple is letting you log your daily moods in the Health app, with access to depression and anxiety assessments typically found in clinics (and other resources). Also, if you are using Apple’s Screen Time feature for your kids, there’s now a Screen Distance tool that will use the TrueDepth camera to encourage children to move further away if they are holding the phone closer than 12 inches from their face for an extended period. Apple says this can help lower the risk of myopia and reduce digital eyestrain in adults. Additionally, the Health app is finally available on the iPad. When you update to iOS 17.2, you can use Siri to ask Health app-related questions like “What’s my blood oxygen?” or “How much have I slept this week?”

Hotel AirPlay

Apple is bringing AirPlay to hotel rooms. You can just scan a QR code from the TV to share videos, photos, and music from your device to the big screen. Apple says it’s starting with brands from IHG Hotels & Resorts.

Photograph: Apple

Apple Music

In addition to songs, you can now “favorite” albums and playlists. You’ll then have the ability to filter those favorites based on category.

With iOS 17.2, any songs you “favorite” will also be added to a Favorites playlist. There’s also a new Focus Filter that will automatically turn off Listening History. That way, you don’t have to worry about certain songs appearing in Recently Played or impacting future song recommendations. It’s a useful feature if you’re often using the Music app to play songs for your kids and don’t want to mess up your algorithm.

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How to Turn Off Facebook’s Two-Factor Authentication Change

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Meta changed how two-factor authentication works for Facebook and Instagram last year. You might have received notifications about this, but it was easy to miss in the platform’s sea of red alerts. OK, so what’s different? “Any devices you’ve frequently used Facebook on in the past two years will be automatically trusted,” reads Meta’s updated settings page. Your smartphone and laptop may not need a 2FA code to log in, unless you go into your settings and opt out.

Over time, Meta has made multiple tweaks to how it deploys 2FA. In 2018, it started to allow 2FA codes generated by third-party apps. A few years later, the company began requiring more vulnerable accounts to activate 2FA protection. The company faces a tricky balance between making it easy to log in to your account and protecting users from losing control of their online identities.

Enabling 2FA is a basic way to improve the security of any online profile, since it adds an extra layer of difficulty for hackers trying to break into your account. “The role two-factor plays is, basically, to assume that at some point your password is going to be known by someone else,” said Casey Ellis, founder and chief strategy officer at Bugcrowd, a crowdsourced security company that has previously collaborated with Facebook. “You don’t have control over when or how that happens.” For users, this fallback measure is often as easy as copying and pasting a quick code from within a smartphone app, like Google Authenticator.

Anyone with a social media account on Facebook or Instagram needs to turn on two-factor authentication in their privacy settings. No shame if you haven’t, but do it right now by logging in to your Account Center, clicking Password and security, then Two-factor authentication.

Now that you’ve got it all set up, here’s what was changed with Meta’s 2FA process: It’s no longer activated anywhere you often used Facebook or Instagram in the past two years, from previous-generation smartphones to hand-me-down laptops.

What’s the reasoning for this adjustment? “As part of our continuous work to balance account security and accessibility, we’re letting people know that we’ll be treating the devices they frequently use to log in to Facebook as trusted,” said Erin McPike, a Meta spokesperson.

Facebook via Reece Rogers

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Cities Aren’t Prepared for a Crucial Part of Sea-Level Rise: They’re Also Sinking

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Fighting off rising seas without reducing humanity’s carbon emissions is like trying to drain a bathtub without turning off the tap. But increasingly, scientists are sounding the alarm on yet another problem compounding the crisis for coastal cities: Their land is also sinking, a phenomenon known as subsidence. The metaphorical tap is still on—as rapid warming turns more and more polar ice into ocean water—and at the same time the tub is sinking into the floor.

An alarming new study in the journal Nature shows how bad the problem could get in 32 coastal cities in the United States. Previous projections have studied geocentric sea-level rise, or how much the ocean is coming up along a given coastline. This new research considers relative sea-level rise, which also includes the vertical motion of the land. That’s possible thanks to new data from satellites that can measure elevation changes on very fine scales along coastlines.

With that subsidence in mind, the study finds that those coastal areas in the US could see 500 to 700 square miles of additional land flooded by 2050, impacting an additional 176,000 to 518,000 people and causing up to $100 billion of further property damage. That’s on top of baseline estimates of the damage so far up to 2020, which has affected 530 to 790 square miles and 525,000 to 634,000 people, and cost between $100 billion and $123 billion.

Overall, the study finds that 24 of the 32 coastal cities studied are subsiding by more than 2 millimeters a year. (One millimeter equals 0.04 inches.) “The combination of both the land sinking and the sea rising leads to this compounding effect of exposure for people,” says the study’s lead author, Leonard Ohenhen, an environmental security expert at Virginia Tech. “When you combine both, you have an even greater hazard.”

The issue is that cities have been preparing for projections of geocentric sea-level rise, for instance with sea walls. Through no fault of their own—given the infancy of satellite subsidence monitoring—they’ve been missing half the problem. “All the adaptation strategies at the moment that we have in place are based on rising sea levels,” says Manoochehr Shirzaei, an environmental security expert at Virginia Tech and a coauthor of the paper. “It means that the majority—if not all—of those adaptation strategies are overestimating the time that we have for those extreme consequences of sea-level rise. Instead of having 40 years to prepare, in some cases we have only 10.”

Subsidence can happen naturally, for instance when loose sediments settle over time, or because of human activity, such as when cities extract too much groundwater and their aquifers collapse like empty water bottles. In extreme cases, this can result in dozens of feet of subsidence. The sheer weight of coastal cities like New York is also pushing down on the ground, leading to further sinking.

Courtesy of Leonard Ohenhen, Virginia Tech

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New Doc Explores the Pitfalls of Colonizing Space

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The experiment was failing. Nelly Ben Hayoun-Stépanian was in a cave in Spain, one outfitted to resemble the surface of a foreign planet, and she knew it was time to pull out. The goal had been to test how three people— Ben Hayoun-Stépanian and two of her doppelgängers—would form a new society in space using their perspectives as people whose lives have been touched by colonization here on Earth.

“My doppelgängers only stayed with me two nights, then they left because we had to abort the mission,” says Ben Hayoun-Stépanian. “There was a whole drama situation happening.”

If you want to know exactly what the drama was, you’ll have to watch Ben Hayoun-Stépanian’s new documentary, Doppelgängers³, which premieres this weekend at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. Suffice to say, even if the experiment didn’t go as planned, it still proved her point: Humanity’s quest to explore space needs input from people who aren’t millionaires or leaders of government space agencies.

When she’s not making films, Ben Hayoun-Stépanian is an artist and the SETI Institute’s “designer of experiences.” One of her goals is to bring “queer ecofeminist perspectives” to space travel, and with Doppelgängers³ she wanted to show folks like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos—the ones seeking to commercialize space travel—what it means to colonize the cosmos.

“It’s a call for action, a call for members of the public to take ownership of these futures,” Ben Hayoun-Stépanian says of the film, “because if you’re not, other people are going to do it for you.”

Ben Hayoun-Stépanian’s method for bringing in these voices is twofold. For one, she spends a good chunk of the documentary talking to experts—planetary scientist Christopher McKay, physicist Michio Kaku, among others—about trauma, space exploration, and parallel selves. For the other, she relies on her doppelgängers: Lucia Kagramanyan and Myriam Amroun, two people who share Ben Hayoun-Stépanian’s background but not her lived experiences.

Photograph: Nick Ballón

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TCL Q6310 Soundbar Review: Solid Sound, Uninspiring

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Swapping between the bar’s multiple inputs is slightly more intuitive, with a different LED color assigned to each input: HDMI ARC glows magenta, optical is yellow, the analog input is green, and the USB input is cyan. This color coding has become more common in A/V gear of late, usually seen in active/powered bookshelf speakers like the KEF LSX II, where space is at a premium. In the Q6310’s case, the bar’s center-channel speaker likely takes up the real estate a traditional digital display might inhabit.

Another likely reason TCL punts on the visual display is that, as a Roku TV Ready soundbar, the Q6310 is designed to allow you to control and adjust some settings directly from a Roku-powered smart TV. That functionality stems from a long partnership between the two brands, with Roku taking the reins as the smart interface in many TCL TVs (though TCL now seems to favor Google TV for its more premium models).

Photograph: Ryan Waniata

If you don’t have a Roku-powered TV, TCL’s app makes controlling the bar’s sound modes, volume, and other settings much easier via an iPhone or Android device. Other app settings include a Night mode to keep the dynamics in check when the family’s asleep, a Dialogue Enhance feature, and virtual surround sound control.

There’s also a calibration feature, AI Sonic, which uses your phone’s microphone to adjust the sound to your room, à la Sonos. That’s an impressive inclusion at this price, but the setup experience is quite loud, and I couldn’t hear much of a difference once it finished.

Aluminum Punch

Photograph: Ryan Waniata

My first thought when I started evaluating the Q6310 was that it doesn’t sound much better than a lot of high-end TVs I’ve auditioned this year. The sound is clear and forward, especially for dialog, but there’s a brittle, metallic quality to the midrange and treble registers that can feel as thin as the soundbar looks. To be fair, a lot of pricier TVs these days are outfitted with multiple speakers like soundbars are, so comparing the two isn’t as big of a diss as it once was.

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