WASHINGTON, Dec. 17, 2024 – The Biden-Harris Administration today released a policy framework to guide potential demand-side measures to reduce the importation of deforestation-linked commodities and derived products into the United States, with an initial focus on agricultural commodities.
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You Can Now Search the Internet With ChatGPT
ChatGPT search has been out now for about a month and a half, following a Halloween announcement from OpenAI. With this new feature, the company finally rolled out an official competitor to AI search engines like Perplexity, Google’s AI Overviews, and Microsoft Bing (powered by Copilot).
OpenAI originally announced its search plans back in July, with a service called SearchGPT. While SearchGPT was a prototype and launched with a waitlist to try it, ChatGPT search took its place, with OpenAI rolling SearchGPT’s main features into its new search feature. The feature originally launched to paid subscribers only, but now, all users can access it.
How ChatGPT search works
On the surface, ChatGPT search is very much a traditional search engine. To use it, you click on the globe icon when you launch ChatGPT (or hit the / key and click Search from the pop-up) then type your query. Let’s say you ask, “What’s the weather this weekend in New York City?” Hit enter, ChatGPT “thinks” for a moment, then spits out an answer to your question.
For this weather example, ChatGPT search actually has some dynamic graphics to go with its answer. OpenAI says it has partnered with different news and data providers for visual designs and updated information like this. That includes weather, but also queries regarding stocks, sports, news, and maps.
Credit: Jake Peterson
Whatever you search the web for, ChatGPT will cite its sources, like other AI-powered search engines. If you ask, for example, “What are the latest Nintendo Switch 2 rumors?” the bot summarizes the latest news, talking about magnetic Joy-Cons, a new button, backwards compatibility with the original Switch, and a new kickstand. For all these summaries, you can see the source it’s pulling from and click through the read the full article for yourself. You can also hover your cursor over these sources if you want to see a preview without opening the entire site.
In addition, at the bottom of the answer, there’s a general “Sources” option: Click this and you can see a full list of the sources referenced for this summary, plus a longer list of search results for sources similar to your query—regardless of whether or not ChatGPT used them.
OpenAI says ChatGPT search is powered by a “fine-tuned” version of its GPT-4o model, and distills outputs from OpenAI’s o1-preview model. The company has also partnered with many news organizations across the industry, name-dropping companies like Condé Nast, Financial Times, Le Monde, The Atlantic, and Vox Media. To sell the point (and to get ahead of criticism, no doubt), the company included a number of quotes about how great its new search engine is from leaders of these media companies.
On day eight of the company’s “12 Days of OpenAI” event, OpenAI announced that ChatGPT search was coming to Advanced Voice, something that didn’t ship with the original launch of search.
ChatGPT search and privacy
According to OpenAI, when you search for something with ChatGPT’s new web search feature, ChatGPT may share “disassociated search queries” with other search providers, like Bing. The bot also scrapes your location information from your IP address, and can share it with these search providers for improving search result accuracy.
Who can use ChatGPT search?
This feature was originally only available for ChatGPT Plus or ChatGPT Team users, but now all users are able to access it. You do need to be logged into your account to try it, however.
The feature works on both desktop and mobile. In fact, OpenAI rolled out some optimizations for the mobile experience during its 12 Days event, including linked results you can preview without opening in your browser. That includes the option to check out directions on a map directly in ChatGPT.
How to set ChatGPT search as your default search engine
If you’re sick of Google, Bing, even Perplexity, and want to use ChatGPT as your default search engine going forward, you actually can. You’ll need to be using Chrome and download the ChatGPT search extension.
Now, when you type a query in your address bar, Chrome will open up ChatGPT. You’ll need to be logged into your eligible account, though. Otherwise, you’ll just get a result from the standard ChatGPT service, not search.
Is ChatGPT search accurate?
I reference Google’s AI Overviews a lot, not because it’s a reliable use of AI, but because it had such a disastrous rollout. While SearchGPT didn’t make any significant headlines for inaccuracy, it’s important to remember that generative AI is far from perfect. In fact, each result from ChatGPT, including search, ends with “ChatGPT can make mistakes. Check important info.”
That’s because AI can at times hallucinate, or, simply, makes things up that aren’t true. What certainly helps make fact-checking easier are the linked sources. If you want to double-check that a result is correct, click through the source to see if that site is both reflective of what ChatGPT says, and trustworthy in general. If ChatGPT says something, and cites AP News, and AP says it’s true, that’s pretty solid. If ChatGPT says something, and cites trustmebro.fr, exercise skepticism.
All that said, Lifehacker writer David Nield was impressed with ChatGPT’s search features when he put it head-to-head against Google—particularly for complicated, multi-faceted searches. It seems worth checking out, but remember to be careful when accepting anything generated by AI.
You Can Now Ask Questions During Google’s AI Podcasts
Google’s NotebookLM AI podcast tool recently got launched into the mainstream thanks to a collaboration with Spotify Wrapped, but after a recent update, it’s suddenly much more interactive. Now, instead of just sitting back and listening, you can actually join in on the conversation.
According to Google, NotebookLM users have already generated “more than 350 years worth of Audio Overviews,” which essentially take uploaded documents and turn them into AI-hosted two-way conversations to help make them easier to digest. The idea is that you could submit a 50-page long research white paper, for example, and the podcast would give you a quick breakdown that you could listen to while doing other things.
Maybe it’s because Google uses the same voices for every audio overview, but in my experience, they usually sound eerily similar to a real back and forth, if not without some jank or robotic stiffness. That said, for a tool that’s supposed to make complicated topics easier to understand, it’s given users little control in how to guide its AI conversations—until now.
As part of a larger update that overhauls the user interface and adds some extra features for enterprise customers, Google is also now allowing you to join in on the AI podcasts. The feature, called Join, won’t let you directly converse with your AI hosts, but rather interrupt the podcast to ask a question and direct the conversation. For instance, if you’re listening to a breakdown of important dates in American history, but your hosts get distracted talking about state birds, you could stop them to get them back on track. Alternatively, you could simply ask them to go deeper on a particular topic, or reiterate something they’ve already covered.
The feature is currently rolling out in a beta, and unfortunately, I haven’t gotten my hands on it yet. If you’re luckier than me, Google says you can try it out through the following steps:
Create a new Audio Overview
Tap the new Interactive mode (BETA) button and hit play
While listening, tap “Join,” A host will call on you.
Ask your question!
The company has posted an example of the feature in action, and it seems like you’ll need to hit “join” for each question you’ve got. It really seems like Google is going for more of a Q&A format here, rather than treating you as a third host.
The result reminds me a bit of Gemini Live, which similarly lets you talk to Google’s AI in real-time, but has had some quirks regarding accuracy or understanding when I’ve tried using it in the past. It makes sense, then, that Google is iterating that the Join feature is “experimental,” and that hosts may “pause awkwardly before responding and may occasionally introduce inaccuracies.” Additionally, the feature will only work for new podcasts, so don’t expect to suddenly reinvent conversations you’ve already generated.
You’ll Soon Be Able to Share Your AirTag’s Location With Your Airline
AirTags are pretty great. They let you keep tabs on things that have a habit of going missing, like keys and wallets, and other items that are targets for theft, like bags and bikes.
Of course, sometimes a bag doesn’t go missing because of theft. One popular use for these tiny trackers is for tracking missing luggage: People will throw an AirTag in their bag and hand it off to their airline. If that bag doesn’t make it to the luggage carousel at the destination, a quick glance at the Find My app can offer some indication as to where that bag is. If the airline tries to say “we don’t know where your bag is,” you can hold up your iPhone and say, “I do.”
Lost luggage is more common a problem than it should be. But, on the bright side, airlines appear to want to do something about it.
Share Item Location in iOS 18.2
It all has to do with a new Find My feature rolling out with iOS 18.2, “Share Item Location.” The new feature lets you temporarily share a link to your Find My accessory’s location with a trusted third party. For a limited time (one week appears to be the default) they’ll be able to see your item, such as an AirTag, as if it were their own Find My device, and can help you locate it.
While this feature lets you share your AirTag’s location with anyone you want, part of the pitch is the ability to share these locations with airlines: If your luggage goes missing, you can share your AirTag’s coordinates with your airline directly—no more frustrated confrontation necessary.
United Airlines was the first to announce their the support for the feature. The airline shared the news on Thursday, Dec. 12, one day after Apple released iOS 18.2 to the public. United says you’ll be able to share your Find My device’s location link directly to delayed baggage report tool in the airline’s app. Once returned, United says it will disable the location link, but you can disable the link yourself at any time.
Following this announcement, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Marketing, Greg Joswiak, shared on X that Delta and Air Canada would also start supporting the feature. Unlike United, which appears to already support it, Delta and Air Canada will support it “this week,” so keep an eye out if you fly with any of these airlines.
Apple says more airlines will support the feature in “coming months,” including Aer Lingus, Air New Zealand, Austrian Airlines, British Airways, Brussels Airlines, Eurowings, Iberia, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Lufthansa, Qantas, Singapore Airlines, Swiss International Air Lines, Turkish Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, and Vueling.
How to use Share Item Location
To start, make sure your iPhone is running iOS 18.2 or later. Then, open Find My, tap the “Item” tab, then choose the item you’d like to share. Scroll down, then choose Share Item Location. Tap Continue on the popup, then either copy the link provided, or choose Share Link to share it direct with a contact.
Remember that even if the airline has the link to your AirTag, it isn’t a guarantee they’ll know its exact location at any given moment. AirTags aren’t live, real-time trackers. They have no way to constantly beam their location to the internet on their own. Instead, they rely on other internet-connected Find My devices (often iPhones) to anonymously and securely share their location to the Find My network on their behalf. Because they rely on other nearby devices to update their whereabouts, they’re great for general location tracking, but not for always-updated GPS coordinates. Don’t use them to track your kids, for example.
Why You Still Need a Filing Cabinet (Even in the Digital Age)
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One bit of wisdom that has come to me with age is that, sometimes, there is value in doing things the way they’ve always been done. Just because something can be modernized doesn’t always mean it needs to be. The best example of this, to me, is the humble filing cabinet. Yes, you can (and still should) digitize all your documents, since that makes them searchable and easy to find, but there are still great reasons to keep a real-deal, physical filing cabinet in your home.
First of all, filing cabinets aren’t just for files. The one I use has two drawers for file folders, but a smaller third drawer at the top that is ideal for office supplies. I’m a diehard supporter of the Organizational Triangle as a method to keep my home in order and that technique calls for everything you own to have a designated storage space and be stored with similar items. Keeping highlighters, a magnifying glass, staplers, etc. together with the stuff you use them for is an ideal organizational system.
The ones with extra storage space are typically taller than your one-off file storage boxes, too, so they provide helpful flat space that can be used for more storage or as a writing surface in a pinch. If all-in-one organization is your interest, try a file cabinet like this:
Some documents can’t be digitized
I am the person my friends and family members call on when they want help finding digital documents. I’m a meticulous organizer of my computer and phone and spend a lot of free time (generously) helping my loved ones organize their devices, too. But I learned this trait from my mom, who is diligent about physical document organization. When I need a copy of my birth certificate, that woman can produce it in seconds because it’s placed carefully in a clearly labeled folder in one of her many filing cabinets. Documents like that—certificates, social security cards, etc.—tend to need to be originals to count when it matters, like when you’re opening an account or getting your passport. Digital copies can only get you so far most of the time, so having a dedicated, labeled, organized storage space for the real stuff is key.
But other kinds of documents also need the physical treatment. In my mom’s job, for instance, some of the docs she handles are sensitive and can’t be digitized. A locked file cabinet is her best friend in that case. Other documents she handles are required to be kept for a certain amount of time before being destroyed. She tells me she doesn’t see the point of digitizing them just to delete them, so she keeps them in a special drawer of her file cabinet, then shreds them when the time is up.
What you need in this case is a lockable filing cabinet, like this:
Both drawers on this model lock independently with keys, which I like more than the cabinets that have one lock at the top that controls all the drawers.
Filing cabinets offer safety and protection
Following a very memorable incident in which my childhood dog tore apart not only my parents’ cardboard file boxes, but the files within them, my family switched to heavy-duty filing cabinets. In addition to ones that lock like the cabinets above, you can even get ones that are fire- and water-resistant. Yes, you can protect your documents from fire, water, and other physical threats by digitizing them, but the fact still remains you will always have important docs on hand in your home. Instead of keeping them piled up on a shelf, invest in a quality protective file cabinet or box. Some are pretty pricey, so it’s a good idea to determine how much you really need to store in something so hardcore, but you can also find smaller ones on the cheaper side, like this:
General filing cabinet tips
In my experience, the best way to use filing cabinets is by getting really nitty-gritty with your organization. I’m talking about labeled folders for everything. Each tax year should have its own folder. Each income source, asset, and person in your family should have one. In addition to clear labeling, I recommend using a variety of colors to represent all the different categories. You can get 100 multi-colored folders for $18.99.
Categorizing and organizing your documents and necessary items physically has a lot of benefits. I’ve found that it can actually be easier to pull open a drawer and look for something than to open and close a bunch of tabs and files on the computer. Plus, when you take the time to hand-write a label and physically handle a document, you really entrench it into your mind. It’ll be easier to remember where it is in a pinch for the same reason it’s easier to recall hand-written notes over digital ones when you’re studying.
I’m a file cabinet evangelist, I guess, and I think every home should have at least one. You don’t have to break the bank to do it or turn your back entirely on modernity. In fact, the easiest way to get a cheap one is by embracing modernity: Check Buy Nothing groups on Facebook or the free giveaways section of Craigslist regularly, as filing cabinets are usually abundant on there. When offices close or remodel, they give away a lot of stuff.
I Love These Sony Earbuds, and They’re $100 Off Right Now
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The Sony WF-1000XM line has been an innovative and solid series of headphones and earbuds for many years. Right now, the latest version of the Sony WF-1000XM5 earbuds are $198 (originally $299.99), a new record-low price, according to price-tracking tools. They are also the best earbuds for audio quality that you can get in 2024, especially if you want to use active noise-canceling (ANC).
You can fully customize the sound of these earbuds with various EQ and personalization options in the accompanying app, but they sound balanced and full out of the box. You also get support for the high-end LC3 and LDAC Bluetooth codecs. Their ANC is great, but what makes them special is that, unlike many other ANC earbuds, their audio quality isn’t hindered by using ANC, as noted in PCMag’s “outstanding” review.
You’ll get an IPX4 rating, meaning you can use them during workouts—just don’t wear them in the shower. The microphones are very clear, making them suitable for Zoom or work calls. The battery life lasts eight hours with ANC and 16 hours without it. The carrying case gives you up to 24 hours with a full charge. The app comes with many high-end features that earbuds at this price point offer, like Ambient Sound (hear your surroundings), Adaptive Sound Control (switch between ANC and Ambient Sound), Speak-to-Chat (your media stops when you speak), voice assistance from Alexa or Google Assistant, and other features that you can read more about in CNET’s review.
The Best Tools and Supplies to Save Time Cleaning
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I am a big proponent of limiting your cleaning to small, daily chunks of about 15 minutes or so to prevent feeling overwhelmed and to create the habit of maintaining a tidy home over time. Saving time cleaning will keep you motivated, and that really works when it comes to building sustainable, long-term progress, but there is one issue: What do you do when the cleaning task ahead of you is a more intense one, like scrubbing or sanitizing? Yes, you can break the duty down into smaller chunks and do it over the course of a few days, but there will likely be times you just want to get it done.
You don’t always have to labor for hours, though. Consider a few upgrades to your arsenal so you can cut back on how long it takes you to clean.
First, make sure all your cleaning supplies are accessible
Before you buy any gadgets that speed up the cleaning process, ensure that the things you already have are accessible. In general, your home should be organized in accordance with two main principles. The first is that all similar items should be stored together and the second is that everything you own should have a designated storage space. Making sure all your sponges, rags, chemicals, and cleaning devices are stored together will save a lot of time when you need them, as you’ll be able to find and get to them quickly.
The best way to do this is by creating a cleaning cart. Picking up one mobile cart and stocking it with your necessary goods is the superior option here, as you can bring it around with you from room to room and it keeps everything in order, so you don’t have to dig through a cabinet of stuff to get at one bottle of Windex.
The best time-saving cleaning tools
As for products that save time on their own, let’s start with brushes. There are two kinds of brushes you should upgrade to right now to save time in the long run. The first is any kind of power brush. You can get an electric spin brush with a telescopic handle and a variety of heads for about $40 on Amazon, or you can buy a set of heads that attach to your power drill for $25.95. Either way, these take on the responsibility of scrubbing hard, whether you’re tackling grout or a stubborn pan, turning a labor-intensive chore into quick work.
You should also get a smaller version for busting through the grime in your cracks and crevices. Those big brushes won’t help a lot with the spaces between your tiles, but a smaller one will. The Rubbermaid Reveal ($19.99) is a popular option and comes with a flat brush head as well as a tapered one.
The next kind of brush you should upgrade to is one that can be filled with soap. For $9.99, you can get a handheld brush that dispenses soap from the handle as you use it, cutting down the time you need to fill a bowl with soapy water, dip the brush, and repeat the process over and over again. These are great for dishes, obviously, but the uses extend well beyond that. Keep one in your shower to wash down the walls after you rinse, saving time in the future because your glass and tiles won’t get as scummy.
I’ve mentioned this one before, but my Bissell CrossWave OmniForce wet/dry vacuum has also saved me a lot of time. Not only is it an efficient vacuum, but it also doubles as a mop, meaning I don’t need to spend the finite minutes of my day switching between bulky devices when I want to clean the floor. You can use the vacuum alone or go dual mode, vacuuming and mopping all at once in a true time-saving performance.
Enhanced versions of regular chemicals and products are also helpful—but only if they actually work. I’ve never found that the more expensive dish soaps that claim to destroy grease and break down food faster than cheaper competitors were all that much better, for instance, but I have noticed that the Mr. Clean Ultra Foamy Magic Eraser ($2.49) scrubs away scum, dirt, and adhesive residue much faster than a regular melamine sponge. Similarly, PineSol 2x Concentrated ($15.82) makes quicker work of messes on my kitchen floor than its standard predecessor, too.
While the products so far have been pretty general, you should also consider ones designed to do very specific tasks. Cleaning the microwave takes a lot of time, for instance, but you can reduce that with the popular Angry Mama device. It’s a little figurine of, well, an angry mama, which you fill with water and vinegar, then nuke for seven minutes. It steams up the microwave for you, loosening crud that can then be easily wiped away. Two of them are $10.99. A Chom Chom pet hair roller ($24.99) is also going to save you a lot of time. Trying to pull fur, hair, and lint out of your upholstery and carpets manually is a fool’s errand. This makes much quicker work of that whole thing.
Proper prevention will also cut down on your cleaning time. I’ve been super into my spotLESS Bathroom Starter Set lately, for instance. The three-part set costs $24.99 and includes glass and mirror coating, toilet coating, and fixture coating that prevent water spots and other grime from building up on your flat surfaces. I’ve been using it on my glass table consistently and have noticed I have to spend way less time wiping down the surface after I eat. Other prevention tools, like a floating humidifier cleaner (six for $18.99) or ceramic sealant ($29.95)—used on countertops, stainless steel appliances, etc.—can also prevent small messes from turning into big ones, which means you won’t spend nearly as long dealing with them when it’s time to clean.
Your Black Plastic Utensils (Probably) Aren’t Killing You After All
If you recently threw out your black plastic spatula, as several news articles urged us to do (“Your favorite spatula could kill you” was a real headline), you might want to see if you can dig it back out of the trash. They were based on a study whose most dramatic finding has turned out to be a miscalculation.
To be fair, the general idea hasn’t been debunked; plastic contains a multitude of chemicals whose potential health effects aren’t well understood. And the black spatula study did identify a serious issue in plastic manufacturing. But the problem is literally 1/10th as big as the news stories led us to believe.
Why black plastic may be a health issue
The original study—which makes some good points even when the mathematical error is corrected—focused on the use of flame retardants in plastic. Flame retardants are just what they sound like: chemicals that make it harder for materials to catch fire. Electronic components like computers are often made with flame retardants for safety.
Flame retardants, especially a family of them called brominated flame retardants, are suspected of causing potential health issues (like cancer) and may accumulate in the environment. If these are being used in manufacturing, they should be kept away from places where people might consume them. And that’s where this study comes in.
The authors suspected that black plastic from electronics was being recycled into other items, like kitchen utensils. And they found that that is indeed the case.
What was wrong about the recent study
As Canada’s National Post reported, chemist Joe Schwarzc took a closer look at the numbers in the study, and found an error—the kind you probably made a ton of on your grade school science papers. (I know I did.) It relates to the dosage of the chemical BDE-209. The reference dose means—very roughly, and there is nuance to this definition—the amount of the chemical that’s considered probably safe to consume each day.
The authors of the paper looked at the reference dose for BDE-209, which was 7,000 nanograms per kilogram of a person’s body weight. They multiplied that out for a 60-kilogram person (132 pounds, the size of a small adult), and then compared that to their findings of 34,700 nanograms per day of exposure from kitchen utensils. Whoa—34,700 is really darn close to the reference dose of 42,000 nanograms per day! That’s definitely cause for concern.
But that math was missing a zero. The reference dose actually multiplies out to 420,000 nanograms. That makes 34,700 nanograms not 83% of the reference dose, but 8.3%. Potentially still a concern, but not nearly to the same degree. The journal posted a correction, in which the authors say “We regret this error and have updated it in our manuscript. This calculation error does not affect the overall conclusion of the paper.”
That overall conclusion was that “when toxic additives are used in plastic, they can significantly contaminate products, made with recycled content, that do not require flame retardancy.” The authors also called for more research and regulation to be sure that plastic items are made with safer materials. And those do sound like fair points to make.
Biden-Harris Administration Continues to Deliver Affordable Clean Energy to Rural Americans as Part of Investing in America Agenda
STOWE, Vt., Dec. 16, 2024 – U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced $78.3 million in partially forgivable loans for clean energy projects through the Powering Affordable Clean Energy (PACE) program to help lower electricity bills for households, expand reliable access to renewable energy and create jobs for rural families, small businesses and agricultural producers.
The Bose New Soundlink Flex Is Down to Its Lowest Price (and It Arrives Before Christmas)
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Bose has been making speakers that have been dominating their space since their release. When it comes to portable mid-size rugged speakers, the Bose New Soundlink Flex has been one of the best since its release in 2021, and is still very competitive three years later. Right now, you can get it for $119 (originally $149), the lowest price it has been according to price-tracking tools. And it arrives before Christmas.
The Bose New SoundLink Flex is the middle sibling between the oldest (but smallest) Bose SoundLink Micro, and the youngest (but biggest) Bose SoundLink Max. The Flex also strikes a good middle ground between them as far as portability and sound, making it the best portable speaker for most people.
The Flex has an IP67 rating, which means you get complete water and dust-proof protection. The speaker even floats in the water, so you can bring it with you inside the pool. While it doesn’t have full EQ customization in its companion app, the sound it offers is clear with rich bass depth and clear highs out of the box, according to PCMag’s review. It also has a speakerphone, so you can take calls with it and even speak to it, thanks to its microphone. Although it’s older, it comes with a USB-C charger, so it will charge quickly. At 3.6 by 7.9 by 2.1 inches (HWD) and 1.3-pound, it is light and portable. The Bluetooth 4.2 supports SBC codec, but not AAC or AptX, so it is more suitable for Android users than for Apple users, but either works.
The SoundLink Flex is perfect for those who want to take their speaker with them anywhere, thanks to its small size and light weight. And for the price, it offers some of the best audio available.