Presentations over video conferencing apps like Zoom and Google Meet work best when you share your entire screen but anyone with a 4K display knows the lag doing that can create. Also, if you only have one screen, this leaves you without any space for your notes. You can work around this by only sharing a portion of you screen, sure, but that gets finicky if you accidentally move a window.

Deskpad (which I found via Lou Plumber) is a free Mac app that makes a virtual second monitor that lives in a window. The idea is that you move your presentation software to that display and share it, then use the rest of your actual display so you can see your notes and the stream’s chat.

Using the application is simple: Just install and open it—you’ll see a window showing you a full Mac desktop. This is a simulated display—you can even configure it in System Preferences.

You can adjust the resolution of the display here—set it lower if your presentations tend to lag. You can also click the “Arrange” button to decide which side of the screen you need to move your mouse to in order to enter the virtual display. This is a little confusing, granted, but you need to pretend that the DeskPad window is another monitor on your desk. Play around with it and you’ll get the feel for it.

Now you can get ready to give your presentation. Put your presentation software in the virtual, DeskPad display and set it to full screen. Then, when sharing your screen in Zoom or similar software, choose the DeskPad display.

Zoom will share the entire virtual display as though it’s a real one. Now you can organize your screen just the way you like it. With the presentation in full screen in the DeskPad window you can have your notes and anything else in separate windows alongside it. It’s a bit of a hack, sure, but it works.

With the change in seasons bringing more time indoors, November is the month to prepare your home for colder weather. Keeping your house warm, cozy, and safe for the winter is easier if you get ahead of potential problems by performing some simple checks and chores right now.

Here are all the home maintenance tasks you should do in November.

Check your vents and crawlspace for critters

When the weather gets colder, wild animals might be looking for a good place to shelter for the winter. If you have uncovered vents or crawlspace accesses, these can prove to be an inviting spot for creatures. To keep them out, make sure you have vent covers in place, and that crawl spaces or any other exterior nooks and crannies are sealed up or covered with a sturdy metal mesh. This method will help defend against squirrels, raccoons, rats, mice, birds, and bats.

Check your fire and carbon monoxide alarms

If you have non-wired smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, you should change the batteries once per year to make sure that they are working well, and now is a great time to do so. If you’ve already changed batteries (maybe when setting your clocks back?), go ahead and test your hazard detection system to ensure that it will alert you if there’s smoke or dangerous carbon monoxide levels in the house. Since people spend more time indoors during the colder months of the year, there may be an elevated risk of fire from the use of heaters, candles, and cooking, and keeping windows closed and sealed can increase the risk of carbon monoxide collecting inside. Giving your detectors a once-over can help reduce risk from these seasonal concerns.

Install weatherproofing

If you live in an older home, or if you have some windows or doors that aren’t well insulated, November is a good time to weatherproof problem areas. Begin by inspecting the weatherstripping around doors and windows. Check for leaks, broken, or worn stripping. If you find any gaps, you can use replacement weather stripping to seal up any openings. If you have bigger leaks around windows or doors, or older windows that let in too much air, you can also use a weatherization kit to temporarily seal off your leaky openings with heat-shrinking plastic wrap. This basic weatherproofing will keep you warmer and help save you money on utility bills.

Gather winter weather supplies

If you live in an area that can get a lot of snow and ice in winter, it’s time to stock up on ice melt, shovels, and roof rakes. Take a look at your snow removal tools and make sure they’re in good shape before it’s time to use them. Replacing equipment before a storm can save you a headache during a winter weather event. Now is also a good time to stash your ice scraper, snow brush, and snow chains in your car’s trunk. If you live in an area that gets heavy snowfall and ice, you should also leave a scraper and de-icer in your garage or utility room so you can get to it if your vehicle is frozen over.

Clean ovens and other crumb-catching appliances

Kitchen fires can be caused by toasters and ovens that have deposits of crumbs and other food particles in them. When the appliance heats up, leftover food will heat up as well, and if it gets hot enough, your appliance can catch fire. Since people tend to stay home and use their ovens more during colder month—not to mention entertaining more during the holiday season—ovens and toasters can get more of a workout at this time of year. Checking that your appliances are hazard-free in November can save you from a disaster down the road.

You’re likely here for one of two reasons and perhaps both: You saw someone talking about “junebug” cleaning on social media and/or you are tired of not being able to focus on cleaning, so you Googled in desperation. I’m in both camps with you. Even though I know I’m supposed to create a steady cleaning schedule and only tidy up in 15-minute bursts to stave off burnout, I still find myself wondering at times where I should even start and what I should even do. I have a million thoughts running around my head and none of them leave a lot of space for peacefully, actively plotting out how and what to clean. That’s where the junebug method really shines.

What is the “junebug” cleaning method?

Though it’s popular on modern social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels, the earliest mention of the trend came around on Tumblr, where a user explained that to clean up despite their ADHD, they imagined they were like a junebug: “Have you ever seen a junebug get to grips with a window screen? It’s remarkably persistent, but not very focused. All that matters is location.”

So, you act like a junebug. That’s it. Unlike an insect trying to get through a window screen, though, you’re cleaning. You pick one area you could or need to clean, like the kitchen. Then, focus on one spot, like the sink or a countertop. Like a junebug, you just keep coming back to that spot, no matter what else distracts you in the process. So, if the sink is your designated junebugging site, you might wash the dishes in it, then get distracted as you notice the backsplash needs to be wiped down. After you wipe down the backsplash, remind yourself that you’re supposed to be at the sink; go back to it to scour it or giving the faucet some attention. From there, with your sponge in hand, you might wander away to clean the countertops—but always go back to that starting point when you finish whatever you wandered away to do.

The idea here is that you’re using your own distractibility to your advantage. One task at the starting point might remind you of something else you need to do, but once you finish it up, go back to the starting point for more inspiration and motivation. Eventually, you’ll make your way all around, like a junebug, but keep returning to where you started—also like a junebug.

Who should try junebugging to clean?

Junebugging is a useful technique for anyone who is having a hard time focusing, gets distracted easily, or just wants to shake up their routine. On TikTok and other platforms, it’s proven especially popular for people with ADHD. In fact, the Tumblr user who first coined it did so as a result of their own ADHD. Now, mental health pros point to it as a great option for neurodivergent people.

Obviously, you don’t need to have ADHD to try this out. The beauty of this technique is it works for anyone, as long as you go into it understanding why you’re doing it and give yourself some grace. Just tackle whatever distracts you, calls your attention, or seem pertinent in the moment. You may not finish every task, but it’s better than doing nothing and returning over and over to the same spot acts like a reset, allowing you to surround yourself in familiarity and reorient a bit, pointing your attention to something else.

I’ve always had trouble with daily, weekly, and monthly cleaning routines because they are based on an arbitrary standard instead of my real life. When a friend told me about the Tody app months ago, I thought it would be more of the same. Instead, after some upfront work of choosing the zones and tasks that matter to me (and setting low expectations), I found that I have been able to change my attitude about housekeeping. 

Traditional cleaning routines often set us up for failure by ignoring the realities of our individual needs and energy levels. According to the daily and weekly cleaning tasks recommended by Good Housekeeping, I should spend a minimum of five hours a week on chores. For some, that is probably no problem. For me, it is insurmountable. Despite my initial skepticism, using the Tody app allowed me to create a realistic, low-pressure system for housekeeping that reduced my stress and made housework more approachable.

The pitfalls of traditional cleaning routines

My personal roadblocks to keeping a perfectly tidy house include having two small children, a handful of chronic illnesses, a career, and a fiery bitterness about the patriarchal standards that trained me to believe my value depends on how clean my baseboards are. 

As I was the only one in the household with my self-worth tied to housekeeping, I was often the only person motivated to take action. When my body and mind had no energy left for action, I isolated myself in zones of the home that I felt I could control easily, like my office or bed. When I was introduced to the Tody app by a friend, though, I found that it emphasizes flexibility and allows users to build their own “zones” and task schedules, so finally, only my own expectations mattered. 

My favorite features of the app

• Customization. Before you use the Tody app, it pays to take your time setting up what rooms and chores you care about and how frequently they should be repeated. The app makes it pretty easy with preset rooms and tasks that you can activate or ignore. You can also choose what level of effort to assign to each task based on your feelings and abilities. Add only the rooms and tasks that are relevant to your household, and add custom tasks as needed.

• Priorities. After you initially set up your household needs in Tody, the app prioritizes your task list. That means doing the top few tasks scores you big points and help you feel accomplished.

• Gamify it. Choose whether you want to compete with Dusty, the resident boss, and choose your difficulty level. (I always have it set to easy because I need the confidence boost.) 

• Check your attitude. You can also choose from three “attitudes”: relaxed, average, or proactive. I have stuck with the relaxed setting so I never see so many tasks I get paralyzed by overwhelm. The relaxed setting also means tasks are due to be repeated less frequently.

• Focus time. Use the focus timer to challenge yourself to complete certain tasks in one session

• Take a break. You can pause tasks that you know you won’t get to because of life, illness, vacation, or whatever else. Undoable tasks don’t have to sit at the top of your list, mocking you.

As I used Tody for weeks and then months, tasks became more about maintenance than perfection, lowering the pressure to meet external standards. I may have a list of outstanding tasks, but the top one is the most overdue and will be the most rewarding to complete.

It also helped me better judge what tasks to delegate or ask for help from my husband and children. If sweeping the porch and sidewalk is 30 days overdue (see authentic screen grab above) because temps have only just dropped below the 90s, getting everyone out in the yard to help will feel like a big win for me and the family.

Tody also helped me realize I needed more help. It made it easier to communicate to my husband and children when I was falling behind. 

One thing Tody did not—and could not—do is make it possible for one middle-aged woman to perfectly care for a 3,000-square-foot house inhabited by four people and two cats. My husband and kids do their share, and I mark their tasks off in my app. 

Results and benefits of using Tody

• Lower stress: Instead of feeling nagged by an endless list that I was always falling further behind on, the app helped me feel in control.

• A tidier home: It took time and adjustments, but now there is a noticeable difference in how clean and maintained my home feels.

• Focused approach: With clear direction on which tasks are most essential, I no longer feel the urge to “hide” from chores.

• Decoupling my self-esteem from chores. Tody is not personally calling me out for falling behind on my task list. And it’s not just my list—it belongs to my whole family, and I no longer feel like a failure who is 100% responsible for our domestic needs. 

Tody worked because it allowed me to adapt a cleaning routine that suits our life and lowered the mental load of maintaining our home.

The free version of Tody (what I use) is ad-free, and has all the functionality I’ve described above. Starting at $9.99/year, you can use the premium version to sync with multiple people, set up other households, and further customize the look of your app.

Chances are you’ve encountered a scammer recently—probably more than one, either on the phone, via email, or on a social media network. There were 2.6 million fraud reports filed last year alone, and people reported losing $10 billion to scammers. It can seem like every other message you get is a Romance Scammer, a Pig Butcherer, or an Impostor Scam. And you might think that you’d never fall for one—but you definitely can.

That’s because scammers use a wide range of psychological tricks to confuse you and convince you to make decisions that will likely seem incredible to you in retrospect. In the heat of the moment, it’s easy to find yourself manipulated, and if you ever accidentally engage with a scammer you will likely experience one or more of these psychological tricks scammers use to keep you off balance.

Appeal to authority

Scammers often impersonate people in authority—government officials, law enforcement officers, or expert professionals. We’re all trained to defer to folks in charge, and scammers leverage that to shut down any resistance we might have to what we’re being told to do. After all, if the cops are on the phone telling you that you missed a court date and must pay a fine or be immediately arrested, our instinct is to do as we’re told to stay out of trouble.

This also leverages something called the Halo Effect—a tendency to let a positive first impression influence how we perceive subsequent interactions. If someone establishes themselves as an authority figure, we’re more likely to go along with their commands even if they’re strange—like when a police officer instructs you to stay on the phone while you buy gift cards to pay a fine.

What to watch for: If someone claiming to be a figure in authority resists any attempt to fact-check them—by claiming that you’ll be arrested if you hang up, or that there’s no time to verify their claims—you should be very suspicious. Legitimate authorities will have no problem with you conducting reasonable verification.

Time pressure

Scammers want you to use the emotional, instinctive side of your brain, so they often try to use scarcity and fear to pressure you into doing what they want. Scams are often presented as limited opportunities, either in terms of time or supply, immediately putting you in a more emotional state because you don’t want to miss out. This works even if the benefit you’re being offered wasn’t even on your radar a few moments ago—the moment you’re told you could have something, your emotional response is to protect that benefit, often overriding your more rational thought processes.

Another way this gets implemented is with Delivery Scams or Fake Invoice Scams, which often include a convenient (and very fake) contact link or phone number you can easily click to make contact. Your emotional response to seeing a large invoice you never authorized drives you to click immediately to get the mistake resolved, so you don’t pause to think about verifying the contact information.

What to watch for: Any time you’re pressured to act immediately to resolve a problem or secure some benefit, stop yourself. No legitimate business ever requires you to make snap decisions like that.

Foot-in-the-Door

Scammers know that people are often on guard against big, dramatic sums or anything involving heavy effort. So they use a technique known as “Foot-in-the-Door” to ease you into the scam. The way it works is simple: They initiate contact with a small, easy request—sometimes as simple as asking “Can I have two minutes of your time?” or asking you to answer a simple question. If you’ve ever been stopped on the street by someone collecting signatures and they start off with a question like “Do you love animals?” you’ve encountered the Foot-in-the-Door trick.

That first question is followed by a steady flow of additional requests—but you’re already in the mindset of acquiescing, and your agreement to earlier requests can make it difficult to justify a later refusal to cooperate. For example, if you’ve already agreed that a specific cause is worth supporting, refusing to then donate some money makes you feel like a liar.

This technique also uses the “Sunk Cost Fallacy.” Once you’ve invested time and emotional labor into answering questions and getting increasingly involved in a conversation, you’ll be less willing to just walk away or end the interaction without a result. Foot-in-the-Door can also be used in reverse—the scammer may open with a huge ask that is easy to refuse, then follow it up with a much smaller ask that suddenly seems reasonable in comparison.

What to watch for: Any time a stranger opens with a question without any warm-up or pleasantries, it’s time to slow things down on your end so you can think.

Reciprocity

Reciprocity is why civilization works—when someone does something for us, we feel a “social debt” to return the favor. Remarkably, this works even if we didn’t want what we received in the first place. This often comes in the form of a favor—a special price or special access offered to you because you seem like a nice person, but it can also be used subtly to keep you talking. The scammer will compliment you or express interest in you so they can establish a social debt—if someone asks you how your day is going, you might feel pressure to ask them as well, keeping you engaged. This can be used to generate mental fatigue—after you’ve been talking with a scammer for a long time, you can be worn down and easier to manipulate.

What to watch for: Spontaneous compliments or offers of favors from people you’ve never met should be a red flag that you’re about to encounter a reciprocal request and the scammer wants to make you feel indebted to them.

Love bombing

Romance scams are long-term hustles where scammers pretend to be an attractive, interested romantic partner who is sadly very far away and thus unable to meet in person. The scammer convinces their victim that they are in love, and then requests money in various forms to solve temporary problems—a car in need of repair or travel problems, for example.

When viewed from a distance, it might seem hard to believe that people don’t immediately become suspicious when their new friend demands money. But these scammers use what’s known as “love bombing” to overwhelm their victims emotionally and manipulate them. Love bombing starts with constant, dramatic expressions of affection, but then withholds that affection with no explanation, forcing the victim to work to regain that sense of adoration. Before you know it, you’re working hard to do whatever they want so you can regain your good standing with them.

What to watch for: If someone you’ve never met begins showering you with attention and praise, be suspicious. If they then seem to randomly go “cold” and become angry with you, you’re almost certainly being manipulated (or the person isn’t in a healthy emotional space—either way, it’s time to walk away).

Early wins

One technique that most Pig Butchering Scams utilize is the “early win,” which can be applied in other kinds of scams. The Early Win is simple: In order to gain your trust, the scammer will actually let you make some real money from them. In the classic Pig Butchering Scam, for example, you’re invited to invest in something, often a cryptocurrency scheme. You put in a small, safe amount of money you can afford to lose—but instead of being scammed out of that small amount, you actually get a profit, and you can even withdraw it from the scheme.

The Early Win is designed to gain trust. Once you actually make some small amount of profit, you’re more willing to risk increasing amounts. And the Early Wins will help convince you to keep investing more money even if you have trouble withdrawing funds from the scam in the future, because you’ve already seen “proof” that it’s legitimate.

What to watch for: If you’re pressured to test an investment scheme with a small amount of money and/or promised a “guaranteed” return, you might be getting fattened up like the proverbial pig.

When the iPad mini 7 was released in Oct. of this year, there were some early deals available from retailers outside of Amazon. But now it’s Amazon’s turn to have the best deal on the new iPad Mini A17 Pro, currently going for $399.99 (originally $484) after an $84.01 on-page coupon, the lowest price it has been, according to price-tracking tools.

The iPad mini 7 comes with the A17 Pro chip, the same chip found in the iPhone 15 Pro, and one A-series less than the iPhone 16 series uses. It’s only a year old and will be supported by Apple for many years. In comparison to the iPad mini 6, it is 30% faster than the iPad mini 6’s A15 Bionic chip, but more importantly, it runs Apple Intelligence, including new AI features like notification summaries and AI-powered writing tools. You’ll also be able to use the new Apple Pencil Pro with it, have Wi-Fi 6E support, and it starts with 128GB of storage (twice what the iPad mini 6 base model offers).

True to its name, the mini 7 is Apple’s smallest tablet, measuring 7.7 by 5.3 by 0.3 inches and weighing 1.1 lbs. The screen is an 8.3-inch screen with a 2,226 by 1,448 pixels resolution. According to PCMag’s “excellent” review, you can expect to get about 7 hours and 23 minutes of juice on a full charge. Other than Apple Intelligence and supporting the Pencil Pro, there is not much difference to warrant upgrading if you have the 6th generation iPad mini. But if you’re looking for a smaller iPad or just need to upgrade to a newer one that has the latest features, this new iPad mini is currently just $50 more than the previous version and is a great deal for its price.

The holidays are just around the corner, and Best Buy has a sale that you can take advantage of if you want to save some money when doing your holiday shopping. Until Nov. 8, 2024, at 12:59 a.m. ET, Best Buy’s Holiday Savings sale will have many tech products for sale, including some impressive Buy One, Get One Free deals. Two BOGO deals, in particular, stand out, and there are some other buy-one-get-a-different-product sales that are also worth checking out. Here is the rundown of the best ones.

Some of these Best Buy product prices are inflated for the BOGO deal (some are at their full listing price), but the BOGO deal essentially brings the price of each individual product to its lowest price ever.

Buy an LG 24″ or 27″ monitor, and get a second free

If you and/or someone on your holiday list is in need of a new monitor, the LG 24-inch ($169.99) and 27-inch Monitor ($219.99) are BOGO right now. These are budget monitors but are a good value for the price with a 100Hz refresh rate (higher than the standard 60Hz), a 1920 x 1080 resolution, and a 5 ms response time. They also have a thin bezel for a more modern design. You can see both deals here.

Buy one Google Nest Audio speaker, and get one free

Another BOGO deal worth considering is the Google Nest Audio speaker for $99.99. This is a smart speaker from 2020 that is great for people who use the Google ecosystem at home (or someone who wants to get started with it). Like most voice smart assistant devices, it will allow your smart devices that are compatible with Google to be controlled with your voice. It supports Bluetooth and Google Cast and it has a strong balanced sound, according to PCMag’s “excellent” review.

Buy a Samsung 85″ or 98″ TV, and get a free Samsung 40″ TV

While you won’t be getting two 85 or 98-inch TVs for the price of one, a 40-inch TV is better than nothing—as long as you were already shopping for one of those massive TVs, that is. You can choose from three Samsung TVs, and you’ll get a 40″ Samsung Class 5 Series LED Full HD Smart Tizen TV (with a value of $249.99) for free. The 85” Samsung Class DU7200 Series Crystal UHD 4K Smart Tizen TV, in particular, is well-priced at $999.99 (originally $1,499.99).

There are some other buy-one-get-a-different-product deals worth considering. Here are some of the best:

• Free extra Enduro battery with GoPro HERO13 Black

• Save 50% on select Geek-Squad-Certified Refurbished AirPods Max

• Free Samsung Galaxy Buds2 Pro with unlocked Galaxy S24 Ultra phone

• Free Shears 3.0 travel kit with select Manscaped Lawn Mower 4.0 Pro Refined gift set

• Free Hypervolt Go 2 percussion massager with Normatec Elite compression boots

Has this ever happened to you? You pick up your iPhone to take a photo or a video of something, but when you pull up the Camera app, nothing appears on screen. The rear camera displays a black screen, but if you tap the “switch camera” button and swap over to the selfie cam, your face pops-up without issue on the preview.

The problem likely lies with your iPhone’s rear camera, which for some reason isn’t displaying a preview in the Camera app when active. There’s often not much you can do yourself to fix it. Force quitting the Camera app, resetting your iPhone, or tapping the back of the camera to shake something loose may not work. The good news is, Apple will happily fix the issue for you for free—so long as your device is an eligible iPhone 14 Plus.

There’s an issue with some iPhone 14 Plus phones

According to a new Apple support page, the company has identified a problem with the rear camera on a “very small percentage of iPhone 14 Plus devices.” Affected devices won’t display anything when you have the rear camera active, so if your 14 Plus’ camera is acting up like this, it’s probably Apple’s fault.

Just because you have an iPhone 14 Plus with this issue doesn’t mean it is automatically eligible for the repair, however: Apple says the affected devices were manufactured between April 10 2023, and April 28, 2024. If you bought your iPhone 14 Plus on launch day back in 2022, for example, it isn’t covered. You’ll need to plug your serial number into the text field on the support page to confirm whether your device is covered under this program.

If your eligible 14 Plus does have this issue, you have a few choices to get it fixed. First, you can simply take your iPhone to an Apple Store: Make an appointment, bring your iPhone, and they’ll make your camera work again free of charge. You can also go through an Apple Authorized Service Provider, which is a repair shop that Apple has officially approved for servicing. Finally, you can mail in your iPhone, if you set up a solution first with Apple Support.

If you previously had your iPhone 14 Plus’ camera fixed and paid for it, Apple says you can ask them for a refund.

One final caveat: There is a time limit on this program. Apple says it will only fix your camera within three years of the “first retail sale of the unit.” That means if you bought yours second-hand six months ago, you still have to go back to when the device was originally sold at retail to figure out when that three-year deadline ends. However, since the first affected devices weren’t manufactured until April 10, 2023, the oldest devices in the program are, at most, a year and a half old, so you have until at least April 2026 until the first batch of 14 Plus models won’t be covered.

You can get a lifetime license to Microsoft Office 2019 for Mac on sale for $24.97 right now (reg. $229) for a limited time. While it’s not the newest version of the software suite, it has the same basic functionalities and includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, and Teams Classic in a one-time download for one Mac. Your computer must have at least macOS Monterey, 4GB of RAM, and 10GB of available hard disk space for the installation.

You can get a Microsoft Office 2019 lifetime license for Mac on sale for $24.97 right now (reg. $229) for a limited time, and prices can change at any time.