As we've covered before, an emergency fund is a stash of money set aside to cover unexpected expenses. If you're hit with a sudden car repair, medical bill, or period of unemployment, you'll be grateful that you have designated funds to draw from for this very purpose. But where exactly are you pulling those funds from?

Stuffing cash under your mattress may seem like an easy option, but there are better choices that allow you to earn interest—while still keeping your funds safe and liquid.

Stuffing cash under the mattress

(Or a shoebox, or piggy bank—you get the idea.)

Pros: Immediately accessible, no fees or account minimums

Cons: Zero interest earned, security risks, can be lost or destroyed

While hiding cash around the house seems like the ultimate in easy access, it's simply not a smart move. Your money will lose value over time due to inflation, and there are risks of theft, fire, or just plain losing track of where you stashed those bills. An emergency fund needs to be secure yet still readily available when you need it.

Traditional savings account

Pros: Quick access, insured by FDIC, interest-bearing

Cons: Very low interest rates, may have fees/minimums

Savings accounts used to be a decent place to stash your rainy-day fund. With easy access via your local branch or online transfers, they're highly liquid. And as long as your bank is FDIC-insured, your money is safe. The downside these days is that most savings accounts pay interest rates of just 0.01%-0.05% APY. So your money will grow very, very slowly over time. Better than under the mattress, at least!

High-yield savings account

Pros: Higher interest earned, still liquid, FDIC-insured

Cons: Must meet requirements, rates can drop over time

For a better return without sacrificing access, consider opening an online high-yield savings account. While rates have come down from their peak, you can still find accounts offering around 5% annual percentage yields from reputable banks. Here’s our guide to choosing a high-yield savings account.

Money market account

Pros: Competitive interest rates, check-writing, FDIC-insured

Cons: May have high minimum balance and fees

A money market account (MMA) is a way to earn higher interest rates than you would with a regular savings account. MMAs are notable for having the features of a checking account, like debit cards and limited check-writing privileges. However, MMAs are not ideal for people starting out with smaller savings, since they require a higher minimum balance than most savings accounts (usually between $5,000 to $10,000).

Short-term CDs

Pros: Higher interest rates than savings, low-risk

Cons: Funds are less liquid, with early withdrawal penalties

CDs are time-based, usually offered in terms ranging from three months to five years. Longer terms come with higher interest rates. However, if you withdraw your money from the account before the set time period, you pay a penalty.

The bottom line

The key for your emergency fund is to find the right balance between earning a return while still keeping your money safe and accessible. While a high-yield savings account may be ideal for your full six to nine month cash reserve, using a CD ladder or money market account for a portion can boost your earnings as long as you have enough liquidity. Just be sure to review rates and terms periodically, as the best accounts can change over time. But wherever you decide to store your rainy day fund, do so intentionally—because the money under your mattress won't do you much good when you need it most.

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Plenty of apps come in both mobile and web versions now—in fact it's increasingly rare to find a phone app that you can't also access through a desktop or laptop—and there are four in particular that I find I'm loading up in a browser tab on my computer more often than I'm launching them on my smartphone.

While there's still a lot to be said for the mobile versions of these apps (not least the ability to take photos and videos directly), being able to use a larger screen and a proper keyboard makes a huge difference.

If you've never used these apps on Windows or macOS, give them a go—you might be surprised at how many of their features and functions are carried over. These web versions are also easier to switch to while you're working on something else, so you're spending less time unlocking your phone and switching between devices unnecessarily.

WhatsApp

Head to WhatsApp on the web in your browser, and you'll be presented with a QR code. You can scan it from your phone by tapping the three dots on the Chats tab (Android) or the Settings tab (iOS), then Linked devices and Link a device. Your phone's camera opens and you can scan the QR code being displayed in your browser.

When you've got a lot of messaging to do, you can't beat a keyboard for typing—in just a few minutes I can be caught up on all the one-to-one and group chats I've been neglecting, and it's super easy to jump between conversations. You can quickly select multiple chats to mute them, or mark them as read or unread, and there's a filter function for quickly seeing all your unread conversations in one place.

Messaging is much easier with a full keyboard. Credit: Lifehacker

You're able to load up files, photos, and videos from your computer as well as snapping photos and videos with your webcam, so WhatsApp for the web really helps when you need to share stuff from your computer rather than your phone—for me it's used most often when I'm trying to organize something, and I need to get a lot of documents to a lot of people at the same time.

In fact, there's not much you can't do in the web version of WhatsApp compared to the mobile version, except for sharing your location. It's great for deleting messages or archiving chats en masse, and there are a good number of settings to play around with too, covering everything from notifications to group chat access. Keyboard shortcuts are supported too, so you can do your WhatsApping even faster.

Google Messages

Direct your browser to Google Messages on the web, and if you're already signed into Google, getting connected is as easy as picking the account you want to use, and opening Google Messages on your phone to confirm the link. You can also use a QR code to connect, which you can scan by opening the mobile Google Messages app, tapping your avatar (top right), then choosing Device pairing.

The Google Messages web app isn't as fully featured as the WhatsApp one—you can't select multiple conversations at once, for example, or filter messages—but there's still a lot that you can do. Messages can be muted, deleted, and archived in just a few clicks, and starting new chats (or group chats) is simple as well.

Google Messages on the web supports SMS and RCS. Credit: Lifehacker

One of the best uses I've found for Google Messages on the web is organizing a weekly sports event, because I can copy and paste the same messages to all the players involved without setting up yet another group chat—and nobody really needs another one of those. RCS features, including individual message replies and emoji reactions, are included too.

You get a decent collection of settings here as well: There are dark modes and high contrast modes you can switch to, plus a range of options around notifications in your browser (including message previews) to alert you to new messages. As with WhatsApp, there's support for a bunch of keyboard shortcuts, to speed up your texting even further.

Instagram

Instagram on the web made its debut all the way back in 2012, and in the years since it's added just about every feature from the mobile version of the app. You can now do most of the stuff you do on Instagram from a desktop or laptop—except for snapping photos and recording videos. (What do you mean you don't use your laptop webcam to take vacation snaps?)

You get your main feed down the center of the screen (a mouse scroll wheel will have you caught up in no time), you get your stories along the top, and via the links to the left you're able to access search, the Explore page, Reels, and your direct messages. You can also create new posts too, assuming you've got the photos or videos you need stored somewhere on your computer.

Instagram on the web has grown to be very fully featured. Credit: Lifehacker

Scrolling through stories works particularly well on the web, because you can click forwards and backwards, or click to pause, and even skip several stories ahead to get to the friends that you're actually interested in. You can reply to stories and add emoji reactions, just like you can on your phone.

Instagram on the web is also a place where you can view and curate your own profile—there are tools for editing your profile, seeing posts you've saved and posts you're tagged in, and even changing your account settings. If there's something I need to do on Instagram these days, I usually do it on the web—and you can improve the experience even more with browser extensions for Instagram.

Snapchat

Snapchat on the web isn't quite as fully featured as the Instagram equivalent, but there's still a lot you can do—including sending snaps to your contacts via whatever webcam or other camera might be hooked up to your computer. If you use Snapchat as an instant messenger, like I do, then having the keyboard and mouse really helps.

What you can't do—not yet at least—is view snaps sent directly to you. That puts the web interface a step behind the mobile app in terms of functionality, but perhaps that's intentional on Snapchat's part: You can see that new snaps have come in, but you can't view them. You can, however, view stories, and they sit snugly up on the right of the interface next to your chats.

Use Snapchat on the web to view stories and send photos and videos from your computer. Credit: Lifehacker

You can send photos and videos inline in conversations, so if you have files you want to share on your computer, the web interface is the place to do it. You're also able to make video and audio calls to your contacts on Snapchat on the web, which again is handy if you use Snapchat as a communication hub rather than just somewhere to sit back and scroll through content.

As far as other features go, you can respond to and initiate friend requests on the web; you can set up new group chats (and calls); you can configure browser notifications; and you can choose between light and dark themes—all on a large monitor screen that's easier to work with than your phone's much smaller display.

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I've never been great at picking out thoughtful presents. I’m not the worst at presents, but I’m inconsistent. Sometimes I hit a triple and sometimes I’m tagged out at first, but I never hit that grand slam “I never knew I always needed this” present. My obligatory gifts usually go well—I give thoughtful and appropriate Secret Santa gifts to co-workers—but when I'm choosing a present for someone I love, I get overwhelmed and paralyzed searching for an object that measures up to the feelings I have, so I end up stopping at CVS and buying them a pack of batteries or something. Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but it makes me wonder if I’m not empathetic or caring or creative enough to be an all-time great present-picker-outer. So I turned to AI for an assist.

From piloting automatous vehicles to diagnosing cancer to letting us hear what it would sound like if Hank Williams Sr. sung "Straight Outta Compton," AI is transforming our culture quickly and ruthlessly. But there are some seemingly simple tasks that AI still can't do well—like, as I quickly figured out, picking out a thoughtful gift for a family member. When it comes to matters of the heart, AI just doesn't cut it.

The grifty, depressing world of AI gift recommendation services

There are a lot of websites and apps that promise to use AI to help people find great gifts, so I started my hunt there. Judging by Google search results, over the last few years, hundreds, maybe thousands, of people have secured domain names like “bestAIGift.co," thrown together some HTML, and set up shop in the AI gift industry. It doesn’t seem to be going well for them.

The majority of sites I looked at from the top tranche of Google recommendations have that greasy, thrown-together feel of scam websites, and most of them are broken. DreamGift at least looks legit; the website says it has been featured in the New York Times, and it offers a “personal AI gift shopper” named Bliss who asks questions about your giftee in a chat window. But Bliss doesn’t provide the suggestions she promised. When I used it, Bliss just timed out, like someone stopped paying the bill on the plugin. 

Of the AI gift recommendation sites that function, most don’t use “artificial intelligence” as it is commonly understood. Instead, you fill in drop-down menus with the gift recipient’s age, gender, and your relationship to them, and it spits back a generic set of catalog links. (Thanks for the help, Giftbox, but I asked him, and my son does not want “a high-quality skateboard complete with custom grip tape” or “A DIY robotics kit for building and programming his own robots” for his birthday.)

I did find a few working sites that really use large language model AI programs to provide gift advice. But they work by opening a window to ChatGPT or other AI brains, so I decided to cut out the middleman and ask some of the biggest, most advanced AI platforms for help directly. I started each chat with “Can you help me choose the perfect gift for my son’s birthday?” and let the AI direct the conversation from there.

Trying ChatGPT to help find the perfect gift

I started with the most well-known AI: OpenAI's ChatGPT. I put my question in, and ChatGPT responded by asking for information about my son: age, interests, personality, hobbies, etc. I entered them, and it responded with the most generic gift list possible.

I said he liked video games, hip-hop, graphic design, and baseball caps. ChatGPT said I should “research limited edition or vintage baseball caps featuring designs related to his favorite video games, hip-hop artists, or graphic design themes.”

I told ChatGPT that he is intelligent, and it suggested “an interesting book” and “a blank journal.”  

That’s not bad advice or anything, but a book he might like and things related to his interests are so generic that the list is fairly useless. The only specific gift ChatGPT mentioned was "vinyl records of hip-hop artists." I ran that by my kid and he scoffed and said "It's 2024. Who has a record player?"

That said, if you were having trouble understanding how a person’s hobby could be “shopped for” it might help you brainstorm basic ideas.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Can Microsoft CoPilot help you find the perfect gift?

My next stop was Microsoft CoPilot. I asked “Can you help me choose the perfect gift for my son’s 17th birthday?” It didn’t ask about him at at all; it just replied with a link to a box of survivalist tools from Temu.

Credit: Temu

I admire CoPilot’s decisiveness, but I’m not sure what my kid would do with a flint stone and “fake shrimp bait” in Los Angeles, and the knife is a little much. Besides, if you’re paying 23 dollars for survivalist gear from Temu, you probably don’t want to survive that much.

I responded to CoPilot with “Whoa. My kid is not Rambo. Try again.”  And it immediately sent a link to a “Gentleman’s Gasher” hunting knife. 

Credit: Etsy

I am not sure why CoPilot thinks my child should have weapons, but I’m mildly terrified at the implications.

Rating: 1 out of 5. 

Can Qualified’s PiperAI help you find the perfect gift?

Qualified is a B2B company that just launched an “AI SDR” named Piper to help the company “disrupt the modern pipeline generation process by giving marketing and sales leaders a newer, faster way to grow pipeline.” I don’t know what any of that means, but it looks like this:

Credit: Qualified

Here's how our chat went:

Credit: Qualified

A direct approach clearly wasn't going to work, so I tried to speak the AI's language.

Credit: Qualified

Credit: Qualified

A dead end. So I changed tactics:

Credit: Qualified

After more cajoling and coaching, this actually started working, and Piper began planning my kids' party:

Credit: Qualified

But just as I was about about to get the present recommendation...

Credit: Qualified

... a human at Qualified noticed what I was doing and butted in.

Credit: Qualified

So I bid a hasty retreat.

Credit: Qualified

Qualified was cool, and its bot handled my weird request really well, so I'm sure it's great at B2B pipeline-based business metric analytics and quarterly profit stock markets or whatever, but I ultimately wasn't able to determine its ability to recommend a good gift.

Rating: 2 out of 5

Can Claude help you pick out the perfect gift?

If AIs were people, Claude is the only one I'd hang out with. From its presentation to its responses, Claude comes across as warm and approachable. It's not as generic as ChatGPT, it doesn't think my son should have weapons like CoPilot, and it isn't a hard-driving careerist like Piper. Still, its initial gift list was was nearly as generic as ChatGPT's.

But I realized maybe the problem was me. Maybe I hadn't gotten specific enough about who my son is, who I am, and what the gift a father gives to his son on his 17th birthday means to us both. So I opened an emotional vein and spent hours (literally) telling the machine everything about myself, my son, and our relationship. (AIs are good listeners.). Then I asked it for the ultimate recommendation: Here's what it said:

Credit: Claude AI

I would have never thought of that gift! So maybe it was actually the perfect present. I asked my son what he would think if I got him a vintage typewriter for his birthday and he thought the idea was hilariously, laughably terrible, "the worst present you could possibly get me." Worse than anything off the list of generic gifts from ChatGPT.

Rank: 1 out of 5

Conclusion: don't use AI to help you pick out presents

AI is bad at picking out presents for the same reason it's bad at telling jokes. When AI isn't being psychotic like CoPilot, it works by analyzing billions of sentences and picking out the most likely response to a question without weighing whether its sources are good or bad. It's aiming for the middle, so any joke it tells is going to be mildly amusing and never wildly creative, and the gift list it provides is always going to be "a blank journal" or "an interesting book." If you press for details, the interesting book will be a book that the most people other people have called "interesting"—in other words, a book that isn't interesting at all.

Although running AI's suggestions by my son was hilarious, and we ended up having a long, interesting conversation about AI's limitations and how funny but also scary it is when AI gets things wrong. So maybe that was the gift the artificial intelligence was guiding me to all along. Or not. In the end, I'll probably just get him some Steam cards.

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The gardening world is full of old wives' tales full of purported methods to grow the biggest tomatoes or tallest sunflowers. One of those stories is that tea is beneficial for your garden because it creates nitrogen, and the tannic acid benefits the pH of the soil. In truth, while tea will compost in your garden just like any other organic matter and likely isn’t doing any harm, there’s no science to suggest that tea, itself, has any specific benefit to your yard, either. Absolutely everything you compost will produce nitrogen, and any acid will affect the pH of your soil (which isn’t always desirable). I consulted with many garden centers as well as Concentrates, a well-regarded farm supply known for their mineral and fertilizer supplement stock, as well as their considerable knowledge of organic farming. No one working there had ever practiced this or could figure out any particular way tea would benefit your yard.

Tea is just dried and processed plant matter

Growing herbs in your garden is probably one of the most rewarding crops, particularly perennial herbs. While many herbs, like chamomile and mint, can be used to make herbal tea on their own, real tea leaves come from a tea plant, camellia sinensis. While it’s unlikely your local nursery will sell it, you can order this flower online as a start and plant it in your garden. Once the plant flowers, you can harvest and dry the buds and make your own tea. No matter what you make your tea with, whether it be herbal or camellia, when you’re done drinking, what’s left is bound for the trash unless you compost it. If you’re making tea with what you grew yourself, you likely aren’t using tea bags, so you can just place the spent tea in your compost and go back to your life. It should compost just fine, and would count as a green part of your compost (which is made up of wet, nitrogen-rich matter balanced with dry, carbon-based matter). 

If you buy tea, then you need to consider what the teabag is made of. While most teabags are compostable, some have polypropylene in them and those should not be composted. Remove any staples or string, unless you are sure it is 100% cotton string, and remove the paper tag in case it has any coating on it. If you’re concerned about the teabag, you can just empty it into your compost and toss the bag. 

Consider where you put compost with tea in it

Your soil has a delicate pH. Most plants enjoy a neutral pH, and gardeners go to the trouble of measuring the soil’s pH to determine that its in the right range. Some plants benefit from slightly more acidic pH, but slightly is the key word there. Blueberries, azaleas and strawberries are examples of plants that benefit from that higher acidity. Any acid is going to make your soil more acidic, and real tea (not herbal) contains tannins, which produce tannic acid. Just like tea is a plant, tannic acid is produced by trees and other plants as they decay, too. It’s not that tannic acid is specifically bad, it’s that it’s not particularly beneficial, either. If you are adding it into the environment on purpose, you’ll want to ensure the soil pH isn’t becoming too acidic for what you’re trying to grow.

Compost made with tea should not be confused with “compost tea”

If you garden enough, you’ll hear the phrase “compost tea” and how good it is for your garden, but that phrase does not refer to actual tea. Rather, this is the drippings of your worms or compost, which can produce a highly nutritious water fertilizer for your garden. Many worm towers actually come with spigots to collect this brew for use, but you would never drink this.

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It’s been a few years since Lifehacker looked at the slang of Generation Z—long enough that Generation Alpha has had time to develop and spread some of its own special buzzwords and jargon. Below is an alphabetized collection of slang taken from both Gen Z and Gen A, in case someone younger than you says something you don't understand. As with all slang, if you need an online list to know what a word means, you are too old to say it aloud.

Ate/eat: Done particularly well, particularly regarding clothing. ie: "You ate that outfit." See also: "serving"

Aura: Someone who is mysterious and cool is said to "have aura."

Bed-rotting: Staying in bed all day. You may know it as “lazing around.” See also: "Hurkle-durkle."

Bop: New York slang for a girl who sleeps around

Brain-rot: A description of the overuse of stupid slang. See also: “Skibidi”

Bubba truck: A lifted or otherwise modified pick-up truck

Chad: An attractive man; i.e. an “alpha male” 

Chat: A reference to streamers addressing their chat windows aloud. Saying “chat” in real life is an ironic joke. 

Coomer: A man who masturbates too often

Corn: “Corn” is algo-speak that means “porn.” Used in online spaces where the word might cause your account to be flagged or banned. 

Coworker-core: A catch-all description for things that are unfunny or uninteresting in a way that appeals to older people

Delulu: Delusional

Doomer: A person who is overly negative and/or cynical

Drip: A fashionable or stylish look

Edgar: A variation of the Caesar haircut worn especially among hispanic males. Also refers to the kind of person who wears the haircut. 

Fanum tax: The theft of food between friends. Named for streamer Fanum, known for “taxing” his friends by taking bites of their meals or stealing fries. 

Fent-fold: A description of the bent-over posture of people nodding on heavy drugs

Gamer dent: The temporary indentation left on someone’s hair or skin after wearing headphones for too long

Geeker: Someone who uses a lot of drugs

Glaze: To overly praise someone, often insincerely, or with the hope of getting something in return

Green fn: An interjection one might used when someone does something cool or impressive. Often used ironically. 

Gooning: Extended masturbation without orgasm done for the purpose of entering an altered state of consciousness

Gyatt or Gyat: Once an interjection used when seeing someone sexy, like “god-DAMN,” “gyatt” has come to mean “attractive booty.”

Hurkle-durkle: Based on an archaic Scottish word, “hurkle-durkle” means to lounge in bed after it is time to get up. See also: “bed-rotting."

"It's so over": The situation is hopeless. The opposite of "we're so back." See also: "Doomer."

Jelqing: The use of stretching or weights in an attempt to increase penis size

Jit: A kid. Regional slang from Florida used ironically online

JOMO: A play on FOMO (fear of missing out) JOMO is an acronym that stands for “joy of missing out.”

"Learn Chinese": Sports slang directed at failing players. They are in danger of being sent to play in China, so they should "learn Chinese."

Looksmaxxing: Maximizing one’s physical attractiveness through personal grooming, working out, and dressing stylishly. See also: “-maxxing.”

-maxxing: A suffix used with any word to indicate trying to improve. Seeing your friends could be called "friendmaxxing," working out could be called "gymmaxxing," making jokes could be called "jestermaxxing" etc.

Mewing: A facial exercise meant to strengthen the jawline

Mirror sex: Using a mirror to watch yourself have sex

Mog: To be more attractive than someone, usually in an intentional or aggressive way. Example: "I was rizzing up this girl, but he walked in and totally mogged me."

Neurospicy: A different way of saying “neuro-divergent”

Opp: Short for "opposition." Someone who is out to get you. An enemy.

Regarded: “Regarded” is algo-speak for “retarded"

Rizz: As a noun, "rizz" means charisma. As a verb, rizz or rizz up means attracting someone with your charisma.

Serve: Wearing a particularly stylish outfit. See also: "ate."

Serve cunt: To act in a powerfully and unapologetically feminine way; to slay

Skibidi Toilet: Named after “Skibidi Toilet,” a popular series of YouTube videos, “skibidi” itself has no specific meaning, beyond ridiculing the overuse of slang itself. See “brain-rot.”

Sigma: A “sigma male” is a lone wolf who is powerful and competent, as opposed to a traditional alpha male stereotypes.

Sweat: A person who tries too hard, usually used in reference to video games. The adjective form is "sweaty."

Soyjack: a cartoon image of an emasculated man with an open-mouthed smile and an excited expression. Based on “soy-boy,” or weak man.

Spoopy: Spooky

Striker: Stolen/no-title car

Tradwife: Believer in traditional married gender roles

Unc: Short for "uncle," used to describe slightly older people. Example: "The class of 2024 are unc-status to the class of 2028."

Twelve: Police

Twin: Best friend. Regional slang from Atlanta that became popular online. 

"We're so back": Opposite of "it's so over"

Yapping: Describes a presentational style often seen on online streams of talking a lot and/or quickly while not saying anything worthwhile

Zoomer Perm: A curly on top, short on the sides haircut popular among young people. 

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Netflix's May lineup is heavy on comedy—headlined by a six-part live event from John Mulaney—coinciding with the 2024 Netflix Is A Joke Fest that runs from May 2–12 in Los Angeles. John Mulaney Presents: Everybody’s In L.A will air in installments beginning on May 3 and wrapping up on May 10. Also streaming live are Katt Williams: Woke Foke (May 4) and Roast of Tom Brady (May 5) with an award show special featuring Kevin Hart (Mark Twain Prize Award: Kevin Hart, May 11). Other comedy specials dropping in May are from Udom Taephanich (Deaw Special: Soft Super Power, May 1) and Rachel Feinstein (Big Guy, May 21).

The true crime documentary slate includes The Final: Attack on Wembley (May 8), chronicling the violence that took place at the Euro 2020 final held in July 2021 when ticketless fans stormed the stadium; Cooking Up Murder: Uncovering the Story of César Román (May 10), a docuseries about a murder case involving a Spanish chef; and Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal (May 15) about the data hack of the infamous dating site. Later in the month, three-part docuseries Dancing for the Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult (May 29) covers the TikTok dancers trapped in a cult fronted by management company 7M.

Other May highlights include part one of season 3 of Bridgerton (May 16) and Unfrosted (May 3), a comedy film directed by and starring Jerry Seinfeld (along with Melissa McCarthy, Jim Gaffigan, Hugh Grant, and Amy Schumer) that loosely tells the Pop-Tarts creation story.

Here’s everything else coming to (and leaving) Netflix in May.

What’s coming to Netflix in May 2024

Available soon

• Buying London—Netflix Series

• The Life You Wanted—Netflix Series

• Monster—Netflix Film

Available May 1

• Deaw Special: Super Soft Power—Netflix Comedy

• Down The Rabbit Hole—Netflix Film

• Frankly Speaking—Netflix Series

• Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar—Netflix Series

• Airport

• Airport '77

• Airport 1975

• The Best Man Holiday

• Blended

• Blue Mountain State: Season 1

• Blue Mountain State: Season 2

• Blue Mountain State: Season 3

• Blue Mountain State: The Rise of Thadland

• Eat Pray Love

• The Edge of Seventeen

• The Equalizer

• The Gentlemen

• Hellboy (2019)

• Hulk

• Jumanji (1995)

• Liar Liar

• Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa

• The Matrix Resurrections

• Mortal Kombat (2021)

• Mr. & Mrs. Smith

• The Nutty Professor

• The Nutty Professor II: The Klumps

• Outlander: Season 6

• Patriots Day

• Public Enemies

• Ride Along

• Shrek

• Shrek Forever After

• Starship Troopers

• Traffic

• The Wedding Planner

• White House Down

• Woody Woodpecker

• The Young Victoria

Available May 2

• A Man in Full—Netflix Series

• Beautiful Rebel—Netflix Film

• Lola

• Secrets of the Neanderthals—Netflix Documentary

• T・P BON—Netflix Anime

Available May 3

• 2 Hearts

• John Mulaney Presents: Everybody’s In L.A—Netflix Comedy Special (Live Event)

• Postcards—Netflix Series

• Selling the OC: Season 3—Netflix Series

• The Unbroken Voice: Season 2—Netflix Series

• Unfrosted—Netflix Film

Available May 4

• The Atypical Family—Netflix Series

• Katt Williams: Woke Foke—Netflix Comedy Special (Live Event)

Available May 5

• The Peanut Butter Falcon

• Roast of Tom Brady—Netflix Comedy Special (Live Event)

Available May 6

• 30 for 30: Broke

• 30 for 30: Deion's Double Play

• 30 for 30: The Two Escobars

• Reba: Seasons 1-6

Available May 7

• Super Rich in Korea—Netflix Series

Available May 8

• The Final: Attack on Wembley—Netflix Documentary

• War Dogs

Available May 9

• Bodkin—Netflix Series

• The Guardian of the Monarchs—Netflix Documentary

• John Mulaney Presents: Everybody’s In L.A

• Mother of The Bride—Netflix Film

• Sing Street

• Thank You, Next—Netflix Series

Available May 10

• Blood of Zeus: Season 2

• Cooking Up Murder: Uncovering the Story of César Román—Netflix Documentary

• Living with Leopards—Netflix Documentary

• Pokémon Horizons: The Series Part 2—Netflix Family

• The Ultimatum: South Africa—Netflix Series

Available May 11

• Mark Twain Prize Award: Kevin Hart—Netflix Comedy Special

Available May 13

• Archer: Seasons 1-13

• Princess Power: Season 3—Netflix Family

Available May 14

• Married at First Sight: Season 15

Available May 15

• Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal—Netflix Documentary

• The Clovehitch Killer

Available May 16

• Bridgerton: Season 3 Part 1—Netflix Series

• Dumb and Dumber To

• Maestro in Blue: Season 2—Netflix Series

• Upgrade

Available May 17

• The 8 Show—Netflix Series

• Power—Netflix Documentary

• Thelma the Unicorn—Netflix Family

Available May 19

• A Simple Favor

• Golden Kamuy—Netflix Film

Available May 20

• The Parisian Agency: Exclusive Properties: Season 4—Netflix Series

Available May 21

• Rachel Feinstein: Big Guy—Netflix Comedy

• Wildfire: Seasons 1-4

Available May 22

• Act Your Age: Season 1

• Toughest Forces on Earth

Available May 23

• El vendedor de ilusiones: El caso Generación Zoe—Netflix Documentary

• Franco Escamilla: Ladies' Man—Netflix Comedy

• Garouden: The Way of the Lone Wolf—Netflix Anime

• In Good Hands 2—Netflix Film

• Tires—Netflix Series

Available May 24

• Atlas—Netflix Film

• Butterfly in the Sky: The Story of Reading Rainbow

• Jurassic World: Chaos Theory—Netflix Family

• Mulligan: Part 2—Netflix Series

• My Oni Girl—Netflix Film

Available May 28

• Burnt

Available May 29

• Bionic—Netflix Film

• Colors of Evil: Red—Netflix Film

• Dancing for the Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult—Netflix Documentary

• Patrick Melrose

Available May 30

• Eric—Netflix Series

• Geek Girl—Netflix Series

Available May 31

• A Part of You—Netflix Film

• Chola Chabuca

• How to Ruin Love: The Proposal—Netflix Series

• Raising Voices—Netflix Series

• Tòkunbọ̀—Netflix Film

What’s leaving Netflix in May 2024

Leaving May 1

• Bennett's War

• Magic Mike's Last Dance

Leaving May 2

• Survive the Night

Leaving May 3

• Arctic Dogs

Leaving May 8

• Uncut Gems

Leaving May 9

• Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

Leaving May 10

• St. Vincent

Leaving May 11

• Where the Crawdads Sing

• Sam Smith: Love Goes - Live at Abbey Road Studios

Leaving May 14

• Fifty Shades of Black

Leaving May 19

• Rosario Tijeras (Mexico): Seasons 1-3

Leaving May 22

• The Boxtrolls

Leaving May 26

• Mako Mermaids: An H2O Adventure: Seasons 3-4

Leaving May 31

• 2012

• Boyz n the Hood

• Burlesque

• The Choice

• The Disaster Artist

• Forever My Girl

• The Great Gatsby

• Happy Gilmore

• The Hunger Games

• The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

• The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1

• The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2

• The Impossible

• Insidious

• L.A. Confidential

• Lakeview Terrace

• The Mick: Seasons 1-2

• Noah

• Oh, Ramona!

• The Other Guys

• Silent Hill

• Skyscraper

• Split

• Think Like a Man

• Think Like a Man Too

• You've Got Mail

from LifeHacker https://ift.tt/6MyDvdO

Not everyone was born to camp. I participate due to peer pressure from friends and a dog, who are all enthusiasts of the great outdoors. Whether you relish the great outdoors or just tolerate it, there’s so much smart gear to improve the experience. While bringing smart tech on a camping trip might feel counter intuitive, the right tech can make nature more accessible, safer and even more comfortable. 

A smart tent

Even those who brave the Pacific Coast Trail bring tech along with them (according to the hikers I follow on TikTok, which is as close as I’m getting it). That tech needs power, and your tent is a passive way to collect it. While there have been a lot of concept products, very few seem to have made it to market for consumers. A Green Origin has two for sale (below) that have a flexible solar panel that’s made to attach to the tent itself. The Dragon V1 Solar Tent has been successfully funded on Kickstarter and should ship soon. It, too, has a solar panel, but it’s integrated into the tent itself.  In the future, even these flexible panels will likely be obsolete; fabric with energy-harvesting technology woven into the fabric itself will be used for tents as well as clothing.

• 2-3 People Rechargeable Solar Power Tent ($380.00)

• 5~6 people High Quality Solar Power Tent ($1,499.00)

Smart coolers

Coolers used to be a race against time managing refrigerated and frozen food with ice cubes. Now, many coolers carry on-board power, meaning they can keep the cooler at a temp that ensures safe food handling, and no more ice management. In some cases, these coolers can also act as chargers or speakers, or allow you to manage the cooler via an app. Being able to designate each section as a fridge or freezer means you can use the power you need, and keep food at the right temperature. 

• Anker EverFrost 50 Powered Cooler ($949.00)

• Bodega cooler 48quart(45l) Car Fridge App Control ($299.99)

• Iceco Jp30 Portable Refrigerator Fridge Freezer, 30 Liters ($399)

Iceco JP30 Portable Refrigerator

$499.00 at Amazon

Shop Now

Shop Now

$499.00 at Amazon

Smarter lights

When you gather with friends at night to cook, eat, or just relax, you'll probably want a little light—and you've got a couple of options. There are lots of solar lanterns on the market, which just need to sit out during the day to recharge. But for a little more ambiance, bring a power bank with you and string up some LED lights, as they require less energy to run than other lights.

• Solar Camping String Lights 16.4Ft with Music Sync ($17.49)

• 22Ft Stowable String Light with APP Control ($15.99)

• Lantern Solar String Lights with Smart App Control ($26.99)

Wifi for the road

Generally, we think of having wifi anywhere we go now and when it’s not available, we fall back to our cellular signal. When you don’t want to blow through your wireless plan, you can rely on a backup device that provides a signal through the 4G network and you pay as you go. 

• GlocalMe Wireless Portable Wifi for Travel ($89.99)

• Journey1 LTE Wifi Hotspot ($159)

• RoamWiFi 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot Router ($143.99)

Power for everything

Going “off grid” has really changed now that there are so many portable power stations that give you a way to charge up while you’re away through a solar panel. 1,000-watt units are enough to power most of the devices you’ll use while away, while still being light enough to move around. 

• Jackery Solar Generator 1000 with 2 100W Solar Panels ($1,649.00)

• Anker SOLIX C1000 Portable Power Station with 400W Solar Panel ($1,498.00)

• Goal Zero Yeti 1000X Portable Power Station with Nomad 100 Solar Panel ($1,159.91)

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