I bought this 2-pack of GoldenDot WiFi smart plugs for $17 on Amazon. I used one on our bedroom’s air filter and the other on our garage door (to turn of the power so no one can open it with a remote). It was easy to link the plugs to Alexa and Google Assistant. I now control these appliances with my voice. I also put the air filter on a schedule, so it turns on at night and off in the morning. — MF

After months of using different email addresses to access free sessions of Brain.fm, I have finally signed up as a paying customer. I’ve tried classical music, brown noise and other ambient sounds when I need to focus, but Brain.fm’s Focus music works best for me. I can put on a two-hour loop and forget to get up from my desk to stretch. They have different genres of focus music, like atmospheric, chimes & bowls, nightsounds, as well as Relax and Sleep stations that I have yet to explore. But now that I am a paying customer, I can listen to all their music on both my laptop and phone. They offer five free sessions, then it’s $7 a month or $50 per year. — CD

I wanted a tiny starter drone for taking mostly still photos from on high. The DJI Spark (about $350) fits the bill. It’s so small and lightweight it fits easily in my daybag. About the size of my open hand, I operate it from an app on my phone. Its range (via the phone) is about 100 meters, which is all I need. Lasts 15 minutes per charge. Despite its smallness, it does pretty well in a stiff wind. — KK

My friend Star Simpson tweeted this useful travel tip: “Not enough people know that Google Maps has an Easter egg. If you type ‘ok maps’ into the search field it will download a map for offline use. Great if you might not have awesome cell reception where you’re going, is now a step on my packing checklist.” (For some reason it doesn’t work for Tokyo.) — MF

A destination that is a lot of trouble to reach, but one I found to be worth the effort, is the Cosmodrome, in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, the only place on the planet currently launching humans into space. This coming Tuesday, September 25, 2019, the Cosmodrome will send up the next three astronauts to the International Space Station. In between launches, regular tourists can get amazing access to the legendary launch facilities, and during launches you get to watch the liftoff way, way too close. Visits are organized by Baikonur Tours. (At home the NASA Live channel broadcasts the Cosmodrome launches live.) — KK

My mother has a garment steamer (The PurSteam Elite, $70) and everyone in my family used it to get rid of the wrinkles in the clothes we packed into suitcases for my nephew’s wedding. The steam from the handheld wand made the wrinkles melt away. We immediately bought one for our house. — MF

A helpful travel tip I received from a foodie friend was to find restaurants by searching hashtags on Instagram. This really comes in handy in places where Yelp recommendations are scarce. I was just traveling through Switzerland and searched for #Genevafood to find thousands of pictures of delicious looking food — most of them tagged with the location. This is great for me because I choose places based on Yelp food pics anyway. I clicked on the images that looked the best to me and then looked up the restaurant and its proximity. Searching hashtags also helped me find pages dedicated to local food. — CD

I limit my Twitter use to less than 5 minutes a day which doesn’t leave much time to browse and discover new things, so a newsletter I look forward to is “Really Good Questions” which links you to the best asked questions on Twitter and answer thread. An example of a really good question is Sam Altman’s “What advice seems obviously right, is relatively easy to follow, and is usually ignored?” I really liked @KristyT’s response: “The best way to produce good outcomes is dealing with reality the way it actually is versus what you want it to be.” This newsletter is a side project by Sharath Kuruganty so issues are infrequent, but here you can find the threads he’s collected so far. — CD

I’ve long been a fan of Ken Burns’ epic documentary series about American history, such as The Civil War, Jazz, Baseball, National Parks, The Vietnam War, and his most recent, Country Music. Each are essential watching. But listening to a deep interview of Ken Burns on Tim Ferriss’s podcast, my admiration for Burns increased two notches. In a short hour he managed to be informative, helpful, entertaining, romantic, creative, moving, wise, and spiritually enlightened — a Remarkable Being. It was one of the best hours I’ve spent. — KK

I get signed up to a lot of email lists without my knowledge. I started using a service called Leave Me Alone to quickly unsubscribe to hundreds of them. Unlike other unsubscribe services this one makes money by charging a small fee instead of selling your data to advertisers. You can unsubscribe to 10 email lists for free to see how it works. — MF

Here’s a tip for Mac users: Control + Command + Space reveals an emoji keyboard. My friend Glenn Fleishman added an extra tip: “If you type text in the little field, it shows both the literal characters in the preview, but also any matching text among Unicode, etc. And you can select a character, and it shows alternates that live among the Unicode jungle. 👍 — MF

I am finding the new Google Translate mobile app to be indispensable when traveling. About 100 languages are available, including Kazakh, Igbo, Maori, etc. About 60 of those languages can be downloaded to your phone so you can translate offline when your phone is off, not working in the country, or out of cell range. (Instructions here.) The offline translation is text only, but surprisingly smart enough for touring needs. Having a language downloaded offline (about 40MB) also seems to help when translation is online as well (like using your phone camera to read menus and signs.) It’s all free and one of the best bargains in the world. — KK

My husband has suffered from chronic neck pain for a few years. He does posture exercises and uses a cervical pillow, but could not find a way to massage the pressure points that radiate pain up and down his neck. Then he found this cheap and wonderfully designed neck massager ($12) and can not stop touting its effectiveness. He loves it so much he even packed it and brought it on our current overseas trip. — CD

The only habit tracker that I have consistently used and enjoy using is Tally: The Anything Tracker (iOS only). You can color code and group habits by type, set targets, track by day, week, month or year and have them reset whenever you want. You can track 3 habits with the free version and upgrade for more. There are a lot of other features too, but what I like the most about it is the cool, colored grid view and that I am able to add notes for the tallies I make. I am trying to read at least 20 books per year and I use the notes to track titles. I’ve been using this app for almost a year now and I like being able to see the historical data — like of my miles hiked per month — because it motivates me to outdo myself. — CD

It’s really hard to clean earwax from the speaker meshes in Apple AirPods and EarPods. I’ve assembled a kit of 3 tools to make the job easier. 1) OXO Good Grips Deep Clean Brush Set ($6) — use the smaller of the two brushes and the silicone wiper to loosen up and wipe out as much wax as you can; 2) Poster Putty ($3) — press this into the opening and it will pull out a surprising amount of residual gunk. Resist the temptation to press the putty too hard, or you’ll push the earwax through the mesh; 3) Handheld Illuminated Magnifier ($7) — this will help you make sure you’ve thoroughly cleaned the mesh openings. My AirPods now look great, not grungy. — MF

I’ve waited all my life for a tool that would create art for me. It’s here. Artbreeder is a website that breeds new visual images from existing images. Using deep learning (AI) algorithms it generates multiple photo-realistic “children” mutations of one image. You — the gardener — select one mutant you like and then breed further generations from its descendants. You can also crossbreed two different images. Very quickly, you can create infinite numbers of highly detailed album covers, logos, game characters, exotic landscapes. I find it fiendishly addictive. Wanna see the zoo of unearthly creatures I found/made? (Note: If Artbreeder is not out of beta use Ganbreeder, it’s predecessor.) — KK

It’s been hot for the last couple of months here in Los Angeles and my family is guzzling the iced hibiscus flower tea I’ve been making. We go through a half gallon a day, and each glass costs about a penny. I make it with this one pound bag of Feel Good organic dried hibiscus flowers I bought for $15. I make it by putting two tablespoons of flowers into a half-gallon mason jar and fill it with boiling water. When it is cool enough I put the jar in the refrigerator. The ruby red liquid is pleasingly tart and satisfying. — MF

My Magic Mouse was giving me claw hand from the way I had to grip it and I needed to a find an alternative mouse, so I immediately googled Wirecutter’s tested picks and bought their upgrade pick of the Logitech MX Master Mouse ($70). Full disclosure: I thought I had purchased this from a list of the best vertical mouses. Even after it arrived and I began using it, I still mistakenly thought I was using a vertical mouse and that I had quickly overcome the steep learning curve that everyone talks about. By the time I realized that it was not a vertical mouse — just a very good ergonomic one — my claw hand was gone and I was happy with it, so I just kept it! My favorite thing about this mouse is I was able to customize the buttons and scroll wheels to do everything my Magic Mouse used to do. — CD

Five quotes that I’m minding right now — KK:

”The only interesting ideas are heresies” — Susan Sontag

“Technology is the reason we get old enough to complain about technology.” — Gary Kasparov

“Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.” — Dwight Eisenhower

“If my work is accepted, I must move on to the point where it is not.” — John Cage

“Remember, you can’t be stuck in traffic; you are the traffic.” — Kevin Slavin

It can be very hard to check in with yourself when you have anxiety or having a bad day. This is a very simple checklist for self-care that I found floating around Reddit. — CD