Spotting fakes/Snapchat Thief/Reader View
Spotting fakes on Amazon
We’ve previously recommended Fakespot, a website that grades Amazon products for their shill, fake review, or fraud factors. These grades are not foolproof, but are extremely useful. What’s new is their Fakespot extension for the Chrome browser, which overlays your Amazon pages with their grades for all the related and recommended products shown on a page. This means you don’t have to leave the Amazon page to see the grades, and it also means you will see product grades before you click on them. It’s behavior changing. — KK
Tales from the hacker underground
Much of our digital technology is built simply to prevent the harm created by a very few bad actors, mostly kids making mischief. The Reply All podcast episode “The Snapchat Thief” is a marvelous, head-scratching, world-opening, deep dive into this invisible alien hacker underworld that rewards every second of your listening. Highly technical and emotionally satisfying. — KK
Easier Website Reading
I use Chrome, and when I want to read an article, I click the Reader View extension icon in my tool bar. It makes the text larger and gets rid of ads and clutter. (Safari has this feature built-in.) It also tells you how long it will take to read the article. — MF
Plastic buckle no-hole belt
I’m always looking for ways to reduce the hassle of going through airport security. A couple of months ago I bought this $10 belt with a plastic buckle. It won’t trigger the metal detector, which means I can keep it on. — MF
Soft butter anytime
Hands-down my favorite purchase this year was this $19 butter crock. It feels like a luxury to always have soft butter available. It works better in cooler climates. I keep mine on the kitchen island away from the stove area and add an ice cube to the water every few days. — CD
News Feed Eradicator
I’ve been slowly weaning myself off Facebook. I still type it into my browser on autopilot, but now instead of getting lost in the bottomless feed, this chrome extension replaces it with a random quote. The quotes are repetitive, but you can add your own. Even so, I’m sure this helps my mental health in some way. — CD
— Kevin Kelly, Mark Frauenfelder, Claudia Dawson