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3 Tech & Science News Stories for Sunday, September 20, 2026: How to record audio on your iPhone without opening the Camera app

GTStudios — Sun, 20 Sep 2026 16:00:19 +0000

Here are today’s 3 verified tech & science stories, covering Tech & Apps and Science & Space.

Table of Contents

Every item below links to its original source.

The TLDR

Tech & Apps: How to record audio on your iPhone without opening the Camera app
Science & Space: Oak Ridge National Lab releases a new tool for mapping how people move throughout the day

Tech & Apps

How to record audio on your iPhone without opening the Camera app

You don’t need video just to capture a meeting, song idea, or voice memo — Apple’s built-in Voice Memos app handles it directly, with options for mono, stereo, or spatial recording plus an “Enhance Recording” tool to cut background noise, according to Engadget. The app also auto-transcribes recordings and can sync across your Apple devices through iCloud.

How long your old cassette tapes will actually last

If you’ve still got a box of cassette tapes, Engadget notes they typically last around 30 years under good conditions, but poor storage can cut that down to as little as five. Keeping tapes at 59–73°F with 25–55% humidity, away from sunlight and magnets, is the biggest factor — playing them occasionally and rewinding fully also helps keep the tape from sticking.

Science & Space

Oak Ridge National Lab releases a new tool for mapping how people move throughout the day

Oak Ridge National Laboratory has released LandScan Mosaic, a new global population dataset that models how individual buildings are used and occupied over a 24-hour period rather than just estimating a static population count, according to Phys.org. Built on ORNL’s existing LandScan Global dataset, Mosaic adds building-level detail and uncertainty estimates that the lab says can help with disaster response, humanitarian aid, and infrastructure planning.

Explore more: stopping Google from training Gemini on your photos, ChatGPT vs Gemini for trip planning.

Make Your Digital Life Better

More practical tech how-tos, tool picks, and guides to upgrade your everyday digital life. More on GTWebs.

Want web tips in your inbox? Subscribe to the free newsletter.

Photo: Imagen 2 via Gemini; prompted by Adi Robertson / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Originally published at gtwebs.com.

Siri AI Debuts, Crusoe Lands $3.9B, Salesforce Names Its Agents, Claude Helps Build Claude: 14 Essential AI and App News This

GTStudios — Sun, 20 Sep 2026 13:00:09 +0000

AI and app news this week moved fast on three fronts: consumer software finally got its long-promised AI assistant, venture money kept pouring into AI infrastructure and security, and the model makers themselves started arguing over who gets to say an AI agent behaved badly. If you build, fund, or ship software for a living, this week’s AI and app news touches almost every layer of the stack — from a rebuilt Siri to a $3.9 billion infrastructure round to Anthropic letting Claude help write its own successor. Here’s the AI and app news this week that actually matters, organized so you can skim to what affects your roadmap.

Table of Contents

App & Product Launches

Siri AI arrives with the iOS 27 rollout

Apple’s long-delayed AI overhaul of Siri began rolling out in beta on September 14 alongside iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27, giving the assistant personal-context awareness, onscreen understanding, and the ability to take actions across apps rather than just answer questions. The beta is opt-in, English-only at launch, and subject to daily usage caps on Apple’s server-side models, according to Apple’s own announcement. Teams building on top of Siri Shortcuts or SiriKit should expect a wave of user expectations to shift almost overnight.

Salesforce gives Agentforce seven named, job-ready agents

Salesforce rolled out seven distinct Agentforce agents — Casey, Paige, Carter, Hunter, Marshall, Piper, and Fin — each scoped to a specific job function like customer service, IT/HR support, or supply chain, with six already generally available. It’s the clearest signal yet that enterprise software vendors are packaging agents as staff rather than features, a shift worth weighing against our own breakdown of freelancer vs. agency vs. dev studio tradeoffs for teams deciding how much to build versus buy.

Figma expands Weave publishing and adds Japan data residency

Figma opened community publishing for its Weave prototyping tools on September 16 and added Japan-based data residency for enterprise customers storing Design, FigJam, Slides, and Make files locally. For studios juggling client compliance requirements, this is the kind of platform detail that quietly decides which tools make the shortlist — the same instinct behind our post on signs your website builder is quietly limiting growth.

Midjourney tests Korean language support

Midjourney’s September 16 alpha changelog added Korean-language prompting, with a signup list open for users who want to help expand support to further languages. It’s a small update, but it signals Midjourney is still investing in reach even as competitors push multimodal agents rather than image generation alone.

Nintendo Today marks Zelda’s 40th anniversary with daily collectible cards

Nintendo’s companion app began handing out one of 300-plus digital Zelda collectible cards a day starting September 9, continuing through the week as part of the franchise’s 40th-anniversary celebration. It’s a reminder that daily-engagement mechanics still work even for a legacy publisher’s simplest app.

Startup & Tech Business

Crusoe raises $3.9B to build AI data centers

AI infrastructure company Crusoe closed the initial tranche of a $3.9 billion Series F at a $30.9 billion valuation on September 17, co-led by Atreides Management, Mubadala Capital, and Valor Equity Partners, per TechCrunch’s reporting. The company says it’s now sitting on more than $140 billion in contracted value, underscoring how much capital is still chasing compute rather than applications.

Fortaegis banks $50M to secure AI chips at the silicon level

Dutch-founded Fortaegis closed an oversubscribed $50 million Series A on September 14 to commercialize chip-level security that generates encryption keys from physical silicon variations instead of storing them on-device. The round, led by Serendipity Capital, targets AI infrastructure, defense, and satellite systems where key theft is an existential risk.

Tandem Health raises $100M for its AI clinic operating system

Stockholm’s Tandem Health announced a $100 million Series B on September 14 to expand its AI assistant that handles documentation, coding, and clinical decision support for European clinicians, now serving more than 10,000 care organizations across 14 markets.

Qupital secures $300M to fund cross-border e-commerce sellers

Hong Kong fintech Qupital announced $300 million in combined new capital on September 13, anchored by a Series C and supplemented with asset-backed financing from MUFG, to expand working-capital lending to sellers on Amazon, TikTok Shop, and other marketplaces across Asia and the US.

Anthropic reportedly targets Nasdaq for its IPO

Anthropic has chosen Nasdaq as the listing venue for its widely anticipated IPO, according to reports circulating September 13. Combined with the funding rounds above, this week’s AI and app news made clear that AI infrastructure and safety-adjacent startups are commanding valuations most application-layer startups can only envy.

AI & Tools

OpenAI launches a framework for disclosing model misalignment

OpenAI published a formal framework on September 16 for tracking, investigating, and publicly disclosing instances where its models behave unexpectedly, releasing six initial incident reports alongside it. The company says the framework favors early disclosure even before a behavior is fully understood — a notable shift for an industry usually criticized for silence.

xAI adds long-term memory to Grok Build

xAI shipped a memory feature for Grok Build on September 16 so the coding assistant can carry project context and past decisions across sessions instead of requiring developers to re-explain their codebase every time. It’s a small but practical catch-up move against coding agents that already persist context.

Anthropic says Claude is helping build the next Claude

Anthropic disclosed this week that Claude now leads roughly 26% of the company’s own model research and development work, completing many tasks end-to-end from a high-level prompt under human supervision. It’s one of the more concrete public data points yet on AI labs using their own models to accelerate the next generation.

Perplexity locks Comet’s browser-control feature behind paid credits

Perplexity moved Comet’s “control browser” feature — one of the browser’s original selling points — behind a separate computer-credits purchase instead of including it with Perplexity Pro, a change reported September 15. Users who signed up expecting bundled agentic browsing are pushing back, a preview of the monetization fights likely to hit every AI browser eventually.

Sources

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Siri AI and when did it launch?

Siri AI is Apple’s overhauled assistant with personal-context understanding and cross-app actions, launched in beta on September 14, 2026 alongside iOS 27.

Why did Salesforce give its Agentforce agents individual names?

Salesforce is positioning Agentforce agents like Casey and Paige as job-ready digital workers with defined roles, memory, and scope, rather than generic chatbot features, to make enterprise adoption feel more like hiring than installing software.

How much did Crusoe raise and what is it building?

Crusoe closed an initial $3.9 billion Series F at a $30.9 billion valuation on September 17, 2026, to build large-scale and modular AI data centers.

What does it mean that Claude is helping build the next Claude?

Anthropic says Claude now completes roughly 26% of its internal model research and development tasks end-to-end under human supervision, marking a concrete step toward AI labs using their own models to speed up development.

Why are Perplexity Comet users upset this week?

Perplexity moved Comet’s browser-control feature, originally included with Perplexity Pro, behind a separate paid credits system, a change reported on September 15, 2026 that effectively raises the price of the browser’s core selling point.

Originally published at gtstu.com.

Holiday Hours on Google Business Profile Without Losing Rank

GTStudios — Sat, 19 Sep 2026 19:00:11 +0000

Every November, a wave of small business owners make the same mistake: they mark their Google Business Profile as “Temporarily Closed” for Thanksgiving or Christmas Day, then wonder why their listing seems to lose visibility in the days around it. Holiday hours are supposed to help customers, not work against your local search presence.

Table of Contents

This guide walks through the correct way to set holiday and special hours on Google Business Profile, when to use Special Hours versus Temporarily Closed, and the small mistakes that quietly hurt local visibility during the busiest shopping season of the year.

Quick Answer

Use the “Special hours” feature in Google Business Profile for holidays and short closures, not “Temporarily closed.” Go to Business Profile > Edit profile > Hours > Special hours, add the date, set your open/closed times, and save. Reserve “Temporarily closed” for closures of seven days or longer — your listing still displays in Search and Maps while marked temporarily closed, but it can rank below open competitors for broad, generic searches, so it’s not the right tool for a single holiday.

How to Set Special Hours for a Holiday

Open your Business Profile from Google Search or Google Maps (search your business name while signed into the account that manages the profile), then select “Edit profile” and go to the “Hours” tab. Next to “Special hours,” select the edit (pencil) icon.

Google often suggests upcoming holiday dates automatically — you can just select “Review” and confirm them. If the date you need isn’t suggested, choose “Add a date” and pick it from the calendar.

For each date, set your status: if you’re open with different hours than usual, uncheck the “Closed” box and enter your holiday open and close times. If you’re closed all day, leave “Closed” checked. If you have a split schedule (for example, open in the morning, closed in the afternoon), use “Add hours” to enter multiple time blocks for that single date.

Save your changes, and repeat for each holiday you want to set — Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day, and any others relevant to your business. It’s worth doing this even for holidays where your hours don’t change, since confirming the date prevents Google from showing an “Hours might differ” note next to your listing.

If you manage hours across many locations, Google also supports a bulk spreadsheet upload for special hours from the Business Profile Manager, which is faster than editing each location individually.

Special Hours vs. Temporarily Closed: Why the Choice Matters

“Special hours” tells Google your business is open on a modified schedule for a specific date or short stretch of dates — this is the right tool for holidays, one-off events, or brief exceptions, and Google’s own guidance caps this use case at up to six consecutive days.

“Temporarily closed” is meant for longer shutdowns — seven or more consecutive days, or closures of unknown length. Your profile still remains displayed in Google Search and Maps when it’s marked this way, but for broad or generic searches it can rank below businesses that are currently open, which is exactly the kind of dip you don’t want triggered by a single holiday closure. That ranking effect doesn’t apply to specific, name-based searches for your business, and it can vary depending on your category and how many similar businesses nearby are also marked temporarily closed.

The practical risk: if you leave a holiday closure unconfirmed, or if your posted hours look inconsistent with actual foot traffic and reviews around that date, Google’s automated systems can sometimes flag a profile as temporarily closed on their own. Keeping your special hours accurate and up to date is the best way to prevent that from happening.

If you do have a genuine multi-week closure (seasonal business, renovation, etc.), use “Temporarily closed” deliberately rather than stacking special-hours entries for every day — and switch it back to open with correct hours as soon as you reopen.

Tips and Common Mistakes

Set holiday hours early. Google typically starts suggesting major holiday dates weeks in advance — confirming them as soon as they appear gives Google and customers more lead time with accurate information, and avoids a last-minute scramble on the day itself.

Don’t forget to revert. A surprising number of listings still show holiday hours weeks after the holiday because the owner never removed the special-hours entry or forgot it only applied to one date. Special hours tied to a specific date should expire automatically, but it’s worth spot-checking your profile in January to confirm regular hours are showing correctly.

Match your website and other listings. If your Google Business Profile says you’re open until 6 PM on Christmas Eve but your website’s contact page still lists standard hours, that inconsistency undermines trust and can contribute to Google treating your hours as unreliable. Update holiday hours everywhere you list them — website, Facebook, Apple Maps/Business Connect, and any directories.

Use a Google Post for context. Special hours cover the calendar mechanics, but a short Google Post (“Closed Thanksgiving Day, back to normal hours Friday”) adds a visible, timely note that shows up directly in your profile and reinforces the same information.

Don’t mark a single closed day as “Temporarily closed.” This is one of the most common missteps business owners make heading into the holidays — it’s built for extended shutdowns, not a one-day closure, and using it for the wrong situation is what can quietly cost you visibility against open competitors for broad searches.

Explore more: More digital strategy guides for small businesses.

Google Business Profile holiday hours FAQs

Will setting holiday hours hurt my Google ranking?

No — using Special Hours correctly does not directly hurt your ranking. What can hurt visibility is misusing “Temporarily Closed” for a short holiday closure. The profile itself still stays visible in Search and Maps, but it can rank below open competitors for broad, generic searches — or leaving hours inaccurate/unconfirmed so Google’s systems flag the listing as unreliable.

How far in advance should I set holiday hours on Google Business Profile?

As soon as Google surfaces the suggested date or you know your schedule — often several weeks ahead for major holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas. Setting them early avoids customers arriving to a closed door and gives Google more time to display accurate information.

What if my hours are the same as usual on a holiday?

Confirm it anyway. Reviewing and saving the date under Special Hours — even with unchanged hours — prevents Google from showing an ‘Hours might differ’ notice and signals that your listing is actively maintained.

Can I set special hours for multiple locations at once?

Yes. If you manage several Google Business Profile locations, the bulk spreadsheet upload feature in Business Profile Manager lets you apply special hours across locations in one file rather than editing each profile individually.

Build It With GTStudios

Need help with your website, app, or small-business tech? GTStudios builds web, apps, and software for small businesses. See how GTStudios can help.

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Photo by sarah b on Unsplash.

Originally published at gtstu.com.

4 Tech & Science News Stories for Saturday, September 19, 2026: Apple Gives Developers Their First Real Look at iPhone Duo Apps

GTStudios — Sat, 19 Sep 2026 16:00:15 +0000

Here are today’s 4 verified tech & science stories, covering Tech & Apps.

Table of Contents

Every item below links to its original source.

The TLDR

Tech & Apps: Apple Gives Developers Their First Real Look at iPhone Duo Apps

Tech & Apps

Apple Gives Developers Their First Real Look at iPhone Duo Apps

Apple released the first beta of Xcode 27.1 on September 18, adding the SDKs and simulator developers need to build and test apps for the foldable iPhone Duo, per 9to5Mac. iPhone Duo opens for pre-order October 16 and ships October 23 starting at $1,999, running its own iOS 27.1 build before later syncing with standard iPhone software. Apps still targeting the iOS 26 SDK will need updating before they can take advantage of the larger, foldable display.

Unsealed Filings Show Microsoft and OpenAI Knew AI Was Hurting News Sites

Newly unsealed court filings from The New York Times’ copyright lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, made public September 17, show a Microsoft executive privately describing a “doom loop” in which AI answer engines would keep pulling traffic away from the news sites that trained them, according to The Verge. Internal Microsoft data reportedly found Copilot’s AI search integration cut click-through rates to the Times by as much as 93% compared with regular Bing search. Another internal document reportedly called the companies’ data scraping “the largest theft of labor in human history.”

FAA Set to Test AI Traffic Tool Over Washington, DC

The FAA plans to begin advising air traffic controllers with an AI tool called SMART in the congested airspace above Washington, DC, with a limited launch that could start as soon as Monday, September 21, according to Ars Technica. SMART, short for Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes, and Trajectories, is part of an $875 million, 12-year contract the FAA awarded to Air Space Intelligence in June to predict traffic flows and flag potential conflicts using airline schedules, weather, and airspace data. If the DC pilot goes well, the FAA plans to expand SMART nationwide.

iOS 27 Quietly Overhauls Focus Mode

Beyond its headline features, iOS 27 reworked the Focus mode widget in Control Center so it can be resized from a small 1×1 icon up to a full 2×2 grid, according to Engadget. Shortcuts automations can now check which specific Focus mode is active and branch with “otherwise if” logic, and Sleep Focus is now available as an automation trigger, opening the door to routines like launching a workout app only when Fitness Focus turns on.

Explore more: your Gemini privacy settings, how ChatGPT and Gemini compare.

Make Your Digital Life Better

More practical tech how-tos, tool picks, and guides to upgrade your everyday digital life. More on GTWebs.

Want web tips in your inbox? Subscribe to the free newsletter.

Photo: Imagen 2 via Gemini; prompted by Adi Robertson / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Originally published at gtwebs.com.

How to Set Up a Digital Punch Card Loyalty System

GTStudios — Sat, 19 Sep 2026 13:00:09 +0000

Paper punch cards get lost, left at home, or tossed in the wash. A digital punch card fixes that by living on a customer’s phone, either as a pass in their Apple or Google Wallet or inside a small loyalty app, so it’s there every time they show up.

Table of Contents

This guide walks through choosing a platform, setting up your first reward, and getting customers to actually enroll, plus the mistakes that quietly kill most punch card programs before they build any repeat business.

Quick Answer

Pick a digital loyalty platform that either plugs into your existing point-of-sale (like Square Loyalty if you already run Square) or works independently as a wallet-based stamp card (like Loopy Loyalty or FaveCard). Set a simple reward rule (e.g., “buy 9, get the 10th free”), generate a QR code or enrollment link, and have staff ask every customer to join at checkout. Most setups take under an hour.

Choosing the Right Platform

There are two main categories. POS-integrated loyalty is built into the payment system you already use — Square Loyalty is the common example, bundled into Square’s paid Plus and Premium plans and tied to purchases rung up through Square’s POS, invoices, or online store. It’s the easiest option if you’re already on that POS, since punches track automatically with no extra scanning step for staff.

Standalone wallet-based platforms work independently of your POS and put the card directly into the customer’s Apple Wallet or Google Wallet — no app download required. Loopy Loyalty is a well-known example built specifically for this (plans start around $25/month for a single location), and other small-business-focused tools like FiveStars by SumUp add a companion app and cross-business rewards network on top of the loyalty tracking. If you use a POS other than Square, or want the loyalty card to work across multiple locations or even multiple businesses, a standalone tool is usually the better fit.

Before committing, check three things on the vendor’s own pricing page: whether it supports Apple Wallet and Google Wallet (avoids forcing an app download), whether it charges per location, and whether customer data export is included or locked behind a higher tier.

Setting It Up Step by Step

Sign up and design the card. Most tools give you a simple editor for your logo, brand colors, and the number of punches needed. Keep the design close to your real-world branding so customers recognize it instantly.
Set the reward rule. Decide how many punches earn the reward and what the reward is — a free item, a discount, or bonus points. Rewards that take 8-10 visits tend to perform better than ones that take 20+, since customers lose momentum on cards that feel too far from completion.
Generate your enrollment method. This is usually a QR code you print at the register or a short link you can text or add to your Instagram bio. Some platforms also support NFC taps.
Add it to checkout. Print the QR code on receipts, tape it near the register, and — most importantly — have staff verbally invite every customer to join. Signage alone rarely gets meaningful signup rates; a 5-second ask at checkout does far more.
Test the full loop yourself. Enroll a test card, add a punch, and redeem the reward before you launch, so you catch any scanning or POS-sync issues with real customers, not on day one.

Tips and Common Mistakes

Don’t make the reward threshold so high that customers give up before reaching it — start generous and tighten later if needed. Don’t rely only on a poster; staff mentioning the program at checkout drives most enrollments. Don’t ignore the data — most platforms show you who’s close to a reward or has gone quiet, which is useful for a quick “come back in” text or email. And don’t switch platforms casually once customers have active cards; migrating punch history between systems is rarely smooth, so pick a platform you’re comfortable sticking with for at least a year.

Explore more: more small business tech guides.

Digital punch card loyalty system FAQs

Do customers need to download an app for a digital punch card?

Not necessarily. Wallet-based platforms like Loopy Loyalty deliver the card as an Apple Wallet or Google Wallet pass, so there’s nothing to install. Some platforms, like FiveStars, do use a companion app instead.

How much does a digital punch card system cost?

Standalone wallet-based tools commonly start in the $25-$50/month range for a single location. POS-integrated options like Square Loyalty are typically bundled into a paid POS plan rather than billed separately. Multi-location or higher-tier plans cost more.

Can I build a digital punch card without a paid tool?

You can approximate one with a simple spreadsheet or a free-tier loyalty tool, but you’ll lose automatic wallet updates, push notifications, and reporting that dedicated platforms provide.

Is a digital punch card worth it for a very small or new business?

It’s worth it if you have repeat foot traffic — coffee shops, salons, food trucks — since the main cost is time spent asking customers to join, not the software fee. If most of your customers are one-time visitors, the payoff is smaller.

Build It With GTStudios

Need help with your website, app, or small-business tech? GTStudios builds web, apps, and software for small businesses. See how GTStudios can help.

Want dev news in your inbox? Subscribe to the free newsletter.

Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash.

Originally published at gtstu.com.

How to Rotate Streaming Subscriptions Without Losing Track

GTStudios — Sat, 19 Sep 2026 10:00:39 +0000

Between Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, Max, Paramount+, Peacock, and Apple TV+, it’s easy to end up paying for six services when you’re only actively watching one or two. Subscription rotation — subscribing to a service for the month or two you actually need it, then canceling until you need it again — is the simplest way to cut that bill without giving up any of the shows you care about.

Table of Contents

The catch is that rotation only works if you keep track of what you’ve watched, what you still want to see, and when you’re due to cancel. Miss that step and you’ll either get charged for a month you didn’t mean to keep, or forget where you left off in a show. Here’s a repeatable system, plus a simple template you can copy today.

Quick Answer

Pick one or two streaming services per month based on what’s releasing new content, watch through your list, cancel (or pause, where available) before the next billing date, then move to the next service. Track everything — service, renewal date, and your watchlist — in one simple document so you never lose your place or forget to cancel.

How to Set Up a Streaming Rotation

Start by listing every service you currently pay for or want access to, along with its monthly price and billing date. Most streaming services bill monthly with no long-term contract, so you can cancel anytime without a penalty — the trick is remembering to do it before the next charge hits.

Next, check what’s actually worth watching on each platform before you commit to a month. A quick scan of a platform’s ‘new this month’ page, plus a search for ‘what’s new on [service] this month,’ tells you whether it’s worth reactivating right now or better left for later when a show you’re waiting on drops.

Subscribe to one or two services that have the most content on your list, then set a calendar reminder for a day or two before your next renewal date — not the renewal date itself, since some cancellations don’t take effect until the end of the current billing period regardless of when you click cancel. When the reminder fires, decide: keep watching (skip the cancellation) or move on.

Before you cancel, check whether the service offers a pause instead. Netflix lets most plans pause for up to a few months at a time (this isn’t available on the Basic plan or with every payment method), Hulu offers a similar pause option for a limited number of weeks, and Disney+ now lets eligible monthly, directly billed subscriptions pause for roughly one to twelve weeks — useful if you know you’ll want back in soon and don’t want to risk losing recommendations or a place in a live-TV lineup. Disney+ pausing isn’t available if you’re on a Disney Bundle plan, and Max, Paramount+, and Peacock still don’t offer a true pause; for those, canceling and resubscribing later is the only option, but your watchlist and viewing history typically stay saved even after you cancel.

Build Your Tracking Template

The rotation only breaks down when you lose track of details, so keep one running document — a notes app, spreadsheet, or even a phone reminder list works. For each service, log four things: the service name, your monthly cost, the exact renewal/billing date, and your current watchlist for that platform (show name plus season/episode where you left off).

A simple spreadsheet layout works well: one row per service with columns for Status (Active / Paused / Canceled), Renewal Date, Monthly Cost, and Watchlist Notes. Update the Status column the moment you subscribe, pause, or cancel, and jot down your episode progress before you cancel anything — that one habit prevents the most common rotation mistake, which is forgetting exactly where you left off and rewatching or skipping episodes when you come back.

If manually tracking feels like too much upkeep, a subscription-tracking app can help with the reminder half of the job. Rocket Money links to your bank or card to automatically flag recurring charges and can remind you before renewals, while an app like Bobby takes a manual, privacy-first approach — you enter each subscription yourself and it tracks renewal dates and totals without connecting to your accounts. Either approach still benefits from your own watchlist notes, since no app tracks your place in a show for you.

Tips and Common Mistakes

Don’t subscribe to a service the same week a season premieres if you also want to watch a slow-burn show on it — plan for one extra week of overlap so you’re not rushing through episodes just to beat a cancellation deadline.

Watch for bundles. If a service is bundled with something else (for example, Hulu sold as part of a Disney bundle), pausing individually often isn’t available, and canceling one part of the bundle may affect billing for the rest — check the bundle’s own cancellation terms before you commit to rotating it.

Set your reminder a few days before the renewal date, not on it — some cancellations only stop the next charge rather than refunding the current period, so canceling exactly on the billing date can mean paying for a month you don’t use.

Resist the urge to rotate more than one or two services at a time. Juggling three or four active rotations at once is exactly when watchlists get lost and renewal dates get missed, which erases the savings the whole strategy is meant to create.

Explore more: more streaming and culture guides.

Streaming subscription rotation FAQs

Will I lose my watchlist or viewing history if I cancel a streaming service?

For most major services, your profile, watchlist, and viewing history are saved even after you cancel, so resubscribing later typically picks up where you left off. It’s still smart to jot down your exact episode progress in your own tracking document, since recommendations and ‘continue watching’ rows can occasionally reset or reorganize.

Is pausing a subscription better than canceling it?

Pausing can be more convenient when it’s available, since it avoids re-entering payment details and can preserve certain account settings. Netflix and Hulu both offer pause options with time limits, and Disney+ now lets eligible monthly, directly billed subscribers pause for about one to twelve weeks (this isn’t available if you’re on a Disney Bundle plan). Max and Peacock currently don’t offer a true pause feature, so canceling and resubscribing is the only option for those.

How many streaming services should I rotate at once?

One or two at a time is easiest to manage. Rotating more than that makes it much harder to keep track of renewal dates and watchlists, and the extra complexity tends to cancel out the money you’re trying to save.

Make Your Digital Life Better

More practical tech how-tos, tool picks, and guides to upgrade your everyday digital life. More on GTWebs.

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Photo: Donald Trung Quoc Don (Chữ Hán: 徵國單) – Wikimedia Commons – © CC BY-SA 4.0 International.(Want to use this image?)Original publication 📤: –Donald Trung 『徵國單』 (No Fake News 💬) (WikiProject Numismatics 💴) (Articles 📚) 09:23, 30 October 2019 (UTC) / CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Originally published at gtwebs.com.

How to Create a Duotone Photo Effect in Canva

GTStudios — Sat, 19 Sep 2026 10:00:19 +0000

A duotone effect replaces all the tones in a photo with just two colors, one for the shadows and one for the highlights, giving an image a bold, stylized, on-brand look. It’s a popular technique for social posts, event flyers, and portfolio covers because it turns an ordinary photo into something that feels designed rather than just uploaded.

Table of Contents

Canva has a built-in Duotone effect that does this in a few clicks, with ready-made color presets and the option to set your own custom colors to match your brand palette. This guide walks through exactly how to find it, apply it, and fine-tune it so it actually looks intentional.

Quick Answer

Select your photo in Canva, click Edit photo (or Edit image) in the toolbar, then open the Filters panel and scroll to the very end, Duotone sits after the regular filter presets. Pick one of the named color presets, or tap the Highlights and Shadows color swatches to enter your own hex codes, then use the Intensity slider (set it to 100 for the full effect) and apply.

Step-by-Step: Applying Duotone to a Photo

Start by uploading your photo into a Canva design, or opening an existing design that already has the image placed on the canvas. Click on the photo to select it, then choose Edit photo (sometimes labeled Edit image) from the toolbar that appears above it. This opens the photo editing side panel.

In the side panel, open the Filters tab, this is where Duotone lives now, not in a separate Effects section. Scroll all the way down past the standard filter thumbnails (Vivid, Dramatic, and so on) to find Duotone at the bottom of the list. Clicking Duotone reveals a row of named two-color presets. Click any preset thumbnail to preview it directly on your photo.

To customize the colors instead of using a preset, click on the applied duotone effect again to open the Highlights and Shadows color controls. Click the Highlights swatch, then use the plus icon in the color panel to enter a specific hex code, this is how you match a brand color exactly. Repeat the same process for the Shadows swatch to set the second color.

Use the Intensity slider to control how strongly the two colors take over the photo. At lower intensity, Canva blends your chosen colors with the photo’s original tones, which can look muddy. Push the slider closer to 100 if you want the clean, fully replaced two-color look most duotone designs go for. Once it looks right, click Apply (or simply click outside the panel) to lock in the effect.

Choosing Colors That Actually Work

Duotone works best with high contrast between the two colors, one noticeably darker for shadows and one noticeably lighter for highlights. Pairing a dark navy or black with a bright accent color (like your brand’s primary color) tends to read as more polished than two mid-tone colors that are close in value.

If you’re building on-brand graphics, pull your exact brand hex codes for the highlight and shadow colors so the effect matches your existing palette instead of introducing a random new color into your designs. This is especially useful for cover images, social templates, and blog headers that need to feel consistent across a batch of images.

Photos with clear light and dark areas, a portrait with defined shadows, or a landscape with a bright sky and dark foreground, tend to produce a cleaner duotone result than flat, evenly lit photos, since the effect relies on that existing tonal range to map the two colors onto. Duotone also works best on actual photos (JPG or PNG raster images) rather than illustrations or vector graphics, which don’t respond to it the same way.

Tips and Common Mistakes

Looking for Duotone under a separate Effects tab is the most common reason people can’t find it, Canva now keeps it inside the Filters panel, at the very bottom of the list, so scroll past the named filter presets first. Leaving Intensity below 100 is another common reason a duotone effect looks washed out or inconsistent, if you want the full stylized look, push it all the way up. Setting Highlights and Shadows to the same or very similar hex codes will just flatten the photo into a single color wash rather than a true two-tone effect, so keep meaningful contrast between the two. It’s also worth applying the same duotone preset or custom colors across a whole set of images, rather than picking new colors each time, so a gallery or social feed feels cohesive. Finally, duotone tends to obscure fine detail, so it works better on simpler, higher-contrast photos than on busy images with lots of small elements.

Explore more: more Canva and design tutorials.

Duotone effect in Canva FAQs

Is the Duotone effect free in Canva?

Yes, the Duotone effect itself is available on Canva’s free plan, though some individual color presets may be part of Canva Pro’s premium content. Custom Highlights and Shadows hex color controls work on free accounts as well.

Where exactly is Duotone located in Canva?

Select your photo, choose Edit photo from the toolbar, then open the Filters panel in the side menu and scroll all the way to the end of the filter list. Duotone sits after the standard filter presets rather than in a separate Effects section.

Can I use my own brand colors for the duotone effect?

Yes. After selecting the Duotone effect, click the Highlights or Shadows color swatch and enter a specific hex code so the effect matches your exact brand colors instead of using a preset.

Why does my duotone effect look faded or blended with the original photo?

This usually means the Intensity slider isn’t set high enough. At lower intensity, Canva blends your chosen colors with the photo’s original tones; raise the slider toward 100 for a fully replaced two-color look.

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Originally published at gtwebs.com.

Freelancer vs Agency vs Dev Studio: Who Builds Your App?

GTStudios — Sat, 19 Sep 2026 07:00:09 +0000

You’ve decided your small business needs an app, and now comes the harder decision: who actually builds it? A solo freelancer, a full-service agency, and a boutique dev studio can all technically deliver the same app, but they differ wildly in price, speed, communication, and what happens after launch.

Table of Contents

This guide breaks down what each option actually looks like in practice, what it tends to cost, and how to match your project’s size, budget, and risk tolerance to the right kind of team.

Quick Answer

Choose a freelancer for a simple, well-defined app on a tight budget; choose a dev studio (a small, senior-heavy team of specialists) for a real product you need built right and maintained over time; choose a full agency when you need heavy project management, design, and marketing bundled together and have the budget to match. Most small businesses building their first app land best with a freelancer for an MVP or a small dev studio for anything customer-facing.

What Each Option Actually Offers

A freelancer is one person, usually a developer, sometimes with light design skills, working solo. You get direct access to whoever is writing the code, which means fast communication and lower overhead, but also a single point of failure: if they get sick, get busy with another client, or move on, your project stalls. Freelancer rates vary enormously by location and experience, roughly $25 to $150+ an hour, and a simple small-business app (a basic booking tool, an internal utility, a lightweight customer app) often lands anywhere from a few thousand dollars to around $30,000 depending on scope.

A dev studio is a small, focused team, usually somewhere between 3 and 15 people, that specializes in a niche (say, iOS apps, or Shopify integrations, or React Native builds). You typically get a project lead plus a couple of developers and maybe a designer, so there’s redundancy if someone is out, but you’re not paying for a huge account-management or sales layer. Studios sit in the middle on price and tend to be a strong fit for small businesses that want a real, maintainable product without agency-scale overhead.

A full agency is a larger organization with dedicated project managers, designers, QA testers, and developers, often with in-house marketing or strategy teams too. That structure is valuable for complex, multi-platform builds or when you need someone else to own the whole process end to end, but it comes at a premium: agency hourly rates commonly run $100 to $250+ per hour, and full project costs for a production app frequently start in the tens of thousands and can climb well past $100,000 for anything with real complexity (multiple platforms, backend integrations, ongoing feature work).

None of these is universally ‘better’ — they’re different tools. A freelancer building a focused single-feature app can outperform an agency on speed and cost. An agency handling a multi-platform launch with hard deadlines and multiple stakeholders will outperform a solo freelancer on reliability and coordination.

How to Match the Right Team to Your Project

Start with scope, not budget. If your app is genuinely simple — one core feature, no complex backend, no need for ongoing rapid iteration — a freelancer or a no-code/low-code specialist can likely deliver it faster and cheaper than a studio or agency would, because you’re not paying for coordination overhead you don’t need.

If the app is customer-facing, ties into other business systems (payments, inventory, CRM, scheduling), or needs to scale as your business grows, lean toward a dev studio. You get more resilience than a single freelancer without paying agency-level rates for services (brand strategy, large-scale marketing) you may not need yet.

If you’re short on time to manage the project yourself, need multiple platforms (iOS and Android and web) launched together, or the build touches sensitive areas like healthcare or finance where compliance and QA rigor matter, the extra spend on a full agency is often worth it — you’re buying process discipline and accountability, not just code.

Whichever you choose, ask the same questions: Can I see apps they’ve actually shipped, ideally something similar in scope to mine? Who exactly will work on my project, and is that team available for the whole build? What happens after launch — is bug fixing and maintenance included, or a separate contract? How do they handle scope changes, and what’s the change-request process? Get a clear, itemized quote rather than a single lump-sum number, so you can see what you’re actually paying for.

Tips and Common Mistakes

Don’t hire purely on hourly rate. A cheaper freelancer who takes twice as long, or delivers something that needs a rebuild, ends up costing more than a slightly pricier team that gets it right the first time. Compare total estimated project cost and timeline, not just the hourly number.

Get post-launch support in writing before you sign anything. Apps need bug fixes, OS updates, and small tweaks after launch, and ‘who handles that and at what cost’ is one of the most common sources of surprise bills. Ask specifically whether the initial quote includes a warranty period for post-launch bug fixes.

Don’t skip a written contract or scope document, even with a freelancer you trust. Define deliverables, milestones, payment schedule, and who owns the final code and design files. You want to own your source code outright when the project wraps.

Beware of vague team promises from larger agencies — ask specifically who (by name or role) will be on your build, since sales conversations are sometimes handled by people who won’t touch the actual code.

Avoid over-hiring for your stage. A pre-revenue small business testing an app idea rarely needs a full agency with a strategy team; a freelancer or small studio building a lean first version, then iterating based on real user feedback, is usually the smarter path.

Explore more: more app development guides.

Freelancer vs Agency vs Dev Studio FAQs

Is it cheaper to hire a freelancer or an agency for a small business app?

A freelancer is almost always cheaper on an hourly and total-project basis, since you’re not paying for project managers, QA staff, or account overhead. The tradeoff is more risk: less redundancy, less formal QA, and you’re more dependent on one person’s availability.

What’s the difference between a dev studio and an agency?

A dev studio is typically a smaller, more specialized team focused mainly on development itself, while a full agency usually bundles in project management, design, QA, and sometimes marketing or strategy services, with pricing and overhead to match.

How long does it take to build a small business app?

A simple, single-feature app can often be built in a few weeks to a couple of months. More complex apps with multiple platforms, backend integrations, or custom design typically take three to six months or more, regardless of who builds it.

Should I get multiple quotes before choosing a developer or agency?

Yes. Get at least two or three itemized quotes so you can compare not just price but what’s actually included — design, QA, post-launch support, and revision rounds vary a lot between providers even at similar price points.

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Originally published at gtstu.com.

How to Handle Fake Negative Reviews From Competitors

GTStudios — Sat, 19 Sep 2026 01:00:08 +0000

A one-star review shows up on your Google Business Profile from a name you don’t recognize, describing an experience that never happened. It reads suspiciously like it was written by someone who’s never actually been a customer — and you suspect it came from a competitor trying to knock down your rating.

Table of Contents

This happens more often than most business owners realize, and Google actually has rules against it. This guide walks through how to confirm a review is fake, the exact steps to report it through Google’s official channels, what to do while you wait, and when it’s worth involving a lawyer instead.

Quick Answer

Don’t respond emotionally or accuse anyone publicly. Instead, document the review, check it against Google’s review policies (fake content, conflict of interest, and off-topic content are the most relevant violations for competitor attacks), and report it through your Google Business Profile. Google typically takes several days up to a couple of weeks to evaluate a flagged review, and only removes it if it violates a specific policy — not simply because it’s negative or untrue.

Step 1: Confirm It’s Actually Fake (Not Just Negative)

Google will not remove a review just because it’s unfair, one-sided, or hurts your feelings — it has to break a specific rule. Before reporting anything, look for real red flags: a reviewer name you have no record of in your booking system, POS, CRM, or email; a description of a product, service, location detail, or staff member that doesn’t match your business at all; a review posted from an account with no other activity or one that only reviews competitors in your exact industry and area; or a cluster of similarly worded negative reviews appearing within a short window, which often signals a coordinated attack rather than one unhappy customer.

It’s also worth checking the reviewer’s Google Maps profile (tap their name from the review) to see their review history. An account that has only ever reviewed rival businesses in your niche, especially with glowing reviews for one competitor and scathing ones for everyone else, is a strong signal of a conflict-of-interest violation under Google’s policy.

Step 2: Report the Review Through Google’s Official Channels

Google gives you a few ways to flag a review, and using the right one matters more than which one you pick — just make sure you file the report rather than only replying publicly. From your Google Business Profile, go to the Reviews section, find the review, click the three-dot menu (or the flag/report icon) next to it, and choose the reason that most closely matches the violation, such as ‘Off topic,’ ‘Conflict of interest,’ ‘Spam,’ or ‘Fake engagement.’ You can also flag a review directly from Google Maps or Google Search by finding your business, opening the review, and selecting the report option there.

Google’s Reviews Management Tool (business.google.com/reviews) lets you track the status of every review you’ve flagged in one place, which is useful if you’re dealing with more than one suspicious review at a time. If a flagged review comes back as ‘no policy violation,’ the tool lets you submit a one-time appeal per review — and if you have several denied reviews to contest, you can bundle up to 10 appeals into a single batch instead of appealing one by one.

When you file the report or appeal, be specific about why the review violates policy (e.g., ‘this reviewer has never been a customer — no record in our booking system, and their review history only targets competitors in our industry’) rather than just saying the review is unfair or inaccurate. Cite the exact policy you believe was broken, since Google’s moderators are looking for policy violations, not customer service disputes.

After reporting, expect a wait. Google doesn’t publish a guaranteed timeline, but evaluations commonly take anywhere from several days to a couple of weeks. If the review is removed, you won’t always get a notification — check back periodically in the Reviews Management Tool. If your report is denied, remember you only get one appeal per review, so make it count by including your strongest evidence up front.

Step 3: Protect Your Rating While You Wait

Reporting takes time, so don’t just sit on the review in the meantime. Respond publicly and professionally — a calm, factual reply (without naming or accusing anyone) shows future customers you take feedback seriously and often does more to protect your reputation than the fake review does to hurt it. Something like acknowledging you have no record of their visit and inviting them to contact you directly is enough; avoid getting defensive or sarcastic, since that reply is permanent and public too.

Keep asking real, recent customers for honest reviews. A steady stream of authentic, detailed reviews dilutes the impact of one or two fake ones far more effectively than trying to get your overall star average to move through disputes alone. Just make sure your review requests follow Google’s rules: don’t offer incentives, don’t cherry-pick only happy customers, and don’t ask staff to solicit reviews on the clock in exchange for anything.

Take screenshots of the fake review, the reviewer’s profile, and their review history the moment you spot it. Fake reviews sometimes get deleted by the poster once they realize you’re building a case, and having dated screenshots strengthens both your Google report and any escalation you pursue later.

When to Consider Legal Action

If Google declines to remove a clearly false, damaging review and you can identify or reasonably suspect the source, it may be worth a conversation with an attorney about defamation or business interference claims — particularly if the review makes false statements of fact (not opinion) and you can show it’s actively costing you business. This is a bigger step than flagging a review, typically involves real legal fees, and can take months to resolve, so it’s usually reserved for cases with clear, provable harm rather than a single mildly annoying review.

Some businesses also work with a reputation management or legal service that specializes in review disputes and has an established process for building the kind of documentation Google and courts expect. That route costs money but can be worth it if fake reviews are recurring rather than a one-off incident.

Tips / Common Mistakes

Don’t publicly accuse a specific competitor by name in your response to the review — even if you’re confident, an unproven public accusation can create its own legal exposure. Keep your reply factual and professional instead.

Don’t ask friends, family, or employees to ‘balance it out’ with fake positive reviews — Google’s fake engagement policy applies to both sides, and getting caught can trigger restrictions on your whole profile, including a temporary block on receiving new reviews.

Don’t burn your one-time appeal on a weak argument. Since each denied review only gets a single appeal, gather your strongest evidence (screenshots, internal records showing no matching customer, the reviewer’s suspicious review history) before you submit it.

Don’t wait weeks to document evidence. Screenshot the review and the reviewer’s profile as soon as you notice it, since accounts and content can be deleted or edited later.

Explore more: More digital strategy guides for small businesses.

Fake negative Google reviews from competitors FAQs

Can Google remove a negative review just because it isn’t true?

Not automatically. Google requires the review to violate a specific policy, like fake content, conflict of interest, or off-topic material, rather than simply being inaccurate or unfair. A false but policy-compliant complaint can still be denied removal.

How long does it take Google to remove a reported fake review?

There’s no guaranteed timeline, but most reported reviews are evaluated within a few days to a couple of weeks. You can track the status of flagged reviews through Google’s Reviews Management Tool.

What counts as a ‘conflict of interest’ review under Google’s policy?

Reviews written by competitors, current or former employees, or anyone with a personal or professional relationship to the business (or a rival business) that could bias the review. Google prohibits this kind of content specifically because it isn’t based on a genuine customer experience.

Can I appeal if Google denies my report?

Yes, but only once per review. If a flagged review comes back as ‘no policy violation,’ you get a single appeal, and if you’re contesting several denied reviews you can submit up to 10 appeals together in one batch through the Reviews Management Tool.

Can I sue a competitor for posting a fake review?

It’s possible if the review makes false statements of fact and causes measurable harm, but defamation or business interference claims involve real legal costs and time. Most businesses should exhaust Google’s reporting process first and reserve legal action for serious, ongoing cases.

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Originally published at gtstu.com.

13 Tech & Science News Stories for Friday, September 18, 2026: Waymo Names Singapore Its Next Robotaxi Market

GTStudios — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 13:00:16 +0000

Here are today’s 13 verified tech & science stories, covering Tech & Apps, AI Tools, Science & Space and Fitness & Health Tech.

Table of Contents

Every item below links to its original source.

The TLDR

Tech & Apps: Waymo Names Singapore Its Next Robotaxi Market
AI Tools: Google DeepMind Launches an Institute to Debate AGI’s Future
Science & Space: Scientists Find the Brain Develops From Two Separate Cell Lineages
Fitness & Health Tech: Apple Watch Ultra 4 Review: The Biggest Upgrade in Years

Tech & Apps

Waymo Names Singapore Its Next Robotaxi Market

Waymo announced it will bring robotaxi service to Singapore, marking the company’s first expansion into Southeast Asia, with a commercial launch targeted for 2028. Autonomous Jaguar I-PACE vehicles are expected to start arriving in Singapore in the coming months, and in 2027 trained human specialists will manually drive them to teach the Waymo Driver local roads and monsoon conditions before any self-driving trips begin. The plan still depends on approval from Singapore’s transport regulators, according to The Verge.

Claude Code’s Projects Feature Gets a Multi-Agent Overhaul

Anthropic relaunched the Projects feature in Claude Code, letting users run several AI agent “threads” at once inside one project with shared memory and a shared file library. A “coordinator” oversees the threads as they work in parallel on separate branches, and users can check in and redirect the work remotely, even from a phone, according to The Verge. The revamped feature is rolling out in beta to select Claude Pro and Max subscribers.

Safari 27 Adds Built-In Support for AI Coding Agents

Apple’s WebKit team published a rundown of what’s new for developers in the newly released Safari 27, including a Safari MCP server that lets AI coding tools connect directly to a Safari window to read the page, check network requests, and take screenshots for automated testing. The release also adds scroll anchoring, so pages stop jumping when content loads above what you’re reading, along with updates to the Web Inspector, per 9to5Mac.

Google Expands Its Experimental “CC” Agent to Whole Families

Google is expanding CC, the experimental Gemini-powered assistant it first launched for individuals last December, into a shared version that up to six household members can use together. Each family member chooses what to share, and CC builds a joint calendar and task list plus a daily briefing, asking permission before acting on tasks like filling out forms, according to Ars Technica. It remains a limited, US-only Google Labs experiment rather than a full public release. If you’re also concerned about how Google uses your own data to train its AI, see our guide on stopping Google from using your photos to train Gemini.

A Notification Center Bug Can Freeze iPhones on iOS 27

Some iPhone owners running iOS 27 have found that swiping down Notification Center and Control Center in quick succession can cause the screen to stick and the phone to stop responding. There’s no official Apple statement on the bug yet, but a forced restart — quickly pressing volume up, then volume down, then holding the side button until the Apple logo appears — clears it, per Engadget.

iPhone 18 Pro Cameras Join Friday Night Baseball Broadcast

Apple’s new iPhone 18 Pro went on sale today, and Fox is putting it straight to work: 14 of the phones are mounted around Dodger Stadium — in the pitch clock, backstop, foul pole, and both bullpens — for tonight’s Giants-Dodgers Friday Night Baseball game. Eight of those cameras will stream live over T-Mobile’s private 5G network, capturing angles like batting practice and player introductions, according to 9to5Mac.

RFK Jr. Adds 8 New Members to Key Preventive Care Task Force

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appointed 8 new members to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, the independent panel whose recommendations determine which preventive services, like cancer screenings and colonoscopies, insurers must cover. The new slate includes several specialists rather than the primary care physicians who have traditionally filled the panel, according to Ars Technica.

Why External GPUs Still Come With Real Trade-Offs

Thinking about adding an external GPU to boost your laptop’s graphics? Engadget’s testing found that Thunderbolt’s bandwidth limits mean an eGPU delivers 7% to 32% less performance than the same graphics card would get in a desktop, and macOS has offered no eGPU support since Apple moved to Apple Silicon in 2020. Once you add up the enclosure, dock, and graphics card, the total cost can rival a basic prebuilt gaming PC, per Engadget.

AI Tools

Google DeepMind Launches an Institute to Debate AGI’s Future

Google DeepMind launched the DeepMind Institute, a new venture meant to air disagreements between Google, Google DeepMind, and outside researchers about how artificial general intelligence should be developed and governed. Its first publication is a set of four essays on topics like economic policy for AGI disruption and making model reasoning more transparent, according to TechCrunch. For a look at how AI assistants perform in everyday tasks, see our comparison of ChatGPT vs. Gemini for trip planning.

Base Labs Teams Up With Hugging Face and Goodfire on Open-Model Safety

Base Labs, a research group spun out of AI inference company Baseten, launched a partnership with Hugging Face and Goodfire to develop and publish methods for training and monitoring open-weight AI models. The group points to “abliteration,” a technique that strips built-in safeguards from open models, as one reason safety needs to be built in during training rather than added afterward, per TechCrunch.

Science & Space

Scientists Find the Brain Develops From Two Separate Cell Lineages

A Stanford Medicine-led study published in Nature Neuroscience found that the brain doesn’t grow from one line of embryonic cells branching outward, as long assumed. Instead, one group of progenitor cells builds the forebrain and midbrain while a separate, independent group builds the hindbrain, and the researchers say this dual-origin pattern appears conserved across vertebrates, according to ScienceAlert.

Study Finds Early Heat Waves Hurt Wheat Most — But Build Resilience

Researchers at Spain’s University of Lleida found that heat waves hitting wheat before it flowers cause bigger yield losses than heat waves later in the growing season. That early stress also seems to “prime” the plant, making it better able to withstand a second heat wave afterward, according to the study published in the Journal of Experimental Botany and reported by Phys.org.

Fitness & Health Tech

Apple Watch Ultra 4 Review: The Biggest Upgrade in Years

DC Rainmaker’s in-depth review calls the Apple Watch Ultra 4 the biggest internal update to the Apple Watch in years, thanks to a new S11 chip and a redesigned optical heart rate sensor that samples far more frequently than before. Apple also extended battery life to about 50 hours of normal use, with new extended GPS modes reaching up to 45 hours and faster charging that adds 18 hours of battery in 15 minutes, according to DC Rainmaker. The reviewer is largely positive but pushes back on how Apple measured its heart rate accuracy claims.

Explore more: stopping Google from using your photos to train Gemini, ChatGPT vs. Gemini for trip planning.

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Photo: Genetichazzard / CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Originally published at gtwebs.com.

How to Turn Off Recommended in the Windows 11 Start Menu

GTStudios — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 04:00:38 +0000

If you open the Start menu and see a row of “Recommended” files, recently added apps, or app suggestions you never asked for, you’re not alone — and you can turn it off. Microsoft ties this section to a handful of separate toggles rather than one master switch, which is why the option can be hard to find.

Table of Contents

This guide walks through exactly where those toggles live, what changes depending on which Windows 11 version you’re running, and how to clear out individual suggestions if you’d rather keep the section but stop it from surfacing specific items.

Quick Answer

Go to Settings > Personalization > Start and turn off every toggle under the recommendations settings (recently added apps, recommended/recent files, and tips or app promotions). On Windows 11 24H2 and 25H2, this removes the Recommended section from the Start menu entirely, leaving just Pinned apps and All apps. On older Windows 11 versions, the section stays visible but stops showing content.

Turn Off Recommendations in Settings

Open Settings (Windows key + I), then go to Personalization > Start. This screen lists several toggles that each control a different part of what shows up in the Recommended row, so you’ll want to turn off all of them, not just one.

Turn off “Show recently added apps,” which stops newly installed apps from appearing at the top of Start. Turn off “Show recommended files in Start, recent files in File Explorer, and items in Jump Lists” (on older builds this is labeled “Show recently opened items in Start, Jump Lists, and File Explorer”) to stop recently opened documents from showing up — note that this single toggle is not Start-only, since Windows tracks recent activity in one shared list, so switching it off also empties the “Recent” section in File Explorer and clears recent items from taskbar Jump Lists. Turn off “Show recommendations for tips, app promotions, and more” to block Microsoft’s own suggestions, like prompts to try a new app. If your Start menu also shows a “Show websites from your browsing history” toggle, switch that off too.

Once every relevant toggle is off, close and reopen the Start menu. On newer Start menu versions, the Recommended section disappears completely and you’re left with just Pinned and All apps.

What to Expect Depending on Your Windows 11 Version

Microsoft rolled out a redesigned Start menu with more granular recommendation controls starting in Windows 11 24H2 (and continuing in 25H2) — on those builds, turning off all the toggles above removes the section outright. If you’re still on Windows 11 23H2 or an earlier build, the same toggles are available under Settings > Personalization > Start, but the Recommended heading remains on screen as an empty or mostly-empty strip rather than disappearing.

You can check your version by going to Settings > System > About and looking at “Windows specification.” If you’re on an older build and want the fully collapsed layout, installing the latest Windows Update is the only way to get it — there’s no separate download or app for this feature.

Tips / Common Mistakes

Turning off only one toggle is the most common mistake — since recently added apps, recent files, and “tips” suggestions are controlled separately, missing one will leave a thinner but still-present Recommended row.

The recent-files toggle is easy to misjudge: because it’s labeled as a Start menu setting, it’s easy to flip off expecting to only change Start, then be surprised when File Explorer’s “Recent” view and taskbar Jump Lists also go empty. If you rely on those elsewhere, weigh that trade-off before turning it off.

If you’d rather keep recommendations around but hide specific entries, right-click any item in the Recommended section and choose “Remove from list.” This clears that one suggestion without changing your settings.

You can also change your Start layout under Settings > Personalization > Start > Layout. Choosing “More pins” shrinks the space given to recommendations in favor of your pinned apps, which is a good middle ground if you don’t want to lose recommendations entirely.

If the section still doesn’t clear after toggling everything off, restart your PC — Start menu changes on Windows 11 don’t always apply until Explorer restarts, and a reboot forces that.

Explore more: More Windows tutorials.

Windows 11 Start menu recommendations FAQs

Why can’t I find a single “turn off Recommended” switch?

Microsoft splits the Recommended section into separate content types — recent files, recently added apps, and tip/app suggestions — each with its own toggle in Settings > Personalization > Start. You need to turn off all of them to clear the section.

Will this also affect anything outside the Start menu?

Yes, for one of the toggles. “Show recommended files in Start, recent files in File Explorer, and items in Jump Lists” controls a single shared recent-activity list, so turning it off also empties the Recent section in File Explorer and clears recent items from taskbar Jump Lists, not just Start. The recently-added-apps and tips/promotions toggles only affect Start.

Do I need admin rights to turn off Start menu recommendations?

No, these are per-user Settings toggles and don’t require administrator access on a personal PC.

Make Your Digital Life Better

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Photo: Microsoft Corporation / CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Originally published at gtwebs.com.

YNAB vs Rocket Money vs Monarch Money: Which to Use?

GTStudios — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 04:00:17 +0000

All three of these apps promise to fix the same problem — you don’t know where your money is going — but they solve it in very different ways. YNAB is a hands-on budgeting method, Rocket Money leans on automation and a new AI agent to act on your behalf, and Monarch Money sits in between as an all-in-one dashboard for couples and households.

Table of Contents

This guide breaks down what each app actually costs in 2026, what their AI features can and can’t do, and which one fits your situation — whether you want full control, hands-off automation, or a shared view of your household finances.

Quick Answer

Choose YNAB if you want to actively learn budgeting and assign every dollar a job by hand. Choose Rocket Money if you want an app that automatically finds and cancels unwanted subscriptions, and can pay extra for an AI assistant named Rowan that watches your accounts via text message. Choose Monarch Money if you want a polished, all-in-one dashboard for budgeting, net worth, and investments that you can share with a partner, with a built-in AI assistant included at the base tier.

Pricing and What You Actually Get

YNAB costs $14.99 a month or $109 a year (about $9.08/month), with no free tier and no premium upsells — one subscription unlocks everything. It comes with a 34-day free trial that doesn’t require a credit card. Currently enrolled college students (including grad students and part-time students) can get a full free year through YNAB’s student offer at ynab.com/college, but it requires actual proof of enrollment — verified through YNAB’s third-party partner SheerID using a document like a student ID, class schedule, transcript, or tuition statement — not just a .edu email address. YNAB’s method is zero-based budgeting: every dollar you earn gets assigned to a category before you spend it, which forces intentional decisions rather than passive tracking.

Rocket Money has a free tier that covers subscription tracking, bill reminders, spend tracking, and a couple of custom budget categories. Premium unlocks unlimited budget categories and subscription-cancellation help, and uses a ‘pay what you think is fair’ sliding scale, typically $7 to $14 a month. A separate Premium+ tier, priced at $15 a month, adds Rowan by Rocket Money — an AI agent built on Anthropic’s Claude models that monitors your accounts and texts you when it spots something worth acting on, like a subscription price hike or a surprise fee, then handles it once you approve.

Monarch Money moved to a two-tier structure in 2026: Monarch Core runs $99.99 a year (about $8.33/month) or $14.99 a month if billed monthly, and includes unlimited account syncing, budgeting, cash-flow and net-worth tracking, a built-in AI assistant, and free household sharing for couples. Monarch Plus is $199 a year and adds business-expense tracking and deeper investment analytics on top of everything in Core. New users get a 7-day free trial.

How the AI Features Actually Compare

YNAB does not have an official AI assistant built into the app. Its strength is the manual, rules-based budgeting method itself — some users connect YNAB to third-party AI tools through its public API, but there’s no native AI chat or agent inside the product.

Rocket Money’s AI, Rowan, is the most autonomous of the three: it’s a text-message-based agent that proactively watches your linked accounts, flags issues like rate increases or duplicate charges, and can take action — like canceling a subscription or disputing a fee — once you give the go-ahead. It’s only available on the Premium+ tier, on top of the base Premium cost.

Monarch’s AI assistant is a conversational tool built into the app itself, included in the base Monarch Core plan rather than gated behind a separate tier. It’s designed to answer questions about your own spending and budget data — for example, asking how much you spent on dining out last month — rather than autonomously taking action on your accounts the way Rowan does.

Tips and Common Mistakes

Don’t pick based on AI hype alone. If you want an app that actively negotiates bills or cancels subscriptions for you, Rocket Money’s Premium+ is built for that; if you just want quick answers about your own spending inside a dashboard, Monarch’s included assistant is enough, and YNAB’s manual method may build stronger budgeting habits long-term precisely because there’s no AI doing the thinking for you.

Watch tier gating closely before you subscribe. Rocket Money’s AI agent Rowan requires the $15/month Premium+ tier, not the cheaper Premium plan — a common mistake is signing up for Premium expecting the AI features. On Monarch, the AI assistant is included at the lower Core tier, so there’s no need to pay for Plus unless you specifically need business tracking or advanced investment analytics. And if you’re a student hoping for YNAB’s free year, have your student ID, class schedule, transcript, or tuition statement ready for SheerID verification — a .edu email alone won’t get you through it.

Use free trials to test the actual workflow, not just the feature list. YNAB’s 34-day trial is long enough to complete a full budgeting cycle and see if the zero-based method sticks. Rocket Money and Monarch both offer shorter trials (7 days for Monarch), so link your real accounts immediately and check how accurately each app categorizes your actual transactions before committing.

Explore more: more AI tool comparisons.

YNAB vs Rocket Money vs Monarch Money FAQs

Which app is best for couples managing money together?

Monarch Money is built around shared household access at no extra cost on its Core plan, making it the strongest option for couples who want one shared view of budgets, net worth, and investments.

Does YNAB have any AI features?

Not officially. YNAB focuses on manual, zero-based budgeting rather than AI automation, though its public API allows some third-party AI integrations.

What does Rowan by Rocket Money actually do?

Rowan is an AI agent, available on Rocket Money’s Premium+ tier, that monitors your linked accounts by text message and can flag or act on things like subscription price increases and unexpected fees once you approve the action.

Can college students really get YNAB for free?

Yes, but it’s not automatic just for having a .edu email. Currently enrolled students apply at ynab.com/college and must verify through SheerID with proof of enrollment, such as a student ID, class schedule, transcript, or tuition statement, before receiving a free year.

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Originally published at gtwebs.com.