1. On your iPhone's Home Screen, long press an empty space until it enters jiggle mode.


2. Tap Edit in the top-left corner, then tap Customize in the pop-up menu.
   
   
3. Select Clear in the panel that appears at the bottom.


4. Choose Light, Dark, or Auto mode. If a mode makes icons or app labels hard to see, tap the sun icon in the top-left of the Customize panel to dim the wallpaper.
   
   

One key to successful gardening is using the right tools. Since the beginning of civilization, humans have crafted rudimentary instruments to cultivate the outdoors for food (and later, for beauty), and throughout history, those tools have become increasingly more sophisticated. “However, some tools remain indispensable, proving that great design withstands the test of time,” says Christopher S. Raimondi, CEO and president at Raimondi Horticultural Group in Ho-Ho-Kus, New Jersey.

“Today’s gardening world not only relies on these classic implements but also integrates sustainable practices, ensuring efficiency while protecting the environment,” he explains.

There’s a world of gardening tools out there, but the following are some of the core old-school ones you need to keep in your shed, followed by practical gardening tips and advice for anyone interested in progressing beyond chaos gardening.

The Garden Guru Heavy Duty Trowel is made of stainless steel, which resists rust, and it has an ergonomic handle. Used by early civilizations to cultivate small crops, Raimondi says the trowel remains a gardener’s best friend. “Modern versions incorporate ergonomic handles and rust-resistant metals, making digging easier,” he explains. Additionally, some sustainable models incorporate recycled materials.

The extended reach Corona 3244 Hoe makes it easier to reach into tight or far-away areas in your garden comfortably. Dating back to Mesopotamian agriculture, Raimondi says hoes were originally crafted from wood and stone. “Today, forged steel stirrup hoes provide effortless weed control, while eco-friendly designs promote aeration without disturbing vital soil microbes—essential for regenerative gardening,” he shares.

The Earthway 6500 High Wheel Cultivator has comfortable handles and three positions from which to choose.

Lindsay Springer, Ph.D., director of plants, nutrition, and digital agriculture at Gardyn, recommends a wheel hoe if you have an extra-large plot. “Especially those with cultivator tines and other attachments like plow blades, sweeps, stirrups, and harrows,” she says. Springer admits that it’s probably not worth it for smaller gardens and raised beds.

Springer also recommends a stirrup hoe for walkways and between plants, and a triangle hoe as a great tool for weeding. “You can get them as a handheld or on a long handle if you prefer standing up,” she says.

This watering can has a long spout, a detachable shower nozzle, and is available in several colors. Historically, Raimondi says, watering cans were basic clay or tin containers. “Now, sleek, lightweight designs incorporate detachable spouts for water efficiency,” he explains. “Rainwater collection systems, integrated into modern cans, allow gardeners to reuse natural resources, reducing water waste,” Raimondi adds.

Courtney Sixx, founder and co-designer of Bouquet Box, a floral company, likes galvanized watering cans and says they provide the perfect mix of serenity and nostalgia. “These old-style metal watering cans are substantial, and the water flows through in a soft trickle that will never shatter delicate flowers or seedlings.” In addition, Sixx says they’re just fun to hold in your hand.

The Groundskeep II Rake has a 55-inch fiberglass handle and 28 hardened steel tines. Spades played a critical role in early farming societies, and Raimondi notes that they’re now quite durable due to their high-carbon steel material. “Adjustable rakes, once simple wooden tools, now boast cushioned grips, easing soil preparation and leaf collection.” Additionally, he notes that some models can be made from recycled materials and feature bamboo handles.

The Fiskars X25 Splitting Axe has a shock-absorbing handle with a non-slip grip. Axes were used by early settlers to clear land, and Raimondi says they’re now significantly more advanced. “Axes are engineered with shock-absorbing handles and ultra-sharp blades for efficiency,” he explains. “Pruning shears, vital for shaping bonsai trees in ancient Japan, have evolved into ratcheting mechanisms that reduce strain and improve precision.” He notes that you can purchase battery-powered or manual shears as sustainable alternatives to gas-powered landscaping tools.

And according to Sixx, bypass pruning shears are invaluable. “I employ them for everything from pruning the roses to cutting flowers for the home,” she says. Sixx notes that a good pair will give clean cuts, which keeps your plants healthy, and says that her pair is broken down and battered, but she loves them. 

This stainless steel Hori Hori Knife has a drop-point blade that is rust- and scratch-resistant. A Hori Hori knife may be a small gadget, but Sixx explains that it’s a hard worker. “It weeds, cuts, and even has markings on the blade for bulb plantings.” She admits that she didn’t think she would like it so much, but says she now brings it with her whenever she’s gardening.  

The Gardteck Wooden Dibber has a stainless steel bottom and includes accessories. So, what’s a wooden dibber? Sixx explains that it’s basically a sharp stick. “However, it ensures you plant seeds and bulbs at the proper depth each time—it’s super simple and simply handy. It’s more precise than trying to use a hand shovel.

With the Garden Guru Hand Fork, you can plant, mulch, and pull weeds. Sixx points to a garden fork as something you need in your planter’s toolbox. “I use it for breaking up soil, mixing compost, or preparing the ground for a new bed, and it does the kind of heavy lifting that other tools can’t,” she explains.

The Fiskars 3-Piece Garden Tool Set covers the basics. If you have a smaller garden or a raised bed, Springer recommends the Cutco tool set, which she has and loves. “A heavy-duty handheld spade/trowel and handheld cultivator/rake is great for weeds, loosening soil for planting seeds or transplanting from pots bought at the nursery.”  

Below is advice from our three expert sources to help you get the most out of your gardening efforts:

Raimondi warns against letting your plants get stressed due to not enough moisture during the early summer months. “Monitor water levels daily and stay ahead of stress symptoms since this stress will affect fruit and vegetable quality, and with flowers and shrubs, their ability to withstand other seasonal conditions later on in the growing season,” he explains.

Quality tools can make a significant difference in your garden, and Springer warns against spending money on flimsy ones. She recommends robust tools (preferably ones you can pick up and feel in the store); when shopping online, look for reviews that mention quality and durability. If it seems like it will bend and break, Springer says it will. “Gardening can be very hard on tools, and the last thing you want is a bent or broken one after trying to pull out a rock or weed.” In fact, she says that buying old tools at a garage sale can often provide better tools at a better price than buying new ones at a big-box store.

According to Sixx, successful gardening is more about observation than perfection. One of her quirky tricks is using crushed eggshells and cooled chamomile tea in her watering can. “Eggshells add calcium and repel slugs, while chamomile helps prevent damping-off disease in seedlings,” Sixx explains.

“I always companion plant marigolds near roses and veggies to keep pests at bay with their natural scent,” Sixx adds. Additionally, she uses old coffee filters at the bottom of pots to prevent soil from leaking while maintaining proper drainage. “And perhaps most importantly, I talk to my blooms—not just to cheer them on, but to stay mindful of their growth, color, and any little shifts that might signal some extra TLC.” Sixx says that gardening is her love language, and the more she tunes in, the more her plants gush with gratitude.

Before you start buying seeds and plants, Springer recommends taking note of your environment and soil quality. “Is it sunny? Shady? Windy? Wet and soggy or well-drained and dry? Full of clay or rocks? Rich and loamy? Full of weed pressure or ravaged by deer? Close enough to a water source?” She says that prepping your garden beds, knowing the planting environment, and picking plants that can thrive in those spaces will improve your chances of a healthy, thriving garden.

If you’re a beginning gardener, Springer advises setting up your garden for your life—and not the other way around. “Make your grand garden dreams a year-by-year progression so it feels easier to manage as you get the hang of it and find out what works and what doesn’t.” She says that gardening should be fun and rewarding, instead of stressful. “Doing things incrementally makes it feel manageable yet still progressing towards your vision of a green, magical oasis.”

Learn how to work smarter, not harder. “Whether it’s watering, lighting, or fertilizing—consistency is key and there are smart systems today, like Gardyn, that can automatically adjust the lighting and watering/fertilizing schedules based on your plant’s growth stage, so you never have to guess what to do and your plants thrive, even when life gets busy,” Springer says.

If you can, Springer recommends gardening every day—and says you won’t regret it. “It’s not only about the plant care and harvests, it’s the mindful moments of awe when your seeds start to sprout, or you notice a new butterfly, or munch a fresh cherry tomato after the rain,” she explain, Springer says this is your own magical place and you can find peace and serenity in your garden. 

The post Old-school gardening tools that are still worth using appeared first on Popular Science.

• Live Translation - In the Messages, FaceTime, and Phone apps, you can get real-time translations for conversations with someone that doesn't speak your language. It's text-based translation in Messages and ‌FaceTime‌, and voiceover translation in the Phone app. Languages are limited right now, but it worked well in our testing. Translations were almost always accurate, and the feature is fast.


• Visual Intelligence for Screenshots - You can take a screenshot and bring up Visual Intelligence tools to ask questions about it or look it up in an app. It's handy if you remember that it exists, but it may not be a natural workflow for many people. It mostly leverages ChatGPT, Google Search, and a few other apps, and many of us are already able to quickly get screenshots to these services without Apple as a middleman.


• Wallet Order Tracking - The Wallet app can aggregate all of your purchases in one spot, pulling order and tracking information from the Mail app. It's a "beta" feature in a beta, and it's not working perfectly. It's not always great at linking an order email with a subsequent tracking email, so you may need to spend time manually marking packages as delivered.


• Image Playground - Apple didn't mention this at WWDC, but Image Playground in iOS 26 is a lot better at image generation, especially when you're generating an image based on a person. Apple also integrated ChatGPT styles that open up more options for the look of an image, but it's not useful unless you have a ChatGPT subscription. And if you do, you can just use ChatGPT directly for whatever you want to create.


• Genmoji - Genmoji has a feature that lets you select two or more existing emoji characters to create something new, and it's a clever way to give users a better idea of how to use the feature. Creating a ‌Genmoji‌ with a strawberry and a frog was entirely possible before, but now you can tap those emoji as a starting off point. The end results do tend to have a more emoji-style look because they're based on an emoji.


• Reminders - Siri can suggest Reminders you might want to add to your reminders list based on content found in Messages and Mail. If you're given a lot of tasks with either of these apps, it could be useful. There's also a categorization option that automatically organizes reminders into logical lists.


• Shortcuts - Apple added ‌Apple Intelligence‌ options into the Shortcuts app, but unfortunately, it doesn't really make it easier to create and use shortcuts. Making a shortcut is no more intuitive than it was before, and it's still a feature that's out of reach for casual users who either don't want to invest a bunch of time in shortcut creation, or those who don't quite grasp how it all works.


• Battery Changes - ‌iOS 26‌ has better battery reporting tools, but this one is limited to newer devices. It provides a weekly view of battery usage and a comparison of how much battery you're using currently vs. your typical average. It's a surprisingly helpful metric, and it informs a new Adaptive Power mode that can adjust things like display brightness and background activities if it detects that you're using more battery than you usually do.

• Call Screening - The Phone app can ask a caller for their name and reason for calling, with that information relayed to you before you answer. This might end up being too impersonal for some, but it is an effective way to screen for spam.


• Hold Assist - Hold Assist does what the name suggests. If you're on hold, you can put them on hold too. The ‌iPhone‌ will alert you when someone is back on the line.


• Messages Backgrounds - Backgrounds in Messages conversations can be customized, provided you're chatting with another ‌iPhone‌ user. Every conversation can have a different background, but be warned - changing the background changes it for everyone. Apple needs to add a per-conversation toggle for backgrounds, because right now, it's all or nothing. There may also be instances where someone wants to set a background that's only for themselves, something that's also not an option.


• Messages Copy/Paste - If you've ever wanted to copy just a tracking number, email, or some other part of an iMessage rather than just the entire message, that's finally an option in ‌iOS 26‌.


• AutoMix - AutoMix is an Apple Music feature that transitions from one song to another as the song that's playing ends. It uses time stretching and beat matching for a smooth shift, and it's almost like having an AI DJ in your pocket. It's not great with all genres yet, but it's a feature that ‌Apple Music‌ users are going to love.


• Spatial Scenes - Spatial Scenes adds a little bit of depth to a 2D photo, giving it a more 3D look and feel. If you've ever seen those spatial Facebook images that have a little bit of movement based on depth information, it's a lot like that.


• Apple Maps - Apple Maps can learn your frequent commutes and provide useful information like whether there are any delays that are going to slow you down when you're trying to get to work. Apple also added a Saved Places feature that keeps track of places that you've visited. For some people, that's going to be an unwanted privacy nightmare, but for others, it's a cool way to remember spots you liked and want to visit again. It's totally opt-in.


• Games - There's a Games app, but will people use it? Will it result in any notable uptick in mobile gaming? We've barely touched the app during beta, and it doesn't do anything useful that the App Store app doesn't do. There's a feature for challenging friends to beat your score in a game, but it's limited to a handful of apps right now.

• M4 10-Core/16GB RAM/512GB - $1,399.00 ($200 off)


• M4 10-Core/16GB RAM/1TB - $1,589.00 ($210 off)


• M4 10-Core/24GB RAM/1TB - $1,769.00 ($230 off)


• M4 Pro 12-Core/24GB RAM/512GB - $1,785.00 ($215 off)


• M4 Pro 14-Core/24GB RAM/1TB - $2,138.00 ($261 off)


• M4 Max 14-Core/36GB RAM/1TB - $2,846.00 ($353 off)

• M4 Pro 14-Core/24GB RAM/512GB - $2,234.00 ($265 off)


• M4 Pro 14-Core/48GB RAM/512GB - $2,549.99 ($250 off)


• M4 Max 14-Core/36GB RAM/1TB - $3,099.00 ($400 off)


• M4 Max 16-Core/48GB RAM/1TB - $3,549.00 ($450 off)

You really should keep a portable jump starter in your car. These compact devices have enough power inside to revive a dead battery, allowing you to get home or at least to a safe location. Right now, Gooloo’s powerful GOOLOO GT4000S model is just $99, down from its regular $189 price. That’s 47% off the regular price. I have only seen it this cheap once this year, and it didn’t last long.

It may look relatively unassuming, but this rugged little box has enough juice inside to jumpstart up to a 12-liter gas engine. Unless you’re driving a giant tractor-trailer rig, that’s more than enough to bring your car back to life. The built-in cables easily connect to your car’s battery terminals with easy-to-read color coding. It’s nearly impossible to screw it up.

It charges quickly with a 100-watt charger. So, it’ll go from 0 to 100 percent full in 1.2 hours, or charge it for as little as five minutes and get enough juice into it to jump-start the average car. Once it’s charged, the Gooloo can hold a charge for up to two years, so it doesn’t require much maintenance at all.

Even if you don’t need a jump start, this device can still come in handy. It works as a powerful portable charger that can juice up any device, including an electricity-hungry laptop.

It may not be fun to buy emergency preparedness gear, but this thing may very well save you, especially once the temperatures start dropping this winter.

• GOOLOO GT4000S Jump Starter 4000A Car Jumper Starter Yellow GOOLOO AP150 PRO Tire Inflator $139 (was $254)
• GOOLOO GT4000S Jump Starter Yellow& GOOLOO F1 Jump Starter $139 (was $259)
• GOOLOO GT4000S Jump Starter 4000A Car Jumper Starter (Up to 10L Diesel 12L Gas Engines) & Portable EVA case for GT4000S $145 (was $189)
• GOOLOO GT4000S Jump Starter 4000A Car Jumper Starter (Up to 10L Diesel 12L Gas Engines) & GOOLOO GT150 Tire Inflator Portable Air Compressor $156 (was $259)
• GOOLOO GT4000S Jump Starter & A3 Jump Starter with Air Compressor, 3000A Portable Car Battery Booster (9.0 Gas/6.5L Diesel) with 150PSI Auto-Shutoff Tire Inflator $164 (was $315)
• GOOLOO GT4000S Jump Starter 4000A Car Jumper Starter (Up to 10L Diesel 12L Gas Engines) & Gooloo 100W USB C Charger Block $174 (was $259)

The post Our favorite portable jump starter is just $99 (down from $189) for a limited time appeared first on Popular Science.

In a paper published by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, Michael F. Gorman outlines an argument for a Vehicle Mileage Traveled Tax (VMTT) on freight trucks, which cause a disproportionate amount of damage to roadways. While some states are imposing VMT taxes on private vehicles, public support is low, and Gorman argues that imposing a tax on freight trucks would be a more cost-effective and efficient starting point.

According to the analysis, a VMTT on trucks makes sense because “Trucks create far more pavement damage per vehicle mile than do passenger vehicles, making the VMTT more important for these heavier vehicles. There is already in place extensive tracking of miles traveled by in-cab systems, making the implementation of taxes based on miles driven much easier. There are far fewer large trucks than passenger vehicles, which allows for a far lower administration cost. Thus, the cost of tracking miles is low and the benefit is high by imposing a VMTT on trucks.”

The analysis proposes “an axle-adjusted VMTT of 1 to 13 cents for single-unit trucks and 1 to 19 cents for combination trucks on top of existing taxes to offset the deficit in the Highway Trust Fund.”

The paper concludes, “Current insufficient, inequitable, and poorly incentivized tax structures are leading to behaviors in the trucking industry that threaten the sustainability of the highway (and other road) network. An axle-adjusted VMTT would address many of these inefficiencies and help mitigate the shortfall to ensure the sustainability of the U.S. Interstate network.”

• Highway Trust Fund
• Highways
• Trucks
• Freight
• vmtt
• Vehicle Miles Traveled
• VMT Tax
• Road maintenance

In the wake of violent immigration raids and widespread fear among immigrant communities, transit ridership in Los Angeles dropped in June, reports Joe Linton in Streetsblog LA.

Some ICE kidnappings have taken place on transit - at bus stops, at stations, on buses. Some bus operators have resisted ICE to protect riders, and advocates are pressing transit agencies to formally step this up. But a transit trip never starts and ends on transit. Most bus and rail riders start their trip on foot - traveling L.A. sidewalks exposed to ICE attack.

Notably, Metro’s ridership grew for the 30 months before that. “In June 2025, Metro saw 877,008 average weekday boardings, a 6.6 percent drop from last June's 939,615.”

Metro’s newly expanded K Line saw its highest ridership month in June, but much of this was riders shifting from other lines. According to Linton, “Even with the new connectivity and LAX station - and the highest ridership month in the three years the K Line has been open - ICE's dehumanizing raids significantly depressed ridership across the Metro system.”

• Los Angeles
• Public Transit
• Transit Ridership
• Immigration Enforcement
• Immigration and Customs Enforcement
• Trump 2.0

Most of us only open a PDF to read it, sign something, or make a quick change. So why are people still paying monthly fees for software like Adobe Acrobat just to do basic stuff? If you don’t want to pay more every month just to use one of the most common file formats around, then check out UPDF. It’s a powerful, full-featured PDF editor you can actually own, and right now, a lifetime subscription is on sale for just $47.99 (reg. $149.99).

UPDF harkens back to a time when your software did what it was supposed to do.

It lets you edit text and images, highlight and annotate pages, and convert files to Word, Excel, or PowerPoint without juggling multiple tools. You can even create fillable forms, rearrange pages, and lock files with encryption or password protection. If you work with scanned documents, UPDF’s OCR feature can recognize and convert text in 38 languages, turning images into searchable, editable files in seconds.

It’s also surprisingly easy to use. The interface is clean and modern, so you’re not stuck fumbling through menus like it’s 2006. You’ll find all the essential tools in one place, whether you’re working on a contract, putting together a presentation, or batch processing dozens of pages at once.

UPDF works across all your devices, including Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android, with 2GB of UPDF Cloud storage to keep your documents synced. While some AI tools like document summarization and translation are sold separately, everything you need to handle everyday PDF tasks is included with the one-time payment.

Use code DROP20 to get a UPDF Lifetime Subscription while it’s on sale for $47.99.

StackSocial prices subject to change

_

UPDF – Edit, Convert, AI Chat with PDF: Lifetime Subscription

See Deal

The post In a world of software subscriptions, hidden fees, and price-locked features, this app does something almost unprecedented appeared first on Popular Science.

The forest was dead quiet. My campfire had long burned down to embers. And I was about to turn in when I heard a rustle overhead. Normally, I wouldn’t have seen anything in that kind of pitch-dark; even if I’d grabbed my phone, the flash would have scared off whatever it was. But this time, I had a trick in my pocket: night-vision binoculars.

I switched them on, dialed in the infrared mode, and there it was: an owl! Now, perched on a high branch not 30 feet away, I had a crystal-clear view with digital zoom—and I got a great video. Now that’s what you call camping in the wilderness. Can you believe these digital binoculars only cost me $89.99 on the Popular Science Shop? I saved 43 percent on their usual price!

If I hadn’t had these binoculars, I would’ve missed the entire moment. Your phone’s flashlight isn’t going to help in total darkness, and bright white light usually just alerts wildlife before you even get a chance to focus. But with the 850nm infrared illuminator, these binoculars let you see up to 1,000 feet in complete darkness—and without being noticed.

This gadget also doubles as camera binoculars and lets you take 1080p HD photos and videos. Everything you capture saves directly to a memory card (with 32GB of storage included). So whether you’re catching owls in flight, raccoons sneaking snacks, or just documenting your adventure, you can relive it all later.

They’re surprisingly compact, easy to carry in a daypack or jacket pocket, and they work for everything from camping and night fishing to security and stargazing.

Order a pair of these night-vision binoculars with recording for $89.99 (reg. $159.99).

StackSocial prices subject to change.

_

Mini Digital Night Vision Binoculars with 1080p HD Recording

See Deal

The post I took these night-vision binoculars camping and caught something wild on video appeared first on Popular Science.

This article by Eesha Pendharkar was originally published in Maine Morning Star. It has been shortened by Planetizen.

A bill [Maine House of Representatives Speaker Ryan Fecteau] introduced — LD 1082, which eventually got wrapped into the budget — will increase the real estate transfer tax on properties that sell for more than a million dollars. That increased revenue, which only applies to the portion of the sale that exceeds one million dollars, will then be allocated to a dedicated fund for affordable housing.

LD 1829, another bill Fecteau sponsored, which was ultimately signed into law, makes comprehensive zoning changes to make it easier to build more units on the same lot, and removes some restrictions on the height, density and location of where housing can be built. 

The goal of the newly signed law is to increase smaller developments of two to four units on a lot, or make it easier to build that type of development in order to spur housing production close to existing public infrastructure such as sewer and water systems, for example, so that developers and municipalities don’t have to spend millions of dollars to extend those lines out to more rural areas.

Fecteau, McCollister, and Mitchell also pointed to several other bills that passed this session that will help increase the supply by easing some restrictions on developers. 

One such example is LD 146, sponsored by Sen. Peggy Rotundo (D-Androscoggin). The legislation streamlines the Historic Property Rehabilitation Tax Credit, which encourages private sector investment in the rehabilitation and re-use of historic buildings, by removing timeline barriers that have previously slowed down development projects.

Fecteau highlighted a new law introduced by Rep. Amy Roeder (D-Bangor), LD 427, that reduces the minimum parking requirements to one space per dwelling unit. Until now, some communities required a parking spot for every bedroom in a unit. 

Two successful measures from Rep. Marc Malon also create more opportunities for housing: LD 997, which allows residential construction in commercial zones, and LD 970, which opens up existing structures to be rehabilitated for housing.

• Housing Production
• Housing Costs
• Small Lots
• Tax Credits
• Development Incentives

New York City intersections with traffic signals that give pedestrians a head start saw a 33 percent reduction in fatal and non-fatal injury crashes, according to a study from the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.

As Dan Zukowski explains in Smart Cities Dive, “Leading pedestrian intervals are a low-cost adjustment to signal timing that increases the likelihood of turning drivers yielding to pedestrians and allows slower-moving people an increased margin of safety, according to the Federal Highway Administration.” The change makes a significant impact since most pedestrian-vehicle crashes occur near the curb.

New York City’s leading pedestrian intervals of seven seconds were associated with improved safety at all types of intersections. Other cities that have installed leading pedestrian interval signals include Gainesville, St. Petersburg, and Tampa, Florida, as well as Seattle and Washington, D.C.

• New York City
• Pedestrian Safety
• Leading Pedestrian Interval
• Crosswalks
• Road Safety
• Traffic Safety