Quantcast
Channel: Business Insider
Viewing all 115236 articles
Browse latest View live

6 reasons the Chase Sapphire Reserve’s high annual fee is easy to justify — and why the card is ultimately a better value than Chase's cheaper Sapphire Preferred

0
0

Business Insider may receive a commission from The Points Guy Affiliate Network if you apply for a credit card, but our reporting and recommendations are always independent and objective.

Chase sapphire reserve card

  • The Chase Sapphire Reserve is a fantastic and popular rewards credit cards, but so is its older, less-premium sibling, the Chase Sapphire Preferred.
  • The Reserve has a high annual fee — $450 — that may be off-putting. That compares to the Preferred's lower $95 annual fee
  • However, it's easy to get way more value back from the card in the form of rewards and perks including 3x points on dining and travel, airport lounge access, a $300 annual travel credit, and more.
  • Read on to see the six reasons that the Sapphire Reserve may be better for you. And be sure to check out why the Preferred might be better for you, too.

The Chase Sapphire Reserve made a big splash when it launched in 2016. A beefier follow-up to Chase's popular Sapphire Preferred card — which had been the reigning champ since 2009 — the Reserve managed to generate the kind of hype that's usually reserved for the latest iPhone or Marvel movie, all without any traditional marketing efforts. 

It's easy to see why, though. While the excitement partly surrounded the card's massive, limited-time sign-up bonus of 100,000 points, the millennial-focused card offered excellent perks, rewards, benefits, and value. The value proposition was so good that Chase was able to convince a number of customers to sign-up for the premium card, and pay the premium annual fee of $450.

The sign-up bonus has since dropped to 50,000 points after you spend $4,000 in the first three months, but even so, the card still offers a fantastic value. While some people might be better off with the lower-fee Sapphire Preferred, which offers many similar benefits and a higher sign-up bonus — though with a lower points-earning rate and without the best perks — my view is that as long as you're comfortable paying the $450 annual fee upfront, you'll get significantly more than that back in value. Personally, the Sapphire Reserve is a permanent fixture in my wallet.

Keep reading to see why the Chase Sapphire Reserve might be better for you than the Preferred.

Click here to learn more about the Chase Sapphire Reserve from Business Insider's partner: The Points Guy.

Keep in mind that we're focusing on the rewards and perks that make these two cards great options, not things like interest rates and late fees, which can far outweigh the value of any rewards.

When you're working to earn credit-card rewards, it's important to practice financial discipline, like paying your balances off in full each month, making payments on time, and not spending more than you can afford to pay back. Basically, treat your credit card like a debit card.

1. The annual fee may be $450, but you get $300 back each year — that means the fee is effectively just $150.

Each cardmember year (meaning every 12 months starting the month you open the card), the Sapphire Reserve offers a $300 credit toward travel purchases. The credit will be applied to the first $300 worth of purchases you make that year in the travel category, including things like subways, taxis/ridesharing, and parking, as well as hotels, airfare, and cruises. When you subtract the travel credit, the card's annual fee is effectively just $150.

Compared to the Sapphire Preferred's $95, that's only $55 more. Most people will be able to get enough value from the Reserve to make up for that difference.

2. You'll earn more points on spending than you would with the Preferred.

The Sapphire Reserve offers 3x points on all dining and travel, while the Preferred offers 2x on the same categories. To see whether you're better paying (effectively) $55 more per year for the Reserve, take a look at how much you spend on those two categories to see whether earning more points will make up for the higher fee.

For argument's sake, let's assume you value your points at 1.5 cent each (that's the value of points used to purchase travel through Chase, with a 50% bonus if you hold the Sapphire Reserve — more on that later). That means you would need to earn 3,660 points each year to make up the $55 annual fee difference between the two cards. 

So if you spend at least $3,660 on dining and travel each year, the extra point earned per dollar will add up to the difference in fees and make it worth getting the Sapphire Reserve card. That's without factoring in the other benefits of the card.

Travel is broadly defined, including all of the categories listed above, while dining is similarly broad and includes restaurants, bars, cafés, bakeries, ice cream shops, fast food stands, brewery tap rooms, delivery services like Seamless and Grubhub, and more.

3. You'll have the same great redemption options for your points as you would with the Preferred — with an extra bonus.

As with the Preferred, there are a few ways to redeem your Ultimate Rewards points.

One easy, but low-value, option is to exchange them for cash back, with each point worth 1¢.

You can also use points to purchase travel through Chase.

When you redeem your points for travel through Chase's online or phone booking service, you'll get a 50% bonus on your points, effectively making then worth 1.5¢ each. The Sapphire Preferred only offers a 25% bonus, making points used to purchase travel through Chase worth 1.25¢ instead).

However, a potentially much more valuable way to use points is by transferring them to one of Chase's nine partnering airline frequent flyer programs or four hotel loyalty programs. Both cards have access to the same exact transfer partners.

While this is more complicated, you can generally get more value by booking frequent flyer award tickets than you can by using your points as cash or through Chase. You can even book flights in business or first class for fewer points than it would cost if you used them as cash or through Chase's website to buy the flights. For example, my wife and I used the points from our Chase cards to fly to Japan in first class for our honeymoon. You can read more about why transferable points are so valuable.

4. You'll get access to more than 1,000 airport lounges around the world.

Having access to airport lounges is one of my favorite perks of the Sapphire Reserve. Lounges are comfortable, relaxing, and exclusive areas where you can enjoy comfortable seats, an internet connection, food and drinks — often complimentary — and sometimes other amenities.

The Sapphire Reserve comes with a Priority Pass Select membership. Priority Pass is a network of more than 1,200 airport lounges and airport experiences around the world, any of which you and your travel companions can access for free when you have your membership card. Guests are unlimited with the membership provided by the Sapphire Reserve, so whether you're traveling alone or with your family, you can enjoy free snacks, drinks, newspapers and magazines, showers, and more, all separate from the hustle and bustle of the main terminal.

5. If you don't have Global Entry or TSA PreCheck, the Sapphire Reserve will let you get it — and renew it — for free.

TSA PreCheck and Global Entry (which comes with PreCheck) are absolute musts for just about any traveler. Once you enroll, you can use special lanes to breeze through airport security — you won't have to remove shoes and light coats, and you can leave your laptop in your bag. With Global Entry, you can use a fast lane when you return to the US from abroad, which makes clearing immigration and customs easy and quick. The programs cost $85–$100, and Chase will provide a credit for that fee every four years (memberships are valid for five years).

6. The Sapphire Reserve offers enhanced travel and purchase benefits compared to the Sapphire Preferred.

While both cards offer similar benefits and protections, the Sapphire Reserve's are enhanced in a few ways.

Both cards offer trip delay insurance. If you're traveling by common carrier — airplane, train, ferry, bus, and similar public forms of transportation — and your trip is delayed, you can be covered for up to $500 of expenses, including a change of clothes, hotel room, toiletries, meals, and more. Both cards' trip delay insurance kicks in when the delay forces an overnight stay, or, if you aren't stuck overnight, the Preferred's coverage kicks in after 12 hours, and the Reserve's after six hours.

I've been lucky and haven't been stuck overnight since having either of the cards. However, I've been stuck for more than six, but less than 12 hours before. For instance, last summer my morning flight was delayed by severe storms for about seven hours. Because I booked the tickets with my Sapphire Reserve, I saved my receipts throughout the day and placed a claim when I got back home. Within about eight weeks, I received reimbursement for lunch, a cell phone charger, a backup phone battery, and even a pair of headphones that I needed so that I could do some multimedia work from my laptop in the terminal.

Similarly, both cards offer primary rental car damage/loss coverage, although the Sapphire Reserve's has a higher upper-limit for how much can be covered. The Reserve also offers covers up to $50 for roadside assistance calls four times a year — while the Preferred offers access to roadside assistance, each incident will cost about $60. 

Bottom line:

The Sapphire Reserve is an excellent card, and if you're willing to float that $450 annual fee, and spend enough on dining and travel each year, I think that the Reserve is the better choice.

However, if you aren't comfortable paying that much on your first statement for the annual fee, or if you don't really have a use for benefits like airport lounge access, then the Sapphire Preferred is still a phenomenal card — especially for the lower $95 annual fee, which is waived the first year.

Click here to learn more about the Chase Sapphire Preferred card from Business Insider's partner: The Points Guy.

Click here to learn more about the Chase Sapphire Reserve card from Business Insider's partner: The Points Guy.

SEE ALSO: Here are all the amazing ways you can use the points from your Chase credit card

DON'T MISS: The best credit card rewards, bonuses, and benefits of 2019

Join the conversation about this story »


5 startups that are fundamentally changing the way we think about food

0
0

Insider Picks writes about products and services to help you navigate when shopping online. Insider Inc. receives a commission from our affiliate partners when you buy through our links, but our reporting and recommendations are always independent and objective.

imperfect

  • As consumer tastes and trends change, food companies have to react in order to stay relevant. 
  • Consumers are becoming more discerning about where they spend their money and increasingly distrusting of major food brands, making it an opportune time for nimble startups to make their mark on the industry. 
  • Below, you'll find five startups that are challenging the food industry as we know it by championing transparency, efficiency, and sustainability, and redefining the way we think about food in the process.

The food industry is evolving. Gone are the days where the only way to get groceries was to take a trip to the store and when a burger was only made with beef.

As consumers demand more transparent, convenient, and efficient ways to shop for, cook, and eat food, players in the food industry have had to innovate to keep up. And innovating they are.

From taking the pain points out of grocery shopping to finding sustainable replacements for some of our favorite foods, startups like Instacart and Beyond Meat tell us the industry is anything but stagnant. Whether their mission is to maximize efficiency and convenience for their customers, or to lessen the impact of our food system on the environment, these food startups are shaking up the way we think about food — and the way we eat it, too. 

Even in the food industry trends come and go, but these startups are redefining the ways we think about food, and we think they'll be doing so for a while. 

Beyond Meat

Shop plant-based burgers, sausages, and more from Beyond Meat

What they're doing: bringing plant-based meat substitutes to the masses.

How they're doing it: Plant-based eating is becoming increasingly popular for myriad reasons — namely animal welfare, environmental sustainability, and personal health. Today, a plant-based meal doesn't have to be restricted to tofu and broccoli because brands like Beyond Meat are reinventing the way we eat our proteins. You've probably heard of them before as the startup responsible for the vegan burgers that look, feel, and even "bleed" like the real deal.

Instead of remaking another simple veggie burger with grains and beans, Beyond Meat uses a variety of plant-based ingredients to mimic everything about meat, from its taste to its texture and look. You can find Beyond Meat burgers, sausages, and other plant-based meat substitutes at grocery stores like Whole Foods, and whipped up into dishes at popular fast food chains like Del Taco and Carl's Jr.

Beyond Meat recently went public with what could only be called an explosive IPO, signaling that maybe meatless meat is here to stay. 

Buy Beyond Meat products at Amazon



Imperfect Produce

Sign up to get fruit and veggies for less from Imperfect Produce

What they're doing: finding better ways to use produce that would end up going to waste. 

How they're doing it: Almost 40% of all of the food produced in the US goes uneaten. Food waste is an epidemic, with billions of pounds of fresh produce going to waste annually at every level of the supply chain. Imperfect Produce wants to change that number, so they're addressing the 20 billion pounds of perfectly good produce that are wasted on American farms each year. 

There are plenty of reasons that produce ends up going to waste— most of the time it's simply cosmetic, and retail stores don't want to put bruised or misshapen food on their shelves. In reality, this produce is just as good as any of its counterparts that make it to the grocery store. That's why Imperfect Produce partners with farmers and producers around the country, buys their unloved produce, and delivers it to consumers at a price that's about 30% less than the grocery stores. You can customize your box to pick the produce items you want to receive each week, or opt for a surprise box curated by Imperfect Produce. It's a win for farmers, your wallet and the environment. 

Get fresh produce for less from Imperfect Produce



Instacart

Get groceries delivered fast by Instacart 

What they're doing: Making grocery shopping more convenient and efficient. 

How they're doing it: You either love grocery shopping or you hate it. Some of us could spend hours wandering the frozen foods aisle, while others just want to get what they need and get out. If you're the latter — or have too many errands to run for one day — Instacart will be your favorite service. Instacart lets you do all of your grocery shopping online, from the comfort of your couch or from your smartphone while you're on the go, and will deliver everything to you that same day. 

All you have to do is make an account on Instacart (don't worry, it's free) and browse the grocery stores in your area. Pick a store, and then shop for your groceries as you would shop for anything else online — simply add whatever groceries you want to your cart. When you're done shopping, check out and choose a delivery window — this is when your food will be delivered right to your door. You'll likely have to pay a delivery fee (these vary by store), but if you're trying to save some time, Instacart will make getting your groceries seriously more efficient. 

Sign up for Instacart and get your groceries delivered here



Blue Apron

Try cooking something new with a Blue Apron meal kit

What they're doing: Taking the pain points out of home cooking for a seamless experience. 

How they're doing it: Cooking is fun, but planning recipes, grocery shopping, and prepping ingredients can be tedious and time consuming. Meal kits have taken all of the stress and planning out of home-cooked meals, so you can focus on the actual cooking part. Blue Apron is a well-known meal kit service that delivers everything you need for a home-made dinner right to your door. Open up your box and you'll find easy-to-follow recipes, neatly packaged and perfectly portioned ingredients, and even wine pairing suggestions

While there are now many meal kit services out there, Blue Apron is an easy choice for chefs of all levels, and all kinds of eaters. The dishes are simple to cook, but creative in flavor, and often include unique ingredients that can be hard to find in stores — like saffron and fregola sarda. Whether you're a seasoned home cook who wants to bypass grocery shopping, or an amateur chef who wants to learn some new cooking techniques, a meal kit like Blue Apron could help you rethink how you do dinner. 

Try a Blue Apron meal kit here



ButcherBox

Get a box of grass-fed meats from ButcherBox

What they're doing: Making high-quality meats accessible to consumers all over the country. 

How they're doing it: There's a trend towards conscious consumerism, and it extends beyond the retail industry. When it comes to food, shoppers want more than just labels. They also want to know where their food comes from. When it comes to meat, there is a lot to consider: Is it grass-fed? Organic? How were the animals treated? Most of the time, you can't glean any of this information when you pick up meat at the grocery store. For consumers who want transparency and high-quality cuts, but may not have access to a great local butcher, there's ButcherBox. 

ButcherBox curates boxes of grass-fed, antibiotic- and hormone-free, humanely-raised beef, chicken, and pork, and delivers them right to your door. The brand is all about ethical sourcing — you can find even more in-depth information on how their meats are raised and processed on the site.

These high standards are reflected in taste, everything from ButcherBox is "considerably juicier and more tender than the average cuts [you'd] get from the market" notes Insider Picks reporter, Connie Chen, who tested the service for herself. The cheapest ButcherBox offering is $129 for a box that contains eight to 11 pounds of meat and the most expensive is $270 for a custom box filled with between 18 to 26 pounds of proteins. While these prices may be higher than what you'd traditionally find in the super market, you're paying for quality, transparency, and convenience. ButcherBox is making sure everyone has access to meat that is better for their bodies, the animals, and the environment — regardless of where they live.

Sign up for a curated box of meats from Butcherbox here



9 must-have tools that will change the way you browse the internet through Google Chrome

0
0

FILE PHOTO: An illuminated Google logo is seen inside an office building in Zurich, Switzerland December 5, 2018. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo

  • There are plenty of software extensions available in Google's Chrome Web Store that can improve the web browsing experience, save you money shopping, and generally make life easier.
  • These include tools that automatically dig up coupon codes when you're shopping online to password managers that log into websites for you.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Google's Chrome browser is already wildly popular. After all, it claimed 62.7% of the worldwide market share for web browser usage over the past 12 months as of May 2019 according to StatCounter's Global Stats, which is based on aggregate data collected from a sample of more than 10 billion page views per month across more than two million websites. That puts it far ahead of rivals like Apple's Safari and Mozilla's Firefox.

But even so, there's still room for improvement. Google's Chrome Web Store offers plenty of extensions that can make the web-browsing experience easier and more convenient. Extensions are almost like apps for your web browser; they're small programs that run within the Chrome browser that allow you to customize how Chrome works and add new features.

From improving Chrome's performance when you've got too many tabs open to making better use of your next blank tab, here are nine of our favorite Google Chrome extensions.

Google Arts & Culture

The blank page that appears when opening a new tab in Chrome can feel like a waste of space. That's why there are several extensions available to help you make better use of this screen real estate, one of our favorites being Google Arts & Culture. This extension displays beautiful works of art in your browser whenever you open a new tab.  The selections range from Van Gogh to Monet to more contemporary artists as well. 



Session Buddy

If you frequently find yourself struggling with slow performance after opening dozens of tabs in Chrome, try using Session Buddy. This extension manages your browsing sessions so that you can save open tabs and easily find them later, saving Chrome from eating up too much memory and bogging down performance.

But what really makes Session Buddy helpful is the way it enables you to group tabs under specific categories. That makes it easy to find all the tabs relevant to a given topic, whether it's research for a school-related assignment or planning for your next vacation. 



Download Manager

Finding recent downloads isn't always the best experience in Chrome. Download Manager gives you a dedicated space for content you've downloaded from the internet, replacing the standard downloads bar in Chrome. You can also pause, resume, and cancel downloads currently in progress through this tool. 



The Great Suspender

The Great Suspender is another useful extension for intelligently managing your currently open tabs. The extension suspends tabs that haven't been used after a certain period of time to reduce the amount of memory Chrome uses, therefore boosting performance. If there are websites you'd prefer not to suspend, you can also choose to whitelist those URLs. 



Honey

Everyone likes to save money, and Honey makes it easy to do so. The extension automatically digs up coupon codes and applies the discounts to your shopping cart when you check out. And if you're shopping on Amazon, it will offer price history charts and sales alerts. 



Grammarly

Typos can sully even the most well-written emails and social media posts, which is why Grammarly can come in handy. Grammarly checks for spelling errors and grammatical mistakes on Gmail, Facebook, and LinkedIn among other websites. 



LastPass

Managing the dozens of passwords you probably have for different services and accounts can be a daunting task, and re-using the same password for multiple services is never a good idea. But password managers like LastPass make this much easier by doing all the remembering for you. LastPass stores your passwords and automatically logs you into websites as you're browsing the web. Just make sure you remember your master password, and LastPass will take care of the rest. 



Google Dictionary

The Google Dictionary extension for Chrome will save you the trouble of opening a new tab and navigating to a website like Dictionary.com to look up definitions. Once the extension is installed, you can just click the dictionary icon to find the full definition of any word without interrupting your current task. Google Dictionary also offers the option to store words that you look up so that you can more easily remember them.



Papier

Like Google Arts & Culture, Papier is another extension that seeks to help you make better use of your blank open tab in Chrome. Papier turns your new tab into a notepad, which can be especially useful if you want to quickly jot down an idea or a reminder without having to open a Google Doc or a similar word processor. 



How to hide the camera notch on a Samsung Galaxy S10, by adjusting your screen or downloading a custom wallpaper

0
0

notch 3

  • If you find the Samsung Galaxy S10's camera notch unappealing or distracting, you can hide the notch by turning on a digital black bar that goes across the top of your screen.
  • You can enable this black bar in the Display section of the Galaxy S10's Settings app.
  • If you prefer not to turn on the black bar, you can also download specially designed wallpapers that disguise the Galaxy S10's notch whenever you're on the Home screen.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Ever since Apple released the iPhone X with its infamous notch, other phone makers have been jumping onto the notch bandwagon as well. And for better or worse, the Samsung Galaxy S10 (as well as its siblings like the Galaxy S10 Plus) has its own cut-out for its front-facing cameras.

You may not mind the Galaxy S10's small notch, which looks like a small black oval near the top right of the screen, but if it bothers you, Samsung provides an easy way to hide it. You can turn on a digital black bar that covers the top of the screen, rendering the notch essentially invisible.

The downside: you lose a little real estate from the screen, and it looks like an asymmetric bezel, which might be a case of the cure being worse than the disease. If you want to give it a try, though, here's how to do it.

notch 1

How to hide the camera notch on a Samsung Galaxy S10

1. Start the Settings app.

2. Tap "Display."

3. Tap "Full screen apps."

notch 2

4. Turn on "Hide front camera" by sliding the button to the right.

notch 3

How to hide the camera notch on a Galaxy S10 with wallpaper

If you don't want to turn on the black bar, you have another option as well: You can install a custom wallpaper that's been specially designed to disguise the notch.

Of course, this fix isn't perfect, as it only works on the Home screen, where the wallpaper appears. You'll still see the notch in apps. But if you want to give it a try, a popular source for notch-hiding wallpaper is the S10wallpapers subreddit.

1. Open the S10wallpapers subreddit in your Galaxy S10's browser.

2. Browse until you find a wallpaper you want to try. There are a lot of options from movies like "Star Wars," popular games, and TV shows. Be sure you choose a wallpaper for the right phone though, as each wallpaper is designed for a specific model of the S10, and a wallpaper for the S10 won't line up properly on the S10 Plus, or vice-versa.

3. Tap the image so it displays full screen.

4. Tap and hold the image until a menu appears, then tap "Download image."

notch 4

5. After you've downloaded the image to your phone, open the Settings app.

6. Tap "Wallpapers and themes."

7. In the "My wallpapers" section at the top of the page, tap "Gallery."

8. Choose the image you just downloaded from Reddit and then choose whether you want it to appear on the homescreen or the Home and Lock screens.

9. Tap "Set as wallpaper."

notch 5

Related coverage from How To Do Everything: Tech:

SEE ALSO: The best cheap phones you can buy unlocked on Amazon

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here's why it's so hard to switch from Apple to Android

Take a look inside the $5,000-a-month San Francisco apartment that Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes reportedly once called home with her now-husband, Billy Evans

0
0

Elizabeth Holmes

Little has been heard recently from Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of the failed blood-testing startup Theranos who could face up to the next two decades in jail.

The former CEO has kept a low profile and tried to maintain a private life as she waits to stand trial on federal charges of fraud. Despite her attempts, snippets of her personal life have emerged.

It was recently reported that Holmes secretly got married to a 27-year-old MIT grad named Billy Evans, the heir to a chain of hotels in California. Vanity Fair reported in February that the two, who met back in 2017, were living in a luxury apartment in San Francisco with their Siberian husky.

Now that apartment is available to rent, according to CNBC. Holmes and Evans reportedly moved out of the unit in April.

Take a look inside the $5,000-a-month apartment that Holmes and her fiancé reportedly once called home.

SEE ALSO: Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes reportedly got married in secret to hotel-heir Billy Evans

Even after Holmes' Theranos officially shut down in late 2018, the former CEO couldn't leave Silicon Valley as she waited to stand trial on federal fraud charges.

Holmes and Evans were spotted around San Francisco, fueling reports that the couple was living together in a luxury apartment.

Source: Business Insider



According to CNBC, Holmes and Evans were living at 1340 Lombard St., in San Francisco's Russian Hill neighborhood.

Airbnb describes Russian Hill as "an intimate neighborhood more likely to host wine tours than bar crawls," characterized by hidden stairways and cable cars.

Source: CNBC



Their former apartment is just a few blocks from one of San Francisco's top tourist attractions, the famously crooked block of Lombard Street.

Dubbed the "crookedest street in the world," Lombard Street attracts more than two million visitors a year.



The apartment is part of Lombard Place Apartments, a complex of three identical seven-story buildings.

The apartment buildings are composed of studio, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom units.

Source: CNBC



The website for Lombard Place Apartments describes the complex as a "picture-perfect place to call home" with "panoramic views" and "tons of personality."

The marketing slogan for Lombard Place Apartments: "Iconic charm. Modern living."

Source: Lombard Place Apartments



The complex is also pet-friendly, which meant Holmes and Evans could live there with their Siberian husky, Balto. The dog reportedly served as the unofficial mascot for Theranos during the company's final days.

Balto apparently wasn't potty-trained and was allowed to roam and go to the bathroom wherever he wanted inside the company's headquarters.

Sources: Lombard Place Apartments, Business Insider



Lombard Place Apartments are situated atop one of San Francisco's many hills, affording the units a great view of the iconic Golden Gate Bridge.

This view over the San Francisco Bay also includes city landmarks like Alcatraz Island and Coit Tower.

Source: Lombard Place Apartments



The apartment that Holmes and Evans reportedly called home was a two-bedroom, two-bathroom unit on the third floor.

Fortunately, the building has an elevator, saving the couple from having to walk up flights of stairs.

Source: Rent SF Now



CNBC reported that the hallways are lined with "dark brown, mosaic carpeting, and white apartment doors featuring gold doorknobs."

CNBC tried to interview residents in the Lombard Place complex that were neighbors to Holmes, but many declined to speak to reporters.

Source: CNBC



"Your home is the backdrop of your life, and the Lombard Place Apartments set the scene for beautiful Russian Hill living," the apartment listing reads. "Sun soaked, light, bright, and airy, they feature top-of-the-world views and expansive interiors."

However, the apartment's entry area and kitchen don't exactly look "expansive" as advertised.

Source: Rent SF Now



The apartment features a relatively small kitchen with minimal counter space, which would make navigating the area difficult for an activity like a couple trying to make dinner together.

According to the listing, the kitchen comes with a refrigerator, a gas range, and a dishwasher.

Source: Rent SF Now



Past the kitchen is the first of the apartment's two spacious rooms.

The entire apartment is covered in hardwood flooring.

Source: Rent SF Now



Both rooms have numerous windows to bring natural light into the unit.

It seems from this room, however, that these large windows just gave Holmes and her fiancé a wide view of the apartment complex next door.

Source: Rent SF Now



The two bathrooms in the apartment look similar to each other.

They're pretty standard, each with a toilet, a sink and mirror, and a tiled shower.

Source: Rent SF Now



The second bedroom in the apartment is bigger than the first, with double the windows for even more natural light and expansive views of San Francisco.

This room offers a much better view of the San Francisco Bay than the first bedroom.

Source: Rent SF Now



CNBC said the couple had a corner unit in the building, which offered them some of the best views of anyone else in the complex.

And because their neighborhood is atop a hill, living on the third floor likely meant the view was uninhibited by any other tall buildings in their line of sight.

Source: CNBC, Rent SF Now



The bedrooms are connected by a set of french doors.

Likely, Holmes and Evans converted one of the bedrooms into a living or dining space.



The apartment has a washer-dryer, saving trips to a nearby laundromat.

Having an in-unit laundry system is a coveted amenity for many apartments.



The apartment is now available, so it could be yours — for $5,395 a month.

In case you're interested, the leasing agent is holding an open house to see the unit on Wednesday from 6 to 6:30 p.m.



The Ford Ranger is an excellent midsize pickup truck — here are its best features (F)

0
0

Ford Ranger

  • The 2019 Ford Ranger is the Blue Oval's return to the midsize-pickup-truck market in the US.
  • The segment is quite large. Folks who enjoy what pickups can do, such as hauling around mountain bikes and going on Home Depot runs, but don't want an F-150 or a Silverado in the driveway.
  • The 2019 Lariat SuperCrew four-wheel-drive Ranger I recently tested was nicely equipped and cost almost $45,000. But it was loaded with great features.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

At Business Insider, we avidly anticipated the new Ford Ranger, which is actually a built-in-America version of a global pickup that Ford has been selling outside the US. The Blue Oval is already super-strong in full-size trucks — can you say "F-150"? — and back in the day, the Ranger was a popular starter pickup.

In 2019, the entire pickup-truck market is driving US sales, and the midsize offerings are much improved over the little pickups that used to cover this segment. They're really more like shrunken-down full-sizers, and where Chevy (as well as GMC, with the Canyon) and Ford are concerned, the idea is to offer a solid hauler that's simply more compact than a big boy.

We've sampled pretty much everything the market has to offer on this front, so a key question was, "What does Ford bring to the party with the new Ranger?"

The answer is a great truck, with some great features.

FOLLOW US: On Facebook for more car and transportation content!

In May, I checked out the impressive 2019 Lariat SuperCrew four-wheel-drive Ranger, nicely equipped and stickering at almost $45,000. The base-price pickup is a little more than $24,000. I couldn't find much to complain about. And I found lots to like.

Read the review »



1. The Ranger's design. The styling of this midsize truck isn't wild or radical. But it is solid, and my tester looked sharp in "Lightning Blue."



2. The "Ranger" call-out across the liftgate. This is a cool thing, as well as a throwback to day when pickups proudly announced themselves to whomever might be in the rearview mirror.



3. The versatile, lined short-box and bed. The SuperCrew configuration that I tested sported a 5-foot bed, but the Ranger can be had with a two-door cab and a 6-foot bed. I used the Ranger for both a run to Costco and to transport some furniture about 120 miles.



4. The 2.3-liter EcoBoost four-cylinder engine is a turbocharged power plant that cranks out 275 horsepower and 310 pound-feet of torque. Towing capacity is 7,500 pounds — enough to tow just about anything owners of the Ranger would want to.



5. Superb ground clearance. With hefty off-road tires, the Ranger is prepared to leave the pavement.



6. Serious four-wheel-drive. The Ranger boasts a solid 4x4 system — FX4 — with a locking differential. The package adds another grand or so to the price.



7. A no-nonsense, easy-to-care for interior. The Ranger's cabin is comfortable and well-appointed, but far from fussy.



8. The smooth-shifting 10-speed transmission. Combined with the turbocharged engine, this powertrain yields 20 mpg city, 24 highway, and 22 combined.



9. Ford's Sync 3 infotainment system. In the Ranger, it runs on an 8-inch touchscreen. Sync 3 is one of the best in the industry. It provides superb navigation, easy Bluetooth connectivity, and AUX and USB device-connection options.

Sync 3 also offers a suite of apps and has both CarPlay and Android Auto available. And the 10-speaker Bang & Olufsen audio system in my test truck is a terrific extra. It sounds too good for a truck this small!



10. The old-school parking brake!



What a truck!

In my review, I wrote that "Ranger is a winner."

I added, "It's going to compare favorably with the Chevy Colorado and provide a much nicer package than the Toyota Tacoma (although the Tacoma is noted for its toughness, so the new Ranger should require some time to distinguish itself on that front)."

The Ranger has been available outside the US for a while, but with its return to our shores, Ford made sure to outfit the pickup with a nice range of appealing features.



How to use 'Wireless PowerShare' on a Samsung Galaxy S10, turning the phone into a wireless-charging pad for other devices

0
0

powershare 3

  • Wireless PowerShare is a new feature from Samsung that lets you charge a device (like earbuds, a smart watch, or another phone) wirelessly using a Samsung Galaxy S10.
  • In order to use Wireless Powershare on a Galaxy S10, the second device you're looking to charge needs to support the common Qi wireless charging standard.
  • You can turn on Wireless PowerShare from the Galaxy S10's quick settings and then align the two devices back-to-back so their charging coils are lined up.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

It's rare that smartphones wow us with truly innovative features anymore, but Samsung's Galaxy S10 actually does just that. Wireless PowerShare turns your S10 into a wireless charger, making it able to charge other wireless devices with its considerable battery capacity.

Your Galaxy S10 can charge wireless earbuds, smartwatches, another Samsung phone… even an Apple iPhone.

The only requirement is that the device you want to charge using your S10 has to be compatible with the Qi wireless charging standard (and most devices that charge wirelessly do use the Qi format).

How to use Wireless PowerShare on a Samsung Galaxy S10 to charge another device

1. Swipe down from the top of the screen to see the notifications and quick settings.

2. Swipe down a second time to see all your quick settings.

3. Tap "Wireless PowerShare."

powershare 1

4. You should now see the Wireless PowerShare screen appear with the message, "Ready to Charge."

powershare 2

5. Position the Galaxy S10 and the device you want to charge back-to-back, so the charging coils on the two devices are aligned with one another. You might need to experiment a little to find the right position to get the charging coils lined up properly.

powershare 3

6. As soon as the two devices are properly aligned, the Wireless PowerShare screen will briefly display the message "Charging," and then the screen will close. You should also see an indication on the other device that it is charging.

7. Leave the two devices to charge as long as needed. When you've charged the other device sufficiently, separate them. The Wireless PowerShare screen should reappear; tap "Cancel" to turn off wireless charging.

You can also charge your Galaxy S10 while using it to charge another device — plug the S10 into a USB charging cable, turn on Wireless PowerShare, and align the devices. In this "dual-charging" mode, you can use the Galaxy S10 to charge another device while actively charging the S10 at the same time.

Related coverage from How To Do Everything: Tech:

SEE ALSO: The best cheap phones you can buy unlocked on Amazon

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Facebook's scandals weren't enough for people to stop using it. Here's how the company has held up through data hacks, lawsuits, and massive security threats.

I use Chewy to regularly save up to 10% on pet supplies — it's even known to send personalized pet portraits as a surprise

0
0

Insider Picks writes about products and services to help you navigate when shopping online. Insider Inc. receives a commission from our affiliate partners when you buy through our links, but our reporting and recommendations are always independent and objective.

Chewy.com

  • Chewy is an online pet retailer that carries over 1,000 preferred pet-related brands and delivers right to your front door.
  • A key feature is autoship, which allows you to create automatic recurring orders while saving 5-10% on select brands.
  • There is no membership fee or hidden fees related to your Chewy account. 
  • Its customer service is available 24/7, 365 days a year. On top of that, Chewy is known to send its customers personalized gifts like a portrait of their pet.
  • Free shipping is offered on orders over $49.

I know I speak on behalf of every pet owner when I say that our pets are members of the family. They have specialized food they eat, treats they snack on, and a bed (ok, ok — multiple beds) they sleep on at night. Having a pet is equivalent to caring for a child who has needs, likes, and dislikes that are specific to them.

Owning a pet came with a lot of responsibilities. That meant monthly, even weekly, trips to the pet store and lugging home a 20-pound bag of dry food, but that didn't mean caring for my pet had to be back-breaking and time-consuming. I needed to find an online market that specialized specifically in pet supplies. That's when I heard about Chewy.

What Chewy is:

Founded in 2011, Chewy is an online hub where you can purchase animal supplies for your furry friend from the comfort of your home. It's basically Amazon for pets where you can easily browse over 1,000 quality and highly-rated brands, making finding what your pet loves easier than ever.

They offer a buyer-friendly autoship service that saves you 30% on your first autoship order, and then 5-10% on select brands for subsequent recurring orders. Chewy has already congregated a list of brands for easy savings. On top of that, shipping is free for orders over $49, or just pay a flat rate of $4.95.

If you and your best friend are just looking to try something new, the site lists hundreds of shopper reviews so you'll always get an honest opinion. This feature was especially helpful when I was looking for a supplement to help my old boy's joints in his senior years. 

How it works:

When you go to Chewy's online site, there will be an account creation tab — which is 100% free — where you list not only your information, but your pet's as well.

It's important to do this first for a couple of reasons: You can't checkout without an account and Chewy uses this to customize your shopping experience. It will ask you a few simple questions like what is your pet's name, birthday, and breed, plus some optional questions regarding their weight, allergies, pre-existing conditions, and medications. It also gives you the option to upload your pet's photo — trust me you're going to want to do this. After that, you're free to shop!

The browsing tab on Chewy is first broken down by animal type, then by subcategories like food, toys, and supplies. Other than your basic pet needs, Chewy carries preventative care and prescription medications as well. The company isn't focused on just cat and dog owners either; it offers thousands of products for every type of pet like birds, fish, horses, reptiles, rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, and more! Just add your product to the cart, checkout, and wait one to two days for delivery.

48968176_2244404075610874_2604376427792957440_o

Key site features:

As mentioned above, Chewy provides exclusive savings to customers who enable the autoship feature. Meaning, you can create a custom recurring order for products your pet uses frequently, like food and treats. Chewy offers a 30% discount when you set up autoship, and then 5-10% off recurring orders from 30 select brands like Blue Buffalo, Greenies, World's Best Cat Litter, the Honest Kitchen, and more.

In this day and age convenience is key. Just like us humans, our pets require a lot of food and supplies to live a fur-tastic life, so you'll always know that they're taken care of. Chewy understands that their needs change throughout their life, so altering and canceling autoship orders is as simple as one click. It just asks that you make the necessary changes at least 24 hours before your scheduled order date.

In addition to the convenient shopping and shipping features, Chewy has created a handful of "Watch and Learn" video tutorials that can be found at the bottom of the homepage. These videos cover topics like transitioning your pet from wet to dry food, how to prevent ticks and fleas, and how to keep your pet from getting bored of their food. These videos were helpful for me when my dog needed medication in his older years. It left me feeling comfortable and confident that I was taking care of him the best way possible.

Customer service:

The best aspect of Chewy hands down is its customer service. Employees at Chewy pride themselves on how they handle their two-legged and four-legged customers. Their website states: "Our success is measured by the happiness of the people and pets we serve, not simply by the amount of pet supplies we deliver." Standing true to its mission statement, Chewy offers 24/7 live support via phone, email, or chat all year round. 

It also boasts a 100% Unconditional Satisfaction Guarantee Policy on every order. Your pet doesn't love their new treats? You're not happy with the bed you ordered? No problem. Your money is returned to you, or customer service will figure out a way to fix the problem. 

Besides setting the standard in customer service for order-related issues, in my experience and from what I've also heard from friends and family, Chewy truly goes above and beyond to make sure their customers feel appreciated and valued.

Remember that photo I told you to upload? Well, Chewy uses that photo to create a custom painted portrait of your pet. My coworker had an issue with his food delivery, and a week later had a custom portrait of his cat was on his doorstep. While Chewy can't send everyone a custom portrait, they do use those photos to surprise their customer's pets at random, which is truly something special. 

I can't stress enough how A++ the customer service team is. Many of my family members also rely on Chewy for their pet supplies. When a family member of mine canceled their recurring order because their beloved dog crossed over the rainbow bridge, Chewy sent a fresh bouquet of flowers and a handwritten note to their house within days of the cancelation. If that doesn't show how deeply Chewy cares for all of its customers, then I don't know what does. 

People at Chewy

Pros:

If I haven't already convinced you to give Chewy a try, here is an overview of the website's pros:

  • No membership fee 
  • 24/7 customer support, 365 days a year
  • Save 5-10% on brands you love when you enable autoship 
  • Honest reviews from real shoppers
  • Free shipping over $49
  • 100% Unconditional Satisfaction Guarantee Policy (meaning full refunds) 
  • Never have to remember to run to the pet store again

Cons:

Not everything about Chewy is perfect, so here are some potential cons:

  • Cannot ship to a P.O. Box address
  • Cannot ship internationally
  • There are shipping costs on low-priced orders 
  • Maximum discount of $20 with 30% off your first autoship order 
  • Prescriptions can not be returned or exchanged (exchanges possible if the prescription is damaged or incorrect)

Bottom line:

Chewy is THE one-stop-shop for all of your pet supplies. It takes the ease and appeal of the online-shopping giant Amazon and translates it to something along the lines of Prime for Pets. With over 1,000 brands to choose from, it's worth your time to grab your laptop — and your pet — and check out Chewy.

Shop Chewy for all of your pet supplies

Learn what brands offer 5-10% in savings on autoship orders

SEE ALSO: I tested The Farmer’s Dog, a meal plan service that sends your dog fresh food for as little as $3 a day — here's what it's like

Join the conversation about this story »


A legendary venture capitalist who made early investments in Twitter and Skype explains why he turned down Netflix — and what he learned from it

0
0

tim draper

No investment decision haunts legendary venture capitalist Tim Draper like his choice to turn down the opportunity to become an early investor in Netflix. 

In a recent segment of Entrepreneur's The Playbook, the 61-year-old investor said he initially didn't understand why Netflix CEO and cofounder Reed Hastings wanted to start out mailing DVDs to customers when the technology for streaming was only a few years away. 

"[Hastings] said, 'They aren't ready for that yet,'" Draper told Entrepreneur. "I went, 'Yeah, why don't I just wait for that?' Huge mistake. Enormous mistake."

Draper's hesitancy to invest in Netflix is part of a larger trend in his investment decisions, he told Entrepreneur.

"My failures tended to be failures to act," Draper said. "Those are the ones that really kill me."

Read more: A billionaire venture capitalist who made early investments in Twitter and Skype says there's a single question he asks himself when deciding which companies to invest in

Business Insider's Lydia Ramsey previously reported that another top venture capitalist, Annie Lamont of Oak HC/FT, advised that VCs make the best investment decisions when they focus on startups in one industry. 

"In any industry, particularly in venture, have your lane — have something you know better than anybody else," Lamont said. "You've got to pick your spot. So I picked my spot, and that was going to be healthcare."

While many of Draper's investments are in technology, he has also invested $500,000 in fraudulent blood-testing startup Theranos and Bitcoin. He lost $250,000 in his first investment in Bitcoin before making over 40 more successful cryptocurrency investments that are now worth between $350 million and $500 million, according to Forbes.

While Draper admitted to Entrepreneur that he has made numerous mistakes as an investor, his biggest regret is still not taking a chance on Netflix.

"That one that really irks me because it was completely my fault," Draper said. 

SEE ALSO: 5 Hollywood celebrities who became billionaires and are vastly more rich than their peers

DON'T MISS: A top VC who's spent 3 decades investing in healthcare shares her best piece of advice for investors

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: How $100,000 custom pool tables are made for celebrities like Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift

Wayfair's summer sale is happening now — here are 21 of the best deals on furniture and decor

0
0

Insider Picks writes about products and services to help you navigate when shopping online. Insider, Inc. receives a commission from our affiliate partners when you buy through our links, but our reporting and recommendations are always independent and objective.

Wafair 72 hour clearance sale

Wayfair always has great discounts, but now through June 18, it's having a huge sale with significant additional markdowns on categories like outdoor furniture, home decor, bedding, bathroom vanities, and more.

For 72 hours only, you can save up to 70% off all things home, now through June 18.

We've rounded up 21 great deals featured in the 72-hour Wayfair clearance event, but if you'd rather browse through each category yourself, you can find each major sale listed below:

Wayfair 72 hour event

You can shop the full Wayfair 72-hour clearance sale here, while the list below features the most noteworthy deals:

Join the conversation about this story »

This $10 dry-cleaning kit has saved me tons of money and trips to the dry cleaner

0
0

Insider Picks writes about products and services to help you navigate when shopping online. Insider Inc. receives a commission from our affiliate partners when you buy through our links, but our reporting and recommendations are always independent and objective.

71ygBNkHf1L._SL1500_

  • Special-care clothing, particularly pieces with a "dry-clean only" label, can be a pain to take care of. Trips to the dry cleaner can be inconvenient and expensive.
  • To extend the life of my special care clothing, I use the Dryel at-home dry-cleaning kit ($9.99).
  • It's an affordable way to keep your special-care garments in great condition and it couldn't be easier to use. Plus, it has saved me tons of money and trips to the dry cleaner over the years.
  • While the kit works wonders on denim, wool, and cashmere, it's worth noting that it can be damaging to certain fabrics like leather, velvet, and silk. 

Is it just me or does anyone else's heart drop a bit when you find an amazing clothing item just to inspect it and find "dry-clean only" inscribed on the tag?

Let's face it: dry cleaning is kind of a pain. Living in New York City, where a laundromat sits on just about every corner, it's not so bad — but getting your clothes dry cleaned can be pricey, and if you have multiple pieces it can add up quickly. If you want to keep your clothes in good condition, though, there's really nothing you can do  — you just have to suck it up, put down those extra dollars, carve out some extra time to head to the laundromat, or incessantly google how long your clothes can last without a wash. At least, that's what I thought until my mother introduced me to this very simple solution (thanks, mom). 

The Dryel at-home dry-cleaner kit does just what it says — it works to clean your special care pieces from the comfort of your own home.

The starter kit comes with everything you need to complete the cleaning process; a garment bag, booster spray, and the patented "ultracleaning" cloth. It's a three-step process that truly couldn't be easier to use.

How to use the kit

Step 1:

Place your garments (up to five) and one ultracleaning cloth into the reusable bag. If any of the pieces are stained or particularly dirty, pre-treat them with the included booster spray before placing in bag.

Step 2:

Put the bag in the dryer and tumble on medium heat for 15 minutes for a quick refresh. If you're looking for a deeper clean, tumble on medium heat for 30 minutes instead. 

Step 3:

Hang your garments so they are wrinkle-free. The end!

How it actually works

You may be wondering if this is some sort of laundry machine magic, but there's actually a very simple explanation. Dryel's ultracleaning cloths are concentrated with a heat-activated cleaning solution that, when met with the heat of your dryer, is released as a steam that penetrates fabric to remove stains and odors. The garment bag protects your special care fabrics from the intense heat of the dryer, so nothing will shrink on you. In the end, you're left with clothes that feel softer and smell fresher. 

For ease of use, Dryel gets an A+, but it also does wonders for your wallet. A starter kit with enough supplies for four loads is only $9.99. When you do the math, that's just about $2.50 per load. If you consider the maximum capacity of five garments per load, you're down to just about fifty cents per garment. Just a few weeks ago I got five pieces dry-cleaned at my local laundromat for about $24. That one trip cost me more than double this entire kit — which has the capacity to clean four times the amount of garments. 

Of course, there are some important things to note. While the kit works wonders on denim, wool, and cashmere, it can be damaging to certain fabrics like leather, velvet, and silk. 

When you compare the prices, it's hard to believe this easy dry-cleaning solution isn't more widely used — or, maybe it is, and I'm just the last one hopping on the bandwagon. 

Get the Dryel at-home dry cleaner starter kit, $9.99, available at Amazon

SEE ALSO: This lightweight anorak from Everlane is the MVP of my spring wardrobe — and it's made from 25 recycled water bottles

Join the conversation about this story »

Save $300 on the Surface Laptop 2 and up to 25% at Foot Locker — plus 5 other deals happening now

0
0

Insider Picks writes about products and services to help you navigate when shopping online. Insider Inc. receives a commission from our affiliate partners when you buy through our links, but our reporting and recommendations are always independent and objective.

We rounded up the eight best sales and deals happening online today, with savings on the Microsoft Surface Laptop 2, Allen Edmonds shoes, and Casper mattresses. For more deals and savings across the web, check out Business Insider Coupons.

Microsoft Surface Laptop

1. Save $300 on the Microsoft Surface Laptop 2 from Best Buy

The Microsoft Surface Laptop 2 offers both a powerful processor and a sleek design. If aesthetics are something that appeal to you, this laptop comes in several colors including burgundy and cobalt blue. Additionally, the soft fabric of the keyboard makes for quiet typing, which is ideal in an office environment. Similar to the MacBook Air that starts at $1,199, the Surface Laptop 2 offers similar specs for a slightly lower price. Now, you can get the Microsoft Surface Laptop 2 for $300 off ($999).

Get a 13.5-inch Microsoft Surface Laptop 2 from Best Buy for $999 (originally $1,299) [You save $300]

Allen Edmonds

2. Save up to 75% off when you take an additional 20% off clearance at Allen Edmonds

Allen Edmonds makes some of our favorite dress shoes and workwear. Currently, you can save an additional 20% on clearance items for a total savings of up to 75%. For even more potential savings at Allen Edmonds, check out the Business Insider Coupons page.

Shop the Warehouse Sale at Allen Edmonds.

Foot Locker

3. Save 15% to 25% on all orders at Foot Locker

Foot Locker is running a sitewide sale that includes popular brands like Nike, Timberland, and Puma where you can save up to 25% on your order. Save 15% on orders of $75 or more with the promo code "ONEDAY15"; save 20% on orders of $100 or more with the promo code "ONEDAY20"; or save 25% on orders of $200 or more with the promo code "ONEDAY25".

For even more potential savings at Foot Locker, check out the Business Insider Coupons page.

Shop Foot Locker styles.

West Elm

4. Save 20% to 30% at West Elm

If you're shopping for your backyard, you can currently save up to 40% on outdoor furniture and decor at West Elm. Or, if you're looking to change up your living room, you can take up to 20% off sofas, sectionals, and chairs. You can potentially save even more shopping at West Elm by visiting our Coupons site.

Shop West Elm furniture and home decor.

sperry

5. Save an extra 30% on sale styles at Sperry

Sperry boat shoes are a quintessential summer shoe and match just about any outfit. This week, you can shop sale styles and save an additional 30% when you use the promo code "JUNE30" at checkout. Enjoy additional savings at Sperry with a little help from Business Insider Coupons, where you can find coupons and promo codes for your favorite online stores.

Shop sale styles at Sperry.

Moosejaw

6. Buy one item, get one 50% off on the Moosejaw brand

If you're looking to round out your outdoor gear or replace faithful items you've used countless times, Moosejaw has a wide selection. Now, when you buy one Moosejaw-branded item, you can get another for 50% off with the promo code "BOGOMJ". Additionally, if you spend over $99, you'll get $20 in Moosejaw Rewards when the promo code "20BUCKS" is used at checkout. 

Shop the Moosejaw outdoor clothing and accessories.

Casper Hybrid Mattress

7. Save 10% on any mattress order at Casper

Even though Father's Day is over, Casper has extended its mattress sale through the end of Monday, June 17. You can save 10% on any order that includes a mattress when you use the promo code "FATHERSDAY" at checkout. For even more potential savings at Casper, check out the Business Insider Coupons page.

Shop all mattresses at Casper.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: WATCH: The legendary economist who predicted the housing crisis says the US will win the trade war

The developer of NYC's newest and most expensive neighborhood is pouring $8 billion into building the 'Hudson Yards of the West' in Silicon Valley

0
0

Santa Clara Aerial Courtesy Related Cos

In March 2019, NYC's newest neighborhood, Hudson Yards, was officially opened to the public. At $25 billion, it's the most expensive development in US history.

Now, Related Properties, the developer behind Hudson Yards, is heading west to create what Curbed has dubbed "The Hudson Yards of the West": An $8 billion mega-development in Silicon Valley, the first phases of which are expected to open in 2023.

Site work on the 240-acre Santa Clara project, which used to be a public golf course, began in May 2019, Bloomberg reported. The finished development will sit adjacent to Levi's Stadium — home to the San Francisco 49ers — and span a total of 9.2 million square feet. It will include 5.4 million square feet of office space, one million square feet of retail, dining, and entertainment space, 1,680 residential units, 700 hotel rooms, and a 30-acre park, according to its website.

In charge of the development's design is British architecture firm Foster + Partners, known for designing Apple stores and buildings around the world.

According to Curbed, Uber has also proposed building a skyport over the development which would transport residents and visitors to and from the location via aerial ridesharing.

Santa Clara Skyport Aerial Image Courtesy of Related  Skyport by Foster + Partners

Silicon Valley is home to one of the country'smost competitive real-estate markets. An influx of tech workers over the past few years has caused one of the biggest price swells in San Francisco's history. With the average-priced home now costing more than $1 million, even fixer-uppers have sold for as much as $600,000. Wealthy homebuyers have been known to bid hundreds of thousands of dollars over the asking price, and, as Business Insider's Melia Robinson previously reported, 60% of tech workers in the area said they cannot afford a home in the area.

Manhattan's $25 billion neighborhood — Hudson Yards — is themost expensive real-estate development in US history. The project spans 18 million square feet across 28 acres. The mixed-use development includes well-known structures like the Shed, a 200,000-square-foot arts center, and the Vessel, a 150-foot tall, climbable sculpture that cost $200 million to build.

SEE ALSO: Hudson Yards is the most expensive real-estate development in US history. Here's what it's like inside the $25 billion neighborhood.

SEE ALSO: The billionaire cofounder of WhatsApp has reportedly spent $80 million assembling what may be the most expensive compound in America's richest town

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: What it takes to be a professional taxidermist

This $40 clear tea kettle has every last feature you'd want, including a function that keeps water at a steady temperature for up to an hour

0
0

Insider Picks writes about products and services to help you navigate when shopping online. Insider Inc. receives a commission from our affiliate partners when you buy through our links, but our reporting and recommendations are always independent and objective.

Chefman electric kettle

  • A high-quality electric kettle fills and pours without making a mess or putting your hands in harm's way, has an easy-to-see power indicator and clear water level visibility, and brings water up to temperature quickly.
  • I like the Chefman Programmable Electric Kettle because it allows you to choose the water temperature, shows you precisely how hot the water is at any given time, and it keeps water at temperature until you're ready for it.
  • Though it's more expensive than your average electric kettle (currently $39.99 on Amazon), it has several high-end features and is backed by a one-year warranty.

Whether you love tea, pour-over coffee, ramen, or need hot water for other purposes, an electric kettle is useful to have. The best models heat water faster than your stove, which means you can enjoy your drink sooner. Top kettles also give you control over precisely how hot the water gets, which is a must when you are trying to extract the best flavor from tea leaves and coffee grounds.

Dozens of popular brands have entered the electric kettle space, but the company that's really doing it right is relatively unfamiliar. Chefman is a New Jersey-based kitchen appliance company, and over the past year, I've tested about half a dozen of its products, including an air fryer and a slow cooker. So far, I've been impressed with the quality of each one.

The Programmable Electric Kettle lives up to the excellence I've grown to expect from Chefman. The combination of high-end features and reliable performance earned the appliance a spot on my kitchen counter. Read on to learn about what makes this unit great.

Specs

Chefman electric kettle 2

At about 7 inches wide by 8 inches deep by 10 inches high, the Chefman Kettle doesn't really take up much counter space. It makes efficient use of its design holding 1.7 liters (or about 57.5 ounces) of water.

The unit comes with a removable tea infuser/holder, which holds up to 7 teaspoons of loose-leaf tea. Also included with the kettle is a reusable mesh filter, which attaches to the spout and catches larger sediments you may have in your water.

There are five buttons:

  • Play — this is the on/off button
  • Temp — press to display and set temperatures
  • Steep — press to display and set steep times
  • Plus — increases the target temperature or steep time
  • Minus — decreases the target temperatures or steep time

A bright LCD screen displays the steep time and temperature in high-contrast white on black.

Set-up process

The Chefman Tea Kettle comes with a guide, but I like to walk on the wild side and see if I can figure products out without instructions. In this instance, set up was so incredibly intuitive that I had the kettle operating within five minutes of opening the box. First, you'll want to wash the kettle with water. Then, add as much water as you want (between 0.6 and 1.7 liters), set the temperature, and press the Play button.

If you want to brew the tea in the kettle, you can also add some loose tea leaves to the tea infuser and insert the infuser once the water gets to temperature. The guide gives useful suggestions for the amount of tea, temperatures, and steep times based on the type of tea you're using. The steep button on the unit allows you to set the steep time.

What makes the kettle stand out

Chefman electric kettle 3

We rarely use the tea holder because it's a little bit of a hassle to clean. Instead, we use tea bags or our other steeping devices. Still, the Chefman kettle is a welcome replacement for our cheap unit that you had to unplug to refill and that lacked even the most basic features.

My teenager and wife are the big tea drinkers in the house, and they were instantly in love with this appliance. They especially liked that the screen tells you precisely how hot the water in the kettle is.

We've all commented on how quickly the kettle heats water. To give you a point of comparison, I filled the carafe with 1.7 liters of room-temperature (68 degrees Fahrenheit) water. Then, I set the target temperature to 212 degrees, the boiling point of water. It took eight minutes and 10 seconds before it beeped to let me know it was done.

Cook's Illustrated uses the time to boil one quart of water as a comparison point. So, I also tested that. The Chefman kettle took 5 minutes, 26 seconds. This time was only 27 seconds slower than Cook's top pick, the OXO Brew Electric Kettle, which costs $24 more and lacks the high-end features the Chefman kettle has.

Another feature I like is that you can easily remove the kettle from the base to fill it up. The top opens with the press of a button, and there is a large hole that makes refilling the kettle effortless. It's also worth noting that the kettle doesn't need to be in a specific position for it to operate. It rotates 360 degrees on its base for better accessibility for righties and lefties.

When the water is boiling, the handle remains cool and keeps your hand out of harm's way as you go to pour. The spout design is excellent. I didn't have any problem with water going anywhere but where I wanted it.

With your classic metal stovetop tea kettle, it's hard to tell how much water is inside. This was not a problem with the Chefman Electric Kettle. Since it's mostly made of glass, you can easily see the water level and adjust accordingly.

I also appreciated that it was easy to tell if the unit was on. Each of the buttons is illuminated when the kettle is active, and the lights are bright enough to see from across the kitchen. After 20 minutes of non-use, all the lights turn off except for the play button. When the kettle is in keep warm mode, the play button is orange. And, when it's heating up, the play button is red.

Cons to consider

The kettle automatically shifts to keep-warm mode once it reaches the target temperature. For the most part, this is an awesome feature. But, I feel guilty when I forget to turn off keep-warm mode and consequently waste electricity heating water I never intend to use. Fortunately, after an hour, the kettle leaves this mode.

Many consumers are turned off by the idea of drinking hot water or tea that has come into contact with plastic. Unfortunately, plastic is a major element in the kettle's design. However, the company affirms that the unit is BPA-free.

The bottom line

Chefman electric kettle 4

My wife puts her enjoyment of the kettle this way: She loves our children unconditionally, but she loves this tea kettle "more unconditionally." The Chefman kettle is an excellent addition to our kitchen. If someone were to take it, we would likely replace it with the exact same model.

It heats water quickly, has an easy-to-read LCD screen that displays the temperature, you can effortlessly check and adjust the water level, it's simple to set, and we haven't had any issues in three months of daily use. If you are in need of a kettle, I strongly recommend purchasing the Chefman Programmable Electric Kettle.

Pros: Displays temperature and steep time, glass body allows for water level visibility, intuitive functionality, stay-cool handle, drip-free spout

Cons: Plastic (BPA-free) components come in contact with hot water

Buy the Chefman Programmable Electric Kettle on Amazon for $39.99 (originally $59.99)

Join the conversation about this story »

How to hide your caller ID on an iPhone in 3 ways, either temporarily or permanently

0
0

iPhone X

  • Knowing how to block your iPhone's caller ID allows you to place calls without the recipient knowing what number is trying to reach them.
  • You can block your iPhone's caller ID for a single call, or (depending on the carrier you use) you can change your phone's settings to always mask your phone number. 
  • Some phones are programmed not to accept calls from blocked numbers, so make sure you know how to turn caller ID block off if you plan to start using it regularly.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

There are lots of reasons you might want to mask your iPhone's number before placing a call.

You might be trying to surprise a significant other, or you might be trying to call a company that you'd rather not record your number so you can avoid future calls coming back your way.

Whatever your reason for wanting to block caller ID on an iPhone, you have three different ways to do so, and each has different benefits and drawbacks.

How to block the caller ID on an iPhone with *67

The quickest way to block your iPhone's caller ID is to use the *67 trick, which is referred to as "star six seven" for reference. This method has the benefit of being temporary, allowing you to block only singular calls, but it also requires you to enter in a code before each call, which can be time consuming.

1. Open the iPhone's Phone app.

2. Type "*67" and then enter the rest of the number normally.

IMG_4492.PNG

3. Place the call.

And for the record, using *67 is free. Contrary to a common misconception, there is no charge for using this technique to block your call.

How to block the caller ID on an iPhone permanently

If you wish to block your number all the time, you may be able to change the settings to always mask your number.

That is, unless your carrier is Verizon or Sprint. On iPhones with Verizon or Sprint as the carrier, the options detailed below aren't available..

1. Open your iPhone's Settings app.

2. Scroll down to the Phone tab and tap it.

IMG_4493

3. Tap the "Show My Caller ID" tab.

4. Toggle the button my "Show My Caller ID" off (so it's white instead of green).

How to block your iPhone's caller ID permanently through your carrier

If you have a good reason for your caller ID to always be blocked — maybe you're a private detective or something — then you can have it done by contacting your service provider directly and requesting the change.

Contact your cell provider and ask about permanent caller ID blocking, but also make sure to check if there are added expenses for the anonymity.

Related coverage from How To Do Everything: Tech:

SEE ALSO: The best lightning cables you can buy for your iPhone

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: We had our earbuds tested for bacteria to find out if it's gross to share headphones


How to transfer all of your contacts from one iPhone to another using iCloud

0
0

iPhones Lydia 5

  • You can easily transfer contacts from one iPhone to another iPhone using iCloud, allowing you to use a new device without losing all of the contact information you've gathered over the years.
  • You can transfer iPhone contacts in a matter of minutes when you have two iPhones close to one another using an iCloud syncing.
  • Using iCloud backup, you can transfer your contacts to an iPhone even if your older phone is lost or no longer working, provided you've saved your contacts to iCloud.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The easiest way to transfer contacts from one iPhone to another is to bring the phones into a cell phone store and ask the person behind the desk to do it for you.

But that approach, while reliable, is time consuming and costs money, and besides, you're more than capable of transferring iPhone contacts yourself. It just takes a few steps, and in fact you don't even need to have the older phone in your possession to load contacts onto a new iPhone.

But what you do need to do is be good about backing up your iPhone to your iCloud account. If you back up your device frequently, a lost phone won't mean lost contacts (or pictures, messages, calendars, and more.)

If you don't back up your phone, you may spend an inordinate amount of time tracking down friends and family and coworkers, asking for their numbers and emails, as you restore your lost contact list.

How to transfer iPhone contacts to a new iPhone using iCloud syncing

If you have both your old iPhone and your new phone in hand and both are working, then it's easy to load the contacts onto the new phone. Just make sure you are somewhere with a secure, trusted Wi-Fi network when you do so.

1. Connect both phones to the Wi-Fi network and log into your Apple ID account on both.

2. On the old phone, open the Settings app, then tap on your Apple ID profile (your name and picture at the top of the Settings page).

IMG_4496

3. Tap the iCloud tab.

4. Tap Contacts, and when the pop-up reading "What would you like to do with existing local contacts on your iPhone?" appears, select "Merge."

5. Now open the contacts window on the new phone and drag down to have it refresh; the contacts should appear quickly.

How to transfer iPhone contacts to a new iPhone using an iCloud backup

If iCloud syncing didn't work, or if you don't have your old phone anymore (or it's not working properly), you can use the contacts backed up to your iCloud storage to load contact information onto a new iPhone.

For the record, this method also works fine if the old phone is operable and is right there with you.

1. Turn on the new phone and follow the steps to join a Wi-Fi network.

2. Log into your Apple ID using the same email and password you used with your old phone.

3. When the "Apps and Data" screen loads, tap "Restore from iCloud Backup."

4. Choose the most recent backup, and your contacts — along with everything else on the backup — will automatically be loaded onto your new phone.

Note that if you have already set up the newer phone, or if it is not a brand new iPhone, you can erase all data on the phone and then back it up from iCloud, but of course this step should be taken with caution, because there is no undoing it.

SEE ALSO: The best iPhone cases for every model

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: We compared the $200 Scuf Vantage PlayStation controller to the $25 EasySMX controller — and the winner was clear

Peloton's sales are surging as it gears up for an IPO. Insiders and analysts think it may only be getting started.

0
0

Peloton instructor Cody Rigsby

Business has already been booming for Peloton. But for the maker of smart fitness equipment, the good times may only be starting to roll. 

That's the word from early investors and industry analysts. In Peloton, they see a company whose business model looks less like a traditional gym equipment manufacturer and more like the ones Apple and Gillette rode to success.

As it's attracted a cult-like following since its founding in 2012, the company has seen its sales and valuation skyrocket. Both may be about to go much higher. The company earlier this month confidentially filed its paperwork for an initial public offering.

Peloton faces a host of challenges, including increasing competition, relatively high prices, and a limited selection of products. But analysts and early investors are confident it's more than ready to meet them.

SUBSCRIBE TO READ: Peloton, the fitness startup with a cultlike following, could go public at an $8 billion valuation. Insiders reveal why its business seems set to explode.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: I switched from the $1,099 iPhone XS Max to the $479 Pixel 3a XL — and I didn't miss much

Fighting with your partner about money? Take a look at your parents, says an author and marriage expert.

0
0

couple unhappy argue

  • Belinda Luscombe is an Australian-born journalist and editor-at-large at TIME Magazine.
  • The following is an excerpt from her latest book, Marriageology: The Art and Science of Staying Together, which covers why staying together is better for your health, your finances, your kids, and your happiness.
  • Luscombe's own mother grew up wealthy, but her father's family struggled. She didn't understand what they saw in each other until she learned that research shows spendthrifts are drawn to tightwads to militate against their own tendencies.
  • Some studies have shown that money is the most commonly reported squabble-starter for couples and the source of the most heated arguments.
  • Fights about money are not just about having enough and sharing it equally; they strike at the essence of people's fears and hopes and desires.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

My mother is an heiress. The day that World War II was declared, her family moved from Belgravia in London to one of those stately homes in the English country where the address is just three words: House name, Village name, County name. In her case it was Meredith, Tibberton, Gloucestershire. My family visited it once, and as we approached, one of my brothers and I were remarking on its adorability. My mother interrupted us to note crisply that we were admiring the gardener's cottage.

The house was hidden down a long hedge-lined driveway. The owners showed us around. The orangery was still there, and the walled garden, and the enormous music room. The bells downstairs had numbers corresponding to upstairs rooms, so the servants knew who had pressed the button signaling readiness for breakfast.

My father, on the other hand, grew up in the Australian countryside. He was born during the Depression; his father was a bank manager. They lived in a house attached to the bank, since farmers don't really keep bankers' hours. His formative years were spent watching his dad deal with people struggling to hang on to their farms or to get the bank to lend them enough money to plant crops or feed sheep or hire shearers or care for their children.

His mother died young, and his father remarried. But within a few years, he died too and my father was left to fend for himself and his stepmother. After paying for food, board, transport, and clothes, my dad said that if he saved, he could afford a milkshake once every two weeks. He used to hand-deliver letters near his lodgings so he could keep the tuppence his company provided for stamps.

After a lifetime of rotten luck, dad got a break and was drafted to the Australian Air Force's marine unit, training to rescue pilots. All of his food, accommodation, clothes, and transport were provided. And when he left the service after six months, he found that his patriotic — or absentminded — employer had continued to pay him.

With the first savings he'd ever had, he traveled to Europe and on his way home, on the good ship SS Orontes, he met my mother, who was on the initial leg of a world tour. Her diary records: "I met a rather vulgar Australian who picks his teeth with his serviette." My father is no gold digger, but winning her over was possibly the shrewdest financial move he ever made.

Belinda Luscombe

Different styles of dealing with money

Unsurprisingly, my dad is incredibly frugal. I'm not talking prudent; I'm talking ascetic. At 85, he still wears at least one shirt he was given for his 21st birthday. Some people have favorite chairs or books; my dad has a favorite piece of rope.

When the heiress married the miser, there were bound to be some interesting transitions. My mother likes fast cars, my father favors cheap ones. My mother loves fine dining and the theater, while my dad prefers to spend his leisure time scraping the extra apple off the peel or gnawing at the heart of a cabbage.

My mother suspected there would always be enough money. My father suspected there would never be. Neither of them was right. They fought about money, but they kept it in perspective. They had separate accounts. My father gave my mother every second paycheck. They agreed upon who would pay for what. And at Christmas and birthdays they gave each other presents that they would have wanted. That's how one year my dad got a painting, even though he doesn't really like art, and my mother got a mulcher, even though she doesn't really like leaf litter.

I didn't understand what they saw in each other until, somewhat unexpectedly, a postdoctoral student at the Wharton School of Economics explained it. Scott I. Rick advanced the theory — and found some proof — that spendthrifts might be drawn to tightwads to militate against their own tendencies. It turns out that the free-spender/frugal marriage my parents had is quite common. "The more people [are] dissatisfied with their own emotional reactions toward spending, the more likely they [are] to be attracted to a mate with opposing emotional reactions toward spending," Rick wrote in 2009. It's possible my parents got together not despite their financial backgrounds, but partly because of them.

(There are two flaws in this theory. One is that my parents don't concur with it. My mother likes to say that my dad married her for her fortune and her legs, it's just that the fortune held out a little longer. And the other is that the unions Rick studied often did not last; my parents have been together for 60 years.)

Read more: 12 things successful married couples do with their money

The relationship we all have with money

Everybody comes into marriage with one important relationship they cannot end: the one they have with money. It's a deep, complicated liaison with a lot of history and often goes unacknowledged. As one of the ancient texts says: where your treasure is, that's where your heart will be. Money is not just currency. It comes with emotions attached. "There's a lot of internal feelings related to money because money can also reflect the power and the balance of the relationship," says Lauren Papp, the director of the Couples Lab at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and author of several studies on marital conflict. "Money is something that we bring with us from our childhood. So, what does money mean to a person? If someone buys something, is that an act of love, is that an apology, is that just what you expect?" Managing the triangulation of the relationship with a spouse and with moola can be a very tricky business. Sometimes, to paraphrase Princess Diana when her husband, the future king of England, was cheating on her, the marriage can get a bit crowded.

Fights about money, therefore, are not just about having enough and sharing it equally; they strike at the essence of people's fears and hopes and desires. Fears of being alone and being destitute are intertwined; marriage and wealth both offer a sense of protection and a safe harbor. It's no accident that people who are under financial pressure get divorced much more often than people who aren't. It's also not a coincidence that people often delay getting married until they feel financially secure, which is one of the reasons why there has been a huge drop in marriage rates among those with a high school education or less, and why college graduates get married later, once they have found their footing.

married couple

Studies have shown that money is the most commonly reported squabble-starter for couples (followed by kids, although that order is reversed for stepfamilies) and the source of the most heated arguments. And in homes where money is not the most common cause of fights, it's still the fight that either lasts the longest or in which the same issues just keep coming back without getting resolved.

Finance fights, unlike others, often get more heated over time. In Papp's study, which got 100 wives and 100 husbands to keep a diary of all the fights they had over a two-week period, with detailed descriptions and ratings for each fight, husbands and wives reported feeling more depressed after money fights than after other fights and husbands reported feeling angrier during those spats than others. Money is also the issue that most couples say is an external problem for them, that is, not one caused within the partnership but by an outside pressure. It's the number one reason, for example, that many people who live together say they don't get married.

The rising economic power of women

In the last 37 years, the percentage of wives whose jobs pay them more than their spouses' jobs do has increased from about 4 percent to almost 25 percent, and a dual income is considered by many to be more of a necessity to cost-neutral family functioning than an anomaly. In 2015, for the first time, according to the Institute for Family Studies, marriages in which the wife was more educated were more common than those in which the husband was. Those are huge shifts that lead to very different negotiations and attitudes to money within couples. Most of us either don't have a model from our parents on how to handle the issue or don't like the model we saw.

A generation of women who grew up watching their mothers ask their fathers for money — or struggle to find work and money after a divorce — are now much more likely to be proactive about having their own nest egg. In the course of researching this book I asked more than 200 people how they organized their finances with their spouses. Their answers varied, but it was clear that many of the wives were wary of being dependents.

Men as providers

While on the whole the increased earning power of women has been a total score for men, who, not unlike my dad, increased their income without having to increase their workload merely by marrying the right women, it has had its costs. Studies have suggested that men who earn less than their wives are more prone to infidelity and more prone to use medication for erectile dysfunction. A recent Danish study— from a region of the world known for its progressive views on gender no less — found a 10 percent increase in the use of ED medication among couples in which women earned slightly more than their husbands. It also found that wives who earned more or even equal amounts were more likely to be taking anti-anxiety medication. Research economists at the U.S. Census Bureau reported in 2018 that couples in which wives earned more than husbands tended to minimize the difference when reporting their incomes on census forms. Wives were more likely to understate their income and husbands to overstate theirs.

Marriageology by Belinda Luscombe

Why? Researchers suggest that it's because men are struggling with the idea that they're not providers. For centuries, the male partner's job has been to bring home the goods — and it's probably still the model today's husbands grew up under — so when they don't or can't, they feel like they are failing, specifically as a male. Even in the 21st century, research shows, one of the ways men signal "mate quality," as they say in zoology, or draw in potential lovers, is to spend money. Splashing around some cash is the human equivalent of fanning out your peacock feathers or sticking out your tortoise neck. So any setback in this area can lead to a loss of confidence in the bedroom, hence the Viagra, or a desire to reassert their alpha-ness, hence the affair, with all its reassurances that they are still attractive and virile. Wives, meanwhile, are walking on eggshells, trying not to provoke their husbands' feelings of shame but at the same time needing occasionally to bring up money, hence the anti-anxiety meds.

Comparison is the thief of joy, and he's also a freeloader in marriages. Partners often judge themselves by how they're doing relative to their spouses. (If you've been doing this in secret, relax, there are studies showing it's completely normal. Yes, especially about income.) The good news is that not all men have been unsteadied by the perception that their wives are doing better than they are on the provider front, especially younger men. An analysis of 21 years of data from Sweden found that women who got promoted doubled their chances of divorce, but only if they were in a marriage with more traditional gender roles. In fact, while a big salary endangered a woman's marriage in the 70s and 80s, it made little difference to the divorce rate among couples who married in the 90s. And some men really enjoy the glory of their spouses' successes, either because it's a testament to their good judgment in women, or because it reflects well on them that they were chosen by somebody who's such a talent, or, ideally, because they see any win as a win for the team.

One thing to remember during an argument about money

Here's a key point to remember when hitting play on a recurring fight about your bank account: There's quite a lot of evidence that marriage enriches people, literally. It's not just the fact that wealthy people are more likely to get hitched, although that's true. It's also not just the fact that there are a lot of rent, insurance, tax, and utilities savings, which is also true. It's not even that couples who retire as couples are richer than couples who don't, although that, too, is usually true. There's a whole other psychological thing at play. For example: happily married men are more responsible, less aggressive, less likely to do something illegal, and more mentally healthy than single ones, so they're more likely to be earning. This has been documented not just in a bunch of research but chronicled in masterpieces as vaunted as Jane Eyre and Failure to Launch.

Marriage is the ultimate buddy system. When financial troubles hit one of you, there's another soul with a different set of resources to help you through. And you can nudge each other to make the smart moves.

Excerpted from Marriageology: The Art and Science of Staying Together by Belinda Luscombe. Copyright © 2019 by Belinda Luscombe. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

 

SEE ALSO: How to merge finances with your spouse, in 5 steps

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: A Silicon Valley founder shares the 6 traits she looks for in the entrepreneurs she invests in

This clever $60 gadget lets you control your garage door and monitor it from anywhere using an app on your phone, which is good news for safe package deliveries

0
0

Insider Picks writes about products and services to help you navigate when shopping online. Insider Inc. receives a commission from our affiliate partners when you buy through our links, but our reporting and recommendations are always independent and objective.

Genie smart garage

  • When paired with its smartphone app, the Genie Aladdin Connect converts your existing garage door into a smart device that you can control remotely and monitor in real time.
  • If you garage door opener was manufactured any time after 1993, it will be compatible with the Genie Aladdin Connect ($59.99).
  • DIY installation will take less than an hour, though you may want to hire an electrician to make sure the job is done properly.

We get a fair amount of packages delivered to our house each month. The neighborhood is quiet and safe and I've never had anything stolen, but the idea of boxes sitting there all day stills worries me at times. (And rain doesn't care how safe the area is, it will still ruin a package.)

Wouldn't it be great if I could pop open the garage as I neared home after a run or to allow a deliveryman or neighbor to pop a package inside? Well, I can.

Yeah, yeah, you saw it coming from miles away. But that doesn't take away from the fact that the Genie Aladdin Connect smart garage door opener is a perfect merger of older and newer tech that will change the way your house works, whether you're right there at home or miles away yourself. 

What the Genie Aladdin Connect does

Genie Aladdin connect 2

The Aladdin Connect is one of the simpler smart devices out there because it connects to a piece of hardware with exactly two functions: opening and closing. You can use either a physical button installed at your property or a smartphone app to open or close the garage door. It's even compatible with Amazon's Alexa. The Aladdin Connect ($59.99) also uses a sensor that will send your phone an alert when the door opens. (So that's one less avenue for the kids to use for sneaking out at night.) 

That's really it. The hardware and the app open and close the door, and they alert you when that happens. You don't even need to have a new opener installed —  if your garage door opener was manufactured any time after 1993, it will be compatible with the Genie Aladdin Connect.

It's perfectly simple, but the possibilities that this elegantly simply arrangement unlock are many.

First off, when you have a Genie Aladdin Connect system installed, you never have to worry about getting into your home again, provided you don't lose your phone. Just have the app open the garage for you and go in that way. 

Second, you can grant remote access to your home to anyone at any time from anywhere. You can let a friend who gets over early head in while you're still on the road. You can allow in a repairman you know and trust, or let the dog walker in to get your pup. Or, you can allow a deliveryman to leave packages in the garage instead of on the stoop. You can even grant someone the ability to open the door themselves using their own Genie app, and then you can rescind that control any time later.

And if someone ever opens the garage door, whether from an app or by using the actual button there at the home, you get an alert. Usually, it will be a benign situation, maybe your partner or one of the kids. But should the door be opened when it should be shut, you instantly know of potential foul play.

Installing a Genie Aladdin Connect

Genie connect garage

I'm a pretty handy guy. I've rewired light switches and light fixtures and such, and generally, if there's a YouTube video and it only involves three or four tools, I'm up the project at hand. Installing an Aladdin Connect requires five tools, but two of them are screwdrivers (flat-head and Phillips), so I wasn't too worried about the process. (The other three, if you're wondering, are a drill, hammer, and wire cutter.) 

And good news, there's a YouTube video. In fact, right from within the Aladdin Connect app you can watch an 18-minute video that takes you through every single step of the installation process, clearly showing how to complete each task in sequential order. As long as you can follow a video, you can install this thing. Give yourself about an hour.

The cons to consider

Installing the Aladdin Connect system was pretty easy, but not my idea of fun. I'd say if you can find an electrician who will charge less than $100 for the project, that's money well spent to avoid the hassle of doing it yourself and to make sure the project is completed properly. (Then again, before I had kids, back when I had free time, I might have enjoyed the installation more.)

Also, while I haven't experienced this personally, some people do report glitches with the app that could potentially leave you locked out. So don't give up all physical buttons, and keep a key to the front door on hand. (And for the record, while this hasn't happened to me, I'd be a bit nervous counting on my phone alone to get me into my home, based on the possibility of Wi-Fi/cell-service issues, or just a dead battery.)

Another option to consider

MyQ smart garage door

The MyQ Smart Garage Door Opener from Chamberlain costs about $20 less than the Aladdin Connect and has pretty much all the same features. The system offers optional linking to Google Assistant for a nominal fee ($10 per year or $1 per month), which is handy if you like your whole home to be smart and integrated.

But the MyQ system has its share of bad ratings posted along with its more than 2,000 reviews on Amazon, with a common complaint being that pairing the device with a phone is often glitchy, and getting a second phone paired is even more fraught.

So is the Genie Aladdin Connect worth it?

All in all, the Genie Aladdin Connect is worth the purchase price and the minor frustrations of installation because it lets you take physical control of a part of your home from anywhere and it enhances your safety by letting you know what's going on with your garage.

And the fact that it means you never have to get locked out again (barring a lost phone or dead battery) will be priceless the first time you count on the Genie to get you in after you forget your keys while out on a run.

Also, it pairs with Amazon's Alex, and it's pretty cool to be able to yell at your house to open a door and then actually have it happen. 

Pros: Offers control over garage door from anywhere, multiple options for granting access to others, clear installation instruction video

Cons: Requires about an hour to install, more expensive than some similar options 

Get a Genie Aladdin Connect smart garage door opener from Amazon for $59.99

Join the conversation about this story »

10 maps show how different LGBTQ rights are around the world

0
0

ecuador gay marriage

  • Last week, Ecuador's highest court issued a ruling, effectively legalizing same-sex marriage in the South American country.
  • Business Insider created a series of maps to visualize how gay rights vary around the world.
  • Despite same-sex marriage being legal in the US, homosexuality is still illegal in 35% of countries in the United Nations.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Last week, Ecuador's highest court issued a ruling, legalizing same-sex marriage in the South American country.

While same-sex couples have been allowed to enter into civil unions in Ecuador for a decade, they still lacked some  rights bestowed upon married people.

Plaintiff Efraín Soria, who is president of the Ecuadorian Equality Foundation, told the AP that the ruling is "a joy for our entire community and Ecuador."

While the decision pushed gay rights one step further, there are still many places in the world where it's difficult — and in some cases illegal — to be out.

In April, the Sultan of Brunei introduced sharia law to the majority-Muslim nation, making the death penalty possible for anyone convicted of having gay sex. After international backlash, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah said in a televised speech in May that the death penalty would not be imposed in any cases, including those dealing with homosexuality.

The controversy in Brunei is an example of how much of an up-hill battle LGBTQ rights continue to be around the world. For example, gay sex is still illegal in 35% of countries in the United Nations, according to statistics released this year by the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA).

To explain just how much gay rights differ on an international scale, Business Insider created this set of maps to visualize the issue. The results show that while homosexuality is no longer outlawed in the majority of the world, there's still a long way to go in terms of acceptance and equality for LGBTQ people.

SEE ALSO: Celebrities like Ellen DeGeneres and George Clooney are asking people to boycott these 9 luxury hotels after Brunei passed a law that will see it stone gay people to death

Brunei is the first nation to institute Sharia Law in southeast Asia.

Sharia Law varies from country to country. Technically 11 other countries practice Shariah Law, but they vary in how they punish those convicted of sodomy. In Mauritania, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, sodomy carries the possibility of the death penalty, but offenders are more likely to see jail time. The death penalty is carried out more frequently in such cases in Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and Iran.



Religion is an un-ignorable factor in the maps. While the majority of the world has legalized homosexuality, the countries where it is still outlawed are concentrated in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Africa — areas with majority-Muslim nations.

According to the Associated Press, "Islamic scholars overwhelmingly teach that same-gender sex is a sin."

The Quran teaches that homosexuality should be punished but doesn't detail how. The Prophet Muhammad was reportedly more explicit that homosexuals should be killed in some of his teachings. That's why some countries that implement Sharia law make homosexuality a capital crime.



Following Trump's transgender military ban, just 19 countries in the world allow people with gender dysphoria to serve in the military.

The Netherlands was the first country to allow transgender people to enter the military in 1974, according to CNN. Thailand is one of the more recent countries to accept transgender soldiers, but they're only allowed to serve in a administrative capacity.



In some countries where homosexuality is legal, there are still several laws in place that make living openly difficult.

In Russia for example, a federal law passed in 2013 makes it illegal to distribute "propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations." The country also makes it difficult for sexual orientation-related non-governmental organizations to operate in the country.

Under the 2012 foreign agent law, all organizations that receive any sort of funding from abroad must register as a foreign agent or else be fined.

Maximum, an organization that operates in the country to help the LGBT community, was fined about 300,000 rubles (about $4,500) in 2015 for refusing to heed the law because they thought it undermined the work that their employees do.



Only about 13% of UN member countries have legalized gay marriage.

A few others — including Peru, Italy, and Greece — have only legalized civil unions for same-sex partners so far.



Ecuador was the most recent country to legalize same-sex marriage. The first country to do so was the Netherlands, in 2001.

Sources: ILGAFortune



Though it's too small to show up on the map, the Mediterranean island nation of Malta has also banned conversion therapies, in addition to Brazil and Ecuador.

Source: ILGA



Just 5% of UN member states have written it into their constitutions that sexual orientation-based discrimination is not allowed.

Source: ILGA



More countries have taken strides when it comes to tackling sexual orientation-based discrimination in the workplace.

Source: ILGA



But same-sex couples largely aren't allowed to adopt outside of the Americas and Europe.

South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand are exceptions to the rule.

Joint adoption means a same-sex couple can adopt a child together. Second-parent adoption means that one member of a same-sex couple can adopt their partner's child (such as when one member of a lesbian couple gives birth).



Viewing all 115236 articles
Browse latest View live




Latest Images