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You can always just turn on the Galaxy Buds Pro’s ambient mode manually by pressing and holding the touchpad on either earbud, but I liked the idea of mapping the touchpads to volume control instead. (I could go on about how wireless earbuds really need more than one point of input, but that’s a whole other story.) … [Read more...] about Samsung’s new earbuds have one feature that everyone should steal

Accessories made from kombucha byproduct submission, Riina Õun made an entire accessories line. The designer turned leftover Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast (SCOBY) into a paste, then added black pigment and spread it into thin layers to craft a new material that looks just like leather. The result is an array of black accessories with a decidedly punk feel. … [Read more...] about Turning trash into treasure: London Design Biennale features gorgeous pieces made from waste

Last November, Joyce Lee and Heekyong Yang of Reuters reported that Samsung might be adding S Pen support to the Galaxy S21 Ultra and then discontinuing the Galaxy Note line altogether. They said such a move would reflect shrinking demand for high-end phones during the pandemic. Samsung is not commenting on the future of the Galaxy Note. But for what it’s worth, the company takes issue with the idea that the market for top-of-the-line phones has collapsed; it says that the Galaxy Note20 Ultra, released last August during the pandemic, sold well. … [Read more...] about Samsung’s new Galaxy S21 smartphones bring high-end features down to earth

If you’ve got an Android phone and a Windows PC, you can do much the same using Microsoft’s Your Phone app for Windows. Another great feature for Android users is that if you’re using the Android Messages app on your phone, there’s a handy web-based version that you can use on either Mac or PC to send and receive text messages. … [Read more...] about 7 daily productivity hacks to help you work smarter in 2021

Two hundred years ago, Washington, D.C., was built as an architectural embodiment of our democracy. You could literally walk up to the White House, knock on the door, and try to get an audience with the president. You could picnic right on his lawn. Abraham Lincoln insisted that his guards dress in plain clothes so that politics didn’t mimic militarism (while today, everyday cops are decked out like Navy Seals!). And in the century to follow, D.C. constructed many of its protections from potential attackers through subtle, almost imperceptible defenses: trees, berms, and benches. This open space makes a tacit statement, as Hartl says: “Democracy is no castle! Democracy is love!” … [Read more...] about Designers reimagine the U.S. Capitol as a brutalist fortress