Articles by Ara Wagoner

Update, October 28 (03:45 pm ET): Google confirms that it will still sell Nest Tags and Nest Detects.

I know you like to kill great products for no reason, Google, but what were you thinking?

Nest has seemed stagnant for the last several years. After all, this month saw the release of the first new Nest Thermostat in over three years, and there haven’t been any new Nest cameras announced since early 2018. That was back when the Nest Hello finally launched after being announced alongside the Nest Secure system.

That same Nest Secure system was discontinued without warning this week, and no reason was given for the abrupt end of one of the few viable alternatives to Ring Alarm. Google has pledged that it will continue to support current users, but we have no clue how long that will last, especially given how hard Google has been pushing to migrate users from the Nest app to Google Home. Case in point: the new Nest Thermostat doesn’t use the Nest app at all; you have to use the Googl…

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…

What you need to know

Disney has released a handy rapid-fire recap of The Mandalorian Season One.
Season 2 premieres on Friday, October 30 on Disney+.
This upcoming season will follow The Mandalorian as he tries to bring The Child to the remnants of the Jedi Order.

The Mandalorian Season 2 premieres October 30 at midnight PT on Disney+ — that’s 3AM Eastern, in case you were debating staying up tomorrow night — and if you don’t have 8 hours to binge the first season again, that’s perfectly okay! The Star Wars YouTube channel has recapped the first season with a tight little 90-second video, complete with a reminder of what Season 2 is facing at the end. If the video itself doesn’t clear up much, here’s the Cliff Notes version:

The Mandalorian is a bounty hunter who takes a job from some Empire remnant named The Client to hunt down a person, which turns out to be The Child. Adopted into the Mandalorian religion after being sa…

A microSD card for your Android phone lets you easily move your files, photos, and music from device to device without having to rely on steady Wi-Fi or costly data. An Android microSD card also lets you load your phone up with apps, music, and movies, which is especially useful if your device doesn’t come with a lot of internal storage. But which ones are the best? Here’s a good selection from which to choose.

Best blend

Samsung EVO Select

Staff pick

This is our preferred card because it’s reliable, fast, and goes on sale frequently.

$32 at Amazon
From $38 at Newegg

Ultra affordable

SanDisk Ultra

SanDisk has more powerful cards, but for most, the Ultra is the right answer, offering up to 100MB/s read speeds.

From $7 at Amazon
From $7 at Newegg
From $9 at B&H Photo

Go pro

PNY PRO Elite

This card is an excellent choice for power-users who intend to use the card for storing app data and recording 4K video.

From $14 at Amazon
$90 at Best Buy
$90 at B&H Photo

…

While the Pixel 4a 5G isn’t going to be winning any beauty contests, the best Google Pixel 4a 5G cases will jazz up this affordable 5G phone. Protecting your investment is paramount, but let’s get real; life’s too short for boring phone cases. Thankfully, these Pixel 4a 5G cases are anything but boring.

Keep it safe

Tudia DualShield Merge Series

Staff pick

Tudia’s Merge Series has been protecting Pixels big and small for years, and if you need some heavy-duty support for your Pixel 4a 5G from Day One, this case will do the job for less than a large pizza.

$12 at Amazon

Give it some pizzazz

Anccer Colorful Series

Like the Pixel 4a, we’re not getting any fun colors for the Google Pixel 4a 5G, so why not grab a colorful case to pick up the slack? The Colorful Series is so thin you’ll forget it’s there, but it still adds a bit of grip.

$12 at Amazon

Two-tone texturing

Caseology Parallax

If you can’t settle on one cool color for your Pixel 4a 5G case, check out the Paral…

The base storage for the Samsung Galaxy S10 lineup is 128GB — which is pretty decent for a two year old phone. However, these days with downloading movies and recording 4K super slow-mos, 128GB doesn’t go as far as it used to. This is where microSD cards come in, and these are the best microSD cards to use in your Galaxy S10.

Reliability is key

Samsung EVO Select 128GB

Staff pick

This is my favorite microSD card on the market and is the card sitting in my own Galaxy S10. This is the second (or maybe third) phone that I’ve used it in because it doubles your S10’s base storage.

$19 at Amazon
$39 at Newegg

4K ready

PNY Elite-X 128GB

PNY’s 128GB card is arguably the best value you’ll find for a name-brand microSD of this capacity. I’ve had PNY cards last the better part of five years, so chances are this card will outlive your Galaxy S10.

$23 at Amazon
$25 at Walmart

Value pick

SanDisk Ultra 64GB

If you just need a little extra space and don’t want to spend big bucks …

The best Samsung Galaxy Note 20 cases are protective, grippy, and stylish. While the regular Note 20 doesn’t have a glass back, it’s still a big, honking phone and you shouldn’t dare step out your door without protecting it with a case. From thin and colorful to ruggedly handsome, these are the cases you can trust with your new Note 20.

Clear and clean

Spigen Liquid Crystal

Staff pick

Want to show off your lovely Mystic Green phone? The Liquid Crystal will offer grip and scratch protection while keeping things slim and sanguine. If you want a little more pop, I adore the Glitter variant!

$10 at Amazon
$13 at Amazon (Glitter)

Functional fabric

Samsung Kvadrat Cover

This sustainable case is bright, cheerful, and feels wonderful in the hand. The color choices are a bit small compared to the S20+, but the bright pink case mislabeled as Red is lovely, so why would you need anything else?

$29 at Amazon

Mesmerizing majesty

Caseology Parallax

The Parallax’s Aqua Green adds …

A slim shell and a big battery help the Spin 311 make a big impression.

2020 has been the year of the best Chromebooks in more ways than I would have ever imagined back in January: the surge in distance learning and work from home have combined with supply shortages to create an unprecedented demand. As popular models sell out left and right, new models can fill the void and help buyers get a great Chromebook with a much better long-term value. Take the Acer Chromebook Spin 311.

Previous generations of the Spin 311 like the CP311-2H are still regularly going for $370 or more on Amazon, so the new CP311-3H launching at $300 with eight years of support ahead of it mean you’re getting a sweet deal on a brand new model, so long as the Chromebook holds up in everyday use.

And after a month, I can say that the new Acer Chromebook Spin 311 definitely holds up.

At a glance

Acer Chromebook Spin 311 (CP311-3H)

…

The regular Samsung Galaxy Note 20 left out a microSD slot this year, but, in comparison, the Note 20 Ultra supports microSD cards up to 1TB in size. While most of us won’t quite need that level of DOWNLOAD ALL THE THINGS storage, it’s a great idea to invest in a good microSD card so that you can store music, movies, and photos on that and leave internal storage for more intensive files like games and apps. Here are the best microSD cards for the Note 20 Ultra, whether you need a little room or a lot.

All-around excellence

Samsung EVO Select 256GB MicroSDXC Card

Staff pick

A Samsung phone deserves a Samsung memory card, right? This is easy when Samsung makes our favorite microSD card on the market. This 4K capable card will triple the storage on your Note 20 Ultra.

$30 at Amazon
$30 at B&H Photo

Just a little more

SanDisk Extreme 64GB

If you just need a little extra breathing room, the SanDisk Extreme is a long-lasting microSD card that is optimized for storing and …

Looks like the villains are causing trouble ahead of All Hallow’s Eve.

What you need to know

Numerous users in Europe are having issues accessing Disney+ right now.
Users in the United States don’t seem to be having problems, but those in the EU trying to browse the app or watch their fav Disney movies are getting Error 83, which in this case indicates a service outage.
Outages like these are usually settled in a few hours, but in the meantime, bust out the old Disney VHS tapes and kick it old school!

Disney Plus is gearing up for a busy fall and winter as we’re now less than two weeks from The Mandalorian Season 2, but its support teams are currently working to resolve outages in Europe. Numerous reports of Error 83 and difficulties reaching the Disney+ app and website are coming in from across the European Union both on social media and on DownDetector.

The outage seems to be impacting Europe primarily — reports from North America and Asia are low — but users are mostly…

With hundreds of films from the most popular franchises on the planet — not to mention thousands of TV episodes from our childhood — it’s little wonder that Disney+ is popular. However, when errors invade your movie marathon, things are anything but magical. There’s a few different errors Disney+ can spit out when things go awry, but Error 83 is by far the most prevalent Disney+ error you come across. Here’s a few of the reasons you may be seeing it, and what you can do about it.

Reason #1 — Server timeout

Error 83 is one of the most common errors. When the servers are overloaded and your Disney+ session can’t connect to the servers fast enough to pass a DRM/account check — or can’t connect at all — Error 83 is what Disney+ displays when it can’t play your video as requested.

This is far and away the most common reason to see Error 83, and dealing with it can take a few forms:

Try again. Server issues are usually intermittent, so if at first you don’t succeed, try, try…