Articles by Jeramy Johnson

Block them on your feed one-by-one.

Twitter recently rolled out its controversial Fleets feature, and people have been sharing Fleets and hot takes all over my feed. If you’re like me and are fed up with the over story-fication of social media apps, then you might be wondering how to mute a Twitter Fleet. I’ll show you how you can block them from appearing in your feed one-by-one.

How to mute Fleets from your Twitter feed

Open the Twitter app.
Tap on one of the circles at the top of the screen (these represent Fleets).
Tap on the drop-down arrow in the top right corner of the Fleet.

Tap on the Mute @ account name at the bottom of the screen.
Tap on Mute Fleets to just remove that feature.
Tap on Mute Fleets and Tweets if you don’t want to see any activity from that account, but you don’t want to unfollow it.

Repeat this process for all the Fleets you see, and as new ones come up.

Now, of course, I wouldn’t want to mute the wonderful Hayato Huseman, but I just picked a Flee…

Unless you’ve been living under a social media rock recently, you’ve probably seen all the fuss about Twitter’s newest feature — Twitter Fleets. Fleets are essentially the same as Instagram Stories or Snapchat Stories (or all of the other myriad social media stories). Like those other services, with Fleets, you can adjust text, background colors, resize images, or record audio or video. You can also reshare your Tweets this way fairly easily. We’ll show you how to embed a Tweet in a Fleet. Hey, that’s fun to say and fun to do!

How to embed a Tweet in a Fleet

Select the Tweet that you want to Fleet.
Tap the Share icon.
Tap Share in a Fleet.
Pinch the embedded Tweet to move or resize it.
Tap the circle at the bottom left of the screen to change the background color.
Tap the Aa to add text.
Tap to change the size, color, or justification of the text.
Pinch to resize or move the text.

Tap on ALT at the bottom right to add alternate text to your tweet.
Tap on the Fleet button in…

The holiday shopping season can be stressful in non-pandemic times, so if the world is weighing down on your shoulders right now, easy the tension with this Black Friday deal on a percussion massager. Self-care is as important now as ever and easing those sore shoulders, bad backs, and hurting hamstrings can go a long way toward keeping you in the holiday spirit. Quality percussion massagers like this one often run $300-$400 or more, but right now, you can save $70 off of one of the best at Best Buy on a pre-Black Friday sale.

The best value fitness tracker

Hyperice – Hypervolt Bluetooth Percussion Massage Device | $70 off at Best Buy

If you regularly suffer from aching muscles and tendons, you will certainly benefit from a percussion massager like this one. With multiple attachments and speed settings, you’re sure to find a mode to whip those tired muscles back into shape and ready for your next workout.

$279 at Best Buy

My wife, daughter, and son are all middle distance …

Whether you want to back up your memories to a physical drive, or you’re interested in switching cloud services, you might first be wondering how to export your Google Photos library. Whatever your reasons, Google actually already has a powerful tool for you to access, download, and take your photos or data and move them wherever you want. It’s called Google Takeout, and we’ll show you how to use it to export and download a copy of your data from Google Photos.

How to export your photos from Google Photos

This process is easiest to manage from a computer rather than your phone or tablet.

Open up Google Takeout from your web browser.
Make sure that you are logged into your Google account.
Choose what categories of personal data that you wish to export. For this guide, we’ll only click on the Google Photos checkbox. (Note that you can click Deselect all, and then just click on Google Photos).

Underneath the Google Photos selection, you can click to get information on what formats…

We’re coming up on the best time of year to get a great smartphone for less, and we’ve already seen some great Black Friday Google Pixel deals at many retailers and carriers.

Google offers three different models and sizes in its current Pixel lineup including the 4a, 4a 5G, and 5, and you can still find last year’s flagships — the 4 and 4 XL — in some corners of the internet. We’ve broken down the deals that we’ve found so far by Pixel model, and from there by retailer and carrier. There are already some great opporunities to pick up some of our top Android phone picks and get a head start on your holiday shopping!

Google Pixel 4a | $5/month at Verizon

The Google Pixel 4a is our top choice for a mid-range, affordable smartphone, with one of the best cameras in the business, smooth software with regular updates, and easy one-handed use. This Black Friday deal at Verizon knocks $11/month off of the regular price!

$5/month at Verizon

Expect to see a ton of Black Friday deal…

Large and in charge

JBL Charge 4

$130 at Amazon

Pros

IPX7 water resistance
Can serve as a power bank to charge other devices
Up to 20 hours of battery life
10 fun colors to choose from

Cons

Not the most portable speaker
No voice assistant or speakerphone integration

The JBL Charge 4 is one of the best modern-day boomboxes around. It gets very loud and can keep going for nearly 24 hours. Plus, it has the ability to serve as a power bank to top off your smartphones and other gadgets. The biggest downside here is that it’s a bit on the heavy side for a portable speaker.

Flipping awesome

JBL Flip 5

$70 at Best Buy

Pros

IPX7 water resistance
Up to 12 hours of battery life
11 fun colors to choose from
Lightweight and portable

Cons

Doesn’t feature voice assistant integration
Doesn’t feature speakerphone integration

The Flip 5 is a fantastic portable Bluetooth speaker with long battery life and USB-C charging. However, it lost some key features from the previ…

We’ve got a big week ahead of us, and we need to remember to breathe.

I have a feeling that in a hopefully better, not-too-distant future, the year 2020 will be one of those “third-rail” topics that no one wants to discuss in group settings. You know the topics I’m talking about, right? Typically they revolve around religion, politics, and money. I think for those of us who are fortunate enough to make it through 2020, we’ll not want to spend much time reminiscing about this year at the dinner tables, happy hours, or get-togethers of the future.

Ironically, 2020 kind of rolls all of those untouchable topics into one. Environmental and economic disasters, social and cultural unrest, and the worst public health crisis in a century. There was something else… what was it? Oh yeah, a hugely divisive presidential election here in the U.S.! Now, I don’t know about you, but all these stressors coming to a head on Tuesday have had me figuratively (and literally) holding my breath. But tha…

Right on time

Amazon Echo Dot with Clock (4th Gen)

$60 at Amazon

Pros

New rounded design and colors
Improved front-facing speaker
Climate Pledge certified
LED shows you time and more

Cons

More expensive than standard Echo Dot
Only available in two colors instead of three
LED functionality unchanged from previous version
New position of the light ring may be less functional

The fourth-generation Echo Dot with Clock is the best version of Amazon’s top-selling Alexa speaker to date. It has an improved front-firing speaker, an all-new rounded design, and a functional LED that can show your time, timers, and temperature. Don’t worry about distractions, as an ambient light sensor keeps it from blinding you in dark spaces.

Awesome Orb

Amazon Echo Dot (4th Gen)

$50 at Amazon

Pros

New rounded design and colors
Improved front-facing speaker
Climate Pledge certified
Slightly more affordable

Cons

No display
Larger than previous Echo Dots
New position of the light r…

We’ve researched, tested, and reviewed dozens, if not hundreds of devices, and have come up with the following list of what we consider the best Alexa devices. If you don’t already have an Echo smart speaker, we recommend you pick up the Amazon Echo (4th Gen) to get started. It sounds great and comes in at a reasonable starting price. Of course, if you already have an Echo and want to see what else is available, well, we’ve got you covered there too.

Best Amazon Alexa Smart Speaker: Amazon Echo (4th Gen)

The original Amazon Echo that debuted in late 2014 gave us our first introduction to Alexa, and we’ve been hooked ever since. What started out as a stark, black tube has evolved over three generations to a softer, gentler looking Alexa vessel, and has spawned an entire line of other Echo devices.

This “regular” Echo (4th Gen) is the best of the series yet. It boasts an improved sound architecture over the first three generations, one that it borrowed from the more expensive Echo…

Amazon first introduced Alexa to us through its original Echo smart speaker in late 2014. To this day, if you’re looking for the best Alexa speaker, you’re probably going to look first at the company’s Echo line of smart speakers. In fact, Amazon recently announced updates to its entire Echo product line, and we will be covering and reviewing each of these new speakers shortly. There are also many great Alexa-enabled speakers are made by other companies such as Bose, Sonos, and Ultimate Ears that you may wish to consider. This guide will help you make the best purchase decision as you consider the best Alexa speaker for your household.

Best Alexa Speaker from Amazon

Amazon Echo (4th Gen) — Best Overall Alexa Speaker: The fourth iteration of the original Echo gets a spherical redesign with better speakers and a built-in Zigbee smart hub.
Amazon Echo Dot (4th Gen) — Best Value Alexa Speaker: The best bang-for-your-buck Echo now available in two flavors: with clock and without.
Am…