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Once again the MPAA has released its box-office numbers for the year, and once again, this year has smashed all records (as has been the case throughout our young century) (really!). As always, the astronomical rise-and-rise of their fortunes is somehow used to launch a call for more publicly subsidized enforcement against "piracy." (more…)

Google is updating the developer preview of its latest big Android update, Android N, to a new version today. The company has just released factory images of Developer Preview 2, which can be downloaded and manually installed on your device. But one of the great things about the now-public Android beta program is that you should be able to install the new build onto your Nexus 6P, 5X, 6, 9, or Pixel C just by heading to the settings menu and downloading the over-the-air update. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem that this method is working quite yet. So if you're impatient, grab the files.

We haven't yet explored the new stuff that Google has added to its first substantial N update, but we'll be updating our own Nexus gadgets to take a look...

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The staff of Half Moon pub in Herne Hill in south London maintain a pseudonymous list of customers who are permanently banned from the premises; their colorful descriptions are a thing of beauty. (more…)

I'll bet when Pennsylvania cops pulled Kimberlee Carbone over for not using her turn signal she didn't think it would result in her being shackled by her wrists and ankles to a hospital bed to get an internal inspection of her vagina and rectum.

Kimberlee Carbone was pulled over by New Castle police in November 2013, ostensibly because "she did not apply her turn signal at least 100 feet before the intersection." She was then subjected to a degrading five-hour ordeal that included a bogus DUI arrest, a search of her person and her car, a strip search at the county jail, and multiple probings of her anus and vagina at a hospital.

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Still determined to discover contraband, Geiser "performed a second internal examination of [Carbone's] vagina and rectum," then instructed two nurses to perform a third. They also swabbed her vagina "for testing." After none of these inspections turned up evidence of a crime, Maiella told Carbone she was free to go. She was discharged from the hospital at 9:15 p.m., having spent an hour and a half there and a total of five hours in police custody.

Thanks to a brain implant, Ian Burkhart can use his hand to play video games for the first time since the accident that broke his neck six years ago. The finding, published today in Nature, is the first instance of a person living with paralysis regaining the ability to move simply by thinking.

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While we've got our textual first impressions of the HTC 10 up and available for you, we've also got them in easy-to-digest video form! Mark Burstiner takes a quick look at the newest flagship from HTC in our latest set of moving pictures we have placed on the YouTube.

To give you the quick rundown: the HTC 10 is coming out here in the US in early May, and the unlocked version with 32GB of storage will sticker for $699.

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Video: First Impressions Of The HTC 10 was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Amazon’s philosophy with the Kindle line has been consistent for nearly 10 years now — to make the device disappear, by making it as close to paper as possible. However, with the release of its latest model, called the Kindle Oasis, Amazon is shining a spotlight on the Kindle design itself. It’s bringing its flagship e-reader back into the consumer tech conversation with a bold device, and it carries with it some new compromises.

The Oasis is brighter, smaller, and thinner. It’s also a whopping $290. The device’s funky new aesthetic is a surprise move for the relatively no-frills Kindle category, and yet it packs the the longest battery of any e-reader ever made. These changes raise interesting questions for book lovers: what do we...

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 True to earlier reports, Amazon’s Kindle Oasis is the smallest and lightest Kindle yet and comes with a handle for gripping. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos teased an “all-new, top of the line” Kindle last week and Chinese site Tmall.com sent the e-reader world in a tizzy when it accidentally unveiled details of Kindle’s newest addition to the family on Monday. The site… Read More

MPAA chairman and CEO Chris Dodd made his fifth keynote speech at CinemaCon yesterday, pouring buckets of cold water on the idea that piracy is somehow threatening the very existence of the movie industry.

“I’m proud to say that the state of our industry has never been stronger,” the former U.S. senator said.

Indeed. Yesterday the MPAA released its latest Theatrical Market Statistics Report which revealed that global box office revenues reached $38.3 billion in 2015, up 5% on 2014’s total. The United States and Canada turned in $11.1 billion with international box office revenues hitting $27.2 billion.

“To paraphrase Mark Twain, the death of the movies has been greatly exaggerated,” Dodd said.

Exaggeration was the name of the game four years ago during the SOPA debate, when one might have been forgiven for believing that Hollywood’s very existence was hanging by a thread. But now, according to the MPAA itself, things could hardly be better, with 708 films released in 2015 and those released by MPAA members up 8% on the previous year.

Almost 70% of the U.S./Canada population (235.3 million people) went to the cinema at least once in 2015, a 2% increase over 2014. Frequent movie goers who attended at least once a month accounted for 49% of all tickets sold in the same region. Indeed, the number of tickets purchased by everyone from hardcore fans to the very casual viewer increased last year.

But despite the impressive numbers (full report – pdf), the MPAA insists that piracy is still a problem. According to Dodd the box office would be more healthy to the tune of $1.5 billion if piracy could be brought under control.

There are plenty of theories on how that can be achieved, including making content more readily available to the consumer. The plan currently making the most noise along those lines is being touted by Napster co-founder Sean Parker, whose Screening Room project hopes to bring first-run movies into the home via a set-top box.

While at first this might sound like a recipe for spoiling record box office revenues, Screening Room has a trick up its sleeve. Customers prepared to pay the required $50 to watch at home would get two tickets to watch the movie in the cinema, which could either boost or at least maintain box office attendance.

Nevertheless, those in the movie screening business are less optimistic. Last month The Art House Convergence (AHC), a cinema group representing 600 theaters, said it “strongly opposes” the plan and warned that it would only fuel torrent sites and piracy.

Interestingly, however, Chris Dodd told reporters yesterday that the MPAA would meet with the people behind Screening Room.

“I want to hear what they have to say,” Dodd said.

Reading between the lines though, it seems unlikely that the MPAA is seriously thinking of signing on the dotted line. In his speech yesterday Dodd repeatedly underlined the unique experience offered by a theatrical screening.

“Despite the noisy suggestions otherwise, the cinema provides a unique and powerful experience that just cannot be re-created,” he said. One of his colleagues made things even more clear.

“I assure you, we are not going to let a third party or middleman come between [the studio and the cinema owners],” Warner Bros. Entertainment Chief Executive Kevin Tsujihara said during his presentation.

And those cinema owners have been vocal too. As reported by the LA Times, National Assn. of Theatre Owners chief John Fithian yesterday described Screening Room as a “big distraction” from the great results published by the MPAA, noting that “it’s up to the exhibitors and the distributors to decide the future of [release] windows.”

Interestingly, however, Fithian acknowledged that there may be some room for change.

“More sophisticated window modeling may be needed for the growing success of a modern movie industry,” he said.

Parker, standing by.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

What do you do when you’ve finally paid off your credit cards, student loan, or other debt? Where does the money you spend on those payments go? If you don’t have an answer to that question, get one before you pay it off.

As business and finance site Daily Worth points out, once your debt is paid off, you’ll have a bigger gap in your monthly budget where your payments used to be. That’s great news! It’s also easy to blow through that money if you don’t have a plan for what to do with it. Or worse, you could end up overspending and get right back to your current situation. At the very least, you should save some of that cash for a rainy day:

If you don’t have one already, setting up an emergency fund should be your first financial goal, Liz Davidson, founder and CEO of Financial Finesse, says. In her experience working with clients for 17 years, the people who have saved enough money to cover three to six months of expenses are less likely to end up in debt again. “The biggest things that trigger us to go back into debt are those unexpected expenses,” she says. “An emergency fund is an automatic failsafe.”

After you’ve paid off your credit cards, you can set aside some money for an emergency fund, start contributing more to tax-deferred retirement accounts like a 401(k), or just enjoy a month or two where you’re not living at the margin. By having a plan for your debt payments before you pay off your debt, you’ll be better prepared to handle the influx of new money after you pay it off.

So You’ve Paid Off Your Credit Card Debt — Now What? | Daily Worth

Photo by frankieleon.

You know those fake "download" buttons you see when you're searching for old Super NES ROMs completely legitimate open-source software? The kind that advertising networks sometimes spit out even on otherwise above-board sites? Yeah, they're awful, and they often link directly to copycat or malicious files. Google hates them as much as you do, and is taking steps to make them less effective. Starting today, Chrome browsers on all platforms will warn visitors to sites with potentially misleading or fake "download" ads.

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Chrome Safe Browsing Now Warns Against Fake 'Download' Buttons And Other Deceptive Ads was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

 Google Calendar has launched a feature called Goals that uses machine learning to help you figure out when you have time to pencil in stuff like spending time with your family or exercise. The feature is now available for Calendar’s Android and iOS apps. Read More

The very first teaser trailer for Marvel's Doctor Strange has arrived. Here we get a closer look at Benedict Cumberbatch in his role as Dr. Stephen Strange, the next Sorcerer Supreme. And already it's a much darker and much, much weirder world than what we've already seen in the Marvel films.

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Some people fall asleep better by listening to music. If that sounds like you, check out this collection of music tracks, which correspond to the five stages of sleep.

A Strangely Isolated Place, a music community and record label, offers this compilation. Here’s the thinking behind the music choices:

During this exploration, I found several themes or styles of music that I enjoy falling asleep to. So instead of listing out individual tracks in a random order, I’ve separated out the music by the five stages of the sleep cycle and given them each a theme / style of music that matches.

Sleep cycles are apparently 90-minutes long, so you’ll find two mixes accompanying this feature, (two cycles each consisting of 90-minutes) with each mix made up of the five sleep stages. The selection includes some my favorites, as well as suggestions from a few readers via Facebook and Twitter. Thank you to all who suggested albums, and made compiling this feature a new journey for me in many instances.

The tracks are all ambient and from artists like Brian Eno and Biosphere. Depending on the stage of sleep, the music might feature space-like sounds, pulsing beats, or soft melodies.

Although there’s no guarantee you’ll fall asleep to this music or you’ll even enjoy it, it’s an interesting approach and one you could copy when compiling your own sleep playlists. You can listen to or download the music for each sleep cycle below.

Portals: Music for Sleeping | A Strangely Isolated Place

Photo by Daniel E Bruce.

Facebook's F8 conference may be aimed at developers, but it's when the company announces some of its biggest news of the year and previews services and features that all of its users are going to see over the coming months. We're reporting live from the event in San Francisco. You can follow along here for all of the updates.

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https://youtu.be/Bu3SDZSGlxo

The folks at This Old House use clear plastic plumbing to explain how bathroom sinks work, and how to unclog them.

We live in an old house and the pipes get clogged a lot. My favorite bathroom sink unclogger is the Drain Weasel.

See also: What do you do when you've got a plumbing clog?

At least 400 people were arrested at a Democracy Spring demonstration at the US Capitol yesterday. The protesters were calling for controls on the influence of big money over politics. (more…)

Welcome to the roundup of the best new Android applications, games, and live wallpapers that went live in the Play Store or were spotted by us in the previous 2 weeks or so.

Games

Operation Dracula

Android Police coverage: Operation Dracula Is A New 'Bullet Hell' Shooter From Crescent Moon Games

Crescent Moon's latest game on the Play Store is a loving throwback to some of the more ridiculous top-down space shooters of yore.

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36 New And Notable Android Games From The Last 2 Weeks (3/29/16 – 4/11/16) was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

New legislation proposed in New York could compel drivers of vehicles involved in accidents to submit their phone for testing with a "textalyzer" — technology that can tell whether the phone was in use prior to or during the crash. If approved, the test could be administered on the side of the road like to the Breathalyzers currently used to check a driver's blood-alcohol level, ostensibly indicating whether someone could have been driving distracted.

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More than a billion people have a disability. And regardless of the country or community they live in, the gaps in opportunity for people with disabilities are striking: One in three people with a disability lives in poverty. In places like the United States, 50 to 70 percent of people with disabilities are unemployed; in developing countries that number increases to 80 to 90 percent. And only 10 percent of people with disabilities in developing countries have access to the assistive devices they need.

Last spring, Google.org kicked off the Google Impact Challenge: Disabilities, an open call to global nonprofits who are building transformative technologies for the billion people around the world with disabilities. We’ve been amazed by the ideas we’ve received, coming from 1,000+ organizations spanning 88 countries. We’ve shared a handful of the organizations we’re supporting already—and today we’re excited to share the full list of 30 winners.
The organizations we’re supporting all have big ideas for how technology can help create new solutions, and each of their ideas has the potential to scale. Each organization has also committed to open sourcing their technology—which helps encourage and speed up innovation in a sector that has historically been siloed. Meet some of our incredible grantees below, and learn more about all 30 organizations working to improve mobility, communication, and independence for people living with disabilities at g.co/disabilities.

The Center for Discovery, $1.125 million Google.org grant
Power wheelchairs help provide greater independence to people with mobility limitations—allowing them to get around without a caregiver, or travel longer distances. But power chairs are expensive and often not covered by insurance, leaving many people limited to manual wheelchairs.

With their Google.org grant, the Center for Discovery will continue developing an open source power add-on device, the indieGo, which quickly converts any manual wheelchair into a power chair. The power add-on will provide the mobility and freedom of a power chair for around one-seventh the average cost, and will allow people who mainly use a manual wheelchair to have the option of using power when they need it. The device design will be open sourced to increase its reach—potentially improving mobility for hundreds of thousands of people.

Perkins School for the Blind, $750,000 Google.org grant
Turn-by-turn GPS navigation allows people with visual impairments to get around, but once they get in vicinity of their destination, they often struggle to find specific locations like bus stops or building entrances that GPS isn’t precise enough to identify. (This is often called the “last 50 feet problem.”) Lacking the detailed information they need to find specific new places, people tend to limit themselves to familiar routes, leading to a less independent lifestyle.

With the support of Google.org, Perkins School for the Blind is building tools to crowdsource data from people with sight to help people navigate the last 50 feet. Using an app, people will log navigation clues in a standard format, which will be used to create directions that lead vision-impaired people precisely to their intended destination. Perkins School for the Blind is collaborating with transit authorities who will provide access to transportation data and support Perkin’s mission of making public transportation accessible to everyone.
Perkins School for the Blind employee, Joann Becker, travels by bus. It can be hard for people with visual impairments to locate the exact location of bus stops and other landmarks.

Miraclefeet, $1 million Google.org grant
An estimated 1 million children currently live with untreated clubfoot, a lifelong disability that often leads to isolation, limited access to education, and poverty. Clubfoot can be treated without surgery, but treatment practices are not widely used in many countries around the world.

Miraclefeet partners with local healthcare providers to increase access to proper treatment for children born with clubfoot. They will use Google.org support to offer support to families via SMS, monitor patient progress through updated software, and provide extensive online training to local clinicians. To date, Miraclefeet has helped facilitate treatment for more than 13,000 children in 13 different countries; this effort will help them significantly scale up their work to reach thousands more.
Miraclefeet helps partners use a simple, affordable brace as part of the clubfoot treatment. Here, a doctor in India shows a mother how to use the miraclefeet brace.

Ezer Mizion and Click2Speak, $400,000 Google.org grant
People with high cognitive function but impaired motor skills often have a hard time communicating—both speaking or using standard keyboards to type. Augmentative and alternative communication devices (AAC) help people more easily communicate, but are often unaffordable and restricted to specific platforms or inputs. Without an AAC, people may have difficulty maintaining personal relationships and professional productivity.

Ezer Mizion is working with Click2Speak to build an affordable, flexible, and customizable on-screen keyboard that allows people to type without use of their hands. With the grant from Google.org, Ezer Mizion and Click2Speak will gather more user feedback to improve the technology, including support for additional languages, operating systems, and different devices like switches, joysticks, or eye-tracking devices.
A young girl learns to use the Click2Speak on-screen keyboard with a joystick controller.

From employment to education, communication to mobility, each of our grantees is pushing innovation for people with disabilities forward. In addition to these grants, we’re always working to make our own technology more accessible, and yesterday we shared some of the latest on this front, including voice typing in Google Docs and a new tool that helps Android developers build more accessible apps. With all these efforts, our aim to create a world that works for everyone.

Posted by Brigitte Hoyer Gosselink, Google Impact Challenge: Disabilities Project Lead for Google.org https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-J50ZW-AEU9c/VwyJfVtGC0I/AAAAAAAASJs/geghloVcOQwGeoxmy2bURYFoZipAMIe0gCLcB/s1600/miraclefeet.jpg Brigitte Hoyer Gosselink Google Impact Challenge: Disabilities Project Lead Google.org

HTC is today formally announcing the 10, its flagship smartphone for 2016. The HTC 10 follows last year's M9 and blends the design of the M series with the A9 that came last fall. HTC says it spent 12 months designing this phone and integrated feedback from its customers throughout the development process.

The 10 (there's no One or M in the phone's name this year, it's just 10) has everything you might expect from a flagship Android phone in 2016. There's a 5.2-inch, quad HD Super LCD 5 display that HTC says displays 30 percent more color than last year's phone. The screen is covered in Gorilla Glass with curved edges that blend into the phone's metal frame.

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Eventually, we'll all be paying $9.99 for Netflix. Until the price goes up again, anyway. A massive wave of Netflix's longtime customers will see their monthly subscriptions move to that price point next month, up $2 from the glory-days price of $7.99. $9.99 is what new subscribers to the company's most popular plan have been getting charged since October. But even before that, Netflix had announced a different price hike — from $7.99 to $8.99 — in May 2014. Back then, Netflix promised to let existing customers keep paying the old $7.99 for another two years. And that's where many of us (myself included, per the image below) have stayed. Everything changes next month, when we get hit with the higher $9.99 subscription cost. Netflix has...

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Amazon has a new, top-of-the-line Kindle announcement coming at some point this week, but a Tmall page (that went down while I was writing this story) has spoiled the details before Jeff Bezos' grand reveal. It's called the Kindle Oasis, according to the page, and right away you'll notice the large bezel on the right side — or left, depending on how you prefer to hold it. Sure, it's a bit unsightly, but I can see the appeal; it's probably more comfortable to hold one-handed, and those large page turn buttons mean you'll never have to gunk up the screen with fingerprints.

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https://youtu.be/3IQ2I-P8Ucw

Valerie Taylor has visited a spotted moray eel for years, and the pair have become "great friends."

[via]

I’m a backpack addict, and trust me: The wrong backpack means you’re stuck with an uncomfortable, awkward bag, all day. A few simple choices will make sure you choose the best in comfort, style, and convenience. I’ve found some common ground through my many, many backpacks that can help you choose yours.

Strap Comfort 101: Never Ignore the Seams

Have you ever worn a backpack that sagged on your back and just didn’t rest nicely like you wanted it to? Padding can help, but bags often sag because of how their straps are sewn onto the bag. Adjustable straps can help here, but you also need to pay attention to how the bag was built.

Most backpacks have adjustable straps, and you shouldn’t buy one that doesn’t. Unfortunately, those straps loosen with use and you’ll have to readjust them regularly. To make sure you get it right every time, mark the straps where they’re most comfortable. Fill it up your usual carry, put it on your back, and then adjust the straps to a place where you feel comfortable walking around. Before taking the bag off, mark the location of the straps with a marker or, if you dare, cut a small notch in the side. (See below for an example.) I like the notch better because you can’t see it easily and therefore won’t harm the look of the bag, plus you can feel exactly where to adjust the straps. That’ll save you some neck strain. As you carry your bag around, you can mitigate some slack by carrying your backpack short distances by its top handle, and you should definitely buy a backpack with a top handle.

That’s great if you have a bag already, but if you’re shopping or a new one, look at how the backpack straps are sewn into the top. When the straps look like they were just sewn on and hang off the top, they’ll loosen at the seams over time, and cause your sagging problem. If the straps look like they were folded a bit and form a curve, you will get better support from the bag. Check out the picture below for an example.

Bags with nice straps might cost a little more, but your back will thank you for it in the long run.

Bags with all the right straps:

• Timbuk2 Uptown
• Incase ICON
• Incase Reform
• Incase Staple
• Ampl Smart Backpack

Consider Color Carefully (or Always Go Gray)

Backpacks mostly come in black, but you’ll still find plenty in a variety of ugly and beautiful colors alike. Even a puke-green rucksack can work for you if it suits your style. When choosing the right color, do yourself a favor by focusing on how it matches the way you dress rather than whether or not it looks good alone. Backpacks can occupy anywhere from about 20-50% of the visual space your body fills (rough estimate obviously, not statistics) depending on your size, so if you throw that puke-green rucksack against your black business suit or dress, it’ll probably stand out, and maybe not in the way you intended.

However, if you wear black to work, you can get away with a lot of different colors so long as they don’t clash with any other accents in your repertoire. For men, that often just means a choice of ties or shirts. Women have more options, but with black garments you don’t have much to worry about. Only scarves, jewelry, or other accent clothing really conflicts. Either way, if you like black, consider a black bag. It’ll match no matter what.

That said, most jobs let you wear business casual or casual clothes, so this may not be an issue. That, of course, leads to more color in workplace clothing, so if you want to make sure your bag will always match your look, get a gray bag. Generally speaking, gray blends well with everything without causing too much contrast like black can. Darker grays like charcoal tend to work better, just so long as they’re a bit lighter than pitch black.

Of course, if you want to get colorful, you should go for it. Before you do, just brush up on your color theory so you can find something that compliments your style.

Bags with great gray and color options:

• Herschel Heritage Series
• Bronze Times Briefcase Backpack
• Timbuk2 Custom Prospect
• Timbuk2 Showdown
• Birksun Boost Classic

Know Your Storage Scheme

A traditional backpack has a front pocket for quick access and then just a giant empty space for whatever you want to do with it. For some people that’s fine, but most of us prefer a little more organization. Before you choose a bag with helpful storage slots and pockets though, you need to understand what works best for you.

For example, lots of tiny pockets may sound great, but for me at least, very little that I’d actually carry around fits into them well. I also don’t carry 20 pens so I don’t need a bunch of pen slots. I like spaces for things like hard drives, external batteries, notepads, note cards, business cards, and things like that. As a result, I have a highly variant storage scheme. I need pockets and spaces of all shapes and sizes—plus a couple of slots for a pen.

To figure out what you need, grab some paper and put your pocketable objects on top of it. Go ahead and trace all those rectangles—it gives you a visual representation of your stuff. You can even take that paper with you when buying a new bag to check if the pockets will suit your needs. If that all seems a little tedious and nutty to you, just lay your usual carry out on the table and take a photo. You won’t be able to match it up when backpack shopping, but you’ll at least have a reference for what you plan to store in case your memory fails you.

Bags with great and/or clever storage schemes:

• Timbuk2 Uptown
• Timbuk2 Showdown
• Bronze Times Briefcase Backpack
• Polaris Anti-Theft Laptop Bag
• Snugg Premium Rucksack

Never Neglect Quick Access Pockets

I love quick access pockets (QAPs). Who wouldn’t? When you need something and it’s just a quick zip away, that’s always better than digging through deep pockets to find what you’re looking for. Too many small pockets cause their own problems, but you’ll rarely find a bag with too few fast methods for getting your favorite stuff.

Pay attention to the size of the quick access pockets on the bag you’re interested in buying. A spacious pocket is good, but one that’s too deep makes it hard to get your hand inside your bag, and easy for small items to get lost. Top pockets are particularly bad about this in bags with fold-over tops. You can get by if you only stuff a few thin, small items inside, but once you load that pocket up with too many goodies you’ll have trouble getting around the bulk. Good bags hide the quick access pocket inside the bag and use one zipper for full access. Furthermore, pockets in the posterior—the part of your bag that rests against your back—rarely work out because they make the bag feel stiff or bumpy, since you can feel the contents right against your back.

My favorite quick access pockets are the ones on the sides of the bag. You can access them easily when wearing your backpack, and if they add any bulk to the bag it’ll be towards the bottom. In some cases, it can even provide a helpful foundation. If you do want a bag with a topside quick access pocket, however, look for one that doesn’t have its own zipper and/or doesn’t take up too much space.

Bags that do quick access pockets right:

• Incase Reform
• Timbuk2 Uptown
• Timbuk2 Walker
• Snugg Premium Rucksack
• Tylt Energi+ Backpack

Commute in Comfort

When you shove everything you need for the day in a bag, you might not like how it feels against your back. Imagine going to the drug store, picking up a variety of items, storing them in a thin plastic bag, and then tying it to your back for the walk home. That probably wouldn’t feel very good. That’s why some backpacks have padding, and you should invest in one that does.

You don’t need a crazy amount of padding to make your back feel better and you can easily figure out how much works for you. If you can fill up the bag and it doesn’t lose its form against your back, congratulations—it’ll do! But you do want to consider the type of padding as well. Backpacks can create a lot of heat against your body (especially if you have a laptop stuffed in there) and most of us don’t want damp, sweaty clothing when we get to work (or anywhere). You can’t prevent this entirely, but breathable mesh makes a difference. Basically, when seeking the ideal padding on your bag just look for holes. If you see puffy padding with holes, like the example above, you’re golden.

Bags that do padding right:

• Incase Reform
• Incase ICON
• Snugg Premium Rucksack
• Evecase Lightweight Laptop Backpack
• Timbuk2 Showdown

Stay Charged

You probably have a fair number of gadgets you’ll need to carry around in your backpack, too. You probably put them in your bag every day and take them out every night to charge. That’s fine, but I highly recommend finding a battery with an interior space for an USB battery (like this one above) to have a little extra power on the go. That way you don’t need to take your items out of the bag and plug them in to charge, and you can charge your gadgets while you walk around, or keep your bag secure and near you.

If you want to step things up though, you can build battery charging directly into your bag. It’s surprisingly not difficult, and I did it a while ago with a small messenger bag. This way you can plug your devices into your bag to charge, and then just plug the whole bag into the wall when you get home. Most people will find this overkill, but if you find charging all your devices as annoying as I do, you’ll appreciate a single-plug solution.

Bags that make charging easier:

• Incase Reform
• Ivation 3W Solar Backpack
• Ampl Smart Backpack
• Tylt Energi+ Backpack
• Birksun Boost Classic

Pick a Bag That Makes You Happy!

More than anything, just pick something you like! Don’t stress about finding the “perfect” bag. Trust me, it doesn’t exist. Even if it did, your needs would change over time and you’d have to adapt your bag to fit, or replace it entirely. Have fun, pick something you enjoy, and keep these tips in mind so that it’s one you’ll want to keep around for a long time.

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Adam Dachis is a Los Angeles-based writer and consultant. You’ll find him writing and making stuff over at Awkward Human, including his podcast the Awkward Human Survival Guide.

 The parent company of U.K. tabloid Daily Mail may make a bid for Yahoo’s news and media businesses. According to the WSJ, the Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) has held discussions with several private equity firms to partner on an offer. Read More

If you’ve ever lived in a big city like New York, Paris, or Tokyo then you understand the compromise you make regarding space. After looking at rents you quickly give up dreams of having a guest bedroom, a full-sized kitchen with large American fridge, a bathtub, a home cinema, or a home gym. Instead, many rent simple studios with their bed, kitchen, table and chairs all in the same room. Not Michelle and Andy though, who had the good fortune of working with Laab’s architects to convert their 309-square-foot Hong Kong apartment into a transformable and adaptable home that’s nothing less than incredible.

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