Your pets can order their own doggone food with Amazon Petlexa!

Amazon Echo’s intelligent assistant, Alexa, just got about a hundred times cooler with a new feature called ”Petlexa.” With Petlexa, your dogs, cats, hamsters, gerbils, snakes, lizards, kangaroos, pandas, koalas, jellyfish, sea urchins, lions, tigers, and bears can communicate with the smart assistant!

With Petlexa your dog can use the Amazon Echo, Dot, or Tap to order its own food from Amazon; your cat can turn on its favorite Beethoven Symphony and kick back with a little catnip; your pet raccoon can use Alexa’s smart home controls to have a house party while you’re away; your snake can listen to the latest episode of Serial … basically, the possibilities are just as endless for your pet as they are for you.

A word of warning before you go enabling this feature: I flipped the switch and my dogs instantly took to barking out Amazon orders for treats, toys, and overstuffed microfiber velvet pet beds. When I…

Our friends at Thrifter are back again, this time with a way to grab Dash Buttons for just $1!

Amazon’s Dash Buttons are an extremely easy way to reorder the supplies that you use the most in your house, and right now Amazon Prime members can grab them for $0.99 with the coupon code DASHBDAY. Normally the buttons cost $4.99 each, and then you receive a $4.99 credit after using it for the first time, but right now you can pick up a discounted one and still get the same credit. That means that you’ll effectively make $4 on each button that you buy and use (limit of 3), so be sure to check them all out.

If you aren’t already a member of Amazon’s Prime service, you can sign up for a free 30-day trial to take advantage of this offer and others. Some of the discounted Dash Buttons include:

Household and Office
Beverage & Grocery
Health, Beauty & Apparel
Kids, Baby & Pets
Music, Sports & Outdoors
Amazon Exclusives & More
This sale is in celebration of the Dash Button’…

Social media can lead to some pretty terrible interactions; stay safe online with these tips!

Social media is one of the best features of the modern internet but it’s also one of the worst features of the modern internet.

🤔

What I’m saying is the connective power of the internet — the way it allows us to communicate with friends and loved ones all over the world — is pretty spectacular. But that connective power also gives ill-intentioned individuals access to the things you post online. It’s not always doom and gloom, but it’s always a good idea to keep your safety and security in mind. With all that in mind, here are a few tips for staying safe on social media.

Private or public?

Most social media networks give you the option to maintain a private or public profile. Generally speaking, anyone can view a public social media profile. A private profile, on the other hand, usually requires some form of permission. Some social media networks, like Facebook, gi…

Almost a year after its announcement, Apple has opened its App Accelerator facility in Bengaluru, India.

Apple has announced the opening of its new App Accelerator in Bengaluru, India. The Accelerator offers developers guidance and support as they develop their apps, with a number of session presentations from Apple experts, along with collaborative labs on Apple technology implementation, design, and more.

The center offers help with iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS, according to Apple:

The new App Accelerator provides a unique opportunity to get inspired by learning about the latest advances in Apple platforms directly from Apple experts in Bengaluru, India. We’ll show you how to take advantage of the powerful capabilities in iOS, watchOS, tvOS, and macOS—so you can create your most innovative apps yet.

Attending the App Accelerator is free, with only an Apple ID and developer account required to attend.

Apple originally announced the Bengaluru App Accelerator last spri…

The infamous egg is leaving Twitter. It’s hatched into a person-shaped icon of some sort.

Twitter’s default profile photo has received an update. The now-infamous egg has been replaced with a person-shaped icon.

Twitter’s Design team is behind the change. The group says there are three reasons for the update:

To encourage self expression.
The egg was too ”fun and cute,” so a more serious icon should encourage people to change it.
Egg accounts are often associated with harassment, which meant new accounts that had no intention to harass would be unfairly associated with the negative behavior.
If you’re curious about the design decisions behind the new avatar, there’s a post on Twitter’s blog that goes into more detail.

Thoughts on the updated avatar

In terms of encouraging people to update and personalize their accounts, I can see how this change makes since. The egg was a cute idea: Being new to Twitter meant you were a bird who had yet to hatch. But if I had to guess I’d say …

Live Bright, indeed.

It’s a grey and dreary afternoon in Boston today, but Apple has me itching to go find the color in my life (probably at our nearby Planet Fitness) after watching the company’s new Apple Watch ad, ”Live Bright”:

I’m terrified of heights and hate running, and yet I suddenly have an urge to go parachuting and experience a color run. Dammit, Apple.

In all seriousness, this is how you sell the Apple Watch: Show it persevering through all manner of amazing athletic situations. (I only wish they’d have come and filmed our last roller derby game, which took place on St Patrick’s Day weekend and involved plenty of color.)

There’s also something to be said about tying the watch to the ”fitspo” lifestyle as opposed to the Series 1’s fashion-conscious angle. The watch is gorgeous, but where it truly shines is in its abilities — and active women, men, and kids throughout the world are a great way to show those off at their most exciting.

But really, kid up…

How can I access an album from the Music app?

If there’s one thing we know about the Music app, it’s that it’s changed a lot over the years. Finding something like the song that’s been stuck in your head or an over-played playlist can take a second or two to figure out, and the same goes for finding a favorite album!

Here’s how you can access an album of your choice from the Music app so you can start listening to those sweet, sweet tunes!

How to access an album from the Music app
How to sort your albums in the Music app
How to shuffle your albums in the Music app

How to access an album from the Music app

Launch the Music app from your homescreen.
Tap Library at the bottom of your screen if it’s not already selected. If it is selected, the icon will be bright red.
Tap Albums under the Library header.

You can now tap and select an album to play it!

How to sort your albums in the Music app

Sometimes having your albums organized makes it a bit easier to find what you’re lo…

Our friends at Thrifter are back again, this time with some great savings on storage solutions for World Backup Day!

In celebration of World Backup Day retailers like Amazon, Best Buy, and others have a number of storage products on sale to help you with keeping all your data safe. Whether you want a portable option or something that sits permanently on your desk, we’ve got you covered.

Backing up your computer is quite important, no one wants to lose all their pictures, music, videos and more because you didn’t invest in a way to keep it all safe. Here are some of the best deals to check out, and there are plenty more as well.

Seagate Backup Plus 3TB External HDD – $71.99 (normally $89.99)
Seagate Backup Plus 4TB External HDD – $87.99 (normally $109.99)
Seagate 1TB Firecuda Gaming 2.5-inch Internal HDD – $55.99 (normally $69.99)
WD 6TB My Cloud Personal Network Attached Storage – $209.99 (normally $255.99)
WD Elements 3TB External Portable HDD – $89….

A very different, albeit, enjoyable game set in The Elder Scrolls universe.

When Bethesda announced that The Elder Scrolls: Legends was hitting the iPad, I wasted no time hitting the download button. I used to be a big fan of Magic the Gathering and spent a fair bit of time (as well as money) playing its iOS game Magic the Gathering: Duels.

Naturally, I had to see how The Elder Scrolls: Legends held up against one of the most popular strategy cards games out there and I couldn’t be more pleased that I decided to try it out.

Play The Elder Scrolls: Legends today!

Story & Setting

If you’re familiar with other popular strategy card games, you know that the story usually isn’t anything special, but for what it’s worth, Bethesda did pack some storytelling into the game.

”As someone who isn’t super familiar with The Elder Scrolls universe, I felt a little lost while trying to follow along”

When you first get started, you’re treated to a scene depicting a group of people si…

Digital painting is amazing, offering you brilliant new ways of producing jaw-dropping works of art right from the comfort of your desktop or laptop screen. But while the tools for creating digital art have become more accessible, the craft still takes a ton of patience, skill, and determination to learn and master. Digital painting also requires the right software to make your works of art come alive and getting your hands on that software costs some serious dough.

Professional digital painting courses for over 65% off! Learn more

If you have been wanting to try your hand at creating your own digital art and didn’t know where to start or you’re a digital artist looking to broaden your skills, iMore Digital Offers has the perfect solution.

Right now, through iMore Digital Offers you can receive The Corel Painter 2017 Bundle for a fraction of the normal price!

This bundle gives you not one, but two great digital painting software programs — Corel Painter and Aftershot 3…