The best lightbulbs for a teenager's bedroom

The best lightbulbs for a teenager’s bedroom Being a teenager isn’t easy and sometimes being a parent of a teen is no walk in the park either. Years are spent arguing over important matters and silly stuff, such as why the lights are always on in your kid’s bedroom, day and night, even when he isn’t there. And that stay-out-of-my-room vibe teens give off? They mean it. Happily, you can solve both these dilemmas by replacing your teenager’s lightbulbs with long-lasting, energy-saving LEDs. They don’t cost as much to run as other lightbulbs and last for years so you won’t have to venture past the “Keep Out” sign until long after junior has gone off to college. And you’ll have one less thing to argue about. Why this is smart LEDs use a lot less electricity so they’re cheaper to use than halogen bulbs, and they use slightly less energy than CFLs. And LEDs last much longer. Typically, they’re supposed to last 23 years or longer when they’re on three hours a day. Even if they’re on 12 hours a day you won’t have to change them until the teen years have passed.     Choosing the right light color Pick LEDs with a warmer light color and less blue, or cooler light—LEDs around 2700 Kelvin—for bedroom lamps and fixtures. You’ll see light color indicated on the Lighting Facts label on the LED package and in our lightbulb Ratings. LEDs emit more blue light than CFLs and halogen bulbs, and while any light can suppress melatonin, the hormone that facilitates sleep, research has shown that human eyes are especially sensitive to blue. For light that’s as bright as 60-watt incandescents and warm yellow, consider these CR Best Buys: Feit Electric 9.5W, Philips SlimStyle A19 Soft White, each $7, and Great Value (Walmart) 60W Soft White A19, $9, among others that are recommended and those that came close. And if you want to read more about blue light, see “Do lightbulbs need a health warning label?” To minimize exposure to blue light, our medical experts suggest shutting off smart phones and other electronic devices a few hours before turning in. Sounds easy, unless you’re a teenager.  —Kimberly Janeway  Consumer Reports has no relationship with any advertisers on this website. Copyright © 2006-2015 Consumers Union of U.S.

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Hands-on with Google Photos

Hands-on with Google Photos Are your photos of family and friends important to you? Of course, they are. But organizing them can be torturous. If you’re like me, you’ve shot photos and video with lots of devices. You have images and video stored on a variety of smartphones, tablets, cameras and probably computer hard drives, too. And that means you never have them all in one place to look at, sort, edit, or share. I’m continually asking myself: Did I shoot those photos on my phone or SLR? Did I back them up on my computer? And where the heck is that precious shot I took of my kids last year? This is the problem Google has tried to fix with Google Photos, a recently introduced web service and mobile app (for iOS and Android). It’s an online photo organization and backup tool that offers free unlimited storage, along with a unique act of digital magic: The service scans your photos, IDs people and places, and groups everything accordingly. Then it will even create its own animations and collages using your material. I’ve spent the past few weeks testing Google Photos. Overall I have seen a lot to like, but I’ve also uncovered a couple of privacy concerns—and a few glitches. Google Photos vs. the competition To test the site, I uploaded a relatively small batch of photos and videos from my phone—about 1100 photos and 45 HD videos. I also uploaded a bunch of pictures from my computer. The process was easy, but it did take a long time—about 24 hours—to complete. You’ve got two options for backup and storage when you set up a Google Drive account. You can get unlimited storage of photos up to 16 megapixels and HD videos (up to 1080); or you can choose 15 GB of storage for image and video files of any size. If you choose the limited option you’ll actually be tapping into your Google Drive storage allotment; Google offers paid options if you go beyond 15 GB. I chose the unlimited option, and 16 megapixels is plenty for the majority of shooters. However, it may not be a good choice for serious photographers. If you’re shooting with the 50-megapixel Canon EOS 5D S, your super-detailed photos will be downsized to 16-megapixel shots. And if you shoot 4K ultra-high-definition movies your videos will be downsized.   So, how does Google Photos compare to its competitors? There are a number of them out there, but none offer free unlimited storage. The one that comes closest is Flickr, which offers users a massive 1 terabyte for free. One major advantage of that service is that Flickr stores photos uncompressed and doesn’t scale them down. Your pictures from that Canon EOS 5D S won’t lose anything when they arrive on Flickr’s servers. (Additionally, Flickr has more comprehensive editing tools.) The other photo storage services offer far less storage space. For instance, Apple’s iCloud Photo Library offers just 5GB of free storage. If you need more, you’ll pay a monthly fee: 20 GB (about $1), 200 GB (about $4), 500 GB (about $10) and 1 TB (about $20). There’s also Amazon Prime, which offers a “free” unlimited photo plan—provided you have a $99 yearly subscription. Interface One thing I like about the Google Photos app and service is its clean and consistent interface; it looks very much the same across platforms—that’s not true for some of its competitors. Whether you’re using iOS or Android, or any browser on either a Mac or PC, you can get access to your photos using the tools, positioned in the same spots on the screen. (There are some features available on the app that aren’t available on the web browser.)  In general, I was impressed with the help and tutorial features on Google Photos. For example, I loved the introductory “cards” that you scroll through, which run through the process of uploading and organizing your photos and videos. More comprehensive help features are found in the app’s Assistant section: It provides quick step-by-steps on how to accomplish various tasks, such as removing an incorrect photo or video. It also suggests groups of photos that may make a great animated GIF. (It will often pick out groups of photos taken in a burst.) And it gives you access to a help forum, where you might be able to find information from others who have experienced the same problem.   Importing and searching photos One of the biggest problems people face in the age of unlimited photo-shooting is that it’s getting harder and harder to find any one image. Google Photo tries to solve that by applying facial recognition (plus Disney, skiing, beach, and Vegas recognition) to every photo that gets uploaded. This was the feature I was most interested in exploring. Once my images and videos were imported, I tried searching through them. When I typed in “baseball” in the search bar, I came up with several photos of my son at Yankee Stadium and from Little League. Google also added another layer of automatic search and categorization to this app. Once your uploads are complete, hit the magnifying glass (either on the app or web version), and photos are divided into People, Places and Things.   How well did Google Photos categorize my images? For the four members of my immediate family, including myself, the app did a decent job of grouping shots from the past several years. However, there were some mistakes and glitches with this automation. The service didn’t group baby shots of my son together with photos taken when he was older. However, it did succeed in doing that for with my daughter’s baby shots—perhaps because she has red hair, which may be an easily identifiable characteristic. One glitch was actually pretty fun: On my phone, I had images of my college friends. Google Photos grouped some images of one of my college friends together with a shot of my son and I standing next to a Yankees monument to Babe Ruth, which includes a relief sculpture of the Hall of Famer. I can only guess that Google Photos identified the smile of the Great Bambino with my college buddy’s grin! While People and Places worked fairly well, I was disappointed in the Things section. I have tons of shots of guitars, but they didn’t automatically show up under Things. One broad criticism I have of Google Photos is that it doesn’t allow you to manually tag your photos, or change the automatically applied tags. Many photographers I know take a lot of time to set up tagging and keywords on their photos—none of that works in Photos. Editing and creations Two more important areas of the app are the editing and creations features. Unlike some photo apps, Google Photos has a minimalist approach to its editing features. You only have a handful to choose from: Light, Color, Pop (which provides a high-dynamic range type of effect), and a Vignette feature. You also have access to a number of Instagram-like filters and a cropping tool. Lastly, you can opt to use an Auto feature, which combines several of these editing features. As I noted earlier, I think Google Photos offers too few editing tools: In particular, the app needs more manual and granular editing functions if it wants to be competitive with services such as Flickr. Google Photos also includes ways of creatively combining images. One is via its animations feature, which lets you quickly combine images into an animated GIF, which I found to be addictive and fun. Another way is to create a narrative segment in its Story feature (only available on the mobile app, not on the computer), which lets you combine the images or video with text to highlight an event or maybe a trip. For me, this feature wasn’t quite as intuitive as the GIF creation tool, but I think it has a lot of promise. Google Photos will also build its own animations and collages using your photos. The app sends you text messages to let you know that the app has generated a new file, and you can then choose whether to save it. I found the suggestions to be hit or miss, but I did choose to save several of them. Privacy concerns There are some aspects of Google Photos that may raise privacy concerns. The most pressing is that when you want to share your photos, you can send a weblink, which generates a page displaying the number of photos you selected to send. The people you share the photos with can then download the photos they want from that webpage. The upside is that it’s convenient to send lots of photos without clogging up someone’s email service. But there’s a big downside: This link can be shared with anyone. I asked Google about this security issue and got an email back from a product manager: “The links are secret, not indexed by web crawlers, and mathematically impossible to guess, so effectively the ‘password’ is baked into the link itself. If you give it to someone, they can access the photos. However, you have full control to revoke that link at any time.” But you won’t know if someone has sent that link on to someone else and compromised your security. Google says there’s no way for your photos or videos to accidentally appear in Google’s public search, unless you decide to share them and make them public.   A larger concern may be how Google could eventually try to monetize the vast amounts of photo and video data its users will be uploading to the company’s servers. After all, Google’s business is based on providing free services and using the resulting data to sell ads. I wondered if Google planned use the metadata attached to users’ photos for placing online ads. For example, would I start seeing advertisements for ski jackets because I post and back up a lot of skiing photos? According to the company, the answer is no—at least for now. In an email, a representative said: “Our first priority—as with most products that Google builds—is to get the user experience right. So we’re not focused on monetization right now. Google Photos will not use images or videos uploaded onto Google Photos commercially for any promotional purposes, unless we ask for the user’s explicit permission.” We’ll keep an eye on how this develops. Highs, lows, and bottom line Although I was impressed with most of what Google Photos has to offer, I did have issues with some aspects of it. For example, Google Photos should have a way to more securely share photos than just sending out a URL. At the least, I’d like to see it include an option for signing in to the webpage. (Consumer Reports has an extensive guide to protecting yourself online.) In terms of features, photographers could benefit from stronger editing options, and a way to tag images manually. Most casual photographers will probably be okay with the 16 megapixels or 1080 HD video limits. But I do believe it will be an issue for more serious photographers, even with the ability to back up photos and video at original resolutions without downsizing them. However, I was very impressed with the service’s ability to quickly group like images via face recognition, geotagging and landmarks within photos. Even with the mistakes and glitches I found, the automation, at times, is downright miraculous. I also believe it’s just the first step for Google Photos. When I asked if there are plans to eventually add more customization and tagging features in to the app, the Google product team replied, “stay tuned.” So my guess is that this is just the start. —Terry Sullivan Consumer Reports has no relationship with any advertisers on this website. Copyright © 2006-2015 Consumers Union of U.S.

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Are stock splits good for investors?

Are stock splits good for investors? Stock splits are back. Netflix is the latest Standard & Poor’s 500 company to announce that it’s splitting its shares. Owners of 100 shares of Netflix, worth roughly $700 each in June, will soon own 700 of them at one-seventh the price. Netflix’s split announcement resembles that of Apple, which also split its shares 7 for 1 in 2014. Mere cosmetics, you say? Many in the financial media seem to think so. Even Jim Cramer doesn’t seem to think the split matters much. So why do companies bother? Engaging users Stock splits, at least in part, may be moves companies make to continue engaging the interest of individual investors, and that may be even more true when it comes to big household names like Netflix and Apple. By splitting their shares, these companies appear more accessible to individual investors, even though the fundamentals of the company don’t change. In addition, the companies are signaling to investors the future prospects of the company remain positive. Indeed, many stock splits are announced simultaneously with dividend initiation or increases, the other positive signal corporations offer investors. Not all companies split shares in exchange for a fleeting spotlight and possible near-term gains. The most obvious example is Berkshire Hathaway, a company that has never split its stock in its 50 years. In his biography “The Snowball”, Warren Buffett suggests that splitting Berkshire’s stock would be a losing proposition for all concerned—disappointed traders looking for a quick buck, and Buffett having to respond to these short-term owners. Nonetheless, even Berkshire Hathaway offers a more friendly version for smaller investors: the Berkshire “B” shares trade at 1/1500th the price of the traditional A shares, the latter of which are currently valued at over $200,000 per share. (Initially 30 B shares were equivalent to one A share, but the B shares were split by Berkshire 15 years after their 1994 launch.) Read about a new exchange-traded fund that focuses on stocks that are buying back their own shares. But despite the emotional appeal of a “smaller” price, stock splits are becoming somewhat of an artifact. A half-century ago, corporations split their stock in order for investors to trade them in lots rounded to the nearest hundred; otherwise, the commission would increase for buying and selling “odd-lots.” Today, investors don’t need to worry about additional fees for odd-lot trading: None of the major online brokerages charge additional commissions or fees for trading, say, 26 shares of Netflix instead of 100 In addition, individual investors are no longer the market they once were. If you look back 40 years, individuals still traded more stocks on an average trading day than institutional shareholders. But today, trading by hedge funds, pensions, and mutual funds dwarf that of trades done by individuals.  Short-term benefits Are stock splits even good news for shareholders, no matter who the owners are? According to research, the results appear mixed. One study, focusing on stock splits from the 1920s through 1950s, found that they didn’t matter; after 30 months, split stocks did no better than others. But research focusing on more recent history found that stocks that split outperformed the market by about 8 percentage points in the year following the split. And since there is seemingly an exchange-traded fund for every market phenomenon, it may come as little surprise that there’s an ETF that owns shares of companies that have recently split shares. The Stock Split Index fund (ticker: TOFR), launched last September, invests in 30 recently split stocks.  Since its September 2014 inception, the ETF has returned 9.7 percent, more than the 3.9 percent of the broader market, as measured by the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF. But be aware that, according to Morningstar data, it currently only manages some $5 million in assets. ETFs this size are often liquidated, with cash (and sometimes capital gains headaches) returned to shareholders. Reverse stock splits Finally, there’s one type of stock split that almost always is bad news for investors. Those are companies that engineer reverse stock splits, by combining existing shares into one new share. For example, a 1-to-10 reverse stock split would trade 40 old shares priced at $2 per share into 4 shares priced at $20.   Often, the reason companies do this is to meet the listing requirements of major stock exchanges like the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, both of which require stocks listed on their respective exchanges to have a minimum value of $1 per share. Generally, the prognoses of companies that undertake reverse splits are poor. A recent study confirms a suspicion that reverse-split stocks will continue to lose value. –Chris Horymski Consumer Reports has no relationship with any advertisers on this website. Copyright © 2006-2015 Consumers Union of U.S.

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2016 Hyundai Sonata Plug-In Hybrid is a refined, technologically advanced car

2016 Hyundai Sonata Plug-In Hybrid is a refined, technologically advanced car The best hybrids from Ford and Toyota are about to get some competition from Hyundai. We just had a chance to sample the 2016 Hyundai Sonata Plug-In Hybrid and found that it’s a refined, technologically advanced piece of machinery. Like the old Sonata Hybrid, the 2016 Hyundai Sonata Plug-In Hybrid sandwiches its electric motor between the engine and a conventional six-speed automatic transmission. Unlike the old Sonata Hybrid, this one switches between gas and electric power almost imperceptibly. There’s no surge when gas power comes on. The plug-in version has a 9.8-kWh lithium-ion polymer battery that Hyundai claims is good for about 24 miles of electric driving before the gas engine is needed. Due to packaging, this model sacrifices the ability to fold down the rear seat. With its 50-kw electric motor to the car can remain in EV operation up to 75 mph, which means its easy to drive on electric power without the engine jumping in every time you climb a hill or need more power, as it does with some other plug-in hybrids. The Plug-In allows drivers to switch among three driving modes: Hybrid, Electric, and Charge. When you start the car, it begins in Electric (EV) mode, using whatever battery charge is available before starting the engine to replenish and supplement the battery pack. Hybrid (HEV) mode preserves the charge in the battery for later use and lets the car operate in regular hybrid mode which means the engine kicks in more often. The third mode, Charge, uses the engine to recharge the battery on the highway; this mode can be handy if you have cities on each end of your commute and need more battery power at your destination for city driving than would otherwise remain after you set off. Of course, using the engine to charge the battery unravels any efficiency gains you may have made by driving on electric power. The engine on the 2016 Hyundai Sonata Plug-In Hybrid is an extremely inefficient source of electricity, so you’d probably be better off just driving on gas power. Hyundai suggests only using Charge mode on the highway, when the engine might be running anyway. Although Hyundai claims 24 miles of EV range, with a gentle foot meandering country roads we were able to see 33 miles. The maximizing of the EV operation certainly feels like you’re driving an electric vehicle most of the time, as opposed to the Toyota Prius PHEV which starts its engine much more often. Brake pedal feel also was refreshingly “normal” in a good way. Other than that, the Sonata is a roomy, pleasant sedan that does many things well but fails to excite. While the green EV square in the instrument cluster gave good feedback, even with multiple displays in the instrument cluster and on the dashboard, there is no ability to view all the information we wanted at the same time: Miles driven on electricity, miles remaining on the battery, and overall trip mileage. Even getting the first two simultaneously required using the efficiency display on the big center screen, which meant that we couldn’t see the navigation map or the radio display. We ended up spending a lot of time—and attention—toggling between various screens to see what was happening. That seems like an unnecessary distraction. The Plug-In’s battery took about 2 hours and 45 minutes to charge about 9 kWh from empty on a 240-volt (Level 2) connector. On an ordinary household circuit, it needed more than seven hours. Hyundai has not released pricing for the Sonata Plug-In Hybrid. The Hybrid goes on sale next month, with the Plug-In Hybrid arriving in the fall at California and Oregon dealerships. Eight northeastern states will follow, although buyers in any state can buy the Plug-in via special order. Read our complete Hyundai Sonata road test. —Eric Evarts Consumer Reports has no relationship with any advertisers on this website. Copyright © 2006-2015 Consumers Union of U.S.

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10 tips for a stress-free road trip with kids

10 tips for a stress-free road trip with kids Many budget-conscious families are opting to travel by car, instead of by plane, but driving with kids can be especially challenging. “Are we there, yet?” “I’m bored.” “He’s picking on me.” “I’m hungry.” And the list goes on. But with proper planning, the ride can be fun and relatively painless for all. Consider following a few important tips. Here are 10 tips to ensure you have a fun, safe, and smooth trip. Service your car. There is nothing worse than setting off on a road trip and breaking down along the way—especially on a hot day with kids in tow. Get your car checked out before you take off. Make sure fluids are topped off and tires properly inflated or purchase new tires if they are worn out. (See our guide to car maintenance and tire ratings.) Plan properly. Before you even get in the car, plan your destination and route. A portable GPS device or smart phone navigation app can help guide you to your vacation spot, but it may be worth having a paper map as backup. Try to drive during off-peak hours to avoid traffic or other delays. (See our GPS buying advice and ratings.) Check your car seats. As many as 80 percent of car seats may not be properly installed. Also, have your seat inspected to make sure it’s safe. Find a station near you at: seatcheck.org or safercar.gov. Children should be seated in a proper car seat based on their height and weight and those under 2 should stay rear facing. Also, make sure all children under 13 ride in the backseat. Pack well. Loose items in the car can become dangerous projectiles in a crash. Secure all luggage and gear in the trunk or cargo area. If children are playing with toys, try to keep ones they are not using tucked away. (See our tips for smart parking.) Bring all the necessities. Driving with kids means you need to make sure you have enough drinks and snacks, not just for the trip, but in case there is a problem and you are stuck on the road longer than expected. Carry an emergency kit. If traveling during cold weather, be sure to bring blankets and coats. Also, don’t forget garbage bags, baby wipes, and paper towels, just in case. Keep them entertained. Kids can get bored driving long distances, so prepare by bringing all types of music, movies, books, and games to keep them occupied. Tablets and smartphones can also be helpful and portable for keeping children busy. Be sure to grab any essential power cords and batteries (including USB adaptors, if needed), as well as head phones. Low-tech options include driving games such as I-Spy, looking for red cars, or counting exits. Connect to your location. Speaking of smart phones, there are some great apps for the co-pilot to use to plan where to stop for gas, food, or rest stops. Google search to find places “near you” can be helpful as well. Many in-car systems such as Toyota’s Entune can help you find places to stop. Keep focused. Driving on a long trip can be very tiring. Avoid distractions and focus on the road, having the front passenger manage the children, navigation, and cell phone. Take a break. It’s a good idea to stop every two hours for a stretch, bathroom break, and exercise to get the blood flowing. Kids can especially benefit by running around, even for just a few minutes. Know the laws. Traffic laws vary by state, so check out the rules such as right-turn-on-red laws and local speed limits. And always buckle up. —Liza Barth Summer travel See our related special sections for more tips. Summer travel guide Kids & car safety Guide to fuel economy Guide to car maintenance Car seat buying advice & ratings Consumer Reports has no relationship with any advertisers on this website. Copyright © 2006-2015 Consumers Union of U.S.

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