here’s the thing

Whether you want to turn lights on and off with your iPhone or control your sprinklers with Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant, you can join the “smart home” club without spending an arm and a leg.

Get the scoop on a Wi-Fi-enabled smart plug, a smoke alarm that sends alerts to your iPhone or Android phone, a smart thermostat that you can program using a touchscreen, a sprinkler system that adjusts its schedule according to the local forecast, and more. Read More

Expecting a refund from the tax man this year, but still no sign of a check in your mailbox? There’s a quick and easy way to check with the Internal Revenue Service about the status of your tax refund, including when it’ll arrive  in the mail or dropped into your checking account. Read More

One of the easiest ways to boost spotty Wi-Fi in your home is to plug a wireless extender into a wall outlet, and this compact model from TP-Link can do the trick for less than $20—if you act quickly, that is.

The TP-Link AC750 dual-band Wi-Fi extender generally sells for about $25, but at $19.50 (for just a few more hours today!), it’s an even better bargain.

Setting up the TP-Link extender is a snap: just plug it into a wall outlet, then follow the online setup wizard to connect it to your home Wi-Fi network and configure its “extended” network. An LED indicator will warn you if the extender is too far from your main wireless router. Read More

Seventy bucks for a portable two-terabyte backup drive? That’s about as cheap a price as you’re going to find, and there are at least a couple of these deals available right now. Read More

Just because you don’t have a Kindle—or, for that matter, a iPhone, iPad, or Android phone that’s capable of running Amazon’s Kindle app—doesn’t mean you can’t still read a Kindle book. Thanks to the Amazon Cloud Reader, you can read Kindle books on the web using Safari, Firefox, Chrome, or Internet Explorer.

Click the “Allow” button to let Kindle Cloud Reader save books for offline reading in the Safari browser for Mac.

Ready to crack open a Kindle book in your Web browser? Let’s get started.

Opening the Amazon Cloud Reader in a web browser

First, launch your favorite web browser, then visit the Amazon Cloud Reader site at http://read.amazon.com.

Next, sign in to your Amazon account—or, if you don’t have a free Amazon account yet, click “Create a new account” to sign up for one.

Related: How to borrow a Kindle book from Amazon

Once you’re signed into your Amazon account, a window will appear with instructions for setting up your browser to store your Kindle books for “offline” reading, when you don’t have an Internet connection. Again, click the big yellow button and follow the instructions (they vary slightly depending on your browser).

If you’ve already bought Kindle books before, you’ll see them in a grid in your browser; just click a book cover, and presto—you’re reading.

How to buy Kindle books in the Amazon Cloud Reader

Once you’ve signed into your Amazon account, you’ll be able to access your entire Kindle library in your web browser.

No Kindle books yet? Click the “Kindle Store” Button in the top-right corner of the page to begin shopping. Once you’ve chosen a Kindle book to buy, make sure to select your Kindle Cloud Reader in the “Deliver to” drop-down menu, which sits right below the “Buy” button.

Related: How to buy Kindle books on an iPhone or iPad

Don’t worry, you can always send your purchased book to a new device under your account by selecting “Manage Your Content and Devices” under the “Your Amazon” menu near the top of the page.

Managing your Kindle bookmarks, font sizes and background colors

As with the physical Kindle e-reader, the online Cloud Reader lets you add bookmarks as you read, and you can change the font size or background color of the pages.

The Cloud Reader will automatically download the most recently opened books in your Kindle library for when you don’t have an Internet connection (provided you went ahead and enabled the Cloud Reader’s offline reading mode). You can also manually select, or “pin,” a book for offline storage; to do so, just right-click on its cover in the Cloud Reader library.

Related: How to reset the furthest page read of a Kindle book you’re reading

Done reading? Then just close the browser window. And yes—you can always read your Kindle books from another browser or even a different PC or Mac once you log into your account.

Want to hook up your dusty VCR to your brand-new HDTV? If your HDTV set has a composite-video input (which, not all that long ago, they mostly did), then you’re all set. But if you’ve got a newer HDTV that lacks a composite-video connector, you’ll need a converter box like this one.

The Teorder RCA to HDMI Converter ($16 during today’s Amazon’s “Lightning” sale, or a still-reasonable $20 once the sale ends) is easy to use: just plug the composite-video cable and RCA audio cables from your VCR into one end of the converter, then plug an HDMI cable from your HDTV into the other end. The result: you’ll be able to play tapes from your VHS collection on your new HDTV, even if it’s a fancy 4K model. Read More