Technologies

Stop Disappearing in Zoom Meetings With Lenovo’s Cordless Webcam Light

With no cords, the Magic Bay Light from Lenovo might be the only laptop lighting you’ll ever need.

In the mountain of cutting-edge laptop designs at CES 2023, it’s easy to overlook accessories, but you shouldn’t. The Lenovo Magic Bay Light is one of the three laptop accessories Lenovo unveiled at CES this year, along with its own new laptops, including the ThinkBook 16p Gen 4 Laptop and the new Dual-Screen Yoga Book 9i. If you’re tired of constantly adjusting your lamps just to show up on video calls, you’ll like the Magic Bay Light’s sleek and discreet design.

At first, the Magic Bay Light looks like a block light that attaches to the top of your screen. That alone can be appealing, given how frustrating bad lighting while video conferencing can be. But that’s not the whole story. What sets this accessory apart is that it has no cords or battery packs. That’s right; you don’t have to add to the tangle of wires hanging behind your desk to get professional-looking lighting. It delivers 200 lux of adjustable brightness without draining your laptop battery.

It’s an accessory you add to your setup and forget about. You don’t have to plug it in or turn it on; it does all the hard work on its own. When you turn on the laptop’s webcam, the light automatically powers up, cutting out the harsh shadows that obscure your face during meetings.

The Magic Bay Light, along with the other two accessories unveiled at CES, is compatible with the ThinkBook 16p Gen 4 Laptop, which has a modular accessory design. A row of magnetic pin connectors at the back of the screen behind the webcam allows users to add and swap out accessories without cords.

There’s one catch: the Magic Bay Light is only compatible with the ThinkBook 16p Gen 4. One of the other accessories released today, the Magic Bay LTE, includes a USB Type-C port and cable, which lets you use the accessory with other laptops. However, the Lenovo Magic Bay Light does not. So, you have to buy their latest model to reap the benefits of this product.

Lenovo’s Magic Bay accessories will be available exclusively in a bundle with the ThinkBook 16p Gen 4. The laptop retails for $1,349 and will be available in May. Pricing for the bundles was not provided.

Technologies

Facebook Brings Back Local Job Listings: How to Apply

One of Facebook’s most practical features from 2022 is being revived by Meta.

On the hunt for work? A Local Jobs search is being rolled out by Meta to make it easier for people in the US to discover and apply for nearby work directly on Facebook. The feature is inside Facebook Marketplace, Groups and Pages, Meta said last week, letting employers post openings and job seekers filter roles by distance, category or employment type.

You can apply or message employers directly through Facebook Messenger, while employers can publish job listings with just a few taps — similar to how you would post items for sale on Marketplace.

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Facebook offered a Jobs feature before discontinuing it in 2022, pushing business hiring toward its other platforms. Its return suggests Meta is attempting to expand Facebook’s usefulness beyond social networking and to position it once again as a hub for community-driven opportunities.

«We’ve always been about connecting with people, whether through shared interests or key life events,» the press release states. «Now, if you’re looking for entry-level, trade and service industry employment in your community, Facebook can help you connect with local people and small businesses who are hiring.»

How to get started with Local Jobs on Facebook

According to Meta, Local Jobs will appear as a dedicated section in Facebook Marketplace starting this week. If you’re 18 or older, you can:

Tap the Marketplace tab on the Facebook app or website.
Select Jobs to browse available positions nearby.
Use filters for job type, category and distance.
Tap Apply or message the employer directly via Messenger.

Businesses and page admins can post jobs by creating a new listing in Marketplace or from their Facebook Page. Listings can include job details, pay range, and scheduling information and will appear in local searches automatically.

The Local Jobs feature is rolling out across the US now, with Meta saying it plans to expand it in the months ahead.

Technologies

Tesla Has a New Range of Affordable Electric Cars: How Much They Cost

The new, stripped-back versions of the Model Y and Model 3 have a more affordable starting price.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for Oct. 22 #598

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for Oct. 22, No. 598.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle is a fun one — I definitely have at least two of these in my house. Some of the answers are a bit tough to unscramble, so if you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: Catch all.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: A mess of items.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

BATE, LICE, SLUM, CAPE, HOLE, CARE, BARE, THEN, SLAM, SAMBA, BACK

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

TAPE, COIN, PENCIL, BATTERY, SHOELACE, THUMBTACK

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is JUNKDRAWER. To find it, look for the J that’s five letters down on the far-left row, and wind down, over and then up.

Quick tips for Strands

#1: To get more clue words, see if you can tweak the words you’ve already found, by adding an «S» or other variants. And if you find a word like WILL, see if other letters are close enough to help you make SILL, or BILL.

#2: Once you get one theme word, look at the puzzle to see if you can spot other related words.

#3: If you’ve been given the letters for a theme word, but can’t figure it out, guess three more clue words, and the puzzle will light up each letter in order, revealing the word.