We may earn a commission from links on this page.In addition to checklists, tips, and tricks that can elevate your tidying game this spring, you're going to need products. It's a good idea to stock up so that once you get going, you know you won't have to take any breaks to gather missing reinforcements. The products can help you do more than clean, thoughthey can even make cleaning easier and more fun, which is good news for those of us who don't love cleaning up. If youre like me and find cleaning more monotonous than fulfilling, why not use some tools that can make the endeavor easier?Spring cleaning tools for the kitchen OKP Robot Vacuum $119.99 at Amazon $149.99 Save $30.00 Shop Now Shop Now $119.99 at Amazon $149.99 Save $30.00 Bissell CrossWave OmniForce $368.99 at Amazon Shop Now Shop Now $368.99 at Amazon TOPIST Angry Mama microwave cleaner $8.89 at Amazon Shop Now Shop Now $8.89 at Amazon EyeVac Home touchless vacuum $149.00 at Amazon Shop Now Shop Now $149.00 at Amazon Broombi silicone broom $34.95 at Amazon Shop Now Shop Now $34.95 at Amazon SEE 2 MORE Cleaning the kitchen can be more daunting than other spots around the house because not doing it well it can have real effects on your health. That doesnt mean, however, that it has to be a slog. There are some creative tools out there that can help you whip your kitchen into shape in no time.Kick off the entire spring cleaning season by upgrading your vacuum, which will come in handy around the kitchen, yes, but the whole house, too. I have two suggestions: First, you can't go wrong with a robot vacuum, which can end up doing a huge chunk of the floor-cleaning work for you while you focus on other things. I have one from OKP that works just fine, but you also have the option to really level up with automatic devices that can both vacuum and mop, like the Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra. That leads me to your second option, which costs significantly less than the $1,700 you'd spend on the above. The Bissell CrossWave OmniForce is a dual vacuum/mop that, yes, you have to operate yourself, but it will clean the hell out of your floor. This is what I use when I'm cleaning my own home and since I started being able to mop and vacuum at the same time, I'll never go back to the old way. Devices like this might cost more than your standard broom or Swiffer, but they're innovative, easy to use, and more effective, toowhich is what you need for spring cleaning. For more innovation, ease of use, and efficiency in your kitchen, consider these other tools and gadgets: The Topist Angry Mama microwave cleaner is a fun device that steams your microwave for you. Just fill it with vinegar and water and nuke it for seven minutes to let it do the dirty work on your behalf. It's shaped like an angry lady, which is whimsical, and handles the job of getting stuck-on gunk un-stuck while you work on something else.The EyeVac Home touchless stationary vacuum is like a dust pan, but way cooler. You sweep all your crumbs, dirt, debris, and junk over to the suction device and it sucks it up with 1,000 watts of power. Check out this video for a review and to see it in action. Keep in mind that you do need to clean the filters pretty regularly. An investment like this can be helpful in a garage or storage space, too, making it an all-around spring cleaning win. To use the above, youll need a good broom, but you should get a cool, multifunction one, like the TikTok-famous, fan-favorite Broombi, a long-handled squeegee that makes quick work of pet hair, dust, and grime in a way traditional bristles cant. This is a better option than bulkier brooms on the market because it can serve more purposes: It can more effectively corral wet or gooey messes on hard floors, in addition to dry ones, and can also fit more easily under appliances. Spring cleaning tools for the bathroom Holikme drill brush attachment set $19.99 at Amazon $24.00 Save $4.01 Shop Now Shop Now $19.99 at Amazon $24.00 Save $4.01 Ariant electric spin scrubber $33.99 at Amazon $49.99 Save $16.00 Shop Now Shop Now $33.99 at Amazon $49.99 Save $16.00 FMART T9Pro window cleaning robot $159.79 at Amazon $169.79 Save $10.00 Shop Now Shop Now $159.79 at Amazon $169.79 Save $10.00 Ecovacs Winbot W1 Pro Window Cleaning Robot $399.99 at Amazon Shop Now Shop Now $399.99 at Amazon Toilet gel stamp $14.99 at Amazon Shop Now Shop Now $14.99 at Amazon Cleancult toilet bowl cleaner sheets $7.49 at Amazon Shop Now Shop Now $7.49 at Amazon SEE 3 MORE The bathroom can get truly filthy, so its also where youll really need to get creative. No worries: There are plenty of cool tools out there to help you get this done.Stop hand-scrubbing everythingyou have better options. For one, you can get a 20-pack of these drill brush attachments, which attach directly to your electric drill and can buff, brush, scour, and polish using the drill's power instead of your own. Or try a designated electric scrubber brush, a long-handled scrubber that is always going viral on TikTok for its ease of use in getting the grime out of grout, tile, and more. Another popular tool on TikTok is the robot window-cleaning vacuum, which sticks to windows and mirrors and mimics the motions of a human hand. Your shower doors, mirrors, and windows all around the house will thank you. Try the FMART T9pro as a cheaper gateway to the world of robot glass cleaning, but know you may eventually love it so much you level up to more expensive ones, like the EVOVACS Winbot W1 Pro, which has quick cleaning, deep cleaning, and spot-stain removal modes.Make cleaning your toilet quicker and, if you can believe it, cuter with this stamp-on deodorizing gel. Stick a flower-shaped stamp to the side of the toilet bowl and every time you flush, itll clean a little bit and release a nice scent. You can even put stamps in your sinks to keep them smelling fresh, too. I've used these a few times and find them helpful, but for what it's worth, ahead of my spring cleaning, I'm waiting on some dissolvable toilet-cleaning sheets to see if I like them better. Again, they're a lot easier to use than a big scrubbing brush. All you have to do is flush.Spring cleaning tools for the living room Furemover pet hair broom $19.31 at Amazon Shop Now Shop Now $19.31 at Amazon Microfiber mop slippers $15.99 at Amazon Shop Now Shop Now $15.99 at Amazon KIDSCLEANCAR ride-on cleaning cart $139.99 at Amazon $179.99 Save $40.00 Shop Now Shop Now $139.99 at Amazon $179.99 Save $40.00 Hiware blind cleaner $6.99 at Amazon Shop Now Shop Now $6.99 at Amazon SEE 1 MORE Cleaning the living room might be the most fulfilling, since you get to chill there and enjoy the fruits of your labor afterward. Double that fulfillment by making it fun with these tools.The FURemover pet hair broom is described by its fans as a life changer and if you watch some demos, youll see why: It acts like an indoor rake, easily pulling pet fur and human hair out of carpets and upholstery so you can finally get rid of it. To quickly clean hard floors and have some fun doing it (or at least more fun than you do with your regular mop), try mopping slippers that allow you to glide or shuffle around, using the microfiber soles to scrub and dry your floor as you go.Your kids can get in on the action (and stay distracted while you clean) with the KIDSCLEANCAR, a little go-kart that uses paper towels to mop or dry as kids scoot around. I don't have any kids, but if I did, I'd put them to work like this. In demos, reviewers call it genius.To tackle your window blinds, grab the Hiware duster brush, a zany-looking device that uses multiple prongs and speciallydesigned microfiber covers to get into all the cracks that normally take forever to clear out by hand.General spring-cleaning product upgrades Pine-Sol 2x concentrated formula $16.99 at Amazon $19.49 Save $2.50 Shop Now Shop Now $16.99 at Amazon $19.49 Save $2.50 Fabuloso 2x concentrated formula $4.47 at Amazon $5.49 Save $1.02 Shop Now Shop Now $4.47 at Amazon $5.49 Save $1.02 Mr. Clean Magic Eraser Ultra Foamy $8.18 at Amazon $8.99 Save $0.81 Shop Now Shop Now $8.18 at Amazon $8.99 Save $0.81 SEE 0 MORE There are some innovative cleaning products out there that are just, well, cleaning products. They're not necessarily as amusing to look at or use as the Angry Mama, nor are they as genius as a go-kart that puts your kids to work, but they work better, faster, or harder than other products, which can cut down the time you have to devote to this whole endeavor. After some rigorous testing, I recommend all-purpose cleaner that is labeled "2x concentrated," especially Pine Sol and Fabuloso. These cut through dirt a lot faster than the regular formulations, smell just as good, and, typically don't cost much more (if any more) money. If you read enough of my cleaning content, you'll also soon come to find I am a big fan of the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser Ultra Foamy, which is a melamine sponge like the regular Magic Eraser, except it has pods of soap inside. I use this for everything. I have used it to power through adhesive and goo, clean under my appliances, and so much more.

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Her voice crackingwith emotion as she stood under the fluorescent lights, Janice Blanock asked her local legislators in southwestern Pennsylvania to take a moment and leaf through the photos of her son that shed handed them.Theres really nothing different that I can say to you that I havent said already over the last several months, she told supervisors for the tiny township of Cecil outside Pittsburgh. I can, however, share these photographs. These are just a few of the many pictures we have of our son Luke, from the time he became ill until before he died.The supervisors were gathered to vote on a zoning ordinance amendment that would greatly increase the required buffer zone between oil and gas drilling operations and homes and schools. The proposed rule mandating a setback of 2,500 feetfive times the distance of the current lawhad originally been proposed as a statewide requirement by Governor Josh Shapiro when he was Pennsylvanias attorney general. A bill based on that recommendation later stalled out when introduced in the state House of Representatives.Blanock, a 30-year resident of Cecil, had a reason to take the issue seriously. Her son waged a three-year battle with a rare type of bone cancer known as Ewings sarcoma and died in 2016 at age 19.Many believe, though theres yet to be demonstrable proof, that his cancer could be tied to oil and gas drillings many carcinogenic pollutants, some that are radioactive. In 2019, a cluster of Ewings sarcoma cases was identified in Washington County, where Cecil is located. Cecils school district was hit particularly hard. The county is home to more than 2,000 natural gas wells and was the 2004 birthplace of the states fracking industry. (Fracking is a process in which sand, water, and chemicals are blasted into the earth to free fossil fuel.)Agrowing bodyof peer-reviewed research has linked living near natural gas drilling operations to cancers and respiratory, reproductive, and neurological damage. In 2023, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and the state Department of Health linked fracking exposure in the region encompassing Cecil to increased risk of asthma and lymphoma.Will you look at the damn picture, Darlene, Blanock urged one supervisor after handing her a photo of Luke.Around an hour later, the zoning ordinance passed and the room erupted with applause.With that, Cecila town of just 15,000 residents and no outsize political powerbecame the first jurisdiction in Pennsylvania to adopt such a restrictive measure, even as similar efforts at the state level have failed.But already it is facing legal challenges from two natural gas companies active in the areaTexas-based fracking company Range Resources, and Colorado-based gas pipeline company MarkWest Liberty Midstream.The Cecil Township Board of Supervisors meets monthly at the towns Municipal Building. [Photo: Audrey Carleton]Under current requirements, natural gas wells in Pennsylvania must be at least 500 feet from buildings and water wells, which environmentalists and medical experts say is not far enough. In 2023, a bill that would have required all new natural gas wells in the state to be located at least 2,500 feetnearly half a milefrom buildings and water wells was slated for a committee vote, but was abruptly killed at the request of Democratic leadership in the state House of Representatives.Three years before that, then-Attorney General Josh Shapiro released a grand jury report calling for a statewide 2,500-foot buffer between human activity and natural gas production. There is one point that is impossible to deny, the grand jury report stated. The closer people happen to live to a massive, industrial drilling complex, the worse it is likely to be for them.While that plea failed to get political traction, environmental groups continue to urge action. For their part, natural gas industry groups have minimized concerns about health risks associated with fracking exposure and have resisted proposals for setbacks or no-drill zones. But despite industry efforts, Cecil has gone its own way. The townships updated oil and gas ordinance prohibits new oil and gas wells from being drilled within 2,500 feet of protected structures, which includes homes, businesses, and religious institutions, and within 5,000 feet of schools and hospitals.Though the ordinance does not call for an outright ban on new drilling, Range Resources contends it would limit fracking in Cecil in such a way that it violates state law. The township argues otherwise: Wells located outside Cecil can still be drilled under the town. The ordinance also imposes additional restrictions on the industry that have generated less debate: It prohibits retention ponds for water used in the fracking process, places new noise restrictions on drilling, and limits work hours on well pads.I was not sure for the longest time that this was going to go this way, said Sarah Martik, a Cecil resident and executive director of the Center for Coalfield Justice, a southwestern Pennsylvania-based nonprofit environmental justice organization. This one thing is as far as weve ever gone, as far as regulating this industry in a way that is protective of our communities.But the road to this outcome was fraught.Documents obtained by Capital & Main through right-to-know requests reveal an up-close look at life in the shale fields, with citizens largely fed up with living alongside the natural gas industry. Noise, bright lights, and shaking at all hours were among the complaints emailed to supervisors in the months ahead of the vote. Here I am once again trying to prepare for another sleepless night, one resident wrote to the supervisors in May. My whole house shakes, my children are disturbed from sleep, my pets are afraid to be out in the yardcan you please help us.I have SUFFERED from vertigo for years, another resident wrote in June, referring to vibrations from drilling at a nearby well pad that she felt in her home. You know in some places they torture people with this kind of low res hum and vibration. Torturebecause that is what it is.Documents also offer a look at the playbook the industry followed to curry favor among Cecil residents. Over the five years before the ordinance was adopted in 2024, Range Resources, the townships only active natural gas well operator with 34 active wells per state records, donated nearly to $300,000 to the community. The money was disbursed throughout the township, the encompassing school district, and local volunteer first responder organizations, and it was spent on festivals, childrens sports teams, a science fair, and CPR training sessions, according to aspreadsheetobtained by Capital & Main through a right-to-know request.Range Resources did not immediately respond to Capital & Mains request for comment.At least one township supervisor has financial ties to Range Resources. Records show Supervisor Darlene Barni has, for many years, maintained an oil and gas lease with the company; she ultimately recused herself from the final ordinance vote but participated in earlier stages of its development and routinely shares pro-oil and gas posts on Facebook.The company also weighed in at multiple stages during the drafting of the ordinance, using experts to testify against existing science that ties fracking to poor environmental and health outcomes and urging town leaders to refrain from enacting a setback as large as 2,500 feet. At least 92% of Cecil Townships surface property would be excluded from future oil and gas development, an attorney for Range Resources told supervisors in a letter. This would have the effect of limiting residents oil and gas royalty payments, he wrote. The attorney said the setbacks were exceedingly restrictive and inconsistent.Though the company currently has no permits under consideration for new well pads, Range Resources is challenging the ordinance with the townships Zoning Hearing Board. This process could take months, and the challenge is opposed by the township, residents, and several local environmental groups.At issue is whether Cecils ordinance is legal.Its a very, very specific question, said Kara Shirdon, who chairs the Cecil Zoning Hearing Board but recused herself for Range Resources legal challenge to eliminate the appearance of bias (Shirdon has been publicly supportive of the setback ordinance.) Though she said shes confident the ordinance will survive, she believes it will strain the townships resources. I think, honestly, the whole entire thing is because theyre pissed and they want to drain as much money as possible out of the township as punishment for not letting them do what they want to do.* * *Michelle Stonemark moved to Cecil township in 2012 after her parents bought around 30 acres there with the intent of housing their children and grandchildren. Her parents, sister, and family friends all built homes next to one another, in succession.And then it was my turn, Stonemark told Capital & Main. Just as I had gotten the drawing ... we find out that Range Resources had applied to put a well pad in right behind my new house.With around 30 days notice, she recalled, Stonemark and her family found legal help and learned everything we could about fracking, in order to oppose the project. But their effort failed. We didnt have enough time. We were starting from nothing, she said. Drilling at the pad began in 2020 in the midst of the COVID-19 lockdown, as Stonemark, her husband and three children were stuck at home.Today, the well pad, known as Augustine George, sits just over 500 feet from her home, she said, and routinely rattles the walls and windows and sends fumes into the air. She said she and members of her family often experience headaches, nausea, nosebleeds, and earaches. They can feel vibrations from the well pad in their chests, she said.Flaring would go off at any and all times, during the day, at night, she said. Flaring, which involves burning off excess methane, has been linked to asthma and other respiratory conditions. In response, Stonemark launched a Facebook page she uses to serve as an industry watchdog: She posts photos, videos, and documents relevant to the oil and gas industrys indiscretions, and publicly mourns the future she once envisioned for herself in Cecil. As I stand outside on this beautiful morning I cannot enjoy the day, she wrote in one post in May. A foul odor lingers in the air, and the constant low noises pulsate through my ears and head.Stonemark and her husband are also now attempting to intervene legally and become a formal party against Range Resources challenge to the setback ordinance.Shirdon said she first caught wind of Range Resources plans for a well pad in 2017, less than a year after moving into her home. Since then, she said shes experienced headaches, sinus and respiratory issues, difficulty concentrating and sleeping, and irritability.The part that people underestimate, I think, is how much anxiety it causes, Shirdon said. Every time you feel the rumble, or every time you get stopped on the road, you start to worry, Are my kids being adversely affected by whats going on here?Merle Lesko has lived in his house nearby for nearly 30 years. Lesko said he and Stonemark often jokingly spar over who lives closer to the Augustine George pad. Salmon pink sound walls, dozens of feet high, poke through a line of trees behind his property. Lesko first urged the township to adopt a new buffer ordinance in early 2024, after regularly recording the decibel level emitted by the Augustine George pad at different locations in his house. He moved his bed and the desk where he works based on the lowest noise reading he found in his residencehis basementjust to escape the vibrations that would rattle his house.The noise was so bad, you could hear or feel the noise over a running lawnmower, he said. Theyve taken so many summers from me.Though it took months of often impassioned debate, the adoption of Cecils ordinance has added fuel to a fight at the state level, where climate justice organizations are urging environmental regulators to increase the statewide oil and setback of 500 feet. In October, the Protective Buffers Pennsylvania campaign filed a petition with the states Environmental Quality Board, pushing for the adoption of an executive rule that would require a 3,281-foot buffer between fracking wells and buildings and water wellsa setback nearly 1,000 feet wider than in Cecils ordinance.There should be a baseline floor of protection for everybody in the commonwealth, said Lisa Hallowell, senior attorney at the Environmental Integrity Project, an environmental nonprofit that helped author the petition.More than 10% of Pennsylvanians lived within a half mile of an active oil and gas well as of 2022, the petition notes. Many share medical symptomsrashes, cancers, sleep disordersand have seen their water supplies affected by fracking, the petition states.Protective Buffers Pennsylvania has been involved in previous attempts to pass tougher statewide setback rules, including the 2023 bill that died in committee, Hallowell said. These efforts never got far. The Legislature has not had an appetite for that, she noted.Indeed, around the time that the 2023 setback bill was circulating through the Legislature, state Senator Gene Yaw of Williamsport, Republican chair of the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, questioned the need for the measure at all, saying in a public hearing that he had not heard of any links between fracking and cardiovascular, reproductive, or nervous system damage. Yaw has, separately, disclosed personal income from oil and gas companies EQT and Equinor, and won his reelection to the senate in November after accepting thousands of dollars in campaign donations from the oil and gas industry.A group of Democratic senators has announced that they soon plan to reintroduce the 2,500-foot setback proposal. But that bill will face an uphill battle in a divided Legislature. Janice Blanock at home [Photo: Audrey Carleton]After helping cement the setback proposal as law in Cecil, Blanock now wants to see other communities protected.Were hoping this movement goes far and wide, Blanock said the day after the ordinance passed. I think, just the fact that that happened last night, people will learn about it [and think], If they can do it, why cant we?Several months later, as legal challenges threaten Cecils hard-won victory, Blanock remains resolute. She still chokes back tears when she talks about Luke, and still resents having had her concerns about health risks associated with fracking exposure denied by the industry. Its not just about Luke, she said. This is about my other children, my grandchildren, my community, my family, friends, neighbors.Blanock shares photos and mementos of her son Luke. [Photo: Audrey Carleton]They can appeal it, she said of the natural gas companies challenging the ordinance. And then we can appeal it. Were as strong in our resolve to win this as they are.This piece was originally published by Capital & Main, which reports from California on economic, political, and social issues.

Have you ever finished off your last pickle spear and, craving a little more of that vinegary punch, taken a couple of sips of brine straight from the jar? Or maybe youre more open about your pickle juice habits and like to mix up a pickle martini in the light of day, rather than hunched over your fridge light at 2 a.m. Whatever you prefer, now theres a product designed for exactly those kinds of moments.Claussen, the Chicago-based pickle purveyor, has picked up on the TikTok trend of using pickle brine as a mixer for everything from Diet Coke to pickle cereal, and theyre meeting customers where theyre at with a new drink called Just the Brine. As the name suggests, Just the Brine is an eight-ounce bottle of juice-sans-pickle. The limited-edition product comes in a six-pack, and it debuted for a short time on GoPuff over the weekend in honor of St. Patricks Day (for those who missed out, its now available to win on Claussens website while supplies last.)Just the Brine is the latest evolution of a pickle craze that started back in 2022 (remember Sonics pickle slushie?) and has shown a shockingly strong staying power in the cultural zeitgeist.[Photo: Claussen]Care for some pickles with that brine?Since 2022, weve gone from pickle pizza and potato chips to Grillos pickle toothpasteand, judging by TikToks ongoing pickle obsession, it seems like the trend has yet to run its course. Users are finding ways to use the preserved vegetables that even the most ardent pickle fans never couldve imagined, like a pickle fountain or a fried pickle board. The next evolution of the trend, it seems, is to just lose the pickles altogether.Last October, Dua Lipas viral TikTok video mixing Diet Coke with pickle juice sparked a cultural moment, amassing over 12 million views, says Caroline Sheehey, Claussens brand manager. Inspired by her mixture, Claussen responded by seeding a product concept, Just The Brine, on Instagram. The post received nearly 70,000 likes and thousands of comments from fans sharing how they already love Claussens beloved brine and use it in a variety of ways such as after a sports workout, as a brine for their chicken, to help with dehydration as a morning after cure, cocktail mixer, and more.After seeing the fan response, Sheehy says, the team knew they had to make Just the Brine a reality. Claussen is marketing its brine bottles as a kind of dual-purpose product: a mixer to pregame your night out, and an electrolyte beverage for your inevitable hangover the next day. One serving size is two ounces, which contains 630 mg of sodium (about half the sodium content of a standard instant ramen pack.)[Just the Brine] is perfect for pickling at night and using as a mixer in your cocktails or soda, and perfect for unpickling the next morning as a refreshing electrolyte boost, Sheehy says.Its a strange marketing tactic, given that curing your pickle-induced hangover with more pickles seems like the quickest way to never want to set eyes on the color green again. But, lets be honest, the chances that Claussen ever actually adds this stunt product to its permanent line-up are slim to noneso the lucky few who get their hands on it might as well enjoy it via a pickle-fueled rager while it lasts.

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Last Wednesday, Google made a somewhat surprising announcement. It launched a version of its AI model, Gemini, that can do things not just in the digital realm of chatbots and internet search but out here in the physical world, via robots.Gemini Robotics fuses the power of large language models with spatial reasoning, allowing you to tell a robotic arm to do something like put the grapes in the clear glass bowl. These commands get filtered by the LLM, which identifies intentions from what youre saying and then breaks them down into commands that the robot can carry out. For more details about how it all works, read the full story from my colleague Scott Mulligan.You might be wondering if this means your home or workplace might one day be filled with robots you can bark orders at. More on that soon.But first, where did this come from? Google has not made big waves in the world of robotics so far. Alphabet acquired some robotics startups over the past decade, but in 2023 it shut down a unit working on robots to solve practical tasks like cleaning up trash.Despite that, the companys move to bring AI into the physical world via robots is following the exact precedent set by other companies in the past two years (something that, I must humbly point out, MIT Technology Review has long seen coming).In short, two trends are converging from opposite directions: Robotics companies are increasingly leveraging AI, and AI giants are now building robots. OpenAI, for example, which shuttered its robotics team in 2021, started a new effort to build humanoid robots this year. In October, the chip giant Nvidia declared the next wave of artificial intelligence to be physical AI.There are lots of ways to incorporate AI into robots, starting with improving how they are trained to do tasks. But using large language models to give instructions, as Google has done, is particularly interesting.Its not the first. The robotics startup Figure went viral a year ago for a video in which humans gave instructions to a humanoid on how to put dishes away. Around the same time, a startup spun off from OpenAI, called Covariant, built something similar for robotic arms in warehouses. I saw a demo where you could give the robot instructions via images, text, or video to do things like move the tennis balls from this bin to that one. Covariant was acquired by Amazon just five months later.When you see such demos, you cant help but wonder: When are these robots going to come to our workplaces? What about our homes?If Figures plans offer a clue, the answer to the first question is soon. The company announced on Saturday that it is building a high-volume manufacturing facility set to manufacture 12,000 humanoid robots per year. But training and testing robots, especially to ensure theyre safe in places where they work near humans, still takes a long time.For example, Figures rival Agility Robotics claims its the only company in the US with paying customers for its humanoids. But industry safety standards for humanoids working alongside people arent fully formed yet, so the companys robots have to work in separate areas.This is why, despite recent progress, our homes will be the last frontier. Compared with factory floors, our homes are chaotic and unpredictable. Everyones crammed into relatively close quarters. Even impressive AI models like Gemini Robotics will still need to go through lots of tests both in the real world and in simulation, just like self-driving cars. This testing might happen in warehouses, hotels, and hospitals, where the robots may still receive help from remote human operators. It will take a long time before theyre given the privilege of putting away our dishes.This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first,sign up here.

The slow rollout of Apple's Tap to Pay on iPhone continues with it now becoming available in EU countries ranging from Bulgaria to Switzerland.Tap to Pay on iPhone image credit: AppleApple's feature, where merchants can take payments on their iPhone without extra hardware like separate card readers, was introduced to the US in May 2022. It then slowly became available outside the States, coming to the UK and France in 2023, then Japan in May 2024, and five EU countries in October 2024.Apple has now announced that the feature will be available in nine more European countries. The new countries, and their banks or payment platforms that will support Tap to Pay on iPhone are: Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums