7/2/2024: Gmail’s Snooze shortcut

Tip of the week: Gmail’s Snooze shortcut

Plus: ChatGPT for Mac and Sonos speaker deals

Jared Newman | July 2, 2024

Hey there! I’m Jared Newman, a veteran tech journalist, and this is the free edition of Advisorator, my weekly tech advice newsletter. If someone shared this newsletter with you, consider signing up to get it every Tuesday. Thanks for reading!

Gmail’s web version now requires an extra step to access one of its best features.

That would be the Snooze button, which brings an email back to the top of your inbox at a later date and time. I use snooze not just to procrastinate on responses, but to resurface appointment and booking information right when I need it. I even snooze my own messages as a reminder to follow-up.

A recent Gmail update has hidden the Snooze button behind a ⋮ vertical ellipses menu in the top toolbar, requiring an extra click to access, but there’s an easy fix: After clicking the ⋮ vertical ellipses button, select “Switch to advanced toolbar.” That brings Snooze back to its usual spot, along with Gmail’s Add to Tasks and Add Labels buttons.

For further toolbar customization, Simplify Gmail is an excellent browser extension that lets you hide actually-unwanted icons while making web version more pleasant to look at. (It costs $3 per month or $24 per year, and is one of the rare software subscriptions I happily pay for.) And for more Snooze-related tips, check out my PCWorld article from a few years back.

News in brief

Customers of Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile got stuck without service while traveling overseas last week. All three carriers blamed Syniverse, a third-party backbone provider that previously let hackers access its systems for five years.
Windows 11 starts backing up data to OneDrive without permission on new PCs, so you have to opt out after install. I like OneDrive, but not like this.
The Beats Pill Bluetooth speaker is back with better sound, longer battery life, USB-C audio input, and a lower price of $150.
The iPhone is getting more hospitable to unauthorized repair parts.
Meta blames an “error” for hiding political content on Instagram and Threads, even when users asked for it.
Tech reveals coming up: Samsung foldables on July 10, Google Pixel 9 and Watch 3 on August 13.

In defense of the glorified kitchen timer

In this week’s paid subscriber column, I argue that smart speakers don’t need to be much more than voice-activated kitchen timers. Plus: All the little Alexa and Google Assistant timer tricks you didn’t know about.

Advisorator is 100% funded by readers, and your support would mean a ton. Get started with a free trial.

Try it free

Try this app

ChatGPT for Mac: ChatGPT’s Mac app is now available, letting you conjure the AI assistant with just a keyboard shortcut. Once installed, press Option + Space and start typing. You’ll get a response in a small pop-up window. (You can also change the shortcut through the app’s settings menu.)

The one thing for which I regularly use ChatGPT is vocabulary, as I’ll either describe a desired word in detail or ask whether I’ve used a particular word correctly in a sentence. Such queries may not justify all the hype around generative AI, but it’s nice having a keyboard shortcut for them regardless.

An even nerdier newsletter

I feel you should all know about Tedium, a neat newsletter from my pal Ernie Smith. Three times a week, Ernie digs deep into an obsessively geeky topic, like forgotten image file formats, the hidden meanings in your phone’s IMEI number, and the time that a small, Midwest pharmacy chain tried to beat Walmart. Ernie and I decided it’d be smart to introduce one another’s newsletters to our respective audiences, so check it out!

Spend wisely

Sonos is running another sale on refurbished soundbars, speakers, and subwoofers. Deals include the Sonos Arc SL in “Shadow” black for $509, the Sub Gen 3 soundbar for $479, and the One SL speaker for $119. The standard Sonos Era 100 speaker (which doubles as an Alexa smart speaker, for timers and such), is also on sale for $149 refurbished.

Thanks for reading!

Got questions about Microsoft’s latest Surface Laptop and the new Qualcomm Snapdragon chip inside? This is supposed to be a big leap forward for Windows PCs, with battery life and performance that can finally compete with the M-series chips in Apple’s MacBooks, so I’m test-driving one to see if those claims hold up. (In the meantime, read some impressions from Ed Bott and Devindra Hardawar.)

As always, I’m open to any other tech questions you might have as well. Just reply to this email to get in touch. And if you want to support my work, consider a paid membership.

Until next week,
Jared