One of my favorite technological enhancements in recent years is my ability to hardly ever forget the milk.

This is largely thanks to the smart speaker in the kitchen, which lets me efficiently add items to a grocery list that my wife and I share, even when I'm in the middle of cooking. By using voice commands to create to-do list items, then accessing those lists from our phones, we've drastically reduced the odds of neglecting something when either of us go to the store.

Creating voice-activated to-do lists is one of those simple tech pleasures that adds real-world convenience on a regular basis. Here's how to set it up for yourself:

I use Google Assistant to help manage to-do list items, mainly on the Lenovo Smart Display in the kitchen, but occasionally on other Google Home and Nest speakers around the house. You can also use Amazon Alexa on Echo speakers and Fire TV devices, or Siri on iOS devices, Apple TVs, and HomePod speakers.

All three assistants support the same basic voice commands, such as "add milk to the grocery list," or "add my laptop to the packing list," and they can all create new lists on your behalf.

Note that with Google Assistant devices and HomePod, you must enable personalized results to add items to your to-do list. You may have done his during setup, but if not, see instructions for Google or HomePod.

By default, each voice assistant has its own way of storing to-do lists. While you can always just ask, "What's on my to-do list?," you can use a phone or your computer to see your lists:

From here you see what's on your list, add new items, and check off existing ones.

While Apple's Reminders app is pretty robust, Alexa and Google Assistant's default lists are a pain to access, requiring you to wade through multiple menu layers. The Alexa app is especially bad, as it takes a long time to load and even shows ads on the shopping list page.

For those reasons, I suggest connecting a different to-do list provider, especially for Alexa or Google Assistant. You can still use the same voice commands, but your lists will appear in a separate app that's easier to use.

Personally, I use Google Keep as my default on Google Assistant devices. I love how simple the app is for quick notes and to-do lists, and that I can pin my grocery list to the top of the app for quick access. Anylist is a compelling alternative if you use multiple voice assistants, as it's the only one that works with Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri.

If you're still undecided, try playing around with a few different to-do list apps to see which one you like best. You can always switch later, but note that Google Assistant won't transfer your existing lists between providers.

If you have a spouse or roommate living with you, the real magic happens when you create a shopping list item by voice, and it automatically shows up on their phone.

The way to set this up varies by app—and it's not even possible with Alexa's built-in to-do list feature—but in most cases you'll find a Share button to press while viewing a particular list. Just enter the email address of the person you want to share with, and they'll get an invite to join.

For Google Assistant, note that other people won't be able to add list items by voice until you invite them to Google Home and set up Voice Match. Likewise, Apple requires adding users to HomePod so that Siri can recognize their voices. (Alexa doesn't have this limitation, but it also doesn't let users manage their own separate non-shared lists by voice.)

With that, you're ready to start creating better to-do lists that you can easily add to and access from anywhere. And you've got one less excuse if you forget the milk yourself.

Apple's new MacBooks: Apple has overhauled its MacBook Air with a new design—it takes up 20% less space than the old model—a brighter and slightly larger display, and a 1080p webcam. The headphone jack is back as well, along with two USB-C ports and a MagSafe charger. (Fast charging is supported, but the requisite 67W power adapter costs extra.)

This is also among the first Macs to use Apple's M2 processor, which is 18% faster than the M1. Alongside the new Air, Apple's updating its 13-inch MacBook Pro to include the M2 chip as well.

Now for the bad news: The new MacBook Air is $200 pricier than its predecessor, starting at $1,200 when it launches in July, while the old model will stick around at $1,000. I'd wait for discounts, as MacBooks frequently go on sale from major retailers.

This week, Apple also announced major upgrades for iOS and MacOS coming this fall. I'll write more about those when they're actually available, but TechCrunch has a nice roundup in the meantime.

AT&T's data plan tweaks: AT&T has dropped HBO Max from its top-tier unlimited data plan, though it's also increasing mobile hotspot use from 40 GB to 50 GB per month. The new plan is called "Unlimited Premium," and has the same $85 per month price as the "Unlimited Elite" plan it's replacing. (This only appears to affect new subscribers for now.)

The move makes sense given that AT&T no longer owns WarnerMedia, though it leaves the carrier at a disadvantage as rivals still offer free or discounted streaming services with higher-end plans. For more details, check out my freshly-updated unlimited data plan comparison chart.

Google's video chat changes: Google is finally consolidating its Duo and Meet video chat services into a single app, but not right away. In the weeks ahead, the Duo app will gain all of Meet's features, including virtual backgrounds and call scheduling. This is a precursor to Google renaming Duo to Meet later this year.

Having separate apps for work (Meet) and personal use (Duo) never quite made sense, and Zoom's runaway success during the pandemic showed that folks are happy to use business apps for personal calls. Bringing both services together may create some temporary confusion—will Duo's rebranding result in two separate apps named Meet, for instance?—but is the right call in the long run.

Inferior Assistant reminders: Meanwhile, Google is killing off support for location based reminders in Google Assistant, along with the ability to assign reminders to other people. You can still create location based reminders in Google Keep, but not by voice. (Siri and Alexa both support place-based reminders, for what it's worth.)

Several commenters on this Ars Technica story say that location to reminders never worked well to begin with, though that doesn’t explain why Google is killing the feature instead of fixing it. Either way, the move isn't surprising for a company that often abandons projects when the going gets tough.

A brilliant new web browser: Orion is a web browser for MacOS that combines the speed of Safari with support for Chrome and Firefox extensions. It also has a bunch of helpful features for managing your browser tabs.

For instance, it offers vertical tab support (a must-have feature for me), a handy "Tab Overview" feature (pictured above), and a customizable toolbar. There's also a "Low Power Mode" that instantly hibernates inactive tabs to save battery life. Tracker blocking is built-in, and Orion claims to collect no data from users.

Meanwhile, you can visit the Chrome Web Store or Firefox Add-On site and install any extension from either source. This is a small miracle given that Orion uses Apple's Webkit rendering engine, which shouldn't be compatible with any of these extensions. By using Webkit, Orion promises superior speed—it does feel quite zippy to me—and opens the door to extension support for Orion's iOS app, which is also in development.

Granted, those extensions didn't always work—I couldn't get the Camelizer button to show up for viewing Amazon price histories, and Chrome's picture-in-picture extension was non-responsive—but Bitwarden and Simplify Gmail both performed flawlessly. Orion is still in beta, and extension support should improve over time.

While Orion has been in private beta testing since last year, the public beta is now available for anyone. I'll be keeping an eye on this one for sure.

Another travel app to try: In response to last week's newsletter on tech travel tips, Advisorator reader Dave B. suggested checking out Pebblar. This app lets you create detailed itineraries for your upcoming trips—including travel, dining, lodging, and activities—and turns them into printable PDFs. (You can also access your itineraries offline through Pebblar's iOS and Android apps.)

Pebblar is free to try for a month with no credit card needed. After that, you can buy a single trip itinerary for $3 (or $10, if your trip involves more than three cities). It's worth considering instead of unwieldy Word documents or spreadsheets.

Find cheap storage: Speaking of reader suggestions, Rick P. recently directed me to a useful website called diskprices.com. There, you can look up external storage drives on Amazon, arranged by price per terabyte. Various filtering options are also available, including storage capacity, drive type, and condition. Keep it in mind if you're looking to create local backups of your data.

Sonos is currently having a sale on its portable speakers, with deals availalble at several major retailers. The best of these offers is at Best Buy, where you can get the Sonos Roam for $143 (reg. $180) with a free carrying case, and save even more on open-box models. The larger Sonos Move, meanwhile, is on sale for $320, down from the usual $400. (It also supports hands-free Alexa commands for your to-do list purposes.)

These speakers aren't often on sale, so this is a good time to save if you're trying to build a Sonos ecosystem.

Other notable deals:

Thanks again to Dave B. and Rick P. for giving me a couple of tips to chew on. I love learning new things from readers just as much as sharing the things I've learned myself.

Got your own tips for me, or things I should be looking into further? Get in touch by replying to this email.

Until next week,

Jared