Buying a house has always been a stressful experience. It involves a lot of money for most people, and it’s where you’re going to live, the most meaningful space in your life. Finding the house that ticks all the financial, physical, and emotional boxes can be a challenge. And it’s a challenge that a lot of people fail: 82% of home buyers experience buyer’s remorse.

House hunting should be relatively straightforward—you need X number of bedrooms, X amount of square footage, in this specific area, at this specific price, with this short list of features and amenities. But we often let our emotions mess us up, usually without even realizing it. Considering how much of your money and time is going into buying a house, you owe it to yourself to be aware of these six psychological traps that can lead you to the wrong house.

The endowment effect

It’s natural—and often useful—to imagine your future life in a house, to picture your family around the dining table, or the perfect spot for a prized piece of furniture. But all that imagining can lead to a phenomenon called the endowment effect, where you place a higher value on something you own. By imagining your future in the house, in a sense you’re imagining that you already own it, and suddenly it becomes much more valuable and important to you. This can lead to irrational decisions like overbidding for the house.

To defend against this, try to keep your imaginings unemotional—measurements, use of space, correct number of rooms, fixtures, and outlets. Avoid emotionally charged visions like prom pictures at the foot of the stairs or serving holiday dinners to a crowd of friends and family.

Price anchors

The anchoring effect causes us to put too much weight on the first piece of data we require, creating a bias that influences all subsequent decisions. With a house, the first piece of data you typically get is the list price—and real estate agents and home sellers always tweak the list price for their own purposes. They might set it low to inspire a bidding war, or set it high to imply the house is special in some way. Either way, they’re trying to anchor that price in your head in order to manipulate you in some way.

To fight back, research the fundamentals and come up with your own fair price for the property (your real estate agent can help you with this). Once you have an objective opinion on what the house is actually worth in the market, you can proceed using the list price as a starting point for negotiation instead of an anchor.

Herding behaviors

Bidding wars work because of herd behaviors—once we see other people doing something, it suddenly seems like a much more legitimate option. Contagion theory describes how an opinion held by a large majority can “infect” individuals, which can come into play when people are bidding way over listing price on a property and you suddenly feel like the house is worth more than you thought.

Another herding behavior that can push you to overpay for a property is the scarcity principle—the belief that a limited supply makes something more valuable. That can explain how a house that you thought a bit overpriced yesterday can suddenly seem worth much more once you realize the inventory of comparable houses is not as large as you thought—but the fundamentals of the house or the market haven’t changed.

The scarcity principle can be explicitly leveraged against you by someone selling a home, as well. Listings that emphasize the unique features of a house—maybe it’s the only one on the block with a basement, or has an outdoor space no other house in the neighborhood boasts—can make the home seem more valuable even if those features weren’t on your list of must-haves.

Choice paralysis

Also called “analysis paralysis,” this psychological phenomenon occurs when you’re overwhelmed by choices, decisions, or what-if scenarios. We tend to assume that having more choices is always better—but having to constantly sift through property features or having to choose between several very similar, comparable properties can leave you frozen and unable to make a decision. That can lead to losing out on a house that’s perfect for you and your family—not to mention much higher stress levels.

Combating choice paralysis when house hunting is all about slowing down and shutting out. Seeing a dozen potential houses every day will just leave you with a long list of houses that might work. Instead, take each potential house one at a time, and focus on that property. Have a plan based on facts—what you can afford, what you need to have in your home—and carefully consider each property against that plan before moving on.

Sunk-cost fallacy

The sunk-cost fallacy is a psychological trick that you can actually play on yourself. It boils down to a feeling that once you’ve invested time and energy into something, walking away would transform the whole experience into a huge waste of time. That pushes you to try and salvage that time. When house-hunting, that translates into buying a house in part because you’ve put a lot of time into it.

Combating the sunk-cost fallacy when house hunting can be a challenge. The key is to resist attaching a value to the basic work of finding a house and negotiating the sale. The ultimate value is getting the right home, not in paying yourself for the time spent finding it.

FOMO

The fear of missing out can drive people to worry that prices or interest rates are going to rise and they’ll be priced out of the market; that a particular house will get snatched up by someone else if they hesitate to make the jump; or that time is running out for them to jump into home ownership. Once you convince yourself that you’re about to miss your one and only shot to get the house hunt right, you’re vulnerable to bad decisions.

The only way to defend against FOMO is to remove the fear part. Having the advice of a trusted real estate professional and doing some research about the market can reassure you about home prices, and getting pre-approved by a lender can give you confidence in your buying power and ability to make an offer when the perfect house comes along. Most importantly, hit pause and ask yourself if you would buy this house at this price if all the perceived pressure was taken away.

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There are no surprises with the Blink Video Doorbell camera. Blink is an established brand, and the doorbell camera has been around since 2022. What might be surprising is how cheap it has become: You can get the Blink Video Doorbell and Sync Module 2 for $34.99 (originally $69.99) after a 50% discount, the lowest price it has been, according to price-tracking tools.

Blink Video Doorbell and Sync Module 2

$34.99
at Amazon

$69.99
Save $35.00

$34.99
at Amazon

$69.99
Save $35.00

Blink is owned by Amazon, so it’s no surprise to see the doorbell get a big discount there—and that also means it is compatible with Amazon Alexa, but no other competitors.

The Blink Video Doorbell can be wireless or use batteries, which last up to two years (depending on how many triggers you get a day). It uses your phone as a chime bell, has two-way audio so you can communicate with guests from your phone, and supports 1080p resolution and infrared night vision. You’ll get a 180-degree field of view, so you can see your whole porch via the camera. Of course, you can also use the camera indoors, if needed.

The Sync Module 2 is a hub that lets you control up to 10 Blink devices with your phone and use local storage for your video files instead of paying for cloud storage, but you’ll need to buy a USB flash drive of up to 256 GB (sold separately). Keep in mind that you will still need a Blink subscription to use all of Blink’s features (but it’s not necessary). The Blink subscription plan starts at $30 a year for Blink Basic. You can read more about this camera and hub from PCMag’s “good” review.

Meta is partnering with Blumhouse to launch “Movie Mate” technology that encourages moviegoers to use their phones during theatrical screenings, beginning with an April 30 showing of “Megan” at Blumhouse’s “Halfway to Halloween Film Festival.” According to Variety, the system enables viewers to chat with a Megan-themed AI chatbot, answer trivia questions, and access behind-the-scenes information while watching the film in theaters.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Bungie is set to take the wrappers off Marathon this Saturday and reveal gameplay from its first non-Destiny project in many years (and its first new one since joining Sony in 2022). Before that though, the studio has confirmed one detail about the multi-platform extraction shooter that PC and Xbox gamers may like to hear. The game won’t force players to log in with a PlayStation account on those platforms.

The Marathon team confirmed on the game’s official Discord server that “Marathon will not require a PlayStation Account for players on PC and Xbox.” The developers said this in response to a user who was concerned that they might not be able to play Marathon on PC, since PSN wasn’t supported in their country.

This is relevant considering the Helldivers 2 mess from last year. The PC version of that Sony-published game was going to require players to connect to a PSN account. That wasn’t enforced during the first three-ish months Helldivers 2 was available on Steam due to network issues, but it was later going to come into effect. The shift would have locked out players who had already bought the game in countries where PSN wasn’t available.

Sony quickly backtracked on the PSN requirement for Helldivers 2 following a backlash but the situation tarnished the reputation of a great game. The company later dropped mandatory PSN logins for many of its single-player games on PC, though it tried to incentivize players for linking their Steam account to PSN by offering in-game goodies.

Bungie hasn’t said much about Marathon since announcing its revival two years ago, but the gameplay showcase this weekend will shed much more light on what the game’s all about. For what it’s worth, streamer DrLupo claims to have been playtesting Marathon through various iterations over the last six years, and said it’s gotten better each time he’s tried it.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/bungies-marathon-wont-force-xbox-and-pc-players-to-log-in-with-a-playstation-account-144127907.html?src=rss

An anonymous reader shares a report: Gas boiler fittings outnumbered new heat pump installations by more than 15 to one last year, and only one in eight new homes were equipped with the low-carbon alternative despite the government’s clean energy targets.

Poorer households are also being shut out of the heat pump market as the grants available are inadequate and should be increased, according to a report by the Resolution Foundation thinktank. The UK has the slowest introduction of heat pumps in Europe: fewer than 100,000 were fitted last year, compared with 1.5m gas boilers. Most of the boilers were replacements for existing units, but new houses are still being built with gas as standard — only 13% of new homes came with heat pumps last year.

If the government is to meet its net zero targets, switching people to heat pumps will be essential: about 450,000 households will need to install them each year by 2030. But the grant available through the boiler upgrade scheme — $9,700 in England and Wales — still leaves homeowners paying about $7000 on average.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The last decade or so has seen schools and governments alike working on a substantial question: To what degree should students be allowed access to their phones? France has been among those leading the charge, requiring smartphones to be turned off during school hours since 2018. Now, the country is taking things a step further, insisting that students leave their phone in lockers or pouches, The Guardian reports. 

France’s education minister and former prime minister Élisabeth Borne announced the new regulation, which will go into effect in middle schools come September. “At a time when the use of screens is being widely questioned because of its many harmful effects, this measure is essential for our children’s wellbeing and success at school.” 

The decision follows two key events, a pilot program reported on by multiple sources and published expert recommendations. The former involved 180 middle schools comprised of over 50,000 students. Over the last six months, participants have done a “digital pause,” putting their phones in a locker or pouch that is unlocked when they finish the day. Borne announced that the trial was successful in improving school’s atmospheres. She added that schools will choose whether to use lockers or pouches, costing them up to a few thousand euros (€3,000 equals $3,331, for example). 

The 2024 report, commissioned by President Emmanuel Macron, issued recommendations including no smartphone use for children under 13 years of age and no “conventional” social media access until they reach 18. The recommendations, led by a neurologist and an addictions psychiatrist, additionally pushed for limited to no screen-time for children, depending on their age. 

The UK and the US are among the other countries exploring similar school-based measures to France. In 2024, the UK government released guidance for schools on banning phones in educational spaces. Both New York and California’s governors have also supported measures to limit smartphone use in schools. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/france-to-ban-students-from-keeping-smartphones-in-schools-140053272.html?src=rss

Microsoft announced a plethora of Copilot upgrades at the start of the week, and we’re now starting to see some of them roll out—to Windows Insiders, at least. The Copilot app for Windows has now been updated to support Copilot Vision and file search, so the AI bot is better able to interact with whatever’s on your PC.

Copilot Vision first appeared on the web last year, but it’s new to the Windows app: It essentially lets the AI “see” what’s happening on your computer, so you can ask it about websites you’re viewing, or documents you’re editing, or songs you’re listening to, without having to take a screenshot or do any copying or pasting.

Copilot Vision can see what’s on your screen.
Credit: Microsoft

It’s somewhat similar to the Windows Recall feature that remains in limited testing, and which also gives the operating system more access to what’s on your screen. This does of course raise a few worries around privacy, but Microsoft promises users stay in full control of what’s accessible, and that all data is deleted after every Copilot Vision session.

Microsoft imagines users taking advantage of Copilot Vision to chat through plans for a trip, or for help when shopping online. As the AI can see what you’re seeing, it’s able to pick out ideas and give feedback on what you’re talking about, with interactions primarily handled via voice.

Copilot file search in action.
Credit: Microsoft

Then there’s file search, which means Copilot can find, open, and chat about files stored locally on your system. You might want to look for your résumé, for example, or bring up a slideshow you were working on last month—all these requests can be handled using natural language queries.

You can even ask about the contents of your files—so you could, for example, get Copilot to pull out spending figures from a spreadsheet. Again, Microsoft says you’ll be in full control over what Copilot can and can’t access in terms of your files: Everything is going to be handled through the permissions configured in Copilot’s settings.

How to start testing

Eventually, these features will appear in the stable version of Windows for all users, though that may take a while (Microsoft hasn’t announced an exact timetable). In the meantime, you can test these new Copilot features early, if you’re prepared to sign up for the Windows Insider Program. You can do that for free here.

The Windows Insider Program is like any other beta testing program: You get access to new features earlier than everyone else, but there are likely to be a few more bugs that you come across. It’s generally not recommended to run Insider versions of Windows on a laptop or desktop that’s critical to your day-to-day computing.

Once you’re up and running as a Windows Insider, you’ll find you can sign up for the beta channel of Windows 11 through the Windows Update part of Settings in Windows. Shortly after, you’ll get a new download, which will install the beta version on your computer (you can switch back to the stable version any time you like).

With all that taken care of, you need the latest version of Copilot on your computer: Look for version 1.25034.133.0 or later on the Microsoft Store. Microsoft says these features will come to Insiders in the U.S. first, then be available to everyone else after that—with the features “gradually rolling out” over time.

Copilot Vision can be launched by clicking the glasses icon to the right of the main input box inside Copilot for Windows. You’re then prompted to indicate which app or browser window you want to share with Copilot, and you can then chat with the bot using your voice. Click the Stop or X buttons to end a session.

File search is built right into the Copilot app for Windows, so you can simply type out or speak out a query as you would in any other chat — something like “what were the places I shortlisted in my vacation plan document last week?” for example. As always with AI, I’d recommend double-checking the answers you get for anything important.