Elon Musk today said he has merged X and xAI in a deal that values the social network formerly known as Twitter at $33 billion. Musk purchased Twitter for $44 billion in 2022.

xAI acquired X “in an all-stock transaction. The combination values xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion ($45B less $12B debt),” Musk wrote on X today.

X and xAI were already collaborating, as xAI’s Grok is trained on X posts. Grok is made available to X users, with paying subscribers getting higher usage limits and more features.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Imagine working with special cameras that capture light your eyes can’t even see — ultraviolet rays that cause sunburn, infrared heat signatures that reveal hidden writing, or specific wavelengths that plants use for photosynthesis. Or perhaps using a special camera designed to distinguish the subtle visible differences that make paint colors appear just right under specific lighting. Scientists and engineers do this every day, and they’re drowning in the resulting data. A new compression format called Spectral JPEG XL might finally solve this growing problem in scientific visualization and computer graphics. Researchers Alban Fichet and Christoph Peters of Intel Corporation detailed the format in a recent paper published in the Journal of Computer Graphics Techniques (JCGT). It tackles a serious bottleneck for industries working with these specialized images. These spectral files can contain 30, 100, or more data points per pixel, causing file sizes to balloon into multi-gigabyte territory — making them unwieldy to store and analyze.

[…] The current standard format for storing this kind of data, OpenEXR, wasn’t designed with these massive spectral requirements in mind. Even with built-in lossless compression methods like ZIP, the files remain unwieldy for practical work as these methods struggle with the large number of spectral channels. Spectral JPEG XL utilizes a technique used with human-visible images, a math trick called a discrete cosine transform (DCT), to make these massive files smaller. Instead of storing the exact light intensity at every single wavelength (which creates huge files), it transforms this information into a different form. […]

According to the researchers, the massive file sizes of spectral images have reportedly been a real barrier to adoption in industries that would benefit from their accuracy. Smaller files mean faster transfer times, reduced storage costs, and the ability to work with these images more interactively without specialized hardware. The results reported by the researchers seem impressive — with their technique, spectral image files shrink by 10 to 60 times compared to standard OpenEXR lossless compression, bringing them down to sizes comparable to regular high-quality photos. They also preserve key OpenEXR features like metadata and high dynamic range support. The report notes that broader adoption “hinges on the continued development and refinement of the software tools that handle JPEG XL encoding and decoding.”

Some scientific applications may also see JPEG XL’s lossy approach as a drawback. “Some researchers working with spectral data might readily accept the trade-off for the practical benefits of smaller files and faster processing,” reports Ars. “Others handling particularly sensitive measurements might need to seek alternative methods of storage.”

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Microsoft released a new Windows Insider build of Windows 11 to its experimental Dev Channel today, with a fairly extensive batch of new features and tweaks. But the most important one for enthusiasts and PC administrators is buried halfway down the list: This build removes a command prompt script called bypassnro, which up until now has been a relatively easy and reliable way to circumvent the otherwise mandatory Microsoft Account sign-in requirement on new Windows 11 PCs and fresh installs of Windows 11 on existing PCs.

Microsoft’s Windows Insider Program lead Amanda Langowski and Principal Product Manager Brandon LeBlanc were clear that this change is considered a feature and not a bug.

“We’re removing the bypassnro.cmd script from the build to enhance security and user experience of Windows 11,” Langowski and LeBlanc write in the post. “This change ensures that all users exit setup with internet connectivity and a Microsoft Account.”

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Longtime Slashdot reader frank_adrian314159 writes: According to an article in Wired, Elon Musk has appointed a team of technologists from DOGE to “rewrite the code that runs the SSA in months.” This codebase has over 60 million lines of COBOL and handles record keeping for all American workers and payments for all Social Security recipients. Given that the code has to track the byzantine regulations dealing with Social Security, it’s no wonder that the codebase is this large. What is in question though is whether a small team can rewrite this code “in months.” After all, what could possibly go wrong? “The project is being organized by Elon Musk lieutenant Steve Davis … and aims to migrate all SSA systems off COBOL … and onto a more modern replacement like Java within a scheduled tight timeframe of a few months,” notes Wired.

“Under any circumstances, a migration of this size and scale would be a massive undertaking, experts tell WIRED, but the expedited deadline runs the risk of obstructing payments to the more than 65 million people in the US currently receiving Social Security benefits.”

In 2017, SSA announced a plan to modernize its core systems with a timeline of around five years. However, the work was “pivoted away” because of the pandemic.

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One of the most frustrating things about using a large language model is dealing with its tendency to confabulate information, hallucinating answers that are not supported by its training data. From a human perspective, it can be hard to understand why these models don’t simply say “I don’t know” instead of making up some plausible-sounding nonsense.

Now, new research from Anthropic is exposing at least some of the inner neural network “circuitry” that helps an LLM decide when to take a stab at a (perhaps hallucinated) response versus when to refuse an answer in the first place. While human understanding of this internal LLM “decision” process is still rough, this kind of research could lead to better overall solutions for the AI confabulation problem.

When a “known entity” isn’t

In a groundbreaking paper last May, Anthropic used a system of sparse auto-encoders to help illuminate the groups of artificial neurons that are activated when the Claude LLM encounters internal concepts ranging from “Golden Gate Bridge” to “programming errors” (Anthropic calls these groupings “features,” as we will in the remainder of this piece). Anthropic’s newly published research this week expands on that previous work by tracing how these features can affect other neuron groups that represent computational decision “circuits” Claude follows in crafting its response.

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A breach of legacy Cerner servers at Oracle Health exposed patient data from multiple U.S. hospitals and healthcare organizations, with threat actors using compromised customer credentials to steal the data before it had been migrated to Oracle Cloud. Despite confirming the breach privately, Oracle Health has yet to publicly acknowledge the incident. BleepingComputer reports: Oracle Health, formerly known as Cerner, is a healthcare software-as-a-service (SaaS) company offering Electronic Health Records (EHR) and business operations systems to hospitals and healthcare organizations. After being acquired by Oracle in 2022, Cerner was merged into Oracle Health, with its systems migrated to Oracle Cloud. In a notice sent to impacted customers and seen by BleepingComputer, Oracle Health said it became aware of a breach of legacy Cerner data migration servers on February 20, 2025.

“We are writing to inform you that, on or around February 20, 2025, we became aware of a cybersecurity event involving unauthorized access to some amount of your Cerner data that was on an old legacy server not yet migrated to the Oracle Cloud,” reads a notification sent to impacted Oracle Health customers. Oracle says that the threat actor used compromised customer credentials to breach the servers sometime after January 22, 2025, and copied data to a remote server. This stolen data “may” have included patient information from electronic health records. However, multiple sources told BleepingComputer that it was confirmed that patient data was stolen during the attack.

Oracle Health is also telling hospitals that they will not notify patients directly and that it is their responsibility to determine if the stolen data violates HIPAA laws and whether they are required to send notifications. However, the company says they will help identify impacted individuals and provide templates to help with notifications.

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Elon Musk’s AI company, xAI, has purchased X, according to a post shared by Musk. Besides their similar names and owner, the companies are already connected through xAI’s chatbot Grok, which is integrated into X.

X was acquired by xAI through an all-stock transaction. “The combination values xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion ($45B less $12B debt),” Musk writes. “xAI and X’s futures are intertwined.” The companies plan on combining “data, models, compute, distribution and talent,” using X’s reach as a social platform to spread “xAI’s advanced AI capability.” The post offers little detail beyond that, but the motivations could be as financial as they are practical.

X, then Twitter, was acquired by Musk in 2022 for $43 billion. xAI, like many leading AI companies, has been raising money as often and as quickly as possible. Combining the two companies, besides the fuzzy potential benefits social media posts could have for training AI, helps ease some of the debt that Musk took on taking Twitter private. The billionaire pulled a similar stunt in 2016 with Tesla, when the car maker merged with SolarCity for $2.6 billion. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/xai-elon-musks-ai-company-just-purchased-x-elon-musks-social-media-company-221503759.html?src=rss

Imagine working with special cameras that capture light your eyes can’t even see—ultraviolet rays that cause sunburn, infrared heat signatures that reveal hidden writing, or specific wavelengths that plants use for photosynthesis. Or perhaps using a special camera designed to distinguish the subtle visible differences that make paint colors appear just right under specific lighting. Scientists and engineers do this every day, and they’re drowning in the resulting data.

A new compression format called Spectral JPEG XL might finally solve this growing problem in scientific visualization and computer graphics. Researchers Alban Fichet and Christoph Peters of Intel Corporation detailed the format in a recent paper published in the Journal of Computer Graphics Techniques (JCGT). It tackles a serious bottleneck for industries working with these specialized images. These spectral files can contain 30, 100, or more data points per pixel, causing file sizes to balloon into multi-gigabyte territory—making them unwieldy to store and analyze.

When we think of digital images, we typically imagine files that store just three colors: red, green, and blue (RGB). This works well for everyday photos, but capturing the true color and behavior of light requires much more detail. Spectral images aim for this higher fidelity by recording light’s intensity not just in broad RGB categories, but across dozens or even hundreds of narrow, specific wavelength bands. This detailed information primarily spans the visible spectrum and often extends into near-infrared and near-ultraviolet regions crucial for simulating how materials interact with light accurately.

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Elon Musk says its xAI company has acquired the social media platform X in an all-stock transaction. “The combination values xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion ($45 billion less $12 billion debt),” said Musk. He writes on X: Since its founding two years ago, xAI has rapidly become one of the leading AI labs in the world, building models and data centers at unprecedented speed and scale. X is the digital town square where more than 600M active users go to find the real-time source of ground truth and, in the last two years, has been transformed into one of the most efficient companies in the world, positioning it to deliver scalable future growth.

xAI and X’s futures are intertwined. Today, we officially take the step to combine the data, models, compute, distribution and talent. This combination will unlock immense potential by blending xAI’s advanced AI capability and expertise with X’s massive reach. The combined company will deliver smarter, more meaningful experiences to billions of people while staying true to our core mission of seeking truth and advancing knowledge. This will allow us to build a platform that doesn’t just reflect the world but actively accelerates human progress.

I would like to recognize the hardcore dedication of everyone at xAI and X that has brought us to this point. This is just the beginning. Thank you for your continued partnership and support.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Trevor Milton, the founder of electric vehicle start-up Nikola who was sentenced to prison last year, was pardoned by Donald Trump late on Thursday, the White House confirmed on Friday. The pardon of Milton, who was sentenced to four years in prison for exaggerating the potential of his technology, could wipe out hundreds of millions of dollars in restitution that prosecutors were seeking for defrauded investors. Milton and his wife donated more than $1.8 million to a Trump re-election campaign fund less than a month before the November election, according to the Federal Election Commission.

At Milton’s trial, prosecutors say a company video of a prototype truck appearing to be driven down a desert highway was actually a video of a non-functioning Nikola that had been rolled down a hill. Milton had not been incarcerated pending an appeal. Milton said late on Thursday on social media and via a press release that he had been pardoned by Trump. “I am incredibly grateful to President Trump for his courage in standing up for what is right and for granting me this sacred pardon of innocence,” Milton said.
Here’s a timeline of notable events surrounding Nikola:

June, 2016: Nikola Motor Receives Over 7,000 Preorders Worth Over $2.3 Billion For Its Electric Truck
December, 2016: Nikola Motor Company Reveals Hydrogen Fuel Cell Truck With Range of 1,200 Miles
February, 2020: Nikola Motors Unveils Hybrid Fuel-Cell Concept Truck With 600-Mile Range
June, 2020: Nikola Founder Exaggerated the Capability of His Debut Truck
September, 2020: Nikola Motors Accused of Massive Fraud, Ocean of Lies
September, 2020: Nikola Admits Prototype Was Rolling Downhill In Promo Video
September, 2020: Nikola Founder Trevor Milton Steps Down as Chairman in Battle With Short Seller
October, 2020: Nikola Stock Falls 14 Percent After CEO Downplays Badger Truck Plans
November, 2020: Nikola Stock Plunges As Company Cancels Badger Pickup Truck
July, 2021: Nikola Founder Trevor Milton Indicted on Three Counts of Fraud
December, 2021: EV Startup Nikola Agrees To $125 Million Settlement
September, 2022: Nikola Founder Lied To Investors About Tech, Prosecutor Says in Fraud Trial

December, 2023: Nikola Founder Trevor Milton Sentenced To 4 Years For Securities Fraud
February 19, 2025: Nikola Files for Bankruptcy With Plans To Sell Assets, Wind Down

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Lenovo has the honor of releasing the first SteamOS handhelds not made by Valve, and it looks like you won’t have to wait long to get them. Legion Go S handhelds with SteamOS ship May 25, according to a new Best Buy listing spotted by The Verge, but go for at least $50 more than the original $499.99 price Lenovo promised.

The Legion Go S powered by SteamOS now starts at $549.99, which gets you an 8-inch, 120Hz OLED display, comfortable controls, a fingerprint reader / touchpad, 16GB of RAM and the AMD Ryzen Z2 Go chip. If you’re willing to pay $749.99, you can get the same package, but with the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme, which originally appeared on the Legion Go, and 32GB of RAM.

Perhaps more important than the specs, both handhelds come pre-loaded with SteamOS, which means they should be as easy to setup and use as the Steam Deck, and be able to play the vast majority of games thanks to Valve’s Proton compatibility software.

Lenovo already released its first Windows 11 version of the Legion Go S back in February for $730. We found it expensive and a bit hampered by Windows in our review, but otherwise solid. At the time, a SteamOS version for $500 seemed like a promising alternative. But for $50 extra, some of that shine has come off, particularly when you can get the already excellent Steam Deck OLED for the same price. 

It’ll take a full review to suss out how different SteamOS makes the Legion Go S, whether paired with the Ryzen Z2 Go or the more powerful Ryzen Z1 Extreme. At the very least, it’s nice to have more SteamOS devices in the wild.

The Legion Go S powered by SteamOS is available to pre-order now for $549.99, and will ship on May 25. The Ryzen Z1 Extreme model ships on the same date for $749.99. Lenovo is also offering a version of the Ryzen Z1 Extreme Legion Go S with Windows 11 for $829.99, too.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/lenovo-legion-go-s-with-steamos-will-land-may-25-for-50-more-than-expected-213820420.html?src=rss

Since Trump took office on January 20, research funding from the National Institutes of Health has plummeted by more than $3 billion compared with the pace of funding in 2024, according to an analysis by The Washington Post.

By this time in March 2024, the NIH had awarded US researchers a total of $1.027 billion for new grants or competitive grant renewals. This year, the figure currently stands at about $400 million. Likewise, funding for renewals of existing grants without competition reached $4.5 billion by this time last year, but has only hit $2 billion this year. Together, this slowdown amounts to a 60 percent drop in grant support for a wide variety of research—from studies on cancer treatments, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, vaccines, mental health, transgender health, and more.

The NIH is the primary source of funding for biomedical research in the US. NIH grants support more than 300,000 scientists at more than 2,500 universities, medical schools, and other research organizations across all 50 states.

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An anonymous reader shares a report: New data recently released by the Environmental Protection Agency indicate that more than 158 million people across the U.S. have drinking water contaminated by toxic “forever chemicals,” scientifically known as perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).

“Drinking water is a major source of PFAS exposure. The sheer number of contaminated sites shows that these chemicals are likely present in most of the U.S. water supply,” said David Andrews, deputy director of investigations and a senior scientist at the Environmental Working Group (EWG), a nonprofit advocacy organization, in a recent press release.

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Amazon’s Big Spring Sale is almost over, but there are still deals you can take advantage of, including this comprehensive list of tech deals from Lifehacker’s associate tech editor Michelle Ehrhardt. If you’re looking for a portable speaker, consider this one from Ultimate Ears, the Megaboom 4, currently $129.99 (originally $199.99)—that’s the lowest price it has reached, according to price-tracking tools.

Ultimate Ears Megaboom 4

360-degree sound, is water and dust proof, and has 20-hour battery life.

$129.99
at Amazon

$199.99
Save $70.00

$129.99
at Amazon

$199.99
Save $70.00

UE is well-known in the portable speaker market for making some of the best outdoor speakers. Its Megaboom series is the brand’s flagship speaker, and the fourth reiteration of the speaker was long overdue. The upgrade brings USB-C fast charging, a longer battery life of up to 20 hours, a skip-back media control on its physical buttons, more sub-bass range, and a better sound with more balance.

Because of the way UE designs its speakers, you get 360-degree sound, which is ideal for outdoor use (but it sounds great indoors as well). This speaker, and like many in its lineup, floats on water and has a water- and dust-proof IP67 rating. The companion app lets you fully customize the EQ, connect your speaker to other UE speakers to create a stereo sound, set up alarms with your music, and control it remotely with the app.

Despite the upgrades, the Megaboom 4 doesn’t get as loud as its predecessor, maxing out around 83 dBs, and the audio quality will sound a bit compressed at those levels, but unless you like to blast your music, this won’t be much of an issue.

If you’re looking for a great portable speaker with modern tech, the Megaboom 4 will not disappoint, especially at this price.

Shopping for tech? Lifehacker can help you make the right decision. Browse our tech reviews and head-to-head comparisons for everything from laptops and smartwatches to e-bikes and home gyms. Subscribe to our deals newsletter, Add to Cart, for the best sales sent to your inbox, or browse our best-of lists directly on Amazon, including:

• The Best Over-Ear Headphones

• The Best Wireless Earbuds

• The Best Adjustable Dumbbell Sets

• The Best Projectors

Smart TV platforms are increasingly monitoring what appears on users’ screens through Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) technology, building detailed viewer profiles for targeted advertising.

Roku, which transitioned from a hardware company to an advertising powerhouse, reported $3.5 billion in annual ad revenue for 2024 — representing 85% of its total income. The company has aggressively acquired ACR-related firms, with Roku-owned technology winning an Emmy in 2023 for advancements in the field.

According to market research firm Antenna, 43% of all streaming subscriptions in the United States were ad-supported by late 2024, showing the industry’s shift toward advertising-based models. Most users unknowingly consent to this monitoring when setting up their devices. Though consumers can technically disable ACR in their TV settings, doing so often restricts functionality.

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YouTube is testing turning off notifications from channels viewers don’t engage with in attempt to tame the number of notifications they receive. The video platform says the test will specifically impact viewers who’ve chosen to receive “All” notifications from a channel.

During the experiment, notifications will still appear in the notification inbox, but “viewers who haven’t recently engaged with a channel despite having been sent recent push notifications will not receive push notifications,” YouTube says. The goal is to get viewers to not disable notifications entirely just because they’ve received too many.

Many YouTube creators specifically ask people to subscribe and enable notifications so they know when a new video has been uploaded. The problem is, when you agree to receive “All” notifications, you’ll also get pestered about things that aren’t new uploads. There are ways to manage your notifications, but YouTube claims it’s common for people to disable them at the app-level once they get annoyed (impacting every channel they’re subscribed to), rather than try and tweak things. For a creator who wants to maximize the number of people that watch their videos, not being able to rely on push notifications to grab subscribers’ attention is a problem.

YouTube deciding that some viewers shouldn’t receive notifications from a given channel seems like an extreme solution, though. The company describes this test as “small,” but it certainly feels like there could be a more nuanced way to weed out the push notifications people don’t need.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/youtube-may-mute-notifications-from-channels-you-dont-watch-202802028.html?src=rss

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One of the biggest considerations when shopping for a new place to live is whether to buy a new-build home or an older home. Surprisingly, only about 25% of home buyers are looking for new-build homes, and more than half of Generation Z-age homebuyers are more than willing to buy a fixer-upper home.

The cost of buying a house has a lot to do with that, of course. And that means a lot of folks can’t afford to immediately renovate that fixer-upper to their liking and will have to wait until their bank account recovers from the home-buying process. But that doesn’t mean you have to live in a shabby house designed by strangers—there are a lot of small, cheap upgrades you can make to your new house immediately that will make it feel fresh, new, and truly yours.

Painting

It almost goes without saying: The most obvious move is to paint. Paint everything, every room, the exterior, the front door—a fresh coat of paint inside and out will make the place feel brand new and give you the opportunity to put your stamp on it and make it feel like yours. The average cost to paint the exterior of your home is just $500-$600, and the interior will run you just over $1,000 on average, so there’s no reason not to start with a blank slate.

Upgrade the cabinets

If a kitchen or bathroom renovation isn’t in the cards, work with what you have. You can do some cheap, simple upgrades that will make even the oldest cabinets look new:

• Paint or wrap the cabinets. A fresh coat of paint or a layer of high-quality vinyl wrap can turn tired, old, builder-basic cabinets into real showstoppers for very little money. Painting your cabinets yourself can cost less than $300, and vinyl wrapping the cabinets yourself can be done for about $100.

• Add soft-close hinges to your cabinet doors and pulls. You can’t overestimate the luxurious feeling these lend to any kitchen, and you can install them throughout a standard-sized kitchen for a hundred bucks or so. If that’s too much money or work, put some cabinet bumpers in to get a similar effect for about $20.

• New hardware. Changing the pulls on your cabinets will transform their look. If you don’t want to splash out for new hardware, you could just paint them. That would take about an hour and would cost just a can of spray paint.

• Update interiors. If your kitchen cabinets are just empty boxes, you can make them into sleek, efficient storage units with some affordable additions like a pots and pans organizer, shelf pull-outs, Lazy Susans, and storage baskets.

Switch out the shower fixtures

If the bathroom you just bought has an open shower with curtain rod, swap out the old-style straight curtain with a curved model. It’s a small, inexpensive upgrade that will immediately make your shower feel larger and stop the curtain from wrapping around you like a shawl every time you take a shower.

You can change the showerhead in your bathroom(s) in about five minutes, for less than you think: a high-quality showerhead can be had in a variety of finishes for about $50 a pop). Doing so will improve the showering experience, make the shower look newer, and give you an invigorating start to every day.

Upgrade your lighting

Light has a huge impact on your mood and physical health. While sunlight might be the best, having a bright, well-lit home is a safer and more welcoming space. Swapping in new light fixtures is an easy way to give the place a new look while getting your taste into the picture, but if that adds up to a budget-buster, you can transform the existing features in a variety of easy ways.

Additionally, adding motion-triggered lighting under kitchen cabinets, in closets, and along stairs will brighten the place, make it more functional, and make it safer to walk around at night, contributing to a sense of comfort and security in a new space.

Speaking of light—one way a house can feel cold and uncomfortable is with harsh, single-intensity light. Adding dimmer switches will cost you about $20 to $30 per switch, and should take less than 10 minutes each. The result is a home where you can set the ambiance for each room depending on your mood, the time of day, or your activities, and that sense of control will definitely help you feel more at home in your new house.

Update wall plates

One of the easiest things to do is to replace all the light switch and outlet plates on the walls, especially if they’re the standard cheap plastic kind. Decorative wall plates come in a huge range of colors and styles, so you can really calibrate them to enhance the overall look of the place. This is especially useful if you just painted, as you can choose the color and finish of the plates to complement the fresh wall colors. If you don’t want to spend money on new plates, you can paint them pretty easily.

Get a smart thermostat

If the house has old, faded thermostats that don’t do much aside from trigger the furnace, for less than $400 you can install a smart thermostat that will let you tailor your climate experience while making your HVAC system a lot more efficient. Plus, a new smart thermostat will look nicer than that old hunk of plastic, and give the house a modern touch even if it hasn’t been properly remodeled in decades.

Upgrade the door hardware

Just like kitchen and bathroom cabinets, the doors in your house can be transformed inexpensively with paint and new hardware. Changing the door handles is the easiest and most obvious way to make your doors a design feature instead of just a necessary convenience, but don’t forget the hinges, too—it’s not difficult to pop a door off, swap the hinges, and pop it back up again. Having your hinges match the handles and lock hardware will make the door look new with a cohesive style.

Upgrade the toilet

Want to feel like you’re living in a swanky hotel? Install a soft-close toilet seat. For about $30-$50, you will never have to hear the sound of a toilet seat slamming onto porcelain ever again. If you’ve never had a soft-close lid before you might not realize just how much difference this sort of peace and quiet can make.

While you’re making your toilet experience better, consider adding a bidet. A soft-close toilet seat with a built-in bidet is easy to install but can be a bit pricey. Luckily, there are plenty of seat attachments that will more than get the job done for less than $30. Either way, a bidet will not only make your bathroom feel more luxurious, it’ll make you feel cleaner (and happier, probably).

Floor vent covers

You might not think about the vents in your floor, but you should, because they’re an easy way to bring a modern, clean look to your home even if you can’t redo the flooring right away. New decorative vent covers usually cost less than $20 each and install very easily (usually without any tools). If you don’t want to bother swapping them out, there are a lot of creative ways to upgrade the ones you have to make the place feel more “yours.”

Refresh carpets

If your new home has carpeting and it’s looking a little worn-out, with stains, wrinkles, and loose spots, you can bring them back to something close to new in two steps:

• Deep clean. You can clean and disinfect your carpets easily and cheaply (and you should—carpets are gross, especially when it’s someone else’s grossness trapped in there). You can use a technique known as Dry Steam Cleaning, which combines powdered cleaning agents, high heat, and low moisture to get your carpets super clean. And you can always rent carpet cleaning machines from a variety of places (my local supermarket rents them) for a classic clean.

• Stretch. One of the easiest and most affordable ways to get it looking new(er) is to have it stretched. While you can DIY carpet stretching, you’ll definitely get better results hiring someone to do it professionally (at a cost of about $100-$300 depending on the size and state of your carpet). Combined with a thorough cleaning, stretching the carpet will bring it closer to its newly-installed look.

Dress the outdoors

If your new home has an outdoor space that isn’t very fancy, you don’t have to spend a lot of time and money on landscaping and other projects to make a comfy spot for grilling, outdoor gatherings, or warm-weather napping. Adding some simple solar lights, inexpensive outdoor seating options, and a fire pit can turn even the saddest concrete slab into a chill place for outdoor enjoyment.

Don’t even have a patio? You can make one for less than $300. And if your outdoor area is an overgrown mess but you don’t have the time or budget for a landscaping project, don’t forget that cutting everything back is free.