Eliana Willis

Maria Diaz/ZDNETAs we near the holiday season and Black Friday, discounts on our favorite products appear more frequently. Apple’s AirTags 4-Pack More

Maria Diaz/ZDNETWhat’s the deal?Our pick for the best robot vacuum and mop combination, the Dreame X40 Ultra More

Maria Diaz/ZDNETWhat’s the deal?The Govee Neon Rope Light 2 is the most flexible light strip I’ve ever tested, and it’s available at 40% off — the 16.4-foot version is $60 More

Kerry Wan/ZDNETAnytime you create a new email account using Google, you get 15GB of storage, which is generous for coming with no price tag. But that 15GB can fill up quickly, especially because that chunk of data storage includes any videos and pictures you download to Google Drive and Google Photos. If your inbox is overflowing with unread newsletters and spammy emails that made it past your filter, you can take action to preserve all your important missives while starting afresh with a new inbox.Also: Gmail users, beware of new AI scam that looks very authenticThere is always the option of manually cleaning out your Gmail inbox or downloading a bunch of material to your local drive. What a pain though, right? And, chances are you’ll only eliminate so much junk before those gigabytes start stacking up again.I should note that Google offers a way to pay for more storage by upgrading to a Google One account. The “Basic” plan costs $24 per year for 100GB. The free solution, however, lies in taking a few steps to back up your essential files and reset your data capacity.1. Back up your files, at least temporarilyIf you’re going through this process, you’re likely serious about retaining emails that could span years. So, as an added safety measure, it’s a good practice to back up your emails on your computer or an external hard drive before transferring them back into the cloud.Also: After I learned this easy email trick, the clutter vanished from my inboxTo do this, go to Google Takeout and select “Google Photos” and/or “Drive” as the products you wish to export, then follow the prompts. (Once you’ve completed the transfer, you can delete and free up your hard disk drive (HDD) for other uses.) Be aware that this process can take a while, depending on your quantity of emails and number of gigabytes. To give you an idea, CNET’s Jason Chun used Google Takeout with a test Gmail account that held about 75,000 emails, and this wholesale download took around two hours to complete.2. Prepare to transfer your Gmails to a new email accountNow that you’ve saved a copy of your emails, it’s time to transfer them. To do this:Log into your original Gmail account and click the gear icon in the top right corner. Then click “See all settings.”Select the Forwarding POP/IMAP tab. Then select the option “Enable POP for all mail.” (POP stands for Post Office Protocol).You’ll have several options under “When messages are accessed with POP.” Select delete Gmail’s copy to automatically delete the emails from your original account after the transfer.Select “Save changes.”3. Create a second (archive) account and transfer your messagesAt this point, you can create your new account and transfer all your messages there: To create a new inbox-zero Gmail account, go here. This new one will serve as your archive account. Log into your new archive account, click the gear icon in the top right, and select “See all settings.” Select the Accounts and Import tab at the top. Then select “Add a mail account” next to “Check mail from other accounts.”In the pop-up window, enter the name of your original Gmail account, then select “Next.” Select “Import emails from my other account (POP3),” and then select “Next” again. 6. Enter the password of your original Gmail account.Also: The best email hosting services of 2024: Expert testedNote that you might also need to whip up a temporary Google app password to sync the accounts. So, if your original Gmail account password doesn’t work at this step, visit https://myaccount.google.com/apppasswords to create a temporary 16-digit passcode.Simply create a name for the password, such as “Email Transfer,” then hit “Create.” A pop-up window with your new 16-digit passcode will display. Here, you should jot it down or take a screenshot until you can discard this password. Google will only show it to you once! 7. Once you’ve synced your accounts, find Port and select “995.” 8. Next, you’ll want to check three boxes:  9. Finally, select “Add account.” More

Maria Diaz/ZDNETWhat’s the deal?The Ring Spotlight Cam Pro Battery More

Otter.ai Transcribing audio used to be a lengthy and tedious process that required listening to recordings and taking handwritten, manual transcriptions. However, Otter.ai’s AI-enabled service<!–> makes the transcription experience as seamless as uploading your audio – and the tool is now expanding into even more languages.  Also: Anthropic’s latest AI model can use a computer […] More

<!–> ZDNET’s key takeaways The Linkind Smart Solar Lights SL5 are available for $126 but you can take 30% off with an on-page coupon on Amazon. They’re relatively inexpensive, work seamlessly with the app, can maintain a charged battery without direct sunlight, and are easy to install. The downside is that the Linkind lights connect […] More