Day: April 16, 2024

Science and Technology

[Fox News] Fix autocorrect if it’s driving you ducking crazy

Frustrated with how often autocorrect is auto-wrong? Even with new AI features included in many platforms’ latest updates, autocorrect remains annoying. Let’s fix that for iOS and Android.

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Go cold turkey

Yes, you can just turn it off — no more bad guesses or awkward corrections. Just type what you mean letter by letter, like in the early days.

Note: Depending on your Android make, model and OS, steps may differ. There are just too many variations to cover all of them.

Start here on your iPhone

Bonus tip: In iOS, misspellings are underlined. To turn that off, head to Settings > General > Keyboard again and turn off Check Spelling.

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Using an Android?

Bonus tip: Under your keyboard settings, flip the switches next to “Predictive Text” and “Show Predictions Inline.”

Add your own slang

If you’re feeling ambitious, program your phone to replace a phrase with your shorthand. Think turning “brt” into “be right there” or “1234” into “Four Score and Seven Years Ago.” Pretty slick!

Pro tip: In iOS and Android, if you leave the Shortcut field blank, autocorrect will stop bugging you with alternate spellings.

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Why is autocorrect capitalizing random words?

You may notice that autocorrect capitalizes random words in a sentence. If you are typing something like, “I need to call Mom and ask when She needs to go to the Store,” you’ll have to go back and make a change to all the words that shouldn’t be capitalized.

If you don’t know why autocorrect keeps capitalizing Mom and Store, take a peek at your contact list and see how you’re typing names. If you save certain words in your contact list a certain way, autocorrect assumes this is the way you always want it written.

Another simple fix for this issue is to turn off the auto-capitalization setting in your keyboard tab.

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Business

[Fox Business] California housing crisis turning many working-class towns into ‘million-dollar cities’: Report

A growing list of California cities are reeling from the ongoing housing crisis, with once working-class towns seeing median home prices exceeding $1 million.

According to The Los Angeles Times, Placentia, Orange, Tustin, Bonita, Cerritos, and San Gabriel are all facing a substantial jump in home values. Many of the hardest-hit cities are located in Orange County, San Diego County, and Los Angeles County.

The outlet noted that Bonita and Tustin saw the most significant growth rates, with homes jumping nearly 12% in the last year.

Real estate agent Tor Black, 55, and his wife Iris have lived in Tustin for five years and purchased their “forever home” in 2022. The property has skyrocketed in valuation from $800,000 to $1.3 million (a 60% increase).

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Black said the area has very little undeveloped land, so most people who move to the city purchase older homes and use spare cash to fix them. Many homes are also passed down through families. According to Black, these two factors are increasing the price of property.

He noted that the supply and demand constraints of Southern California make the price hikes more understandable.

According to Zillow, California has 210 cities with a median home value greater than $1 million. The real estate marketplace company noted there are only 550 “million-dollar cities” in the U.S., giving California nearly 40 percent of them.

The Los Angeles Times found that California has more million-dollar cities than the next five states combined. Furthermore, California added 12 cities to the list in 2024. The state was only beat out by New Jersey, which added 14 cities.

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Five cities in southern California saw home price growth ranging from 12% to 17%.

Home prices spiked by a massive 65% over the last five years in the Bonita area of San Diego County.

The median home value in 2023 across California was $789,000, up 3.1% from 2022. The median home value has jumped 33.5% over the last five years.

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Business

[Fox Business] H&R Block’s Tax Day outage frustrates last-minute filers

H&R Block said it experienced technology outages on Monday, temporarily preventing thousands of last-minute tax filers from sending in their returns.

Some people who bought and downloaded the H&R Block software on their computers were unable to electronically file their returns. Those who use the company’s software through a web browser or who work directly with its tax professionals weren’t affected, H&R Block said.

The outage started around 9 p.m. Sunday and continued for most of Monday. An H&R Block spokeswoman said the company fixed the problem by around 4 p.m. Monday. It has notified clients via an in-product message and is telling people who call customer service that they can now e-file their returns.

The filing deadline for tax returns in all but two U.S. states is 11:59 p.m. on Monday. Millions of Americans rely on online tax preparation services to help them fill out the appropriate forms and send them to the Internal Revenue Service.

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H&R Block, one of the largest tax preparation companies, had told some customers experiencing issues that they could print out their forms and send them to the IRS by mail. The IRS encourages e-filing, warning that processing paper returns takes several weeks longer. Paper filers who are owed refunds can experience delays receiving them.

H&R Block said it received about 2,000 inquiries related to the technology outage. More than 20 million taxpayers filed with H&R Block last year. 

Users posted on social media that they were getting error messages, and repeat pending credit card charges for multiple filing attempts. 

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Many taxpayers who procrastinate owe taxes. Late filing penalties and interest charges on balances due kick in one day after tax day.

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Separately, the U.S. Treasury Department said Monday that it met the goal of 100,000 taxpayers filing returns as part of the Direct File pilot program by midday Sunday, with more than 50,000 taxpayers filing over the past week. Eligible taxpayers in all 12 pilot states can file simple tax returns using Direct File until 11:59 p.m. on Monday, or on Wednesday for those in Massachusetts. Taxpayers with more complicated returns can file for free online with an IRS Free File partner or by using IRS fillable forms. 

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