A new app allows you to choose Judy Garland and other icons to read books, news and articles aloud. It’s called the “Reader App,” and it’s free from Eleven Labs for iPhone and iPad only. Android users can join a wait list.

It took a little fiddling to figure it out, and it was sometimes buggy. But hey, it’s free. When I got the hang of it, I enjoyed hearing Judy Garland read “A Little Princess” and “The Wizard of Oz.” After that, I listened to James Dean, Sir Lawrence Olivier and Burt Reynolds. There are also a dozen or so non-celebrities with various accents, including a middle-aged Australian dude.

The Reader App includes a list of books you can try out without uploading something of your own or pasting in a website address. These include four children’s books, a Sherlock Holmes mystery, and more. When I tapped Burt Reynolds’ page, I got an option to hear him read “Don Quixote.” When I tapped James Dean, I was able to listen to him read “The Picture of Dorian Gray.” To get more, I went to Gutenberg.org, which has thousands of freebies. I chose at random “Diary of a Russian Lady.” It’s unexpectedly spicy. I asked Sir Lawrence Olivier to read it.

IPHONES WILL FINALLY GET RCS

Android users have been texting by “Rich Communication Services” (RCS) since 2015. iPhone users have been out of luck.

RCS allows you to send texts with high-quality images, videos, audio messages, and files. Previously, according to CNET, these images came out grainy when Android users sent them to iPhones. With RCS, iPhone users will also be notified when Android users are typing a reply.

Hopefully, this new feature will also clear up any communication problems between Android and iPhone users. For instance, sometimes I don’t see messages from iPhone friends for weeks because they go straight to my iPad, which I neglect to use.

RESET YOUR DEVICES

When your phone gets messed up, you can do a “fac

tory reset” just by looking up those words in “Settings.” A reset restores a phone to its original condition but erases all data, settings and applications. Fortunately, however, most of that will come back as soon as you sign into your Google or iCloud account, though you may still be missing the stuff that you didn’t back up. For example, I no longer have a full record of my steps in Google Fit.

Resetting your phone removes all malware and ransomware, fixes software and configuration issues, and brings back settings that might have been erroneously altered. It’s a great thing to do before you sell or donate your phone. But it’s not something you want to do frequently, since it can shorten its lifespan, according to Lifewire.

AMAZON RETURNS

Amazon offers deep discounts on the type of products that get returned the most often. Search on “Amazon Second Chance” to find them. A returned product is certified to be as good as new, though that might not mean anything if it was lousy to begin with. On the same site, you can sell the stuff you bought on Amazon, which is great if it’s too late for returns.

Amazon’s Second Chance Resell Site also offers helpful hints for recycling Amazon packaging. I didn’t know, for example, that you need to remove all tape from a box, besides flattening it, before you put it in the recycle bin.

NEW AMAZON PERK

If you reflexively delete emails from Amazon, you may have missed news of the latest perk for Prime members: free deliveries from GrubHub. To get it, search on “Amazon Grubhub.” The page that comes up will ask you to sign into your Amazon account. Once you do, you’ll be taken to the Grubhub site, ready to order.

CYBER ATTACKS INCREASING

In a global survey of 1,309 information technology professionals, 79% said their company experienced a cyberattack in the previous 12 months, according to the cybersecurity firm Netwrix. That’s up from 68% a year ago. One in five executives said their firm lost its competitive edge as a result, and 16% said the firm faced dire consequences. One in six lost at least $50,000 to hackers.

INTERNUTS

■ “How AI is Unlocking the Secrets of the Universe.” Search on that phrase to find a TED talk that explains how Google helped 1.5 million biologists around the world with a program called “AlphaFold.” Thanks to AlphaFold, they now understand the shape of 200 million proteins. This breakthrough allows doctors to send a lifesaving drug exactly where it’s needed. Before AlphaFold, it would take a PhD student four of five years to figure out even one protein.

■ Search on “Luma Labs Dream Machine” to try out one of the latest AI video generators. For me, the results were so-so. When I typed “Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring,” I got a girl from India with a jewel in her forehead. But a guy on Twitter used it to make the girl come alive and turn towards us.

NUMBERS REPORT

According to ZDNet, there will be 5.6 billion 5G subscriptions worldwide by the end of 2029, driving 75% of mobile data traffic. Last year, 5G was only 20% of cellular traffic.