Lifehacker

AI is great at summarizing text, which can save you a lot of time you would’ve spent reading. But we can do better: Rather than receive a simple summary of any given text, what if we could chat with the AI about it, answering specific questions and diving deeper into the material? It just so happens we have such a…Read more...

Do you ever feel like crap when your period starts, or perhaps in the week or so before your period? Social media has dubbed this the “period flu,” and places like TikTok are full of tips about why it happens and how to deal with it. Unfortunately, a lot of those posts are full of misinformation, so let’s straighten…Read more...

When you leave a company–whether or not it’s on your own terms—you might panic about what happens to your employer-sponsored retirement account. While you have a few options for handling an old 401(k), some strategies are better than others.

The crows started it. I noticed that they often played in the puddle that formed in a rock garden next door when it rained. I like the crows; they’ve rewarded my frequent conversation attempts with keeping my roof moss and twig free, and when they’re feeling really social, they bring me dead things.Read more...

Occasionally, I’ll flee the warm embrace of Pacific Northwest rain to visit friends in the desert and hang poolside (and be a boastful dick about it on Instagram). Most people are about the sights when they visit another town–the vistas, the museums, the restaurants—and then there are those annoying people who go…Read more...

Though it’s unlikely we’ll soon truly be seeing the last of the Guardians of the Galaxy, trailers for the third film in the franchise are promising us “one last ride” with the band of spacefaring misfits—a conclusion, perhaps, to the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s quirkiest side hustle. The 2014 original remains a…Read more...

Twitter ain’t what it used to be. If you’re tired of seeing your “For you” feed fall apart, and you want to get away from the latest blue check drama, Twitter clones await your membership. One of those clones, however, is actually a bit like Twitter’s cousin: Bluesky, created by co-founder and former CEO of Twitter,…Read more...

If you can’t hear what’s going on when watching modern shows and movies on your TV, you’re not alone. It can be damn near impossible to understand what characters are saying these days, to the point that many of us to exclusively watch with subtitles on. There are a host of reasons we’re in the spot we are today, but…Read more...

An international coterie of physicists have determined the ultimate technique for using a playground swing, and I’m happy to report you have probably been doing things correctly your entire life.

Fermented foods are often among the top nutritional suggestions for gut health, since they contain probiotic bacteria that are believed to have beneficial effects on the microbes in our guts. But what counts as a fermented food, and how do you know if you’re eating the right kind? Let’s dig in.Read more...

Those little cardboard drink holders you get when you make a coffee run for the office are so convenient in the moment for exactly what you need them for—but as soon as you pull the cups out, they too quickly seem to have fulfilled their destiny. But before you toss them into the garbage or recycling bin, consider…Read more...

By third grade (circa the early 1980s), I was regularly sleeping over at friends’ houses. Birthday slumber parties were common, as well as random Friday nights watching VHS tapes in dark dens until our eyes burned. At one friend’s house, we choreographed Wham! songs, and at another, I absorbed MTV like a sponge…Read more...

No matter how hard you try to manage your time, you will probably end up being late on an assignment at some point in your academic (or professional) career. In times of stress and panic, your initial reaction may be to lie or go one the defense. It might seem reasonable to claim you had an emergency or swear you sent…Read more...

Retirement is one of those life stages that seems inevitable. From an early age, it’s pounded into us: You have to save for retirement, and you have to plan for retirement, which pretty much implies that you have to retire. And after a few decades spent working in order to pay the bills, retirement certainly becomes…Read more...

Last weekend was a very social one. I met my gym friends for lunch, then walked to one of Portland’s bougiest grocers (Providore) to pick up snacks for my next engagement. My original plan was to make Russian nachos with plain potato chips, caviar, and crème fraîche, but there was no caviar to be found. I had to…Read more...

Before you sit down to study or get started on a big project for work, you might want to consider hitting the gym or taking a brisk walk. Besides just generally being good for your health, research also shows it can actually help with cognition. And with, say, finals week bearing down upon you or a work deadline…Read more...

When you think about the expensive vegetables at the store, you know, the really sexy ones that have “a season,” you’re usually thinking of perennial vegetables. Somewhat ironically, they’re the most chill. Plant them once, kick back, and wait for them to pop up on their own, year after year.

Atom, an app and website where you can buy movie tickets, really wants you to head out to theaters to see a new release movie this weekend and next. The company is giving out free extra tickets to two upcoming films when you buy one. This weekend, you can see Evil Dead Rise, and next weekend, you can go to Are You…Read more...

Instagram is the land of self-promotion, but it doesn’t allow you to easily share links in a post. If you have links you want people to see (and click), you can make them convenient to access from your bio. Well, as convenient as possible, anyway: Historically, Instagram limited us to one link in our bios at a time.…Read more...

As a taxpayer, you get a federal refund whenever it turns you overpaid taxes throughout the year or had withheld from your paychecks more than what you ultimately owe. If you enjoyed getting a few nice, big refunds in recent years, you might have been disappointed with your numbers when you filed your taxes—and you’re…Read more...

As the quote goes, “Born too late to explore earth, born too early to explore space.” It’s true: Barring some monumental development, our kind is destined to live the rest of our lives on Earth, leaving space exploration to some future generation that actually gets their act together. But just because you’re stuck on…Read more...

Inevitably, almost every conversation I have with anyone I meet turns into a food conversation. Maybe 80% of those are about eggs. It wasn’t until a recent egg conversation with Mashable Editor-in-Chief Alesha Williams Boyd that I understood that not everyone likes their eggs custardy. Here I was, thinking most folks…Read more...

Learning a new language is tough, man. Plenty of us have tried every app under the sun, put in the work day in and day out, and yet have no ability to hold a conversation with someone in this new language. Most of these apps’ methods of language learning are the same, involving a conscious effort to memorize new…Read more...

Driving has slowly become a mindless activity with advancements in navigation apps and even self-driving cars. But if you’re not paying attention, a steep toll fee could be waiting for you when you check your car back at the rental company, as Robert Watson thought he did after driving to New York City and racking up…Read more...

Last year over 50 million Americans received some form of stimulus check from their states. While these payment amounts weren’t as large as the federal stimulus checks for 2021 pandemic relief, they certainly made a difference for families getting slammed by inflation.

Good news, bad news. The good news is Netflix still offers DVD rentals in the year of our lord, 2023. (Who would’ve thought.) The bad news: They’re canceling the service. I apologize to anyone who found out today they could still be renting physical discs from Netflix, only to have that dream ripped away as soon as it…Read more...

The latest generation of Apple Silicon Macs are mighty and fast, but they can’t natively run Windows. Fortunately, there’s a workaround—and it’s free. It requires using the free VMware Fusion Player and Windows 11's official ARM copy. Once installed, you’ll have a Windows 11 instance running inside an app on your Mac.…Read more...

You’ve heard all about ChatGPT, the AI chatbot you can use to answer any question—or, you know, write a thank-you note, craft a cover letter, or even have a spoken conversation. Now, as a savvy investor, you’re wondering: How can I get a piece of the AI pie?Read more...

Giving your yard a fresh new look for spring or upgrading your garden to create the serene outdoor space you’ve always wanted can get expensive quickly: Plants, soil, and other materials will add up if you’re not careful. However, there are ways to get landscaping materials for cheap, and sometimes even for free.Read more...

Weather apps are notoriously easy to build and extremely difficult to police. Any developer can whip up an interface from a template, add a weather API (there are loads of them), and put it up on the App Store. That “innocent” weather app can then serve you ads, track your usage, and sell your data, including your…Read more...

Store-bought pizza dough is one of my favorite bread hacking tools, maybe even my all-time favorite. We’ve made lazy zeppoles, pretzels, and cinnamon rolls from this versatile sack o’ dough, it was only a matter of time before we started slinging bialys, too. Go ahead and speed-thaw that frozen dough you’ve been…Read more...

Facebook may not be your social media platform of choice in 2023, but if you had an active account at any point in the last 15 or so years, you may be entitled to free money.

GameStop is having a buy one, get one (BOGO) free deal for Nintendo Switch, PS5, and Xbox games. There are 40 games to choose from in the deal, with big names like Zelda, Pokémon, Mario games, Call of Duty, Battlefield, and Saints Row on the list. You’ll also get free one- to three-day shipping if you spend over $59.Read more...

When one large movie screen isn’t enough, ScreenX is here to surround you with the most visual film experience possible—and for one day, you can try it yourself for just a few bucks. Participating Regal Cinemas locations across the U.S. are offering the chance to experience a ScreenX film on April 29 for $3 per person.

Is Elle Fanning secretly the best Fanning? Elder sister Dakota may have come into her precocious fame a bit early, but over the past decade, little sister has proven herself to be far better at choosing projects that make great use of her talents—namely, fierce intelligence and biting comedic timing. Both serve her…Read more...

What started as a meeting time for high schoolers to smoke weed in California during the 1970s, “420” has become an unofficial holiday. But whether you smoke or not, these food deals will be here for you this Thursday, April 20.

This month on Disney+, it’s everything everywhere all at once as the streamer premieres a new limited series based on an acclaimed graphic novel and featuring most of the cast of this year’s Best Picture-winning hit—plus episodes of two Star Wars shows and a new series starring some musical Muppets.Read more...

From VHS to Web 1.0, pornographers have always been early adopters of technology, so it should be no surprise they’re pioneering the use of artificial intelligence to sell sex. According to a recent Rolling Stone article, enterprising smut-peddlers are using AI to create computer generated simulacra of women in order…Read more...

When someone (Claire) mentioned #syruptok to me, I got excited. It’s maple tapping season, and I’ve always wanted to harvest my own maple syrup. But sadly, as with most exciting ideas, it was ruined by discovering that this was a suburbia-specific trend.

In an ideal world, every app you download from the Play Store would be perfectly safe. After all, Google has strict rules and regulations to weed out any apps that may try to harm potential users. Unfortunately, we don’t live in an ideal world, and malware makes it way onto official marketplaces every day. The latest…Read more...

I solved today’s Wordle in three guesses, which I thought was no biggie. It seemed like an easy word. But according to social media, today’s Wordle is devilishly hard.Read more...

Having a beautiful outdoor space is a spring and summer aspiration for many, but keeping up with all the weeding, watering, trimming, and mowing can be hard. Lots of gardeners enjoy working in their yards, but many people want the look without all the hassle. Luckily, there are plenty of plants you can successfully …Read more...

For most people, buying a mansion is a fantasy—we’re lucky if we can afford a modest place that doesn’t need too much work. But if you’re dreaming of living large in a bona-fide mansion, you soon learn that the word doesn’t have an official definition. A mansion is whatever people think is a mansion, which means…Read more...

Sweet and savory is a combination we at Skillet like to mess with. I like to think there are no pairings amongst the five flavors–sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and umami–that are truly off-limits. No, sprinkling salt on cookies isn’t enough for us (no shade on salt). We enjoy Maple syrup-soaked bacon, egg and cheeses,…Read more...

Taking money out of an ATM can be a fairly nerve-wracking thing to do depending on where you are and what time of the day or night it is. Having someone show you any kind of altruistic behavior, like letting you know you dropped some cash on the floor, can lower your defenses and give you hope that the universe is not…Read more...

It’s a great feeling getting a new phone. The screen is shiny; the features are new; the cameras are better than they’ve ever been. But if you already erased or sold your old phone in preparation for your new one, you might find yourself facing a few headaches you didn’t expect. Here’s why you need to keep your old…Read more...

Recently, Lifehacker asked whether our readers tip every time they’re asked. Point-of-sale gratuities are more and more common, showing up in previously straight-forward transactions like buying a coffee, picking up some takeout, or even buying some groceries at the store, so we’re hoping to get a feel for the new…Read more...

As Americans scramble to file their 2022 taxes by today’s deadline, the IRS has released its “Dirty Dozen” list of the most pressing scams to watch out for this tax season. However, instead of trying to keep up every year with all the new ways you can get scammed during tax season, it’s more efficient to know some…Read more...

Sesame is now considered to be one of the major allergens that need to appear on ingredients labels. This should make life easier for people who are allergic to sesame, but the Washington Post reports that some food makers are doing the opposite—adding sesame to products that previously had none.Read more...

This balmy New York weather is trying to trick me, but I know it’s still soup season. Just when I start filling my fridge with fresh fruit, spring is gonna turn around and give me a big middle finger of 50 degrees and rain. So I’ll be keeping my soup pots handy for a couple more weeks, thank you very much, and you…Read more...