Lifehacker

February gave us nine days of BOGO free Subway footlongs. March started off with BOGO 50% off footlong deal that runs through April 30. But there is currently a better deal out there if you truly want to pay as little as possible for a sandwich that puts in as little effort as possible.

You may not always notice them, but Venus, Jupiter (and a few other planets) often appear as extra-bright stars in the evening sky. Right now, those two have just come in for a kiss, and are approximately the closest they’ll appear in the sky until 2039.Read more...

There are certain things in this world that are just mind-bogglingly useful. Bobby pins? Extremely useful. Cooking spray? You’re definitely not getting the most out of it. Cling wrap? How can’t you use it? Pool noodles? You could be solving so, so many problems using them.

Microsoft announced 11 new features to Windows 11 in a blog post on Tuesday. It won’t come as a surprise to anyone watching Microsoft’s latest moves to learn the announcement focused on AI—specifically, the company’s move to implement the new Bing directly into the taskbar. However, there are plenty of other new…Read more...

Guidelines tell us we should all be getting 150 minutes of exercise every week, and more if we can. But if that sounds daunting, a new study suggests a number for the amount of exercise that is better than nothing—and it works out to 11 minutes of moderate exercise, like walking, per day.Read more...

Many of us have played the part of the guide when it comes to helping others with technology. There are the professional scenarios, such as walking an intern through company software, and personal situations, like explaining Google Docs to your tech-challenged friends and family. Sure, if it’s a one-off, you can…Read more...

Scammers have found a new category of apps to target on mobile app stores: authenticator apps. As several websites caution against using SMS to receive login authentication codes, scammers have started creating spurious authenticator apps to target users (and their money). While it’s frustrating to see bad actors…Read more...

Some completely expected, ordinary messes really piss me off. I think it’s because I’m fully aware that the mess is about to begin. Specifically, every time I open a new carton of almond milk and pour from the carton, it glugs. It glugs and it plops, and the milk splashes onto the counter for me to clean up. Luckily,…Read more...

You can clean some unexpected things with a vacuum, and some people use them to clean up virtually anything. But there are things you should avoid vacuuming—especially if you have a basic vacuum cleaner. Here are the ones to watch out for.

Many of us have memories of early mornings in a cold car, waiting for the engine to “warm up” before beginning to drive. And back then, it made some sense. But if you’re warming up your car for more than a minute today, you’re probably just wasting gas, money, and time.

If your summer plans include a trip abroad, now is the time to apply for your passport, as wait times are on the rise.

Pasta can, and should, be dessert. There are a number of ways to transform this popular carb into a show-stopping sweet, but you can also turn a pot of rigatoni into a quick, snackable, four-ingredient nosh. It’s a lovely afternoon graze, and completely appropriate for watching TV (turn the captions on to combat …Read more...

I cannot function without butter. I keep at least two types on hand at all times—one for cooking and one for snacking. But I also like to keep a few compound butters around for easy entertaining, even if I’m only entertaining myself in my living room.Read more...

Once among the most ubiquitous pieces of technology on Earth, old school, wired-and-jacked telephones are disappearing. In 2019, only about 31% of American households still had a landline, where 97% of U.S. adults own a cell phone. But are we being a little hasty here?

The internet is full of interesting and important information just waiting for you to read it. The internet is also full of meaningless junk that’s a lot more fun to look at, leaving us little time to actually do the reading we know we should do. Well, thanks to technology, you don’t need to read entire articles or…Read more...

Nissan North America is recalling more than 800,000 SUVs for a key-fob defect that could cause the vehicles to shut off mid-drive: The affected SUVs are equipped with a jackknife-style key (pictured here).Read more...

The due date for filing your 2022 taxes is creeping up. The last thing you want is to be nearly done filing, only to realize you’re missing a critical form. Did you misplace it? Did it never arrive? Is it still in the mail and you’re freaking out for nothing?Read more...

Planning a garden or patio that will be both functional and beautiful can be difficult if your yard is small. Creating an outdoor space that feels airy and expansive might seem impossible if you are pressed for space, but there are a number of things you can do to achieve a larger feel even if your square footage is…Read more...

With many people apparently happy to pretend the COVID-19 pandemic is over (at least in the United States), travel is jetting back to pre-pandemic levels. If you plan to travel this year, you might as well pay less for it. There are a lot of tools out there promising to help you do that. One of them is a paid…Read more...

Houseplants are a beautiful addition to your living space, but beauty doesn’t come cheap. Plants take time, space, and perhaps most importantly, money to obtain and maintain. While plant prices vary widely, the average plant costs $25 upfront and $23 per year to care for.

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Todoist is like one of those old shops in the neighborhood that has stood the test of time as other stores keep coming and going. For a productivity app to cross the decade mark, not only remaining relevant but improving along the way, is no small feat.

iMessage is Apple’s golden goose, ensuring many iOS users never dare stray from the Apple ecosystem, lest we end up a dreaded green text on someone else’s iPhone. Luckily, the times are a-changin’, and it is not longer entirely up to Apple which devices we can use to send and receive iMessages. While Android remains…Read more...

The first thing that comes to mind when I hear “tapioca” is chewy, gummy boba spheres, but this wondrous starch has a different side it would like to show you. With minimal ingredients and a little heat, you can make a crispy, delicate, crepe-like shell that you can fill with a host of ingredients, sweet or savory.…Read more...

It’s a new month, which means new games will soon be available on PlayStation Plus and Xbox Game Pass. Both services have some big titles on the horizon for March 2023, including massive multiplayer shooters and action RPGs on PlayStation, and a bunch of day-one releases and exciting indies on Xbox.

When I was a kid, my grandmother used to slip a $2 bill in my birthday card every year. I thought she was being cheap, but it turns out she was providing an easily storable asset that might have appreciated in value if I hadn’t immediately spent it on half a cup of coffee (I was a sophisticated child).

If you haven’t watched Ted Lasso yet, you have a chance now to binge the first two seasons for free, and the new third season coming out on March 15: Best Buy is offering three months of free Apple TV+ for all new and returning customers. It’s not clear how long the deal will be offered, but other similar deals lasted…Read more...

A tired dog is a good dog, and content creators the Wolfe Family have a cheap solution for energetic dogs who want a lot of attention while you’re too busy to play with them. All you need is some dish towels and treats.Read more...

The Supreme Court has taken on a case to decide whether or not the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is unconstitutional. (Spoiler: It’s goddamn constitutional.) Still, with consumer protections under attack, it’s worth a refresher on your rights as a consumer—especially since you might have more than you…Read more...

I don’t use my standard blender all that much, unless I need to puree a soup. I use my immersion blender on a weekly basis, mostly to make dressings, sauces, mayo, and other emulsions; occasionally I’ll also use it to make a smoothie or a quick milkshake. It has never occurred to me to sharpen the blades of either…Read more...

A series about street racing that turned into a series of heist movies before eventually shooting a car into space hardly seems like the playground of serious actors. And yet 10 films in, the Fast & Furious franchise is kitted out with plenty of acting cred, counting among its extensive cast of action heroes no fewer…Read more...

Movies have to make things interesting for us, so of course they’re going to show their characters surviving the scariest dangers they can imagine. Sometimes these are obviously not real-word perils (ghosts, evil dolls) but other times they are things we know exist (quicksand, sharks). Let’s take a tour of the movie…Read more...

A recent study suggests that the sweetener erythritol, found in many foods, may put us more at risk for blood clots, and thus for heart attack and stroke. So what is erythritol, and what are the chances you ate something containing it today? I’ll explain.

From Hunters, to Paper Girls, to The Peripheral—hell, arguably even The Rings of Power—Amazon seems determined to produce one quality show after another that they can dump a ton of money into and then abandon on the billion-dollar afterthought of Prime Video. Maybe that will change in March with the launch of three…Read more...

Sometimes a deal can feel too good to pass up, and that can especially be the case with a gift card deal—particularly since federal law gives you five years from the date a gift card is activated to use it before it expires. If you’ve got a purchase planned in the semi-near future for places like Apple, Nintendo, GAP…Read more...

Hulu continues its quest to uproot HBO Max as the best streaming service with an eclectic bunch of new series and movies coming in March. It’s become the “adult” repository for all of the content that doesn’t fit on the family-friendly Disney+, as well as a bunch of great FX series and a good number of original films…Read more...

In April 2022, Reddit added the ability to search for comments on desktop. The feature was so popular, they quickly added it to their iOS and Android apps as well. It was a long time coming: The change allows you to search comments across Reddit’s entire catalog of discussions, increasing the chances you’ll find…Read more...

“Not everything is for everyone, but almost everything is for someone,” Abraham Lincoln once said, probably, and these nine mobile apps prove him right. They each do one specific thing, and most of them will be useful to only one specific kind of person.

Making a grocery list seems simple enough. People have been doing it for generations—you simply write down what you need, and take the paper with you to the store. The thing is, there are a lot of ways this can go wrong: When you’re in the living room finishing a snack on a cozy night, are you really going to shed…Read more...

Even if you’re not handy, there are certain universal projects that just about everyone tackles at some point in their lives, like hanging a towel rack or a shelf on the wall. And trying to hang stuff on your walls leads to a crucial lesson: Drywall absolutely sucks when it comes to supporting weight.

Losing your iPhone is bad. Losing your entire digital life, from photos to finances, is traumatic. Unfortunately, the latter is all too common. Journalist Joanna Stern recently published a report with The Wall Street Journal detailing how thieves in places like New York aren’t just stealing iPhones, but every valuable…Read more...

Sometimes an old piece of glassware or plant pot simply needs a refresh, or you might have a thrifted item that doesn’t quite go with your decor. Refinishing can be a hassle, especially with ceramic and glassware—but there’s a way to use a bucket of water and some paint to make your old things look fresh again, with a…Read more...

Compliments (usually) feel good. They can reflect appreciation and value, help build and boost self-esteem, encourage positive behavior, and help create a positive environment. However, even if a compliment is well-intentioned, it can easily fall flat. On the extreme end, it also has the potential to cross lines in…Read more...

It’s been a hell of a layoffs season. With this uncertainty in the labor market—not to mention the bigger picture of a looming recession—it’s natural to feel a sense of helplessness. You can’t live in a constant state of paranoia, but it helps to be on the lookout for some signs that layoffs are coming to your office.…Read more...

It’s probably not just a feeling you have: Some people really do get way more spam calls, emails, and texts than others. For every fake McAfee order email your friend gets, you get three missives from African, Swedish, Jordanian, and Australian princes trying to take your money—plus two fake package tracking texts and…Read more...

Maintaining healthy teeth is obviously important for us, but the same is also true for our cats. Although we may not think about a cat’s dental health quite as often as ours—and attempting to brush their teeth can be its own battle—cats can develop their own dental issues, including abscessed teeth, gingivitis, or a…Read more...

If you collect video games, or are holding onto a batch of your childhood favorites, chances are you have more than a few loose carts and discs in your collection. Many retro games came in flimsy cardboard boxes, and I’m willing to bet I wasn’t the only person whose family got rid of game cases in favor of those giant…Read more...

Is it possible to go shopping for a life partner? According to the latest TikTok trend, it might just be: “Home Depot dating,” which has racked up more than 6 million views on the social media app, first started as videos of single women looking for eligible bachelors among the hammers, paints, and screwdrivers in the…Read more...

I do not own a potato masher. I own a potato ricer, because it’s better at its job. Rather than chasing potatoes around the pot with a masher, I push them through the ricer, extruding them into tiny little bits that can be gently stirred into warmed dairy, reducing the amount of mashing needed, which keeps the…Read more...

Eating a frozen pizza for supper can feel a little like giving up, but you can’t deny the convenience factor, nor the nostalgic, juvenile appeal. It is, after all, still pizza.