Lifehacker

Today’s smartphones take better photos and videos than the dedicated digital cameras of yore, but they aren’t without their issues. Over on Reddit, some smartphone shutterbugs report their photos are plagued by a recurring problem—weird blobs (or dots) scattered across every image. No matter what they do, they can’t…Read more...

Read more...

Whether you make your own noodles or doctor packets of the instant stuff, there are a seemingly endless number of ways to zhuzh your ramen. I usually bombard mine with handfuls of corn, either frozen or pickled, but last night, about to tuck into a bowl of Shin, I impulsively grabbed a bottle of onion oil I had made…Read more...

You can binge all nine seasons of Seinfeld as many times as you want, but you’ll never see another new episode again. That is, until you tune into Nothing, Forever a never-ending AI-generated spoof of the hit sitcom that just might melt your brain.

Sometimes it pays to be a procrastinator: For those who have been waiting for the right time to jump into the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, there might be no better time than now. For a limited time, you can get two months of the gaming service for $9.99, instead of its usual $30 price.

You’re driving down the road at night, and someone flashes their headlights at you—maybe a quick off-and-on, or they flicker their high beams. Or, even more perplexingly, they do this in broad daylight. What does it mean? (And no, it’s not a gang initiation ritual.)

A podcast studio can be a confession booth. A host or a guest, especially an anonymous guest, is free to share their darkest secrets in safety—never mind that they will soon be released for all to hear. Listening to these stories is often more than indulging on some juicy content, though—a naked confessional can also…Read more...

Your résumé is polished, your interview skills are strong, but there’s one thing standing between you and your ability to press “submit” on a job application: the cover letter. For many job-seekers, writing a cover letter is soul-sucking and time-consuming. It would be far easier to apply to job after job if you…Read more...

When my son was a toddler, I spent much of my day helping him navigate his big emotions. There was his outrage at having to wear pants every single day; his tears over having to go to sleep at a reasonable hour; his utter despondence about not getting to eat ice cream for every meal. While these all seem like outsized…Read more...

Apple really wants you to try its streaming services. Apple TV+ has a one-week free trial, while Apple Music bumps it up to one month free. And if you buy a qualifying Apple device, you can get three months of Apple TV+ and six months of Apple Music free. But, of course, once you run through those trials, the freebies…Read more...

There’s something for everyone this week in the world of young people culture, whether you like post-apocalyptic drama, shaming creepy dudes at the gym, or pretending to be a wizard in one of them damn vidja games.

The idea of a third Ant-Man and the Wasp got you down? Bored with the fourteenth spin-off of the third Star Wars movie? I’m here to praise, rather than bury, expansive multi-media universes, but Marvel, DC, Star Wars, and (to an increasing extent) even Star Trek take up an awful lot of the oxygen in the room (and you…Read more...

Caramelized onions are the most famous type of cooked onion. This makes sense, because they taste good. But there is a whole spectrum of cooked onion flavors to enjoy. Gently baked, quickly sautéed, even burnt—each preparation method has something to offer. If you haven’t tried sizzled onions, you owe it to yourself…Read more...

Nothing beats self-care—except saving money on self-care. Heading to the spa or salon for pampering is special and relaxing, but pampering yourself at home is fulfilling in its own way. You’re saving money, feeling accomplished, and looking great. But you know why going to the pros is as relaxing as it is? You don’t…Read more...

No one wants to deal with so many preinstalled channels on their Roku, especially when you only have a few you regularly watch. As it turns out, there’s no need to keep those unnecessary channels around. In fact, you can delete any and all of them.

Ultra-processed foods have been linked with increased risk of cancer, heart disease, and dementia. These foods include a lot of fast foods and factory-produced snacks, which probably sounds about right—they are the things we might categorize as junk food. But to focus on the “processing” leaves more questions than it…Read more...

Candy dominates the Valentine’s Day gift-giving landscape, with roses trailing close behind. But humans cannot live on candy and flowers alone (or not for long), and some people don’t even like them. Some of us have a particular culinary love language, and that is the language of flesh.

Netflix is in some hot water with subscribers, to say the least. The whole dang internet is buzzing about the company’s plans to kill password sharing, and while it’s not clear how far they’ll really go to enforce it, its newly minted, official policy is thus: If you want to stream Netflix, you need to pay for it…Read more...

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is urging people to stop issuing and using EzriCare Artificial Tears while they investigate dozens of bacterial infections that have left three people permanently blind and one dead, according to NBC News. The infections are potentially linked to the…Read more...

Years into being a gym rat, I have curated quite the collection of straps, wraps, sleeves, belts, and other items I can attach to my body when I’m lifting weights. Does every gym-goer need all these things? No way; I probably don’t even need all of mine. But each one has a purpose, so I’m here to demystify what they…Read more...

Going to the hospital is a stressful, often confusing, and potentially expensive experience. Whether it’s a visit to the emergency room in the middle of the night or a planned surgical procedure, hospital visits can be overwhelming, drowning you and your loved ones in paperwork, jargon, and occasionally imperious…Read more...

While there’s likely little you can do when facing a layoff, what you can control is how you handle it afterward. If you’re getting ready to interview for your next gig, well, first, congratulations are in order. But what do you do when it’s time to talk about being laid off?

Cinnamon and chocolate are not inherently sweet. In fact, they’re both pretty bitter (one’s tree bark for goodness sake), but add some sugar, and you’ve got two of the most popular dessert flavors. If ground up bark can get a pass, other savory ingredients deserve a chance. Garnishing and flavoring desserts with…Read more...

Gone are the days when you could walk into a Subway confident of what your sandwich would cost you: Whether you blame inflation or corporate greed, the $5 footlong is a deal long gone, even if the jingle will never truly leave your brain. But all hope is not lost for sandwich artist patrons: For the next nine days,…Read more...

As someone who grew up using Windows XP and still uses Windows 11, I have a confession: It’s nice using a Mac. But there are some Windows features I do miss when I’m on my Mac. (Of course, the opposite is also true.)

PlayStation and Xbox fans will have plenty to play this month through their PlayStation Plus or Xbox Game Pass subscriptions. Both companies have announced February’s new monthly downloadable games and new additions to their respective services, as well as a few games that are planned to be removed. Here’s everything…Read more...

The winter months are historically a slow period for new video game releases, but 2023 is a different beast. We’re barely into February, and 2023 has already seen big new RPGs and action games, surprising indies, and even revivals of beloved franchises. There are so many, in fact, that we decided to round up a list of…Read more...

Apple’s intent with the Mac is for your experience to be as easy to use as possible. At the same time, there’s also a rich world of hidden features and settings to explore for those of us who aren’t content with default macOS. While you could mess with Terminal commands or comb every page of various settings menus to…Read more...

When I first read the words “vodka butter,” I was distraught. I could not think of a single reason to combine those two things into one thing, until I went to the source. The creator of vodka butter is a charming individual (@carolinagelen) who makes appealing looking food on TikTok. After watching her vodka butter…Read more...

Try to spread wads of hard, cold fat onto tender, crumbly bread, and you’ll be met with disappointment every time. The stiff butter sticks to the crumbs and to the knife, and our primal buttering reflexes tell us to press harder, resulting in shredded toast. You need a new strategy. A way to spread butter even when…Read more...

Thursdays don’t have to be the sad, awkward day between hump day and Friday. They can be special in their own right: Get out with friends or family and enjoy these Thursday-specific food deals, all of which should be available on any Thursday for (mostly) less than $20.

Unless you are immortal, the next few weeks offer the only chance you’ll have to see Comet ZTF (C/2022 E3). The newly discovered chunk of ice and rock will glow green in the nighttime sky in the first few weeks of February, and it won’t be back near Earth for 50,000 years—if it ever returns at all.

The basics of running aren’t hard to get down: Mostly, you need comfortable shoes, a sports bra if applicable, and consistency. But sometimes we make things harder on ourselves than they need to be. Here are some of the biggest mistakes new runners make.Read more...

There are so many ways to clean caked-on, baked-on, dried-on residue from your pots and pans, yet I always find myself just kind of sticking mine in warm water and announcing, “I’m going to wash it later. It needs to soak.” This behavior contributes to the problem. Let’s fix it once and for all by listing out some…Read more...

The easiest way to make people want to eat broccoli is it douse it in cheese or candy it, and there’s nothing wrong with those strategies. But that doesn’t work for those of us who are trying to cut down on dairy or sugar. (Not me, but I’m sure someone is). But there is a way to coax flavor out of the humble green…Read more...

Conagra Brands, Inc., is recalling 2.58 million pounds of canned meat and poultry products because of a packaging defect that has caused some of their cans to become contaminated—without necessarily showing any physical signs of the products going bad, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Samsung officially unveiled the next generation of Galaxy—the S23, S23+, and S23 Ultra—during its Unpacked 2023 event on Feb. 1. As you might have gleaned from social media, however, the company wasn’t exactly the first to reveal these phones. Leakers spoiled the fun already, and embargoed previews went live shortly…Read more...

My beef with chocolate fondant cake, or any lava cake that relies on an undercooked center, is that you have to sit in front of the oven window waiting for the precise moment to remove the cake, then un-mold its screaming hot, delicate cake-body from the pan without destroying it. There’s enough stress in other parts…Read more...

Back in July 2022, Edgewell Personal Care announced a voluntary recall for one of its Banana Boat spray sunscreens after an internal review found that three batches of the product contained traces of benzene. Now, the company has expanded the recall to include another batch of Banana Boat Hair & Scalp Sunscreen after…Read more...

A medication abortion involves taking two types of pills. One of them, mifepristone, has been the subject of all kinds of restrictive regulations over the years—until this year, you couldn’t even get your prescription filled at a regular pharmacy. And now, as our friends at Jezebel report, an anti-abortion judge is…Read more...

You know those small bags you can use in the washing machine for underwear and other delicates? You can use them in your dishwasher, too. Think of all the smaller items you find yourself fishing for at the end of every cycle—they could all be contained in a mesh bag and still be just as clean as they’d be without it.…Read more...

Planning a date for Valentine’s Day is tricky. You want it to be special, but roses and a reservation feels cliché. Stay in and cook dinner together if you want—but if you’re looking to get out and do something a little different this year, we’ve got some ideas to get you started.

Just when you thought we’d heard the last of Antonio Banderas’ sexy cat voice, spin-off chapter Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (Antonio Banderas) gets a late-in-the-day sequel, 11 years after the last movie featuring the character, and wound up Oscar nominated for its efforts.

Getting accurate speech-to-text has always been a pain in the ass. A decade ago, it would cost you a $199 app purchase—and the result would still require a lot of editing to make it accurate. But this is where we start to see tangible benefits of the AI revolution, where the learning models can do things incredibly…Read more...

A common gripe about bosses is that they give little to no feedback, leaving employees wondering how they’re performing or worried that something might be wrong. But not receiving feedback often means only that: You’re not getting feedback. In many cases, the reason has to do with the manager’s skill set, not yours—…Read more...

Valentine’s Day is embarrassing. All those flowers and that soppy sentiment? No thank you. Not for me, or my fellow misanthropes. Still, many of us manage to find love, despite our poisonous hearts. If you’re lucky enough to meet a fellow traveler who hates the same things you hate, you have to play the game, at least…Read more...

I am tired of being cold. Unfortunately, given the fact that I live in the Pacific Northwest, I am probably going to go on being cold for at least six more weeks. Luckily, I am not tired of eating warming foods, such as soups, big piles of potatoes, and stews. Stews are especially fortifying—particularly, beef stew.Read more...

To hear the TikTok girlies tell it, there’s a hack that will let you EAT MORE FOOD! While NOT GAINING WEIGHT! And it’s great if you are SICK OF DIETING! Never mind that one can achieve all those goals by a simple trick called “not dieting anymore.” No, it needs a name and a strict protocol: reverse dieting.

We don’t generally think of heavy cream as a “cooking fat,” or at least I don’t. To me, it is a drinking fat, a whipping fat, a drizzling fat, and I’m sure it’s all of those things to you as well, but don’t let these cold-temperature applications prevent you from getting heated, especially when it comes to eggs.Read more...

For scrubbing walls, there’s nothing better than a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser (which is actually just a melamine sponge, brand names be damned). But these bad boys can do a whole lot more than de-scuff your walls—when Mr. Clean says “magic,” he means it.