Lifehacker

Valentine’s Day dinner is often over-thought and overwrought: The food needs to be luxurious but not too rich, and the drinks flowing but not so stiff that you fall asleep. (The easiest way to circumvent this issue is to just bone before dinner, but not everyone can fit that into their schedule.) But I can solve the…Read more...

If you’re hosting a Super Bowl LVII party this Sunday, make sure you’re not serving any of these charcuterie sausages that were recalled by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). According to the updated USDA recall, approximately 69,255 pounds of ready-to-eat sausage products have been recalled for the potential…Read more...

There’s a new Harry Potter game out there, and the internet is aflame over it—and not in a “no one can stop playing Elden Ring” way. While certainly popular, and likely to sell millions of copies before you can say “accio credit card,” if you’re not entirely comfortable giving your money to support a game that will …Read more...

Baked brie functions as a sort of cheese balloon; instead of air, the inside is full of gooey, melted cheese (and promise). It’s when that first guess slices into the side of the brie—popping the balloon—that things start to fall apart. Suddenly, it’s a mad dash to catch the liquid cheese before it cascades off the…Read more...

Google Maps is a lot more than a GPS app these days. Sure, it’ll help you navigate your commute, but you can also use it to learn about and virtually explore any city in the world. Google is building on that idea with its latest feature, Immersive View, allowing you to digitally explore a city like never before.Read more...

Most of us can stand to eat healthier (myself included, as I tally up how many meals I’ve had this week involving Nutella), but we often go about it the wrong way. If you find yourself hungry and tired or just constantly falling off the wagon, you might want to check whether you’re making these common mistakes.Read more...

Colgate-Palmolive is voluntarily recalling 4.9 million bottles of Fabuloso Multi-Purpose Cleaner that may contain bacteria. The company says it is issuing the recall on some multipurpose cleaners, “because a preservative was not added at the intended levels during manufacturing. With inadequate preservative, there is…Read more...

As good as IMDB is for listing who worked on a show, it isn’t helpful for crediting what each character was wearing. Unless the shirt, dress, or shoes you saw have particularly identifiable characteristics, you’re unlikely to find where to actually buy it. One site is here to help fix that problem.Read more...

Quick Look is one of your Mac’s best features. With it, you can highlight any file and press the space bar to view image previews, see text inside certain files, and check other information such as the file size. Many of us use this feature every day to preview files without needing to open them first—and you can…Read more...

When you start swiping through a long web page, message thread, or document on your iPhone, you see a scrollbar in the right edge. It’s a thin, greyed-out pill that disappears almost instantly as you stop swiping, making it feel like Apple doesn’t even really want it there. But you should want it there. In fact, if…Read more...

I’ve never been to a Super Bowl party where Cubano sandwiches have been served, and I’m convinced this needs to change. Of all the meaty, melty, juicy, pressed sandwiches out there, this one is the boss. Roasted pork, ham, Swiss cheese, mustard and pickles; everything about this screams “touchdown!” Whether you’re…Read more...

Harry Potter and the magical world in which he lives haven’t been served particularly well by video games since the first novel came out in 1997, but this week, with the release of open-world RPG Hogwarts Legacy, all that was set to change. After months of strong pre-order sales, the AAA title was released today, Feb.…Read more...

Pommes Anna is one of those dishes that brings out the futzer inside of us. She’s a simple girl, made with nothing more than thinly sliced potatoes, butter, and salt, and people are always trying to dress her up with herbs, garlic, and seasonings. She doesn’t need all that. Delicate, melting, butter-drenched and…Read more...

The way I was brought up, jumper cables are basically a part of your car. I might not always have remembered to keep every single item of the ideal emergency car kit in my trunk, but a pair of jumper cables were always there, because why the hell not? They’re cheap enough and easy enough to keep around. But that only…Read more...

You’re minding your own business, getting some work done on your Mac, when all of a sudden, you receive a notification from System Settings: Your iCloud is being hacked! Click here to remove the virus. Hold up, though: Any program telling you to “click here” to “remove the virus” is lying to you, and shouldn’t be…Read more...

The tail end of 2022 and beginning of 2023 have brought with them a slew of negative crypto news, from industry layoffs to fraud charges against one of the industry’s former gurus. Once you’ve digested the bad news (and brushed up on the basics of all things cryptocurrency), you might find yourself feeling resolved…Read more...

You have better things to do than wait for your laundry to dry (like folding your laundry and remaking the bed and getting on with your day). You are not fated to sit around and wait until the dryer completes a full cycle; you can speed it up. First things first: check and clear your lint trap and clean your vents.…Read more...

Amazon’s newest Kindle E-readers are on sale right now, and most of them are the cheapest they’ve been since their release dates last year. If you’ve been holding off on upgrading your e-reader or want to try one for the first time, now is a good time to take the plunge.

I haven’t done one of those genetic history tests, but I know the results would reveal my ancestors to be very pale and mostly Irish (or some combination of Irish and Welsh). But honestly, I feel about as Irish as a plate of Irish nachos, which do not come from Ireland and have never been to Ireland—but you can imagine…Read more...

While the dream of having one perfect web browser to use on your Mac sounds nice, for most of us, it isn’t reality. Different browsers have different strengths and weaknesses, especially when it comes to work, so we need to jump between apps like Safari and Chrome all day. The problem is, we’re only allowed one…Read more...

The Super Bowl is fast approaching, and I’ve got one thing on my mind: small hot dogs. Not isolated, of course, but tucked into salty carbs. Pigs ‘n blankets, or sausage rolls if you please, deserve to be in the starting lineup that is your snack table, but how you tuck them into bread is entirely up to you.…Read more...

As a normal human being and not an action movie character, you probably don’t spend much time thinking about how to survive life-or-death scenarios. But it’s worth knowing what to do if you’re pulled offshore by a rip current, your car stalls on the train tracks, or you need to file a missing persons report when…Read more...

Like it or not, ads are finding their way into just about every facet of digital life. Even Apple, a tech company known for not making its money from marketing, is now showing ads on their iPhones. If the ads are going to be here anyway, I guess they might as well be useful. Which is why the next time you see an ad…Read more...

Closet organization is my passion, but also my punishment. I live in a small apartment in New York City but dammit, I love clothes. And I can’t fit them all in my closet, so I have to get creative—but often, it doesn’t work. Even when I do get everything stuffed in there, I can’t see what I have, so I don’t wear some…Read more...

A horizontal list of tabs worked a decade ago, when we weren’t all living in our web browsers. These days, however, the browser has turned into its own mini-OS, with most of our work and play coming through this window to the internet. Companies like Google and Microsoft know this, which is they’ve added tab groups…Read more...

Maintaining healthy relationships with appropriate boundaries can prove challenging for anyone, but what if you’re someone who’s especially sensitive? How do you handle conflict if you’re the type of person who can feel the feelings and experiences of others? If this sounds like you, chances are you’re an empath, and…Read more...

.The Super Bowl is a big day for millions of Americans, a bunch of who host parties right in their homes, complete with wings, chips and dip, and plenty of beer. While it’s convenient and fun to party in your own living room, it’s not always great for your dog, who probably loves the excitement and the food—but also…Read more...

Sleeping with your partner in the same bed is synonymous with relationship bliss. Waking up next to the love of your life, cozy cuddles, and sex? What’s not to like, right? For a number of couples, the answer is—everything. While tradition says partners should sleep together in the same bed, that choice might not be…Read more...

Last year’s Super Bowl LVII between the Los Angeles Rams and the Cincinnati Bengals drew in 100 million viewers, easily becoming the most viewed sporting event of 2022 in the country, according to Statista—and this year’s Super Bowl is likely to be the same. But as more and more Americans drop cable, choosing instead…Read more...

A mighty glob of buttercream frosting looks appealing on a cupcake, but my quick hack for eating such a cupcake is to remove the liner off the bottom, use the liner to pull off the frosting, then throw the liner and frosting into a burning trash can. This keeps your fingers clean. Or, if you are similarly buttercream…Read more...

Sports betting has blown up in the U.S. since the Supreme Court struck down a federal ban in 2018, and most Americans who gamble bet on NFL games. Billions of dollars will likely be riding on Sunday’s Super Bowl game in bets placed through both legit gambling companies, and informal wagers between friends—the American…Read more...

Pasta is a breakfast food. Like toast, it is carb. It also tastes good with eggs, bacon, and cheese, three things I like to eat in the morning. (American breakfast foods are one of the few things that make me feel vaguely patriotic.) My breakfast pastas tend to be involved however, whether it’s a bowl of carbonara or…Read more...

Making the leap from PC to Mac is no longer as monumental as it used to be. You’ll find many of your programs are cross-platform (Google made sure of that), and that much of what you already do on Windows translates cleanly to macOS. And yet, Mac is fundamentally different than Windows, which means there will be…Read more...

In the world of food deals, it’s a bit of a secret that Valentine’s Day is actually among the best days for food deals. That is, at least in part, because you don’t need a significant other to score some good food (for two) at a good price—and then keep it all for you. You can practice some self-love this Feb. 14 by…Read more...

As a prolific eater of wedge salads, macaroni and cheese, and other things that taste better with a bit of bacon, I tend to keep a bag of real but store-bought bacon bits on hand. They’re serviceable—after all, they are bacon—but they come out of the bag gummy and lackluster, without any of the texture we associate…Read more...

Many commercially produced cleaners are loaded with harsh chemicals that aren’t great for you or the environment. For this reason, you might opt to make your own cleaning solutions at home—or maybe because you just didn’t have a chance to run to the store.Read more...

When the state of the economy is causing day-to-day costs to skyrocket, it’s all too easy to push your savings goals aside. We’ve previously covered the conventional wisdom for how much money you should keep in your different types of bank accounts, but how does that wisdom change when the economy is shaky? I spoke…Read more...

Taco Bell is offering their “new” Crispy Melt Taco for “free” until Feb. 15. I write that with some skepticism, as it’s questionable whether the CMT is actually new, and you can only get it for free if you are willing to buy a bunch of other food too. But hey, a free taco is a free taco is a free taco.Read more...

Whether you have an iPhone or an Android, your smartphone is basically a tiny computer that can fit in your pocket. And, like all computers, your phone is susceptible to software bugs and glitches. It won’t happen all the time, but every once in a while, you might accidentally trigger one of these quirks, and your…Read more...

As TVs have gotten larger and more sophisticated over their fairly young lifespan, our living rooms have been transformed into personal screening rooms. But as entertaining as televisions are, you might notice they can actually be quite distracting when you have guests over. If you’ve ever hosted a party and your…Read more...

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In the moment that would change my life forever, I was standing in Target looking at toilet paper holders. I like a freestanding holder, since it does not have a “front” or “back” for the roll debate; you just pull from whichever side you prefer. But for some reason all the freestanding TP holders had a little shelf…Read more...

The first time I made frangipane was in culinary school, and I remember thinking “Oh, this should go in everything.” It was so magical in flavor and texture that I immediately appreciated its potential, but expressing my awe was the culinary school equivalent of a teenager saying “You know, this Céline Dion lady is…Read more...

You probably use the Notes app all the time on your iPhone. It’s the simplest way to quickly jot thoughts down when they come to you. It’s simple enough, in fact, that many of us use its surface-level features and call it a day. But it can do so much more: In recent years, Apple has added plenty of new Notes features…Read more...

All kids need occasional (or constant) coaxing to complete the hundreds of tasks we expect from them in a day. Having to tell your kid to put his shoes on three times before school every day is not necessarily pathological, it’s within the typical range of developing attention spans and independence. However, kids…Read more...

In the opening of HBO’s The Last of Us, a couple of scientists on a 1960s-era interview show debate the possibility of a fungus-driven pandemic destroying humanity. It not only sets the tone for the show, it makes you wonder if something like that could actually happen. The answer: No. At least, not right now. In the…Read more...

Honda issued a “Do Not Drive” warning for seven older Acura and Honda vehicles which have unrepaired driver-side airbag inflators. The bags are unreliable and, if ejected, could send metal fragments that can severely injure and even kill the driver, says the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

According to a Harris poll commissioned for Ally Bank, 55% of those surveyed reported having had a “nightmare neighbor” in the past. I’m sure you don’t want to be thought of as one of those nightmares and end up vilified in a mortgage company’s poll, so here are seven things you should never do—unless you want to piss…Read more...

Everything at the grocery store is more expensive than it was a few months ago, but I was not prepared for protein powder inflation. My favorite powder costs about 30% more than it did last year, and I go through it fast enough that I couldn’t justify the price anymore. As an experiment, I started making my shakes…Read more...

Eggs are expensive right now. I know it. You know it. Allie knows it. But they still cost less than a lot of other things. For what it’s worth, I can still find conventional eggs at Fred Meyer, a Kroger chain, for under $3 a dozen. (There’s a limit on how many you can buy at a time, but that’s still really cheap). I’m…Read more...