Lifehacker

Is your PS5 controller acting up? A firmware update for your DualSense controller can quickly fix many minor issue. If you have a PS5, it’s easy to update the controller by plugging it into the console. If you don’t have a console, however—perhaps because you use the controller for PC gaming—you can use a Windows…Read more...

I have a dog that gets carsick if the conditions are not exactly perfect. I have to withhold food if we’re going to be in the car more than fifteen minutes and reassure her that I’m not taking her to be abandoned. Still, she frequently ralphs, and I frequently clean it up, so I thought I was something of an expert on…Read more...

Fall is a beautiful and practical time for a trip: The scenery in the northern part of the country is particularly exquisite, the southern part offers a little warmth for anyone still clinging to summer, and each state offers something cool to see or do.Read more...

Being a teenager (and a young adult) can be incredibly stressful. In a recent survey, the American Institute of Stress found that 64% of people between ages 15-29 are experiencing high levels of stress. Meanwhile, 61% of middle schoolers reporting feeling a high level of pressure to get good grades.

Increased work obligations, diminished emotional capacity, family emergencies—there’s no shortage of reasons why someone might need to step back from a relationship, at least for a little while. The notion of “downgrading” or “de-escalating” a relationship might sound like code for “breaking up.” In reality, not all…Read more...

This week, some young people are learning about how they have no privacy at work. Others are asking why they can’t make friends. But everyone is asking whether Harry Styles spit on Chris Pine.

Our shoulder blades can move in multiple directions. They can slide up and down, toward each other or apart from each other, and they can rotate clockwise and counterclockwise. When you’re doing an exercise that involves your upper back, instructors will sometimes boil down all this complexity to “squeezing” or…Read more...

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Apple has a habit of aggressively removing features in the name of progress. They killed the DVD drive from the Mac while discs were still popular, removed HDMI and MagSafe from MacBook Pros (before subsequently bringing them back), and, of course, are responsible for the death of the headphone jack. Apple’s decision…Read more...

Sensory activities are a really important aspect of child development. In particular, activities that incorporate “messy play” are helpful for kids to integrate different sensations into their lives, which helps them with motor skills, language skills, and engages their creativity. For kids with “sensory…Read more...

Rest days are a commonly used tool to manage your workload in an exercise routine. While they’re not technically necessary, they can be a good idea, giving your body extra time to recover between workouts. Even when I’m doing an intense workout program, I make sure to give myself, at minimum, one full rest day. Or,…Read more...

One of the basic tenets of interior design—if you ever plan to sell your home—is to avoid overly personal choices of the more permanent variety. Yet, as anyone who has ever house- or apartment-hunted before can attest, many people think that textured walls are a universally appealing design choice. Fact: They are not.…Read more...

Maybe you love podcasts. Maybe you have listened to every single episode of every single show spotlighted on the Apple Podcasts homepage. And maybe you have thus found yourself in a listening rut. There are so many interview shows, scripted non-fiction shows, comedy chat shows, and fiction dramas, sometimes it seems…Read more...

You probably love your living room. It’s where you put up your feet at the end of the day, ready to unwind in whatever home theater experience you have created. If you’re looking up, though, you’re doing it wrong—at least according to the “experts” on Reddit.

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Update, 2:10 p.m. Sept. 8: Buckingham Palace announced this afternoon that Queen Elizabeth II has died.

Oatmeal is not my favorite food. It makes me look like a child eating lima beans, and I eat it with a sad face. But with some butter, there’s a way to turn oatmeal into something even haters can enjoy: crisp, fried oatmeal squares.

If you’re in a longterm relationship, you know they can be filled with ups and downs and undergo many growing pains. Much of these highs and lows happen as each partner grows and evolves throughout the years. But while we would like to think we grow in tandem with our partner as time goes by, that’s not always the…Read more...

Apple has officially announced the new generation of its premium wearable devices, the Apple Watch Series 8 and the Apple Watch Ultra. Both models have a host of new features, but the dirty little secret of the wearable tech world is that most people won’t actually need or use them. If you’re looking for the best…Read more...

You probably vaguely know that getting frisky in public could get you in trouble, which is why articles about or viral videos of people doing so tend to get major attention. It’s just so out of the norm, right? Well, not really. There are levels to these things, after all. Young people who live with their parents, for…Read more...

It’s flu shot season and, once again, the influenza vaccine is an important one to get. With mask-wearing on the decline, there’s likely to be more of every common respiratory virus around. So you might as well protect yourself against the ones that have safe, effective vaccines readily available.

When AirPods Pro were first released in 2019, it was quite a different world. Thanks to their sleek form factor, respectable noise cancellation, and their seamless integration with the Apple ecosystem, they became the go-to pair of earbuds for so many of us. Fast forward to late 2022, and the world of noise-canceling…Read more...

When you look up “toxic relationship,” all the top results focus on identifying unhealthy or harmful signs in the other person—never you. After all, it’s easy to point fingers and diagnose toxic behaviors in other people. What’s harder is a good long look in the mirror to admit when you’re the one causing problems in…Read more...

I’ve been playing music games for the past 10 years and playing music-music for longer than that, and I’m fascinated with how much musicianship you can learn from playing video games. The answer is: Some, and in interesting ways.

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Let’s say you’ve purchased the perfect vintage shirt at a flea market, or discovered a box of your parents’ or grandparents’ clothing in the attic and found something that actually fits. Then, after an initial assessment of the garment, you determine that it’s still got some life left in it, and decide to wear it. Of…Read more...

Minecraft is addicting. Minecraft is popular. That combination means there are a lot of us playing the game for hours on end every single day. While that’s good for the Minecraft community at large, it’s also good for hackers. They don’t see millions of Minecraft players: They see millions of targets for malware.

During my years as a public school teacher in Brooklyn, I would rely on yogurt to hold me over between classes. Yogurt cups are portable, simple, and easy to consume when you barely have time for yourself. There’s just one little problem: yogurt burps.

For most homeowners, a basement is just glorified storage space. Even finished basements often present a challenge—most of us default to throwing an old rug, couch, and TV down there and calling it an “entertainment” space or a “Man Cave,” and then proceed to never use it. Or we slowly fill it with boxes until it’s a …Read more...

It happens to the best of us: You might be totally up to date on all the latest phishing scams and still fall for one. While it’s definitely panic-inducing to realize you just clicked on some scammy link, there are some easy steps you can take next to minimize the damage and secure your devices and data.

We all have times when we find ourselves waiting, with nothing to do, in the waiting room of our doctor’s office, at the car mechanic, or during a quiet time at work. Usually when this happens, our instinct is to reach for our smartphone to scroll through social media or check our email, as doing something feels more…Read more...

You may have heard advice (from us, even!) to pack extra medications when you go on vacation, or to stash a generous supply in your emergency preparedness kit. But if the medications you take regularly are prescription ones, where are you supposed to get all these extra doses? Enter the early refill.Read more...

If you have a round of Elden Ring or Stray penciled into your calendar this morning, it’s time to reschedule. Your PS5 has a new update to download and install. Luckily, it’s worth it—especially if you happen to own a 1440p monitor. Sony released System software 6.0 to PS5 owners on Wednesday, Sept. 7. The update…Read more...

When it comes to mouthwatering meals, sometimes the most pungent ingredients are the most essential. Where would Asian cuisine be without fermented fish sauce? Or German or Korean cuisine without various pickled cabbages? And we all know how cilantro can divide families. Standing alone, these ingredients can cause the…Read more...

Microsoft’s PowerToys has a new utility that lets you copy text from images: If someone sends you a picture of their business card or a screenshot of their bank account details, you can use PowerToys to quickly copy it on Windows. The new utility is called Text Extractor, and it’s available with PowerToys’ 0.62…Read more...

Oktoberfest may be a German tradition, but that doesn’t mean you have to go to Germany to celebrate. In fact, there are plenty of great locations across the U.S. where you can enjoy all the fun of Oktoberfest. Here are eight worth traveling for.Read more...

Last week I asked you to share the last time your rose-colored glasses lost their rosy tint. Because as the early stages of dating turn into the harsh realities of a serious relationship, certain behaviors go from endearing to downright irritating. Innocuous examples include constant humming, clinical-level snoring,…Read more...

Deadlifts can be intimidating. If you’re the type to overthink the details when you’re anxious, then, you’ve probably studied everything about the deadlift—except for one technique that you can’t see so much as feel. That is: pulling the slack out of the bar.Read more...

One of the worst ways to promote your work online is by exhibiting a god complex. Sure, it pays to celebrate what makes your work valuable. At the same time, you don’t want to annoy your potential (or existing) audience along the way. On the other end of the spectrum, some talented artists struggle with the inherent…Read more...

Have you ever gone to karaoke and watched enviously as others took the stage while you were too trapped by your own anxiety to give it a shot? Or, worse, have you actually conquered your fear of getting up there only to discover in real-time that you cannot sing a note, and you have the stage presence of soggy pasta?…Read more...

We’ve come to rely on reviews when researching what products to buy. After all, everything’s getting more expensive (or getting smaller), and you want to be sure the purchases you make are smart. Reviews offer you real-life experience from someone who bought the item you’re looking at, and help inform you whether or…Read more...

Q-tips are one of a very short list of products that are routinely bought for a purpose they are explicitly not to be used for (seriously—don’t clean your ears with them). But if you’re not supposed to use Q-tips to clean your ears, what’s the point of them? Well, they were initially marketed as a safe way to swab…Read more...

When the CDC was preparing to recommend the new bivalent COVID booster vaccines (speaking of which, most of us should make plans to get one), they also mentioned that more people should be aware of Evusheld, which can provide extra protection for immunocompromised people aged 12 and up.Read more...

It may be September, but that doesn’t mean it’s not still hot out there—you may have heard a heat wave is blanketing the western U.S. The ideal way to beat the heat is by sitting poolside with a something cold to drink. The pool may not be in the cards for you, so the least I can do is help you craft a late summer…Read more...

You might not have known that people with penises can get yeast infections, given that advertising for over-the-counter relief is widely geared toward those who do not. Prevention advice is usually aimed at vaginas, and yeast infection treatment is typically categorized as women’s health. In fairness, vaginas get the…Read more...

If it seems like you just updated Chrome, that’s because you did. Google refreshed its web browser to version 105 on Wednesday, introducing new features and security patches. However, only days later, Google has provided yet another update. The company doesn’t usually issue surprise updates without a good reason, and…Read more...

As every parent is acutely aware of, social media comes with a number of risks, many of which are new and unfamiliar to us. Although many parents are aware of cyber-bullying, and the self-esteem issues associated with social media, there is another phenomenon called digital self-harm, that has been increasing in…Read more...

Whether it’s a summer fling who’s turning needy, or a longterm partnership that has lost all its shine, autumn may feel like the perfect time to end your relationship and start anew. But when you grab your emotional-scissors and cut out your once-soulmate’s heart, at least try to do it with as much grace and maturity…Read more...

Babies are, undeniably, adorable. On the other hand, they can also be very boring—and you are in charge of virtually all of their entertainment. Fortunately, the world is brand new to them, so the “entertainment” possibilities are all around you. However, you are exhausted and want to create maximum joy with minimal…Read more...

For every person who loves the feel of carpet on their bare feet, there are others who regard carpet as the Worst Flooring and the First Thing We’re Ripping Out When We Move In. Hating carpet isn’t just aesthetic, either—carpet can be difficult to keep clean, and often is only superficially “clean” no matter what we…Read more...