Lifehacker

Face ID is great for locking and unlocking your iPhone, but it’s even better for authenticating apps that contain sensitive data. While many apps now support Face ID log in, there are still plenty that don’t—but there’s a hack that can lock any app behind Face ID, thanks to an interesting quirk of iOS.

How do you promote yourself on social media without sounding insufferable, arrogant, or needy? The question was posed to me recently, and I didn’t immediately have an answer. Candidly, I’ve often wondered this myself: What’s the best way to promote my work?Read more...

You’re probably familiar with the annoying ring of unmelted wax that sometimes develops on larger candles. It’s called “tunneling,” and it’s not just ugly—it decreases a candle’s lifespan and makes it harder to actually use.

February is prime time for SAD, and pretty much universally recognized as the bleakest month of the year. So what better time to binge watch a bunch of the most depressing films ever made?

Brining is an excellent way to season poultry. It imparts flavor and can safeguard against moisture loss in a protein that’s often at-risk for dryness. Instead of relying solely on good ol’ salt (which doesn’t provide much flavor besides, well, saltiness), or a bevy of ingredients that you need to chop and massage,…Read more...

Listen to this clip of blues legend Taj Mahal playing a concert in Germany in the 1990s. The crowd is clapping along happily to “Blues with Feeling,” but Taj stops the performance mid-song.

Whether you get your tidying inspo from CleanTok influencers, Pinterest, or the stuff your aunt shares on Facebook, a lot of home advice these days is viral. Sometimes, the viral content is about methodology, but other times, it centers on specific products and tools. Here are some of the most viral cleaning tools, as…Read more...

We’re so used to seeing finished products, it’s hard to imagine that they were once anything else. But nails, staples, springs, and chains all started life as spools of wire, and a bunch of other household objects and foods have even more surprising origins. Here’s a tour—starting with some bad news about silk. I’m so…Read more...

Any iPhone can take a great picture. If you want to zoom in, though, you need to go Pro. Since the iPhone 7 Plus, Apple has reserved the telephoto zoom lens for its more expensive devices. Its “standard” iPhones must use a digital zoom to move in closer to a subject, which results in a reduced quality image. At least,…Read more...

The name all-purpose cleaner is enticing, especially if you’re in a rush or don’t have a lot to spend on cleaning products (and aren’t in the mood to DIY some). Unfortunately, it’s also misleading: Not everything can be cleaned with all-purpose cleaner, so you have to be careful not to put it on surfaces that won’t…Read more...

In the age of viral and often antagonistic TikTok recipes, it’s nice to see something vintage get attention. Take this “secret banana” french toast—The Reddit-famous recipe is quite simple: Puree half a banana with an egg and a little cinnamon, dip some whole grain bread in the batter, and fry in butter. It’s sort of…Read more...

Bed Bath & Beyond has been struggling to recover from its downturn during the pandemic—and now, the situation is so dire that they’re selling $1 billion in stocks to pay their debts, according to the New York Post. Bed Bath & Beyond has been slowly but surely putting out statements and updating their list of stores…Read more...

Buying cheap video games is a much better value proposition than it used to be. Shopping around for cheap games back in the day usually meant you’d be getting what you paid for (anyone else remember browsing the under $5 older/used section of EB Games?).

I grew up in a densely-populated city in the Northeast, about as far from rural life as you can get. Running around as a kid, I remember seeing some older homes having these weird little posts out in front on the sidewalk, usually with a tiny horse head on top. For a long time I was mystified, until someone finally…Read more...

I’ve been craving a plate of Thai banana roti, and yet my body, mind, and spirit do not want to mix or stretch any roti. Instead, I’ve made Thai banana faux-ti using phyllo dough, and it was a resounding success. If you like bananas even a little bit, you’re going to love this quick four-ingredient dish.

Tabs are not meant to be read. Tabs are meant to be opened, and left opened, while you spend your valuable time opening more tabs. At any given moment, you may have dozens of tabs running idle in the background, waiting for your return. But when disaster strikes, and you accidentally quit your browser—or it quits…Read more...

Across all forms of entertainment media, we are living in the age of the binge, and podcasts are no different. Certainly it’s frustrating to be swept away by a captivating podcast episode only to find out you have to wait a week or more to continue the story.

It isn’t difficult to find an app designed for journaling. In fact, it’s more challenging to choose one from the sea of options out there. Worse yet, most lock their features behind a subscription service, and store your notes themselves, making it hard to switch apps in the future. But you actually can journal for…Read more...

Like any reasonable person, I love garlic bread, but it is not the only allium-based bread you can make and enjoy. Much like their cloved cousin, onions can be transformed into a sweet and savory, irresistible bread topping. All you need is butter, onions, heat, and time.Read more...

We’ve given you tips for extremely specific emergencies, but what you may not realize is that emergency situations can be waiting right around the corner—or in your own house. Here are some tips to help you avoid the under-appreciated but ever-present dangers of everyday life.

Heading out to a dazzling restaurant for a lovely meal is certainly one option for a memorable Valentine’s Day. Contrarily, it’s often disappointing. Stress can stem from reserving a table weeks in advance, only to find that the atmosphere is too busy, then get rushed out because they’re turning over tables on a tight…Read more...

Cling wrap is a kitchen MVP, always there when you need to wrap up leftovers or keep ingredients fresher for longer in the fridge. It can help you prevent spills, keep surfaces clean, and generally save you some extra work.

Buying a house is a complex and emotional process, and we don’t always make perfect decisions once we’ve determined a particular property is our dream house. But even if you’re careful to think of your home as an asset and an investment, it’s difficult to swing a down payment and harder to figure out how much house …Read more...

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...