Lifehacker

Malware is a problem that affects all platforms—including Apple—but it’s Android that seems to face the majority of cases these days. Stories pop up far too frequently concerning newly discovered batches of malicious apps on the Play Store. This time, there are four of them, one with over one million installs alone.

Although one-on-one meetings with your boss can seem useful in theory, they often fall short of being truly effective. As the Association for Talent Development recently reported in a survey, while 94% of managers say they schedule regular one-on-one meetings with their employees, less than half of their employees…Read more...

PC gaming has a reputation for being expensive and complicated. And sure, playing games on PC is arguably the “deep end” of the video game hobby compared to playing on consoles, but it’s much easier to wade into those waters than you might think.

When you’re a child, it feels like family holiday traditions are sacrosanct—that they were passed down on stone tablets and must be slavishly adhered to lest ruin befall the family (or mom get mad, anyway). But I’m sure you’ve learned by now that family traditions were just something your folks decided to do one year…Read more...

In the face soaring inflation, many of us still plan to travel at one point during the holidays this year. NPR reports that airlines are already reporting high demand and rising prices, so the time to book is now. But before you actually select your travel dates, it could pay to chat with you family about a longer…Read more...

It happens every year: Customers get hyped about an amazing online Black Friday deal only to be let down when the website crashes or their internet is too slow to snag the best first-come, first-served deals. But this year, there’s a workaround on at least one impressive deal on this 55" 4K Smart TV deal from Walmart,…Read more...

It takes time and effort to keep you home clean, to say nothing of the cost. We’re constantly being bombarded with advertisements for products that claim they are the best on the market and, busy and desperate, we may very well buy them hoping for a time-saving solution to our cleaning woes. But for the most part, you…Read more...

If you haven’t had enough of the Wordle-inspired games (I still play Redactle every day) you should know about Flagle. No relation to the antifungal medication with a similar name, this is a flag guessing game—with a twist.Read more...

When you have especially stinky clothes, washing and deodorizing them is the bare minimum you ask of your washing machine. That’s why we’ve shared so many tips over the years on how to go about it the right way. But what about when you just want your clothes to come out smelling extra nice?

Taking a screenshot of someone else’s BeReal appears to be a consequence-free affair. There’s zero feedback from the app, which makes it seem the same as taking a screenshot of someone’s latest Instagram post or a tweet. Unbeknownst to many BeReal users, however, the app tells on you whenever you take a screenshot.…Read more...

The perfect bowl of mashed potatoes is creamy yet fluffy and well-seasoned throughout, but it’s not enough to add salt and seasonings after, or even during the mashing step. Infusing potatoes with flavor starts at the beginning, at the boiling step.Read more...

I don’t think I’ve met a meatball I didn’t like, but once in a while, one has surprised me. Sometimes I’m smitten by an unusual meat blend, or maybe an unexpected spice. Recently, it was a surprise ingredient that got me: For enhanced richness, nuttiness, and pleasant texture in your meatballs, throw in some toasted…Read more...

Everyone has moments in their life when they need a lump sum of money right away—when they don’t have the time to make a savings plan and wait until they’ve accumulated the needed funds. Borrowing money can be either a lengthy process full of paperwork, delays, and credit checks—or it can be fast and easy, like with…Read more...

Julie Powell, the author of Julie and Julia, tweeted before her recent death at age 49 that she had “something that’s literally Black Hairy Tongue” and that her doctor thought it was “no big deal.” This, of course, spawned rampant speculation that the black hairy tongue was, in fact, a big deal, and possibly related…Read more...

The original Super Mario Bros. is a game with stakes. You don’t have the luxury of save states or level passwords. Once you lose all your lives, it’s game over. If you want to play again, you need to start from scratch—on World 1-1, whether you lost your third life on the first level, or on World 8-4. Or so we thought.

This week the long-term U.S. mortgage rate jumped to 7.08%, according to the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (aka Freddie Mac). This is a 0.14 percentage point increase from a week earlier, making it the first time in more than two decades that the mortgage rate has been over 7%.Read more...

As you age out of being able to dress up and go knocking on strangers’ doors for free candy, the next best thing is the day after Halloween when CVS sells leftover candy bars for 75% off. The good news is that it’s not just discounted leftover chocolate you can get this year, but a free kick-ass survival…Read more...

Cooking accidents are the leading cause of house fires in the United States, so as we move into the season of food-centric holidays and staying in at night where it’s cozy, let’s acquaint ourselves with the most effective ways of putting out various types of kitchen fires. Because not all of them are created equal,…Read more...

If you’re hosting Thanksgiving for a large group, you’ll need to think of ways to pack in a lot of flavor without making main dishes unapproachable for picky eaters. Garlic is a popular and versatile savory ingredient, but for the garlic averse, heavily loading the turkey or mashed potatoes with hunks of the pungent…Read more...

Every year, Apple adds a few new features that make third-party apps redundant. It’s so common that there’s a term for it—Sherlocking—that goes back to the early 2000s when Apple added a native search feature that made the Sherlock app useless.

Colonoscopies are no fun. Prepping for one includes a full day of eating nothing but liquid and laxatives, with the goal of emptying everything out of your bowels in under 24 hours. Then, once your guts are completely empty, you’re sedated so that doctors can stick a flexible camera up your rear to take images of your…Read more...

Traditional treasure-hunting is a huge hassle—you have to buy an ancient map in a scary curio shop, hire a ship captain with a hidden agenda, bribe officials in exotic nations, and who knows what else. I’d rather stay home, personally. Luckily, there are a host of treasures, both large and small, you can find while…Read more...

So you’ve just discovered you were scammed out of $1,000. You are feeling emotional and upset, and understandably so. You post about it on Twitter, notifying your friends and family so they don’t become a target of the same scammer. Then, out of the blue, you are contacted by a “recovery agent” claiming they can get…Read more...

PEZ dispensers, the nostalgic candy dispenser with their signature decorative heads, are more than just a whimsical way for children to consume candy—they’re also a hot commodity in the collector’s market right now. Some are selling for hundreds and even thousands of dollars, so if you’ve got any of your old…Read more...

Although you can easily drive yourself mad by checking your 401(k) when the economy is in a slump (i.e. right now), there’s some good news from the IRS. And hey, how often have those words been lumped together?

Jewelry can be sentimental and it can be expensive—two reasons why grimy, dirty jewelry is a particularly annoying bummer. You want your rocks, baubles, bangles, chains, and bling to be gleaming, especially when you care deeply about it or forked over a ton of cash for it.

Toilets, by and large, are fairly basic things: You can buy a new one for less than $75 and it will do the job—but what if you want a bit more luxury for your bathroom experience? The fact is, you can get really fancy when it comes to modern-day toilets. We’re talking Bluetooth-connected, self-cleaning, self-flushing…Read more...

Watch enough TikToks, and you’ll notice creators using a lot of filters and effects to make their content. Sure, some of this is done in separate editing apps, but much of it happens within the TikTok app. One of the best effects you’ll run into is the new voice changer, which can be used to create distinctive…Read more...

Every November I must confront the fact that, for some reason, the concept of a true Thanksgiving movie will always be overlooked in favor of jumping ahead to the never-ending supply of Christmas movies.

We’ve advised you before to take photos of your children before a big outing, screenshot your boarding pass when you travel, and to photograph your luggage while you’re at it. And that weird rash you’ve been having, or that injury you’re about to bandage up? Definitely snap a pic of that, too.

This is not a drill: Taylor Swift has announced dates for “The Eras Tour,” her first time hitting the road since 2018. She was supposed to tour in 2020 in support of her 2019 album Lover, but even Taylor Swift couldn’t stop COVID from cancelling a planned world tour.Read more...

There are a lot of scams out there, and the latest includes websites pretending to sell pets that don’t actually exist. Before you buy a pet online, make sure to vet the websites to lower your chances from getting your wallet emptied and heart broken.Read more...

There’s an often-repeated saying that cooking is an art, and baking is a science. That’s because when you’re cooking, most foods are pretty forgiving—you can “guesstimate” amounts and let your taste and preferences guide you as you go. But when you’re baking, you’re flying blind. You can’t tell much from the flavor of…Read more...

On Thanksgiving, roux has a small, but indispensable part to play. It’s the thickening agent in my turkey gravy but, more importantly, the key to my day-after-turkey-day turkey gumbo. Making a blonde or even golden brown roux gravy is fairly quick and painless, but a dark roux for gumbo takes a little more time. In…Read more...

A single nightmare is scary enough, but when you keep having nightmares—maybe even the same one over and over—you may dread going to sleep. Fortunately there are ways to deal with nightmares, and even a term for what you might be going through: nightmare disorder.Read more...

November is the height of the new video release season, but amid all the new full-price games are batches of new stuff to play on PlayStation Plus and Xbox Game Pass. We’ve rounded up all the new games both companies are adding to their paid subscription services so far in November.

When you’re a kid, no one tells you how much stuff you have to figure out to be a fully functional adult. Laundry, for example, can remain a mystery for much longer than it should. Not that it needs to be done—most of us have figured that part out—but the how and then when. I have a partner whose genetic code includes…Read more...

When overnight guests descend for the holidays, in addition to doing the usual cleaning, straightening and emptying of wastebaskets, you may wish to incorporate design touches to amplify that cozy holiday feeling for your guests, and facilitate convenience for you both. (This is helpful if you don’t want your…Read more...

Foster Farms is recalling approximately 148,000 pounds of fully cooked frozen chicken breast patties for potentially containing hard, clear pieces of plastic, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS). The chicken was shipped to a handful of Costco distribution…Read more...

When buying the big bird for the big meal, aiming for 1 1/2 pounds of turkey (including bones and all in your calculations) will ensure you have enough for everyone, with some leftovers for sandwiches. This is no big deal for a family of five, but can get a little daunting if you’re feeding a large crowd, like my…Read more...

Saving energy is always important, but with prices rising, electricity and heating bills are an especially hot topic right now, so to speak. There are plenty of ways to cut down on energy use—but you have to identify the main energy-sucking offenders lurking around your home first.

John Carpenter and Debra Hill crafted a perennial holiday banger back in 1978, a movie that you can pull out every year during spooky season—it’s called Halloween, and it’s set on Halloween, so there’s really no confusion. Even if it weren’t such a great movie, it would be rewatchable just for so clearly stating its…Read more...

The PS5 has plenty of useful features disabled by default. From the ability to pick a default difficulty level for all games to automatically hiding spoilers, there’s a lot for you to explore. To make the most of your console, check out the following PS5 settings.

There are lots of tips out there—and here on Lifehacker—about how to clean everything in your home, from your toilet to your fireplace to your couch cushions. The stuff in your home gets dirty and needs to be maintained to keep it in good working order, but the same is true for the areas where there is no stuff. Your…Read more...

Google updates Chrome like clockwork. Each month, you can expect a new version of the browser, sporting new features and changes for all of us to enjoy. Chrome 107, in particular, focuses the changes on Chromebooks, with ChromeOS 107, including a Stage Manager-like camera feature and the ability to close your laptop…Read more...

I’m a sucker for wine cask-finished whiskeys (well, just whiskeys, really, but sometimes I pretend to have a palate). The Glenmorangie Madeira Wood was one of my first Scotch love affairs, and I recently discovered the new Basil Hayden Red Wine Cask Finish, which blends Kentucky Straight Bourbon with bourbon partially…Read more...

Most emergencies don’t come with advance warning, which is why it’s best to do some basic preparation ahead of time. You can check out tips for extremely specific emergencies and create an ‘If I Go Missing’ file, but don’t forget the one useful lifesaving tool you undoubtedly have with you at all times: you phone.…Read more...

Everyone wants to make a good first impression at a new job. At its best, a solid first impression can create something called a “halo effect,” in which a person who is seen positively in one area is also seen positively in other areas—even if there is limited evidence or reason to make that assumption.Read more...

Who among us has not binge-watched The Great British Bake Off and thought, “I could do that, easy!” only to find yourself sitting on the floor of your kitchen five hours later, weeping and holding a black disc that’s supposed to be a bundt cake while your smoke detector blares in the background?

You might think that there’s nothing simpler than enjoying a cold beer after a long day. I’m sorry to report that you are wrong.