Lifehacker

In order to have a productive, fulfilling, long-term relationship, there are many things we need to be aware of. Our own triggers and emotional baggage, our partner’s needs and love language, and how we speak to one another, especially when conflict arises. Our partner’s words may ring in our ears and weigh on our…Read more...

Preview is much more than a simple image viewer. Its image editing capabilities can actually help you accomplish slightly complex tasks—including removing unwanted backgrounds from your photos.

Tomorrow is March 17, also known as “St. Patrick’s Day,” “St. Paddy’s Day,” and “amateur hour.” It’s the day that people who don’t drink all that much decide to really tie one on, and it’s the absolute worst day to be at a bar.Read more...

If you’ve ever made a cake, there’s a good chance you’ve had to fold egg whites into a batter without deflating them too much. But most people don’t go to culinary school and never learn what it actually means to fold one ingredient into another. As a result, lots and lots of folks end up winging it, with highly…Read more...

For most people, traveling during the coronavirus pandemic has been strictly on an as-needed basis. That’s likely to change this summer. If you’re fully vaccinated with KN-95s in hand and ready to get the hell out of Dodge, don’t put off booking your trips much longer—now’s the time to take advantage of low prices and…Read more...

When it comes to members-only bulk shopping, it’s hard to beat Costco and Sam’s Club. These two warehouse giants are basically the only game in town, and seem fairly identical in terms of price points, rewards, and overall shopping experience. So how does one decide where to cast their loyalty (and spend their…Read more...

America is one of the busiest countries in the world: we work more hours, take less vacation, and have more stress than just about every other industrialized nation. All that time spent working takes a toll. If you’ve ever stood up from a long day at your desk and winced as your back seized up, or experienced the…Read more...

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I have never investigated 23andMe (or any similar genetic test) because I’m not particularly interested in the results. I am white. I am from Mississippi. There is no good or noble fruit to be found hanging in that particular tree.

If you’re noticing an existential gloom hanging over all of humanity today, rest assured: It’s not because today is “The Ides of March.”

Warmer weather is coming. Before it’s time to literally throw caution to the wind and open the windows, it’s time to repair those torn screens that have been picked apart by birds or damaged by winter weather. Letting the fresh air in and keeping the bugs out requires your screens to be in tip top shape, and luckily y…Read more...

The humble browser remains the most-used app on many computers, and every second it saves you is invaluable. The days of slow and laggy browsers are long gone now, and most web browsers offer a satisfactory performance, but some are (obviously) a lot faster than others. We set out on a mission to figure out which…Read more...

The challenge of hiding hardware when attaching two pieces of wood can be daunting if you’re new to carpentry. If you’re not practiced in making dovetail joints and you don’t own a dado blade—or even know what those things are—making sturdy wood joints that also look nice is difficult. Enter, the pocket hole jig—a…Read more...

Drugs, death, and depravity probably come to mind whenever you hear about the dark web. Or, is it the deep web? Is it both? You might find yourself conflating the two terms, with the assumption that both the dark web and the deep web are the same place for illegal and generally shady activities. But while the dark web…Read more...

The iPhone SE is a great deal—a well-rounded, full-featured budget smartphone. It has the guts of an iPhone 13 in the body of an iPhone 8; minus a few bells and whistles and camera lenses, it will do most everything you need a smartphone to do. But it might not be for everyone. Maybe you’re looking for a bigger…Read more...

If you’re laid off or fired, you can feel like your world is ending. To be sure, a not-insignificant part of your life did just come to its conclusion, and that is terrifying. You can grapple with concerns over your finances—which then extend to concerns over your housing, food, healthcare, education, and leisure…Read more...

It’s the time of year when increasingly sweaty Americans dig through desk drawers and couch cushions in search of receipts, struggle with convoluted math, and check to see when their local post office is closing. That’s right: It’s tax season, the least wonderful time of the year.

Language is a living thing. There’s a reason “thee, thou, and thy” aren’t your pronouns, or why you probably didn’t compliment anyone by telling them they were “the bee’s knees” at any point in the last century. The way we use words evolves, and if the common usage has shifted, then it’s time to adapt and evolve with…Read more...

Apple has now added their top-of-the-line Apple silicon M1 chip for the 13-inch MacBook Air into the $599 entry-level iPad Air, which begs the question: Now that the iPad Air has the same chip as the 11-inch iPad Pro, and there are so many other similarities, is it really worth spending the extra $200 on the iPad Pro?

Squats are one of the very best lower body exercises out there, and if you’ve ever worked out at all, you’ve certainly done them. But too many of us have never broadened our horizons beyond the humble air squat and barbell back squat—and if that’s you, you’re missing out.

Jealousy and envy aren’t quite the same thing, though both are negative feelings that relate to how we feel when somebody else seems to be getting something we want. Are you jealous or envious of your friend’s flawless hair, your co-worker’s promotion, or your spouse’s new friendship with someone who is just a little…Read more...

With the exception of salt and canning, nothing has changed the food preservation game quite like the refrigerator. Lowering a food’s temperature can prolong freshness and stave off bacterial growth—but in some cases, it can also change its texture and flavor for the worse.

If you’ve ever heard anyone mention the morning star(s) and the evening star(s) and didn’t know what they meant, here’s what’s really going on up there in the heavens. First off, the names are misleading. “Morning star” and “evening star” both originally referred to the same celestial object, and it’s not a star at…Read more...

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If you’re one of the estimated 60 million Americans living with allergic rhinitis—also known as “hay fever”—you probably want to do whatever you can to avoid the sneezing, runny nose, itchy eyes, headaches, and other annoying and disruptive symptoms the condition causes.Read more...

Meat eaters are not a monolith. Some seem to relish in the visceral aspects of eating animals, even going so far as to butcher their own, while others prefer to purchase sterile, shrink-wrapped packages of tenders and/or boneless, skinless breasts.

Apple released its newest updates for iPhone, iPad, and Mac today. These Pi-Day updates—on iOS 15.4, iPadOS 15.4, and macOS 12.3—come with a bunch of awesome new features, and you’ll want to update as soon as possible to try them all out. While you wait for the updates to download, however, check out what’s new.

The Big Bang theory has provided the most widely accepted basis of our understanding of the universe since it was first proposed by Georges Lemaitre in 1927. In short, it posits that all the matter in the entire universe was once crammed together in a mass about the size of a baseball, until it began expanding outward…Read more...

Smartphones are just tiny computers, and every now and then, all computers will decide to stop working. Your device will freeze up and become unresponsive, instantly turning into a $1,000+ paperweight. It’s times like these when a forced reset comes in handy—a simple combination of button presses that will hopefully …Read more...

Dogs are man’s best friend, but they are not your landlord’s best friend—for obvious reasons. We don’t recommend hiding a dog from a landlord for a number of reasons, but if you’re going to, you should do it smartly.

Changing the air filters in your HVAC system regularly is important not only for the air quality in your home, but also for saving money on your energy bill, as well as maintenance costs down the road on your system. A worn-out or clogged filter makes the fans in your circulation system work overtime to push air…Read more...

Going “viral” used to actually mean something. The online content market has never been more saturated, and after years of subjecting ourselves to a little bit of everything all of the time, you’d think someone would be gatekeeping what counts as “viral.” Alas, a tweet with a few thousand likes, someone getting turned…Read more...

Perhaps its a reflection of the state of the world (or our perception of it), but many of the most popular genre films of the past decade or more have been of the relentlessly grim-and-gritty variety. Particularly when it comes to superheroes (and especially Batman, whose films have only grown more dour across the…Read more...

The average kitchen reno costs about $25,000, with a high end closer to $40,000. The cost depends on a lot of factors, from your geographic location (it’s a lot cheaper in the South, for example) to your taste and the size of your kitchen. Still, no matter how you slice it, renovating a kitchen is an expensive project.

One of the byproducts of living in a highly politicized society is the abundance of arguments. Even if you’re not engaging in them yourself, we’re constantly surrounded by people who turn aspects of everyday life into a political statement or moral crusade, and feel compelled to tell you about it.Read more...

Smart smoke detectors are one of many smart technologies entering the market for homeowners. These modern smoke detectors have more safety features than traditional smoke detectors, and many of them connect right to your smartphone and will send emergency alerts.Read more...

Like many things in life, Windows 11 is a mixed bag. It finally modernizes the Windows operating system: It looks stunning, it’s secure, and it’s fast, and it comes with a couple of neat tricks like the new snap windows assistant and a redesigned taskbar. But in an effort to move forward, Windows has also broken a few…Read more...

For all the mystery surrounding the “dark web,” it’s actually pretty easy to access if you have the right software, and we can show you how. But before we get to the walkthrough, a word of warning to curious minds looking into the dark web for the first time: The place can be dangerous.Read more...

Gardeners know that having bees around is a big help in the garden. Some gardeners even turn to urban beekeeping to attract some industrious pollinators to the yard (and reap the reward: honey). If you’re not quite ready for full-on beekeeping, you can still get in on the game by attracting solitary bees with a mason…Read more...

Anyone who claims that walk breaks don’t make you a “real” runner is not only a weird jerk, but simply incorrect. The walk/run combination is a legitimate strategy used by runners of all levels. Whether your goal is to gradually build distance, or to conserve energy to finish a race strong, or to convince yourself to…Read more...

Our habits as consumers have changed pretty significantly over the past few decades, especially when it comes to electronics. Given how quickly the technology improves, it’s not surprising that some people want to constantly upgrade their electronic devices and items like TVs—even if that means getting rid of a …Read more...

Thanks to its durability and rich color, brass—an alloy of copper and zinc—has been used for centuries to make everything from kitchenware and hardware, to household objects and decor. But brass also has a downside: It tarnishes easily. And, like everything else, brass can accumulate dirt and dust over time, leaving…Read more...

Whether you’re gardening indoors or outdoors, it’s important to find a spot for your plants with the right combination of sun, shade, and moisture where they can flourish—or at least not immediately die. And so if parts of your yard have issues with soil drainage, you may think that you won’t be able to grow any type…Read more...

Visiting a (genuine) ghost town is one of the closest things we have to time travel. This is especially the case when you come across a building or home that looks as though its occupants suddenly disappeared during the course of a day, without packing up any belongings before they left.Read more...

As long-time Lifehacker readers may recall, we’re not always the biggest fans of sponges. The most obvious example of this sentiment is a 2019 post by former Lifehacker staffer Nick Douglas entitled “Every Sponge Is Bad,” but there are more.Read more...

Watching the war in Ukraine unfold over the past few weeks, it has been hard not to feel helpless. And while we are limited in what we can do, financial contributions to the relief efforts have been encouraged.

Vibrators owe two things to Sex and the City: Mainstream normalization and, unfortunately, the proliferation of some scary sounding myths. In a now-infamous 1998 episode the HBO hit, high-strung Charlotte confides to deep-thinking Carrie, “I think I broke my vagina…with the rabbit [vibrator]. I’m scared if I keep…Read more...

When you think about creativity, who do you imagine? A tortured artist, perhaps? A child without preconceived notions of the world? A group of people brainstorming, or someone who comes up with a mind-blowing idea while stoned? All of these represent myths we tell ourselves about creativity. If you’re not one of those…Read more...

So you want to take a vacation in space. Unless you are Elon Musk, extremely rich, or both, your only option is to settle for the next best thing: a trip onboard Disney World’s Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser, a two-day immersive hotel/theme park experience that transports you into the middle of the sci-fi action in…Read more...

We all—well most of us—live by certain unspoken rules of etiquette that make life a bit more civilized and thoughtful. We offer to bring food or drink when invited to a party, we hold doors open for strangers trailing close behind us, we say “nice to meet you” after being introduced to someone new. These standard,…Read more...