Lifehacker

Have you noticed your Mac slowing down after you upgraded to macOS 12 Monterey? You aren’t alone. Plenty of people have reported seemingly random slowdowns and extraordinarily high RAM usage across various apps—even ones that don’t otherwise require much RAM, such as Tweetbot, have been consuming a lot of memory. If…Read more...

It’s finally your turn on the family’s desktop computer. It takes forever to boot up. (You kill time by rapping along to the bridge in Evanescence’s “Bring Me To Life,” feebly blasting from your iPod nano.) You’re finally online. What’s the first site you visit to express your emo musical taste, rearrange your…Read more...

The ability to build a PC is a valuable skill if you’re serious about gaming or interested in computer tech in general. Installing future upgrades, troubleshooting errors, and fine-tuning your machine to run games and apps is a lot easier when you know exactly which components are in your PC, how they connect to each…Read more...

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Attention, internet: The new update to Google Chrome is out. Chrome 96 (full name 96.0.4664.45—catchy) is rolling out to all of our Google browsers this week. With it, we get some cool new features and, more importantly, essential security patches. That means if you don’t update, you could be putting your digital…Read more...

Unless you’re one of those people who bedecks their house in Christmas cheer before Thanksgiving, the time is nigh to turn your thoughts to the centerpiece of yuletide decorating—the almighty tree. But due to pandemic supply chain interruptions, getting a tree this year presents some unique logistical challenges.…Read more...

Newbie buyers of legal cannabis are confronted with a veritable encyclopedia of new terms and varying options when all they are trying to do is buy some weed. Gone are the days when you made do with whatever the guy you knew had on hand; now, buying weed can be as complicated as you want it to be (if not more so). To…Read more...

With over two billion active users, WhatsApp is one of the most popular messaging apps globally—and it’s also one of the few apps that offer end-to-end encryption by default. This means that no one other than you the other party can read your conversations. Even WhatsApp can’t read your conversations because it…Read more...

Last week I asked Lifehacker’s readers for advice on dealing with a childhood bully. Reading your responses made me wish I had a time machine so I could travel back to the time of your youths to give you all hugs (and kill Bea Arthur).

So, someone in your life wants an iPad. Sounds simple enough, until you take a look at Apple’s website and realize the company currently sells five different iPads, one of which is just called “iPad.” With iPad Air, iPad mini, iPad Pro, and iPad all competing for your money, how are you supposed to know which ones to…Read more...

I have a very strange, recurring nightmare wherein I slice up a steak, take a photo of the slices, and publish the photo in a blog, only to realize that I sliced the meat with the grain. Then everyone—both in the comments and on Twitter—ridicules me for violating this basic meat eating rule, and I never work in this…Read more...

Many of us have thrown off that comforting blanket of tradition and familiarity to ask the big question: How did turkey—a meat that is easily dried out and often described as “flavorless”—become the pièce de résistance for what is meant to be the most gluttonous culinary event of the holiday season? I’m not saying…Read more...

The two biggest-name recovery tracking devices, Whoop and Oura, unveiled new hardware recently. There’s now a Whoop 4.0 strap and an Oura gen3 ring. But along with the hardware changes comes a new pricing calculus: Both will require subscriptions. So which is the better deal?Read more...

I grew up in a pro-ibuprofen household. To this day, my father insists that “a little Advil never hurt anybody.” But that’s not wholly true, and it’s definitely not Lifehacker’s journalistic stance on popping pain relievers.

The headline you see above caused a minor Lifehacker-comment-section controversy last week, with several a reader questioning whether there had been some mistake. Surely we meant to write “sucks,” no? No. The headline is as intended. It’s a play on the internet-popular expression “this guy fucks,” which at least some…Read more...

We are about 10 days out from Thanksgiving, an awkward amount of days. It’s a little too early to buy your perishables and start baking pies, but only a little. There may be an entire weekend between now and the fourth Thursday of November, but pushing everything onto that Saturday and Sunday will make those two days…Read more...

Like most humans (unless you work for a deodorant manufacturer or study dermatology), you’ve probably spent your entire post-pubescent life applying deodorant in the morning, amid your showering, face-washing, hair-brushing, getting-dressed routine. And as someone who has been doing exactly that her whole life, I was…Read more...

This week, we’re learning how to find our focus and fight our distractions with help from neuroscientist Dr. Amishi Jha. Listen to hear Dr. Jha break down the evolutionary reason behind why we are so distractible, the benefits of learning how to pay better attention, and what we can do to better focus our attention.Read more...

Let’s say that, hypothetically, I know how overwhelming it can be to ride out the paranoia, fear, and altered reality of what is referred to simply as a “bad trip.” While we’re talking hypotheticals, let’s say that I don’t recommend “dropping” (aka ingesting) acid in a major city on a rainy day, especially not when…Read more...

The PS5 has proven to be many a gamer’s white whale from Day One (just call me Ishmael), and as it enters its second holiday season, the latest PlayStation console remains atop gift lists across the country. While you could monitor tracking sites, store inventories, or splurge for an overpriced, desperate game bundle,…Read more...

Fireplace weather is fast approaching. A fire in the hearth is a good way to add cozy warmth to your home, but if starting a fire in the fireplace seems like such a hassle that you only do it once a year, you’re putting too much effort into it. Here are some strategies to make it less of a struggle, so you can get to…Read more...

Bringing holiday joy to that special DIYer in your with the gift of a tool is a tricky proposition. Picking something that will truly be useful to the recipient while maintaining a sense of surprise can be tough if you’re not a tool expert yourself, but fear not: This guide will help you select the best gift for your…Read more...

Vacations are supposed to take you away from the stress of your day-to-day life, but we all know that traveling can sometimes be stressful itself. Packing, planning, and navigating around an unfamiliar place can be difficult, especially when add a partner into that mix who might have a different travel style than you.…Read more...

You already know that you should be paying for your porn as the most ethical consumption model. And if you have some Bitcoin burning a hole in your digital wallet and want to use it to fund your special, private moments, there’s good news: That’s totally possible. Not only possible, but recommended. Here’s how to pay…Read more...

If you’re haven’t started on your Thanksgiving prep yet, making turkey stock is a good place to start. It’s low-effort, and it fills your home with a beautiful aroma that hints at the gravy to come. But then you open the pressure cooker, and it looks...less than great. Have you ever wondered why you could whisk your…Read more...

If you want to know what “baffled amusement” looks like, tell one of your neighbors at a block party that you hate traveling anywhere, under any circumstances. People love to travel. They love it so much it’s usually on top of their list of things they’d do if they had the time and money, right below smiting their…Read more...

At some point, they became ubiquitous on ceilings of bland office buildings, hotel chains, and, most notably, rental apartments everywhere. If you haven’t noticed them before, you will now. If you are aware of them, chances are, you’re not a fan. We’re talking, of course, about flush mount dome light fixtures—better…Read more...

The COVID-19 pandemic dominated last winter, as well as the end of the 2019 season. That meant many people spent a lot of time at home during the colder months—away from office dress codes, and spared from invitations to holiday parties where you’re instructed to “wear something festive.”Read more...

You’ve probably already started to notice that your online purchases are taking longer to arrive. Well, buckle up, because we’re only halfway through November, and if you’re someone who is required to or somehow enjoys holiday shopping, and prefer to do so online, things are about to get bumpy.Read more...

Home repair or improvement projects rarely involve tackling a single problem, and then being done. Instead, one often leads to another—either because in the process of fixing or installing something, you discover additional things that need to be addressed, or because the process required to make the original repair…Read more...

New relationships can be exciting, as you get to know someone on a deeper level and learn about their background and what makes them tick. Then, if you continue to be involved with this person, you’ll get to know them even better, including their goals, fears, and worldview.Read more...

When we think about gardening, things like planting, watering, and harvesting usually come to mind first. But in reality, there’s a lot more to it—including what’s going on just below the surface.Read more...

Though they are both still relatively young, Adele and Taylor Swift are long-standing icons of heartbreak music, and with each artist dropping new tracks this month, my emotions are fully in their control. I’ve already argued that you should embrace this sad girl autumn (don’t be deterred by the name; you can be a…Read more...

Being a kid is tough, especially when it comes to processing big emotions—fear, anger, excitement. Although we may not fully remember what it was like to be a kid, most of us do remember grappling with feeling that felt too big, too new, and very, very important.Read more...

Earlier this week, I asked you what movies you love that don’t hold up once nostalgia is removed from the equation. To illustrate this, I used the example of the 1991 Steven Spielberg film Hook, in which Robin Williams bounces around in a Peter Pan costume on a set that looks more like a ride at Disney World than a…Read more...

Video game Elden Ring is hot this week. So are Medusa tattoos and sensible medical advice on YouTube. Travis Scott, hidden social media algorithms, and YouTube’s dislike counter, however, are decidedly not hot.

If you use Dropbox on Mac, you’ve probably been frustrated with its app at some point. The app is a resource hog, it keeps asking for your Mac password to update, and it doesn’t even support M1 Macs natively yet. Sure, it does run on M1 Macs via Rosetta 2, but the lack of native support leads to inordinately high CPU…Read more...

The job interview isn’t just about selling yourself as the best candidate for the job—it’s also your chance to suss out who you’d be working for, and whether they might be a terrible manager. Considering that that nearly half of all workers have left a job because of their boss, you’ll want to know what to look for…Read more...

MacroFactor is a weight-tracking and food-tracking app that does what I previously did with three different free apps. Don’t worry, I’ll tell you what those apps are and how to set them up, if you’d like to save yourself $11.99 per month, but I’ve gotta say: MacroFactor is surprisingly good at its job, and it does two…Read more...

The other night over dinner, my son was telling us about a friend of his who was being bullied in school. He’s a super nice 13-year-old, but very shy, and at a new school, so he’s without his posse from last year. A classmate picked up on his awkwardness with that weird weakness-radar that bullies possess, and now she…Read more...

If you had an iPhone or Mac, FaceTime was the best way to stay in touch with your friends and family for many years—it was deeply integrated into the OS, and it worked well. Then came the pandemic, and Zoom took over, well, everything.

Adulting is not easy, but if you feel like you have no idea what you’re doing, don’t worry—you’re not alone. Literally no one feels like a real adult. We’re all out here pretending as hard as we can, secretly convinced that everyone else is just effortlessly adulting all over the place while we’re at home Googling…Read more...

As much as we love our screens—and we passionately love our screens—it’s good to remember that basically everything you watch on those screens begins with the written word, whether a screenplay or, yes, a book.Read more...

Believe me, the thought of throwing away unused Trader Joe’s products breaks my heart. But if you’ve purchased some of the chains’s frozen chicken patties in the past few months, you might need to dispose of them ASAP. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced Wednesday…Read more...

Even though the PlayStation 5 has been out for a full year, Sony’s console is still very difficult to buy. It’s partly due to supply chain issues, and partly because of increased demand—both totally understandable—but the third reason for the shortage is an old problem: Re-sellers.

There’s a big difference between dating and dating, like, seriously. You can go on a bunch of dates with one person over a series of months and not really be together—but it can be hard to figure out why, exactly, the relationship isn’t deepening. The other person might simply be emotionally unavailable. Here’s how to…Read more...

Buying household appliances was stressful enough before the COVID-19 pandemic threw global supply chains into complete and utter chaos. If you’re lucky enough to find something you like and can actually afford, it’s probably either discontinued, backordered, or hanging out in logistics limbo.

The holidays are, once again, rapidly approaching, and aside from toys and clothes, tech is always at the top of many people’s wish lists. The problem is, there are a lot of products out there to choose from, and it can be difficult to choose one when you don’t know the differences. If you’re looking to buy…Read more...

Turkey gravy should be intensely rich and savory, just thick enough to coat a slice of turkey, and brown in color. Color does not always indicate flavor, but there is something wrong about white gravy on white meat. I like my gravy to have contrast, especially when served as part of a highly-photographed meal—and…Read more...

You’ve been invited to a Thanksgiving gathering. Hooray! You don’t have to plan, prep, shop, chop and cook for days. While the host will be doing the lion’s share of work to make the day tasty and festive, each guest also bears a portion of responsibility for it unfolds. You don’t need to baste a bird every 30…Read more...