Lifehacker

So, you have a bunch of extra stuff at home that you don’t want to throw away, but you don’t have room for, either. You’ve already Kondo-ed everything, getting rid of what you don’t need or doesn’t spark joy. You’ve triple checked all the potential storage spots in your house—the attic, basement, crawlspaces, under…Read more...

Any interest in going to space before the end of the year? Unfortunately, if you’re not a billionaire or former Star Trek actor, that’s probably not going to happen. But, you can do the next best thing: Get paid to watch a bunch of space movies. Here’s how to do that.Read more...

Like some humans that live in the northern parts of the United States (or any part of Canada), monarch butterflies like to head south each winter. And who can blame them? Living here during the cold, wet months is tricky for us, let alone something with such thin wings.Read more...

It’s Halloween tomorrow, which means you’ll soon be digging into the candy you bought for the trick-or-treaters who never came. But you’re going to need something to eat between now and then, and a variety of restaurant chains have you covered. Here are a few of the food deals and freebies available throughout the…Read more...

Do you eat? Then you’ve experienced some very annoying side effects of shoving piles of stuff into your mouth and mashing it up with your teeth. A recent thread on Reddit asked, “What pisses you off when eating?” and people were full of responses (20,000 of ‘em and counting).

Over the past two weeks, my inline skating fitness journey has continued apace, with all the period fervor of the reunion tour for your favorite ‘90s band. After researching how to choose the right skates and the right gear and brushing up on the fundamentals, I planned to close out my Lifehacker Fitness Challenge by…Read more...

Have you ever wanted to block someone on your iPhone but wondered what actually happens when you do? You can block contacts through your Messages, FaceTime, and Phone apps, and blocking a contact in one app will block them across the board. However, blocking doesn’t prevent someone from trying to reach you—and they…Read more...

iCloud Keychain has always been a bit of an island: A hidden, secure nirvana, so long as you stayed within Apple’s strict ecosystem. To access and add passwords, you had to use Safari, and there was no reliable way to export passwords. But slowly, iCloud Keychain (or iCloud Passwords) is becoming less of a walled…Read more...

Trader Joe’s is very good at two things: Stocking their frozen food section with a never-ending parade of novel and interesting convenience foods, and churning out new—some might say unnecessary—Thanksgiving- and Christmas-themed items every holiday season.Read more...

A few days ago I asked Lifehacker readers to share with me the trauma inflicted by the films they saw as children—the disturbing scenes they witnessed well before they were ready to handle the horrors they contained.

If you’ve ever been stuck in an airport with a duty free shop or explored the makeup and beauty section of a department store, chances are you’ve browsed some fragrances. And if you were confused, you’re not alone—fragrances come in a lot of forms, including perfume, cologne, and eau de toilette. So what’s the…Read more...

Thanks to macOS Monterey, you can finally scan and copy text from photos on your Mac. The next time you want to save some time at school or quickly copy phone numbers from a business card, selecting and copying text from images will help you a lot. Here’s how to get that done.

Your device’s IP address is both a critical piece of information and something you probably don’t think about very much. But you’ll occasionally need it for a network-related setup—if you’re trying to punch a hole in your network to access the contents of your NAS box, run a web server, or connect to your home-grown…Read more...

The human body has a tiny quirk that many of us can live our whole lives without noticing: Body temperature ticks up by about half a degree after you ovulate, and decreases again around when your period begins. If you don’t personally ovulate, you probably don’t care. If you do, this fact can be enormously helpful in…Read more...

As cool and convenient as wireless charging can be, boy is it slow. We’ve talked about how inefficient wireless charging is, especially compared to traditional wired charging. However, the technology has made huge leaps in recent years; some smartphones can wirelessly charge up to 100% in under an hour. You can only…Read more...

This week, all the Zoomers are talking about the mysterious Immortal Snail and/or sitting at the feet of The Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle to soak up the wisdom of Generation X’s lo-fi poet laureate. They’re an eclectic bunch.Read more...

When you’re looking for a new job, every little advantage over other candidates helps. But is your vaccination status now an advantage you should disclose during the screening or interview process? On one hand, being vaccinated isn’t a job skill; but on the other hand, being unvaccinated is a public health liability…Read more...

Tomatoes are picky bitches. Too much sun, not enough sun, too much rain, not enough water, the unending number of diseases a tomato plant can succumb to, and just when you’ve figured everything else out: blossom end rot.

These past few weeks, after many years, I started counting calories again, with the goal of making weight for an upcoming master’s boxing match. I don’t need to lose much, and I’m not in a hurry, so I started with what seemed like a conservative goal of about 2,000 calories a day, hoping for a gradual weight loss.Read more...

On Wednesday, the U.S. State Department announced it had issued the first passport with an X gender marker for “non-binary, intersex, and gender non-conforming persons,” a milestone for the rights of people who don’t identify as either male or female.

It’s that time of year again. To help your kids brainstorm, choose, and procure their costumes, alter the sleeves, finagle the belt, get the sword, take approximately one bazillion pictures and then...let them go trick-or-treating without you!?

Most people are familiar with portfolio diversification, which is a fancy way of saying “don’t put all your eggs in one basket,” but fewer people think about tax diversification. It’s the same idea, except instead of investments, it’s about strategically spreading out your tax risk—because tax rates can change…Read more...

Chocolate cake is never just delicious; it’s decadent. Popcorn can’t be merely tasty; it’s guilt-free. Your friend didn’t just help themselves to seconds; they feel the need to talk about working it off in the gym tomorrow.

The first freezing night of autumn can be disastrous for your garden. Although some plants thrive in low temperatures, many others die at the merest kiss of frost. Don’t get caught out in the cold—here’s how to get ready for the first frost of the season.Read more...

The MacBook Pros are finally pro machines again. Now that the ports are back, and Apple has upgraded the power and the design, it’s your turn to upgrade the software experience. After unboxing your MacBook Pro, take some time to make some essential productivity tweaks. These little changes will go a long way to making…Read more...

It all started when I couldn’t remember if an apéritif was a before-dinner or after-dinner drink. (Correction: I said it was a before-dinner drink—the “per” in apéritif being reminiscent of the prefix “pre”—then my husband said he thought it was after-dinner, then I doubted myself.) Which, as someone who studied and…Read more...

You might not think about what you plug your phone, tablet, or laptop into as much as you do finding something to give it power. After all, once your device is on the charger, it’s not going to die, and that’s really the main thing. But not all chargers are created equal; if you’re in the habit of plugging your…Read more...

This one goes out to all the jocks with a giant jug of protein powder in their shopping cart. Supplements that come in jugs tend to be measured by the scoop, and they conveniently include a scoop in each package. But where? At the bottom, usually.

One of the best new features in macOS 12 Monterey allows you to translate any selectable text on your Mac—no need ask Google to do it for you. While translation was previously accessible via Safari, it was of limited use because it translated entire web pages only; text inside other apps couldn’t be translated nearly…Read more...

As my family’s in-house tech support center, I know that it’s easy for certain family members to get overwhelmed when their electronics aren’t doing what they want them to do. Now sometimes, their iCloud is a total mess and won’t sync and no one can figure out why, or the computer is serving up weird errors with no…Read more...

Anyone who has tried to book a flight in recent months has probably noticed that the choices still aren’t great. Prices are high, flight time options are limited, and layovers are long. But what if you could use that long layover to your advantage—by briefly exploring a city you might otherwise never visit. If you’ve…Read more...

If you’re spending this Halloween at home, the following 13 relatively new video games will creep you out after the last trick-or-treaters have rung your bell. There’s something for everyone, whether you like jump scares, eerie atmosphere, or multiplayer murder.Read more...

When you have a credit card with an annual fee, you have a couple options to consider if you barely use it: cancel the card outright, or downgrade to a lower-tiered card. Since credit cards can be debt traps, you might think that canceling the card is the best option, and that’s certainly a good reason to do it...but…Read more...

Mayonnaise is made of eggs, and is often used in dishes that features them, especially hard-boiled eggs. From the Mayonegg to deviled eggs, the combination is loved (and hated) by many.Read more...

If you walk the aisles of your local drugstore, you’ll see bottle after bottle of multivitamins marketed specifically for kids. That has a tendency to give the impression they are commonly needed, but the American Academy of Pediatrics’ recommendation is that a healthy child who is eating a well-balanced diet does not…Read more...

In case you’ve been living under a boulder, there’s a “new” social media giant on the scene called TikTok. Whether you use it a lot, a little, or not at all (but maybe you kind of want to), there are plenty of anecdotal myths surrounding the functioning and audience of TikTok—and we’re here to debunk them.

While cash isn’t as commonly used as it used to be, counterfeit bills are still a problem. According to the Treasury Department, an estimated $70 million in counterfeit bills are in circulation, or approximately one counterfeit note for every 10,000 in genuine currency—although it could be much more than that. That’s…Read more...

The CDC has cleared up one of the ambiguities in its recent COVID-19 booster shot recommendations: If you got a third shot of one of the mRNA vaccines because you have a weakened immune system, that third shot is not considered your booster. You can still get a booster, if you fall into one of the categories for whom…Read more...

I don’t know if it’s the rain, the wind, or the fact that Bake-Off is back, but I’ve recently been struggling with the urge to bake. This has led to me actually making exactly one batch of potato chip cookies, yes, but it’s mostly translated into me reading about baking. Most of that writing has been by Stella “The…Read more...

The only cannabis news that seems to make it into the mainstream tends to border on the sensational—Maureen Dowd “overdosing” on edibles; police departments issuing warnings about the “threat” of cannabis-infused Halloween treats. Enthusiasts are quick to dismiss this news as mere sensationalism; remnants, perhaps, of…Read more...

“What is God? What happens when we die? Why don’t we go to church like grandma and grandpa?” Whether you’re religious or not, tackling the surprise questions about faith from your kids can catch you off guard. Fortunately, author and parenting expert Wendy Thomas Russell has already been through the experience herself…Read more...

Apple’s SharePlay was one of the features that didn’t make it to the final iOS 15 release. But now, with iOS 15.1, it’s out for all iPhone and iPad users (macOS Monterey will receive the update later in the Fall).

This year, Apple finally listened to its user base, adding “pro” features to the MacBook Pro line like an SD card reader, HDMI port, and MagSafe charging. One feature nobody asked for, however, was the notch—the obvious camera cutout that juts into your display. If that unusual laptop design bugs you, you’ll be happy…Read more...

If you frequent movie theaters (or used to, sigh), you’ve no doubt encountered them: The irresponsible parents who decided to take their far-too-young kids to a decidedly grownup movie instead of paying for a babysitter.

Relationships are tricky things. Sometimes, you can find yourself in a romantic entanglement that isn’t totally on and isn’t totally off; you and your sometimes-partner are just in a state of flux, breaking up, getting back together, sleeping together, but not ever really making it work.Read more...

I’m addicted to documentaries about cults. I’m generally fascinated by extreme beliefs, and the fact that the genre provides us with filmed evidence of the way even the most obscure swami’s followers feel driven to immortalize their Chosen One’s enlightened teaching provides rich insight into our inherent desire to…Read more...

If you struggle to maintain a consistent household budget, consider a simple formula—the 50/20/30 rule for tracking your expenses. Really more of a guideline than anything, the 50/20/30 rule divides up your spending into three categories to keep you on budget: needs, wants, and savings. To give you an idea of how it…Read more...

An ideal fried egg is crispy on the edges and bottom, with a barely set or runny yolk, depending on your personal preference. I like frying mine in what some would consider to be “too much butter.” Often, I will let the butter brown first, then add the egg. Once the edges are crispy and the white is set, I will slide…Read more...

From horrible bosses to nightmare roommates, we’ve all encountered our fair share of jerks in life. I’m not talking about you, of course. I’m sure you are a fantastic person. You always tip at least 20%, and you’ve never yelled at anyone in traffic. Still, aren’t you slightly curious whether some of the things you say…Read more...

A good computer is understandably expensive, but it sometimes feels like it isn’t worth the sticker price. After a few years of use, many laptops and PCs start to run slow; typical tasks are no longer as easy as they once were, and you find yourself eyeing the new computers on the market. But before you drop $2,000 on …Read more...