Lifehacker

A few hours from now, it will be a new year. And we hate to be the bearers of bad news, but as happy as we are to see 2021 come to a close, we’re also realistic about the fact that things won’t magically get better at the stroke of midnight tonight.Read more...

As I reflect back on 2021, I find my TV-watching to be found wanting. It’s not that I didn’t have options. Between my own accounts and those I share with my parents and brother, I have, at any given time, access to Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, HBO Max, and Paramount+. And I’m probably forgetting one.…Read more...

We’re all familiar with some of the common mores of gym etiquette. Don’t abuse the equipment (i.e. dropping plates like they’re on fire), re-rack your weights, don’t monopolize machines, stop shamelessly hitting on women, put your equipment back where it belongs. Then there are those under-the-radar rules of the more…Read more...

Fitness etiquette has come a long way this year. We kicked off 2021 with most gyms still closed due to the pandemic. We navigated their gradual reopenings together, with all the ups and downs of safety concerns that entailed. Still, some tenants of fitness etiquette are timeless, like the art of dealing with…Read more...

You can start a new fitness habit right now, if you want. You can come back to your favorite activities after years away. You can even turn your living room into a gym if you want to work out without leaving the house. And here, with some of our favorite fitness posts from 2021, we’re going to help you do that.Read more...

How many New Year’s resolutions have you made over the course of your life? And how many have you kept? We all know that most grand resolutions, unless accompanied by deep commitment and accountability, stay where they began: in our heads. I don’t know about you, but after two years navigating work, family life, and…Read more...

As handy as packaged salads can be—especially during the busy holidays—you may want to rethink using any currently in your fridge. That’s because Dole Fresh Vegetables has issued a voluntary, precautionary recall for all its salads processed at two of their facilities because of a possible health risk from Listeria…Read more...

The end of the year is upon us. ‘Tis a time to blow all our unused FSA benefits on Band-Aids, reduce clutter, resolve to eat less junk and exercise more, and above all—stop doing things that no longer serve us (or our armpits, for that matter). In the spirit of cleaning up your linguistic game, applying deodorant…Read more...

You know what’s the worst? Trying to unpack a string of lights that’s tangled up in a ball at the bottom of a box. Packing up your Christmas decor can be time consuming and you might want to just throw everything into a box, but if you pack things up the right way you can save your future self a lot of headache. Here…Read more...

As Omicron cases continue to surge in the U.S., the the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is shortening the recommended time for isolation from 10 days to five days for anyone who has tested positive for COVID-19—as long as they are asymptomatic. After five days of staying home (or isolating in some way),…Read more...

At Lifehacker, we strive, year after year, to do everything better. It’s kind of our thing, you know? And we find, year after year, that sometimes our smartphones and their many apps help us be more productive—and sometimes they do nothing but distract us. As we reflect on 2021, though, we have to admit that our…Read more...

2021 was a big year for Android. The year brought us new phones, like the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro, and new software updates, like Android 12. Whether you bought something new, updated your phone with new software, or just kept on trucking with the same old tech, we were here to help you use it all. These are our favorite…Read more...

I have been a dedicated omnivore my entire life, but even I have been trying to eat less meat lately, and I’m not the only one. As A.A. Newton explained in, “How to Become a Vegetarian (or Eat Less Meat),” there are many good reasons for decreasing the amount of animals you consume:Read more...

I’d bomb on Jeopardy. I am a ball and chain at trivia night. My brain does not retain facts or names unrelated to Wham songs. I cry when I land sports in Trivial Pursuit. I watch Wheel of Fortune, mouth agog, unable to complete a phrase missing only a Q. But I’ve always thought that I could excel on The Price is Right…Read more...

Mercifully, 2021 is almost over, and as we look toward the bright future that awaits us next year (when all our problems will certainly be solved), it’s tempting to set some big sweeping resolutions that will position us to come out of 2022 a better person. Too bad the most common resolutions are the ones that are…Read more...

Hacks aren’t everything. Sometimes what you really need to improve your life is a better understanding of the world around you. So let’s take a tour through some of our best explainers of the year year, the things that put an end to your confusion about what an NFT is, or why there’s always a novel in front of every…Read more...

Every January, I pledge to improve my flexibility by stretching consistently. And yet, when it comes to my stretching routine, I’m guilty of cutting some corners. And by “cutting some corners,” I do mean that I’ll go months without properly tending to my sore muscles. Oops.

2021 was a big year for the Mac. First, Apple gave us macOS Monterey, which included a treasure trove of publicized features (and a handful of hidden gems). After this update, the company dropped new MacBook Pros with the improved M1 Pro and M1 Max chipsets. All that news meant plenty of tips and hacks for us to sink…Read more...

The year is 2011; Bethesda has released Skyrim, Nintendo puts out two Zelda titles, and Valve publishes Portal 2. All in all, it was a pretty fantastic year for gaming. Now, in 2021, pretending like its 2011 is not only a fantastic way to forget about this absolutely dreadful year, it’s also a smart gaming strategy.

Here at Lifehacker, we pride ourselves on telling you the real truth about health and fitness—and leaving the bullshit behind. Unfortunately, the fitness world is a bountiful source of confusion, half-truths, and occasional outright lies. So let’s look back on some of the times this year that we set the record…Read more...

People purchase and move into new homes (well, new to them) for many different reasons. And it’s one thing if the idea is to stay in a house for the rest of your life (or at least foreseeable future), but if you think—or know—you’re going to move at some point in the not-so-distant future, it’s another case…Read more...

If your personal library has long since outgrown the bookshelves in your house, it’s probably time to pare things down. Donating old books to your local library, secondhand store, or Little Free Library is a great way to pass them on to a new home, but some books just aren’t appropriate to give away. As a donor, it’s…Read more...

There are plenty of times our devices are out in the cold. Maybe you’re skiing, and you take your iPhone along with you; maybe you ordered a brand-new tablet for the holidays, and the driver left it on your doorstep. Whatever the reason for your chilled devices, we have an important PSA: If your tech has a lithium-ion…Read more...

Buying a Weber Kettle charcoal grill is one of the best decisions I made in 2021. Up until this year, I had been wary of this seemingly dad-dominated community of cookers, but I should have known better: All of my nicest readers are dads.Read more...

Kids are natural-born helpers. If there’s a job to do around the house, chances are good they’re willing to pitch in and help. We’ve got an age-by-age guide to kids’ chores, but they also love to assist on the occasional DIY home improvement project. Here are a few kid-friendly home maintenance projects you can hand…Read more...

Sure, 2021 gifted us with plenty of good new releases, even if we streamed them from home rather than experiencing them in a movie theater. Even so, we saw no reason to limit ourselves only to that which this year has provided—especially now, as omicron wreaks its havoc, we’ve got all the time in the world to dive…Read more...

Even if you live somewhere with central heating, sometimes it’s nice to get an extra boost of warmth from a space heater. And though modern space heaters have features that make them safer than earlier versions, it’s still important to keep safety in mind when dealing with anything that produces such high…Read more...

No matter what we tell ourselves, the vast majority of New Year’s resolutions aren’t made to be kept. The promise that next year will be a little better if you just work hard enough is powerfully attractive—so attractive that we ignore how rarely it actually happens.

For many people—if not most of us—money is mysterious. One second you just got paid and feel like a billionaire, the next moment you feel flat broke and are Googling how to make ketchup soup or how much 22-cent ramen someone can consume before dying of sodium poisoning.

If your holiday haul included a VR rig, but your own gift-giving left you broke, do not despair. These ten free apps and games will provide many hours of virtual reality fun at no cost to you.

I’m a rules girl. I like structure everywhere but my bras. I like menus and time tables and responsibility charts, and if you give me a walkie-talkie to use I will never try hard drugs. I love rules because I know what works. I’ve thrown parties for five and soirees for 20,000 (in all kinds of absurd settings), and in…Read more...

One of the trickiest parts about houseplants is the fact that you’re trying to keep different plants alive inside a single climate (your home) that are native to a variety of climates. For example, you may have a fern native to the Amazon rainforest in the same room as a cactus found in Arizona. Succulents aside, even…Read more...

If you unwrapped Oculus VR gear this holiday season, I have no doubt you’ll end up like me: Fully committed to a virtual lifestyle. You’re also probably wondering what else you need to buy. Sure, you can play a Quest 2 naked (so to speak)—it’s complete and ready-to-go out of the box—but the device is designed to be…Read more...

Days are officially getting longer, but we still have a lot of the dark, winter season to go. And while there’s nothing we can do about the sun setting so early, we can maximize the amount of natural light our homes get when the sun is out during the day.Read more...

Rust may form on certain types of metal, but it can damage more than that. Its distinctive, deep reddish-brown color easily transfers to other materials, resulting in stains. Unfortunately, getting rust stains out of clothing, carpet, and off of surfaces like porcelain and ceramic requires some effort. Fortunately,…Read more...

On a cold winter’s night in 2017, a friend brought a 20-ounce walnut- and bacon-covered cheeseball to my Christmas party. It was my first holiday cheeseball experience and I instantly became enamored with the novelty of having access to a gigantic sphere of nearly endless dip. But when the next day dawned, I was faced…Read more...

The stockings were hung, the presents were wrapped and then unwrapped, and the gift-giving part of the holiday season has come to a close. But as you’re putting things away for the year, you notice that you have some leftover wrapping paper.Read more...

Between widespread shipping issues and dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic (again), the 2021 holiday shopping season wasn’t without its challenges. Online retailers once again made shopping safer and more convenient this year, but what happens once the gifts are given, and some need to be returned or exchanged? Here…Read more...

This year felt, in many ways, like a repeat of the one that came before it. Covid is still around, our healthcare system still sucks, and eating inside restaurants still feels like a dangerous and mildly irresponsible activity. Another (happier) thing that didn’t change all that much was the air fryer’s popularity.Read more...

All the excitement of opening presents, spending time with friends and family, and getting to eat special foods that might only be available once a year is a lot all at once. There are countless things around the house that could spill, drip, or smear this time of year, but even if a little mess turns into a big…Read more...

Traditionally in retail, the week or so after Christmas has been a time to get deep discounts on merchandise leftover from the holiday shopping season. Stores were looking to clear out their stock, and customers were looking for bargains. But the rise in the popularity of online shopping has changed the rules, and…Read more...

In a sketch on the most recent episode of “Saturday Night Live,” a pair of mature women (played by Aidy Bryant and Kate McKinnon) were filming a commercial for HomeGoods that required them to talk about what they want for Christmas.

So, you just unwrapped a brand new Apple Watch. Apple’s popular wearable is an awesome extension of your iPhone, and it comes packed with features that span health, fitness, communication, and entertainment. But before you dive into all of those fun and exciting options, there are eight things you should probably do …Read more...

Long before the start of the seemingly never-ending pandemic, it was hard to resist the convenience of online shopping. But while buying something directly from a reputable retailer—or straight from the manufacturer—tends to ensure that you know exactly what you’re getting, the rise in popularity of online…Read more...

The rapid spread of the Omicron variant may have put a damper on your holiday plans, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get the festive photos you want (of those in your household). And while it can be hard to feel jolly (again) this year, you may appreciate having a record of your second pandemic Christmas years down…Read more...

Have you ever wanted live subtitles during your FaceTime calls? Navi, a companion app for FaceTime, lets you add it on your iPhone, iPad, and your Mac, too. The app makes clever use of Apple’s SharePlay feature to show you live subtitles during your video calls with your friends, yet another good reason to use…Read more...

I don’t mean to brag, but one of the best things about being estranged from most of my family (aside from self-preservation) is that I don’t have to give a shit about the holidays if I don’t want to. And most years, I don’t. Most years, I coast and shimmy in my snow globe of cozy imperviousness, only peripherally…Read more...

The holiday season can be stressful, especially if you’re traveling, hosting guests, or in charge of all the Christmas shopping. On the one hand, there’s no time to exercise. On the other, if you skip your regular workouts, you may find yourself more stressed.

Festivus, sometimes called “The Seinfeld Holiday,” is an annual parody holiday celebrated on December 23 that was invented for “The Strike,” a 1997 episode of NBC’s sitcom Seinfeld.

Your iPhone’s built-in screenshot tool has several cool tricks up its sleeve. From turning your squiggly hand-drawn lines into perfectly symmetrical shapes to hiding sensitive information, there’s a lot more you can do than you might expect. Here’s how to make the most of your iPhone’s screenshot utility.