Lifehacker

The holidays are upon us and we could all use a few ways to simplify the madness. A few hacks you’ve probably never thought of before—from gift wrap and ornament storage to making the roaringest fire and most effervescent New Year’s beverages—generated from easy-to-find household items? I’m glad you asked.

Different regions of the U.S. are prone to different types of natural disasters. While you may already have a basic emergency kit on hand with food, water, and a first aid kit, there are other tools you can—and should—invest in, depending on where you live and the type of natural disaster most likely to strike near…Read more...

LG announced a new, weird-looking monitor this week that could create a new segment of the monitor market. Or it could be a gimmicky relic that no one will ever use. Either way, the LG DualUp is unique: It’s double-high, offering a taller-than-it-is-wide aspect ratio of 16:18. You can use it like a couple of 21.5-inch…Read more...

Maybe you want to guide someone through an application, show your parents how to use a website, or capture a wild moment in a video call. Suffice it to say, there are many reasons why you might want to create a video of what’s on your Mac’s screen.

Saw Blades come in many different types, and knowing the difference will save you time and extra trips to the hardware store. Using the right blade will also make your cut easier and look better, so here are the most common types of blades you’ll be looking for, and when to use them.

Sure, everyone and their mother has an iPhone, but that doesn’t mean the entire experience is overrated. Quite the opposite, in fact; there are plenty of features on iOS that simply don’t get talked about enough in the public sphere. We all know how convenient iMessage and FaceTime are, or how good the photos and…Read more...

So, your long-awaited holiday trip to visit family or friends was cancelled—for the second year in a row. It has occurred to you that, yet again, the kids will be off from school and need to be kept occupied. For a brief moment, you consider telling them to go read a book or do a puzzle, or something that doesn’t…Read more...

Astronomers, scientists, and space-hobbyists all over the world are nervously chewing their nails this holiday season over the Christmas Day launch of the James Webb Space Telescope. If all goes according to plan, liftoff will take place on Dec. 25 at 7:20 a.m. ET. If you’re in French Guiana, you can watch the launch…Read more...

A jump rope is a simple, portable tool that lets you do a cardio workout in a small space. But if you find plain old jumping to be boring, consider treating jump rope as a skill, like dancing. We’ve put together a list of jump rope moves you can learn, with a tutorial video for each.

When talking about the ways to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission among the people in your own home, public health experts often mention the importance of keeping your home “properly ventilated.” But the instructions end there.Read more...

Let me start by saying, I have three kids—which feels like too many. I was raised by an old-school southern housewife who chaperoned every field trip and doled out sundaes at school events (and carry with me the internalized pressure to do the same). But I have a full-time job, a husband who just had COVID while I…Read more...

We don’t toss the phrase “depraved indifference” around too often, but when we do, it’s most likely in reference to a cat. Anyone who has been in contact with a house cat of any breed knows why they have a reputation as soulless manipulators: They stare at you with the blank-faced serenity of a serial killer, usually…Read more...

There are a lot of reasons to stay in bed these days. The temperature is getting lower, and COVID cases are once again rising. If you want to stay under the covers, but still want to fit in some kind of movement, we’ve rounded up some exercises you can without getting out of bed.

TikTok is an infinite, bottomless pit of addiction, with each video algorithmically curated to your particular tastes and interests. With so many relevant videos scrolling past your face, it’s impressive that losing just one of them is such a tragedy. But it is; there is no pain greater than thoroughly enjoying a…Read more...

Got an older iPhone? Suffering from battery drain on a newer iPhone but just can’t figure out why? We have some good news for you: It doesn’t matter what state your iPhone is in, there are a bunch of tricks you can use to extend its battery life so you don’t need to worry about running out of juice by lunchtime every…Read more...

“Turn on a light! You’ll ruin your eyes! ” I grew up with warnings like these, followed by the click of a light switches, almost every time my mother found me nose-deep in a book. She never listened to my arguments that I could see the pages just fine. The Mom Logic was straightforward and unyielding: If I didn’t turn…Read more...

Grief is a normal part of coping with a loss. Whether it’s the death of a loved one, coping with a major illness, or navigating the end of a relationship, grief looks and feels different for everyone. While many people find that talking about their grief can help them make sense of their loss, there are also times…Read more...

Board games have been persistently popular despite the invention of television, video games, and TikTok, and people of all ages still enjoy an evening spent moving plastic pieces around a no-tech board—in fact, board games seem more popular than ever despite the technological wonders at our fingertips. This means more…Read more...

PC gaming might offer cutting-edge graphics and gameplay, but most players do not own a high-end gaming rig. In fact, according to a recent survey by VPN Overview, the average Steam user only has an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 graphics card and older quad-core Intel CPUs. A setup like that can only play about 41 of the…Read more...

If you’re diving into DIY home repairs or building projects, the cost of tools can be prohibitive. That’s when a tool library can come in handy, especially if you’re looking to use a tool once for a specific project or if you’d like to test drive a type of tool before investing in your own. Rather than buying or…Read more...

The holiday season is that special time of year for kicking back, spending quality time with family, and...answering emails from your boss and scrolling through Slack notifications. Nope, not this year! If you’re taking a break this holiday season—a real break—that should also include breaking from work. Technology…Read more...

We’ve all dealt with our fair share of hurdles in 2021, but it’s gotten to the point that even your holiday menu requires some ingredient-gymnastics. If you haven’t heard: We’re experiencing a national cream cheese shortage. Prices have gone up, and in some places it’s hard (or impossible) to find. Even if you have…Read more...

“Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior,” a phrase coined by Facebook, is the use of multiple social media accounts or pages to mislead or influence people for political or financial ends. As part of the deception, these pages hide the identities and obscure the motives of the people behind them.

Ever wanted to browse the internet on your Apple Watch? There’s an app called µBrowser ($0.99) that lets you do just that, so that if your phone is dead or you’re at the gym without it, your Apple Watch can still help you find things on the web.

If you’ve ever been enlisted as tech support via phone for a parent or grandparent trying to work through a problem they’re having with technology, you know how frustrating it can be. You have to figure out how to solve their problem, yes, but you also have to figure out how to talk them through the fix—all without…Read more...

There’s plenty of sex on TV, though much of it is incidental window dressing—thoughtlessly tossed in as if by decree from ratings-hungry executives (looking at you, Game of Thrones).Read more...

Toxic positivity has earned a lot of backlash recently. Of course, we shouldn’t berate ourselves with negative self-talk, and there’s value in encouraging ourselves when fearful (I routinely utter, “I have all the skills I need” like a dime-store Stuart Smalley before doing anything nerve-wracking), but there’s also…Read more...

If you’re tackling even a small DIY project around the house, navigating the fastener aisle at the hardware store can be daunting. There are hundreds of different types of screws, nails, bolts, and staples on offer, and it can be tricky to know exactly which one you need to finish the job. But choosing the right type…Read more...

All of our minds wander once in a while. In fact, it’s estimated anywhere from a quarter to half of our waking hours are spent daydreaming, as our awareness drifts away from whatever we are currently doing or experiencing to focus on another topic entirely.

You might already know that websites and apps track you. It’s so common now we don’t even bat an eye. But did you know the same thing applies to emails as well?

Macs are relatively easy to troubleshoot, but sometimes you might need to see someone’s screen or take control of their laptop. And, weirdly enough, the Messages app can help you with that. There’s a built-in screen sharing tool in the Messages app that’s available to every Mac running macOS Mojave 10.14 and higher,…Read more...

This fascinating article in The Wall Street Journal details an arms-race taking place in America’s households. Concerned parents are using internet blocking and filtering techniques on their tech devices, while their children are diligently figuring out how to defeat them. Spoiler alert: The kids are winning.

What do you do when your favorite artist has been canceled? If you’re HBO Max, it seems, you leave them out of the reunion special for the films based on their work and hope no one notices.Read more...

Like most people, if you have a base variant MacBook with 128 GB of storage, freeing up space on your Mac is probably a regular event in your calendar. And if you’re pretty good at deleting unwanted files from your Mac, only to leave them in your Trash folder, that folder inevitably takes up double-digit gigabytes of…Read more...

Tech gifts are big during the holidays, but new tech purchases happen all year-round. Your laptop stops powering on, so you buy a refreshed MacBook Pro; your Android can’t hold a charge, so you upgrade to a Pixel 6; your old TV just isn’t 4K-enough, so you get yourself an LG OLED. Buying new tech is fun. But…Read more...

Lately, I find myself reminiscing about all the amazing post-Christmas and New Year’s Day brunches my friends have stumbled into in various states of hangover and undress in the past years. And over time, I found myself suffering from ennui about what the hell to do with eggs. Brunch = eggs, but I find them a pain in…Read more...

It’s not easy keeping track of movies you want to see and the books you want to read. You might keep a few review tabs open in your browser or have a running list of all the things you want to watch, but ultimately, these things tend get lost into oblivion. But if you finally want to organize your entertainment list,…Read more...

I don’t know why I thought monthly roundups of what’s new on Paramount+ were a good idea, or even necessary. I mean, I guess I do: Sure, the first few months of offerings from the former CBS All Access were pretty anemic, but amid the pandemic, they announced plans to release their films simultaneously on streaming…Read more...

The last three weeks have been a whirlwind of peppermint mochas, ugly sweaters, Secret Santas, and cookie exchanges. Even though you’ve baked dozens of treats and eaten your body weight in butter and flour, we’ve just now hit the holiday home stretch, with cookie baking at full throttle. More sprinkles, more extracts,…Read more...

The wait for COVID-19 vaccines for kids has been excruciating. The 5-to-11 age group finally got theirs last month, nearly a year after the vaccines were authorized for adults. But the under-5 contingent is still waiting, and unfortunately, they’ll be waiting even longer than we expected (or hoped).

The shift to a streaming-first business model has been rough for theater owners and a headache for Hollywood, but we aren’t talking about the people it is benefitting. Namely, all the men out there afraid to cry at the movies.Read more...

If you do a Google search on “family holiday traditions” you’ll instantly have access to 215,000,000 articles extolling the virtues of writing a letter to Santa, singing Christmas carols, or baking cookies as a family. And while we’ve got nothing against well-worn festivities like decorating gingerbread houses…Read more...

If you find yourself avoiding macOS updates more than any other software updates, you’re not alone. Even if you haven’t faced any stability issues or other bugs, updating macOS takes so long that ignoring the update feels like the better alternative. After all, critical security updates are installed automatically by…Read more...

There’s no shortage of reasons you might be sticking to sobriety this holiday season and beyond. Still, nothing tests your resolve quite like a loved one going on a political rant, or interrogating you about your life decisions, or otherwise pushing your buttons in a way only family can. For many of us, family time is…Read more...

Your Mac’s humble Activity Monitor can do much more than let you force quit a frozen app. If you know how to make use of it, the Activity Monitor can actully be quite useful, granting you the ability to troubleshoot problems and check CPU or network usage in real time, often without even opening the app. Here are the…Read more...

Heartworm disease is a potentially deadly condition that requires extensive treatment—think multiple medications and at least two months of complete rest—which is why veterinarians and dog owners work so hard to prevent it. The most common preventative treatment is an oral or topical medication given once a month, but…Read more...

The Apple Watch’s portability is both a boon and a curse. It’s an excellent little computer on your wrist, but at the same time, it occasionally takes a bit too long for basic tasks, such as switching between apps. We’re going to show you a few hidden Apple Watch tricks to help you speed up some of its standard…Read more...

Marriage and diamonds are just a few of the things that millennials have been accused of killing. But while it’s not really accurate to say that millennials aren’t buying diamonds (or getting married, for that matter), it is true that they are buying differently.

About once a year, I purge my closets of all my unwanted clothes, whether it’s the jeans that no longer fit, the T-shirts I’ve worn to shreds, or the weird-ass dress that seemed like a good idea at the time but ended up being an exercise in medieval torture. It’s tempting to save some of these items, out of a belief…Read more...

It’s the end of 2021, and Chrome extensions are still a thing. Quite a big thing, actually—as the world continues to move from work-from-home to a hybrid work environment, the tools and customizations offered by Chrome extensions are perhaps more critical than ever. These browser add-ons help you work, save time, and…Read more...