Lifehacker

We all know badly written online reviews benefit no one besides the people who angrily type them out. But every now and then, you may find yourself in a situation that calls for some constructive criticism. Whether you’re reviewing an Amazon purchase, a restaurant, or a former employer, your basic review-writing…Read more...

Not all users are equal in Windows. Without administrator access, you can use the computer, but you aren’t allowed to install certain apps or perform commands, and you’re generally blocked from full control of the machine. But right now, you can grant yourself SYSTEM privileges on any Windows 10 machine simply by …Read more...

I’m sure everyone’s made this joke already, but I can’t help myself: Yakity Yak, YikYak’s back.

Boosting a low credit score can be a long, difficult process. Once you get that number up into a satisfactory range, you deserve to feel some pride in all the work it took; but no sooner do you stop worrying about how to raise the score than you start worrying about how to maintain it. Here’s what you can do with that…Read more...

Spotted lanternflies (SLFs) are native to southeast Asia, but they have made their way to the United States in recent years. The first U.S. sighting happened in Berks County, Pennsylvania, in 2014, and since then, they’ve popped up in every state Pennsylvania borders (and a few it doesn’t).

The U.S. housing market remains hot, with median home prices up 10.3 percent from last year at this time, according Realtor.com data. With all the stories of unqualified all-cash offers on homes sight-unseen, you might wonder: Is this a bubble, and should we expect a crash? Well, not really—despite some signs of…Read more...

Diet, bowel movements, and sexual activity can all affect your rectum health. Something we don’t often consider, though, is how we wash our asses. Over wiping can hurt, but soaps can, too—especially scented ones. Here’s how to wash your ass, according to the experts.

One of the great things about iCloud is that you can store lots of pictures. One of the bad things about iCloud is that you can store lots of pictures. Here are some tips to help you back up and organize all your thousands of photos without doing too much sifting through memories of Halloween 2017.Read more...

You’ve probably heard that there’s power in a little positive self-talk, and that affirmations can be really helpful...but not everyone is into that stuff. And that’s okay. Affirmations can still be beneficial for you though, even if you feel silly incorporating them into your daily life. Let’s break it all down.Read more...

Last night, my boyfriend said something that was stupid. “We didn’t need to order this much fried chicken,” he said, stupidly.Read more...

Spending so much time at home during the pandemic has made a lot of people rethink how and where they live. It can be hard to justify the high cost of rent for a small apartment in a city, when most of the appealing parts of urban life (going to bars, restaurants, museums, drag shows, socializing in general, etc) are…Read more...

One of the perks of having a garden, or living somewhere with access to wildflowers, plants, and trees, is being able to spend time outdoors, surrounded by all types of greenery.Read more...

Face masks have now become essential travel accessories. Even during those few months when Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance on indoor face mask use loosened, they were always required on flights. Now, facing a variant that’s more easily transmissible than the previous ones (Delta, not the…Read more...

During the Victorian era, it wasn’t uncommon to take a leisurely Sunday stroll through your local garden cemetery—perhaps stopping for a picnic lunch. But for the most part (with a few exceptions, primarily in large cities) people don’t spend a lot of time hanging out in cemeteries anymore. With everything else going…Read more...

Here at Lifehacker, we’ve made our stance on LeVar Burton and his podcast, LeVar Burton Reads, pretty clear: We are grateful for and appreciate them both. Back in 2019, former Lifehacker staff writer Nick Douglas selected the two-parter where LeVar reads “The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate” (part 1, part 2) as his…Read more...

Did your Hot Vax Summer pan out the way you thought it would? If not, Wendy’s is offering a consolation prize in the form of free chicken nuggets. (And yes, obviously they’ve dubbed it “Hot Nugg Summer.”) In addition to giving away crispy chunks of fried chicken meat, the fast food chain is offering several other…Read more...

You can now demo Windows 11 from your internet browser, thanks to a new webpage created by a resourceful developer known as “Blue Edge.”Read more...

After months and months of nonstop bad news, we’re all feeling run-down and looking for ways to destress and center ourselves. Have you considered meditation? Sound baths can help you stay focused during meditation—and you can even do them at home. Here’s how.Read more...

This month, HBO Max announced plans to overhaul its utterly terrible app experience, which is good not only because you’ll be able to load your watchlist or fast-forward 10 seconds without your Roku overheating, but also because there’s no reason the most consistently interesting, most-bang-for-your-buck streaming…Read more...

When I put the question of how to remove dank odor from one’s bedsheets to my trusty WhatsApp mom chat, one mom replied, “WTH. Don’t do things in your sheets that make them smell!?”

The final film in the Neon Genesis Evangelion “Rebuild” series, Evangelion: 3.0 + 1.01 Thrice Upon a Time, recently dropped on Amazon Prime, introducing a new generation to the series’ concentrated doses of mech action and sadness, and re-traumatizing a generation that had finally begun to pick up the pieces and move…Read more...

Citing the Delta variant of COVID, the Department of Homeland Security announced earlier today that they were extending land inbound border restrictions for Canada and Mexico through Sept. 21. But do these restrictions affect Americans? And what about travel by air? To clear up any confusion, here’s a complete rundown…Read more...

When I was shopping for my first kayak and debating options from $250 on up, I happened across a $99 inflatable kayak that seemed too good to be true. There has to be a catch, I thought. No way this is a real boat. Later, after I had bought my real kayak, I noticed the inflatable had dropped to $50 on sale. I snapped…Read more...

Losing a parent is as close to a universal experience as it gets, but that doesn’t mean any of us are truly prepared. When it happens to your significant other, you might be at a loss for how to help them grieve and cope, but that’s one of your responsibilities as a partner. Here’s how to be there for a partner whose…Read more...

As we are all grappling with the summer surge of COVID-19 due to the Delta variant, there is also another virus that has been circulating widely, called respiratory syncytial virus (or RSV). RSV is an incredibly common respiratory virus, one that usually circulates between October and February. But with this year’s…Read more...

These days, no matter how early I wake up, I can’t seem to reach the material plane and become a functioning human before 2 p.m. I’ve always been prone to a more languorous disposition—most of my productivity is the result of some sporadic fit of manic can-do—but this mysterious uptick in hours during which I am only…Read more...

Big Brother! 1984! Scary buzzwords! Look, it’s understandable why you’d be skeptical of big tech, especially when their products ask for more and more of your personal data. But let’s focus on one specific issue today: Apple’s Face ID is absolutely, totally, uncontroversially safe to use, and it only makes your iPhone…Read more...

A good picnic feels spontaneous, but sometimes it takes a little planning to help things feel unplanned. Keeping a picnic go-bag of shelf-stable treats means you’re ready for a picnic no matter when it’s suggested (even in the dead of winter, if you’re into that kind of thing).

You can generally assume the size of your smart device’s display is directly proportional to its battery life—the bigger it is, the more often you’ll need to charge the device. But while the GPS-only variants of the Apple Watch usually only need to be charged once every couple days, cellular models need to hit the…Read more...

The alternate headline for this post was “10 of the Best Basic (Lazy) Mom Meals.” But seeing as how I am triggered by any insinuation, even jokey ones, that moms are lazy—because, hello, the mental labor we do while sleeping just to figure out how we are going to get Child 1 to and from soccer while Children 2 and 3…Read more...

Spatial audio support is finally rolling out to the Netflix iOS app. The feature should be available soon to all iPhone and iPad users running iOS or iPadOS 14.6 (or higher).

There are a variety of reasons you may want to prune your plants or trees, from keeping them to a certain shape or size, to promoting fuller growth and more buds. But before you start snipping away, take some time to learn about the different types of pruning and how they can yield different results.Read more...

There are some great Bluetooth headphones out there. AirPods Pro, Sony WF-1000XM4, and Jabra Elite Active 75t dominate the earbud market, while the Sony WH-1000XM4 and Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 are among the best of the over-the-ear variety. Still, as good as all these headphones sound in a myriad of…Read more...

Let’s say you don’t have a lot of money to invest—maybe only a few hundred dollars—and you want to buy stock from a big company like Amazon or Google. Unfortunately, single shares in those companies can cost thousands of dollars. That’s where fractional shares come into play: they allow you to purchase only a small…Read more...

This week’s internet features a scolding pee doctor, a porn site that banned porn, and some hugegungous waves. (Kids are into some weird shit.)

Sure, your phone or tablet has the hardware for complex gaming experiences—but the real sweet spot of mobile gaming is mindless, play-for-a-minute experiences. The sort of thing you gravitate toward while you’re toiling away in the dentist office waiting room or when it’s 1 a.m. and you still can’t fall asleep. But if…Read more...

I love a good fitness podcast, especially when I’m double-dipping by learning about fitness while I’m doing fitness—learning about strength training science while I’m on a run, for example. Here are 13 great podcasts you can enjoy if you like to do the same, or if you just like to feel athletic while you’re driving or…Read more...

Your dog can’t verbalize how they feel, which means the only way you know that they’re sick is by observing physical symptoms. But when it comes to poisoning from tainted food, beyond having to clean up after a few messes, there’s always a risk your dog will develop long-term issues—or that you won’t know anything is…Read more...

With a handful of cities and plenty of private businesses now requiring proof of vaccination to admit patrons, it’s likely you’ll need to present your COVID-19 vaccine card to someone at some point. Unfortunately, these cards are too large for most wallets and pants pockets, and likely to get lost or damaged in the…Read more...

Retailers are increasingly accepting cryptocurrency for physical items, but did you know you can spend crypto on ephemeral experiences like travel too? As more cryptocurrency holders indicate a willingness to spend, travel retailers are rushing to meet the demand. Here’s a look at your options for funding a vacation…Read more...

Having a well-organized labeling system for your home’s circuit breaker and electrical outlets is a goal many strive for but few fully attain. We know why it’s important: Nobody enjoys a game of Figure Out Which Breaker Is Connected to That One Specific Outlet when it’s time to do a renovation or repair. It’ll never…Read more...

Conjure up an image of the perfect steak and you’ll likely land on a red and juicy interior enveloped in a savory, browned crust. Add in a sizzling cast iron pan, a splash of garlic and herb-infused butter, maybe some flaky sea salt sprinkled on top in salt bae fashion, and you’ve come pretty damn close to perfection.…Read more...

Google’s RCS Chat text messaging protocol is quickly replacing the outdated SMS messages we’ve been stuck with for decades. RCS enables tons of user-friendly features on Android, like read receipts, real-time notifications when the other person is typing, and end-to-end encryption. Y’know, the stuff iMessage and…Read more...

One feature a number of fitness trackers offer is a metric called “heart rate variability,” or HRV, which is the interval of time between each heartbeat. But given that we tend to think of our hearts beating at a steady and predictable pace, the fact that the interval between each beat varies can be a hard concept to…Read more...

One of the biggest trends of 2021 is nostalgia. Experts— or at least the folks who get paid to forecast such things—suggest that nostalgia will continue to be a major theme of the coming year. We’ve rediscovered the joys of classic cocktails (thanks Stanley Tucci), breakfast quiches, and canned foods, but I’m here…Read more...

If you ever find a young bird with scruffy feathers, hopping around looking sort of clueless, with no parents to be seen, you might think it’s in trouble and needs to be rescued. But that’s probably not the case. Most likely, you have just found a fledgling.

Is the rock opera on the verge of a comeback? The trailer just dropped for Annette, a romantic fantasy (I think?) starring Marion Cotillard and Adam Driver and coming to Prime Video this month, and it’s giving us the excuse to revisit some of our favorite movie musicals.Read more...

Coffee! We all know and care about it so much that I couldn’t even think of a proper lede to write about it. In fact, I’m sipping my delightful morning brew while writing this post. It’s the only way to start the day.Read more...

I’m not a witch, so I don’t know when summer officially “ends,” but for me, the season always feels over after my birthday. This summer really flew by, and the most interesting thing I “did” was get really into zucchini. I used to think I didn’t care for zucchini. Now I love it. People can change.Read more...

We get it. Job-hunting can be a stressful, anxiety-provoking experience. Poring over hundreds of job listings with unrealistic qualifications and LinkedIn kindly inviting you to “see how you compare to 34 other applicants” can drain even the most confident soul.