Lifehacker

There are times when your Windows PC seems to have a mind of its own—launching programs, windows, browser tabs, or whatever else without your direct input. There’s always a reason for this activity. Your system hasn’t become sentient. However, tracking down what’s causing this chaos is always a fun exercise. And…Read more...

Galaxy Z Fold 2 | $1,450 | Samsung

In the western world, particularly the United States, martial arts tends to be defined by stereotypes: People who train are either eight year olds learning Karate kicks, or bloodthirsty brawlers who hope to compete in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. But the notions that define mainstream popular conceptions of the…Read more...

Before a private company goes public in an initial public offering (IPO), they might set aside a few shares to be purchased in what’s known as a pre-IPO placement. You can make a lot of money from pre-IPO stocks, but the risks are also significant, and either way, it’s not easy to get your hands on these early-bird…Read more...

Thursday’s Best Deals | Kinja Deals

Apple recently updated its App Store and iOS privacy policies to force app developers to be more transparent about their data collection practices. As a result, users have a little more insight (and, ideally, control) over what data various companies can track—and how. Even giants like Google.

Any collector of condiments, spreads, jams, and jellies is familiar with the tauntingly “almost empty” jar. There’s always too little of whatever’s in there to make anything substantial, but just enough so that throwing it away feels wasteful. Rather than tediously scraping minuscule amounts of of sticky, saucy stuff…Read more...

The vaccine rollout across the U.S. has been less than ideal, but finally, it looks like there is a dim light at the end of this long, dark tunnel. Jabs are going in the arms of frontline workers, and as more vaccines are administered, states across the country are opening up the eligibility requirements, allowing…Read more...

Jackbox games have become a popular pandemic life pastime, likely because the barrier for entry is absurdly low: One person hosts the game; everyone else pulls out their phones, types a code into a website, and they’re good to go. No need to make an account or download a separate app—just type four digits into a…Read more...

There are few creatures more loathsome than the cockroach. The mere presence of one in your home is enough to cause palpitations, while the presence of many more instantly feels like a full-blown crisis. We all know what attracts roaches, but they can proliferate even if you do everything right, from religiously…Read more...

If you love both eating and entertainment, you might be the type of person who has an opinion on Tom Colicchio’s decision to cut that last cook on Top Chef. Being a foodie doesn’t give you a professional chef’s experience, but watching their magic onscreen can inspire even the most inexperienced cooks among us to pick…Read more...

I have a precise method for making a box of macaroni and cheese: I boil the water, cook the macaroni for a couple minutes shy of the package instructions, drain it, then return the noodles to the pot and add the butter, stirring so it melts over the mac. I then sprinkle in the cheese powder, and stir again to dissolve…Read more...

The television adaptation of horror comic The Walking Dead is expected to come to a close in 2022 at the end of its 11th season—an impressive stretch that has nothing on the comic’s 17-year, 193-issue run. But throughout much of that time, franchise creator Robert Kirkman was plugging away at another lengthy graphic…Read more...

We’ve been talking this week about the best parenting advice you’ve ever received (and the worst parenting advice), and out of those discussions came a shining gem that I could not, in good conscience, keep to myself. And that is a reminder of the ultimate—and most natural—of all parenting hacks: water.Read more...

Whether you have friends or family members who work and live different schedules than you, or you find yourself sending more “happy belated birthday” messages than you’d like, having the ability to schedule text messages ahead of time is an incredibly useful feature.

Niantic celebrated the 25th anniversary of Pokémon last week, using the occasion to roll out an extensive event on its popular mobile game, Pokémon GO. I’ve been playing the game for a couple of years now, ever since my son got interested in Pokémon through his friends at daycare. Early on, we walked around town to…Read more...

Lapse Activewear | EchtRead more...

Nanfu AA and AAA battery 48-packs and Apple’s new M1 MacBooks and Mac Mini lead Thursday’s best deals.

Cryptocurrency has jumped to the forefront of personal finance news in 2020, and the IRS has noticed. If you acquired any crypto in 2020, you’ll want to declare it in your tax form, as the agency warned that this year they’ll crack down on investors used to fudging how much they owe.Read more...

In many ways, deciding whether to have another child is even harder than deciding on having the first one. It’s a lot more complex than asking “Do we want more children and do we have enough money?” Adding another child is almost like creating a whole new family again. Here are some things you should consider as you…Read more...

It’s unlikely we’ll ever be able to live a tracker-free life online, but we appreciate the companies doing what they can to at least make tracking users a lot harder, technologically. If you’re a Firefox fan, Mozilla has just launched a new “Total Cookie Protection” mode that basically isolates all of a website’s…Read more...

Dash Compact Cold-Press Juicer | $60 | Bed Bath & BeyondRead more...

Teaching a teenager to drive has never been easy. While it can be (or you want it to be) a fun and exciting rite of passage, it can also be stressful and panic-inducing for both of you. But even in a pandemic, the roads are open and teens are on them. So if it’s time for you to help them learn how to drive, take a…Read more...

Throughout the pandemic, many former office workers have been necessarily glued to their computer monitors. As work migrated online, video tools like Zoom and Google Hangouts have become the rare outlet for regular face-time with colleagues. But short of an alternative for seeing your co-workers without a screen in…Read more...

As part of Lifehacker’s Fitness challenge, I am trying out various meditation techniques for 30 days. This is the second week of my challenge, and I’ve taken a new step towards developing a consistent meditation routine: I increased the length of my meditation sessions and tried midday meditation rather than morning…Read more...

Wednesday’s Best Deals | Kinja Deals

After a year of travel restrictions, nearly a third of all credit card holders have not redeemed their credit card rewards. But will these rewards expire before you’re ready to use them? Fortunately, most cards don’t have a hard cutoff date, although that comes with one caveat—some rewards eventually expire if you…Read more...

Not to be outdone by Disney and Warner Bros., Viacom recently announced its own streaming service, creatively named Paramount+, will launch on March 4. The unrelenting number of newer streamers—Disney+, Discovery+, Apple TV+ and all the plus-es you can think of—when placed alongside legacy companies like Hulu and…Read more...

If you—or your teenager—are into gaming, you’ve likely at least heard of Discord, even if you haven’t used it yourself. It’s one more way for teenagers to connect with their friends and chat about gaming or other topics via private or public servers, individual messages, or group chats. But, as with any social network…Read more...

As one who likes to rock out, I confess, I was excited that my streaming service of choice—Spotify—announced it’s rolling out a new service tier for lossless audio streaming. Sure, it’ll cost more than what I’m paying now, but throwing away an expected $20 a month for perfect audio sounds pretty great, doesn’t it? My…Read more...

Black history month is winding down, but everyone over at the Inventory wanted to expose you all to a couple of products that were made or developed by Black people. Like Ignacia mentioned in her introductory post, about 40% of Black-owned businesses might not actually make it through the pandemic. Given actual…Read more...

Winter in the U.S. has been brutal in 2021, as snow blanketed the entire eastern seaboard and icy conditions spread as far south as Texas, causing the electrical grid to go offline. A reprieve from the frigid hell should be welcome, and it’s coming in the form of a very large full moon on the evenings of February 26…Read more...

One of my favorite innovations of modern gaming is the ability to stream what you’re playing to your smartphone, whether from the cloud, your home consoles, or a PC. Streaming transforms your phone into a Nintendo Switch-like portable that can play games from every system it can connect to.

Unlike soups, stews, braises, and chilis, mashed potatoes do not taste better after an overnight rest in the fridge. Cold potatoes are stiff and dry—mere shadows of their former selves. But nuking them in the microwave or stirring them ferociously over a hot burner can only make them dryer and—if you agitate them too…Read more...

You may think you have seen Justice League, but have you seen Zack Snyder’s Justice League? If you are at all interested in comic books, movies, or troubling think pieces on internet troll subculture, and have been online at all in the last four years, you are probably well aware of what’s coming.

Moving into 2021 and forward, conservatives angry about cancel culture, censorship, shadowbans, or the attention of the FBI have a rich array of social destinations to choose from. We’ve prepped a travel guide for the unwitting observer who might be thinking of checking any of these conspicuous and lesser-known…Read more...

Using vinegar is a DIY-er’s best friend when it comes to home cleaning, but the smell can be a pungent one. Granted, part of the benefit of using vinegar as a cleaning solution is that it’s a great deodorizer, too—your room will smell strongly like vinegar for a while, but give it a few hours and, like magic, the…Read more...

In the absence of broadly appealing new films and TV series (no Oscar hopefuls this month, I’m afraid), Netflix appears to be looking to the podcast market to figure out how to keep its massive subscriber base happy. Its new offerings in March include a host of documentary series and specials that I would totally…Read more...

Shopping on social media has come with more risks as the pandemic grinds along. Since last year, scams from online purchases make up nearly half of all complaints in the Better Business Bureau’s Scam Tracker, with many of those complaints pointing a finger at shady ads on Instagram and Facebook. Here’s how you can…Read more...

Netflix’s Android app will now automatically download shows and movies it thinks you’ll enjoy. It’s similar to the app’s Smart Downloads feature, which automatically deletes episodes saved on your device after you watch them and downloads the next. However, the new “Downloads for You” feature saves content to your…Read more...

In an online world in which countless systems are trying to figure out what exactly you enjoy so they can serve you up advertising about it, it really fucks up their profiling mechanisms when they think you like everything. And to help you out with this approach, I recommend checking out the Chrome/Firefox extension …Read more...

A lot of parenting advice is bad advice. It’s not just that standards and societal norms change over time, it’s also that when something works for one parent and one child, that one parent tends to see their method as the “right” way or the best way—or even the only way. But for every parent who would never let their…Read more...

I will not eat chili the same day it is cooked. It’s not fair to the recipe, and it’s not fair to me. The same goes for stews, most braises, and (ideally) any meat-based pasta sauce. I don’t just let these things “rest” for a mere half hour nap; I let them get that good REM sleep.Read more...

Grammar snobs may shudder in disgust at this idea, but it’s time to normalize the use of they/them as singular pronouns. It’s 2021; no more of this “he or she, his or her” stuff.

There was a time when streaming services could boast that they were the first to get [insert your favorite big theatrical hit], but that’s becoming increasingly rare in a time when streaming services have only grown more segmented, and also when there were no big theatrical hits last year.

Personal checks are steadily falling into disuse. They’re kind of like fax machines—outmoded, slow, with only a hardened group of people still using them even as they become less practical. Is there any good reason to still use paper checks? In some cases, yes—although you still have to be careful about identity…Read more...

Although Punxsutawney Phil predicted six more weeks of winter, spring will come faster than we think. And since it’s been a long, quarantined winter with most of us staying indoors longer than ever before, it’s likely past time we deep clean things like the air vents of our homes.Read more...

Screenshots are very useful, whether you’re taking them to send to a friend, make into a meme, paste into a Lifehacker article, or remind yourself of something later. If you take a lot of them in iOS, you’re undoubtedly familiar with the preview that pops up in the lower-left corner after you snap one. Sometimes,…Read more...

No need to cover up a smell when you can neutralize it. We’ve written in the past about how a bowl of vinegar can deodorize a room, but the same advice can be expanded to an entire house with slightly more effort: Simmering that same vinegar on the stove can maximize the reach of its odor-eating power.Read more...

When my partner and I announced to our close family and friends that we were expecting, we soon became bombarded by one specific question: “Are you excited?” (Or my personal favorite: “Is Maliq excited?”) Maliq and I had been strategically planning to start a family for the past two years; of course we were excited.…Read more...