Lifehacker

You can now enable a new “Guest Mode” on Google’s smart speakers and displays, like the Nest Audio, and make sharing your devices less of a privacy risk. The feature blocks Google Assistant from saving any commands and questions you feed it—normally useful for getting your digital helper to know you better, but…Read more...

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For the past few months, I’ve been wearing an Oura ring to track my sleep. In December, I added a Whoop band for comparison’s sake. I was curious about them because I’ve seen so many athletes—professional and recreational—say they use devices like these to monitor how well they’re recovering from strenuous workouts.…Read more...

This week’s potpourri of nonsense-you-might-not-know-about takes us from whaling ships in the 1800s to 2021’s hottest hype houses, with a pitstop in Lental to snap some Pokémon.

Certain styles and trends dominate the home furnishing marketplace, and people who care about this kind thing might be drawn to the latest and best offered by brands like West Elm and CB2, but I’m here to tell you that you can ditch the over-priced hype in favor of something with far less cachet: online estate sales.

While it’s still somewhat of a fresh and new year, I want to put out a request to the freelance writers within our readership (and beyond): Send me your pitches!Read more...

It’s time to roll up the shirt-sleeves and dive back into my favorite topic: wireless networking. I realize we beat this drum a lot at Lifehacker, but that’s because wifi woes are a pretty regular source of frustration for readers who don’t hesitate to give my Tech 911 inbox an earful.Read more...

Bartesian | $350 | Amazon

There have been plenty of eye-popping news stories about people using metal detectors to uncover precious artifacts—ancient coins, precious jewelry, gold nuggets, maybe even a piece of Charles I’s crown? (The Brits always have the best finds).

It appears there’s some confusion about what to do when you’re wearing a mask and you need to sneeze. As Matt Karolian noted on Twitter, a man at the recent impeachment vote pulled down his mask to sneeze into his hand, which is exactly the opposite of what you are supposed to do.Read more...

Ring just added end-to-end encryption (E2EE) to a select number of its smarthome cameras, protecting videos recorded by your Ring devices with an extra layer of security. This still doesn’t make us thrilled about Ring devices, exactly, given all the issues the platform has experienced, but it’s a feature worth knowing…Read more...

Thursday’s Best Deals | Kinja Deals

While political disagreements among family members are nothing new, the rifts formed over the past five years feel different. In some cases, strongly liberal or conservative relatives went from having an unspoken agreement to avoid discussing politics, to declaring certain family members with opposing viewpoints…Read more...

Assuming you haven’t thrown your hands up in the air and demanded a refund for the Duke Nukem-like gaming experience that is Cyberpunk 2077, there are a number of mods you can grab that address some of its issues and, dare I say it, make it more fun to play. At the very least, they’ll tide you over until developer…Read more...

Throughout the pandemic, one of the biggest unknowns about the coronavirus has been how long people are immune after they catch it and recover. Early indications were that it must provide some immunity, since if multiple infections were possible, they would probably be common. But even a year-plus into the health…Read more...

If you are looking to give to a good cause and you own a portfolio of stocks, consider donating stocks directly to charity instead of cash. You’ll avoid the capital gains liability you’d owe on the stock if you sold it, and it will maximize the tax deduction you’re allowed to take. Here’s how it works.Read more...

With COVID-19 cases surging in the United States and abroad, there’s really no justifiable reason to travel internationally for pleasure right now. But if you do have an unavoidable need to travel to a different country, you’ll need to prove you don’t have COVID before you return. The Centers for Disease Control has…Read more...

If you have an air fryer, you know that it makes bomb potatoes. The super hot air whipping around inside the tabletop convection oven makes short order of a wide variety of spuds: fresh, frozen, and leftover (yes, even leftover fries).Read more...

Samsung Galaxy S21 | $800 | Samsung

White people across the United States have spent the past several months waking up to a reality that people of color have long since known: Systemic racism is still a daily reality, white supremacists are feeling increasingly emboldened, and white people are inherently privileged.Read more...

Ray Tracing and 4K are the most-talked-about capabilities of Nvidia’s GeForce RTX graphics cards. The DLSS feature these GPUs can use doesn’t get as much buzz, but it’s just as impressive—especially given the magic it can work on frame rates for those playing on low and mid-range hardware.Read more...

A $100 Xbox gift card for $90 and an Anker PowerWave wireless charger lead Thursday’s best deals.Read more...

My wife complained about my bad breath for months. Even after brushing my teeth, scraping my tongue with a tongue scraper, and gargling with mouthwash, a foul odor wafted from my mouth when I spoke. You might think that with such horrendous breath I was eating a raw onion for dinner followed by cloves of garlic for a…Read more...

Wireless charging is confusing, but one fact is clear: If your charger could potentially give you a shock, or set your phone on fire, you should probably stop using it.Read more...

There’s no bigger baking disappointment than realizing you forgot to soften the butter. In the interest of eating cake as soon as possible, you might start to wonder: Does this butter really need to be room temperature—and if not, can I just melt it?

Top Pick: Razer Hammerhead Pro | $200 | AmazonRead more...

There is no better season than Girl Scout cookie season. Now is the time to re-up on your favorite fund-raising treats. I’m talking about the Thin Mints, the Caramel d-Lites, the Tagalongs, and the Do-si-dos. Every year young, entrepreneurial Girl Scouts are tasked with selling cookies to raise money for their…Read more...

If you’ve found it hard to keep track of whose turn it is to get the COVID vaccine, there’s good news and bad news. The White House is recommending that everyone over 65 and adults with high-risk conditions be able to get the vaccine starting two weeks from now, which means a lot of people will be eligible sooner than…Read more...

Wednesday’s Best Deals | Kinja Deals

Managing your own health is hard enough, so the demands of keeping up with a pet’s can certainly add to the stress of life. And while you’d hardly think what you’re feeding your beloved dog could be toxic, a new pet food recall brings that reality to life: The Food and Drug Administration on Monday announced a recall…Read more...

I love CES time—short for the Consumer Electronics Show—because we get exposed to all kinds of outlandish devices that are fun to get excited about, but nothing you should add to your shopping list right now. And that’s especially true in the wide world of wireless networking. Linksys unveiled the AXE8400 tri-band…Read more...

Nvidia and AMD’s high-end graphics cards were already expensive in 2020 (if you could find them), but their prices are only going up. And we’re finally starting to see just how dramatic these price hikes are going to be.Read more...

Top Pick: Forney 52877 Jumper Cables | $190 | AmazonRead more...

The Better Business Bureau has issued an alert about a grift impacting consumers who sell their stuff online. If you get an offer that’s a lot more than what you’re selling your item for, think twice about the transaction—it’s likely an overpayment scam.Read more...

A few years ago I decided to get certified as a Cicerone—the beer version of a sommelier. During my studies, I learned what constitutes a “Beer Clean” glass. It was honestly something I’d never considered before. A clean glass is a clean glass, right? Wrong.

TikTok announced today that it is adding a few new privacy safeguards for users under the age of 18, including enhanced default privacy settings, tighter restrictions on who can comment on videos, and which videos can be downloaded.Read more...

Considering life in 2021 has so far been characterized by all-consuming chaos and uncertainty, you might feel compelled to seek solace in tucking into a nice carton of delicious ice cream. But this year, even ice cream is trying to kill you.

A 2-pack of 20W iPhone 12 chargers and a sale on Wag dog food lead Wednesday’s best deals.

Eggs are one of those versatile foods that are great to keep in the fridge for last-minute meals, but part of being a refrigerator staple is that sometimes we can forget about that carton we bought a few weeks ago. No one like a rotten egg, so how can you tell if it’s still OK to eat? Here’s a simple trick that will…Read more...

The U.S. House of Representatives is looking to impeach Donald Trump for a second time today, after Speaker Nancy Pelosi submitted papers for impeachment in the wake of the attacks on the U.S. Capitol. If the Senate were to vote in favor of impeachment, this would mean several things, perhaps the most important being…Read more...

Nvidia just announced its entry-level 3000-series graphics card, the $329 GeForce RTX 3060—otherwise known as the best way to get ray-tracing in your games without breaking the bank. Normally, I’d take a moment to say that you shouldn’t preorder anything without seeing how it plays, whether that’s a game you were…Read more...

Many years ago, before I was a parent, I became an aunt. And this first niece of mine, around age two, loved a show called Yo Gabba Gabba! that was devoted to music and dancing. Me, being the incredible, fun aunt that I am, bought her this Yo Gabba Gabba! dance mat, which encouraged kids to “boogie down.” I imagined…Read more...

Something primal has awakened in me, and my devotion to the bacon fat lifestyle has been renewed. I don’t know if it’s finally getting a fridge that’s big enough to accommodate my vintage grease crock, or the cold, rainy weather, but something has got me cooking everything in rendered animal fat. My current favorite…Read more...

At least two gorillas at the San Diego Zoo have tested positive for COVID-19, the zoo has announced. They aren’t the first animals to contract the coronavirus in this pandemic, and they probably won’t be the last.Read more...

Applying for a job can be an arduous process. You must cater your resume and cover letter to each potential position to describe your capabilities in the way that will best match the job on offer. It’s fine to work from a template, swapping out the details as applicable, but making sure the employer understands you…Read more...

If you’re struggling to pay rent due to COVID, make sure you take advantage of the just-launched $25 billion rental assistance program, which is part of the relief package passed last month. If you can prove hardship, up to 15 months of your rent could be paid for.Read more...

Tuesday’s Best Deals | Kinja Deals

Discovering that anyone in the home—but particularly one of the kids—is allergic to the family pet can be upsetting. Our pets are members of our family, so discovering that their mere presence is negatively impacting the health or physical comfort of your child creates a stressful situation. But if it happens, and…Read more...

I hate saying that “this is kind of the norm” when talking about a data breach, but here we go again. A social-media management company called Socialarks recently suffered a data leak to the tune of more than 408GB of personal data for around 214 million Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn accounts worldwide. That’s…Read more...