Lifehacker

You can now add a “captions sticker” to Instagram Stories that automatically transcribes your audio into subtitles without the need for third-party apps. This is a helpful tool for creators and audiences alike, as live-captioned videos are more accessible to people with auditory disabilities and those who prefer…Read more...

When it begins to get dark out, you might notice your phone screen shifts to a more orange tone to help you prepare for sleep. Our bodies expect to only see blue light during the day, the theory goes, so blocking blue light at night should help us wind down and feel more tired when it’s time for bed.Read more...

I love acid. The vast majority of foods, whether savory or sweet, are improved by a hit of bright tartness. There are two main ways to get acid into your cooking: citrus and vinegar. All vinegars contain acetic acid—that’s what makes them sour—but varying the starting material affects the flavor and color. Pretty much…Read more...

Do you still own tech from 2009 or thereabouts? Maybe an old CPU or motherboard that’s sitting in a box in your closet “just in case” you need a backup? What about a Dell? If you or someone you care about happens to still be using a Dell computer produced any time between when Barack Obama started his first term and…Read more...

Do “ugly” produce subscription boxes actually reduce food waste and save you money compared to shopping in a discount grocery store ? Not quite, that’s mostly marketing—but they are still relatively cheap, reliable, and a convenient way to get veggies delivered to your door.Read more...

When you’re starting out with a garden, buying enough plants to cover the ground can seem really expensive. Instead, do what the pros do: Cut and plant stems and leaves, divide roots, and use ground layering to grow more of the plants you already have.Read more...

Graduations are a big deal, because in most contexts, you can only be photographed graduating once. Once your graduate has strode across the stage to collect their high diploma, you won’t have the option of do-over because you missed the vital moment.

While 2021 has been great for Peloton’s profits—including posting their first $1 billion quarter ever—it hasn’t been as good on safety. It started in February, when the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) received a report that a three-year-old suffered a “significant brain injury” after an accident on one of…Read more...

Twitter loves to innovate by “borrowing” features from its competition. Last year it was “Fleets,” its own version of Instagram Stories, and now Twitter is taking on the burgeoning social media app Clubhouse with its new “Spaces.”Read more...

As long as there has been indoor running water, there have been clogged drains. But what do you do when your drain is backed up? Call a plumber right away? Pour chemicals? Well there are some simple fixes to try yourself before resorting to the nuclear option. (Disclaimer: Do you not try to blow up your pipes.)Read more...

When we think about our personal impact on the environment, our first thoughts might be switching to reusable shopping bags or conserving water and electricity. But what about our houseplants?Read more...

We’ve talked recently about what to do if your toddler is hitting or biting. Although you certainly hoped your sweet kiddo wouldn’t be the hitting or biting type, you were probably also aware that these are common things many toddlers do out of frustration, for attention, or because they lack the communication skills…Read more...

It’s been just over a week since iOS 14.5 debuted, and we’ve spent a chunk of time going over the most interesting features the operating system has to offer. This is one update I wouldn’t wait to install, if for nothing else than it’s the only way your iPhone will tell you if someone has slipped an AirTag tracker…Read more...

Premium travel and rewards cards tend to have the biggest welcome bonuses, but they also usually come with annual fees that range from $95 to as much as $550. But what about people who don’t need all the premium perks, or simply don’t want to spend money on fees? Don’t they deserve a little something too?

I do not know a single thing about birthing or raising children, but I do know many things about cooking breakfast and brunch, particularly breakfasts and brunches with a lot of meaning attached to them. If you are planning to make a big breakfast for the mom in your life, I have one piece of advice: Make a meal that…Read more...

Sometimes when we’re sweating away in the gym, our goals can seem quite far away. That’s why it can be so inspiring to watch other athletes who are at the top of their game—they all had to start somewhere, after all. Here are some of our favorite documentary movies and series about real-life people performing…Read more...

On Monday, a photo came out with President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden kneeling next to Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter. The older couple is dwarfed by the Bidens; Joe and Jill look like ogre-sized heads of state, while the Carters look Smurf-sized, sinking into their large floral-pattern chairs.

The May 2021 Pixel security update is ready, and you shouldn’t waste time installing it on your device.

Say it ain’t so, Calibri. I’ve always favored Microsoft’s default Word font—much more so than Times New Roman, at least, which Microsoft replaced with Calibri way back in Office 2007. And while Microsoft is finally looking to shake things up again with a new default font, you don’t have to follow the whims of Redmond…Read more...

Most business owners are aware of their personal credit score, but a study suggests that 60% of them don’t know their business credit score—yet this number is essential when it comes to securing vendor contracts and qualifying for loans at competitive rates. Here’s what you need to know about establishing your…Read more...

Even though I lived in Mississippi for the first portion of my childhood (and visited nearly every year after we moved to California), I did not grow up drinking sweet tea. My mom never cared for sugar—she drank water and, to a lesser extent, Diet Coke—and my grandmother sweetened her pitchers of tea with…Read more...

Every step of cleaning a bathtub seems like it was engineered to be as annoying as possible. You have to get on your knees to give it a proper scrub, which is physically awkward at best, and painful at worst. Cleaning the walls is impossible unless you actually step in, a fact I only remember after I’ve already…Read more...

If you’re looking for a grammatical convention guaranteed to spark an unnecessarily outraged debate, look no further than the Oxford comma [Editor’s note: I don’t know that I’d call it unnecessary].

While debates rage about whether we need national or state “vaccine passports,” the truth is that we already have one, and it’s a little piece of paper with some numbers and your name scrawled on it. These cards, originally intended as a convenient reminder for personal use, are increasingly being used as proof of…Read more...

My 10-year-old recently discovered a quintessential preteen pastime that I recall thoroughly enjoying when I was a tween and teenager in the ‘90s: Personality quizzes. Of course, in the ‘90s, you had to wait for the latest issue of Tigerbeat, Sassy, Seventeen, or Cosmogirl to arrive in the mailbox to get your quiz…Read more...

Believe it or not, spring is here, which means the time is ripe to get our plans in order for this year’s garden. The savviest gardeners have probably already made their plans, but it’s not too late for the rest of us. With gardening, timing is almost everything, so start as soon as you can to take advantage of the…Read more...

The upside to having a pool in your backyard is that you have a freakin’ pool in your own backyard! As in, steps away from where you live, available for use as often as you want, all summer long. The downside to having your own pool is dealing with the maintenance and general upkeep that’s involved. Which is a lot.Read more...

While it’s technically legal to get paid for donating your blood, you’re more likely to get a cookie for it, or maybe a tote bag. But donating plasma—the liquid portion of your blood—is a little different: the process involves more time but also pays better, and you can expect to take home $50–$75 per session. Here’s…Read more...

Helping your child make friends in a brand new town during a pandemic would be difficult for any parent. But parents of children on the autism spectrum are likely to find it even more challenging. The masks and social distancing still required of us and our kids, combined with a lack of structured activities to make…Read more...

I use my little air fryer quite a bit, especially now that it’s getting warm and I am avoiding my oven at all costs. It’s very versatile—I can make an entire bacon-and-egg breakfast in the thing—but I depend on it for firing off last minute accoutrement and finishing touches, from crunchy capers, to roasted garlic, to …Read more...

“I’m doing this for your own good” is a saying unruly kids know quite well. Parents love to pull it out to justify a punishment for misbehavior, as if a child will appreciate learning that they’ll eventually appreciate the fact that you loved them enough to their Xbox taken away for a week.

Even though you just installed iOS 14.5—you are using the new operating system, correct?—it’s time to take a trip back to the Settings app and grab a just-released update from Apple that patches up a number of important iOS vulnerabilities. And while all security update are critical, this one fixes two vulnerabilities…Read more...

At any given moment, I have at least one open box of baking soda and one open canister of baking powder in my pantry, and I never, ever know how old they are. Unlike cheese or apples, neither of these leavening agents offers any visual cues as to when they have “gone bad.” They look the same no matter their age, but…Read more...

Windows 10’s News and Features feed for your taskbar is rolling out now as part of the operating system’s KB5001391 system update. Like Microsoft’s News Bar app or Edge’s personalized highlights, the News and Interests feed shows the latest headlines from over 4,500 news sources and a wide range of topics. But unlike…Read more...

Apple has added a few helpful new Shortcut actions to iOS 14.5. We’ve previously talked about one, which lets you drop a new “Take Screenshots” action into any of your programmed Shortcuts. Joining it is a a new action for your device’s Orientation Lock, which allows you fine-tune when you want it on (almost always)…Read more...

The state of your sink says a lot about the rest of the kitchen. A nice, clean sink is, well, nice and clean. A dirty sink, on the other hand, is a bacteria-ridden hole in your kitchen counter just waiting to be filled with dirty dishes and spoiled food—if it hasn’t been already.Read more...

Millions of Americans without broadband internet can now qualify for a $50-per-month subsidy to help pay their bills. As part of the stimulus relief bill that passed last December, the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program offers the discount to low-income households or to those that lost substantial earnings during the…Read more...

If you want to master some of the more mysterious elements of grammar, we’re going to have to talk about dashes—yes, those simple horizontal lines that seem to present themselves unannounced, only to stretch your prose further along the page. Did you know there are three—yes, three whole kinds of dashes—in the English…Read more...

This week we’re learning how to pare down our belongings and embrace the minimalist lifestyle with help from author and advocate Christine Platt (aka The Afrominimalist). Christine’s own personal journey from overconsumption to one of minimalism is an inspiration, and she helps us understand how everything from our…Read more...

Flavoring popcorn with dry seasonings is easy—you just shake ‘em on. But there are a lot of flavors that live outside of that realm. These flavors come in the form of sauces, and some of them are pretty good on popcorn too.Read more...

Between the proposal and the I do’s, there’s the unique stress known as wedding planning. Even if your big day is a year or more out, many things might will trip you up. But hindsight is the best teacher.Read more...

Kids are curious little beings, which is part of what makes them wonderful. They are experiencing so much in the world for the first time and much of it—from the color of the sky to the existence of fingernails—is utterly baffling to them. A little kid’s inquiring mind wants to know: Why? Why, why, why, why, why?

When we think about washing windows, we’re probably worried about the glass panels both inside and outside of our homes. But if you also have window screens, those need to be cleaned on a regular basis, too. Screens exist for the sole purpose of serving as a final barrier between the outdoors and your home, keeping…Read more...

If you live in a large house, you may see your hallways as those extra spaces to vacuum that simply bring you from one part of your home to another. But if you live in an apartment or a smaller house, hallways are precious and valuable space you should definitely be making the most of.Read more...

Sneezing, wheezing, and otherwise feeling like hell: Allergies are a special kind of everyday torture. Although we don’t have a cure for your food or environmental allergies, we do have some proven tips to help you suffer less and minimize reactions. Here are 10 of them for people who suffer from allergies.

YouTube and Roku aren’t playing nice. The two companies failed to reach a contract agreement, and now YouTube TV is no longer supported on Roku products, including all streaming devices and smart TVs with Roku OS.

You might look at your sprawling list of to-dos in the iOS Reminders app and think, “That is a lot.” And while Apple’s upgrades to Reminders in iOS 14.5 might not help you complete them any faster, they’ll certainly help organize them. And that’s the first step toward completing any Herculean list of tasks, right?Read more...

Most longtime gardeners are fluent in the language of plants, knowing how to read the signs and signals that their plants are thriving, or in some type of distress. But those without years of experience may not recognize some of the more subtle ways their garden is trying to tell them something is wrong. Here are some…Read more...

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, there were countless people across the country who, for a variety of reasons, weren’t able to get the mental health help they needed. Now, after more than a year of economic, physical, psychological and emotional hardship, increasing numbers of people have found themselves in a…Read more...