Lifehacker

The automatic dark mode is a great way to soothe your eyes when you’re using your iPhone or iPad late at night. But what happens when you then open a web page in Safari? A blinding white light hits you out of nowhere, that’s what, because not all websites support the dark mode. If you’re using iOS 15 or iPadOS 15,…Read more...

As you know if you’ve ever broken up with one, a toxic person’s impact on you can long outlast the time they were actually in your life. A particularly bad relationship can lead to trauma, a lack of trust in future relationships, and serious emotional scars. Toxic people can somehow still find a way to get to you,…Read more...

Whether you have a slow leak or are just looking to spruce up your kitchen, updating your old faucet can help conserve water and make your kitchen more efficient. Though handling the job yourself may seem intimidating, it’s totally doable, and it will pay dividends in the form of lower monthly bills and avoiding a…Read more...

It’s nearly impossible to keep a freezer 100% frost-free. Opening the door lets moisture in, and that moisture freezes, building up on the walls, ceiling, and floor of your ice box. You can treat the inside with special frost-prevention sprays—or cooking oil!—to keep the frost from sticking, but most people do not…Read more...

As the days get shorter and the temperatures drop, it’s time to start thinking about prepping your garden for winter. Conventional wisdom has it that tilling the soil—digging it up to loosen the structure and break up weeds, either by hand or with a power tiller—should be your first step. But does it actually help?Read more...

Wobbly furniture can lead to all sorts of minor tragedies, from sloshed drinks to scratched floors—but you can make your furniture more stable with just the use of the humble hammer, screwdriver, and drill.Read more...

If remote work has taught us anything, it’s that many of our meetings are unnecessary and overly complicated, especially if teams are spread across time zones. Unless collaboration is essential to the agenda, we can often get everything we need in just a few minutes on our own time. Slack has been working on a tool…Read more...

The funny thing about Netflix’s original streaming content: All of it basically ceases to exist roughly one week after it drops on the service.Read more...

If you, like me, have an oven with a convection setting, there’s a good chance you may not know exactly how it works, what it’s for, or how to actually use it. In conventional ovens, the heat comes from heating units placed at the top and bottom, while a convection oven has a fan and exhaust system that circulates the…Read more...

Ever tapped on a link from a Google search on your phone and found the results a little... off? Tapping the top of your screen won’t scroll you to the top, scrolling in general seems janky, and the URL bar shows “google.com” instead of the name of the site you’re trying to visit.

So you never got around to “finishing” your basement, but that doesn’t mean it should go unused. If you have a lot of space down there to enjoy, but not enough time or money for a complete overhaul, here are some tips to make it cozier, even when it’s not finished.

Safari has been revamped in many ways in iOS 15 and iPadOS 15. There’s a new tab bar, a fresh Start Page, and support for Safari extensions. Browser extensions are a huge part of the desktop browsing experience, but these remain much rarer on mobile platforms. The Safari extension ecosystem on Mac isn’t anywhere near…Read more...

In the pandemic era, it’s easy to forget about another important inoculation—the flu vaccine. While we got off lightly in 2020, health experts are suggesting that flu season could be much worse this year—even more reason to get your shot this fall. For further incentive, consider choosing a pharmacy or grocery store…Read more...

When people talk about frying fish, they are usually referring to deep frying—or at least that is what I am usually talking about. But pan frying is also a valid form of fish preparation, especially if you don’t feel like dealing with a large amount of hot oil. Not only is a vat of frying oil kind of annoying to…Read more...

Slasher movies are often seen as the lowest tier of the movie pyramid, but you should reconsider this unfairly maligned sub-genre. In an effort to change your mind, I submit these ten influential, worthwhile, and interesting slasher flicks.

Apple will happily sell you a new iPhone 13 for $800, $1,000, or even $1,100. But unless you’re desperate for a 120 Hz display or the latest and greatest smartphone camera money can buy, you might find more value in the used iPhone market. While you can find any iPhone ever made for sale online, there’s one that’s…Read more...

If you’re trying to reach new Instagram followers, hashtags are still one of your top tools in 2021. But where should your hashtags go? For years, there’s been fierce debate over where to put those pound signs: Team Caption versus Team Comment. And for years, most sources claimed there was no functional difference…Read more...

If you feed—or plan to feed—your newborn formula, you might be wondering for how long you will need to do so. When is the right time to wean them? How will you know when they’re ready? While there’s no magic “formula,” here are a few basic guidelines.

Are you switching from an older iPhone to a new one? The online backup process is usually smooth, as long as you have enough free space on iCloud or a computer to use iTunes for the backup and restoration. However, if you don’t have enough iCloud storage, you no longer need to use your computer.

Sometimes talking with our children about their school day is akin to a dentist pulling a crocodile’s teeth: It’s lengthy, it’s risky, and it doesn’t seem to benefit either party. But we know it’s important to connect with our kids about their day, to keep a pulse on any challenges in school and the quality of their…Read more...

When you’re using an app like Safari on the iPad, a single window is rarely enough. While it’s easier than ever to create new windows and window pairings on the iPad, finding windows is a different question altogether. But it’s all good—there’s a new feature in iPadOS 15 that wants to make this easier for you. It’s…Read more...

Aluminum foil is a very useful, flat, and malleable material, perfect for making impromptu roasting racks, pie crust shields, and simple food wraps (for non-acidic foods). Lining pans with foil can help speed up the cleaning process—just toss the foil in the garbage—but there is one thing in your kitchen that you…Read more...

Ah, the attic. That traditionally forgotten receptacle of luggage, tax files, old games, holiday decorations, and broken appliances you might one day fix. It is often unfinished and mostly forgotten, but there are several ways to convert it into an actual valuable, functional area of your home. You may need to finish…Read more...

The Apple Watch packs a lot of power into a small design. But for all of their speed and utility, performing certain tasks on one of them can still be painfully slow. Take updates, for example—they’re notoriously sluggish on Apple Watch. If you’re dreading how long your watchOS 8 update is going to take, you can tweak…Read more...

Most recipes that use the oven call for preheating it to a certain temperature, which can take a little while. If you, like me, are a rather absent-minded sort of cook, there will inevitably come the time when you finish prepping your dish and go to put in the oven, only to realize that you forgot to heat it ahead of…Read more...

There’s a new key modifier in town, and it’s the Globe key.

A sticky door knob might not be the most pressing update your home needs, but fixing it can improve your quality of life every day. As hardware ages, knobs can come loose or develop other problems that prevent the latch from engaging or disengaging when you turn them. Although the inner workings of a door latch can…Read more...

As of this month, there are 3,633 “official” emojis available across the world. The tiny pictographs can convey tons of emotions and ideas, but like any form of symbolic communications, their meanings change over time and among different groups of people—especially if one group is millennials and the other is Gen Z.…Read more...

Putting your phone out of reach or, heaven forbid, turning it off entirely, can be an unreasonable option for minimizing screen time. What if there’s an emergency? What if someone actually does need to get in touch with you? Fortunately, you don’t actually have to go all or nothing—an alternative is to turn on your…Read more...

If you had StubHub tickets canceled early in the pandemic, you’re now entitled to a full refund. Although the company had abruptly adopted a credit-only refund policy at the height of the pandemic, now, as the result of a settlement, they must pay you back promptly—and not change its refund policies without your…Read more...

It’s very hard to go wrong with frico, aka cheese crisps, aka a pile shredded cheese that has been fried in a pan so it feels like you’re eating something fancier than a pile of shredded cheese. It’s a pretty perfect snack, and one that I did not think could be improved upon until my friend Danielle sent me a TikTok…Read more...

Apple is good at what they do; they release something new—like, say, the iPhone 13—and instantly you think I need that. But do you?

For many of us, the space underneath the bed holds nothing more than a stack of old photo albums, a few stray socks, and a layer dust you’ve been meaning to do something about for, oh, a few years now. However, the space under your bed is actually prime storage space—especially if you live in a small home—and one that…Read more...

Raking leaves is a universally dreaded annual task, and for good reason—it’s hard, physical work that creates more hard, physical work. Once you’re done raking, you still have to find a way to get rid of all those leaves.Read more...

Safari’s iOS 15 redesign has generated controversy, if only because the initial designs were a bit too radical. However, if you can get over its placement at the bottom of the screen, the tab bar arriving today in the final build of iOS 15 is a delight to use. There are even a few gestures that can make it a lot more…Read more...

Sure, movie ghosts and masked-slashers are scary, but if you want real, uncut horror you have to go to the source: Real life. These 10 documentaries would be scary enough as fiction, but the fact that they’re real is terrifying.Read more...

As soon as the world finds out you’re pregnant, especially if it’s with your first child, you will be blasted from all sides with recommendations of “products every parent needs.” Family will ask if you have the latest nursing pillow, friends will offer to “help you scan” (that is, tell you exactly what they want you …Read more...

I am, unfortunately, an annoying banana consumer. I like them to be bright yellow and free from any hints of brown or green, though I will choose a freckle or two over a green stem if forced. (Unripe bananas have too many tannins, and those belong in wine.)Read more...

While most financial experts agree that you should set aside emergency cash totaling three to six months of your expenses, that advice can be pretty broad—especially for such a large sum of money. Here’s a look at the barebones expenses that should be included in your emergency fund, and how to know whether you should…Read more...

Trying to freshen up your iPhone’s Home Screen layout? Fortunately for you, iOS 15 makes that easy. You can now easily rearrange the order of your Home Screen pages, and even hide or delete an entire Home Screen really fast. Here’s how to quickly customize your iOS 15 Home Screens.

Microsoft recently added a passwordless sign-in option to Microsoft accounts for consumer-level Windows users, including anyone using Windows 10 Home edition and, soon, Windows 11 home edition. Prior to this change, passwordless sign-ins were exclusive to enterprise-level Windows users, but all users will now be able…Read more...

The arrival of winter, that darkest of seasons, often brings with it increased feelings of sadness, stress, and worry. And this winter will certainly give parents and kids plenty to feel stressed, sad, and worried about—it’s our second under the cloud of an out-of-control pandemic, back-to-school routines are once…Read more...

“Candied bacon” is a phrase that almost feels like a cheat code. In the early 2000s, it was ubiquitous, so much so that I almost got tired of seeing it in every menu I opened. Candied bacon made its way into French toast, cupcakes, and cocktails, where it would often distract from and obfuscate other ingredients,…Read more...

While the pandemic has been hellish in myriad ways, being able to work from home has had its perks. No commute, no Brenda from accounting unloading some long-winded drama about co-parenting her dog with her ex, and the simple joy of showing up to meetings in your comfiest PJ bottoms and slippers. But perhaps the…Read more...

Apple’s big iPhone update, iOS 15, is chock full of fun features. We’ve highlighted 36 we find particularly interesting or useful. But it’s not for everyone. If you don’t feel like adding a slew of new changes to the iPhone you’ve come to know inside and out, but want the security that comes with a new update, there’s…Read more...

On Reddit’s “Am I the Asshole?” subreddit, users with questions about the ethics and/or morality of their actions lay it out before the merciless hoard of Reddit’s rabble, asking that age-old question: “Am I the asshole here?”

Apple devices tend to retain their value, even after a brand new model is announced. So if you want to resell an iPhone or iPad, or trade in your older one for a discount on a newer model, follow these steps to make sure your info is wiped before you make the hand-off.Read more...

The housing market has been bonkers for long enough that some of us have lost all hope of ever owning a home. One possible alternative, though, is searching for a foreclosure: a property the lender has repossessed from a borrower who missed a certain number of mortgage payments and defaulted on their loan.

It’s complicated—there are a lot of rules, and it requires a lot of capital—but investing in property through an IRA can be a good way to diversify your investments, especially if you feel like you’re currently investing in too many stocks.Read more...

Not everyone is fortunate enough to live somewhere with a bathroom that has a powerful exhaust fan—or any exhaust fan at all. This means that getting out of the shower feels like you’re walking out into a steam room instead of your own bathroom.Read more...