Lifehacker

When Warner Bros. announced that Wonder Woman 1984 would forgo an exclusive theatrical engagement this winter and premier on the streaming service HBO Max even as it played in the handful of theaters that haven’t been shuttered by the raging pandemic, it marked some sort of turning point. After this, going to the…Read more...

While there’s still a long way to go towards broader representation in mainstream media, there are still great tales—both old and new—that tell holiday stories starring people of color. Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey combines a genius toy maker with adventures in Black girl magic; the heartfelt holiday comedy …Read more...

Want to be the most popular person at your next family gathering? Be the person who can explain the difference between “second cousins, once removed” and “third cousins, twice removed” and your relatives will look on you like you’re a genius, an oracle, an armchair genealogist to whom they’re proud to be bound by…Read more...

Gadgets are often a great holiday gift idea, but you don’t have to spend a bundle to give someone a great present. For $50 or less, for example, you can snag a great pair of true wireless earbuds or even a tablet, wellness accessories like a fitness band or smart scale, or home aids like color-changing smart light…Read more...

An Insignia Air Fryer and a 48-pack of AAA batteries lead Friday’s best deals.

If you’ve been trying to find one of this year’s hot holiday gift items, you’ve likely encountered the dreaded “sold out” pages involving dogs wearing antlers. Luckily, online shopping has progressed well beyond the days of parents literally fighting for a Tickle Me Elmo.Read more...

Elf. It’s a Wonderful Life. The Santa Clause. Home Alone. These are the holiday flicks we turn to, year after year, for seasonal family viewing. But this year especially, we’ve been watching more TV than we’ve ever watched before, so much that, perhaps, we’re getting right sick of the dumb thing. We need something…Read more...

Microsoft recently dropped a new collection of MS Paint-themed virtual backgrounds on the Xbox Gear store that you can use in Microsoft Teams, Skype, or any other video conferencing app. They’re perfect complements to any garish garb you’re planning to don for (virtual) holiday parties this year.

Whether you make your hot chocolate from cocoa powder, a store-bought mix, or a fancy piece of fancy chocolate, you will—at some point—need to stir it. Most people reach for a spoon, and clever folks reach for a fork, but during the holiday season you should grab a peppermint stick or candy cane.Read more...

A car is basically a gigantic computer with wheels—or, at least, that’s how I like to think of them. Which always ends up frustrating me, because I have absolutely no reservations messing around with my desktop PC, upgrading it with new gear, and generally tricking it out to make it awesome. My car, however, feels…Read more...

Top Product: Lively Root Holiday Wreath | $66 | Amazon | Clip CouponRead more...

Visa has partnered with cryptocurrency startup BlockFi to offer the first rewards credit card that pays out in Bitcoin rather than cash, but is it worth applying for? Unless you’re extremely bullish on cryptocurrency and don’t mind getting seriously dinged for an annual fee, it might be more of a novelty card with…Read more...

If you’ve been exposed to someone with COVID-19, the standard advice is that you should quarantine for 14 days and see if you develop symptoms. But the CDC has now updated its protocols to allow for a 10-day or, in some cases, a 7-day quarantine period.Read more...

Hulu’s Watch Party feature is now available to all subscribers. The feature originally debuted back in May for subscribers on Hulu’s premium ad-free plan, but is now a standard inclusion for all Hulu plans—including standalone, ad-supported subscriptions and for ad-free users and those with the Disney+/ESPN Now/Hulu…Read more...

Thursday’s Best Deals | Kinja Deals

You know what people like eating? Cheese. You know what people like eating during the holidays? Fancy cheese. “Fancy,” however, lies mostly in the presentation. Lots of herbs, for example, always make things look and taste fancy; little crunchy bits can have a similar effect. It follows, then, that the easiest way to…Read more...

Preference in wine can speak volumes about a person’s taste across the board. Do you love grilling red meat over an open flame, followed by a robust pull from a cigar? Is your yearning for pristine beach weather and briney oysters a year-round obsession? These hankerings call for different wine pairings—which alone…Read more...

Ready for more Windows 10 features? Microsoft is now testing out a new “feature experience” program that’ll slap tiny little extras into Windows 10 outside of the regular gigantic-update-that-might-break-your-computer cadence. In other words, it’s a way for Microsoft to give you new toys to play with, beyond the…Read more...

Because I foolishly chose to use Amazon Music with my Alexa smart speaker (because it’s cheaper, and certainly not because it is better), I can only look on in envy as my friends share their their annual “Spotify Wrapped” recaps, which offer a whole bunch of interesting data on the songs they listened to across the…Read more...

Over the past few weeks, we asked our readers what the next monitors were for next-generation consoles. We wanted to know what people were using to play their Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 consoles, so they could better take advantage of each system’s 4K ready capabilities and 120Hz refresh rate support. What we…Read more...

The era of emotional support squirrel on flights is over, as the Department of Transportation (DOT) ruled Wednesday that only dogs can be defined as service animals. Other animal companions used for emotional support will either have to be checked into the cargo hold or left at home.Read more...

You don’t need a big, heavy, puffy coat to stay warm and toasty in cold weather. While that coat is great if you have one, layering thinner articles of clothing can keep you warm, too—and as a bonus, layering gives you more flexibility in situations where the weather may be unpredictable. So here’s how to layer up for…Read more...

President-elect Joe Biden has an unprecedented opportunity to walk the U.S.—and perhaps the world—back from the brink on climate change. After four years of harmful deregulation, his work is cut out for him.Read more...

As a pale, skin-cancer prone communist with a penchant for arguing about labor issues in bars, there is not a whole lot I miss about living in Florida. I do not miss the beaches. I do not miss the sun. I do not miss the bugs. I do, however, miss Bern’s Steakhouse, an opulent, decidedly old school establishment …Read more...

Traveling with your dog can eliminate the stress of kennels or paying someone to dog sit, and as more people are opting for long drives instead of flying, there are few things worth considering when bringing your dog along for the ride. I spoke with Gabriel Riesco, founder of Pawmos Pet Care, on how to prepare your…Read more...

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and an infrared thermometer lead Thursday’s best deals.

Go to any parenting website and you will find list after list of potential baby names, including—but not limited to!—lists for families who “like to rock,” top 100 lists, and lists of names that are “rarely used but beautiful.” This is not that. Instead of listing names for you, I’m going to take you on a journey that…Read more...

A big thank-you to Apple for exhibiting a bit of restraint with its “best apps of 2020" list; wading through a mere 15 of the best or trendy apps for iPhone and iPad is a lot easier than dealing with Google’s more-comprehensive list of 40 apps for Android. I’m not even sure I have 40 apps on my phone, period.

It truly is the stuff of nightmares: faced with an away-toilet situation in someone else’s home, you do your business, flush... and nothing happens. Or worse, you flush and the toilet water (and its contents) slowly starts rising like super-gross flood waters. That alone is anxiety-inducing—but then you do a quick…Read more...

How many Instagram followers do you need to become a full-time influencer? You can make money off a few thousand followers, but it will depend on a few other things as well—including what your account is about, and your ability to not annoy people by trying to sell products all the time.Read more...

Wednesday’s Best Deals | Kinja Deals

Ovens tend to get a lot of use during the holidays, and between drips, drops, and turkey basting spills, they can get fairly dirty. And they may not get cleaned very often—in a survey by the American Cleaning Institute, 69% of participants agreed there are areas of the home they do not clean, but should, and I would…Read more...

The popularity of Zoom—the world’s number one most-downloaded app in 2020—has made it a target for phishing attacks, and the Better Business Bureau is now warning users to avoid sketchy meeting invites that could actually infect your system with malware. Here’s what you need to know.Read more...

Introduced in 2007 amid the heady, early days of the internet’s fixation with salty, cured meats (and with a name that presages the “hello, fellow kids!” tone that would come to define its Twitter feed), Wendy’s Baconator has somehow managed to endure for more than a decade despite the push for healthier fast food…Read more...

You might spend hours staring at your phone, waiting for a reply to a text. Maybe they talk over you in a group of friends or in a group chat. Or perhaps their attention seems to drift, their gaze averted, whenever you talk.

Setting reasonable rules and boundaries, which you then enforce consistently, is the cornerstone of good parenting. On the other hand, life is tedious right now. It’s all dark and dreary and distanced, and we could use a little fun. Which is why it might be time to bend your own rules a bit.Read more...

Shipping treats to family and friends is one tradition that’s probably getting more play than usual this year. Cookies are the go-to, but fudge is an equally delicious confection with a dense, brick-like nature that makes it just a little easier to ship. There are, of course, some rules.Read more...

Over the long arc of one’s career, one eventually realizes there’s no single formula to attain professional success, financial stability, and personal contentment. At least in the United States, the road to middle-class comfort no longer follows the linear roadmap that it used to: Student debt has reached a crippling…Read more...

Several new features are showing up in the Google Maps app that could make finding stuff to do—and finding your way there—much easier.Read more...

It’s that time of year again: Spotify is here to tease you remind you about your musical habits over the past many months. Most people should have a pretty good idea of what albums and songs they binged this year. For a friendly reminder, all you need to do is pull up your brand-new Spotify annual report for 2020, but…Read more...

Entertainment has become an important part of pandemic life, and binging television shows has been a key component to getting through the hard times. Miniseries like Michaela Coel’s I May Destroy You moved audiences by exploring addictions, trauma, and the difficulties of self care; documentary series like Cheer…Read more...

Apple’s new MacBooks and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate lead Wednesday’s best deals.

It can be alarming to look at your comb or the shower drain cover and see a clump of hair. Not only could it clog your pipes, it can cause you to worry that it’s a sign of serious hair loss. But chances are what you’re seeing isn’t anything to be concerned about—and if you want to be sure, there are easy ways to check…Read more...

Want custom backgrounds for your many WhatsApp conversations? That might sound like clutter, but adding wallpapers to your chats gives you a great visual reminder of which group you’re talking to. And, of course, it livens up WhatsApp from the drab (but delightful) grays you might otherwise enjoy.Read more...

There are two types of people in this world: People who would be put off by the question “Ever drink Bailey’s out of a shoe?” and people who watched The Mighty Boosh in their early 20s. If you’re not familiar with pre-Great British Bake Off Noel Fielding, all you need to know is that Bailey’s Irish Cream liqueur plays…Read more...

Don’t fall for the fake drive-through coronavirus testing sites that have been cropping up in recent weeks. Yes, that’s right—according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), scammers are dressing up like medical professionals and conducting fake, unsanitary tests for money and identity theft, while possibly spreading…Read more...

The latest Nintendo Switch software update, version 11.0.0, makes it much easier to transfer screenshots and gameplay videos to your smartphone or PC. The new methods are miles better than the unintuitive post-to-social-media-then-delete workaround we’ve been forced to use since the console’s launch, or the similarly…Read more...

Tuesday’s Best Deals | Kinja Deals

As we finish up the unforgettable year that is 2020, you’re going to see everyone start reminiscing about the various geeky distractions they enjoyed during what was otherwise an anxiety-filled year. Google is one of the first ones out of the gate with its list of the best Android apps and games, noteworthy additions…Read more...

It’s not easy to bring your relationship back to equilibrium after a major fight. Even if you and your partner have come to an agreement, the arguing can really put a damper on things. It might take some time to restore the romance and affection.