Lifehacker

Hello, and welcome back to the Skillet Chili Cook-Off. After kicking off the series with a super accessible, beanless, honest Texas chili, we’re getting a little more involved with Katie P’s Instant Pot Umami Bomb Chili.Read more...

If you’re someone who gets excited about Starbucks and/or seasonal hot beverages, then you probably already know that today, the coffee chain is starting to serve this year’s crop of holiday drinks, and if you order one today you’ll get a free reusable cup. For everyone else, now you know. Here’s what to know about…Read more...

Choosing a guardian to raise your kids in the event of your death (and that of any co-parent you have) might be one of the toughest, most complicated decisions you’ll ever make as a parent. It’s also a decision we know we should make, but one that a lot of us delay, brush off, or avoid completely. None of us want to…Read more...

PlayStation Plus and an Amazon sale on board games lead Friday’s best deals.

Google is in the process of replacing the familiar icons for its many apps and web services with minimalist, multi-colored variants. While these new icons share a more cohesive style, plenty of people aren’t stoked about the redesign.Read more...

If you’re anything like me, you’re definitely not obsessing over the eventual outcome of the vote count happening in Georgia or wherever. You’re not hitting “refresh” on news sites like it’s your job, and you’re not suddenly very interested in district level congressional maps. So instead of politics, let’s talk…Read more...

There are plenty of apps you can use to make countdown widgets on iOS 14. Don’t go searching for the word “countdown” in the App Store though, you’ll just get frustrated. I’ve been toying around with one called Countdown Widget Maker, and while it’s not free—very few are—it gets the job done if you’re looking for…Read more...

Is there such a thing as having too many credit cards? With so many cards offering enticing rewards and sign-up bonuses, you may be tempted to apply for one or two or more. But how many is overdoing it?

Foam rollers aren’t magic, but they can be handy for certain pre- and post-exercise movements. Here are the two main ways to use yours.Read more...

If this week (or year, really) has taught us anything, it’s that we can’t have nice things: A functioning democracy, the ability to hug someone you don’t live with...even onions. And now, it has come for our beloved vacuum robots—yes, the Roomba. When you think about it, they’ve always seemed a little too good to be…Read more...

Thursday’s Best Deals | Kinja Deals

I think I speak for this entire website, perhaps this entire country, when I say that food is hard this week. My colleague Ashley Reese already made it clear that she was absolutely not cooking for election night, but as a single “night” has turned into days, the idea of whipping up a nice, nutritious meal seems…Read more...

One of Zoom’s best features is finally available in Google Meet: Virtual backgrounds. For now, you’ll only get it if you’re using Google Meet via a desktop browser (sorry, app users), and it’s coming online via a rollout, so you might not even able able to access it yet. The novelty of the feature is too great to let…Read more...

Whether it’s Halloween candy, election week stress eating, or that upcoming Thanksgiving dinner, we need to talk about how to react when we suddenly eat more food than normal. You don’t need to immediately burn off those calories with exercise, or somehow prove to yourself that you’ve “earned” them. Just enjoy the…Read more...

iOS 14.2 is here, and while it’s not a crazy-gigantic update for your device, there are still a few fun features worth knowing about.

Get the coffee on standby, preorders for Apple’s final two iPhone 12 models kick off Friday morning at 5 a.m. PT. Even though the iPhones on sale are the extremes of Apple’s iPhone 12 lineup—the as-chonky-as-it-is-expensive iPhone 12 Pro Max and the svelte iPhone 12 Mini—I expect at least one of them to sell well…Read more...

I remember report card time as full of both pride and frustration when I was a kid. Pride at the usual mix of As and Bs I’d earned, followed quickly by annoyance at the knowledge that a slew of my classmates were about to get actual cash from their parents for grades that often were—I’m just gonna say it—not even as…Read more...

As my allergies worsen, and fall begins to reach its peak, my throat has grown increasingly dry—to the point of incessant coughing unless I have the air conditioning on to clear out the air. The only problem is, it’s fucking frigid outside and I’d rather not couple the cold weather with a lower temperature indoors.…Read more...

The glut of unused vacation days continues to pile up as 70% of Americans have no plans to take extended vacations for the rest of the year, according to a Linkedin survey. But what happens if you don’t use them?Read more...

If you’re lactose-intolerant you might think you’ve been cursed to a life without cheese, but not all cheeses contain high levels of that problematic sugar. To see which cheeses are still your friend (and which will give you trouble), just take a peek at the nutrition label.Read more...

Joy of Cooking is an instantly recognizable, iconic cookbook. There are plenty of different editions of it to choose from, and most of us grew up seeing at least one edition of them in our mother’s or grandmother’s kitchen. If you own the latest, its editors, John Becker and Megan Scott, are the people you should be…Read more...

Scoring the phone number of someone you’re interested in feels like a major victory, and it is. But it’s also just the beginning. Once you’ve got that number in hand, you have to figure out what to actually text the person, and when, and how often. So no pressure, but your entire romantic future here could be…Read more...

It’s impossible to know what your child will grow up to “be” when they’re still little. But chances are pretty good that whatever talents, skills, or interests they pursue in the future, they’ll want a personalized website to support or promote something. They may want an online portfolio of their graphic art or their…Read more...

Le Creuset kitchenware and Apple AirPods lead Thursday’s best deals.

JBL Xtreme 2 Portable Bluetooth Speaker | $150 | Best Buy

I get it. We all want answers from the 2020 election, especially if they deliver good news for [insert your political affiliation here]. As a result, plenty of people are obsessing over every little scrap of information as it hits the internet—every glimmer of news that might point to an answer. And they’re sharing…Read more...

Growing up in Jamaica, I never realized how polarizing pumpkin was until I went to culinary school in Toronto. During a fall menu planning session, I advocated for pumpkin pie, declaring it “10 times better than apple pie.” I am still haunted by the visceral reactions my classmates had to my bold proclamation. I could…Read more...

You can finally use Android’s standard text messaging app, Google’s Messages, to schedule your texts. The long-requested feature is rolling out as a server-side update for all Google Messages users, meaning you don’t have to download anything to use it. However, the schedule option is tucked away in a buried menu, so…Read more...

You might hate your job so much that you nurse fantasies about how you’ll quit—perhaps spontaneously, standing on your desk, with a righteous speech to your manager followed by a 1980s-movie slow clap from your colleagues. As cathartic as that may seem, you shouldn’t quit without a plan, as you could lose out on…Read more...

A workout buddy is a wonderful thing to have. If they’re just a smidge stronger or faster than you, they’ll inspire you to push yourself just a little bit more. But it’s hard to find someone who’s at the exact right level of fitness and whose company you enjoy. The better solution might be to find yourself an…Read more...

Adobe usually patches its products once a month to provide new security updates, but the company has just rolled out an extra update that fixes 14 security threats facing Adobe’s desktop PDF apps (Windows and macOS). This is an important update that affects the following apps:Read more...

We may not yet know who our next president will be, but the 2020 election results have made one thing clear: Red state or blue, Americans love weed. Four states—New Jersey, South Dakota, Montana, and Arizona—voted to legalize recreational cannabis this election cycle, bringing the number of states in which it is legal…Read more...

Top Product: Lekko Dark Chocolate Spread | $5 | AmazonRead more...

As appealing as “being your own boss” may sound, in reality, working for yourself means you’re the only one responsible for facing one challenge after another—especially when you’re first starting out. Whether you own your own business or are a freelancer or independent contractor/gig worker, part of your workload…Read more...

So, you want to build a nuclear fallout shelter. You’re not alone: the civilian bomb shelter construction industry has been steadily growing to meet demand for the past decade, with past events igniting a full-on market boom, not to mention the pandemic and election.

If you’ve been longing for a Dick Tracy-like setup for using Spotify on your Apple Watch, you won’t have to wait much longer. A new update to the app will now allow you to rock out with only your smartwatch—no nearby phone needed, assuming your smartwatch has a decent wifi or cellular connection.

When making a meal at home—even a Thanksgiving meal—there are always a few things you can do to make it feel “chef-y.” Adding more butter and salt than you think is necessary, plating things in a manner that is pleasing to the eyes, and using real napkins can all help to cultivate a restaurant vibe, but I think the…Read more...

We told you not to expect results on election night, so please do not panic. A lot of things could happen today, and chances are, no matter what happens by tonight, the rest of the week is going to be pretty hectic on the national news front.

I don’t need to tell you how dark the state of the world is lately—I’m confident you know. More than ever, many of us are looking for an escape from the clamor of our anxieties, and we’re finding it via our earbuds. Despite an initial drop in podcast listenership at the start of the pandemic, it appears more and more…Read more...

Though there isn’t yet a clear winner of the presidential election, it’s hard not to look a little ahead and consider the different potential outcomes. One of these includes the possibility of approximately three months of a lame-duck presidency, if Joe Biden ends up coming out on top.Read more...

Baby Foot Exfoliating Foot Peel | $25 | AmazonRead more...

A 400GB SanDisk microSD card and Dirt 5 on PC lead Wednesday’s best deals.

Some owners of Apple’s Airpods Pro have been reporting strange issues with their earbuds’ active noise canceling (ANC) for the past few months. For some, ANC doesn’t work at all; others hear weird static or a crackling or popping noise when they use the feature.Read more...

Is it me, or has politics taken over nearly every video game with a chat component? Even with Election Day officially over (even if we don’t quite know who our next president will be), I doubt I’ve seen the last of “TRUMP 2020,” “MAGA,” or worse within World of Warcraft’s Orgrimmar (or Barrens) chat. And I’m not the…Read more...

TCL 50" 4K Smart TV | $230 | Best Buy

I am not a big turkey sandwich consumer, but a Thanksgiving sandwich is a different story. The moment you get cranberry sauce involved, I’m all about it. Whether we’re dealing with cold cuts, roasted turkey, or turkey burgers, I will devour the sandwich with gusto if it fits the theme.Read more...

With the federal eviction moratorium expiring and no stimulus checks in sight, nearly one in 10 Americans are at risk of being evicted in coming months, according to survey data by the Aspen Institute. If you’re facing eviction, you’re not alone. Here’s what you need to know.

Getting an IUD inserted can be a weird experience. A tiny, T-shaped bit of plastic and maybe metal is popped inside your uterus, and you may have pain during the insertion and cramping afterwards. (Or not—everyone is different.) One thing that’s helpful to know, though: You can exercise pretty much as soon as you feel…Read more...

If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that when things get tough, it’s important to seek out any and all forms of distraction. Luckily, children’s book author and illustrator Mo Willems has walked with us on this stress journey before, reminding us that when things get bad, one can always pick up a marker and start…Read more...

All Chrome users should install the latest browser update—version 86.0.4240.183 on PC and version 86.0.4240.185 on Android—as soon as possible. The patches stamp out several security bugs, including two zero-day vulnerabilities hackers are actively exploiting.Read more...