Lifehacker

There was a time when streaming services could boast that they were the first to get [insert your favorite big theatrical hit], but that’s becoming increasingly rare in a time when streaming services have only grown more segmented, and also when there were no big theatrical hits last year.

Personal checks are steadily falling into disuse. They’re kind of like fax machines—outmoded, slow, with only a hardened group of people still using them even as they become less practical. Is there any good reason to still use paper checks? In some cases, yes—although you still have to be careful about identity…Read more...

Although Punxsutawney Phil predicted six more weeks of winter, spring will come faster than we think. And since it’s been a long, quarantined winter with most of us staying indoors longer than ever before, it’s likely past time we deep clean things like the air vents of our homes.Read more...

Screenshots are very useful, whether you’re taking them to send to a friend, make into a meme, paste into a Lifehacker article, or remind yourself of something later. If you take a lot of them in iOS, you’re undoubtedly familiar with the preview that pops up in the lower-left corner after you snap one. Sometimes,…Read more...

No need to cover up a smell when you can neutralize it. We’ve written in the past about how a bowl of vinegar can deodorize a room, but the same advice can be expanded to an entire house with slightly more effort: Simmering that same vinegar on the stove can maximize the reach of its odor-eating power.Read more...

When my partner and I announced to our close family and friends that we were expecting, we soon became bombarded by one specific question: “Are you excited?” (Or my personal favorite: “Is Maliq excited?”) Maliq and I had been strategically planning to start a family for the past two years; of course we were excited.…Read more...

If you live with student loans, you’ve likely been paying close attention to our government’s ongoing debates about enacting public student loan forgiveness—to the tune of $50,000, $10,000, or none at all. The context is familiar: the average American student loan debt hovers around $30,000, and was a repayment crisis…Read more...

My sisters are talented in ways that I am not. Sydney (aka “Sid”) is a comic book historian (which sounds fake but is apparently a very serious job), and Meredith (aka “Dith”) is a visual artist who makes unsettling prints of anthropomorphized animals. She’s also crafty, and good at decorating in ways that I am not.…Read more...

Men get depressed, suffer anxiety, and battle suicidal thoughts and urges, yet are far less likely than women to seek therapy. While women are more likely to consult with a therapist, men often downplay their bouts of mental anguish, and often go to extreme lengths to avoid tending to their psychological needs,…Read more...

WandaVision, the first Disney+ series exploring one of the shadowy corners of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is wrapping up early next month, but the streaming service isn’t about to let you cancel your subscription. The next Avengers spinoff, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, drops two weeks later on March 19. It’s…Read more...

You can’t plan if you don’t look ahead, which means now is an excellent time to add some important personal finance deadlines into your calendar. Here is a list of important dates potentially impacting your finances throughout the rest of 2021— including the expiration dates for COVID relief programs.Read more...

Samsung Galaxy Buds+ | $110 | AmazonRead more...

As a Black woman and nerd-content enthusiast, I sometimes struggle to find representation of blackness in mainstream fantasy and sci-fi. While I enjoy stories like His Dark Materials, Game of Thrones, and Harry Potter, and they do include characters of color, the stories are largely told from white protagonists’…Read more...

It’s hard keeping track of individual tweets. According to TechJury, the social media platform sees an average of 528,780 new tweets every minute, so all it takes is one or two refreshes for that useful tweet to be lost in the digital abyss. Sure, you can bookmark or favorite a tweet to look up later, but how often do…Read more...

Society6 is a wonderful place where independent artists can share their work with a vast audience. Finding talent and putting the spotlight on them is what they do best. It always seemed like a matter of time before they combined forces with a massively beloved franchise. That day has come. The website has just…Read more...

Whether you’re a spy or a geek, there are plenty of ways to share and receive files with others without revealing anyone’s identity. Whatever your reasons for needing this secrecy, whether as the host or the submitter, it’s easy to set up a virtual dumping ground for your data—top-secret or otherwise mundane.Read more...

There is a lot of good parenting advice out there—helpful, supportive, researched-based tips to help us raise children to grow up to be happy, healthy, kind adults. And then there is some truly awful advice, tactics that seem to make perfect sense at one time but eventually reveal themselves as the misguided notions…Read more...

Mere days after maligning potato chip mashed potatoes, I’ve logged my happy ass back on to extol the virtues of Smartfood popcorn grits. This may seem hypocritical, but there’s one key difference between the two: the grits are good, while the mashed potatoes are bad.Read more...

Razer Kishi | $58 | Amazon

You found a battery pack on Amazon, but you can’t remember who made it. It was short, started with an A? Aukey? Anker? Something like that. Well, in both cases you could be right. These two companies have frustratingly similar-sounding names, similar product lines, and are similarly known for making inexpensive…Read more...

In terms of fishy flavor enhancers, fermented Southeast Asian fish sauce is my absolute favorite. I love a tinned anchovy, especially when combined with a mess of slow-cooked garlic, but fish sauce has a deeper, more savory, almost caramelized flavor that keeps my mouth interested and engaged in whatever I put it on.…Read more...

Your average cinephile might itch with anticipation before a new blockbuster release, but unless you’ve got a legitimate critic’s platform, you’ve got slim chances of receiving that coveted screener. Luckily, it’s probably easier than ever to become something of a movie critic, provided you’ve got the necessary…Read more...

What’s Silver Sparrow? No, it’s not a Game of Thrones character—has that ship sailed?—but rather a new piece of macOS malware that runs on both Intel and M1-based Macs. That makes it the second piece of known malware for the latter, but there’s a silver lining: Researchers discovered the malicious software before it…Read more...

President Biden today announced changes to the COVID-relief business loans program aimed toward the small and minority-owned businesses left out in previous rounds of aid. The changes make it easier to qualify, and includes an exclusive 14-day window for small business owners to apply for loans, starting Wednesday.…Read more...

Do you ever find yourself watching a new-ish movie in 2021 and all you can think is whoa, no one is wearing masks! Then it registers: The movie is from two or three years ago, when the pandemic wasn’t yet a thing and no one could’ve imagined how we live now.

Cooking wine should be good enough to drink, but not so good that you feel bad dumping it into a sauce or stew. (It should not, under any circumstances, come in a bottle that says “cooking wine.”) It’s easy to find a $10 bottle that tastes good when simmered with tomatoes, garlic, and onions, but it’s harder to find…Read more...

Google is adding a built-in screen recording feature for all Chromebooks in the coming weeks. The new tool lets users capture video of their device’s screen without the need for additional apps or external hardware.

Even with the light of the vaccine on the horizon, it can be hard to keep pushing through the stress and anxiety that the pandemic has brought us. That’s why this week we’re speaking with the ever-inspiring Anne Lamott—progressive political activist, writer, and bestselling author of such books as Bird by Bird, …Read more...

Flexispot EC9 Standing Desk | $260 | Amazon | Clip CouponRead more...

A sale on Pokémon Switch games and a weighted snuggie blanket lead Monday’s best deals.Read more...

No one likes a mice infestation, but not everyone wants to hurt the furry vermin that may have infiltrated your home. Luckily, you can ward off mice without leaving their little carcasses strewn all over your floor, attic, or wherever else they might be hiding.

This week, the kids online are pouring hot wax on their faces, being outraged by Disney, disappointed by Nintendo, and learning what happens to all the dead bodies piling up from COVID-19. So everyone is basically out here having a normal one.

Want to try out the latest major feature update for Windows 10? If you don’t mind living on the wild side with a beta—something you might not want to risk if Windows applications are critical to you being able to do your job and/or function in real life—getting access to Windows 10 21H1 early is easy.

DBPower 1080p Mini LED Projector | $72 | Amazon Gold Box

Grandparents who don’t follow parents’ rules are a tradition as old as time, but polarization over pandemic safety guidelines, social unrest, and a contentious election are among the many ways that disagreements between loved ones now have more serious implications. Grandma or grandpa sneaking candy to grandkids whose…Read more...

An 18-piece Kitchen Solutions set and a FIXD vehicle diagnostic tool lead Sunday’s best deals.

Some people are blessed with the gift of being able to fall asleep anywhere. (Except in situations where “anywhere” includes places like a work meeting or the subway.) Other people are only able to drift off under a very specific set of conditions, like a made-bed with cotton sheets, the room temperature set to 68…Read more...

Fire extinguishers are one of those things that you don’t tend to think about until you need one. And when you need one, there’s a good chance that it’s an actual emergency. You don’t want to be in a situation where you’re trying to get a fire under control, reach for your fire extinguisher, try to use it, and then…Read more...

It’s been almost a year since people with office jobs were instructed to work from home until the pandemic passed. First of all, we should start by saying that to even have the ability to do so is a huge privilege: So many essential workers have continued to commute and face the public every day and don’t have the…Read more...

Nimble Set of 2 Cutting Tools & Cutting Mat | $12 | MorningSave

A 2-way remote start system and a case of Pedroncelli rosé lead Saturday’s best deals.Read more...

Situations that involve losing electricity are usually pretty stressful. That’s because you’re often not only dealing with the lack of power, but it typically happens in the context of something else, like a massive storm or natural disaster—like the extreme winter weather in Texas and many other parts of the country…Read more...

Some people put a lot of thought into buying candles. They may use words like “burn time,” “musky” and “throw” to describe how they make their selections. But even though it’s really all about the scent, it can be hard to resist candles that come in aesthetically pleasing jars—and Big Candle knows that.Read more...

Those who grew up and/or learned how to drive in a place that saw a lot of ice and snow each winter (and sometimes also the fall and spring), probably have developed some habits over the years that have helped them adapt to the unpleasant conditions. Or maybe, you just started doing something because that’s what your…Read more...

The just-released trailer for Disney’s Cruella invites audiences to witness the mad beginnings of an evil, puppy-hunting fashionista. The film promises to reveal Ms. de Vil’s humble beginnings and take us along on her journey to becoming the cutthroat opportunist we know today.Read more...

Samsung recently announced a pair of tiny, battery-powered dongles called SmartTags that will help you keep track of your important items.

Friday’s Best Deals | Kinja Deals

Old fashioneds are usually dark drinks made with brown liquors, but the basic format—booze, sugar, bitters, ice—can be applied to any high-quality spirit, even pale ones. Really good gin does not need much else—that’s why martinis are so widely-loved—but the beauty of a gin old fashioned, or any old fashioned, lies in…Read more...

The last of the $600 stimulus checks were sent out by the IRS, so you should have received yours by now. But what if your checks never arrived? And how can you claim the funds as a tax rebate? Do you have to pay taxes on your stimulus checks? Here’s what you need to know.Read more...

There’s a sneaky ploy that companies use to lure promising workers to lower paying jobs: Often, job openings that are listed as “entry-level” require the experience of a more seasoned worker. In reality, though, the pay is the only thing reflective of an actual entry-level job.