Lifehacker

Google has made it harder to use YouTube as a music player over the last few years, and it’s easy to see why. A number of the extensions and apps that allowed you to stream music from YouTube without watching videos slowly went away into the ether. At the same time, Google started pushing its YouTube Music…Read more...

Coffee can make the world go round for some people. For those of us who run on caffeinated refreshments, it’s hard to imagine summer without cold brew, fall without pumpkin spice, dessert without espresso, and of course morning without hot java. Coffee’s not all just Maxwell House and Folgers; in fact, there are a ton…Read more...

I’ve tried to learn programming languages on my own using a bunch of different apps and online classes, but TwilioQuest might be the most fun I’ve had while trying to learn code. It started out as a game-like tutorial for developers to learn Twilio’s communication APIs, but expanded beyond its premise to become a…Read more...

You might’ve been a nervous flyer pre-pandemic, but there’s no question that getting on an airplane will be far more trepidatious for everyone as air travel slowly becomes a thing people do again. Owing to the health crisis of the past several months, planes around the world have been grounded, leaving us to wonder: W…Read more...

I’ve never been able to keep up a sport or activity without having a driving, maybe obsessive, reason for doing it. I often refer to these reasons as “goals,” but every now and then I have a conversation with someone who, while similarly motivated, doesn’t think of their training as goal-oriented at all. And I…Read more...

Given the need for physical distancing, it’ll be a while before many of us feel comfortable with an in-person personal training session. But given that pandemic life is leaving many of us all a little more sedentary than normal, establishing a fitness routine is even more important—and online personal training…Read more...

I am a fan of pounded meat. Whether it’s a chicken breast that’s been thwacked into tender submission or a crispy breaded pork schnitzel, I am delighted by the flat, supple results one gets from the application of a little violence. Most people prefer to pound their meat with a dedicated meat mallet or tenderizer, but…Read more...

Wearing a protective face mask is a crappy but necessary part of life right now—and that annoyance is perhaps strongest for wearers of glasses. The mere act of breathing (something that most experts consider to be quite important) shoots hot, wet air directly upward out of the mask and onto one’s glasses, rendering…Read more...

We previously showed you a hack that unlocked custom backgrounds for your Microsoft Teams video chats—allowing you to put yourself in front of an island, a static image of a room in your house or your favorite video game. Well, you can ignore that advice now, because Microsoft has officially rolled out this feature to…Read more...

The tech industry has a lot of work to do in the fight for racial justice and equality. But while hiring black employees and other under-represented minorities in the field is crucial, there are subtler issues that need to be addressed, too. That includes reflecting on and changing the racially insensitive terminology…Read more...

When I was in high school, I had a notebook that I passed around with two friends. We’d each take turns writing in it, handing it off in the hallways between classes like one endless spiral-bound note—texting before there was texting. We’d draw pictures, we’d complain about how boring biology class was, we’d make…Read more...

Cordless vacuums may be the wave of the future, but not all of us have upgraded to the fancy cord-free model that seemingly the entire Lifehacker staff swears by. For us plebeians stuck vacuuming with a machine plugged into the wall, the one constant drawback is the cord itself.

The old maxim that bigger is better hasn’t been true in the tech world for some time—especially in the realm of photography. Cameras have gotten smaller, better and more powerful with each passing year—so much so that the mini camera rigs built into our phones are able to produce images that rival some professional…Read more...

You don’t need to sanitize your groceries, you definitely shouldn’t wash your produce in disinfectants, and I really hope you’re taking our advice to not inject bleach. It’s time to add one more thing to the list of Things I Didn’t Think I’d Have to Say: Please do not use cleaning products on your skin or any other…Read more...

Last week, two black trans women were murdered. Friday, June 12 marked the fourth anniversary of the Pulse nightclub shooting, during which 49 people were shot and killed at an LGBTQ venue in Orlando. Friday was also the day the Trump administration announced it was rolling back an Obama-era regulation providing…Read more...

When workplaces around the country closed abruptly due to the coronavirus outbreak, a lot of people had to get used to working from home fast. In a best-case scenario, your employer volunteered to cover the costs of a faster internet connection, or a desk chair for your temporary home office.

What are our rights when it comes to protesting? How do we protest safely and effectively during this pandemic? We answer these questions and more this week with help from activists L.A. Kauffman and Charlene Carruthers. L.A. is a veteran grassroots organizer with over 35 years of experience in political activism and…Read more...

I have about seven bottles of cocktail bitters on my bar cart, but I really only use two—Angostura and orange—when making cocktails. It’s not that the other flavors are bad, it’s just that I rarely want an old fashioned made with grapefruit or lavender bitters. But a lemonade is an entirely different story.Read more...

After months spent at a standstill, travelers are finally starting to move about the globe again—or at least starting to think about it. And as government offices begin to ramp up operations once again, passport services are reopening in phases. If you’re planning ahead for a trip outside the country, here’s what you…Read more...

So you adopted a dog (or cat or bird). You’ve got the food, the bed and the toys, and now you’re wondering whether pet insurance is a good investment. What if your new companion gets sick or hurt? Could pet insurance help save their lives—and protect your wallet?

New versions of macOS usually mean better performance on Apple’s latest hardware, but your experience on older Macs—especially if you’ve installed the latest macOS on an unsupported model—might be spotty.Read more...

This week Netflix is dropping a ton of new content including several original films including “Feel the Beat” the story of a woman that fails on Broadway and returns to her hometown to train a group of young dancers for competition.

If you’re one of the millions of people who have either lost their jobs during the pandemic, or have had your hours or workload reduced, you may have considered applying to be a contact tracer. If this is the case—or if you’re just curious about how the process works—you can now enroll in a free online course on…Read more...

Along with the companies that make hand sanitizer and toilet paper, puzzle manufacturers and sellers have been doing a brisk business lately. With everyone confined to their homes for the past few months, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve had more time for slower-paced activities. If your family has hopped on the…Read more...

Josh Gad is at it again. After using his time in quarantine to reunite the casts and crews of classic movies like “Lord of the Rings,” “Goonies,” “Back to the Future” and “Splash,” he’s now adding “Ghostbusters” to his “Reunited Apart” YouTube series. On Monday, June 15, 2020, at 9 a.m. PST/12 p.m. EST, key members of…Read more...

Everything in the world might be pretty terrible right now, but if nothing else, we’ll be treated to seeing Jupiter, Mars and Saturn rise every day in June 2020. Even though Jupiter and Saturn are the largest in the solar system, they’re not the brightest. But this month, both gas giants will be more visible than…Read more...

Still riding the wave of their unbelievably popular chicken sandwich released last year, Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen has managed to hold onto our attention. They’ve recently rebranded, and started offering free delivery through their app at the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, including making a donation to No Kid…Read more...

It’s time to play the music, it’s time to light the lights. It’s time to virtually attend a live Q&A with three longtime employee Muppets employees tonight. That’s right: Tonight at 7 p.m. EST, the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, New York, is livestreaming an event featuring Craig Shemin, a longtime employee of…Read more...

Some folks like to quibble about whether smartphone games are “true” video games (especially Zynga’s fare), but I’ve always felt that a game’s a game no matter where you play it. Playing games on a smartphone is no different than playing games on a console or PC in my book—and there are, right now, about 100 million…Read more...

Tax Day is coming. Did you forget? I don’t blame you. America’s worst annual holiday was moved from April 15 to July 15 back in March, and if you weren’t expecting to get a refund, you probably put the task aside.Read more...

I don’t care how many Hitman games IO Interactive cranks out, I’ll play every single one of them, even though all of them involve doing the exact same thing: poring over sprawling levels to find the perfect spots from which to execute covert assassinations. And, in my case, scrambling to finish your objectives without…Read more...

In recent weeks, police departments across the country have used so-called “sound cannons” to control and disperse crowds of protestors. Officially known as Long Range Acoustic Devices, or LRADs, these speakers are essentially sound-based weapons that allow law enforcement to broadcast high-frequency audio at a…Read more...

Forwarding ports on your router so devices can talk to the outside world is a pain in the butt, so it makes sense why a technology like UPnP sounds so convenient. This automatic process assumes that it’s safe to expose your network to the internet when internal programs request access—which is generally true, unless…Read more...

Dumbbells and kettlebells may still be hard to come by, but containers of water are widely available and nearly free. The trick is finding something that’s the right weight, without being too awkward. In this week’s installment of our improvised equipment challenge, we’ll be working out with water jugs.Read more...

What are you watching this weekend? Every afternoon since quarantine began in earnest we’ve been hunting down and highlighting the best viewing options around—and tonight we’re doing it one final time.

If you’ve ever seen a turtle crossing the road—common in the springtime and early summer—you’ll help both the turtle and drivers if you can get it safely out of the way.

A few years back, I heard someone refer to St. Germaine as “bartender’s ketchup.” That really stuck with me. The elderflower liqueur was near-ubiquitous in the late 2000s, popping up on trendy cocktail menus everywhere and dominating nearly every drink it graced. I never got wildly into St. Germaine, but I like the…Read more...

Since the very beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic—even back in January and February before things really started to get bad in the U.S.—there has been some mixed messaging when it comes to wearing masks. At Lifehacker, we’ve been fortunate that our senior health editor, Beth Skwarecki, has been on the case this whole…Read more...

You and your kids are probably not doing much air travel these days, but while we’re all mostly grounded, JetBlue has created a new video series to connect with, entertain and educate kids who have an interest in airplanes and airports.

When St. Louis-based food writer Robin Caldwell wants to order vegetables from one of her favorite restaurants, she calls before she puts in a DoorDash order. “I called the owner and I said, ‘If I give DoorDash this money, and I’m telling you I want your pork chop dinner...I want you to send me three canisters of…Read more...

One of the many ways Signal safeguards your data is by saving everything locally to your phone or tablet rather than on external servers. That’s great for privacy, but it makes it a pain to migrate your account to a new device. Thankfully, Signal now lets iOS and iPadOS users wirelessly transfer their account data…Read more...

If you order from Amazon a lot—or if you take full advantage of Prime video and Amazon Music benefits—Amazon Prime’s $119 annual fee may be a great value. But if that’s too steep a price for your shopping and streaming habits, there are a few ways to get Prime benefits for free (or cheap). Here’s how to do it.

Summer vacation is here. For many of us, it’s been with a mix of relief and dread that we kick the 2019-20 school year to the curb and enter a summer that seems to spread out endlessly before us. Hey, remember when kids used to play with each other? Like, in person?Read more...

Looking for something to watch tonight? Every afternoon we’re hunting down and highlighting the best viewing options around.Read more...

It’s been roughly three months (or 47 years...who’s counting?) since we’ve started social distancing. Despite the “distance,” many of us have found ourselves physically closer to our partners and significant others.Read more...

Disposable face masks are an efficient way of protecting yourself and others during the coronavirus pandemic—as long as you dispose of them correctly.

If you use a rewards credit card to earn toward travel, you’re probably biding your time and holding onto those points and miles until you feel comfortable packing your bags again.Read more...

Emulsifying hard cheese and pasta water into a perfectly smooth sauce is basically a graduate-level course in Pasta Thermodynamics. The pan must be hot enough to melt the cheese evenly, but not so hot that it seizes—or, in the case of pasta carbonara, you wind up with a big bowl of scrambled eggs.Read more...

Gyms in many areas are reopening, or will be soon, and a lot of us can’t freaking wait to get back to normal workouts. (I myself have a well-equipped home gym, but I dream of the day I can get back to a proper squat rack.) But let’s talk about the proper mindset to have when you first go back, so you don’t set…Read more...

If your kid is getting a tired of lockdown-based isolation, single-player gameplay and not interacting with their friends, it may be time to help them take their gaming online. To that end, I have compiled a list of my five favorite time-wasters your kid can play virtually with their pals—plus a bonus, classic pick…Read more...