Lifehacker

Traveling continues to slow down in a much-needed effort to flatten the curve of the coronavirus pandemic. Even though we’re at a standstill, you might need to travel or have your travel documents current and up to date. So how can you get a new or renewed passport right now?Read more...

Given all the talk about the development of a potential COVID-19 vaccine—as well as the news that clinical trials for some candidates have already begun— you may be asking yourself how clinical trials actually work. Any vaccine that is approved for use on millions of Americans must complete a rigorous testing process…Read more...

I am not a big drinker of fruit juice, unless it is mixed with gin, but my partner (who does not drink gin or anything like that) is a fan. He often buys juice for my place, drinks some of it, and leaves the rest for me to drink or ignore until he returns. This is how a carton of POG ended up in my fridge.Read more...

The pandemic is a scary and confusing time for even the most grown, rational and aware among us. Imagine how jarring it must be for toddlers, who used to go to daycare and Grandma’s house and the library and now ... everybody lives in the computer. Luckily, they still have Elmo.Read more...

If you were thinking about trying Amazon Fresh or Whole Foods Market delivery or pickup services for the first time, be aware that you might have to spend some time on a waiting list before you can use either service to shop for groceries—so you might want to put yourself on that list right now.Read more...

Microsoft’s big office communication app, Microsoft Teams, is getting a fun new feature that makes it just as wacky as Zoom. You’ll now have the power to pretend you’re on a beach, in some faraway city, on the moon, or sitting in front of your favorite meme when you’re on a video call—yes, custom backgrounds are…Read more...

It’s been just over a week since the CDC asked us to wear cloth masks. I hear from the main grocery shopper in our household that they’re suddenly popular—he estimates 60 to 80% of people are using some kind of face covering.Read more...

Weeks into the pandemic, many of us are operating in survival mode. Actions as simple as going to the grocery store or speaking to a stranger face-to-face have taken on new and ominous significance. Our anxiety levels are through the roof. This raises a concerning question for the future: Yes, this will all end…Read more...

So: you booked a vacation with Airbnb—and now, thanks to the pandemic, you’re stuck at home. Will you get your money back, and how do you go about finding out?Read more...

Now that we’re all drinking at home so much, you may have noticed that your bar cart is not as diverse as you initially thought it was. One of the main advantages of going out for drinks is that they have all the stuff required to make a wide variety of cocktails, and matching that level of variety is often outside…Read more...

Gretchen Rubin joins us this week to talk about how she and her family are staying happy in their home during the pandemic—and how we all can, too. Hear her talk about the rules, routines and philosophies that are helping her maintain a sense of inner calm despite the chaotic state of the world.

Now that the gyms are closed, people are finding ways of staying fit at home. This includes setting up a home gym. However, if you’ve been struggling to find home gym equipment, you are not alone: A fitness store in Houston reported selling a six to eight month supply of free weights in just a week, while other stores…Read more...

Engineers at Dyson want to know: Are your kids ready for a challenge? Well, maybe they weren’t before, but they’ve been home for a month now and they’re bored out of their minds. Now is a good time to try something new.Read more...

If you’ve been following the HBO drama lately—and I’m not talking about Westworld—you might have heard that owners of older model Apple TVs will lose the ability to stream HBO shows, and soon. While obsolescence is a fact of life in tech, this feels like a stupid move, because why can’t a reasonably powerful piece of…Read more...

Not going far these days, huh? If you feel like your car is sitting outside burning money, at least you’ll get a discount from your insurance company.

Chair Swings and Hammocks | $18-$80 | WootRead more...

It’s a new week which means a bunch of new content is available on Netflix.Read more...

If you’ve been using your time social distancing to work on your photography skills, then now you have a few more ways to do it.

Now that a lot of us are spending more time at home, a number of streaming services have started to offer longer free trials or access to some of their original content for free.

Now that we’re spending a lot more time at home, everyone from online streaming services to digital schools are offering longer-than-normal free trials to give people something to do while they’re at home.

A sale on the Garmin Vivoactive 4S, spend $100 to get $50 at Western Rise, The Last Jedi Steelbook, $18 Crocs sandals, and more top Easter Sunday’s best deals.

Social and physical distancing has a lot of us spending more time in front of screens and communicating with friends in different ways than we normally would, often through social media.

A dash cam, a sale of Avengers comics, Lenovo ThinkPad sales, Borderlands 3 for $20, and more lead the way for Saturday’s best deals.

The COVID-19 pandemic has many of us spending a lot more time at home, and many companies offering options for things to do while you’re there.

Willie Nelson is hosting a digital version of his popular Farm Aid festival tonight. Called “At Home With Farm Aid,” the show will include performances by members of the Farm Aid board including Dave Matthews, Neil Young, and John Mellencamp.

You might have heard there’s currently a global pandemic going on. As a result you might be using things like alcohol and disinfect wipes to clean off your stuff, including your Switch. Nintendo says don’t, at least if your priority is not damaging the system’s finish. For many, it probably isn’t.

Looking for entertainment to occupy your eyeballs this weekend?

Staying active is important for your health and mental wellbeing. We all know it, and yet in the mad scramble to juggle working from home and child care—not to mention all of the existential worries of living through a pandemic—fitness is one of those habits that is all too easy easy to let slide. This is doubly true…Read more...

Facebook is rolling out a new “Quiet Mode” feature for its iOS and Android apps, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. A lot of us are glued to our phones even more than usual right now—thanks, quarantine!—and while apps like Facebook help us stay in touch, there is such a thing as being too connected.

Among the many contemplative moments brought on by weeks of pandemic-induced isolation, you might be asking yourself whether you should get life insurance—or whether your existing policy covers death due to the coronavirus.Read more...

You’re staying at home, we hope. But when you spend so much time looking at your own four walls, it’s hard to internalize the fact that the very things you’re not doing—dropping off the kids at day care, seeing your gym buddies for a workout—are what’s truly making a difference. This little demonstration from Laval…Read more...

Know before you tweet: Twitter now sells more information about your activity on its platform to third-party advertisers regardless of which privacy options you turn on or off. Users signing onto the service were recently greeted with a push notification informing them that the company changed its privacy policy and…Read more...

If socially distancing has taught me anything, it’s that I love bars more than I love alcohol. I miss sitting in a space that I don’t pay rent on while sipping on a cold martini that I did not mix and listening to music that I did not choose. I miss surrendering control, I think.Read more...

Hi hello would you like something else to worry about on top of [broadly gestures]? Hmm yes, well your reusable grocery bag is trying to kill you, how about that for a new thing to worry about?

Earlier this month, the federal government launched the Paycheck Protection Program, which gives small-business owners the opportunity to apply for a Small Business Administration (SBA) loan designed to help businesses make payroll during the coronavirus pandemic. If the loan money is spent on certain designated…Read more...

The emails are arriving fast and furious in my inbox: Public relations folks offering up this commentary from a homeschooling expert or that homeschool curriculum to parents who now find themselves doubling as full-time teachers, navigating the new online learning world we’re living in.Read more...

There’s no such thing as a great free VPN. Or, rather, there’s only one free VPN you should trust, and that’s the one you’ve set up yourself. Otherwise, any app that promises you a free and secure VPN service is either tracking what you’re doing, sending off information about your activity to advertisers or investing…Read more...

Remember when you signed up for a new rewards credit card and got pumped to earn your signup bonus? Your plans to book a bunch of flights, pay for the gas for your daily commute, or stock up during your weekly grocery run to earn points have probably flown so far out the window you can’t even see them. Now you’ve got…Read more...

If you’ve been pondering the purchase of a Mac mini but hesitating because of the price, Apple is currently making it that much harder to resist the temptation to click the buy button: The company has finally dropped the 2018 Mac mini into its refurbished store, which means you can pick up the machine of your dreams…Read more...

This month’s theme is doing workouts that make us smile, so this week I asked you all to join me with a Richard Simmons video. If you didn’t have a chance to do it yet, just click here and give it 10 minutes. Or just do the first half.Read more...

Onions are an assertive ingredient, usually used to bring either aggressive astringency or deep, developed umami to a dish. A baked onion, however, does neither, and it still manages to be one of my favorite onions. Butter-baked onions are soft and sweet, with a brothy savoriness that reads almost like French onion…Read more...

If you’ve found your daily routine upended by physical distancing, you may be tempted to treat every moment as a staycation. It would be so easy to sleep 14 hours, eat junk food, and let your beard grow out.Read more...

In the past week, we’ve all had to mentally shift from the “you don’t need a mask, save them for the professionals” mindset to the CDC’s newest recommendation that we should, indeed, be wearing “cloth face coverings” whenever we leave the house. When a family friend sewed and sent us two masks this week (one for me…Read more...

Living in the pandemic means not knowing what the next day will bring, and not knowing how or when it will all end, and whether or not our loved ones will make it through safely. Getting through the pandemic requires cultivating resilience, which is the ability to mentally and emotionally cope with a crisis.Read more...

Whether you’re upgrading or buying a brand-new desktop or laptop, you will one day have to say goodbye to a computer you’ve used for many years. Most of you will try to extract the data from your retired system before you part with it for good. If you’re hasty—because you’re as excited to set up something newer,…Read more...

Looking for something to watch tonight?

Social distancing is crucial to reducing COVID-19's infection curve and keeping us safe, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Sure, we have things like social media, video chats, and a bevy of entertainment options available to us at any time, but it’s harder for people who lack the technological skills to figure all this…Read more...

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to develop, you might be concerned about the long-term impact any changes to your finances could have on your credit. Relief checks and delayed payment timelines are helpful, but can they ultimately hurt your credit score or history?Read more...

Easter is this very Sunday and, like most days, you’ll probably want to eat that day. You might even want that meal to feel a little special, and that’s valid. In these chaotic yet surprisingly dull times, a little specialness is required, and that specialness might as well take the form of a ham- or lamb-centric meal.

Here’s the thing about a pandemic: It’s everywhere. Everybody wants to read something reassuring. Everybody wants to say something useful. Everybody thinks their perspective matters. And most of us should just shut up so we can hear the actual experts speak.