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Physical distancing has put an end to most of our usual activities. For runners, that includes the cancelation of any upcoming races. Luckily, there are alternatives that can get your heart rate up and spark your competitive side while you’re staying safe and healthy.Read more...

Apple added external mouse support for the iPad when it rolled out iPadOS last year, but as of the iPadOS 13.4 update, users can now customize the look and behavior of the iPad UI’s cursor. Using a mouse or trackpad to control your iPad might seem unnecessary given that it’s a touchscreen device, but it’s helpful if…Read more...

When I first heard I would be spending all this time at home, I envisioned nightly cocktail hours in the bath, lots of reading, and a sparkling clean apartment. But in what scientists are calling “predictable,” none of that has really come to pass.Read more...

In today’s edition of Tech 911—Lifehacker’s tech-support column that’s been focusing on your working-from-home questions all week—we’re tackling an old favorite: Microsoft Windows. Specifically, what happens when Windows starts tossing up annoying error messages each and every time you try to launch the operating…Read more...

I’ve been interested in the financial independence movement, often dubbed FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early), for a while. Probably since 2004, when I found an old copy of Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez’s Your Money or Your Life at the public library. As I’ve written many times before, YMOYL was the book that…Read more...

If you’re out of work due to the coronavirus, the relief bill passed in the Senate last night (and expected to soon pass in the House of Representatives) will offer expanded unemployment benefits.Read more...

Trying to get through the day—day after day—with the whole family in the same space and maintaining a positive attitude is going to be ... a challenge. It probably already is. But one key for keeping one’s composure is to start the day on the right note. And one member of our Offspring Facebook group has a hack for…Read more...

The notorious Windows malware Astaroth (aptly named after a demon baron of Hell found in occult cosmology) is back at it after several months of inactivity. Microsoft exposed its tactics last year, but the annoying malware is even harder to catch this time around—thanks to the clever methods it uses to conceal itself…Read more...

If there are a lot of cases of COVID-19 in your city—which is pretty much everybody’s city at this point—you may feel tempted to visit rural relatives or take an impromptu vacation somewhere secluded. That’s actually a terrible idea, and here’s why.Read more...

My freezer is an inefficient piece of garbage, and any steak, chop, or chicken thigh I freeze ends up enrobed with a layer of frost. The meat is technically edible, but it does not taste that good. This is why I’ve had a single frosty pork chop hanging out next to a bag of frozen corn for months now.Read more...

For the past several days, I’ve been experiencing periods of shortness of breath, fatigue and general soreness. On any normal occasion, I’d dismiss this as part of my generalized anxiety disorder. But now, in our current hellscape, where the symptoms of COVID-19—shortness of breath, in particular—have been drilled…Read more...

Once again, a batch of Android apps managed to make their way onto the Google Play Store and infect more than one million devices with malware. I don’t mean to be glib about it; it’s a problem, and it’s happening with enough frequency, and affecting enough people, that it feels almost kind of commonplace at this…Read more...

Rhiannon Ragland has never been particularly interested in building her own social media presence. But as the mom of a teenager, she adheres to parental best practices—she follows her daughter Brenna’s accounts, pays attention to what she posts, and has talked with her about sharing information responsibly.Read more...

Now that many of us are (checks watch) a week and a half into physical distancing—i.e., cooped up in the house with the kids—it’s time for a welfare check. How’s everyone’s academic scheduling going? Have you morphed into a homeschool-teacher extraordinaire yet? Or have your kids been playing video games nonstop for…Read more...

After much debate, the Senate has passed a bill that will send relief checks to most Americans. The checks are part of a $2 trillion relief package aimed to buoy the economy through the coronavirus pandemic.Read more...

Many of us are stuck inside, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be good neighbors and help each other out. Nextdoor recently launched a new “Help Map” feature that lets users volunteer to take on extra chores and other helpful activities for those around them. This feature could make a huge difference for elderly…Read more...

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Now that we’re all spending a lot of time at home, we’ve started rounding up some of the best things to do while you’re there.

Making a DIY disinfectant is as simple as mixing bleach (or alcohol) with a little water—but for safety reasons, the order in which you mix them matters more than you might think. As you’re mixing up your next batch of coronavirus-busting spray, let the first commandment of Chem 101 labs be your guiding principle: “Do…Read more...

I love working from home hahaha I love it so much. No, that’s not the Stockholm syndrome talking, this is how I feel—really. I love working from home and I hate being around people during the day. The isolation doesn’t stifle my productivity! Not one bit!

Day Three of Tech 911 here-to-answer-your-questions week, and I’m barreling through reader comments as if it were my job. Which it is. It is my job, and I love helping out as best I can. Remember, if you have a question about the tech of working from home, because you’re having some wonky computer or smartphone issue…Read more...

Apple Card has a new privacy policy that impacts current customers along with people who have not yet applied for the credit card. The changes are expected to make it easier for Apple’s banking partner, Goldman Sachs, to decide which potential customers are creditworthy.Read more...

If you can’t look away from the climbing case counts, look here. A visualization site called 91-DIVOC provides graphs of the epidemic curve, comparing countries, and allowing you to see them on either a linear or logarithmic scale.Read more...

Hey Lifehacker peeps! I am Lifehacker’s newest staff writer, and I’ll be covering travel. I can’t wait to bring you tips that I can guarantee are usable because, well, I’ve used them.Read more...

If you’re prepping your stay-at-home calendar with things to watch in April, HBO Now is adding a lot of new movies that will help you quickly fill it up.

Loved our last at-home workout but want to make use of those dumbbells you snagged before the pandemic? Here are five more moves that will work with whatever weights you have at home. Water bottles or soup cans are better than nothing, but if you have a pair of real weights, you’re golden.Read more...

The Department of Education has announced that it will stop the collections process for federal student loans in default, including wage garnishment actions, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Now that gyms are closed, and we all need to maintain a physical distance of six feet from others, this means adjusting our workouts. As it turns out, there are a lot of techniques which can be adapted from boxing workouts.Read more...

Yesterday’s release of Safari 13.1 introduces stricter third-party cookie blocking features that prevents websites from identifying Safari users and tracking their web activity. This means Apple’s default web browser is now the best choice for stopping third-party trackers, and the first browser—beating Chrome to the…Read more...

If the coronavirus outbreak has got you asking yourself whether it’s finally time to make a will, you’re not alone. (It’s that combination of “time on your hands” and “time to think seriously about what might happen to your loved ones in a worst-case scenario” thing.)Read more...

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One might be tempted to think, based on recent news stories, that a COVID-19 vaccine will be available soon. Unfortunately, that is not the case. The consensus from experts is that we are looking at a period of 12 to 18 months before a vaccine is widely available.Read more...

Right now, you and your family are on your own little Gilligan’s Island. It was supposed to be a three-hour tour, but thanks to COVID-19, you and your crew will be stranded for at least a few more weeks. Just like the merry castaways, you are probably feeling pretty isolated and disconnected from the rest of the…Read more...

Ubisoft’s gorgeous platformer, Child of Light, was a pretty big hit back in 2014. We’ve all aged a bit since then, but the game hasn’t—and now, you can get a free copy from Ubisoft for just a couple of mouse clicks. Who doesn’t like free games?Read more...

When Chase debuted the Sapphire Reserve credit card in 2016, travel rewards hackers jumped at the chance to take advantage of its points-earning potential and generous perks.Read more...

Just like isopropyl alcohol and Clorox wipes, the coronavirus pandemic has turned oral thermometers into an impossibly hot commodity. If you’ve been unable to track one down to take your temperature, the solution might already be in your kitchen—as it turns out, meat thermometers work as well on human mouths as they…Read more...

Co-parenting with an ex-partner can be trying in the most normal of times; co-parenting when the very transfer of your kids can mean exposure for them—or you—to the coronavirus is a whole new level of challenging.Read more...

Now that we’re all spending a lot more time at home, there’s starting to be a lot more content to watch while you’re there.

We undoubtedly have far more cases of COVID-19 in the US than testing has revealed, but testing is still an important way to begin getting a handle on how far this outbreak has spread. An online tool called the Covid Tracking Project has collected each state’s testing data if you’d like to keep tabs on how that’s…Read more...

Scallions are an extremely useful, versatile allium. If you like to cook with scallions (aka green onions), but are worried about running out, you can keep the white ends in a glass of water where they will regrow into new, delicious scallions.Read more...

Animal Crossing: New Horizons can be a little lonely, but you can always get together with your friends. If your friends aren’t quite as far along in the game as you, there are lots of ways to help them pay off their house loans and start laying out the island of their dreams.Read more...

Now that many of us lucky enough to be working are working from home and hosting our meetings virtually, we’re hyper-focused on making video conference calls less terrible, starting with making sure we look good on camera.

If you’re starting to run low on new stuff to stream, good news: A lot more is on the way to Hulu in April.

It’s day two of Tech 911—the working-from-home edition—and I’m back to tackle even more of your tricky troubleshooting. Remember, if you’re having any issues with your work-from-home setup, I encourage you to leave a comment to this post (or this post!), or shoot me an email. I’ll try to answer your questions as best…Read more...

President Donald Trump said on Monday that the deadline for getting a Real ID will be delayed to keep people from crowding around department of motor vehicle offices.Read more...

T-Mobile is offering customers a few two-month trial of YouTube Premium. The deal is part of T-Mobile’s “T-Mobile Tuesdays” program. Starting today, you have until April 21st to save the offer to your account. It must be redeemed by May 1.

They think they’re hungry; you know they’re bored. It’s the child-vs.-parent argument as old as time, and with everything else in our lives going to hell in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, none of us really wants to get into a snack battle of wills. But in recent days, two very smart parents may have come up…Read more...

Whether or not you’re feeling sick, staying home is the best thing you can do to stem the spread of COVID-19—which makes seeking medical care a complicated proposal right now. Thankfully, it just got easier for healthcare providers everywhere to offer their patients virtual visits, so you can see a doctor without…Read more...

As the coronavirus pandemic develops, many cities and states have paused rental evictions and utility shutoffs. But with so much pandemic-related news everywhere you look, it can be hard to find this information without getting distracted.Read more...