Lifehacker

It may be something you’ve never really thought too much about: You walk into the store to buy your white child a doll and you reach for the palest version (which is often also the only version). In fact, there’s a good chance that if your child is white, the vast majority of their toys resemble them in skin tone.Read more...

We’re not even a full week into January, but chances are there’s somebody on your timeline with a new year’s resolution they just won’t shut up about. Don’t unfriend them—they’ll be back to normal in a month or so. The 30-day mute was made for this.

I don’t know how you can get through a holiday season without Home Alone, but that’s just me. And The Sandlot? I’d make my kid watch that six times a day to make them relive all the times my parents made me play in the local baseball leagues as a child. And Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides? Let’s all take a…Read more...

When Amazon packages started showing up on Chris’s* Connecticut doorstep last fall, he and his wife both assumed the other was buying Christmas presents for the other. But the contents of the packages looked nothing like gifts either of them would want to receive. “I opened a few boxes addressed to me and found a few…Read more...

It’s a lukewarm broth of offerings on Netflix this week, a wintry mix of possibly amusing Netflix Originals that have cult potential but are—let’s face it—more likely to just pass the time than change your life.

If one of your 2020 goals is to work on more productive habits and increase your own happiness in life, Yale might be able to help you get there.

The Consumer Electronics Show officially kicks off in Las Vegas Tuesday; however, Monday a number of large companies will be having press conferences to show off some of their largest announcements for the show.

Last year I traveled more than 150,000 miles on airplanes. I also packed a lot of suitcases, carry-on bags, and book bags in anticipation of those trips, occasionally hours or sometimes minutes before I headed to the airport.

We all have that one word (or thousand) that no matter how hard we try we can’t remember how to spell correctly. If you have an Amazon Alexa device in your home then the virtual assistant can help you figure it out.

The Golden Globes are Sunday. The annual awards show works as a predictor for the Oscars later this year and can be a great opportunity to do a little star watching while you’re getting ideas for movies you should probably add to your watch list pre-Oscars time.

2020 marks the beginning of a new year, which means you probably at least did a little reflection on the past year (and possibly the last 10) over the past week, and made a few resolutions for the new year moving forward. FutureMe is a tool that allows you to send yourself a note in the future to remind you of all…Read more...

MAZ-TEK Plug-In LED Night Light, 2-Pack | $10 | Amazon | Clip the 25% off couponRead more...

So you’ve found a new gym and it’s, dare I say, beautiful. There’s new equipment, spotless locker rooms, and actual space to sprawl out without bumping into the lifter beside you. But of course, there’s always a catch.

Even if I don’t remember much of the ‘90s, I sure remember all that old ‘90s tech, especially the classic look and feel of older Windows operating systems. So when I saw Android Central’s post about the free-to-play Android game Progressbar95, I knew I had to give it a shot.

As expected, Samsung is planning to launch budget-friendly versions of its flagship Galaxy S10 and Galaxy Note 10 smartphones. The “Lite” versions of these phones have no price or release date yet, but we already know quite a bit about their specs—and are sure to hear more as we head into CES next week. Until then,…Read more...

The Quadrantids meteor shower, the first meteor shower of 2020, peaks tonight through this weekend.

Coming up with a new cocktail every week is a fun challenge but, after over 125 installments of this column, it has gotten more a bit more challenging. Sometimes I ask my brilliant bartender friends for direction, but sometimes I simply stare at the various bottles on my bar cart, willing a new recipe to take shape.…Read more...

When my son was little, we used to play a game I liked to call “Tuck Mommy in for a Nap.” It kept him busy, helped him to practice his nurturing skills, and I got to lie down for a while. I know I’m not alone; parents of little children everywhere are trying to figure out how to parent while lying down. And one dad…Read more...

In the early days of smartphones, you probably didn’t dare walk out of the AT&T or Verizon store without a screen protector and case already installed on your very delicate (and very expensive) device. A fall to the floor or any jostling in your purse would leave you with shattered or scratched glass, which would cost…Read more...

Apple is selling a wide selection of 4K films for between $5 and $10 on iTunes. That’s up to 50 percent off for some of these titles, including recent releases like Ad Astra, so we don’t expect the discounts to stick around for very long.

Taking some time away from your many electronic devices can provide a much needed reset. But sometimes coming back can feel even worse than not having that break at all. In particular, I’m talking about your inbox.

Aukey 18W USB-C Power Delivery Charger | $10 | Amazon | Clip the coupon and use the promo code LRJRHYGORead more...

If you can’t decide whether it’s time to quit a job, end a relationship, bow out of a social organization, or simply say goodbye to something in your life that might be kinda okay but not great, ask yourself three questions:Read more...

A big ol’ pot of beans, simmered in a flavorful liquid, is a pretty solid building block for any sort of meal plan. Beans are filling and cheap, but no matter how much you like a particular legume, bean fatigue can start to set in after your third bowl. But there’s a very easy way to spruce up your next bowl of…Read more...

It’s never fun to lose your phone, but it can get worse. While Androids and iPhones have plenty of protections you can use to lock or otherwise find your device when you’ve misplaced it, or when someone has swiped it, these do you little good if you can’t even log into your online account to activate them.Read more...

Maybe it starts with the song that was playing when your baby was born. Or the one that would always put them to sleep. The first song they really danced to, their little toddler butt bouncing to the groove, in that jerky way that all toddlers dance.Read more...

Eufy RoboVac 30C and Eufy Smart Scale Bundle | $192 | Amazon | Clip the $100 coupon code and use the promo code SMARTEUFY at checkout

If you went home for the holidays and visited a local gym to break a sweat, you probably know by now that not all gyms are created equal. Some are shitty by nature, filled with old, rusty weights and uneven flooring. But even at a perfectly new and well-equipped gym, things can sometimes just feel different, and…Read more...

As Jalopnik’s resident car buying expert and professional car shopper, I get emails. Lots of emails. I’ve decided to pick a few questions and try to help out. This week we are discussing, deals on manual transmission models, a new car that has issues and thoughts on a cheap but fast BMW.Read more...

Do you feel trapped under your debt? You’re far from alone: The average adult in the U.S. has almost $30,000 in debt. Conquering your debt mountain can feel impossible at first, but with some planning, you can start taking action to become debt free.

Say what you will about the last six-ish Star Wars movies or so, but there’s no denying that zooming through hyperspace to reach distant planets is one of the coolest visuals in the entire series. Now, unless 2020 gets real weird, chances are humanity won’t be making any near-lightspeed journeys anytime soon. But…Read more...

Filling our kids’ bookshelves with diverse characters, storylines and family structures is something many parents would love to do. Being able to actually find a wide selection of high-quality inclusive books, though, is easier said than done.

If you’re planning to travel in 2020, the cost of that travel is likely a pretty important consideration. One of the biggest costs when it comes to getting away is airfare. Kayak recently analyzed historic flight prices to come up with the best places to visit each month of 2020 in terms of flight savings.

A coalition of 207 members of Congress on Thursday filed an amicus brief to the Supreme Court asking it to “reconsider” two landmark abortion cases—Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood of Se. PA v. Casey—in an apparent effort to crush reproductive rights at the federal level. The brief, which is hinged on battle over a…Read more...

If you take sugar in your coffee, factors such as solubility (and kinetic energy) would suggest you should add it before any sort of cold dairy is involved. But even if you’re enjoying an espresso-based beverage made with steamed milk, you’ll end up with a better drink if you add any sweetener before that milk is…Read more...

As of Thursday morning, ongoing bushfires have continued to devastate Australia. At least 15 people have died, 17 are missing, and roughly ten million acres and one thousand homes have been destroyed in New South Wales, one of the hardest-hit states; it’s estimated at least 12 million acres have been burned…Read more...

You can tell it’s January from all the gym selfies, fitness tracker screenshots, and overly-enthusiastic photos of carb-less meals filling your social media feeds. While you may have decided to put your concentration elsewhere instead of your daily step count, your phone has a different idea.Read more...

Vanness 3-Pound Auto Feeder | $3 | AmazonRead more...

The start of the new year is as great a time as any to take a quick tour through your iPhone’s settings and make sure you’ve customized its Emergency SOS feature to your liking. Heck, you should really take a few minutes and memorize—really memorize—how this feature works. I hope you don’t ever need it in 2020, but…Read more...

When you’re deep in debt, you can find yourself feeling guilty, sad, or downright hopeless. Whether it’s a few hundred dollars or a few thousand, feeling like you’re not in control of your finances can weigh on you to the point of inaction. But spending your evenings face-down on the couch doesn’t help you get out of…Read more...

If you book a basic economy ticket for a flight, you’re left with whatever crappy seats the airline wants to give you, whether it’s at the back of the plane or just a middle seat in a row that won’t recline. When you see row after row of empty first-class or business-class seats as you board, you might think to…Read more...

If you’re still thinking about your New Year’s Resolutions, here’s one suggestion that can benefit not only your own life, but also the state of our planet: do less.Read more...

A weird issue has been plaguing some Pixel owners, and Google has yet to drop a fix for the peculiar problem. Apparently, some people running the December 2019 security update—if you even have the ability to download it, which you might not—are noticing that various app icons on their Pixel devices are disappearing.Read more...

The pacifier is a wonderful thing. It helps our littlest ones soothe themselves to sleep when nothing else will quite do the trick. Eventually, though, you want them to be able to self-soothe. They grow from babies into toddlers and you pine for one picture without the binky in the mouth. And as tooth after tooth…Read more...

As we brace ourselves to kick off the new year, let’s do a no-spend challenge this January. If you’ve been reading Two Cents for a while, you might be thinking, “Lady, we did this last year. Catch up.” I know! That’s why I want to do it all over again.Read more...

I am a proven fan of butter, but I have not been using it to it fullest potential. It’s an obvious toast topper and cooking fat, but it’s also a pretty fantastic (and criminally underrated) sandwich spread.Read more...

TriggerPoint Gold Box | AmazonRead more...

If your New Year’s Eve adventures left you with a few open bottles of wine, you might want to throw those bottles in the fridge—even the red bottles.

The 106th Rose Bowl kicks off tonight at 5pm ET/2pm PT. This year’s New Year’s game is featuring the Oregon Ducks vs. the Wisconsin Badgers. The game is happening in Pasadena, California and is being broadcast on ESPN.Read more...

It’s New Year’s Day, which means a lot of the stores, restaurants, and businesses you typically frequent will be closed.Read more...