Lifehacker

If you’re not a fan of fireworks (or the ones in your area have been cancelled), there’s something going on in the night sky on the 4th of July: a penumbral lunar eclipse. No, it’s not as flashy or loud as fireworks, but it probably also won’t cause your dog to shake and hide under the couch. Here’s how to watch the…Read more...

I cannot imagine anyone is feeling very patriotic right now. If there is one thing that we can all agree on, it’s that things suck really bad in the USA, and celebrating America feels tone deaf at best. I never feel particularly patriotic, but I’m not going to let that stop me from drinking over the long weekend.…Read more...

Kids are missing out on lots of conventional social interactions with their friends right now, but we’re also getting pretty good at figuring out pandemic variations on the classics. “It’s Better Than Nothing” should be everyone’s mantra by now, which is why I’m going to recommend that you let your kids have video…Read more...

You should be washing all your fruits and vegetables, even the ones you plan to peel before eating. Besides dirt from the field, there can also be bacteria and pesticide or other chemical residues. So as you’re packing your picnic basket, give your produce a rinse.Read more...

If you’ve ever signed in to a third-party app or website using your Facebook account, you should take a moment and update a few security settings.

It’s summer, so you probably want to take advantage of having access to fresh watermelon now that it’s in season. But how can you tell which melon is the ripest and sweetest, and which ones you should leave in the grocery store? Here are three steps to picking the perfect watermelon, courtesy of Texas A&M Agrilife.

Along with knitting, puzzles and baking, gardening has become another popular pandemic pastime. The sale of seeds has skyrocketed, and regardless of whether people have a giant backyard or a tiny fire escape in the city, they’ve been getting into the weeds (mostly to pull them).Read more...

In case you missed it, Wendy’s started serving breakfast back in March. (You may have been distracted by the beginning of the global pandemic). On the surface, this doesn’t seem like something that would succeed—after all, with so many people working from home, it probably means fewer drive-thru breakfasts. Well, it…Read more...

I try not to move if I can avoid it, which is why I’ve stayed in the ultra-expensive Silicon Valley—while working remotely for Lifehacker—instead of living like a king in an affordable, smaller town somewhere. When I do move, I take particular care of my desktop PC, because I have a lot of expensive stuff that I don’t…Read more...

Sega Genesis Mini | $40 | AmazonRead more...

2-Pack: Bright Basics Motion Activated Light Bar | $15 | MehRead more...

Does your voice assistant often seem a little too eager to chime in? A recent study by Ruhr University Bochum and Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy found over 1,000 words and phrases that Alexa, Siri and Google Assistant frequently misidentified as activation commands (also known as “wake words”). Here are…Read more...

As the United States’ post-pandemic reopening plans increasingly look like a bad on-again-off-again relationship in many states, many workers have been concerned about losing their unemployment benefits.Read more...

Recently, headlines warned of a new flu virus with “pandemic potential,” based on a study of viruses on pig farms in China. There’s no need to immediately start freaking out, however: While it’s always a safe assumption there will be another pandemic someday, this one is not cause for concern just yet.Read more...

Hotels are gross. There, I said it. It’s something we often forget about, especially if we’re staying at a place that’s a bit classier than the Schitt’s Creek Motel, but anywhere you sleep where 1) other people have slept and 2) someone else has to clean is invariably going to fail you. That’s just the way it is, and…Read more...

A new privacy feature in iOS 14 has exposed a number of popular apps and raised concerns about clipboard privacy. In the video above, I explain why this is concerning, but not something to panic about.Read more...

Remember when we told you that you could view 3D animals in your own home using Google and a smartphone? Well, now you can do the same thing with your favorite Jurassic World dinosaurs, such as the velociraptor above who visited my sun porch today.Read more...

One of the most nerve-wracking moments of booking travel is realizing you have accrued points with your airline, but not enough to get you where you want to go. As travel starts reopening, airlines are figuring out different ways to encourage travelers to book travel. Typically you’d have a choice between buying a…Read more...

I have a summer tradition that involves yelling about raw corn on the internet. Raw corn is good and I think more people should eat it, so every summer I just start shouting and resharing this little blog I wrote a few years ago. This inevitably leads to a lot of corn discourse, and this year that included someone…Read more...

It’s hard to think of any professions that haven’t been impacted by the COVID-19 global pandemic. Whether you lost your job, transitioned to working from home or have had to follow new protocols as an essential worker, most people have seen significant changes in their work lives in the past few months. And while the…Read more...

If you have federal student loans, you may know that while the government owns the loans, they enlist another company—a servicer—to handle the day to day business of collecting payments from borrowers. But soon, the way you pay your monthly student loan bill will be changing, and you may even find that you have a new…Read more...

Nothing says summertime like going out in the sun and getting horribly burned, right? Wrong!Read more...

I have made an actual waffle in my waffle maker exactly once, but I have waffled many other foods, some of which were quite greasy, sticky, or otherwise aggressively messy. An electric waffle maker cannot be washed in the sink, and it’s not something you can just wipe down, thanks to its many grooves, valleys, and…Read more...

Job interviews are a delicate balance between selling yourself and your skills, while also evaluating the company and your potential new boss. As many people have found out, even if you land what you thought was your “dream job,” if you work for someone who turns out to be a terrible boss and/or manager, your…Read more...

I’ve got a barbell, but for the first three months of pandemic life I had no place to put it except on the ground. That’s fine if you want to deadlift, or do olympic lifts, or pick it up and curl it or press it. And I did all of those. But you can’t squat without a rack.Read more...

I cannot tell you that by going to a playground right now, you or your child aren’t exposing yourselves to at least some risk of contracting COVID-19. But I see you out there, parents of little kids who are desperate to get them out of the house and burn off some of their energy. If you’ve been debating whether or not …Read more...

My girlfriend and I share a single account for every subscription service we use. Most of these services are cool with us using the same account simultaneously, but a few of them aren’t. Spotify used to be one of those more restrictive apps, but the company has just added a new “Premium Duo” subscription plan for US…Read more...

Whether you’ve bit the bullet and installed a brand-new iOS beta on your iPhone or you’re updating to a new public release of iOS, the process usually goes swimmingly. When it doesn’t, however, the anxiety kicks in: How the heck do you fix an iPhone that almost works perfectly, save for some new, fatal flaw?Read more...

I have never shied away from a visceral meat-eating experience. I find eating bone-in chops and steaks, offal, and even a literal face all deeply enjoyable. Bone-in steaks are a little pricey for everyday consumption, and faces take a lot of prep—but chicken hearts are cheap, easy to skewer, unchallenging to cook,…Read more...

Whether you were willing to wait for it or not, you’ll no longer have to after today: On July 3, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s revolutionary, Tony Award-winning Broadway musical blockbuster Hamilton is coming to Disney+. I can’t think of a better way to kick off the Fourth of July weekend than by hosting a virtual Hamilton…Read more...

One of the latest bits of Mac malware to keep top of mind as you go about your downloading day is a destructive strain of ransomware known as “EvilQuest.”Read more...

Currently, I type these words to the sounds of tiny little caterpillar poops dropping to the floor of the butterfly enclosure sitting on my desk. Plink, plink, plink. These swollen, wriggling Anise swallowtail caterpillars, striped with yellow, green, and black, are housing dill leaves and pooping nearly just as…Read more...

I’ve had pretty good instincts about timing this year, I think. I ordered a barbell and some bumper plates in March, the day before my county announced that gyms would be closing. I told you at the end of March that this whole thing isn’t going to end soon. And two weeks ago, just before cases began to really spike, I…Read more...

Nothing causes me anxiety quiet like the thought of losing my passport while I’m traveling. Losing anything when you’re traveling is frustrating, but your passport is really your lifeline to ensure a bit of safety, confirm your identity, and get you back home so you’re not stranded. No one wants to miss flights or…Read more...

People die of the flu sometimes. People die of COVID-19 sometimes. People die of suicide and drug overdoses and heart disease and a lot of other things. So if there haven’t been many COVID-19 deaths in your community yet, maybe you’ve convinced yourself that the coronavirus is about as deadly as other things you don’t…Read more...

After many months in quarantine, we’ve all learned that when every aspect of life—working, parenting, schooling, cooking, eating, sleeping—occurs within the four walls of your home, it’s nearly impossible to draw clear boundaries around any of them. Working from home also means no commute—and if that was the only time…Read more...

Not everyone wants to spend $10 on a grande mocha latte or chamomile tea from Starbucks, Dunkin’, or anywhere else that may serve it in the airport. We all know that airports hike prices up because, well, people are still going to spend the money regardless. But, if you’re like me (cheap), you’re only spending money…Read more...

I don’t generally recommend putting off system updates for too long, but there are good reasons why you might want to be wary of major feature updates for Windows 10. Microsoft’s track record at delivering flawless updates that won’t bork your system is spotty (to put it nicely), and it’s worth giving major Windows…Read more...

You wish the kids could go to summer camp. They just want to be on YouTube all day. Well it turns out that, in Pandemic Times, both things are possible. And it’s all thanks to “Camp YouTube.”

When travel first slowly began to open up, airlines confirmed they would put social distancing measures in place: blocking out middle seat assignments and not packing the planes to full capacity. However, United and American Airlines have now both opted out and are lifting social distancing measures on their flights,…Read more...

As states across the country begin reopening amid another surge of coronavirus cases, small business owners find themselves at a crossroads. In the video above, we speak with a number of independent business owners to find out how their customers and communities can help them survive this pandemic.Read more...

No single ingredient ignites recipe culture wars quite like mayonnaise. As someone who happily licks it off the spoon, my “too much mayo” threshold is all but nonexistent—but the vast majority of people feel quite differently, especially when it comes to potato salad.Read more...

In the pivotal second season finale of the early aughts TV series Alias, Jennifer Garner’s super spy Sidney Bristow figures out her roommate Francie has been replaced by an evil doppelgänger when Francie chows down on a pint of coffee ice cream, because “Francie doesn’t like coffee ice cream.” But if you ask me,…Read more...

Every parent has their particular point of contention: a thing that should be simple—and is simple for other parents—yet it never comes easily for them. A kid that’s never tired at bedtime. A child who flat-out hates the car seat from day one. The toddler who refuses to sit in a stroller, No Matter What. And, of…Read more...

If you’re one of the people out there bemoaning the fact that you “can’t even compliment someone at work these days without them taking it the wrong way,” take note: Clever Twitter user Marissa Lingen has found a solution. She suggests using the word “snazzy” when remarking on your colleagues’ outfits—that is to say, …Read more...

Instant Vortex Plus 6-in-1 Air Fryer | $120 | Amazon

The Android 11 Beta was initially slated to launch in tandem with Google’s annual developer’s event, but the world had different plans for this year’s software update. Despite the lack of fanfare, Google has now released the first public beta for Pixel users, leaving enough time to get the kinks worked out before it…Read more...

Leftover spaghetti stands with the best of leftovers. In the fridge overnight, the flavors of the sauce meld and soak into the noodles, permeating them. An ex-boyfriend of mine loves leftover spaghetti so much, he eats it cold, straight from the refrigerator, and this is fine. I don’t know that there’s a bad way to…Read more...

The emails started rolling in to me around the same time the government started sending out coronavirus relief payments in April.Read more...

When it comes to doing things we don’t want to do, we’re in a constant battle between our current selves and our future selves. We could either, let’s say, do our taxes that are due very soon, or continue to read this book we’re really into right now and leave the tax prep to our future selves. Sure, Current You loves…Read more...