Lifehacker

Remember the last time you asked your toddler to wait just a second for something, and that only made them more desperate and relentless for the thing they wanted? Toddlers are known for many things and patience ain’t one. They are beginners and they need to stretch their patience muscles. But as parents, it is…Read more...

Here comes the Android December security update. If you’re the proud owner of a Pixel phone, it’s time to check and see if you can grab the latest fixes, patches, and features for your device. But remember: Google is rolling the update out, as always, so it’s possible you might not have it yet.Read more...

A cast iron cookware sale, Breath of the Wild digital copy, natural deodorant, and a George Foreman grill lead off Wednesday’s best deals from around the web.

A few months ago, we here at Lifehacker HQ discussed the possible consequences of hidden city ticketing—when a traveler intentionally misses a connection because it’s cheaper to book a multi-stop flight over a direct itinerary to their destination. And while stories of travelers being “punished” by airlines for…Read more...

If you’re emailing multiple people at once, and you need different people to pay attention to different parts, you should tag each of them. Write “@name” for each person or team, and put their names in bold. Ideally, put all these requests in a list, so people can scan down the left for their name.

Lots of people buy TVs on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but there’s a lot you’ll want to consider when setting up a smart TV—more than just plugging everything in. As with any internet-based product, smart TVs are vulnerable to hacking and security exploits. A hacked TV might sound like something you’d find on your…Read more...

Few things are more frustrating than having your browser freeze while you’re streaming or surfing or having your messenger app lock up mid-rant. So what to do if you’re confronted with the spinning beach ball of death on your Mac and the application you’re using isn’t responding?

Amazon stocks everything you could ever imagine purchasing, at prices that usually best its competitors. But there’s something that just doesn’t sit right about being able to get a 12-pack of paper towels or whatever else your heart desires delivered in two days (or fewer).

‘StrandHogg’ sounds like something out of Quake II, but it’s actually the name of a new Android vulnerability that allows malware apps to masquerade as legitimate apps, ask for permissions, and then perform all kinds of actions you probably wouldn’t want. For example, one of these apps could read and scan your…Read more...

Wednesday, December 4 is National Cookie Day, and companies are handing out free cookies to the public, which sounds like something a boomer says on Facebook. The following chains are offering free cookies with no purchase necessary.Read more...

In preparation for today, Giving Tuesday, I recently started a fundraiser on social media for one of my favorite non-profit organizations. A friend who donated mentioned that they were including the gift as part of her family’s “Gift-Giving Countdown to Christmas.” They’d created an advent calendar of joy and…Read more...

Particulates are just one component of air pollution, but they pose a significant health risk—especially the ones that are smaller than 2.5 microns. Particulate pollution can aggravate asthma and can contribute to heart disease, stroke, and other health conditions. So...how much are you breathing in?

If you have more than one credit card, you’ve probably gotten offers to transfer a balance to one of your other cards—probably the one that gets used less than the others. Not wanting to be left out, that card sends you an offer of zero interest for 12 or 15 or 18 months, giving you time to pay down your balance…Read more...

Those of us who respect and appreciate proper apostrophe usage awoke yesterday to some upsetting news: John Richards, one of the most ardent defenders of the correct use of the apostrophe, is giving up. He posted his reasons for this decision on the website of the Apostrophe Protection Society, an organization he…Read more...

If you’ve missed out on any good Cyber Monday deals, don’t worry. Some of the best offers are still active through Tuesday—this includes several deals by airlines, during what’s referred to as “Travel Tuesday.”

Apple posted its roundup of the best iOS and iPadOS apps and games for 2019, which gives us a look into the trends that drove the year’s best apps. It’s a good read if you have the time, as it reveals some surprising figures—Mario Kart Tour was the most-downloaded game on the App Store, for example, and users were…Read more...

It’s Giving Tuesday! That day we all celebrate charity, rather than this weekend’s shopping gluttony, by donating money to groups and organizations that align with our worldviews. It’s also a day where you can make your money go further than usual, netting the organizations you support the maximum amount of cash.Read more...

The holidays demand a certain amount of excess, both in terms of sugar and alcohol. To some people, this means something foul like an eggnog Jell-O shot, but we are not some people. Instead, I like to combine a mixture of crushed cookies, pulverized nuts, and any liquor I damn well please to make a decidedly retro…Read more...

Shopping for health insurance sucks for everyone, but if you’re self-employed, it super sucks. Trying to estimate unpredictable income is like a high-stakes game of Numberwang where the prize is paying for something that should be free.

In the days before the internet, our options for reading reviews of a restaurant, product or business were pretty limited. But now, with a few clicks or taps on our phone, we can know exactly what thousands of people think about that new bagel shop. And as helpful as some reviews can be, they are ultimately a crap…Read more...

Yes, it’s a terrible phrase, but a “USB Condom” is a great little gadget you can buy to prevent an unknown attacker from doing something they shouldn’t when you’re charging your device. In other words, a USB “data blocker,” if you prefer that phrase, will allow you to use public USB ports to charge your phone without…Read more...

Back in November, JetBlue announced its latest new airfare class for those looking to save a little cash while booking flights: Basic Blue—or in other words, basic economy seating. For those who don’t know, basic economy seating is the nosebleed section of an aircraft. In exchange for paying less than an average…Read more...

Over the past few years, states have been considering or even passing bills designed to outlaw abortion. A recent one, in Ohio, includes a provision that seems to require doctors to “reimplant” an ectopic pregnancy, a procedure that does not exist in medicine. So what is an ectopic pregnancy and why is “reimplanting” i…Read more...

It’s not bad to spend some of your work time slacking off or recharging. But sometimes you need to buckle down and spend a couple of hours working without distractions. Here’s Lifehacker’s guide to holding your own study hall.

Cyber Monday is almost over—which means it’s just about time for Giving Tuesday, a day to honor the holiday season by giving (duh) to worthy charities.

If you’ve been dreaming about moving your Facebook photos and videos to another service, you may want to wait a bit longer. Facebook is about to make this process a lot easier than today’s technique: downloading all your data, sorting through your media, and sitting there while your computer takes forever to upload it…Read more...

Chrome: One of our favorite Chrome extensions, Sprucemarks, is switching to a subscription model—its creator, Kai Nightmode, announced the news this weekend. There’s a silver lining, however: It’ll only cost $7 to score lifetime access to future iterations of Sprucemarks, which is an incredibly powerful tool for…Read more...

It’s the Monday after Thanksgiving, which means you’re probably sick of leftovers—but not quite ready to go back to normal food yet. The solution, my friends, is nachos.

It’s around this time of year that little kids learn how to trace their own hand and turn that tracing into a picture of a turkey. But now that Thanksgiving is over, if they’re still tracing those fingers, there’s another (arguably cooler) way to turn them into art: Draw a hand that looks three-dimensional.Read more...

As a first-time investor, you’re often guided to index funds as the place to start your wealth-building journey. But how do you even begin to figure out which of the many, many index fund options are right for you? Let’s take a look at some index fund basics that can help you orient yourself.Read more...

Several streaming services are offering short-terms deals to close out the Black Friday-to-Cyber Monday shopping blitz. There are no special Netflix offers this year, but several of its competitors have some excellent Cyber Monday promotions—including the best deals we’ve seen on Disney Plus and Hulu so far, Amazon…Read more...

You may already know that I love picking up new skills, whether that’s sewing a patch on some clothes or ripping an apple in half with my bare hands. That’s why I love the r/LearnUselessTalents subreddit.Read more...

Fitbit Versa 2 | $129 | AmazonRead more...

Cats love Christmas trees. A lot of them love messing with the tree, even climbing it. They’ll knock off the ornaments, make needles fall, and even topple the tree. I looked through Reddit, where every user owns two hundred cats, digging through years of posts for the best advice on keeping cats from ruining Christmas…Read more...

Cranberry sauce serves a vital function on Thanksgiving. Without it, salt and fat would dominate your palate, and your mouth would quickly become oversaturated with rich, savory flavors. Cranberry sauce cuts through all that, and our meal is the better for it. But why confine the sweet and tangy condiment to one day?…Read more...

I woke up at 5:15 this morning to do my Cyber Monday shopping. Within an hour I had purchased everything on my holiday gift list while coming in $37.36 under budget.Read more...

Even the most motivated people run out of steam sometimes. Maybe you’re exhausted or feel as though your creativity has been depleted, but for whatever reason, you can’t get your act together. Here are a few strategies for recharging your motivation.Read more...

When PayPal announced last month that it would acquire Honey, the browser extension and app that helps you find coupon codes and deals when you shop online, my ears perked up. It wasn’t the news of the acquisition that piqued my interest: it was the fact that PayPal would pay $4 billion, mostly in cash, for the…Read more...

Santa may be pushing 1,750 years old, but he can still learn a new trick or two. This December, in addition to visiting every local mall on the planet, he’s also going to stay in touch with kids (and adults) via text message.Read more...

One of the most frustrating issues you can encounter with a device, usually your computer, is when it starts doing something it never did before. Typically, this is something you didn’t want it to do: It takes 15 more seconds to boot, it’s emitting some strange noise, or it is unable to launch the application you’ve…Read more...

No matter how attached you are to your car, there will probably come a time when you’ll need to sell it. Maybe you need an upgrade, or your old reliable ride isn’t so reliable anymore. At that point, you’re going to need to know how much your old car is worth. Here’s how to do that.Read more...

You survived the holidays! You’re back at work! Nothing left to do now but lose yourself in a haze of spiked cider and cookies and wake you up when it’s 2020! Should you stir any time this week, you’ve got a lot of fun awaiting you on Netflix. Let’s dive in.

When it comes to web searching, the privacy-conscious among us have probably already heard of DuckDuckGo. This week Fast Company wrote about an alternative to the search engine called Startpage, which if you’re a DuckDuckGo user is worth a look as well.

If you’ve been thinking about going on a bus trip next year, Megabus might be willing to give you a ticket for free.

If you have some Frozen fans in your household, a new Google Assistant skill is likely to be a big hit: you can have characters from the movie read you a story.

Up to 80% off top titles on Kindle | AmazonRead more...

If your holiday shopping adventures bring you to your local mall or shopping center this year, there’s some strategy behind where you park when you get there.

Emojis can be a fun addition to a tweet or messages, but something the right emoji doesn’t quite exist. Emoji Maker is a simple tool that can help.

If you’re planning on traveling home from your Thanksgiving festivities this weekend, you might run into trouble if those travel plans have you coming or going from the Northeast. Winter storm Ezekiel is expected to cause some serious issues starting tomorrow, so much so that a number of airlines have already issued…Read more...

One of the local restaurants in my hometown runs a promotion every Black Friday where it offers customers a free $5 gift card if they purchase a $20 one. The idea is that you’re buying that $20 one as a gift and you’re getting a little something in the process. I looked at it for a few years and thought about how it…Read more...