Lifehacker

You step outside, finding the usually bustling streets peaceful and empty. Despite a weather forecast pushing 80 degrees, the air is refreshingly cool. And while your schedule is filled with work, errands, and work that’s basically just one big errand, in this little moment you have no responsibilities at all. What is…Read more...

If your child is anything like mine, they’ve spent several thousand hours of quarantine time playing Minecraft. But if they’re only playing Minecraft in single-player mode, they’re missing out—not just on a ton of fun game options, but also on the chance to socialize with their friends. Minecraft is like a virtual…Read more...

Since the coronavirus lockdown started, those of us lucky enough to retain our jobs have been putting a lot of time and energy into work. We’ve been learning new skills, including the art of meeting by Zoom; we’ve also been helping our companies stay productive during a time of heightened uncertainty and anxiety.Read more...

Yesterday I found myself in quite the umami conundrum. I’d set out to make homemade caesar dressing, and had all the ingredients—lemon juice, parmesan, egg yolk, garlic—but found that my pantry lacked canned anchovy fillets, the briny backbone of the dish.Read more...

The Windows 10 May 2020 update is here, but it might not be here for you. Yes, it’s another rollout. Yes, we typically recommend you hold off on installing major Windows 10 updates until plenty of other people have “tested” them to make sure you’re not about to get hit with a horrific, performance-draining bug—but we…Read more...

Nintendo Switch Lite (Gray) | $200 | Amazon

Although the Olympic Games are canceled for 2020, your family needn’t go without the rush of competitive sporting events this summer if you host your own backyard Olympics instead. You don’t need to be able to complete a roundoff back handspring or risk letting your kids throw a javelin to do so—just have some fun…Read more...

If you’ve taken up running recently, you probably find it exciting to learn what you’re capable of. But if the only goal you know is running continuously for three miles—the famous “couch to 5K”—you may find yourself wondering: Is that all there is?Read more...

Buying a new iPhone doesn’t have to mean breaking the bank, and I firmly believe that most people don’t need to spend $1000 or more on the latest and greatest model. In the video above, I compare the three cheapest iPhones that Apple currently sells.Read more...

Looking for something fun to watch tonight? Every afternoon we’re hunting down and highlighting the best streaming options around.Read more...

Featured Deal: The North Face Ultra 110 GTX Women’s Trail-Running Shoes | $90Read more...

Hello, all you Twitternet spooklets of sexcrime, and welcome to Ask Dr. NerdLove, the only advice column that helps you find real love in a virtual world.

Microsoft’s big May 2020 update for Windows 10 is here, and it’s packed with a bunch of new features and changes. This isn’t one of those subtle “security updates” that patches up a few bugs within Windows but doesn’t change your UI or how you interact with your operating system. It’s worth paying attention to, so I’m…Read more...

HBO’s new streaming service HBO Max launched yesterday, and along with it came a great deal of confusion about how and where you can access it—and what you can even watch on it.

It’s happening in Massachusetts, Washington, and maybe in your own neighborhood: Scammers are trying to swoop in and take advantage of pandemic unemployment assistance programs using your personal information.Read more...

America is racing toward reopening and more of us are planning to go back to work and resume some of our normal activities, but nothing about the coronavirus itself has actually changed. It’s as virulent and deadly as ever, and even if the risk that hospitals will be jammed with high-risk patients is lower, the risk…Read more...

For weeks now, I’ve been focused on a particular date: June 9. I had until June 9 to figure out a plan for this summer. June 9 was when my son’s third-grade school year would officially wrap up. June 9 was when the loose schedule we’ve been adhering to—centered around blocks of time for reading, schoolwork, breaks and…Read more...

If your pet has been acting odd lately, you are not alone. Pandemic era pet owners have reported an array of strange new behaviors in their cats and dogs. Unusual hissing and growling, clinginess and disruptive behaviors such as attacking furniture, spinning, excessive grooming, increased vocalizing and scratching…Read more...

Google is giving away a free Nest Mini smart speaker to all YouTube Premium and Google Play subscribers for the next month.

There seem to be two somewhat opposing quarantine states of being: extremely lazy and obnoxiously productive. For the most part, I fall into the first category; I favor buying bread instead of baking it and drinking wine instead of mixing martinis. But recently I decided I wanted a project, a challenge, something to…Read more...

When you need something delivered or need to call for help you probably give the person on the other end of the line your street address. What do you do if you’re somewhere you don’t know the address, or a place that doesn’t have one? Google is currently rolling out a new Google Maps feature called “Plus Codes” that…Read more...

If your meditation practice has become just one more thing to check off the to-do list—or if you’ve been trying meditation but haven’t found it as calming as you’d hoped—it might be time to rethink the way you’re approaching mindfulness.Read more...

So far, my son’s summer camp for June has been canceled, and I expect July and August to follow suit eventually. We’ve canceled two long weekend trips. The public pools are closed for the summer, and our backyard is too small and too sloped for anything resembling a decent pool. I will continue to work from home as I…Read more...

A Kenneth Cole home sale, a Tile Pro 2-pack, a copy of Red Dead Redemption 2, a Belmint water flosser, a pack of two-way radios, and a s’mores maker lead Thursday’s best deals.

I love getting emails from Firefox Monitor that tell me my email was found in a brand-new data breach. Adding insult to injury is when it’s an email for a service I haven’t used for a decade. And the Triple Crown of this scenario is when that service is Livejournal—you know, that place where everyone blogged before…Read more...

Facebook recently released an early version of CatchUp, an audio-only chatting app with one useful feature: Users can see when their contacts are available to chat, and strike up conversations (or group calls) with a single tap.Read more...

Given we’re all likely suffering from an uptick in sleepless nights lately, you might be tempted to reach for a bottle of melatonin—nature’s sleep aid. Melatonin is natural! It’s available over the counter! But although melatonin has been shown to be safe and non-habit-forming, there are still side effects that come…Read more...

The CDC has released new guidelines on antibody testing that note it’s possible for a test that’s 90-95% accurate to deliver incorrect positive results more than half the time. That sounds shocking, but it can be true—and it’s important to understand why, if you’re considering getting tested or have already gotten a…Read more...

It’s weird to think about using a calculator in 2020, when just about everyone has a smartphone or laptop within reach, but Texas Instruments’ calculators are still a popular (and often required) resource for students. The latest calculators are even capable of installing and running simple applications, which makes…Read more...

I have been doing two things during quarantine: making sausage and (less successfully) reorganizing my kitchen. The former has become an obsession—I’ve nearly perfected my breakfast sausage—but the latter led me to a forgotten collection of bright blue Jiffy boxes, including but not limited to a biscuit mix.…Read more...

If you’re beginning to venture back out into society to purchase any variety of goods and services, take a look at your receipts: You may see you’ve been hit with a surcharge related to the ongoing pandemic.Read more...

One of the most wide-reaching side effects of COVID-19 has been its impact on mental health. Understandably, a global pandemic has people dealing with more anxiety and depression than usual—not to mention the additional difficulties it’s causing for people with other conditions like obsessive compulsive disorder and…Read more...

Looking for something fun to watch tonight? Every afternoon we’ve been rounding up some of the best streaming options we’ve found.

The macOS 10.15.5 update is rolling out computers this week, bringing a handful of new features and settings with it—including a long-awaited feature that should help keep your MacBook’s battery healthier for longer.

Update: The Crew Dragon launch has been delayed due to weather conditions. The next attempt will be on Saturday, May 30 at 3:32 pm Eastern with live coverage starting at 11 am.Read more...

J.K. Rowling pulled a literal box out of her literal attic a few weeks ago in order to literally dust off a draft of a book she wrote many years ago while still in the midst of writing the Harry Potter series. Now, as a coronavirus era gift to children (and adults) everywhere, she is releasing the book, called The…Read more...

Are you having a hard time getting comfortable in your impromptu home office? We’ve absorbed this idea that there is an ideal “ergonomic” setup, and that if everything is properly supportive and set to the right height, we’ll never be uncomfortable again. But what if sitting in the One Correct Position is actually not…Read more...

Summer is traditionally the best time to take a long-distance drive—whether you’re visiting family and friends, heading to a theme park or just getting away from it all, there’s nothing like a road trip. Even this year, as the summer approaches and states are beginning to lift travel restrictions, you might be…Read more...

Now that states are opening up again, and a lot of people are required to report back to work, many of us are being forced to navigate new sources of risk and uncertainty. With that in mind, one epidemiologist, Ellie Murray, has a suggestion for how to think about your overall level of risk: Make a contact budget.Read more...

If you’re struggling through a tough financial phase, your retirement account may seem like a good spot to get some income quickly. And if you’ve been eyeing your own 401(k) or IRA during the coronavirus shutdown, you’re far from alone: a new Bankrate survey found that 27% of people have turned to their retirement…Read more...

If you’ve been furloughed during the coronavirus pandemic, you might be asking yourself whether it’s better to wait it out or whether you need to start looking for another job.Read more...

Steakhouses, with their prime cuts and endless side dishes, have always felt special to me. Choosing your sides and salad dressing can feel just as important as choosing your steak, and cultivating a steakhouse moment at home requires similar decisions. A baked potato is a given, but throwing together this quick,…Read more...

On the evening of Monday, May 25, 2020, four Minneapolis police officers killed George Floyd when they handcuffed him and then pinned him to the ground as he repeatedly said “Please, I can’t breathe.” Floyd, 46, is the latest black man to die in police custody.

While many of us may have become comfortable with this “new normal” during the pandemic, it can seem overwhelming to head back outside with regions beginning to reopen.

If there’s one thing parents have learned during the pandemic, it’s this: Little kids suck at video chatting. Maybe we already suspected this based on the occasional, disastrous FaceTime or Skype call with out-of-town family. But then we were thrust into this all-online-all-the-time reality, in which video chats feel…Read more...

12.9-inch iPad Pro, 256 GB | $900 | B&H PhotoRead more...

America’s jigsaw puzzle consumption has increased wildly in the era of physical distancing. People stuck indoors with nothing to do have turned to tiny, brightly colored, irregularly shaped slices of cardboard to provide them with a sense of control over a chaotic world. For evidence, look to the ongoing Kickstarter…Read more...

There’s a fairly new piece of malware making the rounds on Discord. Dubbed “AnarchyGrabber3,” the software logs you out of the app and captures your Discord credentials—email, login name, and password—when you try to log back in. To add insult to injury, it even disables your two-factor authentication, if you’ve…Read more...

Jailbreaking your iPhone was popular in the early days of iOS, but Apple got better at clamping down on the practice and the iOS jailbreaking scene went stagnant. Until now, that is. iOS 13.5 has been successfully jailbroken, meaning mods and customized themes can finally be installed on newer iPhones and iPads. We’ll…Read more...

Myths about masks are running rampant, mixed in with and distracting from the critical advice and facts we all need to know to wear them responsibly. Many of these myths are directly tied to conspiracy theories that fall apart when you take a minute to think about them, but they still circulate because they seem like…Read more...