Lifehacker

If you’re a parent of any number of children, chances are good you’re worried about the effect this time in isolation is having on them. Parents of kids with special needs are struggling to get the services their children usually rely on. Parents of multiple kids are wondering when the endless sibling arguments will…Read more...

If you’ve ever tried making a sourdough starter, you know it’s a bit of an experiment. You’re literally capturing wild yeasts, feeding them, and hoping that they create a microbial community that will end up smelling and tasting delicious. Maybe you’ll be successful, maybe you won’t.Read more...

There’s little I enjoy more than a the well-executed use of a silly background in a video chat. While this quirky feature used to be exclusive to Zoom, more apps are integrating the functionality—including, recently, Microsoft Teams, and now, Microsoft’s own Skype app.Read more...

The 2020 NFL Draft officially gets underway tonight. Round 1 kicks off at 8 p.m. EST, with rounds 2-3 following tomorrow at 7 p.m. EST and rounds 4-7 on Saturday starting at noon EST.

We’ve almost made it to the end of another week! Why not take a breath and stream something new tonight?

Credit cards can be a tool to keep your finances afloat during tough times. But not every expense can be covered with a credit card. Maybe, for example, you can’t charge your rent to a credit card, so you consider taking a cash advance from your credit card to pay the bill instead. It’s a logical choice, but probably…Read more...

Last month, Jerry Saltz, senior art critic for New York Magazine and author of How to Be an Artist, went viral on Twitter after he outlined his unconventional weekly coffee routine (and we know a thing or two about people getting upset over coffee).Read more...

As we continue to physically distance, we’re all looking for ways to stay connected with our loved ones and colleagues. We can see each other on Zoom, but what about sending gifts or care packages? Right now, attempting to get to a post office or send out a package to anyone seems both time-consuming and potentially…Read more...

Update: we’re live until 2 p.m.! Join us at 1 p.m. Eastern for a live Q&A with Dr. Saskia Popescu, an infectious disease epidemiologist who is also an infection preventionist. She works in hospitals to make sure patients, visitors, and staff are protected from infection, meaning she’s an expert in how hand washing,…Read more...

I haven’t gotten my IRS stimulus check yet; every time I check the IRS’s Get My Payment site, I get the message “we cannot determine your eligibility for a payment at this time.” I’m not the only one in this particular pickle, which is why people have been visiting sites like Reddit’s r/stimuluscheck subreddit to…Read more...

The Islamic holy month of Ramadan begins tonight. As an American-Muslim, I find that many of my non-Muslim friends and colleagues still don’t know much about it.Read more...

I have not been to the grocery store in about 10 days now, but the last time I was there I could not help but notice the distinct lack of boneless, skinless chicken breast. Actually, all of the neat, boneless cuts of meat were running quite low and, while I understand the need for simplicity right now, this is not the…Read more...

It’s almost May, which means it’s almost time for a whole new month’s worth of content on Disney+.

IBR, PAYE, REPAYE—if the options for repaying your student loans look like alphabet soup, there’s a new calculator that seeks to simplify the decision-making process.Read more...

Gaming is great and all—especially during a pandemic, and especially now that you can play a souped-up version of Minecraft with real-time ray tracing—but you can now use your Nvidia graphics card to create real-life magic. Just look at this noise-cancelling demonstration, all powered by your Nvidia GPU:Read more...

There’s a reason why adult coloring books burst into popularity a few years back—there’s something soothing about taking crayon, marker or colored pencil to paper and creating a colorful masterpiece simply by filling in what someone else already drew for you. It is mindless yet satisfying. Which is exactly what we all…Read more...

Warning: February and March 2020 chapters of Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery are discussed ahead.Read more...

Manicures have been in the news a lot this week, as some states begin to open up businesses like nail salons and gyms, and as desperate, washed up reality stars clamor for similar restriction-lifting in their backyards. Well, look, nothing I say here can stop you from going to a nail salon if you have access and are…Read more...

The developers of the Vivaldi web browser are enhancing its already strong privacy features with built-in content blocking tolls that nix ads and prevent trackers from collecting your browsing information.

The widespread flour shortages have created a situation where we’re grateful just to get our hands on whatever we can get. Whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, cake flour, whatever bag is left on the bare shelves, we’ve probably just grabbed it and been happy we could get anything at all.Read more...

Mere weeks ago, in the Before Times, I got an email from a reader asking whether it could be worth using your tax return to buy a mobile phone.Read more...

At the beginning of this week we asked you what you think airlines should change, once the pandemic is over and life returns to something close to normal. We received over 60 comments, with many of you noting that it’s unlikely airlines will change (at least for the better). Which may be true, but hey, we’re trying to…Read more...

There’s a belief that you can use your smartphone to accurately measure your SpO2—that’s your blood oxygen level. And while it would certainly be handy right now to have easy access to that figure—the same one you get when your doctor sticks your finger in that little clamp during a checkup—I have the sad duty to…Read more...

I have been FaceTime-ing and Zooming my ass off recently, and I have found it helps to have an activity, a theme or some point of focus to orient the calls around. Other than simply a shared low-key—but still crushing!—feeling of existential dread, anyway. Virtual happy hours are fine and good, but not everyone…Read more...

When my husband’s parents returned from a trip to Florida back at the beginning of March, I picked them up from the airport and my son and I elbow-bumped them in greeting in place of our usual hugs. We haven’t been within six feet of them since that night, despite the fact that they live a mere seven-minute drive from…Read more...

It’s Wednesday, which means we’ve officially made it through half the week. Why not reward yourself by streaming something new and timely tonight? We have a few suggestions on what to watch.Read more...

We’ve now been sheltering at home long enough that many of us are starting to wonder what to do about ongoing dental care. Some of us are dealing with aching wisdom teeth, unfinished root canals, implants and cavities, as well as aching teeth or gums. Others are wondering about the risks associated with postponing on…Read more...

Accidentally summoning an AI helper like Google Assistant by inadvertently speaking the wake word (or something that sounds enough like it to fool a computer) has become a fact of life ever since Siri was first introduced. It can be a chronic problem too, depending on your living situation and how you use your smart…Read more...

The government has granted a temporary reprieve to student loan borrowers paying back federal loans. But while it’s nice to not have to pay your loans for a few months, it’s a confusing situation for one group of borrowers in particular: those looking to get their remaining loans wiped out by the Public Service Loan…Read more...

Summer is traditionally a time for conquering your fear of rollercoasters or jamming out on the lawn with your crew at a music festival—but not this summer. The coronavirus pandemic hasn’t slowed nearly enough to make large scale summer gatherings seem advisable, or even possible, and many major events have already…Read more...

My home office is tucked into the corner of my studio apartment that’s farthest away from my west-facing windows—but as the coronavirus quarantine has progressed, I have found myself less and less interested in sitting down at my tax-deductible desk and more and more interested in completing my work while standing at…Read more...

May is right around the corner, and when it arrives it will bring with it a ton of new content to Netflix.

“Just stay home” is not as relaxing as it sounds. Some of us are performing our actual jobs from our couches and kitchen tables, and many of us have taken on additional labor like schooling children, or cooking three entire meals a day. We’ve also had to become our own bartenders which, as it turns out, is a job I do…Read more...

Deciding when to try to conceive a baby can be complicated during the best of times. Even when your jobs are stable, are you sure you’re really financially ready? Even if you’d like to wait a little longer, is your age starting to creep up enough that you worry your window may be closing? What about sibling age gaps…Read more...

In these crazy, quarantine-addled days, I give extra credit to companies giving their communications software a second look and concluding, “That’s not enough.” It’s why Microsoft Teams now supports up to nine people on a video call, and why WhatsApp is currently testing group voice and video calls that support up to…Read more...

Full Motion TV Wall Mount | $35 | Amazon | Use code RGLKNST8Read more...

I know that my Fitbit isn’t meant to be used diagnostically, but I’m also sure I’m not the first person to have noticed a correlation between, say, an increase in my resting heart rate a few days before the onset of a winter cold. That’s why I was very excited (and personally validated) to learn that Fitbit is now…Read more...

Linksys is currently forcing password resets for anyone with an account on its “Smart Wi-Fi” service. This behavior might seem random, or even alarming, but it’s part of an effort on Linksys’ part to mitigate malware attacks that targeted its users earlier in April.

They say rules are made to be broken, but you have to understand the rules before you can break them effectively. Cocktailing has a lot of rules, and a lot of rule breakers, but Stanley Tucci is breaking Negroni rules in a way that has me questioning if I really understood the drink in the first place. (I am,…Read more...

When everything sucks, you might as well get up and dance. Or curl up and cry. You know what helps with both those things? Music. That’s why I turned to my Lifehacker coworkers to find out what songs have been getting them through the last few weeks. Here are a few highlights—plus the entire playlist on Spotify—for…Read more...

If you’ve spent your days in quarantine interacting with friends and family via Animal Crossing or bingeing every season of your favorite show, you’re not alone. Retreating to simple pleasures seems like a natural response to the stress we’re all living through—and according to new research, indulging in these …Read more...

Looking for something fun to watch tonight?

Word on the street is a lot of you are playing Final Fantasy VII Remake, Square Enix’s dramatization of An Inconvenient Truth. And if you are, you know it’s mostly linear. Sure, some sections let you direct Cloud and friends off the main plot for a sojourn into side-quest suburbia. But Final Fantasy VII Remake is…Read more...

It’s always annoying when you are watching a movie on your phone and accidentally stop or skip through it when you adjust your grip and touch the wrong part of the screen. Netflix seems to have heard our collective irritated groan and has added a helpful screen-lock function to its Android app that will make those…Read more...

Most of the time, using your face to unlock your phone is a seamless way to access your device. However, now that we’re all wearing masks while we’re out and about (right?) that feature is more of an annoying nuisance than a great hands-free way to use your device.Read more...

Now that we’re all doing more Zoom calls, Google hangouts and FaceTime sessions, we’ve started to run into that awkward moment where we might be ready to end the conversation, but the other person isn’t picking up the hint—and since most of us are physically distanced and sheltering in place right now, it’s not like…Read more...

We are now at a point where the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States number in the hundreds of thousands, while the death toll is in the tens of thousands. Although these numbers are grim, the rate of increase is slowing down, a sign that all of our hand-washing, staying at home and physical…Read more...

With everything going on in the world right now, it may feel impossible (or even selfish) to try to be happy. Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project, joined us from her home to share some of her tips on how to try to be happy (or at the very least, cope with sadness) at this difficult time.Read more...

Due to the surge in fancy home baking, it’s still quite hard to find flour, eggs, and yeast, but mixes remain abundant, pancake mix being among them. I—renowned lazy lady—was already a fan of the complete, just-add-water pancake mix, particularly since I discovered I could use it to create not quite authentic, but…Read more...