Lifehacker

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...

If you don’t typically file a tax return, you’re running out of time to request the $500-per-child coronavirus relief payment for your kids.

It sounds like yet another sibling argument. Or stomping feet followed by a slammed door. It sounds like loud voices and defiance or those two particularly whiny words parents everywhere love: I’m bored. It sounds like a lot of different things, but what it actually might be is sadness.Read more...

As part of our new pandemic preparedness lifestyle, many of us have turned to gardening, to the point there are now widespread seed shortages. Given that seeds also need nutrient-rich soil to grow in, you might be wondering about how to turn your food scraps into compost. After all, who wants to pay for compost when…Read more...

Let’s say you’ve started your first job. Or, maybe, you’ve simply started to think about saving for retirement. Your employer offers a 401(k), but you don’t know where to get started (or even what that is).

By default, your Samsung Galaxy smartphone saves screenshots as crappier .JPEG images. Nothing against the good ol’ JPEG, especially if you need to save as much space on your device as possible. They just don’t look as good as the alternative that (almost) every other Android device uses as a default—the mighty, …Read more...

Each week in this crisis seems to have a theme to it. There was the week in early March when many of us experienced lockdown for the first time, an innocent week of home workouts and sourdough loaves and hope that this would all blow over pretty quickly. Just a little while back, there was the week that we were all…Read more...

Say what you will about Bing as a search engine, but it does have some gorgeous wallpapers that make the entire experience almost worth it. There are plenty of websites you can use to see the pretty pictures Microsoft posts to Bing daily, and Microsoft even offers its own tool to bring make Bing wallpapers your…Read more...

If you have a Nintendo account, now’s a good time to make sure that you have two-step verification set up on that account to keep it secure.

The severity of the COVID-19 pandemic is the perfect backdrop for scammers to try and sucker you with schemes. We’ve seen fake coronavirus tracker apps and fake charities, and now coronavirus-related phishing scams are on the rise, too.Read more...

Like most baking, crafting the perfect pot brownie is practically a science. You gotta de-carboxylate the bud, infuse the butter and (ideally) calculate the dosage. But once they’re baked and divided into responsibly-portioned squares, there remains one final, expert move: a quick press with the waffle maker.Read more...

Back in your college days, a crusty bong with caked-on resin and brown bong water might have seemed fine (it wasn’t), but in the middle of a pandemic, cleaning your bong is actually really important, though you may want to switch to edibles for the time being so you’re less at risk of contracting Covid-19. But if you…Read more...

Oil companies will now pay you to take their damn oil. No, you are not that high. Well, maybe you are because it’s 4/20, but you’re still reading that correctly.

When you apply for a new credit card or decide to take out a loan, you read the fine print—or at least, you’re supposed to read the fine print. You probably check the interest rate and the fee schedule, then let your eyes glaze over for the rest.

We’re heading into another week of travel restrictions, lockdowns and searching out more creative ways to get comfortable with staying home around the clock. Yet as hard as it may be to believe, we will eventually return to something like normal life. We’ll eventually be getting on flights again, whether for work or…Read more...

Another week means a new search for things to watch and do online.Read more...

Back in the days when kids actually went into classrooms to learn, Netflix made much of its educational documentaries available for free to teachers who wanted to stream them in their classrooms. With the pandemic forcing most kids back into the home for some indefinite “remote learning,” Netflix has dropped many of…Read more...

The last time I got groceries, it only happened after a solid seven days of refreshing my cart periodically, sometimes constantly, in order to secure a delivery window. A new web-based tool could make the process a lot less painful for you, provided you live in an area where curbside pickup is an option.

Deglazing a pan after searing is an obvious, almost reflexive part of cooking a steak or a pork chop, but it’s not so common when frying bacon. But like chops and steaks, bacon is just a piece of meat, and deglazing—aka scraping all those delicious browned bits up with the help of little liquid—ensures you don’t leave…Read more...

Apple’s upcoming second-generation iPhone SE is available for preorder from several online retailers, but if you’re a Verizon or AT&T customer and your account is eligible for an upgrade, Walmart’s preorder deal can save you half the price of the device.

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Are you feeling burned out? Do you find yourself working more, not less, even while working from home? Award-winning journalist Celeste Headlee joins us on The Upgrade this week to talk about how the toxic culture of busyness is harming both our brains and our bodies, and what we can do about it. Celeste is the author…Read more...

If your streaming queue has started to empty out after a month of isolation binges, Hulu is dropping a ton of new content next month to fill it back up again.Read more...

Been using your cell phone a ton while you’ve been spending most of your time at home? You may be able to save on your monthly bill.Read more...

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If you get your news from Facebook, that’s problem number one. Why? Well, it would take an effort of pandemic-response-sized proportions to get people to stop sharing bullshit on Facebook. And you see how well our pandemic response is going...Read more...

If TikTok was having a moment before the pandemic, it’s really experiencing a surge in popularity and attention right now as tweens and teens everywhere are stuck at home and have nothing better to do than convince their parents to perform choreographed dances for social media. So the timing is good for the short-form…Read more...

A new week means new content to stream on Netflix.

Starting Monday, your kids can attend a weekly virtual story time with former first lady Michelle Obama.

Last September, Disney offered a “Bedtime Hotline” for two weeks where the young and young at heart could call to listen to a bedtime message from their favorite Disney, Marvel, Star Wars, or Pixar character.

Now when you search for COVID-19 on Google you can find information about testing sites for the virus located near you.

A huge bag of Reese’s, fourth generation Fossil watches, Devil May Cry 5, vape pens, and more headline Sunday’s best deals.

Tonight Global Citizen is producing a massive concert featuring performers such as Lady Gaga, Usher, Elton John, The Rolling Stones, and Stevie Wonder.

While New York’s Museum of Modern Art is closed to the public right now, its virtual doors are open in the form of a few free classes from the museum.

An advanced arcade stick, Gamestop’s Pro Day, a fancy foot massager, a sale on Amazon Video comedies, and more are Saturday’s top deals.

The National Air and Space Museum currently houses more than 38,640 pages of material spanning Sally Ride’s career as a physicist, astronaut, and educator. There’s just one big issue with the massive collection: the majority of it is handwritten or typed on a typewriter and isn’t searchable.Read more...

Depending on where you live, getting your hands on some alcohol may be much harder than usual right now. True, states like New York, New Jersey and Maryland have deemed liquor stores “essential” businesses, and others—including California, Nebraska, Vermont, Kentucky, Colorado and the District of Columbia—have relaxed…Read more...

Being stuck at home has inspired many of us to try our hands at baking. As a result, there are now widespread reports of yeast shortages, because the pandemic ruins everything good and pure. If you are one of the lucky ones who has a few packets of yeast remaining in the back of your cupboard, here is an easy way to…Read more...

By now you’ve probably heard of Netflix Party, the Chrome extension that allows you to watch a Netflix show simultaneously with your friends. It can be great for that virtual movie night with friends, but also a bit limiting since it only works with Netflix.

Microsoft releases two big Windows 10 overhauls every year, and the first of 2020's major updates, Windows 10 Version 2004, is just a couple of weeks away—but we’ll show you how to install it early.Read more...

When it comes to privacy issues, the best advice is the simplest advice: Don’t mix work and play. That means no installing BitTorrent on your work laptop; no browsing for naughty things when connected to your company wifi (or VPN) and no forwarding company secrets (or inappropriate memes) using your work email. No,…Read more...

I have been making a lot of sours recently, simply because they work with almost any spirit and don’t require a ton of ingredients. Booze, citrus, and sweetener make up the entire drink, but things get a little more interesting when you supplement a syrup for more booze.Read more...

Have we reached the point in the coronavirus crisis where we’re actually starting to get a little better at pandemic parenting? Many of us have been at this for several weeks now and have, in all seriousness, gone through many—if not all—of the stages of grief over what our daily lives have become. And yet, we do what…Read more...

Ready to settle in for another weekend at home? Yeah, us too. If you’re looking for something to do this weekend we’ve dug up some of the best streaming options out there for the next few days.Read more...

Not too long ago, I found myself in so much debt I didn’t know how to begin to deal with it. I didn’t feel comfortable asking anyone in my family or social circle for help, even though I knew I needed some backup to allow me to look at my situation objectively. So I called a debt counselor.Read more...

The development of “Firefox Preview,” Firefox’s rebuilt Android app, has been moving smoothly along, and this week one of its best features received a substantial update.Read more...

Did you join our challenge and do one of the Ryan Heffington dance parties this week? If not, here’s what you missed (and what we’re doing next).