Lifehacker

My son starts third grade next week, and this is the first year where instead of being all, “Yay for friends and learning!” he’s more like, “yeah, school, great.” I can understand how he feels. He’s got nine months of work ahead of him and dude would rather watch reruns of Pokémon.Read more...

Hello, my name is Shep McAllister, and I’m a gadget pack rat. I can’t leave for an overnight trip without, like, 10 different cables, three wall chargers, and two battery packs, of which I will use, at most, two, one, and one, respectively.

I was a runner first. Then I started bike commuting. When I learned to swim, it wasn’t long before I thought: this is the missing piece! I can be a triathlete! (Never mind that I wasn’t particularly good at any of these disciplines.)Read more...

Whether you call it seltzer, sparkling water or soda water, this bubbly beverage is getting popular by the day, with Americans guzzling it at increasing rates. And though it’s frequently marketed as part of a healthier lifestyle—specifically one that does not include sugary soda—there are some persistent myths about…Read more...

Windows has a propensity to accrue digital dust and grime that can bog down the system, and reinstalling the operating system is a nice catch-all cure for anything that ails it.Read more...

On Wednesday, Washington Governor Jay Inslee officially dropped out of the presidential race, just days after John Hickenlooper also called it quits (and announced his Senate bid). As of June, both former candidates raised nearly $8.5 million in campaign contributions from individual donors and PACs.

On paper, this little trick should be possible. The Apple Watch uses a Qi-based charger, and your AirPod wireless charging case also supports Qi charging. Instead of plugging in your wireless charging case, you should be able to set it right on top of your Apple Watch charger to give it some juice. Right?Read more...

The imminent launch of Android 10 (née “Android Q”) will bring a host of new things to do, and several built-in Android apps are also prepping a few fun features that you can try out right now—no Android Q needed. These include Google’s own Digital Wellbeing app, which lets users monitor their device and app usage,…Read more...

A few weeks ago I attended a music festival with some friends. At some point, I was scrolling through Instagram Stories and then put my phone in my pocket. When I took it out a little while later I realized that I had apparently sent DMs to a number of my friends with an image of another friend’s plate of oysters.

I wouldn’t blame you if you rolled your eyes after I told you that I had found the most fantastic flashlight (the COAST HP7R.) And I certainly wouldn’t blame you if you thought all flashlights were basically the same. In fact, I thought the same thing, too... before I went camping last weekend at the Rocky Neck State…Read more...

Today we’re going to tackle the iconic behavior of a Gym Asshole: dropping their weights. BOOM. Blech sums up the question that many of us have found ourselves thinking:Read more...

At the beginning of the summer, I did a bold thing. I drove myself to Target, I tried on a few different items and settled on a pair of comfortable shorts and a cotton tank top that I proclaimed my “work-from-home outfit of the summer.” And then I bought the shorts in grey and black and the tank top in red, orange,…Read more...

The CDC recently announced that it’s found over 150 people with serious respiratory illnesses and a history of vaping. We don’t know yet whether vaping caused them to get sick, but an investigation is ongoing. Here’s what you need to know.Read more...

Think about the credit cards in your wallet right now. Can you rattle off the rewards you earn for each of them? What about the interest rates: Can you list those? Turns out, 38% of us don’t know the interest rates for our credit cards, according to Nerdwallet’s 2019 Consumer Credit Card Report.Read more...

When hanging out, especially over drinks, it’s become a normal habit to simply pull your phone out and check it while someone is talking to you. We do it even though it’s rude, and even though we hate it when a friend does it to us. We can’t help ourselves, and it’s not our fault; the entire capitalist machine is…Read more...

As we mentioned last week, you probably shouldn’t book a flight on third-party sites like Expedia or Travelocity or you might miss out on some airlines’ sales. And right on cue, Southwest announced a sale on flights departing as soon as September and through the spring.

Mary’s old Honda Accord was just stolen. Now she’s looking for a small crossover, but can’t find one that fits her well—or that doesn’t suck. She is on the shorter side and wants the higher ride height and all-wheel drive, but doesn’t want something too big or too loud. What car should she buy?

When a phone retails at $1,100, it can’t just be good, it has to be superb. It needs to deliver features you don’t get on other phones, maintain excellence across all the standard metrics, and be able to handle pretty much any situation, whether it’s work, play, or just a bit of movie watching. And while there are a…Read more...

Removing the last bit of sticky jam from a jar is usually a job for alcohol, but other, spreadable substances—such as Nutella and peanut butter—just don’t go into solution that well. The solution, obviously, is to swap one vice for another, and fill that almost-empty jar with ice cream.Read more...

Simple Cord Cable Concealer On-Wall Cord Cover Raceway Kit | $14 | AmazonRead more...

A lot of us think about our money in terms of what it can get us. When we’re earning X (or when we’ve saved X), we can purchase Y. But if you’re working towards long-term wealth—whether for financial security, financial independence, or retirement—it’s just as important to think about what you’re not buying.Read more...

For a portion of this calendar week, President Donald Trump considered cutting payroll taxes. “I’ve been thinking about payroll taxes for a long time,” he told reporters on Tuesday, and then he turned around on Wednesday and told the same reporters “I’m not looking at a tax cut now,” he said. “We don’t need it. We…Read more...

No matter how long you manage to hold them off, at some point, your kids will have their own electronic devices, and they’ll use those devices to communicate with others. First with friends and family, but eventually with strangers, too.Read more...

If you’re an avid runner and a dog parent, the idea of hitching your four-legged friend up to his leash and pounding the pavement together might sound like a lot of fun. And it can be! Plus, it’s a good way for you both to get some exercise and stay fit – which is important, considering that around 55 percent of…Read more...

A number of you are probably getting your brand-new titanium Apple Cards this week, assuming you made sure to order a physical version of the card when signing up for it Tuesday. Here’s the kicker: You probably won’t want to store Apple’s credit card in your wallet.

I hate ironing. I’ve had the same wrinkled shirt sitting out for half a year. So I tested all the popular hacks for getting the wrinkles out of clothing without actually ironing it. The results aren’t what I hoped for.Read more...

Adventure Medical Kits Mountain Series Daytripper First Aid Kit | $18 | AmazonRead more...

Microsoft’s speedy Chromium-based Edge browser has been available in both developer and canary builds (not mention leaked versions) for months. Now that the company has officially launched a more stable “beta” channel of the browser, you might want to finally take the plunge and give Edge a try.Read more...

People who go to the gym every day tend to be happy with their habit—that’s why they keep coming back. But plenty of folks aspire to do that, and haven’t quite figured out how. Since I am one of those people (I even work out on vacation, sorry) I’d like to help you learn to love the gym—but it depends what kind of…Read more...

On Monday, YouTube filed a lawsuit against one of its users for extorting others through false copyright strikes; after submitting unverified copyright claims on videos, the user in question would demand a payment (like $300 by Paypal or $200 in Bitcoin) or threaten a third copyright strike on their account, which…Read more...

Earlier this week, Judd Apatow, Debra Messing, and Rick Perry⁠—the Secretary of Energy and guy in control of all our nuclear weapons⁠—fell for a lie that’s been circulating on Instagram: that Instagram changed its policies so that they could use all of your photos, messages, and other information at their disposal.

It happens to all of us: You get down near the bottom of your Marmite jar, but you can’t reach that last bit. Eventually your fridge or cupboard, whichever is appropriate, is full of almost-empty jars of Marmite you can’t bear to throw out. Just like everyone’s! Thankfully the Marmite makers have built a “hack” into…Read more...

Before there was LOL and TLDR and STFU, we had other abbreviations that helped us to quickly and easily convey ideas. These still have a useful place in our writing, because they still help us quickly and easily convey ideas. They are i.e. and e.g., and they are not the same thing.Read more...

Recently WW, the company formerly known as Weight Watchers, introduced a “health coaching” app for kids called Kurbo. It’s obviously meant for weight loss, even though dieting isn’t appropriate for many kids, and can lead to disordered eating. Healthy approaches to managing kids’ weight should focus on building…Read more...

If you’re a frequent traveler who wants to earn a bunch of Hilton Honors points, now’s your chance.Read more...

Despite being associated with some of the biggest technologies and most popular devices currently available, Google also develops products and services for places with limited infrastructure and resources. One of these products, the streamlined search app “Google Go,” is now available worldwide for all Android users…Read more...

If you’re an Amazon Prime Student member, Amazon is running a pretty solid Back to School deal right now on Echo devices that allows you to get 40% off a device for your dorm room.

Ask a rich person how they got rich, and there’s a good chance they’ll say they invested in real estate. In fact, real estate is generally accepted as one of the most solid ways to build wealth. That’s why there’s no shortage of people who long to buy a home and watch its value rise over time. There are the landlords…Read more...

If you’re a MoviePass customer, you might want to take an extra close look at your credit card statements—or considering replacing your card altogether.

I’m terrible at Fortnite—so much so that even using some kind of aimbot or other hack to “improve” my matches would probably only make me as decent as a regular Fortnite player. Still, I won’t be trying out any Fortnite hacks I find online, especially the latest “SydneyFortniteHacks.exe,” because it’s more likely to…Read more...

Picking fresh produce and eating fresh produce are two of my favorite summertime activities. I make “salads” that are really just piles of raw corn, eat juicy peaches over the sink, and down bowls of berries swimming in heavy cream. I never had much reason to get anything cooked involved, until the geniuses at Food…Read more...

It’s 2019, and your lawn tools don’t need to run on gas anymore. Worx’s eBay storefront is currently blowing out a couple of 20V cordless tool bundles, with an extra 15% off at checkout.

We teach our kids kindness by modeling kindness ourselves, talking to them about kindness, and praising them when we catch them being kind. We can also teach it with fuzzy pom-pom balls.Read more...

A Clarks Private Sale, a Blink XT2 Outdoor/Indoor Smart Security Cam, and $10 off your preorder of Dragon Quest 11 S for Switch lead off Wednesday’s best deals from around the web.Read more...

This month, Netflix gets the movies American Psycho, Mystic River, Superbad, 300, The Taking of Pelham 123, and the second and third Lord of the Rings films. (You can’t get Fellowship on Netflix. Weird!) In TV, there’s season 9 of The Walking Dead, season 9 of Shameless, season 6 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., series 8 of …Read more...

The idea of throwing a party for a gaggle of your kid’s friends sounds great in theory, but dealing with an additional five (six? Eight? A dozen?) children requires a special set of skills—the very kind a teacher has, in spades.

There’s good news for Americans saving for retirement: We’re getting better and better at actually doing it, according to a new survey from Bankrate.com. The percentage of people who have increased their contributions in the past year has almost doubled since 2011, with 29% increasing their contributions. Forty-six…Read more...

The quantum internet is coming sooner than you think—even sooner than quantum computing itself. When things change over, you might not even notice. But when they do, new rules will protect your data against attacks from computers that don’t even exist yet.Read more...

When macOS Catalina finally drops, you’re going to notice a number of big changes. One of the more memorable ones is Apple’s grand transformation of iTunes into standalone Music, Video, and Podcast apps. We love the move, but it does lead to a few questions, like “How do you share media around your house?”

Dr. Patricia Hewlin studies organizational diversity and the organizational participation and treatment of minorities. As with so many How I Work subjects, her work has a personal resonance. Dr. Hewlin pursued her PhD in organizational behavior after encouragement from the PhD project, which aims to increase workplace…Read more...