Lifehacker

The next time someone asks whether you want to take a class or join a committee or be part of their new book club, don’t reply based on the assumption that you’ll find a way to make room for this time commitment in the future.Read more...

Did you get a weird notification on your Samsung phone last night? You’re not alone. Reports of a mysterious notification have been hitting the internet over the past day after some Samsung phones received a “Find my Phone” push notification that simply said “1,” with no explanation.

Every year, UrbanSitter releases results of its study of more than 25,000 families across the United States that helps determine the average hourly babysitting rate (by major city). And every year, the average hourly cost inches up and parents cringe, but we have to admit our babysitters deserve it.

Searching through your Gmail for specific messages is about to get a lot easier—if your organization uses G Suite, at least. You’re still free to be a keyboard warrior and fill Gmail’s search bar with parameters, like from:soandso@gmail.com before:2020/2/20, or use its drop-down menu to get specific with your searches…Read more...

If you’ve racked up a lot of credit card debt on several different cards, you know it can be hassle to keep track of them all. Not only does each card have a different due date—they probably all have different interest rates, too.

Does your phone continue to show you work-related email or Slack notifications even after your workday is over? Do you feel compelled to open those apps when you see the notifications, just to make sure you haven’t missed anything important—and then do you feel compelled to respond right away, even if the message can…Read more...

A bowl of olive bar olives is a nice snack, for your friends, particularly if you get a variety of colors, sizes, and cures (the wrinkled oil-cured guys are my current faves). No one would be mad at a bowl of room temperature olives, but if you want your guests to feel loved, cared for, and especially attended to, warm…Read more...

Have you ever ordered a 10-piece Chicken McNugget and a large drink, and found yourself with too few hands to adequately carry, sip, and dip? Well, TikTok’er @MakeupByPablo recently posted a genius McDonald’s hack that we decided to test out.Read more...

Hello, all you concupiscent piranhas of the Interwebs, and welcome to Ask Dr. NerdLove, the only dating advice column that gives you extra lives for the game of love.

There is a certain pattern to my evenings these days. I pick up my son from after-school care. I am happy to see him; he is happy to see me. We smile, we hug, we walk out the door of the school. And then, things get sour.Read more...

Taking a loan from your 401(k) is one of those financial life rafts we at Lifehacker only recommend if you’re desperate. But if you’re already thinking of taking out one of these loans, you probably think you’re already in the worst-case financial scenario. You might not be considering how it could get even worse: if…Read more...

Carbon offsets can seem too good to be true. In theory, the offsets work like a big sponge sopping up all the emissions you put into the environment when traveling by plane or riding in a car. It all comes at a relatively low cost, as well: you can offset emissions for a 12-hour flight for the price of an airport…Read more...

Wool Dryer Balls (Pack of 6) | $8 | Amazon | Promo code XTD92QNKRead more...

Most routers come with some kind of administrative website that you access by typing their IP address into your favorite web browser and entering your login and password—which you changed from admin/admin or admin/password, right? If you’re lucky, you have a “smarter” router that’s a bit easier to configure via an…Read more...

Mozilla launched the beta for its long-planned VPN, Firefox Private Network, adding yet another VPN service for both mobile and desktop users. There’s currently a waitlist for beta access, so we haven’t had the chance to test the new service, but there are some notable features that help Firefox Private Browsing…Read more...

As winter catches its last few breaths and spring starts to roll in, Netflix is updating its schedule with a ton of new content to help you escape the weather, whatever it might be.

I love sober people. I want them to be happy, and I want them to feel welcome in all establishments, including bars. Dry January may be well over, but the “sober curious” movement is gaining hashtags, no-proof bars are cropping up in major cities, and companies like Seedlip are putting out fancy looking bottles of…Read more...

We talk a lot about dark mode at Lifehacker—and based on the responses we get whenever a new app or service introduces a new way to view it with a black background, it’s clear that many Lifehacker readers prefer a dim device over a bright one.Read more...

The ninth Democratic presidential debate is set to take place tonight in Nevada, three days before the Nevada caucuses. Six candidates have qualified for space on the stage: Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Amy Klobuchar, Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, and Mike Bloomberg, who just qualified for the debate after receiving …Read more...

It happened while I was helping my daughter get up on the toilet, my son standing behind me. When I turned back to face him, I just managed to catch the moment when he decided to lick the handrail inside of the sandwich shop’s bathroom. It’s the only time I’ve ever considered actually washing his mouth out with soap.…Read more...

Here’s a helpful trick if you’ve ever struggled to find an old Gmail contact or unsaved number on Android: it turns out that Google keeps a list of every Gmail account you’ve ever sent or received an email from, including those you don’t save to your contacts, as “Other Contacts.”

Ever chatted with someone who has so much debt they feel overwhelmed? “Maybe I’ll just file for bankruptcy,” they might say. But then, the inevitable caveat: “I’d still have my student loans, though.”Read more...

If you’re looking for a new wallpaper, a tattoo idea, or just an amazing time scrolling through illustrations from the past, the Biodiversity Heritage Library holds a treat for you. Its thousands of public domain images and digitized books are also educational, collecting observations of the natural world from seven…Read more...

If your tax provider offers to put your tax refund on an Amazon gift card—or any other kind of gift card—say no.Read more...

I do a lot of grocery shopping. At least four times a week, I’ll drop a “going to the store bbiab” into Slack (because I don’t want my coworkers to panic if they can’t get ahold of me, the obvious linchpin of Lifehacker). I know what I’m talking about when it comes to buying groceries is what I’m saying, and you…Read more...

My girlfriend and I do not see eye-to-eye when it comes to rice: She likes brown rice for health reasons and I like white rice for yummy reasons. I know brown rice is supposed to be “healthier” than white rice, but is it so much healthier that I need to make the switch?Read more...

Hey, you paid your credit card bill for the month, right?Read more...

I’m jealous of dog people. You can meet a dog by just walking up to it on the street. A typical dog trusts you instantly. But the average cat must be won over. I talked to three cat behavior experts, who explained why cats are like this, and walked through strategies for making friends with someone else’s cat, even in…Read more...

Soon, every app will have a dark mode, because it looks cooler than a bright white background, period. Google’s latest tweak to its official Google app for Android should bring a dark mode to the app on all Android smartphones. But since this is Android we’re talking about, and yet another Google rollout, your results…Read more...

Even if you’re someone who doesn’t love traveling but has to do it for work, you probably at least appreciate the fact that you get to sleep in a clean, newly made bed every night. And while it may seem like magic (Poof! You get back from your meetings and your room is clean!), there are actual humans behind the…Read more...

If you work out hard on a Monday, you’ll be a bit fatigued on Tuesday. You can still go to the gym, but your performance may suffer a little. That prospect may leave you wondering if you should stay out of the gym until you’re fully recovered, or how pro athletes get away with working out every day. Let’s take a…Read more...

The Instant Pot is good for a lot of things, but I mostly use mine to cook large pieces of tough meats with lot of connective tissue. The device renders them fall-off-the bone tender but, since it’s a sealed cooking environment, this inevitably results in a good amount of flavorful, but quite thin, liquid in the…Read more...

Ring home security devices are supposed to help keep your family and home safe, but it turns out the company uses its products to sell your personal data to third-party advertisers and marketers. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) recently published a report showing that the Ring app contains undisclosed…Read more...

Got your driver’s license nearby? Check to see if it has either a gold or black star in the upper-right-hand corner (if you’re in California, your star will be inside the outline of a bear). Mine does, because I got my most recent driver’s license in 2017; if yours does not, get a new driver’s license as soon as…Read more...

When I told a friend I was pulling together a round-up on the best aluminum-free deodorants in 2020, she said, “How can you write that? You don’t wear deodorant.”

I use WordPress to power my mighty little corner on the internet, and I confess, I’ve been lazy about keeping my various plugins and themes updated. My site is pretty basic, so the thought never came to mind. However, I urge you to visit your WordPress site right now and update everything that needs it, especially if…Read more...

I’ve been on something like six cruises at this point in my life, and at least two of them have included what you might call “emergency medical situations.” There was one sailing in which the ship detoured to the nearest port of call to drop off a passenger who needed medical attention that could not be provided on…Read more...

Puma 70% Off Sale | Puma

Most recipes featuring canned tomatoes will have you squash them with a wooden spoon against the side of your pot. It’s a simple enough motion, but depending on the curvature of your spoon and the stubbornness of your tomato, it can send the whole fruit flying up out of the sauce, which results in splashing (a thing I…Read more...

If you find that it’s hard to look away from your phone, there’s a good reason for that: it was designed that way. A few years ago, former Design Ethicist at Google and founder of the non-profit Time Well Spent Tristan Harris made the rounds, talking about how technology is engineered to be addictive and hijack our…Read more...

Oh the weather outside is frightful, but it’s February and all the charm of the cold is long gone. Since there’s still at least one more month of winter weather, here are some tips for how to stay warm without raising the thermostat.Read more...

Quick: You have two kids with you, one gets hurt badly enough to have to go to the hospital, but the other one isn’t allowed to ride along in the ambulance. What do you do? Or! You slice your finger up real good while prepping dinner and you know stitches are necessary but the kids are running around and your partner…Read more...

Blink Camera & Fire Stick Combo Gold Box | Amazon

xHelper is the gift that keeps on giving. And by gift, I mean “Android malware;” and by giving, I mean “opening up your system to all sorts of unpleasant attacks.” Like that creature from the Alien movies, the primary goal of xHelper is to persist—it keeps reinstalling itself your phone, even if you factory reset your…Read more...

If you work from home, you’ve probably read every tip you can get your hands on for optimizing your workday. And I’m sure you know all the big ones: set a schedule, shower and get dressed, don’t eat at your desk, get some exercise.Read more...

At some point, I decided to go all-in on having Google Home devices around. I love being able to ask what the weather is, set timers and reminders, and figure out how old an actor is by just asking, so much so that there’s a Google Home device in almost every room of my home now. For the rooms that don’t have one, a…Read more...

We live in a society where we’re all constantly being pulled in different directions. When you’re at work you have to focus on a task, but also pay attention to things like email and Slack, and then there’s that telephone on your desk and that cell phone in your pocket. With tons of distractions out there, it can be…Read more...

If you get a text from someone claiming to be your bank, don’t click on the link. A new mobile phishing scam is texting people in the US and Canada claiming to be your bank. When you click on the included link, you’ll be taken to a website that may look like your bank’s website, but is actually a way to steal your…Read more...

Apple AirPods (Renewed) | $112 | AmazonRead more...

The Daytona 500, one of the most significant Nascar races of the year, is happening today. Today’s race officially kicks off at 1pm ET/10am PT and will be broadcast on FOX.