Lifehacker

The last time I went grocery shopping, I bought the name-brand cheese instead of the store-brand cheese. The price differential between the $2 cheddar and the $6 cheddar used to feel impossibly vast; now it barely matters. It still registers, though, every time—and reminds me how much my life has changed, over the…Read more...

If you’ve noticed that your $129 Smart Battery Case is struggling to charge your iPhone, or you can’t really charge the case itself that well (or at all), then you’ve got a defective product on your hands. Apple is aware of these issues and is ready with replacements, and you only have to jump through a single hoop to…Read more...

You’ve finally decided to part ways with your old Samsonite. Over the years, it’s accrued stains, scuff marks, and tears of all kinds; an upgrade is long overdue. But before you dump that luggage in the garbage, you should know that even a used suitcase has plenty of recyclable value.Read more...

If you enjoyed the Quadrantid meteor shower at the beginning of the month, or if you missed it and want to make sure you don’t miss another, here’s a list of all the upcoming meteor showers in 2020. Set your calendar reminders now.Read more...

Remember back on January 1st, when you were ready to turn over a new leaf?Read more...

Cold french fries are seemingly one of the few leftover foods that cannot be salvaged. Once a fry starts to cool, the water inside the fluffy starch granules moves out towards the crust, rendering the insides of the fry grainy and the outsides mushy. It’s a truly terrible situation.Read more...

If I had to rank tax forms from worst to best, the W-4 would take the top spot. The worst part of any new job is when you fill out that sheaf of paperwork on your first day, and you know you save the W-4 until last because you’re just not sure what to do with it.

You pass through the metal detectors at airport security when a TSA agent asks the one question no one wants to hear, directed at the crowd of travelers around you: Whose bag is this? Before you know it, the agent pulls out that oversized liquid from your carry-on and sends you on your way.

This time of year can be a bit of a bummer. The holidays are over, the kids are back in daycare or school, the weather is cold and grey (but still largely snow-free, depending on where you are). It can be hard to come up with fresh new ways to switch up the day-to-day, to create a little mid-winter spark of joy. My…Read more...

Sable Heating Pad | $20 | Amazon | Clip $6 coupon and use promo code KINJA7KJRead more...

One of my New Year’s resolutions at the beginning of 2019 was to start giving things away. I grew up in a household where if anything had any value, even for parts, you would hold onto it because you “might need it” in the future.

When you’re looking for an Airbnb, in most cases the built-in search works great. Sometimes; however, you have a few more provisions for your stay that aren’t covered by the standard search.

The Critics’ Choice Awards air this evening at 7pm ET. The Irishman leads nominations this year, including a nomination for Best Picture where it’s competing against 1917, Jojo Rabbit, Little Women, Marriage Story, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, Joker, Ford v Ferrari, Uncut Gems and Parasite.

A Netgear switch, Washington Post subscription, and a RavPower Qi charger lead off Sunday’s best deals from around the web.

Earlier this week Instagram started rolling out a few new effects to the Boomerang feature within the app.

If your travels are taking you to or from New England, the Great Lakes, or Plains areas this weekend, or through them, then you may want to consider changing your ticket.

A few years ago my friend group discovered the dice game Quixx. If you haven’t played it, I highly recommend it. Essentially, you roll a collection of differently-colored dice and then try to mark off numbers on a score sheet based on the totals.

Microsoft just released an adorable “Dogs and Cats” pack of desktop backgrounds, if you’ve been looking for a way to make your Windows 10 PC’s wallpaper a little cuter to look at. There are fifteen images in total, all of which are available for download from the Microsoft store.

Fires are currently still burning in Australia, threatening homes, residents, and the country’s unique wildlife. It’s a huge fight, and an expensive one. United is offering MileagePlus users a tiny incentive to make a donation to help fight the fires in the form of airline miles.

Nvidia and Asus announced at this year’s CES that they’ve created an esports-focused computer monitor capable of running at 360Hz in 1080p. You probably don’t need one, even if you’re getting better and better at CS:GO and feel like this is the year you’ll finally be able to step up your game and go big.Read more...

You feel your chest tightening, your breathing becomes erratic and your hands start to sweat. For most people, this may describe the physical experience of watching a spine-chilling horror movie. Yet for some anxiety sufferers these symptoms just need a good jump scare to resolve – something I only realized after I…Read more...

I once helped a man search for an engagement ring in knee-deep snow, in the dark, in middle-of-nowhere Iceland. As we sifted through the snow with our mittens while someone distracted his girlfriend, another in our search party (our tour group) chuckled, “Well, you’ve got insurance, right?”

We are firmly in the middle of bad winter, that portion of the year that is cold, damp, and grey, without warm seasonal cheer to balance the ill effects. I don’t know how you cope with ill effects, but I’ve heard drinking gin helps sometimes.Read more...

As someone who actively seeks out and writes about parenting hacks every day, I’m always looking for shortcuts and tricks to make your lives (and my own) a tiny bit easier. But not all hacks are created equal, and a hack that works brilliantly for one parent might be a complete waste of time for another. Your mileage,…Read more...

Shutting down or restarting your PC every now and then is a good thing. It can even solve minor performance issues by clearing temporary files and freeing up memory—a classic troubleshooting technique—but many of us neglect this simple act of tech upkeep. It’s a lot easier to put a desktop or laptop to sleep (or…Read more...

There’s nothing wrong with the premise of the U.S. Government’s Lifeline Assistance program. It allows those with substantially low incomes—135 percent or less than the Federal Poverty Guidelines, or less than $16,862 for a single-person household—to receive discounted or free phones and wireless services.

The first full moon of the year rises today, January 10th, which also brings the first lunar eclipse of the year.

As Jalopnik’s resident car buying expert and professional car shopper, I get emails. Lots of emails. I’ve decided to pick a few questions and try to help out. This week we are discussing an interesting strategy for getting a car deal, test drives on an affordable performance car, and inspections on cheap rides.Read more...

Ready for the first fitness challenge of 2020? We’re going to get acquainted with the infamous ab wheel, better known as “Hey, what’s this? I bet I can—oof.” (And here you fall on your face.) We’ll start today with some beginner tips.Read more...

Every year, for at least the past four years, I have resolved to spend less time on Twitter.Read more...

Southwest recently took the expiration date off its Rapid Rewards points program. And now, its co-branded credit card with Chase is offering the chance to rack up a gigantic pile of never-expiring points to use as you please.

It is a common refrain among parents of young children that the Terrible Twos have nothing on age three. When they hit age three, we start calling them “threenagers,” a tip of the hat to their increasingly disgruntled disposition. But that word is nowhere near strong enough to depict what it’s actually like to have a…Read more...

If you’re on the lookout for a good deal on a flight, it’s a hell of a guessing game as to when to pull the trigger, given the daily and even hourly changes in price on booking sites. Fortunately, data analysts at Hopper, a travel app, recently reviewed a few billion flight prices in 2019 to help you find some of the…Read more...

Deadlines are scary. I know. And Microsoft has thrown Windows 7 users a big one: Update to a more modern operating system by January 15, 2020, or you’ll never receive security updates ever again. Eventually, Microsoft will even start disabling key Windows 7 services—like Internet Backgammon and Internet…Read more...

Vitamin Gold Box | AmazonRead more...

2020 is going to be a bonkers year for US politics, but while the presidential debates and President Trump’s lingering impeachment might be the biggest topics of conversation (so far), we all know where the true political discourse happens: Facebook.

The wedge salad is often dismissed as nothing more than a vehicle for blue cheese and crispy bits of cured pork. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. In fact, I think a delivery system for cheese and bacon is what lettuce should strive to be, but you can make your wedge just a touch more nutritious (and…Read more...

If I look up from my office computer in southeast Portland I see a patchwork of brick buildings interspersed by evergreen patches of forest, all pushing up against a lead-colored sky. It’s winter in the Pacific Northwest, and we’re a couple months into a rainy season that will probably last until April. Lucky me, I…Read more...

Jeopardy! is holding a tournament this week between three of its greatest players: Ken Jennings, Brad Rutter, and James Holzhaur. The event, called Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time, officially kicked off Wednesday evening on ABC, but will also air at 8pm ET Thursday and Friday evening.

There’s this thing that happens when a person sees a brand new human. Their hands, which just moments before they had complete control over, turn into large magnets that pull straight up and out with a primal need to touch that baby. It’s bad enough to endure months of randoms rubbing your pregnant stomach; now all…Read more...

2020 is off to an incredibly shitty start—what with the destructive bushfires in Australia, ramped-up tensions between the U.S. and Iran, and ongoing earthquakes in Puerto Rico. If you’re someone who enjoys staying on top of world events, keeping up with the news has likely become a full-time job.Read more...

As much fun as vacations can be, actually planning your travel can be tedious and anxiety-inducing. Sure, an all-inclusive package or a travel agent might make the process easier, but that’s going to get pricey, and anyway, some of us prefer to make all the arrangements ourselves—even if we have to rely on a…Read more...

Even though you probably just updated your Firefox desktop browser to version 72 (released Tuesday), make sure you run one more update to nab a special patch that Mozilla released yesterday. Updating to version 72.0.1 fixes a zero-day vulnerability that, if exploited, could allow an attacker to “take control of an…Read more...

Having a baby is a pricey endeavor. Health care costs and the expense of getting prepared for a baby’s first year of life take a hefty bit of coin. As babies grow, their needs change, too. There’s no way to anticipate how quickly your child will transition through the stages, which could bring on a heap of unforeseen…Read more...

Receiving a new credit card in the mail can feel like a major win. You researched cards, chose one that fits your needs, and got approved—and your new card confirms your financial clout. But what if you never asked to open that credit card that just showed up in the mail?

If you’ve spent the past few months indulging in everything from gifts to new clothes to more expensive versions of your favorite foods, shifting back to your everyday spending habits might be more difficult than you realize.Read more...

If you’re having a hard time waking up early, it may help to embrace one simple fact: getting out of bed on that first early morning is like ripping off a band-aid.Read more...

On Tuesday, an earthquake measuring a 6.4 magnitude struck the island of Puerto Rico, unleashing a series of aftershocks that have leveled homes and structures on the island; this earthquake closely followed a 5.8 magnitude earthquake which also struck the island early Monday morning.

One of the most challenging things about meal planning is predicting what future you is going to want to eat. I am very bad at this, as my palate often craves last-minute adventure, but one thing that always excites is potatoes.

I didn’t start fixing cars until I was a freshman in college, and by then, the internet was filling with how-to DIY YouTube videos that helped me get up to speed in short order. Lots of YouTubers spend tons of time making videos to show the rest of us how to fix things, and I think they deserve appreciation. So here’s…Read more...