Lifehacker

One of life’s simple pleasures is not having to make a car payment every month. Your trusty ride is paid off, only costing you for gas, insurance and repairs.

“Practice makes perfect” was never a very good saying. Let me tell you—I practiced playing the clarinet a lot as a kid, and then even more as a teenager, and I never got anywhere near perfect. The sentiment, though, that we only get better at a thing by practicing that thing is still very valid. It’s just that there’s…Read more...

Our societal narrative for figuring out what to do with your life is pretty clear. After high school and potentially college, you enter the workforce. Sure, it might take a few internships or lower-level jobs before you really get going, but by the end of your 20s—and certainly by your 30s—you’re on a pretty clear…Read more...

The National Dance Institute involves thousands of children each year in classes, performances, school partnerships, professional development for educators, and dance programs for children with disabilities. We talked to executive director Traci Lester about overseeing this important, inclusive non-profit.

Hackers have busted into servers of at least three popular VPN services—NordVPN, VikingVPN, and TorGuard—over the past couple of years, pilfering cryptographic keys that may have been used to intercept and decrypt highly sensitive user data or bypass browser security features to deploy web-based attacks. In other…Read more...

User reviews are immensely helpful, especially in the world of skincare and beauty products. After all, this is stuff you put on your face. Your precious face! But when some of those reviews turn out to be fake, how can you be sure you can trust anything you read?

If you’re a big Disney fan like me, you’re counting down the days until the November 12 launch of Disney+, the streaming service for all things Star Wars, Disney animated classics, and Ducktales. Verizon subscribers have one more reason to mark the date on the calendars: They’ll be able to sign up for a free year of…Read more...

Alison Roman—cookbook author, Instagram microlebrity, and creator of a viral chickpea stew—is a hugger. “I feel like we’ve met before!” she gushes, after embracing me and apologizing for a logistical snafu that left me waiting at Korean grocery store H Mart’s outpost in Manhattan’s East Village while Roman was on her…Read more...

In case you haven’t yet made traveling arrangements for Thanksgiving, now’s your chance to book a train back home (or wherever you go to avoid family during the holidays)—for two days only, Amtrak is having a 50% off sale on travel this November.

If you’re a Spotify Premium user, the company has something for you: a free Google Home Mini. The deal works for both existing users and new users that sign up today.

The dings and chimes of your smartphone’s notifications are a part of the background din of everyday life. While these help us stay on top of our important communications, the constant noise can create anxiety. And there’s no worse culprit of superfluous notifications than an email inbox that’s stuffed with threads…Read more...

Allegedly, there’s no wrong way to make a pot of puréed vegetable soup. But I dunno—have you ever made a really bad batch? At its worst, it’s truly unsalvageable; a bland, watery disaster that no amount of clever seasoning and full-fat dairy can help.Read more...

Of the three macronutrients—protein, carbs, and fat—protein has the best reputation, and it’s fairly well deserved. We need significant amounts of protein in our diet, and nothing particularly bad happens if we get too much. Dietary protein helps you build muscle, and if you’re trying to lose weight it helps stop you…Read more...

Amazon and Google’s smart speakers both allow you to supplement them with extensions of sorts, the same way you install third-party add-ons to make your web browsing experience even better. Here’s the kicker: As with browser add-ons, you’re entirely at the mercy of a developer. And should they use their powers for…Read more...

If you’re using an online service like LegalZoom or FreeWill to create your will, don’t assume you can sign and store your will online as well. Print it out, have a notary present at the signing ceremony, and store a hard copy in a safe, secure place.

We’ve all been tempted by those too-cheap-to-believe $10 packs of charging cables. Cables feel like a thing that should be cheap, and the prices charged by first-party manufacturers like Apple and Samsung can be hard to justify. But be warned: those cheap charging cables aren’t worth the trouble.Read more...

If you combine FOMO with aphasia, you get the feeling of going on Twitter or Reddit or Facebook, seeing everyone clearly talking about something, but not knowing what that thing is. You check the trending topics, but they’re just full of posts saying “Why is #EatMyBlempglorf trending!?” Here’s how to figure out what…Read more...

I like sugary cereal. My mother did not allow it in the home, and so I spent many summers at my grandmother’s, devouring bowls of the stuff while watching the charismatic and compelling Stick Stickly. Sometimes I would mix the cereals—Rice Krispies Treats Cereal with Cocoa Pebbles was a favorite.Read more...

Have you ever spent a while browsing a website, adding items to your cart, but when you finally got to the checkout page, you decided not to buy? Maybe you reconsidered whether you really needed those items. Or maybe your credit card was in the next room, and you were comfortable and cozy on your couch.

If you have a house, you probably have some sort of hot water heater. But there’s no universal temperature for “hot” water—this is something you have to set yourself. So what’s the ideal hot water heater temperature? Here’s what you need to know.Read more...

It’s great that the Nintendo Switch can play so many excellent games on the go, but some games have menus that can be as hard to read as the fine print on a food label. Thank goodness the Switch has a smartly-designed zoom feature.Read more...

Becoming a new parent is, well, hard. It’s wonderful, thrilling, exhausting, terrifying, amazing and hard. Becoming a new parent of multiple children at once? That’s a whole different ballgame.Read more...

Aukey Transparent TV Antenna | $7 | Amazon | Promo code N7KUSJTXRead more...

There’s a certain path through fitness that a lot of us have taken. First you take each workout as it comes: do this class, or tag along with that friend at the gym. Then, you realize that you can make progress in your sport—whether that’s lifting, running, or anything else—and you start following a plan designed to…Read more...

Once, I turned up at a party by myself, before any of my friends got there. Rather than mingling, I hid in the bathroom to kill time and avoid talking to people I didn’t know. For a shy person like me, social interaction—especially with strangers—can be a stomach-churning, anxiety-filled experience. But with some…Read more...

Amazon Echo Dot + 1 Month Amazon Music Unlimited | $9 | AmazonRead more...

In a world drowned by existential fear—caused mostly by late-night WebMD searches—Lifehacker stands firmly against the bullshit.Read more...

Android 10 is the latest version of Android, and it’s chock full of new features, like improved security, gesture-based navigation, updated parental controls, and support for foldable screens. And with every update of Android comes a few new and improved accessibility features for folks with disabilities. They range…Read more...

There are foods that surround you your entire life to the point that you take them for granted. I assumed everyone knew what rice balls were, and I assumed that they’d be readily available wherever I went. Maybe they wouldn’t be as good as the ones from Joe’s of Avenue U— a Sicilian restaurant way down in the depths…Read more...

One of our favorite to-do apps—the appropriately named Todoist—is getting a big upgrade today. You’ll see it start rolling out within the next 24 hours or so, and all the new features that make Todoist even easier to use are worth waiting to try out.

Two Ohio counties planned to sue a group of companies for their role in the opioid epidemic, but at the last minute the parties reached a $260 million settlement. Here’s what that means for the counties and companies involved, and for the possibility of more suits in the future.Read more...

The Pixel 4 and 4 XL have barely made it into the hands of reviewers, and a major security flaw has already been discovered: the phone’s new facial recognition will let your face unlock your phone whether you’re awake or not.Read more...

RAVPower 8-Pack AA Rechargeable Batteries With USB Charger | $13 | Amazon | Promo code KIAPZMIBRead more...

If saving up three to six months of expenses in an emergency fund feels like advice that’s wise but nearly impossible to achieve, there’s growing evidence that you don’t need quite that much money stashed away to cushion you from financial emergencies. $2500 may be enough to get you started.

Parents have plenty of reasons to fight against traditional gender stereotypes. We want our girls to pursue STEM careers, we want our boys to feel comfortable expressing sadness or fear, and we also want to not assume that their outward gender appearance is their internal gender identity.

I am what is known as an “indoor kid,” which means I am often woefully underprepared for any sort of outside activity, even those geared towards children. Such was the case this weekend, when I went to a pumpkin patch, and ended up covered in a not-insignificant amount of mud. You cannot stop the mud, but you can…Read more...

Not only can you play shuffleboard in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Gowanus, but you can even join a league, as I learned from a friend who plays in one, despite being a good 35 years from retirement. There are more obvious amateur sports in town: soccer in a skinny park in the East Village, basketball in Greenwich…Read more...

Earlier this month, fed up with baggage fees, one traveler wore what looked like every item of clothing from her suitcase to save on excess luggage fees, as seen in her Facebook post. But if you’d prefer not to wear all your clothes at once—and are willing to pay for your carry-on—Frontier is having a hell of a sale…Read more...

I can’t wait for Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker, but I am as excited about today as I am dreading today. Here’s why: Tickets for the final movie in the epic Skywalker saga go on sale later tonight, and it’s going to be complete chaos for the millions of fans looking for seats for the film’s opening weekend.

Those looking forward to the upcoming Disney+ may want to double-check their preferred devices can actually run the streaming service in the first place. According to Linux developer Hansdegoede, Linux PCs, Chromebooks, and some Android devices are incapable of meeting Disney’s stringent DRM requirements necessary for…Read more...

Last week, we discussed how to deal with tricky job interviews and the right way to answer “why exactly do you want to work here?” (Spoiler: it’s a lot easier than you think.) In our comments section, one reader mentioned another potential scenario you might run into during the job hunt: How do you explain wanting a…Read more...

TubShroom Bath Tub Drain Protector | $7 | AmazonRead more...

Every time you turn around, it seems, someone wants you to sign up for a credit card—and no place is worse for getting a sales pitch than an airplane. You can’t run, you can’t hide, and you’re probably tired and dehydrated. You’ve surely averted your eyes toward the end of the journey, when the flight attendants walk…Read more...

If you’re on Twitter, you’ve probably heard about Senator Mitt Romney’s secret Twitter account, in which he called himself “Pierre Delecto” and kept track of his kids as well as journalists, political associates, and a handful of celebrities.Read more...

In Lifehacker’s first-ever Parental Advisory advice column, I’m diving right in to a topic that kids and parents should never have to deal with—and yet, here we are. What do you do when one third-grader tells a bunch of other third-graders (including your own child) that he’s going to get his dad’s gun and “kill…Read more...

Prosciutto crisps, which I fondly call “pork chips,” can function as a fancy snack, highfalutin’ bacon bit, or—in the case of one cocktail I had one time—unexpected drink garnish. Usually the paper-thin slices require at least 15 minutes in an oven to get them nice and crisp, but you can speed up the process c…Read more...

As a professional car shopper, I communicate with several hundred dealers over the course of a year. While most of them are fine, some of them clearly despise this whole internet shopping thing and will pull out of the air any number of bonkers excuses not to disclose their pricing.Read more...

YAMAZAKI Magnetic Kitchen Organization Rack | $30 | AmazonRead more...

For the 36,000 people living in and around Paradise, California, the Camp Fire is a definitive moment that cleaved life into a before period and an after one.Read more...

Should you ever tell someone that you’ve stashed a smart speaker, camera, or display in your home somewhere? If the person lives with you, absolutely. If you’re having some friends over, though, is this overkill? Do you have a responsibility to let people know, or are you making a mountain out of a (smart) molehill?Read more...