Lifehacker

It’s totally normal to spend an hour or two at a gym full of people and speak to no one. Headphones in, eyes on your workout, focused. But what if you want to talk to somebody? A cute guy? An athlete you’re just in awe of?Read more...

The next time you receive a gift card, don’t save it for a special occasion—and don’t toss it in a drawer and forget about it. Use your card as soon as possible, because otherwise you’re providing the company with an interest-free loan.

The great thing about parenting during the age of social media is that we have an easy way to connect with others during those isolating early years. The years during which the days are long but the nights are longer, someone is always physically hanging on you, and even something as simple as getting out the door…Read more...

Adding salt until your pasta water is “salty like the sea” is a common practice, but no one talks about the other briny, oceanic flavors the large body of water has to offer. I wouldn’t boil my pasta in actual sea water, but you can impart a bit of minerality and mushroom-like umami with the help of seaweed.Read more...

I just moved into a place with a tankless water heater, and it’s a revelation. Instant, unlimited hot water, and with lower utility bills. The only downside to tankless heaters is that they tend to be more expensive than standard water heaters, but that’s not really true with today’s Home Depot sale.

Meeting new people can be tricky, or even anxiety-inducing. Of course, you want to make a good first impression and come across as likable as possible. If turning on the charm is something you struggle with, here are the most important strategies for instantly charming someone you haven’t met before.Read more...

Anker Nebula Capsule Max | $400 | Amazon | Promo code KINJAMAXRead more...

What sort of expense ratios are you paying for your investing portfolio? Do you have any idea what you should be paying for the convenience of holding your hard-earned money in a particular fund?Read more...

On a busy travel day, often the last thing I want to do is add another preparatory task. But in an interview, the founder of Allbirds revealed that his best travel tip is to exercise before flying. And his logic is sound:Read more...

I can’t work in silence. And if I’m working with words—which is most of the time—I can’t work while playing typical pop, rock, or hip-hop. So I collect instrumental and foreign-language music on a scale better measured by weeks than by hours. Here are some of my greatest sources of background music for work, studying,…Read more...

You and I are not the kind of people who get all “summer’s over, back to the grind” as soon as Labor Day rolls around; there are still three weeks left of sun and fun and we are prepared to maintain an easy-breezy state of mind until the first frost. Lo and behold, our friends at Netflix similarly do not see…Read more...

Last Christmas I decided to splurge on an Airbnb for a few days in my hometown rather than stay with friends and family for my entire trip. I loved the idea of being able to come and go as I wanted, as well as stay up as late as I wanted without bugging my hosts. As it turns out, my midnight west coast bedtime turns…Read more...

If you read through my Lifehacker posts, you can figure out pretty quickly that I’m a fan of browser extensions. I have extensions for adding a dark mode to my browser, one of showing previews of sites so I don’t have to open a tab, and even a browser extension for helping me manage all those tabs that I do open.

I am admittedly a pretty messy person. I persistently have stacks of items around my office, and sometimes my home that I plan to get to “later;” however, as my boyfriend can tell you, that later more often than not never comes. Which is why I recommend scheduling it.

If you want to be able to stream 4K Ultra HD content from Netflix you’ll not only need a high-resolution television, you’ll need a fast internet connection as well.

The 80th Anniversary of The Wizard of Oz is Sunday. To celebrate, Google has added a fun easter egg to google search that will sweep you up in a tornado and send you to Oz.

My boyfriend and I have a shared Google calendar so we can keep track of each other’s various events and commitments, as well as things like concerts and parties we plan to attend together. It’s a great system for us, but this week we ended up with something a little odd on that calendar: “You Have Won iPhone X s from…Read more...

Now that the Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ is officially on sale, and we’ve had a chance to thoroughly check it out, here comes the next big question: Should you actually buy one?Read more...

Philips Hue White Four Bulbs | $40 | AmazonRead more...

At 3pm on Monday, Brazil’s largest city, São Paolo, plunged into darkness as a result of smoke from ongoing fires destroying the Amazon rainforest—thousands of miles away. This year, Brazil is witnessing a record number of wildfires. And the country’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, has said the country’s government lacks…Read more...

We try our best to keep Lifehacker readers aware of recent data breaches and security vulnerabilities that might have compromised their data. Any good website or service should tell you what’s up, too. Sometimes, though, you get an email out of the blue that your account credentials have been compromised—even though…Read more...

In this week’s tech-support column at Lifehacker, we’re tackling a relatively simple problem in Gmail—but one that’s probably very annoying if you’re particular about how your email looks. (It’s OK to be particular!)Read more...

If you’re currently enrolled in a college or university, then Sirius XM has a deal for you. The satellite radio company is offering students the ability to get its Premier Plan for $4 a month, $9 off its traditional price of $13.

Last year, a law went into effect that should allow cancer patients to pause their federal student loans while undergoing treatment and for six months afterward. But there was no way to actually request a deferment—until now.Read more...

You’ve got the employment warm and fuzzies—at least for now. After a long application process that included at least one phone interview and two in-person interviews, you’ve been offered the job that you just know is perfect for you. You’ve got the precise skills and qualifications they need, the work is exactly what…Read more...

Apple’s Reminders app—an incredibly helpful way to stay organized on iOS and macOS—is once again available via your web browser, thanks to an updated version of Apple’s iCloud website. But you won’t see this, as well as Apple’s other changes, unless you enroll in the iCloud beta test.Read more...

Contact lens technology has improved drastically since the days when your only option was putting hard plastic chips on your eyeball. But even with all the optical advancements, there are still some activities doctors recommend that you avoid while wearing contacts — and you may be surprised to hear that that list…Read more...

If you haven’t tried Spotify Premium yet, now you can take the music service for a test drive for three months for free before you’ll have to start paying for a subscription.

Happy weekend, everyone, and welcome back to 3-Ingredient Happy Hour, the weekly drink column featuring super-simple yet delicious libations. Claire is in L.A. filming new food content, which means it’s time for another guest post. This week, we’re making the most A.A. Newton cocktail of all time: one that contains…Read more...

The internet and subsequent rise of smartphones and cloud storage have revolutionized the act of taking notes. It’s easier than ever to save your thoughts (since we almost always have a connected device within arm’s reach), access them from a variety of other devices, and share them with people who need to know what…Read more...

Some TV shows have too many jokes to catch with just one watch: Arrested Development, 30 Rock, Bojack Horseman, The Simpsons, Community. Some use foreshadowing and thematic hints: Lost, Breaking Bad, The 100. And some just have interesting mistakes, or small choices in the set dressing and costuming. You can scoop…Read more...

On a recent Reddit thread, u/brunoflourenco shared their experience with an Airbnb listing in London—which turned out to be a fake. “We get there, knock on the door, the guy comes out and looks really confused,” they wrote. “We tell him that we are the Airbnb guests, he sighs and says, ‘Guys, the thing is you got…Read more...

Many of us know how to tip when we’re in a restaurant, coffee shop, or hair salon. What about when we’re traveling? Aside from the taxi and rideshare drivers, who else gets a tip? Are we inadvertently neglecting any of the service workers that make our trip run smoothly and comfortably?Read more...

When you decide to work towards a big financial goal, getting motivated at the start comes naturally. You’re excited to start chipping away. When you’re near the end of your money marathon, you get reinvigorated and start thinking of the endless possibility of post-goal life. But what about that seemingly endless part…Read more...

David Allen, author of the productivity bible Getting Things Done, shares his five favorite books on productivity in a new interview on the site Five Books. GTD fans will recognize titles like Atul Gawande’s Checklist Manifesto and Daniel J Levitin’s The Organized Mind. He names what makes each book so important, and…Read more...

That’s what I get for not touching my Mac in a day or so. Thanks to a tip from Lifehacker reader David (no relation), we can now confirm that Mac users are probably having one heck of a time trying to manage their schedules today. If you synchronize your Google Calendar to your Mac calendar, all of your events might…Read more...

Learn how to efficiently pack a suitcase, and maybe cry while you’re at it. This touching stop-motion short, based on a piece of flash fiction by author Ron Koertge, is about family and loss and how to fit everything into your luggage.Read more...

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...