Lifehacker

Little is sexier than telling a friend or loved one, “Hey, can you give me a minute? I have to finish testing my download speeds, then we can head out to the party.” But if you aren’t checking your Internet speeds on a weekly basis, you might not know when there’s a problem. You aren’t likely to notice a difference…Read more...

The average annual bill for TV service rose from $700 in 2000 to $1,200 in 2017, according to Consumer Reports, and a sizable portion of that increase can be attributed to all of the egregious fees cable companies tack on to your cable bill each month.Read more...

As part of their Prime Day early access deals, Amazon’s taking up to 20% off a bunch of AmazonBasics stuff right now for Prime members.

This week Hack Your City went to Black Rock City, the seasonal settlement that fills up every August for Burning Man. Readers gave tips for surviving the heat, the dust, and the sensory overload. Honestly it sounds like literal hell to me, but people seem to have a good time there! Read all the comments on the…Read more...

If you’re an American Express Membership Rewards cardholder, you might be able to save money with the points you’ve earned. Eligibility varies, but according to Slick Deals, there’s a possibility of getting 20 percent off your purchases on Amazon by paying for them with Amex points. Here’s how.Read more...

A good potato salad should be a marriage of discernible, toothsome chunks of potato in a creamy, starchy dressing. Rather than adding globs of mayo, sour cream, or tahini, the key to that balance of textures lies in using two different types of potatoes.Read more...

Jolie Kerr is a cleaning expert, advice columnist and author of the New York Times bestselling book, My Boyfriend Barfed In My Handbag ... And Other Things You Can’t Ask Martha. Her flagship column, “Ask a Clean Person,” debuted in 2011. Here on Offspring, we’ve launched a new iteration of it, focusing on parenting…Read more...

Vanguard is making one of investors’ biggest wishes come true: commission-free trading on the majority of its ETF options.Read more...

iOS, Android: I’m not a huge Walmart shopper, but if I was—because they had a certain retro gaming system in stock, for example—I’d definitely make sure I was walking into the store, smartphone at the ready. You might think there’s nothing inherently special about Walmart’s app for Android and iOS, but it actually…Read more...

Earther This Summer, Become an Expert Stargazer | The A.V. Club Sharp Objects is a gripping rumination on who perpetrates—and perpetuates—violence | The Takeout A blind taste test to determine the best hot dogs |Read more...

Is Slack making your life unruly? Is nonstop collaboration, conversation and over-communication keeping you from actually getting anything done? Us too.

The average person uses only 10 percent of their finger-power opening their phone. That doesn’t mean anything, but you should be teaching your phone more than a single fingerprint. Try these three upgrades to streamline your phone’s fingerprint recognition.

At 3,500 running watts (4,000 surge), this Sportsman generator could damn near power your entire house, or the most high-tech tailgate party on the planet, and it can be yours for $250 today from Walmart, which is about as cheap as you’ll ever see a generator this powerful.

My kid is home from school while I’m writing this, but he’s been busy at a computer across the room for I think a full hour now. And every couple seconds he says: “WOOOOOOW that is like the COOLEST thing I have EVER SEEEEEN! Oh my OH WOW!”

When it comes to hamburgers and hot dogs, most of us have a good idea of the right way to grill them up. And even if you don’t, as long as you pay attention to what you’re doing it’s pretty hard to screw them up entirely.

In the war against sand, humans can never win. And the sooner you square yourself to the fact that going to the beach is an inherently messy process, the more you’ll actually enjoy going to the beach.Read more...

Fellow millennials, this is a PSA: When it comes to career and money advice, parents have an untold number of opinions, mostly based on what they have done or would like their friends to know you are doing. I’m here to say don’t listen to them.

I have always thought the concept of “gas delivery” was silly: All those apps you can use to summon a truck to your house or place of business, which then fills up your car with gas for you because you were too lazy to drive down the street to the gas station. But I get it, I do. If you’re just incredibly busy and…Read more...

Sweet summer fruits in buttery crusts are one of the many great gifts of the season, but turning on the oven is—obviously—the opposite of what anyone wants to be during when it’s hot as dick outside.Read more...

One of the traditional perks of air travel with children under 2 years old is saving on the price of an extra ticket by holding the child in your lap. (Granted, those of us who have ever traveled this way might argue it doesn’t exactly feel like a perk at the time, but it does make travel more affordable for families.)

Hrishikesh Hirway pulls songs apart to learn how they work. On his podcast Song Exploder, Hirway has interviewed artists like Solange, Iggy Pop, Norah Jones, Björk, and Arcade Fire about their writing, recording, and mixing processes. Hirway makes his own music as half of the band Moors with Atlanta’s Lakieth…Read more...

Celebrate America with $100 off the Echo Show, the world’s best board game, a $5 per month Audible trial, and lots more deals.

Update: Now $16 less than last week, this Breville oven is selling for the lowest Amazon price ever.

It’s not a 4th of July celebration without fireworks, and it’s not the day after 4th of July without an Instagram feed filled with people’s terrible fireworks photos. Don’t be like those people. Take decent fireworks photos on your iPhone with these tips.

July 4th is a national holiday, which means depending on where you are and what you’d like to do today you may or may out be out of luck. Like most national holidays some businesses will be closed for the day to celebrate, but others should be up and running.

If you missed the one-day Echo sales last week, Amazon’s once again taking $100 off the Echo Show today, bringing it $20 below its previous all-time low. You can read Gizmodo’s review if you want to learn more, but it turns out Alexa would have benefitted from a visual component all along

This week we have a guy who keeps jumping from relationship to relationship, but he’s been dying to see what the single life is like. Will he figure out how to live it up solo? Or will he realize there’s not always a right way to do everything?

There’s a common misconception about dyslexia—that it involves “backward reading” or “mirror reading.” Reversing letters isn’t always a sign of dyslexia, and lots of little kids who don’t have the disorder write their letters backwards, too.Read more...

Hello, and welcome back to Will It Casserole?, the column where I take your delicious concepts and re-imagine them as tasty casserole creations. This week, that concept is America, and we managed to pack an entire cookout’s worth of taste into a single hot dish.Read more...

When it comes to getting your life in order or going for the next promotion, you probably rely on your friends or family members for support, advice and encouragement. But as Meg Joy writes in the The Defining Decade, you’re better off reaching out to an old coworker or networking acquaintance if you really want to…Read more...

I just returned from a trip to Europe with my husband’s extended family. It was the first time we traveled out of the continent with our 5-year-old, and despite a couple time-change-induced meltdowns, I’m happy to report it was a net positive experience. I’m can’t yet say I’m a pro at globetrotting with kids, but I’ve…Read more...

We all love the convenience of mapping apps, but many of us would prefer that the app stick with a route we know is golden, rather than rerouting us all over the place to save a few minutes in traffic.Read more...

We’re social creatures by nature who rely on one another, so we automatically seek out people to create substantial relationships. But how many friends do you need in your life? And how many can you actually have?Read more...

It’s that magical time of year again, folks: school’s out, the ice cream truck’s back, and temperatures are once again climbing to levels most accurately described as “dangerous” and “oppressive.” What a time to be alive.

We’ve shown you how to open a beer bottle with a knife, a spoon, a lighter, a stapler, a newspaper, a Mac power brick, a countertop, a frisbee, and your arm. Now a video on Reddit shows you how to open a beer bottle with a beer bottle—or, if you’re clever, with just a bottle cap.

Even just a couple of years ago, the message to new parents was pretty clear: Screens, for the most part, aren’t good for kids, so stay away. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommended that kids not experience any screen time until at least age two, and then after that, they suggested keeping it very limited.

If you have the day off tomorrow, why not get started on our July book club pick, 10% Happier by Dan Harris (first, though, check out our June convo).

Earther Jumping Into the Ocean Helped Me Get Over a Lifelong Fear | The A.V. Club Sicario sequel director Stefano Sollima has a lousy reason for leaving Emily Blunt out | The Takeout Ask The Salty Waitress: My family is way underdressed for this restaurant—should we leave? |Read more...

Mac: I just finished updating the Lifehacker Pack for Mac, and I wish I could have included every application or utility that I, or others, find useful. Unfortunately, a best-of-the-best list requires one to make a few tough decisions, lest you find yourself filling your system with 50 new apps—all useful, but maybe a…Read more...

A 6 qt Instant Pot Ultra, a 55" LG OLED TV, reader-favorite Audio-Technica headphones, and more are all part of today’s big day of deals.Read more...

Every time a flight takes off on time, it seems like a little miracle. Despite airlines’ set schedules, there’s a lot working against getting to your destination on time. First, there’s the weather: it’s either too hot, too cold, too windy, too rainy or too foggy. Then there are the mechanical issues to contend with…Read more...

When you cook food at home, you know you have two hours—arguably four if you really want to push it—to get your food out of the room-temperature air and into your belly. Any longer, and that plate of chicken salad is a big ol bacterial brouhaha. But if you’re picnicking in 90 degree weather, food goes bad faster—a lot…Read more...

If you live in a city with Amazon’s same-day Prime Now delivery service, but haven’t gotten around to using it yet, they’re running a fantastic promotion for new members to celebrate the lead-up to Prime Day.

Welcome to Stream And Stream Again, a monthly column highlighting films and TV series new to streaming catalogs that are of special interest to The A.V. Club’s staff—and hopefully to you, our readers. Here are three film series (and two bonus films) new to streaming this July.Read more...

MacOS: We love Bartender, the $15 app that lets you hide menu bar items of your choice. But there’s a simpler, cheaper app that does the same thing. Vanilla hides your menu bar items for just $5. And you can try it for free.

Using a “dark mode” on your favorite website, app, or operating system feels great. It’s perfect for dark rooms or airplanes, when you need to conserve your battery a little, or you’re just tired of having sore eyes from staring at a screen for hours.

There are a bunch of great apps you can install on your Mac—no question there. Separating amazing apps from must-have apps is the hard part, and we don’t want you to spend hours analyzing the Mac App Store (or scouring the web) to find the very best and most useful apps. We’ve made a list of champions across four…Read more...

Michael Pollan has been writing about the the intersection of nature and culture for over 30 years. He may be best known as the guy who summed up his principles for eating thusly: “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.” He is the author of several books, including In Defense of Food, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and The…Read more...

If someone you care about goes missing, it’s up to you to help authorities by filing a report, giving them important details, and keeping them up to date as the situation develops. This is information you should know, but hopefully never need.Read more...

There are some skills you hope you never need to use, but having them could be a matter of life and death: welcome to bleeding control.Read more...