Lifehacker

Adding frozen fruit to cocktails to keep them cool is a pretty common practice, but some fruits are simply more chill than others. For fruity cubes that will actually keep your beverage cold for an appreciable amount of time, you want to reach for melon.

Welcome to your June Book Club open thread. Any and all thoughts you have on Mary Roach’s Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife are welcome here. Please just remember, this is strictly for fun—a lot of the topics touched upon in this book (religion, death, pseudoscience) are contentious, but, in the words of Fox News…Read more...

I disliked many things about living in Florida, but my main complaint was that I could never quite cool down. For three-quarters of the year, going outside rendered me absolutely useless (because I’m a pale and pasty nerd), and taking a “cooling” shower didn’t help that much, simply because the water never got cold …Read more...

Sha Sha Chu is the Android platform tech lead at Pinterest, the site that lets us keep all our favorite inspirational quotes, Instant Pot recipes and potential paint colors for the guest bathroom in one tidy place. Her first years of motherhood haven’t been easy, but she’s managing to make it all work. Here’s how she…Read more...

It’s a great day to load up on a whole bunch of discounted Anker products. The sale includes our readers’ favorite USB charging hub, a 26800mAh external battery, and a Qi charger for $8.

Earther This Midwestern Pipeline Approval Just Pissed Off a Lot of People | The A.V. Club John Oliver rampages against the hysteria around gene editing on Last Week Tonight | The Takeout Great British Baking Show’s Martha Collison offers her veteran advice for amateur bakers |Read more...

Windows: Even if you’re the world’s biggest Microsoft fan, you have to admit that Apple’s “Quick Look” feature for macOS is pretty convenient. If you’re such a purist that you haven’t even touched a Mac in the last decade or so, here’s a brief introduction: You click on a file. You press the space bar. A preview of…Read more...

Everyone, from time to time—or at every single moment of every single day—wishes they could somehow escape technology. It’s not ultimately that fun to be inundated at all hours with the collapse of society, the weekend activities of people you barely knew ten years ago, bad memes, worse TV, etc. You can smash your…Read more...

How long does it take for your credit score to rebound from a “soft inquiry?” That’s what Tiffany wants to know for this week’s Money Monday:Read more...

We start off the week with a rare discount on Dropbox Plus, a few discounted security systems, early 4th of July sales, and many more deals.Read more...

All right, freaky people. For Heat Week, Hack Your City is going to Black Rock City, the desert site of the annual Burning Man festival, where nerds and hippies camp out, make art, take drugs, and give everything to each other for free. This year will see the 33rd Burning Man. Whether you’ve gone since the beginning,…Read more...

Netflix didn’t stack its lineup with bingeable fare for the mid-week holiday, so you’ll have to content yourself with stalwarts from your queue if you’re planning to be an A/C hermit this 4th. (I’ll be diving into Mindhunter at long last.)Read more...

Well here’s something I didn’t expect to see today: Amazon is offering up $20 gift cards when you subscribe to a year of Dropbox Plus for $99, today only. That gets you 1TB in the cloud to store all of your stuff for a full year, and the Amazon gift card that’s perfect for buying a bunch of movies to house in your new…Read more...

Do you really know how to cut broccoli? How about a Kiwi?

Over the past year, sharable bikes have become a huge thing in my home of San Francisco. It started with the bikes you can rent by the hour from Ford, I think, but then quickly expanded to a zillion other options ranging from Jump bikes to Bird and Lime scooters.

GreenWorks trimmers, a YI security camera, Switch accessories, and more of Sunday’s best deals.

If you can’t stand yard work, and Amazon’s discounting several GreenWorks trimmers and accessories in today’s Gold Box to make it just a little easier.

I have a massive list of books on my “to read” list, but somehow whenever I head to the library or bookstore I manage to pick up something else instead.

Whenever you meet someone at a networking event that you’d like to chat with again, the question arises: how?

This week Instagram made it a lot easier to add music to your Instagram stories.

Grab discounts on a 4K Smart TV, Philips Hue bulbs, Breda watches, and more of Saturday’s best deals.Read more...

Amazon’s top-selling electric tea kettle is discounted about $15 today, bringing the price to $33 (after $3 off coupon), which is the best price we’ve ever seen.

If you don’t know about Dallas-based Breda, you need to. The watch brand creates minimalist, easy-to-wear styles of watches that aren’t overworked or over priced. And we’ve got an exclusive discount for you. Use the code KINJA4TH and grab select watches for 35% off.Read more...

We’re bringing the June fitness challenge home to a glorious conclusion today. Have you done burpees every single day? (Just some days? Hey, better than nothing.) I’m using some of my newfound strength for a grand finale—you should too.

Earther The First Awful Heat Wave of the Summer Is Here | The A.V. Club Drake comes clean about his son on the sprawling new Scorpion | The Takeout Woman sues buffet for $1 million after developing “fried rice syndrome” |Read more...

We’ve all been there—your day is going poorly and it feels like it will never end. Worst of all, it feels like you can’t do anything to make it better. But that’s not entirely true. This strategy won’t solve all of your problems, but it’s a creative way to turn a rough day into a fulfilling one.

If you’re a first-time home buyer, you probably still have a million and one questions about the process, starting, with, well, how the hell anyone manages to afford a home anymore.Read more...

If you’re booking a flight, there are a few details you’re probably mulling over: Will I have to wake up at 4 am to catch my flight? Are only middle seats available? And, of course: Will there be a long layover to contend with? Most of us dread the idea of a long layover: sitting around an airport for hours is no…Read more...

Plane flights and movies are made for each other. A flight is just enough guaranteed time for one to three films, with plenty of room for breaks. You should load a few options onto your iPad or laptop, but not so many that you’ll be faced with indecision. You don’t want to get stuck with the in-flight options; every…Read more...

When discussing a big-screen TV, size is bound to be the primary topic of conversation, but with Hisense’s 100-inch Ultra HD Laser TV, bigness approaches a thought-terminating cliche—one I have been happy to let take over my puny mind.

Happy weekend, and welcome back to 3-Ingredient Happy Hour, the weekly drink column featuring super simple yet delicious libations. Independence Day is coming up, but recent political shenanigans have made me feel less than patriotic. As such, I’ll be celebrating with Sasha Petraske’s Cosmonaut cocktail, because we…Read more...

iOS/Android: The second everyone started talking about this crazy new smartphone feature called “augmented reality,” I thought two things: Most AR apps and games are going to be gimmicky AF, and I sure hope someone makes a great measuring app, because I keep misplacing my tape measure.

We need smaller eyedroppers, stat. As ProPublica has reported, eyedrops are so large that they contain more liquid than can possibly fit into your eye. Fortunately, an adapter may be on the way that won’t waste half of your pricey glaucoma medication.Read more...

The 4th of July brings sales and deals from all corners of the web, and we’ve collected them here. Keep checking back throughout the weekend and into next week as we update with sales as they go live.Read more...

When we last rounded up our staff’s Weekly Upgrades, our editors were freshening up our clothes with vodka, planning vacations large and small, and welcoming new four-legged friends into our lives.Read more...

Hot dogs are the ultimate easy crowd pleaser. They’re already cooked, so you don’t have to worry about poisoning anyone, and even the most picky youth can rarely resist a good dog. “Dirty water dogs”—the ones you get from a cart that sit in a vat of salty water—may seem like a treat you can only get on the streets of…Read more...

During WWDC 2018, Apple showed us a new trick with Siri in iOS 12: the ability to assign shortcuts. Instead of hoping Siri properly understands what you mean, you can assign a specific phrase (or even a word!) to a set of predetermined actions.Read more...

A night of live theatrical performance can be so much more exciting and engaging than catching the latest blockbuster, and a good cocktail before the show and during intermission can make the night even more fun. Here’s the best way to go about ordering your drinks at the theater’s bar.

When the NES Classic Edition was first released, we deemed the $40 8Bitdo NES30 as the best wireless controller alternative for the tiny console. But now that Nintendo is selling the NES Classic once again starting today, I’m more excited for 8Bitdo’s new gamepad that’s an even better wireless alternative with a…Read more...

Fourth of July fireworks have a way of invoking our fondest childhood summer memories. Barbecues and family time, swimming pools and lightning bugs, sparklers and staying up late. It’s natural to want to share all of this with your kids.

Get ready for strong legs and a poppin’ butt, because July’s fitness challenge is squats! This is the classic lower body exercise for a reason: squats build pretty much every muscle below the waist, and there are tons of variations for all fitness levels.

Two giant eBay sales, the sleeve your laptop deserves, an electric lawn mower, and more kick off today’s best deals.Read more...

If you’ve ever suffered gastrointestinal distress after a summer barbecue, it might not have been the potato salad—it might have been someone’s terrible food safety practices. Specifically, they probably didn’t wash their hands.Read more...

Earther These Would Be the Worst Supreme Court Nominees For the Environment | The A.V. Club Confetti flies and butterflies fall on a fatal RuPaul’s Drag Race finale | The Takeout Ask The Salty Waitress: Should I tip my barista for a cup of coffee? |Read more...

Although it feels like I’m dancing with myself, this week’s Tech 911 column—you ask tech questions, we deliver tech answers—is going to be a little inverted. Rather than fielding a question that you’ve emailed me, left in the comments, or tweeted at me (with a GIF), I’m going to solicit your help with a little issue…Read more...

The national average down payment is between six and 11 percent, with some home-buyers paying as little as three to 3.5 percent. But for some people, there’s an opportunity to put down more than the perceived-standard 20 percent. Should they do it?

Animated lock screens are a cute gimmick. Your phone comes loaded with a few default options. But if you want to make your own on Android or iOS, you’ll need a third-party app.

Earther Offshore Wind Could Finally Start to Catch on in the US | The A.V. Club Steam sale deep cuts: 20 under-the-radar games under $5 | The Takeout 13-year-old invents healthy lollipop and becomes millionaire, types Takeout writer still pantsless at 11:40 a.m. |Read more...

We see a lot of deals around the web over on Kinja Deals, but these were our ten favorites today.

YouTube just made its picture-in-picture feature free for all users using a device running Android Oreo or up. The feature was previously exclusively available for YouTube Premium customers.