Lifehacker

Does your kid love video games? Does he or she need some summer reading material that doesn’t conjure up visions of school? Then check this out: Right now, you can get 12 free digital issues of Little Player, a video game magazine made just for kids. Download year one (issues 1-6) here and year two (issues 7-12) here.Read more...

If you opened credit cards for certain purposes (like, say, an extra 20 percent off at the Gap), then you may have a few extra lying around that you’re wondering what to do with. You don’t use them—you’re more of Club Monaco girl now—but is closing them the smartest solution?

Oh, AR. It’s great to live in an era when we can use our smartphones to drop a giant dinosaur (or sleepy Snorlax) in our actual world.

Our inaugural Livehacker event saw three expert speakers share their perspectives on the question “How should a man be?”Read more...

A bunch of punch screams “party,” but a glass bowl—while very pretty—is not the best choice, thermodynamically speaking, especially if you’re serving out of doors. Couple that with ice, which is famously known for melting, and your punch can get warm and watery real fast.Read more...

For many, the airport is a place filled with frustration and anxiety. But for others, the airport is a peaceful place where you don’t exist—no one does—and I love it. You’re allowed to do absolutely nothing, and sometimes, that’s exactly what the soul of a weary traveler needs.

Most people’s only association with sex clubs are the creepy scenes from Eyes Wide Shut. But sex clubs can actually be quite varied, and a lot of fun.Read more...

Is it me, or are we seeing a more disclosures for big, scary vulnerabilities that affect your system’s core components? Just a week or so ago, Microsoft and Google announced more issues—Rogue System Register Read and Speculative Store Bypass—which are fancy-sounding variants of the Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities…Read more...

Heather Dietrick used to run this place. Dietrick was the beloved president of Lifehacker’s former parent company, Gawker Media, before leaving in 2017 to join the Daily Beast as CEO. In How I Work’s tradition of interviewing our past and present colleagues, we talked to her about building a career in law and business…Read more...

I’ve long had a “to buy” list that I’ll add items to throughout the year, pruning and updating as needed. Right now it’s relatively short, including a water purifier, art for my apartment, and wireless headphones to use while running.

Do you suck at Fortnite on PC? Are you baffled by other players’ ability to magic together amazing forts while you’ve accidentally locked yourself into a brick box prison? Here’s a trick: Remap your damn key bindings.

Hardboiled eggs are un-fuckup-able, they said. They’re so easy, they said. They were right, mostly, in what they said, but they were not accounting for me. I am not special, nor am I pretending that my inability to successfully hard-boil eggs is some sort of adorable quirk. I’m a mess, it’s not cute, and no one has…Read more...

Garlic, once sprouted, is much too bitter to eat, but that doesn’t mean you should toss it. Bury it in a bit of potting soil and give it some sun, and you could be eating tasty garlic greens in just a week.Read more...

Every parent has been there: It’s Saturday. It’s raining, snowing, or nuclear winter, and for whatever reason, your kid can’t play outside. Then junior hits you with that age-old kid lament: “I’m bored.”Read more...

Earther Kilauea Is Making Its Own Weather | The A.V. Club Avengers: Infinity War almost included Captain America’s real phone number | The Takeout What should I do with my Mario Batali cookbooks now? |Read more...

Here’s how to save on Sonos speakers, a 4K monitor, trash cans that aren’t garbage, and more.Read more...

iOS / Android: Philips has released a major update to its Hue app that actually makes it worth using. And I’m not being over the top when I say that; prior to today, the Hue app was a mess. It took forever to load; the user interface was challenging, to put it nicely; and it made me set off on a hunt for the best…Read more...

Our inaugural Livehacker event saw three expert speakers share their perspectives on the question “How should a man be?”Read more...

Actors have a saying: You don’t get 100% of the parts you don’t audition for. If you’re an artistic type, or a writerly type, or even just someone who’s looking for a job, you may have found rejections to be so painful that you’ve just stopped applying for things. Social media and streaming TV is so soothing—why would…Read more...

Seven-time grammy-winning pianist Emanuel Ax still practices his instrument four hours a day—when you play Carnegie Hall, you don’t just wing it. And sometimes, he admits, “it’s kind of a slog,” especially to practice a new piece: something written specifically for him, or something he’s never heard. “You get the…Read more...

If you’re ready to make the leap to 4K (and if your computer can handle it), Amazon’s blowing out refurbished 28" Samsung monitors for just $230, today only. It’s not an IPS panel, unfortunately, but that’s still one of the best prices we’ve ever seen on a 60Hz 4K display.

Earther The Great Barrier Reef Has a Surprisingly Morbid History | The A.V. Club David Sedaris on his most overrated book and how bad people can make good art | The Takeout Brits are stealing billions of dollars in groceries by ringing everything up as carrots |Read more...

This week we have a newlywed woman who’s desperate to get some time to herself. Is there a way for her to ask her husband to leave her alone? Will her husband finally let her get her game on in peace?

Apple has finally released its much-anticipated public version of iOS 11.4, which ushers in a few big improvements to the mobile operating system, including: messages that (finally) synchronize across devices via iCloud, stereo pairing for its big HomePod speakers, AirPlay 2, and a bunch of new calendar features for…Read more...

Kitchen sinks are usually thought of as something that you clean things in, not something that needs cleaning itself, but Organizational guru Marla Cilley—also known as the Fly Lady—swears that a sparkling sink is the key to a happier, more organized kitchen.Read more...

Happy 529 Day! (Get it? Because it’s 5/29?)

Jenny Rosenstrach wants to help fellow parents answer that constant, nagging question: What’s for dinner? And for the past eight years, the mom of two has been doing so by sharing recipes and delightful personal musings on her website Dinner: A Love Story. (For an intro, check out her posts on dinner prep strategies, …Read more...

For our first Livehacker event, we hosted an evening with therapist, author, and podcast host Esther Perel, divorce lawyer James J. Sexton, and multi-talented performer Donald Shorter, Jr. We had posed this question to our guests: “How should a man be?” Their exploration of this topic was as entertaining as it was…Read more...

There’s no magic bullet or divine secret to maintaining a romantic relationship—every couple is different. But if there’s one thing that’s almost always guaranteed to help, it’s more communication. And yes, even the silly, superfluous kind will do.

I’ve always been a fan of Valve’s Steam streaming, because it means you don’t have to lug your desktop PC around your house or apartment whenever you feel like gaming somewhere else. Though your laptop might not be able to run The Witcher 3 natively—or at least, not very well—it’s a lot easier to let your gaming…Read more...

We hope your Uber rides are boring and pleasant, but if you ever run into trouble or experience an unsafe situation during your trip, the ride-sharing service rolled out a new feature today that makes it easy to call 911 from the app itself. With just the tap of a button—and a quick confirmation—you can contact the…Read more...

Carrot Weather, the famously mouthy weather app for iOS and Mac, is now in beta on Android. The app reports the weather with sarcastic patter, doing a mediocre impression of the abusive AI from Portal. Thankfully, you can switch to “professional” mode and enjoy a sophisticated, customizable weather app without…Read more...

Hello, and welcome back to What’s Cooking?, the open thread where you get to share your brilliant thoughts, advice, recipes, and opinions on all things food-related. Now that the season of grilling has officially begun, I’d like to talk about the most important part of the barbecue: the sides.Read more...

I was three and a half months pregnant when my partner and I separated, and I suddenly had to rearrange my life around something I’d never anticipated: single parenthood. In operatic moments, I made mental ledgers of all the things I’d likely have to give up as a sole caretaker: my demanding career, my exercise…Read more...

Commencement is over, your friends are off to backpack through Europe for a few months and you’ve cleared the last of the empty liquor bottles you kept for some reason from the top of your kitchen cupboards. It’s time to leave your ivory tower and join the real world.Read more...

Not everyone is completely enamored by diamonds for engagement rings, no matter how culturally ingrained it is to wear one. But the reality is, not all stones actually work for a ring you’ll wear day in and day out for the rest of your life. Here’s how you can pick a ring that will last through the good and bad…Read more...

Mac OS: It’s been a few years since we’ve seen AgileBits release a major update to its killer password management app, 1Password, which is why everyone’s so excited about last week’s debut of 1Password 7. This app should pretty much be a household name at this point, as it’s one of the major password managers we…Read more...

Earther Mind-Boggling Canyons Discovered Beneath Antarctica’s Ice | The A.V. Club A temporary resurrection for Lucifer makes another strong case for more stories | The Takeout Talking “craft beer sellouts” with the guy who wrote the book on them |Read more...

Arrested Development comes back for season 5 today, which reminds me of the first time I saw it—not the pilot, but episode 4, “Key Decisions,” in which Gob goes to prison for a stunt, Michael falls in love with Marta, and Lindsay sits in a tree with Clint Howard. Even with the confusion of jumping into a relatively…Read more...

It’s pretty obvious to even a casual observer that the skin around our eyes is a little different from the rest of our faces. But is it different enough to merit a whole other product? Some people swear by eye cream and others say it’s a waste.

At this point, it seems like there’s a new data breach every week where users usernames, passwords, and other personal information has been exposed to hackers. Keeping track of them all can be quite the undertaking.

Last week a story circulated the web about Alexa recording the personal conversation of a woman and then sending it to a friend of hers. While that was certainly a unique predicament, it can be good to periodically look at what your own Alexa has picked up.

Last month, The BMJ published a case report about a 34-year-old man admitted to an emergency room in Cooperstown, N.Y. with thunderclap headaches, a particularly painful kind that can be a sign of cerebral hemorrhaging. His symptoms included dry heaving and intense head and neck pain. The man traced his anguish to a…Read more...

The point of a vacation, however long, is to help you destress. And sometimes that means doing something instead of lounging around doing nothing. If you have a pile of personal to-dos that are weighing you down, using a vacation day to get to those things you never seem to have time for can go a long ways for your…Read more...

What are the fees and penalties you’ll face for withdrawing IRA funds early to buy a house? That’s the question we’re considering this week.

Morel mushrooms are two things: delicious and expensive. If you are going to shell out the required dough (or go through the trouble of foraging them), you want to make sure you get to enjoy every bit of their rich, meaty flavor.Read more...

There are some who receive the title of “Fun Aunt/Uncle [Name]” with every child they hang out with. And there are others who feel awkward around little kids (“Um, what is she thinking and why is she looking at me like that?”). I am here to help the latter group. Because there may be times when you, a distinguished…Read more...

Windows: Here’s the problem: The HEIF image format, which Apple now uses in iOS 11 in the form of HEIC files, is a great alternative to JPEG. HEIC images eat up less space and support plenty of extra features, like depth maps and 16-bit color. Great. Wonderful.Read more...

I love a city that’s also a verb. But unlike old-timey West Coast sailors being drugged and dragooned into service, most of us are headed to Shanghai of our own free will. We need your best advice on visiting (or living in) the most populous city in the world. Shanghai, an ancient but now futuristic city and the…Read more...

Save big on a popular Brother laser printer, a powerful pressure washer, and an affordable smartphone, plus the rest of today’s best deals.Read more...