Home Office Setup & Equipment

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. You've probably heard of Sonos smart speakers and soundbars, which offer some of the best audio quality in the market. What you may not know, however, is that Sonos also makes the excellent Sonos Ace headphones, which released last summer. Right now, they're on sale for $349 (originally $449), the lowest price they've ever been, according to price tracking tools. Sonos Ace …

Thanking your AI chatbot when it provides a response to a query may not require much energy on its own, but the cost of your interactions will add up over time—and a new tool from Hugging Face can tell you approximately how much. The ChatUI energy interface estimates the energy consumption involved in messaging with an AI model in real time, with comparisons to common appliances like LED light bulbs and phone chargers. You can type in any query or utilize one of the suggested inputs to generate a response along with the corresponding energy requirement. For example, a "professional email" took an AI just over 25 seconds to create and required 0.5 watt-hours, the equival…

For the past five years, Google's Emoji Kitchen has offered a way for users to make unique emojis from existing icons. The feature lets you take two emojis and combine them into one to make emojis that are familiar yet new. You can take the saluting emoji and combine it with the robot emoji to make a saluting robot, or the alien emoji and the "shh" emoji to make an alien telling you to be quiet. You can't necessarily mix each and every emoji that you see in your emoji keyboard, though—first, Google has to make those combinations possible. Every now and then, Google will include new combinations within software updates, even if they don't advertise each one. The more ofte…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Youth culture moves fast. New slang is created and abandoned in days, whole communities organize around a blurry photograph, jokes become memes, memes become rituals, and everything might is abandoned before you even notice it exists. It's like to trying to study a snowflake: Once you can look at it, it's already melted. So it is this week, as I take a look a new lexicon of brain-rot slang (that might not really be slang), a meme format based on threatening to eat your Uber driver, and the performative disappointment of youth. Plus, as a reminder that we still still share something, a video about humanity's never-ending fa…

AI video generators are rapidly improving and becoming more widely available, with Google's Veo 2 now built into the Gemini app for anyone paying for a Google One AI Premium plan. Like OpenAI's Sora, Runway, Adobe's Firefly, and others, Veo 2 enables you to create a professional-looking video from nothing more than a text prompt. With Veo 2 now available to paying users, it seems like a good opportunity to test these different AI video generators against each other, and compare their strengths and weaknesses—and to assess where we're at with AI video in general. We keep being told that these tools will transform movie-making, or at least fill the internet with AI slop, bu…

Months after enabling Deep Research in its expensive $200 ChatGPT Pro plan, OpenAI is now rolling out the feature to all users. Anyone can now access a lightweight version of Deep Research for free. This new version of Deep Research sits somewhere between a regular ChatGPT search and a ChatGPT Pro-style in-depth report. These searches usually take around five to ten minutes, and give you a report that's about a page or two long. In my experience, its reports are practical, to-the-point, and well-researched. How the new "lightweight" ChatGPT Deep Research worksDeep Research is different from a regular ChatGPT search. Here, ChatGPT will use all of its resources, like its re…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. If you're tied into the Apple ecosystem and looking to upgrade your mouse or streamline your desk setup, Woot is offering a refurbished Apple Magic Mouse 2 for $49.99 for the next twelve days—or until it sells out. That’s a decent cut from its current $79.95 listing on Amazon. It's worth mentioning upfront that this is a refurbished unit, which means it might show minor signs of previous use, but it’s been inspected and approved to work properly. Woot throws in a 90-day limited warranty, and free shipping is available if you’re an Amazon Prime membe…

I keep looking for ways to free up storage space on my iPhone and on iCloud. I am a data hoarder who hates deleting things, but when I almost managed to fill up my 256GB iPhone, I knew I had a problem and began aggressively deleting unwanted data. However, photos takes up most of the storage on my iPhone, which has put me in a bit of a spot. I find it hard to delete old photos, but if I don't do that, I may eventually have to start paying a lot more for cloud storage to back up my data. If you're in the same boat as I am, the answer is simpler than you might think. Here are a few ways to delete photos and free up storage space on both your iPhone and on iCloud. Define wha…

Saving up to retire takes decades of planning (and sometimes sacrifice), not to mention a steady income that allows you to put that money aside. Not everyone makes it to the finish line; in 2024, close to 5% of people with 401(k) plans took a hardship withdrawal, pulling money from their future to solve immediate financial needs. If you’re not yet 59½ years old (and don’t qualify for one of the exceptions allowed by the IRS) this can be a costly decision, though, because in addition to paying taxes on the withdrawal (which is considered income), you’ll be slapped with a 10% penalty. But if you need to access your retirement funds a little early, there’s a way to do it wit…

You’d think we all have enough stress in our lives already, but for some reason we still love those heart-pumping thrillers—whether the quiet, suspenseful kind or the big action spectacles. It might be that the things that get our hearts racing in real life are in the realm of “oh no, this medical bill,” making a spy movie, a heist-gone-wrong scenario, or even a dark kidnapping story a good vehicle for vicarious (and comparatively cheap) thrills. Regardless, here are the best thrillers currently streaming on Netflix, with a variety of tones that run from mildly tense to extremely dark. Rebel Ridge (2024) If you hadn't previously considered "civil forfeiture" as …

Nintendo Switch 2 preorders are currently underway (if you can manage to find a store with inventory, that is). As we approach the console's June 5 launch date, it's worth getting a bit reflective: The Switch as a product line is now more than eight years old, and Nintendo has made some significant changes with this latest device. If you have a Switch and are thinking about picking up a Switch 2, you might be wondering how these two generations of consoles compare. Now, Nintendo didn't just release one console during the Switch era: It released three. There's the original Switch, the Switch OLED, and the Switch Lite. I'm taking a look at all three and comparing their spec…

After years of pan frying steaks to the charming tune of Brooklyn smoke detectors, I was delighted when I finally learned about reverse searing—a cooking method where you slowly bring the steak up to temperature in the conventional oven, and sear it briefly afterward. This method keeps the billowing smoke to a minimum, cooks the protein more evenly, and can prevent overcooking. The trade off: a comparatively long cooking time. Since I’m always interested in trying to make a good thing work better for me, I set out to try and speed up the reverse searing method. I just needed something to bake gently, but faster. Luckily, there is an appliance that does exactly that—the a…

Spider, Minesweeper, and Hearts—these longtime staples of Windows (plus other familiar titles, from Solitaire to Freecell) have been missing in action since the launch of Windows 8 in 2012. Sure, you can find versions of these games in the Microsoft Store, but they're cluttered with ads and generally don't feel as good to play as the classic iterations so many of us remember. But there's a way to get the OG time-wasters back. It's not even particularly hard to do: An installer built by Winaero—a long running website that offers all kinds of system tweaking tools—makes it easy to get these classic games running on computers operating with Windows 8, 10, or 11. The games ar…

A new cyberattack is targeting Microsoft 365 users through Signal and WhatsApp messages, with hackers impersonating government officials in order to gain access to accounts. According to reporting from Bleeping Computer, bad actors—who are believed to be Russians pretending to be European political officials or diplomats—are contacting employees of organizations working on issues related to Ukraine and human rights. The end goal is to trick targets into clicking an OAuth phishing link leading them to authenticate their Microsoft 365 credentials. This scam, first discovered by cybersecurity firm Volexity, has focused specifically on organizations related to Ukraine, but …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Lots of apps are getting built-in AI features these days, and they’re often disappointing. They’ll summarize (sometimes incorrectly) the same data that’s already available in charts or graphs elsewhere in the app. But the AI advisor that was recently added to the Oura ring's app takes a different strategy, one that I’ve come to appreciate over the past few weeks since its launch. Instead of just reporting data, it asks questions. It asks you to do a little analysis, a little introspection. And I think Oura is really onto something here. Some of the questions the Oura Advisor has asked meI’ll admit that, at first, I was in…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. There hasn't been a better opportunity for Android users to get a Google Pixel Watch, provided they don't mind being a bit behind the times: Woot is currently selling the first generation GPS + Cellular Google Pixel Watch for $79.99, 76% off the original $329.99selling price. This is the cheapest the wearable has ever been, according to price tracking tools. (Note that Woot only ships to the 48 contiguous states in the U.S. If you have Amazon Prime, you get free shipping; otherwise, it’ll be $6 to ship.) Goog…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Following a tariff-induced delay, retailers officially kicked off Nintendo Switch 2 preorders on Thursday. I could tell you that preorders went smoothly across all stores, and that there was plenty of stock for everyone who wanted one of Nintendo's new consoles. I could tell you that, but I'd be lying. The Switch 2's preorder launch was never going to be seamless: The console has eight years of hype built up around it, and fans want their chance to secure the first Nintendo console to play games in 4K. Even still, the preorder situation was rough: There were endless digital queues, error screens, and, in Best Buy's case, …

I thought it was just me, a non-native English speaker, who loved watching everything with subtitles on. But clearly, it's not. Based on a recent survey, more than 50% of US viewers watch content with the subtitles on. And there are many reasons why. Sometimes you want to watch something on a low volume in bed, and sometimes it's just too hard to understand what a character is saying. Or, you could be watching with cheap TV speakers that make your audio hard to hear. Netflix is starting to understand this, and so for people who don't necessarily need to see sound effects in their subtitles, is adding a new dialogue-only subtitles mode. This mode removes text-descriptions …

In a move that should surprise no one, Meta—the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and Threads—wants to monetize its websites. Threads, which launched two years ago, had somehow mostly avoided showing ads until now, only allowing a limited number to certain users in the US and Japan. But the site has become quite popular since then, so now, it's time for it to start contributing to the family business. Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced this update in a Threads post this week, which reads, "Ads are rolling out more broadly on Threads today, and our goal is still for them to enhance your overall experience. We’re closely monitoring and will continue listening to you…

A good main-course meat can be made great with a complementary finishing sauce. This might look like a drizzle of an espagnole sauce, a buttery pan sauce, an easy board sauce, or maybe a bright vinaigrette, but lately I’ve been branching out. My latest meat sauce obsession is sizzling oil sauces. They’re delicious, fragrant, and—best of all—nearly impossible to screw up. I first started using this Chinese technique after making recipes from The Woks of Life, a delightful and approachable cookbook that you should check out (read my review here). This flash-fried sauce pops up regularly in the book as a dressing or a dipping sauce for meats and vegetables, and it’s a suref…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. If you’ve ever had to sit through a meeting with a whiteboard full of scribbles and arrows, you probably understand the need for a good diagramming tool. Right now, Microsoft Visio 2021 Professional is on sale for $19.97 for a lifetime license on StackSocial for new users only. It’s priced low enough to justify adding to your digital toolbox, whether you use it often or just occasionally. It’s the same full version of Visio Pro, licensed for one Windows PC, no subscription required. Visio turns overwhelming data into clean visuals. Visio keeps thing…

Siri is struggling. It's struggling to respond to simple questions or create simple calendar events. And the end still isn't in sight, now that Apple has mostly delayed Apple Intelligence's "smarter Siri" until the end of the year. Meanwhile, Perplexity AI's new Voice Assistant is here now, trying to capitalize on Apple's mess. In addition to answering questions, the AI's new Voice Mode is able to create calendar events and reminders, play music, and more. It can hold conversations, and even perform some web-based tasks. These are things that Siri just can't do, at least not yet. How to use Perplexity Voice Assistant on iOSDownload and open the latest version of the Perpl…

You might not be familiar with the phrase "peanut butter platform heels" but it apparently originates from a scientific experiment, where peanut butter was transformed into a diamond-like structure, under very high pressure—hence the "heels" reference. Except this never happened. The phrase is complete nonsense, but was given a definition and backstory by Google AI Overviews when asked by writer Meaghan Wilson-Anastasios, as per this Threads post (which contains some other amusing examples). The internet picked this up and ran with it. Apparently, "you can't lick a badger twice" means you can't trick someone twice (Bluesky), "a loose dog won't surf" means somethi…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. There’s a little game I like to play sometimes, and it seems to be popular with other folks who tend to work out at home: What equipment would I buy if I were starting a new home gym from scratch? You can also play the advanced version: If you already have (insert common items here), what would you buy next? What follow are my picks for anybody starting a new home gym or looking to expand the one they have—whether that means a corner of your bedroom or a full-on garage-based weightlifting paradise. I'll start with space- and budget-friendly items, then move on to some bigger-ticket buys. Kettlebells If I had to put togeth…