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. For some people, it just doesn’t feel like Christmas until you’re curled up by the fire, eating Christmas cookies, or hanging your favorite ornaments on the tree. For me, the holiday season doesn’t feel real until an overwhelming state of panic sets in and I’m feverishly typing “last-minute gift ideas” in the hours leading up to a Secret Santa exchange. If you’re like me, you procrastinate at least one gift until the window for pre-Christmas delivery slips out of your grasp. Calm your panic—I’ve rounded up your top prospects for physically getting s…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Among OLED gaming monitors, the Odyssey G8 is in the top tier, offering a 32-inch 4K QD-OLED panel with 3840 x 2160 resolution, a blistering 240Hz refresh rate, and near-instant 0.03 ms (GtG) response time. But previous models were held back because of its Tizen OS—while marketed as a monitor, Odyssey was really a TV in disguise. With the new G81SF model, Samsung has finally fixed it, returning the G8 to a proper monitor setup. And Woot is currently offering the 32-inch model at a deep discount: $769.99, $540 off the $1299.99 retail price. The remov…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. I’ve never managed to get on board with any hydration trackers. I’ll log the foods I eat, the exercise I do, but drinks just happen. Did I have one glass of water or two with lunch? Hell if I know. Not to mention that your hydration depends on all the H2O you take in, not just the glasses of plain water. You can hydrate with soup, with Diet Coke, or with slices of watermelon. Most hydration apps forget this, but even if they don’t, that just makes logging even more complicated. That’s why I was intrigued by the P Water app for iPhone and Apple Watch. It tracks exactly what you’d expect from the name. I’ve been using it for…

Shortly after Meta (then Facebook) bought WhatsApp in 2014, it promised to implement a surprisingly un-Facebooky feature: End-to-end encryption. The move was supposed to be a boon for privacy, ensuring nobody could see your messages aside from the recipient and yourself. Even now, WhatsApp's website claims, "No one outside of the chat, not even WhatsApp, can read, listen to, or share [your messages]." However, a new lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco is now claiming that's not the case. According to reporting from Bloomberg, an international group of plaintiffs has sued Meta, saying that the app's claims of end-to-end encryption are a lie. The lawsu…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The new Google Pixel Watch 4 came out in the late summer of 2025, and it's already heavily discounted. You can now get the 41mm Google Pixel Watch 4 starting at $299.99, the lowest price the basic version has been, according to price-tracking tools. It now comes with a much faster charging time, satellite SOS and dual-band GPS (for the LTE version), and a new circular display design. WiFi …

With iOS 26, Apple made it easier for users to reduce spam and overall clutter in their Messages inbox. Your iPhone will detect and hide spam messages, and with the Screen Unknown Senders feature, you can filter out texts from anyone you don't know. You can also disable push notifications for these conversations to reduce how often you're alerted for messages you don't need to see. Note that this feature works only on iOS, so if you have Messages synced on your Mac, you'll see everything and receive notifications for all messages unless you mute specific conversations. How to reduce clutter in Messages on iOSTo send messages from numbers you don't know to a separate fol…

iOS 26.3 was a decidedly small update. It introduced a new tool to transfer data to Android, and gave some iPhones the ability to hide precise location data from cellular networks. But beyond some other small changes and security patches, that's all there was to write home about. iOS 26.4 is a different story. The update, which is currently in beta testing, adds a number of interesting new features to compatible iPhones, especially if you're an Apple Music user. As with all beta software, iOS 26.4 is currently in testing, which means these features are subject to change at any time. It's possible some won't make it to the official release of iOS 26.4, while others could …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Finding a decent soundbar under $100 is rare, especially from a brand like Amazon. But right now, the Amazon Fire TV Soundbar Plus in an Open Box condition is $99.99 at Woot, as compared to its usual $249.99 price on Amazon. The previous low that price trackers tracked was $149, so this deal drops it by another $50. Prime members get free standard shipping, while non-Prime buyers pay a $6 shipping fee. That said, Woot does not ship this product to Alaska, Hawaii, APO addresses, or P.O. Boxes. The sale runs for six more days or until it sells out. …

At the beginning of February, Amazon officially launched Alexa+, the company's new AI-powered assistant. Alexa+ is like the old Alexa, but with new contextual abilities. Users can ask complex, multipart questions, as well as requests for tasks, like asking Alexa to book you concert tickets. If you've used a voice mode on chatbots like ChatGPT or Gemini, you're familiar with the concept—it's just now available on your Echo devices, too. Now, Amazon is letting you lightly customize the personality of your new AI assistant, offering the choice between concise, calm, and enthusiastic bots. On Wednesday, Amazon announced "Alexa+ personality styles," a new feature that lets y…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. A lot of TVs are still perfectly fine screens. They’re just stuck with slow menus or outdated apps. The Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Select is an easy fix for that, and right now it’s $19.99, down from $39.99, its lowest price yet, according to price trackers. It streams in 4K with HDR10+ support, so compatible TVs get brighter highlights and better contrast. That said, it skips Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, so this is not the model for someone building a high-end home theater setup. But for most living rooms and bedrooms, the picture quality looks mor…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Fitness trackers and smartwatches want to live on your wrist 24/7, the better to track your workouts, sleep, and (allegedly) everyday stress. But after wearing a tight silicone band every minute of the day, you may find your skin starts to get red or itchy after a while. Here are some tips on how to reduce the chances of irritation, and what you can do if you already have a rash. Wear your watch loosely when you're not working outMost makers of smartwatches and fitness trackers say that you should wear them loosely for daily wear. Fitbit, for example, writes that you should wear the band “loosely enough that it can move b…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. If your outdoor spaces are anything like mine, they’re currently half-covered with ice and snow, and the spots that have thawed are muddy messes. You probably can't do a whole lot about that until warmer weather comes, but if your house has a lawn, it’s already a good time start thinking about what you’ll need to do to whip it back into shape. You probably already have the basic tools you need, though those will often require a lot of sweat equity and aching muscles to produce results. These days, you can get a lot of lawn work done easier and more quickly by picking up a few tools and gadgets designed to help make the pro…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Inventors are like musicians: The ones we can name are rich and famous, but the majority will never be known. While many new products can feel more like gimmicks than actually useful (TikToker Khaby Lame famously made a career out of making fun of silly "innovations"), I can't help but root for a certain kind of inventor: The ones brave enough to have a small idea that has no chance of earning millions, but might improve lives in a small way. At The Inspired Home Show, I spoke with several inventors aiming to do just that. What is The Inspired Home Show? The Inspired Home Show, held in Chicago from March 10-12, is North …

If you're a Chrome user, this is your reminder not to ignore available security updates. Google is pushing an emergency patch for a zero-day vulnerability that has been exploited in the wild, and a second zero-day has been identified and is expected to be fixed in a future update. As a reminder, zero-days are security vulnerabilities that have been actively exploited or publicly disclosed before the developer releases an official fix. These latest Chrome bugs are the second and third zero-days addressed so far in 2026—Google patched the first back in February. What this Google Chrome patch fixesThe vulnerability addressed with the current update is labeled as CVE-2026-3…

Galaxy phone owners have been able to use Samsung DeX to access a desktop mode for years at this point, and now Google Pixel users have a similar feature to call their own. The latest Android 16 QPR3 release, pushed out at the start of March 2026, lets you plug a Pixel phone into a monitor and access a desktop-like interface. If you're completely new to these desktop modes, they let you operate your phone as if it's a Windows or macOS computer (sort of). The Android software and the apps don't change, but you get a taskbar at the bottom of the display, the ability to run apps in windows alongside each other, and a few other helpful tweaks. In theory, this can be a real bo…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. From the moment Mark Scout (Adam Scott) first rode an elevator down to his office and became a totally different person, we’ve been obsessed with Severance. Over two spectacular seasons, Ben Stiller’s sci-fi satire has explored the banality of corporate culture (and corporate cults), the impact of trauma, and the power of memory—or lack thereof. The story of a group of people who undergo the severance procedure, creating a separate workplace persona called an “Innie” who is essentially a separate individual lacking their outside memories, delivered one of the best finales of all time with its second-season ender “Cold Ha…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. It's ridiculous that the pace of my day can be ruined by the realization that a beloved song is no longer on the streaming platform I pay for. As someone who vividly remembers cassette tapes, CDs, and hoarding hard drives full of MP3s, it's a reminder of what we traded in when we said "yes" to streaming services years ago. I've been working on my Warped Tour playlist for the summer, but I keep running into a ton of licensing holes and grayed-out deep cuts. The gaps are everywhere, and it's harshing the vibe. It's another harrowing reminder that I merely rent whatever Spotify offers in its music library. That's why I sta…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. One thing they don't tell you about parenting is how much of it you'll spend telling your kids to put on or take off their shoes. (Not including the additional time you'll spend telling them to put the shoes away where they belong.) In an effort to smooth out this surprisingly difficult daily transition, I recently bought my 9-year-old son elastic shoelaces, so he'd be able to slip his hi-top Nikes on and off without tying and untying them. The next day I ordered some for myself, and I can't remember the last time I made a more satisfying purchase. Bread Elastic S…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The Hisense 85QD7QF Smart TV has dropped to $797.96 (originally $1,299.99) on Amazon—its lowest price yet, according to price trackers. That kind of discount makes an 85-inch screen feel a lot more attainable than it usually is. The 85QD7QF is large enough to anchor a living room, and while it comes with free delivery to your room, you will need to handle setup yourself. CNET also named it one of the best 85-inch TVs to buy in 2026, which gives you an idea of how it stacks up. 85" Hisense QD7…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. When Squid Game hit Netflix in 2021, the world felt the impact. Emerging from a pandemic, people were broke, bored, and ready to break bad, and the show’s sharp satire of capitalism hit just right. The premise—people in various levels of life-destroying debt sign up to play a series of deadly children’s games in exchange for the chance at a life-changing amount of cash (kept on display in a giant piggy bank, in one of the show’s many brilliant visual touches)—straddled the line between sadly plausible and nightmarishly bizarre, but anyone could sympathize with the desperate protagonist, Seong Gi-hoon (Lee Jung-jae). The…

The Artemis II moon mission was a full success. Its crew of four astronauts splashed down safely on earth last week after traveling further into outer space than any humans before them. Like most Americans, I followed the mission with a sense of wonder and pride that felt out-of-place in 2026–this was actual history being made, and even my blackened heart swelled. But not everyone was excited; some people are not buying this whole "orbiting the moon" thing and are convinced that the mission never happened. Everyone is lying, the images and videos we've seen are bogus, and spaceflight doesn't even make sense. I've spent a lot of time digging into the many conspiracy theo…

If you use Google Chrome, listen up: You may be running malicious extensions without even knowing it. As reported by The Hacker News, cybersecurity researchers with Socket's Threat Research Team have identified 108 extensions available in Google Chrome that steal login credentials, user IDs, and browsing data. All 108 extensions route that information back to servers controlled by a single operator, despite these extensions being published by five different developers (GameGen, InterAlt, Rodeo Games, SideGames, and Yana Project). These extensions collectively have around 20,000 installations, which isn't a massive pool of targets considering Chrome's 3.62 billion users, …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Sony’s portable speakers don’t get the same attention as its headphones, but they should. This Sony ULT Field 3 is a compact, rugged speaker you can toss into a bag without worrying about it, and right now, an open-box unit is on sale for $109.99 on StackSocial. Its sale price offers features you’d normally see at a higher cost. The Sony ULT Field 3 is clearly tuned for bass, with a dedicated woofer inside a relatively small body, and you'll notice that low-end presence even at moderate volume. Turn on the ULT mode, and the bass gets more aggressi…

Earlier this month, 404 Media broke a fascinating, complex, and concerning story: The FBI had successfully retrieved incoming Signal messages from a defendant's iPhone, despite the fact that those messages were set to self-destruct within the famously secure chat app. Though it's easy to assume Signal would be to blame, it turns out the fault was with iOS—and Apple may have just fixed the problem. To recap: 404 Media spoke to someone who attended the trial in question, where the court learned that all iPhone notifications are stored in a database on the device. So even though the Signal messages were deleted, their notification data remained in this database, from where …

Despite many intermittent attempts throughout the years to learn another language, I currently speak only English. I understand some words and phrases in Spanish and Portuguese, but I can't have a conversation in either, and I'd like to change that. As it happens, Google Translate's newest feature might be able to help me a bit on my language learning journey—even if it is a bit brutally honest along the way. How Google Translate's new pronunciation tool works As reported by TechCrunch, Google Translate now offers pronunciation practice as part of its experience, a la Duolingo. Like Duoligno, Google Translate can listen to your attempt at speaking a specific word, phrase…