Home Office Setup & Equipment

Still have a bottle of sunscreen in your bathroom closet from last year? While you might assume you need toss is out and buy a new one, sunscreen actually lasts longer than you think. Check the expiration date (if there is one)—but you’ve got three years from the date of purchase to use it up. How to know if your sunscreen has expiredThis advice comes straight from the FDA, which asks sunscreen makers to put an expiration date on their product showing when it will stop providing the level of protection shown on the label. If there’s no date, that means testing showed it should be good for a full three years after purchase. (This is a longstanding rule that is not related …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. A lot about 2026 has been depressing, infuriating, or worse, but at least the TV has been pretty good—there are future classics streaming across the genre spectrum, from the medical realism of The Pitt, to the endless mystery of FROM, to the over-the-top comedy of Big Mistakes. Below are the ten most-streamed series across all streaming services for April, and there's almost definitely something here you'll dig. The Pitt The Pitt continues to dominate the streaming charts. HBO's gritty, hyper-realistic medical drama has earned acclaim from critics and audiences for its relentless pace, as each episode follows on…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Google's Gemini AI app has been topping the "most downloaded" charts on both the Apple App Store and the Android Store ever since the company added a free image generation feature, called "Nano Banana," back in August. Of course, Google is hardly the only huge tech corporation with an AI assistant that can make images right on your phone. I wanted to know which mobile AI image generation tools is best, so I pitted three of the biggest—Google's Gemini (with Nano Banana), the iPhone version of OpenAI's ChatGPT, and Meta's Meta AI—against one another in a not-so-old-fashioned image-generation throw down. While there was ulti…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Amazon Big Deal Days is coming October 7-8, and Lifehacker is sharing the best sales based on product reviews, comparisons, and price-tracking tools before it’s over. Follow our live blog to stay up to date on the best sales we find. Subscribe to our shopping newsletter, Add to Cart, for the best sales sent to your inbox. New to Prime Day? We have a primer on everything you need to know. Sales are accurate at the time of publication, but prices and inventory are always subject to change. I live in a pretty small house. How small? People routinel…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Amazon Big Deal Days is coming October 7-8, and Lifehacker is sharing the best sales based on product reviews, comparisons, and price-tracking tools before it's over. Follow our live blog to stay up to date on the best sales we find. Subscribe to our shopping newsletter, Add to Cart, for the best sales sent to your inbox. New to Prime Day? We have a primer on everything you need to know. Sales are accurate at the time of publication, but prices and inventory are always subject to change. I've spent more than a decade reviewing laptops—which has invo…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Amazon Big Deal Days end tonight, Oct. 8, and until then, Lifehacker is sharing the best sales based on product reviews, comparisons, and price-tracking tools before it’s over. Follow our live blog to stay up to date on the best sales we find. Browse our editors’ picks for a curated list of our favorite sales on laptops, fitness tech, appliances, and more. Subscribe to our shopping newsletter, Add to Cart, for the best sales sent to your inbox. New to Prime Day? We have a primer on everything you need to know. Sales are accurate at the time of publi…

Did you know you can customize Google to filter out garbage? Take these steps for better search results, including adding Lifehacker as a preferred source for tech news. Last week, Peloton unveiled a fleet of new equipment and major software updates to go along with it. The updates immediately reflected on the Peloton app and the interfaces of the company's existing at-home workout equipment, so even if you don't upgrade to a new Bike or Tread, you'll still benefit. One of the biggest updates is the new "personalized plan," which uses information based on your preferred workout types, goals, and available times to create a weekly workout schedule for you. I tested it fo…

Did you know you can customize Google to filter out garbage? Take these steps for better search results, including adding my work at Lifehacker as a preferred source. It's scary how realistic AI-generated videos are getting. What's even scarier, however, is how accessible the tools to create these videos are. Using something like OpenAI's Sora app, people can create hyper-realistic short-form videos of just about anything they want—including real people, like celebrities, friends, or even themselves. OpenAI knows the risks involved with an app that makes generating realistic videos this easy. As such, the company places a watermark on any Sora generation you create via t…

Did you know you can customize Google to filter out garbage? Take these steps for better search results, including adding my work at Lifehacker as a preferred source. This week, California governor Gavin Newsom signed a handful of new laws that regulate artificial intelligence and social media. Among them is SB 243, which requires that chatbots provide "clear and conspicuous" notice that they are not a real person. The law goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2027. SB 243 also requires chatbots interacting with children to provide a reminder every three hours to take a break and prohibits chatbots used by minors from generating sexually explicit content. The law mandates that com…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. I broke one of the biggest rules in the running book and lived to tell about it. Everybody knows you need to replace your running shoes after 300 to 500 miles to avoid injury (or 200 to 400, or whatever running companies are saying these days). Well, I put over 1,000 miles on mine, and I’m not sorry. I know it’s been over 1,000 miles because I’ve been tracking my shoes’ mileage in the Garmin Connect app. My watch logs the mileage, and I make sure the credit goes to the appropriate shoe in the app. I carefully ported my shoe miles to and from the Coros app when I switched ecosystems for a bit this past summer. Some of my r…

You know it's important to prioritize your to-do list, and may have tried various methods to do so, from the Eisenhower Matrix (to determine how timely and urgent each task is), to the Pareto principle (to decide how to allocate your time to maximize your results). The problem is that determining what's actually a priority can be an abstract problem. Some people work best when dealing with cold, hard numbers—and there's a way to take a more quantitative approach to prioritizing your to-dos. Why prioritize your to-do list? The Pareto principle, mentioned above, suggests that 80% of your results will come from 20% of your work, so you have to be picky about what you focus…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Black Friday sales officially start Friday, November 28, and run through Cyber Monday, December 1, and Lifehacker is sharing the best sales based on product reviews, comparisons, and price-tracking tools before it's over. Follow our live blog to stay up-to-date on the best sales we find. Browse our editors’ picks for a curated list of our favorite sales on laptops, fitness tech, appliances, and more. Subscribe to our shopping newsletter, Add to Cart, for the best sales sent to your inbox. Sales are accurate at the time of publication, but prices …

Black Friday sales officially start Friday, November 28, and run through Cyber Monday, December 1, and Lifehacker is sharing the best sales based on product reviews, comparisons, and price-tracking tools before it's over. Follow our live blog to stay up-to-date on the best sales we find. Browse our editors’ picks for a curated list of our favorite sales on laptops, fitness tech, appliances, and more. Subscribe to our shopping newsletter, Add to Cart, for the best sales sent to your inbox. Sales are accurate at the time of publication, but prices and inventory are always subject to change. Black Friday is a great time for tech deals, but the items discounted are often …

I write a lot about productivity, which means I also read a lot about it. Over the last few months, I've noticed an uptick in people discussing something called "cognitive overload," citing it as a potential reason for a decline in output. The phrase stuck out to me as one of those buzzy terms that has the potential to be overused until it's meaningless—but at its core, it certainly has a real, clear definition that can be helpful tool in maximizing productivity. Basically, cognitive overload is what happens when you're inundated with more information than your brain can process, so your brain just gives up altogether, making hard to focus on anything at all. Here's wha…

The user-generated video industry is worth over $4 billion, reflecting how tastes have evolved away from reading articles and watching television punditry and toward scrolling vertical video feeds and watching live streams. As a reader, a writer, and the editor of an article-driven tech site, the rise of user-generated video and streaming can be a tough reality to accept. But as a longtime fan of live streaming, a part of me is thrilled to see the media landscape begin to take it more seriously. For example: On Jan. 16, Bluesky announced the rollout of a feature that more seamlessly connects its users to live streams—a feature that may catch on more broadly. The latest …

When Netflix isn't spending its time trying to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, it seems the company is actually adding new features to its subscription service. Netflix is always adding new shows and movies, which is what most users are looking for in the platform, but that's not all you can expect from your account. In fact, Netflix is now rolling out an interactive experience for its live competition shows, allowing subscribers to cast votes in real-time. Live voting comes to Star SearchNetflix announced the change in a press release on Tuesday, and also revealed the first show to officially run with real-time voting: Star Search. Netflix is bringing back the American …

A week after OpenAI admitted it will soon start testing ads in ChatGPT, Google has promised that it's not planning to inject ads into Gemini anytime soon. The statement was given to journalist Alex Heath during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis said the company doesn't have "any plans" for ads in Gemini. While the statement was fairly brief, it also jibes with a similar quote Hassabis gave to Axios, where he said he was "a little bit surprised" that OpenAI was already introducing ads to ChatGPT. That surprise is understandable, especially because OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in 2024 that he considered ads a "last resort for …

Earlier this month Strava unveiled its new Instant Workouts feature, a subscriber-exclusive tool that seems like a natural way to leverage its acquisition of Runna. In a Reddit post, Strava said this feature builds upon Runna's already successful Instant Workouts feature. Instant Workouts uses your activity history to generate personalized workouts across four intents ("Maintain," "Build," "Explore," or "Recover"). The idea is that the more you upload, the more personalized your recommendations become. Another major selling point is the automatic route generation feature, which draws on Strava's massive database of billions of historical activities to suggest optimal pat…

When Apple introduced Liquid Glass to the public in June of last year, it kicked off a saga that's still ongoing. The company's toned down the effect multiple times, and in November, it added controls for tinting it. Some have even found out ways to disable Liquid Glass entirely. It's not a quagmire I'd jump into willingly, but apparently, that's exactly what Android's about to do. According to "images of internal builds" seen by 9to5Google, Android's next update will add significant amounts of blur "across Android 17." "Throughout the OS, you can expect a system UI that switches from solid light or dark backgrounds to a blur effect that allows you to see what's immediate…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Presidents' Day sales are around the corner, and the deals are coming in early; right now, Amazon has the latest Kindle Paperwhite from 2024 in "Like-New" conditions for $114.99 (originally $143.99). This Paperwhite in new condition would cost you $159.99, making the refurbished version a much cheaper choice to get while it lasts (discounted Kindle Paperwhites usually sell out quickly). Amazon Kindle Paperwhite 16GB 7" eReader (Like-New, Black) …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Starting at the end of last month, Samsung finally started selling its first trifolding phone in the U.S. Customers who were willing to spend an eye-watering $2,900 were able to snag a 10-inch display that folds up to fit in a pocket, but as with many first-gen devices, it turns out there have been a few growing pains. Two users who took the plunge on the Samsung Galaxy Z Trifold have shared on Reddit that their screens are already unresponsive—but to Samsung's credit, the company isn't leaving them hanging. The first user, who had their phone for about a month and a half (they bought their unit while overseas) before is…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Gaming handhelds are in a bit of a rough spot right now. The Nintendo Switch 2 costs significantly more than its predecessor, the Steam Deck is out of stock in most regions, and the Xbox handheld is prone to bugs. Plus, they're all huge. Lenovo has been one of the better companies in this space of late, releasing two of my favorite gaming handhelds running, but the company apparently isn't done with handhelds yet. At Mobile World Congress, Lenovo showed off its newest concept, the modular Legion Go Fold handheld, a device that tries to solve pretty much every problem in gaming handhelds through one neat trick: It's also…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Microsoft’s flagship development tool, Visual Studio Professional 2026, reduces much of the friction that used to come with large projects, and it’s on sale for $49.99 on StackSocial right now, which is far less than what most developers expect to pay for a professional-grade IDE. Microsoft Visual Studio Professional 2026 is a desktop-only Windows product built as a 64-bit application, clearly aimed at people working on real-world codebases. Think multi-project solutions, long build times, and code that’s touched by more than one person. In day-t…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Sleep tracking apps promise better rest through data. But what happens when the pursuit of a perfect score keeps you up at night? For a growing number of people, that Apple Watch, Oura Ring, or whatever device meant to improve your sleep quality may be doing just the opposite. Here’s what to know about how sleep scores really work, and what you can do to make the most of your sleep tracker. The benefits (and accuracy) of sleep tracking Sleep is foundational to almost every dimension of health, including “improved mood, heart health, and cognitive function," according to Dr. Rebecca Robbins, Assistant Professor in the Div…