Home Office Setup & Equipment

Understanding cable tech can be hard at times—harder than it should be, really—and weighing the pros and cons of a new gadget is complicated enough without having to know the differences between HDMI 2.1 and HDMI 2.2, or the reason some USB-C ports are also Thunderbolt ports. Help is at hand, though: WhatCable does a fine job of analyzing the cables attached to your Mac—not just giving you a list of specs but also explaining what those specs mean. One way the app can be useful is in explaining why your MacBook isn't charging as quickly as it could be. This can be down to the charger and the cable you've got connected, and WhatCable will break all of this down for you wit…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. In Dan Fogelman's Paradise, we're apparently in an affluent suburban town in which everything looks fairly tidy. It's the home of Sterling K. Brown's Xavier Collins, a widower and secret service agent, which would be more impressive if the president he'd been serving (James Marsden) hadn't been murdered (much of the narrative is revealed in flashbacks). Oh, and that cute little town? Turns out that it's ... something else. These 10 shows also come at their dystopian narratives sideways, using science fiction in surprising ways. Stream Paradise on Hulu and then head down these other dark holes. Silo (2023 – ) Rebecc…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. The Shortcuts app for iOS was introduced all the way back in 2018, and in the years since, more and more shortcuts have become available—both added by Apple and shared by Shortcuts users. Shortcuts, in case you've never used the app, essentially lets you put together mini apps that connect a trigger (like a time of day or a button push) with an action (like opening an app or turning off wifi). With a vast number of triggers and actions available, there are lots of potential possibilities here. The best way to explain how Shortcuts works is to give you a few examples of what it can do, and how these little connectivity tool…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. A versatile portable speaker is a great addition to your summer kit—but while lots of speakers claim to be portable, many of them are surprisingly bulky, not very durable, or deliver tinny sound. The JBL Go 4 has none of those issues. It's currently one of the best travel speakers in its price range, and right now, it's even cheaper on Amazon: At $40, it's 20% off and at its lowest price ever. JBL Go 4 …

The AI chatbots are coming for your smart home. Both Alexa+ and Gemini for Home are now rolling out to users who've opted in to the upgrades, replacing standard Alexa and Google Assistant, respectively. Once you get access, they'll do everything we've become familiar with from these next-gen AI assistants—natural language conversations, complex queries and responses, various hallucinations—while retaining all the previous smart-home functionality, whether that's turning off lights or checking in on video doorbells. I got access to these two upgrades within the space of a week, giving me the opportunity to test them against each other. With an Amazon Echo Show, a Google Ne…

If you're a long-time Samsung Galaxy user, your messaging app of choice might be Samsung Messages. Despite the company removing the app as a default several years ago, many still rely on it—though not for long. Samsung is shuttering the app in July, marking the end of an era for the Galaxy ecosystem. The app won't be completely useless after this date, as Samsung says that you'll still be able to contact both emergency services and emergency contacts. But aside from these limited scenarios, Samsung Messages will essentially be defunct. As such, all Samsung Messages users need to plan for how they want to continue messaging on their Galaxy. While Samsung hasn't told us w…

If your console of choice is PlayStation and you tend to buy your video games digitally, I have good news and bad news. The good news is you might be entitled to some money thanks to a proposed lawsuit settlement from Sony. The bad news is, it's probably not going to amount to all that much. In a press release on Wednesday, the Saveri Law Firm announced a class action settlement for a case filed against Sony. The case, which is currently pending in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, centers on Sony's PlayStation Store: The plaintiffs in the case claim that Sony acted as a monopoly in the sale of its digital games, which drove prices for game…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The AirPods Max finally got their anticipated upgrade—and no, I'm not talking about the 2024 refresh when they added a USB-C and called it a "new" version. These are the AirPods Max 2, with improvements that warrant putting that "2" after the name. Now, the new AirPods Max 2 are getting their first decent discount, currently $509.99 (originally $549.99), their lowest price yet after their recent release, according to price-tracking tools. Yes, they're still expensive, but these are Apple's latest flagship headphones and the best Bluetooth headphones…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. This past weekend I ran a 10K while wearing both the Garmin Forerunner 970 and the Forerunner 165 Music, and while I'll be doing a full comparison soon, the experience made one thing immediately clear: Sometimes it's worth it to have a premium running watch. While both watches have excellent running features, the 970 has a few that the 165 lacks—and after putting them to use on race day, I can say that two of them in particular made a real difference. Garmin Forerunner 970 …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Last weekend I strapped two different Garmin running watches to my wrists and raced a 10K. On one arm, I wore the Forerunner 970, Garmin's top-of-the-line, $750 running watch. On the other, I wore the Forerunner 165 Music, which is far more budget-friendly at $300. I wanted to see if having a fancy running watch really makes a difference during a race. The answer is complicated. Consider this: The weekend before my race, the winners of the London Marathon competed wearing the Forerunner 55 and the Forerunner 255—two watches that are, by tech standards, practically ancient. This fact was certainly in the back of mind as I r…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The Google Pixel Fold launched in 2023 as Google’s first foldable, and while newer phones have come out since then, this current price changes how you might look at it. It is listed at $449.99 for the 256GB model, which is significantly lower than its earlier pricing and still below what you will find on places like Amazon. The deal is expected to run for the next ten days or until stock runs out. You also get free shipping if you are a Prime member (others pay $6), although it is worth noting that Woot does not ship to Alaska, Hawaii, PO boxes, or …

Google's AI search is getting a handful of updates designed to highlight first-hand information sourced from discussion boards and social media posts along with your trusted news sources and subscriptions. Notably, AI responses will now show "expert advice" pulled from online forums like Reddit, highlighting specific quotes and linking to discussions related to your search queries. With this "preview of perspectives," you'll also see additional context for the discussion, including the creator's name, handle, or community name. It should go without saying, but even when the results are billed as "expert advice" sourced from forums you'd typically go to for answers, you s…

We’re living through a full-fledged skinny epidemic. Even if seeing celebrities get thinner and thinner doesn’t mean anything to you, notice how marketing for various weight loss products is getting increasingly ubiquitous. When I look around, the onslaught doesn’t stop with all the ads for GLP-1s. What has really caught my eye recently is how I—a fitness writer who happens to be pretty thin—keep receiving targeted ads for different types of “AI body scans.” These services take a few different forms (which I dive into below), but what they all try to sell is the same idea: Apparently, I don’t know enough about my body. It turns out I need to know my body fat percentage, m…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Netflix's conflict-heavy anthology series Beef, from creator Lee Sung Jin, just concluded its second season, which saw wealthy country club managers Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan go head-to-head with the help, played by Cailee Spaeny and Charles Melton. That followed up a first season involving Steven Yeun and Ali Wong in a road-rage scenario that developed to operatic levels of chaos before the run of episodes was over. All dramatic, but also funny! Nothing wrong with a little conflict, as long as it's happening to other people. Dead to Me (2019 – 2022) Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini make for an all-tim…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Last weekend, I strapped two Garmin running watches to my wrists and raced a 10K—the top-of-the-line Forerunner 970 on one arm, and the budget-friendly Forerunner 165 Musicon the other. Whether you're toeing the line at your first 5K or chasing a marathon PR, one thing I learned is that even the most powerful running watch in the world won't help you on race day if you haven't set it up properly beforehand. Here's the checklist I wish I'd had before race day. Garmin Forerunner 970 $649.99 at Amazon $749.99 …

This week's Out-of-Touch guide explains the online mogging competition that is Omoggle and examines who was behind a hack that brought learning to a screeching halt nationwide. We also look at a viral AI music trend, and discuss how technology we use every day might kill us all. Mogging get organized on OmoggleThe Omoggle website is blowing up. As you can read in my glossary of Gen A and Gen Z slang, "mogging" is the act of being more attractive than someone else, usually in an intentional or aggressive way: If you're a young gentleman having a conversation with a woman, and a more handsome young man stands next to you and takes over, you have officially been mogged. Omo…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. When it comes to DIY projects, my enthusiasm and willingness to dive in have always compensated for a certain lack of what some would call “skill”—I’m a guy who has to cut twice no matter how many times I measure. Finding studs in the wall is a perfect example: This should be the easiest part of any project, but fancy digital stud finders have always let me down—in fact, the fancier they are, the less useful I find them to be. That’s why the StudPop is so great. It’s an incredibly simple stud finder—and incredibly cheap. It’s made locating the studs in my walls such a breeze that I’ve tossed those digital stud finders into…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. If you find a tick on yourself, it’s totally normal to want to climb out of your skin and burn it and live your life with your bones and muscles on display. Since I wasn't able to do that the last time I tried, I’m glad to report there is a safe, effective, hands-off way to remove the tick from your skin. More than one, in fact. Put down the matches, though. And the soap, and the alcohol. Those can make a tick release itself, but they also make the tick vomit its stomach contents into your bloodstream. That’s gross and it increases your risk of catching tick-borne diseases like Lyme. Instead, you need specialized equipment…

Outlook is among the best Gmail alternatives for most people. Microsoft's email service is free and has a bunch of features that Gmail does not. At the same time, there are some shared features you'll likely want to use if you're coming from Gmail—they're just not enabled by default. I've been using Outlook's email service for over a decade, and these are the best hacks I've discovered while sorting through my inbox. Disable image downloads to prevent email tracking by shady companiesCompanies and organizations often use pixel tracking to see if you've opened their emails. Every one of these emails includes a hidden tracking pixel, which sends read receipts to the sender …

Google's AI has gone through a couple of stages thus far. First, Google launched "Bard" as a direct competitor to ChatGPT. Soon after, the company rebranded to "Gemini," encompassing everything from its chatbot to its LLMs. During The Android Show: I/O Edition, Google revealed its newest AI iteration: Gemini Intelligence. It might sound suspiciously similar to another company's AI suite, but Gemini Intelligence offers a number of unique features—at least, according to Google. Gemini Intelligence's new agentic abilitiesGoogle is positioning "Gemini Intelligence" as an agentic assistant. While the company already offers agentic capabilities, like ordering cabs through Uber…

Chromebooks have been a major success for Google, but they have their limits. While they're great for school and light work (especially if you're all-in on Google), they aren't necessarily the best choice for more intense or professional computer work. For that, people often turn to two main platforms: Mac or PC. It seems Google sees an opportunity to add another to the mix: The company looks like it wants to capture Android users who might be choosing from one of the other two platforms for their computing needs. iPhone users often choose Mac, after all, so maybe Android users would choose the right Google computer, too. Googlebooks are a new laptop from GoogleEnter Goo…

If you tried to launch Spotify today to listen to a song or a podcast, only to find the player endlessly loading, you're not alone: Spotify is down. The company confirmed the issue on X via its "Spotify Support" page, posting "We’re aware of some issues right now with the app and are checking them out!" You didn't need to see this X announcement to learn about the outage, however. Anyone trying to access the service right now will run into a roadblock. I can make it to my library, but when I try to stream a song, I just see the playbar loading over and over again. Downdetector, owned by Lifehacker parent company Ziff Davis, currently displays tens of thousands of user rep…

Google's Gemini AI has recently become more agentic and capable inside Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides—and now Microsoft is pushing out a similar upgrade for Copilot. These features have been in testing for a while, but they're now more widely available to individuals and companies who pay for any of the Microsoft 365 subscriptions. Essentially, Copilot in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint can now do more on its own—not just offering advice and help, but actually taking over the business of creating and editing itself. There are a host of ways to use this, but here are just a few examples I tested to give you an idea of what's possible. If this kind of AI interference isn't for…

This week, a meme-based generational civil war is breaking out on TikTok, and only one side knows it's even happening; a throwaway tweet from rapper Young Thug has me looking into why so many rappers put "ASAP" in front of their names, and we're going back in time to 2012, when prank videos ruled the internet. TikTok’s Le Snack Demon and why it signals a generational riftTikTok has been around since 2016; Instagram, since 2010. Both have lived long enough to see long-time users butting heads with newcomers, and generational battle lines are being drawn around a little AI cartoon character called Snack Demon. It started on (older-coded) Instagram, where this video from a…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Apple Notes is an excellent note-taking app that often goes under the radar because many of its best features are hidden. The app does a great job at capturing your ideas and syncing them across Apple devices, but when you start digging deeper, you'll quickly realize that it has powerful features under the hood. As someone who's used the app for over a decade, I've discovered quite a few of the best Apple Notes hacks on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Here are 10 I think everyone should know. …