Home Office Setup & Equipment

You need to use a lot of quotation when discussing AI. There's "intelligence," of course, but also "thinking," which these days usually refers to a specific type of model that breaks requests into multiple steps and takes longer to process (or "think through") them. Thinking models are nothing new, but if you use Gemini, you do have new thinking "levels" to choose from when using non-thinking models. Here's how it works. As spotted by 9to5Google, there's a new "Thinking level" option at the bottom of the model selector in Google's Gemini app for iOS and Android. To be clear, this isn't the "Thinking" model listed under "Gemini 3," as this model has been available for som…

Among the many AI-powered features announced today at Google I/O 2026 is a new "intelligent shopping cart" designed to help you find items faster and make purchasing more seamless. Universal Cart is an agentic hub that works across Google, so you can add products from multiple merchants while using Search, Gemini, YouTube, and Gmail to a single shopping cart. How Google's new Universal Cart worksOnce you add an item to your Universal Cart, Gemini will search for deals, show pricing history, and alert you to price drops and restocks. It can suggest other products relevant to your purchase, identify potential problems (such as items that are incompatible), and provide alte…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. The new Google Health app starts rolling out today, replacing the Fitbit app for data tracking on Fitbit and Pixel Watch devices. It’s what the Fitbit “Public Preview” previewed, and now, the finished app is live. The final app is definitely better than the preview, but still has its problems—here’s what I’ve noticed so far. (By the way, to get the Google Health app, you don't have to do anything—just wait, and the upgrade will come to you sometime over the next week or so.) Google Fitbit Air - Berry with Large Fog Active Band Bundle $99.99 at Amazon …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. At the upper echelon of earbuds, you have a few options to choose from: Bose, Sony, and Apple. If you are an Apple user, go with AirPods Pro 3. If you value audio fidelity and like to control the nitty-gritty details, go with the Sony XM6 earbuds. If you value comfort, user-friendliness, and ANC, the 2nd Generation Bose QuietComfort Ultra are your best option. And currently, the latter of those is $50 off, bringing them to $249 (originally $299) on Amazon. (All five color options are on sale.) …

The word “calorie” may bring up thoughts of nutrition labels and treadmill readouts, but really calories are just units of energy. Your car runs on gas, your house runs on electricity, and your body runs on food energy. So how many calories do we burn each day, and how many should you burn? Let’s dig in. You actually burn most of your calories at restCalories aren’t only burned during exercise. It takes energy to keep the lights on, so to speak—for your heart to beat, your brain to think, your cells to repair themselves, and more. In fact, most of our calories are burned doing these maintenance chores. Scientists call this baseline calorie burn our "basal metabolic rate,…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The 65-inch Toshiba C350 Fire TV is down to $264.99 on Amazon right now, which is half off its usual $529.99 price and the lowest it has dropped so far, according to price trackers. At this price, it sits in the same territory as many smaller budget sets, but with a much bigger screen. The main appeal here is simple: You’re getting a straightforward 65-inch 4K TV with Amazon’s Fire TV platform already built in—and because of that, setup is pretty painless if you already use Amazon devices. Once you sign in with your Amazon account, Prime Video recom…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. That book you tried to avoid reading in high school? It's now a pretty damn successful, and fairly faithful, BBC miniseries—succeeding either because brutal times invite brutal narratives, or maybe just because we like watching kids go wild. And the kids, indeed, are absolutely crucial to the series and to William Golding's original novel: The book version of Lord of the Flies is perhaps better known than read because of its relatively straightforward narrative about how fast humans will devolve once the strictures of society are removed. We know that story, and we can imagine echoes of it in the news every day, but Goldi…

We all get enough spam messages these days that we can avoid the obvious scams: If an unknown number texts you asking for money, or a spammy email address warns you about a computer virus, you'll likely delete them and move on. But if the message comes from a company you trust, like Microsoft, with a legitimate email address at that, you wouldn't be blamed for assuming that email was real. In this specific case, however, it's not, and you should be wary when interacting with it. As reported by TechCrunch's Zach Whittaker, scammers are sending emails from a legitimate internal Microsoft email address: msonlineservicesteam@microsoftonline.com. Microsoft uses this address t…

Strava announced today a complete overhaul of its strength training experience. It's one of the bigger gym-based updates I've seen from the app—the new features include 14 partner integrations, a dedicated workout log, auto-populated muscle maps, and five new strength-specific shareables. According to Strava, the update is rolling out globally in the coming weeks, so you should be able to try all of these new goodies soon. For anyone who has ever wished Strava treated their weight training with even a fraction of the seriousness it gives to runs and rides, the update certainly looks promising. Whether it fully delivers on its potential is a question that will require some…

It's been a good few months for Android-to-iPhone sharing: Late last year, Google figured out how to get AirDrop working with the Pixel 10, and since then, the functionality has spread to many other Android handsets. Many more models will be picking up the same capability in the coming months. Apple hasn't invested quite so much time in iPhone-to-Android sharing, but we can't have everything. At least there's now support for end-to-end encryption over RCS, rolled out with the iOS 26.5 update. There's more good news for those who want to share from Android to iOS, and who aren't getting the AirDrop feature (or don't have it yet): Google is pushing out an improved sharing m…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The Asus ROG Ally is a Windows 11-based handheld gaming console, and right now, a refurbished unit is down to $389.99 at Woot—the lowest price ever recorded for it, according to price trackers. For context, the same device (used) costs $665 on Amazon, and the lowest it's ever been is $449.99. This deal runs for another four days or until the stock runs out. Shipping is free for Prime members, and Woot only ships within the lower 48 states. Asus ROG Ally $389.99 at Woot …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Nothing is really new in conspiracy theories, but the churning morass of social media sometimes mixes up new combinations of old nonsense that bubbles up to the surface unexpectedly. Lately, interest in "Grabovoi codes" or "Grabovoi numbers" is high. The CIA is supposedly hiding Grabovoi codes, strings of numbers that one can concentrate upon in order to cure disease, get rich, and manifest a new car. This video, for instance, has been viewed over a million times in the last couple weeks: "You can search 'quantum healing codes' at the CIA.gov website and it has many different codes for many different things," This TikT…

After some harsh feedback about the quality of Windows 11, Microsoft is on a sort of apology tour. The company is promising to improve the operating system, addressing critical issues and features that annoy longtime Windows users. It started off with a way to delay Windows updates for longer than a week. Now, Microsoft is testing new settings that let users customize the placement and size of the taskbar alongside the start menu. The fact that you couldn't move the taskbar to the top or side of the screen has bothered Windows 11 users ever since launch. As with many frustrating aspects of Windows, there are multiple workarounds to customize the taskbar and its placement…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. If you’re interested in expanding your DIY tool kit or building a new one, a good set of cordless tools is essential. The DeWalt cordless tools I use at work are durable and the batteries last hours on a single charge, even after years of use. Here are some deals on DeWalt tools at Home Depot in the run-up to Memorial Day that can save you some money on good quality cordless tools and batteries. The DeWalt 6-tool set is on sale for $499If you’re building a new DeWalt set, buying a tool bundle that comes with the basics (and batteries) can save you s…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Dan Levy's follow-up to Schitt's Creek teams him with I Love LA creator Rachel Sennott for a comedy that, in the best tradition of crime shows, starts small and gets absolutely ridonculous. Laurie Metcalf stars as mom and matriarch Linda alongside Dan Levy's closeted gay minister Nicky and Taylor Ortega's chaos-magnet Morgan. Linda demands that the two of them get a piece of jewelry for their dying grandmother's last birthday, leading to a tiny bit of theft that finds them in debt to the mob. Not content to put the family through the wringer just once, Netflix has renewed it for a second season. In the meantime, enjoy the…

There are a flurry of AI-related announcements coming out of Google I/O 2026 today, but perhaps the most impressive is a new multimodal model called Gemini Omni. While it's launching as a video generator to begin with, it'll eventually be able to incorporate images and audio too, on both the input and output side. The idea is you can remix different audio, images, and video into a completely new clip, via a custom prompt. Right now, you can only generate videos from text prompts and images within Gemini, so you're getting the added ability to combine audio clips and existing videos too when generating something new—multiple sources for input, and then an output that Googl…

Google Workspace is getting a slew of AI-related updates, including a brand new app called Google Pics, which can generate and edit images for you. Many of these updates will be available to those who use Gmail, Google Docs, Google Drive, and other Google Workspace apps, the company announced during the Google I/O 2026 keynote. This includes conversational features that will allow you to control Gmail, Docs, and Keep; a new AI inbox that aims to help you stay on top of your email; and a personal AI agent called Gemini Spark that can integrate with Google Workspace apps to get things done for you. Here are all the major Google Workspace updates unveiled during Google I/O …

It wouldn't be a Google I/O keynote without a new frontier AI model. At I/O 2026, Google finally revealed the Gemini 3.5 family to the world, starting with Gemini 3.5 Flash. As you'd expect, it's the latest and greatest model from Google, designed to work across a slew of Google products like the Gemini app, Android, and Google's Antigravity coding platform. Google says that the latest frontier model is designed especially for complex agentic workflows. Google isn't the only company we're thinking about today, either. Lifehacker is launching a Big Guessing Game, featuring questions about what Apple might announce at its various events this year. The entire CNET Group is p…

At Google I/O 2026, Google announced that they're going all in on AI Search. According to Google, AI Mode now has more than a billion monthly users. To tackle all those questions, Google is plugging their best new Gemini 3.5 model directly into AI Mode, and, of course, they're integrating agents directly into Google Search so they can accomplish things on your behalf. Google Search gets Gemini 3.5 FlashStarting today, Google is integrating its latest Flash model, the Gemini 3.5 Flash, directly into AI Mode—and it's going to be available to everyone, globally. Google also sees the AI Mode search queries as the beginning of a longer conversation, so they're making the input…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. As the average running watch gets increasingly high-tech, there’s a new normal for pre-race rituals: Staring at your watch the week before a big event, hoping the algorithm has good news for you. Both Garmin and Strava offer race time predictions, but how accurate are they, really? I put each platform to the test during the Brooklyn Half Marathon on May 16, 2026. Here’s what I experienced, and what I think every runner needs to know about what these tools actually measure. How Garmin's Race Predictor worksGarmin's Race Predictor has been a fixture on its mid-range and advanced running devices for more than a decade. The f…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The Insta360 Ace Pro 2 (Dual Battery Bundle) has dropped to $329.99 on Amazon from its usual $419 price, and according to price trackers, it’s just 99 cents above its all-time low. That makes it one of the more compelling alternatives to the GoPro Hero 13 Black right now, especially for people who want usable 4K footage rather than headline-grabbing 8K specs. The good news is that the camera is genuinely very good at that—it can record 4K at up to 120fps for smooth slow-motion clips, and the footage looks sharp without going overboard on artificial …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. As extreme weather, power outages, and energy uncertainty get harder to ignore, home generators and portable power stations are becoming an essential part of your emergency kit. While smaller power banks are helpful for camping trips or keeping your phone alive, a more substantial generator like the Jackery HomePower 3000 is a better choice for people who want something a lot more substantial. Right now, a bundle with the battery and solar panel attachments is $1,300 off on Amazon, a more than 40% discount from the original $2,999 price. Jacker…

A few times each year, the tech community lights up with new theories and renewed speculation about what Apple might announce next. Those of us who scour the internet for the latest leaks and whispered rumors might try to guess what colors the next iPhone might come in, or what new features could ship with the next version of iOS, then watch Apple's keynote presentations live to see if we were right. If that sounds like you, listen up: This year, your guesses could win you a brand new Apple Watch. Throughout 2026, Lifehacker is running a guessing game contest based on Apple's new announcements and releases. Here's how it works: The contest will unfold across three …

Google's Gemini app is getting an overhaul, in terms of both design and function. At Google I/O 2026, the company announced Gemini is getting upgraded models that will lean more into agentic AI capabilities, which allow the assistant to send emails, add calendar events, and perform other actions on your behalf. (Google does emphasize that all agentic capabilities are designed to be used under your supervision, which hopefully allays fears of the agent going rogue and, I don't know, draining your bank accounts.) Here's is everything Google announced about Gemini's app upgrades during this year's event. Gemini has a new lookGoogle says it has revamped the design language f…

LastPass has come under fire in recent years following a 2022 data breach that compromised user vaults. Despite the controversy, it remains a popular and user-friendly option for saving credentials. But you don't have to stick to LastPass' default setup: If LastPass is your password manager of choice, these are the best hacks to optimize your experience. Use vault identities to keep work and personal credentials separate If you have one LastPass account for both work and personal use, you can separate relevant items into sub-vaults. When you toggle between them, you'll see only the credentials relevant to that identity, and LastPass will suggest only those items for auto…