Home Office Setup & Equipment

For many students and workers, Windows is just the default way to use a computer. It's where all your apps work as intended, where all your Microsoft Office documents sync easily, and where you play all your games. But if you peel back its layers, Windows can be a lot more than that. Power users can take advantage of hidden features, and utilities from Microsoft and third-parties to not only speed up their workflow, but to improve productivity and fix some of the most annoying quality-of-life issues that plague Windows PCs. Control everything using the Command Palette …

The first supermarket, the Piggly Wiggly in Memphis, opened its doors in 1916. It was the first time people could wander around a store and pick their items from a shelf instead of handing a list to a clerk who would gather everything for them—typically without any choice of brand or style. Grocery shopping remains a daily or weekly ritual for most people, and it can be a real chore—especially if you’re shopping for a large family. My own grocery lists aren’t all that long, but I still find myself juggling my phone and a scrap of paper as I walk around the store, checking for digital coupons and trying to do quick math. So when I read that one of the local grocery stores …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. One of the often unspoken truths of being a tech reviewer is you get to test out, recommend—and sometimes even keep!—gadgets that you would never buy for yourself, because you can't justify what they cost. This is why I tend to spend large portions of my reviews talking about price: I love a cutting edge gadget as much as the next nerd, but I have two kids and I live in the most expensive city in America. As much as I admire the Boox Palma 2 Pro, my budget doesn't really have room for a niche $400 e-reader. That's why the Xteink X4 e-reader, a minimalist 4.3-inch e-reader, is my tech upgrade of 2025: Here's a device that h…

The internet is a wild place, and not particularly kid-friendly. Unfortunately, it's highly impractical to keep your kids entirely off the web. That's where family accounts come in handy: Parents can set their kids up with supervised accounts, giving them access to essential apps and services, without allowing unfettered access to the entire net. It's often imperfect, and kids find workarounds for the guardrails, but still; it's better than nothing. Every company that offers a family account handles things differently. Meta, for example, continues to update their policies in the wake of criticism surrounding how addictive and harmful their apps can be for children. These…

Plenty of people have been asking for a MacBook with a touchscreen display, and now that is possible with the Intricuit Magic Screen, according to an announcement at CES 2026. It's a snap-on accessory that attaches to your MacBook's display, and uses one of the USB-C ports on the laptop for power. Once connected, you can touch the Magic Screen and your input will be registered on the Mac. The good news is that this product ships with a stylus, which will make it a lot easier to interact with different Mac apps. When you tap something on your iPhone or iPad, the UI takes into account the fact that your fingers are a lot thicker than a mouse pointer. On the Mac, the default…

DIY fixes around the house can save you a lot of money and headaches—with few basic skills and a few basic tools, you can tackle a wide range of home projects while other folks pay professionals enormous amounts of money to get the same work done. But sometimes, you get what you pay for. Professionals may be pricey, but they bring with them a wealth of experience and knowledge that helps them avoid simple mistakes that can lead to real trouble—including code violations. A lot of DIYers tend to skip steps like pulling permits and inspections on the assumption that they’re not necessary for minor fixes, but hacks that seem like clever solutions when you’re DIY-ing can actu…

Despite all of the technological advances that have made our lives so comfortable and convenient, from on-demand movies to smart devices that can be controlled from a handheld computer in our pockets, there are still some primitive situations we have to endure. For example, that seemingly endless time spent shivering in the shower while you wait for the water to heat up. Or that painful moment when you go to wash your hands and water that feels like it’s being pumped directly from the Arctic splashes you. Waiting for the water to heat up is an age-old problem caused by simple laws of physics: Your water heater is far away from the tap or shower head, and it takes time to …

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…

You (hopefully) know by now that you can't take everything AI tells you at face value. Large language models (LLMs) sometimes provide incorrect information, and threat actors are now using paid search ads on Google to spread conversations with ChatGPT and Grok that appear to provide tech support instructions but actually direct macOS users to install an infostealing malware on their devices. The campaign is a variation on the ClickFix attack, which often uses CAPTCHA prompts or fake error messages to trick targets into executing malicious commands. But in this case, the instructions are disguised as helpful troubleshooting guides on legitimate AI platforms. How attacker…

While CES doesn't technically kick off until Tuesday, the conference gets a bit of a soft launch with CES Unveiled. This event hosts a ton of companies, all proudly showing off their latest products and concepts in one giant room. While there's plenty to write home about, five products in particular this year caught my eye: Tombot Credit: Lifehacker Tombot's robotic puppy, "Jennie," isn't supposed to be a pet-replacement. Instead, Jennie is specifically designed to help people with Alzheimer's. The bot is a healthcare device, a…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Premium noise-canceling wireless earbuds don’t come cheap, and Bowers & Wilkins earbuds (a brand owned by Samsung) are definitely at the top end of that category. But in a market crowded with ANC earbuds that do little more than meet the bare minimum, these justify their price tag by leaning into thoughtful features, sound quality, and build that go beyond the basics. Right now, a brand-new pair of Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 earbuds are going for $279.99 (originally $399) on Woot, their lowest price ever. …

The Apple Watch is both a companion to the iPhone, as well as a very capable device in its own right. Out of the box, it offers notification mirroring, so you feel every alert on your iPhone on your wrist, as well as workout tracking, so you can keep up with your fitness goals. But this wearable can be so much more than that. In fact, it doesn't take much to make your Apple Watch more personal and efficient. If you own one, here are ten hacks you need to know about: Disable every notification you can Credit: Khamosh Pathak Get…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. The strength training mode in Garmin watches like the Forerunner 570 is a little confusing at first, but once you get the hang of it, it's incredibly useful in the gym. Garmin handles rest timers better than any other wearable I've tried, and when combined with a third-party app called LiftTrack, you can even track your volume and PRs. I'll lead you through how I use this workout mode, and how it's helped me do more work in less time in the gym. How to find strength workouts in Garmin Connect Credit: Ga…

Garmin displays a real-time stress level from 0 to 100. Oura calculates "daytime stress" and resilience metrics. For Whoop, it’s the stress monitor; for Fitbit, a "stress management score." However it’s branded, some version of a “stress score” has become ubiquitous across smartwatches and wearables. This number is marketed as a window into our internal emotional state, turned into quantified proof of how our day is really going. The only issue: these numbers aren’t all that accurate. What your "stress score" actually tells youThe scores lighting up our wrists aren't measuring what most of us think they're measuring. When you check your smartwatch and see that your stress…

Hisense is all about TVs at this year's CES—specifically, how those TVs display color. If the company's keynote is any indication, Hisense is extremely invested in leading the charge in color reproduction. Though its tagline this year is "Innovating a Brighter Life," the pitch is less on how bright their TVs are, and more on how true to life their colors are, especially when it comes to accurately displaying the filmmakers' original intent. Will consumers buy a TV because their favorite movie looks a bit more how the director intended it to be? I'm not sure. But that's largely the idea behind Hisense's new RGB MiniLED Evo. RGB MiniLED Evo …

I’m sure you’ve seen the studies that come out from time to time showing that diet sodas are arguably kinda-sorta bad for you. (Their evidence is never very strong.) But did you see the new study that found diet soda was better than water for people with type 2 diabetes? Not only is it a real study, it was well-designed and we should be paying attention to it, according to an epidemiologist I talked to who was not involved in the study. That epidemiologist is Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz of the University of Wollongong, who wrote about it here. When I asked him if it was a good or a bad thing that this study had mostly escaped notice by news media, he said “this is far more ro…

Once again, there is a new feature available on Google's NotebookLM, the AI tool that functions like a personal assistant and only references material you provide for it. This one is a slide deck generator, which can be useful if you need to make a presentation in a hurry, but I've been using it a little differently to help myself retain new information. Generating a slide deck in NotebookLMFirst, you should know how to generate a deck. In case you're unfamiliar with NotebookLM, it's basically just like ChatGPT, but instead of pulling answers from the big, wide Internet, it only relies on PDFs, links, videos, and text you input as resources. This makes it the perfect too…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. If you're anything like me, you spend 90% of your time using your laptop with it docked and plugged into a monitor (or two). And if you're at that point, you might be wondering why you even bother having a screen attached to your computer at all. If so, HP's got your back. Announced at this year's CES, the HP Eliteboard G1a looks like a normal keyboard on the outside, but on the inside, it's got a whole Windows PC. That's not exactly a new concept, but with the experimental days of Windows XP long behind us, it's mostly been reserved for less powerful, Linux-based single-board computers like the Raspberry Pi. That's great …

What if a team of super magicians used their talent and training to stage elaborate heists? That’s the high concept that drives the Now You See Me franchise. Critics were lukewarm when Now You See Me was released in 2013, categorizing the film as a heist flick with thin characters and a plot that fell apart as often as it twisted, but Now You See Me pulled off its own escape act—audiences loved the movie's flashy style, whipsaw pace, and all-star cast featuring names like Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson, and Morgan Freeman. The result was box office magic: a movie with a $75M budget that returned over $300M worldwide. Now You See Me has since grown into an …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Nothing, an upstart tech brand from the U.K. that makes products like phones, smartwatches, and headphones, has quickly become one of my favorites lately. Its products offer unique features and designs, and the prices are competitive. Right now, Nothing's latest budget over-ear headphones, which were released in October, the CMF Headphone Pros, are just $79 (originally $99), the product's lowest price ever, according to price-tracking tools. This is a great option for anyone looking to get budget over-the-ear headphones that punch above their weight…

Yesterday, your phone might have been borderline unusable—at least, when you were away from wifi. That was due to Verizon's nationwide outage, which impacted roughly two million customers across the United States. If you were among them, you couldn't use your phone when you were on the go, which is sort of the idea behind cellphones in general. This included the ability to use navigation apps in your car, send emails or messages for work, or make calls outside of SOS mode, which basically limited you to emergency services. Worse, some users are still experiencing issues this morning following Verizon's official resolution, though there's likely a quick fix for that. I don…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Choosing a gaming monitor is a tough choice. Do you want a standard, 16:9 monitor that takes up a small amount of desk space, or a larger 21:9 or even 32:9 ultrawide monitor that takes up more space, but will also show you more of your game? This goes double for laptops, where ultrawide models are few-and-far between, and are absolutely gigantic. Lenovo's new concept for CES, the Lenovo Legion Pro Rollable, aims to give you the best of both worlds. When the laptop is closed, or when you first open it up, the Legion Pro Rollable looks like any other gaming laptop. It's a little thick, with RGB keys and a full numpad, but ot…

So many great productivity hacks come from the Japanese manufacturing industry. The 5S technique helps you keep your workspace clean so you can get more done, kaizen helps you improve the processes and workflow of your job, and kanban helps you schedule your tasks in the most efficient way. These are helpful even if you’re not working within the famed Toyota Production System; they’re adaptable to fit all kinds of work scenarios, which is similarly true for the 3 Ms that originated there, too. The 3 Ms are kinds of waste you should identify and eliminate to keep your work running smoothly. Once you learn how to identify and get rid of them, you can be even more productive…

If you just tried to open Instagram on your phone or computer, only to find that nothing would load, don't worry: It's not your wifi, nor is Verizon experiencing another outage. The fault instead lies with Meta, as Instagram is currently down. That's according to Downdetector, owned by Lifehacker parent company Ziff Davis, which shows over 2,000 user reports of issues with Instagram at the time of this writing. The issues seem to affect Instagram in all forms. While the mobile app was working last time I checked, I couldn't get it to load in Safari. That means you might not be able to check out posts, add new posts, or send and receive DMs—at least until Meta figures out…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The Amazon Echo Spot is one of four Alexa smart speakers you can get right now. It's between the older 5th-generation Echo Dot and the new Echo Dot Max. It's currently $44.99 (originally $79.99) after a 44% discount, the lowest price it has reached according to price tracking tools. Amazon Echo Spot (2024) $44.99 at Ama…