Home Office Setup & Equipment

We may earn a commission from links on this page. It's amazing how many problems can be solved with good sleep hygiene. If you often feel low on energy, one of the first things you should ask yourself is how much sleep you're getting. Good sleep also helps our overall health, our recovery from exercise, our ability to focus, and more. And while there are plenty of gadgets and biohacks that claim to help, the fundamentals of sleep hygiene are basic and simple. How to know if you need more sleepMost adults need seven to nine hours of sleep, on average, each night. This varies: Uou might be a seven-hour person or a nine-hour person. (Young people usually need even more; old…

Tax season is the perfect time to review your Roth IRA contribution strategy. While Roth IRAs offer incredible tax advantages, they come with specific rules that can trip up even savvy investors. After all, the humble Roth IRA is one of your most powerful retirement savings tools—when used correctly. You have until the April tax return deadline to set up and fund an IRA for the prior tax year. This means you have until April 15, 2025 to open and contribute to a Roth for 2024. We're also in the window where you can fund your 2025 IRA at the same time. Additional contributions for 2025 can be made until April 15, 2026, and so on. Keep in mind, filing for an extension to sub…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. If you missed the chance to grab a new TV during recent Prime Day or Black Friday sales, the Super Bowl is your next best shot at scoring a deep discount. Plenty of TVs from the top brands are on sale right now, and you still have time to get them before the game on Sunday, Feb. 9. (Note: Some models may not be available in your part of the country.) The best deals on TVs under 45 inchesDon't be distracted by the fact that TVs keep getting bigger and bigger. If your living room isn't huge, or you don't have wall space, a massive TV isn't better. 40…

When preparing for homemade pizza, it’s easy to hit the grocery store with mozzarella on your list. But what kind of mozzarella is best? Fresh, shredded, string? And is that really the best cheese for the pizza you’re craving? I sit here typing away when I should be nursing the burnt roof of my mouth because great pizza discoveries have been made in my kitchen today—my cheese-scorched mouth can wait. Similar to why there are good and bad cheese options for the best grilled cheese sandwich, pizza requires one with good melting properties (a fatty cheese), with a good balance of water, and not an overload of protein (which can resist melting). There are some surprises here…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Youth culture moves fast. New slang is created and abandoned in days, whole communities organize around a blurry photograph, jokes become memes, memes become rituals, and everything might is abandoned before you even notice it exists. It's like to trying to study a snowflake: Once you can look at it, it's already melted. So it is this week, as I take a look a new lexicon of brain-rot slang (that might not really be slang), a meme format based on threatening to eat your Uber driver, and the performative disappointment of youth. Plus, as a reminder that we still still share something, a video about humanity's never-ending fa…

If you receive nude photos via Google Messages, your Android device will soon detect and blur them with a sensitive content warning before you can view them. The feature, which is being rolled out to all users, also allows you to block numbers that send NSFW images and alerts you before you can send or forward them. When sensitive content warnings are turned on, users will be directed to a resource page (tap Learn why nude images can be harmful) and see an option to block the sender's number. You can choose to open the image you receive (tap Next > Yes, view or No, don't view) and unblur and re-blur by tapping the Preview icon. How to enable Google's sensitive conten…

Amazon and the White House are not getting along at the moment. A report from Punchbowl News claims that Amazon had plans to disclose how tariffs are raising the price of products across the site. It seems that when you clicked on a product, you would not only see the current cost, but also the northward effect The President's tariffs had on that price tag. The move directly contradicts the notion, oft-repeated by the administration, that the costs of tariffs are paid by the countries the tariffs are levied against. Amazon showing a tariff-related price increase would make it plain as day to consumers that they are, in fact, the ones making up the difference. The W…

Bluesky's latest update adds a few more useful options to its impressive arsenal of anti-harassment tools. The changes make it easier to hide direct messages (DMs) from strangers, and to mute accounts even faster. You don't need to do anything to receive these features, too. As long as you're using the latest version of Bluesky's apps or log in to the website on any browser, you should see them. Here's everything that's now available as a part of Bluesky's 1.99 update. Block DMs from strangersNo one wants a bunch of DMs from strangers, and Bluesky has now acknowledged that. If you're on the end of a targeted harassment campaign, you'll now be able to sort out DMs from str…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Love is hard, but movies? Movies are easy (well, watching them, at least). The trials and tribulations of modern dating and romance are inevitably going to feel, at one point or another, like they're way too much work—so, by all means, let your favorite (or soon-to-be favorite) movie couples do the work for you. Some of these movies are funny, some spicy, and some are tear-jerkingly tragic, but they all have one thing in common: They're not you, so feel free to take a couple hours out of your real life and let some other people do the work for once. When Harry Met Sally (1989) An impressively realistic depiction of…

If you want your iCloud data to be as well-protected as possible, you need to turn on Advanced Data Protection (ADP)— but that's no longer going to be an option in the UK. Apple is pulling ADP from the country, reportedly following a request from the UK government for a backdoor into encrypted iCloud files, and the fallout is likely to have global consequences. What is ADP? ADP applies end-to-end encryption (the gold standard for data security) to just about everything you've got backed up in iCloud, making it virtually impossible for anyone else to access it. If ADP isn't enabled, only certain types of data get this protection, such as passwords and payment info, Message…

There's a brand new Apple app in town: Apple Invites gives you everything you need to organize a get-together, from picking a guest list beforehand, to sharing photos and videos of the event afterwards. While you need to be a paying iCloud subscriber to create events, anyone can respond to and interact with them—but predictably, there's no native Android app. And I think that's something Apple needs to look at. Admittedly, Android users aren't left out of the Apple Invites party altogether, but they have to put up with a slower and less capable web-based interface in their mobile browser—an option a lot of iOS apps go for, rather than developing an actual Android version.…

This week's biggest event was the Super Bowl. While the game was a snore-fest reminiscent of the lopsided Super Bowl blowouts of the past, the halftime show was nothing like the performances of 1980s Super Bowl favorites "Up with People." If you compare the two performances (and you should), you'll see how far we have come as a society. Kendrick's jeans win the Super Bowl Super Bowl 2025 may have been more of beatdown than an exciting football game, but luckily Kendrick Lamar was around at halftime to provide some much needed drama. From "Uncle" Samuel L. Jackson providing a preemptive critique of the show from "mainstream" America, to Serena Williams crip walki…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Everyone has their opinion on how to make a perfectly boiled egg—is it boiled from a cold start, hot start, steamed, pressure-cooked, or sous vide? This argument will rage all the more feverishly as periodic cooking enters the fray. According to science, periodic cooking yields the perfect boiled egg. The test required two pots of water at different temperatures, a two-minute timer, a notepad, and 32 minutes of uninterrupted focus. I must admit, the results were fantastic—but I’d never do it again. The special thing about eggs is that you have two substances: the egg white and the egg yolk, one encapsulating the other. As…

Wireless earbuds are great, but they can be pretty same-y from one brand to the next. Most adopt the classic AirPods design language—small buds, usually with some sort of stem, all of which travel in a charging case. Each has its own list of pros and cons, of course, but the product category has certainly homogenized. The newly announced Powerbeats Pro 2 seem a bit different, though. Of course, these new buds do all the things you'd expect from a pair of $250 headphones: They have active noise cancelling and transparency mode—the latter of which pumps in sounds from the world around you so you can hear what's going on with your earbuds in. They're IPX4 sweat- and water-r…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The price of Amazon's Kindle Colorsoft was one of the biggest barriers to recommending when I reviewed the device earlier this year and compared it to cheaper options like the Kobo Libra Colour, but thanks to Amazon's Big Spring Sale, it's now a significantly more attractive option. Normally selling for $280, it's now down to $225, actually making it cheaper than the Kobo and similar color e-readers from Boox or Bigme. Amazon Kindle Colorsoft …

When you're planning a trip with friends, there's a good chance your group chat will be full of links to and screenshots of places you want to visit or cafés you want to hit. To help you keep track of all that, Google is now rolling out a new feature to add multiple locations to a Google Maps list for you using screenshots. This feature scans your phone and uses Gemini AI to work out the places mentioned in your screenshots. It's starting out first first on iPhones (which is odd for Google), and it's limited to the US for now. However, Android and global releases are planned for the future. How to automatically add places to Google Maps using screenshots …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. After more than a week of teasing it on social media, Whoop has finally announced the release of its 5.0 device, along with a version called the “MG” (medical grade) that can do ECG readings and estimate blood pressure. Members can upgrade for a $49 fee or by extending their membership in one of the three new membership tiers: One ($199/year), Peak ($239/year, similar to current offerings) or Life ($359/year). Whoop is the screenless fitness tracker that earned four stars in my review of the 4.0 model for its integrated fitness and recovery tracking and its handling of strength training. It’s only available by subscriptio…

In the dry months of winter, a humidifier is a godsend, infusing the air with moisture and doing its part to keep your skin and sinuses from getting parched. Since you’re probably regularly adding fresh water to it, you may not think you need to clean it that frequently. But you do—and more often than you might guess. In addition to helping it run better, cleaning your humidifier stops the machine from dispersing microorganisms and minerals into the air. Practice proper humidifier maintenanceDistilled or demineralized water is better than tap water; the latter can contain minerals that could hasten bacteria growth. The minerals can also cause what looks like white dust t…

Sprint interval training, or SIT, is super trendy right now. It’s a great way to improve your running speed and to get in a hard interval workout, and I’ll explain exactly how. But I also need to clear up this silly question about whether it’s “better than” HIIT (or high-intensity interval training). SIT is, in fact, a type of HIIT. What is SIT? Sprint interval training refers to exercise routines where you run as hard as you possibly can (or nearly as hard) for a short time, typically 30 seconds. A SIT workout usually looks something like this: Warm up with walking and/or easy jogging for 10 to 15 minutes. Run 30 seconds as hard as you can. Recover (walk or rest) for t…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. No matter how locked down your identity information is, there’s probably a gaping hole in your security efforts: your car. Just like you, your car is linked to a few numbers. Unlike you, it rolls around with those numbers—your license plate number and the vehicle’s VIN—out in the open. Your car’s identity is even more vulnerable than yours, and that vulnerability can have a huge negative impact on you. Here’s what to know about car identity theft and how to protect your vehicle. Plates and VINsYour car’s public identity is tied to two things, its license plate number and vehicle identification number (VIN). The license pla…

When the Nintendo Switch 2 was officially announced, it was hard to feel like it wasn’t just more of the same. With no weird 3D gimmicks and no absurd naming scheme, did it even really feel like a new Nintendo device? But eagle-eyed viewers picked up on something else—Nintendo, it turns out, might be the first console maker to build a mouse right into its default controller. At about 1:01 into the announcement trailer, you can see what looks like an optical sensor pop up on the side of one of the Switch 2’s Joy-Con controllers (or whatever they end up being called), and just a few seconds later, those same two controllers glide along a desk on their side, as if t…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The 2020 MacBook Air with the M1 chip still holds up as one of the best lightweight laptops Apple has ever made, and right now, you can get a Grade A refurbished model for $514.99 on StackSocial. That means you’re getting a machine that looks nearly new, with little to no visible wear. It’s the Space Gray model with a 13.3-inch Retina display, which delivers crisp text and vibrant colors, whether you're working, streaming, or scrolling through Reddit. With 8GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD, it’s built for everyday tasks like web browsing, video calls, and …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Being both a lightweight and a lover of sparkling wine means I often end up with a leftover half-bottle of the stuff, or I choose not to open one at all. Neither of these options feels right to me. While I don’t mind pouring the occasional $11 flat prosecco down the drain, my partner and I just got engaged, and we've been gifted a few bottles of fancy champagne—stuff way to good to waste. The inevitable leftovers must be protected. After testing a few hacks to preserve sparkling wine’s fizz, I found one that works. The testing optionsA friend gave me a Le Creuset champagne stopper along with a bottle of bubbly around Chr…

It happened again: Across sprawling tabs, dozens of windows, and countless unread messages, you've somehow lost your cursor. Maybe it's hiding in the corner of your screen, but, hmm—nothing seems to be popping out of any of them. What's more, if you have your Mac connected to multiple monitors on your desk, your cursor could be anywhere. Tell work to push your deadlines; you're gonna need a minute. But before you damage your reputation, there's a better way. Well, a couple of ways, actually—but one of them is far more fun. To save yourself from this grief in the future, try "Googly Eyes," a free app that adds, yes, a pair of googly eyes to your Mac's menu bar. Googly Eye…