Home Office Setup & Equipment

We may earn a commission from links on this page. We’ve all been there: You find the perfect product, the chair or skin cream that will solve all your problems through the liberal application of capitalism—but it doesn’t fit into your budget. You have three choices: You can spend the next few months (years?) saving diligently toward the glorious day when you can afford to pull the trigger; you can put that purchase on a credit card and deal with the interest charges—or you can find a dupe. Dupes—short for “duplicates”—are having their moment. While knockoffs are nothing new, as anyone who has ever bought a “designer” handbag on the streets of New York City can attest, dup…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The 65” Samsung S85D OLED TV is now $997.99 on Amazon. That’s $900 off its usual $1,897.99 price, and according to price-trackers, this is the lowest it’s ever been. Powered by Samsung’s NQ4 AI Gen 2 processor, it promises improved performance and runs on the 2024 Tizen OS, offering voice control and easy casting from your phone. Its design includes adjustable feet for soundbar placement and cable management clips to keep things organized, though wall-mounting might be tricky due to recessed ports. And, while it comes with 20W 2.0 channel speakers (…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Whether you're worried about hurricanes, fires, or winter storms, a little bit of preparation can go a long way to making your home more resilient to extreme weather. Taking the time to plan ahead will make it safer and more comfortable to hunker down if an emergency occurs. Here are some home updates you can do yourself to keep yourself and your home safe. Check drainage and gradingWhen there is a deluge of rainwater or water from melting ice or snow, it can test the strength of the water barriers on your foundation and siding. One way to give your home a fighting chance in a wet environment is to ensure that you have pr…

There’s nothing worse than seeing the perfect house and finding out it’s already the object of a bidding war. As mortgage rates remain high and inventory remains low, the competition for homes is only getting more intense. If you’re looking for a house and you’ve been frustrated at how quickly they sell, or you’re struggling to find houses that meet your needs, there’s probably an untapped resource you can take advantage of: pocket listings. What's a "pocket listing"?A “pocket listing” (sometimes called an “off-market” listing) is a property for sale that isn’t listed in the Multiple Listing Service (MLS). That means that while a real estate pro is actively trying to sell…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The Nothing Ear wireless earbuds are currently $144, down from $159—their lowest price ever, according to price trackers. They work with Bluetooth 5.3 and support high-quality codecs like LDAC, so you get clear, detailed audio, especially on Android devices. They also feature multipoint pairing, allowing you to connect with up to two devices at once. Battery life is a little over 5 hours with ANC on (eight with it off) plus an additional 18 hours with ANC (or up to 32 hours without it) from the charging case. Speaking of, charging is handled via USB…

You've heard of inflation—get ready for eggflation. You’ve probably noticed these astronomical prices on grocery store shelves, or noticed no eggs on the shelves at all. According to the latest consumer price index, or CPI, the price of eggs is up 36.8% from where it was a year ago. Compare that to the trajectory of overall food prices at just 2.5%, and the eggflation is clear. Here's what's behind the current state of this kitchen staple, and what you can do to make eggs more affordable right now. Why eggs are so expensive right nowSoaring egg costs are due to both increased demand and pervasive avian flu outbreaks, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. The hardest part of sticking to a workout routine may be starting, but the second-hardest part is figuring out what to do when it's time for another workout but you're still sore from the first one. Below, I'll share some tips for relieving that soreness—but, even more importantly, I'll tell you what not to do. Perhaps the most surprising thing: you probably shouldn't skip your next workout. Know what normal soreness feels likeBefore we discuss what to do, let's take a minute to understand how you're feeling right now, and why. It's not lactic acid (that's a myth), but rather a phenomenon known as DOMS, for "delayed onset…

WhatsApp is adding new choices for customizing your chats, with both preset themes and mix-and-match colors for backgrounds and chat bubbles, as well as a selection of 30 new wallpapers. Users on WhatsApp have been able to change chat backgrounds for a while, with options ranging from solid colors to patterned wallpapers to images uploaded from your camera roll. Now, customizations have expanded to include chat bubbles, with default themes that coordinate background and chat colors and options to customize one or both for individual chats or all of your WhatsApp threads. According to a blog post from WhatsApp announcing the update, chat themes are currently being rolled…

If you've considered trying DeepSeek—the hot new AI app from China—but been put off by concerns around privacy and censorship, you'll be interested to know there's now a tweaked version of the DeepSeek R1 model available inside Perplexity. Perplexity has long given users a choice of in-house and third-party AIs for answering prompts, and DeepSeek R1 is the latest to make the list. Perplexity cofounder Aravind Srinivas has promised the censorship guardrails have been taken off—so yes, you can ask about Tiananmen Square—and that all associated data (like your prompts and their responses) is stored in the U.S. …

Your Mac collects a lot of usage data to improve macOS and Apple's own apps. Quite a bit of that data is collected by default, and it's good to be aware of it. Apple is quite good at declaring how and why it collects data, and almost always, this information is easy to find and understand. The company also encrypts a lot of the data that it collects, which means that Apple cannot read it. Having said that, I think all kinds of data collection should be opt-in, and not enabled by default. Here's how to review data collection settings on your Mac and use third-party tools to ensure that your computer isn't phoning home any more than is necessary. And since we're on the subj…

It should be as easy to cancel a service as it is to subscribe to it, and at long last, it's about to be. For anyone who's ever found themselves trapped in an endless maze of customer service calls trying to cancel a subscription—especially when the company doesn't want you to—relief is finally on the way. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has introduced a new rule that will require companies to make canceling subscriptions as simple as signing up for them. Here's what you need to know. The "Click to Cancel" ruleUnder the new FTC regulation, if you can sign up for a service online with a single click, companies must provide an equally straightforward cancellation process…

Falling victim to a scam is terrible, but being targeted a second time by fraudsters posing as law enforcement promising to help you recover is even worse. Scammers pretending to be from the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) have been reported more than 100 times between December 2023 and February 2025, according to an April 18 public service announcement. Impersonation scams aren't new—a widespread scheme in 2022 saw scammers posing as government and law enforcement officials, for example—but this latest one doubles up on people whose money has already been stolen. How the IC3 scam worksAs the FBI's notice describes, scammers may contact fraud victims by pho…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. GoPro has such a hold over the action camera world, casual users might assume its brand name is synonymous with action cameras as a whole. But simply assuming GoPro is the be-all and end-all of small, dedicated cameras would do a disservice to popular competitors like DJI. It won’t take long when watching any tech YouTuber’s behind the scenes videos to start seeing DJI's products pop up—one creator has even famously gotten in trouble for stress testing a DJI camera by speeding—and that’s for good reason. DJI’s gear tends to punch in the same weight class as GoPro’s while costing a little less, and arguably having slightly …

Software updates are important and inevitable. To expand features and patch existing security issues, you need to update your apps and machines. If you avoid updating, you might find certain programs, functions, or even websites stop working as they should. However, if you visit a website, and you see a prompt to update Chrome in order to proceed, run away. In all likelihood, you just encountered a scam. Don't fall for it. WordPress sites are getting hackedThe scam in question is targeting WordPress websites—10,000 of them, in fact. That's according to c/side, a web security company, whose research uncovered the current attacks. Here's what's going on: Hackers are hijack…

If you're tired of how your Mac desktop looks, consider changing your app icons. It can be a fiddly process by default, but luckily, there are ways to make it easier. By using these methods, you can make your dock reflect your wallpaper's aesthetic, ensure that all app icons are the same size, or just replace ugly app icons with something better. Where to find Mac app icons Credit: Pranay Parab While you can easily find icons for various Mac apps with a quick web search, it's much easier to get them from a site dedicated to ic…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Oura, the smart ring, is finally taking menstrual cycle data into account when assigning readiness scores—a feature whose absence has baffled users for years. The ring’s app was notorious for assigning lower-than-expected scores during the luteal phase of users’ cycles, but that is changing thanks to an update to the Readiness score algorithm that Oura announced this week. If you don’t have a menstrual cycle, or if you have one but don’t track it, you probably won’t notice anything different about your Readiness scores. But this update is a big deal for anyone who uses Cycle Insights, the feature of the Oura app that uses …

Google has issued another round of significant AI model announcements, upgrading its Gemini offerings across the board to bring users and developers artificial intelligence engines that are, according to the company, more capable and reliable. In the wake of DeepSeek's rise and new OpenAI models, the pace of AI development isn't slowing down. First up, the Gemini 2.0 Flash model that appeared in December for a select few is now rolling out to everyone, so you'll see it in the Gemini apps on desktop and mobile (this actually began appearing last week, so you may have already used it). The Flash models are designed to be faster and more lightweight, without too many perform…

When it comes to your important data, you should always have a backup. And then a backup of that backup. Cloud storage services shouldn't be your whole strategy here, but they can help with that. Sometimes, you just don't have enough physical space to store all the photos you've taken over your life, or all your ebooks and work documents. Plus, there is the convenience factor of syncing your files between all the devices that you use, so that a document you drafted up on your iPad can instantly show up on your Mac or your Windows PC. That said, picking a cloud storage service isn't as easy as it used to be. Now that so much of our cloud usage is tied to platforms and ecos…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. We lose time in small increments. Simple, everyday tasks and chores might only take a few minutes, but those minutes add up and can have a serious impact on your stress levels. But take heart: We’re living in the future, and you can easily automate a wide range of many everyday tasks, gaining back precious minutes and even hours. Automate grocery shopping If your grocery list is pretty stable—you buy the same things in the same quantities every time you stock the pantry—you can automate it to a large extent. Amazon Fresh allows you to set up repeat items that get added to your shopping cart and automatically delivered dur…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Super Bowl LIX kicks off on Sunday, Feb. 9 at 6:30 p.m. ET. This year, the game is being broadcast by Fox with a pregame show starting at 2 p.m. ET and game coverage at 6 p.m. ET. Even if you don't have cable, there are a few ways, both paid and free, that you can watch all the action live from Caesars Superdome in New Orleans. Watch free on TubiThe game—as well as pre- and post-game coverage—will be streaming on Fox-owned Tubi for free, with 4K available on some devices (including Roku, Fire TV, Android TV, and Apple TV). You do need to sign up for a Tubi account, but no credit card is required. Tubi also includes the NF…

WhatsApp appears to finally be getting its iPhone app up to speed with its Android companion in a major way: allowing you to use multiple accounts on one device. The "new" feature, which has been available on Android since 2023, was spotted by WABetaInfo in the iPhone app’s most recent TestFlight beta program. If (but more likely once) multi-account switching eventually carries through to a public release, users will be able to manage and sign into multiple WhatsApp accounts within a single instance of the WhatsApp app, eliminating the need to keep multiple devices on hand to manage each of their WhatsApp accounts. This will be especially handy for small businesses. …

It seems every tech company on the planet has something AI-related to tout these days, but to most people, I'd wager "AI" is synonymous with ChatGPT. Sure, plenty of other AI platforms are out there, from Google Gemini, to Microsoft Copilot, to Apple Intelligence, but ChatGPT holds the enviable position of both having been the "first" to the generative AI boom, and having kept the crown in the years since. At least, that was the case—but now, a Chinese startup is threatening to take that crown for itself. That company is DeepSeek, a name you're likely familiar with if you have been following AI news. Like ChatGPT's OpenAI, DeepSeek develops generative AI models. The compa…

Controlling a computer with a mouse might seem like second nature to you, but to people with motor control issues or other disabilities preventing them from keeping a steady hand on a peripheral, it can be a frustrating endeavor. That’s why Google’s giving Chromebook users the ability to control their cursors with their faces. Initially announced in December, Face Control allows Chromebooks to use your webcam and facial gestures as input. Look down to move your cursor down to your menu, or look up and to the left to hover over the Compose button in Gmail. Move your mouth left or right to left-click or right-click, and open your mouth to start using voice-to-text. …

If you’ve ever felt like you were duped by overpaying for something that was advertised as a “great deal,” you’re in the right place. It’s easy to get caught up in frenzied online shopping holidays like Black Friday or Prime Day, especially when retailers are known for sneaking price hikes before major “sales” or deceiving shoppers with tricks to spend more than you intended to. Figuring out the best time to buy something requires constant watch over ever-fluctuating online prices and some knowledge of how prices have changed in the past. As a shopping and deal writer, that is what I do for a living, and I know how time-consuming it can be. Luckily, you don’t have to fig…

Major data breaches and cybersecurity threats are now a fact of life, the consequence of which is our personal information being exposed at some point. One of the latest significant leaks involves data from PowerSchool, a software provider for thousands of K–12 school districts in the United States and Canada. The incident affected millions of users. What happened in the PowerSchool hack According to reports, PowerSchool discovered that personal information had been stolen from its customer support platform on Dec. 28, 2024. Hackers used compromised credentials to log into and export from its "Students" and "Teacher" database. BleepingComputer is reporting that the hack…