Home Office Setup & Equipment

If you’re at all like me, spring cleaning can be something of a domino situation. I might start by cleaning the baseboards, but when I get to the stairs, I’m like, wow these handrails are dirty. And so on. By the time I’m done, I’ve also discovered coffee splashes on walls, cobwebs in ceiling corners, and the dustiest blinds one has ever seen—and I’m feeling rather disgusted with myself. I’m also feeling sore, because my back is not what it once was and it seems like the worst of the dirt is either way low or way high. You know who still has good backs, though? Our kids, that’s who. Spring cleaning should, I believe, be a family affair. From the inside of the home to the …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Amazon's Big Spring Sale is almost over, but there are still deals you can take advantage of, including this comprehensive list of tech deals from Lifehacker's associate tech editor Michelle Ehrhardt. If you're looking for a portable speaker, consider this one from Ultimate Ears, the Megaboom 4, currently $129.99 (originally $199.99)—that's the lowest price it has reached, according to price-tracking tools. Ultimate Ears Megaboom 4 360-degree sound, is wate…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. The kitchen tends to be the heart of the home—it’s where we gather to share meals, nibble on snacks, and talk about our day. It’s also a pretty dangerous place. Aside from open flames, slippery floors, and flammable gas that is literally pumped into our homes, the innocuous little appliances that crowd our countertops can also represent real dangers. More than 150,000 people head to their local emergency room every year after an accident involving a household appliance of some sort. Small appliances might seem safe enough sitting on your kitchen counters, but they can be extremely dangerous if defective, misused, or placed…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. If you like to do your own home repairs and improvements, you know that a good tool set is a game changer. Having the right bits, blades, and other miscellaneous tools can save you time and effort, not to mention cutting down on the trips to the hardware store you’ll need to make while working on a project. But these smaller things can add up quickly, exhausting your DIY budget. Here are some good deals on bits, blades, measuring tools, and accessories for all your DIY projects. BitsWith so many different sizes and types of hardware, having the righ…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Getting a premium economy or business class seat for the price of economy sounds like a fantasy, but that’s what the Dollar Flight Club Premium+ Plan helps you do: This subscription service does the heavy lifting of hunting down the best flight deals and sending them to your inbox. Usually, a year of DFC Premium+ costs $99.99, but right now, new users can get it for just $29.99 on StackSocial. That’s a solid discount—unless, of course, you already have an account (in which case, no dice). Also, you have to redeem your code within 30 days of buying, …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Soundbars are the best way to take your home theater audio to the next level, especially if you complain about actors mumbling their lines. When it comes to high-end soundbars, there are a couple that beat out the competition, starting with the Sonos Arc (which is at its lowest price right now) for best overall sound—but the Samsung HW-Q900C is only marginally inferior to the Sonos, and you get a subwoofer as well for essentially the same price. The 7.1.2ch Samsung HW-Q900C soundbar and subwoofer combo are $565.68 (originally $1,399.00) right now, t…

If you're a Firefox user, you need to update your browser. Mozilla has released a security patch for two zero-day vulnerabilities identified at the recent Pwn2Own hacker contest held in Berlin. Zero-days are critical security flaws that have been actively exploited or publicly disclosed before an official fix is available. Browsers are targets for malware, and Firefox isn't the only browser to discover zero-day exploits in recent days. Earlier this month, Google released an emergency patch for Chrome to address a high-severity vulnerability (CVE-2025-4664) that permitted full account takeover—CISA later confirmed that this flaw was being actively exploited in attacks. (I…

Earlier this year, Nvidia announced its new line of 50 Series GPUs with a hot new feature in tow: "Multi Frame Generation." Building on early frame gen tech, these new GPUs allow games to create multiple video frames based on a single frame rendered the normal way. But is that a good thing? Or are these just "fake frames?" Well, it's complicated. On a very basic level, "frame generation" refers to the technique of using deep learning AI models to generate frames in between two frames of a game rendered by the GPU. Your graphics card does the more grindy work of creating "Frame One" and "Frame Three" based on 3D models, lighting, textures, etc., but then frame generation t…

ChatGPT introduced its Memory feature more than a year ago now. This feature lets users save particular details about their life or work in the ChatGPT memory bank, so they don’t need to repeat them with each new prompt. But using the Memory feature as it launched frequently required manually checking which information was saved and managing it yourself, which meant it was pretty easy to let it fall behind. OpenAI’s solution was to let ChatGPT remember way more about you. The Memory feature now builds a long-term memory bank based on all your saved ChatGPT conversations, rather than just key details. You can still save those key details, but you don't have to rely only on…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. There hasn't been a better opportunity for Android users to get a Google Pixel Watch, provided they don't mind being a bit behind the times: Woot is currently selling the first generation GPS + Cellular Google Pixel Watch for $79.99, 76% off the original $329.99selling price. This is the cheapest the wearable has ever been, according to price tracking tools. (Note that Woot only ships to the 48 contiguous states in the U.S. If you have Amazon Prime, you get free shipping; otherwise, it’ll be $6 to ship.) Goog…

Unlike the other big streamers, Tubi only has a handful of original shows, most of them imports (their original movie selection is much larger). That's not to say it's a wasteland for TV addicts: The streamer might actually have too many shows, a vast and sometimes wild catalog that spans decades. As the likes of Netflix and HBO Max have slimmed down their catalogues, Tubi is growing, offering a mix of established hits, underrated gems, and more obscure offerings. For the sheer breadth of material on offer, it has become the first place I look for anything outside the current zeitgeist—like the following 18 shows, an entirely non-comprehensive sampling of what Tubi has t…

When I reviewed the Kindle Colorsoft, one of my biggest points of criticism was how simple the tablet itself is. There's no stylus support or page turn buttons, even though Amazon previously had buttons on the now discontinued Kindle Oasis, and competitors like the Kobo Libra Colour and Boox Go Color 7 are still using them. Until now, that meant that turning the page required you to physically touch the screen, potentially leaving behind a distracting fingerprint. Personally, that's not a major issue to me—I just tap the margins. But it's a major distraction to my husband, who's taken to reading all of his books on his Kobo instead. With its most recent Kindle update, th…

As the prices on groceries continue to rise, many people might be thinking of growing a vegetable garden for the first time. It can be a great idea, not just because groceries are expensive, but because getting to the store includes soft costs like gas, grocery bags, and time—to say nothing of how wildly empowering it can be to simply walk into your backyard and collect the food you grew yourself. The key to your success here is maximizing the space you have, because gardening has soft costs, too. The fertilizer, water, and of course, your time. You’ve got a limited amount of space to work with, as well, so choosing the right crops to get the maximum amount of food is ess…

After the celebration ends, college graduates typically face numerous transitions, from moving to a new city and/or starting a new job to taking on student loan payments and other financial responsibilities. College students are often targeted for job scams, but the Better Business Bureau is alerting recent grads about schemes being employed specifically to steal their personal information and money during this transition period. Unpaid tuition scamImagine getting a call after graduation that you have an outstanding tuition payment, and unless you pay the bill immediately, your diploma will be rescinded. Scammers are using this threat to con recent grads—who have, in fac…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The Ring Battery Doorbell Plus is currently marked down to $119.99 on StackSocial (was $149.99), and if you’ve been eyeing a smart doorbell that won’t need rewiring or a professional install, it could fit the bill. It runs on a rechargeable battery, so setup is simple—just charge it, pop it in, and connect via the Ring app. That said, you’ll still need to recharge the battery every few months, depending on how often it’s triggered. The camera’s big sell is its expanded 1536p HD+ head-to-toe view, which means you can see visitors and packages in full…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Vegetable plants are expensive. To get the best yield out of them, you need to pay attention to more than just the soil, sun, and watering. You need to get your plants off on the right foot by planting them the right way. Here's what I mean. Choose the right plant at the nursery Credit: Amanda Blum When I first started gardening, I thought the best vegetable starts to buy were the ones that were the biggest, with flowers and fruit already on them. This would give the plant a he…

Firefox 138 is now publicly available worldwide, and this version brings full support for tab groups, profile management, a quick way to check the weather, and much more. These updates bring feature parity with other browsers and could prompt people to ditch Chrome and switch to Firefox. Here are all the new features in Firefox 138: Tab groups are now available more broadlyMozilla began the rollout of tab groups with Firefox 137, and the company says the feature is now available to almost all of its users across the world. Using tab groups, you can group similar tabs together to bring some semblance of organization to your open tabs. Creating a tab group is easy—just drag…

The old turn-it-off-and-on-again adage has helped successfully troubleshoot computers for years, but there's more than one way to restart your hardware and software—including a lesser known option on Windows that may well be new to you. Having spent many years writing about tech, it isn't often that I come across something I didn't already know about. So when I stumbled across this old BetaNews article about an emergency restart feature in Windows, I was taken aback. It showed a screen and a keystroke combination I had genuinely never heard of before. A bit more digging revealed that this has been in Windows for decades, making it even stranger that I'd never come across …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. A quality set of tools is critical for most any DIY or home improvement project, and whether you’re doing home repairs or trying your hand at woodworking, cordless tools can make your project go much more smoothly—but the tradeoff comes in the investment required, especially as you’re just starting out. Right now, you can ease the pain a bit: Many Milwaukee cordless tools and accessories are currently on sale at Home Depot for more than 50% off, making it a good time to build out a new tool kit or expand your existing one. Cordless toolsCordless po…

Amazon is in the process of overhauling Alexa, introducing a new Alexa+ AI service that will be available free of charge for Prime users (or $20 per month on its own). But as the company plans to roll out this new service, user privacy across Echo devices is taking a hit. In a March 15 email, Amazon announced its Echo devices will no longer support local processing for Alexa requests, and will stop offering “Do Not Send Voice Recordings” as an option. This means that every request—and its subsequent voice recording—will end up going to Amazon's cloud. Even a request as simple as "turn off the lights" will be sent to Amazon. This change starts on March 28th, and it includ…

While updating, upgrading, and reimagining your home can transform it into your dream home, the logistics involved can be daunting, even if you have a general contractor managing the project for you. One of the biggest challenges is setting your budget—unless you have an unlimited budget (lucky you!), determining what a home renovation will involve based on what you can afford is a key aspect of your plan. It’s also one of the most confusing. When budgeting reality bumps up against your dream home fantasy, figuring out what to remove from the project can be difficult because of the emotional aspects involved—everything can seem equally necessary when you’re imagining your…

Google is rolling out a new way to generate videos, as well as animate existing images, using AI. The catch? These videos are really short, and you have to pay to play. On Tuesday, Google announced that Gemini Advanced and Google One AI Premium users can now make AI-generated videos using the company's Veo 2 video model. Google originally unveiled this model back in December, touting the model's improved understanding of real-world physics, nuanced human emotions, and ability to generate specific types of shots (e.g. low angle, close-up, shallow depth of field). While Veo 2 is capable of generating 4K videos at several minutes in length, that's not the experience Gemini…

Earlier this week, TikTok user CatGPT posted a video of a woman in line at a store seemingly scrolling on a completely transparent phone. The caption reads "I'm sorry, WTF IS THAT???" Check it out: The video quickly took off, with over 52 million people having viewed it on TikTok in only four days. So WTF is it? A techie casually breaking an NDA by openly rocking a prototype transparent phone? The new "Plex from Nokia" (as the top comment suggests)? A casual time-traveler caught in the act? The real story behind the "transparent phone"Sorry, it's none of the above. It's exactly what it looks like: a transparent piece of acrylic shaped like a phone. Specifically, it'…

2024 was the hottest summer ever recorded, and there’s a good chance that future summers will be even warmer. For most people, planning for those future summers involves upgrading their air-conditioning systems and taking other steps to turn the interior of their homes into cool, dark caves. But what happens if you want to get outside for some fresh air? If your yard is too hot to enjoy during the summer, you might as well not have a yard at all. You can’t air condition the outdoors—but you can lower the temperature with some thoughtful landscaping decisions. If you hesitate to throw a cookout in your outdoor space because you feel like you’re on a grill when you’re out t…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. If you’ve been holding off on upgrading your system because of the high cost of a new Windows license, this deal on Microsoft Windows 11 Home might be worth your while. StackSocial is offering a Windows 11 Home lifetime access for just $17.97 for a limited time—down from the original $199 price tag, and way cheaper than the $139 it’s listed for at the Microsoft Store. But before you get too excited, there are a few important things to know. This version is meant for PCs that don’t already have a Windows 11 license and meet all of Microsoft’s system …