Home Office Setup & Equipment

Web browsers collect a lot of data and share it with the sites we visit, so if you're concerned about your privacy, it's worth wondering which browsers are best for keeping our online habits to ourselves. Whether you're an activist concerned about surveillance, someone doing research in a country where your topic can get you in trouble, or simply a person who doesn't want spying eyes on their search history, using a more private browser can be one of the simplest steps you can take towards less worry. I spoke to William Budington, a Senior Staff Technologist on The Electronic Frontier Foundation's (EFF) Public Interest Team, and Janet Vertesi, an Associate Professor of So…

OLED is a fantastic display technology. Unlike an LCD, which uses a single backlight for all the pixels of the display, all of the pixels on an OLED display can be individually lit up or turned off entirely. That means dark areas of the screen are inky black, while brighter areas can be selectively illuminated. It just looks fantastic, and if I have the option, I always try to choose it. OLED isn't new tech at this point, and yet, Apple has been slow to adopt it into its products, especially when compared to some of its competitors. The company's first device to feature OLED was the Apple Watch in 2015, then the iPhone X in 2017, whereas every Samsung Galaxy has featured …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. There are plenty of places worth investing your money for long-term growth. But what about short-term savings? Shouldn’t you be able to earn a little something extra on that, too? A high-yield savings account functions like a traditional savings account but offers significantly higher interest rates. More specifically, the average interest rate on savings accounts is currently 0.41% per the FDIC. Compared to those meager returns on a traditional savings account, high-yield alternatives can deliver more than 4.50% APY—turning a potential $50 annual return on $10,000 into $450 or more. These accounts are typically offered b…

If you use the internet, you've probably had at least some personal information go missing. It's just the nature of the web. But this latest discovery, as reported by Wired, is something different. Security researcher Jeremiah Fowler found a public online database housing over 180 million records (184,162,718 to be exact) which amounted to more than 47GB of data. There were no indications about who owned the data or who placed it there, which Fowler says is atypical for these types of online databases. Fowler saw emails, usernames, passwords, and URLs linking to the sites where those credentials belonged. These accounts included major platforms like Microsoft, Facebook, …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. We travel for a wide variety of reasons—vacations, business, family obligations—and in a variety of different ways, but there’s one constant: The actual traveling can be hectic, stressful, and expensive. Considering Americans took nearly 2 billion trips in 2025 alone, that stress can be pretty epic. From planning to de-boarding, travel can be a challenge—that is, unless you know and utilize these hacks. There are a lot of travel hacks out there in the wild, many of them dubious, but when a hack actually works to lower your costs, increase your comfort, or simply solve an irritating problem, it’s kind of magical. Here are …

Data breaches targeting healthcare and compromising patient information seem to be coming fast and furious, the latest of which occurred at Yale New Haven Health (YNHHS), a massive nonprofit healthcare network in Connecticut. Hackers stole the data of more than 5.5 million individuals during an attack in March 2025. Other major cyber incidents revealed by healthcare organizations in recent weeks include Blue Shield of California's exposure of 4.7 million members' data to Google along with a breach at Maryland's Frederick Health Medical Group, which affected nearly a million patients. What happened at Yale New Haven Health? According to a public notice on the YNHHS websi…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Two years ago, screenless fitness tracker Whoop took on a problem that none of its competitors have managed to solve: answering the question “how hard was your weightlifting workout?” Its initial implementation was clunky and finicky. I don’t think I managed to log a single workout correctly. But now, with improvements over the years, it’s become a much more useful feature. The game changer for me? Being able to connect exercises to a workout after you do the workout. This way you can’t mess up the tracking during the workout, but you still get the thing you actually care about—a Strain score accurate enough to power the …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Peloton's app and its fitness equipment have tons of options for workouts, but they can't do everything. If you track some of your workouts with other devices, like a Garmin watch or bike computer, they wouldn't show up in your Peloton workout history—until now. A new Garmin integration is rolling out, and here's how it works. How to link your Peloton and Garmin accountsThe new integration allows Peloton to import workouts from Garmin Connect. Garmin Connect is the name of the Garmin app, so this means workouts you do on a watch (say, your Forerunner 570) sync to the Garmin Connect app, and from there to Peloton. This doe…

I keep looking for ways to free up storage space on my iPhone and on iCloud. I am a data hoarder who hates deleting things, but when I almost managed to fill up my 256GB iPhone, I knew I had a problem and began aggressively deleting unwanted data. However, photos takes up most of the storage on my iPhone, which has put me in a bit of a spot. I find it hard to delete old photos, but if I don't do that, I may eventually have to start paying a lot more for cloud storage to back up my data. If you're in the same boat as I am, the answer is simpler than you might think. Here are a few ways to delete photos and free up storage space on both your iPhone and on iCloud. Define wha…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. If your photo library lives across five devices and looks like digital chaos, Lightroom can help, and this $119.88 deal on a one-year Adobe Lightroom subscription gives you access to a full suite of tools that work just as well on a phone as on a desktop. The cloud-based platform comes with 1TB of storage, so even if you’re editing a vacation album on your tablet in transit, the edits sync seamlessly everywhere. You can start on your phone, tweak more on your laptop, and finish on your desktop—without exporting or juggling file versions. Adobe’s AI …

The term 'Mac power user' is a bit vague and almost sounds exclusionary, but I'm here to tell you that if you regularly use your Mac, you absolutely are a power user. You don't need to exclusively be using command line tools or keyboard shortcuts to be a power user. Even though I use my Mac all day, every single day, I keep discovering new shortcuts, awesome apps I'd never heard of, or just general tips that I hadn't come across until now. So, if that sounds like you, you absolutely are a Mac power user, and I'm here to share some tips that have helped me optimize my workflow over the past few years. From setting up automation routines to save time, to a faster way to lau…

While a lot of May gardening is dedicated to moving plants into the ground, there is still plenty of seeding to be done. Inside, I'm starting late-planted vegetables like cucumbers, and a second round of annual flowers, like stock and celosia. Outside, I'm beginning to direct seed vegetables like corn and beans, and annuals like sunflowers. It's important to remember to stay on top of your succession planting during this busy time. And finally, there's no better time to start, reseed, or overseed your eco lawn. Lawns A clover lawn before being cut Credi…

Google I/O 2025 was chock full of announcements. The problem is, Google isn't always clear about which features are new, which have already been released, and which are coming out in the future. While there are plenty of features to look out for on the horizon, and a number still that you've been able to use for some time, there are brand new features Google rolled out immediately after announcing them. Here are all the Google I/O features you can check out right now—though some do require you to pay. Imagen 4 Credit: Google G…

If you’re like most people, you probably didn’t think a whole lot about tariffs before this year. And if you’re like most people, you’ve probably spent this year thinking a lot about tariffs—specifically, how they’re going to impact your life. Whether it’s worry over higher prices and empty store shelves or more generalized economic anxiety, these certainly are exciting times. And, like clockwork, we can add one more thing to worry about in relation to tariffs: Scams. Pivoting off the chaos and uncertainty everyone is experiencing around the on-again, off-again tariffs and their constantly shifting parameters, scammers have quickly assembled a few new attacks on your bank…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Nothing’s Ear (a) earbuds launched at $109, which always felt a little ambitious for a midrange pair trying to punch above its weight. But at their current sale price of $58.99 right now, their lowest price to date (according to price trackers), they’re in a range where the design, sound quality, and software finally make sense for the money. Nothing Ear (a) Wireless Earbuds with ChatGPT Integration, 45dB Hybrid Noise Cancelling Earbuds, Hi-Res Audio, Advanced Equaliser, Dual Connect, 6 Mics, …

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 eyeing premium wireless earbuds but don’t want to shell out big bucks, this deal on the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3 earbuds might catch your attention. Originally priced at $279.95, they’re now going for $89.99 on Woot—but only for two weeks or until they're sold out. Plus, Prime members get free standard shipping, while others will have to pay $6 (just a heads up—this sale is only available in the contiguous U.S., and free shipping isn’t available for Alaska, Hawaii, or PO boxes). You also get a two-year Sennheiser manufactur…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Stuck for ideas on how to show your kids' teachers the depth of your gratitude? We're in the midst of Teacher Appreciate Week, which is a great time to thank them for all their work this year—or at least get a jump on picking out an end-of-school-year gift. If your favorite teacher is tech-inclined, they will likely appreciate one of the gadgets on this list, all of which are under $50. Notebuddy Mini Sticker Printer Doodle Dash Portable Thermal Printer Inkless Pocket Photo…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. There’s something nostalgic about holding a printed photo in your hand, especially in a world full of scrolling and swiping. That’s probably why the Kodak Step Instant Smartphone Photo Printer has been getting so much attention—it's small enough to fit in a bag, quick enough to use on the go, and doesn’t rely on ink or toner. Right now, it’s down to $69.99 on StackSocial in black, white, or blue. And if awards matter to you, PCMag named it their Best Photo Printer of the Year for 2023 and gave it their Editor’s Choice stamp. Not bad for something ma…

Remember when hands-free shopping was going to be the next big thing? In 2017, the Echo Dot was the single best-selling item on Amazon during its Prime Day sale, outselling both the Nintendo Switch and Instant Pot. Amazon's goal was partly to heavily discount the device in order to install its voice assistant, Alexa, in as many homes as possible—likely in hopes to capitalize on the voice commerce revolution that industry analysts predicted would be worth over $40 billion by 2022. But something went awry. Despite Amazon's complete domination of the home-voice-thing market, by 2022, Alexa was being called a "colossal failure," 10,000 people were laid off from Amazon, and t…

Apple just released iOS 18.4 and macOS 15.4 for the iPhone and Mac, respectively. Once you complete the update, you'll see a prompt informing you that, as part of the update, the company has enabled automatic updates on your device, even if you had previously switched them off. This means that, unless you do something, Apple will start downloading and installing future software updates to your devices on its own. To test this out, I disabled automatic updates on my iPhone and on my Mac, and then began updating to iOS 18.4 and macOS 15.4. Sure enough, once the updates were complete, Apple duly informed me that it had gone ahead and enabled automatic updates on my devices. …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. There are two universal truths about tools: They’re expensive, and they take up a lot of space. If you’re trying to maintain a home or perform some DIY work in a small space or on a small budget, stacking up all the tools you might need to get the job done can strain your wallet and simultaneously pose a storage challenge. The solution is actually pretty easy: Buy tools that combine more than one function into a single item. While having the specific tool you need for every job will always be your best choice, if you lack space and/or cash, combination tools like these give you all the capability you need without eating up…

The The President tariffs we've seen so far will increase costs for the average American household by about $4,900, according to an April analysis from The Budget Lab at Yale University. And as you're forced to spend more money on daily luxuries, it's all too easy to adjust to a new normal. I've previously covered how too many people overstate the impact of your morning iced coffee on your long-term finances—but at the same time, it’s all too easy to fall into the trap of spending more money on an everyday basis, which can make it difficult to save for the future. This "new normal" of spending money falls under the umbrella of something known as “lifestyle creep.” And giv…

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 thinking about upgrading your tablet or just want something lightweight that doesn’t feel like a compromise, this refurbished 2022 iPad Air deal on StackSocial could be worth a closer look. It’s the 5th Gen 64GB model in pink (other colors are available too), going for $369.99, a decent drop from Amazon’s current $435.06 listing. And while it’s refurbished, it comes with a Grade "A" rating, meaning you’re getting a nearly new device with little to no visible wear and nothing that impacts how it works. It’s also light and slim, making …

While soup season should should be winding down, frost is still threatening parts of the U.S. Just when I should be cracking my knuckles to make burger patties, the wind chill has me hauling out the Dutch oven to make soup. Again. If your palate is tired of the same old soup recipes, I understand—lots of salt and umami can get boring. That's why you need my trick for bringing fresh interest to tired flavors (while also prepping your palate for spring): Simply brighten them with a dose of acidity. American-style soups tend to be heavily focused on the savory, salty end of the flavor spectrum—stews, chilis, chicken noodle variations, gumbos, chowders, and creamy soups. We…