Home Office Setup & Equipment

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. If you’re looking to breathe new life into an older HD television—or even just want an affordable way to stream your favorite shows—the Amazon Fire TV Stick HD makes a strong case for itself. It's going for $19.99 on Amazon right now. Amazon Fire TV Stick HD $19.99 at Amazon $…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Motorola is set to release its latest wearable, the Moto Watch Fit, on May 22 with a price tag of $199 in the U.S. ($249 in Canada). The new smartwatch, which was initially unveiled alongside updated Razr flip phones last month, will be available through Motorola's official website at launch, with availability expanding to Amazon and Best Buy in the coming weeks. What to know about the Moto Watch FitUnlike most Android smartwatches on the market, the Moto Watch Fit runs on a proprietary operating system rather than Google's Wear OS. While this might raise some concerns for potential buyers wary of an untested system, there…

Instacart is rolling out a new app, but it's not for ordering groceries—at least, not the essentials. Instead, Instacart sees "Fizz" as a party delivery app, designed for ordering snacks and alcoholic drinks. Fizz isn't the first to offer alcohol delivery, of course. Instacart itself supports alcohol delivery wherever it's legal, as does DoorDash. But perhaps the most notorious alcohol delivery app was Drizly: The service was a popular option for ordering alcohol, but its reputation suffered following a massive 2020 data breach. Uber acquired the app the following year, then shut it down in 2024. But Fizz isn't a Drizly clone. Instead, the app seems more like if Drizly …

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 Lifehacker Associate Tech editor Michelle Ehrhardt's favorite tech deals. One deal you can take advantage of right now is the Dangbei Freedo, a portable projector with an official Netflix license and a 1080p resolution. You can get it for $399 (originally $549), the lowest price it has ever been, according to price-tracking tools. Dangbei Freedo 1080p reso…

It's not easy to maintain your privacy when using technology today. That's largely the fault of companies who prioritize data collection over the integrity of their users. But even though I'm quite used to the lack of respect most companies pay towards my privacy and security, I have to admit, I'm a bit taken aback by T-Mobile's latest decision. T-Life, T-Mobile's tech support app, has a rather unconventional and unnerving feature. For some users, it appears T-Life can record your screen whenever you have the app open. This setting is quite hidden, and worse, enabled by default. Who signed off on this? How T-Life's screen recording worksThankfully, the privacy and secur…

While the world mourns the passing of Pope Francis on April 21, the Catholic Church is preparing to choose a new leader. Cardinals are traveling to Vatican City from all over the world to take part in the papal conclave, an ancient ritual/election that ends with the selection of a new Pope. You might be wondering whether that new pope could be you. It almost definitely won't be, but I suppose it's possible. So If you're interested in the job—or just curious about what the process involves—here are the nuts and bolts of how popes are chosen. The leader of the Holy Roman Catholic Church is a prestigious position that offers excellent perks, including international travel, j…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. If you’re deep into comparison shopping for fitness watches, you’ve probably come across some debate on the different display technologies. Manufacturers are moving toward AMOLED style screens (bright! Colorful! Sharp! Modern!) while some longtime users are diehards for the older MIP or LCD style screens (the general vibe is: pry them out of my cold dead hands). So where does that leave you, the shopper, wondering what to get for your first or next watch? I’m going to break down all the pros and cons. What’s the difference between MIP and AMOLED displays? I’m going to gloss over a lot of the detail you’d need to be an eng…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Even though the residential burglary rate has been dropping steadily in recent years (down 26% between 2019 and 2023), many of us still worry about being robbed or experiencing a home invasion. Alarm systems and other high-tech security are really effective—a study once found that 83% of criminals check for an alarm before selecting a house to rob—but they don’t actually stop someone from breaking into your home. If you want to prevent a determined criminal from getting inside in the first place, you don’t need to spend a fortune turning your house into some sort of smart home fortress—there are plenty of cheap, low-tech s…

If you're eager for the new Nintendo Switch 2, the current preorder situation should make you a bit nervous. Nintendo's upcoming console is scheduled to launch on June 5, but without a preorder, there's no telling how difficult it'll be to buy one. Fortunately, things are improving. On Friday, Nintendo finally announced the new date fans can expect to preorder a Switch 2, as well as some good and bad news regarding price increases. Here's the latest. Switch 2 preorders open next weekIt's official: If you live in the United States or Canada, you can preorder a Nintendo Switch 2 on Thursday, April 24. The new date replaces the original April 9 preorder schedule Nintendo ann…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. I’ve heard new parents say things like “I can’t even remember what my life was like before the birth of my child.” Well, I don’t have children, but I’m pretty sure I can relate: I can’t remember my life before my Instant Vortex air fryer. I’ve been using this helpful appliance for three years now, and things have only gotten better since. In my kitchen, anyway. I originally got the Instant Vortex 5.7-quart so I could write more recipes for Thanksgiving food coverage. I didn’t particularly want an air fryer—how much could a small countertop oven possibly help with Thanksgiving, I thought, let alone day-to-day cooking? Why …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. If you want to level up your home security, the Arlo Essential 2K Outdoor Camera is now 50% off. For $49.99, this indoor and outdoor camera features high-definition footage, thanks to its 2K video resolution, allowing you to get a clear view of license plates, faces, and more. It also provides peace of mind with nighttime surveillance, featuring an integrated spotlight for color night vision that operates in low-light conditions. Arlo Essential 2K Outdoor Camera …

What kind of New Year’s resolution you make depends on your unique goals—which means you need a way to track your progress that is just as unique. If your resolution is to cut back on social media use and your friend’s is to run a faster mile, you won’t measure success the same way. Even if you swear 2026 is the year you spend less time on your phone (which I've sworn every year), tap into the power of handheld tech and use these apps to keep yourself on track. I like all the best general progress tracking apps, but when it comes to resolutions, you are looking at something time-bound and specific by its very nature, so you should try apps that are tailored more to what y…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Microsoft announced a pair of ultraportable Surface devices yesterday, both of which differ significantly from their predecessors. There's the creatively named Surface Laptop 13-inch, which is shrunken down from the previous model's 13.8-inches, as well as a new version of the Surface Pro, which is down from 13-inches to a 12-inch chassis. Like the rest of the Surface lineup, both are positioned to compete in the same space as Apple's MacBook Air, which comes in 13-inch and 15-inch varieties, and the latter could even potentially come for the iPad Pro, which hovers around a similar price point. The trick this time around? …

If you have a Samsung Galaxy phone, you'll soon be able to send money to friends and family instantly simply by tapping your devices together. A new peer-to-peer payment feature transfers funds from debit cards in your Samsung Wallet to those stored in a recipient's digital wallet or their physical tap-to-pay card. The feature will be available to Samsung Wallet users in the U.S. later this month. How Samsung Wallet 'Tap to Transfer' worksSamsung's new "Tap to Transfer" feature utilizes NFC technology to connect to debit cards in any digital wallet, meaning you can send cash even if the recipient uses a different third-party app (like Apple Wallet or Google Wallet) or o…

Microsoft announced a plethora of Copilot upgrades at the start of the week, and we're now starting to see some of them roll out—to Windows Insiders, at least. The Copilot app for Windows has now been updated to support Copilot Vision and file search, so the AI bot is better able to interact with whatever's on your PC. Copilot Vision first appeared on the web last year, but it's new to the Windows app: It essentially lets the AI "see" what's happening on your computer, so you can ask it about websites you're viewing, or documents you're editing, or songs you're listening to, without having to take a screenshot or do any copying or pasting. …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. There’s a sweet spot between overpaying for a flashy machine and settling for a sluggish budget buy. Right now, this refurbished Dell Inspiron Plus 7630 (2023) is sitting in that zone, on sale for $739.99 on StackSocial (versus $999 on Amazon). It’s been given a Grade “A” rating, which means you’ll get a laptop that looks nearly brand new—maybe a faint scuff here or there. Plus, it ships free across the contiguous US and has a one-year parts and labor warranty. It runs on an Intel Core i7-13700H chip, a high-performance 14-core processor typically f…

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 considering an Apple Watch but don’t want to drop Ultra-level cash, the Apple Watch Series 9 (GPS + Cellular, 41mm) is currently down to $299.99 on Woot, originally priced at $529. That’s for a brand new unit (not refurbished), and it comes with a one year Apple limited warranty. It’s available in two colors: a silver case with a storm blue band and a pink case with a light pink band. Both fit small to medium wrist sizes and ship free for Prime members (others pay $6 for shipping). The deal is live for three days or until it sells out…

If you've ever wished the text-to-speech feature on your Mac worked better, Spokenly might be the solution for you. It's a free Mac application that lets you use modern AI transcription right on your Mac for free—just trigger the application with a keyboard shortcut, say what you want to type, and watch as it appears on the screen. Whatever you feel about modern AI, it's hard to deny that it's good at turning the spoken word into text. Whether it's real-time transcription or creating a transcript for a video or audio file, the open source Whisper engine is accurate and fast. Spokenly is a free application that lets you use this technology on your Mac. Install the applicat…

In 2024, the world wide web was made up of 149 zettabytes of data. That's 149 trillion gigabytes, or 149 billion terabytes—whichever helps you wrap your head around that gigantic number. Suffice it to say, the internet is a big place. It's so big, in fact, that you can't access all of it the same way. There are actually different tiers to the web, and depending on with tier a piece of content you're looking for is on, you may or may not be able to view it—even if you know where to find it. That's the crux of the difference between the "surface" web, and the "deep" web. These are two separate parts of the internet that are also part of the larger world wide web. While the…

Even if you don't want to dive in and create AI videos using the latest Veo 3 model released by Google, you can sit back and marvel at (or be petrified by) the work of others: Flow TV is a new lean-back experience that lets you click through a seemingly endless carousel of AI-generated clips. Unlike the Flow video creator that is needed to create these videos, you don't need to pay Google a subscription fee to use Flow TV, and you don't even need to be signed into a Google account. It's a showcase for the best AI clips produced by Veo, though for now, it's limited to the older Veo 2 model rather than Veo 3. Google hasn't said much about the creators behind the videos in F…

Just three days after Apple released iOS 26.2 to iPhones everywhere, the company is back at it with a new update. iOS 26.3 is official, though only for beta testers. Those brave enough to install Apple's unfinished software on their devices won't find an update packed to the brim with new features and changes, but they will stumble upon two key new features. The thing is, we already knew both of them were on the way. This isn't the end all be all for the update, however: Since iOS 26.3 is so new, it's possible testers will discover additional features hidden within the update. In addition, Apple may add new changes in subsequent beta versions. I'll continue to update thi…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Purchasing a full set of individual dumbbell pairs between five and 60 pounds can cost well over $1,500, not to mention how much space you'd have to dedicate to storing them. That's why I'm a huge fan of adjustable dumbbells like the REP QuickDraws or Nüobells, which I reviewed here and here, respectively. If you know you want to be able to up to 60 pounds at five-pound increments, effectively combining 30 weights into one compact set, then adjustables like the REP QuickDraws are how you can save significant money and space in your home gym equipment setup. But let's say your strength progresses beyond your adjustable du…

If you've chosen a Chromebook as a laptop, then you know the main benefits that it brings: namely, speed, ease of use, and affordability. Despite the simplicity of ChromeOS, however, there's more that you can do with it than you might realize. You can use it offline, and you can sync files to and from local storage, for example. The operating system is a lot more powerful and versatile than it often gets credit for. These hacks are for power users who want to level up their Chromebook capabilities, and get extra value out of their laptop, beyond the standard use cases that everyone knows about. No matter how you use ChromeOS, there should be something here to help. Use yo…

Did you know you can customize Google to filter out garbage? Take these steps for better search results, including adding Lifehacker as a preferred source for tech news. ChatGPT is a valuable studying tool. It can help you brainstorm, it can quiz you, and it can explain content to you in a thorough way. Of course, it can also be used to cheat, since it can generate long answers (and even entire essays) based on prompts. I’m not here to argue about morals or academic integrity, but I will say that teachers are getting wise to the ways of students who use the AI tool or its competitors to complete written work. Here’s what they’re looking for and how you can still use ChatG…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. For anyone looking for a straightforward, budget laptop for school, writing, or browsing, this open-box Microsoft Surface Laptop SE sale is worth a look. It’s priced at $189.99 right now on StackSocial, down from its original $378.99 listing. Even Amazon has it for about $20 more at the moment. Being an open-box item means you're not getting the out-of-the-plastic wrap experience—these units were likely returned, displayed, or pulled from shelves—so the box might be bruised or have a sticker or two, but the product itself is tested, verified, repack…