Home Office Setup & Equipment

The security of a popular wifi router brand is under scrutiny from multiple federal agencies, and devices could be pulled from shelves in the United States in the future. According to reporting from the Washington Post, the US Department of Commerce has proposed a ban on routers from TP-Link Systems, a move that has now received support from Departments of Homeland Security, Justice, and Defense. What is the issue with TP-Link?The proposal reportedly stems from security concerns with routers sold by TP-Link Systems, which is in California but was spun off from the Chinese-based TP-Link Technologies. Commerce officials have warned that the devices handle sensitive data an…

Google is bringing back its free year of Google AI Pro for U.S. college students, after releasing its new Gemini 3 Pro AI model today. Because so many of the new model's biggest features are hidden behind paywalls, it's not a bad deal, even if it's not the first time Google's done this. The deal follows similar promotions from April and August, although the most recent one ended in October. That this offer is coming so soon after the last one means Google might plan to keep rolling out these trials on a regular basis. How to claim your free year of Google AI Pro as a U.S. college studentTo get your free year of Google AI Pro, first head over to gemini.google/students and …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The 65-inch Hisense U65QF TV is now selling for $547.99, marked down from $847.99, and price trackers confirm this is its lowest recorded price. 65" Hisense U6 Series 4K Mini-LED QLED Smart TV (2025 Model) $547.99 at Amazon $847.99 Save $300.00 …

Whether you actually go back and look at photos, watch videos, or review files from years past, you may someday be disappointed if those memories disappear forever, either because you didn't back them up or your one backup was destroyed along the way. I know I have done a poor job of keeping track of media as I have upgraded computers and phones over the years, and I've lost my fair share of photos, videos, and documents along the way, whether on misplaced or damaged external drives or from simply forgetting to back up at all. Here's how to ensure your data is available for years to come. You need multiple backups of your dataOne approach to backing up your data is the…

It's 2025, and Google is now bringing its own agentic AI feature to the Gemini app. While the company has discussed agentic AI prototypes before, it now seems ready to take them mainstream. At the Google I/O 2025 keynote, Google discussed how the new feature can go out on the web on its own and perform tasks for you. Just like OpenAI's Operator, it can take a prompt, make a checklist of things that need to be done, and then do them for you. According to Google, Agent Mode combines features like live web browsing and deep research with data integration from Google apps to accomplish its online tasks. The model is supposedly capable of executing multistep actions, start to…

Ahead of Google I/O 2025, which starts on May 20, the company has announced a few big accessibility focused features for Android and Google Chrome. Among these are improvements to the Android screen reader, more expressive captions, and easier to read text in Chrome for Android. This follows Apple's recent accessibility focused announcements, with both companies' posts timed to mark Global Accessibility Awareness Day (May 15). Here are the best new accessibility features coming to Android and Chrome. Improved screen reader on Android Credit: Google …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Budget TVs have improved dramatically over the years, and the Hisense Class U6HF Series Fire TV is a good example of what you can get today for a "budget" price. While it won't be the same quality as what higher-end QLED or OLED budget TVs can offer, they make up for that with a much cheaper price. Right now, the 75-inch Hisense Class U6HF Series Fire TV is $549.99 (originally $758), the second-lowest price it has been, according to price-checking tools. 75-inch Hisense U6HF Series Fire TV …

If you've been experiencing random crashes on your Pixel 10 smartphone, you're not alone. Over the weekend, multiple Reddit users complained that their Pixel 10 phones, which only just hit the market in August, were already facing severe slowdowns and frequent crashes while trying to load apps. Worse yet, the problem seemed to persist across all apps and models of the phone, leaving users with little they could actually do on their new devices. "If an app does open and load it won't let me touch anything and it crashes," user cdriese said, with a number of others sharing a similar sentiment. The unfortunate news took me as a bit of a surprise, since I experienced no such…

We’ve been using passwords to protect our various accounts for a few decades now, and, to be honest, we’re not very good at it. Many of us use the same simple, easy to remember passwords for all of our accounts—convenient for logging in, but horrible for security. Not only will a bad actor (or computer) be able to guess that password easily, they’ll try it against your other accounts. Before you know it, you have multiple breaches, some of which may involve financial or private information. There are a number of steps you can take to beef up your password security, of course. First, you can use a complex and unique password for each of your accounts, making sure to never…

At my local Blink Fitness—which is now a PureGym—I recently worked in sets with another woman on the assisted pull-up machine. For me, the vibe was utter relief. No one was being rude about sharing equipment, it didn't feel remotely competitive, and there was a safety and solidarity in being the only two women in that quadrant of the gym at that moment. For a brief window, the gym felt like a space for both catharsis and camaraderie. Unfortunately, this moment only made me realize how rare this sort of shared gym culture has become. Truthfully, I don't know if gym culture was ever for me. The stereotype is it's all bros, right? I'm no Joey Swoll, self-described "CEO of g…

Between the sheer number and the increasing sophistication of phishing campaigns, seeing should not automatically be believing when browsing online. One particularly sneaky scam is a browser-in-the-browser (BitB) attack, in which threat actors create a fake browser window that looks like a trusted single sign-on (SSO) login page within a real browser session. Because we use SSO to access many of our online accounts, we may not think twice before entering usernames and passwords on these spoofed pages. Cybercriminals are counting on this to steal user credentials. How a browser-in-the-browser attack worksRather than redirecting users to a spoofed website, threat actors ru…

If you used the internet at all on Monday, you probably noticed a lot of things weren't working all that well. Sites and services around the world experienced interruptions, including the likes of Facebook, McDonald's, and even Fortnite. You might have heard by now that the issues were caused by an AWS outage. If you don't know what AWS is, however, that explanation might not be all that clear. "Amazon Web Services" runs the internetAWS is an Amazon subsidiary, short for Amazon Web Services. The company offers over 200 cloud-based products to customers, including applications for all of the following: Accessing AWS services Analytics Application integration Blockchain Bu…

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. Of all the study tips out there, from those that enhance reading comprehension to those that improve retention, the one I use the most is association, which has its own entry in the APA Dictionary of Psychology: It's "a connection or relationship between two items (e.g., ideas, events, feelings) with the result that experiencing the first item activates a representation of the second. Associations are fundamental to learning theory and behaviorism." Essentially, it's any connection you can form between tw…

If you've spent years curating playlists in Apple Music or another streaming service, you can now easily transfer your playlist to your Spotify library without needing to start from scratch or pay for a third-party service. Playlist transfers are now built into Spotify thanks to a new integration with TuneMyMusic, which facilitates music syncing, sharing, transfers, and backups across platforms. To initiate a playlist transfer from Apple Music or another streaming service (YouTube Music, Amazon Music, SoundCloud, etc.), open the Spotify mobile app and tap Your Library. Scroll to the bottom of the page, tap Import your music > Get Started, and follow the on-screen prom…

Did you know you can customize Google to filter out garbage? Take these steps for better search results, including adding my work at Lifehacker as a preferred source. The next Amazon Prime Day—or at least the Prime Day-like fall event known as "Prime Big Deal Days"—will take place Oct. 7–8. As you're checking out all the best deals, you might be tempted by Amazon's "affordable monthly payment system." Also known as "buy now, pay later" (BNPL), its pitch is alluring: Buy what I need now, and pay later, "on your own timeline." But as convenient as it sounds, you should think twice before using buy now, pay later options for Prime Day. While BNPL plans can allow you to pay f…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. If you’re planning your next DIY project or looking into new tools for your set, it can be overwhelming to weigh all the options available for cordless tools. As batteries become smaller and lighter, a wider range of cordless power tools is available. Here are a few of my favorite cordless tools based on design, durability, usefulness, and battery life. The best all-around cordless tool M18 FUEL 18V Lithium-Ion Cordless Brushless Oscillating Multi-Tool …

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. Summer and fall are the perfect time to prepare for standardized aptitude tests. Prepping through summer will help you be ready for a fall exam, giving you enough time to retake for a higher score it in the spring, if needed, or you can prep through fall and target that spring test. Even if you studied all summer, fall is the ideal time to review and cram down to the last minute. And no matter how you tend to learn, an app can probably help. Here are some of the best ones available on iOS and Android (som…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. 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. Right now, you can get a 2nd Gen Ring Indoor Cam with a free Ring pet tag on Amazon for its lowest price ever at just $30, making this bundle ideal for pet owners who want to increase indoor surveillance. The camera itself is a mid-tier indoor security camera that offers a solid blend of affordability, features, and smart home integration with those in the Alexa ecosystem, while the…

Sleep patterns. Heart rates. Menstrual cycles. Weight fluctuations. Medication schedules. The location of major world leaders. Every morning, millions of people strap on smartwatches, open period-tracking apps, and upload their most intimate details to the cloud. We're told this data will optimize our health, help us live better lives. But there's a darker question lurking beneath the surface: Who actually owns all this information, and where exactly is the line between optimization and surveillance? First things first: What HIPAA actually protectsIn discussing this topic with friends and family, most everyone I know assumed their health data enjoys robust federal protect…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. 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. If you’ve been waiting for a Kindle that holds more than just a handful of books, the Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition is worth a closer look, especially at today’s price. This like-new version with 32GB of storage is selling for $126.99 on Amazon (its lowest price yet, according to price-trackers). For context, a brand-new unit currently lists at $199.99, so you’re saving a soli…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Did you know you can customize Google to filter out garbage? Take these steps for better search results, including adding my work at Lifehacker as a preferred source. Apple makes good devices and accessories, but they do tend to be more expensive than the competition, even for something as basic as a charging cable. It's certainly true of Apple Watch bands—I'm not sure why a braided strip of polyester and silicone costs $99, but that's what the company charges. But right now, Woot is selling a whole rainbow of Apple Watch bands for up to 70% off. It…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. If you just need a tablet for streaming, browsing, and the occasional recipe lookup, the Amazon Fire HD 10 (2023) is tough to ignore at its current price. It’s down to $79.99 (from $179.99), and according to price trackers, this is the lowest it's ever been. The 32GB version costs $10 less, but spending that extra ten bucks is worth it if you plan to download movies or books for offline use. Whichever version you pick, you can expand the storage by up to 1TB with a microSD card (sold separately), so space won’t be an issue. Also, the battery life of…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. If you’re a competitive gamer, OLED displays are widely recommended for their speedy pixel response times, which virtually eliminate motion blur and ghosting. The result is smoother, sharper visuals with better contrast, so you don’t have to deal with the dreaded slow-motion lag when you’re in the zone. LG’s UltraGear monitors are known for leading the charge in this area, and right now, the highly rated 27-inch LG 27GX700A-B Ultragear OLED monitor is 41% off at $473.99 (originally $799.99), taking more than $300 off the price tag. …