Home Office Setup & Equipment

When Spike Jonze's movie Her dropped back in 2013, I thought it was a great work of total fiction. Who would actually befriend an AI bot, let alone fall in love with them? Fast forward 12 years, and I couldn't have been more wrong. Not only do people love chatting with AI bots, they are actually developing deep connections with them. I still don't get it, but I can't deny it: People like these chatbots a lot. Part of what people like about conversations with generative AI is the "personality" of each bot—or, at least, its perceived personality. After all, ChatGPT isn't a monolith: You can adjust the bot to sound wildly different than it does on someone else's app, which r…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. A quick public service announcement: Mother’s Day is this Sunday. If this holiday snuck up on you again this year (I’m in the same boat), it’s not too late to grab a thoughtful gift. Here’s a list of gift ideas for the chef, baker, coffee connoisseur, and everyone in between. While you may not have time to get something engraved or monogrammed, these gifts still say “You deserve to do more of what you love.” The vendors listed below offer expedited shipping so your gift will arrive on time. Just make sure to check the two-day shipping option during checkout. …

One of the ways AI models are rapidly improving is in their image editing capabilities, to the extent that they can now quickly take care of tasks that would previously have taken a substantial amount of time and effort in Photoshop. This is undoubtedly one of the main reasons Adobe has decided to introduce its own ChatGPT plug-ins. Want your t-shirt to be blue rather than red? Need to cut out a person or an object from an otherwise perfect group selfie? These are tricks that AI chatbots are now able to do cleanly and professionally, from just a text prompt. You don't need to have any digital photo editing skills; you only need to describe what you want to happen. Over th…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. A good productivity method can mean the difference between a disorganized, unfulfilling day and one during which you get a lot done and feel great about it. That tradeoff is why so many of these methods, techniques, and hacks exist. Some are over 100 years old, some were accidentally discovered by everyday people looking to improve their lives, and some come from self-styled gurus who publish entire books on their findings. And some are better than others—though maybe not objectively. To find the one that works best for you, take a look through this guide to seven of my favorites. Notably, these are the ones I like, but t…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Bose makes speakers that have been dominating their space since their release—and when it comes to portable mid-size rugged speakers, the Bose New Soundlink Flex has been one of the best since its release in 2021, and is still very competitive three years later. Right now, you can get it for $119 (originally $149), the lowest price it has been according to price-tracking tools. Bose New SoundLink Flex Battery Life 12 Hours, Included Components USB-C, Is Wa…

We've learned a lot about the Switch 2 since Nintendo announced it in back in January. We know how basic specs compare on paper to the original Switch; we know that many physical game carts won't actually have the games on them; and we know what games to expect this year. While there's still more to learn about the console before it officially launches next month, some new leaks have provided fresh insights into how the Switch 2 actually performs. Digital Foundry reports that it can definitively confirm leaks surrounding the Switch 2's hardware, answering many of the remaining questions that Nintendo and Nvidia have left a mystery thus far. The outlet highlights the key …

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 …

If you're unable or unwilling to upgrade to Windows 11 and you're running Microsoft Office (now known as Microsoft 365, of course), there's some good news: Support for Word, Excel, and the other Office apps is being extended for an extra three years beyond the end-of-life date for Windows 10 itself. The end-of-life date support for Windows 10—after which no further software updates or technical support will be offered by Microsoft—has been set for Tuesday, October 14, 2025. Support for Microsoft 365 apps will now go all the way up to Tuesday, October 10, 2028. That's as per an updated support document published by Microsoft and spotted by The Verge. Before now, there had …

Another week, another "gotcha" video debunked. This time it's "Cop Pulls Over Black Judge and Lives To Regret It," a piece of pseudo-documentary street drama that's been viewed millions of times on YouTube and TikTok (and elsewhere, I'm sure). The video is part of a growing online video genre based on documenting cops' confrontations with public, either through police-worn body camera footage or citizen-filmed footage. Some of these videos are real, but many of them are not. Here's the "Cop Pulls Over Judge" video: The tells: bad improv in a Florida parking lotIf you have a smidge of media literacy, it's easy to spot this as fake. The acting is sub-community-the…

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…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. When I first reviewed the Boox Palma e-reader, I called it the ideal solution to your doomscrolling habit—a device as portable and pocketable as a phone, with an adaptable Android operating system that allows you to run any apps you want, but with an e-ink screen that is both easier on the eyes and not nearly as stimulating to stare at as your smartphone’s LED display. Weirdly, by looking like a smartphone but feeling just a little bit worse to use (complimentary), this little device helped me smash my 2025 reading goal in fewer than six months. But doomscrolling isn’t a mobile-only problem (at least, not for me)—it’s just…

Google I/O 2026 is nearly upon us. This is Google's annual opportunity to showcase the software features (and perhaps some of the hardware) the company has been cooking up behind the scenes. Like other big tech keynotes, anyone can tune in live and catch Google's latest announcements as they happen. Here's when Google I/O 2026 will kick off, and what we know about the conference at this time. When and what time is Google I/O 2026?Google tends to kick off its I/O event in May of each year, and 2026 is no different. This year, Google I/O will run May 19 through May 20. If you're used to watching one single livestream, that two-day schedule might come as a surprise. But I…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. If you’re trying to avoid Microsoft 365’s monthly fees but still want the full suite of tools for work or school, this one-time purchase of Office Professional Plus 2019 might be worth a look. It’s currently on sale for $29.97 on StackSocial, which is a fraction of what you’d usually pay. Just to be clear—this isn’t a trial or a cloud-based subscription. It's a lifetime license for one Windows PC, and you get full offline access to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Publisher, and Access. There are some limitations you’ll want to keep in min…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. At $749, the unlocked 128GB Google Pixel 10 Pro has slipped into its most affordable price yet on Amazon, down from its original $999 launch price, according to online price trackers. Stack the promo code PIXEL10, and you shave off another $100, which reframes the phone entirely. At full price, it felt like a confident but pricey Android flagship. At this discount, it becomes a far easier recommendation for people who value polish over raw benchmark wins. Google Pixel 10 Pro …

When people say they work 40 hours a week, are they really working 40 hours—or are they spending a lot of that time waiting on colleagues to respond to emails, chatting with coworkers, and wasting away in meetings? Hell, even when you're alone at your desk, are you locked in on that spreadsheet or graphics project for eight straight hours, or might you be sipping a drink or texting your spouse every once in a while? There are simply some hours that aren’t true work hours, even if they occur during the work day. Times like these are known as idle time or downtime—but there’s a difference between the two, and understanding that can actually help you work smarter and be mor…

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 nearly universal adoption of smartphones in the late 2000s changed more than how we waste time while waiting in lines. With nearly everyone carrying a high-quality camera and microphone in their pocket—and the ability to instantly broadcast anything to a potential audience of millions—our collective concept of privacy has been permanently altered. If you’re not a little concerned with how what you do in public would play on YouTube, you’re not paying attention. As smart glasses equipped with cameras and…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Welcome to “Cookbook of the Week.” This is a series where I highlight cookbooks that are unique, easy to use, or just special to me. While finding a particular recipe online serves a quick purpose, flipping through a truly excellent cookbook has a magic all its own. Baking bread isn't for everyone, and I get it: Spending hours (or days) making one “simple” staple item that you could easily purchase at the store for a few dollars is arguably absurd. I fully accept that I may never be able to bring folks who feel this way over to the other side, and that’s fine. But what about the home cooks who are intrigued, rather than …

Another PayPal phishing scam is circulating, this time with email notifications about recurring or automatic payments. The messages originate from a legitimate PayPal address, allowing them to evade some security filters and leave recipients worried that their accounts have been compromised—perhaps just enough to ignore the obvious red flags and call or email scammers back. I personally have been targeted by this scam with at least five separate emails, though all have gone straight to my spam folder. Here's how scammers are exploiting PayPal settings to land in your inbox. How the PayPal scam worksIf you're targeted by this campaign, you may receive an email with the s…

At Google I/O 2025, the company announced that Gemini Live Camera and Screen Sharing is rolling out to iPhone starting today. This means that you'll be able to use your phone's camera to live stream a feed to Gemini, and have a conversation about with the AI agent about what it sees. This feature has been available on Android for some time, but it's coming to iPhone for the first time starting today. This could be useful for many things, such as showing Gemini a video of something in your neighborhood and asking it to identify the item. In theory, you could ask it to identify cars, trees, or important landmarks in your neighborhood, or ask it general knowledge questions a…

The Apple Watch is both a companion to the iPhone, as well as a very capable device in its own right. Out of the box, it offers notification mirroring, so you feel every alert on your iPhone on your wrist, as well as workout tracking, so you can keep up with your fitness goals. But this wearable can be so much more than that. In fact, it doesn't take much to make your Apple Watch more personal and efficient. If you own one, here are ten hacks you need to know about: Disable every notification you can Credit: Khamosh Pathak Get…

If you're an Android Auto user, you may already know that setting up phone notifications while you're driving isn't as straightforward as it could be—though Google has recently made a settings tweak that should simplify things. On the one hand, you don't want to miss important messages or calls, but on the other you definitely don't want to put yourself and other road users at risk by getting distracted while driving. A careful balance is needed, and it's important to know what options are available on your phone. If you're a Pixel user, Do Not Disturb is handled by Modes, which you can find by tapping Modes in Settings. Pick Driving, and if you enable the While driving t…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. For me, third-party "Joy-Cons" were an absolute necessity for comfortable portable play on the original Switch. But because the Switch 2 upgraded its Joy-Cons to a more complicated magnetic connection, we haven't seen many third-party options come out for it yet. It hasn't been as much of an issue for me as on the original Switch, since I do think the Joy-Con 2 are more comfortable than the original Joy-Cons. But they're still not ideal, especially when compared to other portable gaming options like the Steam Deck. That's why controller company Abxylute's recent announcement is so interesting to me. The company announced …

Need to quickly edit a photo? MiNi PhotoEditor is a free and open source web application that lets you do basic image editing tasks in your browser, without having to upload your photos to a server somewhere. The application offers quick tools for cropping, lighting, and other adjustments, alongside Instagram-style filters. This is perfect if you ever need to quickly edit an image on a computer where you can't install photo editing software, such as a Chromebook or a work computer. To get started, simply open the MiNi PhotoEditor website and drag an image onto it. In my tests, all images—even large ones—opened instantly, which makes sense, given that all editing happens l…

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…

While it doesn't have quite the same prominence as ChatGPT or Google Gemini, the Claude AI bot developed by Anthropic continues to improve and innovate. Brand new Claude 4 models are now available, promising upgrades in coding, reasoning, precision, and the ability to manage long-running tasks independently. There are two new models, Claude Opus 4 and Claude Sonnet 4, and Anthropic says they're both "setting new standards" for what you can expect from AI. Coding is a big focus, and the models are said to have achieved the highest scores to date on two widely used AI coding benchmarking tools, SWE-bench and Terminal-bench. Claude 4 models can actually work for hours on pro…