Home Office Setup & Equipment

I love finding new ways to use apps to make my life easier, but sometimes, I find that I'm using so much tech in my real life that I get a little bogged down. That's been true with my workouts and health for a while: I weigh myself in the morning on a smart scale, which distributes the data to a nutrition app, Apple Health, and Peloton. I go to the gym and use my Apple Watch's Workouts feature to track my cardio, then open up Strong to track my lifting. At home, I use Peloton to track my cycling workouts, stretching, yoga, and much more. It all gets to be a little much! That's why I was pumped when I found an overlooked feature on my Peloton app recently: I can track my n…

I've been getting relentless Instagram ads for AI-powered home gyms lately. You've probably seen them, too—sleek wall-mounted screens with impossibly toned instructors, testimonials promising "the future of fitness," and before-and-after transformations that make it all look effortless. The smart home gym equipment market is booming. According to Business Wire, the industry was valued at $3.2 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $4 billion by 2030. The numbers show plenty of people are investing in fitness technology that offers personalized, convenient, and effective home workouts. Fitness is yet another way to feed the AI beast, transforming boring old equipment in…

Inbox management, like so much else, is a necessary evil in our day-to-day lives. As such, it’s best handled with the use of a strict system, but those can be tricky to implement and stick to. Also like so much else, finding the right system is time-intensive and adds a new layer of stress onto an already annoying task. Here’s a system that’s simple, doesn’t take a lot of time to start using, and can actually help you get through your unreads without overwhelming you. It’s called “yesterbox.” What is the yesterbox inbox management system?This technique—and its funny name—both come from late Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, who described yesterbox as a way of “relieving email guilt.…

When it's time to buy a new car, you don't necessarily need to stick with the one you had before. You don't lose your cloud-based photos by switching from Toyota to Subaru, nor will your friends yell at you for ruining the group chat by buying a Kia. That's not the case with smartphones: When you buy an iPhone, it's tough to switch away from it. The same goes for Android: While it's easy enough to switch within the Android ecosystem, such as between Pixel or Galaxy, moving from Android to iPhone can also be a pain. Tech companies tend to make it tempting to stick with their platform, and introduce friction when you try to leave. That, of course, is entirely business-base…

For all its faults as a platform, YouTube’s video player functionality is easily among the best online. It streams reliably to almost every device you can think of, in your choice of both video quality and playback speed. But it’s the array of hidden features and interface tricks that push it over the edge for me. (Other video players, take note.) Here are 10 of my favorite hacks that make YouTube easier to use. Search YouTube video transcripts with Ctrl-FAlmost every video on YouTube either has an official or auto-generated subtitled track. While these are mainly used for captioning, you can also pull up this transcript on the web and use Ctrl-F (or Cmd-F on Macs) to sea…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Though the Hallmark Channel may suggest otherwise, there’s nothing incongruous about pairing Christmas with scary stories. For centuries in Britain, families would gather around a fire and ward off the winter cold by sharing chilling tales of the supernatural—a tradition that was forgotten, only to be revived by Charles Dickens and M.R. James during the Victorian era. Similar non-Christian traditions go back even further; for ages and across cultures and faith traditions, dark midwinter nights seem to have provided a particularly good excuse to creep out our loved ones. So grab a warm drink, lock the doors, and fire up …

Black Friday sales officially start Friday, November 28, and run through Cyber Monday, December 1, and Lifehacker is sharing the best sales based on product reviews, comparisons, and price-tracking tools before it's over. Follow our live blog to stay up-to-date on the best sales we find. Browse our editors' picks for a curated list of our favorite sales on laptops, fitness tech, appliances, and more. Subscribe to our shopping newsletter, Add to Cart, for the best sales sent to your inbox. Sales are accurate at the time of publication, but prices and inventory are always subject to change. There's an awful lot to like about the Google TV Streamer, especially when it's bac…

While there are a lot of chat apps out there, WhatsApp is the undeniable leader of the pack. The app has over three billion monthly active users, constantly messaging and calling one another across the globe. However, currently those calls are all happening over the mobile app, or maybe the desktop app. Though WhatsApp does have a web app, the service has never supported audio or video calls outside of its downloadable apps—until now. You can now make calls from the WhatsApp web appAccording to WABetaInfo, WhatsApp is slowly rolling out audio and video calls to its web app. At launch, the functionality is coming to individual chats with users who elect to enroll in the W…

Google isn't new to adding AI to its products, and that includes Google Maps. The company already has AI tools that let you ask Gemini for directions to your destination, or get more info about it, and today, it's rolling out new features to help turn the chatbot into a (to borrow a term from Microsoft) copilot. With Gemini in Google Maps, you'll be able to ask open-ended questions and even have the AI take action for you, based on its responses. The idea is to make the app easier to work with while driving, which, yes, means you can also wake the bot with a simple "Hey Google." Let's say you get peckish while driving. You'll be able to wake the bot with your voice, ask …

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're like most people, your TV is the centerpiece of your living room decor. That means when it's off, all your furniture is pointed at a black rectangle. If this bothers you, the "art TV" trend that started with Samsung's The Frame could be the answer. These sets are made to look like a piece of art, and display an image of your choosing when not in use. The Frame is a pricey …

TikTok's having a rough 2026. The app recently switched ownership from the Chinese-based ByteDance to the new "TikTok USDS Joint Venture," which, as the name implies, is a majority American-owned business entity. Any changing of the guard comes with the risk for disruptions and issues, but it seems TikTok's problems have gone beyond the usual rocky transition. First, the app itself went down, which the company attributed to a power outage at a data center. Then, users accused the platform of updating its terms of service with aggressive new tracking, blocking certain content types, and "shadowbanning" new posts from some users. It's still not clear exactly what's going o…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Maybe this is just me being Extremely Online, but whenever I see a video of someone squatting in running shoes, a comment section goes off in my head. “Ditch the shoes!” “You’ll hurt yourself!” “You don’t want cushions under your feet when there’s a heavy bar on your back!” There’s some truth behind those knee-jerk reactions; when squatting (or deadlifting), I do not personally wear running shoes nor would I recommend them. But the importance of your choice of shoes is hugely overblown. You aren’t going to injure yourself or kill your gains by squatting in sneakers. Why people say you shouldn’t squat in sneakersWhy is this…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. In "celebration" of Earth Day, some tech retailers are offering discounts on their refurbished products. Sonos is one of these retailers, and their discounts are actually good. Sonos says it repairs these products to "like-new" conditions and still offers the same one-year warranty. Here is what you can get from them on sale today: 30 hour battery, ANC, lossless streaming, spatial audio with dynamic head tracking. …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Garmin fitness watches are such powerful tools that you can use one for months or years without discovering some of their best hidden features. Here are 10 hacks that every Garmin user should know, from the setup steps you may have skipped, to lesser-known features you’ll wish you knew about earlier. These hacks apply to watches like the Garmin Forerunner line (like the 570 and 265, to name two of my favorites). Other Garmin models may vary, but most of the features I describe below will still apply. The Vivoactive 6, for example, doesn’t have as many buttons as the Forerunners, but you can still set up shortcuts for the …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Black Friday sales officially start Friday, November 28, and run through Cyber Monday, December 1, and Lifehacker is sharing the best sales based on product reviews, comparisons, and price-tracking tools before it's over. It's Cyber Monday, and Lifehacker is sharing the best sales based on product reviews, comparisons, and price-tracking tools before the sales are over. Follow our live blog to stay up-to-date on the best sales we find. Browse our editors’ picks for a curated list of our favorite sales on laptops, fitness tech, appliances, and more…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. The holidays are the perfect time to settle into your couch and check out a classic Christmas movie or 12. Streaming services have made just about any of them available at will, from traditional classics like Miracle on 34th Street, to potential future classics like Hot Frosty. That said, choosing what to watch (and finding where it's available) can be a chore, so I've compiled the best 50 Christmas movies and specials in an alphabetical list. Revisit an old favorite, or check out a classic you've never seen before (preferably with a nice cup of cocoa at hand). Bad Santa (2003) Cut through the treacle of the seaso…

Black Friday sales officially start Friday, November 28, and run through Cyber Monday, December 1, and Lifehacker is sharing the best sales based on product reviews, comparisons, and price-tracking tools before it's over. Follow our live blog to stay up-to-date on the best sales we find. Browse our editors' picks for a curated list of our favorite sales on laptops, fitness tech, appliances, and more. Subscribe to our shopping newsletter, Add to Cart, for the best sales sent to your inbox. Sales are accurate at the time of publication, but prices and inventory are always subject to change. When I reviewed the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold last year, I called it "a big step forw…

Since the days of Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer, you've always have a choice when it comes to the program you use to access the internet—but we now have a whole new breed of software to consider: The AI browser. These browsers place AI models front and center, even more so than integrations like Gemini in Chrome or Copilot in Edge. These browsers give you AI-powered search, AI-powered answers to just about any question you can come up with, and even agentic AI control—so the browser can actually do some browsing and complete simple tasks for you. A future where we never have to manually fill out another web form or compare prices on sixteen different flights is…

I've defined a ton of slang since I started posting this column in 1878, but this week, I'm going all in on the funny little words the kids use among themselves. That's right: It's all-slang week! From “clock that” to “rawdoggin boredom,” consider this a crash course in what the kids are babbling to each other. As always, remember, you shouldn't use these slang words because they're not your words. Stick to calling things da bomb and saying "23-skidoo," gramps. (If this isn't enough slang, somehow, check out my constantly evolving glossary of Gen-Z and Gen A slang.) What does "clock that" mean?I'm old enough to remember when "clock" was slang for either punching someone…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Just in time for Memorial Day grilling, barbecuing, and smoking, the thoughtful folks over at ThermoWorks have put together a sale that you won’t want to miss. Starting today, you can get my favorite meat thermometer 30% off. It’s the Thermapen One, and I like it so much, I even bought one for my dad. ThermoWorks Thermapen ONE, No. 1 Recommended Instant-Read Thermometer - Cayenne Pepper Red …

I never considered myself a walking girl. I never engaged in the "hot girl walk" trends on social media or went on "mental health walks" during the pandemic lockdown. In fact, I long thought walking—the milestone most of us reach as babies, the activity the majority of us do each day to accomplish all the other basic tasks of living—had a little too much PR hype, especially after learning that the much-ballyhooed "10,000 steps" we're supposed to take every day relied on an arbitrary, made-up figure for marketing pedometers. If I am going to do cardio, I reasoned, I'm going to do cardio: cycling, running, swimming, or playing sports with my friends. If I'm not sweating, wh…

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 …

I'm a bit of a broken record when it comes to personal security on the internet: Make strong passwords for each account; never reuse any passwords; and sign up for two-factor authentication whenever possible. With these three steps combined, your general security is pretty much set. But how you make those passwords matters just as much as making each strong and unique. As such, please don't use an AI program to generate your passwords. If you're a fan of chatbots like ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini, it might seem like a no-brainer to ask the AI to generate passwords for you. You might like how they handle other tasks for you, so it might make sense that something seemingly so…