Home Office Setup & Equipment

At last year's CES, Sony's press conference showed off products from all over its portfolio, including a first look at The Last of Us season 2. This year, it was all about the Afeela, an electric car Sony's making in collaboration with Honda that it's been teasing for years, but is now finally getting ready to release. Sony has big plans for Afeela. Previews have been less about hard specs like mileage or speed and more about the company's plans to change how we look at cars. Previously, that's included demo'ing integrations with other Sony services like Crunchyroll and themes for the car's interior based on Sony brands. Just last month, the company confirmed it would sup…

The ongoing feud between Disney and Google is heating up. It all started last week, when Disney pulled its channels from YouTube TV, Google's Live TV service, over fee disputes. Now, Disney seems to be pulling content from other Google services as well. As first noted by 9to5Google, Disney movies are starting to disappear from YouTube's pay-per-view offerings too, and even other platforms like Google TV. For instance, try typing "Avengers" into your YouTube search bar right now. Aside from trailers and videos uploaded from individual users, you're more likely to see a rental option pop up for that 1998 Sean Connery and Uma Thurman spy movie than Marvel's superheroes. Mean…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Just a few months ago, Oura won a lawsuit against rival smart ring makers Ultrahuman and RingConn. Now, they've initiated proceedings against four more companies—the makers of the Samsung Galaxy Ring, Reebok Smart Ring, Amazfit Helio Ring, and the Luna Ring. Oura announced on their website that they have filed an ITC complaint against those four companies. The ITC is the U.S. International Trade Commission, and Oura says its complaint is "for the unlawful importation and sale of products that infringe on several of Oura’s patents." Oura's previous win against Ultrahuman and RingConn resulted in a judgment that those compa…

The FBI is targeting a popular website for snapshotting websites on request, and may soon make it harder to get past paywalls online. The domain registrar of the site Archive.Today has reportedly been subpoenaed in an attempt to uncover the archive's owner, as first reported by 404 Media. A PDF of the subpoena posted to the Archive.Today X account late last week. The site is similar to the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, but is intended more for immediate short term access rather than maintaining a longterm record. As opposed to the Internet Archive's methodical web crawlers, Archive.Today's work quickly in response to user requests, but don't make any promises to kee…

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. The Sonos Arc Ultra is our pick for the best soundbar overall, and you can get it b…

Smart home devices can streamline a lot of your day-to-day tasks: With an internet connection and some simple automations, you may never have to carry house keys, turn off the lights, or touch your thermostat. But all of this convenience comes at a potential cost, as smart tech is vulnerable to attack by cyber actors, leaving your personal data and your privacy at risk. Here's what you need to know to secure your smart home. Is your smart home secure? The short answer: not by default. Smart homes have vulnerabilities at multiple levels, from the devices themselves to your home network to the physical endpoints, like your phone, that have access to and control over your I…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. At just under $1,460 on Amazon right now (down from $1,999.99), the LG 45GX950A-B Ultragear OLED is still a major investment, but a serious one for anyone who cares about pixel density, immersion, and future-proof display tech. LG 45GX950A-B Ultragear OLED Monitor $1,459.93 at Amazon …

WhatsApp is the most popular messaging app in most parts of the world, and in my decade or so of using it, I've learned a few important tips that make it a much more convenient and secure experience. I use the following WhatsApp hacks to keep my account safe, stop the app from overloading my notifications and storage, and save myself a lot of time. If you're like me, and your entire social circle is on WhatsApp, then you're absolutely going to need tips like these to stop from feeling overwhelmed. Use advanced chat privacy to block exports and Meta AIWhatsApp has end-to-end encryption, which means that the company itself cannot read the contents of your messages, but that…

Smart TVs have undoubtedly taken over the streaming space, and it's not hard to see why. You download the apps you want to use, log into your accounts, and presto: You can stream anything with a few clicks of your remote. But smart TV apps aren't the only way people watch shows and movies on platforms like Netflix. Among other methods, like plugging a laptop directly into the TV, many people still enjoying casting their content from small screens to big screens. For years, this has been a reliable way to switch from watching Netflix on your smartphone or tablet to watching on your TV—you just tap the cast button, select your TV, and in a few moments, your content is beam…

Back in 2021, Apple announced a new feature for the Wallet app, that allowed users to add their driver's licenses or state IDs to their iPhones. To me, it sounded like the beginning of the end for physical wallets. In reality, it was anything but: Not only are the applications limited, but even after all this time, only 12 states and Puerto Rico actually support the feature. While the rest of us wait for our respective states to get on board, many might have another option for these virtual documents. On Wednesday, Apple announced "Digital ID," a new initiative that lets you create an ID in the Wallet app using your passport. This bypasses the waiting period for the 38 s…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The Sony ULT Field 5 is currently $191.95 on Amazon, down from $349.99, and that price drop is what finally makes this speaker feel properly positioned. Sony ULT Field 5 Wireless Portable Bluetooth Speaker $191.95 at Amazon $349.99 Save $158.04 …

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. 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 an…

For Christmas, I got my husband and myself YouTube Premium, and as much as I hate paying for yet another streaming service, it's pretty dang nice. There's ad-blocking, sure, but there are also other bonuses, like additional playback speed options and audio that continues to play in the background when you lock your phone. However, some users have developed hacks to get a few of these features without a subscription, believing they should be included with the site's free tier rather than being locked behind a paywall. Google's been cracking down on ad blockers for a while, but now it's coming after another common YouTube hack—free background play. Performing this hack was …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Users of Supernatural got an unpleasant surprise this week: Meta has pulled the plug on its flagship virtual reality fitness app. Citing "organizational changes," Meta says it will no longer release new content or update features for Supernatural. The app is not shutting down completely however. Subscribers can still access Supernatural's existing library of Beat Saber-workouts, and Meta says it will maintain the platform and Facebook page, but no new workouts, features, or other content is planned. Both users and critics have nearly universally praised Supernatural—CNet scored it 9 out of 10, it won both Fast Company's B…

Once again, there is a new feature available on Google's NotebookLM, the AI tool that functions like a personal assistant and only references material you provide for it. This one is a slide deck generator, which can be useful if you need to make a presentation in a hurry, but I've been using it a little differently to help myself retain new information. Generating a slide deck in NotebookLMFirst, you should know how to generate a deck. In case you're unfamiliar with NotebookLM, it's basically just like ChatGPT, but instead of pulling answers from the big, wide Internet, it only relies on PDFs, links, videos, and text you input as resources. This makes it the perfect too…

After weeks of pressure from both advocacy groups and governments, Elon Musk's X says it's finally going to do something about its deepfake porn problem. Unfortunately, after testing following the announcement, some are still holding their breath. When did the X deepfake porn controversy begin?The controversy started earlier this January, after the social media site added a feature allowing X users to tag Grok in their posts and prompt the AI to instantly edit any image or video posted to the site, all without the original poster's permission. The feature seemingly came with few guardrails, and according to reporting done by AI authentication company Copyleaks, as well as…

Strava's new Training Zones feature promises to help runners and cyclists better understand their training load across metrics like heart rate, power, and pace. That sounds like useful information, but if you've recently discovered that most of your runs fall into what's commonly called the "gray zone" (Zone 3), take a deep breath: You aren't doing everything wrong, you don't need to panic, and you definitely don't need to completely overhaul your training. Here's why—and how you can use training zones as the helpful tool they're meant to be, rather than as a source of anxiety. What are training zones?Before diving into how Strava offers insights into training zones, let'…

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. Netflix's October lineup has a little something for everyone. There are new seasons of familiar favorites, including the ninth installments of both Love Is Blind (Oct. 1), this time set in Denver, and real estate reality show Selling Sunset (Oct. 29). Nobody Wants This (Oct. 23), the rom-com series starring Adam Brody and Kristen Bell, is returning for another season, along with other Netflix originals The Diplomat (Oct. 16) and The Witcher (Oct. 30). The documentary slate this month is long: Those who l…

Because it’s Christmas time, I’ve been digging into myths and misconceptions we have about the holiday: Yuletide misinformation is rampant, and I’m setting the record straight. Last week I dug into who Santa Claus really is, with side quests about St. Nicholas bringing children back from the dead and the religious war between Santa and Kris Kringle. One thing I didn't talk about? His elves. Christmas elves feel like they’ve been around forever, and people have strangely consistent ideas of what they’re all about—they’re small, they wear green, they make toys out of some innate magical compulsion, they love shelves— but that variety of elf is a recent invention; “real” el…

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. In a press conference totally divorced from reality as scientists and doctors understand it, President The President announced yesterday that the FDA would be warning providers and patients away from acetaminophen (such as Tylenol) in pregnancy. There were some other unsubstantiated claims about vaccines and autism mixed in, so let me break down what’s actually known and understood here. What is acetaminophen? Acetaminophen is an over-the-counter medication used to relieve pain and fevers. The flagship prod…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. 2025 was a fun year to review fitness devices. We saw three companies introduce devices that could have been Whoop killers, and one definitely came closer to the mark than others. One running watch gobsmacked me with its accuracy, one device was so inaccurate it sent me down an investigative rabbit hole to figure out why, and two devices delighted me with how well they solved a real problem no other device even tried to tackle. Read on for the winners of my very subjective award categories. Most accurate: Garmin Forerunner 570 …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Who knew that, here in the mid 2020s, a show involving gays in the military (even a relatively pro-army one) would prove its own relevance by drawing a fierce, angry denunciation from the current administration—a response strong enough that it maybe, just maybe, got the show cancelled in spite of high viewership and buzz. But then again, given the precariousness of the streaming landscape, it's best to treat everything like a miniseries these days. Based on a memoir from Greg Cope White, the Netflix series stars Miles Heizer as Cameron Cope, a closeted gay teen who follows his bestie into the Army in the era before "Don't…

I'm routinely surprised by just how much technology Apple has managed to pack into the iPhone that I can carry in the palm of my hand. What's even more surprising is that underneath the layers, there's even more than what meets the eye. There's a better, faster way to use the keyboard, there's a faster way to select unread emails to archive, there are better ways to browse the web than just the usual Safari experience, and you can get way better photos out of the iPhone Pro cameras than what the stock Camera app shows you. The iPhone has become such a default product in all our lives that we just take it for granted. Yes, it's a great way to stay in touch with friends an…

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…