Home Office Setup & Equipment

Android Auto users are reporting a bug that is making their cars disappear from the road—ok, not literally, but within Google Maps. On both Reddit and Google's own support forums, drivers now say their car icons are sporadically disappearing from their navigation screens while using the Google Maps app through Android Auto. Some users have discovered workarounds, but the fixes don't appear to be consistent for everyone. Here's what's happening, and what you can do to try to fix it. Why are car icons disappearing in Google Maps in Android Auto? The news first started popping up six days ago, on a Reddit thread where multiple users reported problems with their car icons di…

It’s tempting to think that an LLM chatbot can answer any question you pose it, including those about your health. After all, chatbots have been trained on plenty of medical information, and can regurgitate it if given the right prompts. But that doesn’t mean they will give you accurate medical advice, and a new study shows how easily AI’s supposed expertise breaks down. In short, they are even worse at it than I thought. In the study, researchers first quizzed several chatbots about medical information. In these carefully conducted tests, ChatGPT-4o, Llama 3, and Command R+ correctly diagnosed medical scenarios an impressive 94% of the time—though they were able to reco…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The Samsung HW-Q800F soundbar is down to $547.99 on Woot right now, which is a good chunk less than its $747.99 Amazon price tag, and even lower than the lowest price it’s ever gone for before ($697.99), according to price trackers. This offer is valid for a month or until it sells out, with free shipping for Prime members and a $6 fee for others. It comes with a 90-day Woot limited warranty, but the real appeal here is the performance: It’s a 5.1.2-channel system with Dolby Atmos support, meaning you get immersive audio, even without extra satelli…

Apple is making a big change to Family Sharing with iOS 26.4: Once the update hits, you'll be able to use your own payment method in Family Sharing groups that have Purchase Sharing turned on. This might sound small, but it's a significant change to how Apple handles payments in these situations. Payment Sharing no longer exclusively goes through the family organizer Payment Sharing can be a convenient way for Family Sharing groups to take advantage of shared plans and content. That could include subscriptions, like Apple One, Apple Music, Apple TV, or Apple News+; purchased music from iTunes; movies and TV shows from the Apple TV app; books from Apple Books; or apps …

I find it satisfying to do a word puzzle (or three) each day. Wordle is great, but it’s not really exciting anymore. Crosswords are fun if you have the time (I love an NYT Thursday puzzle) but I don’t always bother. My sweet spot, lately, are games like Minute Cryptic and Parseword—which are entry points into the incredibly bizarre world of British “cryptic” crossword clues. What is a cryptic puzzle?Cryptics are a type of word puzzle unlike anything else. There exist whole crosswords full of them, but the daily puzzles I’m writing about are just one clue per day, so you can focus on exactly what’s going on in that single clue. Cryptics look like a regular crossword clue…

When companies like OpenAI and Google started rolling out generative AI models to the general public, I doubt they predicted how attached people would get to the technology—and the effect it would have on their collective mental health. Some ChatGPT users legitimately mourned when OpenAI shutdown its GPT-4o model, as they treated that specific model like a companion. Others have taken darker paths with their chatbots, resulting in lawsuit against AI companies whose technology allegedly advised and encouraged suicidal thoughts. This situation puts a lot of pressure on these companies, as it should: Generative AI is hugely influential right now, and there's a lot of respon…

It's one of the most annoying things a website can do: You visit a page, take a look, and decide for whatever reason you need to head back to the previous page you were on. Only when you click the back button, or you use a keyboard shortcut to go back a page, the current site simply reloads. So, you try again, only to reload the site once more. What gives? This is back button hijacking. Back button hijacking is an aggressive tactic websites can use to try to keep you browsing their pages for longer. By taking over your ability to go back a page, they can keep you on the same page, redirect you to other pages, or present you with ads you normally wouldn't have seen. It's …

Google's Gemini AI has recently become more agentic and capable inside Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides—and now Microsoft is pushing out a similar upgrade for Copilot. These features have been in testing for a while, but they're now more widely available to individuals and companies who pay for any of the Microsoft 365 subscriptions. Essentially, Copilot in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint can now do more on its own—not just offering advice and help, but actually taking over the business of creating and editing itself. There are a host of ways to use this, but here are just a few examples I tested to give you an idea of what's possible. If this kind of AI interference isn't for…

Over the past few decades, “functional” fitness has been seen as everything from a niche practice, to a trend, to a joke. The styles of training that call themselves “functional” vary as well, from bodyweight exercises to Hyrox training. So what is functional fitness really? Functional fitness is more a buzzword than a style of training If you ask somebody who coaches functional fitness, they’ll probably tell you that it’s about doing exercises that will help you in everyday life. Maybe that means doing farmer’s walks with heavy dumbbells so that you’ll be strong enough to carry all the groceries in one trip. Maybe it’s doing hundreds of air squats so you can bend down t…

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 eyeing workout-friendly earbuds that don’t flinch at sweat or bounce, the Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 are a great way to go. Originally released in February as a long-awaited follow-up to the first-gen Powerbeats Pro, these earbuds normally cost $249.99, but right now you can get a near-mint, refurbished pair on sale for $174.99 through StackSocial. They ship in “Grade A” condition, which means they may have barely-there scuffs and should look and work pretty much like new. These are workout-first earbuds. The new nickel-titanium alloy h…

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. Though its mobile app is quite bad, the web version Google's NotebookLM has become one of my most-used tools since I started playing around with the AI large language model last spring. I've found a ton of ways to use it to be more efficient in my everyday life, which is (much) more than I can say for other AI-enabled applications I've tried. Instead of (poorly) doing the work for you, NotebookLM acts as a true helper, assisting in organizing information for you without being intrusive. And one of the…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Investing in a smart thermostat won’t just keep your home comfortable — it also can help you save money on energy bills and reduce your carbon footprint. By automating scheduling and learning preferred temperatures, smart thermostats conserve energy and make your home more comfortable. The 2022 Ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium might not be the newest option on the market, but to this day, it receives consistently excellent ratings, and right now, it’s $198.99 (originally $249.99) on Walmart, marking its lowest price ever according to price trackers. …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Everyone's talking about AI, but smart glasses are quietly breaking big in 2025. With Meta, Apple, and Google vying for dominance, and the hardware finally powerful enough to be practical instead of mere gimmicky, smart specs are transitioning from awkward face computers for tech-heads, into something potentially useful for everyone. If you’re thinking of jumping in, the sheer range of styles, features, and price points can be daunting, so I put together this guide to help you find your perfect pair. What smart glasses can do The term “smart glasses” is almost too broad to be useful. It's been applied to everything fr…

Responding to posts on social media claiming that ChatGPT will no longer offer legal or health advice, OpenAI is clarifying that "model behavior remains unchanged" and there is "not a new change to our terms." The clarification follows a since-deleted viral post from betting platform Kalshi, which claimed "JUST IN: ChatGPT will no longer provide health or legal advice." Since then, concerned users have repeated the claim, while others have attempted to push back against it. The confusion likely stems from an Oct. 29 update to OpenAI's Usage policies, which appeared to add a stipulation that users cannot use OpenAI for "provision of tailored advice that requires a licens…

Approximately every five to seven months, I am possessed by a desire to "see if I like running." I suit up in activewear and my best shoes, jury-rig my apartment keys into the hair tie holding up my ponytail, and optimistically set off down Manhattan's FDR Drive. After some time, the results of my experiment are clear: I still hate running and remain convinced anyone who says it's "euphoric" or "relaxing" is a Nike-sponsored liar. Some things do impact the enjoyability of running, however, like listening to guided runs. Peloton's guided runs have increased my likelihood to get (and stay) on the treadmill in the gym, for instance, and I have been choosing running over cy…

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 more than half a century, audiences have been captivated by the Planet of the Apes—a sprawling sci-fi epic that spans at least three timelines, 3,000 years of history, and a franchise that includes 10 feature films, two TV series, three video games, and dozens of comics and novels. Whether you're a long-time fan trying to make sense of the lore or a newcomer wondering how a talking chimpanzee led to a post-apocalyptic planet dominated by primates, I’ve laid out the Planet of the Apes series by release order, chronological continuity, critical and commercial reception, the technological milestones of ape civilizations, and more. This is your illustrated guide to the …

The more you work out, the fitter you'll get. Your VO2max, sometimes described on wearables as a "cardio fitness" score, is a number that tends to be higher among people who are more cardiovascularly fit. But it's not the only measure of fitness, and you should know what it really means. What VO2max really is (as measured in a lab) Smartwatches and fitness trackers don't actually measure VO2max; they just estimate it. To actually find your VO2max, you'd need to go to an exercise lab and do a test on a treadmill or cycle while hooked up to equipment that measures your heart rate and the air you're exhaling. I did exactly this kind of test to compare my real VO2max to the…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Bridgerton, Shonda Rhimes' candy-colored, ultra-stylized period piece has been a legitimate sensation for Netflix, adapting the Julia Quinn novel series that itself owes plenty to Jane Austen (as does just about any Regency romance). With a large, rotating ensemble—led, perhaps, by Nicola Coughlan's Penelope Bridgerton, who is ably assisted by Adjoa Andoh, Jonathan Bailey, Ruth Gemmell, Polly Walker, and Julie Andrews (as the voice of the mysterious Lady Whistledown)—the show revels in the tropes of the literature of the era while turning up the dial on sex, scandal, and drama. With four seasons and a spin-off, Bridgerto…

As OpenAI scrambles to find new ways to monetize ChatGPT, it announced today that it's introducing a new, cheaper subscription tier for its AI chatbot—but that it's also adding ads to both that new tier and for free users. ChatGPT Go was first launched in India in August, and later became available to 170 countries around the world, but today marks the first time it's been available everywhere, including the United States. It marks a middle ground between the Free and Plus plans, coming in at $8/month vs. the Plus plan's $20/month, and is arguably the first "affordable" ChatGPT subscription. …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Sony's 1000X headphone series has been around since 2016—the WH-1000XM6s are the latest model, released in 2025, and they're the best over-ear headphones I tested that year (and ever, really). Right now, you can get the Sony WH-1000XM6 headphones for $398 (originally $459.99), their lowest price ever, according to price-tracking tools. Sony WH-1000XM6 Headphones …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. At $699.99, down from $999.99, the Roborock Qrevo Curv is at its lowest price yet, according to price trackers. That puts a top-tier robot vacuum and mop within a price range that is still expensive but no longer out of reach for people who were already considering a premium hybrid. This is the model our reviewer, Amanda Blum, called the most adaptable robot vacuum she’s tested, and PCMag backed that up with an “excellent” rating. Roborock Qrevo Curv Self-Emptying Robot Vacuum and Mop …

Let me introduce you to your good friend, sweat. Ignore the gross feel and the potential for B.O. for the moment, and think about what it does for you: When your body gets too hot, threatening to raise your core temperature over what’s healthy, little glands in your skin squeeze drops of moisture onto its surface. As soon as a breeze hits those droplets, they evaporate, taking some of your body heat away with them. This is true even during exercise. It's not the exercise that makes you sweat; exercise just raises your body heat, and it's the heat that makes you sweat. That's why you sweat without exercising on a hot day, and why you can sometimes exercise without sweatin…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. When it comes to gaming monitors, having an ultra-wide screen takes the experience to the next level, with a more immersive experience than a regular monitor. Unfortunately, that improved experience tends to come at a much higher price. But right now, Amazon is selling the 34-inch Samsung Odyssey G5 for $279.99 (originally $399.99), which is the second-lowest price this monitor has ever been, according to price-tracking tools. Samsung 34' Odyssey G5 …

Google is back with yet another AI service—this time, an offline dictation program using its "Gemma" architecture. But rather than include it within the Gemini app, or as a Gemini function, the company has decided to roll it out into a dedicated iPhone app, with the very catchy name of "Google AI Edge Eloquent." I decided to give the app a shot on release day, though the privacy policy gave me pause. Google says that your location, contacts, identifiers, device diagnostics, contact info, user content, usage data, and "other" data can be linked to you, while purchases and other diagnostics can be collected but not linked to you. That's a lot of data, especially for an a…