Setting Up Your Home Office

Ideally, a winter storm is merely uncomfortable and annoying, but they can sometimes be dangerous for you and your home. This weekend, a potentially historic winter storm is bearing down on some 200 million Americans, who may face dangerously icy conditions and significant snowfall. It's important to know your area's risk and understand the meaning and potential impact of different weather terms (advisory, watch, and warning) so you can respond quickly in the event of an emergency. You should also use the next few days to take steps to prepare your home and lower the chances of damage and danger. Winter prep starts with a thorough inspection of your property, both inside …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Two-in-one laptops are an adaptable tech essential for anyone who’s waffling between a laptop and a tablet—they’ve changed how people tackle workflows and consume entertainment, and are a more portable option for commuters or anyone who wants the perks of a touchscreen with their laptop. The 14-inch Asus Chromebook Flip CX1 is a sturdy, entry-level 2-in-1 for those on a budget, and according to price trackers, it’s at its lowest price ever—$279, down from $369.99. ASUS Chromebook Flip CX1 Conve…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. When nature dumps a load of snow onto your driveway, it’s a free workout in disguise—but maybe not one you’re really in shape to tackle. If you’re always sore (or, worse, injured) after the first big storm of the season, read these tips on how to make shoveling easier on your body. Recognize what you’re asking your body to doLook, just because shoveling is a common chore doesn’t mean it’s one that everyone’s body is automatically ready for. Be honest about whether you’re trained for this. You wouldn’t ask “how can I run a marathon without my legs being sore the next day?” if you haven’t done any running at all in the past …

Dedicated runners and winter athletes will tell you that exercising in the cold is not as tough as it looks. Personally, I'd rather risk frostbite over any treadmill run that lasts longer than 20 minutes. But is there a point where winter runs cross over from difficult to dangerous? There is no clear cut-offMost experts suggest that the danger zone begins around -18°F (-28° Celcius), particularly when factoring in wind chill. At these extreme temperatures, the risk of frostbite increases dramatically, and breathing frigid air can become uncomfortable or even harmful to your lungs and airways. But beyond the raw temperature, certain conditions should prompt you to choose …

If you're in the market for a new Tesla, your fancy new electric car is going to be a little less smart—unless you pony up for a subscription. According to reporting from Elektrek and buying experiences from drivers, the company is ditching the basic Autopilot mode that used to come standard in new vehicles, and is now pushing buyers to subscribe to Full Self-Driving instead. Before, Autopilot consisted of two minor but helpful driving assist features. The first was Traffic Aware Cruise Control, which automatically adjusts speed based on the speed limit and surrounding cars, and the second was Autosteer, which helps keep you in the center of your lane. The idea was that, …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Taylor Sheridan and Billy Bob Thornton are such a natural pairing that it's not at all surprising that Landman has been yet another hit for the creator behind Yellowstone and it's many spin-offs. Thornton plays Billy Norris, a crackerjack consultant, fixer, and general hired gun for a major oil conglomerate in present-day West Texas. Beyond the complicated economics and politics of the oil industry, the poor guy's also dealing with extremely complicated family drama, debt, criminal ties, and substance-abuse issues. Call it Dallas for a new generation. You can stream Landman on Paramount+, and check out these similar shows …

With a historically bad winter storm expected to bring snow, ice, and sub-zero wind chills to many parts of the United States this weekend, it's a good time to make sure you're prepared for a potentially life-threatening disaster. While winter storms are generally less deadly than hurricanes and heat waves, they can be extremely dangerous, particularly when extremely cold, wind, and ice storms cause power outages. But with a little preparation and common sense, you should be all right when it gets extra snowy and cold. Here are some tips and instructions for blizzard and winter storm survival. Who is the winter storm likely to affect? …

Nothing lasts forever, and technology is no exception. As shiny and new as your computer was when you first bought it, eventually, developers will drop support for it. There's no telling when exactly, but at some point, you'll open an app to find a message that reads something like: "This device does not support the latest version of this app. Please update your hardware." That goes for Macs, as well. You might forget that fact, since Apple's computers tend to stick around for a long time. But inevitably, the shadow of end-of-life policies comes for them, too. If you're still rocking an older Mac, I have some bad news, specifically if you use Chrome: Google is officially …

Last month, Google told online publishers that it had started testing AI-generated headlines in Google Discover, replacing stories' carefully handcrafted titles with truncated alternatives made up by Gemini. Some journalists were predictably unhappy, but now, the company says that the AI headlines are no longer an experiment—they're a "feature." Back when the testing began, the results ranged from poorly worded to straight up misinformation. For instance, one AI-generated headline promised "Steam Machine price revealed," when the original article made no such claim. Another said "BG3 players exploit children," which sounds serious, until you click through to the article a…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. 360-degree cameras like the GoPro Max2 are designed for creators who want to capture more than what a single-lens camera, like the GoPro Hero series, can handle. Right now, the GoPro Max2 action camera is down from $499 to $399 on Amazon, marking its lowest price ever. GoPro Max2 Action Camera $399.00 at Amazon …

The 2026 tax filing season—for 2025 returns—begins on Jan. 26, which means scammers are ramping up efforts to steal taxpayers' information and money. These are a few of the tax-related schemes to watch out for this year. 'Tax resolution' scamsThe Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is alerting consumers to a phone scam currently circulating in which callers claim to be from the “Tax Resolution Oversight Department," “Tax Mediation and Resolution Agency,” or some similar official-sounding (but fake) government organization. They will claim that you owe back taxes and say they will help you apply for an “IRS liability reduction program” (also fake). The scammers' aim here is t…

This week, young people are looking at the recent past through rose-colored glasses, living their best lives by filming harmless classroom pranks, and, hopefully, protecting their futures by not swallowing too many chia seeds or roasting themselves with heating pads. What does 2016 nostalgia mean?A few weeks ago, I posted about the online trend of millennial optimism which was focused on the years around 2010, but things have gone further: Young people are nostalgic specifically for 2016. This probably sounds bizarre to you. 2016 saw the deaths of Muhammad Ali, David Bowie, and Prince, and levels of political and social upheaval many of us had never experienced, leading m…

Duolingo, no matter how you feel about it, accomplishes one thing: It makes practicing a skill every day easy. The application focuses on language, but it also offers math, music, and even chess lessons if you dig around a bit. There are many other subjects worth learning, though, and many ways you can use gamification to learn new skills and generally improve your life. Here are five I found: Learn geography with Globo Credit: Justin Pot I love traveling and learning about the world, but I'll admit there are some regions I don…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. It's been nearly five years since Apple released the first—and only—AirTag, but that's not necessarily a surprise: These trackers aren't really the kind of product you expect to update every year or two. Unlike an iPhone, which gets new processors, cameras, and other hardware features every year, AirTags just ... track your stuff. The only thing that needs replacing annually are their batteries; otherwise, they do exactly what you expect them to. That said, Apple has made changes over the years. In response to initial criticism, the company made it much more difficult for someone to slip one of these AirTags in your bag o…

Shortly after Meta (then Facebook) bought WhatsApp in 2014, it promised to implement a surprisingly un-Facebooky feature: End-to-end encryption. The move was supposed to be a boon for privacy, ensuring nobody could see your messages aside from the recipient and yourself. Even now, WhatsApp's website claims, "No one outside of the chat, not even WhatsApp, can read, listen to, or share [your messages]." However, a new lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco is now claiming that's not the case. According to reporting from Bloomberg, an international group of plaintiffs has sued Meta, saying that the app's claims of end-to-end encryption are a lie. The lawsu…

I'm something of a treadmill hater. When I do hop on one, it's only during times when it's truly unsafe to run outdoors. I know that the treadmill brings all the same physical benefits as running outside (because no, it is not “cheating” on your workout). However, I mourn all the mental perks of spending time outside. That's why it's necessary for me to use whatever mental tricks I can to transform a monotonous slog into an actually enjoyable workout. The best part? None of these require special equipment or significant time investment—just small, smart adjustments to your routine. Whatever reason you have for running indoors, here's how to make the most of your time on t…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Home security setups tend to get expensive fast, especially when you’re trying to cover more than just the front door. That’s what makes this current deal on the Eufy Security SoloCam S220 4-Camera Pack worth considering. It’s currently down to $179.99 on Amazon—a sharp drop from its usual $399.99, and its lowest price ever, according to price-trackers. At roughly $45 per camera, you’re getting full perimeter coverage for less than the cost of a single premium camera from some competitors, making this a solid value for anyone trying to keep an eye o…

With the monumental winter storm recently covering most of the nation, now seems a good time to look at some cold and winter weather myths and misinformation. You might be freezing, but there's no excuse for being freezing and ignorant. Myth: A blizzard is a heavy snowstormTechnically, for a storm to be a blizzard, it must have these things: wind speeds of over 35 mph and low visibility (under 1/4 mile) for at least three hours. So you could have blizzard from blowing snow, even if no snow is falling, and you could get a ton of accumulation without it technically ever being a blizzard. (Whether it's a snowstorm or a blizzard likely won't matter to you if you're trapped i…

Big changes have come to social media platform TikTok. On Jan. 22, TikTok's operations were passed from Chinese company ByteDance to TikTok USDS Joint Venture, a new entity backed by Larry Ellison's Oracle, private equity firm Silver Lake, and United Arab Emirates-based investment firm MGX. Days later, on Jan. 23, TikTok introduced new Terms of Service for users. So far, the transition has not been smooth. Users immediately raised privacy concerns over the new TOS, taking to X with posts like this: This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. Changes to TikTok's privacy policy While TikTok's new terms sound draconian…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Quality power tools are an investment, and if you take proper care of them, they’ll last a long time. It’s not unheard of for someone to have a decades-old drill or a circular saw that was manufactured in a previous century. Even older cordless power tools can maintain their usefulness for a surprisingly long time if you take good care of them and observe proper battery maintenance. But power tools have seen a lot of advancement in recent years. While your old warhorses might still perform their core function well enough, if your drills, saws, and other power tools are five years old or older, it’s time to consider upgradi…

Roku was one of the original names in streaming, and even with so many options now available from Amazon, Apple, Google and others, it remains one of the most popular options thanks to its affordable boxes and streaming sticks and widespread availability as an integrated operating system on some TV sets. The platform is speedy, simple, and supports just about every streaming app out there. If you've got a Roku or two in your life, you may not be using it to its full potential. These tips, hacks, and hidden features should help you go beyond the basic business of launching your streaming apps and get more out of your hardware, whether you've just unboxed your first Roku de…

Whether you're chasing KOMs (aka "King of the Mountain" leaderboard titles), training for your first race, or just trying to out-walk your coworkers in a monthly challenge, Strava is the social network for people who enjoy suffering outdoors. But beyond the basic "record activity, get kudos, repeat" cycle, there's a whole world of features and tricks to enhance your Strava experience. Use heatmaps to find the best routes anywhereStrava's global heatmap—controversial as she may be—shows the most popular routes based on millions of activities from users worldwide. The bright orange lines reveal where locals actually run and ride, helping you avoid sketchy areas, find the sc…

If you tried hopping on TikTok Sunday, you might have noticed something odd: the app wasn't working. Outages happen, of course, as anyone who has Verizon can attest. But in the moment, theories were flying left and right. TikTok had just officially moved into U.S. control, leading some to speculate that the outage had something to do with this change in ownership. As one user put it, "TikTok being down days after the people they were forced to sell to take it over does not feel like a coincidence." As it happens, it does appear that the changing of the guard was responsible for the outage—just not in the way that some conspiracy theories might suggest. TikTok finally rel…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The JBL Charge 6 is waterproof, dust-proof, and drop-resistant—and it's selling right now for $129.95 on Woot—$70 off its usual $199.95 listing on Amazon. That deal runs for the next six days (or until it sells out), and Prime members get free shipping. It includes a 90-day limited warranty through Woot, which is shorter than JBL’s standard coverage but still decent. That said, it ships without a charging brick or USB-C cable, which feels like an oversight at this price. JBL Charge 6 Portable W…

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 …