Setting Up Your Home Office

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. Want customized workout plans, real-time feedback, and 24/7 motivation, all without the cost of a human trainer? AI personal trainers sound like a perfect solution. Download an app, answer some questions about your goals and fitness level, and receive a personalized training program. I've tested some of these apps myself, and I definitely see the appeal. But more than anything, I see companies stuffing AI into apps where it doesn't belong. There's Strava's Athlete "Intelligence"; Garmin's underwhelming Conn…

If you find yourself in an emergency or crisis situation, the more information you can give first responders, the better. Android users can now share a live stream of their surroundings with 911, allowing emergency services to assess and provide guidance in real time while you wait for help to arrive onsite. Emergency services on AndroidYour Android already shares some information with first responders via Emergency Location Services (unless you disable this feature). This built-in tool sends an accurate location as well as contextual information, such as language settings, when you call or text an emergency number. Now, that includes live video from your device's camera.…

Android is getting a new security feature that makes it harder for someone to break into your device if it has been lost, stolen, or seized. With the latest Google Play services update, Android phones and tablets will automatically restart (and require a passcode to decrypt) if they remain locked for three consecutive days. How Android auto-restart worksAndroid and iOS devices already revert to a Before First Unlock (BFU) state when restarted, requiring a user to enter their passcode or PIN before certain features—such as notifications and biometrics—are enabled. Data is encrypted and inaccessible in a BFU state until the correct passcode is entered to shift the device t…

Android users will soon be able to use tracking devices to coordinate lost luggage recovery directly with airlines. The feature, one of many announced as part of Google's March Pixel Drop, generates a Find Hub link for compatible trackers that can be shared with airlines to help locate bags that have gone missing transit. Apple rolled out a similar feature for AirTags in late 2024, called Share Item Location. iOS users can temporarily share the location of a Find My accessory with their airline to help find lost luggage. It's important to note that AirTags (and other tracking tags, including those compatible with Android's Find Hub) aren't real-time trackers, as they gen…

2025 was another big year for music. We had new albums from Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter, Tyler the Creator, and, of course, Huntrix (of KPop Demon Hunters fame), just to name a few. You may have listened to any number of new albums that came out this year, mixed in with music that released any time over the last century. You might not even remember what you were listening to back in January. But Apple Music remembers, and will serve in up to you in your 2025 Apple Music Replay. Like last year, your Replay is available in your Apple Music app. If you're relatively new to the streaming service, that might sound obvious—especially if you've previously used a service lik…

On Monday, Apple released iOS 18.4, iPadOS 18.4, and macOS Sequoia 15.4 for compatible devices. But Apple Watch owners might have noticed watchOS 11.4 curiously missing from the list. Apple pulled the update at the last minute, something of a rarity from the company that likes to release all software updates together. But now, the new watchOS update is finally available to everyone, and the slight delay was worth it. This update enables a feature that many Apple Watch users have wanted for a long time: the ability to break through Silent mode when an alarm goes off. The iPhone already does this really well. You're in Silent mode, or you have Do Not Disturb enabled, but y…

Moving is something that drains you of time, energy, and money, and you probably don't want to do any extra work if you don't have to. But hear me out: You should still use a big move as an opportunity to declutter. Here is your chance to assess every item you own and make decisions about what you really need. Who knows the next time you'll be able to handle every single possession, categorize everything, and make a truly meaningful dent in your clutter? Why you should declutter right before you move First of all, decluttering before a move can actually save you money. "The biggest mistake we see people make time and time again is underestimating how much stuff they hav…

We should all take common-sense steps to make sure our data stays safe and secure: use strong passwords with our accounts, and never reuse passwords; employ two-factor authentication on any account that offers it; and avoid clicking strange links in emails or text messages. But even when you follow all those rules, your personal data can still be at risk, strictly because the services you rely on aren't following these rules themselves. Some websites are putting your passwords at riskResearchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison discovered that a concerning number of browser extensions can access sensitive information that you enter into websites. Think passwords, c…

Owning a car is expensive—even new cars need tune-ups, regular maintenance, and occasional repair, and it all adds up (to an average of about $1,452 every year). Car warranties help mitigate those costs, but they typically only cover three years or up to 36,000 miles, which goes by pretty fast, considering most people drive about 15,000 miles per year. That drives people to look for ways to save money on car repairs, especially if the car is outside the warranty period. But are you sure your car is out of warranty? It’s possible that even if the official warranty has expired, your car is covered to some extent by what’s variously known as “policy adjustments,” “service ca…

If you get a letter from a company called 700Credit, don't ignore it. Your information may have been compromised in a massive breach affecting more than 5.8 million consumers, and you should take the necessary steps to protect your data. 700Credit supplies credit and identity verification services to more than 21,000 vehicle, RV, powersport, and marine dealerships in the U.S., so if you've purchased a vehicle and applied for dealer financing—or even been pre-screened or pre-qualified to do so—your information could have been affected. What happened with 700Credit?According to the company's filing with the Maine Attorney General, 700Credit's systems were hacked between O…

DeepSeek is having a moment: With the release of its impressive R1 model, the AI company overtook ChatGPT (and every other app) to become the number one free app on both the iOS App Store and Google Play Store. If you gave the app a try this week, however, be warned: Your chats may have been exposed. As reported by The Hacker News, DeepSeek left one of its online databases exposed. While the company has issued a fix, this database is a treasure trove of user information. It contains over one million lines of log streams, which includes chat history, secret keys (used to encrypt and decrypt data), backend information, and other important data. As of this article, DeepSeek…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. “Be able to do a pull-up” is a common fitness goal, and if you work hard—with negative pull-ups, inverted rows, and more—someday you’ll get there. Go ahead, take a minute to celebrate. But don’t drop the workouts that you were doing pre-pull-up. It’s tempting to change up your training, because for weeks or months (maybe years!) you were doing the things that you do when you can’t do a pull-up. You may have been doing negative pull-ups, where you start at the top of the movement and slowly lower yourself down. You may have been doing inverted rows, where you pull yourself toward a low bar or rings. You may have been doing …

This post is part of Find Your Fit Tech, Lifehacker's fitness wearables buying guide. I'm asking the tough questions about whether wearables can really improve your health, how to find the right one for you, and how to make the most of the data wearables can offer. When I test smartwatches and fitness trackers, I always pay attention to accuracy. Is my running pace correct? Does the device capture the ups and downs of my heart rate? I even got a VO2max lab test to check a bunch of watches' fitness scores. But you'll notice that one thing I don't test for accuracy is calorie burn. None of my devices come close to agreeing on the number of calories they think I'm burning, a…

You may be doing everything you can to protect your privacy online—using tools like multi-factor authentication, a secure password manager, and a VPN—but unfortunately, not all privacy-focused apps and services are actually doing what they promise. In its November fraud and scam advisory, Google is warning users about VPN apps and extensions that appear legitimate but are actually vectors for malware. VPNs may actually be spyware A VPN, or virtual private network, makes your internet activity much more difficult to track by routing your traffic through a different connection rather than your regular internet service provider (ISP). This allows you to hide your IP address …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. The best snack holiday of the year is finally upon us, and while I hope everyone has their cocktail weenie plans figured out, I’d like to remind you that many other fillings rival the wee hot dog. One of my favorite things to wrap in a pastry blanket is a pickle, but this year I have a new obsession. It’s fry-able, grill-able, bake-able cheese, and it is absolutely incredible wrapped in pastry. How to make the best cheese in a blanketUnfortunately, mozzarella doesn't cut it here. Grilling cheese, also called frying cheese, is the best choice—it's a high-protein cheese that doesn’t completely liquify under heat. I tried wr…

For the past five years, Google's Emoji Kitchen has offered a way for users to make unique emojis from existing icons. The feature lets you take two emojis and combine them into one to make emojis that are familiar yet new. You can take the saluting emoji and combine it with the robot emoji to make a saluting robot, or the alien emoji and the "shh" emoji to make an alien telling you to be quiet. You can't necessarily mix each and every emoji that you see in your emoji keyboard, though—first, Google has to make those combinations possible. Every now and then, Google will include new combinations within software updates, even if they don't advertise each one. The more ofte…

I've been using Pixel phones every day for several years at this point, so I thought I'd discovered every secret menu and hidden feature these Google handsets have to offer—but it turns out I was wrong. Make Use Of enlightened me about the diagnostic tool built into Google Pixels, hidden away behind the number pad of the phone app. Its official name is the Pixel Repair Diagnostics App, and according to Google, it's built into every Pixel phone and tablet. It gives you a dashboard for testing just about every part of your phone's setup, from Bluetooth connections to camera sensors. The Pixel R…

Before you send your next Instagram DM, be warned: Whatever you share with that friend, influencer, or business could potentially be seen by anyone—including but not limited to hackers, law enforcement, or even Meta itself. As of today, May 8, 2026, Instagram DMs are no longer end-to-end encrypted (E2EE). Your messages are vulnerable, whether you're discussing a reel you saw, or sharing your Social Security number. (Please don't do this.) E2EE is necessary for any messaging service that wants to protect its users' privacy. This level of encryption ensures that the only people who can read the contents of a conversation are the ones with access to the devices involved. Whe…

Rumors suggest that Apple is working on ways to make the iPad more like a Mac with iPadOS 19. While the company won't be bringing macOS to the iPad (as much as I'd love that to be the case) there could be upgrades that transform the tablet experience more into a desktop computing experience. The thing is, it isn't just the iPad that appears to be getting desktop features—the iPhone might be getting in on the fun, too. In a post covering the iPadOS 19 rumors, leaker Majin Bu had this to say about the iPhone: "iOS 19 isn’t being left behind. Source say that iPhones with USB-C will support external displays, offering a [Stage Manager-like] interface. While not a full desktop…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. On Monday, Apple released a new AirTag—but you wouldn't know that from looking at it. The new AirTag is visibly identical to the old one, despite dropping nearly five years later. But the point of this refresh wasn't to introduce a new design, or even a remarkably improved tracker. Instead, Apple added a couple subtle upgrades that benefit new buyers, without displacing existing AirTag users. There are two key improvements here: The first impacts Precision Finding, Apple's system to guide you to lost items. Your device uses its ultra wideband (UWB) chip to give you detailed directions to the location of your AirTag, inclu…

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. I recently took a trip to Europe, hopping across a few countries that all spoke languages I didn't understand. As such, in order to interpret menus, signs, and packaging, I needed to translate the text back into English. While you might assume you need to use a specific translator app of choice to get this done, you really only need one thing: your iPhone's camera. I, along with all of the people I traveled with, have an iPhone, so I assumed all of us knew about this trick. To my surprise, however, nobody in…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. In Lifehacker’s series, “A Guide to Automating Your Entire Home,” we’re highlighting all the ways you can power your home with autonomous technology, room by room. Whether you want to build a smart security system, turn a “dumb” device smart, or simply control your lights from your phone, this guide will help walk you through it. So, you want to start a smart home, but you don't know where to begin? Whether you're starting a smart home from scratch or figuring out how to configure the one you already have, the good news is that it's much less of a headache now than it used to be. Smart home tech has undergone significant s…

Two years ago, Peloton recalled seat posts on its classic Bike models. Now, the brand is doing the same for seats on its older Bike+ models (but not the new Cross Training Bike+ that came out a few weeks ago). If you have the old model of Bike+, you'll need to reach out to Peloton to arrange a replacement. Which Peloton models are affected by the recall?Per Peloton, this is a voluntary recall of seat posts for Bike+ models made between December 2019 and July 2022 and sold in the U.S. and Canada. If your Bike+ has a PL02 model number on the label inside or behind the front fork or behind the flywheel, it is impacted by the recall. If you've checked and you're still not s…

I don't like how scrolling makes me feel these days. Every headline, meme, and take I scroll past leaves me feeling worse about the world. It isn't entirely unwarranted—there's a lot of bad happening—but marinating in that feeling doesn't help. Scrolling isn't always detrimental, of course. It can be relaxing, for one thing, and it can be a way to keep up with what's happening with your friends. But I think we all know there are diminishing returns when it comes to scrolling—the overall quality goes down the longer you keep going. And that's why reading is possibly more important now than its ever been: There aren't diminishing returns. Scrolling is briefly thinking about…

If you've joined a private Facebook group—counting on your membership and posts to be visible only to those approved to join—and receive a notification that said group is about to go public, you don't need to panic. While Meta is now allowing admins of previously private Facebook groups to change the status to public, it is also assuring users that past activity will remain private. Private Facebook groups can be made publicAccording to Meta's post announcing the update, the option to transition from private to public allows small groups to grow into larger communities that are more easily found, with content visible to anyone (even people who aren't on Facebook). Any ad…