Setting Up Your Home Office

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Amazon Big Deal Days is coming October 7-8, 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. Subscribe to our shopping newsletter, Add to Cart, for the best sales sent to your inbox. New to Prime Day? We have a primer on everything you need to know. Sales are accurate at the time of publication, but prices and inventory are always subject to change. If you’re like me, when you moved into your home, the kitchen …

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. You once needed a decent computer and expensive software in order to seriously edit video. No longer. These days, you can download a free app on any smartphone, and instantly have the tools necessary to put together a legitimate video, especially for social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. It would have been difficult to imagine something like Adobe Premiere working properly on a smartphone in the heyday of desktop video editing, but these days, it's a reality. Perhaps that's why Adobe …

OLED is a fantastic display technology. Unlike an LCD, which uses a single backlight for all the pixels of the display, all of the pixels on an OLED display can be individually lit up or turned off entirely. That means dark areas of the screen are inky black, while brighter areas can be selectively illuminated. It just looks fantastic, and if I have the option, I always try to choose it. OLED isn't new tech at this point, and yet, Apple has been slow to adopt it into its products, especially when compared to some of its competitors. The company's first device to feature OLED was the Apple Watch in 2015, then the iPhone X in 2017, whereas every Samsung Galaxy has featured …

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’ve been looking for a security camera that works where wifi doesn’t reach, the Eufy Security 4G LTE Cam S330 might be the one to consider. Currently, it’s selling for $161.49, down from its usual price of $249.99 on Amazon. Eufy Security 4G LTE Cam S330 …

How you allocate and use your time every day is as important to productivity as the work you actually do, which is why it's important to pre-plan your schedule down to the minute. You have to be smart and strategic about when you work, what you work on, and how long you do it—otherwise, some of your time may be wasted. Illich’s Law, or the Law of Diminishing Returns, says that after working for a while, your productivity decreases—then becomes negative. What does Illich’s Law mean?We often think of being productive as getting a lot done, but productivity can—and should—also focus on the quality of that work, too. Some good work is, in most cases, better than a lot of sho…

Anna's Archive, a popular website for pirating books and articles, seems to be square in Google's sights, according to copyright and digital rights publication TorrentFreak. The search giant is said to have blocked some 749 million Anna's Archive URLs from showing up in search results, TorrentFreak found, after combing through a recent transparency report. The removal wasn't necessarily targeted, as Google regularly delists content at the request of copyright holders. At time of this writing, has taken down links to 15,125,359,564 pages since 2011. But this is the latest in an ongoing, AI-prompted saga that is seeing copyright holders crack down on so-called "shadow libra…

I don't have a cat, but I do have a dog, and my dog can be a picky eater. After months of trial and error, the only way we could get him to consistently eat breakfast and dinner was with wet food. There is no scenario in which I or someone watching my dog can outsource the task of feeding him, but that's not the case for cat owners. I know that cats sometimes stay home alone for extended periods of time, where an automatic food dispenser becomes essential. I can only imagine, then, that cat owners who, like me, feed their pet wet food, now have a challenge: Someone has to be there to feed the cat. That's what intrigues me about Petkit's Yumshare Daily Feast, an automated …

Finally—two years after its release, and one year-long beta later—the PlayStation Plus handheld can finally officially play games without needing to connect to a PS5 console first. The portable machine is not strictly playing them all by itself, and you do need a PlayStation Plus Premium subscription to do it, but the latest system update brings the PlayStation Portal a lot closer to being a true PSP successor. The news came earlier today via the official PlayStation blog, where Sony announced that cloud streaming for the PS Portal will soon officially go live for everyone with a compatible subscription, a little less than a year after the company started testing it with …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. It's a good day for Apple shoppers looking for the latest Apple Watches. The Apple Watch Ultra 3, Apple's latest and most premium smartwatch, dropped to its lowest price, and now, the Apple Watch SE 3, their most affordable smartwatch (and truly, the best one for most people), also dropped to its lowest price yet, according to price-tracking tools. Despite being released just this past September, you can get the GPS 40mm Apple Watch SE 3 for $199.99 (originally $249). The bigger 44mm case is $229.99 (originally $279), also with a $50 discount. …

The kind of productivity method you need depends largely on the kind of person you are. Some methods are adaptable, open to interpretation, and fluid, which is nice if you just need a little guidance. Others, though, are detailed and rule-driven, which is great if you need to be told exactly what to do and when to do it. Agile Results, a system devised by J. D. Meier, is in the second category; it's stricter than others, but for some of us, that's what's needed to get things done. With Agile Results, you schedule and plan around all your goals, from the short- to long-term, so everything gets taken care of—even the biggest big-picture tasks. Here’s how it works. What is …

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…

If you've signed up for an Amazon Prime subscription in the last few years, you may have some cash coming your way. Amazon recently settled a lawsuit with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over deceptive enrollment and cancellation practices, including enrolling customers in Prime without their consent and making it difficult to cancel. The company is now set to pay out $1.5 billion in refunds to affected consumers. Here's who qualifies, and how to make sure you get your money. Am I eligible for an Amazon Prime refund? Refunds will be paid out to select Amazon Prime subscribers in the U.S. In order to qualify, you must also meet the following criteria: You signed up f…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Tools can be a serious investment—so if you're looking to up your DIY game in 2026, a tool bundle is often a good solution. Because they come with batteries and chargers, they’re a great way to get everything you need to use a new tool set right away, and they can be more economical than buying each tool individually. Milwaukee tool sets are often more than $1,000, but you can get a few of these bundles for under $700 right now at Home Depot. Why I recommend Milwaukee toolsI’ve been using Milwaukee cordless tools for over a decade on a variety of pr…

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 my work at Lifehacker as a preferred source. Every model in the 2025 lineup of M4 MacBook Air laptops is currently marked down by $200 on Amazon, taking them to record-low prices. Of these, the 13-inch M4 MacBook Air with 16GB unified memory and 256GB SSD storage is arguably the best MacBook Air for most people, and a great buy at $799 (originally $999). 13-inch M4 MacBook Air …

I'm someone who routinely switches between Mac and Windows. It's a hazard of being a tech writer. But the thing is, I'm so used to the user friendliness in macOS that whenever I shift to Windows mode, there are some hiccups. Windows tends to throw up walls where there really shouldn't be any. I used to just white-knuckle through it, but that was before I fully embraced PowerToys. PowerToys is a collection of utilities made by Microsoft itself. It's free to download on GitHub, or a myriad of other places, and unlike with Windows 11, Microsoft actually adds useful and interesting features to it every couple of weeks. You can download and install PowerToys from the GitHub p…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Earlier this week, YouTube and Disney both warned YouTube TV subscribers that they might lose access to Disney-owned channels, including ESPN and FX, starting on Oct. 31. It's probably not the Halloween treat you were looking for, but now that the end of the month has come, that's exactly what's happened: Right now, more than 20 of Disney's channels have gone dark on YouTube TV. Why did Disney pull its Channels from YouTube TV?Not to be confused with YouTube Premium, YouTube TV is Google's Live TV service—kind of like cable without the cable box. As such, it needs to pay content providers like Disney fees to offer their ch…

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. I really don't recommend studying with other people. In my adult life, I've accumulated an Associates, Bachelors, and Masters, plus a bunch of certificates—in all those years of studying, I was frustrated with group work much more often than I was not. Sessions would devolve into chit-chat and venting sessions or someone would try to avoid pulling their weight by foisting work off on the rest of us. I became the person who would complete the entire project and let everyone put their name on it because I j…

Many of us choose to upgrade our smartphones every two or three years, while others pick up the latest model every year. But just because it's the norm to swap out your smartphone on a regular basis, that doesn't mean all of us do. Smartphones can last a long time, especially if you maintain it with the occasional battery replacement. But no piece of technology lasts forever. Eventually, something gives out—even if it's just the company that makes it. Even Apple, which usually offers its iPhones a number of years of updates after their original release, drops support for new features after some time. That's why your iPhone XS can't run iOS 26: Apple drew the line here thi…

Hitting 10,000 steps every day is a bullshit goal. Step counts can feel daunting, especially for people who work desk jobs or have physical limitations. The mere pressure to hit 10,000 steps can become its own source of stress—miss the goal by a few thousand steps, and it's easy to feel like the whole day was a wash. Rather than obsessing over hitting a specific step count, consider shifting your focus to a simpler, more achievable goal: sitting less. This reframing is not only easier to sustain, it could be just as beneficial for your health. Why you should break up sitting time"Spending the bulk of your time seated is a major contributor to increasing the risk of heart …

Part of the fun of watching sports is that you don't know what's going to happen. TV shows and movies follow story beats, meaning you can usually get a sense for where things are heading, but sports do not work that way. The totally unexpected can, and does, frequently occur—and that's the reason people keep tuning in, whether their team is dominating or an underdog. Sometimes, though, you can't catch the game live, but still want a bit of that feeling. That's why leagues offer extended highlights, featuring all the key moments, complete with the commentary from the broadcast. These can feel almost like watching the full game, and I love catching up with them the next day…

Not to be outdone by Apple's "Lockdown Mode," Meta is rolling out new security features for WhatsApp designed to protect high-risk users—journalists, activists, and government officials, for example—from cyber attacks. Strict Account Settings is a "lockdown-style" mode that builds on the platform's existing end-to-end encryption, adding stronger privacy features and additional restrictions against unknown contacts. For most WhatsApp users, this level of lockdown is overkill. However, people with access to sensitive data that is potentially valuable to threat actors actually have been targeted with spyware campaigns through messaging platforms like WhatsApp, so for users …

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. For a while there, the “blurting” method of note revision was all over TikTok, making it somewhat of a studying trend. Whether or not it's still popular on social media is irrelevant; it's still a solid retention technique that can help you entrench information in your long-term memory. There are actually two ways to blurt when you’re studying, and both are helpful for retrieval practice and overall retention—but only if you’re doing them instead of scrolling, so read this, put your phone down, and get …

If you're the kind of person who only uses Safari to download Chrome, you need to think again. For a Mac user, Safari might be the best browser there is (yes, even better than Chrome). It's fast, secure, doesn't buckle under most loads, sips RAM instead of munching through it, and it'll help your battery last longer as well. And yes, there are even extensions and ad blockers that work natively in Safari. It's time to take another look at Safari, and use all its hidden features and smarts to make your browsing better. Blast away ads and other distracting items …