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. The holiday season sales are around the corner, and Best Buy is the first of the major retailers to formally announce their plans. Much like their other big sales, Best Buy is having multiple events. This year, Best Buy is having six sales that you can take advantage of starting on Halloween and leading up to Christmas. Here are the details. What are Best Buy's holiday sale events?You can think of the holiday Sale Events as multiple sales spanning Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Christmas. All six events take place in store, in app, and online. Eac…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. In late 2025, Amazon released the Amazon Echo Show 11, designed to replace the 3rd Generation Echo Show 10. The upgraded home hub/smart speaker features a larger, sharper display; a separate static screen, Alexa+ capabilities, and other updates, and right now, it's at its lowest price since launch. On Amazon (where else?) you can get the Amazon Echo Show 11 for $179.99, down $40 from the usual price, and its lowest price ever, according to price trackers. Amazon Echo Show 11 …

If you're having trouble accessing sites and services on the internet this morning, it isn't just you: It appears Cloudflare is experiencing a global outage. When I try to load sites like X or, ironically, Downdetector, I'm met with various errors. X shows me an internal service error, while Downdetector asks me to "Please unblock challenges.cloudflare.com to proceed." (I definitely do not have that authority.) You may experience similar errors on websites you try to load this morning, even ones you don't regularly visit. As part of this article, for example, I would google queries and click the top results to websites I had never heard of before, only to encounter simil…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. 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 love going to a reformer Pilates studio for a (pricey) workout but I also love staying home to work out on my own. In the end, it just depends on my mood. Good news for people like me: Tonal is rolling out reformer-style Pilates with its new update. If you have the at-home weight training device or are considering getting one, this could be major for you. Even if you're not someone who wakes up on a Saturday morning excited to go trade $65 for 45 minute…

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. Attention, PC users: The end of Windows 10 support is just one week away. Microsoft is cutting off most support for the older operating system on Oct. 14, 2025, pushing users toward Windows 11. That said, the company is giving users who can't (or don't want to) let go of Windows 10 more options to receive security updates for an additional year. One of the risks of not upgrading to Windows 11 by the deadline is that your device won't be protected against viruses and hackers—unless you take advantage of o…

Since the days of Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer, you've always have a choice when it comes to the program you use to access the internet—but we now have a whole new breed of software to consider: The AI browser. These browsers place AI models front and center, even more so than integrations like Gemini in Chrome or Copilot in Edge. These browsers give you AI-powered search, AI-powered answers to just about any question you can come up with, and even agentic AI control—so the browser can actually do some browsing and complete simple tasks for you. A future where we never have to manually fill out another web form or compare prices on sixteen different flights is…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan's new series Pluribus has earned a perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes. It's just an excellent show, featuring an end-of-the-world science fiction story with a wildly inventive apocalypse: instead of zombies or nuclear bombs, Pluribus' world ends with humanity literally coming together. Through a transmission from space, everyone on Earth is melded into a single consciousness, so there's no more conflict or hunger, but there's no more individuality, either. Mysteriously, a handful of people were left out of the great melting, including Carol (Rhea Seehorn) a cynical, hard-drinking writer wh…

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 …

So far, macOS hasn't been as big on theming and customization as I'd like, but that's changing with its newest version. In macOS 26 Tahoe, Apple's shipped a bunch of ways to customize the look and feel of your Mac's desktop, app icons, and menu bar, among other things. And there's more to it than just tweaking how Liquid Glass looks. If you're the sort of person who enjoys theming and customization, try these tips. Tweak app icons in the Dock Credit: Pranay Parab Your Mac's Dock probably has a bunch of colorful icons. I've alwa…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Maybe this is just me being Extremely Online, but whenever I see a video of someone squatting in running shoes, a comment section goes off in my head. “Ditch the shoes!” “You’ll hurt yourself!” “You don’t want cushions under your feet when there’s a heavy bar on your back!” There’s some truth behind those knee-jerk reactions; when squatting (or deadlifting), I do not personally wear running shoes nor would I recommend them. But the importance of your choice of shoes is hugely overblown. You aren’t going to injure yourself or kill your gains by squatting in sneakers. Why people say you shouldn’t squat in sneakersWhy is this…

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. Before you sit down to study or get started on a big project for work, you might want to consider hitting the gym or taking a brisk walk. Besides just generally being good for your health, research also shows it can actually help with cognition. And with, say, the start of a new semester bearing down upon you or a work deadline looming, anything that can give you a brain boost is likely welcome. What the research says about exercise and studyingThere’s no shortage of solid, peer-reviewed research on the …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The OnePlus 13 isn’t just competing with flagship phones. It’s quietly undercutting them. At $699 for the unlocked 512GB Arctic Dawn model, down from $849, it’s currently at its lowest price according to price trackers, making a strong case for itself if you’ve been eyeing an Android phone with top-tier specs without crossing the $1,000 threshold. OnePlus 13,16GB RAM + 512GB Storage …

If you use Firefox, and you're lucky, then you might be getting a free VPN. Over the next few months, Mozilla says it will be testing a "free, browser-only VPN" for some users, but you'll need to rely on the luck of the draw if you want to try it yourself. That's because Mozilla is only enabling the feature for randomly selected users, at least for now. The announcement technically came in June, but fortunate writers at a number of different tech sites are now reporting that they're finally starting to see the feature pop up. How Firefox's free VPN comparesThe VPN, once fully implemented, would put Firefox in competition with Opera and Microsoft's own Edge browser, but ah…

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. Earlier this week, Peloton unveiled a whole host of new app features and updates to its equipment, from AI coaching to enhanced bikes and treadmills. I've spent the last few days playing around with all of the new stuff (Peloton devotee that I am) and was especially curious about the little rank that suddenly appeared on my profile. It's a signifier of my progression through Club Peloton, a new member recognition program that comes with some solid rewards. What is Club Peloton?Club Peloton is a new ranki…

YouTube may have been the official partner at MIPCOM this year, but AI was the unofficial winner. I attended MIPCOM in Cannes, France this year for the first time, and as someone who doesn't use generative AI in my daily life, let alone my writing or storytelling, the message to me was clear: Get on board or be left behind. AI is coming for television whether I like it or not. MIPCOM, the long-running annual global trade show for television and digital media, celebrated its 40th year last week in partnership with YouTube, furthering the bridge between the creator economy and traditional TV shows. Many influencers have already made the jump to our living room TVs—MrBeast,…

Moltbot (formerly known as Clawdbot) is the most viral AI product I've seen in a while. The personal AI assistant runs locally and connects via a chat app, like WhatsApp or iMessage. Once you give Moltbot access to your entire device, it can do things on that device for you. This the sort of thing that excites agentic AI pioneers, but worries privacy and security enthusiasts like myself. And indeed, I have significant concerns about the risks installing Moltbot on your personal machine. Since agentic AI will autonomously perform tasks based on prompts, bad actors can take advantage of the situation by surreptitiously feeding those bots malicious prompts of their own. Thi…

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. Amazon's October Prime Day is nearly here. Between Oct. 7 and 8, you’ll find promotions on products from companies both big and small, all vying for your clicks and the contents of your bank account. Many of these offers will claim to be great deals, with the implication that not buying the item during Prime Day will mean you miss out on massive savings. But not all Prime Day deals are really all that great—just because a product is discounted on Prime Day doesn't mean it hasn't been cheaper before, and won…

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. Google doesn't have the best track record when it comes to user privacy, but every once in a while, they do something surprising. Back in April, the company began testing end-to-end encrypted email messaging for enterprise users. On Thursday, it officially rolled out the feature. If you have a Google Workspace through work, you should now be able to send emails protected by E2EE, even if you're sending the email outside of Gmail. That should make it possible to send emails that only you, the recipient, and t…

It's now more expensive than ever to stream shows like House of the Dragon and Hacks. On Tuesday, Oct. 21, Warner Bros. Discovery announced that all HBO Max subscription prices will increase, effective immediately. In fact, for some plans, it is now more expensive to subscribe to HBO Max than it is to subscribe to Netflix. Here's the deal: Prices are going up across all three of HBO Max's subscription tiers. That includes the following: HBO Max Basic With Ads: $10.99 per month (was $9.99 per month), or $109.99 per year (was $99.99 per year) HBO Max Standard: $18.49 per month (was $16.99 per month), or $184.99 per year (was $169.99 per year) HBO Max Premium: $22.99 per mo…

There are a lot of methods to try in the never-ending quest for a way to sort through and slim down our bulging inboxes. They're different enough that there's certainly one out there that matches or comes close to matching your exact needs, but they do all have one thing in common: They rely on the chronology of when each email came in. Let’s try turning that approach on its head, and instead, sort by sender to weed through the mess. Why you should sort your inbox by senderWhen purging your messages, you probably have an organizational system you follow, like the 4Ds. You go through and decide what gets deleted, done, delegated, or deferred—but there’s not much pattern re…

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 currently available for $169.95 at Walmart, down from its original $199.95. That small drop might not look dramatic on paper, but considering this model only came out recently, it’s one of the better deals you’ll find on a premium portable outdoor speaker. JBL Charge 6 $169.95 at Walmart …

Leading AI chatbot platform Character.ai announced yesterday that it will no longer allow anyone under 18 to have open-ended conversations with its chatbots. Character.ai's parent company, Character Technologies, said the ban will go into effect by Nov. 25, and in the meantime, it will impose time limits on children and "transition younger users to alternative creative features such as video, story, and stream creation with AI characters." In a statement posted online, Character Technologies said it was making the change "in light of the evolving landscape around AI and teens," which seems like a nice way of saying "because of the lawsuits." Character Technologies was re…