Setting Up Your Home Office

If you're a Windows user, this is your monthly reminder to ensure you install all available security updates. Microsoft's November Patch Tuesday release fixes one zero-day vulnerability that has been actively exploited in the wild, with 63 flaws patched in total. As reported by Bleeping Computer, the November Patch Tuesday update addresses 29 elevation of privilege vulnerabilities, 2 security feature bypass vulnerabilities, 16 remote code execution vulnerabilities, 11 information disclosure vulnerabilities, 2 denial of service vulnerabilities, and 3 spoofing vulnerabilities. (Note that these figures do not include patches for Microsoft Edge and Mariner.) In addition to t…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. If you’re looking for premium noise-cancelling earbuds that perform well, charge wirelessly, and block out all background noise while remaining comfortable for long-term wear, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) are currently $249 (originally $299) on Amazon, marking a 17% discount and bringing them down to their lowest price ever, according to price-tracking tools. QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. There’s something oddly comforting about holding an entire childhood in your hands. The Retropian X Handheld Retro Gaming Console is currently on sale for $89.99 at StackSocial, bringing back that exact feeling. Think of it as a portable time machine with over 20,000 preloaded games spanning more than 30 classic systems, all tucked into a body small enough to slip into a jacket pocket. No cartridges, adapters, or online sign-ins, just a black handheld with a sharp 5.1-inch IPS display and a simple mission: let you play the hits from your childhood, …

I'm a former Android-Mac hybrid user. Laugh all you want—we exist. I enjoy having a polished operating system on my computer and an endlessly hackable operating system on my phone, and the combination of Mac and Android gave me all of that. I only stopped using Android alongside my Mac a couple years ago, mostly because an iPhone SE was cheaper than most mid-range Android options at the time. When I think about switching back, though, I realize how much I'll miss the integrations. Using a Mac and an iPhone gives you access to all kinds of tricks. Among the ones I use the most are the shared notifications, the syncing clipboard, and the easy ways to sync files. There's als…

Apple brought RCS (Rich Communication Services) messaging to the iPhone with iOS 18 last year, giving green-bubble users access to more features and functions. But what exactly is possible with RCS on the iPhone, and what is still exclusive to iMessage users? Are Android RCS users now fully integrated into chats in the iOS Messages app or not? I'll lay out exactly what you can do in RCS chats between iPhones and Android phones, and explain which features are still missing—and when you might be able to get them. If you've got contacts on other mobile platforms, this should help you understand more about what the experience is like from their end. To use RCS, you must have…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. A small upgrade can make an old TV feel new again, and the Amazon Fire TV Stick HD is the kind of plug-and-play streaming device that does exactly that. It’s down to $17.99 right now (from $34.99), which price-tracking sites confirm is its lowest recorded price. Amazon Fire TV Stick HD (1080p) $17.99 at Amazon …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Plenty of people have been waiting for a good excuse to grab Samsung’s newest foldable, and today’s deal could be the nudge they needed. The 512GB Galaxy Z Fold 7 now sits at $1,719.99, down from its regular price of $2,119.99, a $400 drop. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 Cell Phone, Jet Black $1,719.99 at Amazon …

No one likes to dwell on it, but bullying is a huge part of growing up, and this week the zeitgeist is saturated with it. Kids are using their cameras to pick on people in innovative ways, Tiktokers are parodying bullying in viral videos, and Instagram seems to be taking aim at cultural/political bullying (or bullying memers, depending on who you ask). Even God herself is bullying the poor Tripod fish. What is the "flip the camera" trend, and why is is making everyone mad?The "flip the camera" trend is a new and innovative form of bullying that works like this: A group of kids ask another kid to film them doing a dance or something. Then, while the video is being taken,…

Sometimes, it's not the tasks on your to-do list that overwhelm you, but simply the act of sorting them out and figuring out where to start. Before you can prioritize your responsibilities and setting out a schedule for getting everything done (using strategies like "eating the frog" or creating a 1-3-5 to-do list), you have to identify what those big tasks are and what capacity you have to take them on. If you are the type of person that finds it helpful to visualize these things, let me introduce you to a pair of strategies that both involve imagining tasks as rocks: The "pickle jar theory" and the "big rocks theory." What is the pickle jar theory?The pickle jar theory …

You know it's important to prioritize your to-do list, and may have tried various methods to do so, from the Eisenhower Matrix (to determine how timely and urgent each task is), to the Pareto principle (to decide how to allocate your time to maximize your results). The problem is that determining what's actually a priority can be an abstract problem. Some people work best when dealing with cold, hard numbers—and there's a way to take a more quantitative approach to prioritizing your to-dos. Why prioritize your to-do list?The Pareto principle, mentioned above, suggests that 80% of your results will come from 20% of your work, so you have to be picky about what you focus o…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. If you’re like most people, you bought a standard claw hammer once long ago and never thought much about its weight or design. I was like that for a long time, too, but I noticed that every time I worked on a project involving lots of hammering, my arm would get fatigued quickly, and the last half of the work would be a misery. I recently fell down a bit of a rabbit hole regarding hammers—the different weights and types-and decided it was time to splurge a bit and buy a titanium hammer (specifically, this one). It was one of the best purchases I’ve made recently. Titanium vs. steel hammerMost hammers are made from steel, w…

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…

When you’re taking stock of what you’ve accomplished, it’s easy—and understandable—to get caught up by what you haven’t done or wish you'd done better. After all, that's how you'll improve. But you have to remember to recognize wins big and small if you hope to keep yourself motivated. The balance between positive and negative as it relates to productivity is delicate, but you do always need to take breaks, do things you enjoy, and remember that you’re getting things done, even during stressful times. That's why you should try creating a “jar of awesome." What is a “jar of awesome?” The “jar of awesome” idea comes from Tim Ferriss’ Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. No one ever tells you how much of your adult life will be spent sanding things down. Drywall? Sanding. Every piece of wood you cut and install in a DIY project? Sanding. Want to repair or refinish your floors, or furniture? Yup, probably sanding. And there’s nothing worse than laboring over a large sanding project—you feel it in your arms and back for days, and your hand starts to cramp holding that buzzing hand sander for long periods of time. That is, until I picked up this palm sander from Bosch, which is so comfortably designed, I haven’t hated sanding since—and my Tylenol consumption has plummeted. If you use a hand s…

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During the pandemic, I was struggling. After graduating from college in 2019, I had an amazing job offer fall through because of the lockdown. I felt completely rudderless at a time when I thought I had it all figured out. Since we were all stuck inside together for months, there was no hiding my internal distress from my family. Fortunately, my parents recognized this even more than I did. That year, they gave me a gift that pulled me out of that pit, reignited my passion for creating, and set the journey in motion that led me to my career today as a professional creator and video producer. That gift was the Cricut Explore, and this device literally changed my life. Wha…

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…

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…

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…

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…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. It happens every year at my house: I wake up one morning, and as though a switch was flicked overnight, it’s suddenly cold and I have to hunt down my cozy slippers. And that’s usually when I realize I haven’t really taken any steps to winterize my house. If that also describes you, the good news is that winterizing your home isn’t a terribly complicated process. With a few affordable products and a little effort, you can button your home up and ensure that it’s going to be as comfortable as possible when those frigid winds start blowing. …

I'm routinely surprised by just how much technology Apple has managed to pack into the iPhone that I can carry in the palm of my hand. What's even more surprising is that underneath the layers, there's even more than what meets the eye. There's a better, faster way to use the keyboard, there's a faster way to select unread emails to archive, there are better ways to browse the web than just the usual Safari experience, and you can get way better photos out of the iPhone Pro cameras than what the stock Camera app shows you. The iPhone has become such a default product in all our lives that we just take it for granted. Yes, it's a great way to stay in touch with friends an…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Though the film series petered out after only a couple of movies, Rick Riordan's middle-grade Camp Half-Blood have been revived as a mega-popular Disney+ streaming series. The breathing room offered by a series format seems to have been the key to unlocking their potential as an adaptation, allowing for a more fully realized exploration of this atypical (at least on our side of Mount Olympus) coming-of-age story. In its first season, the show found a good balance between fantasy action and teen drama while also having a ton of fun poking at the conventions of ancient myth. Season two is just out, and more is on the way, b…

Another day, another update to Google's NotebookLM, the versatile AI tool that functions like a personal assistant focused only on you and your needs. The latest update is for visual learners: You can turn your source materials into helpful infographics that give you a clear picture—literally—of what the PDFs, websites, videos, or other materials you're studying or organizing are about. How to use the new NotebookLM infographics featureTo use the new feature, open any of your NotebookLM Notebooks (the name given to folders full of specific materials you've uploaded) and navigate to the panel on the right side. It's the same panel where you find the other offerings like t…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The latest AirPods Pro are a big step up from the first generation buds. The third (and newest) generation comes with OTA updates that the AirPods Pro 2 also got to enjoy—but considering the second and third generations are the same price right now, why not go with the newer version? If you want the latest Apple has to offer, this is a great time to do so. The AirPods Pro 3 are down to $199 (originally $249.99) for the first time since their September release—the lowest price yet, according to price tracking tools. …