Setting Up Your Home Office

We may earn a commission from links on this page. 2025 was a great year for handheld gaming, with the Nintendo Switch finally getting a sequel and older handhelds like the Nintendo DS getting unofficial successors from companies like AYN and Ayaneo. Steam Deck fans did take a bit of a hit towards the end of the year, when Valve announced it was discontinuing the $400 Steam Deck LCD, but for gamers on the other side of the price spectrum, Lenovo just announced the most powerful SteamOS handheld yet. It's technically not a new device, but instead, a reissue of a handheld from last year. Called the Lenovo Legion Go 2, it packs up to an AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme chip, up to 32GB o…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Choosing a gaming monitor is a tough choice. Do you want a standard, 16:9 monitor that takes up a small amount of desk space, or a larger 21:9 or even 32:9 ultrawide monitor that takes up more space, but will also show you more of your game? This goes double for laptops, where ultrawide models are few-and-far between, and are absolutely gigantic. Lenovo's new concept for CES, the Lenovo Legion Pro Rollable, aims to give you the best of both worlds. When the laptop is closed, or when you first open it up, the Legion Pro Rollable looks like any other gaming laptop. It's a little thick, with RGB keys and a full numpad, but ot…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Radar-based sensors seem to be having a moment at CES, especially in tech meant for people to keep tabs on their aging family members. One product in particular caught my eye because it’s focused on a single important function—preventing kitchen fires caused by a person wandering away from the stove. iGuardStove is essentially a smart shutoff for a stove or cooktop. Its new, radar-equipped version costs $399 and can work on gas or electric stoves. (For gas, you’ll need to have a plumber install a shutoff valve.) If you leave the kitchen while cooking, a five-minute timer starts. If you don’t return by the time it goes off…

Unless you run an AI data center, Nvidia's announcements this CES have been more on the quiet end. There were updates to GeForce Now cloud streaming and its DLSS upscaling tech, but no new graphic cards. That's fine—it's normal for Nvidia to have a quiet year on consumer tech every now and then, and the RTX 50-series GPUs just came out last year. Unfortunately, it turns out those DLSS updates are actually making games run worse on older GPUs. The new version of DLSS, called DLSS 4.5, is pretty great when it works. It already makes lighting appear far more realistic even when ray tracing or HDR isn't being used, and in the spring, it will introduce dynamic frame generation…

It's CES week, when the tech world gathers in Las Vegas to check out the latest gadgets, prototypes, and innovations that will shape the future. Lifehacker's tech team is on the ground at the convention, tracking down big stories and cool gear. What is CES?Billing itself as "The Most Powerful Tech Event in the World," CES (short for "Consumer Electronics Show") is the Consumer Technology Association's trade convention. It began in 1967 as a small showcase for televisions and radios, but over the decades CES has become a gathering of the tribes for tech culture. Everyone is there, from huge companies like Samsung and Sony, to scores of journalists, to scrappy startups wit…

There are many good reasons to get a VPN (Virtual Private Network) app installed on your phone or laptop: They make it harder for anyone else to track your browsing, they keep your data safe when you're on public wifi networks, and they even let you spoof your location so you can access geolocation-locked content. You'll also find plenty of choice when it comes to VPNs. Our own guides to the best paid VPNs and the best free VPNs show the wealth of impressive apps out there, and even when you narrow down the criteria, you've still got lots of options to pick from—see our recommendations for the best free VPNs for Android. So what exactly should you be looking for when it c…

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. Garmin fitness watches are such powerful tools that you can use one for months or years without discovering some of their best hidden features. Here are 10 hacks that every Garmin user should know, from the setup steps you may have skipped, to lesser-known features you’ll wish you knew about earlier. These hacks apply to watches like the Garmin Forerunner line (like the 570 and 265, to name two of my favorites). Other Garmin models may vary, but most of the features I describe below will still apply. The Vivoactive 6, for example, doesn’t have as many buttons as the Forerunners, but you can still set up shortcuts for the …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The Google Nest Wifi Pro is currently $99.99 on Amazon, which is half off its usual $199.99 price, and according to price trackers, the lowest it's ever been. At this price, it’s a solid entry point for anyone looking to upgrade to Wi-Fi 6E without diving into full-blown mesh systems or complicated installs. The router itself is designed to be discreet—no antennas, no buttons, just a small LED that quietly tells you if things are working. Setup happens through the Google Home app and takes only a few minutes. …

Plenty of people have been asking for a MacBook with a touchscreen display, and now that is possible with the Intricuit Magic Screen, according to an announcement at CES 2026. It's a snap-on accessory that attaches to your MacBook's display, and uses one of the USB-C ports on the laptop for power. Once connected, you can touch the Magic Screen and your input will be registered on the Mac. The good news is that this product ships with a stylus, which will make it a lot easier to interact with different Mac apps. When you tap something on your iPhone or iPad, the UI takes into account the fact that your fingers are a lot thicker than a mouse pointer. On the Mac, the default…

Like many parents, sometimes I view my kids as lazy. This was one of those times: At Orlando International Airport, on our way to Disney World, my 16-year-old daughter shared how much she wanted a rideable suitcase. I laughed and told her that she can walk just fine. "Besides," I added, "that would never work." I hadn't seen rideable luggage yet, and I pointed out the immediate detractions that came to mind. First, it wouldn't work for someone like me—6'3 and 215 pounds. Second, I had doubts that it would have much storage space to carry items, which is the whole point of luggage. And third, who would be caught dead riding something so silly? But my daughter was determin…

At CES 2026, Swedish furniture giant Ikea showed off its new Kallsup Bluetooth speaker, which will cost just $10 in the U.S. Normally, I'd be skeptical of any speaker this cheap, but the Kallsup grabbed my attention for a few reasons—chief among them that Ikea says you can chain up to 100 of them together to create the multi-speaker setup of your dreams. That aside, the hardware seems pretty basic: The speaker has a USB-C port at the back, and two buttons up top (play/pause, and pair). Chaining together Bluetooth speakers is nothing new, but this is the first time I'm seeing the ability to pair as many as 100 of them. The only reason this use case is even remotely plausib…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Living in a comfortable, heated house is something a lot of us take for granted. When the cold weather hits, we just put on thick socks, turn up the thermostat (or take other steps), and go about our business. But most modern homes rely on the electrical grid to keep that heat flowing. Even if your home is heated by natural gas or heating oil, there’s most likely an electric component to your heating system. That means that when the power goes out—say, in the middle of a fierce blizzard—so does your heat. Even recently built homes can lose interior heat pretty quickly, dropping to uncomfortable (and even unsafe) temperatur…

Wheelchairs are available at airports, hotels, resorts, theme parks, and on cruises, but standard wheelchairs require ongoing effort and can struggle through difficult terrain. Standard wheelchairs are simply less capable than electric ones. WheelMove wants to change that. WheelMove is a portable wheelchair attachment that turns any standard wheelchair into an electric one, allowing people to travel more easily wherever they are. It debuted at CES 2026, marking a significant leap in accessibility for wheelchair users who travel. When I found WheelMove at CES "Unveiled," I thought back to a recent family trip just two weeks ago, where two of my older family members often…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. After a decade, Stranger Things is at an end. Well, I mean, except for planned animated and live-action spin-offs...and possibly an unlikely secret extra episode related to the 'Conformity Gate' theory; adherents are convinced that the whole thing we watched was just Vecna messing with our Hawkins crew. But the story that started way back in 2016 is mostly over, almost for sure! Given the pace of life these days, the end of the Obama administration feels, somehow, as distant as the series' nostalgic 1980s setting. The show solidified Netflix as the streamer to beat in terms of original programming, and introduced a new gen…

I write a lot about productivity, which means I also read a lot about it. Over the last few months, I've noticed an uptick in people discussing something called "cognitive overload," citing it as a potential reason for a decline in output. The phrase stuck out to me as one of those buzzy terms that has the potential to be overused until it's meaningless—but at its core, it certainly has a real, clear definition that can be helpful tool in maximizing productivity. Basically, cognitive overload is what happens when you're inundated with more information than your brain can process, so your brain just gives up altogether, making hard to focus on anything at all. Here's what…

There are likely occasions in your day-to-day life in which you allow someone else to use your phone, whether it's letting your kid play a game or sharing content with a friend. You may do this without thinking about the privacy implications and what might happen if another person has access to everything on your device and—accidentally or on purpose—uses it to view your search history, scroll through your photos, or send messages to your contacts. If you're an Android user, you should enable app pinning to keep others from snooping around your device. This feature keeps the user in the pinned app until you enter your PIN, pattern, or password. (On iOS, you can achieve a…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Nothing, an upstart tech brand from the U.K. that makes products like phones, smartwatches, and headphones, has quickly become one of my favorites lately. Its products offer unique features and designs, and the prices are competitive. Right now, Nothing's latest budget over-ear headphones, which were released in October, the CMF Headphone Pros, are just $79 (originally $99), the product's lowest price ever, according to price-tracking tools. This is a great option for anyone looking to get budget over-the-ear headphones that punch above their weight…

Some people love AI. If you're not one of them (or if you have a favorite AI tool that isn't baked into it), using Windows 11 can feel increasingly hostile. It seems like every part of it now exists to push you into using Copilot—even notepad.exe has a prominent AI button in the user interface at this point. If you'd like your operating system to go back to being an operating system, check out RemoveWindowsAI. This free script changes various registry keys to disable AI features including Copilot, Recall, and the Copilot integrations in applications including Edge, Paint, and Notepad. Using various workarounds , it then configures Windows Update to not install those upda…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Laptop screen extenders help add more display area without costing as much as two separate monitors. They’re also tidier, more integrated, and more portable, making them ideal for remote workers or students who want a mobile workstation with as much visual real estate as possible. The KYY 15.6-inch laptop screen extender, with its triple-screen setup (one on either side of your laptop's display), is a solid choice for anyone looking to give their laptop some extra elbow room—and right now, it’s 35% off, bringing its price down to $227.99 (originally…

Listen up, Ford drivers: You're getting a new AI assistant this year. During a decidedly low-key CES keynote, the company announced Ford AI Assistant, a new AI-powered bot coming to Ford customers in the early half of 2026. While the company has plans to integrate the assistant into Ford vehicles directly, that isn't how you'll first experience this new AI. Instead, Ford is rolling out Ford AI Assistant to an upgraded version of its Ford app first, and plans on shipping cars with the assistant built-in sometime in 2027. In effect, Ford has added a proprietary version of ChatGPT or Gemini to its app. How Ford AI Assistant worksFord's idea here is to offer users a smart as…

Gaming controllers are just one of those things that I love to collect, but living in a small New York apartment, eventually enough is enough. At CES this year, I saw three new controllers that are all trying to be the last ones I'll ever need to buy (for specific systems, at least). It seems like modularity is in, and all three of these devices want to meet all of your needs. However, they're not settled on what the best approach is. GameSir x Hyperkin X5 AlteronThe GameSir x Hyperkin X5 Alteron is probably the cutest controller on this list, especially if you grew up playing GameCube or Nintendo 64. Essentially, it's a telescopic mobile controller that stretches to fit …

Robot vacuums are a convenient way to keep your house clean without actually putting in much work, but they've all got one major problem—what if your house has multiple stories? At CES this year, I saw two attempts to fix this problem, but one of them was much more fabulous than the other. Roborock has a robot vacuum with legsThis is the more unique of your stair climbing robot vacuums, and the one that's new for this year. At CES 2026, robot vacuum company Roborock introduced the Roborock Saros Rover, which has two fold-out and individually articulated legs built into it, with wheels on either one. This …

In the middle of the Las Vegas Convention Center, amidst the world's largest tech trade show, an awards show was taking place. The audience included nominees ranging from large companies like Nvidia to scrappy startups introducing themselves to the world, alongside journalists, tech insiders, and enthusiasts gathering to watch the Best of CES 2026 awards. After days of scouring showroom floors, speaking with innovators about their new technologies, and deliberating for six hours, finalists and winners were chosen by experts from CNET, PCMag, Mashable, ZDNET, and Lifehacker. I had the privilege of helping to judge and present several awards, and aside from my gratitude for…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The Meta Quest Pro launched as Meta’s vision of what high-end virtual and mixed reality could look like without dragging a gaming PC into the equation. At $679.99 on Woot, it’s now $320 off its original $999 price and still more than $100 cheaper than Amazon at the time of writing. This deal runs for six days or until it sells out, with free standard shipping for Prime members and a $6 fee for everyone else. This headset won PCMag’s Best VR Headset award in 2022, and while it’s no longer the newest thing Meta sells, it’s still positioned well above …