Setting Up Your Home Office

We may earn a commission from links on this page. As we’ve discussed before, there are three ways to hold onto a barbell if you’re worried your grip is going to slip. You can use straps; you can face your palms in different directions (mixed grip); or you can hook your thumb underneath your fingers, a technique known as hook grip. A hook grip is more secure than mixed, and it's essential for lifts like snatches and cleans where mixed grip isn't an option. Yes, it hurts. Yes, you'll get used to it. I am happy to report that, after six years of training and competing in olympic weightlifting (where hook grip is neither feared nor debated, but simply a part of life), I now …

If all you want is a simple, reliable email client, Apple's Mail app is superb choice. And over the years, it's only gotten better. But until now, it's had this one weird quirk that has users running to third-party clients like Gmail or Outlook. It has to do with how the Archive feature works. When you archive an email that you're reading, the Mail app automatically opens the next email in your inbox. Now, that's great if you're just going through newsletters. But when this happens, the next email is marked as read automatically, something you might not want to do in every case (like if the sender is using a tracking service, or if you were saving that email to read late…

Whether or not you plan on observing the Christian season of Lent, celebrating Mardi Gras (or Fat Tuesday) is a great excuse to chow down on some desserts. In the past, Lent meant abstaining from indulgent foods like butter, sugar, and eggs. As Christianity spread across different parts of the globe, during a time when food spoiled relatively quickly, there was no hope in preserving these ingredients during the 40-day period of fasting. Instead of tossing it all, there was a massive clear-out feast: Everything had to go. In the wake of this food-liquidation period, many creative and indulgent treats were born. Most of them are fried. All of them are carbs. Here are nine e…

Setting up a free email account has never been easier. You now have many great options that promise lots of storage or convenient features, although there are a few things to keep in mind when picking one. The rule of thumb is that if you're getting a free email service, you're probably paying with your privacy, because the company has to make money at the end of the day. Depending on the company, it could use your emails to serve ads, track you across the web, or even use the text in your emails to train AI. However, there are exceptions to that rule, specifically when it comes to end-to-end encryption. It's a tough balance. In general, you’ll have to pay real money to a…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The TP-Link Tapo C402 is $19.99 on Woot for the next two days or until it sells out. If you're a Prime member, you get free shipping; otherwise, it’ll cost you an extra $6. TP-Link Tapo C402 $19.99 at Woot $49.99 Save $30.00 …

Getting rid of stuff can be hard, even if you’re not exactly a hoarder. It’s hard enough for so many of us in our consumerist society, in fact, that scientists have studied why that is—and are always coming up with ways to overcome an aversion to decluttering our lives. Just in time for spring cleaning season, look to research published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology that suggests there’s a way to ease yourself into parting with old belongings: Instead of throwing them out all at once, banish them to purgatory first. What it means to put clutter in “purgatory”The researchers, Mathew S. Isaac and Poornima Vinoo, kicked off their paper by explaining that people who s…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Noah Wiley can't seem to escape the emergency room. After spending more than a decade on NBC's '90s mega-hit E.R., he's back in scrubs for HBO's buzzy new doctor show The Pitt. If that show hasn't quite scratched your itch for medical drama, there are plenty of other shows to stream. The genre's roots can be traced back to the early '60s, and the sexy Dr. Kildare, but it really exploded in the '70s with shows like Medical Center, Emergency!, and Quincy, M.E., all of them fairly soapy dramas with plenty of action and occasional doses of silliness. Later in the decade, M.A.S.H. became a hit by lacing the sit-com formula with…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. I'm Lifehacker's resident marathon runner and senior finance writer. And now, I'm merging my two worlds. Running is often touted as one of the most accessible sports—just lace up and go, right? But as many runners discover, what starts as a "free" activity can quickly transform into a significant investment. After a decade of "casually" running, I looked around at my room one day and saw dollar signs: sneakers, my second pair that year, at least $100. Medals from races, some costing $250 to register. A box of energy gels for long runs, around $30. A fancy hand-held water bottle, anti-chafing sticks, high-tech cold-weather …

I'm a full-screen apps guy on my Mac. I love sending each app to its own workspace and swiping between them to use the one I need. When I'm writing, it helps me focus on the task at hand, and it's not hard to use three and four-finger swipes on my trackpad get to my other productivity apps as I need them. However, messenger apps like WhatsApp and Slack are an exception. I need to be able to check these out at a moment's notice, like when I'm using my browser in full-screen. Luckily, that's where the Opera sidebar comes in. This handy tool is home to social media apps, messengers, and even some streaming services, keeping them from getting lost in separate tabs and letting…

Pixel users will soon get an extra layer of protection against malicious calls and texts, as Google's AI-powered, real-time scam detection is rolling out widely next month. The Gemini Nano feature, which is coming to both Google Messages and Phone by Google, runs in the background and will alert you mid-call if it identifies "conversation patterns commonly associated with scammers." You'll hear a beep at the beginning of possible scam calls to indicate that the conversation is being monitored, with subsequent beeps sounding every few minutes. You'll also see an on-screen prompt when suspicious activity has been detected, with options to "End call" or mark "Not a scam." F…

Do you remember a time when the internet was a more chaotically personal place? When the experience of using social media wasn't so uniform? SkySpace seeks to recapture those days. The site transforms your Bluesky profile into a Myspace-esque page, complete with backgrounds, music, and a section for your top eight friends. I kind of love it. "I miss when social media was more about being social and less about media," wrote Ste Curran, who built the site, in the project's FAQ. "I miss the personality, the ugliness, the chaos, the feeling of planting a flag in tiny part of the internet and saying 'this is mine'." And SkySpace certainly delivers there, allowing you to custom…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Google just announced that its “loss of pulse dectection” feature for the Pixel Watch 3 has received FDA clearance and will be available to U.S. users by the end of March. Read on for more on what this feature does, how well it works (according to one early study), and how you’ll be able to enable it. The feature has been available in several European countries since late 2024. According to a Google help page on the feature, it’s currently available in “Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.” …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The market for earbuds can be hectic if you're not on top of it, with many brands and new models coming out regularly. I do keep up with them, though, and can tell you which ones are worth your money. The Sennheiser Accentum earbuds are a great value right now, after a 50% discount that lowers their price to $99.95 (originally $199.95), the lowest price they've ever been, according to price-tracking tools. Sennheiser Accentum Earbuds ANC: Yes, Battery Life:…

"Don't Google yourself" is terrible advice. If there's personal information about you floating around on the web, you should be aware of it—because, despite common misconceptions, the internet is not written in ink. If your info is popping up on Google Search, you might be able to get rid of it. On Wednesday, Google announced its redesigned "Results about you" tool. This feature, first rolled out in 2023, looks out for your personal information on Google Search, including your name, phone number, email addresses, and home addresses. The tool then tries to remove any information it does find. Note that this doesn't necessarily delete that information from the website in …

If you’ve tried to buy or sell a house, you probably worked with a licensed real estate professional—there are more than 3 million of them in the U.S., and their advice and assistance are often invaluable. Real estate agents know the properties in their area and can help you locate them (and weed out deceptive listings) and guide you through every step of the process. A good real estate agent who has your best interests at heart is worth their commission and then some. But not everyone who has a real estate license is a good agent—or an ethical one. Sometimes the red flags around an agent are big and obvious, but sometimes real estate pros engage in subtle little scams th…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Making homemade bread and pizza can be greatly improved with the use of a pizza stone. I’ve used one for years, and it’s the best way to get a well-browned bottom crust. I thought I had it all figured out, until the pizza steel arrived. If you’re getting serious about cooking (and reheating) pizza at home, one of these tools should be in your oven. What’s a baking (or pizza) stone?A pizza stone is a plank or circle of ceramic or cordierite (a type of thermal shock-resistant ceramic). They’re typically between a half-inch to three-quarters of an inch thick and can range in size from nine to 20 inches across. Compared to a…

As a big fan of background music, I was intrigued by iOS 18.4's Control Center changes. It adds a new tab called Ambient Music to Control Center's list of customizable controls. You can use this to add one of four pre-selected Apple Music playlists (or your own) to the Control Center, your lock screen, or the Action Button (provided your iPhone has one). Up until now, you could play music via the Now Playing widget in the Control Center, but dedicated controls to launch playlists were missing. This feature is different from Background Sounds, which lets you play nature sounds on your iPhone in order to help you focus better. Even though Background Sounds is useful for eve…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Samsung has been releasing Fan Edition (FE) smartphones, tablets, and earbuds for those looking for a more budget option compared to their flagship product. The Galaxy Tab S9 tablet has been Samsung's flagship tablet until the Galaxy Tab S10+ succeeded it last year. But now you can get the more budget-friendly FE version for a record-low price. The Galaxy Tab S9 FE is $297.72 (originally $449.99), a great value considering it comes with a stylus. Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE …

Lift heavy to build muscle: That’s advice you’ve probably seen in a million places, whether you're aiming to get stronger, get "toned," or simply reap the health benefits of putting on a little muscle. But how heavy is “heavy,” and how do you know if your workout qualifies? There’s no specific number of pounds that will constitute “heavy” for everyone. What’s heavy for a teenage girl picking up a dumbbell for the first time will be a lot less than what’s heavy for a pro strongman. (If you do want to compare your lifts to other people's, sites like Symmetric Strength can show where you stand—but please consider these comps as just for fun.) In basic terms, training “heav…

Are you ready to pay for Amazon Alexa? With the addition of AI to the assistant, Amazon thinks you are. Announced in a closed-doors meeting with press and business partners today, Amazon’s Alexa+ is bringing AI to the familiar digital assistant, plus a new $20/month price tag. The secret? If you have Prime, you’ll get access to it at no extra charge. Credit: Amazon As with standard Alexa, the assistant is built around vocal prompts, but is designed to be more conversational and personalized, and will supposedly be able to act …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. There are all kinds of laws that govern the rights you have when you’re renting your home, but landlords are also pretty well-protected. You might think that anything that goes on in your apartment is their business (for better or worse), but there are actually quite a few things that simply are not their responsibility. While it’s pretty wild that they technically own your home and can make all kinds of rules about it but don’t actually have to fix certain issues, it’s worth knowing what is and is not their job when it comes to your space. Outdoor spaces are your responsibilityIf you are renting a house or are lucky enoug…

The Academy Awards ain't everything. Sometimes the movies that win truly represent the best films of their years; sometimes they reflect a trend or a zeitgeist that winds up looking a little backward after some time has passed; sometimes they're just completely inexplicable. But let's focus on the times the Academy has awarded movies that are actually pretty good, or that at least reflect their eras enough to be interesting. Here are 25 of the best award winners currently streaming on Netflix (keeping in mind that some of the streamer's buzziest awards contenders—think The Irishman and Maestro—got lots of nominations but no wins). Barbie (2023) The pink-drunk opt…

Netflix's March slate has plenty of variety, from reality TV to true crime docs to sci-fi comedy. John Mulaney is back this month with a new live weekly talk show, Everybody's Live with John Mulaney, a sequel to his 2024 live event Everybody's in L.A. The show, which will include on-screen guests and live calls from the audience, will premiere on March 12 at 10 p.m. ET with 12 weekly episodes on consecutive Wednesdays. Netflix also has new comedy hours in March from Andrew Schulz (LIFE, March 4), Bert Kreischer (Lucky, March 18), and Chelsea Handler (The Feeling, March 25). For reality TV fans, there's a new installment of Love is Blind: Sweden (March 13) as well as the…

Oh, you’re here because you captured the image of someone’s Instagram Story and want to know if they’ll get a notification about the screenshot, à la Snapchat? We’ve all been there, but they’re not going to find out if you took a screenshot of their grid post or story, at least not through a notification. There are a few instances where an Instagram user might be made aware that you’re sharing their content, though, or at least filing it away for later. Here’s everything you need to know about taking screenshots, saving, and sharing in Instagram, so you can lurk in relative peace. Can you screenshot someone's Instagram Story or grid post?If you screenshot someone’s grid o…

If you get an email from PayPal, proceed with caution: Scammers are using a legitimate PayPal address to send fraudulent purchase notifications to users in an attempt to gain remote access to your computer by convincing you to download malware. The phishing emails are being sent from service@paypal.com, which makes them seem real—but as Bleeping Computer reports, scammers have managed to exploit PayPal settings in order to trick recipients. How to spot the PayPal scamUsers targeted for this scam are receiving emails from PayPal notifying them that they've added a new mailing address to their account. According to Bleeping Computer, users who received this message did no…