Setting Up Your Home Office

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Movies can certainly have dialogue that sings, and some great movies don't lean on beautiful images, but for the most part, film is an inherently visual medium. Heck, before audiences heard Al Jolson's voice in 1927's The Jazz Singer, movies were largely silent entertainment. While silent movies are mostly a thing of the past, some filmmakers still recognize the power of spare use of dialogue. The animated film Flow, one of this year's Oscar nominees for Best Animated Picture, stars a cast of animals who are truly animal—they don't speak at all—and that's not the only recent example. Here are 12 modern movies with no (or …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. If you’ve been thinking about getting a budget-friendly robot vacuum with mopping capabilities, you might want to check out the iRobot Roomba Combo Essential. This PCMag Editor's Choice-winning robot vacuum is currently $149 (down from $274.99), its lowest price ever, according to price trackers. iRobot Roomba Combo Essential $149.00 …

Saving money at the grocery store is easy on paper, but when I step into the aisles a new brain takes over. “Don’t you need chocolate?” and “Ooh, maybe chicken strips?”—the word “budget” has disappeared from my mind. For me, the best money-saving trick is to make a proper checklist of ingredients that are budget-friendly and that ideally can be used for multiple meals. Below, you'll find my budget-friendly grocery shopping list that keeps me afloat during crappy economic times—maybe it'll help you, too. I’ve broken down the list into main sections to clarify how I build my grocery list. However, everyone has their own way of cooking and eating so even if my list isn’t per…

I love gimmicky social media trends as much as the next person, but that doesn't mean I understand what they are right away. For a few months, I've seen people on TikTok and Reels engaging in a "Sunday reset," but each reset seemed to be a little different—In one video, I'd see someone cleaning their apartment, and in another, someone would be doing pilates. Over time, though, the idea of a "Sunday reset" finally started to make sense to me, and I actually think it's a great way to incorporate a bit of structure and mindfulness into a routine before the work week begins. What is a "Sunday reset," anyway?There are over 500,000 videos tagged #SundayReset on TikTok right no…

You've heard of inflation—get ready for eggflation. You’ve probably noticed these astronomical prices on grocery store shelves, or noticed no eggs on the shelves at all. According to the latest consumer price index, or CPI, the price of eggs is up 36.8% from where it was a year ago. Compare that to the trajectory of overall food prices at just 2.5%, and the eggflation is clear. Here's what's behind the current state of this kitchen staple, and what you can do to make eggs more affordable right now. Why eggs are so expensive right nowSoaring egg costs are due to both increased demand and pervasive avian flu outbreaks, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).…

Fans of Apple TV+'s Severance, your day is about to be improved: Apple has released eight chapters of The You You Are, the fictional self-help book by Dr. Ricken Lazlo Hale that is central to the plot of the show. If you want to read it, you can even download it for free, or listen to the audiobook version, narrated by Ricken himself (actor Michael Chernus). The brief excerpts from The You You Are that have appeared in Severance are among the funniest bits in the show, but the book as released isn't just for laughs: It's also a great representation of how propaganda works, both in the Severance universe and in real life. In the "outie" world of the show, The You You Are…

YouTube's Android app is cluttered, slow, and full of ads. Even worse: It tracks every video you watch. NewPipe is a free and open source Android alternative interface for YouTube that's fully private and doesn't show ads. We've talked about ways to watch ad-free YouTube videos, and NewPipe is arguably the best one for Android users. Even better: NewPipe plays the audio from videos in the background, making it perfect for multitasking. You can listen to music, podcasts, or video essays on YouTube while doing chores, all without the need to keep the screen on. It also offers picture-in-picture mode, so you can watch videos while using another app, and downloads videos so y…

When the Nintendo Switch 2 was officially announced, it was hard to feel like it wasn’t just more of the same. With no weird 3D gimmicks and no absurd naming scheme, did it even really feel like a new Nintendo device? But eagle-eyed viewers picked up on something else—Nintendo, it turns out, might be the first console maker to build a mouse right into its default controller. At about 1:01 into the announcement trailer, you can see what looks like an optical sensor pop up on the side of one of the Switch 2’s Joy-Con controllers (or whatever they end up being called), and just a few seconds later, those same two controllers glide along a desk on their side, as if t…

Bluesky is setting itself up to be a social media jack of all trades. There's the main experience, of course, which replaces something like X or Threads. But it's not all about the text posts: Soon, you'll be able to use an app like Flashes to transform Bluesky into a kind of Instagram. Before that drops, however, you can use a different app to turn Bluesky into TikTok. It's not quite there yet, but it's a fascinating look into a unique kind of social media client—an app that turns one platform into something else entirely. Introducing Bluescreen for Bluesky Bluescreen is a Bluesky client with one singular purpose: It identifies the videos from your Bluesky feed and deliv…

Have you ever been scrolling along, minding your own business, when an ad suddenly hijacks your page with a full-screen warning about a computer virus or account insecurity? These are invariably scams, but to the untrained eye, they could look like a genuine pop-up from a firewall. That’s why Microsoft Edge is using AI to help users spot when someone’s trying to frighten them into downloading malware or giving up sensitive information. Available now to all users via a preview, the browser’s new “Scareware blocker” is an AI-based tool for dismissing and navigating away from these troublesome interruptions. While Edge’s built-in Defender SmartScreen tool already blocks know…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The Apple community has been finding their lost keys since 2021 with the AirTag, but Tile has been helping both Android and Apple users locate their missing devices since 2013. Over a decade later, their latest tracker (after being acquired by Life360), the Tile Mate, is just $16.95 (originally $27.99) for a single tracker, $33.99 (originally $44.99) for a two-pack, and $55.99 (originally $79.99) for a four-pack, the lowest prices, according to price-tracking tools. If you're an Android user, this is a good opportunity to stock up. (If you're an Ap…

Thanks to a tight market, sky-high prices, and elevated interest rates, the path to home ownership is more littered with obstacles than ever, but buying property remains a key goal for most Americans—nearly 70% of us still consider it part of the American Dream. But as much as you might think you want it, it's important to weigh all the financial and emotional factors that go into buying a huge. While it sounds impossible, considering the size of the commitment, it's surprisingly easy to get so focused on the anxiety of never being able to find the right house that you buy the wrong house for the wrong reasons. If you don’t want to wind up with a money pit or a house tha…

Kickoff for the Super Bowl LIX matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles is set for 6:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, Feb. 9. Fox is broadcasting the game live from Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, so anyone with a cable or broadcast TV subscription (or an OTA antenna) can view the game via Fox, Fox Deportes, or Telemundo. If you don't have cable, you can still stream the game to your computer, mobile device, or smart TV—even if you're outside the U.S. Here's how. Where to stream Super Bowl LIX in the U.S.Fox-owned Tubi is streaming Super Bowl LIX for free in the U.S. and Canada. The platform supports a wide range of streaming devices and smart TVs as we…

As convenient as the internet is, when big tech companies chase endless growth, that can mean bloat. Nowadays, it feels like every company wants to lure me into an algorithm trap, convince me to use their AI services, or try to make me pay a premium to browse like I used to. One of my favorite tools for fighting back against these trends is Tapestry. It's a timeline app for iPhone and iPad that lets you combine multiple feeds from blogs, YouTube, podcasts, and social media, then view them in chronological order, with a beautiful interface. Essentially, you can use it to make your own curated version of (nearly) the entire internet. Tapestry is designed by The Iconfactory,…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Chances are good that if you've ever owned an e-reader, it was one of the many varieties of the Amazon Kindle. But though the Kindle is the most ubiquitous e-reader, that doesn't mean it's the best—nor does it mean that other companies haven't bettered Amazon at the game it more or less invented. One of the most interesting competitors in the space is Onyx International, a Chinese company that has been producing innovative e-readers for more than a decade under the brand name Boox, often including new features (like color e-ink displays) years before Amazon brought them to the Kindle. Though Boox makes my own favorite e-b…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Like any surface, a wood floor can get stained and dirty, but you have to be really careful with how you clean it. You shouldn't use harsh chemicals, whether your floor is sealed or unsealed, because you don't want to damage the wood itself, but that leaves you with fewer options. I tried two—well, three, but we'll get to that—simple techniques that didn't require any intense chemicals today and they both worked well. Remove stains from wood floors with vinegarFirst, I assessed the stains I was dealing with, which I noticed while cleaning under my couch earlier in the week. They appeared to be leftover from a project I di…

Good news: Spring is around the corner. By the time the ground is warm enough to receive your flower, vegetable, and herb starts, it’s a race to see how much production you can get from these plants before the season is over. The bigger the plant you start with, the better. That’s why I give my plants a head start by growing seedlings inside. Here's everything I'm starting indoors this month, and a few seeds you can direct sow outside, too. (If you've never grown from seed indoors before, don't be intimidated. It's incredibly rewarding, saves money, and will give you the gardening high you need while the weather is still terrible.) Start long-germinating flowers todayIt…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. I love Kindle e-readers, and have been using them since the first Kindle Paperwhite came out in 2012. One thing I've been looking forward to since I first had one in my hands is the color version. It finally came out in November with the Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition, which is on sale for $229.99 (originally $279.99), the lowest price it has been since its release, according to price-tracking tools. Right now, you can also get it with three months of free Kindle Unlimited (it'll auto-renew unless you cancel it), and if you're a Prime Member, yo…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. The best snack holiday of the year is finally upon us, and while I hope everyone has their cocktail weenie plans figured out, I’d like to remind you that many other fillings rival the wee hot dog. One of my favorite things to wrap in a pastry blanket is a pickle, but this year I have a new obsession. It’s fry-able, grill-able, bake-able cheese, and it is absolutely incredible wrapped in pastry. How to make the best cheese in a blanketUnfortunately, mozzarella doesn't cut it here. Grilling cheese, also called frying cheese, is the best choice—it's a high-protein cheese that doesn’t completely liquify under heat. I tried wr…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The Arlo Pro 3 Floodlight Camera is currently $129.99, down from $249.99, its lowest price ever, according to price trackers. Arlo Pro 3 Floodlight Security Camera $129.99 at Amazon /images/amazon-prime.svg $249.99 Save $120.00 …

There's a brand new Apple app in town: Apple Invites gives you everything you need to organize a get-together, from picking a guest list beforehand, to sharing photos and videos of the event afterwards. While you need to be a paying iCloud subscriber to create events, anyone can respond to and interact with them—but predictably, there's no native Android app. And I think that's something Apple needs to look at. Admittedly, Android users aren't left out of the Apple Invites party altogether, but they have to put up with a slower and less capable web-based interface in their mobile browser—an option a lot of iOS apps go for, rather than developing an actual Android version.…

We are less than two weeks away from the 95th anniversary of the discovery of Pluto, the ice-caked, rocky sphere orbiting around 3.7 billion miles from the sun. To mark the occasion, The Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, where Pluto was discovered, is hosting its sixth annual "I Heart Pluto" festival. But should they? Is Pluto even a planet? According to a recent YouGov poll, 35% of Americans think Pluto is not a planet. It's something else, according to them. But they are all wrong—kind of. To get to the bottom of Pluto's planet status, I tracked down planetary scientist Dr. Will Grundy—who you might recognize from academic papers like "Measurement of D/H and 13…

Spotting one or two of the planets in our solar system is well worth a good skywatch, but seeing (almost) all of them in a line at once is a highlight for celestial observers this month. Here's how to view February's planet parade. What is a "planet parade?""Planet parade" isn't a technical astronomy term, but it is used to describe a phenomenon visible from Earth in which several planets—thanks to their position in orbit around the sun—appear to line up with each other. Colloquially, it is sometimes used interchangeably with "planetary alignment," though that phrase can have several meanings. While two or three planets aligning is fairly common, parades of four or five…

The Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles will face off in Super Bowl LIX this Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. This year, the game is being broadcast by Fox with a pregame show starting at 2 p.m. ET and game coverage at 6 p.m. ET. But who cares about all that? We’re here to prepare for the real game that will be taking place on Feb. 9—aka whatever shenanigans you and your friends get into during your Super Bowl party. Before we dive into the best drinking games for Super Bowl Sunday, let me be clear: Any game can be a drinking game, but not every game has to be a drinking game. You can take any of the gameplay below and assign “penalties” that don’t involve drinking alcoho…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Like it or not, Valentine’s Day is right around the corner. “But the holiday is made up!” you cry. “All holidays are made up,” I reply. “You need to get your partner a gift." No matter how badly you want to stick it to the Hallmark industrial complex, and no matter how much your loved one assures you they “really don’t want gifts,” the fact of the matter is that we’ve all been conditioned to feel the need to meet a bare minimum for romantic gift-giving every Feb. 14. And no, you’re not going to successfully overcome a lifetime of Valentine’s propaganda by deciding to stiff your partner on the gift front. Hallmark will neve…