Setting Up Your Home Office

Browser extensions, even ones from trustworthy sources, are not without privacy and security risks. I've written before about add-ons that manage to slip through official store safeguards and even some that "wake up" as malware after operating normally for several years, so it should come as no surprise that a host of AI-powered browser extensions—collectively installed by tens of millions of users—may also be invading your privacy. Researchers at data removal service Incogni looked at browser extensions available in the Chrome Web Store that included "AI" in their name or description and employed AI as part of their core functionality. By analyzing the data collected a…

Getting a little bit of extra juice into your phone before you leave your house in the morning could make the difference between the device still having power at the end of the day or not. But there are multiple factors that affect charging rate, and you might not be aware of all of them. Run through the tips here, however, and you can be sure your phone is always charging up as quickly as possible. Use a wired power source To begin with, you're going to get your phone charged a lot faster if you plug it directly into a power source rather than putting it on a wireless charger. Wireless charging offers a lot of convenience, and is gradually getting faster and faster as f…

If you tuned into Super Bowl LX on Sunday, you may have caught Ring's big ad of the night: The company tried to tap into us dog owners' collective fear of losing our pets, demonstrating how its new "Search Party" feature could reunite missing dogs with its owners. Ring probably thought audiences would love the feature, with existing users happy to know Search Party exists, and new customers looking to buy one of their doorbells to help find lost dogs in the neighborhood. Of course, that's not what happened at all. Rather than evoke heartwarming feelings, the ad scared the shit out of many of us who caught it. That's due to how the feature itself works: Search P…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. In the world of exercise, variety abounds. You can lift light weights, or heavy weights, or no weights at all. If you don’t lift at all right now, it doesn’t matter much where you start. But that doesn’t mean that all of these options are equivalent. Light weights can build muscle, but they do not have the same benefit as heavier weights. It takes different workouts to get the most benefit out of light weights versus heavy weights. And heavy weights can do some things that light weights can't. I'm going to unpack all of that below, but right now the most important thing I want you to understand is that it's not correct wh…

On Monday, Discord announced its plan to begin rolling out mandatory age verification globally. Starting in March, new and existing accounts will start moving over to a "teen-by-default" setting, which will lock certain chats and features away until the account's owner proves they're an adult. Here's what you'll lose, how to get it back, and for good measure, what your other options are. Discord will require age verification starting in MarchIn its announcement, Discord said the new age verification settings will start with a "phased global rollout" in March, so it may be some time until it hits you. However, once the changes make their way to your region, you'll lose acc…

When I asked real people why they post their workouts online, I received well over a hundred replies, many of them filled with venting about body image issues and unattainable beauty standards. That's didn't surprise me. What did surprise me was that the majority of these responses came from men. Carefully measured chicken and rice, obsessive tracking of macros, the guilt when a workout is missed: On social media, these behaviors are framed in the language of performance and strength. The same rituals that would be clear indications of disordered behavior for women are redefined as “discipline” and “optimization” for men. How many men suffer in silence because eating dis…

My subscription fatigue is real, but at the end of the day, I do recognize that companies need to make money. If one of them manages to put together a compelling package of features for a reasonable price, I can decide whether or not I find that value worth the money. That's fine. What isn't fine is offering a feature for free for years, and then suddenly deciding to lock it behind a paywall. It seems YouTube didn't get that memo. Starting on Saturday, outlets like 9to5Google began reporting that YouTube Music had started to remove the ability to vie lyrics for free users. If you want a full lyrics experience, you'll need to subscribe to either YouTube Music Premium, or …

Traditional TV works best for live events, and for many people, that means sports. Most of the online services providing access to traditional TV, however, don't allow you to only subscribe to sports. That's going to change. Today YouTube TV announced new plans that are a little bit cheaper than the current cost of $82.99 per month. Among them is a $64.99-per-month Sports plan, which includes access to the big national sports channels including FS1, NBC Sports Network, and all of the ESPN channels, along with access to network television. Basically, if a game is broadcast nationally, this package should give you access. And it will eventually give you access to many out-o…

We should all take common-sense steps to make sure our data stays safe and secure: use strong passwords with our accounts, and never reuse passwords; employ two-factor authentication on any account that offers it; and avoid clicking strange links in emails or text messages. But even when you follow all those rules, your personal data can still be at risk, strictly because the services you rely on aren't following these rules themselves. Some websites are putting your passwords at riskResearchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison discovered that a concerning number of browser extensions can access sensitive information that you enter into websites. Think passwords, c…

Have you ever used an application called Chat & Ask AI? If so, there's a good chance your messages were exposed last month. In January, an independent researcher was able to easily access some 300 million messages on the service, according to 404 Media's Emanual Maiberg. The data included chat logs related to all kinds of sensitive topics, from drug use to suicide. Chat & Ask AI, an app offered by the Istanbul-based company Codeway that is available on both Apple and Google app stores, claims to have around 50 million users. The application essentially resells access to large language models from other companies, including OpenAI, Claude, and Google, providing lim…

It finally happened. After months of speculation, ChatGPT officially has ads. OpenAI revealed the news on Monday, announcing that ads would roll out in testing for logged-in adult users on Free and Go subscriptions. If you or your organization pays for ChatGPT, such as with a Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, or Education account, you won't see ads with the bot. OpenAI says that ads do not have an impact on the answers ChatGPT generates, and that these posts are always clearly separated from ChatGPT's actual responses. In addition, ads are labeled as "Sponsored." That being said, it's not exactly a church-and-state situation here. OpenAI says that it decides which ads to s…

Google announced two new ways for users to remove their sensitive information from the web Tuesday morning—or, at least, remove that data from Google Search. The first lets users request that Google remove sensitive government ID information from Search, while the second gives users new tools to request the same for non-consensual explicit images. Google's "Results about you" tool is getting an update Credit: Google First, Google is updating its existing "Results about you" tool, which helps users scour the internet for their …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The Blink Mini 2K+ (2-pack) is currently down to $44.99 on Amazon, half off its usual $89.99 price and the lowest it has ever been, according to price-trackers. That makes it one of the cheapest ways right now to add basic indoor security with sharper video than the older 1080p models. Blink, which is owned by Amazon, has always leaned toward simple and affordable cameras, and this one follows that formula closely. It records in 2K resolution, so faces and fine details come through more clearly than on earlier Minis. It also adds a built-in spotligh…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Wifi problems tend to reveal themselves at the worst times—laggy Zoom calls, buffering mid-binge, or a smart device that refuses to connect. The Eero Pro 7, named the best mesh wifi system of 2025 by PCMag, is built to solve exactly that. Right now, the two-pack is down to $449.99 on Amazon from its usual $549.99, its lowest price to date according to price trackers. Amazon Eero Pro 7 Mesh Router …

With iOS 26, Apple made it easier for users to reduce spam and overall clutter in their Messages inbox. Your iPhone will detect and hide spam messages, and with the Screen Unknown Senders feature, you can filter out texts from anyone you don't know. You can also disable push notifications for these conversations to reduce how often you're alerted for messages you don't need to see. Note that this feature works only on iOS, so if you have Messages synced on your Mac, you'll see everything and receive notifications for all messages unless you mute specific conversations. How to reduce clutter in Messages on iOSTo send messages from numbers you don't know to a separate fol…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Memphis city council members Pearl Eva Walker and Yolanda Cooper Sutton (and many other people online) say that snow is fake. Sutton recently posted a video on her Facebook page to demonstrate the artificiality of snow. Over footage of her husband holding a snowball and a lighter, Sutton says, "So we decided to see what was really hitting the ground." Her husband holds a flame to the snowball, and it does not melt. “It’s not melting [it stinks] when you set fire to it OMG, Jesus Christ, what is happening!!!” Sutton asks. In the video's comment section, fellow council member Walker reportedly replied, "man made," and inc…

If you're of a certain age, you might remember mixtapes: cassettes made up of a series of tracks you or a friend think work well together, or otherwise enjoy. (They took some work to put together, too.) Digital music sort of killed mixtapes, but, in their place, came playlists. You could easily put together a collection of your favorite songs, and either burn them to a CD, or, as streaming took over, let the playlist itself grow as large as you wanted. Anyone can make a playlist, but there's an art to it. Someone with a keen ear for music can build a playlist you can let play for hours. Maybe you have a friend who's good at making playlists, or maybe you're that friend i…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. LG has some of the best OLED TVs on the market, from entry-level models that suit a lower budget to ultra-premium, high-tech options. If you want OLED-quality performance from a reliable brand without breaking the bank, the LG B5 is an intuitive smart TV with the brand’s signature vivid color, contrast-rich visuals, and strong gaming features. Right now, this 77-inch LG B5 OLED TV is $1,500 off at Best Buy in a Presidents Day Deal, bringing its original $2,999.99 price tag down to $1,499.99. LG…

I'm one of those folks who has completely moved from X to Bluesky, and for the most part, it's been a pretty seamless experience. It's not hard to move your following list over; you can upload (almost) all of your old tweets if you want; and the scrolling and posting experience is almost identical to what you'll remember from the old days of Twitter. The only feature I've missed? Drafts. Finally, drafts have arrived. In a post to the official Bluesky account, the company announced that it's added drafts to the platform, and that they're rolling out now. To create a draft, just start writing a post, and instead of tapping the Post button, hit Cancel or Drafts instead and c…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. A typical strength- or muscle-building workout happens in sets. You lift the weight a certain number of times (“reps”), then you put it down for a quick rest before going again. But how long should that rest be? The answer will depend on a few factors, including the purpose of the workout. And a lot of us aren't resting enough. Why rest times matterLet's talk about the point of rest times. If you can keep moving for an entire workout without ever stopping to rest, you're probably not doing very effective strength training. Cardio can be continuous; most forms of strength training require that you work so hard you must res…

While there are a lot of chat apps out there, WhatsApp is the undeniable leader of the pack. The app has over three billion monthly active users, constantly messaging and calling one another across the globe. However, currently those calls are all happening over the mobile app, or maybe the desktop app. Though WhatsApp does have a web app, the service has never supported audio or video calls outside of its downloadable apps—until now. You can now make calls from the WhatsApp web appAccording to WABetaInfo, WhatsApp is slowly rolling out audio and video calls to its web app. At launch, the functionality is coming to individual chats with users who elect to enroll in the W…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Like most of the eastern United States this winter, I experienced some rough snowstorms with ice rain. Now that I've seen what can happen during any winter, I wasted no time getting myself a power station. This is a great time to get yourself one, since the Anker SOLIX C1000 Portable Power Station is 50% off right now, going for $397 (originally $799). This is the lowest price it has been, according to price-tracking tools. Anker SOLIX C1000 …

The dark web has a bad reputation—one it has earned, at that. It's a complex subsection of the web, and it's not all bad by any means, but its nature does allow illicit and illegal activity to prosper anonymously. That's why hackers choose the dark web as their point of sale for stolen user data: If you're going to traffic digital contraband, you're going to do so as privately as possible. As such, you might be a bit stressed if you're told your email address was found on the dark web. Maybe you use an identity theft service, which discovered your information here. Perhaps you're noticing an uptick in spam, especially spam that seems targeted to you personally. In any ca…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Many academically minded types have written at great length and with fascinating eloquence on the connection between sex and death in horror movies. We'll cut right to the chase, offering up some of the best and most potent examples of sexuality in the horror-movie genre. But first, a disclaimer: These are horror movies, spanning decades, and, thus, don't always, or often, offer up the healthiest representations of human sexuality. Whether it's vampire eroticism or horny teen campers, sex in movies is complicated, and not always sex-positive, even as we're being invited to be aroused. Some of these movies have deep and co…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. At $239, down from its usual $299, the Nothing Headphone (1) is currently at its lowest price ever, according to price trackers—and that might just be the nudge you needed if you’ve had your eye on them. Nothing Headphone (1) $239.00 at Amazon $299.00 …