Setting Up Your Home Office

While Prime Video hasn't released a full list of content coming to the platform in April, the streamer is dropping a handful of original series and films throughout the month. Étoile (April 24), a new series from the creator of Gilmore Girls and Prime Video's hit The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, is a drama/comedy about the competitive world of dance set in New York and Paris. The eight-episode show also stars The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel cast members Luke Kirby and Gideon Glick. Fans of horror and gore (and Kevin Bacon) may want to catch action series The Bondsman (April 3), in which Bacon plays a murdered bondsman who has been resurrected by the devil and sent on a miss…

Prime Video's original content lineup in February has a little something for everyone, starting with a new comedy series executive produced by the late Normal Lear. Clean Slate (Feb. 6) stars George Wallace and Laverne Cox—who also created and produced the show—as a father-daughter duo working on reconciliation when Cox's character returns home to Alabama as a proud trans woman. Later in the month, Prime Video is premiering the third installment of Reacher (Feb. 20), the crime thriller starring Alan Ritchson as Jack Reacher, a former U.S. Army policeman and the titular character from Lee Child's book series. In season three, Reacher attempts to rescue a DEA info…

Amazon hasn't yet released a full list of what's coming to Prime Video in June, but we do know what original titles are slated to premiere throughout the month. Prime original action comedy Deep Cover (June 12) has a stacked cast that includes Bryce Dallas Howard, Orlando Bloom, Nick Mohammed, and Sean Bean. In the film, Howard plays an improv comedy teacher who recruits two of her students (played by Bloom and Mohammed) to infiltrate London's gangs by pretending to be criminals. Countdown (June 25) is a new crime thriller series from Chicago Fire showrunner Derek Haas. An LAPD detective is recruited to a secret task force to investigate the murder of a Departm…

Prime Video has new installments of two familiar series coming in March. First up is season three of The Wheel of Time (March 13), an adaptation of Robert Jordan's fantasy books of the same name. Rosamund Pike stars as sorceress Moiraine Damodred, a member of the powerful Aes Sedai. The season opens with a magical battle between members of the order—viewers will get a three-episode premiere with five weekly episodes to follow. Also in its third season is Bosch: Legacy (March 27)—also an adaptation, this time of Michael Connolly's crime novels. A sequel to Prime Video hit Bosch, the series was originally canceled after its second season but was revived for a third and fi…

Amazon hasn't yet released a full list of what's coming to Prime Video in May, but there are a handful of original titles ranging from documentaries to dark comedies. First up is Another Simple Favor (May 1), a Paul Feig comedy-mystery film and sequel to 2018's A Simple Favor. Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively reprise their roles as Stephanie Smothers and Emily Nelson, this time amid a murder that takes place at Emily's wedding in Capri, Italy. Henry Golding, Andrew Rannells, Michele Morrone, and Allison Janney also appear. At the end of the month, eight-episode thriller series The Better Sister (May 29) stars Jessica Biel and Elizabeth Banks as estranged sisters …

The alphabet soup of TV terminology is overwhelming enough, but you might have seen a particularly confusing term pop up lately: mini-LED. LEDs are already tiny, so what exactly could the "mini" here even mean? It turns out, quite a lot, and that distinction can mean the difference between washed out colors and a more vivid display. The thing is, almost every TV you see is technically some kind of LED display. Most use bright white LEDs as a backlight, which shines through an LCD matrix and color filter to produce a coherent image. (The exception is OLED, which lights up each pixel individually and thus doesn't require a backlight.) Mini-LEDs are an improvement over the b…

In 2024, the world wide web was made up of 149 zettabytes of data. That's 149 trillion gigabytes, or 149 billion terabytes—whichever helps you wrap your head around that gigantic number. Suffice it to say, the internet is a big place. It's so big, in fact, that you can't access all of it the same way. There are actually different tiers to the web, and depending on with tier a piece of content you're looking for is on, you may or may not be able to view it—even if you know where to find it. That's the crux of the difference between the "surface" web, and the "deep" web. These are two separate parts of the internet that are also part of the larger world wide web. While the…

With the April 15 tax deadline looming tomorrow, many Americans are rushing to complete their returns. Personally, my phone is blowing up with all my procrastinator friends asking last-minute questions. And good for them for making the deadline at all, no matter how frenzied. But what happens if you miss the deadline? The consequences vary dramatically depending on whether you simply file late or don't file at all. Let's take a look at what happens in either scenario, and what options you have if you're not ready to file by tomorrow. What happens if you file your taxes late?First off, it's important to clarify the difference between failure to file and failure to pay. Fa…

Earlier this week, TikTok user CatGPT posted a video of a woman in line at a store seemingly scrolling on a completely transparent phone. The caption reads "I'm sorry, WTF IS THAT???" Check it out: The video quickly took off, with over 52 million people having viewed it on TikTok in only four days. So WTF is it? A techie casually breaking an NDA by openly rocking a prototype transparent phone? The new "Plex from Nokia" (as the top comment suggests)? A casual time-traveler caught in the act? The real story behind the "transparent phone"Sorry, it's none of the above. It's exactly what it looks like: a transparent piece of acrylic shaped like a phone. Specifically, it'…

It will soon be time, once again, for our clocks to “fall back.” Nov. 2 is the date most places in the U.S. quit daylight saving time for 2025 and go back to standard time. We're still on this clock-changing treadmill, despite legislation that was supposed to eliminate it a few years ago, and despite medical professionals warning that these clock changes are bad for our health. For example, a recent study out of the Stanford School of Medicine found that switching the time back and forth every year probably contributes to increased rates of stroke and obesity. Permanent daylight saving time would be an improvement on that, and permanent standard time would be even better…

WhatsApp is finally getting a long-awaited privacy feature that allows you to display a username rather than your phone number, which will remain hidden from other users. This feature has been in the works for more than a year, with few details released as to its functionality and ETA. While it's still not rolling out to all users just yet, we now know a little bit more about how it will work. According to WABetaInfo (and as reported by 9to5Google), WhatsApp is set to launch usernames to a very limited number of accounts as part of a phased rollout. This means that you may not have access to this update now—but you should consider the switch as soon as it becomes availa…

The wait is over, people: WhatsApp is officially, finally, available on iPad. WhatsApp started as an iPhone app way back in 2009. Seventeenyears later, the app is still available on iPhone, as well as Android, Mac, and PC. But one platform the app has never been available for is the iPad. Despite being the most popular mobile messaging app in the world—roughly a quarter of the global population uses it—Meta never cared to bring WhatsApp to the most popular tablet in the world. That changes today. On Tuesday, May 27, Meta included an iPad app with the latest WhatsApp update (version 25.16.81). It comes just one day after the company teased the app on X: The official Whats…

WhatsApp appears to finally be getting its iPhone app up to speed with its Android companion in a major way: allowing you to use multiple accounts on one device. The "new" feature, which has been available on Android since 2023, was spotted by WABetaInfo in the iPhone app’s most recent TestFlight beta program. If (but more likely once) multi-account switching eventually carries through to a public release, users will be able to manage and sign into multiple WhatsApp accounts within a single instance of the WhatsApp app, eliminating the need to keep multiple devices on hand to manage each of their WhatsApp accounts. This will be especially handy for small businesses. …

They say no one actually uses their phones for phone calls anymore. That's not really true, though maybe the "Phone" app does get underused. Instead, many of us have turned to chat apps for our calls. FaceTime, WhatsApp, Messenger—these apps are now our go-to choices for getting in immediate touch with friends and family. (Not that I'm complaining: The call quality is usually better, anyway.) But one thing the Phone app—and traditional phone calls—have on these chat apps is voicemail. For decades, when you called someone and they didn't answer, you could "leave a message after the tone." That way, when the person saw they had a missed call, they didn't need to guess what…

In the beginning, WhatsApp users could not protect their chat backups with encryption—while all communications were encrypted end-to-end, backups weren't afforded the same protection. Since 2021, however, WhatsApp has offered two ways for users to encrypt these backups: a standard password, or a 64-digit encryption key. There are security issues with both of these methods. Passwords can be secure, but let's be real, many of us use very simple passwords that are easy to remember, and, in some cases, we even repeat passwords from account to account to make things easier on our brains. If your password for WhatsApp backups is the same password you use for your email, and th…

The next time you open WhatsApp, you might notice some changes. As announced in a blog post on Thursday, the app is rolling out a dozen new features, affecting the chats, calls, and even the Updates tab. Here's what's new: Chat updatesGroup chats are getting a number of updates this go-around. WhatsApp is adding an online indicator to group messages, so you can see who in the thread has WhatsApp open at any given moment. That change should help you gauge how many people are currently reading the chat. You'll see the new indicator directly below the group chat name. Similarly, WhatsApp is adding a new "Notify for" section in group chat settings to manage the notifications…

If you have children under the age of 13, they will soon be able to have their own WhatsApp account for messaging and calling—but with heavy parent supervision. Users with parent-managed accounts can only message with saved contacts, and while preteens' communication will still be end-to-end encrypted and private from parents, supervising adults will be notified about certain account activity and have the ability to approve or decline requests. According to Meta, this account type is rolling out gradually and globally. How parent-managed accounts work for preteensManaged accounts for WhatsApp users under 13 are limited to calling and texting with saved contacts and group…

Not to be outdone by Apple's "Lockdown Mode," Meta is rolling out new security features for WhatsApp designed to protect high-risk users—journalists, activists, and government officials, for example—from cyber attacks. Strict Account Settings is a "lockdown-style" mode that builds on the platform's existing end-to-end encryption, adding stronger privacy features and additional restrictions against unknown contacts. For most WhatsApp users, this level of lockdown is overkill. However, people with access to sensitive data that is potentially valuable to threat actors actually have been targeted with spyware campaigns through messaging platforms like WhatsApp, so for users …

WhatsApp is adding a new privacy feature that will allow you to block others from exporting chats, automatically downloading media, and using your messages for AI features, among other limitations. All of this is a part of a new option called Advanced Chat Privacy, which is currently rolling out to WhatsApp users worldwide. How to block people from exporting your WhatsApp chatsTo use these features, make sure you are running the latest version of WhatsApp on your device. Then, open a private chat or a group in WhatsApp, tap the name of the contact or group, and scroll down until you see Advanced Chat Privacy. This button is located near the Lock Chat option on this page.…

From coordinating pickups for road trips to helping organize yard sales, WhatsApp groups are at the center of all kinds of events in people's daily lives. As someone who's a member of far too many WhatsApp groups, I've always been very annoyed by the app's inability to show group chat history to new group chat members. In the lead up to my most recent meditation retreat, the admins ended up sending the same document seven (!) times, just because new members kept joining the group and they had no way to access attachments that were previously sent to the group chat. Thankfully, WhatsApp is finally changing that. WhatsApp is finally adding a feature called Group Message His…

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…

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…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. The 2026 Winter Olympics will kick off in Milano Cortina, Italy, beginning on Friday, Feb. 6. With more than 3,200 hours of winter sports coverage spread across broadcast, cable, and digital streaming platforms, finding what you want to watch can feel like a full-time job. So here's where and when you can watch the Olympics. Watching the Olympics is a deeply personal experience. Some love the technical precision of a perfect luge run; others dig the emotional narrative of an underdog’s journey to the podium; and some just want to catch the meme of the week as it happens. Because everyone's "perfect Olympics" is unique, I’…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Did you know you can customize Google to filter out garbage? Take these steps for better search results, including adding Lifehacker as a preferred source for tech news. Can you remember the last time you had a totally pain-free back? I know I’m on a never-ending search for relief. Percussive massage guns, non-percussive massage guns, regular foam rollers, even percussive foam rollers—I’m determined to try it all. Now, my search has brought me to decompression devices. These devices promise personalized, premium massages and decompression right in your own home. It's the closest thing you can get to replicating an actual m…

There are a lot of methods to try in the never-ending quest for a way to sort through and slim down our bulging inboxes. They're different enough that there's certainly one out there that matches or comes close to matching your exact needs, but they do all have one thing in common: They rely on the chronology of when each email came in. Let’s try turning that approach on its head, and instead, sort by sender to weed through the mess. Why you should sort your inbox by senderWhen purging your messages, you probably have an organizational system you follow, like the 4Ds. You go through and decide what gets deleted, done, delegated, or deferred—but there’s not much pattern re…