Setting Up Your Home Office

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. Apple released the latest iMac in late 2024, using their all-powerful M4 chip with their all-in-one desktop. If you've been keeping tabs on the iMac, this is a good opportunity to pull the trigger. You can get the M4 iMac for $1,149 (originally $1,299) after a $150 discount, the lowest price since its recent release according to price tracking tools. Apple iMac (2024, M4) …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Sony's PlayStation VR 2 headset is getting a permanent price price drop this March, down to $400 from $550. That'll include the headset, the controllers, and a pair of wired earbuds—but is that a deal worth getting excited over? Well, for Sony, maybe. The price cut comes a year after Bloomberg reported that Sony had stopped making new PSVR 2 units and shifted efforts towards getting rid of excess stock. That points to lower-than-expected sales for the peripheral, and it's easy to see why. Sony's VR loyalists were surprised to hear when the headset came out, for instance, that it would not work with the existing library of…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. If you're looking for a flexible option for streaming your favorite content, you'll want to consider a portable streaming device, like a streaming stick or a streaming box, over a smart TV. Narrowing it down from there depends on a few different factors, so I've broken it down into six different categories to help you choose what makes the most sense. Device typeMost streaming devices fall into one of two categories: streaming sticks (like the Fire TV Stick 4K and the Roku Express 4K+) and set-top boxes, such as the Apple TV 4K and the Fire TV Cube. Streaming sticks are a little larger than a USB drive and plug directly i…

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…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. When it comes to upgrading your home's aesthetic, you don't need to spend a lot of time or money to have an impact. In addition to inexpensive improvements that increase your home's comfort and efficiency, there are a number of small swaps that can have a big impact without busting your budget. All of these swaps are renter-friendly—they are unlikely to cause damage in the installation process and are easy to return to their original state. Simply save what you remove and replace when you leave. Get new switch plate and outlet coversRemove the cheap plastic light switch and outlet covers around your home and replace them…

Bluesky has steadily been replacing X (formerly Twitter) for me, but I've really missed the ability to bookmark posts for future reference. While X still has Twitter's old bookmarks feature, the only way to save a Bluesky post is to like it, since you can access a list of your liked posts on your profile page. That's not always convenient—what if you dislike something, but want to be able to find it again later, say if it's an article about bad but important news? That's where Kyst comes in. It's a browser extension for Chrome and Firefox that lets you save Bluesky posts in one click. Installing Kyst and signing in …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The Google Pixel 7 (5G, Unlocked) is down to $279.99 on Woot for the next three days, or until it sells out. That’s more than 50% off its original $599 price, making this a steal for anyone in need of a flagship phone at a mid-range cost. Google Pixel 7 (5G, Unlocked) $279.99 at Woot …

This post is part of our Home Remedy Handbook, a tour of the landscape of home remedies from the iffy to the doctor-approved. Read more here. Thanks to a loophole in the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938, some of the “drugs” you can buy at pharmacies are actually nothing but magic water. I am, I promise, not exaggerating. I don’t mean supplements, which are legal because they are considered to be not drugs. And I don’t mean foods that make iffy or overblown health claims (nothing as boring as that). I mean that you can walk into a pharmacy and pay seven dollars of legal tender for a “natural” kids cold & cough remedy and walk away with a bottle of mostly wa…

Clicks, the iPhone keyboard accessory that went viral during CES 2024, is now coming to multiple Android phones—Google Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, Samsung Galaxy S25, and the Moto Razr+ (2024). Clicks adds a physical QWERTY keyboard to your smartphone, and also functions as a case for your device. Up until now, Clicks was available exclusively for all iPhone 15 and 16 devices, as well as the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max. When the first iPhone launched, it sounded a death knell for smartphones with physical keyboards, as the world moved to bar-shaped phones with big screens. Touchscreen typing is good enough for most people, but Clicks is betting on the fact that content creator…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Home improvement projects large and small can make us happier, our homes more comfortable and livable, and our property more valuable. But there’s a reason many people hesitate to take on some of these projects: They seem really complicated, difficult, and even dangerous. If you’ve never done any DIY home improvement projects, it’s easy to imagine that you'll quickly get in over your head and make matters worse. All of this is exacerbated in the bathroom, which is vital to our everyday health and hygiene. There are plenty of bathroom repairs best left to the professionals—but even if you’re totally inexperienced and wouldn…

Our hearts beat faster when we exercise, which is why heart rate training can be so useful. But when we aren’t doing anything, our heart rate can still be useful to know. If you have a wearable that measures your resting heart rate (RHR), here’s how to understand what it’s telling you. What is a normal resting heart rate? Medical professionals usually consider anything between 60 and 100 beats per minute (bpm) to be a “normal” resting heart rate. But they are usually measuring resting heart rate in people who are in a healthcare setting, sitting quietly. Notably, they are awake, and some may be a bit nervous about being in a doctor’s office. Your smartwatch or other wea…

Setting up a new computer is annoying, especially if that computer is running Windows. There are all kinds of frustrating things Microsoft adds to the operating system that you want to remove, and all kinds of apps that you actually want but need to install yourself. WinUtil is a free and well regarded tool maintained by Chris Titus that does all of this at once. With it, you can install dozens of apps by checking a few boxes and run common tweaks, from uninstalling OneDrive to disabling privacy-invasive telemetry. There are two ways to get started. The free way is to run Windows PowerShell as an administrator. To do this, right-click the PowerShell in the Start menu and …

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 may earn a commission from links on this page. After a long winter of planning, strategizing, and buying seeds, you can finally start to plant this month. Most of that planting will happen inside, beginning the seedlings that will eventually move into your spring and summer garden. All the seeding tools like trays and heat mats come out of storage for a cleaning. As excited as you may be, it's important to exercise some restraint: You don't want to start all your seedlings at once. This is a game of timing. March only sees us starting a few spring seedings, as well as some seeds that take a long time. Everything else will get started next month. Once you start seeding…

There are a few tricks with home bread baking that make the difference between a lackluster loaf and a spectacular one. One of them is having a heavy duty baking surface to get a nice bottom crust, and another is creating a steamy environment for a lofty loaf. Managing these requirements might sound like a challenge, or like expensive equipment might be involved, but you can actually solve both needs with a common piece of cookware: the Dutch oven. Why you should bake bread in a Dutch ovenA heavy duty baking surface, like a baking stone, is easy enough to come by, but a steam injected oven like the bakeries have is not as common at home. Steam is essential for a fully ri…

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…

There are a million reasons not to use Instagram, from it taking up too much of your time to not wanting to support Mark Zuckerberg. While the best alternative might be just getting off social network altogether, hey, who's perfect? Perhaps you're just tired of doomscrolling, or you want more control over your feeds. There are better options out there for you. Here are a few of my favorite photography-first social media platforms not owned by Meta (yet). Instagram alternatives for the social butterflyPixelfed Credit: Khamosh Pathak …

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…

Well, here we go again. With TikTok’s future in the United States still uncertain, parts of Congress are already moving toward banning DeepSeek, a Chinese ChatGPT competitor that quickly usurped ChatGPT on the App Store last week. A new bill introduced by Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri would “prohibit United States persons from advancing artificial intelligence capabilities within the People’s Republic of China.” In other words, it would effectively ban DeepSeek, despite not mentioning the AI chatbot by name. Under the bill, anyone convicted of “the import from or export to China of artificial intelligence technology” could be sentenced with up to 20 years in …

Microsoft is officially shutting down Skype (RIP). Even if you haven't used the app in years, it's possible Skype was your introduction into modern video chats. The app made it easy to call friends and family via video no matter where in the world you all were. As long as you had a stable internet connection, you could Skype. Once Microsoft pulls the plug on Skype for good, legacy users will need a new platform to turn to. Microsoft will encourage you to switch to Teams, and you can. But there are better alternatives out there. The goal (and challenge) of choosing a video calling platform is to convince other people to join you. The last thing you want is to pick an app…

Last week, Apple launched their developer beta for iOS 18.4. The update brings fresh changes to iOS, including Priority Notifications, a new Genmoji button, and additional supported languages. While it may be some time before iOS 18.4 is launched to all iPhone users, those curious to try out the new features can do so by installing the beta. However, doing so may cause some issues, so proceed with caution. How to install the iOS 18.4 developer betaIt's worth mentioning that there is some risk involved in installing a developer beta. The software can be unstable, as it is currently in testing and designed mainly for developers to make sure their apps are compatible with …

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 …

The Department of Labor (DOL) is a critical federal agency that protects workers' rights, ensures workplace safety, and promotes employment opportunities across the United States. Around since 1913, the DOL is the latest government entity currently facing scrutiny from the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). On Friday, a federal judge declined to limit DOGE—which is not an official government department, but a task force led by Elon Musk—from accessing the DOL's systems and sensitive information. Not everyone is happy about that, because they are worried Musk might gut the agency in similar fashion to what is being done with USAID. But what does the…