Setting Up Your Home Office

YouTube's recent price hike has clearly left a hole in the market. If you want a fully ad-free YouTube experience, you currently need to pay $13.99/month (up from $11.99) or use a third-party workaround. But now, YouTube has a compromise. The service's new Premium Lite plan comes in at $7.99/month ($6 cheaper) and is supposed to block ads on most, but not all, content. With YouTube Premium Lite, YouTube won't show ads on popular categories of long form video, like gaming, fashion, beauty, news, and more. That's a bit vague, but in a video with Johanna Voolich, YouTube's Chief Product Officer, she says this means that all "core creator content", including podcasts…

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. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Prime Day and Black Friday may get most of the internet sale fanfare, but as a deals writer, I can tell you that Woot quietly beats Amazon prices quite frequently. Right now, Woot (still an Amazon company, mind you) has an incredible sale on headphones and earbuds that beat Amazon prices by far, according to price tracking tools. Remember that Woot only ships to the 48 contiguous states in the U.S., and if you have Amazon Prime, you get free shipping; otherwise, it’ll be $6 to ship. This Woot sale on headphones goes on until Feb. 20 at 2:59 a.m. ET…

One of Apple's best recent features is iPhone mirroring, which lets you control an iPhone from a Mac. Scrcpy is a free application for Linux, Windows, and macOS that does the same thing: It allows you to control your Android phone from a window on your computer. This application takes a bit to set up—it launches from the terminal or command prompt, for one thing, and it only works if you enable developer mode on your Android phone. Once you set it up, though, you can control your Android's screen from your computer, or even turn on a virtual screen so you can launch applications while your phone is off. To get started, you will need to install Scrcpy (which is just "scree…

Do you have a missing 401(k)? It’s more common than you might think. One U.S. Labor Department study suggests that people will have worked a dozen jobs by their mid-40s, with most of those barely lasting a few years. While you have a few options for handling an old 401(k), some strategies are better than others. The wisest path forward is typically to consolidate your old 401(k) into another qualified retirement plan. But what if you can't locate your old 401(k)? Did you forget which company was managing your retirement account? A new federal database should make it easier to track down. Use this new government databaseThis new tool been years in the making, as a part of …

There are many easy ways to launch apps on your Mac. You can click an icon in the Dock, use Spotlight Search (or better alternatives), or visit the Applications folder and fire up your favorite apps. None of these methods are as fast and as fun as launching apps with Pieoneer, a launcher that lets you add your favorite apps to a radial menu. It also has two other useful features—a built-in app switcher and an easy way to surface hidden features of your favorite apps. Using Pieoneer as an app launcher Credit: Pranay Parab This i…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Garmin is introducing a feature to many of its watches that Apple Watch users have been able to enjoy for a while. That’s a device passcode, so you can lock your data when your watch isn’t on your wrist. The feature will be rolling out to Fenix, Forerunner, Venu, and Vivoactive users, or you can get it right now with the beta program. Garmin Vivoactive 5 GPS Smartwatch With AMOLED Display (Black) $239.99 at …

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 …

Lifting is about as simple as an exercise gets: You pick the thing up, and you put the thing down. But that doesn’t mean you’re going to walk into the gym and just pick the thing up. A proper warmup can help you to be ready for your lifting, so let’s talk about how to build your best lifting warmup routine. Why a warmup is important (and when it may not be)First, let’s talk about why we warm up. People often talk about warmups as if they will magically prevent injury, or that skipping one will result in some other disaster. That’s not necessarily true. They also won’t really do much for your chances of suffering from soreness (or not) after the workout, either. If you fe…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. If you missed the chance to grab a new TV during recent Prime Day or Black Friday sales, the Super Bowl is your next best shot at scoring a deep discount. Plenty of TVs from the top brands are on sale right now, and you still have time to get them before the game on Sunday, Feb. 9. (Note: Some models may not be available in your part of the country.) The best deals on TVs under 45 inchesDon't be distracted by the fact that TVs keep getting bigger and bigger. If your living room isn't huge, or you don't have wall space, a massive TV isn't better. 40…

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.” …

If you're an avid e-book reader or someone who has an extensive library of Kindle content, now is the time to back up your books. Starting on Wednesday, Feb. 26, readers will no longer be able to download Kindle e-books to a computer, where you can convert the file from Amazon's proprietary, Kindle-specific .AZW3 to a different format for a non-Kindle e-reader. Once this feature has been eliminated, Kindle e-books can only be transferred to a Kindle device via a wifi or cellular connection or accessed via the Kindle app or Kindle for web. While users who read primarily in the Kindle app or on a Kindle device may not miss this feature, its loss does make it impossible t…

“Cutting the cord” has taken on a bit of a funny twist in the past few years, as every production company under the sun seems to want to make its own a la carte subscription service, and former cable alternatives have started offering what are essentially their own cable packages. Such is the way with YouTube TV, a separate subscription from YouTube Premium that allows users to stream live TV over the internet, but one that might soon be losing access to a few key channels. According to YouTube, the company is currently in negotiations with Paramount to keep offering channels including Nickelodeon, BET, Comedy Central MTV, VH1, and dang, even CBS and CBS Sports. Currently…

The United States Postal Service handles an average of 318 million pieces of mail every day, so there are going to be some mistakes. Carriers misread an addresses, letters shift around in the back of the truck, and people move without updating their addresses—all circumstances that could result in you receiving mail intended for someone else. Here’s what you should do if you get mail that doesn’t belong to you. What to do if mail is delivered to the wrong addressIf the mail you’ve received is not only for someone else, but for a different address than yours, you have two options to correct the mistake:
 Deliver it yourself. If the letter is clearly intended for a nearby n…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. The problem with Netflix's algorithmic recommendations is that it creates an entertainment echo chamber where viewers' tastes are confirmed instead of challenged. Right now, there's probably a TV series languishing in Netflix's back catalog that would blow your mind, if only you knew about it. But it's probably not in English. Netflix has a huge catalog of excellent foreign-language shows, so many that finding a place to start can be daunting. As Lifehacker's expert on "what's good on TV," I've put together a list of the best of the best "not in English" Netflix series, listed in order of Rotten Tomatoes review aggregatio…

It happens way too often. You install a new, interesting app. The app asks you to grant it permission to your photo library, and you end up granting it full access. That is, after all, the most convenient option. Doing this for a trusted, popular app like Instagram or Slack is fine, useful even. But not all apps are built the same. In fact, researchers have recently found photo-scanning malware apps on the App Store. Yes, malware has started to make its way from Android to the iPhone. Dubbed SparkCat, this is a kind of malware framework that runs in the background, running OCR on all your photos in hopes of finding credentials to your crypto account. But any app that has …

Journalists love a good tech prototype. These exciting experiments break up the monotony of covering the same incremental refreshes day-in and day-out.They also come with a downside: As attention grabbing as they are, there’s no guarantee that they’ll ever actually come to market. That’s why covering them can be a bit tricky, as it can be difficult to decide how much attention to give a product consumers might never actually see. Luckily, Lenovo actually made good on one of its earlier promises at CES this year, showing off a rollable laptop that’s set to launch sometime in 2025. Now, the company has three additional concepts it's showing off for Mobile World Congress, al…

While they will never have the name recognition of the Amazon Kindle, e-ink devices from Chinese tech company Onyx International—sold under the slightly silly "Boox" brand name—are gaining a cult following in the U.S. I've reviewed three of its e-readers and digital notebooks over the past year, and I'm a huge fan. And if you're reading this article, you probably are too (or soon will be). I love Boox devices not only because they're well built and full-featured (though if you want more of my thoughts there, check out my assessments of the Boox Palma, Note Max, and Note Air 4C). I also can't get enough of their customizability. Nothing makes me crazier than trying to do s…

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…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. I wear my Apple Watch continuously, only removing to to charge it or when I'm showering. I wear it to sleep and to work out, under heavy sweatshirts, on the beach—basically anywhere and everywhere. As you can imagine, the device gets dirty. But as you might also imagine, I have no interest in cleaning my expensive smartwatch in a way that might damage it. Here are the two methods I use to clean my fitness tracker without harming it—plus some other things to keep in mind when cleaning yours. Before doing any kind of cleaning, remove your watch band to make it easier to access all of its crevices. It's also a good idea to …

Whenever I have a carb emergency I make one of two things: cookies or quick bread. Lately I’ve been leaning toward the latter—like banana bread, lemon poppy muffins, or biscuits—because they’re less sweet compared to cookies, and I enjoy the ritual smear of salted butter. I’ve been making this Irish soda bread on repeat and I think you’ll like it too. Quick-bread satisfactionThe quick breads category is pretty wide. They can be sweet and cake-y like banana bread, barely sweet like scones, or savory like cheddar cheese and thyme biscuits. Unlike yeast-raised breads, quick breads are raised with chemical leaveners (baking soda or baking powder), which means they require abs…

The Beats Solo 4 came out last summer—they're Beats' latest headphones. Beats are a more affordable alternative to Apple headphones, and you can often find them with substantial discounts. You can now get the Beats Solo 4 for $99.95 (originally $199.95) after a 50% discount. This is matching the lowest price they've been since their release, according to price-checking tools. The Solo Buds and Studio Buds + are also both also seeing their lowest price right now. Beats Solo 4 …

Time is ticking to file your taxes before April 15, 2025. If you've already do so, congrats! Now you can kick back and await that refund, right? Sure—but your relief will be short-lived. Once tax season rolls around next year, you'll again find yourself frantically searching for receipts, statements, and other documentation needed to file an accurate return. Instead of accepting the annual scramble, you can get ahead of the game by using a spreadsheet to track all your tax-related information throughout the year. And there's no better time to start than right now—when your tax knowledge is fresh as can be—to make your spreadsheet and start logging things away for next Ap…

"Photoshop" is synonymous with image editing, and for good reason. The app is an industry standard, and has been for over 30 years. But while Photoshop has been available on computers and tablets for some time now, those looking to edit images on their smartphones have had to make due with alternative programs—or simply stick to their other devices instead. That changes today. As of Tuesday, Feb. 25, Photoshop is officially on iPhone. You can go to the App Store, search "Photoshop," and see not just the usual alternatives—like Lightroom, Canva, and Facetune—but the real deal, too. Plus, the app itself is free, in addition to a number of "core imaging and design tools." A…

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…