Setting Up Your Home Office

Apple Intelligence brought with it some of the most hyped new features for the iPhone, iPad, and Mac when it released with iOS 18.1. Even now, its functions are being upgraded and currently include writing assistance, an enhanced form of Siri, and AI image generation. Capabilities are limited to the iPhone 15 Pro series, all iPhone 16 models, all iPads running an A17 Pro chip and above, and all Macs with an M-series chip, but that's still a lot of options. However, not everyone's happy with it. That's because Apple recently made the decision to turn Apple Intelligence on by default for all compatible devices. Even though the new features are exciting, not everyone wants …

The cold weather has had me putting my Dutch oven through its paces the past couple weeks with a succession of stews, breads, and soups. Everything I make just seems to come out better during the winter, maybe because the thick cast iron emanates warmth long after I turn off the flame, or because removing the lid of the heavy pot always feels like opening a treasure chest. Whatever the reason, every meal has more than satisfied. This week, I tried out my crispy chicken and rice recipe, and I’d like to encourage you to do the same. Chicken and rice is one of those rare dishes with countless iterations from across the world. It’s an undeniably comforting combination, and i…

There's a lot going on right now. And it can sometimes feel a bit overwhelming. Especially when you're (maybe chronically) online. Most of your work life, and personal life, all happens online. And sometimes it's really easy to get carried away doomscrolling and forget that, sometimes, you need to touch some grass. Opera Air is a new browser, hoping, trying, to save you from all of that. Opera Air has built-in features that remind you to take a break every hour or so, and in that break time, suggests that you do some breath work, meditation, or some relaxation exercises. There's also a dedicated background music feature that plays customizable binaural beats to help incre…

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…

Not to be out-done by Deepseek, OpenAI is launching a new Deep Research feature in ChatGPT. This is OpenAI's newest Agentic AI feature (after Operator), which builds on the recent trend of making AI more autonomous. According to OpenAI, Deep Research is capable of producing detailed reports matching the level of a research analyst. In a layperson's terms, it browses and interprets the internet for you. Deep Research uses OpenAI's upcoming o3 reasoning model to perform complex tasks, taking its own sweet time to do so. The feature is available now for ChatGPT Pro customers (the pricey sub that costs $200/month), but will soon be available for ChatGPT Plus and Enterprise us…

I just learned that one of my favorite ways to pass the time in a hotel gym has been given a catchy name and a celebrity endorsement. It’s the 15-15-15 workout, and it will give you a good 45-minute cardio session even if you cannot stand doing anything for 45 minutes straight. What is the 15-15-15 workout? The 15-15-15 is a simple idea: You just do 15 minutes each on three different cardio machines. Like so: 15 minutes on a spin bike 15 minutes on the elliptical 15 minutes on a treadmill I’ve often done a version of this when I’m at one of those sad hotel gyms with few or no weights, just cardio machines. There’s usually a treadmill, an elliptical, and/or a bike, so I’…

I absolutely love the Aventon Pace 500.3 e-bike. As I noted in my review, it's a solid all-around bike, powerful enough for experienced riders, but friendly enough for beginners. If this is your first e-bike, there are a few things you should do before you hop onto it and start riding. While the Aventon Pace 500.3 is ready to hit the road as soon as it is assembled and charged, if you want to get the most out of your new ride, you should take a few minutes to pair your bike with the Aventon app and customize the settings. Changing things like the screen brightness and the measurement units is helpful, but you'll probably be most interested in setting your ride's top speed…

It’s been a minute since Lifehacker looked at the slang of Generation Z—long enough that Generation Alpha has had time to develop and spread some of its own special buzzwords and jargon. Below is an alphabetized collection of slang taken from both Gen Z and Gen A, in case someone younger than you says something you don't understand. As with all slang, if you need an online list to know what a word means, you are too old to say it aloud. 304: Hoe. (Type "304" on a calculator and turn it upside down.) 4+4: Ate. Four plus four is eight, or "ate." (See "ate") Alpha male: Taken from animal ethology, an alpha male is the dominant member of a group of males, or just a male who …

If you’re looking for a solid city-commuter e-bike with a surprisingly brawny motor and a stylish look, look no further than the Aventon 500 Pace 3. Aventon has secured its niche within the crowded e-bike market by aiming for the juncture between “high performance” and “beginner friendly,” and the Pace 3 hits that bullseye. It’s casual-friendly and easy to ride, with a no-problem step-through frame and reassuring upright posture, but the hydraulic disc brakes, torque-sensing assist, and powerful motor mean you’re not sacrificing performance for ease of use. Pros and cons of the Aventon Pace 500.3ProsGreat for beginners Torque-sensing drive is intutive Powerful motor Cons…

Getting out of bed—switching from the coziness of sleep to the jarring reality of the day—can be a challenge for anyone. But, as the saying goes, there's an app for that. Or, in this case, several apps—ones that go above and beyond the default options in Android and iOS to make sure you wake up when you need to. From alarms that get you to complete a challenge—and fully regain consciousness—before they'll turn off, to alarms that are timed to fit in with your natural circadian rhythm, there's plenty of choice when it comes to getting some assistance in starting the day. Alarmy Alarmy gives yo…

Owning a car is expensive—even new cars need tune-ups, regular maintenance, and occasional repair, and it all adds up (to an average of about $1,452 every year). Car warranties help mitigate those costs, but they typically only cover three years or up to 36,000 miles, which goes by pretty fast, considering most people drive about 15,000 miles per year. That drives people to look for ways to save money on car repairs, especially if the car is outside the warranty period. But are you sure your car is out of warranty? It’s possible that even if the official warranty has expired, your car is covered to some extent by what’s variously known as “policy adjustments,” “service ca…

Windows 11's minimum system requirements have been controversial from the day Microsoft unveiled the new version of its desktop operating system. The controversy boils down to one single line item: TPM 2.0 support. TPM stands for Trusted Platform Module, which is a chip that protects against malware and ransomware attacks. If your PC doesn't have TPM version 2.0, then you can't officially upgrade to Windows 11, unless you used a bypass that Microsoft had published. It appears that Microsoft doesn't want you to use the bypass any longer. Neowin spotted an update to a Microsoft support page with wording about the bypass removed. You can even check the page on The Wayback M…

My Spotify liked-songs playlist is not exactly listenable on shuffle; there are simply too many genres and moods in there. Luckily, there's now Liked Songs Manager—an online service that automatically sorts your liked songs into playlists based on whatever criteria you like: genre, decade, or even mood. To get started, head to Liked Songs Manager and sign in using your Spotify account. You'll then see a list of criteria you can use to create playlists. I recommend first clicking the Analyze songs per playlists at the top of the screen—this will show you how many songs in your liked list are available in each category. You can then browse the categories and check any that …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. I've looked into everything coming to Max this month, and the below TV shows and movies are the best of the bunch, or at least the most interesting. The premiere of the third season of HBO's beloved dark comedy series The White Lotus tops the list—everyone will be watching this one. There's also a new season of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, and the premiere of Common Side Effects, an animated drama series that looks fascinating. The White Lotus, Season 3 Mike White's Emmy-winning series The White Lotus is the best. Its mix of biting commentary on wealth and privilege, well-drawn (but nearly always reprehens…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. If you want to read more books but don't have the time to actually sit down and stare at a page of text, audiobooks are a great alternative. You can listen to them on your commute, while you’re lounging around on vacation, or while you’re completing boring tasks around the house. Audiobooks used to be expensive and cumbersome, but digital subscription services has made them all too easy. A subscription to one of them is among the best ways to maximize your listening experience, as they'll give you access to a ton of books at once. Amazon-owned Audible is unquestionably the leader in this space, but they are far from your o…

It’s hard to imagine a time when hotels TVs didn't feel vestigial. Not all that long ago, some made their TVs a selling point, plastering “free HBO” all over their roadside signs. These days, guests are more likely to stick to their phones, sacrificing their room’s beautiful 48-inch flatscreen on the altar of TikTok and YouTube. But with just a little extra work, you can get the best of both worlds and cast whatever is on your phone to your hotel room's smart TV. How to cast your iPhone to a hotel TVThere are official and unofficial options to send what's on your iPhone to a TV. Let’s start with the most legit. Use AirPlay (provided your hotel supports it)iPhones can now…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. As you're planning your big move, you'll likely find yourself talking to a number of moving companies to figure out which one has policies, prices, and availability that work best for your needs. Through that process, you might be surprised to learn that there are things movers won't touch, though the exact types of objects they won't move do vary from company to company. This isn't their way of getting one over on you during a vulnerable time, though you might feel like it is. Rather, according to Rob Rimeris, owner of EverSafe Moving Co., "it's about respect and risk." What moving companies generally won't touchRimeris…

When Nvidia introduced the free Nvidia Broadcast app in 2020, it promised to use the AI capabilities of RTX GPUs to boost the video and sound quality of users' recordings, presuming they had the right hardware. This could be useful when a laptop’s built-in webcam and microphones may not capture the best looking footage or the richest audio, and could potentially help streamers get by with a cheaper setup. With version 2.0 of the Nvidia Broadcast app, released at the tail end of January, the capabilities are stepping up even higher...perhaps a little too close to the sun. In Nvidia Broadcast 2.0, microphones still have options for noise removal and room echo removal, but t…

Members of the media recently received invites for an Amazon devices event in New York City on Feb. 26, which means one thing: Don’t buy any Amazon devices until after the event. While Amazon hasn’t explicitly said what will be shown on the big day, it’s always good practice to wait until after these sort of announcements to buy—assuming the products are not too far away. Even if you don’t see anything that interests you in the reveals, older, now outdated products are likely to get a discount in the weeks following news of their successors. You'll either get something brand new, or save on something you would have paid full price for. As for what we can expect Amazon to…

YouTube Premium is expanding its list of paid-only features—at least, for those who are willing to experiment. In a blog post this week, the company announced a handful of new experimental features available to Premium subscribers. These features, while not enabled by default, can be switched on from youtube.com/new, and can be used until they expire. In addition, YouTube also announced a sneak peek at a feature in the works, as well as a Premium discount for Google One subscriptions. Higher-quality musicYouTube Premium is adding a new high-quality audio bitrate for music videos. Now, songs can be up to 256kbps, matching the highest audio quality found on YouTube Music…

When it comes to your important data, you should always have a backup. And then a backup of that backup. Cloud storage services shouldn't be your whole strategy here, but they can help with that. Sometimes, you just don't have enough physical space to store all the photos you've taken over your life, or all your ebooks and work documents. Plus, there is the convenience factor of syncing your files between all the devices that you use, so that a document you drafted up on your iPad can instantly show up on your Mac or your Windows PC. That said, picking a cloud storage service isn't as easy as it used to be. Now that so much of our cloud usage is tied to platforms and ecos…

Only 50% of employed people in the U.S. describe themselves as “extremely satisfied” with their job, so it’s safe to say that everyone at some point in their lives has dreaded going to work on Monday and dreamed of the sort of career you see on television: Fun, exciting, and with a high enough salary to be comfortable. If you think that “fun” and “pays enough” are polar opposites, the good news is that’s not true. If you want to have a good time while earning a salary, there are some surprising options out there. These jobs may not make you rich, but they will pay your bills while you get to have a blast. LEGO master builderIf you thought your days of playing with LEGO en…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Soon after Nvidia's new RTX 5080 and 5090 gaming GPUs went up for sale last week, they sold out pretty quickly—which shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who has tried to buy one of its graphics cards before. According to PC parts seller Newegg, the company’s stock sold out “within minutes,” and none of the big-name retailers I’ve checked today have cards available. While that might sound like a success on Nvidia’s part, consumers and reviewers alike are responding to the short supply with ire, accusing Nvidia of a “paper launch,” a term for when a company only releases enough units to say that a product released on schedule,…

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).…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. While there is something special about a physical book, e-books are a great alternative for reading on the go (and building a library that doesn't take up any space). If you want to read on your phone, tablet, or e-reader, there are a number of options for finding millions of titles to borrow or buy. Your e-reader choice doesn't necessarily limit where you can get e-books, as some of the best e-readers (Kindle and non-Kindle) support a wide range of document formats, which you can convert back and forth using a service like Calibre and Adobe Acrobat, with some limitations. (If you're in need of an e-reader, we've broken d…