Setting Up Your Home Office

We may earn a commission from links on this page. The strength training mode in Garmin watches like the Forerunner 570 is a little confusing at first, but once you get the hang of it, it's incredibly useful in the gym. Garmin handles rest timers better than any other wearable I've tried, and when combined with a third-party app called LiftTrack, you can even track your volume and PRs. I'll lead you through how I use this workout mode, and how it's helped me do more work in less time in the gym. How to find strength workouts in Garmin Connect Credit: Ga…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. While most people think of smart cameras as just a part of their security system, they’re also a good way to monitor the things growing in your yard. In most cases, the cameras you already have set up for security can be doing double duty as a tool to keep track of what's happening in your garden. I believe we’re on the cusp of smart cameras becoming a much bigger part of the gardening experience. For the last few years, smart bird houses have exploded in popularity. One of those companies, Bird Buddy, has launched an entirely new line of cameras specifically for micro-viewing experiences in the garden. Their Petal cameras…

I am someone who is borderline obsessed with monitoring my health and fitness data. I use a smart scale, a calorie- and nutrient-tracking app, smart workout equipment, and my beloved Apple Watch to create a picture of my overall physical well-being that is as complete as possible. The only time I take my Apple Watch off is when I'm dressing up to go somewhere nice and even then, it pains me deeply. Just imagine the heart rate and calorie-burning data I'm missing out on while I waltz around in my fancy dress. It's sickening. All of these apps and devices work in concert to keep tabs on my every heartbeat and footstep, but there is a notable exception. I am usually against…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. A crevice garden is an exceptional way to deal with one of the hardest terrains to grow a garden. But more than that, crevice gardens can create architectural interest and structure, while growing a drought-tolerant garden that can be full of native plants. You can even create a crevice garden in a place that didn’t previously have rocky terrain, if you like the look of them. With climate change bringing hotter summers, a garden that is drought tolerant while also improving the soil and providing food for pollinators is a win all around. Since these gardens are so low maintenance, they’re perfect for people who want a dra…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. The Steam Deck makes your PC games feel like they were built for handheld gaming, but it's kind of like a fancy illusion. Under the hood, the Steam Deck is essentially a Linux PC that employs a user interface made for a controller. What that means is that you, the user, can easily dive under that hood with Steam's Desktop interface and start modding and tweaking your games, just like you would on a regular gaming PC. When you're in Desktop mode, you'll find a full Linux desktop environment (specifically, KDE Plasma) complete with Firefox for browsing the web, a file manager, and the full desktop Steam interface. While it w…

You’ve heard of a to-do list, but what you might actually need is a to-don’t list. Instead of focusing on all the tasks you have to get done, it could be beneficial for you to look at everything you don’t need to or even shouldn’t do in service of your larger goal. It sounds like a waste of time, but it’s not: Seeing clearly what shouldn’t be taking up your attention is a simple way to prioritize your time and focus on what really matters, which will lead to enhanced productivity and output. There are two kinds of to-don’t lists to employ. To-don’t 1: Bad habitsThe first kind of to-don’t list you should make is one of bad habits you want to avoid. This is all about goal-s…

During the pandemic, I was struggling. After graduating from college in 2019, I had an amazing job offer fall through because of the lockdown. I felt completely rudderless at a time when I thought I had it all figured out. Since we were all stuck inside together for months, there was no hiding my internal distress from my family. Fortunately, my parents recognized this even more than I did. That year, they gave me a gift that pulled me out of that pit, reignited my passion for creating, and set the journey in motion that led me to my career today as a professional creator and video producer. That gift was the Cricut Explore, and this device literally changed my life. Wha…

Clicking through search results to a website comes with the risk of landing on a spoofed page that is actually a phishing scam, but so does navigating directly by typing a URL into your browser. As reported by Krebs on Security, researchers at security firm Infoblox have identified a swath of scams on lookalike and parked (or placeholder) domains. If you end up on one of these websites, you'll be directed not to the trusted page you're expecting but scam content, including scareware and other malware. Lookalike domains contain malicious contentThis scam capitalizes on you navigating directly to a website by typing the URL into your browser's address bar. If you accident…

Apple might be dead last in the AI race—at least when you consider competition from companies like OpenAI, Google, and Meta—but that doesn't mean the company isn't working on the tech. In fact, it seems most of the work Apple does on AI is behind the scenes: While Apple Intelligence is, well, there, the company's researchers are working on other ways to improve AI models for everyone, not just Apple users. The latest project? Improving AI image editors based on text prompts. In a paper published last week, researchers introduced Pico-Banana-400K, a dataset of 400,000 "text-guided" images selected to improve AI-based image editing. Apple believes its image dataset improve…

Even the most loyal Apple users will admit that the company is lagging behind when it comes to AI, with Siri's big Apple Intelligence upgrade now officially delayed (having been heavily promoted throughout last year). In a new blog post, Apple outlines some of the ways it's hoping to get back on track. One of the potential reasons for Apple's generative AI struggles may be that it prioritizes user privacy a lot more than the likes of OpenAI and Google. Apple doesn't gather any user data to train its large language models or LLMs (though it has trained its models on free text on the web), and relies heavily on synthetic data to produce AI text from prompts and from existin…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Heart rate variability (HRV) and resting heart rate (RHR) are the metrics that most wearables' "recovery" numbers are based on. I wore five devices to bed for two weeks to see how their readings compared. Those devices were an Apple Watch Series 10, a Fitbit Charge 6, a Garmin Forerunner 265S, an Oura Ring 4, and a Whoop 4.0. Why these five? Well, they're the major brands that people tend to gravitate toward when they want to track sleep, and for each I chose the best (in my opinion) of each company's current offerings. I had most of them on hand due to testing them for recent or upcoming reviews. The Apple Watch Series 1…

Fortnite is coming back to the iPhone next week, according to Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney. That may not sound like huge news to those of you that have never played Fortnite, but the game's return follows a court ruling that has implications for many other apps you likely use every day. The ruling, from judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, states definitively that Apple is no longer allowed to stop developers from linking to purchases outside the App Store or limit them from explaining where such purchases can be made. What does this mean practically? Well, have you ever tried to subscribe to Netflix, upgrade Spotify, or buy a Kindle book on your iPhone? These things can't be done…

If there words or phrases you want to remove from you vocabulary, but can't seem to shake, there's a helpful trick I have learned over the years: Set up your computer and phone to automatically replace the word when you type it. I've written about Mac computers for a long time, which among other things means I mention the menu bar—that strip at the top of the screen with text menus and icons—multiple times a week while writing. For a long time, I combined those two words, writing "menubar," even though that is technically incorrect. A former editor of mine hated that I did this. Like, really hated it. He got so sick of it that he told me to go into my Mac's settings and s…

Following the major image editing upgrades added to Google Gemini back in August—under the whimsical codename Nano Banana—it's OpenAI's turn to supercharge the tools you get for image manipulations inside ChatGPT. The new update is called GPT Image 1.5, and is rolling out now for all users. One of the key improvements here, as was the case with Nano Banana, is the way that ChatGPT can now edit a specific part of an image while keeping everything else consistent. You can add or remove something, or change the color or style of something, without ending up with an entirely different looking picture. Another feature ChatGPT has now borrowed from Gemini: the ability to combin…

AI bots want to help with your web searches as well as everything else, and Claude is the latest artificial intelligence assistant to get the ability to look up information online—whether that's the latest news headlines or the latest prices on gadgets. "With web search, Claude has access to the latest events and information, boosting its accuracy on tasks that benefit from the most recent data," says developer Anthropic. The feature is available now across all paid plans, and is "coming soon" for free users. Web search is a different kind of challenge for AI models, testing their ability to sift through and assess content published on the web, rather than embedded in its…

I gave up wearing an Apple Watch about three marathons ago. Fitness watches are fantastic tools for most runners, but they're not for me—especially when I'm not training for a specific race. It turns out that, for me, there's a distinct freedom in running without a training plan. After years of following structured programs with specific paces, distances, and workout types, I've learned to appreciate the art of intuitive running—letting my body guide the way rather than my watch. The joy of watchless runningThe decision to ditch my running watch was a conscious one. No more obsessing over pace, distance, or heart rate. Instead, I've developed a deeper connection with my …

Everyone wants privacy, but how far are you willing to go for it? For most people, the answer is "not very far." The cost of privacy is not only the knowledge it takes to navigate safely and invisibly online, but often also the inconvenience that comes with security practices practices like using VPNs, installing ad blockers and other extensions, and using a non-Chrome browser. If you go to extra lengths to protect your online privacy, we want to hear from you. And if you go to extreme lengths, we definitely want to hear from you. The first time I switched to a privacy-focused browser, I wondered why I hadn't done it sooner. I left Google Chrome after reading one of the …

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. Though its mobile app is quite bad, the web version Google's NotebookLM has become one of my most-used tools since I started playing around with the AI large language model last spring. I've found a ton of ways to use it to be more efficient in my everyday life, which is (much) more than I can say for other AI-enabled applications I've tried. Instead of (poorly) doing the work for you, NotebookLM acts as a true helper, assisting in organizing information for you without being intrusive. And one of the mo…

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 my work at Lifehacker as a preferred source. When I first unboxed the Hydrow Arc Rowing Machine, I was cautiously optimistic. While rowing machines always sounded great in theory—an efficient, low-impact, full-body workout!—when I tried them in the past, I felt like reality fell far short of the hype, but my initial impressions were promising, and the machine itself is really nice. And now, after 30 days of consistent rowing, I can confidently say that my legs do indeed feel stronger than ever. Moreover…

I am not a morning person, and I never have been—well, unless I have to make money. For years, my start time at my old job was 5 a.m. and, against all odds, I made it in every day. Now, I teach a 6 a.m. spin class twice a week after being moved off the more-tolerable late morning shift. Until a few months ago, though, I was sleeping through every alarm on all the other days, even though I knew I should be getting up and going to the gym early as a solid way to start my day. It took me a long time, but I have managed to force myself into being the kind of person who is up before the sun and done with my daily exercise routine before my friends are even out of bed. Here's e…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. If you’ve been shopping around for knives, you’ve probably noticed that there are tons of options available to you. Between boning knives, filet knives, bread knives and the like, it can start to feel like each ingredient needs its own special blade. Recently, I was wondering if a carving knife would be worth adding to my toolkit, so I got one to test out. It was sharp, light, and pretty to look at, but it turns out I didn’t need a carving knife at all. I have been working with a lot of chicken lately—spatchcocked birds, butterflied chicken breasts, and deboned chicken thighs—and when you’re slicing a lot of meat you begi…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. If your kitchen counter is currently housing a Vitamix blender, you know that you can whip up some serious soups, sauces, and nut butters in that thing. In fact, my Vitamix's hot soup function is one of my favorite ways to use it. But it is almost summer, and I am no longer in the mood for soup. Now I crave chilled treats. Can my favorite blender, the Vitamix Ascent X5 go from hot soup to sorbet? Yes, and surprisingly well. Here’s how to make yourself a frozen dessert in this amazing blender. The Vitamix is not an ice cream machineIt’s important to note that the Vitamix is a blender, and not an ice cream machine. Most ice…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. While I was a total pizza hater as a child, I've come around as an adult—maybe a little too far around. It's one of my favorite things to make at home. I use pizza as a vehicle for using up leftovers, and as a way to save money on lunch. Through years of pizza trials, I've collected some sure-fire tricks that ensure the best homemade pizza possible. Flavorful crusts, balanced toppings, and even browning—you don’t need to have a home kitchen outfitted with a giant stone kiln to reach pizza perfection. But you do need to know a few things. Ferment the dough …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Unsightly water stains will kill the vibes in even the most beautiful bathroom, to say nothing of what they do to the look of other parts of your home. From shower humidity to internal leaks and ventilation problems, these stains have all kinds of causes. But after you’ve identified what made the mark on your wall in the first place, you still need to remove it without making the problem worse. Water stains typically won't appear on tile; they need a more absorbent surface, which is why they show up on bare walls. Since your walls are probably painted, this presents a problem: How can you wash a wall without damaging it a…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. When I first reviewed the Boox Palma e-reader, I called it the ideal solution to your doomscrolling habit—a device as portable and pocketable as a phone, with an adaptable Android operating system that allows you to run any apps you want, but with an e-ink screen that is both easier on the eyes and not nearly as stimulating to stare at as your smartphone’s LED display. Weirdly, by looking like a smartphone but feeling just a little bit worse to use (complimentary), this little device helped me smash my 2025 reading goal in fewer than six months. But doomscrolling isn’t a mobile-only problem (at least, not for me)—it’s just…