Setting Up Your Home Office

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Amazon's Big Spring Sale is almost over, but there are still deals you can take advantage of, including this comprehensive list of tech deals from Lifehacker's associate tech editor Michelle Ehrhardt. If you're looking for a portable speaker, consider this one from Ultimate Ears, the Megaboom 4, currently $129.99 (originally $199.99)—that's the lowest price it has reached, according to price-tracking tools. Ultimate Ears Megaboom 4 360-degree sound, is wate…

Google is announcing a slew of new Gemini features today, this time aimed squarely at its free users. Features that were previously only available with the $20 per month Advanced plan will now be accessible to the public. GemsGems are Gemini's little AI helpers that you can create for any task. You can start with pre-made ones like Google's Career guide. But you can create a Gem for any purpose. You can create one for repeated tasks, or to help you research a topic with very specific prompts. Previously, the Gems feature was exclusive to Gemini Advanced users, but now Google is making them to available to all users. You'll find Gems in the sidebar, where you can easily ge…

If you’re at all like me, spring cleaning can be something of a domino situation. I might start by cleaning the baseboards, but when I get to the stairs, I’m like, wow these handrails are dirty. And so on. By the time I’m done, I’ve also discovered coffee splashes on walls, cobwebs in ceiling corners, and the dustiest blinds one has ever seen—and I’m feeling rather disgusted with myself. I’m also feeling sore, because my back is not what it once was and it seems like the worst of the dirt is either way low or way high. You know who still has good backs, though? Our kids, that’s who. Spring cleaning should, I believe, be a family affair. From the inside of the home to the …

With all this talk about spring cleaning, you could be forgiven if you focused on, well, just cleaning in the spring. But the real beauty of spring cleaning is that it can be a jumping-off point for a clean year. Yes, you can put in extra effort right now, restocking and upgrading your cleaning supplies and doing all those intense annual tasks, but if you don't keep up with your tidying all year round, you'll be stuck doing another exhausting round next spring. Use this as a starting point for a big year of your cleanest home ever. First, commit to a cleaning scheduleWhile you're undertaking spring cleaning this year, keep track of what tasks you enjoy (or just hate less…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The Blink Mini 2 is currently $19.99 (down from $39.99)—the lowest price it’s ever hit, according to price tracking tools. Blink Mini 2 $19.99 at Amazon /images/amazon-prime.svg $39.99 Save $20.00 …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Sonos takes their user-friendliness seriously. When people complained about an update on their companion app that got rid of many cool features, Sonos listened and put them back. That's the kind of commitment to their customers you can expect from Sonos, and why they've been so popular in the audio market. So when there's a Sonos sale with actual good discounts, take advantage of it. Right now you can get the Roam 2 for $139 (originally $179), the Sonos Era 100 for $199 (originally $249), Sonos Sub Mini for $343 (originally $429), and the Sonos Arc …

Airport security will probably always be somewhat of a hassle, but one friction point you can potentially minimize is utilizing a digital ID in place of a physical one—and if you're an Android user, your passport added to Google Wallet's ID pass is officially accepted by TSA. It's certainly convenient to not have to carry or keep track of your physical passport when you travel, and a digital passport in ID pass can get you through security screening if you don't have a REAL ID after the requirements take effect on May 7. That said, your digital passport doesn't completely replace your physical document, which you'll still need when traveling internationally and in situat…

Hulu's lineup of original content is lighter in April than in previous months but includes the sixth and final season of The Handmaid's Tale (April 8), the dystopian drama based originally on Margaret Atwood's novel but that has long since evolved into a world of its own. According to the Hulu synopsis, June (Elisabeth Moss), Luke, and Moira make up the resistance to bring down Gilead. A sequel series, The Testaments, also based on an Atwood novel of the same name, is in development for release after The Handmaid's Tale ends. Hulu has a new original reality competition show launching in April to take on Peacock's hit series The Traitors. On Got to Get Out (April…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. This deal on the refurbished Apple Watch Ultra (GPS + Cellular) for $359.99 on Woot (for the next six days or until it sells out) is tempting—especially considering that it’s going for over $445 on Amazon. That’s a solid price cut, but the catch is, this is a refurbished unit. That means some level of wear and tear is expected, but it has been tested to be fully functional with at least 80% battery capacity, and Woot backs it with a two-year limited warranty. If you’re OK with a few cosmetic imperfections in exchange for savings, this might be worth…

I've tried all kinds of time-tracking apps over the years and they can be helpful, but it's easy to get bogged down in the numbers. Sometimes all you need is a little self-awareness about how long you've been on the computer, either all day or during the current session, without the burden of long-term metrics. Pandan is a totally free Mac app from indie app developer Sindre Sorhus that that does exactly that. The application mostly lives in the menu bar, telling you how long your current computing session has been. You can click the menu bar icon to see how long the previous session was and how long you've been on your computer today. …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Soundbars are the best way to take your home theater audio to the next level, especially if you complain about actors mumbling their lines. When it comes to high-end soundbars, there are a couple that beat out the competition, starting with the Sonos Arc (which is at its lowest price right now) for best overall sound—but the Samsung HW-Q900C is only marginally inferior to the Sonos, and you get a subwoofer as well for essentially the same price. The 7.1.2ch Samsung HW-Q900C soundbar and subwoofer combo are $565.68 (originally $1,399.00) right now, t…

The speedy progress of AI development continues to dominate headlines, but the latest story to hit the news cycle is more bad press than good press: It turns out that Google's latest Gemini 2.0 Flash image editor is rather adept at automatically removing watermarks from images. Google pushed out the experimental native image generation capabilities a few days ago, promoting its capabilities in terms of combining images and text, editing images through conversational prompts, and improving its "world understanding" to give users AI-generated pictures that are more realistic overall. As TechCrunch reports, the newly upgraded tool was quickly put to one specific and …

When Amazon stopped letting us download copies of our Kindle books last month, I began looking for ways to preserve e-books and audiobooks that I've paid for. Buying from Amazon really limits those options thanks to DRM (Digital Rights Management), which is designed to prevent piracy, but ends up having far bigger consequences on digital goods like e-books. Eliminating DRM effectively removes Amazon's control over what you do with your e-books. If Amazon were to go DRM-free, you'd be able read Kindle e-books on any e-book reader or app that you like. Amazon wouldn't be able to easily track your reading habits and you'd be free to keep an offline backup of all of your purc…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Spring hasn’t really been as big of an online shopping season, comparatively speaking: We've got Prime Day during the summer, October Prime Day and Black Friday during the fall, and a bunch of holiday sales during winter. But that might be changing with the recent Big Spring Sale from Amazon, in its second year. Target has decided to compete for your money as well with a Circle Week event, coming later this month. What is Target's Circle Week?Circle Week is Target’s name for its biggest sale, which used to happen once a year but, much to the dismay of Target workers, now happens multiple times a year. Usually, you’ll see …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. You can add Walmart to the list of retail behemoths hosting spring-time sales, joining the likes of Amazon, Target, and Best Buy, who each have similar sales around the same time. Here is everything you need to know about Walmart's upcoming Super Savings Week sale. When is Walmart's Super Savings Week?Walmart will run its spring sale for a full week from March 25 to March 31. Do you need to be a member to shop for Walmart's Super Savings Week?Walmart has a Walmart+ membership that goes $12.95 per month or $98 per year (you can always get a free 30-day trial), but Walmart hasn't yet said if its sale is exclusively for memb…

Usually you can blame a low-quality video stream on a bandwidth slowdown or a poor internet connection—sites like YouTube will adjust a video's resolution accordingly, so instead of a crisp HD or 4K stream, you end up with a blurry, pixelated mess. You can manually adjust the resolution to make it look better, but you'll probably run into buffering issues, since your internet can't keep up. Recently, however, something else is happening to cause YouTube video quality to tank. Users are reporting that when they start a video—whether it be a YouTube Short or a standard clip—the stream will load in very poor quality, anything from 360p all the way down to 144p. While some a…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. You can think of the Galaxy Buds series as Android's version of the AirPods. The Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 are the open-ear version of the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro, both of which came out last summer. Right now, you can get the Galaxy Buds 3 for $99.99 (originally $179.99) directly from the Samsung website when choosing "no" under the Samsung trade-in credit. This is the lowest price these earbuds have been since their recent release, according to price-tracking tools. Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 …

This week's trip into the minds of people who aren't old enough to rent a car is like a potpourri of unrelated trends and memes that present a picture of the variety of ways young people are relating to the world. Some TikTokers are memorializing peak moments in their lives with a "Hozier yell," while others are spending their precious time on Earth creating brain-rot "juggtok" videos, or getting really, really angry about chess and chubbiness. It's a big world. What is a Hozier yell?A "Hozier yell" is used in TikTok videos to refer to a peak, climactic, awe-inspiring moment. Literary types might substitute "barbaric yamp." The end result is videos like these: The…

Filling out CAPTCHAs to prove you're a human is one of the regular annoyances of the internet—but maybe it doesn't need to be. A new feature in the latest version of One UI 7 for Samsung devices promises to solve CAPTCHAs (or Completely Automated Public Turing tests, to name them in full), but it's not yet clear how effective it will be. Why sites use CAPTCHAsCAPTCHAs pop up on numerous websites, often when you're trying to log in, and their purpose is to prove you're not a bot. The idea is that websites don't want to be overwhelmed with bot spam or come under attack from a swarm of bots, and CAPTCHAs are one way to prevent those problems. The challenge that you're met wi…

The most affordable iPhone, or the most affordable Pixel? Which one is right for you? Google's Pixel 9a comes in $100 cheaper than the iPhone 16e, and has many AI features and specs from its flagship big brother, the Pixel 9. And it's a similar story with the iPhone 16e. The Pixel 9a starts shipping in April, while the iPhone 16e is out already (and we've already compared it with Samsung's mid-range lineup). But, as always, the devil is in the details. Here's how Google's new Pixel 9a compares to the iPhone 16e. Design Credit: Apple …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. When it comes to having the hottest, crispiest snacks at the ready, I’ve always had your best interest in mind. While any air fryer is better than no air fryer, in a perfect world the best air fryer would be available to us all at an affordable price. Well folks, my favorite air fryer is 39% off for Amazon’s Big Spring Sale and it’s a deal worth jumping on. The Cuisinart Air Fryer Toaster Oven is $139.95 right now, compared to its usual $229.95, and while it’s not cheap per se, I would say it dips down into a much lower price bracket for sure. If you were looking for air fryers in the $100 to $150 range, then the Cuisinar…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The price of Amazon's Kindle Colorsoft was one of the biggest barriers to recommending when I reviewed the device earlier this year and compared it to cheaper options like the Kobo Libra Colour, but thanks to Amazon's Big Spring Sale, it's now a significantly more attractive option. Normally selling for $280, it's now down to $225, actually making it cheaper than the Kobo and similar color e-readers from Boox or Bigme. Amazon Kindle Colorsoft …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Whether you just finished your big spring cleanup or you're waiting until the last minute, a robot vacuum can help you toward your mission of keeping a cleaner home. It can either keep the place tidy after you finish all the hard work, or help you whip your home into shape while you focus on other things. But for maximum results, you're going to need a good one. You can get a cheap robot vacuum that will do a decent job, or spend big bucks on a technological behemoth that can also mop your floors and even automatically clean. Today, during Amazon's …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The Garmin Forerunner 955 is currently on sale during Amazon's Big Spring Sale, dropping from its original price of $499.99 to $349. This is the lowest price the watch has ever been, according to price-tracking tools. Garmin's Forerunner line includes some of the best running watches on the market right now. The price drop could bring professional-grade fitness tracker within reach of both more recreational runners who have been looking for high-performance tracking. The Garmin Forerunner 955 came out in 2022 as one of Garmin's flagship fitness watc…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. If you're sick of a huge television dominating your living room, Nebula's Capsule Air TV projector will let you ditch the set while still streaming as much content as you want. The Nebula Capsule Air supports over 30,000 Google Play apps, including Netflix. It's easy to set up, features 720p resolution, and it's on sale during Amazon's Big Spring Sale for $279.99— that's 30% off the list price of $399.99. Anker Nebula Capsule Air …