Setting Up Your Home Office

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Back when I biked everywhere, I would wear my regular sneakers and slip my feet into the toe cages I’d attached to the pedals of my bike. But when I got into the habit of riding a spin bike regularly, I grudgingly switched to "real" cycling shoes—the kind with the cleat on the bottom of the shoe that clicks into a special socket on the pedal. I’ve written before about how I struggled those first few spin classes, trying to get the hang of using the rental shoes. It wasn't until I got a spin bike to use at home that I realized, after a few rides, I really needed those shoes. Why do cyclists use shoes with cleats?Serious cy…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. TCL is the anti-OLED TV brand, focusing on making the best QLEDs possible without crossing the boundary to OLEDs, which become much more expensive. The Q651G is the budget version of the QM7, which I did a hands-on review of. This more affordable model came out in 2024 and shares many of the specs and features that make the QM7 one of the best QLED TVs in value on the market. You can get the huge 98-inch version for $1,498 (originally $2,999.99) after a 50% discount, and the 65-inch is also well priced at $399.99 (originally $549.99) in case you don…

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 back for only the second time, and while it’s not quite Prime Day levels of excitement, it still has a few solid gems tucked in. The event runs from March 25 to March 31, giving you a full week to poke around for deals. You don’t need to be a Prime member to participate, though Amazon claims Prime users will see deeper discounts. If you’re not already subscribed but are eyeing a few things, it might be worth signing up for a free 30-day trial, loading up your cart, and then dipping out before the billing cycle kicks in. O…

When it comes to digital assistants, especially on mobile, there are really two most people think of: Siri and Google Assistant. (Sorry, Bixby.) Just as Siri is Apple through and through, Google Assistant is synonymous with Android for me (even if you can download Google Assistant on iPhone). But it appears Google Assistant's time is coming to an end, and faster than you might think. Google announced in a blog post on Friday that the company is switching more users from Google Assistant to Gemini "over the coming months," before retiring its iconic assistant later this year on most devices. That includes not just the built-in assistant on most Android devices, but also do…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. If you're in the market for a new Apple Watch, the Series 10 is currently $100 off during Amazon's Big Spring Sale. Normally priced at $399, the current discount brings the smartwatch down to just $299. This is as low a price as this watch ever gets, according to price-tracking tools. The Series 10 is a solid staple of the Apple smartwatch ecosystem. There are plenty of reasons that make this watch the best option for most people. It's smaller and lighter than previous models, and the screen is bigger, brighter, and faster than earlier series. Lifeh…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The latest iPad mini 7 was released in Oct. of 2024, bringing a smaller and more compact design with Apple Intelligence features to the already smallest iPad on the market. Today, the iPad Mini is nearly $100 off. You can get it for $399.99 (originally $499), $0.99 off the lowest price it has ever been, according to price-tracking tools. Apple iPad Mini (A17 Pro) …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. If you're in the market for a budget-friendly Apple Watch, the SE 2nd Gen is currently $80 off during Amazon's Big Spring Sale. Normally priced at $299, the current discount brings the smartwatch down 27% to $219. This is as low a price as this watch ever gets, according to price-tracking tools. Apple currently sells three Apple Watch models: the Series 10, Ultra 2, and second-generation SE. The SE line comes with the smallest size option and bare minimum specs, making it the go-to budget option for most smartwatch wearers. Its aluminum body packs a…

Your kitchen should have the right tools. Welcome to A Guide to Gearing Up Your Kitchen, a series where I help you outfit the space with all the small appliances you need (and ditch the ones you don’t). The air fryer has blessed us all with quick convection heating at affordable prices, and the unparalleled reheating of leftover fried food. What more could a girl ask for? Compared to a microwave or stand mixer, it’s an appliance I haven’t lived with for very long, but I can’t imagine living without it now. Whether it’s your first time using an air fryer or your 500th, you’ll love these fool-proof dishes. Here are some of my favorite air fryer recipes to date. Charred por…

Love watching Netflix for hours on end? There’s a lot more you can do with it if you spend just a few quick minutes in the settings section. You can improve your binge-watching weekend by customizing subtitles, home screen previews, download settings, and more. Here are 18 of the best Netflix tips and tricks. Download your shows and movies offline Credit: Khamosh Pathak Like every other popular streaming service, Netflix lets you download movies and TV shows for offline viewing. Ad-free plans can download up to 100 items per de…

Gaming laptops are a great blend of portability and power, but you can usually only get one or the other at a time. Plug your laptop in and you can have top-notch graphics, but as soon as you unplug, all those polygons will drain your battery faster than you can say "Play of the game." Fortunately, there are some ways to mitigate this downside. The good news is that gaming laptop manufacturers have invested a good deal of effort into tools that will try to balance GPU performance with battery savings. Your laptop may have even come out of the box configured with some of my suggestions, but this varies widely by manufacturer, so be sure to check yours anyway. It's also imp…

The vernal equinox, marking the first day of spring, occurs in late March every year. Sometime around then, most planting zones encounter what is known as the last frost date, which is the experts' best guess, based on averages, of when your last hard freeze will be. The cherry, plum, and peach blossoms are exploding on trees all around us and tulips are popping up from the ground. There are all kinds of markers that gardening season has arrived, but the most prominent one is the return of people to working on their front yards on sunny days, which should be happening now with some regularity. It is finally full steam ahead for this year, and there are tons of things you …

Software updates are great when they make features better, but that doesn't always happen. Case in point: a recent Google Pixel update that's brought in a flurry of complaints. One of the least popular changes altered how Pixels handle the Do Not Disturb feature. Previously, you could swipe down from the top of your Pixel's screen and press the Do Not Disturb button in quick settings to toggle it on or off. The March 2025 update changed that, forcing you to make multiple taps to activate or deactivate Do Not Disturb on your Google Pixel smartphone. Plenty of Google Pixel users took to Reddit to complain about this change. Fortunately, there are easy ways to fix this behav…

While updating, upgrading, and reimagining your home can transform it into your dream home, the logistics involved can be daunting, even if you have a general contractor managing the project for you. One of the biggest challenges is setting your budget—unless you have an unlimited budget (lucky you!), determining what a home renovation will involve based on what you can afford is a key aspect of your plan. It’s also one of the most confusing. When budgeting reality bumps up against your dream home fantasy, figuring out what to remove from the project can be difficult because of the emotional aspects involved—everything can seem equally necessary when you’re imagining your…

While Prime Video hasn't released a full list of content coming to the platform in April, the streamer is dropping a handful of original series and films throughout the month. Étoile (April 24), a new series from the creator of Gilmore Girls and Prime Video's hit The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, is a drama/comedy about the competitive world of dance set in New York and Paris. The eight-episode show also stars The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel cast members Luke Kirby and Gideon Glick. Fans of horror and gore (and Kevin Bacon) may want to catch action series The Bondsman (April 3), in which Bacon plays a murdered bondsman who has been resurrected by the devil and sent on a miss…

Whether you want to quickly check where a particular city is or grab an address to share with a friend, opening a full-blown maps app sometimes feels like overkill. Mappa Mini is a free Mac app by developer Lucas Raggers that lets you do a quick search without taking up all of your attention. Just click the menu bar icon and search for any business or location. You'll see right where it is in a small pop-up, without having to load any application or website. If there are multiple matches, you'll see them all in a list—click any of them to see the location in context. This is perfect for when you quickly need to check where something is. You can get more details by clickin…

Unlike the other big streamers, Tubi only has a handful of original shows, most of them imports (their original movie selection is much larger). That's not to say it's a wasteland for TV addicts: The streamer might actually have too many shows, a vast and sometimes wild catalog that spans decades. As the likes of Netflix and HBO Max have slimmed down their catalogues, Tubi is growing, offering a mix of established hits, underrated gems, and more obscure offerings. For the sheer breadth of material on offer, it has become the first place I look for anything outside the current zeitgeist—like the following 18 shows, an entirely non-comprehensive sampling of what Tubi has t…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Warm weather is finally here, and it deserves a proper soundtrack. Whether you’re headed to the beach, camping in the woods, or taking a bike ride, the JBL Clip 5 is a compact Bluetooth speaker that’s built to tag along. Its IP67 rating ensures it’s both waterproof and dustproof, making it suitable for any outdoor adventure this summer. At 38% off, it's currently at its lowest price ever, according to price-trackers. JBL Clip 5 Speaker …

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. …

If you wanted to get a COVID vaccine during pregnancy, to protect yourself and your future baby from the virus, that may soon be difficult to impossible. According to a short video posted on X, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, who is also a noted anti-vaccine activist, said that the COVID-19 vaccine “has been removed” from the list of vaccines recommended in pregnancy, as well as the list of vaccines recommended for healthy children. This announcement sidesteps the usual regulatory process, and it’s not clear exactly what will happen next—but here’s what we know. The announcement may not be entirely validRFK, Jr made the annou…

Google search has steadily been getting worse, but most of its free alternatives just aren't as good at surfacing the things I'm looking for. Since Google makes money through advertising, its primary incentive is to boost revenue by showing you better ads. Of late, this has resulted in a noticeable decline in the quality of my search results. That brought me to the idea of using a paid search engine instead of Google. Enter Kagi. What is Kagi?Kagi is a paid search engine developed by the people behind the Orion browser. It lets you make 100 searches for free, but after that, you can pay between $5/month and $25/month for different tiers of its service. Thanks to search gi…

Marriage: The sacred union of two hearts, two souls, and, less romantically, two tax returns. While poets and romantics wax lyrical about eternal love, accountants and financial advisors see matrimony through a different lens. After all, marriage is a significant economic transaction with its own balance sheet. Let's take a cold, calculating look at the institution that promises "for richer or poorer"—and find out which one you're more likely to experience. The financial pros of marriageFor the most part, there are plenty of ways in which "I do" means "we save." Tax benefits (sometimes)For some couples, marriage delivers an immediate return on investment through the "ma…

2024 was the hottest summer ever recorded, and there’s a good chance that future summers will be even warmer. For most people, planning for those future summers involves upgrading their air-conditioning systems and taking other steps to turn the interior of their homes into cool, dark caves. But what happens if you want to get outside for some fresh air? If your yard is too hot to enjoy during the summer, you might as well not have a yard at all. You can’t air condition the outdoors—but you can lower the temperature with some thoughtful landscaping decisions. If you hesitate to throw a cookout in your outdoor space because you feel like you’re on a grill when you’re out t…

Max's April slate includes anticipated new seasons of several original series. First up is the fourth installment of Max Original comedy Hacks starring Jean Smart as an aging comedian and Hannah Einbinder as her young writer trying to get their late night show up and running. Two episodes will premiere on April 10, with additional episodes dropping weekly until the season finale on May 29. Next is the sophomore season of HBO Original post-apocalyptic drama The Last of Us (April 13), based on the video game franchise of the same name. This season picks up five years after the events of the season one—Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey will return as Joel and Ellie, with Kaitly…

While no one is entirely immune to the threat of malware, you can certainly minimize your risk by following good digital hygiene practices when browsing the internet, downloading apps, and engaging with emails or messages with links or attachments. That said, if you notice your PC is running slowly, programs or apps are crashing repeatedly or unexpectedly, or you see software or processes you don't recognize, you may have a malware infection. To identify malware and remove it from your PC, follow these steps. Disconnect your device from the internetFirst things first: cut off any internet connection to your computer. This prevents malware from spreading through your net…

No matter what you've heard, Macs get viruses too. There are a handful of indicators that your Mac may be infected by malware: your computer running slower or working harder than usual (or overheating), apps or programs crashing unexpectedly, or unfamiliar software or processes running on your device. Here's what to do if you suspect a malware infection on your Mac—and how to get rid of it. Disconnect your Mac from the internetAn active internet connection may allow malware to spread across your network to other devices or communicate information to and from bad actors, ultimately making it more challenging to isolate and remove. If you need to download any programs to …