Setting Up Your Home Office

Internet videos have always been addicting, but short-form content is a whole other beast. Whatever platform you watch them on, these brief clips pull you in and don't let go, and, before you know it, you've mindlessly scrolled through hours of videos, most of which you'll never remember watching. YouTube Shorts are no exception. But unlike TikTok or Instagram, short-form content is not the main source of videos on the platform. YouTube, of course, hosts long-form videos first and foremost, and is the sole reason why many of us visit the site or app. Shorts are just an afterthought, but an afterthought that YouTube pushes hard. You might hop on to watch a specific video,…

The Kindle has become the default e-reader for many bookworms, and I get it. I've used Kindles for well over a decade, and I've enjoyed using my latest Paperwhite quite a bit. It helped me read more than 30 books last year, so I'm not complaining. The basic Kindle setup is okay, but if you learn your way around the device's gestures, hidden features, and additional services, you can really get a lot out of this unassuming reading device. Kindle Gestures that you really should knowThere’s only one button on the Kindle. Everything else happens using touch. And like every touchscreen device, there are countless gestures you need to know to use the device. The most obvious …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Premium noise-canceling wireless earbuds don’t come cheap, and Bowers & Wilkins earbuds (a brand owned by Samsung) are definitely at the top end of that category. But in a market crowded with ANC earbuds that do little more than meet the bare minimum, these justify their price tag by leaning into thoughtful features, sound quality, and build that go beyond the basics. Right now, a brand-new pair of Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 earbuds are going for $279.99 (originally $399) on Woot, their lowest price ever. …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The ANC headphones from Sony and Bose are great, but they look like gadgets, not music gear. Luckily, Marshall is offering these Monitor III ANC earbuds, which offer a cool retro look. And right now, they're available for the lowest price ever, at $279.99 (down from $379.99), beating the heavyweights from Sony and Bose on price. Marshall Monitor III Headphones …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Prime Video's Fallout, an adaptation of the popular video game series of the same name, is set more than two centuries from now on an Earth still devastated by a long-ago nuclear war between the United States and China. The protagonist, Lucy MacLean (Ella Purnell), emerges from the underground fallout shelter where she's lived her entire life in search of her father, and a fuller understanding of the world above, a wasteland is dominated by warring factions and freakish mutants. It's a gutsy, hilarious adaptation of out-there source material, and it's wild to consider that, in the space of a couple of years, we've gone f…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. I really adore my Series 10 Apple Watch. But if I hadn't upgraded last year, I would have gone for the Series 11, just for the extra battery life upgrade. I usually like to wait for discounts before upgrading, though, and if you're like me, Amazon has some good news: While the Series 11 only came out four months ago, it's already down to its lowest price ever. You can get the 42mm Series 11 model for $299 (down from $399) and the 46mm Series 11 model for $329 (down from $429). That's a discount of $100 across the board. …

I'm someone who routinely switches between Mac and Windows. It's a hazard of being a tech writer. But the thing is, I'm so used to the user friendliness in macOS that whenever I shift to Windows mode, there are some hiccups. Windows tends to throw up walls where there really shouldn't be any. I used to just white-knuckle through it, but that was before I fully embraced PowerToys. PowerToys is a collection of utilities made by Microsoft itself. It's free to download on GitHub, or a myriad of other places, and unlike with Windows 11, Microsoft actually adds useful and interesting features to it every couple of weeks. You can download and install PowerToys from the GitHub p…

You can pinpoint the exact minute of the high-water mark for tech-based enthusiasm: January 9, 2007, 9:41 AM PST, the moment Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone to the world. Cell phones weren’t new—neither were cellphones with touch screens—but this one was different: so high-tech it seemed like it couldn’t be real, but so perfectly designed, it felt inevitable. And people were hyped. Not just tech nerds: normal people. The crowd at the 2007 Macworld Conference & Expo broke into rapturous applause when Jobs showed off the iPhone’s multi-touch—an ovation for a software feature!—because it seemed like Jobs was touching a better future. The iPhone, people said,…

Hackers continue to find ways to sneak malicious extensions into the Chrome web store—this time, the two offenders are impersonating an add-on that allows users to have conversations with ChatGPT and DeepSeek while on other websites and exfiltrating the data to threat actors' servers. Beware these Chrome extensionsOn the surface, the two extensions identified by Ox Security researchers look pretty benign. The first, named "Chat GPT for Chrome with GPT-5, Claude Sonnet & DeepSeek AI," has a Featured badge and 2.7K ratings with over 600,000 users. "AI Sidebar with Deepseek, ChatGPT, Claude and more" appears verified and has 2.2K ratings with 300,000 users. However, th…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The 65-inch Samsung QN90F Neo QLED TV is currently $1,199.99 on Woot in "factory-reconditioned" condition. That undercuts a new unit, which sits around $1,600 on Amazon, and even slips below what some retailers ask for “like-new” stock. This deal runs for seven days or until it sells out. Shipping is free for Prime members, while everyone else pays a flat $6 fee. One thing to note before checkout: This item doesn’t ship to Alaska, Hawaii, or PO boxes, and you’ll need to provide a valid phone number and physical shipping address. The QN90F isn’t a mi…

What if a team of super magicians used their talent and training to stage elaborate heists? That’s the high concept that drives the Now You See Me franchise. Critics were lukewarm when Now You See Me was released in 2013, categorizing the film as a heist flick with thin characters and a plot that fell apart as often as it twisted, but Now You See Me pulled off its own escape act—audiences loved the movie's flashy style, whipsaw pace, and all-star cast featuring names like Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson, and Morgan Freeman. The result was box office magic: a movie with a $75M budget that returned over $300M worldwide. Now You See Me has since grown into an …

If you've been running several email accounts through your Gmail, you might want to double-check your settings this month—that's because Google is ending support for the POP3 protocol that can sync emails from third-party accounts. And while there are some other solutions, they don't work quite the same. POP3 is an older standard of syncing emails between multiple accounts that allowed users to import emails from a third-party account and manage them in one spot. It's also a less secure method of transferring emails, so it's not a total surprise that Google is phasing it out, but the company hasn't broadcast the change too loudly, so it might come as a surprise to some us…

Whenever you have a bunch of looming tasks—as many of us do at the start of the new year, when everyone actually "circles back" on the things we've been putting off—having a structured to-do list is an essential part of getting everything done. Determining what goes on that list and in what order, though, is a task all its own. I've covered a lot of ways to do that, but if you're stuck with a high volume of important responsibilities, you need an approach that matches the complexity of what you're trying to do—and that's where the RICE method comes into play. What is the RICE method of prioritization?RICE, as you probably guessed, is an acronym. Here's what it stands for:…

This week, OpenAI announced its new ChatGPT Health feature, which will let users upload their medical records and ask health related questions. However, I certainly won't be making use of it, it might not be the best idea for you to do it either, for both reliability and privacy reasons. The new ChatGPT Health feature will be a sandboxed tab inside the app that is isolated from your conversation history in other conversations with the chatbot. This tab also allows users to connect a variety of health-tracking apps like Apple Health, MyFitnessPal, and Peloton, as well as uploading medical records directly. …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The latest AirPods Pro are a big step up from the first-generation buds. The third (and newest) generation comes with OTA updates that the AirPods Pro 2 also get to enjoy—but considering the second and third generations are the same price right now, why not go with the newer version? The AirPods Pro 3 are down to $199 (originally $249.99), which they briefly hit back in December during the holiday sales—the lowest price yet, according to price tracking tools. Apple AirPods Pro 3 Noise Cancellin…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. When shopping for cordless power tools, you'd think you could simply purchase the best option of each to fit your needs. But there's a big problem that makes this a lot harder (and more expensive) than it should be: battery incompatibility. By design, you can’t simply pop a Ryobi battery into a DeWalt tool and expect it to work. Engineering decisions aside, using proprietary batteries allows companies to create a sort of obligatory brand loyalty, forcing you to stick with their line of tools unless you want to invest in a whole new set of batteries for every new tool you buy. If you've been building your cordless tool coll…

Google is adding a slate of AI features to Gmail that could save some of the hassle of searching for important information buried in messages and threads. Many users will soon see a more personalized inbox with AI-powered suggestions, summaries, and proofreading support. Plus, some AI functionality that was previously available only to paid subscribers will be rolling out to all Gmail users, including Help Me Write, AI Overviews for threaded emails, and Suggested Replies. See personalized, AI-powered snapshots Gmail users will soon have an AI Inbox view with two sections. "Suggested to-dos" will show immediate action items found in your inbox, such as bills to be paid an…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Garmin, maker of fitness watches (among other things), announced this week that the subscription tier of the Garmin Connect app will now include nutrition tracking. According to the company, the app can identify foods based on a photo, and can set your calorie targets based on your activity data. Garmin announced this feature during CES 2026, although a new feature announcement isn't exactly traditional CES fare—I was hoping it would show off a new watch. Still, I did get a chance to try out the feature on my own phone (and watch), and thought it worked well. How Garmin Connect+'s nutrition logging works …

Garmin displays a real-time stress level from 0 to 100. Oura calculates "daytime stress" and resilience metrics. For Whoop, it’s the stress monitor; for Fitbit, a "stress management score." However it’s branded, some version of a “stress score” has become ubiquitous across smartwatches and wearables. This number is marketed as a window into our internal emotional state, turned into quantified proof of how our day is really going. The only issue: these numbers aren’t all that accurate. What your "stress score" actually tells youThe scores lighting up our wrists aren't measuring what most of us think they're measuring. When you check your smartwatch and see that your stress…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The Meta Quest Pro launched as Meta’s vision of what high-end virtual and mixed reality could look like without dragging a gaming PC into the equation. At $679.99 on Woot, it’s now $320 off its original $999 price and still more than $100 cheaper than Amazon at the time of writing. This deal runs for six days or until it sells out, with free standard shipping for Prime members and a $6 fee for everyone else. This headset won PCMag’s Best VR Headset award in 2022, and while it’s no longer the newest thing Meta sells, it’s still positioned well above …

In the middle of the Las Vegas Convention Center, amidst the world's largest tech trade show, an awards show was taking place. The audience included nominees ranging from large companies like Nvidia to scrappy startups introducing themselves to the world, alongside journalists, tech insiders, and enthusiasts gathering to watch the Best of CES 2026 awards. After days of scouring showroom floors, speaking with innovators about their new technologies, and deliberating for six hours, finalists and winners were chosen by experts from CNET, PCMag, Mashable, ZDNET, and Lifehacker. I had the privilege of helping to judge and present several awards, and aside from my gratitude for…

Robot vacuums are a convenient way to keep your house clean without actually putting in much work, but they've all got one major problem—what if your house has multiple stories? At CES this year, I saw two attempts to fix this problem, but one of them was much more fabulous than the other. Roborock has a robot vacuum with legsThis is the more unique of your stair climbing robot vacuums, and the one that's new for this year. At CES 2026, robot vacuum company Roborock introduced the Roborock Saros Rover, which has two fold-out and individually articulated legs built into it, with wheels on either one. This …

Gaming controllers are just one of those things that I love to collect, but living in a small New York apartment, eventually enough is enough. At CES this year, I saw three new controllers that are all trying to be the last ones I'll ever need to buy (for specific systems, at least). It seems like modularity is in, and all three of these devices want to meet all of your needs. However, they're not settled on what the best approach is. GameSir x Hyperkin X5 AlteronThe GameSir x Hyperkin X5 Alteron is probably the cutest controller on this list, especially if you grew up playing GameCube or Nintendo 64. Essentially, it's a telescopic mobile controller that stretches to fit …

Listen up, Ford drivers: You're getting a new AI assistant this year. During a decidedly low-key CES keynote, the company announced Ford AI Assistant, a new AI-powered bot coming to Ford customers in the early half of 2026. While the company has plans to integrate the assistant into Ford vehicles directly, that isn't how you'll first experience this new AI. Instead, Ford is rolling out Ford AI Assistant to an upgraded version of its Ford app first, and plans on shipping cars with the assistant built-in sometime in 2027. In effect, Ford has added a proprietary version of ChatGPT or Gemini to its app. How Ford AI Assistant worksFord's idea here is to offer users a smart as…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Laptop screen extenders help add more display area without costing as much as two separate monitors. They’re also tidier, more integrated, and more portable, making them ideal for remote workers or students who want a mobile workstation with as much visual real estate as possible. The KYY 15.6-inch laptop screen extender, with its triple-screen setup (one on either side of your laptop's display), is a solid choice for anyone looking to give their laptop some extra elbow room—and right now, it’s 35% off, bringing its price down to $227.99 (originally…