Setting Up Your Home Office

We may earn a commission from links on this page. When you're scrolling TikTok for cleaning inspiration or looking to beef up your product arsenal, it can be overwhelming to see how many products there are out there—and how much they all cost. You don't need to spend a small fortune to keep a clean house, though. There are some excellent budget-friendly products on the market that work wonders all over your home and should be your new cleaning staples. The best cleaning solutions for the priceI've mentioned this before, but if you want true bang for your buck in the cleaning space, you should consider swapping your standard cleaning solution for those that have double th…

There are benefits to training in heart rate zone 2, and you’ve probably heard all about them. But what happens when your heart rate spikes into zone 3, whether when you're on a run or doing cardio at the gym? Surprise: You don’t lose the benefits of zone 2 training. Zone 3 is arguably just as good for you, or maybe even better. Remember, the reason people are excited about zone 2 training is that it helps you build your aerobic base and burn calories without incurring much fatigue. Guess what zone 3 training also does? Yep, it helps you build your aerobic base, burn even more calories, and usually only incur a tiny bit more fatigue than zone 2. So why aren’t we all doing…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The Samsung Galaxy Tab S10+ is now $834.19 (down from $1,119.99—its lowest price ever, according to price trackers like Keepa. SAMSUNG Galaxy Tab S10+ $834.19 at Amazon /images/amazon-prime.svg $1,119.99 Save $285.80 …

WhatsApp appears to finally be getting its iPhone app up to speed with its Android companion in a major way: allowing you to use multiple accounts on one device. The "new" feature, which has been available on Android since 2023, was spotted by WABetaInfo in the iPhone app’s most recent TestFlight beta program. If (but more likely once) multi-account switching eventually carries through to a public release, users will be able to manage and sign into multiple WhatsApp accounts within a single instance of the WhatsApp app, eliminating the need to keep multiple devices on hand to manage each of their WhatsApp accounts. This will be especially handy for small businesses. …

Your Mac collects a lot of usage data to improve macOS and Apple's own apps. Quite a bit of that data is collected by default, and it's good to be aware of it. Apple is quite good at declaring how and why it collects data, and almost always, this information is easy to find and understand. The company also encrypts a lot of the data that it collects, which means that Apple cannot read it. Having said that, I think all kinds of data collection should be opt-in, and not enabled by default. Here's how to review data collection settings on your Mac and use third-party tools to ensure that your computer isn't phoning home any more than is necessary. And since we're on the subj…

It’s been years since Apple launched their “there’s an app for that” campaign, but in that time, it's only become more accurate. Apps truly have become ubiquitous: You have apps to help you work out efficiently and apps to save money at your favorite coffee shop, and with spring cleaning around the corner, you might as well have one (or several) to help you tidy your home. No app can do the work for you, but a good one can motivate or guide you. The one that will best serve your needs will depend on how you prefer to tackle unpleasant or tedious tasks. If you like to-do lists: SpotlessSpotless helps you break down cleaning tasks by room. You can make a separate to-do l…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The Microsoft Surface Pro 11 is a tablet/laptop hybrid that came out last summer and quickly rose to become one of the best laptops for college students. It is sleek and has a long battery life, and its comfort and ease of use as a tablet make it great for hands-on learning. It starts at $799.99 (originally $999.99) for the most basic version (which is powerful enough for most people), $879.99 (originally $1,199.99) if you want to double the storage to 512GB, and $1,399.99 (originally $1,699.99) to max out the storage with 1TB. With either, you'll …

There's something special about two people listening to the same music over earphones. It can be a movie, or a TV show, it doesn't matter. That scene in Begin Again, where Mark Ruffalo and Keira Knightley trade playlists with an old school headphone splitter, is etched into my memory. But the days of headphone jacks and audio splitters are behind us. Though not as romantic as tethering two people with a two-meter headphone cord, you can achieve the same results using AirPods, too, all without needing a specialized app. You can share music, movies, or anything you like to your friend or partner's AirPods, without fully pairing them to your iPhone. Share Audio using Control…

The next phase of AI evolution looks set to be focused around agents: AI bots that can not only chat to you and draw pictures, but also carry out tasks on your behalf. These new AI tools won't just be able to tell you about the best hotels close to your next vacation destination—they'll be able to make the reservation for you. These kinds of multimodal agents are being worked on by Google, OpenAI, and others, and now Perplexity has announced Perplexity Assistant for Android (as per The Verge, Perplexity says iOS doesn't give apps the necessary hooks into the operating system for an iPhone version to be possible right now). You can find the assistant in the main Perplexity…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Super Bowl LIX kicks off on Sunday, Feb. 9 at 6:30 p.m. ET. This year, the game is being broadcast by Fox with a pregame show starting at 2 p.m. ET and game coverage at 6 p.m. ET. Even if you don't have cable, there are a few ways, both paid and free, that you can watch all the action live from Caesars Superdome in New Orleans. Watch free on TubiThe game—as well as pre- and post-game coverage—will be streaming on Fox-owned Tubi for free, with 4K available on some devices (including Roku, Fire TV, Android TV, and Apple TV). You do need to sign up for a Tubi account, but no credit card is required. Tubi also includes the NF…

Meats are muscles. On account of this, they’re not perfectly symmetrical bricks. Different cuts can be tear-dropped, conical, or otherwise shaped asymmetrically with a thick and thin side. But, alas, uneven shapes lead to uneven cooking. The thinner end of a chicken breast can come to temperature relatively quickly compared to the bulbous end that might be nearly two inches thicker. Put an end to partially overcooked, dried-out, rubbery meat parts, and try a technique called “butterflying.” Butterflying is a simple method for modifying a cut of meat by slicing it in half horizontally. You can cut it through completely in this fashion and end up with two thin pieces, or ta…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Soundbars typically fall into two broad categories: High-end options like those from Sonos, and the cheaper options that are honestly not worth the money. There is, however, a sweet spot to be found in older models from reputable soundbar companies that were good values to begin with. That's where the Samsung HW-B650 fits, and it's currently $189.99 (originally $399.99), the lowest price it has been since its release, according to price-tracking tools. Samsung HW-B650 …

It happens every year: The weather warms up, the plants start sprouting, and suddenly it’s spring—and time to clean up after a few months of hibernation. The concept of spring cleaning is pretty popular, and for good reason: Scrubbing and decluttering offer a range of benefits, from lowering stress and boosting your mood to simple physical exercise. Plus, the chances are good that your home needs it. For most people, the phrase “spring cleaning” brings to mind dusting and vacuuming the interior of the house. That’s a big part of it, of course, but you shouldn’t neglect the exterior of your house (or your car!), which has taken a beating during these cold, snowy months. N…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. There is a surprising number of products that come with into your home with stubborn stickers. A lot of stores still use price stickers, for instance, and glassware almost always has a sticker that gives you some kind of information about your item. Peeling them off is laborious and can leave residue behind—but I found a couple of tips on social media, both of which work fabulously. Adhesive removal hack 1: The melamine spongeI don't even remember where I first heard that you should use a melamine sponge, like a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, to quickly do away with stickers and adhesive residue, but I do know it was somewhere o…

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…

This week, the Consumer Product Safety Commission announced that Fitbit has agreed to pay a $12.25 million settlement over one of their older smartwatches, which had a battery defect that left some users with serious burns. Meanwhile, Fitbit itself announced that some of its more recent smartwatches—the Sense and the Versa 3—may also have an issue with overheating batteries that could pose a hazard to wearers, and is updating their software to fix the issue. What is the problem with Sense and Versa 3?According to a notice posted on the Fitbit Help Center, some (not all) Sense and Versa 3 devices have a defective battery that could overheat and possibly cause burns. Both o…

A recent software update meant to stabilize battery performance on the Pixel 4a has had an unexpected side effect: Some Pixel 4a owners are reporting that their phones can now barely hold a charge. There's a particularly egregious example on Reddit, where a user reported that their phone is down from seven hours of screen time on a single charge to just 30 minutes. Pixel 4a's battery performance issuesEarlier this month, Google published a detailed document explaining the Pixel 4a software update to Android 13. The company says that some people are experiencing a degradation in the battery's capacity, runtime, or performance, as is expected with lithium-ion batteries of a…

Complicated cleaning hacks can be fun projects, but I love a simple one even more—and this one is really simple: You can use the lid of a pot or pan to clean your carpets and fabrics. It works like a charm, which is why it’s been all over TikTok for the past few years. To freshen up your upholstery or carpet, you’ll need: The lid from a pot or pan, with a handle in the center A large microfiber rag A bowl of water Dish soap Depending on what you’re cleaning and how you like to do it, you may want to add a few drops of vinegar or vodka, but otherwise, stick to the cleaning recipes you’d normally use for whatever upholstery or carpet you’re working on. Cleaning the upholst…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. I know I’m not the only person with exercise equipment an arm’s reach (or a short walk) from where they spend most of their day. And you can pop down to your home gym a couple times a day, is that better than doing a whole workout all at once? Or if not better, is it just as good? Sometimes it is! Let’s discuss the nuances. For purposes of argument, I’ll assume you’re trying to decide between two schedules: A traditional strength workout, where you warm up and then do four or five different exercises, with several sets of each. The whole thing might take you anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and a half, depending on wha…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. You've probably heard of Oura's smart rings before, one of the best sleep and recovery trackers, but a new player entered the ring last summer: Samsung. It's the first time a big tech company has produced a smart ring, the Samsung Galaxy Ring. As the name implies, it's mostly geared to Samsung users, although any Android user can use it with some limitations. Right now, most sizes and colors of the Samsung Galaxy Ring are $279.99 (originally $399.99) after a $120 discount at checkout (some have the green checkmark under the listing price and others …

There comes a point every winter when you have to rally together your arsenal of hot liquid meals. If you have enough recipes—all your hot soups, stews, stoups, and chunky sauces—they can get you through to spring. Much to the chagrin of my friends, I call this Hot Bean Season. One of my favorite meals that fits this category is my Dutch oven beans and sausage. It’s utterly simple, completely satisfying, and you need absolutely no fancy cooking skills to make it. The reason I come back to this meal again and again is because it uses the Screw It method of cooking—just dump everything in the pot. Well, the initial sausage searing is a must for flavor, but I consider that s…

Lock screens are a good way to protect your data, but thieves stealing your smartphone when it's unlocked (or after seeing your passcode), and then resetting everything in just a tap is still a real security risk. Apple deals with this vulnerability using its Stolen Device Protection feature, and now, in Android 15, Google has a similar feature called Identity Check. Identity Check ensures strangers out in public can't change your Android smartphone's account settings without first passing a secondary biometric authentication. First, you set up one or more trusted locations, like your home. Then, if someone outside of one of those locations has your phone and tries to acc…

We know that cars are better connected than ever before, which is great when you want to remember where you parked or start defrosting the vehicle windows while you're still in bed—but this modern tech comes with security and privacy concerns, as a new hack of Subaru cars and their Starlink software has shown. Security researchers Sam Curry and Shubham Shah explain in a blog post how they were able to remotely hack into the Starlink connected vehicle service run by Subaru. Specifically, they targeted software on Curry's mom's car, but the same platform operates across Subaru vehicles in the U.S., Canada, and Japan. With access to the driver's surname and their at…