Setting Up Your Home Office

App notifications need careful balancing across Android, iOS, Windows, and of course macOS. Too many of them and you're in a state of constant distraction; too few of them, and you risk missing out on something important that one of your programs is trying to tell you. macOS has you covered when it comes to finding the right balance for you, providing a full suite of controls for managing interruptions and staying up to date with your notifications. It doesn't take long to set up these notification options, and then once they're configured, you can use Focus modes for specific scenarios (like working or watching movies). Note that some individual apps come with their own …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. I’ve always preferred to wear my Oura ring on my ring finger. The company says that “for optimal performance and accuracy,” it’s best to wear it on your index finger, but that any finger can work. And if you ask longtime Oura users, you’ll get a variety of opinions. Does it really matter which finger you use? I realized I have the perfect way to test this—I have two gen 3 rings that fit my index and my ring fingers. I wore both for nearly two weeks to compare their readings and answer the question once and for all. Oura Ring 4 …

Gemini Live is the chatty, natural conversation mode inside Google's Gemini app, and it just got a significant upgrade: The AI can now instantly answer questions about what it's seeing through your phone's camera and on your phone's screen in real time. The feature is coming first to Google Pixel 9 and Samsung Galaxy S25 phones. You've long been able to offer up photos and screenshots for Gemini to analyze, but it's the real-time aspect of the upgrade that makes this most interesting—it's as if the AI bot can actually see the world around you. You may remember some of this functionality was shown off by Google under the Project Astra name last year. …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. If you’ve been holding off on buying an OLED TV, this Samsung S90D deal on Woot might catch your eye. It’s the 55-inch 2024 model, currently priced at $1,147.99 (for three days or until it sells out), which is about $650 off its list price and roughly $50 cheaper than Amazon right now—a solid discount, especially since you get the full one-year Samsung warranty, plus free shipping if you’re a Prime member. This is also its lowest price, according to price-trackers. Just keep in mind that Woot only ships to the lower 48 states, and if you’re not a Pr…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. As someone who has fully bought into the Apple ecosystem, my earbuds of choice are, obviously, AirPods. But it's not just because I'm a fanboy (although I definitely am one): AirPods, particularly the AirPods Pro 2, are fantastic earbuds for so many reasons. And while they're usually a bit pricey, Amazon currently has them on sale for a very reasonable $170, down from $249.99, during its Big Spring Sal AirPods Pro (2nd Gen) …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. I’ve heard new parents say things like “I can’t even remember what my life was like before the birth of my child.” Well, I don’t have children, but I’m pretty sure I can relate: I can’t remember my life before my Instant Vortex air fryer. I’ve been using this helpful appliance for three years now, and things have only gotten better since. In my kitchen, anyway. I originally got the Instant Vortex 5.7-quart so I could write more recipes for Thanksgiving food coverage. I didn’t particularly want an air fryer—how much could a small countertop oven possibly help with Thanksgiving, I thought, let alone day-to-day cooking? Why …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. I’m frequently asked for recommendations on what robot vacuum to get. While I’ve got favorites, I usually respond with a list of features I’d look for. Each year, robots get so much more advanced that these features change. But if I were buying a robot vacuum tomorrow (or in the next big sale), here’s what I’d look for. Unless you’ve got wall-to-wall carpet, get a vacuum/mop comboGenerally, people shy away from combo products because each new functionality is an additional feature that can break. There’s also a belief that one of the features won’t be as good as the other. For a while, expecting the vacuum and mop to be e…

If you’re sensing the world right now is becoming more and more unhinged, you’re not alone. Fortunately there’s a podcast poking holes in your subject of choice, whether that be diet culture, science journals, airport books, or Bill Maher specifically. With research and often a sense of humor, these shows break down some of the messages we are getting online, in the news, and across all sorts of media, explaining why you’re not crazy, it isn’t you, and why some of the systems we have right now (looking at you, capitalism) are broken. Normal Curves Cred…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. It's rare to see a deal on a premier Apple device so soon after release, but that's exactly what's going on with the M4 MacBook Air right now. Announced just a few weeks ago, it's now $50 off (or $60 off if you go for an upgrade) as part of Amazon's Big Spring Sale event. While not the biggest discount in the world, that's a pretty quick turnaround on our favorite MacBook Air right now. Apple M4 MacBook Air …

Microsoft is taking another big step toward eliminating passwords with a "passwordless by default" setting for new accounts. New users will be prompted to set up passkeys when creating their Microsoft logins, leaving passwords behind. The company has had passwordless sign-in options for Windows 11 and Microsoft accounts for several years, and in 2024 expanded passkey support across Windows, Android, and iOS. This is a big change, but not one without reason. In fact, it may make Microsoft accounts more secure, and render many scammers' phishing tactics obsolete. The benefits of passkeysPasskeys are not only easier to use than passwords combined with other forms of two-fa…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Though streaming movies often get lost in the shuffle, Prime Video has managed to assemble a fairly impressive run of films that have broken through not merely in terms of viewership, but in the broader world of awards—including a handful of Best Picture Oscar nominees. You're probably already paying for an Amazon Prime subscription, so you might as well take advantage of Prime Video's library of exclusive offerings. Here are some of the best of the bunch. G20 (2025) What do you do when you're an EGOT laureate whose awards shelves are overflowing? Anything you want, apparently—as Viola Davis' recent turn to action…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. I feel better about my life since having installed this Ring doorbell. So far, the motion-detecting feature hasn't captured anything more interesting than the occasional neighborhood cat walking by, but I like seeing Mr. Nibbles making his rounds. Plus, I'll know about the early morning FBI raid before they start yelling "come out with your hands up." Amazon Ring Doorbell …

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 in full swing, and we've done some work to weed out the best deals available, like our associate tech editor, Michelle Ehrhardt's, favorite tech deals, the best tech deals at 50% off or higher, and other discounted products that resonate with us. While it's not Prime Day, the sale still has deals worth checking out. You can learn more about the sale here. As Lifehacker's deal writer, I used price-tracking tools to vet deals to make sure they're legit and will keep rounding up the best tech deals at 50% off or higher throu…

Google has pushed out a shiny new AI model in the form of Gemini 2.5 Pro, albeit with an experimental label next to it—and it's available for free, so you don't need to subscribe to Gemini Advanced to get it. As with many recent AI model releases, the "reasoning" capabilities of the model are said to be the biggest upgrade here. In artificial intelligence terms, reasoning means answers that are more thoroughly worked through. That should produce fewer mistakes, more logical responses, and a better appreciation of "context and nuance" according to Google. This capability for extra "thought" will now come as standard in future Google models. The Pro (Experimental) release i…

Mother’s Day is supposed to be wholesome and sort of boring: some flowers, a Hallmark card, maybe doing some chores around the house for once. But the American version of Mother's Day wasn’t born in a garden. It was forged in the smoke and death of the Civil War, shaped by radical women, and became a battleground between profit and principle—a holiday so contentious its own creator devoted her life trying to destroy it. Mother's Day's history is dramatic as hell. The ancient ancestors of Mother's DayMoms have been around for a long time, and so have celebrations to honor them. These kinds of celebrations have been around at least since the ancient Greeks and Romans threw…

Today is April 1, April Fools’ Day, the annual holiday that celebrates pranking, hoaxes, and all manner of horseplay and tomfoolery. But why? Where did this faux holiday come from? Why do we do this to each other, and when will we finally just stop? These are surprisingly tricky questions, and April Fools' Day has been around for a surprisingly long time. As far back as 1708, the British newspaper Apollo asked, “Whence proceeds the custom of making April Fools?” and provided unconvincing answers. So we know the April Fools' tradition goes back centuries, but the exact origins of the holiday are still a mystery. There are theories, but they all reek faintly of bullshit. A…

Alongside a couple of new Surface devices, Microsoft has also announced a number of notable upgrades on the way for Windows 11, covering the Start menu, Copilot AI, and core Windows utilities such as Paint and the Snipping Tool. The Start menu changes are significant, and I wrote about them last month when they were first spotted in hidden code. The menu is becoming bigger, more customizable, and more usable, with the option to see all apps immediately—and several options for how those apps are arranged on screen. If you don't want to see recommended shortcuts (to recent files, for example), these can be hidden. You can also increase the size of the pinned apps p…

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 (spanning seven days from March 25 to March 31) gives shoppers the chance to grab great deals on everything from tech to home goods. It's Amazon's second-ever spring sale, and while it may not be as flashy as Prime Day, it's still packed with discounts that are hard to ignore. Prime members get the best deals, so if you want in but don’t want to commit, Amazon’s 30-day free trial of Prime does the trick—just remember to cancel after the sale. One of the better deals in the mix is the EufyCam S3 Pro (2-Cam Kit with HomeBase 3…

It feels like a minor problem, I'll admit it. But you know when you check into a hotel and have to spend the next fifteen minutes connecting all your Apple devices to the network? Starting from your iPhone, then moving to your iPad, and then your Mac? Well, it looks like Apple understands your pain. According to a new report from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, iOS 19 will include a new feature that will automatically connect multiple devices to the same public Wi-Fi network after you log in with just one of them. That's convenient for a couple of reasons. Beyond just keeping you from having to cycle through all your devices, it can also reduce the amount of paperwork you have t…

Hallucinations have always been an issue for generative AI models: The same structure that enables them to be creative and produce text and images also makes them prone to making stuff up. And the hallucination problem isn't getting better as AI models progress—in fact, it's getting worse. In a new technical report from OpenAI (via The New York Times), the company details how its latest o3 and o4-mini models hallucinate 51 percent and 79 percent, respectively, on an AI benchmark known as SimpleQA. For the earlier o1 model, the SimpleQA hallucination rate stands at 44 percent. Those are surprisingly high figures, and heading in the wrong direction. These models are known a…

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 …

All throughout 2025, I've been bursting with podcast recommendations (which might not be surprising, given writing a podcast recommendation newsletter is part of my job). I've shared my lists of the best podcasts about liars and scammers, podcasts that expose the nonsense in politics and pop culture, and podcasts you'll like if you miss Heavyweight. But then I awoke and realized that we are almost halfway through the year, and I haven't spent nearly enough time talking about my favorite new shows that debuted this year. June is a great time to take stock of all the new podcasts from the first half of the year. These are the shows that made my jaw drop, made me laugh, and…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The Sony WF-1000XM line has been an innovative and solid series of headphones and earbuds for many years. Right now, the latest version of the Sony WF-1000XM5 earbuds are $179.99 (originally $299.99), a new record-low price, according to price-tracking tools. They are also the best earbuds for audio quality that you can get in 2025, especially if you want to use active noise canceling (ANC). Sony WF-1000XM5 Earbuds …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. When Google first dropped the Pixel Buds A-Series, they packed a lot into a pretty small price tag. Now that they’re down to $59.99 (from the original $99.99), they feel even more approachable if you’re looking for simple wireless earbuds that get the basics right at a low price point. Google Pixel Buds A-Series $59.00 at Amazon …