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. Handheld gaming consoles are no longer dominated by Nintendo; PC games entered the handheld industry market with competition from Valve and ASUS. Valve’s Steam Deck was the best budget option available until ASUS released the ASUS ROG Ally Z1 in 2023, which is the budget version of the more powerful ASUS ROG Ally Z1 Extreme. During Best Buy's 48-hour Flash Sale, you can actually get the more premium ASUS ROG Ally Extreme for cheaper than the basic Rog Ally. It's currently $449.99 (originally $649.99), currently the lowest price I have seen over the …

It's hard to escape AI these days. Apple just made Apple Intelligence opt out, and Google Workspace users are now seeing big, hard-to-dismiss Gemini buttons all over their apps. The world's biggest tech companies are doing their best to sell you on a generative AI future, but even when you can't turn AI off, there are steps you can take to fight back. Even outside of Workspace, Google is one of the most egregious AI pushers around. The company has tried to push its Gemini AI in almost all of its properties, even though it's shown inaccurate search results recommending everything from eating rocks to adding glue to pizza. Even if you have no interest in AI search results, …

Google has issued another round of significant AI model announcements, upgrading its Gemini offerings across the board to bring users and developers artificial intelligence engines that are, according to the company, more capable and reliable. In the wake of DeepSeek's rise and new OpenAI models, the pace of AI development isn't slowing down. First up, the Gemini 2.0 Flash model that appeared in December for a select few is now rolling out to everyone, so you'll see it in the Gemini apps on desktop and mobile (this actually began appearing last week, so you may have already used it). The Flash models are designed to be faster and more lightweight, without too many perform…

If you’ve tried to buy or sell a house, you probably worked with a licensed real estate professional—there are more than 3 million of them in the U.S., and their advice and assistance are often invaluable. Real estate agents know the properties in their area and can help you locate them (and weed out deceptive listings) and guide you through every step of the process. A good real estate agent who has your best interests at heart is worth their commission and then some. But not everyone who has a real estate license is a good agent—or an ethical one. Sometimes the red flags around an agent are big and obvious, but sometimes real estate pros engage in subtle little scams th…

Spotting one or two of the planets in our solar system is well worth a good skywatch, but seeing (almost) all of them in a line at once is a highlight for celestial observers this month. Here's how to view February's planet parade. What is a "planet parade?""Planet parade" isn't a technical astronomy term, but it is used to describe a phenomenon visible from Earth in which several planets—thanks to their position in orbit around the sun—appear to line up with each other. Colloquially, it is sometimes used interchangeably with "planetary alignment," though that phrase can have several meanings. While two or three planets aligning is fairly common, parades of four or five…

If you've considered trying DeepSeek—the hot new AI app from China—but been put off by concerns around privacy and censorship, you'll be interested to know there's now a tweaked version of the DeepSeek R1 model available inside Perplexity. Perplexity has long given users a choice of in-house and third-party AIs for answering prompts, and DeepSeek R1 is the latest to make the list. Perplexity cofounder Aravind Srinivas has promised the censorship guardrails have been taken off—so yes, you can ask about Tiananmen Square—and that all associated data (like your prompts and their responses) is stored in the U.S. …

February is cold, wet, windy and downright inhospitable to outdoor gardening—but you know you are mere weeks from the start of spring. The irises and crocuses are beginning to emerge. Like most gardeners, this fills me with both excitement and anxiety with a capital A—am I already behind? You’re not, because February is the time to catch up. So in this, the shortest of months, you have not one, but two jobs: Wrap up all the things you’ve not yet accomplished for winter, while preparing for spring. By the time we talk next month, we’ll be deep in seeding season. Get your fruit readyWe’re at the tail end of the work that’ll determine what kind of fruit harvest you’ll have.…

However you watch your Fire TV Stick, you probably have the same assortment of apps as most people: Netflix, YouTube, Prime Video, Disney+, the list goes on. But there are some useful apps beyond the mainstream you should definitely consider using. And, because Amazon Fire TV Stick is ultimately an Android device, you can even run specialized Android apps on it to truly unlock the power of this small little streaming device. Downloader Credit: Amazon Underneath Fire TV OS lies Android, which means your Fire TV Stick is capable …

I'm a full-screen apps guy on my Mac. I love sending each app to its own workspace and swiping between them to use the one I need. When I'm writing, it helps me focus on the task at hand, and it's not hard to use three and four-finger swipes on my trackpad get to my other productivity apps as I need them. However, messenger apps like WhatsApp and Slack are an exception. I need to be able to check these out at a moment's notice, like when I'm using my browser in full-screen. Luckily, that's where the Opera sidebar comes in. This handy tool is home to social media apps, messengers, and even some streaming services, keeping them from getting lost in separate tabs and letting…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. You know what’s nice about social media? It takes the guesswork out of gift-giving. Ahead of Valentine’s Day, you can glance over your partner’s shoulder to see what kinds of products the algorithms are serving them ads for, watch influencers demonstrate the trendiest items, or just search for what’s hot. Here’s what to get your lover for Valentine’s Day, based on what's going viral. #1: Personalized jewelryThe first thing I've been getting a lot of videos about lately is personalized jewelry. Granted, a lot of these videos are coming from manufacturers or boutiques themselves, but I'm only seeing them because they're get…

You’d think we all have enough stress in our lives already, but for some reason we still love those heart-pumping thrillers—whether the quiet, suspenseful kind or the big action spectacles. It might be that the things that get our hearts racing in real life are in the realm of “oh no, this medical bill,” making a spy movie, a heist-gone-wrong scenario, or even a dark kidnapping story a good vehicle for vicarious (and comparatively cheap) thrills. Regardless, here are the best thrillers currently streaming on Netflix, with a variety of tones that run from mildly tense to extremely dark. Rebel Ridge (2024) If you hadn't previously considered "civil forfeiture" as …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. It wouldn’t be fair to say that I bought an air fryer simply to reheat french fries, but it would be disingenuous to claim that my desire to reheat french fries had nothing to do with the purchase. A few years ago—when we were young and the air was sweet—I wrote a blog claiming that waffling sad, cold fries was a first-rate way to reheat them. Almost immediately, the comments started rolling in. “You fool, you absolute imbecile,” they said. “An air fryer is the only tool you should use to reheat french fries, and you are an idiot for suggesting otherwise.” (I am paraphrasing, but this was the feel of the comments, at least…

Anyone on the hunt for a new home knows how quick the turnaround can be on a listing. I’m currently looking to rent an apartment in New York City, and know well the pain of seeing a dream listing get posted in the morning and snagged by someone (presumably wealthier and faster than I) within a few hours. You might not be able to control the time of year you need to move, but you can control how you time your search for specific listings. If you want to optimize your house or apartment hunt, you need to know the best times to look for new listings. When to search new house and apartment listingsLet's do a little reverse-engineering here. In order to figure out the best t…

There are many alternatives to dining out on Valentine’s Day, but none as classic as simply cooking a cozy meal at home. While you and your partner might find ordering Taco Bell to be meaningful and romantic (I know a couple that celebrates with chicken nuggets and champagne), if you’re interested in cooking, I’ve got some simple and budget-focused meal suggestions that are still pretty darn romantic. Air fryer stuffed mushroomsThese savory mushroom bites are some of my favorite things on planet Earth. They make for a great appetizer or side dish, and using the air fryer means you can have them on the table in about 10 minutes. Sausage, cream cheese, and some minced arom…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Unsightly water stains will kill the vibes in even the most beautiful bathroom, to say nothing of what they do to the look of other parts of your home. From shower humidity to internal leaks and ventilation problems, these stains have all kinds of causes. But after you’ve identified what made the mark on your wall in the first place, you still need to remove it without making the problem worse. Water stains typically won't appear on tile; they need a more absorbent surface, which is why they show up on bare walls. Since your walls are probably painted, this presents a problem: How can you wash a wall without damaging it a…

Building a Spotify playlist isn't exactly difficult, but it can be tedious, especially if you want to assemble a mix with dozens or even hundreds of songs. Spotlistr is a free tool that can do the work for you—it can automatically turn any list of songs into a Spotify playlist, even if it's just in simple text format. You paste the text containing your list of songs, let the app run, check that the tool identified the right songs, and click a button. A playlist appears. Even better, Spotlistr can convert a playlist for pretty much any other music streaming service, including YouTube, Soundcloud, Reddit, and Last.fm. To get started, go to Spotlistr.com and sign in using …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Have you ever switched gyms and tried to do your usual workout, only to find that the machines are a lot harder—or maybe a lot easier? Before you start questioning your strength or your training, you need to know something: you can’t trust the numbers on the weight stack, and you shouldn’t expect them to match from gym to gym or even machine to machine. What do the numbers on the weight stacks mean? When you’re looking at a cable machine, or any type of strength training machine with a stack of rectangular weights, there is probably a little sticker on each plate with a number. Sometimes those numbers are in pounds, and …

As a big fan of background music, I was intrigued by iOS 18.4's Control Center changes. It adds a new tab called Ambient Music to Control Center's list of customizable controls. You can use this to add one of four pre-selected Apple Music playlists (or your own) to the Control Center, your lock screen, or the Action Button (provided your iPhone has one). Up until now, you could play music via the Now Playing widget in the Control Center, but dedicated controls to launch playlists were missing. This feature is different from Background Sounds, which lets you play nature sounds on your iPhone in order to help you focus better. Even though Background Sounds is useful for eve…

It sucks finding brown leaf-tips on your little plant babies: You know it’s your fault, but you’re not sure what you’ve done wrong, and it’s not like your plant can tell you. It will take some botanical detective work to get to the root of the matter and find out why your plant looks like it has seen better days, but once you do, it’s often an easy-to-solve problem. Here are some potential problems (and their solutions). You're watering it too much (or too little)Brown leaf-tips can indicate you aren't watering your plant enough, or you're watering it too much, or you're not watering it at the right time. Study up, and get to know your plant’s needs. There’s no one-size-…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Housing is getting smaller and more expensive—which means many of us are putting our mental energy into making our existing homes work for us even if they’re bursting their seams with stuff. From storage unit strategies to time-honored ideas like making sure every stick of furniture comes with bonus storage capabilities, we’re all trying to cram two houses’ worth of stuff into one house. If your house appears to be at full capacity and you just don’t have any more room for shelves, cabinets, or anything else, you have one move left: Start literally carving storage out of the bones of your house. There are hidden voids ever…

If you're tired of how your Mac desktop looks, consider changing your app icons. It can be a fiddly process by default, but luckily, there are ways to make it easier. By using these methods, you can make your dock reflect your wallpaper's aesthetic, ensure that all app icons are the same size, or just replace ugly app icons with something better. Where to find Mac app icons Credit: Pranay Parab While you can easily find icons for various Mac apps with a quick web search, it's much easier to get them from a site dedicated to ic…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The Jabra Evolve2 65 headphones, which earned an Editors' Choice and an Outstanding rating from PCMag, are currently $203.31 (down from $301). (Note that this is up from yesterday's price of 149.99, their lowest price ever on Amazon, according to price trackers, so the price may go down again. Also, the price seems to be fluctuating slightly depending on location.) Jabra Evolve2 65 UC Wireless Headphones with Link380a …

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 a video doorbell because it usually costs too much, now’s a good time to reconsider. The Ring Battery Doorbell, in satin nickel or Venetian bronze, is currently $59.99 (down from $99.99)—the lowest it’s ever been, according to price trackers. Ring Battery Doorbell $59.99 at Amazon …