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. If you’re looking for premium noise-cancelling earbuds that perform well, charge wirelessly, and block out all background noise while remaining comfortable for long-term wear, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) are currently $249 (originally $299) on Amazon, marking a 17% discount and bringing them down to their lowest price ever, according to price-tracking tools. QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Fire tablets have always been about stretching value, and the Amazon Fire Max 11 takes that idea further. It’s the biggest and most powerful tablet Amazon has made so far, but it stays well under the typical premium tablet price tag. Right now, a refurbished, like-new 64GB model with ads is down to $124.99 from $199.99 as an early Black Friday deal. Meaning, you’re basically getting a refreshed unit that looks new, works flawlessly, and costs a lot less. (For $65 more, you can get the 128GB version brand new and ad-free.) It came out last summer and…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. If you've got the funds and the need for more than one computer on your desk, then you may well want to use the same mouse and keyboard for both of them. It's more convenient if you're switching between systems, and it means you can find a keyboard and mouse combination you love and stick to it throughout. This is particularly helpful if you're working on a laptop and a desktop in tandem. Even the best laptops tend to have cramped keyboards, just through the limitations of the form factor, and a mouse is often preferable to a trackpad for several tasks (such as detailed image or video editing). Sharing your mouse and keybo…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Sometimes, determining which projects you should devote your time and energy to first takes energy you don’t have to spare (which is why I have tips for how to do it). But even when you know what tasks need to be done, you still need to figure out how to prioritize them, so you can tackle them in the right order while giving each the amount of attention and resources they actually need. Here's where you can use the 3-3-3 method. What is the 3-3-3 method?This technique comes from Oliver Burkeman, author of Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals. He advocates planning each workday around a 3-3-3 model: First devote…

Ninite has long been a godsend for anyone setting up a new computer. With it, you can install a number of applications in just a couple of clicks, as opposed to downloading a bunch of individual installers. Ninite is well known for simplicity, too. There's no package manager to learn or commands to type; just visit the website and pick the apps you want to install, then download and run the installer. Installations all run in the background, with no prompts. It's magical, and I've long wondered why Microsoft hasn't built anything similar—something powerful, yet easy to use. Well, it seems like someone at the company finally got around to it. A new Microsoft site called A…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. This Lenovo ThinkCentre M90q Mini PC (2021) is on sale for $455.99 on StackSocial right now, offering business-grade performance in a compact form factor small enough to hide behind a monitor. Inside its 7-inch frame sits a 10th Gen Intel Core i5 processor with six cores, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, and a 512GB NVMe SSD. That’s enough muscle for multitasking, large spreadsheets, or running several browser tabs at once without slowdown. It’s not built for heavy graphics work or gaming, but for office productivity or remote setups, it’s more than capable of kee…

There are many ways to set a schedule, from using a pen and paper planner to getting out some dry erase markers and scribbling on your clock. They range from tedious to totally archaic, but there's a technique for everyone. One method I have come to enjoy aims to work by giving you more insight into how you spend your time—and helping you manage your day down to the minute. It’s called time blocking. What is time blocking?Time blocking is the act of arranging your schedule so every activity you need to do in a day is accounted for visually. Ideally, you’ll do this using a digital calendar tool like Google Calendar or iCal, but it's possible with a planner and some highlig…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The 2021 Lenovo IdeaPad 5 Touch isn’t new, but it still has a few good years of life in it, especially if you need a solid secondary laptop for home, travel, or light work—and it's on sale for $599.99 on StackSocial right now. It’s powered by an 11th Gen Intel Core i7 chip that can reach up to 4.7GHz, paired with 12GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. That combination is fast enough for multitasking, web browsing, and even moderate creative work. The touchscreen is a bonus, making it easy to scroll, tap, and zoom without relying on a trackpad. This model also…

In a culture overwhelmed with ridiculous beliefs, an unlikely hero of rationality has emerged: reality star Kim Kardashian. Kim raised a healthy amount of skepticism of psychics in a recent TikTok video: In case you don’t follow the ins-and-outs of reality stars, Kim K.'s recent life cycle/plot development sees her trying to become a lawyer. She’s been taking an apprenticeship in the industry and presumably studying hard. She also consulted psychics, who read tea leaves or whatever and concluded that she would pass the California bar exam. Except, sadly, she did not. “Psychics are full pathological liars” —Kim Kardashian“All of the fucking psychics that we have met with,…

You already know that scheduling your tasks—whether you’re time blocking, task batching, or theming entire days—is a major priority when it comes to being productive and getting stuff done. But when you have a bunch of tasks and don’t even know where to start with scheduling them, you need an efficient method to decide what to get on right away, what to delegate, and what to forget about. Essentially, not only do you need to know what you need to do, but you need to rank those tasks based on how crucial they are, how much time they'll take, and what you'll need to get them done. What is the Eisenhower Matrix?This assessment and productivity tool is named for former presid…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Amazon’s early Black Friday sale just made one of Samsung’s best midrange OLEDs a lot more tempting. The 65-inch Samsung S90F OLED TV is now $1,397.99, down from its regular price of $1,997.99—the lowest price so far, according to price trackers. SAMSUNG 65-Inch Class OLED S90F 4K Smart TV $1,397.99 at Amazon …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. It's a great time to be shopping for some new AirPods. You can get the non-ANC AirPods 4 for $84.99 (originally $129.99), the lowest price they've ever been, according to price-tracking tools. The ones with ANC are $149.99 (originally $179.99), also at their lowest price ever. Apple AirPods 4 (without ANC) …

Following posts on social media last week where some YouTube TV subscribers noticed a $60 credit waiting for them in their account settings, Variety is reporting that YouTube is now sending subscribers an additional $20 credit. The company has not yet made an official statement on the matter, although a YouTube spokesperson confirmed the timetable for the credit's rollout to TechCrunch. The news follows promises from YouTube to give YouTube TV customers a $20 credit if the blackout of Disney content on the Live TV service continued. According to the report, emails with instructions on how to claim the credit began sending out yesterday, and "all credits will be issued by…

Contactless payment, also known as tap-to-pay, has become a fast, easy, and relatively common way to complete a transaction using your smartphone or credit card. It relies on Near Field Communication (NFC) to transmit data between your device and a payment terminal when the two are in close proximity, up to an inch or two away. While NFC technology does provide some additional security—transmitting a virtual account number instead of your actual card details, for example—scammers have found a way to capitalize on tap-to-pay to steal money from unsuspecting targets. These "ghost tapping" schemes may exploit both cards and mobile wallets. How tap-to-pay scams workAccording…

AI has been the tech buzzword over the last few years, but it's stolen attention from other technological advancements that are possibly more impactful in your everyday life. Take satellite connectivity for example: For most of the time cellphones and smartphones have existed, losing cell signal meant your mobile device was largely useless. With satellite connectivity, however, as long as you're within range of a satellite, you can continue to make calls and send texts. It's remarkable, for both the convenience of communication, as well as your safety. Right now, there are only a few companies leading the satellite connectivity charge, at least as far as consumer technol…

Windows 11 users are getting a long-awaited Start menu redesign this week. While the features have been available in beta for awhile, Microsoft is rolling out the updated interface to everyone alongside November's Patch Tuesday. What's new with the Windows 11 Start menu The Start menu will now be scrollable, so you can see all of your apps on the homepage instead needing to click All apps to open a separate page. Below pinned apps and recommendations, Microsoft will now automatically categorize similar apps into groups—the Productivity group may include your browsers and Microsoft 365 suite, for example—and place remaining apps under Other. Categories are created with th…

Apple Music's selection is exceptional, but I've never enjoyed using its Mac app much. It's slow, buggy, and lacks the razor sharp focus on albums that I sometimes desire. On my iPhone, I often turn to the excellent Albums app to scratch that itch, which is why I'm excited to say that the same app has recently arrived on the Mac as well. I'm always looking for excuses to avoid opening the Music app on the Mac, and Albums has arrived at exactly the right time for me to make the switch. While I do enjoy listening to individual songs or playlists, I am going through an albums phase right now. For this, the Albums app is perfect. Its sole focus is on playing whole albums from…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. When you’re new or returning to running, the last thing you need is one more barrier. Shoes, appropriate clothes, sweat-resistant sunscreen: These things are hard to do without. But those running watches that it seems like everyone else is using? You don’t need one, and certainly not on your first day. You don’t even need to run with your phone. It's off how "fitness" has become almost synonymous with tracking fitness. How many steps are you taking? How many calories are you burning? How many minutes per mile was your pace when you went jogging this morning? What was your heart rate? Each of these numbers can be worth tra…

If your iPhone has been lost or stolen, you'd probably be relieved to get it back, even if it is has been weeks or months since you've replaced your device. Having your old phone in hand may provide some peace of mind that your data is secure, and if nothing else, you can sell or trade it in or repurpose it for another use. Unfortunately, you're pretty unlikely to see your missing iPhone again, but bad actors are hoping you hold out enough hope to fall for a phishing scam promising that your device has been found. How the lost iPhone scam worksAccording to a warning from the Swiss National Cyber Security Center, some iPhone owners whose devices were lost or stolen are r…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Each year, Apple releases new models of the Apple Watch, but the updates aren't always that significant—meaning it might make more sense to choose an older one and save on the purchase price. That's certainly a good option right now, because you can get last year's Apple Watch Series 10 with GPS + Cellular for $299, $200 off the original price, at Walmart (in four colors!). Apple Watch Series 10 GPS + Cellular 42mm …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Amazon has finally revealed its Black Friday plans in a press release, much later than the competition, which is unusual for the biggest retailer. Here is everything you need to know about Amazon's Black Friday and Cyber Monday sale. What is Amazon doing for Black Friday and Cyber Monday?Amazon will have an early Black Friday sale that will lead up to Black Friday and then a Cyber Monday sale that will last a few days. They will also have new flash daily deals throughout the events with Today’s Big Deals. When is Amazon's Black Friday Week and Cyber…

When you think about the tech companies leading the AI race, Apple is pretty much at the bottom of the list. That's not necessarily a bad thing, as far as I'm concerned. From where I'm sitting, many of us couldn't care less about the latest AI features companies are shoving into their products—we just want the products we actually use to work, and work well. But strictly focusing on AI progress, Apple is far behind rivals like Google and Microsoft. While Android and Windows are full of AI features, either through Google's Gemini or OpenAI's GPT models, Apple's first-party AI advances are much more limited. Both Google and Microsoft promote their AI assistants as a corner…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. It’s been nearly six years since Microsoft released the Surface Laptop 3, but it still holds up as a solid choice for anyone who values portability, clean design, and day-to-day reliability over bleeding-edge specs. The 2019 model is available again through StackSocial in refurbished, Grade A condition (meaning it looks close to new and works like it should) with prices starting at $379.99 for the 13.5-inch i7 model with 512GB of storage and going up to $614.99 for the 15-inch version with 1TB. All variants come with 16GB of RAM and a 10th Gen Intel…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Your home is under constant threat from the elements—but especially from water. From roof leaks to burst pipes—water damage is the second-most claimed loss on home insurance policies, just below “wind and hail.” In fact, there are way more losses due to water damage than fire. And the most troubling aspect of water damage is how silent it can be. You can have a leak for a long time before the damage becomes bad enough to notice. And even if you know you have a water leak somewhere, locating it can often be difficult because water can travel a long way from the source before making its presence known. That’s why you need th…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. If you’re tired of your laptop speakers sounding like they’re inside a tin can, this Lenovo M0520 2.0 Wired Desktop Speaker Set might be an easy fix that doesn’t break the bank, and it's on sale for $16.99 on StackSocial right now. It’s about as simple as audio upgrades get: You plug it in through USB, no power adapter or extra cords required, and it’s ready to go. For anyone who just wants clearer sound for work calls, YouTube videos, or background music, this tiny setup does the job. The pair delivers 1+1 watts of output, not booming by any stretc…