Setting Up Your Home Office

Did you know you can customize Google to filter out garbage? Take these steps for better search results, including adding Lifehacker as a preferred source for tech news. The way you study something will likely vary depending on how familiar you are with the subject matter. If you’re fairly acquainted with the core concepts, you can force active recall by using flashcards to review, or enhance your grasp of a topic by teaching it to someone else, for instance. But what about when you’re first encountering a new piece of information and you have no real context for it? A lot of reading techniques ask you to come up with questions or hypotheses before you even start reading…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Exercise is a healthy and, one might argue, necessary part of our lives. The guidelines from public health organizations tell you to aim for at least 150 minutes of “moderate” exercise each week, and that each minute of “vigorous” exercise counts double. That raises the question: What the hell is “moderate” exercise? How do you know when you’re doing it? Scientists measure METs, but you don't have to If you have any kind of smartwatch or fitness tracker, it may try to tell you that "moderate" exercise occurs at a certain heart rate. This isn't actually the case. The scientists who came up with the exercise guidelines didn…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. When Mark Zuckerberg described Meta's Horizon Worlds back in 2019, he seemed to think the virtual community hub would be a place for cool, tech-forward young adults to socialize and network. Six years later, it’s essentially a virtual daycare center; everywhere in virtual space is filled with kids. I don’t mean 16-year-olds or tweens, either—I’m talking young kids, so prevalent they’ve earned the nickname “squeakers” for their high-pitched voices and twitchy energy. So what’s a grown-ass adult who likes virtual reality but wants to avoid children to do? Here are some tips and strategies for finding VR places to game and/o…

Different productivity hacks work for different people, which is why there are so many of them. But if you happen to be a visual learner, there’s one in particular that might be suited for you: mind mapping. Mind maps are diagrams designed to organize information and data points that relate to each other, making everything you need to do easier to follow. They're particularly popular for students who need to visualize how the concepts they're studying link together, but they have wide applications outside the classroom. What is a mind map?A mind map isn’t just a diagram that lays out tasks. Rather, it does so in a hierarchical way, connecting things that are related and …

In the beginning, WhatsApp users could not protect their chat backups with encryption—while all communications were encrypted end-to-end, backups weren't afforded the same protection. Since 2021, however, WhatsApp has offered two ways for users to encrypt these backups: a standard password, or a 64-digit encryption key. There are security issues with both of these methods. Passwords can be secure, but let's be real, many of us use very simple passwords that are easy to remember, and, in some cases, we even repeat passwords from account to account to make things easier on our brains. If your password for WhatsApp backups is the same password you use for your email, and th…

Scammers never miss an opportunity to prey on people's fear and confusion—and now they're capitalizing on the ongoing federal government shutdown to steal money and information from vulnerable targets. As Axios notes, reports of imposter scams—in which fraudsters impersonate government officials or agency representatives—rose in October as Americans experienced the loss of federal services and benefits. The Better Business Bureau's (BBB) Scam Tracker received 211 such complaints last month. Scammers are also taking advantage of shutdown stress to pull people into investment schemes and other malicious (and AI-driven) activity. Common government shutdown scams One common…

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…

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’ve been using passwords to protect our various accounts for a few decades now, and, to be honest, we’re not very good at it. Many of us use the same simple, easy to remember passwords for all of our accounts—convenient for logging in, but horrible for security. Not only will a bad actor (or computer) be able to guess that password easily, they’ll try it against your other accounts. Before you know it, you have multiple breaches, some of which may involve financial or private information. There are a number of steps you can take to beef up your password security, of course. First, you can use a complex and unique password for each of your accounts, making sure to never…

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+ in Platinum Silver is currently priced at $749.99, down from its regular $999.99, and price trackers confirm this is the tablet’s lowest price to date. That discount alone makes a premium device more approachable, especially one that PCMag didn’t hesitate to call “excellent” in their review. They also named it their Editor’s Choice and their pick for the best Android tablet of 2024, which sets a certain expectation. The S10+ meets most of it. Samsung Galaxy Tab S10+ …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Black Friday sales officially start Friday, November 28, and run through Cyber Monday, December 1, and Lifehacker is sharing the best sales based on product reviews, comparisons, and price-tracking tools before it's over. Follow our live blog to stay up-to-date on the best sales we find. Browse our editors’ picks for a curated list of our favorite sales on laptops, fitness tech, appliances, and more. Subscribe to our shopping newsletter, Add to Cart, for the best sales sent to your inbox. Sales are accurate at the time of publication, but prices an…

OpenAI is having a hell of a day. First, the company announced a $1 billion equity investment from Disney, alongside a licensing deal that will let Sora users generate videos with characters like Mickey Mouse, Luke Skywalker, and Simba. Shortly after, OpenAI revealed its latest large language model: GPT-5.2. OpenAI says that this new GPT model is particularly useful for "professional knowledge work." The company advertises how GPT-5.2 is better than previous models at making spreadsheets, putting together presentations, writing code, analyzing pictures, and working through multi-step projects. For this model, the company also gathered insights from tech companies: Suppo…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. We travel for a wide variety of reasons—vacations, business, family obligations—and in a variety of different ways, but there’s one constant: The actual traveling can be hectic, stressful, and expensive. Considering Americans took nearly 2 billion trips in 2025 alone, that stress can be pretty epic. From planning to de-boarding, travel can be a challenge—that is, unless you know and utilize these hacks. There are a lot of travel hacks out there in the wild, many of them dubious, but when a hack actually works to lower your costs, increase your comfort, or simply solve an irritating problem, it’s kind of magical. Here are …

Sometimes you need just a little bit more light during a video call, especially if you're in a dimly lit room. The latest macOS update (26.2) has a trick for this: you can use the edge of your screen as a ring light. The feature, which adds a rounded white rectangle to your screen, is called Edge Light. The rectangle takes up part of your screen but will become partially transparent if you move your mouse pointer into it, meaning you'll mostly be able to use your computer normally. You can use the feature by clicking the camera icon on the menu bar during a call and toggling on the Edge Light option. You can also adjust the brightness and the color of the edge light from …

As I write this, I'm coming off a lunch break that lasted a little too long because I couldn't stop watching YouTube Shorts on my TV. And if Instagram Reels are your own vertical video poison—and you own an Amazon Fire TV device—you can now do the same. Starting today, you can download the new Instagram for TV app to watch Reels on your big screen via a dedicated interface that should be way more natural than simply casting the mobile app from your phone. Currently exclusive to Amazon devices, the Instagram for TV app supports up to five accounts and comes with full functionality for searching for Reels and profiles, as well as liking Reels and browsing comments or reacti…

Clicking through search results to a website comes with the risk of landing on a spoofed page that is actually a phishing scam, but so does navigating directly by typing a URL into your browser. As reported by Krebs on Security, researchers at security firm Infoblox have identified a swath of scams on lookalike and parked (or placeholder) domains. If you end up on one of these websites, you'll be directed not to the trusted page you're expecting but scam content, including scareware and other malware. Lookalike domains contain malicious contentThis scam capitalizes on you navigating directly to a website by typing the URL into your browser's address bar. If you accident…

I've been getting relentless Instagram ads for AI-powered home gyms lately. You've probably seen them, too—sleek wall-mounted screens with impossibly toned instructors, testimonials promising "the future of fitness," and before-and-after transformations that make it all look effortless. The smart home gym equipment market is booming. According to Business Wire, the industry was valued at $3.2 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $4 billion by 2030. The numbers show plenty of people are investing in fitness technology that offers personalized, convenient, and effective home workouts. Fitness is yet another way to feed the AI beast, transforming boring old equipment in…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The Google Nest Wifi Pro is currently $99.99 on Amazon, which is half off its usual $199.99 price, and according to price trackers, the lowest it's ever been. At this price, it’s a solid entry point for anyone looking to upgrade to Wi-Fi 6E without diving into full-blown mesh systems or complicated installs. The router itself is designed to be discreet—no antennas, no buttons, just a small LED that quietly tells you if things are working. Setup happens through the Google Home app and takes only a few minutes. …

Apple’s iOS 26 drops today, and with it comes a bunch of small tweaks and improvements to how your iPhone works. The catch? A lot of them are opt-in, so you need to turn them on before you can reap their benefits. Here are the settings you should turn on after updating your iPhone to Apple’s latest operating system, although note that some of them require an iPhone 15 Pro or later, as they rely on Apple Intelligence. Adaptive battery modeIf you’re like me, you can never decide whether it’s worth it to swap your phone over to Battery Saver mode. Now, if you have an iPhone 15 Pro or above, your iPhone can make the decision for you. Apple’s new Adaptive Power mode uses Apple…

Did you know you can customize Google to filter out garbage? Take these steps for better search results, including adding Lifehacker as a preferred source for tech news. iOS 26 is here, and with it, Apple’s “Liquid Glass” design revamp. Yesterday, I covered how to quickly undo most of the harshest changes that come with Liquid Glass, but a complaint users are making today requires an entirely separate fix. Luckily, there is an option that could help you, although it’s not for everyone. Dark Mode icons look a little tilted right nowAs users are posting over on Reddit, it turns out that Dark Mode app icons don’t play nicely with iOS 26’s new Liquid Glass aesthetic. How much…

In recent years, iOS has started to catch up to Android when it comes to customization, but Android is still well in the lead. That's partly because it supports alternative launchers, which replace of the default software interface to completely revamp the look of home screens, menus, icons, and dialogs. Using a launcher, you can take pixel-by-pixel control over the visuals of the Android OS. If that sounds like too much time and effort, you can take advantage of one of many preset templates instead. This article will tell you what you need to know about launchers, and suggest a few of the best that you can currently install. How Android launchers workWhen you go "home" o…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Did you know you can customize Google to filter out garbage? Take these steps for better search results, including adding my work at Lifehacker as a preferred source. If you’re going to commit to an Amazon Prime membership, you might as well squeeze as much as you can out of the deal. And there's a good amount of juice to squeeze there. The price you pay for Amazon depends on many factors, but regardless of how much you're paying, it's worth it for most people (we did the math). If you're on the fence about signing up, October Prime Day, Amazon's fall version of Prime Day, is just around the corner. It's a great time to se…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Did you know you can customize Google to filter out garbage? Take these steps for better search results, including adding my work at Lifehacker as a preferred source. The Apple Watch Series 11 is now available, and just a few days into using a review unit, I’m happy with the upgrade. But whether it’ll be worth it to you is a different story entirely. Before the Series 11, I was still using a first-generation Apple Watch SE. Since I don’t need much from my smartwatch, the SE was enough for me: basic media playback with heart-rate tracking and tap-to-pay. What more could I want? But the Series 11 taught me that I could want…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Here we go again. After hiking the price of Xbox consoles earlier this year, Microsoft just announced it is already raising prices again—the second price hike in four months. Now, even Microsoft's cheapest console, the Xbox Series S, will cost at least $400. As someone who got an Xbox Series S for $150 a few years back, that stings. (Granted, I got a really good deal. Still.) Microsoft is blaming "changes in the macroeconomic environment" for the new prices, so read into that what you will. How much more expensive will the Xbox be?Here is what Microsoft's consoles will cost after the new pricing takes effect: Xbox Series …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Did you know you can customize Google to filter out garbage? Take these steps for better search results, including adding Lifehacker as a preferred source for tech news. Diversifying your studying techniques is a great way to stay more engaged as you learn new information, but know this: The classic methods are classic for a reason. Take flashcards, for instance. You've certainly used them in the past, but you may not have been using them in a way that maximized their benefits. Behold the Leitner system, which provides more structure to the tried-and-true practice of studying with flashcards and might be the jumpstart you…