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. 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. If you’re in the market for a speaker that doesn’t sacrifice sound quality for durability (and also doubles as a power bank), a new JBL Charge 6 is currently 30% off on Woot for a limited time, dropping the price from $200 to $140. Woot only ships to the 48 contiguous states in the U.S., and Amazon members get free shipping, while non-members pay an extra $6. If your speaker isn’t e…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. You hear people talk about working in a “flow state,” but what does that even mean? before you start thinking of it as one of those corporate jargon phrases that gets tossed around so much it loses any meaning it ever had, it's worth knowing that it's a "real" thing, backed up by a whole lot of psychological research. In essence, being in a flow state enables you to work more efficiently and effectively at whatever you're focused on. What is flow theory?Psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi came up with this theory in 1970, suggesting a flow state is similar to when someone is floating along, being carried by water: Their b…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Amazon’s October Prime Day sale starts Oct.7—but keeping track of the best discounts yet to land and figuring out which deals are worthwhile can be a challenge. As an alternative, you can have Alexa give you a heads-up about deals on products you already know you want to purchase, so you don’t have to spend time sorting through the noise. Amazon Prime subscribers in the United States who also have Echo smart speakers can enable deal alerts to receive notifications 24 hours before discounts go live and even have your Alexa purchase these items for you. Here’s how to do it. How to set up Alexa deal alertsFirst, open the Ama…

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…

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. You once needed a decent computer and expensive software in order to seriously edit video. No longer. These days, you can download a free app on any smartphone, and instantly have the tools necessary to put together a legitimate video, especially for social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. It would have been difficult to imagine something like Adobe Premiere working properly on a smartphone in the heyday of desktop video editing, but these days, it's a reality. Perhaps that's why Adobe …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Clicks, the company behind those physical keyboard cases for your smartphone, has announced a new device, but it'll look pretty familiar to anyone who's used a Blackberry before. It's called the Clicks Communicator, and it's a pocketable little handset that's perfect for anyone who misses having physical buttons on their phone. It comes with a full, old-school style QWERTY keyboard and runs Android 16, and while you can pump it full of apps and use it standalone, Clicks says it expects many of its customers will prefer to use it as a minimalistic companion to a primary smartphone. In that way, this device is designed to be…

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. My omnipotent social media algorithms know I'm a sucker for trendy fitness content. What's interesting about today's fitness influencers is they sound nothing like the boot camp battle cries of the past decade. Quite the opposite, really. Instead of "no pain, no gain," think soft lighting, cozy socks, and your favorite comfort show playing in the background. Welcome to "Cozy Cardio"—TikTok's antidote to workout burnout. "Cozy cardio" is all about prioritizing comfort and enjoyment over intensity and intimida…

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. With Halloween around the corner, let's take a look at a spooky and supposedly true story going viral this week. Recently, a 911 call surfaced of a North Carolina man calling authorities because he thought he saw a bloody man by the side of a desolate country road. While he was speaking to the operator, something landed in the bed of his pickup truck, causing the 911 caller to start screaming "It's not human! It's not human!" Check out the video: My first reaction upon seeing this was the same as yours: …

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…

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 fall version of Amazon's Prime Day is approaching fast. Prime "Big Deal Days" will take place from Oct. 7-8., and we'll keep you updated with all the best deals leading up to and all throughout the sale. But before you purchase anything, here's how to set your own prices for Prime Day and every other day. If you're an impulse buyer, you know that shopping events like Prime Day can be bad. Even though we know Amazon is using all kinds of manipulation tech…

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…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Amazon Big Deal Days is coming October 7-8, 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. Subscribe to our shopping newsletter, Add to Cart, for the best sales sent to your inbox. New to Prime Day? We have a primer on everything you need to know. Sales are accurate at the time of publication, but prices and inventory are always subject to change. Apple's Mac Mini lineup, a desktop computer that fits in the p…

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. As of today, a ton of massive changes just hit the Peloton ecosystem. The at-home fitness giant didn't just overhaul one part of the structure 6 million people rely on for quality workouts—it made improvements and tweaks across its hardware, software, content, and partnerships. Everything is available for members to explore now, both in the mobile app and on the brand's proprietary equipment devices, but I don't blame you if you're not even sure what to st…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Ankle weights seem to have tunneled through a wormhole from the 1980s to the present moment, appearing in countless TikToks and Instagram posts. Do they really help tone your legs? Are they worth buying at all? The promises are overrated, but in some cases ankle weights do actually work. Here’s what you need to know. Where ankle weights work bestAnkle weights’ best use is to add a little bit of resistance to exercises where you are moving your legs against gravity. For example, side-lying leg raises become substantially more work for your muscles with even a pound or two of weight on the ankle that you’re raising in the a…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The Amazon Echo Spot is one of four Alexa smart speakers you can get right now. It's between the older 5th-generation Echo Dot and the new Echo Dot Max. It's currently $44.99 (originally $79.99) after a 44% discount, the lowest price it has reached according to price tracking tools. Amazon Echo Spot (2024) $44.99 at Ama…

The Apple Watch is both a companion to the iPhone, as well as a very capable device in its own right. Out of the box, it offers notification mirroring, so you feel every alert on your iPhone on your wrist, as well as workout tracking, so you can keep up with your fitness goals. But this wearable can be so much more than that. In fact, it doesn't take much to make your Apple Watch more personal and efficient. If you own one, here are ten hacks you need to know about: Disable every notification you can Credit: Khamosh Pathak Get…

I’ve been using Fitbit’s revamped app, currently in “public preview” mode for adult Android users in the United States. While I like the simplified aesthetic, its functionality seems to center around the questionable AI that gave me so many wrong and confusing answers. Let me take you on a tour of where the new app has improved, where it’s falling short, and what’s still missing. Better: cardio load and key metrics are easy to readThe top few metrics on the home screen have always been configurable, but I find the new version is even more readable than the old one. You get three “focus metrics” on the right hand side, and a big donut shape giving your progress toward you…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. 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. Right now, a bundle with the Ring Pro 2 doorbell and the Chime Pro is 48% off, saving you almost $140—but the deal is only available for Prime members. Ring Video Doorbell Pro 2 with Ring Chime Pro …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. It's a good day for Apple shoppers looking for the latest Apple Watches. The Apple Watch Ultra 3, Apple's latest and most premium smartwatch, dropped to its lowest price, and now, the Apple Watch SE 3, their most affordable smartwatch (and truly, the best one for most people), also dropped to its lowest price yet, according to price-tracking tools. Despite being released just this past September, you can get the GPS 40mm Apple Watch SE 3 for $199.99 (originally $249). The bigger 44mm case is $229.99 (originally $279), also with a $50 discount. …

Finally—two years after its release, and one year-long beta later—the PlayStation Plus handheld can finally officially play games without needing to connect to a PS5 console first. The portable machine is not strictly playing them all by itself, and you do need a PlayStation Plus Premium subscription to do it, but the latest system update brings the PlayStation Portal a lot closer to being a true PSP successor. The news came earlier today via the official PlayStation blog, where Sony announced that cloud streaming for the PS Portal will soon officially go live for everyone with a compatible subscription, a little less than a year after the company started testing it with …

Perhaps you completely forgot about the “Secret Santa” gift exchange, or your estimated delivery date got pushed back to 2026. Whatever your reasons, you’re in need of a last-minute gift, and your options are limited. If you're reading this at a time when it's too late for online delivery, and in-person store options are already closed, then all that’s left is the glory of your local 24-hour drug store. If you have access to a major chain like Walgreens or CVS, you could be in surprisingly good shape for this last-minute gift. All it takes is a little ingenuity to level up this gift from "a protein bar" to "a gym bro collection," or "some loose nail polish" to a "curated …

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. For a while there, the “blurting” method of note revision was all over TikTok, making it somewhat of a studying trend. Whether or not it's still popular on social media is irrelevant; it's still a solid retention technique that can help you entrench information in your long-term memory. There are actually two ways to blurt when you’re studying, and both are helpful for retrieval practice and overall retention—but only if you’re doing them instead of scrolling, so read this, put your phone down, and get …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. The Boox Palma e-reader is unquestionably my favorite gadget from the last few years, but I also get why so many people find it to be a bit confounding: It's a phone-shaped e-ink device that has all the capabilities of a modern Android smartphone, but it doesn't have cellular functionality, which means it can't take calls. A recent rumor suggested that might be changing soon, but it turned out to be an overstatement: According to a statement I received from a spokesperson for Boox maker Onyx International, the forthcoming "Palma 3" (which might be called something else) still won't work as a phone, though it will have mo…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Amazon Big Deal Days is coming October 7-8, 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. Subscribe to our shopping newsletter, Add to Cart, for the best sales sent to your inbox. New to Prime Day? We have a primer on everything you need to know. Sales are accurate at the time of publication, but prices and inventory are always subject to change. If you’re like me, when you moved into your home, the kitchen …

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. How do you do, fellow adult? This week's edition of the Out of Touch Adult’s Guide to Kid Culture features a new body slang term, a TikTok prank where AI puts a hobo into your living room, the possible beginning of the AI wars, and a viral video featuring students running a Nazi out of class. There's a lot to eat, so tuck your napkin in your shirt and chow down. What is a Venus tummy?A "Venus tummy" is a slang term for a woman's belly that is a little fat, but not too fat—a little pouch that can be shown off…