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. Amazon Big Deal Days end tonight, Oct. 8, and until then, 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. Every day, I venture to the gym with a pink bag cont…

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 end tonight, Oct. 8, and until then, 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. New to Prime Day? We have a primer on everything you need to know. Sales are accurate at the time of publi…

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. When you’re assigned a text, you’re supposed to take away the big-picture ideas. The problem is that sometimes, you can miss the forest for the trees, skimming passages just to get it all over with. To get to that broad understanding you need, you should use a method that is all about being detail-oriented. It’s called “close reading,” and it will help you grasp whatever you read so you understand not only your assigned passage or chapter, but the concept …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. October Prime Day is over, but some deals are still active. Browse our editors’ picks for a curated list of our favorite sales on laptops, fitness tech, appliances, and more. 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. Prime Day may have come and gone this fall, but you ca…

It's getting near Halloween, the perfect time to stream some horror movies. I dug up 15 of the scariest, weirdest, freakiest, and funniest flicks from horror-only streaming service Shudder. I'm leaving off the obvious choices like Psycho and Halloween—if you subscribe to Shudder, you've probably seen all the "classics" at least twice—to focus on movies guaranteed to make you hide your eyes, laugh out loud, or say "what even is this?" A Dark Song (2016) If you like intelligent, slow-burn horror, check out A Dark Song. Like its characters, the debut feature from director Liam Gavin goes places few films dare to tread. Sophia is a grieving mother whose longing for …

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. Young people are always finding new ways to blur the lines between irony and sincerity, the public and the private, and every thing else: TikTokers are using a caveman schtick to tell sad romantic stories; a Twitch streamer broadcast the birth of her daughter to her adoring chat; and young people are meeting a deadly serious political moment with colorful animal costumes. There's also a new cartoon, for some reason, from Nintendo, and the rise of slopcore. The Portland Frog and ChickenThe young people in Po…

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. I am the biggest booster of Google's NotebookLM, an AI tool that functions like a personal ChatGPT. I have recommended it for studying, used it for my own work loads of times, and generally found it to be one of the best bits of software available right now. But recently, I tried using it on my phone, not just on my computer browser—and it fell surprisingly flat. Here's how I've been managing to use it via mobile, anyway, and why you should stick to the computer version for now. What is NotebookLM?Notebo…

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. Google's sponsored ads are generally a pain. Not only are they often not relevant to what you're searching for, they can occasionally be malicious: You might think you're clicking on a legitimate link for something you've searched for, but you're actually heading somewhere else entirely. Together with all the new AI components Google has introduced in recent years, it's increasingly tough to get the search results you're actually looking for. But there's some small good news on this front: As initially repo…

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. Against all cybersecurity advice to the contrary, right next to my computer is a piece of paper with the password to my Google account written on it. Why? Well, if I forget it, what am I gonna do? Send a recovery email to my Gmail that I can't log into? It seems Google's aware of that little problem, because while it does have other workarounds on its account recovery page (like providing a mobile number that you've hopefully already linked to your account), now it's letting you use your friends' and fami…

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. This week, California governor Gavin Newsom signed a handful of new laws that regulate artificial intelligence and social media. Among them is SB 243, which requires that chatbots provide "clear and conspicuous" notice that they are not a real person. The law goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2027. SB 243 also requires chatbots interacting with children to provide a reminder every three hours to take a break and prohibits chatbots used by minors from generating sexually explicit content. The law mandates that com…

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’ve been looking to upgrade your portable speaker game before the next beach day or house party, the JBL Flip 6 deal on Woot might catch your eye. It’s currently down to $79.95, a solid $50 off its usual price of $129.95. The sale runs for ten days or until supplies last, with free shipping available to Prime members (others pay $6). That said, Woot does not ship to Alaska, Ha…

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. It's the end of an era: TiVo no longer manufactures or sells the DVRs that made the company a household name. If you still have one, the company will continue to support it, but don't go looking for one: TiVo as we know it is effectively over. TiVo didn't make a big deal about this discontinuation, however. As it happens, Luke Bouma of Cord Cutter News was the first to spot the development. Earlier this month, Bouma reported that TiVo Corporation had silently ended its DVR line, removing all references to th…

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 my work at Lifehacker as a preferred source. You've probably heard of the upstart tech brand Nothing by now, but if you haven't, here's a quick TLDR: The UK-based tech startup aims to make products like cellphones and headphones that incorporate innovative features and designs at a low price point. The company released its new smartwatch this summer, the CMF Watch 3 Pro, and it's already discounted by 20%. Originally $99, you can…

If you use Firefox, and you're lucky, then you might be getting a free VPN. Over the next few months, Mozilla says it will be testing a "free, browser-only VPN" for some users, but you'll need to rely on the luck of the draw if you want to try it yourself. That's because Mozilla is only enabling the feature for randomly selected users, at least for now. The announcement technically came in June, but fortunate writers at a number of different tech sites are now reporting that they're finally starting to see the feature pop up. How Firefox's free VPN comparesThe VPN, once fully implemented, would put Firefox in competition with Opera and Microsoft's own Edge browser, but ah…

If you asked me which streaming service has the best TV shows, I'd say Apple TV (recently freshly rebranded from Apple TV+). But if you asked me which has the fewest TV shows, I'd also say Apple TV. I love Severance and all, but when it's not releasing new episodes, there's usually not enough to keep me subscribed. That's why I'm so interested in the new bundle deal from Apple and Peacock: For just $2 more than a standard Apple TV subscription—or the same price as a monthly Peacock subscription—you can get them both. Peacock isn't my favorite streaming service, exactly, but because it pulls from most of NBC and Universal's respective catalogs, it does usually have enough…

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 searching for a curved OLED gaming monitor and want high-end quality from a reliable brand but would prefer not to spend a lot of money, the top-rated LG Ultragear 34GS95QE OLED gaming monitor is $696.99 (originally $1,299.99), 47% off the original price. LG 34GS95QE 34-inch Ultragear OLED Curved Gaming Monitor …

One of the best ways to maximize your productivity and output is to plan out what you need to do in advance, which you can do with a brain dump, a ruthlessly curated daily schedule, a collection of planning tools, or any other number of methods. Unfortunately, even the best practices come with a dark side if you take them too far. In this case, that dark side is Parkinson’s Law, an observation that suggests the longer you give yourself to do something, the longer you’ll take to actually get it done. The truth of the matter is that you can schedule, plan, and fret your way right into accomplishing nothing. It’s always better to get difficult things done as soon as possibl…

If you've ever had to drink an extra cup of coffee the next day to make up for a scrolling spiral watching TikTok videos or YouTube Shorts, we have something in common. As a safeguard to keep us from scrolling on and on (and on) into the wee hours of the morning, YouTube's adding a system to limit the amount of Shorts a user watches in a day—but it's a little less strict than what exists on other apps. Still, it's better than nothing. Once you have the update, you'll be able to set your limit under Settings, although YouTube hasn't specified the specific steps yet. I assume it'll be under the General tab (I don't have the feature yet), but I've reached out to YouTube for …

OpenAI has officially entered the browser wars. On Tuesday, the company announced Atlas, a new web browser with ChatGPT integration. At the moment, it's Mac-only, but I wouldn't recommend even my Apple friends jumping on board immediately—at least not without understanding the underlying risks. Atlas' AI web browsing If you've already used other AI browsers, like Perplexity's Comet, Atlas is going to feel familiar. In fact, that's also likely true if you've used any web browser before: Atlas is built on Chromium, the engine that powers browsers like Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Opera. That means the core mechanics of Atlas are fairly standard; there's nothi…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. If you’re in the market for a new mesh router that’s smart-home ready and has a minimalist appearance, the Google Nest Wifi Pro is currently down to $121.14 (originally $199.99). At a nearly 40% discount, this system offers comprehensive, high-speed coverage for anyone dealing with dead spots or spotty wifi. Google Nest Wifi Pro $121.14 …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Fire TV sticks have one advantage over every other streaming stick: They're owned by Amazon, which means they're more likely to get discounted. Right now, for instance, you can get Amazon's best streaming stick, the Fire TV Stick 4K Max, for $39.99 (originally $59.99). Fire TV Stick 4K Max Streaming Player With Remote (2023 Model) $39.99 …

The Spotify app is currently experiencing crashes and freezing on Android, the company has acknowledged after about two weeks of pressure from listeners. A fix is purportedly on the way, but in the meantime, there are a few steps you can take to get your music going. Reports of problems with the Android Spotify app first started on the Spotify help forums, although they have since spread to social media as well. Those affected complain that the app either freezes when opening, or crashes midway through listening. Others mention that problems only pick up when connecting to wifi—Spotify has since confirmed that "the issue doesn't occur while using mobile data." According t…

Sora, OpenAI's short-form AI video platform, has been available for iPhones for the past few weeks. Users have spent that time generating hyper-realistic vertical videos that, despite their watermarks, might already be fooling people on the internet. I, for one, see nothing good about a tool that can make these types of videos from simple prompts, perhaps outside the sheer novelty alone. But the app is undeniably popular, and, as expected, OpenAI is continuing to "improve" it. On Wednesday, the head of Sora, Bill Peebles, shared a roadmap of updates coming to the app, from cameos for your pets to video editing tools. Sora will soon let you make cameos of anything you wa…

Here's a hot take for you: I always kind of liked Clippy. Maybe it's because I was an only child, but as useless as the animated paperclip (officially known as "Clippit," by the way) was for advice, I did enjoy having a buddy on my desktop while I worked on essays. Now, Microsoft is bringing that same energy back, but for AI. And, finally, I think I understand the Clippy hate. Called Mico, the character is part of Copilot's fall release, which includes a dozen new updates. Some of these are what you'd expect by now: There's a new memory feature that ensures every new conversation doesn't start from scratch, and better integration with outside apps like Gmail or Google Cal…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Investing in a smart thermostat won’t just keep your home comfortable — it also can help you save money on energy bills and reduce your carbon footprint. By automating scheduling and learning preferred temperatures, smart thermostats conserve energy and make your home more comfortable. The 2022 Ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium might not be the newest option on the market, but to this day, it receives consistently excellent ratings, and right now, it’s $198.99 (originally $249.99) on Walmart, marking its lowest price ever according to price trackers. …