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 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 …

Love it or hate it, there's one thing that ChatGPT avoids that many other tech products include right now: ads. Everything from websites, streaming services, and games ship with ads—either as a subsidized choice, or as a requirement. Chatbots like ChatGPT, however, have so far managed without this ad model, which is somewhat refreshing. The chatbot might lower your critical thinking skills, but it won't try to get you to buy something. That might not be the case for long, however. Over the past week, reports have been circulating about OpenAI's plans to incorporate ads into ChatGPT. These aren't just based on rumors and conjecture, either: Engineer Tibor Blaho spotted ref…

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. Last week, Peloton unveiled a fleet of new equipment and major software updates to go along with it. The updates immediately reflected on the Peloton app and the interfaces of the company's existing at-home workout equipment, so even if you don't upgrade to a new Bike or Tread, you'll still benefit. One of the biggest updates is the new "personalized plan," which uses information based on your preferred workout types, goals, and available times to create a weekly workout schedule for you. I tested it for …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Two months ago, I downloaded and started using the Steppin app, which locks up your most distracting apps and forces you to trade your real-world steps for them. After just three days, I was finding it enjoyable enough to review it, but now that I've spent 68 days with the app, I'm even more impressed. While it's still only available on iOS, an Android version is available on a waitlist and not much has changed in terms of interface or use since I first reviewed it, but I've found it much easier to navigate and incorporate into my life. My social media use is definitely downThe app works by syncing with your Apple Health …

YouTube may have been the official partner at MIPCOM this year, but AI was the unofficial winner. I attended MIPCOM in Cannes, France this year for the first time, and as someone who doesn't use generative AI in my daily life, let alone my writing or storytelling, the message to me was clear: Get on board or be left behind. AI is coming for television whether I like it or not. MIPCOM, the long-running annual global trade show for television and digital media, celebrated its 40th year last week in partnership with YouTube, furthering the bridge between the creator economy and traditional TV shows. Many influencers have already made the jump to our living room TVs—MrBeast,…

Hallucinations have always been an issue for generative AI models: The same structure that enables them to be creative and produce text and images also makes them prone to making stuff up. And the hallucination problem isn't getting better as AI models progress—in fact, it's getting worse. In a new technical report from OpenAI (via The New York Times), the company details how its latest o3 and o4-mini models hallucinate 51 percent and 79 percent, respectively, on an AI benchmark known as SimpleQA. For the earlier o1 model, the SimpleQA hallucination rate stands at 44 percent. Those are surprisingly high figures, and heading in the wrong direction. These models are known a…

There are nearly two million apps on the iOS App Store, and a lot of them aren't worth your time. That's why many of us, when considering a new app, turn to reviews: You want to see what other users' experiences were like with the app—whether they loved it, liked it, or loathed it. Personally, the current review system works fine for me. I scan some reviews, and generally get a sense of whether the app is right for me. If I'm feeling particularly analytical, I'll even adjust the filters, perhaps to see which reviews are most critical (so it's not just a bunch of fluff) or ones that are most recent, to see what customers thought of the latest version of the app. But it's…

If you and your friends have iPhones, you might use AirDrop to send pictures and files. If you all have Androids, you might use Quick Share. But if you have a mix of both platforms, suddenly file sharing isn't so easy. You could email the pictures, but, shoot, there's a data limit. You could text them, but if your friend isn't on RCS, videos are going to look horrible. You could use a cross-platform chat app, but good luck agreeing on which one to use. If only AirDrop was available on Android, and Quick Share on iOS. In a Thursday announcement on The Keyword, Google made history: Quick Share now works with AirDrop—starting with the Pixel 10, anyway. If you or a friend has…

Are you ready to pay for Amazon Alexa? With the addition of AI to the assistant, Amazon thinks you are. Announced in a closed-doors meeting with press and business partners today, Amazon’s Alexa+ is bringing AI to the familiar digital assistant, plus a new $20/month price tag. The secret? If you have Prime, you’ll get access to it at no extra charge. Credit: Amazon As with standard Alexa, the assistant is built around vocal prompts, but is designed to be more conversational and personalized, and will supposedly be able to act …

Amazon is in the process of overhauling Alexa, introducing a new Alexa+ AI service that will be available free of charge for Prime users (or $20 per month on its own). But as the company plans to roll out this new service, user privacy across Echo devices is taking a hit. In a March 15 email, Amazon announced its Echo devices will no longer support local processing for Alexa requests, and will stop offering “Do Not Send Voice Recordings” as an option. This means that every request—and its subsequent voice recording—will end up going to Amazon's cloud. Even a request as simple as "turn off the lights" will be sent to Amazon. This change starts on March 28th, and it includ…

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. I have bittersweet news that is mostly sweet: Soon, I will have a Tonal, one of those ultra-modern tablets that attaches to your wall and uses magnets to create resistance that mimics the use of a cable machine at the gym. I'm getting it so I can review it for you, which is good news for us all, but it's going to render a lot of my other at-home workout equipment useless for a while, so I want to take some time to memorialize the inexpensive tools I have accumulated that make even the most basic yoga on my living room floor a better experience. While I am pumped to have the Tonal, which costs about $4,000 depending on whi…

Since Apple first introduced iOS 26 during its WWDC keynote address this past June, most of the attention has been on the divisive "Liquid Glass" design overhaul—but there's a lot more to the latest version of the iPhone software. While the big iOS 26 features, including ones that Apple borrowed from others, got everyone talking, some of the most exciting updates have gotten a lot less attention. Here are three dozen of my favorites. 36 of the best under-the-radar features in iOS 26 Credit: Apple The above slide is all we have …

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…

TikTok has had a wild start to 2025. The app was banned in the United States, went dark, then came back online. New users can't download it, since the app hasn't returned to U.S. app stores, but those with existing access to the app (or simply the website) can continue watching videos like the ban never happened—at least, for now. The thing is, ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, has owned and operated other apps within the U.S. You might've learned that over the past couple weeks, as other popular apps went dark and disappeared from app stores alongside TikTok. While these apps were not a part of the major discussion around the ban, they all should, in theory, have many…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Outfitting that garage with the right gear is the difference between a useful and organized space and a chaotic black hole of junk. If you want your garage to be a place where you can get work done, where you can actually find stuff, and maybe also where you can park your car, here’s what you should have, ranging from the must-have essentials to some luxuries you could stretch for. What every garage needsIf you want to get the most of any garage, here’s the short list of essentials: Overhead storage. An empty garage might seem like endless storage, but it fills up fast. If you don’t want to navigate a maze of junk every ti…

It should have been obvious that Google I/O 2025 would be jammed-packed, considering the company felt the need to hold a separate event to cover all of its Android news. But color me shocked that Google pulled off a nearly two hour-long presentation, full of announcements and reveals, mostly about AI. Not all AI announcements are equal, of course. Some of the news was geared towards enterprise users, and some towards developers. But many of the features discussed are on their way to consumers' devices too, some as soon as today. These are the updates I'm going to focus on here—you can expect to try out these features today, in the coming weeks, or at some point in the…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Before you can lift a loaded barbell, you have to find a bar and load some plates onto it. At some gyms, there’s only one type of bar, and it weighs 45 pounds, and that’s all you need to know. But that’s not the only type out there, and if your gym has different bars of different shapes and weights, it’s possible to get confused. Check end of the bar firstIf you’re wondering about what kind of bar you're looking at or what it weighs, always check the end of it. Sometimes you’ll find a label with a brand name, a description of what the bar is, and its weight. For example, this one has a little endcap that says “The Rogue O…

If you are still using the same email address for everything, it’s time to diversify. Don’t make the mistake I made for too long, clogging up one inbox with absolute nonsense unrelated to the things you actually want to receive and read. You likely already have separate emails for your job, school, and personal life, and many of us also have a designated “spam” email to enter into pop-up boxes in a hurry—but you might even benefit from a couple more. Here are the email addresses I advise setting up. You need an email for logging into appsI have a special email address just for my streaming services and random apps, so when Peacock or Hulu mysteriously log out on my TV, I …

The Nintendo Switch 2 is quite a bit different than the OG Switch: The Joy-Cons are beefier and connect via magnets; when docked, the console supports 4K 60fps output; and you can finally charge the console when playing in tabletop mode. But at the end of the day, what matters most about a new console like the Switch 2 is the games: If there's nothing new to play, what's the point? Of course, Nintendo shared a number of Switch 2 exclusives during its big Direct on Wednesday. This isn't a repeat of the Nintendo 3DS launch: There are games to play if you buy a Switch 2 on day one. But there are also a number of interesting titles coming soon and later this year. (There's ev…

There is no place more joyous than a garden center in May. The shelves are full of annuals, vegetables, and perennials ready to go home with you. Gardeners everywhere are waiting with bated breath, trying to find the perfect day to get plants in the ground. Pops of color are emerging as tulips, irises, peonies, and lilacs fill yards. What you do this month will determine how successful your summer garden is, so strap into your overalls, grab your sunhat and spade, and get outside. Let's install a summer garden. I'll go over the maintenance tasks you should tackle first, then get into the details on what you should plant and how to do it. Perform a few garden maintenance …

The vernal equinox, marking the first day of spring, occurs in late March every year. Sometime around then, most planting zones encounter what is known as the last frost date, which is the experts' best guess, based on averages, of when your last hard freeze will be. The cherry, plum, and peach blossoms are exploding on trees all around us and tulips are popping up from the ground. There are all kinds of markers that gardening season has arrived, but the most prominent one is the return of people to working on their front yards on sunny days, which should be happening now with some regularity. It is finally full steam ahead for this year, and there are tons of things you …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Two weeks ago, there was a blanket of snow across most of the country. That melted into what feels like an early spring, with occasionally clear days and warm(ish) weather. The irises and tulips have begun to emerge in some areas, the surest sign that planting season is around the corner. This is the time to get organized and get ready, because by the time we talk again in April, we will be in it. Start garden and lawn cleanup in MarchNow is the time to get out there and start your spring clean up. You don’t want to get rid of the leaves—there are still insects slumbering, and they will be until spring temperatures hit.…

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.…