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 is October 7-8, and Lifehacker is sharing the best bargains, based on product reviews, comparisons, and price-tracking tools. 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 into sports video games and feel obligated to purchase Madden every year…

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 October 7-8, and Lifehacker is sharing the best bargains, based on product reviews, comparisons, and price-tracking tools. 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. On August 23, I bought an Amazon Fire TV 50" Omni QLED Series 4K television for $3…

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 my work at Lifehacker as a preferred source. As someone who's completed six marathons over six years, I approached Garmin's marathon training plans with cautious optimism. After all, Garmin dominates the running tech space, and their watches are virtually ubiquitous among serious runners. Surely their training plans would reflect the same attention to detail and runner-focused design? Plus, I’m already a huge fan of racing with my no-nonsense Garmin Forerunner 165. After months of following the program …

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. There's much to say about Sora, which is essentially OpenAI's TikTok for AI slop. But putting my concerns aside for what appears to be a glorified deepfake machine, it's evident the app is popular. OpenAI says Sora hit one million downloads in under five days, likely fueled by interest from users seeing hyper-realistic videos going viral on social media. But with big hype, comes big risk for fraud. While OpenAI made Sora free to download, the app started out invite-only, which only built anticipation for us…

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 eyeing a big-screen upgrade but waiting for the prices to make sense, this might be the moment. The 77-inch LG C5 OLED Evo TV has dropped to $2,150, down from nearly $3,700, which is wild considering it’s only a few months into its release. Sitting just below LG’s flagship G5, the C5 borrows much of the same tech without the gallery-design markup. Reviewers, including…

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 Lifehacker as a preferred source for tech news. Many established study methods grew out of old research and stuffy pedagogical theories, so when a new one crops up on social media it’s worth checking out—if only to gauge whether a modernized approach can pay dividends. Sometimes, the most tried-and-true, old-school methods are best, but that doesn't mean fresh updates on traditional ideas can't be great, too. One study technique that frequently makes the rounds on social media is dubbed the “2, 3, 5, 7” method (or usually just "2357"). What’s interes…

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. I love going to a reformer Pilates studio for a (pricey) workout but I also love staying home to work out on my own. In the end, it just depends on my mood. Good news for people like me: Tonal is rolling out reformer-style Pilates with its new update. If you have the at-home weight training device or are considering getting one, this could be major for you. Even if you're not someone who wakes up on a Saturday morning excited to go trade $65 for 45 minute…

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 2025, so every piece of tech needs to have some kind of AI integration—even Roku, apparently. On Wednesday, Roku announced a number of new features and changes coming to its many streaming devices, but headlines zeroed in on one announcement in particular: the company's new AI assistant. The assistant, which will be a part of the existing Roku Voice feature, lets you ask the streaming device questions about shows and movies, including the characters and actors that are in them. You could ask the assista…

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. Welcome to The Out of Touch Adults’ Guide to Kid Culture, where I make sense of youth nonsense. This week, kids are bringing hollowed-out pumpkins into Starbucks and demanding they be filled with pumpkin spice lattes; TikTok is obsessed with a fake video game called Bird Game 3; everyone’s growing the universe's AI slop-pile with videos about a fictional video game, and teens are fighting about Lorax costumes. Plus the world's police departments are issuing a warning about a prank that is not funny and you s…

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,…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. To the disappointment of Judgment Day fans, The Rapture did not happen as predicted at the end of September, but keep your fingers crossed for November, when aliens are expected to invade. This one's a way more concrete prediction than the Rapture. Unlike Jesus, we can actually see the alien starship in our telescopes, cleverly disguised as an interstellar comet. And it's not just conspiracy theorists or Joe Rogan Podcast guests sounding the alarm—a Harvard astrophysicist kicked off the whole thing. So hold on to your butt! The ballad of 3I/ATLASBack in July, NASA spotted 3I/ATLAS, an interstellar comet about the size of M…

YouTube is about to get less scammy. The video-sharing platform today rolled out likeness-detection technology designed to identify AI-generated content featuring fake faces and voices of YouTube creators. This program is only open to eligible creators in the YouTube Partner Program right now. Creators interested in the program upload a picture and a voice recording of themselves with proof of their identity, then they can view any detected videos, and request their removal, either through YouTube’s privacy guidelines or a copyright request. There's also an option to archive the video, to prevent sneaky deletions. In the short term, this is unlikely to nuke the growing sc…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. When you track a strength training workout on a fitness watch, that watch will happily tell you what heart rate zones you were in during the workout. In fact, they'll do that for any workout, whether it makes sense or not. So you might be tempted to interpret this data in terms of the benefits of zone 2 training. If my heart rate is in zone 2 when I’m lifting weights, that means I just did an hour of zone 2 training, right? Unfortunately, no. Heart rate zones only apply to cardioZones are meaningless for strength training, but to understand why, we have to go back to the reason zones were invented in the first place: to gi…

You may or may not have heard of "eating the frog." It's one of those things that triggers the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon once you learn about it: Suddenly, everyone seems to be saying it, which is jarring, since it's a little graphic and evocative. Luckily, it doesn't mean you have to eat any frogs for real; it's just a way to refer to the productivity philosophy that says you should tackle your biggest, toughest task first thing in the morning. What it means to "eat the frog"“Eat the frog” means “do the day’s worst task as soon as you wake up.” It comes from a quote attributed to Mark Twain, though there are a few different versions floating around. (Lifehacker Editor-i…

Why do I still carry a wallet? My iPhone can handle just about anything you used to need a traditional wallet for. Most (if not all) of my purchases are made via Apple Pay or QR code, my phone holds all of my pictures, and most of my receipts go straight to my email. Basically the only I keep my wallet around is to carry my ID. Once my state starts supporting Apple’s digital ID feature, however, things will change between me and my wallet—provided that support ever comes. Since iOS 15.4, Apple has allowed you to add a driver’s license or other state ID to your iPhone’s digital wallet. That doesn’t mean you’ve been needlessly carrying your ID around since then—states have …

The site formerly known as Twitter has been "X" for over two years now. Nevertheless, many of us still call the site by its old, iconic name. In fact, anytime I feel the need to visit, I go to twitter.com, not x.com—even though the site always redirects to the latter. Is it muscle memory? A small protest? Probably a little of both. But my days of typing "t" in Safari's address bar and clicking the autofilled twitter.com URL are likely coming to a close, as X seems poised to finally retire its Twitter domain for good. That news started with a post from X's "Safety" account on Friday. The post stated that, by Nov. 10, all accounts using a security key for two-factor authen…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deep work is a concept most popularly defined by Cal Newport, who wrote the aptly titled Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World. As he tells it, deep work is a state where you find the ability to focus completely on a demanding task without letting distraction get in your way. If you can get the hang of it, you’ll get more done in less time and ultimately end up feeling more fulfilled. On his website, Newport observes that it’s rare to see someone feel energized and happy after sending emails, but there’s a sense of fulfillment that comes from sustained focus on more meaningful tasks. How do you achiev…

Leading AI chatbot platform Character.ai announced yesterday that it will no longer allow anyone under 18 to have open-ended conversations with its chatbots. Character.ai's parent company, Character Technologies, said the ban will go into effect by Nov. 25, and in the meantime, it will impose time limits on children and "transition younger users to alternative creative features such as video, story, and stream creation with AI characters." In a statement posted online, Character Technologies said it was making the change "in light of the evolving landscape around AI and teens," which seems like a nice way of saying "because of the lawsuits." Character Technologies was re…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The JBL Charge 6 is currently available for $169.95 at Walmart, down from its original $199.95. That small drop might not look dramatic on paper, but considering this model only came out recently, it’s one of the better deals you’ll find on a premium portable outdoor speaker. JBL Charge 6 $169.95 at Walmart …

If you're in the Apple ecosystem, AirPods Pro are just about the best earbuds you can buy. They sound great, work across your various Apple devices, and ship with features like Adaptive Transparency and a built-in heart rate sensor. They're even FDA-certified hearing aids. Not bad for $249. But all those perks don't mean Apple's AirPods Pro are perfect. In fact, you can ask any of the customers complaining of a static noise coming from their AirPods Pro 3, when nothing is actually playing at all. As reported by MacRumors, it appears this is affecting some AirPods Pro 3 users when using Active Noise Cancellation, Adaptive Transparency, and Transparency modes, but only when…

Since the days of Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer, you've always have a choice when it comes to the program you use to access the internet—but we now have a whole new breed of software to consider: The AI browser. These browsers place AI models front and center, even more so than integrations like Gemini in Chrome or Copilot in Edge. These browsers give you AI-powered search, AI-powered answers to just about any question you can come up with, and even agentic AI control—so the browser can actually do some browsing and complete simple tasks for you. A future where we never have to manually fill out another web form or compare prices on sixteen different flights is…

The new version of Fitbit’s app (currently in “public preview” mode) has some improvements and some shortcomings. On the first day it was available, the built-in AI confused and frustrated me, but I figured I needed to give it a little time. Maybe it would learn more about me and give better responses. Maybe I would learn my way around its features. Maybe the team at Google would correct the worst of the problems. That last prediction came partly true. When I woke up the next morning, the AI finally admitted that the watch I was wearing, Google’s Pixel Watch 4, does actually exist. (The initial version of the app had claimed that the Pixel Watch 2, released in 2023, was …

If you're out of cell service in an emergency, the ability to contact 911 can be lifesaving. Now many users with older phones are getting access to emergency texting to 911 via T-Mobile's Starlink-powered T-Satellite network for free. On Wednesday, T-Mobile announced that it would open up its Text to 911 feature—which allows users to text emergency services through their phone's native messaging app when outside of coverage areas—to everyone, including AT&T and Verizon customers, at no cost. It's worth noting that many iPhone and Pixel users already have access to emergency SOS via satellite regardless of carrier, as these features are built into newer devices. Appl…