Life Hacker

I strongly believe console and PC gaming is for everyone, but let’s be honest: the jargony way people talk about video games can make it difficult to get into the hobby.Read more...

Counting your calories with a tracking app seems pretty simple—unless you decide to get serious about it and measure your portion sizes. Then you’ll realize that an orange weighs less without the peel, that taking the skin off your baked chicken is saving you some calories, and that there’s an...

Fitness trackers like Apple Watches and Fitbits, generally aren’t as expensive as tech like smartphones and tablets, but they’re not exactly cheap. You certainly wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to snag one for free. And as it turns out, many insurance companies include fitness programs that either...

I’m one of those sickos who will drink a tall, cold glass of whole milk just for the taste. It’s probably the most perverted aspect of my personality—and the competition is stiff!—and definitely the whitest thing about me. I come from one of those families that serves milk to the children with...

If you were to ask any random person on the street how many hours of sleep a person is supposed to get each night, their answer will most likely be eight hours. But where did this gold standard come from? And is it even true? Is more or less than that bad for you? Here’s what we know.Read more...

First you could request four free rapid tests from the government. Then you could request four more. Now, there’s a third round of offerings, and this time you’ll get eight tests, for a grand total of 16 per household. Now we’re getting somewhere. Read more...

With baby formula continuing to be in short supply, parents of infants are looking for creative ways to get their hands on that precious Enfamil—but a simple, seemingly ingenious solution that’s going viral right now will not work as described. The suggestion that’s spreading on Facebook and...

After rounding up the most overrated tourist destinations outside of the U.S., it’s time to go domestic. We all want to avoid tourist traps, and luckily, avoiding “touristy” experiences is as much a matter of planning as it is destination. Whether or not you’re the kind of traveler who plans every...

Is it possible to get a child to actually do the thing you asked them to do the first time you asked them to do it? Some people (like myself) would respond Hahaha! Good one! As someone who battles the Congressional-level stall tactics of three children under age 10 on the daily, this notion seems...

I’m sure you already know how to make a passable burger, but with summer just around the corner, what you should really be asking yourself is whether you can make a restaurant-quality burger. You’ve got months of grilling ahead of you to perfect it, and it’s actually easier than you think—as long...

You don’t have to know what an “emotional vampire” is to know what it is, really. What do vampires do? They suck blood out of people. So, what can we reasonably assume emotional vampires do? That’s right: They suck energy out of people. Recognizing if you’re surrounded by these vibe-killing...

There’s a long list of things that make browsing the internet feel like living in a dystopian hellscape, and annoying cookie banners and consent forms are right at the top of that list. Most websites are legally required to display these notices and take your consent for using cookies. However, it...

Publications as disparate as the Wall Street Journal, the Times of India, and the Financial Times are asking: “Will Ties Ever Be Relevant Again?,” “Are Neckties Going Extinct?” and “Is This the End of the Tie?” Allow me to answer: Neckties are irrelevant, going extinct, and ending.Read more...

Microsoft Edge is one of the rare browsers that offers both privacy and versatility. One such privacy feature automatically deletes any browsing data, including cookies and site data. That means you can leave a clean slate every time you quit and relaunch Edge, making it difficult for third-party...

Telegram is a popular alternative to messaging apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. But while users might flock to Telegram to avoid Meta’s questionable privacy policies, the app has a lot of privacy-friendly options that aren’t actually enabled by default. Let’s run through the best ones,...

Don’t sing the song wrong, man. Karaoke is interminable enough. When KISS’s “Rock and Roll All Night” comes on, don’t be like my friend Mike and sing “I wanna rock and roll all night, and part of every day,” even if that is a more sensible lifestyle choice.Read more...

I was obsessed with Costco croissants as tween. My mom would buy huge plastic containers of them that my sisters and I would plow through in a few days. They were my favorite bread. Today, I am often tempted by similarly sized containers of all-butter croissants at the grocery store—the abundance...

In the immortal words of Mike Tyson after losing a fight, “I might just fade into Bolivian.” Tyson was answering a reporter’s question about where he would go next in his career—and he meant that state of being blissfully unconscious or unaware of what’s happening, or “oblivion.” Oops.Read more...

I remember the first time I heard about fitness trackers that could spit out metrics about my running. A friend lent me what was probably an early-generation Garmin, and I was gobsmacked to learn that it could tell me my exact pace at any given moment. Hey look, I’m running a 10 minute mile! Now...

Festivals are one of the best parts of summer, although sometimes they can be a bit of a money suck. When figuring out which, if any, you should travel to or buy tickets for, you’ll want to consider what kind of music you’re into, whether you care about extra stuff like food vendors or...

QR codes are used for everything from opening a restaurant menu to making payments: just point your camera at the QR code, and your phone will automatically open the relevant page. But what happens when you get a QR code in a message? Or what if it’s a screenshot instead?Read more...

When it’s time to buy a new iPhone, most of us don’t hold on to the old one. After all, iPhones are expensive, and trading in the old for the new reduces the sticker shock you have to deal with at the Apple Store. If you’re planning on buying a new iPhone through Apple anytime soon, and thought you...

There’s a lot in a name.We’ve previously discussed the smoothest way to handle forgetting someone’s name—but what if you don’t know how to pronounce their name in the first place?Read more...

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The posters on TikTok have a tendency to overstate their case. They make all sorts of promises to “blow your mind” and “change the way you do xyz,” and love to tell you that you’ve been “doing it wrong” this whole time. But strip away all the hyperbole and there is often a kernel of truth to their...