How to Get Google Assistant to Read Notifications From Third-Party Apps

Google Assistant has quietly received a major upgrade to its messaging features, giving the AI helper the ability to read messages from third-party apps. Read more...

Don't Assume the Default 401(k) Contribution Is Enough

When you opened up your 401(k), you were probably presented with a few default options. Maybe your workplace automatically put 3% of your paycheck towards 401(k) contributions, for example. Maybe you were told that the company would match your contr…

How to Watch the Ariane 5 and Falcon 9 Rockets Launch Today

Two rockets carrying large communications satellites are scheduled to launch today within a couple of hours of each other, first from South America and then from North America. You can watch each one go up via livestream coverage.Read more...

How to Protect Yourself From Online Travel Scams When Booking Flights

If you find a good deal for a flight on an unfamiliar booking website, don’t press the “check out” button just yet. This week, one family shared their experience booking a flight through a website claiming to be affiliated with Delta, which turned o…

How to Get Free Music Streaming Subscriptions From Your Mobile Carrier

One of the few perks you might be able to get with your cell phone subscription is free access to paid-for versions of Spotify, Apple Music, and other services—typically offered alongside a carrier’s unlimited data plans. Sure, these plans are usual…

Chill Your Countertop Before Rolling Out Pie Dough

Making pastry in the summer means fighting an uphill battle against the laws of thermodynamics. Even when you’ve taken every possible precaution to keep your ingredients—and your tools—nice and cold, pie dough is still liable to melt the second it h…

You Can 'Clip' Box Tops With This App

Since the mid-1990s, parents have been clipping small rectangular “Box Top” symbols from the tops of our Cheerios, Lucky Charms and Ziplock boxes. We stash them away in our junk drawers, largely unforgotten, until 1. we feel like we finally have eno…

CafePress Data Breach Shows Why You Should Use 'Have I Been Pwned'

We literally just wrote about how it’s pretty crappy when companies lie to you about data breaches, and then CafePress rolls up and goes, “I can top that.”Read more...

Calculate the Total Out-of-Pocket Cost of Your Health Insurance Plan

How much do you pay for your health insurance? If you only think about your health insurance costs in terms of the monthly premiums, you’re leaving out a lot of potential expenses.Read more...

Beware of Equifax-Settlement Scam Sites

A class-action settlement website is never going to win an award for being the most polished. These sites are often so rudimentary compared to the slick experience you had when you paid for a company’s goods or services that you might doubt you’re e…

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Nobel Prize Winner Toni Morrison, One of America’s Greatest Writers, Has Died at 88

In describing the literary greatness of Toni Morrison—winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize in literature, the first awarded to an African-American woman—the Nobel Foundation said that Morrison “in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import,…

Introducing: Lifehacker's Complete Guide to Wifi

When your wifi is bad, you know it—oh, do you know it. And getting it working well again isn’t always as simple as unplugging and replugging your router, one of our favorite troubleshooting techniques for all things technological.Read more...

Use Alexa to Donate a Backpack to a Child in Need

Amazon, Alexa and Shaquille O’Neal are teaming up this month to donate backpacks filled with school supplies to kids in need. If you have an Alexa in your home, you can say, “Alexa, Donate to Happy School Year” to participate.Read more...

If You Take Out Your Phone in a Movie Theater, I'm Going to Ask to Use It

Almost every weekend this year, I’ve ended up at the movies. In a relentless news environment, it’s nice to head over to the local multiplex, plop down, and turn off the rest of the world for a couple of hours. Sadly, I’ve noticed a disturbing trend…

Is It Ever Acceptable to FaceTime in Public?

Welcome to Tech Etiquette, a new advice column from Lifehacker, wherein we try to adjudicate the lawless terrain of the so-called “digital age.” Everyone’s got an opinion about everyone else’s terrible tech manners: how you should behave online, whe…

Are You Making These Common Grammatical Mistakes?

No one can recognize our relentless misuse of the English language quite like an editor. Misplace a modifier, and your editor will (hopefully) let you know. Over-use intensifiers such as “very,” “just,” and “really,” and your editor will tell you th…

Get a Free 2-Liter A&W Root Beer on August 6

Tuesday is “National Root Beer Float Day.” Did we need a day to celebrate the root beer float? Probably not. But since we have one, we might as well use it to score some free root beer.Read more...

Update Your Nvidia Drivers Right Now to Fix Critical Vulnerabilities

Windows: Most gamers love updating their graphics card’s drivers to score the best performance for their favorite titles. But even if you’re a “filthy casual,” you’re going to want to make sure your system’s Nvidia drivers are up to date. Nvidia rec…

How to Do Nothing, With Artist and Educator Jenny Odell

We all think we’re experts at “doing nothing,” but there’s a difference between numbing out by staring at Facebook and truly letting your mind rest. There are concrete benefits to doing absolutely nothing—like actually being present in your life and…

How to Help the Victims of the El Paso and Dayton Mass Shootings

Over the weekend, a combined 29 people were killed, with dozens of others injured, in mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio. Several politicians including New York rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and presidential candidate and former El Pa…