Life Style

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. At $749, the unlocked 128GB Google Pixel 10 Pro has slipped into its most affordable price yet on Amazon, down from its original $999 launch price, according to online price trackers. Stack the promo code PIXEL10, and you shave off another $100, which reframes the phone entirely. At full price, it felt like a confident but pricey Android flagship. At this discount, it becomes a far easier recommendation for people who value polish over raw benchmark wins. This is still very much a Pixel. The design is clean and familiar, with a flat display, matte glass back, and a solid in-hand feel that avoids the slippery problem of earlier gener...

Because it’s Christmas time, I’ve been digging into myths and misconceptions we have about the holiday: Yuletide misinformation is rampant, and I’m setting the record straight. Last week I dug into who Santa Claus really is, with side quests about St. Nicholas bringing children back from the dead and the religious war between Santa and Kris Kringle. One thing I didn't talk about? His elves. Christmas elves feel like they’ve been around forever, and people have strangely consistent ideas of what they’re all about—they’re small, they wear green, they make toys out of some innate magical compulsion, they love shelves— but that variety of elf is a recent invention; “real” elves were often anything but jolly little pieceworkers. The elves' thousand-year transition from supernatural nightmare cr...

For many students and workers, Windows is just the default way to use a computer. It's where all your apps work as intended, where all your Microsoft Office documents sync easily, and where you play all your games. But if you peel back its layers, Windows can be a lot more than that. Power users can take advantage of hidden features, and utilities from Microsoft and third-parties to not only speed up their workflow, but to improve productivity and fix some of the most annoying quality-of-life issues that plague Windows PCs. Control everything using the Command Palette Credit: Khamosh Pathak For decades, Mac users have boasted about Spotlight Sea...

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The Pixel 10 came out in August this year, and at a $799 starting price, it was worth considering. Fast forward a couple of months, and now you can get one for almost half off, at $449. Amazon is discounting the flagship Pixel 10 (128GB) to $549, and there’s a promo code (PIXEL10) that drops it down a further $100. At under $500, this might be the best Android smartphone deal of the year. Usually I recommend the Pixel 9a as the best budget buy. The lowest it’s been was $349 for Cyber Monday, and it’s sitting at $399 right now. The Pixel 10 at $449 is a much better deal.The Pixel 10 has the latest Tensor G5 chip with new on-device AI ...

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Credit: Illustration by Ian Moore and product image courtesy of Amazon. The Bose Smart Soundbar wasn't very well received by reviewers when it came out last year, citing small improvements for a larger price tag. But now with a $100 discount, we can have a serious conversation about who it's good for. You can get the Bose Smart Soundbar for $399 (originally $499), the lowest price it has been, according to price-tracking tools. The Bose Smart Soundbar is the successor to the Bose Smart Soundbar 600, which was already a very good soundbar—so needless to s...

Spotify playlists are a surprisingly big part of my life. I make a handful of new, curated, choreographed ones for the spin classes I teach every week and otherwise meticulously maintain quarterly playlists designed to represent the overall vibe of specific, three-month periods in my life. I only edit those during the 12 weeks of the quarter, then leave them alone so I can revisit them and relive the era. This means I am constantly fiddling with the present playlist to make it just right, searching for songs that feel precisely aligned with however I'm feeling. It's actually a time-consuming hobby—but I stumbled across a feature the other day that has made creating spin playlists and soundtracking Q1 of 2026 easier than ever. The new Spotify featureThe best way I can describe the feature I...

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The Nintendo Switch 2 with Mario Kart World bundle is in stock at Best Buy after running out of stock very quickly on Amazon. The deal includes the new console with the new Mario Kart for the same price as the standalone console. You can get this one for $449 (down from $499)—the lowest price it has reached yet, according to price-tracking tools. (Note that you can only see the price once you've signed in and it's in your cart, as Nintendo restricts retailers from promoting anything below the "minimum advertised price" of $499.) To top it off, Best Buy is somehow promising to have it delivered to your home by 9 p.m. tonight, Dec. 24—...

The more you work out, the fitter you'll get. Your VO2max, sometimes described on wearables as a "cardio fitness" score, is a number that tends to be higher among people who are more cardiovascularly fit. But it's not the only measure of fitness, and you should know what it really means. What VO2max really is (as measured in a lab)Smartwatches and fitness trackers don't actually measure VO2max; they just estimate it. To actually find your VO2max, you'd need to go to an exercise lab and do a test on a treadmill or cycle while hooked up to equipment that measures your heart rate and the air you're exhaling. I did exactly this kind of test to compare my real VO2max to the numbers reported by nine different devices. You can read about my experience, and why it matters, here. VO2max, properly r...

We may earn a commission from links on this page. The makers of Bevel, a health app for the Apple Watch that turns the device into a Whoop-style fitness tracker, have announced on social media that nearly all of the app’s functions will soon be available for free. Until now, Bevel required a $5.99/month (or $49.99/year) subscription. That said, the paid tier isn't going away completely.What does Bevel do?You can read my review of Bevel here, but in brief, it’s a tracking app that uses data from your Apple Watch (and other devices) to give you a Whoop-style dashboard that collects your health data in one place and analyzes it. Bevel can give you advice about how recovered it thinks you are, and how your habits affect your health metrics. While the Apple Watch can colle...

There are a lot of gaming handhelds to choose from right now, but the Steam Deck is undoubtedly a fan-favorite. Just as the Nintendo Switch introduced the world to console gaming on the go, the Steam Deck was the pioneer in bringing PC gaming to a handheld form factor—even if it pushes the definition of "handheld." Part of the initial appeal of the Steam Deck is its price: While you could choose a souped-up model with an OLED display and expanded internal storage, you could also pick up an LCD model with a 256GB SSD at a reasonable $399. For less than the price of a Switch 2, you could have something that plays the entire Steam library, with its huge variation in games. It's a great deal—perhaps too great. If you go to Valve's official Steam Deck site, and scroll down to see your hardware ...