Life Style

If you've installed the big Windows 11 update that Microsoft pushed out in August (which also includes the new Black Screen of Death), you'll notice a brand new entry in Settings: Quick Machine Recovery (QMR), under System > Recovery.It's designed to tackle that most frustrating of problems: a PC that won't boot. While it's not hugely different from the previous troubleshooting tools offered by Windows, it aims (as the name suggests) to make it quicker and easier to get your computer working again.Hopefully, you'll never have to make use of it—but if you should run into problems with a PC that isn't starting, here's what you need to know about Quick Machine Recovery. How Quick Machine Recovery works Quick Ma...

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.Google is rolling out two new AI-powered features for Google Translate this week, and it might not be good news for Duolingo. The app now generates practice sessions for you to either listen or speak along with. These lessons are generated by AI, and, according to Google, "intelligently adapt to your skill level." It follows a different AI-powered experiment Google launched back in April called "Language Lessons," though Google Translate's implementation seems a bit more basic.This feature is rolling out this week on iOS and Android in beta. It doesn't seem to have landed on my Translate app yet, but here's how Google says it'...

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Labor Day sales are rolling in, and Lifehacker is sharing the best sales based on product reviews, comparisons, and price-tracking tools before they’re over. You can also subscribe to our shopping newsletter, Add to Cart, for the best sales sent to your inbox.Labor Day is a big holiday for tech sales, and even though it's not yet the weekend, the deals are already rolling in. Whether you're in the market for laptops, phones, tablets, or even a new TV, there's definitely a deal out there just waiting for you to snatch it up.The hard part is finding it, but lucky for you, I’ve already taken care of all the hard work. For the rest of th...

Google Vids is the company's web-based video editor, and you can now use it for free. Up until now, Vids was available only for paying Google Workspace subscribers, but this move makes it accessible to everyone. The pitch here is quite simple: Vids is a simple video editing tool that integrates extremely well with Google Drive. You can use basic editing tools and templates for free, and if you're a paying Google subscriber, then you can use its AI features, too. Before you get too excited about Google Vids, though, you should know that it's not a replacement for professional editing software. It's more intended as a good place to get started, a bit like what Windows Movie Maker used to be about 15 years ago. You can do a lot with Google Vids, but if you're a professional, you'll hit the li...

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Labor Day sales are rolling in, and Lifehacker is sharing the best sales based on product reviews, comparisons, and price-tracking tools before they’re over. You can also subscribe to our shopping newsletter, Add to Cart, for the best sales sent to your inbox.Labor Day sales are already underway in major retailers, including Walmart, Amazon, and Best Buy. But if you're looking for deals on major appliances, tools, or home furniture, Home Depot's Labor Day sale will be a better fit for your needs. The sale is goes through the holiday on Sept. 1, and ends on Sept. 3. I used price-tracking tools to make sure these deals are solid and ma...

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Labor Day sales are rolling in, and Lifehacker is sharing the best sales based on product reviews, comparisons, and price-tracking tools before they’re over. You can also subscribe to our shopping newsletter, Add to Cart, for the best sales sent to your inbox.If you’re looking to upgrade your TV’s sound system, the Bose TV Speaker Soundbar can help elevate your movie nights to a more cinematic experience—and right now, it’s 41% off, marking its lowest price everm according to price trackers.  There’s nothing worse than muffled or quiet dialogue that forces you to crank the volume up, only to be blasted by an ear-shattering action sce...

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.Apple has big plans for the next few years. That's according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, who has a good track record for covering Apple leaks and rumors. Gurman's most substantial details right now concern a three-year plan to upgrade the iPhone line, but there are rumors to explore that cover almost the entirety of the company's product line. As with any coverage of leaks and rumors, this is not meant to be definitive. Apple could end up doing all, some, or none of these things. While some predictions here are likelier than others, we just won't know what Apple's plans are until the company makes them official over the comin...

We may earn a commission from links on this page. If you want to get anything done around the house—whether it’s basic maintenance or ambitious DIY renovations—you’re going to need some good-quality tools to do it. And tools, you may have noticed, are pretty expensive—especially with tariffs, driving those prices up even more.There are alternatives to buying your tools, of course—you can usually rent tools or even borrow them from a tool library. But renting only makes sense if you’re going to use that tool once, and borrowing tools means no guarantee you’ll get the tool you need when you need it. Sometimes owning that tool makes the most sense, and if you need to save a few bucks at the same time, there’s an easy solution: Buy a refurbished model.A certified factory ...

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Labor Day sales are rolling in, and Lifehacker is sharing the best sales based on product reviews, comparisons, and price-tracking tools before they’re over. You can also subscribe to our shopping newsletter, Add to Cart, for the best sales sent to your inbox.If you're in the market for a new computer—whether you want to buy one ready made, or build one yourself—Labor Day is a great time to save some cash on devices from Apple, Lenovo, Corsair, and others. Here, I'm focusing on desktop computers and components, but also be sure to check out our guide to the best Labor Day sales overall. ...

Google’s Pixel 10 phones made their official debut this week, and with them, a bunch of generative AI features baked directly into the camera app. It’s normal for phones to use “computational photography” these days, a fancy term for all those lighting and post-processing effects they add to your pics as you snap them. But AI makes computational photography into another beast entirely, and it's one I’m not sure we’re ready for.Tech nerds love to ask ourselves “what is a photo?” kind of joking that the more post-processing gets added to a picture, the less it resembles anything that actually happened in real life. Night skies being too bright, faces having fewer blemishes than a mirror would show, that sort of thing. Generative AI in the camera app is like the final boss of that moral conun...