About Lifehacker Australia

Lifehacker is a technology blog with a slightly different way of looking at the world. We see technology as a shortcut to life. When we look at products, software or gadgets, we stop and ask – how does this make my work or play faster, more efficient, and more fun?

If you’re tech savvy and looking for a better, faster way to do things, or you’re just starting to explore what you can do with technology, stop by Lifehacker to check out the latest tips, tricks and shortcuts. Part technology guide, part productivity tool, Lifehacker aims to help you organise your workday and maximise your playtime.

The Australian edition delivers all the best Lifehacker tips from the US, while adding our own Antipodean flavour with local updates and articles to ensure that Lifehackers down under have all the best and most relevant tech tips at their disposal.

If you'd like to contact Lifehacker, you can email us at tips@lifehacker.com.au. We’d love to hear your favourite tricks, tips and tools, and we love finding out about new products too.

Lifehacker Australia is published by Allure Media in association with Gawker Media.


Who is the Lifehacker?

Sarah Stokely is an IT writer and geek who lives in Melbourne, Australia. She’s been writing about IT since 2000, and she’s been blogging about that long as well.

She’s open minded about computers, speaking fluent Windows, Mac and Nintendo Wii. She still loves her red leather Filofax, but may cheat on it with the Apple iPhone.

Sarah’s interest in journalism can be dated back to seeing Superman: The Movie when she was a wee thing. If there was an award for having seen the most movies portraying journalists, she’d win it for sure.

Her favourite t-shirt came from Think Geek, her favourite book of all time is Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson, and if a Baldur’s Gate sequel ever comes out, she’ll die a happy woman. She lives in St Kilda with three cats. The number of computers in her house could possibly add up to more than 10.


Frequently asked questions

Hang on, isn’t there already a Lifehacker blog? Who the hell are you?

Yep, our venerable parent blog Lifehacker (www.lifehacker.com) is published by Gawker Media out of the USA. It’s been around for several years now, and is edited by Gina Trapani. Our blog, Lifehacker AU (www.lifehacker.com.au) was born in mid-August 2007, when the Australian editor (Sarah Stokely) was brought on board to produce the local edition of Lifehacker.

Lifehacker AU is the localised version of Lifehacker US – so if you subscribe to Lifehacker AU you get all of the Lifehacker US goodness, plus local stories and comment written by Sarah.

So what’s the difference between Lifehacker US and Lifehacker AU?

I’m glad you asked! Lifehacker AU is the localised version of Lifehacker US – so it contains all the posts from Lifehacker US, with the added goodness of local stories which you *won’t* find on Lifehacker US.

Why is this good? Well, if a Lifehacker story from the US is about an online service only available in America, we’ll tell you that, and often we’ll suggest some local alternatives. We’ll also be looking at locally produced software and products and stores which may fall below the Lifehacker US radar, or only be relevant to Australians.

Basically, if you read Lifehacker AU you get all of the Lifehacker US goodness, plus extra local comment and stories. Win!

I tried to go to Lifehacker and ended up at Lifehacker.com.au. What’s that about?

There is an automatic redirection in place to catch Australian readers who are looking for Lifehacker. This is to catch people and let them know there’s a local version.

But I want to read the American Lifehacker! How do I get back there?

If Australian readers want to visit the Lifehacker US site, they can hit the "US edition" link at the top of any Lifehacker AU page.

You said Lifehacker AU contains all the US stories, but one is missing!

We post all US posts on the Aussie site except the job ads and 'thanks to our sponsor' posts. Sometimes Gawker (who publish Lifehacker US) run posts by their other blogs (ie Consumerist or Jezebel) on Lifehacker US - they aren't posts by Lifehacker US and so they don't get published here either. But all Lifehacker content does come to us and gets published here.

Why haven’t you posted about my favourite software/hardware/online service/productivity tool?

Hey I’m good but I’m not omniscient! How about you drop me a line at tips@lifehacker.com.au and tell me about it!