Spending lots of hours scrolling on social media and clicking through photos, videos and stories is arguably the opposite of mindfulness, but now you can multitask, at least on Snapchat. The new Headspace Mini comes with six short meditations you can do alone or with friends without ever leaving the…
Android: Irritated as I am that Dark Sky will no longer have a home on Android as of August 1, the pain is slightly lessened by other big weather players — a phrase I don’t get to use nearly enough — stepping up to provide similar services. Or, at least,…
People are more likely to use reusable coffee cups if they see others doing it, or if cafe owners charge extra for throwaway coffee cups, our research has found. Our study also found people would be more likely to properly dispose of compostable cups if councils provided dedicated organic waste…
We have access to so many unique services with so much great content that it’s difficult to filter through it all. How many times do you go to start a new TV show but don’t know whether it’s worth the time? Every night? Same. When you do settle on one…
Choosing a prenatal is one of the first of many decisions mums-to-be make, and it isn’t an easy one. The ingredient list can be confusing, the pills themselves are large, and they come in a bewildering variety. A search on Amazon yields 507 hits for “prenatal vitamins,” plus there are…
If your kids have ever wanted to design and animate their own video games but didn’t know where to start, Roblox has a free coding challenge that can teach them the basics. The challenge, called “Build It, Play It,” gives kids easy-to-follow instructions to help them learn how to create…
I wish we didn’t need VPNs, but they can be a necessary part of a balanced data security breakfast. ISPs, governments, advertisers and even individuals keen on knowing what you do online can find ways to easily track your browsing data. VPNs make doing so harder (but hardly impossible) by obfuscating…
You might have a dark system theme; you might have set all of your favourite apps to use a dark theme. Even still, the websites you typically visit might not want to play along, which can be a jarring experience while you’re browsing — akin to someone opening a vampire’s…
Wearing a face mask in public will soon become compulsory for residents in Melbourne and Mitchell Shire amid a major coronavirus outbreak. Residents in New South Wales are also being urged to consider wearing face masks as Sydney grapples with getting a growing infection rate under control. If you’ve been…
Early ventures in queer young adult (YA) fiction followed certain conventions: they tended to be set in the contemporary world and their narratives focused on coming out, bullying, heartbreak or fighting for acceptance. Most unfortunately, these stories also have a long history of ending in tragedy. There is absolutely a…
For the lucky ones among us, a decent salary is second to work enjoyment. For the rest, a good salary is truly the only motivator for getting through the grind. If you’re looking to see how you fare compared to others, the ATO’s released figures for the 20 highest-paid jobs…
Ask a person of a certain age what their blood type is, and chance are they’ll know it offhand. From military dog tags to Cold War-era tattoos on children, the idea was that knowing your blood type could save your life in an emergency situation where you might need blood…
The daiquiri is the most ubiquitous rum cocktail, and for good reason. It’s delicious, refreshing, and extremely easy to make. It doesn’t need any modifications but — if you do feel the need to switch it up — you can make a completely new (completely pink) beverage by swapping the…
For the past year and a half, our intrepid video producer Abu Zafar has written, hosted, and edited some wonderful segments for Lifehacker. In order to wish him well on his new endeavours, we assembled some of his best videos for you to enjoy.
I enjoy playing PC games at reasonable resolutions and quality settings without setting my legs or desk on fire, which is why I typically don’t even think about a laptop’s gaming capabilities when I’m shopping for something new. Why bother, when my desktop (and its discrete Nvidia RTX card) can…
Have you been so angry, frustrated and/or stressed lately that you just want to scream as long as you can into the void? Us, too. But as it turns out, we now have the option of having our blood-curdling wails echo throughout the land — specifically, Iceland. The small island…
Disney is such a ubiquitous force in commerce, media and culture in 2020 that it’s hard to imagine there was ever a time it wasn’t one of the most powerful brands in the world. But back in the 1980s, the studio that Walt built was in dire straits — though…
Anyone who says the grilled cheese toastie is not a universally loved and accepted food, doesn’t know what they’re talking about.
The thought of returning to strict coronavirus lockdowns is something most of us would rather not consider. But sadly, it’s the reality for those in Melbourne and Mitchell Shire, after a major outbreak ground the city to a halt in July. It’s made experts consider whether a shift from a…
Apple recently announced plans to pivot its Macs from Intel hardware to ARM-based chips that the company will be developing itself. However, the shift to ARM won’t happen all at once, meaning both Intel and ARM-based Mac models will be available at the same time. If you’re thinking about a…
Look, we get it. All the virtual travel articles and see-the-world-from-your-laptop tips were fun for the first few months of the pandemic, when it was all still a novelty. But now that you’ve taken online trips to cities, museums and historical sites around the world, you may be looking for…
Taking a walk in a forest can been deeply calming. Even if it’s just off the beaten path and you’re swatting mosquitoes away, you’re someplace different than the houses and buildings where you probably spend your life. A hike or a camping trip, or even a meditative half-hour in the…
Until about five years ago, I was extremely into craft beer, particularly Belgians and anything spontaneously fermented. But somewhere along the line, I developed an allergy (?) or some sort of “condition” that causes me to sneeze every time I drink a beer that is not excessively light in flavour…
Whether you and your roommates are completely new to BitTorrent, or you’ve downloaded enough Linux distributions, public-domain movies, and concert recordings to make your ISP very interested in your monthly data cap, there’s a great tool you should use to check how public your BitTorrent activity actually is.
In a perfect world, I’d leave my phone on vibrate all the time. Nothing against my fun ringtone; I just find it more pleasant to feel a buzz when someone is calling than get blasted with some song. Thanks to an update from Google, however, I can have both—on my…
Even the smallest office space can be jazzed up on a budget. From great looking plants to new lighting, any careful touch can make a workspace more inviting. Here’s a few of our reccomendations.
The federal government has announced a new program, JobTrainer, designed to help ease Australia’s growing unemployment rate. While it sounds like a new work sneaker or another indie supergroup, it’s the latest initiative aiming to up-skill a young workforce that has suddenly found itself under or unemployed. What is JobTrainer?…
Bottled Frappuccinos will never fail to transport me to the year 1999. I am 13 years old — all Clinique Happy and butterfly clips — and sipping a chilled Mocha coffee drink from a glass bottle seems like the height of adult sophistication. I hadn’t really thought about the drink…
If you haven’t spent your summer watching people bounce off volcanic rocks and disappear into boiling pits of lava, you have been missing out on one of life’s few pleasures these days. Floor Is Lava is the big budget version of the game every kid inexplicably makes up in their own living…
I’m a world traveller and a proud ex-pat, and I’ve lived outside of the U.S. for years. This means people often come to me for advice about moving abroad. One of them that comes up most often is pretty straightforward: “What are some of the downsides?” Let’s review.
Nintendo, I love you, but you’re the worst company in the world for product updates. Take the Nintendo Switch, for example: It receives updates on a fairly regular basis; that’s not the problem. But Nintendo doesn’t always spell out what it’s updating when there’s a new version of your Switch’s…
For the last month and a half, we earthlings have been treated to a nighttime sky in which we can point out three planets at once: Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Starting this week, you can add in Venus and — if you use binoculars — Mercury, too. Here’s how to…
The revelations in the “palace letters” may well renew enthusiasm for an Australian republic, especially coming on top of recent controversies involving both older and younger members of the royal family. A recent poll also suggests increasing popular support for a republic. According to the YouGov poll, 62% of Australians…
