Lifehacker

We’ll be the first to say that being worried about someone knowing if you’ve read their text message is a little ridiculous. Reading the message is the whole point of texting, and yet…we can also admit there are strategic reasons why you might want a…

macOS 8, not to be confused with OS X 10.8—which you’re probably much more familiar with—is a 1990s-era operating system that found a home on ancient Apple systems with decidedly old-school names, such as “Power Macintosh” and “PowerBook.” But…

Four of the most powerful tech industry CEOs will testify before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, July 29 to determine whether their companies engaged in anti-competitive business strategies against smaller, rival companies. The hearing will be…

Don’t overthink it. In the age of modern smartphones, there are not many reasons to completely turn your phone off. In the video above, I explain the few instances where restarting your phone can be helpful and why you shouldn’t worry about doing it…

If you live your life across multiple services and computers—for example, using Google’s suite of digital tools alongside Apple’s various iCloud-based offerings—the best thing you can do for yourself is to mash all your worlds together. To carry this…

For those of you who feared installing iOS 14 as a developer beta, worry not. It’s public beta time, which means this preview version of Apple’s latest iPhone operating system might be a little buggy, but not nearly as wild as what some of us have been…

Covering your webcam is one of the oldest privacy tips around, but some MacBook owners have made the unfortunate discovery that third-party camera covers can damage your laptop when you try to shut it. Many of these coverings are bulky enough that a MacBook…

Remember back in 2017, when Apple came out and admitted that it was throttling iOS devices with degraded batteries? The decision—which the company claimed was all about improving battery life—led to a class-action lawsuit and an eventual $500 million…

A Facebook bug is causing widespread crashes across a swath of iOS apps. The crashes have been reported for Spotify, Bumble, Mario Kart Tour, PUBG Mobile, Tinder, Venmo, and a few others.Read more...

iMessage is one of the perks of being inside the Apple universe: The service gets around text messaging fees so you can send messages to other Apple users for free, and it works on wifi so you can message anywhere you don’t have a cell connection—on an…

Cases of an odd battery-draining iOS bug are on the rise and the Apple Music app appears to be the culprit, with reports showing that the app can rapidly eat up to 95 percent of a device’s battery for no reason. The issue affects a wide variety of iOS…

When Apple launched its new credit card last summer, one of the big selling points was that it wasn’t like an ordinary credit card. It lives primarily in your Apple Wallet on your iPhone or iPad, and you don’t even get a physical card unless you request…

A new privacy feature in iOS 14 has exposed a number of popular apps and raised concerns about clipboard privacy. In the video above, I explain why this is concerning, but not something to panic about.Read more...

Whether you’ve bit the bullet and installed a brand-new iOS beta on your iPhone or you’re updating to a new public release of iOS, the process usually goes swimmingly. When it doesn’t, however, the anxiety kicks in: How the heck do you fix an iPhone that…

Facebook’s iOS app is finally getting an official dark mode. Just like the dark modes in Facebook’s other apps—Messenger, Instagram and Whatsapp—turning on dark mode swaps the iOS app’s default white and blue interface with a black and grey theme.…

WWDC 2020 is over and done. And while I greatly enjoyed Apple’s virtual setup for the week-long series of events, I had even more fun digging deep into the latest beta for iOS 14 to find all the interesting features Apple didn’t talk about in its big…

One of the new features coming in iOS 14 is the ability to customize your car’s CarPlay interface with one of several new wallpapers. If you don’t know, CarPlay lets you control your car’s stereo and other connected smart car accessories with Siri voice…

I have a lot of apps on my iPhone. You have a lot of apps on your iPhone. That’s just the of way life in the digital world. It’s gotten so bad that at one point, I had apps on my phone that weren’t even compatible with my iPhone X’s slim-bezel layout.…

I often write about pretty intense and aggravating tech issues for Lifehacker’s Tech 911 column. It can be ... a lot. In the interests of taking a small summer breather, I’m going to lighten the mood this week and focus on a problem that affects…

Apple’s iOS 14 has a great new privacy feature that sends you a notification whenever an application inspects what’s on your iPhone’s clipboard. It’s sounds like a smart addition, but it’s also uncovered some potentially unsettling behavior from…

If you’re a Google loyalist who just happens to be an iPhone owner, too, you can now summon Google Assistant almost as easily as you would Apple’s digital assistant. All it takes is a little creativity, a Shortcut, and a finger—and it’s almost as good…

Recent social media posts (which I won’t link to, but you can find them easily with a Twitter search) claim Apple and Google are installing contact tracing apps on your phone without your permission. The posts show even convincing screenshots and allude to…

There are no sensors on the back of your iPhone for your finger to fiddle with—unlike, say, a Google Pixel, which does have a fingerprint sensor on the back—but a new feature debuting in iOS 14 allows you to tap the back of your iPhone to launch different…

As much as “macOS Sausalito” might roll off the tongue, Big Sur is the California landmark repping Apple’s big operating system update this year. And what an update it is. If you hate how iOS or iPadOS looks, I’ve got some real bad news about macOS.…

Happy Worldwide Developer Conference Day! In other words, “the day when Apple announces a bunch of software stuff.” Apple talked about improvements to each of its platforms during today’s virtual keynote for WWDC 2020, and we’re going to focus on the…