LifeHacker Technology News

Harsh chemical drain unclogging solutions can actually be abrasive enough to make your pipes leak after the clog is dissolved. Instead considering pouring a half bottle of white vinegar down your drain every three months to keep clogs from forming. More »

I grew up making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (PB&Js) using the simplest method possible. Spread peanut butter on one slice of bread, spread the jelly on the other side, and combine. The problem with that is the jelly can make the bread soggy and can leak out after you take a bite. Reddit user ChickenMcFail uses a trick I call the "Jelly Pocket Method". More »

If you love to homebrew but live in an area where summer temperatures get too hot for proper fermentation you can resolve yourself to wait to brew or you can build a badass Arduino Nano-controlled UberFridge which will maintain temperatures set to a tenth of a degree and can be monitored or controlled using a custom webapp. If you have a spare working fridge the build will cost around $100 in parts. More »

When you need to seriously clean your bathroom take the towels out and assemble an arsenal of spray cleaners and wipes and go to town. To keep these supplies close at hand you may want to consider adding a towel rod to your laundry room to ensure your cleanings supplies are always ready to go. More »

To save money or avoid a trip to the store you can make your own reusable dryer sheets by dipping white wash cloths or rags into a little liquid fabric softener until they're completely saturated and allow them to dry completely—you'll be able to use each rag around a dozen times until you need to repeat the process. More »

Ever been told that you should fully discharge your battery to prolong its life? Or that jailbreaking your phone is illegal? Or that you should wait for the newest Intel processor because it's going to be "so much faster"? These are tech myths we hear all the time, and likely spread to our friends—but most are just a waste of your time (and in some cases, they can actually harm your gadgets). Here are some of the worst offenders. More »

We've covered many mouse traps over the years, but they all need to be reset once you've caught a mouse. This means if you have lots of furry intruders you'll need to have several traps or just build this version using a 5-gallon bucket, an aluminum beverage can, a small piece of wood, and a wooden dowel. More »

The human body and its brain are pretty incredible. They're also fragile and dumb. Realizing this can make your life miserable, or you can look at it as an opportunity and take control. This weekend, learn a few built-in superpowers you may not have known you had. All they take is a little practice. More »

Verizon relents a little on unlimited data, Congress considers fighting for some "hearts and minds" at home, and Mac folks can relax about lost hotkeys. More »

As we inch closer to summer, you're more likely to run into poison ivy, bug bites, and the other itchy ailments that come with being outside. Redditor xume points out that banana peels are a great homemade remedy for itchy skin. More »

Windows: AniExplorer enables hidden animations in the Windows Explorer interface, letting you customize your file manager and give it a little pizazz. More »

The Daily App Deals post is a round-up of the best app discounts of the day, as well as some notable mentions for ones that are on sale. More »

By nature, we're optimistic. We think we're better than most people at virtually everything we do. We believe we'll beat the odds of getting cancer even when we smoke a pack of cigarettes a week. This is the result of our optimism bias, and it both helps us succeed and make some of the dumbest decisions of our lives. Here's how it works, and how you can make it work for you. More »

This week we squeezed our workout routine into 20 minutes, ordered tailor-made clothing on the cheap, cured our router's constant need for a reset, and more. Here's a look back. More »

Bandits are very simple to understand: they're a rubber band with a hook. This may not seem extremely compelling at first glance, but there's actually a lot you can do with them. They can be used to hang a water bottle on your bike, your sunglasses from your car's rearview mirror, tools on a ladder when you need to set them somewhere, and virtually anything you can think of. More »

Getting new Facebook notifications is always fun, but that red number gets a lot more annoying when your notifications are just filled with apps you don't want and comment threads you no longer care about. Today, Facebook added new controls to the notification dropdown so you can unsubscribe from certain threads and apps right away. More »

Ever found a beautiful bird dead outside your home? Chances are it smashed into your window and never recovered. For every dead bird you find, just imagine how many were snatched up by a cat or pulled into the brush by some other critter. Worldwide, window collisions kill close to a billion(!) birds every year. With spring migration currently underway in the northern hemisphere, now is as good as ever to make your home bird safe. The DIY experts at Stack Exchange tell you how. More »

Many more people than ever before are getting the pink slip, thanks to massive layoffs happening everywhere. If there's a chance you could be the next layoff, find out what you can get from your company before you're rushed out the door. More »

Linux users have more text editors, IDEs, and command-line tools than a programmer can shake a stick at. If you're looking for a good programming text editor, we recommend Kate. It's super easy to get started with, but is quite powerful and has lots of great plugins to beef it up. More »

I recently jailbroke my iPhone and now that it's done I'm very overwhelmed by Cydia. I've downloaded a couple apps, but I don't understand most of what I'm looking at. The descriptions and explanation in Cydia don't help much, so I'm wondering: can you help me wrap my head all this stuff? More »