Life Hacks – Spoken Edition

Whenever I’m given (or purchase) a nice bottle of wine, I’m immediately faced with the question of whether or not it’s something I plan on drinking right now, or something I want to drink later. Most people aren’t storing a ton of wine these days, but when you come across a bottle or two that you do want to save for a few years (or a few decades) it’s important to make sure you’re saving that wine the right way.

If you or someone you know has ever unboxed a new HDTV and set it up only to find the video looks terrible and overly smooth, the problem is simple: Motion Smoothing, which often ships on by default, is enabled on the set, and turning it off will give you the experience you're looking for.

The National Hurricane Center expects Hurricane Florence to cause “life-threatening, catastrophic flash flooding” when it makes landfall later this week, and now there’s a tool that gives us an idea of just how catastrophic that impact will be. This tracker from ESRI takes the familiar prediction model and uses it to calculate some key demographic data for the area inside the error cone.

NPR’s Morning Edition recently revised their clock, the second-by-second schedule of newscasts, longer segments, promos, music beds and funding messages for each hour of the show. The new clock, effective August 13, 2018, represents the first change in Morning Edition’s scheduling since 2014. Most notably, it features two newscasts per hour instead of the three in the old format. Previously, you would hear headlines at 1 minute, 19 minutes and 42 minutes after the hour.

Mornings. Many of us hate them; some of us love them; all of us want to make the best of them. But how exactly do we do that? First we ask Benjamin Spall, co-author of My Morning Routine: How Successful People Start Every Day Inspired, about creating the ultimate morning routine. We also talk to Vanessa Marin, a licensed sex therapist (and regular “After Hours” Lifehacker contributor) about why we should occasionally ditch the routine and just do it.

Web/iOS/Android: The Healthcare Blue Book is a free guide that reveals fair prices for healthcare services, so you don't end up overpaying (even when using quality healthcare providers). Results on the web and in the mobile apps are customized to your area. Most of us have no idea if the prices doctors, dentists, and other healthcare providers offer are fair or not. That's a big problem especially for the millions of people without health insurance or those with high-deductible insurance accounts.

They may not be the healthiest foods on the planet (in fact, we can guarantee they're not), but they're among the best you can find at your local McDonald's. Hamburger - 250 calories - 9g fat (3.5g sat) - 520mg sodium There's absolutely no reason you need to eat like you're feeding sextuplets; the original McDonald's hamburger is one of the most reasonably priced items on the menu that is also reasonable on your body.

If your passport is set to expire soon and you have travel plans, you’ll want to watch out for the “six month rule.” Many countries require a six month buffer on your passport’s expiration date. We’ve told you about this rule before. Because of visa time limits, many countries require your passport to be valid for 3-6 months beyond your departure date.

The Beatles single “Hey Jude,” the band’s longest-running #1 hit, turns 50 on Sunday. Paul McCartney wrote it for John’s son Julian Lennon, about dealing with John’s affair with Yoko Ono and separation from Jules’s mother Cynthia. But Paul’s advice is broad enough that every fan can read their own meaning into it. (John, being John, felt that the song was actually for him.

Apple may have officially discontinued the Airport Express network extender, along with the rest of its wifi hardware, but it released a big firmware update yesterday for the Airport Express. As long as you have a second-generation Airport Express (released in June of 2012), the update allows you to stream directly to connected speakers via AirPlay 2.

The U.S. Open officially kicks off in New York Monday (August 27th). Serena Williams is back from maternity leave, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic are fresh off wins at the Australian Open and Wimbledon, respectively, and all the big names in tennis are gearing up for the event. The tournament goes on for two weeks and kicks off each day at either 11am or 12pm ET and runs until it’s over for the day, typically around 11pm ET.

I’m a huge fan of taking walking tours when I travel. Walking tours are a great way to see a city, and if you opt for a food tour you get to sample some of the local cuisine, take in the sights, and get a little exercise in the process. It’s a great combo. That is unless you decided to wear the wrong shoes. Uncomfortable shoes, or shoes not designed for walking long distances, can make a walking adventure a painful idea rather than a pleasant excursion.

In case you can’t remember the last time Windows 95 was cool, we’ll help: the Grateful Dead had performed their final show, the San Francisco 49ers had won their fifth Super Bowl, and Kevin Mitnick was tossed in jail.

Google recently rolled out an update that added Google Now support to its Chrome browser on both Windows and Mac. That's great if you use Google services. If you don't, it tends to just repeatedly tell you the current weather. Here's how to disable it. To turn off the new notifications, you have a couple different options.

Sony is celebrating its sale of 500 million PlayStation systems with a new limited-edition console featuring 2TB of space and a translucent blue shell. Only 50,000 of the units will be sold worldwide, with orders officially starting tomorrow, August 24th. Beyond just a pretty baller look, the $500 console also includes a matching DualShock wireless controller, PlayStation Camera, and a vertical stand.