efficiency

When you're browsing from a public Wi-Fi connection—like at your favorite coffee shop—anyone on that network can snoop on what you're doing, with very few exceptions.

Even if you have no idea what a VPN is (it's a Virtual Private Network), the acronym alone conjures visions of corporate firewalls and other relatively boring things, right?

Last week, we showed you how to build your own custom PC, from picking the parts, to putting it together and installing your OS. Here's the complete guide, along with a printable PDF version that you can use as a reference.

Your education doesn't have to stop once you leave school—freedom from the classroom just means you have more control over what you learn and when you learn it.

Picture this: After hours of web browsing, your body is contorted in various unnatural positions over time. Your legs up on the table, or you're lying on the bed sideways with the laptop rotated sideways as well.

There are tons of great reasons to root your Android phone, but once you do, you'll likely be overwhelmed with all the custom ROM options out there. Here's how to go about finding—and installing—the one that fits your needs. Images by Bretty Yoncak. What's a ROM? One of the best things...

When it comes to DIY projects and MacGyver tricks, the binder clip is one of the most versatile things around. Here are our top 10 favorite hacks you can pull off with the $1 office supply.

There's no shortage of online storage and file syncing services these days, which is great—but can make picking just one to use confusing, especially if you need to pay for more space.

Dear Lifehacker, Anytime I see an offer for free cloud storage, I'm all over it. I have over 8GB of Dropbox space, 5GB on Google Drive, 20GB on Amazon Cloud Drive, 50GB on Box, and 7GB on Microsoft's SkyDrive—and I want to take advantage of all of it.

Hard drives and optical drives are the most failure-prone items on a laptop. They're also among the easiest to swap out, upgrade, or, in some cases, live without.

Adding a solid-state drive (SSD) to your computer is simply the best upgrade at your disposal, capable of speeding up your computer in ways you hadn't thought possible.

Tech how-to blogger Amit Agarwal details how to combine a Dropbox account and a simple script with any device that supports Dropbox (i.e., almost all popular smartphones and Windows/Mac/Linux operating systems) to remotely or wirelessly print documents on your home printer. The video above...

Click to viewAs of yesterday's announcement of CalDAV support in Google Calendar, you can now sync your Google Calendar with virtually any popular desktop calendar for free.

The majority of us don't use power tools every day and chances are you have a box or cabinet somewhere with cords and cables sticking out everywhere. Instructables user KaceyK shows a simple method to wrap cords so they don't stretch out and they stay organized. The wrapping process is a pretty...

Someday soon(ish), virtually all of your electronics will transfer data and maybe even charge wirelessly, but in the meantime, we're stuck managing cords and cables.

We love Android, but rooting your phone can give you the opportunity to do so much more than your phone can do out of the box—whether its wireless tethering, speeding it up with overclocking, or customizing the look of your phone with themes.