Photo: Primakov (Shutterstock)

If you’re like me, recharge your devices tirelessly, even if it could damage the battery over time. “This is the way,” I think to myself as I look at the AirPods Pro charging case that I’ve left plugged in for the past three weeks.

One of the best forms of preventive maintenance that you can easily do for any Apple device is to regularly check the condition of the battery. I’m not talking about the number in the top right corner of your screen that tells you how much juice you have left as a percentage. I mean the slightly more buried setting that gives you an indication of how your battery is doing overall.

For more information on battery life, see the following video:

While there’s not much you can do when your battery is bad other than a new one, you at least have a clue that your device is nearing its “old” status, or that your charging habits may be preventing you from sucking so much life out Your device as you can. With luck, you will find that the battery is dead while your device is still under warranty, so your battery replacement is free instead of $$$.

To check the health of the battery on any Apple device:

How to check your iPhone’s battery level

To see how good your iPhone’s battery is, drag this the settings App and tap battery. Wait a moment and you will be presented with a series of graphs showing you your battery level (and activity) over the past 24 hours or the past 10 days.

Screenshot: David Murphy

These are all well and good, but what you really want to do is tap on Battery Health, which could bring you the gritty news:

Screenshot: David Murphy

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However, don’t be alarmed if you see this message above. Again, these are just data points. If your iPhone can still get you through the day without any problems – and you don’t experience that significant performance degradation as a result of your meh battery – then you don’t sweat. You may want to consider upgrading to a new phone (or an expensive battery replacement) at some point, but it isn’t strictly necessary unless you have really noticeable problems using your phone or tablet every day.

What about the iPad?

So bad news: you can see your charge and usage graphs on an iPad, but there isn’t a dedicated Battery Health section that gives you an idea of ​​how long your battery will last. You’ll need to turn to a third-party app like. turn iMazing or Coconut battery to get such details. Too bad.

How to check the health of your Mac’s battery

When or when you upgrade to upgrade macOS Big Sur, you will see that the “Energy Saving” section is no longer present in your system settings. In its place is a new battery section. You can probably guess where this is going.

Screenshot: David Murphy

Click on that and you’ll get a setup that looks similar to iOS. You can see how much you’ve used your battery over the last 24 hours and 10 days, and you can access all of your previous power saving settings – including scheduled startup and shutdown of your Mac.

Screenshot: David Murphy

Unfortunately, like the iPad, you can’t see the overall health of your Mac’s battery. You can get a sense of how many charge cycles your battery has gone through by pulling the one up on your Mac System information and then click on power (to find under “hardware“Section). There you can see the number of cycles, the condition and the maximum capacity of your battery and you can compare this number with Apple’s limits to get a feel for how your battery is doing.

Here’s how to check the battery status of your Apple Watch

After upgrading to watchOS 7, you can check your device’s battery status right on your wrist. Pull yours the settings App and tap battery. You will be presented with a graph showing the charge level of your Apple Watch over the past day:

Screenshot: David Murphy

Scroll down a bit and tap Battery Heath, where you can see the total battery capacity of your Apple Watch. It’s that simple. As with the other types of Apple products, you shouldn’t stress if this number isn’t what you expected. As long as you can get through the day without having to charge your Apple Watch in the middle, you’re probably fine.

Screenshot: David Murphy

This article was originally published June 24, 2020 and was updated on June 11, 2021 to add new photos and revised to comply with the latest Lifehacker style guidelines.

Photo: RealLiia (Shutterstock)

Maybe you’ve already started Celebrate Pride Month as a family, be it by talking to your kids about what it means to identify yourself as LGBTQ, looking for local events, or orienting yourself on the rainbow handicrafts and baked goods. But if your child identifies as LGBTQ, you may be wondering what else you can or should do to get the month recognized.

Ask them how they want to party

First of all, it’s important to recognize that while you can have all of the ideas in the world, paint your home in rainbow colors, and make a list of all the local events you can attend together, your celebrations should ultimately reflect your child’s needs and feelings. Perhaps they want the whole family to pile up in the car to head to the local Pride festival – or they might prefer to go with a friend (or not partying at all). Tell them that you want to acknowledge the month and celebrate their individuality, but also that you want to respect their boundaries or priorities.

You may already have some ideas or you may not want to do much. Follow their example in this regard – but if you’re looking to celebrate or acknowledge the month and aren’t sure how, here are some ideas to suggest or implement yourself.

Offer to have a Pride party

You’re – hopefully – ready (and happy) to attend any Pride events they want to go to, but if they prefer to keep the celebration smaller and more private, you can offer to have your own Pride party at home too organize. Who you might want to invite or what this party might look like depends on whether you’re with family and friends – and how supportive those family and friends have been.

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You can plan the celebration in any way that makes most sense for you, from a loud, colorful party to a small gathering of your closest and most supportive loved ones.

Host an LGBTQ family movie night (or nights)

Chances are there are a number of films exploring modern LGBTQ history that you’ve never seen before: Now is the time! How Ross Johnson recently wrote for Lifehacker:

There are as many ways to explore queer history as there are people who have lived it and many legends that we have almost forgotten that would be known in a fairer world. History can provide inspiration and it can also help us avoid making the same damn mistakes over and over again – mistakes like forgetting that trans people were at the forefront of homosexual liberation.

Pride is a time to celebrate, honor and remember all of it, whether you are trans, bi, ass, poly, pan, intersex, nonbinary or anywhere else on the gender and sexual identity and expression spectrum … proud to support your queer friends.

Johnson has compiled a list of 30 of the most important queer films of all time, the can be found here. Have everyone in the family pick a movie (or three), pop popcorn, and start watching.

Think how inclusive your own home is

It’s great to talk to your child about how they recognize the month, but pride is something that should extend throughout the year, especially in your home. Inclusivity, love, and support are things they need in July and August as well and you may inadvertently not show them these things.

Be aware that your own language may need to be updated to become more inclusive. You may want to use more terms like “partner” or “significant other” in place of boyfriend or girlfriend and avoid making things too gender specific by describing them as “girly” or “masculine”. And definitely, definitely use their preferred pronouns.

If the predominant imagery in your home represents straight cis people, look for ways to diversify and incorporate more inclusive imagery and media into your daily life. You can also donate to support an LGBTQ organization in honor of your child – and tell them you did.

Photo: Jordan Calhoun

The first time I got on a skateboard I was in high school. Moved from an all-black school in Detroit to a predominantly white school and learned to navigate a new cultural landscape – hacky sack, field hockey, acoustic guitars – led me to Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 and later to a group of kids playing outside ” SKATE “.

The rules were familiar enough – not unlike the HORSE and PIG I was used to on the basketball court – and when they told me an ollie was easy to learn, I trusted them. However, when I stood on the deck and tried to jump, the board flew away from under me and I landed on one side. I couldn’t breathe and injured my ribs. I never touched a skateboard again.

When resident Lifehacker health genius Beth Skwarecki organized our monthly Lifehacker Fitness Challenge Series that year, I realized I wanted to use it as an opportunity to address something I was scared of; My logic is that if I decide to do something I’ve always wanted to do but was too intimidated, I make it public so I can’t resign. (That was probably the logic behind our parenting editor Meghan. decide to become a runner.) And so here I am, closer to 40 than 30, and I decide to overcome my fear of skateboarding.

Skateboarding is a physical hobby that will get me injured. It’s practically inevitable. When I learn a new language, my tongue may be tied up, but it won’t make my mouth bleed …

Why I’m Afraid of Skateboarding

Learning new things rarely scares me because I’m not scared of making a fool of myself. I have so much in my favor: adults are often poor at learning because we’ve become so used to being competent in our jobs, hobbies, and interests that we resist looking or feeling stupid, but I can laugh well at me. Like many adult learners, I am inspired by the endless quotes, such as how Vera Wang didn’t start designing clothes until she was 40, how Toni Morrison didn’t publish her first book until she was 39, or Ava DuVernay didn’t take her first camera off until she got her first Takes camera in hand.

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However, skateboarding differs in that it is less of a mental than a physical one. Skateboarding, in particular, is a physical hobby that will injure me. It’s practically inevitable. When I learn a new language, my tongue may be tied up, but it won’t make my mouth bleed; my fingers won’t hurt if i play the wrong piano keys.

So I’m scared of the pain and long-term injury that can take me out of the game for longer than this challenge is supposed to last. I’m scared of what I felt when I played SKATE and landed on my ribs and the instant failure that injury can bring. To allay those fears, I am probably exaggerating a little.

I bought enough pads to protect myself from a two-story fall, let alone a normal one.

How much will my beginner skateboarding equipment cost me?

Lifehacker’s author Sam Blum wrote about how to start skateboarding as an adult, so of course I followed his advice to buy a skateboard (I bought from a local NYC skate shop called Uncle Funky’s Boards), find a beginner-friendly surface to practice on (I chose a local basketball court in Harlem), and let other people inspire me Watching skaters (my Instagram feed is now full of skate accounts).

What Sam didn’t mention, however, was the safety gear I needed to be confident enough to step back on deck at my age. I bought enough cushion to protect myself from a two-story fall, let alone a normal one – enough to make Sam laugh when he saw me engulfed in cushions. Did i go overboard? Probably. In the interests of complete transparency, I didn’t rummage around or make price comparisons either.

Here’s what I bought and how much I spent:

• Schönwetterstraße 8.5 Completed: $ 175.00
• Triple8 certified Sweatsaver helmet: $ 60
• 187 elbow pads: $ 38
• 187 wrist guards: $ 25
• 187 knee pads: $ 45

Add $ 30.44 for the 8.875% New York Sales Tax and my grand total was $ 373.44 to resist my fears. Anyone else who learns to skateboard will probably get by a lot cheaper if they shop around, but my decision was a race against my fear and I was happy to support a local skate shop that patiently answered the many questions I asked them .

You could also buy a lot less. As I have found out so far – officially a week after the start of my trip – I could only have gotten by with the wrist guards and without the other pads. These are only required at my local skate park, and while I have taken some hard falls, luckily none have been hard enough where I felt the pads were critical.

How the Skateboard Community Can Help a Beginner

Since I started learning to skate, I’ve had some tips and support from helpful friends and strangers, asking everyone the same question, “What is a reasonable trick for beginners?”

(The first question I actually asked the staff at my local skate shop was if I could learn Ollie in a month, to which the salesperson replied, “That depends … how dedicated are you?” Since then, I’ve been around many different opinions on whether or not ollies are a good “beginner’s trick” so I changed the question from “can I learn Ollie in a month” to what trick I should try.)

What I know for sure is that I need a goal to achieve it, and I could use some help there. I found my own answer to the Ollie question pretty quickly: Here’s my first baby ollie after skating almost every day. What’s next? Better Ollie? Tic-taks? Something else? I take the advice of what constitutes a reasonable, achievable goal – and I also take the encouragement. I’m still scared – but I won’t let that stop me.

Photo: Alessandro Cancian (Shutterstock)

Today is National Get Outdoors Day, and while we usually don’t need to be reminded to go outside, it’s easy to forget that after more than a year during a global pandemic, it’s an option. If you’re looking for a fun (and relaxing) way to spend time outdoors and have a few idle days of vacation, you might be interested in a contest that awards 10 winners a $ 4,000 travel grant rent a house by the lake. Here’s what you should know.

What you should know about the competition

Even if “rent a lake house” is on your summer wish list, not everyone is financially able to do so. But Wisconsin-based beer maker Leinenkugel gives 10 people travel grants to live out the Midwestern summer fantasy they didn’t know had and spend time in a lake house.

The competition is called “Documents for Docks” refers to sharing streaming documentaries indoors to spend more time outdoors – preferably somewhere with docks. Ten people will win a $ 4,000 travel grant to rent a lakefront home, while another 500 people will win a $ 10 Visa gift card (which is technically for the purchase of a six-pack of Summer Shandy linen ball, but no one will know if you spend it on something else).

So enter

You must be 21 years or older and resident in the United States to participate. Then Fill out this form, consisting of your e-mail address and a “keyword”. Your keyword equals the approximate total hours of online videos you streamed in 2020:

• PREMIERE = 0-10 hours
• SEASON2 = 11-20 hours
• MARATHON = 21-40 hours
• FINALE = 41+ hours

After that you will be asked to add more contact information. Participation is required by June 23, 2021 11:59:59 PM CT. Then on or about June 24, 2021, 10 winners will be selected at random for the travel grant. Here is the Complete set of rules, general terms and conditions.

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