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If you’re someone who reheats the same cup of coffee two or three times before finally finishing it, the Ember Mug 2 might be your kind of upgrade. It’s a 10oz smart mug that keeps your drink at your preferred temperature (anywhere from 120 to 145 degrees) for up to 90 minutes on battery or all day if you leave it on its charging coaster. This Open Box unit is on sale for $69.99 right now on StackSocial (down from $129.95), and while it isn’t sealed and pristine, it’s been verified to be in new condition and includes a full 1-year warranty. It ships free to the contiguous U.S., and everything you need is in the box—the mug, charging coaster, and cable. Just pour your drink, let it do its thing (it lets you know via a tiny LED light when your drink has hit your perfect temperature), and forget about lukewarm coffee.

You can use the Ember Mug 2 straight out of the box with its default 135-degree setting, but the real fun starts when you pair it with the Ember app (available on iOS and Android). You can dial in a specific temperature, assign custom presets for different drinks (tea, black coffee, green tea, etc.), and even change the color of the LED to match your vibe. It also shuts off on its own when it’s empty or hasn’t been touched in a while, which is great for people who forget everything, including whether they left their mug on the charger.

You’ll need to hand-wash it (it’s not dishwasher safe), but it’s water-resistant enough (IPX7) to rinse or even submerge if you get carried away with the sponge. It also charges via USB-C, so you’re not stuck hunting for a proprietary charger if you misplace the cable. If gifting season is coming up or if you’re just tired of babysitting your drink with a microwave, this is one of those gadgets that actually earns its place on the counter.

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HVAC units, trash cans, outdoor pipes: These may all be necessary, but they’re not always the most attractive things to look at, and curb appeal is incredibly important for both resale value and first impressions. If you don’t want that ugly propane tank, sprinkler valve, or row of trash cans to be the first thing people notice about your house, don’t worry—there are some easy ways to hide all that stuff.

Artificial stumps & rocks

For smaller items that interrupt your landscaping or garden—like pool pumps, sprinkler pipes, or electrical boxes—you can use an inexpensive fake rock like this to cover them up. If you match the color and texture of your fake rock with what’s already visible, it will blend in seamlessly. You can also buy hollow fake stumps like this if that’s a better match for your landscaping or if you need to hide something taller (or you can buy a taller fake stone, like this 34-inch high model).

Privacy screens

Hiding larger items like an HVAC unit, propane tank, or trash and recycling bins requires something larger than a fake rock. Exterior privacy screens are a simple way to get the job done—all it takes is a little thought on the style and material to make sure it matches or complements your house’s exterior. You can even find privacy screens with built-in planters, like this, so it looks less like an awkward barrier and more like a part of your curb appeal plan.

Trellises

If the planter screen seems like a great idea, consider the power of a trellis and a climbing plant, which creates a privacy screen with a more natural look. You can buy a trellis in different shapes, too, so you can train your climbing plants to cover up just about anything—like a tube trellis to cover a downspout or an ugly section of exposed pipe. And you can make your own trellis, so you can cover up just about anything with a climbing plant.

Paint

A couple of coats of paint can transform just about anything from eyesore to purposeful decoration. If you can’t easily cover up a large propane tank, HVAC unit, or other piece of equipment drawing the eye outside your house, consider painting it. A bold pop of color that complements the rest of your home’s curb appeal might be sufficient, but you can also let your creative sparks fly a bit, transforming a propane tank into a piece of folk art.

Potted plants

If you’ve got small stuff marring the exterior of your house, like a natural gas service line or an exterior meter, it’s easy to install a couple of potted plants around it. With minimal effort, you can place several plants strategically around whatever it is you want to hide. Depending on your location and the existing landscaping around your house, the best plants to use will probably be evergreen shrubs, because they grow pretty tall and full. The downside to evergreens is that they can take a while to grow in, so instead you could opt for a faster-growing plant, like hydrangea.

Outdoor furniture

If the ugly thing ruining your house is on a sidewalk or faces the street, you could also consider adding some furniture, like a bench, that fits over the ugly bit. Instead of a random screen or collection of plants that make it pretty clear you’re hiding something, a bench, storage box, or patio set looks more purposeful.

Consider a storage bench that’s large enough to cover what you’re hiding, then remove the back or bottom so it can be placed directly over what you’re obscuring. If you’re covering a gas line, however, make sure the bench or box is slatted for ventilation before you cover it up—they need to vent to the outside air.

Scroll through TikTok or Instagram fitness content these days, and you might stumble upon something that’ll makes you do a double-take: videos of people running around on all fours. Sometimes it’s muscular men in army fatigues, and others it’s people in furry masks and tails gracefully bounding across parks.

The movement combines elements of parkour, gymnastics, and animal locomotion, creating workouts that are part fitness routine, part creative expression, and part return to “primal movement.” Welcome to “quadrobics,” the latest fitness trend has people literally going back to basics—or rather, back to the movement patterns our four-legged friends never abandoned.

My colleague Lindsey Ellefson recently recommended primal movement as an alternative way to exercise. I agree there’s merit to the idea that getting on all fours can reframe exercise as more joyful, especially if you struggle to work out. I’m not here to talk you out of running all fours. I’d simply like to remind anyone who endeavors to follow the latest fitness trends that two legs can get the job done just as well.

What exactly is quadrobics?

At its core, quadrobics involves moving on all fours using various animal-inspired patterns. A quick search on TikTok shows that there’s an extra cultural element to the practice: The aesthetic component—complete with animal ears, tails, and masks—has become just as important as the physical exercise itself. If that’s not your thing, the fitness side of it still about tapping into your animalistic instincts. You might crawl like a bear, bound like a rabbit, or stalk like a big cat, often incorporating jumps, rolls, and other dynamic movements.

Despite its unconventional appearance, quadrobics does offer legitimate fitness benefits. Moving on all fours engages the entire body in ways that traditional upright exercises often don’t. It requires significant core strength, works the shoulders and arms through weight-bearing positions, and challenges coordination and balance.

Four legs good, two legs…also good

Part of quadrobics’ appeal undoubtedly lies in its visual novelty and social share-ability. In an era where fitness influencers are constantly seeking the next eye-catching workout trend, moving like an animal certainly will make you stand out in a crowded field of kettlebell swings and burpees. The costume element adds another layer of engagement, appealing to communities interested in alternative identities, cosplay, and self-expression.

While quadrobics enthusiasts are having their moment in the social media spotlight, it’s worth remembering that human beings evolved to be pretty solid at bipedal locomotion. Running, walking, jumping, dancing, cycling, swimming—the list of highly effective exercises you can do on two legs is virtually endless. It’s also worth noting that switching to all-fours introduces some risk: Without proper form, you could easily experience a wrist or shoulder injury from supporting body weight.

Both two- and four-legged exercise will serve you well

Want to build functional strength? Two-legged squats, lunges, and deadlifts have got you covered. Looking for coordination challenges? Try dance, martial arts, or agility drills. Seeking that mind-body connection? Yoga offers centuries of refined practice. The beauty of bipedal movement is its versatility—you can go from a gentle walk to an intense sprint workout using the same basic mechanics you’ve been perfecting since you learned to walk as a toddler. While quadrobics practitioners hop and crawl their way to fitness goals, the rest of us can take comfort in knowing that our bipedal design is spectacular as-is.

The most important thing isn’t how many limbs an exercise uses—it’s that you move your body regularly in ways that challenge it, bring you satisfaction, and support your long-term health. I love the idea that people are increasingly willing to explore unconventional forms of movement and challenge traditional notions of what exercise should look like. This openness to experimentation is valuable, whether it leads someone to quadrobics, pole dancing, axe throwing, or rediscovering the joy of playground equipment.

The bottom line

The real key is finding forms of movement that you genuinely enjoy and can sustain over time. For some people, that might indeed involve channeling their inner wolf. For others, it’s a simple daily walk, a weekly tennis game, or a regular yoga practice. The “best” workout is ultimately the one you’ll actually do consistently. If donning animal ears and practicing your bear crawl brings you joy and gets you moving, there’s nothing wrong with embracing your wild side. Just remember this: Your perfectly adequate human legs have taken you this far in life. They’re probably up for whatever fitness challenge you want to throw at them next.

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The problem with distraction-blocking apps is how easy they are to turn off. But what if you needed to access a physical object to unblock distractions? That way, you could leave the object at home, or give it to someone who can keep you accountable. That’s the basic idea behind Foqos, an iPhone app by developer Ali Waseem, that’s open source, completely free, and works really well.

At first, Foqos may seem similar to other focus apps for blocking distractions. You can select a set of applications and websites you’d like to block, then turn on the blocker. The difference comes when it’s time to turn that distraction blocking off. To do so, you have to scan a “key,” either an NFC chip or a QR code.

Credit: Justin Pot

If you’re looking for the simplest option, go with the QR code: You can print out the code on a piece of paper and place it somewhere in your house. I, personally, set up a QR code and taped it to the back of a desk drawer. The NFC chip, on the other hand, is a little more nerdy. You’ll need to buy a blank one and set it up yourself. Such chips are extremely affordable and have all kinds of other users, from automating routines to sharing your wifi passwords.

The setup process is straight forward. First, you need to give the application permission to access your Screen Time settings—this is used to enable the blocking. Next you can create profiles. I made one for blocking social media applications as a category, then added the web versions of Reddit so I didn’t have a workaround. After doing this, you can choose which key you want to use. You can use your key of choice—the NFC chip or the QR code—to both trigger blocking and end it. Alternatively, you can start the blocking manually and require the key to stop it.

However you set this up, there are all kinds of ways you can use it. You could leave the key at home before a night out, making it easier to focus on the people around you. Or, during the workday, you could give the key to a friend and instruct them not to give it back until you’re done with the current project. I’ve been trying this for a couple days, leaving my phone without the ability to access Reddit or Bluesky. My hope was that I’d spend time reading instead of scrolling, and it seems to be working. Even if the key is only across the room, there’s enough friction to keep me from scrolling.

The app, as mentioned, is completely free, though the developer asks that you chip in a few bucks if you find it helpful.

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Labor Day sales are rolling in, and Lifehacker is sharing the best sales based on product reviews, comparisons, and price-tracking tools before they’re over. You can also subscribe to our shopping newsletter, Add to Cart, for the best sales sent to your inbox.

There’s nothing worse than getting partway through a DIY project and discovering you don’t have the right tool to finish it—and Labor Day sales provide a good way to keep that from happening, providing discounts that make it easier to upgrade your toolkit while keeping to a budget. Even if your budget is relatively miniscule. To that end, here are the best Labor Day tool deals I’ve found under $25.

Wrenches and ratchets

A good tool kit should include a set of wrenches and a ratchet, which will allow you to drive nuts for multiple sizes of bolts for assembling and disassembling furniture, changing filters on large appliances, or auto maintenance. Here are some great under-$25 deals on wrenches and ratchets.

• This Crescent 20-piece ratchet set is on sale on Amazon for $24.98, 41% off its usual price. This set comes with a ⅜-inch ratchet handle, an extension bit, and 8 each of metric and SAE sockets. This is a good beginner kit because it covers most sizes of nuts you’ll encounter, and it’s small and easily portable.

• This Ryobi 26-piece 1/4 -inch drive ratchet set is on sale for $19.97 at Home Depot, 33% off its normal price. This set comes with a ¼-inch drive ratchet handle, 24 sockets in both metric and SAE sizes, and a carrying case. This is a good set for smaller home maintenance tasks and because it’s so compact, it’s great for apartment living.

• This Craftsman 10-piece combination wrench set is on sale for $19.98 at Lowe’s, 31% off its typical price. The set includes 10 double-ended, SAE wrenches. This set is a good companion to a ratchet set, so you can use a wrench to hold a bolt head as you’re turning the nut, or use the wrenches on their own to drive nuts.

Screwdriver sets

A range of screwdrivers is essential for any basic home toolkit, whether you’re assembling flatpack furniture or swapping out a switch plate. Here are some deals on screwdriver sets on sale for under $25.

• The Craftsman 8-piece screwdriver set is on sale on Amazon for $14.98, 49% off its usual price. This set includes 8 screwdrivers with half slotted and half Phillip’s head, in a variety of sizes; it also has two short-handled drivers for turning screws in tight spaces. This is a good starter set.

• The DeWalt 2-piece screwdriver set is on sale for $9.97 for Labor day. The set includes two drivers, on Phillip’s head, and one flathead. The tips of these screwdrivers are magnetic, so they’ll hold onto your fasteners, which is convenient if you’re working in an awkward space.

• The Craftsman 15-piece ratcheting screwdriver set is on sale at Ace Hardware for $14.99, 41% off the regular price. It’s labeled as a 15-piece set because the bits are double ended, but it actually comes with 7 bits and a ratcheting handle. The bits store inside the handle, so it’s a compact option for your home tool kit if you have limited storage space. It includes Phillip’s head, flat head, square tip, and star drive bits.

Other tools and accessories

Here are a few more standout Labor Day tool deals on tools and accessories.

• The DeWalt 20-inch handsaw is on sale at Ace Hardware for $15, 50% off its normal price. This is a basic handsaw for cutting medium sized dimensional lumber, and can be handy for finishing corners when cutting sheet goods with a power saw. The 8-tooth-per-inch blade will provide a medium-to-smooth cut without splintering or tear out on most lumber.

• A set of four Vevor bar clamps is on sale at Lowe’s for $24.99. This set includes two 6-inch clamps and two 12-inch clamps with a 2 ½-inch jaw depth and a 600-pound pressure capacity. Clamps are a useful tool for DIY woodworking because you can use them to hold joints flush while you’re driving fasteners or waiting for glue to dry.

• A DeWalt 16-oz. Hammer is on sale for $14.99 at Ace Hardware, 44% off its regular price. This is a small, smooth-faced hammer with a curved-claw for pulling nails. This is a good hammer for projects like hanging pictures or driving small finish nails, but it doesn’t have the weight necessary for larger jobs like framing.