IT General

As the name suggests, Home Assistant was designed for smart home automation. It's a powerful tool for automating all the smart devices in your home. To my surprise, some of the best ways that I use Home Assistant have nothing to do with my smart home at all.

National Vehicle Safety Recalls week is March 2nd through the 8th here in the United States, raising awareness of the importance of checking for open recalls on our vehicles. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) organizes the campaign, which coincides with the spring-cleaning season, but it's good practice to check for recalls on your car year-round.

With so many Linux distros out there, and each maintaining unique and not-always-consistent release cycles, it can be hard to keep up with what's new. To keep you in the loop, here are some of the major Linux releases from January 2026.

The entire internet has been buzzing about this new AI assistant OpenClaw, but is it really worth the hype? OpenClaw definitely delivers on the AI-powered future that I’ve wanted for a long time, but it comes with some negative side effects that you might not realize up front.

Wi-Fi is convenient and it's everywhere. Maybe it's because I grew up with only wired networks for my early years of computing, but I've always felt that Wi-Fi is a big compromise. The best Wi-Fi technology is, of course, pretty great, and in day-to-day use I have no complaints. However, there are still many things that the humble Ethernet cable is just so much better at doing.

SAVE $100: As of Feb. 7, Amazon has this 85-inch Samsung Smart TV on sale for $797, which is 11% off its list price of $897.

Opens in a new window Credit: Samsung Samsung 85-Inch Class Crystal UHD U8000F 4K Smart TV $797.99 at Amazon
$897.99 Save $100   Get Deal

If you’re someone who has been wanting the biggest TV money can buy (within reason), you could get close to making your dreams come true this weekend. Amazon has this 85-inch Samsung Smart TV on a modest sale that nets out to a $100 discount. It may only be 11% off this weekend, but this is the lowest price that this model has seen since it was listed.

This Smart TV is as packed with features as it is large (which is saying something at 85 inches). Enjoy rich, dazzling colors when you watch your favorite movies and shows in 4K on this TV. It even upgrades what you’re watching to 4K, even if the source material wasn’t 4K to begin with. Even though this model is absolutely massive, the TV is designed to be as sleek as possible and seamlessly fit into your existing aesthetic.

The TV also comes with Samsung’s proprietary Motion Xcelerator, which anticipates the frame rate of your program and smooths the picture out at up to 60Hz.

There’s no need to purchase an additional streaming system with this TV. The built-in Samsung TV OS lets you log in to your favorite streaming services and start binging your faves right away.

For almost 27 years, One Piece fans have joined Monkey D. Luffy on the voyage of a lifetime as he searches for the fabled treasure of Gol D. Roger. The long-running animated adaptation of Eiichiro Oda's beloved manga series has been a mainstay of the medium, surpassing 1100 episodes, releasing 15 movies, and now having been brought into the realm of live-action with a hit Netflix adaptation in 2023. If you love anime, One Piece is instantly recognizable, no matter whether you have seen the series or not.

Your Home Assistant server may be haunted. Not by actual ghosts, but by ghost devices and entities that show up in Home Assistant even after the device or integration has been removed. The good news is that you can bust those ghosts without needing to wear an unlicensed nuclear accelerator on your back.

Microsoft Excel's dynamic arrays are a game-changer for automatic updates, but their unpredictable size can ruin your dashboard's formatting. Using the EXPAND function, you can lock your layouts in place and keep your spreadsheets looking ship-shape. Here's how.

SAVE $35: As of Feb. 7, Amazon has 4-packs of 1st-gen Apple AirTags on sale for $64, which is down 35% from their typical list price of $99.

Opens in a new window Credit: Apple Apple AirTag 4-pack deal $64.99 at Amazon
$99 Save $34.01   Get Deal

If you have always wanted a few Apple AirTags to keep track of your keys, luggage, car, and more, this weekend might be the perfect time to take the leap. Apple AirTags famously ring in at $25 each, which can sometimes be just a bit too high to justify tracking easily misplaced items. This weekend, these 1-gen AirTag 4-packs are seeing an unusual discount, with each tag ringing in at just $16. This is honestly a steal.

As far as features go, the 1st-gen AirTags aren’t that different from the 2nd-gen models released on Jan 26, 2026. The 2nd-gen models boast a 50% louder speaker and 1.5x more accurate location software. That said, the 1st-gen AirTags do have a speaker for remotely locating your belongings. The original location technology on the 1st-gen AirTags is still quite accurate, and saving money on your investment is nice too.

You can share your AirTags with up to 5 separate people. This can offer peace of mind for families or friends keeping track of shared cars, devices, or even pets. 

This is probably not something that the Fortnite social media team ever thought it would need to address in public.

Epic Games, the developer behind the mega-popular battle royale shooter, had to set the record straight regarding the idea that deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein is still alive and playing Fortnite. The company's comms team took to X to publicly denounce the conspiracy theory, which had gained some traction online over the past few days. If that wasn't enough, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney put another nail in the coffin with a post of his own.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

You may be wondering how, exactly, people came up with the idea that Epstein (who died in prison in 2019) was an active Fortnite player in 2026.

Well, with the release of countless documents in the Epstein files, some people on the internet found Epstein's YouTube profile under the username "littlestjeff1" along with an email confirming a purchase of V-Bucks, Fortnite's real-money in-game currency. Internet sleuths also found a Fortnite profile under the same username, which had been active as of a few days ago.

The problem, as outlined by the Fortnite comms team and Sweeney, is that the player account in question is not linked to any of Epstein's known email addresses. It turns out this was just a case of someone changing their in-game username as a way to troll or fool other people, according to Epic.

There is plenty to be upset and disgusted about in the Epstein files as it is; you don't need to make stuff up to make it seem even worse.

There’s a secret layer of protection on your iPhone or Android phone's screen that keeps fingerprints and smudges at bay. It’s called an oleophobic coating, and it’s something you probably won't think about until it's gone. Let’s keep that coating in tip-top shape.

There is an idea that if you want powerful features and a huge audience, like the kind you find on Discord, you just have to surrender your data and tolerate the constant upselling. Just because something is self-hosted or open-source does not mean it is automatically difficult to use, complex to set up, or somehow lacking in essential features.

I’ve had a NAS for about 10 years now and have heavily used one for the past half a decade. With my NAS, I’ve been able to cancel many subscriptions to save money, including Netflix, Audible, and more.

SAVE $155: As of Feb. 7, Amazon has DJI’s Mini Fly More Combo Drone on sale for $575, which is 20% off its list price of $719.

Opens in a new window Credit: DJI DJI Mini 3 Fly More Combo Drone $575 at Amazon
$719 Save $144   Get Deal

This weekend, Amazon has the DJI Mini 3 Fly More Combo drone on sale for 20%, and it is packed with incredibly cool features. It requires no FAA Registration or Remote ID for recreational use of the device. In case you weren’t aware, the Federal Aviation Administration requires all civil aircraft, above 55 lbs, to be registered, similar to the way license plates are required on cars.

This DJI drone weighs 248 grams, just shy of the FAA's 249g limit. Enough about how much it weighs, though, there are so many features that make it amazing for capturing some really cool footage. 

Capture crystal clear footage of whatever you’re filming in 4K UHD, with DJI’s Dual Native ISO Fusion. The Mini 3 gets footage with quality shadows and highlights at any time of day. The authentic vertical video shooting mode lets you bid goodbye to tediously editing your horizontal footage for vertical platforms like TikTok, Reels, and YouTube Shorts. 

The Mini 3 has wind resistance and a 3-axis Gimbal to ensure it glides through the air, capturing stable, non-shaky, gorgeous footage. The extended battery allows for up to 114 minutes of flight time. The internal motors allow the Mini 3 to reach altitudes of up to 4,000 meters. It can also record and transmit HD video over up to 10km. 

The Mini 3 is also beginner-friendly with built-in GPS Return to Home, hovering precision, and auto-takeoff and landing.

Netflix's 2026 slate is jam-packed with films and shows that will keep you entertained throughout the year. If you're looking for an enticing update this month, Netflix has you covered with new movies spanning comedy, action, and drama.

Modern computers, laptops in particular, have really slashed the number of ports you get for plugging in peripherals. Following the example of MacBooks, some slim and light Windows laptops have just a pair of USB-C ports, forcing you to use a USB dongle hub to connect more than one thing, or dock your laptop with a desktop setup.

3D printing can be anything from a fun hobby to a serious business. No matter what sort of 3D printing you do, there's always a cost involved. The costs range from small to quite large, but whatever you're spending it's always better to avoid wasting money when you don't have to.

Thankfully, I don't have to buy a new soundbar often, but having bought two in the last year, I had to change exactly the same set of things on both right out of the box after hearing them just once. Soundbar manufacturers sure like packing in the gimmicks, especially for the more affordable class of soundbar that suits my budget!

New versions of Android and iOS come every year, making it hard for developers to keep mobile games up and running on that newer code—especially for titles that aren’t bringing in enough revenue to justify the expense. With that said, let's pour one out for these top-notch mobile games that couldn't survive the hustle and are no longer available on Google Play or the Apple App Store.