Technology

The cars and trucks Americans drive are aging, and they’re doing so at a record-breaking pace. According to the most recent S&P Global Mobility data, the average age of vehicles on U.S. roads has climbed to 12.8 years, the oldest ever recorded.

As a writer, I love to read, and I think everyone should read a real book from time to time. But watching TV is definitely easier and more popular, and there are plenty of books that have been turned into amazing TV shows: the following may be even better than the books they originated from.

The conventional wisdom when it comes to motherboard BIOS updates has always been that unless there's something wrong with your PC, it's best to just leave it alone. Yet, you can expect a new BIOS update becoming available every year or two following a motherboard's launch.

SIM cards are a relic of an age where multiple people had to share a single phone, and the cards themselves were enormous. These days, SIM cards are tiny and technically unnecessary thanks to the rise of eSIMs.

It’s that time—when the weather is starting to get just a little warmer, and you know what is beginning to sound good? Reading a nice book outside as the sun shines down on you. What if you don't have a Kindle subscription, but you want a new book to check out?

The first computer my family owned was an 80286 IBM clone, and it had lots of ports, none of which looked the same. There was a big 5-pin DIN for the keyboard, a serial port, a parallel port, a game port for our joystick, and of course, the VGA port for the monitor.

With the fervor of Heated Rivalry, there's a fierce desire among book readers for even more hockey. On Sunday, April 19, at BookCon, the "You Had Me at Hockey: A Look at One of Sports Romance's Hottest Genres", authors Rachel Reid (Heated Rivalry, Game Changer), Emily Rath (Pucking Around), Ngozi Ukazu (Check Please), Stephanie Archer (The Wild Card), and Kate Cochrane (Wake Up, Nat & Darcy) were joined by moderator and fellow author Bal Khabra (Collide) to discuss the rise and continued success of hockey romance.

Khabra kicked off the panel, asking just how hockey became so popular. Ukazu joked that it was as if the genre "escaped containment," like when the Omegaverse went mainstream, while Reid described the mystery around hockey, saying, "what [the players] are doing seems impossible." Archer also added that the sport itself is exceptionally hard on the body, and the celebrity around players, especially in Canada, is fun to play with.

But there's more to the genre's success than the tropes. "It has to be said," Rath argued, "that the cornerstone of why this is so popular in publishing is racism." She went on to say that straight, white women's voices dominated the romance genre for so long, pointing out that hockey is also the whitest sport. Among major league sports, the NHL is the most predominantly white. In 2022, ESPN reported that 83.6% of league players and staff were white, compared to the NFL, where 25-27% of players are white, or the NBA, where white players make up 17.5% of the league.

Zooming into the genre, the authors also spoke about the writing process. They dove into the deeper aspects of their work, even the smut. Rath said, "I think the least sexy thing you can ever do is write a sex scene." A similar sentiment came up during Reid's Saturday panel, where she described using the sex scenes to further the emotional arc. When readers ask authors if they can skip the spice, Archer says of her own books, "No, you can't skip the sex scenes. You're missing so much character development if you don't go on the journey with them."

The panel turned to the future, too. Many of the authors write BIPOC and queer representation into their novels, in a genre that often centers on whiteness and homophobia. "We're writing the world as we want it to be," Rath said.

Reid has found that there is progress toward a future that these authors and their readers want to see, saying that the NHL is interested in working with them. "People on the inside, they really want to work toward change and want to make this happen."

With the hockey fandom at an all-time high, there's a whole team behind these authors ready to drive change.

If you’re cross-shopping the Tundra against the Ford F-150, Ram 1500, or Chevy Silverado 1500, the best place to start is by getting a feel for its extensive lineup. Overall, the 2026 Toyota Tundra can be everything from a rugged work tool to an executive-level cruiser, offering a mix of twin-turbocharged power, off-road capability, and unique styling.

One of the most frustrating parts about digital streaming can be how easily costs add up. When you subscribe to a handful of services a month, you can easily lose track of cumulative expenses amid price hikes, inactive subscriptions, and forgotten sign-ups.

I had a Galaxy phone that was better than my Pixel by almost every measurable standard. Better chip, better display, more features, more customization—the list goes on. Yet, here I am, back on the Pixel. And it wasn’t because Samsung did something wrong, but because one app—one I had never thought twice about.

Manually re-sorting your Excel tables every time a score changes is a waste of time. The RANK.EQ function automates leaderboards by assigning positions instantly. Whether you're tracking sales or race times, here's how to keep your data dynamic and accurate.

For over a decade, I’ve written about Windows Phone (RIP), iPhone, and, my main squeeze, Android. But there’s one beloved operating system missing from that list: webOS. 17 years after the Palm Pre hit the market, I’m finally trying it for the first time.

In today’s world of online media, streaming is just as big as cable, if not bigger. And that means now, if you have so many streaming services to pay for, you’re most likely going to be paying the same price as cable.

There are a lot of great smart home devices you can buy right now, but there are some I wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole. These are some of the devices I would definitely avoid.

I've been stuck dual-booting Linux and Windows for years because—despite huge improvements—there are still a handful of applications that won't run on Linux. CachyOS made me rethink that approach with a feature that allows me to easily run almost any Windows app as if it were a native Linux app.

If you’re not content with only powering your smart home with Home Assistant, you might be interested to learn that the platform has a few other tricks up its sleeve that expand its sphere of utility.

Mini PCs are often essentially laptops without a screen. They're compact, packed full of components, and optimized around making do with minimal airflow.

I get excited whenever Microsoft drops a new Excel function, but when I'm in the trenches with a deadline, I reach for the classics. There's a certain comfort in knowing a formula will work exactly as expected every time.

IDEs, or integrated development environments, have long been a staple of the development world. I’ve used one for decades. However, switching to Claude Code completely changed the tools I use for development, and I’ve simply left IDEs in the dust.

Who said the utility of a smart home has to be limited to humans? With a few accessories and some careful automations, your furry friends can benefit from your Home Assistant setup too.