How-To Geek

Some weeks can feel like a veritable buffet of things to do and places to go—too many tabs open, too many boxes to check, and you feel like you're piling it all on one plate. Apple TV can feel like that sometimes, which is why I'm here to cut the fat.

When a relative recently told me that they back up their files on a simple USB stick, I was floored. And yes, it was just the one; no 3-2-1 rule here. And yes, of course, some of those files were important.

Thanks to the internet, it’s incredibly easy to open an app and immediately get a detailed weather report. But what you might not realize is that your phone has some precise weather instruments of its own. Most phones have a barometer inside, and it’s more useful than you might think.

In an era where cars are becoming more complex and packed with new technology, long-term reliability is becoming harder to guarantee. Yet one luxury sedan continues to stand above the rest, earning top marks for dependability in a market where breakdowns and costly repairs are increasingly common. The 2026 Lexus IS 350 has emerged as the most reliable new car currently on sale, outperforming both mainstream and premium rivals.

Love, horror, adventure, and everything in between: this March, Netflix is giving us a diverse collection of shows and movies to look forward to. Whether you want to kick back for a relaxing watch or sit at the edge of your seat, there's something you can stream every day.

Your smart home is full of wireless devices that use some combination of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, Thread, or Z-Wave. But there’s another wireless solution you can use to send and receive signals from smart home devices, and you might already have a few devices in your home that use it.

In the Home Assistant 2026.2 update, a new Quick search feature was introduced. The tool has a dedicated keyboard shortcut, but this isn't really much use on mobile. Thankfully, there is a quick way to launch the tool in the mobile app.

Your laptop, smartphone, tablet, and gaming handhelds don’t need power to function, but the same can’t be said about your internet connection. In the event of a power outage, being able to get your network back up quickly can allow you to resume work or play while the issue gets fixed.

Windows, tabs, groups. If you’re used to these ways of organizing your web page viewing, get used to one more: split view.

Growing up with keyboards has conditioned many of us to think of typing as the only way to get words to appear on our screens. On our phones, that really isn't the case. Virtual keyboards have gotten much better over the years, but there is an even faster way to type on your phone.

If you're like me, you want to be able to stay in contact with people no matter what the state of the internet or any other telecommunications is. I found a way to do that, and all you need is an affordable ESP32 kit.

The Toyota Land Cruiser has been roaming American roads since 1958, building a reputation as one of the toughest SUVs you can buy. It’s the kind of vehicle people take across continents, keep for decades, and refuse to part with, which explains why nearly 44,000 found homes in 2025 alone.

Microsoft Excel is a workhorse for anyone juggling numbers, budgets, and datasets. However, with the sheer amount of data you handle and all those repetitive, manual tasks, Excel can end up being very draining. While it seems like a lot of AI marketing is dedicated to creation, being an assistant is still high on the list of Copilot's tasks.

Ring is one of the most popular brands of video doorbells, and I've owned one for years. Here's why I've reached the point where I'm ready to replace it with a different brand.

Whenever you are talking about a car, everyone wants to know how much horsepower it makes. It is a question as old as the automobile itself. Even though most people don’t understand how it is calculated or what it really means, horsepower is usually the first statistic referenced when describing a car. It is the benchmark by which all cars are measured, especially performance cars.

You might have heard mixed things about the safety of breathing the same air as your 3D printer. While the smell of melted plastic isn’t exactly pleasant, I was curious about what effects the average 3D print had on the air around me, and how it compared to my usual daily routine.

Wi-Fi 7 is an exciting standard that promises faster, smarter wireless connections. Its hallmark feature, Multi-Link Operation (MLO), lets devices use more than one frequency band at a time to reduce latency and boost throughput.

Excel's LAMBDA helper functions are the future, but knowing which one to pick is the real challenge. This is your go-to whistle-stop guide for matching the function to the task and building spreadsheets that finally think for themselves.

When I say "most important," I don't mean the most popular on GitHub, the most beloved by power users, or the project with the loudest community. I mean software that measurably changed the direction of computing. Tools that altered user behavior at scale, forced billion-dollar companies to respond, shifted technical standards, or redefined what people expected from their devices. Importance, in this context, isn't about vibes or nostalgia. It's about influence you can see in the market.

If your current Kindle is getting long in the tooth and you’re thinking that buying a new one is the best course of action, hold that thought until you read this. Instead of shelling out cash for a new Kindle, you can invest a few bucks in your current one and make it feel new again.