How-To Geek

I love in a rural area where losing power also means losing access to water, and being snowed in means being cut off from help. When combined with the need to stay warm, these challenges make winter storms particularly scary—but at my house, we face them with confidence using batteries as our only source of emergency power. Let me tell you how.

Luxury sedans are often synonymous with high ownership costs, especially when it comes to maintenance and repairs. But one Italian-built four-door upends that stereotype in 2025 by delivering premium refinement and surprisingly sensible upkeep compared with many rivals. While its competitors can come with hefty service bills and expensive parts, this luxury sedan’s maintenance profile keeps long-term costs more manageable, a rare combination in a segment known for costly ownership.

The monitor you choose for your gaming PC is one of the most important decisions you’ll make for your setup. It’s your window into the virtual world, and it directly affects how much you can get out of your PC’s rendering power.

Most developers reach a point where a few Git commands start to feel almost unfair. They clear hours of confusion in minutes and provide a level of control that seems impossible the first time you see it in action. My own introduction to these commands explained why experienced Git users describe the tool as both intimidating and strangely reassuring. You break something, you feel the panic rise, you run a short sequence of commands, and the entire mess dissolves as if it never existed.

Pickup trucks are known for strong resale values, but one model consistently outpaces nearly every rival when it comes to holding its worth over time. The Toyota Tacoma doesn’t just retain value, it dominates depreciation charts, often selling for far more on the used market than comparable midsize trucks years after they were new. That resilience makes it one of the smartest choices for buyers who care about long-term ownership costs as much as performance and capability.

Netflix hosts an impressive collection of award-winning films and shows, spanning genres, languages, and themes. But when it comes to these films, you can't leave out Oscar winners from the conversation. Next month, Netflix has one movie, Train Dreams, nominated for Best Picture at the 2026 Oscars.

If you've ever put too much faith in a storage device, you're not alone. We've all been there. It doesn't matter if you're buying a portable SSD, an NVMe drive that goes inside your PC, or even a good old HDD—the risk of data loss is always real, and always mildly scary.

A smart home dashboard running on a wall-mounted tablet can look truly impressive, but it's not necessarily the smartest way to do things. If you have to interact with a dashboard whenever you want to control your smart home, you have a manual home with nicer buttons.

My least favorite thing about 3D printing is the waste it generates. Most 3D printers “poop” small amounts of filament to ensure that the nozzle is ready for printing before a print, while failed and multi-colored prints generate even more waste.

My handheld PC has been giving me thermal headaches for a while now, but when things finally came to a head, the cause was predictable in retrospect, but surprising in reality.

Luxury sedans have followed the same pecking order for years. When people think top-tier comfort and status, the German brands usually get named first, while Japanese cars get labeled as the smart, sensible picks.

Prime Video's weekend documentary menu is a triple feature of hoops, old-school arcade glory, and so many muscles, making for a perfect lineup for riding the couch for some downtime.

I’ve accumulated quite a few Android games over the years, playing them on phones, tablets, and occasionally a TV—but I've recently discovered my favorite way to play them, yet!

Did you know that Ryobi has been manufacturing power tools since 1968? The company, which started in Japan, eventually expanded into a global operation, launched its 18V line in 1996, and is still going strong today. As a result, you can find all sorts of unique products from Ryobi, including power tools that are blue, green, and even black.

Here's something phone reviewers never tell you: we play favorites. I've reviewed dozens of the best smartphones over the last 13 years, but only a few were truly memorable. Here are five phones I couldn't put down after my reviews were published.

Activate that sense of wonder (or just plain morbid curiosity), it's the weekend, and this hat trick of Netflix documentaries covers a bit of twisted glamour, brainy competition, and true crime.

I always say the reason I have a bright-colored vehicle is so I can find it in the crowded Meijer parking lot after my Sunday afternoon grocery runs. As a fun experiment, take note of the vehicles you see and their colors while you are driving or walking through a parking lot. If everything appears grayscale, that’s not your imagination.

Are you looking for some more Home Assistant projects to get your teeth into this weekend? Why not organize your life by setting up a shared calendar, make Home Assistant visual with a color E-ink display, or use some 300-year-old math to get your home to the perfect temperature on time?

If you've paid for antivirus programs in the past, you know how it goes—pop-ups about the company's other products. Pop-ups about the last time you did a deep scan. Pop-ups about how your membership is expiring soon. Pop-ups about pop-ups.

The debate on whether HDDs are more reliable than SSDs never seems to end. There's no easy answer, but the reality is that any old drive is a hazard. HDDs may appear to be immortal, what with their cold storage properties and how bulky they are, but they're really anything but, and you may not see it coming when they finally fail.