How-To Geek

The start of my Home Assistant journey was more of a stumble than a confident stride, and I’m still trying to right some of those wrongs years later. Here are some things I’d recommend that newcomers do right out of the gate.

Anyone who has ever used Android Auto has likely experienced this issue at some point: you get a call on your phone, pick it up, and then... nothing. You can't hear the person talking, or perhaps you can hear them, but they can't hear you.

You've probably opened ports on your router on more than one occasion, maybe for remote access, maybe for a game. And although opening ports isn't necessarily the safest thing to do, many people treat it as something super harmless, because hey, how's anyone going to find that one port?

Even as we squeeze every last drop out of the summer, HBO Max still doesn't do things in moderation when it comes to documentaries and docuseries, even if they do start blurring the line into reality-TV territory.

Saying that Pixel phones are filled to the brim with exclusive features would be, well, quite an appropriate way to describe the amount of stuff Google has packed into its phones. The catch is that many of them are hidden in plain sight, which is why a number of handy Pixel apps and features fly under many people's radar.

August is limping towards the finish line, but apparently Netflix didn’t get the memo about winding down, because in addition to the final season of Outer Banks, three new additions landed on the streamer within the last week, and two of them are already parked in the Top 10.

Summer is never particularly kind to technology, and my home server is no exception. Like most homelabbers, I run mine 24/7, and while Ubuntu Server was perfectly happy to keep chugging along, the hardware was starting to give up in the extreme heat. Thankfully, I found a solution, and it was way simpler than you'd think.

When it comes to Wi-Fi, most of the time our concerns are related to the signal not going far enough, but the opposite problem also exists. What if you don't want a Wi-Fi signal leaving a room? Or, alternatively, what if you don't want people within a room to receive any radio signals?

Most people shortlisting distros completely skip over MX Linux. There’s no glossy marketing campaign behind it, most YouTube channels don’t cover it, and you probably won’t see it trending on social media. However, at the time of writing, MX Linux ranks number three on DistroWatch, beating popular names like Ubuntu, Fedora, and even Zorin OS—which recently got a million downloads. Here are three reasons that justify its dominant position.

Recently, I had the realization that phone cases are underdeveloped real estate. Few things are with us as often as our phones, and that includes anything attached to them. So, why not have a phone case that can also be used as a tool?

Above all the other streaming services out there, Netflix has a penchant for delivering a consistent stream of compelling and interesting documentaries and docuseries. And U.S. subscribers to the service keep eating them up, proving they'd rather watch something true than something invented—Freefall: A Reckoning for Boeing, which we covered last week, is still in the Top 10, and Untold: The Testimony of Vince Young, my top pick this week, sits at No. 2 as I type this.

There's a generally accepted rule when it comes to Excel alternatives: if you need to do something complicated, you need Excel, but if you're only doing basic spreadsheet work, a free, open-source alternative should be perfectly adequate. But after spending a week in ONLYOFFICE Spreadsheet, I'm not convinced it's that simple.

We live in a creative world. Apps, books, hobby kits, and everything in between all exist to help streamline the creation process. Making things should be easier than it is sometimes. Printing, laminating, and cutting, as well as other processes that contribute to a project’s completion, can be labor-intensive, especially when you have to use three or four different machines.

Remote access rarely starts as a complicated problem. You have a server somewhere, you need to reach it, and a VPN seems like the obvious answer. Then the number of machines grows, networks change, and suddenly the simple solution has accumulated enough configuration to deserve its own documentation.

Netflix has no shortage of award-winning movies that capture your attention and leave you breathless with their storytelling and premise. I save these for when I want to watch something that feels a little more substantial than whatever happens to be on my watchlist or usual radar.

Ryobi makes a ton of excellent tools at affordable price points. In fact, there are over 350 Ryobi 18V ONE+ tools to choose from, and you probably already own some basics, like a drill or a sawzall. That said, there are multiple excellent Ryobi tools that aren't recommended too often, but that you'll absolutely love.

Apple TV is officially getting a price hike. On paper, it doesn’t sound like a huge jump, but the company’s pricing history makes the latest increase more noticeable. Now, at $14.99, Apple TV costs roughly three times what it did at its initial launch. In 2019, Apple TV cost just $4.99 per month. Since then, the streaming service has been hit by three price increases in 2022, 2023, and 2025.

Looking for a way to detect presence in your smart home? You could buy a ready-made presence sensor, or you could build something yourself that’s powered by the mighty ESP32 microcontroller.

If you love Home Assistant and you love music, then you will almost certainly have tried out Music Assistant. Music Assistant is an open-source music server that lets you play music from a wide range of sources over your different speakers and audio systems and is designed to integrate perfectly with Home Assistant. Music Assistant continues to develop, and there are some awesome things you can do with it.

Google and Amazon are particularly good at selling the smart home vision, but these platforms have some big drawbacks, too. Consider switching to or starting out with a more capable and reliable alternative, which will save you money and frustration in the long run.