How-To Geek

Figuring out the right smart home automation routines has been a challenge for me, as I can't nail the perfect ones on my own. To identify the correct routines I need, I decided to enlist the help of AI. Google already has access to all my data, from my Google Home devices to my user history. I also use a Pixel 10 Pro with the Google AI Plus plan, so it only made sense to use Gemini for the job. Privacy isn't a concern for me because Google already knows everything about me, so I figured I might as well make the most of it.

While the Steam Deck is getting a bit long in the tooth and can’t run the majority of recent AAA titles at playable frame rates, Valve’s handheld PC is still capable enough for a good chunk of AAA games released a few years ago and earlier. The biggest downside when playing those games is upscaling, since the handheld’s AMD GPU is limited to older FSR versions that look way worse than DLSS and FSR 4.

Several months ago, I tried using AI to make 3D models and it didn’t end well. When I went to try using AI to make 3D models again, I expected it to end the same way. I was sorely mistaken. AI-generated 3D models have come a long way in a short amount of time, and it’s now an extremely viable way to create something with your 3D printer that doesn’t exist otherwise.

Watching a show can make a long treadmill session easier to get through, especially when enough is happening to keep you from checking the elapsed time. A miniseries also gives you a complete story you can finish over a few workouts, without adding too much to your watch time.

A NAS is basically a box full of hard drives, and there are a lot of ways to set one up without paying $1,000 for a big-name 8-bay box. You probably have parts lying around the house that can be used in the setup, including the one thing those shiny boxes almost never give you: real PCIe slots. Whether you're picking up a used PC for NAS duty or rescuing your own, these are the five cards I'd actually spend money on to close the gap with a premium NAS, and then blow right past it.

Setting up a media server is the easy part. The hard part shows up the first time you try to let your sister or a friend watch something on it. You send what feels like a simple invite, and suddenly you're explaining ports, domains, and why a TV remote can't type a colon. Where your server lives matters less than how a non-technical person gets to it. I've been on both sides of that conversation; there's a reason Plex is a more welcoming platform than Jellyfin.

It's understandable that anyone creating a product is only incentivized to do the absolute minimum for it to sell. In a monopoly, that bar can be very low indeed, and in a competitive space things are better, but you only have to outperform your rivals, no more.

I've been a Plex guy from the very start of my self-hosted media journey (unless you count network shares and DLNA), but all my colleagues keep going on about Jellyfin and how great it is.

An impact wrench is a powerful and versatile tool I think everyone should own. And chances are, many DIY mechanics already have one that came in a combo kit. But as we all know, Ryobi is constantly releasing exciting new tools or upgrading its 18V ONE+ arsenal, and that includes an all-new impact wrench that's the perfect upgrade for your garage or shop.

It took some time, but One UI 9 has finally started to roll out to a swath of older devices. You don't have to have a brand-new flagship Galaxy device to get the update anymore, which is good news for me and my S24 FE. Even mid-range A-series devices and some tablets are now gaining access to the swath of new features.

Flash drives aren’t the cheap choice that they used to be. Sure, you can still find some cheap flash drives around, but have you considered buying an external SSD instead? When you start to get to larger storage tiers, the pricing evens out and the external SSDs actually become a better buy.

So you buy a Kindle and you think to yourself, "I sure would like to turn the pages from way over here, surely there's a solution for that?" Well, to my personal surprise, I have recently learned both that people who want to turn eReader pages at a distance exist (it makes sense when you think about it) and that Kindles in particular have no elegant way of achieving this goal. Hence, the existence of weird and wacky "Kindle page turners."

When it comes to streaming, buying, selecting, or watching, I'm a picky viewer. It drives my wife bonkers. When I'm not being a thorn in her side about picking media to watch, I'm usually searching for ways to cancel subscriptions.

I got into radio and music production at a very weird time. For a while, I rocked a TASCAM PortaStudio for my personal recordings. When I got into college and started working in radio, it was all physical digital audio workstations and programs like Adobe Audition. When I no longer had access to professional-grade equipment and software, Audacity just hit a sweet spot for me. Whether it was recording my own songs, digitizing my LPs, or doing voice work, it was always there for me. Naturally, I was pretty excited when I heard about Audacity 4, one of the biggest updates to the software in some time. It was fantastic before, but its newest features are really going to give other professional DAW (digital audio workstations) a run for their money.

I’ve been a devout Android user for nearly two decades, but I never even toyed with the idea of building an app until this year. Google’s AI integration in Android Studio makes it accessible to anyone, and custom widgets are a great place to start.

Ever since I've been using Linux as a daily driver, I haven't really considered dropping Mint for something else. Don't get me wrong. I have a machine running Debian, a machine running Arch, and I still use Red Hat and Ubuntu at the office. So I'm very much in the Linux world. But I recently discovered an OS that gives Mint a run for its money (at least for my work): CachyOS.

The internet is full of a lot of garbage, but there’s also some incredibly useful information out there. Home Assistant has a native integration that can scrape information from some websites and extract specific values. I scrape data from several different sites, and once I've got the data into Home Assistant, there’s a lot I can do with it.

I've been a PC gamer for well over a decade. It's safe to say I've spent collectively over $10,000 on various gaming desktop builds over the years. But, I recently moved from my full-size superpowered custom-built desktop to a mini PC—and I love it?

Waiting in line to pick up your kids from school can be excruciatingly dull. Many people spend the time scrolling through social media, but there is a ton of content out there that you could be watching that doesn't demand all of your attention or much of your time. Rather than doom-scrolling, these series are the perfect way to kill some time.

I got fed up with OneDrive running out of room and Windows Backup not working well for me. So, I decided to try a new piece of software that completely changed how I backed up my computer: Duplicati.