How-To Geek

Arduino boards are a popular choice for DIY electronics, but it's not always clear how to get started with building projects and programming. There's now one more solution to that problem: a new starter kit built around the UNO R4 Wi-Fi board.

Self-hosting and homelabbing can be a great way to save money on subscriptions and reduce how much you depend on big tech companies for your essential services.

You don't need to pay to have something read out loud to you. The free tier of ChatGPT can read any text aloud in an impressively natural way. You can do it on your phone or desktop, and you're not limited to how long the text can be.

Large speakers, to put it bluntly, are a pain. They're difficult to find just the right place for, and it's even worse if you are in a small space. Smart speakers can be a decent solution, but their designs may not be to everyone's tastes. Sure, a black or white speaker is the norm, but it can still look bad sitting on a shelf, especially if your decor is set up in a way that's less tech-focused.

GitHub is the world's biggest software development platform and code repository, and right now it's having some problems. Even though the GitHub site and most web functions are working as intended, Git operations are failing for many people.

Desk space is a limited and highly valuable resource. If you have a gaming PC, you know how quickly accessories, peripherals, and gadgets pile up. Fortunately, with a single accessory, I managed to move most of the clutter off my desk without sacrificing functionality or convenience.

Google just released Antigravity, a brand new agent-first development platform that was announced alongside the Gemini 3 Pro model. This is an integrated development environment, or IDE, with a chatbot that takes the lead on complex, multi-step tasks.

Did you know that Energizer started making laptops recently? I didn’t either. The iconic battery company’s laptop is pretty on-brand, though—it has a massive battery in it that’s supposed to last for up to 28 hours of actual use.

AMD's RX 9000 GPUs represent a cheaper alternative to NVIDIA's ultra-powerful, but ultra-expensive RTX 5000 GPUs, but they're not quite the budget kings they used to be. Now, they might be getting even more expensive. And you can probably blame AI for this.

The developer of the popular open source Playnite game library manager, which has so far been limited to Windows, announced that we can expect the first Linux release in 2026. This coding push is part of the developer's personal interest in leaving Windows in favor of Linux as an operating system.

Have you ever wanted to build your own Android app? I have, and I recently made the choice to start down the journey of Android development once again.

When it comes to upgrading their graphics cards, gamers have no problem spending hundreds of dollars on the latest models. After all, the graphics card is the main performance driver for all rendering-related tasks, so that’s the piece of hardware worth splurging on, right?

Microsoft is making a massive pivot in how Windows 11 operates. The company is turning the entire platform into an "agentic OS" that starts with integrating new AI agents directly into the Windows 11 taskbar, which should help make things easier for those who use it.

The Lexus UX has been around since 2019, and it’s sticking to its sharp, compact vibe for another year. After getting a big powertrain upgrade for 2025, it slides into 2026 with a few more updates to keep it feeling current.

Since audiobooks were added to Spotify Premium's lineup of content, my consumption of them skyrocketed. Much like podcasts, I like to listen to them when I'm in the car or at the gym. They're often an entertaining way to experience a book, and are sometimes read by their writers, or the actors who've starred in their movie or TV show versions.

It's that time of the year again. The time to complete any remaining DIY projects before the cold winter months arrive, and to take advantage of holiday shopping events. Now is the perfect time to buy new power tools or battery packs, especially if you're a fan of DeWalt. Home Depot's popular sale is back, and here's what you need to know.

Samsung prompts you to create a Samsung account when setting up a new phone. It’s easy to think signing in with a Google account is enough, but aside from accessing the Play Store, I personally use my Samsung account more. The list of perks is longer than I expected.

When Eric Migicovsky and his new company, Core Devices, popped up, there was a lot of new excitement for the Pebble ecosystem again. The folks at Rebble, who have painstakingly maintained the Pebble App Store for the last nine years, initially joined in that excitement. However, the situation has soured.

Do apps from your previous session reopen when you start Windows? Or do some programs launch every time, even if you don’t use them? This can seriously slow down the boot process. Thankfully, Windows makes it easy to manage which apps launch on startup—and turning them off takes just a few tweaks.

The Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) just announced the release of Zigbee 4.0. Alongside that comes a new brand for its long-range capabilities called Suzi. This is a foundational upgrade that extends the physical reach of your smart home devices far beyond what we’ve been used to.