How-To Geek

Not all hybrids are built the same. The word “hybrid” often brings the Toyota Prius to mind, but that famous fuel-sipper represents just one approach to hybrid technology—and it’s far from the only one on the road today.

March is ripe for must-see TV. While 2026 has seen a fair number of new releases so far, they’re nothing compared to the superstar shows that the streaming world is dropping on us viewers this month.

Our time is limited, but there’s a nearly unlimited number of podcasts, audiobooks, and YouTube videos to watch. You wouldn’t be alone if you turned to the seemingly innocent “1.5x” or 2x” speed button as a solution, but at what cost?

Smartphones have gotten ridiculously good over the years. Screen resolutions went from 480p to 4K, performance has more than quadrupled, and cameras are well over 20MP. They’re super thin and sleek now, too, and yet some would have you believe thickness is still a problem. It’s not.

Netflix's new additions on the movie front are warming up like the weather is, with some interesting picks landing in the streamer's recent Top 10 (at time of writing), including Expendables 4, The Addams Family animated movie, K-Pop Demon Hunters (37 weeks and counting!), and a couple on the list below.

Compact SUVs have come a long way in a short time. What started as a niche alternative about a decade ago is now the default choice for families, and just about every automaker—from budget brands to luxury heavyweights—wants a slice of the segment.

Smart buttons are a useful way to trigger scenes and automations in your smart home. With Home Assistant, I've found that sometimes NFC tags can be more useful, as they allow me to know not just when a tag was scanned, but also the device that scanned it.

2025 has seen some of the biggest leaps forward for folding smartphones. With its newly refined look, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 is the most well-received foldable to date. And yet, while these book-style devices are getting all the attention, it'll be the smaller flip phones that ultimately win out.

Today, the NVIDIA Shield TV is a niche but well-regarded streaming box. However, when it first saw the light of day, that wasn't at all what the company had in mind for it. Yet through some clever pivots, that's what the Shield TV eventually became.

IBM OS/2 was an alternative to Microsoft Windows throughout the 1990s, but Microsoft won out in the end, and the operating system was relegated to niche use cases. Over 24 years since the final OS/2 release, and 19 years since IBM's support ended, the officially-sanctioned continuation ArcaOS is still going.

The big selling point of SSDs over hard drives has always been the fact that they are fast. You might think, then, that speed is the most important thing about an SSD. But these days, there are actually a lot of other things you should prioritize instead.

Google Photos is generally considered one of the best apps from the company, but it’s not without problems. One feature in particular has been under constant fire since it was announced. Thankfully, Google has finally relented, and “Ask Photos” can be turned off.

I use a lot of Zigbee devices in my smart home. For my needs, Zigbee still offers the best combination of low cost and utility. The truth is that Zigbee isn't perfect; it has plenty of frustrating issues.

Reliability rankings often shift from year to year, but a few automakers consistently compete for the top spot. In recent years, Subaru managed to climb to the front in several industry reports, challenging Toyota’s long-standing reputation for building some of the most dependable vehicles on the road. Now, new data suggests that the balance of power has shifted once again.

Getting someone to try Linux is one thing—getting them to stay is another. After helping several friends and family members make the switch, I’ve found that some distros do a better job of keeping people around and encouraging them to explore the OS further. I call these “gateway” Linux distros—and here are my top five picks.

Malware is an ever-present threat, but there are still some places where you don’t expect to see it pop up. Recently, potentially harmful files have been found lurking in downloads from some of the web’s biggest 3D printable model repositories.

Windows is famously RAM-hungry, and if you let it, it'll normally eat up about half of your RAM at any given time. If you'd like to reclaim some of that, there are a few easy things you can do.

Some popular recent Home Assistant posts on Reddit revealed that the smart home of someone living in Miami Gardens was exposed to the internet. Other people could turn off their lights and even rename their devices. This was all due to their MQTT broker being public and unsecured.

A decade after the Bentayga first entered the ultra-luxury SUV segment, Bentley is returning to the model's geographic roots. The British automaker has announced the 2027 Bentayga Artenara Edition, a design-led variant inspired by Artenara, the highest village in Gran Canaria, which overlooks the Roque Bentayga peak that gave the SUV its name in 2015.

If you’re the kind of movie lover who actually enjoys bouncing between genres and appreciates the kind of classics that still hit even after you’ve seen them a dozen times, then Paramount+ has a deep well you can draw from for days.