How-To Geek

Luxury and frugality don’t usually go hand in hand. Most people assume a luxury vehicle comes with indulgence, not savings—but some SUVs are proving you can have both.

Today's the big day: Home Assistant 2026.2 is now rolling out. It includes a new default Home Dashboard, a redesigned quick search, opt-in data collection for the new device database, and much more.

As streaming has become the preferred way to listen to music, buying physical CDs has grown less common. Yet this isn’t new; physical music purchases began to decline when digital downloads became available through services like iTunes.

Visual Studio Code releases major updates once a month, and right on schedule, version 1.109 is now rolling out to desktop platforms. It's the continuation of Microsoft's push for making VS Code "the home for multi-agent development," but there are some non-AI improvements as well.

In a segment crowded with practical four-doors, one affordable family sedan has quietly built a reputation for reliability that outpaces many of its rivals. While competitors focus on style, tech, or brand prestige, this model delivers consistently dependable performance and low ownership costs, making it a smart choice for buyers who want peace of mind alongside everyday usability.

The old-school flashlight is legendary. It was heavy, dependable, and ate up those big, bulky D-cell batteries. I used to think the weight of a metal tube meant quality, and that the sputtering yellow glow from an incandescent bulb showed you were really ready for anything. In reality, these old flashlights that seem so dependable are outdated.

The Discord messaging application is getting a much-needed speed boost on desktop platforms. There are also new improvements to screenshots and game streams, a new way to share times, and much more.

Once, each new generation of graphics card promised to bring large performance gains, and if you wanted to play the latest and greatest AAA games at high resolutions, you needed to upgrade or be left behind. However, NVIDIA's continued improvements to DLSS have made upgrading less important than it used to be.

On Linux, pipes and redirection let you use the output from commands in powerful ways. Capture it in files, or use it as input with other commands. Here’s what you need to know.

Keeping a hard drive on a drawer is probably the most common approach to storing files over the long term. A lot of people don't do it properly, though, to the point I've actually discouraged this practice previously.

Welcome to the film and television capital of the country. Thanks to Hollywood, Los Angeles continues to be directly associated with the entertainment industry. Many of the major studios, including Warner Bros. and Universal Pictures, still have production lots either in Los Angeles or the surrounding cities.

It’s that time of year when Google releases a budget version of its most recent “flagship” phone. The Pixel 10 series launched last Fall, and now we’re getting our first official look at the Pixel 10a. Google is teasing us with some close-up shots, but not much else.

IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm, PhpStorm, and other JetBrains IDEs are finally adopting Wayland. That means sharper text and better performance on most Linux systems, but there are still some bugs to be worked out.

3D printing model repositories are full of items designed to hold food and drink or be used in the kitchen to prepare food. But before you print any of these, you need to understand the risks involved in mixing 3D prints and food.

Gaming GPU prices had hit a sweet spot just a few months ago, but due to memory shortages and the ever-increasing thirst for AI compute, prices are going through the roof yet again. Looks like another GPU crisis is around the corner, and it's going to take a while before things return to normal.

Whether you're a professional or a DIYer, you likely have a preferred power tool brand and a stash of battery packs. Then, the deeper you go, you've probably upgraded to some of the latest and greatest, like the Milwaukee Fuel line. Another option you may be considering is a hydraulic impact driver, which is quickly becoming a fan-favorite tool.

If you grew up in the 90s with a beige Windows PC, there’s a good chance you spent hours staring at a very specific pair of speakers. The Harman/Kardon HK195 speakers were ubiquitous in the early internet era, and artist @gwakproductions has brought them back in a massive way—literally.

There are many helpful sensors for your smart home, from humidity sensors to door and window sensors. But there's one sensor in particular that sounds a little crazy, but can actually be incredibly useful.

Amazon is now rolling out its upgraded Alexa virtual assistant to everyone in the United States. A free chat interface is available, but for full functionality, you need an Amazon Prime membership or Alexa+ subscription.

OneNote is a well-designed note-taking application, but after trusting my data to Microsoft and Google for years, I've decided to try and reclaim some privacy. This is how I switched to a privacy-focused, self-hosted note-taking app.