How-To Geek

I wanted a TV in the bedroom. My wife didn’t. So I was tasked with finding a way for us to still be able to watch movies and TV shows in bed, but without a TV on the wall. Little did I know that the solution was a small, Coke-can-sized piece of tech that we could fit under the nightstand when not in use.

A Raspberry Pi Pico is very different from the rest of the Raspberry Pi family, and can be very daunting if you've never used one before. Luckily, there is a free website that lets you try things out before you dive in.

If you're the person friends and family call when their computer starts acting weird, you've probably opened Task Manager more times than you can count. It's the first place most of us go when a PC feels slow, an app stops responding, or the fans suddenly spin up for no obvious reason. For decades, it has been Windows’ built-in diagnostic dashboard, presenting CPU, memory, disk, and GPU activity in neat graphs that look authoritative enough to settle debates about what’s slowing your PC down.

If you've been holding off on an Android upgrade because your current phone is still chugging along, or you're waiting for the next big phone launch, you might want to reconsider. All signs point to 2026 flagships costing more while delivering the same or less than last year's phones.

Cascading drop-down lists—where choosing a category like "Fruit" narrows the next list to "Apple" or "Pear"—are a staple of high-level data entry in Excel. The old INDIRECT method works, but it's clunky and hard to maintain. Instead, use dynamic arrays to build lists that handle the modern workflow more smoothly.

The modern digital workplace is moving away from separate apps and files toward a single, shared workspace. Microsoft Loop components fix the major problem of switching back and forth between tools and losing information, especially in Team Chats, but Loop commands are how you summon them.

AI safety has been all over the news recently. The US Department of War asked Anthropic to allow use of its AI for "any lawful use," and the AI company ultimately refused. While this is seen by many as a positive step, it still seems the case that AI companies only really have a conscience when it suits them.

Client URL or cURL is a powerful command-line utility that's pre-installed on pretty much every modern computer (whether its Windows, macOS, or Linux). Think of curl as a web browser that lives in the terminal and works with raw text. This idea sounds pretty simple, but it's also why curl is omnipresent in modern tech. Even though modern alternatives exist (like wget), curl is not going anywhere. If you spend some time working with Linux, you will inevitably end up running a curl command.

2026 Subaru Outback Touring and Touring XT owners can now receive a free dealer-installed software update to activate a hands-off highway driving system.

Home Assistant, the open-source smart home server, just received another significant update. Home Assistant version 2026.3 is now rolling out with more automation improvements, wake words for Android devices, and much more.

We have been using USB connectors for three decades now—yet many people don’t even realize there’s a Type-B connector. For most, there’s the older, rectangular USB-A connector, the modern, petite USB-C connector, and a few micro-USB connectors in between. I know folks who think the square-ish, chunky, beveled connector hiding behind their printer or connecting their audio gear is actually a proprietary connector. But guess what—that’s actually a USB Type-B connector—and here’s why this forgotten middle child of tech is still essential.

There’s so much excitement happening on Paramount+ in March that, if you’re not a subscriber, you’re totally going to miss out unless you remedy that asap. Not only is the streaming giant dropping two brand-spanking-new Taylor Sheridan series on us, but it’s also hitting us with new original films, an additional new CBS series, and a new season of an original docuseries. It’s also time for March Madness, so all the college basketball fans out there will have plenty of games to watch.

I've written extensively about how fragile our data storage technology is. So far, the most robust medium we've come up with are carvings in stone or clay tablets, which is why we can read a complaint about poor-quality copper written in 1750 BCE.

If you own a Windows PC or laptop, you’ve probably been told to avoid BIOS updates unless something is wrong, likely to prevent a catastrophic issue like bricking your motherboard. However, with security, performance, and compatibility all at stake, I think they're essential for all machines.

Modern TVs are smart, meaning all you need to do is plug them in and turn them on. Most of the setup involves downloading the streaming services you subscribe to and signing in to them.

The streaming industry is in its "nothing stays still" era. Catalogs continuously rotate, bundles get reshuffled and dropped, services rebrand, merge, and corporate consolidation keeps rewriting the map. The latest whiplash example is Paramount Skydance’s victory over Netflix to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, a reminder that the industry is still very volatile and that these corporate wars often come with a higher monthly bill for us.

Lengthy software support has become one of the main selling points in modern smartphones. Manufacturers that offer only three or four years of updates are often criticized when competitors promise half a decade or more of support, even on mid-range phones.

You probably have a lot of old hardware that has outlived its usefulness. And if you're desperately looking for storage in these dire times of price hikes, you might be pleasantly surprised.

Whether you're an Excel novice or a seasoned spreadsheet pro, we all share one dream: for our formulas to just... work. These five data integrity habits ensure your data stays clean, and your formulas stay functional, giving you more time to focus on the stuff that actually matters.

I’m old enough to say that I’ve been a Sonos user pretty much since the start, and let’s be honest—the last couple of years have been tough on the brand. They’re still recovering from the app overhaul gaffe that frustrated a lot of customers (myself included), while competitors like Bluesound and Wiim have taken a few bites out of their lunch.