How-To Geek

HBO Max's flagship releases for August—I’m looking at you, Lanterns, Mother Mary, and Conan O’Brien Must Go—are still a couple of weeks away, but U.S. subscribers to the prestige streaming service still have options. If you’re into reality TV, this week brings two brand-new series for you, as well as a recently launched comedy that's still rolling.

Android Auto makes it easier (and safer) to use your phone while driving—it also uses a lot of battery in the process. This is especially true for wireless Android Auto, but it can even cause the juice to drop while plugged in, too. One easy automation helps—and it makes a lot of sense.

There are hundreds of Linux distros out there, and most of them are genuinely good—as long as they're used by the people they're designed for. The whole point of a Linux distro is to package the Linux kernel with a particular desktop environment, package manager, and system defaults fine-tuned for a specific type of user or workflow.

August just might be the hottest month on the calendar for HBO Max. House of the Dragon wraps one of its best seasons ever this coming weekend, Lanterns finally lights up mid-month with Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre, Anne Hathaway does something decidedly non-Devil Wears Prada-ish in Mother Mary, and Bob Odenkirk keeps his ass-kicking movie career going with Normal.

I run a NAS at home, and for a long time, I've been dragging and dropping files with almost zero wait time. So when my transfers started crawling for no obvious reason, I was pretty puzzled.

Google's teased notification LED for Pixel 11 phones might not be as transformative as you think. A leaked product image of the Pixel 11 Pro Fold indicates that the new feature, HiLight, will only have two functions.

Luxury badges no longer guarantee the best luxury experience. Over the past decade, mainstream automakers have dramatically improved the quality of their interiors, technology, and comfort, to the point where some family SUVs now rival premium brands while costing thousands less.

One of the easiest ways to make an Excel report unreliable is to forget one tiny step: refreshing the PivotTables behind it. Microsoft recognized the problem and announced Auto Refresh a year ago, but the feature still hasn't reached my version of Excel.

If you've got an old Android tablet, and you don't know what to do with it, there are plenty of apps out there that can make it almost as useful as it was when it was fresh out of the box. All the apps featured below are free (or have free versions that retain most of the features of their paid counterparts), work on older versions of Android (every app supports at least Android 8.0 Oreo), and are very lightweight.

Mini PCs are becoming the go-to solution for desktop computing in 2026. Unless you have a very specific need, a mini PC likely will serve you well. I recently found out that my mini PC could be powered over USB—something my full-size desktop never could dream of. Plus, five other overlooked things that I didn't realize a mini PC could do until recently.

After setting up my Bambu Lab P2S last week, I set about doing what anyone does with a new toy: thoroughly testing it out. After printing the usual poop-chutes and toolboxes, I recalled something I added to my printing list roughly six months ago. I had no idea it would print so well.

Breaking into the top tier of the compact SUV segment has never been easy. Buyers in this class expect practicality, efficiency, modern technology, and strong value, which means even a complete redesign isn't always enough to shake up the established order. Any newcomer hoping to climb the rankings has to prove it can improve on a formula that's already been refined for years.

I love Jellyfin. Being able to watch my movie collection on any device in my home is great, but I usually end up watching on the main TV for the best experience. I was happy watching Jellyfin this way until a chance purchase made my setup so much better.

The biggest perk of owning a proper Wear OS smartwatch is access to the Google Play Store. Now, as a Samsung Galaxy Watch user, you've probably already installed the usual suspects—Spotify, Google Keep, Google Maps, and the like. However, that's just scratching the surface—there are plenty of great apps waiting to be discovered. Here are four apps that rarely get talked about but are so good that I always install them on my Samsung Galaxy Watch.

For years, the default storage recommendation has been to buy a NAS. Run out of space? Buy a NAS. Want better backups? Buy a NAS. Thinking about organizing your photos? Buy a NAS! Somewhere along the way, the idea that everyone needs a miniature storage server became accepted wisdom.

While viewers will indeed have a handful of new offerings to explore this month, August is heaviest on returning fan-favorite shows with new seasons across Netflix, Paramount+, HBO Max, and more.

Cordless power tools are pretty expensive, especially from big-name brands like Milwaukee. But with retail prices steadily rising and premium job-site power tool lines (like Milwaukee's M18 FUEL series) increasing in cost, more people are looking for solid alternatives.

Chatbots like ChatGPT and Claude get all the attention when it comes to the current generation of AI technology, but there are so many other genuinely useful applications of AI that involve more than telling a computer about how your day's been going.

SSDs are great for a lot of things, but long-term cold storage is not one of them, and while many never fail, some do—taking some data with them.

You usually need a Thunderbolt port to run more than one high-resolution monitor without software or other tricks, but it's now just a matter of plugging in a USB-C cable. Plugable has introduced a PC dock that allows dual 4K 60Hz monitors without drivers on Windows PCs and Chromebooks.