How-To Geek

If you've used the internet for many years, you may have heard of AOL Instant Messenger—a popular turn-of-the-century chat system—but have you ever encountered Pidgin? If you were around the open-source community over the past two decades, you no doubt have, but it wasn't just a mere chat application; it was so much more. Built on a forward-thinking engine and pioneering private communications, Pidgin got it right for so many, long ago—something that modern chat applications could learn from.

When it comes to streaming media hubs, Roku has always had its own thing going on. Roku's clean, app-focused grid has stayed in this dependable space, but that doesn't mean it's always been easy to find where you left off. If you paused a great movie on Netflix last night and then wanted to watch something on Max today, you had to go on a scavenger hunt, jumping into each app just to resume your progress.

Did your NAS become louder than normal all of the sudden? Mine did that a few weeks ago, all because it got hacked by a crypto miner. So, if your NAS server’s fans have become a nuisance and they normally aren’t—you might be compromised.

Let's get this out of the way—Linux doesn't need to prove anything to anyone. Any discussion about Linux's lack of success is strictly about the desktop operating system market. By every other metric, Linux is king of the hill. When it comes to servers, scientific supercomputers, billions of phones and other embedded systems, Linux is the OS of choice.

Once you set foot down the Home Assistant rabbit hole, you’ll reach a stage where you want to automate everything. As a result, many genuinely useful automations materialize alongside a handful of useless ones that are quickly discarded or never triggered again.

The Excel 101: you update an input, then spend the next 10 minutes jumping between tabs to see how it affected your key data. You then update another input, and it's rinse and repeat. If only there were a way to see the impact immediately! Luckily for you, the Watch Window lets you do exactly that, even if your formulas are in far-away worksheets or workbooks. Here's how to use this game-changing tool.

With the debut of the all-electric GV60 Magma, Genesis is no longer just the “other alternative" to the European performance and luxury establishment. The Magma editions are proof of the brand’s transformation into a legitimate high-performance marque, successfully marrying their Athletic Elegance design philosophy and cultural identity with a powertrain that, frankly, looks absolutely sinister.

While there are plenty of superb industry writers giving us delectable series to devour, few are quite as exceptional—or as busy—as Peaky Blinders' creator Steven Knight. A prolific screenwriter, director, and creator, Knight is known for his distinct style of blending intense character studies with super-gritty, often historical or criminal environments focusing on class culture, meticulous world-building, and high-volume, self-written scripts. As consumers, we’re never really too far off from a new project. He's given us 6 new series in the past 7 years, and more are on the way.

If you're anything like me, then it's very possible you're sick and tired of paying for Audible just to listen to your audiobooks. I found a better way to enjoy my audiobooks without Amazon's hand in my cookie jar, though, and that's with AudioBookshelf.

Even though postmarketOS is an impressive effort to bring the open-source Linux experience to smartphones, it does have many shortcomings at the moment. Now, the project is hoping to fix some of them with a new immutable variant, called Duranium.

As a PC builder of over 20 years, if I had to pick the best thing about desktops, it's their upgradability. Your desktop is a sea of possibilities, and it's not uncommon for the same PC to live on for years with upgrades here and there.

On Sunday night, Michael B. Jordan won Best Actor at the 2026 Oscars for playing twins Smoke and Stack in Sinners. Jordan defeated a star-studded category that included Leonardo DiCaprio, Timothée Chalamet, Ethan Hawke, and Wagner Moura. At 39, Jordan was the second-youngest actor in the category behind Chalamet (30).

System76 builds desktops and laptops designed for desktop Linux, and now the company has revealed its latest high-performance desktop. The new Thelio Mira has a redesigned case, AMD Ryzen 9 processors, and the usual best-in-class Linux support.

Sometimes, the product you want doesn’t exist. I liked my Google Nest Hub, but I felt it could be better. Naturally, as someone with a 3D printer and DIY skills, I took it upon myself to build the solution. I’m very happy with how it came out.

Google today announced that it is expanding Personal Intelligence to more people in the United States. First introduced earlier this year, it was limited to paid Google AI subscriptions, but now most free accounts will have access to the feature.

Smartphones have amazing cameras, but I'm not happy with any of them out of the box. I have to tweak a few things. If you have a Samsung Galaxy phone, these settings won't magically transform your main camera into an entirely new piece of hardware, but it can put you in a position to capture the best photos your phone can muster.

Performance SUVs are a thing now because people got tired of choosing between fun and practicality. You no longer need a low, two-door sports car to enjoy a great drive—today’s compact luxury SUVs can haul your stuff and still feel quick and composed on a back road.

In the midst of the ongoing storage shortage, who can afford to just throw away an old HDD? Even if you can, don't do it. There are better things you can use those old hard drives for.

When it comes to modern movie franchises, there are plenty we could point to, like Marvel and Star Wars. Today, everyone is talking about Dune, the latest and greatest in the world of book-to-movie adaptations. It also happens to be one of the best sci-fi movie franchises of the last decade.

Home Assistant provides native to-do list integrations such as Local To-Do and Shopping List, as well as third-party integrations for Todoist, Google Tasks, and more. You can use them as traditional to-do lists, but there are some clever ways to get a lot more out of them.