How-To Geek

If you've ever been confused by Excel's three different ranking functions, you aren't alone. A rank is a rank, right? But they actually differ in how they handle ties and which versions of Excel they work in. Here is how to choose the right one for your next spreadsheet.

Many cars now have AI-powered voice assistants, but Mercedes knows their dependence on the cloud can make them unreliable. It just partnered with Liquid AI to bring more voice control on-device, ideally giving you faster interactions that do more to respect your privacy.

Spotify has announced an integration with Claude AI that will now allow users to ask for a playlist or podcast within a conversation thread. Users can now simply ask Claude in a conversation to create a playlist based on their prompt, and they can play music instantly within the thread. Spotify features within Claude are available to both Spotify free and premium accounts, but there’s a bonus feature for the paid subscription users.

OpenAI is tackling the challenges of agentic AI head-on with the release of its GPT-5.5 model. While AI is no stranger to handling computer tasks, the company claims its new large language model (LLM) is better when dealing with "messy, multi-part" work where you need to trust that it will not only finish, but produce trustworthy results.

Welcome back, Stranger Things. Netflix's flagship show returns this week, so putting it at the top of our rankings is a no-brainer. The characters you have come to know and love will be present. However, it's not your typical Stranger Things show—it's an animated spin-off, so you're about to see a new side of Hawkins.

Luxury means something different now than it did decades ago. Long before Mercedes made upscale SUVs a status symbol, Jeep got there first with the 1966 Super Wagoneer, adding air conditioning, plush trim, and V-8 power to a class that was mostly stripped-down workhorses.

Google Wallet is so convenient, but if you only ever use it with the default settings, you aren't getting the most out of the app. On my Pixel phone, I tweak a few usability and privacy settings, as well as create shortcuts to make it quicker to use, and they really make a difference.

Tesla has held an earnings call to discuss its first quarter 2026 results, and revealed more about its plans, including a change of heart on promises that millions of cars would only need software updates for zero-supervision Full-Self Driving.

I've been flying the mini PC flag for some time now, after I realized just how much value these little computers could provide. The used mini PC market in particular was replete with machines that cost less than a Raspberry Pi. but could run circles around the popular single-board computer for just about any computing task.

Luxury SUVs often come with hidden ownership costs, and one of the most frustrating is the requirement for premium fuel. While higher-octane gas can be expected in high-performance models, many buyers are surprised to find even entry-level luxury SUVs demanding extra money at every fill-up. In 2026, however, a few affordable premium SUVs still manage to deliver refinement without the premium fuel bill.

For the next two months, I will be locked in for the NBA Playoffs. I'm a New York Knicks fan, so I'm hoping their season ends in June rather than April. As much as I love basketball, I'm extremely frustrated with the NBA right now. This is the first postseason since the league signed its 11-year, $77 billion media rights deal with ESPN, NBC, and Amazon.

Having to use all the same drive sizes in a NAS is a pain in the neck. That’s why I mix the drives in my main NAS. It might sound complicated, but, so long as you follow a few simple steps, you can easily mix drive sizes in a NAS and get much better use out of the storage you own than with traditional RAID.

Voice assistants like Alexa are easy to use but come with significant issues. One of the biggest is that the voice recordings are sent to the cloud for processing, and some of these recordings have been listened to by third-party contractors hired to judge the quality of smart speaker responses. If you want a smart speaker that doesn't invade your privacy, you can always build your own.

Netflix has a difficult reputation among anime fans. While the streamer has produced many recent hits and compiled beloved franchises—including Neon Genesis Evangelion and Studio Ghibli's filmography—into one convenient place, their release strategies have left global audiences divided. However, one unanimously disliked initiative by the platform has been their handling of live-action adaptations of beloved titles, resulting in panned projects such as Death Note and Cowboy Bebop.

Summer is almost here, and as the anticipation heats up, so will your weekend streaming runs. This May, Netflix is bringing a string of original shows and films, blockbuster live events, and gripping documentaries that will make for a perfect early-summer watch list.

The standard utilities on Linux are boring; have you ever noticed that? Their function is essential, but they're boring. Wouldn't you like to jazz up their outputs with some pretty colors? Or even speed them up? These terminal utilities do that and more.

Hot hatches have long been the go-to choice for drivers who want performance without sacrificing everyday usability. They offer quick acceleration, sharp handling, and enough practicality to serve as a daily driver. But as electrification reshapes the market, a new kind of performance vehicle is starting to challenge that formula, one that adds SUV versatility and plug-in hybrid efficiency to the mix.

If you’ve signed up for any app on your phone, you already know the drill. You input your email, hit “continue,” switch to your inbox, look for the verification code, flip back to the app, and type it in. The worst part—you got it wrong for the first time due to a typo or a forgetful memory, so you’re back to square one.

See that little hole pictured above with the "K" and lock icon? There's a good chance if you go and look at your laptop right now, you'll have the same one. There's also a good chance you never noticed it before, but this is one of the best security features on laptops and even some desktop PC cases. So why not use it?

Plenty of people use Android Auto for its great real-time traffic updates with Google Maps and handling media playback with services like Spotify and YouTube Music. I'm behind the wheel every day, and over countless miles, I've found a few different areas where the experience still feels too restrictive and outdated.