How-To Geek

Pop!_OS has a strong following, and one reason is its COSMIC desktop. Being unfamiliar with both, I decided to take a look at COSMIC and see what all the fuss was about. Could it make me give up my go-to Xfce?

Most of us deal with the same handful of headaches on our daily commute, from aggressive drivers and traffic congestion to the occasional speeding ticket. Here in Detroit, where I live, there are even some unique road and infrastructure designs that can make rush hour driving a challenge.

I’ve spent more hours than I care to admit diagnosing stubborn Windows problems: sluggish laptops, desktop crashes, weird startup behavior, you name it. Over the years, I’ve used plenty of different tools, from flashy “PC optimizers” that promise too much, to hidden system utilities that actually deliver. What I’ve learned is that many of the best ones are lightweight, reliable, and give you a clear view of what’s really happening under the hood, so to speak.

We're at the halfway point of 2026, making it a great time to look back at what Netflix has released so far while also looking ahead to the rest of the year. Personally, my two favorite Netflix movies from earlier this year are The Rip and War Machine. As for what's in store for the rest of the year, it's a mix of horror, animation, crime, and drama.

Many cellular carriers proudly claim to have unlimited data plans, but that's misleading: in many cases, you'll face throttling once you pass a cap. You might have to pay extra to restore the service you expect, and features like hotspot tethering or cellular smartwatches might have their own restrictions.

Over the last couple of years, Mazda has built a strong reputation for themselves. If you're looking for something luxurious on a budget with entertaining driving dynamics, they're an easy choice. The CX-90 is the brand's flagship, and the three-row SUV aims to push this ideology harder than any other model before it. In fact, lots of reviewers crack jokes that the Japanese brand has simply built a BMW, which is a pretty big compliment in our eyes.

The minivan isn’t the sexiest vehicle segment. You won’t impress anyone at your local Cars & Coffee event with one, and you won’t be setting any lap records. However, the minivan isn’t about horsepower or prestige, but rather about being a practical and useful vehicle for your family. And no automaker knows this better than Chrysler.

When Brave first appeared on the scene, it built its reputation on being a fast, lightweight, and privacy-focused alternative to Chrome, without any of the bloat. Sadly, over the years, Brave has become bloated itself, adding features such as AI, crypto wallets, rewards, and news feeds that users never asked for. Brave Origin is a new stripped-down version of Brave that removes the bloat, but there's a pretty significant catch.

When I carried around a Samsung Galaxy phone every day, I used Samsung Wallet for tap-to-pay. Now that I've switched to a Motorola Razr Fold, I'm using Google Wallet. In the process, I've learned the one key distinction that makes Google Wallet a more practical option in day-to-day life.

Sometimes you just want to sit in the garden under the shade of a tree and doom-scroll social media. If you have a small or medium-sized garden, then your mesh Wi-Fi system in your home will probably do a decent job of keeping you connected. Especially if you have one mesh unit just inside a window, like I do!

Ring video doorbells are a popular choice as they're relatively affordable and simple to set up and use. The problem is that to use the best features of a Ring doorbell, such as accessing your video history, you need to pay for a subscription. If you don't want to keep paying to use a device you already bought, there is another option.

Microsoft has been on a roll recently, bringing new Windows 11 features left and right. The latest one to reach general availability (meaning it's available to every Windows 11 user, not just Windows Insiders) is called point-in-time restore, and from what I've seen, it's essentially a modern take on System Restore, which has been around for more than a quarter of a century, first debuting with Windows ME back in 2000.

At a time when GPU prices are off the rails, we have to be practical. Judging a GPU solely by its performance always tells you that the best consumer option is the RTX 5090, but the reality is that most of us don't need that much firepower in a PC.

Indulging in high-quality miniseries is one of the best ways to enjoy the offerings in Amazon Prime Video’s catalog. They’re the perfect alternative to the platform’s bigger shows, like Fallout, that require a commitment to long, drawn-out watches, and they feel just as cinematic as any big-budget movie. Larger shows can be entertaining, but they aren’t always the best option when you’re in the mood for something quick.

Metal 3D printers are pricey machines that make aerospace-grade parts and cost an absolute fortune. You can make your own “metal” 3D prints at home, out of regular filament, without the massive spend.

In practice, Windows Fast Startup is supposed to be helpful, but after disabling it, a lot of things actually got a little better for my computer. I wish I had turned it off sooner, and for some of you, there are a few reasons you might want to do the same thing.

Android Auto is supposed to make driving easier, but that quickly falls apart if it's more annoying to use than your phone. This is especially true if you find yourself dealing with sluggish animations, delayed inputs, and an interface that takes ages to open apps.

Are you deeply invested in the Google ecosystem? Do you actively use Google Keep, Tasks, Calendar, and Drive in your day-to-day life? Individually, each of these is an excellent tool—minimal by design but solid in functionality. The only problem is that these apps are mostly isolated from one another. But if you add Gemini as an orchestration layer, all of these tools can start talking to each other. That's exactly what I did, effectively turning Gemini into my personal project management system.

Back in 1997, a few years after video game consoles and computers had fully embraced CD-ROM technology, a new optical format standard known as DVD-RAM was finalized.

Paying a monthly fee to stream movies and shows you already own that sit on drives in your house sounds silly when you think about it. Plex built its reputation on solving the home media problem, but it quietly put the best features behind a subscription. Jellyfin does everything Plex does, like remote streaming, mobile apps, offline downloads, metadata, and collections, and it doesn't charge you for any of it.