How-To Geek

Samsung wants to make its own software, but it’s also required to ship Google apps if it wants access to the Play Store. This means Galaxy devices come with an overabundance of icons, some of which run in the background regardless of whether you ever open them. Here’s what’s safe to purge.

Android has come a long way since its early days, and whether you're a long-time user or recently switched from iOS, tons of excellent features are hiding in the shadows. I'm constantly showing friends and family several lesser-known Android features, and here are a few of my favorites.

It’s always worrying when your phone feels warmer than it should, but there are levels of severity. Slight warmth after a particularly long streaming session is usually fine, but scalding and a burning odor are the most concerning. If this happens to you, it’s a sign that shouldn’t be ignored.

When I first switched from Plex to Jellyfin, I was immediately taken with how easy it was to set up and how reliable it seemed in use. And yet it took a while before I discovered all of Jellyfin's capabilities. What seems like a fairly stripped-back app actually hides many powerful features that can enhance your user experience.

Homelabbers love to tinker with their equipment, and nowhere is that more evident than when you discuss storage or network speeds. After you've been self-hosting for a while, it basically happens automatically. You start thinking, "What if I upgraded my network to 10 gigabit?" Should I install fiber?

I didn't think much of clipboard managers until I installed Ditto on a whim. Months later, it's the tool I'd least want to lose, quietly saving me from re-typing and re-copying dozens of times a day.

Your DNS provider affects every internet-connected device in your home, which is why one of the most common networking tips is to switch to a faster provider like Cloudflare or Google Public DNS. While that's often an improvement over your ISP's default DNS, using the same DNS for every device is rarely the best approach.

If you live in the U.S. or Canada, your choice of Android phones usually boils down to a Samsung Galaxy versus its Google Pixel equivalent. And that's sometimes a difficult choice: do you go with Google's "pure" official devices, or Samsung's heavily customized and sometimes beefier hardware?

Samsung smartwatches like the Galaxy Watch 8 are incredible fitness trackers and productivity tools. However, the NFC (Near Field Communication) feature on the Galaxy Watch is largely out of bounds for smart home use, and that's a shame.

Most programming languages and compilers are designed to be practical. Maybe reality falls short—perhaps performance is worse than it should be, syntax becomes confusing or esoteric, or compiler optimizations wind up breaking code, but they're designed to be useful.

I've owned my Kindle 4 for more than a decade, and it's served me well over the years. When Amazon announced that it was ending support for this model, I finally bit the bullet and jailbroke it. I installed the KOReader app not really knowing what to expect, but it can support way more formats than the default Amazon software.

Microsoft is most famous for Windows and Microsoft Office, but in their 50-year history, they've tried dozens of unusual experiments. Some of them flopped completely, while others informed and inspired later technological innovations.

Does it ever feel to you like there's so much going on in the world it's hard to keep up? A lot of events mean a lot of news, and I was tired of wasting time reading news I didn't really care about instead of news that I did. I decided to set up my own daily newsletter that I could read on my Kindle, full of things I was genuinely interested in.

Android Auto has been one of the biggest quality-of-life upgrades for drivers over the past decade. It's made navigation, music, calls, and messages far easier and safer to access on the road.

Last year, I bought a small Cudy TR3000 travel router with the kind of confidence people have before a project quietly disappears into a drawer. The idea was simple enough. I wanted a router I could carry around, plug in anywhere, and reach the devices on its local network from outside. Then I did what many of us do with small useful-looking gadgets. I put it aside, told myself I would set it up soon, and let it sit around for months.

I used to work in broadcasting. One of my first jobs in television was running cables from a production truck all over football fields, baseball stadiums, and makeshift studios. We worked with coax cables frequently during that time, mostly using the N-style connector for truck-to-field links and BNC connectors for indoor, lower-powered work.

Windows is packed with features that rarely get the spotlight. While most users stick to the basics, there are plenty of useful tools and settings buried deep in the operating system that can make everyday tasks a little easier. I decided to explore the deepest layers and found some worth sharing.

I've been a gearhead for as long as I can remember, with a particular weakness for muscle cars, motorcycles, trucks, and anything that feels a little different. The problem is that most of the new vehicles I find exciting today, including Rivians, Corvettes, Teslas, and Hemi-powered vehicles, cost far more than I'm willing to spend.

If you enjoy something enough to do it in your spare time, use it to brighten your day, or see it as a platform for self-development, it’s totally worth your hard-earned money. But there’s a point of diminishing returns, where you feel inclined to buy more things for little gain.

With SSD prices still sky-high, I wanted to check my SSD’s health to see whether I actually needed a replacement. Windows gave me a concerning percentage, but no context—no trend, no cause, no countdown. I was on the verge of buying an expensive new SSD, but decided to get a second opinion. That’s when I turned to CrystalDiskInfo. It gave me the missing context and showed that my SSD still had plenty of life left, giving me the confidence to delay the purchase.