How-To Geek

In the summer of 2023, an eerie and lingering haze blanked skies all across the East Coast following a record wildfire season in Quebec. New York City's Air Quality Index reached a hazardous level of 465 as the smoke eventually drifted into cities like Boston, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia. More than 350 million people were exposed to record levels of unhealthy air before it finally cleared.

It seemed like Immich came out of nowhere, but suddenly all my colleagues appear to be using it. I'm not as into self-hosting as some of them, so perhaps that's why I'm surprised, but the more I look into it, the more obvious it seems that this photo management solution is turning into a sleeper hit.

We've reached the point in the summer when all anyone can talk about is The Odyssey or Christopher Nolan's best movies. However, the streaming services have been releasing new shows to serve as counterprogramming for Nolan's epic movie. For me, the top show this week is a new Apple TV crime thriller starring Anya Taylor-Joy.

While it's convenient to pay for things with a tap of your phone, there's still a bit of a dance that you have to go through before the actual payment happens. If you use Google Wallet, there are a few tweaks you can make to save a few seconds every time you have to pay. Depending on your spending patterns, that can end up saving you quite a bit of time, and the person in line behind you will certainly appreciate it.

AI promises to make tedious work easier, but I wanted to know whether it could deliver in real Excel projects. Rather than asking Claude for formulas or snippets of code, I tested whether it could handle three types of automation: creating a workbook from scratch, building a reusable reporting system, and developing a tool that analyzes existing spreadsheets. The goal was to see how much of the work Claude could handle and where I would still need to step in.

No one likes a phone that's starting to lag, glitch, or slow down, especially when it's a fancy high-end Samsung Galaxy. No matter which phone you have, the way we use these devices all day, every day, can eventually slow things down. Fortunately, there's one easily overlooked setting that'll keep your Galaxy feeling fast and new.

I'm still a novice Linux user, but the more time I spend with it, the more I like it. What started as a way to keep an older PC useful has turned into something I genuinely enjoy using. Linux feels faster, more flexible, and far less intimidating than I expected, especially now that I've found applications that make the desktop experience feel more complete.

The best cars aren't always the ones that wow you in the showroom. They're the ones that still feel like a smart buy years after the excitement has worn off.

Long-haul flights are where sanity goes to die. Six to twelve hours can feel like an eternity, especially when the in-flight entertainment (if there is any) promises 400 titles, but somehow has nothing good. On my last transatlantic haul, my mental health survived on one thing–the movies I'd downloaded from before takeoff.

Linux users love to talk about how much faster their systems are compared to Windows, and you might wonder what kind of performance boosts they're actually talking about. I decided to do a few of my own tests to get some answers.

You no longer have to launch Gemini to have Google's AI handle some tasks. Google is rolling out connections between AI Mode in search and multiple popular services, making it possible to complete some tasks with little more than a prompt.

At the end of the 1990s, IBM took the same basic machinery found inside regular HDDs and squeezed it into a package barely larger than a quarter. The Microdrive contained a tiny spinning platter, a motor, and a moving read/write head.

I have a lot of smart home automations that can sometimes feel like magic. I still get a small thrill when I sit down in the reading chair in the living room, and the lamp next to the chair turns on automatically. While some automations can feel like magic, there are plenty of Home Assistant projects that can replicate actual magic.

My relationship with to-do apps usually follows a predictable course. I install one, spend an unreasonable amount of time choosing colors and categories, enter every task I can remember, and then stop opening it after three days. The task list survives somewhere in the cloud, quietly preserving plans that even I have forgotten.

For the past couple of years, I’ve had a brief but passionate love affair with Samsung foldables. That changed with the release of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, which disappointed me so much that I now own a Motorola Razr Fold instead. I’ve since discovered a surprising number of ways in which Motorola phones are simply better.

In 2002, the production version of the Hummer H2 debuted at the Los Angeles Auto Show, becoming an immediate symbol of American excess. It had a thirst for gasoline that was punchline-worthy, but a flashy shade of yellow paint that turned it into an eye-catching status symbol.

Streaming services have made watching movies almost frictionless. However, most people don't think much about what they're giving up for it. Every time you open Netflix or Hulu, you're not just watching something; you're being watched in return. The platform logs what you pause, what you skip, how long you hover over a thumbnail, and that data feeds into profiles that eventually get sold. If you've ever felt vaguely uneasy about how well an algorithm seems to know you, there's a reason for that, and buying used DVDs with cash is one of the few remaining ways to actually opt out.

ESP32 boards are popular for home projects because they're small, versatile, and, most of all, cheap. Not only are ESP32 boards affordable, but if you use them for the right projects, they can also help you save money. Here's how.

For a long time, Pi-hole was the go-to option for anyone that wanted to use DNS filtering on their home network. It is easy enough to set up on any old laptop, PC, or even a low-power Pi and then connect it to your network.

OnePlus is officially exiting the U.S. and Europe after months of shrinking its presence. Parent company Oppo has confirmed that OnePlus will no longer release new products in North America or Europe, although it will continue to provide support.