How-To Geek

Open-source software is wonderful: it's free, diverse, and surprisingly accessible. You might feel that software development is a secret world of privilege and insider knowledge, but OSS has made great strides to overturn this misunderstanding.

Tech prices are going through the roof, with the high cost of RAM affecting everything from Raspberry Pis to high-end gaming PCs. The good news is that with Home Assistant, it’s often possible to repurpose old tech so that you don’t need to buy anything new.

I’ve been running a Plex server for a long time, which means I’ve made my fair share of amateur mistakes. Storage is probably one of the biggest things plaguing my Plex server, and I have definitely made all three of these mistakes at least once (if not multiple times).

These days, when you're buying an x86 CPU, you're buying Intel or AMD. (Probably AMD, actually, as even used Ryzen 5000 chips are a good deal right now.) That just wasn't the case in the mid-1990s, though. There used to be more players in the CPU market, and we had all the freedom of choice we could've ever asked for.

With Labor Day landing on the 7th this year, this weekend comes with a bonus Monday with absolutely no obligation to do a dang thing with, other than watch movies. If you're like me, more often than not I lean towards a good thriller. And if you're a Paramount+ customer in the U.S., the streamer is no stranger to the dark and intense.

Every time you upload a file to a cloud AI service, you trust that they'll be responsible stewards of that information. When you're talking about medical data, financial records, personal details about your life, or any other sensitive information, that is a big ask.

Most people know texting while driving is dangerous, but they do it anyway. There is so much peer pressure to be considerate of those waiting for you, but the law is pretty clear. Distracted driving is one of those crimes that makes a lot of sense when you see the numbers, but you want to be considerate. Luckily, Google has already thought this through.

If you've been in the Linux space for a while, you know just how customizable KDE Plasma can be. However, a lot of us only limit that customization to picking the theme or moving the panel. What surprises me is how many plug-in surfaces Plasma exposes that I barely even touched. On top of that, they sit right next to the Plasma features you probably use daily.

Home Assistant is incredibly powerful, but all that complexity means things can and do go wrong. I was tired of one of my most useful automations failing, so I decided to rewrite the automation with the expectation that it would fail. The result is that my smart home is now far more reliable.

Another year, another IFA conference. How-To Geek is scouring the halls of Messe Berlin to uncover all the new innovative tech at IFA 2026. Through our search, we've managed to go hands-on with the slimmest portable SSD of all time, super-long-lasting hybrid batteries, the first batch of RTX Spark laptops, and more.

If you walk into a big box store and look at Samsung tablets, you may be surprised to see that they almost feel more like picking up a Microsoft Surface than an iPad. Samsung has quietly made enough changes to Android that the latest Galaxy Tab slates don't look all that different from the Windows laptops across the aisle.

It's easy to think of robot lawn mowers as robotic vacuums for grass, but Sunseeker wants you to think of them as much, much more important than that. I had the opportunity to see the company's upcoming 2027 robomower lineup at IFA 2026, not to mention learn that CEO Terry Ma has grand ambitions beyond trimming your backyard.

Let's face it, you probably don't spend a whole lot of time thinking about your motherboard. Fair enough; neither do I. But did you know that there's a battery on it that can cause a whole lot of problems when it eventually dies?

For a while, Roku felt like the one streaming platform that hadn't sold out. Ads were not invasive a few years ago, and the OS mostly stayed out of your way. If you've been a Roku user long enough to remember what that felt like, then you're probably disappointed with where the company is going. Roku is more than a way to start streaming, so it makes sense that the company wants more money. Unfortunately, it feels like we're just at the beginning.

Pocket eReaders are hot right now thanks to Xteink and a handful of rivals, but they frequently come with compromises or are simply hard to get. Boox aims to change that with the upcoming Picco, a tiny eReader I tried at IFA 2026 — and it's promising so far.

If you’ve tried to build a second brain — one place to store all your ideas and retrieve them when necessary — you probably already know that it’s easier said than done. I’ve made multiple attempts at building a second brain myself, but ultimately failed because of all the effort required to maintain it. What finally made it stick was Obsidian, its Daily Notes feature, and a handful of free community plugins.

Whether your homelab consists of an ISP-provided router and a mini PC or a whole rack that takes up the corner of your spare room, it could always benefit from a few considered upgrades.

People always say they don't have time to watch all the movies and TV shows they want to see. Ironically, in situations when we lose power at home, we have the time, but not the ability. That's why you need an emergency USB stick.

I’m becoming the guy who builds weird phone accessories. This time, the idea was simple: bring back the headphone jack while retaining the ability to use the phone’s charging port. That’s exactly what I did, and it all fits in a custom case.

One of the worst feelings is realizing you're unprepared for a situation, whether that's stuck on the side of the road or during a big weekend project. That's why I always have a selection of dependable tools ready to go for flat tires, stubborn bolts, and other situations. With that in mind, here are five affordable DeWALT tools you'll want in your trunk or in the back of your truck.