How-To Geek

I'm fairly late to the audiobook world. I have always been someone who enjoys reading the written word, so the idea of listening to someone else reading a book wasn't too appealing. However, once I got a free Audible trial, which included a permanent free copy of a book I'd been looking forward to, I finally experienced what everyone else had been raving about for years.

Buying a used Porsche is a lot like buying a ticket to Walt Disney World. That ticket gets you through the gate and unlocks an incredible experience, but it’s not the only expense. Food, drinks, merchandise, and special attractions all add up. Porsche ownership works much the same way. The car gets you in, but maintenance, parts, and upkeep are part of the deal.

It’s that time of the week again! From building your own YouTube to accessing your systems through a web browser and finally ditching Tailscale for a more secure (self-hosted) version, here are your three homelab projects to try this weekend.

Chances are that part of the reason you broke away from Microsoft and switched to Linux is the open-source OS's reputation for greater security. That doesn’t mean your Linux distro is impenetrable, though, and certainly not out of the box. Here are seven steps you can take to make your Linux laptop more secure.

It sometimes feels like there are more midsize SUVs available today than mosquitoes on a summer night. And like those pesky insects, midsize luxury SUVs can cause a real sting. In other words, all those upscale features come at a price. Expect a starting MSRP over $50,000, which can easily stretch to $70,000 and beyond, depending on the make, model, and trim level.

If you're getting a new Raspberry Pi 4, it might look a bit different than you were expecting. Raspberry Pi has started manufacturing a tweaked model that uses dual DRAM modules, thanks to ongoing supply chain problems.

You have to make your own mistakes in life to learn and grow, but sometimes learning and growing aren’t on the agenda. Some of my favorite regular mistakes are smart home purchases I just can’t quit.

When it comes to power tools, few names carry the recognition of Milwaukee. That's especially true when it comes to professional trade work. So, whether you're a DIYer, a new homeowner, or an electrician apprentice, here are a few tools some of the pros swear by.

Whether you're buying a MacBook or a Windows laptop, most modern laptops suffer from one serious problem: They don't have enough ports. Thankfully, you can solve that problem for less than $30.

Canonical announced today it's collaborating with SpacemiT (Hangzhou) Technology Co., Ltd. in an effort to make Ubuntu run on SpacemiT's RISC-V systems-on-chip (SoCs) that use the RVA23 profile. The SoCs include its upcoming K3 series, and there's now support for its existing K1 SoC as well.

Many Plex performance problems don't come from your server or network; they're caused by the files themselves. If you choose the wrong HandBrake preset when preparing your videos for Plex, it can cause buffering, quality loss, and excessive CPU load. Fortunately, it's easy to fix.

Stop wasting hours manually sorting, deduplicating, and filtering your data in Excel. Instead, combine FILTER, UNIQUE, and SORTBY to create a self-cleaning data engine that does all the work from a single cell and never needs updating.

This month, HBO Max is bringing us access to some eye-opening new content. In addition to an exclusive movie debut, you can expect the return of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, the final season of a sexy drama series, two new series debuts—one of which is based on astounding true events—and a true-crime documentary set in the hometown of the mirrored glitterball. Now it’s a party.

Android has evolved a lot since the first phone arrived back in 2008. Even in the last 4–5 years, there are dozens of new features you've likely forgotten about or never remember to use.

Do you use Linux Mint but feel like you’re not getting the most out of it? Or maybe you think Mint is too basic for serious work. Whether you’re a student or a working professional, these three Cinnamon applets can help you become more productive on Linux Mint.

Car culture and PC culture share more vocabulary than you’d think—often entire concepts lifted straight from automotive engineering. Here are nine common PC terms that came directly from car culture, and how their meanings shifted (or stayed the same) when they drifted over.

There's a reason why Outlook is one of the most widely used email providers. But it's even better when you know how to get around it better.

You may think that Android's USB debugging feature, hidden within the developer options, is only for developers. But it can be very useful for just about anyone and could very well save your data someday. To do that, you'll need to have enabled the feature beforehand.

Last year, wireless charging for Android devices received a boost thanks to Qi2. The Galaxy S25 was one of the first to support this new standard, but Samsung infamously left out one of its biggest features: magnetic wireless charging—a.k.a. “MagSafe.” The Galaxy S26 series is making the same mistake.

Got an old Android phone sitting unused in a drawer? By installing an open-source ROM, you can bring it bang up to date and give it a whole new lease of life. That's what I did with my old Motorola phone. Here's how it went.