How-To Geek

Before I got my first "modern" smartphone, I was enjoying being a Blackberry user. It gave me unlimited web access and messaging, and of course, that lovely physical keyboard you could write a novel on using your thumbs.

Standard Excel lookups are perfectionists that fail on typos or extra spaces. While you could hack a solution using nested XLOOKUP, TRIM, and LOWER functions, it's brittle and hard to maintain. Power Query fuzzy matching is the smarter, "close enough" way to work.

Microsoft Outlook, which many of us still consider the standard for professional email, has quietly gone through many improvements. The email client is no longer a clunky, static place that constantly requires manual effort. That old idea that you have to jump to a different task manager, calendar app, or communication platform is outdated.

Netflix's release slate for 2026 is full of surprises and new faces, but there are also some returning titles and characters that come with a side of nostalgia. The year is a great one if you're a cinephile, and whether you're looking for a good laugh, cry, or adrenaline pump, the platform has something for every mood.

Amazon Alexa and Google Home are two of the most popular smart home ecosystems. They're simple to set up and use and work fine for basic automations. While these systems have their place, there are multiple ways in which the free and open-source Home Assistant smart home software is better.

For most of my working life, Outlook hasn’t really been optional. It’s been the default, tied to work accounts and expectations, and over time it’s grown heavier. More features, more panels, more badges, and more interruptions, many of them designed to keep email front and center at all times. Instead of helping me manage my email, Outlook started to feel like it was managing my attention, constantly reminding me that there was something new, something unread, or something I should probably deal with right now.

Running your smart home with Home Assistant requires a bit more of a hands-on approach than using a rival system from the likes of Google or Amazon. Sometimes, it’s hard to quantify how well you’re doing, but one third-party integration aims to make that a little easier with a numerical score.

Not every great app costs hundreds of dollars a year in subscription fees. Whether you're looking to edit photos or work with PDFs, here are some of the best free Windows apps available.

LibreOffice is one of the best alternatives to Microsoft Office and Google Docs, and now it's rolling out a major update. LibreOffice 26.2 has arrived with some new features, compatibility improvements with Microsoft Office, and faster performance.

I haven't charged the Logitech Signature Slim Solar+ K980 wireless keyboard once since set-up, and that's the point. While its solar charging is nearly its only special feature, it does what it does well, delivering an excellent typing experience, long-lasting battery life, portability, and multi-device support.

In the United States, approximately 20% of the 42,915 people killed in motor vehicle crashes in 2021 were vulnerable road users, defined as pedestrians, cyclists, and wheelchair users. Contributing factors to the high number include distracted driving and speeding, with school zones among the highest-risk areas.

The weirder a Netflix documentary is, the better. If it's about true crime, those docs tend to become streaming sensations. Just look at the overwhelming success of Making a Murderer and Don't F**k With Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer. The same success rate can be said for the crazy-but-true genre, which features unbelievable stories captured on film. The latest hit for the streamer is Secret Mall Apartment.

Netflix's intense and unique extreme climbing extravaganza Skyscraper Live has been a big success for the streamer, attracting a reported 6.2 million views and currently sitting at No. 2 on the Netflix U.S. Top 10. The stakes were high, as the world's most famous free solo climber, Alex Honnold, Spider-Manned his way up the 1,667-foot Taipei 101 skyscraper, one of the world's tallest buildings—no ropes, no safety harness, no nothing.

Solid-state drives, especially NVMe drives, have become ubiquitous in newer builds because of their convenient size, blazing fast transfer speeds, and cost. If you're shopping for a drive, you may be tempted to try and "future-proof" your SSD, but you shouldn't. There are better ways to spend your money.

Although Firefox is well-regarded by privacy-conscious users, some of its default settings can expose you to privacy risks. Additionally, the browser isn't optimized for performance, security, and user experience. If you're using Firefox with its default settings, I recommend turning off these features.

If you're thinking of leaving behind Netflix and other streaming services for a self-hosted Jellyfin server, you're not alone. I've been doing this for years, and I just started using a new video client on my Chromecast TV I'm excited to show you.

The Mazda Miata is an affordable and fun sports car beloved by enthusiasts from all walks of life. Although compact, there is enough room for most everyday things, from a gym bag and light luggage to a modest load of groceries. Standard safety features for the 2026 model include front and side airbags, side-impact door beams, blind spot monitoring with rear cross-traffic alert, and lane departure warning.

The vinyl versus CD debate keeps popping up its head, which is something I find personally annoying given that, objectively, CDs are the superior format. But, over time, I've realized that the claims by vinyl fanatics about the supposed audio quality of their beloved medium have less to do with objectivity and almost everything to do with subjectivity.

Typically, an SSD is better for data that you need to retrieve quickly, and not important files, which are relegated to hard drives that have more space.

There are many options for a mini PC, but not all of them have a Nintendo Entertainment System-inspired design. Acemagic wants to fix that with its new Retro X3 mini PC.