How-To Geek

We keep saying our smartphones are more powerful than the computers we grew up with, but almost nobody actually uses their phone like a computer. That always bugged me, so I’ve tried to make my phone double as my PC for some time now. Granted, the experiments have always been hit or miss — until I finally tried it on my Google Pixel. While it can’t replace a proper workstation, I found it to be pretty good as a portable Linux PC. In fact, it’s so good that it has practically replaced my Raspberry Pi.

When it came time to replace my soundbar, I was ready for something better. The soundbar-and-subwoofer systems I was looking at were running between $300 and $600, and I wasn't excited about spending that much on another soundbar. I've never been completely happy with the soundbar experience, especially when I knew the same money could buy a traditional stereo setup with better speakers that would fill the room.

I've never used Arch before. Not even an Arch-based distro. When I came across CachyOS, it didn't scream "Arch-based" to me, though under the hood, it was. After spending some time with CachyOS, I realized there was another way into the Arch world.

Pi-hole is usually the go-to solution when someone asks about network-wide ad blocking or a basic network monitor, and for good reasons: it is simple, well-documented, and works well for most situations.

Excel, like many apps, is a program of habits. You find an annoying quirk, come up with a way to work around it, and it becomes etched into your muscle memory. Over the years, I've learned that some of these quirks have surprisingly simple solutions: tweak the way you work, press a different key, or change a setting and leave it alone. If any of these five Excel annoyances sound familiar, you can learn the fixes in a few minutes this weekend.

OsmAnd Maps is one of the most popular open-source alternatives to Google Maps. It has a lot going for it, but I can’t deny it’s not the prettiest app to look at. Thankfully, we can fix that — it’s very customizable.

My home is full of smart devices. My office desk alone is covered in different gadgets and sensors. With a little planning, you can reduce the number of devices around your home by combining several of them into a single device.

Are you ready for this weekend's roundup of Raspberry Pi projects? Today, I have some fun things for you to try out, from building your own knowledge base to creating your own custom feed reader, all before Monday rolls around.

Have you seen the slew of new customizable 3D models that are on sites like MakerWorld lately? It's all thanks to a word you might never have heard of before — parametric. Parametric modeling has done more to improve the 3D printing world than almost anything else, and here's everything you need to know.

Netflix isn't always the first streaming service you think of scrolling through when you're in the mood for a world-hopping, alien-hunting, or even Earth-based sci-fi movie. But while a Tyler Perry dramedy and Puss in Boots currently dominate the top three, we're here to launch you out of your brain and into something good.

Most home NAS units are designed to stay powered on and available 24/7. After all, if you want to ensure a backup is made, the best way to do that is keep your backup solution available all the time.

On my personal computer, I do a lot of the things I care most about protecting. I use it for banking and shopping, and I keep personal documents on it that I wouldn't want exposed. Firefox is usually the browser I reach for when privacy matters, but for this machine I wanted something that went a little further.

Public Wi-Fi is convenient, but it can expose more of your browsing than you'd expect. Android has a built-in feature called Private DNS that quietly encrypts one of the most revealing parts of your connection. Here's what it does, how to turn it on, and what else helps.

Windows doesn't need third-party utilities to take care of itself. With the right built-in tools and a bit of setup, a PC can check its own health, repair corrupted files, and even recover from a failed boot without much help from you.

3D prints can be brittle and weak, depending on which materials you use and how you choose to print them. But some prints are designed to be broken, either as part of their core functionality or in order to protect something else.

Despite Google’s many attempts, Android has never had a solid iMessage or FaceTime equivalent. 10 years ago, it made a big play with two apps named Allo and Duo. Only the latter survived into the 2020s, and video calling on Android has never really recovered.

Wi-Fi problems are a tricky thing, because they can be traced back to almost anything, and no amount of router tricks will help sometimes. Sometimes, Wi-Fi is just wonky, period.

It's been a loaded week of television thanks to the 2026 Primetime Emmys. One show on this list returns for its sixth season this week and recently won an Emmy for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series. Paramount+ welcomes the return of a crime drama produced by Guy Ritchie.

Local LLMs have improved in leaps and bounds; some models are even capable enough to replace cloud models for many daily tasks. However, there is still a significant gap in some areas, especially if the task at hand requires knowing a lot or reasoning about a job for a long time.

I recently started using my phone without a case, and it's amazing, but I never realized how hot my Samsung Galaxy gets while charging. Every time I plug it in, things start to get toasty, so I rarely let it go to 100%. Surprisingly, switching to a better and newer USB-C cable completely fixed the problem, and I also turned off the fastest charging mode.