How-To Geek

As we round the corner into the final straight of July, Netflix still has a lot of life left in it when it comes to options that make for good weekday movie nights. Netflix U.S. viewers seem to still be flocking to the disaster doc, Shipwrecked: Nightmare at Sea, that we covered in our weekly roundup of documentaries, as it still sits in the streamer's Top 3, but if a doc isn't what you're looking for, read on.

I use FOSS (free and open-source) tools every day on my Linux machine. But before I started really getting into it, there was one app that changed the way I thought about software to that point: LibreOffice. Discovering it changed my mind about how I use software and I consider it a hidden gem that's hiding in plain sight.

LG display users are pushing back against two contentious policies. Some LG monitors are reportedly installing McAfee adware without users' permission, while smart TVs have a new policy raising concerns about recording people for AI purposes.

Samsung is known for offering high-end hardware and tons of software features. But part of being on the cutting edge is letting some old things fall by the wayside. Galaxy phones have lost almost as many features as they’ve gained, and I miss a few of them more than others.

As the second quarter of the year comes to a close, sales figures from automakers have flooded in. In a turbulent year, there have been a lot of surprise wins and disappointing losses. However, in the world of luxury vehicles, there is one nameplate that continues to hold on to its dominance.

Want to extend the time between charges on your Pixel, or just get through a day out without worrying about having to top up? You don't have to disable features on your phone to do it. Pixel devices have some easily ignorable settings you can tweak that will help to save your battery.

It's 2026, and audiences still love Will Ferrell. The comedian's newest show on Netflix, The Hawk, is currently sitting at No. 1 on the service. On the movie side, a Spanish-language thriller, Desire, is No. 1 on the charts. If you're still searching for more thrillers after these picks, give Desire a shot.

One of 2026's most talked-about movies finally hit streaming last week. Obsession, Curry Barker's innovative horror movie, is now on Peacock. This week, there are three new original movies premiering on Netflix, Paramount+, and Apple TV. One is a Kevin Hart comedy, while the other features a beloved animated character.

SIM cards are a relic of an age where multiple people had to share a single phone, and the cards themselves were enormous. These days, SIM cards are tiny and technically unnecessary thanks to the rise of eSIMs.

Most people set up their home router once, connect their devices, and never open the admin panel again. That works fine until the issues come. The settings covered here aren't complicated to change, and most of them take under five minutes. The difference is that once they're done, your network is faster, more private, and a lot harder to mess with.

If you've ever wanted Thanos-like control over your smart home, you're about to get your wish. Developer David Ruiz has released a Maestro app in beta that lets you activate devices just by snapping your fingers.

BitWarden is a fantastic password manager, but if you're averse to recurring costs (especially in the form of subscriptions), the recent price hikes could be difficult to accept.

This week on Amazon Prime Video, we’re exploring five critically acclaimed movies that resonate far beyond the screen with their blend of powerful storytelling, standout performances, and superb direction. From survival-driven ingenuity, unflinching intensity, and a deeply human exploration of justice to artistic obsession and chaotic excess, each of these movies captures lightning in a bottle.

Most people don't think about their phone-to-car connection until it stops working in the middle of a trip. Suddenly, you're poking at a touchscreen, doing exactly what you were trying to avoid. Getting Android Auto to play your music the moment you start driving sounds simple, and parts of it are. However, it takes some deliberate setup and a few spots where things can quietly break.

I have a habit of keeping all my software and files, regardless of whether I use them regularly. I have a sweet deprecated version of Noteworthy Composer (to run on a VM) and a portable version of Reaper that I've been using for years. The modern web and modern services have made it increasingly difficult (ahem, Amazon, ahem) to preserve software and digital purchases. So I preserve my software as much as possible, the same way someone might preserve their family photo albums.

Having your files safe somewhere on the network doesn't help much if a completely blank machine can't even see the network yet. Getting a dead computer back to the point where it can talk to anything needs to solve a hardware recognition problem before the operating system exists to solve it. Early NAS handled this surprisingly well, and understanding how they did it makes it easier to appreciate why modern tools, for all their efficiency, usually can't fully replace what those older systems got right.

My Bluetooth mouse would cut out every few minutes on my Windows laptop, usually right in the middle of an intense working session. Then reconnecting it over and over got old fast. While digging around for a fix, I came across common Bluetooth bugs on Windows and realized my issue wasn't the device at all. It was a single power setting buried a few clicks deep in Device Manager.

You have good reasons to get excited about Samsung's Unpacked event this week. It's clear that Samsung will be unveiling a handful of products, but the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is undoubtedly the most exciting. This will not be yet another boring iterative upgrade.

I used to spend far too much time building and debugging complex Excel formulas. Now, I can describe a problem to AI and get a working answer in seconds. But when I asked ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini for the "best" Excel formula, they all gave me different answers.

Are you fed up with Microsoft's invasive behavior? They're increasingly inserting themselves into your digital life, collecting your data and outright disrespecting your wishes. It would normally anger me, but there’s no Microsoft on my system, and I'll explain why.