How-To Geek

The sweaters and jackets are out of storage, the furnace is rumbling, and Netflix's October slate of TV shows is heating up, with returning hits like The Diplomat on the way, as well as some anticipated new documentaries.

Formatting an SSD seems like the obvious thing to do if you want to sell it, give it away, or even just give it a new job doing something else. I'm not here to dispute that, but I think that many people are unaware that formatting isn't the 100% fail-proof solution some think it is.

Most people assume the cable that ships with a flagship phone is built to match the phone's actual capabilities. That's a reasonable assumption since it comes straight from the manufacturer, and most companies don't want to look bad if they want repeat customers. Samsung spent years developing fast charging technology that cuts charge times significantly, and you probably wouldn't guess that the cable in the box is what's holding it back.

When your PC starts to lag, it is normal to start searching the web for solutions only to be met with a deluge of apps that promise to "speed up your PC" and "optimize Windows" with a single click.

Ryobi's 18V and 40V tools are extremely popular with homeowners and DIYers, and for good reason. I'm a huge fan myself and have been buying Ryobi tools for more than 20 years. However, not every tool is a winner, and there are a few Ryobi tools I regret buying. If you're wandering through Home Depot, here are a few to avoid and what to buy instead.

There’s something ridiculous about how much I trust Google Maps while driving. I’ll be in an unfamiliar part of town, approaching a road I’ve never seen before, and somehow I’m expected to believe a tiny blue arrow knows exactly where I should go. Most of the time, I just follow it and hope I don’t end up making a last-second turn.

Best Buy is in the middle of its own fall savings event right now, as its Techtober sale is starting off strong. For the gamer, the one product that jumps off the screen is this impressive Acer Nitro Gaming curved monitor—the ideal choice for those looking to up their experience with a bigger screen. With a discount of $280, it's one you'll definitely want to take advantage of before it's too late.

Previously, How-To Geek reported that Amazon’s ambitions in low-Earth orbit extended beyond traditional home broadband toward direct-to-device satellite connectivity. While satellite phone connectivity is still far away, Amazon is getting ready to launch its satellite internet service later this year.

Netflix has an extensive collection of award-winning movies, and some of its best picks are also great for a relaxed weekend watch. From a sweeping wartime romance to a hip-hop underdog story, these films offer very different reasons to settle in for your movie night.

Building a comprehensive Obsidian Knowledge Base has become a discipline for me lately. I already use several different methods to build it. Some of them are pretty standard, like using the web importer plugin. Others are a bit more unexpected. And I do a great deal of it without touching the editor for the most part. But I wanted to go further. So I found a few rather unconventional sources to use to continue building my "second brain".

If you’re running out of storage on your Android, there's a good chance Chrome might be the silent culprit. While the app’s base size is roughly 150MB to 275MB, its storage footprint can grow significantly as your browser accumulates Progressive Web Apps (PWAs), offline media caches, and persistent web data over time. In my case, this was the reason for my browser having around 6GB of storage on my phone.

The PC market was already rough, but it just got worse. IDC estimates that PC shipments plunged 20.1% year-over-year in the summer (third quarter) this year, and that the situation isn't likely to get better any time soon.

You can never have enough storage space on your desktop, and adding an SSD like Lexar's NQ780 can help back up your movie and music collection, as well as important documents like your ID or birth certificate. It can also be a fast, reliable replacement if your current drive starts having issues.

The appeal of Arch is obvious: you get the latest and greatest within days of their release. However, Arch also has a reputation for being difficult to install and requiring constant upkeep.

The community often recommends self-hosted apps like Pi-hole, Vaultwarden, Audiobookshelf, and more. These aren't the only options; plenty of other self-hosted tools can do truly ingenious things. Many of them are lightweight enough to run on that old Raspberry Pi you should still have in your drawer.

There are two big players in the home networking space—eero and UniFi. They both target different audiences, and I have extensive experience with both. I've chosen UniFi to run my homelab because, at this point, it's the only good option out there for my needs. Here's why I use UniFi and why I left eero in the dust.

Netflix's prestige scripted hits like Florence Pugh's chart-topping East of Eden might get the lion's share of the hype, but documentaries and docuseries reliably rank as some of the streamer's most-watched programming. It turns out that even the greatest writers can't script some of the head-shaking storylines that only real life can conjure.

I think most of us have uploaded an image to the internet without giving it much thought. But those images hold more information than you may have guessed. A photo from your mobile phone can hold data about the device used, when the image was taken, and even where the image was taken.

Most power banks are built for everyday carry, not rain, dusty trails, or the occasional drop on rocky ground. Trusted by more than 40 million users, INIU knows this and has partnered with Strava and the American Hiking Society to launch its new INIU Outdoor Rugged Series.