How-To Geek

With SSDs as expensive as they currently are, every last megabyte should count. You might be spending quite a bit of time cleaning up your folders, organizing backups, and micromanaging the space on your main SSD.

Search “keyboard” in the Google Play Store, and you’ll find a nearly endless list of apps to choose from. But are any of them better than the one that came pre-installed on your phone? There’s a keyboard app for every Android user—here are 5 excellent options.

While there might be a lot happening in April on Paramount+, most of what’s coming involves a ton of previously released shows, documentaries, and movies. There are, however, a handful of highlights you’ll want to know about regarding new content.

In this modern age of binge-reading and readers recommending the best adaptations of books after they’ve watched TV shows, there are so many great ways to use our e-readers. I’ve always been a Kindle girl, and while there are so many different Kindles out there, all of them have some interesting hidden ways they can be used.

My first few iPads (I've had many) were all cellular models and I used that feature extensively. However, times have changed, and the case for a tablet with a cellular radio just isn't as strong anymore. I've gone Wi-Fi only for many years now, and I'm unlikely to go back. Here's why.

Even 39 years after they came out of the dark, The Lost Boys shows no signs of slowing down. The 1980s had no shortage of horror icons on the big screen, yet the vampire subgenre was dormant, with the classic creature largely overshadowed by slasher villians. However, divisive director Joel Schumacher would add a youthful twist to the bloodsuckers in his 1987 horror comedy that imagined how a young pack of unruly vampires would fit into contemporary America.

The Subaru Outback has long been one of the brand’s most dependable sellers, known for its rugged capability and practical design. But even established nameplates aren’t immune to changing consumer tastes. Following a recent redesign, the Outback is facing a noticeable sales slowdown as buyers react to its updated look.

I like open-source software not only because the apps are free of charge, but they're often better than their proprietary counterparts. Here are the ones that have replaced common proprietary apps for me.

I used to run Home Assistant on a Raspberry Pi 3B+. The experience was absolutely fine; for a couple of years, it ran my smart home without too many major problems. When I finally upgraded to a mini PC, there were some notable differences.

Linux Mint is a beautiful and efficient operating system that just works out of the box. This is both a gift and a curse. It's a gift because you don't have to tweak and optimize it. It's a curse because you rarely think about tweaking and optimizing it—which is a shame given there's a lot worth exploring. To help you get started, here are five extensions that can instantly supercharge your desktop and make you fall even more in love with Linux Mint.

I once used Ubuntu and followed its development with extreme excitement, like a kid whose favorite console and game are both available for free. Now, at best, I feel ambivalence. What happened along the way?

Netflix's documentary collection is a treasure trove of information for every viewer. Whether you're interested in historical events, economic concepts, or retellings of popular events, or you simply want to kick back and get your dose of true crime excitement, the options are endless.

Not too long ago, I urged you not to buy SATA SSDs as they're borderline obsolete. I stand by that: I don't think buying a new SATA SSD makes sense right now. But what if you already have one, or a bunch, just collecting dust inside your home?

Got a house full of smart devices but no smart speaker? Don’t fancy paying an additional fee to add Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa to your Home Assistant setup? You can do it on the cheap and reap some big privacy benefits.

Even if you're the biggest Windows fan out there, you'd have to admit that Microsoft left lots of gaps in Windows functionality for third-party software makers to exploit. Or did they?

Modern televisions don't have space for the large, front-firing speakers that you used to find on CRT TVs. If you're lucky, you'll get halfway decent speakers pointing down or out of the back of the TV. None of the arrangements make for a good listening experience, especially if you need to hear dialogue.

When you're chasing those perfect 3D prints, you probably focus a lot on dialing in slicer settings, getting your flow rates just right, and picking out cool filaments. But you might be overlooking a really fundamental, and possibly dangerous, part of your machine: the hotend.

When a file is no longer serving a purpose, it’s time to delete it, and you probably know at least one way of doing so. But there may be more ways than you realize, and each has its own advantages, quirks, and things to teach us.

A mini PC is a solid option for a home server. They're small, relatively cheap, and low-power. I use a mini PC as a home server, but there are several things that my old Dell OptiPlex PC does better.

Every Excel spreadsheet eventually starts to rot. If your workbook relies on ancient file formats, hard-coded values, and formulas that look like massive, multi-line blocks of text, you're running legacy code that's slowing you down. And if you don't future-proof it, it's a ticking time bomb. Here's how to spot the rot and modernize your datasets.