How-To Geek

Netflix’s award-winning catalog has picked up a few interesting additions lately, including two dramas that had strong runs at this year’s awards and an older blockbuster that still holds its charm. If you usually end up circling the same handful of decorated movies, this week’s picks give you a little more variety.

I've always liked the fact that older versions of Excel had hidden games tucked away inside them. Microsoft stopped doing that years ago, but Excel users never completely stopped having fun with spreadsheets. I recently found an open-source Space Invaders-style game that runs entirely inside Excel.

Whenever I noticed an Android Auto feature missing in my car, I’d always blame my phone, Android Auto, or even the car’s software. I know these all matter too, but not in my case. I’d look up a feature, follow the exact steps, and still couldn’t find the option on my screen. Finally, I found the real culprit: my car’s small display.

Windows 11's Low Latency Profile promises snappier menus and faster launches through short CPU bursts. But does Microsoft's shell-level fix actually rival NVIDIA Reflex, the standard for cutting in-game input lag? Here's how the two really compare.

There’s something satisfying about physical controls, whether that’s a clicky button, chunky dial, or smooth fader. It feels like motorized faders are having a moment in the ESP32 hobbyist community, so today we’re going to look at how you can put them to use.

You could soon see more mobile games on Steam. Valve has released Lepton, an open-source tool that brings Android games to Linux and, of course, Steam.

Apple discontinued the last iPad with a Lightning port in 2024, so if you've bought a new iPad after that point, it will come with a lovely USB-C port, which is the only way to charge the tablet, given it lacks wireless charging features.

Do you like using Facebook Marketplace? I'll be honest with you: I don't. You're so often left to deal with scammers and/or bots that finding an actual person who will sell or buy the exact same thing they said they would is like finding a unicorn. But when you do find that unicorn deal, it can be so good, which is what keeps me coming back.

Fans of documentaries know that Netflix has a knack for delivering weekend viewing that sparks conversation come Monday. And the fact that the chilling series Death of a Pastor's Wife is still perched at No. 1 on the streamer's U.S. Top 10 also says a lot about viewers' appetite for true crime.

Your Galaxy phone now shares photos with the cloud service you're most likely to use. Samsung has confirmed that Gallery is starting to sync with Google Photos instead of Microsoft's OneDrive,

You want an iPhone case that protects your phone and has a functional, sophisticated style. But so many ultra-protective cases on the market are too bulky, overshadowing your iPhone’s design, so all that’s noticeable is that brick of a case.

Many people buy a NAS with a single goal in mind: building a private Plex media server for all their movies and TV shows. But Plex itself requires surprisingly few resources to run, meaning the processor and RAM in your NAS can spend most of their time sitting around, doing basically nothing.

It might be an unpopular opinion, but I think almost all power tool combo kits are a waste of money, especially if you already own a few tools or battery packs. We've all walked into a hardware store and found a 5-tool or 7-tool combo from Ryobi, DeWALT, Milwaukee, or others at what looks like a good price, but it's rarely the smart move. Here's why.

I've spent a lot of time listening to music from a single smart speaker in my home office. While the sound quality is okay, there's only so much a single speaker can do. I recently acquired a ten-year-old hi-fi system, and the difference is night and day.

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.