How-To Geek

Google owns Android, with Pixel phones that are pretty great and are getting better every year, but Samsung continues to own the experience, with sales numbers to prove it. And while I love both, Samsung is beating Google at its own game, and has been for a while now.

Are you still using Rufus to create bootable USB drives? Are you frustrated that you need a separate USB drive for every operating system you want to boot? Well, let me introduce you to Ventoy—a free, open-source alternative to Rufus that lets you store as many operating systems as your USB drive has room for and boot into any of them with ease.

Fire TV is one of the easiest streaming setups to get running and one of the easiest to leave half-configured. Most people plug it in, get through the initial setup, and never touch the audio settings again. The defaults aren't doing you any favors. Four settings buried in the menus have a bigger effect on how everything sounds than any hardware upgrade would, and none of them are very difficult to do or require going into super secret developer menus.

Raspberry Pi computers used to be cheap. Sadly, that's not the case anymore as I write this, but you may still have more than a few older models lying around from the good old days when they were practically giving them away.

It's no secret that Ryobi gets a lot of hate online. You've probably seen videos on social media poking fun at the bright lime-green tools, and asking for advice in a Reddit tool forum will quickly get responses about just how "bad" they are. If that's the case, why are they so popular, and why do DIYers keep buying them?

I was excited when Microsoft added the PIVOTBY function to Excel. After years of building PivotTables, having a formula-driven alternative felt like a major upgrade. But after replacing several PivotTables with PIVOTBY, one frustrating formatting issue convinced me I wasn't quite ready to leave PivotTables behind.

Google's suite of cloud applications, including Google Keep, are extremely convenient. However, if you value privacy and the ability to customize your experience, there is a better option out there.

Self-hosting may require an up-front investment, but over time you can save money and avoid costly ongoing subscription fees. These services can also make your hobbies more accessible and satisfying, which helps justify the modest effort and cost involved.

For years, Microsoft tried to fight off Linux. Linux users were all too happy to take potshots at Microsoft and Windows in turn. But over the years, something changed. It seems that Microsoft has become an advocate for one of its biggest competitors: Linux and open-source software more generally. How did that happen?

Are you looking for a way to secure your smart home against potential bad actors or intruders? A VLAN is the perfect tool for the job. Here’s how I have my VLAN set up, and how I plan to use it to secure my smart home’s network.

I run a silly little website on Neocities called Whistling Nose Games, Music, and Multimedia. During some downtime last year, I spent a few months relearning web design, CSS, JavaScript, and creating absurd games/music. It has an intentional nostalgic vibe. I'm going to revamp it. A friend, whose design skills are phenomenal, pointed me in the direction of Astro to help me with my redesign. So I gave it a shot and it turned out pretty well.

One of the great things about Android Auto is that you're carrying your infotainment system with you wherever you go. If you own more than one car, you don't have to set up two different profiles. Just connect your phone, and the experience follows you. Likewise, if multiple people share a car, it feels like the specific head unit doesn't really matter. It's the phone that sets the stage and handles everything, right?

Buying an electric car has traditionally meant paying more upfront in exchange for lower running costs down the road. That's been one of the biggest hurdles for shoppers considering the switch, especially when similarly equipped hybrid models often carry a lower sticker price.

Paramount+ added more than 60 movies to its lineup for July, and while tried-and-true Paramount regulars like Top Gun: Maverick, Scream 7, and Roofman still linger around in the streamer's top 10, sometimes you might just want to cut to the chase with a good thriller. Worry not, thrill-seekers; we're here for you.

USB-C is super handy in the sense that every port and connector looks exactly the same, so you never have to wonder whether it'll fit or not. It can be confusing, though, and sometimes, the confusing parts aren't even visible at a glance.

Ethernet has been around for a long time. Invented in the '70s, commercialized in the early '80s, and it's still the fastest and most reliable network technology you can have in your home.

We have all experienced this situation. Your check engine light comes on, and your mind immediately jumps to worst-case scenarios. And if you manage to get to the repair shop, you shudder at the thought of how much they will charge to fix this mysterious issue.

Google is famous for launching new services only to kill them. There are community trackers like Killed By Google that are explicitly dedicated to cataloging the hundreds of projects Google has started up and eventually retired to the digital graveyard. Some of these high-profile experiments include Google Reader and Google+, but some of them were much more outlandish.

HDDs are often seen as highly reliable, and it's true: they mostly are. But just as external HDDs can die on you at any time, so can regular, internal hard drives, and this is still true even if the HDD is new.

Luxury SUVs usually follow the same pattern. They arrive with fresh styling, impressive technology, and big promises, then slowly lose ground as newer rivals bring better features and more polished driving experiences.