How-To Geek

Whether we like to admit it or not, notifications are the primary reason why so many of us are attached at the hip to our phones. No one wants to miss an important one. Android handles notifications the best, but if you have a Pixel phone, it gets even better.

Windows 11 and its native apps don't have the best reputation. Microsoft has packed the system with all kinds of features, making it feel increasingly bloated.

Two USB-C cables can look identical, fit the same port, and behave completely differently on your computer. One charges a laptop at full speed and transfers files in seconds; the other barely keeps a phone topped up. Baffling, I know. But you'd be surprised by how much stuff can differ between two cables full of copper.

I've used PuTTY for years. It's a great program that has lasted this long because it does one thing really well. When I need to connect to another computer over SSH, PuTTY gets the job done without a lot of extra stuff getting in the way. I know how it works, I trust it, and I've never had much reason to replace it.

Samsung is the reigning champion of foldable phones for a reason: it pushes the category forward with strong designs. The Galaxy Z Fold 8 is one of my favorite folding phones of all time, and it helped popularize the passport-style shape that's quickly taking over the mobile world.

CDs have been around for a long time, with people still having ones from decades ago. Even today, CDs — which stand for compact discs — are sold to people who like owning physical music and want the additional content included with the physical copy rather than what is on streaming services.

The reason many of us build smart homes and tinker with microcontrollers is to make the mundane feel a little more special. Though these projects are far from necessary, they can bring a bit of magic to your everyday routines and teach you a thing or two along the way.

Years ago, I bought an Android TV box so I wouldn't have to replace the TV in my bedroom with a smart TV. At the time, it seemed like a cheap and simple solution. All I had to do was plug the box into the TV, connect it to Wi-Fi, and I had access to all the streaming apps I needed. What I didn't expect was that I'd still be using the same box years later, even while newer streaming devices have come and gone.

If you've got an old Fire Stick that you no longer need to watch TV with, it doesn't have to become e-waste. With its built-in Alexa functionality, you can disconnect it from your TV and use it as a smart speaker. It's not quite an Amazon Echo, but it can make surprisingly good use of the hardware that you already own.

Wired Android Auto is about as plug-and-play as it gets. The moment you plug the USB cable into your phone, everything connects in less time than it takes your engine to warm up a little before you roll off. However, annoyingly, it always seems to turn on Bluetooth too, but why does that keep happening when you’re using wired Android Auto?

Things have been a little quiet on Paramount+ lately, unless you've been deep in cover-ops land with Lioness or eagerly awaiting some renewed Harrigan madness with the coming of season two of MobLand on September 18. But on the movie side of things, things are slow, which is a perfect time for a thriller to wake you up.

My Wi-Fi router sits out in the open in the kitchen next to the TV, and I've been thinking about hiding it in the cabinet under the TV for a while now. This would make the whole setup look a little tidier, but I didn't want to sacrifice Wi-Fi performance just for better aesthetics. So, I decided to test just how much worse my signal actually gets when I put the router in a cabinet.

An operating system is only as good as the apps you can run on it, but some apps go beyond that and end up defining the operating system. You seek them out, usually on day one of setting up a new PC, because Windows just feels incomplete without them. Here are three such apps that are so good that they define their entire categories — earning them the title of “greatest of all time.”

For better or worse, Wear OS smartwatches have followed the same path as Android phones: Samsung and Google dominate mind share. This year, they released the Galaxy Watch 9 and Pixel Watch 5 — but which to choose? I decided to wear both.

If you're new to Linux and switching from Windows to Linux, there are some mistakes you want to avoid. Avoiding common beginner mistakes in Linux will put you ahead of the other Linux newbies.

As a general rule, don't use the router that comes from your ISP. It's typically overpriced, but that's not all — it may even be causing issues with your smart home, at least with the default settings.

We all have certain icks with our favorite apps—a bug, subpar display, long navigation, or even core features that we want to change to our liking. With streaming platforms like Spotify, you can get annoyed quickly when these issues manifest every day.

This one is for all the people who buy a router, set it up according to the default settings, and never look at it again. Unfortunately, default settings aren't really optimized to keep us safe and secure. Instead, they're designed to make the product work out-of-the-box for as many people as possible.

When I hear HBO Max, I think of critical acclaim. The streamer lived up to its reputation, as HBO Max dominated the Emmy nominations. For the 2026 Emmy Awards, HBO Max led the field with 122 total nominations. That's a testament to the streamer's commitment to making prestige dramas and comedies.

VLC will always have a place on any Windows, macOS, or Linux PC I own. It's been the Swiss Army knife of media players for decades at this point, and you'd be forgiven if you simply stopped looking once you found the one media player to rule them all.