How-To Geek

When the concept of an "always-on" display was first introduced, many people were immediately turned off by the idea due to battery concerns. I was one of those people. However, after spending years without it, and now owning a phone with an AOD, I’ve realized the feature is far more useful than it initially appears.

Whether you drive a Ford or a Ferrari, you want your car to look its best. I know I do. But the reality is that cars, trucks, and SUVs exist in the real world. They travel on highways where flying rocks and debris pose a constant threat. In parking lots, they're surrounded by vehicles owned by people who may not care as much about their cars as we do about ours.

USB-C feels like the sensible ending to a long story, and not all of that story made a whole lot of sense. USB took plenty of strange detours before getting there, and some ideas were genius, while others didn't stand the test of time.

Summer is kicking in with full force, and with the temperature rising, Netflix's summer slate of releases, too, picks up heat. It's time for your watch list to get a new look, whether you're looking forward to a cozy romance watch or an addictive new series.

If you’re shopping for an affordable luxury sports sedan, the usual answer has always been a compact Lexus. However, rising prices and a shrinking lineup have opened the door for a newer rival to steal the spotlight. In 2026, one Korean sedan stands out by offering sharper performance, a richer interior, and a lower starting price than its Japanese competitor.

Google has set steep requirements for Android 17's marquee Gemini Intelligence feature. They rule out most existing phones, to the point where some of the company's own Pixel 9 devices might not support the agentic AI.

Your router is literally the gateway between the internet and every phone, laptop, camera, and smart device in your home. If you leave the default settings alone, everything else on your network is significantly less secure.

I've been a Gmail user for almost two decades. It took one app to change that—and honestly, I didn't see it coming. If your Gmail app feels like a chore, Spark is a serious upgrade. It's fast, smart, and earns your trust quickly—with a few privacy tradeoffs worth knowing upfront.

Compact crossovers have basically become the default new car for Americans. They’re easier to live with than larger SUVs, cheaper to run, and now come packed with tech and comfort features that used to feel reserved for pricier vehicles.

Now that Memorial Day weekend has passed, let the summer festivities begin. For many of you, that will include a vacation that might involve a plane ride. Some people love to sleep on planes, while others prefer to pull out a book and read. For me, I use my time on a plane to watch movies and TV shows. If I'm stuck on a plane for several hours, why not catch up on some shows I missed?

Are you looking for a new satisfying hobby to pick up? Let me introduce you to laser engraving. I've been laser engraving for many years, but there's never been a better time to pick up the hobby than now.

For years, most of us have treated Linux display scaling as one of those problems you learn to work around rather than solve. You buy a high-resolution monitor, set scaling to something reasonable like 125% or 150%, and then wait for the compromises to appear. One app looks sharp, another looks slightly smeared, and you can’t read text.

Samsung Galaxy Watches offer a wide array of options that put them a rung above other Wear OS devices. The only bad thing about this is that you might be missing some of the best features that aren’t enabled by default. This is especially true when it comes to notifications.

YouTube is doing more to fight the wave of AI slop on the streaming video service. The Google brand says it's using "new internal signals" to automatically label photorealistic AI and theoretically discourage abuse of the technology.

DNS is one of those things where many people aren't aware that it is something you can adjust. Those who are, may end up overdoing it in the other direction. Tweaking custom DNS settings across every phone, laptop, console, TV, and whatever else lives inside your house may sound tempting if you belong in that second camp, but hold up a second.

Smart video doorbells are one of the best examples of a dumb device that has been improved enormously by adding smart features. You can use one to see who is at the door even if you're on the other side of the world, you can talk to visitors through the doorbell, and you can get notifications when someone is detected on the doorbell's camera.

If you have spent years working with editors built on Electron, you already know how heavy they feel, and VS Code is no exception. If your project is big enough, the interface starts to stutter. It is a performance tax that we have come to accept as the cost of doing business in modern development. Zed changes that by stripping away the web stack entirely. Now, I think VS Code is too slow compared to Zed.

Makita fans know the company makes all sorts of products, from battery-powered coffee machines to capable 18V LXT power tools. And while most of you own the basics, like an impact driver, drills, and saws, there are several lesser-known Makita tools you'll want to check out.

I've been using optical audio for over a decade, but I had no idea what I was missing out on. I intentionally avoided using HDMI ARC because of issues that I had early on with it, but it seems like eARC fixed all the gripes that I originally had with ARC.

Smart homes are increasingly becoming a crucial part of a functioning modern household, so I've decided to take the plunge and create my own smart home.