How-To Geek

If you're looking to pick up a new pair of affordable wireless earbuds for your morning commute, something for the gym, or to just escape and listen to music around the house or running errands, you don't have to spend triple digits to secure a pair from a reputable brand. Amazon has JBL's Vibe Buds for just $30 right now, or you can go with the newer Vibe Buds 2 for just $40—either way, you'll save $25. The choice comes down to keeping the price as low as possible, or spending an extra $10 for noise cancellation and more battery life.

Most people, especially casual desktop users, see Linux as a mere alternative to Windows. The idea is that Windows is the more capable OS that can do more, while Linux is the alternative that’s still catching up.

Getting tool advice online is not always a good idea. Half the recommendations come from people who haven't touched the tools they're reviewing, and the other half are buried in comment threads you'd need an hour to sort through. I spoke to Ace Hardware and Home Depot associates to ask what their staff actually recommend to customers just starting out. I looped in my brother, who works in a field I can't talk about because it's government work, and drew on the time I spent landscaping for guys who'd been at it for years. The same four tools kept coming up every time.

Collecting trading cards is an incredibly fun hobby that has transcended time. Every generation has had its own version, from baseball cards to Pokémon. Getting into the hobby can be a little daunting, though, because there's a lot to learn. One of the harder things to learn is which cards have value and how rare they are.

When guests come over, I like to give them the Wi-Fi information so they have a more pleasant visit. However, sharing long passwords is a hassle — and the risk of harmful software unknown to the people coming over makes me wary of sharing my main router credentials.

It's odd to think that a trio of colorful cables can bring back such strong memories. But the red, yellow, and white colors of the composite video standard managed to dominate home entertainment for decades, particularly among movie buffs and gamers.

Modern TVs have mediocre sound because of their slimline designs, so you'll need a quality soundbar, like Sony's HT-S40R, for a more cinematic experience.

By now you’ve probably heard of ArtCraft and developer Brandon Thomas, who created open-source alternatives to seven applications in Adobe's Creative Cloud suite. Thomas said on Hacker News that he was motivated by Adobe’s dark pattern cancellation policy. If you're not familiar, Adobe's annual plans billed monthly can carry an early termination fee, something many customers may not realize when signing up. He also expressed his frustration with existing Linux alternatives, writing, “I'm sick of GIMP, Krita, and Inkscape being the best Linux and open source have to offer.”

Plugging your phone in and seeing something unrecognizable in your status bar is not a particularly fun experience. Often, you charge your phone because your battery is about to run out, or you need it charged so you can use it the next morning. In these scenarios, the last thing you want is to find out there is some sort of problem.

When it comes to Linux desktop environments, three names get all the attention: GNOME, KDE Plasma, and Cinnamon. However, there are dozens of other desktop environments that are just as good, if not better, depending on your specific use case. So, if you’re tired of these mainstream options, here are three overlooked desktop environments worth trying out.

When I bought my Milwaukee M12 tools, I thought they would just be something to hold me over until I eventually got 18V tools. However, after using them for years, I realize that there are simply some jobs that are better suited for 12V tools over 18V tools, and I'm so glad that I bought the M12 kit when I did instead of waiting to just buy 18V tools.

I guess most people don't start out with the idea they're going to build a small data center in their own home. It's usually a more organic process; a Plex server here, a Home Assistant Raspberry Pi there...

We’re less than two weeks away from Halloween, and the streamers are starting to stock up on spooky movies that fit the season. One of those films is heading to Prime Video this week. It’s a gothic romance inspired by a landmark novel. Hulu is adding a compelling thriller produced by the filmmaker behind Barbarian and Weapons.

I've long wondered what the different reasoning efforts of an AI model actually change when doing things like making websites, so I decided to try the same website prompt on every Opus 5.5 reasoning level. The results genuinely surprised me.

Bambu Lab might be one of the best 3D printer brands out there in my opinion, but that doesn't mean I agree with every decision it makes. That's why I've deployed these three open-source utilities to help me take back control of my printer—and I think you should do the same.

Excel's SWITCH is a logical function that is primarily used for data manipulation. It evaluates an expression against a list of values, and returns a result corresponding to the first matching value.

Let's face it. Apple simply isn't targeting yearly upgrades like it did years ago. It's not surprising; smartphones aren't as exciting as they were back then. There are no game-changing features to debut anymore.

I've been collecting DVDs, Blu-rays, VHS tapes, cassettes, and vinyl records for about 15 years. In spite of the renewed interest in physical media that we've seen in 2026, I'm almost certain that it's just a trend, and my expectations for the future are more or less pessimistic. I don't believe that there will be a successor to Blu-ray, and I expect to see a lot of media enthusiasts offloading their collections in the next decade.

Windows 11 is a widely adopted operating system in the PC world; hence, Microsoft tries to push its apps and services by default. While most PC geeks are aware of this and clean up their system right after setting up the OS, there's a high chance you might not have. Microsoft's key offerings and services on Windows 11, like Widgets, the Edge browser, OneDrive, Teams, and Copilot, silently eat up your memory during OS startup or in the background and increase your CPU load.

I don't know about you, but I feel like Wi-Fi hasn't fundamentally changed in years. New Wi-Fi standards are constantly improving throughput and efficiency, such as the introduction of the 6GHz band with Wi-Fi 6E, but why hasn't Wi-Fi evolved in the opposite direction, too?