How-To Geek
This Android app rewards you for fixing your local open-source map
More people are looking for alternatives to proprietary apps every day—even hugely popular apps like Google Maps. OpenStreetMap is the backbone of many open-source map apps, but it relies on volunteers to keep it updated. StreetComplete makes it easy and fun to participate.
Sunrise and sunset are ruining Home Assistant's adaptive lighting—use your own schedule instead
The Adaptive Lighting custom component in Home Assistant can change the brightness and color temperature of the lights in your smart home throughout the day to mimic the natural light of the sun. This can help make lighting feel more comfortable throughout the day and may help support better sleep habits.
3 things I wish I knew before vibe coding my first app with GitHub Copilot
I've tried vibe coding for fun mostly. But I realized that when done right, it can make some quality software products, especially if you're a vibe coder with programming knowledge. That's why I've been testing different techniques and found some that work really well.
This Nissan SUV has a 900-mile range, and it’s not fully electric
Electric vehicles often face the range wall, a common concern for car buyers when trying to decide whether to go full-electric or stick with a gasoline vehicle. If a person is taking frequent cross-country road trips, this range wall becomes a major factor in their buying decision.
This router setting can fix your random Wi-Fi dropouts, but you should only use it as a last resort
Network issues can be frustratingly difficult to troubleshoot, especially if they're intermittent. Sometimes it is a hardware problem, sometimes it is the layout of your home, and yet other times, it comes down to a software issue.
The Excel skill nobody talks about: Writing formulas people can actually read
There's a long-standing myth that the "best" Excel users write the longest formulas. Excel mastery used to be measured by how many functions you could cram into one cell, but that standard no longer holds up. Modern tools have changed the game—what once looked like a genius nested formula is often just technical debt in disguise.
I wish 3D-printing guides would stop skipping this important step
Far too often, I see 3D printing guides skip one of the most important steps of all—prototyping. Making prototype prints is absolutely crucial to getting a quality end product. Just about every time I skip prototyping, I regret it. So, here’s why you should value and pay attention to prototyping way more than 3D printing guides normally let on.
I ditched Bitwarden's subscription for this free self-hosted alternative
Vaultwarden is a community-built, open-source server for Bitwarden that you can self-host. It can connect to all official Bitwarden apps and extensions, which means you don't need to replace any of the Bitwarden apps and extensions you've already installed. You can just sign into them with your self-hosted instance of Vaultwarden.
Forget the BMW X3—this Mazda SUV feels way more premium
Luxury cars used to be all about showing you’d made it. Big chrome grilles, soft suspensions, and a badge everyone recognized were the whole point.
5 video games that deserve the Fallout streaming treatment
We live in a world where video game adaptations are having a renaissance. Sure, there are certainly some that are terribly made and have no substance whatsoever (looking at you, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie), but most modern-day adaptations have really taken the cake for how well-done they are.
3 reasons I added my passport to my Google Wallet (and why you should too)
Travel is almost always a bit stressful. I'm constantly double-checking that I haven't forgotten anything important, and I'm always juggling too many things in my hands when I reach the security checkpoint.
Your old PC's boot drive is faster than any USB stick. Don't let it go to waste
If you’ve just upgraded to a brand-new, lightning-fast boot drive, you don’t have to get rid of the old one. The same goes for those ancient HDDs we all have sitting in a dusty drawer, like the ones we used to boot our Windows XP PCs from.
Why your new TV's motion looks blurrier than a 20-year-old plasma
Modern displays are amazing when it comes to detail, brightness, color, and all the ingredients that make for an impressive picture—except motion clarity.
The $50K Mercedes that fits 7 people and still parks like a sedan
The Mercedes-Benz GLB-Class was designed to bridge a gap in the automaker's product line and luxury SUV market as a whole. Although the subcompact GLA served as the entry point, its smaller cabin could feel cramped over time for growing families.
IPython and Jupyter aren't IDEs—and that's exactly why I use them for data science
Lots of people will use an IDE like VS Code or a regular editor like Vim, but for my work in data science and statistics, I need something different. Here's why I use IPython and Jupyter notebooks for exploring datasets.
Your Android phone has a built-in scanner, fax machine, and measuring tape
Modern Android phones have a number of built-in utilities aside from the ones we've all heard of and used, like the torch. Some of these tools allow you to convert any photo (as well as webpages and emails) into a PDF file, extract text from photos, and more.
I replaced my smart speakers with this open-source setup, and I’m never going back
My Alexa smart speakers were meant to usher in a future where I controlled everything in my smart home with my voice. Instead, they turned out to be a closed system with limited capabilities and some serious privacy issues. I decided it was time they were replaced.
You're using HDMI wrong on your smart TV: Here’s how to fix the mistake once and for all
Every TV today has at least one HDMI port on the side or back. It’s used to stream content from another device to your television—whether that’s a streaming device, tablet, or computer.
Gaming routers can't fix your ping—here's why you actually need one
Gaming routers are everywhere these days, and they're sold with all the subtlety of a neon-lit race car. Big antennas, aggressive fonts, tri-band this, Wi-Fi 7 that, and a very simple pitch: buy this, and your games will run faster.
I tried the most "bloated" Linux distro, and it's still better than Windows
Everyone dunks on Ubuntu for being bloated, and honestly, they're not wrong. There are far more powerful Linux distros that offer more features while consuming less resources than Ubuntu. In fact, at the time of writing, Ubuntu now demands higher system requirements than Windows 11. So I ran both to find out if that weight actually matters.


