How-To Geek

Are you deeply invested in the Google ecosystem? Do you actively use Google Keep, Tasks, Calendar, and Drive in your day-to-day life? Individually, each of these is an excellent tool—minimal by design but solid in functionality. The only problem is that these apps are mostly isolated from one another. But if you add Gemini as an orchestration layer, all of these tools can start talking to each other. That's exactly what I did, effectively turning Gemini into my personal project management system.

Back in 1997, a few years after video game consoles and computers had fully embraced CD-ROM technology, a new optical format standard known as DVD-RAM was finalized.

Paying a monthly fee to stream movies and shows you already own that sit on drives in your house sounds silly when you think about it. Plex built its reputation on solving the home media problem, but it quietly put the best features behind a subscription. Jellyfin does everything Plex does, like remote streaming, mobile apps, offline downloads, metadata, and collections, and it doesn't charge you for any of it.

I spent years fighting Excel's default behavior before realizing many of its biggest annoyances could be fixed in minutes. These buried settings changed the way I work and let me customize Excel to behave exactly how I want. Best of all, I only had to change them once, and Excel remembers my preferences every time I open the program.

I spend a lot of time at my desk in my home office, and I use my smart speaker multiple times during the day. I wanted a more reliable way to interact with my voice assistant, so I decided to go old school and add a phone to my desk.

I bounce between Linux programs like a bad habit. I'm constantly trying new applications, suites of programs, and replacements—especially when I'm trying to find something that "just feels right." In my search for the perfect file manager, I've used GNOME Files (Nautlius), Thunar, PCManFM, Nemo, Krusader, and more.

3D printers can take a while to prove their worth around the house. You can have all sorts of fun printing toys, but it’s household repairs and objects that feel like quality-of-life improvements that’ll have you coming back for more.

When Wear OS 7 landed on my Pixel Watch last month, there wasn’t much that caught my eye. To be honest, I pretty much forgot about it entirely. Recently, though, I’ve noticed something, and I realized this update was more important than I thought.

Summer is the perfect season for outdoor fun, especially if you have a pool and plan on hosting friends and family. This year, entertaining feels even grander with the FIFA World Cup happening alongside classic backyard barbecues. While you're busy preparing, the last thing you want to worry about is a dirty pool. Luckily, Beatbot has you covered with its smart, hands-free pool maintenance devices, and now many of its top models are discounted during its Backyard Bash Sale. So, you can pick up a robotic pool cleaner more affordably.

When it comes to buying power tools for DIY projects around the house, many people instantly think of hardware stores like Home Depot or Lowe's, but Walmart is quietly becoming a go-to destination with more affordable options. While Ryobi and Milwaukee are great, Walmart's popular hand tool brand, Hyper Tough, is slowly but surely becoming a solid option for power tools.

The beauty of Android is the huge ecosystem of awesome open-source apps available for the platform. There is an entire app store called F-Droid that exclusively features free and open-source apps. Some of these apps are so good that I would pay for them if they weren’t free. I’m sharing a few here.

There are only so many Wi-Fi tweaks we can try before finally buying a new router. The good thing about that purchase is that once you get a router, it'll be good for years and years.

If you look at the back of your TV, there are many ports that you probably never use. Some older TVs include an RS-232 serial port similar to those that you'd find on the back of old PCs. While the main uses of this port include professional diagnostics and servicing, there are several ways you can use your TV's serial port for other things.

If you've been waiting for Obsession to hit streaming this summer, your wish has been granted. The supernatural horror movie is now streaming on Peacock.

Water leak sensors are the smart home upgrade for everyone. Whether you live in a house or apartment, own or rent, these tiny devices can save you money and hassle.

In my daily life, I like to take things slow. I take my time, weigh the pros and cons of various decisions, and stop to smell the roses whenever possible (despite being allergic to them). But when it comes to working or doing projects, I like to be efficient. I use shortcuts, custom key bindings, self-hosting, and many other tools that improve my workflow. Here are 6 applications that make my workflow run extremely well.

Most of us use the same handful of Excel commands every day, overlooking features designed to make our spreadsheets easier to manage. This weekend, explore five hidden gems that can change the way you work with Excel.

If you're in the market for a documentary this weekend to throw a bit of realism and fascination in between all the fire-breathing that HBO Max has been focused on for the last few weeks, then you've come to the right place. Not only has the prestige streamer's new Top 10 four-part Burning Man series, The Man Will Burn, continued to air its weekly episodes (episode 2 is now streaing), but this weekend has a couple of new additions in store, too.

With the World Cup wrapping up this weekend, we're about to have a lot of sports fans staring into their pints looking for the next thrill. Netflix might just have a few things that can help, for U.S. subscribers, including a new season of the docuseries Quarterback (read about it in this weekend's documentary roundup), and my top pick this weekend, a hilarious new golf series starring Will Ferrell (more below).

While people think of Linux as a modern operating system, it embodies ideas that are more than 50 years old. Here are some of the oldest ideas and why they stick around in modern Linux distros.