How-To Geek

Got an old Chromecast sitting in a drawer unused? It doesn't matter if you no longer need it for streaming, there are plenty of other ways to make use of it. So connect it to your TV, update the software, and try one of these ideas to repurpose your old Chromecast.

Your modem is probably one of the least-checked devices in your home. After all, how often do you really need to look at it? Only if your internet goes down, I'd imagine.

When it comes to summer binges, I prefer a riveting series over anything else. In a world where our minds are constantly focused on multiple things at a time, there's nothing better than tuning all that out with something completely engrossing that keeps me hooked.

Your Google Pixel has many clever features, some tucked away in menus or introduced quietly. If you’ve updated to Android 15 or even if you’re running an older version, there’s a good chance you’re missing out on some of these hidden gems.

For a long time, the Raspberry Pi was the default choice for any project that called for an SBC because it was affordable and well-supported. Unfortunately, things have changed. Memory prices have pushed the top-shelf Pi 5 from its original price of $120 to above $300. The low-memory models are still affordable, but the calculus around which board you should buy is no longer quite so cut and dry.

There's a category of apps that quietly run in the background, doing their jobs and making your life easier. You set them up once, configure them the way you want, and then forget about them as they keep working behind the scenes, quietly paying dividends. Here are three free and open source (FOSS) apps that fit that set-it-and-forget-it philosophy. You can set up all three in a single Saturday afternoon, and they'll continue working in the background for weeks and months to come.

Mechanical moving parts are among some of the most satisfying objects you can print. Here are six of our favorites, from fidget spinners for idle hands through to toys, decor, and educational projects.

Major changes are coming to Google account storage for Android users. Stuff that has historically not counted toward your storage allotment soo will—it could put a damper on your data management. Here's some background info on the changes and what you can do to adapt.

Photoshop is one of the hardest apps to find a good free, open-source (FOSS) alternative for. It's genuinely powerful, has decades of history behind it, is familiar to professionals across the industry, and its interface just works. And truth be told, at the time of writing, there's no single FOSS app that can do everything Photoshop does. But use three FOSS apps together, and they can cover most of what people use Photoshop for day to day. Sure, you give up some convenience—but you save a lot of money in the process.

I'm not a big fan of smart home dashboards. My ideal smart home is one that works automatically without me having to control things manually. When I got my hands on a VR headset, however, I wanted to see if I could build a virtual smart home dashboard in 3D space.

GitHub has grown from a simple place to store code into the center of the modern development world. It's still the largest platform of its kind, and if you want other developers to discover, use, or contribute to your project, it remains one of the easiest places to reach them. That network effect is hard to ignore, and I don't think most developers need to abandon GitHub completely.

Splitting your home network into VLANs is sensible, so kudos to you if that's what you're doing. Your computers go on one network, smart home devices on another (as they can be pretty dodgy security-wise), and guests get a separate corner where they don't bother or endanger any other part of your network.

Every time I plan a trip, I go through roughly the same steps: I download a specialized trip planner, spend a day carefully planning my days to optimize time, and then I spend the entire time reading out of my Google Keep notes and using Google Maps instead.

Whether you're rotating your tires to extend their life, swapping between summer and winter wheel sets, or simply installing a different set of wheels to give your car a fresh look, no rule says you must pay a tire shop to do it. With a handful of basic tools and about an hour of free time, you can handle the job yourself and save the money of having it done at the dealer. You also don't need a dedicated garage.

I'm a Windows user, and I'm no stranger to dual-booting. It was actually my first real introduction to Linux. Like a lot of people, I carved out a partition, installed a second OS, and got that satisfying moment of choosing which OS to boot into at startup. At the time, it felt like the right way to do it if you wanted the full experience.

Imagine waking up one day to discover that decades of your digital history have been erased. For one Twitch streamer, Joshua Khane, that nightmare scenario became a reality. His long-standing Microsoft account, which held thousands of dollars in Xbox games, along with Outlook emails and his son's baby photos, was unceremoniously deleted by Microsoft after a hacker gained access and changed the recovery email and phone number.

LEGO is about to retire a large number of sets, which means you have limited time to grab them before they’re gone for good. This includes some of the company’s biggest tie-ins, long-running fan favorites, and some of the more obscure sets.

When it comes to Bluetooth audio, your headphones are only half of the equation. Even if your phones support the latest and greatest technology, if your Windows computer's Bluetooth doesn't match those specifications, you're only going to get the lowest common denominator between the two.

Typically, at the end of every month, streamers will remove a select group of shows and movies from their respective services. However, these departing programs will be replaced with new and returning shows to fill the void. Our top choice of the week stems from Hulu. It's a twisty crime thriller starring Emmy Rossum, who returns to television for her first starring role in nearly three years.

Due to rising prices, people are using their phones for longer than ever. Future-proofing is now a major consideration, and that means opting for more storage. However, paying extra for more GBs may create more problems than it solves.