How-To Geek

An SSD is probably not the first component you think to liquid cool. But you'd be surprised by how many times people have actually been forced to do so.

Energy prices continue to rise, with bills having increased for most of us in recent years. Using less energy can save you a significant amount of money, and your smart home can help you to do it.

By using Linux, you're opening yourself up to a variety of different filesystems, each of them good at their very own thing. One of them is ZFS—and it's a dream for long-term data storage.

Nowadays, even bargain-bin TVs come with a bunch of HDMI ports. While the HDMI ports look the same, there's a good chance they are from different generations, thus packing separate capabilities. While plugging your devices into an older HDMI port won't be the end of the world, you might miss out on some pretty important features.

We hear it all the time: “AI will make your life so much easier!” Every once in a while, a feature comes along that actually does it. Gemini on Pixel phones recently gained the ability to tap and swipe your screen like a person, and it's the start of something that could be big.

I've never been satisfied with the media player built into Windows, so I went searching for a replacement. After sifting through an enormous number of free media players on the web, and testing more than a dozen, I finally found one that ticked all of my boxes.

In its quest to build a range of universal smart home devices, IKEA has replaced its Zigbee lineup with one that uses Matter over Thread. On paper, this makes a lot of sense. In practice, the vision has yet to be realized.

Linux is unique compared to other operating systems in that you're expected to have at least basic knowledge of the OS' command line. You can do pretty much everything from the command line, and oftentimes, it might be even easier than juggling through the GUI.

The generative AI models powering ChatGPT, Copilot Gemini, and other assistants were created with mountains of training data. Now, Microsoft will start using interactions with GitHub Copilot as another source of that information, unless you specifically opt out of the collection.

NVMe SSD prices have gone to the moon, so it's more important than ever to protect your expensive investment. The 2TB PCIe Gen 4 NVMe I grabbed for $100 is now literally triple the price. Lately, I've been wondering if the stock NVMe heatsink that came with my motherboard is good enough to protect the drive from its worst enemy—heat. So, I ran some tests to find out.

Netflix, a streaming platform that has been around for many years, has a plethora of movies to watch. Whether original movies that make the subscription worth it or box office hits now on streaming, there are plenty of choices.

There’s no denying that people love big phones. Android already does a pretty good job of putting all the screen real estate to good use, but there’s a hidden setting that can unlock some special abilities that are typically reserved for even bigger devices.

As I’m writing this, NVIDIA is the largest company in the world, with a market cap exceeding $4 trillion. Team Green is now the leader among the Magnificent Seven of the tech world, having surpassed them all in just a few short years.

These days, most smartphones have a USB-C port that you only use for one thing: charging. And while we've recently explained that the USB-C port on an iPhone, Galaxy, or Android can do a lot more than that, it can also power all sorts of wild gadgets. Here are five things you probably didn't know you could plug into your phone's USB port.

The automotive industry is staring down a structural threat that mirrors the 2021 semiconductor crisis, but this time the root cause may be more permanent. While the previous shortage was a byproduct of pandemic-era logistics and supply chain hiccups, the "RAMageddon" phenomenon is a result of strategic capacity reallocation.

If you're a fan of Makita's expansive power tool ecosystem or deploy it daily on a jobsite, you likely have a huge collection of tools and battery packs. For those who have all the tools they'll ever need, Makita is set to release several capable new accessories in 2026 that are worth waiting for.

Most of us use our Android phone’s side buttons only to adjust the volume or lock the screen—but that barely scratches the surface of what they can do. With the right setup, those side buttons can launch your digital assistant, activate Emergency SOS, and perform other useful tasks.

Family SUVs have become the default choice for modern households, offering space, versatility, and a commanding driving position. But as prices continue to climb and fuel costs remain a concern, they’re not always the most practical or cost-effective option. In many cases, a well-designed sedan can deliver everything a family needs, while costing less to buy and own.

I am currently building a PC to use, at least in part, as a server—but there are downsides to my chosen path compared to a dedicated NAS. If you find yourself debating which route to go, here are the reasons to buy a NAS instead.

I’m always looking for writing tools that match how I work, not ones that try to dictate a workflow. Microsoft Word still gets the job done, but it tries to be everything at once, and that often makes it feel heavier than it needs to be for everyday writing. And if I can avoid another monthly subscription in the process, that's even better.