How-To Geek

For the past couple of years, I’ve had a brief but passionate love affair with Samsung foldables. That changed with the release of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, which disappointed me so much that I now own a Motorola Razr Fold instead. I’ve since discovered a surprising number of ways in which Motorola phones are simply better.

In 2002, the production version of the Hummer H2 debuted at the Los Angeles Auto Show, becoming an immediate symbol of American excess. It had a thirst for gasoline that was punchline-worthy, but a flashy shade of yellow paint that turned it into an eye-catching status symbol.

Streaming services have made watching movies almost frictionless. However, most people don't think much about what they're giving up for it. Every time you open Netflix or Hulu, you're not just watching something; you're being watched in return. The platform logs what you pause, what you skip, how long you hover over a thumbnail, and that data feeds into profiles that eventually get sold. If you've ever felt vaguely uneasy about how well an algorithm seems to know you, there's a reason for that, and buying used DVDs with cash is one of the few remaining ways to actually opt out.

ESP32 boards are popular for home projects because they're small, versatile, and, most of all, cheap. Not only are ESP32 boards affordable, but if you use them for the right projects, they can also help you save money. Here's how.

For a long time, Pi-hole was the go-to option for anyone that wanted to use DNS filtering on their home network. It is easy enough to set up on any old laptop, PC, or even a low-power Pi and then connect it to your network.

OnePlus is officially exiting the U.S. and Europe after months of shrinking its presence. Parent company Oppo has confirmed that OnePlus will no longer release new products in North America or Europe, although it will continue to provide support.

Every Android phone brand likes to do its own thing when it comes to the launcher and overall look of its phones. Some (like Xiaomi) opt to make their phones look and feel more like Apple's iOS, but Samsung has been putting years and years into the development of its One UI.

Three-row SUVs have become increasingly expensive, with many popular family haulers now starting well above the $40,000 mark. For shoppers on a tighter budget, finding one with enough seating for the whole family often means making significant compromises or shopping used.

You might just have a solution if you need an extra-tiny board for your do-it-yourself electronics projects. Moddo has made what it says is the "world's smallest" Arduino-compatible board, the Pinch.

If you think that you have to have expensive or powerful hardware to run your homelab, then you're sorely mistaken. Here are four open-source Docker containers that will turn your beginner homelab into a powerhouse, even without expensive hardware.

I’m no Apple fanboy, but I’m not afraid to admit that when it comes to streaming devices, Apple TV has been my go-to for years. One sits under the TV in my main home theater; my family uses iPhones and iPads, and it's the hub of our entertainment at home. But when I needed streaming devices for the older TV at our family cottage and for a second TV at home, the math got ugly — Apple's box currently costs over $200 new, and multiplying that across rooms that will mostly run rainy-day movies and the occasional Netflix binge felt like overkill.

A new mainstream SUV now costs enough that it opens the door to something many buyers never consider: a lightly used luxury model. Thanks to steep depreciation, premium crossovers that sold for well over $50,000 just a few years ago can now be found for the same money as a brand-new family SUV.

Popular AI chatbots such as Claude, Gemini, and ChatGPT can analyze data from spreadsheets and other uploaded files. You can upload spreadsheets and ask them to create summaries, find patterns, and more. I wanted to use ChatGPT to analyze my spending to see if it could find ways to save money, but I didn't want to upload my personal information to the cloud. Using a PII-detection tool and a local LLM, I was able to strip away the personal information before I uploaded my files.

Google Maps is an easy part of our routines, and over time, it builds a collection of our favorite places and travel plans. Saving locations is one of its most useful features, but this also means the app may reveal more about you than you realize when someone else uses your phone.

There's no shortage of aging desktop CPUs on the used market. If you're thinking about buying one—or already have one in your system—and keep hearing that it's no longer worth using, it can be hard to know whether that's actually true.

The Toyota Corolla dates back to 1966 and the era of the Space Race, when the compact cruiser debuted in Japan before reaching American dealerships two years later. Toyota describes the Corolla as a car that has evolved to meet changing times, guided by the principles of quality and value. It’s a formula that has worked for the automaker, since the Corolla has been one of the best-selling cars in history, with cumulative global sales now surpassing 57 million units.

Fire TV remotes are pretty good. They're stripped back and easy to use, and they put all the most common features right at your fingertips. But the lack of extra buttons makes the remote look quite limited. In fact, a series of long presses and button combos unlocks a host of shortcuts that many people never discover. Here are the best of them.

MicroSD card slots were once ubiquitous on Android phones. Now they’ve all but disappeared—at least from the more premium models. Why are the best phones seemingly making us do with less?

I use local LLMs for multiple purposes, including stripping personal information from documents before I upload them to Claude or ChatGPT and generating a daily RSS digest for my Kindle. Despite the slow performance of even the smaller LLMs on my hardware, I use them for a number of things in my smart home.

Crossovers and SUVs may dominate America's roads, and automakers may be pouring billions into hybrids and electric vehicles, but none of that matters much to Mopar enthusiasts.