How-To Geek

Printers are pretty old tech made for a job that's already losing relevance in many contexts. They really don't need to do anything other than connect to the devices we want to print from. So, imagine my surprise when I fired up my router logs one boring Sunday and saw my office inkjet chatting away to a bunch of servers I never asked it to talk to. As suspicious as it seems, this is apparently what printers do now: constantly send data back to the mothership. Pretty cool, I suppose. Or is it?

Gone are the days when we would willingly put Instagram filters on our photos because we thought they looked good. Now, your photos are still being edited, even if you're not the one doing it. Most people don't even know what a real photo taken on a smartphone (with zero processing) would look like. Thankfully, I've found an app that lets me snap away with no processing — and I'm shocked by the results.

When you want to do something in Home Assistant, it can often be a time-consuming process. You can spend a long time configuring devices, building dashboards, or making repairs. Wouldn't it be good if there were some shortcuts you could take to make things a little easier?

If you have kids, you know the drill—one school run, one snack in the backseat, and suddenly your car looks like the floor of a movie theater. Cookie crumbs in the seat creases, potato chip pieces ground into the carpet, mystery debris lurking in every crevice.

Regardless of the operating system you're on, you'll notice that they all open applications inside these boxes we call windows. These windows pop up in unpredictable positions on the desktop, and they're not always the same size either. This is one of those things you just accept without ever questioning it. At least, I never did. But there's a better system for these windows. One which helps you stay focused on your work and operate your computer faster. Welcome to the wonderful world of tiling window managers.

Got a few spare hours this weekend? Instead of relying on paper habit trackers that never survive a full week, forgetting when your car is due for maintenance, or juggling handwritten grocery lists, you can turn Excel into a set of simple tools that actually solve everyday problems. These three beginner-friendly projects show just how powerful spreadsheets can be when you move beyond basic data entry.

There’s no arguing that smartphone battery life has improved by leaps and bounds since the early days. Go back just a decade, and most phones needed to be recharged several times a day. Now phones will generally get you through a day, from your morning commute to your evening return home. But what if that’s not enough?

Just got your hands on an ESP32? Don’t dive into a complex first build; start slow with something simple. These projects will introduce you to basics like flashing your microcontroller, adding components with a breadboard, and simple coding.

Nvidia is keen to tout the RTX Spark as a fast all-round "superchip," but the centerpiece isn't the computational power. Rather, it's the very notion of building a consumer PC and its interface around AI agents that complete tasks across apps.

The Excel ribbon often forces you through multiple menus just to highlight important data. Hidden inside the Format Cells dialog is a syntax system that replaces several common formatting tasks like color-coding, icon sets, number scaling, and zero formatting control.

Cleaning massive, disorganized spreadsheets or parsing through thousands of lines of raw server logs is annoying. You can do it yourself, make a program to do it, or you can just give it to Claude and ask it to fix your problems. Claude has a built-in execution canvas that handles smaller tasks. It's a sandboxed processing environment that lives right inside your chat window, so you can drop in files and use plain language to make the fixes you need. This is one of the ways Claude works better than usual.

Samsung's most popular phones are big, almost to the point that they're too big to comfortably operate. If you've been using Android for quite some time now, you're surely familiar with the one-handed mode that comes on phones from the Galaxy to the Pixel. However, I recently discovered a similar yet mostly unknown Samsung Galaxy feature that changed the way I use my phone.

Building a smart home costs a fraction of what it once did, and there are plenty of opportunities to save some money along the way. I’ve always believed that there are some devices that are worth spending more on, whether that’s for safety, performance, or to save you hassle in the long term.

I'm primarily a Windows user, and I don't see that changing anytime soon. But like a lot of people, I had a few perfectly good Windows machines that couldn't officially upgrade to Windows 11 despite having no obvious performance problems. They weren't broken, slow, or useless. They had just fallen on the wrong side of Microsoft's requirements.

Netflix really does like to wave something shiny and new in your face, doesn't it? This week, it's J.Lo falling for Roy Kent in Office Romance, plus the new additions of the Rocky, Creed, and Karate Kid franchises, all landing on the same day. These are all great for movie night, but less so when you're looking for something you can sink your teeth into for an entire weekend, or more.

PLA is cheap, easy to print, and highly versatile—but it’s not a perfect filament. For a slightly higher material cost (and a little extra work), you could print with PETG instead.

Americans love a big vehicle. Spend a few minutes on any interstate, and you'll be surrounded by pickup trucks, crossovers, and three-row SUVs hauling everything from kids and dogs to camping gear and home-improvement supplies.

For years, Audi enthusiasts have wondered what would come next after the R8. The beloved mid-engine supercar exited production without a direct replacement, leaving a hole at the top of Audi's performance lineup.

It's now June, and that means the major streaming services are adding new shows to their lineups. If you missed some of the new shows from last week, you can still check them out on their respective services, including the sophomore outing for Netflix's The Four Seasons and the debut of Prime Video's Spider-Noir.

For decades, Mercedes-Benz was the benchmark luxury sedan brand. These days, though, buyers are starting to look a little closer at what they're actually getting for the money, especially as prices climb, and some long-time fans question whether the quality still matches the badge.