How-To Geek

Wired earpods have become quite trendy right now. The shift back to this somewhat retro technology is fueled by celebrities being spotted ditching wireless AirPods for wired earphones. They've become pretty fashionable, with stars like Harry Styles, Zendaya, and Bella Hadid turning them into cool accessories that the masses want to copy.

My homelab started with a single service, and before I knew it, I had a few dozen services running. In reality, I only use a handful of services every day—most of them sit idle or even offline.

The number of features packed into Home Assistant is insane. The problem is that there are so many features that it can be easy to overlook some of the best ones. I slept on some of Home Assistant's features for far too long; here are some more of the best features that I wish I'd started using much sooner.

Desktop upgrades are usually either expensive, underwhelming, or both. It’s easy to spend a fortune on some piece of equipment, only to realize later that it’s completely useless. However, with this particular gadget, the opposite is true—it’s both cheap and incredibly effective.

Google wants Android phones to connect seamlessly to Googlebooks. Meanwhile, Samsung and Motorola both offer apps that pair phones with Windows PCs. What about Linux? The tech giants won’t help you make your phone and Linux PC work together smoothly, but other app developers have stepped in to fill the gap.

Gemini is Google’s big bet on AI that has made its way into the company’s search, mobile, and smart home offerings. The only issue is that Google doesn’t seem to have gotten the memo that new technologies are supposed to improve the user experience, not make it worse.

Linux has a reputation for giving people control over their computers, but plenty of commercial products use Linux without giving their owners much control at all. They ship with proprietary software, restrict access to source code, or lock down the hardware so thoroughly that installing a modified operating system becomes impractical.

I've been pretty transparent about the fact that the best PC upgrade is one that costs exactly zero dollars. But aside from that? The next-best thing is using stuff you might already have lying around to give your PC a bit of a boost. If you keep most of your old hardware, chances are you'll have one (or some) of these in a drawer somewhere, and they could come in handy when you least expect it.

I've watched plenty of people (and I've been one of them) navigate a big Excel workbook by scrolling, squinting at tab names, and hoping for the best. It works, but it's slow. Excel has several lesser-known navigation tools that get you to the right sheet, cell, or result much faster.

Every few months, Google rolls out a "Pixel Drop" update with a few little goodies. Last year, "Pixel VIPs" was one of them, but it wasn't particularly useful at the time. The most recent update finally improved things, and you may actually want to use it now.

Milwaukee makes excellent tools across its expansive M12 and M18 lineup, tools that are loved by DIYers and trusted by professionals. The company gets a lot right, and hey, it invented the Sawzall, but that doesn't mean there aren't tools to avoid or that cost way too much for what you get.

Windows has a habit of making you do things the slow way. How many times have you opened an image editor just to resize a picture, retyped text you couldn't copy, or opened several files just to find the right one? None of it is hard, but it all adds up. The fix has been sitting there for years, free from Microsoft, and it's called PowerToys. It's a free collection of utilities (over 30) that quietly automates the boring parts of Windows with a few clicks or keyboard shortcuts.

There are many ways to tinker with 3D printers. You can mod the software, add extra lights, build filter boxes, and so much more. What if I told you that I decided to buy a simple $2 humidity sensor before doing anything else to my 3D printer—including buying extra filament? Here's why a humidity sensor is important in my 3D printing setup.

What should you watch this weekend? If you're staying home to watch something on streaming, NBC has a sitcom about a newly married couple that might suit your interests. On Hulu, an intriguing mystery comedy premiered earlier this week and has already attracted attention.

Nvidia's DLSS 5 came at a time when little else was going on in the GPU world, and it shook its very foundations. People loved it, people hated it. It had several big problems, and the AI slop was not even the worst of it.

I have a number of Windows computers around my home. Some are media centers, others handle my outdoor cameras and smart home, and some are just for basic office work. I’m also the person in my circle of friends and family who gets the call when there is a technology problem. Basically, this means I’m working on other people’s PCs pretty frequently. I don’t particularly enjoy having to install the same group of apps on every machine I’m working on, especially when the PC isn’t mine. Having portable apps on my thumb drive means I don’t have to.

Hands up if you use Google Maps almost every day. Yep, same here. Between grocery runs, long drives with my husband, and picking up my daughter from school, I open it so often that I assumed I knew all the useful bits.

You might have suspected that Google was using personal app data for more than your own tasks, but now you have confirmation. Google has updated its privacy policy with an exception that lets its services use your shared content for personalized ads when you connect them to apps like Drive, Gmail, and Photos.

Who's up for some brilliant documentaries? At the moment, there are a few fresh Netflix documentaries trending in the Top 10. One of those is Tyson, a limited series about one of the "baddest men on the planet," Mike Tyson. On the comedy side, Norm Macdonald's documentary is winning over viewers thanks to the late comedian's indelible humor.

Linux has come a long way from the days when getting a graphical desktop running could feel like a project of its own. Today, you can install a modern Linux distro, open a browser, connect your Bluetooth headphones, and get on with your work. That experience is the result of decades of development, arguments, ambitious redesigns, and a few spectacular failures.