How-To Geek

Most PCs ship with just one Ethernet port, and for most people, that's plenty. But, even though my own computer only had one such port, I decided to add a second one with a USB-to-Ethernet adapter. It cost me about $10, and it was a shockingly good little upgrade.

Earlier this year, I discovered the many joys of self-hosting. Since then, I've canceled countless subscriptions and replaced my favorite cloud services with apps running on my own hardware. Yet, I can't seem to stop using a note-taking app that isn't the most powerful and lacks many features techies look for. Of course, I'm talking about Google Keep.

For years, Netflix had a clear goal — get subscribers to come back for the next season or blockbuster. Now, it is no longer competing with other streamers. It’s coming for YouTube’s turf, too. On August 3, Netflix will add videos from popular digital publishers, letting you watch home tours, recipe clips, and celebrity profiles without ever leaving the platform. None of these videos are produced or funded by the streaming service itself. Instead, Netflix is licensing existing series that millions of people already watch elsewhere.

The Toyota RAV4 closed out 2025 as the third-best-selling vehicle in the United States, making it the best-selling vehicle that wasn't a pickup, with almost half a million units sold. The RAV4 has topped the compact SUV segment every year since 2017, thanks to its reputation for reliability, fuel-sipping powertrain options, and a lineup wide enough to cover nearly any budget.

I switched to streaming TV shows and movies years ago, but I still keep some of my favorite shows stored locally on my PC because I want to be able to watch them offline. That doesn't happen often (in fact, it's only happened a few times over the last few years), but there's no worse feeling than the internet going down and not being able to watch your comfort show while eating lunch.

When I first got my Ugreen NAS, I thought about replacing its operating system. Tinkering is in my blood, and replacing the operating system couldn't be that hard, right? Well, it's not, but it's also not necessarily worth replacing. After extensive testing, I've decided that I'm going to only stick with UGOS on my Ugreen NAS systems—here's why.

A lot of modern devices and appliances offer smart features. These features promise to let you monitor and control your devices remotely or add them to your smart home, at a premium price point.

You'll soon have the option to back up your Android phone to your Windows PC without touching the cloud, but there might be a catch. Google is now known to be developing an automatic backup feature for PCs, but Samsung phones won't be supported.

The Galaxy Z Fold 7 was a milestone release: it showed that Samsung's flagship foldable could be just as thin and light as conventional phones while sacrificing relatively little. But the imminent Galaxy Z Fold 8 still has to do more.

For a long time, I struggled with sluggish web browsing around my house. My internet connection isn't particularly fast, but I could have sworn websites loaded more quickly on my old Wi-Fi 5 router than on my brand-new Wi-Fi 7 model. That didn't make much sense. Even though the newer router is a budget model, it's still packed with newer technology and supports a much higher theoretical bandwidth.

The morning school run isn't exactly where you'd expect to find serious performance. It's usually a sea of family SUVs, backpacks, coffee cups, and enough snacks to survive a road trip.

Halfway through 2026, I expected my PC upgrade to come from a better GPU, more RAM, and a better monitor to tame my increasingly messy workflow. All that didn’t materialize, and instead, the upgrades that actually changed how I use my computer came from six apps that cost nothing and took a few minutes to install and get used to.

Android Auto is a convenient feature on most modern cars that more people should use. And while drivers have several map and navigation apps to choose from, I've been using Waze for over 10 years thanks to its superior directions and traffic avoidance. However, the experience isn't perfect. Here are the settings I changed to make it even better.

You may be thinking about investing in a new eReader, especially if your Kindle is one of the older models that are no longer supported by Amazon. Before you spend money on a new device, it's worth considering installing KOReader on your old Kindle. I put KOReader on my jailbroken Kindle 4, and it can do a lot that even a new Kindle can't do.

Whatever hardware you’re running Home Assistant on, there’s probably a spare USB port or two that you can use. You’ll need these if you want to connect some of the most useful accessories to your smart home server.

Want to buy more tools this year? Ryobi has an excellent selection of power tools, and more are on the way later this summer or in early fall. While Ryobi has released over 70 new items as of late, including several capable tools this year, the company recently highlighted several more options worth waiting for.

Like a lot of people, I'd ended up with a surprising number of tiny productivity apps over the years. One tracked my tasks, another handled budgets, another organized related data, and another helped me visualize information. Eventually, I wondered how many I actually needed—and the answer turned out to be "far fewer than I thought." I consolidated my workflow by replacing four separate apps with Microsoft Excel.

I’ve been wanting to print some keycaps for a while, so when an excuse presented itself to make the function row a little more “functional,” I leapt at the opportunity.

Early this year, I installed Zorin OS on a couple of older PCs that originally ran Windows 10, and it turned out to be exactly what I needed. The desktop felt familiar enough that I could start using Linux without feeling like I had to relearn everything. Before long, it stopped feeling like an experiment and became something I actually enjoy using.

Baseus, the phone charger and cable company, is starting to step out into more fields. I recently went hands-on with their newest security camera, the X1 Pro, and it actually impressed me in quite a few ways.