How-To Geek

Wi-Fi is all around us, but it’s obviously not something we can see with our eyes. That makes it easy to miss Wi-Fi dead zones in your home, which is exactly what happened to me. Thankfully, Samsung Galaxy phones have a super handy Wi-Fi mapping tool built in.

It might not be apparent if you browse through my article history over the past half-decade, but I actually don't like writing bad news about Microsoft Windows. I'm tired of having to complain about the world's most popular desktop operating system, developed by one of the largest and most valuable tech companies in existence.

When Tesla first unveiled the Cybertruck, the conversation centered around its apocalypse-proof demeanor and a design meant to survive the end of the world. But as the popular truck has integrated into the daily lives of its owners, the narrative has shifted from surviving a zombie onslaught or alien invasion to powering everyday life, be it for work or pleasure.

At this year's Galaxy Unpacked, I was more excited about the Galaxy Buds 4 than any of Samsung's new phones. But as cool as these new buds are, there's one thing about them that I wish Samsung would do differently—something that harkens back to the originals.

Using an API can be a tricky challenge, with issues like authentication, rate limiting, different data formats, and various HTTP verbs to master. But some APIs can be simple, requiring little more than a browser or the curl command-line tool.

Ring is a name that’s become synonymous with doorbell cameras, swallowing up a huge chunk of the market. On the surface, these cameras are easy to use and offer reasonable protection against would-be intruders and porch pirates.

Streaming video service recommendations still tend to be simplistic unless you're using platform-specific tools like Google's Gemini for TV, but that's finally changing. Tubi has launched ChatGPT's first-ever native streaming service app, making it easier to find movies and shows on Fox's free-to-watch service using more natural-sounding requests.

MINI has always leaned into the idea that no two of its cars should be exactly alike. From the factory, you can usually pick your roof color, mirror caps, and hood stripes. But for one longtime MINI enthusiast here in the United States, the standard online configuration tool wasn't going to cut it.

Vinyl enthusiasm seems to go on unabated, and I certainly could never have predicted when we threw out our last record player that anyone but a few hardcore adherents would ever care about these PVC discs again. Yet here we are.

As a voracious fan of Jason Bateman, I’m always captivated by his work. Whether it’s absurdly funny, seriously creepy, or intensely harrowing, he always knocks performances out of the park while bringing a rare distinctiveness to every role he embodies. Starting out as a teen star in the 1980s, Bateman went on to headline some of the best and most influential shows of the 21st century as an adult, delivering exceptional performances.

Vibe coding has taken the development world by storm—and it truly is a modern marvel to behold. The problem is, the vibe coding rush is going to leave a lot of apps broken in its wake once people move on to the next craze. At the end of the day, many of us are going to be left with apps that are broken with no fixes in sight.

We’re now in an era where fancy rendering techniques like ray tracing and even full path tracing tend to steal the show. I get it—they look incredible in screenshots, tech demos, and gameplay videos on high-end machines, but in practice, they bring even the most powerful systems to their knees.

Google changed how you interact with Android, ditching the old navigation bar for a new, edge-to-edge gesture system. The industry buzz was that buttons were an old, somewhat clunky feature, meant for replacement by the more fluid, intuitive motions of a swipe.

We’re living in an exciting time for cars. Even entry-level models now pack tech and features that used to be luxury-only.

One aspect of mobile gaming that has consistently lagged behind is controller support that actually works the way you want it to. It’s a maddening experience to find out that jump is on X, dodge is mapped to the wrong trigger, or when the game doesn’t let you change any of it. Fortunately, Google is finally addressing this pain point in Android 17 Beta 2, and it works exactly the way mobile gamers have wanted it.

If you've been holding on to an old Kindle device for over a decade, it's likely time to move on. An Amazon spokesperson has confirmed to The Verge that Kindle eReaders and Kindle Fire tablets released in 2012 and earlier will no longer have Kindle Store access to buy, borrow, or download books after May 20th, 2026.

With spring blooming, it's time for your Netflix watch list to get a well-deserved refresh. This April, the streaming platform is bringing a string of documentaries and docuseries that you can tune into.

What if you could reserve part of your PC's RAM for storage, giving you a blazing-fast disk that sweeps the floor with today's fastest SSDs, right where they tend to choke?

Power tools aren't like they used to be, but our ideas about them haven't changed. These old beliefs can detemine which tools you buy, how you use them, and what to expect. But those are just old workshop stories, and now it's time to ditch the misinformation because it's costing you money and time.