How-To Geek

Want to extend the time between charges on your Pixel, or just get through a day out without worrying about having to top up? You don't have to disable features on your phone to do it. Pixel devices have some easily ignorable settings you can tweak that will help to save your battery.

It's 2026, and audiences still love Will Ferrell. The comedian's newest show on Netflix, The Hawk, is currently sitting at No. 1 on the service. On the movie side, a Spanish-language thriller, Desire, is No. 1 on the charts. If you're still searching for more thrillers after these picks, give Desire a shot.

One of 2026's most talked-about movies finally hit streaming last week. Obsession, Curry Barker's innovative horror movie, is now on Peacock. This week, there are three new original movies premiering on Netflix, Paramount+, and Apple TV. One is a Kevin Hart comedy, while the other features a beloved animated character.

SIM cards are a relic of an age where multiple people had to share a single phone, and the cards themselves were enormous. These days, SIM cards are tiny and technically unnecessary thanks to the rise of eSIMs.

Most people set up their home router once, connect their devices, and never open the admin panel again. That works fine until the issues come. The settings covered here aren't complicated to change, and most of them take under five minutes. The difference is that once they're done, your network is faster, more private, and a lot harder to mess with.

If you've ever wanted Thanos-like control over your smart home, you're about to get your wish. Developer David Ruiz has released a Maestro app in beta that lets you activate devices just by snapping your fingers.

BitWarden is a fantastic password manager, but if you're averse to recurring costs (especially in the form of subscriptions), the recent price hikes could be difficult to accept.

This week on Amazon Prime Video, we’re exploring five critically acclaimed movies that resonate far beyond the screen with their blend of powerful storytelling, standout performances, and superb direction. From survival-driven ingenuity, unflinching intensity, and a deeply human exploration of justice to artistic obsession and chaotic excess, each of these movies captures lightning in a bottle.

Most people don't think about their phone-to-car connection until it stops working in the middle of a trip. Suddenly, you're poking at a touchscreen, doing exactly what you were trying to avoid. Getting Android Auto to play your music the moment you start driving sounds simple, and parts of it are. However, it takes some deliberate setup and a few spots where things can quietly break.

I have a habit of keeping all my software and files, regardless of whether I use them regularly. I have a sweet deprecated version of Noteworthy Composer (to run on a VM) and a portable version of Reaper that I've been using for years. The modern web and modern services have made it increasingly difficult (ahem, Amazon, ahem) to preserve software and digital purchases. So I preserve my software as much as possible, the same way someone might preserve their family photo albums.

Having your files safe somewhere on the network doesn't help much if a completely blank machine can't even see the network yet. Getting a dead computer back to the point where it can talk to anything needs to solve a hardware recognition problem before the operating system exists to solve it. Early NAS handled this surprisingly well, and understanding how they did it makes it easier to appreciate why modern tools, for all their efficiency, usually can't fully replace what those older systems got right.

My Bluetooth mouse would cut out every few minutes on my Windows laptop, usually right in the middle of an intense working session. Then reconnecting it over and over got old fast. While digging around for a fix, I came across common Bluetooth bugs on Windows and realized my issue wasn't the device at all. It was a single power setting buried a few clicks deep in Device Manager.

You have good reasons to get excited about Samsung's Unpacked event this week. It's clear that Samsung will be unveiling a handful of products, but the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is undoubtedly the most exciting. This will not be yet another boring iterative upgrade.

I used to spend far too much time building and debugging complex Excel formulas. Now, I can describe a problem to AI and get a working answer in seconds. But when I asked ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini for the "best" Excel formula, they all gave me different answers.

Are you fed up with Microsoft's invasive behavior? They're increasingly inserting themselves into your digital life, collecting your data and outright disrespecting your wishes. It would normally anger me, but there’s no Microsoft on my system, and I'll explain why.

Minus any aftermarket accessories, the vehicle you bought however long ago has the same features today as it did when it rolled off the assembly line. For all intents and purposes, everything about your car, from the powertrain to the infotainment system, is exactly the same as the day you drove it off the lot. And you have not had to pay extra for any of the features you use and enjoy most.

Do you wish your Samsung Galaxy phone had slightly better battery life? I think it's safe to say we all look for ways to improve our phones, and that's why you'll love these two little settings hiding on your phone that will quickly make a big difference.

Netflix has its fair share of exclusive titles in the form of Netflix Originals, but of all the titles in the niche library, only a few can truly be recognized for being groundbreaking. Some pioneered new film-making techniques, others raised the bar for animation, and a few have reshaped television today.

According to Kelley Blue Book, the average MSRP of a new car has climbed to more than $51,000. Not long ago, that kind of money bought a fancy European luxury sedan. Today, it might only get you a mid-level Ford F-150. With new vehicle prices remaining high, it's no surprise that more shoppers are turning to the used-car market in search of better value.

Opening a PDF, reading its contents, and closing the window is one of the most basic tasks you can perform on a computer. It seems as passive as reading a physical piece of paper. In reality, two things are happening behind the scenes that you don't see: your reader is communicating with the software developer, and the document itself may be sending information to whoever drafted it.