How-To Geek

My home internet is stable now, but that wasn't true just a couple of years ago. I've gone through several terrible ISPs before finding one that actually delivered.

Toyota introduced a plug-in hybrid version of the Prius for the 2012 model year, giving buyers a way to drive on electricity alone for short trips while keeping the same hybrid safety net for longer ones. More than a decade later, that basic idea has not changed all that much, but the price of admission has.

Android Auto puts your phone under an incredibly heavy workload, and summer heat only makes things worse. After only a couple of hours on the road, you've probably picked up your phone and noticed that it isn't just warm—it gets almost too hot to hold.

Got a vacant USB port or two on your PC? You'd like to use it for something useful, but don't know exactly what? Check out five practical things you can connect to your free USB ports, some of which can reinvent the way you control your PC.

I'll admit, I had a preconceived notion in my mind about what the results of this comparison would look like. The Core Ultra 9 would be superior to everything but maybe the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme, right? Absolutely, unequivocally wrong.

Streaming hasn't officially replaced cable or satellite TV, but it's come pretty close. According to a Pew Research Center survey, 83% of U.S. adults watch streaming services. I'm certainly someone who uses streaming, but I have noticed that some of the medium's capabilities feel antiquated. Here are the four streaming features that feel outdated in 2026.

There are hundreds of productivity apps out there, and I think that's part of the problem. A productivity app is just a system—a means to an end, not the end itself. If any of these apps actually delivered, we wouldn't need hundreds of them. The sheer number suggests something fundamental is missing, which is why people keep hopping between them, hoping the next one will finally be the answer. I was one of those people, and I'm happy to say I've finally figured it out—and it has nothing to do with apps or any digital product at all.

Sideloading apps from outside the Play Store is a beloved feature of Android phones. You may not know it, but it’s possible to sideload apps on a Samsung Galaxy Watch as well. That’s good, because there are a few handy apps that are worth the effort of manually installing.

I wanted a new mesh Wi-Fi system badly a few years ago, but simply couldn't afford one. Instead of spending money I didn't have on Wi-Fi networking gear that I didn't really need, I repurposed my old router and it gave me almost everything I was looking for without costing me a dime.

The more comfortable I get using AI to help me code, the more curious I become about how the major platforms compare when they're given the exact same job. It's easy to ask Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini to create a simple app and come away impressed when something functional appears a few seconds later. But that doesn't necessarily tell you whether the code is secure, well structured, or capable of handling situations beyond the most obvious use case.

Smart bulbs are a common gateway into the world of smart home devices. Setting one up is as simple as screwing in a light bulb, and you get instant results with the ability to turn your lights on and off remotely, change the brightness, and even use different colors with the right bulbs. Smart bulbs aren't always the best solution to every problem, however.

After using Jellyfin for a while, I've finally got it running how I want. But the process wasn't without a few issues, and the software comes with a steeper learning curve than Plex. Here are some of the things I wish I knew before I started using Jellyfin.

You no longer have to spend a fortune to get a quality, automated, hands-off 3D printer. This is a sentence I didn't expect to write just a few years ago, but it's reality today. Here's how I used an off-the-shelf, untuned cheap 3D printer to print something that even my more expensive printers would have struggled with.

Smart features on a TV can be very useful. You can stream content using apps such as Netflix or control your TV remotely with your smart home. You need to connect your TV to the internet to use some of these features, and doing so can expose a lot of your data.

There was a time, not too long ago in the grand scheme of things, when one GPU just wasn't enough. If you wanted the fastest machine possible, you bought two identical Nvidia GPUs, connected them with an SLI bridge, and hoped your favorite game could take advantage of both.

Are you looking at building your homelab on a Raspberry Pi foundation? This Raspberry Pi alternative actually competes with mini PCs more than the Raspberry Pi, but it still might not be the best choice for your homelab.

When it comes to self-hosted alternatives to Google Photos, it doesn't get much better than Immich. The app is designed to provide a seamless experience for people switching from Google Photos—and it definitely shows.

Whether you like it or not, there's no denying that Samsung's One UI packs more features than any other Android skin. Some are as handy as a pocket on a shirt, and once you discover them, you'll use them every day. But even those that might not look particularly useful at first glance can offer value that many Galaxy phone owners will greatly appreciate.

If you don’t have sensors hidden all over your house, do you really have a smart home? These devices make it possible to use all sorts of useful automations and alerts, from turning on lights to avoiding thousands of dollars worth of damage.

Since Linux is so widely used for servers, it has a lot of utlities for monitoring network information and accessing remote resources. There are some networking commands people still use because they know them, but some are outdated and deprecated. Here are some deprecated utilities along with what you should use instead.