How-To Geek

In Home Alone 2, Kevin McCallister scoffs at Cedric when asked if he knows how the television works. "I'm 10 years old. TV's my life," Kevin tells Cedric before tipping him with gum. I'm much older than Kevin, but I can relate to what he said about TV. It's not my entire life, but it's certainly a crucial part, considering I write for How-To Geek's streaming vertical.

Few things are more frustrating than a phone that suddenly starts feeling sluggish. It's even worse when there's no obvious cause, like overheating or running a demanding app. That's because Android is a surprisingly complex operating system, and the real reason behind a slowdown isn't always easy to pinpoint.

Are you looking for a new laptop as school approaches? Look no further than the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i 15 Gen 11. With a 15.3-inch 16:10 120Hz display, the latest Intel Core 7 processor, and ample I/O, this laptop is sure to be the perfect mix of work and play that you've been looking for.

There are plenty of smart devices that are significant upgrades over their dumb equivalents. A video doorbell, for example, is much more useful than a standard doorbell. While smart locks do offer some useful features, there are plenty of reasons why replacing your current lock might not be the best idea.

USB-C cables are pretty darn awesome (although confusing in many ways), but most run pretty short. The good thing is that longer options exist, yes, including 10-foot USB-C cables. But is the extra length a good thing?

Just 10 years ago, thumb drives were commonplace everywhere. You probably carried one around in your keys, or you had one in your backpack. Things have changed a lot, though.

Google Messages is one of the most popular messaging apps for Android, especially now that the Samsung Messages app has been discontinued, which means millions more are finally using Google's option. And while Google Messages is great, there are several frustrating default settings that I always change for a better experience.

I love looking outside in my backyard to see the wildlife buzzing about. From bees to squirrels, rabbits, birds, and more, my little 0.3-acre yard always has something going on. When I found out that bees need a safe place to drink water from, I knew what I had to do—3D print a watering station just for them.

For years, I tried to organize my Gmail inbox after emails arrived. A few labels and filters changed that completely: I cleaned up old messages, automated the emails I receive every day, and now spend far less time filing things away manually.

Before Plex made personal media servers something a normal person could set up in an afternoon, a group of hackers took a game console and turned it into something Microsoft never intended it to be. That became the foundation for nearly every home media center concept. Not many people know the history of Plex and Kodi, but it's really interesting and shows that the next tech revolution may come from a random home project.

A Raspberry Pi 4 or 5 costs anywhere from $60 to $100 dollars before you even add a case, power supply, or storage. Meanwhile, your retired Android phone has all of that built in, including a battery that functions as an uninterruptible power supply during brief outages. With the right software, it can replace a Raspberry Pi while costing you nothing.

Sharing files across a network is a must-have feature; so much so that it might just be the reason you set up a home network in the first place. Experienced users may feel comfortable using FTP or SCP from the command line, but many people just want to use their standard GUI file explorer.

I have a lot of ESP32 boards around my home, working as Bluetooth proxies or powering soil moisture sensors. The beauty of ESP32s is that they can do more than one job at a time, so my soil moisture sensors can work as Bluetooth proxies, too. If your ESP32 board has a controllable on-board LED, you can get even more use out of it by turning the LED into a Home Assistant alert.

People usually assume that local AI requires a powerful GPU. To some degree that is true—many things do require one. However, there is a huge range of small models that are capable of doing useful things.

When the opportunity came up to test the $299 CoreXY Elegoo Centauri 2, I jumped at it. How good could a sub-$300 CoreXY printer be? Way better than I ever imagined, as it turns out.

August brought with it a haul of new movies to Paramount+ that we're currently enjoying, which is good because the streamer's big draws this month so far seem to be aimed at a heavy-hitting new season of Taylor Sheridan's Lioness and another monster UFC battle happening this weekend, with UFC 330: Makhachev vs. Machado Garry.

The 2023 Genesis GV70 has one of those used-car prices that makes you stop and look twice. A luxury SUV that once cost well over $60,000 can now be found in the $30,000s, putting it in the same conversation as a new, well-equipped Toyota.

If your child loves playing the same song over and over again (like mine), you no longer have to keep an old phone handy or splash out for a dedicated device like a Toniebox or Yoto Player. Do-it-yourself enthusiast Dr-Harvey has built the BailaBox, an ESP32-based open-source music player for kids that brings back fond memories of CDs and vinyl.

Back-to-school season is here, and getting ready for another semester can get expensive fast. Tuition and books are only part of the equation. You may also need a laptop, accessories, school supplies, and software for writing papers, creating projects, designing presentations, or completing coursework. All those costs add up quickly, so saving money wherever you can matters.

If your Netflix home page is doing its job, you've likely already seen that Kevin Hart's 72 Hours is at No. 1 on the U.S. Top 10 charts at the moment, and that a Liam Neeson action movie (In the Land of Saints & Sinners) from 2024 is up there, too. While both are solid picks for a fun movie night this week, there are, of course, loads more options.