How-To Geek

This wasn't a particularly busy week in the tech industry, given the holiday season wrapping up and CES 2026 on the horizon, but there was still some exciting tech news. Here are the biggest stories you might have missed.

The tech press seems to be fixated on social media and AI. Someone like me, who cares about tech at more than a surface level, can feel frustrated with the tech world. Is scrolling through feeds and interacting with chatbots all there is? If you're bored with tech, Linux might help you fall back in love with it.

German SUVs are often praised for performance and luxury, but long-term reliability isn’t usually part of the conversation. That’s what makes this particular model so surprising. It combines serious speed, a refined interior, and everyday comfort with a reliability record that defies the stereotypes surrounding German vehicles. For buyers who want excitement without constant trips to the service department, it stands out in a crowded premium segment.

A new year is a time of new beginnings and, as corny as it sounds, a great excuse to look at areas of your life that need improving. As someone who jumped headfirst into Home Assistant in 2025, I’m looking to make some changes to improve my smart home in 2026.

Are you interested in self-hosting your own website? It’s actually easier than you think. With just six simple tools, you can have a website up and running on a computer at your house this weekend—here’s how.

As 2025 comes to a close, we're taking a moment to look back at the hardware, gadgets, and tech that defined our year. Instead of a standard roundup, we asked our editors to select the gear they couldn't live without this year. Welcome to How-To Geek Wrapped 2025.

If you're thinking about buying a new laptop or desktop, a GPU, a phone, or building a PC, I recommend doing it sooner rather than later. Thanks to AI, the price of memory has spiked, and it's only a matter of time before every device that packs a lot of memory (or storage) is affected.

So you just installed Linux on an old laptop for the first time. Or maybe you did months ago and it's just been sitting unused in your office since. Now what? Is there anything to do besides surf the web?

Got any broken RAM sticks in your drawer? Perhaps your RAM stopped working right smack in the middle of the RAM-pocalypse? Worry not, because many memory vendors offer lifetime warranties on their products.

The mid-size SUV segment is packed with great options, from the ever-popular Honda CR-V and Toyota Highlander to the stylish Hyundai Santa Fe. Then there are the under-the-radar choices, like the Volkswagen Atlas, quietly doing their thing.

Browser extensions really make the sky the limit when it comes to customizing your browsing experience, and I'm sure there are some extensions where you just can't imagine living without them. However, browser extensions that promise to improve your privacy are a bit of an oxymoron. Why? Because extensions, any extensions, are inherently damaging to your privacy.

There are all sorts of benefits to setting up a NAS network. All of your media and files will be backed up in one place, making everything easier to access. Of course, this also makes a NAS server an ideal way to use Plex, a service that allows you to stream all your own media.

For decades, desktop Linux distributions primarily used the X Window System (X11) for rendering displays and graphics, but Wayland is slowly taking over as the modern replacement. There are a few efforts to keep X alive, though, including a new project called Phoenix.

Supercharged performance cars were once a staple of the enthusiast world, prized for their instant throttle response and unmistakable mechanical character. Unlike turbocharged engines that build boost gradually, superchargers deliver power the moment you press the accelerator. But in 2025, that experience is rapidly disappearing. As automakers chase efficiency targets and electrification, superchargers have been pushed aside in favor of turbos and electric motors.

Technically, you can start using the Termux console right away, but there is a checklist I follow after a fresh installation. It streamlines everything, so you can avoid configuring the app down the road.

Whether you're coming down off the high of Christmas or still couch-bound from all the food and libations, there's nothing quite like a good documentary or docuseries you can sink into, and Prime Video has a gravy boat full of them to choose from.

Copying around a couple of small files, like screenshots or documents, is, for the most part, normally fine. They’re normally small files, and you won’t have much trouble moving them around. The problem, however, comes when you actually have to move around a file that’s several gigabytes in size, or worse, several of them—using the regular tools meant for that purpose, your PC will be struggling.

I love folding phones. Seriously. I love mine so much that I ditched my laptop entirely. But the sad truth is that the inner screen, as durable as it is, can’t last as long as the outer one. It will, eventually, fail—it’s only a matter of time.

As we head into the final weekend of 2025, whether you're still coming down from Christmas or already decorating and getting your dancing shoes ready for the ball drop, put these three excellent Netflix documentaries on standby for when you want to relax this weekend.

Even though JavaScript was originally built for scripts in web pages, it is now used to write desktop applications, server software, and everything in between. Now, it might become an option for software on low-memory embedded systems and microcontrollers, thanks to the MicroQuickJS project.