How-To Geek

Ryobi makes tons of excellent tools for inside and outside the home, for outdoor activities, and more. And if you're sick of yard work tools loud enough to double as a soundtrack, Ryobi has plenty of solutions. Surely you've wandered Home Depot aisles looking at mowers, blowers, or trimmers and seen the "Whisper Series," but is it any good?

If your desktop or laptop keeps lighting up in the middle of the night without you touching it, the cause is almost always traceable. It's a common complaint, and one that tends to get written off as a glitch or a haunted machine, when in reality Windows almost never wakes itself up without a specific trigger behind it.

I've spent a lot of time replacing Google apps and services with alternatives, and have moved on from Google Maps, Chrome, Photos, and even Search. But the one Google app that I keep coming back to is Waze. I keep it installed on my phone and use it in Android Auto, and there are four specific reasons why.

Back in 1996, Ryobi promised they would never change their 18V battery mount. Thirty years later, the batteries still fit, the power tools never die, and my garage looks like an explosion at a tennis ball factory. That awful neon lime green color is everywhere, but I love it.

Quite a weekend is in store for U.S. Netflix subscribers, but also for TV lovers in general, as not only does Saturday Night Live kick off its 52nd season on Saturday (here are some SNL-based movies to get you in the mood). But Netflix has got some seriously excellent and iconic television to binge the heck out of.

My favorite use for an old router? Turning it into a basic Ethernet switch. The thing is ... that's super boring. Pretty much everyone does that.

If you're not careful, self-hosting can change from an interesting hobby into a second job. You'll find forums and pages full of people recommending all sorts of services that are finicky or difficult to maintain.

Motorola makes great phones like the Razr Fold, but its U.S. presence is... bleak. Beyond foldables, you're limited to value-for-money budget Android phones and just one current mid-tier model, the Edge. There's not much variety in conventional phones, and no option at all if you want a flagship.

If you've used Windows for a long time, you probably remember the "My Computer" icon sitting on your desktop, ready to give you access to your drives and folders. These days, Windows calls it "This PC," but Windows 11 doesn't put the icon on your desktop by default. If you want that familiar icon back, you can add it in a few clicks.

It's no secret that Milwaukee makes some of the best power tools on the market, but certain models are far more popular than others. It's not just about the price tag, either, as there are specific combo kits or standalone tools that deliver incredible power, value, and usefulness.

If you've questioned why Microsoft has insisted on branding computers as Copilot+ PCs, you're not alone. Microsoft and Qualcomm have acknowledged that they and their PC partners are dropping the label from their systems.

Netflix's collection of movies spans years and genres, and I always find myself digging through its catalog for interesting additions to my watch list. This time around, I found three award-winning, widely acclaimed movies that are worth every second.

When DLSS 5 first launched, the general reaction was lukewarm at best and highly polarized—critics complained that it slopified every game's art direction and left everything looking conspicuously generic. Of course, that didn't stop modders from attempting to get DLSS 5 running on every single game ever released, even ones that definitely shouldn't support it.

I've tried them all. Silicone, metal, and everything in between. Official and unofficial. And yet, I keep coming back to one specific kind of band with every smartwatch I've owned.

Free, open-source software makes the world go round, but the open-source community also creates some of the best apps out there, many of which trump their paid alternatives. We recently shared five standout examples of free and open-source apps that hold their ground against their paid rivals, and today I'm sharing another batch of fantastic FOSS apps that are completely free and better than what you'd pay for.

I find it fascinating that Android Auto can be amazing for a long time, but then I suddenly notice something going subtly wrong. Maybe it's the sudden appearance of Gemini trying to get me to write songs with it while I drive. Or the cable comes loose a bunch of times, and I lose connection (I switched to Android Auto Wirelessbecause of this issue). Sometimes, it's a navigation issue. It can be hit-and-miss. Recently, I was using Android Auto and noticed some dips in audio quality. I looked into it and found an app that took care of the issue for me.

Windows 11 has long baked Bing into local search, and escaping it meant editing the registry. Version 26H2 finally adds a proper toggle. Here is what search looked like before, how much faster it feels now, and whether switching Bing off is worth it.

Picking a music-streaming service can invite a little peer pressure, especially since I pay for YouTube Music Premium. I get it. Spotify and Apple Music dominate these conversations. My friends who use Spotify give me a look that says they feel slightly sorry for me, while the Apple crowd assumes I’m just defaulting to whatever Google bundles into Android.

Google Fi is now trivially inexpensive, provided you take advantage of a rare deal. Google has a limited-time promotion that cuts 75% off plan prices for a year, but only if you meet certain conditions.

Modular 3D-printed models are designed with customization and future expansion in mind. By adding additional modules or printing just the parts you need, you can expand on a project in the future or make something that feels tailored to you.