How-To Geek

While ads everywhere on your phone can feel annoying, they may start to feel embarrassing as well at a certain point. To implement advertising-related tracking at the OS level and serve targeted ads, every Android phone with Google Play Services carries a Google Advertising ID (GAID). It acts somewhat like a cookie by providing an identifier that can be used to serve targeted and personalized ads.

If you've ever used an X-shaped tire iron to remove lug nuts on your vehicle, you know how strenuous it can be. Most mechanics and DIYers use a breaker bar or an impact wrench instead, but a common question online is whether a Ryobi impact wrench can remove wheel lug nuts. After testing two of them, the answer is clear.

I've spent years working in Windows, and one of the little things that always annoyed me was having to resize and reposition windows whenever I wanted to fit several on screen at once. Windows' built-in Snap feature helps with this, but I often want a layout that's more specific to my workflow. That's where PowerToys FancyZones comes in.

When people complain about their home network, they usually blame slow Wi-Fi or dead zones. But the real problem isn't speed; it's the noise. Every device you own—your phone, your smart TV, your thermostat, even your printer—spends its idle time serving ads and reporting data back to companies you never actually agreed to talk to.

Pi-hole is one of the most popular tools out there for securing your home network against online threats — and it’s great at its job. The only problem is that it can be a bit too complicated to set up for the average user. Plus, the sheer number of features you get from Pi-hole can be overkill for what you actually need.

Google Tasks and Google Keep are two apps that I’ve used for as long as I can remember, but I’ve never been completely happy with them. That’s why I was so happy to stumble upon an open-source app that can replace both (and even work with them).

Tiny eReaders are hot right now, and small 3- and 4-inch models from the brand Xteink have built a loyal following. Companies such as Boox are now releasing their own tiny eReaders. I wanted to see if I could use my Xteink eReader to provide useful information when I wasn't using it for reading.

ESP32 boards are incredibly cheap, and you can buy basic sensors to make them even more useful for just a few dollars. This means you can use an ESP32 to build projects that will save you more money than you spend on the hardware, effectively paying for themselves. Some of these projects are easy to set up, even for beginners.

Folding phones have been around for the better part of a decade, and there have been several truisms about them that, it turns out, aren’t true at all. The Motorola Razr Fold I’m writing these words on has upended several folding phone myths that I, like everyone else, used to believe.

My kids have gotten a little obsessed with Tamagotchis recently, so my home is full of the sound of incessant beeping. Seeing them look after their cute little electronic creatures made me wonder if I could build my own Tamagotchi to stop me sitting for too long at a time.

The 2026 Primetime Emmys showcased the best television shows from the past calendar year. This year's ceremony followed a recent trend of several shows dominating the acting categories before taking home one of the major series awards. In fact, several shows made history with their wins.

External HDDs have their merits. Slower than SSDs, they make great backup targets (especially if you don't leave them on 24/7). They also feel a lot sturdier than an SSD, what with their massive size, at least by comparison. And in many ways, they are pretty durable, but no piece of electronics is immortal.

Google Photos is the default way to back up photos for more than a billion people around the world, and the service works so well that many of us never even think about switching to something else. But if you care about your privacy and would like to share as little of your personal data with Google as possible, backing up your photos to Google Photos becomes a liability.

Spam calls are one of those annoyances that can quickly turn from a minor inconvenience into a daily problem. A single unwanted call is easy enough to ignore, but when robocalls, sales pitches, and potential scams start interrupting you throughout the day, constantly checking your phone becomes exhausting. Installing a third-party app might seem like the obvious solution, but you may not need one at all.

Ubuntu got me through a decade of Linux use, but I've come to realize that there's a better way — not just for me, but for most non-hardcore Linux users. Immutable distros might just be your choice.

Motorola is better known for its Razr foldables than its conventional flagship phones, particularly in the U.S. — it skipped the country entirely this year with the first-generation Signature. However, that's changing with the debut of its latest high-end Android phone, the Signature 27.

I have the Samsung Galaxy A21s from 2020. Six years of use and many repairs later, it's still kicking. It's not in the best shape or has the best battery life, but with some management, it lasts more than a day, and even a few days on battery.

For better or worse, DNS failures feel like an internet problem. I mean, if the website fails to load, then it kind of is an issue with your internet—but not in the same way as it is when your ISP fails, for instance. With DNS failures, everything else might be peachy, but websites will struggle.

Move-in day is already a few hangovers behind you, the mini fridge is working overtime, and someone down the hall is already playing music too loud (or not loud enough). Whether you're the student or the parent who drove home with an empty back seat, the right movie (or series) can capture that freshman mix of first-time freedom, panic, and bad decisions.

If you are paying for Google News subscriptions to get your latest stories and events within various Google services, you can now curate your news for free by choosing news sources that don't require subscriptions. A new feature released by Google allows me to handpick sources and connect them to my Google account so they are accessible in various Google products — with no subscription required. So far, I like the functionality, especially how easy it is to add sources to my curated news and see them in the Top Stories section of my Google News feed, or customize topics for my daily audio news briefing.