How-To Geek

Google just completely rebuilt and redesigned the Google Home app. This massive upgrade makes the app faster, more reliable, and much smarter with the full power of Gemini for Home.

Gemini is officially replacing the Google Assistant on all your smart displays and speakers, starting with an early access program this month. This will adjust your smart speaker from taking rigid, transactional commands to conversational AI.

You're probably like me, and you have an insatiable thirst for new software to quench your curiosity. There is a wealth of useful applications out there. Some applications are powerful enough to change how you think and perform. Here are three tools that fundamentally changed me as a programmer.

Who's ready for cooler fall weather, holidays, and endless deals and discounts? Sure, Amazon's big Prime Day sale kicks off in a few days, but you can save cash today with some of our top tech deals of the week.

For years, one electric car has stood out as the most affordable way for Americans to make the switch to EVs. It has built its reputation on practicality, ease of ownership, and a price tag that undercuts nearly every rival. Now, for 2026, it’s getting a series of updates that make it an even stronger choice for budget-conscious buyers.

I use my gaming PC as the central hub for all my TV shows and movies. While you might think I’m one of those techies who run a Plex or Jellyfin media server, my setup is actually much simpler than that—I simply use my PC in place of a TV streaming box.

A lot of people like Google's smart home ecosystem, but especially the company's Nest range of cameras. Now, the latest cameras not only leverage AI stuff, but also a lot of improved hardware to take advantage of it.

Google unleashed the first Android 16 beta in January 2025, and Samsung followed suit a few months later with its own One UI 8 beta in May. Now that the software is officially here and Samsung's Galaxy Android 16 (One UI 8) updates are arriving, here's what you need to know and expect.

Google has just revealed its new flagship smart speaker, the aptly-named Google Home Speaker. It’s designed to be the “ultimate audio experience for Gemini in the home,” and it can be used in a stereo pair with the Google TV Streamer.

Whether you knew him from the movies as a soldier or television as an eccentric bachelor, Charlie Sheen has had a lasting presence. He’s been acting so long that you’ll find a few roles from movies you’ve dug. With such a wide range, spotting some of his lesser works is easy.

Visual Studio Code has been my favorite programming text editor and integrated development environment (IDE) for years. Even as I’ve switched between working on front-end web development, CLI tools, and back-end server code, VS Code hasn’t given me a reason to look for any other editors.

As a Linux user, you probably run commands in your terminal using one of two shells: bash or zsh. Maybe you’ve heard of their predecessors, like sh or csh; you might even be aware of newer shells like fish. But what about these modern alternatives: can they make a meaningful difference to your everyday work?

The Kubuntu Focus M2 Gen 6 is a solid mid-range workstation laptop that will appeal to anyone wanting a professional, developer-oriented environment facilitated by the Kubuntu Linux OS. While I had qualms with some of the M2's hardware and some specific software, it was overall a good experience.

It's always bad when we're affected by security breaches. It's even worse when our sensitive information is exposed as a result. This is exactly what's happening to a number of WestJet users. Yikes.

VPNs are a popular tool that aim to help improve your online security and keep you anonymous while you browse. But they're not quite the click-once-for-privacy tool many think they are. VPNs do have some limitations, and poor privacy practices elsewhere can make them almost useless. Here's what you need to know.

Our day-to-day lives have come to depend on the internet and being proactive about your cybersecurity has never been more important. Everything from your browser to the server you connect to could be the weak link that lands you in trouble. Here is what you need to know about incognito mode and VPNs, so you know how each tool affects your security.

Array constants in Microsoft Excel are powerful tools for performing multiple calculations with a single formula. Using array constants in your Excel worksheets avoids the need for lengthy or repeated formulas and eliminates the risk of accidental data changes.

After purchasing ATI, AMD became the primary competition for both Intel and NVIDIA, and honestly the relatively small company has held its own against these juggernauts admirably by carving out niches that neither of them can seem to challenge.

In the early days of PC SSDs, skepticism was sky-high, and not completely unfounded. When reviewers deliberately tried to kill these drives, it often didn't take much.

Visual Studio is probably one of the best IDEs out there, especially when it comes to Windows apps. Now, it just got a lot better with a new set of features—including a lot of AI stuff that should make your development experience a lot more pleasant.