How-To Geek

If you've ever engaged with the "cyberpunk" genre in books, movies, and video games, you might have run into the fictional concept of a "cyberdeck", but there's a subculture of geeks who just can't live in a world where cyberdecks aren't real, so they're making them a reality.

Over the years, I've collected a large bundle of items that accompany me every time I head out stargazing. Starting with astronomy-specific tools and finishing with items that will keep you comfortable, here's a checklist of essentials that will help you optimize your stellar experience.

NVIDIA's RTX 5000 launch hasn't been its best. Amid issues with the company overpromising on its GPUs' performance, it also turns out a whole lot of graphics cards are defective. NVIDIA wants to assure you that this is not the case for its laptop GPUs, though.

Excel's AVERAGEIF and AVERAGEIF functions let you find the average of a set of data. However, where they differ from the more straightforward AVERAGE function is in their ability to include or discount certain values within the calculation.

A monthlong bug that presented advertisements to Spotify Premium subscribers is now resolved, according to Spotify support. This is not the first time that Spotify has announced a fix for this bug, so I suggest that you hold off on celebrating for at least a couple days.

DuckDuckGo is not everyone's first option, but a lot of people like it because it puts a focus on privacy and because it's otherwise pretty lightweight and straightforward to use. DuckDuckGo is also widely rollout out AI summaries of search pages, although you might like these better than Google's.

If you have a compatible iPhone, a MagSafe car mount is a fantastic upgrade from clamp-style mounts or placing your phone in a cup holder. Now you can get a UGREEN MagSafe mount for just $8 on Amazon, but you have to click the ‘Apply 20% coupon’ button.

As we plan longer missions to space, the moon, Mars, and beyond, we'll need a way to keep our astronauts fed when they can't get resupply packages from Earth. That means figuring out how to grow food in space.

The word "spaceplane" brings up an instant image of some sort of high-altitude sci-fi craft, but real-world spaceplanes aren't quite that exciting, at least not yet. That doesn't make them any less cool, and I suspect during this century spaceplanes may become quite important.

Microsoft is experimenting with a new way to improve browser performance across Edge and (potentially) other web browsers. The idea is a simple one: restrict the performance of embedded web content, so one buggy element doesn’t bring down the whole page.

Microsoft and uBreakiFix by Asurion have teamed up to provide repair services for Surface devices that are still under warranty. This is a great win for uBreakiFix, but it also seems like a natural step forward after Xbox let the company fix its consoles.

The automotive industry is constantly changing and shifting, with technology being at the forefront of automakers’ minds at the moment. NVIDIA, the tech giant, may have just dropped a huge bomb that could accelerate the development of fully autonomous vehicles, changing the way we look at transportation.

In the last decade or so, SUVs have become the largest-selling segment in the automotive industry, making up 81% of all new vehicle sales in 2024. However, even some best-selling SUVs have less cargo space than sedans, and are thirsty. Hybrid SUVs offer better fuel economy than gas-only models, and the ten on this list have big trunks, too.

If you spend hours every day staring at your screen, a monitor light bar can help reduce eye strain, prevent headaches, and illuminate your desk. Most monitor light bars let you adjust brightness and color temperature to your liking, and some even feature auto-dimming.

Now that the Thunderbird email client has an Android app, the Thunderbird team is finally setting its sights on iOS. An app beta, available via Test Flight, should arrive by the end of the year. Just don't expect too much from it.

What we see on our desktop PCs has changed dramatically over the years, and I often reminisce about the good old days of seminal programs and simple interfaces. Here are five programs and features that bring back fond memories and make me feel nostalgic (and old!)

Chromebooks have come a long way, yet outdated myths about their limitations persist. From the belief that they're useless offline to claims that they're too slow, these budget-friendly devices are often misunderstood. Let's clear up some of these common misconceptions.

Square Enix took out the Denuvo anti-tamper technology from the PC version of Final Fantasy XVI on March 4, 2024. It took about six months after the game's June 22, 2023 release.

The PlayStation 2 is the best-selling console of all time, with Sony shifting more than 160 million consoles over its lifespan. The PS2 represents a golden age for home consoles, which is why it’s so perfect for emulating today.

Dell is capping off MWC 2025 with the Pro 75 Plus 4K Touch Monitor (P7525QT), a giant computer screen that costs a whopping $4,000. Naturally, it's intended for business customers who need a hands-on alternative to a big-screen TV or projector.