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Spotify quietly rolled out a new feature recently that has changed the way I listen to music by using prompt-based AI to make and edit playlists simply based on AI prompting. If AI-based software development is "vibe-coding," since you can…

Doing house tasks can be a challenge. There is so much to get done in what seems like so little time, and trying to handle all of it yourself can be overwhelming. I'm not talking about the basic chores that you have to do each day. Those are a g…

AI subscriptions come a dime a dozen, but few match up to what the best in the industry can offer. While most AI services like Perplexity and Gemini offer tiers starting at $20, ChatGPT has introduced a new Go tier starting at just $5 for basic acce…

One app I think should be in every Windows user's rescue toolkit is Medicat . However, it's large at 23GB, and might not be necessary if you only need basic recovery tools for personal use. This is where the original Hiren's BootCD PE ma…

Good sci-fi shows are pretty plentiful these days. Apple has scored hits with series like Severance and Pluribus , and of course everyone is eager to see how Stranger Things will wrap up over on Netflix. from MakeUseOf https://ift.tt/9kucziF …

Winter can be a particularly tough time to deal with if you live in a cold climate. Many people love the snow season because it provides opportunities to go skiing, snowboarding, tubing, and ice skating. It also lets you go sledding, make snowmen, h…

For as long as I can remember, Chrome has handled all my passwords. It was built-in, easy to use, and pretty convenient. Every time Chrome asked me if I wanted to save my password, I would always hit the Yes button and move on. But over time, that c…

A slow Android phone is something that you don’t expect to deal with until a year or two after buying it. That gradual slowdown is normal, almost unavoidable. What’s not normal is experiencing that same sluggishness just days or weeks after buying a…

Of the vintage physical media formats making a comeback, CDs and vinyl records are the most popular , and for good reason. Vinyl is enticing and collectible, with limited-edition variants and colored discs, and there's something incredibly satis…

I've had to put together a lot of furniture in my life. Chairs, dressers, shelving units, trampolines, or outdoor furniture bins have all been tackled with my two hands. Many times, a small Allen wrench or a key is provided with the hardware in …

Mechanical keyboards provide a unique appeal for typists and gamers alike, providing a durable, tactile, and responsive experience. After switching from chiclet membrane keyboards to mechanical options, many users report improved typing speed and le…

If you are still using the same email address for everything, it’s time to diversify. Don’t make the mistake I made for too long, clogging up one inbox with absolute nonsense unrelated to the things you actually want to receive and read. You likely …

AirDrop’s biggest limitation is that it only works inside Apple’s ecosystem. While the support has now extended to Android , it’s restricted to Pixel 10 only. This makes file sharing to and from an Apple device to Android phones, Windows PCs, or eve…

Every OS comes with a built-in screenshot tool to grab whatever is on your screen and save it as an image. These tools work fine, and if you don't take many screenshots, paying for a screenshot tool might seem unnecessary. But all the way back i…

No living author has had more of their work adapted for the screen than Stephen King. If it weren't for William Shakespeare, you could expand that to "living or dead." There are good Stephen King adaptations and terrible Stephen King a…

I've always thought that lightweight image editing on Windows is oddly polarized. Even though the built-in Microsoft Paint app is more robust and faster than it used to be, it still feels like a tool designed for quick, disposable work. It's…

The default Windows taskbar gets the job done , but it’s certainly not something for power users. It’s functional, sure, but there are far too many limitations to ignore. Customization is limited, the layout is restrictive, and you don’t get anythin…

God bless Apple TV+. They're one of the few big streaming services right now taking big chances on original programming, bringing us great series like Severance and Pluribus , hilarious sci-fi shows like Murderbot , and one of the best comedies…

I added smart bulbs to my home to try to make my life a little simpler. On occasion, there are hiccups where the Wi-Fi isn't working great, and one of them isn't responding to voice commands. Sometimes, this is more of an Alexa issue than it…

Project Hail Mary is a new sci-fi movie releasing in March of 2026 that is all but guaranteed to delight audiences around the world. Between the plot, the pedigree, and the star, this film is already destined for greatness. If you haven't alrea…

Working from home, I've found myself taking a lot of video calls. One of my biggest personal pet peeves is seeing the reflection of my screens in my glasses, and I don't think that I'm the only person who feels this way. Most people don&…

Android phones slow down over time, and that is completely natural. As software becomes more demanding and hardware starts to show its age, your phone feels gradually less responsive. I recently found myself in the same situation. However, after ch…

Motorola is a slightly under-the-radar brand that doesn't always get the credit it deserves. Many Motorola phones offer AI features that are genuinely useful in everyday life, not just nice-to-have additions. Since I started using the Motorola E…

Windows is slow. Yes, we know. But if someone hasn’t moved off Windows already, it’s usually for a reason. That means there’s only one real way forward: learn to live with Windows. from MakeUseOf https://ift.tt/dbqGkcO via IFTTT

We are living (or maybe just lived) through the age of the great fantasy book TV adaptation. It all started with Game of Thrones , based on George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire books. That franchise is still going pretty strong, with ano…

Pixels have long been known for offering useful AI features, even before AI became a major focus in the smartphone industry. The early head start is obviously easy to notice. The experience does feel mature and well-thought-out, which says a lot abo…

Your smartphone should adapt to how you use it every day. On Android, Quick Settings are meant to do exactly that, putting everything you need just a swipe away. But as more every day features pile up, privacy has quietly taken a back seat. Most of …

Windows 11 is full of features most of us never touch , and for me, the Widgets panel was at the top of that list. I tried it when it first launched and hid it almost immediately because it didn’t feel useful at all. from MakeUseOf https://ift.tt…

Apple TV+ has unofficially become the new sci-fi channel, spending hundreds of millions of dollars crafting huge elaborate science fiction shows that often run for years even if they aren't hugely popular: For All Mankind , Foundation , Invasion…

The discussion around open-source productivity suites is usually dominated by one name — LibreOffice. I even got around to using it when I tried going fully open-source for a week . However, for someone like me, who isn’t a power user, there were as…

As someone who loves to savor the memories of an excellent victory or a humbling defeat, there was one piece of tech that I needed to add to my PC setup before anything else — a capture card. For quite a while, I enjoyed taking some time during the …

I felt liberated when I switched to Linux. The system was fast, updates were predictable, and I had complete control over my computer. What's not to love about that? Sadly, I didn’t have to wait long to discover I still depended on Windows. Some…

The first several episodes from the fifth and final season of Stranger Things are now out, and everyone is understandably excited. After all, Stranger Things is a generational TV show that's been building momentum ever since it debuted on Net…

What if you could have ambient intelligence in your house? What if you could ask questions and have conversations with generative AI , no matter if you wanted to get an answer to a detailed, nuanced question, or perhaps you wanted movie/music/food r…

It's time for you to stop assuming Amazon is the fastest and least expensive way to buy everything, even if you pay for Amazon Prime . Before the pandemic, Amazon was almost always the cheapest and fastest way to buy things, but since COVID, thi…

We've all had moments when we're relaxing on the couch, and suddenly need to adjust something on our computers. It could be adjusting the music volume, playing or pausing the show that you're watching or anything else. Normally, that wou…

Romance, sci-fi, and horror are not subgenres that go together very often, but when they do, we get memorable masterpieces like Ex Machina , which came out in 2014 and which seems more prescient than ever today. from MakeUseOf https://ift.tt/jy8C…

Alexa+ has been available for most of the year, being released back in February. Anybody with an Amazon Alexa-enabled smart home has options to upgrade to the more advanced version of the voice assistant. It uses generative AI to take Alexa's ab…

After years of use, Google Maps became so integral to my work and leisure that I could barely function without it. Such was my reliance on this essential software solution that I never stopped to question just how much of my life it was tracking . F…

Android is full of hidden features and settings that most people never touch, and some of them can change the way you use your phone. One such setting that completely blew me away was forcing my phone into a tablet-style UI. When I first tried it, I…

If you are an audiophile, relying on a pair of wireless earbuds and your phone's default music player app will be a mistake. To get the best sound quality, you need some controls, especially the ability to tweak the equalizer to match the audio…

I have the coolest little gadget that sits on my desk. It can do a lot. It's an 8-bit style digital Wi-Fi clock (with a retro 37x8 pixel resolution) that you can customize to do a lot of things, including control your smart home (with IFTTT, Ale…

For several weeks, my laptop used to sound like it was getting ready for a takeoff. The fans would make noise even when I was doing simple tasks like drafting an article or browsing the internet. Even worse, my laptop would get uncomfortably warm, s…

While they may not all be as excellent as they once were, it’s undeniable that Google has offered top-tier products across many categories. Google Search has dominated almost since its inception, and nothing comes close to Chrome’s popularity among …

If you're looking for a fantasy show to watch on Netflix, you have a lot of options. But if you're looking for a good fantasy show, you'll have a harder time. The Witcher started out with a lot of promise , but has since been savaged b…

Smart home devices are only as useful as their ability to detect what's happening around them. I spent years just using voice commands — treating expensive gear like glorified clap-on lights. After fixing my smart home connectivity issues with h…

We went from passwords to passkeys, and they were touted as the future of authentication . However, they were initially very confusing. The jargon involved, like WebAuthn, FIDO2, and device-bound keys, made me hesitate for fear of being locked out o…

I've been an avid gamer my whole life, but after getting married, I learned that Feng Shui is more important than displaying your favorite console in the living room. Now that my wife and I have our own home, it was time to get creative. She wan…

There are warning signs that your home network may have been compromised, such as unusual traffic patterns and slowdowns in system performance, but now there's a simple tool to help determine if your router or connected devices are being used to…

If there is one piece of smart technology I'd love to have in my home, it would be a smart washer or dryer. Unfortunately, I don't have the money to make that happen right now, as it is an incredibly expensive piece of equipment to update. M…

By now, you've probably written your fair share of prompts for AI chatbots like Gemini or ChatGPT. With powerful large language models (LLMs) powering these chatbots behind the scenes, it doesn't take much instruction for Gemini or ChatGPT t…

Do Not Disturb used to be a simple toggle to suppress all notifications on your iPhone. But since iOS 15, it’s grown into a suite of profiles called Focus, which is so much more useful. from MakeUseOf https://ift.tt/zWwfB1M via IFTTT

My TV used to be the saddest thing in my room. It dominated an entire wall yet spent most of its life powered off. This always made me feel I was wasting its potential. But the good thing with smart TVs is that you’re not limited to streaming movies…

If you have a dishwasher, you're familiar with its many benefits. This is especially true if you've ever lived for an extended period of time without one. When I lived in a small apartment, not having a dishwasher meant trying to wash and dr…

Wireless headphones are convenient for use across multiple devices, including your phone, tablet, or computer. However, you might find that your headphones' sound quality varies depending on the connected device. Relying on a wireless connection…

Windows 11 comes with some good preinstalled apps . Whereas some of the other built-in apps from Microsoft are, let's say, less impressive. So, over the years, I have replaced built-in apps like Snipping Tool, Windows Search, the clipboard manag…

Right now, Apple TV+ is getting a lot of attention for airing Pluribus , which is quickly becoming everyone's new nerdy obsession. But Pluribus is far from the only sci-fi show that's thriving over there. Between Severance , Silo , For All …

While I've been a firm believer in the Google Home ecosystem for quite a while, I would be lying if I wasn't at least a little jealous of the folks who have had Alexa + roll out onto their devices recently . Taking Alexa from one of the wors…

Love it or hate it, artificial intelligence is everywhere. Every day, there seems to be a new AI tool that promises to supercharge your creativity, productivity, writing, and make your life much easier. That said, as the AI market expands, so does …

I’m always on the lookout for ways to reclaim space without compromising my apps or personal files. And in my quest to do that, I’ve uncovered several system folders wasting storage . One of the most surprising culprits I stumbled upon recently was …

Warrior is the best TV show you haven't heard of. It's a period drama set against the backdrop of the Tong Wars in the late nineteenth century, when Chinese gangs fought each other in a variety of American cities, especially San Francisco. …

Living in Northern Indiana means dealing with temperature extremes—below-zero winters and 100°F+ summers. For homes with attached garages, those big overhead doors become the weakest link in your home's thermal envelope, leaking heat in the wint…

For a long time, I thought my phone’s declining battery was because of the aging hardware. Bigger and brighter displays, powerful processors, and advanced connectivity all come at a cost. I used to charge my smartphone twice and made sure to carry a…

Smart homes don't have to be the same. Some people might think that having a smart home means having the same kind of smart home as someone else. But that isn't the case; you can customize your home to make it the way you want. from MakeU…

I can be pretty tough on AI, especially when it's used to make misinformation slop . But as cynical as I may seem, I do acknowledge that there are plenty of useful and beneficial features that AI powers. Take live translation, for instance: Not …

Avengers: Endgame is still one of the highest-grossing movies of all time. But since then, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has lost a bit of its luster, with box office returns shrinking year after year. Marvel will try to turn this around with next …

Samsung’s always-on display is one of those features you appreciate for its convenience but rarely think about. It shows the time, lock screen widgets, and a few notification icons. If you like personalizing your Samsung phone though, you’ll find th…

Searching for “free movie sites” almost always leads to the same place: pop-ups, malware warnings, suspicious redirects, and endless scam pages pretending to host the latest blockbuster. It’s one of the most dangerous search phrases you can type int…

At first glance, a Thunderbolt port looks just the same as any old USB-C port. Same shape, same cable, same satisfying click when you plug something in. But that small lightning bolt symbol next to the port signals something very different happening…

It often looks like modern AI can accomplish any task, no matter what you throw at it. Want a unique marketing image? Covered. Need an AI agentic browser to compile a report? Sorted. Want to use AI to create a chart-topping song? You're good to …

You know that sinking feeling when your favorite song vanishes from Spotify without warning? Or when your internet cuts out right in the middle of your commute? For the longest time, I considered these acceptable trade-offs for the convenience that …

My house is drafty when the cold wind of winter begins blowing here in Philadelphia, starting in November. These drafts cause us to turn up the heat, use more hot water, and overall endure higher energy costs as we use more natural gas to power our …

We baby our smartphones and laptops with glass protectors and rugged cases, yet the accessories that keep them alive, such as charging cables, expensive earbuds, power banks, dongles, and essential smartphone accessories , are often treated as dispo…

After negotiating the price of your home, if you're buying a house that was previously owned, you immediately think about the ways you can change it. It probably has never happened before that someone didn't make changes to the house they pu…

Once again, there is a new feature available on Google's NotebookLM , the AI tool that functions like a personal assistant and only references material you provide for it. This one is a slide deck generator, which can be useful if you need to m…

There are two things that put people off switching to a proper password manager: time and money. from MakeUseOf https://ift.tt/Jst4iGf via IFTTT

I'm a sucker for a long-running show, because I am a binge-watcher at heart. So what's better for that than something with five or six seasons and a bunch of episodes? From binge-worthy thrillers to twisty, philosophical sci-fi shows , ther…

My Whirlpool fridge came with an ice maker built into the door. It works fine. I press the lever, ice comes out, end of story. I've barely given it a second thought in the years we've owned it. That's why adding a GoveeLife Smart Ice Mak…

Most GPUs lose around half their value within two or three years, especially when newer generations arrive offering better performance or lower power consumption. It's a difficult cycle to beat, especially given the enormous focus on GPU perform…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Apple released the latest 14-inch MacBook Pro with the powerful M5 chip this October , and ever since then, it has been st…

Gemini 3 and Nano Banana Pro hit the Gemini app for everyday users in November 2025, along with a slew of AI-powered features from Google. These upgrades are a big deal—Gemini 3 Pro is the best-performing AI model on the planet in multiple categorie…

The horror genre has expanded in so many ways over the past few decades, and I would argue that it's doing a lot of heavy lifting in keeping the theatrical experience alive. Everyone always wants to flock to the cinema to get scared silly, and I…

There's nothing more frustrating than smart home stuff that doesn't work. You open the app, tap the button, wait... tap it again, still nothing. Or Alexa says "okay," but the lights stay on anyway. I dealt with this constantly for …

The World Wide Web is a massive universe that will take multiple lifetimes to completely explore. In fact, by habit, most people confine themselves to just a few selected parts of the web, usually Google, Facebook, YouTube, ChatGPT, and Instagram. T…

Most of us stare at screens all day and assume the text we read is as sharp as it can get. But the truth is, every PC has a different display . And beyond the hardware, our eyes are unique, so what looks crisp to one person might appear slightly fuz…

YouTube has evolved into the internet’s most expansive library of tutorials, explainers, documentaries, and niche deep dives. Yet paradoxically, actually watching long-form content on the platform can be frustrating. You are 20 minutes into a 40-min…

Running an efficient smart home can be difficult to achieve. While we like to think that smart homes are going to make our lives easier, sometimes the opposite can occur. Whether you realize that a smart home gadget is not actually worth it for you …

Google Chrome comes preinstalled on Android devices , and many of us make peace with it as the default browser. But over time, Chrome on Android has become bloated, stagnant, and increasingly hostile to power users. It lacks the versatile toolsets f…

I’d been using Chrome as my go-to browser since I got my hands on my first Android smartphone. That’s the case for most people, as it comes pre-installed. But while Chrome was my primary browser for years, there are alternatives that you can use. In…

Sci-fi movies can really explore a plethora of topics, from advancing technology to dystopian futures. Personally, one of my favorite, more underrated aspects of the genre is when the concept of cloning is injected into a narrative, which is why Mic…

Lossless audio is a staple of music streaming in 2025, with almost every major streaming platform supporting at least CD-quality tracks. The one exception is YouTube Music, and the others — including Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, and Amazon Music — a…

Lately, I have been trying many browsers to replace Chrome. Because Google Chrome lacks many features that other browsers, like Opera , provide out of the box, the Chrome experience has become increasingly cluttered. Still, I stayed because of the e…

I used to treat my desktop like a junk drawer. Whenever I downloaded something or needed quick access to a file, I’d toss it onto the desktop and tell myself I’d sort it later. Of course, that day never came. It got to a point where my beautiful Win…

I've had a 75" LG Smart TV for roughly 10 years now, and its picture quality has yet to fail me. Instead, it's been the smart TV apps that have given more jeers than cheers. A few additions to the living room have made nightly TV watchi…

While modern smart TVs are far more advanced than their recent ancestors, when used right out of the box, we are only tapping the surface of their potential. Most require add-ons or accessories to perform at their best, such as digital streaming dev…

I've spent years testing VPNs. I've stress-tested speeds, compared WireGuard implementations, checked server quality, streamed my way through half of Netflix, and run enough leak tests to last a lifetime. But none of that matters anymore. Af…

There’s nothing wrong with paying for great PC software. Some apps absolutely earn their price for the convenience they offer. But over the past few years, many tools that were once essential are no longer must-haves. This includes screen capturing …

I watch 100% of my YouTube videos on TV, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. YouTube is rapidly replacing traditional TV , and it's easy to see why—the app comes pre-installed on most Smart TVs, and with all kinds of high-quality videos b…

I bought an Amazon Smart Thermostat expecting lower energy bills. The first month showed modest improvement—maybe a few dollars saved. It was nothing dramatic. I figured real savings would come once the device learned my patterns, so I left the defa…

When I think about VPNs, I think about how fast I can access content. The first port of call when you fire up a new VPN is almost always a speed test. Just how fast is the VPN provider , and what's the damage to your actual internet speeds? f…

The premiere batch of episodes for the final season of Stranger Things has been met with a lot of praise and hype in equal measure, with more hits than misses overall to be excited about. We don't yet know if the long-running and highly popula…

It’s too easy to let clutter pile up all across our homes. You might have good intentions of not wanting items to go to waste or having to spend money to replace them later, but clutter causes its own set of problems long before those theoretical on…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Garmin watches have never required a subscription to access any of their core features, and that hasn't changed. But as of 2025, Garmin now offers a $6.99/month subscription called Connect+ tha…