I stopped using Firefox a long time ago. Like most people, I moved over to Chrome because it felt faster and easier to use. For years, I didn’t think I would ever go back — until version 149 came out.

In an ideal world for Google, people who want to download YouTube videos for offline viewing would subscribe to YouTube Premium to access that feature. Unfortunately for the tech giant, there are several tools people can use to download YouTube videos without a Premium subscription and bypass the advertisements that would otherwise be served when watched online.

Mechanical keyboards aren't just for gamers, and can be a real upgrade for anyone that's hammering out hours of text every day. And while mechanical keyboards used to be pretty costly, some of the best options are now quite affordable.

A new graphics card is often a massive performance upgrade for a gaming PC, especially if it's generations removed from your existing one. If you're considering buying a new GPU right now, you should consider an alternative upgrade before finalizing your decision. A new gaming monitor can arguably be as impressive as a new graphics card, if not more. Considering how far gaming monitors have come in the last five years, you stand to gain a lot from a more advanced display. Switching from IPS to OLED, 1080p to 4K, or 144Hz to 360Hz can transform your gaming experience more than some extra frames. The prices of graphics cards are inflated right now, and new GPUs are probably not coming out till 2028. If your GPU is already capable of 1440p gaming, it's better to invest in a monitor upgrade before buying a new GPU.

It's easy to spend $30 on a single-purpose Zigbee motion sensor or even $60 on smart air quality monitors, while a far more powerful device just sits in your junk drawer. A standard ESP32-based IoT sensor node requires soldering, a case, a power supply, and even lacks a screen, but your old phone has all of that, plus a high-resolution camera and a dual-core or sometimes even better processor.

Regardless of what you do, I'm sure at least one app idea has crossed your mind over the years. Perhaps a random frustration you faced at 2 AM and thought "how is there still not an app for this" and scribbled it into your Notes app. Or you saw someone else's app blow up and quietly muttered "I had that idea months ago." Maybe you have a running list of random app ideas somewhere — ideas you swore you'd build when you have the time to learn how to actually code. Well, in 2026, you don't really need to go the traditional route anymore. You don't need to commit hours to learning how to code or paying a handsome amount of money to an app developer to build their version of your vision.

You spend hours following guides to set up Home Assistant, ESPHome, and other integrations. Then come the pairing steps for several Bluetooth and Matter devices, flashing custom firmware on ESP32 boards to build Bluetooth proxies, and a dozen other smart devices.

I watched someone paste a 10,000-word report into NotebookLM, ask it to summarize the main points, and then close the tab. They got their answer, sure. But they also completely missed the point.

For years, dual-booting felt like the grown-up answer for anyone who wanted Linux without fully giving up Windows. You got native performance, direct hardware access, and the comfort of knowing your fallback OS was sitting right there, waiting for you at startup. That made sense when Linux still had wider compatibility gaps and when setting up a virtual machine felt like a side quest rather than a practical solution. But the moment an operating system starts treating a Windows VM as an everyday tool rather than an enthusiast project, that old logic starts to wobble.

The big problem with online services requiring an email address to sign in is that you end up needing to create one while you're young. This means you'll likely end up creating an email address that sounded cool in the moment, but didn't age so well a decade later. At that point, you have to choose whether you'll cut ties with your embarrassing handle or forge ahead and hold true to your younger self's vision.

I firmly believe that a display upgrade can be more impactful than a new graphics card, especially when you already have a decent GPU. The monitor is one of the most important parts of any gaming setup — it's responsible for delivering your gaming experience to your eyes. Many gamers are obsessed with blazing-fast refresh rates when buying a new monitor, but I think it doesn't matter much once you cross a certain threshold. Even 165–180Hz displays can feel phenomenal if you nail the other aspects that determine gaming immersion. From the size of the screen and the type of panel to the HDR capabilities and motion clarity, a lot of things matter more than the raw refresh rate of your monitor. Before you drop big money on a monitor upgrade, make sure you're buying something that will actually feel like a big upgrade.

There was a time when gaming on Linux pretty much boiled down to SuperTuxKart, Battle for Wesnoth, and that's about it. However, in the last decade, Linux gaming has gone from strength to strength thanks to efforts from the open-source community. Now, games using Steam's Proton compatibility layer on Linux are rivaling Windows 11's performance, and it doesn't seem the 'best OS for gaming' is keeping hold of its crown for much longer.