I'm no stranger to automation as I have a variety of tasks I automate with Zapier and IFTTT. I've enjoyed using these platforms because I could easily configure tasks without needing coding knowledge. However, there are drawbacks due to the limitations of free plans.

A trusted note-taking app has become a crucial part of my memory and thought process. When Google announced NotebookLM, a new AI-powered notebook, I started to wonder: Is this another contender in the crowded space of digital note-taking? The answer, refreshingly, is no. NotebookLM isn’t designed to take on the likes of OneNote, Evernote, or Notion. Instead, it’s engineered to be a powerful partner that integrates with my existing notes to unlock deeper understanding and accelerate my research in no time.

Smarthomes are supposed to make life simpler, but for many users, the convenience comes with hidden costs. Be it subscriptions, outages or, simply, privacy concerns. Cloud-based services are the go-to for most, but they’re not the only way to run a smart home.

When I first upgraded from a standard 60Hz monitor to a 144Hz panel, I was immediately blown away by the smoothness, responsiveness, and overall immersion. Besides the competitive advantage I experienced in popular games like Fortnite, Overwatch, and Counter-Strike, I was impressed by the buttery smooth animations and cursor movement in Windows. So, I started chasing monitors with higher refresh rates mainly for competitive gaming. However, the upgrade from 144Hz to 240Hz and 360Hz wasn't as impressive as I thought it would be. Yes, I did notice improvements, but they weren't significant enough to justify the premium price tags.

If you are a Windows user and hesitant to use Apple’s iCloud feature, don’t be. You might think that because they are different operating systems, using iCloud on Windows is difficult or a headache. The truth is, it’s a cloud service like OneDrive, Google Drive, Proton Drive, or others. There are different ways in which it is beneficial to me. I have an iPhone, so it’s useful since I take a lot of photos and screenshots. I’m also a Windows user, so iCloud is an efficient way to sync photos and files I create, making them accessible across devices. Once it’s set up, I sync pictures to the built-in Photos app and access them from File Explorer.

Home Assistant is a powerful tool that you can use to link up countless services in a way to take back control of your smart home and build it the way you like. It's not for everyone, but there's a massive community supporting it that consistently makes it easier to do various different things. It has complete voice assistant support, and I've built my own voice pipeline, for free, so that I control exactly how it runs and how it responds.

In the PC hardware timeline, even 5 years seems like ages ago. After all, 2020 was the year when we were grappling with the GPU crisis, the RTX 30 series had just launched, and the Ryzen 7 5800X3D didn't exist. If you built a gaming PC during that year, you might be tempted to go for a platform upgrade or at least a few component upgrades. Hold your horses, however, because I'm here to tell you that your PC has more life left in it than you think. Assuming you built a mid-range to high-end machine in 2020, your 5-year-old PC isn't really "old" yet.

Lots of us may have old and dated tech lying around at home. Instead of letting them occupy space in the closet, it's best to repurpose them into something useful. That's exactly what I thought of when I found my dad's old laptop in the drawer. Ideally, I would have considered converting it into a home server or even the base for a home lab. But since it was my dad's laptop, I thought of restoring it in a way that he finds useful. He's an avid reader and has been eyeing a Kindle for the longest time. That made me wonder — what if I convert his old laptop into an e-reader, so he can download as many books as he wants and read them on a large display?

The tablet market is dominated by two brands, Apple and Samsung, with a few niche devices from other brands accounting for the remainder. However, the market position of the two giants has allowed them to increase prices without significantly improving the user experience. And that's left plenty of space for upstart OnePlus to bring its vision of what an Android tablet should be.

For years, like countless others, I trusted my digital life to Google Drive. It was my go-to hub for documents, photos, and everything in between. However, as I started filling it up with confidential media and documents, I started to have concerns about data privacy and wanted better control over my digital footprint. After much deliberation and research, I decided to uninstall Google Drive and started to find a cloud storage solution that truly aligned with my needs. That journey led me to Proton Drive, a service that ticked all the boxes for me.

The Pro Controller for the original Nintendo Switch was quietly one of the better first-party controllers you could get, not just for Switch but across the board. It boasted grips and an incredible battery life, making it one of my favorite controllers to use. The Pro Controller 2 has traded in the grips for a matte black finish, some of the smoothest video game controller sticks I've ever felt, and back buttons for true gamers. Not only does it feel like a massive upgrade compared to the first version, but some of the additional features on the Switch 2, like button mapping and saving controller setups, make this a must-have for Switch 2 owners.

Nintendo has a long history with the Star Wars franchise. There have been many different games set within a galaxy far, far away across multiple Nintendo consoles, some of which went on to become iconic releases of their time. But while some classic Star Wars video games have gotten the remaster treatment and have been re-released on newer platforms, not all the popular games people want to see have made their way to current consoles. At the same time, a few newly released Star Wars have also been missing from the Nintendo ecosystem, despite finding big success on nearly every platform to date. Luckily for Star Wars fans, the Force is shifting things around and opening up the opportunity for more great Star Wars games to be where Nintendo fans are playing their games.