How-To Guides from Gadget Hacks: Page 2

Apple CarPlay not working is rarely about a bad cable or spotty Wi-Fi, not at first anyway. The real diagnostic starting point is simpler: figure out whether the connection is wired or wireless, because the checks that follow are different for each (MacObserver, last year).

"My webcam mic has background noise" sounds like one problem. It rarely is. Treat it instead as a troubleshooting question with several possible answers: is Windows processing the signal too aggressively, is the app running on top of that doing its own processing, is the device itself missing or misconfigured, or, in rarer cases, has something gone wrong with the whole system's audio and the webcam just happens to be where it showed up first? Working through how to fix webcam microphone...

Samsung says the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Z Fold 8 Ultra can charge from empty to 65% in 30 minutes. In preliminary testing, the Fold 8 Ultra actually beat that mark, reaching 67% in the same window, according to Android Authority testing three weeks ago. That's a real jump from what the Fold line could do a year ago, and it raises the obvious question for anyone hunting for the best charger for Galaxy Z Fold 8 devices: which one actually gets you there?

As of this week, a Samsung Messages alternative app called Messages by OzarksMade is undergoing closed testing through Google Play, with a public launch set for 14 days after its testing Google Group hits 12 members and a post-launch price of $0.99. Treat that as a snapshot, not a finished product. Betas shift, thresholds get hit or missed, and pricing plans change before launch.

Bluetooth speaker problems rarely have one cause. Microsoft's own support documentation splits them into distinct categories: pairing failures, connection failures, and audio-output failures, each requiring a different fix (Microsoft Support, 3 months ago; Microsoft Support, 3 months ago). Treat all three as the same problem and you'll end up applying the wrong fix for hours.

Leave a phone on the dashboard of a parked car on an 80°F day, and the cabin around it will hit 114°F within 30 minutes. Give it an hour, and that number climbs past 130°F, according to Meqtor. Most phones are rated to operate only up to 95°F (Meqtor). Past that point, a phone isn't just uncomfortable, it's running well outside the range it was built for.

Sony packs most of the useful controls for its headphones and earbuds into a phone app, and if you've ever wanted to flip noise-canceling modes or tweak EQ from a laptop instead, there hasn't been an official way to do it. A trio of open-source projects, including one called Sony Device Center, now claim to bring that control to Windows. The Sony Device Center Windows app is the newest and most talked-about of the three, but "claim" is doing a lot of work in that sentence. Nothing reviewed for...

Tonight, September 14, 2026, the 78th Emmy Awards air live at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT, and working out how to watch the 2026 Emmy Awards live without cable comes down to one quick decision: stream it directly on Peacock, use a live-TV service already sitting on your phone, or grab a short trial before the broadcast starts. Mariska Hargitay hosts the ceremony for the first time, arriving fresh off two Emmy wins earlier this year for her documentary "My Mom Jayne" (NBC, this week; NBC, last month)....

Apple seeded tvOS 27 RC, build 24J360, to developers and public beta testers yesterday, and the update is now available through Software Update on enrolled compatible Apple TVs (MacRumors, yesterday; iClarified, yesterday). If you're trying to figure out how to install tvOS 27 RC, the requirement comes first: it runs on Apple TV 4K (2nd generation, 2021) or newer, and it does not run on the Apple TV HD (2015) or the original Apple TV 4K (2017) (iThinkDiff, 2 weeks ago; iClarified, yesterday).

If Smart App Control just blocked an install and you're wondering whether you have to disable Smart App Control to get past it, the short answer is: probably not. Windows 11's built-in trust engine blocks a specific file for a specific reason, and in most cases you can find that reason and work around it without switching off protection for the whole system. What's actually changed is what happens if you do end up disabling it: a recent Windows update finally lets you turn Smart App Control...

Anyone who shares a Spotify account with a toddler knows the drill: hand over the phone for one car ride, and suddenly Discover Weekly is full of nursery rhymes. Spotify addressed that exact problem yesterday with a new setting built to answer the question a lot of parents have been asking: how to remove kids music from Spotify recommendations without blocking kids from playing that music at all (Spotify Newsroom, yesterday).

Windows 10 reached its end-of-support date on October 14, 2025, when Microsoft stopped shipping free security and feature updates for the OS (HotHardware reported, last year). Microsoft also offers Extended Security Updates in specific licensing and cloud scenarios, including Volume Licensing plans, Windows 365 Cloud PCs, and Azure Virtual Desktop machines (Microsoft Learn), but that's separate from the free upgrade path this guide covers. If you'd rather upgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 11...

iOS 27 shipped this week with a redesigned Siri, but a feature tucked inside the Shortcuts app handles daily use just as directly. Type a single sentence into Shortcuts and it now builds a working "Daily Digest" automation, pulling weather, your calendar, reminders, and a summary of recent messages and emails without you touching the action-by-action builder (PCWorld, yesterday).

Audible's Timer sits right on the playback screen, impossible to miss. Two of the app's more useful controls, though, live somewhere else entirely: the End of Chapter stop and the finer 0.05x speed adjustments, tucked into menus most listeners never open, according to Android Authority's hands-on rundown from earlier this year. These are exactly the kind of Audible tips and tricks that don't surface until someone goes looking for them, and the playback settings below reflect the Android app...

If you're searching how to watch Lions vs. Bills for free, the live window already closed. Kickoff for the Week 2 matchup between the Detroit Lions and Buffalo Bills was 8:15 p.m. ET on Sept. 17 at Buffalo's new Highmark Stadium, and that broadcast has already run (DetroitLions.com; CBS Detroit). This guide isn't about tuning in tonight. It's about sorting out what was actually free during the live broadcast, what "included at no extra cost" really meant depending on which service you used, and...

Apple calls Finder the home base of the Mac: the tool for organizing and reaching almost everything on the system, from documents to a connected iPhone. Most people use about a tenth of it. This collection of Finder tips and tricks for Mac users covers the rest: the browsing, previewing, editing, and search tools sitting in the same window you already open dozens of times a day.

Backing out of an app, opening Settings, and scrolling through the full app list just to flip one permission toggle is a small tax most iPhone owners pay eventually. This guide walks through how to add an Open App Settings shortcut to Control Center, a one-step Shortcuts action that, according to reporting, jumps you from whatever app you're using straight to that app's own settings page, skipping the manual hunt through the list (Digital Today reported earlier this year).

The word "reset" gets stretched to cover three unrelated jobs when an Apple TV remote acts up, and that stretching is where most of the confusion starts. Learning how to reset an Apple TV remote really means figuring out which of three things applies: restarting a frozen remote, re-pairing one that's lost its Bluetooth connection, or wiping the entire Apple TV back to factory settings. Only the last of those erases the Apple TV's data.

Searching for how to watch 2026 US Open Round 2 live for free won't turn up a current live option because Round 2 is already over.

iOS 27 gives Apple Wallet two new jobs that have nothing to do with each other: reading a restaurant receipt and settling it through Apple Cash, and turning a barcoded loyalty or membership card into a pass you build yourself. This guide covers how to split bills with Apple Cash in iOS 27, how to create a custom pass in Apple Wallet, and the availability gaps worth checking before you hand either one a real tab or a card you actually need at checkout.

Search for the best $100 smartphone in 2026 and the results won't cooperate: every phone reviewers have actually tested this year costs more than that. Samsung's Galaxy A17 5G lists at $174.99, and Motorola's cheapest 2026 model, the Moto G Play, runs $169, with the standard Moto G at $199 (Android Authority, 3 months ago). Even PCMag's "cheap phone" roundup skips $100 entirely; its budget category starts under $300 (PCMag, seven weeks ago).

A large photo library stops being something anyone scrolls through to find one shot. OneDrive Photos has a Favorites feature built for exactly that problem: mark the images worth keeping close, then pull every favorited photo into one filtered view inside Gallery. This guide covers how to add or remove favorites in the OneDrive Photos app on Windows 11, using Microsoft's documentation, with one clearly labeled comparison to the separate Windows Photos app.

TSA counted 15 states with a mobile driver's license that worked at its airport checkpoints as of February 2025, a list that ran from California and Puerto Rico all the way to Louisiana and New York (TSA). More states have added the option since then, and checking TSA's Digital ID page is the only reliable way to know if yours is one of them today. This guide walks through how to add your driver's license to your phone: confirming your state and device qualify, completing enrollment, and...

Search "my Roku remote won't pair," and most of what comes back isn't a pairing failure at all. If the remote can already move through Roku's menus and pull up voice search, pairing has succeeded, and the real issue is that the TV hasn't been set up for power and volume control yet, which is a separate step handled independently of pairing.

A guide posted on XDA Forums last year describes a way to run Samsung DeX on a Galaxy Z Fold's internal screen, with no monitor, dock, or book cover attached.

In late January 2026, Banjo: Recompiled launched for Windows, Mac, and Linux as a standalone native app. Not an emulated N64 game running inside a simulated console, but its own application, built with remappable controls, a second-stick camera option, and mod support. It's one entry in a growing scene that lets players play classic console games natively on Mac without touching an emulator.

10 Gboard Features That Make Android Typing Faster — and 5 Settings That Make It Less Nosy

This guide walks through how to fix Apple CarPlay problems by matching your specific symptom to its most likely cause. By the end, you'll know which of six failure modes you're dealing with and have a clear fix to try, rather than cycling through generic tips that don't apply to your situation.

In June, Chris Graue made headlines for photographing Jupiter with a Game Boy Camera, a 1998 accessory whose sensor captures 128×128 pixels in four shades of gray. The image showed cloud bands and a clear planetary limb. The catch: Graue shot through the Hooker Telescope at Mount Wilson Observatory, one of the most historically significant instruments in American astronomy. The camera was the hook. The adapter and the 100-inch mirror behind it were the story.

Reviewed by: Y. Garcia

How Windows 11 Wi-Fi problems are easier to fix when you start with the symptom. A missing Wi-Fi toggle, a "No Internet, Secured" warning, random drops, and post-update connection failures all point to different causes. Use the section that matches what you see, then try the targeted fix.

If you're trying to watch The Open 2026 without missing a shot, here's the short version: USA Network carries live coverage every round, NBC joins on the weekend, and Peacock is the streaming layer that connects all of it. No single cable channel covers the whole event, but the rights structure is more logical than it first appears once you understand which platform owns which window.

Run powercfg /hibernate on in an elevated terminal, then go to Control Panel and check the Hibernate box under power button settings. That's it. Many guides stop after the command or the Control Panel step this one covers both, in order, with the gotchas called out where they matter.

iOS 27 doesn't reinvent CarPlay. What it does is remove friction, the kind you encounter every single drive. Reaching playback controls from the wrong screen, repeating yourself to Siri, asking for directions without being able to specify "avoid toll roads."

Apple Car Key stores a credential in your Wallet app and uses it to lock, unlock, and start a compatible vehicle no separate app, no cellular connection required. Setting up a car key on iPhone takes about five minutes once you know you're eligible. The part that trips people up is figuring out whether they actually are.

iOS 27 adds something Wallet has never had in fourteen years: the ability to build your own pass. Tap the "+" button you use to add credit cards or pass emails, and a new "Create a Pass" option appears alongside the existing options. It lets you digitize a paper ticket, membership card, or loyalty pass directly from your iPhone, with no developer account, no Pass Type ID, and no certificate signing required (Michael Tsai, May 2026). This guide walks you through how to use Create a Pass in Apple...

This guide tells you exactly how to watch the 2026 MLS All-Star Game live online and whether you qualify for the free trial. The game streams exclusively through MLS Season Pass on the Apple TV app. No cable broadcast, no over-the-air channel, no alternative platform. "Free" applies only in two specific situations. Figure out which one describes you, then follow the steps below to have a working stream before tomorrow's 8 p.m. ET kickoff.

A quick reality check before you start: This guide works best for households in urban and suburban areas within range of broadcast transmitters. Rural readers, apartment dwellers with no exterior placement options, and anyone whose primary goal is free live sports coverage will hit real limits, spelled out at each relevant step. Go in with accurate expectations.

By the end of this guide, your Mac will be running macOS Tahoe. What you recover beyond the operating system depends on one thing: whether you have a Time Machine backup made before the Golden Gate beta was installed. This guide covers all three realistic scenarios for getting back to stable ground.

This guide is for local administrators and technically capable users on unmanaged or lightly managed Windows 11 Pro systems whose executable, batch, or PowerShell script files have stopped running after installation or a feature update. Corporate devices enrolled in Intune or joined to a domain with Group Policy are a different situation those paths are called out explicitly below.