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Hacks & Workarounds

1183 articles

All articles tagged Hacks & Workarounds.

6 Home Assistant Add-Ons That Make Smart Homes Actually Smart

Home Assistant's app ecosystem (formerly called add-ons) extends the platform with powerful capabilities from offline voice assistants to network file sharing. These six apps transform a basic Home Assistant installation into a privacy-focused, fully-featured smart home hub.

Huma Shazia·9 Jun 2026

Hacks & Workarounds·6 min

Why the Galaxy S26 Ultra Isn't Worth the Upgrade

A veteran Samsung reviewer returned his Galaxy S26 Ultra after weeks of use, citing ergonomic problems, camera wobble, and incremental upgrades that don't justify the flagship price. The phone's size and design choices are creating real usability issues.

Huma Shazia·9 Jun 2026

Hacks & Workarounds·5 min

6 Milwaukee Tools Under $150 Worth Buying Right Now

Milwaukee's M12 and M18 tool lines offer professional-grade performance without a professional-grade price tag. A new Home Depot sale brings the M12 drill combo kit to $149, making it an ideal starting point for homeowners building out their first serious toolbox.

Huma Shazia·9 Jun 2026

Hacks & Workarounds·6 min

Why ReviOS Became My Default Windows 11 Installation

A tech writer explains why he stopped using stock Windows 11 and switched to ReviOS, a modified configuration that strips out bloatware, telemetry, and Microsoft's persistent nudges. The trade-off: no automatic security updates.

Manaal Khan·9 Jun 2026

Hacks & Workarounds·6 min

5 Raspberry Pi Alternatives That Cost Half the Price

Raspberry Pi prices have climbed past $200 for some models, pushing hobbyists toward cheaper single-board computers. Orange Pi, Libre Computer, and other boards now deliver comparable performance at a fraction of the cost, though software support varies.

Huma Shazia·9 Jun 2026

Hacks & Workarounds·4 min

3 Netflix Movies to Watch This Week: June 8-14

Netflix's latest weekly picks include an animated retelling of David vs. Goliath, a classic 90s thriller, and a beloved sports drama. Here's what's worth streaming through June 14.

Huma Shazia·9 Jun 2026

Hacks & Workarounds·4 min

Windows 11 Finally Lets You Disable Bing in Search

Microsoft is adding an option to turn off web search results in Windows 11's Start menu. The change appears in recent Insider previews after years of user complaints about Bing cluttering local file searches.

Huma Shazia·9 Jun 2026

Hacks & Workarounds·4 min

Why Quick Tap Made Me Ditch Phone Cases After 10 Years

A long-time phone case user explains why Google Pixel's Quick Tap gesture convinced him to go caseless. The feature's back-tap detection works best without bulky protection, forcing a trade-off between convenience and safety.

Huma Shazia·9 Jun 2026

Hacks & Workarounds·4 min

3 Netflix Thrillers Worth Your Time This Week

Netflix's thriller catalog gets three solid additions this week, including a pre-fame Timothée Chalamet film and an Oliver Stone cartel drama. Here's what to queue up between June 8-14.

Huma Shazia·9 Jun 2026

Hacks & Workarounds·6 min

NVIDIA RTX Spark Brings ARM to High-End PCs at Computex 2026

NVIDIA unveiled the RTX Spark superchip at Computex 2026, an ARM-based platform delivering 1 petaflop of AI compute with 128GB unified memory. The announcement signals a major shift for Windows on ARM and breaks Qualcomm's grip on ARM desktop development.

Huma Shazia·8 Jun 2026

Hacks & Workarounds·5 min

Why Mixing Smart Home Brands Is Wrecking Your Wi-Fi

Your smart home's sluggish performance likely stems from a hidden problem: every budget gadget you've added is fighting for space on the same crowded 2.4GHz Wi-Fi channel. Here's what's happening behind the scenes and how to fix it.

Manaal Khan·8 Jun 2026

Hacks & Workarounds·5 min

OpenAI's ChatGPT Super App Puts Codex and Partners in One Place

OpenAI is reportedly weeks away from launching a redesigned ChatGPT that bundles coding tools, image generation, and third-party apps from Canva and Booking.com into a single interface. The move shifts ChatGPT from a question-answering chatbot to a task-execution platform, timed strategically before the company's expected IPO in September 2026.

Manaal Khan·8 Jun 2026

Hacks & Workarounds·4 min

5 New Movies to Stream This Week on Netflix, Hulu, and More

This week's streaming lineup features a critically acclaimed stop-motion animated film on Netflix, plus four theatrical releases finding new homes on Hulu and other platforms. The highlights include a $350 million box office hit and a beloved coming-of-age adaptation.

Huma Shazia·8 Jun 2026

Hacks & Workarounds·7 min

50 LGBTQ Movies to Stream for Pride Month

From 1931's groundbreaking Mädchen in Uniform to 2024's allegorical horror I Saw the TV Glow, streaming platforms now host nearly a century of queer cinema. This curated list spans documentaries, dramas, comedies, and genre-bending experiments that shaped LGBTQIA+ storytelling.

Huma Shazia·8 Jun 2026

Hacks & Workarounds·4 min

5 Cult Classic Movies Streaming on Prime Video This Week

Amazon Prime Video has a strong lineup of cult classics available through June 14, including the original Mad Max that launched Mel Gibson's career. These films offer everything from dystopian action to slacker comedy, and most are included with a Prime subscription.

Manaal Khan·8 Jun 2026

Hacks & Workarounds·5 min

Windows 11 Low Latency Profile: How to Enable It Now

Microsoft's June 2026 update introduces Low Latency Profile, a hidden feature that makes the Start menu load 70% faster and apps launch 40% quicker. You can force-enable it today using ViVeTool before the wider rollout.

Manaal Khan·8 Jun 2026

Hacks & Workarounds·5 min

10 Cash App Hacks to Save Money and Lock Down Security

Cash App does more than peer-to-peer payments. These 10 features, from automatic round-ups to security locks, help users save money passively and protect their accounts from scammers.

Huma Shazia·8 Jun 2026

Hacks & Workarounds·4 min

How Claude Found 3 Hidden F-150 Features in 788 Pages

A tech journalist fed an entire 788-page Ford F-150 owner's manual to Claude and discovered features he never knew existed. The experiment shows how AI can turn dense documentation into practical knowledge in seconds.

Manaal Khan·8 Jun 2026

Hacks & Workarounds·5 min

Flow Launcher Fixes Windows Search: Setup and Tips

Windows Search has become frustratingly slow, cluttered with Bing results and ads when you just want to find local files. Flow Launcher is a free, open-source alternative that brings macOS Spotlight-style speed to Windows. Here's why it works and how to set it up.

Manaal Khan·8 Jun 2026

Hacks & Workarounds·6 min

How to Build a Local AI Coding Assistant with Ollama and VS Code

Cloud-based coding assistants charge monthly fees and send your code to third-party servers. A local setup using Ollama and VS Code keeps everything on your machine, costs nothing beyond electricity, and works offline.

Huma Shazia·8 Jun 2026

Hacks & Workarounds·5 min

Why Your Claude Token Limit Burns Fast (It's Not Your Prompts)

A week of tracking Claude token usage reveals that long conversation threads, not lengthy prompts, drain your limit fastest. Every message re-reads the entire chat history, making older threads exponentially expensive.

Huma Shazia·8 Jun 2026

Hacks & Workarounds·5 min

Windhawk Unlocks the Windows 11 Settings Microsoft Hides

Windows 11 removed taskbar customization options that power users relied on for years. Windhawk, a free open-source tool, restores these missing controls through a modular system of community-built mods that don't permanently alter system files.

Huma Shazia·8 Jun 2026

Hacks & Workarounds·5 min

5 Netflix Originals Based on True Events Worth Streaming

Netflix has built a strong catalog of biographical dramas that bring real-life stories to screen with A-list talent and high production values. From papal transitions to survival sagas, these five films offer compelling true-story entertainment.

Huma Shazia·8 Jun 2026

Hacks & Workarounds·5 min

How to Shrink Roku's New Permanent Home Screen Ads

Roku's June 2026 OS update added a permanent advertising panel that occupies 40% of the home screen. The clean app-launcher grid is gone. Here are the workarounds that actually reduce the clutter.

Manaal Khan·7 Jun 2026