The best ESP32 board for any project isn't the original one
MakeUseOfby Yadullah Abidi23 Aug 2026
Buying an ESP32 board seems simple until you realize there are dozens of variants floating around the internet, and not all of them are the same.
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makeuseof.comadded August 2026
top 37%I turned off location history on my Android — it freed 6GB of wasted storage and stopped Google's tracking
MakeUseOfby Shimul Sood23 Aug 2026
“Your storage is full” is one of the scariest pop-ups you can see on your phone. I got hit with it on my Android a few days ago, and my first thought was, not again.
Samsung Internet has 5 features Chrome on Android still can’t match
MakeUseOfby Pankil Shah23 Aug 2026
Samsung Internet isn’t talked about enough, which is a bit odd since it’s also available on non-Galaxy phones and now has a PC version too.
Netflix's best Stephen King series isn't horror — it's an 8-episode time-travel thriller
MakeUseOfby Dan Selcke23 Aug 2026
Stephen King is one of the most adapted authors of all time. Whether the adaptations are actually better than the source material (The Shining, The Mist) or worse (Cujo, The Dark Tower), you don't...
A year with an eGPU taught me exactly who should buy one
MakeUseOfby Dipan Saha23 Aug 2026
External GPUs have always been a kind of niche, and 2026 did not change that in the slightest. The concept is novel and almost perfect-sounding — letting a relatively modest, lightweight machine...
I stopped Chrome from running in the background and gained almost an hour of battery life
MakeUseOfby Oluwaseun Bamisile23 Aug 2026
Chrome is one of the most resource-intensive consumer apps and the most-used desktop browser in the world. Two things can be true at the same time.
Free beachside ebooks from bestselling authors are waiting — but only for a limited time
MakeUseOfby Sara Heritage23 Aug 2026
Summary - Best Beachside Reads offers free indie novels, novellas, short stories and excerpts—available until Sept 30 2026.
4 Linux distros that are better at gaming than SteamOS
MakeUseOfby Dipan Saha23 Aug 2026
When SteamOS launched in 2013, it was quite undercooked. It used a Debian base and was much slower to update.
If I built my Dolby Atmos home theater again, these are the 3 things I’d do differently
MakeUseOfby Brady Snyder22 Aug 2026
I used my TV's built-in speakers for years before taking the leap and building a Dolby Atmos home theater. I started off small, buying affordable bookshelf speakers in JBL's Stage2 lineup.
The VRAM question finally has a real answer — and it's not what GPU marketing suggests
MakeUseOfby Dipan Saha22 Aug 2026
For years, VRAM has always been a major constraint for gaming. VRAM caps have grown astronomically in the past decade alone, jumping to over the baseline of 8GB, mandating some rather expensive...
The free Roku app replaced my remote, headphone adapter, and on-screen keyboard
MakeUseOfby Bryan M. Wolfe22 Aug 2026
The of a week. Not dead batteries, not wedged in the couch cushions where I'd already checked — actually gone, the kind of gone where you look in the same three spots four times each and it still...
I dumped hours of shopping reviews into Gemini Notebook and it cut through the noise
MakeUseOfby Saikat Basu22 Aug 2026
I needed a fitness tracker and smartwatch under $200. I did what I have always done. A dozen browser tabs, a few prompts in AI chatbots, and some YouTube review videos thrown in for good measure.
I bought the wrong NFC tags because I missed one tiny specification
MakeUseOfby Yadullah Abidi22 Aug 2026
NFC stickers sell a dime a dozen. Packs of 10, 20, even 50 can be picked up on Amazon for pocket change.
Google just made the Pixel Buds Pro 2 the obvious earbuds for Pixel owners
MakeUseOfby Brady Snyder22 Aug 2026
By now, you probably know about the Google Pixel 11 series and the new Pixel Watch 5, which were announced at a Made by Google event last week.
4 free RustDesk features that make a TeamViewer subscription the worst deal
MakeUseOfby Tashreef Shareef22 Aug 2026
I've mainly used TeamViewer as my go-to remote desktop tool for family tech support. However, with its aggressive push to upgrade and limitations, I needed an alternative that was less restrictive...
Your Thunderbolt port can be used to steal data from a locked PC — here's the setting that stops it
MakeUseOfby Afam Onyimadu22 Aug 2026
When you turn on your computer and reach the Windows lock screen, it feels like a solid barrier. It isn't. You're prompted to enter a password before access is granted.
I turned Ryobi's budget tools into workshop staples by swapping in their premium batteries
MakeUseOfby Jonathon Jachura22 Aug 2026
Several of my Ryobi tools sat unused for most of last year. None of them broke. They quit early, bogged down under load, or felt weak enough that I reached past them for something corded.
The 24-hour delay on Android sideloading isn't what you think it's for
MakeUseOfby Brandon Miniman22 Aug 2026
Most people get apps on the Google Play store and call it a day. But one of Android's unique features versus iOS is the ability to sideload apps, which lets you install any app you want.
4 free DNS servers that each win at one job Google's and Cloudflare's don't
MakeUseOfby Pankil Shah22 Aug 2026
Google DNS and Cloudflare DNS are popular for good reason. They're faster and more reliable than most ISP-provided DNS servers.
5 services you should set up before you expose your home server to the internet
MakeUseOfby Oliver Haslam22 Aug 2026
Building a home server is fun, and it's a great way to learn something new. From hosting your own cloud storage to streaming media across your devices, a server can benefit your home in many ways.