How-To Guides from Gadget Hacks: Page 2

To stop CarPlay from automatically connecting, turn off the per-car toggle if the iPhone shows one for that vehicle. Use the Screen Time restriction when the goal is blocking CarPlay everywhere, across every paired car at once. Reach for Forget This Car only when a full re-pairing is acceptable, since that's the method Apple's own support page walks through for CarPlay.

Trading in an old phone with Google Store can turn a drawer relic into real money toward a new Pixel. At the Pixel 11 launch, Google's trade-in program offered $150 for a Pixel 4a and $200 for a 2019 iPhone 11, numbers that catch owners off guard who figured those phones weren't worth listing anywhere. The U.S. trade-in ceiling also climbed from about $800 at the Pixel 10 launch to $1,000 this year, with top-tier phones like a Galaxy Z Fold 7 or iPhone 17 Pro Max eligible for $900 to $1,000.

Most Galaxy tablet problems, freezing, laggy apps, a screen that stops responding, don't need a factory reset. A restart, either a normal one or a forced one depending on what the screen is doing, often clears temporary freezing or app stuttering without touching a single photo or file (Asurion). Learning how to reboot a Samsung Galaxy tablet the right way, and recognizing the smaller set of cases where a restart genuinely isn't enough, keeps you from wiping a tablet that didn't need it.

Tom's Guide walked away unimpressed with the Pixel 11 overall, but the outlet singled out one feature it called "genuinely useful": Magic Capture, a camera mode that records a short clip and lets AI pick the best still photos so users stop guessing when to hit the shutter (Tom's Guide, two weeks ago). Anyone figuring out how to use Magic Capture on Pixel 11 will find the basic setup simple, but getting the most out of it means enabling one setting in advance and thinking about your connection...

By the end of this guide, the regular Gmail Inbox does the sorting itself. Priority senders stay visible, receipts and newsletters get labeled and archived automatically, and subscriptions that just add clutter get canceled at the source. None of it runs through Gemini, Smart Reply, or Gmail's own tab classification, since this is a guide to Gmail inbox automation built entirely from rules typed in by hand.

Apple TV boxes don't ship with automatic content recognition, and the Apple TV 4K can't inspect video coming through a television's other inputs, giving it a privacy edge over most other streaming devices and smart TVs, according to Ars Technica's reporting from last year. That's a real advantage, but it doesn't touch app tracking, diagnostics, Siri's data handling, or how the Apple TV app personalizes recommendations. That's where the Apple TV privacy settings below come in.

Less than a month after launch, Pixel 11 owners are running into a scattered set of problems: a phone that won't survive its own setup screen, videos full of static, spotty Wi-Fi, and a hit game that refuses to launch at all.

The Apple CarPlay settings to change after that first pairing aren't hidden exactly, but they do live in two different places: the iPhone's Settings app and CarPlay's own on-screen Settings, reached from the car's display. CarPlay ships with a handful of options that adjust how it looks and behaves, and most are worth checking once the initial setup is done (Engadget, yesterday).

Microsoft has confirmed that its September 8, 2026 security update can knock out USB audio on some Windows 11 PCs, cutting off sound from speakers, headsets, and microphones that connect over USB. If you're trying to find a Windows 11 update broke USB audio workaround, the scope here is narrower than "audio is broken" across the board, and the only reported workaround that may help is limited to one of two failure patterns showing up in reports.

Scrolling through your phone from the passenger seat can trigger motion sickness, and Google has quietly added a setting to Android 17 meant to ease that discomfort. Motion Assist overlays small dots around the edge of your screen that move according to your phone's gyroscope and accelerometer, tracking your vehicle's motion (Android Authority today; Google Android Blog earlier this month). This guide explains how to use Motion Assist on Pixel phones, including how to check whether Google has...

Outlook throwing "Your message can't be displayed right now" sends most people straight to a search bar looking for a one-click fix. There isn't one published yet. The Microsoft material reviewed for this guide does not document a fix for this exact wording. What follows is a troubleshooting heuristic for narrowing down whether the problem is a local app glitch, a single damaged message, an account-level issue, or something happening on Microsoft's end. It's not a Microsoft-confirmed diagnostic...

Spotify Lossless has been part of Premium since last year, but there's a good chance it's never touched your ears. The feature launched in September 2025 as a free addition to Individual, Duo, and Family plans, no separate HiFi tier required, and Spotify expanded it to more than 50 markets by October 2025 (Spotify Newsroom). The catch is that it ships off by default, so most Premium subscribers who technically qualify have never actually flipped the switch (Audio Endgame).

A phone that works fine at home can go dark within minutes of touching down in China. Not because one app breaks, but because three separate systems, internet access, navigation, and mobile payment, all require setup steps that range from difficult to impossible once you've already landed. Figuring out the best apps for traveling to China matters less than getting that setup order right before you leave.

Safari looks almost the same after installing iOS 27. Open it, and the address bar, tab bar, and reading view sit right where they always have. But WIRED found that Apple tucked several new tools into Safari's menus, changes easy to miss if you're just scrolling through a webpage.

If you mostly use Apple Podcasts to press play and nothing else, there's a handful of useful controls sitting untouched: a library that actually surfaces what you want to hear, playback settings you won't have to hunt for every session, chapter and timestamp navigation for long episodes, and syncing that's supposed to carry your spot across every Apple device you own.

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.