What Happened to Android Modding?

Quick Links Many years ago, Android modding was the hottest thing among enthusiasts who wanted to squeeze more out of their phones. These days, however, you hardly hear about rooting or custom ROMs, and when you do, it always comes with a lot of trade-offs. How did we get here? We Outgrew The Need For Modding A big reason why a lot of people are not really interested in modding their Android phones anymore is that, for many people, there’s simply no need to do so....

June 1, 2025 · 4 min · 839 words · Zachary Hubbard

What Is BookTok? The Viral Book Club That Makes TikTok Worth Using

Summary You’d think in a world of streaming video and digital gaming, reading plain old words on paper would have fallen out of fashion, but thanks to social media like TikTok, the idea of snuggling up with a page-turner seems more popular than ever. Leading the revolution is BookTok—a viral book-loving sub-community on TikTok. It Started Saucy, but Grew Up Fast BookTok is a loose community of TikTokers who make videos all about books....

June 1, 2025 · 4 min · 728 words · Janet Davies

What Is the Life Cycle of a Star?

Quick Links When observing the night sky, it’s easy to forget that every point of twinkling light is a star at some point in its life cycle. Between a star’s violent birth and even more violent death, it remains stable for up to tens of billions of years. Let’s look at these phases in more detail. The Nebula Phase Stars begin their life inside vast clouds of gas and dust called nebulae or molecular clouds, ranging from 1,000 to 10 million times the Sun’s mass....

June 1, 2025 · 6 min · 1133 words · Edward Garcia

Why Do Batteries Lose Charge When You Aren't Using Them?

Quick Links Summary All batteries slowly discharge their stored energy when not in use. While you can’t avoid self-discharge, proper storage can slow it down. You charge a tablet or a battery pack for your power drill to 100%, put it in a drawer, and forget about it. The next time you pull it out, the battery is dead. What gives? Here’s why batteries don’t (and can’t) stay charged. All Batteries Lose Charge Over Time Before we dig into the different kinds of batteries, let’s look at the biggest overarching concept related to this topic....

June 1, 2025 · 5 min · 1006 words · Noah Ferguson

Why Is This Logitech Mouse on Every Tech Person's Desk?

Summary Logitech’s MX Master series of mice has become a common sight in YouTube videos or photographs of tech-savvy people’s desk setups, but what makes this now-iconic mouse so special? I’m on my third MX Master mouse at this point, and, honestly, I can’t go back to doing my job with anything else! It’s Expensive, but Worth It I bought my first MX Master in ignorance of what everyone else was doing at the time, it’s just that I’d been suffering from wrist-pain for so long from moving a mouse around for hours a day while doing my job, that I needed a solution....

June 1, 2025 · 5 min · 862 words · James Gonzalez

Why You Should Care About the Memory Bandwidth of Your Graphics Card

Summary When most people look at buying a new graphics card, they tend to focus on clock speed, core counts, and VRAM size. However, memory bandwidth can often be a key limiting factor that can bite you down the line. So let’s talk about it. What Is Graphics Memory Bandwidth? YourGPUandVRAMare both crucial components in the process of rendering graphics to your screen, and they have to work together tightly in order to make your games and apps perform well....

June 1, 2025 · 4 min · 752 words · Douglas Jackson

XGIMI's Most Portable Projector Now Has an Internal Battery

XGIMI has revealed the MoGo 4 and MoGo 4 Laser projectors. These portable projectors retain the thermos-like design of their predecessors, though they’re the first devices in the MoGo lineup to feature built-in batteries. Previous models required an external power supply, power bank, or proprietary PowerBase stand. Thestandard MoGo 4isn’t all that different from XGIMI’sMoGo 3 Pro. It features the same 1080p video resolution, 450 ISO lumen output, and 360-degree rotatable lens as last year’s model....

June 1, 2025 · 4 min · 651 words · James Martinez

Your Weather App Is Spying on You, Here's What to Do

Quick Links Summary Weather apps have a shaky history of respecting your privacy. Picking an app with a privacy-friendly and transparent privacy policy is important to safeguard your personal data and location history. You look at your weather app to check for rain and scan the radar, not to be on somebody’s radar. But millions of people use weather apps that track them and violate their privacy. Here’s why it matters and what to do about it....

June 1, 2025 · 15 min · 3194 words · Kimberly James

YouTube Is the Most Valuable Streaming Service—So Why Don't People Want to Pay For It?

YouTube is one of the most interesting things to come out of the whole internet thing. It’s basically like community TV, but with a global reach. Anyone can upload content to YouTube, and it changes the whole balance of power when it comes to video content. Even better, once YouTube allowed for monetization, talented content creators could make a living, or at least support their passion projects while offering us content that would never exist under traditional models....

June 1, 2025 · 5 min · 985 words · Christy Martinez

10 Lexus Models You Should Buy Used

Japanese car manufacturers are acclaimed for their reliability and are built to last. Luxury automaker Lexus is no exception, and we’ve ranked and sorted their most reliable models from the last decade so you can enjoy the Lexus experience at a discounted price. Why focus on Lexus?Per Consumer Reports ranking, Lexus is ranked number one for used car reliability among car brands in 2025. For new car reliability, the Japanese automaker is ranked second, and for owner satisfaction, it ranked fifth....

May 31, 2025 · 6 min · 1201 words · Jeffrey Martinez

10 Ways to Save Time on Your Windows 11 PC

Quick Links Windows 11 packs many features that you can use to speed up your tasks and save time. From using keyboard shortcuts to pinning apps to the taskbar, there are many things you can do. 1Use Keyboard Shortcuts The easiest way to save time and get things done quicker is by usingvarious Windows 11 keyboard shortcuts. You press a key combination and Windows performs an action. Here are a few common keyboard shortcuts you should know: 2Pin Apps to the Taskbar You canpin apps to the Windows taskbarso you can launch those apps with a single click (without having to open the Start Menu or use Windows Search)....

May 31, 2025 · 5 min · 960 words · Erin Davis

2025 Moon Phase Calendar: What Is March 23rd's Moon Phase?

If you’re planning on observing the night sky, going for a night hike, or trying to snap a shot of the Moon, the phase is incredibly important. Here’s everything you need to know about the current Lunar phase, as well as what you can expect in the near future. What Is the Moon Phase on March 23rd? Today, the moon is 39% full, which puts it in the waning crescent phase....

May 31, 2025 · 4 min · 715 words · Meghan Campos

3 Self-Hosted Services I'm Running in My Homelab and Use Every Day

When you’re starting a homelab full of self-hosted services, it’s hard to pick just one. I’ve tried several, but these three have been my mainstays for a few months or more, and I’ll show you how I’m using them too. Jellyfin: All Things Streaming For streaming my movie and TV series colleciton, I useJellyfin. It’s commonly known as a free Plex alternative. To be honest, I’ve never tried Plex. When I started my media collection, I went straight for Jellyfin knowing it wasn’t quite as feature-rich but wanting to start with the free and open source solution instead of investing in the non-free alternative....

May 31, 2025 · 5 min · 946 words · Amy Porter