MakeUseOf

Why you should always buy the 4K Roku or streaming stick — even without a 4K TV

Brandon Miniman — Sat, 30 May 2026 23:00:19 GMT

When deciding on a streaming device, you have a lot of options. Most people don't need the insanely powerful Nvidia Shield TV which has a 256 core CPU.

Your Android has been a PC this whole time — you just didn't have the right launcher

Oluwademilade Afolabi — Sat, 30 May 2026 22:00:19 GMT

I have always liked the idea of using Android as a pocket computer, and while there are several ways to turn your phone into a PC, until a few weeks ago, I hadn't found the right launcher to scratch that itch. In my search for one, HyperDroid caught my attention with its Play Store listing, which describes it as a launcher that turns Android into a complete desktop experience. When I checked it out, I quickly found that it does not simply decorate Android but rather tries to reorganize it around a desktop metaphor, complete with a Windows 11-style interface.

5 devices in your home that really shouldn't be connected to Wi-Fi

Jorge Aguilar — Sat, 30 May 2026 21:00:19 GMT

It is tempting to believe that every new appliance in your house needs to be connected to the internet to be modern. Marketing teams love to tell us that a smart fridge or an app-enabled toothbrush adds a level of convenience we never knew we were missing. In reality, these features aren't worth the hype and are usually just forced additions that send data to advertisers instead of helping.

I asked Gemini, Claude, and ChatGPT to debug the same Python error, and only two explained what actually broke

Jorge Aguilar — Sat, 30 May 2026 20:00:19 GMT

It feels like it has gotten so common to ask an AI to fix your mistakes since it's easier than debugging. That's okay in most cases, but you need to go to the right AIs. I tested a few of them to see which gave a good output instead of just making a mistake or not helping at all. It turns out you should be very careful about what you get back. After this test, it's easy to see why vibe coding is pulling people in, but not teaching them.

Microsoft’s open-source era still comes with an asterisk

Oluwademilade Afolabi — Sat, 30 May 2026 19:30:19 GMT

Microsoft's relationship with open source has one of the strangest redemption arcs in tech. This is the same company whose former CEO, Steve Ballmer, once described Linux as "a cancer," a line so cartoonishly hostile it still follows Microsoft around like an embarrassing yearbook photo. Two decades later, Microsoft talks about Linux with heart emojis, builds tools developers actually love, owns GitHub, maintains its own Linux distribution, and has open-sourced parts of Windows Subsystem for Linux to the point where one of my editors has stopped picking between Windows and Linux and started running both on the same machine.

I built a private LLM on my home PC using a USB drive — it only knows what I put on it

Jorge Aguilar — Sat, 30 May 2026 19:00:19 GMT

When you feed sensitive code or research into a cloud-based AI, you lose control over where that information travels. It might seem like a small trade-off for the convenience of a smart assistant, but you are effectively handing your data over to servers you don't own. It's a risk that most people accept without a second thought. However, you don't have to choose between advanced language models and the safety of your own private files; just switch to a local LLM.

I turned off cloud typing on my Android keyboard and gained back my privacy

Bryan M. Wolfe — Sat, 30 May 2026 18:30:19 GMT

I often wonder what my phone knows about me. Contacts, location, and browsing history are all obvious. But only after checking my Gboard settings did I realize my keyboard had been sending data to Google the entire time I've used my Pixel.

GrapheneOS is expanding its supported devices — and Motorola is on the list

Brady Snyder — Sat, 30 May 2026 18:00:19 GMT

Android phones are filled with Google services that can be used to serve you ads and collect data. The Google Play Store, Google Play Services, and underlying Google APIs are all bundled with popular Android OS versions. If you want to avoid these Google services entirely, you need to take extreme measures, like installing a custom Android ROM. For example, software company Murena sells a custom Fairphone 6 variant powered by /e/OS, a "deGoogled" Android operating system. This isn't the only custom Android ROM that places a focus on privacy and security, though — GrapheneOS is another prime example.

5 neat Google Chrome tricks that have nothing to do with browsing the web

Oluwademilade Afolabi — Sat, 30 May 2026 17:30:18 GMT

Google Chrome is so wedded to the idea of "going online" that it's easy to forget (or even not know) that the browser is also quite a capable local tool. If you strip away the websites, feeds, login pages, and a dozen open tabs silently judging your attention span, Chrome still has a few party tricks left.

I kept buying new chargers trying to fix slow charging — the problem was not the charger

Jorge Aguilar — Sat, 30 May 2026 17:00:18 GMT

It is annoying to spend money on a new, high-wattage charger only to see the battery icon barely crawl forward. It happened to me, and I would swap blocks, test different outlets, and even blame the phone for charging slowly. I did not realize that the cable sitting in my drawer was the actual problem. I could have saved so much money if I knew what to look for.