I turned my dusty Chromecast into a $250 smart home hub replacement
Jasmine Mannan Apr 12, 2026, 1:30 PM EDT Jasmine is Software and PC Hardware Author at XDA with years of tech reporting experience ranging from AI chatbots right down to gaming…
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These 4 PC maintenance tasks cost $0, but improve your performance drastically
…Together, these benchmarks surface issues such as thermal throttling and suboptimal performance. Inferring from this data, it makes it easy to diagnose issues like a misconfigured fan profile, a malfunctioning cooling system…
Linux 7.1-rc1 brings faster, safer file transfers between Windows and Linux partitions with a brand new NTFS driver
…the i486 and other ancient hardware (old networking, unused SoCs) to reduce maintenance. After a lot of bug fixes and a scary number of flagged issues during the release candidate phase, Linux…
Most network problems aren't your internet—they're your router's dirty secret
…The hardware is better, and the software doesn't treat the user like an idiot, giving you tools and logging features that should be standard issue on every router. Your router might…
Your fastest USB port might not be your best, and I found that out the hard way
Jasmine Mannan Jun 2, 2026, 2:00 PM EDT Jasmine is Software and PC Hardware Author at XDA with years of tech reporting experience ranging from AI chatbots right down to gaming…
I blamed my NAS for slow streaming until I realized what transcoding was actually doing
…Related You probably already have the best GPU for Plex and Jellyfin transcoding Transcoding is well within your reach, even on older hardware A little primer on what transcoding is and does…
The weirdest Windows 11 slowdowns still come from features that should have died years ago
Jasmine Mannan Apr 20, 2026, 2:30 PM EDT Jasmine is Software and PC Hardware Author at XDA with years of tech reporting experience ranging from AI chatbots right down to gaming…
One of Google Maps' biggest flaws is something you probably use every day without realizing
…At the same time, it still has plenty of issues. Many users are aware of its sometimes confusing audio directions and its clumsy pronunciation of local place names. But regardless of where…
The Steam Deck won because Valve solved what Microsoft refuses to fix for gaming handhelds
Jasmine Mannan May 25, 2026, 8:00 PM EDT Jasmine is Software and PC Hardware Author at XDA with years of tech reporting experience ranging from AI chatbots right down to gaming…
Your ISP router is the biggest bottleneck in your home network, and you know it
…This effectively blocks you from using your hardware to the fullest, simply because the ISP doesn't deem it worthwhile. It might do it to avoid user configuration issues, but the result…