MakeUseOf

Local LLMs have a problem that no amount of free software can fix

Yadullah Abidi — Wed, 04 Nov 2026 18:00:16 GMT

The local AI promise is one of hope. You can install a polished interface, grab an open model, and start chatting without needing yet another monthly subscription. But replacing a capable cloud assistant isn't as easy as getting a local chatbot up and running.

Windows logs exactly how long every boot takes, and it showed me where mine was slowing down

Oluwademilade Afolabi — Wed, 04 Nov 2026 17:30:17 GMT

My Windows 11 laptop has been taking forever to boot up after a restart lately, and it's getting really annoying. I already checked the Startup Apps page in Task Manager, but that only shows which programs open automatically and a rough estimate of how much they slow things down. I wanted to see what Windows was actually doing during all that time.

My Galaxy screen kept dimming in sunlight until I turned off this hidden setting

Digvijay Kumar — Wed, 04 Nov 2026 17:00:18 GMT

Three minutes into checking Google Maps on a sunny sidewalk, my Galaxy S25 dimmed to the point I couldn’t read it. The phone boasts 2,600 nits of peak brightness, which should overpower afternoon sun, but dragging the manual slider to maximum did nothing. For weeks, I assumed the sun was just too strong for any phone to handle, or that my display panel had a defect. The hardware was fine, but a built-in software safeguard was throttling panel output the entire time. Reclaiming the screen I paid for meant hunting down a single buried toggle that Samsung refuses to put in the main settings app.

Every home server I build gets the same 4 containers first, and none of them are the fun ones

Afam Onyimadu — Wed, 04 Nov 2026 16:45:17 GMT

When you build a home server, it’s tempting to start with the fun stuff, like a media library, a photo vault or a smart home dashboard. But after doing this several times, I know it typically ends with a weekend of rebuilding everything.

My Amazon Echo has been hiding a second job, and it's not playing music

Chris Hachey — Wed, 04 Nov 2026 16:00:16 GMT

There's really no in-between when it comes to choosing how dedicated you want to be as a smart homeowner. Either you don't want many smart home devices and you just might have a security system or a video doorbell or you go fully in and make your home run on automations. Okay, there might be somewhere in the middle, but if you have a few smart home devices, you're pretty committed.

Android is getting automatic photo backups without relying on the cloud

Hamed Paydarfar — Wed, 04 Nov 2026 15:41:01 GMT

Previously, backing up your phone's gallery usually meant either subscribing to cloud storage or manually transferring everything via a USB cable to a computer or external storage.

I turned my old MacBook into a home server and gave it a new lease on life

Jack Mitchell — Wed, 04 Nov 2026 15:31:17 GMT

Replacing my aging Intel MacBook Pro was long overdue; however, I wasn’t quite ready to retire my faithful old device completely. Instead of leaving it gathering dust, I decided to turn it into a home server.

How to turn a single photo into a 3D scene with Apple’s free AI

Rob LeFebvre — Wed, 04 Nov 2026 15:00:17 GMT

I turned three ordinary photos into 3D scenes I could rotate around in a web browser app, using a free Apple AI model on my M5 MacBook Air. Setup took about 15 minutes, and the output took even less time. It's a fun experiment to play with, even though I don't have a use case for the tech just yet.

My old Fire TV Stick felt too slow to keep until I changed these settings

Brandon Miniman — Wed, 04 Nov 2026 14:30:16 GMT

I have a first-generation Amazon Fire TV Stick in a spare bedroom, and it has gotten so slow. And no wonder — it's a first-gen product that is now 12 years old, despite still being able to run most modern streaming apps.

I finally understand why Android power users swear by this app

Jayric Maning — Wed, 04 Nov 2026 14:00:16 GMT

I didn't really think much about Android automation apps. Whenever someone on Reddit or a tech forum brought up Tasker, I'd nod along and keep scrolling because automation sounded like something only developers or tech obsessives would bother with.