MakeUseOf

I turned Samsung's Edge Panel into the most useful part of my phone

Tashreef Shareef — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 16:01:19 GMT

If you have a flagship Samsung phone, you've likely bought it for the top-notch hardware, the great camera, and One UI, which I think is the best Android skin out there. But one of the most underused One UI features is hiding on the side of your screen, and I've barely seen anyone make the most out of it. Most people simply turn it off, considering it a nuisance and a glorified app launcher.

10 modern TV shows you can watch in any order you want without getting lost

Dan Selcke — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 15:30:17 GMT

Many of us love nothing better than to find a new show that we can sink tons of time into, growing with the characters over multiple seasons. But sometimes, you don't have time for that, and need a show you can watch for an hour, leave for weeks on end, and come back without fear that you've lost the plot.

Your passwords are officially obsolete, according to Britain's top intelligence agency

Sara Heritage — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 15:01:54 GMT

Computer passwords were first invented in 1961 at MIT to secure user files on the Compatible Time-Sharing System. Now, 65 years later, the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has announced a historic shift at its annual CYBERUK event: they no longer recommend passwords as the primary way to stay safe.

I ran a DNS speed test and Google's 8.8.8.8 wasn't even in the top two

Pankil Shah — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 15:00:19 GMT

We’ve all heard it before. Use Google DNS if you want speed. But here's the thing. DNS performance isn’t universal. The “fastest” option depends largely on where you are, what sites you visit, and what’s happening on the network at that exact moment.

4 open-source design tools that don't require a monthly subscription

Yadullah Abidi — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 14:30:17 GMT

If you're a designer, I'm willing to bet that your monthly bill includes at least one design tool, right next to your streaming service and cloud storage. These subscriptions may not hit your wallet hard on your own, but combined with other digital expenses, they add up quickly. If you're just starting, freelancing on a budget, or are simply tired of paying a giant corporation for renting your own work, open-source is the solution. And it's better than ever before.

I found 50GB of ghost files on my SSD — this is where they were hiding

Yadullah Abidi — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 14:01:16 GMT

If you've been seeing your C: drive shrinking on its own, you're not going crazy. Windows and its programs love to set up folders and start filling a cache of data that eats up space like anything on your drive. The worst part? Getting rid of this data isn't as simple as selecting it and hitting delete.

This tiling window manager won me over by not being a config nightmare

Dipan Saha — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 13:30:17 GMT

Tiling window managers were never an easy concept, nor were they meant to be. In a way, freeing yourself from the confines of a traditional, floating layout is much like rewiring your brain, and it demands patience.

I bought this retro gaming handheld and now my Steam Deck's gathering dust

Oliver Haslam — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 13:00:17 GMT

There are a ton of ways to spend our time these days, and they're all competing for attention. Gaming has been a huge draw for a long time, but as great as the latest games are, I've found that you don't need to build a gaming PC and the latest blockbuster title to have some fun. Sometimes all you have to do is look back.

I replaced SPSS with a free Excel add-in that was already there — I just never looked

Adaeze Uche — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 11:01:15 GMT

Many months ago, while analyzing a large dataset I had gathered for my master's thesis, I realized that my department’s SPSS license had expired. After panicking for a bit and doomscrolling instead of being productive, I came across a mention of the Analysis ToolPak. It turns out this add-in is a fully featured statistical toolkit bundled with Excel, even though I’d never noticed it before.

I thought MX Linux was lightweight until I tried the distro it's based on

Yadullah Abidi — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 10:00:16 GMT

MX Linux has a well-deserved reputation for being fast, stable, and not bloating up your system with apps you didn't ask for. It runs wonderfully well on old hardware, and is one of the best OSes for making a slow PC fast. It's easy to take it as the gold standard for lightweight Linux OSes running on older hardware.