MakeUseOf

My old Fire TV Stick felt really slow until I changed these settings

Suman Biswas — Mon, 05 Oct 2026 17:00:17 GMT

The Fire TV Stick is an incredible piece of tech, especially for its size and price. However, it's also probably the slowest and clunkiest streaming device that I've ever used in my media center. And as is the case with every new piece of tech that gets periodic software updates, the Fire TV Stick becomes exponentially slower and clunkier with age.

These Android settings helped my phone last longer between charges

Kanika Gogia — Mon, 05 Oct 2026 16:00:14 GMT

I used to treat my phone’s battery as London’s winter weather: something to complain about but not something I could change.

I stopped partitioning my drive and freed up 36GB just by reorganizing

Shaheer Khan — Mon, 05 Oct 2026 15:01:14 GMT

AI-driven memory shortages have made SSDs expensive, so managing your storage matters more than ever. For years, partitioning drives was the way to organize, allocating space for specific purposes. However, partitioning drives is counterproductive in modern storage, adds complexity, and still doesn’t address the main issue: storage shortages.

I cleaned out my Google One storage and found 10GB I’d been paying to keep

Pankil Shah — Mon, 05 Oct 2026 14:00:15 GMT

Google One storage is one of those things that can easily go out of hand. Emails, WhatsApp backups, photos, Drive files — it all counts toward the same quota, and with most of these things backing up automatically in the background, it doesn't take long for that storage bar to creep into the red. Upgrading is always an option, sure, but that's just kicking the can down the road.

The real reason your keyboard has F1 through F12

Ben Stegner — Mon, 05 Oct 2026 13:45:14 GMT

Of all the keys on your keyboard, the F1 through F12 keys at the top are likely not your most-used. While they aren’t as useless or frustrating as other keys like Scroll Lock or Insert, their long-standing presence poses a mystery in plain sight.

Google's new paywall will remove Gemini's advanced models from free accounts

Hamed Paydarfar — Mon, 05 Oct 2026 12:48:17 GMT

Google is moving more capable Gemini models behind paid subscriptions. According to Google's updated support page, people using Gemini without a Google AI plan will only be able to use the Flash-Lite model. The Flash and the more advanced Pro models that you could use up until now will be inaccessible on October 9 unless you get a paid plan.

Forget Plex's creeping paywall: I moved my whole library to Jellyfin, and nothing broke on the way

Jack Mitchell — Mon, 05 Oct 2026 12:30:15 GMT

Plex was always my go-to media library for a variety of reasons, including its familiar interface, organization, and remote access, which let me watch my movies and shows away from home. However, as more Plex services became subscription-based, I started wondering whether other options were available.

Intel's new CPU tech beats AMD on paper, but the catch makes it a hard sell

Shaheer Khan — Mon, 05 Oct 2026 12:00:14 GMT

For the last decade or so, AMD has quickly gained favor in the PC community, becoming the new no-brainer choice across builds of all scales. The Zen architecture helped them gain a lead over Intel, and the competition worsened as Team Blue faced repeated setbacks and struggled to move to smaller nodes.

Cartridge printers trap you with the razor-and-blades game — refillable ink breaks it

Christine Persaud — Mon, 05 Oct 2026 11:00:15 GMT

While we haven't quite yet entered a paperless world, our printing needs have changed. Unless you work in a big office that deals with a lot of important paperwork, you probably have less printing needs today than you did 10-15 years ago. I still print at least weekly and I would never not have a printer at home as part of my essential work-from-home setup. That said, I would never buy an ink cartridge printer again. That's because I switched to a cartridge-free printer a decade ago. Since then, I will never look back.

The most neglected key on your keyboard is becoming a Windows 11 Shortcut

Hamed Paydarfar — Mon, 05 Oct 2026 10:39:24 GMT

Shipping in a couple of weeks, Microsoft is giving the tilde key (~) a useful job in Windows 11. According to the company's latest release notes, File Explorer's address bar now recognizes "~" as a shortcut to your user profile folder.