How-To Guides from Gadget Hacks

A failed WinRE servicing update, a reagentc /enable error, or an INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE message after entering recovery can trace back to different root causes, including recovery-partition problems, encryption-related registration issues, or a storage driver unavailable to the recovery image. WinRE Manager v49 is a third-party, developer-maintained PowerShell tool designed to diagnose and repair several of those failure modes.

Foldable phones survive drops and folds better than many people expect. In lab testing last year, Which? tested 59 foldable phones through 30,000 open-close cycles on a folding machine, and 58 came through without a fault.

Microsoft's support documentation confirms that disabling Copilot's personalization and memory settings stops future responses from being shaped by details remembered from earlier conversations. That's the short answer for anyone searching how to turn off Copilot chat history personalization: switch off the relevant setting, and Copilot stops using those memories to personalize future responses.

GarageBand is free for Mac users and comes stocked with a large library of bundled sounds and effects, plus support for up to 255 audio tracks, according to Apple and a PCMag UK review. For this workflow, there's no need to buy additional plug-ins or sound packs. This GarageBand for Mac beginner tutorial walks through how to make music in GarageBand for Mac starting from a blank project, built from Apple Loops, Drummer Loops, and optional recorded audio.

Apple's "Welcome Home" event on Tuesday introduced nine product lines in one announcement: three core devices and a six-piece Home Collection built with LG and Schneider Electric. Sort through all of that with a renter's eye, and most of it isn't something you can buy, use, and box up when the lease ends.

There's no universal best time to charge a Samsung Galaxy Watch. Generally, an optimal charging schedule is something you have to monitor yourself, and that premise holds up here: the right window depends on whether you track sleep, how much battery you're carrying into the evening, how fast your specific model refills, and when you're reliably inactive during the day. The four-question framework below turns that idea into something you can actually use.

Amazon's October Prime Day sale is underway, and some of the strongest Google Pixel discounts of the fall have already arrived. Prime Big Deal Days runs Oct. 6 through Oct. 7, with Amazon releasing additional limited-time deals three times daily during the 48-hour event.

GPTK 4 and CrossOver are making some modern Windows titles genuinely playable on Apple Silicon, which sounds like great news if you're trying to play Windows games on an M5 Max Mac Studio you already own, or one you're thinking about buying. Before installing anything, know this: the most detailed benchmark report behind this guide tested a 40-core GPU, 48GB M5 Max MacBook Pro, not the base M5 Max Mac Studio, which has an 18-core CPU, a 32-core GPU, and 36GB of unified memory. Apple also offers...

Developer Sam Henri Gold says he built Light Touch, calling it a "full-featured iPod touch 2G emulator for Mac" that sends graphics calls out of the emulator to the Mac's own OpenGL implementation instead of rendering them internally (Sam Henri Gold, Hachyderm, 3 days ago). That's the claim, posted three days ago, with no download link, project page, or install instructions attached to the post itself.

Downloading a map to an iPhone before a hike doesn't guarantee it will still work once the signal drops. Gaia GPS's own support documentation warns that its app caches recently viewed tiles, so a trail can look available offline even though it was never actually downloaded. That's a quirk specific to how Gaia checks download status, not proof that offline map apps generally fail.

The 2026 WNBA Playoffs began Sunday, Sept. 27, and the schedule is spread across broadcast networks, cable channels, and streaming services rather than one simple destination.

Turning off Roku's automatic content recognition system took investigators at The Markup 11 to 24 clicks. That click count applies specifically to Roku's ACR setting on Roku TVs, the feature built into Roku's television hardware rather than its streaming sticks (The Markup, 2023). Even after finding it, disabling ACR doesn't answer the bigger question most people actually have: how to stop Roku from tracking what you watch across every app you open. This guide walks through the Roku privacy...

If Smart App Control just blocked an install and you're wondering whether you have to disable it to get past the warning, the short answer is: probably not.

Google Messages has changed where several familiar actions live. Swipe left on a conversation now reveals timestamps and RCS encryption status, and swiping right on an individual message opens a direct reply that quotes the original text above your response. Learning these Google Messages gestures now will save you from hunting around for options that used to sit in plain sight.

Start with one question: did tap-to-pay ever work right on this phone, or did it work fine for weeks and then suddenly quit? That answer determines whether you're dealing with a setup problem you can fix yourself or a newly reported bug that no amount of settings-tweaking will touch. Working through that distinction first is the fastest way to fix Google Wallet not working on Pixel without wasting time on steps that don't apply to you.

If the Google Maps speedometer on your Android Auto display is missing and you haven't touched a single setting, you're not alone, and you're not stuck. The most consistently reported fix is to set a destination and start navigating, a workaround several affected drivers say brings the speedometer right back (SlashGear, yesterday). That fix addresses one specific version of the feature, though. It won't help if what's actually missing for you is the newer, always-on display that works without a...

Tax season turns up the pressure on paperwork, and the fastest fix is already sitting on the home screen. Here's how to scan documents on iPhone without downloading a single app: Apple built a scanner directly into Notes and Files. Point the camera at a W-2, a receipt, or a lease agreement, and the scanner finds the page edges, straightens the angle, and saves the document as a PDF in a few taps.

A Reddit post covered by Android Authority describes a workaround to switch from Gemini back to Google Assistant by uninstalling updates to the Google app and then reopening the Assistant listing in the Play Store. It isn't an official Google procedure, and the reporting doesn't establish which phone models or Android versions it works on.

No 2026 Pokémon Night Out event has surfaced on Pokémon's official channels as of this week. A check of Pokémon's event and press announcements, along with its official Twitch and YouTube accounts, turned up nothing under that name: no date, no start time, no host platform, no published lineup.

Pixel Watch 4 owners who feel left out of the Pixel Watch 5 launch have a workaround. According to Android Authority, Reddit user m0rr0ng0 found that sideloading a newer build of the Pixel Watch Faces app unlocks five Pixel Watch 5 faces: Weave, Chronograph, a Steph Curry edition, Multicolor Reveal, and Multicolor Modular.