How to Pick (and Customize) the Best Mechanical Keyboard For You

Did You Know? The dark colors used for Victorian era clothing wasn’t just a style choice, but a practical decision—dark colors did a much better job of hiding the soot and dirt spewed out by factory chimneys. Geek Trivia The Screen-Independent Unit Used For Ensuring Exact Proportions Across Different Display Systems Is Called A? Ember → Twip → Meta-Pixel → Point → Advertisement How-To Geek Recommends Running Malwarebytes Alongside Your Antivirus for Maximum Protection Running antivirus is still important, but these days the really active threats are from spyware, adware, crapware, and the worst of all: ransomware. That's where Malwarebytes comes in. Malwarebytes not only protects your computer from malware, but does a better job of cleaning up an infected computer than anything else on the market. And it doesn't just work on PCs — they have a Mac version too. Click here to download Want to Change Your Email Preferences? At some point in the past you subscribed to the How-To Geek newsletter, but if you'd like to change the frequency or unsubscribe, you can do so by clicking the button. Change my Subscription (or unsubscribe) Today's How-To Geek Articles By popular request, we're including a quick list of the daily articles at the top of the daily email as well as the regular format near the bottom. What Is “Broadcast DVR Server” and Why Is It Running on My PC? How to Make Phone Calls With Your Google Home How to Disable Auto-Brightness on Your iPhone How to Pick (and Customize) the Best Mechanical Keyboard For You How to Free Up Space Used By Your iPhone or iPad’s Messages App Which Roku Should I Buy? Express vs. Stick vs. Stick+ vs. Ultra APFS Explained: What You Need to Know Apple’s New File System How to Automatically Open Articles in Safari’s Reader Mode What Is Facebook's New “Explore Feed”? How to Theme Your Android Oreo Device with Substratum and Andromeda (No Root Required) Geek Comic Today's Tech Term MCU An MCU (short for Multipoint Control Unit, a.k.a. Bridge) is a video conferencing device that links two or more audiovisual terminals together into one video conference call. What We're Reading This section contains what we're reading from around the web, along with commentary from our editors. Think of it like your daily digest of the most interesting things online. This soft robotic gripper can screw in your light bulbs for you Finally: a robot all of us can imagine using around the house. [Phys.org] The future of artificial intelligence surveillance is hidden in Dubai International Airport's virtual fish tank The virtual fish prompt you to look at a hidden camera which then scans you for facial recognition. [Quartz] U.S. mail carriers emerge as heroes in Puerto Rico recovery Mobile networks are still down in Puerto Rico but the Postal Service hasn't skipped a beat. [Reuters] What Is “Broadcast DVR Server” and Why Is It Running on My PC? Look in the Task Manager on Windows 10 and you may see one or more “Broadcast DVR server” processes running. These processes have the file name bcastdvr.exe, and are part of the Windows 10 operating system. Read This Article → How to Make Phone Calls With Your Google Home After Alexa gave users the ability to call other Echo owners, Google upped the ante with true phone calls. If you live in the U.S. or Canada, you can use your Google Home to place a call to anyone’s phone. You don’t need to limit yourself to other people who have a Google Home. Here’s how to get started making phone calls. Read This Article → How to Disable Auto-Brightness on Your iPhone Auto-brightness is a feature designed to save battery life and make your iPhone's screen easier to read. When you're somewhere dark, like your bedroom at night, the screen will automatically dim. When you're somewhere bright, like outside on a sunny day, it’ll crank itself up to maximum brightness. Read This Article → How to Pick (and Customize) the Best Mechanical Keyboard For You Mechanical keyboards are a surprisingly resilient trend among gamers and power users. But as they get more popular, the various options and technical variations become more and more complex. If you’re looking for everything you need to know to get started in this surprisingly varied portion of the PC world, we’re here to help you out. Read This Article → How to Free Up Space Used By Your iPhone or iPad’s Messages App If you send and receive a lot of text messages, the Messages app can take up a significant of space on your iPhone or iPad. Not only does it store your text message history, but it also keeps photo and video attachments you’ve received. Here’s how to free up that space if you’re running low. Read This Article → Which Roku Should I Buy? Express vs. Stick vs. Stick+ vs. Ultra So you’ve decided you want a Roku, but there are so many choices. There are currently five different models (not including full TVs with Roku built-in), and it’s not at all clear what the difference between them is. Which one do you want? Read This Article → APFS Explained: What You Need to Know Apple’s New File System Apple’s macOS 10.13 High Sierra brings a new file system named “Apple File System”, which largely replaces the older HFS+ file system. Apple File System, also known as APFS, has been used by default on iPhones and iPads since iOS 10.3, and is also used on the Apple Watch and Apple TV—but now it’s finally on the Mac, too. Read This Article → How to Automatically Open Articles in Safari’s Reader Mode Apple just made one of Safari’s best features even better. Whether you’re using an iPhone or iPad with iOS 11 or Safari 11 on a Mac, you can now make Safari always open articles on any website in Reader Mode. This is perfect if there's a site with content you love, but design choices you absolutely despise. Reader Mode is one reason why every Mac user should ditch Chrome for Safari. Read This Article → What Is Facebook's New “Explore Feed”? Recently, two new icons popped up in the Facebook app on iOS where the old chat icon used to be: a little shopfront and a rocket ship. The little shopfront is a quick link to Facebook Marketplace, and the rocket ship a link to Facebook's Explore Feed. Read This Article → How to Theme Your Android Oreo Device with Substratum and Andromeda (No Root Required) Android 8.0, affectionately and officially known as “Oreo,” changes a lot of things in Google’s mobile operating system. But the most obvious is a switch from a general dark theme in the interface to blinding white on the Quick Settings menu on the notification bar. If you’re tired of looking at all those fully-lit pixels on your phone, there’s a way to theme the interface with some new tools—no root required. Read This Article → Advertisement How-To Geek Recommends Running Malwarebytes Alongside Your Antivirus for Maximum Protection Running antivirus is still important, but these days the really active threats are from spyware, adware, crapware, and the worst of all: ransomware. That's where Malwarebytes comes in. Malwarebytes not only protects your computer from malware, but does a better job of cleaning up an infected computer than anything else on the market. And it doesn't just work on PCs — they have a Mac version too. Click here to download