I test headphones and wearables for a living, and one question I keep getting from readers is: “Which true wireless earbuds under £100 can actually survive sweaty gym sessions and still keep calls sounding good?” It’s an important question — a lot of budget TWS models promise...
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How-to
I run my home automation from a Raspberry Pi that acts as my smart home hub...
How-to
If you want a smart home camera setup that reliably records clear faces at...
How-to
I’ve been experimenting with Chromebooks as lightweight, secure editing...
How-to
I recently spent an afternoon putting a refurbished Samsung Galaxy S24 through...
I’ve been experimenting with Chromebooks as lightweight, secure editing stations for a while, and I want to share a workflow that lets you build a secure, offline media workstation capable of handling 4K editing and battery-friendly exports. The...
I recently spent an afternoon putting a refurbished Samsung Galaxy S24 through a full hardware checklist before deciding whether to buy it. If you’re considering a refurbished flagship—especially one as sought-after as the S24—you want to be...
I spend a lot of time testing GPS performance on running devices because distance and pace are only useful if the location data behind them is reliable. Recently I ran a series of real-world checks using a Google Pixel phone and a Garmin running...
I carried a Pixel Fold in my backpack for a week and, as someone who lives for the moment a gadget becomes genuinely useful rather than just clever, I put it through my usual field tests: meeting notes, sketching quick diagrams, and editing a...
I’m going to walk you through how I built a fully local smart home voice assistant that controls Zigbee lights while keeping cameras and other sensitive devices offline. This isn’t about a single-brand “plug-and-play” solution — it’s...
I get this question a lot in comments and DMs: “How can I get multi-room, lossless Spotify on my Sonos system if my upload bandwidth is tiny and I don’t want to pay for additional services?” I’ve tested Sonos setups in labs and real homes,...
I often get asked whether it's realistic to build a home monitoring setup that gives clinically useful SpO2 and respiratory metrics without spending a lot of money. The short answer I give people is: yes — but with important caveats. In this...
I’ve been building and testing smart home setups for years, and one thing keeps coming up: you can have a convenient, voice-controlled home without handing every event, camera feed, or sensor ping to Big Tech. In this guide I’ll walk you through...
I’ve spent multiple multi-day trips wearing both a Garmin Epix and an Apple Watch Ultra, and I still get asked: which is the better choice for adventure tracking? There’s no single answer that fits everyone, but from the perspective of someone...
I’ve been testing the Anker Soundcore Space A40 for a few weeks now and I kept asking myself the same question every time I switched from phone to gym to gaming rig: can these truly stack up against the Apple AirPods Pro when it comes to low...