How-To Geek - 16 NASA Inventions We Use Every Day

September 15, 2022

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Although the “Pizza Planet” delivery truck is probably the most widely used Pixar Easter egg, there are other numerous Easter eggs that eagle-eyed fans have spotted that link different Pixar films together. Examples include the recurrence of identical trailers, a toy ball with a red star on it known as the “Luxo” ball, and, of course, numerous hidden references to other films (like the Toy Story toys appearing as props in the background of other Pixar films).

Happy Thursday! We’re almost to the weekend, and before the week is over, you should make sure your Windows PC is up to date — Microsoft just rolled out a fix for a major vulnerability across all recent versions. It’s so bad that the company even patched Windows 7, which has been out of support for two years.

In less-scary news, we have our first look at 20 future emoji, and Windows 11 is making the widget panel more useful.

– Corbin

You’d probably be shocked at just how many items we use every day started life in a NASA lab. Sometimes you’re trying to get astronauts home safely, and in the process, you invent something that belongs in every home or toolkit. Read More »

The longer you use your PC, the more gunked up it gets with temporary files, data caches, and other digital waste. Luckily, there's an easy way to clear the clutter and make your PC run like new again. For a limited time, you can download CCleaner Pro for just $1 ($29.95 value) through this special offer. Click the link below and enter your exclusive coupon code now to redeem: EJA-RYM-JSI

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Closed captions are a necessity for the hearing impaired, and they’re useful for a variety of other reasons too. What if a video or audio track doesn’t have closed captions? That’s where the iPhone’s “Live Captions” feature comes in. Read More »

Picking up one of the iPhone 14 models? You’ll need a charger for your new smartphone! While you can use any old USB brick you have lying around your house, the likelihood is that you won’t be able to take advantage of the fast charging speeds the iPhone 14 offers.

Instead, pick up Spigen’s USB-C charger, which is our pick for the best iPhone charger. This small brick will give your iPhone 30W of power, allowing for quick charging. The small size makes it easy to throw into a bag or purse, and with the USB-C connector, you can charge all sorts of devices with it.

The new iOS 16 update for iPhones updates the lock screen with optional widgets, which can act as shortcuts for apps or limited information feeds. Popular apps are gradually adding lock screen widgets, and Facebook is next. Read More »

AI image generators are all the rage these days, but most of them are limited to creating images at low resolutions, or the hardware runs out of video memory. There’s now (at least) one fix for this: a modified version of Stable Diffusion called “txt2imghd.” Read More »

You can’t have too much storage, especially as the size of every file you’d like to save these days has grown dramatically in size, from photos, to entertainment, and everything in between. This week, you can grab one of our team’s favorite portable external SSDs, a 1 TB SanDisk Extreme, for a substantial $110 off the usual retail price. Read More »

Wikipedia is a resource many of us go to when we need information, and its globe puzzle logo is almost universally recognized. Now, the Wikimedia Foundation is looking for a sound that can be associated with it and be just as recognizable. Read More »

It’s that time of the year when we get new emoji. The Unicode Consortium has finally released its yearly Unicode update, bringing it up to version 15.0. And among the several thousand new characters released, we have 20 new emoji — including a shaking face and a moose. Read More »

Drift is the bane of modern game controllers. Whether you’re a Nintendo, Sony, or Microsoft console user, there’s a good chance at least one of your controllers will develop drift during its life. Hall effect sensors can solve that permanently. Read More »

Now that everything is USB Type-C, you might be short on wall adapters, and ones that can charge multiple devices at once are especially helpful. Thankfully, an excellent option from UGREEN is now on sale for $27.99, a discount of $12 from the usual price. Read More »

With its grand, inquisitive take on space exploration, Star Trek has been a staple of TV for 50-plus years. The sci-fi franchise spans multiple shows, with various starship crews exploring the galaxy. Here’s how to stream every Star Trek series. Read More »

Buying an iPad was a lot easier when Apple only made one tablet, but now you have many options. Fortunately, with our recommendations, you can get the features you want without spending more than you need to. Read More »

When your legs feel heavy, sore, and somewhat tired, stretching can be of great help. Some of the best leg stretching exercises tackle each and every muscle independently so that you can really get deep into those fibers and reap the most benefits. Read More »

The iPhone lock screen was revamped with the release of iOS 16. It now has a cool depth effect that allows parts of photos to overlap the clock, but it’s a little finnicky. We’ll help you get it working. Read More »

Chances are, if you’re aware of 1MORE as a brand, it’s because of the company’s in-ear headphones, but that might be about to change. The 1MORE SonoFlow is the company’s first wireless over-ear headphone with noise canceling, packing in more than a few handy features for good measure. Read More »

We all understand the Machiavellian utility of Twitter and social media in general, and many have to be on there for work. But it’s also a place that feels like a bathroom stall on a fiery barge about to ram into another fiery barge. Either way. Read More »

The iPhone and Android phones have more in common than ever, but they’re also still very different on many levels. There are some unique iPhone features that we would love to see on Android. Could it happen? Read More »

The regular updates your PC gets might seem annoying occasionally, but they’re critical to keep your PC safe online. Case in point: Microsoft has released a patch for a zero-day vulnerability affecting all Windows computers. Read More »

Google just released Android 13, the newest system update for phones and tablets running Android. It’s already available on Google Pixel phones, but it’s also coming to some of Samsung’s devices as One UI 5. Read More »

Installing smart home gear can be challenging if you don’t own your home. An inexpensive no-drill doorbell mount makes it trivial to use a smart video doorbell without making altering anything and risking your deposit. Read More »

Windows 11 reintroduced widgets, which are now accessible with a dedicated button on the taskbar. They aren’t all that useful right now, but Microsoft has a few improvements in the works, including a change to the widget panel’s appearance. Read More »

Windows 11 isn’t perfect out of the box — no software is. Tweaking it to make it your own can be the difference between an acceptable user experience and a great one. Here are a few of our favorite registry hacks for Windows 11 that you should try. Read More »

It’s halfway through September, and we’ve got some stellar discounts lined up for you this week. Cash in an exclusive $1 deal on CCleaner Pro—a popular PC maintenance tool that’s been around for nearly two decades—save big on a brand new Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 (yep, the newest one), and much more. Read More »