AYO Production/Shutterstock An Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) is exactly what it sounds like: When your home’s electricity service gets interrupted — either due to a blackout or a tripped breaker – the device continues supplying power to your PC, monitor, or even that laptop you’re using without a battery. Since abrupt computer shutdowns can cause damage to both…

Iaroslav Bushuev/Getty Images I’ll admit, a big part of my motivation for writing this explainer is self-serving. As someone who has been using and reviewing tech for decades, USB color coding is one of those bits of trivia that has flitted in and out of my consciousness multiple times through the years, but never found…

miss.cabul/Shutterstock Instagram remains one of the most popular social media apps in the world, thanks in many ways to its intuitive features. Consistent updates to the app also continue to expand how users can share and engage with content (such as a recent update that finally gives users the option to edit comments). However, beyond…

Ethamphoto/Getty Images 3D printers allow you to create pretty much anything you can think of. They work from digital blueprints, so even if you’re not good at modeling your own stuff, you can find dozens of websites and communities that share models for printing. But in order to create those items, you feed various materials…

Opasbbb/Shutterstock TV manufacturers can go through a lot of ebb and flow when it comes to market presence. There are eras where one or two TV brands reign supreme over a particular type of picture tech (e.g., Panasonic for plasma TVs), but there can also be long stretches of time where a popular TV maker…

Reyanaska/Shutterstock YouTube has become the go-to entertainment hub for billions of users online. However, people barely scratch the surface of what they can do on the platform. It’s quite easy to watch a video, subscribe to your favorite content creators, and miss out on features that help improve the experience. Sure, some of the best…

Farknot Architect/Shutterstock It’s hardly the sexiest quality of any piece of hardware, and in the era of sleek aesthetics and hyperportability, port selection is often a forgotten afterthought. That said, disregard ports at your own peril. That sleek, glossy clamshell may dazzle you at first, but after the first week or two with a new…

Andreypopov/Getty Images If you are planning to modernize your house, it is likely that you have thought about comparing smart plugs vs. smart bulbs for your room lamps. As the names suggest, both are great products if you are trying to build a smart home, and these two devices can be seen as the gateway products…

Remitski/Getty Images Reformatting your hard drive or having it suddenly die on you is pretty horrific. You can lose the most important documents in just seconds, especially if you haven’t backed up your desktop in a while. All your essentials should get priority for storage and backup, but you should also consider separating any suspicious,…

Digital Vision./Getty Images We may receive a commission on purchases made from links. For those too young to remember, the idea of a corded phone of any kind must sound strange. After all, most of us use smartphones these days. And even modern landline phones mostly use cordless handsets, for the few who still use…