MakeUseOf

My 3DS XL was collecting dust until I hacked it — now I use it more than my Switch

Rob LeFebvre — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 23:00:12 GMT

I spent an entire afternoon hacking my Nintendo New 3DS XL the other day, all to be able to use Homebrew on the old portable console. Was it worth the hours spent moving files back and forth on a tiny SD card, hitting dead ends, and digging into forums and Discords for assistance? Yes, yes it was, and here's why.

I turned off 4 Windows settings and my Wi-Fi jumped from 330 Mbps to 730 Mbps

Rob LeFebvre — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 22:00:12 GMT

My internet plan promises speeds up to 1000 Mbps. My laptop, sitting a few feet from the router, was pulling in a consistent 330 Mbps on Wi-Fi, about a third of what I was paying for. I'd already ruled out the obvious suspects: the router was fine, the modem was fine, other devices on the network tested faster.

This open-source AI app is what I wanted Claude Cowork to be

Mahnoor Faisal — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 20:01:12 GMT

For what felt like a pretty long stretch of time, using an AI assistant came with an annoying amount of friction. It could help you get work done, sure, but you still had to do most of the shuttling between your actual work and the chatbot yourself. Take drafting emails as an example. Initially, you'd copy an email into ChatGPT or Claude, explain the response you wanted, tweak the draft if needed, then paste it back into Gmail.

I turned off Windows Update background tasks and my battery improved overnight

Oluwaseun Bamisile — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 19:30:13 GMT

Windows has tons of background tasks and processes you probably don't know about running on your PC and straining your resources. Now, don't get me wrong, a lot of these processes are actually important to keep your device working as it should. At the same time, some don't need to run all the time, and some are totally pointless.

8 local AI models that run great on 8GB of VRAM or less

Dipan Saha — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 19:00:13 GMT

Running a local AI model usually requires painfully high VRAM, and not everyone has the latest monster GPU with the coveted yet still absurd 20-plus gigabytes of VRAM. Thankfully, there do exist a few surprisingly capable, lightweight alternatives that (depending on your exact use case) might even surprise you with what they can do, whether you're on AMD or Nvidia.

I found a 33-year-old Windows feature that's still hiding in plain sight

Afam Onyimadu — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 18:00:12 GMT

Did you know that you've been looking at Windows files the wrong way? In every modern NTFS drive, Microsoft includes a 33-year-old feature that can make your files carry extra data you may never see.

After 10 years, Android finally gets a real Google Play Store alternative

Sara Heritage — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 17:21:18 GMT

After more than a decade, Android users in the US can finally grab a rival app store right from Google Play. Aptoide just dropped its Aptoide Games app, and you can download it straight from the Play Store.

Today is the last day to manage your Google Drive's Photo backups — here's what to do

Sara Heritage — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 16:36:33 GMT

If you use Google Drive for desktop to automatically back up your computer’s photos to Google Photos, you’ll need to make changes soon. Support for these backups in the Drive desktop app ends today, August 10, 2026.

I caught my Windows apps phoning home with one free tool

Oluwademilade Afolabi — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 16:01:13 GMT

I had closed the apps I was actively using, finished writing for the day, and left my HP laptop sitting at what looked like an idle desktop. There wasn't much happening on screen, but that doesn't mean Windows had stopped talking to the internet. Browsers linger in the background, cloud apps keep syncing, services check for updates, and Windows has plenty of networking work of its own.

Netflix has been releasing movies wrong for years and now we have proof

Dan Selcke — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 15:30:13 GMT

Netflix released its first original film, Beasts of No Nation, in 2015. Since then, major filmmakers have worked with the streaming service, including Martin Scorsese (The Irishman), David Fincher (The Killer), and Bong Joon Ho (Okja).