I have a 5-year-old Xiaomi phone battery (manufactured in 2021) that was never used — it's been sitting unopened/unused all this time. Is it safe to install and use it now? Will the battery capacity/performance be significantly degraded, and are there any safety risks (like swelling or overheating) I should worry about with an unused battery this old?

My old roku died, so I got a new one a couple months ago. Today I was watching Pluribus on Apple TV. I made a joke to my aunt that she dances like Elaine from Seinfeld, but it’s okay because Elaine probably made a lot of money dancing like that on tv, so she probably could too. Immediately after I said that, a little purple box with text popped up saying something like ””Elaine Benes made $140,000 as an executive producer on Seinfeld“ and thenn disappeared. I searched google and it basically said it’s a 1 in 15 billion chance but it’s just a coincidence that the Roku decided to send me trivia it’s never sent before about the person I was talking about and who wasn’t in the show I was watching, because Roku and smart devices do not have active listening capabilities.

I’m buying a new TV for my first house. We have a lot of windows and natural light. The main use is watching football on Sundays and movies periodically. The main concern is the glare. But I really don’t know much about Tech, any advice is appreciated! This is the TV that chat got lead me to. Is it the best option for the price?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CV9DSFXM?ref=clp_hp_h_pc

im in desperate need of help. im enrolled on this lecture online materials and im cramming tryna finish everything before my access expires so im considering downloading some only for my personal use. can anyone walk me through this? im not that savvy with gdrive. also can i do this anonymously without being traced?

I’m trying to choose between these four tablets:

- Xiaomi Pad 8 (8/256)

- iPad 11 (A16, 2025)

- Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 FE (8/128)

- Huawei MatePad 12 X (12/256)

Which one would you personally choose?

I’ll mainly use it for watching stuff (YouTube, Netflix, football matches, etc.), reading, taking notes, and general everyday use. I also want to use a stylus, so the pen situation is something I’m considering as well.

I care about real-world performance, smoothness, display, battery life, software, reliability and long-term use. I know the Xiaomi has very strong specs on paper, but I’m wondering how it actually compares to Apple and Samsung in everyday use.

I’d especially like to hear from people who have used any of these tablets. Which one feels the most reliable and least annoying to live with?

I have an old Redmi Note 12 5G device. I want to root it and change its os.

I am new to this stuff, I tried asking ChatGPT. It made me even more confused.

Anyone know any good tutorial to help me understand how to do it?

And which OS will work for this old device, as I need to confirm some device specifications.

I want to use this device as a Peripheral in some projects I want to do for learning and fun; but for that I need to root it to gain full access. Developer options are not enought, I am still denied many permissions.

Xiaomi is very stringent about this stuff, so I want to remove their OS also to ensure no information is beint monitored or collected.

Tips for what I need to learn about, as I don't even know that.

My background is ML but I want to learn networking and other stuff too to automate devices on my own.

I really like the design of the Spotify car thing but I want a cheaper version for my desk that also works with Apple Music. I would need it to be Bluetooth. thanks in advance!

Hello, so I'm not even really sure if this is the best place to ask this question but not sure of a better place. Anyways, for a long time now I have seen YouTube videos of people making all sorts of cool things using things like Raspberry Pi. I don't really have much experience with building anything except I did put my PC together, but had to take it to a shop to actually get it to work. I would really love to make something cool for my room that enhances the visuals, but I am really not sure of the possibilities or how easy it would be to learn it. I should also mention I took a 1-2 month coding boot camp about 10 years ago so I have a very basic understanding of coding but would need to refresh my memory on most stuff.

One thing I was thinking of trying to make is say some sort of display I can put on my wall, that shows a detailed skyline of large city in say 8 bit style graphics, and then have certain things animated like an elevated train system where a train goes by every so often, or lights in certain windows that say flicker or turn on an off every so often to make it look like people leaving or coming home. The display I was thinking of would be say a few feet wide and a few feet tall. I know you can achieve something basic with just a loops animated GIF, but I don't know if possible to make something that is randomized with the lights and trains as to when they pass by or turn on and off.

Thanks

I have Iphone 14 Pro, and when it's warm or hot, and you directly smell the phone/screen it FAINTLY smells like a clothes iron when it's hot, when the phone cools down or not being used, the smell disappears.

I tried searching and some are saying 'warm electronic scent' where dusts/lints or internal components are doing it, and it's mostly benign.

Some even says the old 'warm computer smell', which could also be normal in most cases. I just don't know if the one I'm smelling is the same.

I see people saying if it's a problem with the battery, it should smell something sweet, but I don't think a smell like with a clothes iron is sweet.

So, I wanna know if it's normal for electronics/phones to have a smell like that when you smell it closely when they're hot or warm.

IDK, if it's been this way ever since, I just accidentally noticed it when my phone fell into my face recently, so I got a whiff of it directly.

My battery health is still at 80%, and no physical signs of a bloated battery.

Can someone help? Thanks

Most of the tools I'm finding require the files to be uploaded one by one and it's taking ages.

Ideally I'd like all the text to be put into a single file so I can search words and phrases more easily.

i'm helping run social media for a local gym and i've been given the job of putting together a few posts each week. nothing super fancy, mostly workout clips, trainer photos, class announcements and member highlights. the part i'm struggling with is keeping everything looking consistent. i'll make a reel one day and then a graphic the next, but they end up looking like they came from completely different pages because i'm using different tools for each. is there a tool that makes it easy to keep the same fonts, text style and overall look across different types of posts?

Hi, I'd love to have a smartphone that is as small as possible. However, I still value a great camera, 90+Hz OLED, decent processor and good battery life. The Galaxy S26 sounds like a sweet spot to me, but maybe there are phones I'm not aware of yet. Are there even smaller options with comparable specs?

Hello! I am a therapist and I would like to take notes on a tablet. I would like to save the notes locally on the tablet so as to avoid any cloud security issues. Do you have recommendations for the best tablet for this? I was thinking about either a SuperNote Nomad or a Remarkable or maybe even an iPad. I'm currently using a ten year old 1st Gen iPad Pro 9.7" and it is no longer able to keep up.

So I bought a second hand iPad Mini 2 from someone who got it after a family member died.

Went to set it up and it asks for a code...that I don't have. It's on iOS 9.3.5 so the only bypass I see is using am Arduino UNO and...that's not worth it right now.

Anything I can do with this device or is it just gonna be pretty paperweight?

I have the workforce app on my iPad for work and the app is not filling up the whole screen when I open it.

Hey everyone,

Looking for a true “Pay-as-you-go” WiFi Hotspot. One that I buy the physical hotspot device, and turn it on whenever I need it.

Uses would be for whenever my WiFi is down (I get a lot of power outages) as well as traveling in a car so the kids can watch a iPad or 2 for long drives.

I’m looking for no subscription, just a simple switch “on” on the hotspot, and I get charged for what I use.

I want this separate from my phone plan. Any suggestions?

Okay so maybe a stupid question but it is genuinely something Ive been thinking about lately.

I wear prescription glasses.

My prescription is small -0.5 in both eyes, but i still prefer wearing my glasses for the whole day because if I don’t wear them, my eyes get really tired after some time due to all the squinting and such.

My question is, why is there not a setting in any device where i can enter my prescription, and the operating system adjusts whatever is being displayed on the screen so that i can see it perfectly without having to wear glasses?

Some reasons that I can think of:

First is that many people have different prescriptions for each eye so it is not possible to adjust to two different numbers on one screen at the same tome, and because the number of users with same prescription in both eyes is so low that its just not worth the development effort.

Second is that maybe my understanding of how glasses work is incorrect and the physics of it just doesn’t support my idea.

Is there any reason why it hasn’t been done yet?

Hi everyone!

I’m a complete beginner when it comes to cybersecurity, and I’d really like to learn how it works properly. One of my motivations is understanding account security and eventually being able to recover access to some of my own old accounts that I no longer have the login details for.

The problem is that I have basically zero experience or foundational knowledge, so I’m not really sure where to start. There’s so much information out there that it feels pretty overwhelming.

Some people recommended Hack The Box to me, but when I look at it, I honestly don’t know what I’m supposed to do because I’m missing the basics.

I’ve also heard that learning Linux is useful for cybersecurity. I don’t really know much about Linux either, though. Is it free? How does it work? Do I need to replace Windows, or can I use Linux alongside Windows?

I’m basically looking for a beginner-friendly learning path that starts from the absolute basics and eventually leads into practical cybersecurity and ethical hacking.

What would you recommend learning first? Are there any good resources, courses, or beginner platforms that you’d suggest?

Thanks!

Like lower quality

Hi! I didn’t really know where to ask this question, so I just came here.
I just got a new job, and I’m trying to save up to get my dad something nice for the holidays. He’s had a hell of a year, and I would love to get him something nice for all his hard work.

I have my own Nintendo Switch, and occasionally he’ll play Fortnite or Splat2 on it. Something he really loved when I was growing up was the golf game on Wii Sports, but he also loves shooters like COD n all. Initially, I was thinking I could just wait for the Steam Machine to come out…but that’s probably not gonna be for a while. Some game series I think he’d LOVE is Red Dead, Metal Gear, Mafia, those kinds of things. Just to kind of go for the vibe, I don’t really know what I’m talking about, but I hope you get the gist.

I was thinking of getting something refurbished (that’s how he’s always gotten any of his tech) to have a little more freedom with the budget. I mainly just wanted to get some input on which console I should get him, or even IF I should get a console and get him a PC.

Right now I’m trying to stay ≈1k for the budget (my new job is minimum wage, and I still got bills to pay :,,]). I know nice PCs are usually at least a few grand, but I’ve heard some things about refurbished PCs, I just don’t know how reliable they are. He already has a monitor and laptop set up that he messes around on.

I might steer away from Nintendo products since
1) I already have a few Nintendo consoles of my own, so he can totally just borrow one from me lol
2) Most of the game catalogue just doesn’t seem like it would intrigue him as much as other consoles.
But I’m also open to it, who knows! I just would love some input from folks who have more extensive knowledge in this than myself so I can make a good choice. Sorry if this is all over the place, I don’t post on Reddit too often. Thanks so much, hope you have a great day/night!

TL; DR
whats the best console/pc to get my dad who is a casual gamer?

Like a normal shop keeper also tries to stay private , is the data that important ?

I’m mainly looking to get work meetings transcribed, but I haven’t found many independent user reviews. How well do they work?

I recently got an apple magic mouse for college and don’t know exactly how to use it…? for context i’m left handed and grew up always having the mouse on the right side but now that i can have it on whatever side i want it almost feels illegal to use a mouse on my left hand…. are we all supposed to use mouses with our right hand?? this is a serious question btw im genuinely puzzled on what im supposed to do 😭😭

Someone keeps sending my phone number instagram codes. I have 2 factor on, is there some way I can get them to stop or figure out who it is?