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When your day is packed, getting from one place to another can become a task in itself. Whether I'm heading out for a day of leisure or working my way through a long to-do list, Google Maps often ends up doing more than just giving me directions.

Milwaukee makes dozens of excellent power tools, and you probably own a few of its most popular, big, powerful models. But did you know the company also makes some tiny yet incredibly versatile and useful tools? Whether you're low on space, looking for something unique, or just don't want big tools, here are some small Milwaukee tools that produce big results.

Moving files in Windows feels like it should be a solved problem by now, and for small stuff it mostly is. The trouble starts when you're shifting hundreds of gigabytes and can't afford to mess up. At that scale, Windows Explorer is not the best tool around. One issue could ruin your whole transfer, and sometimes you may not know it. I lost a handful of videos once because I trusted the process and deleted the originals. TeraCopy is an old app that makes sure I never make that mistake again.

Flock's AI surveillance cameras are increasingly being targeted by its critics across the country. No, we're not just talking about vigilantes who are taking the cameras down in their towns. We're talking about politicians now, too. And it's a bipartisan effort; an anti-Flock position is being taken up by both Republican and Democratic politicians.

Case in point: Texas Governor Greg Abbot, a Republican, has just recently blocked funding for Flock across the state. Abbott ordered that all state agencies stop funding the AI surveillance camera company in an order issued on Thursday night.

Abbot's order came just as The Texas Tribune was going to publish a report on how the state of Texas spent at least $30 million in grants provided to local agencies to acquire the Flock cameras. According to the report, the money came from a higher fee levied by Texas lawmakers on Texans' car insurance policies.

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Just days before Abbot blocked Flock funding in the state, his Democratic challenger, Gina Hinojosa, released a campaign ad criticizing Governor Abbot over Flock.

The Democratic candidate's ad warns Texans that there are "10,000 Flock cameras reading your [license] plate, logging where you sleep and pray" all with "no warrant needed" in "Greg Abbot's Texas."

Numerous reports have been trickling in from around the country regarding law enforcement officers misusing Flock cameras and their data in order to stalk and harass individuals. The concern over Flock cameras has led to websites popping up, like Have I Been Flocked?, that warn users if their license plate has been captured by a Flock camera.

The blowback against Flock is not just happening in Texas, either. Both Republican and Democratic candidates in states like Michigan and Pennsylvania have run on anti-surveillance platforms and criticized their opponents for supporting policies that led to Flock installations in their states. Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed has even taken to calling his opponent, Republican Mike Rogers, the nickname "Mass Surveillance Mike" over the issue. 

Last week, Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri announced an investigation into Flock Safety, the company behind Flock cameras, to determine how it handles the data it captures.

With more than 120,000 Flock cameras across 49 states, it's safe to say that Flock has become a real issue for citizens. Now it's become a bipartisan concern for politicians, too.

DDR5 RAM has been in short supply since the beginning of the year, and there's little sign of that changing anytime soon. As a result, first-time PC builders have been turning to older and more affordable but still relevant DDR4 platforms. The problem? DDR4 isn't exactly cheap anymore either. A budget 16GB 3200MHz kit currently costs around $120, while 32GB can set you back around $210 (for reference, I paid $93 for 32GB 6000MHz DDR5).

I love Niagara Launcher and the work that the team has put into making a beautifully minimalist Android home screen—but I would love it even more if it were open source. That’s why, a few times a year, I search for an alternative, and Escape Launcher is my favorite one yet.

Windows wins on convenience for most people, but a few everyday tasks remain genuinely simpler on Linux. Updating software, handling drivers, and diagnosing problems all lean in Linux's favor, thanks to design choices built into the system from the start.

Are you visiting the Great Lakes before the end of summer? You may notice something odd when planning out the trip on Google.

Lake Ontario is no more. Google Maps has renamed it to "Lake America."

Lake America on Google Maps Credit: Google Maps

Try typing "Lake Ontario" into Google Search as well. Google takes users to a search results page for "Lake America."

Lake America on Google Search Credit: Google Search

Last week, amid an ongoing trade war with Canada, President Donald Trump issued an executive order renaming Lake Ontario to Lake America.

"In recognition of this flourishing economic resource and its critical importance to our Nation’s economy and its people, I am directing that the Lake officially be renamed as Lake America," Trump said in his order, while taking a few swipes at Canada.

Google, likely anticipating that the change would be divisive, issued a statement on its News from Google website.

"The U.S. Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) has formally changed the name for 'Lake Ontario' to 'Lake America' in the United States," the company said. "Since we update Google Maps to reflect name changes in official government sources, which is GNIS for the U.S., people using Maps in the U.S. will see 'Lake America,' those in Canada will continue to see 'Lake Ontario,' and those outside of the U.S. and Canada will see both names. These updates follow our long-standing policy for bodies of water with names that vary from country to country, and are starting to roll out now."

Here's how Lake Ontario / Lake America will appear on Google Maps around the world, according to Google. Credit: Google Maps

As Google explained, "Lake America" shows for U.S. users, "Lake Ontario" appears for Canadian users, and everyone else will see "Lake Ontario" followed by "Lake America" in parentheses.

Google has rolled out similar changes before. Trump issued a similar proclamation last year, changing the "Gulf of Mexico" to "Gulf of America." Google also reflected the name change on its platforms. Google shared the same explanation at the time as well, stating it follows official government sources. In both of these cases, that's the GNIS.

Still, the sudden change could be jarring for users, especially if they haven't been following the news on Trump's ever-changing trade wars.

Ryobi is a popular choice for DIYers and homeowners due to its large selection of 18V cordless power tools, but that's not all the company offers. Ryobi batteries can power a lot more than just tools, and the brand also makes some pretty great hand tools you'll love having around the house.

The best thing about Linux is that it respects its users. It does exactly what you tell it to do. Want to kill a program? Send the kill command and it'll be terminated without warning. However, the worst part about Linux is also that it does exactly what you tell it to do. Here's what I mean.

GitHub hosts an enormous amount of genuinely great free and open-source software. But as an interface for discovering and installing apps, it's one of the worst experiences out there. There's no browsing by category, no install button, and half the time the README assumes you already know what a build toolchain is. I got tired of it, so I used Claude to build myself a workaround—an app-store-like layer that sits on top of GitHub.

Most smart TVs you buy nowadays ship with Google TV software, which is basically a forked version of Android TV OS. Google TV promises to bring a content-first layout, powered by AI. The term "content-first" comes with a caveat. As soon as you switch on your TV, you’re presented with a big promotional banner, which is basically a show or movie in your region pushed to you. Following this banner are your apps and an endless list of recommendations from Google TV to watch, which can be overwhelming most of the time.

If you're still happy with your 3D printer, there's no reason to stop using it. However, if it's been a long time since you bought your machine, you might not be aware that the floor has been raised considerably.

Android Auto is quite literally the same Android that’s on your phone, but it doesn’t have the same level of customization. There are no alternate home screen launchers or icon packs. However, one thing you can do is move the taskbar—though the option is not easy to find.

Music giants Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell Music have just filed a potentially multibillion-dollar lawsuit against Anthropic, and the publishers aren't mincing words.

The lawsuit, filed Friday evening in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, calls Anthropic "the culprits behind one of the largest and most blatant ongoing thefts of intellectual property in history." Sony and Warner also named Anthropic CEO and cofounder Dario Amodei and cofounder Benjamin Mann in the lawsuit.

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In the lawsuit, first reported by Music Business Worldwide, the music companies claim that Anthropic has carried out "a brazen campaign of illegally torrenting, scraping, and downloading copyrighted works on a massive scale" to train its popular Claude AI models. Sony and Warner accused Anthropic of having "reaped enormous profits" from the stolen music.

Sony and Warner are seeking $150,000 in damages per work as well as $25,000 per copyright violation. The music companies, which are the second- and third-largest in the industry, allege that thousands of titles have been stolen, putting compensation in the range of billions of dollars.

SEE ALSO: Midjourney pushes to expose studios' own AI practices in copyright fight

The publishers have specifically accused Anthropic of "blatant theft" of song titles such as "Ain’t No Mountain High Enough," "All I Want for Christmas is You," "Eye of the Tiger," and "Here Comes Santa Claus."

Anthropic has been hit with intellectual property lawsuits before. In fact, Sony and Warner's lawsuit directly references the $1.5 billion settlement that Anthropic reached with book publishers earlier this year in a similar case where the AI company was accused of training models on stolen works.

The world's largest music company, Universal Music Group (UMG), previously filed copyright infringement lawsuits against Anthropic. UMG, along with Concord Music Group and ABKCO Music, filed a lawsuit against Anthropic in 2023 and again earlier this year. Their latest suit seeks more than $3 billion in damages.

There's an absurd number of Windows keyboard shortcuts for mastering system navigation, beyond the simple Ctrl + C/V/X for copying, pasting, and cutting. Some I use regularly include Win + I for opening Settings, Ctrl + K for inserting hyperlinks into text, and Win + Shift + S for opening Snipping Tool for all my screen capture and annotation needs.

Plex is probably the easiest way to get started with building your own media server, but even if you choose to upgrade to Plex Pass, it still doesn't give you everything you might want. Fortunately, there are some third-party apps that can fill in the gaps. I keep my setup fairly lean and built around three main add-ons for detailed stats, different ways to stream and download, and adding a request service.

You never forget how to ride a bike, but you can be forgiven for not staying up to date with the latest cycling tech trends. These include new categories of bikes, safety improvements, and more gadgetry than ever before.

SSD speeds are far from the only thing that matters. In fact, many will say that they're almost irrelevant, and buying an expensive SSD is a waste of money.

Recently, my mini PC started acting up. It would freeze every so often, and Windows just didn't feel as responsive as it normally did. Nothing had completely stopped working, but the system had become unreliable enough that I knew something was wrong.