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Do you remember when you purchased your Wi-Fi router? Probably not. If you're like most people, you likely got it from your ISP some years ago. Here's another question: when was the last time you updated its firmware? Never? Highly likely.

Vinyl records aren't the most convenient or accurate music medium out there, and they certainly cost more than a streaming service. Despite their disadvantages, I still buy them, and you should too.

Microsoft is killing Publisher in October 2026. But before you start shopping for a replacement, or worse, signing up for another subscription, open PowerPoint.

YouTube Premium subscribers who were promised an ad-free experience for $13.99 a month were met with jarring mid-playlist advertisements this week, in what appears to be an apparent Google snafu.

The glitch was first flagged by premium users who were listening to YouTube Music on their Google Home and Nest devices, Android Authority reported. On the Google Home subreddit on Feb. 20, users reported ads appearing consistently even after resetting their devices, suggesting the issue was at the account level.

Users also reported experiencing long pauses before songs played, low volume, casting problems, and issues with their YouTube Music algorithm. One user said they had been experiencing issues with home devices playing YouTube Music for the last year, prompting them to cancel their account. "They must've botched a release," wrote another user.

The official Google Nest Community account initially responded to the complaints, saying it was investigating the reports, though it did not mention the ad issue specifically. "We are aware of an issue with playing YouTube Music on some Google Home devices. We're investigating and will provide you an update as soon as we can. Thank you for your patience," the post read.

In a follow-up comment, the Google community account said the issue had since been resolved and asked users to flag any recurring problems.

Google is in the midst of an overhaul of its smart home ecosystem, including new Gemini-powered smart speakers and Nest products like indoor security cameras.

Mesh router technology is probably the biggest quality of life upgrade for home networking since the first Wi-Fi router was plopped down in a house. It brings wireless networking technology to our homes that used to be enjoyed exclusively by big businesses with well-staffed IT departments. Now, however, you can just order a mesh Wi-Fi kit online and have it the next day.

Most of us don’t want to pay for software, which is how we’ve ended up with intrusive ads and free-to-play addiction traps. But for just a few bucks, your mobile experience can be much, much better. I pay for my Android apps, and here are some I can easily recommend as being worth their price.

Every piece of code running inside your Linux computer needs RAM and CPU cycles. A process taking more than its fair share slows down other processes. Here’s how to find the culprits.

Are you looking for the best way to open your self-hosted services up to the internet? Whether you’re wanting to host your own website at home or play Minecraft with friends, Cloudflare Tunnels is what you should use—not Nginx Proxy Manager.

When it comes to political thrillers, one location stands above the rest: Washington, D.C. As the capital of the United States, it's the center of the nation's politics. Nearly every major decision that affects Americans happens within the District of Columbia.

I have a lot of Windows machines in rotation, most running Windows 10 or Windows 11, and it feels like I'm always fixing something. One PC is low on storage, another is dragging at startup, and somewhere in the house a network connection has decided today is the day it stops cooperating. After years of bouncing between Settings panels, Control Panel relics, and half-buried system menus, I got tired of troubleshooting the slow way.

The ability to accommodate up to seven passengers, a comfortable interior with plenty of storage, and a higher ride height when compared to a sedan. Owning a three-row luxury SUV offers a number of benefits, and the Infiniti QX60 is a strong contender in this category.

Following the revocation of President Donald Trump's sweeping foreign tariff plan, the violent deployment of ICE agents around the country, and amid the shocking release of the Epstein Files, the Trump administration is reportedly also waging a war on what it sees as international content censorship.

"Information is power. Reclaim your human right to free expression. Get ready," the current homepage of freedom.gov reads, adorned with a small animated Paul Revere animation. A venture of the U.S. State Department, exclusively reported by Reuters, the new government site is rumored to be the landing page for any content that is currently blocked by foreign powers, a way to bypass strict content laws across Europe, Brazil, and even Russia.

Notably, the European Union has a much more severe stance on extremist propaganda, including white supremacist and neo-Nazi content. Many countries have cracked down harder on such topics as they face a rise in right-wing political parties. The EU also tightly regulates terrorist propaganda and "harmful disinformation" on social media platforms — X owner Elon Musk has previously aligned himself with far-right parties across the region.

The project is run by Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy Sarah Rogers, who has repeatedly met with right-wing movement leaders abroad, and the domain has been linked to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) under the Department of Homeland Security, the Guardian reported.

Previously, the State Department funded the Internet Freedom project, which supported anti-censorship initiatives around the globe. The Trump Administration has shrunk the project's funding and recently pulled the country from the global Freedom Online Coalition.

"It feels mostly performative," a former U.S. official told the Guardian under anonymity. "It reads more like a combative policy declaration. [U.S. government] disagreements with the EU on free speech are nothing new as a matter of policy. But a portal of this kind takes it a step further, declaring publicly that the USG is concerned with freedom of expression even among our allies in Europe."

Insiders say the website was supposed to debut at the Munich Security Conference, but was allegedly delayed due to legal and foreign policy concerns, Reuters reported. A source told the publication that the department also discussed adding a VPN function that would route all user traffic through the U.S., presumably to get around location-specific bans in certain countries. That same source said that the webpage would not track user activity.

A State Department spokesperson denied the claims by insiders, adding that the U.S. government "does not have a censorship-circumvention program specific to Europe." The source clarified: "Digital freedom is a priority for the State Department, however, and that includes the proliferation of privacy and censorship-circumvention technologies like VPNs."

Despite alleged concerns, the site remains active. And, as its homepage promises, "freedom is coming."

YouTube Premium has many benefits—ad-free access to YouTube and YouTube Music, which, for some people, is worth the price of admission alone. Some of the other perks of YouTube Premium, however, are more basic features that other apps offer for free.

YouTube Premium has many benefits—ad-free access to YouTube and YouTube Music, which, for some people, is worth the price of admission alone. Some of the other perks of YouTube Premium, however, are more basic features that other apps offer for free.

PC parts are very expensive right now. It's a tough time to replace or upgrade almost anything, but some components, like RAM, are even worse. Ideally, you should wait until things are cheaper before buying new parts, but if you have to, some components can still be bought used at a good price.

PC parts are very expensive right now. It's a tough time to replace or upgrade almost anything, but some components, like RAM, are even worse. Ideally, you should wait until things are cheaper before buying new parts, but if you have to, some components can still be bought used at a good price.

Android today is dramatically different from when it launched 17 years ago. However, some things are surprisingly still the same. The app drawer is one of those things, but you don't have to keep using it the old way. We can do better.

Android today is dramatically different from when it launched 17 years ago. However, some things are surprisingly still the same. The app drawer is one of those things, but you don't have to keep using it the old way. We can do better.

Pinterest still has an AI slop problem. And an AI content moderation problem. And an AI labeling problem.

At least, that's what users are reporting amid the company's continued commitment to turning the visual curation platform into an AI-powered social media site. In a report by 404 Media, users told the publication that Pinterest's automatic content moderation system, including a system that labels content as "AI modified," is consistently incorrectly flagging human-made images, particularly those featuring women, while actual AI slop only grows.

In addition, users say the site's tools to curb AI-generated content in feeds are failing to prevent AI images from appearing on user boards, and AI-powered account moderators are still banning accounts with little to no explanation.

"We publish clear guidelines on adult sexual content and nudity and use a combination of AI and human review for enforcement. We have an appeals process where a human reviews the content and reactivates it when we’ve made a mistake," said Pinterest in a statement to 404 Media.

This isn't anything new for many social media platforms leaning into AI, but it's particularly distressing for platform users who have pushed to keep the Pinterest experience the same. For years, the platform has come under fire for failing to curb AI-generated photos, videos, and ads, if not encouraging their existence on the site wholesale.

In March 2025, the company updated its privacy policy to elucidate its policy of feeding users' public pins into its machine learning models, including training efforts for Pinterest's base AI model, Pinterest Canvas. Pinterest faced further criticism in May, when users, already complaining about AI content-filled algorithms that were ruining the app experience, reported platform-wide account bans that many suspected were the result of a faulty AI content moderation system.

In response to the ongoing AI controversy, Pinterest added tools in October to filter out specific types of AI content from recommendations, though the company made it clear at the time that it wouldn't completely eradicate the issue.

Then, just last month, the company announced it would lay off hundreds of employees in yet another push toward AI, writing in an SEC filing that it would reprioritize "AI-powered products and capabilities" following the launch of its AI-powered shopping tool, Pinterest Assistant. The company has been exploring AI integration for nearly a decade.

Meanwhile, AI slop is proliferating across social media platforms, including brainrot YouTube Shorts, bots and Grok-generated images on X, and entirely AI-rendered influencers ripping videos from famous TikTok influencers.

Linux is famous for being customizable, flexible, and resource-friendly. Unfortunately, despite gains in recent years, there are some areas where it still can't beat Windows.