Whether it's for your home network or that of friends and family, knowing when to upgrade your router can be a bit tricky. Not everyone is keeping up with the latest developments in Wi-Fi standards and technology, and it can all feel a little overwhelming (even to those of us who purport to). A working Wi-Fi and home internet are some of those "don't touch it, it's working" kinds of things. Especially if you've got a family to worry about. Breaking your home internet could be anything from a slight pain to an enormous problem for families and children who are trying to get some work done (or chat to their friends on Discord). It's difficult to know when to make a change, or when to leave something that's working in place for as long as possible. With that in mind, here are five signs that it's time to get an upgrade for your Wi-Fi router.

If you're using Windows 11 or Windows 10, you’ve probably noticed that PowerShell and Windows Terminal come pre-installed. Both are command-line tools that let you type in commands to get things done. But a common question is whether they’re the same thing or if they’re different. The short answer is PowerShell is a scripting language built on .NET, great for automating tasks and managing your system. Windows Terminal, on the other hand, isn’t a tool on its own. It’s just a front-end app that gives you a nicer interface for PowerShell (and other command-line tools). Here are four key differences between Windows Terminal and PowerShell.

Indie or independent games have always existed, offering gamers some of the best stories, gameplay experiences, and memorable moments in the medium. Where big-budget, AAA titles have failed to capture the imagination and appreciation of gamers of late, indie games have been the saving grace of the industry.

Intel is the third player in the duopolistic discrete GPU market. Graphics cards are more powerful than ever, but they're also way more expensive than prior generations. While price bumps are to be expected with new hardware and software improvements, many find it difficult to part with upwards of $1,000 (if not more) to enjoy games with reasonable results. Even more affordable AMD and Nvidia cards will set you back $500 or more. Enter the second generation of Intel Arc GPUs with the mighty B580 leading the way at just $250. But why should you buy an Intel GPU over what AMD and Nvidia will inevitably launch in 2025?

The Apple Fitness Plus integration in Strava is getting a revamp. | Image: Apple Apple Fitness Plus is getting a fresh makeover in the Strava app. The two companies just announced they’re collaborating to revamp how Fitness Plus integrates with the popular fitness community, which includes more detailed workout summaries, Strava athletes appearing in Fitness Plus content, and a free three-month trial to the service for Strava subscribers.Starting today, you’ll be able to see a thumbnail of the Fitness Plus workout and information like episode number, music genre, trainer, metrics, and achievements. While mostly a design update, this brings Fitness Plus more in line with other Strava integrations from services like Peloton and Ladder.Technically, Apple Watch users have been able to import their workouts into Strava from the get-go. However, that integration has been limited with bare-bones workout summaries. While you could see the activity type, calories burned, and basic heart rate metrics, there wasn’t any information about the class or instructor. (As you can see from this screenshot, you’d be hard-pressed to know that my New Year’s Day yoga workout was even a Fitness Plus class.) The Fitness Plus and Strava integration goes in both directions. For starters, new and existing Strava subscribers in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia will get a free three-month trial of Fitness Plus regardless of whether they have an Apple Watch. (You do, however, need an iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV to access the service.) Popular Strava athletes will also feature as guests in Fitness Plus workouts. That includes a strength workout with runner Hellah Sidibe on January 13th and a treadmill workout with Kayla Jeter.So far, Apple has only offered free Fitness Plus trials with the purchase of a new Apple gadget. And while the service regularly features well-known athletes as guest hosts in its programming, it’s never sourced those guests from a third-party fitness community. Sidibe, for example, may not be quite as famous as two-time Olympic gold medalist Ted Ligety (who recently hosted a Fitness Plus series). However, if you’re into running and on social media, there’s a good chance you’re familiar with Sidibe’s seven-year daily run streak and penchant for running with four smartwatches. “Over the past 10 years, we’ve hugely admired what Strava has done to impact the fitness space, especially around community,” says Jay Blahnik, Apple’s vice president of fitness technologies, acknowledging that Apple doesn’t often partake in this sort of collaboration. Blahnik says working with Strava also presents a new opportunity for Fitness Plus’ reach. When the service first launched, there was an emphasis on making sure it was inclusive, motivating, and accessible for people of all levels. And in those early days, it often felt like Fitness Plus was like a fitness starter pack for the average person who might need a little encouragement — something The Verge pointed out in its initial review. That’s not exactly the typical Strava user.“They don’t need us for motivation! They’re already self motivated,” says Blahnik. Instead, for seasoned athletes, Blahnik is pitching Fitness Plus as a supplemental resource for cross-training and discovering new activity types. “Maybe they’re taking up running for the first time, and they want to make sure that they don’t get injured, and they need to do the yoga and the strength,” adds Zipporah Allen, Strava’s chief business officer. Both Allen and Blahnik also note that the collaboration isn’t a one-and-done type of deal, hinting that the integration could evolve further down the road. While both demurred on providing specifics, Blahnik noted the companies “have bold ambitions for what [they] might be able to do down the road in terms of sharing.” (Asked if perhaps one day you could tap on a Fitness Plus class a Strava friend took and immediately be taken to that workout on your phone, Blahnik said they’d keep that in mind.) In the short term, it’s a beneficial move for both companies. Strava recently angered users by changing the terms of its API for third-party apps, leaving some disgruntled users questioning the value of a Strava subscription. A free three-month trial to Apple Fitness Plus could appease some of those users. Strava has long been a de facto fitness data hub for dedicated athletes, giving Fitness Plus easy access to long-term athletes who aren’t likely to quit their New Year’s resolutions.

Image: The Verge / Shutterstock Anthropic has made a deal to settle parts of a copyright infringement lawsuit ​​brought against the maker of the Claude AI model for allegedly distributing protected song lyrics. The agreement was signed off by US District Judge Eumi Lee on Thursday, requiring Anthropic to apply existing guardrails in the training of future AI models and to establish a procedure for music publishers to intervene when copyright infringement is suspected.In October 2023, several music publishers including Universal Music Group, ABKCO, Concord Music Group, and Greg Nelson Music filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Anthropic for allegedly training its AI system on lyrics from at least 500 protected songs. According to the complaint, when Claude was prompted for the lyrics to songs like Beyoncé’s “Halo,” Mark Ronson’s “Uptown Funk,” and “Moves like Jagger” by Maroon 5, the chatbot provided responses “that contain all or significant portions of those lyrics.”While the music publishers acknowledged that platforms like Genius already distribute lyrics online, they noted that those sites pay a licensing fee to use the protected works. Anthropic “intentionally removed or altered copyright management information” from the impacted songs when ingesting data found on those sites to train its AI models, according to the lawsuit filing.Under the agreement signed by Anthropic on Thursday, the AI company says it will maintain the guardrails it has already implemented that aim to prevent its AI models from infringing on copyrighted content. Anthropic will also apply its existing guardrails to any future AI systems it develops. Music publishers and Anthropic will work together in “good faith” to resolve any instances where the guardrails are deemed ineffective, with the court ready to settle any disputes.Claude “isn’t designed to be used for copyright infringement, and we have numerous processes in place designed to prevent such infringement,” Anthropic said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. “Our decision to enter into this stipulation is consistent with those priorities. We continue to look forward to showing that, consistent with existing copyright law, using potentially copyrighted material in the training of generative AI models is a quintessential fair use.”The music publishers behind the original complaint have requested a preliminary injunction to bar Anthropic from training future models on their protected song lyrics, with the court expected to issue a ruling in the coming months.

There are lots of portable SSD options available right now. But if you're looking to go with the best, then the Samsung T9 portable SSD is going to be the one. This is our current top pick when it comes to portable SSDs, offering plenty of storage at 2TB and excellent performance numbers as well. Perhaps best of all is that it's down to its lowest price.

Buying a graphics card in 2025 can be a challenge to say the least. Between fleeting stock of your preferred card, exorbitant prices, and straight-up disappointing releases, it can feel like a minefield. Unfortunately for you prospective GPU buyers out there, it’s not getting any better, at least for the next few weeks. Right now is probably the worst time you could upgrade your new GPU, and here are 3 reasons why.

MAC address filtering has long been included as a security feature in many consumer routers, allowing users to block traffic or limit speeds to specific devices on their network by MAC address. However, MAC addresses were never really designed as a security feature, and they have long been considered obsolete for protecting your network security. Here are four reasons why you shouldn't use MAC addresses to protect your network security (and what you might want to use instead!)

Virtualization is easily the most integral part of home server projects, and there are plenty of ways to deploy virtual machines in your computing lab. While most experts recommend going with barebones virtualization platforms, you can even run VMs on top of your existing OS.

I like my Steam games a lot, and a few of them have attained the coveted title of having an "Overwhelmingly Positive" review score. This is only given to games that achieve at least 95% positive reviews and have over 500 reviews in total. It's usually a hallmark of an excellent game, but not every game that reaches this difficult threshold gets talked about.

You have a NAS drive filled with your favorite movies and TV shows, but now what? You don't want to be stuck streaming them to smaller screens. Well, if you have a decent Smart TV, you don't have to. Most Smart TVs can connect to NAS drives on your network, making it easy to get at your content.