The smart home is quite an achievement when fully deployed. Once a network has been established and a few devices added, you'll have quite a compelling solution. But to take this to the next level, you'll likely add a few more devices, but the more smart home hardware is activated, the busier your home network gets. Then there's also the risk of people accessing your smart home stuff without consent. All of this can be remedied throughvirtual LANs (VLANs), which are precisely as they sound.

Love it or hate it, but for years, Google Timeline has been my go-to for keeping a record of all my travels. Even if I forget to switch on the GPX logger, my phone is always by my side, keeping track of where I am. But it comes with some trade-offs. Google's new policies around Timeline data are tenuous at best. While it's nice that Google is switching Timeline storage from the cloud to a phone-first role, it comes with some limitations. Unless you manually back it up, only the most recent 90 days are stored by default. Years of location history will simply vanish if you forget to enable backups or if you forget to switch off auto-delete or change it from the default 90-day setting, you're on an, ahem, timeline before the data gets deleted. Moreover, even with backups switched on, the data is still entirely reliant on the company's servers and will keep the service around. I needed something with a bit more control.

When you think about networks, going wireless is the obvious and convenient choice for most households and offices. Of course, wired connections have an important role to play too, which is why adding a switch to your current network setup may be something worth exploring. And sure, you can always go with something pricey that supports PoE, but if you're just looking to experiment for now, this one from Netgear that's discounted to $17 is going to be a fantastic choice.

When you think about video games in the early and mid 90s, one of the first things that comes to mind is the Sega Genesis. As one half of the console wars that people grew up with, the Sega Genesis had games that offered real competition to the Super Nintendo. And while some gamers had their preference of titles they supported throughout the decade, Sega was firing on all cylinders with video games that got a lot of attention. The games available represented a shifting attitude in gaming, as well as the continuing evolution of pop-culture, that pushed video games into the spotlight in a big way.

I'm a big fan of the ESP32, and I have a few different boards that I play around with. I have two of the "classic" ESP32 microcontrollers, an ESP32-C6 with Zigbee and Thread support, and an ESP32-S3. Not only that, but I have a whole host of displays ranging from the tiny and cheap to the big and wonderful. But like many other pieces of tech, there are "counterfeit" devices out there... kind of.

There are numerous ways in which you can improve your productivity on your PC, and one of the big ones Linux users like to bring up is tiling window managers. If you're not familiar with them, these are programs that force your application windows to open in a non-overlapping layout, keeping all windows visible at any given time.

Google's AI-powered research assistant, NotebookLM, is simply one of the best AI productivity tools there currently is. Period. Though it first started out as an experimental offering from Google Labs and had limited features like getting a quick summary of a Google Doc, asking questions about it without hallucinations (thanks to its source-grounded nature), and generating ideas for you, the tool's goal was to help people learn faster.

AMD’s FSR 4 AI upscaling and frame-generation technology can now be enabled for “most games that support FSR 3.1 with DirectX 12,” the company says in the patch notes for its newest 25.9.1 driver.  This support has been a big promise from AMD, but it’s taken awhile to come to fruition; FSR 4 first launched alongside the company’s RX 9000-series graphics cards back in March.AMD touts FSR 4, its competitor to Nvidia’s DLSS 4, as a “significant leap forward” over FSR 3. “By utilizing ML algorithms, FSR 4 can intelligently predict and compensate for lost pixels during low-resolution rendering, thereby providing gamers with high performance and crisp, high-definition visuals that are just as good as native,” AMD says.The new driver brings official FSR 4 support to cover more than 85 titles. But for FSR 3.1 games, you can force FSR 4 by flipping a toggle in the AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition app. “This last step allows the driver to override the FSR 3.1 game implementation with the latest version of FSR 4,” according to AMD. FSR 4 support has slowly been trickling out to games since its release, including being added to titles like Cyberpunk 2077, Ghost of Tsushima, and F1 25.

Nintendo has notched another victory in its crusade against piracy. Last week, a Washington District Court judge ordered Ryan Daley to pay Nintendo $2 million and stop selling modded Switch consoles online, as reported earlier by Engadget.In a copyright lawsuit filed last year, Nintendo accused Daley of operating the website Modded Hardware, which sold modded Switch consoles, modchips used to hack into Switch devices, and Mig flash cartridges that allow people to play pirated copies of games.Nintendo claimed Daley caused the company “significant and irreparable harm” — and the judge agreed. “The MIG Devices, Mod Chips, Hacked Consoles, and Circumvention Services allow members of the public to create, distribute, and play pirated Nintendo games on a massive scale,” the ruling states. Daley denied any wrongdoing.Piracy lawsuits from Nintendo have become increasingly common, with the company winning its case against a file-sharing site accused of hosting pirated games earlier this year. Nintendo’s legal actions have led to the shutdown of Switch emulators, including Yuzu and Ryujinx. The company has also made it clear that it may brick Switch 2 consoles if players try to mod the device.Daley, who chose to fight Nintendo without a lawyer, is now banned from modding Switch consoles, as well as from using devices designed to circumvent the console’s security measures. The judge also ordered the seizure, impoundment, or destruction of all devices owned by Daley that may contain copyright-infringing material.

The world of 007 from the Ian Fleming novels has been a goldmine of ideas for movies and video games. While movie studios were releasing blockbuster films based on James Bond and his adventures in the books, game studios were also developing titles based on those beloved films. Whether it was the action, the stylish outfits, or the many gadgets at his disposal, James Bond has always been appealing to audiences in a big way. And with IO Interactive set to release 007 First Light on consoles soon, people are revisiting some of their favorite 007 video games across multiple consoles.

Windows 11 is a weird operating system. In some areas, it actually removes features that were present in Windows 10, which makes it feel like a bit of a downgrade. Well, it seems that Microsoft has finally caught the hint (better four years than later, I suppose), as it's finally adding features that went missing during the jump from Windows 10 to 11. One of those is the ability to see the seconds field for the system's clock when you expand the time and date widget, and Microsoft is finally adding it back after years of being left without it, despite it being a part of Windows 10.

Mini PCs are all the rage now, offering plenty of power in a compact size. But this one is a little different thanks to its micro-sized design and extra affordable price of just $85. While the discount isn't huge, we think that this one is worth taking a look at, just in case you need a PC for those projects that need to squeeze into tight spaces or don't require a full-sized tower.