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.

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.

The Plex media streaming platform has been breached in what looks to be a repeat of a 2022 incident that saw authentication data and encrypted passwords compromised. The company is urging users to change their password, enable two-factor authentication, and sign out of any connected devices that might already be logged in.In an email sent to users titled “Action required: Notice of a potential security incident,” Plex says a database was accessed by “an unauthorized third party” exposing emails, usernames, and hashed passwords for a “limited subset” of customers. Because the passwords were securely hashed, they can’t be easily read by the attacker, but Plex urges users to change them anyway. Plex says credit card data wasn’t exposed because it’s not stored on its servers.Here’s the full email sent to Plex users this morning:Dear Plex User,We have recently experienced a security incident that may potentially involve your Plex account information. We believe the actual impact of this incident is limited; however, action is required from you to ensure your account remains secure. What happened An unauthorized third party accessed a limited subset of customer data from one of our databases. While we quickly contained the incident, information that was accessed included emails, usernames, and securely hashed passwords. Any account passwords that may have been accessed were securely hashed, in accordance with best practices, meaning they cannot be read by a third party. Out of an abundance of caution, we recommend you immediately reset your password by visiting https://plex.tv/reset. Rest assured that we do not store credit card data on our servers, so this information was not compromised in this incident. What we’re doing We’ve already addressed the method that this third party used to gain access to the system, and we’re undergoing additional reviews to ensure that the security of all of our systems is further hardened to prevent future attacks. What you must do We kindly request that you reset your Plex account password immediately by visiting https://plex.tv/reset. When doing so, there’s a checkbox to “Sign out connected devices after password change,” which we recommend you enable. This will sign you out of all your devices (including any Plex Media Server you own) for your security, and you will then need to sign back in with your new password. We understand that this means a little more work for you, but it will provide additional security to your account. Additional Security Measures You Can Take We remind you that no one at Plex will ever reach out to you over email to ask for a password or credit card number for payments. For further account protection, we also recommend enabling two-factor authentication on your Plex account if you haven’t already done so. Lastly, we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this situation may cause you. We take pride in our security systems, which helped us quickly detect this incident, and we want to assure you that we are working swiftly to prevent potential future incidents from occurring. For step-by-step instructions on how to reset your password, visit:https://support.plex.tv/articles/account-requires-password-reset Thank you, The Plex Team

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.

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.

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.

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.

Reports have been circulating for the past few weeks that recent Windows 11 updates (KB5063878 and KB5062660) were causing some SSDs using Phison controllers to fail. While plenty of YouTube and TikTok videos have blamed Microsoft for the issues, Phison has identified “early versions of firmware and BIOS” as the problem instead.“Many of the reports originate from media testing conducted on hardware running early versions of firmware and BIOS,” says Michael Wu, GM and President of Phison US, in a statement to The Verge. “These versions are performance preview drives and are not identical to those provided to end users through official distribution channels. We have observed that outdated firmware is still being used on some SSDs and we encourage any reviewers facing this to leverage updated channel firmware readily available through manufacturer-provided update utilities.”YouTuber JayzTwoCents claimed last week that the “Windows update and SSD problem is WAY worse than we thought!” JayzTwoCents showed a Crucial T500 drive (with a Phison E25 controller) failing after Microsoft’s latest Windows 11 security updates, and needing a power cycle to come back to life. It’s not clear whether JayzTwoCents was using pre-release SSD firmware, or even an early motherboard BIOS.Phison was able to replicate issues reported by the PCDIY! community though, and found that these were down to engineering preview firmware. “Phison examined the exact SSDs used in the PCDIY! testing and determined PCDIY! was utilizing an engineering preview firmware, which is not the final firmware used in the Corsair Force Series MP600 SSD 2TB and other drives with the E16 controller available for sale to consumers on the market,” explains Wu. Phison also performed the same tests on consumer SSDs and found no crashes or failures.Microsoft said late last month that it had “found no connection” between its security updates and the drive failures reported on social media and elsewhere. That didn’t stop many people, including prominent YouTubers, from blaming Microsoft for the SSD issues. That’s hardly surprising though, given Microsoft’s history of chaotic Windows updates.

Notion has been my go-to productivity suite for years. It’s like a digital binder that holds everything from drafts to notes and budgeting. But even after all this time, there were still cracks. It’s a little bloated and can be difficult to navigate at times. Plus, it’s not very privacy-forward.

Perhaps it's just my anecdotal experience, but I recall that a decade ago, Intel was the primary choice for gamers. Having an AMD processor for gaming was a little unusual, and I vaguely recall people claiming it was the inferior choice. But that may just be my imagination.

When it comes to horror games, you'd be forgiven for thinking that 2D ones can't be nearly as scary as 3D ones. However, there are some really stellar titles out there that prove that theory wrong. Just because they're missing a dimension doesn't make them any creepier to play.

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.