T-Mobile's Price Hikes and Steam's New Competitor: Weekly Roundup

This was another busy week in tech, between Chromecasts breaking, big updates to Android and Windows, T-Mobile raising plan prices, and so much more. Here are the biggest stories from the last week you might have missed. The Big News Your T-Mobile Bill Might Be Going Up CrossOver 25 Brings Even More Windows Software to Linux & Mac CrossOver is one of the best ways to run Windows software and games on Mac, Linux, and Chromebooks....

July 15, 2025 · 14 min · 2937 words · Terry Haney

The 10 Retro Games That Shaped Unix and Linux

Unix and Linux aren’t names you might normally associate with games, but there have been plenty of games that have shaped both platforms over the years. Then and now, programmers like to kick back with games like the rest of us, and they’ve ended up changing computer history in the process. 10Space Travel This game is important to Linux and Unix history, largely because they might not have existed if this game had not been invented....

July 15, 2025 · 7 min · 1399 words · Brian Acevedo

The Best Smart Smoke Detectors of 2024

Read update Smoke detectors save lives. And thanks to smart technology, smoke detectors are more effective than ever. With a host of integrated smart features, you can easily keep track of your smoke detector on your smartphone, and ensure it’s working at optimum efficiency to protect your home. UPDATE: 25-05-2025 We’ve updated our Best for Alexa smoke detector with a new model. Onelink Smoke Detector and Carbon Monoxide Detector What to Look for in a Smart Smoke Detector in 2024 A regular smoke detector is all well and good, but there are several advantages to going smart and investing in a smoke detector that offers a little more....

July 15, 2025 · 10 min · 2083 words · Brian Roberts

The Google Pixel 9a Is the First Pixel I've Wanted in Years

Quick Links While Apple and Samsung are racing to release the thinnest phone, with the Pixel 9a, Google has moved in the opposite direction—giving many of us what we’ve long said we wanted. Goodbye, Camera Bump Camera bumps have become an ever-present reality of modern phones. This is the bulge that stips out of the back of your phone, providing camera hardware with extra space while allowing the rest of the phone to be thin....

July 15, 2025 · 5 min · 961 words · Dawn Hess

The Most Reliable American SUV You Can Buy in 2025

American vehicles don’t always have the best reputation when it comes to reliability, with a mixed history over multiple manufacturers. However, things have changed and there are plenty of modern options out there that are sturdy enough to last you a long time. Manufacturers like Ford, Chevrolet, and GMC have all upped their game when it comes to reliability. However, the brand with the most reliable SUV in 2025 might surprise you....

July 15, 2025 · 7 min · 1304 words · Ian Keller

This Keyboard Shortcut Quickly Clears Your Browser History

Quick Links Want to clear your browser history quickly? There’s a keyboard shortcut for that. It works in any browser, including Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Microsoft Edge, and Mozilla Firefox—on both Windows PCs and Macs. How to Clear Your History With a Keyboard Shortcut To quicklyclear your web browser historyon a Windows PC, press Ctrl+Shift+Delete while using your browser. On a Mac, press Command+Shift+Delete instead. Your browser’s “Clear Browsing Data” or “Clear History” window will pop up....

July 15, 2025 · 2 min · 386 words · Christopher Hernandez

This Temu Android Head Unit Transformed My Car for Only $100

Summary Adding Android Auto to an old car used to mean spending hundreds of dollars on a name-brand unit. Now, thanks to tech prices dropping significantly, you can find ridiculously cheap head units that are actually decent—that’s how, for just $100, I gave my old BMW E46 a tech makeover. What I Bought (and Why I Risked It) When I bought my car, it had one of those awful 2000s-style universal MP3 players instead of the original stereo....

July 15, 2025 · 6 min · 1146 words · Donald Fox

Thunderbird Has a Problem With Outlook, Hotmail, and Live Email Addresses

Microsoft has changed the account authorization process for its email platforms. As a result, the Mozilla Thunderbird client and other email apps may have trouble logging into your Outlook, Hotmail, or Live addresses. Affected users can take a few steps to try and resolve the issue while Mozilla searches for a permanent fix. This is an odd mess. Essentially, Microsoft-owned email addresses no longer supportbasic authentication. Third-party clients like Thunderbird can still log in to Microsoft services, but only through OAuth....

July 15, 2025 · 2 min · 374 words · David Rodriguez

TikTok Might Ask You to Verify Your Age, Even in the US

The days of just putting in a fake birth year on TikTok are over, because it looks like the platform is asking for age verification in the United States. A few users are reporting that there are age checks, with a creator getting a threat of account deletion over this. Since TikTok has not confirmed how it is doing the initial checks, we can’t verify that this is done by AI at all....

July 15, 2025 · 3 min · 450 words · Steven Kennedy

TP-Link's New Travel Router Has Wi-Fi 7

Summary A travel router is one of those things that you don’t know you need until you actually try it. And if you need a good one, TP-Link’s latest launch is bringing Wi-Fi 7 to a pocketable factor you may take with you at all times. TP-Link has announced its first-ever Wi-Fi 7 travel router, the TL-WR3602BE. This product was first introduced during CES 2025 earlier this year, so it’s actually surprising to see that it has taken this long to actually release to store shelves....

July 15, 2025 · 3 min · 469 words · Gary Stanley

Two-Factor Authentication Isn't Invincible: That's Why You Need a Backup Gmail Account

Google’s 2.5 billion registered users make Gmail a big target for hackers, and hackers always working on new ways to bypass your security—even two-factor authentication isn’t invulnerable now. That’s why you should consider opening a second Gmail account. Two-Factor Authentication is Not Guaranteed to Keep Your Account Safe Cybersecurity is a constant battle. Every time someone creates a new form of protection, hackers will eventually find a new way to attack, or even to bypass that defense as it stands....

July 15, 2025 · 5 min · 952 words · James Huffman

Walmart's M1 MacBook Air Pricing Undercuts All Other Retailers

More than three years after its release, theM1 MacBook Airis finally available at Walmart. And, shockingly, Walmart is selling the laptop for just $700. This is the best price we’ve seen for the M1 MacBook Air, and it isn’t even a sale price. It’s just Walmart’s price. The M1 MacBook Air launched in late 2020 with prices starting at $1,000. It’s still a fantastic laptop, and it will receive software support for several more years, but it’s discontinued....

July 15, 2025 · 3 min · 465 words · Brandy Petty

What Is Cellular Data Throttling, and What Can You Do About It?

Summary The speed of cellular data services is often a point of contention, especially since it changes depending on where you are at the moment, but that doesn’t mean your internet speeds are just up with the weather. Your mobile service provider can squeeze the pipe a little on purpose, and that’s what cellular throttling is all about. What Is Throttling, and Why Does It Happen? Throttling is simply when the service provider of your internet connection deliberately slows down the connection below its maximum advertised speed....

July 15, 2025 · 4 min · 661 words · Tara Zhang